Unconfirmed Bug Bugs (Re-)encountered in build 14 february 2019

[Grey Roger]

An orange screen? That sounds more like a problem with the PC, possibly the graphics card. PoTC generally crashes by freezing, then either crashing out with a Windows message about it stopping working, or getting stuck and needing to be stopped with Task Manager. Sometimes it crashes out with a Windows message about abnormal program termination, usually because of a mistake in the code which results in an "error.log" file being generated. To crash out with an orange screen and the keyboard inoperative would imply a fault in the basic engine, and that hasn't changed for ages.

However, just to be sure, could you say which was the last version you had that worked properly? If it was the version with the 18th December update, I should be able to make an install similar to that as I still have the December version. Then I can do a WinMerge check with an install using the February update and see if there's anything which could make crashing more likely.

Swedish ships in general should not remember you as being pirate, though any which saw you flying a pirate flag will do. Check the "Relations" screen to see if Sweden has turned hostile to any nation, or to you personally. Or, next time a Swedish ship fires at you, check "compile.log", which should show what nation it thinks you are.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

The crashes were unique as I have never had that combination of things happen before. That said I have played many more hours with combat on both land and sea and the game has been running as well as it can. There are the usual sound dropping out momentarily issues but that's all.

All nations are now behaving correctly too. I don't know what caused the glitch but it seems to be resolved now. I'm kinda sorry to have bothered you now since all seems to be well.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I don't know what caused the glitch but it seems to be resolved now. I'm kinda sorry to have bothered you now since all seems to be well.

Don't worry about it. Better to report too much than not enough, right?

 

[Grey Roger]

Don't worry about it. Better to report too much than not enough, right?

Absolutely. If you report a problem, we might or might not be able to fix it. If you see a problem and don't report it, we definitely can't fix it. If you report a problem which turns out not to be a problem, no harm done!

I'm reminded of a story about a lookout on a warship who reported spotting an enemy ship, which turned out to be a cloud bank which looked a bit like a ship due to lighting. The captain said something along the lines of "Good man, bad luck this time, keep up the good work". He didn't want to give the lookout a telling off because then the lookout might be more careful, and next time it might be an enemy ship which looked like a cloud bank...

 

[ExtincE]

That does indeed sound more like a potential hardware issue than something PotC specific as you describe it, Hylie. Especially the randomness and the lack of ability to effectively reproduce it as well as the Orange screen.

I do get a lot of the 'abnormal program termination' crashes but they're usually easy to overcome. Just save frequently

What a harder-to-catch bug is and hard to reproduce is when a ship will always mutiny, even though they have high morale and a 10 leadership captain as well as food and rum supplies.. Sometimes this can be fixed by simply giving them a different captain and then sailing off and swapping captains again, but not always.. can take quite a lot of time to find a combination of actions that fix it sometimes.. thankfully happens rarely.

 

[Grey Roger]

That's not a bug. There are several reasons why the crew may mutiny.

Your choice of captain is indeed one. Look at your reputation, then look at the officer's. If you're good ("Bloke", "Matey", "Dashing", "Hero") and he's evil ("Rascal", "Swindler", "Bloody Terror", "Horror of the High Seas") - or vice versa - then he'll incite the crew to mutiny. "Neutral" officers will work with anyone, otherwise make sure any officer you put in command of a ship is on the same side of the reputation spectrum as you. The more extreme the difference, the quicker he'll mutiny.

If you have over 1,000,000 gold, the crew will get envious, and you should receive a warning. Failing to heed it will lead to mutiny. You can keep them happy by signing articles, after which you'll pay the crew by dividing your gold with them every few months. This will be done at any loanshark. If you have signed articles and haven't divided your plunder for about 120 days, expect trouble...

 

[ExtincE]

Ohhhh... interesting! I had no clue! I'll pay attention to that from now on!

 

[ExtincE]

So I started a new Nathaniel campaign and I spawned on Nevis, so I instantly got Artois Voisey.. and according to my quest log, he died and thus the quest is finished. He's in perfectly good health though. No idea why it happened. There was a tavern brawl, but he barely got scratched? funny bug, but I could've really used the reward early on, haha

 

[Grey Roger]

If it's only the start of the game, start again and do the same. If the quest again closes because it thinks Artois Voysey has died, quit the game, then upload both a savegame and "compile.log". Then I'll see if I can figure out what has happened.

 

[ExtincE]

If it's only the start of the game, start again and do the same. If the quest again closes because it thinks Artois Voysey has died, quit the game, then upload both a savegame and "compile.log". Then I'll see if I can figure out what has happened.

Im thinking perhaps I hit him myself during the tavern brawl and that prompted the quest ending, but there is no quest log entry for that situation? I didn't really wanna start over as I captured a 22-gun sloop of war with corsair upgrade 10 minutes later

 

[Grey Roger]

You should not be able to do any significant damage to any of your officers, nor should they be able to do any significant damage to you. There are a few exceptions. You can kill an officer by using a poisoned weapon. Grapeshot pistols, musketoons and grenades hurt everyone in an area, friend or foe alike, which incidentally means you don't want to put grapeshot pistols or musketoons in your weapons locker. And if an officer gets stunned, you can kill him and so can your other officers, which means be careful when you go to visit Clint Eastwood... But generally, if you hit Artois with a sword, he shouldn't take more than a point of damage.

