<[FLS]Aether> Take that!
<[FLS]fraxl> yeah, we kind of are
<[FLS]Rhaegar> whew
<[FLS]isildur> Wow... it's so nice and quiet. Think I'll take a nap.
<[FLS]Aether> Nothing starts out a hot-topic Developer Chat like banning the entire Development team just minutes before it starts
<[FLS]ttobey> crickets
<[QT]Xaphod> Hello everyone, welcome to Coldfront IRC.
<[FLS]Aether> All kidding aside, many thanks to Coldfront for hosting our chat today-
<[FLS]Aether> And thanks to the folks who’ve come to learn more about Pirates of the Burning Sea.
<[FLS]Aether> We’ve got a monstrous list of Flying Lab staff in attendance today, which includes members of the Pirates of the Burning Sea Content Team, Art Team, Testing, Development, Design and IT.
<[FLS]Aether> For the record, we didn't force them- they are here because they care deeply about our community, and look forward to hearing what you've got to say.
<[FLS]Timbojones> Aether didn't even tell me about it
<[FLS]Aether> Some may be a little frightened of you, I know I am, so be nice.
<[FLS]Aether> In addition, we’ve got members of our stalwart Community Team present who will be working to assure that today’s chat runs smoothly.
<[FLS]Aether> We anticipate this chat to last about 45 minutes to an hour, at which point we will un-moderate the channel for a brief free-form chat session with the team.
<[FLS]Aether> Key word: Brief.
<[FLS]Aether> With so many FLS staff in attendance, it would take me at least an hour to introduce everyone.
<[FLS]Aether> So instead, I’m going to point out the leads that are in attendance, and let the rest of our team introduce themselves once they handle your individual questions during today’s discussion.
<[FLS]Aether> First up, we have Flying Lab Software’s venerable CEO, Rusty Williams.
<[FLS]Rick-EPFBM> Clap clap clap clap
<[FLS]Rusty> Hello!!
<[FLS]Aether> One of the Flying Lab Software Founders, Rick Saada-our most Excellent Proud Father, Best Mustache, has also joined us today.
<[FLS]isildur> ... Rick has a moustache?
<[FLS]Rick-EPFBM> So that's what that stands for. I thought it was...
<[FLS]ttobey> thats not what EPFBM stand s for
<[FLS]Timbojones> I take exception to the mustache award
<[FLS]Aether> There’s [FLS]Rev, Pirates of the Burning Sea Producer, and world-wide celebutante, John Scott Tynes.
<[FLS]Theresa> hahaha
<[FLS]Rick-EPFBM> I care deeply about our community and look forward to what you have to say
<[FLS]Rusty> I care deeply about our community, and look forward to hearing what you have to say.
<[FLS]Rusty> Now Aether, put the gun down!!
<[FLS]Aether> There’s the glue that holds us all together, Misha Williams, Flying Lab Software’s Inspector General and Pirates of the Burning Sea Beta Boss.
<[FLS]Aether> haha
<[FLS]Taelorn> Don't expose our bots. Use different AIs.
<[FLS]Aether> We’ve got our Lead Designer [FLS]Isildur, known by his mother as ‘Cookiepants’, known to us as Kevin Maginn.
<[FLS]isildur> My mom never-- hey! YOUR mom!
<[FLS]TomFury> I know him as cookiepants....
<[FLS]TomFury> too
<[FLS]Rev> He's like the village cookiepants.
<[FLS]Aether> We’ve also have our Director of Development, and... is it second tallest FLS employee? Mr. Joe Ludwig.
<[FLS]Rev> Third.
<[FLS]Joe> 4th tallest, actually. But taller than Aether.
<[FLS]isildur> Greg and Drew skewed the curve.
<[FLS]DrewC> Our basketball team looks much more impressive than it actually is.
<[FLS]Rev> Aether is like four foot nothing.
<[FLS]Aether> And I'm 6ft5.
<[FLS]Aether> haha, or four foot nothing.
<[FLS]Aether> And finally, I’m Troy Hewitt, Director of Community Relations.
