...:::The Pirate Path:::...
By: Charles Vane (#57445)
1. Mindset and Character
2. New Player Start
a) First Steps
b) Danger
c) Plundering
d) Skirmishing
e) Earning the Black Flag
3. Ships and Fleets
a) Ideal Ship Types
b) Fleet Structuring
c) Number of Ships Sailing
4. Guilds
5. Voodoo
a) Cards to Keep
b) Cards to Sell
c) Determining Value for Raids
6. Hiding your gold
7. Raiding
a) Types of Raids
b) Profit Vs. Risk and Loss
c) Basic Strategies
d) Weathering the Storm
e) Over fishing the Pond
8. Treasure Hunting
9. Hideout
10. Flagship
...:::Mindset and Character:::...
Before ye set out on yer path to becomin’ a pirate, ye first need to be understandin' what a pirate is an’ why they do what they do. The answer is really quite simple, a pirate forgoes trade, politics, an’ wars to focus on taking what he can from others. "TREASURE!" matey; that be the one true motivator behind any pirate. Now treasure is not just silver an’ gold, it be anythin' of value to the one seekin' it savvy?. Gold coins, ships, achievements, fear, fame, an’ infamy are all prime examples of the treasures most seek within Pirates Glory. All of these are dreams of every player, but what separates a pirate from the rest is their desire to obtain or achieve them by force an’ the playstyle they lead to maximize their haul. Ye will know early on what yer particular brand of treasure is. It will be the one thing ye’ spend yer time and turns tryin’ to obtain.
As a pirate, yer primary focus needs to be on the playstyle. Everythin’ else will follow suit if you do this well.
- Fly the Black
- Light an’ Fast
- Steal an’ Reap
...:::New Player Start:::..
a) First Steps:
As a new player, yer tactics will be basic and a foundation needs to be formed. Don’t be expectin’ to hit the waters an’ instill fear in the hearts of those who’ve come before ye just yet.
1. If ye picked the sloop at the start great, otherwise ye will need to purchase one.
2. On the left hand side of the screen are 3 mission lines. In the order of top to bottom as listed, "Pirate, Merchant, Noble". Ye will want to focus on the pirate one clearly. The noble missions also have some decent rewards ye will complete as ye go. The Merchant line is not something ye will focus on.
3. Time to build yer fleet for huntin' NPC's. It be best to seek a small loan from a couple different bankers. Put in for 100,000 an' accept up to a max of 400,000gc.
- Use 175k to upgrade yer sloop to level 8.
- Build another sloop with the resources the game gave ye at the start and add it to yer fleet.
- Send the fleet to "Tortuga" load up 30 tool crates in each sloop and set sail for Aiora.
- In Aiora, go to market and on the right click view warehouse and build one for 500g if this is not where ye started out. Then upgrade the warehouse to level 3. Store yer tools here.
- Set sail from Aiora to Seaglory, load cotton into your ships, and back to Aiora with ye to store the cotton. Do this 4 times until ye have 240 Cotton stored in Aiora.
- Now off to Tzogos for some Iron. Same deal, load and bring it back to Aiora to store it. Do this 6 times until ye have 360 iron stored.
- Now in Aiora, go to the market and buy 840 wood.
- Build 2 more sloops and add them to yer fleet.
4. Now it be time to hunt those NPC's lad. If ye did the missions ye already know how to do this. NPC strength and rewards are directly related to the number of ships ye own. This maxes out at about 30-35 ships. With 4 ships and a sloop level 8, ye should be fine plundering. Always be sure to go and repair your ships after every fight. As ye earn gold start payin' back yer loans quickly. Always keep a minimum of 75k on hand. If yer struggling to beat the NPC's use a "Pacifism" card the game gave ye in the missions and they become a breeze.
5. Build yerself a Sloop of War next and add it to yer fleet. Move its position up on the fleet screen to spot number one. Continue hunting NPC's and leveling all yer ships to level 10.
6. Once yer Sloop of War and Sloops are level 10, ye can begin Skirmishing players. Take note of the ones with strong ship escorts and avoid them. Find those sailing fleets of low level merchant ships.
7. Once ye earn the "10" Credit reward from the Noble mission line after posting in the forum, use the credits on the voodoo market to purchase some pacifism and coastal piracy cards.
