• New Horizons on Maelstrom
    Maelstrom New Horizons


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Starting game date, does it matter?

BogdanM

BogdanM

Landlubber
So I'm trying the New Horizons mod for the first time and I have to say that I've never seen a mod so well put together and polished. I take my hat off to all the people who made it possible!

Now with the introduction out of the way I have a few questions. Does it matter which story line I choose? I mainly like to free play and doing quests only after I level my character a bit. Is there any difference between free playing in 1660 or 1750? Which is the best story to play if I want to play as a pirate?

I've already played a bit through the 1750 story and while doing a couple dozen see trips I've never been attacked by a pirate ship (on world map), only a few French ships tried to follow me. Are pirates gone in 1750?

And an unrelated question. How is the crewman bodyguard feature supposed to work? I've taken them with me on land but they didn't join the fight when I was attacked. Even after I gave them weapons. Also do I have to take the weapons back before I dismiss them otherwise I loose the items?

Thanks for the help!
 
Ahoy BogdanM, welcome aboard mate!

Thanks for the kind words mate, we have spent over a decade now working on it, with content and contributions by hundreds of modders and story writers. It's good to hear that you are enjoying it! :onya

There are so many different story lines, it is tough to choose which one to choose without knowing how you like to play. If you like Disney's version of pirates, then Hoist the Colors is a good place to start. If you prefer to play as more of a classic pirate movie pirate, then Bartolomeu o Portugues is more your style. If you prefer tough and gritty, more realistic style pirate action, then the Stormy Start might be your best bet. There are so many story lines it is really up to you to decide just how you want to play it!

As far as starting dates, I think there are a couple of story lines where that is important, but they should start you in the correct year. The different eras will effect the types of ships and weapons available however, so again, it really dpends on how you want to play the game.

As for the officers you take ashore with you, that is rather strange, they should attack as long as they have weapons equipped and the proper skills to use them. What story line are you playing? And yes, if you you do not take them back, you will loose them, unless you loot their bodies.
 
Thanks for the reply!

I'm not talking about officers you can add to your party, but those crewmen you get when you talk to a sailor on the ship deck and ask for 1-3 sailors to join you next time you dock. Are those ones supposed to protect you when you get in a fight. They don't have any weapons at first.
 
Based on your lack of pirate ships on the worldmap, it sounds like you are still using Beta 3.2 .
We have a Beta 3.3 internal WIP version available now; see the link in my signature.
That comes highly recommended as it fixes several gameplay issues and also returns the pirates where they belong.
Additionally, there is a new storyline added named "Brave Black Flag" which is a good one if you want to do free play as a pirate.

The actual time period depends on personal preference.
In the earliest time period there is a huge Spanish presence and galleons and caravels roam the seas.
On the other hand, in the last time period you have the United States making an appearance and even the occasional steam frigate.
Each period is different and hopefully the variety allows for extra replay potential on other storyline.

As for the land crewmembers, so changes have been made to them in Beta 3.3, so hopefully that would be better for you there as well.
 
Thanks, I didn't know there is a newer version. I've installed it and I'll start a new game tomorrow. "Brave Black Flag" might be exactly what I'm looking for.
 
:ahoy mate!

There is a great variety in the storylines. Some break if you leave them, like Horatio Hornblower and Woodes Rogers while others are free play almost from the start like Devlin Opera and Tales of a Chevalier.

Actually, for a mixture of free play and scripted storyline the Sea Hawk is the best. You can leave it for years and pick up right where you left off. Getting the English too upset with you can cause complications, but nothing that can't be overcome.

I have not taken a shore party with me in a long time, but they used to work and no one else has complained. Once you equip them they jump right into any fight. Any old sword will do but they last longer with better swords.

And as Pieter said, the 3.3 WIP is a huge improvement over 3.2.
 
BogdanM said:
Thanks for the reply!

I'm not talking about officers you can add to your party, but those crewmen you get when you talk to a sailor on the ship deck and ask for 1-3 sailors to join you next time you dock. Are those ones supposed to protect you when you get in a fight. They don't have any weapons at first.
Click to expand...

