by Cameron "Aelryn" Sorden

Flying Lab Software's Pirates of the Burning Sea had a strong presence at PAX 2007 with multiple demo stations and a big pirate-themed booth. Although the Flying Lab people were pretty busy answering questions and handing out beta keys, the Ten Ton Hammer staff managed to kidnap their Public Relations representative, Theresa Pudenz, and question her in our brig. She was remarkably nice and chatty for being a prisoner on the high seas, so we decided to let her go instead of making her walk the plank (we're not as fearsome as you might hear, but don't tell anyone that-- we have a reputation to maintain). Here's what she had to say.

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Cameron chats with Theresa about high level missions, boarding combat, and parrots.

TTH: Thanks for taking some time to talk to us, Theresa. Why don't you start by telling us a little bit about yourself?

Theresa: Hi! I'm Theresa Pudenz, and I do Public Relations over at Flying Lab. I'm also part of the team that tests high-level missions and makes sure the high level content is balanced and fun.

TTH: Can you tell us a little about the high level content that you're involved in testing?

Theresa: Sure. Right now we're working on missions that are mostly ship-based and boarding based. We want you to be able to board an enormous hundred and four gun ship with a small ship, so the boarding happens in waves-- we don't want everyone on the ship at once.

TTH: Can you expand on that a bit?

Theresa: Well, the way boarding combat works is that you'll first grapple onto the other ship. It then slides you into an instance with swashbuckling avatar combat, and depending on the size of your ship you'll have more waves or less waves [of your crew men]. In a high level mission you'll want to be able to take on a very large ship with a very small ship, so you'll need to practice a lot with your avatar combat to prepare for that.

TTH: A smaller ship will bring fewer NPCs into combat?

Theresa: Yes, that's right. It works like this: Say that all of your NPCs are fighting beside you are just obliterated. So, you'll say, “Send in another wave!” and more people will come in and help you out. The smaller ships will only have one or two of these waves available, but the larger ships have about ten.

TTH: Does that apply to PvP as well?

Theresa: Yep. You'll have to make important tactical decisions about what you want to use. A larger ship might have more waves for you to bring in, but a smaller ship makes it easier to board and maneuver around your opponents. You have faster movement and tighter turning.

Now, one of the main goals in boarding combat is taking out the enemy captain. The NPCs are pretty easy to take down. Right now you can take them down in about two hits, but there's so many of them that if you spend two hits on each of them the opposing captain is going to take you out before you can finish.

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Ship-based combat will be extremely tactical and require lots of maneuvering. Do you take out the sails or the hull?

TTH: So, lets go back to those high level missions you mentioned.

Theresa: Well, there are lots and lots of NPC characters, lots of swashbuckling avatar combat, there are forts that will shoot at you while you're in the middle of blistering ship to ship combat, and you have to be aware of where you are at all times and watch the forts on the land and your enemies on the sea at the same time.

TTH: How important are weapon and skill choices in the naval combat?

Theresa: Once you play for a bit you'll realize that you have hundreds of skills available for you to use in whatever combination you like as well as several different ammo types. I don't even know how many ways there are to attack your opponent: you can take out their hull, or their sails, or their crew; whatever strategy you want to try.

So, say you take out their sales with a chain shot. If you take them out completely, they're a sitting duck. They can't move anywhere, and they can shoot because they still have cannons, but that's it. Unless they have a consumable, they're done.

(Continue to Page 2)

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