Are you men or are you mice?

[Random pandah]

off topic but i feel the urge to add some humor...





i sir, am not a mouse, but a pandah, and i feel offended u mistook me for a mouse >:[


slightly on topic, wat if it wasnt an assured credit for u signing in? maybe 25% or 50% idk spin a wheel, roll some dice, i dont but credits or anything...and i dont mind...and i dont like fighting...its dangerous...it causes hard feelings sometimes...

[Sir Henry Morgan]

Here, here, pandah!

Pull up a chair and have a uhh, bamboo oil martini, or whatever it you be drinking, sir!

It seems we forget this is a game, an entertainment, a revelry that some of us imbibe in regularly to take risks and chances, but mostly to have fun. Some are willing to pay to do so, some, not so much.

For instance, Hawk tends to like playing the spoiler, stirring things up a bit, and while he's always down to the scuppers, he's having fun and adventure. His reputation out weights his fame score. He pays nothing for his efforts.

I quietly hold down the chair in the far corner of the guild tavern, monitoring the rum supply while dictating what my admirals and captains should be doing. Others wonder "Who is that blighter?"

A game is what you make it - and I have yet to enter a game that in order to "hit the big time" I had to pay to play.

Fair, even playing field? Never seen it in any game to date. Someone always has more money, been there longer, has more friends, so on and so forth.

If a game dev can figure it out, this is one sea dog who'll be there at the gate.

For now, I am comfortable with the powers that be as they be working to make this game bigger and better.

And now, gentle people, if you'll be excusing me, I must see a man about a singing pig....

[M0nkeydluffy]

1st of all we the unpaying players arent useless in ths game and arent just having everythng free we keep on playing ths game for we see potential in it and have developd friendshps in it. .we populate the greater number of the community without which ths game with will be dead and boring and fail miserably we also spread referrals which i myself still receive the useless 2k reward even after months of posting it in other sites. .. .2nd the real issue is the gap between paying and non paying members. .it is ridiculous. .i have been logging in every day since vo0do was implemented and have been trading in auction. .all i got frm that effort was 600+ cards. .compare it to a paying players cards who has 10s of thousands u do the math even whole guilds cant compete with that. .. .it isnt even close. .its ok to gve benefits to paying members but ths is ridiculous. .we play games to compete. .as the game stands n0w we couldnt compete. .ths makes the paying players bored and the n0n paying ones frustrated. .3rdly those who claim ths game is ok and doesnt need to be fixed doesnt knw what they are talking about. .they havent challenged the gods or was threatened by war by them.. .and they are gods with the advantages gven them. .hundreds of lethal cards. .unexaustiable number of turns. .what xep was proposing is commendable but i too believe it is already there with the auction feature. .what i propose is different. .make rare cards rare indeed by n0t allowing it to be bought make it 10 common and 5 uncommon per pack. .also remove the buy turns option. .who can compete if u have 200 max turns against 1800 of ur opponent. .lastly i thnk ths game is a lost cause and im losing interest in it. .whatever happens doesnt matter. .P.s. Make the reward in referal 1 comm0n card the 2k reward is utterly useless. .i commend xep for ths topic tho its a waste of time i thnk

[Hawk]

I once proposed raising the turn cost of certain voodoo cards

This is an extreme example.. but if Call Leviathan costed 40 turns a player would need to wait after murdering your lvl 10 sotl, giving a player a chance to do something. This would also incourage more stratigic voodoo casting and teamwork.
Also I think double turns storage is too much, 300 max turns for a lower price would be better.

I do not think this will "solve" any of the problems discussed, but definantly help balance the waters

[Xepshunall]

The shameful thing is that only one out of around 10 players who post in the forums and none of the developers has grasped the problem and it's effects. I knew the problem was huge and that I and many others will walk away from Pirates Glory over it. I just couldn't describe it because I was too close to it. M0nkeydluffy has identified what I and the others suffer from. It is just as much a fun-kill to have so much power that there is no competition as it is to have so little comparable power that you can't effectively compete. The problem is that those who will buy the power are often just looking to protect their interests from others who would have similar power. There have to be some countermeasures. The ability to buy turns with credits is nice for growth but it does give conquest too much of an advantage. Maybe the potential of this is too high and lowering it may resolve the problem. Simply changing the maximum number of turns at one cash-in period and shortening the wait so that the overall number that can be achieved and the cost are not greatly altered but so that a player has to be active more to benefit so much. Also, I fully agree that rare cards have no place in the voodoo packs. I personally would distribute the rarity of bought cards using a different ratio. The greater share would facilitate trade. The middle share would help in defense, and the smallest portion would aid in attacks. None would empower a player to gain or enhance a combat fleet to the point that I and a couple of others have done. It has been proven that there are players who will abuse the power that such a fleet can provide.
The combination of an overly powerful fleet of SoLs, hundreds of the most powerful voodoo cards, and a ridiculous store of turns is a recipe for victory unless both sides have the same and are playing at the same time and on internet servers of such comparable speed as to allow them to alternate advantages.

