Maybe someone wants to sticky this, mabye not. I just feel there's an awful lot of repetitive questions lately. <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="
" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />
________________________________________________________________________________
<b>PA Unofficial FAQ to Sid Meier's Pirates!
-----------------------------------------</b>
This is a compilation of frequently asked questions and their respective answers concerning the Firaxis/Atari game <i>Sid Meier's Pirates.</i> The answers were taken from various posts found on the <a href="http://www.piratesahoy.net/" target="_blank">Pirates Ahoy!</a> SMP forum. If you feel something's wrong or missing please <a href="http://forum.piratesahoy.net/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=3393" target="_blank">contact the author</a>.
<b>PLEASE READ THIS DOCUMENT BEFORE ASKING A QUESTION.</b> We're glad to be of help, but repeating the same things over and over becomes tiresome for even the most understanding pirates. <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/icon_wink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="
" border="0" alt="icon_wink.gif" />
<b>Q1: How can I attack towns and settlements?</b>
A: There are <i>various ways</i> to attack towns, provided you have enough men (about 100 should suffice to get the attack option at every town). There is <i>no way</i> to attack settlements, missions, Pirate havens or Indian villages.
The easiest way to attack a town is to sail to a near shore (not too near though else you'll be entering the town), disembark and walk into town. When you walk into town you will <i>always</i> be given the option to sneak in or to attack it (again: provided you are not heavily outnumbered, see above). Since the old sea attack as you might still know it from the original Pirates! game is no longer there in SMP and town attacks are always fought on land anyway, this way of doing it holds no disadvantages for you.
Another way to attack the town is by sailing right into it (sometimes you can't land near it because the island it's on may be too small). If the town is sufficiently hostile towards you, you will again be presented with the option to sneak in or attack. If the options don't come up but instead you are dropped right into the town screen, they obviously think you're a good guy. Well, prove them wrong. Exit again and board some of the ships coming out of the town or fire some rounds at their fort by pressing the space bar. Soon they will get your drift and ask you if you want to attack next time you enter town. <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/icon_wink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="icon_wink.gif" />
Easy on the cannon balls though: bombarding a town too much will decrease it's wealth and hence your plunder. Don't overdo it.
<b>Q2: I want to fight the Captain of the town's guard! Where's that sneaky weasel?</b>
A: Well, if your bunch of 100 pirates is up against 140 town guards, the Captain of the guard seemingly prefers to personally "guard" the governor's daughter or whatever. (Bad move because with a bit of wit your crowd will give his cronies a run for their money nonetheless, but that's just the way he is.) To get him to face up to you you will have to attack with 100 pirates or more a garrison of less than 100 guards. Usually only in those cases will you not have to fight the land battle but be taken to the duel with the Guard's Captain right away.
<b>Q3: Ok, but why can't I sack a town and install a new governor?</b>
A: To install a new governor you will in most cases have to attack the town at least a second time right away (sometimes you might manage it in one go though). The prerequisites for you being given the option to install a new governor are about the same as for getting to fight the captain of the guard.
<b>Q4: Do you have any hints for treasure hunting (rescueing relatives etc.)? I now know that there's an unsual number of geysers in Central America, but can't seem to find what I'm after...</b>
A: The most valuable part of a treasure map is the search hint at the bottom, because it tells you roughly where to look (vicinity of Santiago, north of Granada and so on). Often it will be sufficient to have that and the part of the map with the X. Land near the city, see if you can find a hill or mountain to climb, pull out your spyglass (e.g. by `right-clicking`) and scan the area for unusual landmarks.
Geysers and dead trees do not necessarily inidcate that you are on the right track - they can be found almost anywhere. But <i>every</i> other kind of landmark will correspond to one of your maps. Of course if there's a geyser or dead tree on your map their counterparts can also be found somewhere near what you're searching, but if geysers / dead trees are <i>all</i> the hints you got, it might be a little hard to distinguish them from the random ones.
If you have a not too common looking shoreline on the map and possibly a distinguishable rock in the water near it (Captain's Head etc.) you might find the right place even without the search hint at the bottom.
<i>Learn to use the spyglass.</i> It's really an invaluable help on a treasure hunt.
<b>Q5:Can you tell me where exactly to find my lost sister/city/treasure/sock/youth...?</b>
A: Short answer: no.
Medium answer: a good deal of your youth was probably spent playing Pirates! about 17 years ago, but that's ok.
