WIP Improve Baldewyn Coffier & Arnaud/Sabine Matton Sidequests

[Grey Roger]

@pedrwyth:
Are you interested in continuing this? For that matter, have you any new material already written which you'd like to upload?

Otherwise, would you like me to try continuing the quest, taking into account what you've said above?

 

[Grey Roger]

I've been doing a bit of work on this. And I started just where you'd expect me to start - at the end. I've written some code for Baldewyn Coffier to take over the store, except that he doesn't really - as previously suggested, character "Arnaud Matton" becomes a clone of Baldewyn Coffier so that everything in the game system which expects "Arnaud Matton" to be there will still work. Actual character "Baldewyn Coffier" disappears, while the original street merchant displaced by Baldewyn Coffier returns. There's some checking on Sabine Matton's "quest.hire" attribute. Mostly it will simply change to "done", which means if you haven't already done anything with her then you've missed your chance, and if it was previously "enemy_forever" so that Arnaud would refuse to trade with you because you demanded a ransom, the Baldewyn clone won't hold the same grudge. If it's one of the values which indicates that Sabine is your prisoner and you're on your way to collect a ransom, Sabine changes to an actual prisoner in your hold with normal prisoner dialog so you can ransom, release or recruit her as with any other prisoner - you won't get any ransom from the Baldewyn clone! But if you had previously told Arnaud that you were taking Sabine to Sylvie Bondies and have not yet done so, you can still take her there and either hand her over as you promised, keep her, or demand ransom from Sylvie Bondies and then either hand her over or keep her anyway - and choosing to keep Sabine again makes her a prisoner in your hold, to be ransomed, released or recruited.

I've also done a bit of work on "Joseph Claude Le Moigne_dialog.c". Once Baldewyn has finished taking over the street trader stall and paid back your loan, you can talk to the governor about how Arnaud Matton swindled Baldewyn Coffier out of the store. If you have no evidence to back up this accusation (which you don't, because there's currently no way to get it), the governor warns you never to repeat it - and if you do repeat it to the governor, he calls for guards. Overriding that, if you're hostile to France (or Spain in "Early Explorers"), the governor calls for guards right away. Overriding that, if you've demanded ransom for Sabine, the governor says that Arnaud has accused you of kidnapping her and calls for guards. Overriding that, if you're at least rank 7 with France (or Spain) and have reputation at least Dashing, the governor recognises your record of distinguished service, takes your word for it, promises to investigate, and Baldewyn gets the store back after about a month. Or, if you've captured the town for yourself, the governor is your former officer, still regards you as his captain, and puts Baldewyn into the store immediately.

So there are a couple of potential shortcuts to completing Baldewyn Coffier's quest, but for the most part, you'll need proof before you go to the governor...

 

[Grey Roger]

Yes that's the long term I had in mind but I want to have a little bit more involved than just threatening in the normal case (like visit Thomas and persuade him to provide evidence about trading, get in with the governor and enlist his support to remove Arnaud etc).

Some of the framework to get the governor's support is done. As for Thomas, there's another Arnaud/Thomas sidequest which is initiated by dialog with Arnaud - or would be, except that there's currently no way to trigger the relevant part. You're supposed to deliver some chocolate to Thomas. What I'm now thinking is, activate that quest, then later on Thomas can tell you that there was something wrong with the chocolate, e.g. inferior quality or contaminated, so he was unable to sell any of it.

 

[Grey Roger]

Now I'm trying to progress the quest as outlined here:
WIP - Improve Baldewyn Coffier & Arnaud/Sabine Matton Sidequests

To that end, @Jack Rackham, do you happen to have the model for the stall which @pedrwyth used there? Or have you any objection to me using your "market_P2" model?

Whichever stall I use, it won't go between the houses as shown there. The ground is a slope which means either one side is underground or the other side is floating in midair. Instead, I'm putting the stall on the other side of the house on the left in that picture, on a piece of flat ground which you can't see because Player Bekett is in the way. Baldewyn will explain that he's done a deal with the owner of the house; he can store a small amount of cargo in the house, in return for which the house owner can help himself to some free food. Then I'm writing some dialog to let Baldewyn sell food, rum, planks and sailcloth in small, semi-random quantities, and possibly allow him to buy small amounts of whatever Martinique is importing, once the player has bought some supplies to free up some storage space.

 

[Jack Rackham]

To that end, @Jack Rackham, do you happen to have the model for the stall which @pedrwyth used there?

I don't know which one that would be.

Or have you any objection to me using your "market_P2" model?

Not at all. Use anything you like in BuildingitemsJRH. I usually place them as randitems.

 

[Grey Roger]

Thanks! The stall is now in place on a 'randitem' locator (with size set to near 0, the same way you do it, so that players can't steal the stall), and Baldewyn is in place with a "merchant" locator next to it. Now working on the dialog to sell supplies...

 

[Grey Roger]

Some progress. About a month after Baldewyn pays back the money you loaned him, he moves to the port, and there's a hint that he didn't simply kick the other street trader out to take his spot. @pedrwyth had the idea to use a modified version of the standard store interface, limited to a few types of goods. Instead, I've written dialog code for Baldewyn to sell you food, rum, planks or sailcloth, but only in small quantities because of where he's storing them.



