Included in Build Hornblower updates

[Grey Roger]

I'm now playing Beta 4. Recall why I was playing Beta 3.5 for so long and draw your own conclusions.

One snag was that 'SetRankTitle' now only takes 2 arguments, it no longer looks for nation. Hornblower's "characters\init\Story.c" had been rewritten to use the new form but I didn't realise that, so when I dropped my update package onto the Beta 4 installation (built using the 5th November installer), "Story.c" didn't work and the result was a whole list of characters failing to be defined right at the start of the game. After I figured out what had happened and edited the new version of "Story.c" to use the new version of "SetRankTitle", it seems to work. I've got as far as "Tunnel of Trouble" during the current playthrough without any further issues (and incidentally fixed the problem with the quest getting stuck if you go from the tunnel to the Charlestown Naval Academy before Sharpe). The extension also seems to work (C. S. Forester has learned a new trick as well ).

I'd considered using Etienne de Vergasse for the extension in return for how he'd treated Hornblower and the Duchess of Wharfedale. He refused on grounds that Quelp and his French associates were planning something extremely disrespectable which was beneath his nobleman's honour. When I pointed out that putting on noble airs and graces wasn't going to get him special treatment from anyone in revolutionary France except Mme. Guillotine, he pointed out that he is a colonel and the small unit involved here would be commanded by a lieutenant, basically Sharpe's opposite number. So you're going to meet Donatien Thibaud instead. But for test purposes while I was still using the old savegame in Beta 3.5, de Vergasse agreed to stand in until Thibaud had been properly intoduced via "Story.c" and a new game. (I renamed him and made him use Thibaud's dialog.c file.) Now I am using Beta 4 with a new game, the dirty hack to have Etienne de Vergasse act for Donatien Thibaud has been removed and the real Thibaud shows up as intended.

Still to do: drop some "breadcrumb" clues around so the player has some chance of finding Thomas Wolfe's ship and kicking off the extension. Figure out how to play special soundtracks without the regular town music getting in the way. And play the whole story through to the end to see if anything in 5th November Beta 4 breaks it. (15th November Beta 4 probably does, judging by some of the reports I've been reading...)

Incidentally, a couple of the NPC's from "Hornblower" could be made into free-play characters. Teresa Moreno takes over Le Rève part way through the original story, and Thomas Wolfe in French uniform gets a similar French sloop Loup-Garou during the extension. And then there's Sir Edward Pellew, who has the advantage over most of the story characters of having actually existed. He had quite a distinguished career, including the capture of the Cléopâtre, so now we know who is to blame for the Blacque family misfortunes.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

One snag was that 'SetRankTitle' now only takes 2 arguments, it no longer looks for nation. Hornblower's "characters\init\Story.c" had been rewritten to use the new form but I didn't realise that, so when I dropped my update package onto the Beta 4 installation (built using the 5th November installer), "Story.c" didn't work and the result was a whole list of characters failing to be defined right at the start of the game. After I figured out what had happened and edited the new version of "Story.c" to use the new version of "SetRankTitle", it seems to work.

Ah, yes; I did do that. After setting up the system I discussed with you, it didn't make sense to have nation involved anymore at all since that did absolutely nothing....

I'd considered using Etienne de Vergasse for the extension in return for how he'd treated Hornblower and the Duchess of Wharfedale. He refused on grounds that Quelp and his French associates were planning something extremely disrespectable which was beneath his nobleman's honour. When I pointed out that putting on noble airs and graces wasn't going to get him special treatment from anyone in revolutionary France except Mme. Guillotine, he pointed out that he is a colonel and the small unit involved here would be commanded by a lieutenant, basically Sharpe's opposite number. So you're going to meet Donatien Thibaud instead. But for test purposes while I was still using the old savegame in Beta 3.5, de Vergasse agreed to stand in until Thibaud had been properly intoduced via "Story.c" and a new game. (I renamed him and made him use Thibaud's dialog.c file.) Now I am using Beta 4 with a new game, the dirty hack to have Etienne de Vergasse act for Donatien Thibaud has been removed and the real Thibaud shows up as intended.

