So I just started playing Sid Meier's Pirates!

And it feels like information overload. I'm thrown into the game with a bunch of objectives, a bunch of options for buying and selling, and I'm just confused. So far I've just been attacking random ships at sea and trying to learn it as I go. I noticed there's an enciclopedia in the main menu. Was this game overwhelming for anyone else?

Read the manual?

Pirates! is a collection of minigames, none too difficult. Go to some ports and activate quests if the sandbox overwhelms you. IIRC as long as you don't engage in the combat minigame, the ships firing at you on the main map won't sink your flagship so feel free to explore.

Pirates! is fun. I've played the original and I was very pleased with this remake. It's not too difficult, basically you can do whatever you want. Here is a nice Strategy Guide. Have fun with this great game. And don't forget to take a look here for some excellent mods.

I think I'm gonna install the game now :D

[EDIT]

I just installed it, but I had some minor issues. Guess it has to do with Win 7 as I never had problems with it before. The installer crashed a couple of times (wouldn't let me make my own path), and after I managed to install the game (in the standard install dir) the game itself crashed. I'm running it in compatible mode (winxp sp3) now and it seems to run. Did you run in to trouble as well, on what OS did you install the game?
Too bad there isn't support for higher resolutions :(

love Pirates, one of the coolest games ever made.

geitenvla - Download it on Steam, its only $10, downloads very fast and I had no problems.

Great game, I was not sure how this one would be because the original one is one of my favorite games of all time, but it turned out very good :)

I would say just to give it some time, once you get the hang of things its pretty straight forward. Also maybe check out some walktrhoughs/strategy guides online, aswell as youtube videos (Lets plays, etc..)

It's not really difficult...

But it's an awesome game, as soon as I stumbled on this topic, I started looking for my copy.

I'm installing now. :P

I thought it was great, but it gets a bit repetitive in places.

Only thing is... I've been killing the same high-profile wanted guys over and over. They're like Bowser, they keep coming back. Couldn't they have come up with more characters? Thats my only complaint. 3riForce

geitenvla - Download it on Steam, its only $10, downloads very fast and I had no problems.

3riForce

Now why would I want to buy a second copy of a game I already own? Besides that, only the installer didn't work properly on Win7, the rest runs pretty well. In the meantime I've tested my version on Vista and XP and it's pretty safe to say that this IS a Win7 problem. I guess they made a different installer for Steam. Too bad there isn't a patch for this... what about costumers support?