Long answer: the spots where treasures / relatives / lost cities / hideouts get placed are random for every new game. So no one will be able to tell you where to look without you showing us the map and / or putting up your saved game on the web so some good soul can download it and take a peek for you.
<b>Q6: What's the best ship in the game and where do I find it?</b>
A: We'll tell you if you tell us what the best car in the world is. <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/icon_wink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="icon_wink.gif" />
Seriously, it's a matter of your preferences. The best we can do is give you a short description of the warship classes and where to get them:
<i>Pinnace class</i>
War canoe, Pinnace, Mail Runner. The fastest and most nimble ships in the game. Don't hold a lot of men and cannons, but some Captain's report to have had lots of fun `zig-zagging` their buffed up Mail Runners through enemy cannon fire before boarding even the biggest warships. With triple hammocks and other upgrades these can be very capable ships.
War canoes can be found everywhere, often near Indian Villages. Pinnaces are common smuggler vessels and Mail Runners are used in many of the transporting missions you can get from mayors and governors.
<i>Sloop class</i>
Sloop, War Sloop and Royal Sloop. One of the most favored ship classes, especially War and Royal Sloops seem to be popular. A bit less nimble and fast than the Pinnaces, but a great (arguably the best) `all-rounder` if maxed out with upgrades.
Sloops are quite common, the better versions of them can be mostly found piloted by pirate hunters and privateers.
<i>Brig class</i>
With medium mobility and speed, Brigantines, Brigs and Brigs of War have their supporters, but seemingly far less than Sloops and Frigates. They pack a better punch than sloops and lots of crew, but the trade off in maneuverability is quite noticeable.
Brigs are quite common, Brigs of War are used by pirate hunters, privateers and military.
<i>Galleon class</i>
War and Fast Galleons can make good pirate vessels (and have an awful lot of room), but beware of opponents in fast and nimble ships - they might run circles around you (well, provided the AI has a good day). Their maneuverability isn't much better than that of regular merchant vessels and epsecially sailing `close-hauled` they can be painfully slow.
Galleons are exclusively used by the Spanish, often as escort or pirate hunting ships.
<i>Frigate class</i>
As fast as Sloops, nearly as nimble and with badass crew and cannon capacity, these are ships to be reckoned with. Even without many upgrades you can strike fear and terror in the hearts of your enemies with one of these beauties.
Frigates and Large Frigates can often be found as flagships of the top five pirates, the infamous "Ship of the Line" is mostly found near French and English ports, dubbed as "New Warship".
<b>Q7: The intro videos flicker. What gives?</b>
A: That's a known bug affecting ATI Radeon chip users who have FAA (Fullscreen `Anti-Aliasing`) enabled. <a href="http://forum.piratesahoy.net/ftopic3830.php" target="_blank">This post by Hengist</a> indicates that he got it working by updating ATIs Catalyst drivers (using <a href="http://www.omegadrivers.net" target="_blank">Omega drivers</a> will NOT help you in this case) and installing a recent version of the Bink viedo player. Seems it's no 100% guarantee this will work though.
Don't bother with Atari's official solution to this bug as it's incompetent rubbish.
A workaround would be to disable FAA in your driver settings, start a new pirates game, watch the videos, arrive in the caribbean, save, quit, reenable FAA in the driver settings and then load your game and play on. The two intro movies are the only ones where the flickering will happen, the animated sequences later in the game are not affected by this bug.
<b>Q8: Where is the Silver Train?</b>
A: Lost in the eternal depths of space and time. Sorry, it's not part of Sid Meier's Pirates! anymore.
<b>Q9: Where's the Treasure fleet?</b>
A: The Treasure Fleet starts with four trasure galleons at Trinidad in January each year. It then travels along the South American coastline, at best as far as Puerto Bello, stopping at most major ports. Then they possibly travel to Havanna, afterwards to Europe. Along the way some galleons might get lost, but also they pick up ~500 gp at each stop. They start out with ~1000 gp each.
More detailed information about the Treasure Fleet and more can be found in this excellent help by Polandor: <a href="http://forum.piratesahoy.net/ftopic3843.php" target="_blank">http://forum.piratesahoy.net/ftopic3843.php</a>
<b>Q10a: I can't dance!</b>
A: I can't walk. That wasn't a question.
