Feedback from Ardent playthrough

[Grey Roger]

Two Dogs is also immortal during the payroll ship boarding, the reason being that he is still needed for his own quest. (But his quest is not essential to the story, so he is not immortal at other times. If you get him killed doing non-story things, you miss out on his quest and the Mayan temple quest.)

Likewise, Edmundo is indeed immortal during the convoy boarding. He insists on being there and there can be serious consequences if you get him killed. I thought it unfair to force you to put him in danger and then punish you if he dies. Again, though, he is not protected at any other time, so be careful with him!

You might get away with just copying "PROGRAM\Storyline\Ardent" and "RESOURCE\INI\ TEXTS\ENGLISH\Storyline\Ardent" from the updates to your outdated install, but I make no guarantees. Certainly there is little point in replaying the whole story just to see the museum; the reason for updating and then replaying is to see what happens if you do things differently, e.g. play as Charles, or go through with the kidnap and get the ransom for Edmundo. The other reason for updating the game fully is that "Ardent" is not the only storyline which had had bugs fixed since 2018. You really want to be up to date before you start your next game!

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Still, boarding and melee is so difficult in the mod... It took me several times to escape the prison alive, and that's the very first minute of the story.

Isn't that what @elrond_buggard ran into as well?

"Coenen Barberien" is at least a bit more subtle than "Clint Eastwood"...

Subtle?
What is that?

We added him for the Shotgun!
What's subtle about a shotgun?

Easter egg 1: I found the "russian" room in the temple. The name of the tribe had already raised my suspicion before...

Are we talking the temple on Cozumel?
If so, that sounds like the room that the original game developers added; already back in 2003.
@Grey Roger, did you incorporate that in the story?
If so... NICE TOUCH!

Anyway, I'm one stepl closer to my goal of having played all stories before @Pieter Boelen ...

I give you a very good chance at succeeding there.
Currently I'm doing "research" in another game altogether.
Taking me a while...

Also, now I have a PS4, playing on my laptop feels odd these days.
But maybe again one day.

part game history (a tribute to the "Assassin" storyline which first used the island)

Hey, that's cool!
Does @Bartolomeu o Portugues know about that?
I'm sure he'd appreciate.

"Coenen Barberien" is the result of my way of naming characters - open the file of standard character names, look at the part for correct gender and nation, close my eyes and point randomly at the screen. That got me "Barberien". So I looked through the first names to see if there was something suitable. There was.

I'm curious now; is his character in any way related to his name?
In Witcher 3 I ran into "Django Frett" who was a bounty hunter. Thought that was quite a nice touch!
But I haven't played his quest yet. Kind-of hoping the referencing will go a bit further than that.
I like that sort of stuff.

 

[BathtubPirate]

We added him for the Shotgun!
What's subtle about a shotgun?

Sure, but like I said elsewhere, it's things like that, that make certain "obessions" with realism feel a bit more out of place. Here's what I said in another thread:

Also feels a bit weird to rely on realism for the sake of realism by making gameplay more complicated and/or difficult in a game where Davy Jones is the cursed reaper of the high seas and Woodes Rogers plays escape-room-style puzzle games with unemployed pirates in a haunted mine. But of course there is a fine line between "realism" and "details".

Are we talking the temple on Cozumel?
If so, that sounds like the room that the original game developers added; already back in 2003.
@Grey Roger, did you incorporate that in the story?
If so... NICE TOUCH!

Is it? That room has always been there?! Even in the stock game? If yes, that's mind-blown because all my life I've been bragging to know - in the stock game - really every place in and out, but then again, I never really left the path of suns and skulls leading through the temple...

Spoiler: Ardent

The temple is on Hispaniola I think but it's the same location. You're sent there by the Taino people to retrieve a sacred rug from the "Akellan" tribe, and the sun-skull pathway is there but it's hinted to also explore the other rooms. There is a hidden room, conceiled by a penetrable wall, filled with portraits of the russian programmers and an Akella logo on the Ground.

About the stories: Unbelievable that even some (most?) of the most "involved" modders haven't played all the stories or in your case not even a single one completely if I recall correctly. Just pointing out what you're missing Judging from the number of discussions in the respective sub-forum, everybody seems to sleep on the Gold Bug quest. Go "research" that one for a change.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Sure, but like I said elsewhere, it's things like that, that make certain "obessions" with realism feel a bit more out of place.

We've always been trying to have our cake and eat it too.
So have AND strong realism AND fantasy stuff there too.
Always a thin line to tread and I won't claim we've done it perfectly.

