This last week I have been playing the latest build and latest patch. Firstly I’m blown away by how far the Build Mod has come since build 12! Direct Sailing, more amazing looking ships, a 'real' map of the Caribbean, much less frequent drops of uber powerful kit, extra menu stuff etc.
All you guys that did this should be proud
As I was playing, and trying to sort out some of the dialogues, I was also writing down stuff that occurred to me during those play sessions, some of it no doubt 'bug stuff' that may have been put in the bug tracker, some just play balance type issues and idea's etc. So I’ll put the whole ugly lot here and update it as I carry on the journey into Build Mod 14. These are just unorganised initial findings, and as I spend more time here I’ll put stuff in the correct place (like reporting new bugs in the tracker, updating info on old bugs etc).
1. Can't 'Resume Game' if you go to adjust the game options during Malcolm’s Tutorial or in game after.
2. 'Z' dodge/jump back during combat key missing from 'controls.txt'(fixed in new 'controls.txt' posted in Build Mod 14 beta 1 thread)
3. During Malcolm's Tutorial, during the topic of distributing Skill Points etc, he doesn't seem to recognise when you have assigned them or not, you have to say 'Forget about these points, let's continue with something else.' to exit this section of the tutorial dialogue. Probably it simply needs some change in dialogue to make it a little more seamless, but it might also require coding changes in his 'Malcolm Hatcher_dialog.c' file? I've not broached this yet, as it is fairly minor, it might even have been in the original game or earlier mod versions?
4. In general in the Trade Stores, you have the dialogue option "I would like to sell the cargo I have brought." when maybe you are there to buy not sell stuff. I've started the process of changing these dialogue lines to allow a more generic option that covers both buying and selling.(fixed in some places, like game start location with new files posted in Build Mod 14 beta 1 thread)
5. Using A+D floats player through walls. This is an old issue isn't it? I can see why we keep it, as sometimes you get stuck behind your accompanying crew. Still it would be nice to have a proper side-step, and what did it do in the original game? Maybe have a special key to enact this 'float through wall' ability (so like F11+F12 keys?) for when you get stuck? You could toggle it on/off with the key, and allow the default game settings for side step?
6. 'Open Quick Command Menu'[Enter] is called something different in Malcolm's Tutorial.[fixed. the 'control.txt' file now uses same wording as in Malcolm's Tutorial section]
7. 'Mutiny' started while on ship. Player char appeared in the sea(no ship!) with invisible attackers around him. Using the A or D key moved him to ships deck but attackers still invisible. It was possible to kill them by moving around a little bit from that start location and stabbing blindly with sword!!!
8. On 'Death' if not rescued, you go to the game start menu, but 'New Game', 'Resume Game' are 'greyed out' and not selectable. Need to exit game and re-launch it to carry on.
9. On 'Passenger' screen, the summery info box is wrong, where it shows the combined numbers for the various group skills of the officers. This is an old bug iirc?
10. Issue in 'exchange items' between player and officers, where you can't switch around 'grapeshot' and 'pistol bullets'(a 'ghost' pistol bullet is given to player). It can be worked out, but is rather fiddle-some currently. Also slight odd behaviour with the auto ship replenishes your ammo routine. If you are carrying grapeshot, but don't have a grapeshot weapon selected(active), it will remove those grapeshot and give you ammo for your active weapon instead. This make adding 'grapeshot' to the ships weapon locker a little tricky!
11. Level progression too quick in early stages? e.g. 30mins real time 3D sailing = level up! (Work in progress: I've reduced skill bonus levels and XP given out in my game and will need to play test it more, but so far it feels a little better in balance, and further slows down game start level up's).
Possible solution is to limit the XP given out to just once during 3D sailing or once per day(24 game hours)? It seems to give XP out every 30mins currently? (and at 1050XP per go it adds up quick!!)
12. Make the new Island Maps much rarer. At game start you can not find them easily, but as soon as you are level 2, you can buy all of them from most Trade Stores. I'd suggest trying to spread out their availability (so only a chance of one or two maps per location/Island?) and also increasing their costs (by 1000G?). Navigational maps were a valuable commodity in the Caribbean. I'm sure they can be worked into the game to become a really useful and sought after item, maybe in place of some of the other game trinkets that add to Skills? Or even more deeply integrated to allow safer passage between harbours(so look to have more dangerous sea journeys/higher rate of damage to ship etc with these maps as a way to off set that? something like that). They are a great addition anyway.
