Hi there. Few questions for ya

[Multigun]

First off, A++ to all the hardwork everybody in the community has done for this mod. I learned about it's existence all of like, ~ 3 days ago because of some random person on Steam's Sea Dogs: To Each His Own mentioned in passing that people made mods for Pirates of the Caribbean still. I haven't even touched my discs since like, 2004 (come on GoG! You know you want to bribe Disney so we can get the digital version going). But because of this mod, I re-installed and here I am!

So then, enough about my life story. Few questions INC!

1) I'm running the game on my Samsung SSD. Given the chance, especially with every freaken door being a load screen, who wouldn't? Anyhoo, the tips that you all created at the loading screens have been super helpful and enlightening. You know, all of the 2 or 3 times where my load screen didn't take less than 1 second to transition to the new area. So, my question, is there a place one can find all the tips consolidated somewhere? I am aware of the tips and hints section in the F1 screen, but I can tell those are not the same things as what comes up on the load screens.

tl;dr Is there a location where I can view the hints and tips that come up on the load screen?

2) First game I started I was running the public build, 4.0. I played on the first island all the way to level 10. Went to leave the island for the very first time on my ship and game went to black screen. Every, single, time. I did all that I could do of the Mysterious Plants quest in that playthrough. Now I noticed that, in the linked walkthrough for the quest, at the very bottom it says "BUGGED FROM HERE – as unable to sail your ship." Was this the cause of my issues?

I have since updated to 4.1, and before I repeated all that I had done all over again (since having to start a new game), I made sure I could leave the port, just in case (I could). I went over the 4.1 patch notes and didn't see anything regarding being unable to leave the first island, or the Mysterious Plants quest. So, is it safe to do the Mysterious Plant quest at this point? Unless told otherwise, I'm completely ignoring this quest, and probably being cautious of doing any further "mod based quest."

Side note: Why is that quest even part of the install when it's clearly extremely bugged (the Natives not attacking, and possibly breaking the entire game), and not finished. I thought there was a specific optional install criteria to install or not install unfinished content (which I purposely left unchecked). Seems to me that this quest in particular should definitely fall under "unfinished."

tl;dr Will the Mysterious Plants quest cause any issues with the core game?

3) What's the difference between long guns and Carronades? There is zero info that I can find anywhere. The only stats show shooting distance, powder, reload type, etc. I assume that Carronades do more damage with Long Guns long range? Or is the damage strictly based on the caliber?

tl;dr Long Guns vs Carronades? Difference?

4) Not a question but a complaint. Been playing blackjack in taverns. Is there some weird house rule where a tie = NPC winning? It's driving me insane either way. A tie does not equal a loss in Blackjack, unless there is a very specific game reason for it (game code limitations, artificial way to make it more challenging).

Thank you for your time.

 

[LarryHookins]

First of all, @Multigun, welcome back!

I was probably the random person on Steam who mentioned that development was still going on. In fact, I just posted that in the City of Abandoned Ships thread where I was comparing TEHO with COAS, and mentioned PotC as a possible alternative.

I don't know about the Mysterious Plants quest. I collected a bunch of them, but since many were from places that don't exist in PotC it had to be part of TEHO. I have no idea if that quest exists in PotC New Horizons, but we have experts who could tell you all about it.

As far as I know, the quests that do exist in New Horizons work, as long as you didn't elect to install unfinished quests. The quest writers tend to be pretty good about making sure their quests work.

I haven't been in that part of the code in a long time, but in real life carronades are short thick cannons that can throw a massive ball for a short distance, doing tremendous damage. The HMS Victory had a couple of 68 pound carronades, if memory serves. In all my research, I only found one real life ship armed with all carronades. They're lighter than a comparable long cannon would be, which is why they're occasionally used to supplement the normal guns on a ship. The pictures I've seen show them mounted on swivels, so they'd normally have a large firing arc.

I haven't messed with the blackjack games, but normally there's a rule where the dealer wins all ties. This means basically that the dealer wins 55% of the games. I tested the heck out of this once when I wrote a blackjack program.

