Pirates & Traders

[Lancedroid]

I think this is a very good game. Thanks for your time in developing this.

Might I make a couple of suggestions though?

1) Instead of making the Fountain of Youth option, change the time periods to periods that allow for longer play. Rather than a month, make moving from one zone to another a couple of days (also more realistic for those geographic distances).

2) Follow this up by changing up the amount of days used for going into port to something like a 1 Week, thus representing the time to offload goods, bring on goods, visit the taverns and charm the ladies.

3) Additionally, make "Repairs and Refits" cost even more time, perhaps 2 Weeks. Again, lending some relative realism to the situation.

What I believe these time changes will bring to the game will be a new layer of strategy, causing people to consider their loads (Maximize time on the Seas VS available storage), the types of ships they purchase with regards to the former, whether its truly worth it to port, and in the case of the time it will take for "Refits and Repairs", how much damage one is willing to risk when deciding on doing battle with another ship. In other words, rewarding efficient strategies.

All of this will also obviously allow for greater time played as a Captain before dying of old age.

Just some thoughts. Great game!

 

[strategy]

Hi Lance,

The balance between realism and abstraction is a difficult one. The game uses the simple "months = turns" mechanism to keep things simple; quite important for a game that is already (judging by comments), fairly complex to get into.

1) Instead of making the Fountain of Youth option, change the time periods to periods that allow for longer play. Rather than a month, make moving from one zone to another a couple of days (also more realistic for those geographic distances).

Some people will want the fountain of youth option anyway.

Increasing game length by reducing the time is one of the possibilities I have considered for the game. It will be more relevant once I start adding the quest engine/missions, as this will add more time-consuming game content (increasing the need for more in-game turns).

3) Additionally, make "Repairs and Refits" cost even more time, perhaps 2 Weeks. Again, lending some relative realism to the situation.

This has been considered, and would definitely be something to consider adding if time is made more fine-grained.

Just some thoughts. Great game!

Good thoughts. As you can see in the Future Plans/Wish List the list of changes (hopefully) coming to the game is a long one, but reducing the time scale for turns is certainly a change that fits well with many of the content increases planned for the game. I just need to find time to work on all that stuff.

Thanks for the feedback.

Regards,

Michael A.

 

[necosino]

Is this the same release that was done for WinMo? I think I played this on my Omnia.

 

[strategy]

Is this the same release that was done for WinMo? I think I played this on my Omnia.

Huh? No - this is an original Android game. Don't know of any Windows Mobile game with this name.

 

[strategy]

Version 1.1.6 is released.

It's just a minor bug fix release while I'm working on the mission engine. Adds three new ship improvements (Carronades, Bow and Stern Chasers), more ship variety (NPC ships can have improvements as well), and some interface tweaks (game will warn you if you try to leave port with low food/badly damaged ship).

 

[svecias]

Great game. Downloading it now Thanks dude

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[Corpbob]

Does Pirates & Traders reset the cash if you go above 99999? I went above 99999 and suddenly I was back at 6000 cash.

 

[strategy]

Does Pirates & Traders reset the cash if you go above 99999? I went above 99999 and suddenly I was back at 6000 cash.

No. Your cash is stored in an integer, so good for values up to 2,147,483,647 doubloons.

Is there anything else you can tell me about what happened when you experienced this? E.g., did you switch ships, in the middle of a fight, just purchased something, distributed treasure, etc? Any information may help to track down the error.

 

[Corpbob]

No. Your cash is stored in an integer, so good for values up to 2,147,483,647 doubloons.

Is there anything else you can tell me about what happened when you experienced this? E.g., did you switch ships, in the middle of a fight, just purchased something, distributed treasure, etc? Any information may help to track down the error.

I'd just sold my ship and bought a smaller one. I'd been doing that for the entire run of that character. I buy a small ship, go out and capture a Spanish merchant and repeat as soon as the shipyard had a sloop or pinnace.

 

[strategy]

I'd just sold my ship and bought a smaller one. I'd been doing that for the entire run of that character. I buy a small ship, go out and capture a Spanish merchant and repeat as soon as the shipyard had a sloop or pinnace.

Hmm... I checked the relevant code, but I didn't find any errors that should trigger this kind of problem. The only thing that happens with your gold during a ship purchase is that the cost of the ship you are buying is deducted from your gold and the cost of your existing ship is added. So unless the calculated price of the ship somehow went off the rails, that is not it.

I'll check through the rest of the financial code, but it'll probably take a lot of luck to find this bug. If you encounter it again, or remember any more details of anything abnormal that occurred, let me know.

 

[strategy]

Version 1.1.7 is out (needed to fix a problem with carronades). Unfortunately haven't been able to find the bug you mention yet, Corpbob. Could you tell me your phone and OS version, though (PM me or send an email if you don't want to post it here).

 

[Lukehluke]

Looks good.
I will try it

 

[Parax]

Great game. a few issues though..

My personal feeling is that food is used too quickly, making it expensive and bulky. and to difficult to sail around, we are not talking about crossing the Atlantic here! yet I can easily use 15 cargo of food crossing the map (15 is more than some ships will hold and a quarter of a large trade vessle).

The Privateers sinks your ship if you dont submit, even if hull is good, when you get down to 5 men surrender should be only option. and IMO should not sink you! loosing goods and gold should be worst penalty, not so quick with the game over.

