My strange asks are really a must-have!

[Ambrois LeGaillard]

...and now, after this boasting affermation of myself, the ask of the day:

I know that usually every character belong to a nation: England, Holland, Portugal, France, and Spain.

But what's happens when one choose to fly his personal flag, instead a national one?

Really, never tried before, and I don't know what happen.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

At first nothing happens. You and your nation are the same. But over time you are judged by your actions and can become friendly with your nation's enemies and can even become hostile to your nation. You become your own nation.

 

[Ambrois LeGaillard]

Huh? Sorry, I don't have got...

I will try to explain better: usually I choose to belong to a nation-England, France, Holland, Portugal, Spain, taking the national flag. Until this, its presumed that I come from this nation, or I' have a citizenry of this nation.

I ask myself whats happen when I take a my own flag and I don't choose to have a precise citizenship. E.g. if I get the yellow harp on green flag instead British flag, I'm not an Englishman, nor a citizen of any other country.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

I use my own flag all the time but at the start of a game you must choose a nation. You then have the same friends and enemies as your nation, but over time your actions make the nations treat you differently than your nation. You can have a LoM from a nation that is at war with your nation and your nation can be hostile to you.

But as far as I know you must choose a nation at the start of a game.

 

[Grey Roger]

You still have relations to other nations - check the "International Relations" screen. You might not be interested in any of the nations but they're still interested in what you do.

If you attack a nation's ships, that nation will become hostile to you and so will its allies. Actually, if you don't have a Letter of Marque, if you attack anyone's ships then you'll be classed as a pirate and everyone except Pirates will become hostile to you. Also, if you smuggle contraband and are caught by the coastguard, the nation which caught you won't like it much - they won't become hostile right away, but if you keep doing it and keep getting caught, eventually they'll become hostile.

If you take a single Letter of Marque then that nation accepts you into its service. If you take more than one Letter of Marque then you don't serve any nation.

 

[Ambrois LeGaillard]

No, I have seen that into the game there's a chance to have his own banner at start, and be apolid, without a nation.

If I use Free play game, I can use the own flag from start without choose a national flag, simply inserting Personal flag (in the Nation choosing), Pirate flag (in Pirate flag choosing), then Personal flag again: this mean that I can have or not have a starting nation.

 

[LarryHookins]

I'm guessing you want to be, for example, Italian, which isn't represented in the game. So you aren't aligned with any existing nation in the game.

If the game allows to fly a personal flag from the start and not be of any specific nationality, it should work the same as any other nation. You're an independent nation, and your relationships with the existing nations are based on your actions.

Short answer: try it and see. If this is the way it works, that's very good indeed. I'm not sure why there's even a question about it.

Hook

 

[Pieter Boelen]

If you start the game as Personal Nation, then you start hostile with the Pirates and neutral with everyone else.
Other than that, it technically makes no difference.

 

[LarryHookins]

@Pieter Boelen that is really cool. It means I can start as any nation I like that isn't already represented on the map. If in the real world at the time my preferred nation was hostile to any nation on the map, then I can always attack one of their ships and make them hostile to my "personal nation."

I love it.

Hook

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Yep, that should totally work!

 

[LarryHookins]

I want my nation to be... The Kingdom of Redonda. Now all we need is a flyspeck island between Montserrat and Nevis. Or between Guadeloupe and Nevis seeing as how we're missing Montserrat.

"Wait... where's Montserrat!? It's GONE! Alright, NOBODY LEAVE THE ROOM! Empty your pockets!!"

Hook

 

[Grey Roger]

@Pieter Boelen that is really cool. It means I can start as any nation I like that isn't already represented on the map. If in the real world at the time my preferred nation was hostile to any nation on the map, then I can always attack one of their ships and make them hostile to my "personal nation."

Except that, if you aren't legally authorised to attack ships by having a LoM from a genuine nation, then attacking that ship is an act of piracy. If you do it enough times to make that nation hostile, you'll also be classed as a pirate, all nations will become hostile, and pirates will become friendly.

