Mod Release Build 14 Beta 3 Progress

[Pieter Boelen]

.....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?).

There isn't anything in place to prevent the same character model being used multiple times in the same location. So that could happen.
The only check that IS in place is to prevent random characters from reusing player/officer models.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

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).

Good! It should be like that.

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.

I usally call the huge file the "main archive" or something like that.
At some point I added a check to the Installer EXE to give a warning if it was in your game folder, but that might have been added later.
Anyway: Problem of the past, already sorted.

The way it should work is that you need the "Beta 3 main archive" (which is identical between Beta 3 and Beta 3.1) and the Beta 3.1 Installer EXE.
Have both files outside your main game folder, but together and it should work. It messes up when they're IN your main game folder.

 

[Black Bart]

yeah i wasn't sure if it 'really' was a double char (probably not) or just a random chance of the same model being called for both sailors for hire. Not an issue really other than the top guys orientation issue.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

yeah i wasn't sure if it 'really' was a double char (probably not) or just a random chance of the same model being called for both sailors for hire.

I'm not sure if REAL double is even possible. Shouldn't be. You can compare their character names.

 

[Black Bart]

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

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.

Sadly i just get an 'unsupported compression method for LT_I.gm' error when i try to extract it. I've downloaded it a couple of times with same result.

This is a 7-zip archive isn't it? I've tried both 7-zip and ZipGenius so far, any ideas pedrwyth? And where does the file go, just in case it isn't obvious enough for me (and let's be honest, it probably won't be!)

Edit: interestingly, i was able to extract it under Linux's 'unzip' type program, but in windows neither of the two options i have worked. I now have an 8.2kb file, does that sound right? Just need to know where it goes

Edit 2! ok i found it \RESOURCE\MODELS\Locations\Inside\Largetavern

I'll let you know how it plays

 

[pedrwyth]

Partly Ninja'd

Just a standard 7-zip file as far as I'm concerned - I downloaded it re-extracted it and opened it in tool fine, It's 8241 bytes so the size sounds right.

Your quad person in 3.1 looks like the first attempt at "extra atmosphere" wasn't checking for unoccupied locators very well. That is similar to one of the other problems I fixed in the later builds (via creative use of candles locators) where the random NPC would get placed and then your main character was hard coded to sit at the same place when gambling/drinking. So no need to report that one! Oh and depending which dialogue you chose you could get stuck sitting there too so save before sitting. [If you want to retro-fit any of those other fixes just look back through my posts I usually post the altered files in the thread so it's fairly straightforward to see which files have been affected.]

 

[Black Bart]

Much better

No double/treble/quadruple headed crew for hire (although you only seem to be able to talk to two out of four).

No sidewise sitting officers at that top table. I've checked many times (during game start i always try to recruit a full compliment of Officers), so been in and out the tavern about 30-40 times.

it also thinned out (or seemed to) the number of soldiers when the tavern is packed, previously it was that chaotic (with interaction interuptions) that it was often best to exit and try again for a 'soldier' less load. Now there are about half the number of guys roaming around, so it makes the tavern playable.

Awesome stuff

 

[Pieter Boelen]

it also thinned out (or seemed to) the number of soldiers when the tavern is packed, previously it was that chaotic (with interaction interuptions) that it was often best to exit and try again for a 'soldier' less load. Now there are about half the number of guys roaming around, so it makes the tavern playable.

Just a locator file cannot have that effect; so that sounds like you just being lucky now.

At some point those numbers indeed WERE set too high, so I reduced them a while back.
Relevant file is PROGRAM\LandEncounters\LEnc_monsters.c .
This is the relevant section from Beta 4:

      //Levis Extra atmosphere -->
       if (ivcskip != -1)
       {
         if (Whr_IsNight())
         {
           //Night
           if(sti(GetStorylineVar(FindCurrentStoryline(), "WR_PUZZLES")) > 0 || sti(GetStorylineVar(FindCurrentStoryline(), "BUG_PUZZLES")) > 0)
           {
             //JRH
             Random_sailors_sit_tavern(3+RAND(3), GetLocationNation(location));
             Random_guard_sit_tavern  (  RAND(2), GetLocationNation(location));
             Random_sailors_group  (1+RAND(3), GetLocationNation(location));
             Random_guards_group  (  RAND(1), GetLocationNation(location));
           }
           else
           {   // PB: Total number of characters: Between 2 and 9
             Random_sailors_sit_tavern(1+RAND(2), GetLocationNation(location)); // 1-3 sitting sailors : always one sitting sailor
             Random_guard_sit_tavern  (2*RAND(1), GetLocationNation(location)); // 0-2 sitting soldiers: they come together or not at all
             Random_sailors_group  (  RAND(2), GetLocationNation(location)); // 0-2 walking sailors
             Random_guards_group  (1+RAND(1), GetLocationNation(location)); // 1-2 walking soldiers: always one walking soldier
           }
         }
         else
         {
           //Day
           if(sti(GetStorylineVar(FindCurrentStoryline(), "WR_PUZZLES")) > 0 || sti(GetStorylineVar(FindCurrentStoryline(), "BUG_PUZZLES")) > 0)
           {
             //JRH
             Random_sailors_sit_tavern(1+RAND(1), GetLocationNation(location));
             Random_guard_sit_tavern  (  RAND(2), GetLocationNation(location));
             Random_sailors_group  (  RAND(3), GetLocationNation(location));
             Random_guards_group  (  RAND(1), GetLocationNation(location));
           }
           else
           {   // PB: Total number of characters: Between 1 and 5
             Random_sailors_sit_tavern(1+RAND(1), GetLocationNation(location)); // 1-2 sitting sailors : always one sitting sailor
             Random_guard_sit_tavern  (  RAND(1), GetLocationNation(location)); // 0-1 sitting soldiers
             Random_sailors_group  (  RAND(1), GetLocationNation(location)); // 0-1 walking sailors
             Random_guards_group  (  RAND(1), GetLocationNation(location)); // 0-1 walking soldiers
           }
         }
       }
       //<--Levis extra atmosphere

 

[pedrwyth]

No double/treble/quadruple headed crew for hire (although you only seem to be able to talk to two out of four).

No sidewise sitting officers at that top table. I've checked many times (during game start i always try to recruit a full compliment of Officers), so been in and out the tavern about 30-40 times.

it also thinned out (or seemed to) the number of soldiers when the tavern is packed, previously it was that chaotic (with interaction interuptions) that it was often best to exit and try again for a 'soldier' less load. Now there are about half the number of guys roaming around, so it makes the tavern playable.

As @Pieter Boelen says 1 and 3 are just a change in chance (perhaps you were there at a different time of day this time) less placements mean less chance of a double (or more) on the same spot is all. The locator file only deals with number 2.

 

[Black Bart]

Possible, but after your patch it seemed quite noticable vs before that patch (in terms of number of NPC's). Could be luck, many times over.....i should have played dice at the table (or the lottery in real life!)

Thanks for the code section Pieter, i will amend that in this 3.1 build, as it felt much better in Beta 4 (and maybe Beta 3.4 too thinking about it).

I will just report a successfull Direct Sail from Speightstown to Jamaica (i did cheat once on route to go into the Map Navigation mode when i was about half-way there, just to check rough bearing, then back to Direct Sail). No CTD!

Keep in mind i always got a CTD doing the same in Beta 3.4 and Beta 4. I will do it again (and again no doubt) just to be sure this version might be ok for that problem. What is interesting about that is it seems, going on the buildinfo.txt that it was 3.1 (this version that did not CTD) that first introdced that 2GB limit addition to the ENGINE.exe that both Pieter and Levi thought might be the cause of those CTD's if running XP as an OS.

What i did also notice was that my personal flag changed during what i guess was some kind of transition/load, and i was stuck with Scottish flags until the next transition/load to get my actual personal flags back on my ship. I'm not sure this happened in Beta 4 or Beta 3.4, but it may be the both gave CTD before this event?

It took a while to make the trip with the open sea's mod on (so the world map is much larger), which was pretty awesome and something i know i will love when i get to play a game proper rather than testing. Oh the realism!

 

[Pieter Boelen]

What i did also notice was that my personal flag changed during what i guess was some kind of transition/load, and i was stuck with Scottish flags until the next transition/load to get my actual personal flags back on my ship.

I know sometimes stuff like that does still happen. As far as I can tell, it is purely a graphical error.
Probably changing flags back and forth would solve it too.

Keep in mind i always got a CTD doing the same in Beta 3.4 and Beta 4. I will do it again (and again no doubt) just to be sure this version might be ok for that problem. What is interesting about that is it seems, going on the buildinfo.txt that it was 3.1 (this version that did not CTD) that first introdced that 2GB limit addition to the ENGINE.exe that both Pieter and Levi thought might be the cause of those CTD's if running XP as an OS.

There was some weirdness going on with its inclusion. At some point I though it had been included, only for people to notice that it wasn't.
I really don't know what happened there.

