Poll Idea: modifying certain freeplay characters to make them more unique

[Grey Roger]

I've made a start in adding some of these beginnings. The first ones to go in are "Dark Teacher" (evidently your favourite as it was your first and it's your avatar), and Will Turner (now that I have a suitable model to take over as captain of the uncursed Flying Dutchman.

Will Turner is not walking off with the entire stock of the blacksmith's swords! Choose one, otherwise he's getting the swept-hilt rapier like any other swordmaster. He doesn't need extra skills, and as already explained, abilities can't be added because a lot of them are normally locked. And he's getting a lugger - Will Turner has probably never seen a xebec as the type belongs in the Mediterranean, and anyway neither he nor John Brown can afford something that size.

Dark Teacher isn't getting any free officers. At least, not yet. The reason he's not getting any free officers is that the zip file you uploaded on 15th April doesn't include a character definition file with entries for those officers! Also, either you forgot to add revised versions of "Quest_ANIMISTS_dialog.c" and "Quest_ANIMISTS_dialog.h", or you haven't noticed that your minions in the temple don't respect you very much. If you have changed the dialog files, please upload them. If not, see what happens if you start as Dark Teacher and then talk to the Satanists in the temple.

I've added the necessary texts to "RESOURCE\INI\TEXTS\ENGLISH\shipslog_strings.txt", "RESOURCE\INI\TEXTS\ENGLISH\Storyline\storyline_strings.txt" and "RESOURCE\INI\TEXTS\ENGLISH\Storyline\FreePlay\characters_names.txt", so that they can be translated. You'll be adding the rest. No more custom starts will be added to the mod unless they have the required entries to those files.

When renaming various characters in Port Royale for characters from the films, how about also renaming "EITC Officer" to Cutler Beckett? Not if you are Cutler Beckett yourself, of course. The job of "EITC Officer" is to sell you a merchant licence for 1,000,000 gold, and who better than Lord Beckett to take all that money from the likes of Will Turner or Elizabeth Swann? Beckett might even forgive Captain Jack Sparrow if he shows up with a million in hand. It's just good business.

 

[Lonious]

I've made a start in adding some of these beginnings. The first ones to go in are "Dark Teacher" (evidently your favourite as it was your first and it's your avatar), and Will Turner (now that I have a suitable model to take over as captain of the uncursed Flying Dutchman.

Will Turner is not walking off with the entire stock of the blacksmith's swords! Choose one, otherwise he's getting the swept-hilt rapier like any other swordmaster. He doesn't need extra skills, and as already explained, abilities can't be added because a lot of them are normally locked. And he's getting a lugger - Will Turner has probably never seen a xebec as the type belongs in the Mediterranean, and anyway neither he nor John Brown can afford something that size.

Dark Teacher isn't getting any free officers. At least, not yet. The reason he's not getting any free officers is that the zip file you uploaded on 15th April doesn't include a character definition file with entries for those officers! Also, either you forgot to add revised versions of "Quest_ANIMISTS_dialog.c" and "Quest_ANIMISTS_dialog.h", or you haven't noticed that your minions in the temple don't respect you very much. If you have changed the dialog files, please upload them. If not, see what happens if you start as Dark Teacher and then talk to the Satanists in the temple.

I've added the necessary texts to "RESOURCE\INI\TEXTS\ENGLISH\shipslog_strings.txt", "RESOURCE\INI\TEXTS\ENGLISH\Storyline\storyline_strings.txt" and "RESOURCE\INI\TEXTS\ENGLISH\Storyline\FreePlay\characters_names.txt", so that they can be translated. You'll be adding the rest. No more custom starts will be added to the mod unless they have the required entries to those files.

When renaming various characters in Port Royale for characters from the films, how about also renaming "EITC Officer" to Cutler Beckett? Not if you are Cutler Beckett yourself, of course. The job of "EITC Officer" is to sell you a merchant licence for 1,000,000 gold, and who better than Lord Beckett to take all that money from the likes of Will Turner or Elizabeth Swann? Beckett might even forgive Captain Jack Sparrow if he shows up with a million in hand. It's just good business.

Alright, looks like I forgot to add Officers, my bad.

So I'm uploading the rar file again:
- Quests Animists dialog included
- bothreaction.c updated with the "translated" logit entries (do you still intend to add the Silehard, Blackbeard, and Jack Aubrey custom starts? Because those are the only ones with "logit" entries)
- Officers file included
- interfacestrings included
- Updated "Beginning_Native" file and his story text in initModels.c

I still feel like working on a few other characters. I'm still going to rename the EITC guy in Port Royal as you suggested. Then fix the native guy's ammo/weapons.

