It's international talk like a pirate day!

 

I'm thinking NPC pirates, both as hostiles out in the world and characters you can talk to or interact with. The game may have primitive firearms and pirates would fit very well with that!

 

You can even go further with the theme, imagine sailing a ship! Attacking or joining a pirate faction! Maybe a whole island or city of pirates and lawlessness ala Ultima's Buccaneer's Den? The possibilities are endless.

 

So, what say ye scurvy dogs?

Pirates can be great fun. You can go dozens of ways with it too. There was a comic I read a while back about Vampire Pirates (Sea of Red) - that was pretty entertaining.

This is kind of a dumb thing to have a poll about. This is a worldbuilding decision - it should be entirely up to Obsidian.

Sure, pirates...... tweaked pirates that are nothing like our stereotypical eyepatch leg-peg ARRRR pirates.

 

Maybe they're elves. Or fairies.

Yes, but not Disney's sort of pirates. Whenever I see pirates in games, they always seem to come with at a least hint of comedy. Pirates that are actually scary would be a great novelty.

 

But I'm a sucker for anything naval in my rpgs, and gunpower tech means awesome cannons.

Absolutely not.

Aye, I'm thinkin' I be likin' the idea o' pirates.

At least for the exotic diseases if nothing else. Plus, those blackened teeth are so fetching.

To be more serious, I'm definitely on board (har har) for the idea of pirates, or at least a wretched port town filled with human scum and literal scum alike.

Real pirates? Could make sense if the adventure crosses seas/oceans (lake pirates?). And if piracy makes any sense in that area.

 

http://www.cracked.c...-to-movies.html

I voted no, but honestly I don't care. We don't need to nitpick every design decision.

people who set sail in order to pillage maritime trade routes? that would be a given.

Yes, but only in random encounters.

Yes, serious pirates and not Disney pirates. They are basically sea-borne bandits. It's a valid point that this is the sort of thing that's certainly going to be thought of anyway without our help, but it's a pirate holiday after all ye filthy bilge rats! Pirates are fun! Arrrr!

If they fit in the story maybe. From the looks of the current map pirates may fit more in a future title but as it currently looks I don't think so.

Witcher 2's elven terrorist bandits would make excellent pirates in a different fantasy world. It speaks to the desire to not have stereotypical tree hugging fancy pants elves. Maybe this society of elves was driven out of their homes and victimized by a human nation and have taken up piracy and guerrilla war to get back at them. Pirates don't have to be a joke!

Voted yes but as usual I don't think "traditional" would be appropriate, no bloody eye patches and parrots please, give us hard faced desperate men who do what they must to survive.

If they fit in the story maybe. From the looks of the current map pirates may fit more in a future title but as it currently looks I don't think so.

 

Well along the coast, originating from an off-map non-visitable land or island. Or maybe the pirates are based in a cove on the mainland and are powerful enough to keep themselves from being conquered and driven off. They might sail along the coast raiding villages and such.

Yes, but not Disney's sort of pirates. Whenever I see pirates in games, they always seem to come with at a least hint of comedy. Pirates that are actually scary would be a great novelty.

 

But I'm a sucker for anything naval in my rpgs, and gunpower tech means awesome cannons.

Agreed.

If they fit in the story maybe. From the looks of the current map pirates may fit more in a future title but as it currently looks I don't think so.

 

Well along the coast, originating from an off-map non-visitable land or island. Or maybe the pirates are based in a cove on the mainland and are powerful enough to keep themselves from being conquered and driven off. They might sail along the coast raiding villages and such.

If that's the case then why wouldn't they be trying to form their own city and making their own civilization instead of continuing to be pirates if they have so much power. Also if no one can stop them then chances are there wouldn't be any villages by the coast or there would be massive harbors that they would have no chance against.

 

My problem isn't with them existing but the game doesn't look like it was designed with gameplay in large bodies of water in mind. I don't want something being forced in just because.

If they fit in the story maybe. From the looks of the current map pirates may fit more in a future title but as it currently looks I don't think so.

 

Well along the coast, originating from an off-map non-visitable land or island. Or maybe the pirates are based in a cove on the mainland and are powerful enough to keep themselves from being conquered and driven off. They might sail along the coast raiding villages and such.

If that's the case then why wouldn't they be trying to form their own city and making their own civilization instead of continuing to be pirates if they have so much power. Also if no one can stop them then chances are there wouldn't be any villages by the coast or there would be massive harbors that they would have no chance against.

 

My problem isn't with them existing but the game doesn't look like it was designed with gameplay in large bodies of water in mind. I don't want something being forced in just because.

 

That's quite possible, and while I like pirates I also don't want it shoehorned in if it doesn't fit with the world Obsidian is building.

 

This bit of concept art and the holiday today has got me thinking pirates.

 

Only if you can marry one.

I'd be fine with them as well as they were well-written and weren't stereotypical "yaar, maties" pirates. But it's worth noting that the map of the game they've shown so far doesn't look particularly well-suited to pirating. There's only a few islands and most of the named locations are inland. So if I had to hazard a guess... no pirates or very few.

Pirates? Yes - if it fits into the story... Arrrr

Edited September 20, 201213 yr by Elfwyn

You mean these pirates? Yeah sure!

Pirates - is a definite yes! But it has to be made serious, not Johnny Depp type of pirate.

Pirates aren't often done well. They're too much a caricature. Too little a meaningful social or professional category of note. Give me a seaman. Perhaps a privateer. Give me a man who thinks the way a sailor who has spent his life at sea thinks. But don't give me a pirate stereotype, based on a caricature of a small subset of sea raiders who existed for a short period in history, principally as Europeans operating in the Caribbean. That's not a grand category of history's warriors or adventurers. It's an odd little niche too much has been made of. Seamen, yes. Pirates, no.