AlanSHB eaten by Pirates!

[AlanSHB]

It's official. Pirates! has eaten me. Arr...

If you haven't played pirates, you're really missing out.

Some screenshots to whet your appetite.







This is a shot of the general sailing screen, You can see the active quests on the top left, clicking on one gets a summary of what to do, but don't feel obliged to do any of them. On the bottom left is the compass that shows where the wind is blowing from. And what direction is north. In this camera mode north is always straight up, but in the chase cam north moves about as you turn. There's a fully functional enviroment sim here--storms happen based on wind and moisture etc, but you don't have to dig into that if you don't want to. I've seen mods that make giant hurricanes, but I'm still having fun without them so I haven't installed any. The other things are pretty self explanatory.

Once you decide to attack someone your flagship does battle with them. The controls are fluid and take about 3 seconds to pick up. 4 turns left 6 turns right, 5 fires the guns, 7, 1, 3 select what to load the guns with and 9 changes the view. 8 is full speed ahead, and 2 is half speed. Although there is no Full stop position, you can face into the wind and get that effect if you really want it. (hint, boats that aren't moving tend to get sunk)

Here we are firing a full broadside at the English, and yes, we did in fact backstab them....





So that's the ship side of things. But that's not all. There's a full economic model here, you can buy low and sell high without any trouble, and since the game is open ended (presuming you bring home enough plunder to stay ahead of your crew's desire for gold on hand) you can do this indefinitely.

Other exciting bits--you can choose to ram an enemy ship if you don't want to fight it out with guns (or you don't want to damage a prize). In that case your crew and the enemy crew go hand to hand, while you fight a vicious duel with the enemy captain. The winner of the duel wins the combat and takes the other ship as a prize. Crew size discrepency and pirate age and skill with the sword are all neatly condensed to an advantage bar--which determines the relative speed of the two combatants. It's a very smooth abstraction method that makes the player's skill the test of whether you take the ship or not. You can take a ship with only 1 crew (although you'll have trouble sailing it) if you're an expert swordsman.




There's alot more than I can sum up going on here, you have 4 nations vying for control of the carribean, and you can gain rank with each, you can be an independent trader/pirate there's buried treasure maps to collect, fields to explore, new settlements to found, settlements to attack and install new governors in, etc etc etc.


Fair warning tho, Don't sit down to play if you have any other commitments later in the day, While no task takes more than a few minutes to complete, you'll find yourself continually saying just one more swordfight, ship sunk, treasure, I'll quit when I've sold these luxuries, raided that port, found my sister, hired a navigator, danced with the beautiful govenor's daughter......


It's seriously worse than moo in the where did my afternoon go department.

[Kylearan]

Hi,

It's official. Pirates! has eaten me. Arr...

If you haven't played pirates, you're really missing out.

Ah...Pirates...loved the original on the C64, one of the more original games back then. Good to hear they left the important game elements intact, like crew strength determining your sword fighting strength (and that it's still possible to take ships alone... ). Is attacking settlements still a combination of sea combat against the fortress cannons followed by a swordfight?

I wish my computer hardware could handle the game. Maybe I should fire up my emulator and play some original Pirates!...

*gets lost in nostalgia*

-Kylearan

EDIT: Oh, and happy birthday to you!

[AlanSHB]

Sea to land combat has been removed (due to poor AI probably) but you can bombard from sea (weakens defenses, pisses the landlubbers off) and then launch a land invasion. Note that some settlements have full military (including a navy) and will fire cannon when you sail too close if you've irritated the port or the port's rulers.

[Kandrathe]

I looked and determined that there is no demo, but alot of positive testimonials. I'll have to keep my eyes on the bargain bins at my local software shops.

Anyway, it looks infinitly more fun than Puzzle Pirates, the MMORPG.

[Sirian]

I looked and determined that there is no demo, but alot of positive testimonials. I'll have to keep my eyes on the bargain bins at my local software shops.

Could be a while. The sales are humming along nicely.

I'm getting ready to pick up my copy soon, at a regular price. Time has been flying. Hard to believe we're already in to the second month of 2005.


- Sirian

[Sirian]

OK, Pirates is fun.


So... Apparently I can handle Rogue level (next to highest) on Day Two.

If you are successful enough, you can bump up the difficulty level at points during the game without having to restart. I tried some Rogue difficulty from "bumped up" first char, but having found all the specialists and a lot of unique items on Adventurer (moderate difficulty), I figured I wasn't getting a clean picture.

I started over with Navigation specality, in 1640, for the Spanish (weakest faction). It started me with a 30-ton boat that, unimproved, could not do much of jack -- which was cool. I spent a year running around trading, unable to do anything else. (I tried, twice, to run some missions, but it was just not happening. Got beaten down, sunken, stranded, jailed, etc). Finally, with Copper Plating and Bronze Cannon (ship upgrades) -- and Splitting the Loot on a paltry nothing just to ditch the Mutinous first crew -- I was able to start taking some ships. Going along nicely now, and it's a healthy range of "challenge level" for me for the moment.

Wow, I can actually do that dance thing.


This report brought to you by Spanish Courier aboard the sloop "Needs No Sleep."

OMG. Here's a kooky idea: "Pirates SG" anybody?


- Sirian

[Griselda]

Heh, I have an unopened copy of Pirates here, due to lack of time. I suppose playing with others would help me make better use of the playing time I do have.

Plus, I miss the collaborative gaming experience.

[Sirian]

Well, a Pirates SG would be like a Civ SG: single play, in succession, reporting and discussing. It would probably be just as tough to jump in to an SG as your FIRST experience in the one as in the other.

Plus if you're short on time, I wouldn't want to pull your attention away from, ah, more urgent activities.

I suppose if we had a BUNCH of newbies wanting to try an SG, though, that something akin to Training Day could be arranged.


- Sirian

[Sirian]

You are looking at the winning move in my first battle with an arch-villain:



I'm afraid had some Bad News™ to deliver to him.

That was on Rogue level, the next-to-highest difficulty setting.


So apparently I'm ready to start over and bump it up to Swashbuckler level.





Arrrrrrrgh.


- Sirian

[Occhidiangela]

- Sirian

Way to Cross that T, me hearty, arr harr harr!

Did ye serve a double ration 'o grog after the victory?

Rogue