Fixed Correcting "Early Explorers" Period

[Grey Roger]

The Junk is, well... junk. 10 guns of 12lb and maximum crew 94 make this also not very impressive as a "pirate boss ship". Even Golden Hind wouldn't find that too hard to handle, less of a challenge than most of the ships I've been raiding. "PiratBrig50" is still a brig and therefore not all that scary either.

If I can figure out how to re-texture a ship or if anyone else wants to do it, a modified version of "FleutWar" has possibilities. At least then the early Mefisto is not just yet another variant on a theme of Fast Galleon (there's the basic Fast Galleon, which is also now used as Will Turner's ship in early periods; the general Fast War Galleon, used by France, Spain and pirates; and the specific pirate one used by Roche Brassiliano).

 

[Pieter Boelen]

The Junk is, well... junk. 10 guns of 12lb and maximum crew 94 make this also not very impressive as a "pirate boss ship". Even Golden Hind wouldn't find that too hard to handle, less of a challenge than most of the ships I've been raiding. "PiratBrig50" is still a brig and therefore not all that scary either.

You are not wrong. But we've got to do with what we've got, don't we?

If I can figure out how to re-texture a ship or if anyone else wants to do it, a modified version of "FleutWar" has possibilities. At least then the early Mefisto is not just yet another variant on a theme of Fast Galleon (there's the basic Fast Galleon, which is also now used as Will Turner's ship in early periods; the general Fast War Galleon, used by France, Spain and pirates; and the specific pirate one used by Roche Brassiliano).

In a grey and distant past, we had quite a fair people who knew how to do some good re-texturing on ships.
It isn't hard to press the buttons to do it, but it IS hard to make it look good.
@Petros used to be one of the experts. These days it is mainly @Jack Rackham who still does stuff like that, but he wants to focus on his new storyline for now.
Not sure who else might be interested in working on it... You could try looking through "Build Info.txt" and sending some PMs to various people.

 

[Grey Roger]

What files are used for "FleutWar"? What would be involved in creating an evil version of it apart from making a duplicate entry in "ShipsInit.c"; making duplicates of all files for "FleutWar"; converting the texture file to basic TGA, using Photoshop to change it and converting it back to TGA.TX?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

GM Viewer tells you which textures are used:

And a tutorial on the HEX editing needed so you can tell your copied model to use a differently named texture instead:
http://www.piratesahoy.net/threads/retexture-a-gm-model.25235/

I personally use a HEX Editor plugin for Notepad++, but there is also a simple tool available for it here:
http://www.piratesahoy.net/build/tools/Modeling+Texturing/

Code-wise, you've pretty much covered it all. Some slight extra's:
- OPTIONAL: Add a new type name to RESOURCE\INI\TEXTS\ENGLISH\common.ini if you want to use a different refShip.SName
- Make a screenshot of the ship for in the interface, then let Armada know because he keeps the files for this up-to-date
This relates to RESOURCE\Textures\INTERFACES\ships*.tga.tx
The new ship then also needs to be added to RESOURCE\INI\INTERFACES\pictures.ini and refShip.BigPicTexName should be set to the appropriate of the four files.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

The fluyts use something called a bortout. You might want to look at the fluyt 2 and 3 bortouts to see about copy and pasting something together.

 

[Grey Roger]

What about "GaleonWar", alias "Spanish War Galleon"? Does that use "bortout" or anything else that would complicate it?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

What about "GaleonWar", alias "Spanish War Galleon"? Does that use "bortout" or anything else that would complicate it?

Using GM Viewer should tell you.
If I recall, that is also either a stock PotC or AoP model, so should use bortout too.

 

[Grey Roger]

OK, I've got GMViewer working, and what it's telling me is that although basic fluyts such as "fleut1" use bortout, "FleutWar" does not - the only textures it appears to use are "deck.tga" and "FleutOfWar34G.tga". The deck can probably stay as it is. So the only texture file I should need to play with is "FleutOfWar34G.tga". Time for some Photoshopping...