<[FLS]Timbojones> Those are Martian feet
<[FLS]Theresa> Here here!
<[FLS]Aether> I wish we had time to introduce every single one of the FLS Team, because I've got to tell you, they are some of the finest individuals I've ever had the opportunity to work with.
<[FLS]Aether> I’m going to turn this over to our Community Specialist Rhaegar, so he can explain how today’s chat is going to be organized.
<[FLS]Rhaegar> Hello everyone, thanks for coming
<[FLS]Rhaegar> Obviously because the channel is so busy, this has to be a moderated chat. Please PM your questions to our Question Takers (they have [QT] on them). These will be relayed to the devs, who will then attempt to answer them.
<[FLS]Rhaegar> Please DO NOT PM the devs... you will just be ignored if you do.
<[QT]NTRabbit> avast!
<[FLS]Rhaegar> he is vast.
<[FLS]Kenosuna> there vast?
<[FLS]Rhaegar> Okay, in a moment we will start answering questions.
<[FLS]Rhaegar> <[NAWAK]Gromlin> *Yesterday, you made an announcement in which you say that SoE will translate the game. Can you tell me which languages are concerned?
<[FLS]Rusty> We will be translating the game into French and German. We are studying the possibility of a Spanish version as well, given that Spain is one of our major nations, but that probably won't happen for release one.
<[FLS]Rhaegar> <ChocJunkie> One question that really irks me: Will we be able to play on e.g. German servers with english versions of PotBS. Because reading that SOE will do the localization made me rethink buying a localized version :/
<[FLS]Rusty> Yes, you will be able to play on any of the servers that you want. That's why day and date release with French and German are so important to us.
<[FLS]ttobey> this thing needs elevator music
<[FLS]Rusty> We want to make sure that nobody feels like a second class citizen, and incented to play on other language servers.
<[FLS]Rhaegar> <M3ta> Due to Eve-Online being on coldfront.net, some people on IRC have asked some questions regarding Eve's high degree of interconnection with the community fansites, by developing APIs for the fans to connect to Eve's databases, get data, and even a database dump. Do you plan to develop some freebies like this, so that the more "geek fans" can also develop POTBS tools?
<[FLS]isildur> One of the things I've always wanted to do is publish game data from our gameservers as XML. Then fansites can do whatever they like with it. This would include conquest information, economics, and guild status. It's a huge undertaking, though, and the Armory has set a pretty high standard to meet. So no official timeline on that kind of data access.
<[FLS]Timbojones> Brendan's doing some very cool things that head in that direction, like the nav zone map.
<[FLS]Rhaegar> <cyxult> As you have seen on the forums, there is quite an uproar due to your publishing company of choice, SOE. You did fill us in on a lot of your contractual agreements, and it seemed to quell a lot of the issues people had. Do you have intent to stay this firm with SOE in the long run? I think a lot of us don’t want to see Flying Lab Software give in to their demands down the road, like Sigil did.
<[FLS]BrendanW> I've been working in my free time on a tool for displaying AI activity in the Open Sea and would like to extent such a tool to play back unrest activity, and battle royal events. I'd also like to open up the source code and data for that, but nothing official has been decided in that regard
<[FLS]Rusty> Yes. It’s not so much a question of being firm, it’s that good fences make good neighbors. We have our responsibilities and they have theirs. Part of the length of the contract was making sure everyone knew where those lines are.
<[FLS]Rhaegar> [BH]CharlieChaos> It has been said that it will be Nation first society 2nd but as time goes on will there be ways for societies to show their power by holding onto halls or anything else like in lineage 2 where guilds can hold castles or guild halls which are siegeable
<[FLS]isildur> We're going to be releasing with all the basic tools you'd expect for societies -- chat channels, organizational hierarchy, the usual suspects -- but our plans go quite a bit further than that. We're planning ways for societies to take and hold ports through conquest, to govern ports through elections and bribery, to build guildhalls in which they can meet and display their achievements......
<[FLS]isildur> ...We're also working on the design for a flexible event-creation system that will allow societies to set up PvP encounters between each other. We want to create world-class society support -- both for PvE and PvP. Look for more details on our specific plans after our initial release.