For me, of course I have real-life experience at sea so too little realism does pull me out.
But I don't really enjoy a true "obsession" with it either.
I feel like it should be more of an inspiration.

Davy Jones only really appears in one sidequest.
Other than that, he's as mythological as he is in real life.

And of course the storylines can completely do their own thing.
Where Woodes Rogers is fantasy fun puzzles, Hornblower is meant to be completely realistic.
Different things for different people. Or sometimes... the same people at a different time.

My personal preference is to have the vast majority be realistic; with the fantasy stuff avoidable and limited.
Not because I don't like fantasy, but because that way the fantasy remains something SPECIAL.

Is it? That room has always been there?! Even in the stock game?

Yep, that's the one!
The original developers gave themselves a small, hidden place of fame there.
And rightly so. They deserve it.

 

[Jack Rackham]

Unbelievable that even some (most?) of the most "involved" modders haven't played all the stories

Neither have I. The only excuse is that my storylines have taken so much time. Havn't even been around to all islands or played
all the sidequests yet. Only just jumped in to Bartolomeu/Assassin/Apothecary quests to add some stuff.

One day though...

Where Woodes Rogers is fantasy fun puzzles

Fantasy!?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Fantasy!?

Weren't there skeleton pirates in there?

About the stories: Unbelievable that even some (most?) of the most "involved" modders haven't played all the stories or in your case not even a single one completely if I recall correctly. Just pointing out what you're missing Judging from the number of discussions in the respective sub-forum, everybody seems to sleep on the Gold Bug quest. Go "research" that one for a change.

Your posts are certainly building my curiosity.

 

[BathtubPirate]

Fantasy!?

Certainly not, it's exactly as it happened.

Interesting to think about, I'd say Hornblower is really the only questline that attempts to take place in a realistic setting.

Ardent comes very close, but has some humorous details and easter eggs sprinkled in that let you take certain things with a grain of salt.

Hawk, Bartolomeu and Hoist the Colours (working on the latter currently) have some fantasy elements to certain degrees. Bartolomeu only small bits if I recall correctly. Haven't played Assassin yet.

Woodes Rogers and Gold Bug don't have real fantasy but only through their gameplay they're so humorous and winkingly, playing by their own rules and in their own worlds.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Bartolomeu only small bits if I recall correctly.

It's indeed not a major part.
Which makes sense, because he is technically a historical character.

Haven't played Assassin yet.

It's a close cousin of Bartolomeu.
Which shouldn't come as much of a surprise as it's the same person who wrote it.

Interesting to think about, I'd say Hornblower is really the only questline that attempts to take place in a realistic setting.

True.
And Free Play if you choose to play fully realistic.

Original game storyline is also very light on the fantasy.
Might've originally been intended to be fully grounded, until the game name change.

Full realism plus pirates could get pretty dark.
But I don't think this game lends itself very well to darkness.
Realism plus navy works much better in a heroic way.

 

[Grey Roger]

Isn't that what @elrond_buggard ran into as well?

No, he met soldiers in the jungle outside town who should not have been there; that bug is fixed in the latest update.

@BathtubPirate had trouble with the soldiers in the prison. The easiest way to deal with them is to hide behind the Indian.

Are we talking the temple on Cozumel?
If so, that sounds like the room that the original game developers added; already back in 2003.
@Grey Roger, did you incorporate that in the story?

Not intentionally. The outside of the temple on Hispaniola is a clone of the one on Cozumel, so I cloned the inside too. The Russians put themselves into the labyrinth model, so they will appear in any similar temple. They're probably in the Maltese Abbey too.

Hey, that's cool!
Does @Bartolomeu o Portugues know about that?
I'm sure he'd appreciate.

I can't remember if I tagged him before. If not, hopefully he'll see this one.

I'm curious now; is his character in any way related to his name?

No, half the name was pure chance and the other half simply followed from the first. He just uses a standard Dutch uniform.

There are some fun name combinations in the standard character name file. Some day, somewhere, somehow, there will be a British character named Hammond Bacon...

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Hammond Bacon

 

[Sinbad the Sailor]

Can I post here? Well I hope so!
I'm really enjoying the storyline so far. As I said in another thread, the choices feel meaningful (which is really cool, many games make you take fake decisions).
I think Grey Roger changed the first part a bit, it was definitely easier defeating the prison/camp enemies on Seadog difficulty! The payroll was a bit hard, had to reload several times and land many grape shots and even then I needed to change the difficulty to landlubber, but that's ok.
My main problem with the storyline thus far is the difficulty - but that probably means I just suck on this game combat
Going to keep playing, the gameplay is really interesting!

