Characters: Good, Bad, Ugly?

[Computer Fraud and Abuse]

I've been playing the campaigns so far (both release and beta). So far I've finished Spanish, very close to finishing French, and I put a few hours into Dutch. These are my thoughts on available characters and their benefits.

The Good
Merchant (played extensively)
- Trade license with every town is HUGE benefit later in the game when the cost is into hundreds of thousands per town
- Trading with hostile towns is pretty nice
- Increased fame cost for big combat ships wasn't a huge obstacle

Buccaneer (have not played)
- Letters of marque discount seems pretty "meh"
- Starting with 5 fame is a big head-start, considering how flexible they are
- Increased penalty for piracy seems inconsequential

The Bad
Adventurer (played a campaign)
- 25% faster captain XP just is not much impact on the game. I think starting with two captains (which is what the manual says) would have been much better
- Being able to order construction of ships you have defeated is novel, but not much practical benefit
- Penalty during boarding operations is a fairly big drawback

The Ugly (have not played)
Piratess
- Will not be attacked by pirates, seems fairly useless, unless pirates are much more frequent/powerful in free play
- Reduced loss of fame for piracy seems pretty "meh," since plundering is really inefficient, but I don't know much about this area
- Starts with a Pirate Barque, again, this is a very tiny benefit
- Increased construction cost: Huge drawback, since you basically have to play the economic game no matter what


I'm curious what other people have found. Maybe there's something I'm missing.

[th0ma5]

The BIG perk does seem to be the merchants free trade licences. I think of this character as easy mode which is fine. But I think the other characters could do with some more impactful perks.

Buccaneers starting fame is good for some timed campaigns. But in general would prefer to see long term perks than starting boosts.

The adventurer seems to be the middle ground but also least interesting.

Haven't played pirate but at a glance looks like she needs more piratey benefits.

They could really make them a lot more interesting and hopefully they add more in the future.

[Computer Fraud and Abuse]

Having now played about 8 hours as the Buccaneer, I can confirm the 5 fame points are a HUGE headstart, and the LoM discount is quite nice (although not game-changing).

As it stands now, playing anything other than Buccaneer or Merchant is setting the difficulty level much higher.

For the Adventurer to be worth it he needs to start with a lvl 2 captain in addition to current bonuses, or the XP bonus for captains needs to be 40%, or he needs some kind of big discount on building shipyards/harbormasters (maybe 2 free harbormasters without any population restrictions?).

The Piratess is an unworkable mess with the current state of the game. Piracy is pointless and so a character that has bonuses around piracy is just useless.

Perhaps the Piratess could get Military Frigates as their first buildable warship, regardless of nation. In that case they'd need an additional bonus if they played as England (maybe 15% cost reduction for Military Frigates). That would be very interesting, because playing as a Dutch pirate would entirely change the nation's playstyle (which would mean losing the Trader's Fluyt). Tier for tier Military Frigates are by far the strongest vessel IMO, so this seems like a fair tradeoff to me.

[jonnin]

Some comments:

the LOM discount is HUGE later on. These start costing millions per war, and there is a war every quarter, so you can save 5+million per year later in the game.

25% increased captain xp is also huge. Captains take YEARS to reach their potential unless you find the ultra rare +3 levels event. An 8 point command takes 2 years usually, and you want to push a bit past that as you often want 8-10 skill upgrades to really make a useful build.

adventurer drawback can be negated with captains that have ++ boarding skills, but this is still a terrible penalty.

plundering is very efficient, actually. Its free money, and quick money. Anyone can do this with a frigate or corvette, so the piratess still stinks at everything.

trade with hostile towns has a penalty to prices that make it worthless.

all that to say buccaneer is my #1, then merchant, and the other 2 are of little use to me.