<[FLS]Rhaegar> Recreant> If we have a previous SOE account which differs from our FLS account, how will the "match up" be handled?
<[FLS]Joe> We are in the process of figuring out exactly how that will work.
<[FLS]Joe> Most likely it will go something like this: You log into our forums and give us your station login information, or create a new station account.
<[FLS]Joe> From that point on you will use your station login on our forums.
<[FLS]Joe> Like I said, we're still working out details, but that's the general idea. You will be able to play with either an existing Station account or a new one.
<[FLS]Rhaegar> ..
<[FLS]Rhaegar> <Reilly> My question:Could you Explain a bit more how the Professions are going to work in the game and how deep they actually are?
<[FLS]isildur> By 'professions' I'm assuming you mean 'careers'; if you're talking about crafting and production, ask again because I love to talk about the economy.
There are four careers: Pirate, Navy, Freetrader and Privateer.
<[FLS]isildur> When I think about them, I think in terms of simple descriptive adjectives and pieces of gameplay. Navy is 'Combat'. Privateer is 'Speed, unpredictability, boarding'.
<[FLS]isildur> Freetraders are 'Survivability', and pirates are 'Brutality and agility'. Those descriptions inform the design of the skillsets.
<[FLS]isildur> Each career has 85 skills divided into 'chains' of five skills each, and those skills are gameplay-defining.
<[FLS]isildur> (Except for pirates, who have a bit broader selection)
<[FLS]isildur> Hah, taelorn just pointed out that it's actually 45 skills. Doh!
<[FLS]isildur> In any case: they also have unique ships for each career, unique mission arcs, and entire segments of gameplay that are only available to them.
<[FLS]isildur> (math is hard)
<[FLS]Rhaegar> ..
<[FLS]Rhaegar> <Cyxult> With such a large game, one would assume there is going to be a large amount of subscriptions. How do you guys plan on handling support and abuse for all those people? Will you be outsourcing the work to another company, or will you have your own department to handle this?
<[FLS]Rusty> We’re doing a little of both. For the US, we’re working with Playerbase solutions for our support. For Europe, we’re working with Alchemic Dreams. The idea behind both is that we wanted to have a European operation supporting Europe, and an American operation supporting the US. What I’m really uninterested in is outsourcing support overseas. It’s a little cheaper to do it that way, but I think it makes for a much worse suppo
<[FLS]Rusty> One of the reasons we’re keeping customer support is that we have very strong ideas of what we want to do with it. Playerbase has been helping us with the beta, and it’s a great exercise because we can use that experience to train them on how we want support done. Of course, we’ll also have our own in house people ready for escalation.
<[FLS]Rhaegar> ..
<[FLS]Rhaegar> <moocifer> Q: Will FLS ever allow a volunteer organisation, such as Polaris in EVE, to assist in the running of the game or do they fear damaging their reputation due to scandalous cries of insider knowledge, cheating & corruption ??
<[FLS]Aether> We do have plans to engage our community in exciting and interesting ways- but not in the same way that companies like CCP, with EVE, have.
<[FLS]Aether> We are actually very close to announcing information on a group we call "The Boarding Party".
<[FLS]Rusty> Sorry, part of my reply was cut off: "It’s a little cheaper to do it that way, but I think it makes for a much worse support experience."
<[FLS]Aether> This group will consist entirely of players and will work very closely with members of our Community Team on a variety of... well, very cool things.
<[QT]Xaphod> Thanks Rusty
<[FLS]Aether> As a matter of fact, we have all kinds of opportunities coming for our fans- with ideas coming from almost every department in our company.
<[FLS]Aether> Unfortunately I can’t tell you about them just now.
<[FLS]Aether> Finally, let me stress that our policies and procedures would restrict and prohibit any misconduct by staff or players at every level of contribution.
<[FLS]Theresa>
<[FLS]Aether> That would include immediate action on our part to rectify the situation and remedy any potential loopholes that allowed for the misconduct in the first place.
<[FLS]Rhaegar> ..
