04-12-2004 22:38									#61
	Lookey What I Found. Suffering from ads?

"When I bring this baby back to the shipwright man, he gonna have himself a heart-attack."

Attachment: ship.jpg
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	04-12-2004 22:57									#62
	Fortune, Empress Of The World Suffering from ads?

Too bad you can attache a .wav file & .jpg at the same time. Oh well sing along, and imagine the opera is actually playing when looking at this pic.

"O Fortune
like the moon
you are changeable,
ever waxing
and waning;
hateful life
first oppresses
and then soothes
as fancy takes it;
poverty
and power
it melts them like ice.

Fate--monstrous
and empty,
you whirling wheel,
you are malevolent,
well-being is in vain
and always fades to nothing,
shadowed
and veiled
you plague me too;
now through the game
I bring my bare back
to your villainy.

Attachment: new.jpg
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	04-12-2004 23:10									#63
	The End Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

Forced retirement.

Robby Krieger electric guitar intro.

"This is the end...Beautiful friend."
"This is the end...My only friend, the end..."

Attachment: retire.jpg
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Last edited by Muad'Dib on 04-12-2004 at 23:20

	04-12-2004 23:15									#64
	I'll get you next time Henry. Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations: Deluxe Edition

[Beethoven's 9th]

Attachment: tally.jpg
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	04-12-2004 23:25									#65
	Got spare money?

I bought Pirates yesterday and I've literally stayed up all night playing. I still haven't figured out how to block when sword fighting but I don't seem to need it a Journeymen level though navel warfare can be a bit tricky. The hardest part of the game for me so far has been the dancing but maybe it's just because I've been up for forty hours playing. Hopefully, it will get easier after I'm rested.

	05-12-2004 04:17									#66
	Holy Freakin Moley Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

Man did I have a rude awkening. There is a HUGE difference when you play Swashbuckler after say your 2nd division of plunder then if you are just starting out. I'm getting creamed so much that all I'm doing is constantly reloading. Yeah I eventually get the outcome I want but it is time consuming.
In my first game when I switched over to swashbuckler, I was starting my 3rd cruise. My ship was fully loaded. I had all the specialists for my crew. I had lots of special items to help with the various encounters (Dancing, Sword fighting, etc.), and I had high ranks to help with recruiting and ship repairs & upgrades. So for the rest of the game, at swashbuckler, it was a piece of cake.
Not so when you start out from the begining. Your ship (a sloop, if your playing the 1660 Era) moves like a garbage scow. Your crew is very small (you start with 40 men but recuiting with get less than 10) . Enemy ships rip you apart because they move faster than you and out gun you, so your only choice is to go for the boarding action, quickly, and hope your ship is still in one piece. Enemy captains are extremely tough & fast (even when they choose Cutlass & you choose Rapier). You have to finish off the captain quickly or your crew starts to dwindle, fast. When you do win, you find yourself sailing back to port to make repairs. And repairs are very costly even the upgrades. Then you recruit and if you came back too quickly there's no one to recruit. Take one ship next to a Spanish port and they send out a pirate-hunter that has a bigger, quicker, faster ship than you that is manned by a bigger crew than yours. Try to outrun him and he sinks any ships you captured in the navigation screen and also pounds away at you, so you find yourself once again limping back to port. Meanwhile, your crew looses morale because you just spent the first year at sea trying to eek-out an existence. You go from 100 (starting gold) to maybe a couple grand. Dancing is even tougher. You trying to dance as if your on Broadway--no slippers here to help. The moves are fast and intricate. If you reload to try again the music is even faster. I think it cycles through a series of tunes before it comes back to a more reasonable tune.
Buying treasure maps to the 9 Legendary Pirates cost you 600 for each piece of a 4 piece map. Not the 200 for the whole thing at the lower level. So here I am with 15 months at sea, my crew is content and I have less than 7k in gold. I have one specialist (a Gunner--thank god for him), I have 3 upgrades (Cotton sails, Bronze Cannon, and Fine-grain power). Reached the rank of Major for the Dutch & English. I'm in reach of a port that has Copper plating. And I got a kiss on the hand from a gov's daughter that leads me to a fugitive in a port near by that will lead to a 3k reward or a special item (tough decision to make--gold or item).
But I'm having fun getting my ass kicked.