8. Now ye have the basics down mate. Store more resources, build another fleet and the NPC's get tougher. Don't move to quickly or ye wont win the fights. The next ship ye want to build is a frigate. These are the cream of the crop for a pirate. Takes about 4 million gc to level up to 10 but combined with pacifism they can beat any NPC fleet. Eventually ye be earning 20-25k per merchant fleet hit and the odd time 70-100k per treasure fleet.
9. Finally, use yer gold to begin building a voodoo chest worthy of a raider and find yerself a pirate crew to join so you can begin learning the finer points
b) Danger:
- First off what is the danger rating? - Danger rating is a fleets overall exposure and risk towards being visible on the plunder board by all other players in a given port. The higher yer rating the more attacks ye will receive before yer fleet is no longer visible to others.
- A danger rating of " 3 " or higher is when you'll become visible. The higher your rating gets the higher yerr fleet is listed on the board.
- You gain " 6 " danger every time you plunder or skirmish another player. You will lose " 18 " danger every time you defend against another players attack. Therefore to maximize your earnings vs losses when it comes to attacking, it is advised to attack in 3's. 3 attacks will earn you 18 Danger which you will lose if attacked once yourself. 3 for 1, remember this!
- You will also gain " 1 " danger point every time a fleet enters a port and lose " 1 " danger point at the top of every hour. This makes it important for traders to keep their trade route travel times to no less than one hour between ports.
Danger Chart
* A fleet gains " 1 " Danger for every travel it finishes. - (Port Entrance)
* A fleet gains " 6 " danger for every plunder or skirmish. - (No danger gained vs NPCs!)
* A fleet loses " 18 " danger for every attack it receives.
* Every fleet loses " 1 " danger at the top of every hour.
NOTE: Voodoo can manipulate these figures.
c) Plundering:
This comes from the PG "Plunders: Help" page but is worth repeating!
How targets are selected?
Enemy Fleets must:
1. Be in the vicinity of the port (either docked at the port, or travelling towards/from it).
2. Have a danger rating of "3" or more.
What you earn from plunder?
* You earn Gold Coins and Fame.
Additional Earnings:
* Enemy Ships
* Captains
Fame Plunder
Formula: (10% of total Fame) / (Number of Ship owned by loser/25) -> Winner loots half of this.
(For Pirates, as long as they own 200 or less ships, 200 ships are assumed.)
Maximum fame loss: 10% of loser's total fame per attack.
Gold Coins Plunder (Ransom)
The loser must also pay a ransom equal to the 10% value of the base ship price that was last-positioned in the fleet that lost the battle "PLUS" a random number between 1% to 5% of his treasury at hand. (There is a limit of 250,000 max gold coins per plunder).
If the loser can pay the ransom, the winner loots it and the plunder ends.
Cargo Plunder:
When the loser does not have enough gold coins at hand to pay the ransom, he loses all the cargo carried by the last ship of the fleet.
The cargo is transformed to gold coins and it is paid to the winner. Base market prices are assumed.
Ships Plunder:
In the case that in the previous step, (Cargo loot), the gold coins earned was less than the ransom required, the winner will plunder the last-positioned ship of the loser's fleet.
Players that have used less than 2,000 turns (newcomers) who are active in the last 60 days, enjoy protection to their last ship. They will instead lose all cargo and gold carried.
Officers Plunder:
Attackers with less than 200 captains that plunder a ship, also earn 1 new Captain.
Ship Damages:
- Ship damages are applied only to the winner.
- In case of a tie, ship damages are applied to both.
- Ships that are sunk in the battle, get a small chance (Sink Chance) to lose a level. If they are level 1, they are sunk (lost into Davy Jones Locker). The chances are relative to the amount of ships the owner possesses and are:
1 to 10 Ships: 0% Sink Chance (Ships never lose a level)
11 to 50 Ships: 5% Sink chance
51 to 100 Ships: 10% Sink Chance
101 to 200 Ships: 25% Sink Chance
201 to 300 Ships: 50% Sink Chance
301 to 400 Ships: 75% Sink Chance
401 to 500 Ships: 90% Sink Chance
501 or more Ships: 100% Sink Chance (Ships always lose a level)
Notes:
- Level 1 Ships are dragged into the sea bottom instead.
