Uncharted Waters Strategy Guide/FAQ
===================================
By Paul MacPherson (citanes26@yahoo.com)
Final Version: September 14th, 2005
This guide looks best in a ten point courier font. If you intend on printing
it, it's about fifty pages, give or take.
This guide should work for any version of the game, be it NES, SNES, Genesis, or
an emulated version of those. If you're going for the emulated style of play, I
would recommend the SNES or Genesis version, due to their (marginally) better
graphics, especially during battles.
Boring Copyright Information:
=============================
This guide is copyrighted to me, Paul MacPherson. I wrote it, re-wrote it, and
spent way more time than I'd like to admit working on it. Having said that...
- The latest version of this guide can always be found at www.rpgclassics.com
- Updates to this guide will ONLY be posted to www.rpgclassics.com
- Only I can modify this guide.
For details on using this guide on your website, please read the FAQ section.
Please note that there are sections of this guide detailing the controls of the
game and what the different menu commands do, which are paraphrased from the NES
instruction booklet. There is also a quote directly from it in the FAQ section.
Of course, that stuff is copyrighted to Koei, and credit is given where it is
due in both instances.
There are also tips, corrections and other information that other players have
given me for the purpose of being added to this guide in several places. Please
see the additional credits section to find out who contributed what.
Of course, Uncharted Waters is copyrighted to Koei, and all Nintendo products
listed are copyrighted to Nintendo.
|===================|
| Table of Contents |
|===================|
CHAPTER I: Introduction
- Review
- Tools Required
- Controls (NES)
- Town Map
- Menu Commands (Town)
- Menu Commands (At Sea)
- Menu Commands (On Shore)
- Status Screen (Hero)
- Status Screen (Mate)
- Status Screen (Ship)
- Status Screen (Port)
- Battle Commands
CHAPTER II: Basic Strategies
- Strategies
- Blank port data sheet
- Dangers of the Deep
- Things to Watch Out for
CHAPTER III: Walkthrough
- Preliminaries
- Geography 101
- Starting Out
- The First Trade Route
- The Mediterranean Sea
- Time For a Bigger Boat
- The New World
- Africa & Asia
- Treasure Hunts
- The Ultimate Battleship
- The Endgame
CHAPTER IV: How to Be a Pirate
CHAPTER V: Ports
- Port Types
- Europe
- The New World
- Africa & Arabia
- Asia
- The South Pacific
CHAPTER VI: Misc. Lists
- Mates
- Other Fleet Captains
- Pirates
- Waitresses
- Guild Items
CHAPTER VII: FAQ
CHAPTER VIII: Appendices
- A Note About Heavy Galleons (aka Economics 101)
- Making Your Own Map
- Selling Price Table
- Buying Price Table
- The Best Deal Table
- Ships
- Distances
- Fun With Emulators
- Cheating Stuff
- Gambling
- Did You Notice?
CHAPTER IX: The End
- Additional Credits
- The "Before You Email Me" List
- Future Versions
- Can You Help Me?
*Please note that chapters five through eight contain major spoilers.
|==========================|
| CHAPTER I - Introduction |
|==========================|
Review
======
First things first, this game is definitely NOT for everybody. Check out its
reviews on Gamefaqs to see what I mean. Here is my own sort of mini-review:
Story: 9/10
In this game you are Leon Franco (a name which can be changed), a sixteen year
old Portuguese lowlife, out to restore his family's name to the noble rank that
it once held. Through the course of his travels, Leon will befriend all kinds of
other sailors who will join his crew, and make lots of enemies of pirates and
rival nations. And of course, what game would be complete without the mandatory
princess to rescue from some sort of peril? The fourteen year old (file under:
"Yuck") Princess Christiana (or something similar to that) is the object of our
hero's desire. Later in the game you can haul all manner of trinkets and goodies
up to the palace to give to her.
On his quest, Leon will travel the entire world trading goods between nations
and continents, will battle with pirates and the navies of rival nations, and
will sail to the ends of the earth in search of long lost treasures. Of course,
you can also say the hell with all that and become a bloodthirsty pirate,
sinking anything that moves and stealing their goods. The story is introduced,
and then once the game starts, it's entirely up to you. Sounds fun huh? Well,
here's the catch...
- Graphics: 3/10
I won't even bother sugar coating it, the graphics of this game are pretty
friggin' bad. The NES version graphics are shoddy, even for the NES, and the
SNES version is only marginally better (more colourful, and that's about it).
The animation (if you can even call it that) is choppy, your ship "jumps" from
square to square on the sea, almost every town looks exactly alike (depending on
where it is in the world) and the terrain of the land is very, very boring and
uninspired
- Sound: 6/10
The sound is nothing special either. In towns and at the Ye Olde Inn it isn't
too bad, but at sea it's just awful, especially in the Arctic. My suggestion is
to turn the sound down on your TV, find a good sea chantey CD (with the fiddles
and accordions and such) and play that instead. Feel free to sway along in 3/4
time. Any one of those nine hundred skazillion "Flute by the sea" type CD's work
well too
- Controls: 7/10
Moving around ports can be awkward, especially in the SNES version with those
stupid, useless people wandering around aimlessly (reminds me of the city I live
in), but sailing isn't too bad. Battles take some getting used to, however.
- Challenge: 6/10
This game is by no means hard, if you have a good working knowledge of
geography, and common sense enough to know that if you sell something for more
than you bought it, you'll make a profit.
- Gameplay: 9/10 or 0/10
The gameplay is going to be the main turn off for most people. Unlike most
American video games of the early 1990's, this is not a fast paced action game
like Ninja Gaiden or Megaman, or a sprawling RPG like Dragon Warrior or Final
Fantasy. It leans a bit toward the latter category, but the game is kind of hard
to classify. I'd put it in the middle of a triangle with Strategy, Adventure,
and RPG at the three corners: Like a strategy game, it requires more brain power
than thumb speed; Like an adventure game, there is no one linear route to the
end - you are free to do whatever you want; And like an RPG, the game takes
*forever* to finish, is mostly menu driven, and has that classic "Final Fantasy"
overhead camera thing going on. Although the graphics and sound are very
disappointing (picture Dragon Warrior, only with boats and water) the immersion
(when you realize that the bright light glaring in the corner of your eye is
the sun coming up) is great.
- Overall - 8/10 or 0/10
You'll either love it or hate it, there's no "in between". If you're the kind of
person who prefers "the book over the movie", who doesn't need flashing lights
and repeated explosions and half naked women to be entertained, then you will
more than likely enjoy this game, provided you're interested in the Age of
Exploration, pirates and similar things.
Tools Required
==============
The first time I played this game was during a weekend rental of the SNES
version. Of course, the instructions were long gone, but I had no trouble
figuring it out. The only real help I had was my grandfather's old globe (from
just after World War II Ö Germany is shown as East and West, and Africa only has
like eight or nine countries).
Having said that, the best thing you could have at your side while playing this
game is a globe, a decent atlas, or a map of the world. Although the game takes
place five hundred years ago, many of the port names are still on a modern map.
Unfortunately, the coordinates in the game don't even come close to actual
latitudes and longitudes on a real, modern map. Still, a good head for geography
is a plus. Even that school atlas everybody still has from grade seven geography
class might prove helpful.
If you'd rather make things more realistic, albeit a little more difficult,
don't bother with the map or globe. Just draw your own map as you go. After all,
the Spanish and Portuguese explorers of the sixteenth century didn't have super
accurate maps to show them where to go. See the "making your own map" section
for details.
Next you're going to need a notepad and a pencil or pen. You might want to copy
the port data sheet I made, (based on the one Koei provides with the game) found
later in this guide, and print a few to fill out when you discover new ports.
Controls (NES/SNES)
===================
Please note that much of the remainder of this chapter (Controls, Menu Commands,
Status Screens and Battle Commands) is based on the NES instruction booklet for
the game, which is copyrighted to Koei. I've just rephrased some of the
descriptions.
Inside a port:
Control pad - Moves hero
Select - Brings up save menu
Inside a building:
Control pad - move cursor
A button - select item
B button - cancel selection
At sea:
Control pad - set compass bearing
A button - set sail, bring up sailing menu
B button - bring up sailing menu
select - bring up save menu
When you're presented with a "yes or no" question, pressing left on the
controller or the "A" button answers yes, pressing right on the control pad or
the "B" button answers no. When selecting a quantity, pressing left or right on
the control pad moves the little arrow to select the place value, up and down
change the number. If you press left while the arrow is over the highest place
value, the maximum value that can be entered will appear.
The only difference with the SNES version is the incorporation of the L and R
buttons to set the compass bearing at sea. I have no idea what the controls for
the Genesis are, but with only three buttons I'm sure you can figure it out.
TOWN MAP
========
Well, it ain't fancy, but it works. Every single port you visit will have at
least some of the buildings shown. Although the appearances of the buildings
change (from brick buildings in Europe to grass huts among the spice islands)
their locations in the towns don't. Supply ports have only the harbour, where
you can replenish your supplies. In the SNES version there are people wandering
around aimlessly, too, who serve no other purpose than to get in the way.
------------------------------------------------------
| | | Ye | | Market | | Palace* |
| Guild | | Olde | | Place | | or |
| | | Inn | | | | Scenery |
----------- ------------ ------------ ------------
| |
----------- ------------
| | | Ship |
| Lodge | | Yard |
| | | |
----------- ------------
| |
------------------------------| |----------------
\_____/ --- |
\______/ | Harbour|
Ships ----------
* Palaces are only found in the three national capitals: Lisbon, Seville and
Istanbul. Unless you've been awarded some sort of rank by the king of Portugal,
you'll always get kicked out of them as soon as you walk inside.
Menu Commands (Town)
====================
Select Button Menu:
-------------------
Save: Save your game.
Music: Turns the game music on or off.
Speed: How long a message will stay on the screen (in seconds) before
disappearing.
Marketplace:
------------
Sell: Sell your cargo to the shop owner.
Buy: Purchase some of the owner's goods.
View Market: See how much the owner pays for things.
Invest: Increases the economic worth of the port.
Ye Olde Inn:
------------
Crew->Recruit: Spend money to hire sailors for your ships.
Crew->Assign: Set the amount of sailors on each of your ships.
Find Mates: Look for mates to navigate other ships for you.
Quit Mates: Fire one of your mates.
Gossip: Spend some money and hear what other sailors have to say.
Tip: Give the waitress 10gp - sometimes she has something useful to say.
Gamble: Have a game of cards with other patrons.
Shipyard:
---------
Buy->Buy Used Ship: Pretty self explanatory.
Buy->Build New Ship: Create your own vessel from scratch!
Sell: Sell one or more of your ships. You need to remove the crew first.
Fix: Repair one or more ships.
Remodel->Guns: Change the type of armaments on a ship.
Remodel->Sails: Change between 3-point and 4-point sails.
Remodel->Figurehead: Buy a figurehead for the ship (helps against storms).
Remodel->Rename Ship: I'll let you figure this one out.
Guild:
------
Purchase: Buy items for use in navigating or in battle:
Telescope: Use to see things from a distance.
Sextant: Use to calculate latitude and longitude.
Speculum: Use to map your position out.
Amulets: These reduce the damage natural disasters cause.*
Swords: These increase the damage your crew dishes out when boarding ships.
Icons: These increase the accuracy (damage) of your ship's guns.
Generally, the more expensive an item is, the greater effect it has.
Sell: Sell your items and some types of treasure.
Nation Information: Find out the following information about a country:
Revenue: How much support it has from other ports.
Hostility: How likely their navy is to attack you.
Friendship: The opposite of hostility.
* Thanks to Zed Omega for clarifying this.
Lodge:
------
View->Mates: Check out your stats, or your mates' stats.
View->Fleet: Check out the condition of your ships.
View->Port: Check out the condition of the port.
Lodging: Spend the night. (kills time)
Harbour:
--------
Sail: Head for the high seas.
Restock: Refill water and food supplies.
Transfer->Supplies: Move goods from one ship to another.
Transfer->Men: (SNES Only) Transfer sailors from one ship to another.
Palace (Lisbon):
------------------
Meet King: Visit the King of Portugal.
Secret Call: Sneak upstairs to see the princess.
Profess Love: Woo the princess with sweet nothings.
Flowers: Give her those flowers you stole from the garden on the way in.
Gift: Hand over some of your treasure.
Request->Funds: Ask the king to give you money.
Request->Crew: Ask the king to give you sailors.
Savings: Manage your bank account.
Palace (Seville or Istanbul):
-----------------------------
Meet King/Sultan: Visit the ruler of the country.
Menu Commands (At Sea)
======================
Pressing "A" while at sea will bring up the sailing menu. From here, pressing
select will bring up the save/music/speed menu.
Move->Direction: Set the compass bearing.
Move->Case Anchor: Stop moving. Useful when you want to wait out a fleet.
Look->Inspect: Use the telescope to see what things are.
Look->Survey: Use the sextant to get your latitude and longitude.
Look->Negotiate: Talk to an adjacent fleet.
Battle: Attack an adjacent fleet (must be daytime).
Debark->Port Call: Enter an adjacent port.
Debark->Go Ashore: I think you can figure this one out.
Info->Fleet: Check out the status of your ships.
Info->Cargo: See what you're hauling.
Info->Land: Use the speculum to map out your position.
Info->Mates: Check your stats or your mates' stats.
Info->Items: See what items you have.
Order->Ration: Adjust ration amounts (I don't recommend fiddling with this).
Order->Distribute: Pay your mates to improve their loyalty.
Order->Personnel: Change navigators, or change the flagship.
Order->Dispose: Abandon one of your ships (and the crew, and the goods).
Menu Commands (On Shore)
========================
Sail: Hit the high seas.
Fix: Use lumber to fix damaged ships.
Wait: Keep the menu from popping up all the time. Press "A" to bring it back.
Search->Water: See if you can find a spring. If you do, you can refill water.
Search->Treasure: Use this command when you're on the "X" on the treasure map.
Transfer->Supplies: Move goods from one ship to another.
Transfer->Men: Transfer sailors from one ship to another.
Status Screen (Hero)
====================
Age: How old the hero is. His (and everybody else's) birthday is on January 1st.
Rank: What your title is. There are nine different titles.
Fame: How famous the hero is. Basically it's the "score" of the game.
Gold: How much money you have on you.
Battle Experience: Improves after you sink ships or defeat their crews.
Battle Level: How strong you are in battle.
Sailing Experience: Improves with the amount of sailing you do.
Sailing Level: Higher levels mean you can navigate larger ships.
Charisma: Higher charisma means higher loyalties from mates.
Strength and Courage help in battle, Intelligence and Wisdom aid in sailing.
Status Screen (Mate)
====================
Age: How old the mate is.
Loyalty: How much faith he has in the captain.
Battle Experience: Improves after he sinks ships or defeats their crews.
Battle Level: How strong he is in battle.
Sailing Experience: This number improves with the amount of sailing he does.
Sailing Level: Higher levels mean he can navigate larger ships.
Charisma: If theirs is higher than yours they're more likely to lose loyalty.
Strength and Courage help in battle, Intelligence and Wisdom aid in sailing.
Status Screen (Ship)
====================
Durability: The "hit points" of your ship. When it hits zero, it sinks.
Power: How fast it can sail.
Handling: How well it can sail against the wind.
Cargo Load: How much stuff you're carrying.
Crewmen: How many men are aboard.
Water (Graphic of a barrel): How much water is aboard.
Food (Graphic of a loaf of bread and a piece of meat): How much food is aboard.
Lumber (Graphic of wood): How much lumber is aboard.
Condition: The morale of the crew.
Status Screen (Port)
====================
Economic Worth: How well the marketplace is doing.
Economic Investment: Total money invested this month at the marketplace.
Industrial Worth: How well the shipyard is doing.
Industrial Investment: Total money invested this month at the shipyard.
Support: See who their friends are.
Prices: See if prices are normal (100%), higher or lower.
Battle Commands
===============
Battles can only be fought during the day. If the sun goes down in the middle of
a battle, the fight ends. You can still follow the enemy fleet around all night
and attack again in the morning though. The commands are written out in the NES
version, the SNES version uses graphics to represent them.
