Need Help Crew/Sailors HP editing

[-SILVER-]

Ahoy there Captains!
I encounter a rather bothersome issue with the HP of my crew, while using the CMV 3.2. Unlike the vanilla game, their life has been critically downed, but in my opinion, there is no need of realism in a pure fantasy game where you get to sail ships like the Black Pearl or the Flying Dutchman... although I can understand those who may enjoy it, still, that is not me...
That being said, pls someone tell me what file I need to modify in order to get the original, vanilla HP of the crew (/sailors ) and what line.
PLS notice that I do not seek to migrate to other mods like GOF2 or something else, I would like to stay with the Combined Mod, thanks in advance!

 

[Pieter Boelen]

@The Nameless Pirate or @Hammie: Do either of you have any ideas?
Or do you know anyone who might still be familiar with CoAS here these days...?

 

[-SILVER-]

Pieter you're the long lasting boat in the waters of Piratesahoy! Thanks for landing a hand, I realize CMV and the actual game AOP2 are not quite newish and patience is required to get an answer, I just hope someone from the old team would pop up eventually and see this post. I actually remember more ppl have complained about the HP of the crew being edited with no proper testing, and IIRC, in GOF2 that was corrected... Too bad the file wasn't the same as in CMV. This is why I advise moders to create options from easy to realistic to any major modification they induce, if the engine permits, since it is not possible to guess how people got used to play their fav game compared with the vanilla. At least this how I do when I mod things other than to myself. We need choices, especially in Singleplayer games.
Btw, I love what you have done in PotC New Horizons, I would have stick with it, but I simply don't have so much time to play, just once every 2,3 days, for an hour or two, and since there is no savegame in complex battles for lets say an hour, and many times you get distracted by a phone, or other RL aspects, you're bound to screw things over and stick with more permissive games like AOP2. Save God AOP2 exists, since no other real pirate experience is there where you can sail the infamous Black Pearl and the Flying Dutchman with such details and naval battles, and after that go plunder a whole city destroying a huge fort with a fleet with over 1000 people. A real pirate experience, exceptionally put in a gem of a game. Too bad the experience is limited for me by the waaay too little crew life, in an unballanced addition of the mod, hope I will find a solution eventually.
Now, apart of that, until someone sees this post, you have any idea, the Hearts of Oak is still a project that it'll happen eventually, or is kinda dead by now? I know the lead developer got mixed with RL aspects heavily and has little to no time, no shame in admitting this one, was curious if some other people would have joined the developer team willing to carry on and make it happen one day...
Either way, thanks again for being such a good mate willing to still help people after so long after the game/mods have been released

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Pieter you're the long lasting boat in the waters of Piratesahoy!

Hehe; it does indeed seem that way...

I realize CMV and the actual game AOP2 are not quite newish and patience is required to get an answer, I just hope someone from the old team would pop up eventually and see this post.

I would hope the same; but it's been a while since I saw any of the CoAS modders around.
They might return though; you never do know. Activity has certainly been picking back up here in these waters.

One thing you could try is to send a PM to a bunch of them.
See if any are still paying any attention...

I actually remember more ppl have complained about the HP of the crew being edited with no proper testing, and IIRC, in GOF2 that was corrected... Too bad the file wasn't the same as in CMV. This is why I advise moders to create options from easy to realistic to any major modification they induce, if the engine permits, since it is not possible to guess how people got used to play their fav game compared with the vanilla. At least this how I do when I mod things other than to myself. We need choices, especially in Singleplayer games.

I agree.
It's absolutely possible to add toggles aplenty to Storm Engine games.
We've certainly done so in PotC:NH.

But the CoAS modders were different people; and seemed to have taken a different approach.

It would still be one of my many hopes that one day a comprehensive CoAS mod can be made that caters to any and all types of players.
That'd be nice...

Btw, I love what you have done in PotC New Horizons, I would have stick with it, but I simply don't have so much time to play, just once every 2,3 days, for an hour or two, and since there is no savegame in complex battles for lets say an hour, and many times you get distracted by a phone, or other RL aspects, you're bound to screw things over and stick with more permissive games like AOP2.

Fair enough.

@konradk did manage to mod in a "Save at Sea" feature, but he could never figure out how to save "cannon reload and sail status".
And so we were forced to disable saving while in battle; otherwise you'd have a wonderful exploit to just insta-reload your guns.

However, efforts are underway to upgrade New Horizons to a newer game engine; and if that is done, perhaps this could finally be sorted out properly.
It would certainly be yet one more improvement to look forward to!

Now, apart of that, until someone sees this post, you have any idea, the Hearts of Oak is still a project that it'll happen eventually, or is kinda dead by now?

