Need Help Mysterious Coins Bug? / Trouble finding Vanderdecken

[Sinbad the Sailor]

I got the map to the island, went there and got the mysterious coins (didn't know we could get the actual curse from the movie! this was awesome!) but I can't find Vanderdecken. When I'm on my ship, the only fast travel option I have is the deserted shore (where I found the mysterious coins).
I found some boats in the shore but they are not interactable. Am I missing something?
Now onto the simpler question: can my crew get cursed too? Would be cool having an all skeleton ship!
As of now I have read that the crew was supposed to be cursed too. alas, in my game they talk about the fog and the sails being cursed but the crewmembers themselves (and officers) are not cursed.
Also I don't know if I'm supposed to take less damage or be immortal, but I'm taking damage in fights.
Thanks in advance!
edit: added new info

 

[Grey Roger]

As with anywhere else, "Sail To" (fast travel at sea) only works if you have a map of the island or if you've first visited the port or beach by sailing there manually. There's no map of Isla de Muerte. So you'll just have to sail round the island looking for more beaches. (There are three in total: the one with the cursed coin chest, the one with Vanderdecken's shipyard, and one more. Make sure you have a borgiablade when you find that third one...)

You can indeed curse your crew. Put some cursed coins into the weapons locker, the same place where you put weapons and armour for the crew. They'll help themselves to cursed coins when they collect their weapons for boarding. You can also give cursed coins to your officers.

Being cursed should give you more HP but doesn't make you immortal. To do that, edit "PROGRAM\InternalSettings.h", go down to the bottom, and enable cheatmode. Then, in the game, press numeric keypad 0 to make yourself immortal. You can also press 1 and 3 to scroll through your party officers, then press 0 to make them immortal too.

 

[Sinbad the Sailor]

As with anywhere else, "Sail To" (fast travel at sea) only works if you have a map of the island or if you've first visited the port or beach by sailing there manually. There's no map of Isla de Muerte. So you'll just have to sail round the island looking for more beaches. (There are three in total: the one with the cursed coin chest, the one with Vanderdecken's shipyard, and one more. Make sure you have a borgiablade when you find that third one...)

You can indeed curse your crew. Put some cursed coins into the weapons locker, the same place where you put weapons and armour for the crew. They'll help themselves to cursed coins when they collect their weapons for boarding. You can also give cursed coins to your officers.

Being cursed should give you more HP but doesn't make you immortal. To do that, edit "PROGRAM\InternalSettings.h", go down to the bottom, and enable cheatmode. Then, in the game, press numeric keypad 0 to make yourself immortal. You can also press 1 and 3 to scroll through your party officers, then press 0 to make them immortal too.

I feel pretty dumb right now. I thought there was a bug, but I was wrong lol. I'm sorry for taking your time! Everything is working just fine now!
I need to ask though, if I lift the curse, will me and my crew die?

 

[Grey Roger]

Reporting what you think is a bug, and which is not, is no problem. That's better that than being too careful and choosing not to report something which might not be a bug, only for a genuine bug to then go unreported and unfixed.

Lifting the curse shouldn't affect your crew as they're only spawned when you go into a boarding action. They may be a bit more likely to die in action as they only have the normal amount of HP, no longer boosted by the curse, but they won't suddenly drop dead because they can't find cursed coins in the weapons locker any more. As for yourself, I don't think lifting the curse will kill you - certainly not if you have plenty of HP at the time. Your maximum HP will drop to the normal uncursed limit and you may lose some HP if your current HP is over that normal maximum. But I don't think that you'll lose HP if you're already below the normal maximum, and in particular, I don't think you'll die if you only have a few HP when you lift the curse and lose the bonus.

 

[Sinbad the Sailor]

Reporting what you think is a bug, and which is not, is no problem. That's better that than being too careful and choosing not to report something which might not be a bug, only for a genuine bug to then go unreported and unfixed.

