Announcements: December 2017
Arrrr and Helloo Mateees and Matettes,
I figured I should update everyone on where we are at the end of 2017.
2017 was a horrible year for a lot of people – including me. I know I have whined and belly ached about unfairness, violations of privacy, out of control PC political correctness, and illegal national aggression, but others are actually living in hell on earth as I write this. Yeah, it’s been an extremely bad year for me with the loss of numerous important friends and relatives. However, that is nothing in comparison to losing your entire family, your home and everything you have.
The national disasters this year have been as bad as I can remember in the last four decades and I was personally affected by the flooding in Houston because my oldest son was stuck in it. I came to his rescue and got him and his wife out of a shelter and they stayed with me awhile. Their vehicles were a complete loss and he is still using a car I loaned to him.
As those who read my articles already know, I have been writing a series of essays on the history of Puerto Rico and piracy this year and I deliberately delayed the next part of the story because of the disaster in Hurricane Maria which devastated the large heavily populated island in late September. Since then disaster recovery has been slow and many people are still without electricity and public utilities even now. The official death toll is 55 however, as more data is collected we understand that there are many more secondary deaths that are directly attributable to the hurricane. Some sources say that the death toll is really closer to 500.
I just wanted to take a moment and remember our brothers and sisters in Puerto Rico and also to keep them in our thoughts and prayers as they continue to grieve, recover and rebuild. God bless you my friends.
Some of the data I was going to include on restaurants and such in Part 3 may not even be relevant now. They say they are open for tourism once again and that the cruise ships are back on their regular schedules and routes. I think maybe I will keep Part 3 strictly historical for now and that I will take a trip there for a week or so in February/March to see how things are there now and visit the friends I made on my last visit. When I return I will write a follow up (Part IV) on how things are and a short guide for historically minded pirate historians for visiting the old city of San Juan.
So look for Part 3 of my historical essay on Puerto Rico to be published here very soon.
I know you folks have come to expect me to inform/brief you on other pirate gaming offerings in my updates, but I quite frankly just don’t have anything to say right now. Honestly, I have been completely consumed with our own efforts and my own real life struggles since my last update to you. I just don’t care right now. Frankly, I haven’t cared much for our own efforts with all of the depressing loss I have endured and the perceived lack of interest in what we are doing from YOU.
To be blunt, the only reason I keep doing this is because of Jeffrey and Orazio. If they were not continuing to work on and improve our wonderful game-world and consistently make amazing improvements – AND – have a continuing positive outlook on everything – I would have stopped working on this long ago and none of this would even be here now. They continue to inspire me and so I pick myself up, dust myself off, and keep going. Thanks my friends!
I guess the one thing I would say about other pirate gaming efforts is that it seems like we at least finally have a somewhat amicable functioning relationship between Pirates Ahoy! and Buccaneer’s Reef now. Jeffrey is no longer treated with hostility and the baiting critical conversations/commentary has stopped. Constructive exchanges are happening, permission to help and contribute between members of both communities is now occurring on a regular basis and a sort of – sense of normalcy – if you will – has ensued. I am no longer bitter and as long as they don’t say anything mean spirited, I won’t either.
I was hoping to have a completely new website by now, but there has just been no time. I am actively seeking a professional that won’t break the bank who can put us on a new domain and transfer all of our content to a completely new and redesigned website and forum. Some have told me I should simply do it myself on Weebly or Wix, but frankly after doing that with our current site, I don’t believe I should.
I want it to be GOOD – not a half baked effort by someone (ME) who doesn’t really know what they are doing. I am certain I could make a good attempt but I don’t think “half-ass” is good enough for all of the great things we are planning for this upcoming year and the future.
So I had to renew the site with the current host for a year and with word press as well. I didn’t renew everything, so we lose our certificates in January and some other stuff – but I don’t care. I am hoping that by then I have found someone who can do the redesign – and that the rebuild and transfer is underway. Keep in mind that the ONLY reason I renewed, is so that we didn’t lose our site, our domain name and our content – in other words – I renewed to keep the lights on and the doors open while we continue to move forward to a better service and product.
Go-Daddy and Word Press
Now speaking of products, I want to shame our current one for a moment. Shame on you WordPress!!! A few months back I had to stop using the WordPress provided “Jetpack” application which is supposed to automatically manage many facets of the website and let us know daily stats. When I upgraded the service as they prompted me to – it DOWNGRADED us and I lost my own webmaster privileges. Thank goodness Jeffrey still had his privileges, because I was able to change us back to the previous version using his credentials. Even though I had paid for a year of product – WordPress wanted me to initiate a very EXPENSIVE upgrade to continue to realize the service level I had already paid for!
