Mod Release Gentlemen Of Fortune 2.0

[Luke159]

Ok so lets talk ship upcost keeps, i have found the code for it and i have increased the cost to hire crew (now each crewmen costs 60 coin and can be increased more if needed). What should the ship upkeep cost be, bare in mind that your rank, comerce skill, leadership etc is all taken into account. In my testing i have got a class 5 ship (Schooner) with 96 crew which will cost me 12k per month (fresh start). With both commercve perks, trade skill at 100 and leadership at 100 the cost drops to 6k (so halves the cost). This can be set higher or lower, now for the problem. This was with 100 for, navigation, leadership and trade and both commerce perks, A MOW with 1002 crew.

Update:
I have got the ship upkeep costs for the MOW, both commerce perks, max skill for leadership, trade and navigation, down to 122k per month. I can lower this more if you wish?

 

[DarthSCG]

Fire them all b4 u have to pay or leave em stranded on a deserted island!

i donno man... how much do u make at that lvl per month?

edit: don't forget to take into account how well trained the crew is
btw is a point of sail upgrade at the shipyard possible?

 

[Luke159]

It would require testing, but if you was to say sack the crew before you had to pay them, then for 1002 crew it would cost you 100k just to re-hire them. So its not worth sacking them, this was how i wanted it because then it closes the door on that cheat.

Although it costs you less to re-hire the crew you still pay almost the all their salary. But it will need to be tested. Looking back at when i was doing a captains log for GOF i was able to make over 200k from contraband iteams. this was before the price changes though so it will be lower now. 2 or 3 trips though would easily cover your ship upkeep, and those who wish to play it the legit way and earn their money from selling goods to stores could make about 60k or more per trip X that by 4 trips 240k in the pocket. So it can be done, you just have to be very active. The good thing is it means you will never go out and earn your millions within the first few months of the game. However ship class is effected by this, so you can sail around in a class 5 ship for a long time and not be hampered by very expensive upkeep costs, as you start to sail higher class ships then the upkeep costs increase. But so does the cargo space available for some ship types, so you could have a class 4 trade ship like the Heavy Galleon and never need to worry about wages.

Like i said it needs testing, so i have uploaded the file bellow (it doesn't require a fresh start) install to "Program\scripts" overwrite when asked.

 

[DarthSCG]

and what about pirates like me who would have nothing to do with this trading or smuggling business and instead just want to pillage and plunder anyone that comes my way?
don't forget the Arabella is class 3 with around 300 crew and i almost never keep a full complement

 

[Luke159]

You can sell captured ships, purchase a trade license that will allow you to do some smuggling aswell as sell to the pirate store owners all goods you have looted from the ships and bodies and the chests. A class 3 ship won't cost you 120k per month, i can't say for sure how much it will cost, but a guess would be around 70k to 80k

 

[DarthSCG]

well right now it costs around 25k at lvl 10.. now factor in the repair costs after battles, the ammo and supplies, that oh-so-elusive powder
salary is also affected by the number and quality of officers too

 

[MarKr]

I think it would be better to lower it a little bit. Keep in mind that with ammunition changes you loose your crew faster during naval battles and at the beginning you don't have your Defense skill high enough to protect your crew properly...that means either to dodge encounters on the world map all the time (which would include tons of saving and loading) or to keep hiring new crew all the time to replace the lost ones and that is even more money spend - with realistic prices, weights and everything you make less money as it is...maybe the best solution would be to make it as an option that you can turn on/off...

 

[Luke159]

I was thinking of adding the changes to a switch so those who want the higher costs could turn the feature on, letting those who don't like it be able to turn it off to coas default. Lowering it won't be a problem either, these changes was to see how close the settings are to what it is we want from them.

 

[Hyde911]

I think salaries have to be high. 70k for class 3 ship is reasonable for me.

//Interceptor demasted, no ctd
//Warship demasted, no ctd
//Queen Annes Revenge demasted, no ctd
//40 gun Galleon demasted, no ctd

Edit:
Looks like salaries are higher. 4th class ship with crew of 184 (skills at 50%) with officers costs me 120k.

 

[DarthSCG]

I think it would be better to lower it a little bit.

Looks like salaries are higher. 4th class ship with crew of 184 (skills at 50%) with officers costs me 120k.

