...I've got a new idea...

[Darkhymn]

First draft of Navigation Book 1!

*Image and quote removed*

I'm thinking I'll go ahead and do all the Book ones in a similar fashion, trying to include actual information in a humorous(hopefully) or stupid way. If they meet with everyone's approval of course. We can save the actual information form the real books for the 2's and 3's.

Great job, Thagarr! I'll throw that one into my little personal version of the mod and post screenshots in the pre-release thread so everyone can see your work in action

 

[Thagarr]

Thanks mate!

 

[Darkhymn]

I've run in to a bit of a complication. Mostly, I don't know how maps point at their textures when equipped. I was able to make it display any of the stock maps easy enough, but I haven't been able to make it display this book texture yet. I'm still working on it, but a push in the right direction would be much appreciated.

Edit: I have it working. Turns out I was actually making the whole thing much more complicated than it is. The code is optimized, and the results are promising.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

That's pretty cool!

Some thoughts:

- Could you change the "Map analysis" title display to, say, "Book reading"? Should be possible by changing the title in either the INI file or the PROGRAM\INTERFACE\[whatever it is].c file. You could have a statement like this (in PSEUDO-code):

if(HasSubStr([ItemDisplayed], "book") title = "Book reading";
else title = "Map analysis";

- Can you find any code that is executed when the book is read? It might be in the same file as above. You could then make the skill enhancement only take effect after you actually read it with the code I posted before.

I'll try to figure out why the Title for the Rags isnt working too...

I don't know if this IS the problem, but it's worth a try:
In PotC, sometimes item names don't show up if you don't leave the proper amount of white lines before and after the item name setting in the INI file. You'd say that shouldn't matter and I would say that too, but I've noticed in the past that it does. :wacko:

Which code, specifically? Right now the focus is just getting the books in-game and doing something, so I haven't really looked at any of the code in this thread yet.

See these posts of mine:
http://forum.piratesahoy.net//ive-got-a-new-idea-t15993.html/page__view__findpost__p__368564
http://forum.piratesahoy.net//ive-got-a-new-idea-t15993.html/page__view__findpost__p__368565
http://forum.piratesahoy.net//ive-got-a-new-idea-t15993.html/page__view__findpost__p__368665
You don't necessaily need to use that code in the end, but I do reckon it's good to just try and it see if it does what it's supposed to at all. If it doesn't end up used in this case, the knowledge that it works might still be applied to something else at a later stage. And it'll allow you people to have a quick test of that PotC-style console Luke added and see how that works and in which ways it might be useful.

First draft of Navigation Book 1!

Now I know this is the "stupid" version, but I still figured I'd tell you a short bit about real navigation.

Imagining that you're sailing in the 17th century or something, generally you'd use a compass to take bearings from known points of the land and plot these as lines of position on a chart. The point of intersection will be your position.

Obviously, this won't work if there is no land or you're not familiar with it/don't have a chart. At sea, when there's stars visible, you can also do navigation by celestial bodies, but this requires a sextant to measure the altitude of these celestial bodies above the horizon. Note that a sextant is a very accurate and therefore delicate measuring instrument and needs to be handled with care.

A compass isn't used in celestial navigation. Theoretically it could be, but that wouldn't be accurate enough anyway. Additionally for celestial navigation, you'll need a properly accurate timekeeping piece and an almanac that lists the celestial bodies' data. A star chart/star finder also comes in handy, especially if you don't know all stars by heart.

Truth be told, I'm not familiar with exactly how celestial navigation was done in the past, but I know exactly how to do it in the present. I imagine it must've been very similar in the past. All that has changed should be the accuracy in the almanac data and of the clocks.

 

[Darkhymn]

The rags issue was a typo in the itemdescribe file. I fixed it immediately after FireBat pointed it out to me.
I'll look into the map analysis thing, as that was really bothering me. Only problem I see in that code is that essentially what I have done is tell the game that the book is a map:

makeref(itm,Items[n]);
itm.id = "booknavigation_1";
itm.groupID = MAPS_ITEM_TYPE
itm.name = "itmname_booknavigation_1";
itm.describe = "itmdescr_booknavigation_1";
itm.model = "OpenBook";
itm.picIndex = 12;
itm.picTexture = "BOOKS_1";
//itm.shown = false;
// boal 19.01.2004 -->
itm.price = 110;
itm.Weight = 3;
itm.imageTga = "Books\navbook1";

So I'm not sure I could make it differentiate.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

You'd probably need to do the differentiate in the map display interface code file.
Must be somewhere in PROGRAM\INTERFACES I reckon...

