I just cant make any progress in the game ?

[Edward teach]

Could someone help please, I just cant get anywhere. I've got Morgans ship yet I cant get enough men to attack the larger cities, they mutiny (even with the fiddle) before i can get enough. I tried to attack everything that passed (with 40 guns) to keep them happy, no, not enough booty from the ships, they mutinied again. The treasure maps are useless I gave up trying to find treasure.

I guess what iam asking is this; Can someone give me a step by step stragedy on what to do to obtain wealth. Iam ovbiously not doing it right.BTW I cant dance even with the boots so that avenue is closed.
Thanks for your help.

 

[DaEezT]

Sorry but: No dancing = no progress.
You can get about 2/3 of the items, map parts, names of wanted criminals and hints from the daughters. No playing the game without dancing :/

Early to mid game it's best to look for pirate treasures and the pirate captains (they carry tons of gold on their ships) and dock in every city you come across to dance while you're tracking down your prey. that way you get a steady gold income + items and map parts.

Since you already got a Large Frigate or a Flag Galleon you could try finding a treasure location, divide the loot in the nearest city and dig up the treasure as soon as you set sails again to get a good start with your new crew.

But neither pirates nor their treasures do reappear so once you got them all the only big income source left are the lost cities and there are only 4 of them.

But those tips are all pretty generic since there are no fixed map/treasure/item/city/family locations.

 

[The Omega]

How long have you been at sea? Cause it sounds like it's time for you to divide the plunder.

 

[Longasc]

I think they mutiny because you are a bad captain. They want cash more than fights, bring in some serious money.

Dancing is a very important part, but even without, you can make tons of gold. You should have gotten the hang of the game by now, so all I can say is the arrogant but nevertheless true... TRY HARDER!

 

[Edward teach]

I've defeated every pirate, I've overrun townships, I've got just about every devise that the "traveller" sells in the tavern. I just cant dance! So I get very little towards maps etc..the big dollars.

It is not so much try harder, but what to do?

 

[Taé Shala]

Visit more missionaries. Sometimes you get info of the baron. Chase him down and rescue your family then.

 

[The Omega]

Well,
1st) the fiddle is NOT the best item to improve crew morale. There is another instrument tha tyou can get after getting the fiddle that helps even more.
2nd) If you have a quartermaster, you're crew won't mutiny as much.
3rd) If you have a cook, you're crew will be happier.
4rth) Try to keep a smallish crew. I normally have around 100 (unless I plan to attack a heavily defended town). Whith less people, each pirates share is bigger, thus they are happier.
5th) If you still can't get you're crew happy, sell every ship except for you're flagship, and don't visit and towns until you're crew is at least content. This way, you're crew won't be able to desert.

 

[jeannie]

Here's some hints on dancing:

1. ALL dances begin with either a left, right, left, right (4,6,4,6) set of moves or a right, left, right, left (6,4,6,4) set. Usually, a PLAIN daughter will then do the opposite as the second set of moves.

2. MOST of the time when you have turn left (or right), you'll do that 4 times in a row. Quite frequently, the next set of 4 'moves' will be another set of 4 'turns'.

3. When you get the signal to 'move forward' (the daughter moving straight back),
the next two moves will be 'turn right', then another 'move forward, turn right, turn right'

4. When you start out, the heart grows bigger each time you do the correct step, but it goes down to minimum when you stumble. When you get the calf skin boots and eventually the dancing slippers, if you make a mis-step, the daughter will forgive you, and the heart only decreases a little bit, for the first mis-step, (maybe even the second or third with the 'slippers').

I'm on my fourth game (as an apprentice), and this is where I've finally caught on to the dancing (and it helps I've gotten the slippers!) - I'm up to 48 points, and I've got 4 'romance points', and I've gotten a lot of info and gifts from the daughters. It's taken me these few days to finally get to the point where I can easily use the numeric keypad for maneuvering the dance steps - I started out trying to use the mouse and it was hopeless!!!

Hope this helps!

 

[Edward teach]

I have both the slippers and boots I get my daughter to "dance" she can do it. Thanks for the help!

 

[Volstag]

If you can board, and take over, a ship w/o damaging it, you can turn around and sell them at your local shipwright. I've noticed that Trade Galleons will often surrender w/o firing a shot (or, rather, w/o being fired upon), so those are good candidates (they sell for 600 at the shipwright).

Edit: One thing I've noticed, however, is that sooner or later your crew will become muntinous. I don't think it's possible to keep them content (or better) indefinitely. Perhaps there is... but it would involve meticulously planning your game and, ideally, always running into suitable prey.

-V

 

[The Omega]

Edit: One thing I've noticed, however, is that sooner or later your crew will become muntinous. I don't think it's possible to keep them content (or better) indefinitely. Perhaps there is... but it would involve meticulously planning your game and, ideally, always running into suitable prey.

