Pirates Are Over Powered...

[Charles Warmonk]

Before I begin, I would like to make it perfectly clear before I enrage a great deal of people who may already be typing out in the comments. "NO! NO! NO! Keep the game the exact same as it was I love it! NO CHANGES!" I am speaking in the distant and 'stable' future of the game. This is NOT a demand for an 'overhaul' of POTCO system trying to make it like other MMO's. No other system in any MMO's has reach such a level of perfect simplicity as I've found in POTCO and we all love how smoothly they have applied this aspect. (+1 to the Disney Team)

We all know by now that POTCO is a extremely easy in terms of combat system. (Ignoring the over-powered indestructible monkey) Also, I will acknowledge that the TLOPO team already has new ideas underway, such as the pending Isla Escondida as presented in the Blog Post. As they have no intention of repeating Disney's mistake of "We made the game, we're done. Have fun..."

So... what is this discussion about? I think we all need to consider CHANGES to be voted on within the community to make the game more enjoyable, and less 'mindless'. Just to start, 3 matters that I find most problematic in TLOPO in order and are as followed. Healing, Guns, and Grenades.

1.) Healing: Well, I think we can all agree only Foulberto Smasho can possible defeat you with a good SINGLE healer. Unless you are using "Explorer Doll" which in that case, you're unbeatable with a 3rd heal. With that being said, should healing be nerfed? I would say it should, as a pirate using a voodoo doll a majority of the time to help pirates level myself. I can tell you any 'famed' voodoo doll with a Heal +4 or higher can take a pirate from 100, to max (3,440 hp) in a single click. Cure is close to this only needed +3 to heal to max. So... what?

Possible solution? Decrease the healing & Increase Cool down.
-Maxed (5) Heal restores 30% of a maxed pirates hp (1,032)
-Maxed (5) Cure will heal the pirate for 50% of their max HP (1,720)
-I don't have to cool down numbers in front of me at this time.... but they should be increased by at least 25% on top of the base nerfs above.

2.) Guns: I'll be blunt on this one. It is stupidly over-powered and that is not even up for debate. Grand Blunderbuss can one shot everything besides bosses, and even they can only take about 3 punches from them. Yes, Blunderbuss' currently inactive AOE was not the problem, nor was the speed of the reload time. It was it's output in terms of DMG, a Grand Blunderbuss fully maxed should (In the aspect of looting level 45's) should only take out about 70% of their HP. Not one shot level 50 Thrall Captains on Tormenta with ease... Now, what causes this DMG? Take Aim. Take aim increases the output of your weapon by 200% at halfway charge, and 300%! At max charge. This scaling was absolutely unreasonable resulting in shots of up to 5,000-7,000 DMG using a Blunderbuss. Note: A level 50 Thrall Captain only has 4,750 HP.

Possible Solution? Lower Scaling DMG regarding Take Aim.
-New Scaling Halfway Charge 50% boost, fully charge 100% boost.
-Resulting in dmg with Grand Blunderbuss to roughly 2,000, to 3,000 dmg.

3.) Grenades. Grenades, it has a small ammo supply, and does negligible dmg to the user when thrown at your feet. Nether should be adjusted however, it has outstanding AOE (Area Of Effect) and does equivalent DMG to that of a fully Charged Blunderbuss. In rearguards to the AOE, it can reach to a maximize AOE to cover the entire gold room within Tormenta. This AOE is due to the skill Demolitions which increase the range of explosives by (If I recall) 50%. While its dmg comes from a sources outside of grenade skill that is found in a Cannon skill called Barrage that increases grenades DMG by 25%.

Possible Solution? Decrease AOE & Reduce DMG.
-Reduce the Demolition skill from Grenades to 25% (Just barely enough to hit all 4 enemies in Gold Room.
-Make Barrage strictly for cannon DMG, not Grenades.
This will result in grenades that you have to use skill in to aim, as well as not one shot everything, but two shot them.

 

[redscarelett]

Wise ideas. Its what I think young persons like, to be invisible. I don't like those weapons, its not A Pirates Life. They do fetch a good price in the market. So not exactly is me vote.

 

[Emilly Darkheart]

Not something I have even thought about...... when I was maxed on POTCO I spent more time helping others and just having fun. Never had the famed Grand Blunderbus or worried about my poor sweet dolly: and as for grenades, they were just great to play with, but I never really considered them as serious weapons. Give me a blade and I'm in heaven.
So, as far as I am concerned you make some great points, but their impact on my personal style of play is minimal whichever way it goes. Also, if someone doesn't like the fact that using something is too easy, just switch weapons!!!

