New Horizon and Stock Game

[BathtubPirate]

Howdy Cap'n

I have a simple question about the New Horizon / Build Mod (it's the same thing, isn't it?), namely if it is problem-free possible to install it at the same Computer as the stock game, without affecting or deleting the original PotC.

Reason why I ask is that I played the stock game for 15 years, I love it, I know it in and out while still discovering new stuff through fixing code and experimenting with some of the unfinished features. I've played an earlier version of the Build Mod years ago for a couple of month and know some stuff about it through watching a few let's play episodes and reading along here in the board from time to time.

Now, no harm meant but as far as I see it, the New Horizon mod differs too much from the original game I love so much in many aspects. It all feels a bit… anonymous and overstuffed for my taste, if that makes sense. That doesn't mean I'm not curious about the Build, because I am, I'd like to try it - but more as a separate game. Hence my question about playing them simultaniously on the same Computer, without the files affecting each other.

I vaguely remember the Build I once tried years ago to overwrite/replace my stock game on the Computer.

Thanks and cheers!

 

[Grey Roger]

Yes. You just install the stock game twice, to different folders, then only install New Horizons to one of them. In fact, that's what I've done, though I only use the stock game folder as a start point for a fresh re-install of New Horizons.

As they're in different folders, they can't affect each other. The stock game's saves will be in a sub-folder of the stock game, and New Horizon's saves will be in a sub-folder of New Horizons.

In fact, you could even have the stock game, the earlier Build Mod and New Horizons, each in a different folder and with a different desktop shortcut, then play whichever one you want at any time.

 

[BathtubPirate]

Thanks for the quick reply!

So I assume I just have to choose a different program folder at the beginning of the second installing, so my Computer will accept the game being installed again? Or do I even need to install it properly with the CD or can I just copy all the folders?

I just want to be careful when I install NH since I "cutomized" a bit on my stock game and don't want to lose that progress. And since I view them as two "different" games it's important for me to keep the vanilla.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I have a simple question about the New Horizon / Build Mod (it's the same thing, isn't it?)

Yes, it is.
Technically, it was the "Build Mod" from the start, but for Build 14, we decided it was almost like a new game and therefore deserved a more distinctive name.

namely if it is problem-free possible to install it at the same Computer as the stock game, without affecting or deleting the original PotC.

As @Grey Roger mentioned as well, this is very possible indeed and a good idea too!

The best thing to do:
1. Install the stock game
2. Make a ZIP file including all the game files
3. Keep that file safe somewhere
4. Apply whatever modifications you want to the stock game
5. Unzip your ZIP file somewhere else
6. Install the modpack on top

You can repeat steps 5 and 6 as often as you want for every possible modpack version.

Reason why I ask is that I played the stock game for 15 years, I love it, I know it in and out while still discovering new stuff through fixing code and experimenting with some of the unfinished features.

Could I ask what changes you've been making? You've got me curious now!

If your changes are only in the PROGRAM and/or RESOURCE\INI folder, you can probably get away with making a copy of your modified game folder instead of a clean one.
The New Horizons modpack completely erases those two folders from the original game, so this wouldn't lead to any incompatibilities.

Now, no harm meant but as far as I see it, the New Horizon mod differs too much from the original game I love so much in many aspects. It all feels a bit… anonymous and overstuffed for my taste, if that makes sense. That doesn't mean I'm not curious about the Build, because I am, I'd like to try it - but more as a separate game.

That makes complete and utter sense.
We did try to maintain all the good stuff from the original game, but despite that, it IS quite a different beast by now.
Of course you can tweak a lot of settings to get your game experience more in line with the original, but there are limits to that.

If you have any feedback on stuff you prefer about the stock game compared to New Horizons, feel free to let us know.
We're always interested to hear what people think; both the good, but also the bad.
And maybe your feedback can be used to improve things here and there.

I vaguely remember the Build I once tried years ago to overwrite/replace my stock game on the Computer.

It does indeed have to do that, so good thing you ask! I'd hate for you to lose your own hard work.
I started with my own tweaked version of the stock game myself as well back in 2004, so I understand where you're coming from.

 

[Grey Roger]

Yes, just copy the entire stock installation folder into another folder, then tell the NH installer to use that. That is exactly what I do whenever I want to re-install NH - much quicker than installing the stock game from CD!

The game doesn't care about any other versions in other folders. You can have as many versions in as many different folders as you like, if they'll all fit on your drive. You can certainly have a plain vanilla game, an install of NH, and a customised game, because that's what I have, though my custom game is based on NH rather than stock.

