Rad: Sorry about the delay, and also and more importantly my apologies regarding the Xebec. Don't you be apologizing about it, it's I who should be. I spoke most shortly and poorly towards you. :
Thank you for finding that stuff out; I read it with no less interest than you. <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="
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Regarding towns and ship classes. What I did, rather than making all towns use all classes, I simply commented out the two lines that check ship class and skip the ship if the class is not within the specified min and max.
At the bottom of ShipsShips.c, there is the function void FillShipsList(ref NPChar).
In it you will find the lines:
<!--c1--><div class='codetop'>CODE</div><div class='codemain'><!--ec1--> if (iClass > iClassMin) { continue; }
if (iClass < iClassMax) { continue; }<!--c2--></div><!--ec2-->
Simply put // in front of each to disable the `class-based` skipping.
I did that to your files rather than setting maxclass to 1 to be sure that nothing would get in the way of all classes appearing.
Regarding MOWs tonnage. The game tonnage specified is just that--specified. It's just a number picked by Akella, it has, SFAIK, no connection to the model. What I meant was that Clutch did a volume calculation based on the MOW's dimensions (I assume by taking it as a portion of a cylinder), and found what amount of water that would displace, and thus the actual tonnage of the model.
I agree with you very much that the small ships are also extreme. Especially when the lomen on board are 2x as high as the cabin door...
Well, I'll be darned! I exported the MOW gm to OBJ and looked at the extents. The MOW's Z size is 96.5m, which is not so far from Victory's ~70m. Still a bit large, but not so bad. Ah, that's with Victory's bowsprit and none for the MOW; in fact Victory's gundeck length is ~57m, which is more of a change from 97.
So overlarge MOWs and oversmall small ships, and thus the oddness.
Regarding USS Constitution, I think you're right. IIRC circa 1880 (well, somewhere between 1870 and 1900, better said) she underwent a reconstruction. My recollection is that she was getting quite decayed, and there was a campaign to reconstruct her, which was helped when Oliver Wendell Holmes penned his Old Ironsides poem; memory also whispers that it was in large part the donations of schoolchildren (or parents through them) that paid for it.
What's confusing is that, a quarter century previously, USS Constellation also was "rebuilt"--actually, a built new, but Congress authorized only rebuilding, not new vessels, thus the subterfuge. (The original Constellation being a 36 and smaller sister of Constitution).
And lastly, to put the 36 in perspective, Constitution was only nominally a 44--say rather, a 54, and the firepower to rival a `third-rate` ship of the line because almost all her guns were overheavy. The epitome of a frigate, outrunning those few vessels she could not outfight.
She served until the mid 19th century IIRC--about the time they started using screw frigates--and her later armement was like the (new) Connie, far fewer but heavier guns.
But that's about the sum of my knowledge of her; I've forgotten most of what I once knew. :
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" border="0" alt="dunno.gif" /> Also, the clothes look mid 19th century to me. Could that be a photo of some restauration work?
" border="0" alt="w00t.gif" /> The first true photographic process or heliography was invented around 1824 by a Frenchman, Nicephore Niépce. Here's a nice photography timeline:
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