Comments on "Black Barts list of findings" Thread - PiratesAhoy! Community

1. Can't 'Resume Game' if you go to adjust the game options during Malcolm’s Tutorial or in game after.
Known problem. We had to disable that because if you ARE allowed to continue, worse things happen. We don't really know why the weird stuff happens, but without somebody who really knows what he's doing, there's nothing much we can do.

2. 'Z' dodge/jump back during combat key missing from 'controls.txt'(fixed in new 'controls.txt' posted in Build Mod 14 beta 1 thread)
Thanks for fixing that.

3. During Malcolm's Tutorial, during the topic of distributing Skill Points etc, he doesn't seem to recognise when you have assigned them or not, you have to say 'Forget about these points, let's continue with something else.' to exit this section of the tutorial dialogue. Probably it simply needs some change in dialogue to make it a little more seamless, but it might also require coding changes in his 'Malcolm Hatcher_dialog.c' file? I've not broached this yet, as it is fairly minor, it might even have been in the original game or earlier mod versions?
I think it's been like that since the stock game. Maybe we could fix it properly by checking if you've still got unassigned skill/ability points, but I'm not convinced it's worth the trouble.

4. In general in the Trade Stores, you have the dialogue option "I would like to sell the cargo I have brought." when maybe you are there to buy not sell stuff. I've started the process of changing these dialogue lines to allow a more generic option that covers both buying and selling.(fixed in some places, like game start location with new files posted in Build Mod 14 beta 1 thread)
Thanks for working on this; I never liked it either.

5. Using A+D floats player through walls. This is an old issue isn't it? I can see why we keep it, as sometimes you get stuck behind your accompanying crew. Still it would be nice to have a proper side-step, and what did it do in the original game? Maybe have a special key to enact this 'float through wall' ability (so like F11+F12 keys?) for when you get stuck? You could toggle it on/off with the key, and allow the default game settings for side step?
The original game didn't have sidestep at all. We added it as best we could, but were never able to add collision detection. Even though Maximus DID try pretty hard.

6. 'Open Quick Command Menu'[Enter] is called something different in Malcolm's Tutorial.[fixed. the 'control.txt' file now uses same wording as in Malcolm's Tutorial section]
Thanks for fixing that.

7. 'Mutiny' started while on ship. Player char appeared in the sea(no ship!) with invisible attackers around him. Using the A or D key moved him to ships deck but attackers still invisible. It was possible to kill them by moving around a little bit from that start location and stabbing blindly with sword!!!
Last time I tested mutinies, they worked quite alright. Is it possible for you to replicate that problem? What conditions need to be met for this to happen?

8. On 'Death' if not rescued, you go to the game start menu, but 'New Game', 'Resume Game' are 'greyed out' and not selectable. Need to exit game and re-launch it to carry on.
Basically the same problem as #1 above.

9. On 'Passenger' screen, the summery info box is wrong, where it shows the combined numbers for the various group skills of the officers. This is an old bug iirc?
Are you sure it's wrong? Note that officers only contribute the skills appropriate for their type. And note that only the highest skill is used, so they don't stack.

10. Issue in 'exchange items' between player and officers, where you can't switch around 'grapeshot' and 'pistol bullets'(a 'ghost' pistol bullet is given to player). It can be worked out, but is rather fiddle-some currently. Also slight odd behaviour with the auto ship replenishes your ammo routine. If you are carrying grapeshot, but don't have a grapeshot weapon selected(active), it will remove those grapeshot and give you ammo for your active weapon instead. This make adding 'grapeshot' to the ships weapon locker a little tricky!
Jack Rackham did a little fix for the first part of this that'll be in Patch 6.

11. Level progression too quick in early stages? e.g. 30mins real time 3D sailing = level up! (Work in progress: I've reduced skill bonus levels and XP given out in my game and will need to play test it more, but so far it feels a little better in balance, and further slows down game start level up's).
Possible solution is to limit the XP given out to just once during 3D sailing or once per day(24 game hours)? It seems to give XP out every 30mins currently? (and at 1050XP per go it adds up quick!!)
Note that the level of experience gain levels of very quickly above player level 5. What you do early in the game GREATLY influences your skills, so you should take care doing what you want to be good at straight away.

