Wishlist for Future Updates

[Armada]

I just got rejected for the job I interviewed for, and dumped by my girlfriend, so for now I have PLENTY of free time. lol

Ouch! That must have been a low blow. Well, at least you're laughing about it.

If you're an artist, then texturing might be just the thing for you. It's very simple to convert between the game's format and normal file formats, so there's little learning to do here.

Alternatively, if you like writing, then you could even start on your own storyline! The best ideas are often planned out or even scripted first, and then we can help you to make it a reality in-game.
Plus, you could even draft up some concept art to get a better idea of where you want a story to go. And before you know it, you're combining artistic skills with creative writing!
And as you said, we have no US storyline...

Another point is, being a newbie is not a bad thing. Most of us started off just like you, with no prior modding knowledge whatsoever, and got started by learning through doing.
You'll pick up the basics of whatever you choose to do soon enough.

 

[Armada]

Off topic for a minute, I've just had another look at the ideas in this poll, and I've had a thought about the 'muskets fire like FPS' point.
Did anyone ever try out the 'Shotgun Mode' from the stock game's Cheatmode? That was essentially a basic FPS mode, but without a physical gun being held.
What if we could somehow (I know it would take a lot of work) modify this for the muskets? I mean, that would give the desired effect, right? :2guns

Just a random thought.

 

[Legendary_Spider]

Where do I go to learn all this stuff? I wanna learn how to make ships so bad. :will

I wanna put in some more US historical ships, like the USS Pennsylvania, The Columbia, or the Serapis. The Lady Washington would be easy. Just take the Interceptor model and repaint and change the stern slightly. And take out the wheel and replace it with a tiller. It'd be fun to make a Pilgrim model too. That's my nearest Tall ship docked 7 minutes away in Dana Point.

I've had thoughts of writing a storyline involving the Constitution, but she didn't really do anything in the Caribbean Just made a cruise down there after she was launched. I guess I could do something fictional that involved her. Something during the battle of 1812 would be fun. I bet I could think of something.

Here's a pic of the Pilgrim I took last September. It doesn't really help for the game, but I'm a photographer too.

 

[Armada]

Where do I go to learn all this stuff? I wanna learn how to make ships so bad. :will

Well that depends:

• I could give you some guidance on texturing, if that's what you wanted to do.
• For how to make your own storyline, just start a thread about your ideas, start writing the story, and when you come to the coding part, people will guide you from there.
• To learn how to model ships... is a little more complicated. I haven't yet found a newbie-friendly tutorial on how to properly make a ship from start to finish, including exporting it successfully into the game. We REALLY need a modeller to create such a tutorial, or people will be put off by the complexity of it all. If you are that interested, you need to talk to a member of the 'Modellers' group. Your best bet at the moment is pgargon, but I don't know how prepared he would be to help. But if you don't try, I guess you'll never know.

I wanna put in some more US historical ships, like the USS Pennsylvania, The Columbia, or the Serapis. The Lady Washington would be easy. Just take the Interceptor model and repaint and change the stern slightly. And take out the wheel and replace it with a tiller.

I'd love to see the Pennsylvania too. For now we have the US repaint of the Victory, but it still doesn't resemble a proper US-designed ship, I think.
I think Craiggo made a Lady Washington texture for the Interceptor, but only for CoAS. The only reason we don't have it is because it doesn't really fit the US paint scheme in PotC.

I guess I could do something fictional that involved her. Something during the battle of 1812 would be fun. I bet I could think of something.

Go for it! Sometimes fiction is better than history, because you can do what you want with it.
Within reason, of course. We don't want anything changing the outcome of the Battle of 1812, now...

 

[Legendary_Spider]

Hmmmmm Now I'm inspired. I'd better get to writing.

Don't worry, the USS Constitution is still gonna kick plenty of British butt.

But I'm gonna work pirates into it too since this IS a pirate game.

I'm thinking I'm gonna set the story between August 30th 1812 (when she returned to Boston after defeating the HMS Guerriere off the coast of Novia Scotia) and December 29th 1812 (her victory over the HMS Java off the coast of Brazil).

I would be amazed if she didn't stop in the Caribbean briefly on her voyage from Boston to Brazil. I have some ideas for an "untold story". lol

Historically, the Captain of the USS Constitution at that time would be Captain William Bainbridge. The US flag would need to be changed to the 15 star version.

 

[Legendary_Spider]

Ahh. what's wrong with me??? WAR of 1812. Not battle. I bow my head in shame. lol

 

[Armada]

I would be amazed if she didn't stop in the Caribbean briefly on her voyage from Boston to Brazil. I have some ideas for an "untold story". lol

"Untold story"? Now you're talking! I'd love to see how that develops.

The US flag would need to be changed to the 15 star version.

Need I tell you again: that flag IS in the last game period, which spans 1790 to 1820. It all fits in perfectly with the storyline.
I think you should play the last storyline for a bit to get an idea of what we do and don't have in the last period.
Obviously, you should look into the US ships and settlements. You can ignore the actual quest once you get command of a ship.

WAR of 1812. Not battle.