 

[modernknight1]

Mates, I've posted a couple times in the past how much I'd love to see navigation instruments added in COAS CM mods. We could not only have the basic navigation learners guide, but also a several types of sextants from outdated astrolabes to newer fair to really fine ones. Also as Pieter was saying we could have Almanacs and charts. We could have some that are older and less accurate and some that are very advanced/recent. I suggest against having a marine chronometer however. No accurate marine chronometers were produced until well after the age of piracy was at an end (1780s).

Latitude could be accounted for very accurately with celestial readings, but longitude was for the most part guesswork based on a good Almanac, and MOSTLY the Navigators experience with tides, currents, prevailing winds and observable landmass points of reference once you were close enough to see them. Historically longitude was such a problem that many ships were lost due to errors. Several governments (mainly the Dutch and English) offerred substatial rewards/prizes to the person who could solve the longitude problem as far back as the 1670s/80s. After the loss of an entire squadron of large Man o War with nearly all hands lost including a couple high born notables off the Scilly Isles, the British Crown raised the prize to 20,000 pounds (equivalent to about 5 million modern dollars now). John Harrison was the man that finally solved the problem and is considered one of the 50 greatest Englishmen in history for the contribution. If interested pick up Davia Sobel's book "Longitude". It's an excellent read.

MK

 

[Darkhymn]

I love the little tidbits of period history that you always come out with. We'll want these to be at least relatively period-accurate, so thank you very much for the info. When it comes time to focus on the text of these books, information like this will be invaluable. Mix your and Pieter's knowledge with Thagarr's sense of ridiculous humor and we've got a recipe for gold!

 

[modernknight1]

Agreed Mate!

It is gold at that.

This be a talented group of swabs here!!! I'm constantly impressed by this web board and what everyone is working on! :will

MK

 

[FireBat]

Holy smokes!
This puppy is really coming together. I've been offline for a quite a while now due to rolling power outages (forest-fires in the region are really buggering stuff up) and to my suprise and total happiness to see this mod really coming together. Unfortunatly, due to the power failures I havent made any progress on the other 21 books for the PIRATES attributes. I have written down titles and descriptions however, tho they arent very good. (My creative juices just arent flowing like they back in the beginning of this mod.)

Im going to get cracking on the PIRATES books covers now, and I should have those done within the hour, unless of course we have anymore power outages.

Thargarr: Great work on the inside pages matey. I really like the font!

DarkHymn: Nicely done! Glad to see you've got the books readable now.

ModernKnight: If all goes acording to plan, I hope that the Navigation equipment from PotC can be ported over. It would be a shame to leave that hard work behind. I think that will be seperate work all together however.

Alright time to get to work...

 

[Darkhymn]

I wanted to suggest not making 21 pirates books. If we implemented them at 1, 2, and 3 points, they would add a total of 6 points out of a possible 10... meaning that depending on how your attributes are laid out, you could have all stats at 10 with just one or two of each type. I suggest perhaps just one per attribute giving a +2 bonus, and I also suggest that they be extremely rare.

On another note, I have set rarity and price values for all of the books and sort of unofficially released what I have done for testing in the other thread. From my own testing, I know that the tier 1 books are far too common early in the game (I've picked up ~10 in 3 or 4 naval battles). I haven't seen any in the shops yet, though. Is there some other file I need to add them to in order to make them show there? It doesn't seem like there is, but I'm not certain.

 

[modernknight1]

OK Mates, Just messin around a little and put this together. I've cludged and edited these so the images aren't necessarily from the original book in all cases. I can add more if we want to have a wider variety which I think would be both fun and educational.

1) Wrestling Manual



Klare Onderrichtinge der Voortreffelijke Worstel-Konst
[Clear Education in the Magnificent Art of Wrestling]
Written by Nicolaes Petter, 1674.