- Whenever a ship loses a level, the winner wins (paid by the game) the worth of the level (base value) that has been lost back at a percentage of 35% to 55% (random)
- Piracy Technology improves this randomness by 1% per level
d) Skirmishing:
Skirmish is a fleet action that allows you to attack other player fleets.
The defending fleet can be skirmished even if it has NO danger.
Skirmish is meant as a way to generate extra gold in the expense of merchants without the usage of Danger generating voodoo. Voodoo affects Skirmish normally (ie Advanced Piracy).
Skirmishing is very useful for earning a consistent amount daily, and for gathering fleet intel on a potential target. The goal when skirmishing for profit is to find fleets without escorts as our ships are light. Pay attention to different tells merchants give off, and remember those players who do and do not use escorts.
You can skirmish a fleet if the following requirements are met:
1) You need 1 Skirmish point
Right now, you get 3 Skirmish points per day.
Black Flag (Pirate Flag) players earn an extra 5 Skirmish points per day
Skirmish Tactics Technology gives 1 Skirmish point per day per level.
Maximum skirmish points allowed at hand are 72.
Skirmish Tactics technology increases storage by 5 per level.
Skirmish points are only added to recently active players.
2) The defender is not a guildmate
Skirmishes on Guildmates are not allowed.
3) Fleet Number Specific Skirmish Protection
1 Skirmish defend per 10 sailing fleets owned.
Example: Someone with 80 fleets, will be prone to receive 80/10 = 8 daily skirmishes Result is always rounded upwards (ie for 1 fleet 1/10 = 1 daily skirmish)
No points/turns are lost if you attempt to attack such a player.
4) The defending fleet must appear in the Gossip page.
This is why you choose the targets from the Gossip page.
5) The gossip entry must be less than 30 minutes old.
6) The fleet must be in the same port vicinity with the Gossip entry.
Skirmishes are different than regular attacks in the following points:
-A Skirmish costs 2 turns (Plunders cost 4).
-Ships do not lose levels.
-There is an escape probability (There is an escape chance equal to 10% + number of skirmish defends today * 3.
In case of a successful escape, no battle takes place. Normal danger is penalized to the attacking fleet but no turns are lost.)
-Defending fleet loses no danger
-Defending fleets do not pause their trade route
-Different earnings for the attacker
If the defending fleet wins, the plunder is exactly the same as a normal attack.
If the attacking fleet wins, then:
a) All defending fleet's Cargo is lost
- Gold Bars are transfered to the attacking fleet's port warehouse. If the attacker has no warehouse there the gold bars are lost. If the space is insufficient, then the excessive gold bars are lost.
- Wood,Iron,Tools,Cotton,Rum,Tobacco and Food, are transformed in gold coins (base prices are assumed) and attacker receives them. This is called the Cargo Value. (Gold Bars are NOT counted for the Cargo Value)
b)A gold loot is applied, equal to the Cargo Value
This gold loot is removed from defender's treasury. If defender's treasury is less than the gold loot, then he pays as much as his treasury has minus 1. This means that Skirmishes can return 0 earnings.
c)Fame loss is equal to Cargo Value - Maximum loss is 1% of total defender's fame.
If defender has 100 Fame or less, Fame Loss is 0.
Skirmishes do not count for any mission unless they are specifically named.
e) Earning the Black Flag:
The requirement to earn the Black is quite simple. You must gain "75 points of hostility or more" with your current nation. There are two methods for gaining hostility. The first is by attacking other citizens of your current nation, players "or" NPC's . The second is by refusing to pay taxes to your nation and racking up enough debt that you fall within your nations penalty range and begin gaining hostility.
1. Attacking your Nation:
The first method is the easiest and quickest way to gain hostility. It is as simple as attacking (plundering) or Skirmishing any player or NPC that holds your nations flag. For every plunder you complete you will earn "10" points of hostility (more if your nation has hostility laws in place). If done within 5 hours you will have your flag after 8 successful attacks. The reason for the time frame is every hour on the hour you lose "1" point of hostility with every nation, much like danger points. You can always view your current hostility with any nation by going to the court page and clicking the "Nation Relationships" report on the right.
Note: If your current nation is not one of the top 20, NPC fleets with your flag will not generate and you will need to find or light up a player who belongs to your nation.
