Feel free to comment and discuss this game here. Also, if you have any useful tips or tricks don't hesitate to share them with the others! Thanks!

Review and Download (if available)

How do do you get places fast on this game? Do you have to hire a helmsman?

I played this a long time ago but could not figure out how to rise to the higher levels. It did not let me do that even though I had all the requirements.

I mean can you get your ship to follow waypoints, or do you have to always steer it yourself.

I really don't remember.

I think it said in the review that you can hire a helmsman to steer for you.

You hire a helmsman in charthouse (button in the bottom left). Then you sail out of the port, enter cabin, view map, lay in course, go back on deck and click button above small map. As for higher ranks, apart from good stats, sometimes you're also required to have estate.
I've been playing this games for past week and I've seen all this game has to offer. Although you can advance in ranks (you must if you want to buy better ship), there's not much to do except trading. Fights are often frustrating and missions aren't interesting or profitable. You cannot affect politics or attack any port (they disappear along with land once you enter attack mode). This has to be the only game where you loose money by investing it in bank! The game is not so bad, ie. graphics are nice and you get to sail around the world, but after a while you realise there's no strategy involved. It starts out great, but there're no new options as you gain profit. All you do is compare prices and fight pirates.

i notice this game has a little boot disk icon at the bottom, when i click the icon I am taken to an app that wont work on ntfs. Is ther an other option?
I would be looking to run it on dos box and would really love to play this classic again i use to love it.

thanks for your thoughts

:ok: I'm enjoying this game quite a bit. I don't like how you get jumped by random ships constantly. I have managed to figure out how to target the ships faily well and can blow them away before they get me.

I'm running it from DOSBox myself and it works great. Didn't have to do anything extra. (Which is VERY rare whenever I install new-old games)

A goodhelmsman avoids sandbars and storms, very very important.
Waypoints and Autosail make it alot easier, you only have to reclick auto after your helmsman warns you of a storm or after you get into a battle (Opening gunports)
Getting good stats require bigger ships, going to different ports and farther apart, owning an estate and valuable art collections, Helping out secret agents of your own country (That boosts loyalty rating), and not moving anyone with questionable cargo.
attacking enemy ships during wartime also boosts loyalty rating. Hope some of this helps if its too obvious my apologys
Doc

Annoyingly, in order to be promoted, you need to buy estates. You can only do this by going into you home town (for the english, this is liverpool) when you already have 300,000 gold on hand. In the tavern, there should be a dealer dressed mostly in black - he will offer the estate to you. The larger estates cost 500k and 700k.

You also need to buy treasure - dealers selling these can be found all over the world. I think there are 6 items in total costing up to 25,000 each (er....or is it exactly 25,000 each?)

Apparently, different nationalities have different effects but I don't know what these are. Anybody know?

Also, there aren't enough ways to increase your loyalty - mine is stuck at 36 and I'm a merchant. (I need 45 to get a promotion, and have more than enough of the other 3 guild ratings) Helping out agents from you country (ie.: for England, take them to Liverpool) boosts it by 12, but I'm not sure if attacking enemy ships does that (I can't seem to attack them - I just set a course, and they attack me! This doesn't seem to boost my loyalty)

Erm....does anyone else get a load of illegal read and write messages in one of the dosbox windows (the one that the game ISN'T running in) when they load up a saved game for highseas trader? As far as I can tell, this doesn't appear to have had any ill effects (though to date, the game has only crashed twice).

Oh yeah....
1: For combat, I just try and board 'em (300+ small arms, 170 soldiers and 130 sailors (no apprentices!) on a fourth rate... hee hee hee!)

2: If you've not got any cannon, the enemy will immediately head for you and board you. I got rid of my cannon recently - since I always want a boarding action, if I had any cannon, they would shoot at me first and damage my sailing before I could board 'em!

3: I don't use auto-combat - half the time, the enemy kills half my crew and wreaks my ship with gunfire when I do that!

4: If 3 ships attack you (sometimes occurs when attacked by pirates), if you successfully board 2 of them, the 3rd often tries to run away! Chase and board 'em, or head in the opposite direction until you can click on the "cannon" button to exit combat mode.

Also, I'm a master merchant now! Wonder what happens when I become Viscount (and when I complete the game?)

Hi i played this game on the first pc i had and loved everymin of it, i recently had sid mires pirates but my pc complains that directx 9.c is not detected after instaling it just b4, i have a system optimizer that says directx 9.c is installed [so my gfx card cat do it basicly]

i wanted to play this again but i have 2 pcs both on ntfs formatting, and cant get the game to work throgh dos box or anything, any help ?

i might try reformatting one of the pcs to the old formatting and run it.

[oprating system xp / onboard sis gfx]

thx

Xtreme

Xtreme Network 2005 / www.xn.fnhq.net/

I ran this game well in dosbox. found it to be important because i can speed up the cpu or slow it down, like when i am in combat. found the game to be well done. i always keep alot of soldiers on my crew. you can use a hexedit to get alot of gold if you want to cheat (i gave myself 14,000,000 gold), but you still have to raise all your rank stats, so this cheat does not take all the fun out of the game.

wish they would release a new version of this game.

Wish I had the instructions, a list of things to raise loyalty would be nice, all the one's I know of are the ones that are in the "readme" as additions to the manuel, which are about the same ones mentioned here.

Anyone know how to get to the menu? :wall:

Alt+x asks if you want to quit to dos, would really like to know where the SAVE command is, Ive tried everyhing i can think of,

*edit*

Found it, the door in the cabin room that I had allready tried waveing mouse everywhere had the game menu

Never fails

Isnt the save option in the docks on your ship in the bridge ?

to get the menu go to the cabin in your ship and click on the closet on the right after your titles. You will be able to save and load your game.

Enjoy

I am having some difficulty getting promoted. I clearly deserve it (I am currently at peddler, I meet the requirement for Loyalty Honour and Nobility to be above 15 and the average to be 25, and I also have the tea set treasure), yet I am not getting promoted. Is there a way to fix this bug, or a way to change the save file?

OMG!! I LOVE THIS GAME SO MUCH!!
i've searching for this game for quite a while.
I used to play it when i was younger, but then i get rif of my old computer =(
but now i found the file and can play it again! THANX abandonia!!

how do you make your daring get higher? :blink: isnt this such a cool smilie?

Some tips:

Don't put money in the bank, you will lose money. Keep it to yourself is the best way.

Going around to see whether there is an intelligence agent of your country to bring back to your home city. Will increase Loyalty by 12.

You earned 1 pt of Nobility for each new port you visited.

Going around near your home city to periodically check the tavern for the estate dealer to buy estates when you have enough money.

Going to the Mediterranean to get a symbol collection.

My format rate of soldier/sailor/apprentice when you afford them is 2/1/0 (the soldier double the size of the sailor. No apprentices :D )

Wait for time when all the country is allied or neutral to your home country before embarking to the faraway ports (US, or African). Otherwise, you will get killed by enemy ships.

St Petersbourg, Stockholm, Glasgow, Tanjier is some ports you can always go to.

:D :D
I think this is one of the best of the sailing ship trading and action
games, more than the just pirate ones, I think.... :bye:
Yes the menu is the closet in your cabin,
it is interesting how you get promoted, the thngs you have to do
were the real things a "gentleman" sailor adventurer would have
to do to advance and gain status and position.....

great game thanks abandonia!
:cheers: ahoy and avast mateys

how do u properly fight pirates and other ships? everytimg a ship approaches i just fire the cannons on the side the ship is on. is there a way of doing this or am i doing something wrong?

Hey just wanna say to kosta cheers for ya help and it was what i saved my files to and when i i was rewriting config i was jusy copyin and pastin but not changin to the same name as the files but its all workin now was havin a prob with saving but thats sorted now and im doin quite well ive found best and shortest trade is buyin liqour from amsterdam and sellin at london and buyin arms at liverpool and sellin at lisbon :D
The Game rules been trying to get a newer version not same game but similar but non copmpare high seas trader is awesome.
Thanks :kiss:
Ashley

Thats pretty much the way to do it..use the round to damage them by punching holes in them. Use the Chain to rip apart their sails, and use the grape shot to rip their crew to shreds.

since you can't take their ship...don't hesitate to do damage, just don't sink her if you want the cargo. Be sure not to overkill with huge cannons on a little ship. You have to pay for your ammo afterall and taking the ship helps with cost.

you can also get close to board and thats when you can clean out their cargo. This works best with ships the same size or smaller than you, otherwise you may find that you are the one being boarded. I hear you can get boarded without firing a shot if you are unarmed, but never tried that

Soldiers and Sailors are the best for piracy, apprentices are best left drinking at the bar.

