Pirates of the Burning Sea Interview

Being that it's International Talk Like A Pirate Day it seemed only fitting to talk with the fine folks at Flying Labs about Pirates of the Burning Sea, which is also the official game of this now, pseudo-widely celebrated holiday. In the interview I sat down with none other than the Lead Designer Kevin 'Isildur' Maginn, to see what he had to say about a few of the newer additions to the game.

Allakhazam : Hello Kevin, thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy day to chat with us! 

Allakhazam : Tell us a little about yourself! How long have you been with Flying Labs and what kind of work did you do before Pirates of the Burning Sea?

Kevin : I originally joined Flying Lab to develop the Pirates website. We all wore a lot of hats back then, because we had so few people. I've been designing games since I was ten years old, so it was a fairly natural progression for me to join the design team.

Allakhazam : Obviously "Pirates or Ninjas" isn't something I'll be asking but I would like to know what role you personally prefer in PotBS.

Kevin : If you mean which of the careers I prefer, I've always had a fondness for the privateer. If you mean pirates vs. ninjas, I have to go with robot cowboys.

Allakhazam : Let's talk about one of the most dramatic addition, Pirates! Why was the addition of a new class needed, and how do Buccaneers and fix the void?

Kevin : Pirates - what we now call 'Cutthroats' - were a very strongly solo- and small-group-focused career. Their skills and ships made them excellent at open sea ambushes, but left them at a disadvantage in large-scale port battles, particularly against national Naval players in lineships.

The Buccaneer career was intended to address that imbalance, by providing support skills that allow the Pirate nation to stand against the nationals in port battles.

Allakhazam : Buccaneers were mentioned as being an advanced career path. How will choosing to be a Buccaneer add to the challenge of the game?

Kevin : The Buccaneer skills are generally more situational than those of other careers. They tend to emphasize player skill slightly more - knowing which skill to use and when is as important for Buccaneers as raw ship power.

Allakhazam : Can you tell us a little about the pillaging that the Pirate class will be doing?

Kevin : Pillaging is an entirely new set of pirate-only missions that become available when the pirates conquer certain ports. These missions are rewarding and very pirate-flavored; the intent is that conquering ports should feel more like a wild pirate party and less like a national conquest.

Allakhazam : What about the enhanced User Interface? What all has been changed? Any exciting additions?

Kevin : We've added a lot of new functionality to the inventory UI, allowing you to move cargo more easily between your ship and your warehouse. We're also just generally polishing the interface, adding minor but important features to make it easier to use.

Allakhazam : Any major plans for the future of Pirates of the Burning Sea that you can divulge to us? ;)

Kevin : Right now, I'm hard at work on a major revision of our avatar combat system. We've always known that we were going to iterate on it again, give it a fresh look and challenge any assumptions we'd made in its initial design. Over the last few months, I've been diving into that iteration, altering and replacing elements of the system that I don't like and focusing more on the moment-to-moment user experience. I'm very happy with the results so far, and I suspect our players will be, too.

Allakhazam : Yarrrr! Thank ye very much Kevin. Keep up th' good work! Arrrr!

Andrew "Tamat" Beegle
Editor-in-Chief
Allakhazam.com

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