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Need Help Serious Request

Pieter Boelen

Pieter Boelen

Navigation Officer
Administrator
Storm Modder
Hearts of Oak Donator
Couple of notes on the current situation:

- We have virtually nobody here who is able and willing to do coding for PotC.
The two people other than me are working on new features and their storylines, since that is what they want to do.
That leaves nobody else for anything else for any of the harder/larger jobs.

- Now that my job basically involves programming all day, I rarely manage to find the time and energy to do anything for PotC/AoP/HoO.

- There actually are quite a lot of things still to be done.


So I would like to ask for some support. While I realize that I cannot ask you to do the work itself,
there is something that CAN be done that would be hugely useful to me.
If you one of you (or all of you) can maintain a "to do" list, that would save me a lot of effort of trying to keep track of anything.
That way, when I do find some time to do something, I would be able to just work from that list instead of going through all forum threads and trying to remember.


This is something just about anyone could do, as long as you have a (somewhat) organized mind.
And it would really help our efficiency to make things happen if I didn't have to take care of it.


Additional request is for any and all promotion work on other sites.
It would be great if I didn't have to worry about that anymore.
Again, this is something that should be quite doable for anyone with some free time.


So if you really want this game (and HoO) to be brought forward, please consider these requests and pitch in wherever you can.
 
Cheers!

I think you're perfectly right Pieter.

Now, that I started thinking about the to do list you asked for, I think different.

In fact, I don't think there is much left to do in PotC-New Horizons.
A few month ago, there were lots of things to do. Treasure quests worked upon, melee combat modded and balanced. But now?

Actually, we are discussing very small problems.

Example Corvette in pirate hunt quest near Martinique:
... yeah, there's a corvette pirate ship, in all eras. So what?
The whole quest doesn't really serve any purpose, because it's no longer special in any way. It is replaced and overtaken by the Governor-hunt-pirate-quest you can get from any other governor in the caribbean. And those always set you against era-conform-ships. The whole quest is a relic of the vanilla game.

Esample forts:
Now, yes, there seems to be a small problem with them firing. Has to do with not or not so well identifying ships under false flags. But that's not a major problem. A major problem would be ... a fort not firing at pirate ships nearby. Or a fort firing on friendly. But that is not happening. Just not firing at masked ships. Or not often enough.

In my opinion, the game is already very very close to be whatever we could wish from such an old and modded game. When we suffer, we suffer at a very high level. The overall situation is rather good.

As a conclusion, I'd say we need to eliminate last bugs, and then let PotC be a fine game and just play it. :dance
 
Well, I still want to know what DOES still need to be done. I know there are still rough edges out there that should be addressed.
But the reports and reminders about them are scattered all over the forum, which makes it terrible for keeping track of them.

I would like to do what I can to improve the gameplay and the atmosphere too. As long as it isn't too hard to accomplish.
Then also at some point I am hoping to have another look at @Levis' mods that were in Beta 3.2 and that I was forced to remove.
Especially the Fetch Quest and Dynamic Economy worked *almost* right. It would be sooo cool to actually get that sorted properly!

Also, I still want to know what people's experiences are with Divide the Plunder mode.
Whether it actually serves the purpose it is meant to, namely to make the game more interesting especially in the later game once you are at higher level.
That means it should provide an extra challenge, but a potentially rewarding one.

Anyway, at some point we do need to move on from PotC. I have been trying to move towards a more completed state for quite a long time now.
I've now officially been here for over ten years working on this game (though not from the VERY beginning), which actually is stretching things quite a bit.
Never even get round to playing! And I've got to admit I am quite curious what it would like like to REALLY play this game.

I'll probably be having a fair few days off between Christmas and New Year, so I'm hoping to find a bit of time to get some things done then.
Before that time, it would really, really help me to have a to-do list. I'm willing to discuss this list and pitch in.
But it would be great if I didn't have to dig through the forum to actually make the list myself.

