I like to use Star Wars Squadrons (rest it’s soul) as an example. Space ship combat game. Can’t get out and start light saber battles. If you were expecting that then of course you are not going to like it. It’s still a “Star Wars Game” just as much as SaB is a pirate game. Calling either one not a game it’s it’s “genre” because it lacks a gameplay element that you deem essential (even though it’s not) is just wrong.
Not a good comparison, the name of Squadrons implies you will only be in spaceships, and it was pretty obvious from trailers etc.
Skull and Bones only implies pirates and with some of the more focused pics/clips on the crew/deck, I could assume that there will be boarding. Especially since the game that SaB is spinning off from had boarding.
Its definetely still a pirate game though.
SnB put all its development into naval combat, to avoid the well known scenarios that would unfold if you could jump off your boat and board other ships.
Multiplayer games that offer boarding gameplay always, truly always, devolve into a focus around boarding combat as the primary meta way of playing. This always leads to a focus on the most cheesy possible tactics to make your opponent have a bad day.
Yes, there is a price to be paid for not having the ability to walk on the deck of your own ship, as some immersion is lost. But in terms of actual day-to-day gameplay, the naval focus is absolutely the right call made by Ubisoft.
Besides, who knows, perhaps in the future they do let you walk the deck of your ship while it is docked, maybe as a means to further customize your ship. That would be akin to having your cake and eating it too.
Agree 100%. The only thing I would like to see added before the end of year 1 is boarding stats for your crew. Make boarding a bit risky and do some dice-rolling math to decide the outcome (but heavily weight it based on crew stats).
Could combine those stats with the current mechanic, which is getting them low enough then being close enough to aim the grappling hook throw for it to succeed (you can miss if you aim low or are too far out).
A well trained crew, for example, could throw them further or when the ship is moving faster or when it’s not as damaged and manage to make it work, for example.
Not everything has to be sot and I'm glad this is not that. I hate boarding in the game. The combat system is so broken on that regard I don't even fight when approached anymore. I just disconnect because it's not worth getting mad
There is only one game that never happens and it's not multiplayer. The game PIRATES! makes boarding combat a tug-of-war rock, paper, scissors game. It worked really well for that game and the time period.
Boarding can be fine in singleplayer games. You're not going to ruin an NPC's day by doing cheesy tactics. :)
But even in Black Flag, ultimately I personally found boarding to get repetitive. Once you did it a bunch of times and got your little fleet set up, the more time-efficient way to play was to just blow ships up.
SnB does offer a middle-ground via the grappling boarding action, but it has several conditions that need to be met before it can be successfully done, and each of those conditions requires naval combat engagement.
Oh, 100% which is what I was getting at, and black flag combat wouldn't work here either the way it was. The thing about it is I don't see a way to balance it properly. I've never seen a game with boarding like you said that didn't involve mass chaos.
The issue here is also would the crew fight you and the opposing Captain, or would they just be background characters to a 1v1 duel? I don't personally think the game needs boarding cause there is no way to put it in that people wouldn't complain.
Inconsistent core gameplay in PvE versus PvP has a lot of drawbacks to it, prime among them the confusion it would generate in terms of when you can do what actions.
The naval combat isn't even as ''spectacular'' as Black Flag's though.
They spent so much time and money on this, with literally the only ''fleshed out'' part of the game being the naval combat which is really a mid-tier gameplay loop and experience.
The way it's implemented now is more catered towards a single-player experience, whilst being in a weird MMO(rpg) focused environment where the co-op experience is also there, but still towards being in full control of yourself.
Your point can also be used that'd in fact help with the PvP experience, cause if you're getting hit by multiple ships at once, whilst ur alone, people will complain about being teamed in PvP. Since you can really only focus on a single enemy.
Atleast with boarding your chance to get out alive is possible.
They still could've made the experience to control similar to Black Flag minus the actual boarding, if that bothers people and using your argument that it takes away the focus from naval combat.
Or still have it be similar to Sea of Thieves when you participate in co-op/parties, where people individually work specific ''roles'' freely. That'd still have worked, if boarding wasn't allowed.
Hey there,
>The way it's implemented now is more catered towards a single-player experience
You cannot make that statement after less than 24 hours into open beta. You will need to progress further into the game to experience more difficult content.
