• New Horizons on Maelstrom
    Maelstrom New Horizons


    Visit our website www.piratehorizons.com to quickly find download links for the newest versions of our New Horizons mods Beyond New Horizons and Maelstrom New Horizons!

Planned Feature Explorers and Uncharted Islands

pedrwyth

Privateer
Storm Modder
@pedrwyth: What do you think of this idea for your Jose Almeida character?
- you get Portuguese relations, but a LoM from America.
If you agree, probably the storyline description should be updated to reflect that despite you appearing Portuguese, your loyalties lie with the USA.
On ly just seen this and yes it is nearer what I expected for him. I'm still toying with a hybrid merchant start and change to corsair at star of Anglo American war. Once I finish playing around with monks I might get back there one day.

- EXPLORER PLAYER TYPE! Exploration can be a great thing for gameplay, but how do we make the best use of that? Especially in Early Explorers? I honestly don't have a clue right now, but there must be options.
In early explorers there are all those currently unavailable islands. Long term it could be possible to make fake locations to block out the towns and actually allow an explorer to explore. Presumably claim the new land for their served nation and get kudos=points from the governor, maybe have to build some small buildings and put up a flag (leave crew etc). So reserve explorer type for that playstyle/task. As long as the beaches remain for access it doesn't actually matter if the inland geography doesn't match what you get in a later period when the island is available normally because the two will never meet as it were. It might take a bit of re-initialisation after the choice of explorer player type.
 
On ly just seen this and yes it is nearer what I expected for him. I'm still toying with a hybrid merchant start and change to corsair at star of Anglo American war. Once I finish playing around with monks I might get back there one day.
What I proposed is how I've currently set him up to he's both Portuguese and American.
But you're very welcome to tweak it later to your liking. :doff

In early explorers there are all those currently unavailable islands. Long term it could be possible to make fake locations to block out the towns and actually allow an explorer to explore. Presumably claim the new land for their served nation and get kudos=points from the governor, maybe have to build some small buildings and put up a flag (leave crew etc). So reserve explorer type for that playstyle/task. As long as the beaches remain for access it doesn't actually matter if the inland geography doesn't match what you get in a later period when the island is available normally because the two will never meet as it were. It might take a bit of re-initialisation after the choice of explorer player type.
Pretty good ideas. Would be nice to eventually make use again of those disabled islands in Early Explorers.
On the other hand, what you describe sounds like something that should probably be available to all players.
At the moment only the Naval Officer type gives you a playstyle that you cannot otherwise get.
Other than that, you may start one way, but can do whatever you want afterwards.

Perhaps those islands need to be charted? And the Explorer player type would start out with some additional needed mapping tools?
Becomes more of a cartographer player type then, but it'd be something at least.

When I think of exploring in the Caribbean, I start thinking mainly about the Spanish Main and all sorts of jungley stuff.
And some Mayans and Conquistadors.
 
Pretty good ideas. Would be nice to eventually make use again of those disabled islands in Early Explorers.
On the other hand, what you describe sounds like something that should probably be available to all players.
At the moment only the Naval Officer type gives you a playstyle that you cannot otherwise get.
Other than that, you may start one way, but can do whatever you want afterwards.

Perhaps those islands need to be charted? And the Explorer player type would start out with some additional needed mapping tools?
Becomes more of a cartographer player type then, but it'd be something at least.
An explorer in "Early Explorers" would be a cartographer - he's sailing into new territory for which there are no maps so he's drawing them as he goes along.

At the moment, if an island is disabled then you can't land there - I found that when I tried to land at Muscetto Cove, Antigua, while developing the "Angelique Moulin" side quest. I had a map so I knew where to look, besides which having a map ought to enable Sail-To, but I couldn't Sail-To Muscetto Cove and I couldn't land when I sailed there manually. Perhaps an Explorer type would be able to re-enable the island when he sails there, though it would need an alternative set of links to block access to towns, or for preference an alternative texture so the towns just don't appear. You can't boldly go where no-one has gone before if, when you sail round the island, you can see that someone has gone there before. xD
 
An explorer in "Early Explorers" would be a cartographer - he's sailing into new territory for which there are no maps so he's drawing them as he goes along.
Yep, that's what I was thinking of. But then what does an Explorer do OUTSIDE Early Explorers? Should that even be an option when we add the feature?

