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Dave the Knave
Rigger
Posts: 1210
22948 Gold -
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 Posted: Sat Jul 21, 2007 11:28 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | sinking pirate ships in self-defence. 
Besides, ye will be recovering the gold and stuff that they stole from others. |
Exactly, like a naval Robin Hood!
With only a few exceptions here and there, I always encourage the pirate captains in the settlements to send a ship out to raid a port. Then I attack and capture the enemy ship and use it, and its resources, for my benefit.
The benefits are great, too; not only do I make a profit, but I feel more like a good citizen; I also feel like the crime fighting crusader of the seas; Spain, England, France, and the Netherlands are all happy when I do this; the pirates get angry at me, but who can they, those outcasts of society, complain to- the Costa Garda, or the Royal Navy? Har har har!
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Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves;
Britons never shall be slaves. |
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Privateer
Swabbie
Posts: 88
951 Gold -
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| Posted: Sat Nov 24, 2007 12:08 pm Post subject: |
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The manual says you can be a peaceful merchant but I think you'd only be successful if you did it on the easiest setting, cause otherwise your crew just get too angry.
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"Give a man a mask and he will tell you the truth" - Oscar Wilde |
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Dave the Knave
Rigger
Posts: 1210
22948 Gold -
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| Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2007 12:02 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | The manual says you can be a peaceful merchant but I think you'd only be successful if you did it on the easiest setting, cause otherwise your crew just get too angry. |
Aye, it is a real pity that we can't hire selectively; it's either a bunch of surly, semi-reliable pirates in the tavern, or no recruits at all...
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Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves;
Britons never shall be slaves. |
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Chiko
Seaman
Posts: 125
273 Gold -
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| Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2007 3:51 pm Post subject: |
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| I enthusiastically wrote: | | I have never tried to play the game like a peaceful trader. It sound interesting... |
Well, not anymore!
I tried but treasury ships are difficult to ignore for me.
| Dave the Knave wrote: | | Privateer wrote: | | The manual says you can be a peaceful merchant but I think you'd only be successful if you did it on the easiest setting, cause otherwise your crew just get too angry. |
Aye, it is a real pity that we can't hire selectively; it's either a bunch of surly, semi-reliable pirates in the tavern, or no recruits at all... |
That's another reason why a merchant's life is not for me and my crew. Actually, that never happened to my crew because I was the first one who fell into piracy again! my men just followed happily!
 Arr! |
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Dave the Knave
Rigger
Posts: 1210
22948 Gold -
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| Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2007 4:13 am Post subject: |
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| Chiko, following the instincts of every true heroic sailor, wrote: | | That's another reason why a merchant's life is not for me and my crew. Actually, that never happened to my crew because I was the first one who fell into piracy again! my men just followed happily! |
Funny, how they never complain about acts of violence, isn't it?
I never suspected these scurvy, roguish, shifty-eyed, oath-bellowing swabs were pirates when I hired them, did you?
| Chiko succinctly wrote: | | Arr! |
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Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves;
Britons never shall be slaves. |
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Privateer
Swabbie
Posts: 88
951 Gold -
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| Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2007 8:36 pm Post subject: |
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I think you could just about manage being a peaceful trader if you were playing on the easier difficulty, but I just don't think you can get enough cash to keep your crew happy on the harder difficulties. Or maybe if you find the really good trade routes you can 
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"Give a man a mask and he will tell you the truth" - Oscar Wilde |
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Dave the Knave
Rigger
Posts: 1210
22948 Gold -
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| Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2007 8:49 pm Post subject: |
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The best places to trade often change though, don't they? The only way to find out is to visit each and every port, or talk to every shady character you meet to gather information. It seems a sad waste of time to let all of the ships met on the way to keep going on their way. And meanwhile, our idealistic young hero is penny-pinching on to premature old age...
I can't see myself choosing to be a peaceful trader...it's impossible to gain the 126 fame points without fighting enemy ships and their captains. Getting married requires it. Rescuing the rest of the family requires it...and so on and so on.
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Britons never shall be slaves. |
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animematt
Powder Monkey
Posts: 9
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| Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 1:47 am Post subject: |
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I must say....being a trader is rather difficult to start with. It is tough getting the proper ships from people (merchantmen, east indiaman) without the countries you are tradign with getting mad at you.
Then of course capturing them with a small crew.
Is there a mod or something that will let you start out with a small fleet of merchant ships? |
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Privateer
Swabbie
Posts: 88
951 Gold -
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| Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 9:27 pm Post subject: |
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Unfortunately you can't purchase ships from ports in Pirates!, so that means at some point you will have to aggro a neutral vessel to get your hands on a decent trading vessel. Apart from this though I'm sure you can a peasceful career.
