WIP Swedish East Indiaman by Philipjn

[Tingyun]

I have no idea what a ship walk file is, but I say let's do without it at first.

@Grey Roger was going to do the interface shot I think, though maybe he wanted a screenshot, I'm not sure where we were with that.

It still needs a shipyard description. I'm not familiar with ships in general, or how these are written in game, I'd rather somone else wrote it. But if you want a first draft, here is one, maybe someone can edit it and then upload the shipyard description file with the revised version:

"A lightly armed but fast trading vessel, this East Indiaman has generous cargo capacity and efficient crew requirements."

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I have no idea what a ship walk file is, but I say let's do without it at first.

It's the file that tells the crew in 3D Sailing Mode where they can walk. Without it, there will be no visible crew.

It still needs a shipyard description. I'm not familiar with ships in general, or how these are written in game

See RESOURCE\INI\TEXTS\ENGLISH\ShipModels_descriptions.txt .
They're generally quite basic as they were originally added purely to distinguish between paint schemes (before we had the Ship Interface Screenshots).

 

[Tingyun]

Oh, that does sound like something we would want then! Hopefully someone who understands that already will create it, I don't want to try learning a new system right now, too much else.

If noone else does the shipyard description, I'll do it in a couple of days. On mobile now though, and Monday looks to be a bit crazy, so I would probably wait until middle of the coming week before getting to it.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Oh, that does sound like something we would want then! Hopefully someone who understands that already will create it, I don't want to try learning a new system right now, too much else.

It's very easy; you just add the ship ID and the description in that file like those other lines already there and it should work.

Anyway, I can add it too whenever I get round to doing it. Only takes a minute.

 

[Tingyun]

Here's the shipyard description, and the ships_init again just to collect everything in one place.

Took a look at the walk files, and ended up confused by all the measurements in there. I think I'll leave it to someone else after all.

BTW, when someone does add it, the Batavia needs a walk file too, might as well do both since they are based on the same thing.

I will add it to my game, and test it out without an icon picture for now. Probably everything should be compatible adding them and walk later.

EDIT: ship currently working fine, just missing the icon and walking sailors in tests. Description shows up and seems consistent with others.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Indeed walk files are far more tricky.
There is some information on them here:
Tools, Tutorials and Information | PiratesAhoy!

 

[Tingyun]

Ah, I wasn't sure if it was really complex or I was just getting confused. I might try to learn the walk system at some time next month or so after returning.

But mostly I'll secretly hope someone already familiar with their creation makes one to complete this wonderful Swedish East Indiaman (and if they are especially generous, then also for its cousin the Batavia Light East Indiamen, which seems to have gone without a walk file for a while now).

Because it is BEAUTIFUL, when I was testing to make sure the ship description appeared and such, I couldn't help but marvel at how beautiful the ship is and how great @philipjn 's amazing work in creating and @Armada 's wonderful work in importing it is. It did feel a bit lonely without sailors though, which cuts into the fun of sailing it around.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

But mostly I'll secretly hope someone already familiar with their creation makes one to complete this wonderful Swedish East Indiaman

Very unlikely to happen, I'm afraid. Only @Armada is somewhat familiar with it, but he has enough on his plate as it is.

Actually, we had a request a while back to make walk files for some brand new ship models, but nothing ever came of that.
So we never got the models and the walk files were never made. One of the main reasons was that nobody was available to actually make anything happen.

 

[Tingyun]

Not even the models? That is sad, did the creators just get discouraged or something?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Not even the models? That is sad, did the creators just get discouraged or something?

I just don't know. The person who made the models requested our help in making ship walk files.
But very unfortunately nobody was up for actually doing it, so nothing happened.
The modeler vanished again afterwards and since the situation didn't change, we can't ask about it again either.
Possibly if you manage to get into it, we could try to contact him about it again.

 

[Tingyun]

I would eventually do it simply because it is too sad to leave such a beautiful model in a lonely state, but I wouldn't consider that result ideal. This really isn't the sort of modding I have either particular interest (ie derive joy from the act itself), or any skills in, and even after returning the reality of limited time means I need to focus my efforts a bit.

So I do hope someone else takes an interest in this, and maybe could become the walk file expert and create them for the ships. It seems a decently fun task, and the tutorial you provided looks great.

