Mod Release Build 14 Beta 3 Progress

[MalikHyde]

The game seems sometimes to have a problem figuring out where you are when you switch from sailing mode to worldmap. I was next to Aruba, switched to sailing mode, found a couple of pirate tiddlers and chased after one, a naval cutter. This took some time partly because the wind wasn't all that strong and partly because it was blowing towards me (though the chase lasted long enough for it to change a few times). Eventually I caught the ship, by which time we were just out of sight of Aruba, so I switched to worldmap to get back and found myself the wrong side of Panama. The worldmap showed me right next to the west coast of Panama, stuck. Back to sailing mode, where I appeared to be in open sea, so I set course to northeast and set time compression to x20. After a while I switched back to worldmap, which showed me still stuck next to the west coast of Panama. After a few attempts I gave up and reloaded an earlier saved game. This isn't the first time worldmap has put me a long way from where I ought to be, though it is the first time I got that badly stuck.

I had this happen after heading SW from Cozumel in chase of some pirates. (Was in world map to begin with). Dropped into a battle with them and wound up chasing one for a while to catch up with it. Sink it, then hop to World Map and wound up with my ship on Panama (not in the water on land [in world map]) Dropped to open sea, set course NE, and bumped time compression to 30. Eventually got sail to option to a town, sailed to it, then hopped back to world map and my ship was in the correct place. Story: Masters and Commanders; Ship: Steam Frigate; Build 14 Release a little bit back. (I think the date showing is Dec. something 2013). This might need to be looked at, but its not overly aggrivating to me.

 

[Armada]

This sounds like a side-effect of a large part of the mainland not currently having a corresponding location in sailing mode.
If in Direct Sail you stray too far west or south-west, your ship will appear in or behind the mainland on the World Map because there's nothing to tell it to do otherwise.

To fix properly, this would unfortunately take a lot of time and a lot of testing to get it right. We'd need to add several more location models to the game and align them precisely with the World Map model, which isn't easy.

The best you can do for now is go back to sailing mode, point your ship eastward, and keep sailing for a bit before returning to the World Map.

 

[Jason]

I can take a look between the hockey matches.

I seem to recall that some time back some changed the firearms during boarding so that ammunition in the chest was no longer required for crew to use firearms. I wonder if something happened there that could be causing this problem?

 

[MalikHyde]

This sounds like a side-effect of a large part of the mainland not currently having a corresponding location in sailing mode.
If in Direct Sail you stray too far west or south-west, your ship will appear in or behind the mainland on the World Map because there's nothing to tell it to do otherwise.

To fix properly, this would unfortunately take a lot of time and a lot of testing to get it right. We'd need to add several more location models to the game and align them precisely with the World Map model, which isn't easy.

The best you can do for now is go back to sailing mode, point your ship eastward, and keep sailing for a bit before returning to the World Map.

I figured it would be that way. Keep up the good work anyways. Now off to see if I can't cobble together a small random quest line that hit me the other day. (First attempt at modding this so hopefully it goes well) Guess time to look at some code.

 

[Jack Rackham]

It was years since ammo were needed for other than pchar or officers.
Maybe you´re thinking of the small fix I made for muskets at boarding?

I have found so far:
1) landcrew didn't equip from weaponslocker. That is fixed now.
2) crew don't fire is related to ammomod somehow. Further investigation tonight.

 

[Grey Roger]

Back to sailing mode, where I appeared to be in open sea, so I set course to northeast and set time compression to x20. After a while I switched back to worldmap, which showed me still stuck next to the west coast of Panama. After a few attempts I gave up and reloaded an earlier saved game. This isn't the first time worldmap has put me a long way from where I ought to be, though it is the first time I got that badly stuck.

The best you can do for now is go back to sailing mode, point your ship eastward, and keep sailing for a bit before returning to the World Map.

So, as I was saying...

The problem is not that I sailed too far west, at least not as far as I know. The problem is that when I left sailing mode and went into worldmap, it put me a lot further west than I should have been, given that when the battle ended I was just out of sight of Aruba. I shouldn't have been anywhere near Panama; I shouldn't even have been as far west as Cartagena! Direct sail is supposed to detect when you approach another island, which means that going in that direction, the first indication that I was making significant progress westwards should have been a warning that I was approaching Curacao. No such warning appeared.

 

[Jack Rackham]

landcrew didn't equip from weaponslocker. That is fixed now.

Maybe this was intentional? I notice you can give weapons manually to your landcrew too.
I think it's more convinient if they use what's in the locker. Any other ideas about this?

 

[Armada]

So, as I was saying...

The problem is not that I sailed too far west, at least not as far as I know. The problem is that when I left sailing mode and went into worldmap, it put me a lot further west than I should have been, given that when the battle ended I was just out of sight of Aruba. I shouldn't have been anywhere near Panama; I shouldn't even have been as far west as Cartagena! Direct sail is supposed to detect when you approach another island, which means that going in that direction, the first indication that I was making significant progress westwards should have been a warning that I was approaching Curacao. No such warning appeared.

