Build 14 Patch 5 possible bugs

[chrissy2k7]

Hi guys. First of all, I want to send out my personal gratitude and thanks to anyone who contributed to this absolutely fantastic build mod. It's great to look back at the vanilla game and see how far you have all came! There is so much more to do now and the game is just generally a lot more enjoyable! So thankyou once again for this

Since I downloaded patch 5 about 10 days ago i've found a few small problems which I thought I would share with you guys; I know a few of these have been brought up before but i figured I might aswell provide some feedback on this awesome mod So here goes anyway:

1) Battle Armour: This isn't so much a bug, but I find the armour useful, and very unnatractive. Is is possible to include a minor setting where the armour is not seen but equipped? (You could say that the character is wearing it UNDER his clothing?)

2) Forts seem to always fire into mountains whenever I go from port to my ship, and I'm not sure why. (I always pretend they are giving me a salute as I leave hehe

3) When I sail to certain island (Curaco espeically) I always find there is fighting at their port area. 80% of the time that I sail to Curaco i find fighting outside their port. This happens near some English colonies too. But the problem is, its about 80% of the time, and it's small ships such as luggers attacking. Surely small french ships weren't stupid enough to attack Port Royale fort with 2 luggers? Just seems unrealistic, but it isn't a major game problem.

4)The description for the appearance options in a shipyard for the original starting lugger don't actually say anything, so you don't know what you are actually purchasing. I'm guessing the different purchase options are different colours? (I haven't looked at this with any other ship yet so maybe it's just this one)

5) Spyglasses don't seem to work. I have the excellent spyglass which says it shows ship crew, health, sails etc.. but it never does. Is this part of the realistic mode? I'm guessing in real life in a close ship battle you would be able to tell the condition of the enemies hull, which is why I was wondering if there was a small fix for this to be changed.

6) When changing anything in the options menu, its impossible to resume your game. Again, this is not a major problem as you can just exit and restart.

7)A guy in the tavern of Eleuthera (not Alice town.. the other one, I always forget the name) has no dialog. He sits in the corner and when I talk to him he says 'I can't open my dialog file'

8) When you side-step you can float through solid objects. This is not nessecarily a bug but maybe there could be a small hotkey option to turn this on/off? I'ts good to have it as an option because sometimes your officers stick you in a stairway and you cant get out.

9) The summary info of a ship doesn't seem to be correct. On my ship all officers except my first mate have their skills in the summary. On my second ship, I hired a carpenter (10 repair) and stuck him on there, but the 2nd ships repair is still only 2 (the captains repair skill). If his ability is still used, and the only problem is the showing of numbers, then this isn't really a problem at all. But it is a problem if his abilities aren't being taken into account (I pay the scurvy dog's wages )

10) After a storm, sometimes, not all the time, my ship spins upcontrollably in one direction. This is easily solved by heading into the map but still, a minor bug.

11) Maybe this just needs a code tweak.. but i NEVER get attacked by pirates. I get attacked by massive war fleets and medium sized ships from enemy colours, but pirates never seem to bother. Even if (as I was until yesterday) I'm only sailing with a class 7 lugger full of gold, or other cargo. I'd have thought as a honest merchanman I'd have had more pirate trouble by now.

12) Is it just me or, when you mutiny, do you fight invisible people? I always die because im being hit from people I can't see!

This is everything I have written down. However I want you guys to know that I'm not in any way compaining. This game is amazing and has me totally hooked right now, the things I have posted here don't upset the game in any way (the only two that are even slightly disrupting are the spyglass and the summary skills).

Cheers mateys once again for this awesome mod

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Some of your issues are mentioned in our FAQ: http://forum.piratesahoy.net/index.php/topic/14915-build-mod-and-forum-faq/

1. Most character models don't show their armor; only very few do. What character model are you using?
In the case of the Standard storyline's "blaze" model, open PROGRAM\Models\initModels.c and remove the entries for "Blaze_A1", "Blaze_A2" and "Blaze_A3".
Load your game, de-equip the armor, press F11 to reinitialize the game, then re-equip the armor. If things went right, the armor will no longer show.

2. Black Bart has been looking into that recently. The forts don't know there's land inbetween, so we can't do much on that one, except decrease their range and make it less common.

4. Patch 6 will have descriptions for most ships and screenshots for all, so that should improve things.

5. That's indeed part of the Realistic Game Mode. Black Bart is working on a system that lies between the current all/no information situation.

7. Somebody still needs to make a dialog file for him and several other characters; unfortunately, we've got nobody at the moment working on it.

9. I'm not sure if officers on other ships work properly; if I recall, the modder who did the new officers skills system never got around to finishing it as much as he wanted.

