Solved Smuggling CTD and Friendly Enemies???

[Pieter Boelen]

Well, I haven't managed to fix this one yet. But I did catch several other issues with smuggling that I have now fixed:
- Location nation is used for the coastguard instead of the island smuggling nation, resulting in PIRATE coastguard at Grenada's Leviathan Rock
- The "Amerigo Vieira" model was part of the Portuguese land officers, so the battalion of soldiers was commander by NOT a soldier

When I went to sea, there was a Portuguese Coastguard ship that became properly hostile to me after about a second.
This despite me being friendly with Portugal. The other Portuguese ships remained friendly. So far, so good.
And that was without me modifying any of that coast guard ship code.

I am now getting this error message again:

SEA: Error: Group Coastal_Guards, Island Conceicao
SEA: Error: Find locators Group , Locator

But that seems to be normal for ships generated right where you are and does not cause a crash.

In other words: I couldn't replicate the exact problem you were having; must be something in the savegame.
But what exactly, I do not know. Perhaps the fact that you're friendly with everyone confuses the game code?

 

[Drominus]

In other words: I couldn't replicate the exact problem you were having; must be something in the savegame.
But what exactly, I do not know. Perhaps the fact that you're friendly with everyone confuses the game code?

Could be this.

However I have been friendly with all nations when I ran smaller quantities of smuggling goods with smaller ships without CTD's.
I keep wondering whether there is a multiplier on goods depending on how many I have smuggled, which perhaps spawns more ships. I shall try with less ebony on one run.

I had previously run the Pueto Rico (buy Ebony and whatnot) to Nevis smuggler, many times, many many times before this started happening. It is how I managed to afford a Dauntless with about a day or two of gameplay.

I believe this issue began some time after I purchased the Dauntless from the secret merchant, for which I had a few ships with me hauling more loot.

The only way I have been able to avoid the crash is by constantly re-loading until there are no attacking soldiers, and thus no coastguard to generate. (Abusing the save, as it were).

Tis a tricky one for sure!

 

[Pieter Boelen]

You have been smuggling before, right? I wonder if something you did messed up the coast guard captains.
Did you capture any of them or hire them as officers, which could potentially result in his ID being in two different places?
As far as I know, there is code in place to prevent that, but you never do know.

Anyway, I'm having a hard time figuring this out and I can't replicate it either. Not to mention other people have been smuggling a lot and never got this.
So I really don't get it, but it doesn't seem to be common.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Well, in my tests I was able to generate another ship without the game crashing, even if I couldn't convince it to be hostile to me.
I have been unable to find any evidence for the Dauntless being to blame. It is not an enemy ship type thing either.
That's why I now suspect the character ID.

 

[Drominus]

You have been smuggling before, right?

Yes, as soon as I could afford to buy out peace with all nations, I began smuggling. (early on in my game).

I wonder if something you did messed up the coast guard captains.
Did you capture any of them or hire them as officers, which could potentially result in his ID being in two different places?
As far as I know, there is code in place to prevent that, but you never do know.

You know what, I think I may have done this.
I recall capturing a captain in a british outfit (who is now one of my fleet captains), I recall the dialogue being a little different than other captures, but I do not have a save near then.

I wonder if sending him to my officer "bin" instead of out as a captain could work? Going to try this in a minute.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Can you tell me which character name that is? Then I can check his character ID to make sure it is NOT a coastguard one.

 

[Drominus]

Can you tell me which character name that is? Then I can check his character ID to make sure it is NOT a coastguard one.

Sampson Pinker, I did not change his name. Captain of a ship.
I also have Gibbs (woo gibbs!!). Captain of a ship.
And in my bin: Amy Bencroft

 

[Drominus]

Just had a CTD by trying to change captain of the ship from Sampson Pinker to Amy Bencroft.
This was on the beach in the ship transfer menus, using the Nevis save I had uploaded.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Thanks; will confirm tomorrow.

 

[Drominus]

I have ditched Sampson Pinker for Amy Bencroft. (Fired him too in case)

Bought ebony in Pueto Rico, sold to Nevis Smuggler.
Went to sea and same CTD.

Possibly it is more than the Coastguard captain I captured.

EDIT: Uploaded save at the beach without Sampson Pinker. (JeanLafitte folder still, is QuickSave)

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Indeed that's not it. He's got a perfectly fine character ID:

name = Sampson
lastname = Pinker
id = Enc_Officer_0

So.... the mystery remains.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

`There was one time at Jamaica where I got caught smuggling, killed the sojers, and when I left there was no ship. All other times it all went according to how it is supposed to.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

And if I recall, you've been smuggling a LOT, no?

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Not a whole lot. Just when I need money because it does nothing for my reputation. In fact just the opposite!

 

[Drominus]

I must note again, I was and have been able to transition to Sea when no Coastguard discover the little cove, after the transaction with the smuggler has taken place.
So it is literally only when the Coastguard are triggered that the transition to Sea results in a CTD.

It is a useful work-around until the bug has been resolved, and allows the game to continue as per the norm.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I must note again, I was and have been able to transition to Sea when no Coastguard discover the little cove, after the transaction with the smuggler has taken place.
So it is literally only when the Coastguard are triggered that the transition to Sea results in a CTD.

Oh, I confirmed that much. It most assuredly IS the code putting that coastguard ship there. Even if it only puts ONE there, rather than three.
I managed to make it put a ship there without crashing using the Treasure Quest Pirate code.

But he wouldn't wage war on me for whatever maddened reason.
That wasn't due to your save though; I had the same problem when I generated a Dutch ship by the same method in the beginning of the Assassin storyline.
Couldn't convince him to hate me either.

Anyway, I might have to resort to just rewriting that code altogether based on the Treasure Quest Pirates.
Perhaps that'll at least get rid of the CTD, even if it won't give you a hostile ship.

 

[Bladirus]

Hi its me again! After I've smuggled some Silk again and got caught by the French Navy (whom I killed when they approched at the beach) and went to my ship to go on sea the game crash every time!

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I'm currently having a look into the Cargo Haul Quests and am close to getting those fixed. Once that's done, I'm back to this one.
Will probably adapt the QuestPirate code to become a generic function for ALL quest ships. That worked when I did a quick test yesterday.
And there are too many separate functions for the same thing.

 

[Bladirus]

So I should reload another save and should avoid smuggeling?

 

[Drominus]

After I've smuggled some Silk again and got caught by the French Navy (whom I killed when they approched at the beach) and went to my ship to go on sea the game crash every time!
So I should reload another save and should avoid smuggeling?

I found that the game doesn't crash if you do the following:
- Save in front of the smuggler (new save for safety's sake).
- Do the deal with him.
- If guards storm the beach, reload the save until you get a good "chance roll", which means no guards storm the beach. (I believe luck may affect chances of Coastguard attacking).
- Continue to Sea, should not crash: no beach troops should mean no Coastguard (Where the crashing resides).

Definitely make tonnes of saves while playing PoTC, as it has been known to throw CTD's.
F5 is Quicksave. F6 is Quickload. Quicksave overwrites any previous quicksaves.
I tend to save before I transition to a new area or generally interact with ships (which should be done indoors to prevent CTD).