Solved I smell mutiny .... (my comrade ships shooting each other)

[Hylie Pistof]

Yes, it likes to do things on its own for no reason. I went through a rough patch where it reset the rendering to 16 bits, which caused POTC to instacrash due to incompatibility with my hardware/software. It took a while to figure that one out.

 

[Bathtub-pirate]

Seems that I am the only one here, who has clearly far more use for it than the troubles it causes. BTW I never experienced problems with it, that I could clearly attribute to it. At least not that I am aware of it. But since it appears to be pretty much a compatibility issue anyway, I may posses the one verteran machine that is just fine with it.

 

[Bathtub-pirate]

BTW - it's finally time to get back to topic.

1.) The quest with Vigila Mendez worked this time around. So it appears to be pretty random if it works or not. Odd ..... There was a small error message though, when I finished it. But no visible impact on the mission or on the game so far.
2.) General escort missions appear to finally work. These used to be extremely buggy for me.
3.) On my way back from Martinique, after I loaded the game, Vigila Mendez felt like shooting at my ship. I really think it has something to do with the current flags and if these are enemy flags (I rode an enemy spanish flag, since I was closing in to Puerto Rico). Methinks that as soon one loads a game and rides under an enemy flag, his comrade ships will have trouble telling friend from foe. This results in them shooting each other and/or at the player. Since Vigila Mendez and I were alone, guess what he did ..... This issue seems also to come up, when a game is loaded and then (before a new area at sea is reached and loaded) the flags are changed. It was like this with B. Bevlin (Build 2.3, though). I loaded a game where I was already in position immediately behind an unsuspecting vessel. I hoisted the pirate flag and went to work. And so did my comrades ..... on each other.
When this problem occurs, all commands are still obeyed by the comrades. So the game treads them as allies, as far as commanding them goes, and potential enemies (given that they may even attack the player) at the same time. Very weird. The only way to have the allied ships behave normal again, is to reach and load a new area at sea (just like when you try to get rid of a real opponent by escaping him). Going to the deck and back to sea or saving and reloading does NOT solve this problem. Also changing flags does not help (just like all these things wouldn't help with a legit opponent, once he fights you).
So yeah - the flags and the allies correspondence to them is the problem and becomes an issue, as soon as the game is loaded. That appears to be true as well when right of the bat (after loading the game) one rides under a hostile flag or when he hoists one in the very same sea area after the game was loaded.

I so far have only one ship. As soon as I have a second one, I will test this and check if it can be reproduced.

EDIT: One other thought. By default it isn't even possible to save during a sea fight, right? If your opponent is to close, you can't save, which is also apparent by the fighting theme in the background. That means automatically that you SHOULD also not be able to load a game, in which there is an opponent nearby you. For it is simply impossible. But the possibilty to change flags (which was not there in the stock game) bypasses this logic. Now you may load a a game and have an "enemy" flagged ship right next to you. I think that has to be the gap that causes this error.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

1. Good to hear it works at least some times. Now if only we'd know why sometimes it doesn't work, the we could fix that properly.

2. Thanks for testing! As far as I could tell, in Beta 2.3 they should have worked fine too.
Only the specific ports of Alice Town, Port au Prince and St. John's were bugged.
If there are any other towns that do not work, I don't know about them.

3. The original game didn't have Save At Sea at all, so I wouldn't be surprised if that caused some weird effects.
The reason for not allowing save too near enemies was because we can't seem to save the cannon reload status, so you'll ALWAYS reload with loaded cannons.

On the subject of loading saves, I noticed that when I save on the Worldmap, when I load it again, no log messages appear until after I reloaded to sea and back.
So clearly it is a good idea to save either ashore or if you save elsewhere (sea or Worldmap) to reload somewhere and back after loading your savegame.

Also I had some BAD issues when saving in the cabin of a companion ship while at sea.
After reloading that save, it seemed the game had forgotten where in the world I was, causing lots of Worldmap errors and all sorts.
Most peculiar.

 

[Bathtub-pirate]

2. Thanks for testing! As far as I could tell, in Beta 2.3 they should have worked fine too.
Only the specific ports of Alice Town, Port au Prince and St. John's were bugged.
If there are any other towns that do not work, I don't know about them.