12. Make the new Island Maps much rarer. At game start you can not find them easily, but as soon as you are level 2, you can buy all of them from most Trade Stores. I'd suggest trying to spread out their availability (so only a chance of one or two maps per location/Island?) and also increasing their costs (by 1000G?). Navigational maps were a valuable commodity in the Caribbean. I'm sure they can be worked into the game to become a really useful and sought after item, maybe in place of some of the other game trinkets that add to Skills? Or even more deeply integrated to allow safer passage between harbours(so look to have more dangerous sea journeys/higher rate of damage to ship etc with these maps as a way to off set that? something like that). They are a great addition anyway.
We might be able to set certain maps to appear only above a certain player level. But item rarity is pretty dodgy at the moment.

13. [Main Quest] 'Valetin Massoni's papers'(French captain) in 'Quest-Items' shows wrong info 'supply barque at 'Falaise de fleur' - I’m not quite sure where that text info is, so I haven’t been able to change it!
Very true. I've got this fixed now though. Was quite tricky too, because I needed to figure out how to get the "translate island/town names to Real Caribbean" code to work in the inventory menu.

14. Signs between towns in Barbados still say 'Oxbay' and 'Greenford', also the voice over for the movie after leaving Speightsburg still mentions 'Oxbay'(not much we can do about that!), but the signs could be 'fixed'?
If somebody is willing to work on those signs. Worse still, that same location is used on other islands, so then it's REALLY wrong. Not to mention copied town models that have their taverns, etc. moved, so none of the signs there are correct either.

18. No text description for the documents Ameil Berangere gives you (quest item). Which means currently a new player may not know where to go to carry on the quest (no info in ‘Quest Book’ for this either). If a location for the text description of these papers could be made (found if it already exists?), something like. “These papers give permission to escort the ship xxxxxxx and need to be shown to the harbour master.”
Good point; there was indeed nothing written. Should be fixed in Patch 6 as per your suggested text.

19. I guess not being able to sell ships in the shipyards is part of the realism mod for this (which I switch on in advanced options) but you get no dialogue/warning in the shipyard menu about this, when you click the ‘Sell’ icon nothing happens, so it feels a little ‘buggy’. Can we add a ‘not possible to sell illegally gained ships here’ message or something like that?
That is NOT intentional. I recall testing that once, but I could sell the ships just fine.
The only part that IS intentional is that illegally obtained ships sell for less money.

20. Forts are still often firing into the surrounding mountains. Do they waste ammo doing this, or do they have unlimited ammo? Anyway it still looks a little odd. Suggest reducing range that forts will engage ships at, it makes the game a little more dangerous for the player also, as they can’t rely so much on the Forts covering fire. Not sure what range to go for but maybe try reduction of one third first to see how that behaves?
It must be related to the cannon type. I do think that forts don't need to worry about ammo.

21. Music on the main title screen (New Horizons) either doesn’t play or is very quiet.
Is that with a music pack or with the Build 14 Beta 1 default music? The default track starts out fairly quiet, but does pick up. Whenever I play with music on, I usually set the music to 100% volume in the game sound settings, which seems to work OK.

Edited by: Pieter_Boelen

7. It has been a long time since the crew mutinied on me, but that is pretty much what happened, except that the crew were visible. It sounds like it is still bugged.

9. Methinks that is ok.

10. Changing ammo types is clunky. Why put ammo in the weapons locker? The crew does not use it.

22. On New Horizons title screen near the top, where the logo is on the top right, you have the golden sparkle animations, where I guess the logo used to be?
We removed the sparkles altogether for Patch 6. It'd be nicer to have them moved to the new spot, but removing is easier.

23. In the ‘About Build’ screen, the info stops suddenly and there is no way to scroll down to view the rest.
Indeed. AND all the information is hugely outdated too.

25. I’ve noticed a graphical corruption that happens when you equip a ‘simple clock’. All the text info at the top of the screen(giving day/year info etc) gets messed up as does text in dialogue boxes etc. Your save slot also loses its graphic ‘screenshot’.
I tried to replicate this, but it worked fine for me...

30. [Possible?] ref ‘Upgrades’ in the shipyard, is it possible to make cost of upgrades scale to class of ships? So outfitting a copper hull for a class 4 warship is much more expensive(it requires more materials) than for a class 7 small trade ship?
I think it already depends on... something. Not sure what.

32. [Possible?] To make the sword smiths work like gunsmiths and include an option to upgrade a bunch of swords all in one go?
The gunsmiths DO work like the swordsmiths. Right???
I'd like to have some batch upgrading, but have no idea how to code that. Sounds complicated...

35. ‘Turning sensitivity’ of the player character seems to switch from decent in outside areas to sluggish when inside buildings? It’s almost as if the settings for mouse sensitivity change between inside and outside cells?
I've heard reports of that before, but never managed to replicate it.