You see, they redesigned their product line and tiers of service. I was shocked! This is an absolute travesty. What a way to run a business! Earlier in the year Dennis had sent me some links to criticisms of wordpress that are pretty damning. Well, looks like their critics are right. One of the WORST things about WordPress is that you cannot talk to anyone on the phone. They have NO tech support line. SO you have to email. Go Daddy will simply pass the buck every-time you call them and say they don’t know what’s going on – “I’m sorry, that’s a WordPress issue”.
Go Daddy provides the host service, and WordPress provides the product. A match made in heaven, with one side not able to answer for the other or provide answers as to what’s wrong. Among the problems we have had with this DREAM PACKAGE FROM HELL, is no ability to cut up forum pages into smaller streams. A topic takes forever to load because it is all in one long unending page. We have some forum pages now which have hundreds of posts on a single page. I think we are up to near (or over) 500 posts on one of them.
Their tech people have never been able to offer me a solution and I have asked numerous times. Google Adsense and Adwords has never been reconciled. Over and over I have been given an address and code to enter into the tool-set so that we get better visibility – it has never worked. Every-time I have complained about it, NO ONE in tech support can offer a solution. Facebook and social media plugins have NEVER worked right. Users and Members have since DAY ONE had real problems trying to get memberships or to get back into the website after signing out.
If I offered this level of service to a customer as a business owner, I would hang my head low in shame and never be able to look myself in the mirror again. But the fact is, that we are just an unimportant number and mean absolutely nothing to these people. I will do my happy dance when we are FINALLY untethered from this burdensome abortion of tech support and product. Friends – DO NOT USE WORDPRESS!!!!
With the major handicap of this product/website I have continued to receive a stream of emails for months from folks who would like to join us but can’t because of the clunky product. I have manually approved many, but how many more are there who just don’t bother when it becomes inconvenient or difficult.
This is also the reason why I postponed the modeling contest. When the new website is built and fully vetted and we know it completely functions with social media correctly in the manner that we desire, THEN we will re-initiate the modeling contest when we know we will get both maximum exposure and participation.
I am sorry I have had to do these things but it is just where we are right now and can’t be helped. I have a busy life and have gone to great lengths and personal expense just to bring you what you have now.
********SO LETS TALK ABOUT WHAT GOOD THINGS ARE COMING UP….**********
Well the long awaited update is finished. However, we have not yet finished our complete legal review of what we can offer commercially – soon though. In addition, there is so much new very important content that is being worked on which is not yet finished yet – so that most of what is in this forthcoming update will be offered up to everyone “pro bono” still free. We just are not yet ready to offer the majority of the new content yet. We mostly anticipate selling the new improved engine executables as a core product component that will drive everything else we offer. We also will sell the new map and locations, ships, models, and textures as well as the Historical Battle scenario DLC packages which will each be sold separately. We are anticipating 4 to 5 different historical scenarios/battles/vignettes within each DLC.
As I stated months ago, those few loyal members who have participated with even minor encouraging comments, bug reports, etc, will get a bonus that will be received via PM. You will notice new town skins in the update in many places. These are not complete. Only those loyal (read CONTRIBUTING) members will receive the complete town re-skin updates, new ship skin updates and new characters. All others will have to pay when the first commercial baseline is released or the first DLCs come out.
NEW FEATURES IN the latest GOF ERAS update:
- INTERFACE: The GUI now has a scroll toggle button on the right side of appropriate windows so that if the description of a bio, item, ship, etc, goes too long you can now scroll down and read the rest.
- New flags and rigging behavior: You will notice that flags are now even more realistic than ever before-with rippling that occurs at a speed commensurate with the wind speed. Notice how flags now flatten straight out with quick ripples when the wind speed is fast and sag lower and lower almost to the mast when wind speeds are low with low almost hypnotic rippling.
- The sails now behave more realistically than ever. Based on the numbers of crew you have on the ship they will move as slow or fast as is realistic based on wind conditions. If there is a fast wind, the sails will unfurl much more quickly but take longer to take in, etc….
- Ships turn slower/faster based on size/maneuverability factors and thanks to Jeffrey’s fixing of the old nefarious mast crashing bug forever, we have ratcheted mast falling chance percentages to more realistic numbers now. NOTE: Jeffrey is still working on new code that will pair even more exact outcomes based on the size and velocity of the cannon type in question against “X” size/thickness of mast.
