Arr Matey! This Is A Thread About Sid Meir's Pirates!

Fyi, that exclamation mark after Pirates is part of the title. I downloaded the full version of this game a few weeks ago on that Bosnian site that Narck posted a link to. I would like to know what the best that anyone has done on it. What does it take to be a King's Advisor. What age should you retire at? And is having a lovely wife better than having a beautiful or attractive one? Btw, I was trying to rescue my father on the Cuban coast today (near Santiago) and I lost 3 of my 4 ships (including a Frigate ) when the stupid winds blew me into the reefs.

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[Imran Siddiqui]

Shouldn't this be in the Other Games Forum?

[ProvostB]

well, it's not civish, so it's off-topic; therefore i declare it stays in the off-topic forum.

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[Timexwatch]

God, that was a fun game. I think I have the Gold CD edition sitting somewhere.

Tips:

In the middle eras, If you are good, stick with one of those clippers or the gold ones (fast frigates?). My primary ship was often the little clipper, loaded to the gills with cannons and men. All you have to do is be fast with the mouse finger and either stay ahead or behind of bigger ships. I managed to capture many merchants and a respectable number of large warships using the tiny boat. Just don't get rammed or get nailed by a 30 cannon shot.

Also, avoid the Cuban/Dominican/Puerto Rican coasts unless you are wealthy and well equiped. I have been sunk, captured or mutinied against because merchant traffic, although sparse, is rich. If you are new, stick to the eastern part of the map, and raid British/Dutch/French settlements. Don't raid the towns or plunder them.

Never, ever get into a ship v. shore battery duel. You will likely lose. Besides, they are a pain in the ass.

Avoid the tactical combat unless you have overwhelming numbers. If you want to take a town, go for the small ones in the aforementioned Puerto Rico to Venezuela Chain. But if you have thosands of men, go for Havana, Cartegena or anything else in Cuba/Mexico or South America.

Don't bother with your family, it's not worth the time.

Maps are fine to buy if you have the cash. I've pulled large fortunes several times. They are worth it if your guy stays healthy.

If you marry, marry a governer's daughter. Avoid the Merchant's daughters unless they are from the rich towns. Governer's daughters can provide good intel on the treasure fleet or silver train.

If you manage to catch up to the treasure fleets, take them. The bounty is huge.

When in duels, go for the longsword or rapier. With the cutlass, youj just end up getting hurt more and retiring earlier.

BTW, I bet this thread will be moved.

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[This message has been edited by Timexwatch (edited February 22, 2000).]

[Kropotkin]

I've managed to become a kings Advisor (Duke) so i might be able to give you some tips.

* Don't run back to the governor to get a title as soon as you can in the beginning. Instead take your time and you'll get a lot more acres and that will help your EOG-score.

* Don't try to marrige a girl unless she's dating a duke or something like that. the other girls can be charmed into giving you info and that can be helpful.

* Do care about your family! (unless what Timewatch says) Don't run to the other side of the map for a relative but try to pass by them. they give you a map to a 100.000 goldpieces tresure and i think it's worth the problems.

*always attack forts from land if i't possible. you can often trick the groundtroops and some deaths is nothing compared to a damaged ship.

*Talking about men, try to get some of them killed before you divide up the plunder. I usually build up a large force and then strats to sack major spanish towns like Panama or Havanna. A expedition that ends with you about 20-30 sailors and a frigate is a succesfull one.

* Always attack the spanish and maybe one more country. Try to get titles from so many countries as possible.

* Never underestimate the possiblites with a small ship like tha sloop. You can easily sail around large and clumsy Galleons and turn it into a floating wreck. Just don't let 'em hit you...

* Move around on the map as it was a racetrack. Sail around the 'square' in the middle; antilles->mainland coast->panama area->jamaica->cubs->hispaniola->antilles... you want all the towns that you sack to turn rich again before you attack 'em a second time. make some expeditions to the other parts of the map too though. but not long ones.

[MichaeltheGreat]

I even used to take on a Galleon with a Pinnace, but one mistake and you better learn to swim.

