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

[Pieter Boelen]

The Black Pearl-storyline, is it also available on "Free play"-characters or is it Nathaniel Hawk-exclusive?

That's the main Nathaniel Hawk story from the original game, but you can change your name and outfit in that storyline to whatever you want.
If you want to play it as if you're Hornblower or Blackbeard, that is very possible.
As long as you start the game with the "Tales of a Sea Hawk" storyline, it'll be available.

Alternatively, there is the Jack Sparrow storyline which also features the Black Pearl, of course.
That one is fully separate from the original game Nathaniel Hawk version.

And you can get the Black Pearl from Isla da Muerta in virtually every storyline.

Also, can you capture cities like in CoAS, only that you have to "learn" it before?

You can capture colonies without needing to learn everything.
All you need are an officer to assign as governor and fort commander, along with a big ship, lots of crew and good stats.

Colony management is still underdeveloped though.
All you can do is set the tax levels and rename your own towns.
Nobody will ever try to take your towns from you again, so you can conquer the Caribbean without playing "whack-a-mole".

You can also build anything anywhere regardless of whether you own the location or not (only exception are ship decks).
Also regardless of whether it makes ANY sense at all and regardless of how it looks.

 

[Dat Scharger]

Hm, are you sure that you don't have to "learn" the ability to capture cities? I know that I raided a Spanish town once, with the governor telling me to never come back and then all other nations hated me, including those who are hostile to Spain.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Hm, are you sure that you don't have to "learn" the ability to capture cities? I know that I raided a Spanish town once, with the governor telling me to never come back and then all other nations hated me, including those who are hostile to Spain.

I know that very certainly; there's no "learning" involved.
As far as I know, that is a requirement in AoP or CoAS.
But in PotC:NH it is mod-added functionality, so it's all very different from the later games.

There are two reasons though why you might have been unable to capture the town:
- You need 1-2 spare officers to assign as governor and fort commander.
- Some towns in some storylines cannot be captured to avoid that messing up their stories.
Best example is all stock game towns (Barbados, Jamaica, Bonaire, Martinique, Grenada, Puerto Rico) in the stock game storyline (Tales of a Sea Hawk).
If I recall, this limitation is lifted once you complete the main quest.

 

[Dat Scharger]

So I guess, if I take a "Freeplay"-character, I can conquer the Carribean to my heart's content?

Also, is it intended that everyone hates you after a successful capture?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

So I guess, if I take a "Freeplay"-character, I can conquer the Carribean to my heart's content?

Yep.

Also, is it intended that everyone hates you after a successful capture?

That depends on the conditions of the capture.
If I recall, it follows the same rules as with sinking/capturing any ship.
Have a look at the explanatory questbook, book item and ship's log entries for some in-game help.

It matters what the nation relations are, what your relations are, whether you're a privateer or a pirate and what flag you're flying.
For example, any attack not only upsets the nation you attack, but also their allies.
And any attack under a flag neutral/friendly to the nation you attack will condemned by ALL nations.
Basically, all nations expect you to follow some common "rules of war".
You don't NEED to follow that, but if you don't, they will get upset.
Except for the pirates, of course! They'll appreciate it, so you'll be welcome with them.

I can imagine this may seem fairly complicated, but it is also gives realistic consequences to player actions and should allow for better role playing.
It is a good idea to decide what kind of path you want to follow. Are you a privateer? A pirate? A merchant? A smuggler? A combination?
And are you willing to switch paths if you make a mistake or something unexpected happens?
If not, there are way to make amends, but that'll cost you as well.

If you just want to do whatever you want and consequences be damned, I'd recommend you join the pirates.
After all, that's what they're for.

 

[Dat Scharger]

Alrighty then, given that you can start in different time periods with their own nations, towns and ships, a question:

Does starting out in an older period actually increase the difficulty?