Sounds good!
Just so you know, it IS possible to initialize characters during the game using console. There is an example of that in Reinit.c .
Not something you want to do all the time and it isn't an "automatic update from the character init files", but you can do it if you want.

Still to do: drop some "breadcrumb" clues around so the player has some chance of finding Thomas Wolfe's ship and kicking off the extension. Figure out how to play special soundtracks without the regular town music getting in the way. And play the whole story through to the end to see if anything in 5th November Beta 4 breaks it. (15th November Beta 4 probably does, judging by some of the reports I've been reading...)

Very true. I don't know what happened with the latest version, but something with the Levelling system clearly went awry and it is having obnoxious effects everywhere in the game.
Indeed better to avoid it for now until @Levis has seen chance to take care of that. AGH!!!

Incidentally, a couple of the NPC's from "Hornblower" could be made into free-play characters. Teresa Moreno takes over Le Rève part way through the original story, and Thomas Wolfe in French uniform gets a similar French sloop Loup-Garou during the extension. And then there's Sir Edward Pellew, who has the advantage over most of the story characters of having actually existed. He had quite a distinguished career, including the capture of the Cléopâtre, so now we know who is to blame for the Blacque family misfortunes.

If they use unique character models, or at least one that aren't already used for free-play characters, you're welcome to set them up in initModels.c .
Unless they truly add a unique start, I'm inclined to not have them under the "Specific" characters, but it is perfectly fine to have ANY number of additional characters listed under "Named".
For example, set the character filter to "Named", then type in "Pieter" as name and you'll see what I mean....

 

[Grey Roger]

Teresa Moreno just uses the standard "Fanielle" model. French Wolfe uses "WolfFrench". Pellew uses different models depending on his rank, starting with "PellewX_18". I might take a look at making them playable after I've done the main job. But you were the one who wanted more non-British playable characters, so there are two of them for you. Alright, Wolfe is British but his loyalty is French and so is his ship. . Teresa Moreno is Portuguese, or at least she is now I've corrected her entry in "Story.c". I found out someone had made her English when I tried to put her ship in Charlestown port and it kept appearing with a British flag.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

But you were the one who wanted more non-British playable characters, so there are two of them for you.

At the moment I'm relatively happy with the range of characters we've got available; we got a good spread of different ones in the end.
But I definitely welcome more. After all, why not?

 

[Grey Roger]

The upgrade is now in a playable condition. See for yourselves:
http://piratesahoy.bowengames.com/potc/Grey Roger/Hornblower_upgrade.zip

What I'd like someone to do is install this, enable cheat mode by editing "InternalSettings.h", then play a game of "Hornblower". First I'd like to know that the alternative music I've arranged for the opening plays on other people's PC's. Then go and visit C. S. Forester, who is hiding in the arched doorway of a house along the left end of the waterfront, and ask him about Thomas Wolfe. (You'll need to scroll down to get to the bottom of his dialog choices.) That should take you to Bridgetown port. From there either go to visit Major Hogan in Guadeloupe plantation house, or Teresa Moreno in Charlestown Mystery House.

Spoiler

Or just go straight to Martinique and look for a sloop named 'Loup-Garou'

Once you have Wolfe, the rest of the quest ought to follow on, ending up back at Bridgetown where you should get to hear another piece of new music.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

The upgrade is now in a playable condition. See for yourselves:
http://piratesahoy.bowengames.com/potc/Grey Roger/Hornblower_upgrade.zip

Very awesome!
Hopefully someone will be able to help you out with the testing. If not, I'll include it in my own game next week and at least check that music for you.

Should this perhaps be moved to the Build Testing List now to make it "more visible"?
Assuming that people DO actually look there. I've been posting requests for that many times, but don't know if my urging is having much of any effect.