10. Apparently the code causing that is somewhere, but I'm not sure where.

11. Maybe there is more interesting targets for them around? Maybe they prefer to go for bigger merchant ships? There is some coding in place that could cause that.

12. That's a bug, but I never managed to replicate it when I tried. It's been reported frequently enough though that I know it's true. Just don't know why or how.

 

[Black Bart]

Ahoy! I'll have a quick bash at some of those points(i've brought a number of them up myself before):

EDIT: I see Pieter beat me to it

1. Not sure, probably you could remove it's texture from the game files? the code to give you the protection will still be there. Or another option is for it to be re-textured if one of the modeler people feels like it?

2. Yeah, this is because, like when you use your Spyglass, the forts(nor your Spyglass) can 'see' the mountains. With the forts they are seeing the ships within their cannon range that they are at war with and just firing to hit those ships, even when they are behind mountains!! I'm working on reducing the range of fort cannon or reducing the range they are willing to engange an enemy. I'll see how that goes as it is early days yet for that fix to be tested out etc, but yeah this is one thing i'm keen to see a better result over.

3. This is all based upon the relationship between nations and the random ships that get spawned around the island, it's all random/changable etc so not much can be done about it really i dont think.

4. One of a number of interface issues that will one day have a 'fix'

5. At the momment the default setting uses a mod of the Spyglass which means you will never see any information except the ships name - it's to encourage you to learn all the ships, what size crew and cannon they should have etc, but in the next patch will be removed for an 'Iron Man' game option, rather than default. So this will be different in the next patch.

6. Another one i've dug up also It's to do with the game having problems if you are allowed to start a new game etc, it goes all mad apparantly, so this is a 'fix' to ensure bad things don't happen!

7. Oh good - i'm listing dialog errors, i've fixed many of the current ones around game start, so IF you can remember this guys name, please let me know and i'll add him to my list

8. Side step bug is a non-fixable issue. There never used to be sidestep in the original game, and this was the only way it could work. The new 'Controls.txt' file in the next patch will have a note about this next to the key controls for this.

9. Another one of my concerns i brought up, and don't worry - it IS all working fine. Melee and Luck skills do not group, so they will only ever show you your personal skills here, and the other do not stack, so only the relevant Officers with the highest skill for that crew position will show.

10. And you'll also notice you can never turn to the right during a Storm event - it's a big bug that is in the bug tracker and has been hard to fix!

11. Ah...now you come on to reason to use my favourite feature. I'm assuming you mean when your in the Map Navigation sailing mode(the sort of isometric view sailing mode). To get attacked while at sea you need to try the Direct Sailing method, as in stay in 3D to sail between islands. It takes longer, but the encounters you will have can be anything and if Pirates they will attack you - if they can catch you!

12. Another bug i mentioned recently, some people have that others do not, so it's a bit of a weird one currently, but known about.

And thanks for the input - you should see my list!!!! It's around here somewhere(with messed up text! when did that happen?):

http://forum.piratesahoy.net/index.php/topic/17525-black-barts-list-of-findings-in-build-mod-14-beta-1-patch-5-so-far/

I love the game too, it really is an amazing mod, even with the sometimes strange issues, and i'm sure no one would take your input as anything but constructive criticism

 

[Pieter Boelen]

7. I know which guy it is. He uses the unexisting "Eleuthera citizen_dialog" file. He's always there in the tavern sitting at a table.

11. When I was on the worldmap a few days ago, I did get some pirates chasing after me.

 

[chrissy2k7]

Well,

I used the original Nathaniel for a while, now I use Blaize, so I will try out what you said Pieter.


And lol Bart, i just read your post (not sure what the writing is all about, weird haha!) It seems we have come across a few of the same problems! Not that i'm glad your game is bugged lol, but it's nice to know its not just me with these minor problems And you know.. I didn't even notice you cant turn right in a storm , I always just figured I was a lousy storm sailor!

When will patch 6 be out? Not that it's a major requirement or anything, I think I'll just regularly check in anyone to keep updated on all things piratey

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Patch 6? I'm going to have to make myself do it next week or so.

 

[Black Bart]

Well no rush Pieter, are we sure the stuff we want to include is all ship-shape(like the 'simpleAIship.c', the changes to spyglass in terms of Realistic Mode/Arcade Mode or 'Iron Man' in advanced options etc. You have a better oversight on where all that is than I do - shame i'm going away tomorrow, and i'll be away from all technology!!(no net, no PotC, no phone even!) I'm taking an mp3 recorder to get some sounds of the sea, and if i'm lucky to try and gets sounds of a boats keel cutting through the sea(something i always miss playing PotC), so i have one bit of tech with me atleast

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I haven't worked on the spyglass realism code yet.

