Addiction Ahoy!

[Grand_Admiral_Thrawn]

You know, I didn't think that I could get addicted to a swash-buckling, but I am. I've been playing Sid Meier's Pirates! for that past three days strait... ok, I took a six hour break to go to work, and I think I've slept four hours, but other than that, three days strait. What shocked me is that it's so simple! You can use your mouse and your arrow keys, or you can play the whole game with your Num Pad! Sail around, attack other ships, take them as prizes, sell the ship, it's cargo, press some of the crew, upgrade your ship, switch to a different ship, woo the daughters of local governors, earn promotions from four of the five factions (English, French, Dutch and Spanish), complete missions, search for treasure, raid cities, recruit sailors for your fleet (should you choose to amass one), defeat famous pirates to gain presige, and, if you really care about them, rescue your family that has been taken and sold into slavery by an evil Spanish Duke. What more could you want!?

I reccoment this game to anyone who enjoys a simple game (well, simple to play), and is into naval combat... ok, time to get back to the seas!

[BadSamaritan]

Three days=72 hours. Take away the six for work, and four for sleep, and you have 62. Thats dedication.

 

A former freind of mine has logged over 200 hours in the past two weeks on two games. Thats addiction.

[PHSYCOBOB]

Well, I was thinking of getting that game anyways.. now I know I'm getting it. =o)

[kaja]

I'm Aaddicted to Ratchet And Clank III, Yep All Hail my 547 Hours and 12 minuets of game play

 

P.S: Hey GAT to you go to the site http://armada2.filefront.com/ ? Becuse I think I've seen you there..., Thare was a guy named Grand Admiral Thrawn...

[Grand_Admiral_Thrawn]

Thrawn unhooks his sword, takes of his cocked hat, and sits down to type for a while.

 

No, that wasn't me. I was never a big fan of the Armada games. It seemed like alot of ship building, then just one big attack at the end, with very little combat in the middle. Maybe it has evolved somewhat with mods?

[Mad78]

I have to give that game a try... Once i get a new pc.

[kaja]

Do you go to any of the Filefront sites, On it GAT Was talking about ST Guys Vs. Vong.... Hmmn, I wonder.... Bah who cares, anyone who talks St Vs. SW is just plain stupid. I like both anyway.

[Grand_Admiral_Thrawn]

I totaly agree kaja. I was always a fan of the Next Generation, and I'm sort of fond of the new Enterprise show... that's if I could just be fond enough of it to pull myself away from my computer. ST vs. SW is sort of pointless since one focuses on reality and the other science fiction (byreality, I mean what we know can realistically be done [or can hope to do]). Wow, a bracket within a bracket.

[Guest JediIgor]

Yeah, this game is real fun.

 

Except you can take over the most powerful ships right from the start, just board them and battle against the noob captain.

 

So, let's see, you get some of the most powerful ships in the beginning of the game.. and then you can easily become super rich, until you find most of the artifact items.

 

Did I mention you can only use ONE ship during a battle? But the enemy can use all of their ships? Pretty lame.

 

Oh, and the battles are pretty weak IMHO, you [i[could[/i] destroy enemy ships, but why would you? Boarding is so much easier and faster to end a battle (plus you don't get damaged as much).

 

Then there's the faction system, completely screwed up, you can go take over a city and if you are an admiral you don't even get demoted.

 

and sailing between the Americas during a mission? Oh god, haven't these people ever heard of time acceleration, half the game is spent sailing somewhere. Geez.

 

Yeah, I played it for 72 hours too, then I stopped and realized this game was pretty bad.

 

Fun, I guess. Not very long lasting for someone our age though.

[Skynxnex]

I figure since this thread is about 'addiction' I will mention how addicting Rome Total War is for me. I am playing the SPQR mod and man, its an amazing sight to behold when you march your cohorts into a barbarian army. Today just about a half hour ago I won a battle of 1000 romans (most of my units had been decimated in 2 subsequent battles) against a Gaul force of 3000+. I won...and it was awesome. I should have lost but Roman discipline carried the day and my cavalry rode down the attackers. All in all out of 1000 men I had about 500-600 left and the Gauls from 3000 had about 400 men left. Heroic victory!!

[Grand_Admiral_Thrawn]

Yeah, this game is real fun.

