New player here, could use help

[Ordellus]

So running new install with GOF 2 - 1.3+1.4b

Love POTC New horizons, but my limited time with COAS so far has been... well I'll just say I'm not at all impressed.

I only have a few questions right now.

1) In 3rd person ship view, the camera doesn't back out enough for me to see my own health, sails, and crew bars. Is this normal? If not, how do I change the distance it can scroll back from the ship?

2) How can I change the sailing speeds? I understand that some people might like staring at slow motion sail simulator for 6 hours to go 30 feet, but it's not for me. I know how to use the "time dilation" but 8x of .005 kph is still needlessly slow and looks terrible with the hyper animations.

3) So the "tutorial" lists that I should be able to parry, feint, and dodge. The back dodge is essentially identical to POTC so got that quickly.

However the side dodges seem to be really, really bad. It's more like a short range sideways teleport that locks your controls for half a second leaving you both defenseless AND facing away from the enemy until you flail about getting the character turned back to the enemy. Is this normal?

On the parry and feint front, I understand that I need to hold shift and use the different attack options to do them but they just appear to be other attacks (I've yet to actually see anything actually get "parried" or seen my character "feint") as if I had simply done a side ways light attack. Am I doing this wrong?

Thanks in advance for any help in case I forget to check back right away.

Edit:
4) Why am I being attacked by pirates if I'm part of the pirate faction?

5) Why does every little action in combat result in your character ignoring inputs to do anything else for the next .5 seconds?

6) Why if I board and sink a ship, does the now sinking ship drag mine down with it?

7) How can I initiate boarding with 35 crew members, and have a single guy on board that then dies instantly?

8) How do I outfit my crew with better weapons and armor? Can you even do that anymore? Same for officers?

 

[Cerez]

Why am I being attacked by pirates if I'm part of the pirate faction?

That sounds like a bug to me.

In 3rd person ship view, the camera doesn't back out enough for me to see my own health, sails, and crew bars. Is this normal? If not, how do I change the distance it can scroll back from the ship?

Yep, it's intended, so that the indicator doesn't block your view. You can change the camera zoom by scrolling the mouse wheel by default (I think), but you can clearly see your own health and stats if you quickly change the looking angle with the mouse (at any zoom level). I use this 'glancing at the stats' action/movement frequently to check my health in a ship battle. You're using the mouse to look around anyway -- it doesn't take much to tilt the angle.

How can I change the sailing speeds? I understand that some people might like staring at slow motion sail simulator for 6 hours to go 30 feet, but it's not for me. I know how to use the "time dilation" but 8x of .005 kph is still needlessly slow and looks terrible with the hyper animations.

The "R" key is the only thing that puts real-time sailing into fast mode. Use the worldmap to travel longer distances fast.

So the "tutorial" lists that I should be able to parry, feint, and dodge. The back dodge is essentially identical to POTC so got that quickly.

Forget about feint -- it's pretty much useless -- but parry is that upward swing action your character does with the sword before running. You can invoke this any time in battle using the SHIFT key. When you execute it just as an enemy swings at you, an 'attack redirect' animation will follow that forces the enemy to lose their footing, so to say. This gives you a chance to exploit their vulnerability and land a few strikes.

Block is block, and dodge you can do either to the side or backward (the same as POTC, I think). In each instance it quickly distances you from your opponent, but costs a little bit of time to regain your orientation and footing. Which leads into this:

However the side dodges seem to be really, really bad. It's more like a short range sideways teleport that locks your controls for half a second leaving you both defenseless AND facing away from the enemy until you flail about getting the character turned back to the enemy. Is this normal?

Yes, it's intended. The fighting in this game, the same as in CT, is stylised and representational. The time it takes for you to regain control of your character is the time it takes for the character to regain their footing.

(Use your imagination. )

What makes this confusing in COAS, though, is that in COAS they have restored the POTC fighting animations to a new combat system. So if you've played POTC, you will be confused.

CT made this more clear, with distinct new animations.

The time it takes to do any action in battle depends on your character's actual level of skill at fighting. Your character will get faster reaction time the more skill they have in "fencing".

If the game had realistic and detailed animation to the level of real life movement, what you'd be seeing at the beginning of the game is your character awkwardly tumbling all over the place, scrambling to keep alive -- because they hardly know how to use a sword and have no technique in their footing.

Why if I board and sink a ship, does the now sinking ship drag mine down with it?

