Really need some tips.

[󠀡󠀡]

So I can play Age of Pirates 2 just fine, but in this game everything just seems to want to prevent you from making progress.
I need some tips on how to make things a bit easier in the beginning.

I have the crappy Lugger and a crew of 40. I have 13k money.
I just got a monthly payday screen pop up for 10,000. WTF?? I have the crappiest equipment and a tiny crew and they want to take nearly all my money away.

I can't for some reason win ANY boarding parties, because the pirates always have 3 times more men. Even trying grapeshot to thin them out a little, they still have way more men and usually I end up getting grape shotted way worse than they do.

So please fellas, help a AoP2 player out, this seems just really artificially difficult.

[[JL]Magneto]

The stage you are at is, in my opinion, the hardest part of the game. When I was at that stage, I knew very little about fighting at sea, and I just went around doing as many land-based missions as I could find.

Your monthly salary probably shouldn't be that high yet, though, unless you already have a fair number of officers.

Even with that salary, you can probably keep up with it by doing courier runs for shopkeepers and picking up land missions when you can.

Once you can do The Dutch Gambit main quest, I recommend that as (minor spoiler), 1) you will borrow a boat and crew for the mission, and 2) you can get a very good new boat, for that rank.

Once you either get the boat from The Dutch Gambit or manage to find an officer with a high enough Navigation skill to pilot a Tier 3 ship (without a high enough navigation skill, you get going to get huge skill penalties and get absolutely obliterated in battle), that is when the sea battles will really open up for you.

A few points to keep in mind:
-Even if you get lucky and find a decent officer, you are still going to have to strap in and grind to get your skill or your navigator's skill high enough for better ships. Be patient, and do not upgrade to a higher tier than you can handle (rightclick on your navigator skill to see the levels you need for each tier)

-Once you start being able to take out other ships, do these things when you get to town:

a) visit the store & sell everything on the ship (if you sell the ship, the cargo is just lost...you get no money for it, it does not transfer anywhere, you just lose it)

b) get all of your crew off of the ship and back onto your flagship (like the cargo, they will just disappear if you sell the ship....after they gained valuable experience fighting to take over the ship in the first place)

c) go to the shipwright, remove the ship cannons and sell them to the shipwright

d) now, your ship should have 0 deadweight. If you have any weight on the ship, you either still have goods, crew members, or cannons on the ship. If you are in a port where the storekeeper does not buy weapons or gunpowder, transfer those goods to another ship and sell them elsewhere.

e) *Repair your captured ship, then sell it. NOTE: Ships that you capture in missions are worth WAY less than ones you find in the open world. For example, a decent randomly-generated corvette is going to sell, fully-repaired for 50,000 or so if I recall. A corvette you capture on a mission will sell for about 13,000. Do NOT waste money repairing mission ships. It will pretty much always pay off to repair even severely damaged randomly-generated ships, though. For instance, spending 6,000 to repair will usually raise your resale value by about 10,000.

f) Save enough money to last until you will visit the same island again....and invest all the rest of the money in the bank. The interest is small at first, but it will add up (I make about 800,000 pesos per month in interest per month in my game at the moment)
-Interest does not compound automatically...this means that if you deposit 100,000 and it draws 2% (2,000 per month), you will draw 2,000 per month until you add more money. If you want the interest to compound, you need to withdraw the money completely, after a month, and then re-deposit it (so, if you show up in 31 days, withdraw and redeposit, now you will be getting 2% of 102,000....this may seem minor, but it makes a difference when you start pulling 100,000+ per month)




Oh, one more tip: after a sea battle, remove all of your cannons, click "ok." Then, put your cannons all back on. This makes the game think you bought shiny new cannons. If you do not do this, your cannons will eventually break. You don't really have to do this after EVERY battle, unless it is a long battle, but it is a good habit.

[󠀡󠀡]

Hey thanks a bunch for the tips. One question, where can I do land battles the most?
Is there an area where enemies will respawn so I can keep practicing?

