Spoiler Saving in Combat

[Mere_Mortal]

How can I enable saving whilst in combat? I want to do this because of the buggy boarding process, the amount of crashing is beyond a joke. Since it’s probably unfixable this seems like the only way I can realistically mitigate the problem. I appreciate that this would likely never be an option for the mod itself, but I expect it is both possible and practical to override it (actually, I’m pretty sure I did exactly this a few years ago but I can’t remember how).

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Enabling the button isn't all that difficult as it is disabled on purpose. This is the reason:
Engine Limitation - Save At Sea: Sail State and Cannon Reload Status not replicated after Loading | PiratesAhoy!

For buggy boarding, have a look here:
Low Priority - Boarding: Inconsistent Crashes Related to Looting | PiratesAhoy!

 

[Mere_Mortal]

Well, I marked this with a spoiler tag because broken sails reverting back after reloading a save is utterly immersion-breaking. However, I’m finding that I need a compromise between playability and realism, because the crashes are so frequent that I put the game up for a while sometimes out of sheer frustration. At least if I could save at the beginning of a battle then I would be far less concerned about having to go through it all again, as I’m more bothered about losing the prizes altogether. I mean, finding a 1st-rate in this game is hard enough, but if it were to crash after I managed to board one then I’d probably sling my disc out of the window for as far as it will go!

Anyway, I have an idea. I’m suspecting that one cause might be related to the sound effect when opening the inventory of a corpse, which could be interfering with the boarding music. I do tend to notice errors relating to sound in the logs. Can you tell me how to remove that sound? Of course, I’m no longer looting while boarding but I could at least test this out, and being able to save the game would help a lot.

Err... I found bEnableSave floating around somewhere, I wonder what does that do? Okay, that’s got it by the looks of it. I know it’s tempting to use while fighting, but at least it’s one less headache for me.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Have you already tried to not do any looting and see if that helps?

If you want to make save available always, the relevant file is probably PROGRAM\INTERFACE\save_load.c .
Search for "bMapEnter".

For the corpse sound, I expect that to be triggered in PROGRAM\INTERFACE\itemsbox.c .

 

[Mere_Mortal]

Yes, not looting reduces the crashes substantially. Basically, if I find a fleet of four ships and manage to board each of them, it’s pretty much a given that by the time I get to the last one then I will probably already have seen the desktop. By not looting, we’re probably talking about 5-times less chance of it crashing, or say 5% rather than a quarter. That’s an arbitrary calculation, but it’s a good way to look at it.

What bothers me about not looting is that, say over the course of four ships, I would hope to find a weapon, armour or trinket which would replace either my own stuff or at least my officers, but this is a very slow process now. Yeah, my three main officers have muskets at the moment but if they die then I have to replace their kit as well.

I think I’ve sorted the saving, or if not then I’ll look for that variable.

I also found some sounds already but it didn’t seem to be the right ones. I’ve listened to a few of the raw wave files but I’m not finding the relevant one. To be honest though, I have never had a problem looking in a chest while boarding, such as in the cargo hold or cabin, so I doubt the sound effect is relevant after all.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

At least Auto Loot does give you some of the stuff.

It is definitely not ideal, but this has been a long-standing bug for a while now and because of its inconsistent nature, trying to fix it is exceedingly anmnoying.
I myself am not going to be touching this any time soon. I would wish that somebody else would, but I'm not holding my breath for that....

 

[Mere_Mortal]

Hehe... you’d wish that somebody would, but not wish it upon them? I’ll have to trundle through the bug thread. If I can begin to find my way around the game files (understanding the code is the least of my worries, there are just so many files) then it might be something I’ll look at every now and then because it is the single-most annoying problem this game has. I mean, the original is unplayable so far as I’m concerned, but this mod really glosses it over and makes it more than worthwhile... but this bug, oh my days, it would make the Pope curse his own mother.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Hehe... you’d wish that somebody would, but not wish it upon them?

That sounds pretty accurate.

If I can begin to find my way around the game files (understanding the code is the least of my worries, there are just so many files) then it might be something I’ll look at every now and then

If you have any questions about the game code, you're always welcome to ask.
This is a good place to start: Tutorial - Modding Tips & Tricks | PiratesAhoy!

Having those tricks up your sleeve is a tremendous help.

 

[Robert Nutter]

I tried doing this but only found this entry in interface.c: I'm guessing I change the false to true?

if(bSeaActive && !bMapEnter) { bEnableSave = false; restrictSave = "save_while sailing"; }
    if(LAi_IsBoardingProcess()) { bEnableSave = false; restrictSave = "save_while boarding"; }
    if(bAbordageStarted && !ownDeckStarted()) { bEnableSave = false; restrictSave =

I couldn't find the entry in save_load?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I couldn't find the entry in save_load?

