This or PR4?

[Tyr]

I've seen mixed reviews of PR4, but some people swear its better than 3. What are your thoughts?

[LeChevalier88]

I love the series' genre, so I'll buy it anyway but I'll wait until decent discount is offered.

I watched some youtubers to get more idea about the game. There definitely some improvements here and there. The graphics is the most obvious. It looks good.

The battle changed to a turn-based system is not necessarily bad, like many said, depends how it's implemented. I've some complaints about PR3's battle system. I've got a few hundred hours in PR3, the things that get me frustrated won't be a problem if you just casually play the game. They're annoying when you've spent hundreds of hours, battles after battles into it. One of them is the aiming system. Empire/Napoleon Total War's aiming system is way better, as well as the old Imperial Glory.

When it comes to map, PR4 seems better, there are ports in the Panama Isthmus region and to the north of it. There's no ports in PR3 south of Roatan, the southwestern portion of the map. Historical accuracy matters to me as I'm a bit of history buff. Panama Isthmus ports are especially important in the Caribbean history, such as Portobelo and Nombre de Dios. Sid Meier's Pirates got it right.

PR3's achievement progress tracking system is broken. Probably because its coding is outdated and won't ever be updated. And it has some crazy grinding achievements. It can be frustrating.

If you like the older PR, go for PR3. If you like the gameplay in general, go for PR4.

[The Tear Collector]

Just had another look at PR3. Only a quick look.. I didn't play it since release. One of the last games I bought a physical copy of :D

Although I enjoyed the clean look of everything, I directly wanted to go back to PR4 because of the zoomable map :D
There were times, when I just booted up the game, focussed the camera on my convoy, set a course and hid the UI, just to watch it sail xD
There should be sea shanties :D

The most important part for me though.. although PR4 is lacking several things that were in PR3, the one thing that really makes it for me, is the customizable difficulty.

You can set PR4 to remove the option for automatic trade routes or the green/red bars to see how good your trade deal is... you can set up PR4 in a way that you have to make notes about prices and optimize trade routes every now and then.
Sure, in PR3 you can do so as well, but there's always that option to just automatically set up your trade routes for profit. If your own stuff doesn't work, just automate it.
I like to purposefully choose a "hardcore mode" so that the game then forces me to adhere to it. In that way I _have_ to think about stuff.. there's now easy way out :D

Still though, couple of imho strange ideas and underdeveloped things things in PR4. The naval battles could be so, so much better. I mean, I get.. it's a trade simulation.

[LeChevalier88]

Yea, I heard later that the naval combat is quite bad, worse than PR3. There's no chain shot and so there's no sail damaging/disabling, no speed.
I've had frustrations with PR3 about how it doesn't have wind and/or speed indicator, while there's change in speed when you're changing direction during naval battles. Sailors of this era did know how to tell the wind direction and speed. Wind speed and direction are especially crucial during Age of Sail. This is one of the part that makes PR3 or PR series in general is less historically accurate. SM Pirates has this and Empire/Napoleon TW too. Adding wind speed and direction won't necessarily change this game from casual to hardcore.

Yes it's a trade simulation, but trade simulation is just one aspect of the game. Piracy and European rivalry, naval battles of the Age of Sail were also there in this period in the Caribbean, which is what this game simulates, recreates.

[Oakshield]

Personally I wouldn't reccommend both, as PR 2 is in fact better. However, the downside of that game are the bad graphics and the inability to set the resolution.

The good side of it are the better trading, the better naval battles and the fact you actually have to buy, load and activate the ships weapons, the fact you need an invasion force to conquer a city and the more realistic naval combat.

But above all; in PR2 you are able to get pieces of land from a vice-roy after getting a certain reputation with your nation; which can be ued to build your own "secret" hide-out; 3 for each nation. So eventually you'll end up with 72 cities at the map of with you form the 4th faction.

In PR3 you don't have that option, but you can conquer cities for yourself, forming your own nation at some point. It's a nice game goal, making it possible to reduce the other 4 nations to only 1 city, but it's not as satisfying as having your own cities, while leading one country to complete supremacy.

Thorin :)

[Darinthal]

Originally posted by LeChevalier88:

I've had frustrations with PR3 about how it doesn't have wind and/or speed indicator, while there's change in speed when you're changing direction during naval battles. Sailors of this era did know how to tell the wind direction and speed. Wind speed and direction are especially crucial during Age of Sail.

There is a Wind Direction Indicator. It is the compass indicator on the Combat UI. Alas there is no Speed Indicator.

[LeChevalier88]

Originally posted by Darinthal:

There is a Wind Direction Indicator. It is the compass indicator on the Combat UI. Alas there is no Speed Indicator.

I thought so too, but it wasn't wind direction indicator. It shows the strength of both sides. In Total War games, they're shown as a slider. I think it should be displayed as a slider. It's misleading this way, that it looks like a compass.

At the beginning of a battle I have to rotate to 1-3 other directions to figure out which direction sails the fastest.

[Oakshield]

Just look at the banner at the top of the mast to know what the wind direction is.

Thorin :)