Poll What Version Are You Playing And Why

[ChezJfrey]

Maybe they stepped up their game now and started on adding new and improved gameplay too.

I still think my first refutation response was better, but since it was removed, I'll try it a different way.

Yeah, I certainly hope that newb, Jeffrey, over at the 'reef finally starts stepping up his game and figures out some way to improve gameplay. Over the last year, all he's managed to do is fairly meaningless:

In addition to the large number of bug fixes in mod/script code, most notably, the game was upgraded from DirectX 8 to DirectX9. The FMOD being used, is now Studio API and is the very latest from July 2017 (As opposed to New Horizons long deprecated fmodex from 2002/3?). The library used to render any video was changed from ddraw (deprecated along with old DirectX 8), to DirectShow. Memory leaks were eradicated, along with index-out-of-bounds errors, null pointer dereferencing, etc. Multithreading was fixed to better adhere to critical sections and proper recognition of variable volatility between threads. Texture lookup algorithms were improved/changed to allow for removal of many duplicate/identical texture files residing in many separate directories, and a tool was written to en-masse compress the weightier texture formats to an aggressive compression format, thus allowing for removal/reduction of many gb worth of asset size. Memory allocation was swapped out from Microsoft's horridly fragmented approach, in favor of an improved algorithm, improving speed and greatly reducing memory fragmentation and noticeably reducing process memory usage. Though not yet released to the public, the entire application was also upgraded to 64 bit (while retaining 32-bit save game compatibility), allowing greater memory consumption and also enhancing speed performance. Various crash fixes, like during mast severing, and geometry file efficiency improvements. Added a feature to revolve/rotate through random song tracks after they are finished, rather than the one-song, continuous loop; this feature is elective based on a toggle for the particular alias group in the .ini; this was to emulate the shanty feature of AC IV, listening to the crew sing while at sea. Support for HLSL shaders has also already been implemented for the next step, which might include a port to DirectX 11, now that 64 bit has been achieved and fairly tested.

I also remember that battle_interface hex-edit fix to stop the crashes, by introducing a perpetual memory leak instead: Solved - Heap Corruption, Random Crashes

All he was able to do with that last one was to actually fix the root cause of that particular battle interface error, without introducing a memory leak.

I guess I'm not so sure any of the above managed to improve gameplay...oh well.

That's a feature of CoAS itself and is not limited to any mod.

No, it's not. COAS has exactly 3 characters to choose from. ERAS has ~130 real historical figures to select from.

As for content, New Horizons contains this:

Tales of a Sea Hawk
The Gold Bug
Assassin
Bartolomeu o Portuguese
The Chronicles of Horatio Hornblower
Hoist the Colours
Woodes Rodgers
Ardent
The Devlin Opera

Side quests:

Borrow Money from a Loan shark
Capturing Colonies
Deliver a Cargo for a Store Owner
Escort a Merchant to another Island
Fetching Items for a Tradesman
Ship Hunting for a Governor
Smuggling
Treasure Quests

Out of the box, COAS (which ERAS shares), contains:

French National Questline
Dutch National Questline
Spanish National Questline
English National Questline
Pirate Questline
Peter Blood
Kill the Beggars
Austin Quest
Hunting the "Blue Bird"
The Double-Barreled Musket
Tenochtitlan
The Enchanted City
City of Abandoned Ships
Ascold Quest
The Ship of Souls
La bella Isabella

Side quests are all the same as New Horizons:

Borrow Money from a Loan shark
Capturing Colonies
Deliver a Cargo for a Store Owner
Escort a Merchant to another Island
Fetching Items for a Tradesman
Ship Hunting for a Governor
Smuggling
Treasure Quests

Plus there's a German mod for CoAS too that is still being worked on. I strongly suspect that one is easily as good as Eras...

Not quite when you find out about Jan and the DZ scam. I actually downloaded that game last August. My interest was piqued by these types of comments:
What all do I need for the Gentlemen of Fortune 2.5 HI mod?

The German Mod MotCS was adjusted.
We have re-started and doing something new.
The orginale game has been further developed.
The game already has a newer source code.
DirectX 11, NetFrameWorks 4 to 4.5..

