OMG OMG I have the game and I’m installing it now. Love that new game feeling. Still don’t know what I’ll take - pirate or national… eeeeep.
I can’t imagine that tactic actually works very well. Firing off a pistol is a sure way to get a crew to aggro on you. “Offhand Shot” is also on the same timer as “Take Aim” so if you have “Take Aim” there’s really no point using “Offhand Shot” at all. To get two pistol shots you need to have “Brace of Pistols” I believe.
In most boarding situations (unless you’re fighting very low level NPCs) pistols are best used after your crew’s already attracted aggro and then on a situational basis. I tend to treat “Take Aim” as an extra finishing move. It lowers my balance quite a bit so I won’t use it if I’m being attacked by several folks and only if it’s likely to kill somebody off (especially a Captain). If the Captain’s balance is low enough I might whack him with a finishing move and then a pistol shot back-to-back.
Only time I’d recommend opening with a Pistol would be in Avatar missions where there are only three opponents at once or in Avatar PvP combat in ports where a bunch of pistoleers can make an effective firing squad.
Going Pirate. As I love Pirates. If I tried to explain to my GF “I like pirates, but i’m playing the french” she’d roll her eyes I bet. So PIRATE IT IS!
Father Calistas on Antigua as soon as I get my shizzle sorted.
Right, Calistas, that gives me the perfect excuse to also create a pirate alt on Antigua. I’ve checked out the Oceania server (Invincible) incidentally, but a) I can’t seem to find it in the server list and b) I’m not convinced how popular it will be given that all the Aussies who wanted to play PotBS already bought the US version and are playing on Antigua. They don’t really want to start over with a level 1 character on a server where none of their friends / guilds are.
Good stuff. I’m still patching and having a hard time of it over this satellite connection I’m currently on.
I’ll be in as Father Calistas when/if I get on tonight…
You won’t see Oceana unless you’ve gone and downloaded the bigpond version of the client and subbed as an aussie…
Yes, it takes a fair while to patch the first time - my ADSL line took about 2-3 hours to patch.
Anyway, I’ve created a pirate called Tyrell Jericho on Antigua, so I’ll keep an eye out (the other is a glass eye). I’m also on Bonny as Edmund Fishfinger, a British National (currently lvl 12).
There’s a key for selecting the nearest friendly (f?); not exactly useful for selecting targets per se, but it can be ~nice for skills that buff both you and an ally, especially if it’s one that doesn’t take an action.
I tried this out a bit (seeing if I could find a use for ally skills), and found it actually was nice if I got low on balance. With fencing, I could hit all the +parry bonuses, and end up with something like a 70 or 80 parry (more if I’d switched to +parry items), which then gave me a good chance to trigger Riposte for decent damage, plus a chunk of balance recovery.
It takes some fancy fingers to do this and switch back to your target without losing an action though. I think I managed it once in a situation I didn’t intentionally setup, although by the time I worked it out I’d retooled my character such that I almost never ran out of balance when boarding.
I’ve been considering picking this back up, despite my backlog of other games. I’m wondering if it might be good in smaller doses, maybe once a week or so… Just give up on trying to get into port battles, hunt for PvP groups, and read a book on the side if it doesn’t pan out.
Seems to work for me. I’ve only lost one boarding situation so far (lvl 24). Mayhaps I’ll have to switch up tactics later on.
Enemy crew aggros on me, I keep their attention while my crew takes out their Captain over and over. shrug I might die once or twice but that’s it. Admittedly, I’ve grabbed skills and items so this tactic would be more effective. Bloodthirst (Boarding Party Level +1), Improved Active Dodge (Immediately restores 10 balance and prepares you to dodge the next incoming attack, fails if you attack), Wiley (Parry +3, Block +4, Dodge +5), etc.
Quite. Pistols are a no-no in the whirlwind of melee combat which is why I’ll use it to lead off after the scrum has started. By the time they reach me, my balance is back up to 90+ so it works out.
Wait, what? There is PvP combat in ports? Dare I say neato? I do dare.
“Neato.”
Goddamn these are some huge patches. I think they need to perhaps come up with a better way rather than re-delivering a… what… 300mb file?!
Goddamn these are some huge patches. I think they need to perhaps come up with a better way rather than re-delivering a… what… 300mb file?!
I can’t wait for these UI improvements when 1.2 hits.
Calistas doesn’t want to hear about another large patch he’ll have to download soon!
Some people in games remind me of Dogfight by William Gibson.
I estimate I’ve downloaded 1.5g of patches so far, with another 1.5 to go. They must update small details in each of their .pig files then redeliver the whole lot. It’s just crazy. I’ve been downloading for 12 hours.
Good gravy, Calistas, you’re still downloading? And I thought I had a slow internet connection!
[edit] Oh I see you’re using satellite. Is it raining or something? Our old satellite would basically shut down every time it rained, and it slowed right the hell down when it looked a little overcast. When it’s sunny, however, it’s pretty good!
Hey, I managed to fix my problems with sailing. There’s an .ini hack you can use to enable TCP fallback, and it got around the problem with their net code. Since I did that, my sailing has been clear and easy, aside from enemy ships. Made a french naval officer on Antigua, to test the fix - name of Michel Bourdain.
Well, the telco here use sat to get out of the country, but between:
- power cuts (going to generator then)
- people needing to use the net (unplug my laptop therefore)
- General timeouts…
…I’ve not had a good time. Regardless, it’s now chugging along and I’m some way through wrt_fa.pig …I hope I’m near the end :(
…and there goes the power again :( …ok maybe 10th time lucky on this .pig?
Bloody hell Calistas! I thought Peter Jackson fixed Wellington for you? ;)
[edit] Incidentally, you’re not going to be happy if it completes within the next 2 hours - the servers are going down for maintenance! Not sure why, because that’s the third time this week. No problem here really because I’m going to have dinner and watch Rome, but please don’t throw the mouse through the window.
I’m not in Wellington
Well it currently estimated 4 hours 30 minutes, and I am guessing I will need to go and buy another $30us wireless data/time voucher card before that completes. sigh