Don't forget to repair your ship in port, Upgrade your cannons if you like to use them in your attacks. buy plenty of ammo of all kinds and small arms for your boarding party (be generous to your firepower, you'll thank me later.)

You will increase loyalty and daring by attacking nations that you are at war with, so you can prowl their waters if you want to try piracy, but stay close to a friendly port during times of war. Attack pirates whenever you have the firepower to do so if you want to get some prestige as well as "free" cargo.

Hope this helps ya mate, forgive me if I tell ya things you already know of course

I CAN NOT BUY NEW SHIP, PLEASE PLEASE HELP ME ! WHAT I HAVE TO DO? I NEED ENOUGH GOLD BUT THE MESSAGE SAYS "SORRY CAPTAIN, I WOULD LOVE TO SELL YOU THIS SHIP, YOU LACK THE EXPERIENCE"? :help:

Got to climb the social ranks and get promoted first..money is good but you still have to have the political power or you can be the richest peddler stuck in a cargo fluyt in all the high seas

but your goal in the game is to make noble ..so get them points :)

Be sure you have an estate of the right size. If you have an estate you should be able to visit it in your home port. A horse & carridge will be there to take you to your estate.

If you have all the requirments including the estate you shouln't have a problem getting promoted, mostly within 5 min. of meeting the requirments and being in a port (does it need to be your home port, I don't know).

Does anybody know how to choose wich ammo to use whith your cannons and what the difference is with the baks, ie. using many banks or just one?

be happy to help..

Round shot is to damage the hull of the enemy

Chain shot is to disable the sails

and Grape shot is to take out the enemys crew.


The difference in the amount of banks is just how much firepower you want to use, this may seem silly for people starting out, but if you have a heavy ship and highly upgraded cannons you can use up alot of ammo not to mention sink the ship you intended to board with too much firepower.

Hi,

Yes, I agree, this game is awesome. I've been playing it for ages.

MY TIPS...

Keys and Mouse combos. In battle use your mouse to fire your cannons (always fire them seperately - single cannons - that way you have a better chance of hitting your enemy) and use the keyboard to steer your ship. 'Z' and 'C' will turn you left and right, 'S' will raise or lower your sails, and 'A' and 'D' will fire your cannons (when they are not banked).

Spend big on firepower - you cannot have too many small arms aboard ship. I always upgrade my cannons to Demi-Cannons. They punch big holes in your opponents, and fast. Never hire apprentices. Always choose Sailors.

Buy ammo in the carribean - and food, as its cheeeap there.

Try the New York to Shanghai ARMS route for some big bucks. You make a profit of 200 gold pieces per unit you carry.

Sailing long distances is easy, just avoid the pirates. When sailing from South America, to Asia drop down to the low part of the maps and follow the arrows. Not so many ships down there to avoid.

Carry your money with you & save often.

Advancing through this game depends on money, and buying estates. So make as much as you can. Avoid corvettes and frigates. Buy ships with the largest holds possible, and find the most profitable trade runs.

When attacked, run first. Then look behind you to figure out if its worth fighting. Battles are fun, but they can be costly, and leave you in trouble, especially on the open sea.

My tips:

1) The sail at the bottom of your screen can be a big help in combat. Use it as a scope for your cannons (I use all four at once). Fire when an enemy ship is on or above the tip of the sail and you'll have a hit. Every time!

2) I've found if you turn toward your enemy head on, you can minimize your damage. Let's say you fire from the starboard side like me. After you fire, turn the steering wheel to the right. The enemy ship will gradually move left just off the screen. You've become a much smaller target, Stay there until your cannons are ready to fire again. Then, turn your wheel left until the enemy ship reappears and is broadside above the sail. Boom, you have a hit.

3) Buy new charts as soon as you can. Not all ports carry the same charts and you don't want to double back.

This is a wonderful game that I'm enjoying no end. Didn't care for it in the beginning, though. Pirates were coming after me from all sides and I couldn't hit the side of a barn. My little trades were earning pitiful amounts of gold. The posts here were very helpful, though. I decided to forget everything and go for an estate. I found a great trade route buying opium, jewelry and silk in Tunisia and selling them a short hop across the Mediterranean in Marseille. (Can anyone sell opium in Marseille without thinking of, "The French Connection"?) Then, bought arms in Marseille to sell back in Tunisia. Gold really started rolling in. There may be better trade routes but this was fast and relatively safe.

Once I had the estate (really very beautiful), I settled in for some serious gaming. I traded up to a Corvette to visit new ports for points and adventure. Corvettes carry little cargo but can outrun almost any other ship. So, not worrying about pirates, I sailed around the Horn to the East. Aha, found treasures! And, brought an intelligence officer in from the cold for great loyalty points. (Visit every tavern in every port you enter. That's where you meet people and buy estates and treasures.) After I returned to Europe, I rebought a Fluyt to haul cargo for more gold.

If you let your imagination play, you will really enjoy this game. Listen for the gulls in harbor, the slap of the sails at sea and the ominous thunder of an approaching storm. Don't miss a great little place for bouillabaise near the docks of Marseille (just kidding). Best of all, after a long stretch at sea you can return to your estate and put your feet by the fire. Have a snifter or two of fine brandy and admire your treasure. You earned it.

Tough out the very beginning stages of the game and you will be richly rewarded.

The folks here at Abandonia do a wonderful job. Thank you for all the great games and hours of fun!

My question now is.....

-- What Keys/mouse action should I use when I am trying to board a ship? Are there any set keys I should hit to make my men board faster? I've been bashing the keyboard at different points during this operation, in the hope that something will work. I tend to lose a LOT of men during these fights and then spend the rest of the game making up men from every tavern I can find.

-- I think Arms are safe to carry...but now I'm not sure. I know Opium, Tobacco and Liquor are contraband, without losing points, but what about Arms?

-- What is a failsafe way of making fast points for Daring? My tally is always so much lower than the others ...???

I believe the boarding action is all automatic..the only way to reduce the casualtys that I know of is to have more Soldiers to inflict more damage.

To my knowledge you can carry arms, tobacco, opium, and liquor to any port without penalty, you get a penalty for helping a smuggler that wants to to sneak things "No questions asked" but I haven't lost points running any of the cargos on my own.

Daring..acts of piracy against an enemy nation or attacking pirates, also helping sneak agents from your own country may help.

Hope this helps you Ainslee

My favoutite route : Opium from Shanghai/Macao/Fu-Chao ===> Goa

A fairly short distance. Another good one is Liverpool arms ==>Charleston, Charleston Tobacco ==> liverpool.

I've been looking for the music from this game as well. The tracks for the Middle East are from Erik Satie's Gnossiennes Nos. 1 & 3. (If you were getting these, I'd recommend all six Gnossiennes, anyway)

I have no idea why, but High Seas Trader is very sluggish and skips a lot, even when I increased the CPU cycles and frameskip on Dosbox. I didn't have this problem before...

I`m trying to play the game but it moves too fast. There`s a way to slow it down ?

How do you play the game with actual PC ?

Emmmmm...... I answer myself :D . Just put HST.exe -P in the command line !!!

I`m not very good with this game , my crew always decides that y must leave the ship ..... When we are in the middle of the ocean!!.

make sure you have some money left to pay their salaries, and above all, have grog!