13. [Main Quest] 'Valetin Massoni's papers'(French captain) in 'Quest-Items' shows wrong info 'supply barque at 'Falaise de fleur' - I’m not quite sure where that text info is, so I haven’t been able to change it!
14. Signs between towns in Barbados still say 'Oxbay' and 'Greenford', also the voice over for the movie after leaving Speightsburg still mentions 'Oxbay'(not much we can do about that!), but the signs could be 'fixed'?
15. In terms of spyglasses, most don’t seem to function as described in their text descriptions. For example I’ve only ever seen the ships name(and sometimes often not even that) with the ‘common spyglass’ and even at close range(within a stones throw). I figure it is something to do with the realism mod for spyglasses (I saw something about that while looking through the games files), and think it might need some tweaking? For example the graphic engine does not really allow your naked eye to see the nations flag in a much detail as ‘real life’ would, so we should allow the game spyglasses to be a bit more ‘useful’ in practise in the game, not cheat like, but a little more functional?
16. The well documented ‘Spinning ship’ after a storm event(does it always spin towards the left?). I’d also add you can never turn to the right (starboard) during a Storm event. I’m not exactly sure when this happened as you could in the original game and also in build 12. So sometime after that, turning left became a problem.
17. Ameil Berangere, captain of French escort: Dialogue needs checking.
18. No text description for the documents Ameil Berangere gives you (quest item). Which means currently a new player may not know where to go to carry on the quest (no info in ‘Quest Book’ for this either). If a location for the text description of these papers could be made (found if it already exists?), something like. “These papers give permission to escort the ship xxxxxxx and need to be shown to the harbour master.â€
19. I guess not being able to sell ships in the shipyards is part of the realism mod for this (which I switch on in advanced options) but you get no dialogue/warning in the shipyard menu about this, when you click the ‘Sell’ icon nothing happens, so it feels a little ‘buggy’. Can we add a ‘not possible to sell illegally gained ships here’ message or something like that?
20. Forts are still often firing into the surrounding mountains. Do they waste ammo doing this, or do they have unlimited ammo? Anyway it still looks a little odd. Suggest reducing range that forts will engage ships at, it makes the game a little more dangerous for the player also, as they can’t rely so much on the Forts covering fire. Not sure what range to go for but maybe try reduction of one third first to see how that behaves?
21. Music on the main title screen (New Horizons) either doesn’t play or is very quiet.
22. On New Horizons title screen near the top, where the logo is on the top right, you have the golden sparkle animations, where I guess the logo used to be?
23. In the ‘About Build’ screen, the info stops suddenly and there is no way to scroll down to view the rest.
24. R.E the ‘White clutter on screen bug’; it does seem to happen only after battles, that I’ve noticed, and also the colour of the clutter seems to relate to the colour of the ships sails involved in combat, so white if non pirate, or black if involving pirates.
It doesn’t depend on falling masts, not visible ones anyway, as I once thought might be involved, but the colour of the ships sails does seem to determine if you get black or white screen clutter.
25. I’ve noticed a graphical corruption that happens when you equip a ‘simple clock’. All the text info at the top of the screen(giving day/year info etc) gets messed up as does text in dialogue boxes etc. Your save slot also loses its graphic ‘screenshot’.
26. On the ‘Give Orders’ option, while in 3D direct sailing mode, there is no ‘follow’ type of option for after you have given orders for a ship to strike their sails and haul too. Does ‘defend’ work as that option?
27. In capture ships transfer screen, I’ve seen a spare (as in non-existent) ship given to one of my officers, which has the ship name ‘error’. No HP, crew etc – just guns on this ship! It goes away once the transfer is complete and the officer appears back in your char list, so not a problem, just odd!
28. ‘Mercenary’s Pistol’ – needs text description explaining it needs ‘gunman’ ability to be able to use it, it probably is over priced as well?
29. Prices inside Town Stores for cargo do not match with info given on the ‘Colonies’ screen. Maybe this is deliberate, and effected by trade skills of party?
30. [Possible?] ref ‘Upgrades’ in the shipyard, is it possible to make cost of upgrades scale to class of ships? So outfitting a copper hull for a class 4 warship is much more expensive(it requires more materials) than for a class 7 small trade ship?
31. (Balance) Small sword is slightly too powerful? For it’s value.
32. [Possible?] To make the sword smiths work like gunsmiths and include an option to upgrade a bunch of swords all in one go?