 

[Black Bart]

ok well that might make sense if it was not actually included, as the 3.1 ENGINE.exe runs fine under XP as did the original PotC and previous Build Mods. So it might well indeed be that 2GB change if that actually happened after. Certainly the odd missing icons from the interface would indicate an issue refrencing memory properly (for XP only!).

All seems good in the 3.1 version for all that, no compatibility mode needed to load in towns either, and no CTD's during direct sail. Smoother performance in general vs 3.4 (i guess about the same at current Beta 4 in terms of fps?). Certainly very playable under older OS and hardware.

Edit: The details on the ENGINE.exe that came in the 3.1 download are that is dated 03 November 2013 @16:42:18

the size of the exe is 1.15MB (1,212,416 bytes). It reports the version as 1.0.0.1 (which they all do right?)

 

[Black Bart]

Ok so there are tonnes of things i love about my playing around with Beta 3.1.

It does not CTD when in direct sail mode like later builds do for me on XP.

The menu/GUI is pretty much perfect and as polished as i've seen the Build Mod.

Many of the changes (Abilities require different levels of ability points, general balance to NPC weapons and loot finds is very good, the addition of the Open Sea Mod makes direct sailing that much more realistic (so fun, in my book) etc).

Trouble is there are some things in Beta 3 that seem to have been carried over in general that are a problem.

I've had my first CTD in combat in direct sail mode in like forever......and this has also happened in the less stable (for OS XP) 3.4 and 4 Beta's so something is happening here that did not used to.

I also have little black tears in the sea at middle distance i have not seen previously.

Some of the text changes (to NPC's) i'm not that keen on , so i've started to revert back to what we had previously, but i come across new ones all the time, the latest from a guy that mocked my mullet, and then i could only reply back about sucking his erm....member or some such. Juvenile stuff that just pulls you out of the simulation (this is an Age of Sail simulation isnt it?). The concept of a 'mullet' did not exist back in the 1690's it was just hair, so this modern view and commentary from an NPC sort of blows the cover of the games premise imho.

Anyway here is the problem, it is just going to be pretty impossible to build up a Beta 1 build with the changes from the best of Beta 3 series, maybe only Pieter could do it, with an awful lot of time and effort, so yeah not likely to be the way forward for me (stuck on OS XP for PotC).

So what i think is going to happen is i'm going to try to put back stuff as it used to be (from Beta 1) where i see a problem, and somehow i need a thread to do that, but not this one, this is just to air the issues and give due warning!! I may need a hand as i work also to get Beta 4 ready at the same time

 

[Pieter Boelen]

What exactly is the main issue between Beta 1 Patch 7 and Beta 3.1?
There are some earth-shatteringly huge differences between those two; especially between Beta 2.5 and Beta 3.1 .

If it is just minor tweaks, those are easily dealt with; and then I'd suggest using the most recent game version that is still OK.

Also, if we ARE going to revert Beta 4 back to an earlier state, that will probably be Beta 3.3 .
So if you could test Beta 3.3 and confirm if that one seems mostly stable, that would at least be valuable information.

Any version prior to to Beta 3 is pretty much out of scope as far as I'm concerned.
Those are just so old it isn't even funny anymore.

Some of the text changes (to NPC's) i'm not that keen on , so i've started to revert back to what we had previously, but i come across new ones all the time, the latest from a guy that mocked my mullet, and then i could only reply back about sucking his erm....member or some such. Juvenile stuff that just pulls you out of the simulation (this is an Age of Sail simulation isnt it?). The concept of a 'mullet' did not exist back in the 1690's it was just hair, so this modern view and commentary from an NPC sort of blows the cover of the games premise imho.

If you can mention the exact texts (maybe with a screenshot?), those are easily changed.

 

[Grey Roger]

Partly Ninja'd

Just a standard 7-zip file as far as I'm concerned - I downloaded it re-extracted it and opened it in tool fine, It's 8241 bytes so the size sounds right.

Which version of 7-zip are you using? If it's too advanced, perhaps a beta version, then earlier versions of 7-zip may not recognise its files. I've been caught out that way myself, uploading a .7z file which other people couldn't read.

Perhaps save archives in .zip format instead? 7-zip can do that, and earlier versions of 7-zip can then read them without any problem, which is why anything I upload that needs to be zipped is in .zip rather than .7z format.

If you can mention the exact texts (maybe with a screenshot?), those are easily changed.

That would be "Gregor Samsa_dialog.h". (Mullets certainly did exist in the Age of Sail, though why anyone would be wearing a fish on his head, I have no idea. )

 

[Black Bart]

It is him, and the dialogue was a bit out the blue (it wasn't to suck his member actually, but skin him and pee in his mouth!) hmmm.