THANK YOU, M0nkeydluffy, FOR SEEING WHAT I COULDN'T AND FOR POINTING IT OUT HERE. YOU GIVE ME HOPE.

One thing I said, which was wrong, would have the effect of removing the India Trading cards from a voodoo pack. These are good cards to allow. There are other rare cards that may belong also but I had to show the wrongness of the initial thought.

[Black sparrow]

-If I remember well, there has been a similar issue brought in the past, I think by M0nkeydluffy, where I have posted.
-So I won't repeat my post. Instead I will add a very important aspect as it happened to me: Even if you are a paying player you won't be willing to keep paying in order to take a good player out.
-My usual game is about $20 a month when I can. These are more than enough to have some several thousands cards and credits stock for turns if things go bad. Still, money are not going to save you nor buy you the win. You will also need a lot of other things, lets name it Skill.

I would agree however that completely non-paying members may need a feature to get some more credits. Perhaps add a more advance referral system to track signups and not just clicks. The more time a referred signup stays, the more benefit for the one who referred him. You could also add a % of the credits bought from the referral to go to the person who referred him.

So if for example I refer playerA and he manages to reach 100k fame, I will earn 50 credits. And whenever that player buys credits, I will earn 5% of his bought (So if he buys 100 credits, I will earn 5 from the game).

[Captain Jack]

The referral bonus idea is something along with our plans already.

In regards to the whole conversation, I might add that there are always people who are ready to protect others and we have seen this happening already. So people who can afford the voodoo cards are more probable to carry a crew of players who cannot, thus decising in practice the leader of the group which can be beneficial in this way. The whole issue appears unbalanced but eventually due to the human nature it is not.

[Sir Henry Morgan]

After reviewing this post, I believe I missed the point of the post. I understand now, that the concern for the game is the lack of hope a new player has once they realize they must swim their little boats in the big waters with Mega-Pirates. In order for these players to stay and play, there has to be a real hope that they can at least survive and compete.

A credit for a day to log in is not going to hurt the economics of the devs, yet it will show the players the value of the credit by using it, not just by "seeing" what it can do. It's like giving a six year old 50 cents and turning them lose in the candy store. It doesn't matter if they bumble around or mess up with how they spend the credits - they now know they can wait for more credits, or they can purchase more. They have the power to chose and learn how to use them. In otherwords, they at least have HOPE that they can compete, and the good ones will learn how to compete, even it isn't at the level of a pay-to-play member.

In fact, after much thought, I believe it would be better to give one credit per day than 5 voodoo cards a day. Most players have voodoo cards, but no credits, thus the market at auction is not efficient. I can't get someone to buy 10 cards of favorable winds for 1 credit. Why? Because those who want them have no credits!

If they were given credits, the choice to purchase voodoo or turns is now in the control of the player. They are not being forced to give up one for another, and by giving up voodoo they to get turns, they gain nothing really.

It would raise the prices of voodoo in the auctions, thus making the voodoo pack a more viable option. A person would have to log in 15 days to get a voodoo pack of 20 cards. Right now they can get 60 to 75 cards in 15 days. That's 60 to 75 voodoo cards they can't sell, don't know whether to sell, or or don't need or want. Providing just one credit a day would would raise the value of voodoo due to it being scarce.

Enough rambling - in essence, give the new players a small tool kit (credit a day) to start learning how to use the other tools (turns and voodoo) together. It will make them play more, grow faster, become involved in the game, and a much better chance to compete. The game needs all the active players it can muster in order to grow and succeed.

[Gbggg]

this thread is totally right, i am a brand new player an i am going to quit, i wouldnt even mind paying, i have been murdered almost every day i play, lost every ship and most of my money every day, i enjoy risk, thats what makes a game fun, but this is just stupid, new people just end u being cannon fodder for the old set, yes i know you are just going ot say something stupid like join a guild. I just wanted to play a little bit and learn the game maybe get into a little more, it is so unbalanced now i wont probably play anymore, i dont want to have to pay for the number 1 spot and thats what i a would have to do to catch up to the people who have been on this server in the begining, you dont have to worry about responding. you will just say "its actually really balanced" but when you read the forums you can see that many many people feel the same way. but you dont care, so all that will happen is you will have few top people playing, with everyone else trying for a couple of days and quitting in frustration. this is not an attack, i am genuinly asking, is this what the game is suppose to be about

[Swampy]

I've been playing a couple of months and slowly built up a decent armada of trading fleets and am slowly building a power base. The game IS unbalanced in favour of those who pay but that's not necessarily a bad thing. A new player cant beat one of the guys who's been around forever? Not a surprise really is it? Have some patience and build up your empire before you take on those who have been around a while. Learn the game by reading what others share or by mistakes but come back better next time.