Ship Pack Details and Updates

[Armada]

I reckon we should have it as high as we can, without there being a chance of the load ever taking too long.

It's just a matter of finding the best compromise, then. We'll have to start at 500 and see how it goes.

If we still end up with player ships occasionally, then we're just going to have to come up with a different solution.
Which could be as simple as, instead of the player ship, always using the "Cutter2" (you can insert any other ship here).

This might work better still! I definitely like the idea.
The next question is, of course: which ship to use for this purpose? :?

... No opinions on the Surprise1 texture, then?
What I'm trying to achieve is a decent replacement for the HMS_Surprise's texture, if we are to remove the model. Does this qualify, yet?

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Well, I have never been able to buy the Nonsuch. I am now seeing both types in the shipyard, but when I go out to the port it is always the older model. The only way to get it is to use the console.

Looking at the Apostol Felipe again, it seems those supports are supposed to be bright. Speaking of Pgargon,are his pinnace and caravel going to be released in this pack, or later?

The Surprise and Boussole? I never see them in game, so had to look them up in GMViewer to see what you are talking about. It looks good.

About that loading screen. You waited 2-3 minutes? I would have decided the game had frozen after about 30 seconds and bailed out.
What if the player is using a common ship? Would that happen more often? Sticking some generic ship in there instead sounds better.

 

[Armada]

Well, I have never been able to buy the Nonsuch. I am now seeing both types in the shipyard, but when I go out to the port it is always the older model.

Strange. The interface pic definitely matches up with the right ship now, and she can be encountered correctly.
Note that Nonsuch is counted as a navy ship, so she should appear with that label in a shipyard.
She only appears in period 1, 2 and rarely 3 (remember 0 is the first period), and only for England.

Speaking of Pgargon,are his pinnace and caravel going to be released in this pack, or later?

I can't really say for sure. It depends on my free time, which is rapidly decreasing as I approach my exams soon.

The Surprise and Boussole? I never see them in game, so had to look them up in GMViewer to see what you are talking about. It looks good.

Never played the M&C quest? HMS_Surprise is the starting ship (for now, at least). Apart from that, Boussole appears in the NH quest, and both do seem to be rare.
Then again, they only appear in the last three periods. Either way, I'm glad you think Surprise1 looks good.

About that loading screen. You waited 2-3 minutes? I would have decided the game had frozen after about 30 seconds and bailed out.
What if the player is using a common ship? Would that happen more often? Sticking some generic ship in there instead sounds better.

Since the little coin in the bottom corner of the screen was still spinning, I was pretty sure it hadn't frozen.
My game is generally good to me, though I haven't really done much with it, besides testing, for ages.
I've no idea how the player ship's encounter chances affect the chances of this happening, but using a generic ship is probably the best way to solve it.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Ah. I did see a naval ketch once, but was unable to buy it. Will keep my eyes open for it.

Exams first! Everything else second. :nk

I tried M&C once. Lost interest because I was always looking for food.

Ah, the spinning coin.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

I was able to buy the Nonsuch. It's a class 8 naval ketch. It's a nicely detailed little ship,but is too small to be a starter ship.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

A class 8 Ketch? Wow; I thought class 8 was for non-navy ships and then the Tartanes and such at that.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

I was surprised too. It's a tiny thing with 8-4 pounders and a hold of under 250 lbs.

 

[Armada]

Class 8, when referring to Navy ships, is reserved for ships of 14 or fewer guns. That even includes USS Enterprise, believe it or not!
Technically, Classes 7 and 8 should be counted as 'Unrated', but (a) we can't do that and (b) it's a bit insulting, I think.

 

[Legendary_Spider]

Okay.

I've been busy the last few days. Sorry about that.

I finally got done with testing everything on your lists and here is my list of things I ran into:

1. You need to go into the US ship names and change the spelling of Confederacy. I accidentally spelled it: Confedaracy.

2. SanFelipe1 - No helm

3. HMS_Interceptor - seems like the color has been de-saturated or something.

4. RN_BattleFrigate - no bow chasers
FR_BattleFrigate - no bow chasers
US_Constitution - no bow chasers
RN_SteamFrigate - no bow chasers
FR_SteamFrigate - no bow chasers
US_SteamFrigate - no bow chasers

5. RN_Warship - Not much texturing on the sides. Seems very flat and bland.

6. Lydia1, 2, 3, and 4 - The underside of the bow seems to lack texture.

7. Lydia3 has no texturing at all on the masts and crow's nests.

8. Corvette1_47 - Crew walking and running up and down the rope ladders.

9. Galeon5 - Not much texturing on the sides. Seems very flat and bland.

10. FR,RN,SP, and US_ SotL - (see pic below) Are these weird things supposed to be poking out the front of the bow?

11. HMS_Bounty - No railing on the front third of the ship.

12. Edinburg - No railing on the front third of the ship.

13. Bellona1 - Crew walking and running up and down the rope ladders.

That's it. Anything else you want me to check out?

