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Posted by Thomas
McGuire on February 5, 2001
Company: Bethsoft
Product: Sea
Dogs
As
you can guess where you aim can effect what you damage, e.g. hitting sails will
damage the sails, which in turn will effect speed. The type of cannon balls used
also have an effect, 4 types are available for use - Standard Cannonballs,
Bombs, Grape & Knipple. Each of these types of ammo are intended for a
different task, e.g. Knipple is best used to destroy sails, while standard
Cannonballs are a general purpose type of ammo.
Generally
most sea battles will begin with both sides trying to damage each other sails,
then moving onto damaging the hull to either sink the ship, or kill crew to make
it easy to capture in boardings.
The
worst part of sea battles would have to be Boardings, as before, the controls
for this don’t feel right & to be honest I simply don’t even
attempt boarding anymore if possible as a result, it is far better to simply
sink a ship rather than take on its captain. Still, to be fair its hard to
imagine how else Boardings could be handled in the game. Perhaps the sequel will
offer something in the way of a Training mode for this aspect of the game.
Trading
is the easy way to make money in Sea Dogs. After a while you get to know each
island & what goods certain islands Import/Export. Obviously you can use
this knowledge to your advantage. E.g. a typical (simple) trade route of mine
would be as follows – In Highrock purchase all the available Coffee, go to
Tendales to sell this Coffee (Which they must Import, so they pay more than you
initially did), purchase all the Linen & Sugar in Tendales & return to
Highrock to sell it (As they Import these goods). Of course all this time you
make a profit, & should you ever run low on money, it’s quite easy to get
back up to a decent standard of living (Basically enough to pay your crew). This
aspect of the game is fairly enjoyable & in no time at all you should be
able to upgrade your ship or hire new crew members.
Quests
are a big part of Sea Dogs, ranging from destroying a pirate fleet to capturing
a Spanish fort or whatever. The quests generally add to the storyline of the
game. Most quest events are logged in your Logbook so you can re-read over them,
or other important events.
AI
The
ships you fight against are fairly smart for the most part. Tactics available to
them are of course rather limited in some respects given the nature of sea
battles. The AI is also more reactionary than anything else, i.e. Other ships
won’t attack you unless you attack them, of course this in many cases
depend on where you allegiance rests.
They
will spiral behind you, firing Port & Starboard cannons as they snake along
behind you if giving chase. They drop sails every so often during battles,
avoiding sail damage if possible. If you get too close they may even initiate a
boarding against you. Other times they will sail right at you, turning only to
fire off a broadside at you.
Later
on in the game you can also get to control other Allied ships, giving them
orders is extremely simply, simply changing the active ship icon to the other
ship, then giving the Order, e.g. Follow Me, Attack a designated ship, or
whatever.
The
only real problem comes when you get near islands. The ships (enemy that is)
have a tendency to hit against islands, or other pieces of terrain near them.
When this happens they sometimes get confused & will stay in place or just
drop sails & turn a bit. To be fair most battles occur at sea so this
isn’t really a problem, although later on in the game you might experience
what I’m referring to.
That
said, not all coastal battles will play out like this, although it is rather
annoying to witness happening. Perhaps the sequel will offer better coastal
navigation for the AI ships. Overall you get a good sense that the AI ships
aren’t dull clones trying to kill you.
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