 

[Grey Roger]

Of course you can post here, @FatorNerd - this is exactly the correct place to post your comments about the "Ardent" storyline.

I haven't changed the first part for ages, apart from fixing a bug which meant soldiers who were supposed to hunt for you after the prison escape kept doing it when they weren't meant to, and even that was at least a year ago. If you're finding it easier to defeat enemies in prison and at the camp, it may mean you're getting used to combat, which is just as well because you're going to need to be good at combat in this story...

For the payroll ship, I'd advise firing one broadside of grapeshot and then boarding as soon as possible, because while you're reloading for a second broadside, the fort is firing at you. Saving game is definitely a good idea because this part is indeed quite tough. You can save game on the beach; or you should be able to save game while you're still under a false Spanish flag, next to the payroll ship, just before you raise a pirate flag to start the attack.

 

[BathtubPirate]

Speaking of replaying "Ardent", yesterday I visited the Mayan Temple and I noticed that the result of killing dozens of Akellan tribesmen (which you have to do during that part) is a bit overpowered. You either get massively increased stats through the special crystals the Akellans are carrying, or a hefty sum into your pocket when you sell all the loot. This is simply an observation, I won't complain about things getting a bit easier for good old Ardent.

 

[Grey Roger]

That's true for Akellani in general - the ones at the Hispaniola temple during the "Mayan Temple" quest, the ones at the same Hispaniola temple at any time in any storyline, and the ones who can attack you randomly at night in any jungle.

The only difference here is that when Chief Soaring Hawk offered you the mission and you asked what you would get out of it, he told you that the Mayans were skilled at working with gold and you might find some in the temple - he just didn't tell you that someone else got there first and you'd have to fight for it.

If you think you're getting too much of a reward for killing Akellani, have a look at "PROGRAM\LandEncounters\LEnc_monsters.c", specifically this bit:

    if (sti(GetAttribute(chr, "isIndian")) == true)
    {
        gunProb = 1.0;
        chr.name = VC_MUMMY_NAME; // ccc10.2
        chr.lastname = VC_MUMMY_LNAME; // ccc10.2
        if(VC_MUMMY_NOMONEY) chr.money = 0; // NK
        GiveItem2Character(chr, "indian"+ makeint(1 + rand(15)) );    // jun05 booty for stealing
        GiveItem2Character(chr, "mineral"+ makeint(1 + rand(2)) );    // jun05 booty for stealing
    }

You can change the 'GiveItem2Character' lines to whatever you reckon is more appropriate.

 

[Scotters]

I think my playthrough may be broken. I've arrived at Point-A-Pitre tavern in "The Hunt for * Downing" but when I go to leave the tavern Valerie/Piers are dead on the ground. All the french soldiers in the square are firing muskets at them. I've tried killing the guards before they kill them which does let me get the quest conversation to fire but am then stuck looping forever on what I assume is a guard conversation which can't trigger. Anyone else run into this issue?

 

[Grey Roger]

Was there a fight in Pointe a Pitre before you entered the tavern? Something must have provoked the soldiers into attacking.

Do you have a savegame from either inside the tavern or from before you entered the tavern?

 

[Scotters]

Somehow I managed to solve it by clearing all the soldiers in the town then fast traveling into the tavern again. After exiting into the square a second time the guards were not agro'd onto her. I'm not sure if there was a fight breaking out in town as the guards didn't chase myself or anyone else down and hers was the only lootable corpse,
I have save games prior at different stages in the quest atm: looking at the French man o' war in port on the previous island, before entering Guadalupe, and following the conversations in tavern where Quest update is triggered.

Thanks for the quick reply!

 

[Grey Roger]

The other odd thing is that you said:

but when I go to leave the tavern Valerie/Piers are dead on the ground. All the french soldiers in the square are firing muskets at them.

There should only be one, either Valerie or Piers, not both. Which one depends on which Ardent you're playing. If you're Charles then you should be dealing with Piers at all times. If you're Helen then it's Valerie.

 

[Scotters]

Yes I'm playing as Helen and Valerie is the nemesis.

 

[Grey Roger]

Would you be able to upload the savegames from before entering Guadeloupe and from just after the conversation in the tavern? The problem is likely an issue with different AI groups and I'd like to try to fix it, at least for the storyline.