GOF ERAs Mod 2 Latest Download

[modernknight1]

WARNING: DO NOT PUT YOUR DOWNLOAD ON TOP OF ANY OTHER GAME VERSION. IT IS STAND ALONE AND ONCE DL’d AND PUT INTO A NEWLY CREATED EMPTY GAME FOLDER OF YOUR CHOICE THAT YOU HAVE NAMED YOURSELF ON YOUR DESKTOP – FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE ITCH DOWNLOAD If you put your download on top of another game or mod, it will mess everything up and you will have to delete everything and start again. MK

ALSO NOTE: This mode now requires the newest Maelstrom Engine, that is only available now on Itch.io and if you were not part of the Loyalty membership that was established February 2018, comprised of contributing members, the Maelstrom Engine now requires payment through Itch.io

New Mod version successfully uploaded 21 November 2018.

Latest version of the game is Eras2 2.8 published on 21 November 2018 and is available here:

PLEASE READ the new “Read Me” file provided in the forum topic or in the mod folder itself.

The mod is over 20GB unpacked. You should not have to do anything but possibly modify some supplied shortcuts that you can then copy to a convenient location for launch.

There are many new features in the mod options including desired camera zoom out option slider/toggle. Be sure to check them all out to customize the game to your own desired configuration. I prefer the game zoomed out (toggle all the way to the right) in order to get the best views of battles and of course using your mouse wheel you can always zoom in closer any time you wish. MK 02 January 2018 (Happy New Year!)

At this point the mod is now over twice the size of the original game and encapsulates everything in the game. Bottom line….this is a whole new game.

I will attempt to get the mod posted to other locations and a Torrent version available in the near future.

I’m using the new MEGA site hosted out of New Zealand and it seems pretty good so far. For a clean DL try pulling it in over night.

Please see the updated Read Me file topic for a list of new capabilities and the few bugs remaining.

Enjoy.

MK

EDIT: I had a couple people complain that the link wouldn’t work for them. If this occurs, simply right click on the link and select the option “Open Link in New Private Window”

• This topic was modified 9 years, 11 months ago by modernknight1.
• This topic was modified 9 years, 11 months ago by modernknight1.
• This topic was modified 9 years, 11 months ago by modernknight1.
• This topic was modified 9 years, 11 months ago by modernknight1.
• This topic was modified 9 years, 11 months ago by modernknight1.
• This topic was modified 9 years, 1 month ago by modernknight1.
• This topic was modified 9 years, 1 month ago by modernknight1.
• This topic was modified 9 years, 1 month ago by modernknight1.
• This topic was modified 9 years, 1 month ago by modernknight1.
• This topic was modified 9 years, 1 month ago by modernknight1.
• This topic was modified 7 years, 9 months ago by modernknight1.
• This topic was modified 6 years, 11 months ago by modernknight1.
• This topic was modified 6 years, 11 months ago by modernknight1.
• This topic was modified 6 years, 10 months ago by modernknight1.
• This topic was modified 6 years ago by Jeffrey.
• This topic was modified 6 years ago by Jeffrey.

[Vesca]

thank you, for this late Christmas Gift^^, Mega is not bad, download finished after 1 hours 17 min.

[modernknight1]

You are quite welcome. Glad to hear it Vesca! That is a really good download time for a file of that size. I had complaints about Mediafire hitting people with unwanted adds before they could download so I think this is a much better alternative.

Please let me know how you like the mod.

MK

[acenewton1]

Would be nice if you had it available soemwhere else. Like Mediafire or GoogleDrive. I ran out of Mega HTML cache. My download speed is fine. However, when you download too many things from Mega, you have to pay for more space. You can’t delete the space (That i’m aware of) and so, I cannot use Mega on anything anymore. So, if anyone is willing to put it on Mediafire or Google drive, please let me know.

[acenewton1]

Would be nice if you had it available somewhere else. Like Mediafire or GoogleDrive. I ran out of Mega HTML cache. My download speed is fine. However, when you download too many things from Mega, you have to pay for more space. You can’t delete the space (That i’m aware of) and so, I cannot use Mega on anything anymore. So, if anyone is willing to put it on Mediafire or Google drive, please let me know.

[Matthias]

Just came back here after remembering how I could check if I registered two years ago. I am so dumb to forget about the possibility to ask for a new password 🙂 :D. I was never an active member since the last two years were somewhat stressfull for me (getting married, get a son, finished my degree). I purchased a couple of weeks ago MAELSTROM and get a grab of the newest ERAS version.

Long talk short, you all did an incredible work, especially MK and Jeffrey for a start. I personally want to thank you all for the many hours of fun you provided for me (again).

Regards
Matthias

[Daniela]

Thank you so much for your excellent work and for sharing it with us.
The ships look fantastic.
It will be exciting to explore all the innovations in eras. I´m so happy to start it NOW.

[Bernadette Schilling]

Nice job on the website MK. Love it so far. I expect great things from you. As one of the guys on MODDB commented today the mod is EPIC. I am privileged to be one of your beta testers and have to agree. I don’t usually go out for older games but what you’ve done here is extraordinary.

Just because its old doesn’t mean its not awesome and with a little imagination I find myself back in ye ole pirate days.

Thanks so much and looking forward to more in the future. I was worried you were going to shelve this after the last months happenings. I am so glad to see you bounce back my friend.

Hammer

[modernknight1]

Thanks B!

Wait till you see the complete forum. I drew it out on yellow legal pads months ago and its finally starting to come together. I’m not certain this site format/layout is the best for what I want to do but we shall see. I should probably bring in some of our mutual friends to assist me here. Websites are not my strong point.

Totally agree on old games and imagination….as you already know. You guys make fun of me for all my old games. I know I criticize POTC for being old, but its limitations, GUI and fighting system make it just too clunky especially compared to COAS. Its too bad those POTC guys would never actually play and get into COAS. So much of the best mod content of that game could have been transferred to the better and more modern base game.

Its really unforgivable that they scrapped focusing on continuing mod efforts of stuff people could use and play RIGHT NOW in favor of developing something new that may never see the light of day. Time will tell and one of the reasons for this site is so that the COAS mod folks can come back together here and continue modding such a great game – AND it won’t be some back-burner non priority effort – it will be the main focus and primary effort of the forum here at Buccaneer’s Reef.

Thanks again for all your testing. I know you were hesitant to jump in when I first asked. Are you still playing?

BTW I think you’re banned on PA! too because you signed up on my ASUS notebook when we were skiing last winter and they banned all my IPs. My little niece got banned too and it was her notebook I was using when I was layed up a couple years ago(like she cares). They banned Stephen as well because he’s still living at home and is on my router network. He made a hilarious video about it for YouTube I will have to show you where he sings a song he made up called “I am not my Dad”. HILARIOUS!!! He also made a new music mod and since he couldn’t put it up on PA!, he put it up on a Russian game site called Corsair’s Harbor.ru

A

MK

[Hraktuus]

It’s quite true. I am not my dad. :p

[altered-beast]

Hi, thanks a lot for sharing this fantastic mod. I love it. It’s like a time machine, I’m really impressed with the historical accuracy, and ships look great.

I wanted to share these little tweaks I made for more immersive gameplay, don’t know if someone will be interested in, but here it is :
https://www.sendspace.com/file/5nkgmz

It removes the hud at sea, the crosshair reticule, the spyglass info, and remove corpses timer (no more looting hurry, corpses will only disapear now if you leave the area).
The files contain two versions of the tweaks. Full (no sea hud), and Minimal (with compass, speed, cannonballs, etc…).

[Devoidbrah]

Nicee 😀 Though if you let the corpses lie around, will the soldiers in towns respawn or not?

[altered-beast]

I just tried and when you have killed 40 or 50 soldiers the game crashed. But, the only way to kill so many is to use god mode, so I hope it’s not game breaking. And I think the game crashed because of a infinite spawning problem in this particular case (the screen went black, but I still hear my character doing my commands and hear no enemy attacking anymore). Gonna check in case.

[modernknight1]

Welcome Altered-Beast!

You are quite welcome. This mod is here for people to enjoy. I love your “little tweak” mod. When the forums are finished there will be an actual mod section where we can put all of the contributed mods in one place.

I would like your permission to include your mod in the next patch for GOF ERAs2. You will be credited of course.

Did you include the Full and Minimal in the mod options interface? If not I would like to add it as an option to Mod Options Interface itself.

Thanks Again! Glad you are enjoying the mod! I played for two hours today even though I was supposed to be doing other things. I am addicted.

MK

[altered-beast]

I already thought of including it in the mod options, but I’m just a beginner, and not skillful enough with modding yet. But that would be nice. I’ll try if I can do something.

At the moment I’m working in realistic sinking animations for ships, and with good results. Manowar take 5/10 minutes to sink, smaller ships just 2/3 minutes. Maybe I’m wrong with these numbers, if someone knows how many time a ship takes to sink, just tell me.

I’m working too with the low poly crew from the deck, to decrease/increase their number based on the numbers of the actual sailors we have hired. This way, if we lost some sailors during battles, it will be reflected on deck (no more sailors walking on the bridge when we have 0 crew). That’s a tough one, I managed to read the actual crew members, but it don’t refresh when we hire/fire some sailors, it requires to make a whole new game in order to refresh numbers…

Thanks for your welcome ModernKnight1, feel free to use my tweaks in your mod if you want, that would be an honor.

PS : I fixed my no sea hud tweak, I forgot to remove the sails state of the companions.
https://www.sendspace.com/file/9d505e

[altered-beast]

You can sink with your ship in first person now lol :

[modernknight1]

WOW! That is AWESOME!

Nice work!

How did you do that?

I would like to include this in the upcoming patch as well.

MK

[altered-beast]

Glad that you like it. I’m still working on it, but when it’s finished I will post the link ;
Now the problem is that the sinking sounds are too short, I must find longer sounds… and I must find a way too for poping a blue filter when we are under the sea (sadly, the last screen is photoshop). Maybe if I try something the same way the spyglass works…

[altered-beast]

Mmmh, the sinking thing is too buggy, I give up.
(the crew is still walking on the deck under water, the ship doesn’t sink too deep, I don’t know how to pop a blue filter, etc…)

[modernknight1]

Maybe I can help. If nothing else the longer sinking times and the angles that the ships sink at would be cool addition. Where are you playing? What files? I would like to have a look.

I never give up permanently. Often when you are modding you will run into a wall and after you’ve tried everything you will be so frustrated and give up. Then as time goes on you will think of other things that you might be able to tweak that influence what you’re playing with OR completely new things to try.

So many times its weeks or even months after I thought I was giving up on something, when I would actually have a breakthrough or figure out the solution to the problem suddenly.

So set it aside for now….but don’t give up. Also having a fresh set of eyes on the problem often can make the difference. That’s why I want to get a new MOD TEAM together for ERAs because I know as a team we can achieve so much more than what I have been able to do on my own.

MK

[altered-beast]

Ok, here it is. Search for “set attributes for sinking effect”, I edited those lines.
I think we can do better, if we find where the dead ship effects is located (the thing that makes the ship goes darker and disappear). I say that because it reads the height of the ship, I tried negative values, and the ship was flying and never disappear in outer space (btw that was a funny trip lol). If we find this, we can even make the ships sink in two or three times (the ship starts to sink slowly, after a while a little faster, and when it’s full of water sinks much faster)

https://www.sendspace.com/file/suna6x

PS : To see the changes, you need to start a new game.

[modernknight1]

OK I see what you did. Interesting! A member on PA! “Superchango” did the same thing a few years ago and I forgot all about it. This will be fun to implement and everyone will enjoy it.

Expect to see this in the patch and I will credit you.

Thanks again!

MK

[D. R. England]

Could someone please reupload altered-beast’s fixed sea hud tweaks?
TIA and Happy Sailing

[mr.nobody]

hey i you know i am a newbie and i want to download GoF eras 2 but i have problem to download in mega because i am using low speed internet connection and the speed max reach is about 90 kbps so i must wait 17 hours but what i want is there another download link that can be downloaded with idm because when using idm my max speed is about 280 kbps and can be resumed tomorow please understand my problem and if there’s another link i suggest mediafire or another link that can be paused on idm post it or send it into my email : [email protected]

thank you from mr.nobody?????????
oh yes i forget i only can using internet at 13.00-16.00
because i’m bussy so because that i need another link

thank for read my problem from mr.nobody????????

• This reply was modified 9 years, 4 months ago by mr.nobody. Reason: i forgot to write my reason to request another link thank

[Devoidbrah]

hello and welcome to our forums Mr. Nobody,

Sadly there is no other source where you can download the mod from. If your own connection is so slow, I suggest you ask a friend of yours with a better connection at his place to download it. As of now, there are no plans to put this file up on anything other than mediafire. Previous attempts to upload it on other upload websites failed and as of now the root of your problem seems to lie in your own internet speed as your the first person to complain.
The usual download speed for me of the mod is around 1mb – 1,5 mb per second 😛

even at 280 kbps it would take alot of hours to download it. after all the whole mod when unpacked is 32gb big (it consists of the game + the mod)

So the easiest solution for you would be to go to a friends place and download it there with a 16k connection dsl connection it will take aproximately around 3-6 hours, depending on the overall use of said connection, a 50k or 100k cable connection has even fast download rate, Im sure you know someone with a better download speed 😉

[mr.nobody]

you know i have think’s about that but there also another problem you know my friend wo have stable internet connection is very far from home even if i want to using school wifi it has been passworded you know you right about idm speed but i have solving the speed download of idm by using registry editor so when download reach about 10 % i can save all data i need to resume it tomorow so if one day have 10 % percent i can complete it in about five days i also completing many files using that trick but when i cant download a file with idm that is my problem a far friend,low internet connection,and only 2 hours internet time i am full with problem also i download a film to forgetting my problem that’s my answer thank for answer my problem oh if you have a torrent for the GoF eras file can you give me a link i will download the torrent because i can using that trick too you said it consists with the game so is that just extract it then play it or i have to have the AoP 2 game ? if the answer yes then IF POSSIBLE i just need the MOD thank you

from mr.nobody??????????

[Devoidbrah]

Its the whole game and the mod packed into the download. Extract it and play it. Again theres no torrent file or other downloadable source except the place MK1 uploaded it to. I hope you manage to download it somehow despite your limitations, its a grandal mod indeed.

[belzeburg]

How about the Gold Fleet from Porto Bello, how often is it sailing ?

[Anonymous]

I was supposed to read MK’s comment here, but i cannot see it… what happened?
Just read on moddb some great news, but no sign here
Maybe a bug on this site?
If my comment is wrong and everyone else can read Mk, pls delete my msg, but inform me through email 🙂
Thnaks

[Craig Brown]

I’m really excited that the latest update to this mod is going to be out any day now. Do you have a release date MK?

[modernknight1]

Hi Craig,

No not yet. Someone just gave me 7 new swords and they are good ones so I wanna get them in. I could get it done tonight/tomorrow if I didn’t sleep but I am in the middle of some consulting too. I would rather do this than the consult work LOL but I have to maintain my professionalism. I am also doing one last reskin. So I would say two more days.

Now having said that, the other things I talked about not having in this version – more fighters, correct historical cannon sizes, new cargo mod, and new crypts and islands/towns mods ARE SUPER CLOSE to being done. So I think I can safely say that there will be another newer version in just a couple more months – maybe by Christmas. I desperately wanna finish mod 2 for good. When I finally get all the new island locations in, I want to start working on MODULE 3 again (1777-1815) timeframe. The only thing I will do to Module 2 after the islands is put new stuff in as it comes available AND implement new quests as I get them done. I am still working on my first one which is the same as the Isabella quest but with different characters and locations. It will be called the Anneke quest and will be based out of Curacao.

MK

[Craig Brown]

That’s good news I can’t wait. Keep up the awesome work!

[modernknight1]

TOPIC CLOSED because of spammers. Germane/related discussion can continue on other threads. MK

[Anonymous]

I exploded when i read that your work is done!
THis brings so much joy
Cannot wait to test the new version, thank you thank you thank you!
🙂

[0range]

Hey-hey! Are there any news regarding the download link? We would appreciate any news! Thanks a lot for your work!

[modernknight1]

Sorry took numerous attempts to upload. Stormy weather up here in Idaho. New mod link updated with decryption code in first post of this thread. Enjoy!

MK

[Anonymous]

just started to download – i will give you some feedback in the next 24 hrs
thanks (again and again)

[sch92]

HYPE! Thanks for your work!

[Anonymous]

MK, the solution you offered here https://buccaneersreef.com/forums/topic/vanilla-screen-and-camera-view-resolution-modfix/ , is not working for this new version of the game.
I copied the 2 files (engine.ini and the other one) with no result, so i am blocked with the game itself, because at sea the image is too unpleasant. Please help me 🙂
(the game is running ok, no bugs so far)

Later edit: when i play full screen, the game uses only 4/5 of the screen or smth.
The only options available in config are 800/600 and 1024/768
Thanks 🙂

[Alan Q. Smithee]

Downloading now. Does this require a fresh install of COAS or can it be installed over a previous version of Eras?

[0range]

Hi MK! Thank you so much!

Please tell us which CoAS version is required? 1.3.0 or… which? What is the game version you are using?

Thanks a lot in advance! Cheers!

[Craig Brown]

No you guys you don’t have to have a fresh install or even have COAS installed on your computer you just unzip this open it up and double click on the start.exe and play the game.

[0range]

I see, thanks =) I figured it out 😉 It is the difference between *should* have the original game and *must*…

Works like a charm. Now I will try to figure out how not to loose the battles, because I get myself constantly killed during first boardings. Will go search for tips on the Internet. It would be nice if someone prepared a tips&tricks topic here, on The Reef.

Thanks in advance 😉

• This reply was modified 9 years, 1 month ago by 0range.

[Anonymous]

One little (tiny and not important) bug to report : when you talk to the boss-lady in bordels, the dialogue freezes. You can try to select one of the two answers ( i want X lady, or the other answer), but no result, the game is blocked. Only alt+f4 helps

And one… difficult question :).
Mk, you limited all the other captains on the game . The max lvl of theyr ships is 5, which is kinda funny. I am not questioning your decisios, i am just asking if you are kind to change that. It would mean A LOT to me.
Thanks 🙂

[0range]

When I tried the ladies boss, she worked correctly. Dialogue was ok. Maybe depends on the town?

I was robbed in the tavern twice the same visit… That was strange =)

[Alan Q. Smithee]

On unzipping the download, Windows flags and quarantines the file dvm.dll, saying it has an “Obfuscator.XZ” file in it. It did this for past versions too. Any idea why?

• This reply was modified 9 years ago by Alan Q. Smithee.

[0range]

Alan, it did not happen to me. I have Windows 8.1 and ESET antivirus. Please tell what antivirus do you have, probably that is the reason.

[modernknight1]

Answers to questions and comments:

I did not change original game mechanics on NPC player captains. However it is NOT limited to level 5 ships. The way the game works is as you level up so do the other NPC captains, so once you achieve higher levels you will encounter NPC captains that have better ships.

I will post the tips and tricks topic requested. There are a lot of good tips I’ve already posted and it is a good idea that they all be put under one topic. Working on it now.

The virus alert on the no DVD crack is an old issue. The PA forums talk about it in several topics. Do not let your AV quarantine the DVM files. They are harmless. The AV software is the issue here and not only overprotective but also stupid.

FYI I am already putting a little patch together because I found some missing stuff. It will require a new game because I had to rename some things. Looks like I have finally squashed the -1 character message error bug at sea. YEAY!

MK

[modernknight1]

New patch posted in new topic. Be sure to get it!

Radu are you still having the screen resolution problem? What screen resolution does your monitor have?

MK

[modernknight1]

@Orange

Until I get the tips and tricks thread done make sure to go to this post I put up for new players. There is a very good description of how to fight.

TIPS on How to play when you're just starting out

MK

[0range]

Oh my! MK, thank you!!!

[Anonymous]

Hello, MK, thanks for your feedback, first 🙂
Now:
1. I played many times till level 41-43,(i don;t remember if i reached 43, 41 is 100 % ), but encountered only captains with maximum lvl 5 ships in taverns. Strange. Anyway : i don’t question what you say, who knows what i;m doing wrong.
2. I am having a laptop now, just sold my pc, I5 4570 CPU, GTX 950 graphics, 15.6” screen, with 1366/768 resolution.

If noone has this problem, it might be (again) my mistake.
I have no idea 🙂
ANyway, thanks for asking. Maybe i will get used to play this way.
Good luck to you all.

PS – no other bugs encountered. Good job indeed 🙂

[Anonymous]

I cannot edit the last post, so i must add here: i am running windows 8.1

[modernknight1]

Radu I thought for sure I have had some captains with class 4 ships. I had noticed they were mostly smaller class 5 ships – although there are some really great class 5 ships.

I will have a look. You might be right and it is easy enough to find and fix because it can only be determined in two files and I think I know where it is, so stay tuned.

I started to work a multi resolution patch where you would select the engine file and camera files for your combo but put it on the back burner. I will get back on that because I know others have to have the same issue but are silent. We seem to have a great silent majority on this website which is very frustrating for me.

I like to hear from people. Thanks for the info and I will get right on it.

MK

[Anonymous]

I understand your frustration – right now in my country major changes occur, but too many are silent. And this affects the result on many levels :).
Anyway : thank you very much for the patch idea 🙂
I stay tuned, as you say.

[belzeburg]

Long before you make a torrent for Your New Mod ? I have problems download With Megasync

Belzeburg

[0range]

Ehm what do you mean you have problems with resolution?

First time I started the game the resolution was fine. Then I happened to launch config.exe by curiosity and did not find anything of interest, only lost my resolution. Config.exe was giving me only two resolutions that do not fit my screen.

So I went to engine.ini, opened it with notepad, put

screen_x = 1600
screen_y = 900

manualy saved the file and here we go! Obviously, you may put the numbers you want there, not only 1600X1900.

That is why I am silent about the resolution! =)

• This reply was modified 9 years ago by 0range.
• This reply was modified 9 years ago by 0range.

[Anonymous]

Orange, THANK YOU.
It works, now i can really enjoy the game.
Thanks a lot, mate!
Have a nice week 🙂

[Anonymous]

Now that i can really play, i found this : some naval battles cannot be finished.
I play adventurer, on Commodore level, under England flag.
England is at peace with France, and i cannot finish boardings (when attacking english or french ships) because after the deck killing phase, the ganme is not going to the next phase, the captain cabin’s fight. My soldiers are surrounding me, as usual, but the button that announces the next screen does not appear. I tried to find any remanining soldiers all over the ships (tried this many times, in many different situations), but there is noone left… and still i am not being able to continue the game 🙂
Therefore i can attack only spanish/dutch and pirate ships.
This is a major problem.
Thanks 🙂

[Anonymous]

Same situation broke the English Questline.
First mission, escorting Duke X (don t remember the name), close to Antiqua boarding the spanish ship, no way into captain’s cabin.
I stop playing the game till this is solved. it;s too annoying 🙂
Thanks again.

[modernknight1]

Radu,

This is NOT a huge problem. This is a very old defect that can be found in every version of GOF and even happens in vanilla sometimes. Its not confined to the taking of English ships either it will happen with all factions. Sometimes the interface button appears, sometimes it doesnt. I did not cause this.

Heres what you do…and I think most people figure this out rather quickly. When you get the point where the decks are cleared and the cabin transition icon does not appear, simply click your left mouse button and you will go to the next stage. If you are playing with a laptop with touchpad, there are usually a couple buttons below it. click one of them until you go to the next stage. Not a big deal but its good if other people are having the same issue they can read here how to get around it. you may find after a time that the icon comes back. I have no idea why it behaves like this.

MK

[Anonymous]

🙂 you are very kind, MK, but i know that. I played all versions (in facut i play this game since Sea Dogs .
What happens now is different.
Could be, again, my mistake. But it’s not about clicking 🙂

[modernknight1]

@Radu,

I am fully willing to admit this could be a new bug. COAS is filled withh errors. I could spend all my time doing nothing but fixing errors and I fix stuff all the time. However, I have not run into the bug you’re talking about. I am playing three test games at the moment. ONe French one Dutch and one English. In the French I am only level 14 but Henry Jennings is now at level 27 and has had no issues. My Dutch game with Aernoutz is at level 23.

I have had very little beta test help lately. Even my 3 dependable betas have not been helping lately. So I need your help to fix this bug youve identified.

I need you to tell me what character, ship, level, weapon enemy ship, enemy ship class, etc that this is happening with.