	05-12-2004 04:31									#67
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations: Deluxe Edition

Yep, that Swashbuckler is defently tough... as mentioned before, the step from the second hardest level (don't remember the name) to Swashbuckler is a huge step... too huge I'd say... Right now I'm playing the second hardest level, and I haven't lost any battles (though dancing is still diffecult... might be because I don't spent much time with it... only danced a couple times since I started a new game)... As I played on Swashbuckler I only won 1/10 battles... I've got a better hand on fighting now, so I believe I might have a better chance next time I play on Swashbuckler...

A good thing about those treasure maps is, you don't always have to buy all 4 pieces... lots of the times you can find the treasure (or family if you want) with only 2-3 parts
Though sometimes the treasure can be hard to find. Yesterday the map pointed to a place (near Magerita IIRC) where I couldn't land by ship (when going towards the beach my ship just turned around instead of asking me to land), so the only way to get to that place was to land far away from where what can be seen on the treasure map and hope to find a way back to that place... but that was a little more diffecult than it sounds like, because one of the small towns was not in the same spot when walking than in navigation mode

	05-12-2004 04:57									#68
	Get a bigger avatar today!

Swashbuckler is the hardest? Thank goodness, I thought I'd just started to horribly suck! I'll immediately revert to Rogue and not feel bad about it one bit. My guess is that it's the ultra difficult level for the really seasoned guys, and clearly too much for your first game.

	06-12-2004 01:24									#69
	Got spare money?

Hmmm... It sure is nice that the captains of the other ships are planning their rute based on where I am, so I don't have to sail that far to catch them

	06-12-2004 01:59									#70
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

Whee! I've been playing a completely new game as Adventurer in the 1640s and having much more fun than as Rogue in the 60s. I've already nailed three high-ranking pirates, I'm getting a hang of the dancing and I have a Royal Sloop with all of the available upgrades that can kick some serious butt.

	06-12-2004 07:07									#71
	Increase Your PM Length

so you guys are still playing? What's the replayability of this game? How many hours have you all played so far?

I'm going to ask for this game as a christmas present. I just want to make sure first.

	06-12-2004 07:18									#72
	Remove this text

It's really open-ended and there's a heap of stuff to do. I haven't played more than maybe ten hours now, though, I've been too busy with other stuff, but I'm optimistic that I'll get tens of hours more out of the game. There's the lost cities quests, the relatives quests, avending the villains... my first game I played for about six seven hours but then I got bored of it because it was too hard on Swashbuckler and reverting to Adventurer or Rogue would take two years and I had made mistakes I could avoid the next time.

And i haven't even had a go at the sneaking minigame yet! I find it better to just attack hostile towns head on if I have business inside them, such as catching a criminal.

	06-12-2004 07:21									#73
	Remove this text

The game area is also so large it's scary. You have to plan out your voyages, because the wind directions shift season by season (I think) and it's easier to get from the east to the west in a given season with a given ship when the wind direction is right, to give an example.

Crossing over from the Caribbean down to South America is an exercise in itself, you have to stock up on food and when you're there you may end up in trouble if the Spanish are mad at you since there are few non-Spanish towns around. I just sacked Santa Marta and made it French, though. And I hear there are settlements accessible all the way up in Florida! (or at least the Dutch Rutter told me so)

	06-12-2004 07:43									#74
	Help yourself to an AD-FREE life

Is it worth playing? I got several weeks ago due to preorder but haven't opened the box yet.

	06-12-2004 07:56									#75
	Get a bigger avatar today!

if you already have it, what's to lose by playing it? It's not like you have to pay again.

	06-12-2004 08:58									#76
	Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

I dont know his reason but sometimes I go ahead and buy games but I simply don't have time IRL even to open the box. Like I got Deus Ex and KOTOR today but I find it doubtful that I'll be touching those until January at the earliest. I want to get Pirates too but I decided to wait to see if they will release updated version by the time I'm ready to play the game.

	06-12-2004 09:20									#77
	Lose 30 kilos (of popups)

I do this often

than I will play them a year later

Jon Miller

	06-12-2004 09:20									#78
	Put an end to popups!

I never buy a game until I'm ready to play it. Although it is possible I get this game as a christmas present. But I will still have almost a month on my Everquest2 account. So I most likely won't touch it until then.