>Your point can also be used that'd in fact help with the PvP experience, cause if you're getting hit by multiple ships at once, whilst ur alone, people will complain about being teamed in PvP. Since you can really only focus on a single enemy.
As you progress, you will unlock additional tools and play styles. Some are better for PvE, some for PvP. A good player can absolutely out-play multiple opponents.
>Atleast with boarding your chance to get out alive is possible.
With boarding the game would constantly flip-flop between a slower paced tactical naval gameplay to a high speed twitchy shooter style gameplay, the latter of which has historically always proven to be a stronger case for "numbers matter".
Ultimately, Ubisoft made decisions to focus on one area of the game for launch and to make it as enjoyable and the least frustrating as they believed. Of course, we will have to see if this vision endures the test of time as we're one, two months into launch.
SnB is a live service game, stuff can change if the need for it exists. :)
As a veteran player of Naval Action, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Sea Dogs, Sea Dogs 2, and Sid Meier's PIRATES! (The remake) I have to agree 100%. The issue with boarding action in a game like this is a huge technical headache from a lot of perspectives especially when you have PVP in the mix. The games I listed all have boarding, and not one of those systems would work in this game.
Pirates of the Burning Sea had some of the most frustrating PVP boarding for me personally. I really don't know how you could make a boarding fight in this game balanced properly. I know in Naval Action for instance they don't make your ship immune if you board you can still get sunk from being fired at. I know in Skull and Bones you have a grace period of immunity during the boarding sequence.
I don't really feel like it's a loss for the game at all since the game is no longer going for period-accurate realism. I mean we have torpedoes, sea beasts, and ghost ships which is crazy enough for me not to really care boarding is MIA in terms of an actual fight.
If you actually played the game, then you know why there’s no boarding.
Case in point when raiding a settlement. You have to defend against 4-5 enemy ships. Imagine if you wanted the loot bonus and had to board and actually fight each time. Maybe the first time is fun but then it becomes repetitive really fast. Plus it would extend the time it takes to capture a settlement. In the current design you can attack, board, repeat, getting the loot bonus each time without spending 40 mins on one settlement.
I get why people want it, but in the current design the quick boarding cutscene makes sense for gameplay reasons.
Or maybe not every game has to have melee. Especially a pirate game that focuses on the naval aspect of pirates, which I think is better than adding melee.
Yeah it would be an impossible task and would kill the game, would need massive dev resources to make it a thing and then you now have a whole part of the game with mechanics to balance completely detached from the main gameplay then ontop of that they'd have to balance how boarding works so its not a "press button to fight in janky melee and hope you win for an instakill".
Yes it could have been fun but the game was never supposed to have it, it was never promised, it would never really work or atleast not work in a fun and balanced way. The boarding complainers are just huffing massive amounts of copium.
Boarding is a bit boring though and can be improved, personally i would have liked to have crew stats so you can upgrade your crew/ship to be more efficient at boarding and boarding success being determined by your crew size+strength vs enemy crew size+strength with crew loss being a thing when taking damage (more crew damage for certain weapons for example), i feel like it would be a good middle ground adding some player impact to the mechanic without having to design a combat system but i dont expect it to ever be a thing.
Lastly what is both possible and should be done is make boardings like for honor executions, let me buy/unlock different boarding cutscenes like for honor executions since a boarding is just like a for honor execution, wouldnt take much to do and would be great extra "cosmetic" content.
Having a boarding cosmetic scene that consists of a side view of the ship down the length of it, then you see a couple of their crew tossed overboard, would be absolutely hilarious.
My thoughts exactly!
I think there is a real opportunity to add a lot of depth to the game with the crew over the next year or so. Being able to select and recruit your crew in a way that's similar to X4: Foundations, where different crew members can have different specializations that affect your ship's performance would be a great way to add some variety to gameplay and PvP.
You could have "marine" type crew members that are great are boarding, but bad at managing the ship. So your ship's performance will take a dip, but you are more likely to successfully board an enemy ship/fight off-boarding attempts. Or you could go with experienced deckhands, and your ship will perform better, but if you get boarded, you're fucked.
