Solved How to become different captain types

[HellSailor]

Just a question I have in my mind for some time: How can you be a navy captain? Or a merchant captain? Sorry if this seems stupid, I have no clue how to do it.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Navy Captain - Start game as navy officer
Privateer Captain - Get a LoM
Merchant Captain - Get a merchant letter from the Curacao WIC or Jamaica EITC offices
Pirate Captain - Get your served nation to Pirate through acts of Piracy or by joining them
Captain - None of the above

At the moment these tests serve no specific gameplay purpose, but it is useful for testing such as when @Grey Roger noticed Hornblower became a Privateer Captain which is obviously wrong for him.
That indicates he does have a LoM and isn't in the navy, which is bizarre so we'll need to dig into that and see what sequence of events led to that.

Which reminds me.... @Grey Roger, now that you're apparently a Privateer with Hornblower, did you do anything that should have cost you your commission?
And can you see which nation you've got your LoM with? If still with England, ate you gaining points with them?
And if so, does your rack name become Green at some point and can you gain promotions through ordinary governors?
That should be possible for privateers.

 

[HellSailor]

Any spoiler for where it is the Jamaica EITC offices?

By the way, what advantages has a merchant captain? And disadvantages?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Jamaica EITC office is opposite the governor, between the Tavern and the opium den.

A merchant Captain has a merchant letter.
The only thing that does at the moment is to stop your crew becoming envious if you have a huge lot of money.
The English one also gives you access to the facilities at Antigua.

There is no specific disadvantage other than such a letter costing a nearly stupid amount of money.
The current number required is just a first try though and is easily changed based on player feedback.

Something that just occurred to me @Grey Roger about that ship that surrendered but turned hostile again afterwards:
Did you approach that ship under a flag friendly them while being hostile to them yourself?
If so, they would have gotten the recognised attribute which turns ships hostile.
I think Screwface_functions.c will need an extra exception to NOT do that for ships that also got the surrendered attribute.
If that was indeed it, that should be easily solved.