	06-12-2004 16:13									#79
	Support Apolyton

I doubt I will play in in 2 weeks, since there's not that much to do and gets a bit repeative, since all you can do is: swordfight, attack city, dance, sneak, attack ships, treasure hunt...
Of course there's also this thing about finding your lost relatives, but it's basicly the same thing as searching for a treasure, except to find the map parts you have to attack the same guy 4 times to get the 4 parts of the map (for each family member)... but when you have the full map, it's just like treasure hunt...

And upgrades are not like most RPG's. The only way to "upgrade yourself" is by buying things (like swords, etc) and there's only ~8 different upgrades to your ship. Shortly after the game starts you'll probably run into some ship with many upgrades so you can do the last few upgrades yourself, or maybe you even run into a fully upgraded ship (in my current game it took about 15 minutes before I had a fully upgraded ship and about 30 minutes before I had a fully upgraded ship of my favorite ship-model

And as already mentioned several times: There's just too huge a step from the second hardest til the hardest level... when playing on the second hardest level you can't loose any battles (swordfight, ship-battle, land-battle*), unless you're VERY tired AND you're fighting the guy in the tavern (he's the toughest sword-fighter)
And if you're playing the hardest level, it's almost impossible to win swordfights (and you can't play the game without them)


*Unless it's really bad odds (like they have more than twice the number of soldiers than you)

	06-12-2004 16:17									#80
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

quote: Originally posted by Kassiopeia Crossing over from the Caribbean down to South America is an exercise in itself, you have to stock up on food and when you're there you may end up in trouble if the Spanish are mad at you since there are few non-Spanish towns around.

Not in my game... I've taken about 6-8 of their towns (from Magerita to the west) and made them some random nation... Now the Spanish has put 45,000 gold on my head

	06-12-2004 20:56									#81
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations

quote: Originally posted by Adagio unless you're VERY tired AND you're fighting the guy in the tavern (he's the toughest sword-fighter)

That's not true. I found the guy in the tavern to be one of the easiest. Since he has no crew members to pull up his advantage, you simply taunt him a couple times and he becomes slow as molasses. The toughest opponent for me is the guy from spanish military ships. Man, he's fast. Plus, I usually have about 40 guys against his 140, and so my men get slaughtered in a hurry, so in addition to being fast in the first place, he gains advantage from my men dying, and I get slower because of that.

quote: Originally posted by Adagio Now the Spanish has put 45,000 gold on my head

My highest yet was 48K, and I was just on my way to take a wealthy city from the Spanish to make this even higher, when out of nowhere Blackbeard's ship came out, he yelled something about me being a worthless treasure stealer, and attacked. Of course, I defeated him, but that made the damn Spanish very happy with me, and they took off all price on my head, and I became a Spanish captain, instead.

	06-12-2004 21:40									#82
	Suffering from ads?

quote: Originally posted by vovan That's not true. I found the guy in the tavern to be one of the easiest. Since he has no crew members to pull up his advantage, you simply taunt him a couple times and he becomes slow as molasses. The toughest opponent for me is the guy from spanish military ships. Man, he's fast. Plus, I usually have about 40 guys against his 140, and so my men get slaughtered in a hurry, so in addition to being fast in the first place, he gains advantage from my men dying, and I get slower because of that.

For me all those I've battled on a ship has all been awfully slow... and in my battles I always has the same or more men than they do, so it's usually the other way around where I didn't get to finish the fight because he didn't have more men left...
The one at the tavern is the fastest enemy I've seen for now... not fast enough to be me though...

quote: Originally posted by vovan My highest yet was 48K, and I was just on my way to take a wealthy city from the Spanish to make this even higher, when out of nowhere Blackbeard's ship came out, he yelled something about me being a worthless treasure stealer, and attacked. Of course, I defeated him, but that made the damn Spanish very happy with me, and they took off all price on my head, and I became a Spanish captain, instead.

Same here... I was at ~45k, but then I kinda beat Blackbeard and now it's down to 25k

	07-12-2004 03:31									#83
	Tips & Comments Support Apolyton, buy Call to Power 2

Some More Important Tips:

Daughters & Dancing

1) Make sure you successfully dance (hand kiss or dip) with an attractive daughter you first time because they give you special items--if your struggling to win swordfights, this will help you provided the choice of gifts she's offering are items that will help you with fencing (Puffy shirt, Silk Fencing shirt, Balanced sword, Perfectly Balanced Rapier, One-shot pistol, Brace of pistols, Leather vest, & Metal cuirass). Plain daughters also give gifts but you have to get the dip.

