A few things, I'm a bit puzzled about

[Fluen]

These are not bugs, but I don't think, I understand why you have made them this way.

1. About healing remedies: How come the player can't see, how many health points each remedy restores?
2. In build 12-2 Peter Blood was Bartholomeu O Portuguese in both name and apperance. What is the reason behind this change?
3. I've started a new game as a trader, where I try to pay my way to everyting (like being left in peace by all nations). I haven't figured out, what determines what ships are available to me in the shipyards. Will I get a chance to buy myself a nice galleon?
4. My new game as a trader is based on the free play storyline set in the late 1600's (as the game decided). For some strange reason I've made myself a target for local mercenaries/hitmen, when I land on Saint Martin. Almost every time I land in (mostly) Phillipsburg, I'm attacked by five men in the harbour area and one outside the store. Is this somehow linked to a quest, I've turned down? I've avoided all quests aside from cargo quests and fetch quests, and the numbers five and one in the mentioned areas are strangely consistent.

 

[Mikafu]

These are not bugs, but I don't think, I understand why you have made them this way.

1. About healing remedies: How come the player can't see, how many health points each remedy restores?
2. In build 12-2 Peter Blood was Bartholomeu O Portuguese in both name and apperance. What is the reason behind this change?
3. I've started a new game as a trader, where I try to pay my way to everyting (like being left in peace by all nations). I haven't figured out, what determines what ships are available to me in the shipyards. Will I get a chance to buy myself a nice galleon?
4. My new game as a trader is based on the free play storyline set in the late 1600's (as the game decided). For some strange reason I've made myself a target for local mercenaries/hitmen, when I land on Saint Martin. Almost every time I land in (mostly) Phillipsburg, I'm attacked by five men in the harbour area and one outside the store. Is this somehow linked to a quest, I've turned down? I've avoided all quests aside from cargo quests and fetch quests, and the numbers five and one in the mentioned areas are strangely consistent.

Alright I'm here to help you out as much as I can

1)I'm not sure as I'm in build 14. But following Sea dogs games logic, the bigger the red/pink potion, the more the healing effects.
2)(unsure)
3)Your level determines what ships are available in the shipyard. So theoretically, you can eventually get a galleon from the shipyard. But remember, bigger ships, no matter the level, will still be rarer than smaller ships. The realism and advanced settings may remove this level system though.
4)It is a common thing even in build 14. These are simply thugs/crooks and in no way related to any quests. If there is was a quest you can see it in the questbook.

 

[Grey Roger]

1: As far as I can tell by looking at old files, the description has never shown the amount healed in Build 14. You can look at "PROGRAM\ITEMS\initItems.c" to find out. Look for a bunch of lines which start 'n = InitPotion'.
2: Bartolomeu o Portugues has his own storyline set in 1660. Also, in earlier versions, if you played the "Bartolomeu" storyline you'd arrest a pirate called Nathaniel Hawk, and Bartolomeu's sword's description said that it was given to him by the Portuguese governor for arresting Nathaniel. All this is very odd if you're playing in 1750, you are Nathaniel Hawk, and especially if you've bought a Portuguese LoM. So the sidequest character became Peter Blood and the pirate in the "Bartolomeu" storyline became Charles Baxter.

 

[Levis]

About number 1, we could very easily add that. Do you think it would be usefull?

 

[Fluen]

In the stock game the health points restored was part of the item description. That's why I wondered, why it was removed. In my oppinion it would make it easier for a player to use the right health item to restore exactly the needed amount of points, if the player knew the "value" of each health item.

 

[Grey Roger]

The entries for potions in the stock game's version of "ItemsDescribe.txt" are exactly the same as those in the modded version - no mention of health points. But right at the top of the file is the line 'Potion parameters{Medical Remedy}'. A bit of digging showed that "Potion parameters" is used in "PROGRAM\INTERFACE\items.c". The code checks if an item has the "groupID", which in the stock game is for items which can be equipped - swords, guns and spyglasses. And also armour in the modded game. If the item has this attribute and it's a sword or gun (or armour), the code displays its data. If the item does not have the "groupID" attribute, the code checks if it's a potion and if so, displays its medical data.

In the modded game, medical items do have the "groupID" attribute. So the code to display their data, which is still present, is never called.

There's an easy fix for that. In the code for stuff with the "groupID" attribute, make a new case for potions, then copy the code to display medical data into that case. The result:


Download the attached file and put it into "PROGRAM\INTERFACE". (If you've picked up any bottles of rum or wine during your travels, take a look at them now...)

Next question, for everyone: do we want the data to always show up? Dependent on realism mode (only in "Arcade" mode, or disabled only in "Iron Man" mode)? Dependent on difficulty level (disabled for "Swashbuckler", perhaps also for "Sea Dog")?

