[Schiavonna]

Well the link to U-56 intercepting Churchill in the HMS Nelson borked – just like Wilhelm Zahn’s 3 torpedoes! Apt! Will try again :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Zahn#U-56

[Schiavonna]

I could indulge in a little shadenfreude and rip into what’s become of Naval Action, but in all honesty..I cannot be bothered. Shame…nice sail engine and little else – mile wide, inch deep? So, cajones to that!

What I’ve been ploughing loads of time into the past year is ye old Silent Hunter 3 with GMX gold mod. Wow! Absolutely love it! Along with ERAS, a truly immersive sim (sorry for that…I’ll get my hat). And similar to ERAS it inspires me to read up on the history surrounding the period. I love the tension generated in the game. You go from being the apex predator of the seas, spotting a convoy and stealthily approaching it like a lion stalking gazelles in the savannah, you calculate, aim and fire the torpedoes.. and from that moment the dynamics totally reverse and you become the hunted! I find it incredibly nail-biting trying to dive deeper and slip away at a slight tangent to a destroyers course, all the while listening to its engines as the sound transverses above you. Then the moment of sheer terror as the hydrophone operator utters “Wasser bomb” (depth-charges – oh, you gotta play it in the original german, would be a sin not to!)…and you literally start praying to anyone that will listen…please don’t explode near the U-Boat! Please! Please! And this can go on for hours – literally – but it is never boring. Still glad they added a time compression function – I dont want to spent 3 months In REAL LIFE on one patrol – LOL! And with a bit of luck and guile, you might just drift away undetected, with your propellers revolving at less than once a second sloooow speed to hide the U-Boats noise to the enemy. You live to fight another day. Phew!

You can scale the game’s difficulty to your heart’s content. Want realistic torpedoes? (German electric torpedoes were infamously crap early war years – if they were good, there’s ahigh chance Churchill would be dead! see )). Realistic sinking times, realistic fuel, no third person camera, Manual targetting (hope your trigonometry is good!) – all these can be toggled on or off to your own preference. I play at around 67% realism and would dearly love to get the hang of manual targetting with torpedoes but I find it a hard nut to crack. There’s about 6 videos on pooh-tube from various people explaining how to do this, but they suffer greatly in quality and they all seem to use conversely different methods! Ah well, one day…

Silent Hunter 5 was the last release (nice updated graphics but infamously buggy..and with that modern Ubisoft touch that ruins the long term play/immersion). I’ve picked it up for £2 ($2.50-?) and in the packaging it still lays. Can’t hold a candle to this baby. “Uboat” looks fun but it can’t come anywhere close to the simulation immersion SH3 offers…In my humble opinion and others. The subsim community is lovely, helpful and as untoxic as can be in this day and age if you’re looking for mods and advice. And thats the thing – with mods you can upgrade the old 2003 game to 2010+ standards, taking the improved graphics, sounds etc and ignoring the crap. That’s me sold on it- LOL!

Still, there’s something intrinsically wrong in going to sea in a boat…that sinks… 😉

Give it a try if you like full-on simulations.

[Schiavonna]

Trust me on the textures…the model name is 84, but opening the model, it actually uses texture name 54

A-ha! That explains why a different texture was showing. Cheers

why would I want to torture myself with another problem child? LOL

NA’s gone full release in the last few weeks. I think it’s ‘ship has sailed’ (insert water-based pun of choice). From something like 4000 on each server/day back in it’s original early access release…now down to less than 50 with US/Europe servers combined. Glad I watched from the sidelines before committing…anyway, off topic.

Dear Jeffrey, if you are not overtaxed at present – how/where do I “tame the waves”?? As in to modify the wave height that was introduced in direct sail and battle a while back? What files control these?

I’m getting seasick LOL

[Schiavonna]

Dear MK & Jeffrey – How do I steal the source code for “Naval Action” from those scuzzy devs and give it to you to play with…without getting caught?

