Flying Lab Software explains shutdown of select Pirates of the Burning Sea servers

Sometimes, even if you do your best, things don’t go according to plan. Case in point: Flying Lab Software had to shut down seven of the eleven Pirates of the Burning Sea servers. Company CEO Russell Williams talks about the lessons the developer learned in the full article, right after the jump.

Server merges may be sticky issues for some, but the fact is they happen whether people want them to or not. That was certainly the case with Pirates of the Burning Sea (PotBS) recently. Flying Lab Software decided to condense the game’s population by shutting down seven of the game’s eleven servers.

Fortunately, company CEO Russell Williams took the time to explain the developer’s move in a talk with Next Gen. Williams admitted that Flying Lab Software had erred with respect to a combination of factors:

• Server capacity: Williams said that Flying Lab Software had been too cautious in this regard. It turned out that the servers could handle significantly more than the developer had originally thought they could.
• Play Style: PotBS players had spent more time in choke points in the beta than in the live release.
• Game Systems: PotBS was designed to have organic, interdependent systems, meaning that the systems tended to feed into one another. A break in one system led to a break in others, which is exactly what happened.
• Player Time: Williams noted that player time was extremely high during the beta. This plateaued as time went on and people settled in.
• Spanish Launch: Simply put, it didn’t go well. Furthermore, Danish and Swedish players each outnumbered Spanish players two-to-one.
• Nation Balance: Flying Lab Software’s target concurrency range was set without sufficient regard for population imbalance. Bottlenecks didn’t really help, either.
• Miscellany: The developer opted not to wait until the last minute to do something about the problem, even if the move were to be perceived as a sign of weakness.

If there’s anything good that has come out of the experience, it’s that Flying Lab Software is wiser from the PotBS experience and is focusing on making the players happy. Come to think of it, perhaps this was Williams’ way of sharing the lessons with other MMORPG developers so that the latter won’t make the same mistakes that Flying Lab Software did.