Need Help [HELP] The pain of this game

[mk0]

Hey guys,

So there is a lot of stuff I want to post here...

Enemy encounters:

Even when using few encounters I am sometimes hunted down by a lot of enemy ships. This is going to become a pain in the butt.

Imagine this situation: e-------m--t

Where

• e is the enemy
• m is my ship and
• t is my target ship

When issuing the battle mode, what option do I get? I am forced to deal with the enemy e instead of my target t, which is way closer to me. The game does not even initialize e and t into the battle scenario. It is always e and this is terribly annoying especially when t is a quest ship I am rarely able to find.

There exist however two mod options:

1. Fix close encounters - This options means that during all ship encounters, the distance of the encountered ships will reflect their distance on the world map. This is in beta test as it can make some of the encountered ships end up jammed against an island, but the old system had you appearing right on top of them all the time near islands.
2. No distant encounters - This options means that during all ship encounters, the distance of the encountered ships will reflect their distance on the world map. This is in beta test as it can make some of the encountered ships end up jammed against an island, but the old system had you appearing right on top of them all the time near islands.

The problem here is, that both options have the same description, it is mentioned to be in beta stage and both are disabled by default. What is the concrete difference between these options and can they fix the emt problem above?

(I just invented the emt problem )

To summarize the problems with encounters again:

1. emt problem
2. too many encounters
3. always hunting me instead of each others too (even two fleets being at war with each other only hunt me) or just ignoring me sometimes (because of fear or being busy - it does not make any sense at all, that a little ship is hunting me and in battle mode they just run away)

> After one day of testing the two MOD options, I experienced way less encounters than before.
> These options do not solve the emt problem.


PC beeps and lags:

In most situations when the ship sailing mode is loaded (often when other ships are being initialized as well), I am getting PC beeps for some reason. Does anyone have this issue too and what is the problem here?

I am often gettings lags in this game especially at night sailing mode. Something is wrong with the storms engine when displaying the sailing mode at night.

Any solutions? I already lowered the water details, which kinda helped a little. I've got no such lags at daytime.

> Even after changing graphic settings to lower quality (resolution etc.), lags and beeps still occur but seem to occur less.


Crashes:

So I did the 8th Morgan quest where I had to stop that battleship, which appears with purple sails on the map. I took this class 2 battleship with me and I liked to include this ship into my fleet as the second ship. The first one I got, is a class 1 soleil royal battleship.

Since then, when loading the city or ship sailing mode, the game keeps crashing randomly. Is that because of this ship or because of too many ship details to be loaded? I just hope this is not about the last issue because I like to get myself a battleship fleet.


MOD option - realistic cannon damage:

This option is a nice idea to extend battle scenarios but there is a huge problem with that: I need more than 3000 bombs to sink 1 - 2 bigger ships (class 4 - 6). Meaning that my soleil battleship has to be entirely loaded with cannonballs and such just to deal with a bigger fleet. My accuracy and cannons skills are at maximum and even then the AI is too stupid to hit the target.

> Obvious solution is to change this option to inbetween or CAOS default

Especially when using chain shots on close encounters. The AI keeps firing at the ship hull instead shooting a little higher to hit the sails. So I always have to manually do this if I am planning to use chain shots. The enemy AI however seems to be doing a good job hitting my sails.

> No solution about AI not targeting the sails when using chain shots.


Wind and Luck:

I am not really sure about this but in AOP 1 I kinda got the impression, that the luck may influence the wind (at least in sailing/battle mode) to be kinda supportive than against me. Maybe I just had a very long chain of real luck to have the wind on my back most times. It seems not to be part of AOP 2.


Empty stock of cannonballs and such in stores everywhere:

In most cities I went to the stores do not have any cannonballs and such available to buy or only a very few. So to reload my battleship(s) with ammunition I am forced to raid ships.

> As stated by Luke below, this problem may not get fixed.


I may extend this post later if I got more issues and will therefore push this thread then. :hmm

Oh and not to forget to mention that I am playing GOF 1.1.2.

Thanks a lot for any help!

Cheers

 

[computica]

The issue I'm having is the EMT system you described. When an enemy ship gets in a certain range the game takes enemy ship priority over anything else.

For the wind I decided to triple the max wind amount. the ships weren't moving plus the max for most wind values were 15 and under. Those max values made the realistic wind setting pretty useless. Normal wind speeds are around 14-22 knots. But I don't think the game can truly model actual wind speed on ships sometimes given certain min/max speeds. If the Average speed is about 14-22 then it would be best to not make 14-22 knots the max but the average/median. Tripling the max amounts gives me average speeds between 14-33 knots. I'm glad I did this as the smaller and much faster ships really become useful and can really show off there quick maneuver abilities.

It sorta reminded me of the Mechwarrior series how some vehicles are fast and hard to hit, while the big Mechs are huge and do lots of damage.

For the realistic cannons I just decided to use COAS Damage and COAS weights.

