Fixed Free Play New Game Trouble

[Pieter Boelen]

I just installed latest version of New Horizons as suggested by Pieter.
I chose the free play for new game and I custom picked the VOC founder, with custom ship, custom flags.

I did not change ship name, nor profile name, nor avatar player name. If I do so, when I start new game it gets bugged; if I go ashore, there isn't an ambush. If I stay on ship without listening to advice @ beginning, I get stuck on ship and can't move out; if I listen to the beginning advice on my cabin, there is no sword so I get stuck in the cabin. I also realized that maybe the issue with the bugs at the start is because I first chose the year 1500-1550 with Holland nation.. perhaps discovery age is for Spain and Portugal only.

I have tested this on my game version now and it seems to work.
But you did select the "Marine" player type, which was bugged until not so long ago.
The fix is in the latest ZIP (which I will soon again replace because some more stuff needs fixing too).

Not sure what you mean by "an ambush".

 

[A.H]

In the Free play.. you start in a cabin as usual. Then your ship mate comes and talks, and you got 4 options.. talk about the basics of what you need to get done, etc. then there are 2 more options in the chat dialog.. and the 4th one is "I better go offshore, a French squadron is sighted..." something like that.

You go offshore, and as soon as the screen opens @ land, a message comes on top left "AMBUSH!" .. as you saw on the picture I posted earlier.. me and my shipmate were fighting a large group who came attacked us.. it took me 2 hours to finally kill them lol

I also found out that if you die.. and you don't press/click on any button or mouse.. after the death video you get re-spawned in Santo Domingo and a lady talks to you in a room.. but i ignored that and i kept reloading till i killed those ambush wankers.


As for the ZIP file.. do i have to make a new game for effects to take place, or it fixed automatically on my saved game?

 

[pedrwyth]

Starting Julian McAllister as Naval Officer starts me as a Lieutenant WITH a ship.
Starting with a generic English midshipman uniform starts me as a Midshipman also WITH a ship.

Nope with me McAllister is a midshipman (WITH a ship) according to what shows on pressing F2. I tried walking to the store and town hall but no rank appears in the dialogues I tried - how are you testing his rank (console for attributes?) because I can't believe we are getting different effects unless you have something other than the latest exe and 27May Zip in your version? Or is this also now fixed too with your missing code re-instatement?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

In the Free play.. you start in a cabin as usual. Then your ship mate comes and talks, and you got 4 options.. talk about the basics of what you need to get done, etc. then there are 2 more options in the chat dialog.. and the 4th one is "I better go offshore, a French squadron is sighted..." something like that.

Ah, that's the "Stormy Start" option.

You go offshore, and as soon as the screen opens @ land, a message comes on top left "AMBUSH!" .. as you saw on the picture I posted earlier.. me and my shipmate were fighting a large group who came attacked us.. it took me 2 hours to finally kill them lol

That doesn't always happen with a Stormy Start.
In fact, I think you need to ask some crew to join you ashore before stuff like that can be triggered.

I also found out that if you die.. and you don't press/click on any button or mouse.. after the death video you get re-spawned in Santo Domingo and a lady talks to you in a room.. but i ignored that and i kept reloading till i killed those ambush wankers.

That is not related to clicking your mouse or not. It is simply a random chance that you survive.
You can tweak that chance under Options>Advanced Options.

As for the ZIP file.. do i have to make a new game for effects to take place, or it fixed automatically on my saved game?

If I recall, no new game is enforced but I'm not entirely sure anymore.

Nope with me McAllister is a midshipman (WITH a ship) according to what shows on pressing F2. I tried walking to the store and town hall but no rank appears in the dialogues I tried - how are you testing his rank (console for attributes?) because I can't believe we are getting different effects unless you have something other than the latest exe and 27May Zip in your version? Or is this also now fixed too with your missing code re-instatement?

What I did:
- Start the game
- Select Free Play Storyline
- Change date to Colonial Powers
- Select "brtmds1_18" as character model
- After getting control of my character, the F2>Character Menu shows me as midshipman
- F2>Ship shows that I do have a ship and I can go to sea just fine.

Similar for just changing the default "Brave Black Flag" settings to "Navy Officer", but then I start as Lieutenant.
That is all as intended.