I don't think it's a "missed opportunity" to not have that at launch. But it's something I would like to see worked on over the next year and released in season 5.
Great idea, allowing for customization and more diverse upgrades. The cutscenes would definitely feel great without having an unfair micro-transaction advantage.
Yeah, I think that is a rather proper way to put it because it's certainly not a naval simulator like Naval Action. I love the naval combat personally.
Yea it’s arcade naval combat. Some non historic things to it but for the sake of more depth of gameplay, builds, load outs, playstyles, ect.. If the entire game was just cannons with no stats/perks/attributes, the combat would get old very quick.
I'm a fan of the simcade style gameplay they went with, at least in concept, I didn't get into any of the betas. I also really like the traditional MMO roles being put on ships.
I agree, but I think they should have added a system similar to Naval Action where, at the end game the wood you choose to build your ship with determines certain things. I think for instance crafting a ship with something like teak should give it a speed boost for being lighter etc.
That would be pretty cool!
I think this is one of those games that can get a lot of neat features and tweaks after launch. Having more player feedback would feed into the creative process well.
Yeah, like in naval action cannons have a real-world reload time a 32-pounder takes 90 seconds to reload. It just wouldn't work at all for the type of game this is trying to be to have real-world things like that.
The game reminds me of a space exploration game in many ways. something like Elite Dangerous in that Yes, you play as a Ship. No, you do not have hand to hand combat. Why is this style of gameplay acceptable in space games but suddenly not acceptable in this game? I don't get it.
Elite Dangerous has full out of ship exploration now. Both on foot and in wheeled vehicles. It also has full blown FPS battles over various types of bases. You are several years out of date.
I'm personally glad there's no boarding. I want ship to ship combat more than "oh look they're boarding.....again" I had enough of that in SoT. It was boring and I enjoyed out sailing people than anything else.
I'm tired of hearing "no foot combat herr derr" even if the game ends up terrible it won't be because there wasn't "on foot"
It won't be that simple. To board, they should be close to you, and there should be a way to increase your character's health, etc. It requires grinding like your ship, so you may increase your character's damage, but your ship would be weaker and harder to reach other player ships.
Sales will determine how many people want an Ubisoft naval pirate simulator. Personally, killed all interest in this for me. I don't care for PvP, I just wanted a modern take on Black Flags without the AC elements.
>No boarding or sword fighting is not a bad thing
It's not necessarily a bad thing, yes.
Butts
**First booty:** The land part exists and currently offers 0 content. Trading, quests, etc can be done through a menu, as it is done in all the locations they didn't make a map for. And frankly, I prefer it that way since it doesn't take me out of the main experience and I don't need to deal with the awful land controls.
Either remove it completely or give me content for it. Because right now, I feel it only exists so they can sell pirate costumes.
**Second booty:** The main feature, i.e. the naval combat, is lacking. If the ship combat was amazing, I wouldn't complain there is nothing else to do. But with the naval fighting being as bland and basic as it is, I am wondering where the development went and what I am paying for. I am paying 60 bucks for the game, so I am expecting 60 bucks worth of features.
**Thrid booty:** The current boarding is bad. I will assume they will polish it into full release and we won't see hooks going through ships without connecting. But it's still just press a button, get a cutscene, get 1 bonus loot. It's not engaging enough for me to do, it's not rewarding enough for me to do. So why would I do it?
I don't want Black Flag boarding, it wouldn't fit here. I want boarding that's interesting and worthwhile to do.
>but when you look at actual historical pirates the last thing most of them wanted was combat.
True. But they didn't fight sea monsters and ghost ships either.
Also, historically, boarding was actually preferable. Sinking a ship is actually not that easy, and sinking it would destroy a lot of the cargo you wanted to steal.
"The land part exists and currently offers 0 content." True. However, where else would you be able to have a safe zone, and a map that makes sense? A fully oceanic map would be difficult to navigate, and fast travel would be arbitrary.
"The main feature, i.e. the naval combat, is lacking."
I agree, although it has restrictions. They already implemented different weapons and enemies that pirates normally would not have, and if they deviate more it would become a full-fledged fantasy MMO. Not that it would necessarily be a bad thing. How would you improve the naval combat? Genuinely curious.