 

[Levis]

I'd say show it always. it's not random info or anything. You can use it once to figure out how much it heals anyway, so to not show it on higher difficulties only makes it a bit more frustrating but not really more difficult.

 

[The Nameless Pirate]

Same here, I think it should be shown always.
It's not hard to figure out how much it heals you anyway. Just comparing your HP before and after can give you the answer.
So it's not something I would tie to the difficulty.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

1. About healing remedies: How come the player can't see, how many health points each remedy restores?

Missing feature.
And, by the sounds of it, basically A BUG.

In build 12-2 Peter Blood was Bartholomeu O Portuguese in both name and apperance. What is the reason behind this change?

Bartolomeu is a real historical character and so it would be weird for him to show up in the Napoleonic age.
Peter Blood is a famous fictional character, so it's slightly less weird.
Or so we figured at least.

I've started a new game as a trader, where I try to pay my way to everyting (like being left in peace by all nations). I haven't figured out, what determines what ships are available to me in the shipyards. Will I get a chance to buy myself a nice galleon?

On default settings, the bigger (navy) ships are not sold to anyone without an official commission or Letter of Marque.
You might still see them, but you'll get a message saying you can't buy it.
Regular galleons are considered "merchant" ships though and so those would not have this restriction.

Other than that, bigger towns generally have the bigger ships; but a lot is just plain random.

My new game as a trader is based on the free play storyline set in the late 1600's (as the game decided)

How did the game decide that?
As far as I can think, that should be FOR YOU to decide.

For some strange reason I've made myself a target for local mercenaries/hitmen, when I land on Saint Martin. Almost every time I land in (mostly) Phillipsburg, I'm attacked by five men in the harbour area and one outside the store. Is this somehow linked to a quest, I've turned down? I've avoided all quests aside from cargo quests and fetch quests, and the numbers five and one in the mentioned areas are strangely consistent.

@Grey Roger, do you have any thoughts on that one?

All I can think of is that a certain group of characters got accidentally offended and now don't want to calm down anymore.
That sometimes happens, doesn't it? But usually with Pirates, I thought...

In the stock game the health points restored was part of the item description. That's why I wondered, why it was removed. In my oppinion it would make it easier for a player to use the right health item to restore exactly the needed amount of points, if the player knew the "value" of each health item.

Seems to have been an accidental side-effect that nobody picked up on.
Until now!
So good job and thank you for drawing our attention to it at least!

Download the attached file and put it into "PROGRAM\INTERFACE".

Nice fix!
Please put in new update.

Next question, for everyone: do we want the data to always show up? Dependent on realism mode (only in "Arcade" mode, or disabled only in "Iron Man" mode)? Dependent on difficulty level (disabled for "Swashbuckler", perhaps also for "Sea Dog")?

Fair question.
Don't have any strong feelings either way.
So might as well go with the simple solution: always show.
At least that'll give ALL players a nice "new" feature to admire.

 

[Grey Roger]

Bartolomeu is a real historical character and so it would be weird for him to show up in the Napoleonic age.
Peter Blood is a famous fictional character, so it's slightly less weird.

That might be true, but as I recall, we were more concerned with game history than real history. More precisely, I was concerned about game history.
Fixed - Time travel

How did the game decide that?
As far as I can think, that should be FOR YOU to decide.

By default, FreePlay starts in 1685. If you pick a Specific or Named character, the start date may be set to be appropriate to that character. You can change the date, if you've realised that you can click on the date to change it.

@Grey Roger, do you have any thoughts on that one?

All I can think of is that a certain group of characters got accidentally offended and now don't want to calm down anymore.
That sometimes happens, doesn't it? But usually with Pirates, I thought...

In another thread, @Fluen said she takes crewmembers ashore. That can generate extra attacks.

Fair question.
Don't have any strong feelings either way.
So might as well go with the simple solution: always show.
At least that'll give ALL players a nice "new" feature to admire.

I'd have considered limiting it by realism setting. If you take some medicine in reality, you (hopefully) feel better, but not to the extent of knowing exactly how high a percentage better. Then again, in reality you don't know your HP either.

That's three so far in favour of having it always show. So it will always show, unless there are any objections before the next update comes out with this version of "items.c" included.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

That might be true, but as I recall, we were more concerned with game history than real history. More precisely, I was concerned about game history.
Fixed - Time travel

Hehe; fair enough.
Both types of logic yield the same result anyway.

By default, FreePlay starts in 1685. If you pick a Specific or Named character, the start date may be set to be appropriate to that character. You can change the date, if you've realised that you can click on the date to change it.

True; many options would just leave the default starting date.

In another thread, @Fluen said she takes crewmembers ashore. That can generate extra attacks.

Absolutely true!

And indeed that explains her description I just read about a hostile island being covered in patrols.
That did remind me of that feature as I don't think it happens unless you take crew ashore.

