You need to play Sea Dogs 2 (aka POTC)

[Nedrah]

The game has more choice and consequence in the first 30 minutes than recent blockbusters have throughout the whole game. IF you are playing with the "build mod" version 13.3 or higher, that is. You've got stats, skills, a storyline, sandbox gameplay and even decent enough eyecandy. Now, perhaps some of you have already played the game in it's vanilla state. I did so, too. For about an hour. I then never touched it again, until now.

With the mod, however, everything comes together. You start out by configuring the game to your tastes via a config file. That is, you can toggle or manipulate about every aspect of the game, including starting conditions, common game mechanics or wether you want brothels to be included. You then get to pick your avatar, beginner ship and your starting skills - if you configure the game to allow you to do so, that is.

From there on, you get an astonishing range of possibilities. It's everything Sid's Pirates! has and then some - like errecting your own buildings, trading, being a privateer, merchant or pirate. You get to explore islands and towns of the carribean in full 3d, interacting with the npcs that roam the towns in ways far superior to at least Morrowind. Oh, and there's the pretty complex tactical sea battles, too. Want to divide plunder or pay monthly salarys? Try to stay loyal to a nation or adapt the flag you're flying according to the situation, hoping that big ass fleet of frenchmen won't notice?
What about that monk that's offering you two truly great items - but there's a burden connected to them, and he's all out of holy grenades, too?

On the downside, the interface needs some time getting used to, and you want to make sure you follow the initial tutorial by the letter, or your game may get screwed.

Given the current gaming situation, why the fuck aren't you playing this extremely underrated (WITH the mod!) game?

Get the mod files here.

http://www.s31clan.com/pietersmods/

The game itself is not freeware.

 

[Jora]

I found Morrowind incredibly boring after playing it for a while. Is the storyline in PotC more interesting? How about the quality of the quests?

 

[Callaxes]

I never liked Duke Nukem either, found it incredibly boring after playing it for a while. Are the weapons in POTC any better? How about the maps?

 

[Jora]

I never liked Duke Nukem either, found it incredibly boring after playing it for a while. Are the weapons in POTC any better? How about the maps?

Nedrah compared the game's sandbox qualities to Morrowind. Having never played it before or even read much about it, I thought it would be wise to ask how similar the games are. PotC was produced by Bethesda, after all. I seriously dislike Morrowind, so I wanted to be sure before getting excited about PotC.

 

[Grafo]

It was developed by a Russian company though, and from what I remember the game was nothing like Morrowind.

 

[Quigs]

more then a feeling is the worlds greatest song.

 

[Grafo]

more then a feeling is the worlds greatest song.

QFTW.

 

[Nedrah]

I never liked Duke Nukem either, found it incredibly boring after playing it for a while. Are the weapons in POTC any better? How about the maps?

Nedrah compared the game's sandbox qualities to Morrowind. Having never played it before or even read much about it, I thought it would be wise to ask how similar the games are. PotC was produced by Bethesda, after all. I seriously dislike Morrowind, so I wanted to be sure before getting excited about PotC.

It's an "old" game, obviously. 2003 I think.

No, the world and the game itself don't have much in common with Morrowind.
I just favorably compared the NPCs to Morrowind's . Most NPCs are generic in that you can ask them about standard RPG stuff - locations, people, recent events and the likes. Of course there's also special ones who will offer you items, turn out to be officers you can hire for your crew, offer you a treasure map, send you on a quest...

As for the storyline, it's not the strong point of the game. It's nice that it's there if you want to play it, but the game can also be played "Sid Meyer's Pirates!" style. Quests are decent, there are randomized ones (escort, protect, trade, sink....) that can be done in between whatever else you want to do as well as special ones with a bit of backstory.

Don't bother if you're not interested in the non-rpg aspects of the game, you know, trading, plundering and pillaging and stuff like that.


Everyone else... screw you then, don't play it.

The game took me by surprise and I figured that some of you guys propably haven't played it, yet, and would like a decent game for a change. Instead of whining or posting in retarded threads like this one, you know.

And no, More than a feeling is not the greatest song in the world, so shut up.

 

[Krafter]

Interesting.

I loved Sea Dogs, and I recoiled in horror as Bethesda told Akella to turn what should have been Sea dogs 2 into a Disney tie-in. I've always wanted to play the second one anyway, maybe yhis mod will give me the excuse I need.

Nedrah, the first Sea Dogs kicked butt. Did you play it, and if so, how does POTC compare?

 

[Nedrah]

Interesting.

I loved Sea Dogs, and I recoiled in horror as Bethesda told Akella to turn what should have been Sea dogs 2 into a Disney tie-in. I've always wanted to play the second one anyway, maybe yhis mod will give me the excuse I need.

Nedrah, the first Sea Dogs kicked butt. Did you play it, and if so, how does POTC compare?

