Ladies and gentlemen, the painstakingly researched and long in production/testing Historically Accurate mod for Sea Dogs: City of Abandoned Ships is now on Nexus, under the link:
Historically Accurate Sea Dogs COAS
Vanilla COAS features many character models that are out of place in the 1660's, when the game is set; tricorn hats, neck roughs present in the beginning of the century, Cavalier fashion and so on. Similarly, Caravels and Galleons sailed the vanilla seas. Nations and titles were inaccurate (William of Orange ruled the Netherlands - also called Holland in game, while it should read The Staaten Generaal, and United Provinces or Netherlands).
With this mod, the Restoration era and as much baroque as I could realistically fit into the game, comes to life. It is not a perfect visual or factual representation of 1665, or any other year of the decade, but an overall realistic style that would be found at the time. As the game goes on, more modern clothing will make sense, while those who stick to older, out of fashion styles, mostly the Spanish, will be regarded as traditionalists - that's my view of it.
FEATURES:
- Changes most textures and models to provide a visual style that covers the 1660's as a whole. Some unique characters are still anachronistic due to the lack of quality models, which I hope to fix in time.
- Changes many lines of text, both in technical and immersion aspects (for instance, forts and place names are now what they should be in the 1660's - instead of the settlement of Tortuga, we have its historical name of Cayenne, and Fort Tortuga is Fort de Rocher).
- Changes some aspects of the weather and sea, making it more realistic for the region (for instance, fog is mostly only present in the morning and at night, while the days should be clear, with some haze to simulate distance. The sea is much more reflective and less transparent).
- Changes ship and character names - fixing the terrible vanilla spelling.
- Some governors, officers and priests now have unique historical names and visual characteristics.
- Changes ship cabins - cabins are now in line with what the ship looks from the outside (as much as possible).
- Crewmen are now on deck and the camera should be at the right height as to avoid the player being a dwarf or giant.
- Changes the names and prices of certain goods - historical records used in obtaining prices per cwt - some prices were completely accurate in vanilla and so remain the same (Also: Slaves are now a somewhat tradable commodity, as the Caribbean islands relied on such trade to survive).
- Changes flavour titles and technical names for Loyalty, Reputation, Crewmen and other aspects.
- Fixes the Tenochtitlan bug and other minor glitches or missing lines.
- Changes the start date to be 7th of January 1665 - as to not have to pay your crew on your very first day.
- Changes the starting parameters to add starting money to the Merchant and Adventurer classes, as well as adding 4 free stat points that can be added in game to create a somewhat less useless character. The character of Ian Stance has been renamed to Jan de Fries, and Diego Espinoza to Don Alonso Espinosa - the latter is a historical character present and active in the Caribbean at or around the time. If you would like the vanilla experience, find the appropriate lines in the file RPGutilite.c and HeroDescribe.txt and remove these changes or back up the original file.
- Little tweaks to quest texts and logs that add just a bit more historicity and immersion, while many other fixes just concern the atrocious Russian to English translation provided by the creators.
NOTES:
- Many features work properly only upon starting a new game - especially ships.
- Most features work only in English. No support for other languages.
INSTALLATION:
To install, simply unrar or unzip the archive, and merge/overwrite the "Program" and "RESOURCE" files in the main directory.
This is version 1.0, a playable and surprisingly stable experience. It has been tested for hours on end.
This mod was created by hand, by one person, who is, not a modeler or coder, but is, fortunately enough, a historian. Please excuse my inability to further
enhance the game and its historicity, and hopefully, this will be good enough.
I will be supporting and updating this mod in time; please comment and report bugs and/or glitches you believe were caused by the mod, and I will do my best to fix them for an even smoother experience.
It is my small contribution as a professional historian. Do not think of this mod as a ship pack, but merely a historically accurate vanilla - COAS as it should have been in my opinion.
If anyone would like to help add immersion and realism with some modeling and more complex coding, please let me know here, or e-mail me at neil.ross67@hotmail.com.
