Port Royale

[thealmighty]

Anyone heard anything about this PIRATES! like game?

[Anrhydeddu]

Just a little from my fellow pirate gamers. It seems to be an AoE game with pirate skins. I would like to see someone review it here.

[andy m]

there is some discussion of the game here:

http://www.gonegold.com/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=012673

[Anrhydeddu]

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/portroyale/review.html

[thealmighty]

thanks for the links. :)

[Anrhydeddu]

After reading more reviews, I think this is the game for me. I'll be buying this tonight.

[Havok]

let us know how you like it Anrhy

[thealmighty]

Well, what's the word, Anrhy??

[Anrhydeddu]

It took me a while to find a store that had it.

I read through part of the manual (it is quite in depth for manuals these days) and got into the tutorial. After playing probably a little more than half of the tutorial, it really is a direct descendant of Pirates!Gold. In other words, you play very similarly as you would the Sid Meier's classic, including a historically accurate map and towns. However, because of whatever reasons (mainly because you can), you can now do and have control over many more things. Instead of three commodities, you can buy/sell up to 27. I haven't gotten into any combat yet but as you expect, it is more robust without being a tactical simulator.

The biggest difference so far is what you can do in town. All the usual buildings are there (depending on town size): governor, inn/tavern (where you can gamble in a simple 5-dice yahtzee-type game), dock/merchant and shipwright. But now there are many other buildings that directly ties to the economic system - and you have some control over them. The pricing model (trading is perhaps the core of this game, as oppose to roleplaying) is quite clever in that it directly comes from supply and demand, some of which is not effected by you. A red flag did go up in that we can develop buildings in towns that effects supplies (and thus, prices). In other words, not only can we establish a storehouse for our own excess goods, but the building materials can be used to build cocoa plantation (or one of many commodity-producing industries) as well as houses for new workers/settlers and other places of businesses/residences that you can get income from. I guess I will have to find their forum to see how much attention we should pay to effecting town economics. I really don't want to bother with that part but instead, have the towns develop (or undevelop) on their own. I want to keep busy trading my own goods that I can get and to work on upgrading my convoy and ships for battle.

As soon as I get through the tutorial, I will start in on a career, probably choosing one of the later start dates. In the early periods, the Spanish Dons are everywhere and I really don't like them, except when their treasure fleets happen to cross my path.

Just a word of warning though, Buccaneer will be coming out of retirement for this dynasty. :)

[thealmighty]

Anrhy, should I get it?

[Anrhydeddu]

I spent some quality time with Port Royale this weekend and have these comments.

The game was developed by Ascaron, the same folks who developed Patrician I and II (and coming out with III this month). I have not played Patrician II but is a real-time trading simulation featuring elements of construction and the historical background of maritime trade in the North European area between London and Novgorod at the time of the Hanseatic League. This is important because Port Royale is a Caribbean/Spanish Main version of Patrician, using the same game engine. What this means is that the emphasis on obtaining wealth in Port Royale is on trading, not necessarily what you would expect for an Age of Piracy game.

This does not mean that trading is all there is in the game. It does have nearly all of the elements you would expect playing a game of this era, duplicating many of the features you and I loved about Pirates!/P!G. All of the reviews talked about a steep learning curve. I disagree with that term because the learning curve is not that hard. What is hard (and perhaps implied by ‘steep learning curve’) is that you must work hard at establishing an automatic trade route at the beginning of the game (and keep your trading towns prosperous) or else you might as well not play the game. Here’s why (from a post in the forum). “It costs a lot of money to be a pirate. Captured ships sell for ridiculously low prices, and loot is not plentiful enough to survive on. It also takes a lot of sailors to run a pirate fleet. And you get your sailors from "legitimate" towns. If these towns don't prosper, you won't be able to find enough sailors. And, in order for the towns to prosper, you have to take a hand in their development. You might not have to build a trading station, but you will have to supply them with the goods they need to prosper. So, in order to survive in the game, you are going to have to set up as a trader to some extent. And the only way to succeed in that is to micromanage. Soon, you will find yourself much more concerned with where you get bricks than where you get cannons.”