<[FLS]Rhaegar> CaptObvious> Do you think that inclusion into SOE's Station Pass scheme will help drive up the number of subscribers to PotBS by putting the game name up there with such successes as PlanetSide, Star Wars: Galaxies and Everquest 2?
<[FLS]Rusty> I’m very excited about Station Pass. There are a lot of people playing on it who are waiting for a new, different experience. They’re going to try Pirates, and I think they’re going to be hooked.
<[FLS]DrewC> And I'm working hard to get them to give me a free station pass, which will be the real upside of this deal
<[FLS]Rhaegar>
<[FLS]Aether> I was waiting for Drew to say something about that.
<[FLS]DrewC> It's almost like I want a free station pass
<[FLS]Rhaegar> Just a reminder folks, please PM your questions to those who have a [QT] tag. Please DO NOT PM the developers.
<[FLS]Rhaegar> Also, if you want somewhere to discuss this chat as it goes on, please drop in to #burningsea
<[FLS]Rhaegar> Okay, onwards.
<[FLS]Rhaegar> ..
<[FLS]Rhaegar> <rufus_p> will wind be historically accurate to the extent that the prevailing breeze will almost always blow from east to west?
<[FLS]DrewC> Broadly speaking yes. In the Open Sea the wind generally blows from the east/southeast towards west/northwest. What we don’t do is try and model real world wind currents. The complexity of real world weather patterns is staggering, and we don’t want to try and bring that level of complexity into the game.
<[FLS]Rhaegar> ..
<[FLS]Rhaegar> <fred>Crafting is poorly done in so many games (WoW, LoTRO, etc.) Other games like Vanguard have much more in-depth systems. How would potbs's system compare?
<[FLS]isildur> Simple: We don't have crafting.
<[FLS]isildur> We have production.
<[FLS]isildur> It's the difference between being a sailor and being the captain. From that starting point, we have a massive, complex, many-layered economy that provides many many niches for dedicated merchants to fill. Starting from the lowest level of raw material production, goods make their way up through stages refinement, manufacturing, and assembly until a master shipwright finally puts the...
<[FLS]isildur> ...finishing touches on a 104-gun ship of the line.
<[FLS]Rhaegar> ...
<[FLS]Rhaegar> <WebGuest06> I have a question about resorces, are they port dependent? So would only iron be available at a certain number of towns making it more important for a nation to capture the ports?
<[FLS]isildur> (also lots of opportunity for Taelorn to manipulate the market and steal all your doubloons)
<[FLS]isildur> Resources are needed for certain structures to be built. For instance, you can't build an iron mine unless there's iron in the port. Placement of those resources is one of the most important determinations of productive efficiency. For instance, you need limestone to refine iron ore. The Spanish happen to start with a limestone resource very near an iron ore resource. So as long as...
<[FLS]isildur> ...those two ports are under Spanish control, they'll have a very effective iron industry. Now, if the ports are conquered, the Spanish can still produce there -- it's just far, far more expensive, and possibly dangerous if enemy patrols are sweeping the area outside the port.
<[FLS]Rhaegar> ..
<[FLS]Rhaegar> <rufus_p> can you talk about a few of the ports that you think will be fought over the most in PotBS? why will nations want control of these ports? And if possible, can you mention any unique resources available at these ports.
<[FLS]isildur> The ports that will be fought over are the ports in the Antilles (Cuba, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Santo Domingo, and all the Lesser Antilles down through Grenada). It's a mixed jumble of nations and resources, all of which are necessary for high-end construction. Examples? OK: Zinc, which you need to make brass, which you need for high-end cannons and ship fittings. Ironwood, or 'Lignum...
<[FLS]isildur> ...Vitae', which is used in high-end rigging. And Teak, used for high-end hulls and repair materials. All of those are *only* available in the Antilles. This is where most of the endgame action will take place, and the ports are clustered together so much that it's going to be a very, very dangerous region for PvE *and* PvP.
<[FLS]isildur> ... Sorry, that should be "Jamaica, Hispaniola..."
<[FLS]Rhaegar> ..