Lifting the curse shouldn't affect your crew as they're only spawned when you go into a boarding action. They may be a bit more likely to die in action as they only have the normal amount of HP, no longer boosted by the curse, but they won't suddenly drop dead because they can't find cursed coins in the weapons locker any more. As for yourself, I don't think lifting the curse will kill you - certainly not if you have plenty of HP at the time. Your maximum HP will drop to the normal uncursed limit and you may lose some HP if your current HP is over that normal maximum. But I don't think that you'll lose HP if you're already below the normal maximum, and in particular, I don't think you'll die if you only have a few HP when you lift the curse and lose the bonus.

I'm glad you see it that way. Was afraid I'd get a warning or something for posting too much hahaha
Sorry for taking so long to respond! I got carried away with the whole curse ordeal - was pretty fun... until it wasn't
I managed to misplace 40 coins. Thing is, they are probably lost because of the dead sailors... so I can't get them back, unless I grind my way to find them with little to no chance. Do you know of a cheat to get the curse lifted, or get more mysterious coins? I'm sorry for asking so many things in such a close period of time
By the way, personal question: when you play, what kind of playthrough suits you? Do you like freeplay or what? What is your favorite ship/character?

 

[Grey Roger]

Always try to loot the bodies of your crew to recover cursed coins as well as weapons and armour. For that matter, loot dead enemies too - you'll automatically get the money and weapons from anyone you kill personally, but you'll need to search for the weapons and money from anyone killed by your crew or officers.

To lift the curse, edit "PROGRAM\InternalSettings.h". Find this line:

#define CURSES_DISABLED                    0        // INT - 0=default: Cursed items can be dumped or given away. 1 = cursed coins, 2 = cursed albatross, 0 = neither, 3 = both

Change the 0 to 1, then drop any cursed coins which you are personally carrying into any chest.

I tend to play storylines. All of them - they all have their attractions. For variety I'll sometimes do a FreePlay, and I'll often use a quick FreePlay to test something such as a new ship or character model. Favourite ship is the fast war galleon - fast, well armed, with a large hold and a classic appearance. Favourite character is probably Charles Ardent because I'm responsible for both the character and the storyline. (Though I'll happily play the other storylines and use the default character for the story, even "Tales of a Sea Hawk" which allows you free choice of starting character.)

How about you?

 

[Sinbad the Sailor]

Always try to loot the bodies of your crew to recover cursed coins as well as weapons and armour. For that matter, loot dead enemies too - you'll automatically get the money and weapons from anyone you kill personally, but you'll need to search for the weapons and money from anyone killed by your crew or officers.

To lift the curse, edit "PROGRAM\InternalSettings.h". Find this line:

#define CURSES_DISABLED                    0        // INT - 0=default: Cursed items can be dumped or given away. 1 = cursed coins, 2 = cursed albatross, 0 = neither, 3 = both

Change the 0 to 1, then drop any cursed coins which you are personally carrying into any chest.

Thanks a lot! But I'm very inexperienced with game tweaking so I decided to try it the hard way. POTC has come a long way with the mod, many bugs are fixed, but the structure itself is still very risky for me to attempt anything haha

I tend to play storylines. All of them - they all have their attractions. For variety I'll sometimes do a FreePlay, and I'll often use a quick FreePlay to test something such as a new ship or character model. Favourite ship is the fast war galleon - fast, well armed, with a large hold and a classic appearance. Favourite character is probably Charles Ardent because I'm responsible for both the character and the storyline. (Though I'll happily play the other storylines and use the default character for the story, even "Tales of a Sea Hawk" which allows you free choice of starting character.)

How about you?

I finished the Sea Hawk storyline and now I'm in the way of doing all the sidequests! A lot of stuff was added, so that's very cool. I like galleons too - but I'm still looking for a better ship to fight forts... they are pretty overpowered. I'll definitely give Charles Ardent storyline a shot and let you know what I think of it!

P.S: As I said, I finished the main storyline and I went to Navis to try and work for the pirates, but when talking to Skull, the dialogue is blank. I think this is an actual bug now!

 

[Grey Roger]

Thanks a lot! But I'm very inexperienced with game tweaking so I decided to try it the hard way. POTC has come a long way with the mod, many bugs are fixed, but the structure itself is still very risky for me to attempt anything haha

This is your chance to get some tweaking experience. "InternalSettings.h" is just a plain text file which you can edit with Notepad, Wordpad, or any other text editor you like.