"As it is usual, and mainly amongst the Dutch, where if there is any sort of quarrel or discord between people that has risen so high that a physical fight follows, that they punch each other on the chest and use the heavier fist punches later on during the fight. We will cover chest punches, guards and later we shall discuss all grips in order…"

Recommended modifiers: +1 Reaction + 20 Light Weapons +10 Medium Weapons +10 Heavy Weapons

2) Light Weapons Manual

L'Arte Di Ben Manegiarre La Spada, by Francesco Alfieri 1653

The arm has three main articulations: the shoulder, the elbow and the wrist. The cut with the shoulder is the most strong, but also the slowest. With the three articulations one must be well trained and will be able to hit hard with the elbow and the wrist. Eventually the shoulder will be forgotten and one will only use the elbow and the wrist to hit, using, at last, above all only the wrist. To this end, the point requires pushing without withdrawing the hand. For fencing training one must use light swords, because the aim of this art is not to raise heavy weight, but to move quickly.

Recommended modifiers: +2 Reaction +20 Light Weapons + 10 Medium Weapons

3) Medium Weapons Manual

PALLAS ARMATA: THE GENTLEMAN'S ARMORIE;

Printed at London by I. D. for John Williams, at the signe of the Crane inc. Paul's Church-yard. 1639.

The Art of Defence may be justly termed next to the liberal, the chief, the most necessary, as well in time of peace as in time of war, at home and abroad, the most part of other exercises of the body being but for pleasure only, or the health of the body, this for pleasure, for health of body and soul too; for if thou bee known to be expert herein, and to guide thy weapon by judgement, thou dost scarsely give any occasion of falling out, that thou may not be accounted a vain man, and because thou knowest what danger there is in, only standing upon thine own defence, when the unskillful having only courage, will quarrel upon any occasion, because the danger he may fall into is unknown to him: besides nobody will easily offend thee, so that skill maketh thee to be respected and feared, and to fear no man, if thou be engaged in any necessary quarrel.
And again, if it bee thy chance to light into a company, where perhaps in thy presence some may fall out, then the reputation thou art in for thy skill may be the cause of their agreement, if thou thy self dost stir in mediating between them, and thus thou mayst deliver their bodies and souls from danger, in hindering the shedding of blood. I cannot but marvel extremely considering the necessity, why this art should be so much neglected, without the want of good and skillful teachers be the cause. For with what confidence can we wear our weapons, with what safety if we cannot use them? There is a great difference between the wearing and the handling of Arms, to wear a Rapier or Sword is only fashionable, to use it, necessary.
If a man be assaulted and hath no skill to trust to, he will be daunted and loose his courage, and although he doth not loose his spirit, but with a resolute mind will strive to gain the conquest, his fortitude becomes temerity, and his own valour will be his rein, because it is not ruled by reason.

Recommended Modifiers: +1 Reaction +1 Authority +10 Light Weapons +30 Medium Weapons

4) Heavy Weapons Manual

PARADOXES OF DEFENCE,
by George Silver, Gentleman.
London,
1599.
Wherein is proved the true grounds of fight to be the short ancient weapons and that the short sword has advantage over the long sword or the long rapier. And the weakness and imperfection of the rapier-fights displayed. Together with an admonition to the noble, ancient, victorious, valiant, and most brave nation of Englishmen, to beware of false teachers of defence, and how they forsake their own natural fights. With a brief commendation of the noble science or exercising of arms. Fencing (Right honorable) in this new fangled age, is like our fashions, every day a change, resembling the chameleon, who alters himself into all colors save white. So fencing changes into all wards save the right. That it is so, experience teaches us, why it is so, I doubt not but your wisdom does conceive. There is nothing permanent that is not true, what can be true that is uncertain? How can that be certain, that stands upon uncertain grounds? I verily think it my bound duty, with all love and humility to admonish you to take heed, how they submit themselves into the hand of Italian teachers of defence, or strangers whatsoever, and to beware how they forsake or suspect their own natural fight, that they may by casting off these Italianated, weak, fantastical, and most devilish and imperfect fights, and by exercising their own ancient weapons, be restored, or achieve unto the natural, and most manly and victorious fight again, the dint and force whereof many brave nations have both felt and feared. Our plowmen have mightily prevailed against them, as also against masters of defence, both in schools and countries, that have taken upon them to stand upon school tricks and juggling gambols. Whereby it grew to a common speech among the countrymen "Bring me to a fencer, I will bring him out of his fence tricks with good down right blows. I will make him forget his fence tricks, I will warrant him." I speak not against masters of defence indeed, they are to be honored, nor against the science, it is noble, and in my opinion to be preferred next to divinity, for as divinity preserves the soul from hell and the devil, so does this noble science defend the body from wounds & slaughter. And moreover, the exercising of weapons puts away aches, griefs, and diseases, it increases strength, and sharpens the wits. It gives a perfect judgement, it expels melancholy, choleric and evil conceits, it keeps a man in breath, perfect health, and long life. It is unto him that has the perfection thereof, a most friendly and comfortable companion when he is alone, having but only his weapon about him. It puts him out of fear, & in the wars and places of most danger, it makes him bold, hardy and valiant.