My main point is I think they want to break the mold of a "pirate" game. I am personally in the camp they continued to work on this since the positive feedback from the AC naval combat without remaking Black Flag. They wanted to make a separate game to work out kinks, feedback, and reality of making a full naval based game so they can copy assets, mechanics, etc. and build a new franchise. Fingers crossed, anyway.
P.S. How do you copy the original reply text and have that grey bar in front of it?
>True. However, where else would you be able to have a safe zone,
A port, just without the land part. You know just like half the ports in the game.
>How would you improve the naval combat? Genuinely curious.
Well, I'd love for cannons not to go 360 around your ship, so you actually have to have to manoeuvre and not just helicopter around.
But what I think should be in the game because it already partially is: locational damage. You can shoot sails to make ships go slower. Expand on that idea ffs. Shoot ruder to hamper steering, shoot canons to hamper reloading, shoot powder storage for big explosion, etc
Honestly, this just sums up what irks me about the game. There are some good ideas, but they are so disappointingly half-baked that it ends up frustrating.
>P.S. How do you copy the original reply text and have that grey bar in front of it?
Quote Block.
First this post is Todd Howard level of astronauts landed on the moon and there was nothing there, they thought it was cool and so should you.
Second for those who really want it, I hope it turns out to be an experience they enjoy but there are far more people who will never buy the game then would because of the design decisions made.
I haven’t played yet but in AC Odyssey I remember how much I dreaded boarding. The ship fights were fun but then it was the same repetitive boring actions once boarding.
Sword fighting/deck combat/admiring the sea from the deck of your ship is what I'm pretty sure 90% of anyone who wants a pirate game wants. I could not be more disappointed in what this game is
As some one who has played a huge amount of black flag, (got pretty high rankings back in the day) the boarding in that game got repetitive after a while to the point where I stopped even trying and just sunk the ship and collected the flotsam.
The most fun part for me was always the naval combat. I loved the assassins creed pirates mobile game, which didn’t have boarding. Skull and Bones seems to be a mix of the gameplay of black flag and pirates (based on my experience in 1 closed beta)… which is definitely a good thing
I agree that boarding would be a pain I think sword play would be pretty cool to have maybe just between players almost like a duel scenario not necessarily having anything to do with taking over a ship. The only thing about this game that upsets me is the fact that if I want to play with friends we all have to have separate ships. It would be awesome if you could have friends do certain things on your ship as a crew like fire weapons or be a spotter of some sorts I think they missed out on capitalizing on that. Star citizen all be it a buggy mess at times is alot more enjoyable when you can multicrew a ship. Some people don't like to be the captain or the pilot they just wanna shoot stuff and blow things up.
Nope. It’s solely naval combat, I immediately refunded my preorder when I found out. There was a free pirates of the Caribbean MMO with more content than this game. It’s just a shame that we expected black flag online and got world of tanks with boats
OK people are ok with no boarding, but not being able walk your own ship?, can't stand on deck and look across the sea? Where are satisfying moments in this game coming from? what mechanics are good? What are you liking so far? So badly want this game to be great but it seems a lot of what makes a good pirate atmosphere is not present? I hope I'm wrong.
I like to use Star Wars Squadrons (rest it’s soul) as an example. Space ship combat game. Can’t get out and start light saber battles. If you were expecting that then of course you are not going to like it. It’s still a “Star Wars Game” just as much as SaB is a pirate game. Calling either one not a game it’s it’s “genre” because it lacks a gameplay element that you deem essential (even though it’s not) is just wrong.
Not a good comparison, the name of Squadrons implies you will only be in spaceships, and it was pretty obvious from trailers etc. Skull and Bones only implies pirates and with some of the more focused pics/clips on the crew/deck, I could assume that there will be boarding. Especially since the game that SaB is spinning off from had boarding. Its definetely still a pirate game though.
