This is in reference to Pirates of the Golden Seas – announcement post, product page
Is this an official set? No, we are not Wizkids and none of this is technically official.
What do I get when I buy the set? 28 ships, 4 forts, 16 named crew. 10% chance of getting a Super Rare.
What factions are in the set? Pirates, English, Spanish and Dutch.
Will there be additional sets? Other production methods are currently being explored, and more sets are likely to be produced.
Why are there no Cursed (or insert favorite faction here) in the set? The set takes inspiration from the first 3 sets of Pirates, and I didn’t want too much of a supernatural element. It takes me back to the “glory days” of the game. Also, there wasn’t room for a lot of factions due to the sheer volume of work and time involved in actually making the set.
Why was the crew artwork generated with AI? Primarily, to save time and money. I am not a company with the money to fund an art team, nor am I a professional artist, nor am I someone who is going to let people’s opinions on AI art stop me from going after my dream of restarting the game.
-I made sure to research AI image generators, and only use the most ethical one I could find (Adobe Firefly).
-If the crew artwork was human-made, there is a good chance that the set wouldn’t be out by now, and/or would be more (possibly much more) expensive.
-I did not want a set with no crew artwork, so I was willing to take the “hit” from the anti-AI-art crowd if it meant seeing my vision for the set through to completion.
Why are there no coins in the set? The idea is to have sets that are as compatible as possible with the original sets of the game, and making coins that have identical backs, sheens, and edge textures identical to the original styrene coins is not easy. In addition, most players of the game already have more than enough coins to use for the game, so it was not a focus of production given how time-consuming it was to make everything else. Future sets and/or products might include new coins.
Why is it not collectible? Collating random booster packs by hand would be difficult for an individual, and the production method of 3D printing (additive rather than subtractive manufacturing) is not conducive to cards that get pieces punched out of them.
Why do the cards have rarities if it’s not collectible? It’s generally best to design files that are compatible with the highest amount of production and distribution methods, so I went with that as a default mode from the start. This way if a collectible distribution model becomes more feasible, the card files would be ready to go without needing to overhaul anything.
Why isn’t the set balanced? Why are some game pieces overpowered or underpowered?
Since I did nearly everything to make this set come to life, there was only so much time for playtesting. Balancing a game that already has over a thousand game pieces is difficult. The sheer volume of playtesting required to make sure a new set is “balanced” at this point is enormous. In addition, having everything be perfectly costed/etc could arguably be bad for business. Players usually gravitate towards the best game pieces, so it could be in a company’s best interest to put out awesome, memorable game pieces that attract attention (and even negative attention from overpowered game pieces could be good for the game’s publicity).
I understand that not everyone will like the new things that I make for the game. Feel free to make your own perfect custom set that is balanced against everything and that everyone loves, with all human-made art.
My design philosophy: Make all game pieces usable, or at least interesting to play. This doesn’t mean they will appear usable to everyone. This means they will be usable to me – I change up my fleets often, I’ve played games in the thousands of points where almost all game pieces eventually become usable, and I’ve played the game nearly 600 times. As a result, my definition of usable is probably different than some other players.
I can’t please everyone. Sometimes it feels like I can’t please anyone. At that point, the default becomes just making stuff that I find fun, interesting, or awesome (preferably at 2 or more of those 3). If you don’t like the direction I’m taking the game, feel free to make, design, produce, market and sell your own set(s). 🙂
Bottom line: If there were more game pieces/factions/etc in the set, it probably wouldn’t be out by now, maybe not even at all in 2024. I believe one of the reasons that nobody has ever done this is because nobody has been willing to take the plunge and work on it full-time for an extended period. For a set to be released where one person does the vast majority or all of the work, extreme amounts of time must be invested. Negative aspects of the set needed to be accepted to even get the project off the ground. Certain things were left out just to make a release possible in the first place.
Relevant comment: “Whoever is leading the charge in FFXVII’s development will make whatever Final Fantasy game they want. People will buy it. Some of those people will love it, some will hate it. A lot will compare it to its predecessors. Either way, people will be disappointed and internet arguments will be an inevitability.”