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Poll Iron Man Mode

what mod do you play the most

  • Total voters
    17
imado552

imado552

Master Mariner
Ahoy me Mates what do you think of irom man mod and any advices you can give me that would be helpful i at first didn't like it but after playing it for a while i find it amazing while sailing the sea in 1st person while looking at the waves and birds flying listining to some pirates chanting (from AC4 black flag) anyone have any tips to help improve my gameplay i don't want to get bored thanks
 
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imado552 said:
wives
Click to expand...
WIVES? Sounds just like you! :rofl

On a more serious note, I always use Arcade Game Mode simply because that makes for faster testing.
I like the idea of Iron Man Game Mode much more though; in fact, it was me who added it. ;)

The advantage is very simple: Because all arcadey stuff is disable, you are FORCED to role-play and think like an actual captain at the time would have to do.
The disadvantage is equally simple: Everything is slow. Of course time compression does help something there though.

You tried to create your own realism mode using the setting at the top of PROGRAM\InternalSettings.h yet?
 
Pieter Boelen said:
WIVES? Sounds just like you! :rofl

On a more serious note, I always use Arcade Game Mode simply because that makes for faster testing.
I like the idea of Iron Man Game Mode much more though; in fact, it was me who added it. ;)

The advantage is very simple: Because all arcadey stuff is disable, you are FORCED to role-play and think like an actual captain at the time would have to do.
The disadvantage is equally simple: Everything is slow. Of course time compression does help something there though.

You tried to create your own realism mode using the setting at the top of PROGRAM\InternalSettings.h yet?
Click to expand...
haha fixed that my bad
yes i tried messing with them i wasn't happy with what i did so i said why not iron man mod and i'm amazed by it you are amazing to have added that in the game i even started recording some battles i can create new post or edit this one to add gameplays or there is one already that i can add my vids in it
what i find difficult is how fast the wind change making me change directions all the time but i don't know how in the hell that made the game so much fun checking the map my location writing notes of what i'm doing (for the first time i used the notes srsly) calculations how much time it takes which roads to take how much food...rum are needed how i'm i supposed to battle other ships or run thinking if i can bored them and what made it great for me the code that davyJack gave me that allow all your officers to be in the deck which made it at least for me looks like a real deck
and after doing some cleaning disabling safe mod the game still didn't crash at least once for me the glitches in the sea now i don't get them that much(if i did get them at all) i'm just so happy
and i started getting the idea of most of the files in the game codes and where and where what they do not all but some
and by the way can you answer my question about collusion in my last post with the pics i don't know but now i really want to help badly
and for the iron man mod you have my respect captain Pieter Boelen
 
is there anywhere in the forum where maybe i can post some battles in iron mod or should i create post for that thanks for your always fast great helpful replays mate
 
For the last couple weeks I've been playing in Iron Man Mode in the Navy as Hornblower. Wow this game went from being great to awesome. I used to come to to Pirate Ahoy to see if a new better pirate game has come out. Not any more. POTC New Horizon mod is it. In Iron Man Mode you are keenly aware of your environment like never before.

Here are a few tips playing in Iron Man Mode.
  • Each grid on the map is about one day travel north/south and two day east/west
  • You can knock off days in time compression at 10x or 20x but I find sailing at 5x quite smooth and satisfactory
  • Buy the chronometer plus the sextant plus the advanced compass that shows your location at sea (availible after you reach level 16)
  • When you see birds you're not far from an island, the closer you get the more birds
  • When the watch says 'Land Ho' you can [F2:colonies] to see which island it is
  • If you can't see the island that the watch said was off port/starboard, swing your perpective view until you see artifacts along the horizon, that's your island
  • Use the log book and take notes each day
  • Pick up every piece of floating cargo (Flotsam) you can find
  • If you have to go into the wind to pick up flotsam don't bother
  • If the wind is going to change direction it will do so at the top of the hour
  • Stay away from floating barrels with poky things, they'll blow up your ship
  • You can not do a close-hauled with square sails
  • Carry extra sail cloth and planks so you can do repairs at sea
  • The best you can do against the wind with square sails is a beam reach to slightly close-hauled
  • The amount of time it takes to get to destination with a beam reach is painful
  • If you get a good wind run with it on your back and a smile on your face
 
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I'm really glad you enjoy it, @Harmsway! :cheers

While I did originally add that feature and like the concept, I never had the time to play with it outside of testing.
But the one time I did play with it was incredible! There might still be a writeup about that hiding in the forum somewhere.

