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Included in Build Ship Encounter Chances Correction

I've made a note of it so it shouldn't be forgotten. ;)
 
Having recently played the game again (for the first time in ages), I seemed to notice that the encounter chances could still do with some more fine tuning.
For example, I was using the Rossiya in the Sea Hawk storyline, and often got into battles with galleons and corvettes. All three ships can show up in this period, and in practice it looks very odd seeing them together.
I also noticed that pirates are still using ships that are far too big, such as galleons, when they should realistically be limited to smaller vessels.

So, I've decided to start compiling a list of all the ships and their encounter chances (just based on periods, not nations), which we can use to evaluate the situation before committing the changes to Ships_init.c.
In doing so, and coupled with some research, I also noticed some discrepancies in some ships' type names against their rig type. An example is the stock barques, which I don't think have proper barque rigs.

When I finish this list, it would be nice if it could be checked through by some more knowledgeable members (*cough* Post Captain) to help make the encounter chances more feasible, and to check any rigging inaccuracies.
 
I just encountered a Spanish fleet consisting of HMS_Speedy and HMS_Sophie. Looks to be intentional as per the code.
Just checking to confirm that is really what we want. :confused:
 
I guess that's fine for variety's sake, but looking at the encounter chances, I'd say England should have the highest chance, and other nations should have lower ones.
And pirates shouldn't be able to use them, either.
 
It's not fine if I think every yellow-and-black striped hull is a British ship though! That's what we've got the National Paint Schemes toggle for. :razz
 
Yet the whole "National Paint Schemes" thing only applies to these Napoleonic stripey ships; we have far more relaxed rules for the earlier paint schemes, and this isn't ever made clear to the player.
The new RN_Corvette paint scheme, for instance, could be thought of as an earlier equivalent of the black/yellow stripes, yet we don't restrict that to British ships. :shrug

More importantly, we don't have multiple versions of the Speedy and Sophie, so why not share them?
 
I'll leave all that in your capable hands. You know better what should be encountered and what not than me. I just wanted to make sure, because it's not what I personally would have expected.
But that's why I am NOT in charge of ensuring historical realism here. Good thing too! We might get some more Assassin's Creed effects. :rofl

Does anyone still use this toggle, I wonder?
Code: 
int NATIONAL_PAINT_SCHEMES = 1;
    // Determines if the paint schemes of ships are dependent on their nationality
    // 1: Yes
    // 0: No
 
I'd say the Sophie should remain with a 1.0 chance for the English, and have a 0.3 chance for all other nations except america (say 0.2) and pirates (0.0).
Then for the Speedy, just keep all chances as they are, but change pirates to 0.0 again.

Does anyone use the toggle? Not sure. Did you say that when it's off, it completely ignores the national encounter chances?
 
Armada said:
I'd say the Sophie should remain with a 1.0 chance for the English, and have a 0.3 chance for all other nations except america (say 0.2) and pirates (0.0).
Then for the Speedy, just keep all chances as they are, but change pirates to 0.0 again.
Click to expand...
Done. Sophie will now be enabled for France as well; that is correct, right?

Armada said:
Does anyone use the toggle? Not sure. Did you say that when it's off, it completely ignores the national encounter chances?
Click to expand...
Indeed. All it does still use is the refShip.nation line; any single-nation ships remain single-nation.
 
Hylie Pistof said:
Why are pirates sailing light fluyts and caravels now? I try to capture them because I want those merchant ships.
Click to expand...
I didn't change anything for them. They shouldn't be allowed to sail them, either way.

Hylie Pistof said:
Why do the galleons suddenly have huge crews of almost 400 men? Has this thread arbitrarily been tossed after years of use?
http://www.piratesahoy.net/threads/some-notes-on-setting-the-ships-crew-numbers.13282/
Click to expand...

Which galleons do you mean? I don't recall making any changes, but looking in the Excel file I can see several galleons with large crews. These are military galleons with many guns, so that's what I'd expect. :shrug
 
Here is the before and after changes just to fastgalleon1. That is supposed to be the merchant version with 9 pound guns. The military version carries 18 pound guns. The Revenge has been uprated also.
B and A.jpg
 
OK, so FastGalleon1 can have its max crew brought back down to 215 (also reducing it to a Tier 5 ship).
This time, it would also be worth adding a note about its merchant role, so it doesn't end up being wrongly adjusted again.

The merchant Revenge with 12 pounders has a reasonable crew size, by the looks of it. Unless you think the calibre needs to be reduced, I don't think we need to make any changes there.

Pieter Boelen said:
Done. Sophie will now be enabled for France as well; that is correct, right?
Click to expand...
Yes; not sure why they had missed out until now. :shrug
 
Just to make sure, would anyone mind making all the corrections and posting an updated ships_init.c file? :doff
 
Hylie Pistof said:
The Revenge had 12 pound cannons and a crew of 250 IF I remember correctly.
Click to expand...

Using the crew number calculations, the min crew required to reload the merchant Revenge's guns at full efficiency is (1% of 4,500) + (40 x 12/2) = 285 crew, meaning 250 isn't enough.
With 320 crew, you can lose 35 men before taking a hit to cannon reload speeds, if I understand the system correctly.
 
I thought the number 250 was in the poem by Tennyson, but I was wrong. The Revenge had only 100 fighting men when the one took on the fifty three.
 
Only one hundred men AND they still tried to take on 53 ships? I don't know whether that's highly courageous or totally mad. o_O
 
Back to encounter chances, I've just finished a new Excel file which focusses entirely on every ship's period and national encounter chances, to help analyse the situation for each period and nation.
You can view the spreadsheet online here: https://skydrive.live.com/view.aspx?cid=F6B0C45B54136716&resid=F6B0C45B54136716!1833&app=Excel

At the moment, the ships are listed as they are in Ships_init.c, and all the chance values are colour coded with a gradient from red to green (red=0.0 and green=1.0).
I've included an average for each period and nation at the bottom of the table, though this might not be very useful (probably needs to exclude all zeros; will change this tomorrow).

Anyway, I'll be using this to make several changes, but feel free to look through it and post any comments in the meantime.
 
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