Its a light alcoholic drink that makes your crew happier

If you are just starting, my favorite is Amsterdam-st petersburg/stockholm, dont remmeber, a very profitable liquor-arms route if you dont have too much cash

As to combat, when I played it a long time ago I amused myself by going pirate hunting near africa. After a while, most of my enemies surrendered after my first shot, wether I hit them or not

Slight downside, I never figured out the estate part, so I was stuck with the medium ranks

good luck to all ya landlubbers with no heart for sea combat

remember: a colision at see will ruin your entire day

I was wondering why the original voices aren't included in the download. Is it to reduce the zip size? I really missed the " what'll be captain " Fortunatly I found my old CD and was happy that just adding that folder worked to include the speeches without having to mount the cd drive in dosbox.

how many cash do you need to have if you want buy the estate?
because i have over 4 000 000 and nobody in my homeport offers my it..
i really dont know and its frustring..mhmm?

sorry ....400 000

There are 3 types of estates sm (approx 350k), med ( approx 525k) and lge (approx 750k ). I never buy the first 2 since you don't get money back from upgrading. Just do the opium runs from the orient to Goa till you have enough to purchase the large estate AND the new boat you will be able to buy with the new rank you will get. Of course keep in mind the treasure you have to own in order to go up a rank as well.

how do i increas each of my stats nobody said here how to.

how can i make it work as it should?? if i enter from windows it doesen't hear any sound and if i enter it with dosbox it just works too slow, and hangs(freezez) for a second or two each 3 or 4 seconds. what should i do to it??

There is an update available to version 1.1

it reduces the amount of attacks occurring and sets the market prices more realistic.

If anyone has the webspace, I can deliver it for Upload.

Greetings

Horgal

Help me, I can't raise Daring. Every time I try to sink enemy or pirate ships they always surrend so I gain no daring. I've got a Frigate with 4 Cannons each left bank (nothing on the right side) loaded with round ammunition. What should I do?

Moreover clicking on a ship, that is sailing close to me, I am able to board the ship or hail for news. Why I can't board ships in the same way during battles?

Ops, forget the last part of my previous post. I've just discovered you can board in the same way even in battles.

also, you get 1 daring for meeting a pirate, often, then another 1 daring for fighting it, if you do so in any way, I think. Once I had 100 daring. I only had to fire a canon in a random direction to have any ship surrender

loyalty is practically only gained by the fellow countrymen, either on a mission or needing escape, I believe, though im not sure about the last. Sometimes you get attacked when you exit a port with such one aboard. Notice that honor drops if you engage those in combat

Honour is in about every traveler you take with you, though those asking for free passage give more honor points.

Nobility is regulated a lot by visiting previously unknown harbors and by taking the non paying passengers, not sure about that last though

Thanks for the info on the estate (300.000 cash), never knew that. For those starting in Amsterdam: A'dam - st petersburg liquor - arms route is always open and gives a nice profit

can anyone share the missing sound files, and maybe the 1.1update?

Awesome game.

I remember getting addicted to this when I was like 9. D/led it the other day and been playing it virtually since. A real hoot. I swear those treasures are hard as hell to find sometimes but otherwise the game is pretty easy. Just remember to save often.

I remember from a long process of elimination that the French are the best nation to be because Bordeaux (hometown) guarentees you a good liquor/arms run to St Petersburg or even Glasgow. They tend to often be enemies of a lot of other nations though, so be ready to fight.

Best ships are the Fourth Rate and the East Indiaman (of course). East Ind. has 700 tons cargo but Fourth Rate is faster, has better cannons and still has a decent 600 ton cargo hold. Always pick the diplomats up if feasable - they pay nicely, dont weigh anything and score you lots of loyalty.

Unless youre looking for treasure or nobility points there is no real need to venture outside Europe. I usually do the following run:

Stockholm (buy opium)
Amsterdam (buy opium)
London (buy opium)
Bordeaux (buy opium)
Bilbao (buy opium)
Marseilles (sell opium, buy arms)
Canary Islands (sell arms)
REPEAT - makes a good 25k a run with a Fourth Rate.


Recommend the download. Sure, it gets repetitive at times and the combat blows, but everything else is in top order. Plus its aged pretty well IMO.


<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Osk @ May 3 2006, 12:37 AM) [snapback]228016[/snapback]</div>Loyalty also comes from trading with ports of your nation. My regular trade routes involve both Marseilles and Bordeaux (I play as French) so my points usually reach about 80 by the time to level up.

Funnily enough, I dont think you lose many loyalty points for attacking your own nation. I remember my first mate once got me out of autopilot and straight into a French Merchant causing him to attack me. I killed him (naturally :P) and suddenly I had French ships attacking me wherever I went. I must have sunk 50 French ships and I think I lost about 5 loyalty points.

how can i play highseas trader in windows xp???

With DosBox.

this game is pretty easy to finish and retire well, to find ships you just sail around near enemy harbours manually and you see them in the distance from time to time.

Recently downloaded this game and got seriously addicted! Some very useful tips in this thread, thanks guys! Given peaceful times, my favourite businesses are selling arms from North America (New York/Boston) to the Caribbean (Guadeloupe/Santo Domingo) and carrying back spices, sugar and other stuff to Boston, as well as selling Chinese oppium (Fu-chao/Shanghai) to Goa in India and carrying back arms from the indian ports. Of course, wars complicate matters.

There are some reasonably profitable roots in Europe and the Mediterranean to start you off, but I think you got to get to the high seas for some real profits.

I have a frigate - I find it a good choice overall. It's quick enough to help me avoid many battles and carries enough crew to help me win those that I can't avoid or want to fight. It can also hold a decent amount of cargo. I'm thinking of trying a fourth rate at some point, for some part-time privateering/pirate hunting.

It seems to me the most useful nationality is english. The great market of Boston is always open to you and you have all these trading posts in India. Singapore is also very very useful to stop over, repair and buy food should anything nasty happen to you on the way to/from China. Portuguese is good, especially beacause of the oppium prices in Goa, as well as all the other trading ports in East Africa and India. The Dutch have Capetown which greatly helps trips to the Far East from Europe or the Americas. As a spanish you have access to quantities of relatively cheap sugar and spices in the Caribbean, but you need to be friends with the english to sell them at best prices without crossing the Atlantic in every single route. I think as a french the game can be more challenging, especially if France is frequently at war with all others.

I'm playing as a portuguese now. I'm inclined to try the others afterwards!

High Seas Trader: How save a game?!!!

I can't save this game! Plz HELP-ME!!!

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(The Xtreme @ Jan 1 2005, 04:47 PM) [snapback]44496[/snapback]</div>I got this game to work again under Windows XP! The only problem I have is the sound. I had to try all the sound cards to find one that worked and didn't just shut the game off and boot me back to windows. The music plays but no sound effects. so the game does work in XP, just keep playing with the sound card options. It should work.

Just use VDMSound. You can download it from our programs page.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Andrew @ Oct 19 2004, 07:01 PM) [snapback]18467[/snapback]</div>There are actually 18 different treasures (check the text/notebook files that are in the HST directory. It gives you the list and script for each treasure. It also lists the price of each as "XXXXX gold". I thought I read somewhere a few years ago that you could change this to "0 gold" and get them for free, but I didn't do it), but you only get to buy six of them, since that is all the room you have to show them off in the large estate. I visited every port at least three times with loads of gold in my pockets and was never offered any after I had six treasures.
Gary

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Havell @ Sep 9 2004, 07:00 PM) [snapback]13059[/snapback]</div>Press "first mate" when you have set the waypoints.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Vasco da Gama @ Nov 11 2006, 02:52 PM) [snapback]266404[/snapback]</div>Go to cabin and press cabinet. There are options.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(horgal @ Apr 11 2006, 08:24 PM) [snapback]221305[/snapback]</div>Where you have downloaded it?

Hey all, cant believe this game is around, was always one of my favorites. anyways i cant seem to save, i can get to the save menu but when i type in and enter the name i want to save the game as it makes the ships bell noise and acts as if it has saved the game while nothing has actualy been done. im running this in dosbox and im not having any other problems. anthing helps thanx

may be a dumb questino but you did click load game afterwards right? :unsure:

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(_r.u.s.s. @ Jun 7 2007, 09:25 AM) [snapback]293306[/snapback]</div>yes i have, when i click load there is no evidence of the game having saved :wallbash:

search for files GAME[number].SAV and delete if they r present

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(_r.u.s.s. @ Jun 7 2007, 11:25 PM) [snapback]293425[/snapback]</div>hm, no .sav files. it isnt creating them. when i enter my charactars name when first starting the game the dosbox status window spits this out however illegal read from ffffffffd2, cs:ip 180:2019e, no idea what this means but it might be connected? should there be a folder for saved files that i am missing? its odd that it dosnt spit an error message at me when i save, it just goes through normal but never actualy saves anything. thanks for the ideas i appreciate it.

