Discussion Just going to post this here

[RomanSpartan]

I completely agree with this statement. I don’t think many here are being grateful of the fact that the staff, volunteers, brought back POTCO. They have brought many new features to the game, continue to bust their butts off fixing bugs and host events for the community. Not to mention they aren’t making ANY money whatsoever, and everything they put in is out of pocket. I think we should give staff members more respect towards the fact that they had the choice of of not bringing it back, yet they did. Even if there are problems in the game that won’t be fixed, at least we still have POTCO instead of nothing at all.

 

[RomanSpartan]

Oh wait I accidentally quoted my message instead of editing it

 

[Brown Beard]

These aren't my ideas, just thought I'd share this video. G-Man has a lot of good ideas and very good points about the status of the game. A PvP only server with increased loot rates with Guild's having friendly fire disabled, could make for some awesome SvS and island warfare. I definetly agree that small things like this could have a big impact on the game, and retain more of the community that once inhabited this game. Again, this is not my video.

 

[Bort Greasegorb]

Just gave the video a full watch. I think some of his ideas like global chat are really valid and definitely have more pro's than cons but what he missed is that a lot of his suggestions are going to get old and annoying fast. For instance, take the idea of stowing away being disabled and having to fight through SvS zones to get to other islands. That seems like it'd be fun at first, but by the 54th voyage, you'd just be thinking "God, I hope these people finally have some respect and let me just go where I wanna go." It'd end up encouraging more malicious play and I think that's the opposite of what he's intending.

 

[Fortune Burnrose]

The British philosopher and political economist, John Stuart Mill, once argued in On Liberty that a necessary condition for a just and prosperous society is complete freedom of personal opinion and expression. If speech is unrestricted, Mill argued, then public opinion will tend toward truth as individuals discuss and debate their opinions in a sort of "marketplace of ideas," because "wrong opinions and practices gradually yield to fact and argument: but facts and arguments, to produce any effect on the mind, must be brought before it."

This thread and these forums are why he was wrong.

LOL ok philosophy major . this idiot. ‍ How about you learn to code? Maybe pick a degree that'll actually land you a job and make money .

As for the state of TLOPO, like obviously its all luck right, LOL. Seriously, if you want legendary sord, you loot, EVERYONE knows that. Yalls needa lighten uppa bit too doe. I really be seeing a lot of drama on the forums and that aint cool man . like get along? Please. Clearly it is just a fact that thisgame is a remake and its in BETA. We all need to keep in mind that we are BETA TESTERS. I strongly suggest bringing back trading as the community has unanimously decided in favor of such thereof an implementation to the game which is trading. The TLOPO Devs have done AN AMAZING JOB resurrecting our beloved potco and yall should rlly be more thankful for them keep the game alive for this long especially since they've done it without a paycheck! But obviously looting has been bugged for a while and you can't actually get any legendaries right now or test the game as we're no longer in beta. If you really want to trade you can still trade as trading was never actually added to the game. Anyways, thanks everyone for listening to my ted talk .

Edit: OMG! Thanks for the gold kind stranger!

comments towards beggar are satirical and not flaming pls dont ban me

 

[Mal]

honestly i like a lot of these ideas. it would actually add a new perspective to guild rivalry and control along with trading whenever it's implemented

 

[JessieTT]

We are aware of the issue, and I am a vocal advocate in our discord for the importance of this being fixed ASAP. No player should log on and be instantly confused as to how the game functions, or where their quest objective is. They should not have to be forced onto a third party website (the wiki) just for basic game functionality. We also have ideas in the future for how to create a more detailed explanation on the games mechanics within the game itself.

Nice to hear it is being worked on.

This is actually an issue we have seriously tackled over the past months. I am not sure if you remember the horrible lag spikes the server would constantly go through just a few short months ago, but we have had developers constantly profiling the game while these lag issues pop up, and have made MANY updates over the past few months that have significantly reduced the frequency at which these occur. While it is still not perfect, we are committed to it, but I am personally very proud of the work a few of our developers have taken in combating this issue and lowering the latency of the game.

