Mod Release Open Sea Mod and Realism Settings

[stljeffbb]

From what I recall, the wind direction is basically random. Difficulty does not influence it either.

It'd probably be best if we DO end up including this in the modpack, otherwise you'd have to keep it up-to-date as new modpack versions are released.
That's just a royal pain. Iron Man Mode sounds good to me.

Hello Pieter Boelen!

OK, sounds good to me to include it in the modpack (if enough feel it should be of course)...makes sense...

Very well....I will work to learn how the Iron Man mode links the three things together (no Worldmap sailing, etc...) and link the Open Sea mod to it....

Speaking to reducing the Worldmap scale....indeed, there are coordinates in worldmap_init, but it seems those may or may not reduce the visual scale....in addition, each location (on the islands) has coordinates that would have to be "fixed" as well. I agree with Pieter's assessment that it will likely be a "royal pain" to work on it, but I will still check it out....

Finally, I'm wondering about adding two things to Open Sea (and ultimately Directsail)...when ships are sighted, I would like to add ships that are opposed to one another to create battles similar to the Worldmap situation.....also, I would like to add storms...haven't come across any yet....probably have to learn how to write a bit of code...

Regards,

Jeff

 

[stljeffbb]

In looking at how the "Iron Man Mode" is laid out in the files, and in an attempt to link the Open Sea mod to said Iron Man Mode, my gut reaction is to somehow create code that will link to separate altered files (the list I provided in the Open Sea readme) by selecting "Iron Man Mode" in the option screen and keeping "vanilla" files in a separate location for regular, non-Iron Man Build 14 use...unfortunately, I do not at the moment know how to do this....I should be able to do this eventually (as I taught myself some VB3 in the past and managed to write some klunky but working code) and I will endeavor to do so...especially since this is still in testing mode, I do not see it as a big deal, but I just wanted to put it out there....



Jeff

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Keep after it. I'm too impatient to spend ALL of my time in directsail mode. There are two things that toss me out of that mode. When the headwinds start and when there isn't enough wind to keep my speed above 2 knots.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Just some if-then-else statements with the IRON_MAN_MODE should work fine.

Storms DO happen in DirectSail mode, but indeed fleet-vs-fleet encounters don't; I'd definitely like to see those added, since you DO get those on the worldmap.

 

[stljeffbb]

Just some if-then-else statements with the IRON_MAN_MODE should work fine.

Storms DO happen in DirectSail mode, but indeed fleet-vs-fleet encounters don't; I'd definitely like to see those added, since you DO get those on the worldmap.

@ Pieter Boelen.....very well to the Iron Man Mode, and I wonder if my changed weather has somehow prevented storms from happening...I was not as keen on the abrupt changes, so I toned it down a bit (as mentioned previously)

....OK, just did a run from Santiago (Jamaica) to Santiago De Cuba....took me five days, three hours, thirteen minutes in game time. I got a bit lost and ended up on the eastern shore of Cuba when it was sighted...also ran into quite a bit of headwinds just east of the port (in that little strait with the shark-tooth-like rock)....tacked for a while, then the winds went my way just enough to make it....an interesting battle happened between some ships that "sailed ho" on me while off the coast....two big Dutch ships were the teleporters...I was bumbling my way in the dark hours when suddenly a big ship ran right....through me! It seems that it was a Spanish costa garda heading out to do battle against the Dutch! I tagged along to pick up scraps, and the two Spanish ships were sunk, but the only flotsam were sailors and I was already full....that darn garda messed up my hull!

Anyways....one change I'm playing with is extending even further the ship distance when "sail ho" is called to 2500 yards....about one and a half miles, and I feel it is reasonable....although I worry if the AI can handle it, and what the threshold is concerning a chase...

....which then leads me to wonder if we couldn't somehow create different distances for sail ho based on daylight/lack thereof and/or weather conditions...

BTW, tonight's episode took me just a bit under two hours of real time....



Jeff

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Should be possible to make weather/darkness-dependent sail ho distances.

BTW: I saw a couple of days ago a report of an encounter lost because of "sail ho".
That is why the [0] button toggles DirectSail on/off. You can turn it off while you complete your battle and then turn it back on when you're done.
Don't remember who reported that, but I thought I'd throw it out there.