 

Except you can take over the most powerful ships right from the start, just board them and battle against the noob captain.

 

Most powerful ships from the start, eh? Well, good luck finding one. The alrgest ship I've seen so far is a 40 gun heavy frigate, which I was hard pressed to take with my 24 gun brig. On top of that, there is also the matter of ship upgrades. A ship with cotton sails can move faster, copper plating gives increased maneuverability, brass cannons improbe accuracy, and tipple hammocks increase the size of your crew. Not only that, but specialized crew members such as a gunner can increase your rate of fire and accuracy, while a carpender can repare you ship's hull while you're sailing. On top of that, the most powerful ships don't spawn unless you're doing a mission, and the only person with a 40 gun heavy frigate is Captain Morgan. Maybe if you want a little challenge, stop playing as a journeyman captain, start taking ships, get promoted, and move up in difficulty rather than complaining about a game you've barely played. How do I know you've barely played it? Because you only played it for, as you said, 72 hours, a period of time in which I was barely able to scratch the surface!

 

So, let's see, you get some of the most powerful ships in the beginning of the game.. and then you can easily become super rich, until you find most of the artifact items.

 

How can you "easily" become super rich? Your crew moral decreases the longer you go without dividing the plunder. Eventually they'll mutany and you'll be stuck with a wussy little sloop again with only eight guns. You have to divide the plunder, which on the third difficulty setting (where I am currently), you only get to keep 20% of your takings. And you can only get some of the artifact items from Governor's daughters.

 

Did I mention you can only use ONE ship during a battle? But the enemy can use all of their ships? Pretty lame.

 

Well, there is a simple reason for this. The other ships that you take are called Prizes. You don't man them sufficiently to fight with them, they're only manned with a skeleton crew. So it wouldn't make sence to have more than one ship at your disposal in combat. Sure, you can switch Flagships, but that's simply you transfering enough men to one of your other ships to fight it. It makes perfect sence to any one whith knowledge of sea combat. There is actually a degree of realism here, not one of your mindless arcade games.

 

Oh, and the battles are pretty weak IMHO, you [i[could[/i] destroy enemy ships, but why would you? Boarding is so much easier and faster to end a battle (plus you don't get damaged as much).

 

Sure, you could board them and save time... that assuming you have the skill to take on the captains at the higher difficulty levels, where they have special attacks, improved weapons and so on. Not so simple.

 

Then there's the faction system, completely screwed up, you can go take over a city and if you are an admiral you don't even get demoted.

 

Hmm, screwed up? As it is right now I cannot take refuge in any Spanish port because I'm in too poor relations with them. I could attack a British port, but one little attack shouldn't result in a demotion. If you've made it to admiral you've proven that you're a valuable asset, and they want to keep you that way. I'm a British Duke, and I doubt they'll take that title away from me simply because I've attacked one of their ports, or taken one of their ships. Just like promotion, demotion is based on cumulative actions. Keep doing it and see what happens.

 

and sailing between the Americas during a mission? Oh god, haven't these people ever heard of time acceleration, half the game is spent sailing somewhere. Geez.

 

Time acceleration? I though that's exactly what it was, unless you think it takes ten minutes to sail from North-Eastern South America to Florida. Look at the date in the bottom corner, it take around a month in game time. Instantaniouse travel would defeat the prupose of the factions, and take much of the fun out of the game. Your crew wouldn't demoralize, and you'd have fewer (if any) chances to take prizes. Clearly you're a victime of modern day impatience. Heaven forbid if you have to wait for something to happen! Perhaps the minute and a half at Mc Donalds is a tad too long too...

 

Fun, I guess. Not very long lasting for someone our age though.

 

Well, I suppose you can have your oppinion, as I do. But since every review I have read (so far, that is), has given it 5/5 or 10/10, I think the game speaks for itself. That, and it's clear you didn't really play the game to the extent it was meant to be.

[kaja]

Enterprise is a good show. too bad they just cancelled it after the fourth Season. TNG is Great, I love it. I also Love TOS, DS9, I've never seen before, Voyager is Great.

 

I saw an ad for this Game on the back of my Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 Box. Pirates, that is...

 

Rome Total war, Hmmn I have the Game Spatan... By the sounds of Rome Total War, Screenshots and other stuff, I think Empire Earth II will be alot better.

