customizable ships via the shipyards? possible?

[boocha]

would it be possible to mod the shipyard characters to have options to customize the ship you are currently sailing, like take a couple cannons off an add more storage, or perhaps thats too `undo-able` because you cannot change the ship models an would look stupid to have cannons that don't werk, okay so maybe instead you can take away cargo space and add more speed or manuevering or add cargo space but decrease the speed some or maybe you could have cargo space cleared out to make room for more crew quarters then you would have more marines to board with, and maybe more stuff too, i don't know enough bout sailing but would it be possible? an still add enough to the game to make it worthwhile to code? i was thinkin this so you wouldn't alwaze have to switch ships if you wanted more speed or wanted to smuggle more stuff at a time or whatever, an besides customizing is fun

 

[Sirus_Darke]

I think that it may be possible especially if the modders change the way that the ships stats are stored. They were thinking of having a base stat for the ship type and then have a forumla that it goes through to change the stats for each country, so Spanish ships would have more crew and English ships have more spped (for example)

If they can do that then it should be possible to add optional improvements like you have suggested.
I did have a quick look at doing something similar quite a few months ago but as I'm not a `code-monkey` I didn't know what I was doing.


It may be possible to do it with the ships as they stand now by changing the stats of the PC's ship on the fly. But I'm not sure how to do this ATM.

 

[Kieron]

it would be completely possible (except the thing about the cannons - we can't change those). but to have a brand new custom ship built would cost <i>much</i> more than buying one of the ones the shipyard has 'in stock' <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/happy.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="^_^" border="0" alt="happy.gif" />

 

[boocha]

well, its not so much buying the ship already customized as opposed to customizing the ship you already have, like you somehow acquired a barque and for whatever reason, you liked sailing her but decieded you wanted more boarding partys and speed then cargo space, so you have the shipyard take out some cargo space an make crew quarters and maybe the ship ends up with jjust enough cargo space to hold food and a few spare planks and sail, because you alwayze loose crew getting close enough to the enemy to board and you know yer gonna take hits to yer hull and rigging getting that close too so now instead of trading in that barque(that you like for some reason) and spending some more cash to get a schooner, or a some other ship with more crew capacity, then you can stay in yer barque and pay hopefully not as much to have the werk done on yer ship(the barque), it'd be cool too, if there was an option, only on the QC shipyard or maybe put a shipyard in the smugglers town(i put one in, he stands in the smugglers town store, next to the counter and has the same dialogue as the QC shipyard guy) anywaze those shipyards should be able to fit contraband smugglingstash storage places in yer ship and that might increase yer luck or somthing so you don't get caught so easeily doing smuggling runs -what do you guuys thinkg? kinda like han solo's secret stash storage bins in the floor the millenium falcon - i know the ships interior wouldn't seem to effect the officers finding you onshore(finding you n the smugglers making the deal at the shore) but i thought it would be a nice option, if you don't normally sail around with alot of luck then it would be real helpful in smuggling

 

[NathanKell]

Not just would, is. <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />
{See the Rethinking Ships thread}
PRS3 is done and in the CVS; all we need is a front end. (hint, hint).

The way it works: There is an attribute tree added to the character's ship tree, char.ship.stats.
The attributes there override those in the ship define on a 1:1 basis; i.e. we use char.ship.stats.Capacity instead of refship.capacity (if the former exists).
Currently the way the char.ship.stats tree is generated is via SetRandomStatsToShip(aref char.ship, int shipidx, int nationtocheck) and both random and `nation-based` multipliers are used.

So all we need is a `front-end`, some interface to allow changing the char.ship.stats.propertyX and charging the player for it (and determining the rules; how much must you "pay" in one area to gain in another?).

For a simple start, I suggest a maximum of 5 percentage points you can spend. If you want to spend any more, you have to subtract percentage points from other multipliers. Maybe 0 free, and you _always_ must subtract to add elsewhere? c.f. British ships get 1.05x speed and turn, 1.05x min crew, 0.95x max crew, and 0.9x capacity.
We can test what the modifiers are by dividing char.ship.stats.X by refship.X (making sure to note that mincrew should be 2.0 - modifier, not modifier, to show how bigger is worse).

 

[boocha]

sorry, what is prs3? and cvs? i have no clue what you are talking about

 

[NathanKell]

PRS3 - PreReq for Ships 3.
It's discussed at length in the Rethinking the Ships System (or something like that) thread in this forum, and in "the way it works" in the above post.

CVS is, um, concurrent versioning system? <a href="https://www.cvshome.org/" target="_blank">https://www.cvshome.org/</a>
It's a way to have a centralized database for a code project that allows multiple people to add stuff, keep it synchronized, and roll back to previous versions.
DCHaley has kindly set up one for us; check the CVS server thread.

 

[CatalinaThePirate]

<!--`QuoteBegin-NathanKell`+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(NathanKell)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->PRS3 is done and in the CVS; all we need is a front end. (hint, hint).[/quote]Nathan, now that I am home - is this something I could do? I feel less than helpful here, and would love to contribute if I can.

 

[NathanKell]

First, you certainly shouldn't be feeling less than helpful; you've been keeping the deadline, working on your own mods, giving help and encouragement all over the forums.
So banish that thought.

Regarding this: I'm not sure regarding the coding, as it'd probably need an interface and AFAIK Kieron's the only person here who really groks interfaces.
But regarding the _mechanics_, but yes! We have to hash out how much you can tweak a stat, and how much it costs both in gold and in minuses to other stats...

 

[CatalinaThePirate]

Hummm, I don't really know what to say to that, Nathan. I was thinking interface meant a graphics change. <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/icon_mrgreen1.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="icon_mrgreen1.gif" />

I'm no mathematics wiz, but shouldn't price be based upon the LEVEL of ship? A price to change a stat on a lugger would be different from changing a stat on a corvette...

So here's a thought - if we're going to reclassify the ships, we should do that, and make this tweakable stats stuff based upon level... Otherwise we're going to be heavy at one end or the other and it won't equalize.

There should be some kind of LIMIT to what we can change, too. Heh... I once went to a shipyard with a large ship full of cargo and traded it in for a smaller ship. The smaller ship was OVERstocked with cargo, which amazed me. I thought the cargo would just fill in and I'd lose the rest of the cargo to the shipyard - instead, it overflowed!

Anyhoo, I hope this helps. I'm not much for percentages and numbers. <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/oops3.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="ops2" border="0" alt="oops3.gif" /> I'm better with graphics. <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/onya.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="onya.gif" />

 

[NathanKell]

Well, yeah. But in order for it to be clickable, you need the code backend.
Your graphics skills are `A-1`, to be sure. <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />
You might want to talk with Kieron about it (the GUI, I mean).

Regarding limits: Yeah, I agree. Should be some. And I incline towards percentage limits rather than `real-stat` limits, i.e. the mod (to the ship that this mod will do. Heh) will be +10%, not +1kt.