 

[stljeffbb]

Should be possible to make weather/darkness-dependent sail ho distances.

BTW: I saw a couple of days ago a report of an encounter lost because of "sail ho".
That is why the [0] button toggles DirectSail on/off. You can turn it off while you complete your battle and then turn it back on when you're done.
Don't remember who reported that, but I thought I'd throw it out there.

Thanks Pieter!

OK....I've experienced a couple of maddening CTDs while attempting to sail to Havana from Jamaica....also, acouple of little things....I plan on modding the "wind blow" sound so that it does not end so abruptly....also, a couple of graphic glitches...one not so bad; it is like a shimmering effect underneath the water, especially in the trail of the ship (as it is moving), but sometimes appears under the water near the ship in different spots....almost like lightning....the second one is more distracting....it seems to be some kind of vector glitch, where a point on the screen will throw out solid gray angular "visual junk" in daytime and black at night...I am using the ENB beta, so I wonder if that has anyting to do with it....

I guess I need to learn to save more often while out on the open sea.....one hour...WASTED....lol

Jeff

 

[stljeffbb]

.....and DONE!

Attached to this post is a new wind_sea4.wav which can be found in \Bethesda Softworks\Pirates of the Caribbean\RESOURCE\Sounds\NATURE...simply paste this into said folder.....

BUT BE SURE TO BACK UP THE ORIGINAL FILE, ha ha!

This is the file that plays whenever the wind changes direction (on the hour if so set up that way, which yours likely is)....I downloaded a free sound manipulation program and did it in about five minutes! All I did was copied the last second of the sound, pasted it onto the end of the file, and added a fade out (which was conveniently one of the pre made options in the program)



Enjoy....my hunch is it will be included in a mod pack near you one day soon, lol

Jeff

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Downloaded, so will be included in the next release. Cheers, mate!

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Should be possible to make weather/darkness-dependent sail ho distances.

BTW: I saw a couple of days ago a report of an encounter lost because of "sail ho".
That is why the [0] button toggles DirectSail on/off. You can turn it off while you complete your battle and then turn it back on when you're done.
Don't remember who reported that, but I thought I'd throw it out there.

Thanks Pieter!

OK....I've experienced a couple of maddening CTDs while attempting to sail to Havana from Jamaica....also, acouple of little things....I plan on modding the "wind blow" sound so that it does not end so abruptly....also, a couple of graphic glitches...one not so bad; it is like a shimmering effect underneath the water, especially in the trail of the ship (as it is moving), but sometimes appears under the water near the ship in different spots....almost like lightning....the second one is more distracting....it seems to be some kind of vector glitch, where a point on the screen will throw out solid gray angular "visual junk" in daytime and black at night...I am using the ENB beta, so I wonder if that has anyting to do with it....

I guess I need to learn to save more often while out on the open sea.....one hour...WASTED....lol

Jeff

A shimmering effect UNDER the water? There is no "under" the water so that sounds like a graphics glitch. There are two wake effects. One looks like foam and the other is a bunch of straight lines.

It sounds like you have met the Graphical Anomaly, or GA. It is related to the flag mod and occurs when a ship loses a mast. That ship could be on the other side of the island and you will get that mess. For me once it starts it won't stop until the next map change.

 

[stljeffbb]

@ Pieter Boelen....thanks once again!

@ Hylie Pistoff....hmm, thanks for the info....I notice this "shimmering" typically when I'm far out at sea and I've just come out of 10x or 30x speed time....

All righty...I sailed from Jamaica to Havana in a little under four days, however, I started out with what appeared to be my first storm in Directsail....it was right at the start of my journey while in the Jamaican main port...the waves were storm huge, however I did not have any lightning to speak of....I do think it was a storm because I took some hull and sail damage until the storm let up...because I have "smoothed" out the weather, I had great wind, big waves, and good sailing most of the way to Cuba...

