Unconfirmed Bug Officers have abnormal amount of money

[smrtwhkd]

Storyline Ardent. Only a couple of months into the game. Only did 2 smuggles and discovered that two of the officers has a pretty substantial amount of money in his purse. How did they get rich so fast?

 

[Grey Roger]

This is odd. I'm also replaying "Ardent", partly for amusement and partly to see if there are any bugs still to be fixed. My officers don't have that odd money. Admittedly I chose to play the action-adventure hero so I got Giraldo Annibal instead of Morys Badlad, but they're identical apart from name and model. And Two Dogs Fighting is the same regardless of which version you choose to play. I've done a smuggling run and am a lot further into the game.

Did anything odd happen during the smuggling runs? Have you done any sidequests?

 

[smrtwhkd]

The only thing out of ordinary is that I appointed one of my crew to captain the captured payroll ship. But i got a warning saying his level is too low, but I sent him anyway. And by the time I sold that payroll ship, it was only worth 8k! Also there are a few other odd things with this version of Ardent:

1. If you get killed on the street right outside the initial prison, soldiers would still charge into your hotel room when you wake by the waitress.
2. After you rescue your crew from the slave camp and killed in the jungle, you crew will stand in your hotel room when you wake up.

 

[Grey Roger]

If you have a free officer and you are sufficiently high level to be able to command a fleet ("Leadership" skill at least 5), you should indeed be able to put one of your officers in command. It's a bit risky because your own ship has probably taken damage from the fort so you need to get out of there as soon as possible, but it should not have any odd effect on the officer. The warning about the officer being too low just means his "Leadership" and "Sailing" skills aren't high enough to command a class 6 ship. He can still command it, just not efficiently - he'll be penalised with reduced skills. Which of the officers did you put in command of the ship, and have you ever put the other one in command of any other ship?

If you get killed on the street outside the prison, it's because you didn't heed the warning. The soldiers are after you - get out of town! Otherwise they are indeed liable to follow you anywhere in town. (There was a bug which caused them to appear in the jungle as well, but that's been fixed. Once you're out of town, the soldiers should give up.)

The crew are indeed supposed to follow you everywhere. They're supposed to leave when you enter town properly through the land gate.

Resurrection is already disabled until you're out of the prison - getting killed and then resurrected is not an acceptable method of escape! Perhaps I should disable resurrection until you've rescued the crew, returned to town and are in port ready to leave. Otherwise, resurrecting to a tavern after being killed is already weird, so don't be surprised if it creates other weirdness... (I'd be surprised if other storylines aren't broken by resurrecting to a tavern as well.)

 

[smrtwhkd]

Haha. I always killed the pursuing soldiers outside the prison for their muskets and ammo. Back to weird amount of money on officers issue. I first put Two Dogs Fighting on it, but the changed my mind and switch to Badlad.

 

[Grey Roger]

Haha. I always killed the pursuing soldiers outside the prison for their muskets and ammo.

Truth be told, so do I. Tactical tip: the soldiers are set up by a basic "Ambush" function which spawns them at a distant entry point, and for reasons best known to the AI, they then go onto the raised walkway. Get to the near set of steps leading to that walkway as fast as possible. It's a choke point and if you can get there before them, you can take them on one at a time.

Back to weird amount of money on officers issue. I first put Two Dogs Fighting on it, but the changed my mind and switch to Badlad.

That's it! Officers in command of companion ships are the ones who get the extra money. You never put Gheerkin Kamalaas in command of anything so he has no extra money. In my own game, I never put any of the original officers in command of anything so none of them got the money. But I've hired random officers from taverns, including a couple of navigators, and I also have Artois Voysey. All those who have been in command of a ship, both Voysey and the random navigators, have extra money. Other officers who have not been given a command, quest officers and random hirelings alike, do not have it. This is probably a feature of the crew payment system and will happen in any storyline including FreePlay.

 

[smrtwhkd]

But 50k extra money is a bit steep. I use Bob Fred and he doesn't generate extra cash from commanding a ship.

 

[Grey Roger]

I've no idea how crew pay is calculated. Also, how are you paying the crew - salary or division of plunder?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

When seeing the threads about "abnormal amounts", I wonder if the file named "options" in the main game folder got weird stuff in it, causing unexpected effects.
Wouldn't be the first time something like that happens to someone...

 

[Grey Roger]

It's probably not one of the irregular pieces of weirdness caused by corruption of "options". But if you think 50k is a lot, you should see one of my prize captains, with well over 200k! It may depend on how many level raises the character has had - Fred Bob starts off at high level, so he won't gain a new level for some time. It may also depend on how long the character has been in command of a ship; Two Dogs only had command for a short time before Morys Badlad took over, so if Morys has been in command of a ship for longer than Two Dogs, that would explain why he has more money. And my officer with the 200k is the one I most often put in command of a prize ship, at least until I sell it.