 

[BathtubPirate]

Thanks for all the help and kindness, Roger and Pieter!

I'm gonna approach the matter anytime soon on a quiet afternoon.

The best thing to do:
1. Install the stock game
2. Make a ZIP file including all the game files
3. Keep that file safe somewhere
4. Apply whatever modifications you want to the stock game
5. Unzip your ZIP file somewhere else
6. Install the modpack on top

You can repeat steps 5 and 6 as often as you want for every possible modpack version.

I'm still a little bit confused, does this apply to my yet-installed tweaked game or to the second one I'm gonna need to install NH? From what Rogers says I guess I can try it safely with just copying the whole folder…

Could I ask what changes you've been making? You've got me curious now!

Just customizing the whole thing a bit for myself, and by that learning a bit about code, autodidactic. Experimenting and of course having a lot of frustration and a lot of small successes.

I think my first major "achievment" was when I figured out there are several broken questlines in the stock game (Larrouse, Vigila Mendes, Nigel Blythe) that can be "unlocked" by fixing a small amount of code. I was astonished when I first made them work in my game and experienced them for the first time. Furthermore I mostly polished things, like letting dialogs make more sense, replacing overused models ("man2" is everywhere!), fixing contradicting Dialogs/quest book entries, making swords available by giving them as a trophy in certain quests... recently I started to create my own small quest (currently the "ActorFollow" function is bugging me... those damn fools just don't start to walk! quest_reaction is bloody tricky in general).

I also messed up several times, mostly because I often forget to make proper backups. Every attempt to do something with locations (not re-texturing, but stuff like switching a tavern model or adding locators) failed gloriously

That makes complete and utter sense.
We did try to maintain all the good stuff from the original game, but despite that, it IS quite a different beast by now.
Of course you can tweak a lot of settings to get your game experience more in line with the original, but there are limits to that.

If you have any feedback on stuff you prefer about the stock game compared to New Horizons, feel free to let us know.
We're always interested to hear what people think; both the good, but also the bad.
And maybe your feedback can be used to improve things here and there.

Aw, I don't think I can give a real feedback for substantial improvements, just my own nostalgic feelings. As I said, to me Build Mod is more like a new game anyway, something that relates to PotC the same way Age of Pirates does, for example (which I also played but never captivated me the way PotC did and does).

I like how "small" the stock game feels, if that makes sense. Even with all the dead ends, everything seems to have its place. I know pedestrians by name, finding a single sword seems like an achievment… that's what I meant by "a bit anonymous and overstuffed". Hard to describe. From what I've seen and experienced, some of the changes in models, locations etc. just seem… wrong. Actually I prefer the fictional locations too. And the design of all the interfaces. But again, all this criticism isn't meant to be grave, when I view (and possibly play) NH as a separate game instead of a modification.​

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I'm still a little bit confused, does this apply to my yet-installed tweaked game or to the second one I'm gonna need to install NH? From what Rogers says I guess I can try it safely with just copying the whole folder…

To be on the safe side, I'd say it applies to "the second one you gonna need to install NH".
Though based on what you say, you probably could get away with the first too. Probably.

Just customizing the whole thing a bit for myself, and by that learning a bit about code, autodidactic. Experimenting and of course having a lot of frustration and a lot of small successes.

That's brilliant!!

I think my first major "achievment" was when I figured out there are several broken questlines in the stock game (Larrouse, Vigila Mendes, Nigel Blythe) that can be "unlocked" by fixing a small amount of code. I was astonished when I first made them work in my game and experienced them for the first time.

Sounds like you're on exactly the same path as the modders were back in 2003.
By the time I joined in 2004, they had already discovered SO MUCH of that, that it was truly amazing!
They must've been BUSY for that first year!

Actually, one thing you might consider trying is to install an older version of the Build mod instead.
The older versions were basically what you're making now, so you could probably take bits and pieces from it.
The oldest version still publicly available is Build 12.1 here: PotC Build 12.1 Full file

I do have an installer for Build 11 hiding somewhere, which is truly basically just "the stock game with fixes and only a very few features".
I've had the intention to repost that one forever, but keep failing. Maybe next week I'll finally find the chance?
If you're interested, please keep nagging me until I actually do it!!

I also messed up several times, mostly because I often forget to make proper backups. Every attempt to do something with locations (not re-texturing, but stuff like switching a tavern model or adding locators) failed gloriously

That's the best way of learning. I'm always impressed with anyone who bravely ventures into the unknown like that!

