• New Horizons on Maelstrom
    Maelstrom New Horizons


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Willemstad Builders' Trials

I'm running a new NH storyline (as usual, I don't play the storyline and do it the hard way) and encountered the following:

1. I left Marigot for an easy chocolate smuggling run to Antigua which is the short distance southwest. I observed a pirate Espadina (that's small coastal monitor to you non Spaniards) getting utterly devastated by a new flush deck frigate and a grand schooner. The AI fights them -very- well.

2. I encountered a British patrol of 1 lineship 44 escorted by 2 sloops of war. I managed to slip by the warships although the 2 sloops of war were sailed very aggressively and attempted long range gunnery. Took one hit (yes one)

3. Offloaded at Antigua without incident and sailing back to Marigot, encountered one pirate light frigate with red and black sails that made her almost completely invisible in the moonless night! The thing appeared to sail by peacefully then suddenly bore down on me from behind.

4. We were running "away" from a 15kts wind and the huge sail area of the frigate gave her the advantage in that regard. There was nothing much to do for me but keep running and attempt to fire the rear chaser (I regretted keeping only one cannon). The chase lasted several days before we were locked in a stalemate (how can one cannon have a measurable impact on the frigate's massive rigging? The new damage stats is perfect!)

5. I did a brave thing and engaged in high speed combat maneuvering to unmask one broadside, fire at enemy, and continue running. The frigate was ten times my tonnage and didn't actually manage to follow well despite her best visible efforts. As she started floundering and inertia made the big ship react poorly to the rapid course changes I slipped upwind with the rudder hard over and coasting with sails reefed evading the enemy broadside to gain the weather gage, continuing to sail in close reach where the frigate and her lightly damaged rigging could not keep up and steadily fell behind as I recovered at Rico after wondering where in the world I am. Because of the chase (and no more cheat of looking at wind direction indicators!) I found myself way off course in the middle of the Atlantic and navigated by way of wind direction only - hoping that the northerly wind that day was constant.

6. Doing the final run to Rico, an English convoy of 1 3rd rate, 1 4th rate escorting 2 East Indiamen attempted to intercept and block my path. I went to sleep watching Avatar for the second time :p
 
That does sound cool. I hope other people will be appreciating things like that once Build 14 Beta 1 is release as well! :woot
 
i intend to start keeping an online logbook again once i can. it should be quite an interesting experience.
 
Yes, it should. Especially if you can finally get our Build 14 work. ;)
 
i will. the only thing i need to do is get a replacement power supply for a computer a friend's handing over. which happens to be a quad-core, 4 gig RAM, 9.6 Ghz computer, for a total of 80 euro's. booyah.

but i'm drifting here....
 
At last! Once you've got a computer that can run New Horizons,
you should be able to have a look of fun with all the new realism features, such as the ship handling! :woot

Snow White Sorrow, if you think it's a good idea, I'd like to include the most recent version of the
WBT accompanying documentation in the Build 14 Beta 1 "\buildinfo" folder.
 
Buildinfo? Who said I'm happy with a .txt file?

There's still time to generate a proper manual for this.
 
Who said anything about a TXT file? I was going to put the PDF file in there! :rolleyes:
 
of course. it seems odd to completely skip the paddlesteamers, but we can't make them spin anyway, so screw-propelled ships are the next best thing.
 
We can ignore the fact that they don't move.
Most paddlesteamers have the moving part underwater (or near to it) anyway.
And Snow White Sorrow is going to make some prop wash particles coming from the wheels as well.
That'd make it look a lot less static.
 
allright, sounds more less like what i had in mind. good news. i loved the paddlesteamers in empire total war too. gotta have engine sound though.
 
I'll need dear Pieter's help for the prop wash, but I think it's just a minor problem. We won't have perfect smokestack emissions due to engine limitations (but strangely if I load the steamship up in an old savegame the smoke DOES work correctly!)

I've just finished polishing up the model assignments for our first steam vessel and have a lot of work to do on documentation, sailing model (it's pretty much a jury rigged performance because we are in a sailing, not steaming game) and of course making things look right.
 
In testing WBT I have found that the values are very good!
But I think that the counter-rudder needed is a bit to realistic for arcade mode. I think this may lead to complaints from players who enjoy more arcade settings. I was battling close to Eleuthera and tried to turn away from an island but just ended up ramming it cause I didnt turn enough costing me half my sails and nearly all of my hull.

For realistic settings its great cause well it is realistic :shrug

What I would suggest to fix it is take the original inertia and make them arcade and then WBT ones realistic
For example:
Code: 
if (!bArcadeMode){
refShip.InertiaAccelerationX	= 6;	refShip.InertiaBrakingX		= 0.4;
refShip.InertiaAccelerationY	= 2.5;	refShip.InertiaBrakingY		= 0.25;
refShip.InertiaAccelerationZ	= 2.5;	refShip.InertiaBrakingZ		= 2.0;
}else{
refShip.InertiaAccelerationX	= 0.2;	refShip.InertiaBrakingX		= 2.0;
refShip.InertiaAccelerationY	= 6;	refShip.InertiaBrakingY		= 4;
refShip.InertiaAccelerationZ	= 3.0;	refShip.InertiaBrakingZ		= 3.0;
}
This is for the caravel1 and would make the original inertia values be for Arcade Mode and WBT values for Realistic
 
I can indeed imagine that more "regular" players could get confused on this.
Certainly, it is realistic and does work well,
but we have to consider players with different tastes. :facepalm
 
For arcade mode you can modify the turnrate using the advanced options. And of course, some common sense in maneuvering, then WBT/arcade gets a bit more fun than stock/arcade since orbital attacks don't need keyboard mashing, and some ships like sloops turn on a dime.

Caravels don't, and that is reflected in my documentation as a point of game balancing, and realism.

All you need to do to prevent players from crashing is to tell them that ships, like in the real world, do have some mass and take due care. If everyone can figure out the diverse and potentially complicated features in Build with little issue other than "how can I get HMS Victory?", then I don't forsee any issue with WBT especially where its arcade mode with a stupendous turn and speed rate boost.

After all, everyone here can drive a car, yes? Braking distance does need consideration, yes?

Same here.
 
the point of arcade mode is to sacrifice realism for simplicity. therefore, ship weight/inertia shouldn't be in arcade mode (by default, maybe).
 
In that case I will simply repeat myself until the point is registered:

Arcade mode does not detract from WBT gameplay. It improves it.

Half of development time was spent in arcade mode.

The point of WBT is to merge realism and action.

How hard is it to understand that?
 
i understand your point. i'm giving a counterpoint. i'm not concerned about the quality of gameplay, since i love the WBT mod, it's the original purpose of arcade mode. you know how the game works, but that doesn't mean a completely new player would.
 
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