Mod Release Open Sea Mod and Realism Settings

[Pieter Boelen]

Then is it on or is it not on? Or is it half on? Which parts aren't working?

The one thing I did test is that I do get the scaled down map with the mod switched on, so that seems OK.
And when the mod is off, the worldmap scale and distance to enemy ships at least don't completely misbehave (as they did in a slightly earlier version of my work on this).

 

[Skyworm]

You ask good questions Mate!

Ok, checking it ...

- different map with smaller islands and more space between - NO
- different timeframe with 1 hour is 1 hour - YES
- able to save very close to enemy ships - YES

I am not intirely sure about the map. The map displayed is wrong. But the distance betwen islands seems to be huge. I left Cuba for Turks and I have not reached Turks waters after 4 days of sailing. Have not yet sextant and chronometer for precise position, but I guess I'm on the right way.

Are there other features I actually overlooked and should check into?

 

[Skyworm]

Did further testing.
To be sure about map, I used console to give me sextant and chronometer. Checked map than ... that's it. Look the position of me ship, far in the high right corner, somwhere a lot north of Turks, beyond the edge of the map. Now, I strongly guess it is just the wrong map, while Open Sea itself working.

*Throwing the map overboard*
"Now, northeast it is, Turks is right there!"

 

[Skyworm]

Well ... with me not finding Turks without that map I threw overbaord, me think before reaching worlds end and dropping over the edge, I's better test something else.
So I switched off Open Sea in InternalSettings.h and loaded my savegame at Cubas coast. Then I started to sail towards Turks.

Some observations:
Open Sea now seems to be deactivated. I saw that 1 hour = 1 hour + 1 day happen.
Map position seemed to be more accurate. When according to the map we were off Cuba, it was seen astern in game graphics, so that fits.
Unfortunately, I did not make it to Turks. We ran out of food and rum, and me crew blamed me for that and cut me down. Supplies for 30 days obviously is not enough to just sail from one island to another.

Oh, and despite it being a bit off topic, I realized something else.
With Open Seas off, one gets about 525 exp just any game hour, respective game day, or better, any minute of real time just for sailing straight. Before me crew killed me, my character advanced from level 2 to 6 just for sailing directly towards another island. Since I usually not use this game mode, this does not disturb me in any way, but I can not helpt to find it a bit strange. What is this experience exactly for?
My first thought, this was not for sailing an hour, but for sailing a day. I switched Open Sea on again and looked how it is done there. With Open Sea on, there is no EXP gained when a new day happens.
So now I'm even more puzzled.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Ayup! That is the wrong map. When you see the correct map for OS you will see where you went wrong. The time and distance in OS were calculated so that one could make the longest runs in just under a month in direct sail with a bit of luck. While testing it I sometimes timed out.
In the standard game you could only direct sail between islands if they were close. Otherwise the world map was best. It was set up so that the longest runs could be done in less than a month also.

I am taking off in a few hours for a few days and will not be able to help with this mod.

 

[Skyworm]

Yup, that map looks more familiar. Thanks Hylie.

So Pieter, as a conclusion, it seems the OS Mod works fine so far except the map which is just the wrong one.
If you put in the correct map, I will test it further and do some travels using OS and directly sail towards islands to see if all works well, indeed.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

You are using the [M] key to load the map? Indeed that seems to be a completely different interface that I didn't fix yet for the Open Sea Mod.
If you go to F2>Inventory>Maps>Archipelago Map, it should look a whole lot better.

With Open Sea Mod off, you do get Sailing XP every hour. But, before, not when using time compression.
Perhaps now that time compression doesn't matter anymore, the Sailing XP given on the hour is a bit excessive and needs to be rebalanced?

Also, how is that Leadership skill increase upon paying your crew balancing now?
Early tests suggested that it is far too much. The idea is that it'll help, but still require you to do quests of some kind as well.
Otherwise it is a skill that would increase without pretty much doing anything at all.

 

[Skyworm]

Hello Pieter!

