Mod Release Build 14 Beta 3 Progress

[Pieter Boelen]

True.

Ok. I sometimes go from port to my cabin to add stuff to the weapons locker and then save.

If you go back to port, you can save there.
We could try to enable saving on your ship if you came from port instead of from 3D sailing mode.
Should be possible somehow, but would require a bit more research. If you consider it important enough, please post a Feature Request on the Bug Tracker.

 

[Bartolomeu o Portugues]

I updated my POTC version right now with the last updates and now I note in the Assassin Storyline, we can change the starting date... Not good

 

[Pieter Boelen]

This line is missing from the Assassin.c file:

sl.(sn).start.date.lock = true;

 

[Bartolomeu o Portugues]

Yes, I already added that in my version. Don't forget to do the change in your next update.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Already done in my own code.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Everyone who plays this mopdack version, please participate in the new performance survey here:
http://www.piratesahoy.net/threads/modpack-performance-survey.24859/

 

[Hylie Pistof]

When I hit F2 and then hit any button in the menu that comes up, none of the buttons works. This also happens when trying to pick up items from a chest. This last happened to me a long time ago and someone found a fix, but I could not find that thread in a search.
There are 3 different games in this install and this only afflicts one of them. The others work fine. Can anyone remember the fix?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Remove options file? Reset controls to default? I don't remember at all.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

I tried deleting the options file but it did not work.

It turned out to be a bad save. I went back to the last save and all is well now.

 

[Black Bart]

(very sorry for digging up these older threads!)

Ok so Peiters link to the older Beta 3.1 (and older!) versions here:

Pirates of the Caribbean PC Mods | GameWatcher

That 3.1 install, with Part 1 and Part 2, did not easily install for me, as i had prepared a default PotC install (from the euro version CD's) and tried to install ontop of that, but it did not work (just using those two files). It would complain about not having Beta 3 installed first or something like that. So i had to unzip the main b14_beta3_full file (the big one) first and copy/paste that over the clean PotC install, then run the installer which seemed to do the trick.

And boy.....7.4Gig required! my poor old hard-drives have been having hard time with this now fourth install of the Build getting installed. Is 3.1 bigger than the other versions, over 7 GB seems huge to me!

So i'm just putting this here for reference. And do we not have a specifc Build 14 Beta 3.1 thread if this is not it? If not i will post other stuff here.

The main purpose is to see if i don't get the Direct Sail CTD's that i have been getting in later versions, i'm sort of having to work backwards to try to see where these issues first arose.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

That 3.1 install, with Part 1 and Part 2, did not easily install for me, as i had prepared a default PotC install (from the euro version CD's) and tried to install ontop of that, but it did not work (just using those two files). It would complain about not having Beta 3 installed first or something like that.

I cannot remember the specifics of how that installer worked.
There is a reason why I changed the process for Beta 4 and it is a lot simpler and more reliable now.
Which means that people can still manage to do it wrong.

So i had to unzip the main b14_beta3_full file (the big one) first and copy/paste that over the clean PotC install, then run the installer which seemed to do the trick.

Just to remind me, could you show the exact error it gave you?
Manually unzipping is basically not ever a good idea, because that skips over some pretty important steps so you could end up with missing files.

And boy.....7.4Gig required! my poor old hard-drives have been having hard time with this now fourth install of the Build getting installed. Is 3.1 bigger than the other versions, over 7 GB seems huge to me!

If I recall, Beta 4 is over 10 GB now. We did have a LOT of ships in some of the earlier betas though and we cleaned out the substandard ones at some point to reduce the size.
But I think we did that before the Beta 3 release.

And do we not have a specifc Build 14 Beta 3.1 thread if this is not it?

I couldn't find another in a hurry, so this one should do just fine.

The main purpose is to see if i don't get the Direct Sail CTD's that i have been getting in later versions, i'm sort of having to work backwards to try to see where these issues first arose.

Definitely a noble effort!

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Beta 3.1 only lasted a month or two before getting replaced by beta 3.2, which was a disaster, so there is no feedback on it. @greyroger might still have it as I remember he was still playing it not too long ago. I am STILL uploading beta 3.3 to my Dropbox so you can try it if you like. It installs in the usual manner of putting part 1 and part 2 in the same folder and then pointing it at your POTC install.

There was some confusion about naming part 2 at one point and it needed to be renamed to work properly.

 

[Black Bart]

Just to remind me, could you show the exact error it gave you?
Manually unzipping is basically not ever a good idea, because that skips over some pretty important steps so you could end up with missing files.

