Included in Build Balancing smuggler start

[jsv]

Finished my first smuggling run in a new game. It's much much better now. No unexplained skill growth so far, sailing or otherwise.

@Levis: I think the starting amount of contraband a smuggler gets needs toning down. It's the third game in a row I start as a Spanish smuggler with a hoy and the smallest sum I've made is about 100000. In this game I've got 148000 worth of sandal. I can start a separate thread in brainstorming if you think it's worth it.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Should be easy enough to tweak that value.
I think that was something I add and it just fills your entire hold.
Feel free to make a new feature request for it.
And if you have any ideas for determining a better amount, be sure to include those too.

 

[Levis]

Should be easy enough to tweak that value.
I think that was something I add and it just fills your entire hold.
Feel free to make a new feature request for it.
And if you have any ideas for determining a better amount, be sure to include those too.

I believe its about 1/3 of the hold.
Maybe use a forloop or something to determine how much its worth with increments and if you reached a value of 6000 or so it should stop.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Or calculate how much cargo is worth 6000.
But all that requires complicated formulas. So if anyone can think of something simpler, I'm all ears!

 

[Levis]

Or calculate how much cargo is worth 6000.
But all that requires complicated formulas. So if anyone can think of something simpler, I'm all ears!

Give him some opium instead, so he will get the opium list right away and can use that feature.

 

[jsv]

Give him some opium instead, so he will get the opium list right away and can use that feature.

This can actually work. But aren't we losing a "new smuggling tutorial" that way?

 

[Levis]

This can actually work. But aren't we losing a "new smuggling tutorial" that way?

There is not really a smuggling tutorial. Everything is explained when you do it. It doesn't matter if you start off with opium.
I do think we should give the smuggler the first smuggler book already maybe. and give him the attribute so he wont get the book again. Because he should be a seasoned smuggler already.

 

[jsv]

And the old owner of the ship decided to try opium trade and got caught. A bit hard to explain why the authorities confiscated neither ship nor opium, though. Still, not a bad backstory.

 

[Levis]

And the old owner of the ship decided to try opium trade and got caught. A bit hard to explain why the authorities confiscated neither ship nor opium, though. Still, not a bad backstory.

His crew bailed once they saw there captain was captured and voted you to be the next captain. When the captain was caught only the first load of opium was on board (just 10 pieces or so).

 

[Talisman]

This can actually work. But aren't we losing a "new smuggling tutorial" that way?

The "smuggling tutorial" extended dialog happens for the first 3 times that you talk to the smugglers agents in a game. Then it stops, and the dialog is shorter and more normal.

So if you had the opium to start with the next time you talked to a smugglers agent and chose the normal contraband dialog you should get the extended "tutorial dialog" from the agent. So you should not miss the " tutorial dialog"

 

[jsv]

(unrelated) The list of opium buyers in the new game is more varied. Slave worker on Eleuthera, secret hideout on Cozumel... some proper underground here

 

[Talisman]

I also noticed on the Smuggler Start that the players inventory is filled when they Start ( money - weapons - items etc) .

At the start talk to sailor in cabin then automatically transported to jetty with inventory as above.

When you go back to your ship - in the chest in the captains cabin there is an additional set of items for the player ( money -weapons -items - etc) - looks like this was left over from the tutorial when Malcolm tells you to go and pick up items from the chest and equip them.

Perhaps these additional items in the chest should be removed.

 

[jsv]

When you go back to your ship - in the chest in the captains cabin there is an additional set of items for the player ( money -weapons -items - etc) - looks like this was left over from the tutorial when Malcolm tells you to go and pick up items from the chest and equip them.

Yes, I've noticed that too.

 

[Talisman]

I believe its about 1/3 of the hold.
Maybe use a forloop or something to determine how much its worth with increments and if you reached a value of 6000 or so it should stop.

The hold appears to be filled - all spare space after Food& rum + ammo & gunpowder have been allocated ( not sure if Planks & sails included). But I know there has never been any spare space in the hold.

Perhaps instead of filling the hold - only do half or 1/3 or 1/4 of the spare space available.

Also try and fill it with the good that the smugglers will pay the least for ( might be difficult since you don't know which is the cheapest good because of the dynamic economy ).

Alternatively split the space equally between all the smuggled goods on the island so that you don't get a hold full of the good that the smugglers will pay the highest price for.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

PROGRAM\Storyline\FreePlay\quests\both_reaction.c:

      if(GiveShip)
       {
         GiveShip2Character(PChar,PChar.ship.type,PChar.ship.name,-1,GetServedNation(),true,true); // PB: Instantly repair and resupply ship
       }
       else
       {
         if (CharPlayerType != PLAYER_TYPE_NAVAL_OFFICER)
         {
           SetCharacterGoods(PChar, CharGood1, 0); // dumps your cargo // KK
           SetCharacterGoods(PChar, CharGood2, 0); // KK
           i = getRandomContrabandGood(GetIslandByID(loadTown));
           if (i > 0) AddCharacterGoods(PChar, i, (3+rand(3)/10)*GetCharacterFreeSpace(PChar, i)); // PB: Between 30%-60% contraband
         }
       }

That is where the contraband is added. As you can see, it should be between 30%-60% of the total available cargo space.

 

[jsv]

That is where the contraband is added. As you can see, it should be between 30%-60% of the total available cargo space.

It's definitely not what is happening. I've started with 383 sandal, hold occupation was 1649/1652.

I might be wrong, as I'm practically went to sleep already, but I think 3+rand(3) corresponds to 30-50%. And shouldn't that be "((3+rand(3))/10.0)*GetCharacterFreeSpace"? That is, with an extra pair of parens, floating point numbers, and possibly a makeint thrown in at some point?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Well, that code did NOT do what it was meant to. @Talisman is right; you got a FULL cargo hold rather than just a percentage as was intended.
EDIT: And so is @jsv.

Using this instead at least makes it do what I WANT it to do:

if (i > 0) AddCharacterGoods(PChar, i, (3.0+rand(3))/10.0 * GetCharacterFreeSpace(PChar, i) ); // PB: Between 30%-60% contraband

The percentages can be tweaked easily if it is still considered too much. But it'll be at least a fair bit less.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I might be wrong, as I'm practically went to sleep already, but I think 3+rand(3) corresponds to 30-50%. And shouldn't that be "((3+rand(3))/10.0)*GetCharacterFreeSpace"? That is, with an extra pair of parens, floating point numbers, and possibly a makeint thrown in at some point?

Looks like you got to the same conclusion I did; yes, you're perfectly right. I made those changes already and that helps quite a bit.

But it should correspond to 30%-60% though, because rand(3) can return 0, 1, 2 or 3.

 

[jsv]

But it should correspond to 30%-60% though, because rand(3) can return 0, 1, 2 or 3.

You're right. It can, indeed, return 3. I'll have to be careful around that rand, that's not how analogous functions behave in most languages I'm familiar with...

 

[Pieter Boelen]

You're right. It can, indeed, return 3. I'll have to be careful around that rand, that's not how analogous functions behave in most languages I'm familiar with...

Every language has to be ever-so-slightly different in small but annoying ways; you know that, right?

And while PotC is written in C++, the stuff in the PROGRAM folder is some sort of simplified PotC-specific version of it.
Just to make things simple.