I was thinking of adding the changes to a switch so those who want the higher costs could turn the feature on, letting those who don't like it be able to turn it off to coas default. Lowering it won't be a problem either, these changes was to see how close the settings are to what it is we want from them.

i lol'd. like i said NO tradein, NO smugglin and they are there for me right now.
switch seems like the reasonable option. but a separate one not tied with another costs switch
too much "realistic" can kill the fun. coz we all know how much real life sux

 

[Luke159]

@ Hyde
Ok i will do a new test which will be with a MOW, starting skills (no skills boosted, and no perks apart from navigation skill which isn't taken into account, however negative marks against your skills are). A crew of 1002 and all officer roles filled, then we will see how much per month it costs to run the ship. I will do this test for each class purchasing the ship that can hold the most crew for the testing, this will allow me to get the class 3 pricing down to 70k and know a rough idea of how much each class will cost with full crew and officers.

I take it the officers skills are taken into account the same for the crew, but the officers skills effect the pricing more than the crews experience. If this is correct then i would guess it will be close but not perfect because the high ranking officers will not have started showing up yet.

@ Darth
Ok a new switch, i will get onto that once i have got the pricing more balanced. As to what name to use though?

 

[DarthSCG]

Realistic Salaries maybe?

oh and this reminded me u asked a wile back.. Why would i want to use Pitt for anything else then navigation?
well this is one of the reasons. lower paychecks

 

[Luke159]

Ok Realistic_Salaries it will be. The name i could think of was Realistic_Ship_Upkeep, but either one is fine because it tells you what it does in the name without the need to read the discription.

Lol, thats because his commerce and leadership skills are so low, if they was both 100 then it would half the cost of the ship upkeep. But with his navigation skill been high enough to sail the Arabella that should reduce the ship upkeep because negative skills means higher costs.

At the moment i have added the ship upkeep to RTBL, so that the code is in place all it needs is the switch name changing and the new switch adding to the mod option screen.

 

[DarthSCG]

yes but what i meant was using an officer to fill multiple roles at the same time via the multitasking perks

 

[Luke159]

Since you become a pirate after taking the Arabella it doesn't matter how many gaurds you kill which would enable you to build your personal skills up giving you the ability to gain the multitasking perk. I feel that changing it to much would unbalance the game for Peter Blood, he gets a class 3 ship when most ships are class 6 and 7, he has a officer who's navigation skills are high enough to sail the Arabella and the ships cargohold is large enough to do some serious tradeing while any ships you go up against will most likely sail away or some might even surrender without firing a single shot. With the amount you earn you could easily higher a officer to fill the role of treasurer and you can kill as many pirates at the pirate ports as you like without it effecting you in any way, but gives you the chance to level up a lot faster and get the multitask perk.

I'm just trying to say that if everything is put down for Peter Blood then there would be no fun. Originally you had to make a choice between keeping the Arabella or selling/putting her in dry dock while you used a ship that you was able to sail (finding a good ship though was hard enough). So i have already lowered the difficulty of Peter Blood in many respects although balanced that out with the fact that you start as a pirate.

If i can find the code that allows you to assign multitask to Peter Blood then i will do the change for you as a personal thing, but i think its best to avoid using it in the patch. Does anyone think that it should be included in the patch?

 

[Hylie Pistof]

I have no opinion on the economy as I have not been playing long enough yet. All I can say is that playing as an honest merchantman with 2 class 5 ships, pinnace Berlin and 24 gun schooner, and with most officer slots filled my monthly payroll is in the $4,000-$7,000 range. I also have managed to collect $775,000 at level 17.
Playing beta 2.0.1 with no patches.

 

[DarthSCG]

um lol... i think u seriously misunderstood what i was saying there

i did not want complain about how Blood is right now. everything is fine for me

only officers get multitasking; captains have other unique perks themselves. that is also fine

i was only saying what i would personally do to keep the costs as low as possible i.e. using like 3 officers with multitasking.
this didn't mean i wanted u to implement anything in the mod for me. it was just how i was playing. anyone else is free to do it however they think it suits them

also everyone is free not to choose Blood if ur thinkin hes too overpowered right now. but i think it goes well with his story. this is an RPG after all and i was role playing him by playin in a "legit" piratey way i will not do silly tradeing.. who ever heard of pirates goin in the local store for groceries; i will not risk my arse with smuggling; i will not grind/exploit on stupid AI pirates.
i will just sail the seas wherever the wind takes me. that is how i play.

in conclusion: u did the right thing with Blood, he is fine. let him be or else..

