Battle Pirates on Facebook

Gaming on Facebook is expanding and improving on a level that is unprecedented on any other social network. It accounts for literally millions of dollars in revenue for facebook and the respective games developement teams. This articl will focus on one of those games, that is exclusive to facebook.

Developed by kixeye . The game Battle Pirates is an extensive gaming platform with virtually limitless opportunites to cause mayhem. The basic premis is simple. You are in control of a pirate base in the far distant future in which there are two factions fighting for dominion of the seas. As a pirate, you are part of the " Forsaken " which is a loose federation of individuals fighing for survival against the " Draconians " a federation of corporations and governments.

As the game progresses, you strive to develope and advance your base and fleets. This is accomplished by several methods.

• Mining- In this aspect. you send your fleets out to mine any of the four resources that are the games currency. Oil, Metal, Energy, and Zynthium, which is a rare mineral/metal.
• Refineries- All bases have these refineries that you have to build and upgrade. These refineries produce the four resources you need for upgrades. But these take a long time to build and store.
• Salvage- This is where you send your fleets out and find the Draconian ships, and capture them. In other words, a sea battle between your fleets and Draconian fleets.
• Bases- Attack other peoples bases for their resources.

So lets look at some of the basics. The entire game map consists of sectors. There are hundreds of sectors in the game map. Your fleet travel is limited to your own sector and the sector that directly connects to yours. Travel is not impeded except for the distance. Sometimes the travel time is a long time. Upwards of 30 minutes real time. So this can be a very time consuming game. There are a number of ship types in game play. Each type must be earned as you progress in level and upgrading. The ship types are in order of size and capabilities.

• Gunboat
• Skimmer
• Longboat
• Maurader
• Battle Barge
• Stalker Subs
• Leviathon
• Sea Wolf
• Predator Subs
• Floating Fortress
• Hammer Heads

Each boat size and type are allowed specific types of weopons and size of weapons. For example: Subs, gunboat,skimmer, and longboats may have torpedoes, bout all of the other ship classes are not allowedto have these. Weapon size varies drastically depending on the level of weapon. There are four levels for each weapon. Each one progresses in damage, cost, and weght. As each ship can only have a certain amount of weight.

Above is a video taken from www.youtube.com showing a base attack by a hammerhead fleet.

The video also gives an idea of what many bases look like and what is in them. The layout is entirely up to the player.

So give the game a try. It is addictive and fun. On a side note be aware of individual sector unwritten rules. An example is that in sector 344, the unwritten rule is no in sector hitting. What this means is that it is highly frowed upon to attack your neighbors in this sector. While in sector 343, everybody and everything is fair game. In the words of a high level player upon leaving the game play for the day.

" Happy Hunting "