Any tips for pirate mode?

[guncowboy]

I have not played this game in a long time, but came back for Pirate Mode. I did not do well at all. Does anyone have any tips or advice? Thanks in advance.

[Traksimuss]

There were couple posts of beating that mode.

[Sedition]

Just focus on making games for PC and the occasional Casual or Young game for Gameboy.

Stay in the garage until you have multiple millions, don't move after only 1m, because the 32k costs a month will likely bury you on the next level, even if you don't hire anyone.

Save your research points and really only spend them on DRM and graphics upgrades for your engine, maybe sneak a couple of 10-15RP ones in for other features, like Mono sound, but don't try to cram everything into your engines.. DRM is an absolute must and you want the latest version ASAP.

My last playthough I stayed in the garage until I had $5m and around 20k fans before moving.

I think I sold off 50% of my company, but had bought 30% back before moving, and got the last 20% back later.

I just made small games for a long time, even after employing 2 more people, but once the scores slipped, I moved to medium games until pretty much the very end.

[darkveter]

Do above and when you go to the second level : do alot of publisher deals .. that will crank up your "fans" and give you a decent amount of money to stay alive.

[VTitanV]

Originally posted by Sedition:

Just focus on making games for PC and the occasional Casual or Young game for Gameboy.

Stay in the garage until you have multiple millions, don't move after only 1m, because the 32k costs a month will likely bury you on the next level, even if you don't hire anyone.

Save your research points and really only spend them on DRM and graphics upgrades for your engine, maybe sneak a couple of 10-15RP ones in for other features, like Mono sound, but don't try to cram everything into your engines.. DRM is an absolute must and you want the latest version ASAP.

My last playthough I stayed in the garage until I had $5m and around 20k fans before moving.

I think I sold off 50% of my company, but had bought 30% back before moving, and got the last 20% back later.

I just made small games for a long time, even after employing 2 more people, but once the scores slipped, I moved to medium games until pretty much the very end.

This is exactly what I did.

[Sedition]

I play on the shortest. I find the longest just gives you more 6-7 rated games rather than 8-10.

You could try to rush to medium games, I did that on one playthrough, but I think I just got extremely lucky in releasing two massive hits close together. On future playthroughs my cash just kept getting wittled away and I'd go bankrupt before being able to afford a new engine.

I just looked at my recent game, and it looks like I didn't start medium games until Year 17. I was still getting good scores with small games and only 2 other employees, and since they're cheaper and faster to develop, there was no need to take the risk on medium games until the scores were 6s and 7s.

Small games also allow you to take advantage of releasing 2 games when a specific genre is hot, if you time it right.

Making a lot of sequals (as long as you've upgraded your engine since making the last sequal of that game) will also help save a lot of RP.

I don't worry about training too much.. Especially the ones for 10 RP, the 70k cost is pretty huge. But if you've just upgraded your engine and have some RP spare, it helps to give a boost here and there.

I do savescum when hiring employees though. Nothing like spending 500k+ and only getting level 1 candidates...

Save, search for employees, I only spent around 250-350k on my last game, and fingers crossed you'll get a level 3 candidate.. The first hire is okay to be a level 2 if they have pretty good stats though.. If they have 100 speed I just avoid though.. speed helps with getting contracts done (and game dev), and the cash from those is very helpful in this mode.

If all the candidates suck, reload and try again, maybe adjust the budget slightly.

and no worries! Hope you get through it.. is a bit of luck involved too.

[Wedding at the Twins]

In pirate mode, you have to accept 3 things.

1st: The strategy is totally different.

You can rush to other level. You have to build slow while rushing DRM. Keep expense low as long as you can and try to do a lot of new combo for the bonus. The faster you can lvl up your piracy protection, the less you'll lose.

2nd: You will have to sell parts of your company.

If you want to survive, you have to sell some part of your company and earn that most needed money to survive. Don't sell at the first occasion if you think you don't really need it and will have a cash flow soon, but it can makes a huge difference between survival and bankrupt. In my game, I sold up to 90% of my company to survive, but I manage to buy it all once I had enough cash.

3rd: You will go bankrupt.

You will probably be able to make it through, but you will almost certainly bankrupt a couple of time before succeed. Some parts of the game are really hard (the beginning and after the PC upgrade). Once you get to the final stage and have the V6 piracy protection, you pretty much beated the game.

Good luck :)

[Dynasty]

What does DRM mean?

[Blackdeath]

Originally posted by CSU_Dynasty:

What does DRM mean?

Means digital rights management a.k.a piracy protection

[[GWJ] Keithustus]

Trying this mode for the first time now. I've just had v3 copy protection fail after just one successful game. Wow, give me at least 3-4 please! I can't get enough experience and research points to upgrade it so quickly.