The game is set in the Caribbean in an anachronistic 1720 and combines tactical ship battles and swashbuckling combat with a player-driven economy and open-ended gameplay.
In the game, players can choose from four nations: Great Britain, Spain, France and the generically named 'Pirates'.
The different careers for nationals (British, Spanish, French) are: Players in Pirates of the Burning Sea can create up to six characters per server to represent themselves in the game.
As the player moves along in the game, the character will develop by gaining ranks (the equivalent of levels in other MMOs).
The player can thus unlock new features, such as fighting abilities, and, most importantly, will be able to captain larger and better ships.
After a player has chosen a nation, they can customize the looks of their character, selecting from a variety of costume pieces.
Swashbuckling[4][5] is the name given to avatar combat in Pirates of the Burning Sea.
As players complete certain PvE missions, kill NPCs near the port, or turn in items, they contribute "unrest points".
The new zone persists until it is quelled, or until one faction accumulates sufficient points to put the port into contention.
As it stands there are approximately 55 ships in the game, with the aim to add more over time.
This is especially important to freetraders (the more cargo the player can bring from one port to another, the more they will be able to earn on a single trip).
It accounts for the largest expenditure in the economy, it assures that players tread carefully in their expensive ships, and is, together with specific cargo items that are lost when a ship is sunk, the only 'death penalty' beyond lost time.
The 1.5 patch added an insurance system which refunds 90% of a ships construction value (not the actual price paid by the player) upon loss of all points of durability.
Most commonly, 11 different types of cannon shot is available, and this can be subdivided into 3 distinct categories:[7] One of the unique features of Pirates of the Burning Sea is the system in place for players to create and submit ships, sails (emblems) and flags.
If the ship, sail or flag passes a rather rigorous approval system, it is implemented into the game for anyone to use.
Some user created ships, sails and flags were in the game at launch, and further additions continue.
During the first few years of development, Flying Lab Software realized that this project required more attention than anticipated.
Gradually, not only have they more than doubled their staff, but have also put an MMO entitled Delta Green (based on the role-playing game of the same name), on hold.
The game was formerly subscription-based, but switched to a multi-tiered freemium model in November 2010.
[2] Over two hours of original swashbuckling music were composed for Pirates of the Burning Sea by Adam Gubman and Jeff Kurtenacker.
While many live musicians performed on the soundtrack, the majority of the music was composed digitally.
There are no copies left in circulation, but two full soundtrack albums are currently available for purchase on iTunes.
[13] Commonly cited positive aspects of the game include a player-driven economy, balanced classes and compelling PvP, while negative aspects include repetitive character vs. character (as opposed to ship vs. ship) fighting and a steep learning curve.