Difficulty settings and crew numbers

[ScottsBlood]

I think I read on here somewhere that the harder difficulty you play on, the more of a handicap that the computer has against you in crew numbers when you board enemy ships. I started this game playing at the captain level, and I didn't have much of a problem at the start, but I'm finding out now that it is impossible for me to survive boarding engagements even though I have a schooner with a crew of around 230 (I think that's about right?) and I try to take on luggers that are supposed to have crews of around 100 or so. I also have 3 fighters with as good a weapon as I can give them at their rank, but they get surrounded and slaughtered with the rest of my crew. I do try to help my crew, but it seems like while I'm fighting on one side of the ship, my soldiers on the other side get wasted, and suddenly I find enemy fighters coming up behind me and what's left of my men. So, basically, I'm trying to figure out which level is the most equal to what you might consider "normal" difficulty. I'm trying to get it where neither I nor the computer has any advantage in numbers. Any advice?

Fighting with the captain is no sweat at any difficulty setting, he actually seems to be weaker than some of his crewmen, so as far as I can tell, the differences in difficulty settings really only affect boarding and crew numbers.

 

[snuff]

I think the main settings that should be messed with at first are not so much the general difficulty settings but the rest of them.

I played around with this a bit because when i first started playing it was simply to easy. I have all the settings to the left on normal except the one that decides who hates me because I want to choose who i like and dislike. I turn off all the handicaps to the right and set it to seaman. This setting has proved to be the most realistic one for me so far.

 

[ScottsBlood]

That's what I was looking for: realism. I'll give that a shot and see if it changes things for the better.