I do remember the horrible lag spikes. The in-game lag and connections issues are brought up because they have been here since the beginning of the game, and we seem to be going one step forward one step back, one connection or district reset is fixed, and more pop up. But I agree, and have seen that it is being worked on.

This is a tough issue, and I believe it was discussed in the video. With things like trading in the future, and other ideas we have yet to publicly talk about we hope to bring the different "sects" in closer interaction with each other, so that it is necessary to rely on all aspects on the game for further progression / collection of future items or in game features.

Time will tell with the release of these ideas. Lobbies was a good step, even if they are being rarely utilized right now.

This is worded a bit weird, so forgive me if I misunderstand, but if you mean the "lack of a player population", we obviously would like more players to enjoy the game, and hope that the content we are laying down right now (like I said in the response to Charles) helps us facilitate features players from all areas of the game will enjoy using / playing.

Lack of balance of population refers to there being vastly more of one group than another. 100 voices are louder than 10 voices. One group being disproportionately big increases the likelihood of less heard issues being addressed. This problem could be reduced with these hidden ideas that the team is working on that affect other sub-communities within the game, and even forcing players to explore other areas of play. Good to hear it is being worked on.

We always try and listen, and are here to talk with you guys (again, easiest to do when we get tagged, like for me personally I get a notification sent to me phone), but with anything we cannot instantly get out everything the player base wants, as much as we would love to.

That is fair enough.

We have only recently gotten the the point where we feel comfortable venturing into larger content features, which will hopefully add much needed functionality to the game. Up until a few months ago we where focused on getting the game as stable as possible, as well as performance wise. It is all steps, and while they may be slow, we do the best we can to get things out for everyone to enjoy.

Again, this is fair. The team have been working to get lobbies and the related features out, even if it deviates from the initial timeline.

Like I said to point 6, we are now venturing into larger features, which will hopefully facilitate all members of the community, giving them new ways to play and enjoy the game. We always appreciate the community events players put on together, and do our best to support them in whatever way we can, but at the end of the day content updates will be the best way from our end to keep players entertained and invested in the game.

Understandable.

Again, like I have responded to other points, we want to make features that encourage the community to interact will all different sections and aspects of this game.

Full release of lobbies will put this to the test.

I am always here to help with community events, I have done so with the ones I have been asked about, whether it goes to getting server messages out for the community svs events to make players aware of it, or being present at an event for moderation purposes like our in game graduation ceremony, if you reach out to us we will always do our best to facilitate these kinds of things.

So, if players request official backing for an event, does TLOPO do it, if the event is within reason?

I am not sure what specifically you are referring to, as this is rather vague, but if you mean our filter, it is a necessary evil. We uphold this games original E10+ rating, and that will never change. At the end of the day, this is a game made for players of all ages, and all it takes is a look at the club penguin community to see what happens when we do not have strict moderation policies / chat functionality in place.

Lack of a non-global chat, where you can converse with anyone on the game, having an ability to quickswitch chats with certain binds, perhaps a chat that is accessible when TLOPO staff are online where people can enquire about queries they may have etc.

I am not 100% sure, but I believe this was done in an attempt to stop connection issues from occurring as frequently, as it more evenly divides the resources our servers have.

I would appreciate if someone who handles that aspect of the development of the game, could clarify on why these servers were added. There will always be a server with hundreds online that demands more resources than others, so I don't see how adding more servers would divide enough resources that it would be worth it. (due to boss farming parties, and people going to the most populated server for more engagement)

 

[JessieTT]

I responded to this in point 1.

Fair enough.

I have responded to this in previous points.

Fair enough.

I responded to this in Charles post, but to respond specifically to you, we balanced the games weapons with the future game modes / expansions in mind, as well as to give different weapon types advantages / disadvantages in certain situations, unlike how it was before.