 

[Hyde911]

I think fully equipped MOW with maximum leadership/trading skills should cost not less than 200k per month.
IMHO the main problem is that there isn't many ways to make good money. In fact with realistic costs and weights there is only one: merchant missions. Fleet upkeep ought to be high but sailing from merchant to merchant is tedious. There should be alternative ways of making money so everyone would find something interesting.
There are few thing which can be done relatively easy (I guess):
- decrease significantly merchant mission reward (it was announced already)
- increase reward from treasures. Not only more money, but best weapons/cuirass/spyglass should obtainable only from treasures.
- increase amount of money in captain chests on AI ships. Make capturing ships (even smaller ones) worthwhile. (from 20k in 6th class ships up to 100k in 1st class ships)
- increase amount of money in fort. Assembling huge and very expensive fleets has to be profitable (1-2M in regular forts and 3-5 in capitals)
- I don't know if it possible but periodic (maybe monthly) changes in colonies supply and demand pattern would make trading much more unpredictable and interesting.


//Bellona demasted and sunk, no ctd

 

[Luke159]

I have no opinion on the economy as I have not been playing long enough yet. All I can say is that playing as an honest merchantman with 2 class 5 ships, pinnace Berlin and 24 gun schooner, and with most officer slots filled my monthly payroll is in the $4,000-$7,000 range. I also have managed to collect $775,000 at level 17.
Playing beta 2.0.1 with no patches.

Ok thats, so you was able to make a huge profit with 1 class 5 trade ship and the PDN as an escort like ship (but also carrying goods to sell?). Was this profit within a single month?

um lol... i think u seriously misunderstood what i was saying there

i did not want complain about how Blood is right now. everything is fine for me

only officers get multitasking; captains have other unique perks themselves. that is also fine

i was only saying what i would personally do to keep the costs as low as possible i.e. using like 3 officers with multitasking.
this didn't mean i wanted u to implement anything in the mod for me. it was just how i was playing. anyone else is free to do it however they think it suits them

also everyone is free not to choose Blood if ur thinkin hes too overpowered right now. but i think it goes well with his story. this is an RPG after all and i was role playing him by playin in a "legit" piratey way i will not do silly tradeing.. who ever heard of pirates goin in the local store for groceries; i will not risk my arse with smuggling; i will not grind/exploit on stupid AI pirates.
i will just sail the seas wherever the wind takes me. that is how i play.

in conclusion: u did the right thing with Blood, he is fine. let him be or else..

My bad, and yes i would do the same at least on till i was able to relax a little more due to more profits been made.

I think fully equipped MOW with maximum leadership/trading skills should cost not less than 200k per month.
IMHO the main problem is that there isn't many ways to make good money. In fact with realistic costs and weights there is only one: merchant missions. Fleet upkeep ought to be high but sailing from merchant to merchant is tedious. There should be alternative ways of making money so everyone would find something interesting.
There are few thing which can be done relatively easy (I guess):
- decrease significantly merchant mission reward (it was announced already)
- increase reward from treasures. Not only more money, but best weapons/cuirass/spyglass should obtainable only from treasures.
- increase amount of money in captain chests on AI ships. Make capturing ships (even smaller ones) worthwhile. (from 20k in 6th class ships up to 100k in 1st class ships)
- increase amount of money in fort. Assembling huge and very expensive fleets has to be profitable (1-2M in regular forts and 3-5 in capitals)
- I don't know if it possible but periodic (maybe monthly) changes in colonies supply and demand pattern would make trading much more unpredictable and interesting.


//Bellona demasted and sunk, no ctd

First off, ship list updated.

I will get on to the ship prices soon and update them, just finding a balance with the ship upkeep prices at the moment because its not as easy as it looks. For example in a test i had a class 3 ship with 400 fully experienced crew and all officer slots filled, the ship upkeep cost for January was 82k (not bad). However the 1st rate ship MOW with 1023 fully experienced crew and all officer slots filled was almost 500k, so trying to get the balance between the ships upkeep costs is proving to be a little annoying but i will not stop on till i get it fixed. Also for the record the ship upkeep costs is now a seperate mod switch, so you can switch it on or off if you wish.

All the other things can be done, but i would need time to look into them because i would have to search for the coding and then figure out how it works.

 

[DarthSCG]

heres a pic of that error with the game slowing down. it happened again as i was attacking this Brigantine. didnt even got to demast it. if i turned the camera away from the enemy ship things would go to normal and if i turned it back at the enemy it would start glitchin again. from the logs it looks like it might be related to that sound dll.. not sure tho