In my game, I started out as the English in a later year (1630). By that time, there are the three English islands of St. Kitts, St. Martin and St. Thome that are very close to each other and thus with a base in St. Kitts, they make a logical trade route. I am not kidding when I say this but it took over 2 hours to set up that first trade route and get it working properly. The best way to do it is buy and sell many goods (to keep supply and demand at a reasonable level). In each of the towns on the route, you have to specify exactly what you are buying at what maximum price or selling at what minimum price. There is enough help from the forum to plug in the “magic” buy/sell price for each commodity but they are time and region dependant. In fact, I had to fast forward a couple of months a few times just to see if these commodities and prices would constantly bring in increasing revenues. That is why it took so long, and I had not even bothered with doing anything in the towns to help that along (too much micromanagement, imo).

However, once I had the steady stream of income, I could then concentrate on playing a pirate game. What this mean is that I could then buy a bigger ship like a Brig (I had a couple Pinnaces doing the trading), load it up with sailors, cannons and cutlasses and do several things. The simplest thing would be to hunt pirate ships that could threaten the trade route and as long as I don’t bite off more than I can chew, they provide some rewards (at least it’s fun to semi-watch the sea battles). I could ask the Governor for a Letter of Marque to go after the bigger ships of the Spanish Dons or the French, but that would be much tougher with a single Brig. But as implied in the quote above, captured ships and loot just don’t bring in enough to live on (which is so unlike Pirates!/P!G). The Governor, as well as other townfolks, do have missions that you can accomplish and they range in wide variety from delivery specific commodities by a certain date, capturing a known pirate, attacking an enemy town and leading a convoy to safety – all with a nice reward from the governor upon completion. All of this leads to increasing experience which gives you promotions which then allows you to buy bigger ships and take on more challenging missions (and making the game harder). These are all fun to do – as long as you have a steady stream of income coming in.

Finally, what can be done differently to have had made Port Royale more popular? Simply put, it is not a "dumber" trading system....but a much more robust Pirate system. In other words, have the option to live my entire life as a pirate or privateer, without dealing with trading. That way, the game can be played both ways. Each would be a challenge, and each very enjoyable (to paraphrase the rest of the post from above).

[tucker342]

thanks for the review... it sounds like a very interesting game.

[Bee]

There's a demo for the game if anyone is interested. I downloaded it from gamershell, but haven't had a chance to play it yet. I loved Pirates! so I'm curious to see how this plays. Might be a little too much trading and not enough pirating for my tastes though.

[andy m]

i played the demo for about 20 minutes, and it didn't quite do it for me. to fiddly and it didn't draw me in.

[Anrhydeddu]

I continued the game I started before my latest trip and probably will not stay with it. It is a good game, very much like Pirates!Gold but a little bit more robust. After advancing to the next rank (solely from sitting back and watching the trade route), I bought a Brig and loaded it up. With that, I captured a Pirate Brig and then a Pirate Sloop on the way to Port Royale. I kept the second Brig, sold the Sloop and then bought a Letter of Marque from the Port Royale Governor to go after Holland's ships. I basically hung outside of the town of Tortuga (a Holland town) and looted a couple of Sloops and then captured a Barque. Went back to Port Royale, sold the looted goods. This got me to the next rank (which I can finally buy a Sloop and another Captain to scout ahead). I also got a couple of missions, one from the St Kitts Gov. to find three new French cities (which would require going all the way to the Florida area) and someone from the Inn in Port Royale who wanted me to go to Vera Cruz to hunt down a Pirate, but only after I advanced another rank. I didn't pay much attention to buying and selling but it's really hard if you don't have an idea of what goods can be sold where. At this early stage, there is some value going after Holland and Pirate ships (esp. capturing more Brigs and Barques so I can go after the large Holland convoys). The game is very engaging if you put forth the effort because there is a lot going on and a lot you have to pay attention to. I am glad I bought it and will play more sometime in the future.

[WSUCougar]

I just wanted to add my favorable (if late) review of this game. It had sat unopened on my game shelf for many moons, because frankly I was skeptical. However, after some initial dabblings and finally a full-fledged dive into a career, I am really enjoying it. I like the fact that it is quite challenging in many respects. As an example, the pirates swarming the Caribbean are a legitimate pain in the ass to your weakly-armed trade ships. I've been chased back into port many a-time, or been forced to use one of my stronger vessels to escort my heavily-laden merchantmen. Making a dash through unfriendly waters was intense!

