Another steam frigate

[Grey Roger]

The steam frigate is, of course, total fantasy. No such ship ever sailed during any of the periods covered by the game, even during the time of Napoleon.

So if we're going to be that imaginative, why not go one stage further? What happens if some enterprising pirates steal one of these ships?

 

[ANSEL]

The steam frigate is, of course, total fantasy. No such ship ever sailed during any of the periods covered by the game, even during the time of Napoleon.

So if we're going to be that imaginative, why not go one stage further? What happens if some enterprising pirates steal one of these ships?
View attachment 29447

Well! This ship is real looking evil . Maybe you shout write a storyline about
a real skilled engineer, who's turning pirate(for some reasons) and build that boat to
terror for the Sea. Why not, it could be funny to play with it.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

So if we're going to be that imaginative, why not go one stage further? What happens if some enterprising pirates steal one of these ships?

That one's got "Vanderdecken" written all over it!

 

[Oldtimer]

The steam frigate is, of course, total fantasy. No such ship ever sailed during any of the periods covered by the game, even during the time of Napoleon.

So if we're going to be that imaginative, why not go one stage further? What happens if some enterprising pirates steal one of these ships?
View attachment 29447

Yeah,

but didn`t Fulton build a steam powered self-propelled battery during the 1812 war?
IF so then the idea of steam propulsion during late Napoleonic period isn`t totally outlandish.

Rgds, Oldtimer

 

[Grey Roger]

Well! This ship is real looking evil . Maybe you shout write a storyline about
a real skilled engineer, who's turning pirate(for some reasons) and build that boat to
terror for the Sea. Why not, it could be funny to play with it.

I'm already in the closing stages of a storyline which has taken me rather a long time. When that's done, I have a couple of other projects in mind. A storyline about a steam pirate isn't one of them. Someone else is welcome to have a go. Or even just draw up a free-play character, a pirate version of Robert Fulton.

That one's got "Vanderdecken" written all over it!

That's another way to make it accessible.

Yeah,

but didn`t Fulton build a steam powered self-propelled battery during the 1812 war?
IF so then the idea of steam propulsion during late Napoleonic period isn`t totally outlandish.

There were some limited experiments with steam power in the Napoleonic time period. You're thinking of the Demologos, a barely mobile self-propelled fort which was unsuitable for travel on the high seas. There were also plenty of small scale civilian projects limited to use on rivers. The first steam-powered warships were no more than sloops, starting with some British specimens in the 1820's. Frigate-sized ships didn't appear until later than that.

By the same logic, we should also have submarines in the game as the same Robert Fulton also designed the Nautilus.

At present, steam frigates can appear very rarely in the Napoleonic period, or you can play as FreePlay character Robert Fulton who gets one for free. Whether you capture one after one of the rare random encounters or start off with Fulton's ship, the pirate version can be an alternative colour scheme available in the shipyard:


Or, if you enable Cheatmode and can choose freely among all ships of the period, you can get it in FreePlay:


This is how the Kraken's Revenge appears when at sea:


@Pieter Boelen: any objection to including this in the next post-7th January archive?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

@Pieter Boelen: any objection to including this in the next post-7th January archive?

No objection at all; go right ahead.

I'd be inclined to not have her appear in any random encounters or available for purchase from shipyards.
But a Vanderdecken ship available as repaint option sounds perfect.

There were some limited experiments with steam power in the Napoleonic time period. You're thinking of the Demologos, a barely mobile self-propelled fort which was unsuitable for travel on the high seas. There were also plenty of small scale civilian projects limited to use on rivers. The first steam-powered warships were no more than sloops, starting with some British specimens in the 1820's. Frigate-sized ships didn't appear until later than that.

At present, steam frigates can appear very rarely in the Napoleonic period, or you can play as FreePlay character Robert Fulton who gets one for free.

Hence why we called Robert Fulton's ship "Demologos" in the end.
We did that, right?

Of course there is no real historical realism here as the chronology is quite wrong.
But I like having them show up once in a while, just to add some variety to the Napoleonic time period.

By the same logic, we should also have submarines in the game as the same Robert Fulton also designed the Nautilus.

If someone would make a fun submarine, I don't mind having it in the game. Could be fun to mess around with!
That "Nautilus" does seem like a better fit than the "Turtle". Of course THIS Nautilus is probably my favourite one ever:

But that really is VERY much fictional!

 

[Grey Roger]

No objection at all; go right ahead.

I'd be inclined to not have her appear in any random encounters or available for purchase from shipyards.
But a Vanderdecken ship available as repaint option sounds perfect.

Fair enough. refShip.CanEncounter and refShip.CanBuy set to false, so no random encounters and none for sale. refShip.Model still set so anyone who gets a British, French or US steam frigate by any other means can repaint it to look pirate. I've no idea how to set up Vanderdecken.

Hence why we called Robert Fulton's ship "Demologos" in the end.
We did that, right?

Yes, Robert Fulton gets a US version named Demologos.

Of course there is no real historical realism here as the chronology is quite wrong.
But I like having them show up once in a while, just to add some variety to the Napoleonic time period.

How about a toggle in "InternalSettings.h" to enable or disable steamships? Then have "Ships_init.c" do something like this:

if(ENABLE_STEAMSHIPS == 1)
{
    refShip.CanEncounter   = true;
    refShip.CanBuy       = true;
}
else
{
    refShip.CanEncounter   = false;
    refShip.CanBuy       = false;
}

And then increase the refShip.period.5 and refship.<nation> values. So anyone who doesn't want steamships for reasons of realism never sees them at all, and anyone who does want them has a better chance of finding one.

