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Solved Questions from the current build 4.1 of July

Tingyun

Corsair
Storm Modder
Thanks for making this amazing mod. I've been having a great time playing. Amazing fun, I am completely addicted to this game and mod now.

I have some questions and possible issues I've encountered. I was hoping to ask for advice from the more experienced players.

I have attached a save if in any way helpful to answering any of the below questions.

1) I started as a castaway on Hispaniola, near port au prince. I thoroughly explored the jungle, but was unable to find either a connection to the rest of Hispaniola (where presumably the other cities are) or a shore containing my lifeboat (my portion of the island only had 1 shore that I could find, and it was neither there nor at the city docks).

Is the lifeboat somewhere on a part of the island disconected from me? Or am I missing some connection? I can find port au prince, 2 forts, 1 pirate fort, and plenty of jungle, but it seems closed in.

Mostly just curious--2 days of hunting in the jungle with my team of 4 (now fully equipped with tomahawks) was enough to earn enough to buy a proper ship. Just want to know if I am missing something or whether I am indeed closed off in a part of the island and can't get to the rest on land (which would certainly make realistic sense, given the distances involved)

2) Any danger to simply selling my lifeboat without ever having recovered it, when it is on a faraway shore? I'd rather just get rid of the thing, and don't want to wait the 2 days it would take to have the shipyard repair it and haul it in.

Just want to make sure nothing would glitch out from technically not completing the starter quest of sorts to find the boat.

3) When I was testing to see if the forts perhaps had a conduit to another part of the island, I found an aztec coin in one of the chests. Is this supposed to happen in freeplay? I couldn't toss the coin, but I didn't seem cursed, at least I could sleep a night. Is there anything to do with that coin in freeplay mode? I didn't keep the save, but very curious if I should come upon one again whether I should take or leave it.

4) Native loot is odd. For example, even if I knock them out with a rock from afar and kill them without them ever moving, they usually have a bow but no arrows. Mostly never have a melee weapon (though if this is needed to keep them from having the awesome tomahawk too often, then that is good, because if that were any less rare it would be too overpowered).

5) Once I picked up some native loot that seemed to give me a bonus in something, that later seemed to disappear. In particular, I believe I previously had a bonus to accuracy and cannons after picking up some loot, that now is gone (despite not selling anything that would have given the bonus, as far as I can tell).

Is there a list somewhere of the native artifact skill bonuses? I might be crazy and want to check.

6) There are no guards standing watch outside the forts in the Port au Prince jungle part of Hispaniola, as far as I can tell, whereas elsewhere it seems I usually see a pair of guards guarding the entrance to forts. Is it just varied from place to place or are they missing?

7) At some point the Port au Prince merchants stopped selling any items of their own, whether street vendor or store merchant. Currently, the store merchant sells no maps, no medication, and no items that I haven't sold to her (and I haven't bought out her stock or anything). She also has no weapons that I haven't sold to her. She replenished when I tested waiting several days in town, but I wonder why she became without goods, maybe something to do with me gaining too many levels in too few days and her inventory not having time to change?

8) In considering potential officer recruits, I noticed that they tend not to have as many ability points or perks as they do levels, and the difference becomes more dramatic the higher level the recruit is. Is this a bug or a balancing decision? If a bug, is there any way to add ability points to an officer so they can purchase perks?

9) One of my officers, my gunner, has two green checkmarks next to two of his skills, denoting faster XP maybe? The other two officers don't have any green checkmarks. Is this intended?

10) I think there is too much XP towards gaining levels obtained from talking to townsfolk, vs skill XP towards increasing leadership. It is actually very hard to increase leadership past 4 from talking to people (probably configured perfectly right now), but you can go up levels one after the other doing so if you wanted to do so (of course, I didn't do that as among other things I didn't want to face too high level opponents too quickly, besides the obvious roleplaying reasons).

11) Is the tomahawk really supposed to be as dominating as it is? It isn't so incredibly hard to obtain and can be gotten at relativelly low level (some of the underhanded items can be used to kill natives pretty easily, and a group of 4 well-equiped can take them in a straight forward manner as well), Once you get a couple of them, then your team can just steamroll anything in the jungle (as I've been doing this game). And basically no sword you can access at that level comes close (you don't need block when all 4 of you are smashing everything down instantly).

Maybe there should be a lesser version of a native weapon as well to make the tomahawk rarer?

Also, will it eventually get outclassed by swords? I kind of find it funny we are purely tomahawks now, and I hope there are much better swords for me and companions later.

