Not a Bug Early Explorers Experiences

[Hylie Pistof]

Since I started working on ships I quit updating my installs to keep them consistent, so I am still using the 5 November version.

So I took a break and started a new game in Early Explorers. Everything was working normally until i ran into two things.

First came the apothecary where there was no dialog. I know it works ok in other time periods so I suspect this is only an Early Explorers issue unless it has already been fixed.

Then leaving town we got ambushed. Does the number of soldiers and their uniforms seem wrong?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

First came the apothecary where there was no dialog. I know it works ok in other time periods so I suspect this is only an Early Explorers issue unless it has already been fixed.

I know there was a general Apothecary dialog error, but that one was fixed shortly after it was found.
Do you have a savegame and/or error.log file affected by that? I see no reason why that error should be period-dependent.

Then leaving town we got ambushed. Does the number of soldiers and their uniforms seem wrong?

They look like the characters used for the "Merchant Guild". Did you rob or kill any item trader characters?

 

[Hylie Pistof]

I think this save will work.

I don't know. There were people around and then my officers started clearing the jungle and then the ambush happened. They went through us like a hot knife through butter.

 

[Grey Roger]

One thing which is different in "Early Explorers" is that Barbados is Portuguese, hence the apothecary's different name. Will that have any effect on apothecary dialog, especially the new dialog for apothecary fetch quests?

@Hylie Pistof: do you have an "error.log" file from soon after you had tried to talk to the apothecary? That will probably indicate what is wrong in the dialog files.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I think this save will work.

Is that one in the location where you got into that huge fight?
Oh, and were you using Shore Crewmembers at the time? If not, then by process of elimination, it MUST have been the Merchant Guild.
I assume those soldiers weren't in the location at first, but showed up later? That is what the "Ambush" function normally does.

I don't know. There were people around and then my officers started clearing the jungle and then the ambush happened. They went through us like a hot knife through butter.

If it is indeed what I think it is, and it does sound like it, you would have gotten a message about it on the screen.
Though of course I can imagine that wouldn't really stand out amindst all the chaos.
I believe there is also a sound effect that goes with it though, which should be less easy to miss...

Oh, one more check you could do (if you still have a save from AFTER it happened): Look at your nation relations and reputation.
Attacking a merchant is HEAVILY penalized, so if that was indeed it, you'd probably notice a rather huge difference in your reputation and relation numbers.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

I went back and tried the apothecary again and do have an error.log.

In that ambush we were all quickly killed and I started that part over again this morning and got past it all cleanly, so there is no national relations hit.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I went back and tried the apothecary again and do have an error.log.

I just tested that in my game and had no dialog error, so I think you just have a game version from before that was fixed.
Please extract attached to your main game folder; that should fix it.

In that ambush we were all quickly killed and I started that part over again this morning and got past it all cleanly, so there is no national relations hit.

I checked your savegame, but it didn't have any characters around other than your own party and the soldiers, so I cannot check your specific circumstances.
However, I did check that indeed you don't have the Shore Crewmembers enabled, so that could not have been the cause.
I also checked everywhere the "Navy_office4" model is used in the game and it is indeed exclusively used for those "Merchant Guild" ambushes.
That seems pretty conclusive proof of what happened, which technically makes it "Not a Bug".

I do wonder if you talked to any of those characters before and "viewed their merchant stock".
If you did, then that fully explains it. But if you didn't, that makes it a rather weird situation.
But since we have no evidence and cannot replicate it, there is nothing that can be done until you or someone else reports it again with more details and a savegame to check from.

Neither of these seem to be period-related.

 

[Grey Roger]

For what it's worth, I've also been using the 5th November install for my "Hornblower" development. I loaded up the savegame from post #3 above and got a full apothecary dialog without installing the fix posted by @Pieter Boelen.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

For what it's worth, I've also been using the 5th November install for my "Hornblower" development. I loaded up the savegame from post #3 above and got a full apothecary dialog without installing the fix posted by @Pieter Boelen.

If I recall correctly, that problem was reported by @salonikasurf basically while I was making the installer.
It could be that I had already made the installer, uploaded it and then replaced it very shortly after.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Anyway, it works now.