Otherwise, you're effectively now playing a Cursed character. That's one of the choices available in FreePlay - you can start with some cursed coins in your ship's locker, the chest on Isla de Muerte is empty, and you need to find enough cursed coins to lift the curse. Putting a total of 882 coins into the chest will lift the curse.

I finished the Sea Hawk storyline and now I'm in the way of doing all the sidequests! A lot of stuff was added, so that's very cool. I like galleons too - but I'm still looking for a better ship to fight forts... they are pretty overpowered. I'll definitely give Charles Ardent storyline a shot and let you know what I think of it!

P.S: As I said, I finished the main storyline and I went to Navis to try and work for the pirates, but when talking to Skull, the dialogue is blank. I think this is an actual bug now!

Can you upload the files "system.log" and "error.log"? Talk to Skull again, then upload those files - you should find them at the top level of the game installation folder, not in "PROGRAM" or "RESOURCE". If the dialog box is blank then there's definitely a bug and those two files should help me find out what it is.

As for forts, if you've finished "Tales of a Sea Hawk" then you should now be in possession of Silehard's flagship Sovereign of the Seas. With 100 guns, that thing is capable of taking on any fort, even the big one at Cartagena.

 

[Sinbad the Sailor]

This is your chance to get some tweaking experience. "InternalSettings.h" is just a plain text file which you can edit with Notepad, Wordpad, or any other text editor you like.

Otherwise, you're effectively now playing a Cursed character. That's one of the choices available in FreePlay - you can start with some cursed coins in your ship's locker, the chest on Isla de Muerte is empty, and you need to find enough cursed coins to lift the curse. Putting a total of 882 coins into the chest will lift the curse.


Can you upload the files "system.log" and "error.log"? Talk to Skull again, then upload those files - you should find them at the top level of the game installation folder, not in "PROGRAM" or "RESOURCE". If the dialog box is blank then there's definitely a bug and those two files should help me find out what it is.

As for forts, if you've finished "Tales of a Sea Hawk" then you should now be in possession of Silehard's flagship Sovereign of the Seas. With 100 guns, that thing is capable of taking on any fort, even the big one at Cartagena.

There you go!
I have the ship, but the crew dies so fast and it takes so much damage! I probably need to have 4 tier 1 ships...
A shame the Black Pearl doesn't have that much cannons
As for the curse - if I get tired of looking for the aztec coins, I'll try doing the tweaking!

 

[Grey Roger]

Odd - though there are some messages in "error.log", none of them are anything to do with dialog. Can you upload "compile.log" after talking to Skull? Also upload a savegame with you about to talk to Skull. You'll need to use something like 7Zip to compress the savegame before you can upload it.

The Sovereign of the Seas is perfectly capable of taking on a fort by itself - I speak from personal experience here, as I've also recently completed "Tales of a Sea Hawk" and have just deprived Port au Prince of most of its gold (money) and a lot of its gold (cargo). True, I had some other ships along with me - a frigate which I use for general raiding when I'm not attacking forts as it's much better at chasing ships, and a couple of merchant ships which I'd captured from a French convoy and then sold all their cargo at Port Royale, so that I could fill their holds with Port au Prince's cargo as well. But I ordered them all to heave to before I came within range of the fort's guns and they played no part in the battle. Skilled officers can help a lot here - a good surgeon with both the "First Aid" perks and "Defence" skill 10 can significantly reduce your crew losses, while a skilled gunner with all the perks can do a lot more damage to the fort. Port au Prince is a tough one because it has two forts, one of which is partly obscured by rocks. St. Pierre on Martinique, and San Juan on Puerto Rico, are easier to attack.

