Trophies in the Free Play mode

[pedrwyth]

Give it a try - I've played the poker tournament to completion but perhaps you'll spot something I overlooked.

I put the zip over what I think was a aug 21 version and get no cards, money icons etc in the gamble interface in the tavern? Some problem with the british_cards texture I presume.

Also the black rectangle bottom right is back (that is via the gamble.ini file in resources INI interfaces) I had removed it and although it affected the tavern stuff too thought it looked better without it. If you want to restore it in the main play (it was back in your aug zip) I guess I will work out how to just remove it for the tournament (if possible).

I will try with a complete fresh install and then the gamble_update.zip

EDIT the clean install removed the problem with cards and coins. More later

 

[Grey Roger]

I put the zip over what I think was a aug 21 version and get no cards, money icons etc in the gamble interface in the tavern? Some problem with the british_cards texture I presume.

Strange. Is there anything in "system.log" about missing files? That is, if you can find anythng about missing card files among the long list of missing textures for some locations. Certainly there's no new version of "british_cards.tga.tx" in the zip. I didn't change any part of "gamble.c" involved in choosing cards, and anyway I tried both tournament and tavern poker before uploading the zip.

Also the black rectangle bottom right is back (that is via the gamble.ini file in resources INI interfaces) I had removed it and although it affected the tavern stuff too thought it looked better without it. If you want to restore it in the main play (it was back in your aug zip) I guess I will work out how to just remove it for the tournament (if possible).

Yes, I tried your version without the dark box, felt that it made the player's interface area less clear, and put it back. If you can work out how to remove the box for the tournament, fine. Or, if you feel strongly about it, I'll put your version of "gamble.ini" into the next update - though I prefer the box, I'll not be upset if it has to go.

I wonder if you could also improve hand ranking? At present it takes no account of kickers. For example, if I have A, Q, J, 10, 9 and the opponent has A, K, J, 10, 9, and neither hand is single suit for a flush, then we both have ace high and it's a draw. But his kicker is a king, mine is a queen, so he should win. Ideally it should go through the whole hand - if I have A, Q, J, 10, 9 and he has A, Q, J, 10, 8 then I should win.

 

[pedrwyth]

Yes, I tried your version without the dark box, felt that it made the player's interface area less clear, and put it back. If you can work out how to remove the box for the tournament, fine. Or, if you feel strongly about it, I'll put your version of "gamble.ini" into the next update - though I prefer the box, I'll not be upset if it has to go.

The removal of the black rectangle is key for me for style on the tournament table, but clearly someone agrees with you about the box in the tavern or they wouldn't have added it.

I have worked out how to avoid it in tournament but it basically means creating a separate interface call to use a different ini for tournament poker. However this may not be a bad thing since it would allow use of a different section file (ie not gamble.c) and facilitate removal of any interaction between the two situations and therefore things like having a gambler in Turks tavern or the player abandoning the tournament would cease to be potentially problematical. I have got a halfway-house working version still using gamble.c and it would just need copying/renaming and the redundant code (for dice and vingt-un as an example) stripping out. and extensive testing. Gamble.c could then also be similarly simplified by removal of tournament stuff.

I wonder if you could also improve hand ranking? At present it takes no account of kickers. For example, if I have A, Q, J, 10, 9 and the opponent has A, K, J, 10, 9, and neither hand is single suit for a flush, then we both have ace high and it's a draw. But his kicker is a king, mine is a queen, so he should win. Ideally it should go through the whole hand - if I have A, Q, J, 10, 9 and he has A, Q, J, 10, 8 then I should win.

Not that simple given the current method of tracking the highest card as I remember but something to bear in mind if addressing and improved AI for raising and folding in the future.

 

[Grey Roger]

I've made a start on the agent quest.

... and now I'm working on a start quest for the agent.

At present, when you start the game, a naval officer tells you to go into town and make trouble, which spawns a quest titled "Sabotage <insert town name here>", which closes at once because there's nothing to sabotage and not much way to make trouble, apart from randomly attacking people. The new quest will start when that officer continues his briefing to tell you to contact another agent in the tavern. After that agent and you have confirmed each other's identities, the agent asks where your ship is located, and if it's still in port then you're asked to move it somewhere else. Once the ship is somewhere other than in port, the agent wants to be taken somewhere to hand over a stolen enemy document, destination depending on the agent's (and your) nationality. When you get there, you can have either a free LoM or some money. (Not specifically related to this quest, that LoM means you can do governor smuggling quests, just the sort of job for an agent...)