Hook

 

[Multigun]

Oh hi there Larry,

I actually read your two comparisons you posted on Steam (you linked the other one to your most recent comparison). Was fun to read I actually was waiting on the new DLC for To Each His Own to be converted over to English before I started a play through, and that's how I stumbled on this mod. So now I'm going to play Pirates, then Sea Dogs: Caribbean (Age of Pirates 1, from my understanding), then To Each His Own (Age of Pirates 2, again from my understanding).

1) Anyways. my understanding is that Mysterious Plants quest was added via modders, as it takes you to non-vanilla locations and such. It also says its "unfinished" in both the link I provided (the walkthrough), as well as in the game itself when you reach it's current end (it says in the quest book that you have reached its current end, and that the completed quest will be out "soon").

2) Does that mean the game lets you mix and match cannons? I haven't gotten that far yet, still playing black jack collecting monies

3) I just did a tiny bit of googling regarding Blackjack rules. It's actually the opposite, from my understanding. It's rare for a game to feature the dealer winning the hand with a tie. Casino rules its a push, and no money is exchanged on a tie. Of course, this isn't a casino; it's Pirate era in the 1700's I could see how a Pirate dealer would try to make it so they have all the advantage in the world.

Also, that ~55% is probably off. It's closer to greater than 75% of the time. I couldn't tell you the number of times I got 21 only for the dealer to get 21 also, followed by multiple times in a row of them scoring 21 (both the NPC's and my player character either had equal luck scores, or the dealer had less luck score then my player). I also noticed a pattern: if the player gets between ~ 12-16 points on the first draw, it's like a 99.9999999% chance of busting and the NPC winning. ~12-19 I would give the NPC greater then a 90% chance of winning the hand. Just some observations, I'm well aware I should count my lucky stars that there is even a black jack option in the first place, and not just dice (RNG HATES me in every game I have ever played) as I believe Vanilla Pirates used to be (could be wrong, going off of memory). So blackjack requires a lot of luck, but its better then the luck required to win dice for me.

 

[LarryHookins]

The game will almost certainly not allow you to mix cannons.

I wrote a blackjack program for one computer, pre-PC days, and set it to play itself overnight. Over hundreds of hands and several restarts the player won 45% of the games, with the dealer always winning a push. This was with both the player and the dealer using the same rules to hit or stand. I'm sure the dealer would win more often if the player wasn't using those rules.

If the Plants quest is there, then it sounds like it's not complete and shouldn't have shown up. I know that at least half the plants I found were in places that don't exist in PotC, like Panama.

I haven't played Sea Dogs 1. Of the group, Pirates of the Caribbean New Horizons probably has the most content and will likely give the best gaming experience. I'm still exploring City of Abandoned Ships, and it appears to be TEHO with different content, with TEHO being more refined and having more and better quests. I don't know about the mods yet.

Hook

 

[pedrwyth]

Is there a location where I can view the hints and tips that come up on the load screen?

The loading screen tips are stored individually as tga.tx texture files in RESOURCES/Textures/Tips and I have never seen a list. To view them from the texture files you need to convert the tga.tx to a viewable format. For this you need TX converter from here

Tools, Tutorials and Information | PiratesAhoy!

Point the converter at the tips directory (right hand side of the screen) and you will be able to look at each tip as you select each file.

Long Guns vs Carronades? Difference?

Tip 29 (for example) reads "Carronades tend to have a shorter range than cannons but they deal more damage"

So, is it safe to do the Mysterious Plant quest at this point? Unless told otherwise, I'm completely ignoring this quest, and probably being cautious of doing any further "mod based quest."

Problems with the Apothecary Quest are documented here

High Priority - Apothecary Quest Bugs ( contains Spoilers ) | PiratesAhoy!

from reading which it seems the absolute black screen lock-up when trying to use your ship after Cartagena should be fixed in the July 28th WIP 4.1 but numerous unfixed non-functioning elements remain. You are probably wise to leave it alone as a newcomer since it is not a fair reflection of the state of the vast majority of mod added sidequests (or indeed storylines) which you shouldn't need to be wary about - but as tip 12 would tell you "Don't forget to save often! You never know what may surprise you from behind the next stone, tree or cliff" - or occasionally coding glitch - (Afterall that's why this forum has a bug report section).

