Sid Meier's Pirates!

[ray_MAN]

I got this game for Christmas, and I was amazed at how good it is. I love open ended gameplay, and this game offers it. The graphics are great. It is really easy to learn, and it is fun! I like this game more than HL2, right now! :O If you like open-ended games with a great story, and good piratey action, I suggest you get this game! YAR!

 

[Gray Fox]

ok
6char

 

[SidewinderX]

http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=57644&highlight=pirates

and Grey Fox: Did it ever cross your mind that maybe, MAYBE, if you have to add "6char" to your post to make it long enough that you souldn't have made the post? Maybe we have the limit there to keep people from posting short, usless, spam posts?

 

[h00dlum]

Damn this game is fun! Got it today. I have been playing for 5 hours...i just rescued my long lost sister

 

[Hazar]

Looks fun, but I haven't the money to get it

 

[Vigilante]

I have it. I'm currently waiting on my motherboard to come back so I can play games in general.

 

[Asknoone]

I have heard nought but good things about it, will have to check it out

 

[destrukt]

yup, awesome game!

 

[AmishSlayer]

Looks cool as hell. Gotta pick this up.

 

[Prince of China]

I'm really interested in learning how the combat system works.

 

[AmishSlayer]

Grabbed it today and played it for hours. This is a long post (I plan to write an IGN review) but if you read one line...read the last.

Ship-Ship combat is cool. In the lower right corner you have your numpad layout showing which buttons do what (This is there the entire game). You can steer left and right - Full sails or Reef sails (4,6,8,2 on numpad respectively) - Switch between Chain shots, Grape shots, Ball shots (7,1,3 respectively) anddd....uhh I forget what num9 does. Num5 is fire.

Note: Don't quote me on these layouts...It could be a bit different...I forget. I had been playing like 5+ hours and it was all automatic in my head at that point.

Anyways. You maneuver around and fire at the other boat. Chain shots destroy the sails only to disable the ship (shorter range). Grape shots (from what I noticed) kill crewman aboard the other ship while maybe minimalizing dmg to the hull and sails. Regular ball shots will just dmg whatever (if you just wanna sink a ship). If you want to get money and supplies from the ship after you win...I'd recommend you use chain shots because sometimes you'll accidently sink a ship with ball shots.

If you are in a battle and you hit another boat or they hit you, you will go into a person-person battle. The two boats' crews start battling and you and the other ship's captain start your fight. Fighting here uses the numpad as well. Num9,4,2 are all attacks Hi, Med, Low. Num 8,5,2 are jump, parry and duck (obviously your way of blocking and avoiding attacks). Num6 is for a taunt. Your crewmembers fight in the background and you see the numbers at the bottom and a meter to see who's got the advantage. The better you do in combat the better your crew does in the fight. If you completely win your fight, the crew vs. crew battle ends and you get to choose what you want to do with their ship. Will you take the goods they had and add their ship to the fleet, maybe recruit some of their members? Or will you be a jerk, sink their ship, dump their goods, and kill their crew (I only assume they die because they don't get a ship and they're in the middle of the ocean)?

Now...I mentioned the crews. The number of crewman you have determines how fast they reload your cannons, fight in crew vs. crew battles, and if you don't have a certain amount of crewmembers you ship will be slower (there's a little note that pops up so you know when you need more men). Keeping your boat(s) stocked with men is obviously important...but then you have to feed them more and pillage, plunder, etc. more to keep them happy (the hardest thing I've run into so far).

After a while (if you aren't making enough money) your crew starts getting annoyed and will eventually start to bail on you on various port stops or it could even come down to them taking one of your ships and a share of your gold.

The game sorta works in cycles that way. Your player ages on his overall quest (not sure if it affects gameplay). Days, weeks, months and years go by. Your crew will get tired of the voyage after 3-5 years (depending on how many men you have and how much you pillage and such) and you'll have to go to a port (of which there are plenty) and divvy up the gold you have. Your crewman go their separate ways and you get your little share. You can choose to continue the game (6 months or a year will pass) and you get your flagship (which retains the upgrades you had on it before) 40 crewman. You sorta start up again from there, blowing other ships out of the water, making money, building up a fleet (don't worry, it's not hard to start getting ships and crewmembers again - you can pick up crews from boats you capture, taverns at ports, etc.).

Apart from the combat, there's the 4 factions you can choose to be with. At the start of the game they help you in choosing a faction, but you don't have to stick with it if you don't want. There's the English, Spanish, Dutch, and French. There are also some side factions such as Indians and other pirates. You can do lots of things for these factions to get promoted so you get benefits (cheaper ship repairs, trading costs, upgrades, and even access to the guvna's daughter). To get promoted you just do little missions for them or attack ships and towns that they are currently at war with. When I started out everyone was against the Spanish. Later on I actually got a mission from the English that had me escort a ship with an ultimatum for the Dutch. This ultimatum brought the English and Dutch into a war. There are also peace treaty missions to do, escorting new governor's to other towns (this helps their economy - I'm assuming this improves the trader's assets at that particular location - maybe even improving the small settlement to an actual town - I haven't payed close enough attention to this)

In taverns you can hear about other competing pirates, their whereabouts, their ship and such. You can also hear about smugglers running through the area that may have more gold than your average ship or maybe even military $$$ rolling through the area - big cash but bigger ship to face. There are even fleets of treasure ships that have numerous escorts.

