Mod Release Brave Black Flag

[Pieter Boelen]

If the tutorial disappears from the unified free play then the only way they'll see a tutorial is by playing "Tales of a Sea Hawk".

Yep, that is exactly what would happen.

The Standard storyline is of course the default one for a reason. That one also starts you at rank 1 and has Changing Nation Relations disabled.
The dedicated Free Play storyline jump-starts you to rank 5 and does have Changing Nation Relations enabled, so I am not sure it is quite suitable for novice players.

Additionally, the Free Play storyline will have different opening scenes depending on your Select Storyline customization choices.
So if we do keep the tutorial, you can still "accidentally" skip it by choosing the "wrong" options. Not so good for novice players either.

None of the other storylines have a tutorial either and I think it would be too much effort and not enough gain to ensure each storyline has a novice-friendly beginning.

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Which reminds me.... How about the Stormy Start option? Of course the Standard storyline has that and so does BFF for now as that is a copy of the Standard one.
But when we combine everything into one Free Play storyline, then not all of them would start in your captain's cabin and therefore not all of them would offer Stormy Start.

Should we then keep Stormy Start for the Free Play storyline at all? It was originally made for a few reasons:
1. Provide a way to instantly skip the tutorial and throw you straight into gameplay. This is good for the Standard storyline but doesn't really apply to the Free Play one.
2. Provide a custom starting scenario, which the Free Play storyline will already do in a different way.

However, Stormy Start IS a fun option and does actually work well for Free Play.
In fact, that is a great option to use Free Play in the Standard storyline, which is of course perfectly possible.
Perhaps it could be triggered on the Free Play storyline depending on the difficulty level for example?
For example, automatically use regular Stormy Start if you select Adventurer and Evil Stormy Start on Swashbuckler.

Another thought.... Since the Free Play storyline will eventually have very little code of its own, it isn't a huge concern to have several of them.
For example, we could have one where you get a player-type dependent opening scene and a separate Stormy Start storyline.

 

[Jason]

For what it is worth I love stormy start and I think it is important to maintain it for all story lines.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

For what it is worth I love stormy start and I think it is important to maintain it for all story lines.

For all storylines is not possible because Assassin/Bartolomeu/Woodes Rogers/Hornblower/Jack Sparrow have got different openings.

It is definitely staying for the Standard storyline. We still need to figure out how to handle it for the Free Play one though.
Depending on your Select Storyline customization choices, you would get the BFF or La Croix opening available to you.
But Stormy Start does not seem to be compatible with the La Croix opening and that would get worse if we add more custom opening scenes.

 

[Grey Roger]

The Standard storyline is of course the default one for a reason. That one also starts you at rank 1 and has Changing Nation Relations disabled.
The dedicated Free Play storyline jump-starts you to rank 5 and does have Changing Nation Relations enabled, so I am not sure it is quite suitable for novice players.

Additionally, the Free Play storyline will have different opening scenes depending on your Select Storyline customization choices.
So if we do keep the tutorial, you can still "accidentally" skip it by choosing the "wrong" options. Not so good for novice players either.

Then just have the tutorial for the default options. If you're confident enough to choose a different story or choose different options in free-play then you're not a novice.

Personally, I like the storylines and won't have much use for pure free-play except for testing. Other people might prefer to go straight to free-play to start with and should still be able to get a tutorial.

Which reminds me.... How about the Stormy Start option? Of course the Standard storyline has that and so does BFF for now as that is a copy of the Standard one.
But when we combine everything into one Free Play storyline, then not all of them would start in your captain's cabin and therefore not all of them would offer Stormy Start.

Should we then keep Stormy Start for the Free Play storyline at all? It was originally made for a few reasons:
1. Provide a way to instantly skip the tutorial and throw you straight into gameplay. This is good for the Standard storyline but doesn't really apply to the Free Play one.
2. Provide a custom starting scenario, which the Free Play storyline will already do in a different way.

However, Stormy Start IS a fun option and does actually work well for Free Play.
In fact, that is a great option to use Free Play in the Standard storyline, which is of course perfectly possible.
Perhaps it could be triggered on the Free Play storyline depending on the difficulty level for example?
For example, automatically use regular Stormy Start if you select Adventurer and Evil Stormy Start on Swashbuckler.

I don't like the idea of forcing stormy start, let alone evil stormy start. But I do like the idea of keeping it as an option so that you can bypass whatever initial dialog the free-play wants to start with otherwise.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Then just have the tutorial for the default options. If you're confident enough to choose a different story or choose different options in free-play then you're not a novice.

Very well; looks like we'll need to keep a copy of the tutorial then.
We'll have to think of a sensible "default" scenario, but I suppose we can do that later.

Shame that the tutorial only works in the stock game towns; I would have liked to get the Free Play Only storyline start in a nation-dependent non-stock-game town instead.
But that doesn't work with the tutorial. Could be modified so that it does, of course, but I don't think that is worth the effort.

Personally, I like the storylines and won't have much use for pure free-play except for testing.

Indeed personally I see very little purpose in even having a Free Play Only storyline at all, since nobody is stopping you from doing Free Play in most other storylines either.
Basically the ONLY reason I am thinking of keeping that as an option at all is because the Standard storyline:
- CANNOT have Changing Nation Relations enabled to avoid this messing up the Main Quest
- Sets some limitations on what towns you can capture until the Main Quest is completed
- Must always start with the default Tutorial and therefore wouldn't allow different starting scenarios to be used

I don't like the idea of forcing stormy start, let alone evil stormy start. But I do like the idea of keeping it as an option so that you can bypass whatever initial dialog the free-play wants to start with otherwise.

Indeed I didn't much like that idea either. So then we're left with either:
- Separate Stormy Start storyline, which can switch to "evil" mode on Swashbuckler difficulty only
- Add Stormy Start as an option for all individual Free Play opening scenarios (can also switch to "evil" mode on Swashbuckler difficulty only)

 

[Pieter Boelen]

So what I am thinking of doing is to keep both_reaction.c for the Free Play storyline a near-carbon-copy of the Standard storyline one so the tutorial can remain.
That puts it pretty close to Brave Black Flag, so probably that one will stay as "standard" Free Play scenario.

However, you'll be able to trigger the other starts either linked to their appropriate character models or based on custom Select Storyline choices.
If all goes well tomorrow, after this weekend Nelson, Devlin and La Croix will be GONE,
leaving only Brave Black Flag which will be able to do everything that the other ones did.

To honour Jason Maffetone's (and to simplify things for myself), the "coast raider at Martinique" will be his custom Iceni Queen quest ship for all storylines.
At least that gives some special meaning to that, rather than being a confused "governor ship hunting quest" thingey.

 

[Jason]

I am confused will stormy start still a part of the BFF storyline?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Of course. That feature is already and isn't going away.
Have to figure out the specifics tomorrow and of course I'll be open for comments once the next update is posted.

 

[Jason]

Good, looking forward to the next version.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

As per today, officially the "Brave Black Flag" storyline is no more. It has been completely replaced by the general "Free Play" one.
To honour the inspiration that @Jason Maffettone's work has given us regarding player types and a custom free play start, "Julian McAllister" remains the default Free Play character.
That offers all the same gameplay functionality that the original Brave Black Flag storyline did.
So we didn't actually lose anything, even if the background coding has changed a fair bit.