I'm now playing Beta 4. Recall why I was playing Beta 3.5 for so long and draw your own conclusions.
One snag was that 'SetRankTitle' now only takes 2 arguments, it no longer looks for nation. Hornblower's "characters\init\Story.c" had been rewritten to use the new form but I didn't realise that, so when I dropped my update package onto the Beta 4 installation (built using the 5th November installer), "Story.c" didn't work and the result was a whole list of characters failing to be defined right at the start of the game. After I figured out what had happened and edited the new version of "Story.c" to use the new version of "SetRankTitle", it seems to work. I've got as far as "Tunnel of Trouble" during the current playthrough without any further issues (and incidentally fixed the problem with the quest getting stuck if you go from the tunnel to the Charlestown Naval Academy before Sharpe). The extension also seems to work (C. S. Forester has learned a new trick as well ).
I'd considered using Etienne de Vergasse for the extension in return for how he'd treated Hornblower and the Duchess of Wharfedale. He refused on grounds that Quelp and his French associates were planning something extremely disrespectable which was beneath his nobleman's honour. When I pointed out that putting on noble airs and graces wasn't going to get him special treatment from anyone in revolutionary France except Mme. Guillotine, he pointed out that he is a colonel and the small unit involved here would be commanded by a lieutenant, basically Sharpe's opposite number. So you're going to meet Donatien Thibaud instead. But for test purposes while I was still using the old savegame in Beta 3.5, de Vergasse agreed to stand in until Thibaud had been properly intoduced via "Story.c" and a new game. (I renamed him and made him use Thibaud's dialog.c file.) Now I am using Beta 4 with a new game, the dirty hack to have Etienne de Vergasse act for Donatien Thibaud has been removed and the real Thibaud shows up as intended.
Still to do: drop some "breadcrumb" clues around so the player has some chance of finding Thomas Wolfe's ship and kicking off the extension. Figure out how to play special soundtracks without the regular town music getting in the way. And play the whole story through to the end to see if anything in 5th November Beta 4 breaks it. (15th November Beta 4 probably does, judging by some of the reports I've been reading...)
Incidentally, a couple of the NPC's from "Hornblower" could be made into free-play characters. Teresa Moreno takes over Le Rève part way through the original story, and Thomas Wolfe in French uniform gets a similar French sloop Loup-Garou during the extension. And then there's Sir Edward Pellew, who has the advantage over most of the story characters of having actually existed. He had quite a distinguished career, including the capture of the Cléopâtre, so now we know who is to blame for the Blacque family misfortunes.
One snag was that 'SetRankTitle' now only takes 2 arguments, it no longer looks for nation. Hornblower's "characters\init\Story.c" had been rewritten to use the new form but I didn't realise that, so when I dropped my update package onto the Beta 4 installation (built using the 5th November installer), "Story.c" didn't work and the result was a whole list of characters failing to be defined right at the start of the game. After I figured out what had happened and edited the new version of "Story.c" to use the new version of "SetRankTitle", it seems to work. I've got as far as "Tunnel of Trouble" during the current playthrough without any further issues (and incidentally fixed the problem with the quest getting stuck if you go from the tunnel to the Charlestown Naval Academy before Sharpe). The extension also seems to work (C. S. Forester has learned a new trick as well ).
I'd considered using Etienne de Vergasse for the extension in return for how he'd treated Hornblower and the Duchess of Wharfedale. He refused on grounds that Quelp and his French associates were planning something extremely disrespectable which was beneath his nobleman's honour. When I pointed out that putting on noble airs and graces wasn't going to get him special treatment from anyone in revolutionary France except Mme. Guillotine, he pointed out that he is a colonel and the small unit involved here would be commanded by a lieutenant, basically Sharpe's opposite number. So you're going to meet Donatien Thibaud instead. But for test purposes while I was still using the old savegame in Beta 3.5, de Vergasse agreed to stand in until Thibaud had been properly intoduced via "Story.c" and a new game. (I renamed him and made him use Thibaud's dialog.c file.) Now I am using Beta 4 with a new game, the dirty hack to have Etienne de Vergasse act for Donatien Thibaud has been removed and the real Thibaud shows up as intended.
Still to do: drop some "breadcrumb" clues around so the player has some chance of finding Thomas Wolfe's ship and kicking off the extension. Figure out how to play special soundtracks without the regular town music getting in the way. And play the whole story through to the end to see if anything in 5th November Beta 4 breaks it. (15th November Beta 4 probably does, judging by some of the reports I've been reading...)
Incidentally, a couple of the NPC's from "Hornblower" could be made into free-play characters. Teresa Moreno takes over Le Rève part way through the original story, and Thomas Wolfe in French uniform gets a similar French sloop Loup-Garou during the extension. And then there's Sir Edward Pellew, who has the advantage over most of the story characters of having actually existed. He had quite a distinguished career, including the capture of the Cléopâtre, so now we know who is to blame for the Blacque family misfortunes.