Included in Build Show Boardingmode in Passenger interface

[Levis]

So I always found it annoying there wasn't an easy way to see which officers will join me during boarding and which wont. Especially now I'm working on ways to have some officers with you on land sometimes which you might normally not have with you. So added this to the interface. It will also inform the player about the option he can have an officer not join you during boarding.

Any comments?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Not a bad feature to have!

I never really used the"sit out boarding" option, but I can imagine it to be very useful.

 

[Levis]

Not a bad feature to have!

I never really used the"sit out boarding" option, but I can imagine it to be very useful.

At the moment you can only take officers in your party with you during boarding too. I was thinking if you could maybe assign different officers to your boarding party then your main party. but that's for later. This is the first step so we actually communicate stuff to the player.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Not sure how complex it'll need to be.
I like the simplicity of "three officers in the slots follow you ashore as added muscle".
The "sit out boarding" option was added when only the shore party contributed skills, so should be far less important now than it used to be.
The only exception would be your idea to bring a specific officer along (carpenter) for a specific purpose (building stuff).
But I don't imagine that occurring very often...

 

[Levis]

Not sure how complex it'll need to be.
I like the simplicity of "three officers in the slots follow you ashore as added muscle".
The "sit out boarding" option was added when only the shore party contributed skills, so should be far less important now than it used to be.
The only exception would be your idea to bring a specific officer along (carpenter) for a specific purpose (building stuff).
But I don't imagine that occurring very often...

That's why for now I'm not going to change more. But what I was thinking about is to be able to change your "team" during boarding. but I think that's already possible trough the interface right?

So only question which remains is, should I try to also make sure you can enable/disable the boardingmode in the interface or is it okay to have this just being done with the dialog? Personally I like the interface to be just a way of checking stuff but not really changing stuff. I personally still think it might be a nice feature if you could add/remove officers only when you are on board of your ship.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

That's why for now I'm not going to change more. But what I was thinking about is to be able to change your "team" during boarding. but I think that's already possible trough the interface right?

You can change it whenever you want.
If you have to do it a lot though, it becomes micro-management.

So only question which remains is, should I try to also make sure you can enable/disable the boardingmode in the interface or is it okay to have this just being done with the dialog? Personally I like the interface to be just a way of checking stuff but not really changing stuff.

That does fit in with the logic for dealing with Prisoners too.
You can see them in the interface, but dealing with them is through dialog.
There is a setting to switch that to the interface though.

I personally still think it might be a nice feature if you could add/remove officers only when you are on board of your ship.

Sounds like something that could fit in with Realistic or Iron Man Game Mode.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Hmm. What happens when an officer gets killed? Would I have to continue with a reduced shore party?

Also, once in a while an officer will just suddenly wander off and not stay with your party. I always replace him with another officer when that happens.

 

[Levis]

Hmm. What happens when an officer gets killed? Would I have to continue with a reduced shore party?

Yes, or get back to you ship to ask other officer to accompany you. It would make the challenge a bit higher wouldn't it .

Also, once in a while an officer will just suddenly wander off and not stay with your party. I always replace him with another officer when that happens.

They shouldn't ....

 

[Levis]

oh btw, the interface changes are included in here:
WIP - Officer perk contributions

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Also, once in a while an officer will just suddenly wander off and not stay with your party. I always replace him with another officer when that happens.

Does that happen to relate to your officers being "knocked out", by any chance?

 

[Grey Roger]

That's why for now I'm not going to change more. But what I was thinking about is to be able to change your "team" during boarding. but I think that's already possible trough the interface right?

Yes, you can swap out officers during a boarding. It won't take effect until you go to the next deck, of course. And you really don't want to do it while the fight is still in progress because you can only access the F2 screen when you don't have a weapon drawn.

So only question which remains is, should I try to also make sure you can enable/disable the boardingmode in the interface or is it okay to have this just being done with the dialog? Personally I like the interface to be just a way of checking stuff but not really changing stuff. I personally still think it might be a nice feature if you could add/remove officers only when you are on board of your ship.