Move: Move your ships around.
Stop: Basically declare that this is as far as you'd like to move.
View: See which ship is which.
Fire: Fire your guns at an enemy ship.
Rush: Board the enemy ship and fight them hand-to-hand.
Flee: Run away (Flagship only).
The battle system takes some getting used to, but it's not that complicated. You
can take as long as you want to plan every move, so there's no rush.
If you simply can't figure out the battle system, please email me, and I'll try
to explain it. I haven't been asked anything about it yet, though, thus the lack
of a better guide to this part of the game.
|===============================|
| CHAPTER II - Basic Strategies |
|===============================|
These are important, and will help you succeed. Some of these contain
"spoilers", so read at your own risk.
1. Write down the latitude and longitude of ports when someone tells you them.
This will help later when you're trying to find the place.
2. Whenever you find a waitress at a Ye Olde Inn, write her name down next to
the port's name. This will help later on when you need to find a particular
waitress.
3. Try and find a telescope, a sextant and a speculum. The first two are
essential from the start, but the speculum can wait until you can afford it.
4. Very often in the game, Portugal and Turkey go to war and you can't get into
Turkish ports. If the king orders you to take a letter to the Sultan of Turkey,
this may be your only chance to shop in Istanbul, which is a great place to buy
artwork, just in case Pisa's prices are too steep. You can usually find a mate
or three at the Ye Olde Inn here too.
5. Don't bother trying to hire every mate you come across. You only need four,
and many of them are just wastes of time. Get four to navigate your ships, and
that should do it. A few more couldn't hurt, but you'll never need a full roster
(10) of them.
6. Try and keep your mates' loyalties at 100. Usually paying them 1000 golds
will do the trick. After that, they never complain, unless the ship they're
navigating gets smashed up in a storm. Don't bother paying ones that aren't
navigating ships, though.
7. Don't bother with Saker and Culverin guns, they're about as powerful as a
slingshot. Go with Cannons every time, and they'll pay off in the long run.
8. Unless you're really rich, the Dragon figurehead should suffice for the
32,000 gold piece Neptune figurehead.
9. Tip the waitresses at the Ye Olde Inns that you frequent the most like it's
going out of style. After a while they'll just start telling you things as soon
as you walk in the door (and start calling you cutsie little names too).
10. Don't bother trading useless commodities (like olive oil) unless a merchant
asks you to bring some in. Only deal in "real" goods, like sugar, porcelain,
silver, gold, coral, artwork and firearms. Pick up some other stuff for
variety's sake if you want.
11. Always use the telescope to "Inspect" another fleet at sea before talking to
them. If they're pirates, don't talk to them or you'll be attacked. Of course,
if you're having a good game of "Pirate Hunting," this may be the desired
effect. . .
12. Don't attack Spanish or Turkish trade ships unless you know what youÒ²e
doing. Starting a war with either of these two nations is not a good thing. If
you're out to be a pirate, however, go right ahead.
13. Wait until you have five decent warships before attacking anybody. Getting
your ass handed to you in a battle at sea is often fatal one way or another.
Even if you survive the battle, your ships will be heavily damaged and will not
handle very well, making the trip back to shore difficult.
14. I highly recommend against sailing to Asia via the Arctic ocean, unless
you're commanding a powerful, experienced fleet and know what you're up against.
If you'd like to know why, please read the FAQ section under "what's so bad
about the Arctic Ocean?"
15. Until later in the game when you start dealing in firearms, never buy
anything in Seville. This is for two reasons: Doing so will help the Spanish
economy, and that will make galleons and firearms more expensive later on; and
(more importantly) there's nothing worth buying in Seville anyway (except
firearms), so don't waste your money.
16. Despite the size of the ship and number of bunks, most boats only require
fifteen sailors to function without problems. You can get away with only 5 on a
latin, and a heavy galleon only needs 25-30. Of course, you'll want a lot more
than that if you're a pirate or looking to get into a fight.
17. Keep ALL the food and water on the flagship. This way, if one of your ships
"mysteriously disappears" you won't lose rations.
18. Unless you really have the money to spare and enjoy getting Spain and Turkey
mad at you and your country, don't bother investing money in more than two or
three ports (until you can defend yourself). I beat the game at least three
times before I even knew what investing did.
19. Since the game operates on a grid, remember that it takes exactly the same
amount of time to sail in long straight lines as it does to sail on "angles" to
get somewhere. Often this approach will get you there faster, too. Just ignore
all those CPU fleets sailing around with their ship facing all different
diagonal directions.
20. A good rule of thumb for food and water: One barrel of food will last one
man twenty days (with rations set at 50%). Obviously, this means one barrel will
last twenty men one day. So if you have a crew of twenty men, you need ten
barrels of food to sail for ten days.
The basic formula for how much food you need is as follows:
food = (days of food required) X (number of crew)
------------------------------------------
20
Or another way to put it:
days you can sail = (amount of food) X 20
---------------------
(number of crew)
Pretty simple stuff. Water works the same way.
21. Never say yes to a merchant the first time he offers you a price. If you say
no, he might just ask you how much you're willing to pay for something. This is
especially true with that crook at the shipyard. Depending on your fame and
charisma, you can sometimes grab a 5-50% discount on things! In extreme cases,
you can buy something from a shopkeeper, and then sell it right back to him at a
profit! Thanks a lot to Alex Shovkoplyas for pointing out the benefits of
haggling.
Blank Port Data Sheet
=====================
Just fill in the details of every port you come across, and you'll have no
trouble remembering where things are! Cut and paste this in notepad a few times
to fill a page, and print as many copies as you need.
===================================================
Port: ________________________ Lat/Long: _________
Continent/Country: ________________________________
Goods Price Guild Items Price
----- ----- ----------- -----
__________ _____ ____________________ _____
__________ _____ ____________________ _____
__________ _____ ____________________ _____
__________ _____ ____________________ _____
__________ _____ Waitress's Name: __________
__________ _____ Economic Worth: ___________
Notes: ____________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
===================================================
Dangers of the Deep
===================
Since the instruction booklet doesn't list anything specific, here's a list of
the disastrous things that can happen at sea. Some people might consider this
information "spoilers", so read at your own risk.
Storms
------
Probably the most common disaster, storms occur exclusively in tropical waters,
and are most often encountered around the West coast of Africa. These thrash
your entire fleet about, damaging everything on your ships, and killing a hefty
slice of your crew. If you're sailing anything flimsier than say, a mahogany
Nao, or have less than 20 crew per ship, consider it game over. You might even
have the pleasure of being tossed all over the Atlantic while watching a CPU
fleet sail blissfully by, completely unaffected by the tempest that seems to be
centred exclusively on you. The best way to avoid storms is to save on every
screen while sailing around Africa, and reset the game if one happens.
Seaweed
-------
By far the most annoying of all the disasters, because it takes FOREVER to get
it over with, one way or the other. If you explore the New World farther West
than Santo Domingo, or try to sail from Nagasaki to Zeiton in the game, you are
going to get stuck in seaweed. When this happens (almost always to the first
ship in your fleet) you have two options. You can scuttle the ship, and get on
with your business, albeit minus one fifth of your fleet and all the cargo (and
crew) it had on board; or you can *try* to get to land to repair the rudder,
which will be completely destroyed. The reason I say "try" is because you are
quite likely going to drift around the same screen for about two months before
the wind or current pushes you ashore. So unless you're packing that much food
and water, and have a good hour or so to waste watching your ship move back
and forth over the same two squares, reset the game and start from your last
save, or scuttle the ship and move on.
Mysterious Vanishings
=====================
For lack of a better name. There are some places in the game where one of your
ships (almost always the first one) will just up and disappear into thin air. No
warning, just a flash and poof! It's gone, and there's nothing you can do about
it. Generally, this happens in tropical waters, usually the mid Atlantic, or off
the East coast of Africa, South of Madagascar. All you can do is reset and start
from your last save.
Starvation
==========
If you run out of food or water, your crew will start to die off, and
eventually, your ships will start drifting away. When you realize that you're
not going to make it to a port in time to restock things before they run out,
adjust the food and water rations to something like 25%. That'll buy you some
more time, but the condition of the ship will drop like a rock. Always keep a
healthy amount of food and water on board.
There are a few other things, like pirates and the Kara Sea, but they're
discussed in other places in this guide. Generally, most disasters can be
avoided by saving the game regularly, or by having a good figurehead installed
on each ship. Amulets also help to keep these things from happening.
Some Things to Watch out For (SPOILERS!)
========================================
These are listed to keep you from wasting time/money on useless ventures. Skip
this part if you'd prefer to find out the hard way.
- Don't bother trying to use or even find the Panama Canal. Remember, The game
takes place almost four hundred years before the Panama Canal was even built!
- The Northwest Passage isn't in the game either, but you can do laps around
Antarctica, if that sort of thing appeals to you.
- You might as well not bother with Australia or New Zealand, the only thing
there is a useless supply port on the West coast of Australia.
- There are ports in South America (6 to be exact), but all are quite useless.
If you insist on exploring this continent, make sure you use the Strait of
Magellan.
- There is nothing worthwhile at the end of any river in this game. You'll note
I didn't say there wasn't anything at all, though...
- Disasters almost always happen to the first ship in your fleet. For this
reason, don't keep valuable cargo or supplies on board this ship, and above all
don't keep it as the flagship! You might want to use it instead to carry the
lumber it's going to need to fix itself after its rudder gets caught in seaweed
(several dozen times). Once you have a decent figurehead on each ship (i.e.
Dragon or better), and a good Amulet, it's usually safe to start using this ship
like the other ships.
Here's a good one: I've only had this happen to me once, but it is really,
really annoying once you find out the hard way what you did wrong. If that
sneaky marketplace owner in Santo Domingo ever wants "to make a profit by
trading Coral" DON'T ACCEPT. Santo Domingo is the only place in the whole world
where you can buy the stuff, period. If you refuse his offer, your fame will go
down, but if you take on the mission and then come back empty handed (which you
will, because you won't find it anywhere else) it will plummet. With that in
mind, never go on a quest for the following ports to get the goods listed next
to them, unless you like wild goose chases:
Amboina - Nutmeg Ceylon - Cinnamon Nagasaki - Silver
Santo Domingo - Coral Ternate - Cloves Zeiton - Raw Silk
And finally, Another annoying thing happens from time to time when you're
chasing an enemy fleet. Somehow, computer controlled fleets can *portage* their
ships over land. If a fleet you're chasing enters a screen with water on either
side of a piece of land down the middle (the screen with Genoa and Venice on it
for example, or where the Panama Canal would be) there's a very good chance that
when you enter the screen behind them, they'll be on the other side of the land.
Hard as hell to explain and even more frustrating when it happens, just figured
I'd mention it so you didn't think that you were the only one it happens to.
|===========================|
| CHAPTER III - Walkthrough |
|===========================|
This walkthrough will guide you through a lot of the game, but won't really ruin
anything for you. Since this is an adventure game with complete freedom to do
whatever you want, there's no real set path to follow to get to the end.
Apparently there's a time limit of 20 years (about 20-30 hours of actual time),
but I wouldn't worry about it - You'll either beat the game or be long bored of
it before that happens. In any case, I've never reached the limit. I think the
year 1512 was the longest it ever took me to finish the game - ten years.
Basically what it boils down to is:
- Build a fleet
- Start doing small tasks for merchants
- Gain fame and fortune by trading goods between ports
- explore the far reaches of the known world
- Start doing favours for the king to gain rank
- start going to places really far from Europe
- Start doing difficult tasks for guild masters and merchants
- Start attacking pirate fleets
- Kill some Turkish (or Spanish) warlord and save the princess
Please note that I use the words "money", "gold", "gold pieces", "GP" and even
the good old Faxanadu-esque "golds" interchangeably when talking about the
currency in this game. When I mean the actual commodity "gold", you'll know by
the context.
Preliminaries
=============
First you need to name your character. If you refuse to enter a name, you get
stuck with the handle "Leon Franco." Having picked your call sign for the game,
you get to "roll" your stats, kinda like in AD&D and all those kinda games. Try
and get a high value in Charisma, and the rest preferably around sixty or
higher. Try and get about fifty bonus points too, to add onto your stats. When a
decent set of stats comes around, allocate the bonus points, trying to get your
Charisma to around ninety or so. Don't worry about the rest of the stats, by the
time you're halfway through the game most of them will be close to, if not a
hundred anyway. After the stats, you name your flagship. If you fail to supply a
name for this glorified bath toy it gets called the "Hermes." Now we begin . . .
Geography 101
=============
It's been my experience that geography (among other things) isn't exactly the
"forte" of too many people, especially Americans. If you don't know where (or
even what) the country of Portugal is, you'd best read the rest of this section.
To get anywhere in this game, you need at least some knowledge of geography, and
you definitely need to know your way around Europe. Get a map, and find the
United States. It's the third largest country in the world, so you shouldn't
have too much trouble.
- To find Portugal, put your finger on New York City, and go straight across the
Atlantic Ocean. It's a small country that you might have thought was part of
Spain. Here's a REALLY rough sketch, obviously not to scale:
/ _ | France
Canada |_// ______|_____/
_ _|// /_ |
- - - -/ / | | /
/ Portugal ---> | Spain |
@ New York City | | |
| Lisbon @_| __|
USA / \__ _/
| Atlantic Ocean \/ Med. Sea
|
____ / ________________
\\ /
\| / Africa
- Now study the area around Portugal carefully (on a real map, not that silly
thing above which only shows where Portugal is). Note the location of the
entrance to the Mediterranean sea. Find the countries of France, Spain, England
and Italy. These are the most important places for the first part of the game.
- Keep in mind that North is up, South is down, East is right, and West is left.
- If you want to play the game realistically, put the map away now, and start
drawing your own from this point on. See the "making you own map" bit in the
appendices for details on doing so.
A Note on Names of Ships
========================
Since you're only given six letters to play with, coming up with names for ships
can be annoying after a while. In response to my question later in the guide
about ship names, I find that many players simply name them things like "Ship1",
"Ship2" etc, or even the slightly more practical "Food", "Water", "Goods1",
"Goods2" and so on. One player named his ships after the mates sailing them Ö he
said it was handy in battles. Names of Greek and Roman gods and goddesses seem
to be popular (especially Venus), as well as names of mythical creatures, and
women's names. My suggestion is, if struck with writer's block when naming your
fleet, to search the internet for Portuguese or Spanish names, and then refine
it to women's names. There are many that are six or fewer letters, and if you
can live without the accents over some of the letters, they work quite
befittingly. Maybe if you have a ship built in another country, you could name
it something in that language. Be creative, or be practical, it's your choice.
1. Starting Out
===============
First, go to the marketplace, buy as much sugar as you can, and head for the
harbour. There's no point in trying to get mates at the Ye Olde Inn to join you
yet, they'll all refuse until your sailing level increases. Don't bother selling
your pepper and quartz yet either, you can sell it for more elsewhere. Talk to
the guy at the harbour, and use the "transfer men" command to give fifteen of
your sailors the boot. You don't need twenty men to sail a boat the size of a
canoe. Having given them their walking papers, talk to the guy again, and head
for sea. Now that you're at sea, immediately "go ashore". Use the lumber you
have on board to fix your ship. You'll probably have 1 piece of lumber left
over, so just use the "transfer supplies" command to toss it. You won't be
needing it now or ever for this ship. Now put back to sea. If you're using a
modern map of the world as a guide, the first thing you'll notice (if you're
observant) is that the Portuguese coastline is a little misshapen. You see,
Lisbon in this game is much further North than the actual city, so much further
North that it might as well be in Spain. Get used to this, because it's the same
all over the world.
