Caribbean! - 'Mount & Blade Warband meets Sid Meier’s Pirate’s' ?

[Ian C]

Described as 'Mount & Blade Warband meets Sid Meier's Pirate's', this looks pretty interesting for an early access game.
Anyone played this yet? The STEAM reviews appear 'Mostly positive'.  As a fan of both Mount & Blade Warband and Pirates! this seems, at first look, pretty unbelievable.

Dev Blogs:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/293010

[Steelgrave]

Ok, that looks like a "must buy" for me! Thanks for pointing it out, I hadn't seen it before.

[FarAway Sooner]

I hope they do it well.  That team's development efforts on Eador: Masters of a Broken World were utterly ineffective.  It's a great game, and I played it more than I've played any title in 8 or 9 years, I'd guess.  But that's all due to the game design (which wasn't their's--they purchased it from the guy who did the original Eador: Genesis title).

Their development was crap.  Showed great heart but utterly amateurish software development skills (over and over and over) even 9 months after release.  I hope they've learned from their mistakes, but since they repeated them so many times with Eador, I have little faith that Snowbird will get it right this time unless there's been a major change in management.

Hate to be so negative, but I'd wait to make sure that the game is released in a mature state before purchasing.

[Philippe]

For me the question boils down to how does this compare to Age of Pirates 2, and if it doesn't come out better, why bother?

AOP2 is hardly a perfect game, but the ship graphics are pretty decent (I pass over ship handling in discreet silence).

Except for the fact that too many of the towns looks the same, AOP2 does a pretty good job of giving a sense of place.

And it's nice to be able to jump into a ship and sail somewhere manually, if that's really what you want to do.  You can cast off from the harbour and point your ship towards what you think is a destination a few islands away, have dinner in real life, and when you come back to the game you're still chugging along in the middle of the deep blue sea.

And trading, at least at the start of the game, is not a trivial exercise.

This new game looks like it may have better 17th century costumes (always a big plus), and boarding battles look like they may be a bit better, but sailing in general doesn't look like it's up to Akella standards (which can be ok or weak, depending on who Akella is working with).

I'm still not sure how I feel about the AOP2 melee system, but it doesn't seem much better or worse than Taleworlds, just different.

What I don't like about AOP2 is the distorted campaign map, but you get used to it after a while.

This game has a more realistic map, but that in itself is not enough, especially if you can only move around on it Taleworlds style.

I like Mount&Blade Warband and really like With Fire and Sword, but hate the look of the strategic map in those games.  The tactical maps tend to be spectacular, though.

[JasonPratt]

...Taleworlds?

(Not sure what to think about Caribbean yet, but I'm probably getting Raven's Cry or whatever it's called first anyway.)

[jomni]

Looks nice.  Maybe more interesting than Vikings (I have it but haven't played a lot).

I want a cowboy mod.

[Father Ted]

I want a cowboy mod.

Now you're talking!

[Philippe]

...Taleworlds?

(Not sure what to think about Caribbean yet, but I'm probably getting Raven's Cry or whatever it's called first anyway.)

Sorry, left off the apostrophe.  The small turkish company's combat system.


I think what is going on here is that they built the base engine and are farming it out to what are essentially glorified modders, with a modicum of quality control. 

[jomni]

I bought it. Let you guys know how it plays.

[JasonPratt]

...Taleworlds?

Sorry, left off the apostrophe.  The small turkish company's combat system.

Ah. Still haven't heard of it. :) Feel free to give them a bit of promotion! 

[Philippe]

Taleworlds is the developer of the Mount and Blade games and its combat engine.  Here's the link:


https://www.taleworlds.com/



Until recently you could get a cleaner install of a Mount and Blade game by  buying the game from Gamersgate, but downloading and updating directly from Taleworlds and using the purchased code to unlock the game.  At some point I'm going to have to check if that's true with Viking Conquest.  When you fire the game up via Steam they show you a game code, and that's probably what you need.  I suspect the game might run a little better without the Steam layer.  (Not sure what that will do to you if you want to play in multiplayer).

[jomni]

Ok.  So here's my report.

Current state of the alpha is playable but not enjoyable.
No quests are implemented yet so you just go around the world and attack anyone you like.
You can't earn anything except from plunder or trade.

The ship battles are interesting but baffling as I am still not sure how aiming works.  It's just steering and commanding when to fire.  Maybe aiming depends on crew skill.

I attacked a village and the villagers just stood and did nothing.

For large ground battles, the usual commands don't really work.  Something has changed and I must learn it.  I also saw in that video in the first post that there is more tactical control but I don't know how to do it in the game.  Maybe need to level up some skills?

Currently, you're still better off playing Sid Meier's Pirates. Just that you won't have M&B style tactical battles.  It's got potential though when all the parts are delivered and working.

[DennisS]

Ok.  So here's my report.

Current state of the alpha is playable but not enjoyable.
No quests are implemented yet so you just go around the world and attack anyone you like.
You can't earn anything except from plunder or trade.

The ship battles are interesting but baffling as I am still not sure how aiming works.  It's just steering and commanding when to fire.  Maybe aiming depends on crew skill.

I attacked a village and the villagers just stood and did nothing.

For large ground battles, the usual commands don't really work.  Something has changed and I must learn it.  I also saw in that video in the first post that there is more tactical control but I don't know how to do it in the game.  Maybe need to level up some skills?

Currently, you're still better off playing Sid Meier's Pirates. Just that you won't have M&B style tactical battles.  It's got potential though when all the parts are delivered and working.

Here's my report. I generally agree with jomni, with a few other comments.

The original M&B had land combat. This has land AND sea combat, and although there are still some issues with the sea combat, anything is an upgrade.

The commerce and industry section is excellent, hugely better than M&B. You go into a city, and purchase the raw material production facility (farm, orchard, mine, etc.), and if you want, you can then purchase the level 2 facility to make the finished product. For example. You can build three grain farms, producing 12 grain each, and purchase a bakery and a distillery. This will give you grain, bread, and beer. You can sell the finished goods automatically, or take it to another town to be sold. At some point, there will be trading routes set up for this, similar to Port Royale 3 or the Patrician series.

Land combat is just as good, or better. There seems to be a greater variety of troops. As mentioned, period costumes were clearly a labor of love for the developers, and there are dozens of them.

Letters of Marque, allegiance to specific nations, the ability to be a pirate, the rest is all there. Boarding is handled simply, and well.

My only real complaint is that M&B was a journey that started from scratch. One person, essentially no money, and very little else. In this game, you START with two ships, a bunch of crew, and 20K cash. This 20K cash can get you a full blown production chain immediately, that will more than support your crew and your needs.

I believe that this may have been done intentionally..the first several hours in M&B was a serious struggle..the early game was a major grindfest. Much less so in this game.

I am liking it a lot. This is already better than Patrician, or the Port Royale series, and it is only going to get better when the modders get done. I play Brytenwalda for M&B, and wouldn't think about going back to vanilla.