Help with Pirates! Yarr! by Paasky

[The Guardian]

Hi guys Merry Christmas to you and you families.

I have played a few turns of each civ except Britain and was amazed at how diverse each civ is, wow. Some nations have a whole bunch of ships and others many so this must be a plan to give each civ its diversity, I see nothing wrong here but didn’t really break it down.

My main focus has been the Swashbucklers (Pirates). In the beginning I was worried that a pair of European could band together or all separately just simply rid the seas of them quickly. Playing as them with the rest as AIs they don’t seem to focus heavily on the Pirates. Taking the cities on the island Tortuga is on was a breeze but holding them from these countries while humans control them would be tough. I haven’t yet made it to the tech to upgrade the “enslaved units” I captured from taking these cities but I’m sure that’ll be a matter of research

The early game 10 turns or so I still haven’t been able to journey into the shipping lanes due to the fear of loosing my newly acquired cities. If I am unable to do this my only hope is that the opposing European nations apply pressure on each other to keep the delivery of treasures down to a minimum. I say this because I haven’t been able to capture treasures making my chances of success slim.

I played as the Undead Pirates and they ROCK!! Attacking any ship with a Squid is awesome. After producing a few squids I went directly to melee units, but buccaneers were all I could train at least until the proper tech was researched, so I didn’t find a way to train the Undeadspear I started with, which are very nice and powerful. The Undead Pirates in the hands of a human player will put the fear in all players.

Spain is a giant, in the hands of a good player how could they not win? Are they slowed by major corruption or are they vulnerable to the starting units of the other players?

I’m sorry I’m no help with the questions you are really seeking like unit cost or A/D/M as I can see it I do not know, I just hope that the length of the game 240 which would be appropriate for other games but might be leave this game short, but I’ve only timed out very few games, so again my comments are lacking.

I’ll continue playing as the swashbucklers while others are play testing a European civ. I just don’t see the Pirates as a land taking civ to compete with the production power of the rest. So these factors of production cost and A/D/M are very important to give each its chance to win the game.

Can Spain's Porto Bello be placed in line with Panama to allow a passageway to the Pacific? I do realize the canal wouldn't be there in this timeframe but it is a shame to lose access to that area.

Here are a few pics from turn 32 as the Swashbucklers, this is on Monarch level and it seems Spain is the only force to recon with Hehe.
I'll play 18 more turns here and move onto the Peglegs.

I see Lanzelot is testing the English, is anyone testing other nations so not to do the same leader?

Thanks for all your work everyone!!

Merry Xmas to ALL,

Eclipse, your comments and feed back are indeed important. You have given me important info regarding game play. Spain is indeed powerful in the beginning of the game. However, her fleet will not be able to match the other europeans later in the game. I outlined some strategies earlier that you might want to reread regarding the treasure convoys and pirate strategies.

As for the undead, they are the stongest pirate force . . . in the beginning, but . . . that is only the beginning. You are correct regaring the taking and holding of colonies. The best thing to do is take the colony, plunder it and then let the europeans take it back. force them to use there power to protect the colonies then raid their convoys. I mentioned earlier about unit cost. I am thinking of incresing the cost of ships especially the europeans, and especially their strongest ships. This will force them to send treasure to europe to build these ships as they can only be built in europe.There is no ship that will be able trade broadsides with the SOTL. You can only defeat it by numerous hit and run attacks.The swashbucklers and peglegs could team up to attack a convoy, and then duke it out to see who gets the prize. A game with all human players will be vastly different than playing against the AI. The europeans are not all that friendly to each other, and are infact in compition with each other. They want to win too. A player that control all four european nations will be almost impossible to defeat. (to win against) However, declaring war on each will probably cost them their colonies as they will be left completely vulnerable to pirate attack.I am creating new shipping lanes that the treasure carrying vessels must follow (sea tiles only).

Once again, erry Xmas to all, and to all a good night.

 

[Eclipse4449]

Ok I have to look for these strategies you mentioned, thanks!
Stayed up very late last night after Santa came and played many more Swashbucklers, I had a blast, this is going to be awesome ful of players.

Going to try a new Hotseat game on Deity as the Peglegs and spain just to see how both ends unfold.

What do you think about Panama and I remember you were discussing the turn count, what was your thoughts?

 

[The Guardian]

Ok I have to look for these strategies you mentioned, thanks!
Stayed up very late last night after Santa came and played many more Swashbucklers, I had a blast, this is going to be awesome ful of players.

Going to try a new Hotseat game on Deity as the Peglegs and spain just to see how both ends unfold.

What do you think about Panama and I remember you were discussing the turn count, what was your thoughts?

Panama, I will give that some thought.

I am waiting for some more play testing feedback. The number of turns can be easily adjusted by going into the editor, scenario tab and adjusting the number of turns. I will give my thoughts on that when I get more feedback. Post some screen saves of in game screen shots of the map.

