kinda enjoyable but very VERY frustrating

[Baby Schwarzenegger]

Hey, at first i just loved this game but i find it extremely hard and not well balanced.
-i'm doing the protectorate quest and i have to board some ships and it's just a hell.
first you have to destroy ennemy boat sails while taking his shot in the face. of course he only aim for your crew so anyway for the boarding you'll be 150 crew hp vs 150 crew hp.

-you'll get attack each time you enter a mission or just want to check somethin at sea and you have to flee just to come back later when there's no active event around. it take so long and it is sooo frustrating!

-also sometimes i am at 110% speed but my boat is still slow like a turtle under meds!

-boardings are extremely hard to achieve even with lot of fighters.

-it takes a lot and a lot of time farming quest just to buy the 16000€ ship

-the ui is not clear at all. what advantage will i get from having two sails? two cannons? no idea, i have to check the forum each time.

Anyway this game can be so much fun, it has a big potential but some little problems make the player lost A LOT of time and make me want to snatch my hairs off my skull!

[Abelardo]

I'm a total noob so I don't know if there is an easier/faster way, but for me the "money-maker" quest it's the "King's generosity" one.
If you have enough money for the "mini quests", it's as easy as travel only. Once you get the loot of the "cheap" captain, you go back to the port where you got it, sell everything, use the bank for 20% interest and travel doing something else until repeat. You can get to the 15,000 pretty easy.
And for the "You'll get attack", you don't if there isn't a battle already there. =)
And if you must wait, you can take a run-around to avoid battle.

And if you are in a mission against someone following you, change your flag!!!!, then go to a "friendly" fort and wait behind it.
Of course a better ship can destroy you... but most of the time it doesn't stand a chance against a well repaired and equiped FORT.
Then after the enemy is sunk, go back and loot it. =P

[BrowncoatTrekky]

For quick farming I recommend the following if you haven't tried it yet. Sail to new map in the north. Divide sailors between Sails and Cannons only. Drop all cannon balls except for the hight quality cannon balls, and set navigation to auto battle the Returner faction (listed as 'Invasion' battles). You won't lose points with other factions, and the loot farmed in those battles are pretty good. I got up to $50000 in 30min. I would set auto navigation between the Dominion 1 star port and angle back and forth to the Returners or Seekers port in the North East corner of the map.

I have always found ti annoying to farm, but with that Dominion port 1 star allowing profit sales, and the nearby 3 star Order port which carries the Queen, you should be good to go in a matter of hours.

You can farm XP points that way too. Always helps to build a seperate crew and upgrade to elite intermitently when you drop anchor at the Dominion Port.

Also... forgot... but set difficulty level to highest settings. It may take a bit longer to farm that way... but along the way the loot you pick up will include special artefacts and the like which you can use to improve your ship.

In this scenario your shipp will never be destroyed during auto battle, and you can put resources to beating off rest of game.

[Abelardo]

Wait what?, you'll always win even with the starter ship? O.O

[BrowncoatTrekky]

I have not tested it in the starter ship, however the game will not unevenly match you against ships stronger than yours in battles unless you are going through the campaigns. If all you have is the starter ship you have nothing to lose. But recommend you apply this theory in new map as I instructed as in any of the larger ships I tried never lost battle. You may have stop more often to repair your ship, but your ship will never get destroyed in auto battles and restart to last part. I also recommend you cash in on XP gained from bsattles to improve captain skills such as repairing your ship while navigating in map mode.

Farming for money is fastest in easy difficulty setting. You could auto battle there until you get 150,000. Then you can buy the Queen. You should have 70,000 left, and for that you will need to buy gear to sustain new ship. Then auto battle on a higher difficulty to gain special loot like stronger artefacts and sub circle bonuses. When you switch to the highest difficulty you will find you are spending more money on cannons, and healing your crew.

You never need more than the High Quality Cannon balls for auto battling. If you have other cannons in your hold, the auto battling will default to more expensive cannons and you will lose those.

Side note: If you are renegade or higher with protectorate, you can click on the letter and coin icon and the main cirlce in the new window will heal your entire crew so you do not need to waste money on Aid Kits.

** If you felt I sucked at explaining this and want to know more... friend me and we can IM to discuss in better detail.

[Abelardo]

Took around 1 hour to finish the 70k for the queen.... but that ship it's kinda frustrating to manouver and it's very slow... =P
I guess taking the "jump" from the starter one directly to practically a Man-o-war, wasn't such a good idea after all. =P

[BrowncoatTrekky]

Not necessarily... now you can switch to Higher Difficulty setting and auo battle for those sub artefacts which will improve speed and manouverability.

In the Sails section: Pillar of the Gods, Manilla Ropes, Tears of Mermaid, Merbau Red, Wings of Harpy are great for both speed and manouver.

For Cannons, the Witches Stand also adds speed

For the Hull.. I go with Unlarch Rosin, Cobratic Turtle Shells

** Merbau Red is purchaseable from one of the two north eastern ports on that large Order island in the new map.

** Pillar of the Gods is the best... and it can be farmed on highest difficulty setting in auto battles against the returners in the new map where I mentioned earlier.

I recommend farming for extra cash in auto battles, and use map navigation only to sail to ports to search for artefacts which will help improve speed. Spliiting your crew just between Sails and Cannons is the other option in actual battles assuming you do not wish to board or have no connecting campaign which forces you to do so.

Sorry for the extra troubles!

