Thank you for this sequel !!

[CouchcaptainCharles]

Hi all :gday

I want to thank everybody who took part in the creation of New Horizon. Wonderful work

Some years ago I quit PotC and PotC modding because - apart form a lack of sparetime - I had modded and playtested this game so much that I just couldn't stand it anymore. The fun was gone, BUT New Horizons has brought it back now. This is not a modpack but a full fledged SEQUEL. The choice of several new storylines give you the feeling of starting something completely new, and the "real Caribbean" locationnames make you forget the old Disney game. Yesterday I spent the whole day roaming towns and doing escorts in order to earn starting capital. Great fun, high draw-in factor and no crashes or lags

What also impressed me very much is the New Horizons Manual. It is a very entertaining (almost thrilling) read :mm and explains very good what makes this mod/sequel so special: the freedom to choose your own way, and the multitude of ways that you can take. If you muster the patience to explore all the new places and features thoroughly you are rewarded with a really deep experience. This is no "fast food game" but a feast that needs to be enjoyed with leisure.

But, as I said, the New Horizons Manual explains it best. Maybe you shold post it as "stand alone" to promote this sequel in the respective netsites (if not already done).


And special greetings to Pieter , and thanks for keeping this community thriving for so many years How are you, already a full fledged oceanlining officer?

 

[Thagarr]

Ahoy CouchcaptainCharles! Good to see you back where you belong mate!

Aye mate, Pieter has done a fine job keeping things running around here, whether he wants to admit it or not, he has been a major motivating factor in keeping PA's modding community running smoothly over the years. That being said, we also have had a good influx of fantastic modders over the past few years, and that is where all the innovation has come from! I would do them an injustice by trying to name them individually, but I salute them all non the less, great work mates!

Many thanks for your kind words about the manual, I am glad that you felt my meager contributions adequate. I really haven't done much modding myself, but while I was helping put together the manual, I did learn quite a bit about the way coding works. It also helped me to better understand what a fine, solid base you and the original group of modders gave us to work from! The strongest of buildings is only as good as it's foundations, and these foundations are rock solid!

 

[Black Bart]

CCC, we have a bad lack of code people currently, and i know you took the break before(well deserved i might add! i've enjoyed your new features very much, and looking through the files as much as i can understand them(not much!)), and should just kick back and play this new version. But once you're done getting to know the good ship 'Build Mod' again would you be up for the fixing and refining of her?

:nk

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Couchcaptain Charles! What a sight for sore eyes! Welcome back, mate, welcome back!

I'm glad to see you like what we've been able to do with the mod over the past few years.
Although it's still got some distinct rough edges, I always remain amazed by what we managed to do.
Not in the least thanks to your efforts, such as the DirectSail mod, which still is very much appreciated by many members here.
And your BuildingSet mod has been put to brilliant use in the various storylines, adding a lot to the game experience there too!

If you like free play, you should like the work Sulan has done on the upcoming Build 14 Beta 1 Patch 7.
WIP 2 of that is currently available from the Build 14 Beta 1 thread and contains a much improved Random Nation Relations mod.
Nations now make and break alliances and you have to find out about that by talking to the tavern keepers.
You then get a message in your Ship's Log interface that Sulan has also managed to create.

Another nice part of Patch 7 that I am very happy about is that I finally figured out why the Greenford (now Bridgetown)
Maltese Knight Abbey no longer worked to full functionality. So that part of your work is also restored to it's former glory!

For sure Thagarr and Snow White Sorrow did a great job on the New Horizons manuals.
We've got it posted on the ModDB for people to read seperately.

Indeed I am now "a fully fledged oceanlining officer". I've been sailing as qualified officer on the ms Maasdam for the past two years.
I was promoted from Fourth Officer to Third Officer earlier this year and am now in charge of navigation and voyage planning.

 

[CouchcaptainCharles]

Congrats Pieter, sounds like a wonderful job!

CCC, we have a bad lack of code people currently, and i know you took the break before(well deserved i might add! i've enjoyed your new features very much, and looking through the files as much as i can understand them(not much!)), and should just kick back and play this new version. But once you're done getting to know the good ship 'Build Mod' again would you be up for the fixing and refining of her?

Well, I have been clean of my modding addiction for some years, but after playing for just one day I already feel an urge to tweak this or add that... Just can't leave this game alone, like the drunkard can't refrain from an open rumbottle I may make a bugfix or some small addition here and there, but I don't want to make any promises that I may not be able to keep. If I get involved too much the next modding burnout is only a matter of time

 

[Black Bart]

For sure CCC, if i where you i'd just play and make notes etc - we are still in beta so definately go enjoy yourself for a while and see what you come up with in terms of a to do list etc. It's just great to see one of the coders back as there are some things it will take people like yourself to be able to fix fully. But we non coders have made a few inroads(spin left bug etc) and just playing the game with all the new features is quite an eye opener on where we were in build mod 12 and earlier!

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Don't do anything you don't want to, CCC.
But anything you do will be greatly appreciated, of course.
As far as I'm concerned, however, your presence here is massively appreciated already!

