Ship Pack Details and Updates

[Hylie Pistof]

Hey! You fixed the hull and cargo size on the fastmerchantman!

 

[Legendary_Spider]

Perhaps the final timeline should be extended from 1820 to 1830. Since 1830 is when piracy in the Caribbean finally fizzled out and became rare.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

That's easily done in PROGRAM\Periods.c but probably isn't going to make much of a difference. I made the change anyway.

 

[Legendary_Spider]

Perhaps not. But it's historically accurate.

You made the change in your game? How do I do that in mine? We should just slip it in to the Ship Pack. lol

 

[Pieter Boelen]

In PROGRAM\Periods.c find:

	makeref(period, Periods[n]);
period.name = "The Corsican";
period.date.start = "1790";
period.date.end = "1820";
n++;

Replace with:

	makeref(period, Periods[n]);
period.name = "The Corsican";
period.date.start = "1790";
period.date.end = "1830";
n++;

 

[Armada]

Anything else you need me to test?

Nothing left that I can think of specifically. Just keep playing generally to make sure we haven't missed anything, until I release the update.

About the Constitution walk file, I have noted that it's gone wrong and am trying to fix it.

Hey! You fixed the hull and cargo size on the fastmerchantman!

It was AGES ago when I fixed that. Had the update never made its way into the patches? :?

 

[Hylie Pistof]

No. This was the first one I have seen that was remotely worth buying. They always had a hull strength around 3000 and a cargo capacity in the 1100 to 1600 range with a cost of 125,000. A barque Longue is by far the better deal. This one had a hull strength of just over 2000 and a cargo capacity of 2000 and cost 128000. That puts in the range of the light fluyts and light pinnaces, except for cost.

I have not been able to play test it because that install died like a light bulb burning out. Click and I was back to the desktop. Now it gets no further than showing the gold coin for a second and ctds. That is the install that has all of my changes in it, like spankers, lateens, the Carrack, etc. I will be spending this day transferring data to other installs.

 

[Armada]

R.I.P miklkit's umpteenth install. :328_skull:
Maybe we should give the mod a life expectancy estimate, at the rate you're going... :

Anyway, in other news, I've now restricted the Bounty/Edinburgh to only be encountered in the last two periods.
Also, the Bounty is now unique to the RN, while the Edinburgh can be with the RN, French or US.

Plus, I've had a go at re-working both their hull textures, and also giving them stern lanterns.
Here's the Edinburgh, which has had the silver lines changed to yellow/gold, as per the film (see this image):



And here's the Bounty, which has undergone a more extensive tweak to match the real replica ship (Bounty II) a bit closer: Link

I've also redone their interface pics, and to ensure you can distinguish between the two, the Bounty appears with white sails.
What d'you think? Do they look better to you guys?

EDIT: I've just noticed another mistake which has not yet been reported.
The San Felipe was trying to use a type name which I removed, and I forgot to make the change for this ship.
So now it's been corrected, and I've called it a "Spanish Man O' War".

 

[Pieter Boelen]

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Life expectancy? Two months tops. Certainly no more than that and often less. The game is great, but the underlying program is probably the worst that I have ever experienced. It makes Windows 95 look good. I have installed it well over a dozen times. 2 dozen?



The trade brig is a good little ship and I am happy you are upgrading them. I always grab one when I can.

Hmm. I forgot to ask this, but once in a shipyard there was a "ghost galleon" with no picture. Would it be that ship?

 

[Legendary_Spider]

Makes me love my shiny new laptop even more. I haven't even experienced a quarter of the problems so many players (modder and non-modder alike) have experienced. Phew.

 

[Armada]

The trade brig is a good little ship and I am happy you are upgrading them.

No problem. I only thought to check them after fixing their encounter chances, and then I remembered how much the textures annoyed me.
I simply had to do something about it, especially after learning that the Edinburgh was the wrong colour.

I forgot to ask this, but once in a shipyard there was a "ghost galleon" with no picture.

That was probably the Dutchship before you removed the code.
I did base its stats on the Dutchman, and changed most things, but obviously forgot the type name and interface pic.

 

[meyer189]

Hey Armada, some really Amazing work you have done here!

is there some pics of the *Updated* HMS Surprise?
Actually what is updated on her?

With best regards
Meyer189

 

[CrisGer]

Interesting thread to say the least.

A historic note about naming: in the days of the large naval sail fleets, say 1700-1830, the naming convention of ship classes was usually in terms of Rate, ie First Rate, Second Rate and then type names for smaller ships like Frigates, Brigs, Sloops etc and variants per language for the nations that had such fleets like Britian, France, Spain, Holland, Sweden, Russia etc.

