Suggestions and bugs for an upcoming version!

[Pieter Boelen]

Recommend looking at nations\nations_init.c first. From error.log:

COMPILE ERROR - file: nations\nations_init.c; line: 98
missed ')'

Then I suspect the other errors are probably related to the first and will go away once you find it.
What were you editing in there anyway?

 

[Don Lasagnetti]

Nothing even close to that line, I had a look at the proper ranks for the US right before you posted the corrected code and then changed one of the US soldier boarding models to a captain. But I'm not sure if I saved that change
Was something changed in nations_init.c with 2.4 WIP? It doesn't seem to work with the older version either
But the error file changed, it now says something about the selection screen

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Wait a second, I know what's going on! And it's not your fault either, it's mine.
I had renamed period "The Corsican" to "Napoleonic", which was included in the Portuguese soldier fix files I had posted.
But those changes need to be made in a lot more files to work properly.
Please find attached the fixed files with PERIOD_THE_CORSICAN reinstated like it should be for you.
That should help. Sorry 'bout that.

 

[Don Lasagnetti]

Much better again, thanks a lot!

 

[Don Lasagnetti]

Oh, and forgot, it seems that the Captain rank behaves properly for the United States now! Lieutenant didn't work for me, but I've changed things a bit since then, so if someone wants to give them a try, here's the changed file.
Junior Lieutenant, Captain and Rear Admiral all should be changing uniforms, Commander should receive a promotion sword (that worked too). Would be glad if someone had the time to test this file and the one from the previous post and provide some feedback!

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I'll include your work in my game version, so they'll at least be part of whatever release I make next. Probably another test pack later on.

Alright, so I've gone through some of the swords again and toned down the Nicolas Sharp Saber. It should still be an excellent blade, but not render you invincible right from the beginning. I left the price and level requirements etc. as they were, as I think otherwise they might start dropping as loot at some point. Attaching the changed file.

Indeed that insane level requirement of 99 is meant as insurance that they WON'T randomly show up.
You have NO idea how much pain and effort we put in preventing unique weapons from showing up. I think we FINALLY managed it. Only took us, wha, five YEARS?

Edit: The price is not related to making the weapon unique. In fact, is 16350 gold not a bit much for a blade you can get in the early game?
You could sell it and immediately get yourself a bigger ship or something. Based on its new stats, it seems to me the price should be maybe... a quarter of what it is now?

By the way, I can confirm now that portuguese soldiers now behave properly with your fix!

About bloody time! Thanks for confirming.

What would I enter in console.c to test a few swords I discovered? GiveItem2Player ("blade42"); (that was just my guess) didn't seem to work for me. Maybe I'll find a suitable unique sword for US promotions

Almost right. You need GiveItem2Character(PChar, "blade42"); .

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Yes, I can surely do that! Could you upload the edited file from yesterday or should I play around with the standard one?

As long as you go to a regular shipyard and don't get yourself into the tradeHigh function, it doesn't matter which version of the file you use.
And the code triggering tradeHigh wasn't working properly anyway, so I doubt you'll manage to get into that.

 

[Armada]

And I've finally found the Frigate with the bad rigging, Endymion Class, English Design. I'll upload a screenshot. It was Armada who reworked the models, right?

That is NOT the Endymion with bizarre rigging; it's the America class 3rd Rate, also known as RN_Superbe. The Endymion is in the background on the left, and her rigging is fine.
That said, I have NO idea what happened to RN_Superbe's rigging. It wasn't like that originally, that's for sure.

 

[Don Lasagnetti]

As long as you go to a regular shipyard and don't get yourself into the tradeHigh function, it doesn't matter which version of the file you use.
And the code triggering tradeHigh wasn't working properly anyway, so I doubt you'll manage to get into that.

Yes, I have a tendency to make things not work, or work very differently from what they are supposed to do. But I discover many bugs this way and hope I can help with getting rid of some of them...

I'll include your work in my game version, so they'll at least be part of whatever release I make next. Probably another test pack later on.

I feel honored and am glad I could help out a bit! It's not so hard to do some of the simple stuff, as long as I don't go and break things again.
If there's anything else I could probably do, I've got some free time on my hands. For example, I noticed US citizens don't seem to have a wide variety of names available, considered looking into this a bit. Of course, as always I have no idea what file I'd have to look into etc.

Indeed that insane level requirement of 99 is meant as insurance that they WON'T randomly show up.
You have NO idea how much pain and effort we put in preventing unique weapons from showing up. I think we FINALLY managed it. Only took us, wha, five YEARS?

Edit: The price is not related to making the weapon unique. In fact, is 16350 gold not a bit much for a blade you can get in the early game?
You could sell it and immediately get yourself a bigger ship or something. Based on its new stats, it seems to me the price should be maybe... a quarter of what it is now?

About bloody time! Thanks for confirming.

Anytime, nice to see it fixed now!
Concerning the blades, Ijust wasn't sure if I should touch the price, but I'll have a look at prices of blades I changed and adjust them too!