Actually, if you keep them content-happy long enough, they'll stop caring about time at sea, and start carin gonly about money. Thus, if you get lots of money early int eh game, and keep a relatively small crew, you can play forever.

 

[Edward teach]

Thats the problem, I cant do it? Thats why I asked for a stradegy help?

 

[kcwong]

Which level are you on? Here's how I do it...

I'm on my second game only (2nd level), but I think I got the hang of it now.

In my first game (English, Medicine), I retired at the age of 35 with fair health (as Mayor), all pirates defeated, all family members rescued, had my revenge, one lost city found, all promotions, and 6 secret treasure dug up, all special items, all specialists, about 98 or so fame. Isn't full mark in wealth because I was too loyal - I wasn't pludering enough. I kept using a Royal Sloop for the whole game, with one or two galleons along to carry some loot. The crew in early game is happy to content, but later on they're usually unhappy. I divided the plunder three times. I haven't dance - only once in the game, and I failed. So I decided my pirate doesn't want a nagging wife/girl friend to annoy him and refused all dancing Late in the game I found Henry (the top pirate) and seized his large frigate - and I found it is a very nice ship... could be better overall than the sloop class.

The biggest problem I found in my first game is that the wind is always blowing from the East - and I travelled for quite a long period of time against it, and along the way there's little cities or ship to get action.

So in my current game, I started as French (same area as English), and sail in the nearby area to get myself a Frigate as quick as possible (for the max. crew, cargo and fire power over sloop). Then I choose Spain as my first target, and headed a little SE, attacking every Spain fleet I saw. I quickly gathered about 200 men and started sacking every Spain cities as well, along the way SE and then West.

I didn't keep most ships - they thin my crew on my flag ship, and slow down my fleet speed on the world map. I at most keep only two ships, if I know the goods have a really nice price nearby.

Surprisingly, as I follow that route, all the treasure maps, pirate hideouts seem to be quite neary by to my path - I don't even need to turn back at all. I just keep going SE then West, sinking ships and sacking Spain cities. At this time my crew grow to about 300 men at all times, and they are from happy to very happy.

I turn over cities to the other three nations to earn their favor as well as for a friendly port nearby for trade and repairs. Now I have almost reached the west-end of the sea - a few 500 soldier Spain cities I can't attack with confidence yet, so I'll stay there for a while. After that, I expected to be Duke (now Count) of England, and will sail north for those pirates, then east to English cities (morale should drop a bit by that time for the lack of action). Then I'll change my target to England and turn over cities to Spain... rinse and repeat.

 

[Edward teach]

I made my mistake after I gained Morgans fast frigate. I should have gone from defeating one pirate to the next, that way they would have stayed happy all the time due to their cut, then as you suggest the cities! Thank for the help kcwong.

 

[kcwong]

I'm just starting to get how things work... I definitely need a lot of practice for dancing... the dating/marriage thing is in the game and I gotta try it sooner or later

I'm now practicing fencing on those overweighted Spanish merchant ship captain... parry all their moves and taunt them. Should make fencing much easier at higher levels.

Have you read the hint forum in Cutlass Isle ? Some posters there have found a lot about the calculations... it is said that with enough money rolling in, you only need to divide plunder only once!

Also formula for amount of loot from named pirates is also found... seems they too plunder, and the later you go for them, the more money they have on their ships!

 

[Tatran]

Every pirate needs an amount between 4000-4200 gold to stay
very happy.In my current game I didn't divide one gold piece.

 

[Edward teach]

Problem is that (in my new game with Morgans ship 40 guns)) not all the pirates are there (at that time) to amass that much gold. I was going to go from one pirate to another and get 200,000 + and them build an army. Does'nt work! Pain in the butt. Also at this time very few Spanish cities can be attacked and those that do are in excess of 400 men. A frustrating game indeed.

 

[kcwong]

Well, there's always another game

Challenge yourself to change your current pirate's fate, or try to break the record - see if you can retire to be a begger! Many in Cutlass Isle thinks that is actually quite difficult to archive

 

[Billy Rubin]

Early to mid game it's best to look for pirate treasures and the pirate captains (they carry tons of gold on their ships) and dock in every city you come across to dance while you're tracking down your prey. that way you get a steady gold income + items and map parts.

I agree with going for the treasures early - they stay the same throughout the campaign, but I'd let the pirates alone for some time. They get more and more money.
Think of them as fruits - you can pick them early on when they're green and sour, but let them grow for some time and then harvest tons of cash .

 

[Eyeoftiger]

One thing that I have discovered is to leave the other pirates alone until you're around 28 years old (wait 10 years). Early in the game, a few of them have around 4000-8000 gold on their ships; hardly worth getting rid of. But if you wait, you'll get 50K easily from the top pirates and at least 15-20k from the lower ones later in the game. They've had time to accumulate wealth.