 

[KillPhil]

tl;dr Is there a location where I can view the hints and tips that come up on the load screen?


tl;dr Long Guns vs Carronades? Difference?

1. Those are compressed .tx image files. Unless you are willing to convert them to .tga and look through every image, no. I can't really get behind putting PotC on a SSD ,though. Loading times in this game are maybe 2-4 seconds with a HDD, so I dont see a reason here.

2. Long guns have more range, more accuracy and have more damage compared to the same Carronade calibre. Carronades are short Cannons, which results in way less range, but therefore better reloading speed, because they are easier to handle. Also, due to less weight, you can install bigger calibres on your ship than with long guns. PotC does not really support mixing of different cannons, though I thought it is possible by selecting how many you want to install in the shipyard interface, but I am not sure about this.

 

[LarryHookins]

Ah, THOSE mysterious plants. I had this mixed up with the Manga Rose quests from TEHO.

I'd encountered a Mysterious Plant, and figured the apothecary was the person to ask... probably was a hint in the quest book. I went to him but the quest didn't advance. I reloaded a saved game from before I talked to him.

Hook

 

[Multigun]

Thank you all. Cleared up a lot of stuff for me.

I wrote a blackjack program for one computer, pre-PC days, and set it to play itself overnight. Over hundreds of hands and several restarts the player won 45% of the games, with the dealer always winning a push. This was with both the player and the dealer using the same rules to hit or stand. I'm sure the dealer would win more often if the player wasn't using those rules.

I haven't played Sea Dogs 1. Of the group, Pirates of the Caribbean New Horizons probably has the most content and will likely give the best gaming experience. I'm still exploring City of Abandoned Ships, and it appears to be TEHO with different content, with TEHO being more refined and having more and better quests. I don't know about the mods yet.

I assume the blackjack program you wrote didn't have any weights added, in terms of an attribute like luck, or any other hidden weights that lean in favor of the dealer (NPC). Still don't like losing when its a tie, but guess I'll live with the endless saving and reloading. Or just find a better way to make money early on

Sorry for the confusion, I wasn't referring to Sea Dogs 1. I don't plan on playing that one, it looks way to dated even for me and I can be willing to look past dated games. So Pirates -> Sea Dogs: Caribbean (Age of Pirates 1, released 2006) -> Sea Dogs: To Each His Own (I thought that TEHO was the same as Age of Pirates 2, but slightly improved, and of course available where as the Age of Pirates 2 is not. Could have misunderstood that point though)

The loading screen tips are stored individually as tga.tx texture files in RESOURCES/Textures/Tips and I have never seen a list. To view them from the texture files you need to convert the tga.tx to a viewable format. For this you need TX converter from here

Tools, Tutorials and Information | PiratesAhoy!

Point the converter at the tips directory (right hand side of the screen) and you will be able to look at each tip as you select each file.

Ah, that seems useful. Thank you.

I figured out a trick with the loading screens while in game as well. The trick is quick saving before entering a new area (door, tavern, cavern, jungle, etc etc), then entering the area (followed by the quick load time thanks to the SSD). Once entering, you can quick load (which takes a longer time then to just enter a new area as far as load times, which gives plenty of time to read them) and the game will repeat the load screen tip that was last used infinitely until zoning into another area (or even the same area) where the process can be repeated for a new tooltip.

So to recap:

Quick Save
Enter New Area
Quick Load (read tooltips)
Continue on or repeat process as necessary

Problems with the Apothecary Quest are documented here

High Priority - Apothecary Quest Bugs ( contains Spoilers ) | PiratesAhoy!

from reading which it seems the absolute black screen lock-up when trying to use your ship after Cartagena should be fixed in the July 28th WIP 4.1 but numerous unfixed non-functioning elements remain. You are probably wise to leave it alone as a newcomer since it is not a fair reflection of the state of the vast majority of mod added sidequests (or indeed storylines) which you shouldn't need to be wary about - but as tip 12 would tell you "Don't forget to save often! You never know what may surprise you from behind the next stone, tree or cliff" - or occasionally coding glitch - (Afterall that's why this forum has a bug report section).