 

[Charles Warmonk]

Not something I have even thought about...... when I was maxed on POTCO I spent more time helping others and just having fun. Never had the famed Grand Blunderbus or worried about my poor sweet dolly: and as for grenades, they were just great to play with, but I never really considered them as serious weapons. Give me a blade and I'm in heaven.
So, as far as I am concerned you make some great points, but their impact on my personal style of play is minimal whichever way it goes. Also, if someone doesn't like the fact that using something is too easy, just switch weapons!!!

I am speaking more in a competitive looting mindset. Being able to 'farm' enemies with such ease making looting/leveling to easy in my opinion. However, I respect how you enjoy the game and I am sure you are not the only one who does not over-think it like I do. ^_^

 

[Emilly Darkheart]

I am speaking more in a competitive looting mindset. Being able to 'farm' enemies with such ease making looting/leveling to easy in my opinion. However, I respect how you enjoy the game and I am sure you are not the only one who does not over-think it like I do. ^_^

Spoken like a true gentleman......... I also respect the way others play, and I believe that "our game" has the scope for so many different play styles and experiences.

 

[Christopher Cannonskull]

Before I begin, I would like to make it perfectly clear before I enrage a great deal of people who may already be typing out in the comments. "NO! NO! NO! Keep the game the exact same as it was I love it! NO CHANGES!" I am speaking in the distant and 'stable' future of the game. This is NOT a demand for an 'overhaul' of POTCO system trying to make it like other MMO's. No other system in any MMO's has reach such a level of perfect simplicity as I've found in POTCO and we all love how smoothly they have applied this aspect. (+1 to the Disney Team)

We all know by now that POTCO is a extremely easy in terms of combat system. (Ignoring the over-powered indestructible monkey) Also, I will acknowledge that the TLOPO team already has new ideas underway, such as the pending Isla Escondida as presented in the Blog Post. As they have no intention of repeating Disney's mistake of "We made the game, we're done. Have fun..."

So... what is this discussion about? I think we all need to consider CHANGES to be voted on within the community to make the game more enjoyable, and less 'mindless'. Just to start, 3 matters that I find most problematic in TLOPO in order and are as followed. Healing, Guns, and Grenades.

1.) Healing: Well, I think we can all agree only Foulberto Smasho can possible defeat you with a good SINGLE healer. Unless you are using "Explorer Doll" which in that case, you're unbeatable with a 3rd heal. With that being said, should healing be nerfed? I would say it should, as a pirate using a voodoo doll a majority of the time to help pirates level myself. I can tell you any 'famed' voodoo doll with a Heal +4 or higher can take a pirate from 100, to max (3,440 hp) in a single click. Cure is close to this only needed +3 to heal to max. So... what?

Possible solution? Decrease the healing & Increase Cool down.
-Maxed (5) Heal restores 30% of a maxed pirates hp (1,032)
-Maxed (5) Cure will heal the pirate for 50% of their max HP (1,720)
-I don't have to cool down numbers in front of me at this time.... but they should be increased by at least 25% on top of the base nerfs above.

2.) Guns: I'll be blunt on this one. It is stupidly over-powered and that is not even up for debate. Grand Blunderbuss can one shot everything besides bosses, and even they can only take about 3 punches from them. Yes, Blunderbuss' currently inactive AOE was not the problem, nor was the speed of the reload time. It was it's output in terms of DMG, a Grand Blunderbuss fully maxed should (In the aspect of looting level 45's) should only take out about 70% of their HP. Not one shot level 50 Thrall Captains on Tormenta with ease... Now, what causes this DMG? Take Aim. Take aim increases the output of your weapon by 200% at halfway charge, and 300%! At max charge. This scaling was absolutely unreasonable resulting in shots of up to 5,000-7,000 DMG using a Blunderbuss. Note: A level 50 Thrall Captain only has 4,750 HP.

Possible Solution? Lower Scaling DMG regarding Take Aim.
-New Scaling Halfway Charge 50% boost, fully charge 100% boost.
-Resulting in dmg with Grand Blunderbuss to roughly 2,000, to 3,000 dmg.

3.) Grenades. Grenades, it has a small ammo supply, and does negligible dmg to the user when thrown at your feet. Nether should be adjusted however, it has outstanding AOE (Area Of Effect) and does equivalent DMG to that of a fully Charged Blunderbuss. In rearguards to the AOE, it can reach to a maximize AOE to cover the entire gold room within Tormenta. This AOE is due to the skill Demolitions which increase the range of explosives by (If I recall) 50%. While its dmg comes from a sources outside of grenade skill that is found in a Cannon skill called Barrage that increases grenades DMG by 25%.