I downloaded the DZ version, and tried to run. Error: Need to insert cd…because Tages. There is no Tages needed if it was compiled from source because that code and necessary key is not included. I compared every single .dll file and they are all the EXACT same, byte-for-byte to the originals off the stock cd. That is impossible if it was compiled under .NET framework, it would be completely different as the source would be rewritten in a different language for .NET, the Windows includes and compiler are all different, would optimize differently than back in the 2004-6 era. It does not run DirectX 11, or even 9…it still runs version 8, just like before. In short, that 'newer source code' and 'further developed' for DX 11 and .NET 4.5 is wholly untrue as all they did was use a resource hacker to change the created/modified dates of the .dll files taken directly from the COAS cd and claimed to have 'redone.'

 

[Jan Marten]

@ChezJfey
Yes, they do not have the development version either. I wrote,which we do not work together.
We have other plans.

The German Mod MotCS is over 2 years old. We do not work on any mod anymore.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I still think my first refutation response was better, but since it was removed, I'll try it a different way.

There must have been a very good reason for it being removed.
It was deleted before I ever saw it.

Yeah, I certainly hope that newb, Jeffrey, over at the 'reef finally starts stepping up his game and figures out some way to improve gameplay. Over the last year, all he's managed to do is fairly meaningless:

In addition to the large number of bug fixes in mod/script code, most notably, the game was upgraded from DirectX 8 to DirectX9. The FMOD being used, is now Studio API and is the very latest from July 2017 (As opposed to New Horizons long deprecated fmodex from 2002/3?). The library used to render any video was changed from ddraw (deprecated along with old DirectX 8), to DirectShow. Memory leaks were eradicated, along with index-out-of-bounds errors, null pointer dereferencing, etc. Multithreading was fixed to better adhere to critical sections and proper recognition of variable volatility between threads. Texture lookup algorithms were improved/changed to allow for removal of many duplicate/identical texture files residing in many separate directories, and a tool was written to en-masse compress the weightier texture formats to an aggressive compression format, thus allowing for removal/reduction of many gb worth of asset size. Memory allocation was swapped out from Microsoft's horridly fragmented approach, in favor of an improved algorithm, improving speed and greatly reducing memory fragmentation and noticeably reducing process memory usage. Though not yet released to the public, the entire application was also upgraded to 64 bit (while retaining 32-bit save game compatibility), allowing greater memory consumption and also enhancing speed performance. Various crash fixes, like during mast severing, and geometry file efficiency improvements. Added a feature to revolve/rotate through random song tracks after they are finished, rather than the one-song, continuous loop; this feature is elective based on a toggle for the particular alias group in the .ini; this was to emulate the shanty feature of AC IV, listening to the crew sing while at sea. Support for HLSL shaders has also already been implemented for the next step, which might include a port to DirectX 11, now that 64 bit has been achieved and fairly tested.

I also remember that battle_interface hex-edit fix to stop the crashes, by introducing a perpetual memory leak instead: Solved - Heap Corruption, Random Crashes

All he was able to do with that last one was to actually fix the root cause of that particular battle interface error, without introducing a memory leak.

I guess I'm not so sure any of the above managed to improve gameplay...oh well.

You always led me to understand your work on the Storm Engine Source Code was meant for all games and all mods.
Therefore I considered your work unrelated and independent from the Eras mod.
Apparently I misunderstood.

No, it's not. COAS has exactly 3 characters to choose from. ERAS has ~130 real historical figures to select from.

According to the stock CoAS code files, the original game had 18 such characters, not 3.
But the exact number does not matter; the feature itself is from stock CoAS, which was my point.
Eras built on that by adding more of them.

As for content, New Horizons contains this:

Tales of a Sea Hawk
The Gold Bug
Assassin
Bartolomeu o Portuguese
The Chronicles of Horatio Hornblower
Hoist the Colours
Woodes Rodgers
Ardent
The Devlin Opera

Side quests:

Borrow Money from a Loan shark
Capturing Colonies
Deliver a Cargo for a Store Owner
Escort a Merchant to another Island
Fetching Items for a Tradesman
Ship Hunting for a Governor
Smuggling
Treasure Quests

I think you missed a bit:

1. A girl won in a card game --- Randomly by playing card games
2. Artois Voysey (quest) --- At Nevis pirate settlement --- Cancels Nigel Blythe (quest)
3. Baldewyn Coffier & Arnaud Matton --- At St Pierre, Martinique
4. Cargo for Thomas O'Reily --- With Port Royale store owner
5. Church Protection --- In any church (not for the faint of heart!)
6. Edgar Attwood Adventures --- At Port Royale Prison
7. Elizabeth Shaw's Disappearance --- With Cayman Governor
8. Escort Vigila Mendes' ship --- At Puerto Ricoport
9. Find Angelique Moulin's Father --- In Port au Prince town
10. Find the missing son of the Spanish admiral --- At Puerto Rico Town Hall
11. Hard Labors of an Assassin --- In Sao Jorge, Grenada, tavern --- offered work by Ambroz Bricenos
12. Help the Boatswain --- (Fred Bob) --- In Martinique port --- Hire Fred Bob as soon as possible - excellent officer
13. Help the church --- At Port Royale church --- more-or-less part of Strange Things going on in the Caribbean
14. Help the Lady --- At San Juan Church, Puerto Rico --- sequel to Help The Boatswain
15. Help the Turks island settlement --- At Turks tavern
16. Hire A Sailor - Rys Bloom --- In Port Royale Port
17. Mysterious Plants (Apothecary Quest ) --- In Bridgetown, Barbados
18. Nigel Blythe (quest) --- At Nevis pirate settlement --- Cancels Artois Voysey (quest)
19. Opium Smuggling - A Smugglers Life for Me --- Talk to a Governor
20. Patric and the idols --- At Martinique town
21. Rescue Peter Blood's crew --- In Cayman tavern
22. Sabine Matton --- In St Pierre, Martinique --- sequel to Baldewyn Coffier & Arnaud Matton
23. Saving Toff's daughter --- In Kralendijk tavern
24. Search for Peter Blood's ship --- At Pointe a Pitre, Guadeloupe --- Sequel to Rescue Peter Blood's crew
25. Sink the Pirate corvette --- With Martiniquegovernor
26. Sinking The Vogelstruijs --- At Port Au Prince, Hispaniola, Town Hall
27. Smuggling for Thomas O'Reily --- With Port Royale store owner --- sequel to Cargo for Thomas O'Reily
28. Strange things going on in the Caribbean --- With ladies in front of Kralendijk Town Hall
29. The French pirate in the tavern --- At Puerto Rico tavern
30. The Saga of the Blacque Family --- At St Pierre Martinique Port
31. The Silver Train --- With Tortuga tavern owner
32. Thierry Bosquet - Pirates in the Tavern --- At St Pierre, Martinique
33. Woman who Lost her Husband and Son --- At Martinique Church
34. Zaid Murro's problems --- At San Juan, Port, Puerto Rico --- sequel to Escort Vigila Mendes' ship

Most storylines and some side quest content was added by the mod and did not exist in the original game.

Out of the box, COAS (which ERAS shares), contains:

French National Questline
Dutch National Questline
Spanish National Questline
English National Questline
Pirate Questline
Peter Blood
Kill the Beggars
Austin Quest
Hunting the "Blue Bird"
The Double-Barreled Musket
Tenochtitlan
The Enchanted City
City of Abandoned Ships
Ascold Quest
The Ship of Souls
La bella Isabella

Side quests are all the same as New Horizons:

Borrow Money from a Loan shark
Capturing Colonies
Deliver a Cargo for a Store Owner
Escort a Merchant to another Island
Fetching Items for a Tradesman
Ship Hunting for a Governor
Smuggling
Treasure Quests

Since all of that was part of the original game, it says something about the quality of that original game.
It therefore says nothing about the Eras mod.

Not quite when you find out about Jan and the DZ scam. I actually downloaded that game last August. My interest was piqued by these types of comments:
What all do I need for the Gentlemen of Fortune 2.5 HI mod?

I downloaded the DZ version, and tried to run. Error: Need to insert cd…because Tages. There is no Tages needed if it was compiled from source because that code and necessary key is not included. I compared every single .dll file and they are all the EXACT same, byte-for-byte to the originals off the stock cd. That is impossible if it was compiled under .NET framework, it would be completely different as the source would be rewritten in a different language for .NET, the Windows includes and compiler are all different, would optimize differently than back in the 2004-6 era. It does not run DirectX 11, or even 9…it still runs version 8, just like before. In short, that 'newer source code' and 'further developed' for DX 11 and .NET 4.5 is wholly untrue as all they did was use a resource hacker to change the created/modified dates of the .dll files taken directly from the COAS cd and claimed to have 'redone.'