Yes, I save frequently out of habit. I usually hit the save limit (and have to go through and delete old saves in game, or manually in the save directory) within an hour of playing. Thanks for the link regarding the quest bug, appreciate you finding that. There is an ability (perk) unlocked related to the quest, but its available at the beginning of the chain. I might dip my toes in again that far, when I'm brave next that is

2. Long guns have more range, more accuracy and have more damage compared to the same Carronade calibre. Carronades are short Cannons, which results in way less range, but therefore better reloading speed, because they are easier to handle. Also, due to less weight, you can install bigger calibres on your ship than with long guns. PotC does not really support mixing of different cannons, though I thought it is possible by selecting how many you want to install in the shipyard interface, but I am not sure about this.

Couldn't see any way to mix and match, just to buy all of the one gun type. Which is fine by me, less complicated that way and less for me to stress about regarding what to put on each ship I eventually get That said, thank you for the gun breakdown. My style of play would probably like the long guns better. Accuracy, damage, and range, sounds good to me. The only question I have remaining is how does the size of the caliber come into play? Bigger = more damage I assume, does accuracy go up (or down) as well?

 

[KillPhil]

Bigger calibre first of all needs a bigger ship. Most ships at the beginning dont have enough calibre to be a threat to your enemies. Long Guns smaller than 12 are for most ships like paperbullets. So with small traders, better stick with Carronades as you can place a much bigger calibre. Bigger calibre has better range and more damage, but higher reloading time. Accuracy is unaffected by calibre and is only affected by your Accuracy-Skill (or your gunner's). Carronades also have a dispersion-multiplicator.

You missed the point with damage a bit. Yes, Long Guns of the same calibre deal more damage, but you can place bigger Carronades, which will always result in more damage when using Carronades.
@Pieter Boelen : We should probably think of a solution here since the 32calibre Carronade outmatches the biggest normal Long Gun you can place in every aspect except range. If you want, I can tweak those a bit since Long Guns are somewhat useless at the moment. It would be logical that Carronades can't deal as much damage since they create less kinetic energy because of the much shorter barrel.

 

[LarryHookins]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that the blackjack game is probably fair, but the outcome will change your luck skill. That program I wrote was in 1980, and at the time it was commonly assumed that for casinos, the dealer wins all ties. Maybe some casinos did, and some didn't, sort of like having a double and triple zero on the roulette wheel: the house cut ends up bigger.

If you can find a copy, play a bit of Age of Pirates 2: City of Abandoned Ships. It's TEHO with different content, although TEHO is the more refined game. There's a Gentlemen of Fortune mod for it here, but try the stock game first.

Hook

 

[Pieter Boelen]

While most questions have already been answered, just in case, here are some more details:

Is there a location where I can view the hints and tips that come up on the load screen?

You can find the tips here: RESOURCE\Textures\Tips
They're texture files that you can view with: http://www.piratesahoy.cloud/repository/Tools/Modeling+Texturing/TX Convertor.zip

Will the Mysterious Plants quest cause any issues with the core game?

Unfortunately @Levis never managed to finish writing that quest prior to Build 14 Beta 4.0 being released.
You can try the Beta 4.1 WIP from the link in my signature, which contains a proper end for that quest along with some fixes that @Jack Rackham made.

I have no idea if that quest exists in PotC New Horizons, but we have experts who could tell you all about it.

The quest in PotC is unrelated to whatever might be in SD:TEHO.

Sea Dogs: Caribbean (Age of Pirates 1, from my understanding)

You understand correctly.

To Each His Own (Age of Pirates 2, again from my understanding)

If you want to fit SD:TEHO into the AoP series, technically it would be Age of Pirates 3.
Age of Pirates 2 is called "City of Abandoned Ships".

