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Mod Release GOF Historical Eras Module #2

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Thanks Luke,

This is just going to be a huge mod. If people don't want to download a huge file then Oh well I guess.

Would you do the honors of making an exe for it if I send you the files?

For tonight here is one of the new NPC Officers AND playable characters. I will update the first post with the new playable characters. Norrington, Aubrey, and Willems are all gone. They are replaced with more period characters and they will be back for Module #3 (late era). I am considering adding an Black pirate captain of African descent. Been doing some research and there were some pretty neat Black characters involved in piracy during this time.

I think the game is lacking a playable Black character. I spent a lifetime in the US Army serving with some of the finest officers, men and women of African descent - several of whom I am still very proud to call good friends.

If any of you have any recommendations on a good historic 17th century black naval character, please let me know. MK

Here's "Kees the Devil"....

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Just as I haven't revealed every new weapon and new item, I'm not certain if I want to reveal all the new characters as well. I definately want a couple to be surprises for the few people that will play GOF Eras.

I actually read all about Black Ceasar in my research for characters for my stories. He was the inspiration for Moses Cohen Heinrique's 1st Mate character in my story about Piet Heyn. He was one mean dude. He led most of his activity a decade(s) before he joined Teach. He died in 1718, so he is in the right timeframe. I am looking at some others as well. Perhaps this one will be a surprise too. I even thought about making Attila a playable captain, but that would just be weird in the Isabella quest when you would end up talking to yourself.....

MK
 
MK, Ill be honest and say Ive been looking forward to this mod and Im sadface at your lack of confidence. There are TONS of people waiting for a complete mod that can compete with the build mod. The vast majority of your fans and users will be silent but glad of the work you've done. Please finish, *puppy-face*
 
I am happy to see the GOF mod continue to expand in whatever road it decides to go down, and i am happy to see a more Historical Realistic Approach :)

I agree that many users may be silent of this mod but i agree with the above, Many people love the mod and would use this very much and appreciate it.
I personally appreciate the time and dedication into this mod and am anxiously awaiting the release however i am sure that it shall be released whenever MK and his team feel it is ready. I would rather that the mod be to their standards before it was released than an early build that may not be the essential things at least that they would like to have implemented.

Keep up the good work guys :)
 
Some suggestions:
1. DEFINITELY use the 7-Zip LZMA compression. What is giving you troubles? Making a Self-Extracting archive should be pretty easy.
2. As Luke159 suggests, check which files you don't need and remove those.
3. Try to use the compression options in the TX Converter to downsize the texture filesizes without too big a hit on quality.
4. If there are any shared model files, use a Batch program to copy those files from a stock game folder so that those do not have to be included.

How did you get up to 22 GB anyway? The PotC Build Mod fully installed is 8.5 GB and as you know there's a huge load of content in there!
Of course we have done a lot of work on keeping the Build size down so I'd be interested to know if our downsizing has been so successful or is it that you have SO much more content in the Eras mod?
The difference in size is quite remarkable, isn't it? :shock
 
22GB is a bit large. The largest game I have installed is 16.9GB and it wanted 30gb of free space while it was unpacking. It sounds like it is time to do the grunt work of finding and deleting duplicate files.
I would not downsize textures. The difference is noticeable and this old game needs all of the hirez eye candy it can get to attract more players.
 
In many cases, the compression cannot readily be seen though. If you choose the right settings. You have to see what works though.
I did it for pretty much all Textures currently in the Build Mod by necessity.
 
Pieter Boelen said:
In many cases, the compression cannot readily be seen though. If you choose the right settings. You have to see what works though.
I did it for pretty much all Textures currently in the Build Mod by necessity.
Click to expand...
Well, it has to be said that some of the interface elements in the Build Mod do look a bit... fuzzy, I guess. Especially the buttons.
I'm not sure how much the compression has to do with this, or if the textures weren't very sharp to begin with, but they certainly don't look as sharp as the GOF interfaces shown in the screenshots above.
Evidently though, the reduction in mod size thanks to the compression is very useful. Isn't there a size limit for the installer file (which we nearly reached)?
 
I never compressed the interface pictures, because those are most hurt by the compression.
Some of the stock game files might have been to begin with, but for the modpack we avoided it for that very reason.

Indeed the installer method I used for the PotC Build Mod works up to 2.2 GB if I recall and we only just managed to stay below that.
Another full installer is going to be... problematic indeed.
 
Ah, that's interesting. I just checked the image details of icons_new.tga, and although it hasn't been compressed, it only uses 12 bit colour, which is probably why some areas look so fuzzy.
I might look into cleaning it up a bit and export it with 24 bit colour to see how it compares.
 
You mean the pixelation effects on that file? They are there on the original icons.tga file too.
A fair few of the stock game files are affected that way and I think they were since the unmodded game.
 
Handority said:
MK, Ill be honest and say Ive been looking forward to this mod and Im sadface at your lack of confidence. There are TONS of people waiting for a complete mod that can compete with the build mod. The vast majority of your fans and users will be silent but glad of the work you've done. Please finish, *puppy-face*
Click to expand...

I really appreciate the kind words Mate. That really - seriously - helps me want to finish this. Thank you!

I feel like I am completely alone in this and have had very little interest, help or sharing of capabilities that others have been able to implement - that I would like to include in Eras and get out in this mod. It is very frustrating.

If there are only even ten of you that will play (besides my son and two other friends who have been testing for me), it will be worth releasing.

I have been mainly been doing other fun things the last few weeks, but my burnout is subsiding and I did add some more stuff today. The character additions are almost complete. I will not put a release date on this now, because I'm trying to get the last few things done and still scale the size down a bit. For those that really want to play it just stay tuned - I will release it when its done. Unlike some others, I like to share my work.

MK
 
For what it's worth, our recent survey for Hearts of Oak has shown that most of our fans have a genuine interest in realism and historical authenticity.
So when you finally make this mod available to the masses, I'm confident there will be plenty of people ready to download it. :onya

Heck, this mod might even convince me to buy the game. It would be nice to have a Storm game that actually works on my laptop, without having to compromise ocean quality. :sail
 
I support you, but since I own a mac now, and can't play Age of Pirates I don't bother downloading it. But if it means anything to you: I check this thread daily, in the hope I am greeted by some nice screenshots of your work.
 
modernknight1 said:
If there are only even ten of you that will play (besides my son and two other friends who have been testing for me), it will be worth releasing
Click to expand...

Although i rarely post, i check these forums fairly often, and i've been excited to play your mod for awhile now! I'm sure there are other lurkers like me who are really looking forward to it, so don't despair!
 
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