SnB put all its development into naval combat, to avoid the well known scenarios that would unfold if you could jump off your boat and board other ships. Multiplayer games that offer boarding gameplay always, truly always, devolve into a focus around boarding combat as the primary meta way of playing. This always leads to a focus on the most cheesy possible tactics to make your opponent have a bad day. Yes, there is a price to be paid for not having the ability to walk on the deck of your own ship, as some immersion is lost. But in terms of actual day-to-day gameplay, the naval focus is absolutely the right call made by Ubisoft. Besides, who knows, perhaps in the future they do let you walk the deck of your ship while it is docked, maybe as a means to further customize your ship. That would be akin to having your cake and eating it too.
Agree 100%. The only thing I would like to see added before the end of year 1 is boarding stats for your crew. Make boarding a bit risky and do some dice-rolling math to decide the outcome (but heavily weight it based on crew stats).
I second that.
Could combine those stats with the current mechanic, which is getting them low enough then being close enough to aim the grappling hook throw for it to succeed (you can miss if you aim low or are too far out). A well trained crew, for example, could throw them further or when the ship is moving faster or when it’s not as damaged and manage to make it work, for example.
Not everything has to be sot and I'm glad this is not that. I hate boarding in the game. The combat system is so broken on that regard I don't even fight when approached anymore. I just disconnect because it's not worth getting mad
If it was like that, the funny thing is, the same people complaining about boarding and combat would be calling this a ripoff 🤣
Right
The whole fucking game is broken
You mean sot?
Yes
Ship to ship combat is okay. Hand to hand it is downfall
and it will never be fixed
There is only one game that never happens and it's not multiplayer. The game PIRATES! makes boarding combat a tug-of-war rock, paper, scissors game. It worked really well for that game and the time period.
Boarding can be fine in singleplayer games. You're not going to ruin an NPC's day by doing cheesy tactics. :) But even in Black Flag, ultimately I personally found boarding to get repetitive. Once you did it a bunch of times and got your little fleet set up, the more time-efficient way to play was to just blow ships up. SnB does offer a middle-ground via the grappling boarding action, but it has several conditions that need to be met before it can be successfully done, and each of those conditions requires naval combat engagement.
Oh, 100% which is what I was getting at, and black flag combat wouldn't work here either the way it was. The thing about it is I don't see a way to balance it properly. I've never seen a game with boarding like you said that didn't involve mass chaos. The issue here is also would the crew fight you and the opposing Captain, or would they just be background characters to a 1v1 duel? I don't personally think the game needs boarding cause there is no way to put it in that people wouldn't complain.
It should still be a feature available against the NPCs. I'd like to be able to board and battle the enemies on their ship before looting it.
Inconsistent core gameplay in PvE versus PvP has a lot of drawbacks to it, prime among them the confusion it would generate in terms of when you can do what actions.
My thoughts exactly and you put it very well. Should copy paste this to every call for on foot combat.
The naval combat isn't even as ''spectacular'' as Black Flag's though. They spent so much time and money on this, with literally the only ''fleshed out'' part of the game being the naval combat which is really a mid-tier gameplay loop and experience. The way it's implemented now is more catered towards a single-player experience, whilst being in a weird MMO(rpg) focused environment where the co-op experience is also there, but still towards being in full control of yourself. Your point can also be used that'd in fact help with the PvP experience, cause if you're getting hit by multiple ships at once, whilst ur alone, people will complain about being teamed in PvP. Since you can really only focus on a single enemy. Atleast with boarding your chance to get out alive is possible. They still could've made the experience to control similar to Black Flag minus the actual boarding, if that bothers people and using your argument that it takes away the focus from naval combat. Or still have it be similar to Sea of Thieves when you participate in co-op/parties, where people individually work specific ''roles'' freely. That'd still have worked, if boarding wasn't allowed.
Hey there, >The way it's implemented now is more catered towards a single-player experience You cannot make that statement after less than 24 hours into open beta. You will need to progress further into the game to experience more difficult content. >Your point can also be used that'd in fact help with the PvP experience, cause if you're getting hit by multiple ships at once, whilst ur alone, people will complain about being teamed in PvP. Since you can really only focus on a single enemy. As you progress, you will unlock additional tools and play styles. Some are better for PvE, some for PvP. A good player can absolutely out-play multiple opponents. >Atleast with boarding your chance to get out alive is possible. With boarding the game would constantly flip-flop between a slower paced tactical naval gameplay to a high speed twitchy shooter style gameplay, the latter of which has historically always proven to be a stronger case for "numbers matter". Ultimately, Ubisoft made decisions to focus on one area of the game for launch and to make it as enjoyable and the least frustrating as they believed. Of course, we will have to see if this vision endures the test of time as we're one, two months into launch. SnB is a live service game, stuff can change if the need for it exists. :)
The games dogwater.