2. Refusing to pay Taxes:
This method can take more time depending on your nations current tax laws. Go to your daily expenditure page by clicking on your gold coin count in the upper right corner. Under "Tax Summary" click on (Details) which will be highlighted orange. Under general settings next to nation debts are paid it might say "Automatically", click "Change" next to this to make payments manually. You will no longer pay taxes and eventually be declared a pirate by your nation. You can then go to your nations law screen, hover over articles and penalties for ship tax to see how much debt you need to accrue before gaining hostility.
Benefits to Hoisting the Black Flag:
Fame Plunder: For Pirates, when calculating fame loss due to being attacked, if a pirate has less than 200 ships, 200 ships are assumed effectively reducing the amount of fame lost as we generally run much fewer than 200 ships.
Upkeep costs are halved.
+10% fame earned from plundering
You are also given certain bonuses in "Pirate Controlled" ports:
Recruitment does not require influence
Recruitment is free of charge.
Cannons are free of charge.
Additionally: IT LOOKS AWESOME!
...:::Ships and Fleets:::...
a) Ideal Ship Types:
Remember under Playstyle I mentioned Light and Fast? The following are the ideal ships for such a goal.
Cutter
Sloop
Sloop of War
Brig of War (Decent ship but slower than the others)
Frigate
b) Fleet Structuring:
Using fewer ships (as you will read just after this) pirates will have fewer fleets. This makes instant travelling often a necessity when raiding larger merchants spread between more than 2 ports. Instant travel is determined by the number of ships in a fleet and the time to travel. Using fast ships and fleets of 2 or 3, we can limit the turn cost quite easily. A few of my favourite fleet compositions are as follows.
Frigate - Frigate - Frigate - Cutter - Cutter
Frigate - Sloop of War - Cutter
Sloop of War - Cutter
Sloop
Cutters or Sloops are used as the last ship, called a tail. This is to reduce the plunder lost when attacked. (If you need a refresher, look under plunders and read how ransom is calculated again.)
c) Number of Ships Sailing:
Go with 50 or fewer, Ideally 10 or less!
Given our knowledge of how plunders work, 10 or fewer ships means no sink chance on your tail. 11-50 ships means a 5% chance. For these reasons I never go above 50 ships and most often have 10 or less. Doing so will allow for a more valuable tail with no risk of needing to replace levels when you are attacked. Also as a pirate you will frequently sail with high danger ratings on your fleets, allowing a tail to sink easily puts your lead ships at risk.
...:::Guilds:::...
Find some like minded scallywags to share the work and plunder with. The cost of the raid will be divided allowing you to save on resources while also presenting two or more targets for your prey to focus on. Doing this splits your targets attention, resources, and frustration giving you and your crew the upper hand.
There are many guilds to choose from, but which is right for you?
- If ye plan on hitting NPC's and simply skirmishing or common plunder hits until hell freezes over then most guilds will accept ye.
- If ye want to truly pirate and raid then you'll want to find a pirate crew. Good crews are few and far between, especially if ye be lookin' to learn much more than I have written here. Do your homework, look an' ask around. One will stand out to ye and that be the one to join.
...:::Voodoo:::...
There is a lot to be said for voodoo, so this will only be a simple checklist of the cards you will find useful and worth keeping. Ye will determine the number of each type ye wish to keep later on depending on your particular style.
a) Cards to Keep:
Common:
- Advanced Piracy
- Bless
- Buried Treasure
- Death Poker
- Disfavor
- Drums of War
- Expensive Tools
- Flood
- Hands of Gold
- Hostile Natives
- Hostile Waters
- Lazy Craftsmen
- Iron Golem
- Rotten Food
- Spynetwork
- Time Spiral
- Trade Master
Uncommon:
- Blacklist
- Coastal Piracy
- Countercurse
- Crystal Ball
- Fugitive From Justice
- Insight
- Pacifism
- Pouch of Gold
- Purify
- Self Sacrifice
- Serenity
- Terrorize
- Vengeance of the Witch Doctor
Rare:
- Ambush
- Booty Master
- Call Leviathan
- Call the Kraken
- Commandeer
- Confuse
- Fire Ship
- Flying Dutchman
- Hideout
- Mindbar
- Ravage
- Swarm of Worms
- Taxation
b) Cards to Sell:
Simple really, anything ye not be needin' to keep savvy?..
c) Determining Value:
Again this is also quite simple. All ye need to do is go to the Voodoo market and open a bid window of the card ye want to price out. At the bottom it will show you the average purchase price in credits. Log the number, then go to the Credit exchange and find out what the average credit sale and purchase prices are and find the mid point. Multiply the credit price by your cards average price and you have the average cost of the card in gc. (This is important later on for determining the investment required to pull of a raid depending on the resources required.)