NExt you can really help me out if you will enable logginng and send me the files. SO first, save a copy of your engine file and set it aside somewhere safe. Then open up your engine file in the game folder and scroll to the bottom. please change the following… debugwindow to 1 debuginfo to1 codefiles to 1 runtime log to 1 and ondebugkeys to 1

Then run your game where you last saved. It will probably run a little slow because it is logging everything. When you get to the part where you cant move on press F4. you will see some little options pop up. press on teleport character. It will give you a list. then select reload3 but I also want you to try reload1 and reload2 in seperae attempts. also try cabin. this may allow you to keep playing but more important to me is for you to close your game and look in your game file. There will be dozens of files. I would like them all. they are mostly in B or basic and you probably wont be able to read them. THe three I am most interested in though are system, compile, and error. those three will be in common text format. IF you could upload those here or somewhere i can get them that would be grand. If you could put all of them in a folder and compress them with RAR and email them to [email protected] that would be great. YOu will see dozens of errors in these files. LIke I said I am constantly fixing stuff and most of it is not even things I. screwed up. This will help me identify and fix your bug.

THanks, MK

• This reply was modified 9 years ago by modernknight1.

[Anonymous]

Damn. Now i feel really, really bad. You have so much patience, but i didn’t. I deleted that game and started a new one, in a moment of big frustration :).
Sorry i cannot offer feedback, i was too impulsive.
In my defence: i am tired this days :).
Sorry, again. Next time i see something like that, i will report as you tought us 🙂
Thanks for understanding.

[belzeburg]

Still problems

[modernknight1]

Really? Thanks. I am aware of that. I wrote a list of bugs I know about still there in the Read Me file. In the post a couple above yours, I described the process where you can turn the loggers on to help me find and fix the bugs. The character index still has a few offending names that I am very close to finding and fixing. In fact I was thinking about putting out another patch in a day or two because I have fixed a lot of stuff in just the last few days. Also if you turn on the debug keys you can keep playing even if there are problems because you can often teleport to the next stage.

The statement “Still problems” doesn’t really help me very much. But thanks for your positive constructive input. I sincerely appreciate it. I really do. At least I am hearing from someone. I stated up front all along that this is a BETA.

Its all good…. with responses like that one, folks should understand why I stated in the ANNOUNCEMENTS column why I will let this site die when the funding runs out. That is just another month from now – and all of this will disappear – and be nothing but history…

I recommend that everyone just go over to Pirates Ahoy! and play New Horizons. You guys know what I will be doing and continuing to play. I will keep posting my nicest screenshots to my Flickr page so folks can see how I am progressing.

Hopefully a few people are enjoying this BETA mod for what it is and what it offers.

MK

[sch92]

I would like to help, but I don’t have time to play videogames this days. Sorry 🙁

[Craig Brown]

Well I am really enjoying the game and have not run into to many bugs in fact, it seams as though most of the bugs that where a big problem are gone which is really nice!

[coben]

This game mod was awesome lots of fun hiding in the shadows, everytime u’ll play u’ll found something new and interesting..thx for sharing ur treasure Mk

[modernknight1]

Thank you for your kind comments coben. I really appreciate it!

MK

[0range]

MK, hello again!

Please stay with us, we do really appreciate the mod you are doing! I remember visiting your moddb page, I remember having asked you there to keep up excellent work and include me in the list of the people you might share the mod with, I remember your explanations, I remember myself waiting for your new site, reading threads…

I have seen this small but faithful community of yours grow here on the reef…

I guess I understand your feelings as of the creator who requires more attention, more passion for the project, more involvement from the fans, not only “liked/did not like” comments. You do all the job and might find sometimes sad the people won’t hit but a pair of buttons to comment something, explore something or just give you the attention and humanly chat with you.

So, please, stay with us, you do have the community of yours that love and respect your hard work.

Sincerely yours,
0range

[Anonymous]

Great way to express the feelings that many have, but cannot find the exact words for that , Orange.
English is my third language, so i’m not exactly the best to try something like that, therefore i am so glad you did it , and thank you.
Yes, MK, here comes another voice that appreciates your work and thanks for everything you have done 🙂
Thank you.

[modernknight1]

Thanks for the comments guys. I am just frustrated. The mod has been downloaded thousands of times yet only a handful of people comment or read my content or thumbs up anything. Only 15 people have read my article on Why the Golden Age was so Golden. Only 23 people have read my review on the movie Admiral Michiel de Ruyter.

I tell you what. I will let the actual community decide if I keep the site going or not. I will keep the site up and going if I receive 20 positive comments like the handful that you guys have provided – OR 20 thumbs up on my Article “Why the Golden Age was so Golden”.

MK

• This reply was modified 8 years, 12 months ago by modernknight1.

[belzeburg]

I must first say it is a great Mod, no errors. I think as myself, feks not having English as my mother Language,one might come out with a wrong meaning

belzeburg

[Daniela]

Dear MK, thank you for your great work in 2015.
I wish my english would be better, so I could tell how enthusiastic I am about all your achievment in developing Eras. Please don´t loose your devotion to the topic.
I – and I think I speak so far for everyone who downladed your work – wish you an your family a merry christmas and all the best for the next year.

[modernknight1]

Thank you for your kind comments Mates and Matettes. Between the private messages and public comments we are over the 20 comments I wanted to verify there is enough interest to bother with keeping the site going. In addition, we seem to be getting some contributors here again as well. VERY EXCITING! Thank you!

MK

[0range]

Happy New Year MK and community! Hugs!

[belzeburg]

MK I have problems to find Places to hunt Places to black Pearls, They seemes to deassapear after a awhile Aint not one on right on the map

[Samir]

Can you make this topic pinned on the top of the page? It would be much easier for new members or even guests to download the mod and enjoy playing it.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 5 months ago by Samir.

[Dahrehn]

Hello all!

I’ve lurked a bit for a while and must say the dedication to this is impressive, Modernknight (and others). I recently had an increased desire to swash my buckles and have tried to download Eras2. Unfortunately I’m having issues with the Mega site (first limitwise, then after a while it goes faulty) and can’t get Pro account on there (at the moment) because it doesn’t accept my card.

Is there a possibility of some nice person making a torrent or an alternative share?

Cheers,

J

[Jeffrey]

I can look into the possibility of a torrent, but I can’t do it from my machine as I’m always connected to my work VPN with no split-tunnel so prevents external internet access to anything on my PC. But maybe I can set up one of my kids’ with the file and set it up when I get some time.

In the meantime, have you tried the MEGA client? I had similar issues like you describe with the very large download from their site with a browser download, but installing the MEGA client proved to work much faster, more reliably and without any problem.

[Dahrehn]

Thanks for the answer Jeffrey. I’ve gone through TOR to make my IP alternate during the download, I noticed it was the usage check which made the download fail after restarting. (Probably corrupted data) I’ve managed to ever so slowly download the mod and am now happily playing.

I’m considering getting a MEGA account anyway, I need some decent back up space. But that’s for later. Now I’ll get to exploring the game.

[Devoidbrah]

Going back into the game to cure a bit of a depression right now. Maybe the swashbuckling will wash away sorrows and help me set up onto the desired path again.
Looking forward to seeing MK again, didnt hear from him in a while. All i know is that hes busy travelling and has only limited connection. Maybe he already cooked up a treat for us, who knows. PA! certainly is failing behind as their “team project” is stuck and they are still defining their “progress” on their first game POTC, which by the way feels so outdated I might aswell just play Pokemon on a gameboy for these pixels.

I wish all some nice holidays and a wonderful winter season to come!

• This reply was modified 8 years ago by Devoidbrah.

[Jeffrey]

Yeah, it’s a strange time of year and depression is fairly common. Probably a bit of winter doldrums (depending on if you live in a part of the world that is experiencing winter right now) with the shorter days/longer nights and sometimes dismal weather, and holidays that for whatever reason dredge up in the psyche elements that make one depressed. I hope it passes soon.

I notice that probably I use some hobbies to vanquish depression. Just recently dusted off my guitars and have been practicing some cool tunes and learning some new pentatonic scale exercises to further my skills…along with gearing up and chomping at the bit for some winter steelhead fishing that is just about to start. Already took one trip and caught an ‘accidental’ winter run silver salmon, so I’m getting pretty keyed up about that.

I also hope everyone enjoys some nice holidays and a good trudge through the winter season 🙂

Everyone feel free to post any problems/fix requests that I might be able to programmatically solve and I’ll do my best. But those model problems recently brought up by Samir are outside the scope of my knowledge, so apologies for my lack in that area.

[Devoidbrah]

well we both work in the IT industry, as you know, working overtime is at some point mandatory in that business. But I am also going at the same time to a private university even though I have a full time job with up to 12-13 hours a day of work. But since Im going for a master in IT administration I have to get used to not actually “living”.

friday after work I go to university and on saturday aswell each week of the month, I also trade on ebay and cowork with a mechanic buying/selling cars, repairing them, importing em and helping him with his paperwork since he is not that able in using the computer/emailing.

Do I have a private life? I dont even know anymore. I remember when I was a kid at the age of 11, I used to tell “how bored I am”, now, I wish I could buy that “bored” time to use it in the time now since I sometimes feel I am working as two guys and still find time to spend hours doing fitness in a gym.
I think at some point I will come at a breaking point, but it seems even my fathers death could not sway me, thats why I was depressed in the first place. All my family died of cancer, I am dead sure I am gonna die of it at some point in a couple of decades aswell, but after the depression left I am embracing it and have a reason now to work even harder than before, before the best version of me may end up dead.

Maybe that can be motivating for others too. I dunno 😀

[Anonymous]

Devoidbrah , first i appologyze for my very poor english.
Second i appologyze if i am writing anything that could trouble you or make you uncomfortable.
But i cannot shut up 🙂
In my family, we hahe the same patterns, but i am not concerned about cancer – in fact i think i might have been closer to that than i know, but the behaviour i adopted changed facts into my advantage.
Sadly my pathetic english is noth helping me to express/say all i want to say to you, but i will try my best: cancer is NOT a disease, in fact. It is a reaction of our organism to some extreme situations, when our body has to change it’s chemistry to face them. IF this situations persist and our body most do this effort for a long time, it might trigger some sideeffects, and we call that cancer. The process is terribly complex, the words i use are cutting down 99% from the entire picture. Plus we live in a relative world, that means it depends on your genes and your other habbits (other that the extreme stress ) too. And many other very hard to cuantify factors.
Anyway, my point is : don’t think this way if you wanna help yourself. Mind has a ,…. lol “mindblowing” power, EVERY thought has a .. how should i say it. Has a reaction, a response in our chemistry. EVERY thought. You think that your happy, your body produces the happyness chemistry. You think you are sad, the chemistry of sadness is beeing developed. So, if you think positive (yes, new age is not exactly stupid, they got something, but not the entire picture 🙂 ), that helps. A lot, in fact. Decisive, in fact :))
I used to help people, a time ago, after exploring some very dark sides of life (including my dad’s death and my wife’s living me when i was sick ) and finding some answers that i thought could help others. So you are not approached by a newbie, or nonconnaisseur (i stopped doing that on emails or phone when i realized how lazy people can be and i only “work” directly face to face, to be sure some results will occur (if they do. If not, i say “be healthy and happy, but i don t know how to help you”).
Maybe my words find a way to you, despite the language:)
My wish was only to share.
Peace and a beautiful life 🙂 (i enter very rare buccaneersreef, pls do not be angry if i was missing some point and made some mistake here)

[modernknight1]

Hey guys, Sorry long time no show, but really couldn’t be helped. I went from an incredible long vacation all over the Caribbean to disaster when I returned home. Pipes had broken under my foundation and caused major damage. Then my sons car died and I replaced the entire fuel system (myself at home) then floods and now the frosting on the cake – my Dad is near death and I have had to travel to help him. He may yet live. I have been doing everything for him.

All of this combined has brought me into deep depression myself so I know what you guys are talking about. Its time to renew the sight again and I was even hesitant in doing so. The fee for everything for a two year renewal is $351 dollars. I have considered allowing a limited amount of advertising to defray costs. Also the new package allows newer web designs and assistance as well as a Google partnership to get the word out about our little sits. Also with all of the work everyone has done I just cant let it die.

Cancer is very common in my family. I have lost dear relatives to it. My Dad never got it though. Before I left the Pentagon I had my first colonoscopy. I have had three now and every one has had large pre-cancerous polyps. So I will definately get it if I don’t keep getting myself checked out. When I worked at DARPA a few years back one of the program managers who was a medical doctor said the simple secret to fighting cancer is lemon. He said lemon is a magical cancer fighter and that if one has plenty of pure lemon added to their diet that they will never get cancer. He even said there were cases of cancer that had been reversed by lemon intake.

Anyhow, still working on stuff slowly. I have to tell you though that I’ve totally lost all motivation to continue. New ship models are what keep me excited and wanting to do more and it looks like I have several coming down the pipeline in the next few months. I saw the pictures of Orazio’s new galleon today and that just TOTALLY ENERGIZES me and HYPES me up to finish what I’m working on and getting it to Jeffrey ASAP.

Sorry I have been AWOL but I am heartened by your heartfelt outpourings of issues in your own lives. It helps me. Thank you Dennis and RAM for sharing. Great new things will be coming to you all soon!

MK

[Devoidbrah]

351 Dollars is a hefty cost. If you are interested, I could ask my stepfather if theres place to host this site on one of our servers. We would need to port the stuff over but I think it could work out without much problems and ALOT cheaper than what you are currently paying. You would get the rights to administer it and make a 1:1 copy of the current site, provided you have all the files needed. The question here is if you would like that or would rather consider to continue the wordpress way. Our servers are situated in Germany.

[adam torek]

As I am trying to download the file from MegaSYNC, it gives me a message saying “select pay system or continue download in 8 hours”. I don’t have the money to be paying for their services, nor do I want to. This is obviously a problem with the hosting company. Many of us don’t want to have to get through a paywall to download this game. Unfortunately, however, there are many other online file companies that do this practice. I know of one that doesn’t. It’s name is MediaFire. It would be better if this file was up for download elsewhere.

[Orazio]

I don’t think downloading from Mega requires a payment. There should be a free option as well.. or try downloading without MegaSYNC, with the browser. I just tried that out and it was working.

[adam torek]

Mega doesn’t require payment, however you have to wait several more hours for the game to download.

[modernknight1]

When we get the new version completed (soon). We will hang it on several different services. We will also offer a version that is broken up into pieces that you will reassemble once you have all the downloads.

(EDIT) in the past some people have reported that they have been able to download the mod in less than two hours…. one individual reported 1 hour and 29 minutes.

MK

• This reply was modified 7 years, 11 months ago by modernknight1.

[Jeffrey]

bump…

Take a peek at the first post. New link for new and revamped version is now up.

[Jeffrey]

New version is DirectX 9. If anyone still wants DirectX 8, download all files from https://mega.nz/#F!jl1zjSaC!CdBYterMnYkhdEbQy9rQKg. Use 7zip to extract the files.

Then download the .zip file from the ERAS2.6DX8 folder here:

https://mega.nz/#F!WtMDgRxK!hbeUg86kGLlQAqvWRNwTqg

Copy those files in the second download into the directory you extracted the original files, overwriting the start.exe, modules, etc.

[Anonymous]

there might be a problem : mega put me on hold for 5 hours, because i exceeded the 5 Gb transfer limit / 6 hours. This means i will have to wait 6 + 6 hours + the regular download time.
I’m not complaining, after all your work , but in my humble opinion this is not the best host for the game:)
SOrry if i did smth wrong .

PS thanks for the release. Cannot wait to test it 🙂

[modernknight1]

The same thing actually happened to me so I got their Pro-Light option for 50 dollars for the year.

The thing I like about MEGA is that there aren’t any adds cluttering everything up. You don’t have to participate in surveys or what have you to get the files you want. I have a NEXUS Pro account so I will see about getting us a NEXUS web page as well.

Do you have any other suggestions? Gamefront and MediaFire have not been good solutions for us in the past. I’ve looked at FileFactory but it has a 5GB cap, and DepositFiles with a 10GB cap.

I am currently looking at Userscloud https://userscloud.com/ Has anyone used this before? It says its unlimited.

We will obviously continue to use MEGA but I promised everyone I would put the mod in more places so they would have more options. NEXUS also has a slower connection for people who are not members, but their memberships is DIRT cheap.

Any other suggestions would be most welcome. Thanks!

You guys are gonna love this new version anyway!

MK

[Anonymous]

My mistake, MK!
And i have to apologize for that. Sorry, mate, from all my heart.
I heard from a friend about https://infinit.io/ , but it seems they are shutting down the business. Have no alternative, and i regret that post.
Thanks for your undestanding .

[Stéphane]

Same thing here, i caped the quota and have to wait, i must be patient…

[sch92]

OH MY GOD, IT’S HAPPENING!

Thank you everyone who participate in the development of the mod, you are awesome! 😀

Now to the adventure 🙂

[Jeffrey]

An update is already available for some issues:
https://mega.nz/#F!jl1zjSaC!CdBYterMnYkhdEbQy9rQKg

Update.zip

Copy them into the game directory, overwriting existing files.

[Schiavonna]

MK & Jeffrey: Have you looked into ModDB hosting ERAS?
http://www.moddb.com/

[modernknight1]

Yeah I’ve promoted the mod there for a long time on my own page: http://www.moddb.com/members/modernknight1

Perhaps it might be worth making a separate page just for the mod itself.

MK

[sgmret]

Hi Guys, Unfortunately I am not the sharpest tool in the drawer when it comes to downloading and installing stuff. Here is my problem: I downloaded ERAS2.6 from Mega; I then extracted it to my desktop; What I have is a folder with files ERAS2.6.7z.001 thru ERAS2.6.7z.018. I thought I would get a folder that resembled what I had before, with PROGRAM,RESOURCE, et al. Obviously I have done something wrong, but I don’t know what.

Please Help, Ted

[modernknight1]

Hi Ted, I guess I need to add a little instruction to the “Read me”. Geeks like Jeffrey and I don’t even think
about certain things like extraction utilities, I guess we just assume everyone knows and that is not a good
assumption. Military people know the old adage about assumptions. LOL

So you need 7zip which is an extractor that will open the files. WinRaR might also work if you have that.

Both are free. Here’s the website http://www.7-zip.org/

Download the one you need for your system i.e. 32 bit or 64 bit.

Once you have it installed, simply open your new ERAS download file and rightclick on the first/top file. There will be an option to extract to a specified folder. You can create a new folder on your desktop and name it what you want and extract there or you can extract to another folder of your choosing. Your’re done at that point, because it will do it for all the files in the download folder and reconstruct them for you. Once its finished you will have the folder configuration that you are already familiar with in place.

Good luck and happy gaming!

MK

[sgmret]

Thanks for your help MK. I’ve finally unpacked the game and it’s running great. I like what you guys did with the textures, cabins, and ship skins. It has a really cool look and feel. Now for the bad news. I can’t change the Mod Options. No matter what I do the weights and costs stay the same. I’m playing as Drummond and captured a “Valciria”. I just completed a quest with van de Velde and now have 433 gold @ 9cw per unit. That’s 3897 cw. My ships capacity is 1832. If I could use CoAS weights it would only be 866 cw. I could actually get that on the ship.
As usual I may just be confused, but I doing things the same way I did in ERAS 1.5.7.
I really like this game. Thanks for your help, Ted

[Jeffrey]

It is likely you started a game without that option, then when later selecting it, it looks like you need to re-init the goods in order for the weight/cost options to take effect.

Go to:
https://mega.nz/#F!jl1zjSaC!CdBYterMnYkhdEbQy9rQKg

Download the update.zip and extract the Programs files to your game directory. Then load the game, go to Mod Options, re-init, then save the game. The reason for the update is that I tried the re-init function and it was broken because two of the functions were redefined in my OnLoad reinit file; I just noticed this because I wanted to try before instructing you.

[sgmret]

Thank you Jeffery. Now I can move my ship and make some real money.

I really like what you guys have done. Ted

[adam torek]

I’m having problems with trying to run GoF ERAS 6.0 on my computer. I’m using the files from the Update.zip folder alone to try to run the game, and every time I do, I get this error of “interfaces.ini file not found!” I don’t know how to fix this, and any suggestions on how to fix it would be welcomed.

[Jeffrey]

Sounds like you need the rest of the game files.

https://mega.nz/#F!jl1zjSaC!CdBYterMnYkhdEbQy9rQKg

Download the 18 files ERAS2.6.7z.001 – ERAS2.6.7z.018

Put them all together in the same directory. Use 7zip, right-click ERAS2.6.7z.001 and select 7zip/open archive. Extract them all to where you want the game. Then extract everything from update.zip and overwrite those files in that same directory; they are just an update/fixes.

[adam torek]

It says that they cannot open because they are not archives.

[Jeffrey]

Did you try it on the first one? .001. That error will occur if you don’t.

If you did, maybe one/more missing, or they are incomplete. Do you have 18 in total 001-018, and are 1-17 716,800 kilobytes (KB) the last .018 one 321,162 KB?

[Jeffrey]

New update. Fixes the occasional missing sail-to for some shores/towns. Longstanding bug in the game, that the newer compiler accentuated/exacerbated. Was a problem with ‘undefined behavior’ for a certain un-initialized variable.

DirectX 9 (Update.zip) https://mega.nz/#F!jl1zjSaC!CdBYterMnYkhdEbQy9rQKg

DirectX 8 (ERAS2.6DX8 folder) https://mega.nz/#F!WtMDgRxK!hbeUg86kGLlQAqvWRNwTqg

[Devoidbrah]

@ Jeff, will we need a new savegame if we apply this fix?

[Jeffrey]

I don’t think so…if you’re worried, maybe store your current Programs folder aside to check first? Just rename Program folder, copy over the update and check by loading/saving a game. I’m pretty sure there’s no conflict, though.

[Steven]

I just wanted to ask a question, in the last release 2.1.5 i managed to level up quite high and get a lot of skills for the officers and so. So i remember i achieved such a sailing skill that when i avtivated the turning speed increase hability(and the ship was already turning like crazy) i could turn my ship like a top-leg, it was insane, unrealistic, irritating and hilarious too… Have you touched the turning speed and overall the speeds of the ships?

You also mentioned in an old post pre-2.6.0 release you were going to change it so has it actually occurred?

• This reply was modified 7 years, 8 months ago by Steven.

[modernknight1]

Hi Steven, YES it did indeed occur. You will notice that battles are completely different with ships turning slowly and not in circles on top of themselves. I think some (just a few mind you) squeezed through my edits, but will get them ALL in the next patch.

Combine this with our latest changes which I am certain many have noticed – ships with small guns and high level captains firing like machine guns – THAT’s FIXED FOREVER. So realistic reload times for all ships. Battles are now so much more realistic.

MK

• This reply was modified 7 years, 8 months ago by modernknight1.

[Jeffrey]

Everyone, get the newest update.zip for this important fix. Details here, if you want to know the why/wherefore: https://buccaneersreef.com/forums/topic/bugs-and-fixes/#post-3865

https://mega.nz/#F!jl1zjSaC!CdBYterMnYkhdEbQy9rQKg

Update.zip

[Jeffrey]

Another update. I found a flaw in a recent mod if you get into a fight with one of the other Hero captains if angered by your refusal aboard his ship; it messed up all nation relations. I fixed that and all works as it should for that now.

https://mega.nz/#F!jl1zjSaC!CdBYterMnYkhdEbQy9rQKg

Update.zip

[Jeffrey]

Discovered a flaw from way back in the original game that can cause a crash…has to do with the handling of item models. Surprised it took me so long to actually experience/encounter the problem. Get the latest Update.zip here: https://mega.nz/#F!jl1zjSaC!CdBYterMnYkhdEbQy9rQKg

[Jeffrey]

New changes.

Although I was using an updated,newer fmodex.dll than the old, original game, it was still a bit dated…from January 2016. I decided to upgrade to the brand newest one, updated by the FMOD crew just this last week: http://www.fmod.org/documentation/#content/generated/common/revision.html

So a whole new FMOD for sound, using fmod.dll, rather than the now deprecated fmodex.dll.

Also, discovered bugs in the Esmerelda/Deserted Beach shores of Cayman, where you can’t access properly from town/sea. Should have discovered that back in the beginning, with our new Bodden’s Landing, but alas did not. Anyway, those appear to be now fixed, but for any current saved games, they will remain broken unless one runs an init on both Islands and Locations. There is code to do so in the console.c, just copy to Programs\console.c, hit F4, save the game.

