This game is disappointing.

[Magister Barbero]

Don't take me wrong, i love this saga, i played a lot port royale 1, 2 and now, finally 3.
The main issue with the third chapter is the lack of any news, they removed instead of adding contents.
When i bought the game i expected some hours of complete new fun drived by new quest, new random encounters, a nwe graphic.
The map is the same, maybe a little bit improved under the graphic vest, but the city, the world map and most part of it is the same of port royale 2.
The game used to have more difficult missions, and more random encounters, after 2-3 hours it was clear to me that i already had find any time of event. Pathetic "find my son or my chest here or there", really easy to accomplish, buy or sell here or there, improve your capitans for an insane amount of gold or build something. That's all. In the second part of the saga there where real treasure to find, you could build cities, you had the opportunity to erase pirates and to duel them.
They removed duels, the fights between armies is just 3 ships vs 3 ships (new ridicoulous cap), you can't control all ships or pause the fight to choose your strategy, all thing you were allowed to do in previous games.
This is a Port Royale 0 called 3.

[Huperspace]

according to the trailer of Port Royale 4, It's mostly a graphically overhaul too.

if you find PR3 disappointing than you shouldn't buy the Rice Venice title.

[Lord Bludgeon]

Yup, after 20 min or so I don't even stop at the Tavern any more... the only thing I'd be interested in would be the teachers but they just cost too damned much to justify the outlay. If they'd trade me for a quest I might consider it, but they just want too much gold.

[Darinthal]

Originally posted by LEARN TO BE SMOOTH:

The map is the same, maybe a little bit improved under the graphic vest, but the city, the world map and most part of it is the same of port royale 2.

This is true. The map does not change between the different games and it is likely to be the same with Port Royal 4. I am sorry to say they are trying to follow a map that dates back to 1987 and Sid Meir's Pirates.

I was first introduced to the game back in 1995 with a game called Sea Legends. I played that game to death until my computer could not run it any more (As it is old and my updated computer wouldn't run the older games). I even duel booted the machine so I could run it through a program that would slow down the processor so as to make the game playable again. It lasted until the hard-disk died and I lost the only copy I had of the game (The floppy disk had long since died). I then moved on to Port Royal 1 then 2 and finally downloaded an illegal version of PR3 to try it out. Soon after I bought the game and played it since. The standardized map made the game easier to transition between the games as you knew where everything was in advance.
This is what they intended when remaking the franchise in PR3. Older players knew where to go to find the cities but newer players didn't have to look to hard to find the information they required.

Originally posted by LEARN TO BE SMOOTH:

The game used to have more difficult missions, and more random encounters, after 2-3 hours it was clear to me that i already had find any time of event. Pathetic "find my son or my chest here or there", really easy to accomplish, buy or sell here or there, improve your capitans for an insane amount of gold or build something. That's all. In the second part of the saga there where real treasure to find, you could build cities, you had the opportunity to erase pirates and to duel them.
They removed duels, the fights between armies is just 3 ships vs 3 ships (new ridicoulous cap), you can't control all ships or pause the fight to choose your strategy, all thing you were allowed to do in previous games.
This is a Port Royale 0 called 3.

Port Royal 3 made no secret about what they were trying to do with the game.
It focuses on the trading aspect of the franchise while still keeping some of the other aspects alive at least in some sense.
Fighting was never meant to be the focus. Trade and to some extent treasure hunting were what they wanted.
Controlling ships however is designed to be something along the lines of what you might do in time period battles. You supply your captains with instructions before setting out on your journey with updates when and how you can using signals between encounters. You wouldn't be able to direct your ships instantly in the heat of battle and you would have to rely on the individual captains to fulfill your instructions to the best of their abilities.This is why you can only control a single ship directly and supply limited instructions to your other ships.

Originally posted by Lord Bludgeon:

Yup, after 20 min or so I don't even stop at the Tavern any more... the only thing I'd be interested in would be the teachers but they just cost too damned much to justify the outlay. If they'd trade me for a quest I might consider it, but they just want too much gold.

When you have an empire struggling to meet the financial demands of your fleets and manufacturing capacity those tasks in the inns will be your saviour. Consider doing the tasks as often as possible but don't go and seek the treasures yet. Save them till you need a cash injection into your empire and then collect them as you need them.
The inns also lead you to new Pirate Dens to hunt and pirate fleets to pillage. Not to mention the odd pirate to sell you goods ate a discounted price and a way to manipulate some commodity prices.
Ignore the teachers as they are pegged to your level and financial interests. They are meant to be costly and generally unacheivable.

I hope that clears up any questions.

