• New Horizons on Maelstrom
    Maelstrom New Horizons


    Visit our website www.piratehorizons.com to quickly find download links for the newest versions of our New Horizons mods Beyond New Horizons and Maelstrom New Horizons!

A stormy horizon (return of the evil stormy module)

T

The Diamond

Landlubber
Storm Modder
Arrr...it seems yer turn yer back for two years, and suddenly yer module in the buildsettings is quietly dropped.

So take this like ye'd take a warning from the crewman on the crow's nest of a black sail or storm on the horizon. Cp'n Diamond's looked over the Build 14 beta code, has seen most of his dastardly work remains in place since Alpha 6, and is preparin' a fully Build 14 beta compatible version of the Evil Stormy Start mod as we speak, including re-enabling the toggle in the buildsettings needed to inflict its full terror on the unsuspectin' sailor.

...and if I catches the bloody swine who dropped the mod in the first place, I'll keelhaul him and leave him marooned on some godfersaken isle off the Quebradas Costillas wi' nowt but some stripey pants and a note that says "laugh this one off".


OOC: From looking at the changes during the progression to Beta stage, it does look like Evil Stormy needed some tweaks to continue to function as intended and, clearly, I wasn't around to make them at the time.

Fortunately, for those who like the hard life, I'm now back, re-remembering the full unintuitive joy of modding POTC, and so watch this space. ;)
 
Quebradas Costillas... you mean Nevis :rofl

Always good to see an old hand come back, and to hopefully stay :yes
 
Welcome back, mate! You're quite welcome to fix up your old mod!
Other idea: Why don't you make a new storyline start that includes your mod so you don't need to enable/disable anything?
 
ooh, please do. i've missed starting with the leaky bucket. although i prefer the dinky lil gunboat myself.
 
Arr, no - I meant the Quebradas Costillas. A godfersaken place that no sane man visits these days and no longer appears on maps, so once marooned there ye be stuck there fer all eternity, wi' no convenient rum smugglers or 'sea turtles' to bring ye back to the civilised world. Arr!

I've been thinkin' 'bout how it can be made a storyline start, and came to the slightly depressin' conclusion that it needs ter be a whole new selectable story in its own right, but based on the standard new horizons start. Which means I need ter learn a bit more about story initialisation as well as just resurrectin' the old functions. I'm also likin' the separate thread about loan shark records in the journal, as that removes the main obstacle to stitching up the player by starting heavily in debt on top of his already perilous circumstances. Arr!

O'course, that'd mean it'd be possible to have a few more obvious dialogue options and effects, like bein' able ter choose ter start with the gunboat "Morgan's Revenge" as an alternative to the iconic Tartane "Leaky Bucket", fer those scurvy dogs who feel that startin' wi' no cannons is just a wee bit too much ter ask. No names be mentioned, o' course.

So, in summary - my intention is that there'll be a return o' the Leaky Bucket (and a better introduction as to how you get into the mess in the first place). As originally intended, ye won't start life as a 'captain'. As before, yer sword and gun will be washed overboard in the storm and ye'll have now't but the rags on yer back, a few stones from the beach and, maybe, yer old broken spyglass and a couple of piastas to yer name. Oh, and yer trusty ship'll still be a leaking wreck with sails barely able to allow you to turn at sea and now't more than a barrel or two of rum, grain and random contraband.

Further, ye may be plunged deeply in debt and find that some o' the easy-ish routes ter fame and fortune might not be as accessible as you've got used ter expectin, as I've been lookin' around other files and settings and considering a few things that could be a' tinkered with ter make yer first half hour or so a bit more challengin'. Arr!
 
I suppose if you just want it as an alternate start to the Standard storyline,
it'd be better to just keep it in the original files and not make a copy of the whole folder.
After all, copies need to be updated as well and that's asking for trouble.
An alternative could be to make your start kick in automatically if the difficulty level is set above a certain value prior to starting.
 
wait a minute, i just remembered something. the reason why i preferred the gunboat over the tartane was because the former used to allow boarding. is that still the case?
 
You can't board anything with a tartane? That's the first I ever heard of that...
 
huh. i thought you'd said it. there's at least been talk about it, i know that much.

and okay, i like the little boomstick. really fun sailing through those clouds of gunsmoke and waterspray. can't see a damn thing.
 
Pieter Boelen said:
I suppose if you just want it as an alternate start to the Standard storyline,
it'd be better to just keep it in the original files and not make a copy of the whole folder.
After all, copies need to be updated as well and that's asking for trouble.
An alternative could be to make your start kick in automatically if the difficulty level is set above a certain value prior to starting.
Click to expand...

Hmm...well, its also about what potential users would want from the Evil Stormy / Dark Horizons / whatever the blazes it'll end up being called mod.

It was always aimed at upping the difficulty level from CCC's Stormy Start option which is, AFAIK, linked solely to the standard New Horizons storyline. So its logical user base are those who would have otherwise taken the Stormy Start, but prefer the additional challenge.

The alternative would be to have it as a standalone scenario which has no overall quest line, just a tough beginning. My gut feeling is that people would prefer it to be based on New Horizons, given the way development has been going...and if I make it standalone, it'll be fifteen seconds before some smart alec will ask whether it can be made compatible with the CCC Stormy Start in New Horizons, I just know it...

