Pirates of the Burning Sea port battles, boarding enemy ships, and more!

Getting excited about Pirates of the Burning Sea? Here’s something that got me pumped this morning. I was browsing the official PotBS message boards this morning when I came across a very interesting set of questions about port battles, boarding enemy ships as a pirate, friendly fire, collision detection, and all sorts of things that I consider worth getting excited over. So prepare yourselves maties! Ye be walkin’ away from this blog post with much anticipation for PotBS.

Let’s get started shall we? The first thing I want to share with you all is a series of questions on port battles, boarding enemy ships, and the game mechanics surrounding them. (Questions and answers are courtesy of this post on the official boards.)

Q1: When your in a port battle, and a pirate rolls up to you and boards you, I believe it loads you and the pirate into your own little world while the boarding battle takes place, right? Well will your ships disapear from the battle field while you and the pirate battle it on deck, or will your ships not be able to get attacked by people in the port battle, or hell… would your ship be able to get attacked?

Your ships stay in the instance and can be attacked, and you can be sunk while boarding. Since boarding will give you the most reward, it’s also one of the more dangerous moves.

Q2: Can only 1 pirate board you at a time? I’m guessing so or pirates would be over powering but anyways if you could give me a yes or no?

The devs aren’t sure about this. Originally, it was planned so that you could have multiple people fighting in the same boarding instance. So in your situation, 2 pirates could board one merchant vessel. But then, the merchant’s escort can also come aboard and help out the merchant. But that might not be allowed at release. They said that in its current form, it simply isn’t fun. Unless they can make multi-party boarding fun, they won’t keep it in the game.

Q3: Both when your ina boarding attack and a battle by ship cannons will your allies be able to hurt you by cannons/swords a.k.a. friendly fire?

There’s no friendly fire, but you can block a friendly broadside from hitting the enemy. So don’t go sailing into a friendly line of fire. On the other hand, you could sacrifice yourself by sailing into an enemy broadside, saving your friend.

Q4: When you board a ship do you just take the stuff or does it also destroy the ship or do something to it? And when u destroy a ship by shooting at it do u get anything from it? (From this post)

As far as I know, if you’re not a pirate, you get a certain amount of coin for capturing a ship without sinking it. Naturally, you also get whatever they were carrying. Or you can scuttle it (purposefully sink it), after you’re done raiding the ship’s cargo. Pirates, of course, can capture the ship and use it for their own purpose (they can skipper it). They are the only ones that can do this. Any ship they capture is reduced to 1 durability point (if they get sunk, they lose that ship). Ships with low durability can be replenished by purchasing a deed for the exact same ship, and stacking it ontop of it.

Excited yet? Here’s a bit of information that I found regarding class choices. Just how important is it for you to pick the right class and more importantly the right nation? If you’re interested in building structures and being a master of the economy can you do so without being a Freetrader? What about boarding ships or sea battles? Who can use the SOL (Ships of the line) and do well in battles? (The following info is courtesy of this post)

Freetrader is the only one who starts off with a sufficient reputation to the other nations that he is allowed to build structures in their ports. The others can improve their rep later, and the Freetrader may destroy his rep. So later that might not be so important. Freetrader has some advantages when it comes to trading.

Naval Officer is the only one who can get the big Ships of the Line. Like the 104 gun ship.

Privateer has some advantages when it comes to boarding. I think it has been said that he’s able to call in one additional wave of reinforcements. Which means that he has 6 extra NPC crew members fighting on his side.

Pirates are free to do what they want (if they can get away with it) their the bane of all nations and freetraders, they use dirty tricks and can capture SOL, but they will be flagged PvP all the time whilst sailing it.

Each class has very different skills to use at sea, Freetrader’s can use hide cargo etc skills, Navy get extra damage skills, Privateers get disable rudder skills etc, Pirates can use grog to enrage their men to fight harder.

Theres many more skills each class has specifically for them which will make them individual, the example above is just a few of them. All players have to choose their skills as you will never be able to have them all, so depending what type of class build you want is up to you.

I hope you all enjoy these little snippets of information as much I have. Pirates of the Burning Sea is shaping up to be the next big advancement in the way MMORPG’s are designed and delivered to the community. With innovations such as boarding enemy ships, attacking boards, building structures and propelling the economy for your nation forward, and experiencing first hand a revolutionary combat system of balance and tactics we can expect that these are only the firsts of many great things to come.