Solved Need help with the Mod

[Alistar]

Lemme say this first. Im a huge fan of the original game and the mods looks awesome. I really really want to enjoy it and ive already installed the latest version (Build 14 Beta 2.5 i think) and got it working. Ive also read all guides and stuff so i kinda know how it should work.

But here's where my troubles starts. I have difficulties to get started when i play the campaigns in which i start with a bigger ship. I just cant manage to get things going with just 1000 gold since my crew already takes most of it as soon as i set sails and not paying them only delayes the problem. So i used a cheat to get about 20000 which made it alot easier to get started.

Ive played for quite some time (while had some crashes now and then although ive installed everything correctly) when suddenly my save game disappeared!!! Just while playing and for no reason at all. I could still save but the save was gone when i tried to load it (Ive checked every profile yes). So after i was finished raging and crushing my keyboard i started all over again.

But i keep encountering several problems which really really interrupt my gameplay. Maybe some of u can give me some tips:

When i approach an island my flag usually changes (sometimes to an allied nation and sometimes not) which gets me attacked by my allies which is really really annoying.

Sometimes the merchants tell me to go or they will call the guards.

I often get ambushed for no reason at all -> I leave my ship (with a normal reputation) and the battle mode starts (u know what im talking about) and i have to find the one guy who only wants to attack me and no one else for no reason.

Escorting Merchants is really underpaid. I cant even pay my crew on a midsized ship while escorting them (they usually give me 2000 gold).

I really want to join a nation since my personal flag is always pirate (i should mention that i usually play free game) and after some time every ship recognizes me and starts firing at me.

So i would really appreciate advice about how to handle such problems since i dont have alot of experience at this mod. I hope that i can soon enjoy the mod as it is supposed to be. Thanks in advance

 

[Pieter Boelen]

But here's where my troubles starts. I have difficulties to get started when i play the campaigns in which i start with a bigger ship. I just cant manage to get things going with just 1000 gold since my crew already takes most of it as soon as i set sails and not paying them only delayes the problem. So i used a cheat to get about 20000 which made it alot easier to get started.

Are you playing Master & Commander? Indeed I could imagine that being a bit of a challenge. I started the Jean Lafitte one which has a much smaller starting ship and I do manage to get by with that one.
You could sell the Surprise?

Ive played for quite some time (while had some crashes now and then although ive installed everything correctly) when suddenly my save game disappeared!!! Just while playing and for no reason at all. I could still save but the save was gone when i tried to load it (Ive checked every profile yes). So after i was finished raging and crushing my keyboard i started all over again.

Have a look in your SAVE folder and see if it IS actually there.
I've seen it before where the filename starts with -==- while the profile name is supposed to be between = and = .
Manually adding that back in allowed me to use that savegame again. Not sure why that happens though.

When i approach an island my flag usually changes (sometimes to an allied nation and sometimes not) which gets me attacked by my allies which is really really annoying.

Your flag changes WITHOUT you doing that yourself? Wha? Never seen that before!

Sometimes the merchants tell me to go or they will call the guards.

That depends on your relation to their nation and your reputation.
Most merchants won't deal with enemies, unless you have a higher commerce skill. Pirates don't like nice guys.

I often get ambushed for no reason at all -> I leave my ship (with a normal reputation) and the battle mode starts (u know what im talking about) and i have to find the one guy who only wants to attack me and no one else for no reason.

There are all sorts of bandits around. The town folk will explain you all about them.

Escorting Merchants is really underpaid. I cant even pay my crew on a midsized ship while escorting them (they usually give me 2000 gold).

We could look into that. You could see if you can haul some cargo along with the escort to make some more money.

I really want to join a nation since my personal flag is always pirate (i should mention that i usually play free game) and after some time every ship recognizes me and starts firing at me.

Try flying your Personal Flag or the one of a nation you are friendly with. Then you are not flying fake colours and nobody will recognize you as such anymore.
Did you get a Letter of Marque from any of the governors yet?

I hope the above helps a bit.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

mate!

It sounds like you are trying to do too much too soon. The larger ships are given to the more experienced Captains for a reason.

Learn the ropes and get some experience under yer belt before strapping on one of them big muthers.

Your save should still be there. When you click on "load" you should go to your profile screen. Click "profile" and then the hilighted profile and your save should appear.

Flags do change on their own, but it is really rare and it is usually only one port that does that. This 2.5 version does seem a bit buggy as I am getting random CTDs too.

Get thyself a Letter of Marque from a Governor and you will be well on your way.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Flags do change on their own, but it is really rare and it is usually only one port that does that. This 2.5 version does seem a bit buggy as I am getting random CTDs too.

That does sound very strange. It should be no more CTD worthy than the previous versions.
I was playing today though and was plagued quite a bit with non-executing quest code though. REALLY annoying.

 

[Armada]

I was playing today though and was plagued quite a bit with non-executing quest code though. REALLY annoying.

I've noticed this slightly more than usual, as well. On two different occasions when starting the Sea Hawk storyline, the French blockade didn't spawn when I first left Speightstown.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

That bad? If only I knew WHY that is happening. I do know I've been seeing a lot of quest-related error messages, but never found anything consistent about them.
This needs some looking into. Two missing French squadrons for you and twice stuff not happening within one hour of play for me is really not good.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

That is three of us noticing problems. No ctd's for me so far today but still a big error log.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Have you seen any quest problems yet yourself?