Skyworm said:
Example Corvette in pirate hunt quest near Martinique:
... yeah, there's a corvette pirate ship, in all eras. So what?
The whole quest doesn't really serve any purpose, because it's no longer special in any way. It is replaced and overtaken by the Governor-hunt-pirate-quest you can get from any other governor in the caribbean. And those always set you against era-conform-ships. The whole quest is a relic of the vanilla game.
Click to expand...
Very true. We might almost just as well remove it.
But hey, it does work, and it is at least a bit different. Does no harm being there, so might as well keep it. :wp
 
Heya Pieter,

aye ... ok, since I am during my last 3-5 games exclusively playing with devide plunder, my few thoughts:
For me, it works very well. I like it, because it's just different from regular payment, and because it's much more pirate style. I can hardly say if it is easier or more challenging ... morale rarely drops below 30 or 40, I usually have no problems since my first successful smuggling run.
But I don't play it for the challenge, but for the style. I usually play pirates and smugglers, and deviding plunder just feels better with these.

Sure we don't deactivate the Pirate Corvette-Quest NOW that I fixed that :guns: (with your help).

For the rest I can only say, the game works as I expect it to work. And that is very fine. My personal wish list would be ... oh ... ok, small things only ... :wp
- a cursed-coins-on/off-switch somewhere in the internalsettings.h ... I like these things, even when playing in realistic or iron man, yeah, I admit, the movies completely spoiled me :aar
- being able to marry governors daughters,m and facing the same woman there everytime (when I last tried it, it was always a different woman at the same governor) ... but I think that, plus implementing more content to these daughters (like in Sid Meyers Pirates) would be much too much efford

And yes, I truly believe, that's it. The game is fine. And you should definitely play it, if you are not yet convinced :dance
 
I suppose we could put an InternalSettings.h override on the cursed coins.
On realistic game mode random ones will not curse you. But you can still get yourself cursed on purpose by taking one from Isla de Muerta.

Morale never dropping too far on Divide the Plunder sounds like an issue.
It should become harder and harder as you go on after approximate half a year game time.
Eventually there should be mutiny even if you do have a lot of money.
If that is not the case then out does need looking at.

Marrying Governor daughters is already in the game.
 
Cheers,

morale never dropping with devide plunder ... nope, that's not what I meant.

Sure morale drops - but it is sort of predictable, and it is avoidable when played right.
I think I best give an example:
I switch to devide plunder almost immediately after starting a new game. With the few money I get in the beginning - from selling blades and pistols, morale won't grow high early on.
I then usually start smuggling, means, I buy some goods and ship them somewhere. Buying means to invest a large part if not all of my money in this.
THEN morale drops. But if smuggling works well, it's bearable, and after a successful smuggling, morale quickly increases.
This morale problem is easily avoidable by just not investing all your money, just keep something in reserve to show the crew your chest is not empty :dance
But this is not a problem, I think it is as it should work.

And yes, after a long time of sailing - half a year or so - it's increasingly difficult to maintain morale. Because it drops. But, the effects are not so dramatical ... maybe just because I tend to devide plunder after about half a year. I don't try to overstress it. In my opinion, the main benefit - besides style reasons - for using devide plunder is the increased morale of the crew. Once this starts to decrease, I just devide the plunder.

So, as a conclusion, I think the devide plunder works as it shall work.:cheers
 
Indeed that does sound the way it should. I do wonder how long you could keep morale at a reasonable level without dividing the plunder.
If the code works as intended, after half a year morale should start dropping further and further until you have a mutiny on your hand if you don't divide the plunder at last.

If I recall correctly, I did successfully recode the morale system so that even at the best situation on Salary mode,
you'll never get a steady morale that is as high as the highest you can achieve on Divide the Plunder.
So if you want the highest possible morale, the only eay to get that is by signing articles.
 