...:::Hiding your Gold:::...
Once ye have yer plunder, where be the best place to hide it? Pirates Glory offers many solutions to this problem, some of which are better than others for pirates. To determine the "best" place of storage you need to understand the main goal is to protect it and this may come with a small fee.
Here are the 4 most effective ways of hiding your treasure:
- Banks
- Burying your Treasure
- Purchase and Store Gold Bars
- Purchasing Credits
But which is best for you?
1. Banks:
Banks are the most common method players use for storing coin. There are several to choose from, all with varying rates on transfers. Currently, every transaction you complete (deposit/transfer/withdrawl), costs you turns. A small price to pay for quick security. How secure is a bank though? Well as it stands, there is only one risk.. the banker you are dealing with. Not to say bankers cant be trusted, it's quite the opposite really. They can always be trusted, to freeze your account and hold your funds should you upset them, their guild, or their friends! Remember matey, your a pirate! You'll be raiding, plundering and upsetting their business often. If you choose to place your coin in a bank, be sure to know the banker who owns it and avoid certain deeds that may cause him to seek revenge on you. There is also a voodo card, "Blacklist" which will deny you access to any bank for a specific duration of time should it be cast on you.
2. Burying your Treasure:
Burying gold coins was one of the original methods for storage and protection. With the introduction of other options it has quickly been abandoned by many. A large part of this has to do with the fact it costs a fair amount of turns to deposit gc into the ground as well as it does to dig it back up. You also need a heavy investment of turns (which need to be maintained weekly) to protect your buried treasure as other players may be hunting for it! Just like banks, there is a voodoo card called "Terrorize" which will deny you access to the treasure hunt page which is where you would go to bury or dig up your coin. The upside to this, Terrorize is port specific and they need to guess or know where you are hiding your plunder.
3. Purchasing and Storing Gold Bars:
This is one of my favorite ways to store plunder. Gold Bars are expensive, so warehouse space is maximized. Bars can be bought in any port, and sold in any port (excluding where your hideout is built). This eliminates the need for transporting goods to another port market for sale as was previously required when storing tools as a backbone. The downside to this method is a small loss taken when buying and selling in the same port. However, it is one I am personally comfortable with. You'll want to diversify and have bars in several ports though as the card "Terrorize" also denies you access to the market in a specified port.
4. Purchasing Credits
Another of my personal favorite methods to store your assets is the purchase of credits. Now players are able to buy credits on the credit exchange market or at some banks from time to time. If done correctly you can see a profit in selling / buying credits, otherwise if coin was needed in a pinch you could sell credits at a small loss however combining the Gold Bar method is ideal for a situation where you need coin and you need it quickly. Credits are another resource that cannot be targeted by other players and provide you with absolute protection of your riches. You could also store coin on the exchange by placing a Buy Bid for a specified amount of credits on the exchange for a price so absurd no one would think about selling to you, and if they did... BONUS! This is however restricted to a set amount based on your bank level if you have one or fixed at 25 mill gc if you don't. When you need your coins back, simply cancel the order. A few turns are required and a small loss in fees is felt but nothing major.
Summary:
The choice is yours when determining how and where to protect your assets. Just remember to consider all the risks involved in each one. I use all of the above methods as diversity is key to success and adaptability.
...:::Raiding:::...
a) Types of Raids:
There are 3 primary types of raids as follows. (How they are conducted... well ye best find a good Captain to teach ye that
)Gold Coin Raid:
Coin raids are simple, easy, and most often cheap to execute. This be where ye lite up yer target with voodoo using light ships and attack their merchant fleets with the goal of relieving the target of their heavy purse.
Fleet Raid:
The goal here is to quickly and efficiently make one of your targets "capital fleets" disappear in the blink of an eye. Quite expensive to pull off and few sail fleets worth enough to cover the expenses and earn ye some profit. Every now and again though a fleet like this presents itself. If I am too pull this type of raid now, it is purely to make a point or statement.
