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    Maelstrom New Horizons


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Build 14 Beta 1

Just a question, what difficulty are you all playing this game on?
 
Methinks most are playing POTC on Journeyman or Adventurer level. I'm playing on Swashbuckler level because the other levels USED to be too easy.





I can not recommend Drake's sword too highly. It instantly made me much better. :ixi
 
well, think about it though, the harder we make the game, the more interesting it gets, even at the lowest difficulty level.
 
Yes and no. There is still some sorting out to do but generally it has been too hard at the beginning and then getting easier until it's too easy. The game I'm playing now started off insanely hard but now I'm at level 27 and using Jack Sparrow's (!!) cutlass and am finally doing well. I have confidence that I will not die unless swamped by opponents. My officers are doing better too and rarely die anymore. I hope it is possible to make it progress better.



It has been a long time since I tried the other levels, but the way it used to be was apprentice level is supposed to be for your 10 year old younger brother. It was very easy. There was a big jump up to Journeyman level with it being tuff for a casual player. I really couldn't tell any difference between Journeyman and Adventurer levels.

It felt like another big step up to Swashbuckler level. It wasn't really harder, it was just that everything is set against you. There is usually a headwind when sailing. You get less profit from trading and everything costs more. In sword fights you take more damage and deliver less. In sea battles it's the same way. You need to carry a LOT more shot and powder because you do less damage. A thousand rounds sometimes isn't enough to sink one ship. I would like to hear the opinions of you younger players on the level difficulties.


So yes it needs to be hard. But not so hard that it discourages new players. It's like that now at the beginning of the game IMHO.
 
i started off at apprentice, actually. of course, i also picked the difficulty for the sake of quickly testing skill increase ratios and for the sake of avoiding increased sf difficulty. i usually play at journeyman though, which i'll probably go back to.
 
I'm at level 28 now and believe I'm over the hump. But it has not been enjoyable and if something isn't done I will not be playing this level again. When you need a magical sword to survive...............
 
Pieter Boelen said:
Changes in attached initItems.c file: http://www.pyratesah...s/initItems.zip

Shotgun set to "Unique" properly with Weaponsmod ON; apparently that wasn't set up properly before.
Albatross and tattoos are set to "hidden" and should appear only in your inventory but nowhere else.
So you can't get rid of the albatross so easily anymore! :whipa

I set the min.level of unique weapons to 99 just to help with their rarity.
Please try attached file and let me know if you run into any of the following items at random ever:
Francis Drake's Sword
Sword of Cortés
Sword of Bartolomeu
Jack Sparrow Cutlass
Saber of Nicholas Sharp - Quest only blade
English Officer's Saber - English presentation blade
Corsair's Pride - English presentation blade
Dutch Admiralty Sword - Dutch presentation blade
Solingen Rapier - Dutch presentation blade
French Admiralty Rapier - French presentation blade
French Nobility Sword - French presentation blade
Moorish Saber - Spanish presentation blade
Spanish Nobility Longsword - Spanish presentation blade
Portugese Officer's Sword - Portugese presentation blade
Damascus Shamshir - Portugese presentation blade
Dragon's Head - Pirate special blade
Shotgun
Jack Sparrow pistol
Mercenary pistol

If you do run into any, let me know what item it is and whether you have the Weaponsmod ON or OFF.

I'm also interested in whether you ever DO find the following items:
Lockpick (anywhere)
Grenade (for sale)
I don't recall ever finding a lockpick, even though they ARE supposed to show up occasionally.
They DO work as items if I give them to myself through code, but if they don't ever appear, that defeats their purpose.
Also, the grenades were once set up to be commonly available for purchase, but I never ended up seeing them.
Click to expand...


It's been a while so here is a rundown on what I've seen.

I picked up Francis Drake's sword as a quest item. Later I got into a fight and my Drake sword disappeared. I ran away into the tavern, then came out and found Jack Sparrow's sword in the bushes beside a grandee's mansion. It's been working fine.

It has been a while but I have seen the shotgun.

I came across the mercenary pistol in a chest once, and bought 3 of them at a store. Those are the only times I've seen them. I passed them out to my officers but they preferred the standard 4 shot pistol, so I sold them.