At the moment, if an island is disabled then you can't land there - I found that when I tried to land at Muscetto Cove, Antigua, while developing the "Angelique Moulin" side quest. I had a map so I knew where to look, besides which having a map ought to enable Sail-To, but I couldn't Sail-To Muscetto Cove and I couldn't land when I sailed there manually.
Very true. Intentional as simple solution, but unfortunate all the same.

Perhaps an Explorer type would be able to re-enable the island when he sails there, though it would need an alternative set of links to block access to towns, or for preference an alternative texture so the towns just don't appear. You can't boldly go where no-one has gone before if, when you sail round the island, you can see that someone has gone there before. xD
How would you stop towns from appearing using an alternate texture?
Perhaps applying alpha maps to EVERYTHING would actually be an option. Might be worth experimenting with.
Now I wonder what the towns look like without buildings. :cheeky
 
Yep, that's what I was thinking of. But then what does an Explorer do OUTSIDE Early Explorers? Should that even be an option when we add the feature?
You can't boldly go where no-one has gone before if someone has already got there. xD With all the islands already populated, there aren't many places to explore in later periods. Perhaps allow an explorer to land on Petit Tabac, or add some new land to the beach near Cartagena and only allow explorers to go there.

Very true. Intentional as simple solution, but unfortunate all the same.
It serves its purpose. It's fine until someone wants to explore these uncharted islands. Unfortunately some trouble-maker now wants to do exactly that. xD

Now I wonder what the towns look like without buildings. :cheeky
You can get some idea of that by visiting Cartagena. The governor's residence is located in an area which is basically a restructured version of Point a Pitre, Guadeloupe - he even has his own private pier, as the location is based on the port area, though you're just a pleb and can't sail there.:p
 
Last edited:
You can't boldly go where no-one has gone before if someone has already got there. xD With all the islands already populated, there aren't many places to explore in later periods. Perhaps allow an explorer to land on Petit Tabac, or add some new land to the beach near Cartagena and only allow explorers to go there.
Petit Tabac is accessible for the Silver Train sidequest, but indeed otherwise serves little purpose.
Same with Isla Mona which is only for the Assassin storyline, if I recall.

You can get some idea of that by visiting Cartagena. The governor's residence is located in an area which is basically a restructured version of Point a Pitre, Guadeloupe - he even has his own private pier, as the location is based on the port area, though you're just a pleb and can't sail there.:p
Ah, yes; I remember that. Not bad, but would probably require some extra trees and stuff.
BuildingSet is always a nice and weird way of doing stuff lke that. Wouldn't be perfect, but probably easier than changing the code and replace towns with jungle and shore locations.
 
hmmm....
What you say if we:

make 2 or 3 locations which are beaches which look nice (can be beaches in game already). When an island is disabled all landing spots will go to one of these beaches (they are picked based on the type of landing spot, this can be done manually).
For these beaches we just block all exits with some palmtrees from the buildset so it looks like there is no way out of them.
Once you have basicland owner or you are serving a nation if you land on a beach like this you can have the option to claim it for a certain nation.
After you've done this you should report back to your governor (if you are serving someone). He will tell you he will send some settlers there.
After an X amount of time you will get a notification or something that the settlers are done and the island is aviable like it is in normal play but the town is under control of the nation you claimed it for.

If you have basic land owner you can also leave a portion of your crew to build up a settlement there, and also after X amount of time the island will be aviable but now its under your own control.

We got the code already for controling towns etc and chaging the owner ship from the capture colonys mod. So hardest part would be to make these beaches. Rest is simple quest code which doesn't involve much weird stuff. It could always be expanded on later. Say for example you need to gather resources for the colony to be build using the fetchquest code. And protecting some of the shipments going there using the convoy code ...
 
So hardest part would be to make these beaches.
That's why my latest idea is to keep all the same locations, but use alpha maps to hide all the buildings.
I think that can probably be done. Requires making a texture folder with the alpha maps under the needed names (lots of same tiny files)
and one line of code to make the location use that texture folder instead of the normal one.
Sounds like the method that requires the least amount of work.
The town can then also be "rebuilt" with a one-line code change that sets the texture folder to normal again.
 
Back
Top