It's not a bad game design, it's learning how to play it. Basically, don't board any ship until you have a partner to sail with and it's also wise to ask one of the larger members of your guild to help carry you across. This will help you two-fold. One to learn how to play Pirates and secondly, give you a power ballpark.
Look for guidance and assistance from the more experienced members of your guild, you will soon pick it up.
Forum Moderators are volunteers and are unable to fix in game problems
So you're saying that the game isn't playable at all for the person who just logs on and tries to play. That newcomer will be endlessly frustrated by pitfalls and traps that are set in the game that can only be handled by people with long experience.
That, my friend - and I speak from 37 years of experience playing and writing video games - is very poor game design. When learning to play means helplessly walking into land mines that are poorly marked and come with penalties far in excess of the misstep, you've created a game that - by sheer logic of game theory - encourages timid and trepedacious play. That's a terrible, terrible idea. It means I can no longer tell my friends "Let's try this!" because now I won't know what landmine I may be walking into and what insane penalty I'm about to be subjected to without warning or recourse.
Thank you for letting me know that this is exactly the game experience that you're striving to achieve. You've helped me quickly learn not waste my precious time with this horribly designed experience. Good luck with your future endeavors.
Posting Permissions
