Sea Dogs is the first pirate adventure game that is fully 3D.

What is the game like?

In the 3D-world of Sea Dogs a player is the captain of a single ship. His basic function is combat. He fights ships of other nations, which he is able to board with a heads-on 3D view, attacks forts, plunders towns, and ransacks money from merchants. He also has the opportunity of making alliances with other captains in order to do his dirty business. But fighting is not the only thing that he does. Becoming involved in political intrigues, rescuing girls and many more romantic and interesting elements also exist in the game.

Fans of role-playing games (RPGs) will find here a new system of parameters specially adapted for steering ships and sea battles. A player will have to manage his crew and officers, his cannons (3 types, by the way), his cannonballs (4 types, with different damage for a certain target and so on), will have lots of goods to trade, and over 100 non-player-characters (NPCs) to deal with.

What does the world of Sea Dogs look like?

Once upon a time-about one-and-a-half centuries ago-a brave captain discovers an archipelago in the very middle of the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the Amazon River. He marks it on his map, places the Spanish flag on the beach, takes some fresh water-and forgets all about it. The Spanish have more than enough new lands and no one would care about these few small islands.

For almost a century the Archipelago is forgotten. Spain crushes the Indians in Central America, and English seadogs plunder Spanish galleons. Wars cause oceans of blood to be spilt all over Europe. The virgin land of this archipelago, however, still remains untouched.

But one day another brave corsair-this time an Englishman-makes his hideout on one of the islands of the archipelago. He starts to trade the trash of European civilization for food off the natives. He is absolutely stunned to see a heavy ingot of pure gold worn as an amulet on the withered neck of an old tribesman. That is the turning point in his life. The corsair very soon becomes a wealthy man. But the idyllic scene has at last been broken. Hungry for gold, cruel and powerful, there arrives the might of three empires-those of England, France and Spain. There has been a short period of peace in Europe but everyone knows that a war for gold will begin sooner or later. The Empires begin to build forts on the archipelago islands, fully realizing that these pieces of land are great trans-shipment points for the whole Atlantic Ocean. Large settlements of towns, mines and seadogs appear. Some of the seadogs become free pirates. Some of the seadogs become legendary captains. And one of them is you!

The world of Archipelago consists of 20 islands, both huge and small, with countless reefs, rocky straits, streams etc. A player chooses one of four powers to play for-Spain, France, England or the Pirates. He will meet over one hundred NPCs and will be able to navigate one of up to 40 ships. He will be able to take on other free captains as followers and undertake numerous missions, some of which are absolutely necessary and others not.

There is no difference between "good" or "evil" in the world of pirates. Acting like a good or evil character is just a matter of a player's personal inclination. Taking over the whole Archipelago is a cynical and absolutely neutral task. It is not important how many widows you make so long as there is a chest of gold waiting for you at the end. So, "Good sir, you may remain alive if you stay as quiet as a lamb!" A player may act as an evil person. He may betray greedy governors at will and remain unpunished (he always has the chance to return to his former host for a reasonable fee). We are not saying that evil is good; we are simply stating the main motto of every pirate-the strongest shall survive!

This is what makes an RPG different. The pirate game Sea Dogs does, however, in many ways resembles «Pirates» or *laquo;Pirates' Gold».

Nevertheless, the RPG part of Sea Dogs differs from all the pirate games previously issued. We have tried to make the pirate game more personal, more RPG-like than ever. Our captain has a personal history, certain ancestors, and some personal quests, not connected with his main task. In some cases he will appear almost like the "chosen one", though without any fantasy prophecies. People of that age knew that the "question of blood" had great importance. A son of a merchant would become a merchant and so on. If your father is a reckless hero, then what kind of man do you think you are going to be?

What is the worst thing in the world of treachery?

Money. Everyone-or almost everyone in the game-can be bought. If you plunder a couple of English ships, you can just pay some money to the governor (through an intermediary) and you will receive an amnesty at a glance! Money makes this world cynical and even the Spanish Priests (especially the Spanish priests!) are money-grabbers on this Archipelago.

What is the dream of a real pirate captain?

John Silver always wanted to be a tavern-owner. Good idea, but do you remember how he ended his life? That is definitely not for us.

What is the sense of pirate role-playing game? What do you have to do first of all when playing the role of a pirate captain?

Here are the basic points for Sea Dogs:

• Gaining treasure.
• Taking control of the whole Archipelago.
• Making your own choice about what the end of the game will look like.
• Winning respect for yourself through your pirate activities.

What does the life of a pirate captain consist of? First of all, of course, it consists of sea battles-and in this field Sea Dogs has more features than there has ever been before in any pirate game. He can choose the type of cannonballs, have group attacks (if he has an ally or mercenary), fight both on water and in melees, plunder ships for goods, exchange his ship for a plundered one on the high seas, and fight against forts.

However, this is not all. If you only want to fight and smash your enemies using brute force alone, then this just would not be an RPG at all. Sometimes you have to be really crafty and find some way to trick extremely powerful foes. Each of the four quest lines demands brainpower. You can try and hack and slash your way to success, but you will suffer greatly if you are not crafty enough.

There are several places in the game where you can communicate with other characters. Most frequently this is a tavern (situated in every town) and a governor's palace (in capitals only). You can accept missions in both of them.

Yet another change in the usual pirate game format has been introduced in Sea Dogs and should be brought to your notice, namely how a character's past can influence his future decisions. RPG games most of the time have a great quest as their main purpose. Ours does too. But here is the big difference. In Sea Dogs a player does not have to accomplish his main quest to end the game. He may simply (though this is not too easy) capture all the towns in Archipelago and the game will be over. And he may even choose to build a new community in Archipelago and try to find a real sense in his life. This is the most interesting and complicated part. For in this fashion the past of our hero defines his present-day decisions in many ways. He has inherited a legacy, which he may take or leave.

So here are the features of our game:

• Absorbing and flexible plot.
• Encounters with over a hundred interesting characters.
• Management of crew, firepower and trade commodities.
• Vast playing field with twenty islands and numerous towns.
• Environment generally alterable by player action.
• Incredible historical authenticity and detail.
• Extensive multiplayer options.
• Powerful engine using full 3D video accelerated effects.
• Highly differentiated artificial intelligence.

A few words about boarding and besieging a town.

We have tried to implement a new method of boarding action. First of all, this is going to be 3D combat and we think that this will cause the player to be involved in the process to a far greater degree. We have created a kind of cutlass-fighting simulator with exciting animation and several special features. We believe that having various combinations, blocks, etc. has made a real difference to pirate games. The captain in our game represents the whole crew. In addition, we have taken into consideration the option of putting personal combat in the game, for example duels etc. We are planning to make a dozen or so models for fighting, each of them with personal animation.