Question regarding Build 14 Beta 2

[KevO44]

I noticed Captain Armstrong made a topic regarding the inaccurate flags in Build 14. I'm happy to see that I wasn't the only person to notice. : Most noticable were the British merchants flying the colors of the EIC, which historically never operated in the Caribbean. Switching that to the correct red ensign was a great idea.

My question is, before I uninstall POTC to reinstall the new Build Beta, were those great ideas put into Build 14 Beta 2-1 Full?

And while I got this moment I want to tip my cap to the creators/modders who continue to put in the time to make the Builds.

 

[Armada]

Ahoy, mate! It's always great to have one of our original members return to see how far we've come.

Captain Armstrong's revised flags came after the release of Beta 2.1, and with Pieter away at sea, there's a bit of a wait for the next patch to include the changes.
However, you can download and install the changes yourself from this post: http://forum.piratesahoy.net/index.php/topic/18385-how-to-change-flags-settings/page__view__findpost__p__417356

I can assure you that Beta 2.1 is something pretty remarkable; I hope you enjoy it.

 

[Captain Armstrong]

Ahoy there! Im glad you approve of my changes, the innacurate flags always bugged me, and I got tired of waiting for someone else to fix them. feel free to let me know if you catch any inaccuracies I missed!

 

[KevO44]

Thank you Armada and Capt Armstrong, I did install those new textures and they look great. I started the original story in 1803 and the flags look good. The British merchants fly the red ensigns. The French fly the "tricolour", and I also like the American "Betsy Ross" flag.

I also discovered you can change your personal flag by talking to crewmembers, nice new feature, and I can fly the British blue ensign whenever I please. That's great.

If I may make a suggestion, the Betsy Ross flag would be fine for the Revolutions period but the later period The Corsican, the Americans should be flying this 15 star flag. Which was used 1795 to 1818.


15-Star American flag

I'll return soon to make more comments about these great mods.

 

[Captain Armstrong]

Thanks! in the corsicans period american warships fly the 15 star, 15 stripe flag, but merchant vessels still fly the betsy ross flag. I wanted to give the merchant ships the 15 star 15 stripe flag too, but I was told that merchant ships had to have different flags from warships, even though it wasnt historically accurate. :? the ross flag is still better than the revolution era merchant flag being flown in the corsican period before http://flagsusa.tripod.com/American_Revolution/Merchant_Stripes_Flag.gif

 

[KevO44]

It's always great to have one of our original members return to see how far we've come.

I remember joining this site when NK released Build 7. That was revolutionary for its time. I've uninstalled and reinstalled POTC about 100 times since then. But I digress...

Captain Armstrong, I didn't know the warships fly the 15-star flag. So if the warships are flying the 15-star American flag than I certainly can't complain.

Let me ask a modding question. Is there anyway to change a merchant ship to a warship using Ships_init in Programs/Ships? Specifically the SP_Corvette, which is my favorite ship. I noticed it uses the British red ensign and the American Betsy Ross. But if I could change it to a warship than it would use the 15-star American flag? Maybe? Or is that handled in a different file? Thanks and now I'm off to make sail.

 

[Captain Armstrong]

its in ships_init.c look for these lines in the entry for the desired ship
refShip.Type.Trade = true;
refShip.Type.War =false;

swap the true and false between the two lines

 

[Armada]

I think you'll find SP_Corvette is already a warship, but it's an interesting point to bring up.
What you probably need to do is change your ship's name so that it has the prefix 'HMS' or 'USS'.
These automatically give your ship the navy ensigns, if it is set as either 'War' or both 'Trade' and 'War' in ships_init.c.

I'm not entirely sure what happens with the other nation's ships, and there may well be a need to adjust the code slightly to ensure that all warships get the navy ensigns by default.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Your ships get the merchant flag UNLESS you've got a Letter of Marque with that nation. The exception is indeed when you add USS or HMS in the ship's name.
And that applies to ALL nations and not just England and the United States. So that's definitely the easiest way to go about it; no coding required.

 

[KevO44]

Thank you all, adding HMS / USS before the ship's name is the easiest solution. I can choose to fly a white ensign, red ensign, or blue ensign. That's great. Now I have many enjoyable hours of gaming ahead of me.

 

[Armada]

Your ships get the merchant flag UNLESS you've got a Letter of Marque with that nation.

Oh yeah, I forgot about the Letter of Marque.