Age of Pirates 2: City of Abandoned Ships

[Cruz]

I saw this game mentioned in some other threads and looked up some details. It looks pretty darn sweet as a sandbox Age of Sail game. I see that the critical reviews were not too flattering and it's supposed to be buggy and it apparently has almost no documentation so you have to figure things out for yourself. But despite all that, I'm intrigued.

Can anybody tell me more about it? Is it worth hunting down despite the problems mentioned above? I looked to see if there were any official patches that might fix whatever bugs exist, but couldn't find anything. However, I have seen a mention of at least one mod, so maybe the player community has taken it upon itself to make improvements?

I'm currently playing Mount & Blade: Warband and really loving it. AoP2 strikes me as maybe being a naval version of that game, except that I don't think you can lead an army of NPCs in AoP2. It's also a game where the mod community has made significant improvements over the official game (if you haven't tried Polished Landscapes yet, go get it...the difference in the battle scenes is stunning). Is it accurate co compare M&B and AoP2 at all?

[MrSparkle]

I have it, and you may heard about it from me. It's a fantastic game. It's nowhere near as buggy as the first one (Carribbean Tales). I can honestly say I don't remember encountering a bug.

Not even sure about patches for the game. I have the Combined Mod version 3 http://www.moddb.com/mods/city-of-ab...-combined-mods, which adds a ton of stuff.

Gameplay itself blows POTBS out of the water. Avcom is actually difficult with the difficulty slider at medium (yes medium, not even hard! You will lose, and lose often, if you play on anything but easy. It takes a lot of practice). Ship combat is better, but boarding is way too easy compared to POTBS - I mean actually being able to board not the ensuing avcom. There's tons of trading to do if you want, you can build your own fleets, you can conquer ports, you can sometimes entice a fellow captain to join you, adding both him and his ship to your fleet, you can sell actual ships not just silly deeds...it's just a great game, everything POTBS should have been.

The first game is buggy, the second game with the Combined Mod is pretty much bug-free for me so far.

If you like the classic Sid Meier's Pirates! (which I do) you'll love AOP2. If you prefer POTBS to Pirates!, hmm you might not like it so much.

[Cookie]

I found it about a year ago and have loved it.

Like MrSparkle said, if you enjoyed Sid Meier's Pirates you will enjoy AOP2.

[JackBlackP54]

Age of Pirates 2 my amateur review

What's in the game?

- The caribbean of the 17th century, you start at 1665

- sailing ships, yeah!

- 3 different careers: Adventurer, Corsair, (Free-) Trader

- 4 nations: British, France, Spain, Dutch and of course Pirates, but they are not a nation...

- Water, Sea, lot of them, looks really good, with really high waves and rain,
with storm, flash and thunder....

- Ports, like port royale, bridgetown, havanna....port au prince
with houses, docks, shipyards, taverns, town halls, stores, bankhouse....
every town looks different

- jungle, if you leave a town there is wild jungle which you can explore,
with fort's, grot's and cave's, catacombs, dungeons....
but be aware, this is also a dangerous place because of pirates and other stuff(skeletons)

- ship vs ship combat, with guns and smoke and you know....boarding

- swashbuckling, swordfighting, 3 different classes and lots of different swords

- Guns, on your ship, on the fort's (which will shoot at you if you be not nice)
and of course guns on your character, for boarding and landbattles



More into detail:

The skill system:
There are skills like accuracy, navigation, defense, repairing, reloading....
You level them up by use them.
So if you use your guns a lot, you'll become better in accuracy, reloading....
If you trade a lot, you become a better trader....
Also sometimes you earn a extra skill point, which you then can use to get
special abilitys like critical shot, extra maneuverability, advanced defense....

Officers:
You can hire officers in the taverns.
There are different kinds of officers like Navigator, Doctor, Treasuremaster, Fighter....
They'll join your (ship) crew and make your ship statistics better....
Also Fighters are very helpful at boarding other ships and at landbattles.
You can also give them their own ships so you can create your own little fleet.
And give them commands, but the AI isn't the best sometimes....

Ship-crew:
Also to hire in the tavern. Every ship got a minimum, maximum crew....
Not enough crew on your ship makes your ship slower, bad reload for guns....

Taverns:
Here you can hire crew, officers, looking for new quest....
play a dice game, play cards, drink, talk to people, some of them got treasure maps....
talk to a smuggler.... get a escort for yourself, or escort other ships for money....
Pay for a room to sleep, but you can also sleep in your captains-cabin on your ship.

Town-Hall:
Here is the governor of the port, sometimes he got missions for you and after a few you'll
get a letter of marque.... become a captain, commander, admiral.

The shipyard:
Here you can repair your ship....
Also buy a new ship, or sell your ship...
You can't build ships in this game!!! They are already in the game...more as enough.
Just board one or buy it....

Ships:
Now to the best part of the game, sailing ships....
They look good, very detailed, not so good as in POTBS, but ok.
There are 16 different type's of ships, sloop, fleute, galleon, corvette,
warship(ship of the line).... Dosen't sound so much?
But here it comes: every ship is unique! How? Example:
Sloop A got a maximum speed 11.00 knot's / Sloop B got a max speed 13.00 knot's
Same ship, same ship-class but different statistics....

Also your shipcrew and personal character stats and your officers matters how fast, maneuverable.....your ship is.

- First, your crew is unexperienced and bad at reloading guns, sailing the ship....
But after a while and more experience your crew learns to reload faster, sailing your ship better... Of course every ship got a maximum speed, maneuverability....

- Your shipcrew also got morale,
if you don't give them their money, rum.... they'll start to mutiny....