33. I noticed a faint graphical artefact towards the end of your ships main flag, also you can see the same thing(it is pretty hard to see) for the other flags. I wonder if this ‘ghosting’ might be related to the ‘Screen Clutter’ bug we are having problems getting rid off?
34. [Possible] Pirate ranks, known pirates of the Caribbean, and player can enter this ‘brotherhood’? I guess it will be built around ones character rep, but I can see a whole bunch of possibility here; from barring entry to normal town’s shops and trade, to accepting clemency from the Governor for a price etc. Also this system could be used for when a player of good reputation stumbles into a smuggler/pirate camp, they could face a higher chance of attack or being ripped off in the stores etc?
35. ‘Turning sensitivity’ of the player character seems to switch from decent in outside areas to sluggish when inside buildings? It’s almost as if the settings for mouse sensitivity change between inside and outside cells?
36. I’m seeing quite a few ‘Carpenters’ (as hireable officers) that have their best skill as ‘Sailing’ rather than ‘Repair’.
37. Villagers spawning ‘inside’ other villagers at certain points around a town, also inside the guards near the gates. I think this is a known issue?
38. The Pirate Ships AI in the World sailing map is not very active at hunting the player down it seems? Often they will sail away from me, even in a Lugger overloaded with gold and silver!!!
39. Icon for the Trade Store in the smugglers lair in La Granada becomes a ‘take item’ (hand) icon after you leave the shop. You can still enter the shop, just that icon changes.
40. In La Granada, the ‘random loot’ hiding hole in the towns wall, once you exited it to go into the island, is now inaccessible to the player char. Either it has been moved higher up in the wall or the ground has come down bit near it? To check it out, turn left on exit from the town and follow the wall closely, especially just after the first big abutment, which is near where the hiding hole is.
41. ‘Pirates Pistol’ too high min damage compared to some other guns (like ‘scrappers pistol’ etc)?
42. When you are attacked and ‘skeleton monkeys’ are part of the enemy, once you have killed all enemies in the area you don’t switch out of combat mode. IIRC, the not switching out of combat mode was a known old bug, but this time I’ve only had it when fighting the monkeys.
43. to be continued….
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Ok that’s all I’ve got for now, but I’ll update this as I find more things that puzzle me etc. This is mostly to help me keep track of various things that I feel need looking at, so might not be essential overall. But feel free to comment if you like, although i know much of this will be in the bug tracker
All you guys that did this should be proud
As I was playing, and trying to sort out some of the dialogues, I was also writing down stuff that occurred to me during those play sessions, some of it no doubt 'bug stuff' that may have been put in the bug tracker, some just play balance type issues and idea's etc. So I’ll put the whole ugly lot here and update it as I carry on the journey into Build Mod 14. These are just unorganised initial findings, and as I spend more time here I’ll put stuff in the correct place (like reporting new bugs in the tracker, updating info on old bugs etc).
1. Can't 'Resume Game' if you go to adjust the game options during Malcolm’s Tutorial or in game after.
2. 'Z' dodge/jump back during combat key missing from 'controls.txt'(fixed in new 'controls.txt' posted in Build Mod 14 beta 1 thread)
3. During Malcolm's Tutorial, during the topic of distributing Skill Points etc, he doesn't seem to recognise when you have assigned them or not, you have to say 'Forget about these points, let's continue with something else.' to exit this section of the tutorial dialogue. Probably it simply needs some change in dialogue to make it a little more seamless, but it might also require coding changes in his 'Malcolm Hatcher_dialog.c' file? I've not broached this yet, as it is fairly minor, it might even have been in the original game or earlier mod versions?
4. In general in the Trade Stores, you have the dialogue option "I would like to sell the cargo I have brought." when maybe you are there to buy not sell stuff. I've started the process of changing these dialogue lines to allow a more generic option that covers both buying and selling.(fixed in some places, like game start location with new files posted in Build Mod 14 beta 1 thread)
5. Using A+D floats player through walls. This is an old issue isn't it? I can see why we keep it, as sometimes you get stuck behind your accompanying crew. Still it would be nice to have a proper side-step, and what did it do in the original game? Maybe have a special key to enact this 'float through wall' ability (so like F11+F12 keys?) for when you get stuck? You could toggle it on/off with the key, and allow the default game settings for side step?
