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Need some help on the "Payroll ship" quest in Ardent storyline

S

smrtwhkd

Master Mariner
I am playing Helen. At level 3, this gal only still has 68 hp. Those soldiers on the ship could one shot her. I have no issue maneuvering my own ship into the position, but I always got killed in melee. Also soldiers are well-equipped, armed with late game swords and fire arms. My crew members get cut down like grass. The only person who can hold his own is Two-Dog since he has level 7 melee. Is there any tip on taking the ship without cheating? Should I go jungle and level up my melee before attempting this mission?
 
The quest becomes a timed mission once you talk to the officer at the tavern, so you may have to go way back if you opt to grind. What really helps, though, is grapes. Grapes of wrath. I usually don't care about utilities and gimmicks in games like this, since they aren't really worth bothering with. But grapes make a huge difference if melee is your concern during an abordage. Just load up on grapes and go to town until that blue bar in the middle becomes nonexistent. When you actually board, the morale on board will be so low that the remaining couple of soldiers won't be a factor anymore.
 
Because your ship is in range of the fort's cannons, you only have time to get off one broadside, right? Also the enemy ship is larger, more powerful and yet more agile. Unless you de-mast her, she is gonna dogfight with you before you can get off the 2nd or 3rd broadside. By then, you would probably have suffered significant amount of damage yourself to be effective anymore. If you de-mast her then it would make your escape more difficult after you took it over, right? So it's kinda a dilemma here.
 
Even that first broadside will help a lot, although I was able to get a second one in as well, and kept Siroco between myself and the fort. It didn't shield me from the fort's attacks, but it did cause some splash damage, I think. It takes a bit reckless rushing, since you'll be abandoning your own ship anyway, so just try to shoot from any side you can, while trying to keep up so you can board. I never tried it, but maybe you can tail him until you both are out of the fort's reach before you hoist the flag?

Second time I played the mission, I just trained my sailing and showed up with a Tier 4. It's an exploit, I suppose, but the quest allows it, and I was able to live with myself afterwards.
 
Btw, you said as long as I don't talk to the Spanish officer in Tavern then the timer for the quest won't start, correct? However, I still get a quest book update saying the ship has sailed and need go to that location to ambush the ship.
 
smrtwhkd said:
I am playing Helen. At level 3, this gal only still has 68 hp. Those soldiers on the ship could one shot her. I have no issue maneuvering my own ship into the position, but I always got killed in melee. Also soldiers are well-equipped, armed with late game swords and fire arms. My crew members get cut down like grass. The only person who can hold his own is Two-Dog since he has level 7 melee. Is there any tip on taking the ship without cheating? Should I go jungle and level up my melee before attempting this mission?
Click to expand...
Hmnn..that quest should not be for a low-level character. Maybe @Grey Roger or @The Nameless Pirate might know a code to trigger that quest only at a certain level and or skill level.

Also, in addition to considering your skills and level, equip yourself and your crew well before even attempting to board a hostile ship or you will definitely going to be "cut down like grass".
 
smrtwhkd said:
Btw, you said as long as I don't talk to the Spanish officer in Tavern then the timer for the quest won't start, correct? However, I still get a quest book update saying the ship has sailed and need go to that location to ambush the ship.
Click to expand...

Well, well. I just checked the code, and I don't claim to understand much of this stuff, but it seems that the timer actually starts as soon as you pick up the letter from the prison commandant's corpse. Can't be sure, though. In that case, yeah, you're right and doomed.

The code suggests that the timer starts when you talk to the captain if you haven't picked up the letter back in the prison. Which could easily be extended to either condition, I think. Otherwise Siroco is an objectively strong ship to tackle at this point in the story. I didn't have much trouble with it either time because I tend to put quests on hold at first, no matter which game I play, and grind a bit before I get a handle of the character I'm playing.

When I think about it... Siroco is a payroll ship. Why not just make it a low-tier fast clipper?
 
Or make the ship you steal at Santiago a higher tier ship. Another option would be to change the ambush location. To be honest, the fort is the biggest problem. Without the fort, you can slow play and get your ship. You can first de-mast the target ship then park at its blind spot and bombard it with grapes until it is soft enough to board. Otherwise this quest is very difficult at low levels. In those 2 weeks, the only skill you level up fast is sailing. All you need do is manual sail. Going from Havana to Santiago would probably get your one level. And it only takes 2 days to go one way. Other things such as melee would be more difficult.
 
