Just got it. To my surprise it runs fine on my laptop.
So addictive.
Sid Meier is the greatest genius in the history of computer games. It’s just a magnificent game.
Him, Garriott and Carmack. The holy trinity.
I’ve been playing for days. On my second career. Oh my head.
Finally found the game at a Best Buy and my SO bougt it for me for Christmas. I’ve danced at four balls and still haven’t got the hang of it.
Not to my knolwedge, but there are a couple of special items that enable you to live longer.
Depends on the girl; some will dance witn Colonels.
Aye, maties, my dog got me Pirates! for Christmas. I think Mr. Athena had something to do with it; the dog herself has very little disposable income.
Pretty damn cool game. I’m trying to get my head around the naval battles. Overall, the game seems easy & engrossing - a sure fire way to keep my butt at the computer for way too many hours every day.
I got it for Xmas but game crashes every time I play. Since there are no patches available I guess I’ll play with the system to try and fix it.
I got this for Christmas as well!
I love romancing the daughters, I tend to get one heart for each friendly town…more if they are a potential bride. I’m doing my second go through and I’ve found a red-headed English beauty who may be the future Mrs. Eros.
A problem I have is regarding the main lost family quest. One must traverse the map following behind the man who has clues regarding your lost family… He’s usually on the opposite end of the globe, and he’s usually not there by the time you get there. Plus, defeating him gets you ONE section of the map only and then you must start all over again. Has anyone found a better way?
Lady
I been playin’ this fer a while as well (gave it to meself as an early Xmas present, I did), and suffice to say I don’t think there be an easier way to find that black-hearted Baron Raymondo. Ye just gotta chase him down each time, sad but true. It is quite diffcult traversin’ from one end of the Caribbean to the other to hunt him down, but the local taverns usually have the gossip on where he’s gonna be.
I’ve never played the original Pirates!, but I must say this one is pretty fun. The items you can collect to help you on your journey adds a neat twist (I wonder if the puffy fencin’ shirt was inspired by another famous puffy pirate shirt now in the Smithsonian? Or did pirates really wear puffy shirts?). I usually play as the Dutch since they have the smallest Caribbean empire in all eras. I imagine it would be difficult to be a Spaniard, but then again, you don’t always have to be loyal to the nation you sail under the flag of. Pirates didn’t do that! In my most recent game, I’ve had to capture some cities in South America as the Spaniards and I are not on speaking terms, and the Baron seems to like to hide in South America.
The post that commented on calling things names like “Pacman Island” struck me funny, as not only do I make up names for islands I don’t know the names of, but it seems like something a real explorer would do.
Keep havin’ fun, mateys! Make the seas of the Caribbean red wit’ the blood of yer enemies!
Capt. Saint Swithins an’ mobo85
I have a game called “Port Royale 2”, and wonder how it compares to Pirates. Can anybody enlighten me please?
Just got it for Christmas (The super deluxe DVD extra version 
)…Was going to play it on the new PC but my DVD drive is backordered so guess I’ll be waiting a few days 
Unless I can map my notebook DVD drive onto my PC, install across the network, and hope for a “nocd” patch.
Alas, but that is disappointing!
On a positive note, last night I found a nice way to make things go a bit quicker while chasing down those slippier men. Me and my hearty band of 30 pirates in our ‘Indian War Canoe’ were quite the quick sailing terror!
I suppose it’s not very pirate-like though…
It’s similar enough that you’ll get the idea, but different enough to be frustrating sometimes. The sailing during combat especially is different. Trading is less of a focus, although you can do it if you like. I don’t think you could have a totally successful career with just trading. It’s visually appealing, although a different look than PR2. The good thing is that it has most of the same towns and locations, so if you’ve been playing PR2 a while, it’ll be easier to find your way around the map. And it has a definte end. Unlike PR2 where you can just keep going and going and amassing money, with Pirates! it has a goal and an end.
