Sea Dogs games General Discussion, Playthroughs and Minimal/No Reload Thread

[Antimatter]

Yo Ho, Ho! (And a Bottle of Rum)

In 1724, an unknown British author released the book A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates.

It continues to be reprinted in many different editions, sometimes published under Charles Johnson's name and sometimes under Daniel Defoe's name, proving the topic will always be popular.

The pirates' theme has always been close to my heart. And after reading Piracy: The Complete History by Angus Konstam during this vacation, and watching Pirates of the Caribbean for the umpteen time, I couldn't resist the urge to come back to one of my most beloved game series, Sea Dogs. These games are old, quirky and probably dated, but they have that inexpressible tone of freedom, adventure, sea travel and sailboats.

After having installed a few mods on Sea Dogs - City of Abandoned Ships, I'm ready to set sail for the unknown as Bartolomeu Português.

If you know these games, played them, or if just the topic of the Age of Discovery, or travelling in a boat with sails excites you, please do share your own stories.

 

[Antimatter]

Meet young Bartolomeu "Bart" Português, watching over his small boat on the shore of Hispaniola (modern Haiti).

All the navies are hostile to him (French, English, Spanish, and Dutch), and Spain even announced a bounty of 24k pesos for his head. The ship is a tier 6 Sloop, it's 50% damaged, Bart has almost no money, no sailors, and the full world of the Caribbean in front of him.

Oh, he also has 9 slaves in his ship's hold. So he's setting up for the Bermuda archipelago, after getting a quest from the La Vega merchant to deliver some cargo there. Bermuda is the only place that can buy slaves (and maybe even grant them freedom).

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

This is such a nice thread, even if I don't know the game, just thinking about the topic my poor old Krogan hearts (yes, we have two) are going all nostalgic with childhood and youth dreams of exploration, discovery, salty water, wind and sails. I'll be reading with great interest.

 

[Cahir]

The best pirate themed game I have ever played was Sid Meier's: Pirates! (both old and newer versions). I spent god knows how many hours playing those games. The other game I liked was... Pillars of Eternity 2, which had a nice Caribbean pirates vibe.

 

[Antimatter]

On Bermuda, Bart finds a pirate who is young but well-respected by people on the island. Yoko Diaz, a female officer, seems to be far away from her motherland. Getting her trust is difficult, though: she says Bart's reputation is not good enough. Sounds like Bart needs to become "The Gentleman Pirate" in order to invite Yoko to his team.

To increase his reputation, Bart decides to spend the next few months shipping goods between 3 main pirate settlements in the Caribbean: La Vega, Bermuda, and the pirate hideout in Cuba. But being a pirate, it's not easy at all. Almost every corner of this world is full of corsairs and other pirates willing to feed Bart to sharks.

When arriving in Cuba, he is greeted by professional bounty hunters "serving the Spanish crown". The only option is to run as fast as possible. Do they look like Spaniards though? More like ruffians.

After getting the cargo to ship back to Bermuda, Bart is attacked by a French patrol ship - a Galleon.

It's tier 4 ship, while Bart's one is only tier 6. The crew size is probably 5 sizes bigger than the whole of Bart's team. Bart remembers one of the lessons he got when was younger: straight sails are carried on yards, slanting on the headquarters (staysail) and on the hafels (trisels). Look at the Galleon. Only straight sails. Bart's Sloop can be faster against the wind, especially if the enemy vessel is hit by chain shots.

It worked! Bart managed to start increasing the distance between his Sloop and the Galleon.

(The red bar is for the deck health, the blue bar is for the sails, the white bar is for the crew)

The best pirate themed game I have ever played was Sid Meier's: Pirates! (both old and newer versions). I spent god knows how many hours playing those games. The other game I liked was... Pillars of Eternity 2, which had a nice Caribbean pirates vibe.

Sid Meier's: Pirates were a big inspiration for the Sea Dogs games' developers. Sea Dogs is basically a bit of a 3D version of Sid Meier's Pirates, while also being a true inter-character dialogue-centred RPG.

 

[Xzarloxara]

I play this game every once in a while too, as you well know, since you recommended it to me. I use a different mod setup though, which can be found here. It is a really fun game, although incredibly difficult at times, and it can be a bit buggy too. Still a great game and I look forward to reading about your adventures here.

