Tutorial Game difficulty level

[Mirsaneli]

Let's talk about difficulty level.

My experience so far: I started the game on Very High difficulty. Got to the rank 5. Was able to do most of the quests, except those governor quests that include sinking or capturing enemy ships (pirates, capturing a certain person from a ship etc.) I've noticed that this difficulty level is unplayable. I had around 150.000 pesos. I wasn't able to pay my crew. The navigator guy that I released from prison at the beginning of the game deserted after a while. I used to play AoP2 on the same difficulty, and the game was playable at that difficulty. In SD:TEHO I was able to capture only Tartana boats and eventually a Lugger.

I restarted the game on Normal difficulty, maybe that will match my gaming abilities...

What's your experience with difficulty in this game?

 

[Nelsonliang]

You can avoid the navigator desertion by not visiting any tavern. Or by choosing the right conversation. I played and he want to retire, but i deny him by telling him he doesn't have a choice. So he returns to the ship saying he will serve under protestation. So you can keep him.
The difficulty in the game isn't doing much beside limiting your saving location. The rest are not much problem once you are used to it.

 

[Mirsaneli]

You can avoid the navigator desertion by not visiting any tavern. Or by choosing the right conversation. I played and he want to retire, but i deny him by telling him he doesn't have a choice. So he returns to the ship saying he will serve under protestation. So you can keep him.
The difficulty in the game isn't doing much beside limiting your saving location. The rest are not much problem once you are used to it.

I don't know what does game difficulty actually affect. I do notice that I was able to capture a Barque with my lugger after a long fight, and I barely managed to do it. I had to load 3 times to capture it. The Barque was Pueblo from the quest. It had Spanish soldiers and Spanish captain. I do notice that ships with nation soldiers seem to be harder to board... I'm on normal difficulty now. I don't won't the game to be too easy. I don't won't to be too hard either. I would like it to be - normal I will see how this goes, if it get's too easy from my taste, I might try with Hard difficulty...

 

[Nelsonliang]

the higher the difficulty, the tougher the enemy. But in boarding action, as long as you outnumber the enemy, it's not a big deal. But fighting one on one with the captain is gonna be tougher. He will have better stats, like 800+ hp, better weapon like gun and sword, might even have armor on. The loot will have less powerful item. Those are the things i notice when playing the hardest difficulty, still those are nothing when you are used to them. But the save location is annoying so i replay with different difficulty so i can save whenever i want and save me the trouble of redoing everything if the game crash.

There is a way to make the game tougher without playing higher difficulty. I use cheatengine to modify my rank so my enemy is tougher than usual. Not much different from the hard difficulty except i can save any time and any where.

 

[Mirsaneli]

the higher the difficulty, the tougher the enemy. But in boarding action, as long as you outnumber the enemy, it's not a big deal. But fighting one on one with the captain is gonna be tougher. He will have better stats, like 800+ hp, better weapon like gun and sword, might even have armor on. The loot will have less powerful item. Those are the things i notice when playing the hardest difficulty, still those are nothing when you are used to them. But the save location is annoying so i replay with different difficulty so i can save whenever i want and save me the trouble of redoing everything if the game crash.

There is a way to make the game tougher without playing higher difficulty. I use cheatengine to modify my rank so my enemy is tougher than usual. Not much different from the hard difficulty except i can save any time and any where.

There are certain changes in game quests as well. For instance, on Very High difficulty, you fight against 2 pirate Tartanas when leaving Martinique for the first time. On normal difficulty, I encountered only one ship. Also the quest that you get from the bank keeper on Martinique at the beginning, where he asks you to rescue a Spanish soldier (engineer). There were only 2 guys watching him now that I play on normal difficulty. On Very High, there were 4 guys.

 

[Nelsonliang]

Yep, i took the slave trader quest i have to fight a Heavy Galleon instead of normal Galleon. But overall, as long as you are used to it, the combat is not hard. I only hate the disparity between you and your officer's HP compare to the enemy. I'm around 180, my officer around 250, my enemy is around 800 minimum. And i discover the the enemy 's HP correspond to your Rank, the higher your rand, the greater the different. So don't be surprise when it take you 1 hour to kill you enemy when you will die in one critical strike.

 

[Mirsaneli]

Yep, i took the slave trader quest i have to fight a Heavy Galleon instead of normal Galleon. But overall, as long as you are used to it, the combat is not hard. I only hate the disparity between you and your officer's HP compare to the enemy. I'm around 180, my officer around 250, my enemy is around 800 minimum. And i discover the the enemy 's HP correspond to your Rank, the higher your rand, the greater the different. So don't be surprise when it take you 1 hour to kill you enemy when you will die in one critical strike.

You see, that's unrealistic for my taste. Even though it might be a challenge to someone... :/

 

[Nelsonliang]

I hate the unrealistic HP my enemies have so i cheated. Either make my rank low or modify my and my officer's HP to match theirs. Imagine what will happen when you with three officers without modified HP have to tackle a group of 20+ enemies with 1500+ HP each. Also, the energy is ridiculously low, i fought 3 indians with 1500+ HP, i can't kill them because they always manage to regenerate their HP while i am waiting for my energy to regenerate.

Seem like from the 1st POC game in 2001 til now, the developer have no idea how to balance the game logically.

 

[Mirsaneli]

I hate the unrealistic HP my enemies have so i cheated. Either make my rank low or modify my and my officer's HP to match theirs. Imagine what will happen when you with three officers without modified HP have to tackle a group of 20+ enemies with 1500+ HP each. Also, the energy is ridiculously low, i fought 3 indians with 1500+ HP, i can't kill them because they always manage to regenerate their HP while i am waiting for my energy to regenerate.