 

How good are the Graphics of Pirates, I might get it, mabey.

[Grand_Admiral_Thrawn]

Well, I'll admit that the graphics in Priates! are on the cartoonie side, but it doesn't have a negative effect on game play.

[Mad78]

I tend to find cartoonish graphics rather nice to look at when i play a game. But it also depends on the kind of game you play. i find Pirates! looks like its really worth a play.

[Trejiuvanat]

By the sounds of Rome Total War, Screenshots and other stuff, I think Empire Earth II will be alot better.

 

I don't think you can compare each other (other than graphics) the gameplay of both are on the opposite sides of Strategy games. From what I've seen Empire Earth II is a graphically boosted version of EE1 and some new yet hardly essential features. I've only played R:TW once, but I found it more immersive and interesting than EE1.

 

As for Star Trek, I kinda will miss the new Enterprise show, I couls sympathize more with it than I could could with TNG, DS9 or Voyager. But in the end nothing can beat the Original.

[Guest JediIgor]

Most powerful ships from the start, eh? Well, good luck finding one. The alrgest ship I've seen so far is a 40 gun heavy frigate, which I was hard pressed to take with my 24 gun brig. On top of that, there is also the matter of ship upgrades. A ship with cotton sails can move faster, copper plating gives increased maneuverability, brass cannons improbe accuracy, and tipple hammocks increase the size of your crew. Not only that, but specialized crew members such as a gunner can increase your rate of fire and accuracy, while a carpender can repare you ship's hull while you're sailing. On top of that, the most powerful ships don't spawn unless you're doing a mission, and the only person with a 40 gun heavy frigate is Captain Morgan. Maybe if you want a little challenge, stop playing as a journeyman captain, start taking ships, get promoted, and move up in difficulty rather than complaining about a game you've barely played. How do I know you've barely played it? Because you only played it for, as you said, 72 hours, a period of time in which I was barely able to scratch the surface!

Lol, so why did you have to mention me only playing 72 hours? For a game as small as Pirates! I don't think this applies.

 

Getting to the point, incase you haven't noticed, a sloop moves a lot faster than a Frigate or Galeon class vessel. And, all you have to do, is crash into the enemy ship and start the captain-to-captain duel. You can usually get a Treasure Galeon pretty early on in the game, and that's 40 guns right there, then capture a couple of more merchant ships (they sell for more if they have little damage you know) and sell them until you are rich.

 

You said the most powerful ships don't spawn unless you're doing a mission, well the most powerful ship is a Ship of the Line (which regretfully I didn't play long enough to actually acquire myself), and as you can see from the Atari forums, they spawn quite randomly.

 

Still, acquiring a Large Frigate is quite easy, and it's almost as good as a SotL if you got all the upgrades.

 

 

How can you "easily" become super rich? Your crew moral decreases the longer you go without dividing the plunder. Eventually they'll mutany and you'll be stuck with a wussy little sloop again with only eight guns. You have to divide the plunder, which on the third difficulty setting (where I am currently), you only get to keep 20% of your takings. And you can only get some of the artifact items from Governor's daughters.

You'll be stuck with a little sloop again? LOL! You say I'm the one who hasn't played it long enough, try switching your main ship to the Large Frigate when you take over one. Yeah.. maybe that's why you think the game is hard?

 

See, since you fight with one ship anyways, it doesn't even matter if you have 20% of your money or 100% since you got a fully upgraded Large Frigate (or maybe SotL), it takes only a few minutes after you share the booty to get back all your money (plus the better your factions are, the cheaper you can get repairs.. which is really what matters). Once you're admiral (I was admiral with Britain myself), you get all kinds of free stuff from British ports, heh.

 

Frankly, there isn't a real big difference between getting *most* of the artifact items and *all* of the artifact items, since by the time you are at *most* artifact items it becomes more of an annoying search to get *all* the items (and thus less fun).

 

If you still aren't sure how to get rich very quickly..

Take your big ship, board a couple of Treasure Galeons, sail to the nearest port, sell all your looted stuff and the treasure galeons. Voila you are rich again.