6. 'Open Quick Command Menu'[Enter] is called something different in Malcolm's Tutorial.[fixed. the 'control.txt' file now uses same wording as in Malcolm's Tutorial section]
7. 'Mutiny' started while on ship. Player char appeared in the sea(no ship!) with invisible attackers around him. Using the A or D key moved him to ships deck but attackers still invisible. It was possible to kill them by moving around a little bit from that start location and stabbing blindly with sword!!!
8. On 'Death' if not rescued, you go to the game start menu, but 'New Game', 'Resume Game' are 'greyed out' and not selectable. Need to exit game and re-launch it to carry on.
9. On 'Passenger' screen, the summery info box is wrong, where it shows the combined numbers for the various group skills of the officers. This is an old bug iirc?
10. Issue in 'exchange items' between player and officers, where you can't switch around 'grapeshot' and 'pistol bullets'(a 'ghost' pistol bullet is given to player). It can be worked out, but is rather fiddle-some currently. Also slight odd behaviour with the auto ship replenishes your ammo routine. If you are carrying grapeshot, but don't have a grapeshot weapon selected(active), it will remove those grapeshot and give you ammo for your active weapon instead. This make adding 'grapeshot' to the ships weapon locker a little tricky!
11. Level progression too quick in early stages? e.g. 30mins real time 3D sailing = level up! (Work in progress: I've reduced skill bonus levels and XP given out in my game and will need to play test it more, but so far it feels a little better in balance, and further slows down game start level up's).
Possible solution is to limit the XP given out to just once during 3D sailing or once per day(24 game hours)? It seems to give XP out every 30mins currently? (and at 1050XP per go it adds up quick!!)
12. Make the new Island Maps much rarer. At game start you can not find them easily, but as soon as you are level 2, you can buy all of them from most Trade Stores. I'd suggest trying to spread out their availability (so only a chance of one or two maps per location/Island?) and also increasing their costs (by 1000G?). Navigational maps were a valuable commodity in the Caribbean. I'm sure they can be worked into the game to become a really useful and sought after item, maybe in place of some of the other game trinkets that add to Skills? Or even more deeply integrated to allow safer passage between harbours(so look to have more dangerous sea journeys/higher rate of damage to ship etc with these maps as a way to off set that? something like that). They are a great addition anyway.
13. [Main Quest] 'Valetin Massoni's papers'(French captain) in 'Quest-Items' shows wrong info 'supply barque at 'Falaise de fleur' - I’m not quite sure where that text info is, so I haven’t been able to change it!
14. Signs between towns in Barbados still say 'Oxbay' and 'Greenford', also the voice over for the movie after leaving Speightsburg still mentions 'Oxbay'(not much we can do about that!), but the signs could be 'fixed'?
15. In terms of spyglasses, most don’t seem to function as described in their text descriptions. For example I’ve only ever seen the ships name(and sometimes often not even that) with the ‘common spyglass’ and even at close range(within a stones throw). I figure it is something to do with the realism mod for spyglasses (I saw something about that while looking through the games files), and think it might need some tweaking? For example the graphic engine does not really allow your naked eye to see the nations flag in a much detail as ‘real life’ would, so we should allow the game spyglasses to be a bit more ‘useful’ in practise in the game, not cheat like, but a little more functional?
16. The well documented ‘Spinning ship’ after a storm event(does it always spin towards the left?). I’d also add you can never turn to the right (starboard) during a Storm event. I’m not exactly sure when this happened as you could in the original game and also in build 12. So sometime after that, turning left became a problem.
17. Ameil Berangere, captain of French escort: Dialogue needs checking.
18. No text description for the documents Ameil Berangere gives you (quest item). Which means currently a new player may not know where to go to carry on the quest (no info in ‘Quest Book’ for this either). If a location for the text description of these papers could be made (found if it already exists?), something like. “These papers give permission to escort the ship xxxxxxx and need to be shown to the harbour master.â€
19. I guess not being able to sell ships in the shipyards is part of the realism mod for this (which I switch on in advanced options) but you get no dialogue/warning in the shipyard menu about this, when you click the ‘Sell’ icon nothing happens, so it feels a little ‘buggy’. Can we add a ‘not possible to sell illegally gained ships here’ message or something like that?
20. Forts are still often firing into the surrounding mountains. Do they waste ammo doing this, or do they have unlimited ammo? Anyway it still looks a little odd. Suggest reducing range that forts will engage ships at, it makes the game a little more dangerous for the player also, as they can’t rely so much on the Forts covering fire. Not sure what range to go for but maybe try reduction of one third first to see how that behaves?