For me they appeared to be very buggy, so I didn't even bother to play them very much. Therefore I cannot really say which islands were more or less affected. Often the captains would not spawn, after the destination was reached. Resulting in me having to kill the captain in order to get rid of him. One other problem was that the the quest was finished ... but then the captain would never leave the spot I brought him to. He just would stand around for the rest of the game. This was definetely the case in Tortuga.

3. The original game didn't have Save At Sea at all, so I wouldn't be surprised if that caused some weird effects.
The reason for not allowing save too near enemies was because we can't seem to save the cannon reload status, so you'll ALWAYS reload with loaded cannons.

On the subject of loading saves, I noticed that when I save on the Worldmap, when I load it again, no log messages appear until after I reloaded to sea and back.
So clearly it is a good idea to save either ashore or if you save elsewhere (sea or Worldmap) to reload somewhere and back after loading your savegame.

Also I had some BAD issues when saving in the cabin of a companion ship while at sea.
After reloading that save, it seemed the game had forgotten where in the world I was, causing lots of Worldmap errors and all sorts.
Most peculiar.

Yeah, saving in the interior of the own ship may result in weird things. I have several times saved on the deck, though. Maybe I should avoid that, too.

Saving on the worldmap will never be an issue for me, since I am hooked with iron man mode.^^ I noticed one thing though, since I upgraded. Whenever I save - at the sea at least it seems - as soon as I load I get a message that the sidestep is not possible and requires active cheatmode. What the hell? I still can normally steer to portside and starbordside. But the constant messages when I do so will only dissappear when I go on deck and back.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

For me they appeared to be very buggy, so I didn't even bother to play them very much. Therefore I cannot really say which islands were more or less affected. Often the captains would not spawn, after the destination was reached. Resulting in me having to kill the captain in order to get rid of him. One other problem was that the the quest was finished ... but then the captain would never leave the spot I brought him to. He just would stand around for the rest of the game. This was definetely the case in Tortuga.

Tortuga, eh? I'll double-check that one too.

Saving on the worldmap will never be an issue for me, since I am hooked with iron man mode.^^ I noticed one thing though, since I upgraded. Whenever I save - at the sea at least it seems - as soon as I load I get a message that the sidestep is not possible and requires active cheatmode. What the hell? I still can normally steer to portside and starbordside. But the constant messages when I do so will only dissappear when I go on deck and back.

That is with the latest of the latest? Apparently the bSeaActive isn't set properly then. Have to check too.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Tortuga, eh? I'll double-check that one too.

Yep, works fine.

That is with the latest of the latest? Apparently the bSeaActive isn't set properly then. Have to check too.

Hmm... couldn't replicate that with my latest version.

I have encountered a weird problem/bug. My ships start to shoot at each other in the mid of a sea fight. And they mean it. I am not talking about accidental "friendly fire". They really try to sink each other. It doesn't happen all the time. But by now it happened more than once. And I never witnessed it in any of my other games. Currently I play the Blaze Devlin storyline (I am in the process of checking out all the various time lines and their impact on the game).

I managed to cause this as well right at the beginning of the game. Got an escort quest from Puerto Rico to Tortuga, so my companion ship was Spanish.
Of course I raised pirate colours before proceeding into Tortuga, but I made a save at sea just before making port.
Then when I reloaded that save, my companion ship had reverted to Spanish colours and therefore the fort went firing on it and he went firing on me.

Whenever this occurs, could you check what flags your companions are flying? I'm thinking that's where the problem lies.

 

[Bathtub-pirate]

Well, since this has become my general bug report thread I might as well go on.^^

1.) There is a bug with the pre-reloading ability. Once activated it never ceases as long as the current screen on sea is the active screen. Also, if I check it in the abilities overview, there is no info text on that ability (in the context menu that pops up via right-click). It is blank instead.