Aw, I don't think I can give a real feedback for substantial improvements, just my own nostalgic feelings.

That counts as feedback too!

I know pedestrians by name, finding a single sword seems like an achievment… that's what I meant by "a bit anonymous and overstuffed". Hard to describe.

Understandable. I used to play and like the stock game a lot myself back in the days as well.
For all its flaws, it really does have a certain charm.

From what I've seen and experienced, some of the changes in models, locations etc. just seem… wrong.

If ever you run into any examples, I'll be curious to know which ones. Maybe some things could be swapped out again for something a bit more "right" here and there?

Actually I prefer the fictional locations too.

Those were indeed fun. And of course they still exist in the Build, but they have been renamed and the more realistic worldmap can't be changed back anymore.
It IS possible though to rename the fictional locations back to their original names though.
As far as the code is concerned, they ARE still named that; the "real" names are just a display layer on top.
There used to be a "REAL_CARIBBEAN" toggle to switch off that did that, but when we cleaned up the code, we got rid of it.
Sorry about that; we thought nobody would ever want to do that anymore... Guess I was wrong.

And the design of all the interfaces.

There is an option in the mod to switch back to the original game's blue colour scheme.
Of course the layout is still different with a lot of additional buttons and stuff, but at least it'll be a bit more familiar to you.

You might enjoy having a look through this thread: Guide - The PotC Build Mod: A History in Interfaces

But again, all this criticism isn't meant to be grave

Don't worry about it. I'm not taking your words as criticism at all; let alone grave criticism.
They're your opinion and I respect and understand that.

In the end, the way I figure it, we all want the same thing in this community: To have fun with the game(s) we like.
Everybody's definition of "fun" is different. And since this is something we all do in our spare time, it isn't our job to tell you what you must like.
Right?

when I view (and possibly play) NH as a separate game instead of a modification.

Makes complete sense.
Of course NH is closer to PotC than Age of Pirates, because we did keep a lot of the actual stock game content, including the original main quest.
But for Build 14, indeed we made a conscious choice to deliberately set the mod more apart from the original game and make it seem like a separate brand new one.
All your comments regarding that are mainly just compliments as far as I'm concerned, because it means that we succeeded on what we set out to do.

Of course it is understandable that not everybody would agree with everything we did and all the choices we made.
Or you might agree they were good ideas and/or choices, while not liking them yourself. All of that is perfectly fine by me.
At the very least, we did make all choices for a (we think) good reason and we tried to implement them the best way we could.
I think we succeeded to a large extent, but indeed the size of the mod and the amount of content really became quite overwhelming as time progressed!

 

[BathtubPirate]

Actually, one thing you might consider trying is to install an older version of the Build mod instead.
The older versions were basically what you're making now, so you could probably take bits and pieces from it.
The oldest version still publicly available is Build 12.1 here: PotC Build 12.1 Full file

I do have an installer for Build 11 hiding somewhere, which is truly basically just "the stock game with fixes and only a very few features".
I've had the intention to repost that one forever, but keep failing. Maybe next week I'll finally find the chance?
If you're interested, please keep nagging me until I actually do it!!

That sounds not too bad. I just found out that the Build i played yeeeeeaars ago was a Build Mod 13 (luckily I used to made embarassing videos as a kid by just randomly recording and editing stuff from the game) and that one differed quite a bit from the original in my opinion. Is there any chance to get some impressions from Build Mod 11 and 12? Videos or anything like that?

Anyway I think no matter which version(s) I play, I'll always keep the stock game on the side as an alternative. But a "stock game with fixes and a very few features" sounds like a cool second option too. I think I can easily play both the original and NH, the original for the classic experience, nostalgia, charme and my own little sandbox, NH for different stories and more complex gameplay, then switching between them as I like and maybe even using bits and pieces of the Mod for my own private sandbox. An early Build would either be an alternative for NH or a third option…

But still I won't do anything right now, perhaps it would even be a good idea to wait until the end of the semester…

By the way, since you asked about what I did/tried on my stock game and other inputs -- how does the Build Mod approach the Nigel Blythe quest? I fixed that one in my game obviously by changing the "sit" locator in the Conceicao tavern, so Nigel actually appears there, but I found the rest of the story to be still quite messy. What bothered me most was the whole Florens Clauss matter. This guy was such an unfinished character who appeared out of nowhere, had no characteristics or capability as an officer whatsoever and - most confusing - ties to both the QC store and the Douwesen shipyard, stuff contradicting each other. I actually once made him a ship's carpenter with skills in Defence and Repair, which I thought made sense in two ways: First it makes him an unique officer since there are no ship's carpenters in the stock game, second it makes sense for him to work at the shipyard - I also cut ties with the QC store and moved the recruitment/paying off debts stuff to the shipyard.