<b>Q10b: Ok, so have you got some help for a clumsy swashbuckler like me when it comes to dancing?</b>
A: Sure do. First: don't use the mouse. It's evil. Even when playing the game on a notebook.
Second: In the beginning the button you need to press will be highlighted on screen shortly before. Just press it right away and you'll be set.
Third: sometime throughout the game those nice highlighting hints will stop and you will be doomed. That is, as long as you don't learn to watch the hints the lady is giving you, because shortly before every new move she will show you where the journey's going. The gestures she makes and their meanings are pretty much `self-explanatory` but also listed in the manual.
Fourth: for further help read Akubis excellent <a href="http://forum.piratesahoy.net/ftopic3659.php" target="_blank">Dance 101</a>.
<b>Q11: How can I achieve 10/10 fame points in romance?</b>
A: You will have to `super-woo` a girl of all three kinds: plaid, attractive, beautiful. Also you have to marry a beautiful woman. If you marry a plaid or attractive one you will have to woo some more beautiful women afterwards.
<b>Q12: Can I marry more than one governor's daughter?</b>
A: Nope. You can still do everything else with them though (NOT that <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/icon_wink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="icon_wink.gif" /> ), i.e. dance, court and rescue them.
<b>Q13: How can I keep up crew morale?</b>
A: When having been at sea for some time, your men might become unhappy. That's normal. Things you can do about it:
" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />________________________________________________________________________________
<b>PA Unofficial FAQ to Sid Meier's Pirates!
-----------------------------------------</b>
This is a compilation of frequently asked questions and their respective answers concerning the Firaxis/Atari game <i>Sid Meier's Pirates.</i> The answers were taken from various posts found on the <a href="http://www.piratesahoy.net/" target="_blank">Pirates Ahoy!</a> SMP forum. If you feel something's wrong or missing please <a href="http://forum.piratesahoy.net/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=3393" target="_blank">contact the author</a>.
<b>PLEASE READ THIS DOCUMENT BEFORE ASKING A QUESTION.</b> We're glad to be of help, but repeating the same things over and over becomes tiresome for even the most understanding pirates. <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/icon_wink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="
" border="0" alt="icon_wink.gif" /><b>Q1: How can I attack towns and settlements?</b>
A: There are <i>various ways</i> to attack towns, provided you have enough men (about 100 should suffice to get the attack option at every town). There is <i>no way</i> to attack settlements, missions, Pirate havens or Indian villages.
The easiest way to attack a town is to sail to a near shore (not too near though else you'll be entering the town), disembark and walk into town. When you walk into town you will <i>always</i> be given the option to sneak in or to attack it (again: provided you are not heavily outnumbered, see above). Since the old sea attack as you might still know it from the original Pirates! game is no longer there in SMP and town attacks are always fought on land anyway, this way of doing it holds no disadvantages for you.
Another way to attack the town is by sailing right into it (sometimes you can't land near it because the island it's on may be too small). If the town is sufficiently hostile towards you, you will again be presented with the option to sneak in or attack. If the options don't come up but instead you are dropped right into the town screen, they obviously think you're a good guy. Well, prove them wrong. Exit again and board some of the ships coming out of the town or fire some rounds at their fort by pressing the space bar. Soon they will get your drift and ask you if you want to attack next time you enter town. <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/icon_wink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="
" border="0" alt="icon_wink.gif" />Easy on the cannon balls though: bombarding a town too much will decrease it's wealth and hence your plunder. Don't overdo it.
<b>Q2: I want to fight the Captain of the town's guard! Where's that sneaky weasel?</b>
A: Well, if your bunch of 100 pirates is up against 140 town guards, the Captain of the guard seemingly prefers to personally "guard" the governor's daughter or whatever. (Bad move because with a bit of wit your crowd will give his cronies a run for their money nonetheless, but that's just the way he is.) To get him to face up to you you will have to attack with 100 pirates or more a garrison of less than 100 guards. Usually only in those cases will you not have to fight the land battle but be taken to the duel with the Guard's Captain right away.
<b>Q3: Ok, but why can't I sack a town and install a new governor?</b>
A: To install a new governor you will in most cases have to attack the town at least a second time right away (sometimes you might manage it in one go though). The prerequisites for you being given the option to install a new governor are about the same as for getting to fight the captain of the guard.