Possible Solution? Decrease AOE & Reduce DMG.
-Reduce the Demolition skill from Grenades to 25% (Just barely enough to hit all 4 enemies in Gold Room.
-Make Barrage strictly for cannon DMG, not Grenades.
This will result in grenades that you have to use skill in to aim, as well as not one shot everything, but two shot them.

I agree completely pirates are way to strong. But rather than nerfing them a lot id love to see enemies buffed up to match, although thatls just me, i play a lot of final fantasy I so like seeing a lot of big numbers . That aside guns and grenades are crazy OP regardless and should be looked at. Especially if you have a gun with crit like the war scatter-gun. I hit a 12k crit before the game closed against a fire bat and a 9k crit on a thrall captain, its honestly crazy

 

[Charles Warmonk]

I agree completely pirates are way to strong. But rather than nerfing them a lot id love to see enemies buffed up to match, although thatls just me, i play a lot of final fantasy I so like seeing a lot of big numbers . That aside guns and grenades are crazy OP regardless and should be looked at. Especially if you have a gun with crit like the war scatter-gun. I hit a 12k crit before the game closed against a fire bat and a 9k crit on a thrall captain, its honestly crazy

The problem you run into when just 'buffing the enemies' is under-powered skills are effected. Strong enemies make everything pirates do weaker, while just adjusting the over powered weapons does not effect the overall game to much.

 

[Christopher Cannonskull]

The problem you run into when just 'buffing the enemies' is under-powered skills are effected. Strong enemies make everything pirates do weaker, while just adjusting the over powered weapons does not effect the overall game to much.

Yeah realistically its not sustainable by just buffing enemies actual changes to pirates do need to be made as well. That being said i do hope we get more challenging enemies and more raidboss type enemies like Smasho but with an actual drop table and not just all of a certain class of weapon

 

[Irene]

I'll leave my 2 cents here too since I saw this through fb

I do like your ideas Charles and I do believe there's TONS of room for improvement. However you did state yourself and it is also known by most people playing the game that it is an overly simplified game and yes I will say it, primarily marketed for kids. It was never Disney's intentions when they were setting down the base game mechanics to have any sort of ''competitive looting gameplay' as you put it nor did they even try to in the future. Their main aim was for people to have fun doing whatever they want to do, not caring about what even AoE's are or Melee or Ranged damage, let alone percentages and actual combat damage that a weapon deals. I will even admit myself when I was playing the game very very young, and even after it got shut down, I never had even heard of all those things until later when I joined more evolved games.

Pirates was always supposed to be simple, for a good or bad reason it stayed this way and hence why it kept attracting the same audience over and over. Implementing more mechanics would either get messy or frustrating for most, who just want their game back as it always was.

P.S: I do support your suggestions but I don't think that some people in the community will take this the good way even if such change was implemented. It is a very casual, basic, and to be frank brainless game. You never need to think a lot to play it nor does it require any serious strategic decisions.

 

[Charles Warmonk]

Yeah realistically its not sustainable by just buffing enemies actual changes to pirates do need to be made as well. That being said i do hope we get more challenging enemies and more raidboss type enemies like Smasho but with an actual drop table and not just all of a certain class of weapon

Indeed, many altercations can be made within TLOPO to make the game much more balanced and over all enjoyable in my opinion. As I do love getting threads like this going and getting as much awareness to the staff with the communities input as much as possible. Which is why I am trying to make it a habit to make threads such as this one.
In terms of your comment on raid bosses and loot drops regarding them. I love the idea of raid bosses in TLOPO however, in the state the game is set up now it would simply be a blunderbuss barrage with unbeatable heals. As far as loot limited loot drops go.... that is a topic for another thread.

 

[Charles Warmonk]

I'll leave my 2 cents here too since I saw this through fb

I do like your ideas Charles and I do believe there's TONS of room for improvement. However you did state yourself and it is also known by most people playing the game that it is an overly simplified game and yes I will say it, primarily marketed for kids. It was never Disney's intentions when they were setting down the base game mechanics to have any sort of ''competitive looting gameplay' as you put it nor did they even try to in the future. Their main aim was for people to have fun doing whatever they want to do, not caring about what even AoE's are or Melee or Ranged damage, let alone percentages and actual combat damage that a weapon deals. I will even admit myself when I was playing the game very very young, and even after it got shut down, I never had even heard of all those things until later when I joined more evolved games.