What I'm thinking of doing for the MAX_WBALLAST and affiliated commands is adding a random number component since it seems (likely) the modders have added this to the possibilities for most situations....something like a sequence of three (or more)different random number checks like say (random 1:15)+(random 1:15)+(random 1:20) that will never add up to more than fifty....I'm trying to emulate what seems to me to be the fact that the weather typically changes very gradually, but every now and then wide swings happen...

I have done a few more small things to the mod so far....

1) I have disabled the "show coordinates" key (the number eight), because that is an easy cheat that can quite defeat the purpose of "Iron Man" mode!

2) This one might be controversial....I love 'em too, but I have disabled mines (both flotsam and deployable) because, viably speaking, they did not appear until after 1777...here is the Wikipedia article on the subject...I suppose it would not be too hard to code in the year 1777 to start mines, but even that is currently beyond my capabilities (but I am a fast learner!)

3) I have changed the DIRECTENCOUNTERDISTANCE a tad lower to 2250 yards from 2500 (for gameplay reasons...I want to find that balance where the enemy is j-j-j-just close enough to make it interesting) and the RANGE_TO_ENEMY to 4000 yards...I believe this command tells the AI the maximum distance to notice an enemy ship and (probably) pursue...

....so, my next step is to sail from Havana to Grenada....this will be a long trip, but I want to see if I can make it in less than thirty days....

Oh yes, one more thing...it does appear that Saturday the day is broken concerning the changing of days in the game....I am currently getting two Sundays in a row...I hope my changes have not caused this, and I will look into it....also, the "we've been at sea for 'x' days" counter is messed up when at sea (although food and rum are subtracted at the proper rate), however, my experience is that when you go into port and traipse around town, the counter is reset to the proper amount of days....not sure what is going on here!

Regards,

Jeff

 

[Pieter Boelen]

2. We could make mines show up only in the later time periods.

3. Don't increase the "encounter lock ranges" too much. We did that before and then found on some thin islands that you couldn't go to worldmap/port/shore because there was enemies on the other side of the island.

 

[stljeffbb]

2. We could make mines show up only in the later time periods.

3. Don't increase the "encounter lock ranges" too much. We did that before and then found on some thin islands that you couldn't go to worldmap/port/shore because there was enemies on the other side of the island.

I've read some of the threads concerning the genesis of mines, and how much they were enjoyed...ha ha, I like them very much too! It is fun blowing up three pirates ships and being able to "turn the tables"...however, it is also rather "unrealistic"....I had looked into making it so ships were only damaged as opposed to outright sunk, however, I noticed in the code that it was quite clean (I think it is a simple SHIP_DETONATE command) and decided not to mess with it....so I suppose it matters how realistic we want to make things, and if it is realism we are striving for, then mines should not be around for a while

OK, I will not mess with the encounter ranges "much more"...I think I actually ran into a situation you describe as I received a "sail ho" in front of Cuba but I could not find the ship....especially if I turn down the yards to 2250, I should consider turning down the RANGE_TO_ENEMY to 3500 (it was only at 3000 to begin with)...I do feel pretty good about where things are right now with the 2250 distance....even at this range, the ships look small and a bit hazy even in good weather conditions, as opposed to pretty much "right on top of you" at the stock 1000 yards...that is another area to ponder...how often did pirates catch their prey? One out of 100? More? Less? Variable?

One more thought....we might not need to adjust "sail ho" based on weather/darkness after all....I pretend that my lookout has an eagle eye and can see things I cannot, even in the dark..so when my lookout sights a ship at night, I still have a very hard time finding it even in the glass....this could be an advantage to the "enemy" as they close ranks, but I do know there is a ship somewhere out there...not only that, but if I know they are on the starboard bow lets say, and the gauge is against them, I generally know they will not be able to get me (especially in "realistic" settings), even if they execute a form of AI tacking to try to catch up...etc...

Thanks Pieter!



Jeff

 

[stljeffbb]

OK, I'm nearing the end of my journey from Havana to Grenada....been out to sea for over twelve days, but I have received messages stating I'm approaching Grenada (Camahogne in my time period) and Barbados...I feel good about the prospects of finding Grenada before thirty days is up, however, as of right now I might be a bit lost ( ) but I'm heading west and the way I figure it, I will either get a message saying Grenada is close, Bonaire (Palo Brasil) is close, or I will hit Panama and the land will prevent me from sailing further...oops or not, lol

I've experienced a fair amount of CTDs in certain parts of my journey.....save often! Still getting gfx glitches....will post when photobucket cooperates!