Ok...that's it for now. I still haven't touched on some other details in the game that I've been playing through such as being able to land your boat on any island, sending a landing party out - Courting women - Special Items & Crewman - Ship Upgrades - Trading - etc.

This game is a lot of fun and quite in-depth. If you're looking for a solid open-ended game...pick this one up.

 

[Mattigus]

Grabbed it today and played it for hours. This is a long post (I plan to write an IGN review) but if you read one line...read the last.

Ship-Ship combat is cool. In the lower right corner you have your numpad layout showing which buttons do what (This is there the entire game). You can steer left and right - Full sails or Reef sails (4,6,8,2 on numpad respectively) - Switch between Chain shots, Grape shots, Ball shots (7,1,3 respectively) anddd....uhh I forget what num9 does. Num5 is fire.

Note: Don't quote me on these layouts...It could be a bit different...I forget. I had been playing like 5+ hours and it was all automatic in my head at that point.

Anyways. You maneuver around and fire at the other boat. Chain shots destroy the sails only to disable the ship (shorter range). Grape shots (from what I noticed) kill crewman aboard the other ship while maybe minimalizing dmg to the hull and sails. Regular ball shots will just dmg whatever (if you just wanna sink a ship). If you want to get money and supplies from the ship after you win...I'd recommend you use chain shots because sometimes you'll accidently sink a ship with ball shots.

If you are in a battle and you hit another boat or they hit you, you will go into a person-person battle. The two boats' crews start battling and you and the other ship's captain start your fight. Fighting here uses the numpad as well. Num9,4,2 are all attacks Hi, Med, Low. Num 8,5,2 are jump, parry and duck (obviously your way of blocking and avoiding attacks). Num6 is for a taunt. Your crewmembers fight in the background and you see the numbers at the bottom and a meter to see who's got the advantage. The better you do in combat the better your crew does in the fight. If you completely win your fight, the crew vs. crew battle ends and you get to choose what you want to do with their ship. Will you take the goods they had and add their ship to the fleet, maybe recruit some of their members? Or will you be a jerk, sink their ship, dump their goods, and kill their crew (I only assume they die because they don't get a ship and they're in the middle of the ocean)?

Now...I mentioned the crews. The number of crewman you have determines how fast they reload your cannons, fight in crew vs. crew battles, and if you don't have a certain amount of crewmembers you ship will be slower (there's a little note that pops up so you know when you need more men). Keeping your boat(s) stocked with men is obviously important...but then you have to feed them more and pillage, plunder, etc. more to keep them happy (the hardest thing I've run into so far).

After a while (if you aren't making enough money) your crew starts getting annoyed and will eventually start to bail on you on various port stops or it could even come down to them taking one of your ships and a share of your gold.

The game sorta works in cycles that way. Your player ages on his overall quest (not sure if it affects gameplay). Days, weeks, months and years go by. Your crew will get tired of the voyage after 3-5 years (depending on how many men you have and how much you pillage and such) and you'll have to go to a port (of which there are plenty) and divvy up the gold you have. Your crewman go their separate ways and you get your little share. You can choose to continue the game (6 months or a year will pass) and you get your flagship (which retains the upgrades you had on it before) 40 crewman. You sorta start up again from there, blowing other ships out of the water, making money, building up a fleet (don't worry, it's not hard to start getting ships and crewmembers again - you can pick up crews from boats you capture, taverns at ports, etc.).

Apart from the combat, there's the 4 factions you can choose to be with. At the start of the game they help you in choosing a faction, but you don't have to stick with it if you don't want. There's the English, Spanish, Dutch, and French. There are also some side factions such as Indians and other pirates. You can do lots of things for these factions to get promoted so you get benefits (cheaper ship repairs, trading costs, upgrades, and even access to the guvna's daughter). To get promoted you just do little missions for them or attack ships and towns that they are currently at war with. When I started out everyone was against the Spanish. Later on I actually got a mission from the English that had me escort a ship with an ultimatum for the Dutch. This ultimatum brought the English and Dutch into a war. There are also peace treaty missions to do, escorting new governor's to other towns (this helps their economy - I'm assuming this improves the trader's assets at that particular location - maybe even improving the small settlement to an actual town - I haven't payed close enough attention to this)

In taverns you can hear about other competing pirates, their whereabouts, their ship and such. You can also hear about smugglers running through the area that may have more gold than your average ship or maybe even military $$$ rolling through the area - big cash but bigger ship to face. There are even fleets of treasure ships that have numerous escorts.

Ok...that's it for now. I still haven't touched on some other details in the game that I've been playing through such as being able to land your boat on any island, sending a landing party out - Courting women - Special Items & Crewman - Ship Upgrades - Trading - etc.

This game is a lot of fun and quite in-depth. If you're looking for a solid open-ended game...pick this one up.

Yeah, man.