 

[Grey Roger]

This was already a thread about the "Hornblower" update so I thought I may as well post it here, then anyone who is interested in "Hornblower" ought to find it. If you want to move the message to "Build Testing", or put a link from there to here, I've no objection.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I don't mind either way, as long as people see it and do something with it. That is always the tricky part, no matter what.

 

[Grey Roger]

More updates:

• "Examination for Lieutenant" had a similar problem to "Tunnel of Trouble". When the alarm for the fireship sounds, you leave Naval HQ and a squad of soldiers runs from the residence to the port gate. If you get to the port gate and go through before the soldiers get there, the quest does not continue. Now fixed.
• When your commission to Lieutenant is confirmed near the end of "The Duchess and the Devil", you're promoted to rank 3, "Lieutenant". Previously you remained at rank 2, "Acting Lieutenant", but as you're formally commissioned you're not "Acting" any more.
• During "Mutiny", when you have walked to Bridgetown, you're met by Wellard and Sharpe. Sharpe now begins to move towards you while Wellard is talking, so he's in place to talk to you when it's his turn.
• Fixes to - "Capture Spanish Fort" - see Horatio Main Story - Capture Spanish Fort Bugg for details.
• When you're given Retribution, 'PChar.isnotcaptain' is set to false as you are now a captain. It's set true again when you're decommissioned, and false again when you get command of Hotspur. (Despite this, Hornblower is still labelled as "Navigator" all the way through.)
• Matthews may get killed and then resurrected for "Antigua Land Battle". So he's renamed to "Matthews" just in case. When he reports on the cannons in the outskirts, he'll do so under the correct name.
• After the first skirmish you have to talk to Uriah Quelp. Instead of having to find the right place to stand to trigger him talking to you, you now just walk up to him and press "Space" to initiate the dialog - I've set him to type "Guardian".
• When you return from the beach and meet the Earl of Edrington, there's an error message about Soldier2X. This is because there are 'LAi_SetActorType' statements for Soldier1X, Soldier2X and Soldier3X, but only Soldier1X and Soldier3X are defined - they're the two that Sharpe shoots to prevent them killing Sir Arthur Wellesley. The 'LA_SetActorType' line for Soldier2X is now commented out.
• Sharpe gets to kill the two soldiers because he allegedly has two pistols. He now has them.
• You return to the outskirts, everyone else runs into position, you casually saunter into position. Not any more - you run with the rest of them.
• Matthews now has enough time to run up to you before his dialog times out and he reports from half way across the area.
• Minor bug with Lt. Eccleston's dialog file fixed.
• When you're decommissioned, Lt. William Bush and Lt. Uriah Quelp are removed - they have to find their own lodgings and you'll meet them again later.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I just finished merging your work with my game version, so it will be included in the next update.
It definitely looks very extensive. Once more, thanks very much for doing this!

"Thomas Wolfie" is on purpose, right?

The music is a nice touch for sure, though I didn't test it ingame yet (no time so far).
I've always been tempted to somehow add the main theme of the old movie in there somewhere, but never got round to it:

If you know any nice spot to put that, I can get you the good quality music files.

 

[Grey Roger]

"Thomas Wolfie" was added because I'd spotted a report that resurrecting dead NPC's could cause trouble, so this was the first step to cloning him after you'd killed him on his ship. It doesn't seem to be necessary so the definition for "Thomas Wolfie" can probably be deleted. (If dead NPC's being resurrected does cause trouble then Wolfe/Wolfie isn't going to be the only problem because other NPC's can get killed in battles and then be needed later - I'd have to make pretty well all Sharpe's riflemen immortal, for a start.)

The story is mostly based on episodes from the TV series, which is why I used the TV theme at the start. There's nowhere really suitable for music from the film. Not yet, anyway...