12) I broke into a house to see what would happen, and was greeted by a friendly NPC who was glad I was there and offered to give me bodyguard work, get the guards to defend me, etc. First, is it then safe for my good-aligned character to break into houses, because it is considered a friendly visit? Or is this rare? And is the thing where you pay him to intercede with the guards a cheat or a legitmate gameplay option?

13) The pirates start out hating my castaway character. Is there a way to make them tolerate me without doing anything nefarious?

14) If I dump my starting smuggling cargo, I won't miss out on the special smuggling quest line later?

15) Does leadership or level affect the level of officers offering to join me? Just curious whether the kinds of officers I see will change later.

16) I set pickpocket chance to 59, because all of the "you see a purse" dialogue options at lower made increasing my reputation seem too easy and fast, and seemed to easily dwarf reputation rewards from other mechanics. Am I misunderstanding something?

17) Occasionally I have seen a guy in a tavern who wants me to buy him a cup of rum. I do so, and if I keep drinking he gets angry, if I leave the conversation terminates. Is there anything else to that encounter?

18) I was confused by some of the female reputation ranks (like "scarlet") in potential recruits. Is there a list somewhere?

19) One bit of feedback--the getting leather from killing monkeys seems somewhat odd, given the size each unit of leather is in weight compared to the monkey, the lack of loading it onto the boat, but needing to unload it to sell it. The monkeys certainly don't look that big or heavy.

20) I saw a bonus for "shared experience" as an ability. Could someone point me to, or explain, how that works, and in general how officers gain XP and skill points? (aside from the ones in my party, who are of course going up in melee and accuracy and such)

21) It seems like my active party gets the reputation boost for actions I take with them around. So strategically should I stop caring about starting reputation of the group I am traveling with?

22) Once in a barfight one of my officers was knocked out and seeing stars. Can officers generally not die, or is that only a barfight thing?

I know this is a lot of questions, so thanks for whatever parts anyone has time to answer!
 

Attachments

  • -=Player=- Hispaniola.rar
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1. Maybe I accidentally put a quest beach in use for the Hispaniola Castaway start. Would need to be checked.

2. You can sell your lifeboat workout problems.

3. Aztec coins show up at random, but in Free Play their curse is inactive.
You can sell them for some extra money.
You can still visit Isla de Muerta and deliberately start the curse though, if you so choose.

4. @Jack Rackham, do you know anything about that?

5. All skill bonuses are defined in program\items\initItems.c

6. Probably just varied from place to place.

7. We still have a Bug Tracker issue open for that one.
Happens when the town economy gets really very bad.

8. They should get 1 ability point per level.
Maybe @Levis can confirm what is going on with that one?

9. If I recall, those check marks are related to nationality and somewhat randomised.
@Levis could clarify.

11. For @Jack Rackham?

12. Entering an NPC house is considered a friendly visit.
Unless your actions make it unfriendly. ;)

13. Talk to the governor of Tortuga.

14. You'll only miss out on some money, but won't miss out on any quest.

15. Both leadership and level do indeed affect the officers you encounter.

16. You understand correctly. One day I want to make some proper tweaks to the reputation system.

17. I've never seen the point of that myself.
But I do have some ideas for adding a point to it in the future.

18. Look at Resource\ini\texts\English\common.ini

19. The leather from monkeys was added many years ago mainly as a joke.

20. Officers gain XP in the skills appropriate for their role.
With Shared XP, they gain skills in other areas too.

21. Reputation changes do indeed affect your shore party.

22. In a bar fight, the enemies use fists and fists can knock opponents out.
Officers definitely can and do die.
 
8. Do remember perks sometimes cost more then 1 skillpoint. and they can also have perks which aren't working for the role they have. so Please check that. Else please post a savegame with an officer which seems to be bugged so I can look into this problem.

9. I believe it is explained somewhere but this was disabled. If it shows a checkmark there is a XP bonus for this skill indeed (just like with the mainplayer). Different nationalities have different bonusses. It might be an idea to add this to the rumour data also.

