Mod Release Build 14 Beta 3.5 Internal WIP For Testing

[Levis]

Did we change the officer encounter things again?
I encounter officers in the tavern sitting at the table.
These should be found by the barmen right?

 

[A.H]

It was always like this even in COAS I think.. only in POTC you can order officer from the bartender.. or is the new patch supposed to not have them sitting @ table?

 

[Levis]

I remember we where discussing this a while back and we tought it would be best to have them only avaible at the bar. but could be opinions have changed since then.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Did we change the officer encounter things again?
I encounter officers in the tavern sitting at the table.
These should be found by the barmen right?

You can indeed find them by talking to the tavern owners. However, the random ones have remained by request of @Grey Roger.
So now there are two ways to get them in the tavern and players can pick whichever method they want to use.
See the final posts on this page for the last discussion we had on this: http://www.piratesahoy.net/threads/improve-officer-importance.24519/page-5#post-503812

 

[A.H]

I started playing as Francis Drake in Colony Powers age.
Currently @ Charlestown whatever building I am in, when I fast walk to Port.. it only takes me outside the building.. and not directly to the port area where the ship is docked.. is this a part of the update or it's not supposed to command this way?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

PROGRAM\BATTLE_INTERFACE\reload_tables.c:

if (HasSubStr(lcn.filespath.models,"Town_Greenford\port")) // PB

Replace with:

if (HasSubStr(lcn.filespath.models,"Town_Greenford\port") || HasSubStr(lcn.filespath.models,"Town_Charlestown")) // PB

I think that'll make Fast Travel in Charlestown take you to the dock properly.

 

[A.H]

Yes thanks.. in port royal it was fine.. now will check this out. But I also noticed another issue which also was before but I forgot to mention..
When you are on the sea (not open world) and you have full sails up.. then you save and reload the game.. 70% chance when you reload that you can't move ship because the code is set for sails down when they are actually up.

So what I do is lower sails, then raise again and then the ship can move.. if you understand what I mean.



One more issue.. also existed before this update which now I remember and I notice again.
When you select in inventory anything to equip (compass, cuirass, gunpowder flask, etc. etc.), 50% chance on the first time you select equip.. the command to equip doesn't process through.

So after I close the screen for inventory.. I assume I already got equipped but a lot of times it doesn't and I have to equip for the second time. Now I only remember it happens first time, but never happened second or third time in a row.



Other than that, as far as crashing haven't experienced anything, and auto save is working perfect.. however the graphic anomaly sometimes occurs mildly during the x10 and x20 game speed. I attached Error file since I just saw it pop on my folder.. not sure what those codes indicate..

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Indeed that Save At Sea is one that does sound familiar.
That is a mod added feature and doesn't work 100% right.
I don't think we can truly fix that issue, but it sounds like you already found the simple work around.

The equipping thing sounds weird though. When you press the button, are you sure the tick Mark does appear in the menu?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I attached Error file since I just saw it pop on my folder.. not sure what those codes indicate..

Those messages were even in the original unmodded game. I have never been able to notice any problems resulting from them. ;no

 

[A.H]

Now got a couple issues.. first one is similar to charlestown fast walk. But in Guadalupe.. in Point a Pitre.. wherever I direct my character to go, he only direct walks outside the building I'm in.. and if I am outside the building and direct walk it says on the top left dialog: "Something's about to happen"
Will this be the same case where we apply the code you said previously;

if (HasSubStr(lcn.filespath.models,"Town_Greenford\port") || HasSubStr(lcn.filespath.models,"Town_Charlestown")) // PB

Second issue.. I've noticed this since the start of my gameplay.. most outside kiosk merchants are double standing.. like Siamese twins.. it's as if there's 2 merchant characters standing on same spot but I speak with only one. Here is a shot of what I see.. it also happens always with my masters @ arms and crewmembers who follow me:



Third issue it's not really a bug/glitch but it could be related to lag maybe.. when I mentioned previous that @ shipyard on repair screen it takes time for the screen to load when you speak to the shipyard man.. I just experienced it when I have 2 heavy ships in my command.
Then I went to market and sold my goods.. the lag existed but was much lighter than previously. I believe it is affected by "value of goods" .. I had 3 ships with a total of 12,000+ weight in gold goods.. even twice my officer's Fluyt caused major lag.. and I had to shut down my PC because the game wouldn't repsond.. but after I got rid of the gold.. I was able to access the options for the officer's fluyt.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Now got a couple issues.. first one is similar to charlestown fast walk. But in Guadalupe.. in Point a Pitre.. wherever I direct my character to go, he only direct walks outside the building I'm in.. and if I am outside the building and direct walk it says on the top left dialog: "Something's about to happen"
Will this be the same case where we apply the code you said previously;

Different thing; with the log message, it means there is something quest-worthy in the location.
Probably caused by the Moulin sidequest. Make a Bug Tracker Entry for that so that I'll remember to set that one to be ignored by the Fast Travel code.
I've done that before with the Tortuga Atmosphere one and should be quite easy.