Hey,

some elements of the Disney stuff are still in place, like that ghost ship (black pearl?) and some other things. There definitely are also some fantasy elements. Oh, and you can play as Jack Sparrow now - but obviously (and luckily) you don't have to, and the story won't be the movie's one anyways. I was in the same "oh please god no don't ruin sea dogs 2!" boat when that decision was made public, btw. I had heard about the game and seen good things in previews.

Unfortunately I never played the original Sea Dogs, although I heard good things about it and it's complexity, too. Said complexity has been restored to part 2 by the mega mod. The vanilla version used to be too complex for the disney crowd who got the game for Jack Sparrow (who wasn't in the game afaik) and too shallow for the veterans of the first game. You can decide if you want to play the game in arcade or simulation mode now.

You can sail completely in 3d mode or you can use a pirates! style overview to navigate. Battles can be commanded from 3rd person or 1st person mode, the latter having you roaming the deck and giving commandos / taking aimed shots from there. You can also do things like visit the crew in your quarters, talk to prisoners to decide their fate and others.

Since the original game was such a stinker, I imagine you should get it pretty cheap by now. If you happen to play it (with the build mod 13, patch 3!) I'd like to know how it compares to the original Sea Dogs myself - maybe I could play that, too.

edited for wtf-like typo

 

[Deacdo]

So we are referring to the 2003 title, not this year's Age of Pirates: Caribbean Tales from Akella?

Geez, it seems like *anything* can get mods they days.

 

[Nedrah]

Yes, the 2003 title.
A real case of moders making a game what it should have been from the begining on.
Excuse me, there be frenchmen to be sunk. ARRRRRRR


Edit:

Turns out you can even build your own settlements which then have their own simply economy. Just find a decent building ground, like a bay somewhere, and errect your very own pirate hideout or whatever you want it to be. Fucking awesome.

I may seem to be advertising the game pretty hard, but I seriously believe that this one has been under the radar.

 

[Walkin' Dude]

Does anyone know where I could find a scan of the manual? It is unavailable at Replacement Docs because the cocksuckers at Bethesda made them take it down.

My used copy did not come with a manual.

I tried to equip the ring.

 

[Nedrah]

I'm pretty far into the game by now, so if you have any questions I might be able to help you out - ring equiping aside.

Besides, the Build Mod changed A LOT of things and introduced a number of new features and even interface changes. You might be better off looking for info at the mods official forums.

http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/index.php?showforum=29

 

[Walkin' Dude]

Do you have any suggestions for how to better configure the controls? They are really aggravating.

 

[Starwars]

I might check this out again.

I was on a "Pirate game" roll about half a year back, and this seemed rather promising. Installed the game and the big mod, but I just dived into it really. Controls sucked, and I think I quit when I accidentally entered a dungeon, and when I exited it (didn't feel like exploring it at the time) the game somehow teleported my character out in the sea.
So, first experience with the game was downright awful. Might give it another shot.

 

[Nedrah]

Well, yeah, the controls do need some geting used to them.

I use a WASD fps like movement system. E draws the sword, f quick-equips, Q fires the pistol, C uses a healing potion. SPACE opens the action-menu, note that you usually can fast-travel anywhere from there (for example back to some place in the city if you should end up mysteriously floating in the sea after exiting a dungeon ). If the weapon is drawn, it attacks while RMB blocks. Y (Z on US keyboards!) is used to dodge. R fast-forwards, G really-fast-forwards. LEFT MOUSE KEY does the default action.

If on sea, you get a "sail to" option, too. Use it to quickly go to places if you don't feel like sailing there "by hand". W Raises Sails, S Lowers them. SPACE does auto-aimed shots. Change ammo via the on-sea-action menu entered by pressing ENTER. Other actions, like boarding etc. can be done from here, too. You can either sail in arcade mode (all ships handle similar, are generally faster and are less influenced by the wind) or in real mode (Ships have distinct handling, for example a frigatte can not sail as close to the wind as a sloop, have speeds and turning rates more similar to real ships and are heavily influenced by wind & weather). You might want to generally use realistic mode but set arcade mode for a few missions where bad winds can be a real pain.



This still needs some time to become natural, but it works without thinking about it whatsoever after a while.

Make sure to pick some melee abilitys (especially the one that adds better regeneration!) in the beginning - if you want a REAL challenge you can go for sailing, gunnery or other "perks" right from the start, too.


It's also pretty vital to tune the game to your tastes via the buildsettings.h file located in the game folder.

#define ENABLE_WEAPONSMOD needs to be set to 1

#define WEATHER_UPDATE_AT_SEA is a matter of taste, the weather will change every hour when on sea, however the changes are pretty random - makes for interesting but sometimes frustrating situations.

#define LDH_TURN_RATE_FACTOR influences how fast ships turn. I've set mine to 1.5, but you may want to play around with it a bit.

#define ARCADE_MULT_SPEED Is usually set to 2, meaning your ship will sail twice as fast in arcade mode as it would in real mode. Set it to 1.5 or something close to that if you don't want your smaller ships to handle like cars in arcade mode!