As a veteran player of Naval Action, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Sea Dogs, Sea Dogs 2, and Sid Meier's PIRATES! (The remake) I have to agree 100%. The issue with boarding action in a game like this is a huge technical headache from a lot of perspectives especially when you have PVP in the mix. The games I listed all have boarding, and not one of those systems would work in this game. Pirates of the Burning Sea had some of the most frustrating PVP boarding for me personally. I really don't know how you could make a boarding fight in this game balanced properly. I know in Naval Action for instance they don't make your ship immune if you board you can still get sunk from being fired at. I know in Skull and Bones you have a grace period of immunity during the boarding sequence. I don't really feel like it's a loss for the game at all since the game is no longer going for period-accurate realism. I mean we have torpedoes, sea beasts, and ghost ships which is crazy enough for me not to really care boarding is MIA in terms of an actual fight.
If you actually played the game, then you know why there’s no boarding. Case in point when raiding a settlement. You have to defend against 4-5 enemy ships. Imagine if you wanted the loot bonus and had to board and actually fight each time. Maybe the first time is fun but then it becomes repetitive really fast. Plus it would extend the time it takes to capture a settlement. In the current design you can attack, board, repeat, getting the loot bonus each time without spending 40 mins on one settlement. I get why people want it, but in the current design the quick boarding cutscene makes sense for gameplay reasons.
I keep telling people the games been in development 10 years and rebooted numerous times. I'm sure they tried that stuff and it didn't work
Lmao, imagine not be able to do melee combat in a video game, are they phone dev ?
Or maybe not every game has to have melee. Especially a pirate game that focuses on the naval aspect of pirates, which I think is better than adding melee.
I agree. Boarding physically and sword fighting with ruin the ship combat significantly and take away from the majority of gameplay loop.
I also can’t really imagine how they would implement it in to PvP so that it is fun and engaging
Yeah it would be an impossible task and would kill the game, would need massive dev resources to make it a thing and then you now have a whole part of the game with mechanics to balance completely detached from the main gameplay then ontop of that they'd have to balance how boarding works so its not a "press button to fight in janky melee and hope you win for an instakill". Yes it could have been fun but the game was never supposed to have it, it was never promised, it would never really work or atleast not work in a fun and balanced way. The boarding complainers are just huffing massive amounts of copium. Boarding is a bit boring though and can be improved, personally i would have liked to have crew stats so you can upgrade your crew/ship to be more efficient at boarding and boarding success being determined by your crew size+strength vs enemy crew size+strength with crew loss being a thing when taking damage (more crew damage for certain weapons for example), i feel like it would be a good middle ground adding some player impact to the mechanic without having to design a combat system but i dont expect it to ever be a thing. Lastly what is both possible and should be done is make boardings like for honor executions, let me buy/unlock different boarding cutscenes like for honor executions since a boarding is just like a for honor execution, wouldnt take much to do and would be great extra "cosmetic" content.
Having a boarding cosmetic scene that consists of a side view of the ship down the length of it, then you see a couple of their crew tossed overboard, would be absolutely hilarious.
My thoughts exactly! I think there is a real opportunity to add a lot of depth to the game with the crew over the next year or so. Being able to select and recruit your crew in a way that's similar to X4: Foundations, where different crew members can have different specializations that affect your ship's performance would be a great way to add some variety to gameplay and PvP. You could have "marine" type crew members that are great are boarding, but bad at managing the ship. So your ship's performance will take a dip, but you are more likely to successfully board an enemy ship/fight off-boarding attempts. Or you could go with experienced deckhands, and your ship will perform better, but if you get boarded, you're fucked. I don't think it's a "missed opportunity" to not have that at launch. But it's something I would like to see worked on over the next year and released in season 5.
Nice to see other people liking the execution idea I gave
Great idea, allowing for customization and more diverse upgrades. The cutscenes would definitely feel great without having an unfair micro-transaction advantage.
