[Strategy] Tips and Tricks

[Sungoo1]

I leave a link to a forum where they give advice to play and especially to fight.
It was hard to find and contains videos that help to understand how to make naval battles.
The initial post posted by IVANEATSYOUUP in http://forum.kalypsomedia.com
---> Here post forum link: http://forum.kalypsomedia.com/showthread.php?tid=14664

Port Royale 3
In Port Royale 3: Pirates and Merchants, players will embark upon an epic adventure through the Caribbean during the turbulent 17th century where the naval powers of Spain, England, France and the Netherlands all fight for supremacy in the colonies.

Players take on the role of a young captain trying to build his fortune and reputation in the new world colonies. The campaign consists of two different paths for the young protagonist to follow: adventurer and trader.

Following the path of the adventurer will lead the player on a naval conquest where they must gain notoriety through raids, piracy, bounty hunting, plundering and conquering cities as they strive to build their new Caribbean empire.

The route of the trader sees the player using their economic know-how to become the most powerful trading tycoon in the New World by setting up trade routes, building production facilities and developing cites.

In free-play mode, the player crafts a combination of the two paths, creating a unique and challenging scenario on the path to increase wealth and power.

In addition to the single-player campaign, there are robust multiplayer modes where players can go head-to-head using commercial, economic and conquest simulations to allow for fast-paced gameplay.

Tips And Tricks
Below is the compilation of tips and tricks I've learnt from the forums, full credit goes out to those who made it possible in the first place. If I miss out on anybody, don't be angry!

Trading

Recommended Price List
Wood 57 40
Bricks 57 40
Wheat 57 40
Fruit 85 58
Corn 85 58
Sugar 85 58
Hemp 85 58
Cloth 250 200
Metal 130 95
Cotton 85 58
Metal W. 350 255
Dyes 170 125
Coffee 250 180
Cacao 250 180
Tobacco 170 125
Meat 500 370
Clothing 800 555
Ropes 260 190
Rum 450 335
Pastries 250 180

Map
http://ipaddr.me/pr3/

Trade Routes

Northern Route
Hometown -> Port-au-prince -> Santiago -> Isabella -> Turks Islands -> Tortuga -> Andross -> Nassau -> Cat Island -> Charlestowne -> Eleuthera -> Grand Bahama -> Charleston -> St. Augustine -> Ft. Caroline.

Western Route
Hometown -> Cayman -> Evangelista -> Nombre de Dios -> Havana -> Florida Keys -> Tampa -> Port St. Joe -> Biloxi -> Pensacola -> New Orleans -> Corpus Christi -> Tampico -> Vera Cruz -> Villa Hermosa -> Campêche -> Sisal -> Cancun.

Eastern Route
Hometown -> Santo Domingo -> San Juan -> St. Thome -> St. Martin -> St. Kitts -> Antigua -> Guadeloupe -> Martinique -> Barbados -> St. Lucia -> Grenada -> Georgetown -> Port of Spain -> Puerto Santo -> Cartagena -> Margarita -> Puerto Cabello.

Southern Route
Hometown -> Santiago -> Trinidad -> Evangelista -> Cayman -> Belize -> Roatàn -> Providence -> Cartegana -> Santa Martha -> Maracaibo -> Gibraltar -> Coro -> Curaçao -> Puerto Cabello -> Caracas.

Capital Route
Hometown -> Turks-islands -> Grand Bahama -> St.Augustine -> Havana -> New Orleans -> Vera Cruz -> Belize -> Caracas -> Margarita -> Guadeloupe -> San Juan.

Alternative Routes
Alt 1
Port Royale -> Cayman -> Sisal -> Cancun -> Evangelista -> Trinidad -> Saniago -> Port-au-Prince -> Tortuga -> Gibara -> Turk -> Isabella -> Santa Domingo

Alt 2
St.Kitts -> Tortuga -> Trinidad -> Cacun -> Cayman -> Port-au-Prince -> Santo Domingo -> St Kitts.

Basic Ideas to Route Making
1)At the start of the game it's recommended to buy every ship you have the chance to and make a profit trade route.This way you make money very very fast.

2)There's 2 general rules for profit trade routes imo: the number of cities connected and the area covered.The more cities you connect,the better and the wider the area you cover,the better.But dont make trade routes that go from (for example)the top left area of the map to the bottom right one,try to cover one area,connecting all the cities in it.

3)3)In a more advanced game stage(when you start building businesses and residences)you should stop making "profit" trade routes,and focus on "prosperity" and "stock and supply" routes to help your colonies grow up faster.I say stopping at 7-10 "profit" trade routes is ok(altho adding a new one every now and then can't hurt).

