Sid Meier's Pirates! is coming

[Zealot]

The New Sid Meier’s Pirates!

Now it’s time for Sid Meier and Firaxis Games to bring this exquisitely rich, action-adventure game into the 21st century. An entirely new game engine will deliver updated gameplay, stunning new features, spectacular 3D graphics and enhanced surround sound, so players can fully experience the intrigue, adventure and danger of life as a pirate on the Spanish Main.


In Pirates! you take the leading role of a Pirate Captain in the 17th century Caribbean amassing fortune and fame in an attempt to seize your rightful place as one of the most revered (and feared!) pirates in history. Test your skills as a sea captain exploring the high seas and exotic ports in a richly detailed 3D world. Overtake the enemy and seize valuable booty. Exchange plank-shattering broadsides in fierce naval battles, and engage in duels with worthy opposing captains.


As your reputation and skills grow, so will the size and quality of your crew, and your ability to take on larger enemy ships, raid and plunder heavily fortified ports, and locate ancient treasure. There’s a whole cast of interesting and dangerous characters to meet, mysteries to solve, exotic island destinations to discover, and powerful alliances to forge!


The new Pirates! carries on with the great gameplay and design simplicity tradition of the award-winning original while adding more challenging and exciting battle options, and deeper and more varied role-playing experience, including multiple paths to a wealthy, happy retirement. This and many other features and additions make this gaming classic one of the most highly anticipated releases of this century!

http://www.worthplaying.com/article....thread&order=0

Don't know if you heard about it already but I didn't find it anywhere else on 'poly.
If it has been noticed already, well, it'll be another year without any kudos to Zealot for giving a news tip!

[MattH]

Sorry...
http://www.apolyton.com/forums/showt...hlight=pirates
http://www.apolyton.com/forums/showt...hlight=pirates
http://www.apolyton.com/forums/showt...hlight=pirates

[MattH]

But yours it the most informative

[Zealot]

dp

[Zealot]

Ahhh
No kudos for me this year then.

[Jamski]

:yawn:

-Jam

[vmxa1]

Sure I will give you some, but I never played pirates before. Got to support Moo players.

[Apocalypse]

We've known Pirates was planned for how many months now? 17?

[The Emperor Fabulous]

I doubt my computer will be able to play it...

[Arrian]

Ack! I didn't think about the system requirements. I hope my computer can handle it.

Pirates! was a great game. Frankly, I'd be happy with Pirates 1.5.

-Arrian

[vovan]

I've been meaning to ask...

I never played Pirates! What's the game like? I'm not even sure about the genre.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Yeah, let me know too . I've heard it was a great blend of strategy and role playing, but not too much more.

I'll still get it though .

[gopher]

Screenshots yet?

[Case]

I never played Pirates because I condisdered it to be too old ten years ago! Is this the most belated sequel in the history of computer gaming?

[Stuie]

Add me to the never-played-Pirates list. It certainly has a reputation, though.

Which gets me thinking..... a lot fewer people were playing computer games back in the day, and even fewer were using any sort of internet-like service (BBS and such), so critical public discussion of a game like Pirates was unlikely to occur (unlike today, when immediate public critical comment - and trolling - is available from the instant a game is released). I wonder if the lack of such discussion actually makes us remember a game more fondly than it really deserves?

[Arrian]

Pirates! wasn't perfect, of course, but it was really fun (at least I thought so). Even with the bugs...

I still have the 1987 game on my computer (found it on an abandonware site years ago), because I didn't like the Pirates! Gold edition (early 90s). It's got problems, but I don't care.

The basics, for those who are curious:

You pick between several time periods:

1560
1600
1620
1640
1660
1680

Each has a different feel. 1560 was my favorite, because if you chose to be English, you started with a powerful force (fast galleon & ~150 men) and just about the entire map was available for plunder (all Spanish). By 1620, though, there are some decent colonies not owned by Spain (Barbados, for instance), and the Spanish possessions are poorer. The Dutch show up too, whereas early on they're just not a factor. Ships change a little bit too.

You pick nationality (English, French, Dutch, Spanish). Depending on the time period, this may result in very different starts. In the earlier periods, being Dutch means you start out as a trader (you can play the game peacefully, and if you really try hard you can actually do ok without any pirating at all) with an unwieldy merchant ship. Later on, though, you start out like the English in 1560 - with a Frigate & a bunch of men. Nationality also affects where on the map you start, too. Being French tends to start you near Tortuga. Being English... it varies. Dutchmen start around Curacao, or later on maybe St. Maarten, I forget. The Spaniards are usually "renegade" pirate types - they start with a tiny boat in hostile waters with very little crew. Except in the latest time period, where you are a pirate hunter.