Very true, Miklkit; indeed only the player and officers actually USE ammo. Random enemies have it for looting purposes, but don't use it. The crew doesn't need it.

30. The costs of upgrades are already scaled to the ship. A small ship costs less than a large ship, and a merchant ship costs less than a warship.

32. I remember getting a bunch of firearms upgraded, but don't think I've even tried to batch upgrade swords. There is an unlimited supply of swords and I only bother upgrading the special ones.

35. That means you have a bugged install.

Enemies don't use ammo? My health goes down when they shoot me......

Enemies don't use up ammo items; you do get shot.

I'll do a quick reply to each point in the format 'Re: Q1 - ok i figured it was to stop multiple reloads creating crashes later etc' ; that kind of thing.

I'm upto Q78 in my current list, but was figuring i'd wait for PA to come back online and carry it on in the trhead there? Or should i post it here maybe?

Anyway on to your replies:

Re:
Q1 - ok i figured it was to stop multiple reloads creating crashes later etc

Q2 - no worries.

Q3 - Ok i wasn't sure if this was stock or mod here - lets leave it as you work it out quick enough.

Q4 - no worries.

Q5 - Ok, i think maybe we should add an entry in the 'controls.txt' to explain this, or else it might freak people out a bit. Actually in certain situations it becomes a handy feature, like when you get jammed in some place by your active officers etc.

Q6 - no worries.

Q7 - I try really hard to avoid mutinies now, so haven't tested it further. iirc it happened each time i had the mutiny event at sea. I'll get around to testing this again and what i do leading upto it etc. I seem to remember that by side-stepping(A or D) it made the deck appear - i only tried/saw that once, so not sure if that works everytime. It was a bit like when you sidestep near(through) the smugglers table upstairs and fall through the floor or 'teleport' in the other direction, by sidestepping intp the actual table downstairs using the sidestep etc.

Q8 - Ok, I see, not much we can do.

Q9 - Ah Ok, so it might be part of the 'Real Officer Mod' thing? ok well tell me if this looks ok. I currently have these Officers:

1. Master At Arms(lvl 1). All stats at 1 except Melee = 3 and Luck = 3
2. Master At Arms(lvl 1). All stats at 1 except Melee = 3.
3. Boatswain(lvl 1). All stats at 1 except Melee = 2 and Luck = 2
4. Gunner(lvl 1). All stats at 1 except Cannons = 3
5. Carpenter(lvl 1). All stats at 1 except Repair = 2 and Luck = 2
6. First Mate(lvl 1). All stats at 1 except Leadership = 3
7. My char(lvl 1). All stats at 1 except Commerce = 3

Clicking on the 'Passenger' icon screen gives me:

Leadership = 3
melee = 1(should be 3?)
Sailing = 1
Accuracy = 1
Gunnery = 3
Grappling = 1
Repair = 2
Defence = 1
Commerce = 3
Luck = 1(should be 3?)

Having Officers in my active slots doesn't change this, and obviously when i click on individual officers the readout in the passenger screen changes to show the stats of that officer, but either when first going into the Passenger screen or clicking on my chars portrait in there, i get those 'combined' stats above. I seem to not be getting my Master at Arms skill points shown?

Q10 - ok cool on the first part. What are your thoughts on the second issue - what if you have Blunderbuss or grapeshot weapons in your crews weapon locker? Does the game auto fill their weapons with grapeshot or normal shot?

@Miklkit - really the crew doesn't use guns at all? just swords? i didn't know that, and it will save me some money if so Ah i saw Pieters comment on this at the end. So will they shoot pistols etc if they are given them in the crews weapon locker, even if the don't need ammo?

Q11 - Actually my initial concern about the early boost has cooled off a little, after level 10 your progression through the levels does slow down a great deal. Still, in terms of using Direct Sail there is still an issue i feel with too much XP being given out(or just been given out too frequently in terms of time slices(every 15mins)).

To put it another way by the time i got to the 'destroy the escort ship in Martinque' bit of the quest I was lvl 11 and my crew were all lvl 9-10! It feels too quick in relation to how much better we all are, at combat, trade etc at this stage of the game, we're still virtually at game start, in terms of the whole quest line, but already a pretty powerfull outfit. I feel like i don't spend long enough feeling endangered, or a 'newbie' in the Caribbean.