Well, yes, I was using the M key. Always did. And you are right, when I select the map from the inventory, it is the correct map with small islands and huge distances.
Edit: But it does not show my position. (chronometer and sextant I have)
Ah ... maybe the inventory map does not show positions at all. The M-map does show position, but a wrong one because the map is scaled wrong

I was just trying OS switched on, but not using Iron Man. First I tried to travel via world map from Cuba to Turks, which worked well. Just wenn you close the new island, and leave world map, you are far away from the island and have to sail a lot manually, just as Hylie said.
2nd I tried to manually sail from Turks to Hispaniola, which also worked. It took two game days, which is usual for a trip to the next island. So Open Seas works with and without Iron man, just the M-key map needs to be fixed.

About leadership:
In the last career that I now can not load, it was well, but not overpowered. That was that french navy character, did not do any quests except pirate hunting for governors, but not excessively. I think leadership was about 5-7 when character reached level 15. I don#t think this is overpowered.
And please keep in mind that there are different styles to play this game. Not anyone would care about quests, not even escorts or merchants or pirate hunts. For example, now I play a pirate and smuggler, and he won't to anything of it. Nor will he ever pay salary, because he already signed articles.
I don't hink it is a bad things if there were more than one way to leadership (or any other skill), to not force players to do things they don't like, but to give them an alternative.
Say, is there any leadership bonus involved when on articles? Perhaps for making the crew happy by plundering and then dividing lots of booty? If not, I would suggest so ...

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Well, yes, I was using the M key. Always did. And you are right, when I select the map from the inventory, it is the correct map with small islands and huge distances.
Edit: But it does not show my position. (chronometer and sextant I have)

The INVENTORY map does NOT show you the position? And the MAP key one does? Wha? I'm pretty sure it used to. Will have to look into that as well, I suppose.

In the meantime, please try this:
In RESOURCE\INI\NEW_INTERFACES files a_map.ini and map.ini find "map.tga" and replace it with "map_scaled.tga" .
That should give you the correct map for the Open Sea Mod. What I want to know is if the position is accurately shown on there.
I'm a bit afraid that the coordinates could be well off. Especially based on that screenshot of yours with the ship well up North off the map.

 

[Skyworm]

The INVENTORY map does NOT show you the position? And the MAP key one does? Wha? I'm pretty sure it used to. Will have to look into that as well, I suppose.

Precisely. I just re-checked it.

In the meantime, please try this:
In RESOURCE\INI\NEW_INTERFACES files a_map.ini and map.ini find "map.tga" and replace it with "map_scaled.tga" .
That should give you the correct map for the Open Sea Mod. What I want to know is if the position is accurately shown on there.

Aye, that works! And it looks accurately.
Still, the position is only shown on M-key-map, not on Inventory-map. But I don't use that, anyway.

I'm a bit afraid that the coordinates could be well off. Especially based on that screenshot of yours with the ship well up North off the map.

Nay, they are well. In that screenshot of me ... see, I was sailing from the southeastern edge of Cuba towards Turks and figured my course sould be northeast. But this was only correct given that scale of the map, especially Cuba, was correct.
On the Open Sea map, i should have just sailed straight east to rech Turks. Thus, sailing northeast braught me a whole lot north of Turks, which the map then displayed.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Aye, that works! And it looks accurately.
Still, the position is only shown on M-key-map, not on Inventory-map. But I don't use that, anyway.

That's a relief. Then all that needs to be done is swap out the texture file used and no additional coding. I should be able to figure that out tomorrow.
Could we get away with not showing the position on the Inventory screen at all for simplicity's sake? But then we could also restore the original unscaled map in that instance.
As long as the one that you navigate on is accurate, the other one doesn't need to be. Does that make any sense?

While we're at it, should we change the icon used for the ship's position? Before we had the Interface Screenshots mod, it looked fine with a schematic ship class picture used.
But that tiny square can hardly be recognized as a ship. And even so, it looks out of place. Don't you think?
Would we need something that changes depending on what ship you sail? Or would a generic "ship" icon suffice?

 

[Skyworm]

Cheers!

Could we get away with not showing the position on the Inventory screen at all for simplicity's sake? But then we could also restore the original unscaled map in that instance.
As long as the one that you navigate on is accurate, the other one doesn't need to be. Does that make any sense?

