Pirates! rules

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2004-12-10 02:48am

I remember and loved the original...

InnerBrat · Post by **InnerBrat** » 2004-12-10 05:38am

Oh yes. Best. Game. Ever.

I never ever buy computer games. The last thing I really bought was CivII, then I spent my entire GCSE year playing it.
But I did spend an entire summer once with Rob's Amega playing the original, now I bought the PC version last night.

Gods, I love it!

White Haven · Post by **White Haven** » 2004-12-14 10:10pm

...OW!

Alright, for starters, Large Frigates are endlessly sexy, although the Royal Sloop is a good second-stringer. I usually keep the LF as my flagship, as they're mindbogglingly hard to get after you divide plunder if you give it up, and sloops are a dime a dozen.

That said, there's a freaking HUGE difference in difficulty level between Rogue and Swashbuckler. Good lord, even at Rogue I was dusting the crap out of everything in sight. Went to Swashbuckler any any /named/ enemy can pretty much have his way with me in the duel, even in ship-to-ship. Gaah...I feel like I've been dialated with a nine-pounder. Time to divide and drop back to Rogue...

Post by **Vympel** » 2004-12-14 11:53pm

Really? I stayed at Adventurer when I had the choice to go up to Rogue because I was afraid it would get unmanageable, but I might put it up to Rogue the next time I divide if it's still alright. I've got a LF and an RS too as my fleet, though the RS is pretty much there just as backup and troop carrier.

As for named captains, so far I've knocked off 5 of the 9 top pirates (besides me, since I'm No. 1) in the Carribean- the top 5, pretty much. It's all the loser second stringers that are left. Though I really need to catch up on getting their buried treasure. I do still have to continually fight that Baron guy though ... hrm. Maybe swashbuckler isn't for me.

Damn I love sacking Wealthy Spanish towns .... I got 13800 gold out of ... Panama, I think it was.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2004-12-15 01:38am

While I'm a Pirates fan for way back, isn't it kinda sad that it sounds like exactly the same game that's already been released dozens of times before? Have they finally fixed the big Lame Points from the other iterations, like being able to have PROPER battles with more than one ship? Less lame mechanics on the 'sneak up on city = more money' thing? A fix for the 'hey, the captain just sends 400 of us to our deaths right before divvying up.... but HEY we got HEAPS of money, YEAH!' thing?

I guess I'm just asking if it ADDS or FIXES anything, or if its just the latest, prettiest Pirates incarnation, because I've played like a million of them already.

White Haven · Post by **White Haven** » 2004-12-15 02:32am

Yeah...the game's good, but shallow. Well...suffice to say it's a game about pirates, you know, murder-rape-pillage pirates...that /earned/ its E rating. Fun, but disappointing at the same time.

White Cat · Post by **White Cat** » 2004-12-17 07:33am

Stark wrote:While I'm a Pirates fan for way back, isn't it kinda sad that it sounds like exactly the same game that's already been released dozens of times before? Have they finally fixed the big Lame Points from the other iterations, like being able to have PROPER battles with more than one ship? Less lame mechanics on the 'sneak up on city = more money' thing?

How did you "sneak up on" cities in the previous Pirates games?

Post by **weemadando** » 2004-12-17 08:10am

Big questions
- how do I "force" and attack on a settlement or friendly town?
- can I marry more than once?

And is anyone else finding this strangely repetitive? I mean, being able to control the whole game from the numpad is cool, and the mechanics are slick, but - damn, I'm getting sick of doing the same thing time and time again.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2004-12-17 11:32pm

White Cat, each iteration has had different yet equally random methods. Originally I think it was a radius around the city you had to get through without being identified by other ships, some of the newer ones seem to be avoid ships, stay away from the coast, and reach the city within x time; the point is it doesn't fucking work and you can scream in without being spotted, conquer the city in five seconds, and the bastards have 'hidden' their gold, so you don't bother looking and just leave. Its lame.

The latest ones don't seem to have fencing either, so you can't cheat on combats and win at 10-1 odds by dint of l337 swordmastery (or, depending on the game, ludicrous hitpoints).

Lord of the Farce · Post by **Lord of the Farce** » 2004-12-18 12:22am

Stark wrote:The latest ones don't seem to have fencing either, so you can't cheat on combats and win at 10-1 odds by dint of l337 swordmastery (or, depending on the game, ludicrous hitpoints).

My 19 pirates vs 200 Spaniards. Sid Meier's Pirates! allows that... Although I would have loved to have fleet battles, but it is limited to your flagship vs 2 enemy ships at once.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2004-12-18 01:30am

The boarding battle model was so bad that I think you only really needed 9-10 guys to buy you enough time to kill the captain and force the 300+ enemy to surrender through the power of Greyskull. And the captains always went for you, no matter how ridiculously famous you were for winning battles like that. I've seen hundreds of guys surrender to me and 2 of my mates. Truly terrible.

It wouldn't even be hard to fix the Pirates format, but everyone who makes a knockoff is apparently a fan of the original and don't consider these aspects 'problems'.

White Haven · Post by **White Haven** » 2004-12-18 01:31am

Broadsides are too sexy to not be able to afford to use, dammit. I want to smash things, not run up and hop onto them!

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2004-12-18 02:27am

Tude I'm Errol Flynn or the Dread Pirate robberts, I am fucking god, the sword fights wins, was up there with ski-ing in terms of flaws that became fan favorites.

White Haven · Post by **White Haven** » 2004-12-18 11:39am

In a similar case as Pirates of the Carribean, I hold out hope for modding to add depth to the game. It's a good start...but feels like it needs to be either shareware, or about eight months away from release.

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2004-12-18 12:38pm

White Haven wrote:In a similar case as Pirates of the Carribean, I hold out hope for modding to add depth to the game. It's a good start...but feels like it needs to be either shareware, or about eight months away from release.

I think games have gotten to the point where large scale modding is more or less a thing of the past. I mean, there are only a few games in recent memory that have a large quantity of good fan-made material, Neverwinter Nights (designed for that and shipped with a toolset so easy to use that anyone could make modules), Morrowind (so I'm told, haven't seen the mods myself), Freedom Force (except that the best mods had to go underground and will likely never be finished because of Marvel's fucking Cease and Desist bullshit). All of those games have something in common, in that they shipped with great editors, and that the mods don't actually change gameplay or graphics much. Even with Half Life 1, most of the large scale modding projects never got finished, and they were mostly multiplayer. Compare to Quake 1, when I remember total and partial conversions coming out faster than I could play them all, many of which were amazingly good quality.

The mods I've heard about for Doom 3 will be mostly just collections of new maps (although Pathways into Darkness redux is pretty amazing), and I haven't heard about one solitary singleplayer mod for Half Life 2, let alone one with new graphics, weapons, etc.

So no, I don't expect to see mods for Pirates, and as it takes bigger and bigger teams and budgets to make games, I think we're going to see less and less mods as time goes on.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2004-12-18 03:40pm

Ahem, UT2K4 has enough Total Conversions to outmod anything.

Enigma · Post by **Enigma** » 2004-12-19 12:43am

Lord of the Farce wrote:
Stark wrote:The latest ones don't seem to have fencing either, so you can't cheat on combats and win at 10-1 odds by dint of l337 swordmastery (or, depending on the game, ludicrous hitpoints).
My 19 pirates vs 200 Spaniards. Sid Meier's Pirates! allows that... Although I would have loved to have fleet battles, but it is limited to your flagship vs 2 enemy ships at once.

Port Royale allows your ship against up to five of your opponents ships.