• New Horizons on Maelstrom
    Maelstrom New Horizons


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Guide Tips & Tricks for Playing the Game

Except that they get in the way of trying to find messages in "system.log" which do matter. ;)
Yup. Plus the act of writing those messages probably does have some sort of impact on game performance (though this is probably negligible).
 
In LogInterface.c, change the line that says

switch (numBells)

to be

switch (9)

and the bells won't play, but the rest of the processing won't be affected.

Hook
 
Of course, a proper fix would be to skip the bell playing if your time compression is more than 1. Actually, only do the bells if time compression is less than 3.0, as normal time is not guaranteed to always be 1.0. Since some people don't ever want to hear the bells, we could have a define that would skip the bells included in the if() test for time compression.

The fix in the post above is a quick temporary fix until someone writes a real one.

Hook
 
The ideal would probably be a setting in the "Options" menu to disable the bells. Personally I've never been bothered by them and I almost always have time compression set to at least x5, often x20, except when in battle or trying to do some difficult navigating.

Bells should not be enabled/disabled according to time compression, partly for people like me who routinely use it and don't want to lose the bells, and partly for people who like to sail everywhere without time compression and don't want bells.
 
The ideal would probably be a setting in the "Options" menu to disable the bells.
For one person who wants it? Doesn't sound worthwhile to me.

At best, if it is to have a toggle, it can be linked to the existing EXTRA_SOUNDS one in InternalSettings.h .

Personally, if it is just one person, I'm fine with that person just editing his own code so it does what he wants.
 
I personally like the bells and don't use time compression. @Grey Roger wanted the bells even during time compression, and others might as well. Maybe eliminate the bells only on the highest time compression?

Or just have a switch to toggle them off entirely. The time compression comparison number could do double duty for this, with a person who never wants to hear the bells setting the number to the lowest time compression so the bells never play. I'd probably set it so it never played the bells on the highest time compression, which might be a good default. If the number is set sufficiently high the bells would play on any time compression.

Code:
// numbers are 0, 1, 3, 5, 10 and 20
#define BELL_TOGGLE   20        // time compression below which bells sound.
           //  30=always sound, 0=never sound

if (makeint(GetTimeScale()) < BELL_TOGGLE)
{
    switch (numBells)
    {
        etc
    ]
]

Hook
 
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In LogInterface.c, change the line that says

switch (numBells)

to be

switch (9)

and the bells won't play, but the rest of the processing won't be affected.

Hook

Thanks for everyone, folks, that is great help. I think I miss the sound of bells now, but it was too loud for me.
 
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Does anyone know how i can acquire a new ship in free play mode when playing as an officer?
A NAVAL Officer, you mean?
Keep playing until you're ready for promotion.
Once you're ready, collect your promotion and you'll get a new ship.
 
Well it has been a while, but I decided to give the mod another go =) Just started fresh and boy the melee is difficult xD even on lowest difficulty settings I get oneshotted if NPCs pierce my block. Is that supposed to be like that? Can't recall if that was the case for the original game. Seems a bit harsh at starting level and lowest difficulty. Anyhow, awesome you guys are still working on it =)
 
Yes, even when I was playing the stock game I got into the habit of saving game frequently, getting killed frequently and reloading frequently. The main difference in the mod is that if your officers are competent fighters with decent skills, abilities and equipment, they can actually survive. So if you're going into the jungle, try to have someone with you. At worst, he can keep one or two enemies occupied so they're not all ganging up on you; at best, he may even kill an enemy or two.

The other reason for getting officers is that the ones not in your active party can get all the sailing, commerce and gunnery abilities, leaving you to concentrate on the combat abilities.

Dungeons are relatively easy. The denizens are usually weaker than the random thugs and highwaymen who attack you in the jungle. And there's usually a nice sword hidden somewhere in the dungeon. The cave midway between Speightstown and Barbados, and the dungeon in Port Royale, have particularly good swords for you to find.

If you want to make melee easier, choose "Swordmaster" as your starting career. You get a good sword, the best armour, and a good starting Melee skill.
 
Dungeons are relatively easy. The denizens are usually weaker than the random thugs and highwaymen who attack you in the jungle. And there's usually a nice sword hidden somewhere in the dungeon. The cave midway between Speightstown and Barbados, and the dungeon in Port Royale, have particularly good swords for you to find.
That does sound a bit weird, from a balancing point of view... :confused:
 
It's always been the case that you could get a good sword as well as some melee practice by raiding dungeons. @Levis shifted the balance by making dungeon denizens easier - as I recall, originally he made them too weak, they were trivially easy to kill and you hardly earned any XP for doing it. He also made highwaymen more common, and they've always been tough. So dungeons have been safer than jungles for rather a long time. :D Of course, if the dungeon is in a jungle, e.g. Barbados cave, then you still have to get there, and you might also get mugged on the way out...
 