 

Well, there is a simple reason for this. The other ships that you take are called Prizes. You don't man them sufficiently to fight with them, they're only manned with a skeleton crew. So it wouldn't make sence to have more than one ship at your disposal in combat. Sure, you can switch Flagships, but that's simply you transfering enough men to one of your other ships to fight it. It makes perfect sence to any one whith knowledge of sea combat. There is actually a degree of realism here, not one of your mindless arcade games.[/color

You can recruit more crew at a tavern, lol..

 

It doesn't make much sense to me, I wouldn't mind if my ships were AI controlled..

 

You go on to say about this being realistic and not an arcade game. Uhh.. try switching the two around, in a real naval situation you're not going to take your one Man of War and take on the entire enemy navy, you will use your whole fleet..!

 

Sure, you could board them and save time... that assuming you have the skill to take on the captains at the higher difficulty levels, where they have special attacks, improved weapons and so on. Not so simple.

Ok, there's what, 3 attacks, 3 moves, and a useless (correct me if I'm wrong) taunt button? Not that hard to grasp, especially for someone with an adult intelligence.

 

Duels are fun at first, but they're really a joke.. and once you get your own upgraded weapons they don't really have a chance (or at worst they are equal to you in items). All you gotta do is hit the attack button at the right time (like thrust when he's doing a chop and then slash the off-balance guy.. pretty soon the guy gets pushed off into the water). With the exception of parrying, the other 2 moves I rarely used and still managed to easily take on people.

 

Hmm, screwed up? As it is right now I cannot take refuge in any Spanish port because I'm in too poor relations with them. I could attack a British port, but one little attack shouldn't result in a demotion. If you've made it to admiral you've proven that you're a valuable asset, and they want to keep you that way. I'm a British Duke, and I doubt they'll take that title away from me simply because I've attacked one of their ports, or taken one of their ships. Just like promotion, demotion is based on cumulative actions. Keep doing it and see what happens.

 

One little attack? If one of the U.S. generals took over a U.S. city, say New York, in honor of China, do you think that he wouldn't get charged with treason, stripped of his rank, and so on?

 

Time acceleration? I though that's exactly what it was, unless you think it takes ten minutes to sail from North-Eastern South America to Florida. Look at the date in the bottom corner, it take around a month in game time. Instantaniouse travel would defeat the prupose of the factions, and take much of the fun out of the game. Your crew wouldn't demoralize, and you'd have fewer (if any) chances to take prizes. Clearly you're a victime of modern day impatience. Heaven forbid if you have to wait for something to happen! Perhaps the minute and a half at Mc Donalds is a tad too long too...

Hmm, I said time acceleration. Don't you think that would accelerate not only the travel speed, but the morale deterioration, and all the ships around you? Maybe you missed the point, I wanted EVERYTHING in the game to happen faster as if you hit "Fast forward" on the VCR.

 

If you are wandering "why?", well maybe you haven't played those missions where you are chasing the guy who keeps sailing between South and Central America. There is no reason for me to stop inbetween ports or to acquire "Prizes" because I'm already rich, I'm just trying to complete the mission. So by forcing me to accept one game speed, I think it's just foolish (most other strategy games have MORE than one speed setting, surprise).

 

Well, I suppose you can have your oppinion, as I do. But since every review I have read (so far, that is), has given it 5/5 or 10/10, I think the game speaks for itself. That, and it's clear you didn't really play the game to the extent it was meant to be.

 

Yeah, that is an opinion (I thought that was clear?). You should also know that except when a game is a true classic, most places to give it perfect scores are pretty much bought out (for example GameSpy or PCGamer).

 

Just as an example, places like that also gave Doom 3 and Half-Life 2 a very high score too, and then once people actually got around to beating (you think these folks can beat the game and get out a review before the competition? hahaha) those two games (just as an example), did people realize how overhyped everything was.

 

By the way, I'm wondering where you found those perfect scores, even overhyped GameSpy gave it a 4.5. Actually, just go here, http://www.gamestats.com/objects/566/566713/articles.html and you will see that only GamerDad (lol, I'm supposed to trust a dad? hahaha) and G4/TechTV (those fools cater only to "l33t" kids anyways..) gave it perfect scores. Another odd thing is that across these sites, the reader scores are consistently lower than the press scores. Hmm, maybe the folks who actually played the game longer than the 10 hours it took for them to write a review know something more about the game?