There were a variety of reasons for that: partly shipyards were independent operations often, some sponsored or owned by the nation or flag nation but some individually owned and operated and worked on a contract basis, ship types were well known among ship wrights and designers but ships were laid down and built by highly skilled craftsmen who shared a common pool of knowledge and pushed the envelope of design and function collectively.... so new ship classes were not funded and sponsored by naval construction as was the case in say the period of pre dreadnought and dreadnought navies of 1880-1930, where a class type would be created and supported by other fleet types and often on an annual budget basis.

Also ships changed hands in battle or by capture or treaty ..and so french and British ships might change hands and names and have variations on other ships of the same type and fleet but still be called by First Rate and Second Rate and were then denoted by the number and type of guns. So it was a complex matter but one that was handled by everyone in fleets of the era knowing all the details usually of the opposition...and being versant in the various variations. Hopeful ship captains on shore would pour over the naval lists and visit ship yards and anchorages to keep abreast of what was up and what was afloat often with an eye for patronage to obtain a post or a ship command.

As the US navy has very few first class ships with a few oddities and exceptions it was a lighter fleet than many and used tactics that were more mobile and independent than the huge fleets of line ships from Europe.

and ys indeed Old Ironsides was named for her oak sides that were observed to bounce British cannon balls right off of them tho that may have been a mater of both luck and the canter or slope of the sides which has a quite pronounced slant to them by design.

It will be interesting indeed to see the HMS Victory..i was aboard her many many years ago...and a remarkable ship she is/was ...huge machine and still daunting in the scale of the complexity of her operation under sail in action.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

I just discovered something. That screenie I posted in post #133 is about as close as we can get to Columbus's fleet. The Nina and Pinta were caravels and the Santa Maria was a carrack. That screenie shows a carrack and 2 caravels. One caravel has 4 masts, and methinks they only had 3 masts back then. But it's close!

 

[Legendary_Spider]

Old Ironsides managed to take direct hits from 18 pound cannons and the shots were either absorbed by her thick hull or simply bounced off. I believe she herself had 24 pounders. She was classed as a 44 gun ship, but she often carried 50 or more. The main thing that trumped her enemies though, was her superior speed. I hope I get to see her one day.

Tallships I've been on here on the west coast include: Lady Washington, Hawaiin Chieftain, Pilgrim, Spirit of Dana Point, Exy Johnson, Irving Johnson, Californian, Curlew, Lynx, Surprise (formerly the Rose), Argus, and Star of India, and the Columbia at Disneyland. Yes, I know the Columbia is on a track, but they still pilot it like a normal vessel, and it IS a full scale replica of the original Columbia, so to me it counts. lol

When I learn to model, i'm gonna make a Columbia model. It'd be fun to see her in the game. For one, it'd be a nice little nod to Pirates at Disneyland. And secondly, she has the historic distinction of being the first US naval vessel to sail around the globe.

 

[Armada]

A historic note about naming: in the days of the large naval sail fleets, say 1700-1830, the naming convention of ship classes was usually in terms of Rate, ie First Rate, Second Rate and then type names for smaller ships like Frigates, Brigs, Sloops etc and variants per language for the nations that had such fleets like Britian, France, Spain, Holland, Sweden, Russia etc.

So hopefully the new system will be to your liking, then. Essentially it includes a class name followed by a Rate/type, and applies only to most navy ships.
I've taken a lot of time to choose historical class names whose specifications match the in-game ships, as closely as possible.

That screenie I posted in post #133 is about as close as we can get to Columbus's fleet.

Haha, good capture then!
Shame about the reverse lighting on those masts, otherwise that would be a good one for ModDB.

When I learn to model, i'm gonna make a Columbia model. It'd be fun to see her in the game.

I'd love to see another US custom ship, after all the many waves of British ones we've had.

By the way, the update for ship pack will be up and running soon. I just need to finish a couple of things, and try to get another walk file behaving itself.

 

[Legendary_Spider]

Yes, we kinda missed Easter by a bit. lol

I sure hope people appreciate all the hard work you guys put into this. I know I do.

 

[Armada]

Yes, we kinda missed Easter by a bit. lol

Yeah. My bad. ops2 We'll have to rename it for release. An Easter pack in May just won't fit.
I completely underestimated the time-scale of it all. Plus, new content has appeared at an alarming rate, and choosing what to include isn't always easy.
I also had to consider when to stop. I have a nasty habit of being a perfectionist, and it really annoys me sometimes.

No matter what comes of this pack, all I can say is this: If any landlubber doesn't appreciate it, they'll have the tip o' me sword to answer to...

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Mayday! Mayday!

It would be greatly appreciated if someone could fix the reversed masts on the carrack. I can't do it. It is either release it like this or go back to the old version that lets you see the water sloshing around inside it. :eww


Also, the Indiaman (fastmerchantman) has had its mast and sails improved. Now only the hull has the reverse lighting bug. With the other improvements this is a good little ship now.



The Amsterdam needs a lateen instead of a spanker?