If someone would make a fun submarine, I don't mind having it in the game. Could be fun to mess around with!
That "Nautilus" does seem like a better fit than the "Turtle". Of course THIS Nautilus is probably my favourite one ever:

But that really is VERY much fictional!

Yes, I'd rather like that one as well. And then have FreePlay character Captain Nemo so you get to play with it. Submarine technology should already be available in the game, to some extent, since the Flying Dutchman is effectively a submarine. The rules for ramming would need to change; at present you take damage and the other ship doesn't, but that would need to be reversed for Nautilus as its only weapon was ramming.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Fair enough. refShip.CanEncounter and refShip.CanBuy set to false, so no random encounters and none for sale. refShip.Model still set so anyone who gets a British, French or US steam frigate by any other means can repaint it to look pirate. I've no idea how to set up Vanderdecken.

You just did!

Vanderdecken automatically sells all ships that are CanEncounter = false and CanBuy = false .

How about a toggle in "InternalSettings.h" to enable or disable steamships? Then have "Ships_init.c" do something like this:

if(ENABLE_STEAMSHIPS == 1)
{
refShip.CanEncounter = true;
refShip.CanBuy = true;
}
else
{
refShip.CanEncounter = false;
refShip.CanBuy = false;
}

And then increase the refShip.period.5 and refship.<nation> values. So anyone who doesn't want steamships for reasons of realism never sees them at all, and anyone who does want them has a better chance of finding one.

Maybe have that toggle at the top of ships_init.c together with some of those other fuzzy toggles I added?
In any case, if you think such a toggle has added value, you're welcome to add it.
I prefer if they're left enabled by default though; otherwise people will never notice that cool feature we added!

To make the code cleaner, you could also use:

    refShip.CanEncounter   = ENABLE_STEAMSHIPS;
    refShip.CanBuy               = ENABLE_STEAMSHIPS;

That is functionally equivalent, because 'true' and 'false' are literally defined in the code as '1' and '0' .

Yes, I'd rather like that one as well. And then have FreePlay character Captain Nemo so you get to play with it. Submarine technology should already be available in the game, to some extent, since the Flying Dutchman is effectively a submarine. The rules for ramming would need to change; at present you take damage and the other ship doesn't, but that would need to be reversed for Nautilus as its only weapon was ramming.

My thoughts exactly!
Though especially the Nautilus would need a proper interior, unlike the Flying Dutchman.

 

[Grey Roger]

Next question - will this work?

   int shipidx;
   shipidx = GetShipIndex("US_SteamFrigate");
   if (shipidx != -1)
   {
       ShipsTypes[shipidx].CanEncounter = false;
       ShipsTypes[shipidx].CanBuy = false;
   }
   shipidx = GetShipIndex("FR_SteamFrigate");   
   if (shipidx != -1)
   {
       ShipsTypes[shipidx].CanEncounter = false;
       ShipsTypes[shipidx].CanBuy = false;
   }
   shipidx = GetShipIndex("RN_SteamFrigate");   
   if (shipidx != -1)
   {
       ShipsTypes[shipidx].CanEncounter = false;
       ShipsTypes[shipidx].CanBuy = false;
   }

That's to go into Hornblower's "StartStoryline.c". Regardless of any justification for steamships appearing in 1812 or later, they certainly shouldn't be appearing in 1798, which is when the story starts, and I imagine the number of steam frigates mentioned in the "Hornblower" books can be counted on the fingers of one foot.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

In one of the last books, Hornblower remarks on the wonders of a steam tug in a US port.
So indeed, no frigates.

I think that will indeed work, until anyone presses F11 which will set them back to default.
You may also want to have a look at the ModifyShip function which is used to swap out the cursed ship in the Jack Sparrow storyline.

 

[Grey Roger]

I think that will indeed work, until anyone presses F11 which will set them back to default.

Good enough. Even if someone presses F11 they'll have no more chance of seeing a steam frigate than they do now, which isn't all that often as they're set to be rare. If they don't press F11 then Hornblower definitely won't see one.

You may also want to have a look at the ModifyShip function which is used to swap out the cursed ship in the Jack Sparrow storyline.

Jack Sparrow's "both_reaction.c" contains a couple of calls on 'CrimsonBlood_ModifyShip', which sets up alternative stats for the Crimson Blood and then calls 'ModifyShip' to transfer those stats to the 'ShipsTypes' array. To do something similar, I'd need to create a new function which sets up new stats for all steam frigate variants and then uses 'ModifyShip' on them.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Good enough. Even if someone presses F11 they'll have no more chance of seeing a steam frigate than they do now, which isn't all that often as they're set to be rare. If they don't press F11 then Hornblower definitely won't see one.

Jack Sparrow's "both_reaction.c" contains a couple of calls on 'CrimsonBlood_ModifyShip', which sets up alternative stats for the Crimson Blood and then calls 'ModifyShip' to transfer those stats to the 'ShipsTypes' array. To do something similar, I'd need to create a new function which sets up new stats for all steam frigate variants and then uses 'ModifyShip' on them.

Looking at that code now, it may not even solve the problem at all.
So probably better to keep it simple like you did.

 

[Oldtimer]

I absolutely support inclusion of submarines as "Turtle" and Fulton "Nautilus" in the game. Perhaps as AI-controlled harbour defence ships?