Included in Build Random thoughts on the latest build.

[Jason]

Fist of all great job on all the new stuff and features in the new versions. Kudos to everyone who helped.

Here are some random observations and questions. FYI I am playing the arcade game, standard storyline at level 31.

1. Hibernian blades have a high values, cost a lot and seem to be a good blade for the weapons chest. They also look exactly like the another blade and if someone has the time they might be dressed up a little.

2. It seems to me that the reimbursement for the escort missions is too low, 1603 to go from Hispaniola to Cartagena.

3. A couple of Venation cutlasses have shoed up in this time period.

4. On the treasure quest to Cape Fancos, when you get to the rock the icon says "Crew Quarters".

5. I was able to do business with the tailor on Cartagena at 23:03. I thought all the shops closed at 22:00.

6. It seems to take an awfully long time to improve reputation.

Great, great job on the blacksmiths. FYI on Bonaire and Jamaica the crew asks to be paid when you visit the blacksmith.

Again, excellent work.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Ahoy there! As per usual, your feedback is VERY much appreciated!

1. We did make it less common fairly recently. But even so, does it actually add anything to the game?
It is a recently added weapon and we could just as easily remove it again if we don't see the need of keeping it.
Especially if they are a copy of another blade, then that doesn't really make for a very good addition, does it?

2. Have you got any idea what kind of values would be OK for the Escort Quests?
I already noted that the pay does not depend on distance, which doesn't seem very fair to me.
There is actually a Bug Tracker entry for that here: http://www.piratesahoy.net/threads/adapt-escort-quests-to-be-more-profitable.24391/
Input from a player like yourself would be very welcome.

3. The Venetian Navy Cutlass starts to appear in the Golden Age of Piracy and remains for the rest of the game.
So it appearing in Colonial Power is correct.

4. Uh? Do you have a savegame for that???

5. Looks like you're right. The "close for night" code line was missing for the Cartagena tailor.
Added now in my game version, so this should be back to normal for the next update.
You really have a keen eye for weird stuff, don't you? Good thing too! Otherwise we wouldn't know.

6. Indeed @Levis made some changes to the balancing of that. This is now dependent on Difficulty Level too.
See here for details:
http://www.piratesahoy.net/threads/balancing.23862/page-2#post-497135
Again, your comments would be welcome. Also, please post what Difficulty Level you're playing at.

Great, great job on the blacksmiths.

So we got it right in the end? Thanks for confirming!

FYI on Bonaire and Jamaica the crew asks to be paid when you visit the blacksmith.

Does that always happen? Surely only if payment for the crew was due anyway?
I think this is intentional on @Levis' part, since he made some changes last year to ensure that crew payment also occurs while you are ashore.
Since the blacksmith can make you wait a long time, indeed I can imagine that the chance of crew payment occurring there would be large.

 

[Jason]

1. I think it is the most common blade in the game I am playing. It would help to a)make it less common, more dressy, like say one of the nice blades from an earlier era, and then it would be fine.

2. I think the fees should vary b/w 8,000 and 25,000 depending on danger and distance if you can do that. If you can't random would be fine. As it is the only reason to take and escort mission is unlock the advanced commerce ability.

3. Thanks.

4. Sorry no save game.

6. I start at apprentice, go to journeyman after about a month and then go adventurer after another month or two. I am currently a journeyman and am stuck. It seems to me movement no matter how much goo one does is the slowest it has ever been and I have been playing all the mods since the original game came out. I know how hard it is to get those thinks just right but perhaps this could use some more tweaking?

7. One the crew payment, this first cropped up around 3.2 I think. I know in earlier versions you got that message in the smith's even if you had signed articles. I think when we had the new dialogue in 3.3 I did not get that message. If you went back to the original language the error might have returned then? In any case I really like what you done here making them all different is great.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

1. That's definitely no good. I am quite tempted to just remove it, since balancing things properly isn't easy.

2. Your point about unlocking the Commerce Ability is indeed exactly what @Hylie Pistof said as well.
So we'll see what we can do there.

6. @Levis: Any chance of increasing the reputation gains a bit again?

7. So just to be clear here... Is there actually an issue with crew payment? Does it show up when it shouldn't?
Or is it missing when it should be there? I'm not entirely sure there.

 

[Jason]

7. I am not entirely sure either. I have no evidence that doesn't show up when it should since I mostly play with articles signed. I will try to pay closer attention and save every time I go to the smiths just incase.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

So you mean that it still DOES show up on Divide the Plunder mode, then?

 

[Jason]

Yes it has.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

UGH! Any chance of a savegame where that happens?

 

[Jason]

No but I will to get one.

