Low Priority The Curse of Davy Jones

[Pieter Boelen]

As per today, Davy Jones is available as a pre-defined starting character.
So you can get the Flying Dutchman right there at the start of the game without using cheatmode.
That should reduce the number of people asking for that, because it is really quite easy now.

However, playing as Davy Jones should have its implications.
At the moment you are of type "Cursed" which triggers the Curse of Cortés.
Obviously that doesn't make sense for him.

So here are my questions:
- Would you like to play as Davy Jones?
- What kind of gameplay should be disabled to the Captain of the Flying Dutchman?

I'm thinking of completely disabling all reloads to shore to mimic that part of the curse.
Implementing the "every 10 years" thing sounds tricky and is probably not worth it.

To compensate, probably something akin to the Curse of Cortés at night:
Your crew would be immortal in 3D sailing mode and hard to kill in boardings.

However, since you cannot go ashore, you'll have to try to capture other ships' crews instead.
Just like Davy Jones was doing in Dead Man's Chest. That should prove quite a unique challenge, no?

 

[Grey Roger]

Apart from attacking ships in order to capture their crews to replace losses sustained while attacking ships, what would you actually do?

Crew payment would need to be disabled if you can't go ashore. Jones and his crew aren't interested in money anyway. But if you can't go ashore to sell loot then raising money to pay salaries will be difficult. Dividing plunder will be impossible if you can't get to a loanshark.

The problem with tying fame to personal wealth rises again. If you can't earn any personal wealth then Davy Jones will forever remain an unknown pirate...

Side quests are out; they're not disabled but if you can't go ashore to talk to the people that trigger them, they just won't happen. (The side quest "Elizabeth Shaw's Disappearance" really will need to be disabled, regardless of whether you're allowed on shore. The quest would effectively mean hunting yourself. )

 

[Pieter Boelen]

All true. Basically I figure that a proper "realistic" Davy Jones game would be extreeemely boring.
You can blow up some enemy ships in the early game and throw the Kraken at them, but other than that, what would you do?
No wonder the Davy Jones character was in such a perpetually bad mood!

Anything we can think of to make things more "Davy Jones-ey" without limiting the player so much to that all the fun is sucked out?

 

[Grey Roger]

Perhaps one of the people who wanted to play as Davy Jones would like to say something here about what they want to do with him?

Otherwise perhaps it will only be of use for a quick game. Sailing around in a super-powerful ship blasting everything in sight out of the water may be amusing for a while but probably won't have much long-term interest. So I suspect the main use for Davy Jones will be to start a new game, have a bit of fun with the Flying Dutchman, then quit and start a different game for a longer campaign.

The only other way to make Davy Jones interesting would be a whole new storyline with things for him to do. Perhaps based on the side quest "Elizabeth Swann's Disappearance", played from the other side, or something involving Tia Dalma. Good luck finding someone willing to write that!

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Otherwise perhaps it will only be of use for a quick game. Sailing around in a super-powerful ship blasting everything in sight out of the water may be amusing for a while but probably won't have much long-term interest. So I suspect the main use for Davy Jones will be to start a new game, have a bit of fun with the Flying Dutchman, then quit and start a different game for a longer campaign.

True, that. Perhaps we should set the player skills straight to 10 to match to REALLY make it a "quick play as Davy Jones" scenario.
Only for the "Cursed" player type though.

The only other way to make Davy Jones interesting would be a whole new storyline with things for him to do. Perhaps based on the side quest "Elizabeth Swann's Disappearance", played from the other side, or something involving Tia Dalma. Good luck finding someone willing to write that!

Yeah, that's not going to happen.

 

[Bartolomeu o Portugues]

Yeah, that's not going to happen.

Right . There are enough storylines and quests in the buildmod. I want to finish the Cartagena quest for the Assassin storyline and the Maya quest for the Bartolomeu one (I don't think I can do the one in Europe). I get tired of doing quests. My motivation is not as high as at the beginning.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Right . There are enough storylines and quests in the buildmod. I want to finish the Cartagena quest for the Assassin storyline and the Maya quest for the Bartolomeu one (I don't think I can do the one in Europe). I get tired of doing quests. My motivation is not as high as at the beginning.

Can't keep going forever. None of us can.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Trudat. But your efforts are very much appreciated.

 

[Grey Roger]

Right . There are enough storylines and quests in the buildmod. I want to finish the Cartagena quest for the Assassin storyline and the Maya quest for the Bartolomeu one (I don't think I can do the one in Europe). I get tired of doing quests. My motivation is not as high as at the beginning.

A continuation of the "Assassin" storyline will be of much more interest to me than anything to do with Davy Jones. (Probably so will the continuation of the "Bartolomeu" story, though I haven't yet even finished playing through what's already there!)

 

[Jack Rackham]

I get tired of doing quests.