 

[Luke159]

Engagements:
The game has alway's taken the enemy ship as priority all i can suggest is as soon as the option to engage these anemy ships comes up activate it and then exit back to the world map. If however its the Gentelmen of fortune then you will need to accept the battle or continue sailing towards your target and hope the ship gives up the chase or another ship causes them to steer off course to break the engagement option.


Beeps and Lag:
Lag is a known thing that alway's happens at night, not sure why i don't have any problems with night sailing myself and can't recall ever having this problem but it has been reported a lot of times and this was the same for the unmodded version of the game too so its something that perhaps the source coders can look into because from the looks of it its hard code problems. The PC beeping though is a resault of a ship or ships been generated that have been edited with a program that messes them up a little. These ships are been fixed but it takes a lot of time to hunt them down (after all there is over 140 ships in the game now).


Crashing:
This is a problem again with some ships, we are working on this but again just like the PC beeping it takes time to locate the bugged ships and try to fix them. If you post the ships that have these problems then this aids us in locating these problem ships and hopefully fix them much faster.


Realistic Cannon Damage:
Well the realistic side does take into account your characters skills and that of officers given roles and all perks. So if your character is not that good at the gunnery aspects of the ship and you have no officer assigned the role of gunner then its only obvious you will be lucky to hit a barn door even if right next to it. I have sunk a MOW with a class 3 ship and 1000 ammo of each type and still had 400 bombs, 1000 round shot, grapes and knipple shot remaining. Skills and perks are very important in the way this is balanced out. By all means i'm not saying its perfect but these things do playt a huge role in how realistic cannon damage is used. Also note that the cannons do more damage than culverines, so picking the right weapons for the job does also matter.


Wind:
Not sure if luck plays a part in the wind favouring you or not, but if it does then thats a nice feature although it shouldn't happen to much otherwise it makes the game to easy in my opinion.

Goods At Stores:
The stock levels at stores around the caribbean has alway's been a problem even in the base game. We have tried to hunt the code down to get rid of this bug once and for all but was never able to locate it, so we made some changes that helped reduce how long these store was empty of the said goods but this change doesn't and will not fix the problem. Sorry to say this is one that will be around for a while.

 

[mk0]

Engagements:
The game has alway's taken the enemy ship as priority all i can suggest is as soon as the option to engage these anemy ships comes up activate it and then exit back to the world map. If however its the Gentelmen of fortune then you will need to accept the battle or continue sailing towards your target and hope the ship gives up the chase or another ship causes them to steer off course to break the engagement option.

In some cases I have to fight 4 - 5 times in a row just to move some pixels on the world map, which can be very annoying on a longer gameplay. Especially with realistic cannon damage enabled, which forces me to raid ships to be able to keep fighting. I also have to hope that my sails will not get damaged too much otherwise raiding ships becomes impossible in such situations. Having a class 1 battleship is making this much harder too even if its speed (max 15), maneuverability (max 45) and cargo hold have been extended in Bermuda shipyard.

All in all such a row of battles can force me to give up. Mainly because of my sails being damaged too much. Quick repair does not seem to help much.

Oh and even if the ship/fleet chasing me is going to get faded out on the world map because of distance, they still chase me and may be faded in if getting closer again.

Do you have any feedback about these two MOD options I mentioned? I am going to test them later and may post results.

Beeps and Lag:
Lag is a known thing that alway's happens at night, not sure why i don't have any problems with night sailing myself and can't recall ever having this problem but it has been reported a lot of times and this was the same for the unmodded version of the game too so its something that perhaps the source coders can look into because from the looks of it its hard code problems. The PC beeping though is a resault of a ship or ships been generated that have been edited with a program that messes them up a little. These ships are been fixed but it takes a lot of time to hunt them down (after all there is over 140 ships in the game now).

I may try to add a list of ships, where beeping occurs, if there is a battle scenario with only one enemy ship.

Edit: About the lags at night. I could imagine, that there are three things that could cause these lags:

• storms engine trying to reflect the very detailed starry sky on the water but fails (I doubt this feature is even included in the game)
• extra light effects on ships
• the very detailed starry sky itself

Realistic Cannon Damage:
Well the realistic side does take into account your characters skills and that of officers given roles and all perks. So if your character is not that good at the gunnery aspects of the ship and you have no officer assigned the role of gunner then its only obvious you will be lucky to hit a barn door even if right next to it. I have sunk a MOW with a class 3 ship and 1000 ammo of each type and still had 400 bombs, 1000 round shot, grapes and knipple shot remaining. Skills and perks are very important in the way this is balanced out. By all means i'm not saying its perfect but these things do playt a huge role in how realistic cannon damage is used. Also note that the cannons do more damage than culverines, so picking the right weapons for the job does also matter.

As said, my skills are at maximum but I still do joke damage to ships if they are not close to me. If they are close to me, they won't survive long but on range, I am wasting a lot of ammunition.

Are you sure about cannons do more damage than culverines?

42lbs cannons: damage x4.5, range 750, reload 16
32lbs culverins: damage x4.5, range 750, reload 15

Where 32lbs culverins are the maximum available at shipyards. Are there any 42lbs or 48lbs culverins available in the game? Because they would cause much more damage than cannons can even dream of. The only weapon type that is better than the ones listed above are the 48lbs cannons.

