(Release) Pirates: Storm over Europe

themodelcitizen · Gunner Posts: 862 **14635 Gold** -

Plunder shipping between the four great nations, influence historical territorial disputes, or serve your chosen regent by repelling pirate attacks and Barbary raids.

Credit, of course, to jlangsdo's map-making tools (build your own custom map!). Thanks to Pirate for some graphic work.

Click here --> DOWNLOAD (please upvote on Steam, reddit, and Nexus)

Instructions:

Place the files in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Pirates!

The contents of the "custom" and "assets" folders should be pasted over the existing ones, if present.

Do I need the new Pirates executable? My virus scan flags the file.
Yes, certain essential changes are only possible by modifying the exe, but there's certainly no malware or anything that can hurt your computer - back up your existing exe first.

The "useless items" and slower aging mods are on. Works best in windowed mode. If using Phalzyr's trainer, start it as an administrator and switch the "version" to Steam 1.02 before starting Pirates!

Guardacostas · Gunner Posts: 966 **10041 Gold** -

LOoking very good

jlangsdo · Cutthroat Posts: 400 **10932 Gold** -

I tried it. Pretty cool. I'm also trying to learn to fence without a numpad, so that was very challenging. I failed to map all of the dancing keys, so I stumbled all over the dance floor too. Speaking of challenges, I noticed the effect of the Challenge items. Friendly Jesuit Mission indeed, he gave me nothing! I'm also impressed with your changes to the starting text.

Some things you might want to work on:

Initial main menu background still shows Caribbean.

I saw a ship sailing through the woods near Portsmouth.

I got stuck in the shallow waters near Bilbao.

The caribbean*.bmp map scale seems a little off; Gran Canare is physically right on an island, but on the map it looks off. Also, I couldn't click on Gran Canare on the most zoomed out map, it is so far south it hits the menu bar.

Perhaps move Dublin a hair to the east, to get it out of the woods?

The loadsavemap.dds cuts off on the east side in a funny way, perhaps you could figure out how to extend it to show more of Europe.

I didn't see any Corsair villages, just one Corsair Galley. You might consider switching Corsairs to Basques.

I did find a pirate treasure. Could you change the landmarks? You could walk by Obelisks, Cathedrals, Waterfalls, who knows?

jlangsdo · Cutthroat Posts: 400 **10932 Gold** -

Also, Paris is in the wrong place.

Part of what makes this map so exciting is learning geography. I've read about a lot of these cities, but never visited them - and certainly not by sailing ship. I'd rather not learn incorrectly that Paris is on the coast.

Perhaps you could carve out some deep rivers with GIMP so we could sail up the Seine.

Pirate · Helmsman Posts: 5589 **109759 Gold** -

Well I did download it. Bad news is Iâ€™m at the bookstore now instead of on the laptop.

themodelcitizen · Gunner Posts: 862 **14635 Gold** -

Pirate · Helmsman Posts: 5589 **109759 Gold** -

Yeah I was thinking Paris should be closer to London then what the map on the screen shown.

corsair91 · Sailing Master Posts: 8162 **210870 Gold** -

Not if it is Paris, Texas

Smile

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris,_Texas

themodelcitizen · Gunner Posts: 862 **14635 Gold** -

fleetp · Boatswain Posts: 3721 **36050 Gold** -

I played it for about thirty minutes before getting distracted by real life. Looks great!
I had a bit if trouble sailing through the Straits of Gibraltar, but got thru on the second try.

If you move Paris inland it could be a landlocked city like Gran Granada in the original game.
I'd really prefer that you gave your current Paris a different name and leaving it on the coast.

themodelcitizen · Gunner Posts: 862 **14635 Gold** -

jlangsdo · Cutthroat Posts: 400 **10932 Gold** -

themodelcitizen · Gunner Posts: 862 **14635 Gold** -

I love ideas like that to reshape certain aspects of the game. I'm still thinking of a viking mod where I disable cannons and try to turn everything into pinnaces/barques.

I have actually seen settlements in the northwest on the East Indies mod, with one between Bombay and Goa, one on the southwest or southern coasts, and one or two on Sri Lanka.

They're less common on the Coromandel Coast, which is why I added Madras and Pondicherry, but they crop up again after Masulipatnam to the northeast.

EDIT: Updated the download link with new menu screens, city attributes, and a fun update changing the treasure fleet to the Spanish Armada - whose odd journey around Britain is reflected with their starting and end points near Orkney.

The upriver ports of London/Paris/Seville have been adjusted to Chatham/Le Havre/Cadiz - the latter all had significant maritime history themselves and are actually on the coast. It's also difficult to reflect the massive populations and influence the former three cities actually had.

corsair91 · Sailing Master Posts: 8162 **210870 Gold** -

FYI

Current modern thinking is that the Spanish Armada at the time of the first Armada were probably then unaware of the eastward flowing Gulf Stream Current in Irish Waters.

They thought they had sailed sufficiently West to round Ireland
when they actually hadn't, using dead reckoning navigation
and bad navigation charts.
They were badly wrong in where they thought they were
as actually much closer to the coast.
The Current then dashed some Ships against the rocks on the coast
(lee shore)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_Stream

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Armada_in_Ireland

Lee shore
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_shore

themodelcitizen · Gunner Posts: 862 **14635 Gold** -

That's where the Armada ships come into play from now. As for Chatham/Medway, Le Havre, and Cadiz, all three were demonstrated as important seaports in the 17th century and seem to fit as replacements for the upriver ports.

Also getting the hang of maplabel...