Help Capturing ships.

[Jason]

Help! Everytime I board a ship and kill the captain, the capture ship is greyed out as soon as the I click the money and item sceen. I have plenty of officers. Any ideas/

 

[Grey Roger]

What is your Tactics skill? For every two levels, you may command one ship, though you may still command one ship with skill level 1. You can't command a second ship unless your Tactics skill is at least 4. And if you're escorting a ship, that counts as one of them, so if you have Tactics skill 4 and are escorting something, you can't capture another ship.

How many crew do you still have alive? If you've had to fight your way onto the ship, all the enemy crew are dead, which means the prize crew has to come from your own ship's crew. There must be enough of your crew to provide at least a minimum number of sailors (and gunners, I think) for both ships.

Presumably when you say you have plenty of officers, they aren't all employed - an officer who's been assigned to a post, such as gunner or fighter, isn't available to command a prize ship. (You're allowed to press F2 and go into the character screen after you've killed the enemy captain, so if you have no free officers, you can take an assigned officer out of his post before pressing F3 to continue to the pillaging screen.)

 

[Jason]

Thank you, Grey Roger. Well I think I have enough unassigned officeres may tactial skill is high enough for two ships. So maybe it is crew, but I am not sure, how do I look to see how many crew both ships have?

 

[Grey Roger]

There should be a table of information about each ship on the "Pillage" screen. I don't know where you find the minimum crew required for any particular ship, though. But basically, if you're trying to capture a much larger ship than your own, or if your crew has been seriously depleted during the battle, this is probably why you can't capture the ship.

Also, near the "Capture" button it should either say "You can capture this ship" or give a reason why you can't. It certainly tells you if your Tactics skill is insufficient or if you have no free officers. There was one occasion when I tried to capture an enemy ship, it said "You can capture this ship" but the "Capture" button was greyed out; I was trying to take one ship, I'd already taken another, and I'd taken crew losses due to cannon fire, so I was low on crew and figured that this was the cause.

 

[Jason]

Thanks again, that should help.

 

[boardslide315]

Is there a way to send an unassigned officer to board the other ship without having all the positions on your ship already filled with other officers? Like, can I board another ship with only one hired officer total?

 

[rupertlittlebear]

just remember to have him unassigned when you take over the ship -> so he can be the new captain.

 

[boardslide315]

<!--quoteo(post=184047:date=Feb 22 2007, 07:34 PM:name=rupertlittlebear)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(rupertlittlebear @ Feb 22 2007, 07:34 PM) [snapback]184047[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
just remember to have him unassigned when you take over the ship -> so he can be the new captain.
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
how do u unassign him? is it just 'dismiss?'

 

[Grey Roger]

No, "Dismiss" sacks the officer entirely. And if that button appears, I think it means the officer is not assigned to a post anyway. Does he appear as a passenger?

If an officer has been assigned to a position, the button should say "Remove", and if you click it, you should be asked if you want to remove the officer from his position.