 

[The Guardian]

Happy New Year !!!!!!!

Here is the latest UPDATE

This update includes the following:

Some new units
New terrain graphics
New A/D/B ratings for ships
New shipping lanes
New Techs and science advisor screen

I have included an xl file that was requested showing the characterictics of each ship. Nothing is written in stone as of yet and changes can still be made. I can not stress enough, I do need some play test feedback. The feedback I have gotten from Eclipse and Lancelot has been very helpful, but I need more in order to make sure the game is balanced.

 

[Eclipse4449]

Thanks for the update, downloading it now

from the last update I received this error, if this update not included can you give the line to copy & paste like before?

i'll ask each player to play thier particular civ to get some testing done
thanks again

 

[The Guardian]

Thanks for the update, downloading it now

from the last update I received this error, if this update not included can you give the line to copy & paste like before?

i'll ask each player to play thier particular civ to get some testing done
thanks again

I don't see this error in the current update. If you experience this error after installing the new update let me know.

 

[Arexander]

You just made my day!

 

[Lanzelot]

Hi Guardian,
will I be able to continue my current game after installing the update, or will I have to start over? And I assume the error about the slave_market in the PediaIcons.txt I posted before is gone with that version?

Thanks for the update! I'll continue testing as soon as I finished GOTM98...

Cheers, Lanzelot

 

[Arexander]

You have to restart as there comes a new biq with the files. Or you can keep the old biq and (I think) it should work too. Then you can finish your current game, delete the save and the old biq (optional) and start a new game with the new biq.

I've played a few turns as Swashbucklers and I've already emptied Haiti from French and Spanish troops with my Buccaneers. I've just researched Pirates and I'm soon beginning to build them. It's a pity that Buccaneers and Pirates can't conquer cities.

My ships have sank a lot of other ships. Including other pirate ships. No Undead on sight, though. I even sank a Ship of the Line 3rd Class with my Pirate ship.

 

[Eclipse4449]

You just made my day!

Oh yes this is gonna be a great one!!

Would you be willing to help play test either Portugal or the Netherlands or The Undead? This would really help us out here.

Or give feedback on the Swashbucklers and I'll move to one of the others. All is appreciated

 

[Arexander]

Error encountered.

 

[The Guardian]

Error encountered.

Open pediaicon txt file and this
#ANIMNAME_PRTO_musket_inf
musket_inf

with this
#ANIMNAME_PRTO_musket_inf
musket_inf

it should be line 2071 -2072.

 

[Arexander]

Ok. I'll try it. Will post report on this post.

 

[Arexander]

I've noticed a weird thing. Pub is creating a Raw Material instead of a Buccaneer, which should be created according to the Civilopedia. Is this intentional or just a misclick?

 

[The Guardian]

I've noticed a weird thing. Pub is creating a Raw Material instead of a Buccaneer, which should be created according to the Civilopedia. Is this intentional or just a misclick?

OH OH, Looks like the firaxis editor ghost has been at work. Go to the editor, edit rules, improvements and wonders. Find the PUB in the improvement and wonders list then in the bottom right hand corner you'll find a box that says units produced. find pirate conscript in that list. THAT is what the pub is SUPPOSE to produce.

Let me know how you make out.

I'm still working on the civilopedia.

 

[Arexander]

Well no wonder why I have over 13000 victory points while the second, France, has only a little over 5000. I conquered one city from France and now I have 3 cities with pubs and a lot of raw materials every 3 turns.

 

[The Guardian]

Well no wonder why I have over 13000 victory points while the second, France, has only a little over 5000. I conquered one city from France and now I have 3 cities with pubs and a lot of raw materials every 3 turns.

LOL rolling money.

 

[Arexander]

I'm curious and can't find viceroy Pierre Dutronc from anywhere. Who was this guy and where would I get some information about him?

EDIT: I can't find any info on any leader of these nations. Are they fictional?

 

[tom2050]

The Firaxsis Ghost editor can be devastatingly annoying. I believe if a unit is deleted, all the unit enslave/stealth selections change by how many units were deleted, if they are below the deleted unit spot.

Tom

 

[The Guardian]

The Firaxsis Ghost editor can be devastatingly annoying. I believe if a unit is deleted, all the unit enslave/stealth selections change by how many units were deleted, if they are below the deleted unit spot.

Tom

That makes sense to me TOM. I can see how that works. That may also be the reason why units mysterious appear in weird places after a unit disappears from the map, and other units appear in unussual places. I once had a british man o war suddenly appear in Paris after deleting a generic unit from my scenario and replacing it with a civ specific unit. Also had a generic archer appear all over the map after deleting another generic unit. I used Stephs editor, deleted all units from the map then started over placing all the units back on the map. WOW, that was time consuming and a pain in the butt. I learned my lesson tho and now the last thing I try to do is unit placement, but sometimes, you just can't avoid the problem.

As soon as all the bugs are cleaaned up, I'll post a corrected biq.