 

[Pieter Boelen]

OK, I've got GMViewer working, and what it's telling me is that although basic fluyts such as "fleut1" use bortout, "FleutWar" does not - the only textures it appears to use are "deck.tga" and "FleutOfWar34G.tga". The deck can probably stay as it is. So the only texture file I should need to play with is "FleutOfWar34G.tga". Time for some Photoshopping...

"Bortout" is just a filename and technically doesn't have any meaning. The main difference is that some ships have one texture for the entire hull with different parts of the texture mapped onto different elements.
The ones with the whole texture in one file are the original PotC and AoP/CoAS models; these usually have a file named "bortout*.tga.tx" and "deck.tga.tx" ("desk.tga.tx" for AoP/CoAS).
However, the main filename could be anything, as long as it has the same length as the original model did. I think that applies in this case.

Other ship models, mainly the custom mod-added ones, may use individual texture files for different elements.
So the anchor may have a "metal.tga.tx" applied and the masts a "wood.tga.tx" for example.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

So what still needs doing for this particular project? Here's what I remember:

- "Help the Church" and "Strange Things Going On" will need some work, STATUS: ???
- "Sinking the Vogelstruijs" and "Elizabeth Shaw's Disappearance" need to be disabled, STATUS: Done
- Mefisto to be replaced with a fearsome, but period-correct ship, STATUS: WIP by @Grey Roger
- Replace the Moulin sidequest reward blade with a new custom one.
STATUS: Model by @Jack Rackham is attached here: http://www.piratesahoy.net/threads/correcting-early-explorers-period.25254/page-14#post-512518
Interface picture is included in the ZIP here: http://www.piratesahoy.net/threads/build-14-beta-3-5-internal-wip-for-testing.24817/
TODO:

The new sword will need to be added to "initItems.c" and "ItemsDescribe.txt", as well as the interface pictures put in place. Then edit "quests_side.c", find 'case "jelaifini"' and replace "blade34+2" with the new sword's ID. The questbook currently has a fairly generic statement which works for any fancy sword, but line 11 could be edited to fit more specifically with the new sword.

Anything else?

 

[Grey Roger]

Not finished yet, but this should give you some idea of what's coming...

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Not finished yet, but this should give you some idea of what's coming...

Promising indeed! That'll about do it.

 

[Grey Roger]

That ought to do...



How significant are the names of the files within a ship's directory? I've noticed that every existing ship (or at least, the random ones I looked at) have file names matching the directory, e.g. directory "Fleut1" contains "Fleut1.gm", "Fleut1_deck.gm" etc., while directory "Fleut2" contains "Fleut2.gm", "Fleut2_deck.gm" etc. So if this new ship is "FleutWarSat", presumably its files need to be "FleutWarSat.gm", "FleutWarSat_deck.gm" etc.? Do I need to change anything to point at these new files? Do they even need to be renamed at all, bearing in mind that they're all copied from "FleutWar"? (With "FleutWarSat.gm" hex-edited to point at the relevant texture file, otherwise you wouldn't be looking at the pretty pictures above.)

 

[Pieter Boelen]

That ought to do...

Never thought I'd live to see an evil fleut!
Nicely done.

How significant are the names of the files within a ship's directory? I've noticed that every existing ship (or at least, the random ones I looked at) have file names matching the directory, e.g. directory "Fleut1" contains "Fleut1.gm", "Fleut1_deck.gm" etc., while directory "Fleut2" contains "Fleut2.gm", "Fleut2_deck.gm" etc. So if this new ship is "FleutWarSat", presumably its files need to be "FleutWarSat.gm", "FleutWarSat_deck.gm" etc.? Do I need to change anything to point at these new files? Do they even need to be renamed at all, bearing in mind that they're all copied from "FleutWar"? (With "FleutWarSat.gm" hex-edited to point at the relevant texture file, otherwise you wouldn't be looking at the pretty pictures above.)

