The Sea Dogs Mods
With the focus of the Sea Dogs games being on allowing customizations and modifications, an incredible amount of mods was quickly developed for the various titles in the series. This section of the website shall help newcomers to the series to decide which engine and mod is the right one for them by comparing the mods (available both in English and Russian and considered to be large mods) to each other.
An overview of the various Sea Dogs mods
New Horizons Mod
One of the largest mods out there for the Pirates of the Caribbean game. Still updated and worked on in 2024.
Historical Immersion Supermod
A historically accurate mod for Sea Dogs Caribbean Tales that brought back features from Pirates of the Caribbean.
Gentlemen of Fortune
This mod for Sea Dogs City of the Abandoned Ships is still great to play more than ten years after its release. However, it is no longer being worked on or updated.
Historical ERAS II
The most historically accurate Sea Dogs mod out there based on the Gentlemen of Fortune mod, running on the paid Maelstrom engine. It is still being worked on and updated in 2024.
CorsairsShipPack
The most likely largest Sea Dogs mod out there. It is based on Sea Dogs City of the Abandoned Ships but upgraded to the newest Storm engine version.
Reconstruction COAS
Based on CorsairsShipPack this mod is a reimagination of Sea Dogs City of the Abandoned Ships, also based on the newest Storm engine version.
The first decision to make:
Which engine is the right one for you?
Over the years, the original Storm engine was reworked and improved. Beginning with the 2003 Pirates of the Caribbean game (also referred to as Sea Dogs 2), the game was shipped with Storm engine version 2.0. Its successor, Sea Dogs Caribbean Tales, came along with engine version 2.5. The 2009 Sea Dogs City of the Abandoned Ships as well as the 2012 Sea Dogs To Each His Own shipped on engine version 2.8. However, for many players, all these aforementioned engine versions lacked stability with people experiencing crashes around the clock. Therefore, the community member "ChezJfrey" decided to write a new engine focused on stability, bug elimination and new features for many of the original series entries and mods called Maelstrom engine. A couple years later, the Storm engine was further improved upon and moved into being open-source to create an overall better experience with many bugs of the original engine being eliminated. This version was named open-source Storm engine X.
The original game engines (2.0, 2.5, 2.8)
Depending on the game, the experience was better or worse. If you play a game using one of the original engines, save often and preferably in different slots if you do not want to lose your game progress.
The Maelstrom engine
Given the incredible amount of work put into creating this amazing engine, I can highly recommend buying it, especially because you will be able to experience the original games as well as a number of great mods without the constant fear for crashes, engine-related bugs and wonky stability.
The open-source Storm engine X
The newest engine entry in the series and community. There has definitely been a lot of improvement in regards to engine stability and bugs. However, from my experience, there are still more crashes on this engine than the Maelstrom engine. Nevertheless, I can recommend playing mods and games on this engine as well.
New Horizons (NH) 2004-present
Due to the popularity and level of customization of the 2003 game Pirates of the Caribbean (POTC), a number of mods was released for it throughout the early 2000's. While most of the mods have since been lost in the depths of the internet, the community behind the New Horizons mod is still thriving more than twenty years after the release of the basegame.
New Horizons (NH)
Especially known throughout the Western world, the New Horizons mod is one of the largest mods in the Sea Dogs community, originally made within the PiratesAhoy! community. Over the years three different versions of the mod have emerged, whose differences can be viewed by clicking on the link below.
Developed solely by members of the PiratesAhoy! community for many years, it has recently become a collaboration project between PiratesAhoy! and Buccaneers Reef
Depending on the mod version, it does not require the base game but the paid Maelstrom engine
Inlcudes not only new weapons, items, characters and ships but also additonal storylines and prologues, mechanics, quests, locations and a new worldmap.
Historical Immersion Supermod 2010-2018
With Caribbean Tales being stripped down on features due to the Disney copyright on Pirates of the Caribbean, the Historical Immersion Supermod not only added historically accurate items, ships, characters and even music but also reintroduced jungles as one of the missing features from POTC and fixed a whole lot of bugs present in the vanilla version of Caribbean Tales.
Historical Immersion Supermod
One of the largest modifications for CT made within the English speaking PiratesAhoy! community, featuring historical accuracy and the reintroduction of features known from POTC.
Developed by an international English speaking team early on of the game's release cycle
Depending on the mod version, it does not require the base game but the paid Maelstrom engine
Inlcudes new, historically accurate weapons, items, characters and ships as well as mechanics missing from vanilla CT.