In Iron Man Game Mode, you get basically only the information that an actual Captain on an actual ship would have had too.
This really forces you into a true role playing perspective as you get virtually no help from the interfaces.
And no shortcuts either....

To think that all that immersion results from DISABLING functionality, rather than actually adding a whole lot! :shock
 
One thing about Iron Man Mode I'm unsure of is weather. I started my Navy career in June and now it's September. But I have yet to experience any weather change out at sea. Just last month when I was playing in easier modes I would get stuck in a storm just about every time I went to sea. That didn't make sense either.
 
The system is the same and weather changes should still occur.
But I think the numbers are different. Maybe too different?
 
Wow. :)

I just sailed Iron Man mode from Guadeloupe to Martinique. It took about 45 minutes of real time port to port, with no time compression, which wasn't bad at all. The distance is 13660 yards between the ports, about 6.7 nautical miles, which means I was averaging about 9 knots, which is about correct.

Interesting that both the time and distance scales are very close to Sea Dogs: To Each His Own. The biggest difference is that your sailing speed in real time is correct in our game: if you measure distances (I'm using the trace functions from the direct sail code) and compare to real time, you're moving at the speed indicated. Or very close... I'll be doing more tests as I sail.

Hook
 
That's good to hear! :woot

Indeed the Open Sea Mod was deliberately tuned to give real life accurate(ish) sailing times.
Somebody commented a while back that sailing times felt too short, but I then did a quick calculation which indicated it is actually quite right.

The various Caribbean Islands aren't that far apart and even historical sailing ships should only take a few hours to do some island hopping.
It is only when you go from one extremity to the other that you'll take several days.

Wind direction and ship used will make a big difference of course.
One interesting thing in the newest ZIP is that @Tingyun did some work to get the real Caribbean Trade Winds in there in a simple way.
I'll be curious to know what you think about that one! :cheers
 
I just changed my vote from Realistic to Iron Man.

I'm sailing from Martinique to Jamaica in Iron Man, no time compression. It's been 6 hours so far, and I'm about 1500 yards out from the port. That's gonna be around 3.25 to 3.5 days of game time, another half hour or so of real time.

When I first saw what Iron Man did, I thought it was insane. After sailing it a bit and getting to understand the scale, it works out quite well. As near as I can measure, the distance/speed scale is pretty close to exact when not in Iron Man, and if Iron Man is off, it's not by more than 10%.

I'll let you know about the other stuff as I get around to trying it.

Hook
 
LarryHookins said:
I'm sailing from Martinique to Jamaica in Iron Man, no time compression. It's been 6 hours so far, and I'm about 1500 yards out from the port. That's gonna be around 3.25 to 3.5 days of game time, another half hour or so of real time.
Click to expand...
That's a substantial amount of time to wait to arrive! :shock
But yes, quite realistic.

LarryHookins said:
When I first saw what Iron Man did, I thought it was insane.
Click to expand...
Just to prevent potential miscommunication, do you mean "Open Sea Mod" where you write Iron Man Mode?
The Open Sea Mod is the mod that changes the worldmap scale. This is enabled in Iron Man Mode, but could also be enabled separate in Realistic or even Arcade.
The Iron Man Mode itself makes several other changes in addition, such as Sail-To completely disabled, WorldMap disabled, virtually all data from compass disabled, etc.

In any case, I'm glad that you are coming round to appreciate it! :cheers

I'll admit that when this change was first proposed, I also didn't see the point and thought it was quite mental.
But I'm not going to say no to people tweaking their own game to their liking. I've been quite surprised ever since how much other people have liked it!
Of course it isn't for everyone, but it's a great thing to have available. :cheeky
 
I don't recall seeing any "Open Sea" check boxes on the options screen. :) Under "Realism" there's Iron Man. Open Sea may be separate in the code, but as a selectable option they're together. Yes, I'm talking about the scale changes made by Open Sea, the rest of Iron Man seems pretty good. I'd have to read a bunch of code to find out what's Open Sea and what's just Iron Man.

The long times between ports aren't unusual for flight simulators. There's more to do and look at in a flight sim, but sailing still has some navigation choices to be made, wind changes, stuff floating in the water, etc.

