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Hook's Mod

LarryHookins

LarryHookins

Buccaneer
Staff member
Storm Modder
I have mode the final planned change to the code by adding the name of the mooring location when the anchor icon is visible. And I suddenly realized I'm done.

I've got someone independently testing the mod now.

This is a full list of changes. Most of them are applicable to sailing on the deck of your ship in first person mode.

----------

Replaced the compass texture with one with 32 points
Replaced the worldmap background with a file that shows region boundaries

Added console.c where you can put any executable code and press num pad Insert to run it

The cannon aiming crosshair defaults to hidden. In this case, pressing the left mouse button
while on the deck of your ship will auto aim, the same way it does in third person view.
To turn the crosshair on to fire an aimed shot, press the C key.

Several fonts have been enlarged so they're easier to read on a high resolution monitor.

The battle interface now displays the name of the island region rather than "open sea".
It also displays the name of the location where you can moor if the anchor icon is visable.
This uses the standard log interface, the same as when you approach a door on land and it
displays where the door leads to, but will repeat when the log times out and the text
fades. This is necessary because some mooring locations overlap and this will give you
the name of the current one.

Crews get sailing experience each hour while sailing. The stock version has them gaining 1%
at midnight if you're on the sea, losing 1% if you're on land. This has been cut to 0.5%
and 0.1% added each hour while sailing. Crews shouldn't lose sailing experience if all you're
doing is sailing, but you only sail during the day.

Crew is now shown on deck in first person view.

Time has been changed to pass more slowly while on the world map. Everything will look the
same as before, but the time won't advance as fast. I have defaulted this value to 6 knots,
up from the stock version of 1 knot. If you think it's too slow, change the 6.0 to 3.0
in sea.c

The wind speed has been increased by 10 knots, so stock 4-15 knots becomes 14-25. At the
highest wind speed, it acts like 1.7x time compression. At the lowest speed, it acts
like 3.5x time compression. The wind speed also varies less, making the ship speed more
constant. If you feel like your ships are sailing too fast, change WhrWeather.c in two
places to add 5 instead of 10 knots. A variable was removed that had been used to implement
drag at higher speeds, but caused ships to sail slower at wind speeds over 15 knots.
It won't be necessary, because you don't have to worry about sailing faster in very low
winds because there are no more very low winds.

While the square rigger sailing model is fine, the fore and aft rigged ships had a bizarre
sailing model, where you sailed the fastest at the closest point to the wind. Try a courier
lugger with a Pilgrim's amulet to see the problem at its worst. I changed the fore and aft
rigged ships to sail fastest with wind from the side, with no change to square rigged ships
beyond removing the drag variable mentioned above.

Square riggers will now sail at their current speed attribute displayed in the F2->Ship
screen when the wind is 22 knots. Fore and aft rigged ships will sail this speed when
the wind is 25 knots, typically the highest you'll see in the game.

All of these changes have been tested thoroughly wiht the dynamic sailing mode. If you
use tactical sailing mode (set when starting a new game) there will be some differences.
Let me know if anything needs to be changed for tactical sailing.

I prefer dynamic sailing mode because it uses a better game scale. If you like tactical mode
you can get the same effect by sailing in dynamic mode at 0.5x time compression, and you may
prefer 0.5x time compression during sea battles in dynamic mode anyway. But it's not
much fun to sail in tactical mode.

-------------

Most of these are visible in the screen shot below.

Hook
 

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Two changes have come out of the testing so far.

My tester didn't like the larger fonts, so I did what I should have done originally and made it a #define at the top of the file so that the player can set it once for all affected text.

He also didn't like the wind speed increase. He tested it with a highly buffed ship and high time compression/acceleration. Yeah, the ship is going to go a lot faster in those conditions, but won't exceed the current speed rating, and then only match it in the highest winds at the best angle of sail. The higher winds are intended to be a substitute for time compression while sailing. The wind speed increase has also been made into a #define so the player can change it at the top of the file.

I already mentioned that if your ship seems to be sailing too fast, change the 10 knot increase to be a 5 knot increase.

I suppose I could adjust the wind speed for time compression, so you'll be travelling at the same apparent speed no matter what the time compression is set to. I don't want to do that. Of course, if you're using lower than normal time compression (like 0.5x), you'll still get the same winds.

Hook
 
I decided not to set the wind speed according to the difficulty, although I have the code necessary to do that.

I've put various settings in a mod_settings.h file so they're easy to edit. Things like the wind speed increase, the time passage on the world map, whether to show crew on deck and how much to enlarge the interface text, if any. The fore and aft sailing model is hard coded and required too many changes to make a toggle for it. Since no one seemed to understand why I said the sailing model was bizarre (because they only sailed square riggers) I doubt this will cause much heartache.

