Poll Concerning MK's Eras mod....

[Luke159]

I would suggest having a few hours of play on the stock POTC then install the latest build + patch, you will be amazed at exactly how much work has been put into it and how different POTC is. I guess the best way to put it is, POTC is everything you wanted from a pirate game, while the build mod is everything POTC should have been.

 

[CaptainJackSparrow]

I have AOP2COAS, but is POTC better? why its better if its older than COAS? :S

 

[Luke159]

Its not that its better, the stock versions for both games are poor with COAS been a little better. We had very few coders working with us on GOF, and for the best part of the work done on COAS there was no coders at all as they was alway's told to help out with POTC. For POTC the build mod had been worked on for many years, a lot of vert tallented people (who when we started working on COAS had sadly stopped modding or visiting this forum). The POTC build mod is a better alround mod for the poor fact that it has a lot more features you would expect to find in a stock pirate game.

GOF was never about trying to make a better mod that purs COAS ahead of POTC, it was about giving the fans who play COAS a mod they can work with and more importantly a stable game in which to have fun because the stock version was so incredible unstable that most from POTC was imidently put off the game and stock to POTC.

After work on the POTC build mod had finished the modders and coders was to come and start work on COAS, so you can see why we informed all coders about finishing POTC off first. We wanted what was best for the fans of both POTC and COAS, we didn't think or feel that COAS should be the main project as POTC isn't miles behind COAS in terms of graphics etc and the build mod had been a long term project by the fans so it was only right they finish it before working on any other project. So we had the chance for many things to be added or looked into but we alway's took note of the build mod and alway's looked at how best to serve the fans of both POTC and COAS. Now sadly with things progressing very slow on both games its safe to say that the oppertunaty to get POTC finished and port as much over to COAS as possible.

 

[CaptainJackSparrow]

Thats interestly, anyways both games are amazing and the main mods make them a lot better the gameplay experience

 

[Hylie Pistof]

I am looking forward to trying this. POTC is at the end of its development cycle and the bugs it still has will never be fixed.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Indeed I am inclined to side with Hylie Postof here, as sad as it is.
We've all done a tremendous job with the PotC Build Mod, but it appears that the development is basically coming to an end for real now.
Not intentionally by any stretch of the imagination, but purely due to a lack of people with the knowledge and time to do the work that needs to be done.
While in the past, things used to pick up again after a while, it doesn't seem to be happening this time around.

There is a lot of fun to be had with the latest Build Mod release though and I'm sure that if you're willing to turn a blind eye to some of the rough edges,
you will be well impressed with the things that we have been able to achieve.

However, there is still a lot to look forward to. The new game we are trying to develop is, of course, a long ways off, but at least we are giving it a try.
And it will certainly be a worthwhile endeavour in the meantime to try to get all CoAS modding work in as good a shape as we possibly can.
If everybody who is left here or has recently joined puts their backs into it, I'm sure we can also get CoAS a lot better than it currently is.
Not everybody can help with the Unreal Project at the moment yet, so we might as well get on with it with CoAS. Right?

 

[jhayron]

Yes yess pls work on CoAS even tough I can't play anything you guys make for a wile bcs I sold my pc but I'll buy a new one in like 2 months time hope to see somethings new in CoAS

 

[modernknight1]

Alrighty then. One more day on the voting. Thanks to those that participated. This has been helpful. My gateway/entry criteria was that if 25 to 30 people voted they would download the mod I would dedicate an hour or more a night to finishing the mod. With 12 voters, I'm looking at an hour or two a week. My schedule is very busy. Much of my time is going to reacquaint myself with family I haven't seen in years. I am free to go and do mostly what I want now. I will be doing a lot of fishing and sailing over the next 2-3 months with a few hours going to dev and consulting work via phone/e-mail each week.

So I anticipate with the current time dedicated to the effort, that the middle era mod will be complete before Christmas. The other periods will be done by next Spring I would guess.

Obviously I will not release the middle era mod until Kriswood is done with Zeven Provincien. I have other ships I will pay to have built after.

It is very frustrating looking through line after line of code in WinMerge comparing files in New Horizons and COAS by NK, KK, and Maximus, that it would be so easy to bring the majority of the POTC content over to COAS if we had dedicated coders behind the effort. My opinion in spending hundreds of hours in the code and attempting to import scripts, fragments and files, is that COAS and POTC are over 80 percent compatible as far as coding goes. They are so similar. How sad. While I am pretty familiar with the syntax, implementation, capabilities/limitations of Fortran, ADA, C and Java code, I have always been a manager looking over the shoulders of dozens of coders that worked for me over the years - but not an actual coder myself. I've always known enough to be competent in development and in talking to top level mukkety mucks about progress. I wish I had spent a little more time in the trenches.

With just a few really good people involved, COAS/GOF could be everything POTC/New Horizons is, but with all of the dozens of additional locations COAS has to offer and more - as well as the added questlines and expanded towns of NH.

