Discussion Build 14 Beta 4.1 WIP: What's the Verdict?

[Pieter Boelen]

Is there anyway you can turn this file into a torrent?

That won't happen, because we know from experience nobody is going to bother seeding it.
But I could tonight upload it to an alternate server that might give a better download speed.

 

[Grey Roger]

I'm mainly wondering if there are still any actual players around who make use of our work.

@ANSEL does, for a start. His playtesting of "Ardent" has been most helpful, finding bugs and loopholes I missed during my own tests.

Meanwhile, some players are probably getting their "New Horizons" from ModDB, where they won't be playing the latest work because what's on there is Beta 4.0 and Beta 3.4. More recently we've had a report from someone playing Beta 3.3, wherever he got that from. (Doesn't Beta 3.4 report itself as Beta 3.3? I wonder if he's actually playing Beta 3.4.)

Announce that there's a rare Pokemon in Cartagena town centre. That ought to attract some new players.

 

[A.H]

It's not really issue of download speed, but generally the website downloading with my new internet is terrible.. even downloading from torrents can be a hastle.
But right now I'm downloading @ 40KBPS and 20MB have done... 5th attempt though

 

[Pieter Boelen]

@ANSEL does, for a start. His playtesting of "Ardent" has been most helpful, finding bugs and loopholes I missed during my own tests.

Indeed his testing has been most valuable! But from what I understand, he's currently playing Sea Dogs and hasn't really tried the most recent updates just yet.

Meanwhile, some players are probably getting their "New Horizons" from ModDB, where they won't be playing the latest work because what's on there is Beta 4.0 and Beta 3.4.

Yep, very true. That is why I'll be starting a promotional effort that will hopefully result in a really good Build 14 Beta 4.1 OR Build 14.0 being released within the next few months or so.

More recently we've had a report from someone playing Beta 3.3, wherever he got that from. (Doesn't Beta 3.4 report itself as Beta 3.3? I wonder if he's actually playing Beta 3.4.)

Indeed the main menu for Beta 3.4 does say 3.3 because I accidentally forgot to update that number in the menu.
A real 3.3 never really existed as that was another one of our internal WIPs.

I should probably remove 3.4 from ModDB, actually. I left it in place pending testing on 4.0, but I think with 4.1 out now, it is quite superfluous.

I was more concerned with the person who reported while playing on Beta 2.1!

Announce that there's a rare Pokemon in Cartagena town centre. That ought to attract some new players.

 

[A.H]

Last night an old man was driving his kids around to catch Pokemon and when we passed by, his car drove into a bush of trees... crazy world we live in.


PS.
Download complete! After 14th attempt, finally managed to download 97MB file

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Download complete! After 14th attempt, finally managed to download 97MB file

CONGRATULATIONS!

 

[ANSEL]

But from what I understand, he's currently playing Sea Dogs and hasn't really tried the most recent updates just yet.

Oh yes I have been playing this new update and I think it is one of the best ever made!

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Oh yes I have been playing this new update and I think it is one of the best ever made!

Thanks for the kind words!

Indeed with @Grey Roger's and @Armada's work on ship textures, it definitely feels much more "finished" than ever before.
And I must say, I quite like the relatively clean look of the Bug Tracker. After all our hard work, that is definitely good to see!

 

[HellSailor]

I would like to give a try soon on the latest version. Sadly these last months I have been very busy with college and I took a break from PotC (Because I decided to change and play other games, not because I don't like it).

On the version of 20th July I started a new campaign with smuggling as my career, but I couldn't continue with it due to a potentially bug of the dialogs of coast guards that couldn't continue with it. With latest patch, methinks that problem is fixed.

Other than that, the 20th July patch of Beta 4.1 looked pretty interesting, but I didn't go too much far.

 

[Tingyun]

Hi Pieter Boelen,

Just created an account here, specifically to respond to your inquiry regarding players enjoying your work. I recently discovered your modding efforts, and I just bought a used copy of POTC. Ended up paying around $50 for a used 13 year old game, but I know it will be worth it to be able to try out your mod.

I just downloaded the mod files for your recent 4.1 WIP, and will install and play tomorrow. I look forward to discovering this new game! I think I played sea dogs 15 years ago once or twice, but other than that this will be an entirely new experience for me.

I want to thank you and the rest of the development team for continuing to work on this mod!

 

[BlackHawk]

It seems it has been quite silent here over the past week or so and I've heard virtually no feedback on the 20 July 2016 release at all.

Who is still playing or working on the mod?
If you're playing, then what's the verdict? Is it pretty much all good? Or are there any massive issues that still need addressing on short notice?
If you're not playing, what's the reason? Anything wrong with the recent releases that are preventing you from enjoying the game?
If you're doing further development, what do you have lined up?

I may be able to find a bit of time this weekend to do some stuff, but I need to know what (if anything) is worth focusing on.
For the time being, I'm not intending to start on any new developments of my own just yet, so it's mainly "fixing and finishing" that I care about.
If there aren't any pressing matters, perhaps I can finally take the opportunity for a bit of promotion as that is long overdue.

This question especially @Jack Rackham, @Grey Roger, @ANSEL, @Jason, @Talisman,
though I welcome any and all feedback from whoever cares enough to respond.

I am still playing and like all mods...would still like to see some 40 pounders on some war ships

 

[Pieter Boelen]

@BlackHawk: The heaviest cannons in the game are sold by Vanderdecken.
Have you tried those yet?

