Engine Limitation Different Flags Mod: Flags Shown on Mast of Wrong Ship

[Grey Roger]

Have a look at this savegame. Everything seems fine - I'm in the British navy and when you load the savegame, the ship is flying the British flag.

But look at the picture associated with the savegame. I wasn't flying a British flag when I created it! I'd been direct-sailing out of Kingston, met a Portuguese squadron, next thing I know I'm flying an American flag.

"compile.log" and "system.log" from just after the flag change are included. There was no "error.log".

This is the second time that's happened during this campaign. A previous one was close to Nevis; I'd met a Spanish group, never closed to engage them, then I got "Land Ho!" as I entered Nevis' radius and now I was showing a Spanish flag. I didn't remember to get log files that time, though I do have a similar savegame with the Spanish flag visible in the savegame interface picture.

 

[jsv]

In my recent free play games I had my personal flag changing its appearance (to another personal flag) from time to time as well. As there was no much harm in that, I haven't look deeper, though.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

When that happens, check F2>Nation Relations to see which flag you're REALLY flying as far as the game code is concerned.

I recall seeing this once as well and I think it is because the Different Flags mod for some reason gets confused on which flag is supposed to go on which mast on which ship.
That feature is crazy complex and simply refuses to always work right. I suppose we may consider ourselves lucky that most of the time it does work as intended.

 

[Grey Roger]

I did. I'm supposed to be flying a British flag. Indeed, when you load that savegame, you are flying a British flag. To be honest, I'd used a false Spanish flag on one or two occasions to sneak into French ports in search of side quests, but this wasn't one of those occasions - flying a Spanish flag anywhere near Kingston or Charlestown is not a good idea! I mention it only in case the game somehow remembered it. But I've never used an American flag so that wouldn't explain why I got one before the savegame above...

 

[Pieter Boelen]

As I said: I think it is the flag from another ship in the scene displaying on your own ship.
Obviously doesn't make sense and shouldn't happen, but it should be merely a graphical error and have no impact on the game.

I'm pretty sure there is no memory of "previous flags flown".

 

[Hylie Pistof]

I have had flags randomly change also. Sometimes i can change them back easily in the relations menus, but other times I have to switch to a national flag, then back to the one I want. In extreme cases I have to choose a different personal flag to make it change at all.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I have had flags randomly change also. Sometimes i can change them back easily in the relations menus, but other times I have to switch to a national flag, then back to the one I want. In extreme cases I have to choose a different personal flag to make it change at all.

I imagine a reload to worldmap/shore should do it too, no?

 

[Hylie Pistof]

No ideer. Never did that.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Assuming that my suspicion is correct and your flag doesn't TRULY change into something else and it is just graphical,
it would sort itself out by reloading the scene without the player being required to do anything whatsoever.

 

[Grey Roger]

How do you reload the scene without doing anything?

Certainly if I save game and then reload it, the flag is back to normal, as you'll see if you load the savegame provided in the first post.

If I get a graphical Spanish flag again, I'm going to try to sail into a British port and see what the fort thinks of it...

 

[Pieter Boelen]

How do you reload the scene without doing anything?

I mean: just continue playing until you make shore/go to worldmap/whatever.
It'll be correct next time you enter 3D Sailing Mode.

If I get a graphical Spanish flag again, I'm going to try to sail into a British port and see what the fort thinks of it...

That'll be a good thing to check. If I'm right, the British fort will still know that you are flying an ENGLISH flag and will not fire.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I know this is a real problem, but it does not affect gameplay and I don't think it is going to be easily fixed at all.
So I'm marking it as "Engine Limitation". To ensure we don't forget about it, it is also added to the Engine Limitation - List of Known Bugs that Cannot be Fixed | PiratesAhoy!