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WIP Enhanced Smuggling

Levis

Levis

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So this will be the discussion topic for the smuggling changes.

What has happened with the last few updates:
- Smugglers now have a disposition and based on that they will trade with you or not. Also it will affect the price
- You can now buy opium in jamaica
- If you buy opium the guard might chase you for a while
 
@Levis

Are the coastguards in the tavern that you talk to always going to be there ?

Perhaps if sometimes they are not there - the players can go back to the smuggler's agent and say that they were unable to talk to anyone - the agent could then ask the player if they wish to continue or abandon the smuggling attempt - if the player chooses continue then the chance of meeting the coastguards is increased.

Possible dialog:-

Agent : "Hmh... maybe I can help you. I'll find you a customer. But watch out for the coastguards! They will not be nice to you if they see you helping poor town folk like us. You should find out if the coastguard keeps an eye on ", Try talking to some of the drunk soldiers in the tavern.

Player: "Okay, this wont' take long",

When the player comes back ( after talking or not talking to the soldiers )

Agent: Ah, there you are again! Hope you know what you are doing. They'll be at the place called ", Did you manage to find out anything about the coastguard patrols?

Player: Yes, I have the times of the patrols. <<<---- (1)
No I could not get any details <<<<-----(2)

--- either a choice made by the player in the dialog or a check in the code to see if the player has got the information - if the player has info then (1) otherwise (2)

So you get

Agent: (1)--->>>" Please don't make them wait to long.",
Player: "Okay, I'm on my way now.",

OR

Agent: (2)---->>>> Do you still want to do this ? It could be risky!!!

Player: Yes, I am willing to risk it <<<<---- (3) --- choice in dialog allows the player to continue with the smuggling ( with perhaps an increased risk of coastguards finding them)
No, I prefer to abandon this for the moment <<<-----(4) --- allows the player to abandon the attempt at smuggling

Agent: (3)--->>>" Please don't make them wait to long.",
Player: "Okay, I'm on my way now.",

Agent: (4) --->>> A wise choice, the coastguards on the island are not to be messed with.
Player: Thanks perhaps I will try again some other day, When I am feeling a bit braver and more reckless. Good bye my friend, until we meet again.

What do you think?

:checklist

 
You see there is a full underlying system behind this.
Every island has a patrol schedule which dictates how many patrols there are. The time the guard gives you is the time when there are least patrols possible.
If you smuggle much to an island the schedule might change.
If you get caught by guards you can loot theire bodies. One of them will have a book on him. In this book you can actually find the complete schedule of the island. So if you have this you don't need to talk to the guard anymore at all.

There guards are randomly generated, if you exit the tavern and enter it again they might be there this time.

I'm now working on an option where you can send one of your officers ahead to do scouting so they can tell you what time is best (if they wont get caught by guards and killed ofcourse).

I will include an abord option in the agent dialog cause that does sound reasonable. Also I want the questsbook entries to be updated both times. So first to say you should find more info and then to say to go there. This is because on your way there something else might happen now also (soon, if I finish it :p ).
 
Thanks @Levis that is all great :onya

I have no problems with the coding and all the new possabilities in smuggling. They are really good :bow

My only problem is with the dialog that the player gets when they talk to the Smuggling Agent for the first time

Agent : "Hmh... maybe I can help you. I'll find you a customer. But watch out for the coastguards! They will not be nice to you if they see you helping poor town folk like us. You should find out if the coastguard keeps an eye on "

Player: "Okay, this wont' take long",

It is just that when you play this it appears to the player that the quest breaks.

OK if there are soldiers in the tavern then players will probably go and talk to them. But if there are no soldiers in the tavern, then expecting players to exit/renter the tavern till some spawn is not very good game-play and again makes it appear that the quest has broken.

I know the information what to do next is in the smuggling Book that the agent gives you ( but it is not obvious and is about 3/4 of the way through - you also have to remember that not all players have good English and the curly script font used in the quest-book and other places is not always easy to read).

Also there is no clue that you can go back to the agent without talking to the soldiers and the quest will continue OK. At the moment the appearance for a player is that you must talk to someone for the quest to continue.

Also since I started smuggling I have been getting copies of the Smuggling Handbook from looting chests. ( not sure if this is supposed to happen but I have sold 6 copies of the book so far and still have my original) :eek: On 2nd thoughts perhaps I should not have done that - since it will obviously help the other smugglers ;) :rofl


:cheers



PS

If you get caught by guards you can loot theire bodies. One of them will have a book on him. In this book you can actually find the complete schedule of the island. So if you have this you don't need to talk to the guard anymore at all.
Click to expand...

In this situation then should not the agent say :-

Agent : "Hmh... maybe I can help you. I'll find you a customer. But watch out for the coastguards! They will not be nice to you if they see you helping poor town folk like us. You should find out if the coastguard keeps an eye on ",

Player: Don't worry I have a schedule of all coastguard patrols on the island.

