Some serious startup issues.

[ewdude1]

Hey.

I'm new to the whole thing and I was wondering If I could get some help with starting out in the game.
This is probably in the wrong section too- I apologize. But truth to be told, I'm almost ready to just quit the game, but I know its supposed to be great.
Mainly, my biggest frusterations are broken controls, and a god awful interface, and absolutely no idea what im supposed to be doing or whether im doing things right, or why things are happening.

I know all of these are relatively easy to get used to, but I'll start I suppose.
Warning, wall of text.

-> For some reason, strafing simply makes me no-clip in the direction im strafing in. For example, if I orient my character to face the bow, and strafe left, ill just no-clip right off the ship. This seems pretty broken. Also, It makes me move a bit faster than running forward.
-> What the hell are time speed ups for? Make the amount of time running around shorter? Why are there 2 keys dedicated to this?
-> When you change the controls, you can't "resume game". you need to load your last save. This has caused me to start over several times.
-> You can't name your profile. Does this matter?


Heres my story.

I loaded up the game, never played it before or even heard of it. Downloaded the mod, installed, Im on build 14 patch something. maybe still in alpha, I dont know.
I start a new game, fiddle with some options before I do, (Apparently you can't scroll...that's a pain.) Pretty confusing stuff, just a massive list really. I figured I'd leave it till later, once I played the game and such things made sense. I changed the difficulty a bit, I didnt want it to be a cakewalk. Made it easier to die for real, and so on.

So I load up the game.
My first indication is I have no idea how to move my character. No. Idea.
For some god-awful reason, you need to use arrow keys and the enter key to make dialog choices, why I cant use "W" and "S" is beyond me.
And Enter/Space/F3 appear to be the action keys...Im not sure.

Well it wanted me to fiddle with a chest and grab my gear, so I opened it and the interface here was also confusing...I mean there are pictures but sometimes they picked stuff up, sometimes they didnt, is there a limit to how much you can carry?
Im a bit lost.

I already made myself 'fall' off the ship with that broken strafing issue.

The first mates instructions were clear but not clear...they said "use the action key" without actually telling me what the action key was. So, I loaded up the main menu, looked at the controls, and then realized for some odd reason I couldnt resume my game. So I had to start over. Then my game crashed, saving me the trouble of quitting, I suppose.

Anyway, I manage to get off the ship, after searching 10 minutes for the way to get to port (Apparantly, its a square hole or something on the side of the ship.) Upon getting there, he mentioned something about getting a spyglass or something. I was starting to get the hang of it, and purchased one without too many problems.
Then we went to the store, I sold my chocolate and leather, and bought some miscelannous supplies without really knowing what to do with them. I bought 5 food, 5 rum, and some planks and sail cloth, and figured I was set. I hired 20 crew members later, and then I got challenged by 2 pirates to fight. Now, see, I have no idea how to fight. The first mate showed me how, but didnt actually tell me the controls or anything like that, and I just spent the time running around on the deck pressing keys hoping I'd find out what to do. (E is to draw, Space is to attack, control is to block, z is to backpedal, Q is to shoot your gun. Is that it?)


Well, I pressed some keys panic-y and just wound up hitting "Time x30" meaning I died in the blink of an eye. I wake up later to find out I lost all my things. Pissed, I loaded my previous save, sat through all the half-ass tutorials, and started over. I managed to get a little farther this time, still lost at how to fight people effectively- and I talk to the shipwright. He gave two options: One about talking to his quartermaster who will fix that right up for me, and the other to purchase a new ship all together.
Now, if the sentence wasn't phrased "If you talk to the quartermaster, I'll go tell him to haul the ship in and start repairs" or something along those lines. All I remember it sounded a LOT like I had to find the quartermaster so I could repair the ship- no confirmation message or anything was provided to see if I did. I didnt find anyone resembling a quartermaster, and I didnt want to buy a ship, and my quest log was like "repair the ship". Bummed, I spent another 5-10 minutes ambling around the city talking to random people. This here was the part where I got jumped a 2nd time- I didnt know how to attack yet, well- I did, but I didnt know how to survive, I just hit "time x10" and ran around the city in circles, pressing random keys hoping I'd figure it out.
Turns out, I didnt. After like 4 swings, I died.
This happened to me about twice more.
I started a new game, and hit the bell thing, which I guess takes you to sea. I didnt know how to sail, and quit the game.
I was pissed.
I didnt know how to get anything done, the first mate ditched me, and there isnt any clear goals or direction to my next destination.

