• New Horizons on Maelstrom
    Maelstrom New Horizons


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My current modding work

Pieter Boelen

Pieter Boelen

Navigation Officer
Administrator
Storm Modder
Hearts of Oak Donator
At the moment bugfixing doesn't seem to be going very well, because most coders are gone. So at the moment I am trying to improve the game slightly instead. I will post what I have managed to do here.

<b>1. Automatic looting on boardings</b>
If you are boarding, the corpses can really obstruct the fight, which is very annoying. I have now made it so that on boardings you don't have to loot the corpses manually, but they are looted automatically instead. That looked weird though: As soon as you killed an enemy, they'd simply vanish, instead of fall to the floor. I managed to fix that as well: Now the enemy falls to the floor and remains lying there as corpse. However, you can walk straight through them, so they don't obstruct the fight anymore. This doesn't prevent you from continuing to the next boarding deck either.

<b>2. AoP compass in 3D sailing mode</b>
Seb added the AoP compass to the 3D sailing mode. I have made some small code changes so that you can now choose which compass you want in BuildSettings.h. This means that the AoP compass doesn't overwrite anything.

<b>3. Enemies don't draw blade during dialogs</b>
Have you ever had the problem that you were talking to a character and suddenly you were attacked while you were in a dialog? I have already fixed the problem that fights would be generated by the dialog before the dialog was finished. But I have now also prevented enemies from drawing their blades while you are in dialog. This should really decrease the amount of times you are killed during dialogs.

This should also make fighting in the Greenford Maltese Knight Abbey work better. You have to talk to the Maltese corpses to loot them. And the dialog is sometimes pretty long. With all the other enemies around, you don't really have the time to talk to the Maltese spirits. With my code change, however, you can talk to them as long as you like and no Weird Warriormonks will draw their blades.

I have been unable to make it so that enemies put their blades away if you start talking. But at least the enemies are gents now and they'll wait with drawing their blades until you finished your conversation. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />

<b>4. Several error.log messages prevented</b>
I added some CheckAttributes to some places, which decreases the amount of error.log antries. This mostly has impact on the item traders: The first time you'd talk to them, there would be an error generated. Not anymore.
 
I have been doing some research on "hyjacking controls". So far I haven't had much luck. The idea is to add a button for (example) forward movement, but to make the "ChrForward" command not be called directly by the button, but indirectly through an entry in ProcessControls() in seadogs.c. The reason why I want to do this is to hyjack the control and have some more control over the execution of the control. For example the addition of delays.

If we can get this to work somehow, we can probably do the following things:
1) Make the player's block stop after a set delay (more realistic: You can currently block forever)
2) Make the ship start turning when you press A and continue turning until you say otherwise

I doubt this is all possible though, because it's all hardcoded. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad.gif" />

I also did an INVERSE_CONTROL on the blocking key. Result: The character always blocks UNLESS you press the Ctrl key. This is pretty interesting, but I wonder if it can be used for anything... <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/unsure.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":?" border="0" alt="unsure.gif" />
 
<b>5. White sails mod</b>
As suggested by me in <a href="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=8012" target="_blank">this</a> thread, I have now made the white sails mod. I found the file that should be changed, so I now got it working. I have done some quick testing and it seems to work. But I should do some more testing, because there are a lot of different settings.

You can choose which sails you want to use in BuildSettings.h using the DEFAULT_SAILS setting. You can choose:
<i>0: Stock default:</i> All ships plain white sails, pirates plain black sails
<i>1: Age of Pirates:</i> All ships AoP white sails
<i>2: Pirates of the Burning Sea:</i> All ships PotBS white sails
<i>3: Build Default:</i> All ships emblemed white sails, pirates emblemed black sails

In addition to that, there is a setting PIRATES_BLACK_SAILS. If 1, the pirates will use the Build default sails no matter the DEFAULT_SAILS selection.