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"Give a man a mask and he will tell you the truth" - Oscar Wilde |
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animematt
Powder Monkey
Posts: 9
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| Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2008 6:25 pm Post subject: |
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Well, lets say you use a trainer, and just give yourself 2 merchantman's to start with. This could work I think.
Sure you will have to capture a rival merchant ship (east indiaman and what not) too really get going.
Also, another problem is when you pull into port, you stay there for a week. So if you are trading between two close cities that are only a few days apart, you lose a lot of time |
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The Aberdonian
Cutthroat
Posts: 289
9958 Gold -
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| Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2008 9:37 pm Post subject: Peaceful Trading |
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| Laurence Bowen wrote: | | ... non-violent way ... |
| Privateer wrote: | | The manual says you can be a peaceful merchant but I think you'd only be successful if you did it on the easiest setting, cause otherwise your crew just get too angry. |
I tried it and came to the conclusion that this is next to impossible. First of all you have the mentioned problem of not being able to buy ships. You start with a Sloop which has next to no cargo room bearing in mind that even as a trader you will not throw the cannons overboard and you need food for your crew. I ended up with "borrowing" a flute from the Dutch and a merchantman from the English to start my little trading company.
Then you have the problem that in the beginning of the game with no titles all prices are worse for you and with trading you get no titles at all.
You should change the location all the time as cities get richer and you need poor cities to buy stuff and rich cities to sell it. The Spanish Main is quite good and so are the Lesser Antilles. However often I found that a city has not enough goods to fill the bellies of my two ships or enough money to buy everything from me so it happens every second time that you leave a city without any transactions. And: Every visit of a town "costs" you 7 calendar days!
You can keep a very small crew and they never got angry at me. You can even dig up the treasures but that is the only other thing you do. This leads to the biggest disadvantage of a peaceful life in the Carribbean: It is absolutely boring ! NO evil Spaniards to hunt down as you can not fight a war galleon with a flute and therefore no family to rescue. No seafights, dancing or swordfights (except the captain of the guard) and no land battles. That means: No fun, I got fed up quite fast actually as there is no change in the game, no kick. It also does not pay. During the time I played I saw two military payrolls and two tresor galleons passing by and it nearly made me cry. Selling goods is only lucrative if you steal them (and sell them alongside with a ship).
Despite what the manual says: This game is not designed for trading. Anyone who want to trade should get Port Royale 2 - it is better disigned for that purpose.
The Aberdonian |
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Capitan Incognito
Swabbie
Posts: 78
435 Gold -
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| Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2008 2:25 am Post subject: |
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Um... Why play pirate if you don't go capturing other ships? You really need a whole lot of gold to keep your crew happy, so if you want to go trading, play the game as a pirate first until you have a pretty big stash of gold enough to keep your crew happy... THEN play a merchant... |
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The Aberdonian
Cutthroat
Posts: 289
9958 Gold -
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| Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2008 5:16 pm Post subject: |
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| Capitan Incognito wrote: | | ... THEN play a merchant... |
I am still half a merchant as I sell a lot of goods on the markets these days. I also have quite a good profit margin as I get the goods really cheap.
The Aberdonian |
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Roland
Helmsman
Posts: 4085
22541 Gold -
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| Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2008 7:27 pm Post subject: |
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The game certainly is not designed to support a pure merchant style of play. But, then, the default style of play is not a pure pirate style either. A pirate would not be getting promotions from a governor. If you want to invent your own scenarios and story lines, you have to use the game creatively.
If I set out to play a merchant story line, I would begin by hunting down enough pirates to get promoted to captain by all four nations. I would keep any ships I captured that were suitable for trading. Then my pirate hunter would have an epiphany, realizing how dangerous his career path was, and convert to a peaceful trader. His status as a captain would let him trade in most ports and would also give him access to plain daughters, who could, in turn, give him tips on wanted criminals. If he captured enough criminals, he could get further promotions, eventually gaining access to attractive daughters. With fancy headgear (or wit and charm), he might even meet beautiful daughters.
That initial promotion to captain is the key to making the game interesting. |
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Capitan Incognito
Swabbie
Posts: 78
435 Gold -
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| Posted: Sat Sep 27, 2008 2:50 am Post subject: |
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Hmm... Nice point, and if you are playing a merchant you don't have to max your crew and can keep your crew just enough for your ship... Well I will give playing a merchant a try maybe AFTER I get all 126 fame points... |
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