 

==========

 

By the way, you didn't even talk about the city "sieges/battles" ? Why not? Haven't gotten around to it yet, or do you just not want to admit that they were a hastily written piece of crap? Heh. Whose bright idea was it that when a regiment gets attacked in melee they all get whooped anyways?

[Grand_Admiral_Thrawn]

Getting to the point, incase you haven't noticed, a sloop moves a lot faster than a Frigate or Galeon class vessel. And, all you have to do, is crash into the enemy ship and start the captain-to-captain duel. You can usually get a Treasure Galeon pretty early on in the game, and that's 40 guns right there, then capture a couple of more merchant ships (they sell for more if they have little damage you know) and sell them until you are rich.

 

You said the most powerful ships don't spawn unless you're doing a mission, well the most powerful ship is a Ship of the Line (which regretfully I didn't play long enough to actually acquire myself), and as you can see from the Atari forums, they spawn quite randomly.

 

Still, acquiring a Large Frigate is quite easy, and it's almost as good as a SotL if you got all the upgrades.

 

I see you've been reading the Pirate-O'pedia. However, not every Treasure Galleaon has 40 guns. As a matter of fact, most of them are luckey to have 20. I played my career through (39 "years") without seeing a ship of the line, with the largest ships other than my own (by way of guns) being a 38 gun Large Frigate.

 

You make it sound as though you can leave port and sail right into a large ship with 40 guns, take her with you little sloop and have a cake walk from there on in. From my experience, not so.

 

You'll be stuck with a little sloop again? LOL! You say I'm the one who hasn't played it long enough, try switching your main ship to the Large Frigate when you take over one. Yeah.. maybe that's why you think the game is hard?

 

You didn't understand what I said. I was referring to being defeated after boarding. You will loose your ship and be downgraded to your starting sloop.

 

See, since you fight with one ship anyways, it doesn't even matter if you have 20% of your money or 100% since you got a fully upgraded Large Frigate (or maybe SotL), it takes only a few minutes after you share the booty to get back all your money (plus the better your factions are, the cheaper you can get repairs.. which is really what matters). Once you're admiral (I was admiral with Britain myself), you get all kinds of free stuff from British ports, heh.

 

But there is a down side. You have to spend all of your time getting on the good side of one faction just to get that far. After all that time, where are you left in the way of the actual aim of the game, the rescue of your family? Unless you're fortunate enough to find some of the special items that prolong your life, you're forced to retire after 39 years.

 

Frankly, there isn't a real big difference between getting *most* of the artifact items and *all* of the artifact items, since by the time you are at *most* artifact items it becomes more of an annoying search to get *all* the items (and thus less fun).

 

Well, since the point of the game isn't to get all of the artifacts, you'd have been wasting your time doing so, but I guess the idea of a plot has escaped you in this case.

 

If you still aren't sure how to get rich very quickly..

Take your big ship, board a couple of Treasure Galeons, sail to the nearest port, sell all your looted stuff and the treasure galeons. Voila you are rich again.

 

Well, this again overlooks a point which you haven't mentioned in your reply: Difficulty Level. As you divide the plunder, you get the option to increase the game's difficulty. I think you'd be hard pressed to take one treasure galleon on Swashbuckler, let alone multiple ships.

 

You can recruit more crew at a tavern, lol..

 

It doesn't make much sense to me, I wouldn't mind if my ships were AI controlled..

 

You go on to say about this being realistic and not an arcade game. Uhh.. try switching the two around, in a real naval situation you're not going to take your one Man of War and take on the entire enemy navy, you will use your whole fleet..!

 

Erm, you're a pirate. How many Pirates haf fleets? Your objective is to capture ships, take what you need/want, sell the rest and make money, and increase your fame. You're not Horatio Nelson, lol.

 

Ok, there's what, 3 attacks, 3 moves, and a useless (correct me if I'm wrong) taunt button? Not that hard to grasp, especially for someone with an adult intelligence.

 

Yes, the taunt is useless as far as I can tell, unless you like to get hit. On the first two difficulty levels (there are fice) this is easy, but I had all of my dueling artifacts and was unable to beat any captains in the top two difficulty levels. I had to beat my opponents into submission.

