How do I get my fleet to follow me?

[JackOfOwls]

I'm finally having some progress & success with New Horizons, with 500,000 gold and a small fleet of three ships, but how do I get them to follow me? They tend to dawdle behind and end up getting decimated in random battles.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

They should do automatically, but companion ships aren't always the cleverest.
Try commanding them to defend yourself using the Enter menu.
Alternatively, tell them to Sail Away to avoid getting attacked.

 

[JackOfOwls]

They should do automatically, but companion ships aren't always the cleverest.
Try commanding them to defend yourself using the Enter menu.
Alternatively, tell them to Sail Away to avoid getting attacked.

Thanks. The mod is all starting to fall into place now after an initial tough learning curve but I am encountering a few quest breakers, I think. For example, one of the first quests I took was from a governor to destroy a french Bermuda sloop off the coast of St. Martin. I gave chase and engaged it in battle far out to sea but was too early level to defeat it so had to retreat back to land to lick my wounds. Several days later, I went looking for the sloop again but it's nowhere to be found. The quest entry is still there but I think the quest is kaput. Oh well. Now I've got a quest with a female french pirate as a companion that promises riches but refuses to divulge details just yet...or is bugged.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

For the governor quest I'll be able to give you some code tomorrow to reset that.

Fir the female French pirate, check the walk through because I don't remember that one very well.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Ah, Claire LaRousse. That one has always worked well for me but there are lots of soldiers to fight so good melee skills are a must. Once you set sail check your quest book for where to land on Barbados.

 

[JackOfOwls]

Ah, Claire LaRousse. That one has always worked well for me but there are lots of soldiers to fight so good melee skills are a must. Once you set sail check your quest book for where to land on Barbados.

Just as I thought: the quest got broken (I think). I accepted her offer in town, she told me to meet her in the port, and though she follows me around in her ship now, whenever I ask her directly in her ship's cabin about what she was offering, she says something like "Have you thought about my offer?" The only entry in the quest book about her is this one (see enclosed screencap). That makes two quests that I managed to miff. In fact, I haven't completed a single quest in the game yet, just doing some sandboxing to build my character up. I heard that in this game and CoAS it's very easy to break quests by not following an exact sequence of events or something.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Quest characters not saying the right thing after hiring is quite common, because the original game didn't allow you to speak to them like that.

It is indeed possible to break quests, but that seems to be pretty random. Keeping multiple saves is always recommended.
I have done a lot of work to make them more reliable in general, but stupid stuff still happens.

Anyway, do you have a savegame with the Larousse quest active? I'd like to check your character attributes.


For the Ship Hunting quest, open PROGRAM\console.c and find:

void ExecuteConsole()
{
   ref pchar = GetMainCharacter();
   ref ch;
   int i;
   int limit;

Below this, add:

DoQuestCheckDelay("kill_pirate_complete", 0.0);

Then load your save and press F12. I think that should complete your open quest, allow you to get the reward and get new ones.

 

[JackOfOwls]

Thanks for your help, Pieter. The cheat worked though I would have preferred just taking the quest again so I could kill him but at least I now have it cleared from my quest log, can get the reward and get other quests. Here's my latest save:

 

[Pieter Boelen]

The cheat worked though I would have preferred just taking the quest again so I could kill him

Just kill the next one!

 

[Hylie Pistof]

It has been a while since I did Claire Larousse but methinks you should land at the Lighthouse and see what happens.

 

[JackOfOwls]

Just kill the next one!

Actually, I'm all talk where my bark is bigger than my blunderbuss. I'm a pirate with a heart. I always give them the option of joining me in a captain's position (it could be worse, I could have them in a cabinboy's position... ouch! ) or walking the plank. But you know how proud and arrogant these frenchies are. They always choose the plank

 

[Hylie Pistof]

I am doing Claire now and all you have to do is sail to Barbados. The game will land you automatically and the story continues from there. Heh. That is the easy part. I forgot about how you get to fight your way all the way across the island.

Hint: Do not go to Speightstown.

 

[JackOfOwls]

I am doing Claire now and all you have to do is sail to Barbados. The game will land you automatically and the story continues from there. Heh. That is the easy part. I forgot about how you get to fight your way all the way across the island.

Hint: Do not go to Speightstown.

Actually, I did go to Speightstown after it was invaded by the french. I put up a french flag and just waltzed right in there like I owed the place. No one one bothered me and if they did I woulda just shouted, "En garde, you french dogs!" Of course, trying to leave with my ship might have been troublesome. I think I once did try to go back without raising the french flag. Good thing for the save/reload button. Thanks for all the help, guys.

 

[Grey Roger]

I think the point is that there are certain places you need to go in the Claire Larousse quest, and if you end up in Speightstown then you've been going in the wrong direction...

 

[Hylie Pistof]

I think the point is that there are certain places you need to go in the Claire Larousse quest, and if you end up in Speightstown then you've been going in the wrong direction...

Trudat! When I got to Speightstown I quickly found I had gone too far.