• New Horizons on Maelstrom
    Maelstrom New Horizons


    Visit our website www.piratehorizons.com to quickly find download links for the newest versions of our New Horizons mods Beyond New Horizons and Maelstrom New Horizons!

Interest in piracy

B

BlackFootRoberts

HoO Team Member
3D Artist
Provisional
What got you guys into piracy and what do you dislike about?

Some pirates were known for rape and murder.
Some for just murder.
Some stood for freedom from oppression of merchants and navy.

What captures your eye when it comes to piracy?
 
Freedom from government, standing as a predator among sheep, and the idea of taking what you want, the consequences be damned.

Also, that is a seriously interesting era historically. Modern Day Piracy doesn't interest me as much, because its much less successful and far easier for world governments to stop. Back then there was this perfect set of circumstances that lead to a sort of lawless sector in the caribbean, and it was a unique time in that the governments declared war at the drop of a hat, making privateering viable, as opposed to today, where letters of marque are not given out, and actions outside the government are frowned upon.

I find it fascinating that you even bring up rape and murder. The human race is known for rape and murder. Ask the Native Americans of America how superior the United States is to Edward Teach. To restrict rape and murder to people like Lowe, and Vane, is like restricting people who smoke from the general populace. Remember back in the classical piracy days, rape was extremely common among conquering groups. Up until the Geneva convention, the rape of the defending populace was frighteningly common. Murder has been around since what? Able and Cain? I mean really.
 
I like the ships they sailed. Cool historical period too.
Caribbean makes for good scenery.

I only really like romanticised Pirates though. Real ones are quite evil.
So by that reasoning, Privateers, merchants and navy are more my thing.
 
For me it started as a child with Treasure Island, Captain Blood etc. So I agree with Pieter it's the romantic side of it.
The adventure, characters, colors. And all happening in a beautiful archipelago without snow and ice.
 
Jack Rackham said:
For me it started as a child with Treasure Island, Captain Blood etc. So I agree with Pieter it's the romantic side of it.
The adventure, characters, colors. And all happening in a beautiful archipelago without snow and ice.
Click to expand...

Yes for a Scandinavian It was beautiful to read about the exotic Islands with palms,
colorful vegetation, bad pirates, treasures and rum, and a hero captain and crew fighting all
the bad boys. Later in my life came Herman Melville, he was writing some fantastic pirate tales too.
And I still read Captain Maryat with great pleasure. Keep the boy alive in your mind!
 
The reason why I brought up murder and rape is because the morality of it and if people idolize the people who commit it and the moral issue they face with idolizing the person.

For me I can find the grasp of the normal dreary life be left at the door with idea of piracy. I feel connected to the stories I've read and the history I've researched. The ocean to me is a home.
 
BlackFootRoberts said:
The reason why I brought up murder and rape is because the morality of it and if people idolize the people who commit it and the moral issue they face with idolizing the person.
Click to expand...
I doubt there will be many, if any, people here who truly think murder and rape is a good idea. :no
 
Hi, Ive been watching the HoO forums for a while now but just finally joined. Played alot of build mod 13 and am planning on trying some of the HoO demos over the winter when Im not so busy.

Ive always enjoyed tales of the sea because I grew up on a small island but moved inland when I was only 5. They remind me of my childhood, going out on the ocean in my grandpas lobster boat and listening to his yarns about buried pirate treasure out on the other islands.

Treasure Island was certainly a favorite of mine as well (just listened to the audio book not to long ago... Still great) also Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander series. I see the age of sail as akin to the days of the wild west, only on an immensely larger scale. Danger, mystery, discovery, political intrigue, heroes and villians... All the makings of great stories.
 
BlackFootRoberts said:
The reason why I brought up murder and rape is because the morality of it and if people idolize the people who commit it and the moral issue they face with idolizing the person.
Click to expand...

I assume you are not American, so let me put it this way. In the United States when the movie 300 came out, everyone suddenly became a fan of ancient Sparta. Everyone loved quoting Leonidas and assumed the Spartans where the most amazing warriors in all of history. Leonidas became idolized has a badass by people who had a limited understanding of ancient history.

Mind you they idolized a culture that had to enslave other to survive because not a one of them was capable of anything other than war. Yeah, they couldn't even farm. A culture that couldn't have sexual relations with women until they hit 30, because it was deemed that homosexual relations among the younger Spartans made them better fighters. Mind you this was a culture that initiated their young graduating class of warriors by setting them lose upon all of the house and field slaves, and so they could kill as many as possible to prove their worth. There is a reason that throughout history they had to deal with helot rebellions. They where mass murdering psychopaths who got washed away by other civilizations who didn't kill the people who fed them. By people who didn't slaughter any infants they deemed unfit, like the Spartans with their small population.

