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Ideas for the future!

Armada

Armada

Sea Dog
Staff member
Administrator
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3D Artist
Storm Modder
Hello all, I've decided to start a thread which can keep tabs of our best community ideas for the Build Mod's future development and refinement. :dance
I've seen how easy it is to lose ideas in the forum once no-one replies for a while, so this will be stickied and act as a convenient spot to keep your ideas safe.
Each idea listed will also be linked to it's relevant topic, where it can be elaborated on and discussed, so as to keep this thread less cluttered.

If you want your idea posted here, please post a request and we'll collectively decide if it's worth it.
And if you're idea needs a long explanation, please post more about it in a separate thread if need be.
Right, let's start discussing some ideas to add to the list! (Don't forget, there are many, many ideas all over this forum; feel free to mention anything you've seen ;) )

To start the list, here's a few recent ideas, but soon it would be nice to see many more on the list!


NOTE: All links up-to-date as of 30/06/13
 
Thanks a lot for this, mate. I pinned this thread to prevent it getting lost.
If you run into any other good ideas, please add them too if you can. :bow
 
I just remembered another good idea about the broken bridge on Falaise de Fleur (aka Martinique), and added it to the list.
Uh, come on guys, let's really get this list going! It's not my list of ideas, it's ours. :drunk
 
Yeah, rebuilding that bridge and exploring that island would be a big community project. It has two beaches, so it could get pretty detailed. :woot

What I would like to see is upgrading the engine to DX9. That would mean no more ENB and its fps hit. Plus DX9 is more evolved and efficient.

Another suggestion: Currently only the Luggers and the Indiaman have their spankers pointing in the right direction. Since the Indiaman is a modified Frigate would it be possible to find the difference and make all of the frigates correct?
 
miklkit said:
What I would like to see is upgrading the engine to DX9. That would mean no more ENB and its fps hit. Plus DX9 is more evolved and efficient.
Click to expand...
Can't do that for PotC because we don't have and probably never will get the source code. Maybe for CoAS though...

miklkit said:
Another suggestion: Currently only the Luggers and the Indiaman have their spankers pointing in the right direction. Since the Indiaman is a modified Frigate would it be possible to find the difference and make all of the frigates correct?
Click to expand...
If I recall, you can fix the direction by setting *something* in the TOOL to -1. However, that turns the model file inside out.
I once tried to fix that, but don't remember if I succeeded.
I vaguely remember this being one of the rare instances where introducing the reverse lighting bug actually helped. :wacko
 
miklkit said:
Currently only the Luggers and the Indiaman have their spankers pointing in the right direction.
Click to expand...
Huh? Please explain; I don't get it. :blink:

@Pieter, has part of your post gone missing, or is it just me?
It just strikes me as weird that you left a gap beneath your first quote.
 
The best way to explain it is with some screenies, but I just sold my Indiaman last night. :facepalm Basically, on most ships the spanker is facing in the opposite direction from the other sails. I'm wondering if one of the shipwrights knows of a way to fix this.

I found a screenie. http://forum.piratesahoy.net/topic/16708-housecleaning/

Look at the spanker on the old Surprise and then note the wind direction. The spanker is pointing directly into the wind instead of being sideways to it. It's not much use like that!

A new screenie of the Indiaman. Again, note the wind direction. The Luggers are like that also and look really nice. It's a shame they are so small.
 
miklkit said:
The best way to explain it is with some screenies, but I just sold my Indiaman last night. :facepalm
Click to expand...
There's no harm in using the console to temporarily get it back... ;)
 
Good call Experienced Captain. Indeed something did go missing, but that was because I forgot to write it.
Rectified now; check my previous post. :wacko:
 
miklkit said:
Look at the spanker on the old Surprise and then note the wind direction. The spanker is pointing directly into the wind instead of being sideways to it. It's not much use like that!
Click to expand...
OH... I get it now! Yes, I've seen the problem on many ships. Never really thought about it, but it has always looked wrong somehow.
Quite how we'd go about fixing that... I'm not sure. :shrug
I'll have a little look at some spankers and locators to see if I can link anything.