But I've re-installed the game since, I don't now if it still works. I've copied some of the code I had changed to the new installation, but it may not be everything.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Is there any chance to get some impressions from Build Mod 11 and 12? Videos or anything like that?

For 12, at least it still used the original game's worldmap. You can also see some of the interfaces in that thread I linked to before.
Other than that, I'm not sure what other impressions there might still be to be found.
But you can install it on a copy of your game and try.

Anyway I think no matter which version(s) I play, I'll always keep the stock game on the side as an alternative. But a "stock game with fixes and a very few features" sounds like a cool second option too. I think I can easily play both the original and NH, the original for the classic experience, nostalgia, charme and my own little sandbox, NH for different stories and more complex gameplay, then switching between them as I like and maybe even using bits and pieces of the Mod for my own private sandbox. An early Build would either be an alternative for NH or a third option…

As long as you're having the fun that you want to have, that's MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

By the way, since you asked about what I did/tried on my stock game and other inputs -- how does the Build Mod approach the Nigel Blythe quest? I fixed that one in my game obviously by changing the "sit" locator in the Conceicao tavern, so Nigel actually appears there, but I found the rest of the story to be still quite messy. What bothered me most was the whole Florens Clauss matter. This guy was such an unfinished character who appeared out of nowhere, had no characteristics or capability as an officer whatsoever and - most confusing - ties to both the QC store and the Douwesen shipyard, stuff contradicting each other. I actually once made him a ship's carpenter with skills in Defence and Repair, which I thought made sense in two ways: First it makes him an unique officer since there are no ship's carpenters in the stock game, second it makes sense for him to work at the shipyard - I also cut ties with the QC store and moved the recruitment/paying off debts stuff to the shipyard.

I can't remember (m)any changes to the Nigel Blythe side.
Perhaps @Grey Roger knows this one better...?

But I've re-installed the game since, I don't now if it still works. I've copied some of the code I had changed to the new installation, but it may not be everything.

You might want to have a look at this thread: Tutorial - Modding Tips & Tricks
A few things are Build-specific, but points 1-2-3 are applicable to any game and can be used together to be REALLY powerful!
This is also how you can compare your own modified folder with the stock game and find all the changes that you made.

 

[BathtubPirate]

I can't remember (m)any changes to the Nigel Blythe side.
Perhaps @Grey Roger knows this one better…?

If there haven't been any changes you may want to consider doing some. The default settings of this Clauss character are really basic, he has no real skill and personality and is just randomly thrown in there. It can only been improved upon.

You might want to have a look at this thread: Tutorial - Modding Tips & Tricks

A few things are Build-specific, but points 1-2-3 are applicable to any game and can be used together to be REALLY powerful!
This is also how you can compare your own modified folder with the stock game and find all the changes that you made.

I think I've seen those tips before… I guess now there's no excuse anymore ​

 

[Pieter Boelen]

If there haven't been any changes you may want to consider doing some. The default settings of this Clauss character are really basic, he has no real skill and personality and is just randomly thrown in there. It can only been improved upon.

If you do a comparison between your original game and your own modifications, you can extract the changed files and post them here.
Perhaps, with a bit of trickery, some of your changes could be added to the Build 14 files too.

 

[Grey Roger]

In particular, upload the file with the definition of Florens Clauss, then I can use that definition in Build 14's file.

 

[BathtubPirate]

I just installed New Horizons and it all works perfectly well, just the way I wanted it. I copied the folder and zipped it as a backup too. Thanks again, both of you!

Two control settings questions:
1) I changed most of the controls the way they were in the original game, but it seems I can only navigate through the dialog options with S and W. Any chance I can change that setting to the arrow keys?
2) There seem to be no short keys to set/raise sails. Or have I overlooked something?

I'm gonna look into Clauss in detail another time. I want to play Blythe in NH first to see how it Looks there.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I changed most of the controls the way they were in the original game, but it seems I can only navigate through the dialog options with S and W. Any chance I can change that setting to the arrow keys?

