Yarrr!!!

[Dafool]

When are we going to get some option to turn off pirates? I'm finding it to be almost a chore to play a colonial power, because I have to spend 15 minutes figuring out how I'm going to split my fleet into 30 different parts so I'm not spammed with a pirate message every 10 seconds. In older versions we could disable them, but now we can't apparently due to the changes made to them in HttT. They don't add anything to the game other than tedious micromanagement and there's already a penalty for not patrolling your coasts. Why are they still in game as is?

 

[cheat2win]

When are we going to get some option to turn off pirates? I'm finding it to be almost a chore to play a colonial power, because I have to spend 15 minutes figuring out how I'm going to split my fleet into 30 different parts so I'm not spammed with a pirate message every 10 seconds. In older versions we could disable them, but now we can't apparently due to the changes made to them in HttT. They don't add anything to the game other than tedious micromanagement and there's already a penalty for not patrolling your coasts. Why are they still in game as is?

I support this idea. If not an option to turn them off, at least something to diminish their appearances, like to only every 10 years.

It's just boring, tedious, and tiring to have to deal with them every week, when we control a colonial power.

Playing as Portugal, I control most of Africa (North & West), Brazil, Ireland, the Scottish Islands, lower Austria, north of Italy, and the islands on the Atlantic. Now, do you know how much pirate activity I've seen? I have 3 fleets, just to deal with them, and does not mater how much I patrol those waters, they always came back, after a few days.

It's frustrating.

Let us disable them!

 

[scholar]

Um... a single galley can fend off Pirates in a group of Islands...

Pirates appear after 30 days from a patrol, so if you have one single fast moving ship you can keep multiple Islands Pirate free with just that. In Ireland just have a ship go in a huge circle from a port to another port. same thing for the Scottish Isles. Brazil only needs two ships North --> Middle, Middle ---> South. North Italy needs one on the left, one on the right. If south Austria is near the sea then you can use North Italians right ship to potrol that area as well. Portugal itself only needs one. You can dedicate 5-8 Galleys to avoid ever seeing a pirate in your waters. And with a nation like an expanding portugal 8 galleys is a small price to pay, especially when there is really no bad effect for going over the limit for ships...

 

[cheat2win]

Um... a single galley can fend off Pirates in a group of Islands...

Pirates appear after 30 days from a patrol, so if you have one single fast moving ship you can keep multiple Islands Pirate free with just that. In Ireland just have a ship go in a huge circle from a port to another port. same thing for the Scottish Isles. Brazil only needs two ships North --> Middle, Middle ---> South. North Italy needs one on the left, one on the right. If south Austria is near the sea then you can use North Italians right ship to potrol that area as well. Portugal itself only needs one. You can dedicate 5-8 Galleys to avoid ever seeing a pirate in your waters. And with a nation like an expanding portugal 8 galleys is a small price to pay, especially when there is really no bad effect for going over the limit for ships...

But with so much patrolling, these galleys wouldn't get destroyed after a time?
And all I have to do, is to make, let's say in Brazil, 4 galleys (2 groups of 2), patrolling from port to port, south-center / center-north?

 

[mallard454]

Leaving ships in port to 'patrol' is a new feature. Ships that are in port will prevent randomly spawned pirates up to a short distance away. Spy spawned pirates will still spawn. So if you are patrolling and still get pirates, maybe you shouldn't be so mean to your neighbors.

 

[Dafool]

Um... a single galley can fend off Pirates in a group of Islands...

Pirates appear after 30 days from a patrol, so if you have one single fast moving ship you can keep multiple Islands Pirate free with just that. In Ireland just have a ship go in a huge circle from a port to another port. same thing for the Scottish Isles. Brazil only needs two ships North --> Middle, Middle ---> South. North Italy needs one on the left, one on the right. If south Austria is near the sea then you can use North Italians right ship to potrol that area as well. Portugal itself only needs one. You can dedicate 5-8 Galleys to avoid ever seeing a pirate in your waters. And with a nation like an expanding portugal 8 galleys is a small price to pay, especially when there is really no bad effect for going over the limit for ships...

That's an incredible amount of micromanagement and hassle. To cover the British Isles you need something like 3-4 separate fleets in different ports, and that's a relatively small area. If you start colonizing, that's another small fleet that has to cover every few sea provinces. It literally impossible to amass an actual navy for combat, because you have 15 different 3 ship fleets preventing pirates from spawning everywhere. That's just impractical and really takes away from any colonial/naval aspects of the game. It's an a poorly implemented aspect of the game that comes as a hit to the actual gameplay.