The mooring location name has been made a permanent interface log entry for as long as it's needed, so it remains in screen when the moor anchor icon is visible and goes away otherwise. I've even got it to change the name (but not play the anchor drop sound yet) if two mooring regions overlap.

I've made a change to the wind power so that ships won't sail faster than their current speed rating. Basically, no matter much faster the wind is, the ship will sail as if the wind maxes out at 23 knots.

This is very nearly ready for release. Let me know if anyone is interested.

Hook
 
Last edited:
I got the anchor drop sound working when two mooring locations overlap and you sail from one mooring location to another. An obvious case of this is the St Christopher lighthouse and Capsterville.

I think that's the last issue I was looking to fix for this version.

If you're waiting for version 1.5 to be released before playing TEHO again, you might want to try this mod while you're waiting. It is only for version 1.4. I will make a 1.5 version when that's available.

Note that the mod is made so that you can install or remove it without affecting saved games. Installation is a case of downloading a file (when it's available) and unzipping it to your TEHO folder. It contains everything you need, including a dll file which allows the game to read from the program folder without changes to the game. To disable the mod temporarily, there's a setting in an included ini file for that, or you can rename the program folder. To uninstall the mod, delete the program folder, the new dll file, the accompanying ini file and my change log txt file. This will leave the new compass texture and worldmap background with island regions marked, and you can even get rid of those by using Steam's verify game files function if you don't want them.

When the mod is installed, disabled, or uninstalled, you'll need to reset controls to default in the game options for that save.

Again, let me know if you're interested.

Hook
 
I'd be interested in giving this a try. Are you planning to release the mod generally, or only distributing on request?
 
Thanks, @JackHawke. It will eventually be a general release, but I'd like to have someone testing it a bit first. Right now, I'm trying to find out if anyone is interested.

I'll send you a link when I get it put together.

Thanks for your interest.

Hook
 
Hehe, I am also interested. I´ve bought the game recently, so I am all ears for mods for this game. ;)
 
Thanks, @Carl. I've got a fix I want to try out to eliminate the need to reset controls, which can cause problems if you try to remove the mod, but when that's working I'll get in touch and send you a link.

Hook
 
Thanks, @actos. I'll let you know when I've got it to a point I think it's ready.

Currently, if you remove the mod, you have to delete the options file for that profile, load a saved game, then reset the options to default. I don't know if I'll be able to fix that, but I want to try.

Everything else works well. I've even got the regatta working.

Hook
 
The newest version of the mod does not require controls to be reset. Thanks to @kb31 for figuring out how to fix that and being persistent enough to get me to try it. :)

I've tested this as far as I can on my own. Anyone interested in trying the mod, please post here and I'll add you to the beta test group. You can install or remove this mod at any time without breaking a saved game.

The regatta fix is included. If you want the regatta fix separately, let me know and I can make a version of the mod with only that.

This mod only works with version 1.4 of TEHO. When 1.5 is released I'll make a new version of the mod for it.

At least it's something to do if you've stopped playing while waiting for version 1.5. :)

Hook
 
One of the main problems, for me, with this game is going to sea doesn't reset enemy ship spawns like it did is Sea Dogs 2. Now, don't get me wrong this adds to realism, however the AI is super aggressive and won't leave you alone, meaning that if your ships are the same speed they will chase you down forever. It's especially annoying when your stuck in a cove trying to get out and you go to the map and see an enemy and you can't get away, meaning you have to fight.
 
@ColonelKetchup30 I just had that very same problem recently. I was doing a harbormaster mission which spawned enemy ships in some island regions. As long as I was in the same island region, enemy ships would spawn if I did a sail-to or went to the world map and back. This was scripted into the harbormaster quest, and wasn't the same as when a frigate would meet you coming out of port. It also happened during the regatta in a couple of island regions.

I had traded my courier lugger for a xebec, then couldn't outrun my attackers, and I wasn't going to fire on anyone but pirates. I had to go back to a previous save where I still had the courier lugger.

If you've been naughty and have a price on your head from one or more nations, you'll get a lot of bounty hunters after you, which is probably what you're seeing. Eventually you won't be able to sail anywhere because of them. One player said he gave up his life of piracy because being a bad guy just made the game too hard. :)

Hook
 
ColonelKetchup30 said:
...the AI is super aggressive and won't leave you alone, meaning that if your ships are the same speed they will chase you down forever. It's especially annoying when your stuck in a cove trying to get out and you go to the map and see an enemy and you can't get away, meaning you have to fight.
Click to expand...

There is - aside from quest related, scripted ships, a chance to avoid them.

1. On the world map you can outrun them if you cruise away from them until they are behind you. Then you can slowly change your direction, cause they will NOT be faster than your ship. But you need to make a wide bow first to get them behind you.

2. If you are in a harbor, and you encounter a black ship on your world map, use direct sail to, look for a place outside of the range of the pirate ship. Then start from there again, it should be easy now.

