Need Help Encountering the spanish gold fleet

[Edvinas681]

Ahoy there! I would like to know how can I encounter a Spanish gold fleet, since I heard it is possible though I couldn't find out how to do so yet. :/ Thank you in advance!

 

[Pieter Boelen]

They're random worldmap/DirectSail encounters.
You'll know because it is a large Spanish fleet and all ships are loaded with gold and silver.

 

[Edvinas681]

Absolutely all of them? Or do they have any military ships with them? And what kind of ships are there? Mostly galleons and pinnaces?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Absolutely all of them? Or do they have any military ships with them? And what kind of ships are there? Mostly galleons and pinnaces?

If I recall, they should indeed all have gold and silver. But I can't remember for sure.

For the types of ships, open PROGRAM\Encounters\encounters_init.c; it is defined somewhere in there.
They're just specified by Tier (and possibly war/merchant), but their actual types depends on the period you're playing in.
It is all handled by the random encounter system; the only "extra" stuff we added fairly recently is to load up the cargo holds with silver and gold as well.

 

[Edvinas681]

Thanks Pieter! I already know what I will do for my next Caribbean adventure!

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Thanks Pieter! I already know what I will do for my next Caribbean adventure!

I do have some vague memory that certain "special" encounters only show up in certain time periods.
If I recal, the Spanish Gold Fleets are NOT limited by thay, but I don't know that for sure.
If they are limited, then you may never encounter them in the Napoleonic time period, for example.
It's more fun in Golden Age of Piracy anyway; when they should get proper galleons and such.

 

[Edvinas681]

Spanish Main and Golden Age of Piracy and maybe Colonial Powers are my favorite time periods in the game! The periods when the piracy itself was alive and well!

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Spanish Main and Golden Age of Piracy and maybe Colonial Powers are my favorite time periods in the game! The periods when the piracy itself was alive and well!

You should be good to go then!

Just keep an eye out for large fleets of Spanish ships.
(Actually: One trick is to use windowed mode, then check compile.log after an encounter;
I think it should say "rare chance wilver/gold shipment" in there to indicate that a treasure ship was triggered.)