I wonder if this would work? Start off as a corsair under Personal flag. If you start off as a corsair then you get a free LoM from the nation of your choice, which in this case is Personal. Put a few lines into "console.c" to set relations as you see fit. Then go and capture a colony to use as your capital.

Adding Montserrat would be a little harder and is left as an exercise for the reader.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I want my nation to be... The Kingdom of Redonda. Now all we need is a flyspeck island between Montserrat and Nevis. Or between Guadeloupe and Nevis seeing as how we're missing Montserrat.

We do have two other fly-speck islands. Maybe @Armada could add another.
But you don't actually like those....

Except that, if you aren't legally authorised to attack ships by having a LoM from a genuine nation, then attacking that ship is an act of piracy. If you do it enough times to make that nation hostile, you'll also be classed as a pirate, all nations will become hostile, and pirates will become friendly.

Very true.

I wonder if this would work? Start off as a corsair under Personal flag. If you start off as a corsair then you get a free LoM from the nation of your choice, which in this case is Personal. Put a few lines into "console.c" to set relations as you see fit. Then go and capture a colony to use as your capital.

If it doesn't work, we may want to MAKE it work. I do like that idea.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

And it doesn't take much to become a Pirate. I once attacked 2 ships. Sank one and captured the one I wanted, and that was enough to make me a Pirate. Other than that I was an honest merchant on good relations with everybody.

 

[LarryHookins]

We do have two other fly-speck islands. Maybe @Armada could add another.
But you don't actually like those..

I was kidding. And if Isla Mona were actually a flyspeck instead of being as big as Martinique it wouldn't be a problem. You'd still jump back and forth between Mona and Hispaniola several times when trying to sail to Puerto Rico, but you might be able to avoid hitting the actual island.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

And it doesn't take much to become a Pirate. I once attacked 2 ships. Sank one and captured the one I wanted, and that was enough to make me a Pirate. Other than that I was an honest merchant on good relations with everybody.

That does surprise me. You normally start the game with -60 with the Pirates (or was it -90 even?).
Then for every "small" act of piracy, your points with the Pirates go UP.
The game considers you a pirate when you reach a certain level with them (was it -30? Or even 0?).

I would expect that to go from "start of the game default" to "game considers you a pirate" through normal "small" acts of piracy would take more than 2 ships.
After all, most ships only count for a few points and I think you need to gain at least 30 before the game considers you a pirate.

Of course this is different for a LARGE act of piracy.
This would be "capturing/sinking a ship while still under a flag friendly to them" and (I think) "capturing/sinking a ship that you fired on manually while being friendly".
That could have happened by accident if you were using a False Flag, were detected and didn't switch flags afterwards.
I think some sort of warning is in place though if that might happen.

The Ship's Log should contain details of the encounter, including details on relation changes as a result from the battle.
I added that mainly for debug purposes, so if people are surprised by what happened, we can trace what the game thinks happened.

I was kidding.

Don't worry; I didn't take you too seriously.

And if Isla Mona were actually a flyspeck instead of being as big as Martinique it wouldn't be a problem. You'd still jump back and forth between Mona and Hispaniola several times when trying to sail to Puerto Rico, but you might be able to avoid hitting the actual island.

You mean the size of the 3D Sailing Mode island? Indeed it would be nice to have a smaller one.
Would need to be made with Maya though. Probably not so easy....

 

[Grey Roger]

That does surprise me. You normally start the game with -60 with the Pirates (or was it -90 even?).
Then for every "small" act of piracy, your points with the Pirates go UP.
The game considers you a pirate when you reach a certain level with them (was it -30? Or even 0?).

I would expect that to go from "start of the game default" to "game considers you a pirate" through normal "small" acts of piracy would take more than 2 ships.
After all, most ships only count for a few points and I think you need to gain at least 30 before the game considers you a pirate.

Of course this is different for a LARGE act of piracy.
This would be "capturing/sinking a ship while still under a flag friendly to them" and (I think) "capturing/sinking a ship that you fired on manually while being friendly".
That could have happened by accident if you were using a False Flag, were detected and didn't switch flags afterwards.
I think some sort of warning is in place though if that might happen.