<[FLS]Rhaegar> <Riano> Question: What does the SOE-deal mean for european players regarding a. game availability b. server availability and c. the opportunity to see the game demoed at the Leipzig Games Convention?
<[FLS]Rusty> It means we’ll have a great localized experience day and date with release, and that you’ll be able to buy Pirates on store shelves and through digital downloads.
<[FLS]Rusty> And yes, you’ll be able to see the game demoed at Leipzig. And I’ll finally be able to have some good schnitzel again!
<[FLS]Joe> It also means that now a bunch of us are jealous that Rusty gets to go to Leipzig.
<[FLS]Rusty> Localization is actually one of the big issues that moved us towards Sony. We're going to do a very good on it.
<[FLS]Rusty> Sorry, "very good job on it." Doh!!
<[FLS]Rusty> Europe is very important to us, because we think the game's subject matter is going to resonate over there, especially in England and France. So we want to go all out to make a great release there.
<[FLS]Rhaegar> ..
<[FLS]Timbojones> We're very well set up technically for localization
<[FLS]Rhaegar> <Clackling> I love the relationship FLS seems to have with its community these days. You're all active in the forums, in chat, etc. Do you worry that after launch, when you bring in a HUGE community, you'll lose that touch with the playerbase? How are you going to manage a community that's exponentially bigger than what you have now?
<[FLS]Aether> Flying Lab Software has an approach that is unlike most companies I'm familiar with...
<[FLS]Timbojones> I'll form the head!
<[FLS]Aether> We- and I mean everyone, beyond just the Community Team, will jump in to answer questions, seek resolution to problems and essentially just communicate, as much and as often as possible.
<[FLS]Aether> We aren't afraid to say we're wrong, and we afford our community the respect it deserves. Case in point- when we knew it was time to share information regarding SOE, we came to you first.
<[FLS]Rusty> Specifically, Clackling. We told him a few weeks ago. Good job keeping the secret!
<[FLS]Aether> That was the hardest part.
<[FLS]Aether> But seriously, how will we change as our community grows?
<[FLS]Rusty> Wondering if Clackling would tell.
<[FLS]Rusty> Alright, I'm going away.
<[FLS]Timbojones> Rusty wants to form the head
<[FLS]Rev> Form of . . . a bucket of water!
<[FLS]Aether> We will grow our team to meet the need, and make sure those people understand why FLS does Community Management the way we do.
<[FLS]Rusty> Shape of...a sponge!
<[FLS]isildur> I've always wanted to be the left leg. That seems like the coolest part. You get to... STAND! and WALK!
<[FLS]Rusty> And kick!!
<[FLS]Timbojones> As Heart, I get a monkey.
<[FLS]Kenosuna> Man, i love wu-tang clan
<[FLS]Aether> That, and we've been working on forming a giant robot.
<[FLS]Theresa> We can build it. We have the technology.
<[FLS]ttobey> gigantic
<[FLS]DrewC> I just wanted to add: for me, the community has already crested the point where I can have personal relationships with all of our players. However with events like the fan meet ups we’ve been doing, and late night IRC, I get an opportunity to interact with a smaller number of fans on a one on one (or one on three or four) basis, and that’s invaluable to me as a Designer.
<[FLS]Rick-EPFBM> It's the same as with the people who want to be the deck swabber on someone else's ship!
<[FLS]Rusty> Not the money though. It's just sitting out there half finsihed.
<[FLS]DrewC> As the community gets larger I will interact with a small percent of the community at these events, but the total number of people I interact with will go up significantly.
<[FLS]Rick-EPFBM> Who controls the robot?
<[FLS]Timbojones> We control it together, guys
<[FLS]Rusty> I have a watch I speak into. It follows the sound of my voice. "Crush them now, Giant Robo!!"
<[FLS]Timbojones> As a TEAM
<[FLS]Rev> Speaking of interacting with the community, we'll be at SOE's FanFaire in Las Vegas this summer. Come see us!
<[FLS]Rhaegar> ..