EDIT: Well it looks like the Luggers have the spankers modelled at an angle, which would be a pain to do for all ships with spankers.
However, the indiaman mast4 locator for the spanker has XX coordinate -1, as opposed to the usual 1. Could that be it... I'll do some tests to find out. :dance

RESULTS: I tested Corvette1 before and after changing that coordinate to -1. Once changed, it DID affect the spanker, and made it point in the right direction!
BUT it introduced our old friend the Reverse Lighting Bug! ARRGH! :modding
When it was changed back to 1, the RLB was gone again, but the spanker returned to pointing in the wrong direction.
While I was at it, I tested the indiaman, but the spanker doesn't have reverse lighting. However, the hull and mast1 do.

EDIT: Huh?! It seems that changing that locator actually turns the spanker inside-out, giving it reverse lighting!
I looked at the indiaman's spanker in GM Viewer, and it's inside-out; that's why it appears fine in-game.
So to make this work, a spanker needs to be modelled inside-out. :facepalm
 
That's exactly the problem and what we found before.
If I recall, I did some work on the SloopofWar_50 to try and fix the inside-out problem by exporting to VRML and then re-importing.
That active introduces the reverse lighting bug so when it's being turned inside-out, it looks more normal.
I don't remember what else I did, but I think I got it to show up normally but without smoothing. :facepalm
 
In that case, do you think you could experiment again, to find a good way around this bug?
It really does make the ships look better than before, when the spanker reacts as it should. :yes
 
Dumb question. :j2

Pgargon fixes the RLB by exporting through Maya. Would that work in this case also? :nerbz
 
I don't know. :shrug
In this case, though, we want to introduce reverse lighting by turning the model inside-out, to counter the effects of this locator business.
But I'm sure there's a way of 'un-fixing' the RLB somehow.
 
Causing RLB is easy: export to VRML with the TOOL, then re-convert to GM with the TOOL.

I don't remember if my earlier experiments involved me messing around with 3D Studio MAX.
I'm thinking they might've done and I have no access to that program at the moment nor any time to try.
 
Well if we need to turn the models inside-out, it's no wonder we need a 3D modelling program to do so. :facepalm
I guess we could ask a modeller to have a go some time. I'm sure pgargon would know a way to do this, given his recent work.
Could it be done with Maya, do you know? I might download the one on this site eventually, but right now my priority is the Xmas Ship Pack... ;)
 
Even if Pgargon knows how to do this, would he want to? It looks like it takes him weeks to do a ship, and there are dozens that need doing. :shock

I can't even get Maya to work on this puter, so I can't even learn how to use it. :modding It appears to be an XP program.

Merry Christmas! :cheers
 
miklkit said:
Even if Pgargon knows how to do this, would he want to? It looks like it takes him weeks to do a ship, and there are dozens that need doing. :shock
Click to expand...
Good point, but this is only one single part of a ship. But in large numbers that would take a while. :facepalm

miklkit said:
I can't even get Maya to work on this puter, so I can't even learn how to use it. :modding It appears to be an XP program.
Click to expand...
That wouldn't surprise me, since Akella used it in 2003. But I thought Windows 7 was quite good for XP compatibility... :wp

Another good point: merry Christmas to all! :drunk
 
Just another random idea. Would it be possible for pirate ships to actually take a ship that surrenders to them and make it a pirate ship also? This goes for nations as well. Late in a large battle there are surrendered ships all over the place and the victorious ships just sail around aimlessly.
 
That would certainly make things more realistic, since surrendered ships should really be captured by the ship they surrendered to.
So we'd need to code AI ships to 'capture' surrendered ones (maybe come alongside it for a few minutes, to simulate boarding, and then either sink the ship or take it under a new flag).
Sometimes the random ideas are the best ones, you know! :cheers
 
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