The game has some quirks, but overall I highly recommend it.

[hukarez]

Got this game awhile ago; played it for a bit...then put it on the shelf. I'm pretty fickle with games - I'll enjoy most of them, and would probably end up playing them more...but I get inundated with other games, and sometimes never get around to booting up the ol' powerhouse to play them.

1503, Port Royale...both games I'd probably get around to playing more if I had more time. Same with Cossacks!

[WSUCougar]

This game deserves serious consideration as The Most Addictive Computer Game Ever. Once I established myself with a presence in two towns, and got some serious ships to run with (barques, frigates, caravels, and even a military frigate as a gift from the governor), I had an absolute blast. It's the gaming equivalent of a book I could not put down. The trade routes, ships of four nations moving around the islands, pirates to avoid (or hunt down), missions to pursue, battles to fight. Damn, what a fun game!

[Calis]

Ughh, damn this game! I decided to fire it up again after reading your post, and decided I'd focus a little more on pirate hunting and such, but every time I go into a ship battle I get a null container error and it crashes. Quite frustrating. I have the patch installed, going to have to do some searching and see if there's a workaround.

[Pumpy Tudors]

I bought this game months ago and never even installed it. I should.

[Calis]

I've changed my mind. This game sucks.

Now it won't even start..get the intro and then it hangs. Damn it.

Not sure what's up, I've reinstalled, reinstalled drivers..no difference.

Sucks also, because I want to play it. I'm starting to wonder about Ascaron, I own Port Royale and Sacred which they made and both are great games that appear to have some major issues. Wish they could iron out the bugs a bit better though.

[WSUCougar]

Sorry to hear it, Calis. I didn't have any problems. :(

[Calis]

Good news...I think.

I went ahead and reformatted last night, needed to anyway, and seeing as how I had an awards banquet to be at all night, it seemed like a good time to take care of it.

I only got a chance to install it and run it for a few minutes, but the game is up and running now, and I could even go into a ship battle without it crashing. I hope it keeps up! This weekend I'll be diving into more deeply. That's if I don't end up reading The Mauritius Command all weekend. ;)

[WSUCougar]

Sweet!

Now here's something to motivate you: last night, I was promoted to "Ruler of the Seas." That's above admiral, if you're scoring at home. Still haven't been offered a governorship, however, and I'm wondering if I used the wrong setting at the beginning since the experience bar looks maxed out now.

[Calis]

Rulers of the Seas..has quite a ring to it. Congrats!

One thing I meant to ask, when you see the sunken pirate ships with the guy floating on the plank, can you actually do anything with that? I must've sailed over the guy half a dozen times figuring I could pick 'em up or something, or is it just there to show that a pirate just got waylaid on?

You ever played Ascaron's Patrician games? I'm thinking about picking up Patrician 3 if I can find it cheap, sounds interesting as well. I'm beginning to like these guys.

I've really got to work on figuring out how to make businesses succesfull on this game. I usually end up killing my trade route profit by losing so much on businesses.

[WSUCougar]

One thing I meant to ask, when you see the sunken pirate ships with the guy floating on the plank, can you actually do anything with that? I must've sailed over the guy half a dozen times figuring I could pick 'em up or something, or is it just there to show that a pirate just got waylaid on?

You ever played Ascaron's Patrician games? I'm thinking about picking up Patrician 3 if I can find it cheap, sounds interesting as well. I'm beginning to like these guys.Good, I don't feel so stupid now. I did the same thing with the guys in the water, and even got more intrigued when one of the missions was to locate a sunken ship off the coast somewhere. No dice. Near as I can tell, they are just eye candy (like the whales).

I tried Patrician II and eventually gave up on it. I can see the ancestry, but it has been perfected in Port Royale.

A couple tips, if you don't know these already:

> Sinking a "notorious" pirate gets you a reward from the nation listed in the news section. You need to visit a town of that nation with a governor to claim the reward.