Those 2 other types of trade routes work different from profit ones,this time the rule "the more cities connected the better" does not apply.For "prosperity" routes you shouldnt connect more than 8-10 cities,while for "stock and supply" ones you should only connect the towns that produce the materials needed for your buildings(4 to 6 in total normally)



Combat and Whatnot

Hideout Detecting
1) There's the information in the town-hall.
This information isn't always accurate, but it gives you some idea where to look.

2) There are the occasional informers in the tavern.
These guys are able to pinpoint the location of the pirates - or the hide-outs - a lot better.

3) The flags in the water
These show who've been the strongest force in a particular area - reason why it changes to your flags if you have a lot of ships there - so when a pirate flag shows up, a pirate is somewhere nearby.

4) The logbook shows the area the pirate is in.
However, this is usually as accurate as the information found in the town-hall.

5) Accidentally running into a pirate-convoy.
If a pirate feels bold enough, they attack your trading convoys. This is shown at the mini-map with a red dot and at the world map with two crossed swords, while at the top-left of your screen you get a bar with your name in it.

6) Mission given by a former officer.
These missions are to take revenge at a pirate-feet, which is located in a particular region.However, the pirate is there for a limited amount of time, so you need to act fast.

7) Patrol
Getting the information of the hideout from the tavern and then leaving my ship close to where the information says in patrol mode always finds the hideout.

8) A correct sequence for finding a hideout would probably be:

a) Reduce your game speed to x0.1 immediately after a trade convoy is attacked so you can locate the combat area.
b) Tail the pirates with the plundered convoy (they don't seem to attack plundered ships, and if they do, you have nothing to lose).
c) Move your main military convoy to the pirate's position, then take over following the pirate ship with your military convoy and send your trade convoy back to it's route.

As long as you've got a good speed on your military convoy (11 knots is more than enough), you should be able to keep up with the pirate ship which will eventually return to it's hideout. (sometimes taking up to 3 months)

Note: Seeing a pirate ship disappear on the coastline seems to trigger the hideout's appearance, but a pirate ship emerging will not trigger the hideout location discovery.


Combat Tips
1) Use 1 ship and 1 ship only to fight manually with. i can use a barq and take down a set of 3 large ships (frigate, galleons and/or WarGalleons). Having a NPC controlled vessel on the screen just complicates matters. They get in the way and they also cause you to change focus back and forth which doesnt help at all.

2) Use the spacebar to speed the battle up. I use it on average 70-80% of the fight. I can easily shoot 100+ rounds off in under a minute. which could be the sinking of a ship the size of a frigate, using a barq.

3) Possibly the most important thing to think about. Especially if its a battle taking part on the reefs and that is the DRAUGHT of the ship your using. Draught means the amount of ships hull required below the surface of the water to keep it afloat. This also leads to the depth of the hull below the surface of the water being greater for larger ships. The smaller boats dont get affected by the reefs and run straight over them without slow down. medium sized ships get ~50% slowdown and the large ships almost stop. This is a huge advantage for smaller ships to get many volleys off at larger ships and with relative safety.

4) There are certain golden positions you can get by having a greater speed than the enemy ship, due to the cannons being located from the middle to the rear of any ship.

As long as you stay ahead and parallel to the enemy ship, you can ALWAYS shoot him for maximum damage (Green Crosshair), and he cannot retaliate at all. The only way the enemy ship can engage you is by turning away from your ship (the enemy AI will do this only occasionally). When this happens, fire a few more times, then turn in the opposite direction AWAY from him, and circle around to try and get into this position again. (If you follow him, you will end up parallel, but lagging behind the ship, which will get you killed easily)

This is exactly why a fast ship is able to deal so much damage - it can easily maneuver into this position, and doesn't lose any speed sailing on shallow waters. Using Q to slow your ship down lets you maintain a position where you can ravage enemy ships while safe from retaliation.

Later in the game, destroying a pirate convoy can give you up to 144k gold in bounty, so it really doesn't matter in terms of giving money. Some pirate hideouts leave 4-5 convoys of 30-50 strength in the bay. When you find these, remember to leave the hideout alive so you can repeatedly annihilate the convoys for money. Just rush in, smash up the convoys for an easy 800k gold, then cancel the attack on the hideout. After getting repairs and waiting a bit, most of these weak convoys will have respawned.

Ending notes
If there's anything you would like me to add, just simply paste the thread link!

Video naval battle by Fortunis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYSKWIhilgM

Credits
Thorin Oakshield
JohnOnTheHighSeas
TheDudeAbides
untamed
Mayo
weltall
billyplod
Fortunis
The Bull

[parpes]

Thanks for these great tips

[Ctrl Alt Elite]

Hey thanks man for posting this!

[Weedhyun]

i cant shoot my cannon. what button to make my cannon shoot

[Havan_IronOak]

Not sure who can do it, but this should be pinned

[Stash McWhalen]

Found this game on PS Now, and years later I'm getting my brother into it for multiplayer here on steam...great write up

[CiaphasCain]

Why don't you transform this in a guide? Thanks!