Pirates of the Caribbean

Mahdimael · July 2, 2003, 11:27

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 · July 2, 2003, 13:47

How close is it to the original pirates by SM?

Mahdimael · July 2, 2003, 16:28

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 · July 2, 2003, 17:01

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

Mahdimael · July 2, 2003, 18:41

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 · July 4, 2003, 00:08

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 · July 4, 2003, 18:07

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 · July 7, 2003, 09:04

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 · July 7, 2003, 10:04

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 · July 7, 2003, 12:30

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 · July 8, 2003, 05:55

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 · July 8, 2003, 06:09

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

TheDarkside · July 8, 2003, 08:36

Quote:

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 · July 8, 2003, 09:47

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 · July 8, 2003, 10:25

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...

Mahdimael · July 8, 2003, 11:56

There are a number of bugs with the goods delivery missions. Some examples:

- You can't deliver the goods because they are contraband on the island you're supposed to deliver them to. No solution that I know of for this, yet

-The cargo is sailcloth, and if your sails get damaged, you use some to repair your sails. You can simply buy some sailcloth, in this instance, and the dialog will come back up.

Mahdimael · July 8, 2003, 11:58

Also- from www.gonegold.com

"If you want to try this, go to the 'Bethesda Softworks/Pirates Of The Caribbean/Program/Characters' directory. Make a copy of the file 'characters_init.' This is very important. If you don't have a backup and you change something by mistake that borks the game, you'll have to reinstall.

The characters_init file can be opened with Notepad. Go down approximately sixty lines in the file until you see the line 'makeref(ch,Characters[0]); //Blaze Devlin.' Now it gets fun. Here's an excerpt of the code:

ch.name = "Nathaniel";
ch.lastname = "Hawk";
ch.skill.Leadership = "1";
ch.skill.Fencing = "1";
ch.skill.Sailing = "1";
ch.skill.Accuracy = "1";
ch.skill.Cannons = "1";
ch.skill.Grappling = "1";
ch.skill.Repair = "1";
ch.skill.Defence = "1";
ch.skill.Commerce = "1";
ch.skill.Sneak = "1";
ch.skill.freeskill = 2;
ch.perks.freepoints = 1;
ch.money = "1000";
ch.Ship.Type = SHIP_LUGGER_ENGLAND;

This isn't all the code--I've lifted the items (per Tre's instructions) that you might be most interested in changing. If you'd like to be called by your own name in the game instead of 'Nathaniel Hawk,' change the first and last name of your character. The next set of entries refer to your initial skill ratings when starting the game. As I said Friday, your character is ridiculously weak at the start of the game. Set all of the skill ratings to 3 and it makes your starting character much more usable.

'ch.skill.freeskill' refers to the extra skill points the game gives you when you start a new game (that you can assign as you wish), and 'ch.perks.freepoints' refers to extra ability points. Abilities are special skills that are digital in nature--you either have them or you don't. I gave myself three ability points and spent them on increased ship speed, increased cannon volley range, and increased boarding skill. If you look through the abilities, some are just too powerful (there's a boarding ability where angle of attack and speed no longer matter, which unbalances ship to ship combat if you use it), so you have to be careful which ones you pick.

Finally, you can change the amount of money you start with as well as your default ship. I'm fine with the Lugger, but if you want an easy upgrade you can see how to do it by the lines surrounding the ship type entry (which are not included here for space reasons). Again, make a backup copy of the file before you try any of this. I've changed my initial skill ratings successfully, so I know it works, but if you start fiddling around with something and assigning extreme values it might not work. That's why you have a backup."

TheDarkside · July 8, 2003, 12:03

Quote:

Originally posted by Mahdimael
There are a number of bugs with the goods delivery missions. Some examples:

- You can't deliver the goods because they are contraband on the island you're supposed to deliver them to. No solution that I know of for this, yet

This is handled by two methods:

Normally, when you want to smuggle goods, you can never do business with the shopkeeper. You must go to the tavern and there is usually a "Smuggler" sitting at a table. You probably have seen him before... and when you try to chat with him the only option is "You can't help me at this time" or something along those lines. However, when you are carrying smuggled goods, you can tell him you have something to sell, and then he will tell you a location to meet up. You sail to this location, mett them, and sell the goods. Soon after a group of guards come and you fight them (unless you have awesome luck and dont get caught). Then when you try to sail away you get waylayed by ships who want to stop you. All that is the normal life of a smuggler.

The alternative, is to pick the ability "Trusty Lad"- it's the third from bottom of list. This allows you to sell contraband items directly to shopkeeper, but at normal price. When you sell to a smuggler you make HUGE profit.

Mahdimael · July 8, 2003, 13:45

Interesting...though I wonder how that works in the whole context of the actual shipping mission- I guess it must, since there are merchants that want to be escorted to the smuggler's cove, sometimes.

Adagio · July 8, 2003, 15:51

Quote:

Originally posted by TheDarkside
(...) You sail to this location, mett them, and sell the goods. Soon after a group of guards come and you fight them (unless you have awesome luck and dont get caught). Then when you try to sail away you get waylayed by ships who want to stop you. All that is the normal life of a smuggler.

Guards come along? Haven't experinced this yet... but I have also only done this one time...

Mahdimael · July 9, 2003, 03:17

Yep, just tried it. It looks like I'll need the "Trusty Lad" skill to complete the goods mission. If I sell them to the smugglers, it counts as a failure.

child of Thor · July 12, 2003, 08:07

well i've read some worring things about the xbox version. Apparantly it's less stable than the PC version and has a rather crippling save game bug, where the save file gets corrupt and you loose your game!!! It doesn't happen often, but the fact that it has been reported can't bode well. Damn this is a shame, they should have made sure it was MORE stable than the PC version, not less

ravagon · September 2, 2003, 05:24

Erm ... bump.

The only reason being that this has just come out here and I was kinda wondering how much alike it was to Morrrowind, what with it being developed by the same people and all ... ?

Can you run around doing anything you wish, edit in new quests, islands, 500 000 polygon dragons, etc?