 

[Hylie Pistof]

:gday Mate.

I was starting to wonder where you had wandered off to.

The only things on your list I can comment on are:

Crew running up and down the ladders is very common. The crew does that on every ship I can think of.

The Edinburg and Bounty. I was standing on the dock right next to one this morning admiring it and did not notice the missing railing.

The spars sticking out of the bow of the SotL's are indeed supposed to be there. They have ropes going to them. They are part of the deck2.gm.

 

[Legendary_Spider]

The Edinburg and Bounty. I was standing on the dock right next to one this morning admiring it and did not notice the missing railing.

I triple checked the Edinburg and the Bounty, and at least on my game, they are missing the railing on the front third of both ships.

Here's a shot of the Edinburg. The Bounty looks just the same with the railing missing.


Also, the land masses on my radar screen have gone out of focus and fuzzy. This can be seen in the same shot below.

[attachment=6405NGINE 2011-05-13 14-28-09-28.jpg]

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Oops. That didn't come out the way it was intended. I meant that I was standing there looking at it and did not notice the missing rail, not that it was there. It's missing all right.

That radar screen says you are at Eleuthera. When you are there it always looks like that.

 

[Armada]

1. You need to go into the US ship names and change the spelling of Confederacy. I accidentally spelled it: Confedaracy.

Will do.

Your points 2, 4, 5, 8 and 9 were all brought up last time, and I haven't done (and/or can't do) anything to change them yet.
Please be aware that I HAVE noted the lack of bow chasers on the Constitution/SteamFrigate models, but that is beyond my control.
You'll need to convince a modeller to make that change, so don't expect anything to happen to them in the meantime.

About point 3, I have made some further adjustments to the Interceptor and Dauntless after they were criticised. I'll post some screenshots of them shortly.

Please note that all Lydia models seem to be texture mapped in an awkward way, so the underside of the bow copies the lower hull texture.
This is NOT something I can fix.
As for Lydia3, please see one of my previous posts, which contains the relevant texture file which was missing.

About point 10, as miklkit said, those parts are intentional. Look at the Victory models in comparison.

Just to clarify, the 'missing' railings on the Bounty and Edinburgh are NOT a mistake, and they have always been that way.
Look up images of the real Bounty replica (Bounty II), and you should see what I mean.

The only other things that would be useful are opinions on the new and improved content in the update, as opposed to bug reports for once.
That would make a difference to dwelling on the negative side of things, at least.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Would it be possible to have the underside of the hulls on the Lydia's be dark so that at least the above-water part doesn't stand out so much?

 

[Armada]

Yes, that might help a bit. Some added 'weathering' might do the trick.
The only reason it's white in the first place, is because I tried red, but that was worse. It stuck out like a sore thumb above the water.
I guess I could make the French Lydia use a brown underside, like most of our other French Navy ships.

One other thing about the Lydia: I recently removed the name from the list of random encounter names, because it's only ever used in fiction, to my knowledge.
There were a couple of other spelling mistakes which I fixed too, and now given Legendary_Spider's typo, I'll re-release the file when I've amended that.

 

[Legendary_Spider]

Perhaps it's just my modelling ignorance speaking here, but for the Constitution/SteamFrigate models, couldn't 2 cannons from the sides just be cloned and stuck on the bow?

I wish I was able to do that.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Should be possible to add two cannons on the bow by taking a seperate cannon model and sticking them there with a locator, then adding cannon fire locators too.
The question is if there's space there. I'm not saying you have to do it, but it might not be quite impossible.

 

[Legendary_Spider]

That's the thing! There IS space.

There's two empty cannon ports on the bow. I don't suppose any non modelers know how I would go about putting cannons on?

 

[Armada]

Those two empty 'cannon ports', if that's what they really are, are not the solution, because cannons there would just blast holes through part of the bow in front of them.

What needs doing is, two new gun ports need adding along the white stripe of the bow, and THAT is what needs a modeller to do.
Ideally, we also need two guns removing to compensate. This ship is probably already carrying her maximum number of guns.
Adding guns separately is possible through the TOOL, and I would do it if this were the right solution, but the selection of gun models I have is not great.
None of them match the Constitution's guns, and those that are close have reverse lighting.

 

[Legendary_Spider]

I give up.

The modelers have an iron grip on us all.