To be honest, I only use the M-key-map for navigation. Clicking into inventory and selecting the map is far too much efford to just get a quick look if your'e on course. Ido not use the inventory maps at all. For a detailed island view, I have a more accurate and beautiful map on my desktop, and it is much quicker selected.

While we're at it, should we change the icon used for the ship's position? Before we had the Interface Screenshots mod, it looked fine with a schematic ship class picture used.
But that tiny square can hardly be recognized as a ship. And even so, it looks out of place. Don't you think?
Would we need something that changes depending on what ship you sail? Or would a generic "ship" icon suffice?

In fact, I would much prefer just a bright point instead of a ship. Thet would possibly give me a more precise idea of where exactly I am located in relation to one of the islands. Any ship-style icon is that large in that scale, that it is larger than most islands, and only good for a very rough position.

And I doubt any but us direct sailers would use that map. Why should one, who uses the world map for travel?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

To be honest, I only use the M-key-map for navigation. Clicking into inventory and selecting the map is far too much efford to just get a quick look if your'e on course. Ido not use the inventory maps at all. For a detailed island view, I have a more accurate and beautiful map on my desktop, and it is much quicker selected.

I thought that might be the case. Then I'll see about taking out the "map_scaled" item, because that means a lot less files need to be modified and therefore a lot less chance for things being wrong.

In fact, I would much prefer just a bright point instead of a ship. Thet would possibly give me a more precise idea of where exactly I am located in relation to one of the islands. Any ship-style icon is that large in that scale, that it is larger than most islands, and only good for a very rough position.

That makes sense. Indeed whoever would plot a position fix on a chart with a detailed ship symbol anyway?
I'll see if there is anything resembling a position fix in the texture files and try to use that instead.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I just figured out how to swap between both maps depending on whether or not the Open Sea Mod is ON or OFF. And while I was at it, I made some further adjustments:

- Moved all island texts up and to the right to better match up with their respective islands
- Moved Saint Martin text further up and Nevis further down as they were too close together
- Isla Mona removed to prevent clutter (and you only ever need to go there in the Assassin storyline)
- Tortuga removed in Open Sea Mod as it is so close to Hispaniola that the text no longer matches up

- If you're using the map to see a Trade or Convoy quest destination, that red mark will be flashing instead of the player ship position for clarity's sake

- Replaced the Ship Interface Screenshot with a brig icon to match up with the player ship worldmap model
NOTE: I couldn't use that red mark for the ship position, because that is already in use to show the Trade and Convoy quest destinations
Also, it looks more like an "X marks the spot" treasure location than a ship's position.
Couldn't find any other good textures to use either. Unless we want to use a tick mark for either of the two. But that just seems wrong as well and is hard to scale....

 

[Pieter Boelen]

The INVENTORY map does NOT show you the position? And the MAP key one does? Wha? I'm pretty sure it used to. Will have to look into that as well, I suppose.

I just tested this and both map interfaces show the position just fine. While I was at it, I swapped out the Inventory ship icon with that brig too.
So I think that is all Open Sea Mod issues addressed.

One question:
At the moment, both the Map-Key and Inventory versions of the Archipelago Map display the scaled down Open Sea Mod version when that mod is enabled.
Having only the Map-Key be accurate would require much less code changes. But we DO have both at the moment.
So do we want to keep both or do we not?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Aaaaaand.... Test version attached. Comments welcome, as per usual.

 

[Skyworm]

Cheers Pieter,

I'll try. Can't load old savegames again, have to start another new career now

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Hmm. The "M" key shows maps? I always use the inventory map and did not know about the M key. Use whatever works. I am adaptable.

 

[Skyworm]

Heya!

Hmm. The "M" key shows maps? I always use the inventory map and did not know about the M key. Use whatever works. I am adaptable.

Not maps, just one of them, the archepelago.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Hmm. The "M" key shows maps? I always use the inventory map and did not know about the M key. Use whatever works. I am adaptable.

Added as per:

Build 14 Beta 1 Patch 7:
- New and Improved Functionality
  . Added configurable hotkey to show archipelago map (default: M) from anywhere in the game by Sulan

Anyway, since apparently both are being used, I'll keep the more complicated code. Might as well be all-inclusive then, no?