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Included in Build Ship Encounter Chances Correction

These are the details of that encounter:
Code:
Fantom_GenerateEncounter: type = L - Merchant 0: Shallow Waters Merchant Fleet, a group of merchants, # Mer = 3, Mer MAX = 3, Mer MIN = 5, # War = 0, War MAX = 0, War MIN = 0
ERROR - Force_GetShipType: unable to find ship, returning a default ship instead
ERROR - Force_GetShipType: Maxclass = 3, Minclass = 5, Per = Colonial Powers, Nat = France, Type = Trade
ERROR - Force_GetShipType: unable to find ship, returning a default ship instead
ERROR - Force_GetShipType: Maxclass = 3, Minclass = 5, Per = Colonial Powers, Nat = France, Type = Trade
ERROR - Force_GetShipType: unable to find ship, returning a default ship instead
ERROR - Force_GetShipType: Maxclass = 3, Minclass = 5, Per = Colonial Powers, Nat = France, Type = Trade
These ships are supposed to be available:
Pinnace
Fast Merchantman
Light Fluyt-of-War
Heavy Pinnace-of-War

In other words, quite a fair selection. The game not being able to find any ship at all is really quite weird and should not be happening.
I wonder if the ship array got corrupted. Press F11 to Reinitialize and see if that makes any difference.

Also, does this happen straight upon starting a new game or only later on? Which storyline is it?

Edit: Also, dialog files should indeed have exactly nothing to do with this. :no
 
Last edited:
Yes Sir, I reinstalled PROGRAM, RESOURCE, MODULES and now all seems fine.
The dialog files are irrelevant, as you said.
Now the shipyard have again ships for sale, as must be.
I wonder how can I have altered something, and which file.
The "options" file changed in some way, maybe, that is turning during the same session from Iron man to realistic then Iron man again and so on, messing up the "options" file?
Now I will try the sea encounters.
Anyway, thanks for now and greetings.
 
Yes, Sir. I have reinstalled PROGRAM, RESOURCE and MODULES and the "options" file(from a backup of the fresh, early install).
In fact, now all seems fine, shipyards have some ship for sale, as it must be. As you said modified dialog file are irrelevant.
I think the problem lies in the "options" file, that is, in the same game session, turning from iron man to realistic then again iron man and so on can be the cause of the options file messed up.
During the last three days I tried several times, restarting fresh games (by the way I play sea hawk, original story). All the new games, and the old saves reported the same malfunction, but the options file was older so it can be the cause.
I have overwritten the (supposed wrong) options file, so I can't be sure.
I will try the sea encounters, but please accept my apologies for the bother I have caused, you were right, the topic "ship encounters chances correction" was solved, my problem is not directly related to it.
Greeting and thank you.
 
Technically changing options should all be possible, but it does get corrupted after a while for some stupid reason.
Just deleting it will create a clean one.

It is quite an interesting notion that a corrupted "options" file can have this effect.
Indeed someone did mention having no ships at all before and I don't remember us ever figuring out the real reason for it.
Looks like now we did! :cheers
 
This one needs looking into again. Specifically this encounter:
Code:
// MERCHANT FLEET - LOCAL (shallow waters) - merchant class 3-7 - NO ESCORT
   makeref(rEnc, EncountersTypes[ENCOUNTER_TYPE_LMERCHANT0]);
   n++; rEnc.Skip = false;
   rEnc.Type = ENCOUNTER_TRADE;
   rEnc.Chance = 7;
   rEnc.MinRank = 1;
   Enc_AddShips(rEnc, "Trade", 2, 8);
   Enc_ExcludeNation(rEnc, PIRATE);

   Enc_AddClasses(rEnc, 1, 7, 7, 0, 0);
   Enc_AddClasses(rEnc, 2, 6, 7, 0, 0);
   Enc_AddClasses(rEnc, 3, 6, 7, 0, 0);
   Enc_AddClasses(rEnc, 4, 5, 6, 0, 0);
   Enc_AddClasses(rEnc, 5, 5, 6, 0, 0);
   Enc_AddClasses(rEnc, 6, 4, 6, 0, 0);
   Enc_AddClasses(rEnc, 7, 4, 6, 0, 0);
   Enc_AddClasses(rEnc, 8, 3, 5, 0, 0);
   Enc_AddClasses(rEnc, 9, 3, 5, 0, 0);
   Enc_AddClasses(rEnc, 10,3, 5, 0, 0);
   Enc_AddClasses(rEnc, -1,MAXMERCHANTCLASS, 5, 0, 0); // NK for shipcap off
MAXMERCHANTCLASS = 3