Spoiler

I am considering doing something based on the capture, handover and second battle of the Natividad. It won't be a storyline extension, but a side quest specifically for Hornblower. What I'm thinking is triggering it the same way some quests are triggered by being in the right place and at high enough level, only this will be triggered by you being named "Horation Hornblower" and rank 6, so it should work either if you continued in free-play after finishing the story or if you are playing Hornblower as a pure free-play. Whether I'll ever get round to it is another matter...

 

[Pieter Boelen]

"Thomas Wolfie" was added because I'd spotted a report that resurrecting dead NPC's could cause trouble, so this was the first step to cloning him after you'd killed him on his ship. It doesn't seem to be necessary so the definition for "Thomas Wolfie" can probably be deleted. (If dead NPC's being resurrected does cause trouble then Wolfe/Wolfie isn't going to be the only problem because other NPC's can get killed in battles and then be needed later - I'd have to make pretty well all Sharpe's riflemen immortal, for a start.)

Resurrecting them SHOULD work. It's just for Claire Larrousse that I had issues making it work, but for all I know that was because of the Levelling/Initialization issues I fixed a while back.
I recommend not worrying about that unless you actually notice it being a problem.

The story is mostly based on episodes from the TV series, which is why I used the TV theme at the start. There's nowhere really suitable for music from the film.

That is indeed the main reason why I didn't do it. Though it may be an idea to set it as the "main theme" so that it'll randomly play once in a while.
A simple virtual sailor once set up a system for that, but it sees very little use right now.
The idea is that if you do cool storyline-related stuff, then the chance for the main theme playing is increased. And it decreases again over time.
So if you're ignoring the story, you won't get it. But if you do play it, it could add some nice atmosphere.

Not yet, anyway...

I do very much like that old film. It's brilliant!
It would definitely be very, very cool to have the Natividad in there in some form or another.

Have you read the Hornblower books by any chance? There's still a LOT of unused story content there.
The TV series only touched upon the first 4 books or so.

 

[Grey Roger]

Resurrecting them SHOULD work. It's just for Claire Larrousse that I had issues making it work, but for all I know that was because of the Levelling/Initialization issues I fixed a while back.
I recommend not worrying about that unless you actually notice it being a problem.

That's why I never got any further than the easiest bit, which was copying and pasting Wolfe's character entry and changing the name.

That is indeed the main reason why I didn't do it. Though it may be an idea to set it as the "main theme" so that it'll randomly play once in a while.
A simple virtual sailor once set up a system for that, but it sees very little use right now.
The idea is that if you do cool storyline-related stuff, then the chance for the main theme playing is increased. And it decreases again over time.
So if you're ignoring the story, you won't get it. But if you do play it, it could add some nice atmosphere.

I've no idea how to change main theme randomly - it's tricky enough playing my choice of music at a specific place, especially when the system seems inconsistent! Besides, I've another idea involving music. Remember the good old days of Build 13 where there were several different music packs and all you had to do to switch between them was copy the right alias file into place? The same ought to be possible in Build 14, except that the alias file is now in the "PROGRAM" section and all versions would need to have the storyline-specific bits copied in. That, incidentally, could be a way to get the "Hornblower" film music into the game.

I do very much like that old film. It's brilliant!
It would definitely be very, very cool to have the Natividad in there in some form or another.

Have you read the Hornblower books by any chance? There's still a LOT of unused story content there.
The TV series only touched upon the first 4 books or so.

No, almost all the reading I do is science-fiction. Besides, it would be a major project to get everything from the TV series into the game, let alone anything else from the books!

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I've no idea how to change main theme randomly - it's tricky enough playing my choice of music at a specific place, especially when the system seems inconsistent!

That system already exists. Look at the Standard Storyline StartStoryline.c . I think only the Bartolomeu one makes slight use of it though.
When I get home, I can show you the code and then you can decide if you can find a use for it or not.