I think you can change that using PROGRAM\CONTROLS\DefaultControls.h .
Try editing these lines:

#define CTL_DIALOG_CHOICE_UP         "KEY_W"
#define CTL_DIALOG_CHOICE_DOWN         "KEY_S"

2) There seem to be no short keys to set/raise sails. Or have I overlooked something?

I'm not 100% sure if I understand the question, but I assume that these lines are the ones you want:

#define CTL_MAP_SAIL_RAISE             "KEY_W"
#define CTL_MAP_SAIL_STRIKE         "KEY_S"

I'm gonna look into Clauss in detail another time. I want to play Blythe in NH first to see how it Looks there.

Makes sense. Thanks!

 

[Grey Roger]

I'm gonna look into Clauss in detail another time. I want to play Blythe in NH first to see how it Looks there.

If so, make sure you install everything from here:
Mod Release - Build 14 Beta [Last Update: 2 November 2018]
... including the Extra Fix Archive. Until recently, "Nigel Blythe" was fatally bugged in NH. Someone replaced Peter Blowhorn, the storekeeper in Nevis / Quebradas Costillas store, with Kate Blowhorn, and forgot to put the stuff about Clauss into "Kate Blowhorn_dialog.c". So you followed Blythe as far as Nevis and talked to Kate Blowhorn, who had nothing to say about Florens Clauss, and the quest broke. The fix for that is in the archive. Also, NH took pretty much the opposite approach to the way that Clauss originally started off in Quebradas Costillas and then suddenly shifted to Douwesen. You moved the whole thing to Douwesen, whereas NH kept him in Nevis - when you've paid Clauss' bill, he appears in the tavern. But the code for Kralendijk / Douwesen shipyard was still there, so if you went to the shipyard after meeting Clauss on Nevis, weirdness happened - that's fixed as well. I didn't do anything to the definition for Florens Clauss, being more concerned with fixing the quest to the point where you could actually play it to completion. But looking at the definition in "PROGRAM\Characters\init\Officers.c", it appears that he's been made a boatswain, with skills and abilities to match.

About the different versions of the game:
Originally I had only the stock game, which I played for a long time before I learned of the Build Mod, which by then was up to Build 12. So I installed that but didn't play it for long because Build 13 was released shortly thereafter. That kept me entertained for ages - the forum moved on to Build 14, and was full of bug reports, so I reasoned that I'd be better to stick with the version that actually worked. Then, after playing the same story and same sidequests once too often, I came to the same conclusion as you - Build 14, alias New Horizons, was effectively a new game, which now seemed like a good idea. Worst case, if it was still bugged to the point of being nearly unplayable, I could always revert to Build 13. In fact, although it was still bugged and a long way from the polished version you see today, it was such a massive improvement over Build 13 that I've been playing it ever since and never gone back.

From what I recall, Build 12 was pretty much what you're aiming for - the stock game map, with sidequests fixed (to some extent, at least) and unlocked, and with some new character models. As well as all the permanent residents whom you know by name, there were also random people wandering around town, as there are still in Build 14.

Incidentally, all your friends should still be in Build 14. Only the names of their home towns have changed. For example, Gillian Atterbury is a woman who lives in the port area of Redmond, which is now Port Royale or Kingston depending on which period you're playing. There's also someone in Cayman port named Ginny Weasly but her ID in the game code was "Gillian Atterbury". When I spotted that while looking through the definitions of Cayman's characters, I remembered the one in Port Royale, figured that having two people with the same ID wasn't a good idea, and changed Ginny Weasly's code ID to match her name.

 

[The Nameless Pirate]

I found New Horizons to be like an official expansion for the main game, when i played Tales of a sea Hawk with the new side quests.
The only thing i changed was the soundtrack back to the original.

 

[BathtubPirate]

I think you can change that using PROGRAM\CONTROLS\DefaultControls.h

Thanks, that's what I meant. In only looked through the ingame settings.

By the way, another question. All of a sudden, generic tavern ship escort quests won't work anymore in my stock game. The bartender tells me there is someone looking for an escort, but nobody enters the tavern. I don't remember having been even near the corresponding code… But I remember this happened before, back then it was one of several reasons why I re-installed the game and lost a certain amount of progress. Any idea?

From what I recall, Build 12 was pretty much what you're aiming for - the stock game map, with sidequests fixed (to some extent, at least) and unlocked, and with some new character models. As well as all the permanent residents whom you know by name, there were also random people wandering around town, as there are still in Build 14.

