You know what I miss?

[Psychodad]

The past always looks better than it was. Progress happens and things change. While it may have been fun for some, I don't remember it that way. Yes, the logon and finding your carefully built fleets decimated and your purse empty days sure were fun (sarcasm) now I can plan and have a reasonable expectation that I can carefully fulfill that plan.

Piracy, buggery and all those things you miss are still there as Shadowood pointed out.

[Captain Jack]

Back in the day, there were no MoW hunters and no marina to hide them. MoW however is just 1 ship.
SoLs might have been used more widely by unsuspecting players. Nowadays they are used specifically by proficient players.

If piracy has changed, it is mostly because players are a lot more careful now. More prepared. In short, better players, bigger competition.

Still, now the merchants are allowed to run more ships thanks to the lower penalties for mass fleeting:

Code: Select all

#   Name   Ships
1.   Captain Da Vinci   14,508
2.   Lodswe   1,127
3.   Jim Hawkins   1,093
4.   Grimrock Litless   960
5.   william one eye   836
6.   damn the torpedos   796
7.   KarKar   635
8.   RedJack02   618
9.   trixikilikili   603
10.   Hector Barbossa   593


Piracy technology bonuses and especially scrap bonuses can create so much wealth that the 250k bonus (now 275k with advanced piracy) seems a little.
Skirmish allows for continuous controlled profitability for no hate back.

Whenever a habit of the past dissipates, it is because new and better opportunities have arise.

For the truth of my words, Shadowood has made a clean 1.1B in plunder profit (not counting ships he plundered, lets assume these cover any of his costs though) and there are still plenty of targets out there.

[TheLoveTiger]

Oh I do enjoy the new styles, but I was just thinking about the past yesterday. It was a different game play and was just mentioning how the game has changed.

Shadowood and others do very well with the current game especially with new benefits for Pirates, just mentioning the difference in game play has changed vastly and how I miss it, but at the same time I enjoy this style too.


It is always good to see a game grow and add features, it keeps a new aspect and retains players. If you don't change the game people get bored.

[Captain Jack]

Oh I do enjoy the new styles, but I was just thinking about the past yesterday. It was a different game play and was just mentioning how the game has changed.

Shadowood and others do very well with the current game especially with new benefits for Pirates, just mentioning the difference in game play has changed vastly and how I miss it, but at the same time I enjoy this style too.


It is always good to see a game grow and add features, it keeps a new aspect and retains players. If you don't change the game people get bored.

Indeed, you nailed it with this post.

I mostly wanted to add the experience improvement factor it. Taking in mind your forum join date (as you might have joined earlier than this) you are playing PG for about 3 years and a half. That's version 1.3.58 for you:
http://s2.piratesglory.com/index.php?pa ... ammount2=0

In fact, 2014 was poor in terms of development because our main developer was on his obligatory military serving.

Interestingly enough, a few months later:

Code: Select all

October 25, 2014
1.3.68: Fertile Lands voodoo card is not any longer available through voodoo packs or presents. The card functionality remains as normal.

This means that players who still have it in their inventory can still use it or sell it or lose it to Thieving Magpie, etc.


which is pretty relevant with the immediate forthcoming feature of the game.

Back to my primary argument, when you joined here, a lot of great players were not even playing. Simply check through forum profiles and you will realize how many good players are now playing and how many of them have joined after you.

[TheLoveTiger]

CJ as the main person of this game, tell me what has been the greatest achievement for you and also the best update in your eyes?

[Captain Jack]

These are both hard to tell. For me, the game is still at large unfinished so I cannot be too cheerful about any update. There are so many things that we need and we need them as fast as possible. Surely, September 2016 to September 2017 Season was a very good season in terms of development and I see this whole effort as a great achievement. It is hard to develop so many things at such an advanced game, in such short time.

However, believe it or not, nothing compares with player base approval. As professionals, we are flooded of business proposals and ideas. Some of our surrounding colleagues/friends are even puzzled at why don't we start a new game or a new service that will be more financially sound than PG, which is currently our primary project. The answer lies first in the belief we have in the game and then to the fact that we actually enjoy developing PG. Playerbase approval help us to continue stronger.

When I mention playerbase approval, I must highlight the good relationship we feel that we have with the community. We might be hard to criticize at times and we acknowledge this but it is not criticism that bothers us. In fact, criticism is needed. Multi-opinions after all are mandatory for future development. That's the biggest treasure of PG right now. The community. The community size, character, level and the community relationship with us. All these are at a very good level.

So, in short:
-Good development pace
and
-Community

are the two things that pleases me the most, from the role I am acting.

[Prof. Anthrax]

I miss the old days of ZomB being the feared Merchant raiders, them running daily HN raids on players to collect cash. It seems that all these new techs have people focusing on making money through them rather than raids. Fleets are used for mostly cargo now and you don't see the large round of hitting a merch until he only has 25 fame and them being happy that they can't be touched anymore... Oh the good old days of fearing for your fleets, limited ways to make gold and even more limited ways to store money, storing it in banks and no longer running large purses and burying it... really pushed people to raid and have fun with each other, as annoying as it was to come on and see someone was able to sneak three HN's through and mess up your day, it was fun. Now everyone snaps instantly because they have so much invested in these techs, a HN raid messes them up for days. The game has changed for sure in the 4 years I have played, some good some bad, but it is starting to move into another era it seems away from Pirates and more into an economy based game, which isn't bad but far different from when I first started.

Okay enough of living in the past, more towards the future.