Step 1: install new default PotC
Step 2: place both part 1(installer) and part 2(HUGE file) in that directory (next to ENGINE.exe etc) Also tested outside the game folder, same issue.
Step 3: run installer

Step 4: not a victory! The message was something like 'could not find buildinfo.txt, you need to first install Beta 3 Full before running the installer' or words to that effect, and when i checked the install path to the game some game files were missing; the 'PROGRAM' folder iirc, but the 'RESOURCE' folder was there. So it was all a bit strange and a new one for me and installing the Build Mods

Anyway it not only didn't install it broke the default PotC install so i ended up installing a few times trying to work out what the heck was going on.

Step 5: the solution was to unzip the HUGE file first and copy paste that into the normal place (so into the default PotC install) so all the files were in place (including the buildinfo.txt!) THEN with the installer and HUGE zipped file in the same folder as normal, run the installer and it happily installed everything i just previously copy/pasted. So that was all from those two files, the installer and HUGE zip part 2 file. very strange.

So it worked sort of as intended, it just seems that particuar installer requires a Beta 3 install.....before installing one (well kind of)

Beta 3.1 only lasted a month or two before getting replaced by beta 3.2, which was a disaster, so there is no feedback on it. @greyroger might still have it as I remember he was still playing it not too long ago. I am STILL uploading beta 3.3 to my Dropbox so you can try it if you like. It installs in the usual manner of putting part 1 and part 2 in the same folder and then pointing it at your POTC install.

There was some confusion about naming part 2 at one point and it needed to be renamed to work properly.

Beta 3.1 seems pretty close to what i was playing in 3.4 and 4, so many of the changes in those are under the hood so to speak. I have the same map as you guys in the latest build, same interface (and i must say compared to by beloved Beta 1 patch 7 version you did great things with the games interface, very polished), and some of the same bugs i still found in 3.4 and 4

So hopefully over the next few days i can test out Direct Sailing and see how this one sails. I'm also running tests on Beta 1 Patch 7 because i could swear i had no major CTD's while direct sailing, atleast not frequent like in Beta 3.4 and Beta 4.

Will report back in this thread how Beta 3.1 is for that particular issue

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Do you have a buildinfo.txt in your POTC folder? I seem to remember having to copy it from one install to another, but methinks I deleted it to clean up said install.

 

[Black Bart]

yeah...pretty sure i do (that old PC is off, just as i head for bed, so can't check all 4 installs i'm currently running!) i believe i have it in all of them....possibly

I can report back tomorrow for certain, and i never manually placed it, i think the install process makes it.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Beta 3.1 only lasted a month or two before getting replaced by beta 3.2, which was a disaster, so there is no feedback on it.

Did Beta 3.1 last that shortly? I can't remember that now.
I definitely DO remember the Beta 3.2 situation, where I ended up having to remove a whole bunch of brand new content because it worked almost right, but not quite.
With the "not quite" basically meaning "totally not". Oopsie....

Step 1: install new default PotC
Step 2: place both part 1(installer) and part 2(HUGE file) in that directory (next to ENGINE.exe etc) Also tested outside the game folder, same issue.
Step 3: run installer

Step 4: not a victory! The message was something like 'could not find buildinfo.txt, you need to first install Beta 3 Full before running the installer' or words to that effect, and when i checked the install path the game some game files were missing (the 'PROGRAM' folder iirc, but the 'RESOURCE' folder was there.

Anyway it not only didn't install it broke the default PotC install so i ended up installing a few times trying to work out what the heck was going on.

Step 5: the solution was to unzip the HUGE file first and copy paste that into the normal place so all the files were in place (including the buildinfo.txt!) THEN with the installer and HUGE zipped file in the same folder as normal, run the installer and it happily installed everything i just previously copy/pasted.

So it worked sort of as intended, it just seems that particuar installer requires a Beta 3 install.....before installing one (well kind of)

That is odd. The way it was meant to work (and still is) is that the Installer EXE extracts the 7-Zip archive for you.
Once that is done, "Build Info.txt" should exist and it will proceed to install the latest update files on top.
If there is an issue that prevents extracting the archive, there should have been a warning earlier than the "Build Info.txt" one.
But the fact that the PROGRAM folder got deleted suggests that it DID get started on that process and subsequently failed.

I can think of two reasons for that:
1. That particular installer could NOT handle being placed inside the game folder itself; it HAD to be somewhere else, such as the desktop
2. It would extract the archive first locally (same folder as the Installer EXE) and move the files to the game folder afterwards

Both those things didn't help with reliability and are corrected with the Beta 4 process.
Before, Windows Security Stupidity (WSS) was even worse.
And having not enough HD space during install on the drive where you stored the Installer EXE could break it as well.