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

On Bermuda, Bart finds a pirate who is young but well-respected by people on the island. Yoko Diaz, a female officer, seems to be far away from her motherland. Getting her trust is difficult, though: she says Bart's reputation is not good enough. Sounds like Bart needs to become "The Gentleman Pirate" in order to invite Yoko to his team.

Yay for female pirates, especially when they don't need to wear silly restraining bodices!
Yoko seems like someone I'd like to go adventuring with, looking forward to Bart teaming up with her!

Is there a reason for her headband, does she belong to a group? It says "ika", which among other things can mean "squid" or similar creatures, so maybe that's her nickname or her gang?

 

[Antimatter]

Bart will try talking to her when he has a chance, to learn about her story more. But first, our first boarding! It is also a Sloop under the pirate flag.

The pics below illustrate how combat looks in the game: you encounter a ship on a global map, engage with the event, start closing in, trying to destroy the enemy's speed and manoeuvrability by targeting its sails, then reload cannons with buckshot, and after feeling confident you can win the boarding, BOARD!

The boarding is a fight, first against the crew, then against the captain. Your strength vs Enemy strength is determined by your character skills, your own player skills, and which crew is bigger, this is why using the buckshot is a must.

Back in Bermuda, Bart witnesses the swordsmanship lesson by Yoko (she successfully defeated 3 bounty hunters on her own in an open space).

Hopefully, Bart will be able to hire Yoko and test his crew vs bigger ships soon.

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

Interesting concept, the combat with various steps, also quite realistic to make you go for the sails to hamper them, and as you mentioned in a previous post, they're paying attention to the type of sails to determine speed and manoeuvrability too... that's nice.

So can you see their estimated crew size or do you have to estimate from the ship type? And the colored bars, what are they? Sails, ship integrity, crew health?

(and I was trying to steal a painting from the wall in one of your screenshots. Clearly been playing too much Divinity: Original Sin 2)

 

[Antimatter]

Bart started with a spyglass of bad quality. The better the spyglass is, the more information it reveals when you use it on an enemy ship. For now, it doesn't show much. But the player can also judge by the ship type about approximate numbers for its crew, ship integrity and sails. If it's a boat similar to a Sloup, even while it has fewer meters of sails than a Galleon, it's much harder to damage these sailes because a Galleon just has big straight sails above it which are easy to target and hit. Sometimes, certain quest ships will have completely different sizes of their crew etc which will make any estimation more difficult (to make it harder).

Red is life for characters and integrity for ships, Blue is energy for characters (they deplete it while attacking and then regenerate) and sails for ships, and White is crew health.

Bart got a Schooner - a tier 5 ship. He still is not ready to use it without penalties (the Navigation skill determines that; Bart has 20 Navigation, while tier 5 ships require 25; skills naturally improve in this game as you use them; Navigation improves just from sailing), but the ship is bigger and has better cannons.

After gaining control of the Schooner, Bart manages to flee from the second enemy ship because of the Schooner's higher speed against the wind (it was an enemy Pinnace, a tier 4 ship).

This battle should have taught Bart to be more cautious. He barely managed to break away in a fight vs 2 ships. He had penalties for using the Schooner, so probably should have just continued with less risky moves afterwards, until reaching Navigation 25 at least.

But oh well, the greed gets Bart. He engages in combat vs 3 enemy ships (tier 4 Barkentine, tier 4 Brigantine, tier 3 Heavy Galleon). All three have too much fire power, so even while Bart manages to damage Brigantine's sails enough, the Barkentine catches up on the Schooner, boards it, and Bart dies.

(I would have been surprised to succeed with the first attempt, it's a difficult game with lots of factors to minimize and control. But I would definitely use this experience for the next attempt. Lesson #1 - always estimate your chances vs enemy chances before engaging, sometimes it's better just not to risk).

Pirate ships usually carried far more crew than ordinary ships of a similar size. This meant they could easily outnumber their victims. Pirates altered their ships so that they could carry far more cannon than merchant ships of the same size. Stories about pirate brutality meant that many of the most famous pirates had a terrifying reputation, and they advertised this by flying various gruesome flags including the 'Jolly Roger' with its picture of skull and crossbones. All these things together meant that victims often surrendered very quickly. Sometimes there was no fighting at all. It's likely that most victims of pirates were just thrown overboard rather than being made to ‘walk the plank’.

 

[Cahir]

Why I clearly remembered from my time with Sid Meier's: Pirates! is that I was more comfortable to sail with smaller and faster ships, even knowing enemy has more men and firepower. Manuveurability was the key to succes. If the rules are similar here, I'd probably be more concerned fighting 2 smaller and faster ships, than let's say one galleon or frigate. But it's all about patience and focus. Losing focus for one bit was one bit to many.

