Discussion Best Sea Dogs/AOP title (With & Without mods)

[MatthewThePirate]

So, wow, it's been a real long time since I've posted here.

I play Sea Dogs 2 now and again, as it remains my favorite of the series for various reasons, all the more so with New Horizons.

I recently started playing again and of course I decided to install AOP2 as well, for a comparison whilst installing the GOF Eras mod (which I recently found out about). Overall I still felt that SD2 was superior to AOP2. I suddenly was reminded today of why I stuck to SD2 over AOP 2. AOP2, to me, feels lazy in design, copy and paste cities are a staple, and they seem so tiny in size in comparison to SD2. It feels rather "bland" to play. Where as I find SD2 much more immersive and fun, and each town has an almost unique look to it. Just better vibes overall.

However I've not played other games in the series, and I recently became aware of Sea Dogs: To each his own. The latest of the releases, which of course people have just stated is a modded AOP2...


So really, I wanted opinions of the community, do any other titles of the series offer anything more in gameplay than SD2? And also what would people rate each game in the series (both with mods and no mods). Personally I'd say.. from what I've "seen" is that SD2 remains the best, both modded and unmodded, simply because a lot of effort seems to have been put into it as I covered earlier, the detailing and so on. The other games afterward only seem to trump in looks overall (it would be great if the sea textures or graphics, as well as character models from the later games could be imported into SD2, perfection! And the NH remastered would be great if it gets completed).

But I'd like to hear all your thoughts! (And perhaps gain insight on the latest titles)

 

[Pieter Boelen]

from what I've "seen" is that SD2 remains the best, both modded and unmodded, simply because a lot of effort seems to have been put into it as I covered earlier, the detailing and so on.

I agree about the effort put into the original Sea Dogs 2; you can really tell the developers were aiming high with that one!
Until the game was snatched away when Disney commandeered it.

But as a consequence, the gameplay of the stock game left something to be desired.
As far as I can tell, both AoP2 and TEHO were probably better games out of the box.

There are a few threads about this as scattered over the forum.
I can't look them up at the moment, but with a bit of luck, they'll be easy to find.

 

[Officerpuppy]

As much as I enjoyed AoP2, I have to say that SD2 was the better game for the reasons stated above.

 

[Dat Scharger]

I have played AoP2 with the GoF-mod first and thought initially that it was probably the best pirate-game out there. But that didn't last long until I tried out PotC with the NH-mod, causing me to ditch AoP2 immediately.

Because AoP2 is sadly plagued by utterly atrocious gameplay-choices which effectively killed all fun I had with it.
-Infinite number of quests - which doesn't mean much if most of them are like "Search pixel-sized item X in vaguely described area Y". I understand the developers intention to not simply include some active marker which shows conveniently the way, but it's absolutely not fun if you are forced to comb through entire jungles because they didn't feel the need of giving the player some useful hints. Guess how many players were pissed off in Metroid: Other M, when they had to locate a pixel-sized spot to continue the story.
-Speaking of hints, the quest-journal felt very basic and was vague on what to do next. In fact, sometimes I got the feeling that I had missed something, only to discover much later that something I did indeed triggered some switch to progress the quest, but the journal didn't update accordingly.
-Oh well, 90% of all quests felt like pure "Guide Dang-It"-trope incarnated.
-Gamebreaking bugs if you don't follow quests to the letter.
-Apparently, no more privateer-work for other nations (correct me if I'm wrong). And the RNG-nature of governor-quests was frustrating as hell, since most of the time, they either had nothing to offer or their quests relied on RNG as well (Wants a specific pirateship destroyed, which may not show up at all. Or tasks you to wipe out smugglers, when they won't even cooperate with you after several encounters). Realistic? Maybe. Fun? If I want to get screwed over by RNG, I'd play a roguelike like Ironcast or Darkest Dungeon (Great games, by the way).
-Stealth felt useless. Couldn't dock at foreign ports, since they would always detect a false flag. Even when I'm on the other side of the island. And don't get me started on the guards, which force you into conversations that may end, thanks to RNG again, in you being detected. That's with a high stealth-skill, mind you.

The only thing really done well is the eponymous city of abandoned ships. Which brings me to my next peeve: simply destroying your fleet and killing your crew and officers when you arrive there without a warning.