- New Ships: Eight new ships are in this update along with several reworked ships. There are also over ahundred new skins in this package. More than a few ships have 5 to 10 skins each that can be encountered now. With 216 ship models in the game and most ships having more than 3 skins a piece which can be encountered, it is quite possible that we are nearing 700 different appearing ships that you can encounter in game play now.
- Ships have been re-balanced once again in terms of hit points, speed, performance and crew numbers.
- New Sounds: There are a few new musical selections. One I am particularly fond of is an Erich Korngold track I personally remastered and cleaned up from the old 1930s classic Captain Blood which you will hear during boarding fights. In addition, Jeffrey was able to make the Matchlock sounds finally function correctly – something that we were never able to accomplish on the old GOF team on PA!.
New Behaviors:
Most exciting in these new behaviors is that when your companions shoot in a fight, they will actually shoot at an enemy instead of the closest lifeform to them (friend or enemy) which was how the code was originally written – UNBELIEVABLE! This has been fixed. You can now give your companions firearms without the worry of them shooting you in the back any longer. What a great FIX!!!! Thanks Jeffrey!
Jeffrey has de-tuned the merchant refusal code down because there was so much criticism of it however, it will be an important feature in the future when the new towns are completed and there are more than one trader in each city. As of now it is an option that you can turn off and on in the mod options interface.
Think of large cities like San Juan or Curacao having three different stores – if one refuses you, another might allow you in. Think of bribes offered if they can’t/wont take your goods. In Spanish cities you will have to have a Spanish trade license in order to trade or you will have to go to the Port Controller and pay to have an Cargo Inspection Certificate showing that you payed duties/taxes on cargo, before you will be accepted into the stores to proceed. That is what’s coming.
Women in town and in houses will now possibly proposition you with lewd proposals just as the barmaids do.
Whore quest is now opened up. Keep seeing the same girl over and over again in the same brothel several times to open the quest.
Characters will stay in places longer with the same names. In addition, Madames in Brothels will now give you an option for reconciliation by paying them off if you forget or don’t take their money to the Priest for donation. This resets them so that you can continue to use the brothel and talk to the madame.
New Locations: The new crypts, cemeteries and native villages are not quite yet ready but are very close! However, notice the many new skins and re-textures in the towns that are historically authentic to the period buildings by nationality – MUCH MORE TO COME!!!
Notice that there are more new female town girl character models that you will encounter – and that when you go into churches, there are women there sitting with the men now as well. Latin chants will only be heard in Spanish and French churches now (Catholic).
New characters:
Here are spoilers with bios of the new characters in this update – this brings us up to 146 different playable and recruit-able characters now: EVEN MORE ARE UPCOMING! This is a REALLY INTERESTING BATCH!!!
John Ansell: {Born?(England) John Ansell (d. 1689?) is a brave and fearless English buccaneer known to act within Henry Morgan’s circle of most trusted captains. Though not as high ranking as Edward Collier or John Morris, Ansell is at least in his top ten commanders. Ansell participated in the famous and daring raids against Maracaibo and Gibraltar, Venezuela under Morgan during the late 1660s. Known to be well spoken and also for his honesty, Ansell is famous for giving a detailed accounting of Morgan’s expeditions to Parliament. When not working for Morgan, Ansell is known to ply the Caribbee from one end to the other looking for hot pirate chicks.
Père Labat: {Born Paris 1663(France) Jean-Baptiste (also known as Père) Labat is a French priest – a “jack of all trades” who seems much more of a soldier, surgeon, engineer and entrepreneur than a clergyman. Labat’s memoirs are famous in describing Caribbean life at this time and he has personally had to tangle with Englishmen, Spaniards, and Pirates in combat situations both on land and at sea. He has conducted reconnaissance/ intelligence gathering missions into both Spanish San Juan Puerto Rico and English Grenada. He helped engineer the fortress at Guadeloupe and has personally acted as a gunner in its defense. He has even taken part in the slave trade and runs a profitable plantation on Martinique. Often known as the “Pirate Priest”, Labat has been known to cavort with buccaneers and has even conducted religious services for them.
Michel le Basque: {Born?(Navarre France) Michel le Basque is a legend and one of the great captains of the Brethren of the Coast. None are considered higher in rank among L’Olonnais’ captains. A friend and companion of the infamous Francois L’Olonnais he is his senior in age and one of the last buccaneers left from the earlier days, hunting wild game on Santo Domingo and Tortuga in the 1650s. Before joining L’Olonnais Michel was already a rich man from taking the treasure galleon Margarita in 1666. The man is deadly in combat and has taken dozens of rich prizes as well as taken part on L’Olonnais’ great pirate raids on Maracaibo and Gibraltar. Indeed, his deeds have been recognized by the Sun King himself from whom he has received a letter of congratulations. What will he do next?