> Similarly - and this was a game-breaker for me - if you capture a privateer (a pirate convoy with a national flag next to their name), that nation's governor pays beaucoup bucks ransom. I mean lots o' gold. Just don't sink all the privateer's ships (board them).

> Avoid military convoys like the plague. They are absolutely brutal. Faster, with massive crews, more guns. No win scenario.

> Attacking an enemy town is pretty cool, but watch out attacking by sea. Enemy cannons will perforate your ships and sink them quickly. Attacking by land is better but go in with a huge, high morale crew. Lots of loot to grab.

> Buy all types of ammo frequently. And always, ALWAYS grab crew whenever possible.

> Sometimes a big pirate fleet can be quickly whittled down if they have small crews aboard. As long as you have big crews, charge right into them and start boarding. It is automatic and fast if they have minimal crews.

[Calis]

So I played a little bit this morning as I didn't have to head into work until late, and after I got two good auto trade routes up and running, I started a Pirate Hunter convoy.

So far the Hunter convoy is costing me a lot more to maintain than it's earning me. Do you usually capture the ships or loot them? I assumed capturing was better for profit, so I was doing that. Also wonder if I'd been better off fully repairing them before selling them back. Doesn't seem like it's much of a money maker though, I guess I'll have to focus more on the notorious pirates to make any cash out of that.

The battles annoy me only slightly. I have a problem with minimal crew for a ship firing a full broadside at apparently the same time it takes a full crew. Looks like there is no penalties for having a small crew? Except for the boarding obviously. Seems like the AI gets a boost with speed and turning as well, as I can never figure out why it's always 1-2 knots faster than my ship that's in better shape.

Still, not to knock it..great game, and I love the trading aspect. The day can't end fast enough to get back to it!

I thought Patrician actually had a much different focus than Port Royale, maybe I was misreading. Maybe I'll stay away from 'em then if PR is actually more or less the evolution of it.

Thanks for the tips!

[WSUCougar]

So far the Hunter convoy is costing me a lot more to maintain than it's earning me. Do you usually capture the ships or loot them? I assumed capturing was better for profit, so I was doing that. Also wonder if I'd been better off fully repairing them before selling them back. Doesn't seem like it's much of a money maker though, I guess I'll have to focus more on the notorious pirates to make any cash out of that.Yeah, I eventually stopped hunting the non-notorious ones for those reasons. If I see one with poor ship quality or small crews, I'll go in and sink 'em just to clear the waters a little. Otherwise I'll just sell the crappy ships off for whatever I can get. Another suggestion would be to just stash the low quality ships you don't want in a port that you frequent, and then check the inn every time you return. Sometimes you can sign on a pirate who'll give you kick-backs (25-50% booty), and they'll take any ship you give them. Eventually you'll get a hideout port of your own, with the HUGE bonus of free repairs - then it's worthwhile to grab all the ships you can.

The battles annoy me only slightly. I have a problem with minimal crew for a ship firing a full broadside at apparently the same time it takes a full crew. Looks like there is no penalties for having a small crew? Except for the boarding obviously. Seems like the AI gets a boost with speed and turning as well, as I can never figure out why it's always 1-2 knots faster than my ship that's in better shape. Hmmm, I think the minimal crews take significantly longer to load; this function is enhanced by the captain's skill rating in that area, though. And yeah, the AI ships are like radar-locked, which can be bothersome. I like to use the trick of picking the enemy's weakest ship and then using it for a blocker or obstacle while I maneuver and fire on the tougher ships.

I thought Patrician actually had a much different focus than Port Royale, maybe I was misreading. Maybe I'll stay away from 'em then if PR is actually more or less the evolution of it. Patrician II was set in the Baltic Sea, but the general idea was quite similar. Trade items, ports with varying prices, buildings to buy, pirates to fight. I just couldn't get into it like I really did with Port Royale.

Keep up the reports, and good luck!

[Calis]

You might be right on the crew's afterall. I just thought it seemed like they were loading a lot of cannons awfully fast for 8 guys. Especially when they were in the middle of some fancy maneuvering as well. Not a big deal though, just have to consider it "abstracted". ;)

I think I can officially say this game rocks now. First go round I was only trading, and 99% of it setting up auto trade routes which was a bit of a hassle, and then I'd just sit and watch. Now with mixing in the Pirate hunting I'm having a blast.