2. The First Trade Route
========================
To start out, create a small 2-point trade route between Lisbon and Bordeaux
(France). If for some reason you don't know where France is, please read the
above "Geography 101" again. If you still can't figure it out, go North one
screen, and then sail East until you crash into land. Explore the coastline on
this screen until the port of Bordeaux appears. Having arrived in la belle
France, Sell Lisbon's sugar and stock up on porcelain. Take the porcelain back
home and sell it. Now that you're back in town with some sailing skill under
your belt, take a stroll to the Ye Olde Inn in search of some mates. If Marco is
hanging around, try enlisting him. Jose also might join this early on, if he's
even there. Every time you enter a town, check the Ye Olde Inn for mates. Once
you have four to navigate your fleet, don't bother getting any more. Maybe find
one you like the look of for a first mate so you don't have to look at that
scraggly old sailor in the lower left corner all the time. If you're feeling
more adventurous, and want some variety in this trade route, buy some grapes in
Bordeaux, and sell them in Antwerp (Belgium). Then buy some porcelain from
Antwerp, and lug that home. If the guy at the marketplace in Lisbon starts
offering really low amounts of money for the porcelain, sell it in Seville
(Spain) instead. Once you have around 3000-4000 gold pieces, buy another latin
for one of your mates to sail. Don't pay any more than 800 gold pieces for it
though. Do this until you gain a few sailing levels, have what mates you have
sailing their own latins, and have about 10,000 gold pieces. Try to find a
sextant and a telescope at one of the ports too, they'll come in handy soon.
3. The Mediterranean Sea
========================
Trading with France and Belgium gets old after a while. It's time to do
something more exciting. With ships full of sugar (and food and water for about
20 days at sea), sail into the Mediterranean sea, heading for Italy. Make a note
of the ports you see on the way in (this is where the telescope comes in handy).
If you want a couple of decent mates, stop in Algiers (Algeria) and Marseilles
(France) to pick up Miguel and Roberto. What you want to do here is set up a
brief 2-point route between Naples and Pisa. Sell all your sugar in Naples and
buy wool. Haul the wool up the coast to Pisa, selling it in exchange for
artwork. Take said artwork back down the coast to Naples, sell it, and fill up
with wool again. If one of the places starts getting jerky with their prices,
grab as much artwork as you can and head for home. Sell the artwork on the way
out of the Mediterranean at one of the ports. Try and get 500 gold pieces a
barrel for it. Hopefully, you have somewhere in the order of 50,000 gold pieces.
Having accomplished all this, head back to Portugal.
4. Time for a Bigger Boat
=========================
Sailing around in latins will get you nowhere in this game. Load up on sugar and
head for Seville. Sell the sugar. Make sure that Spain's economy is totally
shot. Check their prices at the Lodge. If it's somewhere below 65%, you're good
to continue. Otherwise start importing everything you can find to Seville (grain
from Majorca works well), driving their market down. First, take all the men off
one of your latins, and put them on another (giving it a crew of 10). Having
done this, take a spin into the shipyard and first sell the newly vacated latin,
then ask to build a new ship. Pick the Nao or Carrack model, with a teak hull.
Flimsy as hell, but you're still a long way away from sea battles. Get 4-point
sails (Seems to make the ship go faster across the Atlantic, but apparently
3-point sails are better for battles), get zero gun placements and only 20 bunks
for crew. You now basically have the 3rd (or 4th, if you picked the Nao) best
cargo ship you can get. Give it a name and then head for the Ye Olde Inn.
Spend 500 gold pieces or so on a crew for the new ship (twenty men are all you
need, and you already have 5 bunked on a latin), and then stock it with food and
water. Head for the seas. The very second you're on the sailing screen, change
navigators so that the main character is sailing the Carrack/Nao. Marco or Jose
or whatever other mate who volunteered to navigate the new ship might have the
thing drifting halfway across the Atlantic before they get the hang of it.
Better to keep them on the latins for now.
5. The New World
================
Now that you have a really big ship, you can start dealing in really big volumes
of cargo. By selling ton after ton of sugar, wool, porcelain and artwork around
Europe, you can build up your cash fairly quickly. Once your main character is
about level 5-6 for sailing, and you have enough money for another ship
(remember to keep Spain's economy in ruins to keep prices down) build yourself a
teak galleon. Don't bother with gun placements or a crazy number of bunks for
crew. 20 bunks are all you need. Now transfer men from the latins over to it,
and sell all of those glorified bath toys for 300 gold pieces or whatever you
can get. Load the galleon with about 120 food and 120 water (which will last 40
men about 60 days), 10-20 pieces of lumber, buy as many firearms as you can, and
put to sea. Make sure that the mate with the highest sailing level is navigating
the Carrack/Nao, and head for the new world. There are two ways of getting
there, the safe way, and the quick way. The safe way involves sailing straight
West from Lisbon for a REALLY long time (appropriately, about as long as it
takes to listen to Matthew Sweet's version of "Cortez the Killer"), until you
basically crash into New England. Now sail straight South until you see a piece
of land to the West. Head one more screen South and then one West and tada!
Here's Santo Domingo! This method can sometimes run into snags when the mid-
Atlantic currents don't feel like cooperating (they'll send you North or back
the way you came sometimes), so here's the "quick" way: From Lisbon or Seville
or wherever, sail down the West coast of Africa, saving the game on every
screen. When you find the port of Verde, turn to the West and sail straight
until you reach Santo Domingo. With three masted naos rigged with four point
sails, you can use this "quick" way to get from Lisbon to Santo Domingo in about
fifteen days. Now that you're here, land the boat and check your food and water
stock. You should probably have at least 25-30 days of food and water to get
home. That's about 50-80 of each. Better to fill that up now because you're
about to make some ridiculous profits on your firearms. If you have any luck at
all, you will have bought them in Spain for about 50 golds a piece, and be
selling them here for almost 200 a shot! Sell as much as you can, and then start
buying Coral. You can sell Coral anywhere (except here) for an insane amount of
money. Once you get rid of as many firearms as you can, you should be ready to
head out with two ships jam packed with Coral (and maybe some firearms left
over), and a pocket full of gold pieces. If the king of Portugal hasn't been
asking you for favours yet, he will now. Unload some of that gold into your
account at the palace and start getting rid of that coral. Any port in Europe
will pay you grandly for it. After several jaunts to the new world, you'll never
want for gold again. Use it to build up a fleet of five good galleon calibre
trade ships. You might want to get those mate loyalties at 100, too. Another way
to get rid of money in Santo Domingo is to invest at the marketplace. Drop 60
Grand and head for home. By the time you return in a few months, the shopkeeper
will have a surprise for you!
6. Africa & Asia
================
Now that you've gone to the new world, you should feel confident to go just
about anywhere. With your ships jam packed with firearms, around 60 pieces of
lumber for emergency repairs, and enough food for 90 days at sea, give this a
try: Sail South from Lisbon, down the West coast of Africa (there are lots of
storms around here Ö save often) around the Southernmost tip (Cape Town), and
then sail straight East until you basically crash into Australia. Now sail North
until you find land. Explore the Philippines and Southern Asia, until you
eventually find Japan. The port of Nagasaki, Japan is the only place in the
entire world that sells silver. Make sure to save often, because there's almost
a guarantee that you'll get your rudder caught in seaweed before you get home.
If that does happen (which it probably will) just go ashore (if you can GET
ashore) and use the lumber to make repairs. Chinese ports (all two of them)
offer a whole whack of hard to find stuff, but none of it is really worth
hauling all the way back to Europe or anywhere else. With your ships filled with
Silver and enough food for about 40 days at sea, sail West along the Southern
coastline of Asia, stopping in India and other places. Explore the Middle East
and Persian Gulf if you want (the only place you can buy carpet), but you're
mainly interested in finding the Northeast coast of Africa, specifically, a port
that sells gold. For some reason, these African marketplace owners will pay
almost 300 gold pieces for a barrel of silver, which you bought in Japan for
something almost ten times less. Through the process of buying and selling,
exchange all your silver for gold, but make sure you have about 60 days of
food and water on board. Don't worry so much about the water, you can replenish
that at any of the ports on the West coast of Africa. Take the gold back to
Europe and forget about ever having to work for money again.
7. Treasure Hunts
=================
For me, these were the most fun part of the game. Some guild master sends you to
the ends of the Earth in search of some legendary artifact, and then pays you a
ludicrous amount of money for it. Gossip at the Ye Olde Inns for clues on where
to go to find somebody who might have information on the item's whereabouts.
Usually that person will refer you to somebody else, often a waitress at a Ye
Olde Inn or a sailor. When you finally find the person you're looking for (which
usually involves a trip to East Africa or Asia somewhere along the line), they
will do one of two things:
The easy way - They'll offer to sell you a map for a certain amount of money.
Buy it. Now have the sailors at the Ye Olde Inn study it. They might know where
it is. Usually the treasure is on some lonely island in the middle of nowhere,
or some equally remote part of the Earth. Using the speculum will produce the
same type of map as the treasure map (albeit minus the "X"). When the two
produce the same picture, you're there. Land where the "X" is on the map and
search for treasure. Now try and get back to the guild master without any pirate
entanglements.
OR
The hard way - They'll tell you who has it. To get it, you need to track the guy
down, and defeat his fleet in a battle at sea. Of course, this task is going to
require a fleet built of sterner stuff than teak without any arms whatsoever.
What you need to do here is get back to Europe, build yourself a good fleet of
battleships (see the next section), and then start asking at the Ye Olde Inns as
to where your man is. If he's Spanish or Turkish, chances are pretty good that
he's halfway around the globe, but he's "on his way" to Seville or Istanbul.
What I suggest there is to camp out near one of those ports, and wait. Use the
"go ashore" command, and then head back to sea when a fleet appears. Use the
telescope to see if it's the guy you want. If the guy you're after is a pirate
however, he very well might be hiding out in some very remote area of the world
(pirates just *love* Da Nang for some reason). What I suggest there is to
pack your warships with lots of food and water, and some goods that trade well
in that area of the world. Only take a skeleton crew for the initial voyage (20-
30 men per ship), and then, when you're close to where he should be, hire a
whole roster of them with the money you make from the goods. Now hunt the guy
down and claim your prize.
8. The Ultimate Battleship
==========================
Sooner or later, somebody is going to ask you to kill somebody. To do this,
you're going to need warships. There is no warship better than a Heavy Galleon.
Hopefully you've done that whole sailing to the New World thing several times by
this point, you have a fairly high sailing level, and aren't exactly strapped
for cash, because your going to need a lot of sailing experience (level 10 or
so) and a lot of cash to buy one of these things. Later on in the game, after
you have a few boatloads of money, take a spin up to Oslo. This trick will work
with any port you can invest in, but I use Oslo because there are lots of
neighbouring ports to sell things at. Make sure to come into town with a full
wallet of money, and ships packed to the gilders full of something that sells
well in Europe, like Gold or Coral. Now, here's what you do: Invest 60,000
gold pieces at the marketplace. Now sell your goods until you have 60 grand
again, and invest that at the Oslo shipyard. Having done that, set sail, and
immediately use the "go ashore" command. Make a note of the date. Using the
"wait" command, wait until the month changes (if you have the whole month to
wait, go get a coffee - it'll take about that long), and your investments will
now have taken effect. Take a spin back inside the port and note that you can
now buy wood in Oslo. Beats going all the way to Northeast Africa, doesn't it?
Invest 60,000 at the shipyard again, and then leave town for a month. Go sell
something in London or another nearby port to earn cash, since you've probably
destroyed the market in Oslo by selling things (which is good, so make
sure you do just that). Wait until the month changes, and go back. Check the
industrial worth of the port at the lodge. If it's 1000, and the "prices" thing
says something like 60% or lower, you're good to proceed, otherwise invest
thirty grand again at the shipyard. When the industrial worth of the port is
finally 1000, take all your crew and goodies off of one of your ships, and sell
it at the shipyard. Now, with about $35,000 in your pocket, ask the shipyard
owner to build you a new ship. Note that a new ship, the "Heavy Galleon", is now
available. This KICK ASS ship, which has 1000 available space, is the best ship
in the game. If you pick one of these with a mahogany body, it will have a hull
strength of 100! Not only that, the thing can hold 100 cannons, enough firepower
to blast any Spanish warship into toothpicks with a few rounds. These ships
are expensive, but are really worth it. If you want to use the thing for
peaceful purposes, select to have no gun placements, and only 30 bunks for crew
(Heavy Galleons need more men than other ships). Now you have a ship with 970
available space!!
9. The Endgame
==============
It's all clear sailing from here! All you have to do now is keep doing favours
for the king, until he finally asks you to rescue the princess from a Spanish or
Turkish fleet. All you need to do to accomplish this is to find out who has the
princess and where he's taking her (ask at the Ye Olde Inn). Then all you do is
cut him off en route to wherever it is he's going. The last battle is no harder
than any other battle. Then you get to enjoy the typical Koei ending. In the
mean time, here's a few fun things to try.
Operation: "Buy Asia"
What you do here is haul as many firearms, preferably bought in Spain at around
50 gold pieces a barrel, all the way to Nagasaki, and start loading up on
silver. If you have five heavy galleons rigged as trade ships (30 crew, 0 guns,
970 cargo space) You can haul roughly 4000 barrels of firearms to Japan in one
go, if you make a pit stop for supplies along the way. That would run you about
$225,000 to buy in Seville with their price index around 50-60%. You can sell
that amount of firearms in Nagasaki for close to a million bucks. Now imagine
how much silver a million gold pieces would buy... roughly 32000. That amount of
silver, if you were to sell it in Arabia (meaning the region, not a specific
port) would net you somewhere in the vicinity of twelve million dollars. That's
more money than you can store at the palace, ever. Of course, you can't do this
all in one trip from Japan to Arabia. You'll need to keep Arabian price indexes
high, and Japan's somewhat reasonable, which means you'll need to lug something
back from Arabia to Japan to sell in Nagasaki. I suggest Quartz, the specialty
of Aden. This creates one hell of a vicious cycle, with you making basically
unlimited cash, more than you'll ever need. Do you know how many ports there are
in Southern Asia between Baghdad and Nagasaki where you can invest all that
money? Lots! And the best part is, Spain and Turkey are too lazy to sail all the
way over here to screw up your fun! You have until 1522 to beat the game, so
take some time to invest in far away places.
Here's a few less detailed suggestions:
- Try and get Dias to join you. The keyword here is "try".
- Declare war on Spain or Turkey (or both) and see how many fleets you can sink.
- Load up five heavy galleon trade ships (30 crew, 0 guns, 970 space) with just
food and water. That's enough supplies to sail for over a year without stopping
for a refill. Go find things. Without looking at the port list (if you haven't
already) try to find the ports of Ruwen, Kailua, Tanisk and Chanchan. I'd say
those are the four hardest to find.
- Find the game too easy? Try this: As soon as you start a new game, get rid of
fifteen of your crew, sell your pepper and quartz, buy firearms and sail around
Africa. Using what little money you have, plus the profits from the firearms,
work your way across Asia, and don't come back to Europe until you're sailing
five heavy galleons. Just be sure to save on every screen, and you should be
able to make it past all the storms. If you know what to sell where, you'll have
a fine fleet in a couple years or so. Unfortunately, you'll probably need to
hire Rinaldo to sail for you, as he, Cyran, Aljeuna and Ammul are about the only
mates you'll find in this part of the world until 1504 or so. Fernando and Jose
also tend to pop up in the Orient early in 1502.
- Make yourself a map of the world. Time consuming, but rewarding.
|=================================|
| CHAPTER IV - How to be a Pirate |
|=================================|
Although the game is intended to be played as a peaceful trader and explorer,
who eventually becomes a national hero of Portugal, there's nothing to stop you
from flying the Jolly Roger and sinking a few (or few hundred) ships. I will
warn you now that playing the game as a pirate can get real old real quick, once
you can't find somebody's fleet to plunder and sink. Here's some pointers for
the pirate life.
1. Play the game "normally" until you have five heavy galleons or at least
regular galleons outfitted with cannons before you change careers over to the
pirate life.
2. Make sure you have lots of gold stored up at the palace, just in case.
3. Once you start sinking people left and right, the waitresses at Ye Olde Inns
start telling you where people are, so you can go get 'em (or avoid them).
4. If you want goods to trade, attack trade ships, they have the most goodies on
board, which often isn't much, unfortunately.
