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[Hylie Pistof]

Indeed the Sloop of War is a nice ship (early Neptunus) but what about the Postillionen 6th rate frigate? 20-12 pounders and a slightly larger crew.

About that sink the frigate quest........The last time I did it the ship was to the North instead of being to the East, but the biggest problems are that first it surrendered before I fired a shot, the Captain surrendered to me but then refused to work for me, then the Governor refused to pay me and that quest is still open years later. Bloody Pirates!

 

[Pieter Boelen]

The ship would sail around the island. If he is generated to the North, it doesn't mean he'll stay there.

I'll try ... dosn't look too complicated. Is it ok when I look into it tomorrow?

Of course. No particular rush.

 

[Skyworm]

Cheers,

Postillonen is a fine choice, too. Perhaps I put Neptunus in one era and Postillonen into the other?

To my experience, most pirate ships from pirate hunt quests behave so that they move around the island. They seem to be attrackted by merchants, and they retreat when attacked by superior warships. I wouldn't be suprrised if the Corvette behaves in the same way.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Probably does. That same AI should apply to pretty much all ships.

 

[KillPhil]

You do need to go into a port. Just a shore will not do. Then talk to the guy.
You can ransom for 100% value at a port of his own nation, though that is probably a hostile port to yourself.
So instead you can ransom in a port neutral to him or a pirate port for increasingly less return.
The higher the risk, the higher the reward here.

Setting free should be allowed in any port though.

When I ask to ransoming the prisoners, they always say something like nobody waits for them and their nation doesnt care about them and that I can't ransom them (even Silehard from the Main Quest said that which confused me a little^^)

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I'd have top check the code later to see when that happens.
The feature should be working since I know I did some thorough work on it last year.

 

[Grey Roger]

When I ask to ransoming the prisoners, they always say something like nobody waits for them and their nation doesnt care about them and that I can't ransom them (even Silehard from the Main Quest said that which confused me a little^^)

Are you sure? If you're not in a port friendly to the prisoner's nation, what he'll say is that nobody is willing to pay for him, then you can say that walking the plank is an option, then he'll offer you a small amount of gold. If you're in a port which is friendly to him then you can say that you're in <insert name of port> and you expect to be paid in full.

Silehard is a special case. I'm not sure if you're supposed to be able to ransom him; I don't even try. When you report to the new governor of Port Royale, he's happy that you disposed of Silehard yourself, saving him the trouble of sending Silehard back to England for trial. I take this as meaning that he wants me to feed Silehard to the sharks, so I oblige. (Silehard asks to be allowed to die fighting, I accept, that way I get his sword when I kill him.)

If you're going for the full ransom for any prisoner, check the "Relations" table. If the port is friendly to your prisoner then it's probably hostile to you and its fort will object to you trying to enter, so you'll want to hoist a false flag friendly to that port before you approach. (Or, if you've taken Silehard, you've probably also taken the Sovereign of the Seas, in which case you can overrule the fort's objection. ) If the prisoner is a pirate then the best place is probably the pirate settlement at Nevis, which has no fort so you can go there under any flag you like.

 

[KillPhil]

Do they say that ONLY in a port? Because I had a dutch officer as prisoner and wanted to ransom him at Bonaire. Since I am a pirate, I had to hide at the Bay on the other side of the island.

Well this thing with Silehard confused me.. Because I took him as prisoner and sailed back to Port Royale, after finishing Cozumel. Then the new governor talks and I was sure, that he mentions to bring Silehard back to England, and I also thought that you get more Money if you take him as prisoner instead of just killing him. But the governor just said "Thank you for catching him, blablabla" and then Silehard was still in my cargo hold Oo

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Do they say that ONLY in a port? Because I had a dutch officer as prisoner and wanted to ransom him at Bonaire. Since I am a pirate, I had to hide at the Bay on the other side of the island.

I do believe you indeed have to be in port for the dialog to show up.

Well this thing with Silehard confused me.. Because I took him as prisoner and sailed back to Port Royale, after finishing Cozumel. Then the new governor talks and I was sure, that he mentions to bring Silehard back to England, and I also thought that you get more Money if you take him as prisoner instead of just killing him. But the governor just said "Thank you for catching him, blablabla" and then Silehard was still in my cargo hold Oo

Perhaps the governor dialog was modified before the "capture prisoners" mod was added. So the dialog just assumes that Silehard is dead.
And as far as the code is concerned, indeed he is. Because the prisoner in your hold is technically a clone. Though the player would never notice that....

 

[Skyworm]

Cheers,

but if ransoming of prisoners only works in port friendly with the prisoner, it is never ever worth the risk. Because these are precisely the ports, that will gun your ship to pieces on sight.

In my opinion, it would be much better if prisoners can be ransomed on a friendly island. That would seem much more logical to me.

 

[Skyworm]

Hello,

just started changing the "sink the pirate corvette"-ships in the storylines.

Problem is:
In BraveBlackFlag, there is no "ROGRAM\Storyline\[Storyline]\characters\init\[SideQuest].c, find".
Any ideas where I'll find that one?

Thanks!