As I said above, I'm not 100% sure anymore what is and isn't in the latest ZIP.
But I'm about to find out because I'm doing a WinMerge with the latest public files right now.
Once that is done, you can expect another ZIP with everything I've got right now.

 

[Grey Roger]

I also found out that if you die.. and you don't press/click on any button or mouse.. after the death video you get re-spawned in Santo Domingo and a lady talks to you in a room.. but i ignored that and i kept reloading till i killed those ambush wankers.

Press F1 to get to the main menu (or wait until you die again) and go to the options menu. From there, you can get to various game preferences, one of which is survival. Set that to the maximum value so that when you die you are certain not to be resurrected. Never bother about waiting to respawn in a tavern again.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Yes I did.. there was only one option for repaint.. and I clicked on it. But the ship looks the same, could this be the trigger of what caused the ship to duplicate twice in my fleet slots?

I do believe so.

 

[A.H]

Aw I crash whenever I try to save.. it seems my save file is not appropriate for the new ZIP I just replaced with.
I will start new free play game and run the new version through.

 

[A.H]

The issue with startup bug where I get stuck on the ship without being able to move ashore.. is it now occurring to me only when I click on the 2nd option in the adviser dialog "I remember everything just fine".

After I tell him that, he reminds me just to go repair ship, tavern, etc. Then he leaves and I am alone in cabin, then I am able to go to the ship deck, but I get stuck there.. I could even go to the edge of the ship stern where I see the "Sea" box available, but I keep pressing on click.. doesn't trigger the action to go to Sea.


I picked exactly the same startup features as before, Gherard de Jongh, Marine, 1 January 1600, Light Fluyt, Holland nation.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

There are a lot of "Light Fluyt" ships in 1600, so I'm not sure which one you took.
Anyway, I tested one at random and that one worked fine.

Note that you must first go ashore from your ship's deck. Going to sea right after leaving your cabin doesn't work.
Reason is that the tutorial is technically quite separate from the normal deck/cabin scenes in the game.

 

[A.H]

Well from the 4 options when I first start the game.. the second and the fourth aren't responding well with me. Both of the options don't allow me to save by F5.

As you can see below the SS of the error:


I will try now the other 2 options; and as for the light fluyt.. when you choose free play.. click on the ship.. choose Holland in the nation type on the right side, and there will be only 1 light fluyt (7) .. German built 17th century ..... But I tried sloop, naval cutter, and the same issue also.

The other SS I uploaded is the options which I was talking about.. this dialog is AFTER you click on the first option at the very start.. you keep clicking and clicking till you see these 3 options. The second one "I remember everything" is the one where I get stuck in ship.



The last one, going offshore.. I can leave ship but I can't save game by F5

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Not being able to save is a completely different (and definitely unrelated) issue that we never were able to completely fix.
You can try to remove the file named "options" from your main game folder and remove all contents of your SAVE folder.
Perhaps de-fragmenting your hard drive might help too. @Hylie Pistof might have some more suggestions.

 

[pedrwyth]

Right with new zip applied

cursed coins there ok

Wil Turner still locks up if you try whole tutorial before you get to go to the chest.

McAllister as Naval officer start is still a midshipman (not worried about this for gameplay since it doesn't break the game) - but why is @Pieter Boelen 's game different.

The second one "I remember everything" is the one where I get stuck in ship.

I am pretty sure this is the reload to shore locators being "hard" to find as I said above At least that's the sequence that gets me to deck to try and find them. They are there though! EDIT The latest ZIP has then back to normal so exiting the ship is fine.

I am currently trying a completely fresh install to see If I can get away from the Turner and McAllister differences.

 

[A.H]

Ah yes I removed options then re-adjusted the settings again.. and for save files I only have the folders "Tales of seahawk... free play.. Assassin... etc."
For de-fragmenting I will have to double check that through since I never did before.

But I'm now haven't trouble starting a new game with de Jongh.. none of the options seem to be working for me. If nothing will work by the end of the night then I guess tomorrow I'll give a try for one of the other story-lines.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Not really.

1. I NEVER use quick save but most players who do have no problems at all.

2. You can not save until you get past a certain spot in the tutorial. To me this all sounds like rookie mistakes as I never have any problems. To leave the tutorial ship go on deck and walk towards the bow. Just past the main mast is the exit which will take you to the dock.

