PotBS:Pirates of the Burning Sea
From Northstar Wiki
| Pirates of the Burning Sea | |
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| Developer: | Flying Lab Software |
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| Release date: | Jan 21st 2008 |
| Website: | www.burningsea.com |
| Description: | A sea-faring MMO based on the conflicts surounding the West Indies during the 17th century. Players will be able to take the side of several nations, or even turn pirate, as they battle for control over the many islands in the Caribbean |
Contents |
Northstar Alliance
The Northstar Alliance is a well established European guild with years of experience in games such as Star Wars Galaxies and World of Warcraft where we are one of the oldest and largest guilds on the Dragonmaw server.
We are now venturing forth into the Caribbean as a British Society on the Roberts server and would welcome new members. We are a fun loving guild but we take our gaming seriously and prefer mature players. We hold annual real life meetings each year and have a lively and friendly gaming community.
We intend exploring every aspect of this game be it PVP, questing or shipbuilding so all professions are most welcome.
If you are interested in joining visit our website and follow the instructions for our application process or contact one of our members in game for a friendly chat and introduction to our guild.
Details on how to apply to our guild can be found on our applications forum
Goals
PvP
Our first goal is to build a team of players capable of taking part in the PvP port conquest campaign. These will mainly be Naval Officer & Privateer characters but Free Traders way also play a useful role. Note that not only must we achieve high enough levels and obtain suitable ships we must also learn to work in a team. Thus we encourage regular group patrolling sessions and the use of teamspeak to coordinate our efforts.
We are also making contacts with our like minded guilds so that we can cooperate on a larger scale.
Shipbuilding
Purchasing & equipping ships can be very expensive. PvP combat is highly risky and we will no doubt lose a lot of ships that way. To keep us afloat in the best ships possible we need to able to build our own, that cuts the costs for our members and we can make lots of cash selling our surplus production on the open market.
Achievements
- 07.01.2008 - The Northstar Alliance society is founded
- 12.01.2008 - Our first ships launched at our Bartica shipyard
- 18.01.2008 - New shipyards built in Yucatan
- 10.02.2008 - Shipyards in Nassau, Medium Shipyard in Bridgetown capable of producing any ship up to Triton Interceptors.
- 20.03-2008 - Barring costs we can now produce any ship there is.
Captains of the Northstar Alliance
Naval Officers
| Character | Webby Name | Level Range |
|---|---|---|
|
Alexander Cardell |
Erduo |
1-10 |
Privateers
| Character | Webby Name | Level Range |
|---|---|---|
|
Black Jenny |
Moon |
20-30 |
Free Traders
| Character | Webby Name | Level Range |
|---|---|---|
|
Donald McFeast |
Gorblatz |
20-30 |
Quick guide to Swashbuckling
First point to note is that POTBS combat is very different to other MMORPGS. For a start it's more "realistic". You can't be clobbered over the head with a sword many many times happy in the knowledge that you've got lots of hit points and a healer will magically save your arse when they get too low. In general a heavy blow to the head with a sword will kill you outright!
POTBS combat is based on "balance" rather than "hit points". The objective is to get your opponent off-balance and then strike a killing blow. You must do this without losing your own balance or you will die very swiftly.
Having said this many aspects of POTBS combat will be familar. You move around using either the arrow keys or the WASD keys. You launch attacks by means of icons on a hotkey bar.
The hotkey bar will be very familiar, a series of icons that represent the various attacks & functions that you can perform. The attack icons are colour coded and I find it helps to group the icons according to their colours.
Yellow icons are 'preparatory' attacks. Basically these attempt to throw your opponent off balance. These attacks do not do any damage at all and do not risk losing your own balance.
Orange icons are basic attacks, they do moderate damage but have little chance of success unless your opponent is at least slightly off balance.
Red icons are killing blows, they do enormous amounts of damage often killing in one blow. They have little chance of success unless your opponent is well off balance. Even if a red attack succeeds you will lose some of your own balance. If a red attack fails you will lose a lot of balance and become vulnerable to a red attack yourself.
