Notice [WIP] Enhancement Mod 1.0

[Imperial]

Enhancement Mod
For Sea Dogs v1.30 + 2 DLC

Seeing as I'm back into modding, I was generally distraught about some bad things that I didn't like in the game. The flags, the sounds, and some minor issues here and there. Since the Program folder is encrypted, I couldn't do much to fix some more important issues that I have found, but hopefully, if that comes out eventually (as in the modding access per se) I will eventually modify the rest.

The goal of the mod is to keep the overall feeling of the vanilla game, without adding visual breaking aspects like a different style or whatnot. Here you have a vanilla quality, but better.

Graphical Enhancements
+62 new textures made from scratch to change the overall look of the game
Retextured boarding decks
Retextured taverns and room interiors
Retextured grass (more green and lush grasses for the Caribbean!)
Retextured World Map (it includes some useful informations about landmarks: in example, the Windward Passage etc)
Retextured flags for historical accuracy (like the Burgundy Cross Flag for Spain) and some other minor edits.
Bigger clouds (navigating will be harder, since when a cloud passes over you, you'll lose sight of your ship)
Islands retextured on the map, reflecting unique appearances rather than the dull "all-the-same" in vanilla

Sound Enhancements
New music from Black Sails, AC4:BF, Napoleon:TW
New sound effects for cannons with Bass Boosting (if you like me enjoy playing on speakers rather than headphones, but the added bass is amazing when sending a broadside in your enemy)
New voices for your crew (french voices during free sail, due to Charles de Maure's french origin)

Gameplay Enhancements N/A
Planned features
* Heavier Cargo
* Higher interest rate from loansharks and banks
* Officers will leave you less
* Nationalized ships (ie: Spain will use more Galleons, England will use more brigs etc)
* Titles (being promoted will grant you certain benefits in your nation)
* Friendships (like parties with governors at their mansion etc)

DOWNLOAD
Currently Unavailable / Check for Updates

More screens and some videos to come.

 

[SD:TEHO]

And all this is legal?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

What would be illegal about it?
If the PROGRAM folder cannot be accessed, I'd think all that can be modded is to swap out files in the RESOURCE folder.

The planned features @Imperial mentions sound impossible to accomplish without access to a PROGRAM folder though.

 

[LarryHookins]

Be careful about modifying how the officers leave. It's actually necessary to the game, and eventually you'll have an entire ship of quest officers.

Besides that, when an officer leaves, there are usually better ones in the taverns. Typically, if you're playing a bad guy and you have a good guy officer, his loyalty will go down and eventually he'll want to leave. There are ways to get him to stay. Same if you're a good guy and hire bad guy officers. Other times an officer will simply want to retire. It's difficult losing the abilities they grant, but you can find a better replacement pretty quickly.

Good luck.

Hook

 

[kb31]

This is amazing! Are you planning to update it for the actual version?

P.S. I can unpack PROGRAM for you and pack files back if it is not forbidden on this forum

 

[SD:TEHO]

I´m afraid it is because the PROGRAM folder is locked by the devs and to touch it would be illegal which this forum doesn´t support.

 

[kb31]

I´m afraid it is because the PROGRAM folder is locked by the devs and to touch it would be illegal which this forum doesn´t support.

That's why I asked... However unpacking isn't a law violation without specific declaration(it isn't contrary with EULA). Also, I have another way to get packed files(though, only one by one) without using any illegal(in my opinion) RE methods.

Btw, I guess initially scripts packed by modmakers who had no access to engine... it's probably not related with devs

So the question is still open, waiting for staff answer

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I´m afraid it is because the PROGRAM folder is locked by the devs and to touch it would be illegal which this forum doesn´t support.

Software piracy is something we are not willing to support here.
But that only refers to getting a game through illegal means.

Other than that, why should we care what you do with your own games?
That's none of our responsibility.

 

[kb31]

Software piracy is something we are not willing to support here.
But that only refers to getting a game through illegal means.

Other than that, why should we care what you do with your own games?
That's none of our responsibility. It's yours.

So can I post unpacked scripts here?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

If it turns out the game developers have a problem with it and ask for it to be removed, it will have to be removed.
But I cannot think of any reason why they would do that.
Supporting modding is what keeps a game alive, so it's really only beneficial to them.

As long as it is actually what you say it is and not malware or something, I don't see why you couldn't post modded files.
In the end, what you post is your own responsibility; not ours.

 

[kb31]

I completely agree with you!

