Some suggestions for changes

[Fluen]

1. Smuggling in a hostile town
2. The death of Andre Juliano
3. Loan sharks and the amounts one can give/withdraw
4. Conquests of forts and a breather after the destruction of a fort

1. I've tried to smuggle banned goods in a hostile town. When I approached a soldier in the tavern to get information about the times, when the beaches would be unguarded, he alerted other soldiers. But I was still able to continue the dialogue with him and get him to gamble with me to gain the required information.

Should one be able to smuggle in hostile towns? Should only some of the soldiers off duty be suspicious, and the others willing to gamble/chat?

2. Andre Juliano is a key person in at least two quests. Is it possible to make him immortal or respawn, until a quest removes him, so he doesn't die in advance?

I ask, because he was killed in a tavern brawl. Ironically, he died during my visit to St. Pierre during "Cargo for Thomas O'Reily".

3. My problem is too much money! My fondness of treasure hunts has led to an extreme excess of money. It turned out, that leaving so much money in the care of the loan sharks don't solve the problem, when they offer 11% interest (because of max. trade skill points). Last I checked, the loan shark in Port Royale had 64 millions of my gold pieces. And when I as a minimum can withdraw a quater of that (by getting all my money back and then leaving three quarters of my fortune to him again), I'm unable to acces that money.

How about adding a line about a specific amount of gold, and give the player a sliding scale like when donating money to the crew?

4. I suggest a peace time inserted after the destruction of the fort like it's been done for sea battles, where one can save and use "sail to" before boarding a surrendered ship.

The forts have become very good at removing the masts rather than shooting at the hull. I've even experienced to have all three masts broken before I even managed to fire a single volley myself. And I've experienced losing my last mast around the time, when I and my other ships managed to destroy the fort. Then I was unable to sail to the spot, where the landing should take place, I was unable to swap to a ship with at least one remaining mast, so I could sail anywhere, I was unable to quickly repair my ship and get some percentage of sail back. A peace time would enable some of those options and give the player the opportunity to save, in case the landing and fights in the fort and the town turn difficult.

 

[Grey Roger]

1: I'd say you should be able to smuggle to hostile towns, especially if you started off as either Pirate nation or picked a nation and starting year in which your nation has no friends. The risk is that the soldiers in the tavern might recognise you, turn hostile, and fight, at which point they won't be in dialog! Maybe this one is being sneaky - if you want to continue talking to him while his comrades are clobbering you, that's your choice and he's happy to let you continue being a sitting target.

2: Tavern brawls can be a risk, but one reason Andre Juliao might die early is because you kill him! You've heard from Orable Caron that the harbourmaster has a problem with smugglers, you ask the tavernkeeper about smuggling, he points you to Andre Juliao, and your conversation with him is likely to end in a fight. If he's immortal, you're not going to win that fight...

3: Switch to paying your crew by division of plunder. That should cut down on your saved gold, unless you're cheating them by hiding it away with a loanshark.

4: If you can save game before boarding a surrendered ship, either the battle is completely over or the bug about the whole fleet turning neutral has struck. If you've knocked out the fort's guns but not yet invaded the fort, the battle is not over. And we're not going to introduce the same bug in fort attacks that has been plaguing us with sea battles!

Try using "Sail To" and target the fort. That should bring you into position to land your troops.

 

[Fluen]

1: I'd say you should be able to smuggle to hostile towns, especially if you started off as either Pirate nation or picked a nation and starting year in which your nation has no friends. The risk is that the soldiers in the tavern might recognise you, turn hostile, and fight, at which point they won't be in dialog! Maybe this one is being sneaky - if you want to continue talking to him while his comrades are clobbering you, that's your choice and he's happy to let you continue being a sitting target.

Good for me, that I had crewmembers with me to fight off the soldiers, so I had time to gamble with the first soldier.

2: Tavern brawls can be a risk, but one reason Andre Juliao might die early is because you kill him! You've heard from Orable Caron that the harbourmaster has a problem with smugglers, you ask the tavernkeeper about smuggling, he points you to Andre Juliao, and your conversation with him is likely to end in a fight. If he's immortal, you're not going to win that fight...