 

[warcry]

Even if you don't hunt for pirates (patrol or stay in port to cover your territory) you should keep them in port ,because you get tax bonus and tariffs. You get overwhelming superiority in ships anyway if you go colonial.
Edit: I think someone posted a guide of some sort to get rid of them or lessen the blow of them. You need to edit some files. Search this forum for that topic and try to use custom paradox search for it in "how to search paradox forums" (its on the first page i think).

 

[cheat2win]

By editing the save game:

Open it with notepad, find PIR=, then change their tech group to new_world instead of latin and naval tech to 1(...)

There's two parts to the PIR= heading in the save game. The first tech group you find was the tech group they started the game in(...) Scroll down a bit more and you'll find after a bunch of history, another bit that says tech_group. Change the tech & tech group there and it should do the trick.

That should do it.

But an official way, would be way more appreciated.

 

[scholar]

That's an incredible amount of micromanagement and hassle. To cover the British Isles you need something like 3-4 separate fleets in different ports, and that's a relatively small area. If you start colonizing, that's another small fleet that has to cover every few sea provinces. It literally impossible to amass an actual navy for combat, because you have 15 different 3 ship fleets preventing pirates from spawning everywhere. That's just impractical and really takes away from any colonial/naval aspects of the game. It's an a poorly implemented aspect of the game that comes as a hit to the actual gameplay.

No it's not, and it's not 3 ship fleets, it's 1 galley in a fleet.

It requires no micromanagement because as long as attrition is at zero the ships can sail forever, you can keep it at 0 by going from port to port, not ocean province to ocean province. If the ship is in port at the beginning of a month it restores itself from whatever negligible damage it may have received. This is especially so if you choose the national idea that allows ships to heal in coastlines.

And for the British Isles you need 3 galleys. 4 if you want to include the rebellious Irish. That is 4 ships when the limit is 30+, not only does this free up carrack spots, but also Cogs. A sea based empire needs it's cogs, and it can't have them if you are racing around with extra large ships hunting down pirates when there is no need. Pirates that spawn from spies are another matter entirely, but normally occurring Pirates are a scourge of your own making.

Make the ships patrol on their own, from one port go to another or to the adjacent sea province and then you don't have to worry about pirates any more in that area.

In the latest beta it might require a ship in every port :rofl: which to me just seems silly unless of course they are Islands with no neighbors in sight like Diego Garcia

If you don't believe me try it out for yourself, when you realize all the time you've saved and all the ships you've freed up I'll expect a generous donation

 

[unmerged(44481)]

By editing the save game:





That should do it.

But an official way, would be way more appreciated.

it has been proven(or at least posted here) that the method doesn't work in HT3 4.0.

 

[TheCheeseMaster]

holy crud!!! you saying theres pirates in europe! only seen them in amercia (though i do colonize early)

 

[unmerged(139223)]

Options are good.

Even if you don't hunt for pirates (patrol or stay in port to cover your territory) you should keep them in port ,because you get tax bonus and tariffs.

Hmm didn't know this.

Even if it's enough to have ships in port to patrol I've preferred patrols so far (IN). Pirates can be spawned by spies (which seem to happen a lot in my games) or pushed away by the AI which usually only keeps their own coasts clear. Once I've set up a patrol I never have to care again, it removes microing all together.

I wouldn't turn off pirates if it was possible though. Sea battles is quite rare and I want some secondary use for all the ships keeping my tariffs up. Pirates can be useful sometimes, eg stopping troops crossing a strait in a war I don't want to engage in. I've seen major powers loosing provinces cause they couldn't get troops past pirates to fight revolts.

What's missing is a way to order a fleet to automatically avoid pirates waters en route, and/or a possibility to tag a water region as "no-go area" where ships should go around. Both are needed I think.

A way to handle the battle reports would be nice as well. Perhaps by handling special battle report from patroling units differently - when in peace. If your troop transport encounters pirates you still want to know, and if your patrols encounter enemy navies in war.

If the ship is in port at the beginning of a month it restores itself from whatever negligible damage it may have received. This is especially so if you choose the national idea that allows ships to heal in coastlines.

I usually let the patrols go into the most distant ports in a coast region, to increase the number of days it will be in port and thus increase the chance it will span 2 months. Still, since the chance is not very big the patrol requires some extra ships so it can take a couple of battles before it gets a repair. One way to solve this would be to let the ships repair a little directly on port entry as well, not just if it sits there at the end of the month.