21. Music on the main title screen (New Horizons) either doesn’t play or is very quiet.
22. On New Horizons title screen near the top, where the logo is on the top right, you have the golden sparkle animations, where I guess the logo used to be?
23. In the ‘About Build’ screen, the info stops suddenly and there is no way to scroll down to view the rest.
24. R.E the ‘White clutter on screen bug’; it does seem to happen only after battles, that I’ve noticed, and also the colour of the clutter seems to relate to the colour of the ships sails involved in combat, so white if non pirate, or black if involving pirates.
It doesn’t depend on falling masts, not visible ones anyway, as I once thought might be involved, but the colour of the ships sails does seem to determine if you get black or white screen clutter.
25. I’ve noticed a graphical corruption that happens when you equip a ‘simple clock’. All the text info at the top of the screen(giving day/year info etc) gets messed up as does text in dialogue boxes etc. Your save slot also loses its graphic ‘screenshot’.
26. On the ‘Give Orders’ option, while in 3D direct sailing mode, there is no ‘follow’ type of option for after you have given orders for a ship to strike their sails and haul too. Does ‘defend’ work as that option?
27. In capture ships transfer screen, I’ve seen a spare (as in non-existent) ship given to one of my officers, which has the ship name ‘error’. No HP, crew etc – just guns on this ship! It goes away once the transfer is complete and the officer appears back in your char list, so not a problem, just odd!
28. ‘Mercenary’s Pistol’ – needs text description explaining it needs ‘gunman’ ability to be able to use it, it probably is over priced as well?
29. Prices inside Town Stores for cargo do not match with info given on the ‘Colonies’ screen. Maybe this is deliberate, and effected by trade skills of party?
30. [Possible?] ref ‘Upgrades’ in the shipyard, is it possible to make cost of upgrades scale to class of ships? So outfitting a copper hull for a class 4 warship is much more expensive(it requires more materials) than for a class 7 small trade ship?
31. (Balance) Small sword is slightly too powerful? For it’s value.
32. [Possible?] To make the sword smiths work like gunsmiths and include an option to upgrade a bunch of swords all in one go?
33. I noticed a faint graphical artefact towards the end of your ships main flag, also you can see the same thing(it is pretty hard to see) for the other flags. I wonder if this ‘ghosting’ might be related to the ‘Screen Clutter’ bug we are having problems getting rid off?
34. [Possible] Pirate ranks, known pirates of the Caribbean, and player can enter this ‘brotherhood’? I guess it will be built around ones character rep, but I can see a whole bunch of possibility here; from barring entry to normal town’s shops and trade, to accepting clemency from the Governor for a price etc. Also this system could be used for when a player of good reputation stumbles into a smuggler/pirate camp, they could face a higher chance of attack or being ripped off in the stores etc?
35. ‘Turning sensitivity’ of the player character seems to switch from decent in outside areas to sluggish when inside buildings? It’s almost as if the settings for mouse sensitivity change between inside and outside cells?
36. I’m seeing quite a few ‘Carpenters’ (as hireable officers) that have their best skill as ‘Sailing’ rather than ‘Repair’.
37. Villagers spawning ‘inside’ other villagers at certain points around a town, also inside the guards near the gates. I think this is a known issue?
38. The Pirate Ships AI in the World sailing map is not very active at hunting the player down it seems? Often they will sail away from me, even in a Lugger overloaded with gold and silver!!!
39. Icon for the Trade Store in the smugglers lair in La Granada becomes a ‘take item’ (hand) icon after you leave the shop. You can still enter the shop, just that icon changes.
40. In La Granada, the ‘random loot’ hiding hole in the towns wall, once you exited it to go into the island, is now inaccessible to the player char. Either it has been moved higher up in the wall or the ground has come down bit near it? To check it out, turn left on exit from the town and follow the wall closely, especially just after the first big abutment, which is near where the hiding hole is.
41. ‘Pirates Pistol’ too high min damage compared to some other guns (like ‘scrappers pistol’ etc)?
42. When you are attacked and ‘skeleton monkeys’ are part of the enemy, once you have killed all enemies in the area you don’t switch out of combat mode. IIRC, the not switching out of combat mode was a known old bug, but this time I’ve only had it when fighting the monkeys.
43. to be continued….
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Ok that’s all I’ve got for now, but I’ll update this as I find more things that puzzle me etc. This is mostly to help me keep track of various things that I feel need looking at, so might not be essential overall. But feel free to comment if you like, although i know much of this will be in the bug tracker