Here is an overview of the skill bonusses:
Code:
    string nation = ENGLAND;
    string skill = SKILL_SAILING;
    SkillBonus.(nation).(skill) = 65;
    skill = SKILL_LEADERSHIP;
    SkillBonus.(nation).(skill) = 35;
   
    nation = FRANCE;
    skill = SKILL_DEFENCE;
    SkillBonus.(nation).(skill) = 75;
    skill = SKILL_REPAIR;
    SkillBonus.(nation).(skill) = 25;
   
    nation = SPAIN;
    skill = SKILL_SNEAK;
    SkillBonus.(nation).(skill) = 80;
    skill = SKILL_COMMERCE;
    SkillBonus.(nation).(skill) = 20;
   
    nation = PIRATE;
    skill = SKILL_FENCING;
    SkillBonus.(nation).(skill) = 50;
    skill = SKILL_GRAPPLING;
    SkillBonus.(nation).(skill) = 50;
   
    nation = HOLLAND;
    skill = SKILL_COMMERCE;
    SkillBonus.(nation).(skill) = 80;
    skill = SKILL_SAILING;
    SkillBonus.(nation).(skill) = 20;
   
    nation = PORTUGAL;
    skill = SKILL_ACCURACY;
    SkillBonus.(nation).(skill) = 50;
    skill = SKILL_CANNONS;
    SkillBonus.(nation).(skill) = 50;
   
    nation = AMERICA;
    skill = SKILL_REPAIR;
    SkillBonus.(nation).(skill) = 70;
    skill = SKILL_LEADERSHIP;
    SkillBonus.(nation).(skill) = 30;
The number shows how likely it is to find someone with this skillbonus
 
Thanks so much for the replies everyone. Aside from my gratitude for how wonderful your team is, here are the follow-ups to the questions you asked:

@Levis

8) Ability points for officers issue: If you check the save I attached to my first post, here are my three officers:

Auguste, lvl 10, 7 total ability points (perks and remaining free points combined, checked non contributing perks as well)

Randolf, lvl 6, 5 total ability points

Gentile, lvl 6, 5 total ability points

So my lvl 6 guys, who were hired when they were lvl 5s, are missing one ability point. My lvl 10 guy, hired at lvl 8, is missing 3.

And generally that is what I've noticed, lvl 5 hires have only 1 missing ability point, but higher lvl hires are missing more.

9) On the checkmark issue, in the same save my french gunner Auguste has 2 checkmarks for grappling and luck, which aren't the defense and repair bonuses you listed, and he bonuses for 2 skills. Also, my other french officer and pirate officer (dayman) have no checkmark bonuses at all.

Also, thank you Pieter for answering all my questions!
 
Can I ask another couple of questions? Sorry about asking so many--just enjoying the mod a great deal and curious about some things.

1)Do AI ships ever have officers with relevant perks to boost them as well? I'm trying to play fairly, and wondering whether purchasing perks like ship defense or the extra cannon damage perks would give me an unfair advantage over the enemies.

2)Also, aside from perks, do the AI ships have access to ship upgrades?

3) Do AI captains have high skill levels or officers to help them have high levels in cannon, accuracy, etc?

4) In general, is there anything I should be aware of if trying to play on equal terms with the AI?

5) I am playing on Sea Dog difficulty, does the AI get any unfair advantages in ship to ship combat? If so I will probably try to counter it by allowing myself similar latitude.

6)Finally, I noticed doctors contribute the ship defense perks, are the bonuses damage reduction percent to reducing crew damage, or reducing hull damage also? Just wanted to make sure, seems like it would be crew given the doctor but the description doesn't seem to specify.

7) I understand player level influences enemy difficulty (on land only? Or also on seas?), does having a high level officer in the party also have this effect?
 
@Tingyun I will look into the problem tomorrow, they shouldn't miss the ability points. Some things have changed since I last worked on it so I have to look what happened. It is possible tough a person has no bonusses at all. It should be pretty rare actually to have 2 bonusses, most will have 1.
This is how the bonusses are set up to work:
Code:
void SetUpCharacterBonus(ref chr)
{
    //First we determine how many bonus skills this character will have.
    int numbonus = 0;
    int val = rand(100);
    int numprefer = 0;
    aref Bonus, Prefer;
    string skillname;
    if(val < NPC_ONE_BONUS_CHANCE) numbonus = 1;
    if(val < (NPC_ONE_BONUS_CHANCE+NPC_TWO_BONUS_CHANCE)) numbonus = 2;
    if(DEBUG_EXPERIENCE>1) Trace("XP LOG: Setup Bonusses for: "+GetMySimpleName(chr)+" with "+numbonus+" bonusses");
    for(int n = 0; n < numbonus; n++)
    {
        bool isset = false;
        if(CheckAttribute(chr,"nation"))
        {
            string nation = chr.nation;
            makearef(Bonus,SkillBonus.(nation));
            numprefer = GetAttributesNum(Bonus);
            int index = 0;
            int offset = rand(numprefer-1);
            for(int i = 0; i < numprefer; i++)
            {
                if(!isset)
                {
                    index = i+offset;
                    if(index>=numprefer) index -= numprefer;
                    Prefer = GetAttributeN(Bonus,i);
                    val = rand(100);
                    if(val < sti(Prefer))
                    {
                        skillname = GetAttributeName(Prefer);
                        if(stf(GetAttribute(chr,"skill."+skillname+".bonus")) > 1.0) continue;
                        if(DEBUG_EXPERIENCE>1) trace("XP LOG: Picked "+skillname);
                        chr.skill.(skillname).bonus = 1.25;
                        isset = true;
                    }
                }
            }
        }
        if(!isset)
        {
            skillname = GetSkillName(rand(9));
            if(DEBUG_EXPERIENCE>1) trace("XP LOG: Picked "+skillname);
            chr.skill.(skillname).bonus = 1.25;
            isset = true;
        }
    }
    chr.bonussetup = true;
}
So if what you are saying is true its possible the officers don't have a nation set to them, which could be true indeed now I think about it.