Just kidding! Do you have a copy of the model and texture for the Salamanca broadsword (in-game)? My texture file is borked – well, i’ve overwritten it accidentally and whats produced now in-game is yeeuuuch!!

Hope you’re both well!

[Schiavonna]

Do you reckon Edgar Alan Poe was inspired by The Hunchback of Notra Dame, and the plight of Quasimodo?

The “bells, bells, bells…” bit specifically?

Semi-seriously, I originally read this thread back in January. The name LHookins instantly rang a bell, but I couldn’t think exactly what then, so I just carried on and read the steam link. Got caught up on the “who’s being saying what” stuff and wanted to give a medal to this man:

Same game, same buggy engine copy paste overpriced **** AND cut content to sell later as DLC. Probably you’ll be able to select startings stats IF YOU PAY FOR IT. I’m so sick of this DLC ****. I’m getting to a point where I’m considering pirating everything because this is absurd.

^ By that man a pint! Beyond that, FINALLY WORKED OUT WHO LHOOKINS WAS. I think it’s Red Five! From Star Wars – New Hope. MAYBE LHOOKINS IS WHOOTKINS (William Hootkins – the actor that played Red 5!) little brother! Wouldn’t that be twist? I’m going to roll with it…so indulge me!
Here

^ Reckon the dropped ‘t’ was just a sign-up typo. Check it on IMDB when you get a chance 🙂

God I hope the kids get it together and launch an industry-wide backlash to DLC soon. It’ so overdue…

With regards to TEHO: polishing a turd from 2007 and regurgitating it more recently with a bit more graphically bling but the same spaghetti code….Good grief! Same thing going on elsewhere in gamey world. Ask the submarine sim dudes. They all play an engine from 2003, because it still pisses on the more recent Ubisoftporn bugfest. NHL hockey guys and gals prefer a 2002 and 2004 build of the game: future efforts got too “designed by a committee”, with all the deeper gameplay elements – that attracted a long-term player base – stripped of love care and filled with for bling!

I’m feed up of this trend in the gaming industry and it’s rife in entertainment culture in general. Design a story, film or game by graph-chart. Where you are then spoonfed a (max) pg-13 rated effort, conforming to current consumer trends, attitudes, hip-politics, socialogical graphs and pie charts that “by default” are designed to appeal the lowest common denominator, devoid of any real insight or substance in case it offends the “targetted demographic” dependant on their race, religion, creed, culture, sexual persuasion or voting tendancie. And… doesn’t your backside get uncomfortable after 90 minutes into the movie? So there’s a reason to cut a 3-hour epic to 95 mins. Imagine Scorcese filming the Godfather today. It wouldn’t be a trilogy but 9 films! Was Michael Bay on the design team for TEHO? Just asking…? Maybe Eli Roth? Or Uwe Boll?

The corporate dudes don’t care beyond deadlines and getting their investment back plus profit. Far Cry. Assassin’s Creed. Same game. Don’t tell me they’re not: that is being deliberately obtuse.

Get it right up you LHookins you fat, slobbering probable-sibling of a dead X-wing pilot! You are the lowest kind of denominator. Game developer shills, 911 shills, Last Jedi “Give it a good review or a certain mega corporation pulls out all future advertising in this publication and we’ll go bust” compliant journalist shills. All you utterly, transparent, truly faustian shills of whatever crap product or ideology you’re currently ‘marketing’: Message for you:

Go. To. Hell.