Remember the good old days of Build 13 where there were several different music packs and all you had to do to switch between them was copy the right alias file into place? The same ought to be possible in Build 14, except that the alias file is now in the "PROGRAM" section and all versions would need to have the storyline-specific bits copied in.

Build 14 allows you to switch between music packs from within the interface. Only none of the old music packs have actually been made compatible.
The closest one is the PotC one which is still on the ModDB for New Horizons, but even that one is missing all recently added storyline-specific stuff.

No, almost all the reading I do is science-fiction.

If you ever get the chance, I can definitely recommend it. Brilliant books!
When I first started on them, I couldn't put them down.

Besides, it would be a major project to get everything from the TV series into the game, let alone anything else from the books!

I wasn't suggesting everything. That is far, far too much. And mostly all of it is quite specific to Europe, so would probably require some massive adapting.
But there may be some interesting things here and there. With for sure the Natividad being the best. I've got to admit I'd like Hornblower's storyline ending after his adventures with Lady Barbara.

Anyway, ideas aplenty, but they don't all need to be done. What you've done so far is already brilliant to say the least!

 

[Grey Roger]

Build 14 allows you to switch between music packs from within the interface. Only none of the old music packs have actually been made compatible.
The closest one is the PotC one which is still on the ModDB for New Horizons, but even that one is missing all recently added storyline-specific stuff.

I'll have to search the interface again! The normal soundtrack seems to be a mixture of the various soundtracks from Build 13. I wouldn't mind making up a music list based on AoP:CT - the music was probably the best bit of that game.

I wasn't suggesting everything. That is far, far too much. And mostly all of it is quite specific to Europe, so would probably require some massive adapting.
But there may be some interesting things here and there. With for sure the Natividad being the best. I've got to admit I'd like Hornblower's storyline ending after his adventures with Lady Barbara.

Hmm... looking at relevant Wikipedia articles, it seems the film combines the plots of three books, or at least parts of them - in the books he faces Natividad in "The Happy Return", takes over the Sutherland in "A Ship of the Line", then Maria dies and he finally gets to be with Lady Barbara in "Flying Colours".

The entire "Hornblower" storyline is already subject to major adapting or outright artistic licence, so shifting some more of the plot over to the Caribbean is no worse than what's already been done. If I ever pull off the side quest involving the Natividad when Hornblower reaches rank 6, the next bit would be to do something similar at rank 7 for his adventures with the Sutherland. Don't hold your breath waiting.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I'll have to search the interface again! The normal soundtrack seems to be a mixture of the various soundtracks from Build 13. I wouldn't mind making up a music list based on AoP:CT - the music was probably the best bit of that game.

The current Build default music is pretty much the stock game music + some AoP/Sea Dogs tracks and a few PotC film ones + some Cutthroat Island tracks because I just couldn't resist adding them.
I wouldn't object to adding some more AoP tracks though; there are some nice ones there for sure.
And with the amount of time you can play PotC these days, having some good variety is not a bad thing either.
I wonder if that should be a separate music packs or not; I've just added some new tracks to the default music scheme instead....

Hmm... looking at relevant Wikipedia articles, it seems the film combines the plots of three books, or at least parts of them - in the books he faces Natividad in "The Happy Return", takes over the Sutherland in "A Ship of the Line", then Maria dies and he finally gets to be with Lady Barbara in "Flying Colours".

Yes, it does. "A Ship of the Line" is very episodic in nature and only the final episode actually makes it into the film. And almost the entirety of "Flying Colours" is left out too.
I reckon they did a pretty good job adapting those books into the film though, because even though a massive amount of content is missing, you don't actually notice that when you watch the film.
Of course the script was written by C.S.Forrester who quite possibly may have known what he was doing.

Have you seen that original film by any chance? I don't know how easy/hard to find it is. I myself was lucky to find it for 5 euros in a store once.
Wasn't sure if it was worth the money, but it totally was. So much old-fashioned fun!