I have no access to my game files right now, so just wrote where I expected it to be.
If you actualy found it in interface.c, then that is where it is and my earlier suggestion is wrong.

 

[Mere_Mortal]

Thanks, Pieter. I always ask stupid questions though, so don’t be too surprised!

@Robert - That’s precisely what I did. I tested it by shooting some unfortunate soul in town, and it let me save. I haven’t extensively tested it though, but I imagine it does the trick.

I’m also hoping this will alleviate whatever bug/intentional thing has been going one when sometimes I randomly cannot save while my ship is in port. I think it might be something to do with pirates lurking about the coast, but it can be very annoying if I’m swapping officers around which can occasionally go very wrong.

 

[Robert Nutter]

It worked Thanks Pieter I've been wanting to do this for a while!

@Mere_Mortal , thanks for bringing it up!

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Thanks, Pieter. I always ask stupid questions though, so don’t be too surprised!

I'll try to avoid giving stupid answers then.

That’s precisely what I did. I tested it by shooting some unfortunate soul in town, and it let me save. I haven’t extensively tested it though, but I imagine it does the trick.

Shooting someone in town is not related to being able to save in sea battles.
It has always been possible to save while ashore, even in a fight.

If you want to enable saving in sea battles, get rid of this line that @Robert Nutter found:

if(bSeaActive && !bMapEnter) { bEnableSave = false; restrictSave = "save_while sailing"; }

Delete it or put a // in front of it.

I’m also hoping this will alleviate whatever bug/intentional thing has been going one when sometimes I randomly cannot save while my ship is in port. I think it might be something to do with pirates lurking about the coast, but it can be very annoying if I’m swapping officers around which can occasionally go very wrong.

If you cannot save, I assume indeed some enemies must be within "battle range" somewhere.

 

[Mere_Mortal]

No worries at all, glad to have nailed it. Hopefully I’ll be able to revert it back eventually because I don’t like being able to save while engaged, but for now I’m far more concerned about getting around this bug.

 

[Mere_Mortal]

Shooting someone in town is not related to being able to save in sea battles.
It has always been possible to save while ashore, even in a fight.

Oh, this shows how long it has been since I played. I haven’t bothered with land battles this time around, I’m pretty much always at sea unless I’m selling my trophies. I’ll have to double-check this then, but seemingly Robert had no problems so it probably works at sea.

If you want to enable saving in sea battles, get rid of this line that @Robert Nutter found

Well, I changed them to true so it probably has the same effect as deleting them. I suppose I could comment it all out.

If you cannot save, I assume indeed some enemies must be within "battle range" somewhere.

I think it was coasters, there sure didn’t seem to be anybody in town after my head (which would be silly if I’m friendly with Britain, in a British port). At least one time I grabbed my ship, went out and sent the pirates to Davy Jones... then I was able to save. The odd thing about it was that I couldn’t save even in the shipyard, and this has happened a few times.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I think it was coasters, there sure didn’t seem to be anybody in town after my head

Once you are in 3D Sailing Mode, the characters ashore no longer "exist" as far as the game is concerned.
So that wouldn't be related.

silly if I’m friendly with Britain, in a British port

It is possible to encounter bandits in any nation's towns.

The odd thing about it was that I couldn’t save even in the shipyard, and this has happened a few times.

Normally if you cannot save, the interface has a text to tell you why not.

 

[Mere_Mortal]

Ah yeah, bandits. There may have been some, but I didn’t see any. But as you said, it wouldn’t prevent saving the game. Even then, I have attacked guards in town, gone into a shop and my player icon has stopped flashing, so even if I couldn’t save after attacking a guard I assume that I would be able to after going into a shop so long as there is no enemy in there.

The problem I had was that I couldn’t save in the shipyard, with the notification simply saying “you can’t save now”. I was trying to save because I was moving officers to/from a berthed ship, which tends to bug-out, but something was preventing it. In that instance there were a few pirates lurking about the port and I was able to save after killing them.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Make a screenshot when that "cannot save" issue happens again.
I cannot think of why that might happen right now, but if you know the exact text, you can scour the PROGRAM folder for that and see what might trigger it.

 

[Robert Nutter]

I changed all false lines to true, and it's working like a charm for me regardless of the situation I also changed my save limit (in save_load) to 100 when I first installed the game; if you quicksave a lot you may want to do that so long as you don't mind a bit of lag in the load menu. Just saves having to empty out the save folder constantly.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I changed all false lines to true, and it's working like a charm for me regardless of the situation I also changed my save limit (in save_load) to 100 when I first installed the game; if you quicksave a lot you may want to do that so long as you don't mind a bit of lag in the load menu. Just saves having to empty out the save folder constantly.

Not sure how safe it is to do that, but as long as it continues working, that is all that matters.
I do advise some measure of caution there though.