Irritations.

[Verchiel]

For some reason, whenever I board any ship, no crew members follow me over leaving me to deal with 6 or so enemies (and I like play on Swashbuckler). Also, one of the videos causes the game to exit to windows.

The computer I'm running on is Windows 98SE, 1.8ghz, 64mb NVIDIA GeForce 2.

 

[CatalinaThePirate]

<img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/hi.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":gday" border="0" alt="hi.gif" /> <b>Verchiel, </b>and welcome aboard! Have an ale! <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/beer2.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":beer" border="0" alt="beer2.gif" />

If one of the videos causes your game to crash, you may need to find updated codecs. You can get the latest Windows Media codecs at <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/format/codecdownload.aspx" target="_blank">Microsoft's website, </a> and as for other codec packages you can do a Google search to find them if the MS pack doesn't help.

I'm not sure why you don't have any crew following you when you board - what version of the Build mod are you playing?

There are many factors which can cause you to have no crew - if the other ship's crew outnumbers you by a LOT, you won't have any help in boarding. Are you trying to board larger ships than your own?

Also, did your crew follow you previously? Think of what might have changed since they stopped following you over. Did you up the difficulty level to Swashbuckler and they stopped boarding with you?

Of course you can have officers in your boarding party too. But if you prefer not to, then not having the crew probably means you have been severely outnumbered.

Provide a little more info on what's happening in your game, and hopefully we can come up with a solution to your troubles! <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/par-ty.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="par-ty.gif" />

 

[Verchiel]

-I'm playing the latest build
-I started the game playing swashbuckler
-I did have crew boarding for half a dozen attacks, but what may have been one or two checkpoints into the Oxbay mission they were gone.
-My favourite strategy is to steer a Fast/War Schooner through a ships blind spot and then take them, typically I prefer to do this on battleships and other class `1-2` ships and either sell them or just kill them for the exp, so roughly half the time I will be attacking bigger ships.

I went and started a new game, and as I've only reported the Oxbay issue to Silehard and not done anything else I still seem to have my crew, however a new problem arose, that being that when boarding the screen will go black, the battle is still going on but the screen isn't...this one is more irritating than the previous as for example I brought down half a dozen French ships, then three pirates, then on the next my screen went black and got skewered (I think).

and thanks for the ale. <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/onya.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="onya.gif" />

 

[CatalinaThePirate]

Heh, you sound like you play like I do! <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" />

It IS odd that you're not getting any crew with you, especially if there's been little damage to your own ship that migh cause you to have less crew. It might be a corrupted save; this game is full of surprises. <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="rolleyes.gif" />

However it seems to me that there's some switch somewhere that will set the boarding crew ratio, but I am not sure where it is... Perhaps someone will come along who can help you on that...

I've had trouble like that when a screen goes black but you can still hear the music. Frustrating, to say the least, especially when your "blood is up" in the midst of a battle and you're ready to TROUNCE someone... <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/urgh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":urgh" border="0" alt="urgh.gif" /> In this case there may be some trouble with internals that need to be reset. If it happens again, when you reload, hit the "T" key to reset some of these things. Sometimes it's a case of the compiler getting tied into a pretzel knot and getting overloaded. The "T" key in particular will help, but if it does not solve the problem, when you reload hit both the "T" key AND the "I" key (which reinitializes the game).

I think that should help you there... At least for that problem... <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/oops3.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="ops2" border="0" alt="oops3.gif" />

 

[NathanKell]

I don't believe there's a way to scale boarding crew ratio; what you can do is scale enemy HP, and the effect of morale.

What's the crew ratio at the time you board? If it's too far in their favor, then you _will_ be all alone...

 

[CatalinaThePirate]

Nathan, I thought there was some kind of scalar for what causes you to have less crew on boarding than your enemy, something that measured your crew numbers against the enemy crew numbers... <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/unsure.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":?" border="0" alt="unsure.gif" />

 

[Verchiel]

My Schooner has a crew of 130 (Usually full), and will typically be facing anywhere from `350-600` depending on the enemy.

*edit* Morale is always between good and heroic.