Thanks for the reply! I'll try those dungeons to level my melee skill. I tried fighting the highwaymen, which ended up in the same result as during boarding: I block, they pierce the block and I die instantly o_O :rolleyes: else I'll just level a bit with quests to gain skillpoints for melee defence etc
 
Thanks for the reply! I'll try those dungeons to level my melee skill. I tried fighting the highwaymen, which ended up in the same result as during boarding: I block, they pierce the block and I die instantly o_O :rolleyes: else I'll just level a bit with quests to gain skillpoints for melee defence etc
Its the complete opposite to me i can finish every land battle without a problem but when it comes to boarding i always die.
 
My personal strategy:

Get an officer or three. The storyline might supply them, otherwise go to the tavern.

Raid the nearest dungeon. Which dungeon depends on where the storyline starts; if you're playing "Tales of a Sea Hawk" or "FreePlay" as British, it will be the one in Speightstown. Save game often, especially if you're playing a storyline which starts you at level 1. Apart from the nice sword which is hidden somewhere, you'll get free weapons from the inhabitants. And now you can equip your officers.

Officers give you a fighting chance against highwaymen because they'll take some of the pressure off you. Four highwaymen against you means four to one, and they're probably tougher and better armed than you, which is why you die easily. Four highwaymen against you and three officers means one to one, and if you can dispose of your opponent reasonably soon, you can help whichever of your officers is in most trouble. Highwaymen may have good weapons which is another reason why they'll easily kill you if you're on your own, so having good weapons of your own can even things up a bit.

Don't board ships until you have decent skills, abilities and weapons. Instead, pound the ship with grapeshot and try to force it to surrender. Merchant ships have lower starting morale than warships so they're more likely to surrender. Don't even think about boarding warships until you and your officers have good skill, abilities, weapons and armour, because warship crews are tougher than merchant crews - I try to avoid them until I have at least battle armour. (Capturing a ship can make you very rich so it shouldn't be too easy!)

Go to Martinique. Among the sidequests available there is Help the Boatswain. The boatswain in question can seriously shift the odds in combat in your favour...
Several storylines require you to capture a big warship; a couple of them don't even wait until the end. So you'd better become good at all this. :duel:
 
My personal strategy:

Get an officer or three. The storyline might supply them, otherwise go to the tavern.

Raid the nearest dungeon. Which dungeon depends on where the storyline starts; if you're playing "Tales of a Sea Hawk" or "FreePlay" as British, it will be the one in Speightstown. Save game often, especially if you're playing a storyline which starts you at level 1. Apart from the nice sword which is hidden somewhere, you'll get free weapons from the inhabitants. And now you can equip your officers.

Officers give you a fighting chance against highwaymen because they'll take some of the pressure off you. Four highwaymen against you means four to one, and they're probably tougher and better armed than you, which is why you die easily. Four highwaymen against you and three officers means one to one, and if you can dispose of your opponent reasonably soon, you can help whichever of your officers is in most trouble. Highwaymen may have good weapons which is another reason why they'll easily kill you if you're on your own, so having good weapons of your own can even things up a bit.

Don't board ships until you have decent skills, abilities and weapons. Instead, pound the ship with grapeshot and try to force it to surrender. Merchant ships have lower starting morale than warships so they're more likely to surrender. Don't even think about boarding warships until you and your officers have good skill, abilities, weapons and armour, because warship crews are tougher than merchant crews - I try to avoid them until I have at least battle armour. (Capturing a ship can make you very rich so it shouldn't be too easy!)

Go to Martinique. Among the sidequests available there is Help the Boatswain. The boatswain in question can seriously shift the odds in combat in your favour...
Several storylines require you to capture a big warship; a couple of them don't even wait until the end. So you'd better become good at all this. :duel:
I normally Ask for some of my crew from my ship to come with me on land and since they use the same kind of weapons as me they do loads of damage. this can also help if you have problems in the jungle and dungeons.
 
I normally Ask for some of my crew from my ship to come with me on land and since they use the same kind of weapons as me they do loads of damage. this can also help if you have problems in the jungle and dungeons.
You do get extra shore encounters that way too, though.
 
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