I've tried changing the level of XP given out, but it only seems to effect on land XP gained. I haven't been able to find where the at sea XP is calculated and in particular the 'every 15mins' comes from? I think if i can change that, then this issue in relation to Direct Sailing will be sorted out. Until then i think this is still an 'open' game balance issue, especially as if you use World Map Navigation you whole char progression is very different, less than half the speed roughly!

Q12 - Is each map handled seperately in game?(like map1, map2 etc). If so then we can certainly do some simple things to add more randomness to when they appear. And which file deals with them? I couldn't see them in initItems.c or other item type files? They are a superb feature, especialy in terms of Direct Sail and i can see a lot of potential in their use in the game.

Q13 - Aha! excellent and well done!

Q14 - I did't know about that being the same for all other locations, hmm maybe we need a reskin for the original 'Oxbay' and 'Greenford' signs to something more vague, that could work in all the other places as a one-shot solution...hmmm something like. 'Town this way' on one, and 'Village over here'? something like that.

Q18 - Hurray!

Q19 - So is this a bug then? Or do other people not get this(i haven't tried it in my last few games either)? I'm glad ships gained by force sell for less than normal rates, that seems fair. Hmm did anyone consider only allowing these sales(of illegal/captured/pirated) ships to take place in the pirate/outlaw/smuggler villages and townships? At reduced prices of course, but forcing the player to off load his 'hot' property that route? Easy to do, worth the 'roleplay' aspect etc?

Q20 - So by cannon type you mean cannon range(of the type in a fort). At sea you have the engagement range set to 500(yards?), is there such an engagement range for forts? I figure if it is possible to reduce the distances over which a fort will fire to engage a ship, we will also produce less 'mast getting shot off' resulting in less chances of the 'Screen clutter bug' after those events?

Q21 - It's with Build 14 Beta 1 default music, infact on loading up the game and getting that first main menu screen, i get no music at all, after messing around in the options menu it sometimes triggers some. I have the volume setting for music set to about 80%. What music should i hear when the main menu has loaded?

Q22 - Actually i think removing is good. They were from the Stock game title/menu screen weren't they? That background pic(on the build mod 14 beta patch 5) is excellent, but maybe it can be 'mirrored' so the wonderfull ship pic is not half obscured by the menu options? hold on, that would reverse the ships name wouldn't it..hmm. How easy to shift the menu options over to the left of the screen? does that sound ok? Maybe there is a planned complete different pic for upcoming patches/versions, so it might not be a big deal, it just occured to me as i was looking at it waiting for some music to start(which it hasn't, volume on full now).

Q23 - tell me if you need a hand updating that info(i.e give me the current names/lists and it's something i can look to update). I'm not sure what to do about getting all that info shown though? Why doesn't it scroll there, when in other menu's it does etc

Q25 - I'll try it again. It was at Port Royale the first time you arrive, so early in the game. There was something else i was trying around the same time...i'll see if i can remember what that was.

Q30 - Ok. I'd aquired a surrenderd Pinnice(class 6?) and had my Lugger(class 7), and all the prices for those upgrades were displaying the same for both ships, maybe it is something that happens over bigger ranges of class, so if you do it on a class 4 rather than the difference between class 6+7?

Q32 - It seems the gunsmith has a different routine for dealing with mass upgrades, and a different dialogue tree for all that. In a swordsmith you can only do one weapon at a time.....i'm pretty sure....but now i'll go double check. The reason i though this is i decided to upgrade all the 12x 'average cutless' you put in the crew weapons locker, and then didn't have the same option as the gunsmith to do the whole lot in one go. I imagine it should be quite simple to export the gunsmith mass weapon handling code to the sword smith? Anyway if true one to stick on a list for later work

Q35 - i think this may be a 'Bethesda' bug. It happens sometimes in Morrowind as well, exactly the same in that when it happens it only happens in internal cells/settings in the game. And also in PotC it is a tempremental bug, sometimes it will happen sometimes not. Often save/quiting/re-loading gets rid of it, or it will just sort it's self out after you visit a few locations etc. In a difficult fight in a bar, when you are trapped on the stairs and getting stabbed in the back! "turn, turn faster! arrgggh!" - stupid turning bug!

Q5 - We did put it in the FAQ on the PA! PotC Build Forum.

Q7 - What ship were you using? Might be ship-dependent.

Q9 - Indeed that DOES look correct.
Melee and Luck aren't shared.
Gunnery 3 comes from your gunner
Repair 2 comes from your carpenter
Commerce 3 comes from yourself

Selecting your three active officers only changes which officers follow you ashore, but has no effect on your party's skills. This way you can have your best fighters follow you ashore, while still having your navigator contribute his sailing skill without reassigning your active officers all the time.