Recommended Modifiers: +1 Reaction +10 Medium weapons +30 Heavy Weapons

MK

 

[Darkhymn]

Wow. Way to take a good idea and run with it. I think that once we have the current set worked out and balanced to our liking, we'll have to look into incorporating things like this. Primarily doing so without unbalancing things. Maybe if we reduced the effects of the current books and found a way to implement a limit on the number of books a character can receive bonuses for...
look at me, getting ahead of myself.
We're getting a lot of excellent input on this mod. I hope we can make it all work
I need sleep, mid-afternoon or no. I'm going to put 0.9.1 on hold until whenever I get up and can spend a bit more time testing. I'd like to see a stable, mostly balanced "official" release sometime early in the week. Following that, I want to focus on writing text and making textures for all of our current books, so we can have readable books implemented as soon as possible. Once that is complete, I would love to see things like what you've done here a part of the mod. I'm glad to see people offering so much great content and input. This is turning into quite a cool little community project.
Can you believe that Friday morning, there was a list of names, a set of icons, and a hail of brainstorming going on, but no coding or implementation whatsoever? Just over 36 hours ago, FireBat posted his first bit of coding, which placed one book in-game, but without a thumbnail. As of right now, we have 42 books working in-game, we have the necessary code to make them readable, and we're working on a) balancing them and b) putting together the readable bits. I'm going to have a look at some of Pieter's code ideas and see if I can change the way the top of the window reads tonight.

 

[Thagarr]

Now I know this is the "stupid" version, but I still figured I'd tell you a short bit about real navigation.

Thanks Pieter! That helps put together some of the few things I do know about navigating. which isn't a whole lot, most of what I do know was learned studying how the Vikings did it. Their methods were quite a bit different, a lot of it was simply from experience at sea. The only "real" navigational instrument they had was a sunstone, and most archeologists and historians can't seem to agree on exactly what it was or how it was used. Some say it was a crystal, that when looked through, changed colors depending on the polarization of light from the sky. Most of the sagas refer to this method. Others, based on archeological evidence, say it was more like a sundial. Either way, crossing the Atlantic 500 years before Columbus with such a primitive instrument was quite a feat of navigation! I left the sextant out intentionally(besides, it would be tough to build into the front of the book! : ), as I didn't want to get into the kamasutra just yet!

After the loss of an entire squadron of large Man o War with nearly all hands lost including a couple high born notables off the Scilly Isles, the British Crown raised the prize to 20,000 pounds (equivalent to about 5 million modern dollars now). John Harrison was the man that finally solved the problem and is considered one of the 50 greatest Englishmen in history for the contribution. If interested pick up Davia Sobel's book "Longitude". It's an excellent read. MK

There was also an excellent movie produced by A&E for TV back in 2000 based on this book, and I learned quite a bit about navigation from watching that as well. If you get the chance to see it, I highly recommend it! It is very well acted(Jeremy Irons is awesome!) and well written! IMDB link : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0192263/

I love the little tidbits of period history that you always come out with.

As do I MK, always enjoy reading your posts mate! :mm

Holy smokes!This puppy is really coming together.

Thanks to the fantastic coding work by you and Darkhymn!

OK Mates, Just messin around a little and put this together.

More awesome stuff MK!

This is turning into quite a cool little community project.

Once we get motivated about something, we are the best in the business! And you and FireBat have provided a great deal of motivation and enthusiasm!

 

[FireBat]

I wanted to suggest not making 21 pirates books. If we implemented them at 1, 2, and 3 points, they would add a total of 6 points out of a possible 10... meaning that depending on how your attributes are laid out, you could have all stats at 10 with just one or two of each type. I suggest perhaps just one per attribute giving a +2 bonus, and I also suggest that they be extremely rare.

Alright that sounds much better. If the power would stay on long enough for me to get working that would be great.

Modernknight: These new books sound good matey! I was thinking of adding books that had more than one attribute, but they would have to be incredibly expensive, and rare. Looks good man!