Second issue.. I've noticed this since the start of my gameplay.. most outside kiosk merchants are double standing.. like Siamese twins.. it's as if there's 2 merchant characters standing on same spot but I speak with only one. Here is a shot of what I see.. it also happens always with my masters @ arms and crewmembers who follow me:

That screenshot looks to be taken inside a tavern. There are no merchant there.

Third issue it's not really a bug/glitch but it could be related to lag maybe.. when I mentioned previous that @ shipyard on repair screen it takes time for the screen to load when you speak to the shipyard man.. I just experienced it when I have 2 heavy ships in my command.
Then I went to market and sold my goods.. the lag existed but was much lighter than previously. I believe it is affected by "value of goods" .. I had 3 ships with a total of 12,000+ weight in gold goods.. even twice my officer's Fluyt caused major lag.. and I had to shut down my PC because the game wouldn't repsond.. but after I got rid of the gold.. I was able to access the options for the officer's fluyt.

I have noticed the Shipyard Interface takes a long time to load as well.

 

[A.H]

Ok so shipyard is common issue not only me

As for merchants.. I did a quick snapshot of my current location but in port royal this issue doesn't exist.. in guadalupe I saw it, and now I am in charlestown.. infront of port I can see this dude:




With regards to an old issue.. the one where you reload you can't click/press anything until you press F1 then go back again.. was this one of the things that you said can't be fixed yet? Just for notifying you, it still happens to my game most of the time, especially when I reload a save file when i'm on sea/open map.

 

[salonikasurf]

Ok so shipyard is common issue not only me

Shipyard issue seems to be dependent upon how much cargo you have in your ships - Store interface is slow also when calculating final value - so I suspect this would be the issue when the game is calculating the value of the ship in the shipyard interface.

 

[salonikasurf]

Build 14 Beta 3.5 WIP - Update 23 June 2015 + Levis V1.3 update. Swashbuckler - Standard Storyline testing at present.

Game runs better overall and new fixes and content is great - I salute you Pieter and all the crew for your continued dedication. Levis - the opium stuff looks fantastic - will wait for next update to check it out.

Game balance seems very good again.

Some game play Issues / nice to have items.

Continued issues with CTD on looting when boarding (seems only to be when there a lot of ships about) less often than before I think.

Fred Bob does not go to passenger list after hiring on Martinique - he is hired - has the right dialogue, but does not become part of the officers - previous bug I think.

The brigantine ship has a small deck, small captains cabin and small boarding deck - this ship is bigger than the Barques and should have at least the same size / types of decks for consistency.

I like the Rifle and Telescopic sight for a bit of fun on land battles - I prefer the pistols at sea. Could we have them so you can put them in the Ship Chest? There was an issue that I received the Telescopic sight from the priest before I picked up the rifle. This resulted in it being selected as my best gun when using the keypad number 2 and I had to manually select the pistol every time after. Would also be nice to have this weapon be able to kill the immortal skeletons that are spawned when digging for treasure in the crypt as well - gives the rifle a definite purpose.

I love the Bow and arrows etc. I could only put 2 arrows into my inventory - is this what was intended? Would be nice to be able to collect say 6 or 12 - like the pistol bullets.

On my first smuggling adventure, the "Smuggling On" quest header remained after the actual quest was completed. This was the quest header that came up after talking to the soldier in the tavern about when the best time to have a picnic was. The quest worked well otherwise.

The Iceni Queen is still the quest ship at Martinique - should really be a Pirate Corvette. Love this ship, though she does seem to loose her masts easily.

Would be nice to be able to fast travel to store/shipyard/smith etc after getting directions from a local (dialogue ). This would then be consistent with the charts giving fast travel to ports etc.

The shore party members do not take their weapons from the ship weapons locker - This is a nice thing to have them automatically get weapons but it would still be good to be able to give them armour and better weapons and potions when you want to as per their dialogue. They seem to get better weapons than you have in your locker early in the game but not later? This may not be possible with the new code.

It would be nice to be able to put quest items into your ships chest after completing the relevant quests - just to keep your inventory tidy.

It would be nice to have the officers for companion ships be useful again for Beta 3.5- I think this worked in Build 13 but we have not had it for a long time. This would then enable each companion ship to have a compliment of officers whose skills are used in the ships performance. Currently we only have the Captain we set and additional offices do not seem to make a difference. This may require the total number of officers we are able to have to be increased though.