Well, that's a bit more of a mystery.
Weird things like that happened even before we added the mainland, possibly to do with the 'radius' of certain islands (the boundaries beyond which you leave the island at sea) being too big or overlapping. Maybe something strange happened between Aruba and Colombia that led the game to confuse your position, but I don't know how we could prevent that.

 

[Jason]

Maybe this was intentional? I notice you can give weapons manually to your landcrew too.
I think it's more convinient if they use what's in the locker. Any other ideas about this?

Well before we had this you could give your land crew weapons and if they died, their replacements also had the same weapons and that applies to blades as well. I think we should leave the land crew weapons selection alone and concentrate on fixing the ammo problem. Perhaps we could back to version where we still had to have ammo in the chest and if that works, just restore that.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

When getting out of the mainland back into the open sea one must sail for 5-7 DAYS to be sure of getting far enough away to get to clear seas.

I put shot and powder in the weapons locker and my crew still did not fire a shot during boardings. If giving the crew weapons on land lets them fire their guns, then will they also fire their guns during boardings?

 

[Jack Rackham]

I put shot and powder in the weapons locker and my crew still did not fire a shot during boardings.

No, they're not supposed to need ammo.

If giving the crew weapons on land lets them fire their guns, then will they also fire their guns during boardings?

For the moment being landcrew don't fire their guns neither if they are given them from the locker nor if given personally.

Perhaps we could back to version where we still had to have ammo in the chest and if that works, just restore that.

Yes but if I get that to work don't you think it's logical to put the weapons too in the locker together with the ammo?

I'll try to get it to work. But first a bunch of math tests to take care of.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Maybe this was intentional? I notice you can give weapons manually to your landcrew too.
I think it's more convinient if they use what's in the locker. Any other ideas about this?

I do like the idea of land crew using the weaponslocker. That would mean less micromanaging for the player.

 

[Grey Roger]

When getting out of the mainland back into the open sea one must sail for 5-7 DAYS to be sure of getting far enough away to get to clear seas.

Which, if you're doing the "Assassin" storyline and trying to stick within a 1 month deadline, is quite a significant delay...

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Truedat! But unless you are going to Havana or Turks you should still be ok.

 

[MalikHyde]

Okay, I think the two most annoying bugs are now fixed. I'm not going to start on the character customisation yet so anyone has any sugestion about what has priority now?
Also working on the dialog overhaul I need to get working so I can do the things I want. I think if thats done I'm going to try to make an updater, so if that works I can make them too. Pieter told me how to so lets see if I can get that to work then.

@Levis Curious if you had started on an updater. I had one I made for a program that might could be adapted for this. It just checked for a file version in a text file then compared it to a text file on the server then downloaded a file and replaced the stuff. If it was up to date it just started the program.exe and exited itself. I am a bit busy but can send you the .net code if you would be interested or heck possibly right it if I get some free time. Just let me know and till then happy pirating.

 

[ANSEL]

On boarding my men surly fire the muskets, I`m not sure of the other guns.I´ll look into it later.

 

[Jack Rackham]

Okay, I have them all firing their pistols now, both boarding and landcrew. I choose to let all characters
(pchar, officers, crew and enemies) use ammo. This will not be a problem because npchar:s are already given some ammo
(for looting reasons). Maybe those values could be raised a little...

The weaponslocker works now for both boarding and landcrew. You have to put ammo there as well though (for boarding) .
Landcrew can still be given all weapons and ammo by you personally.

The problem I ran into was that a Lightning hit a tree near my house and knocked out my internet connection +
set fire to the tree. The fire brigade fixed the tree and I'll upload something when I have restored internet.

 

[Grey Roger]

This sounds like a side-effect of a large part of the mainland not currently having a corresponding location in sailing mode.

The problem I was reporting is nothing to do with the mainland. The problem is that when you switch from sailing mode to world map, it sometimes puts you in the wrong place. The mainland was involved in this case only because the game had put me so far out of place as to be on the wrong side of it. In a more recent, less serious case, I was near the northwest point of San Salvador (alias Turks Island), heading south. I switched to worldmap, which put me next to Eleuthera, some way north of San Salvador. It didn't try to extrapolate where I was going and overshoot; it put me a long way in the opposite direction to where I'd been heading!

 

[Grey Roger]

The weaponslocker works now for both boarding and landcrew. You have to put ammo there as well though (for boarding) .

If you have an officer as a gunner and you board the ship with less than a full load of ammo, the gunner gives you ammo. Where does that come from?

If you have to stock the weapons locker with ammo, it's going to be long and tedious. You need to go to the locker, dump your six bullets and powder, go back to the store, buy some more, go back to the weapons locker, dump it, go back to the store, repeat until bored or until the store runs out of ammo. Or is there some quicker way to stock the weapons locker? In Build 13 you could stock it up at Redmond store.

 

[Jack Rackham]

Or is there some quicker way to stock the weapons locker?

I'll see what I can do...