I must admit that the AoP and PotBS sails look excellently in the game. I also really like it that the sail emblems are now toggleable for those people who don't think they are realistic. The only problem I now have is that I would like to use the AoP and PotBS sails in the game at once. Now how should I do that...? <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":rolleyes:" border="0" alt="rolleyes.gif" />
 
All great ideas and great work. Looking forward to trying them out. Mmmm...new sails. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/yes.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":yes" border="0" alt="yes.gif" />

Cheers <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/par-ty.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":cheers" border="0" alt="par-ty.gif" />

p.s. <!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->If we can get this to work somehow, we can probably do the following things:
1) Make the player's block stop after a set delay (more realistic: You can currently block forever)

I doubt this is all possible though, because it's all hardcoded.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

This works in SLiB. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/doff.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":doff" border="0" alt="doff.gif" />
 
I'm working on following:

1) adding storemen, shipyard owners and tavern keepers to all new islands; done Saint Martin and Antigua so far;
2) making Santiago workable and adding new locations at Cuba;
3) player can walk on ship like on land, with working fast reload; I only must code appearance of officers/crewmembers on decks. 7th class ships have only upper deck, luggers etc. has upper deck, cabin, cargo hold and crew quarters; heavier ships have more (largest manowars have upper deck, cabin, crew quarters, three cannon decks and two cargo holds);
4) player starts at proper cabin; I'm trying to rewrite tutorial to take into account changes made by Build;
5) added functionality to personal flag on Choose Character interface (bypassing tutorial and starting directly in port selected in buildsettings.h);
6) finishing Different Flags mod;
7) dynamically changing political situation and random reloations toward player at start of the game.

In the future I plan to enable capturing colony by attacking from sea (I think good thing would be destroy and capture fort first and then fight with militia in the town), add new missions from governors, improve quest book system. I would want also create a new quest to capture Peter Blood.

I'm trying to hunt down bugs, but with little success. Things which make me angry the most are boarding problems. I'll still try to fix as much as I can. I don't know when I will be able to publish my work; I planed to release that for post Build 13 but now, in light of "disappearing coders" I don't know what to do. The only thing I can think of is to write my mods with as little bugs as possible.

Best regards,
pirate_kk
 
<img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/par-ty.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":cheers" border="0" alt="par-ty.gif" />

GO! pirate_kk, this is an increditable list......

Very Well Done!...thanks mate

I dont know about others, but I see the need to add to the build right now instead of later #'s 1 and 2

This no landing at Cuba has been going on too long, and the missing "personel" from the new islands is not worth the hassle of being described as different. Implementing new types of random Tavern owners probably adds to the "bugs" more than its worth, while having a "stable already been done tried and true system of Permanent Owner works 100%"

I vote to add these to the Build now and hopefully get rid of some errors rather than continue getting people reporting these annoying things time and time again
 
The work you are all doing is incredible, i really think you will be able to mix your current work with some improvement made in AoP.
I'll buy AoP but i really don't think it will be better then the game you are all creating, is astonishing and wonderful.
You are all creating the perfect game.

thanks!
 
All great ideas there, pirate_kk.

Yeah, you're right, I think Pieter would be hesitant to add these to the Build at the moment considering the current coders/bug hunters situation. I'm sure, however, that there would be many here who would be happy to test them thoroughly if they were put on the ftp. If you're writing and testing them as you go with a view to minimizing/eliminating all bugs, then they could be tested independently and if proven to relatively free of bugs, then they could be considered for inclusion in the Build.

Great work. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/me.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":onya" border="0" alt="me.gif" />

Cheers <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/par-ty.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":cheers" border="0" alt="par-ty.gif" />
 
Some pretty impressive things you're working on, Pirate_KK! I agree with Long John Silver: #s 1 and 2 would be bugfixes and should be added into the Pre Build 13.

The other mods are excellent, but are thorough reworks that might introduce new bugs. However, if they are tested and found working, I'd be happy to add them into the modpack. Although I am reluctant to add new code into the modpack, I am happy to add new code in that is confirmed working. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />

Actually: Keeping out mods is more annoying than adding them in for me. So I will probably add Sir Christopher Mings' Mateus Santos quest and Maximus' AoP towns in soon, because these worked pretty fine last time I checked.

To Jack Davidson: I know the blocking works more realistic in the SLiB mod. But how to code that in for our mod? It would greatly enhance the fighting system and make it much more challenging and realistic.
BTW: You can test all the mods I mentioned to have been working on above already, because they are in yesterday's modpack update. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/icon_mrgreen1.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":cheeky" border="0" alt="icon_mrgreen1.gif" />
 
Woww it is incredible,i have a suggestion ; our character may use sword instead of gun, so he can fight with 2 swords. but this choosing must be on purpose <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />
 
I don't think that is possible. Unless you think it's a good idea to see the player fire his sword. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/icon_mrgreen1.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":cheeky" border="0" alt="icon_mrgreen1.gif" />
 
I've added new characters who was missing on new islands (tavern keepers, shop and shipyard owners, officiants and smuglers). I would add a governor for each town (on new islands and in Oxbay and Greenford) - that would improve realism, but those governors could only give LoMs and pirate-hunting quest - should I do that?

