Uncharted Waters Interesting Facts v1.0 by Arpad Korossy Note: All screenshots referenced in this file refer to screenshots available at the Gaming Intelligence Agency (http://www.thegia.com) in their Uncharted Waters coverage (http://www.thegia.com/snes/uw/uw.html). Uncharted Waters starts in 1502 with the hero at age 16. In New Horizons which takes picks up in 1522, the hero of UW is now Duke Franco and has a son Joao aged from his marriage with Princess Christiana of UW, now Duchess Christiana. For this to be true the events of Uncharted Waters must have only taken two years, which is virtually impossible given that the typical completion time even for a veteran is about nine to ten years of game time, which would put Joao at only 10 years old when New Horizons begins. **The captains of battle fleets will always give you information on which ports have lots of sailors available to recruit, whereas trade fleets will tell you what port will pay well for your current cargo. Pirate fleets will always attack if you negotiate with them, except at night when they won't answer. However, all other fleets will always talk to you, and even the battle fleet that kidnaps the princess at the end of the game will be happy to offer you advice on where to recruit sailors, even if they are hunting you. Unlike New Horizons where a captain will find a new fleet the first few times you defeat him in battle (with the odd side effect that you can sometimes hire pirates to join your crew if you catch them in port without a fleet), in Uncharted Waters once someone is dead they usually stay dead. In order to keep a constant amount of fleets in the water, killing someone will cause a replacement to appear. For example, after killing off the pirates who are around at the beginning of the game (El Drago, etc.) new ones will show up with progressively stupider names, such as Scabby, Poison Ice, Evil Eye, Gnarly Nate, Silver Stan, Queasy Kirk, and Sinbad Sal. It seems that eventually, if you kill off enough pirates (and presumably any other type of fleet) that the last set will keep coming back so that in some cases you can kill someone multiple times. When you get rid of a mate, they tend to stay in the port where you leave them. Thus, since there's a very good chance that you may need to talk to them later in regards to a treasure, if you must get rid of a mate try to leave them in an easily accessible European port. ***Uncharted Waters ends with the hero becoming King Franco of Portugal, and when New Horizons opens 20 years later he has apparently passed on the reigns of power to *INSERT KING* and lives comfortably as a Duke. It pays to get on the good side of a waitress. If you tip any waitress enough times then they get to like you and become more likely to tell you what you know. If they really like you, they'll talk to you even if you can't afford to tip them (sometimes the case after you just deposited all your cash at the royal vault). Plus, it doesn't hurt your ego any to have gorgeous 16-bit women hitting on you. **The hero isn't the only Uncharted Waters character to make a return appearance in New Horizons. Princess Christiana is back, now as Duchess Christiana, the old sailor and your first mate returns and is now given the name of Rocco, and even Carlotta, the waitress in Lisbon, is back. She now owns the Lisbon pub and has a daughter, Lucia, who plays some part in the plot. See the graphic under the "other" section. **When you first start making secret visits to the princess a small purple heart appears over the castle, but as she gets to like you more it becomes a larger red heart. She'll also say different things and will accept your gifts which she declines earlier. See "Secret Visit" screenshots under the "media" section. Everyone's birthday is January 1. **The best mate happens to be named Christopher, looks a lot like Christopher Columbus, and is about the right age (remember that the game starts ten years after the discovery of the New World). Coincidence? ***There are no leap years. You consume no supplies while debarked ashore, and days spent ashore are not counted as days of a voyage. Days spent anchored are also not counted as day of a voyage, but supplies are nevertheless consumed. The system Uncharted Waters uses to track enemy fleets doesn't actually keep track of their current position at all times. Rather, it has a goal for them, such as a port they're heading to or a fleet they're chasing, and an approximate current position that they'll be in the vicinity of. The only exception to this is that if you are closely following a fleet as they go off a screen they'll still be there. The strange side effect to this, aside from making fleets a major pain to track down, is that a fleet can very easily sail off one side of the screen and instantly reappear coming from the other direction. **Although it's stated in the manual, it's often forgotten that the game can also be lost by not completing it by January 1, 1522. You die of natural casues at the ripe old age of 36. This is also the only way to die while in a port. Interstingly enough the message still says that you were reported lost at sea. Dying while in a port also causes the game to glitch and incorrectly display the text on one screen.* All pirates are Portuguese. They also almost invariably use trade fleets rather than battle fleets. **Staying camped out outside of a port for extended periods of time can have some intersting effects. In one case, after saving the princess and waiting outside of Lisbon for about ten years of game time, entering the port for a few days and then leaving caused a full eight fleets to be on the screen simultaneously, who then proceeded to give chase. This was partially due to having wiped out five pirates in a month and thus their buccaneering brethren were out for blood. * This has been verified using multiple versions of two different emulators, ZSNES and SNES9x, but has not been verifified using the actual cartridge on a real SNES or Super Famicom. proximate current position that they'll be in the vicinity of. The only exception to this is that if you are closely following a fleet as they go off a screen they'll still be there. The strange side effect to this, aside from making fleets a major pain to track down, is that a fleet can very easily sail off one side of the screen and instantly reappear coming from the other direction. -Although it's stated in the manual, it's often forgotten that the game can also be lost by not completing it by January 1, 1522. You die of natural casues at the ripe old age of 36. This is also the only way to die while in a port. Interstingly enough the message still says that you were reported lost at sea. Dying while in a port also causes the game to glitch and incorrectly display the text on one screen.* -All pirates are Portuguese. They also almost invariably use trade fleets rather than battle fleets. -Staying camped out outside of a port for extended periods of time can have some intersting effects. In one case, after saving the princess and waiting outside of Lisbon for about ten years of game time, entering the port for a few days and then leaving caused a full eight fleets to be on the screen simultaneously, who then proceeded to give chase. This was partially due to having wiped out five pirates in a month and thus their buccaneering brethren were out for blood. See the images under "Sailing screenshots" in the "media" section. * This has been verified using multiple versions of a Super Nintendo emulator, zSNES. It has not been verified using the actual cartridge on a real SNES or Super Famicom.