As far as I know, the DZ team does admirable work for the German players.
I am not German and I am not a player, so I know nothing more than this.
So it makes no real difference, does it?

 

[Flame]

Whoaaa sounds like some jealous issues but dont really care + it dont involve me

But I wana give a shizzle shout out to ChezJFrey and thank the guy for the incredible hard work. I would thank him on the buccaneersreef website but I cant sign in or register.

This great modified eras game is crazy fast with no lagging and plays unbelievable awesome. It never crashes + never disappoints. Not to bag on ChezJFrey in any way but he missed a few quests and there might be more I don't know about because I haven't played them all.

The Pearl Divers quest
And I think there is another separate pearl quest for Jackman and Morgan that arent part of the pirate quest
Exact revenge on a pirate captain for a lady who has been dishonored
Rescue family members. This can be husbands or wifes taken by pirate captains and can be difficult following them all over the place
Espionage mission consisting of stealing ship plans from other shipyards for master architects
Destroy the smugglers
Retrieve dispatches for governors
Deliver dispatches for governors
Kill barmaid's boyfriend
Find the governor's wedding ring
Find jewels for the money lender
Bounty hunter mission for money lender
Protect the Church night watchman mission
Clear the local caves of evil spirits for the church
Donate to the Church from the Brothel
Rescue prisoners from Dungeons which leads to additional treasure quests if you are successful

I think I am forgetting a few. They say they are making more new ones also.

I thought this topic was about best Gentlemen of Fortune mods. Well this one = meaning Eras $ is the best. The huge types of so many different ships and all the different ship flags all by them selves make this game so great.

I couldn't never get into the big Horizons mod here for several reasons. I hate the way the character walks and cant run unless you speed up time. I hate the way the character fights. I hate the poor selection of weapons and ships. I hate that I can only control four ships at once in my fleet when eras has 8 and I hate the deck scenes on the ships. The many varied deck and cabin scenes in Gentlemen of Fortune eras are amazing. The one thing I don't like about Gentlemen of Fortune eras is that I cant play the later time periods with the beautiful frigate classed ships. I know they say they are working on that too but it doesnt seem like it. But I don't like how this is done in the Horizons game either because in 1750 I encounter all kinds of ships that are from a hundred years before. So I completely lose immersion because it is not realistic.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

"Hate" is a strong word, isn't it? I'd be careful with it. People might take it the wrong way.

I hate the way the character walks

That relates to the stock game character animations.
Try one of the AoP characters included in the mod.

cant run unless you speed up time.

Untrue; with the mod, you run by default. With time compression, you run faster.
You can also try this: Mod Release - Double Running Speed (now realistic 6.6 m/s)

the way the character fights

Known limitation of the stock game. No solution for that, unfortunately.

the poor selection of weapons

What's wrong with the weapons?

and ships

Even more baffling. What's wrong with those?

I can only control four ships at once in my fleet when eras has 8

There is an unfinished feature in New Horizons to increase this to 8 as well.
Somebody just needs to step in and finish it.

the deck scenes on the ships

Again, what's wrong? Are those not the same 3D models shared between all other games in the AoP/SD series?

in 1750 I encounter all kinds of ships that are from a hundred years before

Changing that is beyond easy. If you tell us the examples, we can tell you how to change it in your own game.
If your suggested changes make sense, we can even include them in the next official update of the mod.
With full credit to you, of course.

 

[LarryHookins]

I am writing this in an official capacity.

There is a big difference between stating "I prefer this version" which is what this poll is about, and ragging on other versions, including by saying "Mine is the best."

If you prefer stock COAS, fine. If you prefer one of the mods, that's fine too. There is something for everyone. As long as people are playing the various versions, there are no bad games.

Let's keep an atmosphere of mutual respect here from now on.

Hook

 

[LarryHookins]

From the Wikipedia article on Galleons:

Galleons were large, multi-decked sailing ships used as armed cargo carriers primarily by European states from the 16th to 18th centuries

Such ships were the mainstay of maritime commerce into the early 19th century

Hook