Port Royale 3

Bison · May 04, 2012, 04:57:18 PM

I've only played about 45 minutes, so no opinion on the game one way or the other. Just wanted to open up a discussion thread.

Right now I'm a little confused as to why there appears to be no manual for the game. There is no link from Steam nor is there one in game. There are some very nice tutorial videos, but they only advance as you meet the next campaign objective. The one issue with the tutorial is there was no basic introduction to the HUD (if you've played Patrician 4 it is near identical), which is odd to say the least.

Anyway looking forward to sitting back and transporting some rum and sugar around the Caribbean later on this evening. Perhaps firing on some pirate ships in some naval battles.

Nefaro · May 04, 2012, 04:59:39 PM

Let me know what condition it's in.

I'd imagine it should be pretty stable & bugless considering it's just a modification of their prior game. But ya never know..

I plan on getting it (sometime) but in no big hurry yet, what with the buttload of games coming out this month.

undercovergeek · May 04, 2012, 05:37:32 PM

downloading now

steve58 · May 04, 2012, 06:59:28 PM

Quote from: Bison on May 04, 2012, 04:57:18 PM
Right now I'm a little confused as to why there appears to be no manual for the game. There is no link from Steam nor is there one in game.

there is a user manual PDF in the Port Royale 3 directory in your Steam directory...at least that is where I found it on my PC.

undercovergeek · May 04, 2012, 07:51:01 PM

cant find it locally on mine - but theres a link to the manual on the games store page - takes a while - dont lose heart, it is downloading it!!

steve58 · May 04, 2012, 07:56:34 PM

:-[ oops, my bad. Forgot I bought mine from Gamersgate. The manual was in the installed game directory...sorry.

Bison · May 04, 2012, 08:19:30 PM

Quote from: undercovergeek on May 04, 2012, 07:51:01 PM
cant find it locally on mine - but theres a link to the manual on the games store page - takes a while - dont lose heart, it is downloading it!!

OK. They must have just added a link recently. It wasn't there this morning when I installed the game.

son_of_montfort · May 05, 2012, 01:50:07 AM

Played for 40 or so minutes. I'm fairly happy with what I see. It isn't exactly ground-breaking, but the graphical updates are pretty. I can't tell exactly what was added, as I haven't played enough to really get very deep (I can't even build buildings yet).

undercovergeek · May 05, 2012, 03:00:59 AM

yeah - same here, just getting used to the interface at mo - by the time i figured how to send a convoy to another island they didnt want sugar anymore!!

Bison · May 05, 2012, 03:09:52 AM

I'm going to say it. The fact that this was designed for consols did not dramatically change overall gameplay from the Patrician/Port Royale mold. However, you can tell that the graphics are scaled back for them. I'm running it on ultra and the graphics are pretty meh. For the amount of time you spend on the world map, the eye candy is pretty lacking. The town graphics are pretty uninspired too. Not a game breaker by any means, but it is a slight disappointment.

undercovergeek · May 05, 2012, 03:16:49 AM

Would it be such a bad thing if it turned out to be a modernised, updated PR1 or 2?

Bison · May 05, 2012, 03:27:11 AM

I also hate the slider to buy/sell. There is no check. So if you slide the bar to price out a commodity and accidently move your mouse off of the slider, you just bought or sold the commodity. That is a pretty horrid design choice. I don't like the way ships are sold either. You check into Port Royale and either a ship is ready instantly for sale or not. You get no choice of type of ship. Nor are you forced to wait for the ship to be built. It's just instantly there and ready to be assigned to a fleet. So it's possible in 3 seconds that you have a new fleet of 2-3 ships ready to be assigned a trade or patrol route. I liked the old method from PAT3 of I'd like to commission a ship. What kind? Corevette please. Ok no problem. Come back in 30 days. Sweet. Now. It's just we have a corevette ready to kick off the dock. But I want a frigate. Sorry no frigate for you. Just keep clicking back on Port Royale for the next 20-40 minutes and we might decide to build one.

Now does the game suck? No. I was enthralled for over 3 hours and I'm getting ready to go back in for more. I'm currently trying to figure out how the self designed trade routes work. I thought I had it, but now my experiment fleet has stopped buying anything. Once I crack the code, it's game on to build up a pirate hunting fleet.

Bison · May 05, 2012, 03:29:36 AM

Quote from: undercovergeek on May 05, 2012, 03:16:49 AM
Would it be such a bad thing if it turned out to be a modernised, updated PR1 or 2?

No. It's not a bad thing. It's still Port Royale. I guess in regard to the graphics it just highlights the common occurance in games designed for both the PC and consol markets. The graphics are tailored for the consol not the pc.

Bison · May 05, 2012, 04:00:14 AM

Zoomed out 2d islands. They are very practical in the sense of here's the town. What it wants and any natural disasters effecting it. Which nation has the naval power in the region (the faded flags in the water). I guess was just expecting a little more visual bling. Again I play HPS games for the love of God, so visuals aren't everything. It's just that I do like graphics in my economic simulations. I like to see the people walking around. Ships sailing the high seas. Dolphins swimming in the ocean.

This is the zoomed in view of Chitzen Itza. It certainly looks to me to be a 2d image on a 3d world map. And all of the land looks like this by design. The ships and water are 3d, but the land isn't? Wierd. Again not a game breaker, but an odd artistic design IMO.

The dock view it looks nice, but it just seems uninspired. This might change as the city is built up. To be fair I've not gotten to the point of a fully developed town.

This is a full zoom view of the city market with Cathedal.

undercovergeek · May 05, 2012, 04:07:31 AM

Quote from: Bison on May 05, 2012, 03:27:11 AM
I also hate the slider to buy/sell. There is no check. So if you slide the bar to price out a commodity and accidently move your mouse off of the slider, you just bought or sold the commodity. That is a pretty horrid design choice. I don't like the way ships are sold either. You check into Port Royale and either a ship is ready instantly for sale or not. You get no choice of type of ship. Nor are you forced to wait for the ship to be built. It's just instantly there and ready to be assigned to a fleet. So it's possible in 3 seconds that you have a new fleet of 2-3 ships ready to be assigned a trade or patrol route. I liked the old method from PAT3 of I'd like to commission a ship. What kind? Corevette please. Ok no problem. Come back in 30 days. Sweet. Now. It's just we have a corevette ready to kick off the dock. But I want a frigate. Sorry no frigate for you. Just keep clicking back on Port Royale for the next 20-40 minutes and we might decide to build one.

Now does the game suck? No. I was enthralled for over 3 hours and I'm getting ready to go back in for more. I'm currently trying to figure out how the self designed trade routes work. I thought I had it, but now my experiment fleet has stopped buying anything. Once I crack the code, it's game on to build up a pirate hunting fleet.

from the manual Bison:-

In the dockyard you can repair, buy and sell ships.
Because the dockyards in the New World don't build any
ships themselves, there is usually not much variety in the
selection of new ships. Thus you can only buy ships that
were previously sold by other merchants. Each town has its
own selection of ships.
Incidentally, you can have entire convoys repaired in
the dockyard. This spares you from having to reorganize
convoys, which can be a tedious process. Another advantage:
Repair times and costs for convoys are less than if you hand
over the ships individually.