Diary of an unanswered question

[Sharks Prize]

I guess my questions keep getting lost in the flood of posts into each topic I ask something in. In fact, the only acknowledgement of my existence I've recieve in the last month was for when I helped someone else with a question they had. You guys are probably just busy with other stuff and can't read every post in every topic.

So I've decided to put all my unanswered questions (that I haven't figured out myself) into their own topic, and hopefully this will make them stand out enough that someone who knows the answer will look.

1. Is it possible to give yourself more than one ship at game start?

2. Is it possible to change how officer reputations are decided at game start? So all the 'unique' officers (the ones you can play as) are bad guys, for example.

3. Is it possible to edit the shipinit.c file or some other file to specify particular ships to not be used by any tom, dick or harry in the game? (I'm really getting sick of running into flying dutchmen and black pearls every time some bounty hunters come after me)

If anyone has an answer to any of these questions I'd appreciate it if you could reply. With the exception of #1, I've been asking these for several weeks. There was actually going to be a #4 as well, but I forgot what it was.

 

[Luke159]

1. I don't know for sure but i guess it is possible but would require you to have a officer for each ship.

2. Yes that should be possible but i don't know how to do it myself since i have never edited a character myself.

3. Not that i'm aware of, in my test game after raiding a few Dutch ships i got a bounty of 10k on my head and all they used was Bounty, Schooner's and sometimes the Edinbourg. I don't think you can designate which ships will be used for what without some serious coding been done.

Not sure why you would want to start with more than one ship for, i will only ever use a companion in testing battles or when playing the game i will use them when i have the skills to make a profit from trading goods myself rather than doing the store owners missions.

 

[Sharks Prize]

Thank you for your reply, Luke.

1. I realise that having companions in battle usually sucks, but I've become quite good at using them to help me take on enemies more powerful than myself. It requires near-constant watching and rapid-fire orders, but it can be done, and to great effect. You also need to give your companion a very good ship.

2. Well it probably wouldn't be that hard if I could find what file it's in. I looked extensively through the files but if I saw the value in question, I didn't recognise it. I'm more of a texture person. I don't have extensive knowledge of editing the code.

3. Well, I do LIKE PotC (the movies at least), but that doesn't mean I want to see those ships in my game. If it was limited to just one and only one per game that would be fine. i.e., jack sparrow being the only one who could have the black pearl (unless you capture it from him of course). I'm really not too keen on even having the PotC characters (especially davy jones) as possible recruitable officers hanging around in taverns. I think it takes away from the feel of the game world.

But the main reason I ask these questions is because of a game I had that crashed during saving and made a bad save. I'm just trying to get back to where I was.

Also, I remembered the fourth question I had: Sometimes, when boarding a ship, I see a female pirate running around (She always dies, because my crew is unstoppable). What is up with her, and can I get her as an officer? She has a very unique look that is definitely not a recruitable officer

 

[steelrat]

...
1. Is it possible to give yourself more than one ship at game start?

2. Is it possible to change how officer reputations are decided at game start? So all the 'unique' officers (the ones you can play as) are bad guys, for example.

3. Is it possible to edit the shipinit.c file or some other file to specify particular ships to not be used by any tom, dick or harry in the game? (I'm really getting sick of running into flying dutchmen and black pearls every time some bounty hunters come after me)
...

1. well, that would require coding during career init. It would mean having one or several companion(s) attached. I guess that's doable. But in terms of game balancing I have doubts. You'd require more money to pay the companion. And money is a problem in the beginning. Think of the additional crew, food and goods you'd require.

2. I have some knowledge of that area. I'm currently at work and cannot check the program code. I'm sure it can be done. But I fail to see its usefulness, because there is an alternative. I would like to make some advertising for my loyalty mod here. With the Mod, your regular sailor reputation officers (including quest offs) are considered neutral. Meaning, if your officers are mostly bad guys, the neutral officers do take over loyalty judgment from the bad guys. Thus becoming kind of 'bad' themselves, and vice-versa. In role playing terms one could think of them as being swayed by the stronger and more determined officer's opinion.