I think it starts dropping after half a year, yes. Problem is, I rarely play really long. Keep in mind, I am a direct sailer-only, means, time runs much slower for me. Half a year game time is a load of real play time when I never ever use the world map - so I can't really say much to longer timeframes here.:shrug
 
Skyworm said:
For the rest I can only say, the game works as I expect it to work. And that is very fine. My personal wish list would be ... oh ... ok, small things only ... :wp
- a cursed-coins-on/off-switch somewhere in the internalsettings.h ... I like these things, even when playing in realistic or iron man, yeah, I admit, the movies completely spoiled me :aar
Click to expand...
Perhaps the Curse of Cortez could be put back the way it was, with one change - coins should not automatically jump into your pocket when you find them. If you're unwise enough to pick up a coin with a skull on it, you face the consequences, but if you leave them alone you avoid the curse.

Failing that, there is a switch somewhere, though I can't remember now where it is. As I recall, there's a separate one for each storyline.

- being able to marry governors daughters,m and facing the same woman there everytime (when I last tried it, it was always a different woman at the same governor) ... but I think that, plus implementing more content to these daughters (like in Sid Meyers Pirates) would be much too much efford
Click to expand...
As Pieter says, marrying a governor's daughter is already an option, albeit not one I have tried yet. It's much more fun to have a girl in every port. :D But that comment about a different woman at the same governor is strange because I always have the same girlfriend at the same governor. Two in Port Royale if I've played "Tales of a Sea Hawk" to completion and beyond, because Silehard's daughter stays around in the residence even after he's taken up a new career feeding the sharks, and Brin's daughter eventually shows up as well.

As for dividing the plunder: I'm still convinced that the crew's morale is based on how many of them there are and how much gold you have, from which is calculated the value of their share as compared to the average they should have received by now. If you have a small ship with a lot of money, you can keep going for ages without paying them. I found this out the last time I played the "Assassin" story (under Beta 3.2), and it's happening again this time (under current Beta 3.3). It's now almost a year since I signed articles, I've got about 8 million in gold, so average share is pretty high and morale is 98% - 99% despite the crew never having been paid once since they decided they didn't want salaries any more. But my ship is the same super-xebec which you receive very early in that story, with a crew of 213. Morale will probably deteriorate pretty rapidly if I bring one of my berthed battleships into action, resulting in a large increase in active crew and consequent devaluation of the average share.
 
Crew Morale is indeed scaled depending on the share per crew. That should be displayed every day as well.
So indeed you would have a harder time keeping them happy if you have larger ships or more of them.
Though supposedly having those should also allow you to take on bigger targets and make more money.

On the other hand, perhaps not. That would explain why parts generally stuck to smaller craft.
You can probably make a lot more money per crewmember that way.

It is possible for extra Governor daughters and nieces to show up add you go along.
But generally the same ones should keep being used and not a different one every time.
 
seems a lot of info is scattered over the topic again. I will try to read trough it all in the next days and make some order in the bug tracker again so we have a todo list there.
 
Thanks a lot! I did clean things up a bit there a few weeks back, but things have gotten cluttered again in no time whatsoever.
I'll see if I can do some stuff as well over the coming week.

At the moment I have some files for a next update nearly ready but it doesn't contain any new fixed since the one that is currently in my signature.

I'd really quite like to get some more stuff sorted some time when I can.
Perhaps Christmas time will give some good opportunities.
 
Someone mentioned a while back that on a certain action, your relation to a nation increases when it should decrease.
I know I checked the code for that and confirmed that could indeed happen. It is therefore indeed a big and should be fixed.
However, I do not remember what this issue was at all.

Other stuff recently mentioned:

Cursed Coins enabled again on realistic game mode in some way.

Forts should recognise you when a ship of their own nation also recognised you while in the bay or so.
My suggestion: automatically hoist the player flag upon being recognised.

Query on hoisting flags and reputation loss.
Should be discussed further. There are a lot of things to take into account here, including code simplicity and game engine limitations.

What other things do we want to have thought about and looked at?

Also, someone and everyone please make a separate issue on the Bug Tracker for all the above as well as any other things to be looked into.
 
I would suggest that the badly flawed beta 3.2 be replaced by the good working Beta 3.3 ASAP.

Then work on other things.
 
Should we make a release before or after @Levis and I start working on some stuff?

I'm inclined to wait until we have done some more fixing and finishing.
@Bartolomeu o Portugues also wants to finish his Cartagena quest first.
 
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