Just got out of the Barbados, need lots of help

[crazyguy7007]

Hey guys,

So I have played the game now for about 3 hours since this game has a pretty steep learning curve. I did the plantation and now have successfully moored in Martinique. I still have the stolen ship, the one that reduces my stats. I did buy the game retail, so I have the horrible manual and the map, thank god for the map. I need quite a few pointers and someone to help me out:

1. I'm currently flying an English flag. According to my F2 - Nations, the Dutch and English are trading (Scales icon?). Why do the Dutch patrols attack my ship?

2. Should I sell my current ship, at a considerable loss, and buy a ship that I can actually pilot well. I did try to buy a lvl 6 ship, a little thing that cost about 500, but it couldn't fit cannons. So I loaded the save before I purchased it. The other vessels are way outside of my price range. I could probably borrow money but that doesn't seem a good path to take immediately.

3 Where should I start running missions out of? Is the dutch an adequate place to start? English? Pirates? Does it really matter?

4. I try to buy things from the store, like cannon balls, and it will not let me purchase it. I have plenty of money, it just isn't green. There is also a blue highlighted text that I cannot buy also. Very confused about that.

I do appreciate all the readings and stuff that I've seen on this forum so far. Just need a newbie guide because it seems to have a lot missing from the beginning part of the game.

Thanks in advance guys. This game might be a little more difficult to learn than Eve Online!

 

[bobboberts]

1. If you click on F2 and then Nations at the top you'll see what nations are friends with England and which are enemies. England is at war with the Dutch

2.Don't sell your ship, its too good to sell, earn money and put it into storage at Port Control office. If you don't store it away, your character stats are decreased greatly.
If you look in the forums it answers all of your questions already. There is lots of ways to make quick money in this game. One way is to see if the particular town has a dungeon and then trigger the white light skeleton random monster generation, attack one skeleton, if it poisons you you have to have a Antidote bottle(press X) to cure you. I kept on attacking skeletons and made alot of quick cash that way myself.

3.Try for instance the governor missions, like look in town for spy type of missions, or port control mission is to deliver ship log to another ship.

4.maybe you can't buy something because there is no stock? It should work if you have enough money.

 

[Surfmutt]

1. I'm currently flying an English flag. Why do the Dutch patrols attack my ship?

2. Should I sell my current ship, at a considerable loss, and buy a ship that I can actually pilot well.

3 Where should I start running missions out of? Is the dutch an adequate place to start?

4. I try to buy things from the store, like cannon balls, and it will not let me purchase it.

I'll take my poke at adding to these.

1. It's probable you are not reading the matrix right. In my game the english start at war with both Dutch and Spanish. Getting the other nation's flags was the first few ship perks I spent (to avoid encounters I did not want) since I had officers at every post.

2. It was tough to hold onto the initial frigate but well worth it. I recommend taking it out in search of a new ship for you (rather than buying one). Fill it with as many sailors as you can, preferably from Port Francois (or whatever, the pirate town--has good fighting sailors). Grab at least one officer to pilot the frigate once your take over the new ship that you board. I made most of my money to put the frigate in drydock by capturing enemy ships and selling their cargo/cannons/ship. Take the cannons off your frigate when you are ready to dock it and sell those to the ship yard. Will give you an extra 20K or so and by the time you are ready to pull the frigate out you will have plenty of money to buy new cannons. (Reminder--as long as the frigate is captained by an officer, they get the negative penalties, not you. The frigate can follow you around like this for as long as it takes for you to get enough money to store it).

3. Missions - recommend the moneylender "find the gem" quests for quick money. Just talk to money lender in various cities several times and they will eventually offer the quest. Turn off foliage to make it easier. The gem is always in the area just outside the city. Pain in the ars to find but easy money. I wouldn't do the mayor quest kill the smugglers just yet. If you are playing a bad pirate, you may want to sell some holds full of slaves to them (can make a million piasters or more in one run) and if you kill the smugglers too many times for the mayor you mess up their faction (they won't deal with you) and it can cost 400K or more to repair it.

4. Buying from store -- you have to double left click the item which causes a pop up box where you can purchase or sell using right and left arrowss. Anytime you are moving items around, use the right and left arrows on your keyboard to speed up the transfer process (I didn't know this, was always using the mouse when moving items ship to ship and it takes forever). Try that and see if it helps. It could be the ship you are trying to buy the stuff for is already at max carrying capacity...dunno