It was never my intention that Isla Mona be permanently skipped. I put the code in as a test to make sure it could be done, and to see what the area was like without the island. It's easy enough to add conditions to make it appear, but I'll need to know what those are. For example, there's no problem with having it on the open sea map, and I'll code that in before anyone else sees the code. It's only on the normal map that it's a problem.
And it's a major problem. Try sailing east from Santo Domingo on the normal map, and don't use time compression after you pass the south point of Hispaniola. I can help that problem a bit, but I can't make it right. You end up really really close to the Isla Mona shore. It's a good thing the game stops your ship when you do an island transition. It's worse if you're going any kind of speed, because you'll travel farther before the actual transition. As long as you're there, turn north and try to sail around Isla Mona to San Juan. Oh, and don't turn off directsail to do that, because a new player won't know about doing that.
There are far too many island transitions where you end up too close to the new island. It's even worse if you've got an encounter ship around that delays transition. Even if you turn directsail off, when you turn it back on again you could be right against an island.
All these problems can be solved by moving the islands farther apart, which isn't feasible, or making the islands smaller, which is how the open sea map does it and why it works so well.
I'm not sure what you'd do if you did go to Isla Mona to visit friends there unless they're on a ship. The island doesn't have any sail-to options, and while there's a reload point on the island, called Isla Mona Shore, I think, I've sailed around the island without finding any mooring spots. Granted, I might have missed it if it's there.
I don't like changing the WDM_MAP_TO_SEA_SCALE value, because it causes some inconsistencies, but it doesn't seem to affect the game and if you aren't running debug code you wouldn't even know it. In fact, changing that scale doesn't affect game play to any noticeable degree except that the island transitions are much smoother and the main difference would be a new map with slightly smaller islands. The map won't be near as bad as the open sea map, which I thought was broken the first time I saw it. Ideally, the map will end up looking much like maps of the real region.
I've already scaled Cuba to see what was involved. I can do the entire map, but without the original graphics (for example, the base map without any islands and the texture used to create the borders around the islands) it won't look as good as it could.
The player should be able to sail between two islands in a reasonable amount of time without being forced to use time compression. Island transitions should be smooth, and the islands should appear to be far enough apart when you do the transition that you're not wondering where the new island came from or why you're right on top of it. There should be enough distance between islands to allow encounters to spawn, but not so much that the player has to use time compression just to get through the experience. While I don't mind a two hour real time sail, I don't think many other people would enjoy it.
All that and I've got a new-in-the-box copy of COAS waiting to be installed. I doubt it will be as good as New Horizons even with mods.
Hook
And it's a major problem. Try sailing east from Santo Domingo on the normal map, and don't use time compression after you pass the south point of Hispaniola. I can help that problem a bit, but I can't make it right. You end up really really close to the Isla Mona shore. It's a good thing the game stops your ship when you do an island transition. It's worse if you're going any kind of speed, because you'll travel farther before the actual transition. As long as you're there, turn north and try to sail around Isla Mona to San Juan. Oh, and don't turn off directsail to do that, because a new player won't know about doing that.
There are far too many island transitions where you end up too close to the new island. It's even worse if you've got an encounter ship around that delays transition. Even if you turn directsail off, when you turn it back on again you could be right against an island.
All these problems can be solved by moving the islands farther apart, which isn't feasible, or making the islands smaller, which is how the open sea map does it and why it works so well.
I'm not sure what you'd do if you did go to Isla Mona to visit friends there unless they're on a ship. The island doesn't have any sail-to options, and while there's a reload point on the island, called Isla Mona Shore, I think, I've sailed around the island without finding any mooring spots. Granted, I might have missed it if it's there.
I don't like changing the WDM_MAP_TO_SEA_SCALE value, because it causes some inconsistencies, but it doesn't seem to affect the game and if you aren't running debug code you wouldn't even know it. In fact, changing that scale doesn't affect game play to any noticeable degree except that the island transitions are much smoother and the main difference would be a new map with slightly smaller islands. The map won't be near as bad as the open sea map, which I thought was broken the first time I saw it. Ideally, the map will end up looking much like maps of the real region.
I've already scaled Cuba to see what was involved. I can do the entire map, but without the original graphics (for example, the base map without any islands and the texture used to create the borders around the islands) it won't look as good as it could.
The player should be able to sail between two islands in a reasonable amount of time without being forced to use time compression. Island transitions should be smooth, and the islands should appear to be far enough apart when you do the transition that you're not wondering where the new island came from or why you're right on top of it. There should be enough distance between islands to allow encounters to spawn, but not so much that the player has to use time compression just to get through the experience. While I don't mind a two hour real time sail, I don't think many other people would enjoy it.
All that and I've got a new-in-the-box copy of COAS waiting to be installed. I doubt it will be as good as New Horizons even with mods.
Hook