Aside from buggy collision detection? Because that's what would happen in reality as well. If you stay near a sinking ship, you will be dragged down to the bottom with it. As captain, your first course of action after sinking the enemy is to distance your ship from the sinking vessel.

How do I outfit my crew with better weapons and armor? Can you even do that anymore? Same for officers?

Use the F2 key menu, and the character screen to outfit both yourself and your officers. The crew will receive weaponry based on your and your officer's abilities that is representational of their experience and skill in battle.

How can I initiate boarding with 35 crew members, and have a single guy on board that then dies instantly?

Once again, representational: if you have 35 men, but the enemy has 350 on their ship, you will see 1 man to 10 enemy men in the boarding battle, unless your crew is considerably more trained in battle.

You will, however, always have yourself and your "fighter" officers (that can act as your bodyguards) with you, regardless of odds. Which is why one pays to have experienced fighters by their side.

 

[Ordellus]

That sounds like a bug to me.

They're called the "gentlemen of luck" or something along those lines. It seems like it's a separate always hostile pirate faction.

The "R" key is the only thing that puts real-time sailing into fast mode. Use the worldmap to travel longer distances fast.

So there is no global setting that controls ship speeds?

The only option is to hammer the time dilation button after every single screen load?

Use the F2 key menu, and the character screen to outfit both yourself and your officers. The crew will receive weaponry based on your and your officer's abilities that is representational of their experience and skill in battle.

I found the character screen and even the officer and my inventory screens, I just can't seem to get anything to be able to transfer between the two...nor unequip officer items so when I buy them things in the store I can make them use it.

Thanks for the replies, everything other than what I mentioned made sense but I now have a few more questions if you don't mind.

1) I've noticed that trying to sell any ship other than the one my main character is in results in me not getting any money despite the menu claiming I'm selling it for XX amount. I'm assuming this is a bug, and was wondering if there was a fix for it?

2) Using anything other than grape shot seems completely pointless? With a new crew and character I can only hit if I'm essentially pressed up against them, and at that point killing their crew guarantees victory and effortless boarding.

Edit: Can't remember the others but will come back as soon as I do.

 

[Cerez]

They're called the "gentlemen of luck" or something along those lines. It seems like it's a separate always hostile pirate faction.

Is this in the Gentlemen of Fortune mod? If they are a separate pirate faction, it could be intended and story related.

If there's only one pirate faction, it's likely a bug.

So there is no global setting that controls ship speeds?

The only option is to hammer the time dilation button after every single screen load?

(What do you mean by "hammering" the button? )

This seems like a trick question. These games are entirely moddable, so you change whatever you like in them if you dig into the code. The turbo speed setting you're looking to adjust is located in "Program/interface/interface.c" (which is a text file, just make sure to back it up before changing things). Look for the code:

float GetSeaTimeScale()
{
   return 3.0;
}

Change the 3.0 (3x) value to however many times you'd like the speed to be that of the normal speed.

I know that in Caribbean Tales there is a universal game setting for faster sailing in the whole game, but it still takes time to sail, of course. Sailing is slow business. If you want fast travel, you should have boarded an airplane.

I found the character screen and even the officer and my inventory screens, I just can't seem to get anything to be able to transfer between the two...nor unequip officer items so when I buy them things in the store I can make them use it.

Eh? Double-clicking the item does not work?

1) I've noticed that trying to sell any ship other than the one my main character is in results in me not getting any money despite the menu claiming I'm selling it for XX amount. I'm assuming this is a bug, and was wondering if there was a fix for it?

I don't know anything about this, sorry.

2) Using anything other than grape shot seems completely pointless? With a new crew and character I can only hit if I'm essentially pressed up against them, and at that point killing their crew guarantees victory and effortless boarding.

This is the same problem as your sword-fighting skills. You don't yet have officers who know how to handle cannons well, and you yourself are still poor at aiming and handling them, sorry to say.

Your shooting will get more precise as your skills improve. Use cannon-balls to damage a ship from a distance, and grapeshot when up-close and trying to kill the enemy crew.

Worth noting, though, that these early historical cannons on ships were never really that precise to begin with -- and they tended to burst (blow up or fall apart) quite a lot.

 

[Ordellus]

These games are entirely moddable, so you change whatever you like in them if you dig into the code. The turbo speed setting you're looking to adjust is located in "Program/interface/interface.c" (which is a text file, just make sure to back it up before changing things). Look for the code:

Perfect, thank you.

