`semi-special` request...

[Covetski]

More of an Idea actually... is it possible to make musketeers seperate from cannons and boarding... EX. I have a frigate (about 44 cannons and about 400 crew members) is it possible to take like `400-44x3`(approx cannoneers) - 44(any number of sailors needed for the opperation of the sails) and have a reloading rate of `16-18` (general musket reloading time) and have the muskets firing assigned to another key or make it automatic?

I actually have a formula for the damage dealt which I consider to be rather fair....

------------a seperate question for build 11---------------------

Is it also possible to add an icon for the tailors and implement the blacksmith mod into build 11?

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refering back to the musketeers, is it also possible to add the hiring of musketeers in forts (I saw some doors that could be used to access the forts I can post some screenies later if anyone is interested)


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please tell me if anyone that is a modder thinks it is possible and likes the ideas... thanks

 

[Kieron]

hiya covetski,

by adding an icon, do you mean on the fasttravel list, so you can hop straight there? if that's what you mean, then yes, it's 100% definitely possible. tried and tested in fact <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/happy.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="^_^" border="0" alt="happy.gif" />

as regards the other idea, i'm afraid i didn't understand. can you be more clear? what musketeers are you talking about?

 

[Covetski]

currently there is a musketeer ABILITY that only shoots right before boarding and has a `percentage-related` damage formula... is it possible to add "musketeers" that ALWAYS shoot when close enough.... (either automatic or manually) that way there would be a nicer `up-close` combat simulation... they shoot at a different rate than the cannons...

and if you didn't understand the "cargo musketeers" then I meant by hiring musketeers at a fort you'd lose cargo space not crew "holders"

did I clear anything up ? or did I answer other questions or something?


.. I'm actually better at explaining things with examples so here it is...

After having an intense `long-range` shoot out between you and a pirate barque you decide you want to board it..
you "order" your free crew to ready their muskets and call out the musketeers, as you approach the barque your cannoneers start fireing grapeshot rounds and the musketeers and free crew start unloading their muskets... after a huge cloud of gunpowder the barque returns fire, but having striken first you lowered the amount of musketeers standing and the return fire was weak, after the musketeers reloaded they fired off another round, shortly after followed by the cannoneers unloading the grape, as you turn your ship about, the rear cannons fire off their grape, there is no return fire so you figure that there is little crew left on the barque and after catching up to it you find only seven `able-bodied` crew members and a wounded captain is all that stands between you and the barque along with its cargo.

...the last part actually makes me wonder if it is possible to add cargo damage??

...hope that helped in any way <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/oops3.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="ops2" border="0" alt="oops3.gif" />

 

[Kieron]

ah ok sorry, i understand.

i'm not sure how the game goes about controlling the little men on your ship during combat. has anyone looked at that? so far i've not seen anything that controls their movements. you're looking at positioning specific men in a specific place at a specific time, and i dunno if that's possible. i'll have a look and see...

cargo damage would be possible; we could add a cargo type "damaged goods", which would be utterly useless (makes me remember the rubbish and radioactive waste cargo types in <i>elite</i> and <i>frontier</i>, which had negative prices, so you had to pay traders to take it off you - we could put that in in potc too). when the hull took heavy damage we could calculate what portion of the cargo to damage, convert the weight, and change it into 'damaged goods.' except maybe if it was ammunition that got damaged, it would cause an explosion or something? hmmm...

 

[alan_smithee]

mmuah ha ha ha! causing a ship to explode by hitting its powder cache. Beautiful idea. Whenever we implement powder as an item, we could add this feature.

Appropros: I can't get the "fire ship" special ability to ever activate. When I have the ability, it's not an option as an special thing to do during a ship fight, when I have other ships in my fleet. What exactly are the parametres for it, and for the landing party when attacking forts?

Also related: A bit ago we discussed spoilage of goods somewhere, like rations and fruits. Anyone checked into this as viable code editing?

 

[Covetski]

well I actually live barely off of the "slaves" icapture from otheer ships (being a pirate and all) and I'm having enough trouble with food as it is so I'm notpushing anything about spoiling food <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":blah:" border="0" alt="tongue.gif" /> but cannonballs wouldn't get any damage, (bombs maybe, gunpowder definitely) cannons should get worse from lack of use (rusting, dirt, cloged, tec) and from excessive use (deformation, detonation(cannon explodes because the cannon ball gets stuck) things like that... but you can leave the food alone for now <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/pirate2.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":" border="0" alt="pirate2.gif" />

 

[NathanKell]

For the latter, you can peg a check into DailyCrewUpdate.c, that's what it's there for. <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />
{It handles crew morale, food, land money, ransom, prisoners escaping, and whatever else needs to update daily...}

For ship explosions, we can create a "super critical hit", it's certainly codable (as are the particle FX--wait a tic, I said I didn't know about that on the other thread. Oy.)

Re: Fireship, IIRC _both_ you _and_ the officer on the `to-explode` ship must have it...

 

[Covetski]

OO!! One more idea popped up! Is it possible to make a "board ship" ability where if an allied ship has a captain with this ability and at least one other officer onboard AND you don't already have 4 ships... you can order that ship to board (or weaken) an enemy ship, and if the capture is successfull the 1st officer (not captain) is assigned as the captain of the ship?

--- come to think of it... is there any way to extend the officer and ship menues to allow more ships and officers? -if not is it possible to make an ability to "tug along" one ship? (actually it works by keeping the boarding planks and hooks on and setting sails onboth ships (that way the small ship accelerates the big ship and the big ship slows down the small ship and you get 2 ships heading at an average speed) and possibly constantly turning towards the big ship's side)

---and come to think of that ... well maybe this would be pushing it, but is it possible to tug along 2?

(that would be really usefull for me as I like selling ships and scince I have 3 ships I save the last slot for big ships to sell... well whatever)

 

[Kieron]

what you can do is leave one ship behind, on shore leave at port, while you go and capture a ship, then you can go back to port and get your ship back <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/happy.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="^_^" border="0" alt="happy.gif" />