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Adrift...

C

Cap'n Morgan

Landlubber
Hi all. I just bought the game three days ago, and I’m having fun so far. I think it goes without saying that the manual and website support is woefully insufficient, and that the Disney execs should be keelhauled for getting their grubby fingerprints all over what probably would have been an even better game as Sea Dogs 2.

Nevertheless, I have some total “n00b” (cabin boy?) questions for you all. Maybe some of you scurvy dogs can assist.

1. I can only get the game to run if I switch my resolution in Windows to 800 x 600. I have a GeForce FX 5600 Ultra with the latest drivers on Win XP, if that helps. If I have it higher, the game will start, but the screen stays black while the game does its intro thing and (presumably) loads the main menu. Is there a video options panel somewhere? I should be able to crank the AA/AF up and still run the game smoothly, if those options are there.

2. Is there an official patch for the game? Or only unofficial mods/builds?

3. What do the unofficial mods/builds change in the game?

4. How many experience levels are there? It’s difficult to discern which skills/abilities to acquire when you don’t know how many levels there are.

5. I’ve managed to get level 3, hire a couple officers and upgrade to a sloop. I’m still at the very very beginning as far as quests go. I’m supposed to return to Oxbay and spy on the French, etc. Is there a penalty for taking your time to do this? I’d like to level up some more before I sail to hostile waters.

6. Is there an advantage to firing the cannons from 1st person as opposed to 3rd? Seems like 3rd is more efficient, since all cannons with a valid target will engage.

7. Best abilities to get early on? Best skill point allocations? I think I’ve picked up faster cannon reloading, Shared XP, improved boarding range, and have Sailing 3, Accuracy 4, Cannons 2 or something along those lines. I don’t remember exactly, but I hope I haven’t gimped poor Nathaniel. I hired 2 officers as soon as I could find them, so I’m hoping the Shared XP ability will help out. Not sure how, though.

8. Someone mentioned trade missions are great for money, rep, and XP. How do you get these? Do you need to be a certain level/ship class/rank?

9. Can anyone recommend a ship class to shoot for that has a nice mix of speed and firepower? Or do you just always go for bigger is better?

10. Do extra ships in your convoy lend significant assistance? Or do most people prefer just having one big ship completely pimped out with officers/crew/cannons, etc?

Apologies in advance if these questions are somewhere in the forums already, or are part of a huge FAQ. I’m just getting frustrated with the lack of manufacturer support and documentation.

Thanks!
Cap'n Morgan
 
Welcome to the forums Cap'n Morgan, I hope I can be of some assistance to you.

1) Have you tried going into your system settings under the geforce and fixing the refresh rates for the higher resolutions down to 60hz or something? If it’s that your monitor can’t handle the default refresh rate that the game is specifying, this might help.

2) There are no official patches for the English version of the game, only for the Russian version, and the Russian patch will not work with the English version.

3) There are over 100 mods applied to the game, and easiest and arguably best way to apply them is via the infamous NK Build 10.1. If you want to read about all the mods in that build, you can download the readme file here:

http://members.westnet.com.au/sampow/Build...ld%20Readme.rtf

The build itself can be downloaded from here:

http://mods.piratesahoy.net/uploads/nathan...ild%20v10.1.zip

Or you can make your way over to the mods section of the site:

http://mods.piratesahoy.net

4) There are 10 levels for each skill, and you will more than likely finish the game with unallocated ability and skill points, plus the replayability value is high, so it doesn’t matter if you don’t take the optimum path. :)

5) You can do just about whatever you want, and I would strongly recommend you don’t rush through just following the main quest right away, take your time to geta feel for everything, the quests will wait (unless you’ve been hired to do something by a specific time, but you will see that in your quest log, and usually that’s just for generic trade missions.

6) I think there is some degree of advantage in firing at first person POV, as long as you’ve got your aim sorted out.

7) Sharing your XP with your officers is good, helps them to level faster (not you can scroll through yourself and other officers when levelling characters). You’ve started with some good skills, but don’t forget Melee; you’ll often find yourself at the tip of someone else’s sword, and if you want to be boarding ships and taking them over, you’ll have to cut your way through their crews.

8) Talk to any merchant in a store and discuss business. As long as your ship has a decent sized cargo hold, you should get an offer, but don’t expect big bucks right away (these missions are good for everything, XP, money, and reputation).

