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How to pirate?

Redbeard

Redbeard

Sailor
Obviously I have read the books, but there are a few specifics I'm not quite sure of.

After starting a new sandbox game, I've been doing charter contracts and taking sidequests. Now that I have an excellent schooner, I've raised the black and turned my 20 or so 9lb guns on the nearest target. I quickly subdued the crew and the captain surrendered. The merchant vessel mine, I took some of their crew, all of their cargo and then set them loose.

No reputation loss. I still have the black raised and I went to the pirate settlement on Nevis. Thankfully the shopkeeper and shipyard owner will allow me their services, but the governor wont even speak to me. :( Do I need to actually sink or capture the ship? Id hate to kill the captain for no reason. I'm just after his goods after all, but I would like to move up the pirate ranks.

Playing the July 28th build. Any ideas?

*EDIT*

Now that I think about it, I started the game under my personal flag, and I took a single mission to kill a pirate for the british to see how my old English Bark would handle combat. My piracy relationship is -80. Do I need to keep pirating to raise it? and do I need to kill these captains or capture ships or what?
 
Redbeard said:
After starting a new sandbox game, I've been doing charter contracts and taking sidequests. Now that I have an excellent schooner, I've raised the black and turned my 20 or so 9lb guns on the nearest target. I quickly subdued the crew and the captain surrendered. The merchant vessel mine, I took some of their crew, all of their cargo and then set them loose.

No reputation loss.
Click to expand...
That's as expected. You don't lose reputation for attacking a ship so long as you do it under a hostile flag. You're allowed to use a false flag to approach the target but you'll lose reputation, massively, if you attack while still flying a friendly flag. You didn't; you conducted the attack under a pirate flag, so that's fine.

I still have the black raised and I went to the pirate settlement on Nevis. Thankfully the shopkeeper and shipyard owner will allow me their services, but the governor wont even speak to me. :( Do I need to actually sink or capture the ship? Id hate to kill the captain for no reason. I'm just after his goods after all, but I would like to move up the pirate ranks.
Click to expand...
I believe you need to visit the Turks Island governor to become friendly to Pirates. After that, the boss pirate at Nevis may be more welcoming.

Now that I think about it, I started the game under my personal flag, and I took a single mission to kill a pirate for the british to see how my old English Bark would handle combat. My piracy relationship is -80. Do I need to keep pirating to raise it? and do I need to kill these captains or capture ships or what?
Click to expand...
Starting as Personal makes Pirates hostile and everyone else wary - you need to be hostile to someone otherwise the game can become messed up, and as the whole point of starting as Personal is to be at peace with all nations, that leaves only Pirates as a viable enemy. Besides, starting as anyone other than Pirates means Pirates are hostile. Default hostile relation is -60, then sinking a pirate ship will drop it further, though I'm surprised that one ship dropped it all the way to -80.
 
Grey Roger said:
I believe you need to visit the Turks Island governor to become friendly to Pirates. After that, the boss pirate at Nevis may be more welcoming.
Click to expand...
Do you remember the condition in Isenbrandt Jurcksen's dialog? I think you tweaked that a while back and I don't remember the specifics.
 
It's a two stage condition:
Code: 
       if (GetNationRelation2MainCharacter(PIRATE) != RELATION_ENEMY && !HaveLetterOfMarque(PIRATE)) // PB
       {
       if (makeint(GetLetterOfMarqueQuantity()) == 0 || GetCurrentPeriod() < PERIOD_GOLDEN_AGE_OF_PIRACY) // PB + GR
So, if you're not hostile to Pirates; you aren't already signed up; and either you don't have a LoM from anyone else, or it's "Early Explorers" or "Spanish Main". The idea being that in those periods the Brotherhood of the Coast wouldn't reject privateers because the Brotherhood were privateers of various nations.

If you start off your game under any flag other than Pirates, then Pirates are hostile to you, which is where I believe the governor of Turks Island comes in - isn't he the one who turns Pirates neutral so you can visit Isenbrandt Jurcksen and not fall foul of the first condition?
 
Grey Roger said:
It's a two stage condition:
Click to expand...
Thanks for looking that up! I couldn't remember if it was an "AND" or an "OR" condition.
But indeed you MUST be not hostile with the pirates to be able to sign up.

Grey Roger said:
If you start off your game under any flag other than Pirates, then Pirates are hostile to you, which is where I believe the governor of Turks Island comes in - isn't he the one who turns Pirates neutral so you can visit Isenbrandt Jurcksen and not fall foul of the first condition?
Click to expand...
Indeed he can sort that out. :yes

Of course you can also just continue acting like a pirate and eventually you'll become Friendly with the Pirates anyway.
So: Capture merchant ships, waiting until the Pirates are no longer hostile and then join them.
Takes a bit longer, but is completely free. In fact, it works BY doing profitable things. ;)
 
I had no idea the gov'na of Turks would help you out...

....for such a steep price! When I went I paid around 100k. Sheesh. On the other hand, I'm down to neutral and -30, so there is that. Thanks again guys.

*EDIT*

Now that I'm beginning my piratical ways, I was relaxing after a long day of ...persuading merchants to hand over the cargo. Grand Turk's Tavern is quite the stop, and as I was leaning up against the bar, who did I meet? @Pieter Boelen ! Looks like he/you need me to spy on the spanish ;)

Man I love what you guys have added to this game.
 
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@Bartolomeu o Portugues You did a great job! I had a blast fighting though that mission. It helped that I emerged from the ending to find a Spanish Treasure fleet! The single treasure galleon and 3 frigate type escorts put up a hard fight, but my upgraded schooner ran circles around 'em. I may have lost one of my masts, and my hull was down to 46% but I emerged victorious with 800 or so coffee and medicants. Couldn't even fit it all on my ship as I desperately ran from the escorts. :D

I do think treasure galleons should carry you know.... treasure... but hey, I made 100K off the cargo alone! Heck I even met a certain Mr. Gibbs in the Tavern...dunno what this compass is for, doesn't even point north! ;)

What a great mod, not even playing campaign and I havn't had this much fun since Sid Meier's Pirates!
 
It is possible to encounter actual treasure fleets loaded with silver and gold.
They're rare, but they exist.

You still have Mr. Gibbs' compass?
If so, its use may become more apparent if you pay close attention to the game map now. ;)
 
I've never encountered a treasure fleet labelled as such, but I've certainly occasionally found that a merchant ship which I'd just captured turned out to have a hold full of gold or silver. 100K? Peanuts! :razz But the so-called "treasure galleon" is the "SP_ApostolFelipe" which is probably quite a common Spanish merchant in the "Spanish Main" and "Golden Age" periods, and can be seen in "Early Explorers" too. It's rather a nice model, with detailed wood grain on the planks and paintings around the stern.

Good work on the hit-and-run raid, though - welcome to the wonderful world of piracy. :cheers
 
Grey Roger said:
I've never encountered a treasure fleet labelled as such
Click to expand...
Not sure if they're ever labelled as such, but they ARE referred to as such in the game code.
If you encounter one of those, ALL ships in the fleet are fully loaded with gold and silver!
 
Yeah, the name of Treasure Galleon can be a bit misleading ingame, as that particular model is not necessarily carrying treasure. But I can't think of a name to replace it... Indies Galleon maybe? The Spanish Treasure Fleets were actually called Silver Fleets or Indies Fleets in Spanish, so I guess Indies Galleon is an option that doesn't create false expectations about the cargo.
 
The encounter description "a convoy" indicates a 75% chance at a treasure fleet with all cargo holds full of gold/silver.
They can only occur for Spain and never in the Napoleonic time period.
 
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