People idolize Stalin. These are just examples. When I look at the qualities of the pirates I idolize, I'm not looking at wanton murder, like many young Americans I pick and choose the qualities I idolize. The sheer force of will it took to declare war on not one, but ALL governments and survive for the brief time they did is downright impressive. Sure they killed a few people, but so did Lord Nelson. Sure they raped and pillaged, just like Alexander the Great's men.

My point is, there isn't really any moral issue I face, because I choose what I idolize. Like most people. :)

I do love the romantic side of Piracy too however. Like the others have pointed out, it really is an era of adventure. The stories have it all, action, adventure, mystery, romance, peril etc. Who hasn't read Treasure Island and didn't want that to happen to them? To really find yourself out of your element, and not only survive, but thrive, and experience wonderful and dangerous things. To prove the true measure of a man.

Plus, the carribbean is downright GORGEOUS. Playing Assassins Creed Black Flag, it honestly felt like a vacation to me. Sure the story was kind of silly, and by god the combat was rediculous.... but the scenery was gorgeous. Lush jungles, sunny skies, and a big blue ocean. The stuff dreams are made of.

Also. Rum. Sailor Jerry's anyone?
 
The Caribbean is overrated:p

I mean, it's still pretty and all but I'm so tired of every pirate/naval game in existance happening in the Caribbean when there are so many seas to explore. I want to see at least three settings for open-world naval games with at least as much potential as the Caribbean, if not more:
-The Mediterranean during Ancient/Mythological Greece. Relive the Odissey or the journey of the Argonauts, onboard a penteconter with fifty would-be-heroes at the oars, pissing off the gods and fighting monsters or just raiding and pillaging fellow mortals.
-The Mediterranean in the 16th-17th centuries: galleys, galleases, galliots and galleons. Badass Maltese knights, Barbary corsairs, Spain, France, the Italian states, the Pope, and the Ottomans fighting and trading with each other for so long that they developed their own pidgin language with bits of all the other languages to understand each other.
- The South Seas in the 1850s-80s. From Singapore to Hawaii. Malay pirates, colonial unrest and diplomatic tensions, pearl-divers and whalers, natives and missionaries. Schooners, praus, junks, clippers and some steamships...
 
I like your second two points... but uh... I'm not entirely with you regarding Ancient Greece. Naval combat would be ....dull. Dudes on oars, and the combat being purely boarding or arrows doesn't exactly sound thrilling. In fact it makes me think of 300: Rise of an Empire. Or the naval combat in Ryse Son of Rome. Not something that seems terribly exciting. As fun as Greek Fire sounds, I have played naval combat in Rome Total War 2. It was tedious to say the least. To base a game around it? Nope. :p
 
There are several interesting maneuvers to perform in combat: ramming and boarding, breaking the enemy oars with your ram... But the focus of this game as I imagine it, would be less on ship-to-ship combat and more on exploration, landing and discovering islands and shores and fighting mythological monsters, on land or on water.
 
It'd be a different game for sure. But I think that's kind-of the point. ;)
 
Guessing how a dedicated naval game would go, based on how naval warfare in a primarily land-based strategy game works, is never going to be favourable. It's probably just as well that I got PoTC before I played naval battles in "Imperial Glory", for example. xD

None of this is likely to happen, but as long as we're fantasising, an Ancient Greek/Roman game along the lines of PoTC would certainly be interesting. Naval tactics and weapons would certainly be different - ranged attacks would be limited to shipboard archers and the options of Greek fire or ballistas when you progress far enough to earn them. Then close combat would be ramming to sink or boarding to capture. (Historical note: the Battle of Salamis did not involve ships throwing spicy sausages at each other. xD) Land activities, whether plundering a town or playing as one of the Greek heroes, could be the equivalent of the land-based quests of PoTC.

The Mediterranean in the sort of time periods covered by PoTC would be the correct home for several ships currently featured in PoTC just so we get to use them. Xebecs and polaccas operated in the Mediterranean, not the Caribbean.

The Baltic could also provide an alternative setting. The time would be the 14th century, and there was even an equivalent to the Brethren of the Coast - the Victual Brothers.
 
Oh yeah, the Baltic. I used to play a lot of Patrician III back in the day (well, mostly dicking around in my brother's games by turning his ships to piracy and ruining his reputation :D).
 
The era. Ships. My family are Cuban. I have been in the tropics for most of my life. We have a maritime family. I was in the US Coast Guard. I was born on a beach, in South Beach, Miami, Florida. Alot of reasons. ^-^;
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top