Agent: Well you are all set then. Please don't make them wait to long.",

Player: "Okay, I'm on my way now.",


:shrug
 
It's pretty hard for me to check if you have the right schedule, and I don't want to give away the schedule has changed.
But I will try to improve the dialog so you got more of an idea what to do. And I think when you can also ask your officer to scout for you it gets more clear also :).

Edit: yes it seems you should be able to find the smugglersbook. Just in case you don't know it exist :p. This might give you an idea what to do then if you haven't smuggled already.
 
Todo list for 3.5

Create smuggling quest which triggers the first time you do it and has some additional info (mostly for later use). TODO
Make use of the opium smuggling WIP
When smuggling contraband there should be a chance you are caught by the harbor master (if docked in the harbor at least) TODO
Add a quest for the gouvernor where you need to stop the smugglers TODO

wishlist for build 14 (could change)
Add the smugglers guild with some simple quests
Add possibilty to change your clothes so you aren't recognised (should also tie in with false flag recognition on land)
Add more difference between different play styles (also add something special for trader type)
 
Levis said:
When smuggling contraband there should be a chance you are caught by the harbor master (if docked in the harbor at least) TODO
Click to expand...
You mean inbetween you activating the smuggling quest and you leaving port? That is only a short duration and you may be caught on the smuggling shore too.
Most towns don't have a harbour master either, so I'm not sure this is worth doing for Beta 3.5 really. Up to you though. :doff
 
Pieter Boelen said:
You mean inbetween you activating the smuggling quest and you leaving port? That is only a short duration and you may be caught on the smuggling shore too.
Most towns don't have a harbour master either, so I'm not sure this is worth doing for Beta 3.5 really. Up to you though. :doff
Click to expand...

I do want to add this. It will probably be a guard who will talk to you if they "found something onboard your ship". This will only happen after you smuggled a while. It's something to make a bit harder after you figured out how the time schedules etc work. Ofcourse there will also be ways to counter this again, and you can figure those out then.
 
Yes I will. Might not do it instantly but will keep room for it so its easy to implement
 
Levis said:
Hmm...I will remove the update relations from the smugglers accept dialog. It should only happen if the coastguard appears ....
I will take care of that.
Click to expand...
Cheers! From what I saw, there are TWO types of smugglers. This function call is only in "Random_captains_sit_tavern_dialog.c", which is NOT the normal type of smuggler.
I think @Screwface added that ages ago back when not every town actually had a smuggler yet.
 
Pieter Boelen said:
Cheers! From what I saw, there are TWO types of smugglers. This function call is only in "Random_captains_sit_tavern_dialog.c", which is NOT the normal type of smuggler.
I think @Screwface added that ages ago back when not every town actually had a smuggler yet.
Click to expand...
really?
That should be removed instantly then because it could screw up smuggling quite bad now XD.
 
@Levis still had some cool WIP stuff here. Will that be completed soon? Or does anything need to be disabled so it won't seem half-finished in the Beta 4 release?
 
Goal is to make at least use of it in the next update. And after that i will improve on it.
 
Okay I'm halfway now already.
I hope to be able to finish this tomorrow.
For Beta4 this is all which will be included:
When you have a LoM or you are in proffesional navy you can go to the governor and he will tell you he got a problem with some smugglers.
You can help him inflitrate the smugglers.
You can deliver a report about normal smuggling to gain some points
You can deliver a report about which people buy opium to gain some points
You can deliver a report about opium smuggling to gain some points
The governor gives you a document which you can show to coast guard to let you pass. But if you use that the smugglers might notice.

I think for now this is enough and it will tie in nice with the new game styles.
For the later build I want to expand on it a bit more but thats later :).

I only have to do the opium part now and that should be about 2 to 3 hours more work and I need to do some testing. So monday I will have it done defently.
I hope to have a test version already tomorrow, but it depens on how much time I have tomorrow.
 
Sounds good, @Levis!
Does that mean this will be purely a mission for Privateers and Naval Officers?
I definitely like having that in addition to the by-now-quite-boring "sink ship" one.
Would be a great start for having more interesting randomized missions!

But is there anything that can be done with all that functionality for actual smugglers and pirates as well, too?
I would not consider that a high priority, but the more use that can be made of a good feature, the better it is as far as I'm concerned. :cheeky
 
For now its only for privateer etc, but later it will be possible for other to join it too.
Now its just a side quest. But I want to tie a common quest to it too later which can be used besides the sink ship quest. Maybe I will include it in beta4 also but in a simpler form. It's easy to make :).
 
It will have to wait till tomorrow.
Did some work on it again. But don't have enough time to finish it. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to finish it :).
Expect a lot more going on with smuggling soon ;). And especially more paths to take depending on what kind of character you are.
 
Levis said:
It will have to wait till tomorrow.
Did some work on it again. But don't have enough time to finish it. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to finish it :).
Click to expand...
No worries... I've still got some stuff to finish myself.
I do wonder now when might be a good time to release another update.
 
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