Ultimately, its not too hard to tweak the existing New Horizons initial dialogue to allow a selection between the CCC version and mine. I'm sure I can dream up a slick-ish way of doing that. :doff

In terms of compatibility, this new version should be more update-proof, as I plan to use more creative methods to overwrite settings and generally interfere with the difficulty level in the background, rather than the previous sledgehammer tactic of putting in workarounds where other mods conflicted and/or got in the way. That should keep it working unless anyone decides to rewrite sizeable chunks of the functionality relating to difficulty level in BuildSettings.h and/or InternalSettings.h.


On the note of boarding, I'm sure it always used to be possible to board things with a Tartane...admittedly, I recall it could quite often be a suicidal venture if you attempted to close with most ships in an un-repaired Leaky Bucket, and the modified min/max crew settings meant you had to be a competent low-level duellist to pull off a capture, bearing in mind you had no cannons to soften the enemy up first and virtually no allies in attendance.
 
I don't think we'll be doing too many major code adjustments to Build 14 anymore,
just fixes, updates and finishing touches, I reckon.

If you're willing to do a slightly bigger project,
I was sort-of wondering if a new storyline that has your hard randomized start,
but would continue being really quite challenging, might be worthwhile?
 
oh, the boarding's no prob. i captured a spanish pinnace with the little gunboat once (in the middle of a rather big england vs. spain seabattle, mind you). sloops are more common prey. wonder how well the tartane will go.
 
Pieter Boelen said:
I don't think we'll be doing too many major code adjustments to Build 14 anymore,
just fixes, updates and finishing touches, I reckon.

If you're willing to do a slightly bigger project,
I was sort-of wondering if a new storyline that has your hard randomized start,
but would continue being really quite challenging, might be worthwhile?
Click to expand...

It could well be a worthwhile venture - although I'd see that as a 'version 2' that would follow on from (and re-use) the core Evil Stormy code but add in a more unique story to justify being its own scenario as well as a Horizons add-on.

I've got a fair bit to consider in any case...some of the additional concepts I'm exploring include upping the ship purchasing level multiplier, banning the player from using auto-repair at shipyards at early levels, introducing additional income reduction modifiers on selling, toning down the chances of decent looting from random chests and making loan sharks less inclined to give large sums of money to early level players - if any money at all.

Intuitively, these will be a mix of:

a) You can't do (x) until you're at least level (y)
b) Scalars that apply additional percentage-based penalties that ease off as level and/or skills increase
c) Percentage-based reductions that apply to all levels

I'm also looking at tweaks to the cargo capacity and seaworthiness of the starting tartane and gunboat and other level-related nudges (e.g. crew morale) to make trading less profitable, nicking larger ships more risky and, potentially, making it very difficult to run larger ships at very early game stages. And by "larger", I'm thinking "larger than a tartane or gunboat". :wp

In a nutshell, I want to give the player tougher decisions at the start than in the last version, and make it slightly more tricksy if you attempt to sidestep it all by capturing a larger ship on the first voyage out. The level-related effects should hopefully ensure people will be locked in the 'stormier' section for a bit longer than before, so its up to them to find a happy balance of risk/reward while their character learns the ropes, until they're able to claw their way out of their situation and become a self-respecting captain.

However, I don't want to go too far and have players feel they're being pushed to look for exploits or forced to grind experience to escape the confines of the level effects. I'm aiming for a rewarding challenge, rather than a frustrating challenge.

The original aim of Evil Stormy was to make the start harder, but bring the player back to broadly how the game was designed to be by the mid-stage. I'm inclined to stick to that as a mission statement for the time being and consider further tweaks after testing and implementation.

If people want a harder difficulty setting in general, it would make more sense for a modder to toy around with the Swashbuckler setting...and then Evil Stormy's percentage modifiers will just make it even bloody harder at the beginning. ;)
 
a) You can't do (x) until you're at least level (y)
Click to expand...
My thought on this one would be "You can't do (x) until you hire an officer who can do it for you".
That's an idea I've had for quite a while that might have the same general effect,
except it'd apply to the game in general and not just the stormy start.
It could be used to force the player always to do various "tedious" tasks himself,
until somebody else takes over. Eg. AutoRepair only if you've got a (good enough?) carpenter.
And "AutoBuy" only if you've got a quartermaster.
 
Aye, if that's a do-able tweak, then I'll give it a bash.

In the meantime, let no-one say I don't release teasers. :wp

Its about time the video intro for my version o' the Stormy Start had a wee revamp...and I've decided on its new name. Arr!
 
I imagine if you ARE putting limits on functions anyway, it shouldn't be too much of a stretch to do it based on officers.
Back before I went to sea, I did some slight workings on officer-stuff by giving the doctor a purpose with wounded crewmembers.
I'm not 100% sure which functions I wrote for that, but one of it deals with checking your doctor's (or any other officer type's) defence (or any other) skill level, which might come in useful.
Check PROGRAM\NK.c for the functions I added; maybe one is of use?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top