<b>Q4: Do you have any hints for treasure hunting (rescueing relatives etc.)? I now know that there's an unsual number of geysers in Central America, but can't seem to find what I'm after...</b>
A: The most valuable part of a treasure map is the search hint at the bottom, because it tells you roughly where to look (vicinity of Santiago, north of Granada and so on). Often it will be sufficient to have that and the part of the map with the X. Land near the city, see if you can find a hill or mountain to climb, pull out your spyglass (e.g. by `right-clicking`) and scan the area for unusual landmarks.
Geysers and dead trees do not necessarily inidcate that you are on the right track - they can be found almost anywhere. But <i>every</i> other kind of landmark will correspond to one of your maps. Of course if there's a geyser or dead tree on your map their counterparts can also be found somewhere near what you're searching, but if geysers / dead trees are <i>all</i> the hints you got, it might be a little hard to distinguish them from the random ones.
If you have a not too common looking shoreline on the map and possibly a distinguishable rock in the water near it (Captain's Head etc.) you might find the right place even without the search hint at the bottom.
<i>Learn to use the spyglass.</i> It's really an invaluable help on a treasure hunt.
<b>Q5:Can you tell me where exactly to find my lost sister/city/treasure/sock/youth...?</b>
A: Short answer: no.
Medium answer: a good deal of your youth was probably spent playing Pirates! about 17 years ago, but that's ok.
Long answer: the spots where treasures / relatives / lost cities / hideouts get placed are random for every new game. So no one will be able to tell you where to look without you showing us the map and / or putting up your saved game on the web so some good soul can download it and take a peek for you.
<b>Q6: What's the best ship in the game and where do I find it?</b>
A: We'll tell you if you tell us what the best car in the world is. <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/icon_wink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="
" border="0" alt="icon_wink.gif" />Seriously, it's a matter of your preferences. The best we can do is give you a short description of the warship classes and where to get them:
<i>Pinnace class</i>
War canoe, Pinnace, Mail Runner. The fastest and most nimble ships in the game. Don't hold a lot of men and cannons, but some Captain's report to have had lots of fun `zig-zagging` their buffed up Mail Runners through enemy cannon fire before boarding even the biggest warships. With triple hammocks and other upgrades these can be very capable ships.
War canoes can be found everywhere, often near Indian Villages. Pinnaces are common smuggler vessels and Mail Runners are used in many of the transporting missions you can get from mayors and governors.
<i>Sloop class</i>
Sloop, War Sloop and Royal Sloop. One of the most favored ship classes, especially War and Royal Sloops seem to be popular. A bit less nimble and fast than the Pinnaces, but a great (arguably the best) `all-rounder` if maxed out with upgrades.
Sloops are quite common, the better versions of them can be mostly found piloted by pirate hunters and privateers.
<i>Brig class</i>
With medium mobility and speed, Brigantines, Brigs and Brigs of War have their supporters, but seemingly far less than Sloops and Frigates. They pack a better punch than sloops and lots of crew, but the trade off in maneuverability is quite noticeable.
Brigs are quite common, Brigs of War are used by pirate hunters, privateers and military.
<i>Galleon class</i>
War and Fast Galleons can make good pirate vessels (and have an awful lot of room), but beware of opponents in fast and nimble ships - they might run circles around you (well, provided the AI has a good day). Their maneuverability isn't much better than that of regular merchant vessels and epsecially sailing `close-hauled` they can be painfully slow.
Galleons are exclusively used by the Spanish, often as escort or pirate hunting ships.
<i>Frigate class</i>
As fast as Sloops, nearly as nimble and with badass crew and cannon capacity, these are ships to be reckoned with. Even without many upgrades you can strike fear and terror in the hearts of your enemies with one of these beauties.
Frigates and Large Frigates can often be found as flagships of the top five pirates, the infamous "Ship of the Line" is mostly found near French and English ports, dubbed as "New Warship".
<b>Q7: The intro videos flicker. What gives?</b>
A: That's a known bug affecting ATI Radeon chip users who have FAA (Fullscreen `Anti-Aliasing`) enabled. <a href="http://forum.piratesahoy.net/ftopic3830.php" target="_blank">This post by Hengist</a> indicates that he got it working by updating ATIs Catalyst drivers (using <a href="http://www.omegadrivers.net" target="_blank">Omega drivers</a> will NOT help you in this case) and installing a recent version of the Bink viedo player. Seems it's no 100% guarantee this will work though.
Don't bother with Atari's official solution to this bug as it's incompetent rubbish.
