Ship Pack Updates

[Pieter Boelen]

Then we'd still depend on selecting randomly from all ships, giving us still another chance that no ship can be found.
And they could be from the wrong nation, which I don't want to see anymore.

 

[Armada]

It's a tough decision, for sure. Something of average ability, like the Class 5 ships, might be a good choice.
What about period correctness, though? Would it b possible to have, say, 2 ships per period?
They would have to be generic too, so as not to have national clashes either. Something like the Carrack in the first period would be ideal, perhaps.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Well, let's see..... :mm


Class 5 ships include: the Grand Schooner, Swordfish Xebec, the Indiaman, 2 pinnaces, the Carrack, the Black Pearl!!!, loads of frigates including the steamships, and the 40 & 44 gun 5th rates. There should be something for every period in there. Or just pick a light frigate and be done with it.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

We can easily make the choice dependent on the period. You tell me which ships you want as options for each period and I'll stick it in the code.

 

[Black Bart]

I don't know the details of the ships we got now, but all i'll add is maybe have some small merchant class ships in the mix. I know as experienced players we all want to see bigger better ships(and the models look amazing) out there on the sea's, but for a new player in particular, having some 'softer' targets might be nice? Also for the more experienced it gives an element of randomness, you won't always be finding the big valuable ships etc, and may just decide to leave em be(too small to bother with)?

Also it adds some reality, the seas were full of merchant class ships, less so battle ships etc.

If this is already the case, please ignore me.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Pgargon has recently modeled some merchant ships; they still need to be added to our modpack though.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Ok, I'll bite like a wide mouth bass. :

There are 6 periods to fill.

Early Explorers 1500-1599: The Carrack and Swordfish Xebec. Possibly a frigate.

The Spanish Main 1600-1679: The Carrack, Pinnace, Xebec, Grand Schooner, Indiaman, and frigates (not sure about the flush decks).

Golden Age of Piracy 1680-1739: The Pinnace, Xebec, GS, Indiaman, and Frigates. The Black Pearl?

Colonial Powers 1740-1769: The Pinnace, Xebec, GS, Indiaman, Frigates, and the 5th rates. When were spankers introduced?

Revolutions 1770-1789: The Pinnace, Xebec, GS, Indiaman, all Frigates except the steamships, and the 5th rates.

The Corsican 1790-1830: The Pinnace, Xebec, GS, Indiaman, all Frigates, and the 5th rates.

I'm tempted to add the Caravels in there too, but they are class 6 ships.

 

[Armada]

Early Explorers 1500-1599: The Carrack and Swordfish Xebec. Possibly a frigate.

No, not possibly a frigate. They didn't come into general use until the 17th century, really.

The Spanish Main 1600-1679: The Carrack, Pinnace, Xebec, Grand Schooner, Indiaman, and frigates (not sure about the flush decks).

No flush decks, for sure! The only frigates we should be seeing here are the stock ones.

Golden Age of Piracy 1680-1739: The Pinnace, Xebec, GS, Indiaman, and Frigates. The Black Pearl?

Why the Black Pearl? Does the term 'quest-specific' mean anything to you?
I see why you'd choose her, but even the Wicked Wench shouldn't be encountered at random.

Colonial Powers 1740-1769: The Pinnace, Xebec, GS, Indiaman, Frigates, and the 5th rates. When were spankers introduced?

Not sure when spankers were first used, but I would guess the late 17th/early 18th centuries.
More modern frigates could start to be used here.

Revolutions 1770-1789: The Pinnace, Xebec, GS, Indiaman, all Frigates except the steamships, and the 5th rates.

Starting to become a bit repetitive, now. Maybe drop one or two ship types?

The Corsican 1790-1830: The Pinnace, Xebec, GS, Indiaman, all Frigates, and the 5th rates.

'All Frigates' shouldn't include the steamships, I'd say. They should remain with their very small encounter chances.

My overall impression is, perhaps there is too much choice, here?
We need to keep the list concise and generic, so that the game doesn't go into another constant loop of trying to choose something.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

I deliberately put lots of ships in there in an effort to get some people thinking and talking. It seems to be working and we can start getting them down to 2-3 ships per period.

New list:

Early Explorers: Carrack and Xebec.

The Spanish Main: Pinnace, Xebec, Grand Schooner. Carrack?

The Golden Age of Piracy: Pinnace, Xebec, and Frigate.

Colonial Powers: Pinnace, Grand Schooner, Frigate, and 5th rate.

Revolutions: Pinnace, Indiaman, Frigate, and 5th rate.

The Corsican: Pinnace, Xebec, Frigate, and 5th rate.

What gets tossed next?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

The way I'd code it wouldn't involve loops at all, so that shouldn't be much of an issue.
But it'd be easiest for me if you just tell me the exact ship IDs I can use for each period.

 

[Black Bart]

No Lugger's, Sloop's, Ketch or Cutter's? Apart from the Xebec(which should be very rare in the Caribbean no?) and the larger Schooner, these are all 'large' Square riggers. Let's mix it up a bit. It's not about having big ships for the player to 'always' capture Sometimes we should just meet pretty ordinary, uniteresting small ships.

And what is the desired number of ships per period to aim for Pieter?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I don't really care on the number of ships; maybe 2 or 3 or so. It is merely to ensure an appropriate ship shows up rather than the game having to resort to the player ship.
This shouldn't happen very frequently, but sometimes does.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

You are right about the Xebec, but it is a very common ship in the game. I personally try to avoid using it.

Now if we were to add class 6 ships that opens up a whole new can of worms. Black Bart, look at this list and pick out some likely candidates to replace the Xebec. Caravel? Square Sail Schooner? There's a cute Light Fluyt too.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Ok, a new list. No Xebecs. What gets tossed?



Early Explorers: Carrack and Caravel (caravol1 and caravel1)


The Spanish Main: Light Fluyt, Pinnace, Frigate (fleut4, pinnace1, frigate6)


Golden Age of Piracy: English Bark, Pinnace, Frigate (Barque4_47, pinnace1, frigate1)


Colonial Powers: Hannah, Pinnace, Frigate (Hannah_p1, pinnace1, frigate2)


Revolutions: Ketch, Schooner, Frigate (ketch, hooker1, corvette1_47)


The Corsican: Schooner, Indiaman, 40gun 5th rate (schooner4_50, fastmerchantman, lineship47)

 

[Black Bart]

This is just a list for when the normal encounters error out right? I think i've only been following the thread with half an ear

That list looks good Hylie Pistoff, seems well balanced :b: although i'm not sure what should go - i'll leave that to the more experienced ship guys around here.

 

[Armada]

This is just a list for when the normal encounters error out right?

Yes, that's all it's for. It's just because we got fed up of seeing the player's ship in encounters on some occasions.

The list above looks pretty good to me. I'd say there's not need to change it, so maybe we should give it a trial run.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Going once.....

Going twice....

SOLD!!

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Has anyone else play tested Black Bart's mods? 3 Yesterday I was sailing from Martinique to Puerto Rico. When passing Nevis (not closely either) I checked out some ships at Charlestown with the masterworks spyglass. Then checked out the ships at Nevis port, and could make out their flags! That spyglass has a huge range and is not practical at battle distance.

The maps mod is funny actually. I like it.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Armada, do you think you could adapt Pgargon's latest ships to PotC at some point?

 

[Armada]

I'll give it a shot, certainly. How soon do you need them (and please remind me which ones we're lacking)?