Mod Release Build 14 GAMMA [Last Update: 31st December 2021]

[Grey Roger]

With the Merchants License I can not have any LOM.

Unless something has changed recently, you can. Last time I played "Tales of a Sea Hawk", that's exactly what I did. I started off as a merchant character (possibly by default), which meant I had a Merchant Licence right away, and then I bought a LoM from Silehard at the first opportunity. Later on I got Dutch and Portuguese LoM's as well. Raiding enemy ships, and later on raiding colonies, made me stupidly rich, and the Merchant Licence meant I didn't need to share it with the crew.

 

[ANSEL]

Yes! That's my way to play that story line too.

 

[ANSEL]

Alternative You could set the Salary Multiplier down to 2 ore 1.
I do that sometime, if I want to play as a peacefully trader.
( by the way: The word multiplier have a wrong spelling in
the in the interface " Mutiplier " )

 

[Grey Roger]

Thanks for spotting that, @ANSEL! It will be corrected to "Multiplier" for the next update.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. When one's actions against one nation causes another nation to get upset the LOM goes away. I only have 2 left now and don't know why one is still there while the others are gone.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. When one's actions against one nation causes another nation to get upset the LOM goes away. I only have 2 left now and don't know why one is still there while the others are gone.

Ah well, you do need to tread with care, that's true.
If I recall, your Ship's Log interface should contain a note if you upset any nations.
So if it happens again, please have a look there and if you don't understand the reason, post it here.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

LOMs disappearing, not able to get desired ships, constant mutinies because I actually succeeded in a treasure quest, A $million fee to stop the mutinies, no more smuggling, the ports turned into military bases, it all feels like i'm in a straight jacket and is not fun.

I'm playing other games now.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

LOMs disappearing

Doesn't happen without reason. So what's the reason?

not able to get desired ships

What is preventing you?

constant mutinies because I actually succeeded in a treasure quest

If you have money, you can buy a Merchant License, no?

no more smuggling

Why not?

the ports turned into military bases

What does that mean?

 

[Grey Roger]

LOMs disappearing, not able to get desired ships, constant mutinies because I actually succeeded in a treasure quest, A $million fee to stop the mutinies, no more smuggling, the ports turned into military bases, it all feels like i'm in a straight jacket and is not fun.

LoM's disappearing and mutinies due to lots of money from a treasure quest indicate that for some reason you have been convicted of piracy. If you have attacked something which you should not, you would simultaneously lose all the LoM's and the Merchant Licence.

What do you mean by "no more smuggling"? Do the smuggler agents in taverns not show up, do they refuse to do business with you, or are you able to sell illicit goods at the store without needing to smuggle? I've no idea why they'd refuse to appear at all. If for some reason the smugglers take a dislike to you (possibly because you double-crossed them, or you took a job from a governor to investigate smuggling and then used his document when coast guards appeared), you should have an option in the agent's dialog to pay them to forgive you. If you or your quartermaster have the "Trustworthy" perk then you can sell illicit goods at the store, but you can also still smuggle them if you prefer.

Some ports become naval bases in later periods. If you stick to "Golden Age of Piracy" or earlier, Port Royale and St. Pierre should still be civilian ports.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Smuggling is not worth the bother. After going through all the contrived artificial steps I find the reward too small and I get caught and have to fight against overwhelming naval fleets every time. And the punishment is too harsh.

So no more smuggling.

The ports are filled with herds of uniforms and often have no people in them at all! Just uniforms. I am only comfortable in the Pirate and smallest colonies. The others are military bases.

There are only two career paths in your game now. Piracy and a naval career. There is no place for me any longer.

 

[Grey Roger]

Are you saying all ports are now populated only by soldiers? Which period are you playing?

Port Royale and St. Pierre are supposed to become naval ports, so the port areas are filled with naval uniforms, but only in later periods. In "Golden Age of Piracy", which is the default period for a FreePlay game, those ports should still be populated by civilians. And when I play, they are. If you're seeing lots of naval personnel in "Golden Age" or earlier, or in any ports other than those two, something very odd is going on.

I'm not generally interested in smuggling but did try it once, with a FreePlay game as a smuggler character, just to see how it worked. I'd talk to a soldier in the tavern, bribe him to tell me when patrols were less likely, then went to the beach at that time. Sometimes there was a patrol of soldiers anyway, but if I was quick, I could run to the boat before they got close enough to fight. I almost never had coast guard ships - once, maybe twice, during the whole game.

So something seems to have gone badly wrong with your install. I suggest reinstalling from scratch - start from CD, then use the 31st August installer plus the zip update which are linked in the first post of this thread.

 

[Captain Murphy]

Yeah, I have never seen a town full of military, yet. Even the military ports only have fairly sparse uniforms wandering around (other than a patrol).