2.) What exactly are the effects when having a letter of marque? I used to be "Friendly 32" with the Amis. Then I purchased the letter of marque. Now my count is back to zero and I don't get any ship hunting missions anymore from the gouvernors. Whenever I want to address business there is only the negative dialog option. Is that normal?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

1. Will check.

2. A Letter of Marque allows you to gain points with that nation and promotions too. How did you even get up to Friendly 32 without a LoM?
Anyway, I can sort-of see why it would reset. I'll see if I can fix that.

On the Ship Hunting missions, I thought I had finally fixed those so you'd always keep getting them.
Can you please upload your savegame from that? I'd like to see that one for myself.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

1.) There is a bug with the pre-reloading ability. Once activated it never ceases as long as the current screen on sea is the active screen. Also, if I check it in the abilities overview, there is no info text on that ability (in the context menu that pops up via right-click). It is blank instead.

Cannot confirm, I'm afraid. I got myself that ability and activated it. It disappeared again after a while.
Also, what right-clicking do you mean? Right-clicking has no effect for me in the Abilities menu.

 

[Bathtub-pirate]

Uploaded a save, where you will be in Gouvernor's Harbor. Also uploaded an error.log and a compile.log, which both are just minutes old.

I mixed the ability menu up with the skill menu, where there is indeed a context menu via right-click. But still the pre-reloading skill is blank when you click it. No Info text. Same goes for Rush. BTW - both these skills are not where they used to be positioned in the ability list. Both are now on the very bottom (below Fire Ship). I had the pre-reloading skill by default (when I started the new char). So maybe that is where the bug comes from?

My high sympathy with the Amis was initially "Friendly 30", because in the Bucaneer storyline you start being a privateer for the Amis.

 

[Bathtub-pirate]

Another thing for you to possibly check. I noticed that when I switch back and forth between two screens (like betwen shore and sea or shore and forest), then sometimes time goes back around 3-5 minutes. Like it's 9:11 at shore. I then board my vessel, go directly to sea and it is 9:08.

Not a great deal but awkward nonetheless.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I mixed the ability menu up with the skill menu, where there is indeed a context menu via right-click. But still the pre-reloading skill is blank when you click it. No Info text. Same goes for Rush. BTW - both these skills are not where they used to be positioned in the ability list. Both are now on the very bottom (below Fire Ship). I had the pre-reloading skill by default (when I started the new char). So maybe that is where the bug comes from?

AH! Those are the Iron Man Mode disabled abilities. They don't seem to initialize properly if you start a game on Iron Man Mode first and then switch to Realistic/Arcade Game Mode.
Not sure how to fix that. I tried and failed.

My high sympathy with the Amis was initially "Friendly 30", because in the Bucaneer storyline you start being a privateer for the Amis.

Indeed, I've found that problem. Trying to fix it now.

 

[Bathtub-pirate]

Shouldn't that mean that these abilities shouldn't be there to begin with? Since I never play anything but iron man mode.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Indeed they SHOULDN'T be there then. Did you switch to Iron Man Mode before or after you started your new game?

BTW: I think I sorted that relation thing. But WHY is that code so strange in the first place???
It also sets relations to some other nations to -1, which it shouldn't be doing.

 

[Bathtub-pirate]

I played Iron Man Mode right from the beginning.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I played Iron Man Mode right from the beginning.

Please try this:
Close the game, then reopen it. Make sure you are on Iron Man Mode and THEN start a new game.
That's what I just did and those abilities are properly missing. So I couldn't replicate your problem.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

On those nation relations, while I was at it, I finally sorted out that when you select your starting nation, it ACTUALLY MAKES A DIFFERENCE!
About bloody time on that one, I reckon.

 

[Bathtub-pirate]

I just started a new game as you said and the abilities are gone. Strange .... I am very certain that my last game was started with iron man mode on, too. It definetely was. Man, POTC does weird things in the back it seems.

BTW - when I returned to Eleuthera after some boarding action in the Cuban waters, the Governor had work for me again.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Man, POTC does weird things in the back it seems.

And so it does! It is not an easy battle to win against the game, but we ARE gaining ground on the weirdness!

BTW - when I returned to Eleuthera after some boarding action in the Cuban waters, the Governor had work for me again.

So that is a non-issue then? It is true that there's a bit of a timer between missions.