Abandoned Suggestion: make Captain Sawyer's fall ambiguous

[Pieter Boelen]

Do any storylines disable that sidequest? I've an idea "Hoist the Colours" has its own version of the quest.

Hoist the Colours indeed has its own custom version; the other storylines all have the regular one available.

Exceptions are Woodes Rogers and The Gold-Bug for obvious reasons.

The game storyline does not precisely follow the books - you probably won't see Sharpe mentioned in them, for a start.

I know.

In the game, the conversation with Pellew after the court-martial makes it pretty clear that nobody pushed the captain.

Is there any way to leave it ambiguous as per the books? I always thought that was quite clever.

 

[Grey Roger]

It would be easy enough to modify the dialog, but I'd prefer not to. Partly because I've generally tried to keep the main storyline dialog as it was originally written (except for factual corrections, e.g. due to the map having changed). And partly because I put a lot of effort into tying up loose ends, so I'd rather not introduce a new loose end. The idea here is that Archie Kennedy, knowing he wasn't going to live much longer, intentionally took the blame so as to remove any possible suspicion from Hornblower, which is quite a dramatic and tidy ending even if it's about as true to the books as the entire incident with the tunnel.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

And partly because I put a lot of effort into tying up loose ends, so I'd rather not introduce a new loose end.

In what way is that a loose end? As in: You never find out who really did it?
That is an intentional loose end; it is meant to be up to the interpretation of the reader (or in this case: player).

The idea here is that Archie Kennedy, knowing he wasn't going to live much longer, intentionally took the blame so as to remove any possible suspicion from Hornblower, which is quite a dramatic and tidy ending even if it's about as true to the books as the entire incident with the tunnel.

Indeed I don't think any of the Archie business was in the books at all.

 

[Grey Roger]

In what way is that a loose end? As in: You never find out who really did it?

Or even if there was a "who did it" - Hornblower's assertion is that nobody pushed the captain, he fell.

That is an intentional loose end; it is meant to be up to the interpretation of the reader (or in this case: player).

Except that you're supposed to be Hornblower, not an outside observer as you are when reading the books. Hornblower knows what really happened since he was there. Therefore, whether true to the books or not, the player ought to know as well.

Indeed I don't think any of the Archie business was in the books at all.

Which means the court-martial and final resolution has already departed from the books. What would interest me is how the TV version finished, since Archie certainly was in that - the TV series is the source for his profile portrait and voice clip.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Very well then; "Abandoned" it is.