Time will tell how these balance changes take effect in the "future game modes / expansions."

This is a delicate issue, as we have a pretty hands off approach to guilds. But I do agree there should be some system in place for non-active guilds, or something to that effect.

Good to hear this is being looked at, or at the very least, an issue that is known.

I am not sure how this allows players to skip sailing content, but the captain has the option to kick any players they do not want on the ship, and that is up to them. It is possible that something may be implemented to help deter players from doing this.

It removes part of the exploration of the game on the high seas, as players can pay a (tiny) fee to go from one island to another. Half the life of a pirate is being on the seas, even if in the reality of the game, it is pointless for a lot of reasons.

Most of our patch notes are bug fixes, like I said to Charles, we are constantly looking to fix bugs when possible, but obviously some prove harder than others.

Fair enough.

We have heard this, and it is a consideration we have made.

This is good to hear.

We agree, and our future content will hopefully resolve this issue, and there is a possibility some short term solutions may be viable.

This is also good to hear.

They are still in the game.

I was not aware as I seldom see them. I will keep an eye out. Any word on Padres invasions?

We are trying to get leaderboards pushed out as soon as possible, and have them functional, it is more of a design aspect that is holding them up (from what I understand).

Fair enough.

This can be facilitated by our find a crew system in lobbies, which will allow players to look for crews to do quests.

This suffices for now.

Thanks for the response. This is what I was looking for.

 

[KlausTheWolf]

I really liked the 24/7 Muertos moon idea where you can pvp anywhere in the game + increased loot chances. I wasn't really fond of the ship friendly fire (global svs) as it could be very annoying when you're trying to sail to an island to loot and ships wont let you. I know this is what he intended but I feel like looting in a regular server will outweigh getting spawn camped.

 

[squintz]

The main story quest is indeed worthless and does nothing, as it is so long and tedious and gives you no rewards that really mean anything. The side quests are more beneficial.

I can understand that sentiment involving an experienced player perhaps re-pirating another alt. However, the quest is needed, beneficial and appropriate for actual new players as well as the multitudes of players that may actually enjoy that quest. The quests seems to be a full map game training for newer players. I don't think anything is added to a game to be worthless.

And the point of 'stow away' is another aspect included to give any level player "if they chose" to jump to another island because they feel like it. Or haven't the teleport token yet. What other players do with it is of no impact or concern of mine or my business. It was invaluable to me in the early days to actually complete many quests in a reasonable and enjoyable amount of time. Anything in a game that is a choice for a player to pick the way they want to advance and experience their game is NEVER worthless. An open multiplayer world not completely scripted seems to be the choice of many players from all the reading input, experiencing and discussing across the internet that I've accumulated. IMO.

 

[JessieTT]

I can understand that sentiment involving an experienced player perhaps re-pirating another alt. However, the quest is needed, beneficial and appropriate for actual new players as well as the multitudes of players that may actually enjoy that quest. The quests seems to be a full map game training for newer players. I don't think anything is added to a game to be worthless.

Why is the Black Pearl needed? you can clear all the content in the game without, except for the Black Pearl itself. The "benefits" are the leadership skill. I personally had 3 maxed ships before I even completed the Black Pearl, and most of my friends did too. It is only beneficial to an SvS player in a realistic scenario. The ship AI's are not advanced enough to warrant them being considered a challenge, and they can be one shot or two shot most of the time anyway, so you don't need faster cooldowns in that regard. The quest also does not explore all the islands / "map," and the training for newer players is the tutorial. That is why it exists.

A player may utilize stowaway to a degree where they may never really sail much at all and never experience the aspect of sailing fully (which further reinforces the point of leadership being worthless) Granted, the stowaway is a lesser problem, but I don't understand encouraging players to avoid a certain aspect of the game. I would say stowing away was a part of pirate life, but I would say sailing in general is a bigger part that gets dampened with stowing away.