 

Duels are fun at first, but they're really a joke.. and once you get your own upgraded weapons they don't really have a chance (or at worst they are equal to you in items). All you gotta do is hit the attack button at the right time (like thrust when he's doing a chop and then slash the off-balance guy.. pretty soon the guy gets pushed off into the water). With the exception of parrying, the other 2 moves I rarely used and still managed to easily take on people.

 

One little attack? If one of the U.S. generals took over a U.S. city, say New York, in honor of China, do you think that he wouldn't get charged with treason, stripped of his rank, and so on?[/quote

 

Am I the only one who noticed the name of the game? Well, let's take a look, shall we?

 

Pirate: pi-rate

 

1. One who robs at sea or plunders the land from the sea without commission from a sovereign nation.

2. A ship used for this purpose.

 

3. One who preys on others; a plunderer.

4. One who makes use of or reproduces the work of another without authorization.

5. One that operates an unlicensed, illegal television or radio station

 

You're a Pirate. The ranks you are given by each faction is simply a reward. Morgan was a Pirate, but he was also working for the British crown. He attacked British targets, as well as French and Spanish.

 

Hmm, I said time acceleration. Don't you think that would accelerate not only the travel speed, but the morale deterioration, and all the ships around you? Maybe you missed the point, I wanted EVERYTHING in the game to happen faster as if you hit "Fast forward" on the VCR.

 

If you are wandering "why?", well maybe you haven't played those missions where you are chasing the guy who keeps sailing between South and Central America. There is no reason for me to stop inbetween ports or to acquire "Prizes" because I'm already rich, I'm just trying to complete the mission. So by forcing me to accept one game speed, I think it's just foolish (most other strategy games have MORE than one speed setting, surprise).

 

When you are a certain distance from shore your ships speed increases. Sail in the open waters to get your time acceleration. Also, most other strategy games don't have you playing a character who ages. So, if you want to end your game faster, I guess time acceleration is one way to do that.

 

Yeah, that is an opinion (I thought that was clear?). You should also know that except when a game is a true classic, most places to give it perfect scores are pretty much bought out (for example GameSpy or PCGamer).

 

Just as an example, places like that also gave Doom 3 and Half-Life 2 a very high score too, and then once people actually got around to beating (you think these folks can beat the game and get out a review before the competition? hahaha) those two games (just as an example), did people realize how overhyped everything was.

 

And yet there are still pleanty of people playing Doom 3 and Half-Life 2, and I'm pretty sure that people still love them, despite having beaten it (I haven't beated Pirates! yet, I was sort of forced to retire since I wasted too much time).

 

By the way, I'm wondering where you found those perfect scores, even overhyped GameSpy gave it a 4.5. Actually, just go here, http://www.gamestats.com/objects/566/566713/articles.html and you will see that only GamerDad (lol, I'm supposed to trust a dad? hahaha) and G4/TechTV (those fools cater only to "l33t" kids anyways..) gave it perfect scores. Another odd thing is that across these sites, the reader scores are consistently lower than the press scores. Hmm, maybe the folks who actually played the game longer than the 10 hours it took for them to write a review know something more about the game?

 

Yet according to that same site the gamer scores give Pirates! a higher rating than the press. Odd... I'll also direct your attention to the bracketed "so far, that is", indicating that that I was not yet finished (I had only read two revies, so my claimes are true). I would also like to point out that only two of the listed reviews game less than an 80% rating.

 

By the way, you didn't even talk about the city "sieges/battles" ? Why not? Haven't gotten around to it yet, or do you just not want to admit that they were a hastily written piece of crap? Heh. Whose bright idea was it that when a regiment gets attacked in melee they all get whooped anyways?

 

Actually, as of the time I wrote that post I had yet to engage in ground combat. Now that I have, I agree that they are not what they could (and should) have been, but then, ground battle is not the focus of the game is. If you want ground battles, I suggest you stick to Rome: Total War, as it seems simplicity of a different style is more to your liking.

[Guest JediIgor]

I see you've been reading the Pirate-O'pedia. However, not every Treasure Galleaon has 40 guns. As a matter of fact, most of them are luckey to have 20. I played my career through (39 "years") without seeing a ship of the line, with the largest ships other than my own (by way of guns) being a 38 gun Large Frigate.