[Computer Fraud and Abuse]

Maybe Adventurer pays off in the long run (many years) in free play games, but he's actively harmful in shorter games (such as the campaigns). He really needs an up front bonus to provide some benefit while players wait for the back-loaded benefits to pay off (starting captain or harbormaster buildings IMO). The boarding penalty is also quite severe, since with the current battle balance grapeshot + boarding is often the best tactic against a superior enemy fleet.

[Walker]

The pirate does not seem that bad with 50% cost to sailors? not sure if that is upkeep though, I mean if you own 10 fleets you save lots of money on Sailors, which would more then make up for the cost of buildings in the long run. That is if it upkeep cost and not just recruitment. I have not played it yet.

[69Inanna69]

Originally posted by Computer Fraud and Abuse:

Merchant
- Increased fame cost for big combat ships wasn't a huge obstacle

Adventurer
- Being able to order construction of ships you have defeated is novel, but not much practical benefit

I'm curious what other people have found. Maybe there's something I'm missing.

Since the old post has been dug up...
I'll add a bit...

Constructing ships is a moot topic for the two highlighted above..
Cause no-one ever spends a limited fame point on a ship : )

Even now.. on my new post 1.3 game.. which is on about 15 hours...
I still havent played enough to get captains lol, so only have a level 2 captain.
But i did send him out with two frigates costing ~75k each...
Stole some more ships from merchants..
Then went attacking the English Military fleets..
So.. now have ~10 Ship of the lines, and 20 Military frigates camped on my docks.. Already..

So buying/constructing ships... Just doesnt happen : ) ...
Apart from building a couple of frigates for starters .. and 1000 trade ships.

[Walker]

does anyone know if it pirate talent 50% Sailor is for wages, as I have to start a new game and I want to pick that one because I know if you own 10 fleets full of crew that is allot of money to be saved and would be a good pick. as the other ones are meh?

[jonnin]

yes, it is for the daily wage.
Other what are meh? The buccaneer is strong. Again, LOM costs late game are nuts ... price never stops going up, and starting with 5 fame points is pretty nice as well. Merchant got nerfed when they opened up free trade in your own country and its only very useful if you play a tiny country settings. Adventurer is about useless, but captain xp is still way too slow so it may help there.

Capturing and selling ships will pay those wages and still net you a steady large profit. Wages are only ugly if you are not fighting, then the drain will drop your money to zero in short order. Dismiss your sailors when you are done with them; even at 50% costs its too much to keep a standing army that isn't doing anything ....

[Walker]

Originally posted by jonnin:

yes, it is for the daily wage.
Other what are meh? The buccaneer is strong. Again, LOM costs late game are nuts ... price never stops going up, and starting with 5 fame points is pretty nice as well. Merchant got nerfed when they opened up free trade in your own country and its only very useful if you play a tiny country settings. Adventurer is about useless, but captain xp is still way too slow so it may help there.

Capturing and selling ships will pay those wages and still net you a steady large profit. Wages are only ugly if you are not fighting, then the drain will drop your money to zero in short order. Dismiss your sailors when you are done with them; even at 50% costs its too much to keep a standing army that isn't doing anything ....

Well the buccaneer becomes useless when you own your own nation, what do you really need fame points anyway once you unlock everything, so slow is ok. Trader is a good one as you can trade at war which is a plus and the pirate one is good for money if you want to keep all your fleets. Kinda sucks to have to go around getting sailors all the time Adventure is useless.

[jonnin]

you need fame points to have the resources needed to do the free play goals, often enough... they are timed, and to beat the timer, it can help to have some fame esp on harder difficulty. The big thing is that everything it has is useful and the negative is small.
pirate is much better than it was with the 50% off.
I generally disband my sailors into my industry and park the ships there. Its ready to go, but instead of losing money paying them, they work for me making goods during peace times. But you have to set it up this way.
Merchant is still good, just not as good as it was before they gave out trade to your country.

[Walker]

I don't want to start a new form, so I will ask here, Do you still need fame when you own your own nation to produce ships?