#include "locations\locations_init.c"
#include "islands\Islands_init.c"
void ExecuteConsole()
{
    InitLocations();
    InitIslands();

    Log_SetStringToLog("Operation successful! ");
}

https://mega.nz/#F!jl1zjSaC!CdBYterMnYkhdEbQy9rQKg

Update.zip

Let me know how the sound turned out for your particular hardware setup. I have found it to be quite good on my system, but if anyone experiences any sort of trouble, or worsening sound let me know as I did have to make a few changes for their new API system.

[Jeffrey]

FYI, if you have downloaded the update, with the new FMOD, I have found on my system, that using Windows MultiMedia produces better sound results on Windows. That is a setting in the start.ini, under the [sound] section, enabled with a 1 value:

UseMM = 1

I added this to the SetupNotes.txt and you should experiment with MM on/off to see what works best for your system. Also a reminder that setting the START.exe to WinXP SP3 Compatibility also seems to work best for the app as well.

[Jeffrey]

I regret to inform you that MUSIC\03-hat.ogg is dead…the day the music died.

Get the latest: https://mega.nz/#F!jl1zjSaC!CdBYterMnYkhdEbQy9rQKg

Update.zip

[dorpen]

I had been meaning to try out this mod and figured after the recent large patch now would be a good time to start. However I’ve run into some problems starting the game, after extracting the archive and launching the game it loads to the main menu then crashes to desktop every single time. I have the included dx and c++ installed and have tried changing some options through the start.ini to no benefit. Is there something I’ve blundered over to cause this?

[Jeffrey]

It’s difficult to say without some information. Have you tried enabling compatibility to WinXP SP3 and ‘Run as Administrator’ on the START.exe? Also, in the start.ini, enable the logging and post system.log and compile.log after a crash.

tracefiles = 1
tracefilesoff = 0

debuginfo = 1
runtimelog = 1
tracefiles = 1

[dorpen]

Here is my system.log and compile.log after a crash: https://mega.nz/#F!ZmxWnC7a

[Jeffrey]

That link wants the decryption key. The easiest thing to do, is use the checkbox to copy the URL with the key added and give that link. Or, post the text of the decryption key in a message to me.

[dorpen]

Sorry about that, hopefully this is the proper link: https://mega.nz/#F!ZmxWnC7a!V-y4BwDZCzmfXV3x_Bhw4A

[Jeffrey]

Well, those don’t show anything wrong. I suspect from what I see, you probably don’t get an error.log, but if by chance you do happen to have one, could you upload that too?

Since I don’t see anything in those logs, let’s also try a crash dump. If you have a 64 bit operating system, you will have to launch the 32 bit task manager. You can find it in the SysWOW64 folder: C:\Windows\SysWOW64\taskmgr.exe. Launch that, then launch the game. After it crashes, do not answer the prompts, leave them up and switch to the task manager. Find START.exe, right-click and Create Dump File. It will prompt where the .dmp file was saved, take note and upload that file.

[dorpen]

Unfortunately I don’t have an error log being generated. I followed your directions on how to launch the 32bit version of task manager however; it probably would’ve helped to mention this before but when my game crashes at the menu it does so instantly and without a typical “this program has stopped responding” which would allow me to create a .dmp to further describe the crash event the menu temporarily takes up a window size of around 640×480 though I don’t have a clue why. Though if I try to run the game by changing to render to dx8 I can get the game to crash in a way that will generate a .dmp file hopefully it can help clarify what I’m missing: https://mega.nz/#!1jpghIRL!XNpn0V9o5icTXw8lQv91NlK0eRDx-izX3YuvogfHUi8

[Jeffrey]

Given what you just described, I have an idea what the cause might be. Is the Buccaneer’s Reef file still in your game directory? If it’s not there, put the file, exactly as it exists in the download, back in the game directory.

[dorpen]

The Buccaneer’s Reef file is in the games directory with the START.exe as it always has been.

[Jeffrey]

If one downloads the original game, then the update.zip and applies it over the base, leaving all the original content as-is, the game works on WinXP, Win7, Win8 and Windows 10 if compatibility is set to WinXP SP3 and run as administrator for OS beyond WinXP.

But, if some Buccaneer’s Reef or GOF ERAS content is removed or altered, it won’t work. Make sure the base and update download remains intact and unchanged.

Also, we are willing to share and collaborate work with other mod communities, just so you know.

[dorpen]

Thank you for your responses, sadly it seems I will be unable to get the mod to work.

[Jeffrey]

If you want, set up something to share your desktop, like gotomeeting and I can try to troubleshoot. There is only one mechanism that prevents the game from playing, with no errors and no crash, and that happens only if some various Buccaneer’s Reef or GOF ERAS pieces are taken out or changed. Out of over 1,000 downloads, yours would be the first case that is preventing play if that wasn’t done, but I can’t think of how to do much from here, without being able to check some things on your setup.

[Jeffrey]

While there is more pending material due from MK, he has been delayed due to unforeseen circumstances. In the meantime, since I have some fixes and new developments already in hand, I decided to release what I have, knowing further updates/upgrades will likely follow in a short time.

New upload: https://mega.nz/#F!jl1zjSaC!CdBYterMnYkhdEbQy9rQKg

Update.zip

I modified the music somewhat. The old/common way was for a music track to continually loop. But an idea I borrowed from a recent PA! post was to add an option for AC IV shanties. However, when switching to sea, a song track is randomly selected, but once one is chosen, it would loop continuously; this wouldn’t do. So I built a way to detect the end of one track, then randomly select another to keep playing different songs. The config.exe has a new option to choose a music theme, and Shanties is one of them (also ERAS, GOF and COAS). All that selection drop-down does is actually write to the start.ini, so it can be manually edited as well:

aliasDirectory = ERAS\

Pretty fun to listen to the crew sing…I added all the tunes for the shanties I could find, so give that one a try and see what you think.

I also did some work to mitigate the store, tavern and mayor services being consumed by your hero competition, often causing a lot of waiting, so that should be reduced now.

A few of Orazio’s new ships are added and the Cayman island sail-to problems and the visible nearby land masses while at sea in that area are gone. There is another auto-save type feature that will periodically save your game during a transition, then reload, transparent to you, to help minimize resource creep during play. That can be turned off and the time can be altered in start.ini:

AutoReloadEnabled = 1
AutoReloadTime = 30

Also a couple bug fixes…I think one was for fixing the ‘wash ashore after sinking’ feature where you would be in a bind if flying an unfriendly flag; your flag will be altered to fit the nearby town if you have the perk and if not, you will only wash ashore on an island that fits what flags you can fly.

[Mot]

Fantastic! Thank you for the update Jeffrey.

[Jeffrey]

I have now implemented a way to Play All Nation Questlines in a single game. There is also an option to have your fighters spawn on a boarding deck near you every time. Neither of these is tested or uploaded, but they are coded, so they will hopefully make it into a future upload soon. The new Shanty music option was changed slightly per a request from MK, where the english tunes only occur when flying a Pirate or English flag. Future shanty music will contain tunes in other languages (Dutch, Spanish, etc.), which will then be heard when you are flying the relevant flag.

[Jeffrey]

OK, the new fighter option for boarding tested and uploaded. Look under Options/Mod Options, scroll to bottom.

The music changed to only Pirate/England with shanty. There is a way to circumvent that and have them play all the time at sea, for all nations if you replace the RESOURCE\INI\Shanty\music_alias.ini names in the section for [music_spokplavanie] with all of the names from [music_enplavanie](do not change the [bracketed name] but replace everything underneath it in just that section, including revolves = 1).

Also in the update is a modification to how other heroes, that might have lowered relation to you that will factor your leadership, luck, and reputation into their decision to work/join with you.

Play All Nation Quest Lines (PANQL) is also in there, but turned off for now as it is untested yet.

https://mega.nz/#F!jl1zjSaC!CdBYterMnYkhdEbQy9rQKg

Update.zip

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

[Alex]

Thank you for a mod ))) But something goes wrong. Zoom don’t work on the some ships (Mordaunt, Frigate_r, SOLEILROYAL…..)
May be it’s a problem only for me,,, but….. Can you help me pls )) ?

p.s. Sorry for my English…

[Jeffrey]

Just so you know, you have not been ignored.

Some ships have what is called a ‘high camera’ bug and with those ships, the camera angle/zoom does not work right to give the ability to view/zoom on the ship entirely.

This is a known bug for some ships and we fix them when we become aware of them.

However, our primary modeler is busy with some new ships, so this camera problem is a lower priority at the moment. I will keep your list and when/if our modeler is willing and able, I will give your list of ships to him.

[Darkhymn]

A torrent option for download would be greatly appreciated. For downloads this big, there are only advantages to torrents over file hosting.

[Jeffrey]

I’ve thought about this, but I am not entirely familiar with torrents. My concern is two:

Do the files of the torrent need to remain consistent on my local drive? For instance, I broke them into smaller chunks (per a request from another user), but if that grows to another set of 22 files, instead of 20, will I then have to make another torrent link? A different one each time the file set changes to a different number of files included?

Also, I sit behind a corporate VPN for most of the day, every day (for work purposes). I am not sure whether my company blocks access for that type of access. It is very likely access to my files would be blocked from retrieval.

[Jeffrey]

OK, I want to set up just the Update.zip for a trial run. If you can reach it, while unseeded/undistributed among peers, then I’ll start doing the main 7z files that way too.

Do you have a suggestion of a couple good tracker URLs to start with? There are many to choose from in some I’ve googled, but figure there are probably a handful of good, common ones to start with.

[Darkhymn]

Yes. Each time you updated the mod you’d need a new torrent, as the hashes and sizes of the files would change even if there were the same number. As for the corporate VPN situation, that could be a problem if other users didn’t seed the torrent or on new release days. The problem I’m having with MEGA is twofold. First, the download is too large and is causing Chrome on both rigs I’ve tried it on to throw errors and abort the process. Second, the download can’t be stopped and resumed, which makes it a little difficult in my current situation to acquire such a large file.

[Jeffrey]

Well, it’s at least worth a try to see how it works out. I’ll look into setting that up and you can be the trial.

In the meantime, I also suggest downloading and using the Mega client. I also had issues in the beginning using just the browser, but the client is far superior, both performance and ability to pause/cancel, direct to specific directories, etc.

[modernknight1]

Darkhymn, First of all WELCOME DUDE! Long time since the original GOF team was doing great things under Firebat! I am glad to have you here.

Second, I saw your comments on the balance of GOF and can tell you that ERAS has been tuned much differently from ole Luke159’s settings with 1.2 and 2.0 – however, I would still be interested in your opinion and any recommended changes to our flavor of GOF here. Also I am interested in an update of the General Guide to Privateering as well. I have been working on an illustrated guidebook for ERAS for some time with photos, bios and descriptions of every character, ship, weapon, and item. Long going process, but when complete it will be part of the game with a tab just like there already is for nautical quizes, logbook entries and faction histories.

Third, The whole reason Jeffrey broke the mod into over 20 pieces is so that each one can be downloaded separately if you’re having a problem loading the entire set of files. I would advise loading one at a time as tedious as it may be.

I am in no position myself to offer a torrent. I will say that loading the mega synch app and the Firefox MEGA app make for much faster speeds for both uploading and downloading.

MK

• This reply was modified 7 years, 5 months ago by modernknight1.

[Bobby]

Hello and thanks for accepting me. I am Cap’n Noris from piratesahoy. I encountered a new problem this time with the Ascold Quest. I can’t find the tablet. It should be located on the Cayman islands but when I try to teleport there it says no location… I also saw that apparently there is a pirate settlement on that island, I presume it is a new feature of the ERAS mod that maybe messes up the tablet location. Any tips would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Jeffrey]

Yes, it very likely does have to do with the addition of that new colony, as some of the internal names of the island sections were renamed and probably affect when that item is meant to be assigned to a location on that island. I know we also have treasure map problems there too. This was an oversight on the implications of the island changes.

Can you upload or send me your save game and I will use that to track down this particular issue and find a way to both prevent the problem for those not yet engaged in Ascold, and a way to correct the internal data for your situation?

[Bobby]

Sure but where do I have to upload the file? Also you just want my last saved game file is that correct?

[Jeffrey]

I sent you a PM.

Email is fine, or an upload to any free file hosting service, like Mega, Dropbox, google, etc., with a link to the file.

My email address is in the PM I sent you.

[Jeffrey]

Turns out we missed leaving the Grotto included in Cayman when we added the new colony.

This is now fixed. Download the newest update. Outside the gate of Bodden’s Landing, take the path on the very right. It used to be blocked/dead end.

Also, I suggest not teleporting around to the islands/colonies. It can sometimes cause other problems.

It is uploading now and will be ready in about 30 minutes after this message was posted:

https://mega.nz/#F!jl1zjSaC!CdBYterMnYkhdEbQy9rQKg

Update.zip

[Jeffrey]

The update mentioned in my previous post is now fully uploaded and available.

[Matt]

I been trying to download this for a few days now. Been running into the 5GB limit making this difficult. First tried downloading the whole folder as a zip and that ended up being corrupted after letting the bandwidth limit countdown reset a few times. Now I’m doing individual folders and running into the same countdown issue again. Would appreciate if you could host these files in a way that made it easier to download.

[Jeffrey]

I am testing a torrent today with MK, but I suspect it won’t work as I am near certain the VPN I sit within all day probably blocks peer-to-peer.

[Matt]

I finally managed to download the files, however no matter how many times I try, when I go to unpack, part20 ends up corrupted. The game still works but is missing lots of sounds. I managed to copy over a lot of them from the base install but there are many unique ones that remain missing, like gunshots.

[Jeffrey]

I have good news and bad news for you.

The good news is that the other day, I had uploaded a new base set into a private section on Mega, and had not yet put that into the public folder. I just did that and a new set is available.

The bad news is that would mean a whole new download and that time it takes. But, it might not result in a corrupt last file.

However, after I had packaged and uploaded, another person noted one small problem with Beatrice’s portrait in the new game screen. You can also download Update.zip and overwrite, but I’m pretty sure the only thing wrong with the new base set is that one portrait, and it can be manually fixed, without getting the Update.zip.

Find RESOURCE\INI\texts\russion\HeroDescribe.txt.

Change this line

heroFace_36 {1}

to

heroFace_36 {0}

I continue to keep the Update.zip larger, just in case someone from early on got the base set and they only have to get the new content in Update.zip to synch up those early base downloads with what is current.

[Jeffrey]

A few small bug fixes, but one concerns a potential crash. Included:

Fix font sizes on SKILL table for ship/captain change assignment screen
Fix Camera bug (first person) when companion sinks last ship in a pirate quest
Fix dialog/follow bug at completion of passenger quest in tavern

The crash was a lucky/accidental finding. I was in first person mode (as opposed to 3rd person view) on the deck of my ship during a battle with the squadron another NPC pirate had invited me. I ordered one of my companions to board the very last ship and as soon as they did, crash. I had a save just before that, and every time, if I was in 1st person mode on my deck, and my companion boards/defeats the last ship, the game crashed. So I ran the same in debug mode, found the code that caused the issue and fixed it.

The dialog bug at completion of the passenger delivery was a longstanding/original bug in the game that MK just told me about. When you reach the tavern, you have to run to the bartender quickly before the NPC passenger talks to you (they follow you and force dialog, so you have to be quick to avoid them, LOL), and order crew. If you do that, the passenger is stuck standing there in the tavern forever and won’t speak to you/complete the transaction. Or, in another twist, you can run to another patron and sit to drink with them before the passenger catches you. In that case, YOU are stuck at the table and can’t ever move or do anything. Fixed that. Now, the only dialog you get with the patrons is a blow off and you can’t sit with them, and the bartender will simply state ‘Heh…’ if you order crew until you get ‘interrupted’ by the passenger to complete the deal. After that, the tavern patrons/bartender will react normally.

They were both special cases, that most people would never encounter, but now they can never happen anyway 🙂

https://mega.nz/#F!WtMDgRxK!hbeUg86kGLlQAqvWRNwTqg

Update.zip

[Jeffrey]

A new update is available. One new ship and over 40 new ship textures changed/added.

https://mega.nz/#F!jl1zjSaC!CdBYterMnYkhdEbQy9rQKg

Update.zip

[Maltacus]

Hi and first hats off for the extensive work making this mod what it is, easily the best pirate gaming I have seen.

Jeffrey, what did you do to reduce the effects of competing hero captains? Is it perhaps even possible to directly edit the waiting time in stores (they bother me to the point of ruining the fun of merchant playing)?

[Jeffrey]

I apologize for the delay, but I was away, on holiday for awhile with the family. No work, and much play!

Yes, I reduced the waiting to some extent, but it is still there. It is also possible to eliminate the wait entirely. I will probably make this an editable mod option on the ‘Options’ screen in the near future, since you are not the first to ask.

In the Program/script/PSHero.c file, near the top, change:

#define PGG_TASK_MITIGATE 83

to

#define PGG_TASK_MITIGATE 110

After the current hero tasks are completed, they should stop taking services. So you may have to leave your current town, or wait them out for however many days it takes.

[David Kueh]

Dear Jeffrey,

The “#define PGG_TASK_MITIGATE 110” works fine and I have no more problem with the store owner being busy. However, the store delivery quest come another problems. When want to handover the cargo, the shop owner saying some captain or person is taking care of it. Very frustrated especially having deliver cargo from tortuga to Port royal and upon reaching the destination the shop owner say somebody has taken care of it. Also apply to other town. Please help.

Thank You

david

[Maltacus]

Thanks for the answers, good to know. I am a strong fan of giving the player more options to customize the experience so I of course support that idea of making it an editable option.

Since we’re on that subject, would it be possible to make at least some of the components making up the difficulty editable in a similar way?

Say that I would like to keep the npc level fixed at the middle level where neither mine nor the ai crewmen has any advantage over the other, for maximzed realism. So 100 player sailors become just as strong as 100 ai sailors, all other things equal. But then I might choose to increase the skill levels of the enemy captains, or the costs, or some other important factors, not to mention the ai:s decision making (I am unsure if it improves with difficulty level now).

Another nice thing would be enemy crews. In my experience the crews are always maxed or close to maxed when you play on the middle difficulty levels. That makes sense from a pure gaming perspective but it is also completely unrealistic (fluyts sailing around trading stuffed with sailors…).

[Jeffrey]

Well, I’ve been mostly quiet, but busy for sure…and not to worry, the hiatus from here was for work on this and I think you will find it worthwhile. I admit, I have not done much for features in the actual game most of you will notice, but that will likely change in the near future as I’ve finally gotten the improvements in the back-end of this thing that I’ve been hoping for.

First, I have listened to the size complaints and textures were literally the largest culprit. I wrote a software utility that enabled me to compress them en masse, and now the 40+ gb (unzipped) game files, are now 20 gb. I have now compressed nearly every eligible texture file. The compressed 7zip of the entire game is now 8 gb. I have also identified duplicate texture files and wrote logic into the game to backtrack every directory of a model start and placed a single of the duplicates up that chain of directories, and removed all the others.

The texture compression also speeds game play up, but for those of you that already have the game, for whatever the in-game compression might add to performance, you will unfortunately have to download the whole thing and be sure not to overwrite, but place into a brand new place (or delete what you have). Otherwise, an overwrite, will still leave some of those larger files, due to my technique of duplicate file moves and directory backtracking now in place.

Also, to speak in automotive repair parlance, I did a RR (remove and replace) of the memory management. This nearly eliminates memory fragmentation, reduces memory consumption, and is quite a bit faster. Very sweet, indeed. The 64 bit (which will be freely offered to everyone that participates here in a short while) really leapt ahead in speed with this change.

A few tidbits were added by MK, notably some new ship flavors/textures and some additional Dutch shanties. Also, some of the recent reported bugs were also fixed during the interim (flickering ship textures, infinite church mission reputation increase).

During my memory replacement, I also discovered and fixed a number of other bugs in the engine source, including: divide by zero errors, index out-of-bounds errors, a pure function call error, random items spawn without a model definition. All of these led to potential crashes.

I also fixed some of the geometry logic to be more efficient in some calls not being needed in certain cases, yet it would still traverse through a bunch of unnecessary code; I simply put some simple checks to avoid going into procedures that weren’t warranted for the case. This leads to speed.

Overall, this is the best improvement in performance I’ve noticed so far, and it already out performed its predecessor by a long shot; I think you will be pleased.

For those of you that already have the original download, you can still just get the update, but keep in mind a cleaned up, smaller base is also available if you want to replace your original contents, but it is not necessary.

(the update is already available, the core base files are still uploading and I will notify when ready)
https://mega.nz/#F!jl1zjSaC!CdBYterMnYkhdEbQy9rQKg

Update.zip

[chris gardner]

Thanks for the update Jeffrey! That all sounds fantastic, I like the sound of 20gb of more space on my drive, i’ve only had 35gb of free space on it for the longest time XD

I’m curious, has there been a fix for the “magic ships” that let you withdraw infinite cannons with issues replacing them? Thats been my biggest pain so far, I dont like getting free money lol but I like the ship

[Jeffrey]

I was out camping in the woods for awhile, but I’m back.

Yours was the ‘fast battleship’, correct? I’ve seen this problem before, but had not yet looked into the reasons yet. My first glance at your ship, I think it may be due to a mismatch in the ship definition in the Ships_init.c file and how many cannon locators are in the model; the cannon replace/repair code probably doesn’t handle that situation properly and “gets confused.”

I will give myself this ship and figure it out. Though, there are definitely other ships that will have this problem, so we just need to identify them as they come up in play.

[chris gardner]

Yep the fast battleship is the first one I’ve come into contact with this issue, I’m quite picky with what ships I decide to buy or keep. Thank you for taking the time to take a peek at it!

[modernknight1]

Sorry guys, this has been a problem I’ve been meaning to fix forever. I can tell you with confidence that it at one time was a much larger problem than it is now – and that there are only a hand full of ships left that have this issue. I would guess less than 10.

I would also bet that because Jeffrey has adopted this to his to-do-list, it will be done way faster than I can do it with my ancient dinosaur methods of looking at each ship individually.

Thanks for bringing this up Chris. Do you like that ship? Because I was thinking of doing away with it once Yo Ho Ho’s ships are in the game. If people like it, I will leave it in.

MK

[chris gardner]

Thanks for the shout out MK; I do like the ship, but granted I haven’t come across much class 2 ships to compare it to. I was looking for something with more then 60 guns that still had at least the potential to be fast after an upgrade and it seemed to fit the bill, so I bought it. Honestly if I found something faster with as much or more firepower I wouldn’t be that attached to it

[Jeffrey]

I got it figured and fixed. Let me package this up and get it out.

It required another cannon locator added to the model (one was missing). You will now end up with 2 more cannons on that ship as there are really 32 per side in the model, instead of the defined 31 in ships_init.c. You will have to get the new model, then run a console.c fix to reinit the ship after you load a game, that will also contain a line to remove an erroneous attribute tied to your character. That fixed the problem for me in my test.

[chris gardner]

“You will have to get the new model, then run a console.c fix to reinitialize the ship after you load a game”
Ya lost me there lol, will i have to do something special after applying the update as usual?

[Jeffrey]

Yep. It’s up:
https://mega.nz/#F!jl1zjSaC!CdBYterMnYkhdEbQy9rQKg

Update.zip

After you copy over the files, load a save, and then use F4 key. You should see an “Operation Successful” in the upper right message. Then try to remove/fix your ship’s cannons. If it doesn’t work, you may have to replace your current ship with a replacement of the same type. I put that line in there too.

Only if the first attempt doesn’t work, edit Programs/console.c and uncomment

//pchar.Ship.Type = GenerateShip(SHIP_BATTLESHIP1, 0);

to

pchar.Ship.Type = GenerateShip(SHIP_BATTLESHIP1, 0);

Then load your game and try F4. You will get an identical ship, but unfortunately any of those upgrades will be gone.

I know for a fact that 2nd method will work, but let’s try the first one, without the replacement. I just don’t know if that first method will entirely do the trick because in my test I had to give myself the ship, and didn’t already have one like you do.

Just for reference, the console.c from the update should contain this within the function:

void ExecuteConsole()
{
	#include "Ships\Ships_init.c"
	

    InitShips();
   
    DeleteAttribute(pchar, "Ship.Cannons.borts");
    //pchar.Ship.Type = GenerateShip(SHIP_BATTLESHIP1, 0);
    
    Log_SetStringToLog("Operation successful! ");
}

[chris gardner]

The first method did not work.. But the second one did! Wish I didn’t have to upgrade it again, but thank you so much! I feel like for the first time in my life I’ve finally done something to computer code and have it actually fix something lol

[Jeffrey]

I held out hope that the first option would do it, without replacing the whole ship. Too bad that didn’t work out. But, if you really want to upgrade again, but without the expense/hassle, we can probably do another console to make that happen; seems fair since you already performed the upgrades and shouldn’t have to duplicate the effort.