 

[Grey Roger]

The extended briefing from your superior officer:


Your fellow agent needs your help:


On the beach, you're told where to go next:


And when you get there, you're rewarded:


Incidentally, @The Nameless Pirate might recognise the agent's French disguise. "Sharl" doesn't currently have a talking head because he's an import from a later game, and later games don't use talking heads. But "Sharl" is the same model as "Devlin" with a different texture. And @Jack Rackham made a talking head for "Devlin" some time ago. So all I had to do was make a copy of Devlin's head texture file, modify it to use Sharl's texture with the same areas blanked out, and then make a copy of Devlin's head model hex-edited to use the new texture.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Despite my FIRM disagreement with one particular element of the CORE PREMISE of this thread,
this thread has received the STICKY trophy.

 

[BathtubPirate]

I have finally played the agent quest(s) and it was nice. In a perfect world, every background profession would get its own little quest or task, but it seems like not much happened after the addition of engineer, gambler and agent.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

In a perfect world, every background profession would get its own little quest or task

In an ideal world, each such general quest should be available to any player regardless of their initial background profession.

it seems like not much happened after the addition of engineer, gambler and agent.

MANY things happened.
Devlin Opera happened.
Jack Sparrow happened.
Cannon happened.

 

[BathtubPirate]

In an ideal world, each such general quest should be available to any player regardless of their initial background profession.

No, because such things are ideal to distinguish the different background professions from each other beyond just the distribution of your first skill points.

"Not much happened" means just the Free Play quests of course.

 

[Grey Roger]

I have finally played the agent quest(s) and it was nice. In a perfect world, every background profession would get its own little quest or task, but it seems like not much happened after the addition of engineer, gambler and agent.

Adding more quests for other background professions requires someone to write them. Most of the folks who are able to write quests are currently busy with other projects.

I've an idea for the Social Climber, currently in development and might some day be finished. And another couple of ideas for the Army Veteran, neither of them started so anyone else is free to either use one of them or do something completely different.
1: At present the only way to save Lucas da Saldanha is to pay the ransom. Killing Billy Brock won't do any good because Francis Snake is upstairs waiting to kill Lucas if you do anything silly. So, how to subtract two kidnappers from one hideout and have one live hostage left over? It seems like a problem in military strategy, therefore requires someone with military experience...

2: Something similar to "The Magnificent Seven", possibly set in the village near Santo Domingo. Train the locals in combat, then help them fight some bandits.

 

[BathtubPirate]

Adding more quests for other background professions requires someone to write them. Most of the folks who are able to write quests are currently busy with other projects.

Of course. I am busy as well.

But nice to know the other professions have not been completely forgotten about!

Personally, I once had an idea for the Explorer, but don't know how good that would be.

It could be using the Santiago cartographer, if there's no collision of interest. Obviously real exploring and charting isn't easily possible, but I was thinking that maps from the 1500s to the 1800s have one thing in common: They could still always be improved on. So the cartographer would give you a list of "points of interest" (maybe geographical features or special locations) and ask you to clear some details should you get there during your travels. It's not worth for him to travel extensively himself for minor details and improvements.

You would then get a notification when you reached such a point of interest, and every time you visit the cartographer again, you can talk to him about the places you've been. Just an easy example: Let's say a point of interest was "The River on Bonaire" and you got a notification when you entered the Kralendijk outskirts. The cartographer would now ask you about the course of the river near town, as that is the detail yet unclear on his maps. You have three answer options:

a) The river leads into a man-made canal going through the town
b) The river comes down from the mountains in a waterfall
c) There's a dry river bed, I haven't found a drop of water

The cartographer would then check his earlier map drafts, notes, other witness reports or whatever (skips one hour) and depending on the correctness of your answer either say something like "I'm sorry, this doesn't seem to add up, it can't be right" and you get nothing, or "Yes, that seems to add up, I'll make sure to include this detail in all my future maps" in which case you get some XP and ideally the map of the island (in my example Bonaire) as it has just been "finished" by the cartographer. Of course, in reality the map won't be any different at all, but it kinda works in the narrative logic and would be a new way for the Explorer to collet island maps. The thing as a whole could be done as a side activity or as a systematic search for all the places and would mostly encourage you to go through "life" with more opened eyes. It would stand and fall with a good selection of places.

2: Something similar to "The Magnificent Seven", possibly set in the village near Santo Domingo. Train the locals in combat, then help them fight some bandits.

Why not mentioning the original Samurais? Making some use of this village would be great, I've just been there because of the Devlin quest location I'm adding near Santo Domingo. The church interior seems a bit too big for such a village, it's the spanish cathedral interior.

 

[Grey Roger]

Maps: note that there's a finite limit to how many different types of item you can carry. This is why it's a good idea to put skill bonus items into your ship's chest, you still get their benefits and they no longer count against that limit. It's also why I never buy maps of dungeons.

Magnificent Seven Samurais: the film was also remade into a science-fiction version, "Battle Beyond the Stars". It even had one of the actors from "The Magnificent Seven", Robert Vaughn, playing this film's version of his original character.