James Browne: {Born 1645?(Scotland) James Browne is a well known Scottish privateer who is usually in the service of the French. His letter of commission is from Governor D’Ogernon of Tortuga. Although his papers are French he mostly prefers to hang out in Port Royal and hunt around Jamaica. In addition, he has made it a habit of selling off his goods (often slaves) directly to plantation owners on Jamaica’s northern coast. Well liked by the merchants, planters and even the local parliamentary council, he is becoming increasingly bothersome to English governors and officials who have become militantly annoyed that he avoids harbor duties by conducting sales in out of the way places. In addition, English colonial governors have increasingly been pressuring English speaking captains into obtaining English Letters of Marque ONLY. Will they make an example of Captain Browne? What will become of him?
Blas Miguel: {Born 1650s?(Spanish Corsica) Blas Miguel (also known as Biagio Michele Corso) is famous as being the lesser of the two Corsican brothers. Corsica belonging to Naples (a Spanish territory) the brothers were able to often successfully privateer for Spain although it was well known that they often sunk to base piracy as well. After his brother’s death (Giovanni “Juan” Corso), Blas continued to obtain Spanish privateering licenses from local officials in and around Cuba and Santo Domingo. Rumor has it that he plans on raiding Petit-Goave. Some think him crazy because it’s well known that the great pirate lord, Laurens DeGraaf looks at this place almost as a home port and spends a great deal of time (and loot) there. What could go wrong? Right?
Alonso Ramirez: {Born 1650?(Spain) Alonso Ramirez is a famous man in New Spain. Washed up near Campeche with several of his companions, he was taken as a pirate by Spanish officials. The tale he told them was so fascinating that the Governor of Mexico ordered it be recorded for posterity. Ramirez was a common Spanish sailor who was taken by English pirates. The English actually treated him fairly well and he was an unwilling passenger on a journey of years that spanned the globe from the East Indies, Philippines and back to the Caribbean. Once the English ship returned to the Caribbean, the Spanish prisoners were given their own ship and set free. Rather than go pirating themselves, they set course for Vera Cruz but their ship was destroyed in a great storm and those few captured castaways were all that remained. The Spanish officials believed Alonso’s stories, but some say he was a willing accomplice in the matter who had a share of treasure for himself hidden somewhere. What will Alonso do now that he is finally home? *NOTE: To find out more, read “The Misfortunes of Alonso Ramirez: The True Adventures of a Spanish American with 17th Century Pirates” By Fabio Lopez Lazaro (University of Texas Press)
Nicolas de Larraspuru: {Born 1631?(Spain) Nicolas de Larraspuru is a villain so vile he makes others seem childlike in comparison. Born to a rich Castilian family, his father was a great Admiral who fought the Dutch and successfully brought several great treasure convoys back to Spain unharmed. Nicolas was apprenticed to great men at court at a young age and became an adept courtier. He became deadly with a blade and began to duel for sport. However, it was just not enough to keep him amused or occupied. His lust for blood and discord required greater challenges. So Nicolas gladly joined the Holy Inquisition as an agent when the offer was presented to him. Becoming very useful to the Inquisition, his name carries nothing with it but dread and fear. For Larraspuru has become the most famous Spanish assassin alive with over 65 KNOWN deaths attributed to him alone. He spends the majority of his time in Spain’s New World possessions, both because he inherited significant estates there from his father, but also because there are many heretics and targeted men to dispatch here…. and “The Lord’s work is never done”… Truly – HERE we have a very REAL assassin who actually lived during the Golden Age – not some made up character of bad fiction.
Phillip Fitzgerald: {Born 1639?(Ireland) Phillip Fitzgerald’s story is one of never ending revenge. Escaping the ravages of the English Crown on his homeland, Phillip immigrated to New Spain to begin a new life. Fitzgerald soon showed his usefulness to Spain in their service with a commission as a privateer beginning in 1672. His Irish name virtually unknown to his new countrymen, they know him as Felipe Geraldo. He is well known and has sailed with both Dutch Captain Reyning and “Yellows”(Jelles Lecat). English privateers sent to subdue him end up the prize. So aggregious have his attacks on English shipping become, that English officials have offered him both a pardon and a commission in their own navy if he will change sides. However, survivors have convinced English officials that this will never work.
