Need Help New to Sea Dogs: City of Abandoned ships, i don't know how to start

[Dread Gregery]

So i got this after sea dogs to each his own cause i heard that THIS game is the better pirate game and the tutorial is much more forgiving as it doesn't take my weapon away for trying to talk with the governor.
However im stuck on how to start out, i know Zero things about this game, expect that going into people's houses to take their stuff can be rewarding if you manage to do it while they're not looking.

But then i was told in another set of forums (steams discussion page for the game) that thats bad cause your rep will go down, even though i got a ruby out of my first house dive and managed to both pay for full repairs and have money left over.

So for experienced players i would like your advice, cause when it comes to everything by combat i know nothing, how does rep work? will it go down even if people don't see me steal? is the pirate life "end game" stuff?

to make money are you meant to get a feel for how much things cost from port town to port town, buying cheap and selling high? then becoming a privateer for one nation THEN a pirate?

 

[Dread Gregery]

Just to clarify, im asking on here because when i look for any sort of guide online they don't exist or its in Russian which i can't read, so that's why i posted this here

 

[Foop my Car]

Hello Dread Gregery, welcome!

First up, I recommend getting the Gentlemen of Fortune mod for CoAS (ver 2.5) as it fixes annoying bugs and adds in a a whole lot more ships and playable characters. Unmodded version is also fine. Mod Release - Gentlemen Of Fortune 2.0 . It requires re downloading a fresh CoAS BUT!!!! if you should create a copy of your save game so you can always return to it if you prefer the vanilla edition. Simply to to steam, right-click CoAS , scroll to 'manage', then 'Browse local files'. Then go to the SAVE folder and copy it.

Basics:

Stats increase the more you act in that particular aspect. For example, if you fight often, your fighting stats get better, gamble often, your luck gets better. Your reputation depends on your actions, stealing or rejecting to help others gives you a bad reputation. Running errands and helping out gives you a good one.

Note: Your reputation does not go down when you steal if no one catches you stealing.

For starters, I recommend playing the Peter Blood storyline. Follow the guide on the wiki and you can complete it in one day. Completing it grants you 2 exclusive officers and a unique frigate only available for Peter Blood, completing the storyline, you can do as you please.

Starting out:

Making money is important early ingame. Go to store owners and click the dialogue "listen, let's get down to business" and he can contract your ship to deliver cargo to the specified location, do this constantly and you could make a million within days.

If you're playing as Peter Blood, his character stats are too low (will increase overtime) so his skills will have penalties, and the crew's monthly pay will be higher ( denying their pay if you have low authority, basically early ingame, will make the crew start a mutiny. You can fight your way out ), that's why making money when you are starting out is important. When you have enough, leave the Cinco Llagas with the harbourmaster and get a smaller ship (anything class 6 to 5 would be fine ) because leveling up is difficult when you have low stats and are using a class 3 ship. From there, you can deliver cargo or plunder the high seas as you please, tho I recommend plundering smaller ships so you can get the hang of it.

Gotten the hang of it:

Once you've gotten the hang of it and have a decent crew, its time you start doing some easy quests which grant you good rewards. Such are the "Double Barreled Musketoon" and the "Bluebird" quest. The former grants you a fighter officer who can literally one shot anything while the latter grants you 50 000 piasters and a class 4 ship Bluebird, a xebec with a fast speed and decent stats.

Double Barreled Musketoon quest: The Double-Barreled Musket
Bluebird quest: Blue Bird Quest

Note: these two quests are relatively short and easy, but has ship combats whose captains have higher stats then you.

Mid game, do as you please, Captain!

You're a natural! You've gotten this far already, time for bigger quests that could make you millions. I recommend doing the City of Abandoned Ships questline, it is long but you can get more than 2 000 000 piasters and rare unique items. It also grants you the fastest ship in the game, Dog of War. However, this quest has a rather difficult combat level so I recommend doing it once you are really good at fighting. Follow the wiki guides and you'll never stray.

Final note:

CoAS is a wonderful sandbox game, but may crash from time to time. So I recommend saving constantly and refrain from overwriting save files. The sea is your oyster and yours to shuck. Should you need help with CoAS, feel free to contact me. Have fun!

Regards, FMx.

 

[Dread Gregery]

Hello Dread Gregery, welcome!