The entire "Hornblower" storyline is already subject to major adapting or outright artistic licence, so shifting some more of the plot over to the Caribbean is no worse than what's already been done.

Naturally! But I'm not sure how well an entire book that is deliberately meant to take place in Russia would work when it is set in the Caribbean.
Of course that story takes place almost exclusively ashore as well, outside the escapade with Bomb Ketches in there.

One that may be interesting is the "Hornblower in the West Indies" one, which actually DOES take place in the Caribbean.
Here Hornblower has made it up to Rear Admiral and is in the charge of the Caribbean fleet. It is mainly short stories.

Don't hold your breath waiting.

Thanks for the advice! I was just abou the turn purple from suffocation.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I'm at home now, so now I could look up that "main theme" music code.
The best example is in the Bartolomeu StartStoryline.c file:

//ASVS --->
   PChar.main_theme.value = "10";
   PChar.main_theme.musicname = "music_Bart_main_theme";
//ASVS <---

There you define the music name that is the storyline "main theme", together with a chance value that it will play randomly instead of the normal music.

Each day, the chance of it playing is decreased by 0.5% through this code in PROGRAM\WorldMap\DailyCrewUpdate.c:

  //ASVS - playing main_theme music mod --->
   if(CheckAttribute(pchar, "main_theme.value"))
   {
     Change_MainThemeMusic_Chance(-0.5); // very simple for the moment...
   }
   //ASVS - playing main_theme music mod <---

So at appropriate points in the storyline, you can increase the chance again like this:

Change_MainThemeMusic_Chance(10);

The actual playing is handled through PROGRAM\sound\sound.c:

void SetMusicAlarm(string name)
{
   //ASVS --->
   if(ENABLE_PLAYING_MAINTHEME) {
     ref pchar = GetMainCharacter();
     float seuil = 0.0;
     string main_theme_name;

     if(CheckAttribute(pchar, "main_theme")) {
       seuil = stf(pchar.main_theme.value)*0.01;
       main_theme_name = pchar.main_theme.musicname;
     }
     //Trace("ASVS, seuil is " + seuil + ", and maintheme name is " + main_theme_name);
     if(main_theme_name != "" && frnd() < seuil)   {
       SetMusic(main_theme_name);
     } else {
       if (alarmed == 0) SetMusic(name);
       else SetMusic("music_bitva");
     }
   } else {
     if (alarmed == 0) {
       SetMusic(name);
     } else {
// KK -->
       if (!bAbordageStarted)
         SetMusic("music_bitva");
       else
         SetSchemeForAbordage();
// <-- KK
     }
   }
   //ASVS <---

So it is quite simple and easy to set up. You could make use of it if you think it adds to the story.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I also made some slight updates to the Hornblower quests_reaction.c file based on your comments and stuff we discussed before.
See attached. Hopefully this makes sense to you.

"isnotcaptain" has the following effects:
- Cannot hire officers
- Cannot take any crewmembers with you ashore
- No paying of salary
- Player shown as "Navigator" instead of a Captain
- Never get morale issues from having too much money
- It is removed when you leave the service of a country in whichever way
- At the moment it is used exclusively for Hornblower.

Does this make sense to you? Especially if you're removing it for part of the storyline before adding it again later?
Or do you have any change requests for it?

 

[Grey Roger]

I also made some slight updates to the Hornblower quests_reaction.c file based on your comments and stuff we discussed before.
See attached. Hopefully this makes sense to you.

At case "Head_of_Jamaica_Station" you've added a couple of lines to make Dreadnought Foster and Sir Edward Pellew unremovable companions. I hadn't even noticed that their ships had been attached, but there's not much time to do anything about them because what follows is the dialog for the examination for lieutenant, then the fireship incident, and after that the player can't remove the ships because they're removed anyway. If you do feel that those lines are necessary then you'll want to cancel them at or before case "Jump_into_the_water", which is where the companions are removed.