[[JL]Magneto]

I do not think there is really a place like that.
There are a couple of things you could try:
1) On the 1st - 9th of each month, you can talk to the barmaid over and over until she basically offers to sleep with you. Then you can buy a room, for 100 pesos. Once you go to the room, a thief will come to rob you, and you can fight him.

*IMPORTANT* If you do this on another day of the month, 10th - 31st, she will come to the room, you will sleep with her, and she will steal half of your money. It does not matter if you have 10 pesos or 10,000,000 pesos, she will steal half.
I recommend saving before you start this mini-quest, just in case you accidentally chose the wrong day and she comes to the room. Once you get in the room with her, there is no way to get out without losing half your money.


2) If you drink with people in the tavern, you can occassionally get into a fight with them.



Honestly, neither of those choices are going to increase your weapon skill very quickly.

Completing the main story missions seems to increase it much more quickly, but it is still slow.

As I said earlier, you are eventually going to be grinding a lot of sea battles, anyway, to get your navigation skill up, and for money. You will naturally raise your weapon skill by boarding.
This is a very natural and fun way to increase the skill. My favorite part of the game so far has been the grinding at sea.

You really should not need a lot of weapon skill at the point of the game you are at. You should be able to just hold the block or parry button, wait for the enemy to run out of energy, then hit them a couple of times and block again. Wait for them to regenerate enough energy to hit you, and then hit them a couple of more times. If you have a gun, shoot them when you can. If you don't have a gun, get a gun and use it to shoot them :D.

Later in the game, you will run into larger groups of enemies, and some will be strong enough to hurt you even when you are blocking, so it is more important for you to have more skill and better gear.

[ZUAV]

excellent notes for beginners

[󠀡󠀡]

Originally posted by JLMagneto:

The stage you are at is, in my opinion, the hardest part of the game. When I was at that stage, I knew very little about fighting at sea, and I just went around doing as many land-based missions as I could find.

Your monthly salary probably shouldn't be that high yet, though, unless you already have a fair number of officers.

The native guy has a salaray of about 3500 and the other guy that joins you when you get your lugger is about 3100 I think, plus the crew of 40. Running cargo quest only nets about 1800 per run at this point, I would need to run 6 of them to stay ahead, which means 5 days per run, that's cutting it real close and would never put me ahead.

Obviously I'm not doing something right, since so many of you are having an easy time with it :)
Really appreciate the good tips though I'll keep trying.

[ggsimmonds]

Don't fall into the trap of rushing to get a better ship. Even if you do have the stats and officer to do it the costs may be too much early on. So don't make upgrading the navigator top priority.

The first priority should be to acquire a solid cannoner so you no longer miss 90% of your shots. Then you want a boatswain to help in boarding. Don't neglect their skills! You can assign skills to officers just as you do for your character.

Getting a boarder may help, but you should have one -- the native you freed from prison. I like to make sure he is fully outfitted before taking him out with me; so make sure he as a bettter melee weapon, pistol, ammo, health potions, and if possible, armor. This will make land combat and boarding actions far more easier. More boarders would make things even easier, but early on the cost does not justify it in my opinion.

As for making money early on, visit the lighthouses! Often times the person there will say they found some goods floating in the water and they are willing to sell to you very cheap. Always take their offer. It won't get you rich but it should help maintenance costs. Just last night he found 114 units of ebony and sold them to me for 5500. I then sold them to the store for 36000. That is a 30000 profit from 5 minutes of work without any combat.

Also visit the taverns. Be on the lookout for guys selling treasure maps. I think they usually cost around 20000 but trust me, it is well worth it. Also ask the innkeep for latest news. He will sometimes tell you of a ship loaded with crago and its destination. This is a good source of income because these ships will always be without an escort and you have an idea of how profitable it will be.