Buried Treasure! is needed badly! encountering a privateer is 'game over' in many cases as without cash your stuck (especially if you cant trade down your ship). if I could get back to my buried treasure I could resume. (possibly this is just a banking system for each port)

Ship merchants, it would be good if you could trade up, or trade down, in ship size. Sometimes I have run out of food sailing around looking to trade to a smaller boat to get cash to buy food, after a privateer has taken everything.

Also sometimes the rumours are far from useful, I may get a rumour of a need in Port A then a turn or two turn later get a rumor of an excess in port b but it will take me three turns to get to B then another 5 turns to get to A by which time its all over and I have wasted a shed load of gold on food alone.

This game has great potential but at present is a little short.

Thanks

Parax.

 

[Matthewp]

Huh? No - this is an original Android game. Don't know of any Windows Mobile game with this name.

I think the poster might have been thinking about "A Viking Saga." Definitely not the same game, but that was a pretty good one for Windows Mobile going back quite a few years.

 

[strategy]

Hi Parax,

Thanks for the feedback.

The best place to propose detailed game suggestions is on the game's own forums; it contains the official "wish list" for the game as well as a deal of discussion with player suggestions and proposals.

I can't promise to implement anything, given that I do this in my free time and the list of requests + the list of stuff that I have planned is huge - but I always follow attentively.

My personal feeling is that food is used too quickly, making it expensive and bulky. and to difficult to sail around, we are not talking about crossing the Atlantic here! yet I can easily use 15 cargo of food crossing the map (15 is more than some ships will hold and a quarter of a large trade vessle).

One of the changes that I am contemplating, based in part on LanceDroid's suggestions above, would reduce the food requirements for ships.

The Privateers sinks your ship if you dont submit, even if hull is good, when you get down to 5 men surrender should be only option. and IMO should not sink you! loosing goods and gold should be worst penalty, not so quick with the game over.

This was a mechanism intended to ensure that players do not always fight to the death. It doesn't seem to have had the intended effect, though, so I might consider changing this.

Buried Treasure! is needed badly! encountering a privateer is 'game over' in many cases as without cash your stuck (especially if you cant trade down your ship). if I could get back to my buried treasure I could resume. (possibly this is just a banking system for each port)

Because your stash reflects your "score", it is difficult to have a deposit and withdrawal mechanism in place here. A future version of the game will have it possible for the Governor to loan you money, however (no doubt at exorbitant rates).

Ship merchants, it would be good if you could trade up, or trade down, in ship size. Sometimes I have run out of food sailing around looking to trade to a smaller boat to get cash to buy food, after a privateer has taken everything.

The shipyard will be significantly expanded in a future version of the game, so that you will have a choice of ships to buy as well as a choice of improvements.

Also sometimes the rumours are far from useful, I may get a rumour of a need in Port A then a turn or two turn later get a rumor of an excess in port b but it will take me three turns to get to B then another 5 turns to get to A by which time its all over and I have wasted a shed load of gold on food alone.

Well, that is in the nature of rumors.

The game does need some mechanisms in the game to make it possible to judge which rumors may be worth pursuing and which are more risky. It's on the wish list.

Regards,

Michael A.

 

[strategy]

I think the poster might have been thinking about "A Viking Saga." Definitely not the same game, but that was a pretty good one for Windows Mobile going back quite a few years.

Neat. I've never heard of it, but it looks like an interesting game. Funny, as it seems very similar to a game design that I've worked on in the past. Perhaps I should brush that off again.

 

[simiarajose9]

That is one of favorite game of mine.Lots of fun, lots of features with a continuous improvement by the developer.

 

[babysquidge]

can u please make this game available to tattoo users please because i would love to play it

 

[Quboid]

Wow, Viking Saga. I'd forgotten about that! I probably still have that on my Dell Axim X50v. Which I've had on the charger for the last few years, untouched. That was an awesome game, quite like Pirates & Traders I guess, although the UI is different (prettier, with due respect).

 

[strategy]

can u please make this game available to tattoo users please because i would love to play it

I would be interested in doing so. However, I worry that the screen text and UI will be too small to be really usable on a small screen, which is why I do not allow it to be shown on small screens in the market.

You can download the game from SlideME, but I believe you will find the map behaving incorrectly (it does not compensate for screen sizes).

I am making some changes to the game at the moment (most importantly adding landscape support), which should hopefully make it possible to get a playable version of the game for small screens. If you're interested, I can let you know when I have a beta ready for testing.

 

[babysquidge]

yes i would be interested to beta test it for u just pm me when your ready

 

[swintsky]

Downloaded this game today after seeing this post. Great game! Looking forward to any future improvements you make.

 

[nicracine]

I really like this game! It's like a version of Sid Meyer's Pirates! for Android.

Looks like I'll be having a lot of fun in the next few weeks.

Congrats for a great game!

 

[strategy]

Thanks for the kudos.

Version 1.2.0 is now out.

It includes the first of what will hopefully be many "mission"s that I will add to the game. I've also done significant work rebuilding the game structure (though players should not notice much difference). Expect that there may be some bugs that have slipped through the net - I'd appreciate it if anyone playing this let me know if you run into any obvious bugs. The current official bug list for the game can be found here.

Privateers no longer sink the player's ship (except as a result of combat).

Still working on the small screen version.

 

[XxMerlinxX]

Played this for a while today and liked it. I'd like to see a little bit more complexity in it however, such as possibly having historic named heros/villains, mini-games while in port (dice, cards, mumbley-peg?), greater options than just pirate/merchant (government naval position?), wenches, etc. etc. If the game already has any of this, my apologies, I only played for an hour or so.