The luck skill of our First Mate does not have an effect on the player ship's overall luck statistics. This did work a few years back - Build 13 I think - or it may have been the stock game.

Hope this helps.

 

[Levis]

The officers you set to a ship should contribute theire skills. At least theire perks work, the skills don't you say?
Heard the smuggling quest header more now so will look into that.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Shipyard issue seems to be dependent upon how much cargo you have in your ships - Store interface is slow also when calculating final value - so I suspect this would be the issue when the game is calculating the value of the ship in the shipyard interface.

I'm pretty sure that is the case. I just made a mention of it here:
http://www.piratesahoy.net/threads/exploit-in-shipyard.24470/#post-510647

Continued issues with CTD on looting when boarding (seems only to be when there a lot of ships about) less often than before I think.

We did make one fix to boarding quite recently. Maybe it will help? Though I cannot give an guarantees on that one....

Fred Bob does not go to passenger list after hiring on Martinique - he is hired - has the right dialogue, but does not become part of the officers - previous bug I think.

Does he go into your Passengers Interface? Did you have a free slot in your shore party?
@Grey Roger recently made a change so that Fred Bob wouldn't automatically overwrite your #1 shore party slot.
As long as he's in the Passengers Interface, you can do that manually afterwards.

The brigantine ship has a small deck, small captains cabin and small boarding deck - this ship is bigger than the Barques and should have at least the same size / types of decks for consistency.

I thought @Armada made all the cabins and ship deck locations match up as good as possible at some point in the past.
Would be easily changed in ships_init.c though.

I like the Rifle and Telescopic sight for a bit of fun on land battles - I prefer the pistols at sea. Could we have them so you can put them in the Ship Chest? There was an issue that I received the Telescopic sight from the priest before I picked up the rifle. This resulted in it being selected as my best gun when using the keypad number 2 and I had to manually select the pistol every time after. Would also be nice to have this weapon be able to kill the immortal skeletons that are spawned when digging for treasure in the crypt as well - gives the rifle a definite purpose.

Responded here: http://www.piratesahoy.net/threads/custom-quest-musket.24428/

On my first smuggling adventure, the "Smuggling On" quest header remained after the actual quest was completed. This was the quest header that came up after talking to the soldier in the tavern about when the best time to have a picnic was. The quest worked well otherwise.

Was there an island name mentioned in that header at all? I've seen a screenshot from someone else where it was missing, which would also be a bug of course.
@Levis, do you have any thoughts on that one?

The Iceni Queen is still the quest ship at Martinique - should really be a Pirate Corvette.

I fixed that last weekend; will be different on the next update.

Would be nice to be able to fast travel to store/shipyard/smith etc after getting directions from a local (dialogue ). This would then be consistent with the charts giving fast travel to ports etc

I like it! Please make a Feature Request for that one. I'll see if I can figure out a good way to do that as soon as I can.

The shore party members do not take their weapons from the ship weapons locker - This is a nice thing to have them automatically get weapons but it would still be good to be able to give them armour and better weapons and potions when you want to as per their dialogue. They seem to get better weapons than you have in your locker early in the game but not later? This may not be possible with the new code.

@Jack Rackham rewrote that code to prevent worse bugs.
I can't remember now why the shore crew cannot use the Weaponslocker; maybe he can elaborate on that.
Ideally it would be nice if boarding crew, shore crew and ship deck crew all use the same functionality.
Right now they're all independent.

It would be nice to be able to put quest items into your ships chest after completing the relevant quests - just to keep your inventory tidy.

@Grey Roger had a Bug Tracker entry for exactly that: http://www.piratesahoy.net/threads/remove-quest-items.25237/
Which quest items are you referring to in this case? They would need to be adjusted on a case-by-case basis.
Please mention any that you think should be tweaked like that in the Bug Tracker thread.

It would be nice to have the officers for companion ships be useful again for Beta 3.5- I think this worked in Build 13 but we have not had it for a long time. This would then enable each companion ship to have a compliment of officers whose skills are used in the ships performance. Currently we only have the Captain we set and additional offices do not seem to make a difference. This may require the total number of officers we are able to have to be increased though.

I thought @Levis already did that?

The luck skill of our First Mate does not have an effect on the player ship's overall luck statistics. This did work a few years back - Build 13 I think - or it may have been the stock game.

How is the First Mate set up in PROGRAM\Officers.c?

 

[Jack Rackham]

Shore crew weapons didn't work at all so i skipped the weapons locker for them.

On the other hand you don't have to worry about the shore crew's equipment as it is now.

In the long perspective I think we should move away from micromanaging. Really want to
do the mod some time where inventory is very limited and officers are more selfgoing.

