Exclusive Insider Information Article

[Civrules]

Here at Cutlass Isle, we’ve been planning an article which will answer most questions that you might have about the game. These questions you ask might be concerns, or simple gameplay questions, such as how the game feels, and how open it is to the player.

A good example of a question everyone’s been asking -- and not just in this forum -- is regarding the game’s speed. Another concern a lot of people have been looking at is how much the wind factor affects the game.
These are key parts of the game, and I can understand why people have been worrying about them as they have.

Ask any tester, and he or she will tell you that they were avid to answer. Unfortunately, because of the NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement), we were not able to post any details at all. So quite a few of you have questions like I mentioned above and we couldn't do anything to help you out.

Until now, that is!

We wanted to let loose so much, that Falconer and I have been planning on how to accomplish this. We eventually went to Jeff and explained to him our plan. This being Falconer’s idea, undertaken by me, and made possible by Jeff, we’ll give each and every one of you the opportunity to ask any questions you would like!

When you finish asking the questions, we’ll answer them with the knowledge we have gained through the Beta test, compile them into one big article, and send them to Jeff for approval. Afterwards, we’ll go ahead and post the approved questions -- along with the answers, of course -- in early November.

There is a catch, however. Only the questions asked here in this thread will be submitted to Jeff.

So right now, you can ask away!

Please note: We will make a selection of the questions you post here, answere them, and then ship them off to Jeff/Atari. It's possible that the answers to certain questions won't be approved and thus won't make it into the final article. Of course we hope this won't happen at all.

[KingWilly]

OK then, one question to start with..

Does the number of men you take into a battle (in particular, a swordfight) affect the outcome of the battle, or does it all rely on your skills. For example can you take 20 men into a swordfight against 150 and win if you are a good swordsman?
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Shiver me timbers!!!
"It's good to be the king" - Mel Brooks

AKA. Will Scarlett.

[SirDrago]

Well,
i think i read on PA that there are hurricanes in the game. Can you confirm that? And if they are in the game how strong are they and how big? Can you lose control over the ship when you are inside one and can your ship be destroyed?

How many men you can have at maximum? Does it depend on the type of your ships? Like if you have 4 sloops in your fleet you can have 300 men or if you have 4 galleons you can have 1000 men?

Is Panama still the strongest and wealthiest city in the game?

Are there any new cities or just the ones we know from the original game?

How does saving a game works? Can you still save at any point in the game?

Well thats it for now. If i can think about more questions i will post them here .

Edit: OK one question that is not about the game but goes directly to Jeff:
There was still no official word about it but which Pirates Version is now included in the LE? The C-64 version or the Pirates Gold version?

Edit 2: In the original Pirates it happened quite often that cities hidden their gold after you attacked them. Is that still in the game?

What is the maximum resolution you can play the game with?

[KingWilly]

Another question that has already been partly answered by reviewers...

What customisations (such as ability to sail under your own flag design) are there in the game?

And some more...

Are there still different time periods in the game?

How many difficulty levels are there?

Is it possible to convert the entire Caribbean to one particular nation?

I'm sure I'll have more questions later.
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Shiver me timbers!!!
"It's good to be the king" - Mel Brooks

AKA. Will Scarlett.

[Wolfwood]

Slightly connected with one of the previous questions:

Will the types of ships in the game depend on the time periods, remembering that the ships in 16th and 17th centuries differed from each other? (i.e. they developed from ships with high fore and back castles to somewhat sleeker types)

Will the steering equipment of the ships be visible from close range and are they period sensitive? Remembering here that 16th- and 17th-century ships were generally steered by way of a whipstaff, not a wheel.

How about clothing styles? The long captain's jacket (visible in some screenshots) was a late development and should thus not appear in the earlier periods.

Ok, only the first question was a serious one; the latter ones will only be important to period enthusiasts...

[Sloopy]

What are the Ship Upgrades and how do they effect your ship
Copper Plating: Turning speed
Double Slung Hammocks: Double the Crew
Brass Cannons: Range
Fine grain gun powder: Accuracy
What other upgrades are available ?

Sloop of War (fully upgraded)
Max number of Guns ?
Max Crew ?
Max Speed ?
Turn Rate ?

That will keep me happy for a while, but then what about the 26 other ships in the game?
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24 Gun War Sloop - now that would rock!

[fordfan25]

what are all the ship types?
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"life moves pretty fast if you dont stop and look around once in awhile you could miss it"
Ferris Bueller

[CaptainBlood]

I know that this question does not deal directly with the new game, but has been asked by several people including me, regarding the limited editon of the game....

what version will be included of the original game in the limited edition, please let me know that it is the pirates gold edition, and not the original pirates, the gold verison on pc had much better graphics and overall gameplay, and I would still play it for hours if it would run on my pc.

other than that, I am happy to say that I already received the limited editon preorder as a birthday present last week, and I do have to say since this topic on the forums has been introduced, there is not much else I really need to know about the game, Jeff and all of the team at Firaxis have been so helpful and great in responding to all of the posts on this site. Thank you guys for all of your work.
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"Oh, no, my name is Blood--Captain Peter Blood. This ship is mine by right of conquest"

[Captain Hicks]

I have two groups of questions:

- Will the time go at a 1 second=1 day rate?. If so, don´t you think the game will be too short? Or you can retire at 35 years old whitout suffering from old age? (In the original game you could retire at 35, but you had bad health anf that refelected in your points). In general, which have been the changes to things regarding time?.

- Why did you choose to "erase" the 1560 period? (at least from what I know) and will we bw able to customize our ship, character, etc...

Thank you very much.

[Guest]

[Jotte]

There is just one little detail I don't like and that is the speed of aging. So my question there for is; Will there be a similar command to The Sims 2's "Aging off" ?

[Unmerciful Bastard]

1. Hi too all at Cutlass.... Qu.-- Can you tell me how towns looke ( when you sail past them, and how when visit ), are they difrent from each other ,or all towns look the same. Are there diferences in architecture between oposite countrys, and ,are there diferences between architecture in your own countrey , coused by level of development. THNx

[captainkidd78]

Are there going to be any add-on packs? Madagascar and Indian Ocean?

[Chuko]

[captainkidd78]

I read about the 4 major powers in Pirates! 2, but when choosing nationality are there others - Irish, Danish, etc...

Also, the one part of the original Pirates! that bothered me was lack of execution. Most pirates did not retire