Need Help Spanish attack despite good reputation, flag and no bounty

[Agavian]

Hello Guys,

I just wanted to ask how I can stop the spanish from attacking me, especailly for the Storylines where good reputation with the spanish is required. I am currently at relation "Good", have never had a bounty on my head from the spanish, and am raising the spanish flag with the corrosponding skill on a single lvl 4 ship And yet, I fail to be identified as friend of the spanish and am being attacked by the fort and arrested by the guards.

I have never attacked the spanish, its just the grudge that comes from the start of the game.

I tried:

-donating money to priest
-talk to gouvernor (arrests me immediatly)
-hoist spanish flag.

So ist this a bug, or anything I can do about it? I am Playing with TEHO, HOOK, MAP, QUICKSAVE and SWORDS mod. Thank you so much.

Best regards,

Agavian

 

[DarkEternis]

It isn't a bug. France is at war with Spain, and so it doesn't matter how much they personally like you, they will always arrest you as a French spy, or attack your ship flying the french flag. When you raise the spanish flag it will entirely depend on your stealth skill on whether or not they realize you are not actually spanish. In town you have to pass a stealth check every single time you are stopped by a guard. During the day you are guaranteed to get at least 1 guard stopping you when you land at the dock or come in from the Selva. After that though they will stop you far more rarely than at night, when they will 100% stop you if you get anywhere close to them in their line of sight. Also you can pass them by safely when they are in a conversation with a citizen, which will also only happen during the daay. At <50 stealth you will fail a LOT on these checks. Even with more you will fail... quite a bit =P. There are some talismans like the gypsy fan and the Nugombu mask (spelling...) that will increase your stealth checks on land and at sea respectively. Also the trading class has an additional bonus to stealth checks. In my experience though... you will fail a lot more times than you succeed until you get really high stealth. The stealth armor from the Caleuche quest line is really nice for dealing with the spanish, as it gives +25 to stealth.

Beyond that you can buy a trade license from the Dutch in Curacao. While you have this you will not be attacked at sea and the guards will let you go when you are stopped as long as you are flying a spanish or dutch flag.

Best I can tell you is that you save right before you go to the battle map at a spanish fort or when dealing with a spanish vessel you need to interact with. If they see through you then you'll need to load and try again. Then once you dock save again before having to pass your check with the guards... and do the same thing.

Once you get past the guards just do your best to avoid the patrols in town, or wait until they are conversing with someone before passing them. It is super annoying, but that is the entire point of Trade Licenses and stealth in general =P.

Oh and before you ask "why bother getting reputation with spain", the answer is that if you get too low, they will send bounty hunters after you and it doesn't matter if you have a trade license or not they will always attack you. Also your reputation will matter if you are trying to invest in a Spanish bank, and for a few select quests in Spanish towns. Mostly I just get it way up so that when I do FTJR quests or other quests that involve killing spanish that I don't get a bounty. Also when you have a high rep you don't have to worry about plundering their trade vessels.

 

[Agavian]

Wow, thank you for that comprehensive answer. So it seems easiest to just buy the trade license for FTJR, since my stealth is abysmal and I have not jet found a decent way to level it. I guess I will get the license for a few day, accept lots of quests and raise my reputation, and when I start FTJR I will buy one again.

If you do not mind, one more question (this game rises a lot of questions and you sure do seem well informed): Whats the point of rapiers? On my first Character I used axes, which was very usefull in boarding fights when enemys start to spam block. It seems a if the strong attack is the most important factor due to not being able to be blocked. Rapiers however, deal almost no damage with this move. What do they have to make up for it, especially against enemies blocking all the time?

And again, thanks for the thorough answer!