First up, I recommend getting the Gentlemen of Fortune mod for CoAS (ver 2.5) as it fixes annoying bugs and adds in a a whole lot more ships and playable characters. Unmodded version is also fine. Mod Release - Gentlemen Of Fortune 2.0 . It requires re downloading a fresh CoAS BUT!!!! if you should create a copy of your save game so you can always return to it if you prefer the vanilla edition. Simply to to steam, right-click CoAS , scroll to 'manage', then 'Browse local files'. Then go to the SAVE folder and copy it.

Basics:

Stats increase the more you act in that particular aspect. For example, if you fight often, your fighting stats get better, gamble often, your luck gets better. Your reputation depends on your actions, stealing or rejecting to help others gives you a bad reputation. Running errands and helping out gives you a good one.

Note: Your reputation does not go down when you steal if no one catches you stealing.

For starters, I recommend playing the Peter Blood storyline. Follow the guide on the wiki and you can complete it in one day. Completing it grants you 2 exclusive officers and a unique frigate only available for Peter Blood, completing the storyline, you can do as you please.

Starting out:

Making money is important early ingame. Go to store owners and click the dialogue "listen, let's get down to business" and he can contract your ship to deliver cargo to the specified location, do this constantly and you could make a million within days.

If you're playing as Peter Blood, his character stats are too low (will increase overtime) so his skills will have penalties, and the crew's monthly pay will be higher ( denying their pay if you have low authority, basically early ingame, will make the crew start a mutiny. You can fight your way out ), that's why making money when you are starting out is important. When you have enough, leave the Cinco Llagas with the harbourmaster and get a smaller ship (anything class 6 to 5 would be fine ) because leveling up is difficult when you have low stats and are using a class 3 ship. From there, you can deliver cargo or plunder the high seas as you please, tho I recommend plundering smaller ships so you can get the hang of it.

Gotten the hang of it:

Once you've gotten the hang of it and have a decent crew, its time you start doing some easy quests which grant you good rewards. Such are the "Double Barreled Musketoon" and the "Bluebird" quest. The former grants you a fighter officer who can literally one shot anything while the latter grants you 50 000 piasters and a class 4 ship Bluebird, a xebec with a fast speed and decent stats.

Double Barreled Musketoon quest: The Double-Barreled Musket
Bluebird quest: Blue Bird Quest

Note: these two quests are relatively short and easy, but has ship combats whose captains have higher stats then you.

Mid game, do as you please, Captain!

You're a natural! You've gotten this far already, time for bigger quests that could make you millions. I recommend doing the City of Abandoned Ships questline, it is long but you can get more than 2 000 000 piasters and rare unique items. It also grants you the fastest ship in the game, Dog of War. However, this quest has a rather difficult combat level so I recommend doing it once you are really good at fighting. Follow the wiki guides and you'll never stray.

Final note:

CoAS is a wonderful sandbox game, but may crash from time to time. So I recommend saving constantly and refrain from overwriting save files. The sea is your oyster and yours to shuck. Should you need help with CoAS, feel free to contact me. Have fun!

Regards, FMx.

alright its good to know my rep doesn't go down by stealing when no one is watching, cause i managed to get that said ruby which sold for 456 pesos and a knights sword that can sell for 300 something then after sleeping at the tavern cause it was getting dark i found a sword in the drawn next to the bed, so i have a heavy sword and two sabers, medium and light, im debating whether or not to just sell the large sword cause im thinking that being able to be faster with attacks and defense is more important then large damage.

as for my cargo, cause i noticed i already have stuff in my hold, are they all nessicary? i would assume so but since this is a harder game i can't be too sure.

 

[Foop my Car]

alright its good to know my rep doesn't go down by stealing when no one is watching, cause i managed to get that said ruby which sold for 456 pesos and a knights sword that can sell for 300 something then after sleeping at the tavern cause it was getting dark i found a sword in the drawn next to the bed, so i have a heavy sword and two sabers, medium and light, im debating whether or not to just sell the large sword cause im thinking that being able to be faster with attacks and defense is more important then large damage.

as for my cargo, cause i noticed i already have stuff in my hold, are they all nessicary? i would assume so but since this is a harder game i can't be too sure.

Cargo?

