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when will i ever get out of this dinghy

T

the reverend

Landlubber
Hello again all. Wonder if anyone could throw some `tricks-o`-`thar-trade` my way. I have only recently got POTC installed, the original that is not this build thingey. Im really having trouble building up enough cash for a new ship. Ive currently got a xebec. Trade missions never seem to give me more than 2000 gold which is swallowed by my crew wages and trading on my own terms seems a complete waste of time as the differences in prices between islands are miniscule. Even humping a boatload of sandalwood from greenford to redmond only gets me about 700 profit.
In the old sea dogs i used to earn loads of cash boarding ships and flogging them off. Now though, small craft sail rings round me as my chain shot goes whistling over their masts and anything larger pounds me into splinters within seconds. Even if i do get to board after chucking barrel after barrel of grape through their portholes my officers die within seconds and im mobbed by a load of angry sailors who rip me to shreds in a kind of death by a thousand cuts motif. Smuggling is also a complete non starter as my officers are AGAIN (sigh) killed within a fraction of a second, and as soon as i put to sea a swarm of corvettes turns me into driftwood.

Ive been doing the missions but again most of the money goes on patching up my ship, although it has given me quite a good reputation and rank. While doing the missions is nice, i bought a game called pirates of the caribbean not messenger boy of the caribbean. It would be nice to let rip occasionally without instantly being blown out of the water. im sick of reloading every 5 seconds when there is no quickload or quicksave button.
and some financial security would be nice. I dont ask for much, just a little brig to call my own and a few dubloons in the abbey national.

Anyone got any advice? i have looked through the forum extensively and tried quite a few things, but my gold never seems to rise above above 20k after hours of slogging back and forth between islands. I'm sick of hearing "ill give you 20 pence to hump all this c**p to the other side of the earth."

Sorry about the rant. Please help. <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/mad.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":c" border="0" alt="mad.gif" />
 
Yarr! mate I hear ye,'ave tried smuggl'n contraband more profitable ur loot'n,plunder'n ships is very profitable <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/par-ty.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":cheers" border="0" alt="par-ty.gif" />
 
I usually get a delivery mission and go to the tavern and ask if there are escort missions going to the same island, if not I just wait a day and ask again. That way you should get a little more money.

Also go into the jungles and dungeons to build up your reputation, level and skills. That should make it easier for you to capture ships as you'll be more experienced and have more perks and skill points.


If that fails just try the Build, it has dificulty levels and on the easiest setting it's really easy to capture ships. Also the prices have been changed so it should be easier to make money doing missions.
 
After 4 hours playing I can have a squadron of 4, class 2 ships, mainly a mix of Frigates, Warships, Lineships and Corvettes from start.

How do I do it? Read on...

At the start, put all your skills/abilities into Melle related areas (in case you feel the need to board). Then go for the employment missions from the store keepers. Sure you get 1000, 2000 gold, but at the start it seems to increase (possibly because they trust you?) keep doing it until you can buy a bigger ship in the 30k margin, a Barque (for cargo) or Yatch (for fighting) is what I go for. Remember to offset your cash against the trade in value of your current ship, i.e. you don't have to actually earn 30k first before you're ready to purchase.

Now I've got a ship with more cargo space/bigger guns, I'll get more money from the storekeepers for doing jobs, as I can carry more cargo for them. After a while, I usually go and capture an equal sized vessel. Once you have 2 ships you'll notice that the store keepers will now offer you even more money for your deliveries, presumably again, because you can carry more cargo (In fact before you probably got the odd storekeeper telling you that your ship wasn't big enough?).
Keep on doing this until you hit the 50k mark (with ship trade in), sell your Barque/Yatch (and also any captured vessels if neccessary) and get something bigger with bigger guns, the rest is just plain sailing, lightly sprinkled with the pirates life, i.e. you should now be in a position to capture ships bigtime and play PotC the way it's meant to be played <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />

Btw, this is based on PotC with `Build-11` playing on the next difficulty level up from default (I'm not sure if you can select difficulty levels in the stock game?). I've never played plain vanilla PotC straight out of the box, as I heard it had too many bugs. However, I can't imagine that these tips wont work in out of the box PotC, I don't think it's that different?

Yarr!!! <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/par-ty.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":cheers" border="0" alt="par-ty.gif" />
 
doubling up delivery and escort missions is a great tip. i didnt realise trade mission value was linked to cargo space, i can probably afford a small barque to add to my present ships capacity which should boost profits. I havent seen any increase in fees paid though and my reputation is up to matey. Maybe the original is different to t he build in this way.

Off to try it now, cheers for the help.
 
ive just discovered if you try to complete a delivery mission and an escort mission it bugs up the trade mission so you cant complete it. I have just learned a valuable lesson about using lots of save slots. Still it was only 6 hours of solid graft lost............
 
thanks for all the replies and help, im really getting into the swing of things now. I figured my problem was low skill levels so set out on a campaign of destruction blowing everything i could find out of the water. I poured my experience points back into mellee, cannons accuracy and sailing and built up the destructive abilities to make my rampage deadlier. By the time i had gone up a few ranks my little xebec was an armour plated fire belching monster which could take out a convoy of 3 class 3/4 ships for 13k experience points a time and single corvettes and frigates for 29k a pop. Now my experience is up its a lot easier boarding and i then took a couple of fluytes which kicked off my trading career. You were right Hengist that extra cargo space allowed me to earn `10-30` thousand for trading missions ( which i saved and i quote "`uber-often`"). Now ive got my frigate im as happy as a pig in sh...... er ...... mud. Im now doing very nicely smuggling, i import only the finest south american cinnamon. Doesnt sound very piratey smuggling cooking spices does it? I quite enjoy being discovered though and thrashing out to see under all canvas, blasting away at French frigates left and right. Much more piratical. <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/pirate2.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p:" border="0" alt="pirate2.gif" />
 
If you're doing delivery/trade missions, cut down on the size of your crew and you won't have to pay so much. Of course this means you will have to avoid conflict as much as possible - which means when you do get into something you will have to sail for the horizon instead of stand and fight.

Me, I prefer to fight - instead of the trade missions. If you have a decent blade and your melee skills are good, stock up on a bunch of potions and head off to board and capture ships. Sometimes this can be *quite* lucrative, because you get back to town with you prize ships following, sell the merchandise at the merchant, and the ships at the shipyard, and go out and do it again!

RUM smuggling to Douwesen is also quite good... <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/icon_mrgreen1.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":cheeky" border="0" alt="icon_mrgreen1.gif" />
 
more good tips. I did try reducing crew size but i was immediately run down by a pesky corvette that took its time ripping my fleet to pieces. I decided to to keep the crew and gain some more exp while trading. Trading was only a means to an end though and now ive got some dubloons im generally dedicating myself to making the French as miserable as possible.

Think ill go off and stock up some rum now but cant help continuing my cinnamon dealing, meeting shady characters, humming the pulp fiction theme.....
 
Heh, believe me, you'll be delighted when you see the results from `rum-running`... <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/par-ty.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":cheers" border="0" alt="par-ty.gif" />
 
Har! I've not seen rum run yet,except fer down me throat <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/icon_wink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="icon_wink.gif" /> <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="xD:" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" />
 
Heh, and aren't you delighted, Skull, when you see (feel) the results of rum running down your throat? <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="xD:" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" />
 
<!--`QuoteBegin-the` reverend+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(the reverend)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->You were right Hengist that extra cargo space allowed me to earn `10-30` thousand for trading missions:p:[/quote]

I'm glad it helped matey.

Yarrr!!! <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/par-ty.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":cheers" border="0" alt="par-ty.gif" />
 
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