Capturing bigger ships too easy?

[Yellowbeard]

This is primarily asked of folks who remember the original Pirates! from back in the day.

Maybe it's old age, but I recall it being a "big event" to capture a larger ship then your current vessel. If a ship was two or three "steps" bigger then your own, you'd be best to avoid it instead of attack it. I remember HUGE satisfaction at being able to capture a larger ship and transfering my flag to the new prize on the old Pirates.

Nowadays, in the current version, it seems you can easily capture any ship with any other ship... I just captured a SotL with a Pinnace and about 30 men. If this was the "old" Pirates, I would have been insane to try such a feat, now it's mere child's play, mostly because fencing is so much easier in this version then it was in the old version.

I love the fact that I have a SotL, but the hard part was FINDING a SotL, not capturing one! I think that is reverse of how it should be (it should be easier to find one then capture one).

Am I just airing sour grapes? Am I the only one who feels this way? I dunno... don't get me wrong, it's still a fun game, but I just think capturing ships (especially with swordplay) is just too easy, especially compared to the original Pirates game.

[Wolfwood]

I agree with you there, Yellowbeard, and I have similar memories of the original.

This is why I was hoping that there was a way to make the sea battles a bit tougher by giving the big ships a chance to fire their fore and aft chasers and perhaps having the cannons make a bit more damage and have a longer range. A smarter AI wouldn't hurt either...

(one could then also get rid of the unfair advantages, like the super boost speed for the AI on higher levels)

I think I could still take on a SotL with a war canoe, but at least it wouldn't be as easy. (unless they actually managed to make the swordfighting a bit harder as well)
_________________
It is much better to be armed with a sword that has two edges than with an estoc [...], which is nothing more than a stick with a point. (Rapier Master G. Morsicato Pallavicini, La Scherma Illustrata, p. 14.)

[Grimmelshausen]

I captured a couple of galleons with pinnaces in Pirates! Gold, even on Swashbuckler.

[Cussler]

Unfortunately, my Sega Genesis version of Pirates! Gold was incredibly easy. Swordfights were much easier. I'd take my sloop and 92 men (I think that was how many they carried) and capture War Galleons and Spanish Galleons and forts with 200+ men.

Must have been the use of the controller that made swordfights easy.

I do agree that a Ship of the Line or even Flag Galleon, the pride of any royal navy, supposedly the ultimate war machine on the waves with highly trained military crews, could quickly be captured by a band of pirates in a row boat is ridiculous.

But you won't hear me complaining too hard.

[Grimmelshausen]

Well, me, you do hear complaining. I would like the flag galleon to be a really mean juggernaut with about seventy guns and almost six hundred crewmembers, really tough to take, but that goes for the old Pirates! Gold as well.