 

[Sinbad the Sailor]

The Sovereign of the Seas is perfectly capable of taking on a fort by itself - I speak from personal experience here, as I've also recently completed "Tales of a Sea Hawk" and have just deprived Port au Prince of most of its gold (money) and a lot of its gold (cargo). True, I had some other ships along with me - a frigate which I use for general raiding when I'm not attacking forts as it's much better at chasing ships, and a couple of merchant ships which I'd captured from a French convoy and then sold all their cargo at Port Royale, so that I could fill their holds with Port au Prince's cargo as well. But I ordered them all to heave to before I came within range of the fort's guns and they played no part in the battle. Skilled officers can help a lot here - a good surgeon with both the "First Aid" perks and "Defence" skill 10 can significantly reduce your crew losses, while a skilled gunner with all the perks can do a lot more damage to the fort. Port au Prince is a tough one because it has two forts, one of which is partly obscured by rocks. St. Pierre on Martinique, and San Juan on Puerto Rico, are easier to attack.

Ok! I will try attacking the fort with the Sovereign right now! You can take a look at my crew and ship, I'm open for suggestions
There is the save file!

 

[Sinbad the Sailor]

another bug... can't talk to the tavernkeeper anymore, after one soldier tried to arrest me in my own town!

 

[Grey Roger]

Skull's dialog: this is indeed a bug and it's my fault. After the battle at Cozumel against Silehard and his pirate friends, Skull is installed as "governor" of Nevis Pirate Settlement. It's possible for you to have joined the Brotherhood before this battle, in which case Jurcksen changes to using pirate governor dialog. So I tried to be clever and make Skull use whatever dialog files Jurcksen was using. This has three problems. One is that if Jurcksen surrenders in the battle and you then recruit him, he switches to standard officer dialog, and therefore so does Skull. Another is that the code for various thing to happen when you join the Brotherhood specifically blocks Jurcksen from switching to pirate governor dialog if you're playing "Tales of a Sea Hawk", probably so the story doesn't break if you join the Brotherhood before you have to deliver a letter to Jurcksen. And third, the battle at Cozumel turns the pirates hostile to you (you've just killed or abducted their boss!), which means if you were in the Brotherhood before the battle, you're not in it any more. So Skull just needs to use Jurcksen's original dialog files regardless of what Jurcksen is doing before or after the battle. That's about to be fixed.

Tavernkeeper in Port Royale: this is the result of the soldier trying to arrest you. I tested this by capturing a different town for myself, then making a soldier try to arrest me, and the tavernkeeper there did the same. By comparison, if I go into a normal hostile port and a soldier tries to arrest me, the tavernkeeper remains normal. The reason the soldier tried to arrest you is that you're flying a pirate flag, and the pirates still haven't forgiven you for the battle at Cozumel. That means you're hostile to pirates, so are the soldiers of your town, and your flag tells them that you're a pirate.

Download this file into your "PROGRAM" folder, then press F12. It should fix both problems - Skull should get his proper dialog and Charles Windem should revert to normal tavernkeeper behaviour.

But you'll still have problems. Skull won't let you join the pirates until you've first made peace with them - go to Tortuga or Turks Island for that. You'll also need to go to Tortuga or Turks Island for promotions.

Iif you try to leave Port Royale under a pirate flag, any ships in the area are likely to attack you, and the fort might fire too. You may need to fire back at them, and as they'll be flying your Personal flag, I don't know what will happen... One possible way to avoid this is to go from port to your ship's deck, but not yet to sea. On deck, change your flag to Personal (or to some nation to which you are friendly). Then go to sea.

 

[Sinbad the Sailor]

Skull's dialog: this is indeed a bug and it's my fault. After the battle at Cozumel against Silehard and his pirate friends, Skull is installed as "governor" of Nevis Pirate Settlement. It's possible for you to have joined the Brotherhood before this battle, in which case Jurcksen changes to using pirate governor dialog. So I tried to be clever and make Skull use whatever dialog files Jurcksen was using. This has three problems. One is that if Jurcksen surrenders in the battle and you then recruit him, he switches to standard officer dialog, and therefore so does Skull. Another is that the code for various thing to happen when you join the Brotherhood specifically blocks Jurcksen from switching to pirate governor dialog if you're playing "Tales of a Sea Hawk", probably so the story doesn't break if you join the Brotherhood before you have to deliver a letter to Jurcksen. And third, the battle at Cozumel turns the pirates hostile to you (you've just killed or abducted their boss!), which means if you were in the Brotherhood before the battle, you're not in it any more. So Skull just needs to use Jurcksen's original dialog files regardless of what Jurcksen is doing before or after the battle. That's about to be fixed.