Seem like from the 1st POC game in 2001 til now, the developer have no idea how to balance the game logically.

Yes, that was an old issue. I'm seriously thinking about reverting back to GoF 1.2 mod or even Eras Mod 2, but what keeps me stick with the SD:TEHO are the improvements in the engine and plenty of side quests that they included, which AoP 2, on the other hand lacks... New Horizons is better in many ways, but to be honest, I am a "graphic whore" and I just can't handle with the PoTC outdated graphics and the simple fighting systems that consists of single blow.

For instance, I got a quest to search for a guy in Panama who took a loan from the banker in Basse-Terre and fled with the borrowed money. I managed to track one of the guys who were with him, and now my quest is to destroy the Spanish War Schooner. My Barque agains War Schooner, impossible... And it's a story quest I think... :/ I tried boarding it 3 times, his crew kills me with two swings of a sword. Too difficult even on Normal...

 

[Pieter Boelen]

New Horizons is better in many ways, but to be honest, I am a "graphic whore" and I just can't handle with the PoTC outdated graphics and the simple fighting systems that consists of single blow.

Those are indeed the only two disadvantages I can think of with PotC and basically the ones we can't really do anything about.
Of course the mod graphics are still better than the unmodded game. And there are a lot of mod-added features that make the fighting more interesting than it used to be.

 

[Mirsaneli]

Those are indeed the only two disadvantages I can think of with PotC and basically the ones we can't really do anything about.
Of course the mod graphics are still better than the unmodded game. And there are a lot of mod-added features that make the fighting more interesting than it used to be.

I have been testing the naval combat system from New Horizons and the one from Strom engine 2.8 games. Sad fact: Newer games like AoP2 or SD:TEHO have a shitty naval combat where you miss the ship even if it's 2 meters from your ship. That's so lame. New Horizons definitely blows Storm engine 2.8 with it's awesome naval battles. Sword fighting, however, is better in AoP2...
Having a lugger, for instance, in SD:TEHO is a pain in the ass. Prepare yourself for a 5 hours fight and prepare to dry all your gunpowder and cannonballs

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I have been testing the naval combat system from New Horizons and the one from Strom engine 2.8 games. Sad fact: Newer games like AoP2 or SD:TEHO have a shitty naval combat where you miss the ship even if it's 2 meters from your ship. That's so lame. New Horizons definitely blows Storm engine 2.8 with it's awesome naval battles.

I think pretty much all players who have stuck with PotC for years have done so because of the ship battles.
Though of course the massive amount of storyline content and customization is a big plus as well.

The sword fighting and graphics and really the only things I can think of that PotC: New Horizons does not do better.
Hopefully Hearts of Oak will do it better than everything!

 

[Mirsaneli]

I think pretty much all players who have stuck with PotC for years have done so because of the ship battles.
Though of course the massive amount of storyline content and customization is a big plus as well.

The sword fighting and graphics and really the only things I can think of that PotC: New Horizons does not do better.
Hopefully Hearts of Oak will do it better than everything!

Hearts of Oak is definitely something worth waiting for!

 

[Mirsaneli]

Btw, are the system requirements for Hearts of Oak published yet?

My PC is not the newest:

Intel Xeon E5450 3.0GHz
8GB RAM
Nvidia GT630 2GB DDR3
Windows 7 64 bit

 

[Nelsonliang]

The naval combat in this game is simply affect more by your stats. With high S in PIRATES, luck and accuracy, you can't miss. While cannonade for long range combat is kinda suck, this encourage player to pay attention to maneuver to use grapeshot and boarding combat. In real life, pirate prefer to loot than to sink ship, same goes for the military. I think the game generate too many ship, if there are fewer ship out there, the less likely player will choose to sink ship.

 

[Mirsaneli]

Why am I having these penalties? Is this because I took a Galleon ship which is 3rd class ship and my rank is only 6? I tried going to church and brothel and all those stuff to restore health, but it didn't remove the penalties...

 

[Nelsonliang]

Rank only affect what kind of ship is available in shipyard. You got the penalty because your navigation is too low for that ship, and your navigator isn't up to the task either. So find another navigator.

 

[Mirsaneli]

Rank only affect what kind of ship is available in shipyard. You got the penalty because your navigation is too low for that ship, and your navigator isn't up to the task either. So find another navigator.

So because of navigation, I get penalty on all other skills?

 

[Nelsonliang]

Yep, that's what the old man in the tutorial told me.
Your stats got those penalties for three reasons.
1/ Sailing a ship that you don't have the required navigation skill or navigator.
2/ Got drunk.
3/ Overbearing your maximum weight.

PS: i forgot to notice whether or not your stats got penalty if you were heavily injured.

 

[Flannery]

Btw, are the system requirements for Hearts of Oak published yet?

My PC is not the newest:

Intel Xeon E5450 3.0GHz
8GB RAM
Nvidia GT630 2GB DDR3
Windows 7 64 bit

Hey there! System requirements for HoO will be impossible to say before we are closer to the end of development.

First when we have a more finished product and have worked thoroughly on optimising the game will we know exactly what the requirements will be.

You will however of course be able to choose performance options to fit your system. But to run on fantastic quality all round you will most likely have to have a good rig. The game is being built with being future proof regarding hardware so that we can enjoy modding it for years.