 

[Tereysa de las Sombras]

I can understand that sentiment involving an experienced player perhaps re-pirating another alt. However, the quest is needed, beneficial and appropriate for actual new players as well as the multitudes of players that may actually enjoy that quest. The quests seems to be a full map game training for newer players. I don't think anything is added to a game to be worthless.

Alternatively, new players may see that the biggest story quest in the game is little more than endless fetch quests leading up to a Boss Battle, and be turned off by that and choose to leave. The quests don't scale either, so you're only going to get about 100 rep per task, so they're completely inefficient in terms of leveling. There's not even any rewards along the way such as weapons and clothing, like you'd see in other MMORPG games. It's a grind. A really, really painful grind. And it's the biggest "story quest" in the game.

 

[KlausTheWolf]

Alternatively, new players may see that the biggest story quest in the game is little more than endless fetch quests leading up to a Boss Battle, and be turned off by that and choose to leave. The quests don't scale either, so you're only going to get about 100 rep per task, so they're completely inefficient in terms of leveling. There's not even any rewards along the way such as weapons and clothing, like you'd see in other MMORPG games. It's a grind. A really, really painful grind. And it's the biggest "story quest" in the game.

From what I remember back in potco, if you started questing at lvl 1 and only do the black pearl story quest, you would be around lvl 27 by the time you finish which is 3 levels away from ravens. However, I agree that it's not rewarding enough. You get the same amount of reputation from both easy and difficult tasks. Not to mention how long it is in comparison to ravens. And even then, you still get a greater "payout" from ravens than the black pearl story quest.

 

[Tereysa de las Sombras]

From what I remember back in potco, if you started questing at lvl 1 and only do the black pearl story quest, you would be around lvl 27 by the time you finish which is 3 levels away from ravens. However, I agree that it's not rewarding enough. You get the same amount of reputation from both easy and difficult tasks. Not to mention how long it is in comparison to ravens. And even then, you still get a greater "payout" from ravens than the black pearl story quest.

You'd reach level 27 much faster by just leveling up your weapons and unlocking new ones, which can earn you more powerful equipment and flashier clothing. A lot of veteran players just forgo the story quest completely and go straight to looting and boarding ships for material runs because it will get them what they actually need and want. Raven's Cove is one of my favourite parts of the entire game, and I suspect the same is true for others. They'll want to get to it as fast as they can.

 

[squintz]

Why is the Black Pearl needed? you can clear all the content in the game without, except for the Black Pearl itself. The "benefits" are the leadership skill. I personally had 3 maxed ships before I even completed the Black Pearl, and most of my friends did too. It is only beneficial to an SvS player in a realistic scenario. The ship AI's are not advanced enough to warrant them being considered a challenge, and they can be one shot or two shot most of the time anyway, so you don't need faster cooldowns in that regard. The quest also does not explore all the islands / "map," and the training for newer players is the tutorial. That is why it exists.

A player may utilize stowaway to a degree where they may never really sail much at all and never experience the aspect of sailing fully (which further reinforces the point of leadership being worthless) Granted, the stowaway is a lesser problem, but I don't understand encouraging players to avoid a certain aspect of the game. I would say stowing away was a part of pirate life, but I would say sailing in general is a bigger part that gets dampened with stowing away.

Should the end game be more important than the journey along the way?

 

[JessieTT]

Should the end game be more important than the journey along the way?

Stowing away takes away part of that journey, and the Black Pearl is repetitive and monotonous, the only things varying being what you kill and where, what you sink and where.

EDIT: I also never stated the end-game should be more important.

 

[squintz]

You'd reach level 27 much faster by just leveling up your weapons and unlocking new ones, which can earn you more powerful equipment and flashier clothing. A lot of veteran players just forgo the story quest completely and go straight to looting and boarding ships for material runs because it will get them what they actually need and want. Raven's Cove is one of my favourite parts of the entire game, and I suspect the same is true for others. They'll want to get to it as fast as they can.