I'm been making TONS of cash capturing Privateer's and selling them back to their governor's now. I can net anywhere from 40-120k per capture. You can then buy yourself back to neutral with the country for a small sum compared to the money you make doing it.

Bartolomew(s?) and I have been having quite a little rivalry building up as well. He'll start attacking my trade convoy down by Gibraltar, so I'll send my hunters down, and scrounge around for him for a while, having no luck. Of course the minute I leave he's back and at it again. He's not doing any real damage to my convoy, but it's a matter of pride! I must catch him!

I'm trying to keep crews as full as they can, and right now I think I have 5 ships in my Hunter convoy. 2 Brigs, 2 Barques, and a Sloop. I usually start out the fights putting everything but one Barque on auto-attack and to use grape shot. I'll take over the other Barque and start peppering ships with chain to slow 'em up. I'll put the 2 brigs to boarding as soon as I can, and then switch to grape to weaken the other ship up while boarding. It seems to work sorta well for me, but I'm getting hammered if I'm outmanned at all. I'm wondering if less is better for this.

Question, might be pretty dumb, but I never realized this. Will your convoys fly the flag of the country who owned the port they were created in? I guess I just assumed that every convoy you had would fly your nationality. I picked England, but I noticed my Hunter convoy is Dutch..guess I just didn't realize you could have convoys for multiple nations. That opens up some new options.

I'm going easy on the businesses so far, by easy I mean making none. I am however building housing on my homebase of St. Kitts and that is doing great so far, and upgrading very quickly. I might look into doing this on more islands soon.

I haven't bought any LoM yet or attacked any National ships, but Spain is beginning to annoy me, so they might be in trouble very soon. I don't want to lose access to the Spanish ports though, as it would kill my trade income. We'll see what happens.

Stuck back at work now for a few hours, this is an outstanding game though. Man I hope it doesn't start crashing on me again!

[WSUCougar]

You know I'm not sure about flying multiple flags on convoys. I never noticed that, but I usually stuck to hiring English captains (or hiring foreigners into existing convoys). That'd be kind of cool if it worked that way.

Your chain/grape tactics are exactly what I try to do. One of my variances from that is if there are multiple pirate ships engaged, and one is already burning (weak), I'll go for a quick kill on them with round shot. But the chain is great since it whittles down the enemy crew as well. Plus there's nothing quite as cool as seeing some bad-ass pirate ship with its mast going down. Who hoo!

The Spanish can be tricky enemies, since there are so damn many ports and possible military convoys lurking. If you're based out of St. Kitts, you might try beating up on the Dutch consistently out west, since they are far enough away not to bother your trade ventures.

Complete any cool missions yet?

[Calis]

Hmm, I think I might've lied about the multiple flags, as it appears I might just be Dutch..swear I picked English though, and my homebase was in St. Kitts...who knows.

I just got my hideout! Very cool, and quickly answered my question on what am I to do with all this money rolling in. I've spent a little over a million bringing in supplies to get it up and running. Do people ever come in to trade? I can't tell if it's only for me or if other merchants will come in. I'm assuming(hoping) that they will eventually. Thing has put a serious dent into my cash reserve though, so I hope it pays off. Anyway, it's definitely changed the focus of the game for me, the pirate hunting is taking a break, and my hunter convoy has been put on gathering duty. Bringing in Settlers and whatever goods I need to build. It's not a transport convoy I'd want to mess with though. ;) I've bought 3 Carracks as my main killers now, and those things rock. Very nice ships, and doing some major damage. I kept around 4 Frigates also to round things out. These guys are going through chain shot like candy though, it seems when the computer is set to attack they go haywire with the chain, as I'm running through tons and tons of it. Basically having to buy as much as I can at every port I go to.

Still haven't started attacking any Nation yet as I have good auto trade routes with all of them. I don't want to mess up any of them.

Not much on cool missions yet. I don't do many at all actually, but occasionally I get one that pops up to clear a route of pirates, and offers about 120k, so those are pretty hard to pass up. Once I get my hideout set up how I want it I'll probably focus on doing more of those. I have however been doing the main story quests whenever I can, and since I just made Captain that reminds me that I have another one to go do.