Do you have a savegame folder in your game folder? "One or two" games need to have their savegame folder manually created and named. Try to create a few folders and name them "save", "saves", "savegame", "savegames" etc etc

i didnt have a save game folder, i created every derivation of game and save game that i can think of, no dice. anybody mind looking at thier files and seeing where they are being saved to, and the name of that folder.
thanks

i have also taken all the files off of read only.

well i took a look, and each time there is made a new file called GAME[number].SAV, like i said. but i have no clue what could cause that you cant create new files.. so i guess that game itself is somehow um wrong. maybe redownload and re-unzip?

ok i got the games to save, it was a problem with dosbox, i deleted it and reinstalled. i remounted everything and it works now however i have to remount the directory everytime i want to use dosbox. oh well guess you cant have everything.

You don't. (link)

I have been hunting for this game for ages..

Thanks to abandonia...

I can finally play a game i used to play at 13, im already 28 now..

LOL..

anyway, to solve one of the mystery of the estate.

Im playing english & the smallest estate cost exactly 309,000

One question i always wanted to ask is this:

each time u visit a different port, there will be different charts in the charthouses..

what does the figures means?

for exmaple, i have charts of boston & new york..

but sometimes, i can still BUY charts when it is outline in red & shows a zero.

U guys know what i mean?

i never fully understand the charts thingy..

I was wondering if it is a waste of $$

Price for

small estate: 309k

medium estate: 510k

large estate: 735k

Here are the details for the ships..

it aint complete yet..

Fluyt 8 guns 300 tons
Frigate 32 guns 350 tons
East indiaman 40 guns 700 tons
Fourth rate 64 guns 600 tons

anyone care to share the details for corvette & merchant?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(ksb @ Jun 24 2007, 05:18 AM) [snapback]296053[/snapback]</div>Number of years out of date

You set waypoints, and hits helmsman, and he will take you there.

as for going up in levels, you need to go home once and a while, and it will promote you. Over time, you need to buy special items and those help you go up also.

When I boot the game, it runs fine, but when I type in my name, the screen displays a whole bunch of hex values, and goes to windowed mode. I've run it in Windows (ME), and when I try it in DOSbox, it just crashes automatically. Can anyone help me with this problem? Thanks in advance.

ps. I've tried using the -P and -1 commands, but to no avail.

Edit: Never mind, I fixed the problem by tuning off the sound in the setup program. Thanks :)

for people experiencing lag when playing the game in dos box.

few things you can try

1 increase the cycles in dosbox.conf (see the post before this with the link for that info)
2 use the -1 option when running the program
3 turn off sounds and animations by leaving the dock and visiting the cabin and going to game options.


enjoy

thanks for allowing people to play all these old games.

Hi,i have a problem

I need one more treasure but i cant find it, i have visited every port in the world for 4-5 times in the last 10 year (game-time) and found nothing.

Is a bug or i'm doing something wrong?

Finally i have found the treasure and finished the game

Here some tips:

1)Start with any nation you like,if you want no problem at all select England

2)Make money is very easy.The most profitable goods are Arms and Oppium.

3)The best ship is the Frigade,is fast enough to escape almost every battle,has a decent cargo and you can win every battle with 32 cannon (use the sail trick to hit with every shot).Buy it as soon as you can, upgrade it at 'eccelent 'quality and buy the best cannons.

4)The charts aren't very usefull,at the start buy every chart you can to have the details of every port, then buy charts when are too out-dated .

5)Buy only the big estate (735.000) the medium and the small are useless.

6)If you find a treasure dealer buy a treasure!! they are very rare.

7)the helmsman is very important,hire a eccelent one, he will make the navigation more quiet(he can avoid pirates)

8)Win battle increase Daring / Transport countrysman increase Loyality / Transport people without money increase Honor / Visit Port increase Nobility

HI!

If anyone is still reading this: I've played this game in 1995 and loved it! But back then it always crushed on ny comp I played it on. Now I've tried about 3 different versions from the internet and YEAH! it does work now;
BUT:

I cant get any maps of ASIA!!! HOW DO I GET ASIAN MAPS? I've looked in any Carthouse of every city in Europe, Africa, North- and Southamerica. I'm obsessed with this game for 12 years now and I just want to finish it! PLEASE HELP me!

I'm pretty sure I have a bad version again :(.
Maybe you can tell me where I can cheat the maps I have?

Thanks in advance

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Desperate @ Sep 27 2007, 02:58 PM) [snapback]313464[/snapback]</div>
I found out myself: I transported the bug with the savegame: I just had to start new to repair.
So after 12 years! FINALLY! Actually, the final sequence is quite short and boring for all that trouble I went through. LOL.

Have anyone a german version?

my english is not so good:(

Hi I have a very stupid question. I hired a helmsman, left the port, went to cabin, browse through charts and selected the city. Under routes I cannot click on first mate so I went on done and exit from cabin and when I press above little map on the deck, my ship is going straight and I have to steer it again. I would appreciate if you could help me how to do that because I have already looked at previous posts and didn t worked for me, so what am I doing wrong

one other thing is that when I m on the deck after setting the course, when I click above that small map first mate always said to me that I haven t selected any waypoints

sorry just find it

To set the course waypoints, you need to click on the bits of sea that you want the ship to go to, then you can click first mate. You'll see anchors linked by a continuous line showing the path you set, and it won't let you plot the point if it involves going over some land.

Also, two things with this version - why is there no music in North American ports? They only play the music of the last screen shown, so I get things like the tavern music still playing on the port screen. I know that the CD version played the Northern Europe tune in these ports.

And there don't seem to be trade winds, just winds, so there is no natural clockwise wind motion in the oceans.

A Simple ?
 

This game runs fine, except 2 things
1) sound skips evey 3-5 secs, no big deal
2) the cycles are maxed out, plays way too fast.
How do I slow it down ? Can I do it in-game, or do I need to do it from the .conf file ?

Only in the config. Also, to reduce the sound stuttering, you can modify the blocksize and prebuffer settings.

if you mean you are using dosbox and cycles are too high then you can decrease them with f11 button. but you could try using "cycles auto" maybe the dosbox will pick well for you..

btw when cycles are too high (more than your processor can handle) then the sound skipping thingie appears

Make that CTRL+F11.
;)

FYI F_LeRoy, try the dosbox readme, all is listed there.

Can';t set sail!
 

Help somebody, please.:oh:
I';ve read al through each posting (some more than once) and I Still Haven';t Found What I'm Looking For -advice on how to get this game to run - on XP, DOSBox 0.72 or VDMSound 2.1:worried:

Information on dos box and how to run DOS games in XP


http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/showthread.php?t=17476

Ta muchness
 

Thank 'ee kindly, Gregor. Looks like just what I need.:)

come on, there are options to speed up or down as u wish:thumbs:

this is one of the best navigation thing i have seen before, even better than unchartered water, but, surely ... limits.:doh:

Got a problem with this game, it goes too fast! At the initial screen with the town for example I can see the sea wildly fluttering and a constant stream of rats crazily crossing the street. The thing is, if I turn down the cycles, mouse control becomes sluggish...what can I do?

I am currently running this game on my Dell XPS laptop with a killer fast CPU and Vista without problems. The mice do run very fast, but, hey: they're mice. They're fast.

Try this:
Set up a batch file by:
1. opening up Notepad
2. type: HST.EXE -p
3. save the file as HST.BAT
4. save the file in your High Seas file folder
5. if you already have DOSBox loaded, download DOSShell and run the setup
6. in DOSShell, click on the green plus sign to add a new game to the screen
7. type the game's name in the top line, select a group, like Games
8. for Path to Executable, browse and find your new HST.BAT file, click on it and click OK
9. select an icon, or not, add a description or not, click OK, and you are set.
10. on the DOSShell window, double click on your new game icon and away you go.
11. say, "Arrgh, Matey!"

The game will now run slow enough for you to control all actions and actually aim at other ships, and fast enough to actually enjoy.