Btw, do you have any ideas for Tia Dalma? Also, should I still try adding Clement? It looks like "Researcher" already has "Robert Fulton" as a custom start. I was initially thinking of making Clement have some kind of custom start, with his dinghy and lighthouse.

Don't you think Will Turner should have some sort of added perk, like a discount at the blacksmith if possible?

EDIT: Actually, forget that. Your idea about marrying Elizabeth is probably more interesting, though I don't really know how to tamper around with the "MR" dialog file.

 

[Grey Roger]

The file attached to post #13 does not seem to have changed.

I've no idea how to change prices based on character name. Will Turner could get a blade care kit. As for marrying Elizabeth, having done a bit more reading, I believe it was Barbossa who performed the ceremony aboard the Black Pearl. So you'd need to write a character-specific sidequest leading to the marriage on Barbossa's quarterdeck.

The 'logit' commands aren't the only things which need to be translatable. Ship log lines need to go into "RESOURCE\INI\TEXTS\ENGLISH\shipslog_strings.txt"; story text lines, character names and ship names from "initModels.c" need to go into "RESOURCE\INI\TEXTS\ENGLISH\Storyline\storyline_strings.txt"; NPC names such as officers or characters renamed in Port Royale need to go into "RESOURCE\INI\TEXTS\ENGLISH\Storyline\FreePlay\characters_names.txt". And if you want Norrington's sword added, you'll need to include "RESOURCE\INI\TEXTS\ENGLISH\ItemsDescribe.txt". (The one in the existing zip file is actually a copy of "RESOURCE\INI\TEXTS\ENGLISH\Storyline\FreePlay\ItemsDescribe.txt".) Incidentally, Norrington's sword is ceremonial rather than functional, it's simply a very ornate smallsword. Its stats will need to be reduced. I may try to make a new model for it if I have time.

There is little point adding more characters unless you want them to be checked before the ones you've already done. I have to check everything before adding it to the mod, at least checking the code and modifying it where necessary to make it fit in better, and preferably play-testing it. That's how I found out the minions in the Satanist cave don't respect their Teacher, and also that smuggler Anamaria had several problems. It's also why the update I wanted to release this week is now going to have to wait until next week, and that's just due to adding and checking Will Turner, Dark Teacher and my own special start for Anamaria. Pick one or two other characters that you want me to prioritise, then I'll check them next.

By the way, the red-robed guys are no longer Animists, they're Satanists. Most of the quest had already been changed accordingly; the lair and amulet were renamed more recently; and test-playing Dark Teacher showed me that the minions in the cave need to be renamed to match. The only reference to Animists should be when Teacher (not Dark Teacher, the lesser Teacher) is reported in San Juan and Bridgetown, where he'd call himself an Animists because if he called himself a Satanist, he'd probably end up on a burning stake. Also, I've changed Dark Teacher's start year to 1750 to match the mod's start year for "Tales of a Sea Hawk", which also means that the regular Mefisto is appropriate. In 1630, it's a modified fluyt of war. (I may add some code to Dark Teacher's start to give him the correct ship for each period. One of the freedoms of FreePlay is that the player can change the starting date, in which case Dark Teacher should get the correct version of Mefisto.)

 

[Lonious]

The file attached to post #13 does not seem to have changed

Oops, my bad. I attached it now.

There is little point adding more characters unless you want them to be checked before the ones you've already done. I have to check everything before adding it to the mod, at least checking the code and modifying it where necessary to make it fit in better, and preferably play-testing it. That's how I found out the minions in the Satanist cave don't respect their Teacher, and also that smuggler Anamaria had several problems. It's also why the update I wanted to release this week is now going to have to wait until next week, and that's just due to adding and checking Will Turner, Dark Teacher and my own special start for Anamaria. Pick one or two other characters that you want me to prioritise, then I'll check them next.

Well, you can add whatever you feel like adding for now. As I understand it, the others can wait for future updates...

By the way, the red-robed guys are no longer Animists, they're Satanists. Most of the quest had already been changed accordingly; the lair and amulet were renamed more recently; and test-playing Dark Teacher showed me that the minions in the cave need to be renamed to match. The only reference to Animists should be when Teacher (not Dark Teacher, the lesser Teacher) is reported in San Juan and Bridgetown, where he'd call himself an Animists because if he called himself a Satanist, he'd probably end up on a burning stake. Also, I've changed Dark Teacher's start year to 1750 to match the mod's start year for "Tales of a Sea Hawk", which also means that the regular Mefisto is appropriate. In 1630, it's a modified fluyt of war. (I may add some code to Dark Teacher's start to give him the correct ship for each period. One of the freedoms of FreePlay is that the player can change the starting date, in which case Dark Teacher should get the correct version of Mefisto.)