Before I publish my work on FTP I'd like to finish Santiago - I made some rudimentary town, but I want to make jungles and shores on Cuba, and a fake fort for Santiago.

Best wishes,
pirate_kk
 
<img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/hi.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":gday" border="0" alt="hi.gif" />
" I would add a governor for each town (on new islands and in Oxbay and Greenford) - that would improve realism, but those governors could only give LoMs and pirate-hunting quest - should I do that?"

YES please DODODO IT <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/bounce.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":b:" border="0" alt="bounce.gif" /> <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/bounce.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":b:" border="0" alt="bounce.gif" /> <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/bounce.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":b:" border="0" alt="bounce.gif" /> <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/bounce.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":b:" border="0" alt="bounce.gif" />
<img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/par-ty.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":cheers" border="0" alt="par-ty.gif" /> <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/par-ty.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":cheers" border="0" alt="par-ty.gif" />
 
My modding work is now mostly skin for P&E and skin some locations (i made a replacement for Philipsburg) see the thread Retextured Redmond, or see my site for some ingame screenies.
 
<img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/poet.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":hmm" border="0" alt="poet.gif" />

Ahoy there pirate_kk, you've outdone yourself there matey....job well done I might add. Tis a grand idea you add to the build, and I be completely supporting your inclush'in "right away" the gentermen missin in them nearly deserted Ports'O Call that have been EMPTY tew darn long tew begin with.

<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> GO! pirate_kk, this is an increditable list......

Very Well Done!...thanks mate

I dont know about others, but I see the need to add to the build right now instead of later #'s 1 and 2

This no landing at Cuba has been going on too long, and the missing "personel" from the new islands is not worth the hassle of being described as different. Implementing new types of random Tavern owners probably adds to the "bugs" more than its worth, while having a "stable already been done tried and true system of Permanent Owner works 100%"

I vote to add these to the Build now and hopefully get rid of some errors rather than continue getting people reporting these annoying things time and time again<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<b>This be from my previous post on this issue</b>

However!! Ye be warned, agin places them thar Gov'ners inside O Greenford and Oxbay, as them falls under the Protection Of the Gov'ner Of Redmond...and it would really really mess up the plot....and it isnt really needed. Maybe we could add a little Quest or Mod tew kick in once we get rid of Silehard from the game, then "New Governers" get sent out from England.

Also.....Again this is just MY opinion, but CUBA WAS/IS a really really big Island, and there was a lot more towns and Ports there in these Pirate Days!.....Fledgeling towns that like Oxbay or Greenford that maybe fell under the Governor General Of Havana, the sort of "Head Governor" of ALL the other Governors around the Caribbean. WHY dont you add more smaller Towns to the Island of Cuba, more towns to raid, more towns to visit, more towns to get supplies....but mostly to raid and build quests around for the future. First the Spanish should be the Main Country in the Caribbean at this time, yet in our game they only originally put in Isla Muerte. And there is Plenty of room left to place more Towns on the Big Islands of Cuba and even one or two more on Hispaniola as well...this in my opinion would be way better than adding Governors to Oxbay and Greenford, but maybe not simpler. Havana also should be a hugh much big Miltiary presence there as well, with lots of Soldiers runnin around and Warships a plenty. And why do anything fancy for now, just copy like Oxbay for a small Spanish town....for now....some day when we understand more about the buildings maybe we can use others for replacements, but til then, I think this would be the biggest and best addition to the game in a long time.......even two more towns on each of those two Islands, there is room, and governor them to death with small fry man who want to persecute ALL pirates, and hang-em Irons and Gibbets......But dont ruin the already main Quest of the game, its not really needed, unless this Quests is finished and then it could be scripted into the build.
 
Great work, Pirate_KK! I'll add it into the modpack as soon as you think you've got it ready for release. THANKS!
 