In the old EIDOS-game "Unter schwarzer Flagge" (Look it up on YouTube - it's only in 2D, but is, I think, easily the most complex and hardest pirate game out there), choosing the year you want to begin with decides the difficulty. Because over time, towns would become wealthier, better protected and stronger enemies are roaming the seas. Even Tortuga, which you could easily raid with your starter-sloop right at the beginning to gather enough glory-points for the mightiest ship in the game, would become entrenched in fortress-walls.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Does starting out in an older period actually increase the difficulty?

Not really, no.
Unless certain combinations of nation relations affect difficulty somehow.
Or if availability of certain types of ships does.
But there isn't really any conscious relation between the year/period and the difficulty.

There is a separate difficulty setting and the realism levels also have a substantial impact in how challenging the game is.
Plus, there are the many complex features in the mod that you can toggle off if you want.
So there are plenty of ways to control the difficulty. But not really through the starting date.

Actually, it wouldn't be a bad idea to somehow relate fort strength and town size to the year.
But that would require someone to program it; it's not there now.

Another thing I'd like to see is that the chance for certain nation ships would depend on how many colonies that nation has.
That way, taking over towns would have a larger impact on gameplay.
And it would also make the Spanish presence in the early time periods more substantial.
But I don't think that would be a simple addition to make...

 

[Wolf93]

In the old EIDOS-game "Unter schwarzer Flagge"...

By the way, kinda off-topic, but for anyone interested, the game is called Cutthroats: Terror on the High Seas in English. It's from the same devs of Gangster 1/2, so you get an idea.

 

[Dat Scharger]

That is an... odd request, but could someone give me a screenshot of the 1st-rate-cabins in front of the table in 1st-person-view, please?

 

[Grey Roger]

You can get this easily yourself. Start up a FreePlay game as Cutler Beckett. He gets the Endeavour right from the start. That means you'll begin the game in the cabin for which you want the screenshot.

If that's not the 1st rate ship cabin you want, you'll need to tell us exactly which ship you mean.

 

[Dat Scharger]

These extra fixes, do I copy the contents simply into their respective folders with overwriting everything?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

These extra fixes, do I copy the contents simply into their respective folders with overwriting everything?

Yep. First install the latest EXE update, then extract the ZIP on top, overwriting everything.

 

[nich666]

This excludes a lot of experimental work done over the past few months!
In other words: This is intended primarily to provide the best and most stable gameplay we can provide.

Here we go ~
Thanks for all the hard work with getting the latest Mod release it is working perrrfectly; with one exception.
I start a new game and with low rankings one swipe from a sword and i'm a gonna. That's normal.
To get round this 'keep dying all the time' before the mod, I used the moonwalk sideways slide out of reach until the health returns or I can't progress the game.
It's a cheat and not logical in any sense but repeatedly dying just stops the game so isn't much fun.
After this new mod the advice given just doesn't work anymore.
>>> top)
The original game didn't have sidestep, so we added it. We tried to include collision detection, but failed due to game engine limitations.
Therefore, we have disabled it by default. If you want to use it anyway, set SIDESTEP_ENABLED to 1 at the bottom of PROGRAM\InternalSettings.h . <<<

using 1 (or 0) doesn't change anything, there now is no side step, (and more realistic, but dead realistic all the time).
I pressed f12 tried f11, nothing changes, do I need to press another f-(ing) number to allow side step?

I might add I also included @Grey Rodger's mod on top.
Could this be the culprit?
This is the only cheat I ever used so now I am as innocent as the Pope, but dead innocent.
Any help appreciated.
Regards, Brian.

 

[Grey Roger]

Sidestep should still work, but as stated, only if you edit "PROGRAM\InternalSettings.h". Scroll right to the bottom of the file and find this line:

#define SIDESTEP_ENABLED               0       // You can use sidestep during the game (NOTE: No collision detection!)

Replace the 0 with a 1.

With that change, sidestep certainly does work. I frequently use it myself to get out of tight spaces when my officers are blocking me from moving, e.g. the tavern or gunsmith in Sao Jorge. You do not need to press any keys to activate it - but perhaps you are not pressing the correct keys to sidestep?

The update archive does not affect sidestep.

