OFFICIAL Black Flag Online FAQ - By Jack Wildwrecker

Jack Wildwrecker

Jack Wildwrecker

Pirate
:flag1:Black Flag Online FAQ::flag1:

Ahoy! For those who have not met me, I am Jack Wildwrecker, lead developer of Black Flag Online!

I thought I'd answer some questions we've been asked frequently. If you have ANY questions you'd like to ask, please feel free to post them as a reply to this thread.

To the PiratesForums Staff:

I hope you don't mind me posting this here… If it's a problem, just let me know. :)


Q: Why doesn't BFO have a website?
A: The simple answer is we don't have the money. The long answer is, any money we currently have is straight from the developers' pocket, and we felt it was better to use what little money we have to develop BFO and show the game off, and show we can do this, before rushing to make a website.


Q: When will you have a website?
A: After the Kickstarter (assuming it is successful)​

Q: When will BFO release?​

A: When it's ready.

I know, not the answer you want to hear right? Hopefully sometime in early-mid 2015 (roughly). We aren't rushing to release, or setting any dates in stone. We don't want to let the quality or fun of the game suffer because we are rushing to release.

Q: Will BFO have a Alpha or Beta?
A: Yes! Alpha will probably be invite only. Beta will probably be open.

Q: When will BFO release a Kickstarter?​

A: Soon. We have some goals to complete before the Kickstarter.
1. Get the Facebook page to 200 or more likes.

2. Release the Port Royal Demo (Which will be a full, game ready island, minus the NPC's and certain other features)

3. Release a Multiplayer Test (This is already being worked on, along with the PR demo.)

After we complete these goals, we will release a Kickstarter.
​

Q: What are you working on now?
A: The Port Royal Demo.

Q: When will the PR demo release?
A: Hopefully this month, or next. Give or take.
​

Q: Will the PR demo be released for the public?
A: Yes, it will be available for download either sometime before the Kickstarter, or after we launch it.

Q: Wait, Multiplayer demo? Will it be public?! How long will this take?!
A: Whoa, slow down there. The Multiplayer Demo will only be a test, and video, to show off that multiplayer does in fact work, and we are capable of doing this.
It is currently being worked on, and should be finished shortly after or at the same time the PR demo is finished.

It will NOT be available to the public, since we don't have a website, servers, or databases to store accounts and keep everything secure.

Q: Why not just have a Kickstarter now?
A: We want to show we can do this, and show off some of BFO before we ask for donations. I mean, just being like "HERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO WORK, NOW GIVE US MONEY =D" would be insane wouldn't it?

Q: How much will you ask for on Kickstarter?
A: Well, not a insane amount of money. 5 to 10k would be perfect to get us everything we need. But we will be re-estimating the amount we will need in the future to get that number as low as possible.
​

Q: Is any of the BFO staff paid? Or will they be?
A: Currently none of the BFO staff is paid, and this won't be up for consideration until BFO is sustaining itself via optional in-game subscriptions.

We will not use any money from Kickstarter to pay ourselves in any way, shape, or form.

Q: How do I know you guys won't do what POTHS did and close and take the money?
A: Well, we're a different team. We're determined. And we can handle hate, pressure, and the headache.
We know it won't be fast, or simple, but we intend to see this through to the end, no matter how hard it is, or how long it takes.

We've also put our own money into BFO, and we've handled money in the past (the BFO team ran multiple minecraft servers). We're very open, and always try to let everyone know whats going on, and answer any questions.

We also hope to have a section on the website (when released) explaining where every dime of the money goes, so you know where the money is going.
​

Q: Who is the BFO Team? What's their story?
A: This, is a long answer, so skip it unless your interested.

First, who is the team.

Jack Wildwrecker (Myself) - Lead Developer
Skills: Web Development, PHP (still learning), HTML, CSS, JAVA/JAVASCRIPT, VERY BASIC PYTHON, BASIC CSharp (Still learning), Unity Terrain design, 3D Modeling.
Played POTCO: Yes (since 2008, not sure when exactly)

@Robert Calicomorgan (Chris, Awezomedude) - Developer
Skills: Unity Terrain design, 3D Modeling (Still learning), video editing, JAVA/Javascript, Basic CSharp (Still learning)
Played POTCO: Yes (Summer 2008)

Johnathan (Flabby) - Developer/Tester
Skills: Level Design, Creative Ideas, Graphic Design, Unity Terrain (learning)
Played POTCO: No

Ryan (Ginggy) - Tester
Skills: "I break stuff =D"
Played POTCO: No

Johnny - Advertiser/Videos
Skills: Video Editing
Played POTCO: Yes (Not sure when he started)
Second, Our story.

