Solved Fixing the Build Mod Ships

[Pieter Boelen]

I stuck all your files together in one easy-to-extract file: http://www.pyratesahoy.com/potc/Hylie%20Pistoff/HP_PB_Merge.7z
Can you please check with WinMerge that everything included in here is the correct version and, if not, pass me the corrected files?

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Holy crap; that is a LOT of differences between the ships_init.c file from your Revenge folder and the one currently in my game.
Seems all of Black Bart's ship balancing changes didn't make it into your file. I can't remember if those are from after Patch 7 WIP 2 or not, but they should be included at some point regardless.

Also, I've found the following new GM files that I am not sure we should keep:
battleship2_rey_a4 - small.gm
FR_Frigate_rey_a4 with hull locators.gm (lots more like this)
FR_Frigate_rey_a4.gm-corv (lots more like this)
FR_SuperiorWarship2_mast4 new.gm
FR_SuperiorWarship2_rey_b4 new.gm
JamaicaShip1_deck original.gm
Mordaunt1 - Copy.gm

I presume all the Deadeye and spanker files should be included?

There is a completely different deck.tga.tx file in your Revenge folder, which probably should be renamed and have the ship models HEX edited accordingly, otherwise all other ship models will get messed up.

win_b.tga.tx looks completely different; the one currently in my game probably looks better; I think that's Armada's copy.

Well, I've been busy since patch 6 came out so there should be many differences in files.

The oldest files are from early July and predate BB's changes.

battleship2_rey_a4 - small.gm That is Armada's ship and I made a smaller lateen for better vision in case he wants it. delete
FR_Frigate_rey_a4 with hull locators.gm (lots more like this) TOOL was acting up and I could not put rope locators on the hull, but included a lateen with them in case it started working, and it does now. I can fix it if there is time.
FR_Frigate_rey_a4.gm-corv (lots more like this) Poor housekeeping. delete
FR_SuperiorWarship2_mast4 new.gm Poor housekeeping. delete
FR_SuperiorWarship2_rey_b4 new.gm Poor housekeeping. delete
JamaicaShip1_deck original.gm That is the original deck with the skulls.
Mordaunt1 - Copy.gm Poor housekeeping delete

Deadeyes and spankers? I presume you are talking about the light frigates. YES! In fact all ships with a spanker file have the repaired spanker that points in the right direction and they need it.

The Revenge deck texture did not cause a problem, so I did not rename it. I just looked in another install and it is different, so will take care of it.

I will put the one from another install in my P7-2 install and see how it looks. The old one is twice the size of the new one.

I have been going back and redoing some of the early work. The caravel2 is the latest and greatest version, so delete the one in the earlier caravel 1 and 2 folder.

It's good to get someone else looking into this. I have been doing my own QC.

Here is the shipsinit.c I've been using up to last night.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Thanks a lot; I've almost finished merging your ships_init.c with mine that includes Black Bart's changes.
Some questions:
- Who changed refShip.Cannons.Borts.cannonb.qty on the Caravol1? It's 4 in the BB file and 2 in the HP file, but there's no comment.
- Who changed refShip.WaterLine on the Caravol1? It's 1.0 in the BB file and 0.6 in the HP file, but there's no comment.
- Who added the refShip.GeraldSails lines to the Caravol1? Again, no comment.
- Who added the refShip.GeraldSails lines to the FleutOfWar34G? Again, no comment.
- Who changed refShip.WaterLine on the HMS_Surprise? It's 0.3 in the BB file and 0.5 in the HP file, but there's no comment.

I think that is all the information I should need to combine all changes into one.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Also, for the sake of the note in "Build Info.txt", could you give me a very brief description of the kind of work you did on the ship models, Hylie?

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Thanks a lot; I've almost finished merging your ships_init.c with mine that includes Black Bart's changes.
Some questions:
- Who changed refShip.Cannons.Borts.cannonb.qty on the Caravol1? It's 4 in the BB file and 2 in the HP file, but there's no comment.
- Who changed refShip.WaterLine on the Caravol1? It's 1.0 in the BB file and 0.6 in the HP file, but there's no comment.
- Who added the refShip.GeraldSails lines to the Caravol1? Again, no comment.
- Who added the refShip.GeraldSails lines to the FleutOfWar34G? Again, no comment.
- Who changed refShip.WaterLine on the HMS_Surprise? It's 0.3 in the BB file and 0.5 in the HP file, but there's no comment.

I think that is all the information I should need to combine all changes into one.

Uh, what is a BB file and a HP file? Do you mean Black Bart and Hylie Pistof?

Anyway, for the caravol1 and fluytofwar34g I made those changes. The carrack only has 2 stern chasers not 4, and I raised it out of the water some because the gun ports were under water.
Then I like the fancy sails and those 2 ships don't have them.
I know nothing about the HMS_Surprise. Those might be different models completely.


About that win_b.tga.tx thingy, you might have found a problem with the Revenge. I don't think it is showing up at all. I will post about it in the modelers forum. So expect some updates there.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Uh, what is a BB file and a HP file? Do you mean Black Bart and Hylie Pistof?

That's exactly what I meant.

Anyway, for the caravol1 and fluytofwar34g I made those changes. The carrack only has 2 stern chasers not 4, and I raised it out of the water some because the gun ports were under water.
Then I like the fancy sails and those 2 ships don't have them.
I know nothing about the HMS_Surprise. Those might be different models completely.

Cheers; I think that answers most my questions. All that's left is that HMS Surprise. Someone changed something and I don't know which value is correct.

About that win_b.tga.tx thingy, you might have found a problem with the Revenge. I don't think it is showing up at all. I will post about it in the modelers forum. So expect some updates there.