Just my personal thoughts, I kind of understood why they were called animists rather than satanists (even if the latter was the one you see in the code). "Satanist" is way too cliche and that's besides the fact that I don't think such a term ever existed in the 1600's.

I also prefer letting the original storyline be set in 1630. as initially intended The developers never had the time to flesh out the references to the movies. For all we know the "Black Pearl" is a completely different ship with a completely different story. It always bugged me how they were being forced to connect with the movies. Afaik most of the fashion in the stock game characters don't match up with 18th C. dress either (where are all the wigs?). The Pearl sinks at the end of the game so there's little point in tying it to the film arc. I'd rather it be set up as Flying Dutchman - which has demonstrated the ability to "come back" after seemingly sinking in the third film - or even Hernan Cortes' flagship (after all, if there's a game set 100 years before COTBP and it involves the Aztec curse, he could be a very good replacement for Barbossa seeing as if there's anyone who was cursed by the coins first then, well, why not the bloody conquistador?)

Just my thoughts. You can rename them if you want.

 

[Grey Roger]

That zip file still has no "RESOURCE\INI\TEXTS\ENGLISH\shipslog_strings.txt", "RESOURCE\INI\TEXTS\ENGLISH\Storyline\storyline_strings.txt" or "RESOURCE\INI\TEXTS\ENGLISH\Storyline\FreePlay\characters_names.txt". And "ItemsDescribe.txt" is still the wrong one with no description for Norrington's sword.

Personally I've no preference either way for "Animists" vs. "Satanists". But the mod has already changed them, with replacement emblems on the amulet and cave floor, plus changed dialog text for the duel with Dark Teacher. More recently someone pointed out inconsistencies where "Animist" was still in use, so those were corrected. Renaming the cave minions just completes the job.

Likewise, "Tales of a Sea Hawk" has been set in 1750 for ages. There's no way it's being changed back to 1630, so any character associated with it may as well be consistent with the mod.

 

[Lonious]

That zip file still has no "RESOURCE\INI\TEXTS\ENGLISH\shipslog_strings.txt", "RESOURCE\INI\TEXTS\ENGLISH\Storyline\storyline_strings.txt" or "RESOURCE\INI\TEXTS\ENGLISH\Storyline\FreePlay\characters_names.txt". And "ItemsDescribe.txt" is still the wrong one with no description for Norrington's sword.

I didn't actually add any new characters there. I thought you mentioned that you already took care of that:

I've added the necessary texts to "RESOURCE\INI\TEXTS\ENGLISH\shipslog_strings.txt", "RESOURCE\INI\TEXTS\ENGLISH\Storyline\storyline_strings.txt" and "RESOURCE\INI\TEXTS\ENGLISH\Storyline\FreePlay\characters_names.txt", so that they can be translated. You'll be adding the rest. No more custom starts will be added to the mod unless they have the required entries to those files.

You could maybe get rid of the Norrington sword for now as you said, it doesn't have its own model yet.

 

[Homo eructus]

Incidentally, Norrington's sword is ceremonial rather than functional, it's simply a very ornate smallsword. Its stats will need to be reduced. I may try to make a new model for it if I have time.

Well, if I remember correctly, in the movie they do mention it had a perfect balance and whatnot, so I'd assume it was a functional sword of above-average performance, on top of being a presentation sword. And it wasn't even that ornate as to be considered purely ceremonial. Other than the fine craftsmanship of it, it was actually pretty plain in terms of decoration.

 

[Grey Roger]

Norrington's sword is a ceremonial smallsword. So, perhaps start with the base stats for "bladeC6", boost them a bit to account for the perfect balance and high quality blade, and increase the price due to the high workmanship and the gold filigree in the handle. (Perhaps use console to give yourself "bladeC6+3". Note its stats. Then use those as the base stats for Norrington's sword.) Other swords given as promotion rewards seem to have prices around the 2500 mark, so that could be a suitable base price for this one as well.

The sword could be given to Norrington in function 'GiveSwordAndPerks' in "PROGRAM\NK.c". Add a bit for Norrington at rank 7 (Commodore), and also add a bit at rank 8 to give him nothing instead of the normal Corsair's Pride which British officers get at rank 8 (Rear Admiral). That way, if you start as a lower rank Norrington then you'll get the sword when you're promoted to Commodore, and if you start as higher rank Norrington then you'll automatically get it as the game applies all the normal promotion rewards for ranks below your chosen start.

