Difficulty and Progression

[TropicalTwiz1994]

I know this game is on an incredibly dated engine, but something I noticed is that the very moment I leave port, sometimes even when I'm just sitting in port, TONS and TONS of pirate ship AI that are way stronger than me show up in fleets to destroy me just for existing. The AI literally chases me all around the map and NEVER STOPS no matter if they run directly into an enemy fort or anything. It seems the waters are almost over-populated and I just about cant go from point A to point B without being harassed, having to run from nearly every fight, and I literally cannot keep up with how expensive everything is to maintain because of that. Rum, Weapons, Ammo, Crew Cost, all that stuff, but I find myself coming right out of the tutorial with a few thousand pesos and a ship that demands a LOT, and I struggle getting past that point because I keep having to constantly pay out money just to keep floating, much less fighting. What exactly is the best way to sail around the map so I can actually make some money or at least deliver some cargo without constantly having a pirate ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ tailing me? I've tried switching flags to the pirate flag, and they dont care. I've tried running from fights, they dont care. I've sailed directly into ports where they get obliterated by cannon fire from the fort, and they dont care. They just keep coming. WHAT DO I DO???

On top of that, I did finally manage to get away from one, and then the game FORCE-STOPPED me and loaded me into a dark stormy sea, and it just drained all my health away and I sank with no explanation, no warning, just 'SURPRISE YOURE DEAD' for no reason. not a stormcloud in the sky before that happened.

I feel overwhelmed with the amount of stuff I have to go through just to do the basics, and I'm frustrated by having to restart over and over and over, like I'm playing Dark souls pirate edition or something. Again I know the engine is dated and not everything is great with the game due to the oldschool jank, but surely theres SOMETHING here, right?

[revianblue]

I have the same problem. No matter what I do at that moment, a pirate fleet inevitably starts chasing me and never lets me go. What's even worse, it turns out that the pirate ships that appear as a small ship on the map are actually galleons following a small lugger on the battle screen.
I can understand one or two small pirate ships following me, but the only explanation for a fleet of four ships consisting of a galleon and a corvette chasing me from one end of the Caribbean to the other must be a bug.
Even worse, despite hoisting the pirate flag, they continue to chase me. In this situation, the game starts issuing warnings that we are engaging each other, and it's only after hundreds of clicks that the game finally leaves me alone...

[Kal]

Yeah, the pirate spam is very frustrating. Travelling from one port to another I had at least 4 ships after me, and a couple of those were fleets.

[Iskar]

It is indeed rather over the top. I've managed to outrun most of them so far, but it does get annoying that they always beeline for you and ignore all other ships. It would probably be fine if they also engaged other ships and for instance got distracted by a trade ship crossing their course, but the way they are implemented they are just a hard, unimaginative anti player bias misunderstood as "challenge".

[titanopteryx]

In case any of you haven't seen it, if you learn all the navigator skills on your captain it unlocks his ability to learn a player only skill that allows you to avoid ship encounters.

[Iskar]

Originally posted by titanopteryx:

In case any of you haven't seen it, if you learn all the navigator skills on your captain it unlocks his ability to learn a player only skill that allows you to avoid ship encounters.

Yeah, of course, but that's a late game thing when ship encounters are only a problem for your adversaries anyway. We're talking early game here where it is basically impossible to go anywhere without dozens of pirates chasing your poor lugger - instead of going after the fat merchant vessel that just sailed past.

[titanopteryx]

Originally posted by Iskar:

Originally posted by titanopteryx:

In case any of you haven't seen it, if you learn all the navigator skills on your captain it unlocks his ability to learn a player only skill that allows you to avoid ship encounters.

Yeah, of course, but that's a late game thing when ship encounters are only a problem for your adversaries anyway. We're talking early game here where it is basically impossible to go anywhere without dozens of pirates chasing your poor lugger - instead of going after the fat merchant vessel that just sailed past.

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Lure them to a fort and then board them when the fort destroys all their crew. You can level up and get money. If the ship just surrenders you can capture the captain and if he's a pirate hire him. If the port destroys the ship look for a lifeboat. If it's there the captain's on it and you can capture him and recruit him.

[Iskar]

I know all those things and I do like lemonade. The point is you can barely sail around this way and have to sit in port half the time while many quests need you to sail somewhere or even wait/patrol in a specific area to intercept a ship - which you cannot do if you are being chased around.

[José King Do Caralho]

So quick tip I learned, get your ship skill to be able to use different flags, although I think the pirate is already unlocked, when I'm in open sea, I change the flag to pirate and somehow less pirates chase me, although some still try it

[EagleTwo]

Start encounter manually on max distance(right when hook appears on the corner of the screen) - you will spawn far away from them and be able enter on global map back.

[revianblue]

Originally posted by titanopteryx:

Originally posted by Iskar:

Yeah, of course, but that's a late game thing when ship encounters are only a problem for your adversaries anyway. We're talking early game here where it is basically impossible to go anywhere without dozens of pirates chasing your poor lugger - instead of going after the fat merchant vessel that just sailed past.

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Lure them to a fort and then board them when the fort destroys all their crew. You can level up and get money. If the ship just surrenders you can capture the captain and if he's a pirate hire him. If the port destroys the ship look for a lifeboat. If it's there the captain's on it and you can capture him and recruit him.

Luring pirates to forts is a faulty design in itself anyway, which i did numerous times already, It's taking away all the immersion and become a frustration quickly. So instead of lemonade, all you get is a pisswater with sugar i think...

[TropicalTwiz1994]

Originally posted by José King Do Caralho:

So quick tip I learned, get your ship skill to be able to use different flags, although I think the pirate is already unlocked, when I'm in open sea, I change the flag to pirate and somehow less pirates chase me, although some still try it

This isn't a bad tip at all. I did notice the game stressed itself on stating that the flag you fly is REALLY important and you cant enter cities with certain ones raised and so on. So I'll study that.

[TropicalTwiz1994]

Originally posted by EagleTwo:

Start encounter manually on max distance(right when hook appears on the corner of the screen) - you will spawn far away from them and be able enter on global map back.

This isn't a bad move either, use the mechanics available to you :) I'll try that out too

[TropicalTwiz1994]

Originally posted by (KRA)Gray Wolf 3rdX0:

My main isue is trying to run away in battle you try to run and they keep doing that stupid circle and shot destroying you as you try to run. and when you try to trun and fight them they trun and out run you. I wish I could post a vidio of it but its damed anoying even the save right when you barly start to board. it gets you screwd when you get boarded by a biger crew you cant even atempt to win aginsed. and ya you can beat the first part backing your self under the staird so you only fight maybe 2 or 3 at onece but the one after that you dont stand a chance.

Yeah I'm with you on that, the auto save RIGHT as the boarding loading screen comes up has soft-locked my game many a time.

[GqM]

I know I'm pretty late but one useful fact: you can actually 'fake' engage them. When the "Defend" text appears, immediately engage. The enemy will then be at least 1000 yards away from you, allowing you to get back into map mode without them respawning. So just keep doing this and all of them should despawn.
Well of course, this won't work against quest ships and frickin' Gentlemen of Fortune (a.k.a annoying douchebags). So instead, you lure them to the fort and grab a bucket of popcorn.

Luckily for me, my starting lugger spawned with max 18 knots speed (on impossible difficulty too) so I could easily outrun anyone HAHHA lucky me. But eventually I settled down on a slower but better ship until the Dutch Gambit when I decided to work for the Dutch West India Company for one of the fastest (if not, the fastest) class 4 ship, the Meifeng.