COAS Loyalty Mod

 

[Sharks Prize]

2. I have some knowledge of that area. I'm currently at work and cannot check the program code. I'm sure it can be done. But I fail to see its usefulness, because there is an alternative. I would like to make some advertising for my loyalty mod here. With the Mod, your regular sailor reputation officers (including quest offs) are considered neutral. Meaning, if your officers are mostly bad guys, the neutral officers do take over loyalty judgment from the bad guys. Thus becoming kind of 'bad' themselves, and vice-versa. In role playing terms one could think of them as being swayed by the stronger and more determined officer's opinion.


COAS Loyalty Mod

I like to use the 'unique' officers. The ones you can play as if you start a new game. Like lawrence belthrop, or shi xianggu. I want to make them all bad guys so they will stay loyal. I know that 'quest' officers like john workman and humphrey..um, I forgot his last name. You know who I'm talking about. The double barreled musket guy. Anyway, I know that they are 'regular sailors' and will stay loyal.

I actually already have the coas loyalty mod, and it does appear to work as advertised.

 

[steelrat]

2. I have some knowledge of that area. I'm currently at work and cannot check the program code. I'm sure it can be done. But I fail to see its usefulness, because there is an alternative. I would like to make some advertising for my loyalty mod here. With the Mod, your regular sailor reputation officers (including quest offs) are considered neutral. Meaning, if your officers are mostly bad guys, the neutral officers do take over loyalty judgment from the bad guys. Thus becoming kind of 'bad' themselves, and vice-versa. In role playing terms one could think of them as being swayed by the stronger and more determined officer's opinion.


COAS Loyalty Mod

I like to use the 'unique' officers. The ones you can play as if you start a new game. Like lawrence belthrop, or shi xianggu. I want to make them all bad guys so they will stay loyal. I know that 'quest' officers like john workman and humphrey..um, I forgot his last name. You know who I'm talking about. The double barreled musket guy. Anyway, I know that they are 'regular sailors' and will stay loyal.

I actually already have the coas loyalty mod, and it does appear to work as advertised.

Ah, I should have read your post more slowly (that's the side-effect when multi-tasking). You mean the starting characters. Hang on, I'm still at work but will check that. I think I saw something in the program code about inital settings and stuff....

 

[Sharks Prize]

Sounds great! I'll wait patiently...

 

[steelrat]

Sounds great! I'll wait patiently...

Yep! I found it.

...\Playlogic\Age of Pirates 2\Program\characters\RPGUtilite.c

look for the initNewMainCharacter() function then insert "ch.reputation = 10;"
somewhere inside (see below in the code snippet where I placed the new line of code).

This'll make all starting characters Bloody Assassins. You can play with the value. I think values below 40 are considered bad dudes

I didn't test it extensively. I hope there are no negative side effects. So please, you're doing this at your own risk

void initNewMainCharacter()
{
ref ch = GetMainCharacter();
string sTemp;
int    iTmp, i;

setNewMainCharacter(ch, startHeroType);
// êîíòðîëü âåðñèé -->
ch.VersionNumber              = GetVerNum();
ch.VersionNumberCompatibility = VERSION_NUM;
// êîíòðîëü âåðñèé <--
ch.nation     = NullCharacter.HeroParam.nation;
ch.BaseNation = NullCharacter.HeroParam.nation;
ch.reputation = 10;  //STEELRAT TEST; 10 makes you a Bloody Assassin
...

Have fun!


"You've been such a bad captain lately! Did you know that bad captains get punished?!"

That's my favorite quote when visiting a (ingame) whore :

 

[Sharks Prize]

Awesome! Thank you very much!

But I think I will wait until I can figure out a way to start with john workman before I test it.

 

[Desric]

As for #3, I think I have an answer for you. If you look in the Ships_init.c file and scroll to SHIP_SOLEYRU, you'll find a line of code that makes it impossible to run into the ship and can only be obtained by the quest: refship.CanEncounter = false; This would need some testing as I have never completely stopped a ship from appearing naturally in-game, but if you add that line, it should work fine. I've tested this same basic principle by giving the Blue Bird the fancy blue/white striped sails off of the Royal Man-of-War with complete success. The good thing about this is that if it doesn't work 100% you can always delete the one line, or just reload a backup file. I hope this helps.