Personally, I've got the direct sail debug information being displayed, and I'm enjoying watching the ballet that is direct sail in action. The two closest points are listed with distance and direction, and it's like having a GPS: "Closest1 Jamaica Kingston 2400 yards WNW". There are also listings of how and why it's making decisions, and I'm checking the direct sail function for bugs anyway.

Hook
 
LarryHookins said:
I don't recall seeing any "Open Sea" check boxes on the options screen. :) Under "Realism" there's Iron Man. Open Sea may be separate in the code, but as a selectable option they're together. Yes, I'm talking about the scale changes made by Open Sea, the rest of Iron Man seems pretty good. I'd have to read a bunch of code to find out what's Open Sea and what's just Iron Man.
Click to expand...
You can see some of the separate mods included in the Realism Toggles here in InternalSettings.h:
Code: 
// ======================================
// REALISM OPTIONS:
// ======================================
// Included in Realistic Game Mode:
#define REALISTIC_SHIP_INERTIA       0     // BOOL - 1=ON - Ships require counter-rudder and don't sail as if on rails
#define SHORE_DANGER_ALARM         0     // BOOL - 1=ON - Red flashing icon and danger music do not start until enemies draw their blade
#define DISCOVER_SAIL_TO         1     // BOOL - 0=OFF - Shores and ports must be discovered by sailing there manually before you can use Sail To
#define DISCOVER_FAST_TRAVEL       1     // BOOL - 0=OFF - Town locations must be discovered by finding them manually before you can use Fast Travel
#define NAVIGATION_EQUIPMENT       0     // BOOL - 1=ON - Items required for certain navigational information to become available
#define ENABLE_LIMITED_SHIPCLASS     0     // BOOL - 1=ON - When player takes command of ship of too high tier, Leadership and Sailing skills drops
#define CANNOT_RELOAD_WHILE_FIGHTING   1     // INT - 1=DEFAULT: Controlled by Realism Mode - 0 or 2 override the Realism Mode setting
#define SAIL_OPERATE_DELAY         3     // INT - sailors will operate sails this amount of seconds after receiving command (set to 0 to restore stock PotC)
// Included in Iron Man Mode:
#define OPEN_SEA_MOD           0     // BOOL - 1=ON - Worldmap enlarged for realistic DirectSail
#define WORLDMAP_DISABLED         0     // BOOL - 1=ON - DirectSail enforced
#define SAILTO_DISABLED           0     // BOOL - 1=ON - Cannot Sail-To any ships at sea
#define ONSEA_DATA_DISABLED         0     // BOOL - 1=ON - Spyglass and compass additional information disabled, cannot move camera to non-player ships
#define REALISTIC_ABILITIES         1     // INT  - 1=DEFAULT: Controlled by Realism Mode - 0 or 2 override the Realism Mode setting
#define ITEM_REALISM           0     // BOOL - 1=ON - Items like rubies, diamonds and inca statuettes give no skill bonuses (books and items like compass etc. still do)
#define RELATION_IGNORE_FRIENDLY     0     // BOOL - 1=ON - Ships and forts will not remember your flag for future encounters if you are non-hostile

The Open Sea Mod itself does only these things:
1. Changes worldmap scale using the InitOpenSeaMod() function in PROGRAM\NK.c
2. Switches to the scaled version in the F2>Inventory>Maps>Archipelago Map
3. Changes XP gained at sea
4. Disables the "add one day every hour" change, because the scale change takes care of that instead
 
Now that I've played Iron Man Mode I have no desire to play any other way. BTW my earlier comment about it not raining for months. I should have kept my mouth shut. Its raining on me now and I can't find land.
 
I had to sail on the normal map for testing directsail, and while I have it working well enough not to be a pain, I went back to Iron Man for some final tests. I gotta say that I do love Iron Man mode.

It would be nice if there were an intermediate scale between the two, with the islands 2/3 the size of the normal map, about twice the size of the islands on the open sea map. This wouldn't be bad for a default normal map, either.

Currently it takes about 15 minutes of real time to sail between two nearby islands, usually under 90 minutes to sail to a distant island. In Iron Man it's probably 3 times that. I don't use time compression. The scale I suggested above would make it 20 minutes to 2 hours, well within reason.

But I'll be sticking with Iron Man anyway. :)

Hook
 
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