Ooops, forgot about that being added, I haven't played for a while.

Pieter Boelen said:
Based on your lack of pirate ships on the worldmap, it sounds like you are still using Beta 3.2 .
We have a Beta 3.3 internal WIP version available now; see the link in my signature.
That comes highly recommended as it fixes several gameplay issues and also returns the pirates where they belong.
Additionally, there is a new storyline added named "Brave Black Flag" which is a good one if you want to do free play as a pirate.
Click to expand...
Thanks Pieter, I completely missed his post about the pirates not showing up on the worldmap, and I forgot about the new Brave Black Flag quest! :facepalm

Hylie Pistof said:
There is a great variety in the storylines. Some break if you leave them, like Horatio Hornblower and Woodes Rogers while others are free play almost from the start like Devlin Opera and Tales of a Chevalier.

Actually, for a mixture of free play and scripted storyline the Sea Hawk is the best. You can leave it for years and pick up right where you left off. Getting the English too upset with you can cause complications, but nothing that can't be overcome.
Click to expand...

Thanks Hylie, forgot about the Sea Hawk too! I am so ashamed... :oops:
 
Hylie Pistof said:
Actually, for a mixture of free play and scripted storyline the Sea Hawk is the best. You can leave it for years and pick up right where you left off. Getting the English too upset with you can cause complications, but nothing that can't be overcome.
Click to expand...
Brave Black Flag is basically a copy of the Sea Hawk (standard) storyline, but with the main quets disabled and tailored a bit for play as a pirate.
 
I've started a new Sea Hawk game and I'd like to ask for some advice on how to make money faster than my current approach with is doing chores for store owners. I've tried buying and selling cargo on my own but my ship is too small and my commerce skill to low (well is 5 or 6 now) to get more then 1-2000 in profit/trip (after checking the import/export info). So it's easier just to do missions for the store owners where I get 6000-20000/trip. But even so after buying all sorts of items and spending money on the crew, food, rum and repairs, after ~ 5h of playing I've accumulated only around 70000. So any tips how to increase my profits? I haven't started doing quests yet.
 
I think I can see your mistake. You're buying cargo, i.e. paying for it. The game is called "Pirates of the Caribbean" and I tend to take the first word seriously. :rpirate

So the first thing I do is get my "Melee" skill raised. You can train with crew on your ship's deck or you can go raiding dungeons. Then I go and find something to attack, preferably something not much bigger than my own ship. Starting with a lugger, I'll look for something like a sloop to take over for myself, or a small merchant like a bark to plunder. Possibly both, since ships don't tend to travel alone and merchants often have escorts. (If you're using the worldmap, don't accept action against patrols, fleets or single merchants with large escorts, at least at first. If you're using direct sail, run away from anything that's much bigger than you.) Once your "Leadership" skill is 5, or if you have a couple of officers one of which has "Leadership" at least 5, you can capture another ship and put an officer in charge of it. If you're relying on an officer's "Leadership", don't put him in charge of a prize ship, he has to stay with you. Selling plundered cargo, and captured ships when you can, should raise quite a lot of money.

Of course, this is dangerous, so you'll want to save game often. Actually you'll want to do that anyway in case you get caught out by a bug in the game and can't continue, especially when you start following the storyline or doing side quests.

Officers' skills override yours if they're higher and relevant to the officer's job. For example a good quartermaster will probably have higher "Commerce" skill than you, plus one or more of the commerce-related perks, which ought to improve your profits even if you continue to follow the life of an honest trader. (A quartermaster with the "Trustworthy" skill will be useful if you follow the life of a dishonest trader, he can sell contraband at a store without having to make a deal with a smuggler and risk getting caught by a customs patrol.)
 
Yes indeed piracy works but can be hard on the crew and ship, especially early on. I believe in luck and smuggling. Hauling ebony from Santiago to Jamaica or Cayman is a sure money maker. Shuttling between Martinique and Puerto Rico is lucrative as well. The higher your luck skill the less Coast Guard you will see and they are usually easy enough to evade anyway.
 