<[FLS]Rhaegar> <GAC> how will the potbs servers be setup, be it north american,eu and asia or will we get larger servers ala eve ( current record 34k people online) and what sort of numbers do you think the servers maybe able to handle
<[FLS]Rusty> And PAX as always.
<[FLS]Rev> ::PAX is dreamy::
<[FLS]GrayNoten> Right now we are planning on having two main server locations. The largest presence will be in North America, and we will have a presence in the EU as well. There will be no location lock-in so European players will be able to play on North American servers and vice versa.
<[FLS]GrayNoten> As to server size and population, right now we are targetting between 1,500 and 1,800 concurrent players per game instance. This limit is more by design and is not based on any code or hardware limitations. One of our goals for the next beta phase is to figure out exactly what the right game instance size is.
<[FLS]Theresa> We have a pretty huge convention season this year now.
<[FLS]Rhaegar> ..
<[FLS]Rhaegar> <Dolnoth> Other than combat and economic functions, will there be any purely "Fun" items/activites Like dancing jigs, playing music etc?
<[FLS]ttobey> HA! A QUESTION!!In the next build, we have an extensive list of emotes, that include dancing, singing, drinking and there’s even some yarrrrs in there. Almost everything the NPC’s do, your avatar can do. There’s also some secret emotes in there that only Mat and I have the key too!
<[FLS]Rev> They involve special touching.
<[QT]Xaphod> o.O
<[FLS]GavinIrby> Hey, I took that out!!
<[FLS]ttobey> emote_toot
<[FLS]GavinIrby> Well, I really wanted to create a mission where you save wayward teens from piracy through the power of dance...
<[FLS]Timbojones> . /moon
<[FLS]BrendanW> Burning Sea II : Electric Boogaloog
<[FLS]Squidd> Wow we use that joke a lot
<[FLS]BrendanW> Now all Marsh Harbor needs is a rec center for wayward youths
<[FLS]Aether> I started it.
<[FLS]Timbojones> So I can tear it down!
<[FLS]Rhaegar> ..
<[FLS]Rhaegar> <Praeten> will peg legs/ eye patches/ other pirate appendages be chosen at character creation, or earned later through quests?
<[FLS]DrewC> We should also seed Marsh Harbor with pommel horses, just in case someone needs to fight a mob of angry villagers one at a time.
<[FLS]GavinIrby> You'll get to unlock those with quests
<[FLS]Kenosuna> Yeah what he said
<[FLS]Aether> Alright, getting back on track here...
<[FLS]isildur> Basically, you'll do quests that unlock the ability to set those options in character customization.
<[FLS]isildur> Yes, you'll get to do a quest where your LEG IS BLOWN OFF ZOMG
<[FLS]Rhaegar> (tip: dont do it twice!)
<[FLS]whather`SB4S> <3 dual pegs
<[FLS]Rhaegar> ..
<[FLS]Rhaegar> <Helenne> Its been stated that SOE only have the mechanic for release in North America and Europe at the moment, and that Oceania players can expect details in a month or so. Will this affect those from Oceania who have signed up for Beta, and/or have a Beta key already?
<[fls]misha> No – we’re still pulling Beta testers from all over the world. I worry more about someone’s machine specs and willingness to help us by reporting bugs when I accept them into Beta than I do when they might be able to buy after launch.
<[FLS]GavinIrby> I just finished up the one where your pegleg and I think you'll enjoy it. Not only do you get blown up, but you get gangrene...
<[FLS]DrewC> And nothing say fun like gangrene. It's the party disease
<[FLS]Squidd> He was great in Last of the Moheicans
<[FLS]Kenosuna> Other items will be set as rewards to less gross missions as well. IE Hats, coats, etc
<[FLS]Rhaegar> ..
<[FLS]Rhaegar> <Joiry> is there a specific day at the Fan Faire for PotBS, for those that just want to register for 1 day
<[FLS]Aether> We are still finalizing dates for all of our events, and we will be updating our community calendar with more information on the SOE Fan Faire when those details are hammered out.
<[FLS]Aether> Though I can say that we will be there, that there will be more than one of us, and that we are bigger than a breadbox.
