The ghost of Artois Voysey

[Grey Roger]

Entering Nevis Pirate Settlement, I got the usual encounter with Artois Voysey and Nigel Blythe, and as usual chose to intervene. Blythe didn't live long. As sometimes happens in other fights, one of my officers fired a pistol a bit too late, when Blythe was already dead. On this occasion he missed Blythe and hit Voysey, killing him. That should have messed up the side quest, except that Voysey had already started his dialog and kept going despite being slightly dead.

The dialog ends with him offering to join you as an officer, and if you accept, he goes straight into your number 3 slot, displacing any officer who might have already been there. So he was lying on the ground and also showing up both as a small icon in the main display and as an entry in the F2 "Characters" list, with 0 HP.

When I left the settlement and went out into the clearing, Voysey was back on his feet and restored to full HP. I've yet to see if there are any long term side-effects of him being undead, e.g. if there's any weirdness when he's put in command of a prize ship.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Wow, that's an interesting turn of events, @Grey Roger! Incredibly unlucky timing for Artois.

Just for the sake of it, is there anything to be said for making him Immortal the second that Nigel is killed, until you agree to hire him?
That would prevent this in the future.

Hopefully it'll be fine though and this ends up nothing more than a funny story....

 

[Grey Roger]

Now this is odd. Looking at "quests_side.c", there are several commands to cancel Artois Voysey's immortality, including one when you hire him as an officer. I can only find one command to make him immortal, at around the time you're supposed to find him lying around near Sao Jorge exit after having been attacked by some pirates, whom you fight in order to rescue him. So indeed it probably wouldn't do any harm to make Artois Voysey immortal after the fight with Nigel Blythe, as that would also prevent him from getting accidentally killed if you get into trouble with the general population of the settlement for any other reason.

Also, in "Artois Voysey_dialog.c", case "First time":

           d.Text = DLG_TEXT[0];
           if (PChar.sex == "man")
           {
               Link.l1 = DLG_TEXT[1];
           }
           else
           {
               Link.l1 = DLG_TEXT[2];
           }

So it unconditionally uses line 0 for Voysey line, then switches between lines 1 and 2 for your response depending on whether you're male or female. Which means he always says:

Thank you, sir. Nigel Blythe has always been quick with punishment. If you hadn't stepped in when you did, I'd surely be dead now.

And then you either say:

Yeah, I've noticed you had some difficulties with him.

or

Yeah, I've noticed you had some difficulties with him.

So he always calls you "sir", and there's no difference in your answer whether you're male or female because both versions are the same.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

So he always calls you "sir", and there's no difference in your answer whether you're male or female because both versions are the same.

I suppose that's what happens when the original game developers have to rush the game release and cut out half the playable characters.

 

[Grey Roger]

OK, I'll add a line to make Artois immortal at case "saving_artois", which is where you're about to fight Nigel. There's already a line to cancel it at case "Voysey_listed", which is where you hire him.

And the dialog can get the same fix I've also applied to "Blacksmith4_dialog.c" and "Blacksmith4_dialog.h", which means the blacksmith in Port Royale will now correctly address you as "sir" or "ma'am".

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Great and great!

 

[Grey Roger]

I've re-run the initial encounter. Of course, there's no direct evidence that the immortality fix is taking effect as it's supposed to prevent an incident which is very rare anyway. Certainly it doesn't make Artois immortal as an officer as there was already a line to cancel his immortality when you hire him.

The fixed dialog works, though not quite as I'd expected. Artois doesn't address you as "sir" or "ma'am". This is because he's French, which I hadn't realised until he addressed Helen Ardent as "Mademoiselle".

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I've re-run the initial encounter. Of course, there's no direct evidence that the immortality fix is taking effect as it's supposed to prevent an incident which is very rare anyway. Certainly it doesn't make Artois immortal as an officer as there was already a line to cancel his immortality when you hire him.

At least it's cancelled early enough then.

The fixed dialog works, though not quite as I'd expected. Artois doesn't address you as "sir" or "ma'am". This is because he's French, which I hadn't realised until he addressed Helen Ardent as "Mademoiselle".

Hehe; that's even better then, isn't it?