There just wasn’t a good way to reset that problem, without the replacement of the mis-defined ship after it was created in the database of ships stored in your existing game. New games will not have that issue going forward…well, for that particular ship type. Other, yet to be identified ships with similar problem remain to be fixed until we can identify which ones still present the issue.

[chris gardner]

How much code would need to be changed to get the upgrades again without the hassle?

[Jeffrey]

Not sure, but I’m certain it could be done.

What upgrades were performed? I can put together a procedure to do the same upgrades you did, without cost, that you can run with F4.

[chris gardner]

I think i had the speed, maneuverability, point of sail, and crew upgrades

[chris gardner]

Also cargo upgrade

[Jeffrey]

Whoops, I see now that I missed your message a couple days ago with the list. Anyway, got your PM and just sent another PM back with a link to the code to upgrade.

[tulkas]

Hi there.

I recently downloaded the game and the mod, and still learning the new contents that it has.
I find a bug referring to the spyglass. No matter the one I have equipped, I can never see the details of other ships. I can only see the type of the ship and the commander. Cant see the guns, or the crew. I’d tried every spyglass, and its always the same. It’s some bug or I am missing something?

By the way, thanks for the huge improvements!

[Jeffrey]

Probably the Mod Option for realistic spyglass. Load your game, then Esc to show menu. Select Options, the lower right of the next screen Mod Options.

At the top, is Realistic Spyglasses…make sure it is Off. Accept. Now, the best spyglasses should show the details you are looking for.

[madz]

Hi! first thank u a lot guys for doing this amazing game shine again!
i was just chilling arround on files and i noticed the black pearl still in th game, its somehow a way to get it?
btw aweasome ships! trully amazing ty once again

• This reply was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by madz.

[modernknight1]

You’re welcome Madz,

So take a look at the different versions of the Black Pearl you see. Most of them are textured completely differently. I left I think only one dark version in the game and it will appear randomly. So that ship is called Armed English Merchantman in the game because that’s what she looks like.

I prefer my more realistic textures for that class of ship but left one hull folder black for those who love her that way and may want to try to find her. I admit to having a soft spot for that ship myself.

The English ships are often found in Gentlemen of Luck patrols as well as in pirate flotillas. Obviously you will see her spawn in and around English colonies and in English convoys as well. So just keep looking for her. You have a one out of four chance of finding her with that dark texture each time you encounter that particular ship.

Good Luck in your quest to find her! I find that one of the most fun things about our version of this game – is simply in looking for those wonderful ships that are your favorites.

MK

[madz]

wonderfull! ill search it and ill find it!
btw guys did u realize the true potencial of what u created? this game feels amazing.(i would like to talk with u about it)
there are new quests made by u?
once again thank u guys GJ!

[David Kueh]

Dear Jeffrey/MK

The “#define PGG_TASK_MITIGATE 110” works fine and I have no more problem with the store owner being busy. However, the store delivery quest come another problems. When want to handover the cargo, the shop owner saying some captain or person is taking care of it. Very frustrated especially having deliver cargo from tortuga to Port royal and upon reaching the destination the shop owner say somebody has taken care of it. Also apply to other town. Please help.

Thank You

david

[Jeffrey]

I see.

My current fix allows those other heroes to continue taking delivery missions, yet still allow you to negotiate goods while that happens by eliminating the ‘busy’ factor. The only way for the other heroes to collect money (in order to upgrade their ships and such) and also progress levels and experience. Without that, any time you later try to hire them on/join forces, they would always be stuck at level 1, while you have progressed to level 25 or something…

If I were to further adjust things so that you BOTH can take missions from the same, probably takes more research and work.

For now, that at least explains why you encounter this response from them…the other heroes are still taking these missions, the current fix just prevents them from being ‘busy’ because of this; the fix does not prevent this other side-effect because there is more code that would have to be adjusted.

[tulkas]

There’s something haunting me these days.

I can’t board basically no one. I tried many times, but no matter how close I am, there’s no option to board. My ship is bigger, my skills are better than my opponents, but still no way.
I have 39+50 grappling, and have a bosun with 89 grappling, longer plank e master boarding.
I’m english, and tried dutchman ships and pirates. Even the smallest ones can’t be boarded. When the enemy boards me, it works, though.
Is this a error, a bug or something else? I tried to turn off the choice of surrender in the mod options, but still nothing.

Another thing that I found, the stores almost never have the first items on the list to sell. That goes from cannonballs until medicines. Weapons, food, powder, these things I usually get looting other ships. I noticed that my crew needs way less food than it needs in the original game, but still, I go from town to town, always looking for it. On the other hand, there are tons of items that the city export, the green ones. Unless its food or the ones I already mentioned.

Sorry for disturb you guys. But its great to play this game again and Im just trying to understand some new padrons.
Thanks!

[Jeffrey]

If you can send me a save (preferable from during a battle where you later can’t board a ship…tell the ship you attempt to board), I can take a look.

I also see that Maltacus posted a possible solution from PA!, but I am fearful that changing a function to ALWAYS return true, instead of a variable value that is intended to be possibly changing is unwise. I would prefer to find the root cause/problem and fix that, instead of an arbitrary “band-aid”.

[tulkas]

Here’s the link to download it. There’s a dutch ship just close by, that I’d tried but failed to board. Usually smaller ships have this problem.
I was afraid, but I successfully boarded the Flying Dutchman 😀

https://mega.nz/fm/ZLZVkboL

[Jeffrey]

I will need a different link. I suspect that is your user account URL. What happens if I click on it, since I am not user ZLZVkboL is that Mega then redirects me to MY user account page.

It’s little different process to give links to your content. If a folder or a file, right-click and select ‘Get/Update Link’. Then at the top of the little screen, there is a tab ‘Get Link with Key’. Click that, and at the bottom of the box, the full URL will display and click the ‘Copy’ button. It is now in your clipboard and paste that into your message. It will similar to this: https://mega.nz/#F!WtMDgRxK!hbeUg86kGLlQAqvWRNwTqg

Notice it is not /fm/xxxxxxx, but has a /#F!xxxxx format, instead.

[tulkas]

Sorry for that.
Try it now.

https://mega.nz/#!wChHyQaa

https://mega.nz/#!wChHyQaa!1U1hUVeyiWx5Oa2TIpPx_yCkBEMeMiUqe8XobP3ZI1Y

• This reply was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by tulkas.

[Jeffrey]

Got it. I will take a look and see what I can find.

[Jeffrey]

This is fixed. See the latest update: https://mega.nz/#F!jl1zjSaC!CdBYterMnYkhdEbQy9rQKg

[megaprime]

Hi tulkas try this fix I had the same problem but it solved it

I’ve been looking to solve this problem and found a possible solution. The boarding action uses a lot of variables in three different files.
Program\battle_interface\BattleInterface.c
Program\SEA_AI\AIShip.c
Program\characters\CharacterUtilite.c

Making all the research I did so far short, the problem is that for some reason (still looking for it) any ship is not able to be board. They can board you because another conditions in the code control this.
The work around so far is simple. In file CharacterUtilite.c replace “return sti(rCharacter.Abordage.Enable);” with “return true”. It should be replaced inside the following function in this file.

bool Character_IsAbordageEnable(ref rCharacter)
{
if (CheckAttribute(rCharacter, “AlwaysFriend”))
{
return false; // boal
}
if (CheckAttribute(rCharacter, “Abordage.Enable”))
{
//return sti(rCharacter.Abordage.Enable); //Original
return true; //New
}
return true;
}

The problem is that “rCharacter.Abordage.Enable” is always “false” for every ship so you cannot board them. I’m looking for an answer for this. You do not need to start a new game or anything else.

http://www.piratesahoy.net/threads/cant-board-anyone-can-be-boarded.18963/page-3

I did post it in the past thought only i had the problem

Oh sorry saw the last post later

• This reply was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by megaprime.

[Jeffrey]

Sorry for the delay. I forgot I had this save and neglected to look at it. I just stumbled across your save in my files and it reminded me of this post/problem.

You are indeed having a problem with boarding. I cannot board a ship at all, even when they strike their colors. Not yet sure why and will see if I can figure this out for your game.

[Maltacus]

I haven’t tried the latest version but I had a similar problem with this mod downloaded sometime in june, maybe. Anyway, I found the following fix on the Pirates Ahoy forum (I know what you think of the staff there MK, but at least some of the users are much more helpful), posted by one Miguel Sanchez, which did the trick for me. I haven’t spotted any drawbacks or side effects but my technical knowledge of this game is certainly limited, so that doesn’t say very much.

“I’ve been looking to solve this problem and found a possible solution. The boarding action uses a lot of variables in three different files.
Program\battle_interface\BattleInterface.c
Program\SEA_AI\AIShip.c
Program\characters\CharacterUtilite.c

Making all the research I did so far short, the problem is that for some reason (still looking for it) any ship is not able to be board. They can board you because another conditions in the code control this.
The work around so far is simple. In file CharacterUtilite.c replace “return sti(rCharacter.Abordage.Enable);” with “return true”. It should be replaced inside the following function in this file.

bool Character_IsAbordageEnable(ref rCharacter)
{
if (CheckAttribute(rCharacter, “AlwaysFriend”))
{
return false; // boal
}
if (CheckAttribute(rCharacter, “Abordage.Enable”))
{
//return sti(rCharacter.Abordage.Enable); //Original
return true; //New
}
return true;
}

The problem is that “rCharacter.Abordage.Enable” is always “false” for every ship so you cannot board them. I’m looking for an answer for this. You do not need to start a new game or anything else.”

[modernknight1]

Thanks for your solution Maltacus! Very much appreciated. No worries on where it came from Mate. Post whatever you want. I don’t care where it comes from as long as it helps people. Unlike others we can name, I don’t intentionally delete or bury posts giving valuable information to enthusiasts/people.

That’s really my primary problem with those PA! people – that they would put ego and pride before giving people honest information and methods to give enthusiasts/players/members the best gaming experiences, options and solutions – AND GAME VERSIONS available – regardless of location.

The fact that they withhold that kind of info, bury it or ignore it, just shows everyone how they roll. This is why I have labelled their fearless leader – the Chancellor of Censorship. LOL

I think most people realize what kind of people many of them (NOT ALL) are by now – this also reflects on current interest and participation levels – so it doesn’t bother me at all. OPEN SHARING is what we are all about here at Buccaneer’s Reef. We are an honest equal opportunity fun poking, ridiculing hootenanny of piratey fun! Whoo Hooo YAARRRR!!!

MK

• This reply was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by modernknight1.

[Jeffrey]

Check it…new world map coming along

[Jeffrey]

[Jeffrey]

[modernknight1]

Isn’t that AWESOME! THE ALACRANES REEF! YES!!! DeGraaf’s hide-out is just right around the corner for us and I have all of the buildings and huts picked out. I just sent Orazio the texture that I believe will cover those blank islands.

Now here’s one thing from me. I will throw more in the screenshots thread and update thread in just a minute. Someday if we get this all going exactly how the Buccaneer’s Reef Team envision, I will tell all of you about THE THIRSTY LION and how Jeffrey and I are both tied to it. LOL MK

[Maltacus]

The new map looks very interesting, good luck with it.

I downloaded the latest version this evening. The loading times seem really faster than before, a huge improvement.

During the night, buildings and islands shine like in daylight, as well as vegetation. I remember the problem from before, but I think vegetation was not affected then. Is this something everyone else is experiencing or does it point to something being wrong with my settings or video card drivers or whatever else?

[Jeffrey]

That could be my fault. Sometime ago, I accidentally removed a line to read .col files and it was recently brought to my attention. I don’t know when that happened, but it may have been before I uploaded that base upload. Try this link where I just uploaded the base executables and let me know if that’s OK now:

https://mega.nz/#F!jl1zjSaC!CdBYterMnYkhdEbQy9rQKg

EngineUpdate.zip

[Maltacus]

That did the trick for the buildings and vegetation but the islands are still lighted up. That is an older issue though, as far as I know.

Thanks for the quick help Jeffrey.

[Jeffrey]

A 3D sound bug was pointed out to me and it is fixed:

https://mega.nz/#F!jl1zjSaC!CdBYterMnYkhdEbQy9rQKg

EngineUpdate.zip

[Jeffrey]

tulkas had problems boarding any ship. I found a bug. I am not sure how, but the ‘fantom’ characters from world map encounters somehow got flagged with a boarding attribute as false, disallowing boarding. Once this happened, that attribute was always present in future encounters…forever, because the fantom character slots are reused for every encounter. My fix is that each time a fantom is set to a different world map encounter, their attributes are refreshed.

Hey MK, remember that sail type problem you also mentioned? This is likely the cause of that too.

New update: https://mega.nz/#F!jl1zjSaC!CdBYterMnYkhdEbQy9rQKg

Update.zip

[modernknight1]

Damn good catch once again Jeffrey!

I haven’t had the boarding issues at all, but enough people were complaining about it, that I knew there must be some issue. I can’t wait to test this out, but I have vowed not to play the game until I have the upcoming limited release patch finished. SO MUCH new content in here! I can’t wait to play it myself! Been under the weather the last couple days – but back at it today trying to get it finished up.

MK

[Capt Qbert]

Hi Jeffery,

When you have a moment, can you clarify what to download from MEGA to have the latest in place…I got a bit confused as to the additional files posted there recently due to user feedback/corrections on this thread. I want the latest, but don’t want to mess up my install, and I probably will if I wing it on my own…

My ERAs game is currently running using the following:
1. All of the 700mb files from your 8/9 load
2. Update.zip but older than the 9/18 one just created (I think it was from 8/26 or something like that).

Questions:
1. To update to the latest, I need to download the latest Update.zip and install of course…but what about the EngineUpdate.zip and the TextureFix.zip? Do I just download those 2 zips and let them over-write anything in my install folder after applying the Update.zip?

2. Is there a specific order these 2 zips should be installed into my folder?

3. Is there anything I need to do after installing the additional zip files (such as hitting F4, etc…I saw posts about uncommenting some code but not sure if that was specific to chris gardner’s cannon issue…and that is where I started to get confused…if I even need to do this)?

4. Will I need to start a new game or can I continue to wreak havok with my current save?

I do not have the boarding issue, but I have the ‘at night, buildings and islands shine like in daylight’ one so was hoping to resolve that one mostly.

Thanks as always!
CQ

• This reply was modified 7 years, 2 months ago by Capt Qbert.

[Jeffrey]

First, that TextureFix.zip is only there because during my texture reduction efforts, one type of texture format got messed up and I noticed it in my game. I thought perhaps I had uploaded the base (those multiple 700mb files) with those textures messed up. I fixed those textures, then zipped them up and uploaded them. However, since I never heard any texture complaints, I think I only messed up those textures AFTER I did the base upload, and nobody ever got the erroneous files. So at this point, if you downloaded that set of base files, and haven’t seen a bunch of transparent textures, you are fine and don’t need TextureFix.zip. In fact, I’m thinking nobody does given I’ve heard nothing about invisible stuff, but I wanted to put it out there, just to be prepared if those transparent textures were out there.

EngineUpdate.zip contains the fixes that were causing some of those lighting problems, because I had inadvertently removed the .col file loading line. It only contains the .exe/.dll files, nothing else. It will provide the lighting and that one 3d sound fix.

Update.zip is unfortunately post-base fixes and/or additions, so even if you already downloaded it, I have to keep texture/model file fixes in there from previous fixes, so it gets relatively large. However, it contains both the Engine updates mentioned, texture/model fixes/adds, plus the script code fixes, like for the boarding problem. Even though you have no boarding problems, and you got the last Update.zip, if you have the time and bandwidth for a 1.4 gb file, I would suggest that one. Given you already applied one from August, it mostly contains stuff you already have, so an overwrite will have no effect, for most stuff because you already got them, will not ruin your current save games, and provides both script AND engine fixes. Just overwrite the correlating game directory. If you do not have those couple ships with the cannon issues in your squadron, nothing else is necessary.

Besides, I also started playing with that new ambient light feature that was broken in the original COAS scripts, and if you get the newer script files you can check out and comment about the firelight ambience changes in the tavern and the darker caves/dungeon. Let me know if I should tweak the RGB values 🙂

[Capt Qbert]

Thanks for the clarifications Jeffrey, you are the best man!

– Yeah, no transparent textures for me btw.

– Ok, will dnld and install just the latest Update.zip, no prob on the time and bandwidth for me once I get home tonight. 🙂

– Cool! I will check out and let you know my thoughts on the firelight ambiance changes in tavern, etc in the next day or so.

If there is anything else I can help test for you, I’ll be happy to return the favor.

Cheers mate,
CQ

[Capt Qbert]

Hey Jeffrey,

Regarding: “I also started playing with that new ambient light feature that was broken in the original COAS scripts, and if you get the newer script files you can check out and comment about the firelight ambiance changes in the tavern and the darker caves/dungeon.”

As for the Taverns: I really like what you did with the ambient lighting!…it’s darker and more yellow-ish than before. I think it is fine as is but if you want to refine it a little bit more, my only suggestion would be to make the tavern a little bit darker if you want. Even in the daytime, those taverns back then were pretty dark, dusty and musky affairs so this would seem in line with the feel.

As for the darker caves/dungeons: I only visited the one near Puerto Bello (or however it is spelled) last night and it was very dark (I think it was a mine actually)…I could only see the torches with no light emanation and kept bumping into walls. I did not mess with my options to turn up Gamma or anything, but I may need to do that when I go back tonight (it was getting late so I did not test thoroughly). Can you direct me to what file(s) affect mines/dungeons/etc and what lines of code to look @ so I can up the lighting/emanation a bit to help test?…but if too complex to explain or do, no biggie, I know you are busy.

Thanks,
CQ

• This reply was modified 7 years, 2 months ago by Capt Qbert.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 2 months ago by Capt Qbert.

[Jeffrey]

LOL, funny you mention liking the taverns. I got a message from Orazio with the opposite reaction; he doesn’t like it.

The numbers I’ve selected (I only did the positive numbers…the negatives were what the original developers intended, but never got working..the amb_other is bad according to a recent user post and should probably be turned off for sure) were an experiment to prove it now works, but Orazio’s complaint is that it is too broad and even, without shadow nuance. Unfortunately, this was only meant to use DirectX ambient light render state, so that is actually all it does, so it will be broad. To get more nuanced, there are settings in the model vertices and shader effects that would be needed, in addition. It’s easy to turn off/change my experiment:

Find Program\Locations\locations_loader.c and open with a text editor. At the top:

#define amb_cave 2957328 //2105376 //-2894897
#define inca_temple -3158061
#define amb_house -3158065
#define amb_tavern 16750121 //-3157037
#define amb_shop -3158065
#define amb_residence -8750465
#define amb_church -6316121
#define amb_jail -2105373
#define amb_dungeon 5916200// -2105393
#define amb_other -3158065

Change the values for any of them to 0 and they will no longer change ambient light from the default…you can use // to comment out the previous value for reference if you like. Example to turn them all off:

#define amb_cave 0 //2957328 //2105376 //-2894897
#define inca_temple 0 //-3158061
#define amb_house 0 //-3158065
#define amb_tavern 0 //16750121 //-3157037
#define amb_shop 0 //-3158065
#define amb_residence 0 //-8750465
#define amb_church 0 //-6316121
#define amb_jail 0 //-2105373
#define amb_dungeon 0 //5916200// -2105393
#define amb_other 0 // -3158065

[Capt Qbert]

Cool…and I fully defer to Orazio on his insights. I did like the darker/yellow atmosphere it created but agree on the shadow nuance if I understand that correctly.

Thanks for the info on the loader.c code, I’m gonna experiment tonight!

[Orazio]

It wasn’t my intention to ruin everything, but I just found that type of lighting kind of unrealistic, too simplified.
However, since it’s easy to turn it off by just putting a 0 in those #define‘s, everybody can make his/her choice.

If somebody really wants to play with the lighting, I would rather advise the use of the ‘loclighter tool’, which generates the COL files (they contain the data on a location lighting condition). Last time I checked, the ‘loclighter tool’ was broken in ERAS, it was only working in the vanilla game.
I can explain the main options available to create lighting with it, if needed.

[Jeffrey]

If it’s part of the engine, like sailor point editor, interface editor, and island editor, I can probably fix it. In fact, I recently fixed all the former 3. Get the recent EngineUpdate and they will work. For sailor editor and island editor (for depth files), the run startup .c file needs an extra line:

int iScriptVersion = 54128;

Let me know if you have any problems/questions. They all work in my set.

Now, about this loclighter…what is this and how do I run/investigate the workings? I am confident if it worked in vanilla, but doesn’t work in our, but the back-end code still exists in my source, I can correct the problems.

[Jeffrey]

In fact, those GraphPoints you were asking about are created/edited in the last one I just fixed, which is the Island Editor. I can send you the instructions for launching.

[Orazio]

I thought the sailorspoints editor was a different package. I’ve always used the one powered by the PotC Engine.

I’m curious to try these three editors. What’s the run startup .c file? I have this line int iScriptVersion = 54128; in _mod_on_off.h, but once in game I don’t know how to access the editors.

This is the loclighter tool, or at least how to enable it. http://www.piratesahoy.net/threads/generating-location-lighting-files-col.20784/
From what I remember, I couldn’t launch it in ERAS, pressing 0 did nothing.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 2 months ago by Orazio.

[Jeffrey]

The sailor points is a different package, merely to add the extra texture files and the extra sailors_editor.c file. While technically, you can now simply copy those textures to ERAS and change the startup run program, it might be better to still keep it separate, so as to separate edits/tests while working. I can send you a .zip of essentially the same package, but works with our new engine. It didn’t before, but I got it working and one of the changes, requires adding that script version variable to the startup .c program. Since you won’t be running seadogs.c, but sailors_editor.c, that script version has to be added because sailors_editor.c does not have _mod_on_off.h included, but without that variable, you get a ‘script version’ error.

The island editor is similar, in that you don’t run seadogs.c, but another .c, like sailor_editor and you get a whole different display of an island you specify in another .ini file. I can send you that too.

Now that I know what to look for, I will look into getting loclighter to work, if indeed that source still exists in our engine source.

[Jeffrey]

No change needed…it works.

Follow those same instructions to set the loclighter.ini loading = 1. But you have to turn on numlock on your keyboard. Then press the zero key of the numpad. The numlock is the needed indicator.

[Capt Qbert]

Hey Jeffrey, I copied over the tavern value into the cave and dungeon lines and am very happy with how they both look now. It’s not perfect, but seems a better ambiance and much darker than before. Thx for the instruction!
Cheers,
CQ

• This reply was modified 7 years, 2 months ago by Capt Qbert.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 2 months ago by Capt Qbert.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 2 months ago by Capt Qbert.

[Jeffrey]

If you want more fun with those, you can experiment others. In Windows, launch your calculator and put it in Programmer mode (View/Programmer).

That number you see in locations_loader.c, is the integer value of RGB, converted to Hex, converted to Decimal.

You can see the RGB values some others have already determined a decent approximation of different ambient lights online. Example:

http://planetpixelemporium.com/tutorialpages/light.html
https://www.reddit.com/r/spaceengineers/comments/3e0k38/rgb_values_for_various_types_of_realworld_lights/

To see where different RGB combinations fall on the color spectrum, you can use a ‘color-picker’ like this one:

http://www.rapidtables.com/web/color/RGB_Color.htm#color-chart

When you enter R, G, B, that color picker will give you a corresponding Hex number. In your calculator, click the Hex radio, enter the Hex number, then click decimal. The number you see goes into location_loader #define statements at the top.

[Capt Qbert]

Cool stuff! Yeah, I’ve used that color picker site before (or a similar one). Thanks for the info on the programmer calc mode, that is very helpful and a timesaver.

Gonna experiment some more tonight.

[zauberberg]

Hey, I’m new to this game and mod, but it looks like a fantastic achievement.

I’ve been trying to set it up on my Mac through a port, and it seems like it’s been working really well with only one exception I’ve found so far. I’m unsure if it relates to my installation process, graphics settings, porting or what.

Basically at evening and nighttime in game, all the buildings and outdoor environments look like they’re still in sunlight. Only characters, ships, and water are responding to nighttime lighting conditions. I tried my vanilla version of the game and this doesn’t happen, so I’m thinking maybe something went wrong with my installation of ERAs. I wasn’t really sure how to install it with the Mac port, so I think I just copied over and merged the files with the vanilla installation.