One thing maybe you could help with is an issue we've been having with your DirectSail mod that I tried to fix in the last week or so.
Apparently the game has a limited amount of Sea AI groups and if too many are made, the game will crash.
Your original code seemed to use a random number between 1 and 100 for the AI group.
This seemed to result in the game crashing upon DirectSail encounters after using DirectSail heavily.

I my game and the Patch 7 WIP 2 files I released last week I made two changes to hopefully help with this:
I set the maximum number of AI groups to 128 from 64 at the top of PROGRAM\SEA_AI\AIGroup.c .
Additionally, I made an attempt to rewrite your original code to cycle through the same 20 AI groups:

//	string groupname = "Directenc"+rand(100);
// PB: Attemped CTD Fix -->
string groupname;
if(CheckAttribute(rPlayer, "DirectSailEncounterGroup")) rPlayer.DirectSailEncounterGroup = sti(rPlayer.DirectSailEncounterGroup) + 1;
else rPlayer.DirectSailEncounterGroup = 1;
if(rPlayer.DirectSailEncounterGroup > 20) rPlayer.DirectSailEncounterGroup = 1;
groupname = "Directenc" + sti(rPlayer.DirectSailEncounterGroup);
// PB: Attemped CTD Fix <--

However, I don't think this works quite properly yet and I was hoping you might be able to shed some light on this.
Personally I never really touched Sea AI group code and am basically just shooting in the dark here... :?

 

[CouchcaptainCharles]

Well, debugging often IS shooting in the dark. To hit the bugger you must systematically reduce the area where it might be, often by checking where it can NOT be. (Hope I don't sound like the old fart schooltecher here )


Most of the code creating Directsail encounters is copied from the original code that loads the mapencounters to seaview.
IIRC this is supposed to work like this:

Step 1

string groupname = "Directenc"+rand(100);

chooses a random name for the group of ships that you will encounter next

Step 2, some lines down

rGroup = Group_GetGroupByIndex(Group_CreateGroup(groupname));

creates a shipgroup with that name. The following line

Group_DeleteAtEnd(groupname);

should delete the group after you leave this scene, so there SHOULD be no problems with too many encounter groups (but who knows).


To test your assumption that "Directenc"+rand(100) is the culprit you could change it first to "Directenc"+rand(2) and then -after testing if this causes more or less crashes - to "Directenc"+rand(10000) and to "Directenc" without any number. If your assumption is right you should notice a difference.

To get more debug data add the line

Trace("Directsail encounter groupname: " + groupname );

so that the groupnames will be logged in the debugfiles. Then you can look if a certain groupname -or sequence of groupnames- occurs before CTDs.


But I don't think the number in rand(100) vs the maximum number of AI groups is a problem, for three reasons:

1. As said, the group should be deleted by Group_DeleteAtEnd, so there should never more than one Directenc... group.

2. rand(100) doesn't count upwards till you get over the 64 AIgrouplimit. Instead it picks random numbers, like 65, 3, 98, 18, 3again...

3. string groupname creates a TEXTstring, like "Directenc65". For the program that is a word like "DirectencJones", not a number.

So I don't see any number there that could violate any limit like the AIgrouplimit.



It just MIGHT be possible that the double use of the same name causes problems. That can be checked easily if you use always the same name:

string groupname = "Directenc";

If doublenames are a problem this should crash at the second encounter.



Has anyone checked if it is actually the encounters that cause crashes? To do so disable them by outcommenting the line

DirectEncounter( stf(Login.PlayerGroup.ay) );

in the function SeaLogin(ref Login) in SeaAI\sea.c.
(Edit: just had a look at cccDirectsail in Build14 patch6. Seems like the original code was changed somewhat, and this function is outcommented. Which means the function DirectEncounter -about which we are talking all the time- isn't called from there at all! So where are the encounters called now ???? )
(Edit2: Found it. Someone (Screwface, KK ? ) integrated Directsail code into SeaAI\sea.c , into the original SeaLogin(ref Login) function. So if you want to disable encounters to single out possible bugs you must outcomment there. I already changed the instructions above.)



HTH a little. At least it may help you save time by not shooting in the wrong direction.

 

[Black Bart]

Just as a break from all the code talk When were you last playing the Build Mod CCC? I think i missed out on Build Mod 13 completely(i got busy after some of the later build 12 work), then came back to Build Mod 14 beta and found the cool stuff like direct sail and item 'rarity' code etc.

I've found the pacing of char and officer improvements a bit off in the current build, most people play the 'rpg' leveling system which is a bit too slow on skill increases, but compared to the default PotC leveling(where you pick your 2x skills per level up) it is probably the most balanced game play experience currently.

All this potential just needs a little tlc to get the game at it's most interesting imho

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Thanks very much, CCC! I'm not quite sure myself why it's causing weirdness.
The reason we think that the DirectSail encounters can eventually cause though crashes is because of this post:
http://forum.piratesahoy.net/index.php/topic/15382-build-14-beta-1/page__view__findpost__p__403006