6)Finally, I noticed doctors contribute the ship defense perks, are the bonuses damage reduction percent to reducing crew damage, or reducing hull damage also? Just wanted to make sure, seems like it would be crew given the doctor but the description doesn't seem to specify.
the doctor has the following settings:
Code:
type = OFFIC_TYPE_DOCTOR;
    OfficerTypes.(type).skills.Leadership = 0;
    OfficerTypes.(type).skills.Fencing = 0;
    OfficerTypes.(type).skills.Fencing.importance = 2;
    OfficerTypes.(type).skills.Sailing = 0;
    OfficerTypes.(type).skills.Accuracy = 0;
    OfficerTypes.(type).skills.Cannons = 0;
    OfficerTypes.(type).skills.Grappling = 0;
    OfficerTypes.(type).skills.Repair = 0;
    OfficerTypes.(type).skills.Defence = 2;
    OfficerTypes.(type).skills.Defence.importance = 10;
    OfficerTypes.(type).skills.Commerce = 0;        // set to 0 by Levis
    OfficerTypes.(type).skills.Sneak = 2;            // set from 0 to 1 by El Rapido*/ Set to 2 by Levis to compensate for few perks
    OfficerTypes.(type).skills.Sneak.importance = 8;
    OfficerTypes.(type).usableoffictype = true;
    OfficerTypes.(type).hpbasebonus = 30;
    OfficerTypes.(type).noncontribchance = 15;
    if(isPerkExisting("ImprovePotions")) {OfficerTypes.(type).perks.ImprovePotions = 1};
    if(isPerkExisting("DefendPoison")) {OfficerTypes.(type).perks.DefendPoison = 1};
    if(isPerkExisting("BasicBattleState")) {OfficerTypes.(type).perks.BasicBattleState = 1};
    if(isPerkExisting("AdvancedBattleState")) {OfficerTypes.(type).perks.AdvancedBattleState = 1};
    if(isPerkExisting("ShipDefenceProfessional")) {OfficerTypes.(type).perks.ShipDefenceProfessional = 1};
    if(isPerkExisting("CrewDamageUp")) {OfficerTypes.(type).perks.CrewDamageUp = 1};
This means he contributes defence and luck and he has the abilities for redecudes damage and more crew damage, also he has the abilities for better potions.
He should also be a bit better in fighting then some other normal users and he has one of the highest HP bonusses (altough this one might even be increased a bit more come to think of it).
 
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Enemy captains do not have officers helping, but because they're Captain officer types, they do quickly get the skills they need to effectively command their ship.
@Levis knows the exact mechanics better than me though.

Enemies also don't make use of skill enhancing items.

Enemies do get perks and their ships can (randomly) have upgrades applied

Defence affects Hull HP as well, but a Doctor's defence skill also specifically reduces after-battle casualties (other characters' defence does not have this same effect).
 
Enemy captains do not have officers helping, but because they're Captain officer types, they do quickly get the skills they need to effectively command their ship.
@Levis knows the exact mechanics better than me though.
not yet ;).
There are multiple captain types, depending on who you'll find they will have certain skills. For example pirate captains will have higher boarding skills and perks to help them while merchant captains have perks to help them trade but not to fight. If you happen to walk into a navy captain he will have perks and skills which help him sail but beware because he is probably a good fighter also.
etc.
 
Thanks so much for the answers. I really appreciate you spending the time to explain these things to me! I will then freely purchase the perks, knowing that the AI can use them too.
 