For one, I'm glad I could help (even if just a little bit) on improving the mod even more! It's refreshing to see people working so hard for something out of sheer passion!

Tavernkeeper in Port Royale: this is the result of the soldier trying to arrest you. I tested this by capturing a different town for myself, then making a soldier try to arrest me, and the tavernkeeper there did the same. By comparison, if I go into a normal hostile port and a soldier tries to arrest me, the tavernkeeper remains normal. The reason the soldier tried to arrest you is that you're flying a pirate flag, and the pirates still haven't forgiven you for the battle at Cozumel. That means you're hostile to pirates, so are the soldiers of your town, and your flag tells them that you're a pirate.

Makes sense. Still, is it only happening because of the pirate flag? Even after putting my personal flag back on, they were still hostile! Well, for some time anyway...

But you'll still have problems. Skull won't let you join the pirates until you've first made peace with them - go to Tortuga or Turks Island for that. You'll also need to go to Tortuga or Turks Island for promotions.

Iif you try to leave Port Royale under a pirate flag, any ships in the area are likely to attack you, and the fort might fire too. You may need to fire back at them, and as they'll be flying your Personal flag, I don't know what will happen... One possible way to avoid this is to go from port to your ship's deck, but not yet to sea. On deck, change your flag to Personal (or to some nation to which you are friendly). Then go to sea.

Weirdly enough, the fort was never hostile to me! I went to Turks Island as you said, and got the governor to pardon me! But after that, I started getting crashes everytime I fast travelled to my ship. It seems to work if I go to it manually (shore/boat), but the game seems to be crashing considerably more than before and I'm starting to worry if my save is all buggy from all those fixes! (not a complaint of course)
Could you maybe take a look into it? Sorry for asking!

Btw, I started playing the Ardent storyline! I really liked the choices feature! The outcomes seem to be very fluid so far, and I'm enjoying it a lot! It's very hard for me to play on it even on landlubber difficulty though, if I am being honest. I can't manage most of the fights... but maybe I shouldn't be getting into so many fights in the first place? Would apprecciate some tips on how to get a ship strong enough to take on the payroll ship! Well, I would apprecciate any tips that you might think are necessary to be honest haha
Thanks again for responding!

 

[Grey Roger]

Makes sense. Still, is it only happening because of the pirate flag? Even after putting my personal flag back on, they were still hostile! Well, for some time anyway...

I'm not sure why the soldiers would still be hostile. A ship which has seen you with a pirate flag will remember you as pirate even if you change flag, and soldiers who have already challenged you aren't going to change. But when you move to a different location, e.g. if you leave the tavern, go to your ship, change flag to Personal, and then return to the tavern, I'd expect that the new soldiers which you may meet there should not be hostile. Possibly the game AI has become confused because, by having a Pirate flag earlier, you effectively became your own enemy.

It seems to work if I go to it manually (shore/boat), but the game seems to be crashing considerably more than before and I'm starting to worry if my save is all buggy from all those fixes! (not a complaint of course)
Could you maybe take a look into it? Sorry for asking!

Try deleting the file "options" which you should find at the top level of the game installation folder (along with all the log files). This sometimes becomes corrupted, resulting in various weirdness, including crashes. If you changed any settings such as control keys, you'll need to change them again as the game will create a new "options" file with default settings.