Thanks~

[Jeffrey]

Once you get the base, make sure to get the latest update. It will probably take care of the light issue:

https://mega.nz/#F!jl1zjSaC!CdBYterMnYkhdEbQy9rQKg

Update.zip

[Jeffrey]

Also, do not mix any part of it with the vanilla/cd version of the game. This is complete and stands alone. You may find erroneous textures in ships, now that I’ve modified that path logic and moved some of our larger textures to each ship root. Any ships that share names with vanilla, will retain their textures in each of the HullX folders and they won’t look correct.

[Jeffrey]

Unrelated…a MAC port, huh? From what I remember, wine emulator was the way to do that awhile back. That still the case, or is there something newer these days?

[zauberberg]

Wine is still the way to go. There’s a bunch of other alternatives too but it seems to be the most convenient.

[modernknight1]

Also totally unrelated, welcome Zauberberg. I am also a Fritz Lang fan. Although I like Metropolis (1927) the best (especially the reworked version with the Freddy Mercury songs). However, Man with a Movie Camera (1929) (from your avatar) is widely considered to be one of the greatest documentary movies ever made.

Here’s links for those who might be interested.

METROPOLIS 1927 (Original) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXcCiumphuA
Metropolis restored (1984 partial colorization and edited much shorter) with modern American pop soundtrack (my favorite) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xnWS09f1Ws

Man with a Movie Camera (1929): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z97Pa0ICpn8

What’s amazing to me is how relevant these movies still are and how little has changed in so many ways. OK, enough with my unrelated comments. I will move it to the off topic section. I am just a huge fan of old cinema. I have copies of the original Old Ironsides and Captain Blood from the silent film era. They are fantastic!

MK

[zauberberg]

Metropolis with the pop soundtrack looks hilarious haha. Revisiting old cinema now that there’s so many good transfers and remasters of things is definitely a must. I was able to see Man with a Movie Camera at anthology film archives in NY several years ago, and I really like the style of Russian movie posters from days of early cinema. My name is referencing the german title to Thomas Mann’s book The Magic Mountain.

[zauberberg]

So I don’t know what happened but I tried to make a post earlier with some screenshots. I did a fresh install without vanilla and with the updates applied. This time the issues were less significant: basically now the lighting issues at evening/night are with the characters, the flowers and grass type foliage, and the ships when they’re ashore or viewed from land. Everything else is fine. There was also some minor things with certain objects having an outline and sea foam sometimes looking a little strange and choppy/flickering.

Despite that the mod looks great, so thanks again. If there’s anything else you think I can do to get this running perfectly, I’d be glad to know.

[Jeffrey]

Now we might be getting somewhere. There was a feature that the original developers tried, that never had any effect and I recently got that resolved so that it actually does something. But, using their original intent may be causing what you describe for the characters. That upload contains my recent experimentation with the ambient light RGB values that never worked before, so let’s try removing amb_other to see if that looks better for you:

Near the top of Program\Locations\locations_loader.c (in a text editor), change

#define amb_other -3158065

to

#define amb_other 0 //-3158065

Save and run the game to check.

[zauberberg]

Hey, I tested that and it absolutely worked for the lighting issues. Many thanks. It makes a big difference.

[modernknight1]

Jeffrey has an update for the lighting issues. I haven’t tried any of this new stuff yet because I am hard at work on the newest patch with lots of new stuff (almost finished). Hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

Ah yes – I never got around to reading it that second time. Perhaps I should – considering that their faces are so clear to me these days. But sometimes a cigar is just a cigar and the unexplainable will stay unexplained despite skeptics who have no good explanations otherwise LOL.

That is truly a fascinating era. The “Belle Epoch” with the decadent elites and their crazy new existentialism – believing they were attempting to transcend carnal boundaries LMAO. Eric Hobsbawm’s book The Age of Empires is a brilliant examination of the absolute crazy nuttiness of that time(not unlike our own now eh). The manipulations behind the uprisings of that time (especially the Bolsheviks) should be studied thoroughly by all who want to understand modern good and evil in action. Good to have a thinker here. Welcome again.

MK

[zauberberg]

I look forward to playing the mod and it looks like you’ve really brought this game to life. I feel lucky to have discovered it, and it seems underrated to me. The breadth and level of detail are really impressive. I think I only found out about it because of youtube comments lol.

Are you referring to Magic Mountain? I think I will read it that second time but I’m not ready yet. As a fun fact, a former teacher of mine said that the character Settembrini is based on Ernst Bloch and Naphta is based on Lucaks.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 2 months ago by zauberberg.

[zura]

I too found out about the GOT from the youtube comments LOL. I don’t think it’s underrated because everybody on this forum does nothing but praise the mod. The problem is that not many people outside this place know that this mod even exists, which sad because they’re missing out on the best age of pirates experience there is. IMO you guys should advertise this game more, spread the word through youtube and social media, create a page on MODDB or NEXUS, consider letting Russian sites (for example: corsairs-harbour.ru , pirates-life.ru) do the translation (piratesahoy did the same thing with new horizons)… I believe this will help with the popularization since Russia has the biggest Age of Pirates fanbase.

PS: I don’t consider myself an expert or anything in this matter I just want this mod to get attention it deserves and decided to throw my 2 cents in 🙂

• This reply was modified 7 years, 2 months ago by zura.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 2 months ago by zura.

[Ross633]

hello everyone.
I’m new here, and I have just downloaded your wonderful mod, but I have a little problem: at the moment my only pc is a laptop with an integrated gpu and a nvidia 950m, and the game despite my efforts (such as force the start.exe to use the dedicated gpu) recognizes only the primary video in the setting.exe.

There is a way to change this?
thanks in advance

[Jeffrey]

I don’t think I can be much help, because all I have are computers with the stock on-board Intel.

I can tell you that neither the game, nor the config.exe specifically target any graphics cards. The config.exe simply calls an API to enumerate and display devices. That API returns a list of video device adapters and if not all of what you have get sent back from the machine and listed, for whatever reason, that probably lies somewhere in the OS for why it doesn’t recognize or send it to the program.

Same with the game itself. It simply makes a connection with DirectX, specifying to use the default video adapter and hardware rasterization, and makes all its calls to DirectX. If DirectX is not using your specified graphics card, I again suspect that lies in the communication between DirectX and the OS.

Also, that config.exe really doesn’t do much. Any settings there are just written to start.ini and the actual graphic device is not one of the settings, but those devices are queried merely to get a list of supported resolutions (Width x Height) that your monitors can display and are set in the screen_x/screen_y settings you will see if you open start.ini in a text editor.

Hopefully, someone more familiar with these types of problems might help. I did find other instances with Nvidia, similar to the problem you describe, on other forums. Example: https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/507761/extremely-pissed-off-at-this-no-game-can-detect-my-graphic-card-/

[Orazio]

I’m in the same situation, a laptop with both an Intel and an Nvidia GPU.
Are you really sure the game is using the Intel GPU? Forget about the config.exe, I can’t choose the card either from there, but forcing it through the Nvidia control panel should work.
I know my game is using the Nvidia card, despite what the config.exe might say, because I have forced the anti-aliasing from the control panel, and it’s working, I don’t see jagged edges.

[Ross633]

Yeah, you’re right. After some tweaking now the game is using the nvidia card, despite what the setting.exe shows. I have some fps drop, but I think is my laptop faults, because the mod is much more heavy than vanilla game. By the way this is really a great mod, or I should say, a great game!

[adam torek]

Once again, MEGA is preventing me from being able to download any of its files. It has a system in place that prevents you from downloading any files that are above 5 MB unless you pay a monthly subscription for more bandwidth. This paywall (for lack of better words) makes me wait 3 hours before the download can continue. This paywall happens EVERY time you exceed the bandwidth limit, not just once. This makes the download virtually impossible to complete without either waiting a very long time (probably weeks) or somehow bypassing this limit without paying. Anyone know how to do so? Megadownloader doesn’t work anymore because of some policy they implemented on June 3rd this year that stops free downloading programs from accessing their servers.

[Jeffrey]

Well this sucks. The whole idea of MEGA was that one, I could upload a ton of stuff. Two, it was no cost for anyone to download (to my knowledge at the time).

I suppose I have no choice but to look for a better alternative, but I am afraid it will cost me, considering the size of what I have for the base. I already paid for my account upgrade to 200 gb on MEGA.

[Vincent]

I know I had a similar issue – I had to leave my computer on all night just to get the full download. So it may be time to switch to a new download client, especially since it will hopefully draw in more players.

On that note, have we put any consideration into putting this game up on Steam? I’m pretty sure you can sell the base game for free there, and then add paid content as DLC packs. Steam is also a pretty mainstream gaming shop, so it could really draw a lot more attention to game. It even solves the issue of finding a new download client, since the Steam downloader is pretty good from my experience.

Any thoughts from you guys?

[Jeffrey]

Steam might be an option, but I believe they charge the person providing/hosting the game offering; I have looked into itch.io and have been looking to go that route. They also provide a file-synching tool for the users that will only download changed portions of the package, which is nice if I only make a handful of changes, your client will only download what’s changed.

I’ve played around with their synching tool, and even for the first, whole codebase download, it’s quite fast and seems reliable. It is similar to Steam in that I can provide links for all the various mods my engine works and such…but it’s still on the table for if/when I go that route. I’ve got stuff in the works there, as it’s free to me, but I’ve not pulled the trigger yet.

I suppose, in the interim, I can further investigate Steam, if I find I don’t have to pay and is relatively easy for someone like me to get inducted.

[Vincent]

If itch works, then that’s great. I suggested Steam because while it would be a solution to the download issue, it’s also pretty mainstream, and therefore might be a good way to advertise our game to the wider public – something I think we’re all interested in doing. If it requires payments to host the game, though, I fully understand that it might not be the best option for right now. Maybe we could consider it when we start releasing paid content DLCs?

EDIT: I believe, from what I looked at online, that Steam takes a percentage of any sales – however, I have also heard stated that the company is very friendly with Indie game developers as well. So I suspect that a free-to-play game may require payments for hosting, though I do not know for certain – payment is something they really don’t advertise publically

• This reply was modified 7 years ago by Vincent.

[adam torek]

Well I’ve finally managed to get past the MEGA download paywall by downloading all those parts individually, for some reason my game fails to load every dll library it needs on startup. The files are there in the correct folder, just for some reason the game compiler doesn’t recognize them. Any idea why this is?

[Jeffrey]

The only time I’ve ever seen the .dll modules not load, is if they happen to be the old, original COAS ones because they are incompatible.

First, if using the download parcels for the entire base, make sure to apply the Update.zip over it.

If that does not cure, then try applying EngineUpdate.zip over. However, the Update.zip and EngineUpdate.zip technically contain the same start.exe/*.dll files at this point.

If it remains a problem, I’d like to see any log files, and also what OS version is this?

[adam torek]

Unfortunately for me this glitch happens even after I applied both the update and engineupdate files. Since I don’t know where my log file is, I’ll tell you I’m using Windows 10. As for the log files, I need to know where the program typically stores its logs to find them.

[Jeffrey]

How am I not surprised to learn Win10. It is the bane of my existence. Since I don’t have it, I can only offer some guesses for solution:

Set compatibility to WinXP.
Set to ‘Run as administrator’

Log files are compile.log, error.log (sometimes doesn’t exist) and system.log and are found the same place as the start.exe. You may have to enable them in start.ini:

tracefilesoff = 0
runtimelog = 1
debuginfo = 1
tracefiles = 1

[adam torek]

Well I don’t have the debuginfo or tracefile options in my start.ini file. Any idea how to add them?

[Jeffrey]

I put a start.ini at:
https://mega.nz/#F!jl1zjSaC!CdBYterMnYkhdEbQy9rQKg

[adam torek]

Okay, I finally received a log error detailing what went wrong. The content for the error message I had is here:

COMPILE ERROR – file: seadogs.c; line: 330
function SetGlowParams(args:0) doesn’t accept 3 arguments

Know what this means?

[Jeffrey]

It sounds like a mismatch of .exe/.dll/program files, but I’m not sure.

I did try making a new, empty game directory for myself, then loaded the base, Update.zip, then the EngineUpdate.zip (in that order), just to be sure the actual downloads are OK (and that I didn’t mix them up), and that worked for me just fine. But, my machine is Win7.

I might be able to convince my wife, who is the only one in our house that has a Win10 machine to let me try the same on hers, but that experiment will have to wait until maybe Saturday, as she needs to use that machine for work the next couple days.

[adam torek]

Have you been able to figure out what the issue was? I’ve been trying to launch it around once every day just to test if anything’s changed but it hasn’t. I get the same issue every time I try to launch it.

[Oldtimer]

Hi all,

I feel idiotic for asking this, especially as I have installed an earlier ver of GoF but:

– after dling, how do I proceed with installation? I forgot which file in the downloaded folder does it… And yes I have read the readme in update folder.

Rgds, Oldtimer

[Maltacus]

Make sure all the downloaded files are in the same folder.

Unpack the first file, the one ending with .001, with 7zip or a similar .zip program. That should open the rest as well.

[Oldtimer]

@Maltacus

THX for your attn.

Rgds, Oldtimer

[Jeffrey]

Yes, following Maltacus’ advice, after unzipping all the .001-.012 files into an empty/blank directory for the game, then unzip Update.zip and copy/overwrite into those same folders you just unzipped from the multipart-archive. This will apply all the later fixes/changes from that initial base set of files and that should do it.

[Oldtimer]

@Jeffrey

THX! There also is a EngineUpdate folder, should I leave it be?

Rgds, Oldtimer

[Jeffrey]

You can. But if you just got the recent Update, I believe the start.exe and module/*.dll files in the Update.zip and EngineUpdate.zip are the same at this point, so it may be irrelevant. But it won’t hurt either, since it will simply overwrite the exact same files.

I occasionally update just the executables, and like to keep a smaller file, with just those in it for those types of updates, but then I periodically fold it into the larger Update.zip to keep them in synch. I would do away with EngineUpdate, but debate with myself requiring someone to download the much larger Update.zip for an engine fix that is much smaller. However, then we get a little confusion about what to download, how, etc.

Anyway, the order to ensure lates, correct files is: first the multi-part .7z files, then Update.zip, then EngineUpdate.zip.

[Oldtimer]

@Jeffrey

THX for your attn.

Rgds, Oldtimer

[Oldtimer]

Dear devs,

will the upcoming update be save compatible?

Rgds, Oldtimer

[modernknight1]

@ Old Timer,

Yes

MK

[Oldtimer]

Mr. Knight,

wonderful news!

Rgds, Oldtimer

[Jeffrey]

The latest update is now available:

https://mega.nz/#F!jl1zjSaC!CdBYterMnYkhdEbQy9rQKg

ERAS2.8Update.zip

The core, base files (…7z.001-012) for 2.8 are being uploaded and will replace 2.6, once finished. But, if you already have 2.6, or 2.7, simply overwriting with the ERAS2.8Update.zip, will get you upgraded.

[Craig Brown]

Hey MK, Thanks for the update. Downloading!!!

By the way, what characters are able to equip the armor?

[TheBlackTowerTK]

Happy New Year, Sea Dogs

Thanks a lot for the update but care to direct me to a Changelog, if possible .

all love

[Jeffrey]

Althought it’s undoubtedly terse, probably missing some things, and would never fly in my ‘day job,’ for a decent change log, the UpdatesReadMe.txt does contain a rolling list of recent changes; I append some things as I go, so the most recent are at the bottom.

I have been notorious for lax documentation, and since this is a ‘hobby’ well, my personal documenting failings are only going to be worse, LOL

[TheBlackTowerTK]

it is not necessary to have a change log, a quality mod is always the priority, and this mod my good sir is a gem for sea lovers, so i was away in works but now i’m ready for blunder and will see the change for myself.

good day to you all

[Jack]

Hey guys,

So in the 2.8 update, whilst in sailing mode the ships look rather squashed.

Anyone know what’s up with that?

[modernknight1]

Jack,

Have you tried moving the new camera view scroll toggle in the options menu (left side of menu/screen) until it suits you? All the way left everything is zoomed in very close and all the way to the right everything is zoomed out. You may want to tinker with that until you like what you see.

MK

[Jack]

Ahhhhh I see, I didn’t realize that’s what they were for.

Thanks for the help 🙂

[Craig Brown]

Armor? Anybody? What characters are able to equip the various armors and suits and uniforms that you come across in the game?

[Jack]

I’m loving the Black Flag sea shanties, it’s a great touch to the mod 🙂

Is there any chance you could get them to play in map mode?

[Jeffrey]

The texture fixes for San Felipe and Dutch Heavy Frigate, gun charges > 4, option screen fixes, and ridding the sometimes jagged sea are complete.

https://mega.nz/#F!jl1zjSaC!CdBYterMnYkhdEbQy9rQKg
ERAS2.8Update.zip

[Jolie Rouge]

@Jeffrey: installed those fixes yesterday; we’ve been wrong about what caused the thinking breaks.
Seems like the jagged sea fix fixed that, 12 hours and not one break!

[TheBlackTowerTK]

i experience some problem with visual, red flag for the Spanish and gray one for the English, the excellent map are in raw texture, all purple and pixelated, also but not test yet in the latest patch the sails improvement some time seen as a bug, i feel like there are problem on my end so all help are welcome, thank you.

[Jolie Rouge]

Came across a 2nd rater at the shipyard, cannon quantity should be 70, but then it was 68.
Went through the ships descriptions and then init, id as Resolution. Spawned the ship ingame to check the model, 68 is correct.

[Jeffrey]

Tested this and you are correct. I will fix it in the next update.

If you want to correct your own game, edit Ships_init.c and change these from 31 to 32, for SHIP_RESOLUTION:

refShip.rcannon 							= 32;
refShip.lcannon 							= 32;

[modernknight1]

Sorry, that’s totally my fault. You know I often work on this stuff late at night. I don’t make as many mistakes as I used to I suppose.

MK

[Jeffrey]

The latest update contains some of the fixes discussed over the last couple weeks. It also contains:

Brand new cabin from Orazio, for the small class 7 ships

Officer loyalty tweak, where if an incompatible officer/companion (with a different alignment than the captain), that decides to overlook some of your bad/good acts, contrary to their alignment, after many times of doing so (they have a random chance, weighted by their loyalty measure), their own alignment will start to tick up/down, as they become ‘influenced’ by their captain. They can still retain their own alignment, if they refuse to overlook, and their loyalty drops instead. So if they steadfast stick to their alignment, loyalty drops, but if they let the action slide, after many times, their alignment will start to shift toward yours. Of course those that already match your alignment, they just continue to appreciate your acts that match and loyalty builds accordingly.

Some ship encounters have been altered for number of possible ships

Services should automatically open up after 4 consecutive, busy days, no matter what. There is still a mod option to turn off competition completely.

Fixed a rare engine crash from a cannon anomaly

Fix some missing textures/char models that were added, but files did not make it into last update.

https://mega.nz/#F!jl1zjSaC!CdBYterMnYkhdEbQy9rQKg

ERAS2.8Update.zip

[Jeffrey]

There is more content coming out soon, but in the meantime, since some AI updates have been done, a couple script changes/fixes, I went ahead and put that out:

https://mega.nz/#F!jl1zjSaC!CdBYterMnYkhdEbQy9rQKg
ERAS2.8Update.zip

It still does not support the higher poly character models, as that will only be distributed when the first character with that high count is introduced in an upcoming update, but some sail-away AI logic, and prevention of companion ships bashing into islands, along with the recent FMOD 1/31 update is now included.

Oh, and Maltucus, you can re-enable foam and see if some of those weather hours look better now.

Keep me updated with any thoughts…

[Oldtimer]

Hi,

just installed latest Update.zip and loyalist patch on top and now the game reads 2.8.0. Should I be concerned?

Rgds, Oldtimer

[ians]

Hi mega wont allow me to d/l the update file even on its own without install of its client?

[ians]

Hi I am a bit confused in the order I should overwrite eras in order to update it,I have Eras2 2.8.2 published on 02 January 2018 and it working,so I thought I would check first.I have recived and d/l the following,loyal member updte,ShipsUtilites.c file that it said I should get,and ERAS2.8Update from the link on post #5746,also to add thank you for taking the time and effort to put all this together..just to add its the link on post#5871 that mega says I need to install its client for that is for the single file only,but post #5746and#5871 link to the same page one page lets you d/l and not the other,oh well I hope its the same file rgds ian

• This reply was modified 6 years, 10 months ago by ians. Reason: info

[Jeffrey]

If you already have 2.8, you can ignore the first download from that first MK message and just use the latest update I gave in my message; it is a combination of MK’s stuff, plus the Tavrel character and some other improvements.

I have also added a clickable filter to New games for male/female/nations, restricting NPC heroes to the same time-period of the character Hero you select, and another AI change to use point-of-sale in runaway/sail away determination within the last few days, but still needs some testing…but expect another optional update to come soon.

[ians]

sorry jeffrey do you mean ignore MK loyal member update and use your latest update above?I also d/l the ShipsUtilites.c as per instructions.Im going by the instruction from the private message I was sent, meaning the “Loyal Members Update PM has been sent thread” thats whats confused me.to my mind it means write over files in game folder with your latest update post #5746 then over that with loyal member update from private message,then last of all the ShipsUtilites.c file..sorry jeffrey I must sound as thick as a man o war keel

• This reply was modified 6 years, 10 months ago by ians.

[Jeffrey]

No, a PM from me, after MK’s message. Unfortunately, I can’t see all the ‘successful’ recipients as it only tells me it went to “27 recipients” I have a list, and you are on it, but I just tried to resend just to you and it failed. So, I clicked on your profile and resent it that way. Weird, because the name I typed both in my list and second attempt, matched, but maybe did not work. That third attempt through your profile page should be OK now.

Did you get it?

[Jeffrey]

If you get my new PM, you can just use that, instead of the MK Loyal update because it contains all of that…plus the missing file, and a few additional extras.

[ians]

I understand ,ignore my private reply sent before i read this,thank you

[acenewton1]

Would love to try this mod out… But Mega’s HMTL cache is full. I tried to clear it. It says I have to upgrade. Is there a way to upload it to google drive or Mediafire? Asking qgain about the HTML thing cuz no one talked to me the first time.

Any help is welcome.
I even tried using didferent tags. Blah blah…

Thanks!
Chloe

• This reply was modified 6 years, 10 months ago by acenewton1.

[Jeffrey]

Your browser probably has some sort of setting or method for limiting its file cache size. Example: Firefox, under Private & Security settings, has Cached Web Content where a checked option can limit the cache to a size you specify. I don’t know about other browsers, and for some, perhaps they impose a limit per web site…I don’t really know the answer though, just guessing HTML cache error is a browser imposed limit of some sort.

The easiest way to get around that sort of problem, is to not use a browser to download, but instead download and install the MEGA client. I used to have browser problems downloading from MEGA in the beginning of my use of their site, and installing the client was the easiest way to get way better performance and fewer problems.

I also don’t want upload it to a bunch of other services, because then every time I update, I have to remember all the different places I put it and spend time uploading these large files several times, to different web sites…a bit tedious for me to do the same thing over and over. I also don’t want to just switch, because I’ve got 37 gb on MEGA right now, and for that much, I’d probably have to pay another service for that much space…unless of course someone out there is willing to foot the bill for me…

[Beneker]

First of all, I thank you for improving one of my favorite games to date and for giving us the opportunity to increase the hours of play, with each update, the game improves considerably, but I’m not sure if it is necessary to create a new game for that works properly, I’ve also had some problems in the tavern, since it is full of captains, I find it difficult to recruit crewmembers and officers, also the statistics of the officers are not correct for their work, for example, the fighters should have Strength, Reaction and Resistance with a little Insight, It would be better to define the statistics using the work of each one and not leave them so random, if you had officers with good statistics it would improve something inmercion, Sorry for my English so bad I have tried hard not to have so many mistakes but surely I have them u.u, Thanks for the effort, this can only improve. 😀

[LordOfWar]

For starters I want to say thank you for the great effort you made for the game. you did a great job for the game and I love it. I have one problem with it. every time I download the game through mega it keeps telling me transfer quota exceeded. I used chrome to download, I Used microsoft edge, and the mega download client. everytime I download at some point the quota is exceeded and I have to wait an hour for the download to continue. instead of downloading the game in one hour or two hours maximum. I have to endure 10+ hours to download the file. could you please provide us with a torrent link addition to the mega download, or upload the file on another download server that does not have limited quota or limited download speed for the download to be easier.

[Beneker]

Hello 😀
If you create a MEGA account, the Download Fee will increase.