How do you plunder in this mod? I have a Light Fluyt of war (34-12lbs cannons and 4000 hull strength) and I couldn't find a single ship on the world map that was weak enough for me to attack. Everyone sails in convoys and even merchants with light escort have 2-3 ships my size... I've never seen a ship traveling alone.

Back to the OP question, does it matter which period I play in? So maybe in 1660 there were more ships sailing alone while in 1750 most ships traveled in convoys because of the threat of pirates?
 
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Hmm. The light fluyt of war is a good ship. Do you have a gunner yet? He makes a big difference. Also, those 12 pounders out range the 9 pounders most merchantmen are armed with. Just stay back and shred their sails. Soon enough the ones that can will just sail away. Then you can move in and board the ones that can't run away. Protect your sails! When their morale drops enough they will go after your sails and then try to get away.
 
The of the world map encounters doesn't change much with period.
Try the ships sailing around islands. They are often smaller and generally with only two.
 
Pir ask a Governor for a job. That is always a single shop and the size is linked to your own.
 
The light fluyt of war is a bit slow and clumsy for my taste. Starting from the lugger with which you begin the game, I generally look for something like a sloop or schooner, then a xebec or brig, then frigates of increasing size.

Merchants are perhaps bigger than that fluyt but they're probably not better armed - it doesn't get the designation "of war" for nothing! In any case, provided you have "Leadership" at least 5 and a free officer, you want to board the target so you can capture it. (Especially if you're using the sorts of ships I do as they don't have enough cargo hold to take much plunder from the enemy ship.) From the worldmap, "merchants with light escort" is probably quite a good target because with a bit of luck the escort is something slightly better than your ship, i.e. an upgrade if you can capture it. Or sometimes you might even find a group of merchants without an escort. Otherwise, as Pieter says, sail round the island a while using direct sail (don't go to worldmap) and see if there's anything more suitable. For preference, sail to a different island first - the merchant ships which show up at an island are likely to be the same nationality as the island, so if you've just left a friendly port and attack the first merchant you find, that port won't stay friendly. If you're playing "Tales of a Sea Hawk" then you're probably friendly with Britain, Holland and Portugal, so go to a French or Spanish island to do your raiding - and stay well away from the fort! Incidentally, you should invest in a Letter of Marque from one of the friendly nations, or better yet, get one from each of them. Attacking enemy ships then gets you promotions, which get you land, which brings in another continuing stream of income.

If a governor asks you to sink a ship, it will either be a pirate or an enemy warship. It's possibly a good way to get a better ship for yourself, but it probably won't yield much in the way of plunder. You will get money from the governor, though, so at least you get some reward for your effort. And if you capture rather than sink it, you can sell the ship itself.
 
Thanks for the suggestions and advice! To be honest I posted when the frustration was pretty high for not getting my money's worth from the ship. I'd spent 1 hour traveling between ports for a good ship to buy and then another hour trying to find a suitable target (read "weak ship which I could have obliterated with my cannons and feel good about myself") and I came out empty handed.

The fluyt is certainly a good ship but it's a bit too big and too slow for me so I'll load an earlier save file and buy something smaller and look for some prey around islands.

I might be wrong but this mod makes the life of a pirate really tough, in all world map battles I've seen involving pirates they were always outmatched by the enemy as in the pirates were the ones attacked, no ship raiding going on anywhere. Also pirate ships never chase me on the world map, is it supposed to be like that?
 
Pirate ships should occasionally give chase.

Pirate fleets, however, generally are smaller and with smaller craft than several of the nation fleets.
This is historically accurate, since pirates usually operated with small craft by themselves.
 
What I meant to say is that I never see pirates and their victims, only pirates crushed by the "insert country" warship patrols.

What does "Cannot Buy - Navy Ship" mean? Do I have to be enlisted in the Royal Navy to get those ships? Or only have a letter of marque?

Ah and another question, can I read anywhere what skills are used by each officer role?
 
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