I (Jack) met Robert on the Test Server, after complaining about not liking the new islands. We ended up meeting up on the Live Server, he annoyed me for a few weeks, I deleted him. A couple months later, I saw a video of his on YouTube, and messaged him. We met up on POTCO again, and were friends ever since. We made POTCO videos together.
After a while, we moved off POTCO, and started playing Minecraft. He started a server, that later closed, and I opened my own server after that.

This is where we met Ryan and Johnathan. They were staff on the server, and more then proved their worth. We made multiple Minecraft servers (Some successful, some not) TitaniumCraft (Later X-Craft, our most popular server) Aeritha, EternalMC, and Population Countdown.

Robert had informed me POTCO and Toontown were closing, and we had begun playing again for the last few weeks they were online. By this time he and I knew a few code languages, and I decided to rip apart the Toontown launcher, with the intention of remaking the game with Panda3D. Before I got beyond checking some files out, ToonTown Rewritten was launched, (or I first heard of it at this point) and decided to try "Pirates Online Rewritten" myself.

I rebuilt part of Tortuga within Panda3D, while learning Python, but Panda3D frustrated me to much and I decided to drop it, and move to plugin development for Minecraft. A month or so later, I started a project with Robert and the X-Craft staff, whom I was still in contact with regularly, and we started something called TPP (The Pirate Project). It's intention was to create our own, multiplayer pirate-themed game for us to play and enjoy with friends.

When we told our friends, it picked up quite a bit of interest from them, and kind of spread. We started a blogger account to post updates, and decided we would release it publicly. We ran into issues with the sailing demo, and almost gave up, especially since we had purchased a MMO kit from the Unity store, ​
figuring it would speed up our work. It was a mistake, and the developer ended up abandoning the kit.

At this point we were discouraged, and unsure of what to do. We decided to keep going, since we still wanted to complete the game. We released a Facebook, and YouTube account, and we fixed the issues with the sailing demo/tests. We were then contacted by @JohnnyDaPirate , who advertised the game for us (Thank you Johnny) and it began to pick up more interest.

The rest is history, here we are. Phew! Told you this was a long answer.

Have another question? Feel free to ask anything, I won't bite :) :bang:
​

:pirate ship:


Edit:

Website was launched.
http://www.blackflagonline.com

​
 
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Well done, but I see an issue in the "Why doesn't BFO have a website?" answer. It's the developers' pocket not the developers pocket. I thought I might point that out to you.
 
@Jack Wildwrecker - I feel that it is "pretty cool" how you have provided pertinent background information about yourself (and others) describing also how the idea of BFO came to be.

- By yourself providing such info. to the community (without having to be 'asked' for it), this gives everyone a fair chance to judge BFO for what it remains at this point as well as what it possibly could be, without any misunderstanding. Nice job! ;)

Question: Has BFO ever considered the fact that by relying upon Kickstarter (further down the road), that those whom are under-age whom would like to support the game (but whom do not own a credit card), can do so via PayPal but that the way that Kickstarter is organized, such players will not be reimbursed if BFO's Kickstarter's goals are not achieved? Were you aware of this? :confused:

If BFO understands the demographics of those players whom had played POTCO, I would think that BFO would take into consideration also the various ages of all it's supporters to further gain the community's trust. Thank Ye ~
 
Shamus The Brute said:
@Jack Wildwrecker

Question: Has BFO ever considered the fact that by relying upon Kickstarter (further down the road), that those whom are under-age whom would like to support the game (but whom do not own a credit card), can do so via PayPal but that the way that Kickstarter is organized, such players will not be reimbursed if BFO's Kickstarter's goals are not achieved? Were you aware of this? :confused:

If BFO understands the demographics of those players whom had played POTCO, I would think that BFO would take into consideration also the various ages of all it's supporters to further gain the community's trust. Thank Ye ~
Click to expand...

The team has considered the demographic of players whom played POTCO, and may possibly play BFO.

I did some research into refunding on Kickstarter, and made sure everyone will get refunded if needed.

Kickstarts FAQ states:

When is my card charged?
If the project you’re backing is successfully funded, your card will be charged when the project reaches its funding deadline. If the project does not reach its funding goal, your card is never charged.