 

[Skyworm]

Hello again,

and another question:
I actually changed the ship type in the LaCroix-storyline, from "RN_Corvette" to "PiratPostillionen".
But ... nothing changes in the game. After the change, I still meet a Aurora Frigate, instead of a Postillionen.

Also, it seems Aurora is not identical with RN_Corvette, right? So probably this is not the right place to make the change? Or do I need to start a new game to make it happen? I did re-initialize.

Thanks.

Edit:
Found out that myself. New game is required to make the change apply. Didn't know that ...

 

[Grey Roger]

Do they say that ONLY in a port? Because I had a dutch officer as prisoner and wanted to ransom him at Bonaire. Since I am a pirate, I had to hide at the Bay on the other side of the island.

While you're there, raise the Dutch flag. Then sail round to Kralendijk. The fort won't fire on you if you're flying a friendly flag. But you can't change flag while you're at sea and in sight of the island because someone will see you do it, so it's not a very good disguise.

Well this thing with Silehard confused me.. Because I took him as prisoner and sailed back to Port Royale, after finishing Cozumel. Then the new governor talks and I was sure, that he mentions to bring Silehard back to England, and I also thought that you get more Money if you take him as prisoner instead of just killing him. But the governor just said "Thank you for catching him, blablabla" and then Silehard was still in my cargo hold Oo

Now that's interesting. I've never had the option to hand Silehard over alive, and assumed this was the new governor's way of discreetly telling you to kill Silehard. But looking at the relevant dialogue file (it's at the end of "PROGRAM\Storyline\standard\DIALOGS\ENGLISH\Robert Christopher Silehard_dialog.h") there is a bit in which you're supposed to be able to say "Indeed. I captured Silehard; my men are bringing him here as we speak." And then you get 400,000 gold, instead of the usual 200,000 for killing Silehard.

 

[Skyworm]

Hello,

false flags:
There is a chance an enemy ship or fort will recognize you despite the false flag. So flying a false flag is possible, but risky. The more risky, the better you are known (famous).
Personally, I would not risk sailing into an enemy port just to set a prisoner free ... risking ship and crew just for a few thousand ransom? Nope.

Back to the pirate corvette quest:
Changing ships now works, I can do this for all eras, as Pieter asked. But, next problem is, governor always talks about a "Pirate Corvette", which after my changes will no longer be true and might be confusing. So best would be to change the quest name and dialogue, too. I just don't know where to do that.

Also, the "sidequests.c" is not available for all storylines and eras. It's missing for Assassin, Bartolomeu, BraveBlackFlag and WoodesRogers.
So, I changed the ships for:
DevlinOpera --> Light Fleut of War (FleutWar)
LaCroix --> Postillionen (PiratPostillionen)

Sadly, I have no idea where to find the sidequest.c for BraveBlackFlag, Assassin etc.

 

[KillPhil]

I agree with Skyworm, ransoming them should be possible whenever the island is friendly towards the prisoner. And maybe change this dialog "My family is hardly what you call rich and my nation doesnt care about me" because that indicates that you just had bad luck and the prisoner is just not worth ransoming. Maybe it's just me but if you want I could maybe rewrite this dialog a bit, so it's less confusing.

 

[Grey Roger]

Hello,

false flags:
There is a chance an enemy ship or fort will recognize you despite the false flag. So flying a false flag is possible, but risky. The more risky, the better you are known (famous).
Personally, I would not risk sailing into an enemy port just to set a prisoner free ... risking ship and crew just for a few thousand ransom? Nope.

I've never been recognised by a fort. Ships, yes; forts, no. This has on several occasions led to the amusing situation in which an enemy ship in its own port attacks me, I capture or sink it, and the fort does nothing to intervene. This despite rising through the fame scale until I'm now "Scourge of the Archipelago". It's useful because sometimes I have to go into an enemy port on quest business - landing on a nearby beach and sneaking in through the back door doesn't always trigger the quest event.

 

[Skyworm]

Hmm, maybe you're right. I confirm ships can recognize me, and I was pretty sure forts do, too, but in fact, I think I never tested it.
Good to know - but if forts really don't recognize me, this is just one more thing on the "sould be changed"-list

Or at least they should engage in combat if ships in port are attacked.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

but if ransoming of prisoners only works in port friendly with the prisoner, it is never ever worth the risk. Because these are precisely the ports, that will gun your ship to pieces on sight.

In my opinion, it would be much better if prisoners can be ransomed on a friendly island. That would seem much more logical to me.

That is why you can also ransom in ports neutral to the prisoner and also any pirate port.
So you can always ransom at the Nevis pirate settlement, which doesn't even have a fort to fight.
However, this is much lower risk and therefore you only get 25% of the money you would otherwise get.

High risk = high reward. As suggested before, you could hoist a false flag, sneak into an enemy port right under the fort's guns and ransom for much more money.
Whether you survive that or not depends on your luck skill as well as on how well-known you are. This gets harder as the game progresses.
But what fun is there without some challenge and excitement?

In BraveBlackFlag, there is no "ROGRAM\Storyline\[Storyline]\characters\init\[SideQuest].c, find".
Any ideas where I'll find that one?