To bed!

Jeff

 

[morgan terror]

Are you aware that the weather in the game changes by the season? I'd think it could have some relevance to the code you're modifying, so it would be good for you to know this at least.

 

[stljeffbb]

I made it to Grenada! Took....lets see....nineteen days, nine hours, forty-eight minutes. It would have been less had I not been blown off course and got confused about my position in between Barbados and Grenada....my wife was asking, how long in real life? I could not use searates.com because it would not give me a calculation so using this handy dandy calculator at http://www.sailingusa.info/speed_time_distance.htm I'm told it would take about eight days at seven knots....so I'm thinking about twenty days with tacking and getting lost is appropiate...

Ha ha, I changed the enemy appear distance to 2250 yards, and sure enough, a couple of xebecs caught me! Oops....had to reload! Also, as mentioned, had some gfx anomolies...it got worse as time went on, however a "sail ho" seemed to clear it up for a while....here is a picture (finally):

I also will need to further adjust the amount of flotsam....still too easy on a long voyage to rack up goodies....

I know of the FCoHS mod (but it has been disabled due to CTDs)...if we can get it to work, I think it would be great to get a positioning from a friendly ship (something like: Barbados a moderate distance to the SSE, Grenada a short distance to the NW, Curacao a long distance to the N) of the nearest islands to give a bit of a hint...I do not know what would happen if one keeps on sailing past the map!

This episode took me somewhere around three and one half hours of real time to complete....I do not entirely know because I saved often and broke it into chunks...

Lastly, I've taken the Grenada --> Havana mission from the storekeep in Grenada....lets see if I can make it back in thirty days!

I plan on releasing v 0.2 sometime this weekend for everyone else to play with....if you have been following this thread, you pretty much know what I have changed...

Regards,

Jeff

 

[Pieter Boelen]

SHIPS\SIB_STUFF COPY.TGA.tx
SHIPS\50DB.TGA.tx
SHIPS\50DI.TGA.tx
SHIPS\BOUSOLLE.TGA.tx
SHIPS\BORTOUTFRIGAT45.TGA.tx
SHIPS\BLACK.TGA.tx
SHIPS\RSD_1.TGA.tx
SHIPS\RNDC.TGA.tx

We need to know what ship models refer to these files so we can fix them properly. Most of them are deliberately removed and should no longer be used.

 

[stljeffbb]

Are you aware that the weather in the game changes by the season? I'd think it could have some relevance to the code you're modifying, so it would be good for you to know this at least.

Hello Morgan Terror....ack! I did not know this....I was wondering about the sun angles actually....yes, I do plan on modifying further the weather aspects....my hunch is that when the wind gets very fast, it triggers storms happening...

Thanks much for the info!

Jeff

 

[stljeffbb]

Oh yeah, one more thing...I've realized that if a person wants slightly less of a challenge or gets hopelessly lost, all you have to do is go into "Advanced Options" and under --REALISM SETTINGS: SEA-- and then "display map position" select the option to always display your ship (without the need for a sextant and chronometer)..just checked it out and it works fine...ha ha would have saved me about an hour of mucking around....

I've also realized this would negate the need to use the Worldmap for sailing if a person desired a "lesser" challenge by displaying their position all the time, lol

Jeff

 

[Hylie Pistof]

You made it! I didn't know if you would find Grenada or not. I have missed it completely in the past. When one gets to the edge of the map you continue sailing along as long as you want. There is no warning that you are off the map.

That icon on the map is not reliable. It can show you to be far from where you actually are.

That GA is one of the wake graphics. It normally shows along the side and behind the ship when it is moving fast. I have never seen it off to the side like that before.

It is possible to outrun storms. One must pay attention to wind direction, or you could easily be caught in one. Then the next one and the next one. Getting caught in 3 storms has left me with not enough sails to get anywhere and I had to use the worldmap to get to the nearest island for repairs.


Pieter: finding those files could be quite time consuming.