Q10 - Your crew should be able to fire their guns without requiring any ammo.

Q12 - The map code IS in initItems.c .

Q19 - Actually, that sounds complex to do.

Q21 - The Build 14 Beta 1 main menu music is "Main Title: Morgan's Ride" from Cutthroat Island.

Q22 - Indeed I already tried flipping the main menu background picture, but the reversed name looks pretty bad. Might be possible to move the buttons, but sounds like a lot of trouble to me. I wasn't quite intending to do much of anything with it.

Q23 - The About Build text is here: RESOURCE\INI\TEXTS\ENGLISH\about_build.txt

10. This was discussed in the Bug Tracker recently. Guns put in the weapons locker are picked up by the crew but they do not fire them during boarding.
Jack Rackham did this on purpose because the whole issue of ammo just got too complicated.

12. Not having maps makes the game much harder. I buy them as soon as possible and use them.

19. If you can't sell a ship in a shipyard there are two reasons. Either the shipyard does not have enough money to buy the ship or you first checked out the ships for sale and scrolled all the way to the right and left it there. That is a bug, and the cure is to scroll back to the left and then you can sell your ship.

10. I don't think disabeling your crew from using guns altogether is quite intentional. The only intentional part, from what I understand, is that your crew doesn't require gunpowder and ammunition.

Miklkit wrote: 10. This was discussed in the Bug Tracker recently. Guns put in the weapons locker are picked up by the crew but they do not fire them during boarding.
Jack Rackham did this on purpose because the whole issue of ammo just got too complicated.

Pieter_Boelen wrote: 10. I don't think disabeling your crew from using guns altogether is
quite intentional. The only intentional part, from what I understand, is
that your crew doesn't require gunpowder and ammunition.

Not requiring ammo, but using them sounds like the best option - so it is still worth me putting guns in the weapons locker for bording actions then?

Miklkit wrote:
12. Not having maps makes the game much harder. I buy them as soon as possible and use them.

Exactly! which is why they should be:

A. more expensive each.
B. more random in there availability in traders, so you can't just buy the set in one go, you have to search them out and build your collection over time.

Because they can be so useful, especialy in relation to Direct Sailing, i'm contemplating having a go at reducing some of the detail on the main 'Caribbean Map' you start the game with, remove a few of the small rocks that appear around the main islands that enable you to easier tell where you are exactly. Then these smaller more local and detailed maps will become even more valuable as navigation aids

Miklkit wrote:
19. If you can't sell a ship in a shipyard there are two reasons. Either the shipyard does not have enough money to buy the ship or you first checked out the ships for sale and scrolled all the way to the right and left it there. That is a bug, and the cure is to scroll back to the left and then you can sell your ship.

Ah, yes that could be it as by habit i tend to scroll along the ships on display when i first get into that screen, i'll report back if that is the case, thanks for that info.

Pieter_Boelen wrote: Q5 - We did put it in the FAQ on the PA! PotC Build Forum.

ok, just me being lazy then I might stick a quick note in the 'controls.txt. as well if that's ok?

Pieter_Boelen wrote:
Q9 - Indeed that DOES look correct.

Melee and Luck aren't shared.

Gunnery 3 comes from your gunner

Repair 2 comes from your carpenter

Commerce 3 comes from yourself
Selecting your three active officers only changes which officers
follow you ashore, but has no effect on your party's skills. This way
you can have your best fighters follow you ashore, while still having
your navigator contribute his sailing skill without reassigning your
active officers all the time.

That makes sense, wasn't Melee and Luck shared before? I think that is what must have been confusing me over this. It makes sense not to share Melee and Luck, so good job on that.

Pieter_Boelen wrote: Q10 - Your crew should be able to fire their guns without requiring any ammo.

Good, so i will give them guns, and not worry about grapeshot or powder etc. Cool.

Pieter_Boelen wrote: Q12 - The map code IS in initItems.c .

Ahh..yes near the end, Rum made me blind once i'd reached that far down! Ok i'll change each price from 100 to 1000, and that will become something around that with the random element of price calculations the game seems to do(like the maps all cost about 149 when they first turn up in the stores). Now to make them so they don't all appear in one go, i see this line near the start of KK's code:

refmap.numrand = 0;

Would changing that have any effect on how likely they are to turn up in a store? or will it need some extra code along the lines of the 'rare' stat used for other items in the game?

