Upgrading Virginie d'Espivant

[Grey Roger]

Virginie d'Espivant is about to become a lot more interesting. What started out as a bugfix has spiralled out of control.

The bug and fix are detailed here:
Fix in Progress - Passenger problems
Summary:
Bug: if "A Girl Won in a Card Game" is completed at a certain point in "Tales of a Sea Hawk", Virginie d'Espivant becomes a permanent, unassignable passenger.
Fix: prevent the quest from completing if Virginie is not a passenger.

Feeling sorry for her sad story to this point, and impressed by her attempt to stow away, I allowed Virginie the chance to stay on your ship legitimately:

You have to say the right things, and you have to let Virginie decide for herself. After thinking about it overnight, she's inclined to accept your offer:

For one thing, you're the first person to treat her with any respect in a long time. For another, the alternative is a voyage across the Atlantic back to France, and she remembers what happened last time she crossed the Atlantic. But there are other factors to consider, the main one being Sabine Matton.

Like Virginie d'Espivant, Sabine is a French woman with a sad background from which you may rescue her by recruiting her as an officer. If she's an officer on your ship, Virginie will have been chatting to her. What has happened to Sabine is an indication of what it likely to happen to Virginie. So, if you don't have Sabine as an officer on your ship because she's either been fired, is stuck on another ship, or you haven't recruited her at all, no effect. If she's an officer on your ship, that's a positive. If she's in your shore party, that's an even bigger positive because the last thing Virginie sees before retiring to consider her options is Sabine standing next to you, a very powerful image. On the other hand, if Sabine is dead, that's a big negative because it doesn't bode well for Virginie's future.

Then there's your reputation. Virginie doesn't care much about what anyone else thinks of you, what's important is what you've done for her so far. Even so, a really bad reputation is a small negative while a really good reputation is a small positive.

And there's your status with France. Virginie isn't particularly patriotic, but she is French, so if you hate France then you and she might not get along well in the future - small negative. Conversely, if you're at least neutral to France, then you will probably continue to be nice to her - small positive. And if you're in the service of France, that's a bigger positive because even if Virginie isn't very patriotic, her family are, so her serving on a French warship, even a privateer, will make them happy.

The bottom line is, Virginie will accept your offer unless there's a serious reason not to, and even then, positive factors may outweigh it and she may still sign up.

 

[Grey Roger]

If Sabine Matton becomes an officer, she gets a shipboard outfit. Virginie d'Espivant should too. But I'd set her to use the newly imported "BaynesDaughter" model (see the thread Need Help - dark ab). Transferring the face texture from "BaynesDaughter" to an officer model didn't go too well. In the end I made a new texture with a new face which did transfer reasonably well to an officer model:

Unlike Sabine Matton, Virginie d'Espivant doesn't get the new outfit right away. She needs to earn it by going up a couple of levels, and while you're at sea, so she doesn't change outfit right in front of you. And that dress outfit, being designed for Virginie, is getting the name attributes in "initModels.c", which makes Virginie d'Espivant a playable FreePlay character.

Virginie is blocked from getting the sidequest "A Girl Won in a Card Game". You are not going to win yourself! But she's set up to be a Social Climber by default, and if you keep that player type, you start the game by playing the end of the quest from Virginie's point of view. The officer in the cabin is the gambler who won you and then helped you, though he's not as helpful as the player in the regular quest because he only takes you as far as the port:

Quest Virginie has no ship or weapons, so you don't have them either. (A 'vcskip' prevents random thugs from attacking you while you're unarmed.) You make your way to the tavern, where you give Raymond Bouchez a piece of your mind, you give the bar wench a piece of your mind, and then you take what's left of your mind and go to see the governor about a ship back to France. Once again things do not go according to plan, but this time to your advantage:

The ship he gives you is the one you chose during storyline selection. You also get some weapons. And then you're into normal FreePlay.

Most of the code for special starts switches first by player type, then by name. I tried to make Virginie's special start work regardless of player type and it became messy. Besides, several other player types have their own special starts and Virginie doesn't want to miss out on them. So, for example, smuggler Virginie begins in a random friendly port with a load of contraband, agent Virginie begins in a random hostile port on a mission to help a fellow agent, and gambler Virginie begins with a duel.

Ah, yes. The gambler. Any player character can gamble in taverns and eventually be invited upstairs for a special game to win a girl. Gamblers then get a further game to win the invitation to the "Poker Tournament" trophy quest. So, while most Virginies will never be invited upstairs, gambler Virginie will, then the tavern gambler skips the bit about the girl and goes straight to the tournament invitation. Gambler Virginie thus obeys both sides of her character - Virginie can't win a girl, gambler can go to the tournament.