There is indeed a warning if you fire manually on a ship while friendly. But it seems that you get a reputation penalty for each shot that hits the other ship. I recently lost a lot of reputation because I'd fired a salvo of grapeshot at an enemy ship, was under a properly hostile flag, but it surrendered while most of the salvo was still on its way. Because I'd aimed manually, the game regarded that as me firing intentionally on a surrendered ship.

Rather longer ago, I got away with pirating one ship, got a warning, and triggered the "Relations" tutorial. The next time I pirated a ship, I lost my merchant licence. "Pirating" meant attacking a ship which was hostile to the flag I was flying but I didn't have a LoM to cover the attack.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

I was approaching Marigot. The French and English were hostile but I was ok with no LoM. I raised the French flag and sank an English Heavy Barque and captured an English Light Fluyt of War. From there I sailed into Marigot where I was attacked by everybody. I was also unable to sail away from there because the crews immediately mutinied. I had to delete those saves to continue the game.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

But it seems that you get a reputation penalty for each shot that hits the other ship.

Really? I thought we go rid of that. But we went back-and-forth so much, I don't remember anymore...

I recently lost a lot of reputation because I'd fired a salvo of grapeshot at an enemy ship, was under a properly hostile flag, but it surrendered while most of the salvo was still on its way. Because I'd aimed manually, the game regarded that as me firing intentionally on a surrendered ship.

There should be a few-second "grace time" after surrendering to avoid that.
So two options:
1. Grace time needs to be longer
2. Manually aimed fire bypasses this grace time

Rather longer ago, I got away with pirating one ship, got a warning, and triggered the "Relations" tutorial. The next time I pirated a ship, I lost my merchant licence.

Indeed the Merchant License is a bit of an exception.
You get one warning if you seem to be behaving like a pirate and you lose it on the second offense.
This does NOT make you an "official pirate" though.

Do you think this should be more forgiving? Maybe only lose the Merchant License IF you turn "official pirate" (either intentionally or accidentally)?

"Pirating" meant attacking a ship which was hostile to the flag I was flying but I didn't have a LoM to cover the attack.

That is indeed what I (and the code) consider a "small" act of piracy.
It should be relatively OK to do that once in a while, but if repeated without compensation, eventually the game will think you really are a pirate.

I was approaching Marigot. The French and English were hostile but I was ok with no LoM. I raised the French flag and sank an English Heavy Barque and captured an English Light Fluyt of War. From there I sailed into Marigot where I was attacked by everybody. I was also unable to sail away from there because the crews immediately mutinied. I had to delete those saves to continue the game.

Next time something like that happens, please report it on the forum and include the saves.
Then we can figure out why it happened and if it was intentional or the code needs to be changed instead.

 

[Grey Roger]

I was approaching Marigot. The French and English were hostile but I was ok with no LoM. I raised the French flag and sank an English Heavy Barque and captured an English Light Fluyt of War. From there I sailed into Marigot where I was attacked by everybody. I was also unable to sail away from there because the crews immediately mutinied. I had to delete those saves to continue the game.

Yep, that ties in with my experience. Sinking the heavy barque probably got you a warning and the "Relation" tutorial. Capturing the light fluyt of war turned you pirate and lost you the merchant licence. Without that, if you had accumulated more than 1 million in gold, the crew will have wanted payment by division of plunder. And as a pirate, you'd be hostile to everyone except other pirates.

Also, the forts have very good eyesight. They can see you even if there's a lump of rock in the way. In this case, the lump of rock is called St. Martin. If you sail into Marigot under a French flag (and don't do anything piratical on the way ), Philipsburg fort notes you as French. If you then sail away, raise a Dutch flag, and try to sail into Philipsburg, the fort will attack you. In my case it's the other way round - if I sail into Philipsburg under a friendly flag, then pull away, raise a French flag and try to enter Marigot, I'm attacked. And that's why, when Ardent has to visit both ports, someone in Philipsburg recommends the tunnel.