Darkhymn: Great Work Mate! The prices are bang on. It is unfortunate that the player will have to start a new game(they cant be re-inited into exsistnace) to have this come into effect, but that is just a small price to pay as far as I am concerned.
FB EDIT: Finally! they have manged to get these black outs under control, and I have finished designing the books and writing up the titles and descriptions.

I will post them below, and start at the code.

P.I.R.A.T.E.S class books

P. {Build Your Own "Mast-Flex" (TM)}
With these blueprints and exercise instructions, you can build your own exercise machine. Using a series of pulleys, ropes and chain-shot, you will build a machine designed to work you where you are strongest. (+2 Power)

I.{Ahead Three Moves} Learn how to look ahead beyond the current happenings. If a sailor can do they will greatly increase their insight (+2 Insight)

R. {Dancing for Dummies} Your Crew may think the heat has gotten to you, but this manual will teach you to keep light on your toes, and the weight off your peg-leg (+2 Reaction)

A. {Captain Morgans Famous Speeches} These famous words of inspiration ring in the ears of your crew, and at the least, they wont run from battle. (+2 Authority)

T. {Book for Know-it-alls} This book covers the basics in multiple areas including Navigation, Trade, Cannons and tips for learning quickly. (+2 Talent)

E. {There is No Breaking Point} A manual teaching the reader to get the most out of each breath of air, and points out that your breaking point is only in your head (+2 Endurance)

S. 101 ways to succeed (A self help book to teaching your chances to succeed at everything. (+2 Success)

EDIT #2: Well it seem s that my creativity is only surpassed by my incopetance. After finishing the designs for the new books, and writing out the titles and descriptions, my attention turned to coding them. I figure the problem is the fact that there is no item that increases the PIRATES/SPECIAL attributes. They all influence the self or ship skills. Of course, without an example to work off of, my coding skills are inadequate

I tried this

// itmname_bookpower_1
specialN = specialN + SetCharacterSpecialByItem(_refCharacter, specialName, SPECIAL_S, "bookpower_1", 2);

to no avail. I tried other combinations, using skill insteal of special as well of course, all ended with a broken game.

So this brings up an interesting point, seeing as there are no items in stock COAS that influence the PIRATES attributes, perhaps they are not ment to be adjusted, seeing as increasing these attributes would increase mulitple skills.

However there is probably a way it can be done, now whether changing this would unbalance the game is yet to be seen. DarkHymn if you want to take a crack at this, be my guest. On the same note I would be perfectly content if we left it as is. 42 books is still an awsome undertaking!

Great Job!

 

[Darkhymn]

I will get working on this. I had taken a good hard look at what it would take to make these work, and I believe that I had concluded that it could be done, else I would have told you by now. If I can get them to work, I'll upload the "finished" product as part of the rebalanced 0.9.1 update I've been working on.

You'll have to tell me which pictures are for what, though. I have a rough idea, but I'm not entirely sure.

 

[FireBat]

sorry for making the xtra work for ya bud

 

[Darkhymn]

sorry for making the xtra work for ya bud

If I didn't want to do it, I just wouldn't. Remember that I picked up and ran with this project all by myself. All you asked me to do was make the thumbnails work!

 

[Thagarr]

There is a way to change at least one attribute in the PIRATES system, finishing one of the quests in the stock game will let you add 1 point to any one of the PIRATES attributes. I remember doing this, but I can't remember for sure which quest it is. I think it was the City of Abandoned Ships(Kill the Beggars) quest, but I am not positive. I can't remember if it actually loaded the interface for the PIRATES system, or if it just added the points to the skill you chose in a dialog.

I'll do some more looking and see if I can come up with something more definitive. Not sure if this will help, but have a look at this thread HERE, it may at least help point in the right direction.

 

[Darkhymn]

Yeah, that's a permanent stat increase based on some sort of trigger. I found at least some of the code defining it in my prodding around, but I can't seem to adapt it for our uses. Further down the line perhaps I can set it up to be triggered by 'reading' a book. Pieter posted some code earlier in the thread that may be applicable. I see what you're referring to in that thread, but that simply sets how many distributable attribute points you have. Thanks for the input, though.

I can't do it. There is no defined function for adding attributes via items, and my attempts to define one myself have been woefully inadequate. Looks like for now we're sticking with 42. I should have expected this from the start. 42 is the answer.