Mod Release Build 14 Beta 3 Progress

[Pieter Boelen]

Mainly @Levis' latest work, new Fast Galleons and some additional fixes.

New version again: http://piratesahoy.net/build/b14_beta3_installer.exe

!!!NEW GAME REQUIRED!!!

Change Log:

Build 14 Beta 3.2:
- Config.exe restored and improved, with special thanks to De Zeeroovers
- New Archipelago Map added by Agentad
- Bug Fixes:
  . Missing Ships on Worldmap Encounters fixed by Levis
  . Monthly Salary Payments fixed by Levis
  . Extra Atmosphere Tavern Fights fixed by Levis
  . Rival Suitor error messages fixed by Levis
  . Weird Effects after Self Dialog fixed by Levis
  . Missed "corpse" attribute error log fixed by Levis
  . Muskets/Musketoons not working during boardings fixed by Jack Rackham
  . Father Bernard "Skill Reset" functionality fixed by El Rapido
  . Promotion Reward Officer model errors fixed by Pieter Boelen
  . Fix to Guadeloupe Town Capture by Pieter Boelen
  . Barbados location descriptions fixed by Pieter Boelen
  . Fleut of War encounter chance improved by Pieter Boelen
  . Attempted fix for Capture Colonies Female Governors by Pieter Boelen
  . Cartagena Escort Quest fixed by Pieter Boelen
- Gameplay Updates:
  . Locked Abilities Functionality added by Levis
  . Unlock Perks in various ways, explained in the descriptions by Levis
  . Fetch quest for Tailor and Shipyard are now shown in the town news at the tavern by Levis
  . Fetch quests no avaible everywhere by Levis
  . All books made readable by Levis and Pieter Boelen
  Includes texture work by Darkhymn, FireBat and Thagarr done for the Gentlemen of Fortune modpack (WIP: Skill book texts to be updated)
  Mathematical jokes by Grey Roger
  . Worldmap Encounters improved to take into account nearby islands and time of day by Levis
  . Redone Dynamic Import/Export Goods System by Levis
  . Moon Phase changes visibly ingame by Purseon
  . Training Fights with crew on player ship deck fixed and reinstated by Purseon
  . Hostile Traders can be fooled, depending on false flag detection chance, by Purseon
  . ENABLE_CHEATMODE functionality added by El Rapido
  > Tailor provides a "Famous Pirate Clothes Collection"
  > Tailor allows resetting of Player and Officer skills and abilities
- Code Updates:
  . Ability System fixed and improved by Levis
  . F2>Character Screen shows highest rank instead of latest rank by Levis
  . Enemy Soldiers in Taverns improved by Levis
  . Enhanced Dialog System included by Levis
  . Character Encounter Code updated by Levis
  . Pickpocket Gold handling improved by Aconcagua
  . Female Officer Percentage setting added by Aconcagua
  . Officer Hire Price randomized a bit more by Aconcagua
  . Perks Code improved by Aconcagua
  . Timescale Settings changed to x1, x3, x5, x10 and x20 by El Rapido
  . Officer Skill Contribution values modified by El Rapido
  . SKILL_EXPERIENCE_MULTIPLIER and EXPERIENCE_MULTIPLIER settings added by El Rapido
  . Nation-Specific Weapons for enemy ship crews disabled by Pieter Boelen
  . Town Events can now trigger quests by Levis
- Storyline Updates:
  . ALL Storylines:
  > Davy Jones made into a more formidable opponent by Levis
  . Sidequests:
  > Marc Blacque quest can be completed even when hostile to England by Pieter Boelen
  . Standard Storyline:
  > Potential Stuck in Speighstown during tutorial error fixed by Levis
  > Edgar Attwood quest starting twice fixed by Levis
  > Capture Black Pearl scene fixed by Levis
  > Black Pearl swap with uncursed version after capture fixed by Pieter Boelen
  . Bartolomeu Storyline:
  > Cartagena part of the storyline extended by Bartolomeu o Portugues and Jack Rackham
  . Assassin Storyline:
  > Potential missing Henry Morgan fixed by Levis
  > 'La Couronne' quest completion clarification message added by Levis
  . Hoist the Colours Storyline:
  > Black tavern quest scene fixed by Levis
  > Pintel Passenger Bug fixed by VanessaHudgensFan and Levis
  > Double greeting on Bella Brin fixed by VanessaHudgensFan and Pieter Boelen
  > Potential quest errors due to immortal Mr. Gibbs fixed by Pieter Boelen
  > Laurence Bannerman returns to Turks after ending by Pieter Boelen
  . Hornblower Storyline:
  > Dialog clarified by Grey Roger
  > Missed character ID error fixed by Pieter Boelen
  . Gold-Bug Storyline:
  > New WIP content included by Jack Rackham
- Texture Updates:
  . High-detail Boat texture added by TheBlackKnight
  . Ship Window texture improved by Armada
- Model Updates:
  . Polacca high-detail custom model added by De Zeeroovers
  . Model improved on Fast Galleons by De Zeeroovers
  . HMS Surprise camera height improved by Hylie Pistof
  . Improved Superbe model by DF5
  . Rigging improved on Derfflinger by Hylie Pistof
  . Rigging improved on War Galleon by Hylie Pistof
  Includes new textures courtesy of the Gentlemen of Fortune Mod Team
- Modder Tools:
  . Perks Reinit Code added by Levis
  . Easier events system by Levis
- ADDITIONAL INSTALLATION OPTIONS:
  . Widescreen Textures including:
  > Improved Spyglasses by TheBlackKnight
  > Widescreen Moon Textures by Purseon

