Need Help Configuring some gameplay elements. (build 13 update 4)

[Flying_Spaghetti]

I've been enjoying the (now maybe obsolete and/or abandoned) build 13 mod so much that it's hard to let it go in favor of the build 14. Plain, simple, robust, vanilla-like and feature-rich but not too cluttered, it has won me over build 14. Nevertheless, i need help configuring it to better suit my tastes. I've beaten the game without changing anything, now i need to really delve into things to modify the mod and make it the supreme experience of PotC. I know BuildSettings.h and InternalSettings.h need to be modified, i just don't know what and how to change values, so not to break my game.

So my questions are:
a) How can i eliminate the time passage of goods being hauled to and from the ship and trader?
b) How can i decrease the time passage of fast traveling to places?
c) How can i make the player character pick up all loot from dead enemies, even broken swords/guns?
d) How can i make the enemies in dungeons be more varied? I think in vanilla the dungeons were populated by skeletons only, and the mod has humans only. How can i have a mix of the 2?

That's some questions i have for now, but i may have more in the future.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Start out by looking through BuildSettings.h and InternalSettings.h; there are a lot of comments in there to explain what the various settings do.
I don't know them all by the top of my head, but there may be options there for your 'a' and 'b'.

How can i make the player character pick up all loot from dead enemies, even broken swords/guns?

Does Build 13 have manual looting by default or still auto loot? Or a combination of the two? I don't remember now.
Anyway, if you find the AUTOLOOT or AUTO_LOOT option, set it to 1 and that should help already.

How can i make the enemies in dungeons be more varied? I think in vanilla the dungeons were populated by skeletons only, and the mod has humans only. How can i have a mix of the 2?

Somewhere in LEnc_monsters.c I think. Not such simple code though.
The mod deliberately took out the skeletons and those now only show up for quest purposes.
Apart from their appearance, there was never anything especially "skeleton-ey" about them anyway.

I've been enjoying the (now maybe obsolete and/or abandoned) build 13 mod so much that it's hard to let it go in favor of the build 14. Plain, simple, robust, vanilla-like and feature-rich but not too cluttered, it has won me over build 14.

Build 13 is indeed very much ancient and no longer supported. The only supported modpack version is Build 14 Beta 4, which was released less than 2 months ago.

What exactly is are your reasons for sticking to the older version?
Build 14 has a lot of settings that allow you to change the game to your liking, so you can get it much closer to Build 13 behaviour.

 

[Flying_Spaghetti]

Thanks for the answers!
I did check some variables in those files but they are a bit confusing. Like the option of looting bad quality stuff is
#define MIN_QUALITY_TO_KEEP
but god knows what the values represent. Also, as for the vanilla skeletons in dungeons, iirc, they were pretty powerful compared to the normal people i find down there. I think early in the game they could kill you in 2-3 hits, whereas the normal people have normal strength. I also miss their appearance too, not counting the plain looking ones from the transformed monks .

Concerning the build 14 mod, i went through the changelog and i found many features that didn't suit my play taste or others that i wouldn't use at all. Nothing against it, but i like the game as it is in build 13, as simple as it gets.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

That define you found should only affect the Sell All Loot button at the item traders.

Balancing between the unmodded and modded games cannot be compared.

If there are features in Build 14 that you want to disable, tell us which ones.
Many already have a toggle. For the ones that don't, if a toggle is wanted, that can often be arranged.
Depends on the specific example. So you say what you want to disable and then we can figure out what options there are for that.

I do not remember much of the Build 13 code other than that it is old and outdated.
And I'm not going to investigate it either, so all I can do is to give vague and near useless answers on it.

 

[Mere_Mortal]

a) How can i eliminate the time passage of goods being hauled to and from the ship and trader?
b) How can i decrease the time passage of fast traveling to places?

These parameters in InternalSettings.h might be handy, particularly the last two...

// ======================================
// TIME SCALARS
// ======================================

int     TIMESCALAR_SEA =       5;       // INT - how many seconds of gametime one second of realtime is at sea
#define TIMESCALAR_LAND         10       // INT - same but for land
#define TIMEUPDATE_BLOCK_LAND     1       // BOOL - whether time updates per minute or on location change (i.e. in blocks)
#define TIMESCALAR_SAILTO_SHIP     2       // INT - timescalar to sail to ship
#define TIMESCALAR_SAILTO_LOC     1       // INT - timescalar to sail to locator
#define TIMESCALAR_SAILTO_THRU     4       // INT - timescalar to sail to something across centerpoint of island, i.e. thing is on other side of island
#define TIME_FASTTRAVEL         20       // INT - time spent in each location when fasttravelling
#define TIME_MOVEGOOD         30       // INT - time in minutes for 1 crewman to move 1 unit of a good. Also, no matter the crew, this * goods qty /10 is added in minutes.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Yep, that might do it.