I'd have considered limiting it by realism setting. If you take some medicine in reality, you (hopefully) feel better, but not to the extent of knowing exactly how high a percentage better. Then again, in reality you don't know your HP either.

That's three so far in favour of having it always show. So it will always show, unless there are any objections before the next update comes out with this version of "items.c" included.

Well, the realism setting DOES indeed hide certain other numbers too.
So if you want to tie it in with that, at least it matches already established game logic.
That's also fine by me.

 

[Fluen]

Another thing, I'm puzzled about: how come none of the traders sell gems and jewellery anymore? I'm stuck with too much money (about to make a thread about that too) and would like to convert some of that money into gems. But no, only treasures and corpses have gems now.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Another thing, I'm puzzled about: how come none of the traders sell gems and jewellery anymore?

What is your character level?
Low-level items stop showing up (to avoid cluttering the interface) and the highest level jewellery is 12.

 

[Fluen]

It's somewhere in the eighties. So I can't buy any jewels anymore?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

It's somewhere in the eighties. So I can't buy any jewels anymore?

That does explain it.

And I'm not sold on this effect to reduce interface clutter.
It's a good idea for a great many items; especially weapons and stuff.
But people have run into annoyances from it too; like you do now.

I actually had to put in some special exception code to ensure you can always buy a low-level pickaxe/shovel if ever you need one for a Treasure Quest.
Bit of a silly "manual override" that is...

 

[Grey Roger]

I wonder if it would be possible to rework the minlevel code? Instead of having an exception for some items so that they're not affected, would it be possible to only apply the minlevel code to weapons which have the quality attribute? That would reduce the clutter from all the variants of the same weapon, while still allowing weapons without quality - including pickaxes and shovels - to appear all the time.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I wonder if it would be possible to rework the minlevel code?

Possible? Absolutely.
Thinking through the desired logic might be a bit trickier.
But it certainly can be done.

I think it's related to the code surrounding IT_DROP_LOWQUAL_ITEMS in PROGRAM\ITEMS\items_utilite.c (GiveNewItemsToTrader function).

 

[Fluen]

Honestly, it's the weapons section, that is stuffed. There are much fewer things in the items section. So removing the jewels didn't really make a difference. And I have discovered the use of the "shift"-key to quickly move through things in each section. Perhaps just make a line about that in every section of the trader menu? That might help the player tremendously.

Completely unrelated, but something I've noticed a few times: in the "Strange things going on in the archipelago"-quest, the enemy cult was originally said to be satanists (stock game). For unknown reasons that was changed to animists in a later build. Now you are going back to satanists, which I find better. But there are still remnants of the animist-name in items and locations and the quest book. I'm aware, that the Teacher can't go around and tell everybody in a strongly christian town, that he's a satanist, but everywhere else it might be corrected.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Honestly, it's the weapons section, that is stuffed. There are much fewer things in the items section. So removing the jewels didn't really make a difference. And I have discovered the use of the "shift"-key to quickly move through things in each section. Perhaps just make a line about that in every section of the trader menu? That might help the player tremendously.

True.
I think the "minlevel item hiding" was added before we ever had Tabs in the item interfaces in the first place.
Now that we do have those (thanks, @konradk!), we could consider undoing some of those earlier changes.

In the Nations Relations and Archipelago Map interfaces I added some text to explain extra functionality.
This shows only the first time you open the interface.
Maybe something similar could be done here for that Shift trick?

Completely unrelated, but something I've noticed a few times: in the "Strange things going on in the archipelago"-quest, the enemy cult was originally said to be satanists (stock game). For unknown reasons that was changed to animists in a later build. Now you are going back to satanists, which I find better. But there are still remnants of the animist-name in items and locations and the quest book. I'm aware, that the Teacher can't go around and tell everybody in a strongly christian town, that he's a satanist, but everywhere else it might be corrected.

As far as I remember, it might've been INTENDED as Satanists from the start; but it was Animists already in the stock game.
The mod should have it all changed to Satanists, as we believe it was originally meant to be.
There aren't still in-game references to Animists; are there?

Also... I haven't got much of a clue on what is the difference...

 

[Grey Roger]

The loading screen for the cave still says "Animists' Lair", and it's not the stock loading screen because it has the newer star symbol on the ground. But neither Father Bernard's nor Padre Domingues' dialogs still mention Animists. There is, however, a line in the Teacher's dialog when you've killed the prison commander and now demand that the Teacher shows you the way to the Animists' lair. As @Fluen says, the Teacher is unlikely to go round calling himself a Satanist, but by this point you already know that they're Satanists because Father Bernard has told you.

The questbook seems to mention both Animists and Satanists.

Both the dialog file and questbook are easily fixed, and will be in the next update.