Dead or dormant? Difficult to say.
Certainly there is no project right now under that name.
And if it were ever to start again, we're definitely going to need to learn from the past and handle things differently.

But the dream is certainly still VERY much alive.
In my head at the very least.
And I'm particularly bad at giving up such cool and vivid dreams.

For now though, there's no real need for a restart.
@Captain Murphy indeed got mixed up with RL.
@Armada, one of our other Project Managers who also did the New Horizons Remastered demo, started his own Indie game development company.
And their second game, a pirate simulator called Buccaneers!, is releasing this September!
That's as close as you can get to a spiritual successor to HoO:CotS as for certain he took aaaall his experiences from that with him.

Plus let's not forget Corsairs Legacy either, which is effectively a commercial project aiming to do very much the same sort of things that we wanted to.
We're in direct contact with them and aim to help them succeed wherever and whenever we can.

For some more details of what the future might bring, you're welcome to have a look here:
Discussion - The Present and Future of "PiratesAhoy!"?
Nothing is set quite in stone; but there are options aplenty.
And we might even end up accomplishing some of them.

 

[-SILVER-]

@PMing some of the dev team of CMV was my first idea, but honestly, dont really remember the names of those ppl, so if you do know them, pls share their nicknames (ahmm... here? since probably could serve to other people also) and I will "ping" them as soon as I get the intel from you

@ PotC New Horizons savegame mod, sounds really exciting, bc to be honest the sea battles are unique there, and give you a real sense of a naval battle of the 18th century, I wish AOP2 had that combat style too, but is not even close, the ships turn really artificially like you would turn a small jet ski. So, I simply have to ask, can you please share that mod/file to bring new life into my PotC? I really can't imagine someone using that as a glitch to just reload cannons faster, to the expense of ruining such quality battles! But then again, even if one would really do that, and still counts as a fun experience for him/her, as long it is just a singleplayer, not an online multiplayer game, and so, not affecting anyone, would then have mattered how that file was used? Just saying, not that I am encouraging anyone to do that...
However, what do you mean porting PotC to a new engine? You mean to the Storm Engine 2 that used to power Age of Pirates 2, with its new features over PotC, especially now since is open source, or do you mean something more modern and reliable like Unity? And if so, you have an estimated ETA or is just more like a proposition to the dev team?

@ HoO:CotS while at the first glance one could see a failure, things aren't that bad at all! I will explain, but first, let's be honest, it was a project of at least 2-3 years, and more with post-updates, being a client with online multiplayer also, apart of a singleplayer campaign and freeroom, it really is next to impossible to think you could raise a team and most importantly KEEP it faithfully next to you and develop a game as a full time job but with no revenues for the dev team and to release it for FREE. Don't accuse me of being mean, but the second I saw the announcement of a free pirate game with epic ground battles (even with 18th century artillery) and accurate sea encounters, I knew it would never get a chance to get finalized. Let's be honest, you need an ample sum of money to do that, in years! Look at any gaming company, even indie ones... unless you work alone with your wife in your basement for the next 5 years but you're in high-school, and have no need for money/job.
There are some things that made me realize a project like this might happen though!

1. The demand! Simply put, there is huge demand for a real pirate game with multiplayer support in a modern engine (not clone mobile jokes), with both ground and sea action, exactly like PotC has done over years. Currently, the market is still empty, and we have no true experience in this domain, this is why we still resurrect old copies of PotC when in need. And who will be able to deliver that quality experience first will strike gold, like the pirates did on the golden age of piracy
2. Veteran players: As an extension to the demand, there comes a quite generous community with experience in Pirate-like games, fallowing titles like Syd Meyers Pirates, a huge collection in PotC series, Age of Pirates, and even some mobile clones. All these people are waiting silently for their dream to happen! Trust me, I bet many pre-orders would be placed on steam if such a game would be announced.
3. The Hearts of Oak project on Piratesahoy! I am gonna be as blunt as possible: we are now talking live on real people with real intentions, not suppositions anymore like 1. and 2. HoO has proven that a start can become a fact! And Piratesahoy could be a good and reliable promoter of such game. Exactly like it did with HoO, with a lot a goodies, people willing to donate astounding accurate artwork, sounders, beta testers and so on, let alone the fact that many did also contributed with money for assets. That being done proves that if a dedicated team or small indie company would keep an eye open to this genre with a GoFundMe / Kickstarter and Piratesahoy as promoter I strongly believe a HoO-like game could happen.
We will see what future brings, although in my opinion is not too late for a crowdfunding solution to a dedicated team willing to take over the assets from Hearts of Oak. Not to mention the fact that there is no real hard license like Akella had with Bethesda for example, so things should be much more easier if someone would take the lead.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

@PMing some of the dev team of CMV was my first idea, but honestly, dont really remember the names of those ppl, so if you do know them, pls share their nicknames (ahmm... here? since probably could serve to other people also) and I will "ping" them as soon as I get the intel from you

@Luke159 and @Officerpuppy are the main ones I remember.