To those that voted that want to download, please PM me so I know who you are. This way I can provide you with link and password information when the mods are done.

For those that thought I should go, don't worry - after my current mod and story are finished, you wont see much of me after. I apologize that I've offended some of our international friends. I am a creature of habit and experience. 24 years in the US military has taught me to share ideas, innovations, and progress. I am not used to a philosophy of only sharing with the people that are directly around me. However of late I have learned that I am a dinosaur and my philosophy is outdated in this new selfish instant gratification IPAD world. I have found that I am mostly alone in my 17th century world, when most folks participating on PA! prefer living the Patrick O'Brien novel or Disney POTC fantasy. I accept this and feel glad and privileged to have been able to tweak the game for my own preferred world, despite missing things that POTC/NH and the Russian/German mods have that I don't. In the military we often asked the question - "Is it good enough?"

My version is good enough for me. It took me three years to learn how to make it that way. My videos show my progress and speak for themselves. I am very happy with what I've learned and achieved. I plan on focusing on 3d modelling now. I have even scheduled some classes.

MK

 

[jokash]

 

[jokash]

did you found out how to change nation relations so i can do something on my own with GOF 2.0 i cant wait till spring no way man...iv been waiting this for months and theres no way im gonna play with mixed period ships after fantasizing about this

 

[Thagarr]

If your determined to leave MK, that is indeed your choice, but only 1 person voted for that option in the pole above. Which by the way has had a total of 64 votes! I haven't seen vote totals that high on a poll since back in the Miss High Seas days!

I intentionally haven't voted yet for two reasons, one your questions are also a bit ambiguous, and two I was curious to see just how the voting went. There are many people around here that care about historical accuracy, yourself included. Had you put up a simple yes or no poll, the numbers would have been staggeringly in your favor.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

On the number of votes, please consider that not many people may have seen your thread here. We don't have quite THAT many active members...

It is very frustrating looking through line after line of code in WinMerge comparing files in New Horizons and COAS by NK, KK, and Maximus, that it would be so easy to bring the majority of the POTC content over to COAS if we had dedicated coders behind the effort. My opinion in spending hundreds of hours in the code and attempting to import scripts, fragments and files, is that COAS and POTC are over 80 percent compatible as far as coding goes. They are so similar. How sad. While I am pretty familiar with the syntax, implementation, capabilities/limitations of Fortran, ADA, C and Java code, I have always been a manager looking over the shoulders of dozens of coders that worked for me over the years - but not an actual coder myself. I've always known enough to be competent in development and in talking to top level mukkety mucks about progress. I wish I had spent a little more time in the trenches.

I know exactly what you mean and very much feel the same way. To my great regret, I cannot do what Nathan Kell, Pirate_KK and Maximus did by any stretch of the imagination.
But I KNOW that the potential IS there because, as you point out, all Storm-based games really are SO similar it is uncanny.
It is still my hope that we can achieve something better for CoAS and I will probably try to contribute to that once I return home.

 

[jhayron]

Guys if you see who voted MK should go away I won't say he's name but I think he's stupid srry for my comment because later on if you read down you will see he wrote that MK should not go away so what's he's stupid game are you serious man? Before you voted you should have read carefully and choose your votes dumb f and MK you shouldn't go away PA won't be the same without u you are the one that has more interest in achieving something great in COAS tnx for the things you've allready did and the things you would do

 

[jhayron]

This is what he voted to be correct guys look for it in the firs page of these comments

I will download
I care about historical accuracy
I care about acurate weather
I care about uniforms alliances and flags
I care about additional colonies
I care about MK i dont want him going away

 

[Luke159]

MK can't leave, it would be a disaster and so boring not seeing the one person i have had many happy moments with working on mods for this game, our modding times go right back to the early day's when i first started to work on COAS (before CMV work started). I don't want to see any of the old team members leave, but if they chhose to do so then i hope that they return. I know full well that sometimes you burn yourself out (as i have done a few times) and you end up avoiding the game and anything related to the game, like the plague.

I only voted for one thing, i didn't check to see if it was multiple (yes i know dumb) had i read it carefully i would have voted on the following.


I will download and play MK's Eras mod when it's done
I care very much about historical accuracy (did vote for this one)
I care about having more accurate weather and water effects
I care about having proper historical ships, uniforms, and alliances for each era (or was it this one i voted for, for i know it was eithe rthis orf the other)

 

[modernknight1]

So I thought I would post a vid to show my progress. I'm playing it more than modding it right now and as I said before - a few hours a week of modding is what I have been doing. Just so you know I am drunk off my ass in bare feet on the finest rum as I write this.

I highly recommend you go to full screen and put on 1080p HD mode to get the best quality possible. Cheers Mates! MK

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I can't watch it just now, but thanks for your continued work, mate!

 

[Glycerius]

Filling up existing islands with more locations is something that should be done. Each town probably should have a plantation near it, maybe a village, anything that gives a sense of a living world. Villages and plantations are things that exist on one or two parts of the maps, so it would not be reinventing the wheel.