Pirates was always supposed to be simple, for a good or bad reason it stayed this way and hence why it kept attracting the same audience over and over. Implementing more mechanics would either get messy or frustrating for most, who just want their game back as it always was.

P.S: I do support your suggestions but I don't think that some people in the community will take this the good way even if such change was implemented. It is a very casual, basic, and to be frank brainless game. You never need to think a lot to play it nor does it require any serious strategic decisions.

Agreed, this is why I'd love feedback from the community today. As most of us our no longer children. I would love to see some changes to at least a minor degree overtime to help the staff, as well as the community work together to make the game as enjoyable as possible. Unlike the connection the POTCO community had with Disney.... (None)

 

[Eric Sailcutter]

I agree that LVL 50 pirates are over powered but disagree with your solutions. I would much rather preserve the original weapons as is and introduce more powerful enemies for the high LVL players. It would be really cool to have some higher LVL enemies that have defenses against some of the best weapons, thus requiring more specialization in your inventory to defeat them.

 

[Charles Warmonk]

I agree that LVL 50 pirates are over powered but disagree with your solutions. I would much rather preserve the original weapons as is and introduce more powerful enemies for the high LVL players. It would be really cool to have some higher LVL enemies that have defenses against some of the best weapons, thus requiring more specialization in your inventory to defeat them.

The problem with this solution is you can still farm enemies in one shot without needing any skill. Therefore, looting will still be as easy and mindless as ever. Introducing a new batch of enemies may slow us pirates down slightly, but when we pull out a Skullbone repeater, Grand Blunderbuss, or Grenades.... what enemies can really stand before us alone?

 

[Bartholomew Bladespinner]

Yup the game is way to easy maybe the new island will have harder enemies there are ways to make the game more challenging

 

[Christopher Cannonskull]

The problem with this solution is you can still farm enemies in one shot without needing any skill. Therefore, looting will still be as easy and mindless as ever. Introducing a new batch of enemies may slow us pirates down slightly, but when we pull out a Skullbone repeater, Grand Blunderbuss, or Grenades.... what enemies can really stand before us alone?

Or they could add legitimate resistances finally. it would be great to see clothing items that give some form of resistance to certain types or damage and especially nice to see enemies that are resistant to certain types of damage some that are downright immune and some that take bonus damage from certain damage types

 

[jbasss]

change is constant.lets hope for a good time

 

[Charles Warmonk]

Or they could add legitimate resistances finally. it would be great to see clothing items that give some form of resistance to certain types or damage and especially nice to see enemies that are resistant to certain types of damage some that are downright immune and some that take bonus damage from certain damage types

This is an idea I want to go into depth with in the future. I've already made many statement and ideas before hand in my notes regarding POTCO. However, it will take time to organize and display my ideas with more clarity.

Such as....

However, this is a topic for another thread.

 

[Eric Sailcutter]

The problem with this solution is you can still farm enemies in one shot without needing any skill. Therefore, looting will still be as easy and mindless as ever. Introducing a new batch of enemies may slow us pirates down slightly, but when we pull out a Skullbone repeater, Grand Blunderbuss, or Grenades.... what enemies can really stand before us alone?

Yes, you would still be able to farm the current enemies, it was not my intention to stop that. Those enemies are still ideal for lower LVL players and should remain. My thought is to introduce higher LVL enemies for higher LVL players, would you want to farm scorpions in King's Run? Neither would you want to farm the South Idol or the Gold Room given tougher opportunities on Isle Escondida or in other existing locations.

 

[Charles Warmonk]

Yes, you would still be able to farm the current enemies, it was not my intention to stop that. Those enemies are still ideal for lower LVL players and should remain. My thought is to introduce higher LVL enemies for higher LVL players, would you want to farm scorpions in King's Run? Neither would you want to farm the South Idol or the Gold Room given tougher opportunities on Isle Escondida or in other existing locations.

Why would I fight red tag enemies that are harder. When I can fight red tag enemies that I can one shot, and drop the same loot?

 

[jbasss]

The problem with this solution is you can still farm enemies in one shot without needing any skill. Therefore, looting will still be as easy and mindless as ever. Introducing a new batch of enemies may slow us pirates down slightly, but when we pull out a Skullbone repeater, Grand Blunderbuss, or Grenades.... what enemies can really stand before us alone?

I agree bring em on!