Village church: don't change the interior or you may break the "Bartolomeu" story, which has some action in there. (The church in Santo Domingo is closed, so some of the townsfolk go to the village church. Perhaps that's why it is so large!)

 

[Pieter Boelen]

No, because such things are ideal to distinguish the different background professions from each other beyond just the distribution of your first skill points.

You used the word "Perfect".
I replaced it with "Ideal".

But perhaps you are right...
Perhaps what is right is "iDeal".

"Not much happened" means just the Free Play quests of course.

Hasn't @Grey Roger been working on some of the generally available ones?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Social Climber

Me.

Army Veteran

@Vosk's dream.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Why not mentioning the original Samurais?

Because that story has already been told?
At infinitum?
There's at least THREE copies of it within Star Wars alone.
If I counted correctly.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Maps: note that there's a finite limit to how many different types of item you can carry.

There is?
How come?

The church in Santo Domingo is closed, so some of the townsfolk go to the village church.

They DO?
Since WHEN?
Last time I checked/knew, that was an UNFINISHED feature left inside the stock game code.

 

[Grey Roger]

Hasn't @Grey Roger been working on some of the generally available ones?

I've been doing various tweaks and bug-fixes to all sorts of things. As far as FreePlay quests are concerned, though, my main recent contribution isn't a general quest, it's the Agent quests. (One at the start of your Agent game, and one as a "trophy quest" for when you've been playing for a while.)

Because that story has already been told?
At infinitum?
There's at least THREE copies of it within Star Wars alone.
If I counted correctly.

"Star Wars" has three copies of "The Seven Samurai", alias "The Magnificent Seven", alias "Battle Beyond the Stars"? In that case, it's definitely time we had one as well.

There is?
How come?

I don't know off-hand where it's coded, but there's certainly a limit. It can be annoying if you're at the limit, pay a blacksmith to polish a sword, and get nothing for your money because the polished version would be one item too many. On the other hand, chests have no such limit, only your own inventory. Collect all sorts of junk and dump it in your ship's locker. Then, if you're stuck with an albatross, take as much junk out of the chest as you can. Put the albatross in the chest, pick up one more item of junk, and quit the chest. The albatross tries to jump back into your pocket, can't because you have too much stuff, and disappears. Dump the junk back into the chest, ready for the next albatross.

They DO?
Since WHEN?
Last time I checked/knew, that was an UNFINISHED feature left inside the stock game code.

The church in Santo Domingo is closed because nobody added an interior for it. Instead, if you talk to one of the citizens and ask if there's anything else on the island, you may be told:

Now you mention it, there is a village a little way out of town. Some people go to the church there as ours is closed.

Nothing of Santo Domingo church is in stock game code because Santo Domingo isn't in the stock game.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

"Star Wars" has three copies of "The Seven Samurai", alias "The Magnificent Seven", alias "Battle Beyond the Stars"? In that case, it's definitely time we had one as well.

Perhaps.

I don't know off-hand where it's coded

My assumption:
INSIDE the Engine.

Nothing of Santo Domingo church is in stock game code because Santo Domingo isn't in the stock game.

And yet...
I maintain that:

Last time I checked/knew, that was an UNFINISHED feature left inside the stock game [PROGRAM] code.

 

[Fluen]

I came to think about a little quest for the castaway. Their possessions are still aboard the ship they fell from. How about finding and reclaming those possessions?

Perhaps the castaway must have aquired a suitable ship and suitable navigational instruments to start this quest?

Is the captain of the original ship honest and just safekeeps the possesions, so the castaway must track the ship to reclaim them? Is the captain dishonest and refuses to give the possessions back, so the castaway is forced to either duel him or board his ship?
Perhaps the captain believed the castaway dead and shared the possessions among the crew, of which some have later settled on dry land, so the castaway has to find them?

Some other suggestions to have the castaway search the Caribbean?

 

[Grey Roger]

Interesting idea. You'd first need to record the original ship - captain's name, nation and model, plus ship type and name. Then you'd probably want to lay some sort of trail for the player to follow - people in taverns, dock workers, etc.

The player probably didn't start with a ship or navigational equipment. Judging by the initial talk with the captain, the player is a passenger, not a ship owner. Assuming the character didn't spend all life savings paying for passage on this ship, it may be possible to claim some money from the captain, possibly a basic clock (the icon looks like a watch so it's reasonable for a landlubber civilian to carry one) and probably weapons. The player could perhaps also demand more money as compensation for being washed overboard instead of being given a proper cabin. (Of course, you could change the initial dialog text if you want the player to have a different background before the storm.)

In any case, if you want this to happen, you'll be the one writing it. We can help you do it but it's unlikely anyone else will write the quest for you - anyone willing to write quests probably has their own ideas, and I'm a bit busy trying to fix bugs.