Tips for ship battles:
1. Weather gage is important. Do everything you can to be in that position. Sometimes I sail away from a fight if I am downwind. This may not be as important if you are using the arcade sailling.
2. Start the fight with chain shot. How far you wish to lower their sails depends on what you plan on doing with the ship afterwards. I typically aim to drop them to 50% or so.
3. During this stage keep your distance. You do not want to be in bomb range and definitely not in grapeshot range.
4. One you lowered their sails to an appropriate level switch to grapeshot and increase the distance between you. Why? To guarantee they are using chain shot. After they fire a chain broadshot go full sails and close in on them. They will switch ammo and this should give you a free shot without fear of receiving fire.
5. That free broadside should be done as close as possible to maximize damage. That could result in them losing as much as 25% of their crew. That, coupled with the damaged sails, makes the rest of the fight a mere formality. Be cautious, sails circles around them (not really around them, ideally you should stay on one side of them while doing circles), and bring their crew down as low as you like.
6. Profit.

[󠀡󠀡]

That's some handy tips, I will definitely try the lighthouse that sounds great, thank you.
A few question, how do you give your officers items? Do you have to have the shared experience perk and then give it to them after a boarding?
Is there a certain way to obtain a decent weapon and pistol early on?
Does the inventory of the salesmen in the markets in each town randomize every time you enter, so you can basically save scum until they have something? I have never even seen them sell a weapon I believe.

[ggsimmonds]

1. I'm not 100% sure to be honest. I seem to recall exchanging items with my boarder in a town prior to gaining that skill. I think that perk only applies to actual boarding, but it is a good skill to have regardless.
2. There is no guaranteed way to get a good weapon, but I think the best way is boarding ships. There is a decent chance the captain will have a good weapon. If you allowed yourself to be jailed at the start you should have a soldiers pistol already.
3. I think the inventory changes weekly, not each time you enter the town. It is scaled with level.
Each town has the following merchants:
1. Young female selling healing related items
2. Young female selling "junk" items
3. Man in brown monk robes selling amulets
4. Man that looks like a pirate selling weapons, ammo, and armor.
Some towns have the merchants all together in a market, while in other towns they are scattered.

[Merkit]

Have your boarder stand in front of you hero, press enter and there should be the exchange menu now. For other officers you'll have to do this in the quarter deck (only on class 4 and higher ships).

Middle-tier guns and blades can be looted in "destroy bandits outside the town" and "church robbery" quests from governor and priest.
Traders in towns and jungles reset every day. Lighthouse and graveyard keepers restock once in 5-7 days.

[󠀡󠀡]

Hey I wanted to thank you guys again for the advice.
I have now 200k pesos and a Corvette ship, things are going good now thanks to you.
Cheers!

[ggsimmonds]

Good to hear, just be careful that you can maintain that Corvette. Those Pesos can disappear quickly. And I'm assuming you have a better navigator for the Corvette, hopefully he doesn't approach you wanting out.

[󠀡󠀡]

Yeah I sold it when the montly pay went from 10k to 150k
So now I'm back in my little Sloop, oh well it was nice while it lasted.
What exactly raises navigation? Just sailing around?

[ggsimmonds]

Joruba told me that sailing in combat, in storms, and some quests raise navigation. It definitely takes a while for it to raise, so be patient.

But if your maintance costs went up that high I'm guessing it was because you and your navigator lacked the skill to pilot a class 3. I could be wrong but in order to sail a class 3 without a hit to skills the nav skill needs to be at least a 65.

You get a zebec from doing the Dutch Gambit missions, and she is a fine ship early on. Class 4 but 22 twenty pound guns, excellent speed and good at sailing close to the wind. Only drawback is kinda slow sailing with the wind, so be careful if you are downwind from a stronger ship and need to escape.

[󠀡󠀡]

Another question on treasure maps.
I buy one for 27k, then "equip it" to look at it and it just says something like "you can look for it but sure as hell it looks like a fake". I can't see where it's supposed to be though, do you need a real map first because I sold my cheap map in the beginning.

[ggsimmonds]

Sounds like you got scammed on that one. It hasn't happened to me yet but I heard that sometimes they are fakes.

The legit ones will tell you where to go, something like "on the island of antigua near fallmoth cove there is a cave..."