Hey Akella – if I start saying nice things about your recent AoP 3 adventure, can you send me free copy? Oh it’s great you guys – Really! Don’t know what your problem is – it’s just fab – having the time of my life playing this french bloke. Still haven’t seen a ship yet (65 hours later) but I’m told it’s coming… and it’s going to be great <SMILEY!>. Haven’t experienced it yet in game but can’t wait till I get my…my… bathtub with sail – ? Oh hang on, ships are coming in future DLC. Bathtub will have to do for now. And what a fantasticlly rendered bathtub it is! Look at the 4k texturing on that faucet. But …(continues with “taking the shilling”) its great game really <smiley>. And there’s great loot (and underbreath – microtransactions)…

Oh shit! My bathtub just lost it’s top-mast! Doh! The game’s crashed! It’s blue-screened! Shit! Oh wait! I’m getting an error message!! Stablise rear deflectors, watch for enemy fighters! Stay on target! Gold 5 to Red leader! It came from behind….ARRRRGGGHHHH!!!

“Did you enjoy your TEHO playthorugh, Schiavonna?”

“Negative, negative. It just impacted on the surface!”

Better call it a day before the impending “Cease and desist” order from Disney/Ubisoft/Akella Whoever makes the hairs on my nape stand up 🙂

[Schiavonna]

@ MK
Still got some Robert E Howard books for sale, if you’e interested. Near-mint condition, Can’t remember what I did with the receipts though…..hang on a sec…..

If it comes down to it, I’d rather people stole books than burn them.

Now, Millenials constantly staring and tapping their smart phones. I take that as an open invitation to throw books at them! “Hey Milenial! Know what these are?!” And if they get a little bruised ( – the books that is!) you can always find a new copy on Amazon. Just remember not to throw irreplacable or out-of-print ones. And…if that Millenial has the audacity to sue or press charges as a result of some pro-active anti-millenial book-flinging – then point out he/she was about to walk in front of busy traffic…and you actually just saved his/her life, ungrateful little puke. ADDS – Antention deficit disorder sydrome? How about “Absolutely Dull-as-Dishwater Snowflake” or “Abhorrently Dissappointing Disneyfied Sheep”.

Bah, millenials!

I’m ranting, aren’t I?

• This reply was modified 6 years, 7 months ago by Schiavonna.

[Schiavonna]

@ Jeffrey

And I had you tagged as a Schecter man! Jackson make some fine guitars, as do Ibanez. Absolutely love EMG pickups, though Seymour Duncan will do just fine as well. I’m not popular with my neighbours/ friends/ partners when I plug in either. Dont let them grind you down. Buy them earplugs.

Nothing like playing a blistering guitar riff, volume and distortion all cranked up. Makes my nape hairs stand up.

[Schiavonna]

Funnily enough, I grew up shoplifting Robert E. Howard books. As you do…you know…

Ended up actually reading the one’s that I didn’t have to hand back to the Grampian police. They got all the L Spraque du Camp ghost-written stuff, plus all the Stephen King and James Herbert lesser efforts. Chuck in a few crap Sven Hassle ones as well. Never judge a book on it’s cover ? Rubbish – had absolutely no intention of reading Sven Hassel’s “P.O.W Camp” but holy guacomole! That had a fearsome and arresting cover!

My endearing memory of the Conan stories – Conan’s nape hairs would stand briskly upright in the presence of some unnameless horror. Always seemed to be a sentence in each short story involving these afforementioned nape-hairs! I have been completely unaware till now of Helen Tavrel. Really enjoyed the snippet you included, MK. Never tried the Solomon Kane stuff nor Red Sonja. The latter because I was plain put-off by the Horrible 1980s film with Bridgette Neilson. Which is unfortunate, as the original short stories from Howard I am sure will be infinitely better….

Oh, and the shoplifting stopped after getting caught. Nevermind all the men shouting, seeing my mother cry at that age changed my mind about leading a future life of grand-book larceny. That and religious guilt (“I have sinned!”) because I thought God could see me back then. This changed with the advent of puberty, punk rock, heavy metal, heavier mastrubation, girls, etc. Anyway its all good now, tend to buy books theses days or they are feely given to me by others – problem solved. And the religious part? I’m quite comfortable with Agnosticism these days – if my ever find myself in a foxhole under an artillery barrage in the near future, this may change at short notice!

