Welcome to "Pirates and Traders". You will find help buttons, denoted by question marks, throughout the game. If you wonder about anything on a page, click on the help button.
"Pirates and Traders" is a role-playing adventure in which you sail the Carribean sea during the golden age of piracy. Your object is to amass a personal fortune and retire from life at sea, but how you do so is entirely up to you. You can sail from port to port, trading goods and build your fortune peacefully. Or you can turn pirate and rob, pillage, and burn. The choice is up to you.
To start the game, press the "Raise Anchor" button on the top of the new game view. Before you set sail on the Carribean sea, however, you should take a little time to design your pirate. Your pirate will start at the age of 20 in 1650 and will retire (at the latest) at the age of 70 (in 1700).
This is the name of your pirate.
There are 5 skills in "Pirates and Traders": Sailing, Fencing, Gunnery, Charisma, and Cunning. You start with 18 skill points at the beginning of the game and will gain one additional skill point each year until 1668. Starting in 1680, your pirate will begin to lose 1 random skill point until he is forced into retirement (you can, of course, retire the pirate before then).
10 of the skill points are already allocated, but you may allocate your skill points as you like; the maximum number of skill points for a skill is 12; the minimum number of skill points is 1. Any skill points not allocated at the start of the game are lost.
This is the skill of the Pirate at sailing ships. It is used during combat when trying to maneuver ships as well as prior to combat to determine which ship holds the initiative. If you wish to dictate the pace of the battle, you will need good Sailing skills.
This is the skill of the Pirate at fencing with a sword; i.e., fighting. It is used in cases where you fight hand-to-hand, such as when boarding enemy ships. Fencing is also useful if you run into a mutiny, as you may have to do some convincing - with cold steel.
This is the skill of the Pirate with fire arms and cannons. It is primarily used for resolving the firing of your cannons during sea combat, but it can also come in useful in story situations where a dead shot is required.
This is the skill of the Pirate at communication and persuasion. It affects how quickly your crew will get unhappy if you are sailing around without food. It is also extremely useful for traders, as it affects how good your bargaining skills are. If you want to pursue a career as a trader rather than a Pirate, this is probably a critical skill.
Charisma is also very useful if you should get captured and put on trial for piracy.
This refers to the cunning, luck, or intuition of the Pirate. It is used for those situations where luck and guile are required. It is particularly useful when searching for ships and to pick up rumors. Both Pirates and Traders will want a reasonable level of skill in Cunning - Pirates so that they can find ships more easily and Traders so that they can pick up more Rumors about supply and demand.
This is the name of your pirate ship.
This allows you to select which ship you will start the game in. You have two choices:
This is your starting "nationality". You will always start the game outside one of their ports, and with a letter of marque (license to privateer) for that nation. The different nationalities are:
Here you can select your pirate flag. The flag is used in your status screen and the high score table, but otherwise has little practical effect on the game.
Select the difficulty level of the game. The difficulty level affects how skilled the enemy captains are, as well as what proportion of the gold you earn during the game is added to your treasure hoard.
On the two lower levels, you are also much less likely to find warships and privateers when searching for prey. You will also find it much easier to escape from a trial with your life.
A word of warning: I design games that are hard to "win". If you play on the hardest level, you are asking for the pain. Try an easier level first.
These two settings allow you to specify when the game should save your progress. There are currently two options: every year (whenever the game year ticks over) and enter ports (each time you enter a port). These options are provided for convenience; you can still manually save the game whenever you want using the save option under the MENU button.
If you do not toggle either of the auto save settings, the game will only save when you specifically request a save of the game (use the MENU button in any in-game view).
The Fountain of Youth option allows you to void the effects of aging in the game. Your captain will never lose skill points from old age, and can thus continue playing for as long as you feel like it (if you die in a trial or get sunk, you can always go back to an earlier save game).
However, games played using the Fountain of Youth option do NOT appear in the high score list.
True Pirate is the "ironman" mode of the game. In this game mode, your progress is continually saved during play. Death or retirement - for whatever cause - is final. True Pirate mode has its own high score table.