Pirates & Traders

[Neplusultra]

Pirates of the burning sea for androids? Yay! Downloading now.

Sent from my Evo using Tapatalk.

 

[strategy]

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.

I'm not sure that adding more complexity to it would be popular - seems to me I get enough complaints about the complexity as is. But there are a lot of changes already planned for the game (you can follow the discussions on the game forum and see the current task list).

Currently, most of the development focus wrt new features will be focused on adding a lot more story-elements (entered through the jobs in the tavern) to the game. The stories will certainly add in wenches (and gentlemen), government missions, and (hopefully) adventure-based fun to the game.

It all takes time though - which is always in short supply. I hope to be able to keep to a fairly steady update rate for the next 2-3 months. We'll see how much I manage to get done.

 

[strategy]

Version 1.2.1 is out. Minor bug fix release; most important bug fix was to make it possible for players to leave the closed port view without being forced to sneak in.

 

[XxMerlinxX]

I'm not sure that adding more complexity to it would be popular - seems to me I get enough complaints about the complexity as is. But there are a lot of changes already planned for the game (you can follow the discussions on the game forum and see the current task list).

To fix that, you could implement some sort of tutorial when you first open the game. When I first started playing, my first thought was, "Alright, now how do I do this?" I know that you basically get told what's what on the screen by clicking the question mark, but most of the time I ignore help sections, lol.

 

[redandwhitedroid]

just downloading now looks cool

 

[strategy]

It's more work to do a tutorial, so I think that for the moment I'll stick with the help sections. :-/

Version 1.2.2 is out; bug fixes and 1 new mission (smuggling).

 

[robhakari]

downloading now, will play back and forth to work a few times and will let you know

 

[Lorak]

Very nice game. You've done a really good job on this one. I really like it.

 

[bozzer]

Nice game BTW, some great work has gone into it, so thanks for spending the time on programming it for us!

I do have one concern, which is battery life. If I play this game for a while, it totaly nails my battery. You can tell that from the heat generated on the back of the phone. It's as if the processor is running at full bore, when it shouldn't be. None of the usual power drainers are on like WIFI or GPS, and it only happens with this game.

Any ideas?

 

[elwray]

Downloaded. Will let you know how it works for me Sounds awesome!

 

[odbod]

Absolutely awesome Pirates! remake, easily the best Android game I've played. Thanks!
As noted though, it can thrash the CPU - is this common?

Nice game BTW, some great work has gone into it, so thanks for spending the time on programming it for us!

I do have one concern, which is battery life. If I play this game for a while, it totaly nails my battery. You can tell that from the heat generated on the back of the phone. It's as if the processor is running at full bore, when it shouldn't be. None of the usual power drainers are on like WIFI or GPS, and it only happens with this game.

Any ideas?

 

[elwray]

Shit shit shit shit shit ... I'm getting nothing done today at work. NOTHING!!

This game is FANTASTIC!!!!

 

[elwray]

So I've been playing this for a while [too long today! ] and just a few things I don't understand ...

What's the deal with the different nationalities? Am I a pirate, or am I flying under the flag of a certain nation? If I'm a pirate, I can just attack anyone willy-nilly. If I'm under a flag (or perhaps this "flag" varies depending on who I bribe for a marque?) should I avoid conflicts with "friendlies" and allies?

I've gotten to the point where some ports don't want me there (have to sneak in) and trading is not in my favor. How does this get rectified - by sending dubloons to the Governor?

I guess I've got the hang of the trading, and the combat, but still grasping for some answers when it comes to the nuances of war/treaty/neutrality.

 

[strategy]

Thanks for the praise; I'm happy that people enjoy the game.

Absolutely awesome Pirates! remake, easily the best Android game I've played. Thanks!
As noted though, it can thrash the CPU - is this common?

How do you experience that it thrashes the CPU? Technically, this isn't a very complicated game, and there aren't any background services or threads running in the game (other than the occasional ad refresh, but that runs around every 60s, last I checked, so shouldn't cause that kind of trouble).

 

[bozzer]

Two things that make me think that way;

1) The heat output from the battery after playing for a while is high - the same thing happens when you are running intensive apps like the Quake3 port.
2) The battery dies after a few hours of gaming. Other apps like sudoku will happily run most of the day.

 

[strategy]

What's the deal with the different nationalities? Am I a pirate, or am I flying under the flag of a certain nation? If I'm a pirate, I can just attack anyone willy-nilly. If I'm under a flag (or perhaps this "flag" varies depending on who I bribe for a marque?) should I avoid conflicts with "friendlies" and allies?

I've gotten to the point where some ports don't want me there (have to sneak in) and trading is not in my favor. How does this get rectified - by sending dubloons to the Governor?

I guess I've got the hang of the trading, and the combat, but still grasping for some answers when it comes to the nuances of war/treaty/neutrality.

You are a pirate (if you choose to be, of course), but all ports have a nationality, and if you attack a nationality (or its friends), they will naturally tend to get a little pissed off with you.

Your letter of marque is basically your "get out of jail" and "free passage into harbor" card with that nation. It won't protect you from other nations, though (Spain isn't going to care whether you have a British letter - they'll hang you all the same). You need a letter of marque in order to build up rank with a country.

Bribery of a governor cancels your criminal record with that country and starts you over from scratch in that respect.