Sorry for the confusion, I wasn't referring to Sea Dogs 1. I don't plan on playing that one, it looks way to dated even for me and I can be willing to look past dated games. So Pirates -> Sea Dogs: Caribbean (Age of Pirates 1, released 2006) -> Sea Dogs: To Each His Own (I thought that TEHO was the same as Age of Pirates 2, but slightly improved, and of course available where as the Age of Pirates 2 is not. Could have misunderstood that point though)

Technically the entire "Storm Engine-based pirate series" goes like this:
1. Sea Dogs (Storm 1.0)
2. Pirates of the Caribbean (Storm 2.0), game formerly known as Sea Dogs 2
3. Age of Pirates: Caribbean Tales (Storm 2.5), now known as Sea Dogs: Caribbean Tales
4. Age of Pirates 2: City of Abandoned Ships (Storm 2.8)
5. Sea Dogs: To Each His Own (Storm 2.8+?), formerly known as Pirates Odyssey: To Each His Own

There was a huge jump in quality between #1 and #2 on that list (though not as far as actual gameplay was concerned).
Ever since PotC though, the quality jumps have been decidedly smaller, which is why here most of us still stuck to that original 2003 game.

All of the games on that list are moddable, EXCEPT #5.

We should probably think of a solution here since the 32calibre Carronade outmatches the biggest normal Long Gun you can place in every aspect except range. If you want, I can tweak those a bit since Long Guns are somewhat useless at the moment. It would be logical that Carronades can't deal as much damage since they create less kinetic energy because of the much shorter barrel.

I won't get into any balancing arguments myself. Check with @Grey Roger.

 

[LarryHookins]

@Pieter Boelen, yeah, I had the Manga Rose quest from TEHO and the Mysterious Plants quest from PotC confused.

 

[Grey Roger]

Getting a bit off the original topic and probably ripe for a topic of its own...

You missed the point with damage a bit. Yes, Long Guns of the same calibre deal more damage, but you can place bigger Carronades, which will always result in more damage when using Carronades.
@Pieter Boelen : We should probably think of a solution here since the 32calibre Carronade outmatches the biggest normal Long Gun you can place in every aspect except range. If you want, I can tweak those a bit since Long Guns are somewhat useless at the moment. It would be logical that Carronades can't deal as much damage since they create less kinetic energy because of the much shorter barrel.

The whole point of carronades is to trade range for damage. I'd agree that a 32lb carronade should do a bit less damage than a 32lb long gun due to the lower muzzle velocity, but it should still do more damage than a 24lb long gun. Carronades should also perhaps be a bit quicker to load than long guns of similar calibre. The shorter barrel cannon would be easier to pull back into the ship, possibly quicker to swab out, and possibly quicker to ram the next load to the back of the barrel because there isn't as much barrel to ram it down.

 

[Multigun]

New question/newb question/help me! I can't figure out why the crew on my other ships CONSTANTLY want to mutiny, even after pleasing them with gold coin as much as possible, they are back to mutiny, often within 1 day.

I am on the 2nd easiest difficulty, pretty much everything requiring a lot of micro managing turned off (for now, wanted to slowly start introducing stuff as I got used to the game). Food rations are off, crew is salary (salary scale set to 1). I cannot for the life of me figure out why the crews of my other ships keep getting pissed off and mutiny. I can pay them all the way to where they feel "excellent" then do some repairs on 1 ship and they go back to mutiny. Meanwhile, the crew on my personal ship is hunky dory and are perfectly fine (and never drop below "excellent" moral). The captains of the ship I selected are first mates with are at least double in the leadership statistic (my character is currently at a leadership skill of 4, the captains for the other ships are at least an 8). They all have the perk to increase the moral score by 25%. The other 3 officers are the same on the other ships, gunnery, surgeon, and carpenter. I would hire more officers and throw them all over onto other ships if I could, but obviously you are capped at 4 (while having however many you want on your own ship. I made a point to have 1 of each). Even with food and rum rations turned off, I keep a stock of 25 of each on all ships just in case there was some sort of code thing that saw an empty ship = freak out time. I've tried doubling the rations of rum as well (even though it shouldn't matter) to no effect.

I get that doing the other option instead of salary makes the crew happier. But come on, 1 single day and they are ready to cut my throat after I pay them ~$10,000 + (depending on the size of the ship) to please them? What am I doing wrong?

