The Kapitein of Kralendijk: how do I get arrested, once I've scammed the governor?

[Fluen]

I decided to finish this quest, while I still have a neutral relationship with Holland, and before I ruin that relationship with my conquest of "unauthorized" English towns.

I disguised myself as an officer and "arrested" the governor and "confiscated" his cashbox. When I left the townhall, I shed the uniform and happily sailed out of the harbour.

But I want to close the quest, so I have to get arrested. I took a short holiday on La Grenade and returned to Bonaire. I sailed into the harbour - no reaction. I talked to soldiers guarding the port gate and townhall - no suspicion. I even walked into the townhall and talked to the governor himself - he didn't bat an eyelid, but resumed the usual governor dialogue.

The only other open quest is Sail to Conzumel with Nathaniel and Auretius, so I have Nathaniel as my companion (I play a female character). Is is possible that the two quests interfere with each other, or am I just not doing enough to get attention from the Hollandish?

 

[Grey Roger]

How long did you wait before returning to Kralendijk? Starting from when you grab the money and escape to sea, there's a two week delay before the Kralendijk authorities figure out who did it. After that, you should be arrested when you enter Kralendijk town centre.

It does seem a bit odd that the governor resumes his normal behaviour but that's intentional. The idea is that it should not interfere with other quests! Remember, you were in disguise when you robbed him. He doesn't recognise you out of uniform. (Or, if you're still in uniform, he can't tell one soldier from another.)

 

[Fluen]

You are right, Grey Roger. My first holiday was too short. A longer one activated the soldiers. Please tell me, if I understood the situation correctly concerning surrender versus flight: if I surrender and am later pardoned, I get to keep my good relation with Holland, and if I fight and flee, I become enemies with the nation?

But I found a conflict between having crewmembers with me and the story. If I enter Kralendijk accompanied by crewmembers, the Hollandish soldiers are unable to speak to me. The picture shows this, after I sent my crew away inside Kralendijk. And all doors are locked, so it's a real gamestopper.


If I arrive in the town without my crew (and only Nathaniel, who still follows me everywhere), the soldiers approach me right away. I have tried both the situation, where I surrender, and where I fight and flee.
I used the same gamesave for each situation. And if I send my crew away before entering Kralendijk, everything works. If I don't, the soldiers are mute and in several cases don't appear at all - and all doors are locked.
You can have my savegame from outside Kralendijk:

 

[Grey Roger]

There only appear to be three soldiers in that screenshot. There should be five, of which one is an officer, and it's the officer who talks to you. There's an absolute maximum of 32 characters total in a location; if the game tries to spawn any more, it can't, and there is probably a message in "compile.log" about too many characters. This, incidentally, means your gang of crewmembers are liable to break numerous other quests as well.

Try putting the attached version of "quests_side.c" into "PROGRAM\QUESTS". You'll need to reload a savegame from before you take the money, or at least after taking the money but before going to sea. When you go to sea after scamming the governor, that's when the two week trigger for the arrest is set and it's also where I've now added a command to prevent random walkers from being spawned in town. Failing that, the attached "console.c" has the same command to block random walkers; put that into "PROGRAM", load the savegame from before entering town, press F12, and then go in.

I haven't had a chance to try it myself yet, and I'll be away from tonight until 8th August, so this is a quick attempt to fix the problem without making you wait a week.

 

[Fluen]

Well, you didn't need to work so fast for my sake. As I wrote, I made it work, if I sent my crewmembers away, before I entered Kralendijk to get arrested. So I'm all set to continue my mission to conquer the rest of the Caribbean (and sail to Conzumel sometime, when I get tired of Nathaniel's company).

But I'll test it for you, so you know, if you have found a working solution for future updates.

Have a nice journey.

 

[Fluen]

I tried out the quests_side.c and used it from the savegave, I made before I fetched my updated uniform. I don't know, if it removed any random spawned people in Kralendijk, when I came back to get arrested, but it removed my crew. So it's a solution of a sort.

 

[Grey Roger]

Yes, I found the same when I used your savegame outside town, though I needed to use console to block walkers. I didn't know it would block the crew as well, though it's not too surprising. The idea is to block various extra characters so that quest characters have a better chance of appearing. But it does mean your crew can't help you if you choose to resist arrest...

 

[Fluen]

Well, I was lucky, I had an immortal Nathaniel with me. I suggest, you take a look at this, when you have the time, so you can get the problem solved for a later update/build.

I can also give you a copy of the save, before I fetch the officer's uniform from the tailor, if you want.

And I noticed, that I left Bonaire after my pardon, I was attacked by two Hollandish warships, even though I still had neutral relations with Holland. Is that part of the quest?