 

[Grey Roger]

Starting with the"BladeC6" model, which is the existing basic smallsword, I did some retexturing. The hilt is recoloured to gold with some of the detailed engraving removed. The grip is plain black with gold filigree, matching some pictures I found. A bit of work on the alpha channel gives the gold bits some polish. It's never going to look accurate because there is no existing sword model which looks like Norrington's actual weapon, but it's described as a ceremonial shortsword, which is why I based this one on the existing smallsword.

The result:


FreePlay naval officer Norrington gets this through 'GiveSwordAndPerks', and I'll also give it to Norrington in "Hoist the Colours".

Meanwhile, I've imported some of @Lonious' work on Danielle Greene. She doesn't need a full custom start but she can have Ralph Fawn as a starting officer and she also starts with a schiavona. That matches her as you first meet her in Port Royale tavern in "Tales of a Sea Hawk". The original game authors had the idea to allow the player to choose to play as Nathaniel or Danielle. Danielle's version of the story never progressed very far and the only traces are some pieces of dialog which are never used, but it seems Ralph Fawn would have played a big part, so it makes sense for FreePlay Danielle to have him as an officer. And that reminds me of this:
Blender Plugins
There didn't seem much point in using a special portrait for Ralph Fawn when he only appears briefly in one scene. In fact, there would have been no point at all because someone changed Ralph Fawn to use the "bocman3" model, so even if "fawn" used the new portrait, you'd never see it. I'm correcting that - Ralph Fawn can use his original model, both in "Tales of a Sea Hawk" and in Danielle's FreePlay. And as he's now going to get a more significant role than a minor bit player in the story, it now seems appropriate to use that portrait.

 

[Lonious]

Starting with the"BladeC6" model, which is the existing basic smallsword, I did some retexturing. The hilt is recoloured to gold with some of the detailed engraving removed. The grip is plain black with gold filigree, matching some pictures I found. A bit of work on the alpha channel gives the gold bits some polish. It's never going to look accurate because there is no existing sword model which looks like Norrington's actual weapon, but it's described as a ceremonial shortsword, which is why I based this one on the existing smallsword.

The result:
View attachment 40422

FreePlay naval officer Norrington gets this through 'GiveSwordAndPerks', and I'll also give it to Norrington in "Hoist the Colours".

Meanwhile, I've imported some of @Lonious' work on Danielle Greene. She doesn't need a full custom start but she can have Ralph Fawn as a starting officer and she also starts with a schiavona. That matches her as you first meet her in Port Royale tavern in "Tales of a Sea Hawk". The original game authors had the idea to allow the player to choose to play as Nathaniel or Danielle. Danielle's version of the story never progressed very far and the only traces are some pieces of dialog which are never used, but it seems Ralph Fawn would have played a big part, so it makes sense for FreePlay Danielle to have him as an officer. And that reminds me of this:
Blender Plugins
There didn't seem much point in using a special portrait for Ralph Fawn when he only appears briefly in one scene. In fact, there would have been no point at all because someone changed Ralph Fawn to use the "bocman3" model, so even if "fawn" used the new portrait, you'd never see it. I'm correcting that - Ralph Fawn can use his original model, both in "Tales of a Sea Hawk" and in Danielle's FreePlay. And as he's now going to get a more significant role than a minor bit player in the story, it now seems appropriate to use that portrait.
View attachment 40423

Great.

Btw, do you have any ideas for Tia Dalma and Mateus Santos? Not sure what character type to give Santos, plus he uses Jack's skeleton portrait.

 

[Grey Roger]

Tia Dalma doesn't work very well as a FreePlay character. Either she's a voodoo priestess, a stay-at-home character stuck somewhere on Cuba; or she's the goddess Calypso, overpowered beyond the dreams of all but the most fanatical cheat.

Mateus Santos is another stay-at-home character. He's not as bad as a governor in that he won't break the game, but it's still boring to sit permanently at home in San Juan ordering others to go out on missions, and unrealistic if Santos sails off doing things himself. And, of course, if you're Mateus Santos then you can't play "Hard Labours of an Assassin", probably the most interesting quest for an assassin character. The quest could perhaps be modified. Vito Leone says that Santos killed the local head of the Assassins' Guild and then took his place. Santos wouldn't take up the post as that would end the game, but you could change the name and model for character "Mateus Santos" to be the former guild head. Vito Leone would need a whole new dialog and possibly a new name. And you'd need to edit the questbook, replace all references to the names of Mateus Santos and Vito Leone with placeholders such as "#sname#" or "#slastname#", then fill the names in with 'Preprocessor_AddQuestData' lines at the places where the questbook is updated. Then you'd need to play the quest as Mateus Santos to check that it works with the new names. And then play it again as a different character to check that it also still works with the original names.