The "-p" switch tells the program that it is working on a pentium machine and has to slow itself down. I never have to adjust the cycles.

One other thing, I have no luck playing in full screen. It just shuts down, so don't even try.

Also, to make your mouse active in the game, click on the game screen. You now have the game's mouse controls. To escape the game screen, press the Windows button on your keyboard and you are back to the system mouse control. Hope that makes sense.

Gary

This game runs waaaaaaaaaaaaay too fast even with the game speed at 1, and throttling dosbox doesn't make it run a whole low slower, just worse. Even setting dosbox to 5%, the game is too fast, and then also very jerky. I don't have this problem with other games in dosbox.

As far as I can determine the -p switch does nothing, but maybe that's because I'm not actually using a Pentium (Phenom X3).

I also tried the Amiga version, which runs great IN PORT, but runs unplayably awful at sea. Not only too fast, but also it freezes every several seconds to load data from the floppy images. I don't have this problem with other Amiga games.

I think the game was just badly coded in the first place, and will never run correctly on modern machines.

Which is bad news. Hopefully you're wrong. :p

Looks fun. Cool looking graphics. :)

re:
 

although it might seem tempting and profitable, it's not always such a wise decision to take arms all the way from america to the east indies. why? because you're missing other trade-opportunities inbetween, by occupying cargo space throughout the whole tour.
if you sell arms directly from america to the east indian colonies, you receive a profit of, let's say, approximately 150 gold per ton of cargo. it seems huge. but if you rather take the app. 100 gold per ton for selling arms from america to the caribbean, then 40 gold per ton for sugar from the caribbean to africa, and then 40 gold for jewelry from africato east india - you will gain a profit of app. 180 gold per ton of cargo, which is 20% higher.
of course i'm talking about averege numbers i have experienced. the market can change, and under certain circumstances, if a profit of 200 gold per ton for arms from america to east india is possible, the caribbean is low on sugar, african goods are not that much demanded on the east indies, or if just the current state of diplomacy doesn't allow the desired route, i do take the arms directly from america to shanghai.
but no matter what route you may decide, you should always plan as many stopovers as possible. why? that's simple: because the longer routes you take from one port to another, the more supplies you have to carry with you - not only more food, but also more ammo and more planks and sailing clothes, in case of being attacked in the middle of the ocean, with no nearby ports available - and the less space you have left for your goods, and hence, the less money you earn on your trip.


i, personally, like taking a tour that looks like this:

europe -> north america: liquor
north america -> caribbean: arms
caribbean -> africa: sugar
africa -> east indies: jewelry
east indies -> china: coffee

and then back:

china -> east indies: opium
east indies -> africa: spices, tea
africa -> europe: ivory

of course, it might seem boring, to take the same tour over and over again. but it's only an example, and the tour is not nearly always the same. what i like most in this game is, when the situation suddenly changes and - just because an ally surprisingly declares war on your country and therefore making it impossible to deliver your goods to the desired harbor, or new options occur due to an unexpected change of the market, or if you meet an agent of your country in the middle of business, urging you to take him all the way back to europe - making it necessary to overthrow the whole plan and having to make a new one. ;-)

I don't know about coding. I do know the game was designed for DOS, not Windows in the first place. As I stated in an earlier post, I am running the game on an almost brand new Dell XPS laptop that was almost the fastest most advanced machine they then made without trouble. I am using the batch file I described in DosBox and Dosshell and it runs perfectly.

Woohoo!
 

Afer haunting me for the last 10 years or so I FINALLY beat this game. I've downloaded it probably 10 different times.... Ahhh finally I can get back to life. I gotta say the end leaves a bit to be desired but nothing like a game finished. I loved this game. Who cares if the pirate action isn't awesome. It doesn't have pirate in the title does it? No. It is good at what its supposed to be good at, trading!!

Hey guys,

Is there any other place to get "The Ocean Highways" (and the other large PDF files) other than at replacementdocs.com?

I'm on 28k dialup and their server kicks me every time around 1.3Mb. The only one I could download was the "Quick reference Card" and I've googled for the rest until I'm nearly crosseyed. :(

Thanks.

Weird, the extras at Abandonia are links to replacementdocs.

BTW, this game is much better than 1869 which is a bit similar.

I don't see anything weird in that. You could call it wired, though.

I liked 1869 more, this game is just too easy :)

Well...

Am running High Seas Trader from Win98SE on an AMD XP2400 (underclocked to 1800), in a regular DOS window (NOT the DOSBOX emulator).

Haven't played it much (yet), but here are a few issues I've managed to overcome on my system so far:

- It must be started in "Full-screen" mode (NOT "Window" mode). This can be set in the MS-DOS window's "Properties" settings. Or you can create a DOS shortcut and just edit that one. If you see a minimize button, the DOS window is NOT full-screen, and DOS/4GW will crash.

- At first it ran waaaay too fast (even with the -P parameter). HOWEVER, there is a Pdelay.txt file that seems to be used ONLY with the -P parameter, and can be modified with any text editor. Here's what I've found (I suggest making a backup of the file before editing):

Line 10 (original value is 0) can be changed to slow down the "home port" animated screen (where the rats/birds/etc. are). Mine is now 90.

Line 11 (normally at 25) can be changed to slow down the "on ship" animation (sailing, cannon fire, etc.) once you leave the port. Mine is now 40.

Note that the "on ship" animations are not all that great, so slowing them down to a reasonable speed seems a bit jerky. But remember the game was written for slow computers that couldn't deal with high frame rates anyway.

That's as far as I've made it at this point. If I find other settings that will improve game play, I'll try to post them.

Great site btw. :)

^ Addendum:

There is another text file (4delay.txt) which is identical to Pdelay.txt. So if any changes are made to Pdelay.txt, then 4delay.txt should also be edited/copied so they remain identical.

Also... changing some values in Pdelay.txt can make the program unstable, so you should test-play the game for a good bit after making any changes. For example, line 8 will change the intro animation speed, but also makes the program crash occasionally (that animation runs ok at the present speed anyway).

The only (apparently) safe speed changes I've found are lines 10 and 11 as mentioned in the previous post, but there may be others later in the game.

These two changes make it vastly more playable though. :)

why weird? instead of wasting valuable storage capacity, they give you a link to a reliable and free site, that doesnt have adds, doesnt require registration, and has no viruses or bugs... what was the complaint again?

anyway, in the advanced dosbox tutorial is some info on how to make a game run on cycle (3000, 5000, etc) instead of auto (max, 75% etc). i couldnt get the hang of it, but maybe you can. I do know that HST runs perfect when you can adjust the cycles. there are other games that work fine when you can adjust cycles, but crash when you adjust the auto %. For example, theme park rushes far too fast too

The "complaint" is that the server kicks off slow connections after a few minutes. I can only download about 1.3mb of the large files (and since they're PDF, even that info can't be recovered).

I'm in a rural area and on 28k dialup (cable and DSL aren't even available here).

It would be nice if someone would put those files on another site (if only for a day or two), especially the game manual. :)

Uploaded a modified HST world map here (89k GIF).

Land mass is colored gray and port names are re-typed (also removed the center line between pages). Hope someone finds it useful.

This is a pretty cool little game. :)

Nice, thanks DD :)

Glad to do it. Am hoping it will be handy for other games of that era too. :)

A question about the HST trading log:

There are three prices listed for each commodity (at port, buy, and sell).

What is the purpose of the "at port" price? :huh:

[EDIT]
Never mind. It's the quantity "at port" (not the price). :doh:

Sorry for the double post (triple actually), but I found and corrected three errors on the HST world map in the link above. The corrected version is here (a different link btw).

1. Changed Betize to Belize (my typo).
2. Changed Mangladore to Mangalore.
3. Changed Manilla to Manila.

The last two are errors copied from the original scanned image of the map, although they're spelled properly inside the game (in the trading log).

The map was also added to the game's downloads as an "extra" in case a mod wants (and has time) to change it. :)

done. btw a Mod can only moderate the Forum and not the Site, but a Updater can do that. ^^

Ah, good to know. Thanks Paco. :)

I realize this was an old post, but here's what I have (including those above):

- Corvette: 16 guns 150 tons (up to 100 crew members).
- Fluyt: 8 guns 300 tons (up to 100 crew members).
- Frigate: 32 guns 350 tons.
- Merchant: 16 guns 500 tons (up to 200 crew members).
- Fourth Rate: 64 guns 600 tons.
- East Indiaman: 40 guns 700 tons.