Search in the same folder for the same character. He's hiding in one of those other files.

Found out that myself. New game is required to make the change apply. Didn't know that ...

You could also try F11 to Reinitialize. That might do the trick, though I am not entirely sure.

While you're there, raise the Dutch flag. Then sail round to Kralendijk. The fort won't fire on you if you're flying a friendly flag. But you can't change flag while you're at sea and in sight of the island because someone will see you do it, so it's not a very good disguise.

That only happens if there is actually another ship around to see it. If you do it far enough away, nobody will notice.

Now that's interesting. I've never had the option to hand Silehard over alive, and assumed this was the new governor's way of discreetly telling you to kill Silehard. But looking at the relevant dialogue file (it's at the end of "PROGRAM\Storyline\standard\DIALOGS\ENGLISH\Robert Christopher Silehard_dialog.h") there is a bit in which you're supposed to be able to say "Indeed. I captured Silehard; my men are bringing him here as we speak." And then you get 400,000 gold, instead of the usual 200,000 for killing Silehard.

Perhaps that got broken due to a lot of modifications done to Capture Prisoners over the years.
If anyone has a savegame just prior to that point, I might be able to see some time if that can be reinstated.

Changing ships now works, I can do this for all eras, as Pieter asked. But, next problem is, governor always talks about a "Pirate Corvette", which after my changes will no longer be true and might be confusing. So best would be to change the quest name and dialogue, too. I just don't know where to do that.

Check the PROGRAM\[Storyline]\DIALOGS\English and RESOURCE\INI\TEXTS\Storyline\QUESTBOOK folders.
(Folder names might be slightly different, because I am writing this from memory.

Are you changing also the actual nationality of the captain in the character init file? Would indeed be cool to have that make sense for each period.

Sadly, I have no idea where to find the sidequest.c for BraveBlackFlag, Assassin etc.

Not all storylines have the sidequests. I know Bartolomeu, Assassin and Jack Sparrow don't have them. Also all no-free-play storylines.

I agree with Skyworm, ransoming them should be possible whenever the island is friendly towards the prisoner. And maybe change this dialog "My family is hardly what you call rich and my nation doesnt care about me" because that indicates that you just had bad luck and the prisoner is just not worth ransoming. Maybe it's just me but if you want I could maybe rewrite this dialog a bit, so it's less confusing.

Is that the default text when you talk about ransoming at sea? Perhaps I missed that when I rewrote things last year. You'd be welcome to change it.
File is PROGRAM\DIALOGS\English\Prisoner_dialog.h if I remember correctly.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I've never been recognised by a fort. Ships, yes; forts, no. This has on several occasions led to the amusing situation in which an enemy ship in its own port attacks me, I capture or sink it, and the fort does nothing to intervene. This despite rising through the fame scale until I'm now "Scourge of the Archipelago". It's useful because sometimes I have to go into an enemy port on quest business - landing on a nearby beach and sneaking in through the back door doesn't always trigger the quest event.

Ships can recognize you at any time. Chance of this happening increases as you get closer.
@Screwface tried to add this functionality to forts as well, but forts are handled differently in the code and apparently calculating the distance between fort and player ship does not work.
Therefore forts can recognize you only when you enter 3D sailing mode at that island. If they don't recognize you then, they'll remain friendly.

One thing I can think of doing is to automatically hoist your personal flag as soon as a ship recognizes you.
That should update the fort relations too.

 

[Skyworm]

Cheers,

That is why you can also ransom in ports neutral to the prisoner and also any pirate port.
So you can always ransom at the Nevis pirate settlement, which doesn't even have a fort to fight.
However, this is much lower risk and therefore you only get 25% of the money you would otherwise get.

High risk = high reward. As suggested before, you could hoist a false flag, sneak into an enemy port right under the fort's guns and ransom for much more money.
Whether you survive that or not depends on your luck skill as well as on how well-known you are. This gets harder as the game progresses.
But what fun is there without some challenge and excitement?

So the fort has a chance to recognize me?

You could also try F11 to Reinitialize. That might do the trick, though I am not entirely sure.

No, unfortunately, re-initializing doesn't help. A new game is required.

Check the PROGRAM\[Storyline]\DIALOGS\English and RESOURCE\INI\TEXTS\Storyline\QUESTBOOK folders.
(Folder names might be slightly different, because I am writing this from memory.

I'll try and see what I can do.

Are you changing also the actual nationality of the captain in the character init file? Would indeed be cool to have that make sense for each period.

Errm ... not entirely sure, but from memory, I think that wouldn't be necessary. It may be a english character, but it surely is a pirate ship under a pirate flag. And pirates make fine enemies to civilized nations at any era, so I don't think this needs to be changed.
Also, if we place a nation ship here, the whole quests logic may break if one plays with nation relations changing. So I think it is much better if this remains to be a pirate - maybe an english one, but a pirate.

Not all storylines have the sidequests. I know Bartolomeu, Assassin and Jack Sparrow don't have them. Also all no-free-play storylines.

Ah fine, so I can exclude the above plus Hornblower and Rogers from the changes?

Thanks!