 

[Levis]

Changed the link in the first post and added a few things to the feature list.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

I have been playing this new version all day and have some thoughts.

First, the economy seems to be a little more stable price wise. It is possible to freelance and sometimes make a small profit.

Second, colonies are being destroyed at an alarming rate. Soon there will be none left. In 2 months 5 colonies have been destroyed. This is not sustainable.

I have only visited one of the destroyed colonies, Havana. There are trade goods but ZERO money and I am too poor to pull them out of their destitution. Based on past experience it will be 6 months before Havana becomes functional again. In that time another 15 colonies will be destroyed.

Look at the screenies. Oh, by the way, what does it mean that the military is expanding?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Oh, by the way, what does it mean that the military is expanding?

If you check your Ship's Log, you'll find the following explanation:

The fortcommander of #stown# is drafting new people to join their army. This will provide the tailor with a lot of new work and might deplete some of the resources of the island.

Bit odd to have mention of the fort commander of the Pirate Settlement though. Not to mention their military.

 

[Levis]

Ever seen black sails @Pieter Boelen .
But maybe I should change that text yes.

I might have found the problem with the economy changing to rapidly. Please try this file.
Put it in PROGRAM\Towns

Going to test a bit more for my self also but I think the problem was there where values stored for multiplying the gold amount but they where converted to int so they ended up being 0. Now they should be handled as floats so that should make the town suffer less.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Two more bite the dust.


Now the menus do not align with what the stores are charging at all. Freelance trade is not possible, nor is smuggling.

 

[Levis]

How do you mean the menus do not align?
And did their money also go down to 0 after this?

 

[Levis]

This should make the Events a bit more stable.
Also I made a mistake in the fetch quest perk unlocking so here it is fixed.
And I tweaked the finance mechanics a bit.

I want the opinion about something.
I can show the Base price of a good on the tradebook interface, thats way its easier to see which goods are good for trading and which ones aren't, but that might make it to easy. What do you guys think? I could also lock it to the difficulty setting for example.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Is there actually such a thing as the export goods being resupplied? Or can you just buy all the stock and leave the island without much of anything?
Also, the price of the goods changing DURING any trade transfer doesn't make much sense.
You agree on a price per unit and if that changes the supply/demand substantially, the prices should change after the transfer.
Right?

How does that whole goods pricing system work anyway?

 

[Levis]

Is there actually such a thing as the export goods being resupplied? Or can you just buy all the stock and leave the island without much of anything?

They are resupplied, and if you buy everything they are getting resupplied evenfaster

Also, the price of the goods changing DURING any trade transfer doesn't make much sense.
You agree on a price per unit and if that changes the supply/demand substantially, the prices should change after the transfer.
Right?

I agree but dont know if I can change that easily

How does that whole goods pricing system work anyway?

quite crap. I cleaned up the code a bit. I could explain it more in detail later.

I reuploaded the file. Finally found out what the problem was.
I defined the multipliers as "5/6" etc, but because these where both integer values the game made it a integer so it made it 0. I had to change it to "5.0/6.0" to make it use floats.
I just checked it and it seems to be working.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

How do you mean the menus do not align?
And did their money also go down to 0 after this?