 

[Antimatter]

Mary Read arrived! Born in England in 1685, she began dressing as a boy at a young age, at first at her mother's urging in order to receive inheritance money and then as a teenager in order to join the British military. She then married and upon her husband's death moved to the West Indies around 1715.

Here she is, on the shore of Martinique.

The island of Martinique has not only the pirate settlement Le Francois but also a French town, Saint-Pierre. Disguised as an English officer, Mary entered the town and tried to gain as much money as she could... by gambling in the inn. She quickly learned playing against drunken sailors and captains can give her some easy funds.

In just about 3 weeks, she gathered more than 10k peso and managed to buy one of the rarest items of the Caribbean sea - a Blue Skull, one of 3 infamous Aztec artefacts (gameplay-wise, these skulls only spawn at merchants while the character has rank 1, and cost about 13k gold). This Skull, combined with 2 others (if Mary manages to find them), will provide a very powerful combo artefact later. For now, the "Defense" attribute of her sea abilities is improved by 10 points.

One of the differences in my playthrough with Mary (in addition to starting out on a completely different island) is that I'll be more active in sea combat. Thus, Mary already has her first successful boarding of an enemy Sloop.

Due to the in-game restrictions, Mary will never be able to use a musket (the strongest & the rarest gun), but her speed in melee combat is nearly 2x if compared to any man.

 

[Xzarloxara]

Good luck with the girl character... I would never have the gumption to try playing a character that cannot use muskets... (all female characters cannot use muskets in this game, I believe due to a lack of art assets or something).

 

[Antimatter]

Mary saved enough money and raised her reputation, so finally, she invites Yoko to her team. Yoko is an officer, which means her skills add to those Mary has AND she can also navigate a captured ship. This is a huge difference, and a big step up in power. Now, when Mary's troops win their boarding, the ship can be added to the fleet and then sold at the docks of Bermuda. Yoko required 50k gold to hire her, and it took Mary 2 in-game months to gather that amount. But now 50k gold can be gained as quickly as 2 successful boardings.

Mary changed her Sloop for a Schooner, here are 2 ships under the pirate flag of Mary Read.

Mary's Navigation skill wasn't enough for managing a tier 5 ship (thus Mary had penalties to all her stats), so the next step was hiring more officers. Mary hired a Navigator, a Cannoneer, and a Paymaster who can also serve as a Сarpenter (it required a lot of time to find appropriate officers in pirate inns). Yoko can serve as a Doctor, Boatswain, Cannoneer, or Сarpenter. Of course, at first, officers can only take one position, but with more levels, they can multiclass. What's good, is that all of these officers are "Good" people, so when Mary's reputation increases, their loyalty increases as well.

Here are the naval stats of Mary (green numbers show officers' bonuses that add to Mary's own stats). The first skill in the column is Navigation, it's especially important: you need 25 to manage a tier 5 ship, 40 to manage a tier 4 ship, and 60 to manage a tier 3 ship. As you can see, thanks to the officer, Mary made a huge jump from a Sloop (below 25) to potentially any tier 4 ship (43). Officers require big payments every month, but now money is not a problem for Mary. Btw, the biggest increase (+57) is due to Yoko and that number is the ship's Defense. The Blue Skull was given to Yoko to increase that stat (everything stacks).

Mary also paid (a lot of) money to a diplomat, and now both Spain and France treat Mary neutrally, which should decrease risks while sailing around.

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

Congrats to Mary on her progress!

The portraits are cool. Also, thanks for explaining how the stats work. The concept of officers adding to Mary's stats sounds reasonable.

So what is the advantage of Yoko navigating a captured ship? Can you only take it to Bermuda to be sold, or does adding it to your fleet mean you can man it with a second crew (or have to split yours) and use both ships? (Of course I know one person without a crew can't sail a ship, my question is how the game handles it) If it's only to take and sell it, what happens if you're attacked while you're on your way with the second ship in tow?