Definitely go for the family members - if you are careful, and really good at reading the maps, you only need one map per treasure, so four family members = 400,000. I always go to get the treasure after refitting, when I have a small crew and can take the time to get it.

There's a flaw in the game mechanics, such that if you attack a huge base and fail, as long as you inflict major damage to the garrison, you still get a boost in reputation. If you've got 250-500 unhappy crew and a decent amount of money, hit one of the major cities - you can weaken the garrison, shed about 80% of your crew, and the remaining ones will be happier with their share of the plunder. The flaw in the game mechanics is that the plunder per man is factored higher than your habit of killing off 90% of your crews in wars of attrition.

After getting fairly well off, I make a point of repeatedly hitting Santiago, Havana, Cartagena and Panama - the plunder increases rapidly in each of those colonies - far more rapidly than the garrisons.

You can get a big boost to your reputation if you take a minor base like Leogane (sp?) with a huge force - the governor flees, and you can install one of your choice of nationality. I never attack more than two countries at once, and always wait until war justifies attacking someone other than the Spanish.

Occasionally, with pirate amnesties and wars, you can get titles from all four countries - I had one game where I was at least and Admiral from each power.

For swordfights, I always use the cutlass. None of that parrying, or dainty thrusts, either. Just HACK HACK HACK. Even outnumbered 2 or 3 to one, extreme agression towards those gutless fort commanders and ship captains will get them to surrender. I do mostly low slashes, for speed, with just occasional ones to mid or upper body.

For ships, I always ditch square riggers at the first port I can sell them. Barques are OK, especially early, but a force of 8 sloops can carry a lot of men and food. Later in the game, I pretty much ignore ships, and concentrate on hunting the Treasure Fleet, the Silver Train, and plundering colonies. If you have Barques or Sloops, you can lurk off of Havana at the time the Treasure Fleet sails, and pursue Galleons off the Cuban coast. Ditch the ship, since they sail into the wind so poorly and you've got shoals everywhere, but they carry a lot of cash. I once got five Galleons for over 115,000 pieces of gold, from one lucky run down the Cuban coast. They are so unwieldy into the wind that I didn't have any damage to my Barque, even after the five fights.

I usually retire by 36, but once retired at 30 as a King's Advisor.

IMO, Pirates! is the single greatest computer game of all time.
[This message has been edited by MichaeltheGreat (edited February 23, 2000).]

[Narck]

quote: Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui on 02-22-2000 08:06 PM Shouldn't this be in the Other Games Forum?

Of course it should

[Kuma no Tsume]

(sure it should be removed)

Where can I get this game?

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....He said: "What happened?"
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[Kropotkin]

quote: Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat on 02-23-2000 03:27 AM IMO, Pirates! is the single greatest computer game of all time.

Yeah, you can say that again!



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[Stefu]

Are you talking about Pirates! or Pirates! Gold? I like Pirates! A lot (If osmeone could mail me the copy protection Iäd be in ecstacy) but I have never learned to properly swordfight in Pirates! gold. Can someone tell me, basically, when you get down to it, how does it work?

[Bill3000]

Has anyone tried to Pirate Pirates?

[Ming]

Yes indeed, this thread should be in the other game forum. Now that it has had a chance to been seen, and the discussion has gotten strong, I can move it knowing that those that are interested might actually check out another forum here...

So, this is being moved. It will now appear as closed here, but will still be active in the "civ comparison/other games" forum.
To make it easier, here is the address of the main menu for that forum. http://apolyton.net/cgi-bin/ubb/foru...r=22&SUBMIT=Go

Have fun!
[This message has been edited by Ming (edited February 23, 2000).]

[Victor Galis]

PLease tell me where I can find the game.

Ditto. I've been looking for Pirates! for a long time.

[Qilue]

The install files for Pirates Gold are 8.5 mb zipped. Emailing is viable.

[Narck]

You can download Pirates! and Pirates! Gold from http://bhlegend.cjb.net

Be sure to choose the mirror (spaceports) to download the game from.