That is a correct observation about leveling up. And I'm grateful any quest including the Pearl is a player choice depending on their desire and mode of play. Tlopo thankfully keeps a scripted forced quest line to minimum, not locking one into too much of anything to acquire basic items in leveling. The very fact that one can omit the pearl and yet max out is a plus, not a negative.

One can play this game without a single fame or legendary or cursed actually. Not as fast and easy of course. But doable.
Seems that people in general who want fast and easy also tend to be the majority of ones that log complaints about issues that get in their way.
That's all I'm going to input about that.

The disney game was pretty much one dimensional and the Tlopo staff has been going in the right direction to make it more robust and multi dimensional with some meat on their own time. They may not be trying to be sea of thieves- which was bought out by microsoft, and might never be that polished. But Tlopo has it's own niche above many other indie's and is still afloat.<--pun intended.

Whatever the staff does is a plus. What you've touched on about role playing and love of lore and also I believe there is a large enough existing base to justify the staff to look at a separate ocean/server setup for role playing only, much like WOW/bliz and others do. I think the only way now in Tlopo is to do it through guilds? Or on your own, which of course is spoiled by anyone not in the grove.

But back on topic to the OP, I don't think Tlopo is dying, it's just moving moving moving along. At their own pace. And we get to ride along for free. How cool is that?

 

[Tahoe Wolf]

The Pearl quest was incorporated into the game from the beginning of Potco. Back before we hadship customization and buffed ships. The Black Pearl quest along with the weapons upgrade quests were intended as a way to help us level up our pirates as we progressed through the game. In the early days those weapons we got in the upgrade quests were the best in the game. we didn't have rare, famed and legendary weapons in drops. Back then when we were at bosses we were leveling rather than looting grinding on our weapons skills and notoriety. Most of us finished the pearl quest well before level 40 and many of us didn't have our weapons skills very well balanced with things like dagger and grenades often fairly low level compared to other skills by the did we finished the pearl quest and completed our boss battle. We leveled new alts much faster than those first pirates. Things like Cannon Defense, Fishing, Potions, and SVS didn't exist in the game back then and the object of the game centered around the Black Pearl quest and finishing up mastering your skills.

 

[Tereysa de las Sombras]

The Pearl quest was incorporated into the game from the beginning of Potco. Back before we hadship customization and buffed ships. The Black Pearl quest along with the weapons upgrade quests were intended as a way to help us level up our pirates as we progressed through the game. In the early days those weapons we got in the upgrade quests were the best in the game. we didn't have rare, famed and legendary weapons in drops. Back then when we were at bosses we were leveling rather than looting grinding on our weapons skills and notoriety. Most of us finished the pearl quest well before level 40 and many of us didn't have our weapons skills very well balanced with things like dagger and grenades often fairly low level compared to other skills by the did we finished the pearl quest and completed our boss battle. We leveled new alts much faster than those first pirates. Things like Cannon Defense, Fishing, Potions, and SVS didn't exist in the game back then and the object of the game centered around the Black Pearl quest and finishing up mastering your skills.

That may be true, but it shouldn't have gone this long without a revamp of some kind, of at least some major improvements. Hell, Jack Sparrow just says "Great Work!" at the end when you complete it. Then it just ends. Abruptly. That's the very last thing he says to you in the entire Black Pearl Story Quest. Quite an anticlimax after everything we went through to recover it. Small details like that are important. Why are EITC Mercenaries carrying cups of molasses on their person anyway?

 

[Tahoe Wolf]

Well keep in mind that when the game was created it was intended as a kids game. I don't think they ever expected the numbers of older teens and adult players that the game attracted. I suspect that towards the end of the Potco days the adult players probably outnumbered the kids. It was and is a fun game that attracted a group of very dedicated players. The go and fetch quest line probably didn't bother the kids that much. BTW I just now finished the Black Pearl quest for the first time since the old Potco days. I do like your idea of combining groups of quest tasks instead of having to do one task for 100 rep. each time.