[EDIT] Updated list.

I've only had the Fluyt and Merchant so far, but I really like the Merchant. I sell all the cannons anyway (leaving more cargo space), as overpowering a boarding party is much easier than winning a cannon fight (even with only 50 sailors and 50 soldiers). And since enemies won't fire on your ship if you have no cannon, it's possible to outmaneuver them most of the time.

Carrying ample supplies, small arms, and repair materials still leaves over 450 tons of cargo space on the Merchant. And since it's often impossible to buy 450 tons of profitable goods in many small ports, I can't imagine wanting a 700 ton hold. O.o

Two short and profitable routes of note:

- Arms from Liverpool to Bordeaux makes about 45% profit, and the return trip with liquor runs around 60%-80% (it varies over time). If you can't get a full load of liquor (there's usually around 400 tons at port), you can finish off with spices or tea for about 25% profit.

- Arms from Boston to Charleston is also around 45% profit, but the return trip with tobacco runs about 180% (there's usually 450 tons or so at port). I made a fortune rather quickly on this one.

A question...
Someone mentioned that copying a folder from the CD allowed more voice sounds to be played. Does anyone know the name of this folder? I think the download already has those extra voices, but the only one that plays is the tavern cheer when you buy a round of drinks.

I really like this little game... :cheers:

I tried taking the original jpegs out the pdf of the manual for you, and saving them inside a word doc... But it came to 32megs. :doh: Sorry.

Yikes! Many thanks for your effort anyway. :thumbs:

I've played it a good bit, so the manual is probably moot at this point, except for things I may not know... and don't know that I don't know... or something like that... O.o

I'd really like to find out the folder name this poster was referring to regarding the voices though. :mhh:

[EDIT] While searching for more info, I just ran across an HST update (to version 1.01) here. :)

Ah well...

Apparently those other voice files are NOT in the current download (nor in others I found online, as they all seem to be diskette installs), so that idea is shot unless someone can provide the files from a CD version. :(

However, the effort wasn't a total loss. The v1.01 update mentioned in the previous post does prevent crashes when beginning a new game (or loading a saved one) at startup.

Perhaps an Updater would consider adding those to the game page, or at least the one for "floppy" installs. Those frequent crashes were a wee bit annoying. :cheers:

[EDIT] I also ran across some alledged "v1.02" updates (both CD and floppy), but a binary file compare found them identical to the v1.01 updates on the Sierra page.

corvette has 150 cargo, 16 cannon. Not very good, but nice if you choose to go as buccanneer for a while

Thanks for posting that info. I've recently learned it can also have up to 100 crew members. :)

I finished the game once (as English), started it again as Spanish and gave up at around 300k in gold because Spain is at war with the other countries waaaay too often. I did save it and may try again later though.

Am playing it again (as English) with a bit different strategy. Bought a Merchant ship as soon as possible (65 sailors, 35 soldiers), then went to North America and did nothing but run the east coast there (only transporting local passengers) until I made around a million in gold.

I messed up somewhere though, because occasionally I get a message something like this:

"The reputation of Mac precedes you. This passenger refuses to talk with you."

Perhaps I inadvertently transported a smuggler? Or did I refuse too many passengers early in the game? No idea. I'm still getting points and promotions (am currently a Merchant), but it's a wee bit annoying to not know what the mistake was. :dunno:

Anyway... after making the million in North America, I went back to Liverpool, bought the large estate and built a Corvette. Got rid of all my soldiers (attacked a couple of pirates to do so), and am currently running 30 sailors, no small arms (well, there's 5 small arms I can't sell for some reason), and no cannon.

The only times I've been caught is when first leaving a port (got surrounded with my sails down), and after having sails damaged in a storm. Fortunately, I save the game often (sometimes on both arriving and leaving a port) so it's not been a real problem.

My sailors get extra meat and water but only adequate rum and fruit (the savings in fruit spoilage alone is a good bit), and both their health and morale stay at the "excellent" level. Also, with such a small crew and supplies I can haul 130 tons of cargo (sometimes more) on the 150 ton Corvette. :D

I've been picking up almost everyone that wants to go anywhere, and making trades at their destination ports when possible. I currently have around 785k gold, own the large estate, and have found the 6 treasures required (it's actually a bit of a letdown to find them too early though).

This little game is probably going down as one of my all-time favorites. Now if it was only multi-player... :cheers:

Now these are great findings! Finally the game can be played!

Have you / has anyone managed to figure out which line determines the speed of the boarding battle screen? At the moment it's the only one that goes ridiculously fast, meaning I can't board, notice the enemies have a lot of crew, disengage, fire some grape and board again. It's really the only thing that's needed to get slowed down to make the game playable to the full.

Not yet, but I try to avoid battles anyway... :D

There's one other area that's also a wee bit fast. The chart (where you plot a course for the helmsman) zips around a bit on my system and often takes a few attempts to get the map centered on a desired location.

You can play around with that file though. One method is to add a digit (1-9) in front of every line for approx 1/4 of the list, then see if it slows down the desired area. If it does, then remove half of the extra digits and try it again, then continue to remove half (or even one or two) until you narrow it down to the right one.

It does get a bit time consuming. But if I find anything else, I'll certainly try to post it here. :)

Does anybody know for sure when the different attributes increase, other than the obvious that the manual states? I've noticed sometimes my honour jumps by +10 on January 1st... but now always...

Help!!!
When I enter a name at the beginning of the game I get a lot of garbage on my screen and the computer locks up to the point where I have to press the reset button.
How do I correct that?

Are you using pure DOS?

Pleeeeease can I shoot him, Lurksen? Please? XD

Yes do so Arete, or I will.

It would be to simple to use dosbox, but no, he wants 'the real dos experience' on a dos PC.
Seems to forget that we had to crawl through all those kind of annoying stuffs when we only had dos PCs.
Oh well, at least he knows now what the 'real' stuff is.

And it's even on a not 100% Dos compatible PC but on PCDos 7 ...... for crying out loud.

Well, then he's on his own, cos he's making our lives difficult and I really feel that you can have a real DOS experience on fullscreen DOSbox, as qbix intended.

DOS was a bloody mission at the best of times, and I loved using DOSshell for that reason. It was black and white and blue all over XD

He's really on his own, cos he's making our lives difficult, cos it's difficult to help him, cos we can't use his system. :dunno:

I'm not a clairvoyant but I'll see if I can find some written information about that error.

I'm getting 16 illegal reads when entering the name, but DOSBox is not interested in crashing.

Qué?
Unzipped the folder highseas on my virtual C, ran dosbox, did a cd highseas and a hst, runs fine, no problems whatsoever.

So: Qué?

Would you please look at your Status Window? With DOSBox is not interested in crashing I meant that it however doesn't affect the playing in DOSBox.

Oh that, I usually don't have that one open.
But indeed, after a fast check (not that I don't believe you ....) it gives a lot of illegal readings.

Anyway, I fired up my ol'dusty P1-120MMX with MsDos 6.22 once again and did some tryouts of the game: still no problems, it even didn't ran too fast as I feared.
Of course I can't see in MsDos 6.22 if there were illegal readings or not, so if it's only a dosbox reading access problem or not .... no idea, not that it matters, as said the game runs fine in dosbox ànd MsDos 6.22


To conclude:
Fleabag run the game in dosbox or install a 100% compatible OS on that ol'PC of yours.

Yes.

No you aren't :D

*strangles him* ^^

hey
 

It's really nice you guys are giving this game away, but I was wondering if anyone could explain to me how I could be able to open the source code of this game ???

I'm guessing it's structured programmed, but I don't know if I could open the files with something like pascal or such

Any help would be much appreciated, especially since I manage to open it and modify it, maybe I'll make a stable version of this capable of running on our modern systems.

The only way you could get the original source is by getting it from the developer (fat chance).