<[FLS]Aether> And every single person in the company just IM'd me asking if they could go.
<[FLS]Aether> I wish I were kidding.
<[FLS]Aether> More information to come friends, I promise.
<[FLS]Kenosuna> I want to go
<[FLS]Rusty> Not me. I'm already going.
<[FLS]Rhaegar> ..
<[FLS]Kenosuna> I can go as you
<[FLS]Rhaegar> <Illionore> How big is the chance that 'something' goes wrong in the department of financing/management, leading to a traumatizing situation as in Vanguard?
<[FLS]Rusty> Sorry, this is a long answer.
<[FLS]Rusty> Very, very small chance.
<[FLS]Rev> Everything will be fine as long as we're lucky at the tables during FanFaire.
<[FLS]Rusty> The reason is that we’ve been very responsible for how we’ve developed this project. Instead of throwing a big team on it at the beginning, and blowing through a lot of money while we figured out what the game is...
<[FLS]Rusty> we went with a very small team prototyping the game until we were happy with it, and then we brought the big production team on. We started with 6, and now we’re at 71.
<[FLS]Rusty> So instead of showing up hugely in debt, with staggering bills, we’re in pretty good shape.
<[FLS]Rusty> We can keep the whole team going with a very, very reasonable number of subscribers, though we think we’re going to do a lot better than that!
<[FLS]Squidd> Our financial team had a proven track record of making a profit while in Vegas
<[FLS]Rhaegar> ..
<[FLS]Rhaegar> <Staker> i have seen that loads of custom content like flags and sails have been added lately but how will FLS implement this into the game and give rights to the person who has made these designs?
<[FLS]isildur> When you make a flag, and we accept it, it's attached to your account -- both your forum account and your game account.
<[FLS]isildur> There are merchants in-game who will sell you any of the flags you've created.
<[FLS]isildur> Once you buy one, you can do whatever you like with it, including giving it out to other people and using it yourself.
<[FLS]isildur> The cost is pretty minor; it's mostly just there to keep people from flooding their inventory with 3289715498057 flags and sails.
<[FLS]isildur> This also applies to sail designs.
<[FLS]isildur> Every character on your account, on any server, has access to the same set of your flags and sails.
<[FLS]isildur> ... This is different for user-created ships, which become an 'official' part of the game, accessible to everyone through the economy.
<[FLS]Rhaegar> ..
<[FLS]Rhaegar> <adelecaelia> What safety guards do you have in place to help balance the economy and discourage activities such as gold farming?
<[FLS]isildur> The short answer is 'Big Brother Is Watching You.'
<[FLS]isildur> We have extensive logging tools. We can see what people are doing. So we're expecting to be able to identify both farming behavior and gold-selling behavior.
<[FLS]isildur> The economy is self-balancing, however; because everything is made by players, and bought by players, there's no way to make someone buy something they don't want. We have a lot of tuning control over it, but my expectation is that balance issues will resolve themselves. Still, we believe in being prepared for anything.
<[FLS]Rhaegar> <JamSoup> will there be a report system to report abusers/cheaters/bots to admins?
<[FLS]isildur> That's an easy one. Yes.
<[FLS]BrendanW> For Adels Q: DevCo is also currently in the process of adding and extending upon many of our existing logging tools, to allow us to drill down through logging data accross all the server clusters. As well as making sure that people are behaving we can use these tools to track aggregate stats and check if things are getting out of whack.
<[FLS]Rhaegar> ..
<[FLS]Rhaegar> <Scooder> It seems that there is quite a back log of beta invites compared to beta keys. For instance the booty island radio winners, and the different fan sites that have given them out... will they all be pushed out at the same time as the expansion to 10,000 happens?
<[fls]misha> We’ve slowed the invites while we prepared for the 10k build. Once we invite that chunk, we will be mostly caught up with Beta Keys again, I believe. And Beta key holders are only a tiny fraction of the 10k.
<[fls]misha> Recall, though, that if your system won’t run the game, you won’t get an invite even if you have a key. If someone applied their key ages ago and still hasn’t received an invite, that’s likely why.