3. You can alwas stay on an island for some time after encountering a pirate ship on the world map. Dock again and stay until the next day. Should work in most cases.


I did not expect such a damn hard game in the first place (now I´m playing in easy), only I was aware of the typical bugs of this series. But with a lot of saving, especially before talks, I now have a bark and 110 k pesetas. Some hint how to skill my chars would´ve been nice but the devs decided otherwise. So I would like to know, why and when I get a perk point, cause I am level 6 now, and got only four of them, one personal, and three for ship handling.
 
Skilling: You get fighting skills for fighting, on land or on ship. You get ship skills by doing the things they describe. You get some skills from doing quests. Buying and selling anything gives some trade skill. Finding things gives some luck skill. You get stealth by trying to evade enemies with a false flag, or sneak into an enemy town. Quests raise charisma and navigation.

If you have a fast ship (your barque probably isn't fast enough) you can do harbormaster quests to raise 4 skills plus your character level. Since you'll be doing some fighting in some of them, it raises all the other skills as well. And it pays fairly well for a general quest.

I always put my first personal point into shared experience, and my first ship point into Dutch flag. With a trading license from Curacao and a Dutch flag, you can sail into Spanish ports and no one cares that you're flying a false flag, and the French are friendly with the Dutch. To sail into an English port, you need the default French flag. I save the rest of my ship points to use in case one of my officers quits and I need to replace his abilities and can't find another officer right away.

Hook
 
LarryHookins said:
I always put my first personal point into shared experience, and my first ship point into Dutch flag.
Click to expand...

Hehe, so did I but making the mistake to choose the spanish flag... :D
And well, I know, how to raise my skills, but when do I get perk points? They obviously don´t come with a level step, they seem to be generated after I´ve raised one of my skills (personal or ship). But sadly it´s not explained (or at least a message ingame: You earned a perk point, ...something like this).
For now I am doing trade missions for the shop keepers, that´s why I bought a bark. So I was able to get three commerce perks, and since then I am earning a lot of money, enough to be able to buy a fluit if I would like to... I am still not able to mess with pirates (my cannons seem to shoot anywhere although my cannoneer has roundabout 50 in all related skills, aiming and shooting was a lot easier in PotC NH).

Like I said, some ingame explanations would be nice. The devs of this game seem to act like a modding team, they really know their hobby, and if you´re not in, then you possibly never will be... This is sad, as this game transports a lot of good ideas and a well thought RPG part, and some serious RPG would be very appreciated by lots of players. But now, after playing around 50 hours (and as a fan of the series), I am still feeling like lost in the caribean more often than wanted.
I know, they are a small team, there are limits, ...but a look to New Horizons could show, how things can work more seriously. But well, I won´t complain too much, I am still having a lot of fun playing it... ;)
 
@Carl the perk points seem to come with level increases, but you don't get a new point with every increase. I generally ignore them until I have several or think I need them.

--------- 8< --- snip ---------

Ok, I added something to the mod. The player now gains navigation skill every hour while on his ship in either first or third person view. I finally figured out the formula they use to calculate when you reach the next full navigation point, and was able to give the player 1% toward the next point every hour of sailing. I just did a passenger quest from Guadeloupe to Jamaica and got 12% increase from sailing and 36% increase from the passenger delivery. My navigation skill is 66.

Don't expect this to make a lot of difference, at least at the lowest skill levels. The rum smuggling quest might put you on the boat about 4 hours, and you'll get 7% for that, 3+0% to 3+7%. At high skill levels it will be more worthwhile because you need more actual points to gain a level; at level 99 you need 436 points to reach 100 and the highest any quest pays is 100 points. At level 50 you need 220 points to get to 51. At level 3, you only need 6 points.

In dynamic mode you'd have to sail 7 hours to gain a full point, and in tactical mode it's 12.5 hours. But it does make it worthwhile to sail on your deck instead of using sail-to or the world map.

--------- 8< ---- snip snip --------

I also discovered an interesting quirk in my "non-bizarre" fore and aft rigged ship sailing model. At lower wind speeds your ship's speed is slowest sailing directly with the wind. As the wind speed increases, the slowest point moves toward the side of the ship. The difference is not a lot, but it's interesting, and makes finding the best wind for a given course less important. It's probably somewhat realistic as well, as in very high winds you'd have to reduce sail to keep your ship from leaning too far. At the highest wind speeds, you sail fastest with the wind. This probably works well for fore and aft rigged ships that also have square sails.

If I'd been able to figure out the math they used, and exactly how the game engine changed the numbers you passed to it, I'd probably have included this effect on purpose.

I'm still doing a few tests, but version 1.2 is almost ready.

Hook
 
I decided I didn't care for the quirk mentioned above and took out the code that had caused it. I'm still tweaking the sailing model for fore and aft rigged ships.
 
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