Now working on more dialog code to allow him to buy some of Martinique's import goods...

 

[Grey Roger]

Done!

If you say you want to buy provisions, Baldewyn tells you what he has in stock. You choose which you want to buy, then you have the choice of just buying one or buying as much as he can sell you, based on how much he has, how much you can fit in your hold, and how much you can afford. Then there's a final confirmation and if you agree, money goes from you to him, cargo goes from his stock to your hold, and his remaining capacity is updated. Today he was rather unlucky with his random supplies - on average he should get 10 each of food and rum, and 5 each of planks and sailcloth.


Selling imports to him works in a fairly similar way. You can choose from a list of which import goods you have in your hold, he says how much he can take (how much he can fit in his store or how much he can afford), then you choose whether to sell one crate or as many as possible. He makes his offer and if you accept, money and goods change hands and his remaining capacity is updated.


Usually he'll start with as near a full load of provisions as he can get, so you'll probably need to buy some so that he has space to buy cargo from you. It's entirely possible to buy his entire stock and then fill his store with imports. His stock is replaced each day, so you can always get drunk in the tavern and then return tomorrow to do some more trading.

It's a but clunky but it works, and it's only supposed to be temporary anyway. Now I need to plant some evidence for you to find, proving how Arnaud Matton cheated Baldewyn Coffier out of the store...

 

[Grey Roger]

The first piece of evidence turned out to be trivially easy as it's already there. If you ask any of the permanent citizens wandering about town about the local trader (you may need to talk to the citizen several times before you get this option), the citizen doesn't name Arnaud Matton and doesn't explicitly say anything about the store takeover, but does seem to hint at being suspicious and definitely doesn't like him. The citizen does name Baldewyn Coffier, which is the one change I had to make to the text because he isn't always Baldewyn Coffier - in "Early Explorers" period, Martinique is Spanish, so is he, and he gets a random Spanish name. Otherwise it was just a matter of setting a tracking attribute if you ask about the trader after Baldewyn has moved to the port, which is when the search for evidence begins.

The next witness is Baldewyn himself. About a month after moving to the port, he'll tell you that there aren't as many traders visiting St. Pierre as there used to be.

But these are minor evidence. The governor isn't too bothered about local gossip. Baldewyn is probably still upset about losing the store and also obviously trying to get it back, so he's hardly an impartial witness. So by themselves, these aren't going to convince the governor to do anything. But they can support something more significant which, by itself, also won't be enough to start an investigation. You'll therefore need at least one major piece of evidence to be backed up by at least one of these minor witnesses.

The major witness on whom I'm working at the moment is Sabine Matton. There are two ways you can recruit her. The usual is to demand a ransom from Arnaud and then keep her anyway, either by falling for his trick of offering to do the deal in the store and then calling guards, or doing the deal on the beach and then double-crossing him. Or, if you're playing a female character, you can talk repeatedly to her in the store, she asks to join you, you take her and then tell Arnaud, who agrees to this. If you ransomed Sabine then, when you talk to the governor about Baldewyn, he says that Arnaud has accused you of kidnapping Sabine. If she's an officer in your shore party then you can reply that you rescued her from Arnaud and then made her an officer, and as she's outside right now, she can be brought in and the governor can ask her himself. If you are female and hired Sabine directly in the store, and if she's in your shore party when you talk to Baldewyn in the port, she'll then tell you that Arnaud told her how he took over the store. She wouldn't dare go to the governor by herself, but she'll go with you.

By the way, all this is up for discussion. If anyone has any comments on what I've proposed so far, or any suggestions, please make them!

 

[Grey Roger]

Sabine's part in the quest is now done. If Arnaud hates you because you ransomed Sabine and the governor accuses you of kidnapping, you can say that she's outside and he can ask her himself. He wants that to happen in another room so you have no influence on what she says. You can watch as a guard leads Sabine into the town hall and to the door by the chest, then the governor goes through the same door. After a pause, the guard leaves the room and goes outside to resume his guarding position. Sabine leaves the room and joins you. The governor leaves the room and goes to his normal standing position, then tells you that Sabine confirmed what you said, which casts serious doubt on Arnaud's honesty. Or, if you are female and hired Sabine directly, she follows you into the town hall, where you introduce her to the governor, then she tells him what she told you about how Arnaud got the store.

And then, if you have not already told him about what the citizens think of Arnaud and what Baldewyn has said about fewer traders visiting the colony, the governor asks if you have further evidence. Whichever order you present the evidence, you need all three - citizen, Baldewyn, Sabine. Then the governor says he will begin an investigation, and in due time, Baldewyn takes over the store. If you want to try it, here are the necessary files - I think I got them all...

So the quest can now be completed provided you have Sabine as an officer in your shore party. Next job - how to complete it if you don't. Perhaps you were too honest and you did what you promised Arnaud, you took Sabine to her godmother and left her there. Or you've fired her, or you got her killed. What I'm now thinking is, hire Marc Blacque as an officer, then tell him to get himself hired by Arnaud as an assistant. Then he can look around for anything useful. Some time later, he'll tell you that there are interesting things to be found in the account book. You'll either be able to report that to the governor or try to steal the account book at night, possibly encountering Arnaud in the process...