I have not seen a lockpick at all, but grenades are common.
 
from what i remember, grenades were made more common for historical accuracy. they literally came in whole crates at a time. because they were made more common, they were also made a bit weaker so they wouldn't break the game too much. at least, that was the idea.
 
Hylie Pistoff said:
I'm at level 28 now and believe I'm over the hump. But it has not been enjoyable and if something isn't done I will not be playing this level again. When you need a magical sword to survive...............
Click to expand...

You could try my LAi_fightparams.c file on the previous page, it basicaly sets combat difficulty back to how it was post patch 7 wip 2(the last file). I'm finding the gameplay enjoyable re combats, as it used to be(still using Adventurer level as my prefered default). You won't get all those Officer deaths or die as often yourself, and you won't need a quest sword to survive. It's the old code updated to fit some of the newer format, so a hybrid of the old(better gameplay) and the new. Weapon stats re piercing/block work more as you expect them too etc.
 
I might need that now. The Jack Sparrow cutlass broke on me too. I was in a duel in the captains cabin and couldn't run away, so died. :ko This is upsetting because I had earlier taken it to a swordsmith who wouldn't touch it, and it also doesn't say what its condition is.



Well, the grenades don't do much anymore. They just soften them up a bit while they are charging at you.
 
Uurrr....different qualities from what? :shrug It is +1 in melee, so I presume it is magical. It doesn't have excellent, fine, good, average, etc. qualities so I thought it would never wear out and break either. There I go with that thinking stuff again. :facepalm



That LAi thingy really makes a difference. Last night I had to go through Oxbay Canyon where all of the bandits are. It was really hard getting past them and I died a lot. Today I had to do it again and I only died once, and that was because I got cuttoff from my officers and got into a 4 on 1.
 
Hylie Pistoff said:
This is upsetting because I had earlier taken it to a swordsmith who wouldn't touch it, and it also doesn't say what its condition is.
Click to expand...


Hylie Pistoff said:
Uurrr....different qualities from what? It is +1 in melee, so I presume it is magical. It doesn't have excellent, fine, good, average, etc. qualities so I thought it would never wear out and break either. There I go with that thinking stuff again. :facepalm
Click to expand...


The Cortez & Drake's swords are like that in Patch 6 - have no qualities - good - average - fine etc ( so no warning about when they will break - & they do break ) & Blacksmiths won't touch them. :ixi
 
Ok, now I know not to use those swords.


The Battle of Bridgetown works well now. Pieter, you remember how I was ranting a couple of months ago about the wind not letting us out of the bay. Well this time the wind was blowing across the bay so they could come in and we could come out. This part of the game is now tremendously improved over what it was a year ago. :onya
 
hmm for the quest swords, we really need to find a way for them to be either fixable in a blacksmith or make it so they can't ever break?
 
i just turn off the possibility entirely in internalsettings. i lose way too many good and rare swords that way, not to mention that i only see the message that my blade degraded when it breaks, which is somewhat too late.
 
Yeah. I've started keeping a half dozen or so of the best swords with me so I can switch out when needed. I have also started checking the officers and crew weapons too.

Another source of trouble is that if you need to get 60 swords repaired it will take 60 days. 60 days while your crews are eating and drinking and carousing. Until they run out and start starving to death and mutinying. It is hard trying to remember everything that can go wrong. :hmm
 
what if swords in the weapon's locker would be repaired over time when below average quality if you had a master at arms aboard? that would get rid of most of the problem. i did think that officer's swords were made not to deteriorate anymore though. did that get removed, or was it never done?
 
Blade deterioration is still there and wasn't removed for officers ever. Only gunpowder usage was.
The code is in PROGRAM\Loc_ai\LAi_events.c . Please try attached version in which I tried to stop blades without quality from breaking.
http://www.pyratesahoy.com/potc/Pieter%20Assorted%20Files/LAi_events.zip

I'd like to have the different officer types have more of a role as per Morgan's suggestions, but have no idea when that might be arranged.
 
Argghh! I installed your LAI doodad but forgot to take the Jack Sparrow sword out of the ships locker. :facepalm I really could have used it in the Cozumel maze.





The Sea Hawk quest is done. :shoot: I have a new wallpaper too.
 
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