Ship in "Land Battle"

[Pieter Boelen]

The HMS_Indefatigable is supposed to be a Hornblower storyline quest-only ship that you serve on as Midshipman.
It seemed a bit of a shame to never see her again afterwards though, so I put her back somewhere later on.
Still under her original name though, since that is what she's supposed to be.

Though looking at the model, the Indy model looks more like the Lydia than to the film version of the Indy anyway.

Indefatigable:

(Is it just me or does she really NOT look like a proper frigate? She seems rather... plump.)

HMS Lydia:

Still does seem a bit of a shame to have such double use when there are so many other ships available.

But feel free to make some tweaks to NK.c and we'll see how that goes.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

La Dilligente is a tartane with 4-9 pounders, not a Xebec. The Grand Schooner might be a nice choice as it is a schooner rigged Xebec with 20-9 pounders and is French.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Listen to Hylie because I was talking crap.
Of course she's a tartane. Relatively big one though. Quite a nice model too.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Indeed she is a nice ship. Big and roomy so it is easy to believe she can hold a lot of troops, and with the two big lateens she sails very well into the wind.

 

[Grey Roger]

The picture of Indefatigable appears to be from the TV series and is probably a real sailing ship, so she's whatever the production crew could get hold of. She doesn't look much like a Royal Navy warship; apart from being fat, she lacks the cream stripe along the gun line.

The Lydia appears to be from the film "Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N." and is likely a model. She's also close enough to our Razee frigate.

And that settles it. I've altered my own versions of "Nk.c" and "quests_reaction.c" so that Hotspur is back to being a 6th rate frigate; Atropos is commented out until someone writes a bit of code to have Hornblower notified of his new command, at which point it's a Unité; and upon promotion to Post Captain, Hornblower receives the Lydia, a Razee frigate. That leaves the FR_Volage free for use as the Magicienne, and last night I completed "Land Battle" while using it. Indefatigable can be changed if someone tells me what sort of armament she carried in the early "Hornblower" books. I'll upload them once I've finished the current playthrough to check if anything else needs to be tweaked, after which you can revise them again if you like before putting them into an update.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

The picture of Indefatigable appears to be from the TV series and is probably a real sailing ship, so she's whatever the production crew could get hold of. She doesn't look much like a Royal Navy warship; apart from being fat, she lacks the cream stripe along the gun line.

I think she's the Grand Turk.

The Lydia appears to be from the film "Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N." and is likely a model.

That is indeed where the picture came from.

And that settles it. I've altered my own versions of "Nk.c" and "quests_reaction.c" so that Hotspur is back to being a 6th rate frigate; Atropos is commented out until someone writes a bit of code to have Hornblower notified of his new command, at which point it's a Unité; and upon promotion to Post Captain, Hornblower receives the Lydia, a Razee frigate. That leaves the FR_Volage free for use as the Magicienne, and last night I completed "Land Battle" while using it. Indefatigable can be changed if someone tells me what sort of armament she carried in the early "Hornblower" books. I'll upload them once I've finished the current playthrough to check if anything else needs to be tweaked, after which you can revise them again if you like before putting them into an update.

Sounds good. No Dilligente then, eh? Well, that was admittedly a pretty odd suggestion there.

I do want the Atropos returned before the next public release, because otherwise the quest Hornblower would just straight from the Hotspur (last quest ship) to the Lydia (upon first free play promotion).

 

[Grey Roger]

Bear in mind that Hornblower's career isn't going to follow either the books, the film or the TV series very closely from that point on. But that's why I left the Atropos line in there, commented out, rather than removing it entirely. I'd be as happy as you to see Hornblower get the Atropos provided there's some sort of announcement from the Navy. Otherwise he goes into Mrs. Mason's house with the Hotspur and comes out with the Atropos, and it looks as though Mrs. Mason arranged the transfer.

The last thing I saw last night about the Diligente was that it's a tartane. The last time I saw a tartane in "Hornblower" was the one Maria gives him while he's decommissioned. It wouldn't hold Sharpe's troops; it barely holds Sharpe. If the Diligente is big enough to hold a couple of troop units then I can easily edit "quests_reaction.c" again...

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Bear in mind that Hornblower's career isn't going to follow either the books, the film or the TV series very closely from that point on. But that's why I left the Atropos line in there, commented out, rather than removing it entirely. I'd be as happy as you to see Hornblower get the Atropos provided there's some sort of announcement from the Navy. Otherwise he goes into Mrs. Mason's house with the Hotspur and comes out with the Atropos, and it looks as though Mrs. Mason arranged the transfer.

I knew it would be weird and sudden when I added it. Only reason I did it anyway is to prevent the player missing out on the Atropos altogether.
Will definitely be adding a short extension to give her properly some time though.

The last thing I saw last night about the Diligente was that it's a tartane. The last time I saw a tartane in "Hornblower" was the one Maria gives him while he's decommissioned. It wouldn't hold Sharpe's troops; it barely holds Sharpe. If the Diligente is big enough to hold a couple of troop units then I can easily edit "quests_reaction.c" again...

Look her up in ships_init.c to see if her size seems OK.
As far as I can tell, she's a fair bit bigger than the normal tartanes. But still... hardly a Volage.

 

[Grey Roger]

Diligente does seem a bit small for a troop transport. It might just hold Sharpe and a few of his skirmishers, but I wouldn't want to squeeze Chumley's main force in there. However, "ships_init.c" has just become my catalogue - I'll browse through it and see if there's anything more suitable than the Volage for the job.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Ships_init.c + the Select Storyline interface with ENABLE_CHEATMODE allows you to find any ship you might want.
Add the GM Viewer if you want to see the actual models.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Have you considered the fast merchantman? It is slightly shorter than the Volage but also taller. It is a retired Aurora class frigate with less and smaller guns and a smaller crew so it can haul more cargo. She can easily handle hundreds of soldiers.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

^ Not a bad idea. A merchant-ish ship instead of a navy one does make some sense.

 

[Grey Roger]

Yes, that's a valid option. A merchant has the advantage of being inconspicuous while that one still has enough guns to fight its way out of trouble if necessary. Any other suggestions?

The basic requirements are that it must be smaller than the Indy, capable of holding a couple of troop units (no idea what size those troop units are, or how to estimate how many troops a ship can carry, but it probably means something bigger than a sloop), used by France in the Napoleonic era. It doesn't necessarily need to be uniquely French, just that France can use it so that the plot requirement that it was captured from France can be satisfied.

Since the concern is raised by Wellesley about a ship being trapped inshore, it should ideally be fairly agile - it needs to be capable of getting out of there as it's to be the troops' means of extraction as well as landing.

That Grand Schooner is starting to look attractive...