As to trying to avoid running all the way across the map to track down Baron whats-his-name, one thing that I’ve found helpfull is to look at the towns along the way, and stop by them. Usually once you get towards the general area, someone will tell you that he’s off to someplace else. So at least you save a little time.
Is it just me, or does anyone else have increadibly slow rendering during sword fights? It moves so slow that it really throws me off trying to counter all the moves. Has anyone else had this trouble?
I have a hard time countering the moves, but it’s not because of slow rendering. Rendering is just fine; my brain-to-finger connection, on the other hand, is a bit slow.
I have somewhat slow rendering in sword fights, but not enough to knock my timing off.
But rendering during dancing is completely knocking my timing off. Yeah. Has nothing to do with my complete incompetence at the dancing game. Nothing at all. (Though, after the music ends, the dance does halt for a good four seconds before the final step is taken. Is that common for everyone?)
Also, moving units around during land combat is so slow its painfull.
But I still love the game.
OK, I have the full map pointing to where my sister is, but I can’t find her for the life of me. It says she’s somewhere west of Puerto Cabello. I go there, and the landmarks kinda line up but not enough for me to find her. Am I just dumb? Where the heck is she hiding?
There should be a cabin (different from the “abandoned cabins” that are used as landmarks). Storm in an’ claim yer sister!
That’s pretty clever, I like that. The manual of the Pirates! game tells the story of how Will’m Kidd met his end in real life- he ended up attackin’ a big ol’ ship flyin’ the French colours! Little did he ralize that it was really a British ship pretendin’ to be a French one to fool pirates! He was then imprisoned and hanged by the British Empire for his crime. This story reminds me of the idea of pirates pretending to be Indians. I don’t know if they ever really did it, but it sure sounds fun. Not only are the Indian canoes swift, but who would expect a tiny Indian canoe to attack a big old galleon? On the open seas, always expect th’ unexpected!
There’s really no need to track down the Baron or the Marquis. As you’ve noticed, they like to travel and spend most of the time on their ships. Apparently, once they reach a destination they’ll turn around immediately and go somewhere else. If you don’t want go on a wild goose chase, let those guys come to you. Hang around the taverns in Cuba & Hispaniola and eventually you’ll get word that those guys are heading in that direction. Maybe directly for the port that you happen to be in! Then all you have to do is find out where he’s coming from and intercept.
When working with maps, you don’t need to collect all the pieces, just enough to know where you’re supposed to look. It gets easer as you go along. I got so good at the original game that I could find relatives and buried treasure with just one map piece as long as it showed the coastline! So far, I’ve found my grandfather and the lost city with ¾ of each map.
Look for a shack. Must be one around there somewhere.
That second quote was Athena, of course.
Is there something funky with the compass or maps? I can’t seem to get them to line up… for example, a treasure map might show an arch, then a town, with a stone head off to the west. When I’m walking around, I’ll find the arch, town, and stone head, but they don’t correspond direction-wise to the map - for example, if the map shows the town west of the arch, when I’m on land it might be south.
Are the maps oriented with north up all the time? What am I doing wrong?
Doh! Never mind. I figured out I was reading the compass all wrong. I’m so used to dumbed-down game compasses that it never occurred to me that it might work like a REAL compass. Once I figured that out, I found my sister pronto.
Yes, it does that for me as well, so I think it’s normal. Taking ‘Wit and Charm’ had helped me - so much that now that I’m playing with ‘Medicine’ I’m noticing the difference. (My other suggestion is probably less useful - I’ve found that bobbing ones head while ‘dancing’ - to get into it- makes for better timing.) :o
mobo85 -
Thanks! It’s so little that dodging canons is easier, and it sure is fast (though this may be just how it seems due to size?). If you’re into beating huge ships manned by hundreds with 30-50 of your brave and suicidal men then a War Canoe is the ship for you!
Lute -
Thank you very much for the tip! 