Only other option is reverse-engineering it by analysing the executable with a disassembler. Requires a thorough knowledge of x86 assembly and a lot of free time. Insanity helps, but is not a requirement.

hi! i love this game! (sorry, for my bad english) iam buying the german version of this game on ebay, cause i will make a new one. i have the commercial edition of 3d gamestudio and iam not sure, if i can make this alone. is there anybody, who can help me for a new highseas adventure? but... just for fun ;)

my icq is: 433-546-825

regards

Found a bug in asian charts
 

I have the cd version (german) and I cant buy the charts of asian.
So I have found a bug in the Charts.txt. With the "ü" or "ä" words in this file are something wrong.

So I renamed the "ü" to "ue" and "ö" to "oe" and now all fine! (if I start a new game!)

If you have a savegame, you can edit the .sav file with a hex editor and now you can play your savegame with the new asian charts!

Sorry, for my bad english. Hope, this helps! ;-)


Regards

Remembering prices
 

Hi, is it possible to see again the prices of goods in all ports that you have already visited, or do i have to write them on paper??

Finally slowed down the game!
 

I'm speechless and so happy. High Seas Trader is one of my all time favorite games and after many years and many tactics, I've finally gotten it to play at a normal speed. Earlier today I stumbled across D-Fend Reloaded and, using the default settings, finally slowed it down. Before that, the flags were flapping, the rats were just a blur, the game was unplayable. You can adjust the DOSBOX settings in D-Fend Reloaded if you need to experiment. I used the original D-Fend way back when but it wasn't updated and faded from use. On another tack, I had followed Gary's directions on p. 11 for using DOS SHELL to slow down the game but for whatever reason, it had no affect. I've been at this all day and finally stumbled on a solution.

If you read a longish post of mine back in June, 2005 you'll see how much I enjoyed the game. I'm looking forward to rereading all the posts. There were so many helpful tips on battles and trade routes that will help get anyone up to speed.

I'm playing with a two year old Acer Aspire with Vista Premium, 64 bit.

Well, off to the tavern to hire some mates. :OK:

Bultro, the Captain's cabin has the information you're looking for. Click on the blue book on the bookcase. It's full of logs with lots of information. The Trading Log will give you prices in cities all over the world. Makes it a lot easier to plan routes. The ship in the bottle will allow you do repairs at sea after a battle, much better than limping into the nearest port while pirates smack at you like a cat with a mouse. The closet has the save, quit and other options. The plate lets you adjust crew rations if you're in a financial fix. Frames on wall show your stats and awards.

The ''Tips'' link on the main HST page has lots of the in's and out's, too.

I'm playing a much more aggressive game than I did years ago. I was sick of getting creamed in pirate attacks back then, skittish at sea, had trouble aiming cannons. Just a mess. This time I followed the advice of a very helpful poster a few pages back. I chose England as my home port, fewer pirates in northern Europe. The shuttle between Liverpool (arms) and Bordeaux (liquor) is a safe and quick way to get started. The Boston (arms) to Charleston (tobacco) shuttle he mentioned is also good. I can't remember the details but check out a shuttle between St. Petersburg and Stockholm and possibly a third city. A mix and match triangle of ports can be very profitable. I did well going from Boston (arms) to Puerto Bello (sugar) to Belize (spices, jewelry) and back to Boston. I'm still missing the equatorial Atlantic map so I can't get to the Orient yet. It will come.

My ship choices (it will vary with each player's style) are the starter fluyt for seed money, the corvette as soon as I can afford it to travel quickly to many ports free from pirate attacks, back to the fluyt to earn bigger gold and get battle experience to move up to to the tall ships. Another poster made the frigate sound good, too.

For the player looking for Asian maps, I got some in Stockholm.

These tips are really to help players get started. Once you earn some gold and get the hang of plotting trade routes, you'll really enjoy it. Very addictive!

Keeping my fingers crossed that a triple post is OK.

I've discovered if you sail a frigate (capacity, 350 tons) without cannons or ammunition, no one can catch you and you can carry substantially more cargo. A corvette can keep pace but won't catch you. It will dog you for a while and turn away. Always have 200 soldiers with 200 small arms because you can be boarded if you have to battle in a storm, rare. You'll take sail damage in storms which will slow your speed, so keep everything in good repair.

Sailing a stripped frigate is good for shuttling cargo to earn gold. It's excellent for visiting many ports which raises ''nobility.'' As you travel uninterrupted by battles, it's easier to help countrymen and stranded passengers which I think boosts both your ''loyalty and nobility.'' When those are taken care of, arm your frigate to the teeth and go hunting for pirates and enemies to raise your ''daring.'' A fully armed frigate is a formidable war ship.

haha cool,

good to know ;)
my first time i played this game is 15 years ago, and i had trouble because of missing charts of asia. i managed to sail there by hand... which was lot of time sink...
i reinstalled today to play another round... its such a great game!

sound
 

i found some useful tips in this thread to run the game in dosbox, and i read something about missing soundfiles.
i dont know exactly which are the soundfiles, so i uploded the whole folder.
http://www.file-upload.net/download-...6/hst.rar.html

choose the little download button on the right ;)

So this is a copy of the game with all the sound files? At 72mb we might be able to host it on the site.

sorry i made a little mistake. i uploded the installation folder just for the soundfiles.
if its necessary i can upload the whole content of the cd. its the same size and you can choose the gamespeech when installing.

Can you create an ISO file of the CD and upload it ?

Never mind
 

Nerver mind my last post. I do not see that you upload installation files. Thx

Notes from my several playthroughs:

-If the game is too fast and you’re running it with dosbox, make a batch file and put “ –p” after the , .exe. It’s not perfect, but it makes the game playable. There are additional techniques to get the speed perfect, but that’s good enough for me.

- Trading prices tend to be pretty stable. There are some events which vary regions and ports, but in general the profitable routes stay the same.

- One you’ve got enough money to fill your hold, focus on absolute rather than percentage profit. Buying for 30 and selling for 60 is a 2x profit, but you’ll make better money buying for 150 and selling for 200 if your capped in terms of cargo space.

- Arms and Opium are the most expensive goods, and are the easiest to find big profit margins on.

- Two highly profitable, safe routes: arms/liquor from Liverpool to Bordeaux and Arms/Tobacco/Cotton from New York/Boston to Charleston

- Even more profitable, but more of a late game route is opium from china to India. I like to find the current most expensive opium port every time I sail back from china. Goods like arms and ivory can be brought to China for additional profit. A fully loaded fourth rate can make around $100000 profit per round trip in good circumstances.

-At the start of the game I like to hold of buying charts for places I’m not prepared to sail to. If you don’t have the chart, the ports don’t show up in your trading log. This makes it easier to plan early game trading routes in Europe and find the best ports to buy and sell without having to mentally filter out ports on the other side of the world.

- If you’re in the habit of fighting rather than running away, leaving some space to loot defeated ships is a good way to make money, but if you’re making more than 100 gold per ton in profit or so, there’s no point.

- The only ships I use are the Fluyt, the frigate and the fourth rate. The fluyt to start is good enough until you get your first rank. With full sails the frigate can outrun anything (corvettes will give up) and give you a minor cargo upgrade and more crew for safety. The fourth rate has the most crew and is almost impossible to defeat in a boarding battle. The 600 sized cargo is enough to buy out most goods at almost any port. The corvette is too small to make a trading profit, the merchant is so slow it can’t run away and the cargo size of the east Indianman is mostly wasted compared to the fourth rate.

-Treasure seems to be seeded into random ports at game start and never moves. I suspect 4 total. When you buy one, a new one is spawned somewhere else. You can only see it if there’s space on your ship (I think the ship has 2 spots, and you have to deposit the treasure in an estate to free them) and you’ve got enough money. You can always go back to the port later if you don’t buy the treasure right away. I prefer the way certain treasures look, so I tend to figure out what’s out there before I buy any. If you just want to win, buy any treasure as soon as you see it as treasure can be frustrating if they are all in hostile ports or areas of the world you haven’t been to at all.

-Estates are available in your home port if you have enough money. You don’t have to buy the small or medium estate: the largest estate you can afford will be for sale. I usually buy the smaller ones because skipping them seems like an exploit, and I prefer the way they look. Small is around 300000, medium around 500000 and large around 700000.