 

[Antimatter]

Yes, you can use 2, 3 or even more ships! But of course, it's limited by the AI that controls your other ships. You can issue commands, such as: Attack X ship, Defend X ship, Flee, and control the type of cannons they use. But it's unreliable if the battle goes south (for example, your ally might pick the wrong route to leave combat and get themselves destroyed easily). To leave the sea combat (and enter the world map), you need to have a minimum crew on all the ships you control. This makes crew numbers very important. In combat, you can switch ships (or trade items/pass crew members between them) if you stay close to each other. You can also increase the distance between your ship and the enemy ship by 1000 miles, and then the world map will be available for you, but your ally also has to stay at least 1000 miles from the enemy.

Also, being a pirate, Mary can only sell ships on one island (she'll have to use sneak to enter any other town, and for that, her sneak skill has to be high). So there are risks involved to get back to the docks (so that Mary is not attacked by anything else if she's just trying to return with 2+ ships depleted of their crew due to combat results).

Due to the sneak factor, Mary might never actually travel with allies (as they decrease the chances of successful sneaking by a lot) or use anything higher than tier 3 ships. To sneak, Mary can change the flag above her ship to the nation of her choice (after picking a perk allowing her to do that), and the ships/towns she encounters will roll their perception checks. The higher the sneak skill is, the better the chances for Mary are. Additional factors influence the result substantially (the size of the ship, whether it's a day or night, whether there are any allies in the fleet).

 

[Antimatter]

Look at this beauty Mary encounters. A light and fast Brigantine, my absolutely top favourite ship of Tier 4. It's very, very quick and manoeuvrable, it carries more troops than any Schooner can. Btw, ships of the same type can still differ a bit in this game in a few details visually - that is defined by which country manufactured this or that ship. Here is the Holland version:

Only one task is left to do: win this fight & flee from another ship closing in (but with a Brigantine, it shouldn't be hard to flee). It quickly turned out that all sailors died, so Mary had to win alone. Turns out, one person without a crew can sail a ship in this game (but reloading guns will take forever; just fleeing, though, is possible).

Usually, if your soldiers die quickly, you won't be able to use this little spot (where enemies have to go one by one) to your advantage and risk getting surrounded. But in this case, the troops fought long enough so that Mary could claim the central spot.

And look at this nice reward (Mary swapped the material of the sails for a more beautiful option):

Now, with sufficient skills, officers, and a good ship, can Mary handle this small pirate fleet of 5 ships? The reason Mary engages them (she noticed them from afar - you can see the marker in the top right corner allowing to leave the combat screen) was ship #2 in the list on top, it's a tier 3 ship, a Corvette. It so turned out that Mary got extremely lucky during her travels and found an Aztec idol giving +20 to Navigation. This allows her Navigator to use tier 3 ships now.

At the character creation, I put 7 to Luck (from possible 10), this allows Mary sometimes to find better loot (the loot in this game is mostly randomized). Finding that idol was extremely lucky.

 

[Antimatter]

Mary succeeded! Not only the Corvette is captured, it turns out to have very decent stats (ships' stats are randomized a bit, so the gameplay core is trying to find a ship of the type you want with really good stats for its type). It's even faster than the Brigantine.

As always, a shot of this beauty in peaceful waters of Bermuda:

With the Corvette, so many activities are now possible for Mary. Rather huge firepower allows it to sink tier 2 ships without any boarding (sinking a ship with cannons provides more seafarer experience for the pirate and her officers).

Or she can completely destroy a foremast and the main mast of tier 2 (and even 1 actually) ships for this hilarious look:

Or she can engage in big battles between different navies to get her own fortune.

Mary has been looking for bigger cannons she can install on her ship, for this she needed to find an enemy ship somewhere with those cannons. It has turned out to be a long task (no luck so far), but Mary is not in a hurry: the more combat she has, both naval and fencing, the stronger she becomes, and the more items she potentially finds.

Here is how the usual booty looks after yet another sea voyage:

In order to start some real quests, I feel Mary needs a few more levels, better sneak skill, possibly better gear, and maybe she'll find the cannons she's looking for, or even a Corvette with better stats. She's also checking if there are better officers available whenever she visits a tavern. This is a fun period in the game where I as the player define the risks I take and the possible rewards I want to gain. Basically, the gameplay loop of this game is unprecedented and unmatched. Naval combat with RPG progression and loot. Sounds like fun? It definitely is addicting! Thanks to finding a good Navigator and then a Navigation idol, Mary apparently reached this stage much earlier than it usually happens, which makes it even more fun.

 

[Xzarloxara]

I must admit, you are making me want to play this game again...

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

I must admit, you are making me want to play this game again...

Don't drop Mass Effect Legendary though, that would be a shame, even if it's to become a pirate instead.