Wind:
Not sure if luck plays a part in the wind favouring you or not, but if it does then thats a nice feature although it shouldn't happen to much otherwise it makes the game to easy in my opinion.

Well I have to add, that I kinda start getting the impression that the wind hates me in AOP 2. I've got 100 luck somehow. Maybe this feature still exists but there is a -1 multiplier somewhere forcing the luck to become bad luck. :?

For the wind I decided to triple the max wind amount.

Where do I edit that? I also think there is not enough movement/dynamics in the game.


Thanks so far

 

[computica]

I use Notepad++ to search the program folder for "Wind.Speed.Max" which is located in these files: Day.c, DayStorm.c, Evening.c, Morning.c, Night.c, Rain.c, & Special.c


As for the map encounters I'm sure there is a way to edit the enemy detection range. Regardless the ships on the world map don't take enemy composition/strength in hand to judge if they should attack/chase or not. You get pitted up against the same small pirate ships. The game sees things as a friend and for system which is very basic. I'll probably see what I can do as far as the world map goes.

 

[mk0]

I use Notepad++ to search the program folder for "Wind.Speed.Max" which is located in these files: Day.c, DayStorm.c, Evening.c, Morning.c, Night.c, Rain.c, & Special.c


As for the map encounters I'm sure there is a way to edit the enemy detection range. Regardless the ships on the world map don't take enemy composition/strength in hand to judge if they should attack/chase or not. You get pitted up against the same small pirate ships. The game sees things as a friend and for system which is very basic. I'll probably see what I can do as far as the world map goes.

Thank you. I've edited these files and made a backup of them before. I doubled these values, tested this and I think that is ok for me. I think I will get problems with maneuverability when tripling these values. Finally I see some movement in the game. :will

I enabled these MOD options. About close encounters... hm... I do not yet have experienced any change. About distance encounters, well, it seems that I am not attacked that often anymore but anyways, way more gameplay time has to be spent to talk about any differences.

 

[buho]

The world map encounters are a pain and I never found a way to really fix it. Joe Dagger contributed with some tweaks which lessen the problem a little, but don't expect magic: http://forum.piratesahoy.net/index.php/topic/17872-req-less-encounter-patch/

Please, edit the file yourself, do not overwrite it the the one which is in the thread.

Use GOF 1.1.2, it crashes a lot less.

Cheers.
buho (A).

 

[mk0]

The world map encounters are a pain and I never found a way to really fix it. Joe Dagger contributed with some tweaks which lessen the problem a little, but don't expect magic: http://forum.piratesahoy.net/index.php/topic/17872-req-less-encounter-patch/

Please, edit the file yourself, do not overwrite it the the one which is in the thread.

Use GOF 1.1.2, it crashes a lot less.

Cheers.
buho (A).

Thank you too, I will take a look at that.

About the lags and beeps, I lowered the resolution of the game from 1280*1024/mid water quality to 1024*768/highest water quality, entered a lot of battles and so far I no longer got any beeps or crazy lags. But this may be kinda random 'cause I may have not yet met any ships that cause problems.

 

[Luke159]

Its been a long time so i have forgot all the small changes i made, your right about the culverines doing more damage than the cannons. I had changed them to make them more appealing to to be more accurate since culverines did replace cannons on the large ships in the end and so we wanted the culverines to have more reason than the range been there only real good point.

Anyway i will test damage aout more from a distance and see how that works out, for this though i will require the latest ships_init file so i can transfer the changes over (if any) as i'm doing them in my test game.

 

[mk0]

Anyway i will test damage aout more from a distance and see how that works out, for this though i will require the latest ships_init file so i can transfer the changes over (if any) as i'm doing them in my test game.

From me? Uhm... I attached the file .\Program\Ships\Ships_init.c if that's the one you are looking for. (original GOF 1.1.2)

View attachment Ships_init.c

 

[Luke159]

Anyway i will test damage aout more from a distance and see how that works out, for this though i will require the latest ships_init file so i can transfer the changes over (if any) as i'm doing them in my test game.

From me? Uhm... I attached the file .\Program\Ships\Ships_init.c if that's the one you are looking for. (original GOF 1.1.2)

[attachment=7427:Ships_init.c]

Thanks, sorry bud i should have said the latest one from the mod team. Thanks again though.

 

[mk0]

Okay

Erm, just noticed that when changing MOD options, exiting the game and starting the game again, the MOD options are back to defaults.

Also, edited the inital post.

 

[computica]

Okay

Erm, just noticed that when changing MOD options, exiting the game and starting the game again, the MOD options are back to defaults.

Also, edited the inital post.

The mod options are saved individually with each profile.

 

[kristi4ever]

im at 42 level have luck and stealth 100 after english questline england is at peace with spain and holland, so after pirates try to atack me at map mode i have option to sail on, after stealth 100 nobody has this problem anymore. sorry for my bad english