It also points out they do not support PayPal any longer (I think they did at one time):

Can I pledge with Paypal?
We support most major credit cards, but we do not support payment with Paypal at this time.

SOURCE:
https://www.kickstarter.com/help/faq/backer questions

It also states, that if the project is launched from within the US (Which it will be) backers will checkout via the Amazon checkout process, and I'm assuming Amazon would be able to issue refunds quite easily if needed.

I hope this answers your question.

If I may ask my own question,
I'd like to know your opinions on Kickstarter VS Indiegogo. We had initially planned to use Indiegogo when we first started talking about getting funding from supporters (mostly due to being able to keep the funds, even if the goal wasn't met, since anything helps us at this point), but we decided to go with KS seeing that the user base was much bigger, and feeling people would probably trust it more.

What are your thoughts on KS vs Indiegogo?
 
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Indiegogo, all the way (because they 'offer' the option of PayPal to the point to where those whom donate with it are REIMBURSED according to Indiegogo's terms of service, the last I read).

So to recap:
  • BFO could attract younger-aged players whom would like to donate but whom are "too young" to do so via credit card on either the Kickstarter or Indiegogo
  • Indiegogo offers (the last time I had checked) use of PayPal with an addition layer of protection of those whom donate with PayPal by assuring that they are reimbursed for any funds donated if project' goals are not realized
Here another question for BFO:

- Let's say that BFO struggles in slightly the same way that POTHS did. *Would BFO (out-of-the-blue) shut completely down without giving everyone fair notice of BFO's cancellation? Importantly, what remains BFO's (official) policy on those rewards/verbal agreements promised via the Kickstarter/Indiegogo if the gaming project is voluntarily cancelled by BFO itself? Will BFO stand by their word of such verbal agreements?

KIDS/TWEENS:

- Kids and tweens are not developed maturely enough to understand appropriately how to rebound from business/project disappointments. *Will BFO be responsible enough to proactively "protect" the emotional and mental transition of kids/tweens if BFO developers decided to ultimately cancel the project? :confused: (SPOILER ALERT: kids/tweens need a stable environment and at times, need someone older than them to 'look out' for their best interests).
 
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@Shamus The Brute
Man, you got some good questions. :)

The team has discussed this topic more then once, and we have strong feelings regarding any sort of cancellation of BFO.

To help prevent mistrust, and keep everyone fully informed about development and what is going on, we have a strict policy of openness with the community. If anyone has a question, we answer it. And we do our absolute best to let everyone fully know whats going on with the team and development (which I think one issue with POTHS was they were hiding a lot of what was happening behind the scenes, and the issues they were having).

In the (highly unlikely) event of a cancellation of BFO's development, we would certainly give fair warning, and (unlike POTHS) keep the website up some time after the announcement, and answer any and all questions asked.

We would do our absolute best to fulfill any rewards or agreements made, but obviously we could not fulfill and in-game rewards if the game is cancelled. Refunding the money would certainly be up for consideration, but if the money is spent we would have to really sit down and think about what to do to make it right.

More then likely, if we ran into a huge issue that for some reason caused us to consider cancellation, we would just put BFO on hold, or slow development, let the community know whats going on, and work on fixing whatever the issue is, so we can continue working on BFO. We are STRONGLY against any cancellation of BFO, especially if we have received money from people to help with development.
 
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Jack Wildwrecker said:
The team has discussed this topic more then once, and we have strong feelings regarding any sort of cancellation of BFO.

...Refunding the money would certainly be up for consideration, but if the money is spent we would have to really sit down and think about what to do to make it right.

More then likely, if we ran into a huge issue that for some reason caused us to consider cancellation, we would just put BFO on hold, or slow development, let the community know whats going on, and work on fixing whatever the issue is, so we can continue working on BFO. We are STRONGLY against any cancellation of BFO, especially if we have received money from people to help with development.
Click to expand...
You mates seem to be approaching BFO with a certain level of maturity and professionalism which is imperative (in my opinion) concerning any POTCO new game/emulator. The development of BFO itself, afterall, consists of the beginning phase of the evolution of an end product. Efforts to maintain and/or sustain it (within the long-run) require a great amount of fairness, devotion, and discipline...all which require integrity, maturity, and professionalism.

From what you state above, BFO seems to be forthright towards a focus which concerns itself with the well-being of the player and that - my friend - is the key I do believe. ;)

~ Thank ye for your willingness to answer such questions.
 
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