-If you don’t have any cannons or ammo, ships will board rather than firing. If you keep a fast ship with a full crew, you should be able to come out on top of any encounter and run away if your crew is getting low. I consider the no cannons strategy a bit of an exploit since the AI doesn’t take advantage of you and you get extra cargo space, but I don’t enjoy the cannon battles so I like it.

- Hire mostly soldiers, but keep some sailors. For some reason when I hire all soldiers, as the game progresses my ship seems to slow down and I my fruit all rots even over very short distances. Having some sailors seems to eliminate this effect.

-I like to save often, so I don’t tend to carry wood or cloth. If you want to play iron man though, you’ll want some for repairs on long voyages. I usually just buy more fruit than I think I’ll need and limp my way into port with damaged sales if I hit a storm.

-The most likely way to lose, at least for me, is hitting a storm, running low on fruit, then finding out the port I’ve limped my way to has turned hostile while I was at see. Sometimes several countries go hostile all at once, and there’s no friendly port anywhere remotely close. It’s tough to eliminate this risk, but in general the more supplies you carry and the shorter the routes you plan the better off you’ll be. Parts of the world with home nation or neutral ports are safer for this reason.

- I suspect it’s a bug from dosbox, but I find that over time if I don’t reboot the game the cargo of defeated ships gets bigger and bigger, as if the cargo of the new ship is being added to the cargo of the previous ship. It’s a bit of an exploit and maybe doesn’t occur for other people, but after a dozen victories or so each ship has hundreds of tons of stuff.

-If you’re low on crew, the Mediterranean is a pretty good safe haven. There are fewer pirates there and enemy ships than most other locations, and there are lots of big neutral ports where you can recruit crewmembers. Back and forth from Genoa to Livorno is a quick way to recruit.

-The English are the easiest nation, with awesome arms ports in Europe and north America and solid holdings in the far east. I find the Spanish the hardest because their colonies aren’t very profitable. In the end the nations aren’t all that different though, it’s just a matter of who you will never be at war with.

-Typically I make my money first, then sail around the world attempting to rank up without having to worry about trading. Gives me flexibility to take passengers wherever they want to go. Try and sail into every port possible to find the treasures. The best time to make such a voyage is when your nation is at peace with as many countries as possible. Don’t voyage to the far east if you are at war with the Portuguese and the English.

-Daring is not required to level up, but it helps with the averages. I run away from most fights, but if I’ve got extra cargo space and a full crew, I’ll head straight for the other ship and board them.

-If you’re having trouble getting loyalty, try and sail into a lot of friendly ports held by foreign powers. Prisoners and spies are the main ways of getting loyalty, and you won’t find them in your nation’s ports nor in neutral ports. Spies always want to go to your home port, so Europe is the best place to pick them up. Loyalty is the most erratic stat, and so I make increasing it my top priority. It’s frustrating sailing around the world looking for the last few loyalty points when you’ve got more than enough of everything else.

-When you pick up spies or prisoners, be aware there is a chance of ambush when you exit the port. You’ll be caught with sails down and sometimes multiple hostile ships at close range. If you’re really low on crew, consider not taking these passengers or at least save before hand.

-You can also get loyalty by firing on the ships of enemy nations. This seems to be 1 loyalty per ship, and only works if you actually discharge cannons at them.

-Honor is generally pretty easy to get, just carry lots of passengers around. Passengers who don’t pay give more. Earning a profit in a year seems to give honor at the start of the next year.

-Nobility is mainly a function of how many ports you’ve visited. Just buy all the charts and sail around the world hitting every port along the way. Treasure may also increase this when you buy it, but I wouldn't bother holding off buying treasure until you rank up just for this reason. Nobility should only be an issue if you're at war with lots of countries.

Contrary to what I said above, I now believe treasures do not spawn throughout the game. At the start 6 treasures are put in 6 cities and those are the only 6 treasures you can ever buy. They never move and are always available if you have room on your ship.

I used to love the cannon battles. First chain shot to scuttle the enemy, then grape shot to clear some of the opposition. After your daring gets high enough, enemy ships will surrender after the first shot, regardless if it actually hit.

there seemed to be one problem though... I think I got a reputation for seeking danger and this made most of the passengers refuse to travel on my ship.

When I first played this game (I was a bit younger) I tended to go for the heaviest, longest range cannons. And those ARE important when using chainshot to slow down an enemy to escape or catch up for boarding. However, when an enemy gets closeby and starts using his light but fast reload cannons to sweep your decks with chainshot, you'll definately want to be able to do the same. A 50/50 is usually easiest due to the way you can divide the cannons up when giving a firing order.

Contrary to the previous poster, I never use the fourth rate. I've had it a few too many times that I got attacked by pirate after pirate, then enemy nations, with frigates mostly. When those appear you have only 1 choice: fight. If they appear often enough they will slowly cut away your crew and small arms. If this starts at the west coast of africa, and you can't repair and get some crew in cape hope, you can and will lose - eventually. The african ports and the first few after the eastern coast usually don't have more than 4 or 5 crew members, if that at all, and their repair skills are bad at best.

That's why I usually go for the east indiaman. I do without planks but bring some back-up sails in case of accidents. What about the cargo? well, it's still plenty big to carry huge profits Also, I'm a dmn good shot with those cannons. I really don't need 24 or more cannons or demi cannons to do decisive damage to enemy sails. I usually keep a few more lighter cannons for a couple of point blank shots of grapeshot when attacking merchantman or fourthrate, but the AI rarely carries a full crew, or even close to full crew unless they're pirates or warships. The main benefit, when you don't want to fight, you can run.

Cutting down on cannons means you can cut down on ammo. Just because you CAN carry more cannons doesn't mean you should. It really creates some space. If you plan on fighting local pirates for a bit, you might want more cannons. If your main goal is trading, just get enough to destroy some sails and run, or get a few extra for grapeshot If you feel like boarding the occasional merchantman.

Last benefit: it really speeds up those long distance travels

edit:
color me stupid, I probably mixed up the ships and agreed with you

Just bought me first Frigate! Does this game like to have a certain number of sailers per cannon, or/and per sail mast+rigging, etc?
I'm going to have at least 3 cannons in each hold, so was thinking 3 sailors per cannon, ten more for other duties, and past that I'd just fill the ship with soldiers...?

Cheers

I've finished this game maybe 20 times since 1995. I'd like to impart some wisdom on newcomers.

You'll start the game with a Fluyt and it's a pretty weak and slow ship compared to others. So at least at the beginning of the game don't get into too many battles and stay around Northern Europe.

You can simply choose England or Portugal (England's better for future opportunities) and do arms runs from Liverpool to Madeira. This will make you enough money to buy a Frigate quickly. Carry passengers around to rank up quickly, and don't turn down "fellow countrymen" to your home port. The first promotion is really easy to get this way.

After you get your Frigate, which is an awesome ship, then you can definitely start getting out of N. Europe. A frigate is very powerful and fast, you can outrun any ship (well, corvettes are faster but if you run from a corvette, it'll stop chasing you before it catches up to you) so there's very little danger of anything happening.

With your Frigate, to make easy money, I recommend going to the new world. Load up on arms (and bring your friends :p) in Boston and New York, then go to Charleston, sell the arms, buy cotton, go back to New York and sell the cotton, and repeat. This I've found is probably the fastest way to make money in this game.

estate bug
 

I'm not getting any offers for estates, despite meeting all the criteria. I figure I must have my estate file missing or something. Cannot find an estate file in the directory. Anyone know what I should be looking for, or how to troubleshoot this?

You need about 350k gold to hand for a small estate, 500k for medium, 700k for large, then the dealer will always appear in your home port's tavern. Once you have it (and if you've already got everything else you need) leave port and re-enter for the promotion.

I have over a million gold and the art. But I keep re-entering my port and still am not offered an estate in the tavern. Not sure what to do.

I'm not sure if this has been pointed out yet, but you can enable digital sound effects + General MIDI (rather than choosing one or the other). All that you have to do is go to the DRIVERS folder and replace the relevant .MDI file with MPU401.MDI. For example, if you're using DOSBox, rename or delete SBPRO2.MDI (which is used by both the SB Pro II and SB 16 settings), make a copy of MPU401.MDI, rename that copy to SBPRO2.MDI and then choose "Sound Blaster Pro 16" in the setup program.