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Emmerson
Swabbie
Posts: 105
1743 Gold -
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 Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2005 6:52 pm Post subject: The "Crew Harvesting" mini-mini-game |
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Reading "Cutlass Isle" has certainly made me a better Pirates! captain. From learning things about the game I didn't know, to motivating me to improve my overall level of gameplay, I'm very grateful for this forum.
F'rinstance, I recently upped my naval battle skills, and as a result have developed a new strategy. I used to try to de-gun a ship before charging in, but that can be destructive for smaller ships, and take too long for larger ships. After reading the posts on here, I have now become a big fan of "de-masting" ships (even if I'm not playing at a good enough resolution to see the de-masting), or at least shredding their sails enough that they will surrender.
Once I got good at that, I realized that there were these sitting duck vessels --some with nigh on 200 crew-- that would happily let me do anything I wanted with them. So I started crew harvesting!
Step 1: Use chain shot to de-mast the ship. You could use round shot to pummel them into submission, but that kills more crew, and that's not what we want!
Step 2: Use grape shot to knock crewmen overboard, and pick them up.
Step 3: Pluck the crewmen out of the water, taking care to stay out of the enemy vessel's "radius of surrender."
That last one is important! The "surrender radius" is quite large, and there have been a few times I've tried to inch over to get a man out of the water, only to have the game go to the "surrender" screen instead. That sucks if there are five or six more guys in the water you were planning on harvesting!
Careful crew harvesting can yield results comparable to visiting tavern when your crew is unhappy, and you don't waste a week of game time! The best I've managed to get off a single ship so far is 11 crew off of a Brig of War that had 160 men on it before I started in with the grape shot.
I've done some playing around with this stuff, and have seen crewmen fly overboard when there were as little as 4 men listed onbaord the ship. Repeatedly pummeling the ship with grape shot when it's listed as having 1 crew has so far not yielded any "bug-related" men overboard, even though the animations still show little men on deck. 
Whether or not you employ this strategy depends on what you value more: real time, or game time. This takes a few extra minutes of real time, but a careful pirate can expand their crew quite a bit, and save months of game time. |
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TheDS
Seaman
Posts: 126
2085 Gold -
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| Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2005 7:47 pm Post subject: |
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You will be happy to know that if you sink a ship, there are LOTS of guys suddenly in the water, but you must act quickly to grab them all before the ship sinks and you return to the sailing screen.
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And God said "Let there be light!"
and NIPSCO said "Charge em for it!"
Hey, if you live in the Daytona beach / St. Augustine area, and you are interested in playing games, send me a note. I need a new gamer group! |
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Emmerson
Swabbie
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| Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2005 8:15 pm Post subject: |
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| TheDS wrote: | | You will be happy to know that if you sink a ship, there are LOTS of guys suddenly in the water, but you must act quickly to grab them all before the ship sinks and you return to the sailing screen. |
That's why I prefer the more patient "Crew Harvesting" method. You are guaranteed to get the men, or if not the worst that happens is you accidentally trigger the "surrender" sequence and get to plunder the ship!  |
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rupertlittlebear
Helmsman
Posts: 4434
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| Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2005 9:09 pm Post subject: |
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Nice one, the most harvesting I have done is sink the escort, pick up those men and then use them to Board the prize ship. |
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Guidon666
Cutthroat
Posts: 277
2854 Gold -
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| Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2005 9:36 pm Post subject: |
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 I've done that too. Nothing like picking up the crew of a ship that fought to the death to defend another only to imediately turn around and be part of your boarding crew to sack another ship. How quickly allegiance changes in the waters.
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Gandalf
Swabbie
Posts: 119
355 Gold -
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| Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2005 10:27 pm Post subject: |
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Best way to crew harvest is to get yourself involved in a 2-ship battle. Completely sink the ship with the bigger crew (you get pretty a lot more crew than grapeshotting them continuously), and chainshot the other one to death so it doesn't harass you.
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Gandalf the White
Wizard-Pirate of the Western Seas
Large Frigate: The Glamdring II |
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CGM3
Gunner
Posts: 608
12612 Gold -
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| Posted: Mon Feb 14, 2005 2:45 pm Post subject: |
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| Gandalf wrote: | | Best way to crew harvest is to get yourself involved in a 2-ship battle. Completely sink the ship with the bigger crew (you get pretty a lot more crew than grapeshotting them continuously), and chainshot the other one to death so it doesn't harass you. |
If you attack a ship with its escort, and sink or capture the larger ship first, the sea battle mini-game ends and you find yourself back at the "world view" with the escort nearby.
Sink (or capture) the escort first and you remain in the sea battle mini-game. Curiously, you will not get the credit (or the blame) for taking out the escort, only the other ship.
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I only do what the voices in my head tell me to do. |
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Howie
Helmsman
Posts: 4223
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| Posted: Mon Feb 14, 2005 2:46 pm Post subject: |
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| Gandalf wrote: | | Best way to crew harvest is to get yourself involved in a 2-ship battle. Completely sink the ship with the bigger crew (you get pretty a lot more crew than grapeshotting them continuously), and chainshot the other one to death so it doesn't harass you. |
I find myself doing the same thing now! Harvesting crewmen and barrels is much easier when you have a war canoe and can zig zag to pick up stuff in the water. Doing this seems to add an element of fun to the game as well...
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Salty Dog
Sailing Master
Posts: 10054
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| Posted: Mon Feb 14, 2005 5:51 pm Post subject: How do you pick sailors up? |
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I did not know you could pick sailors out of the water. How do you do it? Run over them or pull along side and click on them?
Thanks.....Salty |
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Emmerson
Swabbie
Posts: 105
1743 Gold -
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| Posted: Mon Feb 14, 2005 5:54 pm Post subject: Re: How do you pick sailors up? |
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| Salty Dog wrote: | I did not know you could pick sailors out of the water. How do you do it? Run over them or pull along side and click on them?
Thanks.....Salty |
Just run over them with your ship. You'll hear a little man muttering some gibberish, as well as some "watery" sounds. The crew count on your ship will go up by one. You can exceed your ship's maximum crew capacity for the duration of that battle. After that, the extra crewmen are automagically moved over to additional ships if you have room, or they leave your crew the next time you're at port if all of your ships are full.
Same goes for the barrels. Just run over 'em to pick 'em up. They add 50 gold to your loot. |
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dhankskunk
Swabbie
Posts: 107
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| Posted: Mon Feb 14, 2005 7:31 pm Post subject: |
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I never realized I was picking guys up when I heard those crazy sounds. Shows how much attention I pay to such things...
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Howie
Helmsman
Posts: 4223
45890 Gold -
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| Posted: Mon Feb 14, 2005 8:15 pm Post subject: |
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| dhankskunk wrote: | | I never realized I was picking guys up when I heard those crazy sounds. Shows how much attention I pay to such things... |
I make a little game out of it. See how many men and barrels I can cram on my little Tartane.... errrrr rather War Canoe!
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watson42467
Cutthroat
Posts: 349
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| Posted: Mon Feb 14, 2005 10:14 pm Post subject: |
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If you get a big escort like a frigate, then you can get quite a few men and won't get kicked back to the world screen.
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Emmerson
Swabbie
Posts: 105
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| Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2005 4:26 pm Post subject: |
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| Howie wrote: | | I make a little game out of it. |
Me too. Hence the subject of the post.
. . . . and a big thanks to everyone that has posted their own "Crew Harvesting" tips! |
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rupertlittlebear
Helmsman
Posts: 4434
10381 Gold -
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| Posted: Fri May 13, 2005 10:03 pm Post subject: |
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Looks like this in current, but hard to find. |
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