@ PotC New Horizons savegame mod, sounds really exciting, bc to be honest the sea battles are unique there, and give you a real sense of a naval battle of the 18th century, I wish AOP2 had that combat style too, but is not even close, the ships turn really artificially like you would turn a small jet ski. So, I simply have to ask, can you please share that mod/file to bring new life into my PotC? I really can't imagine someone using that as a glitch to just reload cannons faster, to the expense of ruining such quality battles! But then again, even if one would really do that, and still counts as a fun experience for him/her, as long it is just a singleplayer, not an online multiplayer game, and so, not affecting anyone, would then have mattered how that file was used? Just saying, not that I am encouraging anyone to do that...

PROGRAM\INTERFACE\mainmenu.c find:

     if (bSeaActive && !bMapEnter) SetSelectable("B_SAVE",false);

Replace with:

//   if (bSeaActive && !bMapEnter) SetSelectable("B_SAVE",false);

However, what do you mean porting PotC to a new engine? You mean to the Storm Engine 2 that used to power Age of Pirates 2, with its new features over PotC, especially now since is open source, or do you mean something more modern and reliable like Unity? And if so, you have an estimated ETA or is just more like a proposition to the dev team?

@Mirsaneli is working on upgrading the game to @ChezJfrey's Maelstrom Engine.
And @Hammie is doing similar work for the recently open-sourced 2.9 version of the Storm Engine.

@ HoO:CotS while at the first glance one could see a failure, things aren't that bad at all! I will explain, but first, let's be honest, it was a project of at least 2-3 years, and more with post-updates, being a client with online multiplayer also, apart of a singleplayer campaign and freeroom, it really is next to impossible to think you could raise a team and most importantly KEEP it faithfully next to you and develop a game as a full time job but with no revenues for the dev team and to release it for FREE. Don't accuse me of being mean, but the second I saw the announcement of a free pirate game with epic ground battles (even with 18th century artillery) and accurate sea encounters, I knew it would never get a chance to get finalized. Let's be honest, you need an ample sum of money to do that, in years! Look at any gaming company, even indie ones... unless you work alone with your wife in your basement for the next 5 years but you're in high-school, and have no need for money/job.

You are definitely correct.
The project was too ambitious; by quite a wide margin.
And that was even without any intentions for multiplayer included.

We will see what future brings, although in my opinion is not too late for a crowdfunding solution to a dedicated team willing to take over the assets from Hearts of Oak. Not to mention the fact that there is no real hard license like Akella had with Bethesda for example, so things should be much more easier if someone would take the lead.

Right now, I'd say the timing doesn't make much sense for us to start a from-scratch pirate game ourselves.
But that is simply because there are already two or more such projects being made.

It would be great if we could somehow help those projects become as much of a success as possible.
And then, once those are complete, we could reassess where to take things next.
Ideal would be a collaboration with those developers; so we could all build from a steady base that's already been created.

The alternative would be taking PiratesAhoy! much more professional.
I'd be very willing to consider that; but that does rely large on the very serious dedication of other members too...

Most certainly very good things are possible for the future!

 

[-SILVER-]

You're a lifesaver with both the devs and with the savegame option. See, I always believed that the sea battles in PotC are much more engaging and realistic than AoP2. That could be a turning point to me to changing my gameplay to PotC, especially with the New Horizons being so mature and well maintained, I'll go testing right away!
@HoO I got to thank you also to shed some light into it, it all makes sense now, we'll wait for a more clear sky in the future.

For any of the modders who know where to look @ HP editing of the crew on player ship, the topic stays open, I'm still looking for a solution!

 

[Pieter Boelen]

You're a lifesaver with both the devs and with the savegame option. See, I always believed that the sea battles in PotC are much more engaging and realistic than AoP2. That could be a turning point to me to changing my gameplay to PotC, especially with the New Horizons being so mature and well maintained, I'll go testing right away!

Cheers; you're welcome.

Not sure what potential side-effects you might get; but with a bit of luck, they'll be relatively mild.
When I did my quick test yesterday, I confirmed things did work; just with the snafu of cannon reload status and sail setting not being saved.
Technically not ideal that way; but also not the worst.

@HoO I got to thank you also to shed some light into it, it all makes sense now, we'll wait for a more clear sky in the future.