A couple of minor glitches I've seen in Build 14, possibly bugs but not worth bothering about.
For a while, if I was in 3rd person sailing, if I pressed a left or right arrow key then the view shifted to another ship. I've no idea why this started happening. It kept happening if I reloaded a saved game. It kept happening after the game started crashing and I copied everything back from backup directories. If I wanted to use a command and didn't want the view to shift then I had to be in 1st person view. And then, equally without explanation, it stopped happening and I could press the arrow keys as much as I liked, the view remained stuck on my ship as it should.
I was attacking a Spanish convoy. I boarded the lead merchant ship. Then for some reason all the Spanish ships turned grey on the compass, i.e. neutral instead of hostile, and the battle was effectively over, which suited me as all I'd wanted to do was steal one merchant and run away. The Spanish hadn't surrendered, they'd just decided they didn't want to fight any more. The same thing happened when I joined in a battle between French and Portuguese groups, and this time I noticed that it happened when the chime for the half hour sounded. The remaining French ships all went neutral. This time I didn't let them get away with it, I had a frigate in my sights and in fact had hoped to board it. With the ship showing as neutral, boarding wasn't an option - sailing next to it didn't produce a "Board" icon, and auto-board didn't give that ship as an option. So I sank it instead. Neither it nor any other French ship resumed hostilities, so I left the rest of them alone. (This battle was a bit more interesting because as well as the French and Portuguese forces advertised on the map, there was also a second French group engaging some pirates. When the French stopped fighting, the pirates didn't, so the battle wasn't over until I'd finished them off.)
Auto-board no longer seems to be restricted to one use. If I try to auto-board and fail, I can try again. Sometimes even if I've successfully auto-boarded one ship it's still available to use again.
At Guadeloupe I visited the fort, found a diplomat, and persuaded him to switch sides. Guadeloupe is now British. The troops inside the fort are redcoats but nobody told the two guarding the gates outside, they're still French. So is the governor - well, partly. He's the same man I saw before I visited the fort and still offers me the choice to crave forgiveness from France, but he also offered me a ship-hunting job which he did not do before. The target was a Spanish ship. I'll need to go back and see if he'll give me the job of sinking something French.
So, having caused all sorts of mischief, it was time to return to Jamaica, where multiple promotions awaited. I went from Lieutenant to Commodore in one visit. And when I'd finished being promoted, I found there was a new face in my list of officers. He had a male name but a female face - I can't remember the name but I guessed it was a bug and he shouldn't be there, so I reloaded an earlier saved game, went to Jamaica, got promoted and found another similar stowaway with a different name but the same face. The picture in the character list was the same as goes with the costume "Hailing from Africa she seeks freedom in the New World". I don't have that costume. Normally that's not a problem as a newly hired officer brings his costume with him. This one didn't, so when I assigned him to one of my four active slots and moved to another location, he didn't show up. I gave him one of the costumes I do have, moved again, and now he did show up. And then I fired him, partly because I don't like stowaways and partly because if he'd shown up as a bug then he may cause trouble later, so I hoped getting rid of him would avert such trouble.
For a while, if I was in 3rd person sailing, if I pressed a left or right arrow key then the view shifted to another ship. I've no idea why this started happening. It kept happening if I reloaded a saved game. It kept happening after the game started crashing and I copied everything back from backup directories. If I wanted to use a command and didn't want the view to shift then I had to be in 1st person view. And then, equally without explanation, it stopped happening and I could press the arrow keys as much as I liked, the view remained stuck on my ship as it should.
I was attacking a Spanish convoy. I boarded the lead merchant ship. Then for some reason all the Spanish ships turned grey on the compass, i.e. neutral instead of hostile, and the battle was effectively over, which suited me as all I'd wanted to do was steal one merchant and run away. The Spanish hadn't surrendered, they'd just decided they didn't want to fight any more. The same thing happened when I joined in a battle between French and Portuguese groups, and this time I noticed that it happened when the chime for the half hour sounded. The remaining French ships all went neutral. This time I didn't let them get away with it, I had a frigate in my sights and in fact had hoped to board it. With the ship showing as neutral, boarding wasn't an option - sailing next to it didn't produce a "Board" icon, and auto-board didn't give that ship as an option. So I sank it instead. Neither it nor any other French ship resumed hostilities, so I left the rest of them alone. (This battle was a bit more interesting because as well as the French and Portuguese forces advertised on the map, there was also a second French group engaging some pirates. When the French stopped fighting, the pirates didn't, so the battle wasn't over until I'd finished them off.)
Auto-board no longer seems to be restricted to one use. If I try to auto-board and fail, I can try again. Sometimes even if I've successfully auto-boarded one ship it's still available to use again.
At Guadeloupe I visited the fort, found a diplomat, and persuaded him to switch sides. Guadeloupe is now British. The troops inside the fort are redcoats but nobody told the two guarding the gates outside, they're still French. So is the governor - well, partly. He's the same man I saw before I visited the fort and still offers me the choice to crave forgiveness from France, but he also offered me a ship-hunting job which he did not do before. The target was a Spanish ship. I'll need to go back and see if he'll give me the job of sinking something French.
So, having caused all sorts of mischief, it was time to return to Jamaica, where multiple promotions awaited. I went from Lieutenant to Commodore in one visit. And when I'd finished being promoted, I found there was a new face in my list of officers. He had a male name but a female face - I can't remember the name but I guessed it was a bug and he shouldn't be there, so I reloaded an earlier saved game, went to Jamaica, got promoted and found another similar stowaway with a different name but the same face. The picture in the character list was the same as goes with the costume "Hailing from Africa she seeks freedom in the New World". I don't have that costume. Normally that's not a problem as a newly hired officer brings his costume with him. This one didn't, so when I assigned him to one of my four active slots and moved to another location, he didn't show up. I gave him one of the costumes I do have, moved again, and now he did show up. And then I fired him, partly because I don't like stowaways and partly because if he'd shown up as a bug then he may cause trouble later, so I hoped getting rid of him would avert such trouble.
In any case, I for one found it mildly amusing rather than annoying - in fact, that applies to all the silliness reported above. There are far more serious bugs to be fixed...