Perhaps @imado552 might be interested? He has experience with modding in Mount and Blade, and seems great at the graphical kind of stuff.

Imado, what we are talking about is creating the "walk file" that tells the little sailors on the ship models where to walk and climb and such, so that the ship isn't empty. Pieter linked a great tutorial on doing it Tools, Tutorials and Information | PiratesAhoy!

Would you be interested in becoming the resident expert on creating those? Most ships already have them,but a few are left out, and there is the potential we could get NEW ships into the game if someone were willing to create walk files for them.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I would eventually do it simply because it is too sad to leave such a beautiful model in a lonely state, but I wouldn't consider that result ideal. This really isn't the sort of modding I have either particular interest (ie derive joy from the act itself), or any skills in, and even after returning the reality of limited time means I need to focus my efforts a bit.

The same apparently applies to everybody else. Hence it not happening.

This is what I mentioned about walk files in the past:
Problem with Model in Maya | PiratesAhoy!

 

[Tingyun]

I've picked up a lot of odds and ends random tasks people didn't want to engage in, which is natural for someone newly coming aboard, as they develop their own interests. What we need is more new people getting involved, so that they find roles they enjoy as well and fill out the tasks.

Question, from reading that, the walk files need to be created in AOP first? That might actually limit things, I don't own the game, and @imado552 might not either...

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I've picked up a lot of odds and ends random tasks people didn't want to engage in, which is natural for someone newly coming aboard, as they develop their own interests. What we need is more new people getting involved, so that they find roles they enjoy as well and fill out the tasks.

That would be ideal. Therefore, recruiting is very important.
But somebody needs to do that too.

Question, from reading that, the walk files need to be created in AOP first? That might actually limit things, I don't own the game, and @imado552 might not either...

It isn't necessarily the ONLY way to do it. But it is by far the easiest.

You don't actually need AoP anyway, I think. The Sailor Tool gives an interface to do the needed work.
That results in an AoP-compatible "sailorspoints" file. There is then a conversion program to change that back to PotC format.
So you get a file for both games "for the price of one".

 

[Tingyun]

Considering the intiial work @imado552 did for his asian town, I'd say long-term he intends to get involved with modding here. He is probably just busy with school and his mount and blade project right now.

But maybe he would be willing to become the go-to "walk file" expert. Something that wouldn't require too much time once learned, would really inprove the game, and might be fun to create (planning the activities of those little sailors).

Especially if it meant the potential to get beautiful new ships added to the game. Let's see what he says.

 

[Armada]

@Armada, did you include the suggested ships_init.c entry in there?

No, but it can be easily copied from @Tingyun's post.

And was there a Ship Interface Screenshot already?

No, because I only posted screenshots from my laptop with the Intel fix's crappy water. But the files are available to create a screenshot, now.

Anyone care enough to try and make a ship walk file? Or shall we do without one for the time being?

If no-one else wants to, I'll make the walk file at some point. It's a bit tedious, but doesn't take very long at all.

 

[Tingyun]

@Armada That is incredibly generous of you, especially given how valuable and in-demand your modding time and skills are! It is great to know this ship will, in the end, get a proper lively bunch of sailors roaming around.

If someone else is reading this and wants a broader project, I did a comprehensive review of the ships file, and discovered there are only 6 currently implemented ships missing walk files (including the light east indiaman batavia model). I posted the full list here: www.piratesahoy.net/threads/list-of-ships-needing-walk-files.27882/

 

[Grey Roger]

No, because I only posted screenshots from my laptop with the Intel fix's crappy water. But the files are available to create a screenshot, now.

I did notice that the water didn't look all that detailed, but that wasn't what stopped me from using the screenshot for an interface picture - when it's shrunk down to 256x256 the water detail doesn't show up all that well anyway. The compass, date and ship icons, on the other hand, may very well show up.

 

[Armada]

If someone else is reading this and wants a broader project, I did a comprehensive review of the ships file, and discovered there are only 6 currently implemented ships missing walk files (including the light east indiaman batavia model). I posted the full list here:

Thanks for doing that, it should be a useful list to have. For the link to that thread, and any others in future, please make sure you include "www" in PiratesAhoy! URLs.

 

[Tingyun]

@Armada I changed that one just now, I'll try to always remember to have www. to links in the future. Not sure why my browser did that...

Thanks for pointing it out!