The ONLY merchant ship for Spain in the Napoleonic period between tier 3 and 5 is the tier 5 "Fast Merchantman".
So in my testing, I just encountered a perfect line of 8(!) identical Fast Merchantman sailing towards me!
That isn't very good for variety in the encounter, really..... :oops:
 
For a start, I'd extend the various East Indiamen, alias Heavy Traders, alias WarGalleon, at least up to "Revolutions". Probably take them out of "Spanish Main", where the type looks a bit too modern. That doesn't do much for "Napoleonic", though.

Maybe define a merchant version of "Battlefrigate", which would carry fewer guns and more cargo, and would effectively be an early form of clipper.
 
Maybe define a merchant version of "Battlefrigate", which would carry fewer guns and more cargo, and would effectively be an early form of clipper.
I'd hope to address this with the least possible effort, so just changing some encounter chance numbers in ships_init.c and that's it.
We should probably check what the other nations have available and extend some of that to Spain as well.
 
We should probably check what the other nations have available and extend some of that to Spain as well.
There's a bit of a snag there. Looking through "Ships_init.c", searching for anything valid for "Napoleonic" which is bigger than tier 7 and is "Trade" type (including anything which is both "Trade" and "War", i.e. "versatile"), it seems that nobody has any half-decent size merchant ships other than "FastMerchantman1" and "FastMerchantman2".

But you shouldn't have had eight identical ships because there are two different styles of fast merchantman. Also, if the encounter allows tier 7 then various sloops, luggers and schooners ought to be eligible.
 
But you shouldn't have had eight identical ships because there are two different styles of fast merchantman. Also, if the encounter allows tier 7 then various sloops, luggers and schooners ought to be eligible.
Probably only one of those types is available to Spain.
And perhaps we should increase the tier range for that encounter so that smaller ships are also possible.
 
Both types are available to Spain, though for "FastMerchantman1" there is 'refShip.spain = 0.2' whereas for "FastMerchantman2" it is 'refShip.spain = 0.5'.

The tier range allegedly goes to 7. Any smaller and you're into tier 8, which is tartanes. xD

Just out of interest, what colours were those fast merchantmen? Are you sure they were, in fact, identical? Because these are "FastMerchantman1" and "FastMerchantman2" - not much difference...

fastmerchant1.jpg fastmerchant2.jpg
 
The stripes on the sides are different colors and they have different emblems on the stern. That's it.

They were almost dropped from the game because they were "redundant" 2 years ago or more, and I was surprised when Armada released them.

The late periods are boring because there is no variety.
 
Just out of interest, what colours were those fast merchantmen? Are you sure they were, in fact, identical? Because these are "FastMerchantman1" and "FastMerchantman2" - not much difference...
You're right; Spain DOES have access to both of them.
But indeed it was just eight copies of FastMerchantman2 .

The late periods are boring because there is no variety.
For non-navy ships, indeed. :(
 
Not just non-navy ships. Take a look through the promotion ships in "Nk.c" and see how often "RN_Surprise" appears, and not just in RN service. There's a reason for that. :(

For fast merchantmen, it shouldn't be too hard to create another one using the same red stripe colouring as "Corvette1". Other markings might be possible. Otherwise someone is going to have to design some new ship models...

But the real question is, why did you get eight of the same type when on average you should have had a couple of "FastMerchantman1" in there? Maybe you just got lucky - things don't always work out according to staistical average. But if you keep seeing nothing but "FastMerchantman2" then something isn't working properly...
 
But the real question is, why did you get eight of the same type when on average you should have had a couple of "FastMerchantman1" in there? Maybe you just got lucky - things don't always work out according to staistical average. But if you keep seeing nothing but "FastMerchantman2" then something isn't working properly...
For the time being, let's attribute it to me being "lucky" there.
 
Just now I encountered a "Merchant Pinnace" under a French flag.
Her green skin makes me think of Dutch ships though.

Are there any alternate textures available for her? That way we could have her used for several nations, without it seeming weird to me.
 
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