Yes, it easily consumes most of your time.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

A continuation of the "Assassin" storyline will be of much more interest to me than anything to do with Davy Jones. (Probably so will the continuation of the "Bartolomeu" story, though I haven't yet even finished playing through what's already there!)

Agreed. I like your idea of Davy Jones as "quick play" scenario instead.
That should cater nicely to those people with a short attention span (or just little time and an interested in the PotC films).
But it's not worth putting a huge amount of effort into it.

If we DO get some PotC-storyline work done, I would wish for a DMC/AWE/OST extension to Hoist the Colours!

 

[Bartolomeu o Portugues]

Thanks all for your support

 

[Pieter Boelen]

@Jack Rackham, could you make an interface picture of this here?

I was thinking of using that item to trigger the "Curse of Davy Jones" challenge for players.

 

[Jack Rackham]

Yes, no problem.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I have now got this working up to the following point:
- If you start a New Game as CURSED player type with the Flying Dutchman OR Cursed Dutchman as ship, you receive the "Chest of Davy Jones"
- Starting Free Play with the Chest of Davy Jones, all nations will be immediately hostile to you
- After the initial dialog, you will be reloaded to sea instead of to shore
- All Sail To and To Shore Reloads are disabled

As far as I can tell, this works as intended now. It'll be an amazingly tough challenge for players though to never set foot ashore!
I wonder if anyone will be mad enough to try this one. But if anyone does, I'd quite welcome any comments to make it more fun and playable.

 

[Skyworm]

Cheers Gents,,

I think adding Jones as his own campaign is a fine idea, and I agree that making it a quick overpowered startup is also good.
I think this character will be played for shortwhile fun, not in the long run. Because in the long run, shooting at everything that floats and being unable to go to land would be boring.

Two thaughts I have:
Perhaps we should alter Jones curse, so he can go on land. Not always, maybe once a week or only at full moon (gee, do we have moon phases in the game?), whatever, anything shorter than "once per 10 years" would make it more playable.
Also, if unable to go to land, how does Jones repair a ship and get officers? Ok, officers could be recruited after capturing. Just a thought.

Cheers,
Skyworm

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I think adding Jones as his own campaign is a fine idea, and I agree that making it a quick overpowered startup is also good.
I think this character will be played for shortwhile fun, not in the long run. Because in the long run, shooting at everything that floats and being unable to go to land would be boring.

Absolutely agreed.

Perhaps we should alter Jones curse, so he can go on land. Not always, maybe once a week or only at full moon (gee, do we have moon phases in the game?), whatever, anything shorter than "once per 10 years" would make it more playable.

We do indeed have moon phases, courtesy of @purseon and @Levis.
Going ashore at night wouldn't do much good, though; all stores and such are closed.
And how are the town folk supposed to respond, seeing a Davy Jones walking around?

Also, if unable to go to land, how does Jones repair a ship and get officers? Ok, officers could be recruited after capturing. Just a thought.

You can, of course, get all sorts of stuff from the ships at sea. But I think it'll be hard to loot stuff faster than you use it.
For crew, they would probably die faster than you can hire them. Unless we make them immortal/super-strong (right now, they're not).
And you'd have to loot all your cannonballs too.

Some ship repair can be done at sea with the right skills, of course. But that doesn't work up to 100%.
I was thinking of allowing Davy to go ashore on Cozumel so he can use that as a base and use the BuildingSet to get all sorts of stuff.

 

[Grey Roger]

Going ashore at night wouldn't do much good, though; all stores and such are closed.
And how are the town folk supposed to respond, seeing a Davy Jones walking around?

So, what you need is someone who is out at night and who can be intimidated into providing either crew or wood for you.

It just so happens that there are a lot of highwaymen around these days - may as well use them for something.

Some ship repair can be done at sea with the right skills, of course. But that doesn't work up to 100%.

It does for me, though admittedly I'm not in a cursed ship. The only time I pay a shipyard to repair the ship is if it's down to 20% hull or less and probably won't survive another battle. The shipyard repairs it to 50% hull, and during the days it takes to do that, the crew do another 10% or so. Then I stock up on planks and let the crew finish the job while I'm looking for something else to loot.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

True and true.

I think the best way to find out is for someone to play as Davy Jones and figure out what is being too impossible.

 

[KongSuo]

Kind of tired, might have missed it in my skim, but has the idea been floated (heh heh) to play as Pre-curse Davy Jones? Like, the lead up as a mortal to him taking over as the big bad monster of myth? I think that would be a pretty sweet option. You wouldn't start with the Dutchman in this case, of course (although it would probably be pretty quickly if I remember his history right), but at least it would be able to have a storyline to it. And Calypso. Calypso kicks ass. Rallying the pirate brotherhood. Gathering the necessary magic widgets to trap her in her human form. Lots of good stuff there for possible use.