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Included in Build Standard Storyline: Easier Guards on First Mission

M

Morkar

Landlubber
Hello.
I started in the latest testing build the Hawk main story and I have a huge difficulty problem.

I try to enter Barbados Speightstown with two officers on the land route. I'm level 7 with level 2 in fighting. My two officers have pistols and me as well. I wear one of the new leather jackets and a german rapier.
The french guards always attack me after the scripted conversation and I have zero chance to win the encounter. I get always attacked from both guards and even if can parry both attacks they fire their muskets one-shotting me even on apprentice difficulty level.

Then I tried to disguise my ship with a french flag and entering the port but they always recognize me as an enemy (I have that disguise perk with the 10% bonus already).

I see no chance for me to progress in the main story which I think is a bit odd on apprentice level. Storywise it wouldn't make much sense to delay the espionage mission either.

Does that work as intended?
 
They are the quest ones staying at the door guarding the entrance when I come from the jungle. There's even a scripted sequence where they are coming towards me and I have to explain myself who I am. They will always attack me no matter my answer btw. I can't even just attack them because the sequence always starts as soon as I come towards the door and I automatically sheath my weapon.
Do you already know which one? If not I can still take a screenshot ofc.
 
If your reputation is low the guards wont believe you, so a higher reputation will give
you better odds to cheat them.
 
Please upload your savegame too. Want to know how good those guards are :p.
 
Here's a screenshot and the savegame.
 

Attachments

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  • hawk_guards_web.png
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They are indeed quite strong XD, but they seem to be the normal guards. Guess you"ll need about 5 or 6 more levels if you want to be able to beat them if you are a good fighter :p.

I don't know from the top of my head at the moment how far in the storyline this is. but it's pretty quick right?
So should we lower their level a bit or should it be easier to bypass them? Maybe add a dialog option to bypass them based on something else, say for example merchant papers or something like that.
 
I was just able to get past the guards but you have to think a little bit outside the box if you want it to work so I'd say we dont have to fix it.
If you want a way to pass them click the spoiler @Morkar
As soon as they want to fight you run to the gate, its still open so you can just enter it. The guards in the town won't attack you.
 
5 to 6 levels would require grinding which doesn't make sense here storywise. The game starts with you fleeing from Barbados to Jamaica to inform the gouvernor that the French captured the city. There the gouvernor forces you to work for him as a conscripted spy for the English Crown to enter Speightstown and gather information about the French. It's basically your first assignment. Therefore I think it should be rather easy to kill them or better to slip through the gates (skill check, perk or bribing maybe?)

Levis said:
I was just able to get past the guards but you have to think a little bit outside the box if you want it to work so I'd say we dont have to fix it.
If you want a way to pass them click the spoiler @Morkar
As soon as they want to fight you run to the gate, its still open so you can just enter it. The guards in the town won't attack you.
Click to expand...

Thanks. That would be possible. I have to try it if I can manage it. But I'm not sure a new player will get that or rather I doubt it.
 
Morkar said:
5 to 6 levels would require grinding which doesn't make sense here storywise. The game starts with you fleeing from Barbados to Jamaica to inform the gouvernor that the French captured the city. There the gouvernor forces you to work for him as a conscripted spy for the English Crown to enter Speightstown and gather information about the French. It's basically your first assignment. Therefore I think it should be rather easy to kill them or better to slip through the gates (skill check, perk or bribing maybe?)
Click to expand...
Check my new post ;).
 
I just tried and it works because their daggers have a short range but I loose at least one officer.
If possible and easy to do I would recommend to reduce the stats of the French, maybe in the whole town to make it easier for a new player which will likely start with the original campaign to give him a chance to learn the ropes. Storywise you could say the French are mostly drunk / out of shape after ransacking the town as an excuse.
 
Morkar said:
Thanks. That would be possible. I have to try it if I can manage it. But I'm not sure a new player will get that or rather I doubt it.
Click to expand...

Hmmm...we could add it to the walktrough... it would be possible to add new guards there just for this case. maybe on a lower difficulty only... but I prefer not to do that actually, else the easiest way to do this I think is to remove the default guards there. I mean they aren't needed normally there right? And just for this quest create some characters there untill the french invasion is over.
Or we could lower theire HP a little bit depending on your difficulty. It would still be a hard fight but it would be possible for you.
 
Morkar said:
I just tried and it works because their daggers have a short range but I loose at least one officer.
If possible and easy to do I would recommend to reduce the stats of the French, maybe in the whole town to make it easier for a new player which will likely start with the original campaign to give him a chance to learn the ropes. Storywise you could say the French are mostly drunk / out of shape after ransacking the town as an excuse.
Click to expand...

I believe the story actually says that :p.
There is this piece of code (questcase: Story_leavingOxbay) which is triggered when the town is captured:
Code: 
for (int n = 0; n < CHARACTERS_QUANTITY; n++)
            {
                if (!CheckAttribute(characters[n], "location")) continue;
                if (FindLocation(characters[n].location) == -1) continue;
                if (GetTownIDFromLocID(characters[n].location) == "Oxbay")
                {
                    if (isOfficer(characters[n])) continue;        // LDH fix for our officers becoming French soldiers on leaving Oxbay - 19Jan09
                    if (isSoldier(characters[n]) != UNKNOWN_NATION)
                    {
                        characters[n].Dialog.Filename = "Story_Fra_Occup_common_dialog.c";
                        characters[n].greeting = "Gr_Story_French Occupant";
                    }
                }
            }

We could add these lines there:
Code: 
int hpbonus = -1 * (characters[n].chr_ai.hp_max - 80);
ChangeHPBonus(characters[n],hpbonus);
SetSkillCharMod(characters[n], "fencing", -5);

This should make them a lot weaker.
It does need to be reset once the city is recaptured...I don't know where that happens
 
I'm less concerned about myself here but how a new player will react to this and if it feels right regarding the flow of the game.
I think these guards are special guards related to the mainquest, they trigger a scripted event by initiating a dialog with you. Or is that scripted event always happen when you enter an enemy town?
And I know that later on you have to bring some drunken french captain before the same gate and you have to fight him there. The guards will then join the fight. Not sure if these are new guards or the same ones or how they respawn etc.
I remember it was quite hard to win against the guards there as well in an earlier build. I only managed it by hiring additional officers as canon fodder which doesn't fit that well with the story either.
 