That would make more sense. A battle would be a very short storyline. :

 

[Legendary_Spider]

But it changes to the 15 star flag in 1795.
2 states are added to the union in 1795.

Wouldn't my story (if it flew) be a new timeline since the story doesn't even start till 1812? It's stil a looooooooooong time before it'll be ready anyway.

 

[Armada]

But it changes to the 15 star flag in 1795.
2 states are added to the union in 1795.

Well we can't have more than one Navy flag per nation per period, so since that flag is the most appropriate for the majority of the period, there's really no point in changing it.
If we catered perfectly to all the nations' flag changes, the chances are that the coding would get pretty complex pretty quickly.

Wouldn't my story (if it flew) be a new timeline since the story doesn't even start till 1812?

There's no need to start a new period altogether. We could probably just extend the duration of the last period if need be.

I've just had a thought: if your storyline goes ahead, then we have an excuse to use a named version of the Constitution as a unique quest ship!
Plus, a random idea for the quest: maybe you could somehow integrate a steam frigate? They seem like nothing but 'Easter eggs' in the last period, at the moment.
I was thinking you could have either:
a) a mission to escort an experimental US steam frigate from one place to another, during its first sea trials
b) a mission to capture a French or British experimental steam frigate, which is being tested in the Caribbean.
What do you think? Sound good?

 

[Legendary_Spider]

I like it. And we could have it one of the steam frigates stolen by pirates or something. We could possibly bring in one of the Constitution's 5 sister ships maybe.

I definitely wanna have the Constitution pitted against a British Ship of the Line at some point. Make the player have to use the same tactics that the Constitution used in real life to outmaneuver her opponents with her superior speed.

We need to get someone to put bow chasers on her. It irks me to no end.

Hmmm. I'm gonna need to come up with characters and a story too. Maybe have the player play as Captain Bainbridge.

 

[Armada]

So perhaps an escort mission goes horribly wrong, and some pirates (or even another navy) capture the steam frigate. Then, you are tasked with recapturing her, to compensate for failing to protect her!
I definitely like the idea of including one of the other United States class frigates. That might involve making a whole new model, because if I understand correctly, they weren't exactly 'twin' sisters, were they?

A battle with a Ship of the Line would be great! The tactics involved would be an interesting challenge.
I guess the objective would be to capture it, no doubt? Sinking it would take an age.

For bow chasers, don't worry about that for now. Maybe at some point, we should talk nicely to a Modeller about it.

 

[Legendary_Spider]

I can fake nice. lol

I also had an idea for the Constitution having a battle (possibly with pirates) with multiple vessels. 2 would be good.

Yeah I don't think the original 6 frigates were identical. The Constitution is the only surviving one of the 6 and is the world's oldest ship still in commission that's afloat.

I gotta learn how to become a Modeller. I got me some ideas for this game.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

You might want to choose between modeling and storyline writing. While the two are not technically mutually exclusive, trying to do both when just starting sounds like rather a lot to me.
I personally think storyline writing is the easier of the two. Although I did some modeling in the past, that was on modern motorized ships and therefore much easier than wooden sailing vessels.

 

[Legendary_Spider]

Yeah, it'll be a while before I can do any of that modeller stuff.

So while I tinker with a storyline, I'm taking on the task of re-mastering all the sound effects for the game. I'm really good at sound and music editing and I've never been a big fan of this game's second rate mono sounds. I have a vast library at my disposal and I've figured out how to fiddle with the sound effects without screwing up the game. :nk

I've also been thinking about re-mixing the music to flow better with the pace of the game. Some of the music tracks work fine in their unaltered form, but some need to be re-worked. For example, the Davy Jones theme for the sea battle, it starts out so quiet you can't even hear it, so I would fix it so you have upbeat exciting Davy Jones music for the whole battle. And I would do that with any music tracks that needed that.

But for now, I'm focusing on the sound. I can give this game some really big sound. And big sound really enhances the overall experience. You can forgive some little things when you have big sound.

I was thinking of the skills i have that would be applicable for the game and my strongest is sound editing and music mixing. Something i'm quite good at and experienced in.

As for the story, coming up with missions won't be enough. I'm gonna have to script it with character too. Pesky people. lol

Of course, I'm gonna test all this extensively before I post the file. I hope everybody likes it. 3

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Better sound files definitely sounds like a good idea to me.

Davy Jones music in the game? I don't remember that being part of the modpack. Are you using one of the music packs?

 

[Legendary_Spider]

Yeah I added the various music pack downloads . . . was I not supposed to do that?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Of course you CAN do that; that's what they're FOR!

I was just checking if you were referring to the original game's music files or the music packs.

 

[Legendary_Spider]

Oh good God no. I can't the stand the game's original music. I think those music packs were a Godsend. But Imma tweak them a bit to fit the flow of the game better.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Do you know how to get on the FTP site? The sound pack I use is Morgan Terror's from there. The music usually fits the action better than other packs.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I'd like to have some sort of "official Build additional music pack". The actual Build 14 would contain the stock game music,
but you could download our additional preferred music, combining music from all sorts of films and sources.
Jack Black has done something like that which I've been using for quite some time now: http://forum.piratesahoy.net/index.php/topic/17031-jack-black-mega-music-pack-available