[Jeffrey]

I have not updated the commonly available, but I do have a report about the Loyalty version.

I have updated a few things:

Flag movement, very low wind fix

Some extra ship textures

FMOD update to version 1.10.04 – 3/5/18 Studio API minor release (build 93853)

Config.exe and DirectX startup will now recognize other video adapters, rather than just primary.

I believe it was Jolie that had a problem with ammo reload in 64 bit. I still can’t recreate the problem myself, but I did attempt some guesswork, so take a look and see if it helped.

There are some changes to new game characters, where we have added multi-color text for highlighting character starting facets. Also, some characters will now start beyond level 1.

Constrain Heroes option is now on start screen.

Background character daily updates are now a true, background process, to mitigate the lag one experiences during that process.

If one loses a companion captain to a life-boat, but any other ship besides yourself picks them up, you lost that captain forever. With a new change, if one of your own companions picks them up, they now appear back on your ship and you can reassign them. If an enemy picks them up, you can board the ship, and if you win the captain battle, you have now rescued your companion. If you leave them behind, another NPC hero will survive and eventually gain their own ship again…they will a little angry when you meet them again 😉 A ‘standard’ NPC, will die at sea…tragic.

Grapeshot will become less effective when enemy crew is sparse…more difficult to hit them.

Some other, minor fixes…

For the config.exe to point at another video adapter…in order for it to ‘remember’ what adapter you chose, you must first manually add this line to start.ini:

DeviceNumber = 0

Somewhere near the top is fine (e.g. near screen_x)

If you don’t do this, it will still gain the x and y for screen settings, but not the actual adapter you chose. If you add that line to startlini, then for instance choose an alternate monitor in fullscreen mode, the game will actually play in that other screen; couldn’t do that before. However, I’ve not yet figured how to get windowed mode to play on anything other than the primary monitor (it’s different for windowed), but it should still be playing under the video adapter you chose. So if you have a separate GPU, that wasn’t recognized before, you should be able to select resolutions for it now and also have DirectX start up in-game actually using that particular adapter. I can’t actually test myself, as I only have built-in Intel, but give it a try.

[modernknight1]

Jeffrey,

The update will also have all of the new ship AI stuff (not running into land, each other, and tacking against the wind) that I have been testing – correct?

I just wanted to add that we are also adding members to the loyalty update who have been participating lately. Thanks for your participation.

I have been very busy – but new articles and stories for the site are nearly finished and videos as well. We should have some teaser screenshots of the new website also very soon.

MK

[Jeffrey]

Ah, yes, the new AI tacking upwind is in there too.

But, I realize I forgot to tell something for the new Loyalty update:

I realize most people don’t always overwrite their start.ini file (due to perhaps personal settings they might have changed) and I did not upload that file, but there is a change; you should also correct the spelling for this, at the bottom:

In start.ini, change HorisontalFramesCount to: HorizontalFramesCount

[Jeffrey]

Coming soon: Ship AI Improvements

I’ve been mired in a new task to improve ship AI and I’ve got a treat for everyone; I’ve got a significant improvement in hand concerning escape/flee plans, navigating a path around impeding islands.

What happened, is that the work I was doing to give AI to ships in port, and enable harbor scene, traffic and even battles, I was able to stand and observe AI behavior for ships setting sail to some random point in the world, over and over. Then, watching the behavior, and tracing through code, I found some flaws in the logic and also found some strengths in the logic I didn’t know before, but were either under-utilized, or simply missing some data points that would boost the ‘smarts,’ and by simply adjusting some of what was already there, was able to grant the AI system much more intelligence.

There are still some other problems, like ships can bump into each other, due to a deficiency in predictions (which I will also probably work on and address), but this improvement is for the overall strategy employed by the AI character…for instance, one of the problems is that a fleeing ship will often head directly toward the center of an island, reach it, then turn, no matter if their true destination was nowhere near that island…that sort of thing will be history and no longer happen. I found out why that occurred, and what they will do now is actually head the best, straightest/fastest path to their actual plan of escape.

I also made some refinements to the upwind tacking as there were a couple, minor problems.

I just want to test a bit more and also apply this to the other codesets I have (e.g. 64 bit), so they contain matching logic/improvements.

[DarkSlimus]

it would be a nice improvement to the AI
I the same mind, When you fight against a fleet, each ship do as if he was alone, for merchant fleet, why not, panic can do that kind of thing, but for military/pirates fleet, it seems more logical than they choose one of your ship (the best or the worst like a player can do), and concentrate their shots on him, prefer knee-balls when they have to flee, or bombs to sink you if they are in range …

[GHOSTMD]

Herro evelybody, (finally) o7

testing the newest iteration of the GoF mod right now.
Just want to say thank you for still developing this awesome mod
for AoP2

[Jeffrey]

The commonly available Update has been changed to fix the following:

Schiavonna’s animation adjustments

Fix excellent map textures, Centurion, Sixtrate bluish textures at distance.

https://mega.nz/#F!jl1zjSaC!CdBYterMnYkhdEbQy9rQKg

ERAS2.8Update.zip

The Loyalty update also has a couple corrections; see your PMs

[Blas de Lezo]

Sorry for this offtopic, i write in mobile Phone And i dont have free time because finally im a sailor in Armada española.
I See a lot of improvements the problem is i hasnt a pc to play here… For the moment.
Thank you to all the People Who Work and contributive to this mod.I hope i can try this New updates soon. Thank you all!!!

[Jeffrey]

Some updates.

The common version updates:

Fix alpha blending problem with dialog box background texture

Fix character font width for 0, 3, 8 and add comma separators in money format

Fix tavern characters dialog sit direction

Add missing Brigantine21 sailorpoint file

The Loyal version contains same updates as above, plus:

FMOD update to version 1.10.05 – 4/26/2018 Studio API minor release (build 94661) http://www.fmod.org/documentation/#content/generated/common/revision.html

Fix: For 64 bit to play .ogg video files (Title video) properly, need the DirectShow filters installed from https://xiph.org/dshow/ (opencodecs_0.85.17777.exe)

Player town alarm modification to display status while “hiding” in residence/church/tavern, and to also dissipate if remain out of sight, either the streets or inside a building.

Add available memory query feature

Boarding crew size modifications (if sufficient available memory)

Add feature to obtain nearest enemy ship character index. (For Myth request)

Some more, small performance tweaks (sqrt removals)

Sky next dir/material change and sky blend change (see if this helps a rare, wrong texture problem)

Common version here: https://mega.nz/#F!jl1zjSaC!CdBYterMnYkhdEbQy9rQKg

ERAS2.8Update.zip

Loyal version in PM

[Steven]

hi all,

just wanted to inform there is no port controller npc on boddens landing, kind of breaking my pirate playthrough as i cannot store any ships
because there are no other port controllers on pirate ports, is this an easy fix?… just changing some lines here and there, if you explain it i can do it

Thanks

[modernknight1]

We did that intentionally because it is a backwater pirate colony even if it does have a little more infrastructure than others. In reality, Cayman at the time was nothing but brackish reefs with no good deep water port. So it wasn’t good to store ships. Even today with the exception of the main dock that they have dredged out for large ships to dock – you have to anchor your boat offshore and take a dingy in anywhere you go around the Grand Cayman. Its fascinating because it started its life as a “colony” during Cromwell’s dictatorial rule of England. When he was trying to get control of the West Indies (1650s) because many of the islands stayed loyalist to the crown even after he had taken over – he sent the navy and troops to deal with Jamaica and Barbados. The deserters from both the Army and Navy from both sides, went to Cayman and established Bodden’s Landing. These were hunted men and so piracy was the natural inclination thereafter. Its amazing to me that more hasn’t been written about this place. I digress – anyway….

So you should go to Tortuga to store any ships you need. Tortuga can be entered with a pirate flag even if you are hostile toward France. We made Tortuga neutral to all pirates as it was historically. It was the center port of the Brethren of the Coast for decades and could have been considered more pirate than French at times. Part of the treaty concessions to end two of the wars from our time-frame here was that France get full control of Tortuga and stop openly accepting pirates and the trade from their ill gotten goods in Tortuga.

Jeffrey and I have tried discussing a better way to let everyone know that we’ve worked this aspect into the game. In the next announcements I put out (one of these days) I will STRESS to everyone that Tortuga can be safely entered as a pirate. The guards will stop you and question you, but they will never give you any trouble that starts a fight.

MK

• This reply was modified 6 years, 5 months ago by modernknight1.

[Jeffrey]

Update for Loyalty version

Option to disable PC main char auto-level at startup

Sailors/lowmen on ship number reduction when actual crew number is less than lowmen count

FMOD update to version 1.10.06 – 6/06/2018 Studio API minor release (build 95384) http://www.fmod.org/documentation/#content/generated/common/revision.html

New taverns for Boddon’s, Bermuda, and Tortuga

Feature to render sky last in scene to mitigate blue palm outline (not used in ERAS…yet)

Dialog back texture half sometimes missing fix

Fix jumping glitch that requires releasing/depressing run/walk to continue after “fall jump”.

Added feature to allow jumping just about anywhere else in the game, not requiring a “jump patch” in the location model.

[roland]

Hi all thx for the continued effort you guys put in the game.
I use windows 10 64bit and i would like to try the 64bit version of this mod to help you guys out with finding bugs and other issues.

Any way thx for your work 🙂

[Jeffrey]

Update for Loyalty version

There was a slight problem with closed doors in the new taverns for Boddon’s, Bermuda, and Tortuga for newly started games. I fixed that.

Great news for I finally encountered a save bug that crashed the game. This was different than the old, notorious one that corrupted save files; we don’t get those (at least I don’t, and I don’t hear about it either). This one just crashed, no save file. It took awhile, but I finally found a bug from the original game that was probably very uncommon due to how memory got allocated in the old, fragmented way. However, our more efficient memory allocation very likely caused the probability of this bug to go up. I finally had it happen, and was also able to reproduce it, so I tracked it down to a problem in the xinterface source code, found the root cause, and fixed it.

Also, the game .exe has changed names. The game executable, START.exe, has been renamed to Maelstrom.exe. If you use a shortcut to launch the game, you will need to change the target to match the new name. You can delete your old START.exe after downloading the updated file set and copying them into your game folder.

Link in your PMs.

[Jeffrey]

Alas, another Loyalty update. I found out the day after I uploaded the last version, that FMOD had a new update on 7/3, which I did not notice.

So, new FMOD update to version 1.10.07 – 7/03/2018

Also, I found a bug that caused the game to crash, but it required a very specific scenario, which I assume most people won’t encounter, but I discovered it while testing so figured may as well fix it.

The fix involves the compatibility between save games from the 64 bit and loading that same save with the 32 bit version, or vice versa 64 bit to 32 bit; the save compatibility between the two were a problem for situations where cannon balls are in mid-flight during the save and reloading same save in a different bit version of the application would crash game. That is now corrected and the saves can be loaded in either version without a problem.

[0range]

Hi, Jeffrey and MK! Nice to salute you again.

I updated the game. Starting with Jeffrey’s Loyalty updates, I applied first the Eras2.8Loyalty of 210.7Mb update, then the 20.8Mb x64 update, then the 395Mb MK Member Loyalty patch…

Suddenly I got a mess. Maelstrom.exe cannot find any of the libraries. Appcrash.

Could you please explain me what are the exact files and their exact order that I need to have and extract? Thanks beforehand!!!

[Jeffrey]

I’m curious about this one: “395Mb MK Member Loyalty patch”

Where did you get that? I know nothing about that one, and if you applied it last, I suspect it’s old because all I recognized from your description is the 210 mb one, and the 64 bit one, and if you applied that 395 mb one I don’t recognize, last, it messed something up?

Anyway, the correct order should be:

ERAS2.8.7z.001-ERAS2.8.7z.012 from https://mega.nz/#F!jl1zjSaC!CdBYterMnYkhdEbQy9rQKg
If you already have that above, skip to:

ERAS2.8Update.zip from https://mega.nz/#F!jl1zjSaC!CdBYterMnYkhdEbQy9rQKg
If you already have that above, skip to:

ERAS2.8Loyalty.zip This is 32 bit and ready to play

Then, if you want 64 bit, apply ERAS2.8×64.zip

[Jeffrey]

Updates for both common version and Loyalty.

Common version:

* Raised minimum deck camera height
* Fix Sea-to-Sea fader transition

https://mega.nz/#F!jl1zjSaC!CdBYterMnYkhdEbQy9rQKg
Eras2.8Update.zip

Loyalty version:

* FMOD update to version 1.10.08 – 8/09/2018 Studio API minor release (build 96768) http://www.fmod.org/documentation/#content/generated/common/revision.html

* Sound update for initial loading/buffering of music is now done in background to remove any hiccup/lag for on-screen action

* Secret sound update…see if you notice

* Fix looped sounds sometimes stopping/never looping at random times

* Raised minimum deck camera height

* Fix Sea-to-Sea fader transition

* Fix resume music

Loyalty check your PM

[Jeffrey]

P.S. The “secret” sound update is probably my favorite thing I’ve ever done for the game. I absolutely love it!

[Jeffrey]

New update to the Loyalty version.

I did a complete rewrite of all sound mechanism and added an enhanced sound feature.

Fix ShipLights crash for Yacht

Fix bug in save overwrite cancel that still deletes file

Config Logging option to ease turning log files on/off, now as a simple checkbox.

Check your PMs.

[Jeffrey]

Update coming (though not yet uploaded, pending some testing) for next Loyalty release:

I finished two item interface changes. You will be able to exchange items with any officer or companion from the character item screen in one simple interface, similar to the trader screen. Your hero items will be the “trader” (on the right pane) and you can scroll through all officers and companions and swap items. Also, when you open a chest, if nobody is with you, the same standard chest loot box. However, if you have fighters in the same location with you, again, that “trader” screen will appear, with the source on the right the contents of the chest, instead of a trader, and you can scroll through all your fighters and they each take items from the chest.

Also, at the bottom of all trader, chest and officer exchange screens, there is a 3-way toggle on the bottom, to filter items only the left has for inventory, all, or only right side has for inventory; this was borrowed from GOF 1.2, and some of the code was there, but not fully implemented in ERAS for some reason. I noticed this during my work, so just went ahead and added that feature as well.

The above features, coming soon to Loyalty…

[Maltacus]

Ah, yes that item filter was a neat thing indeed. Very convenient changes, the item management and looting of chests is a tedious hassle many times.

[chris gardner]

Hi guys! I’ve been a bit of a “ghost” loyalty member, haven’t played the game in quite sometime and as such havent had anything to post here for a long time either, but I poke in every now and then to see whats going on. Last time I posted was about an issue where I could get unlimited cannons on my ship due to a bug. I tried the fixes jeffrey suggested but sadly non of them worked so I decided to let the game bake a little longer.

A few quick questions:
How do we loyalty members download the loyalty updates?
Are there special instructions for the loyalty version?
Any idea when the full loyalty version will be released? The last time I checked in, I thought I remembered seeing something about the game being purchasable when fully released; how much will this be?
What is the processes for updating the game now a days? In the past I think i remember just having to copy over a single “update” zip folder over the one currently being used

Thank you in advance, and Im looking forward to a release everyone can use. Im more then willing to shell out some cash for this game, im quite fond of it and the work you guys have put into it 🙂

[Jeffrey]

I have just uploaded a “base” version, that is the most current Loyalty update. Check your PMs for the message threads that pertain to they Loyalty version. Use that same link, but look for files ERAS2.8Loyal.7z.001 – ERAS2.8Loyal.7z.012.

Download them all, then use 7zip, pointed at the first file and extract archive. It should grab everything for you.

The normal process is to simply extract ERAS2.8Loyalty.zip and overwrite everything. However, if you get the base today, you do not need to do that. But going forward, if there are further fixes/mods to it, just download ERAS2.8Loyalty.zip and overwrite all the existing files with the .zip contents.

[chris gardner]

Hey, I’m back lol. I’ve downloaded the game, and things have been going well for the first 4-5 hours, but ive encountered what seems to be a mistake, and more importantly im getting CTDs. So far they happen when in battle, currently with a ”find the pirate ship” mission.
Separate from the CTD’s here is where a mistake regarding a ships price I think has been made: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9lpk8ish29b080c/IMG_3222.JPG?dl=0
I’ve been playing the game on and off for awhile, and ive never seen a deal as good as this on a boat lol. 2k for all that cargo and whatnot! I thought surely someone forgot to add an extra digit in there ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ or maybe not.. idk thought id share that

As for the CTDs, im light-heartedly devistated lol.
My exact download process:

I downloaded all the 1-12 files as a zip from MEGA
In no particular order, I unpacked the 1-12 files
the first of those twelve, after unpacking it, it granted me a second file to unpack, unlike 2-12. This second file was the last file I unpacked of the 1-12 zip files.

I then unpacked the loyalty zip, clicked apply to all
then I unpacked x64 file for 64bit, clicked apply to all,
then for good measure did the same thing with the x86 2017 studio CC+ thing, and started a new game last night, probably put in about 4-5 hours since.

no crashing till today.. Im wondering if its because ive saved over the same save on more then one occasion? or because I didnt use 7zip? I knew its good practice to make new save everytime, but i havent done that 100% of the time. Any suggestions? Id like to keep my save eh but then again ive had to start over in the past after coming much more further along.
Thank you in advance for any advice and thank you guys for a great game, so glad its still around

[Jeffrey]

“I downloaded all the 1-12 files as a zip from MEGA…In no particular order, I unpacked the 1-12 files…because I didnt use 7zip?”

I don’t recommend using another program to unpack, because I think other people have had problems where some content goes missing or is corrupted when using WinRAR or others. Considering I have tried many battles (since your message) with 64 bit, and have not been able to cause a crash, I am wondering if perhaps some critical file is missing/corrupt in your game. I use 7zip to pack in their proprietary 7z format, so it seems best to use the same program for unpacking.

Also, if you are using 64 bit, the correct VC runtime is the x64 version; the x86 version is 32 bit. So install vc_redist.x64 if you plan to use the 64 bit game.

My suggestions:

Get 7zip, install, then you will be able to right-click the first file (ERAS2.8Loyal.7z.001), and there will be a 7zip option to extract all. Do that.

Install vc_redist.x64

I just uploaded both new content and new compilations, so get the latest:

ERAS2.8Loyalty.zip
ERAS2.8×64.zip

You applied the correct order, so do the same here…Loyalty first, then the ERAS2.8×64.zip will simply overwrite the Maelstrom.exe and .dll files with 64 bit.

[Jeffrey]

New update:

Config starting directory for Save/Launch

Change all internal strings to use standard

Correct island tracing for AI runaway when destination is inside land mass.

Change ship AI follow when lead ship stopping to use offset distance

Correct AIBalls save/load object 32/64 bit compatibility

Random number generation correction

Fix Sawkins timeout and correct win condition

Fix PGG nation selection for PGG pirate quest

Fix Carrier flaws

Fix Treasure hunter count

Fix missing Portobello locators for officer gate reload

Fix missing torch sounds in PuertoPrincipe

Fix Survive_In_SeaOfficer message

Ship sale proposition mod

PGG pirate quest ship, when last ship of enemy squadron, surrender does not allow board and immediately terminates quest…fixed to allow boarding first, then terminate quest.

Unique brothel models

Loot from chest show all officers in location, item exchange from character screen, add GOF 1.2 toggle filters

Kill Beggars add quest city to log message

Fixed flamhouse model for missing fireplace sound

Fire ambience for any location that has fireplace

Change COAS log entry to hint going alone

Fix Jamaica and Trinidad map texture misspellings

Victory music fix

Remove FreePoints if maxed out (personal or ship)

Repaint ship mod

Fix License validity for NPC

Locator exist feature pre-update

AIShip optimizations/improvements

Add hero weight overload run message

Fix PGG hero quest bug when mission declined and never get another offer

Cartagena Fort addition/change

Fix town musketeers

Invalid cannon bort message fix

Narwhal destroy quest fix and model correction

Sea Alarm on load fix

Add log message hours to dive COAS, priest candles fix, barman hint about San Augustine key location.

FMOD update to version 1.10.09 – 10/11/2018 Studio API minor release (build 97915) http://www.fmod.org/documentation/#content/generated/common/revision.html

[chris gardner]

Nice! Okay I did the same installation procedure as last time, but used 7zip. last time it was a couple hours of gameplay in till i got the CTD’s so Ill follow up then with an update on how its running. Thank you for your input Jeffrey!

Two other questions: Was that ship pricing an error?

Also, I just got a 4k screen, is it possible to run the game in that resolution? If it is, do you recommend doing so?

[Jeffrey]

Two other questions: Was that ship pricing an error?

No error. I checked and the base price of that ship is 8,000. According to MK, that is appropriate. You just found a really good deal. Some ships are created as “stolen” which will greatly decrease their price (same for when you try to sell one). Also, some shipyards are cheaper than others (this is random per game profile).

Also, I just got a 4k screen, is it possible to run the game in that resolution? If it is, do you recommend doing so?

I have no idea. Don’t have a 4k myself, so I don’t know how it will look. Everyone needs to keep in mind that when it comes to coding/alpha testing the game engine, we are a one-man shop…literally, just me. I work from a cheap, Dell laptop. I have no other computers to test the game engine on other video cards, monitors, OS versions, etc.

[chris gardner]

and you sir are probably the most effective and powerful one-man shop dudes in the business 🙂

also, I do think not using 7zip was the problem, need more game time to confirm but last time, when looking at shop inventories, with the check boxes that let you choose between goods in your ship only, store only, and both; there was no text next to those boxes previously, and there are now, so I feel confident doing what I did corrupted some of the files

• This reply was modified 6 years, 1 month ago by chris gardner.

[modernknight1]

Jeffrey, You didn’t mention it in the update so I have to ask – did that last update also include all of those new ship skins/hull folders I gave you as well?

MK

[Jeffrey]

Ah, yes, update includes the new ship and additional ship skin textures you provided. Forgot to mention that.

Also decided I wasn’t very clear on the Cartagena — it is a revamped fort model and location for the land encounter of the area, done by Orazio.

[Oldtimer]

@Devs

Dear devs, THX awfully for the recent update. GoF has become better, again.

Rgds, Oldtimer

[Antiscamp]

Thanks for the update. I’m downloading now.

[Antiscamp]

I seem to have done something wrong with the installation. I started a game as John Strong. My English ship is flying some sort of weird combination of French and Spanish flags. I tried changing to pirate flag and back, but I still get that weird combination. Other English ships seem to be doing the same. Any ideas what this is about?

[Antiscamp]

this is what it looks like now. This should be an English ship.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 1 month ago by Antiscamp.
• This reply was modified 6 years, 1 month ago by Antiscamp.

[Jeffrey]

My fault…I’ve prepared for Portugal, but still waiting on an updated flag texture, but apparently my newest update still has remnants of my preparation for that faction, so there is a mismatch of data.

Find RESOURCE\INI\rigging.ini file. Open in text editor. Find [FLAGS] and look down a few rows of text.

Change this line:

TextureRows = 10

Scroll down to [PENNANT] and do the same thing:

TextureRows = 10

Sorry about that. The base has it correct for a new texture, but by overwriting with the Loyalty.zip, it gets reset back to the original because nobody had the new texture and rigging.ini. But I suspect you downloaded my new 12 base files, then overwrote with the update, which is the correct order, but I forgot the base files contain some of the stuff I’m still working on and that gets ruined by the overwrite.

I should have never uploaded a base Loyalty set…it’s causing confusion now. I may remove it until it’s finished.

[Antiscamp]

Thanks! It looks much better now.

[chris gardner]

Im having some trouble on the British Trade Secrets quest for Dutch questline..
Ive done it before on a save 2 years ago but for some reason the guy im supposed to break out of prison is not there, just another guy that wants to be broken out in a separate quest.

I found this issue another dude was having on google (mk you might remember this thread on PH)

“Peter Stuyvesant wants you to speak with Edward Mansfield, a Dutch pirate, about the English trade war and British measures against Holland.
Go to La Vega and visit the residence. Mansfield knows nothing, but maybe Morgan does. Go to Port Royale and visit Morgan’s residence. He is on Antigua so go there. A dungeon entrance near Morgan’s house allows you to enter it in case of a locked door. Morgan asks for a favor so help him.
A certain filibuster named Pierre le Picard needs to be checked so sail to Tortuga and ask the tavernkeeper, the brothel ownerin, the shipwright, the storekeeper and the moneylender about Pierre.
You have learned enough so report to Morgan”

Now everything is correct up to this point but Morgan tells me he doesn’t know anything about where Modyford is going to attack and then he tells me about the british officer… there lies my problem…”

I’m on Antigua and braking into the St Johns Fort, and im having the same issue as that guy ^^^. This is the right fort right? The dude im supposed to be rescuing is just not there.. The OP i quoted above later said he loaded a later save game and suddenly the quest worked this time, but im skeptical that there’s been a bug.

