the trick is to get your notiority high enough. you can see it in the relations menu. your notiority increases when your personal wealth increases, which you can see below your experience bar. if you join a nation, you will get land, which will earn you money every day. this goes to your personal wealth. you can also choose to devide the plunder if you have enough cash, which gives a nice big boost to crew morale and your personal wealth, although it does cost a lot. millions in fact, when you have a fleet of manowars. you can choose to devide the plunder in the 'crew pay' menu. if you choose to simply pay a salary to your crew, you will also recieve a little money each time, but it's much less. i would recommend waiting with deviding the plunder until you've figured out your finances.
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tips for raking in that all-important booty:
1: of course, you guessed it, smuggling. smuggling requires a good deal of PERSONAL luck, so you won't get caught, and a ship with plenty of cargo space. good smuggling goods are:
ebony: expensive, very heavy, and brings in a good profit. however, it's so heavy that you can't carry much of the stuff, and you need to invest quite a lot of cash.
mahogany: cheaper than ebony, quite a bit lighter, but brings less money in a peice. however, it brings in a much greater profit in large batches, as you can carry more of the stuff. profit/weight/quantity efficiency better than with ebony.
mass goods: what you want here are light, expensive goods. you can carry a lot of them, and you don't need to invest a lot of money in them. good for beginning players. makes less profit than the heavy expensive goods though.
one more thing on smuggling: be sure to purchase goods where they are exported. it makes a huge difference in purchase prices. high commerce skill helps a lot here too.
2: ship hunting missions: good way to make a profit if you're skillfull with your ship, for three reasons:
1: you get a reward.
2: you can capture and sell the ship, which brings in more profit.
3: you can keep any goods that where on board the ship.
and: you get xp and items from boarding. what's more, your relaion with nations that where hostile to that ship increases.
3: treasure hunting: if you've made a good profit with smuggling, you could invest this in a treasure map. i'd recommend getting your PERSONAL luck up really high though. lucky items help a lot with this. you need good fighting equipment too though. pirates guarding the treasure are just as strong as fort-soldiers. these guys are deadly. you'll definatly need armor for this. if you're lucky, the profits will be very high indeed. apart from that, it's just plain fun.
4: of course, you could always loot a dungeon once in a while. reasonable profits, and not too hard.
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things to stay alive in a swordfight:
1: learn toughness. it's a huge help. it also makes those pesky monkies a lot less dangerous, as it increases your poison resistance. in fact, it makes you immune to it, as your health will increase quickly enough to counteract it.
2: get your sword up to excellent quality at the blacksmith. it makes a huge difference in damage. be sure to do the same for your officers, and give them toughness as well. the primary thing you should be looking in a sword for is high block rate, not piercing or damage. otherwise your enemies will still continue to hack you to bits. damage comes second. some enemies have toughness too, so if you have a bad sword, you might not do enough damage to counter their toughness.
3: first, make sure you have at least a melee skill of 2, then start scrounging chests (especially in boarding. lot's of usefull items there) for armour. remember to equip it. it makes a massive difference in recieved damage and blocking. beware though that cheap armor soaks 1 melee skill. you CAN give armour to officers, but you need to make sure that they use it. i'm not sure if they do.
4: timing is crucial. strike after the enemy strikes, strike again if he flinches, and get your defence back up right after you strike. when fighting multiple enemies, wait until they all strike at once. again, make sure you have a high block rate in such a situation. otherwise you won't stand a chance. (i've beaten 5 at the same time once. that was a serious lesson in precise swordmanship. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile2.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="
)" border="0" alt="smile2.gif" /> ) shooting if the enemy is far away helps too. going to the conceciao blacksmith to improve your pistol might even result in killing an enemy with a single shot. grenades are pretty cool too. take care not to throw them in the wrong place though. you might blow one of your friends up. trust me, they're dead. i've blown myself up once too. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/boom.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":boom" border="0" alt="boom.gif" />
5: in a boarding fight, your crew's and the enemies morale determines hitpoints, attack, defence, and hp for both sides. increasing the crew's morale before boarding could help a lot. raking an enemy with grapeshot can have amazing results. they might even surrender outright. of course, always remember to tell weak officers to sit out a boarding party before you go to sea.
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" border="0" alt="icon_wink.gif" /> ) but that's just one of the REALLY big ones, called a naval fleet. the biggest trading fleet is called a convoy. it consists of some first-rates and a large bunch of big fat traders.