 

[Foop my Car]

If you meant cargo generated for you, they are complimentary

 

[Dread Gregery]

If you meant cargo generated for you, they are complimentary

ok cause i had things like weapons and food and some other stuff, obviously powder and roundshot

 

[Dread Gregery]

If you meant cargo generated for you, they are complimentary

could use your help again, how does sea combat work? cause as soon as i left port and made it to the sid meiers pirates style over world i was immediately being chased by a pirate, my ship (cause its the starting ship) is rank 7 (which i understand means its crap) and while i did manage to make it to the enemy shi pand started firing, i had no idea if i was even doing anything, nothing there to show me where my cannons where aiming, no targeting reticle to show im attacking said target and when i was firing my cannons at it, non of the bars where going down yet it looked damaged after a bit, but I was the one catching on fire (and also not having any officers cause the only quest i can get off the store merchent twice in a row was the blue bird quest nothing about cargo.

i do have that mod istalled btw, its great to start out with 6000 isn't of nothing, but yeah i have no idea how to tell if the enemy is losing health or if my shots are even being fired, i click the LBM cause thats what cannon fire is set to and yeah im lossing ammo and powder but im not seeing any impact nor am i getting any feed back that my clicking of the LBM is actually firing the cannons, most pirate games i've played had SOME sort of indication that you fired at the enemy and most of the time its being able to see your cannon balls flying or a very distinct sound being used like in AC4, legends of pirates online (the free to play fan resurrection of pirates of the carabbian online) has both, you don't have an aiming line but you can clearly see where your shots are going and know their being fired.

so since you played this game a lot, how in the world can you tell your even firing? is there a refresh period? cause it feels i have to click multiple times to get them to fire all the cannons, i only know somethings happening cause of the green dots on the compass, is it a bug? the unresponsiveness?

 

[Dread Gregery]

could use your help again, how does sea combat work? cause as soon as i left port and made it to the sid meiers pirates style over world i was immediately being chased by a pirate, my ship (cause its the starting ship) is rank 7 (which i understand means its crap) and while i did manage to make it to the enemy shi pand started firing, i had no idea if i was even doing anything, nothing there to show me where my cannons where aiming, no targeting reticle to show im attacking said target and when i was firing my cannons at it, non of the bars where going down yet it looked damaged after a bit, but I was the one catching on fire (and also not having any officers cause the only quest i can get off the store merchent twice in a row was the blue bird quest nothing about cargo.

i do have that mod istalled btw, its great to start out with 6000 isn't of nothing, but yeah i have no idea how to tell if the enemy is losing health or if my shots are even being fired, i click the LBM cause thats what cannon fire is set to and yeah im lossing ammo and powder but im not seeing any impact nor am i getting any feed back that my clicking of the LBM is actually firing the cannons, most pirate games i've played had SOME sort of indication that you fired at the enemy and most of the time its being able to see your cannon balls flying or a very distinct sound being used like in AC4, legends of pirates online (the free to play fan resurrection of pirates of the carabbian online) has both, you don't have an aiming line but you can clearly see where your shots are going and know their being fired.

so since you played this game a lot, how in the world can you tell your even firing? is there a refresh period? cause it feels i have to click multiple times to get them to fire all the cannons, i only know somethings happening cause of the green dots on the compass, is it a bug? the unresponsiveness?

hmmm, maybe its becuase i don't have a full crew or any officers, that would probably be why things are confusing, though given that people would walk up to you if they want to be hired so i can't just reliably get them, i need a steady cash flow first, or at least a lot of money

 

[Foop my Car]

hmmm, maybe its becuase i don't have a full crew or any officers, that would probably be why things are confusing, though given that people would walk up to you if they want to be hired so i can't just reliably get them, i need a steady cash flow first, or at least a lot of money

You are doing damage to them! Honestly, I prefer using bombs rather than cannonballs because of the damage.

There is is no aim cannon button, clicking LMB when the enemy ship is in sight will fire at him. Having a gunner will speed up the firing rate, reload time, damage and accuracy.

There is a sound when the cannon fires. On a class 7 ship, the cannons are most likely a 4 pounder gun, meaning the the range is very short, you need to get closer.

The green dots shows the cannons reloading, after firing a round, it gradually turns from dark green to light green.

 

[Dread Gregery]

alright

You are doing damage to them! Honestly, I prefer using bombs rather than cannonballs because of the damage.

There is is no aim cannon button, clicking LMB when the enemy ship is in sight will fire at him. Having a gunner will speed up the firing rate, reload time, damage and accuracy.