[Jeffrey]

I think I have it figured out. I don’t have a character involved with that quest, but I tracked through that part of the line and noticed that the character you are supposed to meet in the prison is created with a “lifespan” that is incorrect. Instead of a permanent character, he is created with a span of one day.

I think if you talk to Morgan near midnight and the day ticks over to a new day, or you simply do other stuff and the day turns, that character vanishes forever, breaking the quest, because I see no other way for the quest to proceed without you having talked to him in the prison.

I fixed it for the next release by making the character generation a permanent NPC until you speak with him. In the meantime, I think if you load a save from before you talk to Morgan, make sure it is early in the morning, then speak with him and immediately rush to the prison during that same day Morgan mentions the prisoner he wants you to free, that will probably allow you to proceed for now.

[Maltacus]

The English have sentenced the officer in the prison to hang the next day according to Morgan so if you make him a permanently lasting character you might want to edit the dialogue too and change that part of the backstory. Otherwise, if you want to maintain the urgency the quest currently presents, the officer could be give a lifespan of two days to get rid of odd situations occuring when you have the dialogue close to midnight for example.

[Jeffrey]

I did notice that the dialog does warn about hanging the next day. But, if you don’t get to him, the quest is terminated, without any notification and there is no way to proceed, so I’m torn about it. My first inclination was to simply make him a permanent resident of the jail until you get there. I suppose, alternatively I could do as you say, extend to 2 days, and enter an NPC death event, that would close out the quest if you don’t make it? But, I’m not sure how hardcore we want to be about that?

[modernknight1]

Well it just so happens that in my current game at level 42 – after having completed the first half of the Morgan quest and the City of Abandoned Ships quest, I have just started the Dutch quest line. I have to travel again in a couple days but will be playing the next two days quite a lot. So if I run into this problem I am sure Jeffrey will probably have a fix in a few hours. I just give him my save and away he goes. If you post your save here, he might have a look at it. In this last play-through of the COAS quest, there were several bugs, dialogue problems and vague log entries and Jeffrey fixed all of them. Those are in the latest update.

MK

[chris gardner]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bx6knxrr6cj74rz/C1%20Hispaniola%20-%20Sea%201%20before%20morgan?dl=0

^before I talked to morgan^

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hcqi55qelo1wma8/C1%20Hispaniola%20Port-au-Prince%20Street?dl=0

^2 hours after I talked with him and gave up on breaking the dude out of prison^

If its possible the save can be continued with after I talked to him, that would be cool; if not that’s fine 2 hours is nothin lol

[Jeffrey]

I loaded the game you mentioned “2 hours after you talked to Morgan.” I noticed in the quest log that Morgan mentioned the prisoner on 9/20. You would have to find that prisoner in the jail on 9/20 or 9/21. However, that “2 hours later” must have been real playing time, because the current date on that save is 12/17, so that prisoner is long gone.

I then loaded the “before talking to Morgan,” went to Antigua, he mentioned the filibuster…so I traveled to Tortuga, spoke to all the people, went back, Morgan mentioned the prisoner, but he will be hanged tomorrow; I immediately went to the prison and found him, where he mentions the Orange attack and I got the correct quest log entry to proceed with the rest of the quest. This was all with the original code (without my fix to extend the life permanently). So it worked as originally designed if I get to the prisoner before a day is up. My change will make it so getting to the prisoner will not be time limited…or maybe give 2 days, as Maltacus mentioned, but also terminate the quest in the log when the prisoner dies at lifespan.

[chris gardner]

Thank you for taking a look Jeffrey! I decided to go back to before I talked with him, made sure I had 24 hours before the dude gets hanged, and was able to complete the mission and move on.

One thing I noticed, is when more then 24 hours pass, there is no update to the mission letting you know you’ve failed, so im pretty sure your doomed to perpetually have the quest in your log

Another thing; I remember having to fight my way out of the prison and defend the prisoner, that he refused to tell you what you need to know until hes brought to safety. This time, I was able to just talk to him in prison, and then he just vanished and I could leave on my own accord. Idk, perhaps im mistaken and thats for another quest line where he must be escorted out, but I thought that was interesting. I was happily suprised the mission was easier then I anticipated.

As always, thank you so much for your dedication to this game <3

[chris gardner]

Is there anything that can be done to stop all the stores from selling out of cannon ammo and powder once mid game is reached? Im around level 13 and right about now as Im starting to go from one ship to multiple, its impossible to outfit my ships with ammo and powder.

My understanding is its because the other heros in game are buying them up, but why are they buying it all up now and not earlier? I dont like how if I want to outfit these guys im forced to board and loot to get ammo and powder supplies

[chris gardner]

also I seem to be getting random crashes with this save
https://www.dropbox.com/s/nygo9auk3f3s18m/C1%20AutoSave?dl=0
They seem to happen when there are a couple (3+) ships in a battle

currently it crashes while loading the boarding scene or after they have surrendered the vessel and im starting to go to the next ship, then it crashes.

Can anyone confirm if it happens to you to?

EDIT: Im pretty sure it has to do with time warp, I just tried playing through the battle and this time not accelerating time. I was able to sail over to the next ship, sink that one, then decided to let the 3rd one go. Lowered sails, and time accelerated, hoping it wouldn’t crash, and it did

• This reply was modified 6 years, 1 month ago by chris gardner.

[Jeffrey]

Yeah, I downloaded it and get the same problem. After some debugging, I think I see the problem. I’ll let you know the results of any fixing I can manage.

[Jeffrey]

I have fantastic news!

First, let me thank you for presenting a case that finally allowed us to get rid of the most notorious bug from the original Storm engine. I had noticed a peculiar bug with AI cannons and particle effects for quite some time, but was never able to fully find the root cause. I formulated some workarounds, but was not entirely satisfied…but had no alternative because I could not isolate the source.

For some reason I can’t explain, your particular bug and that one save, that I could reproduce your problem quite easily, finally led me to the root cause and it was so obvious! Now, it was not trivial to find it; I spent hours, debug mode, line by line, but I found the root problem, it was obvious, and now we have a permanent fix. I can’t articulate just how huge this is, because that bug was insidious and caused weird, random behavior and sometimes crashes. But it is now gone!

Thank you, thank you, for providing the key!

The bug exists in a common include file, with a structure and methods that are used in rain, quest logs, AI cannons, particles and many other things, so this one little fix, will eliminate a myriad of problems. I am so excited I finally found it.

Coming soon, I want some more testing to be sure, but everything looks great so far.

I owe you a beer!

[chris gardner]

I like Hefeweisen 🙂

Also just bought a boat (1967 Cal 28) So some solar panels would be nice XD

But in all seriousness wow, that sounds big! Glad to be a part of the fix 🙂

Its funny how for me the problems became easy to reproduce, I recently upgraded my graphics cards from 2 hd6950s to 1 rx580, and its been giving me problems with most of my games, its actually been less compatible and produced more trouble then the drivers for my previous cards, and they had driver support dropped a few years ago lol. So idk it seems ironic my experience with most games has been crashes but my experience of one of them has helped solve a major bug

[Jeffrey]

Question:

I decided to change to the newer compression for save files, and one of the options in the library is the compression degree. I experimented and if I reduce the compression slightly, the time to save the file is nearly instantaneous. I was going to just do it, but thought I’d ask the opinions here:

Would you rather the highest compression, with a slight delay in writing, or can I reduce the compression to where the save is nearly instant; you can’t even see the delay? The file size for this change, averages about 40kb more (yes, forty kb). To me, that seems minuscule and I like the very fast write for such a small difference. But, I seek other opinions…what do you think?

[Oldtimer]

Yeah,

change it. 40 KB is nothing compared to speed gain.

Rgds,

Oldtimer

[Antiscamp]

I agree with the above.

[Jeffrey]

The game has been updated. But, the distribution method has changed from Mega to Itch.io. Get the latest here:

Also, a crucial fix (per chris gardner’s problem/resolution) has also been applied to the Maelstrom Engine, so be sure get that through Itch.io, too. There are some setup changes, that are all documented in both the Itch.io instructions and a new doc, MaelstromSetup.pdf. Dmitry is helping to create a new launcher that will hopefully enable launching from directly within the Itch client, but for now, there is a documented way to just build Windows shortcuts for all the now released other mods/vanilla versions that are playable now, including COAS, GOF, POTC, CT, etc.; they are all now available on Itch.io as well.

If you are part of the Loyal group, and have not received a key for free download, PM me here and I will give you your own personal key that entitles you to free download and all subsequent fixes/changes will be free.

All others must pay the piper.

[Vesca]

maybe you should explain what are the “Loyal Club” are.

[Filipe]

Is it possible to give more graphics options to the game? I’m asking because I have some fps issues in some parts of the game while in others tiles it runs butter smooth, I think the more demanding things are lighting and special effects like smoke. I run on a Dell laptop equipped with an i5 3337U and Intel Hd 4000, I know that a pc with a discrete GPU can make it but if we could get an option to disable some of these it would have a bigger impact than resolution and textures ( that I haven’t noticed any difference in fps from low to high ).

[Jeffrey]

I actually have some insight into this, because I have run a “profiler” to find the slowness in certain segments of the game, and run this on a “weak” machine, graphically.

The slowness is not typically attributable to the graphic effects, but rather another part of the game. I will try to describe, below:

Every game-loop, every engine object in the game has a :Execute method and a :Realize method. Every model and AI ship, constitutes one of these “engine objects” and the engine loops through all objects, and performs those two actions: Execute and Realize. The Execute method typically performs calculations and actions to determine movement, actions taken, etc., then the Realize method performs the drawing on the screen. Here is why it slows down…

When there are a bunch of objects, like in a battle, these Execute and Realize methods also call script code events and functions (these are the functions found in the Program .c files you can see). When these events and functions are called, the game has its own internal “compiler” to figure out what portion of that script code to perform and it is that internal “run-time” engine that is very slow during decoding the proper script functions and executing; that is what makes the game slow during those times, not usually any of the graphic renderings.

My struggle has been how to improve that speed? My attempts at using the newer Visual Studio (the C++ compiler for that has been improved toward speed optimizations), reworking to use a faster, more efficient memory allocator, etc., while having some good effect, have been an incomplete solution, because the main constraint is the internal compiler logic and its algorithms are just not very fast. I’m also reluctant to rewrite that, because that amount of work, to completely rewrite how it interprets that script code is a huge task and also a rewrite will likely introduce a whole new set of bugs because it takes time to fully test and vet something that is drastically changed. So, I have kept the original logic so far.

I know there are other script parsers and such that work similarly, but switching to them, might also require changing all the Program scripts to conform to a new scripting language, and we also might miss some pieces of the engine that rely on the scripts, things break, and we have to scramble to figure out the problem and fix. At the moment, the choice has been to stay with the original design.

I certainly want to improve that weakness, but I’m just not sure the best course for that.

[Oldtimer]

Mr. Jeffrey,

very interesting. My comp(old…) is way OP for the vanilla game when it was released but I posted abt. this problem earlier in connection with ERAS. I have considerable lag and stutter in buildings when heavily raining/storming outside. Sometimes outside too, but rarely.

Now will this go away if there just is enough(define enough…) raw power in a CPU?

BTW, this leads to another observation, are the devs not too fond of the weather effects in game? Fine weather is a rarity. Does it really rain and storm in the Carribbean 9 days out of 10?
I would prefer P G Woodehouses approach. In his novels it never rains…

Rgds, Oldtimer

[Jeffrey]

I have considerable lag and stutter in buildings when heavily raining/storming outside. Sometimes outside too, but rarely.

Now will this go away if there just is enough(define enough…) raw power in a CPU?

I don’t know the answer because with my one and only generic Dell laptop, with a generic Intel graphic card, I can neither reproduce this problem, nor do I experience the same lag. So it is impossible for me to determine the cause or a solution.

[Filipe]

Well, it’s a bit more complicated than I thought, I appreciate the insight, so it’s kinda a dead end but to make it great again we should basically rewrite the game from scratch and yet a lot more testing to see if things aren’t broke.

[ians]

Nice To see The work Being Done here..was way for some time due to illness..back now..Very impressed..

[Rafael Antino]

Hello! I was wondering if the maelstrom engine is necessary to be able to play the mod … since it already costs money (which I do not have) and the mod is really great and I would like to play it so any help thanks 🙂 regards Rafa

[Colin Bencroff]

Hi guys! I just bought the maelstrom engine, installed it on a folder, placed the .exe in the mod folder and everytime I try to run it, I crash on startup (first loading screen before main menu). I installed everything, from both redist to the directx again, to the .ogg file, and even tried every single exe (directx 8, directx 9 32 and directx 9 64). I just can’t make the game work. I have read the manual to get this started, did everything it says and still no luck. I just don’t know what could be wrong.

[Jeffrey]

We connected on Discord (also Buccaneer account ​enabled) and we got this resolved. The latest update contains a fix that resolves game not launching and failing validation if Japanese language installed.

[Antiscamp]

I didn’t like the new client and I’ve uninstalled it. It’s a mess and makes installation and updating behave weirdly. I already have Steam, that GOG thing, IndieDB, the Bethesda thing and Origin unfortunately, and a whole range of other useless clients installed. I don’t need another one, especially one I find a mess.

[Oldtimer]

Have I been deleted from the loyalist list?

Have got my new system running at last and that`s the reason for my absence. I do not see any info on updates in my notifications.

Rgds, Oldtimer

[Jeffrey]

No, you have not been removed from the Loyalty list. But, you bring up a good point. I have only posted update notifications on the Itch site and not as much here. I should post notifications here.

Also, for now, the Loyalty version and the Itch paid version are the same; Loyalty members still get those updates free, as do the paid users. The Loyal version may not always be the same as the paid version…there may be some special Loyalty updates that the regular Itch version does not have, that may require additional input, but for now, all the updates I’ve made are the same for what you as a Loyal member can get as posted on Itch, so I will recap them here:

Maelstrom Engine (newest to oldest order):

Maelstrom Update
January 18, 2019 by ChezJfrey
Added support for a few, new, additional "script engine" functions used in the modding portion of the game scripts. 
Maelstrom Update
January 17, 2019 by ChezJfrey#announcement
Add Config.exe error display if Save & Play fails, (e.g. "Error 740: The requested operation requires elevation" -- for when UAC or Admin rights prevent successful launch). Fix 64 bit battle interface "sailto" Runaway AI logic improvements, notably fort sanctuary Fix character swap ships bug that sometimes replaced player as group commander
Maelstrom Update
January 13, 2019 by ChezJfrey
Shark object bug fix Fish attractor addition Fix for special characters in validation check not working and causing game exit due to Japanese language pack install
Maelstrom Update
January 09, 2019 by ChezJfrey#announcement
Fixes: AIGroup bug fix Attributes performance enhancement Sound fix for occasional FMOD crash Revert memory allocation to previous version (we upgraded in Dec. 2017) due to performance issues with new version and 64 bit problems for Windows platform World Map fix for 64 bit version (ships spawn in island masses)
Maelstrom Update
December 12, 2018 by ChezJfrey#announcement
"Level 4" code cleanup updates.
Maelstrom Update
December 10, 2018 by ChezJfrey
Group Commander auto-reassign bug fix.
Maelstrom Update
December 10, 2018 by ChezJfrey
Engine event publish updates
Maelstrom Update
December 08, 2018 by ChezJfrey#announcement
Update memory allocation to newest version. Tame sunburst effect.
Maelstrom Update
December 07, 2018 by ChezJfrey
File read fix applicable to all versions (32 bit and 64 bit). 64 bit fix to AI Ship event
Maelstrom Update
December 06, 2018 by ChezJfrey#announcement
Ship AI bug fix
Maelstrom Update
December 04, 2018 by ChezJfrey#announcement
FMOD update to version 1.10.10 - 12/03/2018 Studio API minor release (build 98815) http://www.fmod.org/documentation/#content/generated/common/revision.html
Maelstrom Update
December 01, 2018 by ChezJfrey#announcement
Fixed a 64 bit version bug.

ERAS II (newest to oldest order):

New Corvette Royale

New progress image

Change to musket item attribute

Change to cuirass item attribute

Fix Tartane sailors points

Fix Petite Lugger flag points

Fix missing Cavalier Boots item

Fishing fleet neutral fixes

Runaway AI logic improvements, notably fort sanctuary

NPC Hero personal flags added

Fix sit idles for Jessika_ab

Add a check for light and heavy weapons in smuggler/bandit encounters

Fishing fleet price fix

Tame sunburst effect.

Fix team item exchange bug with improper item count decrement from other team member.

[Oldtimer]

Mr. Jeffrey,

THX for your attn., I Hope you will post update info here and keep them at MEGA too.

Rgds,

Oldtimer

[chris gardner]

Hi guys! Been awhile since ive been here, but i got into the game yet again and got around to installing the newest version on ichi. took me a min to comprehend the install PDF, but i got the shortcut working and the game runs just fine so far. I do have a questing as it comes to configuring the game settings before actually launching the game:

Before i got the shortcut working, i clicked on a different exe, and it brought up a tiny settings screen on my desktop that displayed the game resolutions in a drop down menu, and some other setting options. I didnt change ANYTHING, as i missclicked and meant to start the game. It worked! But now im trying to max out the detail settings, and poss try and run 1440p or 4k res. My issue is I cant figure out which file i clicked on to bring up that settings screen! I thought it was config, but when i try to do that now, it says, ” could not find start.ini and/r options file in game directory: E:\maelstrom\gentlemen-of-fortune-maelstrom-engine\directx9_64bit”

I have never gotten that message, I followed the PDF instructions to the letter for assigning the shortcut to launch the game, exception being the game is on a dedicated drive E: not C:

The game runs perfectly fine! any one got an idea for my as to why it cant find start.ini suddenly? it seems i was able to access the settings just fine before the game launched for the first time, and now it cant find it..

[Jeffrey]

If one uses the Itch client to launch the config or game, I tried to add settings for all of the possibilities in the .itch.example.toml file found in the gentlemen-of-fortune-maelstrom-engine that gets created by the Itch install. However, the Itch install does not provide a way to alter those paths and/or that file if one chooses a different directory than my example file contains, so it will require some manual editing, which I tried to describe.

I am in the process of getting an actual game launcher app created that will make this easier and more intuitive, but in the meantime, I will try to describe how it works and what needs to be done…

The Maelstrom.exe uses the “working directory” to find the start.ini and RESOURCE content of the mod/game you wish to play, so all the shortcuts for each flavor will contain a path to Maelstrom.exe, which is the “Target” path of the actual executable, and a “Start in” path that should point to the directory that contains both start.ini and RESOURCE directory of the actual game (e.g. ERAS II, GOF 1.2, etc.) So a shortcut to ERAS II on your E:/Maelstrom drive would look something like this:

Target: E:\Maelstrom\gentlemen-of-fortune-maelstrom-engine\DirectX9_64bit\Maelstrom.exe
Start in: E:\Maelstrom\games\gentlemen-of-fortune-historical-eras-module-2

For the Config.exe, it is slightly different in that the Target and Start in will match, but there is a “command line argument” added to the end of the Target to Config.exe, so a shortcut for ERAS II will look like this (right-click and “Create Shortcut” then right-click for Properties and edit like so:

Target: E:\Maelstrom\gentlemen-of-fortune-maelstrom-engine\DirectX9_64bit\Config.exe “E:\Maelstrom\games\gentlemen-of-fortune-historical-eras-module-2”

Start in: E:\Maelstrom\gentlemen-of-fortune-maelstrom-engine\DirectX9_64bit

Put a space character between Config.exe and the quoted “E:\Maelstrom….” I will add an example Config shortcut to the next upload for the case where people are not using the Itch and .toml file, but making their own shortcuts, as an example.

If the games\gentlemen-of-fortune-historical-eras-module-2 and gentlemen-of-fortune-maelstrom-engine\DirectX9_64bit are in the same directory (e.g. E:\Maelstrom), the extra command argument in quotes after Config.exe can actually contain .. back-directory elements like this:

Target: E:\Maelstrom\gentlemen-of-fortune-maelstrom-engine\DirectX9_64bit\Config.exe “..\..\games\gentlemen-of-fortune-historical-eras-module-2”

Which simply tells it to back up two directories (the ..\.. indicates this) from the Start in path, then back down to games\gentlemen-of-fortune-historical-eras-module-2.

Alternatively, you can also just copy the entire Config.exe into the gentlemen-of-fortune-historical-eras-module-2 directory, with no shortcut, or a shortcut with no alterations and run it direct from there.

[chris gardner]

I put the config in that directory and it worked! (preface, i run my desktop native at 1080p) I set the game config to run in 4k, and maxed out the other settings and it ran great, but the UI was too small (would be great to have a UI resize option in the future!) so I quit and changed config to 1440p.

When i loaded my save again, the UI (health/power portrate, time display in upper right corner, quick travel icons) looks like its still the same 4k size and should have gotten bigger. I thought maybe because my desktop res and game res isnt matching up is breaking something, so I put my desktop to 1440p.

Loaded up game, still looks like its trying to run 4k.

So i said to hell with it and changed both my desktop and game res back to 1080p, but my save upon loading still shows a super small UI! Im pretty stumped atm, this is what i get for wanting nice things lol

EDIT: i did only copy the config to the directory you mentioned, so the og is still in its original place, could that be making stuff wonky?

• This reply was modified 5 years, 9 months ago by chris gardner.

[Jeffrey]

Hmmm, unsure as I don’t have “nice things” to check for myself the behavior…

Can you find the start.ini for ERAS, open in a text editor and verify the screen_x and screen_y values? What do they say?

[chris gardner]

They do say 1920×1080

EDIT: just tried starting a new game and i still get small UI

• This reply was modified 5 years, 9 months ago by chris gardner.

[Jeffrey]

OK, let’s verify what the game is really running now…

Find Program\console.c and open with a text editor. Replace the entire contents with the following:

void ExecuteConsole()
{
    Log_SetStringToLog("screen_x " + Render.screen_x);
    Log_SetStringToLog("screen_y " + Render.screen_y);
}

Save, then launch and load that save game. Once loaded, press F4 and watch the upper right. Does the log message up there match those settings?

[Jeffrey]

Itch updated with latest.

Maelstrom Update

Add animal nature shore crabs

Limit screenshots (F8) to 1 per second…no multiples on key hold.

Add support to allow multiple languages to work with a single install, select in Config.exe

Add cannon direct aim fire support

FMOD update to version 1.10.11

Support for new sail type to fix lateen/spanker sail deficiencies

Feature update ship lights toggle on/off when daylight change while at sea, instead of just during scene load

Reintroduced sink effect splashes that were removed. Found and fixed the bug that caused me to remove them.

Changed square sail angle effects in various wind directions

ERAS II

Fishing fleet cost fixes

Fishing pirates change to pure neutral/no flag

Fix ambient ship/sea/rain sound resume post-battle

Bounty Hunter, Bold Privateers and Coastal Guard ship selection changes for more variety

Fix PGG dialog for when PC has no ship in “First time” dialog

Fix random bug of the doors in Bridgetown being locked/unlocked when door is needed for the Blood/Weston, Blood/Weaponsmith quest.

Fix house encounters for some of Blood Quest

Smuggler mission dialog/fight fix

Citizen/Port controller mission ship selection (variety)

Add crabs on seashores

AI/Merchant ship selection changes (variety)

Fix Duel/Tavern loading screen

Add boat to Pirate town dock (Bermudes)

Direct Aim cannons when certain gunner’s items exist in player/gunner inventory (new feature)

Fix random bug for sea cameras during save-load

Fix music to go battle when firing on friendly fort

Other script code cleanup/condensing/efficiencies

Fix another ship swap bug

Hero personal flags for PC

Fix save-load select last free slot

Fix Galleon Legero cannons

Fix XebecLight cannons

Ship lights toggle on/off when daylight change while at sea

Fix lateen/spanker turn angle (new sail type)
Ships updated with new type:
Barkentine
Barque3
Bermsloop
BrigQeen
BrigSW
Duthlineship
Galeoth2
Galeoth_h
Lugger
LuggerVML
Lugger_h
Speedy
Surprise
Veinard

[chris gardner]

Reporting in: Upon pressing f4, very interestingly, it reports 1920×1080

Screen shot:

[Jeffrey]

Hmmm, I think I have a theory…are you playing in “Fullscreen” mode? Not windowed?