5. If you want gold pieces, attack warships. They carry tons of money around.
6. When you loot their ships, take their lumber first. It's cheaper to fix your
fleet with wood you didn't pay for, rather than pay that guy at the shipyard.
7. After you take all their lumber and cargo, take their food. Only take their
water if you have room left over. Remember, you can get water for free anywhere.
8. The best pirate ship is the heavy galleon, with 160 bunks for crew, 100 gun
placements with cannons installed, and three point sails. This allows you to
have twice as much firepower as any Spanish warship, and enough space to store
food and water for forty days at sea.
9. Try and get the Dragon Icon and the Chinese Broadsword. They'll help you the
most in battle. Both can be found only in Asia, and both are very expensive. The
Hawk Icon and Sabre, which can both be found easily in Europe, will suffice
until you get to Asia.
10. The hardest part of being a pirate is finding other fleets to attack. If you
hang out around the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea, you'll find a lot of fleets
coming and going, mostly Turkish ones.
11. Use the lists of other captains I made as checklists to see who you've sunk!
12. If you get Spain and Turkey mad enough at you, you won't have to look too
hard for somebody to sink - Their warships will start coming to *you*! Now
that's service!
13. If you find the game rather easy as a pirate, try incorporating smaller
vessels into your fleet if you want more of a challenge. A mahogany Nao with
three point sails, 40 cannons and 80-100 crew makes a great "destroyer" ship.
Always keep a heavy galleon or at least a galleon for the flagship though. Your
enemies will concentrate fire on that ship the most, so it needs the extra hull
strength.
14. Another thing you can do to increase the challenge of being a pirate is to
decrease the firepower capabilities of your ships. Try using less cannons, or
the two weaker types of gun; the saker or culverin.
*** Spoiler Disclaimer ***
Please note that the remainder of this guide contains some major spoilers, such
as listing where basically everything and everyone is. Since the point of the
game is to explore the world and find these things for yourself, this
information will almost certainly ruin the game for some players.
|==================|
| CHAPTER V: Ports |
|==================|
In case you really want the entire point of the game totally ruined for you,
here is a listing of every port, including sextant coordinates, and some
information about them.
There are seventy ports to find in Uncharted Waters. Fifty of which you can buy
and sell goods in, twenty where you can only buy supplies to restock your ships.
Countries listed are where the port would be located in modern times (not 500
years ago), so you can get a rough idea of where it is on a modern map. Some of
the countries I'm quite sure of, others are somewhat educated guesses, and some
I have no idea. I've marked ports I'm not sure about with an asterisk. If
anybody can fill in the blanks or correct any errors (I didn't take geography in
school, it didn't interest me then) please email me!
You might notice that I've only listed a handful of ports as "worth visiting."
If a port has been left off of this list, it's because the port either is too
far out of the way, or doesn't sell anything worth buying without significant
marketplace investment. If you're bored, try investing in the marketplaces of
the ports I've left out. Maybe they're not so useless after all...
Port Types
==========
Even though there are fifty different ports in which you can buy and sell your
goodies, there are actually only eight different "types" of port when it comes
to the way goods are priced. If the port sells a particular type of good, then
the amount of money that the marketplace owner will pay for that good is less
than "normal" for a port of its type, and it isn't any use selling it there -
you won't make a profit. For example:
Lisbon and Seville are both "Type A" ports. Both offer the exact same amount of
money for every commodity except sugar, because Lisbon sells sugar. I could get
into a much larger and far more confusing mathematical model about the economics
of Uncharted Waters, but I barely understand it myself and the bottom line would
still be the same:
"If you want to make a profit selling sugar, don't sell it in Lisbon."
I'm sure you can find the metaphor in that. The goods sold by every port of a
particular type are listed after the port list. Please note that ports with low
economic worth may have only some of the goods they "should" have, which may
include the specialty good (for example, wood in Oslo). With investment,
however, the port's economic worth will grow, and it may start selling goods it
didn't have before.
The Port List
=============
Here are all seventy ports of call in the game, arranged alphabetically under
their region of the world. For locations, I have tried to give the closest body
of water, but since "Atlantic Ocean" is a little vague, I've used continents for
some ports.
EUROPE & MEDITERRANEAN SEA
==========================
Europe will be your main area of concentration for much of the game. Due to the
fact that Lisbon is the only place in the world you can store gold, you'll find
that it will always be your home base. Europe's ports also sell such a diversity
of goods that it's possible to make profits without ever leaving the rather calm
waters of the Mediterranean. There's a very good trade route to be found in
Northern Europe, very useful for pirates or warship captains. See if you can't
figure it out.
Worth Visiting:
---------------
Algiers - Miguel can be found here in early 1502.
Antwerp - Buy telescope early in game.
Bordeaux - Good place to buy porcelain or grapes.
Istanbul - Visit sultan of Turkey, good place to buy artwork.
Lisbon - Sugar, king of Portugal, store money at palace.
London - Good place to buy wool and porcelain.
Naples - Good place to buy wool.
Oslo - You can buy wood here if you invest enough at the marketplace.
Pisa - Good place to buy artwork.
Seville - King of Spain, Galleons, Good place to gamble.
Venice - The guild sells the speculum, if you have $12000 to spare.*
Port Country / Location Lat/Long Type Specialty Waitress
================================================================================
Alexandria Egypt, Med. Sea (N35, E20) A Cotton Julia
Algiers Algeria, Med. Sea (N35, E0) A - --
Antwerp Belgium, Eng. Channel (N60,E0) B Sugar Olivia
Azov Ukraine, Sea of Azov (N55, E30) B - --
Bordeaux France, Bay of Biscay (N55,E0) B Grapes Sharee
Genoa Italy, Med. Sea (N50,E10) A - Isabel
Hamburg Germany, North Sea (N65, E5) B - Nina
Injiga* Russia, Barents Sea (N70, E30) S - --
Istanbul Turkey, Med. Sea (N45,E20) A Artwork Paulina
Lisbon Portugal, Iberian Penn. (N50,W10) A Sugar Carlotta
London England, Eng. Channel (N65,E0) B Wool Matilde
Majorca Italy, Med. Sea (N40,E10) A Grain --
Marseille France, Med. Sea (N45,E5) A - --
Naples Italy, Med. Sea (N45,E10) A Wool --
Oslo Norway**, North Sea (N65,E5) B Wood --
Pisa Italy, Med. Sea (N45,E10) A Artwork --
Seville Spain, Iberian Penn. (N40,W10) A - Marguerite
Trebizond Turkey, Black Sea (N45,E30) A Cotton --
Tunis Tunisia, Med. Sea (N40, E5) A - --
Valencia Spain, Iberian Penn. (N40,W5) A Wool --
Venice Italy, Adriatic Sea (N55, E10) A Porcelain Maria
* I'm guessing that this is supposed to be "Indiga", a fairly remote place on
the Malozemel'skaya (means "scarce arable land" in Russian) Tundra. I knew that
1977 National Geographic map of the Soviet Union would come in handy someday!
** I'm not sure what Koei was thinking here. The real Oslo would be on screen
(N70,E5), right where the border between Norway and Sweden is today. You might
also notice the complete lack of a Denmark between Norway and Germany.
Type A ports sell: olive oil, grapes, cloth, firearms.
Type B ports sell: cheese, grain, cloth, firearms, porcelain.
Type S Ports are supply ports, and only have the harbour.
THE NEW WORLD
=============
The one and only place in the New World worth stopping at is Santo Domingo,
which sells coral. Every other port only sells cotton, and isn't worth the trip.
If you want cotton (although why you'd want cotton when you could have coral I
don't understand) get it in Santo Domingo, and then grab some coral while you're
at it. You can sell coral (in my opinion, the best commodity to trade, in case
you haven't got that idea yet) anywhere and make a killer profit. You can also
buy super cheap gold in Santo Domingo (or any other New World port), if you
invest enough at the marketplace. If you plan on exploring the Caribbean Sea, be
sure to bring at least 30-50 bales of lumber, because you are *going* to get
your rudder snagged in seaweed at least twice, I guarantee. If you decide to
explore South America, be sure to use the Strait of Magellan when you reach the
Southern tip.
Worth Visiting:
---------------
Santo Domingo - The only port that sells coral.
Port Country / Location Lat/Long Type Specialty Waitress
================================================================================
Acapulco Mexico, SE N. America (N15, W110) S - --
Caracas Venezuela, N S. America (N5, W75) E - --
Chanchan Peru, SW S. America (S30, W80) S - --
Copiapo Chile, SW S. America (S45, W70) S - --
Guatemala Belize**, C. America (N10, W90) E Grain --
Jamaica Jamaica, Caribbean Sea (N10, W80) E - --
Nova Granada Panama, C. America (S0, W85) S - --
Panama Nicaragua***, C.America (N5, W85) E - Rosanna
Pernambuco Brazil, E S. America (S20, W40) E Wood Sharon
Rio Grande Brazil, E S. America (S40, W45) S - --
Rio de Janeiro Argentina*, SE S. America (S65, W60) S - --
Santo Domingo Dom. Repub, Caribbean Sea (N10, W75) E Coral -
Veracruz Mexico, Gulf of Mexico (N15, W100) E Pimento Bonita
Virginia USA, E N. America (N45, W75) S - --
* This port is one screen North of the Strait of Magellan. The real Rio de
Janeiro is over three thousand miles from the Strait of Magellan. My guess is
that it's either supposed to be Rio Galligos, or just another mistake Koei made.
** Not only is the real Guatemala City on the Western side of the country, it's
also landlocked, and not in Belize, as it is here. Did anybody at Koei ever look
at a map?
*** It's either Nicaragua or Costa Rica, but definitely not Panama, where it
belongs.
Type E ports sell: gold, cotton.
Type S Ports are supply ports, and only have the harbour.
AFRICA & ARABIA
===============
African ports on the East coast of the continent sell gold for about 500 gold
pieces a barrel and pay insane amounts of money for firearms. I think you can
figure out how to put this information to good use.
Worth Visiting:
---------------
Aden - Sells quartz, marks entrance to the Red Sea.
Argin - You can grab a speculum here, if you forgot to grab one in Venice.
Baghdad - Sells carpet, and dirt cheap artwork.
Hormuz - Marks entrance to the Persian Gulf, sells Pimento.
Mecca - Sells carpet & cheap artwork.
Mombasa - Sells wood, ivory and quartz.
Mozambique - GOLD!! (Wood too.)
Port Country / Location Lat/Long Type Specialty Waitress
==============================================================================
Aden Yemen, Gulf of Aden (N10, E40) F Quartz --
Argin Liberia*, West Africa (N0, W10) C - --
Baghdad Iraq, Persian Gulf (N30, E50) F Artwork Patoria
Cape Town S. Africa, Cape G.Hope (S45, E25) S - --
Diu Pakistan**, Arabian Sea (N25, E65) F - --
Hormuz Oman, Arabian Sea (N25, E55) F Pimento --
Luanda Angola, SW Africa (S20, E15) S - --
Mecca Saudi Arabia, Red Sea (N25, E35) F Artwork Selma
Mombasa Kenya, SE Africa (S10, E40) D Ivory --
Mozambique Mozambique, SE Africa (S15, E40) D Gold Clara
Muscat Oman, Arabian Sea (N20, E55) F - --
Ruwen Kenya*, Nile River (S5, E35) S - --
San Jorge Nigeria*,Gulf of Guinea (N0, E0) C Ivory --
Sofala Mozambique, SE Africa (S25, E40) D Gold --
Verde Senegal, West Africa (N10, W20) S - --
* Means I'm guessing on the country. Argin is in either Liberia or Cä´¥ d'Ivoire
(Ivory Coast, in case you don't parlez franç¡©s), and San Jorge has to be in
either Nigeria or Benin. As for Ruwen, it's on the Southeast bank of Lake
Victoria, which puts it smack dab in the middle between Kenya and Tanzania... it
could be either.
** In this game, the port of Diu is definitely where Pakistan is today, but
according to history, it was in India, and should actually be about two screens
South of here.
Type C ports sell: gold, cotton.
Type D ports sell: quartz, cotton, wood.
Type F ports sell: olive oil, grain, cotton, wool, carpet.
Type S Ports are supply ports, and only have the harbour.
ASIA
====
Despite the large variety of goods to be found here, about the only commodity in
Asia worth trading is silver, which can only be found in Japan. You can sell
silver anywhere (except Japan, obviously) for a huge profit. Several guilds in
Asia sell the expensive speculum, which is a good thing - you're gonna need it
to get anywhere in the spice islands without becoming lost. Get one if you
didnÒ´ already in Venice. I usually only make one trip to Asia per game, get the
speculum and a few boatloads of silver, and then get back to Europe.
If you find yourself strapped for cash in Asia, this might help you out: Buy
silver in Nagasaki and then sell it in Zeiton. Repeat as needed. Even with
Nagasaki's price index at 150% and Zeiton's at 50% (and having to repair the
rudder of the first ship in your fleet every second trip because of the &#*@!$
seaweed) you'll still make a hefty profit. Thanks to Punk Rock Hindu for that
great tip.
Worth Visiting:
---------------
Calicut - Guild sells lots of expensive stuff.
Ceylon - The only port that sells cinnamon.
Macao - You can buy a shining amulet at the guild.
Nagasaki - The only port that sells silver.
Zeiton - Sells all kinds of hard to find stuff.
Port Country / Location Lat/Long Type Specialty Waitress
================================================================================
Calicut India, Arabian Sea (N5, E75) H Pepper Preetha
Ceylon Sri Lanka, Gulf of Mannar (S0, E80) H Cinnamon --
Cochin India, Arabian Sea (S0, E75) H - --
Da Nang Vietnam, South China Sea (N10, E105) S - --
Goa India, Arabian Sea (N10, E70) H Cloth Lucetta
Macao China, South China Sea (N20, E110) G - --
Nagasaki Japan, East China Sea (N30, E125) G Silver Oharu
Sibir Russia, Kara Sea (N70, E70) S - --
Tanisk Russia, Sea of Okhotsk (N65, E150) S - --
Zeiton China, East China Sea (N25, E115) G Raw Silk Mei Ling
Type G ports sell: pearl, silk, porcelain, artwork.
Type H ports sell: grain, cotton.
Type S Ports are supply ports, and only have the harbour.
THE SOUTH PACIFIC
=================
Many of the ports in the spice islands sell hard to find (get this) spices, like
cloves and pepper, but unless a merchant asks for these items specifically,
don't bother trading them. Yes, the profit margin is ridiculous when you sell
spices in Europe, but you need to practically fill all of your ships to make it
worth the very long trip. I hope you picked up a speculum in Asia or Venice,
because Koei's version of the East Indies doesn't come too close to the way
things are on a modern map.
Worth Visiting:
---------------
Amboina - The only port that sells nutmeg.
Malacca - Sells pepper.
Ternate - The only port that sells cloves.
Port Country / Location Lat/Long Type Specialty Waitress
================================================================================
Amboina* Indonesia, Molucca Sea (S15, E125) H Nutmeg --
Eureka USA (CA), W N. America (N50, W130) S - --
Guam USA (Guam), Philippine Sea (N15, E150) S - --
Java Indonesia, S. Indonesia (S20, E105) H Pepper --
Kailua USA (HI), Pacific Ocean (N10, W165) S - --
Leveque Australia, W. Australia (S40, E115) S - --
Madang P.N. Guinea, Bismarck Sea (S20, E140) S - --
Malacca** Malaysia, Strait of Mal. (S0, E95) H Pepper --
Sumatra Indonesia, W. Indonesia (S15, E95) H Pepper --
Ternate* Indonesia, Molucca Sea (S20, E120) H Cloves --
* It'd be almost impossible to accurately represent the skazillion tiny islands
in the Molucca sea, so I think Koei just gave up and put Amboina and Ternate
(both one of said tiny islands) in the general area they belong. The real
Amboina is much further Southwest, the real Ternate further Northeast.
** This is a swear-word in Greek. Just figured I'd point that out.
Type H ports sell: grain, cotton.