Maybe that should include boarding crew as well. Meaning no fixing with weapons locker.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

In the long perspective I think we should move away from micromanaging. Really want to
do the mod some time where inventory is very limited and officers are more selfgoing.

I definitely agree to reduced micro-management. I've always liked the idea of having to do things yourself in the early game, until you hire an officer to do the job for you.
So the officers don't just contribute their skills, they actually help you in other ways as well!
This is already partly in place for the Gunner providing you with ammo (courtesy of you, of course!) and also only a Doctor helping with healing the wounded.

Maybe that should include boarding crew as well. Meaning no fixing with weapons locker.

Personally I do quite like the weaponslocker. It is much easier to stick some good stuff in there and have the crew take the good stuff out of it than to give stuff individually to them all.
Which gives me an idea: What if non-quest officers would also auto-equip from the weaponslocker?

 

[Grey Roger]

We did make one fix to boarding quite recently. Maybe it will help? Though I cannot give an guarantees on that one....

I still sometimes get crashes when boarding even after installing the new "ENGINE.exe". Maybe not as often as before, but it certainly still happens.

Does he go into your Passengers Interface? Did you have a free slot in your shore party?
@Grey Roger recently made a change so that Fred Bob wouldn't automatically overwrite your #1 shore party slot.
As long as he's in the Passengers Interface, you can do that manually afterwards.

Originally Fred Bob jumped straight into a specific slot, booting out anyone who was already there. This was liable to foul up "Hornblower", in which you're not allowed to re-assign companions, and if he booted out someone who needed to be active for quest purposes then the quest would break. So I arranged for him to jump into any free slot, which probably won't work if there is no free slot. (Artois Voysey is similar; if you have all companion slots full when he's unconscious in the jungle and you rescue him, you won't get him back.) Certainly if I have a free slot for Fred Bob, I have no problem hiring him and he does go into the "Passengers" list as well as the slot. (This is not generally a problem for me because I tend to go to Martinique very early in the game, when I don't have enough officers to fill all the companion slots anyway.)

@Grey Roger had a Bug Tracker entry for exactly that: http://www.piratesahoy.net/threads/remove-quest-items.25237/
Which quest items are you referring to in this case? They would need to be adjusted on a case-by-case basis.

My suggestion was that quest items which are no longer needed should be removed entirely by the quest which gave them to you. Keys which disappear once they've opened the relevant locks, documents which you're supposed to give to someone, etc. The occasional item which may be useful in the long term isn't a problem, it's the continual accumulation of junk which can't be dumped or sold which is the problem. Having said that, it would be nice to be able to drop or sell the rifle.

How is the First Mate set up in PROGRAM\Officers.c?

How would someone else's "Luck" (alias "Sneak") affect yours? If he's lucky then he's the one who will win at cards, not you. If he's sneaky then he's the one who will get past the guard and you're still the one who will stand on a twig and alert the guard. For that matter, some perks would probably be more sensible if they only work when the officer who has them is present. "Trustworthy", for example should only work if you have the officer with you. He's "trustworthy", you're not, so the storekeeper shouldn't accept contraband from you unless the guy he trusts is there to vouch for you in person.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

My suggestion was that quest items which are no longer needed should be removed entirely by the quest which gave them to you. Keys which disappear once they've opened the relevant locks, documents which you're supposed to give to someone, etc. The occasional item which may be useful in the long term isn't a problem, it's the continual accumulation of junk which can't be dumped or sold which is the problem. Having said that, it would be nice to be able to drop or sell the rifle.

There are two things to consider there:

- Quest items that you need during the quest but serve no purpose afterwards:
These should be automatically removed by the quest code.

- Quest items that do still have a purpose after the quest and/or are "nice to have" (e.g. the Hitman stuff):
These should either be "ITEM_TYPE" with a price to begin with or be changed to item type once the quest has completed.
This depends on whether the item is required during the quest or not.

How would someone else's "Luck" (alias "Sneak") affect yours? If he's lucky then he's the one who will win at cards, not you. If he's sneaky then he's the one who will get past the guard and you're still the one who will stand on a twig and alert the guard. For that matter, some perks would probably be more sensible if they only work when the officer who has them is present. "Trustworthy", for example should only work if you have the officer with you. He's "trustworthy", you're not, so the storekeeper shouldn't accept contraband from you unless the guy he trusts is there to vouch for you in person.

For the perks, for simplicity's sake I can imagine that the Trustworthy perk would get the officer who has it write a letter of recommendation to the store owner or something. That is something we can leave up to the imagination I reckon.
Enforcing that would create micromanaging with what officers you have in your shore party and that is something we deliberately got rid of in Build 14.
That way you can just keep some good fighters and quest officers with you ashore and you don't need to swap out officers based on skills and abilities.