---

About combat:
You can get some combat practice by going into dungeons. The enemies there are relatively weak, and you can usually find a decent sword lying around somewhere. The best swords are in the cave on Barbados and the dungeon in Port Royale. Also, get some officers! If you're attacked by a bunch of thugs while in the jungle, they'll help take the pressure off you so that all the thugs aren't attacking you at once. Make sure to give the officers decent swords as well.

If you're playing FreePlay, you start at level 5 and you have 5 abilities to choose. Take "Basic Defence", "Advanced Defence" and "Toughness". At least one of those is probably locked, but you can disable locked abilities, also known as perks, by editing "InternalSettings.h" again. Look for this line:

#define   ALLOW_LOCKED_PERKS               1       // BOOL    - Default = 1, If 1 perks can be locked. If 0 no perks can be locked.

Change the 1 to 0.

If you're playing a storyline, you probably start at level 1. In that case, take "Basic Defence" right away, and get "Advanced Defence" and "Toughness" as soon as possible.

After that, concentrate on all the personal combat abilities/perks before you take anything else.

 

[nich666]

WOW thanks for the quick reply Grey.
This is what puzzles me, I have changed that line as you say to 1, makes no difference at all, no moon walking.
I'm wondering if a new game is necessary after the alteration although I can't remember having to start again before.

I am in FreePlay as you suggest so have a high end sword then (I've played this a lot), got it up to excellent quality
but none of this matters as one hit doesn't kill the opponent neither does one shot, but one hit on me does me in, hence the slide 'get out' that had gorn and sadly missed.
I press A and D [PC/keyboard/Luddite operating it], as it always worked with these before.

I don't want to make it too easy unlocking stuff but at the moment it is just silly; I die.
I will try the dungeons you suggested but I know one slash and it's all over.
That reminds me, I must have one. Hee hee.
Regards.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

If I recall, New Game indeed isn't required for sidestep.

What difficulty level do you play on?
You can change that in mid-game, so you could have it at the lowest until you feel more confident.

 

[Grey Roger]

Strange. A and D are indeed the keys for sidestepping - I played again last night and used exactly those keys to get round my officers as usual.

It is not necessary to start a new game after changing the sidestep setting in "InternalSettings.h". You do need to quit, close PoTC, restart it, and load your savegame - you can't just edit the file in one window while playing the game in another.

What is your "Melee" skill, and which abilities do you have?

 

[nich666]

Hi, I had to open the game to check and the melee @ 5-5 is pretty good in spite of having just started a new game.
I also immediately got the Back bladed side sword to excellent as well.
Puzzles me with this melee and sword how useless I am.
I have restarted after changing the side step but although everything else works as it should, I can't tackle anyone for more than one slash.

It is particularly galling as I have got a Brigantine to surrender although I still have the first boat given Naval light Brig;
but have to let it go as he kills me immediately without the sideways moonwalk as his stats are well above mine probably..
I might delete the lot and start yet again with a new game reload, as I can't progress this way. Regards

 

[Dat Scharger]

Quick question about the Early Explorers-period (1500):

Is the "Adler von Lübeck" included?
Adler von Lübeck – Wikipedia

I know, it has never seen the Caribbean...

 

[Grey Roger]

It wasn't seen much in the Baltic either, or at least, not as a fighting ship. From Wikipedia:

However, Adler von Lübeck was never put into action, since Lübeck had already entered peace negotiations with Sweden at the time of the ship's completion. After the Treaty of Stettin (1570), Großer Adler was converted into a freighter for trade with the Iberian Peninsula.

The ship is not currently in the game, but it looks vaguely similar to our model of San Martin, alias "SP_BattleGalleon". If you want to modify that ship's texture ("RESOURCE\Textures\Ships\Layer4.tga.tx" is the one which contains the shields), you could then copy all of folder "RESOURCE\Models\Ships\SP_BattleGalleon", hex-edit "SP_BattleGalleon.gm" to use your new file instead of "Layer4.tga", and you'd get a reasonable approximation. Since the only references are relatively modern drawings and paintings, all you're ever going to get is a reasonable approximation anyway!