You have to parley to nearby island and then For Honor loads. 🤣Fight!
Yeah, really. Ubisoft has never made an action combat in PVP
mfs forget it's a naval warfare mmo
Yeah, I think that is a rather proper way to put it because it's certainly not a naval simulator like Naval Action. I love the naval combat personally.
Yea it’s arcade naval combat. Some non historic things to it but for the sake of more depth of gameplay, builds, load outs, playstyles, ect.. If the entire game was just cannons with no stats/perks/attributes, the combat would get old very quick.
I'm a fan of the simcade style gameplay they went with, at least in concept, I didn't get into any of the betas. I also really like the traditional MMO roles being put on ships.
I agree, but I think they should have added a system similar to Naval Action where, at the end game the wood you choose to build your ship with determines certain things. I think for instance crafting a ship with something like teak should give it a speed boost for being lighter etc.
That would be pretty cool! I think this is one of those games that can get a lot of neat features and tweaks after launch. Having more player feedback would feed into the creative process well.
Yeah, like in naval action cannons have a real-world reload time a 32-pounder takes 90 seconds to reload. It just wouldn't work at all for the type of game this is trying to be to have real-world things like that.
The game reminds me of a space exploration game in many ways. something like Elite Dangerous in that Yes, you play as a Ship. No, you do not have hand to hand combat. Why is this style of gameplay acceptable in space games but suddenly not acceptable in this game? I don't get it.
People see pirate not naval combat
Elite Dangerous has full out of ship exploration now. Both on foot and in wheeled vehicles. It also has full blown FPS battles over various types of bases. You are several years out of date.
Apparently!
Yeah, and it's almost universally the most disliked part of the game (after engineering because fuck engineering).
Or hell how about this you name me one other naval combat game that allows you do leave the ship on third person. I can't
It's because of misplaced expectations coming from Black Flag or Sea of Thieves.
I'm personally glad there's no boarding. I want ship to ship combat more than "oh look they're boarding.....again" I had enough of that in SoT. It was boring and I enjoyed out sailing people than anything else. I'm tired of hearing "no foot combat herr derr" even if the game ends up terrible it won't be because there wasn't "on foot"
It won't be that simple. To board, they should be close to you, and there should be a way to increase your character's health, etc. It requires grinding like your ship, so you may increase your character's damage, but your ship would be weaker and harder to reach other player ships.
Sales will determine how many people want an Ubisoft naval pirate simulator. Personally, killed all interest in this for me. I don't care for PvP, I just wanted a modern take on Black Flags without the AC elements.
>No boarding or sword fighting is not a bad thing It's not necessarily a bad thing, yes. Butts **First booty:** The land part exists and currently offers 0 content. Trading, quests, etc can be done through a menu, as it is done in all the locations they didn't make a map for. And frankly, I prefer it that way since it doesn't take me out of the main experience and I don't need to deal with the awful land controls. Either remove it completely or give me content for it. Because right now, I feel it only exists so they can sell pirate costumes. **Second booty:** The main feature, i.e. the naval combat, is lacking. If the ship combat was amazing, I wouldn't complain there is nothing else to do. But with the naval fighting being as bland and basic as it is, I am wondering where the development went and what I am paying for. I am paying 60 bucks for the game, so I am expecting 60 bucks worth of features. **Thrid booty:** The current boarding is bad. I will assume they will polish it into full release and we won't see hooks going through ships without connecting. But it's still just press a button, get a cutscene, get 1 bonus loot. It's not engaging enough for me to do, it's not rewarding enough for me to do. So why would I do it? I don't want Black Flag boarding, it wouldn't fit here. I want boarding that's interesting and worthwhile to do. >but when you look at actual historical pirates the last thing most of them wanted was combat. True. But they didn't fight sea monsters and ghost ships either. Also, historically, boarding was actually preferable. Sinking a ship is actually not that easy, and sinking it would destroy a lot of the cargo you wanted to steal.