 

[A.H]

Aye this is the step where I can't proceed.. I see the option to go on shore, but I press "space" which is my action button.. and the command doesn't go through.
As for save issue, I can get over it by manually saving, but my problem now is the part where I'm being stuck on ship. Now don't get me wrong, but since none of you are facing these issues, it maybe my laptop that is the issue.

I assume the crooks who formatted it for me stole my graphic card and replaced with a crappier one. That would explain why last year I could play GOF without any crashing, and now I can't even get the game to run for 10 seconds


Anyhow, I will try out a manual save till I complete tutorial then see if the autosave feature is over with. Thank you both for the wonderful support; I hope I didn't cause a migraine!

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Wil Turner still locks up if you try whole tutorial before you get to go to the chest.

Indeed I managed to replicate that now too. Strange that it affects him and not other characters.
Adding a line here should prevent that problem ever again:

    case "Tut_TakeStuff":
       LAi_SetWarriorTypeNoGroup(CharacterFromID("Malcolm Hatcher"));
       LAi_warrior_SetStay(CharacterFromID("Malcolm Hatcher"), true);
       LAi_warrior_DialogEnable(CharacterFromID("Malcolm Hatcher"), true);
       LAi_SetPlayerType(pchar); // <------------- ADD THIS LINE --------------
     break;

both_reaction.c, of course.

McAllister as Naval officer start is still a midshipman (not worried about this for gameplay since it doesn't break the game) - but why is @Pieter Boelen 's game different.

Turns out you're actually right; he DOES start as Midshipman.
Which is caused by this line for him in PROGRAM\Models\initModels.c:

model.minrank  =  1;

I completely forgot, but I did actually intentionally do that so you can get the new custom uniform ("47_JRMMLt1") when you're promoted to Lieutenant.

Aye this is the step where I can't proceed.. I see the option to go on shore, but I press "space" which is my action button.. and the command doesn't go through.
As for save issue, I can get over it by manually saving, but my problem now is the part where I'm being stuck on ship. Now don't get me wrong, but since none of you are facing these issues, it maybe my laptop that is the issue.

What happens if you DO play through the tutorial? Malcolm should show you where to leave the ship and then you can follow him into town.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I will try now the other 2 options; and as for the light fluyt.. when you choose free play.. click on the ship.. choose Holland in the nation type on the right side, and there will be only 1 light fluyt (7) .. German built 17th century ..... But I tried sloop, naval cutter, and the same issue also.

These were your starting settings then, right?

I skipped the tutorial, then went out on deck. The way to go ashore is marked in this image (be sure to go UP those stairs):

And here I am in port after the reload (the weird blobs and text are the reload "locators", if you're wondering):

So I'm afraid I am unable to replicate the problem.

Since this should not be a hardware issue, you could ZIP up your PROGRAM folder and upload it here.
Then I'll WinMerge and check if there is an installation error in there somewhere.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Wait.

You have a laptop that used to run better than now? More information is required! Does it have nvidia graphics? Check out the links in my signature for possible solutions to your problems.

 

[pedrwyth]

Indeed I managed to replicate that now too. AND

Turns out you're actually right; he DOES start as Midshipman.

So you won't be surprised my rebuild was exactly the same for those two. No worries at least it's sorted.

So the only remaining issue I think I had was questbook entries with weird endings (after the text in the relevant questbook file) they are still there.

I guess you can add removing the "congratulations on your promotion" from the text in Robert Fletcher for the Naval skip (since it doesn't suit a midshipman. Perhaps "congratulations on your temporary appointment to command perform well and you will soon earn a full promotion" or some such (I don't know how hard that next promotion is to earn?)

 

[A.H]

Yea I chose those options @ start of game many times.. apart from the autosave issue, I wasn't able to leave the ship when I chose some of the options by Malcolm.
Going offshore option directly works now, except that I get placed on an enemy island so I have to sail somewhere else.

Yes I checked the Nvidia link, however I do not see any control panel for Nvidia on my laptop. Bare in mind I had this for more than 5 years, and it has been formatted 4 times ever since I bought it.

Between these years, anyone who formatted for me could have taken/replaced devices within the laptop. But I uploaded the RAR file of my PROGRAM, as well as a SS of my computer stats.. I'm kind of newbie in technical matters, therefore I'm still trying to figure out which kind of graphic card I have.


Much thanks for your time mate, will speak to you tomorrow!