The menus agree with the store prices at first, but the store prices change daily while the menu only shows the prices at that particular moment in time. So, the longer it takes you to get back there again the farther apart the prices get. I have gone into a

store expecting to make a small profit only to end up selling the cargo for 1/3rd what I paid for it. I have also gone into a store only to find that what I wanted to sell there was now contraband. I have also tried smuggling only to find that my goods were now

export products and I ended up selling them for 1/10th what I paid for them.

I have not played much after your first patch but the stores that had already dropped to zero stayed there until I bought something from them. Some are coming back and some are doing nothing.

 

[Levis]

The last patch should fix the drop to 0 (the patch in post http://piratesahoy.net/threads/build-14-beta-3-progress.20686/page-131#post-481855)
The tradebook only shows what you know, so when you visited the store it gets updated, that has always been so.
I'm just curious, how long does a run take for you cause I played a little bit also and I didn't had any of the problems you described. Ofcourse before you plan your trip it's wise to check the tavern news. If they tell about something happening in that town you can bet some of the goods have been changed.

What is your tought about showing the baseprice in the tradebook also?

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Early in the game I am going back and forth between the same islands and then slowly going to others. So at first the news might only be 2 weeks old, but later it is 3 months or more old. In that amount of time contraband can become export goods and import goods can become contraband. Also, something that was selling for $50 might be selling for $5 or $1600. This total chaos in the economy makes it impossible to do anything except haul merchant cargo.

What is the base price? I know nothing about that.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

@Levis' latest fixes now included in http://piratesahoy.net/build/b14_beta3_installer.exe

 

[Levis]

having the gold now fixed so it wont become 0 should help a lot already.
The baseprice is the value of the good. each good has a certain value and this is fixed. the import/export and other things make these prices vary. So you can compare it to the base price to see how cheap or expensive it is.
Please let me know if these new fixes keep causing the same problem. Indeed in three months time a lot can change. I will tweak the goods a bit so it's a bit less variable. I was thinking about the following distribution:
Island properties (stay constant)
3 import/export products
1 contraband
Economy properties (vary much)
1 import
2 export
Nation properties (only change if you capture a colony)
2 import
1 export
1 contraband

These are options which can be chosen from. This wont mean they are all chosen. Normally if you have 6 options about 4 to 5 will be chosen.
Some events might add an extra product
For example Malaria will make sure medicin is an import product for 2 months

 

[Hylie Pistof]

I got an escort mission to get the commerce perk. Went from a colony that had been destroyed by a hurricane to one that had been destroyed by pirates.

Bought copra for $7 and sold it for $15 as the merchant did actually have some money. This put him into negative numbers which I fixed by buying goods I do not need.

The goods at each colony need to be unchanging for at least 1 year at the absolute minimum in order to avoid this completely and totally unrealistic "economy".

 

[Jason]

A couple of things, ok three. Are the crew using firearms during boarding? I have seen no evidence of it, but I haven't really concentrated on it. ,

Once and only once I took 2 Spanish ships by boarding. After taking the first one it and my ship bore my flag after taking the second one all the ships in my squadr0n bore the Spanish flag.

I haven't figured out how to unlock, Trustworthy, I have a letter of marque an I have sold goods to the governor, advanced defense and land owner. Any hints.

Finally, I am fond of the Saber of Nicholas Sharp, I wonder if anyone other than me would like to see it dressed up a little to look more like the other fancy sabers?

 

[Hylie Pistof]

1. Dunno as I have done no boarding actions.

2. I captured a surrendered ship and it changed flags ok. That is all I have captured. There was a problem with flags last year but I thought that was fixed.

3. I like its distinctive look. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

 

[Levis]

To unlock Trustworhy you need to have more then a letter of marque, sometime if you've done enough for a country they will give you a rank. You need a pretty high rank to get trustworthy.

Here is a new fix.
What I've done is increased the amount of events a bit but you need to have Multiple bad events to change the economy. You can set the threshold amount in the internal settings for TOWN_ECONOMY_INCREASE. I've now set it to having an event be able to be triggered each month. Some events will contribute more to the economystate then others. Say for exampl there is a pirate attack this will put it to -2 but if you find gold then this will put it to +1 if you have a slaverevolt then it will be 0 and now you have a succesfull expedition then it becomes 4. When its 4 the threshold is reached so it will change the economy with +1 and then the export/import products will be changed. You'll see this will take multiple events always so it will take longer in the end. Also when the economy is changed you will get a message in the news to.
Let me know how this works and if these values are okay.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Now this sounds promising!