I doubt that'd cause much of an issue; the textures do seem to match up, but the one just has more detail than the other. I'd be more fussed about that deck.tga.tx file, which would mess up all other ships in the game... :?

 

[Hylie Pistof]

On the program side of things all I've changed is added a blurb for Craiggo doing the textures of Revenge 2 & 3, and on Revenge 1 changed the "refship.weight = tonnes2cwt(1000);" to "refship.weight = tonnes2cwt(900);". It was just too sluggish in course corrections.

I will post the changes for the deck.tga when I get it done.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

I've made enough changes to the Revenge now that I just went to the FTP and erased the old Revenge folder, then put the new one in there. It has new sails and decks and that deck.tga and the GMs are renamed. So just keep your old one. I didn't include that.

I wrote up a little note about what was done. Hehe. What started out as just stringing a few ropes sure did mushroom.


Speaking of ropes, the rope.tga we are using is from 2003. While my attempt at converting the Lyon Hoy ended in disaster I found a new rope.tga in there that is twice the size ours. It doesn't seem to be hurting fps.

 

[Armada]

Speaking of textures, you've reminded me that I need to upload my latest work for Beta 2 from this thread: http://forum.pirates...rading-project/
We should look into really clamping down on the textures we want to keep and the ones we want to ditch, at the same time as discussing which ship models to drop.

Some of the work I did, as a reminder, involved an upgrade of deck.tga and desk.tga, the small lifeboat texture, the damage blots, HMS Victory and USS Constitution.
Certainly the first few points give noticeable improvements to most ships, so are higher priority.

Do either of you already have any of the textures I mentioned here or in that thread? I don't want to upload the any textures twice, that's all.
In fact, if you find any references I've made to improved textures from other threads, please do remind me to upload them.
I tend to forget a lot of what I've said on the forum these days. :wacko:

 

[Hylie Pistof]

I am using the blot, but don't know about the other things. There are lots of other things like hi-rez ships hulls, but you are pretty busy.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I've got not a single improved texture file from you that wasn't in your last ship pack release and therefore in Patch 6.

 

[Black Bart]

Re HMS_Surprise and it's waterline. I got 0.3 in both the original backup file(so as of the last patch and before i started modding that file) and in my current running mod-test version. So i'm thinking the 0.5 value must have come from someplace other than myself. Besides i comment everything pretty much, even stuff i don't change, but figure looks a bit odd(so folks can later see if indeed it IS odd and needs changing)

And i just saw your possbile GA fix re fort pennats Pieter, at the bottom of the ships_init.c file. Did we work out if that helped or is the GA still a semi-mystery? I think the GA thing has to be the most obvious stand out problem still in the build, most of the other little oddities you can nearly not notice compared too it

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I suppose the attempted GA fix by Armada doesn't do any harm in being there, so we might as well keep it.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

I have the HMS_Surprise Final in my install. It is completely different from the Boussole and Indefatigable. It is also very buggy and sends a constant flow of errors to my logs. I do not recommend installing it.


GA is still a problem, and a confusing one at that. I've been sailing the 3 Revenge's for a while now and have been getting very heavy GA. Of course their main opponents the English fast galleon, the Spanish fast galleon, and the Mordaunt are all known to sometimes cause problems.

I've gone over their flags/pennants and can't find anything obvious, but as soon as one ship drops a mast from any fleet it starts.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

In that case the waterline 0.5 is probably a left-over from the new Surprise, so we'd better stick with the old 0.3 value for the modpack for now.

 

[Armada]

I am using the blot, but don't know about the other things. There are lots of other things like hi-rez ships hulls, but you are pretty busy.

Well don't hesitate to remind me about any textures I need to upload. Compiling and uploading them doesn't take very long, so I can manage that.

I suppose the attempted GA fix by Armada doesn't do any harm in being there, so we might as well keep it.

Should we still consider giving the forts pennant locators, as an alternative to this fix? It doesn't seem to have helped much, if at all, so adding the pennants might help.

I have the HMS_Surprise Final in my install. It is completely different from the Boussole and Indefatigable. It is also very buggy and sends a constant flow of errors to my logs. I do not recommend installing it.

What kind of bugs, besides the walk file? I know that needs updating, but I'm not aware of anything else that needs fixing, except the bow wave. :?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Should we still consider giving the forts pennant locators, as an alternative to this fix? It doesn't seem to have helped much, if at all, so adding the pennants might help.

Do we know if the forts are involved in the GA? Does it generally happen more around islands?
I think forts are probably exempt from the pennant/ensign code anyway, since the forts don't use either of those two files but use the frtflg files instead.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

I have the HMS_Surprise Final in my install. It is completely different from the Boussole and Indefatigable. It is also very buggy and sends a constant flow of errors to my logs. I do not recommend installing it.

What kind of bugs, besides the walk file? I know that needs updating, but I'm not aware of anything else that needs fixing, except the bow wave. :?

The only specific thing mentioned in the error log is the walk file, but I'm getting a load of other seaAI/ AIwalk file errors too. I don't need it muddying up the waters.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

But then the walk file would be a code problem, not a model problem. Just setting the ship to use no walk file ("") should get rid of those.

 

[Armada]

Do we know if the forts are involved in the GA? Does it generally happen more around islands?
I think forts are probably exempt from the pennant/ensign code anyway, since the forts don't use either of those two files but use the frtflg files instead.

Well I think testing from Hylie and Black Bart some time ago seemed to show that GA was more likely to happen near islands than in open sea.
That's not just because of encountering the trade ships which might cause GA, but even 'fixed' ships gave GA near forts, whereas they were fine in open sea.
I'm sure you yourself have commented on some strange goings on relating to fort flags in the past, too.

Going by the above, I'd say it's worth a try with the pennants, just to see what comes of it.