9) Depends what you want, a Corvette is good for speed and not going to get blasted to bits, but I tend to use an even smaller ship (actually a sloop I think) because the weaker your ship, the more experience you get for taking over larger ships (but then you have to back that up with actually being able to take them over!)

10) I really haven’t seen the advantage of your own officers entering into the sea battle, I wouldn’t say they’ve ever noticeably swayed the tide for me, I use them to carry cargo. They do get good experience for fighting however.
 
Sampow,

Thanks so much for the prompt response! I really appreciate it. That lays to rest some of my fears.

You said you'll likely finish the game with unallocated skill/ability points. Does this mean you'll likely have them all? (i.e. maxed the character, so to speak?)

Thanks again!
 
6.) at low levels of accuracy it's better to aim yourself, if you know how that is, once you get past `7-ish` in accuracy, just press `space-bar`.

9.) i personally like the Xebec (BR if you have the build) it's fast (especially the BR) and manoeuverable (especially the BR) and has nice health (you guessed it, especially the BR) :cheeky

Well, you'll find all the support you need right here, ...
And welcome to the forums :(
 
Yep, completely maxed out. :cheeky

Heh, I'm lurking at these forums right now trying to avoid some extremely pressing work that I just can't get myself to do. :(
 
Luck is incredibly important if you plan to make some big money quickly by trading with smugglers.

I like a speedier, more manuverable ship for my flagship - good for boarding purposes. Usually I sail with my Xebec CT (which is not native to the game and is in the mods section if you want it), and have a larger slow ship (like a manowar) following me as a cargo ship - or firepower when I need it!
 
Ahoy Capn Morgan,welcome tew dis fine Pirate site,dis be de place yew wanna be fer yer questions, Enjoy :(
 
with that reply sampow i should make this a sticky topic :(
 
The credit goes to Cap'n Morgan who compiled such an encompassing list of questions; most of the regulars here know the answers. :(
 
Thanks, all.

To everyone who replied here, thanks so much. This is a pretty lively site for such an eclectic topic. =)

I still haven't been able to get an NPC to offer me a delivery mission, but my Sloop may not be large enough or have the cargo room for it.

Is there a certain position on the ship that gains experience faster for your officers? I hired an officer upon starting the game, and then another one a couple days (and quite a few battles) later. The newer one is level 5, while the first officer I hired is still level 2 (and cries like a little girl when I board other vessels). Does this have anything to do with their arrangement on the officer/crew/passenger screen?

Also, if I fork out the cash to equip my officers with pistols, will they use them?

How many officers are out there? If a wimpy one gets run through, should I reload (I'm kinda loyal to 'em, sadly) the game, or can you hire them by the dozens as the game goes on?

Hehe... I could keep going, but I'll actually get into the game and try and figured some of this out on my own. You all seemed to attack those last questions so hungrily that now I'm spoiled. =D

Thanks again!
Cap'n Morgan
 
When trying to get delivery missions your hold should be empty of everything but ammo, sailcloth, planks and if you're running the Build mod wheat and rum.
I suspect that you might be carrying other cargo when trying to get a delivery mission from the storeman.

The Officer who is gaining ranks quicker might have the Shared Experience perk, so he'll benefit from all XP that is earned. The other officer will only really benfit from XP that he's earned himself. I always make Shared Experience one of the first perks I select on an officer.

Officers should use pistols, but seemingly not very often. Some pistols need the Gunman or Professional Gunman perk and without that no one can shoot them. aMke sure you only give them the single shot pistols as they seem to ignore the other shots that they might have.

Officers come in 2 different flavours.
1. Encounter officers are always hired in the tavern, these are `auto-generated` and there is an endless supply of them. So when/if they die you only lose the stuff that they are carrying.
2. Quest officers. These are nearly always hired away from the tavern (there are 2 exceptions that crop up with the Build mod)
They are limited in number so if they die then you won't get a replacement.
 
Hmmm.

Thanks, Sirus. Much obliged.

And since I have an endless supply, a couple more for everyone:

-- When taking a delivery mission, can you use multiple ships? Would it be worth it for me to crew a few class 6 ships with me for the sole purpose of ramping up the profits and XP? Or does it not work like that...

-- I've been careful not to engage any foreign ships that I'm not hostile to, and have primarily hunted pirates thus far, yet my reputation dropped seemingly randomly while out at sea. I've payed my crew, hired some officers, etc... and now I'm a swindler. What gives?! The only thing I can think of is that I took the loan from the loanshark per the tutorial, and since Oxbay went hostile as part of the storyline, I haven't gone back yet. Would the loan default cause the reputation hit?