Outstanding game though, and it looks like the sequel is already out in Germany. So maybe it'll hit stateside about the time I'm bored of this one, which I think is going to take a while.

[Pumpy Tudors]

Hmm. Okay, I really need to install and play this game, evidently.

[WSUCougar]

Any update, Calis? Pumpy, you dive in yet?

I finally retired from my illustrious post as Ruler of the Seas. Simply an outstanding game, and some of the best, most addictive gameplay I can recall.

[Pumpy Tudors]

Nope, still haven't tried it yet.

[Calis]

No updates as of yet. I don't do much gaming during the week usually, as I have all I can handle of computers during the day.

Expect it'll get some play time this weekend.

[Raven Hawk]

I found this game at Amazon for $17. It sounds like a good buy. :) Just ordered it. Soon both my fiancee and I should be straight addicted to it.

[Godzilla Blitz]

I just did the first half of the tutorial tonight.

Fun. Dangerously so.

[WSUCougar]

Two more get caught in the whirlpool. :D

[Godzilla Blitz]

Played a bit this weekend. Fun, and becoming more so. Within the first few minutes, I started writing down prices, etc., to figure out possible trading routes, etc., then realized that I would be micromanaging myself to death. I promised myself I would play the game without pen and paper, at least for this aspect of the game. Now I realize that prices are in so much flux that it's better to just aim to buy goods in places that have production efficiences in them and sell in places where the good can't be efficiently produced.

Started hunting pirates a bit back, and have quickly built up a couple of relatively powerful trading/hunting convoys. It's easy to amass a large fleet in the game. However, I'm going through lots of cash keeping these convoys afloat and really aren't making much money yet. My basic strategy has been to keep one or two big ships in each convoy manned to the hilt, and have only minimal crews on the others. Everyone fires grapeshot and my two fully manned ships board as soon as they gain a reasonable manpower edge. So far I've only been picking off pirates that are weaker than me. Haven't tried out getting a Letter or Marque and attacking other countries yet. By the way, I'm pretty sure less crew makes for slower reloading. There is a dull red bar that comes up under your ship in combat, and I think that is the reloading bar. It's much longer on ships with minimal crew.

I'm doing poorly with the missions. I tried to play the game without looking at the paper map that comes with it, and messed up a handful of "find-something" missions because of it. Now that I gave up that silly strategy I'm doing a bit better, but the goals for some of the missions seem unclear, so I've messed up a few more because of that as well. I think I'm up to sailor rank now. The game got more fun when I stopped trying to race through it. I'm taking my time now and enjoying things more because of it.

Confused about some things that the manual doesn't seem to address. Wondering if anyone knows the answers to some of these...

From some of the informational screens, it seems that one of the goals of the game is to increase your nation's prestige, but my game has been on a much smaller scale so far. Does the later game evolve into more of a wargame? Do your towns get attacked and taken over? Is it possible to run an enemy town into the ground by buying all the foodstuffs and starving them out of existence? Can a country's influence in the Caribbean get eliminated?

Some of the goals for some of the missions seem unclear. For example, I'm now engaged to the governor's daughter, and need to supply the town with goods for a wedding feast. I can't seem to find out how much meat, fish, potatoes, and rum I need. Is it endless? My mission log doesn't provide details. I've been stocking the town square with piles of foodstuffs for the past two weeks, probably dumped $100,000 on the stuff, and yet I'm not sure if this is enough. Am I missing something here that clues me in to how much I need to succeed? There have been a couple of other missions like this too. I was supposed to lure settlers away from an island by giving some guy cash there. I gave him $40,000 cash, but then failed the mission, I assume because I didn't give him enough. But no where did it tell me how much was enough. On a couple of missions, as soon as I reached the "victory" conditions, the game told me I had accomplished the mission, even though the completion date was still a ways off. Are all the missions like this, meaning that once I supply enough stuff for the wedding I'll get a message telling me so, even though the wedding is still two weeks away?

[WSUCougar]

Now I realize that prices are in so much flux that it's better to just aim to buy goods in places that have production efficiences in them and sell in places where the good can't be efficiently produced.Early on it's like that, but after awhile you will build up an awareness of a good price on everything.