 

[Lonious]

Tia Dalma doesn't work very well as a FreePlay character. Either she's a voodoo priestess, a stay-at-home character stuck somewhere on Cuba; or she's the goddess Calypso, overpowered beyond the dreams of all but the most fanatical cheat.

Mateus Santos is another stay-at-home character. He's not as bad as a governor in that he won't break the game, but it's still boring to sit permanently at home in San Juan ordering others to go out on missions, and unrealistic if Santos sails off doing things himself. And, of course, if you're Mateus Santos then you can't play "Hard Labours of an Assassin", probably the most interesting quest for an assassin character. The quest could perhaps be modified. Vito Leone says that Santos killed the local head of the Assassins' Guild and then took his place. Santos wouldn't take up the post as that would end the game, but you could change the name and model for character "Mateus Santos" to be the former guild head. Vito Leone would need a whole new dialog and possibly a new name. And you'd need to edit the questbook, replace all references to the names of Mateus Santos and Vito Leone with placeholders such as "#sname#" or "#slastname#", then fill the names in with 'Preprocessor_AddQuestData' lines at the places where the questbook is updated. Then you'd need to play the quest as Mateus Santos to check that it works with the new names. And then play it again as a different character to check that it also still works with the original names.

I actually tried giving Tia Dalma the "cursed caravel" by pretending it's the ship full of the pirates who chained her, then she cursed them into weedy skeletons - here I believe is the right time to use those models, because I've replaced the "Davycrew" boarders with the four actual Dutchman character models.

As for Mateus Santos, what about getting rid of the sidequest entirely? If you want to play that quest, simply don't pick him...

EDIT: Ok, you do have a point. It looks like it'll need to be edited if Mateus becomes another special character.

 

[Grey Roger]

Update on Ralph Fawn: I tried using the replacement interface pictures and this is the result in the game - new portrait on the left, original portrait on the right for comparison.


I'm not too keen on the blank space around the portrait, though that's just my preference. But now compare the pictures to the actual character:


The original picture looks like the character, the new one does not. I'm guessing that the picture of Ralph Fawn used in the new portrait, and the others which were included in the same post, are pre-production sketches from before the character models were made. The portraits which appear in the game were probably created after the characters were complete. So, unless someone gives a really good reason to use the new portrait, Ralph Fawn can keep the one currently in the game.

 

[pedrwyth]

I can understand the concept that if you pick a character from the movies some people may wish some alignment with their perceived movie persona. I don't think it has much to do with game playability of the choice more a chance to experiment (and probably more to do with the production of the scenario than the longevity of a game started under it). However I am not sure that a particular setup should be forced - unless you are prepared to mispell the character.


So why not go with @Lonious 's custom starts being available via a new storyline choice of Custom Starts (freeplay).
The original freeplay would remain unaltered and thus retain its more basic starting conditions for those that prefer (although it is noted you can customise many elements of your character choice and also use cheat mode for more). The existing freeplay doesn't seem that large a file set to be a problem with a (mainly) duplicate alongside.

That said I am not fussed anyway since I am not an aficianado of freeplay, I prefer the (loose) structure of a plot.

 

[Grey Roger]

Here's a good trick:

By default, British characters such as Will Turner start off at Speightstown. The custom start sends him to Port Royale but the character selection still says Speightstown. There was a similar problem with the Blas de Lezo character created by @Homo eructus - he's supposed to start at Cartagena instead of the default San Juan. We fixed his character selection screen. So I did the same for Will Turner.

Also, if you play this version of Will Turner, you'll meet blacksmith John Brown in Port Royale tavern. Putting him in a tavern is easy, it's a direct consequence of changing the appearance and name of "Malcolm Hatcher" so that the character in your cabin at the start of the game is John Brown - after the briefing, "Malcolm Hatcher" always moves to a tavern so that you can ask him for more advice later. By default, for a British player character, he goes to Speightstown tavern. I've simply added a line in the part of "both_reaction.c" which handles character model "will", sending "Malcolm Hatcher" to Port Royale tavern instead.

Meanwhile, if you play as Will Turner, captain of the uncursed Flying Dutchman:

That new character model for Bootstrap Bill will also be useful for "Hoist the Colours", in which Bootstrap Bill puts in an appearance and currently looks identical to his son because he uses the same "Will" model.