Blue icons are defensive manuevers which allow you to recover balance. Be aware that these tend to have very long cool down times.
Green icons are special maneuvers which are unique to each fighting school (Fencing, Florentine, or Dirty Fighting). Their effects vary widely and I won't discuss them further in this breif guide other to say they are very important at higher levels and often the key to victory.
Balance is indicated by a coloured ring around your opponents feet. A green ring indicates fully balanced, a red ring totally unbalanced. When your opponent's balance turns yellow you can risk making orange attacks, but it's much more certain to succeed if you wait until their balance is orange.
Similarly you can risk a red attack when their balance is orange but it is safer to wait until its red. Of course it takes much longer to knock someone's balance all the way down to red.
Be careful about using red attacks when fighting more than one opponent. Red attacks reduce your balance even if you succeed, so you may kill one opponent only to be quickly killed by the other.
Quick guide to Sailing
Pirates of the Burning Sea is both an RPG and a Simulation PvP game. Combat is simulated rather than abstracted like in regular MMORPGs so in order to succeed you will need to understand at least the basics of sailing and naval tactics.
This guide is the first in a series I'm writing to introduce you to the basics of naval warfare.
Two terms you are going to have to be familiar with are "Point of Sail" and "Best Point of Sail"
"Points of sail" is the term used to describe a sailing boat's course in relation to the wind direction.
"Best Point of Sail" is the point of sail on which your ship will make the fastest speed.
The Points of sail
- Into the Wind (sometimes called "Into the Eye")
No sailing ship can sail straight into the wind. You should never steer your ship across the "no go zone" unless you have enough momentum to swing across to the other side. If not your ship will stall and will lose the ability to steer as no water will be flowing over the rudder.
Note the red "no go zone" will be much wider for Square Rig Ships compared to Fore and Aft Rig Ships.
- Close Hauled
Running forward of a beam reach but not directly into the wind is called "close hauled". Fore and Aft rigs make the best progress on such a point of sail but all ships are slow in such a direction. In Fore and Aft rigs it is best to trim the sails "tight" to improve your speed.
- Beam Reach
Running at 90 degrees to the wind is a "beam reach". This is the "Best Point of Sail" for most Fore and Aft Rig Ships.
- Broad Reach
Angles between a beam reach and the Wind Direction are termed a "broad reach". Both Fore and Aft and Square rigs ships will perform well on such a reach. In Fore and Aft rigs it is best to trim the sails looser to improve speed.
- Running Downwind
When you have the wind behind you are "running downwind". This is the "Best Point of Sail" for Square Riggers. It is a dangerous point of sail for Fore and Aft Rigs in strong winds as the sails will "jibe" (swing violently from side to side) making it very difficult to steer, hence the amber "don't go zone".
Sailing Rigs
I've already mentioned the terms "Fore and Aft" and "Square" rigs several times. These are also important terms to understand as they will determine your vessel's "Best Point of Sail". You will also have to learn how to recognise these rigs visually so that you can estimate your opponent's best point of sail, a vital fact to know when you are chasing down a merchantman or fleeing from a warship.
In the Fore and aft rig such as this Sloop, the sails lie along the same plane as the ship's fore and aft line. Such rigs require only a small crew, and were generally used in the coastal and fishing trades. Ships with this rig could point higher into the wind and were usually more maneuverable when working in the changing winds along the coast.
In the Square Rig such as this Brig, the sails are rigged athwart (across) the ship. The square rig was normally an offshore rig used by vessels making long ocean passages and taking advantage of the prevailing wind and current patterns of the globe. These ships varied in size from the small handy brigantines and brigs of a couple of hundred tons to the great full rigged ships and barques of over two thousand tons. The square rig was also seen in the coastal trade.
In the time setting of the game very few ships are purely "Fore and Aft" or "Square" rigged, instead most are hybrids such as this Barkentine. These rigs are intended to exploit the advantages of both types. There were many hybrid rigs and their best point of sail will usually be a broad reach.
Useful Links
Guides to the game can be found at the POTBS WIKI