Pieter_Boelen wrote: Q19 - Actually, that sounds complex to do.

Probably - i don't know? do the pirate/smuggler towns have shipwrights? I think some have trade stores. But if they do have shipwrights i guess they could be given a copy of regular legal shipwrights code, with a few additions around the sale of illegaly attained ships, that would probably be a simplish modification of the current code used for selling ships obtained illegaly already? But yeah not a must have, just a 'pie-in-the-sky' idea around making a stronger distinction in game around being pirate or law abiding etc.

By extension of that kind of thinking, I'd love to see thrown into that mix a whole thing based around your reputation(Hero/Swindler etc), and even by extension your Officers grouped reputation(so a global reputation that you and your crew are known for, a bit like how all the stats for the officer group make that 'Passanger' stats display thing), so much so that it is possible to become so hated/feared by normal townsfolk they won't trade with you/repair your ships etc, forcing you to the fringes of Caribbean society and having to deal with the smuggler/pirate towns for your needs. Add in a way to buy 'Pardons' from the Island Govenors to improve your rep and allow you back into mainstream society etc.

Probably quite a task to knit together, but all the base ingredients are aleady in game for it. Just something for a while later maybe

Pieter_Boelen wrote: Q21 - The Build 14 Beta 1 main menu music is "Main Title: Morgan's Ride" from Cutthroat Island.

It's really weird, i just get nothing, just on the default Build Mod 14 beta + patch 5 install, no music on that screen at all. It's possible i messed up something in the files? which file triggers that music - InternalSettings.h?

Pieter_Boelen wrote: Q22 - Indeed I already tried flipping the main menu background picture,
but the reversed name looks pretty bad. Might be possible to move the
buttons, but sounds like a lot of trouble to me. I wasn't quite
intending to do much of anything with it.

Ok, let me have a go. I'll mirror it then take the name plate and mirror it back, that should give us the ship on the left with the name reading left to right as it should. Not sure i'll have time for a complete effort before i go off on holiday, but i'll make a start and see where it goes.

Pieter_Boelen wrote: The About Build text is here: RESOURCE\INI\TEXTS\ENGLISH\about_build.txt

Ok, you mention it is out of date(in terms of contributers names?), does anyone have a list of names that need to be added to update this file? Basically i'm happy to do the donkey work, but need the data. And i guess that still leaves the scroll issue - i'm open to suggestions, even maybe leaving it out the game menu(well i can see how many names i can cram into the one page!) and keeping the detailed info in a seperate txt file within the game install? If that is the easy option?

Anyway thank you guys for chipping in and taking the trouble to answer all these(and i have lots more for later!), i'll keep tracking 'issues' as i find them and mostly it's to help myself get a better understanding on where the Build Mod 14 project is and where it is going etc

From reports from players, I understand crewmembers don't use guns. But I think that's a bug of sorts; they were supposed to.

PROGRAM\officers defines which officer types share which skills and abilities. We could tweak it so, for example, luck IS shared. I do think at least melee shouldn't be shared.

I'd recommend not doing things with the maps' rare values. Rarity is bugged to begin with, so there's not much point basing your work on it. You can try to see what that numrand does; I'm not sure...

Some pirate towns, such as the settlement on Nevis, Tortuga and Turks do have shipyards.

The music is in PROGRAM\sound\ALIAS\music_standard.c ; try setting the volume to 100% first though and see if that works. Leave the menu open for a short while; the track starts a but quiet, but picks up big time.

Go right ahead on putting more information in the Documentation TXT file. I do wonder if other people actually read that; I hope so...

Maybe it'd be worthwhile to only put stuff in the About Build menu that people would be interested to reading? Maybe like a bit of an ingame manual type thing?

This is getting too long and I'm sure I'm forgetting something....
Anyhoo. Whether or not merchants will trade with you or not based on your reputation is already in the game. Mess up and drop your reputation to "Horror of the High Seas" and you will get real poor real quick.

I don't take crew with me, so don't really know if they use guns or not. Will have to organize a shore party to find out. Crew having unlimited ammo while you and your officer don't isn't very realistic.

Music! Look in your music_standard.c. The first entry is "main menu". What should be playing there is "spokplavanie.ogg". Check the spelling. There might be a typo there.

Pieter_Boelen wrote: From reports from players, I understand crewmembers don't use guns. But I think that's a bug of sorts; they were supposed to.

Well it saves me money arming them!