That is a normal part of the story and you got there too fast. You are not nearly good enough yet. It will soon get much worse and you need both better melee skills and at least 4 leadership skill. The time will come later when you must defeat 7 French soldiers by yourself and here you can not even beat 2.
 
These are specific Quest guards I think. :read

Since those guards were given muskets they have become difficult to get passed :yes

Since it is at an early point in the story and the player has low health - a single musket shot is able to do enough damage to kill the player.

Since they are quest characters - perhaps remove the standard guards muskets from them, to give the player a chance.

:shrug
 
Last edited:
They have also become harder to beat because of the leveling system which gives guards a nice upgrade ;).
And they now have all the perks.

I don't know from the top of my head but I believe you don't have to fight there that often right?
Applying this code makes them more manageable
Code: 
int newhp = GetDifficulty() * 25 + 250;
                        int hpbonus = -1 * (stf(characters[n].chr_ai.hp_max) - newhp);
                        ChangeHPBonus(&characters[n],hpbonus);
                        ResetMaxHP(&characters[n]);
                        if(GetDifficulty() < 3)
                        {
                            SetSkillCharMod(&characters[n], "Fencing", -3);
                            SetSkillCharMod(&characters[n], "Accuracy", -3);
                        }
It halfs theire hp and makes them less good fighters.
We could revert these changes at a certain point.
@Talisman do you recon we might want to do this just for the beginning? Do you know somewhere in the story where we should revert these changes?
 
I could also add it just in the case "fight_before_enter_to_oxbay"
So just those two guards get a bit easier depending on your difficulty. I was actually thinking about maybe only doing that at night and drop some kind of hint in a dialog somewhere.
 
Levis said:
I could also add it just in the case "fight_before_enter_to_oxbay"
So just those two guards get a bit easier depending on your difficulty. I was actually thinking about maybe only doing that at night and drop some kind of hint in a dialog somewhere.
Click to expand...


:yes

The dialog with the player seems to be activated here :-

Code: 
case "silehard_Story_Oxbay_Captured_15_afterExit":
       CaptureTownForNation("Greenford", ENGLAND);
       CaptureTownForNation("Falaise de Fleur", FRANCE);
       CaptureTownForNation("Isla Muelle", SPAIN);
       CaptureTownForNation("Douwesen", HOLLAND);
       CaptureTownForNation("Conceicao", PORTUGAL);
       CaptureTownForNation("Quebradas Costillas", PIRATE);

       DisableTownCapture("Greenford", true);
       DisableTownCapture("Falaise de Fleur", true);
       DisableTownCapture("Isla Muelle", true);
       DisableTownCapture("Douwesen", true);
       DisableTownCapture("Conceicao", true);
       DisableTownCapture("Quebradas Costillas", true);

       //Заведение квеста на диалог с солдатами у входа в город Оксбэй с острова
       Pchar.quest.Story_FraSoldiers_attack_in_jungles.win_condition.l1 = "location";
       Pchar.quest.Story_FraSoldiers_attack_in_jungles.win_condition.l1.location = "Oxbay_town_exit";
       Pchar.quest.Story_FraSoldiers_attack_in_jungles.win_condition = "Story_FraSoldiers_attack_in_jungles";
       locations[FindLocation("Oxbay_town_exit")].vcskip = true;
       characters[GetCharacterIndex("Ox_Soldier_7")].Dialog.Filename = "Story_French Soldier_dialog.c";  <<<------------ HERE
       characters[GetCharacterIndex("Ox_Soldier_8")].Dialog.Filename = "Story_French Soldier_dialog.c";  <<<-------------HERE

       ChangeCharacterAddressGroup(characterFromID("Valentin Massoni"), "Oxbay_tavern", "Sit", "Sit5");
       Locations[FindLocation("Oxbay_town")].vcskip = true; // NK
       Locations[FindLocation("Oxbay_town_exit")].vcskip = true; // NK
       Locations[FindLocation("Oxbay_tavern")].vcskip = true; // NK
       LAi_SetSitType(characterFromID("Valentin Massoni"));
       if(AUTO_SKILL_SYSTEM) { AddPartyExpChar(pchar, "Sneak", 1500); }
       else { AddPartyExp(pchar, 1500); }
     break;
// <-- KK


Interestingly their dialog file still appears to be in PROGRAM / DIALOGS - not in the storyline folder

Personally I think the simplest option would be to take the muskets off these 2 guys - because that is what is causing the problems with them - you have to talk to these soldiers ( so crew or officers are difficult to place between you and them - when you get close to these guys they automatically walk towards you). - And this early in the story one shot from a musket and you are dead. :nogood

:drunk
 
I guess that would be easy enough to handle them.

As @Hylie Pistof mentioned, later on you have to fight a couple of guards and maybe this should still be easy as well. The problem lies in the story itself which doesn't give you enough leeway to earn some experience on the side if you take the events serious. After that the char should be experienced enough to fight the stock guards. Difficulty in general is amped up a lot by making talents not freely available anymore and let guards have better equipment.

How is the selected difficulty affecting enemies anyway? Gets their health reduced by a percentage depending on the difficulty? Or is their level affected?
 
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