You pick a skill:

Fencing
Gunnery
Navigation
Medicine
Wit & Charm

The first 3 should be obvious. Medicine means you stay healthy longer, which is key because the victory screen takes you health upon retirement into account. Wit and Charm is kinda silly - another thing the retirement screen measures is the quality of your bride (if any). Being witty & charming helps you get the high class ladies. But wealth and power do it better..

You pick difficulty:

Apprentice
Journeyman
Adventurer
Swashbuckler

The higher the difficulty, the bigger your share of the plunder is, but everything else is harder (navigation - storms are a real ***** on the upper two levels, battle, etc). I tended to like Journeyman. Each time you "divide the plunder" and set up a new expedition, you had the option of moving up in difficulty. So you could start out on a fairly easy level, build your rep as a badass captain (easy to recruit a new crew then) and get yourself a powerful flagship (when dividing plunder you can only keep 1 ship for the next round of rape & pillage), and THEN move up.

And you're off! Two basic combat types: sea and land. Land combat is pretty silly - it's REALLY easy to trick the "AI" and slaughter superior strength garrisons. Then again, I could care less because I never played Pirates! for challenge. Sea combat involves firing your cannons and then closing in to board the other ship (unless you really want to just sink it, and get nothing out of it).

You sail around, finding ships and maybe attacking them, visiting and/or plundering towns, etc. Depending on whom is at war with whom, you can get Letters of Marque and then be rewarded with lands and titles if you beat up on the enemy. The more lands and titles, the better. If you really rough up a town (I think it has to do with how many men you have vs. the total population of a town, actually), you can run out the local authorities and plant a new governer - nationality of your choice. That really makes your sponsoring gov't happy (titles, lands) and provides you with a safe port where you can fix your ships, recruit, and sell cargo (unless they get really rich, then they just see you as a pirate and shoot at you, even though you're "one their side." Bastards ) Trading with towns increases their economy (4 categories: struggling, surviving, prosperous, wealthy. It's the wealthy buggers who shoot at ya). So can random events (new gold mine discovered), but they are often bad (malaria, pirates plunder, captured by another nation, indian raid - though this last one just weakens the garrison and doesn't hurt the economy. It's a good thing to see on the "news" list if you're a pirate).

The Spanish have the Treasure Fleet and Silver Train roaming around each year, and if you track them and nail 'em in a town, you get more money (50K, IIRC).

The other (sorta silly) subplot is your "long lost" family. Scattered about the Carribean in bondage, you can rescue them by tracking down "evil spaniard" so-and-so (changes each time you nail one) who has a piece of map showing where your sister/mother/father/brother/etc is. I got to the point where one piece of the map (1/4 of it) was usually enough for me to know exactly where dear old dad was. The real benifit (though saving family again boosts your end score) was that each family member has a piece of map for the "Incan treasure" which is 100,000 gold pieces. Each time you find one, it resets, so if you're good with the map, you can get one per relative saved.

It's a very simple game, but I love it.

-Arrian

[Imran Siddiqui]

Sounds cool

I hope this new one captures the fun of the old and maybe adds some more subplots (just for fun story purposes) .

[Arrian]

Heh, you read that already? I went a little overboard.

I forgot to mention the 1-on-1 fencing you do when you board enemy ships or storm enemy forts. If you're really good at fencing, you can win a battle you would otherwise lose, just but cutting up the opposing commander. You get a rock-paper-scissors choice of weapons: rapier (long reach, weak hit), longsword (medium/medium), cutlass (short, powerful). Good fun.

I will admit I'm looking for a spiffed-up version of the old game. Fix various bugs, bring in new graphics (though honestly, I thought the '87 graphics were great for their time and even now they don't bother me at all), maybe add a few new features (buying/upgrading of ships, perhaps, more cargoes, stuff like that), and I'm a happy gamer.

-Arrian

[Imran Siddiqui]

Heh, you read that already?

I'm a fast reader .

I forgot to mention the 1-on-1 fencing you do when you board enemy ships or storm enemy forts.

I figured that was what 'fencing' was for.

I will admit I'm looking for a spiffed-up version of the old game. Fix various bugs, bring in new graphics (though honestly, I thought the '87 graphics were great for their time and even now they don't bother me at all), maybe add a few new features (buying/upgrading of ships, perhaps, more cargoes, stuff like that), and I'm a happy gamer.

Even though I've never played it, I wouldn't mind just an update of the game and not a total sequalization. It seems they are going the 'update' route since they didn't call it 'Pirates! 2'.

Overcomplexity ruins many simple, elegant games.