Robert E Howard – top bloke. I’d buy him a pint! Him and HP Lovecraft. Any chance of putting the Cthulhu mythos into the game? Okay, maybe that’s asking too much. The Sloop of Charles Dexter Ward? How about replacing the inquisition with those damn Stygian snake priests? A Tavern wench named Belit that is more than an equal to ny prospective captain, that yearns for adventure on the seas? Into the Mountains of Scurvy? I’ll now be keeping an eye out for Helen T. fiction in the future. I myself would love to see those pioneering author’s prolific stories and creations find their way into Eras in whatever shape or form (I meant Howard and Lovecraft, DEFINATELY NOT SVEN HASSEL!).

Suddenly Schiavonna felt a tingling at his neck. The hairs on his nape stood bolt upright…

[Schiavonna]

@ Oldtimer

We’ll that’s kind of wierd! I realised yesterday that I uploaded the wrong files to Jeffrey (- sorry Chief!) and I think they were the default ERAS ones, from the 2.6.7 build. I’ve just checked with winmerge and the Beatrice Devlin animation was an earlier modded version, but with very little done to it. NO modifications were done to any of the fighting/slashing/thrusting animations, or weapon drawing, running or sidesteps. Only to the Idle anims. So I think your beef is with the default files.

Beatrice Devlin uses the Beatrice_AB.ani file, which was the one I worked on most. The main objective was to balance out the idle animations, because one idle animation was dominating the others and over-playing (wrist-scratching)…due to bad/rushed configuration tht goes back to vanilla AoP2. Beyond that I have been gently tweaking, as opposed to a full-on make-over, and only really worked on less than 5% of what typically composes an .ani file. It seems I’ve misplaced the most recent files from sept 2017 and only have ones from 2016 that only have anti-wrist scratching work done.

@Modern Knight – any chance of “turtle spleen ladies skin balm” appearing in the Items list? (- the didnt have E45 cream or hand sanitizer back in the day!) For those ladies with incredibly itchy wrists. Okay, maybe not…

PLEASE!: Could someone possibly upload some of the latest ERAS build’s animation files to mega – so I could see what’s what with the latest build? I don’t need the whole folder, just these particular files from ERAS 2.8.-\RESOURCE\animation:

Baker.ani
blood.ani
beltrop.ani
man.ani
man2.ani
man2_ab.ani
blaze.ani
beatrice_ab.ani
Jessika.ani
Jessika_ab.ani
YokoDias.ani
woman_ab.ani
woman3_ab.ani

If you think the Beatrice Devlin ani is too fast and somewhat OP, then just go and try the DEFAULT man2_ab.ani one {used by: Jan Willems/Nathaniel Hawke/Walter Kennedy/Benjamin Hornigold/Jelles de Lecat/Bartholomew Redd/Philip Ras/Don Diego de Ibarra/Daniel Montbars/Stede Bonnet/Bertrand Vallo/Alonso de Campos/John Coxon/Bartolomeu de Português…} It has quite an exploitative, lightning-quick killer-slash. Thing is…I haven’t even gone near that file yet.

Same applies for the woman3_ab.ani – used by Ann Bonney, Mary Harvey, Flora Burn, Charlotte de Berry, Morgan Adams & Anne Dieuleveut. Ridiculously fast and I have never tried modding it.

[Schiavonna]

And again…another post gets lost in edit.

Take two:

HERE:

Merchant Lugger:				SHIP_LUGGERVML
Cornish Lugger:					SHIP_LUGGER
Petite Lugger:					SHIP_PINK
Heavy Lugger:					SHIP_LUGGER_H
Armed French Lugger:			        SHIP_ChasseMaree
Bermuda Sloop: 					SHIP_BERMSLOOP
Sloop:						SHIP_SLOOP
Veinhard sloop:					SHIP_VEINARD
Mediterranean Brigantine:		        SHIP_SHNYAVA
English Snow:					SHIP_INTERCEPTOR
Valciria Armed Snow:			        SHIP_Valciria
Corsair Chebec:					SHIP_CorsairChebec
Heavy Dutch Brigantine:			        SHIP_CASTELF
Dutch Fluyt:					SHIP_DutchFluyt
Corsair Corvette:				SHIP_BATTLECORVETTE
English Pinnace:				SHIP_EnglishPinnace
English Fast Pinnace:			        SHIP_BERLIN14gun
Heavy Dutch Pinas:				SHIP_PINNACE
Galleon:					SHIP_GALEON_L
Early Spanish Galeon:			        SHIP_GALEON_SANTIAGO
Old Argosy Bark:				SHIP_HIND_L
GeleideFrigat:					SHIP_PINNACEBERLIN
OorlogsFrigat:					SHIP_Debrackw
Privateer Sloop:				SHIP_NEPTUNUS
Flemish Privateer:				SHIP_NEPTUNUS2
Corsair Fast Sloop: 				SHIP_NEPTUNUS3
Armed Spanish Patache:			        SHIP_CARAVEL
Armed Urca:					SHIP_CARAVEL2
Sixth Rate:					SHIP_Fregates_Legeres
French Scout Frigatte:			        SHIP_FRIGATE_L
English 5th Rate:				SHIP_UNICORN
Flota Galleon:  				SHIP_SANFELIPE
Spanish Fast Galleon:			        SHIP_GALEON_H21
Armed English Trader:			        SHIP_THEBLACKPEARL
Jamaican Patrol Ship:			        SHIP_JAMAICASHIP
Frigatta Olandesa:  				SHIP_FRIGATE_MB
Galeon Legero:					SHIP_FASTGALLEON1
Export Warship:					SHIP_FWZP56M
Flemish Galleon:				SHIP_FlemishGalleon
Old English Galleon:			        SHIP_REVENGE
Dutch Frigate:					SHIP_DUTCHFRIGATE
French Cinquante Tireur:		        SHIP_FrenchFifty
French Navire de Guerre:		        SHIP_LINESHIP5
Dutch Zestig Gunner:			        SHIP_LINESHIP
Derderangs Oorlogsschip:		        SHIP_DUTCHLINESHIP2
Old Dutch Manowar:				SHIP_DUTCHSHIP
Ordere Seconde:					SHIP_POSEIDON
Almirante Galeon:				SHIP_NEPTUNE

Made it a little easier for you! I recommend ignoring what I said about writing new code (playing with the ‘random’ variable – and shortening the lines from the originals) and just go ahead and substitute some of the ships above with whats already in there in ShipsUtilities.c. Work your way down to the FIRST “= If Realistic SHIP PURCHASE is NOT enabled”, replacing what ship you’d like to see. YOU CAN DO MULTIPLE ENTRIES OF THE SAME SHIP. It wont crash the engine, just increase the chances of the that ship spawning at Shipyards.

That’s your homework sorted, eh? 😛

[Schiavonna]

I think you’re on the right track with: if (sti(PChar.rank) >= 1)

I wasn’t sure about just putting an ” = ” – Jeffrey can explain the logic far more articulately than myself.

IF you try substituting the ” >= ” command AND YOU STILL RECEIVE a “can’t initialise program” message, then fall back on ” > ” i.e. the GREATER THAN symbol, which definately works. Unfortunately you will not see any changes till your PC reaches level 2 rank. I don’t recommend setting it to “if (sti(PChar.rank) > 0)”, the game won’t recognise level 0.

If you want certain ships to spawn – whether 7th Rate through to 1st rate, you have to work through the code and substitute the ship’s coded name, which is in brackets near the end of each particular line, with your new choice. I’m using an earlier build of eras – it might be different to what you have, so don’t just copy/paste – use it as an example:

if (iTest_ship == 1) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_WAR_TARTANE), “ship2”);

The (SHIP_WAR_TARTANE) part – thats what you would replace with your new choice. Ok, so you probably figured this out already.