 

[Grey Roger]

Note that in reality ships had different size guns on different decks. HMS Victory, for example, had 42 pounders on the lower deck, 24 pounders on the middle deck and 12 pounders on the upper deck. The game can't do that so what you have is effectively an average calibre of the various guns on the ship to give about the right total firepower.

If the ship has 42 pounders listed then that means it has 42 pounders on all three decks. In reality, having such heavy guns on the upper deck would probably cause it to capsize.

Vanderdecken, of course, allows you to cheat. What you get there bears no resemblence to reality. Other shipyards show a bit more restraint.

 

[BlackHawk]

Note that in reality ships had different size guns on different decks. HMS Victory, for example, had 42 pounders on the lower deck, 24 pounders on the middle deck and 12 pounders on the upper deck. The game can't do that so what you have is effectively an average calibre of the various guns on the ship to give about the right total firepower.

If the ship has 42 pounders listed then that means it has 42 pounders on all three decks. In reality, having such heavy guns on the upper deck would probably cause it to capsize.

Vanderdecken, of course, allows you to cheat. What you get there bears no resemblence to reality. Other shipyards show a bit more restraint.

all he has are 32 pounders..oh well will get by with then..they do a fare amount of damage..keep up the good work..loving the new mod..thank you

 

[Redbeard]

Man. Now that I have a copy of POTC, I installed New Horizons (4.1 or whatever the latest beta thingie is.) However, its quite a learning experience.

My history with pirate games falls back to Sid Meier's Pirates! and Black Flag. I played a dozen or so hours of Age of Pirates 2, and Sea Dogs to Each his Own. However, I've never gotten GOOD at the game. Its always been a bit confusing. Sid Meier's Pirates! (2004) and ACIV:Black Flag both are very simple games, whereas this is more of a simulation. Aop2 and Sea Dogs never stuck because you have to learn ALOT, and put in ALOT of time before you can get to the fun stuff. (I.e. piracy/combat.) Just learning the fencing mechanics and how to maintain my ship and crew was quite a chore. Figuring out how to find taverns, and what to stock so my crew doesn't mutiny. Figuring out what nation is which while sailing, so I know who to avoid, figuring out the different ammo types, and cannon sizes. Figuring out why my crew couldn't hit jack squat... etc. etc.

Right now I'm coming to grips with navigation. (Constantly consulting my maps is getting tiresome. )

Basically, this game has a very steep learning curve(more of a cliff really.) and I'm slowly overcoming it. That being said, New Horizons is leagues better than the base game, and I've only had two major bugs so far.

(The getting stuck in the tutorial, and a profile bug regarding 'player'. The default 'player' name was corrupting my saves for some reason. Luckily using a different name works fine. Yes I'm installed outside of program files.)

Anyhow, new player having fun! I think if you are looking for a pirate game, New Horizons is probably the most feature complete, yet in depth.

My one suggestion would be when you transition from port to your ship. For some reason the camera goes wonky. Yet when Im sailing and pause to board my ship and look around the camera seems fine. Its like when you first leave port or your cabin, and there are no crew members about, the camera wont go up or side to side as well. Hard to describe, but I guess I mean I would like for the camera to be more similar to Sea Dogs TeHO or AoP2.

 

[Tingyun]

Hi Redbeard!

I just started playing two weeks ago as well. It really is amazing work the team is doing with this mod, so much fun. I'd tried many of the recently released new pirate games, and always been disappointed. But New Horizons is amazing, so much better than any other pirate game, and they've been able to achieve that with a 13 year old engine!

 

[Eskhol]

Hi Pieter,

I just got back into the game after a while (played beta 3.0) and even though it's still the same mod for the same game it feels so different! There is a lot of new stuff and the game keeps getting better. I can't thank you enough for this. If it wasn't for you guys, we wouldn't have any good sailing game now. Can't wait for Hearts of Oak too!

I haven't run into any big issues, just the random crash after playing 5 hours or more, sometimes it's sooner or no crash at all.

The only thing that I find buggy is the Peter Blood quest to save his crew from Cuba. The port in Santiago made my game crash a lot for some reason. After I talked to Emilio and tried to get back in the city, 4 out of 5 times crashed while loading.
Also, while doing this mission, I'm not able to fast travel and sometimes I can't talk to people (I don't know if this is done on purpose or a bug) . Moreover when I arrive at Santiago, the port didn't show a port symbol, it was a shore symbol. The only time it showed a port symbol it was a lot more stable and didn't crash. I still have to try it without being in a quest to see if it's still buggy.

Anyways, that's just a really small part of a huge game and the rest works flawlessly!
Someone needs to start a let's play of this mod!

Edit:

I went back to Santiago with no quests and did a couple of tests. It worked fine. No shore symbol, no crash entering the city and no problem at all so I guess it was the quest that caused all of that.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

@Redbeard: While there is a lot of complexity in the mod, most of it can be disabled.
For starters, consider switching to Arcade Game Mode and starting a new game.
You can disable various other things in the Options menu too.
If there are any options you'd like but can't find, let us know and with a bit of luck we know a simple way of tweaking what you'd like.

@Eskhol: If that Peter Blood issue seems consistent, please make a Bug Tracker entry for it.

 

[Eskhol]

@Pieter,

Ok, I'll try it a couple of times with different storylines and see if it happens again.

 

[Redbeard]

Speaking of arcade mode, the manual didn't seem to give any information on the various modes.

I found an old MODDB post that stated the differences, but it was from like 2008.

Basically, Arcade mode makes the spyglasses do more, wind less effective when sailing into it, rigging more simplified, and a few other things? Or has it been changed more since than? I've been short on time, but I think later tonight I will give Arcade mode a try, see if its more to my liking, due to limited play time.