<!--quoteo(post=304407:date=Mar 3 2009, 02:51 PM:name=Hook)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Hook @ Mar 3 2009, 02:51 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=304407"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I can defeat a corvette and usually a frigate with my schooner. At some point I find a corvette I like and transfer my flag to it, keeping the schooner as backup, even if it sits in port the whole time. At least once that saved me from a stalemate where my ship and the enemy were both dismasted. When the schooner arrived, the enemy surrendered, and I was able to get the schooner to sail close enough that I could swap ships and boarded the surrendered enemy. I've seen paydays of 120K or more with those two ships.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->It was in Build 13 full or prior when I last did proper play. Ought to give it a try again so I can come up with more grounded remarks. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/mybad.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="
" border="0" alt="mybad.gif" />
<!--quoteo(post=304407:date=Mar 3 2009, 02:51 PM:name=Hook)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Hook @ Mar 3 2009, 02:51 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=304407"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->In that case I'll eventually look into it. I like the new names for the swords.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->Thanks for wanting to look into it! For the swords, we need to reset the description of the Nicholas Sharp blade. It has been changed because you could find them at random, while the description suggests a quest-only sword. However, it IS a quest-only sword again now.
<!--quoteo(post=304407:date=Mar 3 2009, 02:51 PM:name=Hook)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Hook @ Mar 3 2009, 02:51 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=304407"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->My level 10 character had someone come at him, raised the sword to block, got killed in one hit while blocking. This happens a lot. Apparently the game compares the fencing levels of both characters along with the piercing and blocking of both swords, and will apply critical hit. And all with 10 HP per level.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->I wonder if that is the BLOCKDAMAGE mod at work. Though that shouldn't give HUGE HP hits. Anyway, that mod is removed in Patch 1, so please keep an eye out for whether it still works.
Of course upon a critical hit, a block should be ineffective. But that doesn't mean you should immediately die. I don't really like one-hit kills. Should be at least two/three-hit kills, especially on the player.
<!--quoteo(post=304407:date=Mar 3 2009, 02:51 PM:name=Hook)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Hook @ Mar 3 2009, 02:51 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=304407"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->You could get boarders with those HP whether you used grapeshot or not. Part of it was a bug in my boarding code that didn't reduce the enemy HP properly according to the relative morale of both ships.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->That might've been it. The HP seemed rather excessive at the time. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wacko.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":wacko:" border="0" alt="wacko.gif" />
<!--quoteo(post=304407:date=Mar 3 2009, 02:51 PM:name=Hook)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Hook @ Mar 3 2009, 02:51 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=304407"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Right, but it looks like you only get what's left over after paying your officers. The code is fairly complicated and probably contains a few bugs.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->Maybe it should be rewritten and simplified? A certain percentage to keep, a certain percentage to your officers' wealth* and a certain percentage "lost" (eg. to the crew and unavailable ever again).
* We might want to add a purpose to officer wealth. Maybe unloyal officers will desert you once their wealth is high enough. And when you're in port, some officers might use their wealth to get drunk. These officers will probably stay with you because they keep running out of money, but they're pretty useless the days after visiting a port.
<!--quoteo(post=304407:date=Mar 3 2009, 02:51 PM:name=Hook)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Hook @ Mar 3 2009, 02:51 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=304407"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->That's what I was trying to do at the time. I was still in the loanshark's office after dividing the loot. I never tried "cheating" it, but most of my crew deserted after going back to salary. That part probably works.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->Should be fixed then. If it works through dialog, it should be working through the interface as well. Part of the crew is indeed supposed to desert when going back to salary.
<!--quoteo(post=304407:date=Mar 3 2009, 02:51 PM:name=Hook)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Hook @ Mar 3 2009, 02:51 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=304407"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Most chests will have one or two. They're worth about what a sword costs. They're expensive enough to make life difficult for a beginning character if he needs to buy some, but they're a good source of income at the beginning of the game.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->Sounds quite alright then, though perhaps they're a bit too common. There shouldn't be one or two in most chests, there should be one in every two or three chests or so.