From the gameplay perspective, I think the fort is the only thing that keeps this quest interesting. It takes the usual cat-and-mouse gameplay away from you. You have very little time to wear down the enemy, then you have to board. Without the fort, the mission would be trivial. On the other hand, from the story perspective, why that particular beach? There are not one, not two, but three other zones on the way which are far better suited for an interception. Why would a captain pick the one beach which is right next to the fort? Questions that keep me awake at night...
 
The boarding fight is tough but not unwinnable. Tactical hint: you can climb up the cannon barrel at the front of your boarding deck, get onto the enemy deck behind the soldiers, then start hacking them down one at a time. Also, you go to Port Royale to recruit a full crew before you return to Cuba to take the ship. While you're in Port Royale, visit the dungeon. You get some melee practice and there's a nice sword to be found. The dungeon denizens might also have some swords which you can give to your officers.

There are two timers for the Siroco. The first starts when you either get the letter from the commandant or talk to the captain; that is when the ship first sets sail. After that, a second timer starts; when that expires, the ship has arrived safely in port and you have missed your chance to take her.

The choice of ship type is due to mod history. The ship had to be tier 6 or 7 so as not to be too tough for you to take, and also not too much of a free gift this early in the story. It had to be a merchant type as it's a transport, but also a war type as it carries a load of security troops - so, a dual-purpose ship, sometimes described as "versatile". At the time when I was writing this part of the story, a team of modders had just finished the "Castell Friedrichsburg" brigantines and I got the job of creating the interface pictures for them. When I did, I took a look at the ship's stats - tier 6, dual-purpose, available in "Golden Age of Piracy" period. Here was a new ship model looking for some action to bring it to players' attention, and there was me looking for exactly this sort of ship for the story. The Siroco immediately became the Spanish version of the "Castell Friedrichsburg". The whole point of making the ship at Santiago a slightly inferior tier 6 brig was to encourage the player to switch to this new ship rather than abandon and sink her.

Giving the Siroco a broadside or two of grape to weaken the crew is a good idea. Dismasting her is not a good idea, partly because you can't count on doing it before she or the fort does the same to you, and partly because you're going to want the ship in good condition to run away from the fort.

As to why you pick the beach next to the fort: consider what happens when you sail from Havana. You can either turn west, round the north point, and down the south side of Cuba; or you can turn east, down the north side of Cuba, then round the south point into Santiago. Ardent has no idea which way the Siroco will go - picking a beach further up the coast, away from the fort, runs the risk of being on the wrong side of the island and missing the ship entirely.
 
I am now doing well with this quest. I guess the key is the amount of grind you need do before tackling the ship and how well you can use the 1 month time before the showdown. If any complaint, I would say 20k gold in payroll is really a small reward for such a tough mission. Besides, I don't know how 20k could pay for the garrisons of Santiago. The fort and town would have at least 500 soldiers, right? So that's 40 gold apiece? Oh forgot to mention. Hand grenade is another key to success here. Forget about one-shot pistols, musket or grape-shot weapons.
 
Personally, I've never needed to do much grinding. Take on any thugs that show up on the return trip from the slave camp to Havana (and no need to repeatedly go back into the jungle looking for more of them), then one trip into the Port Royale dungeon to kill the denizens and get the back-bladed sword. There's usually time to get the sword polished up to maximum despite Port Royale blacksmith being the slowest sword-polisher in the Caribbean. Then back to Santiago, deliver Downing's first letter, and go to Playa de Sierra Maestra to meet the payroll ship.

Perhaps the payroll ought to be higher to be realistic, but it's a balance between realism and game balance. This is very early in the story so you shouldn't be an instant millionaire! (Perhaps there are other ships carrying more of the payroll but this is the only one Ardent knows about.)
 
There is a very fast way to level up your melee skill. When you first arrive at Santiago, try to harass some of the thugs in Tavern. Then there will be a drunken brawl. However, they don't have weapons, so you can take on 5-6 easily. Each wave would probably give you 20+ points in melee skill. Do it a few times then you are one level up in melee. Diving in and out of jungle is riskier and time consuming.

You don't need put too much cash on board. Maybe a good weapon or some books in the chest on top of the cash. Just some kinda additional reward in items.
 
A good weapon, you say? How about a Spanish Cup-Hilt Rapier? ;) You'll get that by killing the captain. Normally you'd first see it on sale at around level 14. And, of course, there's the ship itself, a dual-purpose brigantine which you can use for trading or raiding. (Just don't try sailing back into sight of Santiago fort with it. The fort saw you take the ship and will remember you. There's a final note in the questbook about that...)

If you really want to do some grinding, I still recommend repeatedly visiting Port Royale dungeon. Dungeon thugs aren't all that tough but they do carry weapons, which means you get lots of free weapons which you can sell or put in the weapons locker for your crew.
 
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