Now, I understand that this isnt a game that will hold your hand and babysit you while you get a cake-walk pirate adventure, and thats fine. But this is awful. If someone could tell me what to do, and how I know I've done it, I'd really appreciate it.

How do I fight off bad guys?
How do I know when my ship is ready to sail?
How do I sail/fight?
What the hell does the sailing compass tell me?

/irritated.


thank you for your patience in reading this wall of text.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Welcome to the forum, mate! I'm sorry to hear of your woes and will try to address all your issues.
If you've got any other problems, feel free to post those as well.

-> For some reason, strafing simply makes me no-clip in the direction im strafing in. For example, if I orient my character to face the bow, and strafe left, ill just no-clip right off the ship. This seems pretty broken. Also, It makes me move a bit faster than running forward.

From our FAQ stickied on this forum:

3. If I use A or D buttons my character slides and can go through solid objects, why?
The original game didn't have sidestep, so we added it. We tried to include collision detection, but failed.
Easy way to stop it is to not press the buttons (or reassign them)

-> What the hell are time speed ups for? Make the amount of time running around shorter? Why are there 2 keys dedicated to this?

I indeed use the speed up controls to save time walking and sailing around.
Not sure why there's two keys; those were modded in before I was ever here and we never bothered changing it.

-> When you change the controls, you can't "resume game". you need to load your last save. This has caused me to start over several times.

That's because of a long-standing bug that we don't really know how to fix. See here for one of the Bug Tracker notes we've got on it:
http://forum.piratesahoy.net/tracker/issue-150-lose-game-after-changing-options/
It's a serious pain and the best we can do at the moment is provide this workaround:

1. If I go into the options menu when in game it wont let me resume my game
This is a confirmed problem which at the current time we cant fix. If we allow a game resume it wont let you do anything and be completly stuffed.
What we suggest you do is SAVE before opening the options so you dont loose your save game and then change the game settings after closing and reopening the game, then load your save game (NOTE: some settings require a new game)

-> You can't name your profile. Does this matter?

You should be able to. In Select Storyline, click the profile name, press Backspace then type your name.
It shouldn't matter though unless you intend to do several seperate playthroughs of the same storyline.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I start a new game, fiddle with some options before I do, (Apparently you can't scroll...that's a pain.) Pretty confusing stuff, just a massive list really.

You're talking about the Advanced Options menu, I take it? Originally you had to change those options manually through code in PROGRAM\BuildSettings.h .
Indeed it seems the scroll doesn't work, but the arrow keys do.
However, these options shouldn't be crucial to change; the defaults should work reasonably well.

My first indication is I have no idea how to move my character. No. Idea.
For some god-awful reason, you need to use arrow keys and the enter key to make dialog choices, why I cant use "W" and "S" is beyond me.
And Enter/Space/F3 appear to be the action keys...Im not sure.

You might want to have a look through "Documentation\Default Key Assignments.txt" which lists all the key controls.
We did change the forward/backward controls to W and S instead of the game's original left/right mouse button.
You use the mouse to pan around and point yourself in a different direction.

I can understand that Enter/Space/F3 can be a bit confusing, so:
Enter brings up the "Quick Action" menu.
Space reloads you to the next location when you're in front of a door.
It also swings your blade when it's drawn or fires your cannons (auto-aimed) at sea.
F3 executes the action indicated by the icon in the upper-left corner of the screen.

As for the dialog options, I think we could change those to W and S in PROGRAM\CONTROLS\DefaultControls.c . Find:

#define CTL_DIALOG_SELECT 			"VK_SPACE"
#define CTL_DIALOG_SELECT_ALT		"VK_LBUTTON" // KK
#define CTL_DIALOG_CANCEL 			"VK_ESCAPE"
#define CTL_DIALOG_CHOICE_UP 		"VK_UP"
#define CTL_DIALOG_CHOICE_UP_ALT	"VK_MBUTTON" // KK
#define CTL_DIALOG_CHOICE_DOWN 		"VK_DOWN"
#define CTL_DIALOG_CHOICE_DOWN_ALT	"VK_RBUTTON" // KK
#define CTL_DIALOG_SCROLL_UP 		"VK_PRIOR"
#define CTL_DIALOG_SCROLL_DOWN 		"VK_NEXT"

Replace with:

#define CTL_DIALOG_SELECT 			"VK_SPACE"
#define CTL_DIALOG_SELECT_ALT		"VK_LBUTTON" // KK
#define CTL_DIALOG_CANCEL 			"VK_ESCAPE"
#define CTL_DIALOG_CHOICE_UP 		"KEY_W"
#define CTL_DIALOG_CHOICE_UP_ALT	"VK_MBUTTON" // KK
#define CTL_DIALOG_CHOICE_DOWN 		"KEY_S"
#define CTL_DIALOG_CHOICE_DOWN_ALT	"VK_RBUTTON" // KK
#define CTL_DIALOG_SCROLL_UP 		"VK_PRIOR"
#define CTL_DIALOG_SCROLL_DOWN 		"VK_NEXT"

Then reset the controls to default. I understand that this is some weird controls.
I think they're a left-over from the game's original controls that didn't use WASD at all and we didn't yet fully convert to full WASD use.
If people think this is a good idea, we'll change these default controls in the next release.

Well it wanted me to fiddle with a chest and grab my gear, so I opened it and the interface here was also confusing...I mean there are pictures but sometimes they picked stuff up, sometimes they didnt, is there a limit to how much you can carry?
Im a bit lost.

There is no limit to what you can carry, although we do have the intention of adding that one day.
The sole exception is gunpowder and shot; there IS a limit on those. Other than that, you should be able to take anything.

Anyway, I manage to get off the ship, after searching 10 minutes for the way to get to port (Apparantly, its a square hole or something on the side of the ship.)

If you play through the full tutorial, Malcolm should show you where to disembark the ship.

Then we went to the store, I sold my chocolate and leather, and bought some miscelannous supplies without really knowing what to do with them. I bought 5 food, 5 rum, and some planks and sail cloth, and figured I was set.

I like to use the "Auto Buy" interface button.

I talk to the shipwright. He gave two options: One about talking to his quartermaster who will fix that right up for me, and the other to purchase a new ship all together.
Now, if the sentence wasn't phrased "If you talk to the quartermaster, I'll go tell him to haul the ship in and start repairs" or something along those lines. All I remember it sounded a LOT like I had to find the quartermaster so I could repair the ship- no confirmation message or anything was provided to see if I did. I didnt find anyone resembling a quartermaster, and I didnt want to buy a ship, and my quest log was like "repair the ship".

The stuff about the dockmaster is solely make-belief to give you the impression that there's actually something happening that isn't just magical interface-work.
However, all you really need is the interface you get when selecting "I need to repair my ship - although I might consider just scrapping it and buying a new one.".
Then click your own ship slot and you'll get a "Repair" button. Then select "Repair All".

How do I fight off bad guys?

My trick: use control to block until you see your enemy isn't attacking, then stop blocking and use space to attack yourself.
If you're far away from them, you can use Q to fire a shot at them. I personally never use Z to dodge, but you can.

What the hell does the sailing compass tell me?

The big white arrow is the wind direction, the N-E-S-W indicates your course.
Upper left number is wind speed, upper right number is ship speed.
The numbers above, below, left and right of the compass are the number of cannons you've got.
The arcs indicate the range of your cannons and where you can fire; the little triangles gray/green/red are other ships.

I might've missed some answers in the above, but if you still have any issues,
just let us know and we'll do what we can to explain some more.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Pieter covered things pretty well. I would suggest that you take the time to go through the options and then the advanced options. You can set your controls there.

The game starts out in a tutorial. Take your time and get the feel of things. You can take everything in the ship locker. Take the time to practice sword fighting with Malcolm on the ship deck. You need this skill. Practice using the ctrl and space bar to block and strike. But remember that you are starting out on the bottom of the food chain and everyone can kill you in 2-3 strikes until you get your skills up. :ixi

You are starting off in a small ship and cargo room is limited. I don't use autobuy because you end up with a lot of stuff you won't use and no room for cargo. Buy about twice as much food as rum and forget the rest until you get a better ship. Talk to the merchant and get a trade mission to get you started. That will give you a place to go to while you learn to sail. Hopefully you won't get into a sea battle until you reach that first port and have a fort to help you out. ahoy!

 

[Talisman]

At the beginning of the game - you will need money - go arround your ship and empty all the chests, take everything even the rubbish, then go and sell it to the store or the street merchants

This will enable you to buy the things you need. eg a better sword or pistol. The stuff the merchants sell you depends on your level - the higher your level the better stuff that is available ( this can be changed in the Options to make the good stuff available right from the start )

Also walk arround the towns and Port areas - there is usually stuff lying arround or chests that can be looted ( don't loot any chests in a house if there is a person there with you - they will attack you if you do that - quickest way to die early in the game.