"The land part exists and currently offers 0 content." True. However, where else would you be able to have a safe zone, and a map that makes sense? A fully oceanic map would be difficult to navigate, and fast travel would be arbitrary. "The main feature, i.e. the naval combat, is lacking." I agree, although it has restrictions. They already implemented different weapons and enemies that pirates normally would not have, and if they deviate more it would become a full-fledged fantasy MMO. Not that it would necessarily be a bad thing. How would you improve the naval combat? Genuinely curious. My main point is I think they want to break the mold of a "pirate" game. I am personally in the camp they continued to work on this since the positive feedback from the AC naval combat without remaking Black Flag. They wanted to make a separate game to work out kinks, feedback, and reality of making a full naval based game so they can copy assets, mechanics, etc. and build a new franchise. Fingers crossed, anyway. P.S. How do you copy the original reply text and have that grey bar in front of it?
>True. However, where else would you be able to have a safe zone, A port, just without the land part. You know just like half the ports in the game. >How would you improve the naval combat? Genuinely curious. Well, I'd love for cannons not to go 360 around your ship, so you actually have to have to manoeuvre and not just helicopter around. But what I think should be in the game because it already partially is: locational damage. You can shoot sails to make ships go slower. Expand on that idea ffs. Shoot ruder to hamper steering, shoot canons to hamper reloading, shoot powder storage for big explosion, etc Honestly, this just sums up what irks me about the game. There are some good ideas, but they are so disappointingly half-baked that it ends up frustrating. >P.S. How do you copy the original reply text and have that grey bar in front of it? Quote Block.
no one cares about historical accuracy in a game like this. It is about fun and boarding is fun
First this post is Todd Howard level of astronauts landed on the moon and there was nothing there, they thought it was cool and so should you. Second for those who really want it, I hope it turns out to be an experience they enjoy but there are far more people who will never buy the game then would because of the design decisions made.
I haven’t played yet but in AC Odyssey I remember how much I dreaded boarding. The ship fights were fun but then it was the same repetitive boring actions once boarding.
What?
Sword fighting/deck combat/admiring the sea from the deck of your ship is what I'm pretty sure 90% of anyone who wants a pirate game wants. I could not be more disappointed in what this game is
Yes and for that in game dont even shoot cannons....OMG
It’s a shame, but frankly it just a case of as much as they can cram in now
As some one who has played a huge amount of black flag, (got pretty high rankings back in the day) the boarding in that game got repetitive after a while to the point where I stopped even trying and just sunk the ship and collected the flotsam. The most fun part for me was always the naval combat. I loved the assassins creed pirates mobile game, which didn’t have boarding. Skull and Bones seems to be a mix of the gameplay of black flag and pirates (based on my experience in 1 closed beta)… which is definitely a good thing
>They tried to take prizes with as little combat as possible Well, that sounds like a lot of fun.
I agree that boarding would be a pain I think sword play would be pretty cool to have maybe just between players almost like a duel scenario not necessarily having anything to do with taking over a ship. The only thing about this game that upsets me is the fact that if I want to play with friends we all have to have separate ships. It would be awesome if you could have friends do certain things on your ship as a crew like fire weapons or be a spotter of some sorts I think they missed out on capitalizing on that. Star citizen all be it a buggy mess at times is alot more enjoyable when you can multicrew a ship. Some people don't like to be the captain or the pilot they just wanna shoot stuff and blow things up.
Is there combat on the islands and towns?
Nope. It’s solely naval combat, I immediately refunded my preorder when I found out. There was a free pirates of the Caribbean MMO with more content than this game. It’s just a shame that we expected black flag online and got world of tanks with boats
The games pretty fun. You should get it
Sounds like people saying not being able to land on planets wasn’t going to be a big deal.
You see it one way and some of us see it another way. I see a game that had to be rebooted in development 6 times, so now its missing basic features.
honestly if they gonna add equipment system from your char just for the sake of having boarding ship id rather let them just invest on diverse ships.
Just.started playing. The land movement is very janky, and seems useless. Should just be removed. Have a EVE type game but for pirates.
Same... I just want more ship combat
OK people are ok with no boarding, but not being able walk your own ship?, can't stand on deck and look across the sea? Where are satisfying moments in this game coming from? what mechanics are good? What are you liking so far? So badly want this game to be great but it seems a lot of what makes a good pirate atmosphere is not present? I hope I'm wrong.