Bert Beard

That was a smart move by Portalus, making the parts needed for the premium and top ships that only come from Portalus and must be bought with real money................. sellable to other players with in game money. And it was a good idea and it created the illusion that the game was not becoming pay to win. But I saw through it and so do many others. All gaming companies have to encourage players to spend real money........especially since free to play has become so popular. WoT has premium tanks that cost real money but they are used mostly for making extra money..........the best and most powerful, top tier tanks have always been completely free.......at least in real money terms. Compared to the overall abismal record of Portalus over the past year...........making PotBS more pay-to-win is a minor issue to me but they also will not get any more of my money. Those expensive bronze cannons have a reload bonus of I think about 10-15% but of coarse they also have a range reduction.........that's why in most cases they are not the best choice for pvp. But for any kind of fleeting they are very good. Ever since those cannons came out Portalus has been saying there's a patch coming that will give them more bonuses........no word on when or what that might include. And of coarse noobs don't do well in pvp against skilled players.......lol.

That's not quite true Bungee. Those premium ships with the bronze cannons and the 1st and 2nd rates all have components that must be obtained from Portalus by spending real money.......there is no way around it. Whether you spend your own real money or you buy the parts from someone spent their own real money to get them ..............these ships can ONLY be obtained with parts bought from Portalus with real money. The latest POTBS patches from Portalus included a couple new ships and some Christmas bling.......nearly all of it requires real money to acquire.............so yes, Portalus is definitely turning POTBS into a pay to win........or at least a pay to get the top ships. Lol.........I mentioned the fact that the last couple of patches portalus brought out were nothing but cash grabs for ships that few would want. But Portalus edited it out of their website comment section............I guess I was supposed to say those were really good patches that I was looking forward to and thanked them for the excellent job their doing...........lol. I'm also not sure who you were fighting or if it was in port battles but an experienced battle line that includes Victory 1st rates with supporting ships is devastating to frigates.......or any ships for that matter. The firepower of 1st rates is impressive........as is their toughness. But a 1st rate caught alone with much more maneuverable frigates is in trouble.......but it was never intended for that kind of battle.

Last year a lot of us blamed many of the problems that almost finished PotBS on Sony. But now that Sony's out of the picture and we've spent almost a year with Portalus and were a year wiser I'm taking a harder line with Half-Hitch, Fodderboy and especially the boss of Portalus.........Hamled, now I think they had a lot to do with what happened to FLS during their last 8 months or so. Back when Portalus took over several players warned us that the people running Portalus were some of the main guys at FLS. And now that's becoming apparent. A lot of unnecessary baggage was also added under these guys watch........along with those disastrous patches last year. Fishing, Fairfax drops to name a couple.......and now they just released what they called a "patch". What was it.........a free sword and some Christmas bling in Treasure Island their hoping to make money off of. The guys at Naval Action are absolutely correct when they say too much useless crap has been added into PotBS. Meanwhile........the real patch for early December that there saying is supposed to have some new ships and fix some other stuff is late, big surprise there. And god knows when Burning Sea.com and the Forums will be working again. But to be fair there have been some good ships added................ although after 15 months, more needs to be done to fix what 2.11 did. And I really like that hull storage mod that was added a few months ago........that made Portalus a few bucks I bet. It almost appears like the guys at Portalus all have real jobs somewhere else and PotBS is a sideline for them. It would explain why it takes about 10 to 15 times longer to fix problems with PotBS than any other mmo out there and why updates or any communication at all is a week or more apart. If that's the case then Portalus wouldn't have to pay salaries and as long at the server time is paid.........could go on for some time. Or until something better comes along.

Tell me about it..........lol There are so many things that could have been done to make PotBS a much bigger success. Advertising, updated graphics, an expanded map, software programmers that can program software......... other things including patches that improved the game rather than drive players away. And of course.......... a different company and people running it.

Are you sure about that Otsego. I have never seen 42 players in one red zone at once in over 4 years of playing although I guess it could have happened a few times back when the server pops where much higher. The most I've seen would be during a few intense port flips........maybe around 25-30 at most .......but that's rare, especially these days. Usually the most you see in a port flip or any engagement in the red is 6-18. I agree Slappy, PotBS is currently the best sailing/pirate mmo out there........but it used to be a lot better.