 

[Sharks Prize]

As for #3, I think I have an answer for you. If you look in the Ships_init.c file and scroll to SHIP_SOLEYRU, you'll find a line of code that makes it impossible to run into the ship and can only be obtained by the quest: refship.CanEncounter = false; This would need some testing as I have never completely stopped a ship from appearing naturally in-game, but if you add that line, it should work fine. I've tested this same basic principle by giving the Blue Bird the fancy blue/white striped sails off of the Royal Man-of-War with complete success. The good thing about this is that if it doesn't work 100% you can always delete the one line, or just reload a backup file. I hope this helps.

From what little I DO know about how the code works, that does sound reasonable. I'll add it right now. :hmm

Thank you very much.

 

[Luke159]

Not too sure about that line of code stopping a ship from been generated at sea or shipyards.

refship.CanEncounter = false;

It would make sence that it does do that but what makes me question it is why doesn't any of the other quest ships have that line of code.

But like i said it does make sence and i would expect it to work, in less some where in another file the line of code for the Soleil Royal is brought up because you do have to give that ship back after finishing the French questline, although you can still capture her. While the other quest ships are uses to capture, apart from the Bluebird but that works dfferently because you don't have to returne the ship to complete the quest.

It was a good find, all the time i had looked in the ship.init file and never seen that code, then again i didn't really do much looking at the quest ships.

 

[Desric]

Either way I thought it would be worth a try since it seemed like the most reasonable and effective way to stop the ships from popping up. It's possible that the line only exists for that ship because it's the only one that must be returned at some point while almost all the other quest ships are encountered on the map and can be captured. The only one I can think of that you don't have to capture but are just given would be the Dog of War. If the line doesn't work though, you can just get rid of it easily.

 

[Sharks Prize]

Sounds great! I'll wait patiently...

Yep! I found it.

...\Playlogic\Age of Pirates 2\Program\characters\RPGUtilite.c

look for the initNewMainCharacter() function then insert "ch.reputation = 10;"
somewhere inside (see below in the code snippet where I placed the new line of code).

This'll make all starting characters Bloody Assassins. You can play with the value. I think values below 40 are considered bad dudes

I didn't test it extensively. I hope there are no negative side effects. So please, you're doing this at your own risk

void initNewMainCharacter()
{
ref ch = GetMainCharacter();
string sTemp;
int    iTmp, i;

setNewMainCharacter(ch, startHeroType);
// êîíòðîëü âåðñèé -->
ch.VersionNumber              = GetVerNum();
ch.VersionNumberCompatibility = VERSION_NUM;
// êîíòðîëü âåðñèé <--
ch.nation     = NullCharacter.HeroParam.nation;
ch.BaseNation = NullCharacter.HeroParam.nation;
ch.reputation = 10;  //STEELRAT TEST; 10 makes you a Bloody Assassin
...

Have fun!


"You've been such a bad captain lately! Did you know that bad captains get punished?!"

That's my favorite quote when visiting a (ingame) whore :

I just tested this, and sadly it does not work. The officers' reputations are still random.

 

[Desric]

The problem with that is for the main character, not the officers. I still haven't found the officer's reputation files, and because the officer's reputation frustrated me too, I made several copies of the officers I liked to improve the odds of one of them being the reputation I to fit my main character. It's a little time consuming but not difficult, and until I know how to change the officers' reputation, it's the only fix I know of for this.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

In PotC we use refship.CanEncounter = false; and refship.CanBuy = false; all the time to prevent quest ships from showing up randomly.
This works fine. Additionally, we added a character who, in his hidden shipyard, will sell these ships.
That way, players who do want to get those ships in a game, can buy them.
Of course in CoAS this will not be such an issue, since there's not different storylines in which a certain ship might not be available.