Off topic here, but i downloaded Master of Orion from that site. But i can't get it to run with out 1048k extended memory. First of all what the hell is extended memory and how do i get it?

Edit: i get the feeling the answer is obvious but how does one save in Pirates gold?
[This message has been edited by Lord Sigma (edited February 24, 2000).]

[Zkribbler]

"Pirates!" is indeed a great game. It's almost impossible to find now because it's not a Windows game, but an old fashioned DOS game.

BTW: No one mentioned the little trick of, when you're attacking a far superior land force, hide a large force in some woods and then dangle a small force in front of the enemy. When the enemy chases your small unit, you pull them back through your large force, which then ambushes the blindly charging enemy. The enemy doesn't catch on, so you can do it over and over.

Has anyone played "Cutthroat?" It looks a lot like "Pirates!" but I haven't tried it yet.

[Qilue]

Lord Sigma, there are a number of ways dos allocates ram beyond 1mb, expanded and extended being the most common with expanded being mostly obsolete.

I suggest reading this thread ->

http://apolyton.net/forums/Archives/...23-008600.html

There are instructions on how to setup a win9x system to boot to pure dos.

For saving in Pirates! Gold hit space when your in town, then point to your dresser and saved game menu pops up when you click on the dresser only works in town.
[This message has been edited by Sophanthro (edited February 25, 2000).]

Thats all... two more questions though.

When i engage another pirate, i am given a chance to guess which pirate it is. Then i'm thrown into battle and all my cannons are gone.... do you lose all cannons if you guess wrong?

And how the hell do i keep those mutinous bastards called crewmen happy? I plunder, i capture but they still mutiny!

[Qilue]

That question to guess the pirate is the ownership test. The flags are in the manual along with who's they are.

Montalban - A sword below a skull with two ribbons at the back with hair in the shape of roses.

Delgardo - Two figures holding hands with the one on the left normal person (military) holding his hand to his chest, the one on the right is a skeleton holding a spear.

Vasquez - Shows a person (military) with each foot on a skull with the letters ABH under the left and the letters AMH under the right and the figure is holding what looks like a dagger.

La Mancha - On the left is what appears to be a demon/devil with both arms up, the left appears to be holding a heart with the right holding a spear pointing towards a heart with three spots below that.

De Silva - Has three skulls in a row each with crossed bones below them

Fielding - Three images, left appears to be an hourglass with wings, centre is an arm holding a dagger, right is a skull on crossed bones.

Moodyford - A skull on crossed bones with a kind of triangle in the top right corner.

Holcroft - A skull above crossed bones.

Thatcher - A red (I think) skeleton.

Culliford - A profiled skull on the left looking right at a heart almost torn in half on the botton an a cresent moon on top.

Raynale - A skull on crossed bones above what appears to be two triangles touching by their apexes vertically.

De Coligny - A profile skull wearing a bandana with an earing and crossed bones below.

Le Crozat - A front facing skull with crossed swords below.

Galoise - a skull which appears to be facing down on top of a single bone.

Carriere - A skull with three single bones arranged next to it on the left, right and top with a sword below.

Vaan Ryhn - A left facing skull with a tricorn hat and a sword and bone crossed below.

Ruyters - A skull in the centre above a single bone with a heart to the right and a symbol (a circle above a triangle) to the left.

Tromper - An arm holding a sword which appears to be a scimiter.

De Vranck - On the left is a face above crossed bones and on the right is a naked person with a sword in his left arm and what appears to be an hourglass in his right.

De Graff - A simple skull with two bones on each side and a heart on top.

I hope these descroptions makes sense.

Keeping the crew happing is difficult, especially when you have a large one. Always sell cargo (food is exempt) at the first port you can and only keeping one ship helps prevent the scurvy dogs from making of with ye hard earned plunder.

If you want to know which flag belongs to which pirates grab pirates flags file at http://www.sidgames.com/pirates/Resources.cfm

Then replace the old pirates flags pictures with these flags, and when the pirates appear there name appears above the flag, it's pretty sweet.