- Also the weight what you have loaded on your ship (how full your ship is) matters
to your ship max speed.
If you want you can remove your shipguns to get more free ship-storage
or a better max speed!

- Also your ship-hull matters to the max speed.
So if your ship-hull is too much damaged, you'll become slower also if you still
have full sails.
What great realism here!

- You can go into your captains-cabin, officers-mess, gundeck and in the shipstorage
at any time you're not in battle, talk to your officers, store your items in the captain-box.
But only at the bigger ships, not on a little boat like a tartan.
Great feature, i like such things in a game.

- You can upgrade or downgrade your cannons if you want,
but every ship got a maximum of guns(weight)

Fight other ships:
W,A,S,D same like here in potbs, but it feels a little more like a sailing simulation,
little bit more realistic to me.
The downside is the AI isn't really good, little bit hard at the beginning,
but after a while you know....only a challenge when in bigger ships or in superior numbers.
Fire your guns, turn....., board them....... but i like it.
There are different kinds of ammo, cannonballs, chainshot, shred to kill crew,
bombs(exploding cannonballs)
Ships can also explode and damage other near ships!

Boarding ships:
You can board other ships and also you can be boarded by computer ships!
Boarding in this game is great, you can run from your ship over to the enemy ship.
After the enemy crew is dead, you'll fight the captain one on one in his cabin.
After you've won the boarding you can take command of the other ship,
also if you're not a pirate....or just sink the ship.
The only downside in this avatarcombat is, it's not so deep like here in potbs,
also the control is not really good (needless complicated), but it's ok in my opinion.

Trade goods:
Go to the store, trade goods, or get a trade-mission to earn money.
The great thing here is, different port got different prices,
so if you buy some goods cheap here and sell it elsewhere for a high price....
you can make a lot of money.
Also you can sell, buy swords, guns....

Port government:
You can become the governor of a port, thru mission or just being a pirate....
Then you get taxes from the people, hoist your nation flag or hoist the pirate flag,
defend the town from others.... appoint a deputy
but not much more to do here....

There a more things to do in this game, but i want end now.


summary:
Good game, it's better as i've thought, a few bugs here and there,
but i've became really bugresistant in the last two years of playing a mmorpg.
I've really enjoyed playing this game, and will continue to play this.
But Pirates of the Burning Sea is still the better game! So i'll play both games.

Graphics: 7/10 ships looks ok, water(sea) looks good with realistic waves.
Towns and avatar looks not so good, but ok.

Gameplay: 7/10 little bit better as in AOP 1, but still needless complicated here and there

Sound: 7/10 almost the same as in AOP 1, but a few new songs

Overall final score: 7/10

If this game sounds interesting to you, you should watch this video about AOP2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-oYzcOhVu0
and there are a lot more videos about AOP2 from this dude to watch...if you like

[Boris Domalov]

The principles haven't changed much since Sea dogs.

A bethesda game (makers of morrowind), then the licence has been renamed, from "sea dogs" to "pirates of the carribean" to "age of pirates".

I love those games, myself.

Each of them look more like a patch from the previous one (as mount and blade), but I enjoyed playing each of them.

Give it a try for a few hours, leave it for at least a week, come back in it until you understand how it works, helping yourselves on the web for tricks. Why? Because the beginning may look like very hard.

You have no skills, no money. You can sail all the boats, but the stronger ones will give you a malus and make it unplayable. So, you will have to begin hunting in your small sloop... And may encounter 1rst rates... Untill you get experience, which is quite hard hunting fishing boats.

Much players who try it for the first time do not understand the game at first. That's why you should either have a look with someone who knows the game, or take your time.

Yes, its main weakness is it's poor documentation... Very rich, but you won't figure it accuratly before going deep into the peers reviews and hints and tricks forums...

[Cruz]

Well, it sounds really cool. I've watched a bunch of youtube vidoes and I don't have any beef with the graphics at all, except maybe that the ships look a bit primitive compared to PotBS. Now if only I could find it at a decent price....

[CJFlint]

Originally Posted by JackBlackP54 Age of Pirates 2 my amateur review What's in the game? - The caribbean of the 17th century, you start at 1665 - sailing ships, yeah! - 3 different careers: Adventurer, Corsair, (Free-) Trader - 4 nations: British, France, Spain, Dutch and of course Pirates, but they are not a nation... - Water, Sea, lot of them, looks really good, with really high waves and rain, with storm, flash and thunder.... If this game sounds interesting to you, you should watch this video about AOP2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-oYzcOhVu0 and there are a lot more videos about AOP2 from this dude to watch...if you like

Sounds right up my ally Thats It IM DOWNLOADING TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[MrSparkle]

One thing I love about AOP2 vs POTBS is crews. I found it odd in POTBS when I first played that I went to the tavern in Marsh Harbour to recruit some crew members, and couldn't find any way to do it. I swore I was missing something simple.

Then I noticed my ship already had full crew. Well where did they come from? Later on I got a bigger ship and it automatically had full crew. And I didn't even have to pay them! Magic crews from out the blue that cost nothing. Wow.

That right there was my first clue that POTBS was simplified and possibly not what I was looking for in a pirate MMO. I'm still here though. All the other pirate MMOs suck while POTBS is merely "flawed".

[JackBlackP54]

Originally Posted by CJFlint Sounds right up my ally Thats It IM DOWNLOADING TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This game is not really easy at the beginning. So be patient!
It's fun to play, but don't expect too much from it...
Compared to Potbs, it's not the better game!
I prefer this side for mods:
http://forum.piratesahoy.net/

[Not Woody]

Originally Posted by Cookie I found it about a year ago and have loved it. Like MrSparkle said, if you enjoyed Sid Meier's Pirates you will enjoy AOP2.

Hello, Mr. President.