There is no specific quest entry for how Artois dies. Originally there wasn't any, so if he got killed, the quest could never close. At someone else's suggestion, I added a check for Artois getting killed, which closes down the quest and ends the questbook with a simple entry that he died. It specifically looks for Artois being dead and should be unable to trigger otherwise.

 

[ExtincE]

That's good to know! But not applicable in my situation. I'll see if i can reproduce it this weekend

 

[Pieter Boelen]

musketoons in your weapons locker

Too bad actually, since I understood that historically musketoons are muskets deliberately modified for use in boardings.

 

[Grey Roger]

Yes, because they were basically short-barrelled muskets, easier to use in cramped conditions. In reality you would have trouble using a full size musket below deck. Also, if they were loaded as shotguns, the user would probably have enough sense not to fire it when anyone on his side was standing somewhere in front of him. The crew in the game don't have that sense, so they're as likely to hit each other as they are to hit the enemy. If it's the enemy using them, the guy at the back with the musketoon is almost as much use as another crewman on my side.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Yes, because they were basically short-barrelled muskets, easier to use in cramped conditions. In reality you would have trouble using a full size musket below deck. Also, if they were loaded as shotguns, the user would probably have enough sense not to fire it when anyone on his side was standing somewhere in front of him. The crew in the game don't have that sense, so they're as likely to hit each other as they are to hit the enemy. If it's the enemy using them, the guy at the back with the musketoon is almost as much use as another crewman on my side.

Yep; all true.
Stupid AI.

 

[Grey Roger]

Perhaps remove the shotgun effect? If the musketoon were simply a short-barrelled musket, with slightly lower damage, lower accuracy and the same ammo, it would be more useful on deck. Ideally the crew should not take muskets even if they're in the weapons locker, and any player or officer using one in a deck location should get some sort of penalty, though I don't know how to accomplish any of that.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Perhaps remove the shotgun effect?

I think it used to not have it as well. It might've been me who added it, once I heard about how it's supposed to work in real life.
But I have no real loyalty to that.

If the musketoon were simply a short-barrelled musket, with slightly lower damage, lower accuracy and the same ammo, it would be more useful on deck.

I haven't played the game in forever and I don't think that is going to change any time soon.
Feel free to change it whichever way you think improves the gameplay for you.

Ideally the crew should not take muskets even if they're in the weapons locker, and any player or officer using one in a deck location should get some sort of penalty, though I don't know how to accomplish any of that.

We can figure out ways, I'm certain. Maybe just search for "weaponslocker" in the PROGRAM folder and then place an exception on muskets there somewhere.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

That does indeed sound more like a potential hardware issue than something PotC specific as you describe it, Hylie. Especially the randomness and the lack of ability to effectively reproduce it as well as the Orange screen.

I do get a lot of the 'abnormal program termination' crashes but they're usually easy to overcome. Just save frequently

What a harder-to-catch bug is and hard to reproduce is when a ship will always mutiny, even though they have high morale and a 10 leadership captain as well as food and rum supplies.. Sometimes this can be fixed by simply giving them a different captain and then sailing off and swapping captains again, but not always.. can take quite a lot of time to find a combination of actions that fix it sometimes.. thankfully happens rarely.

I believe it was a software issue actually. Yesterday morning in the usual maintenance routine it found 3 registry errors. It took care of them and then there was no sound. This is an old issue as it seems that Macroshaft has it in for Creative and wrecks their drivers a few times a year. I reinstalled the creative sound drivers and reset some things that Macroshaft helpfully re-enabled and all is well.

The win10 eent viewer started working again too and it shows those crashes as "the system became unstable". Ya think?

In this time there was one "normal" crash which the event viewer says was caused by the POTC geometry.dll. Not much anyone can do about that methinks. Other than that I'm up to level 19 and the only other thing is that the CastelF is way slower than it should be. It's about the same as a light pinnace and slower than a light fluyt and way slower than a Polacca.

 

[ExtincE]

There is no specific quest entry for how Artois dies. Originally there wasn't any, so if he got killed, the quest could never close. At someone else's suggestion, I added a check for Artois getting killed, which closes down the quest and ends the questbook with a simple entry that he died. It specifically looks for Artois being dead and should be unable to trigger otherwise.

So I tried to reproduce Artois dying in a tavern brawl. So I started a new game, with Nathaniel storyline, playing as nathaniel. Only thing I changed was my nation, namely to Pirate, as to spawn on Nevis.

2 things interesting happened: 1: Malcom claims Spanish ships are coming rather than French. And 2: I can't fast travel anywhere, I'm stuck on deck, can't set sail, can only go to captains cabin, cargo hold and crew's quarters and that's it. (after his remarkable mentioning of Spanish Ships, he said something like also, yesterday you told me to remind you of some stuff, to which I answered I remember everything just fine, after which he walked out and I am apparently stuck here).

In case it's interesting, here's a save and all log files.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Malcom claims Spanish ships are coming rather than French.

That's normal; unless you start the Standard Storyline as English or Personal, he can mention ANY nation that is hostile to you.
Because what should he say if you start as French, for example?