Editing your Pirate King (at game start)

[Avariel]

Some of the options you can choose from aren't exactly explained very well....

For instance, what is "10% surrender bonus"?  Are ships 10% more likely to surrender to you, or do you get 10% more plunder when you do prevail?  Do you get more wealthy captives too?  Or more cannons?  (BTW... why can't ships plunder muskets or even cutlasses... only cannons?).

"+1 or -1 to captive skills"...  can unskilled captives reach skill level 4 this way?  Can skilled captives reach skill level 6 this way?  Can captives degrade themselves to 0 or even -1 level skills this way?  Or do they just boost/detract within their normal skill range?

(Personally, I like teaming up the "10% battle speed" bonus with the already fast Schooner ships.)

Just wonderin'.  I'd ask more, but I don't have the game up to peek at every option.

[JakiusCeasar]

Honestly, I'm not sure.

[Privateer0]

I don't know for certain either, however...

I always throught "10% surrender bonus" means the ships are 10% more likely to surrender to you without a fight. I believe it has nothing to do with the amount of plunder you get. Basicly, this just means your fame (or infamy ) is so widespread that some people will just surrender when they see your flags.

The +1, -1, I belive, operate within the 0-5 range. At least I've never seen a skill 6 or a skill -1. Maybe those exist, but just aren't shown, since the bar scale is only from zero to five. BUT I belive the +1 skill can take an unskilled captive to a skill of 4. At least I think I've had unskilled captive with skill level 4 before.

Sorry I'm so uncertain about everything. It's been a long while since I last played that game. 

[Licht]

From my personal experience 10% surrender bonus does yield more captives. It's like a bonus to notoriety (hence the name dreadful notoriety).

The +1 captive skills is a straight +1 right from the beginning. With out this attribute unskilled captives start at 0 skill in whatever job they have and max out at +3. With this attribute they start out whatever job +1 and max out at +4 making all your unskilled close to a specialist great attribute. All specialists can get +5 max skills with or without this attribute BTW.