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Every once in a while there is a game that comes around and I am drawn to it. Ever since I first heard of Pirates of the Burning Sea, I knew it was one of those special games. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to go back to the Age of Sail? When ships fought against storms, wars and diseases for king, country and treasure, though it all they fought. Now fans of C.S. Forester, Dudley Pope, Captain Frederick Marryat, and, dare we leave out, Patrick O'Brien can take to the seas of the Caribbean in this exciting new MMO from developer Flying Labs Software.

Several years ago I had my first opportunity to take a look at Pirates of the Burning Sea. Back then I was intrigued by an MMO that was not fantasy or sci-fi, but in fact drastically different from most of the games out on the market. Much has changed since I first glimpsed the game, and this year was no exception. I headed over to NVIDIA’s booth a bit early to take a look at the game before my appointment. I had an opportunity to take the game though its paces with the kind help of Art Director Bruce Sharp. Here I was able to check out the game's combat and shore systems. I was left stunned. While the game is not hyper accurate, it is still both accurate enough to please sailing fans but has made enough concessions that everyone will be happy. The ship combat is not only fun, it is well thought out and not overly complex either. I was able to quickly figure out what was going on and adjust. In addition, when I did finally loose I found that the consequences are neither harsh not overly punishing, I found myself sitting at the dock with only the loss of time and money (from lost cargos, etc..).

After a short time playing with the combat system producer John Tynes and community envoy Troy Hewitt showed up to answer any questions I might have. The first thing I asked was if I could see the ships they made for the Korean market before we got started. Turning back to the demo machine, a few command line codes were punched in and there before us in all its glory was the “Turtle”, a monstrous metal clad ship that was clearly of Asian origins. An impressive sight but before I can say anything, some one says to load the “Treasure Ship”. At that another command is being typed in and before my eyes rises a ship that dwarfs the 50 gun frigates around it. While not finished, and still unskinned, it was an impressive sight. Other then the hint from the name, I am unsure where such a massive ship could fit in, but it was impressive none the less. After seeing these massive ships I was curious if these would be seen at all in the US or if these were being made exclusively for an Asian audience. I was informed that while these ships might make an appearance as some future date they would not be in the US game.

Now being a huge naval history fan, I had to start with the question that had been plaguing me first and foremost... was wind and weather the bane and salvation of any sailor. Wind will shift and change, but it will be a controlled situation, and will most likely be part of a quest or scenario. Now that did get me wondering, would it be possible to be becalmed? Thankfully the answer was no. It was decided that there would always be a wind, and even when players get stuck going dead on in to the wind they will still have some forward momentum. I was happy to hear this as there would be nothing worse then sitting waiting for the wind to shift or getting trapped having to go directly in to the wind. While this has a place and makes for some great drama in Historical fiction, its not as fun in a game. Weather also came up and from the sounds of it its something they would like to implement, but would only be used for certain scenarios and missions where it would fit in and add something to the game.

As I mentioned earlier, the game its self takes place in the Caribbean, and as one would expect, pirates are one of the 4 factions that players can choose. Or they can choose to play as a member of one of three nationalities, the British, the Spanish and the Dutch. While players will be limited to some extent once they join a faction, they will have the option to spend some of there skill points on learning the other faction's languages to facilitate communication and foster alliances. This did bring me to the question of whether players would be able to form guilds across factions. I was informed that this was not the case and players will be restricted to there faction for guilds.

Now the game itself looks amazing and what makes it all that more remarkable is that it will run on a pretty limited system. The current specs are looking like a 128Mb FX card with about 512 Mb Ram should be able to run the game at launch, however they are talking about lowering the bottom end to support GeForce 4 cards. When asked why I was informed that in Asia most of Internet Cafй’s where players game run very low-end systems and, even at there current specs, they are finding that the game will not run on many systems over there. I did ask about laptop support since many of my friends now play on laptops exclusively and was formed they had actually bought a few laptops to run the game.

Loot has recently been added to the game and will come as a reward for completing quests and fighting battles. The loot rewards will take many forms but will include new cannons, cargo and even a variety of ammo types such as chain or bar shot. While it is not clear how this will be delivered, I was informed that when players found new loot they would be able to modify their ships on the fly in a way most players are used to dealing with character equipment. This brought me to the question of character vs. ships. Would the characters have any skills or would these be fully invested in the ships and equipment? The answer is that the characters will gain skills, but the ships would be what would be modified.

Now in its current play Flying Labs is limiting players to a maximum size ship of 50 guns. There will be special instances where they may reward players with special ships, up to and including 1st rate 104 gun ships. These ships will be one use and, if they are destroyed, will be lost for good so players are warned not to be careless in there use.

In addition we were also informed though it hasn’t been decided there is talk amongst the team about implementing a promotion system. Though no decision has been made as of yet, its something I hope they will decide to include as it will add flavor to the game and reward players for participation.

Last, but not least, I had to ask about crafting. The crafting system will be what many fans are hoping for, a complex system where by players will harvest commodities and in turn use these in the crafting of ships and equipment. For example, a player might own a cotton plantation. They could then sell the raw material or take that and turn it in to items such as sail cloth and clothes. I, for one, look forward to this system as described. Its complex enough to please even the most ardent crafter, but is simple enough that even a novice can figure it out.

At this time the game's release date is still unclear and hinges on whether they decide to include the games “Avatar Combat” system on release or if they will wait until after release to include this feature. One can only hope they decide carefully as I feel this will be an important system that can’t be either rushed into or hastily built. Judging by past experience, I can only believe that if they do choose to implement this feature they will take there time and insure that its done right and tested thoroughly, or at least that is the impression I have gotten of the team so far. Regardless of its release date, I will be waiting patiently to get my hands on the ships wheel and take to the sea in the hunt for the Pirates of the Burning Sea.