Type S Ports are supply ports, and only have the harbour.
|=========================|
| CHAPTER VI: Misc. Lists |
|=========================|
Mates
=====
Here are all twenty of the characters you can find to navigate your ships. The
stats and ages are what each of those characters start with at the beginning of
the game. Early in the game, only mates with low numbers for sailing and battle
level will join you, but as you become more experienced, the higher level mates
will consider you an equal, and will join you.
I've had lots of emails asking me who I try to find for mates, and I'd have to
say that ultimately, it really doesn't matter who you have. A character that
starts with no experience in sailing or battle (i.e. Marco or Jose) will learn
quickly, don't worry. In answer to the question though, my party consists of
Marco, Jose, Miguel and Conrad. Then I get Roberto or Americus to cover up that
scraggly old sailor in the corner.
Some people have pointed out that mates like Christopher, Alfonso and Dias are
"the best", because they start at higher levels for sailing and battle. By the
time you get one of those guys to even *consider* joining you, you'll probably
be that level yourself, with four other mates sailing heavy galleons at a level
very close behind yours. The only thing those high level mates are good for is
replacing navigators that have either deserted the fleet of have been killed in
battle. It's handy to just stroll into town and pick up a mate that you can
throw behind the wheel of a galleon with no training on a smaller ship.
Picture it this way: Mates with low levels are better in the long term, because
their skills rise with time and will eventually be better than the mates that
start at higher levels. Not only that, but you don't even need to pay them,
they'll just become loyal to you and stay that way. Conversely, mates that start
at higher levels are better in the short term. Alfonso in particular is very
useful during your first few battles, but once the other mates catch up to his
levels, he's useless.
After fiddling with a hex editor trying to see what makes this game tick, I
discovered that the mates have nationalities (Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish or
Pirate). I have no idea what this does in the game (it probably affects
loyalties or where they can be found), but I've put their nationality/loyalty in
parenthesis beside their name.
"BL" and "SL" are battle level and sailing level, respectively.
The "1-and-1" Mates
===================
As that name implies, these guys all start at level 1 for both sailing and
battle. Despite that setback, most of them have high stats, and will become
excellent navigators with experience. They're also the only mates that will even
look at you twice when you ask them to join early on in the game. As soon as
you're level 2 for sailing, they'll (usually) join you.
Francisco (Spain)
=========
Age: 18 CHA: 62 WIS: 74 INT: 86 COU: 49 STR: 32 BL: 1 SL: 1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Francisco, who wears a blue coat with a gold collar, looks like a monk, with a
bald patch and a black trimmed goatee beard. My guess is that he's supposed to
be one of the Franciscan Friars, a society of Christian monks that have been
around since the 13th century, who often accompanied explorers on their voyages
to convert the "heathen" natives to Christianity. His sailing skills start out
slightly above average, but he is a lousy battle navigator (the worst, in fact)
until he becomes experienced. Francisco can be found in Alexandria early in the
game, if you want a man of the cloth aboard.
Jose (Spain)
====
Age: 16 CHA: 51 WIS: 83 INT: 95 COU: 44 STR: 41 BL: 1 SL: 1
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jose has long reddish brown hair in a braid over his shoulder, is wearing a blue
coat and green hat, and is squinting his eyes for some reason. Jose is usually
the first mate I try to get. He gains loyalty quickly and keeps it through just
about anything. His sailing skills are second only to Roberto. His battle skills
are his only downfall, having some pretty pathetic stats in that department.
Jose can be found in Seville or Lisbon for much of the early part of the game,
but he's kind of snobby sometimes and won't join until you're level 3 for
sailing.
Marco (Portugal)
=====
Age: 14 CHA: 55 WIS: 72 INT: 64 COU: 79 STR: 53 BL: 1 SL: 1
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marco is sporting a blue hat and coat, jet black hair, and some pretty big
sideburns. He is probably the most underrated character in the game. Since he
begins the game at only fourteen years old, naturally, his stats are going to be
lower. As Marco gets older and more experienced however, his stats increase by
leaps and bounds. His sailing and battle stats are both perfectly average, and
he should not be overlooked. Marco stays loyal through thick and thin, and can
be found in Lisbon in early 1502.
Miguel (Pirate)
======
Age: 17 CHA: 86 WIS: 64 INT: 66 COU: 86 STR: 91 BL: 1 SL: 1
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Another character that I try to get early on, and in my opinion, "the best" mate
to get. Miguel is wearing a blue coat with a white collar, has red hair, and has
this really cool looking scar that runs from his forehead over his right eye all
the way to his cheek. Although he starts at level 1 for both sailing and battle,
Miguel is lightning in a bottle. His battle stats are second only to Conrad, and
will do some major damage once he becomes more experienced. His sailing skills
are just slightly below average, but will rise with time. If you get this guy
early on, by the time he's level 10 for sailing his stats will likely be better
than yours. Miguel can be found in Algiers for much of the early part of the
game, and you'd be crazy not to get him.
Nicolas (Portugal)
=======
Age: 27 CHA: 49 WIS: 80 INT: 98 COU: 38 STR: 47 BL: 1 SL: 1
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nicolas is shot from side on, and is sporting a red coat, a yellow hat that
reminds me of a crown, and a full black beard. Although he's a real coward's
coward, in terms of his battle skills, his sailing skills are equalled only by
Jose, and second only to Roberto. Because he's older than the hero though, he
tends to lose loyalty if he isn't paid about every year or so. Nicolas can be
found in Antwerp for much of 1502, but unless you want a second Jose (who isn't
as loyal and is unshaven besides), don't bother getting him.
Oswaldo (Portugal)
=======
Age: 21 CHA: 65 WIS: 52 INT: 62 COU: 59 STR: 58 BL: 1 SL: 1
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oswaldo has an "Irish" look to him, with short red hair, a rather pudgy face,
and a green and yellow jacket. All of his stats are far below average, and he is
quite useless. If you still want this guy on your team though, try looking in
Venice in 1502.
Roberto (Spain)
=======
Age: 25 CHA: 76 WIS: 88 INT: 100 COU: 48 STR: 55 BL: 1 SL: 1
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roberto is the last of the "1-and-1" mates, the ones that start at level 1 for
both sailing and battle. He wears a blue hat over unkempt black hair, almost the
exact same coat as Oswaldo, and is the only character in the game that wears
glasses. Roberto has the highest sailing stats in the game, and will have little
trouble navigating large ships with some experience. His battle skills are
somewhat lower than average, and he tends to lose loyalty every now and then if
you don't pay him. He's good to have, but not *that* good. If you want him to
join, try looking in Marseille in 1502.
The Advanced Mates
==================
Although they're nothing spectacular in terms of experience levels, some have
somewhat decent stats and are worth getting, if only for their advanced battle
experience. Once the sum of your sailing and battle levels is the same as
theirs, they'll join.
Aljeuna (Turkey)
=======
Age: 18 CHA: 81 WIS: 83 INT: 75 COU: 79 STR: 72 BL: 5 SL: 1
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
The elusive Aljeuna has an "Asian" look to him, with slanted eyes, a blue
bandanna, that same coat that Roberto and Oswaldo wear, and a moustache. He's
good at both sailing and battle, even starting at level 5 for battle, and
doesn't lose loyalty easily. If you (ever) manage to find him, be sure to pick
him up. He hangs around Asia. If you're playing as a pirate, this guy is almost
as valuable as Miguel and Conrad.
Ammul (Turkey)
=====
Age: 20 CHA: 61 WIS: 65 INT: 72 COU: 55 STR: 73 BL: 2 SL: 1
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ammul has an "Arabian" look to him, wearing a red and green robe, a red and gold
turban, and a full beard. His stats are slightly below average, and apart from
having a slight boost in battle level over the "1-and-1" mates, is quite normal,
nothing special. If you want him aboard, try looking around the Red Sea.
Conrad (Pirate)
======
Age: 16 CHA: 61 WIS: 52 INT: 55 COU: 89 STR: 94 BL: 2 SL: 3
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Conrad wears a green hat and coat, has a scraggly black beard, and a scar even
cooler looking than Miguel's that runs from his nose across his left cheek
almost to his jaw line. His sailing skills are pretty poor, but he starts with
enough levels in sailing to handle a Nao with Nao problems [insert groans here].
His battle skills, which are the highest of any character in the game, are what
make him worth finding. If you want to play the game as a pirate, you NEED this
guy. As soon as you're level 5 for sailing, he'll join you. Conrad spends much
of the first two years in Europe, usually Genoa, but becomes very hard to track
down after 1504. Get him early.
Cyran (Portugal)
=====
Age: 16 CHA: 65 WIS: 59 INT: 68 COU: 75 STR: 80 BL: 3 SL: 2
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cyran has on a blue and gold coat, has medium brown skin, and dark brown hair.
His sailing stats are below average, but his battle stats are just slightly
above. He makes a good navigator in a pirate fleet. If you can find him, and
need somebody with what he has to offer, by all means, grab him. He likes to
hang out in East Africa and Arabia.
Rinaldo (Pirate)
=======
Age: 26 CHA: 25 WIS: 23 INT: 17 COU: 44 STR: 60 BL: 1 SL: 2
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rinaldo has the same skin colour as Cyran, and is wearing a black hat and coat
with red trim. He also looks like he just drove a nail through his foot, by the
look on his face. He has the lowest stats for just about everything that
matters, and is even more useless than Oswaldo. If you want a challenge, by all
means add this disaster waiting to happen to your crew. He hangs out in East
Africa, Arabia and the Spice Islands.
The Older, "Snooty" Mates
=========================
I call them that because I'm so used to them saying "no" to me, and because many
of them look rather snooty. Although they have high levels, they all have either
average or below average stats, and are useless by the time they'll actually
join you for sailing ships. Their advanced battle levels are their only
practical feature.
Alfonso (Spain)
=======
Age: 31 CHA: 85 WIS: 72 INT: 75 COU: 80 STR: 68 BL: 10 SL: 10
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alfonso has an orange hat with a feather in it, a red and blue coat, a full
black beard, and a very mean scowl on his face. All of his stats, except maybe
strength, are average. Because his levels are so high, they'll almost never
improve either. By the time you get Alfonso to join you, you won't need his high
sailing level, but his level 10 battle skill can come in handy in a pinch,
especially your first few battles. Alfonso can be found in Spain for almost all
of the game, seemingly right up until the point that he'd join you if you asked.
Americus (Portugal)
========
Age: 49 CHA: 74 WIS: 75 INT: 69 COU: 63 STR: 66 BL: 7 SL: 7
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Americus is shot side on, with a weathered looking face, red hair, wearing a
green hat and green and blue coat. Americus is none other than Amerigo Vespucci,
the famous Italian navigator that renamed Columbus' discovery "America." There's
a portrait of Vespucci in many history books that looks almost identical to his
picture in the game. His stats are quite average, and his levels aren't anything
special either. He makes a good first mate to cover up that scraggly old sailor
in the corner, but not much else. According to history, he dies in 1512, but I'm
not sure if that happens in the game or not. Americus travels the world
randomly, but can usually be found in Europe.
Benedetto (Spain)
=========
Age: 25 CHA: 79 WIS: 83 INT: 65 COU: 74 STR: 69 BL: 5 SL: 4
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Benedetto looks like Marco, sideburns and all, only eleven years older, minus
the hat, and facing the other way. His skills are average, but his levels are
nothing worth breaking your neck to get. If you want him, he tends to hang
around Spain and Portugal for the first few years of the game, but then becomes
rather hard to find.
Christopher (Portugal)
===========
Age: 49 CHA: 88 WIS: 79 INT: 73 COU: 82 STR: 74 BL: 8 SL: 6
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm pretty sure this is supposed to be Christopher Columbus. In any case, he has
a sour looking face, with blond hair, and a green and gold shirt. Your guess is
as good as mine as to how a fifteenth century Italian navigator (who is often
described in history books as having red hair) would acquire blond hair, but
that hardly matters. If you manage to find him, pick him up. His stats are above
average, and his higher levels make him a great replacement navigator if you
lose one in a battle or storm. He also makes a great mate in a pirate fleet.
Chris tends to hang out in the New World, but can be found in Europe from time
to time, usually Antwerp.
Fernando (Portugal)
========
Age: 20 CHA: 92 WIS: 80 INT: 75 COU: 80 STR: 75 BL: 6 SL: 5
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fernando looks like a stereotypical cartoon bad guy. He has really short black
hair, a handlebar moustache, and a high collared blue and gold coat. His stats
are above average, his advanced levels come in handy, and his low age keeps him
from getting disloyal easily. Get him if you can. Unfortunately, Fernando, like
Alfonso, likes to become scarce once you're finally of a level high enough to be
his peer. He spends much of the game in Europe, but I always seem to find him in
the Spice Islands.
Regis (Portugal)
=====
Age: 28 CHA: 72 WIS: 75 INT: 67 COU: 81 STR: 62 BL: 4 SL: 7
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Regis has long red hair, with a thin moustache, and is wearing a green and gold
coat. His stats are nothing special, and his loyalty likes to drop. He's only
slightly less useless than Rinaldo or Oswaldo. Get him if you need a guy who can
handle a galleon without having it drift all over the place. If you want him,
try looking in Spain (Valencia or Seville) in 1504.
Vicente (Spain)
=======
Age: 38 CHA: 62 WIS: 70 INT: 58 COU: 62 STR: 73 BL: 5 SL: 6
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vicente sports a blue and green hat, a brown coat, and a very sinister looking
smile. His stats are all below average, and his levels are nothing great either.
He makes a good first mate if you're a pirate. If you still want him, he spends
the early part of the game in Europe, but try looking in Asia later in the game
when he'll actually join.
The Mate You'll Probably Never Get
==================================
If you manage to get this guy to join you, consider yourself a very good player.
Dias (Portugal)
====
Age: 50 CHA: 92 WIS: 95 INT: 78 COU: 83 STR: 65 BL: 28 SL: 28
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dias has short black hair, a trimmed beard and moustache, and is wearing a red
coat over a gold coloured shirt (Picture the "Captain" on a bottle of Captain
Morgan rum). Even though he technically should have died two years before the
game even started, my guess is that he's supposed to be Bartolomeo Diaz, the
famous Portuguese explorer that finally managed to reach the Southernmost tip of
Africa, named it the "Cape of Storms" and returned home quite against his will
(his crew were becoming mutinous). His discovery was later renamed the "Cape of
Good Hope". You will probably see him many times throughout the game, but until
you're at almost the same level as he is for sailing and battle (i.e. NEVER), he
won't join you. There is no doubt that Dias is the best character to get, but
accomplishing just that is next to impossible. If you somehow manage to raise
your levels high enough (and still haven't beaten the game) try looking for Dias
in Pernambuco, he spends a lot of time there.
Mate Graphs
===========
In case you're one of these people who likes to see the bottom line, rather than
the itemized list, here's a handy graph showing how well the mates are at
sailing and battle. These graphs turn a blind eye to levels in sailing and
battle, because I consider them a double edged sword: If a mate already has high
levels, his stats aren't likely to improve, although he'll do better in the
short term than a mate with lower levels. I've abbreviated the names, but I'm
sure you can figure out who's who.
Sailing Skill
-------------
100
93 93 90
81 80
78 76 73 72 70
69 66 65 61
59 59 50
45
0
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---
Rob Jos Nic Dia Fra Alj Fer Chr Ben Alf Ame Reg Amm Mar Mig Vic Cyr Osw Con Rin
Battle Skill
------------
100
94
74 73 73
69 66 66 61 61
53 50
47 46
35
23 22
4 4
0
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---
Con Mig Chr Cyr Fer Alj Alf Dia Reg Ben Vic Mar Ame Amm Osw Rin Rob Jos Nic Fra
Other Fleet Captains:
=====================
There are fifteen other peaceful fleets on the sea, blissfully sailing around
and generally doing nothing. Unless their country is at war with Portugal, or
you've got a bad reputation as a pirate, they usually have something helpful to
tell you. Trade ships will tell you where you can sell your cargo for the best
price, while war ships will tell you where you can find a mate or two. Use the
"negotiate" command from the sailing menu to strike up a conversation.
