Double Diablo

[Grey Roger]

At the end of the "Cannons of Mona" chapter, when you've captured La Couronne, you report back to the vice admiral, and he complains unless you're the one sailing that ship rather than one of your officers. He tells you to return when you have complete control of the ship, so I left, swapped ship, returned, and he still wouldn't proceed to the next bit.

After reloading a saved game, I swapped ship before going to see the vice admiral. That put me in charge of La Couronne and one of my officers in charge of my super-xebec El Diablo. This time he did what he was supposed to do, leading to the fights with the Dutch, after which he took La Couronne off me and put me in charge of El Diablo instead. That is, he gave me a second El Diablo, rather inferior to the original as I'd bought several upgrades for that one. Oh well, since I couldn't keep or sell La Couronne, I sold the fake El Diablo instead.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

I never got that far in the storyline as the game kept crashing before I could take La Couronne. It sounds like it does work tho.

 

[Grey Roger]

It's tricky and the walkthrough was essential - I'd never have figured out where I need to sneak or run past guards without engaging them and where I need to kill them without it! Since Beta 3.2 is more reliable than Beta 3, it didn't crash even when I was boarding La Couronne, and Jack Rackham's fix for crew firing pistols got a good testing.

I don't know whether the second El Diablo is intentional (the vice admiral's way of partially compensating you for the fact that you don't get to keep or sell La Couronne), or a bug due to the game trying to put you back on your own ship and failing. The new one wasn't quite identical to the original one even if I hadn't bought most of the upgrades - El Diablo Mk. 2 was a bit bigger, a bit slower, took a couple more crew and had a bit more cargo space.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

In Beta 2 it was like the game had a timer on it and there were only so many hours to play before it quit working. In the main storyline if I took too long on side quests it would not make it to Cozumel. That is what happened to me in the Assassin storyline. I made it there but all the ships were friendly and I could not continue. That has been fixed now.

There is some variability in the ships so they are never exactly the same. This makes for some interesting choices in the shipyards. First there is the decision as to what type of ship one is looking for, then, should it be a smaller faster version or a larger slower version? Plus there is some overlap. Is a large version of a smaller ship better than a small version of a larger ship?

 

[Grey Roger]

In the "Assassin" storyline version of Cozumel, the French ships are supposed to be friendly, at least if you approach flying a Spanish flag. This is explained in the briefing - you let them and the British fight each other for a while to weaken them, then you hoist British colours, that makes the French hostile, then you can take on La Couronne. Except that, possibly because it's been "fixed", La Couronne was hostile to me immediately when I arrived, though the other French ships weren't. So after I'd captured La Couronne the battle ended, then I raised the British flag and went after the rest. I didn't get to sell La Couronne but I did sell the other French ships.

I know that there are differences between ships of the same type, though if the second El Diablo is a failed attempt to put you back on your own ship then it ought to be identical. It makes more sense for it to be different if it really is a consolation prize from the vice admiral and you're meant to end up with two Diablos.
I don't pay much attention to ships in shipyards. They're for people who actually pay for things.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

What used to happen years ago was that all ships would be friendly to you and each other. They would all be sitting in a large group with sails furled doing nothing. Changing flags and/or shooting them did not change their state except for damage so boarding was out.
Do you think this needs to be in the bug tracker?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

When the governor takes La Couronne from you, you are supposed to get the Diablo back.
This is done with a simple "GiveShip2Character" line and therefore she wouldn't have any upgrades you previously gave her.
It is hardly a perfect way of handling it, but it is the easiest.

Of course because it is a very simple way, weird things can happen if you are using companion ships at the time.
That code isn't set up to handle such cases properly.

 

[Grey Roger]

It makes more sense if you assume that, rather than getting your original El Diablo back, it's a second ship being given to you as a consolation prize for La Couronne. If you didn't keep the original as a companion ship then it's at the bottom of the sea, so the vice admiral can't give it back to you. Therefore he's giving you a new xebec. This also makes more sense if you did keep the original as a companion ship and end up with two xebecs. And it ties in with you complaining to the vice admiral that your crew will be disappointed that they didn't get anything out of capturing La Couronne. I suggest we make that the official story - the easiest bug to fix is one which you declare isn't actually a bug, it's supposed to be like that.

I'm not sure why La Couronne was hostile immediately when I entered the battle under the Spanish flag. It is true that, during the previous chapter when I was working for the Antigua admiral and found it convenient to fly the British flag, I exceeded orders and raided more French ships than required, as a result of which the French hate me and the British gave me a promotion. But if I'd been recognised, why weren't all the French ships at Cozumel hostile? It was only La Couronne at first. Once she was taken the victory fanfare sounded, the compass icon appeared, the battle was over and I could have left. Instead I raised the British flag and then the other French ships became hostile, which allowed me to take them as well. The crew weren't as upset as I led the vice admiral to believe.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Agreed on your first suggestion! Feel free to make some dialog changes to let it make sense as such.

Perhaps that La Couronne issue is because she is a special quest ship and set to deliberately be hostile to you?
Strange though, because when I tried to do specifically that for the Black Pearl, I couldn't actually make it happen.

 

[Grey Roger]

I've never seen the Black Pearl not be hostile during the encounter at Cozumel. No action is required.

There's nothing in the dialog about the xebec. The wiki just says '"La Couronne" auto-exchanged for Xebec', it doesn't say which xebec. What might make it clearer is if the new xebec is given a different name.

Here's a modified version of the vice admiral's dialog file with an additional hint about giving you another ship in return for La Couronne.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I've never seen the Black Pearl not be hostile during the encounter at Cozumel. No action is required.

I meant at Martinique. Especially when you are flying a pirate flag before coming there.
That is why I had to put in some code to make you fly a different flag before that point.

 

[Grey Roger]

If two Diablos isn't enough for you, try three.

I haven't actually done this but it should be possible. Get the second Diablo after bringing back La Couronne and berth it. Fast forward to "The Bartolomeu Trap" in which you have to go with Bartolomeu to Alice Town and sail off in his tub, leaving your ship behind in Puerto la Cruz. Except that you don't go directly to Alice Town. You go to Puerto la Cruz first, bring your ship round to Alice Town, berth it and then board Bartolomeu's ship. Some time later El Diablo shows up at Bonaire and you capture it, finding once again that it is a poor imitation with different stats and lacking any upgrades you fitted. You can now go and retrieve the other two Diablos including the real, upgraded one.