Ship Raid:
This is most commonly conducted on inactive players or on those you lit for a gold coin raid who ran out quickly with the unintended effect of dropping ships. Goal here being to steal a bunch of ships to either bolster stats or sell them for a profit. In-actives again are the most common targets as their gold has dropped over time. Once your inactive target gets lit and ships drop, move quickly. Its quite comical how quickly the other sharks smell blood.
b) Profit Vs. Risk and Loss:
Always consider what your profit is and if it outweighs the risk or potential loss on retaliation.
(Your profit may be stats or fame, just make sure ye get enough to satisfy ye after any retribution is felt.)
c) Basic Strategies:
The 3 most common:
- Stalking with the Natives. (GC Raid)
- Fugitive of the hour. (GC or Ship raid)
- Hit and Run - (Fleet Stealing)
Most players (with the exception of newer ones) know this stuff by now and i'm not going to explain how they work in detail here. My own personal tricks will remain with me crew and students.
d) Weathering the Storm:
Operatin' as a pirate in these waters ye be bound to find yerself caught in a sh*t storm from time to time. Players don't like to have their possessions taken from em' and nor should they. Some players even react quite harshly. The one thing ye need to keep in mind, "Ye raid by yer rules, and they retaliate by theirs matey." If ye raid wisely and stash the haul appropriately, ye can take what they dish out an' not concern yerself with it. Ye just earned profit on yer haul, sat through a flurry of retaliatory voodoo and came out on top. Move forward, and keep it that way. Don't retaliate for their retaliation. If after their retaliation ye lost more than ye earned.... ye did it wrong...
e) Overfishing the Pond:
A bit of advice I hope all new pirates will hear and carry with them. "Do not over fish your pond!" We need to keep our sources of income producing. If you over raid the same players or guilds to often, they will be forced to adopt new strategies to combat our attacks. This usually means reducing their size, adding escorts to their fleets, and keeping alert for the next attempt. Our jobs then become much harder and much more expensive, reducing our profit margins. We want them to be content, complacent, and maintain a healthy income.
...:::Treasure Hunting:::...
Yer initial investment of turns to set up a port to hunt may seem overwhelmin'. This be a one time cost however, so it be worth it in then end when ye be pullin' up NPC chests of 2-4 million savvy?
Pick yer self a port to start explorin'. I recommend Baramas, St. Martins, or even Aiora.
Once a port is chosen, on the treasure huntin' page you'll see some text near the top allowin' ye to change regions. There be 9 regions to explore in a port. Ye be wantin' to explore all 9 of them to 100%. To do this pick region 1, then spend 5 or 10 turns explorin' it until it is at 100% then move on to region 2..3..4..ect.
Once all regions be explored, (That be the expensive investment i mentioned) yer ready to start prepping the hunt.
Now ye got 3 options to spend yer turns on.
Ask the port locals: Improves NPC Max and Improves Port Max
Discuss with the head explorer: Improved Player Chance
Discuss with your quartermaster: Improves Player Max
We want to stick to "Ask the port locals".
Start investin' turns into Ask the port locals until your NPC max gets to around 2-4 million gc. This will be a ratio of the port max. (Port max will never go higher than 25% of the largest players treasure buried there). Finding the port with the largest treasure will yield larger NPC treasures. Once ye NPC max is high enough for ye to want to find it, ye can begin prepping the hunt.
At the bottom there are 2 more options.
Prepare for the treasure hunt (Add more Turns)
Dig for treasure (Use Turns)
We want to "Prep the hunt" with 20-40 turns then "Dig for Treasure". One of 3 outcomes will appear.
Ye find a player treasure worth 1gc....
Ye find nothing
Ye find yer NPC treasure
Now failin' or findin' a player treasure aint all bad. Yer success rate will go up so every attempt the odds be ever more in ye favor. Add 20-40 more turns and repeat until ye find yer treasure.
Congratulations ye dirt shoveler, ye found yer first chest of swag!