Portuguese Spanish Turkish
--------- ------- -------
Juan Giacopo Muhammed
Ramone Luigi Hashid
Frederico Idelgo Nader
Luciano Emanuele Ali
Pedro Carlos Omar
Of course, if you play the game as a pirate, these guys won't last long, and
other captains will start appearing on the seas.
Spanish
-------
Alberto Alonzo Americo Andreas Augusto
Baltazar Baptista Benito Bernardo Bovadillo
Calderon Canalejas Carlitos Caspero Cesareo
Chavez Cortez Diego Dino Domingo
Don Juan Don Parma Don Hugo Duarte Eduardo
El Duro El Bravo El Primo El Bueno El Toro
Emallio Enrique Federigo Felipe Fernandez
Filipo Flores Francesco Geraldo Gilbert
Godfredo Gomez Gonzalla Guiellermo Gustaf
Hector Hernandez Horatio Jaime Jorge
Julio Leonardo Leopoldo Lopez Lorenzo
Lucas Luis Manrique Manuel Marcano
Mario Martin Martinez Mateo Mendoza
Michel Moncado Morales Pablo Paolo
Pietro Poncho Recalde Recalde* Ricardo
Rodrigo Rodriguez Roduego Romeo Salvador
Sancho Sebastian Simancas Stefano Tomas
Trujillo Valdes Vasquez Vittorio Xavier
Yes, the name "Recalde" is in there twice. There are two guys with that name for
some reason, but they don't have the same picture. Maybe Recalde in sixteenth
century Spanish is like John in modern English, who knows?
Turkish
-------
Abashad Abbas Abdul Abul Ahbud
Ahmed Aishar Akbar Akim Alanir
Aljeb Almutar Amadan Amir Amman
Arasheed Asad Atri Bajet Bakul
Chizil Farak Farhad Fellik Feza
Habib Hadil Harib Hashim Hassan
Hassein Hussed Hussein Iben Ibrahim
Ishmael Jabbar Jamaal Jamil Jasheed
Jatin Jumad Kahdil Kahim Kalil
Karim Kasem Kashim Mafdi Mahdi
Malwan Mefamet Mohamar Muftadi Muhangir
Mumahn Mumal Musa Mussulman Mustafa
Nasser Navdib Numan Ozal Pani
Panshur Prashir Prektar Punjab Rashad
Rasheed Reza Said Salabim Saliman
Salman Samsari Sandib Selim Sharam
Shareef Sharim Shavir Tabul Tahih
Tahlib Talhari Tasam Tibil Vasad
Pirates
=======
Pirates will prove to be either a major nuisance or hours of entertainment,
depending on how you look at them. The first pirates you'll run into are the
five gentlemen listed here. They're around from the beginning of the game, but
probably won't bother you unless you provoke them (by talking to them).
El Drago Gonzales Gregorio Morgan Singleton
Much later in the game, pirates will really start coming out of the woodwork.
These guys may or may not just up and attack you, depending on the size and arms
capacity of your fleet.
Angry Ali Bickeroo Billy Bones Black Patch Blacktooth
Blue Streak Brighty Briny Beau Bully Bo Burly Burt
Checkie Cranky Kirk Double Iron Eel Face Evil Eye
Fast Fritz Gnarly Nate Goldmonger Greedy Lou Green Gus
Gristlebait Groggy Gus Gusty Jake Hackie Hammerhand
Hearty Bart Hollowhead Hungry Hans Ironjaw Jolly Dirk
Lava Luke Lazy Jack Leadbelly Leatherneck Lightning
Lockjaw Lucky Dino Lumpy Lou Mean Ole Mo Mean Ivan
Mighty Max Nasty Nate Old Gunner Pegleg Lou Pepper
Poison Ice Prankster Queasy Kirk Quickdraw Quicksword
Razor Rick Redbeard Rotten Al Rusty Dirk Salty Sam
Scabby Scarbrow Scratch Scurvy Dog Sea Tiger
Seasick Sam Shark Tooth Shiver Jim Silver Stan Sinbad Sal
Skullface Slashback Slick Mick Slipper Smiley
Snarling Jo Sneaky Pete Snouter Stinger Stinkpot
Stubby Tangle Fang Tattoo Kid Thunderclap Tidal Tim
Timberfoot Tiptoe Tom Tricky Ex Tripper Turncoat
Warrior Whirliwind Whiskers Wirebeard Yellow Jack
WAITRESS LIST
=============
Why, you ask, did I compile this list of waitresses and the ports they're in?
Keep playing and you'll be glad I did.
Bonita - Veracruz (N15, W100)
Carlotta - Lisbon (N50, W10)
Clara - Mozambique (S15, E40)
Isabel - Genoa (N50, E10)
Julia - Alexandria (N35, E20)
Lucetta - Goa (N10, E75)
Marguerite - Seville (N40, W10)
Maria - Venice (N50, E10)
Matilde - London (N65, E0)
Mei Ling - Zeiton (N25, E115)
Nina - Hamburg (N65, E5)
Oharu - Nagasaki (N30, E125)
Olivia - Antwerp (N60, E0)
Patoria - Baghdad (N35, E40)
Paulina - Istanbul (N45, E20)
Preetha - Calicut (N5, E75)
Rosanna - Panama (N5, W85)
Selma - Mecca (N25, E35)
Sharee - Bordeaux (N55, E0)
Sharon - Pernambuco (S20, W40)
Guild Items
===========
Finally, the long overdue list of which guild sells what.
Alexandria : Telescope, Hawk Icon, Sextant, Sword
Antwerp : Eagle Icon, Telescope, Sextant, Dagger
Argin : Telescope, Speculum, Sextant, Nymph Amulet
Baghdad : Shining Amulet, Dragon Icon, Telescope, Sabre
Bordeaux : Sword, Hawk Icon, Sextant, Nymph Amulet
Calicut : Speculum, Shining Amulet, Sabre, Dragon Icon
Ceylon : Telescope, Speculum, Sextant, Nymph Amulet
Genoa : Telescope, Sextant, Falcon Icon, Sword
Goa : Sabre, Dragon Icon, Nymph Amulet, Telescope
Hamburg : Angel Amulet, Sabre, Telescope, Falcon Icon
Istanbul : Sextant, Angel Amulet, Sword, Telescope
Lisbon : Falcon Icon, Sextant, Dagger, Sword
London : Angel Amulet, Sabre, Sextant, Telescope
Macao : Chinese Sword, Dragon Icon, Gold Bracelet, Shining Amulet
Marseille : Sextant, Nymph Amulet, Telescope, Pearl Bracelet
Mecca : Speculum, Sextant, Shining Amulet, Dragon Icon
Mozambique : Telescope, Dagger, Eagle Icon, Sextant
Naples : Sabre, Nymph Amulet, Falcon Icon, Silver Rosary
Oslo : Telescope, Sun Amulet, Dagger, Hawk Icon
Panama : Telescope, Dagger, Sword, Sabre
Pernambuco : Telescope, Sextant, Sabre, Hawk Icon
Pisa : Telescope, Sextant, Dagger, Silver Rosary
Seville : Falcon Icon, Sextant, Sabre, Dagger
Valencia : Sun Amulet, Dagger, Telescope, Sextant
Venice : Speculum, Hawk Icon, Nymph Amulet, Sextant
Veracruz : Sabre, Hawk Icon, Sextant, Nymph Amulet
Zeiton : Chinese Sword, Dragon Icon, Gold Bracelet, Speculum
The closest place to Lisbon to get each item:
Falcon Icon - Lisbon
Hawk Icon - Bordeaux
Eagle Icon - Antwerp
Dragon Icon - Goa
Nymph Amulet - Bordeaux
Sun Amulet - Oslo
Angel Amulet - London
Shining Amulet - Muscat
Dagger - Lisbon
Sword - Lisbon
Sabre - Seville
Chinese Sword - Macao
Sextant - Lisbon
Telescope - Antwerp
Speculum - Venice or Argin
|==================|
| CHAPTER VII: FAQ |
|==================|
Here are some questions I've been emailed with.
Q: What are the differences among the three types of guns?
A: Simple: culverins and sakers are useless wastes of money, cannons aren't. If
you'd like a clearer (and less sarcastic) explanation: Sakers have a range of
one space, and are weak in power. Culverins have a range of two spaces, and are
also weak. Cannons have a range of one space, but have high damage capabilities.
So unless you're a masochist or otherwise enjoy having your boat blasted to
splinters by pirates or that Spanish warship you seem to have annoyed, while you
take three days to sink him with culverins or sakers, get cannons.
Q: What does investing do?
A: Investing increases the economic or industrial worth of a port. Doing this
may cause the marketplace to start selling something they didn't have before, or
the shipyard to sell larger ships. It also wins support for Portugal, and really
annoys Spain and Turkey to the point where they'll start attacking you if you do
it too often.
Q: How do I get into the palace to see the princess?
A: After the king asks you to the palace to do some errand for him, you can
enter the palace whenever you want. Until the king asks for you, you get kicked
out as soon as you walk in. Even after the king gives you a title, the
chancellor might get nervous about you hanging around the palace, and will throw
you out. As your rank becomes higher though, the odds that he'll throw you out
become less and less.
Q: How do I get the king's permission to invest in Lisbon, Seville and Istanbul?
A: You can't. This is just Koei's way of keeping you (and the CPU fleets, I
guess) from investing in another nation's capital. It wouldn't make much sense
for a country to have support from a foreign port, but not it's own capital. It
also keeps you from raising Seville's industrial worth that last 50 points,
which would let you buy Heavy Galleons after only investing something like a
thousand bucks.
Q: What is a speculum, and where can I find one?
A: The word "Speculum" is Latin, and means mirror, reflector, copy... you get
the idea. In terms of the game it lets you see your position on a map that
covers about a nine screen radius. Very handy when treasure hunting. The guild
in Venice sells this item, as does the one in Argin, and several guilds in Asia.
Q: The king sent me to deliver a letter to the king of Spain (or Turkey), but
the guard at the palace won't let me in!
A: This is because you have done something to get whatever nation you're
visiting upset with you, or your rank is too low. Just keep trying (he will
eventually let you in)
Q: The king sent me to deliver a letter to the king of Spain (or Turkey), but
these "gruff looking" guys at the harbour won't let me enter the town!
A: Ooo! You really got 'em riled up! This is because the nation is at war with
Portugal. My advice here is to take a nice long trip to Asia, or somewhere where
their navy won't find you, and hide out for a while until the hostilities are
over. Either that or go back to the king of Portugal and tell him you won't
deliver the letter. He'll pitch a fit, but in a month he'll be calling for you
again to pick up some more of that grain he can't seem to get enough of.
Q: What do swords, amulets, and icons do?
A: Swords increase your attack power in battle when you board other ships,
amulets reduce the damage storms and seaweed wreak on your fleet, and icons
increase the accuracy (and therefore damage) of your cannons. Figureheads reduce
the occurrences of disasters, in case you were wondering about those.
Q: How do I get the Venus figurehead?
A: I have no idea. I would guess that itÒ³ just random, kind of like when the
guy at the Lisbon shipyard has a used galleon for sale.
Q: Who are the best mates to get?
A: This is a highly subjective question with as many answers as there are
players. I almost always use Jose, Marco, Miguel and Conrad. A very well
balanced group that's easy to put together early on. Marco's stats go up by
leaps and bounds, and Jose's low battle skills don't matter too much when he's
commanding a fully decked-out mahogany hulled heavy galleon with 100 cannons.
KA-BOOM!! Here's some other good teams:
Explorer (high sailing skill): Jose, Nicolas, Roberto, Francisco
Pirate (high battle skill): Conrad, Miguel, Christopher, Fernando
Challenging (no skills whatsoever): Rinaldo, Oswaldo, Vicente, Francisco
In answer to the question though, if you want "the best", The answer is Dias, no
doubt about it... that is if you can find him, and then if you can get him to
join you. Since accomplishing both are just this side of impossible, I tend to
concentrate on getting the younger mates.
Q: Who or what is Prester John?
A:
"Rumour had it that Prester John ruled over 72 states of a land devoted to
Christianity. Many men sailed out under the auspices of the church to find
this legendary kingdom."
That is straight out of the NES instruction booklet, page 41.
The Land of Prester John was a legend that started in the twelfth century, and
was believed for hundreds of years. It was used as propaganda by the church to
encourage young explorers to risk their lives searching out the world for this
supposed utopia, claiming the lands they discovered for their homeland and the
church. Although Prester John is mentioned in both the instruction booklet, and
in the intro story to the game, there is no "Land of Prester John" to be found
in this game.
Q: I can't get [insert mate name here] to join me, how can I?
A: Your sailing or battle level is too low. Until you're equals with whomever it
is you want to join your crew, they'll refuse every time.
Q: How can I get Dias to join me?
A: Heh heh, Good luck. Dias is next to impossible to get, because he tends to
hang out in ports a skazillion miles from Portugal, and has ridiculously high
levels for battle and sailing, a whopping 28 for each. So, unless you sink the
entire navy of Spain, and then make several (dozen) jaunts to Asia via South
America, stopping to do a few laps around Antarctica to boost your levels, he'll
never join you. Besides, by the time you get Dias to join you, there'll be
nothing left for you to do that will warrant his super high levels and skills.
Q: Where is the port of Arabia?
A: Sometimes a waitress at a Ye Olde Inn will tell you that she thinks they sell
a particular good in "Arabia." This means that you can find said good at a port
near the Red Sea or Persian Gulf, like Baghdad or Aden. There is no actual port
called "Arabia", Just as there is no one port called "Northern Europe" or "The
New World."
Q: Where is the port of Athens?
A: I don't know why I keep getting asked this question. The capital city of
Greece exists in the game's sequel, but you won't find it in this game. If it
was (and it isn't), it'd be on the same screen as Istanbul or the one below it.
Q: What is the "lucrative trade route" you mentioned in the port list of Europe?
A: First make sure you've invested enough in Oslo for it to sell wood. What you
do here is buy sugar in Lisbon, sell it in Bordeaux, buy grapes in Bordeaux,
sell them in London, buy wool in London, sell it in Oslo, buy wood in Oslo,
sell that in Hamburg, buy wool in Hamburg, sell it in Antwerp, buy porcelain in
Antwerp, and then sell it in Lisbon. Very useful for Pirates who need to make
some quick cash without sailing long distances. Here's a good one, sort of a
tour-de-Italie, sent to me by Ricky Gonzalez:
"Majorca (Grain) --> Naples (Wool) --> Pisa (nothing) --> Majorca
By continuously buying up Grain from Majorca without selling, while continuously
selling to Pisa without buying, their markets skyrocket and plummet,
respectively. Naples's market also grows since the sold Grain is cheaper than
the bought Wool. This cycle can net you about 10,000 a trip with two Galleon
ships. But, the beauty is when after Pisa's prices are at 50% and Majorca's at
150%, you load up on Artwork and sell it all to Majorca. You usually have to
make two trips to Lisbon to store all the sweet, sweet money you make."
What a dirty trick. I love it.
Q: What is the purpose of your fame rating?
A: The king of Portugal will call for you once it reaches certain levels. After
you do enough favours for the king, you beat the game. Investing, battling other
fleets, discovering ports, and doing errands for merchants and guild masters all
increase fame.
Gerry Wilton emailed me with this sneaky trick for gaining fame quickly: Instead
of investing one ginormous pile of gold in one go, invest it in $1000
instalments. After fifteen or so of these, the port will almost certainly be
allied with Portugal, and you will have saved a good chunk of change. By
"winning" a port over to your homeland you score about 400 fame points.
The higher your rank and fame, the more bartering power you have over merchants
in Portugal-allied ports. If you say no to the shopkeeper (or that crook at the
shipyard) when he tells you how much a unit of something costs, he may ask you
how much you'd be willing to pay. Depending on your rank/fame, you can rip him
off big time. Thanks to Alex Shovkoplyas for this great tip.
Q: What's so bad about the Arctic Ocean?