Edit: Read online after googling it a bit more that the reputation of your officers can effect crew morale. How do you view your reputation? Is that the Heroine/Hero stuff (that is what my character is listed as under the name). Every other officer I have has different titles, but I don't see anywhere what any of them mean. Is there a list for female/male titles so I know what's good and bad? Is there something officers can do to raise their own reputation or is that something that has to be looked at when hiring them?

Edit 2: I hope this isn't the case, but the ship build wouldn't have any effect on crew morale would it? I am at war with the French, and have captured a couple of French vessels. All but maybe 5% of the crew was replaced in those instances though.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I can't figure out why the crew on my other ships CONSTANTLY want to mutiny, even after pleasing them with gold coin as much as possible, they are back to mutiny, often within 1 day.

What is your reputation and what is the reputation of the captain of that ship?
If there's a large difference between those, then that can lead to trouble.

I keep a stock of 25 of each on all ships just in case there was some sort of code thing that saw an empty ship = freak out time

I double-checked that code in the past and it should actually share properly between all your ships,
so you could in theory keep all your rations on one ship and have none on the others and it should still work.

 

[Grey Roger]

Yes, reputation can affect morale on companion ships. It is indeed the "Hero/Heroine" part of the character screen. They should be pretty obvious, e.g. "Hero" or "Dashing" is a good guy, "Bloody Terror" or "Horror of the High Seas" is a bad guy, and "Neutral" is neither good nor bad. So, if you're "Hero" and the officer you put onto a ship is "Bloody Terror", or vice versa, then he's going to want to incite a mutiny and take over the ship for himself. "Neutral" is pretty safe either way.

Reputations are defined in "PROGRAM\Characters\characters.h", which is where the numerical value of a character's reputation is translated to a label, from "REPUTATION_HORROR" (ultra-evil) to "REPUTATION_HERO" (ultra-good). Also in there are the values which map those labels to a table of reputation names, from "REPUTATIONT_HORROR" to "REPUTATIONT_HERO" (note the extra "T"). And "RESOURCE\INI\TEXTS\ENGLISH\common.ini" translates those to what you actually see on screen (from "Horror of the High Seas" to "Hero", or from "Femme Fatale" to "Heroine" for females).

Officers who are in your shore party, i.e. the ones who you selected in the "Passengers" screen to accompany you when you're walking around, will get a small share of your reputation changes. It takes a long time, much longer than to change your own reputation, but your good or evil deeds affect them too, and I have personally converted a "Horror of the High Seas" all the way up to "Hero" - eventually!

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I hope this isn't the case, but the ship build wouldn't have any effect on crew morale would it? I am at war with the French, and have captured a couple of French vessels. All but maybe 5% of the crew was replaced in those instances though.

That is indeed not the case.

 

[KillPhil]

@Grey Roger : Totally agree with you! A Carronade a calibre higher than the long guns should always deal more damage. But IMO a Long Gun the same calibre as a Carronade should still do more damage, which is not always the case atm.

Carronades already have much shorter reload time, so I think it fits really well.

Conclusion would/should be that Carronades give higher damage output on smaller ships which can't fit higher calibres and reload faster. Long Guns on big ships should be able to outdamage most carronades and way more range, but for slower reloading speed.

ATM, nearly all ships have long guns equipped, while in real, especially traders favored the Carronade since it was easier to handle. Is it possible to make a simple argument here? like If = Trader use Cannon_Type_Carronade or something like that?

 

[Multigun]

Thanks all. I was under the false self made assumption that the character class was important as to who to name captain. I set up that system (first mates as captains) before I realized that an officers perks (and attributes) were shared with that of it's captain. So after setting a lower level carpenter (17 vs 21) who was seen as a Hero as captain, and demoting the first mate to just an officer (who was a Scarlet), that seems to have fixed that issue. Looking at the common.ini files as posted by Grey Roger, I apparently had the equivalent of a Bloody Terror commanding that vessel while my ship was apparently the fun ship with me as a Hero No wonder the crew got upset.

Will the other officers reputation affect ship moral? Like should I be firing all of these bad rep Officers and replace them with good rep ones? Will take forever but if it must be done then it must be done.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

It is only captains' reputation that has any impact on the game.