Pieter_Boelen wrote:
PROGRAM\officers defines which officer types share which skills and abilities. We could tweak it so, for example, luck IS shared. I do think at least melee shouldn't be shared.

As your personal Luck has an effect on the loot you find in random pick ups, i think it good as it is, as a none shared skill. Melee obviously makes sense not to share - he he, imagine 4 people holding the same sword and trying to fight!

Pieter_Boelen wrote:
I'd recommend not doing things with the maps' rare values. Rarity is bugged to begin with, so there's not much point basing your work on it. You can try to see what that numrand does; I'm not sure...

Well they don't seem to have set rare values anyway. So what do you think would be a good number to start with for numrand? it's currently 0(zero), which means it could be an on/off setting, so 1 might be 'turn random on' ?

Pieter_Boelen wrote:
Some pirate towns, such as the settlement on Nevis, Tortuga and Turks do have shipyards.

Ah good, so they use the same code as regular shipwrights?

Pieter_Boelen wrote:
The music is in PROGRAM\sound\ALIAS\music_standard.c ; try setting the volume to 100% first though and see if that works. Leave the menu open for a short while; the track starts a but quiet, but picks up big time.

Ok well that looks ok, hmm i notice this in my Sound.h file on the first line:

#ifndef _PROGRAM_SOUND_H_

looking at the lines following that entry that should be #define right? EDIT: erm no, that crashes the game, so it must be fine. Weird. I get all the other music, dialog and sounds in game? oh well, maybe next time i reinstall the mod it will be fine. Not a big issue, just odd.

Pieter_Boelen wrote:
Go right ahead on putting more information in the Documentation TXT file. I do wonder if other people actually read that; I hope so...

After jumping feet first into a new game, then not working out right away how to move the dialog options(i was using the old arrow key method), this was the first information document i read And as a new player the descriptions you get in Malcolm Hatchers tutorial don't tell you specifically what keys do what, so i suspect most people will look for something in the games files to tell them. I'll add a realy quick qualification about the side step and it's odd effects and update it on the FTP in my normal folder.

Pieter_Boelen wrote:
Maybe it'd be worthwhile to only put stuff in the About Build menu that people would be interested to reading? Maybe like a bit of an ingame manual type thing?

Well specificaly when you click the 'About Build' tab in the main game menu, the very first screen you get to seems to be 'Pirates Of The Caribbean - BUILD 14 Beta 1 Patch 5'(as this is highlighted in yellow). Just below it is 'Pirates Of The Caribbean - Build 13: A quick history.

Anyway the text for the yellow(highlighted) Build 14 entry ends on that screen as this:

".....This most current version adds more improvements and new features into"

And thats all you can get! Only on this screen, the first one you get to from the Main Menu, you don't have scrolling down or the ability to click the 'Build 13: A quick history." entry etc. If you click any of the green info tabs on the left you get full scrolling for all those entries, so it's just that first page with info about Build 14 Patch 5 that seems non-functional currently.

numrand: no idea. Just give it a try and see what happens.

Pirate shipyards are exactly the same as regular ones. Except they don't care about selling navy ships, but DO care about selling pirate design ones.

Sound.h: no idea where that came from; I have it too. Best to leave it as-is, I suppose. Doesn't seem to cause any issues for me...

Simple solution on About Build not scrolling: write a new text for the main 'page' that fits. :-P

Pieter_Boelen wrote: numrand: no idea. Just give it a try and see what happens.

1.Pirate shipyards are exactly the same as regular ones. Except they don't care about selling navy ships, but DO care about selling pirate design ones.

2.Sound.h: no idea where that came from; I have it too. Best to leave it as-is, I suppose. Doesn't seem to cause any issues for me...

3.Simple solution on About Build not scrolling: write a new text for the main 'page' that fits. :-P

1. Aha, so there is some already inbuilt differences, interesting and more interesting......

2. You know i think i remember getting the title music when i first installed the mod, having just listend to the track in winamp? But then only sometimes, sometimes i had to click other menu links and go back to the main for it to start. Now i just don't get any. Anyway not a huge issue, unless other peopler on newish installs have the same issue(like maybe something in the patches changed something?)

3. Ok, challenge accepted I'll need to see how much info was supposed to be in that entry!

2. Works for me; that's all I can say...

Miklkit wrote: This is getting too long and I'm sure I'm forgetting something....
Anyhoo. Whether or not merchants will trade with you or not based on your reputation is already in the game. Mess up and drop your reputation to "Horror of the High Seas" and you will get real poor real quick.