A: I recommend against using the Arctic Ocean because A: It's pointless, and B:
It's potentially very dangerous. Let's start with item "A":
There are those who would claim that the Arctic Ocean is a faster route to the
Orient. By using it instead of sailing around Africa, you might chop two or
three days off the time it takes to sail to Nagasaki. That amounts to getting
there about 4% faster. The only two places that the Arctic Ocean provides major
shortcuts to are Eureka and Tanisk, which are both useless supply ports. There
are exactly as many "screens" between Lisbon and Nagasaki (65 to be exact) if
you take the Arctic Ocean as there are if you sail "the long way" around the tip
of Africa. Draw a map and count them if you don't believe me. Besides, Africa
has nice things like gold and ivory, and ports you can DO things in, other than
buy supplies. The Arctic Ocean has things like ridiculous currents, monotonous
landscape, and probable death by starvation off the Taymyr Peninsula after your
fleet gets trapped.
To be more specific about the danger (Item "B"): The current and wind are both
extremely fast in the Kara Sea, and constantly push your ships Eastward. There
is a piece of land that juts out from Northern Russia at N85,E95 (the Taymyr
Peninsula) that you can get trapped under, if your fleet isn't "powerful" enough
to get free. Although I used to recommend resetting the game, what with it being
likely that you'd never escape, Terry Rhodes emailed me with a neat trick that
might get you free. Use the "go ashore" command, and then put back to sea.
Usually a little surge will get you moving a bit before the current grabs you.
Just keep going ashore and putting back to sea repeatedly to "crawl" up the
coastline until you're around this horrible place. There's also few places
similar to this on the Western coast of South America (found by *not* using the
Strait of Magellan to get around the Southern tip), and this trick also works
there. Or you could just stay clear of both Northern Russia and South America
entirely, as both are fairly useless places in this game.
Q: [Port name] doesn't sell [good type]... but your list says it does...?
A: You need to invest more at the marketplace. Usually, once the port's economic
worth is 350 or more, they'll sell everything they "should."
Q: Is $60,000 all you can carry around at one time?
A: Yes. And the only way to "store" it is to return to Lisbon. The best way to
sort of cheat this system is to have money tied up in valuable cargo, like gold,
or to just invest it somewhere if you won't be needing it.
Q: Under what circumstances can I get [Spanish Captain's name] as a mate?
A: I used to think it would be only possible to hire the other captains once
some of the original twenty mates were dead, but after systematically hiring and
sending them to all to their doom on ships with no crew, I discovered that that
theory was false. So I'm not 100% sure on this, but here's my new theory:
When you're on a treasure hunt, you usually end up going from port to port (to
port) trying to find someone with either a map, or the name of someone who has
the treasure on their ship. At each stop, you talk to either the waitress of the
port, or to another character, usually one of the twenty mates. However,
sometimes you end up talking to one of the Spanish or Turkish captains. After
you're done chatting with them, check the "Find Mates" thing at the Ye Olde Inn.
Lo and behold, there's the guy's name, and if your levels are equal or better
than his, he'll join your crew. Thanks to Jack Doobie for shedding some more
light on this business, as he found El Duro, and managed to hire him.
Q: What is the Strait of Magellan?
A: The Strait of Magellan is located at the Southern tip of South America.
Fern㯠de Magalh㥳 ("Ferdinand Magellan", as we Anglophones seem to have dubbed
him), who discovered the strait, named it "The Channel of All Saints", but his
name is what we call it today. Magellan is also the guy who named the Pacific
Ocean. It's basically just a short cut around the Southern tip of the continent,
and the insane currents and winds to be found there. In the game, it's on
screens (S70,W60) and (S70,W65).
Q: Can I put your guide on my website?
A: If you'd like to host this guide on your site, please email me first. It
shouldn't be a problem. Here are my conditions for doing so:
- By hosting the guide, you are doing ONLY that. I own ALL rights to it, which
means I can update, edit or REMOVE my guide whenever I want.
- The line in the copyright bit that says "Updates to this FAQ will ONLY be
posted to www.rpgclassics.com" Means exactly that: I'm not going to keep a list
of all the sites this guide ends up on and spend seven hours updating it every
time I fix a spelling mistake.
- It is the responsibility of whoever HOSTS this guide on THEIR site to keep it
current.
- The guide must be in its entirety, UNALTERED in ANY way, including the
copyright bit. This means retaining the Canadian English spelling of words, and
keeping dates written with ordinal numbers. It also means never appending a
"version number".
Q: Why did you stop updating on Gamefaqs.com?
A: Gamefaqs' new automated update feature drives me up the wall. A guide is
rejected for being 81 characters long on one line out of close to three
thousand. I have ZERO patience for fussy computer programs. Besides, it's
not like there's going to be any real need for an update.
Q: Can I translate your guide into [Language]?
A: A horribly outdated version of this guide has been up for years on a German
website very much like gamefaqs.com without a single request for a German
translation. There's little enough demand for *this* guide, but if you feel like
pulling your hair out trying to translate my Canadian slang and idioms into
Spanish or Portuguese, email me and we'll talk shop.
|===========================|
| CHAPTER VIII - Appendices |
|===========================|
A Note About Heavy Galleons
===========================
This gets into economics, something which I will readily admit is not my area of
expertise. With that said, since originally writing this guide several years
ago, my opinion of heavy galleons has changed somewhat. With their insane arms
and cargo capacities, they may at first glance seem too good to be true: If you
have a fleet of five of these things fully decked out with cannons and a hearty
sized crew, you are for all intents and purposes *invincible*. No fleet -
pirate, Spanish or otherwise - has a chance of defeating you. If you decide to
build a trade ship out of one with 900+ space, you can sail for over a year
without stopping for supplies, or haul a tremendous amount of cargo over
extremely long distances. There are disadvantages to these vessels as well:
- They're as slow as cold molasses running uphill in January when close to land
- They have almost no mobility in battle
- They're expensive to maintain
The 900+ cargo space can be a double edged sword too. You can carry a sick
amount of stuff, but it'll take you a month of Sundays to get rid of it all.
Let's say the fleet consists of five heavy galleon trade ships, 30 crew, 970
space. They're merrily floating about Lisbon harbour with just enough firearms
in the holds to net us $360,000 in Santo Domingo. Assuming the prices weren't
too steep in Lisbon because we haggled the poor shopkeeper silly, let's assume
we paid $192,000 for 2400 crates. We load up with 300 barrels of food for a 40
day voyage (another five or six grand) and off we go. In the interests of round
numbers, here's the expenses so far:
Cargo Qty Price Cost
------------------------------------------
Firearms 2400 80 ea 192,000
Food 300 20 ea 6,000
------------------------------------------
198,000
We sail to Santo Domingo and sell the firearms while at the same time packing
the ships to the rafters with coral, say, 4000 barrels. This will cost about
$360,000, and in theory, bring in a little better than a million bucks in
Europe. Because we brought enough food from home, we don't need to buy more.
Going back to the storeman's notebook:
Cargo Qty Price Cost
--------------------------------------------
Firearms - Sold 2400 150 360,000 Revenue
Coral - Purchased 4000 90 360,000 Expenses
--------------------------------------------
Now, what to do with all that coral? We have two choices. Sell it all in Lisbon
in one fell swoop and go on our merry way, or spend the next ten months
dispersing it all over Europe to earn a little better than twice as much. If we
choose the former, we can sell our fill, lug the money to the palace, and come
back for more. By doing this, we'll get about $600,000. At the end of the day,
we come out on top by a little better than $400,000 Ö not a bad six weeks work,
and in fact, this is the more "economic" choice, if you consider that "time is
money."
We could try selling it at other places in Europe, but doing so will require us
to return to Lisbon (literally) seventeen times, *unless* we plan on investing
the money. Assuming the average trip to and from a given port in Europe takes 20
days (Heavy galleons are very slow on the inland seas) that means we're going to
spend almost a year selling coral, and the crew is going to eat about $43,000
worth of food. By selling it abroad in ports with prices at an average of 90%,
we'll clear approximately a million bucks after expenses. However, in that
time, we could have loaded up with firearms, sailed to Santo Domingo and done
the whole "sell it all in Lisbon" routine eight times over, earning 3.2 million.
Then again, we could always go straight from Santo Domingo to Pisa and trade all
the coral for artwork, and sell *that* all over Europe, which would bring us out
on top by about 1.5 million. Of course, being smart businessmen, we'd be hauling
local goods back to Lisbon (like porcelain, wool or even grain), which would
help with the profits, but we'd still come a little short of the 3.2 million.
The point is: If you want to invest, go with plan B. If you just want to amass
more money than you'll ever need, plan A will get you there faster.
Making Your Own Map
===================
This can make the game interesting. First, take a BIG sheet of paper, a sheet of
poster-board (I think that's what you Americans call it), or glue a few pieces
of paper together to make one nice big sheet. Now, divide said sheet into a grid
that's 72 x 37 squares big. Half-inch squares are perfect. Each of these squares
corresponds to a screen in the game. Keep in mind that many of those are
inaccessible, what with them being "land" and all. The square in the upper left
corner of the sheet is (N90,W180). The one to its right is (N90,W175) and so on.
The square in the lower right corner is (S90,E175). I'm sure you can fill in the
rest of the numbers properly. Now mark a little X or something on the square at
(N50,W10), which is Lisbon, and start your career in cartography.
All you do now is sail around (use a coin or bingo marker or something to mark
where you are on the map if you like) and keep drawing what you see. When you're
done Ö which won't be any time soon, believe me - be sure to bust out the
coloured pencils or markers and colour it up all fancy. Maybe put in some waves,
boats or a sea monster or something on the ocean, or draw a house or castle for
the capital ports. Be creative.
Selling Price Table
===================
This is how much the guy at the marketplace and his 49 identical twin brothers
scattered throughout the world will pay you for goods you bring him. Please note
that this table does not take specialty goods into consideration. For example,
if you were to sell sugar in Lisbon (although why you'd try selling sugar in
Lisbon I have no idea) you would only get 13 gold pieces per barrel when prices
are at 100%, not the normal 45 gold pieces that a type A port would pay.
Port Type:
Good A B C D E F G H
============|=====|=====|=====|=====|=====|=====|=====|=====|
Pepper | 80 | 110^| 52 | 35 | 64 | 42 | 20 | 2 |
Cinnamon | 70 | 80^| 32 | 43 | 40 | 30 | 20 | 3 |
Nutmeg | 100 | 105^| 30 | 28 | 32 | 28 | 30 | 3 |
Pimento | 110 | 120^| 35 | 30 | 25 | 15 | 30 | 4 |
Cloves | 105 | 108^| 42 | 29 | 30 | 30 | 20 | 4 |
Olive Oil | 20 | 55 | 60^| 38 | 58 | 18 | 2 | 10 |
Grapes | 28 | 62^| 30 | 30 | 25 | 20 | 40 | 15 |
Sugar | 45 | 49 | 50^| 50^| 48 | 50^| 42 | 45 |
Cheese | 40 | 17 | 45 | 40 | 50 | 58 | 50 | 62^|
Grain | 20 | 8 | 35 | 42^| 40 | 9 | 5 | 6 |
Gold |1000 |1000 | 400 | 300 | 250 | 890 | 900 |1050^|
Silver | 120 | 120 | 80 | 280 | 100 | 380^| 200 | 110 |
Quartz | 320 | 325 | 220 | 98 | 230 | 300 | 320 | 330^|
Coral | 280 | 275 | 290 | 260 | 270 | 350^| 120 | 105 |
Ivory | 300 | 350^| 200 | 195 | 220 | 290 | 140 | 120 |
Pearl | 220 | 220 | 170 | 160 | 175 | 230^| 110 | 120 |
Cotton | 80 | 110^| 15 | 11 | 10 | 10 | 42 | 8 |
Raw Silk | 120 | 130^| 40 | 40 | 50 | 80 | 90 | 85 |
Wool | 65^| 55 | 12 | 16 | 21 | 14 | 10 | 16 |
Cloth | 40 | 40 | 84 | 89 | 80 | 85 | 92^| 16 |
Silk | 140 | 150^| 45 | 48 | 50 | 50 | 25 | 70 |
Firearms | 75 | 70 | 140 | 190 | 170 | 230 | 240^| 205 |
Wood | 60^| 58 | 35 | 10 | 18 | 60^| 15 | 10 |
Porcelain | 105^| 40 | 40 | 35 | 45 | 40 | 10 | 35 |
Artwork | 400^| 400^| 30 | 45 | 300 | 150 | 120 | 160 |
Carpet | 320 | 340^| 140 | 120 | 115 | 30 | 50 | 75 |
============================================================|
The best prices are marked with carat (^) signs.
Buying Price Table
==================
This is how much the marketplace owner will charge you for a barrel of whatever
commodity it is that you're interested in. This table takes specialty goods into
consideration, but be advised that not all ports of the same type sell specialty
goods. For example: Lisbon and Seville are both type A ports. Lisbon sells sugar
and Seville doesn't, thus making sugar a specialty good for Lisbon, not
necessarily all type A ports. Specialty goods are marked with an asterisk beside
their price. For information on which specific port of a particular type sells a
specialty good, please see the port lists in Chapter V.
Port Type:
Good A B C D E F G H
============|=====|=====|=====|=====|=====|=====|=====|=====|
Pepper | | | | | | | | 4*|
Cinnamon | | | | | | | | 6*|
Nutmeg | | | | | | | | 6*|
Pimento | | | | | 38*| 30*| | |
Cloves | | | | | | | | 12*|
Olive Oil | 42 | | | | | 30 | | |
Grapes | 38 | 38*| | | | | | |
Sugar | 25*| 31*| | | | | | |
Cheese | | 35 | | | | | | |
Grain | 10*| 12 | | | 5*| 18 | | 10 |
Gold | | | 750 | 520*| 400 | | | |
Silver | | | | | | | 30*| |
Quartz | | | | 180 | | 105*| | |
Coral | | | | | 98*| | | |
Ivory | | | 126*| 105*| | | | |
Pearl | | | | | | | 170 | |
Cotton | 84*| | 30 | 25 | 22 | 20 | | 15 |
Raw Silk | | | | | | | 30*| |
Wool | 46*| 47*| | | | 20 | | |
Cloth | 60 | 62 | | | | | | 30*|
Silk | | | | | | | 45 | |
Firearms | 100 | 105 | | | | | | |
Wood | | 30*| | 28 | 44*| | | |
Porcelain | 60*| 60 | | | | | 25 | |
Artwork | 280*| | | | | 160*| 140 | |
Carpet | | | | | | 70 | | |
============================================================|
Some of the specialty good prices may be off by a gold piece or two.
The Best Deal Table
===================
In case you don't want to work things out yourself, here's a handy table to see
where to pick up goods at the best prices, and then where to sell them for the
best profit. Please note that this table takes things like investing into
consideration. The port listed is the closest port to Lisbon (as best I can
figure) that sells the good for the price listed. Of course, travelling from
Lisbon all the way to Santo Domingo to buy cheap gold, and then lugging it all
the way to India to sell it at the theoretical "best price" is hardly
profitable, after factoring in the supplies needed for such a voyage, the
possibility of storms around the Southern tip of Africa, not to mention the
insane amount of time it would require returning to Lisbon eighteen times to
deposit all the money at the palace. So take this table with a grain of salt.
