PotBS Dev Tracker

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Rusty
1 in thread is where buy CD-key? [Sony Station accounts]
Careful, where'd you buy it from? I believe the price should be 39.99, not 49.99.
Rusty
1 in thread Lack of Population [Australia]
Check out the new issue of Atomic, or go by any Telstra store and ask for a free copy. The issue just hit the street a day or two ago, so I expect to start seeing the numbers going up.
Rusty
1 in thread Rusty, about PvE... [Ask an FLS Developer!]
And yes, Jarvel and Spinnaker Sam pretty much lay it out. Our goal is to tempt you into PvP, but not to require it. We haven't done a good job of that yet, but part of 1.3 is rectify this, with aforemention PvP movement and by making PvP rewards such that PvP players will be able to support themselves better entirely via PvP.
Rusty
1 in thread Rusty, about PvE... [Ask an FLS Developer!]
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dinbasi
They are already punishing the PVE player with the 1.3 release and it will force more from the game,, the majority of people who did leave left due to nonPVE support,,,

Unrest decay removal was supposed to make more PvP but all it did was create Red Circles around ports PVE people needed for missions and Eco work, then it made Gankers happy,, The Majority of PVPers will not fight unless they have superior odds or the player is 15 lvls below them,, that is not what I call PVP..
You know that 1.3 has a change to port contention that will cause PvP to move around and make it so that you can get into ports for PvE, right?
Rusty
1 in thread Character Transfers to be Enabled Tuesday, April 15th [News and Press Releases]
Quote:
Originally Posted by Xavin
There are reports that a good portion of the active French societies on Blackbeard are moving to Rackham. Are you monitoring this kind of thing to make sure things don't get more lopsided than they already are? There are already rumblings about where the Blackbeard British will try to move if all our competition leaves. Most of us absolutely don't want to leave, but we aren't going to stay if we can't get opponents to fill port battles. I guess I'm asking if you will shut down another server if you can't get enough active French and Spanish on all 4 to provide competition.
We're watching it on a day by day basis. I doubt the imbalance would get that out of hand, some people really love those underdog benefits!
Rusty
1 in thread Character Transfers to be Enabled Tuesday, April 15th [News and Press Releases]
Quote:
Originally Posted by Heptarch
If I may respond to the low pop question as well...

I can speak only for myself, obviously, but I like low pop servers for the same reason that I like low pop guilds. As the number of people rise the level of impersonality rises as well. A small pop on a server is like growing up in a small town where everyone knows everyone else. This tends to cut down on the rampant antagonistic tendencies that internet anonymity creates because chances are VERY good that you will be held accountable for your actions. You're also less likely to act like a jerk to someone you know.
Yep, and we've even talked about this as one of the reasons for targetting lower numbers. The problem being that in beta, these lower numbers seemed to work better than they do in live.
Rusty
1 in thread Character Transfers to be Enabled Tuesday, April 15th [News and Press Releases]
Quote:
Originally Posted by UrQuan3
Good questions. Trying to answer them on order.

I don't have a good feel for herd mentality. I resist it so often. Actually, It feels like 50-70% of the population on Guadeloupe has already left. There's entire sections of the auction house economy that have shut down. It's really rather interesting. Yes, at this point, it is a broken server.

Why do I like a smaller population: The setting is the high age of sail out in the open ocean. Tripping over players every five seconds and arguing over NPC spawns is annoying. I don't like continual garbage on the wide area channels. Most of what our "nation" channel was used for was coordinating pvp among societies. Very nice. The system only rarely lags due to people concentration. (the fact that it lags on a small server worries me about larger ones) There's *only* 6 pirates waiting for me when I leave a port. I start getting invites to port battles at lvl 25...and I'm even slightly useful.

Right pop level: I know you can't release them, but do you have a set of numbers for Guadeloupe the day before the announcement and, say, yesterday or today? The server was skirting the low edge of the economy (at least for the British). It has now shut down completely. Now granted, as a free trader, I was benefiting from the high markups, so I may be a bit biased. I really don't think I'd have wanted to play as the French. There really weren't enough people. It felt like the Spanish did so well because they were such a close knit team. If they hadn't been, their population might have been too low as well. I'm not sure the pirates care much what their population is the way this game works. I haven't played as one, so I don't know.

Thanks for reading, I just had to vent for a second. I'm delaying switching servers for a week to see what a few people decide. After that, I'll be a good sport for the next month and see what happens.

And yes, it's nice having a name that is -never- taken.
I'm kind of the same way. Add in a predilection for playing for the underdog.

As you note, though, when we give people the opportunity to move, we break the rest of it. I think the best solution is to be a big part of a smaller society, where you're tight with everyone.
Gray Noten
1 in thread Invincible Server Longevity [Ask an FLS Developer!]
Invincible is on a different system than the US/EU servers. It's essentially the only server in that system. Technically speakign, we can't merge it into another server as there's no other servers for it to merge into. Adding it to the US/EU system would require a huge amount of contractual wrangling between us, Telstra, and SOE, and not having read the contracts in question, I don't know if it's even possible.

That said, the DVDs are now also going out as magazine inserts, etc, so it's too early to tell what will happen long term. Rusty may have more thoughts since he's closer to the details than I am.
Joe
1 in thread Character Transfers to be Enabled Tuesday, April 15th [News and Press Releases]
Quote:
Originally Posted by denmj
As the time is coming for Morgan France to make a choice on which server would be best for us.

I would like to see some good data on the current numbers on each of the servers. With the moves that have already occured.
I can't give you numbers, but here's a rough idea how it's going:

Antigua is the most popular destination so far. It's been getting nations in roughly the proportions they exist in the overall game. There have been more than the usual number of spanish going to Antigua. Antigua was the smallest server before the transfers so there is still plenty of room.

Rackham is second place with a bit fewer people coming to it than Antigua. Its nation ratios are what you would expect. Still lots of room on The Rack.

Roberts is next and well behind Rackham in overall transfer count. The nations moving to Rackham are actually pretty balanced. England is the LEAST popular transfer and all the others are within a few of each other. Roberts was the biggest server before transfers, but the numbers are low enough so far that there's lots of space left.

Blackbeard hasn't seen very many transfers yet. This may end up being the lowest population server if it keeps going like this.

Does that tell you what you want to know?


Joe
Rusty
1 in thread Character Transfers to be Enabled Tuesday, April 15th [News and Press Releases]
Quote:
Originally Posted by UrQuan3
We're free to create characters anywhere we want, so if we're happy, that should mean something. If this server shutdown is being done for *our* good, then you should ask *our* opinion.

Ok, I'm done now.
I can't read your forum name without hearing that musical signature.

The problem is that when we open the ability to transfer, there's an extremely high likelihood that the pop on your server migrate in mass, and you're left with essentially a broken server. And then there are lots of discussion as to exactly where that line is, how long we should leave it in a limbo state waiting to see what will happen with it, etc.

Also, as food for thought when we open a new server, why do you enjoy playing on a low pop server? What do you think the right level of pop is for your playstyle?