Btw, I started playing the Ardent storyline! I really liked the choices feature! The outcomes seem to be very fluid so far, and I'm enjoying it a lot! It's very hard for me to play on it even on landlubber difficulty though, if I am being honest. I can't manage most of the fights... but maybe I shouldn't be getting into so many fights in the first place? Would apprecciate some tips on how to get a ship strong enough to take on the payroll ship! Well, I would apprecciate any tips that you might think are necessary to be honest

You should already have a ship capable of taking on the payroll ship. After escaping from Havana, you are supposed to sail to Santiago, where you steal a snow brig. Then you go to Port Royale to hire a full crew (and you can advance the "Kidnap" quest while you're there). The snow brig is perfectly capable of taking the payroll ship. Your main problem is to get in close and board quickly before the fort destroys your ship. Use a false Spanish flag to get into a good position, and load your cannons with grapeshot. When you're close to the ship, switch to Pirate flag, fire a broadside of grape to weaken the enemy crew, then board as quickly as possible. Make sure Two Dogs Fighting is one of your party officers. He's currently immortal. (But he isn't always protected, so look after him because if you get him killed, you can't take him home. It's very much worth your while to take him home...)

Incidentally, since you've only just started "Ardent", this would be a good time to get the current update:
http://piratesahoy.bowengames.com/potc/Grey Roger/post_1Jan_updates_280222.zip
It doesn't do anything to "Ardent" but it does fix a few other things (including the bug you reported with Skull). But it won't recognise savegames from the January installer without updates. So you'll need to restart the story, and you won't be able to continue "Tales of a Sea Hawk".

 

[Sinbad the Sailor]

I'm not sure why the soldiers would still be hostile. A ship which has seen you with a pirate flag will remember you as pirate even if you change flag, and soldiers who have already challenged you aren't going to change. But when you move to a different location, e.g. if you leave the tavern, go to your ship, change flag to Personal, and then return to the tavern, I'd expect that the new soldiers which you may meet there should not be hostile. Possibly the game AI has become confused because, by having a Pirate flag earlier, you effectively became your own enemy.


Try deleting the file "options" which you should find at the top level of the game installation folder (along with all the log files). This sometimes becomes corrupted, resulting in various weirdness, including crashes. If you changed any settings such as control keys, you'll need to change them again as the game will create a new "options" file with default settings.

Do you think I should avoid using the flag system, like I have been trying to do with the fast travel?
Ooh! My mistake, I forgot to add that I did delete the options file beforehand! Maybe there's another tweaking I can do to make it crash less?

You should already have a ship capable of taking on the payroll ship. After escaping from Havana, you are supposed to sail to Santiago, where you steal a snow brig. Then you go to Port Royale to hire a full crew (and you can advance the "Kidnap" quest while you're there). The snow brig is perfectly capable of taking the payroll ship. Your main problem is to get in close and board quickly before the fort destroys your ship. Use a false Spanish flag to get into a good position, and load your cannons with grapeshot. When you're close to the ship, switch to Pirate flag, fire a broadside of grape to weaken the enemy crew, then board as quickly as possible. Make sure Two Dogs Fighting is one of your party officers. He's currently immortal. (But he isn't always protected, so look after him because if you get him killed, you can't take him home. It's very much worth your while to take him home...)

Incidentally, since you've only just started "Ardent", this would be a good time to get the current update:
http://piratesahoy.bowengames.com/potc/Grey Roger/post_1Jan_updates_280222.zip
It doesn't do anything to "Ardent" but it does fix a few other things (including the bug you reported with Skull). But it won't recognise savegames from the January installer without updates. So you'll need to restart the story, and you won't be able to continue "Tales of a Sea Hawk".

I didn't realize there was a new update! Thanks for telling me! Maybe would be a good idea to download it now... I mean, I did finish Tales of Sea Hawk already! I'll keep you updated!

 

[Grey Roger]

Do you think I should avoid using the flag system, like I have been trying to do with the fast travel?

On the contrary, false flags are a very important part of the game! Just make sure that the flag you use is friendly to the port which you're visiting. Especially if you're visiting a port which is controlled by you.

Ooh! My mistake, I forgot to add that I did delete the options file beforehand! Maybe there's another tweaking I can do to make it crash less?

I don't know, then. Upload the log files and a savegame.

A word of warning. "Ardent" is quite combat-heavy, so practice and become good at it. Visiting dungeons is a good way to practice combat, and you can find one in Port Royale when you go to collect your crew and progress the "Kidnap" quest. There's a good sword in that dungeon, too, which could help when you board the payroll ship...