I don't spend much time in here, on these forums. I don't get into too much of the in-game diplomacy and wars and battles. Really, I'm just here to see what I can build. Frankly, this game isn't what I thought it would be but I've stuck with it because I've invested so much time in it thus far. Plus, a few other reasons.

I've been trying to build up to the point where I can defend myself from what you describe. And honestly, I have found it to be impossible. To me, what you describe is exactly why a newcomer wouldn't want to play this game. Why bother? Senior players will parasitically feed off you every time you start to get ahead. Why bother? You won't build up anything because they won't let you.

Tomorrow, my guild is going to disband and I need to find a new one. I'm currently debating whether or not I should because of how difficult it's been to build up my fleet to a strength that would allow me to protect myself at all. I'm constantly getting pummeled by people and there's nothing I can do about it. My voodoo doesn't work. My single battle fleet gets the snot kicked out of it every time it attacks anybody. After all this time, I'm asking myself if it's worth it.

So the question you need to ask yourself is this--how many people are actually sticking around with this game after a couple of months? Are they staying because they feel they have a chance or are they staying because of social reasons? And if they aren't, why not? Because the fine people who pour countless hours into this game to keep it running can do that all they want but if nobody's joining and playing, it won't mean much.

[Banger]

I miss the old days of ZomB being the feared Merchant raiders, them running daily HN raids on players to collect cash. It seems that all these new techs have people focusing on making money through them rather than raids. Fleets are used for mostly cargo now and you don't see the large round of hitting a merch until he only has 25 fame and them being happy that they can't be touched anymore... Oh the good old days of fearing for your fleets, limited ways to make gold and even more limited ways to store money, storing it in banks and no longer running large purses and burying it... really pushed people to raid and have fun with each other, as annoying as it was to come on and see someone was able to sneak three HN's through and mess up your day, it was fun. Now everyone snaps instantly because they have so much invested in these techs, a HN raid messes them up for days. The game has changed for sure in the 4 years I have played, some good some bad, but it is starting to move into another era it seems away from Pirates and more into an economy based game, which isn't bad but far different from when I first started.

Okay enough of living in the past, more towards the future.

I don't spend much time in here, on these forums. I don't get into too much of the in-game diplomacy and wars and battles. Really, I'm just here to see what I can build. Frankly, this game isn't what I thought it would be but I've stuck with it because I've invested so much time in it thus far. Plus, a few other reasons.

I've been trying to build up to the point where I can defend myself from what you describe. And honestly, I have found it to be impossible. To me, what you describe is exactly why a newcomer wouldn't want to play this game. Why bother? Senior players will parasitically feed off you every time you start to get ahead. Why bother? You won't build up anything because they won't let you.

Tomorrow, my guild is going to disband and I need to find a new one. I'm currently debating whether or not I should because of how difficult it's been to build up my fleet to a strength that would allow me to protect myself at all. I'm constantly getting pummeled by people and there's nothing I can do about it. My voodoo doesn't work. My single battle fleet gets the snot kicked out of it every time it attacks anybody. After all this time, I'm asking myself if it's worth it.

So the question you need to ask yourself is this--how many people are actually sticking around with this game after a couple of months? Are they staying because they feel they have a chance or are they staying because of social reasons? And if they aren't, why not? Because the fine people who pour countless hours into this game to keep it running can do that all they want but if nobody's joining and playing, it won't mean much.

Stick around. Find another good guild. Hector Barbossa's guild might be a good spot for you. The key to defending yourself isn't always just ones self doing it. You need to find good guildmates that are ready to defend you as well.

[Donald Trump]

I do have to admit, as a merchant and a previous pirate. The worst loss for me when the sink rate change and a lot of messing with the old dirty tricks pirates used before. From then on, a merchant who plays smart won't ever have to worry much of a raid.

Instead of encouraging the pirate game play, this game has been slowly shutting it out by focusing on progression of merchants and their "amount of fleets" while neglecting pirates. Sure you can say "we have techs!!11" but I remember not really using those. TECHs are expensive and I was free to play completely when I was a pirate. I couldn't afford jack of those techs on a pirate's salary and I had taken over 30 capital war fleets, many of which were sotls and LFs, a lot of those sales had to go back into voodoo for more raids.

[William one eye]

I do have to admit, as a merchant and a previous pirate. The worst loss for me when the sink rate change and a lot of messing with the old dirty tricks pirates used before. From then on, a merchant who plays smart won't ever have to worry much of a raid.

Instead of encouraging the pirate game play, this game has been slowly shutting it out by focusing on progression of merchants and their "amount of fleets" while neglecting pirates. Sure you can say "we have techs!!11" but I remember not really using those. TECHs are expensive and I was free to play completely when I was a pirate. I couldn't afford jack of those techs on a pirate's salary and I had taken over 30 capital war fleets, many of which were sotls and LFs, a lot of those sales had to go back into voodoo for more raids.

I could not dissagree more, its still very easy to raid players if you know their movement. Its all right there for you on the gossip pages. As for capturing ships, that is still pretty easy also. I have even been ambushing from my phone recently. The hard part is making certain you do not spend more than you gain. As for merchant growth, I think that is one of the most important aspects of the game. The more large healthy merchants exist, the larger the raiding pool for pirates. This means plenty of targets, the more targets the less often raiders will need to hit each one. This means more action is possile without needing to repeat raid the same merchants over and over again.

Issues i think are the problem,

Not enough merchants for the current pirate and privateer appetite.

Players that want action, need an additional outlet other than just raiding and capturing fleets.