 

[Grey Roger]

@Lonious:
As you'll have probably seen, I uploaded the update yesterday. Some of your work is in it. You may notice that I've made it easier to rename various characters. Instead of having code to rename "John Clifford Brin" copied for every PoTC film character, I've added quest case "rename_PoTC", and also "rename_standard" for "Tales of a Sea Hawk" characters. So all you need to do for a custom player character setup is add 'LAi_QuestDelay("rename_PoTC", 0.0);' to change the governor of Port Royale to Weatherby Swann, or 'LAi_QuestDelay("rename_standard", 0.0);' to change him to Robert Christopher Silehard.

Now that I've finished with the update for a while, I've been looking at some of the other custom starts and for no particular reason I've chosen to add Eduardo Villanueva next. One thing I noticed is that you changed his pirate flag from 5 to 20. This is correct and in fact should have been done some time ago! Flag 5 was originally the Blackbeard flag, and flag 20 was the smoking skull. They were swapped round because @Jack Rackham needed the Blackbeard flag to be in the third row for his "Woodes Rogers" quest. Blackbeard himself was set to use flag 20 while Julian McAllister, the original owner of the smoking skull, was set to use flag 5. I didn't notice that Villanueva also used the Blackbeard flag so he wasn't corrected at the same time. He'll be correct in the next update in a month or two, as will Villanueva in the "Hoist the Colours" storyline.

Villanueva isn't getting "PiratFastGal", which is a variant of the fast war galleon, a type that shouldn't exist in "Colonial Powers" period. If you can find a picture of his ship from "At The World's End", I'll try to find a suitable ship model to match, otherwise he can keep "SP_Neptunus".

For Villanueva, you set "Malcolm Hatcher" to use "Robert Fletcher_dialog.c", but there's nothing specific to Villanueva in the dialog files. Without that, the only reason a corsair's "Malcolm Hatcher" would use "Robert Fletcher_dialog.c" is if you choose a nation which has no colonies, most likely England or Holland in "Early Explorers". The dialog for this situation is not suitable for Villanueva. So until you upload revised versions of "Robert Fletcher_dialog.c" and "Robert Fletcher_dialog.h" with something for Villanueva, his officer can just use the default "Malcolm Hatcher_dialog.c" instead.

 

[Lonious]

@Lonious:
As you'll have probably seen, I uploaded the update yesterday. Some of your work is in it. You may notice that I've made it easier to rename various characters. Instead of having code to rename "John Clifford Brin" copied for every PoTC film character, I've added quest case "rename_PoTC", and also "rename_standard" for "Tales of a Sea Hawk" characters. So all you need to do for a custom player character setup is add 'LAi_QuestDelay("rename_PoTC", 0.0);' to change the governor of Port Royale to Weatherby Swann, or 'LAi_QuestDelay("rename_standard", 0.0);' to change him to Robert Christopher Silehard.

Now that I've finished with the update for a while, I've been looking at some of the other custom starts and for no particular reason I've chosen to add Eduardo Villanueva next. One thing I noticed is that you changed his pirate flag from 5 to 20. This is correct and in fact should have been done some time ago! Flag 5 was originally the Blackbeard flag, and flag 20 was the smoking skull. They were swapped round because @Jack Rackham needed the Blackbeard flag to be in the third row for his "Woodes Rogers" quest. Blackbeard himself was set to use flag 20 while Julian McAllister, the original owner of the smoking skull, was set to use flag 5. I didn't notice that Villanueva also used the Blackbeard flag so he wasn't corrected at the same time. He'll be correct in the next update in a month or two, as will Villanueva in the "Hoist the Colours" storyline.

Villanueva isn't getting "PiratFastGal", which is a variant of the fast war galleon, a type that shouldn't exist in "Colonial Powers" period. If you can find a picture of his ship from "At The World's End", I'll try to find a suitable ship model to match, otherwise he can keep "SP_Neptunus".

For Villanueva, you set "Malcolm Hatcher" to use "Robert Fletcher_dialog.c", but there's nothing specific to Villanueva in the dialog files. Without that, the only reason a corsair's "Malcolm Hatcher" would use "Robert Fletcher_dialog.c" is if you choose a nation which has no colonies, most likely England or Holland in "Early Explorers". The dialog for this situation is not suitable for Villanueva. So until you upload revised versions of "Robert Fletcher_dialog.c" and "Robert Fletcher_dialog.h" with something for Villanueva, his officer can just use the default "Malcolm Hatcher_dialog.c" instead.

Thanks!

I'll need to look into that Villanueva file. I must have forgot to include his line in the zip file. I might probably resume after around 2 weeks since i'm out of town. If you want, you can go ahead and do some changes.

Piratfastgal - the potc wiki for "Centurion" - Villanueva's ship - lists her as a 44 gun "galleon".