Actually yes, i do remember that! i think it was even in build 12 possibly? I'm thinking more of a wider range, so maybe from when you start going 'bad'(i'd need to dig out the char reputations list), but maybe from 'Rascal' onwards? Maybe some shops would still deal with you, maybe not, then as you slide down the repuation slope towards 'Terror of the High Seas' no-one 'civilised' will deal with you at all, which isn't historically entirely accurate, as we have written evidence of Pirates like 'Black Bart', 'Henry Morgan' etc forcing trade at the point of a gun, or threat of letting their men lose on the town etc.

And also the opposite, so if i'm a 'good' rep, the smugglers+pirates shouldn't deal with me and be hostile to me more often etc.

But in terms of the game, and trying to bring a more 'piratey' flavour, a wider range of encouragment to deal with the Pirate and Smuggler towns, might help the player that wants to play more as a pirate and less as a 'follow the storyline'/trader/law abinding type character. Anyway all this is lots of work, so definately for the future rather than on the horizon!

Miklkit wrote:
Music! Look in your music_standard.c. The first entry is "main menu". What should be playing there is "spokplavanie.ogg". Check the spelling. There might be a typo there.

Ok thanks i'll have a look, as i must have messed something up here. EDIT, this is the code from my 'music_standard.c' file:

// ******* ORIGINAL SECTION *************

void InitMusic()
{
int n = 0;
ref tmpref;

//============ MAIN MENU ========================
// added by NK so it can be done in code.
makeref(tmpref, Music_Alias[n]);
tmpref.id = "music_main_menu";
tmpref.files.l1.name = "MUSIC\CutthroatIsland_Main_Theme.ogg";
//============ MAIN THEME ========================
n++;

makeref(tmpref, Music_Alias[n]);
tmpref.id = "music_main_theme";
tmpref.files.l1.name = "MUSIC\Main_Theme.ogg";
//============ FINAL THEME ======================
n++;

makeref(tmpref, Music_Alias[n]);
tmpref.id = "music_final_theme";
tmpref.files.l1.name = "MUSIC\March.ogg";

The formatting may look weird due to my use of wordpad etc to copy/paste it, but that all looks ok and i certainly have the Cutthroats track in my music files? odd, but not a show stopper as all the other music plays fine.
---------------------------------------------

Update on 'refmap.numrand = 0;' in the small map code, setting it to 1 means you have a chance of finding them as random loot. It doesn't effect the 'mass spaming' of these maps when they show up in a trade store, they often all appear at once and i'm trying to work out a way to make them more random and rare etc.

Edited by: BlackBart

You can try to add a .level (limit to at least a certain character level) or .rand line for the maps, but I can't promise it'll work properly.

BTW: The PiratesAhoy! forums should be working again.

Pieter_Boelen wrote:
25. I’ve noticed a graphical corruption that happens when you equip a ‘simple clock’. All the text info at the top of the screen(giving day/year info etc) gets messed up as does text in dialogue boxes etc. Your save slot also loses its graphic ‘screenshot’.
I tried to replicate this, but it worked fine for me...

Yeah, i've not been able to produce it again either, it looked like an OC issue with my Nvidia display driver, so i think as i was using overclocking that is probably it. I've scaled my OC back a bit and it seems fine. Sorry about that false alarm.

EDIT: nope - the main PA site/forums are still down for me currently

In terms of the maps, I've re-imaged the main 'archipelago map' (map.tga.tx) to remove some of the small islet, rocks details, so now the smaller maps you can buy in game are really useful! especially in Direct Sail mode, i'll it on the ftp so people can try it out(it's virtually exactly the same, you wouldn't notice, until you look for small rock features!).

And speaking of false alarms, the 'Bronze Compass' does appear in my game when selected in the Advanced Options! I hadn't realised it is the interior part of the 'Cheap Compass', 'Normal Compass' etc is all! I can see it fine now on the normal compass, and can just make out the slightly 'red' 'N' letter i put on it now The cheap compass is still nearly impossible to read, using the 'Bronze Compass' skin, in 1920x1200 mode(the lettering is just too small at that resolution), but at 1600x1200 you can just make out the difference in the red colour on the 'N' now, so that makes north easier to read.

I haven't tried the normal(orange/blue) stock compass skins yet, but i worked out that issue with the alpha channal and have got something to test out

Edited by: BlackBart

Does www.piratesahoy.net load the main page for you?

Yes! ............ it's a bit slow and clunky, but the forums are still off line apparantly.