 

[Bierbrauer]

That's an incredible amount of micromanagement and hassle. To cover the British Isles you need something like 3-4 separate fleets in different ports, and that's a relatively small area. If you start colonizing, that's another small fleet that has to cover every few sea provinces. It literally impossible to amass an actual navy for combat, because you have 15 different 3 ship fleets preventing pirates from spawning everywhere. That's just impractical and really takes away from any colonial/naval aspects of the game. It's an a poorly implemented aspect of the game that comes as a hit to the actual gameplay.

the brish isles can be kept pirat free with two fleets on automated patrol.
from the port of connaught to the port of gwynedd and from cornwall to highlands.
with the short stops in the ports they are allways on 100% (even when they sometimes meet the sponsored pirat now and then)

try to find the best routs for the patrols and you will see that your dont need that many when you let them circle insted of going back and forth.

 

[Junuxx]

I'm perfectly happy with the HTTT pirate system. Playing as Sweden, two galleys in Stockholm, two in Bergen, two in Bodo and two separate ones along the North Cape/White Sea coast were enough to keep the long, long Scandinavian coastline pirate free. Without any patrols. I really don't use these annoying to setup patrols anymore since HTTT! And 8 galleys is only a fraction of the naval support limit of the Scandinavian provinces, so you can keep the rest in a concentrated main fleet.

 

[unmerged(106806)]

You know whats the most annoying thing about the pirates..... Its not so much the tedious setting up patrols everywhere..... Its the fact they all get killed when you get in a war... and you can start all over again

Pirates off for the win. The single most annoying part of the game.

 

[Junuxx]

You know whats the most annoying thing about the pirates..... Its not so much the tedious setting up patrols everywhere..... Its the fact they all get killed when you get in a war... and you can start all over again

But that doesn't happen in HTTT because they don't need to leave port to prevent pirates. So it's fixed. Also they disband after defeat, so more more pirates pushed into your territory by the AI.

In short: get HTTT, it fixes stuff.

 

[HanSime]

But with so much patrolling, these galleys wouldn't get destroyed after a time?
And all I have to do, is to make, let's say in Brazil, 4 galleys (2 groups of 2), patrolling from port to port, south-center / center-north?

If you have the patrols start/end in one or two ports, chances are they'll be in port at the end of the month now and then, undoing attrition.

At least that's what I was doing in my IN Byz game with a few small fleets (four total patrolling my Italian, Greek and Turkish coast lines with two main fleets and a transport fleet or two). For example, I had one small fleet move from a port in Southern Turkey to the Cretan port. Similarly, from the Krim (Khaffa) to Southern Turkey. From Sicily to Nice and from Görz to Naxos. That covered everything and while I was plagued with pirates before (also those kicked out of other sea areas, that quickly solved it.

What I find funny is that AI France NEVER cleans the Mediteranean sea section between them and Aragon and it tends to become filled with up to 30 or more pirates.

 

[cheat2win]

If you have the patrols start/end in one or two ports, chances are they'll be in port at the end of the month now and then, undoing attrition.

Yeah... but still seems to require too much micro-management, when we own a large overseas empire.

Damn pirates and their Broadband. Oh wait... I mean, Ships-of-the-line... :rofl:

 

[Dafool]

But that doesn't happen in HTTT because they don't need to leave port to prevent pirates. So it's fixed. Also they disband after defeat, so more more pirates pushed into your territory by the AI.

In short: get HTTT, it fixes stuff.

This is not a fix though. You've just pointed out the biggest problem. Some people are saying you can solve this by setting up elaborate patrol routes to keep them in. The problem is, then you have to avoid all naval conflict, because every time you get into a war, you have to put all those ships in port. If you do, dozens of pirate will start spawning. Because they are spawning you can't get these ships safely out of port until you bring along a larger navy. If you go the other route and keep a ship or two in each necessary port, then you could be doubling the number of ships that requires. Either way you go, you're devoting a huge portion of your navy merely to hunting pirates. To say this is fun is ludicrous. It's basically taking away naval combat to poorly simulate a somewhat unimportant historical factor.

 

[ForzaA]

This is not a fix though. You've just pointed out the biggest problem. Some people are saying you can solve this by setting up elaborate patrol routes to keep them in. The problem is, then you have to avoid all naval conflict, because every time you get into a war, you have to put all those ships in port. If you do, dozens of pirate will start spawning. Because they are spawning you can't get these ships safely out of port until you bring along a larger navy. If you go the other route and keep a ship or two in each necessary port, then you could be doubling the number of ships that requires. Either way you go, you're devoting a huge portion of your navy merely to hunting pirates. To say this is fun is ludicrous. It's basically taking away naval combat to poorly simulate a somewhat unimportant historical factor.

in HttT, you don't need to set up elaborate patrols. Just have ships in a select few harbours.