[Laughlyn]

Although the anger thread may be out of control, and in about 3 weeks time anyone using the emotocon will be forced to walk the plank, I'm going to recommend anyone who hasn't bought Pirates! to go and do so, for the following reasons;

1. It be like the original, only with better graphics. None of that 'lets make a sequel for the money and screw with the game design' stuff here.

2. Thar be a new subgame: Dancing, fer impressin the ladies. Land combat now be strategic, and swordplay includes all kinds of tricks and florishes.

3. Naval combat be more tactical, with the capability to shatter ye opponants main mast with chain rounds, or whittle down his crew with grapeshot.

4. Ye gets to collect items to boost ye stats, like Balanced swords and a brace of pistols.

5. Everyone speaks Firaxish, which be Sid meier's token gibberish. So thar be lots of Arrrrs! goin on 'ere.

6. You get a Pirateapedia, for all ye piratin' knowledge.

7. It be involving Pirates. Arrrr!

What ye be waitin' for landlubbers, go be purchasing this game!

[floppydisk]

Arr... This be the game for true s

(sorry about the emoticon)

Eventually the anger thread will be so out of control that we break out and fully take over the NightLife!

This post has been edited by floppydisk: 19 April 2005 - 01:00 PM

[Kirby]

It's all in the Dictatorships for Dummies. Start some shit, disapear for a while, and then come back with promises of order and a good time for all. It's quite a good book I recomend you snatch it up when you get the chance.

So laughlyn, you say that this version of Pirates! is like the old kind but more kick ass than a barrol of kung-fu monkeys?

[Laughlyn]

Definately, Sid's kept true to his style of not buggering with a perfectly good concept. Improves on a few things like the agony of sailing west to east against the wind.

The games full of little flourishes that keep you entertained. The sword fightings the best example; Low swipes can be replaced by a cloat from a nearby boat hook if it's to hand, If you dodge right in certain places you grab a passing rope and swing away, returning with a counter attack. The victory anims are bound to raise a smile too, I'm not going to spoil them for you. Dancing game's a bitch though, for some reason it's easier to dance with an ugly bird than a hot one.

Might have a limited lifespan, due to the suck you in late night overplay factor. but it's definately fun, which is more than I can say for most games I buy these days.

Oh, and sorry if the pirate stuff goes overkill, my Film studies project is killing me (I'm really starting to regret making it up in an afternoon). the games room had gone kinda quiet, so I thought I'd interject a new game for discussion. It was this or X2.

[floppydisk]

X2? What that be?

[Laughlyn]

X2: the threat. Sequel to the unimaginatively titled flawed Elite clone that was X. Good for the early-mid game but unless you're really obsessed with buying an entire fleet of ships and ordering them around individually then it get kinda boring.

[SimeSublime]

Just an experiment.

Please ignore.

This post has been edited by SimeSublime: 21 April 2005 - 08:48 AM

[floppydisk]

*ignoring*

[Madam Corvax]

Sorry for bumping, but after three days of incessant playing I am now ready to praise the game as much as it deserves.
I have been buying a lot of games recently and I must admit, this one is most playable of all since KOTOR.
Here are some comments:

It's a pity that you cannot choose the apearance of your character.

Also- you can cheat a little. Just save the game before entering the port and romancing governor's daughter - the rewards and location of villains is pretty randomly selected and you can load several times to get something you need, or the villain located in a town closer to you. It is pretty annoying when you are in Margarita, and the villain in question was last seen in St. Augustin...Which is opposite side of the map...

You can marry governor's daughter... but it does not prevent you from romancing all the other chicks... which I find strange...I was counting on my wife getting jelous, but nothing of that sort happens...

And I checked again - "plain" daughters wear a kind of kerchief (which I think is called a "fichu") across their bosoms, "attractive" daughters show some cleavage in a v-necked dress, and "beautiful" ones wear strapless gowns... Nationality has nothing to do with it.

Dancing gets more difficult once you advance in difficulty with your characters. For a "Rouge" captain, it really requires a lot of practice. But it is fun to watch, and music is exceptionally nice.

I love when you can tear the sails with chain shots.

Again, highly recommended!

[Laughlyn]

And I checked again - "plain" daughters wear a kind of kerchief (which I think is called a "fichu") across their bosoms, "attractive" daughters show some cleavage in a v-necked dress, and "beautiful" ones wear strapless gowns... Nationality has nothing to do with it.

Check again, with a beautiful dutch girl. They wear fuller dresses (admittedly still with plunging neck lines)

[Slade]

Arrr indeed! I recently finally captured Montalban. My pirate's in failing health at age 44. There's 2 relatives and some pirate treasure to find, and then I'll have done everything to do in the game and can retire obscenely wealthy.

[Madam Corvax]

I am afraid there are more than 2 relatives. I got sister, uncle, and now anut, heaven knows how many more there are!

Buy some Medicinal Herbs, apparently helps your health. Does not seem to be working for me, though. And you can't really do much within first ten years of pirating, and then your health deteriorates, so I suppose aging is the most difficult factor.

There are a lot more quests, like lost Indian city, so once you think you cleared quest's log, more keep coming! Romance the beautiful daughters, they have more to offer, make sure you revisit the same one several times!

And I must say, now I really improved my dancing, I hardly stumble at all!

And Laughlyn, you are right, beautiful Dutch girls do cover up themselves a bit more.

In short, the game rocks!

[Laughlyn]

Don't worry too much about the aging, it only slows down the melee combat. This can be countered by learning to block with the cutlass until your opponant is badly off balance.

That being said, swordsmanship is probably better than medicine skill for most games. Maximum age is about 56 without any items, and 78 with all bonuses.

An unlikely event, but still a posible one, is that if you hit a treasure hoard so big that each mans share is 3K (Montalban + a couple of lost cities), they never mutiny, so you can go on piratin' until you're 100.

As for the relatives, there's only 4. Once you've knocked out Montalban they give Lost cities maps. (As do the beautiful daugthers)

[Madam Corvax]

I got the Montalban's city map yesterday, ventured there, and Indians kicked my ass. I really don't like combat on land and those limited "moves". I have never been good at that, goes back as far as being crap at "Panzer General" (anybody remembers it?)

I mastered my dancing so much at last that I got the bonus "twirl and bend " at the end of the dancing sequence, boy, that made me laugh!

I agree, that fencing is the most important skill. You just then crash straight into enemy's ship and take out the captain in hand to hand combat. Generates more money, since you can sell the ship.

And ont more thing - Galleons suck big. Piratopedia says they are the most powerful ships except "Ship of the line" (never encoutered those), but for pirating purposes they just are too slow, takes ages to sail. I got a frigate now, decent-sized and faster.

[Laughlyn]

based on the beating you can take, and maximum cannon wise the galleons are pretty good, but the frigate class has a higher movement speed \ turn rate. You can see why the spanish got owned by the royal navy.

The SOL virtually never appears. not unless you've powered up a non-spanish nation, then plundered them excessively.