 

You make it sound as though you can leave port and sail right into a large ship with 40 guns, take her with you little sloop and have a cake walk from there on in. From my experience, not so.

That's what happened for me, I talked to people in the bar and they said there was a treasure fleet heading from X to Y, and naturally it wasn't just *TALK* as there was indeed a treasure fleet, so I intercepted it and got my Treasure Galleon right away.

 

You didn't understand what I said. I was referring to being defeated after boarding. You will loose your ship and be downgraded to your starting sloop.

Ok, well, I'm glad you clarified that. Here's the trick: Don't get caught, I never did and I played to like the 4th or 5th difficulty level before I stopped playing (since like I said I had all the upgrades, most items, and tons of $$$, and the quests were just tedious, not fun).

 

But there is a down side. You have to spend all of your time getting on the good side of one faction just to get that far. After all that time, where are you left in the way of the actual aim of the game, the rescue of your family? Unless you're fortunate enough to find some of the special items that prolong your life, you're forced to retire after 39 years.

"All your time?" Not really man.. if Britain is at war with like all the other factions, all you have to do is pirate those ships like crazy, and then go to a British governor who will promote you. Since you're going to be pirating like crazy anyway, might as well stop by the governor and get a promotion for what you'd be doing anyways. I managed to get Admiral being young 20s with Britain.

 

Well, since the point of the game isn't to get all of the artifacts, you'd have been wasting your time doing so, but I guess the idea of a plot has escaped you in this case.

Um.. actually you get artifacts either by quests (isn't that part of the plot?) or by talking it up with the ladies (isn't that part of the game too?).

 

Speaking of ladies, I got married to a beautiful British lady (dancing is a lame minigame btw).. and what was the point? When you come back to her all you do is *dance* I want some kids dang it!!

 

Well, this again overlooks a point which you haven't mentioned in your reply: Difficulty Level. As you divide the plunder, you get the option to increase the game's difficulty. I think you'd be hard pressed to take one treasure galleon on Swashbuckler, let alone multiple ships.

Ok.. so get a Large Frigate on your first difficulty level, then don't lose it. That's not hard if you go into the harder difficulty levels with full ship upgrades and crewmen like I did, heh . Even if you have trouble defeating the captains, you can sink their ship from afar from your superior vessel, then sail back to port for a free repair.

 

Erm, you're a pirate. How many Pirates haf fleets? Your objective is to capture ships, take what you need/want, sell the rest and make money, and increase your fame. You're not Horatio Nelson, lol.

 

Uh.. ok.. well, you know about the top 10 pirates in the game? A lot of them are historical figures..

 

Let's see, Henry Morgan..

http://www.rochedalss.eq.edu.au/pirates/pirate2.htm

 

What do you know, the guy had at one time 36 ships and 2,000 buccaneers (and if you need me to spoon feed you, this means other famous pirates can also have more ships)! And here you are telling me pirates can't have fleets! Nice try though.

 

By the way, I stopped playing the game when I wound up #1 pirate, so at the very least I should have 2 ships under my control, eh?

 

 

 

 

Am I the only one who noticed the name of the game? Well, let's take a look, shall we?

 

Pirate: pi-rate

 

1. One who robs at sea or plunders the land from the sea without commission from a sovereign nation.

2. A ship used for this purpose.

 

3. One who preys on others; a plunderer.

4. One who makes use of or reproduces the work of another without authorization.

5. One that operates an unlicensed, illegal television or radio station

 

You're a Pirate. The ranks you are given by each faction is simply a reward. Morgan was a Pirate, but he was also working for the British crown. He attacked British targets, as well as French and Spanish.

 

That still doesn't change the fact that you took over a city in the name of a sovereign nation. Please don't let the fact that the person is a "pirate" cloud your judgment. Answer the original question about the U.S. general .

 

When you are a certain distance from shore your ships speed increases. Sail in the open waters to get your time acceleration. Also, most other strategy games don't have you playing a character who ages. So, if you want to end your game faster, I guess time acceleration is one way to do that.

 

Yes, and I should have a choice whether I can wait 10 minutes for my ship to sail from South America to the Cuban islands, or whether I should do it in a few seconds (of my real time). Thanks.

 

And yet there are still pleanty of people playing Doom 3 and Half-Life 2, and I'm pretty sure that people still love them, despite having beaten it (I haven't beated Pirates! yet, I was sort of forced to retire since I wasted too much time).