The infamous Geraldino is known to entertain throngs of spectators when he brings his prizes into Havana. Not only are some Englishmen already “Dancin a jig on air” from his spars when he enters the harbor, but then he will often have the remaining survivors (with no trial) hanged upon the docks of Havana by his own crew. After which he will show off the skill of his marksmen by having them shoot at the dangling corpses from his ship. When questioned about his cruelty to Englishmen, Phillip responded that his own countrymen were ill-used by the English 24 years earlier “and he should never be satisfied with enough English blood, but could drink it as freely as water when he was adry”. In 1674 Fitzgerald seized over 40 English prizes. Protests to Spanish officials and demands for compensation were ignored and the Governor of Jamaica has ordered that his head be brought back to Port Royal. Fitzgerald is now the most wanted man with the highest bounty in the Caribbean. What will he do next?
Vincent Svendsen: {B.1642(Denmark) Vincent is one of the many Danes who have gone into service with the Dutch navy. Starting out just a lad of 9 years as a powder monkey aboard Michiel DeRuyter’s Salamander, he followed his commander aboard the fregat Witte Lam when the 1st Anglo-Dutch war broke out. With the war ended, he saw the world both east and west working on convoy escort duty ships throughout the 1650s. The prize money for captured Portuguese prizes was excellent and upon his discharge from the navy, he had enough money to buy and fit out a damaged but very sleek armed English merchant vessel. With the 2nd Dutch War with England just breaking out, Vincent obtained a Karte van Kommisie from the Staats Generaal office of the Maze. Svendsen now has official papers to hunt Holland’s enemies in the West Indies. Just arriving in the Caribee after a little scrap, what will this bold new adventurer do now? (*NOTE: custom fictional character won as a prize)
WHAT WE ARE CONTINUING TO WORK ON FOR THE FIRST COMMERCIAL VERSION AND DLCs:
We have been working with a couple of Russian mod teams and exchanging work, items and ideas. Based on this we will be bringing in both lock picking and HATS/Helmets. That’s right, just right around the corner for everyone is the possibility of finding and wearing hats and helmets as new protective and stylish items. THIS IS VERY EXCITING! Also….. BOOTS!
If you haven’t seen the new more realistic Caribbean game world map, here it is. Orazio is still working on it along with dozens of new locations/new towns as well. We also have MANY new structures that no one has seen yet.
More new characters/models with new animations yet unseen.
More new ships and skins
– and of course the new Battle scenario DLCs (for more info: read the last announcements [Announcements Page 1] to find out what I am talking about) Jeffrey and I are making the first five battles DLC Pack compatible both with the old and the new map, so they will work with what you currently still have right now.
- Start date of game will depend on the character you select. If you select Bart Roberts for instance your game will begin in 1719 instead of the default date of 1665.
- New weather, better realistic water, more realistic sky boxes with more variety.
- New gun balance mod with historically correct cannon sizes for the time. (working a long time on this one)
- A few more trade and cargo goods.
- Occasional civilian citizens will offer a ship they have inherited for sale.
- Still working on first marriage quest and alternative Isabella (Anneke) questline.
- A new GUI tab which allows Captains to select personal FLAGS!
- Buying a house with a chest like that on the ship. In addition, chests in Isabella’s house also stays constant like that on your ship.
- New ships almanac which will be available in the interface to review pictures and descriptions of each of the hundreds of ships available in GOF ERAS2.
- New random video mod. In addition to loading screens it will be possible to randomly encounter short transition videos during certain events like boarding, death, going to shore, etc…
- New sound mod with many more gun sounds and ship sounds available. The days of Russell Crowe yelling “Starboard Battery” are nearing their end.
As far as my other endeavors go, the book on piracy is still coming along well. Another major chapter is nearing completion and more notes and index notations are complete. Also, although I finished the majority of my story on Piet Heyn back in 2013, some of the last quarter of it was still in outline form. After discovering some new germane data during my continuing historical research in just the last couple of months, I have decided to rewrite the second half of the story and add a couple of more characters. Look for the next chapter very soon.
I guess that’s about it. I hope all of you have a great Christmas holiday and have fun, enjoy friends and family and get some awesome gifts. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year. Be safe and remember always to be PIRATEY! ARRRRR MATEEEEES! Cough! Gasp! and don’t drink too much brandy or bourbon which I have a habit of doing. Be well my friends.
MK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPfo51YSFnI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMhfbLRoGEw
by modernknight1 with 4 comments.
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