I wonder if it could come from there simply being too much quest code to sift through.
Hopefully I can figure out a way to track those quest errors when they are being generated.
They seem extremely inconsistent, so I can't replicate them. And if I can't replicate them, I can't figure them out.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

The only quest error I have seen is The Admirals Son. The Admiral Saldhana is in the Governors office but only speaks part of his dialog, so that one does not get going. I tried that one twice.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Only part of his dialog? Perhaps a missing character again; I saw that with Zaid Murro before. I'll need to test that too.

It should be said that I've observed non-executing quest cases already many years ago, back when I was reworking the First Contact sidequest a bit.
That's the one that proved to me why saving often and reloading from an earlier save is unfortunately crucial with this game.
Because it was not a problem with the actual quest code; that was all fine. It just didn't get executed.

 

[KillPhil]

Quick question, maybe it has sth to do with it: The piratelord on Nevis wont talk to me. I can see the option to talk in the quick-command menu but nothing happens?

And by the way, maybe it cheers you a bit up^^: I played through the standard-storyline with not a single quest-error. Even the sidequests like the french explorer did work perfectly.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Quick question, maybe it has sth to do with it: The piratelord on Nevis wont talk to me. I can see the option to talk in the quick-command menu but nothing happens?

I just started the Standard storyline and went straight to him. He does talk. Though says he has nothing to say to me.
Did you try to talk to him after the main quest by any chance? That might make a difference.

And by the way, maybe it cheers you a bit up^^: I played through the standard-storyline with not a single quest-error. Even the sidequests like the french explorer did work perfectly.

Well, that's good news. At least it can work then.

 

[KillPhil]

yes I meant actually after the main quest. should have mentioned that

 

[Pieter Boelen]

In that case I probably know why it is going wrong. Isenbrandt Jurcksen is part of the fleet you fight at Cozumel.
He is supposed to be replaced by "Skull" afterwards, but apparently that isn't working right.
What character model does the guy use anyway? The red Jurcksen one or the black Skull one?

 

[KillPhil]

red Jurcksen. But Its a totally different name

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Ah, then he's being "resurrected" after being killed before and Skull never does replace him. That'll need looking into.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

The only quest error I have seen is The Admirals Son. The Admiral Saldhana is in the Governors office but only speaks part of his dialog, so that one does not get going. I tried that one twice.

Problem found. Lucas da Saldanha is not being initialized, because he was in the Standard storyline Officers.c file and not the SideQuest.c one.
Easily fixed. Extract attached to PROGRAM\Storyline\[Storyline]\characters\init . New game appears to be required.

Edit: Executing this through console should allow you to get him to work in a savegame too:

        int n = FindBlankCharSlot();
        CHARACTERS_QUANTITY++; // NK 05-04-05
        if(n != -1)
        {
            makeref(ch,Characters[n]);
            ch.old.name = "Lucas";
            ch.old.lastname = "Da Saldanha";
            ch.name = TranslateString("","Lucas");
            ch.lastname = TranslateString("","Da Saldanha");
            ch.id        = "Lucas Da Saldanha";
            ch.loyality = 10;
            ch.alignment = "good";
            ch.model = "lucas";
            ch.sex = "man";
            ch.location    = "none";
            ch.location.group = "goto";
            ch.location.locator = "goto7";
            ch.homelocation    = "Muelle_residence";
            ch.homelocation.group = "goto";
            ch.homelocation.locator = "goto2";
            ch.homestate = "citizen";
            ch.Dialog.Filename = "Lucas Da Saldanha_dialog.c";
            ch.greeting = "Gr_Lucas Da Saldanha";
            ch.nation = SPAIN;
            ch.rank     = 5;
            ch.reputation = "70";
            TakeNItems(ch,"medical1", Rand(4)+1);
            ch.experience = CalculateExperienceFromRank(5)+ (CalculateExperienceFromRank(5)/10 + rand(5000));
            ch.skill.Leadership = "3";
            ch.skill.Fencing = "6";
            ch.skill.Sailing = "0";
            ch.skill.Accuracy = "3";
            ch.skill.Cannons = "3";
            ch.skill.Grappling = "1";
            ch.skill.Repair = "1";
            ch.skill.Defence = "1";
            ch.skill.Commerce = "0";
            ch.skill.Sneak = "0";
            ch.money = "0";
            ch.perks.list.CriticalHit = true;
            ch.perks.list.Gunman = true;
            ch.quest.meeting = "0";
            LAi_SetStayType(ch);
            LAi_SetLoginTime(ch, 0.0, 24.0);
            LAi_SetHP(ch, 80.0, 80.0);
            ch.HPBonus = 100;        // KevAtl 08-26-2007 to correct for game giving low HP
            LAi_NoRebirthEnable(ch);
        }

 

[Hylie Pistof]

New game? ok. I'm only up to level 20 and there is more hardware fun as 20-30 fps has disappeared making it hard to play. 16fps sucks.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Read my edit above; new game not technically required.
Anyway, I have successfully completed that sidequest and Lucas is one of my companions now.

Uh? What do you mean about your FPS? Why would that drop?

 

[Hylie Pistof]

No ideer. It's like something throttled the whole system down. Every game I tried last night had lower fps, and yet all of the monitoring software says everything is running normally. It's probably the motherboard dying.
Anyway, my fleet is 2 Heavy East Indiaman and 1 Postillionen so there is no challenge anymore. I did try another beta 2.3 install and got full fps there.