I don't know anything about this, sorry.

Well that's a bummer, if I'm not misunderstanding something it makes playing a pirate seem futile as capturing and selling ships results in no gain.

(What do you mean by "hammering" the button? )

I meant to hit the "+" sign repeatedly until the time dilation was maxed out.

 

[Cerez]

Well that's a bummer, if I'm not misunderstanding something it makes playing a pirate seem futile as capturing and selling ships results in no gain.

That really does sound like a bummer. I'm surprised they missed such a debilitating bug in beta testing.

Um... you could give Caribbean Tales a go? To my knowledge, CT doesn't have this issue. COAS was based on CT, and CT is entirely designed to be played in an open-world fashion, so you can do anything you want from the start. Just be sure to apply my game fix patches for it (as the original game is quite broken and buggy).

I meant to hit the "+" sign repeatedly until the time dilation was maxed out.

Oh. Then my suggested fix will probably solve that issue for you. I didn't know COAS had different turbo time settings -- interesting.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I've noticed that trying to sell any ship other than the one my main character is in results in me not getting any money despite the menu claiming I'm selling it for XX amount. I'm assuming this is a bug, and was wondering if there was a fix for it?

That definitely does sound like a bug.
Was it always like that even in the unmodded game?
Could the money accidentally be added to the former captain of the ship instead of the player?

 

[Cerez]

Could the money accidentally be added to the former captain of the ship instead of the player?

That would be the most likely scenario, yes...

Since CT doesn't have this bug, it makes me wonder when it was introduced. Was the payment system revamped in COAS?

 

[Ordellus]

Was it always like that even in the unmodded game?

I don't know, I've never played the game before.

I like New Horizons so much, I simply instantly installed GOF and took off.

Edit: So in game you get the messages "You gained XXX" followed by "Busy:" and then "You spent XXX". So the net result is that you gain nothing.

 

[Cerez]

You're selling AND buying in the same action??!

This is definitely a bug.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Huh. I haven't played GOF2 for a few years but I was involved in the last 2 patches and do not recall this bug. We had several play testers in that time too.

 

[ChezJfrey]

That would be the most likely scenario, yes...

Since CT doesn't have this bug, it makes me wonder when it was introduced. Was the payment system revamped in COAS?

The ship sell +/- thing is an artifact introduced in COAS. It happens when you sell a ship that is captained by another NPC that is part of the other "heroes," which are the NPC characters you can select to play at the beginning of the game. What happens is that if you encounter one of those NPCs, and have them join your squadron, if you ever sell a ship that they captain in your squadron, it will immediately reverse the sell transaction price...presumably as a disincentive to profit by having these other heroes join you so you can immediately just hire, then turn around and sell their ship for money.

But, if you do this, it will only happen one time, and if you later put them as captain on another ship, then later sell that one, it shouldn't happen again...but for just that NPC. If you happen to sell a ship for another NPC, that is also one of the "heroes," you will see it again...but again, just the first time.

I removed that feature for ERAS, as I pretend that you both had a discussion about the sale prior and you both agreed the transaction was for the greater good of your squadron enterprise, LOL.

To trade items with your fighters/officers on board, you need to face them and initiate a 'trade' in the character interface menu. Then you can swap items among the two of you. For ship officers, you either need to temporarily appoint them in a fighter slot so they are with you, or go to your cabin, through the hold, into the crew quarters and find them. For other captains, you will need to swap out another character, briefly, as captain, appoint them as a fighter, then swap them back after you give them the items.

Feint is similar to parry in that you can avoid injury/damage during an opponent attack, whereas the other, similar move, does the avoidance, then a smaller counter-attack in the same move.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

The ship sell +/- thing is an artifact introduced in COAS. It happens when you sell a ship that is captained by another NPC that is part of the other "heroes," which are the NPC characters you can select to play at the beginning of the game. What happens is that if you encounter one of those NPCs, and have them join your squadron, if you ever sell a ship that they captain in your squadron, it will immediately reverse the sell transaction price...presumably as a disincentive to profit by having these other heroes join you so you can immediately just hire, then turn around and sell their ship for money.

But, if you do this, it will only happen one time, and if you later put them as captain on another ship, then later sell that one, it shouldn't happen again...but for just that NPC. If you happen to sell a ship for another NPC, that is also one of the "heroes," you will see it again...but again, just the first time.

Ah, so it's fully intentional then! That makes sense.