I don't mind rude stuff, i thought the older malcolm hatcher dialogue about the crew getting a vodoo priestess of love to tell their fortunes from the size of their.....member was more inkeeping with the setting of the game. Pirates were famous for debauchery and all that, but it needs to be done to fit the time period. The 80's (1980's that is) have not happened yet, Miami Vice has not existed and the Mullet hair cut would not be a reference anyone would use. Unless it was about fish after all?

Anyway a small issue, but it stood out!

@ Pieter, 3.3 was not working in terms of me being able to download it, but i do have a working version of 3.4 so maybe that would do for testing. It functions a bit better than Beta 4 under XP, but still has the CTD issue when doing full direct sail trips.

 

[Black Bart]

What exactly is the main issue between Beta 1 Patch 7 and Beta 3.1?

If it is just minor tweaks, those are easily dealt with; and then I'd suggest using the most recent game version that is still OK.

Yeah my experiment with the perk stuff from Beta 3.1, to try to get that working in Beta 1 did not really work out!!

Well the biggest concern i have with Beta 3.1 is the CTD during combat with 2 pirate ships, i can't remember the last time i had that situation in the Build Mod, so getting that was a surprise, especially as 3.1 works fine in direct sail. But that ship combat CTD worried me.

Also i have little black tears in the sea in 3.1, in the middle distance when the sea is pretty calm.

So in an ideal world i'd want to pull whatever code handles those things from Beta 1 Patch 7 (where these specific issues did not exist) to Beta 3.1.

anyway, we have our hands full with Beta 4 so much of this can wait

 

[Pieter Boelen]

It is him, and the dialogue was a bit out the blue (it wasn't to suck his member actually, but skin him and pee in his mouth!) hmmm.

If you've got a suggestion for an equally (or more!) entertaining version that fits in better, I'm all ears.

@ Pieter, 3.3 was not working in terms of me being able to download it, but i do have a working version of 3.4 so maybe that would do for testing. It functions a bit better than Beta 4 under XP, but still has the CTD issue when doing full direct sail trips.

Because Beta 3.3 was quite close to Beta 3.1, my hope would be that it is better than Beta 3.4 at least.

So in an ideal world i'd want to pull whatever code handles those things from Beta 1 Patch 7 (where these specific issues did not exist) to Beta 3.1.

Ideal indeed. Not so easy though....

 

[ExtincE]

You could just skip on this update for now. None of the changes are crucial.
Are you playing on "Iron Man Mode"? If so, you'd be getting the EVIL Stormy Start instead.
There you start out with as near to nothing as possible for an extra challenge.

Hey Pieter,

I know this is an ancient post by now and I'm quoting a much older build version here but:
I'm playing on the latest Build version and just started a new campaign yesterday. I went for Free Play and decided to start as Castaway on the difficulty after landlubber (I think it's mariner?) mainly as I didn't like the idea of starting with a lot of skillpoints already as all the other free play professions do.

I also started with a simple Dinghy with 100 cargo capacity though, and I'm not on iron man mode. I'm having a lot of difficulties finding out what developments have been made in Stormy Start / Super Stormy Start and eventually Castaway mode over the years as a newcomer to the Build mod.

The reason I'm looking into it at all is: In the quest book after the cutscene it says that some personal possessions have been washed ashore and I should go look for them. For the life of me I can't find them anywhere on the island. I checked every nook and cranny and chest and bush meticulously on all parts of it. Never found a thing. The quest book did update at some point though and now the initial start quest is noted as 'finished' even though I still dont own a single item other than the cobblestones and cheap spyglass I started out with.. Any idea what's up with that?

I also noticed that not a single store or merchant on the entire island had any weapons, medicines, or items. They only had cargo for sale. Not sure if this is supposed to be the case either?

Cheers,
ExtincE

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I also started with a simple Dinghy with 100 cargo capacity though, and I'm not on iron man mode. I'm having a lot of difficulties finding out what developments have been made in Stormy Start / Super Stormy Start and eventually Castaway mode over the years as a newcomer to the Build mod.

Evil Stormy Start eventually became Castaway.

In the quest book after the cutscene it says that some personal possessions have been washed ashore and I should go look for them.

I'm not quite sure what that entry means. As far as I'm aware, no items are deliberately hidden somewhere for you to find.
Only a spyglass and some cobblestones sounds about right for that Evil Stormy Start.

I also noticed that not a single store or merchant on the entire island had any weapons, medicines, or items. They only had cargo for sale. Not sure if this is supposed to be the case either?

So all item traders are completely without stock?

Are you actually playing Beta 3 instead of the latest versions?
I wonder if that might have something to do with it.