2) Once you rescued your 1st beautiful daughter from the Evil Colonel Mendoza and return her to her father, you get a piece of the the Lost Cities map. Furthermore, any beautiful daughter that you dip after the rescue, will also give you a piece of the Lost Cities map. Note: You only get to dance non-wife beautiful daughter twice (1st meeting & once before she'd kidnapped).

3) As stated in my previous posts, marry a beautiful daughter and you get to dance with her every time you return. Every time you dip the wife, you get a piece of the Lost Cities map.

Hostile Ports

Ports won't let you in or merchant won't trade, get yourself a disguise.
False Mustache--will work if port is only mildly negative towards you.
Theatrical disguise--will work no matter how hostile a port is.


Comments

Try dueling the fiance at swashbuckler if you want a very tough opponent.

Doing something positive--defeating Indians or Pirates, sinking/capturing enemy shiping, sacking enemy towns/ports, successful escort missions or capturing fugitives will lower the bounty on your head to the point where you can start earning promotions again or having privileges restored.

Last edited by Muad'Dib on 07-12-2004 at 03:52

	07-12-2004 03:35									#84
	Remove this text

Pfft. The evil Marquis was at my knees as I had wrecked his excuse of a ship, Magdalen with my gorgeous Bloody Delight, but even when the ship had stricken its colours I had to swordfight him. I should have shot the final decisive salvo and sunken him with his ship!

	07-12-2004 20:35									#85
	Dancing with Wife correction: Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

You will not get a piece of any Lost Cities map if you dip your wife until you defeat Montalban at his hideout. If you haven't defeat him there and you dip your wife, she'll give you a clue to his whereabouts. After you defeat him at the hideout, only then will your wife give you a piece of the map when you dip her.

	07-12-2004 20:46									#86
	Help yourself to an AD-FREE life

Oh, interesting, well, need to sack him a few more times I suppose.

By the way, I just acquired a French Ship of the Line! It was my first transgression against the French in my second game, but they seemed to take it fine. So now I have a Ship of the Line in my arsenal. I need to try it out in battle and see if it can hold candle to my fully upgraded Royal Sloop - I fear the SotL has too big a profile and is too slow a turner for even the extra sturdy hull to compensate.

	07-12-2004 20:55									#87
	Inflate your Upload Space

How many soldiers does he have at his hideout? I'm just asking since it's a hell of place to be able to get enough pirates to, since there's so few cities there, and being at war with Spanish doesn't help (I assume his hideout is the same place in all games?)

	07-12-2004 21:03									#88
	Inflate your Upload Space

The pic above that I posted showing my Ship-of-Line came courtesy of the Dutch. Unfortunately, I didn't get to use it much since I captured it near my forced retirement. So you can say my pirate ended his career on a high note. Taking out the most powerful ship afloat. And yes, if the game thinks your too old or too sick after you divide plunder and try to start another cruise you'll get that other screenshot above that I posted.

	07-12-2004 21:20									#89
	The Battle at Montalban's Hideout: Help yourself to an AD-FREE life

It is never in the same spot. My 1st game he was near Campeche, the 2nd, he was near Gran Granada.

Forces Guarding His Hideout
He has 7-8 units of Natives which roughly put thats in the neighborhood of a little over 300 men. The 2 times I took him out, I had between 250-280 men I was outnumbered each time by 2 or 3 units. But they're easy to defeat. Postion your officers & pirates on highground in front of your buccaneers, and let them come to you. Your officers & pirates have a greater melee value than the Natives plus the bonus they get for Height & Morale will break them quickly. Don't use open terrain or jungles (Natives move through it like its open terrain), and they will defeat you because they get bonuses too, especially if they flank you.

	07-12-2004 21:52									#90
	Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

Thx... in my current game the hideout is as far to the west as possible (don't remember what towns are nearby)... so far I've only been able to attack with 80 (but I just retreated instead), because that place is very far away from places where I can get new recruits, and if I go too far away the pirates gets unhappy