Ouch! I forgot about that option.

3: Switch to paying your crew by division of plunder. That should cut down on your saved gold, unless you're cheating them by hiding it away with a loanshark.

I tried that in the older build 14. And I didn't like all the changes done to the ships and their cargo. And how can I then afford buying new ships from Vanderdecken? The good ones cost just about two millions.

4: If you can save game before boarding a surrendered ship, either the battle is completely over or the bug about the whole fleet turning neutral has struck. If you've knocked out the fort's guns but not yet invaded the fort, the battle is not over. And we're not going to introduce the same bug in fort attacks that has been plaguing us with sea battles!

Try using "Sail To" and target the fort. That should bring you into position to land your troops.

I don't think, I understand, what you mean. "Sail to" only works in peacetime, which is exactly, what I'm proposing to create right after the destruction of the fort and before the invasion of it. Is there a way to use "sail to" during a battle?

Concerning sea battles: when all enemy ships are sunk or have surrendered, I would say, the battle is over.

 

[Grey Roger]

I tried that in the older build 14. And I didn't like all the changes done to the ships and their cargo. And how can I then afford buying new ships from Vanderdecken? The good ones cost just about two millions.

Then just continue as you are doing - if you need lots of money to buy ships from Vanderdecken, having lots of money is not a problem.

I don't think, I understand, what you mean. "Sail to" only works in peacetime, which is exactly, what I'm proposing to create right after the destruction of the fort and before the invasion of it. Is there a way to use "sail to" during a battle?

True - I'm not sure now whether "sail to" works when the fort has been knocked out and there are no hostile ships in range.

The problem is, I have no idea how to create a complete peace state allowing game saving between the fort being knocked out and the land attack. Nor, for that matter, what unintended side effects it might have.

Concerning sea battles: when all enemy ships are sunk or have surrendered, I would say, the battle is over.

In theory, yes. But there is also a bug in which, if the flagship of a group surrenders, the whole group turns neutral. You can't board the other ships because they haven't surrendered, and you can't attack them without losing a lot of reputation for attacking a non-hostile ship. But you can save game - in fact, the only current workround is to save game and then load it back, which reminds the game that those ships are still hostile.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

The problem is, I have no idea how to create a complete peace state allowing game saving between the fort being knocked out and the land attack. Nor, for that matter, what unintended side effects it might have.

Not sure either. Would require some serious investigation, I suspect...

 

[Levis]

1
1. I've tried to smuggle banned goods in a hostile town. When I approached a soldier in the tavern to get information about the times, when the beaches would be unguarded, he alerted other soldiers. But I was still able to continue the dialogue with him and get him to gamble with me to gain the required information.

This is also something I noticed where I was able to talk with the gambler during a tavern brawl and just had my nice and easy card game while everyone was waiting for me to stand up again to they could kill me. I believe in the case of the guard spotting you it should be a matter of making the guard hostile to you too, I believe then you shouldn't be able to talk to him. I'm not sure about how to fix things during a tavern brawl though.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

This is also something I noticed where I was able to talk with the gambler during a tavern brawl and just had my nice and easy card game while everyone was waiting for me to stand up again to they could kill me.

I recall deliberately putting in some code so people wouldn't draw their swords during a dialog.
This was to prevent you from getting violently mauled in mid-dialog; which seemed a bit excessively mean to me.

 

[Fluen]

I'm just puzzled, no one put a dialogue exit into the dialogue part, where the soldier strikes the alarm, so all further conversation with him ends right away.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I'm just puzzled, no one put a dialogue exit into the dialogue part, where the soldier strikes the alarm, so all further conversation with him ends right away.

I'm not sure I follow...

 

[Fluen]

And I think, I must have met an unusual situation, where the "exit soldiers"-command didn't quite work as intended in the random guard dialogue. If I encounter the situation again, I'll try to get a screen shot of it to show.