Case "Manned_and_ready": removal of brackets round "PChar" - they probably do no harm which is why I never noticed them before, but removing them probably does no harm either.
Case "Set_up_the_quest1": changed to DeleteAttribute(PChar, "isnotcaptain"); I'd already done that in my copy so it was going to happen in the next Hornblower update anyway.
Case "assigned_to_atropos5": DeleteAttribute deleted; I'd commented it out rather than delete it in case it needs to go back in, that being the place where you switch to free-play so it can definitely be deleted there.

"isnotcaptain" has the following effects:
- Cannot hire officers
- Cannot take any crewmembers with you ashore
- No paying of salary
- Player shown as "Navigator" instead of a Captain
- Never get morale issues from having too much money
- It is removed when you leave the service of a country in whichever way
- At the moment it is used exclusively for Hornblower.

Does this make sense to you? Especially if you're removing it for part of the storyline before adding it again later?
Or do you have any change requests for it?

Cannot take crewmembers ashore: personally I never do that anyway, but those who like the company should perhaps be allowed to take some crew at any time during the storyline. Anyway, you might not be a captain but you're still an officer, and you're still allowed to use crew for fencing practice so you may as well be allowed to let them join you for the real thing.
Morale from having too much money: shouldn't be an issue anyway as you're a naval officer. May be significant if "isnotcaptain" is used for a pirate or privateer character, though. (If you get too much money while you're a pirate, the captain might take an interest. )
Removed when you leave service: that reminds me, there's the possibility of Hornblower getting kicked out of the navy if you manage to get Bracegirdle or Quelp killed when you're supposed to be taking them from Bridgetown to Charlestown. So I've added a 'DeleteAttribute(PChar, "isnotcaptain")' line at case "No_Longer_in_the_Navy", and also changed it so you get model "CivilianHB" instead of "blaze". "CivilianHB" is the outfit you get when you're sneaking into Point a Pitre with Teresa Moreno, but you won't be doing that if you are cashiered, and "CivilianHB" looks more like Hornblower than "blaze" does because it's supposed to be him.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

At case "Head_of_Jamaica_Station" you've added a couple of lines to make Dreadnought Foster and Sir Edward Pellew unremovable companions. I hadn't even noticed that their ships had been attached, but there's not much time to do anything about them because what follows is the dialog for the examination for lieutenant, then the fireship incident, and after that the player can't remove the ships because they're removed anyway. If you do feel that those lines are necessary then you'll want to cancel them at or before case "Jump_into_the_water", which is where the companions are removed.

I don't particularly care; I was just adding those lines to all quest companions that aren't actually yours to command.
But if they serve no purpose, then gone they are.

Cannot take crewmembers ashore: personally I never do that anyway, but those who like the company should perhaps be allowed to take some crew at any time during the storyline. Anyway, you might not be a captain but you're still an officer, and you're still allowed to use crew for fencing practice so you may as well be allowed to let them join you for the real thing.

That was actually an original part of the "professionalnavy" functionality as created for Hornblower.
I always assumed that was to prevent the shore crew from interfering with the quest.

Morale from having too much money: shouldn't be an issue anyway as you're a naval officer. May be significant if "isnotcaptain" is used for a pirate or privateer character, though. (If you get too much money while you're a pirate, the captain might take an interest. )

Indeed at the moment that is a complete non-issue.

Removed when you leave service: that reminds me, there's the possibility of Hornblower getting kicked out of the navy if you manage to get Bracegirdle or Quelp killed when you're supposed to be taking them from Bridgetown to Charlestown. So I've added a 'DeleteAttribute(PChar, "isnotcaptain")' line at case "No_Longer_in_the_Navy", and also changed it so you get model "CivilianHB" instead of "blaze".

You may consider using this there instead:

LeaveService(PChar, ENGLAND, false);

That is actually the function that removes both the "professionalnavy" and "isnotcaptain" attributes.