<[fls]misha> Also note that this 10k chunk we’re inviting soon is the first of multiple large chunks we plan to invite between now and launch.
<[FLS]Rhaegar> ..
<[FLS]Rhaegar> <Yamen> You've recently claimed 1000 missions for each Nation, how many basic mission types are there? Will we be repeating the same style mission over and over?
<[FLS]Ivy> A good portion of our missions are made from ~20 core ideas/logic: you're escorting some ships, or you're fighting in a huge naval battle. We then go in and pick the details around that -- does the player get ambushed while he's escorting? Do reinforcements come in during the naval battle?
<[FLS]Ivy> After that we tailor the enemies and allies to fit exactly what we've written in the story. British warships against the local pirate gang, things like that. If it still doesn't feel right with the story, we change minor pieces of logic in the missions to make it match up with what you're reading.
<[FLS]Ivy> When we want to get fancy (and we find ourselves doing it a lot) we go for broke and handcraft a mission -- all new logic, all new enemies and friends.
<[FLS]Ivy> Sometimes making a mission like this takes a day -- I've done some that have taken me multiple days to get exactly the cinematic feel I wanted to evoke in that particular mission. And those labors of love are my favorites.
<[FLS]Timbojones> Expanding on misha's answer: if you've upgraded your computer, update your dxdiag on your beta app
<[FLS]Rhaegar> ..
<[FLS]Rhaegar> <Red-Shirt> Question: In most MMO's high level players tend to dominate the markets, being able to produce higher quality goods for cheeper prices meaning most newbies cant afford to sustain themselfs. Will potbs have measures to prevent the high levels having a monopoly on the markets?
<[FLS]Joe> The biggest think we've done to allow players of different levels is to not take level into account in any of the combat calculations.
<[FLS]Joe> You get more skills, so you have more options, but in general the power level of the skills tops out at about level 15.
<[FLS]Joe> What does get quite a bit more powerful are the ships, since obviously a 50 gun ship is going to do quite a bit more damage than a 6 gun schooner.
<[FLS]Joe> Because the ship you're using is such a big part of your capability, we take the minimum level of the ship into effect in the combat calculations.
<[FLS]Joe> Er, XP calculations, not combat calculations
<[FLS]Joe> A higher level player in a level 10 ship may or may not get XP for himself, but he will not prevent level groupmates from earning XP.
<[FLS]Joe> His high level skills will make the fight easier, but not a cake-walk like it would be if he were in his level-appropriate ship.
<[FLS]Joe> And I'm an idiot who just answered the wrong question.
<[FLS]isildur> But vaguely appropriate.
<[FLS]isildur> So: In terms of the economy, it's simply not possible to monopolize anything.
<[FLS]isildur> There are no restrictions on the number of producers who can use a resource, and there are no restrictions on the number of producers who can operate in a port.
<[FLS]isildur> What's more, everyone can make everything, regardless of level. So as a newbie, you can make the same goods that the experienced veteran can make. he's probably going to be more efficient, and have a bigger operation overall, but oak is oak, and when you're building a ship you need a LOT of oak.
<[FLS]isildur> If the market expands -- prices rise, and there's more currency in circulation -- that means that new players are getting more money for their goods right along with the experienced players.
<[FLS]isildur> There's no 'crafting trash' that you just dump onto a vendor when you're done making it. Every produced item is critical in some way to producing higher-end items.
<[FLS]isildur> The big advantage as a high-level producer? Transportation. High-level merchants get HUGE ships. And when you're dealing in thousands of tons of oak and iron, you need all the cargo capacity you can get.
<[FLS]Aether> So that’s it for today’s Developer Chat- thanks so much for taking time out of your busy day to sit and watch a bunch of crazy developers ramble on about a topic that we eat, sleep and breathe: Pirates of the Burning Sea.
<[FLS]Aether> I know not everyone’s question was answered here today, but we’ve only got so much time in a day to devote to events like this- so I’ll tell you what:
<[FLS]Aether> We will take the remaining unanswered questions, combine them together and find their respective answers to complete a special Devlog in the very near future.
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