I am an active moderator on PiratesAhoy.net, home of the PotC Build Mod (and more recently, the Hearts of Oak project). I have made numerous contributions to the latest version of New Horizons, including porting new ships, upgrading old ones, and some texture and code work. I'm currently working as a 3D artist on the Hearts of Oak development team, creating ship models for the game. If you have any questions about PiratesAhoy!, the Build Mod or Hearts of Oak, please visit our forums at www.piratesahoy.net/forum for the quickest response.

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Rebuilding the Stock Frigate

Armada_ Blog

Ahoy mateys!

It's been a while since I've posted any news here, so I thought it was time to share one of my current projects with you.

Most of us at PA! believe that the stock POTC was fairly good, but it left a lot to be desired. One of the most glaring issues the game had was the poor quality of some of its ship models. While they worked well within the game's atmosphere and gave it some character, they just weren't realistic in many ways at all. In fact, some of the ships look like they were just made up based on loose historical knowledge.
However, we recently discovered that one ship was not so randomly generated as we thought. As it happens, the stock frigate appears to have been based on a real 18th century frigate of the Russian Navy! None of us saw that one coming, and if you don't believe me, check out these images here to see the striking resemblance yourself.

Now, as admirable the efforts of Akella's modellers may be, unfortunately their interpretation of this elegant vessel was not very accurate. The texture was very close, but the model itself just didn't do the real ship justice. Still, I was inspired by the mere fact that at least one of the stock ships had a real-world counterpart, and wished I could so something to improve the model.

It doesn't stop there, though. The same site linked to above provides the plans used to make the wooden model featured in the photos. That, plus the photos, is more than enough to rebuild the frigate to a much higher standard. So, having tampered with some of the game's models for some time (and more recently upgraded the stock 'Corvette' model), I decided it was time for me to take on a much more demanding project, and began work on this immense upgrade for the stock frigate.

UPDATE: The model is now finished and included in Build 14 Beta 2.3! See below for a comparison of the new model with the original frigate:

Ship Pack Updates

Armada_ Blog

Ahoy, mateys!

A lot of what I do over at PiratesAhoy! is based in the ships department, which is the area I feel most passionate about. Ships of the Age of Sail were a beauty to behold, and our mod captures that beauty in ways we could never have imagined eight years ago- when PotC was originally released. Due to the fact that we are always going through continuous improvement with the mod, we're always updating these wonderful ships, as well as adding highly detailed new ones every now and then. For this reason, I believe it is greatly important that we share our progress with you regularly, in the form of ship packs.
So, since the next ship pack is due to be released soon, as part of Patch 6, I thought I'd bring you up-to-date on what we've got in store for you. And believe you me, this one is something special...

Contents:

* All content from the Christmas Ship Pack[1]
New ship models (by pgargon):
· HMS Endeavour (film accurate)
· HMS Dauntless (film accurate)
· US version of HMS Victory
· French version of HMS Victory
Improved and fixed ship models (by pgargon):
· HMS Victory
· Le Superbe
· Hannah (a small US schooner)
· Pirate Hannah version
· HMS Speedy
Modified ship models (rigging and texture work, by Armada):
· US_Enterprise
· US_Schooner47
· US_SloopofWar47
· US_HeavyFrigate
· US_HeavyWarship
· RN_Heavy_Frigate
· HeavyWarship
Extras:
· The Interface Screenshots Mod; all ships now have in-game screenshots representing them in the shipyards, and all other interfaces where they show up. (by Armada, Pieter Boelen and Miklkit)
· Fix for Speightstown dungeon to remove all water (by Pieter Boelen)

* New Content
New ship models:
· Poseidon/RN_Poseidon/Fleuron by Jabberdau, ported by Jack Harrison and Armada
· SanFelipe1 (Spanish Man 'O War) by pgargon
. RN_Surprise (Film-accurate HMS Surprise) by Jack Harrison; texture by Armada, rigging by Craiggo
Improved/fixed ship models:
· Surprise1 (improved version of HMS_Surprise) by pgargon
· Couronne1 (French War Galleon) by pgargon
· Felipe1 (Treasure Galleon) by pgargon
. HMS_Indefatigable (uses more accurate model and texture) by Armada
. SoleilRoyal (fixed and brought back into the game!) by Armada
Modified ship models (various rigging and texture adjustments, by Armada unless otherwise specified):
· HMS_Interceptor
· RN_BattleFrigate
· RN_SteamFrigate
· FR_BattleFrigate
· FR_SteamFrigate
· US_Constitution
· US_SteamFrigate
· Corvette models (Light Frigates)
· Victory1
· US_Victory
· FR_Victory
· Lydia models, by Craiggo and Armada
· Galeon5, by Craiggo and Armada
· RN_Warship
· Corvette1_47
· RN_Third_Rate
· SP_BattleGalleon_Weathered, by Craiggo and Armada
· HMS_Endeavour
· HMS_Dauntless
· FR/RN/SP_SotL, by Craiggo and Armada
· PO_SotL (removed from Portugal and renamed as US_SotL for America), by Craiggo and Armada
· Edinburg
· HMS_Bounty
· NL_Amsterdam, by Miklkit
· FastMerchantman/NL_Merchantman, by Miklkit

Extras (by Armada, unless otherwise specified):
· Slight adjustments to Xmas pack by Pieter Boelen
· Several corrected period encounter chances
· Cursed Black Pearl- new sails and interface picture
· New ship descriptions by Scoundrel and Armada
· BattleFrigates and Constitution grouped
· SteamFrigates grouped
· New ‘Pure White' sail texture
· New ship type naming system (now using class names, such as "Bellona class 3rd rate", for most navy ships.)
· Increased draw distances for ropes and ratlines, by Baste and Miklkit
· American Navy flag updated for historical accuracy in the ‘Revolutions' period
· More American ship names added by Legendary_Spider
· Several ships now have crew walk files for the first time
· Several ships now have fixed/improved crew walk files
· Improved AI behaviour for navigation against the wind, by iR4tiOn4L
· Reduced chances of the player's ship appearing in encounters
· End date of the last game period extended to 1830
· Improved glass texture for several ships' stern windows

Right, that's pretty much the lot. If this isn't enough to keep you going for a while, I don't know what is!
Along with all of the above, Patch 6 will also address many issues reported since the release of Patch 5, as well as adding more content to the game, as usual.

We hope to release Patch 6 at some point in the next week, so watch this space!

[1] "Christmas pack? What Christmas pack?", I hear you ask. This was released excusively on the PiratesAhoy! forum, on the 24th December last year. Apologies that it didn't appear here, because I encountered some problems uploading it at the time. Some time afterwards, it was no longer Christmas, and we had already begun work on the next patch, so that's why it was not released here.