Incidentally, all your friends should still be in Build 14. Only the names of their home towns have changed. For example, Gillian Atterbury is a woman who lives in the port area of Redmond, which is now Port Royale or Kingston depending on which period you're playing. There's also someone in Cayman port named Ginny Weasly but her ID in the game code was "Gillian Atterbury". When I spotted that while looking through the definitions of Cayman's characters, I remembered the one in Port Royale, figured that having two people with the same ID wasn't a good idea, and changed Ginny Weasly's code ID to match her name.

I figured, all in all after playing NH for a few hours I have to say it isn't as "bad" as I imagined, meaning there is still a lot of familiarity about it. I think some of the model choices are a bit strange and the whole gameplay, including travelling by land and sea or item handling, seems way more complicated at first. But it definitely has ist advantages, a lot of good ideas and the whole implementation is rather impressive.​

 

[Grey Roger]

I found New Horizons to be like an official expansion for the main game, when i played Tales of a sea Hawk with the new side quests.

That's one way to play it, and certainly I've played "Tales of a Sea Hawk" several times - it's still a really good storyline even though the reason I installed "New Horizons" in the first place was because I'd played it so often that it was getting a bit stale. But the name "New Horizons" should be an inspiration - try something new, such as one of the other storylines.

By the way, another question. All of a sudden, generic tavern ship escort quests won't work anymore in my stock game. The bartender tells me there is someone looking for an escort, but nobody enters the tavern. I don't remember having been even near the corresponding code… But I remember this happened before, back then it was one of several reasons why I re-installed the game and lost a certain amount of progress. Any idea?

Can you upload a savegame from just before you're about to talk to a bartender?

​

I think some of the model choices are a bit strange ...

Tell us which ones, suggest alternative models, and maybe we'll change them.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

By the way, another question. All of a sudden, generic tavern ship escort quests won't work anymore in my stock game. The bartender tells me there is someone looking for an escort, but nobody enters the tavern. I don't remember having been even near the corresponding code… But I remember this happened before, back then it was one of several reasons why I re-installed the game and lost a certain amount of progress. Any idea?

The game reuses the same character ID ("anacleto") for that captain and I think there are ways in which a reused character can get "corrupted" in some way.
We've had problems with that in the past, which was one of the reasons for me writing the evil "ClearCharacter" function to ensure a reused character is 100% clean the next time.

If it is indeed the sort of issue I think it is, then it might be complicated to fix properly in the stock game.
But maybe you can switch on error logging and find a place to put the line DumpAttributes(characterFromID("anacleto")); where it gets executed by the game.
Maybe try somewhere in PROGRAM\INTERFACE\character.c so it gets executed when you go to the F2>Character interface?
Then perhaps the compile.log file generated afterwards might contain a hint on what is wrong with the guy?

I figured, all in all after playing NH for a few hours I have to say it isn't as "bad" as I imagined, meaning there is still a lot of familiarity about it. I think some of the model choices are a bit strange and the whole gameplay, including travelling by land and sea or item handling, seems way more complicated at first. But it definitely has ist advantages, a lot of good ideas and the whole implementation is rather impressive.

What changed about travelling by land and sea? I can't remember now...
Or are you referring to the new "Realistic Game Mode" ON by default stuff? If so, switching to Arcade before starting a new game might help.

It is true that some stuff is much more complicated now, but for several of them, there are toggles available to set them to a more simple state again.

 

[Grey Roger]

I don't know off-hand which recycled character the stock game uses for escort merchants. In NH, at least, it's "Quest trader". But he does use dialog file "anacleto_dialog.c". (It can't be Anacleto, otherwise escort quests would be liable to break after you meet the real Anacleto when you're stuck on Douwesen / Bonaire during "Tales of a Sea Hawk". )

Sea travel has definitely changed, starting with 1 hour days. Compared to the stock game, big ships are a lot slower and clumsier, meaning the ship of choice is more likely to be a frigate or fast galleon rather than a battleship - though that was the case even in earlier build versions. Switching to "Arcade" mode will indeed probably make things easier here, but then you're liable to be affected by cursed coins... (Unless you have installed the update archive, edited "InternalSettings.h" and found the "CURSES_DISABLED" setting.)

I can't think what has changed with land travel, except perhaps that by default, you can't immediately fast-travel anywhere. You either need to find the place by going there manually, or talk to one of the permanent residents (hint, they're usually the ones not carrying weapons). This can be switched in "InternalSettings.h" with "DISCOVER_FAST_TRAVEL".

Item handling now has separate lists for weapons, medicaments, maps and items, and that's because there are more items so it helps to have them split into classes.