 

[strategy]

1) The heat output from the battery after playing for a while is high - the same thing happens when you are running intensive apps like the Quake3 port.

Hmm. Have you tried running something like TasKiller just to check that you do not have any other processes running in the background? I have a little spare time next week, so I will try to run a few experiments on my phone, but I can't offhand think of anything in the game that would cause that kind of behavior.

2) The battery dies after a few hours of gaming. Other apps like sudoku will happily run most of the day.

Well, it is more complex than Sudoku.

On a more serious note, could you let me know your make of phone and OS version (PM me if you don't want to post it here)?

 

[elwray]

You are a pirate (if you choose to be, of course), but all ports have a nationality, and if you attack a nationality (or its friends), they will naturally tend to get a little pissed off with you.

Your letter of marque is basically your "get out of jail" and "free passage into harbor" card with that nation. It won't protect you from other nations, though (Spain isn't going to care whether you have a British letter - they'll hang you all the same). You need a letter of marque in order to build up rank with a country.

Bribery of a governor cancels your criminal record with that country and starts you over from scratch in that respect.

Cool I'm getting the hang of it. Seriously - this game ROCKS.

Thank you!!!

 

[bozzer]

On a more serious note, could you let me know your make of phone and OS version (PM me if you don't want to post it here)?

Phone - HTC Desire
Firmware - 2.1-update1
Software Number - 1.19.161.5

 

[3devious]

Play Parallel Kingdom, then compare for battery life. Another thing that may add to it could be your home replacement if you have one.

In April, I was using Helix+ATK+ a lot of widgets. I got rid of them all (I kept a couple of the widgets.) Everything was a lot better after that, then I started experimenting with adding Launcher Pro. After changing the number of homescreens and widgets, I then came up with a pretty good combination that helped me play Parallel Kingdom without killing my battery or melting my hands.

This game never caused that much of a drain, but those things I mentioned above could add to your situation, Bozzer.

 

[corey8084]

3devious, you make a good point, Parallel Kingdom will slaughter your battery. I was able to play Pirates and Traders all day practically without any problems from my battery.

An error I have noticed quite a few times with the game, and it isn't anything that really hinders game play, but I've noticed when you click the distance option, the dialogue is worded as if the enemy got away from you, not the other way around. Like I said, nothing big, just something that caught my attention.

Finally, I understand the omission of what I am about to request, but I would really like a save feature. I had a good game going and 1 ship got lucky enough to take out my hull and it was game over for me, discouraging for me to even continue to try again.

Finally again, I don't think the beginning ships are exactly well suited for their descriptions. the barque I have noticed, performs much better in pirating than the sloop does. the barque has much more ballanced traits with a decent cargo hold to haul away the loot that you get from your kills. perhaps a way to make a trading ship specific for trading and a fighter boat that is actually good at fighting? (only advantage I have seen from the sloop is the max crew members)

 

[Aremihc]

Finally again, I don't think the beginning ships are exactly well suited for their descriptions. the barque I have noticed, performs much better in pirating than the sloop does. the barque has much more ballanced traits with a decent cargo hold to haul away the loot that you get from your kills. perhaps a way to make a trading ship specific for trading and a fighter boat that is actually good at fighting? (only advantage I have seen from the sloop is the max crew members)

I can take out a warship with a Sloop. Stay at range and close/board if the opportunity is right.

 

[strategy]

Version 1.2.3 has been released. It is an interface/bug fix release (specifically the status view has got a major overhaul that I plan to extend to other areas of the game while adding some long-wished for features such as more options in improvement and ship purchases). I'm off for vacation for a couple of weeks, so it will be a little while before the next update.

Thanks for all the feedback.

@bozzer: As 3devious mentions, you should check that you don't have a lot of widgets or other stuff running in the background that may be draining the battery (stuff like GPS on, wifi connections, etc. can be a surprisingly large drain - and the Desire isn't the least power hungry phone on the block). But I will look into the issue anyway, as I said, I have a few tests I can try.

@corey:
Thanks - I need to go over the encounter texts soon and clear up a few of these small niggles.

The game is really intended to have a "rogue"-like gameplay + my intention is to add an on-line score system soon (I just haven't decided between OpenFeint or Scoreloop yet for this game). Save/Reloads really don't work with the on-line scores idea, which is the main reason why I don't want to implement this. I will consider the issue again at a latter date, though; as you can see from the "Fountain of Youth" option, I have been known to deviate from my "principles" if I find a way to do so without breaking the intended game experience.

I think the sloop is better for pirates than the barque. Boarding is a very powerful tactic - perhaps too powerful - and there is much less chance of your prey being able to run away from the sloop - especially if you play on higher levels of the game where AI skills are equal to the player's skill levels. There are plans afoot for some gameplay changes on the ship front, though, and that will also involve some rebalancing of the ships.

 

[elwray]

Speaking of the encounter text ... one thing that confused the hell out of me when I first started was "Close" .... I thought it was close as in, "close this window," not "get close to the other ship"!

So while I was trying to close the window, I was apparently being boarded and having my rigging blown to bits. Then I found the "Distance" and "Leave" buttons

 

[corey8084]

What about just having a save option if you go with fountain of youth? because it seems as though if you go with fountain of youth, you can go on indefinitely. and as you have said, there is no current scoring system for the fountain of youth players. That's just my thoughts