Done!
MEGA

 

[kb31]

There are several ways to make them work. Changing program_directory for an unknown reason breaks some scripts, so you can't use it in this way.
You can easily patch engine to force it reading scripts from game folder, but I'm not sure it's not illegal.
The other, legal way - make subfolder in PROGRAM and move there all scripts. In engine.ini add your subfolder before "run" directive. The advantage of this method - you can only retain files you modified, the others will load from packed archive. The complexity of this method is that you need to change ALL paths in scripts you modified to include you subfolder. Also you need to fix-up already existing save-files to play with changed "run" directive, but I have a program which does this for you.(It doesn't fix the problem you should start new game if you added/deleted any globals, arrays. This is the specifics of CORE state saving and could not be solved without source code of engine)

 

[A.H]

I think it's absolutely rubbish that they only put 1 character and they enforce a story on you without a free play experience as in AOP2.
Very big fail which those thickminded nitwits don't understand.
Even more, they make empty promises of the new 1.5 patch release which was promised early December; but instead they released a russian language, which very few people speak.

Now they changed to January & I can promise you it won't be out before February



Do you know if I use this mod whether I can get Steam achievements or not?

 

[LarryHookins]

Better one character than 125. Who the hell is gonna need 125 starting characters? I barely remember that the starting character was French, as I seldom sail under a French flag. You want him to be Spanish? Change his name to Diego.

After you finish the tutorial, which ends after you sail to Guadeloupe and back and talk to the brother a second time, the sandbox portion of the game is opened. You have 3 months to make 1 million pesos. This gives you time to learn the game, level up your character, find a good ship and officers, and maybe a few goodies.

At the end of the 3 months you can go back to the brother and take one of the 3 story lines, or let the brother rot in jail and continue free play as long as you want.

Except for the lack of a good free play start (and that enforced tutorial), and the bizarre sailing model, TEHO is the much better game.

Hook

 

[A.H]

I personally felt more of a open world in AOP2 than TEHO; we shall see if developers made any improvements with the 1.5 patch rather than just add more stupid questions; which I forgot to mention is absolutely difficult. I had to slow speed to 0.25% in order to defend and slash each & every hit .. super hard quests and boring too.

Trading ships also not as fun as in AOP2; very similar combinations of all loot and no variety compared to AOP2... I could go on & on but there are those who like it and those who don't; then there are those who work for them and push their propaganda down other people's throat; as is widely common in Steam nowadays.

 

[kb31]

I think it's absolutely rubbish that they only put 1 character and they enforce a story on you without a free play experience as in AOP2.
Very big fail which those thickminded nitwits don't understand.
Even more, they make empty promises of the new 1.5 patch release which was promised early December; but instead they released a russian language, which very few people speak.

Now they changed to January & I can promise you it won't be out before February



Do you know if I use this mod whether I can get Steam achievements or not?

The thing is that all the devs(both akella and blackmark.bz) are Russians So they develop russian version of the game first, and after testing translate it.
But I'm not sure patch 1.5.0 is something you really expect. This is a list of changes in this patch:

• Storm engine updated to 2.9(As they said this is for proper DLC support);
• DirectX 9 support(I didn't notice the changes =) ) ;
• Quick start - it's possible now to take a loan from the Abbot Benout;
• 20 new achievements;
• "The final lesson" rebalanced;
• "Dangerous Cargo" moved to fort;
• Fixed some bugs and mistakes

This update is necessary for the new DLC

All achievements are processed in scripts, so if you won't modify this parts of code they should work properly

 

[SD:TEHO]

Thanks for that interesting news. Can you tell me what is exactly balanced in the "The Final Lesson" DLC? This is actually very important for me because i didn´t like the timing at all.

"The Final Lesson" quests are badly placed because it is impossible to play them together with the really good quests "A Chief of Redskins" and "False Trace". You simply don´t have enough time for everything in the same moment. That´s the reason why i prefer to skip "The Final Lesson" and play the the other two. Looks like the devs didn´t think well enough about that fact. If they changed that with Patch 1.5 i would give it another try.

 

[kb31]

I haven't got more detailed description, and I can't check it at this moment. You can compare it yourself in scripts I have uploaded before. There are RUS1.5.0 and ENG1.4.1 versions of scripts.

 

[SD:TEHO]

Thanks but i´m not able to understand these kind of things in any way.

 

[A.H]

I'm not sure about the achievements part; but what I meant is.. if I downloaded the mod from this forum and installed on my Steam folder; will it affect achievements in any way?
Or is the mod only applicable for people who downloaded pirated vanilla version of SD?