<!--quoteo(post=304407:date=Mar 3 2009, 02:51 PM:name=Hook)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Hook @ Mar 3 2009, 02:51 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=304407"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Just dump excess good swords in the weapons locker when you visit the cabin. Eventually you replace them with better swords. I've seen instances where my boarders apparently looted corpses, because extra stuff appears in the locker. Either that or it's a bug that I haven't found yet. Besides, you start off with 12 cutlasses from the tutorial, so they should never be weaponless.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->They should never be weaponless either way. If the weaponslocker is empty, they'll still use the default blades (cutlasses by default). Could be set to daggers or fists if we want to make it more important to keep the weaponslocker stocked.
As for boarders looting enemy corpses: I think this might be a bug or unintentional feature. After all, you can loot all corpses yourself as well, giving you everything double. Also, if you don't loot, you can just plunder your own weaponslocker after the battle. Probably you can get quite an amount of money that way, considering the number would always keep increasing! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/piratesing.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="
" border="0" alt="piratesing.gif" />
<!--quoteo(post=304407:date=Mar 3 2009, 02:51 PM:name=Hook)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Hook @ Mar 3 2009, 02:51 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=304407"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->It seems like the stuff a trader carries is based on his level and little else. Most of them seem to have too much junk at higher levels. It would be better if they were more selective on stuff they carried.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->Indeed. If it's available, it should at least be potentially interesting. So they shouldn't sell items without skill modifiers in the first place, but only buy those. They should always have a clock, compass, spyglass or sextant of a certain quality, unless you personally already have a better one. They should always have gunpowder and ammunition and some bandages and sometimes a cauterization kit. Potions should not be sold. There should be only a couple of weapons and always a bunch of maps that you don't have yourself.
Some items become useless to buy once you've got them yourself, such as clocks, compasses, sextant, etc. Those items are relatively important for gameplay though, so they should be fairly common if you don't have them and not be sold anymore once you've got the best already.
<!--quoteo(post=304407:date=Mar 3 2009, 02:51 PM:name=Hook)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Hook @ Mar 3 2009, 02:51 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=304407"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->My idea of having the merchants not sell books is that you'd have to decide whether or not to keep one you found because it might be useful later, even if it hurt your current stats. I guess you could put a "harmful" book in your weapons locker until you needed it for an officer or yourself later. Currently I only pick up books I intend to use or give to an officer immediately. If I couldn't buy the same book at a merchant when needed, I'd keep a lot more books.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->Makes sense and sounds good. We should change that. Also, no books are truly harmful anymore. Their skill modifiers used to be invisible and there used to be books that only decreased skills (eg. Cooking With Albatross). Only the modder-name books were useful and they only enchanced skills. Now the previously useless books increase and decrease as many skills and the modder-name books increase skills more than they decrease other skills.

<!--quoteo(post=304407:date=Mar 3 2009, 02:51 PM:name=Hook)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Hook @ Mar 3 2009, 02:51 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=304407"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->In that case I'll eventually look into it. I like the new names for the swords.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->Thanks for wanting to look into it! For the swords, we need to reset the description of the Nicholas Sharp blade. It has been changed because you could find them at random, while the description suggests a quest-only sword. However, it IS a quest-only sword again now.
<!--quoteo(post=304407:date=Mar 3 2009, 02:51 PM:name=Hook)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Hook @ Mar 3 2009, 02:51 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=304407"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->My level 10 character had someone come at him, raised the sword to block, got killed in one hit while blocking. This happens a lot. Apparently the game compares the fencing levels of both characters along with the piercing and blocking of both swords, and will apply critical hit. And all with 10 HP per level.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->I wonder if that is the BLOCKDAMAGE mod at work. Though that shouldn't give HUGE HP hits. Anyway, that mod is removed in Patch 1, so please keep an eye out for whether it still works.
Of course upon a critical hit, a block should be ineffective. But that doesn't mean you should immediately die. I don't really like one-hit kills. Should be at least two/three-hit kills, especially on the player.
<!--quoteo(post=304407:date=Mar 3 2009, 02:51 PM:name=Hook)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Hook @ Mar 3 2009, 02:51 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=304407"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->You could get boarders with those HP whether you used grapeshot or not. Part of it was a bug in my boarding code that didn't reduce the enemy HP properly according to the relative morale of both ships.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->That might've been it. The HP seemed rather excessive at the time. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wacko.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":wacko:" border="0" alt="wacko.gif" />
<!--quoteo(post=304407:date=Mar 3 2009, 02:51 PM:name=Hook)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Hook @ Mar 3 2009, 02:51 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=304407"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Right, but it looks like you only get what's left over after paying your officers. The code is fairly complicated and probably contains a few bugs.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->Maybe it should be rewritten and simplified? A certain percentage to keep, a certain percentage to your officers' wealth* and a certain percentage "lost" (eg. to the crew and unavailable ever again).