All the GM files should be renamed to match with the new folder name.
Other than that, I think you have all the information needed. The ships_init.c entry can be based on an existing fleut, adjusted as per your liking, but add the red sails from the normal Mefisto too.

 

[Levis]

I think this one should also be aviable (as paint job) if you are a pirate .

 

[Grey Roger]

Why? The Satanist frigate used in later periods is not available as a paint job. It's a unique ship specifically for this side quest.

Also, paint jobs should not be a way of getting a ship with different specifications. And this one won't be quite the same as a regular fluyt-of-war...

There is, of course, a way for a pirate to get a ship painted like this. You take it off its original owners.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Agreed with @Grey Roger; this ship can be dealt with exactly the same way as the regular Mefisto is.
The "Strange Things" sidequest is available in all storylines anyway, so players who want her, can get her that way.
And she would also show up at Vanderdecken too if she's set to CanBuy = false and CanEncounter = false .

 

[Pieter Boelen]

So what still needs doing for this particular project? Here's what I remember:

- "Help the Church" and "Strange Things Going On" will need some work, STATUS: ???
- "Sinking the Vogelstruijs" and "Elizabeth Shaw's Disappearance" need to be disabled, STATUS: Done
- Mefisto to be replaced with a fearsome, but period-correct ship, STATUS: WIP by @Grey Roger
- Replace the Moulin sidequest reward blade with a new custom one.
STATUS: Model by @Jack Rackham is attached here: http://www.piratesahoy.net/threads/correcting-early-explorers-period.25254/page-14#post-512518
Interface picture is included in the ZIP here: http://www.piratesahoy.net/threads/build-14-beta-3-5-internal-wip-for-testing.24817/
TODO:

^ This now added to the opening post so we don't lose track.

 

[Grey Roger]

Pending a check on whether the new old Mefisto will show up where it's meant to, I'm now working on sorting out "Help the Church". To that end, can you remind me what other commands exist to extract someone's name besides 'GetMySimpleName'? Specifically, the ones to get first and last name - are they 'GetMyFirstName' and 'GetMyLastName'?

There's a problem with Father Bernard's and Father Jerald's alternative names when Port Royale and Bridgetown are Spanish and Portuguese respectively. Father Bernard does not become Padre Bernardo, for example; he gets a regular first name and last name, same as any plain citizen.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

These should be the main ones: GetMyFullName, GetMySimpleName, GetMyName, GetMyFirstNames, GetMyLastName, GetMyRespectfullyName .
They're all defined in Dialog_func.c if you want to see what they do.

There's a problem with Father Bernard's and Father Jerald's alternative names when Port Royale and Bridgetown are Spanish and Portuguese respectively. Father Bernard does not become Padre Bernardo, for example; he gets a regular first name and last name, same as any plain citizen.

That was to be expected; the game doesn't understand that "Father" is a title and not a firstname.
This might be the simplest solution in Periods.c:

  if(GetCurrentPeriod() == PERIOD_EARLY_EXPLORERS)
   {
     Characters[GetCharacterIndex("Father Bernard")].name = "Padre"; // Override random first name
     Characters[GetCharacterIndex("Father Jerald")].name = "Padre"; // Override random first name
     Characters[GetCharacterIndex("Father Gareth")].name = "Padre"; // Override random first name
     ChangeCharacterAddress(characterFromID("Contre-Amirale"), "none", ""); //Sinking the Vogelstruijs
   }
   else
   {
     //First Contact quest
     PChar.quest.Firstcontact = "";
     PChar.quest.Contact_start.win_condition.l1 = "location";
     PChar.quest.Contact_start.win_condition.l1.character = PChar.id;
     PChar.quest.Contact_start.win_condition.l1.location = "Grand_Cayman_townhall";
     PChar.quest.Contact_start.win_condition = "Contact_start";
     //First Contact quest
   }