So I finally got to Cozumel, found my way through the temple, got back out, and faced the Black Pearl. As I had a full set of four ships at the time, to take the Pearl I had to swap ships and lose my frigate.
To quote Oddball in "Kelly's Heroes", after he's swapped his Sherman for the Tiger: "It's a piece of junk!"
I had hoped for a decent ship like the Black Pearl in Build 13. What I got has about the same speed (16 versus 15.7) and lower turn rate (70 versus 82), and that's after I've given it all the upgrades. It feels distinctly more sluggish on the turn, too - perhaps it has turn rate 70 but takes a while to get up to that rate. It has bigger guns but fewer of them. And it's cursed - the crew look like they've been nibbled by sharks, the sails look like they've been nibbled by giant moths, and there is the same smoke screen as you get when carrying a cursed coin, which blocks your forward vision while not blocking anybody else's vision to impair their shooting at you.
Jack Sparrow had none of these troubles when he had taken over the Black Pearl at the end of the film!
The Black Pearl is going into mothballs, I'll take command of the Mefisto for a while, then I'll steal another flush-decked frigate and go about my business as before.
One interesting feature of the Black Pearl is the sweeps. Presumably this is supposed to represent oars. Could this be incorporated into some more realistic ships, i.e. galleys? Watch the original "Tales of a Sea Hawk", or more accurately just "The Sea Hawk", the old Errol Flynn film - there's just such a ship in the opening battle.
To quote Oddball in "Kelly's Heroes", after he's swapped his Sherman for the Tiger: "It's a piece of junk!"
I had hoped for a decent ship like the Black Pearl in Build 13. What I got has about the same speed (16 versus 15.7) and lower turn rate (70 versus 82), and that's after I've given it all the upgrades. It feels distinctly more sluggish on the turn, too - perhaps it has turn rate 70 but takes a while to get up to that rate. It has bigger guns but fewer of them. And it's cursed - the crew look like they've been nibbled by sharks, the sails look like they've been nibbled by giant moths, and there is the same smoke screen as you get when carrying a cursed coin, which blocks your forward vision while not blocking anybody else's vision to impair their shooting at you.
Jack Sparrow had none of these troubles when he had taken over the Black Pearl at the end of the film!
The Black Pearl is going into mothballs, I'll take command of the Mefisto for a while, then I'll steal another flush-decked frigate and go about my business as before.
One interesting feature of the Black Pearl is the sweeps. Presumably this is supposed to represent oars. Could this be incorporated into some more realistic ships, i.e. galleys? Watch the original "Tales of a Sea Hawk", or more accurately just "The Sea Hawk", the old Errol Flynn film - there's just such a ship in the opening battle.