Playtests and bug reports are welcome.
Thank you, and hope you enjoy.
Neil Ross
Historically Accurate Sea Dogs COAS
Vanilla COAS features many character models that are out of place in the 1660's, when the game is set; tricorn hats, neck roughs present in the beginning of the century, Cavalier fashion and so on. Similarly, Caravels and Galleons sailed the vanilla seas. Nations and titles were inaccurate (William of Orange ruled the Netherlands - also called Holland in game, while it should read The Staaten Generaal, and United Provinces or Netherlands).
With this mod, the Restoration era and as much baroque as I could realistically fit into the game, comes to life. It is not a perfect visual or factual representation of 1665, or any other year of the decade, but an overall realistic style that would be found at the time. As the game goes on, more modern clothing will make sense, while those who stick to older, out of fashion styles, mostly the Spanish, will be regarded as traditionalists - that's my view of it.
FEATURES:
- Changes most textures and models to provide a visual style that covers the 1660's as a whole. Some unique characters are still anachronistic due to the lack of quality models, which I hope to fix in time.
- Changes many lines of text, both in technical and immersion aspects (for instance, forts and place names are now what they should be in the 1660's - instead of the settlement of Tortuga, we have its historical name of Cayenne, and Fort Tortuga is Fort de Rocher).
- Changes some aspects of the weather and sea, making it more realistic for the region (for instance, fog is mostly only present in the morning and at night, while the days should be clear, with some haze to simulate distance. The sea is much more reflective and less transparent).
- Changes ship and character names - fixing the terrible vanilla spelling.
- Some governors, officers and priests now have unique historical names and visual characteristics.
- Changes ship cabins - cabins are now in line with what the ship looks from the outside (as much as possible).
- Crewmen are now on deck and the camera should be at the right height as to avoid the player being a dwarf or giant.
- Changes the names and prices of certain goods - historical records used in obtaining prices per cwt - some prices were completely accurate in vanilla and so remain the same (Also: Slaves are now a somewhat tradable commodity, as the Caribbean islands relied on such trade to survive).
- Changes flavour titles and technical names for Loyalty, Reputation, Crewmen and other aspects.
- Fixes the Tenochtitlan bug and other minor glitches or missing lines.
- Changes the start date to be 7th of January 1665 - as to not have to pay your crew on your very first day.
- Changes the starting parameters to add starting money to the Merchant and Adventurer classes, as well as adding 4 free stat points that can be added in game to create a somewhat less useless character. The character of Ian Stance has been renamed to Jan de Fries, and Diego Espinoza to Don Alonso Espinosa - the latter is a historical character present and active in the Caribbean at or around the time. If you would like the vanilla experience, find the appropriate lines in the file RPGutilite.c and HeroDescribe.txt and remove these changes or back up the original file.
- Little tweaks to quest texts and logs that add just a bit more historicity and immersion, while many other fixes just concern the atrocious Russian to English translation provided by the creators.
NOTES:
- Many features work properly only upon starting a new game - especially ships.
- Most features work only in English. No support for other languages.
INSTALLATION:
To install, simply unrar or unzip the archive, and merge/overwrite the "Program" and "RESOURCE" files in the main directory.
This is version 1.0, a playable and surprisingly stable experience. It has been tested for hours on end.
This mod was created by hand, by one person, who is, not a modeler or coder, but is, fortunately enough, a historian. Please excuse my inability to further
enhance the game and its historicity, and hopefully, this will be good enough.
I will be supporting and updating this mod in time; please comment and report bugs and/or glitches you believe were caused by the mod, and I will do my best to fix them for an even smoother experience.
It is my small contribution as a professional historian. Do not think of this mod as a ship pack, but merely a historically accurate vanilla - COAS as it should have been in my opinion.
If anyone would like to help add immersion and realism with some modeling and more complex coding, please let me know here, or e-mail me at neil.ross67@hotmail.com.
Playtests and bug reports are welcome.
Thank you, and hope you enjoy.
Neil Ross
