Not a Bug No nation lines for "PO_Trinity"

[Grey Roger]

From "PROGRAM\Ships\Ships_init.c":

   //Period
   refShip.period.0 = 0.0; //
   refShip.period.1 = 0.0; //
   refShip.period.2 = 0.4; //
   refShip.period.3 = 0.5; //
   refShip.period.4 = 0.0; //
   refShip.period.5 = 0.0; //
   
   refShip.Model = "Trinity";

   refShip.CanEncounter     = false;
   refShip.CanBuy       = false;
   refShip.Type.Trade        = false;
   refShip.Type.War        = true;

There are no 'refShip.<nation>' lines as there are at this point in the definition for other ships, or anywhere else in the block for "PO_Trinity". Does that mean no nation can use it?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Does that mean no nation can use it?

Doubly, yes. She's also got CanEncounter and CanBuy set to 'false'.

As per the header of her ships_init.c entry, it is a unique repaint by @Noriruru and is intentionally a Vanderdecken ship.
It was basically a person thing just for him. She's not a true Portuguese ship. Did Portugal even have such large ships?

Looks like there's some related stuff in this thread: WIP - Remus77 Christianus/Trinity | PiratesAhoy!
There even seems to be the explanation for why "SP_Trinity" was used for Holland for a while.

So technically this is "Not a Bug", because it was intentional at the time.
But if you think it is appropriate to change it now, I'm not going to stop you.

 

[Grey Roger]

No, if there's a genuine reason why Portugal should not get an apparently Portuguese ship, fine. It would perhaps have made more sense to name the ship something else to make it clear that it is not, in fact, a Portuguese variant of "Trinity". (That comment in "Ships_init.c" indicates that she's based on the Christianus Sextus, and a quick bit of Internet searching shows that this was a Danish ship. But then, we also have Brandenburg ships being used in the game by Holland, so a Danish ship in Portuguese service would be no worse. )

 

[Pieter Boelen]

No, if there's a genuine reason why Portugal should not get an apparently Portuguese ship, fine.

Portugal doesn't really have a proper paint scheme at the moment anyway.
They just got "whatever random stuff we could throw at it".

It would perhaps have made more sense to name the ship something else to make it clear that it is not, in fact, a Portuguese variant of "Trinity".

It made sense to us (read: me) at the time. But yes, it is still confusing.

But then, we also have Brandenburg ships being used in the game by Holland, so a Danish ship in Portuguese service would be no worse.

That's not too far off; Holland and Germany aren't far apart.
And since those ship models were made and we don't have Germany in the game, they had to be put to use somewhere.

 

[Grey Roger]

Germany isn't Brandenburg. Brandenburg is almost as far as you can get from Holland and still be in Germany. And in the time periods covered by PoTC, Germany as a single unified nation didn't exist, there were various smaller states, not always at peace with each other. (I recently learned that Saxony was on Napoleon's side, which wasn't good for it when the anti-Napoleon alliance won the Battle of Leipzig, a.k.a. Battle of the Nations. Prussia, on the other hand, was definitely in the alliance, playing a significant role both in this battle and at Waterloo.)

Which reminds me. Are "perflg7.tga" and "perpnt.tga" read by the game? They appear to be copies of flags seen in rows 5 and 6. I could replace one of the copies with a Brandenburg flag and blank out the rest of row 7 with the alpha map, then anyone else who has an idea for a new personal flag has a place to put it.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Germany isn't Brandenburg. Brandenburg is almost as far as you can get from Holland and still be in Germany.

In other words: The modern Germany.
If you don't give the Brandenburg ships to Holland, what other nation would you give them to?

Which reminds me. Are "perflg7.tga" and "perpnt.tga" read by the game?

They can be used, but currently aren't. You're welcome to make whatever changes and updates to it that you see fit.

Actually, your idea of alpha mapping it all sounds really good to me. I think that'll work.
The only weirdness will be that players can select one of those invisible flags as well.
But that isn't much of an issue, is it?

 

[Grey Roger]

Isn't there already a blacked out space at the end of each row which is unselectable?

I'm half inclined to make a white flag with "Dummy" written on it in large letters. That will be both a clue to modders that this is one they can replace, and a clue to players that maybe they shouldn't have selected this flag.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Isn't there already a blacked out space at the end of each row which is unselectable?

Yes, but that is for every row the same. Making it different per row requires editing the interface codes, which I'd rather avoid.

I'm half inclined to make a white flag with "Dummy" written on it in large letters. That will be both a clue to modders that this is one they can replace, and a clue to players that maybe they shouldn't have selected this flag.

And that would avoid it just fine, so works for me.

 

[Grey Roger]

On further thought, if the rest of the flags are going to be blanked out by the alpha map anyway then it doesn't matter what they are. If a player picks one then he's going to see nothing on his mast as the flag will be invisible. So here's what I'm proposing:

Flags:

Pennants:

Slot 1 is the Brandenburg flag and pennant. In the flags file, the rest are the blank white flag which can be used as the texture for any flag anyone else wants to add. In the pennant file, the rest are a selection of shapes which can be filled (and textured using the blank flags from the flag file), and also used as alpha map masks. Meanwhile the alpha maps are solid black except for the first slot, so nothing except rhe Brandenburg flag should show up. At least, not until the next person fills the second slot, and hopefully what I've left there will be useful for that person.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

On further thought, if the rest of the flags are going to be blanked out by the alpha map anyway then it doesn't matter what they are. If a player picks one then he's going to see nothing on his mast as the flag will be invisible.

I thought you proposed that with the idea that it wouldn't be blanked out by an alpha map anymore.

Anyway, this is great! Thanks for doing this.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

@Grey Roger: Are there any changes to be made to the ships_init.c files here?
If not, I think I can safely archive this.

 

[Grey Roger]

No changes to "Ships_init.c". "PO_Trinity" is not really Portuguese Trinity, and I've got other things to concentrate on, so I'm not doing anything with this. Archive away!