 

[Black Bart]

Exactly no rush, unless the text files correction i did and what you have is enough for the patch 6? your call hombre

 

[Hylie Pistof]

2. You will find that in order to get the forts to not shoot mountains you will have to reduce their range to rock throwing distance. And then you will have to reduce the range of the ships too, because they also shoot mountains. It's just a dumb AI issue, not a gun range issue.

 

[Black Bart]

I've seen it much less often, so far, using the slightly reduced ranges i've been testing(top range around 1760 yards(instead of 2000ish) as per info on long-gun 32 pounder i dug up). Basicaly before it was very common, so i'm trying to make it less common, but still retain realistic cannon ranges(and they were pretty accurate in the original mod before). Unless we can restrict each fort, depending on it's location, to only fire within a certain arc, so between two fixed locations. As it was they often were seen firing into mountains at enemies they couldn't hit(and shouldn't even 'see'), accept they must be within the firing range(plus elevation bonus etc).

Or the other possibility is to set an engagement range, like we have for ship-ship combat(500 yards i think that is?), maybe something like 1000 yards for casual threats, i.e non direct attacks on the fort(pirates etc), or full range(+1760 yards) for attacks directed at the fort itself? something along those lines.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Sounds pretty complicated to me; not sure how to manage that. :?

 

[chrissy2k7]

Well judging by what has been said, one thing for sure is there is no rush for patch 6. There isn't anything in that list I made which makes the game unplayable.

By the way, I have a few small minor ideas for you guys.

1) Only small things, but I noticed when I change the ship sails colour on my flagship, the rest of my fleet follow suit. I'd rather be unique, is it possible to make it so each ship can be different?

2) Also, when in the tavern, do you think it could be possible to actually buy a drink at the bar? Lol. Maybe the benefit of it could be a small health replenishment or something like that.

3) And lastly, how about more officer types? Things such as second mate, which were common in the old days, and also young ship boys. Maybe junior versions of officers?

Those are the things i can think of off the top of my head.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

1. It's possible to do that through code, but I don't think we've got anyone here who could make an interface for it.
We still need a "select flag" interface as well...

2. There's usually some characters at a table who you can join for a drink.

3. We might be able to add more, but I'm not sure of the gameplay value.
I did add some experimental code allowing you to promote sailors of your to officer for Patch 6.

 

[Peter Blood]

I have two more bug reports, but they are both the same kind of problem. On Horatio Hornblower, when I go into Kingston Port after getting my orders to sail there, the game crashes. If I try to moor on one of the beaches and go into town inland, it works fine, but by the time I get on the Indy and go to sea, the game crashes and gives a runtime error report (It has been doing this in the original version and in all the patches). A similar thing happens on Assassin when I try to go to Cozomul for the second time. I get the same runtime error report. I also would like to know if the Arturo Campos bug where he didn't speak on the beach was fixed in patch five.

 

[chrissy2k7]

I don't want to start making this thread complicated, but I have a bit of a major issue which I didn't mention earlier (in the hope it would go away) but it hasn't. I'm having major graphical errors when I start ship battles, the screen sort of goes crazy; I can still see whats happening but... well it is hard to explain. But I recorded a 7 second video to show it happeneing, I'm not sure if I am allowed to upload it or what...

 

[Talisman]

I don't want to start making this thread complicated, but I have a bit of a major issue which I didn't mention earlier (in the hope it would go away) but it hasn't. I'm having major graphical errors when I start ship battles, the screen sort of goes crazy; I can still see whats happening but... well it is hard to explain. But I recorded a 7 second video to show it happeneing, I'm not sure if I am allowed to upload it or what...

Do you mean blocks of colour like this ( see image )

This is a known bug - possibly something to do with the flags mod - no one known how to fix it - - any help fixing it would be very much appreciated.

 

[chrissy2k7]

Yeah exactly like that. I think it's the only major problem I have come across in this patch and it affects about 75% of my sea battles, to the point where I cannot see what is going on. It never happens on land though

 

[Peter Blood]

That is really annoying. Another thing is that sometimes during a seabattle, when you quicken up the game speed, the ship starts turning around and going in circles extremely fast, and when I decrease the game speed, it is still going at the same speed and the ship is still going crazy. I hope I explained this well enough. (And can someone also answer my previous post up above)

 

[chrissy2k7]

So is there any possible explanation or fix for this?

I remember seeing something on Mod DB about a graphics helper for certain cards, maybe that is the problem?

But then again I'm not sure.. I used to play build 13 and didn't have this graphic issue.. I'm really nooby at all this kinda stuff