Fixed Standard Storyline: Second task too hard?

[Pieter Boelen]

Pieter,
The option to get Amiel to take out Boon is subject to "if(CalcCharacterSkill(PChar,SKILL_LEADERSHIP) >= 8) // NK". If this a yes then it allows Amiel to do the work for you otherwise it drops you back to earlier dialogue. I didn't realize this until I just had a look at Amiel's dialogue.c file. So most players who go straight there would not have or would never know about this path.

Ah, that's the one you were referring to!

Indeed to get your Leadership to 8 by that point, you need to either cheat or do a LOT of other stuff first!
Maybe it would make sense to reduce that a bit so that players who do a bit of reasonable extra play on the side could make use of it
Otherwise it would be a virtually non-existent option, which is rather pointless.

 

[salonikasurf]

The other thing is that when you first get to St Pierre you get the rumours of the pirate corvette - I normally would have captured this ship and then the Oiseau would not be a problem anyway. The "Fast Death" capture is now very difficult for a low ranking player - if not impossible. It used to be that she would surrender readily if you took out some of her sails - she would cause a bit of damage to your ship but not sink it and then you had a good ship to progress in the storyline. This is where Fred Bob's skills help you to be able to sail her as well.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I did change the dialog related to that pirate ship last week to indicate she is a difficult enemy.
Probably her Captain got stronger now due to the rewritten Leveling.

 

[salonikasurf]

Noted the dialogue change - gives a bit of warning which is important
This does mean the challenge to capture of sink the Oiseau with your starting ship (Lugger etc) will be harder as well as you would have no chance with the Fast Death.
I always steal a few bombs for my cannons to help in this situation.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I've just started to play around with this now.

For starters, lets reduce the Leadership skill that the various paths require:

      if(CalcCharacterSkill(PChar,SKILL_LEADERSHIP) >= 5) // NK
       {
         dialog.snd = "Voice\AMBE\AMBE009";
         d.Text = DLG_TEXT[23];
         Link.l1 = DLG_TEXT[24];
         Link.l1.go = "Node_11";
         if(CalcCharacterSkill(PChar,SKILL_LEADERSHIP) >= 8) // NK
         {
           Link.l2 = DLG_TEXT[25];
           Link.l2.go = "Node_work";
         }
       }

I'm changing that to "3" and "5", which I hope should be more easy to reach at that point in the game.

And also changing some Questbook texts:
"it's not going to put to sea unless they find a suitably strong escort ship"
^ Hopefully that will hint players that:

"But that is much easier said than done! If I am to engage in a sea battle with her, I should first ensure I can win. But perhaps if I can get to #sFalaise de Fleur# on #sisland_Falaise de Fleur# and find out what the situation is there, I'll be able to think of another way to complete the mission."


And some dialog changes for Silehard:
"The main thing is to keep the French from getting that ammunition. Take whatever time you need to prepare, but make sure you succeed!"

"I'll make sure I am up to the challenge first, then head to #sisland_Falaise de Fleur# to find out more"

"And what of its escort? It may prove too much for my ship.",
"Perhaps you should then consider acquiring a bigger one!"

Plus:

"But before I do that, I should ensure I and my ship are ready to execute my cunning plans."
^ Prior to talking to the Martinique harbour master.

"I showed the letter of identification to the harbor master, and he introduced me to Virgile Boon. Now we are ready to put to sea at any moment. I hope that during the sail I'll be able to snatch the opportunity to board or sink Virgile's wash-tub. I must ensure the odds are stacked in my favour though."

 

[Pieter Boelen]

So I changed a whole bunch of questbook and dialog texts to provide hints that it may not be a "walk in the park" to take care of the 'Oiseau'.
And made one code change that makes the "cheat method" still possible, but much less of a cheat.
I cannot think of what else needs doing here....

But effectively, this has NOT been made easier, though it SHOULD be more obvious now that it isn't so easy.
It actually got a slight little bit harder now. Does anyone have any objections to this?
Or should it REALLY be made easier?

It's mentioned in the journal that the Oisseau should be easy to capture. Maybe this entry should get changed to make it clear that it's better to try a more cunning method?

Which one specifically states that it should be easy? I haven't come across that one yet.

A far better solution than 'we'll just make him impossible to stab' (which is kind of cheap, IMO. I'd rather reward inventiveness) would be to spawn a patrol of guards.

I created a new attribute that can be added to ANY character:

ch.quest.guard_protection = true; // PB

This will trigger the "soldier reinforcements" behaviour that you also get for killing town guards.
I added this to Virgile Boon, so you CAN still kill him and complete the quest that way.
BUT it will be dangerous to do so.