* We might want to add a purpose to officer wealth. Maybe unloyal officers will desert you once their wealth is high enough. And when you're in port, some officers might use their wealth to get drunk. These officers will probably stay with you because they keep running out of money, but they're pretty useless the days after visiting a port.
<!--quoteo(post=304407:date=Mar 3 2009, 02:51 PM:name=Hook)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Hook @ Mar 3 2009, 02:51 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=304407"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->That's what I was trying to do at the time. I was still in the loanshark's office after dividing the loot. I never tried "cheating" it, but most of my crew deserted after going back to salary. That part probably works.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->Should be fixed then. If it works through dialog, it should be working through the interface as well. Part of the crew is indeed supposed to desert when going back to salary.
<!--quoteo(post=304407:date=Mar 3 2009, 02:51 PM:name=Hook)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Hook @ Mar 3 2009, 02:51 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=304407"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Most chests will have one or two. They're worth about what a sword costs. They're expensive enough to make life difficult for a beginning character if he needs to buy some, but they're a good source of income at the beginning of the game.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->Sounds quite alright then, though perhaps they're a bit too common. There shouldn't be one or two in most chests, there should be one in every two or three chests or so.
<!--quoteo(post=304407:date=Mar 3 2009, 02:51 PM:name=Hook)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Hook @ Mar 3 2009, 02:51 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=304407"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Just dump excess good swords in the weapons locker when you visit the cabin. Eventually you replace them with better swords. I've seen instances where my boarders apparently looted corpses, because extra stuff appears in the locker. Either that or it's a bug that I haven't found yet. Besides, you start off with 12 cutlasses from the tutorial, so they should never be weaponless.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->They should never be weaponless either way. If the weaponslocker is empty, they'll still use the default blades (cutlasses by default). Could be set to daggers or fists if we want to make it more important to keep the weaponslocker stocked.
As for boarders looting enemy corpses: I think this might be a bug or unintentional feature. After all, you can loot all corpses yourself as well, giving you everything double. Also, if you don't loot, you can just plunder your own weaponslocker after the battle. Probably you can get quite an amount of money that way, considering the number would always keep increasing! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/piratesing.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="

<!--quoteo(post=304407:date=Mar 3 2009, 02:51 PM:name=Hook)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Hook @ Mar 3 2009, 02:51 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=304407"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->It seems like the stuff a trader carries is based on his level and little else. Most of them seem to have too much junk at higher levels. It would be better if they were more selective on stuff they carried.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->Indeed. If it's available, it should at least be potentially interesting. So they shouldn't sell items without skill modifiers in the first place, but only buy those. They should always have a clock, compass, spyglass or sextant of a certain quality, unless you personally already have a better one. They should always have gunpowder and ammunition and some bandages and sometimes a cauterization kit. Potions should not be sold. There should be only a couple of weapons and always a bunch of maps that you don't have yourself.
Some items become useless to buy once you've got them yourself, such as clocks, compasses, sextant, etc. Those items are relatively important for gameplay though, so they should be fairly common if you don't have them and not be sold anymore once you've got the best already.
<!--quoteo(post=304407:date=Mar 3 2009, 02:51 PM:name=Hook)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Hook @ Mar 3 2009, 02:51 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=304407"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->My idea of having the merchants not sell books is that you'd have to decide whether or not to keep one you found because it might be useful later, even if it hurt your current stats. I guess you could put a "harmful" book in your weapons locker until you needed it for an officer or yourself later. Currently I only pick up books I intend to use or give to an officer immediately. If I couldn't buy the same book at a merchant when needed, I'd keep a lot more books.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->Makes sense and sounds good. We should change that. Also, no books are truly harmful anymore. Their skill modifiers used to be invisible and there used to be books that only decreased skills (eg. Cooking With Albatross). Only the modder-name books were useful and they only enchanced skills. Now the previously useless books increase and decrease as many skills and the modder-name books increase skills more than they decrease other skills.