Too more obvious notes, is there are 3 versions purchaseable of Sails at ports, and 3 purchaseable versions of Hull. Fortified Wood is the best for purchase, but Ironwood is better and can be won in battles (even auto battling). However the stronger the hull, the slower the ship as noted in the stats for those items.

Good hunting, and again hope I did not add to your frustration.

[Calico-Jack]

It's only frustrating until you can learn how to use the starter ship - I never auto resolve batles because it's boring.

Don't be afraid to run - you will be able to outrun most ships in the game.

Step one:

• At this stage don't spend money on ammo you want to save your gold to buy upgrades - go to any pirate port to get 200 free cannon shot. In port. click on the quest tab then on the faction symbol (circular with 70% written under it) There is also a Doinion owned port that will give you 30 free heated shot. You can't sell free ammo and you will only get a top up if you haven't used up all of the ammo before requesting more.
  
  
• spread all your crew over the sails and guns - you don't have pistols for boarding so there's no need to keep crew on deck. This improves your sail handling and reduces things like arming and aim times- and as an indirect benefit your crew will take less damage during battles.
  
  
• click on the pirate flag on the bottom right - select the Trade Confederation one (looks like a laurel wreath) then sail south east to where the TC have a fort. Use your superior speed and handling in encounters to keep ships in the range of shore batteries and dodge enemy fire. Then sweep up the loot.
  
  
• Alternatively take any events where the TC is fighting another faction stay on the fringes of the fight using your allies a cover/extra guns. You can do this with any faction - so if you're worried about your faction rep you can balance things by swapping flags- most faction ports sell Letters of Marque for around 3k gold.

Sell any loot you have in the nearest town with a red % to maximise your gold

Step two:

Look for long guns to increase your engagement range.

• Steer your ship aiming for a point just ahead or behind the ship you want to target - whichever won't take you past the sides of the shp. On attack cut at a 45 degree angle towards the ship, wait until the aiming circle completes for maximum damage
  
  
• Watch which way your target starts to turn, furl your sails ( S+S ) to do a fast 180 in the opposite direction so you can get your second volley off and be positioned in such a way they can't get a broadside on you. Unfurl the sails ( W+W )as you pass the 1/2 way point of the 180.
  
  
• learn how to track your guns using Q & E so you don't reset the aim times when moving fast.
  
• most encounters will be with multiple ships - one of the smaller ships will have a mortar - take that down first or it will sit on the edge of the battle and wear your hull down until you die. If you don't have a spy glass listen for the Crack! of the mortar then look to see which ship has a smoke cloud rising from its deck

Once you get this all down you'll start taking out barks, sloops and Xybec in 2- 3 vollies.

Step 3 upgrade your hull - you can find better hulls on the Eastern Sea

Once you've got the hull you'll find it much easier to take down larger ships like frigates ad you'll have more time to look at things like how to board for profit and free ships.

[BrowncoatTrekky]

Highest Hull to be purchased is in the new map Ghostly seas, and not Eastern Waters.I believe that one is Fortified Wood and it is the most expensive wood/Hull to be purchased in the 3 star seekers port in that new map. The best Hull however is Ironwood and again, that can only be won so far in battles which can be done in auto battles as well. There is some merit to what the dude above is saying, but if you are looking for a quick method to gain resources, this dude's suggestions are defintely not one of them.

In each map find a central port which you have good relations and has a warehouse for holding goods. Anything you deem valuable which you are not prepared to sell should be held there, and that way when you sail, your ship will be faster as it is carrying less. I recommend if you are auto battling in the new map, that you hold spare items in the Dominion 1 star port as you can sell your items for profit there as well.

[Baby Schwarzenegger]

much thanks for the answer guys :D!
but i still have a suestion concerning the fact of having two sails, two hulls or two cannons:
if i have a short cannon and a long cannon what range will be used in battle?
if i have a good sail and a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ sail, which one will overtake the other?
same for the hull.

[Xas]

Combination and average of your equipments denotes the Strength of each category.
Mix and match to your playstyle,
having all the highest stats items doesnt imply the best, as some other stats will fall lacking.

[Baby Schwarzenegger]

it's not very clear XD do you have examples?

[Calico-Jack]

one example would be Wide sails vs the starter sails

if you have all wide sails your sail armour goes up but your ship speeed drops by 1 for each wide sail you have.

[Baby Schwarzenegger]

oook thank you :D. buta pparently starter sails drops your speed by 1 also XD

[BrowncoatTrekky]

The other dudes on here make great points. The item which you can place in the larger circle in the loadout screens have their own benefits and drawbacks as well as those which fit the smaller circles below. There is a great deal of mix and matching required. Looking at the value of the item listed will help but I have started to notice that some listed at 100 value are better than those listed at 300.

I recommend now that you have the Queen to auto battle the next little while on high difficulty and store items en mass in your warehouse of choice and compare for yourself which are better.

Below is my personal loadout, which does well for me on the high sees. You will notice the variety of combinations. I haven't tested many combos, but my ship moves fairly fast for the size and maneuvers quite well in battle using the Queen in battle with this loadout.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=716578728

For items which help with speed and maneuverability note the following:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=716581170
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=716580713
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=716580161
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=716580517
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=716579916
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=716579594
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=716579374

Pillar of the Gods, Wolf Tongs, and Hairy Mary can only be gained in battles. 90% of the rest are purchaseable from various ports across all three maps as I recall. You can auto battle the Returners where I mentioned on High Difficulty to gain those artefacts.

Good Hunting

[Abelardo]

Only the hairy mary I got. the rest no luck. (high difficulty, yes).
I'm like here now:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=716923697