Pirates! patch 1.0.2, hot off the press!

KingWilly · Rigger Posts: 1351 **9821 Gold** -

"Sail Ho!" cries the crewman from atop the crow's nest

Arrrr...it be the much talked of Firaxian ship "Patch 2". This be what we be chasing for many days. As we near it, we can almost see the treasure on board.

Yarrrrr, we be thankin' Firaxis and their ally 2K for their genorisity. Wink

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Shiver me timbers!!!
"It's good to be the king" - Mel Brooks

AKA. Will Scarlett.

Howie · Helmsman Posts: 4301 **45890 Gold** -

oldman · Rigger Posts: 1152 **483 Gold** -

So far so good with the patch... my 43 yr old character is off conquer the world again... turning every ports into Spanish... and leave only one for Eng, one for Dutch and one for French...

Nukenin · Swabbie Posts: 59 **1497 Gold** -

Some minor things I noticed--

The patch removes the Atari url file (the Internet shortcut to the Atari website) and replaces it with a 2K Games url file--however, the Start Menu shortcuts were not updated, so if you're a perfectionist you might want to straighten up the Start Menu shortcuts. Not that I ever use website shortcuts in the Start Menu, but you never know.

Also, updated readme HTML documentation is installed in a new readme subdirectory within your Pirates! installation directory--but the Start Menu shortcut points to the original readme.htm directly under the Pirates! directory (which has bad internal links--I believe this was the case originally as well). So, again, if you are a perfectionist, you will want to change the readme shortcut to point to "...Pirates!\readme\readme.htm" instead of just "...Pirates!\readme.htm" in order to see the proper readme file if you select the readme from the Start Menu.

The Atari logo/cinematic is replaced by a 2K Games logo/cinematic. Which has a voiceover sadly derivative of past Electronic Arts' "EA Games" cinematics.

Anyway, aside from the minor Start Menu glitches mentioned, and stray files left in the Pirates! tree (like the old readme.htm and its support files), I imagine the patch more or less leaves one with a copy of Pirates! identical to the new 2K Games-branded shelf copies of Pirates! 1.0.2.
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--/\/ Chaos Never Died

Wolfwood · Boatswain Posts: 2527 **33917 Gold** -

I must admit a bit of a disappointment at the way this patch turned out. After all the time we waited for it, I'd have appreciated even _minor_ changes to the game such as

- the removal of the wealth point cap (to make the game more open-ended)
- tougher sea battles and tougher sword fights at higher levels
- or any of the other small things that have been bought up by our members here...

I was even expecting some increased customisability to the game in the form of the main character's appearance...

But the programmers crossed the fence where it was the lowest, once again...

Well, perhaps we'll get an add-on pack or a sequel at some point in the future that will turn out to be a true "live the life" experience... Or perhaps I shall just look forward to Akella's Age of Pirates and see if that is what I'm looking for...
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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.)

RedMenace · Swabbie Posts: 64 **1498 Gold** -

...this

...patch

...didn't

...fix

...ANYTHING

ALL THEY FIXED WERE BUGS BROUGHT ON BY THE FIRST PATCH Surprised

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RedMenace: The Only Vodka Drinking Pirate Of The Sea!

Nukenin · Swabbie Posts: 59 **1497 Gold** -

The wealth cap/max score kinda annoys me. Not that I ever reach it (I'm the odd one who doesn't wait for that 126 to retire from the life) but the fact that if I so chose, I'd just have 126 after 126 in the record books. I'd rather post a score that could somehow be topped.

Of course, if I were to start posting "I wish"es for this game, I'd probably earn about 100K gold for the post here. Smile

I'm one of those who'd kinda like a more realistic treatment of combat, both naval and otherwise. But as my "I wish"es were to build on that, the game would rapidly become less Sid Meier's Pirates! and more some other piratical game.

I'll just be content with the game the way it is and take any future enhancements that may or may not come as they happen or not.
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--/\/ Chaos Never Died

RedMenace · Swabbie Posts: 64 **1498 Gold** -

The point is, you don't make us wait a year for a patch for a patch! Mad

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RedMenace: The Only Vodka Drinking Pirate Of The Sea!

Nukenin · Swabbie Posts: 59 **1497 Gold** -

RedMenace · Swabbie Posts: 64 **1498 Gold** -

The first patch didn't do anything either, it just brought bugs of its own!

ARGH

We have the game exactly how we bought it, now! Shocked

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RedMenace: The Only Vodka Drinking Pirate Of The Sea!

Nukenin · Swabbie Posts: 59 **1497 Gold** -

headrock · Rigger Posts: 1567 **354 Gold** -

Nukenin · Swabbie Posts: 59 **1497 Gold** -

If you're playing unpatched, go loot a pirate's treasure cache (treasure map). Look at how much gold you found. Now go look at the replay (click the pirate's name under the treasures found section of the status screen to view the replay). It'll cheerily tell you that you found 1,000 gold less than you actually found.

Extremely minor, and extremely annoying when it happens to you in your first 15 minutes of playing the game. (When a bug so obviously basic like that happens, the whole QA process is brought into question.)

The missing red X on treasure maps was a more serious bug that was also alleged to have been corrected in 1.0.1/1.0.2 (I have yet to encounter it).
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headrock · Rigger Posts: 1567 **354 Gold** -

A) What I meant is - Who the heck cares abot replays? It's just cosmetic! They seem to have concentrated alot of effort on making cosmetics better when the game itself still had flaws.

B) Yes, the red X bug is probably the most serious thing they've fixed, and I'm sure that people who've encountered it (I haven't) are very grateful that it will never happen again. They had to wait four months for it, of course, because firaxis wanted to add a lot of bells and whistles around the fixing of that bug as though it wasn't important enough to fix right away (It was), and ended up making more bugs.
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Blondebeard: "Madre de Dios! Es el Pollo Diablo!!"
<Spanish Guitar Riff>
Guybrush: "Si! He dejado en libertad los prisioneros, y ahora vengo por TE!"

Nukenin · Swabbie Posts: 59 **1497 Gold** -

Well, obviously I care about replays. Smile

As I said, the existence of cosmetic (and probably easily identified/fixed) bugs belies the sort of lackluster QA that is ultimately responsible for the deeper/more serious bugs slipping through the cracks.

I don't want them to address cosmetic issues over deeper issues. I want them to address all issues. Period.
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--/\/ Chaos Never Died