 

[Levis]

6. @Levis: Any chance of increasing the reputation gains a bit again?

Added a reputation gain to the fetchquest and convoy quest now so that should speed things up.
The random encounters now have a 1 int 5 chance to give a rep gain. I'm going to change that so they can only trigger once a day so you can't "farm" reputation from that.

Are there any other things which should increase your rep but don't atm?

2. Your point about unlocking the Commerce Ability is indeed exactly what @Hylie Pistof said as well.
So we'll see what we can do there.

I will see if I can increase the pay off a bit.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

I played a 3.4 wip up to level 21 and the only real comment is: Poor as a church mouse.

I stayed with my starter ship, the Lyon Hoy, until level 13 because I could not make enough money to buy a better ship until then. Hauling cargo for merchants barely paid the bills and smuggling made ok profits but there is just so much to buy early in the game that I had a hard time saving money.
I got a treasure quest early but it was guarded by a brig. A brig VS hoy battle did not interest me. 22-18 pounders and a 120 man crew VS 8-4 pounders and a 24 man crew doesn't work for me.

After I bought a fastmerchantman things got better, especially after I got rid of that brig and could do treasure quests, but it was not until level 20 when I bought a big fluyt that I was able to start making decent profits.
There were no decent ships available before then.

What does more rep do?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Not making money quickly? That isn't necessarily a bad thing, since we wouldn't want the early game to be too easy.
But you do need to be able to get by, of course, and improve things for yourself.

I wonder what has changed the amount of money that you make? The only thing I can think of is the changed contraband goods for smuggling.
Can't remember any other money-related changes lately. What was the previous game version you played? Just so I know what we should compare it against.

Treasure Quest ships should always be generated related to the player level, using the same functionality as Governor Ship Hunting ships and Smuggling Coastguard ones.
So on average, you should have a fighting chance against them. But of course if you get a war ship vs. your own merchant/versatile ship, indeed I can image that being a tough battle!

Reputation is the Terror/Hero scale. It controls how characters treat you in the game.
But, as far as I'm concerned, it doesn't quite have enough impact on regular gameplay.
Especially if you stick to only friendly ports, then it would only matter for certain quest characters who will not talk to you.
Example is Toff Oremans who will not talk unless you're known as at least a bit of a nice guy.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

I am playing an early beta 3.3 install and advance very quickly. Maybe too quickly. In that 3.4 wip I advanced so slowly that it messed up the storylines. Taking on the Mefisto with a fastmerchantman took 4 tries before I succeeded. In the main storyline I was getting close to attacking the Bridgetown fort but only had a fluyt and there were no warships in any shipyards. Not that I had the money to buy anything anyway......

 

[Pieter Boelen]

What is the date of the game version where you got up to the Bridgetown fort assault?

 

[Hylie Pistof]

22 Dec 2014.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

22 Dec 2014.

Thanks. Looks like that was shortly after @Levis' first smuggling update. But I didn't include it in the modpack until much later.
Is that the install where you added the smuggling mod yourself?

Could you post the "Build Info.txt" of that version just to remind myself what was and wasn't in there?
I don't quite remember what was done on which date and I didn't keep all old intermediate installers, because there have just been too many.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Yes I installed the smuggling option, and by the time I had some comments you had moved on so far that there was nothing to say.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

If I recall, your comments on that smuggling update were that you didn't notice any difference to before.
Even if it may not sound like it to yourself, that was very good news indeed and extremely valuable!
So don't think you did that testing for nothing. Not even CLOSE!

Of course over the Christmas holidays both @Levis and myself have been very busy fixing old stuff (and admittedly adding a bit of new stuff too, because that is just more fun... ).
But that is coming to an end now. I'll make another installer when I get back home with the re-fixed Fetch Quests included.
And hopefully after that it is just tying up loose ends here and there, doing some substantial testing over the coming week and RELEASING THE DAMN THING!

 

[KillPhil]

I think you just had bad luck with no ships appearing in the yard.. IMO, capturing is always the best method to gain a new ship

And the last time I played (I think it already included the new smuggling) I could make quite much profits with those storekeeper-quests. Not too much, but for the start, much more profit than anything else

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I think you just had bad luck with no ships appearing in the yard.. IMO, capturing is always the best method to gain a new ship

And the last time I played (I think it already included the new smuggling) I could make quite much profits with those storekeeper-quests. Not too much, but for the start, much more profit than anything else

The amount of money you would make depends on the Difficulty Level. I know @Hylie Pistof generally plays on Adventurer or perhaps even Swashbuckler.
What level do you play on? Just so we know if we can fairly compare your findings with his.