key NPCs missing

[smrtwhkd]

Just wonder if anyone had issues with these quests:
1. Find Moulin's father: after you exit the buccaneer's fort then you fight your way to the beach. However Moulin's father Francois Moulin is not there.

2. Smuggle for Tom Oreily: when you reach St Martinique with captured goods, Andre Juliao is not in the Tavern (One tiny suggestion for future development of this quest: can you spawn the ship farther away from the port and fort? As soon as they spawn, they get blasted out of water by the fort's cannons. Took me many tries to board the ship before the fort kills it.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

@Grey Roger: Do you know what might be going on here?
These characters have been in the game forever.
I can't think why they'd suddenly have run off...

 

[Kara Korsan]

In all my playthroughs, Juliao is always killed by the soldiers. You know, those who spawn inside the tavern when you decide to do a little harmless smuggling and your contact asks you to get the patrol schedule. They simply turn hostile as soon as they appear. Next thing you know, Juliao is feeding the ants, termites and whatever else is currently crawling on the tavern floor, soldiers are waving their rapiers around, screaming "Who's next?" and the poor tavern wench is cowering in a corner, beating herself senseless for not having offered them to sample her charms like any other proper French maid in the Caribbean would as soon as they came in. Never even got to trigger the quest myself in the first place. I sure hope someone who knows how to code and stuff disables Juliao until the quest progresses to the proper stage, so he can have a shot at actually staying alive until you do business with him, whereafter I honestly don't care whether he gets blasted or skewered.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I sure hope someone who knows how to code and stuff disables Juliao until the quest progresses to the proper stage, so he can have a shot at actually staying alive until you do business with him, whereafter I honestly don't care whether he gets blasted or skewered.

He's placed in PROGRAM\Characters\init\FalaiseDeFleur.c:

// Andre Juliao - SMUGGLING FOR THOMAS O'REILY
   ch.old.name = "Andre";
   ch.old.lastname = "Juliao";
   ch.name = TranslateString("","Andre");
   ch.lastname = TranslateString("","Juliao");
   ch.id       = "Andre Juliao";
   ch.model = "man2";
   ch.sex = "man";
   ch.sound_type = "pirate";
   ch.location   = "Falaise_de_fleur_tavern";
   ch.location.group = "candles"; // PB: was "sit"
   ch.location.locator = "sit3";

Could change those last lines to:

   ch.location   = "none";
   ch.location.group = "";
   ch.location.locator = "";

(New game required)

Then instead place him later with:

ChangeCharacterAddressGroup(characterFromID("Andre Juliao"), "Falaise_de_fleur_tavern", "candles", "sit3");

This line from his character init entry might also be working against you:

LAi_NoRebirthEnable(ch); //NK fix so he doesn't reappear and attack again after killing him.

That could be replaced with:
LAi_NoRebirthEnable(characterFromID("Andre Juliao")); //NK fix so he doesn't reappear and attack again after killing him.
Placed somewhere later in the quest code.

Big question then is where are the best places to move that code to.
It'll be somewhere in PROGRAM\QUESTS\quests_side.c .

While playing, you can keep track of compile.log to find the names of the called quest cases.

 

[Kara Korsan]

While I'm everything a coder is not, I'd say that the best time to move him to the tavern would be the point you capture the pirate ship and collect the goods.

Although, now I think of it, is he needed for any other quest?

 

[Grey Roger]

Just wonder if anyone had issues with these quests:
1. Find Moulin's father: after you exit the buccaneer's fort then you fight your way to the beach. However Moulin's father Francois Moulin is not there.

Did you talk to Robert Durand first? If so, Francois Moulin should certainly be on the beach.

2. Smuggle for Tom Oreily: when you reach St Martinique with captured goods, Andre Juliao is not in the Tavern (One tiny suggestion for future development of this quest: can you spawn the ship farther away from the port and fort? As soon as they spawn, they get blasted out of water by the fort's cannons. Took me many tries to board the ship before the fort kills it.

That was fixed a different way some time ago. The ship is set to be "PRIVATEER NATION", which looks like "Personal" except that is not tied to you.

 

[smrtwhkd]

Yes, I spoke with Robert Durand first. Please see my files below. Francois sometimes would not spawn.

 

[Grey Roger]

If I read that "compile.log" correctly, you loaded a savegame in Buccaneers Camp. You then loaded another savegame in the jungle, went to the shore, returned to the jungle, then continued to the outskirts and to Buccaneers Camp.

If you have a savegame from before, or just after, you talked to Angelique Moulin, could you load that? Then go to Buccaneers Camp, talk to Robert Durand, go to the shore, and then post "compile.log". That should show what the quest has been doing.

 

[smrtwhkd]

This is the save before getting the quest from Moulin. I just retested it. Going from getting the quest to the shore without saving/loading. It works this time. So there might be several things going on:
1. The first time when the problem occurs, I also went to store and bought stuff after talking to Robert Durand. Would shopping at the store cause any issue?
2. I did 2 saves after coming out of the shop. One at the camp and the other in the jungle after killing a group of highway men. Would save/loading screw up the quest here?
Tried to do a bit shopping and do a few save/load. See if you can reproduce the problem.

 

[smrtwhkd]

This is so weird. I tried to do the following:
1. I shop after talking to Robert Durand. Then I went the shore, Francois did not spawn
2. I shop then went to tavern to sleep until the next morning. I went to the shore. Francois spawned this time.

Just wonder if the time of the day would have any effect on this because in 1., the time was after 20:00. I guess the codes only spawn Francois in the daytime?

 

[pedrwyth]

This is so weird. I tried to do the following:
1. I shop after talking to Robert Durand. Then I went the shore, Francois did not spawn
2. I shop then went to tavern to sleep until the next morning. I went to the shore. Francois spawned this time.

Just wonder if the time of the day would have any effect on this because in 1., the time was after 20:00. I guess the codes only spawn Francois in the daytime?

The last idea is the correct one his init code has

LAi_SetLoginTime(ch, 8.0, 20.0);

I tried your original save from the Camp. Attributes show Francois in place at the shore and if I use console to jump there I arrive before the deadline and he is there but treking there I didn't arrive in time and he was not there.

 

[smrtwhkd]

So the code is basically saying the NPC would only spawn between 8am and 20pm, correct?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

So the code is basically saying the NPC would only spawn between 8am and 20pm, correct?

Correct; that is what it says.

 

[Grey Roger]

I wonder if it's worth putting something in the FAQ about this? Several NPC's go to bed in the evening and only show up at certain times of day. This includes but is probably not limited to Florens Clauss ("Nigel Blythe"), the daughter of the governor of Port Royale ("Missing Son of Spanish Admiral") and Angelique Moulin ("Find Angelique Moulin's Father"). Basically, if someone you're supposed to meet is not there, head for the tavern and either sleep or drink rum until 10:00.

 

[smrtwhkd]

How about lengthen the time interval that the NPC's would be active? Say store hours between 6-22, set NPC between 5:30 and 22:30.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

How about lengthen the time interval that the NPC's would be active? Say store hours between 6-22, set NPC between 5:30 and 22:30.

Could be easily done.
The trick would be going through all characters one by one and judging if their times should be shifted a bit.

Alternatively, what's the added value of characters disappearing at certain times of day?
What if that never happens and characters are just always there?
There's also the "doors to the store closing" routine after all; which is independent from the characters.