Using these lines as an example:

	iTest_ship = rand(14);
    if (iTest_ship == 1) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_WAR_TARTANE), "ship2");
    if (iTest_ship == 2) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_TARTANE2), "ship2");
    if (iTest_ship == 3) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_ArmedTartane), "ship2");
    if (iTest_ship == 4) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_KETCH), "ship2");
    if (iTest_ship == 5) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_HANNAH), "ship2");
    if (iTest_ship == 6) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_PequenaCaravela), "ship2");
    if (iTest_ship == 7) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_Boeier), "ship2");
    if (iTest_ship == 8) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_Barque3), "ship2");
    if (iTest_ship == 9) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_Barque4), "ship2");
    if (iTest_ship == 10) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_Caravel20s), "ship2");
    if (iTest_ship == 11) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_TartaneWar), "ship2");
    if (iTest_ship == 12) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_Schooner_MB), "ship2");
    if (iTest_ship == 13) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_Galeon_Santiago), "ship2");
    if (iTest_ship == 14) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_BarcoCostero), "ship2");

Ok – all those lines are going to spawn ONLY ONE ship in the shipyards. You see the “iTest_ship = rand(14);” line? Thats’s saying there are 14 possibilities of what will be spawned – but only ONE ship will be spawned. 100 divided by 14 = 7.14 (rounded up). There is 7.14 % of that particular ship being spawned.

You could fill all the ship entries with one specific ship – all 14 entries and that would guarantee it appearing in-game. OR you could reset the random number – change it to 4 for example – for the sake of simplicity. BUT YOU WOULD THEN NEED TO MAKE SURE THERE IS ONLY 4 LINES OF CODE THAT NOW FOLLOW, NOT 14…otherwise your game won’t start. SEE EXAMPLE BELOW

Let’s say you want the “Holland Frigate” to appear in the shipyards. Checking through the common.ini file for “Holland Frigate” – you’ll find it’s listed as “HollandFrigate”. That’s not the code you want, but that will give you a listing for Ships_init.c. Opening up Ships_init.c and looking for “HollandFrigate”, we find that the coded name for it is “SHIP_HOLLANDFRIGATE”. THATS WHAT YOU WANT FOR For this to work. You can sometimes bypass looking up common.ini, and you can work out the ship’s codename directly from ships.init. If you can’t find it/ work it out from Ships_init.c, then default to common.ini first.

If we were to do my example from the paragraph above, the code would have to be re-written as such:

	iTest_ship = rand(4);
    if (iTest_ship == 1) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_HOLLANDFRIGATE), "ship2");
    if (iTest_ship == 2) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_HOLLANDFRIGATE), "ship2");
    if (iTest_ship == 3) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_HOLLANDFRIGATE), "ship2");
    if (iTest_ship == 4) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_HOLLANDFRIGATE), "ship2");

And that would replace the original 14 lines (or 15 if you include the line “iTest_ship = rand(4);”).

Be careful copy/pasting stuff. Proof read it for silly little errors/spacing. etc. Otherwise it will lead to the error message on game start.

So, work out the ships you want to see spawned early game in the shipyards, work out their coded names from the other files, and substitute them with the ships you dont want.

You’ll notice in ShipsUtilities.c where it’s written ” = If Realistic SHIP PURCHASE IS enabled” AND ” = If Realistic SHIP PURCHASE is NOT enabled”, that’s telling you that the code clusters directly following are dependant on “realistic ship purchase” being switched ON or OFF in your SETTINGS. So, depending on which setting you prefer, you can skip the other and half the work you’re doing.

Its maybe a bit more complex than you thought? And a little laborious to see significant changes appear in game, but YOU HAVE BACKED UP YOUR FILES SAFELY….so you’ve got nothing to lose. And it’s quite rewarding when you figure it out nd it works.

[Schiavonna]

BTW – apologies for typo’s with missing “A” letters – my A key on keyboard is becoming increasingly fickle!