Good Buy in Sell in Type Profit
============|====================|=============|======|
Pepper | Calicut 4 | B 110 | 106 |
Cinnamon | Ceylon* 6 | B 80 | 74 |
Nutmeg | Amboina* 6 | B 105 | 99 |
Pimento | Hormuz 30 | B 120 | 90 |
Cloves | Ternate* 12 | B 108 | 96 |
Olive Oil | Aden 30 | C 60 | 30 |
Grapes | Lisbon 38 | B** 62 | 24 |
Sugar | Lisbon 25 | C 50 | 25 |
Cheese | Bordeaux 35 | H 62 | 27 |
Grain | Guatemala 5 | D 42 | 37 |
Gold | Santo Domingo 400 | H 1050 | 650 |
Silver | Nagasaki* 30 | F 380 | 350 |
Quartz | Aden 105 | H 330 | 225 |
Coral | Santo Domingo* 98 | F 350 | 252 |
Ivory | Mombasa 105 | B 350 | 245 |
Pearl | Macao 170 | F 230 | 60 |
Cotton | Goa 15 | B 110 | 95 |
Raw Silk | Zeiton* 30 | B 130 | 100 |
Wool | Aden 20 | A 65 | 45 |
Cloth | Goa 30 | G 92 | 62 |
Silk | Macao 45 | B 150 | 105 |
Firearms | Lisbon 100 | G 240 | 140 |
Wood | Sofala 28 | F 60 | 32 |
Porcelain | Macao 25 | A^ 105 | 80 |
Artwork | Macao 140 | A^^ 400 | 260 |
Carpet | Aden 70 | B 340 | 270 |
======================================================|
* Indicates that this is the only port that sells this kind of good.
** Bordeaux sells grapes as a specialty item, so don't sell them there.
^ Venice sells porcelain as a specialty item, so don't sell it there.
^^ Istanbul and Pisa sell artwork... I think you get the idea.
Ships
=====
There are many different types of ship you can add to your fleet in this game,
if you factor in all the variables you can fiddle around with.
Used Ships
----------
For the first part of the game, it's best to rely on these ships. They're
cheaper than building a new boat, and good for mates to build their sailing
levels on.
Ship # Masts Sails Power Handling Cargo Crew Arms Durability Price
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Latin 1 3 75 100 70 20 10 30 900
Redonda 1 4 100 75 70 20 10 30 900
Bergantin 1 3 67 95 105 25 20 40 4050
Nao 2 4 88 60 310 60 30 50 11340
Carrack 2 4 77 57 420 90 40 60 13860
Galleon 3 4 72 48 490 160 50 70 24390
Building New Ships
------------------
This can be fun. If you factor in the six different hulls, the two types of
sails, and the number of masts which can be put on a ship, there are 112
different (statistically at least) ships you can put together, all of which have
different stats, and all of which have different prices. First you need to
choose a hull. Here's how much they cost.
Teak Beach Oak Mahogany Cost Per
Hull Cost Dur. Cost Dur. Cost Dur. Cost Dur. Mast
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Caravel 700 20 1050 30 1400 40 1750 50 300
Bergantin 2800 30 4200 40 5600 50 7000 60 300
Nao 5600 40 8400 50 11200 60 14000 70 2100
Carrack 7700 50 11550 60 15400 70 19250 80 2100
Galleon 10500 60 15750 70 21000 80 26500 90 3900
Heavy Galleon 12600 70 18900 80 25200 90 31500 100 3900
Next you need to supply the "particulars" of the ship that you want, such as how
many masts and what kind of sails. Here are the stats for ships with ONE mast.
3-Point Sails 4-Point Sails
Hull Masts Pow Hand Pow Hand Capacity Max. Arms
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Caravel 1-2 75 100 100 75 100 20
Bergantin 1-2 67 95 90 71 150 20
Nao 1-3 60 90 80 67 400 40
Carrack 1-3 52 85 70 63 550 40
Galleon* 2-3 45 80 60 60 700 50
Heavy Galleon* 2-3 37 75 50 56 1000 100
* A galleon can't have one mast. But if it could, these would be its stats.
A ship with two masts gains 10% more power, but loses 10% handling.
With three masts, it gains 20% more power (than with one mast), but loses 20%
handling.
If you're with me so far and managed to pass grade 5 math, you should be able to
see how a 3-masted heavy galleon with 4-point sails would have 60 power, 45
handling. You should also see how having a two masted caravel with four point
sails is useless, since the power is already maxed out at 100, and you'd be
losing handling, not to mention paying more for the ship.
Next, you need to tell the shipyard owner how many gun placements you want, and
then how many bunks for crew. Then you name the ship, and that's it. The only
thing you can do to change the stats of your ship once it's bought or built is
to change the sails from three point to four point, or vice-versa.
If you analyse the stats, you'll see that a single masted, three-point-sail
mahogany Nao, fully decked out with cannons, makes a pretty good "destroyer"
type warship, for those wanting a little more of a challenge. Put a mate like
Conrad or Miguel behind the wheel, and it'll do some respectable damage.
Distances
=========
Ever wonder how far it actually is between one port and another? I have a whole
Ó²oute distance calculationÔ section that I had to take out (couldnÒ´ shrink it
to 80 chars wide) which I can email you. Just ask for it. In the mean time,
here's the distance (in screens) every port is from Lisbon:
Acapulco - 61 Aden - 48 Alexandria - 14
Algiers - 7 Amboina - 56 Antwerp - 4
Argin - 14 Azov - 17 Baghdad - 52
Bordeaux - 3 Calicut - 50 Cape Town - 30
Caracas - 22 Ceylon - 50 Chanchan - 46
Cochin - 49 Copiapo - 41 Da Nang - 59
Diu - 52 Eureka - 61* Genoa - 12
Goa - 50 Guam - 69 Guatemala - 24
Hamburg - 6 Hormuz - 50 Injiga - 16
Istanbul - 13 Jamaica - 22 Java - 51
Kailua - 71 Leveque - 49 London - 5
Luanda - 23 Macao - 60 Madang - 58
Majorca - 10 Malacca - 53 Marseille - 10
Mecca - 52 Mombasa - 40 Mozambique - 39
Muscat - 49 Nagasaki - 65 Naples - 11
Nova Granada - 25 Oslo - 6 Panama - 24
Pernambuco - 20 Pisa - 11 Rio de Janeiro - 33
Rio Grande - 25 Ruwen - 25 San Jorge - 18
Santo Domingo - 21 Seville - 4 Sibir - 24
Sofala - 37 Sumatra - 50 Tanisk - 55*
Ternate - 54 Trebizond - 15 Tunis - 9
Valencia - 7 Venice - 14 Veracruz - 26
Verde - 10 Virginia - 14 Zeiton - 62
* Distance by using the Arctic Ocean.
Cheating Stuff
==============
Well, since you don't need the Game Genie or anything like that to do this, it
technically isn't cheating... but if you say "no" to the stats you're presented
with at the beginning of a new game 75 times (give or take), eventually a set
that is all high sixties with like 93 bonus points will come around. Should make
things a bit easier, especially if you're out to be a pirate. Please note that
this only works with the SNES and Genesis versions of the game, as far as I
know. Thanks to Zed Omega for pointing out that this works with the Genesis
version.
Are you sick of all the storms that end up getting you shipwrecked for weeks,
and your ships "mysteriously disappearing" every time you try to get around the
Southern tip of Africa? Just save the game on every screen. If you run into a
storm, or something "mysterious" happens, just reset the game, load up your
saved game, and keep going. Chances are pretty slim that it'll happen in the
same spot again.
Black Waltz emailed me with this one: It's a good way to make some cash if
you're not feeling seaworthy. In Lisbon, after having done at least one favour
for the king, repeatedly visit the princess and unload ton after ton of flowers,
gifts and sweet nothings on her until she says she will ask her father to
support you. Come back the next day and ask the chancellor for support. He will
say his majesty can supply up to x-number of gold pieces. Grab the money and
head upstairs and start wooing the princess all over again.
Fun With Emulators
==================
Finding this game at your local video store nowadays is quite unlikely, since
the game was never popular in North America (likely because it requires basic
reading and math skills), and since it's almost 15 years old. The easiest (but
still quite difficult) way to acquire this game is to find a working ROM image
of it, especially if you find the SNES or Genesis one. Although I've never
played it, the Genesis version is "the fastest" of the three versions, and has a
few graphics not included in the Nintendo versions, according to Craig J. Ries.
Why Emulate?
- Two words: "Fast Forward." This game can be painstakingly slow at times,
especially when crossing the Atlantic. Setting the frame skip rate to its max
while sailing speeds the game up drastically.
- You can cheat like it's going out of style by using the save/load state
feature of an emulator while gambling.
The save/load state feature also comes in handy when dealing with the king:
- Did you ever sail all the way to China only to find out that the king wants to
see you? Well I have, and believe me it's annoying. Save state before you head
out to sea. If you get to your destination only find out his majesty's
insatiable appetite for grain is beckoning you home, just reload the state, and
stick around Europe until he gets hungry.
- Here's a dandy: Have you ever come back from Santo Domingo with five heavy
galleons jam packed with one and a half million bucks worth of coral, only to
have the king want to see you? You go see him and lo and behold it's coral he
wants this time. His royal highness will then proceed to tell you that the 4800
crates of the stuff that you risked your life to lug three and a half thousand
miles across the stormy Atlantic "isn't enough." He needs you to get like six
more crates, and he'll pay you "grandly" for it. He'll then "take what you have"
and send you on your merry way. After you return from your expedition to the New
World (again), he'll thank you, promote you, and give you two thousand dollars,
which might cover the cost of half of the food your crew ate on the way over.
Always save state before talking to the king.
- Most emulators have a Game Genie and/or Pro Action Replay built into them.
Although there aren't many useful codes for this game, as far as I know.
Emulators can be found rather easily. Just go to your favourite search engine,
and search for "SNES emulator" or whatever system you're looking for. After you
scroll through the first fifteen sponsor sites that claim they have it, even
though we all know perfectly well they don't (like eBay or amazon.com), you'll
probably see something like "[Somebody]'s Emulation site." Just look around,
you'll find it easily enough with a little work.
As for ROMs... good luck. You'll find tons of results, don't get me wrong there,
but after you filter through all the hacker/porn/warez/paid sponsor sites and
page after page (after page) of broken links, you might find a few working
copies of popular games, like Mario and Zelda games and probably Final Fantasy
anything, but finding Uncharted Waters will be a bit of a task. It's out there
though. Keep trying.
I'm not going to get involved with the legalities (illegalities?) or ethics or
video game emulation, so please don't email me asking for help finding emulators
or ROMs, or for the emulators or ROMs directly, because all I can tell you is
what I already have.
Gambling
========
Ok. I'm really at the bottom of the barrel now. Here's how to play Poker &
Blackjack. The best places to gamble are Istanbul and Seville, as they have the
highest stakes.
Poker:
The object here is to get a better hand than any other player. After putting in
an ante of five gold pieces, you are dealt five cards. Of said five, you can
throw any or all away, and get replacements for them. After the replacements are
dealt, you can either raise the bet, call (put in as much as the guy on your
right so you can keep playing) or fold (give up). Once this goes around the
table, without anybody raising the bet, you can either call or fold. If you call
and have the winning hand, all the money on the table goes to you. Look for
pairs, runs (straights), cards of a similar suit (flushes), or high cards, like
aces and kings. Just do a search for "poker hands" at any search engine to find
out more.
Blackjack:
You are dealt two cards. The idea is to come as close to, but not more than 21.
Aces are worth either one or 11 (your choice), face cards are worth 10. If the
two cards you have are less than 21, you can ask for another one (hit). If
you're still less than 21, you can ask again. When you're finally ready to go,
select stand. If the dealer has a higher number, if it's a tie, or if you go
over 21, you lose. Otherwise you win. If you're dealt an ace and a face card,
you automatically win.
Did You Notice?
===============
Here's a few "goofs" for the game. Please correct me if anything here is wrong.
- Many ports in the game (Seville, Mecca, etc) do not actually border the sea.
- The real city of Baghdad is almost 450 miles from the Persian Gulf!
- The port of Panama in this game is in Nicaragua (should be Panama).
- The port of Rio de Janeiro in this game is in Argentina (should be Brazil).
- The UK is completely the wrong shape, and most of Scotland is missing.
- The entire country of Denmark is missing!
- To be honest, pretty much ALL of Northern Europe is horrendously inaccurate.
- Amboina and Ternate aren't on the islands they "should" be on.
- The Bering Strait is WAY bigger than it should be, almost ten times too large.
|======================|
| CHAPTER IX - The End |
|======================|
Additional Credits
==================
More than a few people have emailed me with hints and tips for things that I
either left out, or just plain didn't know about. Thanks to everyone who
contributed.
First of all, a huge and long overdue thanks to Chris Hebert, who told me how to
get heavy galleons.
Thanks to Craig J. Ries for pointing out that the speculum can be found in
Venice. Sure beats going all the way to China, doesn't it! He also told me about
the bonus graphics in the Genesis version of the game, and pointed out that
heavy galleons aren't the easiest things to handle, and you should wait until
level 10 or so before attempting to sail one.
Thanks to Alex Shovkoplyas for his tip on haggling with merchants.
Thanks to Black Waltz for his "easy money" tip.
Thanks to Ricky Gonzalez for that great "Italian" trade route.
Thanks to Terry Rhodes for his method of escaping from the Kara Sea's current,
and for letting me know about similar places in South America.
Thanks to Gerry Wilton for his tip on gaining fame quickly.
Thanks to Punk Rock Hindu for pointing out that my coordinates for Mecca and the
"screen of death" in the Arctic Ocean were a little off, for his "easy money in
Asia" tip, as well as pointing out a few other geographical screw ups (mainly in
Northern Europe) Koei made that I didn't mention before.
Thanks to Dustin Cole for pointing out that the speculum can be found in Argin,
which is the same distance (at least screen-wise) from Lisbon as Venice, in case
you don't feel like doing business with the Italians.
Thanks to Sahm Fatemi for inspiring me to add the bit about ship names.
Thanks to Jack Doobie, for discovering that the Spanish captain El Duro can be
gotten as a mate, adding more fuel to this "Xavier as a mate" business.
Thanks to Zed Omega for pointing out that amulets reduce the damage that natural
disasters cause, not the likeliness of one happening, as I had said before, and
for pointing out that the "insane bonus points" glitch works in the Genesis
version too.
The "Before You Email Me" Checklist
===================================
Generally, I like getting email, so I'm not too picky. All I ask is that you
kindly refrain from bringing up the following topics:
- Please don't ask me for a ROM image of the game, or where to find one.
- There are 70 ports, and I've listed them all. There are no others, period.
I'd also like to know what mates you like to get (and why), what you named your
main character, as well as what you named your ships, just for fun.
Future Versions
===============
Barring some Earth-shattering new development, there will be no more updates to
this guide except for the odd spelling correction or re-wording. If you have a
question about something not covered, just email me.
Can You Help Me?
================
A couple of years ago I was fiddling around with a hex editor (and a few other
nifty programs) trying to see what makes this game tick, and I got stuck on a
few things. For one, the byte that determines a port's "type" in most cases also
determines the tileset it uses. However, Istanbul and Alexandria, both "Type A"
ports (represented by a value of 0), use the "Type F" (value of 5) tileset.
Where does the game store this information?
Did you notice that in every port, the same three people wander around
aimlessly, depending on what type of port it is? All except for Nagasaki. The
people in Macao and Zeiton (the other "Type G" ports) look different from their
Japanese neighbours. Again, where is this "exception" stored in the game?
Also, in fiddling around with the graphics of the game (after driving myself
batty figuring out how bitplanes work) I found the tiles for a penguin sprite.
Where can this penguin be found in the game?
Anyway, the reason I bring all this up is because I was in the process of doing
a ROM hack of the game, changing all the ports around, changing the goods, the
mates, generally everything. The problem is I know only a limited amount about
hex editing, and zilch about 65c816 (or whatever it is) assembly language. If
somebody can point me in the right direction (no pun intended... if you even see
the pun...) as to where any of the things I mentioned are to be found in that
labyrinth of hex, please email me.
The End
=======
If you've been having trouble with the game, I hope this guide helped.
Of course, I'm Canadian, if my half British half American spelling ("tire
centre") didn't already give that away, and I've written this guide exactly the
way I'd have said it. If something I've written isn't clear (I know there's a
few expressions I've used that contain French words), just email me and I'll try
to rephrase things.
If you read this guide and liked (or hated) it, or if you'd like some help with
something I didn't cover, please email me and I'll write back as soon as I can.
I answer every email I get about this game, usually as soon as I read them.
Thanks for reading my guide!
Paul
citanes26@yahoo.com