 

[Grey Roger]

As far as I'm concerned, the problem is solved - the quest doesn't break if you have ordered some of your crew to accompany you. If you choose to fight even though your army hasn't caught up with you, good luck! Alternatively you can surrender, which is the "proper" choice anyway because that leads to the epilogue in prison. (The whole thing is very loosely based on the story of Wilhelm Voigt, alias the "Captain of Köpenick", and the arrest/prison/pardon is part of the story.)

I've no idea why Dutch ships would have attacked you unless you were already hostile to Holland. The quest only turns Holland hostile if you choose to fight rather than be arrested. If they were already hostile, they might have seen you under a hostile flag or they may have recognised you - ships and forts do now have a chance of seeing through a false flag. Then, when you returned to sea, they could remember you as hostile.

 

[Fluen]

Ok.

I think, I've somehow been branded pirate, even though I've kept well away from sinking all "unauthorized" ships in the storyline in order to keep my good relations with Holland and Portugal. When I sailed out of the port of Sáo Jorge, I was also attacked by two Portuguese warships, while the fort seemed to let me alone, and my reputation is "lady". But I have tier 1 and 2 class ships in my fleet, and they can sink most small ships in one volley, so it might have happened anyway.

Or I might have caused a bug by the conflicting storylines. Because it didn't happen, untill after I had made off with the governor's money.

 

[Grey Roger]

False flag recognition is random. It should be unlikely but it can happen any time you're near an enemy ship or fort. The sidequest shouldn't have any effect on it, and shouldn't change your relations unless you choose to fight the arresting soldiers. And unless you then start fighting Dutch ships, it shouldn't affect your relations with Portugal at all.

But if, after Silehard turned Britain against you, one of your companion ships sank a non-quest British ship, that could turn Holland and Portugal hostile.

The two Portuguese ships would have been one single group. When one ship of a group recognises you, it alerts the rest of its group. The fort is a separate entity so is not alerted unless it gets lucky and recognises you as well. On the other hand, once a ship has recognised you and started firing, you have three choices. You can take fire without responding; you can fire while still under a friendly flag, in which case you'll probably turn pirate and your reputation will drop faster than a cannonball thrown overboard; or you can hoist a hostile flag, start firing back, and the fort will then join in.

 

[Fluen]

Don't know, what I did. The ships were sunk, but my reputation floated, and the fort left me alone.

What did upset both Portugal and Holland was my conquest of Charlestown and Antigua. I do try out your fix for flying a flag hostile to myself and will let you know, when I have a list. But the first experiment worked. As soon as the conquest was done, and I could leave the townhall, I was flying my personal flag again.

 

[Grey Roger]

What did upset both Portugal and Holland was my conquest of Charlestown and Antigua.

That would certainly do it. They're allied to Britain and won't take kindly to you attacking British colonies! Reputation is nothing to do with international relations unless you attack a target while flying a friendly flag, which is extremely dishonorable. Beyond that, you can have top reputation and bottom relations, bottom reputation and top relations, or any other combination. (And one of these days I'll need to see about setting up female titles. A British woman with suitably high standing should be a Baroness, not a Baron, for example.)

 

[Fluen]

Just to be clear, I met the hostile warships, before I took Charlestown and Antigua. I was trying to be funny. At the time, I still had a neutral relationship with both Holland and Portugal.

But the tips on the load screens say, that if one's reputation get sufficiently low, one will find oneself hunted by punitive squadrons all over the Caribbean. Have I misunderstood that one?

 

[Grey Roger]

My guess is that the punitive squadrons are sent by loansharks if you have a bad reputation and have failed to pay back a loan on time. Whether it works properly, I have no idea. If you hadn't upset Holland and Portugal then the only reasons I can think of for their ships to attack you is if they saw you under a hostile flag and remembered you; or if you did a smuggling run to Bonaire, got caught by the coastguard when you returned to sea, and those are the same coastguard ships still looking for you. (They're supposed to disappear when you go to worldmap or direct sail to another island, and they won't follow you from one island to another. Even if you were caught smuggling at Curacao, its coastguard won't show up at Bonaire.)

 

[Fluen]

I haven't done any of those. All loans are paid on time, because I've drowning in money, and only borrowed to check the loansharks. By the way, are there any loansharks on Cuba at all? I can't seem to find any in either Santiago and Havana. And I haven't figured out, where the pirate town is.

And I've given up smuggling in that game completely. Too many hostile islands with only one beach outside the harbour. Well, you have the savegame I uploaded in this thread, so you can check, if it happens again.

 

[Grey Roger]

There are no loansharks on Cuba. Nor is there a pirate town. There's a village near Havana but it's not a pirate colony. It's used for special purposes in a couple of storylines; normally it's not even populated. (Which means you can't conquer it. )

 

[Fluen]

Good. That means, I already rule all of Cuba. And don't have to search further for a loanshark.