Dutch Treat (Motherlode) The Secret Hoard

[Mailman]

I am not sure if this is an Easter Egg or a glitch. I use it to gather massive gold to properly inspire my crews.
Take Dutch ships for crew holds until you have enough. Load up on crew and remove the Dutch from the game. Quit game and reload Quit. Begin escorting Governors to Dutch enemy nations. If the Dutch have been wiped out, you will still get Dutch Privateers from time to time. When you board them they should start paying in the thousands per ship. If they pay only 100, Quit and reload Quit. It should register and start paying big. Other Privateers will appear depending on their nation's war status. If you get it right, Dutch Privateers will pay from 10,000 to 30,000 per ship. I use this method to also wipe the Spanish from the game and install English for Treasure ship/New Warship hunting. I make out literally, like a bandit. Higher levels yield multiple Privateers. You get the picture.

What is morality to a Pirate?

[Mailman]

Before beginning this next exercise I would like to make clear that this research is the direct and only result of the openness, hard playing and generous people at HookedOnPirates!

I rely strongly on the research, opinions and observations of even the least of the contributors here at Hooked and without them (you) I could simply not begin to build a body of work without test eliminating your many well proven principles. I am not an expert by any measurable standards and confess I use intuition not as fact but as possibilities, however improbable. It will still be up to the many experts to explain why this works, I am just a theorist. Thus it is here that I beg of them (you) to verify, or disprove my results. I purchased Fraps just for these demonstrations. I have the Save Game files and will offer them just as soon as I figure out how.

Re-checking my work led me to try all of my proposed three strategies in a single game, with no trainer. Playing from this Save Game yields Dutch Treats and I predict, Ships of the Line, if you follow the formula I prescribed in the General Forum.

Description of battlefield set up:
I started as English and spawned off Barbados. I avoided the city heading west and immediately took Henry Morgan (good omen?) I sailed into his Haven where the new captain had been installed. I requested the attack and took the Pirate Privateer and then the Raider. I headed south and spotted 2 English settlements just north of Trinidad (a sign from Pirate Heaven) There were other settlements in the area as well as 3 more Pirate Havens. I repeated the process with each Haven and Pirates. In the meantime an English Invasion ship took Trinidad (I'm going to need more room for all of these horseshoes) By the time I got to Margarita the English had invaded it too (somebody stop me) I made my first Governor visit at Cumana and picked up double promotions. The same for Margarita, Martinique and St. Estasius. The Dutch were good enough to oblige my (by now inevitable) Mailrunner/Royal Sloop. I took the Mailrunner and was happy to take it with just Grape installed. I next took Dutch Raiders, Indiamen and Brigs as crewholds. I was able to quickly accumulate around 500 crew. I took as many ships as I felt I needed to conquer all Dutch cities and replace them with French in the Antilles and English at Curaco. In the meantime (Seriously, are you messing with me?) the Spanish saved me the trouble and invaded St. Martin. Next I conquered all the Spanish cities from Trinidad to Santa Catalina, installing the English. Because I took no Spanish vessels, I was able to walk right into each city to gather reinforcements before leaving, and then immediately returning as conqueror. I danced at every opportunity for gadgets while buying from the Mysterious Stranger at will. On my way back from Santa Catalina I intercepted several French Invasion ships. I headed for their port at Petit Goave and installed the English. I head back to Trinidad and Save Game and Quit. I loaded it, started Fraps and recorded the obnoxiously lucrative outcome below:

Here is my video demonstration of the Dutch Treat (Motherlode) strategy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2w2rTxlCiQ&feature=youtu.be

[Captain Teague]

Very nice, and very entertaining! Thanks mate!
_________________
The Code is the Law.

[Mailman]

To my embarrassment, this is a known phenomena and described sometimes as a bug. I didn't consider that. I took it for granted that what you could impact, you could engineer. I remain cautiously excited however as there seems to be more to ascertain. I understand there is a question that it will not work on some versions. If true, then: Bug. If it can be proven to work on any version, Easter Egg? What if Formula is the answer? It is terribly convenient money if you have grand designs in statecraft.

To the matter of the Formula, I fail to mention that once you remove the Dutch, you have to pass on any Pirate interceptors, Indians and other Dutch enemies and let them take your Escort. I believe that you need to preserve some Bounty or at least some animosity from the Dutch, in order to maintain the payout. I also see that someone was able to achieve it without the Exit step that I called for.

Dare even I dream that I could find and correctly identify each and every version and test them all?

EDIT: I see the 100 gold figure in the various posts. If this is the only distinction that's being used to judge the version, this looks like a good sign. The Formula apparently also must consider (ever-changing) War status and perhaps bounty.

EDIT: What does it mean when my own version can't do it's own trick? I loaded my above mentioned Save Game from my video demo. First attempt: 100 coins. Second attempt, (Quit-Load from-Save Game), same result. The third try was the charm.

If you have a Save Game that pays only 100, retry (Quit-Load from-Save Game) a few times to check.

I'm leaning towards a random War Status condition for each reload. I might try changing those.
_________________
I've got mail!