Try to set the fast travel one to 10 (e.g. divide by two) and the cargo one to zero.
See what happens then.

 

[Mere_Mortal]

The cargo one has an explicit null return in the function if it’s defined as zero. I set mine to zero, just because.

It also accounts for the number of crew available, which completely contradicts the comment on that define.

 

[Flying_Spaghetti]

Yep, that's the solution for the time passage. Some of the comments in the code were vague and I was afraid to change values so my game won't explode. Like the one of quality of weapons.
Anyway, thanks, people!

Oh, as for build 14, my opinion won't do any good. If any modder took account of each individual player's opinions, it would be mayhem! There are too many things described on the changelog, that I can't really remember in detail. Also, i like my mods as final versions, maybe i'll look into the new mod when it is final. Nevertheless , don't mind me, keep working on the new mod. If it weren't for people like you, we would have only the vanilla game, and that is a nightmare.

 

[Mere_Mortal]

Feedback is probably what has gotten this mod so far. Well, dedication as well but that is prerequisite to taking on board the wishes of the community. It is, after all, a community mod. Pieter for one is ever-eager to base the mod around what the players want, within reason of course. Then it’s just a matter of availability on the part of individual modders to actually make the changes which are worthwhile. I mean, even though what we’ve discussed here won’t be changed in the mod, since it obviously has to take time to move cargo and for balance reasons, the options are nonetheless available to change this at a whim - so even if some things won’t be changed as default, there can always be options lurking in the definition files which can be used to make personal alterations. Other areas, though, mean delving into the actual scripts - for instance, I find it annoying if I cannot swap or buy ships while I am officially with the navy, so I changed that.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

If any modder took account of each individual player's opinions, it would be mayhem!

And if nobody ever posted feedback, there would be no mod.
So if you have specific comments of any kind, do not hesitate to post them.
We cannot guarantee something will be done with them, but I can guarantee that NOTHING will be done with them if you don't post them.

Also, i like my mods as final versions, maybe i'll look into the new mod when it is final.

Apart from several mostly known issues, Build 14 Beta 4 is almost more "final" than Build 13 ever was.

for instance, I find it annoying if I cannot swap or buy ships while I am officially with the navy, so I changed that.

I can imagine it being annoying if you don't intend to play the way the "Naval Officer" gameplay is meant to work.
The idea is that you stick to whatever ship you're given and when you're promoted, you get a new ship.
Once you become a Commodore, you get the freedom to do what you want.
Mostly I would recommend people who don't want that to play as any other type of character, but not "Naval Officer".

Might I ask why you chose the "Naval Officer" player type?

 

[Mere_Mortal]

I actually didn’t choose the path in itself, I just picked the agent type for the leadership boost. Then I realised how it actually works. It’s something I’ll probably do as a proper story mode, I kinda like it... but at the moment I prefer to use the best ship as I find them.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

The Agent type?

If you're indeed a Naval Officer but don't want to be, it is possible to leave the navy through console.
Then you'll be back to normal gameplay without changing any code.

 

[Mere_Mortal]

It’s not the being an officer that’s the issue, I just didn’t know about the restriction on swapping ships. I knew about the rank limits in relation to ship class, but in the first place I had a Naval Brig and captured a Sloop-of-War (which was faster and had a few more guns) - if I can command the brig as a lieutenant then I’d expect to be able to use a sloop as well, but I physically couldn’t swap over to it so I changed that. Jumping from class 6 to a ship-of-the-line would be immersion-breaking of course, so the restrictions are very useful for sticking to the specific story mode.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

It’s not the being an officer that’s the issue, I just didn’t know about the restriction on swapping ships.

The reason for that is that if you're in the navy, you're ordered to command a certain ship.
It isn't your decision to make to get yourself a different one. That is the Admiralty's job.

You should be able to switch to regular Privateer behaviour by executing DeleteAttribute(pchar, "professionalnavy"); through console.

 

[Mere_Mortal]

Oh I see, that does make sense. After all, what I’m doing probably does essentially make me a privateer!