Smuggling is hit or miss for me. I tend to start smuggling when I get to about the tier 5 ships, which can usually take on the coast patrol if need be. I am currently doing a play through as a (mostly) merchant. Have a pretty hefty fleet of indiamen with my frigate escort that I am running island to island and making a pretty tidy profit. It doesn't hurt to capture a pirate port for yourself, then buy forgiveness again, to get a good base of operations.

My other save is solely capturing enemy ships and auctioning them off. Not really 'military' career, per se, but it does a good bit of profit, plus you get 'ranks' for some reason even though I am just a privateer.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Smuggling is not worth the bother. After going through all the contrived artificial steps I find the reward too small and I get caught and have to fight against overwhelming naval fleets every time. And the punishment is too harsh.

Ideally you should contact @Levis about that.
As far as I am aware, it does function, but you do need to put a bit more thought into it than in the past.
But if you time your smuggling well, then you should still be able to make a tidy profit.

There are only two career paths in your game now. Piracy and a naval career. There is no place for me any longer.

Merchant and Privateer should be totally possible.
@Grey Roger, you make use of both of those, don't you?

 

[Grey Roger]

I imagine that @Hylie Pistof is classing privateer along with naval. But yes, that's my preferred career path most of the time.

Trading, i.e. buying goods where they're exported and supposedly cheap, then selling them where they're imported and supposedly expensive, doesn't work too well. Probably the difference in commerce skill and perks between you and the storekeeper is wiping out the profit, or possibly something else is affecting it. So the only way to make a profit as a merchant is to ask the storekeeper for a job, then take a cargo quest. (Marc Blacque tells you that was his way of making a living, too. "I had my own merchant ship. It wasn't very big, just your average sloop, but I made pretty good money delivering goods throughout the archipelago.") Fetch quests could also bring in some money.

But the time when I tried my hand at smuggling, I didn't do too badly. It wasn't as profitable as privateering or outright piracy, but I certainly ended up richer than when I started. (I even finally tried my luck with the "Smuggling for Thomas O'Reily" sidequest, and promptly decided that the caravel which you end up chasing has no place in "Colonial Powers". The captain now has a different ship depending on which period you're playing. )

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Port Royale and Havana at night are the ones that have uniforms only. The others vary from a few people to a single soldier.

I carry cargo for merchants only as there is no profit in any other enterprise. I only get LOM in order to have access to certain ships I desire. Haven't seen a Brandenburg Frigate anywhere yet.

Outside of side quests to unlock perks and the occasional treasure quest (I'm 3-10 so far) that is my game.

Smuggling didn't work when I tried it. There was always a fleet that would chase me halfway across the Caribbean and when I would return to that island's waters they would always be there waiting for me. Haven't bothered this year.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Port Royale and Havana at night are the ones that have uniforms only.

At night, regular citizens are indeed missing and only the night patrols are left.
It has been like that since the stock game.

Smuggling didn't work when I tried it. There was always a fleet that would chase me halfway across the Caribbean and when I would return to that island's waters they would always be there waiting for me. Haven't bothered this year.

I do remember that. I also remember changing that so that when you return, the Coast Guard ships should no longer be there.
So if you are still basing your decision on old information, you might want to reconsider. A lot has happened since.

 

[Grey Roger]

@Hylie Pistof: I also remember you running afoul of the new relations system, in that you'd flown a Portuguese flag while going into a port which was at that time friendly to Portugal; then that nation turned hostile to Portugal, so when you went back to that port under a different flag, the fort attacked you because it remembered you as Portuguese. To prevent that, there's a toggle in "InternalSettings.h" called "RELATION_IGNORE_FRIENDLY". Change the value of that to 1. That should prevent a similar incident - if you enter port under a friendly false flag, it won't record you, so if that flag later becomes hostile, you'll still be safe if you visit the same port under a different, friendly flag.

 

[Jack Rackham]

@Grey Roger Are you going to make another zip soon including my latest uploaded files?

 

[Grey Roger]

Yes, I plan on doing one each month unless there's nothing new that month.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

At night, regular citizens are indeed missing and only the night patrols are left.
It has been like that since the stock game.

The difference is in the number of uniforms. At Philipsburg there is only one uniform while at Havana there are so many it is hard to get up the stairs. 20-30 of them. Also it is rare in most ports for there to be no people while in others even during the day people are rare compared to the number of uniforms.


I do remember that. I also remember changing that so that when you return, the Coast Guard ships should no longer be there.
So if you are still basing your decision on old information, you might want to reconsider. A lot has happened since.

I quit the game shortly after that and have no desire to do any smuggling again. I play as a legal merchant only. Also, the only time I ever had mutinies before was Virgila Mendez, and I just let him go. The actual sailing part is the only part of the game that I enjoy anymore.