[Magister Barbero]

I simply installed port royale 2 again

[Melon]

The scaling is bs. In the early Game you can train your captain really really cheap, but later on when one treasure chest holds 200k+ coins the captain training costs 200-600k.
I think it was in PR2 where i once found a lost man at sea that turned out to be the best captain there is with 5 points in every aspect, but this Game doesnt have that.
Why would i waste my Time hunting pirates, if they are so weak and barely worth any coins at all?
The Reputation decrease is like the biggest downside aside from the Naval Battles lack of control.
You cant even build ships and instead its based on Luck if there is a better ship avaiable in a Port, which is why my fleet is 1 Lineship and 2 Pirate Ships.

There are so many downsides to this "Game". It rather feels like additional content for PR2 that went horribly wrong.

[Darinthal]

Originally posted by Watermelon ❤:

The scaling is bs. In the early Game you can train your captain really really cheap, but later on when one treasure chest holds 200k+ coins the captain training costs 200-600k.
I think it was in PR2 where i once found a lost man at sea that turned out to be the best captain there is with 5 points in every aspect, but this Game doesnt have that.
Why would i waste my Time hunting pirates, if they are so weak and barely worth any coins at all?
The Reputation decrease is like the biggest downside aside from the Naval Battles lack of control.
You cant even build ships and instead its based on Luck if there is a better ship avaiable in a Port, which is why my fleet is 1 Lineship and 2 Pirate Ships.

There are so many downsides to this "Game". It rather feels like additional content for PR2 that went horribly wrong.

The scaling is intentional. You can train your captain at the inns (Costing you heaps) or you can actually play the game. You learn skills with general playing.

As for building ships. Once you have your city and built a shipyard you can build any ships as long as you can provide the resources.

If you are really not into building your own ships as you get leveled up you can buy new ships at the shipyards. With a reasonable reputation you can buy the liners at the English shipyards. Otherwise you have to capture them. I regularly have my battle fleet consisting of 10 Liners so I can trade out the most damaged ones and have several battles before my Letter of Marque runs out.

As I have said elsewhere the idea behind the lack of control is to make it similar to the level of control you might have in a real naval battle of the period. You would only be able to give your fellow captains rudimentary commands in battle.

[Melon]

Even with the Letter of Marque the Game is kinda ♥♥♥♥♥♥. If you attack the other Nation for profit and then your Nation allies with that Nation your reputation goes below 50%.

There is barely enough in this Game to play for 10h. After that point the pirates cant hunt you anymore, every Nation is afraid of you, you got too much coins (5m+) and nothing to do with it.
Sure you can crank up the production but for what Goal? Build 3 Hemp Farms which cost 51k, gives you a reward of 200k.

[Darinthal]

Originally posted by Watermelon ❤:

Even with the Letter of Marque the Game is kinda ♥♥♥♥♥♥. If you attack the other Nation for profit and then your Nation allies with that Nation your reputation goes below 50%.

If your reputation is Shafted then again as I have mentioned in the past. Farm those Pirates. Don't kill off the hideouts, just kill the fleets. Kill off any Pirate Fleets you see on the water and then attack hideouts. First you have to kill off any defending fleets and when you come to the prompt to attack the hideout cancel the battle. You can build up your reputation easily by farming a few pirate hideouts for fleets and you can have a nice income stream from the sale of pirate ships. If you have 6 or 7 hideouts and want to consolidate the area they cover then kill off a hide out or two away from the others and you have a really nice way to build up reputation.

Originally posted by Watermelon ❤:

There is barely enough in this Game to play for 10h. After that point the pirates cant hunt you anymore, every Nation is afraid of you, you got too much coins (5m+) and nothing to do with it.
Sure you can crank up the production but for what Goal? Build 3 Hemp Farms which cost 51k, gives you a reward of 200k.

As for time frame and things to do. Try to set yourself some goals.

*Try to take over all but 2 towns for yourself and make it so that they are all profitable.
* Randomize the initial production for the cities and see if you can play without knowing where everything is.
* Only start by making a profitable game using just the initial cities you have available.
* Trying to take control economically the Initial Viceroy Towns.

This is how you change the game to keep the interest going longer. You may have to think outside of the box a little and set goals that will be tough but not impossible.

[Melon]

Randomizing the production makes early Game way way easier.
Now my Ships will never have to sail far away just for one or two things and i can also keep the pirates in checkmate all the time preventing them from hitting my convo.
One hour into the Game and the first two lineship convos are roaming around.

Feels like pirates are borken at this point .. they wont even leave their nest

Oh and you only earn achievments in campaign missions, not in the free game.
Playing free Game mode 68h total, yet to get the 50h achievment