By the way, I'm pretty sure less crew makes for slower reloading. There is a dull red bar that comes up under your ship in combat, and I think that is the reloading bar. It's much longer on ships with minimal crew.Aye!

From some of the informational screens, it seems that one of the goals of the game is to increase your nation's prestige, but my game has been on a much smaller scale so far. Does the later game evolve into more of a wargame? Do your towns get attacked and taken over? Is it possible to run an enemy town into the ground by buying all the foodstuffs and starving them out of existence? Can a country's influence in the Caribbean get eliminated?Yes! Yes! Yes! Hypothetically!
The missions get much more hostile as you build up your personal prestige and power.

For example, I'm now engaged to the governor's daughter, and need to supply the town with goods for a wedding feast. I can't seem to find out how much meat, fish, potatoes, and rum I need. Is it endless?It's undefined, and I got stung on this mission. I seem to recall putting up around 50 or less of each, and getting a message to the effect that my wedding was a pathetic disaster.

I was supposed to lure settlers away from an island by giving some guy cash there. I gave him $40,000 cash, but then failed the mission, I assume because I didn't give him enough.Heh. I remember that one, too. You needed to go and snag the passengers (I think there was a little message for that).

Are all the missions like this, meaning that once I supply enough stuff for the wedding I'll get a message telling me so, even though the wedding is still two weeks away?Unfortunately not. Some are just vague. One I never figured out was when a guy asked me to find the wreckage of his ship "within a day's sail" of a port. I scoured the whole area but didn't know what I was looking for, and never found it. Ah well.

[Calis]

I did about a 100 of each I believe for the wedding, which was easy for me at the time because I had fish and potatoes being produced in the town it was taking place in. So I just had to shop around for the rest. That got me something along the lines of a fantastic party. It wasn't cheap though, and I'm not sure what effect it really had. Maybe just raised my status in the town?

[Raven Hawk]

Okay, I finally pulled this out of the box and I'm getting frustarted because I can't figure out how to setup auto trade routes nor can I figure out how get the idiot shopkeeper to sell and buy goods how he is supposed to. Any help? Mine didn't seem to come with the needed manual.

[Godzilla Blitz]

Okay, I finally pulled this out of the box and I'm getting frustarted because I can't figure out how to setup auto trade routes nor can I figure out how get the idiot shopkeeper to sell and buy goods how he is supposed to. Any help? Mine didn't seem to come with the needed manual.

I found this board extremely helpful. There're a few posts that are like tutorials on how to set up trade routes:

Port Royale Board (http://www.ascaron-forum.com//postlist.php?Cat=&Board=FAQPortRoyale)

Good luck!

I know a lot of people here really liked the game, and I did too--for a while. I played the game for about ten hours, really enjoying it, then got hit with boredom blues and micromanagement stress between hours ten and fifteen. Just couldn't seem to get a handle on running so many fleets at the same time, even with several of them automated. I felt like I was suffering from attention deficit disorder. I'd start something with one fleet, then another fleet would arrive somewhere, and I'd start dealing with that one, then a third fleet would get attacked by pirates, and a with a fourth I'd be trying to hunt down some famous pirate, so I wanted to keep an eye on that one myself, and well, in the end my simple brain exploded, spewing goo all over my computer screen.

I think if I played a few more times I'd get a better handle on things, but I'm not sure that I'll do that. By the time I gave up, things were getting fairly repetitive.

[WSUCougar]

Uh-oh!
German developer Ascaron Entertainment and North American publisher Tri Synergy announced an agreement today to bring Port Royale 2 to North America. The strategy sequel is set in the 16th and 17th centuries, as players trade throughout the Caribbean Sea and deal with all sorts of economic factors, not to mention pirates. The game allows players to control vast fleets of trading ships, combat pirates with military operations and play through particular character-driven missions as merchants, diplomats and other characters. The game is similar to the original title, but also includes updated 3D graphics, four nations and 60 towns, stronger consequences of war, eight special "quick-start" scenarios, and 16 different ship types.

Port Royale 2 will be released in North America by Tri Snyergy this September. For more information on the game, visit its official web site.