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Ahoy thar Duncan, I welcome ye Matey. If'n I understand yew right, yew be sayin that yew skipped the tutorial and put to sea....But got dump back on to Oxbay Port, and got blown up right away? Thius would indeed cause you problems....doesnt happen often...if you are English....do the tutorial, and follow Malcolm until you know what to do on your own....this has to be done in a certain order
If yew followed the Oxbay Tutorial, and read what Malcolm your faithful, ever loyal, soon to part, damn his heart, Boatswain tells you, you will see the part where he hints to raise the French Flag, before you leave the Port, this stops you from being fire on by the newly captured but you didnt know, Fortifications around the Now French Port after the Cut scene about the frenh fleet. Then of course once you put to sea and sail out enough you can raise another flag and start your career
As for not completing tutorial...that is weird, but you cannot go into any of the buildings first, Malcolm has to unlock them in order and you follow ( unless you tell Malcolm to go play somewhere earlier on and try to do it by yourself ).....but to be fair to you, there is a newly added feature about Taverns...when you muster new hands or crew, the game now immediately reverts to the night, you will see the message up in the top left of the screen...something to the effect of "mustering new hands takes the rest of the day" or something like this.....I do not like this new feature at all, and because it is new, it may indeed prevent you from finishing the tutorial. But how you got into the Tavern first without it being unlocked....well??? When the night comes of course, it prevents you from going into any more buildings that day, cause it is now nightime and they are all locked up, cept the tavern...follow? I would say somehow you did something that took so long that night came, and you still had not finished the tutorial the way Malcolm was supposed to show you! Only he can open the Tavern for you....same as the store, shipyard and the gates....he has to go first...
Anyway this is a little trick I like...try it, I will try an be brief....follow Malcolm...do the tutorial...after he quits your crew...buy equipment and stuff for your crew.....a couple fine Sabers or cutlasses, health potions....get ready to put to sea, grab three or 4 officers if'n you can and for lord sakes raise the french flag using F2 and relations. Now save as soon as you get to the end of the docks..then go to sea. You will see the film, where the french fleet appears....at the end, you realize you are this one ship...sloop I think they called it that sails away to warn the Redmond Governor...ok! When the movie ends, ( hit esc to skip it once you have seen it enough to understand what happens ) you will be in harbor...raise sails and go toward sea, use your "R" button to speed up to 3x...the french guarding the port are to the right of you.....this is important. You go left down the coast...A little ways down the coast is Greenford....there are two colonies on this Island...Greenford is still English...you will see by using your "open command icon menu" and your sailto button the ships that are in and around the sea area and sometimes they are english and pirates or otherwise against the french. as you sail away far enough changed flags back to english or your own colors...the three french will raise sails and come after you....sail right around the Island...because as the french follow you, you will sometimes see ships surrender to the following french ships......if this be the case, when you come around the island again, you can board the "surrendered", "struck", ships and capture them as long as your flag wasnt the same as them, with your own colors this should not be a be problem. (example = if you are english, and english ships strike, you cannot board them without repercussions from the english...but if you have your personnal colors you can...worry about rep later ) This is a good way to get a couple of small ships quickly and you then go to sea, and sail to redmond.....
Hope this helps.....