New fluyt of war

[Grey Roger]

While looking through existing texture files as a prelude to making a new one for a de-Satanified fluyt of war, I found one which doesn't seem to have been used: "bortoutfleut3.tga.tx". The layout of a texture file for a fluyt of war is slightly different to that for a basic fluyt and this one seems to be for a fluyt of war, so I knocked up a copy of "FleutWar", duplicated its entry in "Ships_init.c", and this is the result:


The texture file needs a bit of work, specifically to add gun ports for the extra cannons carried by a fluyt of war. At the moment they're just gun barrels sticking out of the side:


I have no plans for this ship - the red and black scheme looks a bit too close to a Satanist ship, and in fact if I'd seen this three or four years ago, it would probably have been the Satanist fluyt of war. So it's free if anyone wants to use it for quest purposes, and I can upload the model folder if someone wants to use it.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Looks kind-of familiar. Could it be that she used to be in the mod, but we took her out and forgot to remove the texture file?

In any case, she does look quite fun!
Now you have her anyway, you could just make her a Vanderdecken ship repaint-compatible with the regular Fleuts-of-War.
Or have 'CanBuy = true', but 'CanEncounter = false' or so.

 

[Grey Roger]

Some work is still needed on the texture file, either to modify it to the same layout as a basic fluyt, or to add the gun ports for the upper row of cannons below the quarterdeck. So the ship is not operational yet, but I have model files for anyone who wants to finish it off. Otherwise, no point in adding it just for the sake of adding it. This would use up a slot in the interface picture file, and if they all fill up, either we lose ships in order to add new ones, or I need to go through all the business to add another texture file...

 

[Pieter Boelen]

That makes sense too.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

I remember that fluyt. Someone made it for a project but never finished it. Later we were deleting excess ships and that one got dropped from the lineup.

 

[Grey Roger]

Another thing I've noticed about the fluyt of war is that it seems to have changed. My Satanic fluyt of war has flying horses as part of its "deck" file, and I didn't put them there, although I did retexture them. The current fluyt of war doesn't have them but does have gun port covers in another "part" file, as well as some extra "Deckshelf" parts showing the pins which are used to secure ropes. (Or would be, if any of the rope locators went anywhere near them. ) I'm going to see if I can put all the details - flying horses, gun port covers and "Deckshelf" bit - onto both the Satanic and de-Satanified fluyts.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

I put the light fluyt of war in its current configuration some years ago using parts from other fluyts in both POTC and COAS. I remember the anchors being a problem. Yes, if ropes were attached to the pins, the sails would go wonky.

 

[Grey Roger]

Looking back at unfinished business, I found this thread again, and felt that the texture is just too nice not to use. Also:

PS: I noticed that probably only early explorer storylines such as Ardent has fast war galleon in its Nigel Blythe quest chain. But this level 4 is way better than some of the level 3 ships.

Perhaps, you shouldn't award a player with such a good ship as "fast war galleon" for a relatively easier quest.

I tried going into the "FreePlay" selection in "Spanish Main" period and looking through tier 4 ships in another attempt to find something less powerful than the fast war galleon but still a reasonably tough ship as an early substitute for the pirate corvette, which is the ship used by the "Nigel Blythe" quest in later periods. There being nothing other than the fast (non-war) galleon and a couple of fantasy ships, I then tried tier 5, and found the fluyt of war. Looking at the stats, the fluyt of war has less crew than the corvette (which is why it's tier 5), better cargo capacity (but not as good as the fast galleon), and a few more guns (but still 12lb, as opposed to the fast galleon's significantly larger battery of 9lb guns).

Which means we have two different problems that are each other's solutions - a new fluyt of war which needs a job, and a quest which could do with a new ship.

Adding the new gun ports meant shifting the row of golden swirls down a bit to make room. So this is how it looks now:

It's going into the next update, and as well as occasionally showing up as a random pirate ship, it will be used by "Nigel Blythe" in the earlier three periods as the ship he wants you to hunt.