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[Sammo]

Wonderful game: played it a lot.

But actually I think the Genesis version is much better, from a graphical point of view anyway.
I just love Koei games - even if in this one the gazillion of characters are not very different from each other...but I loved some nice touches as the unlucky sailor, Dante I think, who ends up dead almost in every game I play! .

You are free to do almost everything, even if there's a time limit.

A superb game, anyway: sorry for my crappy English, but I just HAD to say it. k:

[maxmallone]

first of all thanks for the game...
really satisfying game...you could just wander around aimlessly or do some privateering or be a duke to your empire..i mean your king's.
i'm playing as Ali the orphan from Turkey. just started playing it...
i found out that you can make quite alot of gold by gambling all the money i raised from the townfolks rather than to trade...made 5 gold ingots in two days three nights of gambling. blackjack ofcourse!
found out that you could buy neat things at the items shop at 2 am,things that arent there in normal hours...
one way to survive a storm is to stock up on balm an item you can buy .use it when a strom hits u..
my trade are: carpet from istanbul - art from athens loads of gold to be made before going off to explore NEW HORIZONs ...ciao .i welcome questions

again thanks for the game ! been looking for this type of game for quite some time.

Yes, anywhere from 2 o'clock at night to 2:40 will do for the special shop items.

There are even better trading routes than Athens-Istanbul, but that's indeed an easy and quite swift one, provided you don't use it too often with too many ships, or you'll destroy its balance for some time.
Unbalancing the right trade routes though takes quite some effort, but can you gain huge amounts of gold in no time.

[My-Q]

The best trade route is Athens (Art) - Istanbul (Carpet).. it's similar to the UW1, where the best trade route is actually very close to each other (naples - pisa i believe in the 1st game). And also there're 2 ports that can make the Full-Rigged Ship (aka the ultimate ship).. one is antwerp, the other is in hamburg. Also, i know that there's some place that offers ultimate ship guns.. even better than cannons.. it has the power of cannons, and range of culverin.. i don't remember the exact name, i think it's carronades or something. Does anyone have infos on this guns whereabouts? Thanks

Carronades is correct. If the ports' industries are invested close or equal to 1000, then the carronades should be available (same goes for the full-rigged ship) from Antwerp and Hamburg as well. Full-rigged ships are good, but there are also tekkousens from Japan which can carry less guns and cargo than a full-rigged ship, but have better tacking and power, so are perhaps better for trading, especially if one is rushing to capitalise on a tax-free permit.

[another_guest]

In order to be offered carronades (and special figureheads like a goddess), doesn't your luck have to be pretty high? At least that's my experience. Luck can be influenced by donations to the church. Only the percentage of your money you donate counts, not the actual amount of money. Therefore, load your ships with something valuable (gold for example), so your cash is really low. In the end you'll have donated really small amounts of money to get the same rise in good fortune.
Fortune tellers can give you an idea of how lucky you are at the moment (sounds logical )

Tekkousens are faster than full-rigged ships. That's why I prefer tekk's for trading, while full-rigged are the ultimate choice to build a battle fleet.

While the Athens-Istanbul is the best short route to make a good profit, unbalancing trade routes like Madeira - Genoa or Madeira - ?? (either in Northern Germany or in Denmark; this port gives you silver, forgot its name, it might have been Lübeck, this port pays most for gold) is a lot more profitable. I got this idea from an FAQ I once read, so I don't claim any originality.
It works like this: by selling and buying small amounts at a time, you can rise or lower a port's price level at will (between 50 and 150%). Buy gold at 50% in some African port, then travel to Europe and sell it at 150%. It's a little tedious to buy or sell small amounts so many times in a row (to influence the price level), but you can make several millions in one haul this way. You have to start with quite some capital though, for example when you've worn out the Athens-Istanbul route.

Also, don't forget appointing a good book keeper, he'll be able to give you considerable discounts when you're buying goods and ships. Never agree on the price a trader or ship builder is proposing. However, it has to be a GOOD book keeper (with accounting skills): if you offer a ship builder too little, he'll kick you out, and it takes a while before you can buy ships there again.

A final tip (probably only useful for starting players, it's not like I'm telling something miraculous here): if you can get your hands on some of the best weapons and armor in the game, and your character is good at fighting, picking a duel with the enemy captain can be the fastest and cheapest way to win a battle. However, don't try this with weapons that are just good, you'll better get some that are rare (in other words, that you'll only find between 2 and 2.40 am in one particular port). Read which weapon is good for which type of attack, so you can deal the most damage during battle. Sounds stupidly simple, but it's so easy to ignore the weapon info you get when buying it

[My-Q]

Yeah.. the special stuff always needs luck
I don't quite understand about the percentage stuff for donation. You said that any "money" in form of goods doesn't count as "actual money" right? How about money in bank.. does it count?

[another_guest]

If it comes to donations, the game will ignore anything on your bank account: when asked how much you want to donate, the maximum you can give is your cash on hand (= ingots + gold pieces). I once found a site where someone had actually figured out the whole donation calculation. I only remember his conclusion, thatg giving just over 50% of your cash on hand, has the greatest effect on your luck.

Example: you've got a bank account of 60000, and 2 million gold in ingots. What you should do, is put as much money as you can onto your bank account or use it to buy goods. Suppose you've got only 1000 gold left after that.
If you then donate 501 gold, that will have the same effect as when you would have donated 1002000 from your 2 million.
Then, from the remaining 499 gold, donate 250, and so on.
In the end you will have donated a lot of times, but in fact lost only 1000 gold.

That same FAQ also mentioned you should invest 50000 into that city's economy (goods trader) and 50000 into its industry (ship yard) to have a chance of getting carronades, even if their economy and industry is already at 1000.
And then you've still only got a chance of being offered those specialties, it's not guaranteed. But I've used that method often, and after trying a few times it always worked.

[My-Q]

Thank you for your explanation another_guest.. it really helps k:

Anyway, does anyone knows how to edit the money in this game? Which file contains the savegame, which number represent the money? I know for sure that the hero's data is put quite close with his name. Anyone can help me here? Thanks

The shipyard fellow will say something like 'we have a very special deal today' or something like that when the carronades or figureheads are available.

Erm, sorry about the savegame editing ... :blink: