PR 4 vs PR3

[dande48]

Hi guys,

I'm a big fan of PR2 and PR3. Both were great games IMHO. All had their strengths and weaknesses. I'm honestly wondering, from those of you who have played it, what is actually different in PR4? Why would I choose to play it over PR3?

To be honest, the graphics don't seem like that much of an improvement. Combat seems... worlds different. I guess it's hard to control 3 ships at once without turn based combat. The character classes is nice, but the characters seem static. What if I want to be a boy pirate, or a girl adventurer?

What do you love about the game? What don't you love? Will it provide $45 worth of entertainment over PR3 & dlc?

[Oldwreck]

Same question here. PR3 Gold is about 6 Bucks on Fanatical, so why should I buy PR4?

[th0ma5]

Graphically the scale of the map is much bigger in PR4 and it looks more modern and atmospheric with day/night and weather. You can zoom to ships and follow their journey bouncing along through the waves and zoom to town without loading. In general the UI and presentation are improved.

PR3 still has charm for an older game though and will run better in older systems. So for a few bucks you can't go wrong.

I can't comment on the differences in gameplay much as I only played PR3 briefly before PR4. But I am enjoying PR4 a lot right now.

The turn based battles are fine imo but in current beta they need to improve the presentation much more on this aspect more.

[Cutter Slade]

How is the UI "improved", when you literally have to scroll a lot, everytime you want to trade?
It's visually much better, yes...but it's super annoying.
In PR2 you didn't need to scroll at all, to see all the resources.

A UI mod could fix that, but i don't think there will be any modding support....

The biggest differences compared to Port Royale 2:

- in depth city building
- wind mechanic for traderoutes
- map zoom mechanic
- turn based combat
- fame system
- captain system

- no land combat
- no sword fighting mini game
- no harbour combat
- no personal town
- no tavern card minigame (as far as i know)

[dande48]

Personal towns are gone? :(

[th0ma5]

Not sure what personal towns are but you can get administration rights for towns which basically means you take control full of it and can build both residential and production buildings.

[Cutter Slade]

In Port Royale 2 you could do missions for your nations' viceroy and he would grant you your own land (choose your own town on the map).
But he would only give you 1/4 of the land for every mission.
So you needed to do the following 4 times to get access to all the land.

basically:

- reduce enemy convoys
- then attack an enemy town
- kill convoy in the harbour
- destroy harbour defense towers
- land combat
- sword fight

You could get up to 4 personal towns by switching nation sides after getting your own town.

[th0ma5]

It sounds similar-ish. In PR4 go to viceroy to request administration rights for a town. There are criteria you must meet. You get the whole town with admin rights though not part. There is also Build Permission which is for production buildings only which you need to build up good trade relations with the town first.

[Cutter Slade]

It's not really similar-ish....
In PR4 you can get admin rights for an excisting town rather easy.
In PR2 you could choose your own town+location+name on the map, after going through all the things i've mentioned above.
This means you could start building the town from scratch (0 pop, no buildings)

Here's a screenshot of the PR2 map:
The red towns were suitable locations.
Port Royale 2 map

That feature was a nice long term project which is unfortunately missing in PR4.

[ovehaithabu]

I'd say that is not too complicated to program so we might see that in a DLC.

[Heldsieger]

Originally posted by Cutter Slade:

It's not really similar-ish....
In PR4 you can get admin rights for an excisting town rather easy.
In PR2 you could choose your own town+location+name on the map, after going through all the things i've mentioned above.
This means you could start building the town from scratch (0 pop, no buildings)

Here's a screenshot of the PR2 map:
The red towns were suitable locations.
Port Royale 2 map

That feature was a nice long term project which is unfortunately missing in PR4.

I have to agree that this type of incentive is missing in PR4 and would be a welcome addition. After we get enough towns up and running the game becomes boring. The constant war doesn't appeal to me and after you've sunk a few enemy convoys what else is new? Maybe there is more to PR4 than I've so far discovered in the beta but right now I am starting to lose interest.

[ovehaithabu]

Originally posted by Heldsieger:

Maybe there is more to PR4 than I've so far discovered in the beta but right now I am starting to lose interest.

Just curious, how many hours did you play to far ?

[Cutter Slade]

Originally posted by Heldsieger:

I have to agree that this type of incentive is missing in PR4 and would be a welcome addition. After we get enough towns up and running the game becomes boring. The constant war doesn't appeal to me and after you've sunk a few enemy convoys what else is new? Maybe there is more to PR4 than I've so far discovered in the beta but right now I am starting to lose interest.

Indeed.
They're planning to add a "hardcore mode" though, which might help a bit.

[Heldsieger]

Originally posted by ovehaithabu:

Originally posted by Heldsieger:

Maybe there is more to PR4 than I've so far discovered in the beta but right now I am starting to lose interest.

Just curious, how many hours did you play to far ?

According to Steam I've logged 46 hours in the beta so far. Am I missing something?

[ovehaithabu]

Perfect, thanks a lot.

Just wanted to get an idea on how long I would be able to play the game if I buy it until it gets boring.

Not bad, considering that a few more feature will likely be added.