Fixed Prices for blades

[Dextr]

I wonder whether the prices for blades are always bound to their properties... For example the swept hilt rappier costs 'round 2200, while bosun's choice some 800. Now this looks a bit strange, since the differences are not that obvious. It's alright for some specific incrusted blades with low damage since the're made of gold or smth, but elsewhere the prices are sometimes rather illogical.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

The prices are not tied just to the statistics you can see. A more durable blade costs more for instance.

Then some of the prices do seem pretty strange. The Solingen rapier and the French Admiralty rapier are pretty similar but the Solingen rapier is very expensive while the French rapier is very cheap.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

It is all defined in PROGRAM\ITEMS\initItems.c ; feel to check the code to see if there is some sense to it.
I thought there was....

 

[Drew Cooper]

Hey guys I've actually already taken some time to look at initItems.c, going off of what Hylie said, I had noticed the same exact thing while playing and actually had modified my file so that both the Solingen Rapier and French Admiralty Sword had the same price value (since they had the same stats and I'm a greedy guy, better sell value), I'll upload the file if anyone else wants to use it.

If anyone is interested in modifying their own initItems.c file most of the actual items start at line 2057, all you have to do is find the item you want to change and modify the value under price

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Umm, I'm not so sure about just changing a few items. All of the weapons need to make sense in relation to the other weapons as well as their intended purpose.

Some swords are common and cheap while others are presentation swords and quite expensive. This is independent of their actual value for sword fighting.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I reckon the "generally available" swords should all have their prices balanced related to how good they are.
But indeed the "presentation swords" are one-of-a-kind and could therefore indeed be more expensive than their stats would warrant.

 

[Dextr]

A more durable blade costs more for instance.

That is if you have the option on - I for one tried it couple of days ago, ended up with 50+ blades in my inventory (I had auto-looting on) and gave it up

But indeed the "presentation swords" are one-of-a-kind and could therefore indeed be more expensive than their stats would warrant.

Well, presentation swords might sometimes be encountered with common traders, don't they? The same French admiralty, or Polish szablia, I bought them (with very good items turned on, though). Their price was much higher than common ones, still I thought it strange to have them sold in the street like that.

BTW: are prices and best sword auto-equip related? I somehow seem to end up with the most expensive blade after auto-equipping...

 

[Hylie Pistof]

I always have the option on and my crew, officers and myself all have excellent swords. Yes I do spend weeks in the swordsmith shops getting them upgraded, but it is worth the time during boardings when I don't lose any crew.

The Szabla becomes fairly common but the only time I get the French Admiralty sword is when I get high enough rank with the French.

I don't think so. The best swords are expensive because they are the best. I don't like the auto equip feature because I keep one super sword in reserve and use a lesser sword, and it bugs me to suddenly get that good one.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Well, presentation swords might sometimes be encountered with common traders, don't they? The same French admiralty, or Polish szablia, I bought them (with very good items turned on, though). Their price was much higher than common ones, still I thought it strange to have them sold in the street like that.

Shouldn't be happening. Though preventing unique weapons from showing up was insanely difficult, so I wouldn't be surprised if they occasionally "slip through".
Still.... Definitely not intentional.

 

[Dextr]

The Szabla becomes fairly common but the only time I get the French Admiralty sword is when I get high enough rank with the French.

I suggest checking on the Tortuga street merchant, the one on the square, to your right. He sells some very good blades - szablias, French admiralties and even Templars' knights' swords (player level 16) as well as battle cuirasses, muskets, loads of books, items, etc. BTW, both szablias and French admiralties were available much earlier, perhaps on level 10-12.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

I hope you aren't confusing French Admiralty sword with the French Court sword. The Admiralty sword looks just like a solingen rapier except it is silver instead of gold colored.

Right now I'm bouncing back and forth between a zsabla and a Templar sword.

 

[Dextr]

I think I got it - you were refering to the French Admiralty Rapier? It's silver, and yeah, quite impresive stats. But I don't think it's that rare - started off as Bartolomeu and there you have it, right in the port, in the inventories of French soldiers. A great boost for the start I should say

 

[Hylie Pistof]

The French soldiers get it then? In other time periods they get the badelaire which isn't much better than a butterknife.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Refer to the GiveSoldierWeapon function in PROGRAM\Periods.c . Item IDs are in PROGRAM\ITEMS\initItems.c, of course.

 

[Dextr]

Well, after looking a bit deeper into this, things definitely don't look good: same high-profile blades, given by the governors when making high rank, French admiralty rapier, corsair's pride, may be found on soldiers, at least in the Bartolomeu storyline. I would say, on some high-tier ship captain they would be OK, but on soldiers no.

Besides, the whole blades' price system does seem to be messed up - the abovementioned blades cost the same as snake heads and other average blades, though they're far better. I wonder whether some universal formula on prices, determined on damage, pierce/block, rarity, etc. could be implemented?

EDIT: Changed the title to "Bug".

 

[Pieter Boelen]

If you can figure out an appropriate formula, we should be able to make that work in the game.

Otherwise check initItems.c for the weapon stats and prices and the bottom of Periods.c for standard soldier weapon assignment.

 

[Dextr]

If you can figure out an appropriate formula, we should be able to make that work in the game.

I looked through initItems.c file and here's the deal: the prices, IMHO, depend on the following 6 stats - min and max damage, piercing, block, rarity and min level. While I do not know of any exact formula that makes the final price, an overview of stats and the approximate price suggests something of the following:

Final price = ((min damage + max damage) / 2 + piercing + blocking) / rarity + min level x 50. In case of presentation swords, a 1000 bonus is added. A similar formula follows for special blades like Bartolomeu's, Sharp's, Cortez's and Sparrow's, but since the latter have rarity 0 and min level 99, the latter is accounted for by multiplying it on the stats given above.

Note that applying this formula will make a relatively approximate price to the existing, however discrepancies may be up to 3000 for some high profile blades. Overall, the prices turn out to be somewhat more expensive, but not that much. But, if the final prices are considered too high some fixed number may be applied to substract/devide from the final price.

Comments on this formula and its appropriateness would be most welcome. Now, where did I put that Boelen's algebra...

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Next week I'll be back near my code files again.
Then we can try this.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Price is only a factor early in the game when money is scarce. But only cheap swords are around then anyway. Later when you are getting 50 swords at a time upgraded to excellent the cost is irrelevant.

Oh, I'm at level 21 now that that Hibernian sword is everywhere and needs to be made more scarce.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Play with the rarity value.