Is there a connection between a town patrol recognizing me as a pirate and coast guard ships waiting for me when I go to sea?

[Fluen]

I decided to play nice with the British. So I paid sir Henry Moore a visit in Port Royale and asked for forgiveness and paid the demanded compensation. When I later took care of a few errands in the town, I ran into a patrol, which recognized me as a pirate. Of course, I wouldn't let myself be cut to pieces and cut the soldiers to pieces in my stead.
Later I sailed out from Rocky Beach and smack into two warships, who immediately attacked me. It didn't matter, that I now had a neutral relationship with England. And my attempts to avoid sinking a British ship and thus again be enemies with England by reloading and raising the British flag or by postpone my leaving Jamaica by either spend a night in the tavern or ask my crewmembers to wait another number of hours had no effect. The British warships kept waiting for me and attacking me.

The only solution, that worked, was to reload to a gamesave from before my clash with the patrol. And behold! No hostile British warships waiting for me not giving a damn about my neutral relationship with England.

If there is a connection between fighting a patrol over my pirate status and the coast guard waiting for me at sea, it might explain other encounters with hostile warships from a nation, I otherwise had a fairly neutral relationship with.

 

[Grey Roger]

No, coast guard ships are part of the smuggling code and will attack if you've been caught smuggling, even if you're actively friendly with Britain and have a LoM.

If you weren't smuggling then those aren't coast guard. The ships may have spotted you and recognised you while you were approaching Jamaica, in which case they'll have remembered you as hostile. After your reload, they may still be around and still remember you as hostile, but they may simply have spawned somewhere else. The game might also have spawned some new British ships near Rocky Shore, and as these weren't around to recognise you when you first approached, they'll be neutral to you.

 

[Fluen]

So ships around the coast may also remember the player's ship like the forts? That would explain, how they could be hostile to me, even if I had made peace with England while ashore. It doesn't explain, how they could be in the same area, if I alternated between staying ashore for almost two weeks and for only one night, but I guess bad luck could do that.

 

[Grey Roger]

If the ship was spawned when you arrived at the island and then stayed there, it may very well remember you. Recognition and memory work the same for ships as for forts. Once you're ashore, nothing happens to those ships until you go to sea again. Then they're put back on the sea as well, possibly near the port which you're leaving, possibly somewhere else.

If you still have the savegame from while you're on Jamaica and before going to sea, load it again, and if the save is before you did it, go to Henry Moore and pay for amnesty again. Go to sea and use "Sail To" to check every ship in range. If a British ship attacks you, quit the game at once and have a look at "compile.log". Somewhere near the end should be some clue about why the ship attacked you. Or upload the savegame, then I can try the same experiment.

 

[Fluen]

I don't have that savegame any more, though I do have the one right after I landed on the beach. I could imagine, that the ships anchored up in the same bay, as I did, which could explain, why I encountered them, right when I went to sea.

 

[Grey Roger]

That would probably do. Load that, go to sea, and if you're attacked by British ships while you're supposed to be friendly to Britain, quit at once and look at "compile.log". Or upload "compile.log" and I'll take a look. Or upload the savegame and I'll try it when I have time.

 

[Fluen]

I've resumed the game, I left off at the end of the summer of 2022. And I'm now certain, that a patrol recognizing me as a pirate leads to a pair of warships waiting for me, when I go to sea again.

I have conquered every colony in the Caribbean, though I had to leave four of them to Sweden, which is the only nation, I'm on friendly terms with. And when one of the patrols in my own colonies recognize me as a pirate, I'm unable to fight them, because they don't fight me (I'm their ruler), and I can't hurt them, because I only manage to give them one health point in damage per cut like for crewmembers.

And every time I leave the island, I've been recognized on, I meet that pair of warships flying my own colours. I've tried to flee and go ashore on another coast of the same island, and when I return to sea, the ships are there waiting for me again. I've also tried to flee to the open sea, and if I return to the island again, the ships are there waiting. Actually, I don't know, how long they'll wait for me. Right now, I visit every island in the Caribbean in a clockwise order. And when I return to the island again after going around the entire of the Caribbean, the island is finally safe for me.

Mind you, I'm playing the build 14 beta 4 version with the updates from 27th of April 2022. My reputation is hero, but after taking every town in the Caribbean, I'm as a minimum acknowledged. And a pirate.

If you want a savegame to examine, I'll gladly supply you with one. Every conversation with the patrolling soldiers lead to them recognizing me.

 

[Grey Roger]

If it's the same pair of warships then they may be stored somehow - I don't know. If you leave the island, return to the island and they're still there, they evidently are stored. But I don't think it can be linked to anything which happens on land.

You're almost a year out of date! However, upload "compile.log" - any version will do, I just want to see exactly which version number it says you have. The update from April 2022 should have the same version number as the update from April 2023, and if so, you should be able to load the most recent update and still continue your game - though you may not get all the benefits without starting a new game.

 

[Fluen]

Here you are. It's possible, it actually is the gamma version. But the download folder says beta4_final. I downloaded it the 27th of May 2022.

 

[Grey Roger]

That "compile.log" says it's version 14.943. The current update uses the same version number so it should work and should still recognise your saves. You could make a backup copy of your "SAVE" folder just in case things go horribly wrong, though.