I play it on and off. The reason being that my stupid computer won't run PR2. After 5-10 minutes of gameplay I get the "ialmrnt5 display driver has stopped working properly. Save your work and reboot your system to restore full display fuctionality" error message, although I have the latest drivers installed, as well as directX11 (the game allegedly requires dX8.1 to work). No idea how to fix this, 'though I looked for hours on the internet.
That leaves me able to play PR2 only when my flatmate is away, on his computer. And that's not very often... :) Overall, I like PR1 better - as far as economics, as well as combat is concerned. I'd go with PR1 over PR2 any day, if it wasn't for that maddening 10-convoy limit in PR1!!!
Things I loved in PR2, compared to PR1:
- The much higher convoy limit, of course
- Military corvettes! 14 Kn + 85% maneuverablity + shallow draft (!!!) = <3!
- Buying up your competitors' houses and businesses - monopolies 'r 'us
- The fact the goods produced in a given town are marked with a "P" everywhere (warehouse, manual trade window, auto-route editor) - it's a small thing that makes a big difference, especially when creating auto-routes; also, town production quantity of a certain good is now visible in the town info, which for some absurd reason, it wasn't in PR1...
- New AI tactics. For example, if you damage their sails, they'll either start keeping their distance to force you into their guns' range, or they'll run away altogether to repair their sails. This makes for a more challenging game. So my tactics from PR1 had to be adapted to the new way the AI fights.
- Capturing the escort ships or driving them from the field lets you capture all the trading ships - very nice time-saver. In PR1, you could usually only hope to capture the armed vessels, because unarmed vessels (0 guns) would run away instantly and it was a real pain to catch them - especially if they were galleons, which go to 13 Kn with the wind. Nice touch-up in this respect in PR2.
Things I absolutely HATED in PR2:
- Being forced to fight with just one ship at a time. It's ok most of the time, but they should have made it optional.
- Not being able to fight when your auto-route convoys get attacked. I mean... WTF?! Again, this REALLY should have been optional, like in PR1.
- Training your captains to 4 skill points before they can go on auto-routes. Again. And again. And yet again...
- The duels becoming progressively harder until they are unwinnable. Which means you have to be VERY selective and only fight duels for annexing towns, if you want all 16 player-towns. God, this one is annoying. Especially when it makes you reload a perfectly good battle, just because the stupid captain challenges you to a duel - and of course you won't waste a precious duel just to capture a stupid flute... It also means that you can't go destroying pirate hideouts, because you'll have to win a duel to do so - and wasting a duel on destroying a hideout that will reappear anyway, no matter what you do, strikes me as equally pointless as wasting a duel on capturing a ship.
Well, that was a long rant. :)
Post edited July 17, 2011 by Ameretat