Centurion

The Centurion was a Spanish Treasure Galleon owned and captained by Pirate Lord Eduardo Villanueva. The Centurion was Villanueva's favorite ship from his personal privateer fleet, the Spanish Treasure Fleet. He used the Centurion for many battles in the Mediterranean Sea against the Barbary...

pirates.fandom.com

 

[Grey Roger]

Thanks!

I'll need to look into that Villanueva file. I must have forgot to include his line in the zip file. I might probably resume after around 2 weeks since i'm out of town. If you want, you can go ahead and do some changes.

OK, I'll see about setting up custom briefing officer dialog for Villanueva. As the new "storytext" line specifically says that the player has the choice of being a Spanish privateer or a pirate, the officer could ask your intentions, then you either get a Spanish LoM or your "ServedNation" is set to PIRATE right away.

Piratfastgal - the potc wiki for "Centurion" - Villanueva's ship - lists her as a 44 gun "galleon".

Centurion

The Centurion was a Spanish Treasure Galleon owned and captained by Pirate Lord Eduardo Villanueva. The Centurion was Villanueva's favorite ship from his personal privateer fleet, the Spanish Treasure Fleet. He used the Centurion for many battles in the Mediterranean Sea against the Barbary...

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By this time, "galleon" was almost a generic word for an armed merchant ship. According to that page, the reference to 44 guns is from the PoTC Pocket Model Game, which means the Centurion should look like this:



Otherwise, "SP_Pinnace50", alias "Heavy Pinnace", has 30 guns compared to 16 on "SP_Neptunus", though only 9lb compared to 12lb; has about the same crew; and looks a bit more like a galleon while still being valid for "Colonial Powers".

Of course, if someone can provide a screenshot of the Centurion from "At the World's End", we could use whichever ship model looks closest regardless of period availability.

Meanwhile, I've been thinking a bit more about Will Turner. He can't do the "Silver Train" sidequest as that involves meeting Will Turner! So I'm modifying "quests_side.c", case "Jackpot_start", to do nothing if your name is "Will Turner". Also, Will Turner has a house round the corner from Tortuga tavern, so his custom start can unlock that and put a 'vcskip' on it to prevent random inhabitants.

Starting from Port Royale, young Will Turner may have his eye on Elizabeth Swann but they can't simply marry because in the film, they're married by Barbossa on his ship. But by the time he takes over the Flying Dutchman, that's already happened. So I'm inclined to put Elizabeth Swann into Will Turner's house, set them to be married, and set her to use "Gov MR_dialog.c", the normal file for when you marry a governor's relative. That way "WillTurner2" should be able to get the "Cartagena Silver" quest.

 

[Lonious]

OK, I'll see about setting up custom briefing officer dialog for Villanueva. As the new "storytext" line specifically says that the player has the choice of being a Spanish privateer or a pirate, the officer could ask your intentions, then you either get a Spanish LoM or your "ServedNation" is set to PIRATE right away.


By this time, "galleon" was almost a generic word for an armed merchant ship. According to that page, the reference to 44 guns is from the PoTC Pocket Model Game, which means the Centurion should look like this:
View attachment 40461


Otherwise, "SP_Pinnace50", alias "Heavy Pinnace", has 30 guns compared to 16 on "SP_Neptunus", though only 9lb compared to 12lb; has about the same crew; and looks a bit more like a galleon while still being valid for "Colonial Powers".

Of course, if someone can provide a screenshot of the Centurion from "At the World's End", we could use whichever ship model looks closest regardless of period availability.

Meanwhile, I've been thinking a bit more about Will Turner. He can't do the "Silver Train" sidequest as that involves meeting Will Turner! So I'm modifying "quests_side.c", case "Jackpot_start", to do nothing if your name is "Will Turner". Also, Will Turner has a house round the corner from Tortuga tavern, so his custom start can unlock that and put a 'vcskip' on it to prevent random inhabitants.

Starting from Port Royale, young Will Turner may have his eye on Elizabeth Swann but they can't simply marry because in the film, they're married by Barbossa on his ship. But by the time he takes over the Flying Dutchman, that's already happened. So I'm inclined to put Elizabeth Swann into Will Turner's house, set them to be married, and set her to use "Gov MR_dialog.c", the normal file for when you marry a governor's relative. That way "WillTurner2" should be able to get the "Cartagena Silver" quest.

I personally would prefer using PiratFastGal for Villanueva as 1) it's a "pirate"-specific texture and 2) galleons were closely associated with Spain. The POTC wiki actually mentions that Villanueva once worked for the Spanish Treasure Fleet or something like that, and the "Fast Galleon" ship is probably the closest type to those treasure ships in addition to the 44 gun specification of the "Centurion".