 

[Don Lasagnetti]

That is NOT the Endymion with bizarre rigging; it's the America class 3rd Rate, also known as RN_Superbe. The Endymion is in the background on the left, and her rigging is fine.
That said, I have NO idea what happened to RN_Superbe's rigging. It wasn't like that originally, that's for sure.

Then I'm sorry, I boarded and captured both of them, so I must have mixed them up somewhere

 

[Armada]

Then I'm sorry, I boarded and captured both of them, so I must have mixed them up somewhere

No worries; I'm just confused as to how the rigging ended up like that. Do you have the system and compile logs that were produced when you encountered the ship?
If not, don't worry. I'll need to test the ship myself to see if I can find out what's wrong.

 

[Don Lasagnetti]

Okay, now in the process of testing shipyards, currently I'm in Governor's Harbor, ranked American Captain, level 11 with commerce 2+1 (from items), ship is a Dauntless Class first rate.
Found the first exploit to make money... I can sell all but 1 of my 32 pounders for 489097, then reinstall them by using the Repair All function for 428000. Only works this way, Install All in the cannons screen works properly. Maybe that could be fixed by simply making shipyards pay way less for cannons? As it is right now, I'd get nearly 500k for 108 32pounders on my dauntless, while the ship itself would sell for 311k.

Then there are upgrades, I'm not sure if they have a range of effectiveness, but if not, they should be looked into too.
I'm getting varying values for velocity, hits points and turning speed when installing, deinstalling and reinstalling upgrades.

Also, I have no idea how many cannons the strongest ship in the game can mount, but I'm pretty sure Mr. Gibbs' Dauntless here is somewhat over the top (screenshot attached)... No idea how I managed to do that though

But that's pretty much all I found concerning Shipyards so far. Gonna go test a hostile yard next, but very likely not before tomorrow, I'm afraid

 

[Don Lasagnetti]

No worries; I'm just confused as to how the rigging ended up like that. Do you have the system and compile logs that were produced when you encountered the ship?
If not, don't worry. I'll need to test the ship myself to see if I can find out what's wrong.

Unfortunately not, I wasn't aware that would help. But should it occur again, I'll post a savegame and both of the logfiles

 

[Pieter Boelen]

That is NOT the Endymion with bizarre rigging; it's the America class 3rd Rate, also known as RN_Superbe. The Endymion is in the background on the left, and her rigging is fine.
That said, I have NO idea what happened to RN_Superbe's rigging. It wasn't like that originally, that's for sure.

I just tested out the RN_Superbe in my game and she's looking just fine.

Yes, I have a tendency to make things not work, or work very differently from what they are supposed to do. But I discover many bugs this way and hope I can help with getting rid of some of them...

And a good thing that is too! Can't fix bugs if they're not being found, now can we?

Apparently you're a bit like myself then. I cannot physically be near any sort of simulation or computer program without finding stuff that is wrong.
In many cases, really, insanely, badly wrong! As in "What were they thinking?"-wrong. Or "this could get people killed some day"-wrong.

I feel honored and am glad I could help out a bit! It's not so hard to do some of the simple stuff, as long as I don't go and break things again.

I break stuff in the game all the time. It happens. As long as you figure out how to deal with it, breaking things is a GOOD thing!
We all started out like that. Until you manage to do some of the more complicated stuff and still break it.

Anyway, I think this is a perfect time for a promotion: Welcome to the "Modders" group!

If there's anything else I could probably do, I've got some free time on my hands. For example, I noticed US citizens don't seem to have a wide variety of names available, considered looking into this a bit. Of course, as always I have no idea what file I'd have to look into etc.

Look at PROGRAM\Characters\Characters_names.c .
Other things I can think of by the top of my head:
- Enabling sidequests from the Standard storyline in the other storylines. This requires moving code, but not writing anything new.
- Creating standard citizen dialogs for all non-Stock towns that contain directions for players on where to find stuff.

Whenever I'm doing coding, I always find myself wondering about things of which I don't know where they are either.
Good trick in such a case is:
1. Add your game folder to the Windows Search Index so that when you use Windows Search, it will quickly search in the file contents too
2. Come up with some related code that you do know where to find. Using BuildSettings or InternalSettings toggles tend to work wonders for finding related code

The more you do, the more you start remembering where things are and how things work.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Found the first exploit to make money... I can sell all but 1 of my 32 pounders for 489097, then reinstall them by using the Repair All function for 428000. Only works this way, Install All in the cannons screen works properly. Maybe that could be fixed by simply making shipyards pay way less for cannons? As it is right now, I'd get nearly 500k for 108 32pounders on my dauntless, while the ship itself would sell for 311k.

I thought I was observing some similar issues. Not sure where to even begin fixing that though.

Then there are upgrades, I'm not sure if they have a range of effectiveness, but if not, they should be looked into too.
I'm getting varying values for velocity, hits points and turning speed when installing, deinstalling and reinstalling upgrades.

Oh no, not those too.

Also, I have no idea how many cannons the strongest ship in the game can mount, but I'm pretty sure Mr. Gibbs' Dauntless here is somewhat over the top (screenshot attached)... No idea how I managed to do that though

That's.... quite incredible. You managed to DOUBLE UP on the cannons!