I don't know if they did that after f2p............I really don't think so. I remember for quite a while after f2p.......even leading right up to when FLS introduced patch 2.11 for PotBS all the nations on all the servers were moderate almost all the time. Except the Brits and Pirates.........there populations were usually heavy and the odd time very heavy (dark red). Spain and more often France even saw heavy populations once in a while. Moderate was considered a low population ( orange) and you almost never saw light ( green)........which is the lowest. All that changed after FLS brought out patch 2.11 late in summer 2012.......within a few weeks the player populations plummeted and we have seen only moderate and mostly light servers ever since. Not once did anyone from FLS admit to making a mistake or apologise for what they did to PotBS and to their customers ( the players ) when they arrogantly and stubbornly brought out that patch 2.11........despite the pleas and mass protests from the players. 5 months later FLS was out of business.

Congrats to the Pirates for winning a map, it's been a while since that last happened. I noticed when Portalus finally got registration going after it being down for nearly 6 weeks that both the server populations went from all light......... to the Brits and Pirates being moderate on both servers. This would indicate a big increase in player populations. This happened nearly instantly after registration was working again, like there was a big backlog of new players waiting up to 6 weeks so that the moment registration was working........they were online to join PotBS. This sudden increase happened in the wee hours of the morning on both servers at the same time. This is just a little suspicious. First, there just weren't that many new players that waited 6 weeks to join PotBS at 2 am.......... and most of those were probably vets adding new alts anyways. Second, the economy is probably the best indicator of player activity........this has continued to shrink even after registration was opened again. I estimate economic activity is about half or even less............ than it was before the game was hacked & taken offline a couple months ago. I think Portalus is trying to make things look better than they really are and has changed the server population settings so that it looks like there's been a population increase. When in fact........... the population has remained light or is even decreasing.

PotBS is free to play and many people play every day without ever spending a dime.................well there used to be many. But if you want premium ships or 1st rates......which a lot of people want, the only place some of the parts needed to build them come from is Treasure Isle. My prediction about 3 months before FLS went belly up was bang on......and PotBS would have gone the same way if some of the members of FLS hadn't formed Portalus and saved the game. The problems and other things that happened since a little over a year ago where not happening before and if this continues, which looks like it will..........then this game will not last much longer. I think the end of February is probably on the outside. Things could be worse than we thought with Portalus, it sure looks bad right now with them not being able to get registration working.......they barely got that simple little webpage for taking our money going. You never know, they might pull the plug at the end of this month after the Pirates win the map..........maybe that's why the big push from the Pirates, they have a feeling they will never have this opportunity again. I say good for them.......they deserve it and they're being decent to the ports they capture. I thought Pirates were supposed to pillage and plunder........lol I hope when the end comes that Portalus shows some class and gives us a heads up so we can all have a farewell sail around the Caribbean one last time.

PotBS has been an awesome game for me since I started playing it in 2008. I didn't do a lot of pvp but I was involved in every other part of the game and in the last couple years became much more involved in the econ side of things. I suppose nothing last's forever and it's becoming obvious the end is not far away for PotBS. But in this case it's happening a lot sooner that is should have and I'm putting the blame squarely on FLS, Portalus and specifically very bad decisions made last year with a couple big patches (2.11 & 2.12) And the failure of Portalus to run this game in a reliable or satisfactory manner. Fairly basic software work that would take one or two skilled programmers several hours to maybe 2 - 3 days at most ............... takes Portalus weeks. I had no idea how precarious this game was under the control of Portalus till it was suddenly taken off line over a month ago. It was 9 days later that they got the servers online again, they still don't have the Burning Sea website or registration working and I seriously doubt the PotBS forums will ever be working again. That un-official PotBS forum called "toxicpits.com" that a player put up said it took him less than an hour to make it and get it online ! Those running Portalus were the same ones at FLS when it went downhill and out of business last year. And besides those disastrous patches last year their also the ones turning this game into pay2win. Last October ( a year ago) I said the dev's (FLS) had a death wish on PotBS and predicted the demise of FLS and PotBS by early 2013. Well here we are a year later and because of the developers ( Portalus) this game is again in serious trouble and unless someone comes to the rescue again I predict this game will be done by the end of February........and maybe a lot sooner. A lot of us have been left wondering what is wrong with these people and it's a very sad ending to such a special game. But life goes on and we could be in store for something even better with Naval Action.