There is a sound when the cannon fires. On a class 7 ship, the cannons are most likely a 4 pounder gun, meaning the the range is very short, you need to get closer.

The green dots shows the cannons reloading, after firing a round, it gradually turns from dark green to light green.

alright so are those green dots indicating im in the right range? with bright green saying "your in the perfect range" and dark green means "get closers!"

 

[Dread Gregery]

You are doing damage to them! Honestly, I prefer using bombs rather than cannonballs because of the damage.

There is is no aim cannon button, clicking LMB when the enemy ship is in sight will fire at him. Having a gunner will speed up the firing rate, reload time, damage and accuracy.

There is a sound when the cannon fires. On a class 7 ship, the cannons are most likely a 4 pounder gun, meaning the the range is very short, you need to get closer.

The green dots shows the cannons reloading, after firing a round, it gradually turns from dark green to light green.

cause thats the biggest thing, if i am doing damage to them then what are those bars for? i've always seen those bars represent crew, sail integrity and hull health, with my white bar being almost nothing and when i fire i don't see any impact on the enemy's side, i may need to avoid conflict until i actually get a crew made

 

[Foop my Car]

alright

alright so are those green dots indicating im in the right range? with bright green saying "your in the perfect range" and dark green means "get closers!"

no the green dots represent cannons reloading, not whether you are in range.

dark green: fully reloaded
light green turning dark green: reloading

 

[Foop my Car]

cause thats the biggest thing, if i am doing damage to them then what are those bars for? i've always seen those bars represent crew, sail integrity and hull health, with my white bar being almost nothing and when i fire i don't see any impact on the enemy's side, i may need to avoid conflict until i actually get a crew made

In GOF the battles are more realistic thats why they are slower. In reality, 4 pounder guns don't really do much, even less without a gunner. What ships are you fighting?

Here's a tip:

For me when Im starting on a new character, I immediately board a small merchant ship (sloop, barque) because the cannons dont do much. I highly recommend capturing the merchant brig as it has 14 guns (8 pounders to 12 pounders), the cannons, being of a higher caliber will do much more damage.

 

[Dread Gregery]

In GOF the battles are more realistic thats why they are slower. In reality, 4 pounder guns don't really do much, even less without a gunner. What ships are you fighting?

Here's a tip:

For me when Im starting on a new character, I immediately board a small merchant ship (sloop, barque) because the cannons dont do much. I highly recommend capturing the merchant brig as it has 14 guns (8 pounders to 12 pounders), the cannons, being of a higher caliber will do much more damage.

as i said i was being chased by i pirate ship that i decided to try my luck on (saved before engaging) they were a sloop i believe, even with the spyglass i couldn't tell what rank unless the transparent stars that are on the bottom left represents their rank.

i myself was using Wind Chaser a rank 7 ship, can't really chase after merchant ships when i have a pirate on my ass

 

[Foop my Car]

as i said i was being chased by i pirate ship that i decided to try my luck on (saved before engaging) they were a sloop i believe, even with the spyglass i couldn't tell what rank unless the transparent stars that are on the bottom left represents their rank.

i myself was using Wind Chaser a rank 7 ship, can't really chase after merchant ships when i have a pirate on my ass

Outrun them, on the world map, try staying near forts

 

[Dread Gregery]

Outrun them, on the world map, try staying near forts

and i assume i can't go to any fort right now at the begining besides the one my flag is a part of.

 

[Foop my Car]

A

and i assume i can't go to any fort right now at the begining besides the one my flag is a part of.

Aye, The England and France are neutral, but not with spain. Spain is neutral with Holland, but not with France. Meaning, France is neutral with England AND Holland.

 

[Foop my Car]

and i assume i can't go to any fort right now at the begining besides the one my flag is a part of.

I have a good way for you to capture large ships with ease.

1)Go to the world map (sid mier map style) and get a large spanish ship to chase you. (SAVE IN CASE YOU MESS UP)

2)Sail all the way into the Hispaniola island and into Port-Au-Prince (SAVE AGAIN) and let him catch you, when you enter into sea, the spanish vessel will get blasted by the fort (which is one of the strongest).

3)Once the crew bar of the spanish vessel has gone down till its a mere smudge, sail to her and for the capture. There you go! An easy prize most likely filled with rich cargo. Or you could always sell her off for a hefty price.

Tip: You can reload the save in step 2 to change the vessel generated. (I once had a spanish galleon filled with gold)