Finally decided on a PotBS Server

I updated my Captain’s Blog over at the PotBS vault this morning and gave an accounting of my experience in-game over the past few days. We finally decided on a Server and Nation!:

January 9, 2008
First day jitters

Welcome first timer readers and returnees alike to the Captain’s Blog! It’s an exciting time for me and probably for you as well now that Pirates of the Burning Sea has officially “launched”. I’m not one that buys in to these early head starts or “Pre-boarding parties”. To me the first day that a character is made for keeps is the first day the game starts. So where to begin? It seems like the past three days have have been nothing more than a blur. I suppose my thoughts on the launch are as good a starting place as any.

The launch went exactly how I expected. During the first few hours the ports were flooded with players and they lagged the same as they did back in the stress test. The stability of the servers was actually a shock to me. During beta the zoning times were often extremely long and often resulted in crashing but on the first day and ever since it’s been smooth sailing. The only notable hiccup at launch was the mission system which gave out for a few hours. Many of the quests in the starting towns had to be taken offline until midnight when the servers had their first downtime. All in all it was a standard MMO launch and FLS should be quite pleased.

So what about me? Where have I decided to play and what have I decided to be? Those two questions have actually haunted me even in my dreams. I’ve been undecided until this morning. It would be logical to assume that having played every class in beta and having a veteran’s understanding of the game mechanics would lead me to an easy choice; quite the contrary. I’ve made more characters in the past 48 hours and deleted more than in the entire beta process combined. I tried four different servers and each nation. Since I play with my brother that only compounds the issue. We’re alike, my brother and I, always worried about server and faction choice coming back to bite us in the rear months down the road. We’re very meticulous in our research on which server is ideal for our expectations and which faction will allow us an even blend of underdog and domination. I’m not exaggerating one bit – we spent 5 hours on the first day making and deleting characters.

Our final decision: Rackham / Pirate

We decided that the Pirate life was for us and Rackham was an ideal place given the high population of beta testers rolling there. Although the thought crossed our minds of becoming powerful economic moguls it was quickly extinguished by our blood lust for the plundering ruthless life that being a Pirate provides. We plan to become an infamous duo in the Caribbean with reputations of madmen that do not know the word surrender. We plan to always fight to the death and never accept surrender. That will surely earn us a reputation one way or another and keep things interesting.

For now our goals in the “early head start” are to reach the level cap and begin spreading ships throughout the Caribbean. I highly recommend this to everyone: place a ship in each major port for quick transport between them. You won’t regret it. After that we plan to play the economy a bit (to stock up on ammo and supplies) and prepare ourselves for the “official launch” when port contention will be available. Ugh, I forgot to mention. During this pre-boarding ordeal ports can not be contested. That leaves voluntary pvp flags as the only means for PvP. I’m chomping at the bit for a chance to attack anyone and everyone I see… *gnashes his teeth*

If you’re on Rackham let me know! If you’re a Pirate as well perhaps we can work together. If you’re not a Pirate… I look forward to sinking you.

Until next time, I bid you good sailing.