Hmm, ok, doesn't mean the game is perfect like you hinted at.

 

Yet according to that same site the gamer scores give Pirates! a higher rating than the press. Odd... I'll also direct your attention to the bracketed "so far, that is", indicating that that I was not yet finished (I had only read two revies, so my claimes are true). I would also like to point out that only two of the listed reviews game less than an 80% rating.

Then you haven't read very many reviews. Nor have you looked at OTHER sites' reader reviews.

 

How you can make a claim based on ONE example I don't know. In science they make hundreds and hundreds of tests before something even becomes a theory. But here you just looked at one site, and claimed I was wrong? I was observing a trend of most sites having reader scores lower than reviewer scores. Also, since the Gamestats site didn't have its own reviewer score, I don't see how you can say I'm wrong about "reader scores being lower than reviewer scores."

 

Actually, as of the time I wrote that post I had yet to engage in ground combat. Now that I have, I agree that they are not what they could (and should) have been, but then, ground battle is not the focus of the game is. If you want ground battles, I suggest you stick to Rome: Total War, as it seems simplicity of a different style is more to your liking.

 

Yet here you blame ME for not playing the game enough? Hehe. Simplicity? It seems more luck based than simple.. I don't see why they couldn't just make it real time instead of trying to do it Civilization-style.

[Grand_Admiral_Thrawn]

Good heavens, I go away for a nice little vacation and looks what happens!

 

As of last friday (the 25) around noon I've been traveling around Ottawa, seeing the sights of my nation's capitol city and relaxing. During this time my home (and subsequently my computer) were left in the care of a friend (who shal remain nameless incase I decide to kill him ). It seems that, in addition to eating a good amount of food, dirtying almost all of my dishes, loading an inordinate number of programs onto my computer, downloading nearly 100mb of useless (and very likely virus infested), he also took it upon himself to utilize any accounts I have on my computer (including City of Heroes and Lineage II, in which I'll have to reconsile his actions with my Clans/Guilds), thinking that this would be amusing. He has since discovered that no one is laughing (especially not me).

 

I was rather fortunate here, his actions were pretty tame, and there was little mud-slinging (several of my clan members in CoH were harrased and abused). Never the less, my password has been changed (by me) and I have started logging out when I leavethe stire (I was always logged in previousely, allowing any user on my computer to access my account).

 

However, I'll not let this stop a little debate from happening, though it might not be as exciting since I'm inclined to agree with much of what Igor said. So:

 

I agree that money is somewhat useless since you only need to complete a few of the minor quests to earn upwards of 30 thousand gold pieces. With that, it's simply a matter of sailing around and upgrading your ships. However, you need to find the right ports to get what you're looking for, a taks that is made somewhat easier if you've advnaced a little and have gained information.

 

The dueling is a joke too. I don't believe I've ever used more than the luge attack and perhaps the odd parry in combat, and the items you can collect that improve your swordmanship only widen the gap between you and your opponent. It does get a little harder as you move on, but not enough to really impede your progress.

 

I would have also liked to see fleet battles, but I'm not especially discouraged by the ability to use only one ship in combat. The AI is inept when if comes to commanding more than one ship, attacking with only one at a time, making your job easy. If you can pummel them and reduce their number of guns, then rake them with grape shot, they'll usually surrender without having to duel.

 

I didn't really get to experience the factions system as I stayed loyal to Britain, only attacking the Spanish and French, and staying as far on the good side of the Dutch as I could. I did find it odd that, despite having raided hundreds of Spanish ships, I was still getting promoted by their governors.

 

I wasn't too bothered by the time it took to sail around, I found it gave me lots of time to take prizes and explore. It was annoying chasing the "Evil Baron Ramondo", but occasionally he stayed put.

 

All in all, this game was enjoyable, and still addictive, despite it's faults. PC Gamer gave it a good rating, as did a TV sho Electric Playground. I would have liked to have some real voices in the game, not the Sim-like mumbling. Ground combat took alot away from the game. I think allowing the player to bombard the shore with their ship, then storm the port in an RTS style would have been more satisfying. I'll keep playing, but if I'm looking for a strategy game, I'll stick with Hearts of Iron II.