• This reply was modified 6 years, 7 months ago by Schiavonna.

[Schiavonna]

Wow! I’ve never seen the Hondo Dean Pauls before. That’s a cracking budget guitar there. I’ve got a neglected Les Paul copy, that was bought from a pawnshop purely becuase it had double EMGs on it. ONE of which was worth more than the whole price of the guitar-! But like I said it’s sat there neglected for years due to missing pegs and the fretboard severely needs refretted. I have another cheapie Les paul-ish shape thing. Bought from a friend for pennies and when other friends play it, always seem to return a good ‘ punches above it’s weight’ verdict.

Been thinking of forking out for a mid-range piece over the last year. Like a ‘good’ epiphone, a subsiduary PRS (maybe not – gone off those things after trying one in the shops) or a basic Gretsch. Everyone under the sun has tried to put me off going for Gretsch. It’s not regarded as a serious ‘metal’ guitar. But the non-semi acoustic (much thinner body) models are making me dribble.I love it’s clean tone and I’m more than convinved it’s upto the job regarding a heavier sound with gain.

I have been going round in choice circles for over a year now! Absolute indecision regarding what to chase after. Starts with “I’ll just get an entry point cheap les Paul Special II and get a professional makeover” – truss rods, fretboard, new pickups, etc – and see what that blossoms into.. Or maybe (going up more £)…an epiphone with nice humbuckers?? Oh, look at this…for a couple more bucks…I can get an original fender strat? Or a gibson SG? Well, why not put out a few more extra £ and get an original second hand Les Paul? On and on…till I end up cursing the budget price and revert to “just get your currently-owned six-stringers a profesional refit, you moron!”. Then the process continues…

So, probably a Les Paul man at heart, though started on a strat (a cheap Hohner) and loved them. Prefer C shaped necks to D’s. The Gretsch’s are currently enamoring me, but your pics of your Jackson have made me sit up and take note. I liked them before but dismissed them – purely because I wasn’t to taken by the shape of the headstock, which reminded me of a hockey stick (can see why a Canadian would go for that though! Hehe!). More fool me – their bodies really are lovely. Really taken by your model. I will have to try one before comitting to anything now!

And on that note: see these big chain stores? I ain’t buying jack diddley unless I’m left alone to play for at least 15 minutes by the flippin’ sales team! And I am completely uninterested in the aforemention store employees “shredding skills”! I am here to make an informed choice and ideally purchase a guitar, not marvel at their techniques! So paws off puppy-dog – give the guitar to me and leave me to work out whether I’m interested or not. And…possibly…can I try a few more out? Without your interference..?! I’m sure you’ll have experienced similar. The smaller indy shops I never seem to have this problem with – they give you the space and respect. I can sympathise with the big stores attitude with say schoolkids on a lunchbreak, but to treat individual adults (and talented kids!) that way – puts me completely off. Hiya Guitar Guitar! Ebay is brutal in the uk – if you spot an absolute bargain, there’s at least 3 people already bidding outrageously over the original price point, so becomes moot. Meh. I’d rather browse pawnshop windows for bargains.

Had to be careful how I spelt “pawn” there…!

• This reply was modified 6 years, 7 months ago by Schiavonna.

[Schiavonna]

@ Oldtimer

Ah, ok – I hear what you’re saying. Some ‘exploits’ are appreciated considering the Questline imbalance. I should really ask Jeffrey to mark those files as “Experimental” to avoid any misconceptions in the future. Appreciate the feedback though – and I will be needing more in near future in regards to some user mods I’m hoping to put up here. It would be nice to get feedback before they “go live” and I get lynch parties sent out for me – if you are available and willing – ? 🙂

[Schiavonna]

@ Jeffrey: I new all that – honest!
Nah, I didn’t. Thank you Jeffrey for explaining so concisely and eloquently for dummies like me.

[Author]

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