Now how do we repeat? Well yer ports already explored so that be done. If ye have a keen eye ye would notice yer success chances changed a wee bit. Player chance went up and NPC went down.... This happens every time ye find an NPC treasure. To reset the NPC rate ye need to find a real players treasure. So continue the step above and keep finding NPC treasures until that player chance is so high ye only get them blasted 1gc finds. Usually around 80%. At that point use the option "Discuss with the Head explorer". Get Player chance to 90%. Now ye need to prep the hunt with more than 20-40 turns to find a real player treasure worth more than the 1gc. I suggest 50-80. Then hunt and repeat until ye find a players swag.
Now yer NPC chance is back to 50% and ye can repeat the above list from "Asking the port Locals" to increase yer NPC max down to resettin' yer chances.
...:::Hideout:::...
The hideout feature is a very enticing element for many new players. The ability to build buildings, increase your potential in various areas, and the technologies! Where to begin and what is ideal for a young pirate? In all honesty, there are not a lot of places to invest your resources for a pirate to be. There are a few however, and with the investment of resources + time, you may very well increase your enjoyment and profit.
Lets first look at all the current buildings available.
Mansion: Required to build more buildings
Workshop: Each level increase construction speed of building upgrades
Bank: Allows a player to own and operate a bank
Goldsmith: Produces gold bars at the cost of gold coins and resources
Private Marina: A safe place to hide your ships
Academy: Allows one to research different technologies giving various bonuses
Mansion:
The mansion provides the necessary plots of land with which to build upon. Currently, every mansion level provides 6 spaces for building. Every building you upgrade takes up one space including the mansion itself. Relies heavily on wood for upgrades.
Workshop:
The workshop increases the construction speed of buildings by 2.5% per level. Very handy if you intend on upgrading several buildings to level 20. However as a pirate, we will only be focusing on 2-3 buildings. The workshop requires several resources much of which include food, tobacco, and rum. As pirates we won't have many trade fleets if any, so resource transportation is long and slow. Not a big priority.
Bank:
As a pirate sailing under the black, you will not have access to your own bank. Nearly pointless in building one at all, and they become very expensive. It is however an untouchable and decent place to store gold coins for a very rainy day. You would need to join a nation to access it, but once done you may return to the pirates life.
Goldsmith:
Produces gold bars at the cost of food, tobacco, rum, and gold coins. Very expensive to upgrade, and you'll need level 14-16 to make any profit. Again, we are not traders so don't bother with this one.
Private Marina:
This is a great building for a pirate and one to invest in heavily. It relies upon wood a great deal just like the mansion does. The marina allows you to store your ships safely where they can not be touched. A pirate does what? He attacks quickly, plunders what he can, then disappears with little to lose. Here you will store plundered trophies of value until sale and store your best ships if you plan a large raid and do not want them accessible to retaliation. Out of all the buildings, this will be of the most benefit to you.
Academy:
The academy allows you to research technologies to increase your effectiveness in several areas. Currently there are 11 techs available, as a pirate we will only focus on 4-5 of them. All techs require gold coins, gold bars, and time to research.
Now for the "Technologies"
- Officer Contracts: Decreases officer hiring costs.
- Storage Contracts: Decreases warehouse upgrade costs.
- Skirmish Tactics: Provides additional Skirmish points per day!
- Shipwright Management: Decreases ship building and upgrade costs.
- Warehouse Tycoon: Decreases cost of goods when purchased manually at port.
- Political Science: Increases influence gained through build up port function.
- Metallurgy: Increases effectiveness of a ships Iron Scantling!
- Gunpowder: Increases effectiveness of a ships Round Shot!
- Education: Decreases technology research time!
- Spanish Galleons: Increases effectiveness of Galleon type ships. (Hull bonus + Speed Bonus)
- Piracy: Increases gold coins plundered or skirmished! (3.5k per level) Additionally, it improves the minimum value plundered from a ship's lost level by 1% per level.
Buildings to Focus on as a Pirate:
Mansion
Private Marina
Academy
Technologies to Focus on as a Pirate:
Piracy
Skirmish Tactics
Education
Metallurgy
Gunpowder
...:::Flagship:::...
(To be written upon release and review of the feature)
...:::Conclusion:::...
If ye get stuck any point a long the way, just ask mate. This game be full of players willing to lend a bit of advice to a new flounder, but we can't help if ye don't ask savvy?..
Thank you all for reading my lengthy ramblings
now then..
..where the hell is my rum...
...
...
...NOFFIN
...