...hehe... just when you thought you guys had answered them all, too. :p:
 
Ahoy CApn Morgan,yew can build yer Rep up by doing store cargo missions an Escort quests through de Tavern keeper,or buy yer rep,at de church.Ye can have another ship wit yew an switch carge through ship exhange interface,so yew can plunder at sea longer :p:
 
Yes, a loan default will give your rep a hit.

Absolutely make sure that all your officers have "Shared Experience" as one of their abilities - and make sure you do, too. It's down near the bottom of the list of abilities, and makes a big difference - especially when you start sinking ships! :p2

Keep 'em coming, we've got the answers for ya! :p: :cheers
 
Just when I thought I'd leave you folks alone for a bit...

The latest crisis... xD:

Worked my way up to a Corvette, which I'm in love with. I proceeded to find a lone pirate Corvette, which I soon made my own as well. Ran around a bit, picked up a FedEx mission at a store in Oxbay for delivery to Conceico.

I set sail for Conceico, and no matter which way I sail, the game crashes before I can reach Conceico. I tried everything, but no matter what, when the calendar strikes March 12, 1631, it crashes.

Question #1: Anyone have any experience with this sort of `date-related` crashing?

The only way I could continue playing the game was to sell the captured Corvette, and for some reason, that solved things. However, selling the ship (and half the cargo I was supposed to deliver) made it so that the storekeeper in Conceico did not reward me, effectively "breaking" the quest. I'm now unable to pick up other store missions, and the delivery entry remains in my quest log. Ugh.

Question #2: Will the quest log clear itself?

Question #3: Will I ever be able to get a store delivery mission again?

I'm pretty sure a month has elapsed (delivery deadline), but I'll double check to make sure, if that matters.

I'm pretty worried that I somehow broke the quest and messed up my captain's career permanently.

What do you guys think?

Cap'n Morgan

Bonus Question #4: If, by some miracle, I'm allowed to do more store missions, approximately how many does it take to bump your reputation up one level?

----------------------------------------EDIT-----------------------------------------
I just found a workaround for the trade quest bug in the Tips and Tricks forum that involves editing a line of code. Do I need something special for that?
 
To edit the code, any text editor will do.

I don't know why the game was crashing for you, but rather than deal with trying to fix the messed up situation, can't you revert back to an older save game? I've had the game crash in similar ways and simply loading a slightly older game and doing things in a different order have seemed to solve the problem.

By the way, a trick when doing trade missions (this may actually be in the tips section already anyway): The items you are given for the mission are randomly generated when you ask for a mission, so save your game before you ask and reload a couple of times until he offers something decent. Of course you may feel that destroys the continuity a bit, but if you want to get paid 1,000,000 gold for a quick trip... xD:

Hopefully in the new mod pack that is to be released soon, some slightly more user friendly options will be available when losing cargo from a trade mission. Currently if you know what the cargo is you've lost, you can buy up the missing portion (often lost in battle) and then make the transaction. The problem is you might not know what's missing (or how much) and the shopkeeper isn't interested until you've got the correct (or more) amount. If we're lucky the modders have perhaps made it that you get paid prorata the amount you deliver, or allow you to default on the transaction (with a reputation penalty or something, maybe even have a "collector" come looking for the missing goods :? )
 
Ahoy, Cap'n Morgan!

To answer your questions one by one:

1. Not me. That's odd. Perhaps you need to go back to a previous save and before you get onboard ship, hit the "I" button. That may help.

2. No, it won't. If you don't finish the quest it will remain there like a reminder.

3. Oh yes, probably. But you will have to build your rep up again. The delivery deadline *does* matter. But you won't have broken your captain's career - you can always build it up again.

4. Getting your rep a boost is a hidden quality and I am not quite sure how it is measured - it's probably a lot like the HP/XP - it's a numerical value but it doesn't report itself anywhere - it just happens. If you have a lot of money you can go donate in the church and that will boost your rep - it's quicker for the lower reps, and takes longer for the upper reps.

EDIT question - the only kind of editor you should use is a text editor like Notepad, but do not use Word!!! You need just a simple text or hex editor. I have UltraEdit, which is a great text/hex editor. It is a free download `45-day` trial at http://www.ultraedit.com/ but you might also find it or others like it on a free software site like http://www.download.com. Just search for hex or text editors.

Hope this helps! xD: :?
 
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