In a devlog titled “Enter the Skirmish,” FLS Snap spilled the beans on the long-anticipated feature of Pirates of the Burning Sea. The response on the forums so far has been as positive as one would expect after a year of waiting and the small detail that it’s not going into the live game until the Milestone patch after next hasn’t been a buzzkill at all. However, I’ve said before that I’m skeptical about how good this is going to be for the game, for a few different reasons. The first and foremost being that I’m afraid the presence of risk-free options for group PvP will have a significant negative impact on existing PvP and RvR activity.

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This week, we revisit Garbad’s treatment of the ‘Prince’ First Rate Ship of the Line. This 100-gun lineship is the first ship of the line covered in the Ship of the Week column. It is a user-created ship modeled by Victariand and based upon a 17th century English First Rate ship of the line. The historical ship was 136 ft. long, 44 ft. wide, had a draught of 19 ft., an even 100 guns and was launched in 1670.

Few ships in PotBS get as much admiration as the Prince. In terms of sheer firepower, nothing can compare to it. As the largest, most expensive, and most powerful ships in the game, they are admired by all. People take notice when a Prince is in the battle (or even on the OS), and they are regularly the flagship of a wealthy nation or guild.

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Of the writing world, that is? Maybe, maybe not.

In the last few weeks, I’ve spent less and less time playing PotBS and more and more time looking for community resources and how I might be able to improve them. Of course, much as I’d like to say I’m just an all-around nice guy (I am!), I have my own motivations for this. MMORPG.com has been looking for what they call “Game Correspondents” for several MMO games that nobody else is spending a great deal of time on. These Game Correspondents aren’t employees so much as freelance writers; game enthusiasts with a passion for writing and who are willing to take the time to deliver relevant articles for the MMO gaming community at large. They are not paid by check, but they are compensated in the form of having an account subscription for the game they write about paid for by MMORPG.com. They already had one for EVE, but not for PotBS – until now.

Popularity: 10% [?]

After an extended break for New Year’s, the Defias Blog is back! And since it’s Friday, I’m also resuming the Garbad’s Ship of the Week column. Since I captured one of these a couple of weeks ago, this week we’re going to look at his take on the ‘Hercules’ Heavy Frigate (also known as HHerc, or simply HH).

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This week at The Defias Blog, Garbad_the_Weak discusses the ‘Mercy’ Naval Frigate, which is one of the Naval Officer’s class-specific MoV ships.

Popularity: 9% [?]