Need Help Governor Quest Problem

[Bathtub-pirate]

Hi there,


I lately found some time to play some Build again, downloaded the latest version and now I ran into a rather annoying problem.


I took another governor quest in St. Martin and was ordered to find and defeat a little 12- or 16-gunner. By the time I circumnavigated the island without sighting the ship, I wanted to return to Phillipsburg and then reembark. Because that way the hunted ships often respawn in a nearby position. However, just when I set my sights on the home port, it was reported that the ship surrendered. Why? I don't know. Maybe they were given chase or it was a case of A.I. stupidity.


Now I have huge trouble finding this ship. It surrendered by the time I nearly came full circle around the island. Being a naval ketch (if I am not mistaken) one can imagine how far that damn ship is now away from the island. So it sits out there, somewhere in the blue and out of sight. Even with the spyglass I couldn't spot it so far. And my guess, in which direction I should search, is as good as anybody's. Even worse: Going to the port and then onto the ship again does NOT seem to respawn a ship, as soon as it surrendered.


So there I am, direct sail being disabled and I have no clue where to find this little ship. Even if I activate sail-to, I can't sail to it, because it is obviously too far away for the sail-to to consider it viable. Any idea how to work around this mess? Because sailing around aimlessly in the empty blue, just to find that little nutshell for a sloppy 4.000 gold, is quite a tedious pain in the a**.


My advice to avoid this in future installments: Make the governor quest ships at the very least tier 6 ships (if not 5). These little Tier 7 ships run for the hills way too easy. But with direct sail being disabled, they will technically never make an escape. So often they give up by mere chance …. with nobody threatening them as it seems. What makes matters worse is that tier 7 ships are often highly maneuverable and fairly quick, making them very hard to catch for other A.I. Ships. And when they give up they can be a great distance away from the island. So either make these ships at the very least tier 6 or disable their ability to surrender.

Edit: Another possibility would of course be to have these ships respawn - even if they surrendered.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

I thought the bugs were worked out of the governors quest. What build version are you playing?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

ALL ships in the area should show up in the Sail-To menu. Did you say you reloaded to shore after she surrendered?
That might be the reason for the missing ship. Does that not complete the quest by itself?
If not, indeed we should probably set these governor ship hunting ships to never surrender to avoid this.

 

[Grey Roger]

Normally when I do a ship-hunting quest, I sail-to the target immediately after putting to sea so I don't need to sail all round the island trying to find it the hard way.

The one time I saw a target ship surrender was when it was placed too close to the fort, which then proceeded to do most of my work for me.

What I did notice in a different fight was that, after a ship which had been hostile surrendered and I docked without boarding it first, when I then put to sea the ship was still there but was now neutral and I couldn't board it. If the quest ship does the same thing then when you go looking for it, it should still be around somewhere but won't show up as hostile on your compass. Since you have not boarded or sunk the ship, it won't end the quest. You'll have to sail-to every ship possible and check its name through your telescope.

 

[Bathtub-pirate]

@ Hylie

It should be the newest version of Build. Downloaded it just like a week or two ago. So if there was no update since then, it should be the newest version.


@ all

The issue might be unaddressed so far because technically it is not a bug. It is more of a design flaw. Whenever a governor quest target ship decides to flee the waters, it can sail away all it wants. It will never make an escape. Because as long as the player doesn't leave the on-sea-cell (like landing on a shore or in the port), it will always remain in the current waters – regardless of how far it sails away.



I am not completely sure, how the surrender mechanic works, but I assume it works with percentages. And should there be a minimum chance for a ship to surrender under any given circumstances, and be it “just” that he opposition is too overwhelming even though not a single shot has been fired yet, then it is just a question of when (not if) the fleeing enemy ship will surrender. At least when the player stays in the waters for a long enough time. Which is not that unlikely to be the case if he turns every stone in search for the enemy vessel.



What I would like to know is if my impression, that surrendered governor quest ships aren't respawned but stay in place, is correct. Because right now either this could be the case or it is a matter of incredibly bad luck on my part. Or the ship flees all the damn time.


@Roger

I always play iron man mode. But yes, I enabled sail-to to search for the ship. It is nowhere to be found. Now – does that mean that it is definitely not there or might it be too far away to be available for sail-to?


Should I not solve this – is there a way to get rid of the quest through the backdoor? Like editing a data file. Because I would like to be able to leave St. Martin at some point in the future.^^

 

[Hylie Pistof]

This sounds like just bad luck to me. It is possible for a ship to sail so far away it disappears, but is still in that islands waters.

The closest experience I can remember to this happened on a treasure quest where the pirate ship met me as soon as we got the "land ho" call. He shot out my sails and then headed for the horizon. There happened to be 2 local ships in the area and they took off after him while I limped in towards the island. Some time later (as in the next day )the 3 ships came sailing back and made it close to the island where the pirate surrendered. I sailed over there and accepted the surrender and then continued. So I got lucky there.

Can you start over from an earlier save?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

The Hunting ship remains active at the island even if you leave, but NOT after surrendering.
All surrendered ships disappear the next time you reload to shore or another island.