It's fine to just be able to tell an officer who is with you whether you want him to join you in boarding or not. It also affects whether he follows you into a dungeon. That is one reason why being allowed to change your party only when you are on board ship is a really bad idea.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

It also affects whether he follows you into a dungeon.

It does?

That is one reason why being allowed to change your party only when you are on board ship is a really bad idea.

Wouldn't you agree it is realistic, though? If you go into a dungeon with 4 people and one gets killed, how do you call for backup in the middle of that dungeon?

 

[Grey Roger]

You don't. Even if you add another officer to your group, he won't show up until you leave the dungeon.

Realistically, you'd probably have more than three officers along, and you'd perhaps have some of them keep watch outside so that you aren't ambushed as soon as you leave. That can happen with jungle dungeons such as the cave on Barbados. Or, if it's a city dungeon such as the one in Port Royale, maybe you'd go to the tavern where the officers who aren't in your active party are having a bit of shore leave and get one of them to join you as a replacement.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

You don't. Even if you add another officer to your group, he won't show up until you leave the dungeon.

True, if you consider a single-location dungeon. Which most of them are, of course.

 

[Grey Roger]

The main exceptions I can think of are the link from Speightstown dungeon to the Maltese crypt, where it doesn't matter what you've done to your party selection because nobody follows you; and the labyrinth on Cozumel (and, for that matter, the duplicate temple on Hispaniola during the "Ardent" storyline) where none of your officers follow you when you go from one part of the labyrinth to the next. In both cases, you could imagine that you sent one of your other officers back to the ship to fetch the replacement while you're doing the next bit by yourself.

Note that if you wipe out half the inhabitants of a dungeon, lose one of your officers, then leave and return, the dungeon is again fully populated. This is no more realistic than having your replacement officer waiting for you at the dungeon entrance so that you can go back in and try again.

 

[Levis]

Okay I'm convinced.
But maybe we should communicate better that it also works for dungeons etc.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Note that if you wipe out half the inhabitants of a dungeon, lose one of your officers, then leave and return, the dungeon is again fully populated. This is no more realistic than having your replacement officer waiting for you at the dungeon entrance so that you can go back in and try again.

True. Not sure how to go for something more realistic there though.
No real need, I suppose.

But maybe we should communicate better that it also works for dungeons etc.

How can it work for dungeons as well, though? What makes dungeons different from regular shore locations?

 

[Grey Roger]

Sorry, didn't spot this earlier.

Hmm. What happens when an officer gets killed? Would I have to continue with a reduced shore party?

That does seem to be the idea, yes. I don't like it any more than you, so I won't be including any such feature in my updates collection unless there's a lot of support for it from other people and it's made optional.

Also, once in a while an officer will just suddenly wander off and not stay with your party. I always replace him with another officer when that happens.

Most likely that's because he's been stunned and recovered. And right there is another reason why you should be able to remove and add officers at any time, not just back at the ship. Remove him, then put him back. That resets him from citizen mode (wandering around at random) to officer mode (following you around). The same trick is also useful if a fight is over, you want to replenish your officer's medical supplies and ammo, but you can't because he's still in fight mode. Remove him and put him back, he reverts to normal officer mode, he sheaths his sword and you can then check his supplies.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

That does seem to be the idea, yes. I don't like it any more than you, so I won't be including any such feature in my updates collection unless there's a lot of support for it from other people and it's made optional.

I imagine that if it is added, it could be default to ON in Iron Man Game Mode and be optional for all other game modes.

Most likely that's because he's been stunned and recovered. And right there is another reason why you should be able to remove and add officers at any time, not just back at the ship. Remove him, then put him back. That resets him from citizen mode (wandering around at random) to officer mode (following you around). The same trick is also useful if a fight is over, you want to replenish your officer's medical supplies and ammo, but you can't because he's still in fight mode. Remove him and put him back, he reverts to normal officer mode, he sheaths his sword and you can then check his supplies.

Good trick!
Maybe it is worth making a Bug Tracker entry for "characters not returning to their original AI type after being stunned".
Should ideally be fixed one day, I suppose.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

An officer doesn't need to be stunned first to start wandering around. Sometimes they just wander off for no known reason. Maybe he got too drunk.