What about making his starting year Golden Age of Piracy? That way, we're removing the hurdle of trying to assign him a different ship that fits with the Colonial period.

Will Turner - I recently completed the "Silver Train" sidequest and was wondering why some other generic character wasn't used for the mission instead of Will and Elizabeth. Was this actually some story from the canon? Additionally it's very similar to the "Clair Larrouse" mission from the stock game (which I understood wouldn't work before). I wonder why this quest was written and why the writer thought of using Will and Elizabeth specifically.

Just another random thought - certainly,
I feel "challenges" for each Freeplay mode are kind of essential. In addition, having unique challenges for the "custom starts" would be great. It doesn't have to be so complicated. For example, I tried out "47_NorringtonPirate" and just made up a "challenge" in my head - ask for a Letter of Marque from England and reach the equivalent rank to "Commodore".

 

[Grey Roger]

I personally would prefer using PiratFastGal for Villanueva as 1) it's a "pirate"-specific texture and 2) galleons were closely associated with Spain. The POTC wiki actually mentions that Villanueva once worked for the Spanish Treasure Fleet or something like that, and the "Fast Galleon" ship is probably the closest type to those treasure ships in addition to the 44 gun specification of the "Centurion".

What about making his starting year Golden Age of Piracy? That way, we're removing the hurdle of trying to assign him a different ship that fits with the Colonial period.

From the Wikipedia article on the Spanish Treasure Fleet, specifically the section dealing with changes to the treasure fleet system introduced by the Bourbon kings after the War of Spanish Succession:

Another involved the increased use of registered ships, or navíos de registro, traveling solo outside the fleet system to transport goods.

It's entirely possible that Centurion was one of these. So "SP_Pinnace50" would work, and not be overpowered as a starting ship. Alternatively, "FleutWar2" is valid for "Colonial Powers", has 34 guns of 12lb, and with 204 crew it's tier 5, also not too overpowered for a starting ship.

The "Villanueva" model is supposed to depict the character from the PoTC films. That puts him into "Colonial Powers" period. You can, of course, choose any Spanish character (including "Villanueva"), change the start date to something in "Golden Age", and then use cheat mode to give yourself any ship you like, including a fast war galleon.

The 44 gun specification is from a game involving cardboard models and is not necessarily Villanueva's ship in "At the World's End". Anyway, the fast war galleon doesn't have 44 guns either.

Will Turner - I recently completed the "Silver Train" sidequest and was wondering why some other generic character wasn't used for the mission instead of Will and Elizabeth. Was this actually some story from the canon? Additionally it's very similar to the "Clair Larrouse" mission from the stock game (which I understood wouldn't work before). I wonder why this quest was written and why the writer thought of using Will and Elizabeth specifically.

Ask @Bartolomeu o Portugues, he's the author of this quest.

I did consider changing the name and appearance of the "Will Turner" and "Elizabeth Swann" characters if you're playing Will Turner, but their dialogs would also need to change and so would "Will Turner's House" where you meet them. Much easier simply to disable this quest if you're Will Turner.

Just another random thought - certainly,
I feel "challenges" for each Freeplay mode are kind of essential. In addition, having unique challenges for the "custom starts" would be great. It doesn't have to be so complicated. For example, I tried out "47_NorringtonPirate" and just made up a "challenge" in my head - ask for a Letter of Marque from England and reach the equivalent rank to "Commodore".

Challenges for FreePlay mode are the point of the Trophy Quests:
Trophies in the Free Play mode
Or there are character-specific quests such as "The Natividad Incident" for Hornblower, or "A Family Story" and "A French Companion" for José Joaquím Almeida. And any FreePlay character is free to make up additional goals, such as achieving a specific rank - that's the main point of FreePlay, set your own objectives and try to achieve them.

I did have one idea for "Barbossa2". Barbossa kills Blackbeard in "On Stranger Tides", not by attacking his ship but by duelling him on land. So, remove character "Blackbeard". "Barbossa2" starts off by default as a privateer in the service of Britain. When you reach a high enough rank, a governor can tell you to go after Blackbeard. (Any governor, or specifically the one at Port Royale?) Blackbeard is placed on his usual spot, you go to Isla de Muerte and duel him, and when he dies you get a self-dialog matching Barbossa's speech as he claims Blackbeard's sword and ship. You then get the Queen Anne's Revenge. And at that point, you leave the service of Britain and become a pirate because that's when Barbossa rips up his LoM in the film.