But that's pretty much all I found concerning Shipyards so far. Gonna go test a hostile yard next, but very likely not before tomorrow, I'm afraid

You know what happens at Hostile yards: The Vanderdecken effect. I still intend to look into that. I want cannons to be SOLD at double price and BOUGHT at single price.
You need this code change for hostile yards to even notice that you are hostile. Here's to hoping that one now at least finally works as I want it to!

 

[Don Lasagnetti]

Anyway, I think this is a perfect time for a promotion: Welcome to the "Modders" group!

Well thank you, that is a nice surprise this morning!!

Look at PROGRAM\Characters\Characters_names.c .
Other things I can think of by the top of my head:
- Enabling sidequests from the Standard storyline in the other storylines. This requires moving code, but not writing anything new.
- Creating standard citizen dialogs for all non-Stock towns that contain directions for players on where to find stuff.

Alright, I've had a quick look at the character_names.c file, I think it's pretty simple to add more names! Or is there anything I should be aware of, a maximum number of names per line or anything else? Does the name generator take a name from any line, or does he first pick a line, then a name from it? Would be good to avoid names like William Williams or Thomas Thomas if that's somehow possible...

Oh no, not those too.

Well, as I said, I have a suspicion that it might not be a fixed increase of the value, more something like a random 5-15% increase. I've not managed to break it to the point of creating uberships, so probably doesn't need fixing.

That's.... quite incredible. You managed to DOUBLE UP on the cannons!

Yes, not sure if I'm actually firing twice as much though. Still, very nice ship Mr. Gibbs got me there

You know what happens at Hostile yards: The Vanderdecken effect. I still intend to look into that. I want cannons to be SOLD at double price and BOUGHT at single price.
You need this code change for hostile yards to even notice that you are hostile. Here's to hoping that one now at least finally works as I want it to!

Alright, I'll implement this and go test right after I've added a few more names for the US, which shouldn't take too long!

Pieter, please don't mess up the Sabre of Nicholas Sharp too much. The melee system is completely broken and without a super sword early on one ends up with a melee skill of 1. You have seen my save game and know i am not exaggerating.

Signed.

I perfectly understand that there are some here who consider melee being too easy and some swords being overpowered.

But there are still others who are more than challenged with the melee as it is. I, for example, have not yet seen any sword I would call overpowered since I am playing Buil 14, nor have I encountered any melee situation where I felt overpowered. I always was barely surviving at all, and I still die in the larger number of any melee combats and have to reload. I'm playing in journeymann and adventurer most.

So please, it may be the very swords some here consider overpowered is what keeps melee-noobs like me from just dying everytime.
If someone considers the melee combat being too easy, I suggest he uses a common cutlass and does not wear any armor.

The way I changed it, it's still very good, especially so for low levels. But I've uploaded the file, so if you want, give it a try and let me know how well it worked for you!

It's very simple to edit the files for myself, or for anyone who feels the game is rather easy, so some testing and feedback from several people would help finding a good balance for the majority!

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Alright, I've had a quick look at the character_names.c file, I think it's pretty simple to add more names! Or is there anything I should be aware of, a maximum number of names per line or anything else? Does the name generator take a name from any line, or does he first pick a line, then a name from it? Would be good to avoid names like William Williams or Thomas Thomas if that's somehow possible...

I am not at all certain. Always figured it just randomly took one out of all of them.
Anyway, it should be a simple matter of just adding more. I checked the code and it looks like it isn't fussy about the number of names on a line.
Which surprised me, actually, because usually functions freak out when you don't feed them the correct number of arguments.

Well, as I said, I have a suspicion that it might not be a fixed increase of the value, more something like a random 5-15% increase. I've not managed to break it to the point of creating uberships, so probably doesn't need fixing.

Just confirmed that indeed there is randomization going on in there on purpose.

Yes, not sure if I'm actually firing twice as much though. Still, very nice ship Mr. Gibbs got me there

Don't think so. The models still has 104 cannon locators and I don't think cannons can fire that don't have locators.

 

[Luffy]

Adding the foam fix? dont forget!

 

[Don Lasagnetti]

I am not at all certain. Always figured it just randomly took one out of all of them.
Anyway, it should be a simple matter of just adding more. I checked the code and it looks like it isn't fussy about the number of names on a line.
Which surprised me, actually, because usually functions freak out when you don't feed them the correct number of arguments.

Alright, that was more work than expected, but we've got several hundred more names added for the US, having about 20 times as much as before now... Looking forward to encountering Austin Powers and Christina Applegate

Just confirmed that indeed there is randomization going on in there on purpose.

Don't think so. The models still has 104 cannon locators and I don't think cannons can fire that don't have locators.

Ah, good to hear, one thing less to worry about! And yes, I was afraid something like that would be the case. No double-cannon ship for me then

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Alright, that was more work than expected, but we've got several hundred more names added for the US, having about 20 times as much as before now... Looking forward to encountering Austin Powers and Christina Applegate

HAHAHA! It's great to upgrade the USA to being as fully developed a nation as the other ones! So thanks for working on this. They do deserve it, no?