In another impressively candid forum post reminiscent of early CCP Dev forum activity, Flying Lab Software CEO Russell “Rusty” Williams described how the FLS development team behind Pirates of the Burning Sea set their priorities.

In recent weeks, ever since the AvCom overhaul was announced, there has been a flood of joyous praise for this change which is seen by many as a giant leap in the right direction but there has also been a tremendous backlash from PotBS players who believe Flying Lab Software’s development budget dollars would be better spent on other features such as the in-game economy, the much-anticipated (by some :P) Skirmish system or oft-teased about Port Governance just to name a few. Every time a change is announced that doesn’t have to do with one of the problems (both real and perceived) that players tend to consider “more important,” the rabble-rousers come out on the official forums in force.

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Flying Lab Software’s Pirates of the Burning Sea is one of four MMORPG games nominated for 2008’s Most Innovative Feature Reader’s Choice award at MMORPG.com.

“When we first started hearing about Flying Lab Software’s Pirates of the Burning Sea, we all wondered how ship to ship combat would be handled. While many expected to see a slight variation on sci-fi ship to ship combat, the developers at Flying Lab had other ideas and wanted to better be able to simulate real nautical combat. The result? A combat system that we felt was innovative and interesting enough to earn the feature a spot on our 2008 nominees list.”

-Jon Wood
MMORPG.com

Congratulations FLS!

Also nominated was EVE-Online’s Council of Stellar Management.

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A devblog was released earlier that I wanted to share: Environment Revamp Revealed!

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it or not, but one of the only things I’ve disliked about Pirates of the Burning Sea thus far has been that there seem to only be five or six town models. If you’ve played World of Warcraft, you’ll remember how almost every city, town, village and settlement was unique. Things like farms tended to be re-used, and deserted towns where no NPCs other than mobs were around, but every real ‘place’ was different.

In PotBS, town models are recycled and re-recycled leaving only national capitals like Tortuga or Port Royal with rich, unique layout and architecture. While not game-breaking, this was annoying. Not to mention that it contributed to a sense that the game’s developers had left off some of the finishing touches, so to speak. But now, those finishing touches are being applied and the game is going to feel a lot more polished because of it!

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Actually, they’re calling it a ‘Vision Statement.’ But the end result is the same: a clear definition of what sort of game experience the Flying Lab Software developers intend to create with Pirates of the Burning Sea. This sort of thing is what we begged CCP to give us for MONTHS with regard to EVE-Online but which, to the best of my knowledge, they still refuse to do. But to be fair, it’s easy to understand why a company would hesitate to make such a declaration.

Things change, after all. Markets shift. What is popular today may be anathema tomorrow and when you’re dealing with such a remarkably fickle (yet remarkably loyal at the same time) consumer base as MMO gamers, the risk of alienating one group or another is dangerous indeed! But FLS has delivered.

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