Pirates of the Caribbean

[Mahdimael]

I just got this game yesterday. It looks fantastic, but the minimum comp. reqs are really high. Lots of fun, too. If you ever played Sea Dogs, this is the natural extension of it. Lots more to do, much more intuitive. I'm loving it right now, even if I suck at melee combat

[Spaced Cowboy]

How close is it to the original pirates by SM?

[Mahdimael]

The original was pretty close, albeit in a 3d world. This one expands on it- you can trade, storm forts and so forth, get new ships, upgrade your cannons, get personal items (swords, pistols). You actually gain experience levels which translate into skills. In melee combat, you have a one-shot pistol that does lots of damage if it hits.

Just about the only thing I haven't seen is the random side quests and treasure maps. Other than that, it's pretty close, and the ship-to-ship combat can be set to be more realistic or more arcadey.

So far, my only gripe is the controls. The game was released for the Xbox as well, and the control scheme seems like it was patched in from the console. It's not terrible, but it's not intuitive, either

[Spaced Cowboy]

So with a limited entertainment dollar, should I get this or wait for SM's new rendition of Pirates?

[Mahdimael]

Well, if you can wait, you can actually see something about Pirates! There's been no details so far, from what I can see

[Edan]

I got the game, too. Control scheme is pretty bad (left mouse button to move forward, right to move back ?!) although you can reassign some of them to other keys. The game itself is good and fun, although not as good as it could have been, IMO. Also, I'm only a little above the min sys requirements (900 mhz instead of 800, and 256mb instead of 128) and the game plays very smoothly even at the highest resolution and with details on.

(It also comes with a voucher to watch the movie. )

[child of Thor]

My Xbox needs this kinda game - it's looking very nice so far, all the better for being a game in it's own right as opposed to a dodgy film licence(hmmm some recent ones spring to mind ).
Where's my eye patch gone?what have i done with my trusty eye glass? damn i'll have to grow my beard again!

[Adagio]

I just got this game, and I must say, it's great fun

Though I still suck at sea battles... I have only won those sea battles two times...

[TheDarkside]

Well I've been playing the game for over 30 hours now and I must say, I like Sea Dogs ALOT better. Sure, the combat is still great, since it's the same as Sea Dogs, but the melee combat is a nightmare and boarding ships is a stress fest. My character is very strong and I can beat just about anybody in melee, but the problem is when I board ships there are now alot of people to fight, and my officers are always horrendous! I recently hired a quartermaster with awesome melee skills- he had just about every melee ability like defense, advanced defense, critical hit, gunner, professional gunner... his equipment far surpasses anyhting I can purchase, yet he sucks at fighting opponents during boarding! But the worst part about boarding is that the number of opponents you fight has nothing to do with the crew numbers, contrary to what the manual states. Time and time again, I'll board ships with a 4 to 1 ratio of crewmembers and when the scene loads there's 4 of their crewmembers vs. 4 of mine. If I manage to beat those 4, I have to enter another deck and fight an ADDITIONAL 4 guys, even though I might have lost some guys already, or they are badly injured. It's extremely frustrating because the most fun I had in Sea Dogs was boarding ships but it's virtually impossible to do it now. Maybe if they at least allowed you to save game anytime you wanted I could deal with reloading a bunch of times to redo a fight, but as it is now I would have to reload from before the whole encounter! I'll have to find another ship and try to board it all over again. I am only left with hope that Firaxis dosent screw up Pirates!

[Mahdimael]

I've played quite a bit, now, and here are some tips:

- The first missions you should undertake are escort and (later) cargo missions. You can get these by talking to the barkeep and store owner respectively by talking to them about "business". In each, you either take goods or escort a ship to another port, which is simple enough if you don't run into pirates or bad weather, and the missions can net 1000-5000 gold. This is a great way to build up some cash and experience

-When boarding, move backwards into a corner. Enemies won't be able to hit you from behind or from the ramp. You need massive melee skills, it seems, to even win in even odds. Find a ruby at one of the stores or market stands, it will help your weapon's damage.

-It seems like when you go into a battle on the minimap, your orientation stays the same from the minimap to the actual battle, so plan accordingly.

-Prey on pirates that are fighting ships from other countries. If you get the last shot on a pirate before he sinks, you get the experience.

-Purchase the superior spyglass in Redmond from the shop keeper. It shows more info than the normal glass, including how many men are aboard the enemy ship.

-Cannons are cheaper and reload faster, but don't shoot as far as carronades.

-More melee: Use the "z" key to dodge your enemies' attacks. This is much more effective than blocking, in many cases. Run away in this manner if fighting more than one opponent.

[child of Thor]

I don't mind if the game is tuff, i like a good challange
are you all playing the PC version? I hope the xbox version is play tested enough before they release it

Nice tips

[Adagio]

Yes, it's the PC version I've got...

[TheDarkside]

Originally posted by child of Thor
I don't mind if the game is tuff, i like a good challange
are you all playing the PC version? I hope the xbox version is play tested enough before they release it

Nice tips

Well I found 2 bugs so far. 1 is a serious crashbug which occured twice so far. I loaded a game saved on the 3d overland map screen, and on a particular date the game would crash to desktop. Everytime I reloaded that game, I could sail around, go to a town, engage in battle, but whenever that specific date came up again the game would crash. Had to restart from a earlier saved game in order to avoid it. Sent akella my save game but so far no reply.

The other bug is a with a regular delivery mission I took. In every store in the game the shopkeeper may offer you a a job, to deliver some goods to another town. This is a great way to earn some money in the beginning. Well for one job I was asked to deliver to Douwesen. I go to Douwesen and routinely pick the dialogue sequence with the shopkeeper to complete the quest but the dialogue is missing! I'm suppoed to get an option to say "I have some goods to deliver to you" which completes your quest and gives you your pay but it dosent show up. I double checked my Quest log to assure myself I got the right town and the shopkeeper's name matches. So now I'm left with an uncompleteable quest but the big problem is now I cannot take up any more delivery quests while this is incomplete

[child of Thor]

That sounds very annoying TheDarkside, still all pc games released have bugs, at least you should get a patch soon I'm hope the xbox version is debugged better!

[Adagio]

I have also found a delivery bug...

I went to some shopkeeper on some island far away, and was asked to deliver some goods to Redmond, but as I looked at the quest, it said it was supposed to be delivered to that first town X-something, don't remember... but as I arrived at Redmond, I could deliver the goods, even though the quest told otherwise...

Might be the problem, you're having... try to deliver it to other islands...