Fair Winds and Full Sails
By: Brian Randich
As many of you
have seen, Larry, aka the BP Professor, recently quit the game. He
was more recently known as a town hall member, a host, and one of the
mainstays of the Battle Pirates Crib show. Before that, he was known
for his blog. While it was not updated recently except for the
announcement of him quitting, the blog holds a wealth of information
and tips collected over the years. It had tips and builds for the
raids and what to get, explanations of mechanics (and the first
explanation of how vxp affected reload after it got changed to 75%),
and personal thoughts and ideas about the game and the direction it
was taking. It was a one-man TFC before TFC existed.
I don’t know
how I first found his blog. I think I googled “Battle Pirates
help” or something similar. The first memory I have of seeing an
article of his was the Riptide raid tips back in April 2014. As a
new-ish player who had no idea what to do, I started to learn from
what was out there. I liked the way he explained things, and it made
sense. I looked back through the archives and found his old
articles, and while some didn’t exactly have use at the time (old
raid tips/prizes), I learned quite a bit, and I started to form a
base of knowledge on this game and what to do going forward.
Here are a few
links I found to be helpful, or at least entertaining, along with a
brief description:
This is how I
learned to build ships. While a lot of ship-building changed with
hull classes, these ideas still hold true. Figure out what you want
a fleet to do, then build it to do that. It’s easier these days
with hull classes and weapons and specials given out with hulls.
This is how I
learned the equation to find a weapon’s actual reload, how much Kix
screwed up that math relating to reload, and how important rank
really is.
The professor
does not mess around.
Even though his
blog updates became further and further apart due to real life and
disillusionment with the game itself, the professor was a prominent
community member. With a mix of math, knowledge, and humor, his blog
was a great read, and he was someone I aspired to be like in the game
and on the shows.