A workaround would be to disable FAA in your driver settings, start a new pirates game, watch the videos, arrive in the caribbean, save, quit, reenable FAA in the driver settings and then load your game and play on. The two intro movies are the only ones where the flickering will happen, the animated sequences later in the game are not affected by this bug.
<b>Q8: Where is the Silver Train?</b>
A: Lost in the eternal depths of space and time. Sorry, it's not part of Sid Meier's Pirates! anymore.
<b>Q9: Where's the Treasure fleet?</b>
A: The Treasure Fleet starts with four trasure galleons at Trinidad in January each year. It then travels along the South American coastline, at best as far as Puerto Bello, stopping at most major ports. Then they possibly travel to Havanna, afterwards to Europe. Along the way some galleons might get lost, but also they pick up ~500 gp at each stop. They start out with ~1000 gp each.
More detailed information about the Treasure Fleet and more can be found in this excellent help by Polandor: <a href="http://forum.piratesahoy.net/ftopic3843.php" target="_blank">http://forum.piratesahoy.net/ftopic3843.php</a>
<b>Q10a: I can't dance!</b>
A: I can't walk. That wasn't a question.
<b>Q10b: Ok, so have you got some help for a clumsy swashbuckler like me when it comes to dancing?</b>
A: Sure do. First: don't use the mouse. It's evil. Even when playing the game on a notebook.
Second: In the beginning the button you need to press will be highlighted on screen shortly before. Just press it right away and you'll be set.
Third: sometime throughout the game those nice highlighting hints will stop and you will be doomed. That is, as long as you don't learn to watch the hints the lady is giving you, because shortly before every new move she will show you where the journey's going. The gestures she makes and their meanings are pretty much `self-explanatory` but also listed in the manual.
Fourth: for further help read Akubis excellent <a href="http://forum.piratesahoy.net/ftopic3659.php" target="_blank">Dance 101</a>.
<b>Q11: How can I achieve 10/10 fame points in romance?</b>
A: You will have to `super-woo` a girl of all three kinds: plaid, attractive, beautiful. Also you have to marry a beautiful woman. If you marry a plaid or attractive one you will have to woo some more beautiful women afterwards.
<b>Q12: Can I marry more than one governor's daughter?</b>
A: Nope. You can still do everything else with them though (NOT that <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/icon_wink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="
" border="0" alt="icon_wink.gif" /> ), i.e. dance, court and rescue them.<b>Q13: How can I keep up crew morale?</b>
A: When having been at sea for some time, your men might become unhappy. That's normal. Things you can do about it:
- Sail to a port and divide up the plunder. You probably knew this already, so let's go on.
- Dig up some treasure soon, rob the treasure fleet, sack some wealthy towns etc. etc., in other words: make much money fast and they will get happier again.
- Get some of your men killed in battle. A smaller crew means a bigger slice of the pie when dividing up the plunder, so your men will lighten up considerably instead of mourning their fallen comrades. Greedy bastards.
Furthermore there are things you should NOT do if you don't want to get them angrier:- Don't continue sailing the caribbean at your leisure, sunbathing and having Caipirinhas when your men are unhappy. All sun and no loot make Jack an even unhappier pirate.
- Don't sign up new men in taverns or after having sacked another ship. This makes the potential share of the loot smaller for everyone and your men don't think this to be funny when they got a grudge against you already.
- For the same reason, don't go on a shopping spree just because the mysterious traveller comes up with that set of pistols you've been after all along. You're spending the crews money, not your own, they won't appreciate that. At best invest in a treasure map and see to it that you find the treasure <i>real fast</i>.
Also making your crew happy by getting rid of some men and then signing up new folks without having increased the loot considerably in between won't make you popular. A crew that's been angry tends to become so again if you don't watch out.
<b>Q14: The game forced me to retire! Why?</b>
A: Because your health won't allow you to go on bucaneering. Tough luck. Things to know about health (posted by GIJoe):
Your health is affected by- Age
- Number of times wounded in battle
You can positively influence your health by these factors:- What skill you choose at the start; this one is touchy since obviously medicine will help you live longer, but what good is it if you get hit all the time in duels. Fencing might be a better choice..
- Medical items (special items bought off the traveller or being given as gifts from governors' daughters).
- Special swords that improve your fencing skill.
- Pistols that will improve your starting position in a fight.
- Fencing clothing which will help you fight faster and better.
- Armor which will prevent you from getting hit so much.
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