Really sorry to not be around for further discussion, but real quick:
On firstmate:
- we could make seperate perks for crew casaulties, but under the current system, why should the doctor have much effect in determining how many people get hurt when a cannonball hits the ship? He saves people after they are hurt, keeps the wounded from dying in a seperate mechanic, he doesn't protect them from initially getting hurt. A firstmate could, by keeping proper order running on the ship and men where they are supposed to be. Even if you think the doctor should have an effect, the firstmate has as much claim to the crew damage part of the current perk.
-As for the other defense effects, damage to the hull and sails, there is no world in which a doctor should have an effect. Meanwhile, again for the firstmate it makes sense, he organizes damage control teams, trains teams to handle the battle, etc.
- So the firstmate getting the perk instead of the doctor is clearly right for 2/3 effects, and arguably right for the remaining 1/3.
- turning to ganeplay, Grey Roger describes all the things the firstmate could do before, but in reality, could he actually do anything at all? He gets basic commerce, but you'll still need a quatermaster for advanced. Fast reload,but you'll want a gunner. Grappling, but you'll still want a bosun. So none of those will matter in the end, especially when the ship gets big. He lost shared XP because of potential glitches with a new shared xp system if the player has it and then the officer dies, so it was made player only (Levis and I discussed this, in anticipation of his new system). The firstmate will never contribute leadership except maybe as a crutch at the player very low level.
- so we have the firstmate as an officer who contributes no skill useful to the player most of the time, and only has 3 perk points worth of things to offer. Even if that expands a bit to a few more perks, the firstmate becomes the least useful and most replacable person on the entire ship. Is that what we want? Only roleplayers would use him while the game mechanics tell the player to dump him at the first chance.
- meanwhile, the doctor has a critical role in treating casaulties, and providing multiple useful perks (doubling healing items, giving poison resistance). The doctor is useful and has a secure role without magically deflecting cannonballs from the ship's hull.
- So the tranfer of defense perks to firstmate is both more realistic, and has the gameplay effect of making both the firstmate and doctor useful with something to offer the ship.
On wind:
- I think Grey Roger is referrig to dramatic shifts in the rare eastern winds, which is intentional, in particular, if the wind is blowing to the E, the next shift will likely be large. Generally not 180 degrees (never saw that once in testing and recording some 30 wind shifts, after I reduced the angle at Skyworm's suggestion), but you could see SE winds shifting to NE winds, or E winds shifting back to pointing in some W direction, basically with winds blowing east 90 degrees or a bit more of shift is not too uncommon, though 90% of wind changes will be much smaller.
- however, wind changes shouldn't have dramatic changes except rarely, and only going to or away from the eastern directions, which are reflecting the unstable and fleeting winds blowing east. It isn't possible to have a strong trend of winds blowing west with only having fleeting temporary winds blowing to the east while still at the same time never having a substantial shift of wind, you need occasional strong shifts that dissipate to buck the trend, given the way wind is programmed in the game.
- Basically, the winds blowing east are unstable, which is both by design and nessecity if we are to create this strong western trend.
- It never creates issues for me. Most wind changes are small, and all wind changes are predictable, occuring on the hour. If people find those rare jumps to the east unplayable, then we will end up needing a toggle probably. I could try reducing the max wind change again, but as long as it is high enough to create the possibility of a brief eastern wind at all, that will be in the form of a jump. We could reduce it from 2 to 1.5, but someone would need to check the winds blowong east are still possible and frequent enough, and it will still jump to and from the east, even if a bit smaller.
- Shouldn't be hard to make a toggle though, the code is all in 2 obvious places in weather generation. Not too much of a reason not to make a toggle I think, as aside from people who mind the occasional jump to or from the east, there are probably people who simply don't want the wind trend at all and prefer random.
I'd say let's make a toggle for the wind changes. I can't do it right now, I could do it next month or so when I get back, or if someone wants it in the meanttime, I've left "TY" comments where things are changed, one block of code before the override, and one part where I've defined max angle change in the file.
Sorry to hit and run, but about to go in to work in a few more minutes and then really won't be back for weeks, so I can't participate in further discussion or feedback for a long while. Hopefully the above makes clear my reasons on the firstmate/doctor and wind issues, and you guys can come to whatever decisions seems sensible.
Meanwhile, in order to turn my surgeon into a proper surgeon, I changed him into a first mate.
).