In my opinion only recommended when playing on the Maelstrom engine because of stability issues on the old CT engine
Gentlemen of Fortune (GOF) 2011-2015; 2021
For those who have already taken a look at the Gentlemen of Fortune mod in the past, it is will known that this mod can be found in various versions with one looking as good as the other. So, let's detangle them: There are three major versions of this mod with them being version 1.2, version 2.0 and version 2.5. All of these three mods are running either on the vanilla City of the Abandoned Ships (COAS) engine or on the Maelstrom engine (thanks to Chezjfrey porting efforts). However, as three different versions are not nearly enough for this mod, in 2021 a fourth version called Gentlemen of Fortune 1.2 Maelstrom refined mod was released. As the name suggests, this version is only available for the Maelstrom engine. In regards to the burning question of which mod is the best, you will receive a different answer each time. Some say that version 1.2, especially in the maelstrom refined version, is the best as it is the most feature rich out of the three. However, there are also some players who like version 2.0 more than 1.2 as it was a step back to the originals with some features being cut to ensure a more stable experience. Lastly, version 2.5 seems to receive the least amount of love out of the bunch since it started out as a CT mod that was ported over to COAS.
Gentlemen of Fortune (GOF)
One of the largest modifications for COAS made within the English speaking PiratesAhoy! community.
Developed by an international English speaking team early on of the game's release cycle and improved by various members of the PiratesAhoy! community
Requires the base game SD COAS
Has not been updated in years
Found in three different variations, GOF 1.2, 2.0, 2.5 with 1.2 and 2.0 being fairly stable
Features a lot of new weapons, items, characters and ships but no new storylines
In my opinion only recommended when playing on the Maelstrom engine because of stability issues on the old COAS engine
Historical ERAS II (ERAS 2) 2013-present
Originally starting out as yet another Gentlemen of Fortune mod, Historical ERAS II quickly evolved into something special as it is, together with the CT Historical Immersion Supermod, one of the only two mods out there that feature nearly full historical accuracy. Not only have ships, characters, quests and items been tweaked in this mod to depict a historically accurate picture of the 17th and 18th century, but even buildings have received a facelift in order to look similar to the time epoche. Therefore, for people interested in history, this mod can only be highly recommended.
Historical ERAS II (ERAS 2)
Based on the GOF mod, ERAS II has evolved into its own, standalone modification made within the English speaking Buccaneers Reef community.
Developed by an US-American team consisting of the English speaking members "ChezJfrey" and "ModernKnight" from 2014 onwards
Does not require the base game but the paid Maelstrom engine
Nearly everything in this mod is historically accurate, including weapons, items, characters and ships
CorsairsShipPack (CSP) 2017-present
Starting out with what the name suggests, a shippack for COAS, over the years the mod evolved into what is known to be the full package for any Sea Dogs fan out there. Unlike most mods, CorsairsShipPack has also put a strong focus on creating new mechanics and questlines for the game, making it the mod with the most advanced features. However, for many years only the Russian speaking players had the pleasure of enjoying the experience as the developers did not intend for the mod to be translated to English. Nevertheless, the mod was fully translated to English in 2024.
CorsairsShipPack (CSP)
Most likely the largest modification for COAS made within the Russian speaking community with the same name.
Originally developed by the Russian speaking member "Leopard", it has continously been updated with new features being introduced every couple of months
Does not require the base game
Based on the new, open-source Storm engine X
Available in Russian and English
Inlcudes not only new weapons, items, characters and ships but also new prologues for certain characters, quests, mechanics and additonal locations
Reconstruction COAS (ReconCOAS) 2018-present
Emerging from CorsairsShipPack as a return to the basics of COAS with a strong, bug-free foundation, the mod carefully expanded into creating new questlines and overhauling textures and models to create the game COAS should have been from the beginning. As with CSP, for the longest time ReconCOAS was only available to Russian speaking players with this only changing in 2024, when the game will be fully translated to English.
Reconstruction COAS (ReconCOAS)
The second most popular Russian modification based on CSP made in the Russian speaking Gryphon Ruunt community.
Devloped by the Russian speaking "ReconTeam", it has continously been updated with new features being introduced every couple of weeks or months
Does not require the base game
Based on the new, open-source Storm engine X
Available in Russian and English
Inlcudes not only new weapons, items, characters and ships but also new prologues for certain characters, quests, mechanics and additonal locations