#define CANNONPOWDER_MOD You can toggle on or off wether you need to have gun powder in your hold to fire cannons. I've set it to 0 (off) because I didn't feel it added anything to the game and was just one more thing to keep track off. Maybe I'll turn it back on when I'm more experienced, yet.

#define KBSPG How accurate information your spyglass will give you about other ships. Set this to one as a newbie, raise when more experienced. (3 being the maximum difficulty for this, while 4 points to settings in another file I'll mention in a bit)

#define IT_RPG_STYLE Toggles wether traders scale their merchandise to your level. I've set this ON, since it offers another motivation for leveling up and prevents you from getting really overpowered items and ships for your level. Matter of taste.

#define SALARY_MULTIPLIER The higher the value here, the higher the wages you have to pay to your crew (if you aren't using the "divide plunder" model, obviously!) I've mine set to 2, but started out with 1.

#define ENABLE_AMMOMOD Toggles wether you need to have gun powder and bullets for your personal handgun. Matter of taste, but again I didn't like it in as long as the game was overwhelming enough without it.


#define BLADEDAMAGE_ENABLED Toggles wether weapons can degrade in quality by use and need to be repaired. I hate weapon degradation in my games, so this is set to off - but you may like it. There's a blacksmith in most citys.

#define ENABLE_BROTHEL Set this to 1. The end. (Ok, so this toggles wether there's a brothel in a certain city. It's very tame, more like an in-joke really, so I don't see any reason to leave this off, personally)


Ok, that were the important ones for me, but there are more in the file. Just have a look and decide what you want to change for yourselves.

Also, in the "program" folder inside your game directory there is a file called internalsettings.h. You propably don't want to mess around with it all that much just yet, especially since you can really screw your game over with it.

However, you may want to set

#define USE_REAL_SAILING

to 0. The reason is: It makes sailing even more difficult, but ONLY FOR YOURSELF - the AI will be unaffected. I like my odds even, so there.

You can, of course, tweak the game to your liking via internalsettings.h, too - if you have the patience. I do find pleasure in activitys as going through well documented configuration files and tweaking my gameplay, but if you'd rather just get playing already, you may want to keep internalsettings.h for later. Hope that helps, I'll be glad to answer any more questions

 

[Misterhamper]

This game is very fun, indeed. Definitaly worth a try.
Althrough one thing I found annoying was how easy all the enemies are when on foot. Even the ones with artifact-weapons could easily be defeated. But the sea-combats is very intense, and the graphics is lovely.

 

[Nedrah]

You're right, the foot combat becomes trivial if you pick the right perks.
Definitely a flaw, and I hope they'll do something about that in Build 14 (currently in alpha) or 15. If you really don't like the easy fencing, don't pick the regeneration perk. Should be a bit more interesting, if not almost impossible in some situations.

 

[Rivmusique]

Been plaything this recently with New Horizons, it's quite fun. Left most of the optional settings on what is default right after installing the mod, but have since turned down pickpocketing as I got tired of killing every 5th person I talked to.

I played the original on release and sort of liked it, but had plenty of issues like: repeatable shit like escorting merchants, smuggling, ship hunting just stopped working after a few of each, a side quest could break if you progressed the main quest or another side quest to certain points, writing was a mess and obviously clumsily translated (I played in English) and melee/land combat was really dull. The mod fixes the first two at least. And adds a whole lot, way bigger world map with more islands (based on the actual Caribbean now) and plenty of unique quests to go with it. I haven't tried many of the different main stories, but the adventure game-y Woodes Rodgers one was awkward and awful so I'm avoiding any that sound like that. Jack Sparrow one has been okay so far and Bartolomeu o Portuguese looks good from skimming the walkthrough, might try that next. The new popup giving hints at what type of ships are involved in a potential encounter (a rag-tag group, a single small ship, a patrol of warships etc.), surrendering ships (which can be boarded for 1v1 captain fight for ownership) and a change to the rarity of the more powerful ships (no pirates in amazing warships) greatly improve the experience.

Only big new problem I'm having is that occasionally quests rely on someone talking to the PC upon entering an area and this sometimes won't trigger, leaving you wondering what you're meant to do when all you've got do is exit and re-enter a map. So I've taken to keeping a walkthrough open and just checking that what I've tried to complete/advance a quest IS the solution and I just need to reload the map multiple times to make it work. Also, the quest log doesn't receive an update for a lot of quest steps (happening a lot in Jack Sparrow main quest), so you're often left with it pointing to an island you visited 2-3 steps a go, so hope you don't get sidetracked or need to quit before it decides an update is necessary. And there's these really ugly buildings that have an NPC standing still outside them with some 4th wall breaking dialogue that tells you to try modding yourself or something, quite lame. And talking to these guys occasionally leads to some weird attack shit where everyone on the map gets slaughtered. Avoid.

Anyway, really fun, thanks for the recommendation Nedrah .

 

[makiavelli747]

You should try Sea Dogs: to each his own