Sorry for the double post--my wife just asked me to add some feedback from her. She hasn't played as much, and when she saw the Fort listed as a fast travel location in the menu, she assumed it would be safe to go there. She was rather surprised when she got attacked, and said she thinks it should be removed from the fast travel menu, or come with a warning, to prevent new players from making that mistake.

Also, she wanted to ask what chatting with people in houses about the town does. She said it told her she learned much about the town, but she didn't notice a difference.

EDIT: She added that the "Fake level up cheat" also increases her level number that is displayed on her character sheet, and she is confused about the difference with normal level up.
 
In the original game, there was Sail To for both the town AND the fort.
We changed it so that it is either the one or the other.
If you're friendly, then you see only the town in the menu (because you have no business with the fort).
If you're hostile, then the fort shows instead (because you may intend to destroy it and take over the town).
So the fort showing up means it must be hostile.

The difference between fake and normal level up is that with the fake one, enemies don't level up alongside the player.
If I recall, these days if you use it, you should get two level numbers showing with a dash inbetween.
The highest is your actual level, but they lowest is the level that enemies base their level on.
This is something @Levis set up a while back.

Chatting with people in houses should give you some experience points.
 
Hi Pieter--thanks again for your answers.

One clarification--she was talking about land fast travel, not sea.

On land, even in a friendly town, if you press the fast travel button using enter, the fort is a fast travel option. Probably only a trap for new players, everyone learns pretty quick what the fort means. ;)
 
Sorry, my misunderstanding.

At the door to those land accessible forts, there should be a warning. But of course you wouldn't see that if you use the Fast Travel.
You're not supposed to go there even if you're friendly as you go trespassing on army grounds.
But if you do, there can be some interesting characters there. Some of them could sell you bombs for your ship's cannons, for example.
You could even give the town to another nation that way (this feature was added before Capture Colonies worked).
 
Thanks again so much. Another couple of questions, this time from me:

1) I was in the jungle at night, and suddenly my officers started charging with swords drawn towards something invisible. They struck it a few times, and then an explosion happened, no damage, but white smoke everywhere. I would exit from scene to scene, and in most this would occur.

Is this some kind of undead invisible spectre hunting us?

2) Player level influences the world difficulty, but do the levels of officers in active party do so as well?

3) If I find a native temple or cavern at some beech (like at Cape Francos on Hispaniola, or the Cozumel temple), can I raid it on my own without disrupting my ability to later do any quests or such that might involve it? I want to make sure that raiding and looting every dungeon and temple I find won't deny me later quests....

Thank you!
 
Thanks again so much. Another couple of questions, this time from me:

1) I was in the jungle at night, and suddenly my officers started charging with swords drawn towards something invisible. They struck it a few times, and then an explosion happened, no damage, but white smoke everywhere. I would exit from scene to scene, and in most this would occur.

Is this some kind of undead invisible spectre hunting us?
probably a "building" in the form of a tree which had the wrong relations set
2) Player level influences the world difficulty, but do the levels of officers in active party do so as well?
player level only
3) If I find a native temple or cavern at some beech (like at Cape Francos on Hispaniola, or the Cozumel temple), can I raid it on my own without disrupting my ability to later do any quests or such that might involve it? I want to make sure that raiding and looting every dungeon and temple I find won't deny me later quests....

Thank you!
I believe in all sidequests etc if you would find something of importance it would be a quest item so you can't get rid of it so there is no danger in raiding the temple already
 
Thank you Levis!

OH, so it was a building. So odd, it followed me to every different jungle scene I entered, and was killed again and again, until I entered a town. And I had been through those scenes before many times without being haunted. Then it never came back after entering the town. It just so happened dawn had just occurred, so I thought it might be a ghost! ;)
 
On battles in the Jungle against invisible enemies resulting in white smoke:
Apparently in all your fights, you or your officers accidentally hit a BuildingSet structure.
So now your officers go to "kill" all extra palm trees that can be found in some jungle areas.
 
Pieter,

Would it erase that hostile setting naturally upon reload? Or would it persist throughout the game, even in new areas?

I am actually starting over anyway, just curious if next time I run into it I need to immediattly go back to an earlier save if it occurs.

EDIT: the thread you mentioned regarding AI relation bugs answered this question also. You implied there the effect is permanent, so I'll know to reload should I happen upon this. Please ignore my question, since you answerd it 2 years ago! ;)
 
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You probably upset the "buildings" or "jungles" group.
Bit of a bug, really....
 
Permanent indeed.
Might be possible to reset the effect through console, but I cannot look up the relevant code to do it.
Maybe @Levis could track it down?
 
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