Beta 3.1 seems pretty close to what i was playing in 3.4 and 4, so many of the changes in those are under the hood so to speak. I have the same map as you guys in the latest build, same interface (and i must say compared to by beloved Beta 1 patch 7 version you did great things with the games interface, very polished), and some of the same bugs i still found in 3.4 and 4

So hopefully over the next few days i can test out Direct Sailing and see how this one sails. I'm also running tests on Beta 1 Patch 7 because i could swear i had no major CTD's while direct sailing, atleast not frequent like in Beta 3.4 and Beta 4.

Will report back in this thread how Beta 3.1 is for that particular issue

Thanks again. If I recall, Beta 3.1 and Beta 3.4 should not be hugely different; there is just some added stuff in Beta 3.4 (some which made that 1-second stutter much worse).
You can have a look at the "Build Info.txt" file for some details.

 

[pedrwyth]

you know those tavern 'sitters' sitting in the wrong places (facing the wrong way clipping into tables etc).

Well that goes all the way back to Beta 3.1 (and maybe earlier? but not as early as Beta 1 Patch 7!) i'm currently testing, and it a much more severe issue in both Beta 3.1 and 3.4, as in it happens more often than it did in Beta 4 (and that was already too often). So yeah i'm going to pick some folks brains over what was causing that, as it really needs to be completely fixed up, it looks too weird

I'll reply here because the attached file IS N'T compatible with the latest build (14 beta 4).

The cause goes back to stock PotC (nothing new in that!) where the locator for sit 10 was placed such that any character trying to use it would appear to stick on the floor above. This was an undiscovered problem since, as far as I can see, no use was made of that particular locator (in the rush to meet the film tie in perhaps).

The "extra atmosphere " mod introduces additional character placements which randomly use any unoccupied sit locator - so our "broken" locator is brought into play and the public eye. [We have had similar locators in another tavern model with upper and lower floors. ]

Any offending character is orientated and positioned to fit on the sit 10 but never makes it so is stuck half in the table and facing the wrong way upstairs. Simplest fix would be to remove the locator with tool but that leaves a gap in the sit numbering which could cause problems (or at least missing random characters) with the "extra atmosphere" since the numbers do not stop at 10 (and one of the higher numbers is used extensively in gambling and drinking - so renumbering would be a further pain).

So here is my replacement locator file in which I moved sit 10 upstairs to that other table and rotated the character orientation. However for putting in 14 beta 3.4 (and earlier) I have reverted two other locators to group type sit from candles which had solved some other "tavern" problems you may have not (yet) encountered (long story - available elsewhere on the forum) since there were numerous other code changes elsewhere with that particular solution.

 

[Black Bart]

Oh nice stuff pedrwyth So i can use this in both 3.1 and 3.4 right (but not 4)? I will test it out and report back. I might have to pick your brains a little more on the issue, but i will make note of which files we are talking about here and try to take up as little of your time as possible, and thanks very much for this unasked for file for the older versions, deserves a virtual piratey beer in my book

.....and for all our general fun on this issue a couple of screenshots, one from Beta 3.1 and one from Beta 3.4 (i already gave the Beta 4 for Pieters attention (or just the save and he posted it perhaps?).

 

[Black Bart]

Do you have a buildinfo.txt in your POTC folder? I seem to remember having to copy it from one install to another, but methinks I deleted it to clean up said install.

Update, yeah just checked all 4 installs (Beta 1 patch 7, Beta 3.1, Beta 3.4 and Beta 4) and all have the buildinfo.txt in the main \Pirates of the Caribbean\ directory.

The install process put it there (no copy/pasting from my side).

 

[Black Bart]

I can think of two reasons for that:
1. That particular installer could NOT handle being placed inside the game folder itself; it HAD to be somewhere else, such as the desktop
2. It would extract the archive first locally (same folder as the Installer EXE) and move the files to the game folder afterwards

And having not enough HD space during install on the drive where you stored the Installer EXE could break it as well.

Yeah this particular installer didn't like being in the same game directory, so i had to move it out of there, and i also did the same for HUGE file (it probably has a correct technical name right ) as it seemed to complain about it not being in the same place as the installer (iirc). I wonder if 3.1 was meant to be installed over beta 3 perhaps (or an earlier build mod?). But just from those two 3.1 files i had to think 'creatively' to get it all installed correctly.

Space may have been a problem too, when all files were in the game directory it did run out of space (i had 10.1GB spare in the harddrive before the install process).