Assassins Creed Black Flag

I figured out how to take down the treasure convoys and have since made many upgrades to my ship so that I now hunt Man-o-war ships.  Spend usually the first 30-45 min I'm on clearing trade routes and then sending my ships out on trade runs.  This really is a great game.  When you look at it, though, it's really two great games because the AC aspect is a great stand alone and the pirating part is a great stand alone.

Also, I came across one of the ghost ships and found out the hard way that you have to be almost fully upgraded to take them on.  Tried many approaches and usually couldn't get the ghost ship to 25% damaged before I was sunk.

S7 SockPuppet wrote:
Also, I came across one of the ghost ships and found out the hard way that you have to be almost fully upgraded to take them on.  Tried many approaches and usually couldn't get the ghost ship to 25% damaged before I was sunk.

LOL, I didn't even get to 25%.  I'll wait until the Jackdaw is 100% upgraded before even trying one of those bad boys again, haha.  

IMO this game is the absolute best of the AC franchise and I'm not even half way through the story line yet.  I spent all day yesterday just doing all the Templar quests so I could get the Templar Armor.  Never even touched the story line.  Right now I'm just working my way far enough in the story line to be able to get the Diving Bell for the ship so I can explore some shipwrecks.

I've been able to help out some of ReggieB's ships on his merchant runs too which is a really cool aspect of the game.

From what I read online, you shouldn't even try the ghost ships until your ship is 100% or almost there.  Still thought it would be fun to try and see if I could come up with a way to take one down, kinda like I did with the treasure convoys before my ship was really powerful enough to do it.

S7 SockPuppet wrote:From what I read online, you shouldn't even try the ghost ships until your ship is 100% or almost there.  Still thought it would be fun to try and see if I could come up with a way to take one down, kinda like I did with the treasure convoys before my ship was really powerful enough to do it.

I didn't even have a clue of what they were.  I just had defeated my first fort and it popped up as "Legendary Ship".  I thought "Oh cool, I'll go check that out!".  Bad idea, lol.  I have everything on my ship upgraded to the point that I only have Elite level upgrades left (and have one of those done) but I'm not even going to try until I'm totally upgraded.

I've had all the other AC games and didn't (don't yet) have this one on my list. Was going to bypass it like a chick with sores on her lips. But, the more I read here the more I'm thinking about buying this!!

Darn it!!

S7 K1ll3rKlown wrote:I've had all the other AC games and didn't (don't yet) have this one on my list. Was going to bypass it like a chick with sores on her lips. But, the more I read here the more I'm thinking about buying this!!

Darn it!!

IMO it's totally worth it.  I had the same idea as you did.  I had grown tired of the AC series in general and decided I'd skip this one, which is why it's not until now that I'm posting about it.  I held off until I kept seeing good things about the game and thought maybe I should go ahead and give it a go.  Well I did and it has not disappointed.  Sure it's got all the elements of typical AC games, but there's just something about this one that has me addicted.  Maybe it's the naval battles.  I thought I'd hate that part of the game but I'm enjoying just spending hours and hours roaming around the seas pillaging and looting enemy ships, lol.  In the end I'm glad I spent the $60 and I'm only 41% through the main story line right now.

This is really the only AC I've played (played a couple hours of AC3) but I'm really hooked on this one.  Like I said above, it's a great AC game and a great pirate/naval game.  If you get bored of one facet you can get away from it for a while and play the other.

Its a nly 30bucks on groupon

S7 DROOPY wrote:Its a nly 30bucks on groupon

Definitely worth if for anyone that doesn't have it already.

Can somebody please explain to me how I can tell what ships I have that are Hunter ships (ones that I've sacked and boarded and put in my fleet)?  I don't see any designation regarding which ships are regular ones and which are hunter ones that I've captured.  I assume that makes a little difference doesn't it?  Or are the Hunter ships you capture just the same as the others?

From what I can tell, the difference between a Hunter ship and a regular ship is that Hunter ships are specifically chasing your ship, so it's really just how the AI is programmed.  Once you capture the ship, it joins your fleet as a standard ship of whatever class it is, just like there's no difference between a captured Spanish or English ship.

Edit: Did some looking into on this and Hunters are just Brigs that will keep attacking you until 1.) you sink them, 2.) they sink you, 3.) you lower your wanted level.  I usually scrap them to fix my ship, since I started taking down frigates and man-o-wars I don't keep anything but those level ships.

S7 SockPuppet wrote:From what I can tell, the difference between a Hunter ship and a regular ship is that Hunter ships are specifically chasing your ship, so it's really just how the AI is programmed.  Once you capture the ship, it joins your fleet as a standard ship of whatever class it is, just like there's no difference between a captured Spanish or English ship.

Edit: Did some looking into on this and Hunters are just Brigs that will keep attacking you until 1.) you sink them, 2.) they sink you, 3.) you lower your wanted level.  I usually scrap them to fix my ship, since I started taking down frigates and man-o-wars I don't keep anything but those level ships.

Cool, thx for the info.  I actually captured my first level 60 Man O' War (wanted level 4 Hunter) just now.  So stoked!

I find capturing man-o-wars is one of the easier ways to get supplies to upgrade your ship cuz they usually carry larger amounts of metal/cloth/wood.  That and they can transport lots of goods for trade routes when used in your fleet.

Yes...and use your spyglass to see what the ships are carrying....it will save you a lot of time if you need one item more than another

Yeah, I'm down to metal being 90% of the material I need for the upgrades I have left so I'm definitely picking and choosing at this point.

S7 Uncle Charles wrote:Yes...and use your spyglass to see what the ships are carrying....it will save you a lot of time if you need one item more than another

This is some very solid advice, almost as good as keeping mortar shot, upgrading your mortars, and hitting big ships with your mortars on the way in to soften them up.