I have thought up some more things to add into the modpack. I have yet to start coding them, but I have a good idea of how to do it. Please give your comments on the following ideas. I will start working on these this week and, if everything works out, they'll be done before next week. I think these ideas are pretty possible and not too hard to accomplish. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/whistling.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":wp" border="0" alt="whistling.gif" />

<b>Getting loot from corpses that are NOT killed by the PChar:</b>
This only applies with autoloot on. By default you get only loot for those characters you kill yourself. Would be nice to make you get loot for all characters that are killed by your officers and crewmembers as well. This should be quite possible with some small changes to LAi_fightparams.c.

The "You got..." message will drive you nuts though, so I'll make it so that you only get that message if you do the kill yourself. This might also cause your inventory to get pretty full, so instead of giving the looted items to the PChar, I could make them be given to:
- The weapons locker
- A character on your deck (talk to him to be able to get all loot)
- The chest in your captain's cabin

This mod is not yet started, but I'll get to that this weekend.

<b>New healing system:</b>
New more "realistic" health items added: Bandage and Cauterization Kit. Potions made much more rare. You can use potions with the [C] key, but you can only use the new items through the [Enter] menu. This way, the new health items will be common, but hard to use, while the potions will be easy to use, but rare. This makes the potions be something like magical potions that are hard to find, but quite useful. A toggle will be added to this mod.

This mod is finished and works fine: I just need to add the toggle.

<b>Health has influence on fighting skill:</b>
This mod will make health more like "stamina". Currently, as long as you health is > 0, you keep doing maximum damage as if you are completely healthy. If you health = 0, you're dead. With this mod, your health will factor into the damage you do with your blade. If you have maximum health, you will do maximum damage. If you have hardly any health, you are so crumpled, that you'll hardly do any damage either.

This mod is not yet started, but I think it'll be pretty easy. Just add a scalar to the line that does the damage to other characters: [current health]/[max health]. This mod will take effect for ALL characters, not just the player character. A toggle will be added for those who would not like it.

<b>Limiting the selling of pirate ships</b>
Pirate ships seem to be a bit better than other nation's ships. You can buy these pirate ships from the QC shipyard. But why would the pirates sell you their good ships if you are at war with them?

So in addition to the Realistic Ship Purchase mod that I made, I want to make it work like this: Pirate shipyards will only sell you pirate design ships IF you are friendly with the pirates and at war with all other nations. So they will only sell pirate ships to fellow pirates. Other nation's designs will still be sold from the pirate shipyards like usual.

This has two good points: 1) We limit the availability of pirate ships and 2) There is a point in joining the pirates: You'll be at war with everyone, but you CAN buy pirate ships.

This mod is not yet started, but it should be pretty easy now thatI figured out how to limit the selling of navy ships. Like usual, a toggle will be added.

<b>Blocking time limit</b>
At the moment, you can keep blocking for an infinitly long time. HIGHLY unrealistic. I think it should be possible to make it so that a block is only effective for a set period of time. This should be possible by adding some code that will be executed as soon as you press the [Block] key. This code will start a timer. Once the timer has run out, the block will not be effective anymore. Changes required to seadogs.c, init_pc.c and to the isBlocked section in LAi_fightparams.c. This will make fighting more realistic, and much harder.

This mod is not yet started, but I think I know how to do it. A toggle will, of course, be added.

<b>Fists being blocked hurts the attacker</b>
Imagine you are fighting an enemy with a blade while you have nothing but your fists. If you are blocked when attacking, that should hurt yourself. That is currently not the case, but I am going to add that functionality in. I think I know how to. I don't think I'll add a toggle on this one, because it deals with fixing something that isn't working entirely right at the moment.

<b>Better inventory screen</b>
Add some buttons [Blades], [Guns], etc. When clicking this button, only that item type will show up. This should be possible in a similar way that IncredibleHat made the fists not show in the itemsbox.c interface. I will not be possible to make this mod on my own though. I will need some help from someone who can add buttons to the interface. Possibly IncredibleHat will want to help with this as well.
 
Suggestions:

Add "Give all" option to the ship-to-ship goods exchange. As of right now, If I want to transfer my loot to the companion ship, I have to do it manually.

Also, is it possible to add some kind of auto-sorting of the items in the inventory?
 
<img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/hi.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":gday" border="0" alt="hi.gif" /> there, Pieter.

Some great ideas there, matey. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/me.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":onya" border="0" alt="me.gif" />

Cheers <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/par-ty.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":cheers" border="0" alt="par-ty.gif" />
 
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