[Vincent]

very nice updates, can’t wait to try them out! Having itch to download the updated fiels for me is great, it was a good choice for a host site. Now I just need to get my old computer working again so that I can grab my custom music files from my older game copy…

[chris gardner]

correct, i am not playing in window mode

[Jeffrey]

Try switching to windowed and see if that changes it.

Awhile back, I changed the fullscreen mode to select the “best” supported resolution for the monitor, because if you select 800 x 600, but your start.ini is set to something wonky and unsupported 900 x 1080, the game used to crash. So I decided for the case where someone may have manually edited start.ini to something erroneous, or in the case of fullscreen, use best supported by an investigation of the monitor’s ability. Also, if you choose 800 x 600, but your monitor is set to something else, well obviously if you go fullscreen, then you can’t really use that 800 x 600 setting anyway to go full, so it seemed a suitable solution.

However, that F4 test shows me there is still a problem in that it should at least tell use the correct resolution it is using, and I will investigate that. In the meantime, try setting to windowed and theoretically, it should keep you to the setting you chose. Let’s try it.

[chris gardner]

Hi Jeffrey, good news, the window mode does indeed workaround my issue. Both the rez and UI now change according to what i set config to! I can run the game in 1440p with no issues so far. I would be nice to run in full screen eventually, as i need to run in windowed to get my UI out of tiny 4k mode, but for the time being this works rather nicely. Also, you may find it helpful to know i still have that f4 hotkey as we left it, and even after getting the UI and game to run nice in 1440p, the game still reports 1920×1080

Let me know if I can help out with a test here or there if you want a guinea pig to fool with a range of resolutions

u da man Jeffrey

[Jeffrey]

I do want to get this figured out, but would be much more helpful if I just had a monitor setup of my own to work through, LOL

Everything I see shows that it probably would change the resolution like it did when under fullscreen, but at least show us the real settings it was using, so I’m a bit confused why it didn’t. Also, when you actually changed your system’s resolution, even in fullscreen, I would have assumed that would be the setting used, but apparently didn’t. So again, more confused. I’m using DirectX feature to scan the supported resolutions and choose one for fullscreen only, and it should be the base Windows setting, but obviously not what I thought it was doing.

Works on mine, but I don’t have 4k, so maybe something different about that because it kind of precedes DX9 and maybe needs to be handled differently than I am now. Anyway, I’ll see what I can find out about it.

[chris gardner]

Is it normal for all ports to be nearly or completely out of cannon ammo and powder? Im only level 3, just got a decent ship for fighting, (only been trading till now) and i cant find any powder

[Vincent]

just a note, musketeers are walking around without guns in my game, and atialiasing still does weird things…

[chris gardner]

I too am getting occasional musketeers walking around without guns in my game, AA might be doing some weird graphical things too but i just accept it lol.

I am however getting a graphical glitch with my ships wake, please see screen shots here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ouzn5kii5dzio5z/wake%20graphic%20glitch%201.png?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/lcz7y88ivbkbgqo/wake%20graphic%20glitch%202.png?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/agv8u6v9u1wn3cg/wake%20graphic%20glitch%203.png?dl=0

I have been getting it since the beginning of the game, it didnt bother me too much then, but since ive been doing more ship combat recently, its kinda an eye sore

I do still get random crashing; day before yesterday, it crashed 2x within 10 min of each other, while just last night, I played for many hours without a hickup. Eventually one came, but it was like 3-4 hours in, and another ship was ramming me in battle lol, and i make a shiny new save every time i leave port.

besides that, the game runs really well at 1440p max settings, and the graphics, though limited by the old engine, do look as best as they possibly can given whats being worked with. The water and lighting look very good!

• This reply was modified 5 years, 9 months ago by chris gardner.
• This reply was modified 5 years, 9 months ago by chris gardner.

[Oldtimer]

YES, I have reported similar graphical glitch quite a while ago without getting any reaction from the devs. “Good” to see I do not imagine things. Turning off antialiasing solved it for me except for the hebek.

Rgds, Oldtimer

• This reply was modified 5 years, 9 months ago by Oldtimer.

[Jeffrey]

The reason for no response is because I can’t make the same thing happen in my game.

First, the problem occurs with AA turned on, but that is probably particular to the video card being used. I only have one, cheap laptop that supports very little graphic properties. When I toggle it on, I don’t get the same problem. If I can’t reproduce a problem myself, I can’t change or fix the behavior because I am blind to it.

Second, DX 9 supports only full scene AA. That’s it. By definition, if AA is turned on, it will apply to ALL poly edges being transmitted through DirectX to the GPU and the edges will be smoothed for the ENTIRE scene; that is full scene AA. If only certain ships, or certain areas present problems, there is no way to exclude “just this portion of the scene.” My understanding of the AA feature DX9 supports is all or nothing. There are other techniques for different types of AA, but that requires special shaders to be written and I don’t have the knowledge or time to figure that out.

There are things like SweetFX, or built-in properties for certain video cards to do those types of things. Usually, they require turning off the DX9 AA, then setting and playing with those properties until you achieve a desirable result, but again, there may be places where all looks great, except for “this” or “that”. This mod is a collaboration and collage of many different models, textures and input from 100s of people. I don’t think we can expect everything will work as one, cohesive development project, with standard behavior for all models across the board when you start tweaking properties that never existed in the original product.

I add the features to give the flexibility, and in some cases I can alter broad behavior that affects everything, but when it comes to “this one ship, or that one character” I did not make the model, I don’t know the details of why it is different, and I have no modeling skills at all, so I can’t fix those occasional exceptions when most everything else looks fine, or again, I can’t even recreate the problem with that “one ship” in my own game because my cheap video card doesn’t even cause a similar problem on my screen.

[Oldtimer]

Mr. Jeffrey,

I have had this problem on an old AMD card and a brand new integrated INTEL graphic chipset so it seems not attributable to only one hardware setup.
Anyway, I quite understand your problem and time limitations. What annoys me is that it affects one of my fav ships. I do not play to beat the game, looking good while playing is much more important to me and affects my choices of ships and gear to a large extent.

THX for your attn., Oldtimer

[chris gardner]

Turning off AA fixed my ship wake issue easy peesy! Jeff, you think i was getting that transparent ship wake because ive had to run the game in “windowed” mode while having AA on or is AA the sole culprit? i run the game on a single rx 580 gpu

[Jeffrey]

The best I can offer for an answer is an educated guess, based on what I’ve read how these things work…keep in mind I am actually not an expert in these graphics programs.

I believe it was solely the AA. My understanding is that AA uses the vertex coordinates and a “depth buffer” to determine where poly edges are and what pixels “behind” in the depth buffer to blend for smoothing. Then it produces a new screen scrape of what the collection of images on the screen will render as.

When doing that last step, I surmise it is somehow compromising the depth coordinates that are used by the shaders being used for ship models and the “culling” feature that also uses the depth buffer to figure out that the ship vertex coordinates are in front of the water wake to the camera eye and they should be obscured from view. The fact that you can see it through the ship tells me that the culling is not being figured correctly and DirectX is still showing those pixels to you.

[Oldtimer]

Mr. Jeffrey,

IMO there is no worthwile visual improvement if using AA. If it is the sole culprit could disabling AA in DirectX(unless I misunderstood earlier post) solve the graphical glitches some of us experience?

BTW, is the problem with some ships not being able to set battle sail also one you cannot reproduce?

Rgds, Oldtimer

[Jeffrey]

Those battle sails are a function of how the model is built/designed and how the sails are defined. If some, or a particular model don’t react to the usual feature of half sails up, incrementally, the model needs adjustment; I don’t do that sort of thing because I don’t know the specifics of ship modeling.

[Oldtimer]

Mr. Jeffrey,

thing is that battle sails worked on the ships in question earlier but after latest or maybe second latest update stopped working. Would a save be of any help?

Rgds, Oldtimer

[Jeffrey]

You listed 3 ships: BarcoCostero, Tartane de Negoce and Small Caravel.

I have a February 2018 copy of the engine/game and I loaded up all 3 of those ships, tested the battle sails. Then I loaded the most current version of the game and tried all same ships. There is no difference in sail behavior between the old game and the new. Which also makes sense, because two of those ships have only triangle sails and none of the sail changes apply to triangles at all.

The Barco has no battle sails, and that is because of the ship design as far as I can tell.
The Tartane has no battle sails and same thing…the ship design.
The Small Caravel does raise the two triangle sails on two masts, before raising the square sails, so in effect does have battle sails from what I see.

[Oldtimer]

Mr. Jeffrey,

THX for checking this but if triangle sails can be reduced on French Armed Tartane is this a special design feature for this lateen rigged ship only? It has two masts and furls one of them. The Negoce also has two masts and does not.

And was this so even earlier in the game as I seem to remember that at one time all ships could raise battle sails.

Re Small Caravel, mine furls all three masts(lateen rigged) no matter what. Anyway, it is not an issue per se and not really an annoyance either. I am a sucker for consistency, that`s all there is to it.

Rgds, Oldtimer

• This reply was modified 5 years, 9 months ago by Oldtimer.

[chris gardner]

Interesting, thank you for your input and invaluable help Jeff!

[chris gardner]

I was preparing to do the dutch quest line were you defend fort orange, but when i went back to Stuyvesant, he said he doesn’t know me.. What could I have done? I dont think i talked to the pirate gov. on Bermuda.. I did talk to one pirate gov though thinking i could gamble with him, but i fear i did that which your not supposed to do when on a nation questline. Did i mess something up?

[Jeffrey]

There are a couple possibilities:

If you forgot to equip your Patent in your inventory, a governor will not “know” you.

If you had a patent, but no longer have one, you might have hurt or fired upon a friendly. That will remove your patent and you will have to obtain another one. Don’t ever shoot friendly or allied nation ships, soldiers, etc. while carrying a LoM; you will lose it.

If you spoke to Jackman and get an entry in your log for Goodley, I think that also prevents any other governor from talking to you until you complete the full Pirate Line quest and it’s over.

[Vincent]

Wanted to report a few bugs;

– The sound effects from the opening menu continue to play during the intro/tutorial scene when starting a new game, should probably be fixed.
– Combat music continues to play until a scene transition after defeating rapists.
– The new sail billow direction could maybe use a bit more work to refine it – it works fine currently, but I’ve noticed a few times that the sails seem to switch to the wrong direction when sailing in certain orientations compared to the wind direction.

[Jeffrey]

– The sound effects from the opening menu continue to play during the intro/tutorial scene when starting a new game, should probably be fixed.

I found that is a holdover from original COAS; it’s not really noticeable unless the main menu is raining, so it was missed. I fixed it in all versions.

– The new sail billow direction could maybe use a bit more work to refine it – it works fine currently, but I’ve noticed a few times that the sails seem to switch to the wrong direction when sailing in certain orientations compared to the wind direction.

With the new sail changes, some ships still need individual work because some of them were ports from other games where a “fix” was implemented in locator orientation that I need to “unfix” in the locators. Some of them have already been identified, but I need to know the specific ship.

I still need to check out that rapist encounter sound, which will have to wait until I can get that random encounter myself and troubleshoot.

[Jeffrey]

– Combat music continues to play until a scene transition after defeating rapists.

Now fixed in all COAS versions.

[Vincent]

Nice work, Jeffrey!

As for the sail direction, I was sailing the Snauw at the time, but from what you said, I may just be seeing things that happen correectly and interpreting them incorrectly in my own mind.

[Jeffrey]

I just took a look at the sail behavior of the Snauw and it looks correct to me. Here’s what changed:

When the wind is coming from behind the ship, I kept the same sail behavior for square sails as it seems fine; no change there. What I changed, is that as the ship turns, and the wind approaches close to perpendicular to the ship, the original game had the square sails turn toward, facing the wind; so now the wind is hitting the front of the sail, essentially would be pushing the ship backwards; even funnier because they of course still billow, but out toward the wind that would actually be pushing it the other way…but they built into the game a permanent, one-direction billow (which is something else I changed for ships that have a swiveling, side-to-side boom by adding a new sail type and in the process of identifying ships to apply to so that the sail billow goes the correct direction on those).

I changed to where square sails will turn away, angled from the wind if it is coming from the side, so it can cut behind them in a more realistic fashion. Of course it remains limited and as the ship approaches an angle directly into the wind, they don’t turn past a certain point and it is still technically “wrong” but they are now behaving in a better manner than before.

[Jeffrey]

Going back to this one:

– Combat music continues to play until a scene transition after defeating rapists.

Another peculiarity with both this scene, and the “gang” encounter, is that as soon as a fight commenced, the thugs would attack, then briefly sheath their weapons, then resume attack and fight ’til the end.

I spent a considerable amount of time tracing this through and eventually solved that problem. It was something always present since the COAS days, but it’s fixed in all our COAS-derived versions now.

[Gnat]

My apologies if this has already been covered, but I have a hard time searching the site forum. I’m finding ERAS2 to be very stable and great, but the one thing that is driving me crazy is the pitch blackness of caves. I’m playing on a laptop with Intel graphics, so the default screen brightness settings are somewhat limited. The two caves I have been in so far I would just run into the blackness without realizing that I wasn’t going anywhere, or not knowing when I whether I was turning left or right. It makes the caves a bit of a nightmare. The gamma and brightness settings in the options are disabled, and I’m not seeing anything in config.exe. I don’t really want to screw with the system wide display options for all programs. Is there a workaround for the program?

[Gnat]

Okay, I figured out how to search the forum via Google and found Jeffrey’s earlier response on modifying the ambient light in caves. Will try it. Thanks and sorry.

[Jeffrey]

No problem. It’s difficult for me to find a good number though because I can see fine on my machine. MK thinks the caves are still too light for him, LOL So I guess some people get different results due to hardware differences or something. If you look at the file, you will see I’ve tried different numbers over time for people, but it’s sometimes too dark for people and I don’t know why results are different for various machines…might be hardware, OS, both? Anyway, sorry for the trouble, but I can only experiment a new number then wait for complaints, and try again 🙂

[Jeffrey]

You are the second person to complain about the cave darkness, so I think I will lighten them up a little.

The gamma settings are disabled unless running in full_screen mode. Back in the DX8 days, those settings were limited by DirectX to only work in full screen, so the options are disabled if you do not have full screen checked on. When I changed to DX9, those settings are still disabled because only some video cards will support gamma ramp adjustment in window mode, and some won’t. But there is no function to test for the video card support in window mode or not, so I still left the options disabled unless full screen.

In the meantime, you can just eliminate the cave problem by changing one line of code. Find Program\Locations\locations_loader.c, and open it in a text editor. Right at the top, change this line to a zero and save the file:

#define amb_cave 0

Making the value a zero will disable the ambient light setting for that location, so they should be very light.

In my next update, I will try a number that still applies some darkness, but will not be as dark as what I have currently.

[Gnat]

Thanks for the update on the cave darkness question. On the laptop screen I always have some problems because because the room is often bright, but this was happening at night so it was perhaps an issue with variations in display drivers. Figures were well lit, but the setting was very dark or black apart from the torches. Setting the ambient lighting to 0 seems to have done the trick in the most recent cave… though I haven’t been back to the exact caves.

[Jeffrey]

Yes, the ambient light does not affect the characters, so they remain lit as usual. The ambient light only works for the textures in the build of the cave model, as it’s being constructed and rendered. So that setting gets applied to the structure of the cave and if you set to zero, it will do nothing, whereas any other setting will apply and blend the equivalent color to the textures of cave.

[Gnat]

Okay, new question. I’ve tried several “Pirate’s Proposition” quests in ERAS 2, and they haven’t worked like what I’ve seen previously in playing CoAS. I get a clearly specified location like “Ruin Beach by Pirate Colony”, go there, and then nothing. No battle on the shore, nothing. There are some ships from the country we are attacking in the vicinity, the pirate ship is still a companion, and if I let the time limit lapse the pirate captain comes after me demanding money, but I never can find the fight I have traveled to carry out.

I’ve only done a couple of these quests before, so maybe it’s possible there’s a version of the Pirate’s Proposition where you have to go back in the jungle or attack ships, but I’m not thinking that’s it. It’s looking like the quest trigger isn’t working for some reason.

Thanks,

Gnat

[Jeffrey]

The Pirate Propositions are the same as in COAS, and theoretically should be a 50/50 chance for one of two types: they are stranded on shore, or they are moored close by. If you’ve never seen the other type in COAS, that is just a chance of luck.

You can figure out the type by watching the dialog, or reading the log file.

If the dialog contains something like, “…has stopped not far from…at the bay of,” and the log states, “…has moored some-close to,” then there are ships somewhere close by and you have to find them in the water somewhere near the island.” This is not always as simple as it sounds, as they can sometimes be quite a way off. One technique is to launch the command window, select a sail-to and see if you can find enemy ships, and if so, swivel the camera around while one is selected to see if you can spot the red arrow that will show above the selected ships…sometimes you can see it to get direction, sometimes it is obscured by the island and you won’t find it. But if you see the ships in the command window, they are somewhere within 2,000 meters or so. If you don’t see it, you need to reposition around the island and try again.

If the dialog says something like, “…and landed at the bay of…now they’re waiting…,” and the quest log says, “…now await help…,” then the enemy is actually landed at the shore in question, so you must moor and fight them on land; they will appear right when you land.

This is unchanged from COAS.

[Gnat]

Ah, sorry to have mistaken that. I guess I’d only seen the land attacks, and couldn’t figure out the sea attacks. There’s always a point in the game where my reputation or something prevents me from getting further offers, so I don’t get many chances. Thanks again for all of your efforts, not just this.

[Filipe]

Update on my work so far:

I’m getting closer to a beta for the PT lang, I say beta as it needs polishment as I can’t translate it accurately without context so I would want these characters to add to the font image: ç,Ç,ã,â,á,à,ê,é,è,î,í,ì,õ,ô,ó,ò,û,ú,ù,Ã,Â,Á,À,Ê,É,È,Î,Í,Ì,Õ,Ô,Ó,Ò,Û,Ú,Ù. so I can test it before bringing it here, I did saw some of the characters but it was messed up like in one box ç would appear but in another, it didn’t and I did create a new fonts_lang.ini with the characters added.
About the completeness, I’m on the last archive of the RESOURCE INI text folder at the quest_texts so from there the only thing missing is the PROGRAM text folder texts, and also I would want to know about the new texts added from January until now as I remember something being added after I’ve completed that text so would be cool to have some kind of comment on those files dating the changes, and I probably will do the same for future DLC’s as well. The whole game as a bulk might be done until early May, but again, unpolished.

[Jeffrey]

I’m getting closer to a beta for the PT lang, I say beta as it needs polishment as I can’t translate it accurately without context so I would want these characters to add to the font image: ç,Ç,ã,â,á,à,ê,é,è,î,í,ì,õ,ô,ó,ò,û,ú,ù,Ã,Â,Á,À,Ê,É,È,Î,Í,Ì,Õ,Ô,Ó,Ò,Û,Ú,Ù. so I can test it before bringing it here, I did saw some of the characters but it was messed up like in one box ç would appear but in another, it didn’t and I did create a new fonts_lang.ini with the characters added.

Some of those characters do exist and if they aren’t working properly may need to be remapped in fonts.ini. That font setup was borrowed from someone else and if that wasn’t done completely, I’m guessing the original didn’t bother with non-English characters as they weren’t necessary for the English-only offering at the time. As for the missing ones, I’m not sure how we’re going to achieve that as I’ve not much skill in creating a font style character within a texture to accurately display something that will look like it belongs to that font style; we would need someone to add it, then will need to create a proper map to its coordinates in the texture and add it to the font.ini for that particular character ASCII number.

Also, if ç sometimes works, but sometimes doesn’t, I found during some work with CTSupermod, that it depends on whether the original text source file was saved as UTF or ANSI; it must be saved as ANSI. I developed a workaround, but that only works for texts in a .ini file, not a .h dialog text. There is a way to specify that a .ini file is saved as UTF and needs conversion when the game engine reads it. So if you are having that problem with an existing character map from the font sometimes working, sometimes not, we need to know which .ini file you are reading from and there is a special tag we can add at the top to convert UTF to ANSI.

…also I would want to know about the new texts added from January until now as I remember something being added after I’ve completed that text so would be cool to have some kind of comment on those files dating the changes, and I probably will do the same for future DLC’s as well.

I admit that I don’t often comment changes to the text files, but will try to remember to do so going forward. It’s a bit of a pain for you, but for the most recent changes that I’ve not documented, if you have the original English and a newer version of the English, and want to find what has been changed, there are “visual difference” tools (like WinMerge) to help quickly locate the new/deleted/changed lines. Then you would need to go to that same line in your translation file. So you would need the old original English file, the newer English file and your translated file. Diff the old/new English, go to same line in translated file, make your changes/additions.

[Filipe]

Yep, some of the trouble was due to the ‘wrong’ encoding. Thing is that I copied and overwrote the game files as they were so they need to be changed as well for any future translations. Now there’s not much left to do, I hope I can finish it before the next big update…

[Jeffrey]

It’s been mentioned a couple times recently…the missing soldier muskets. I found the problem today and it will be fixed in the next update.

[Jeffrey]

Updates

Maelstrom
https://chezjfrey.itch.io/gentlemen-of-fortune-maelstrom-engine/devlog/77005/maelstrom-update

FMOD update to version 1.10.12 – 03/14/2019 Studio API minor release (build 101101) https://www.fmod.com/resources/documentation-api?version=2.0&page=welcome-revision-history.html

Fix for dupe SHIP_LIST during add

XBox controller support (the engine now supports the controller and works, but still much work to remap many fight controls and provide some interface for control configuration within the game scripts that can be used in conjunction with a keyboard)

Fix AI Task for dead fort

Check SaveDir exist and if not, create in Maelstrom

Allow for different lo_man model dirs

Multi-Board engine mod

Fix XP incompatibility in Config.exe and render routine

Camera from eyes change

strcmp function for scripts

Sound StopAll fix

Square sail switch buffer angle

ERAS II
https://chezjfrey.itch.io/gentlemen-of-fortune-historical-eras-module-2/devlog/77022/eras-ii-update

Fix for options read for new/non-found options

Blood quest fixes for save-load problems with location attributes

Repel Boarding perk

CheckRunMode so strafe while running does not deplete energy

Duel/Insult changes

Camera from eyes change

Extend dead body timeout 5 minutes MOD_DEAD_CLEAR_TIME 300

Tortuga ship upgrades

Dead body locator mod for FastAction

Mouse scroll wheel control changes for commands to allow mapping

Sort for trade screen

New game sound fix

Fix Rapist/gang alarm, post-fight

Correct enemy sheathing during fight

Fix shipyard model for wrong object textures

Fix Portugal soldier models for Pirate quest shore encounters

Castelf spanker fix

Change citizen “seek friend” and port controller “journal” captain to not check flag if friendly flying

Lower boarding deck locator fixes

Unequip pistols for duels

Fix GOF/ERAS mod options table click and Portugal trade license

Fix ARGB for ambient light

Fix missing muskets

Add Portugal to statistics screen

Add quicksave to control map display

[Oldtimer]

Mr. Jeffrey,

there are some things I do not understand:

– I see no multi-board perk though there is a multi-board engine mod,

– I cannot duel any insulter in tavern or a cheeky trader. What do duel/insult changes do? BTW, it would be nice to duel hero chars saying I am no match for some “head-slashers”. And killing them, for real…(i e removed from thegame world, permanently).

Another thing, unrelated to above, is being able to mug passengers I enslave.

I did a manual install but no FMOD as I think it is included in the Maelstrom as earlier. Is that a mistake of mine?

Rgds, Oldtimer

[Jeffrey]

The multi-board is similar to the X-Box controller in that they are both unfinished.

*I added some features within the engine to support the future multi-boarding, but it is not “Live” yet in the actual mod because there is more script changes/interface changes needed. I just copy/paste from my own notes from my last update and some changes for multi-boarding were done in the engine during the last dev cycle, even though it’s not available in the ERAS mod yet.

*Unrelated, but X-Box controllers now actually can work and are probably selectable in the options/control area, but it is not yet all mapped out properly for land actions and probably some sea actions, but you can actually use it for most of the sea stuff if one is curious to see it.

*The duel for a tavern insulter is random and is not always available as a dialog. But it can occur if you see and select, “Pipe down, you rat, before I cut your throat!”

What I did add, was to enable the existing code so that you can duel the other NPC captains, with just a single line. If your relation to them is mid/neutral and you first encounter them, you can initiate a duel now. Will probably adjust and tweak that behavior as we move forward.

*You do not need to do anything for FMOD, it will already be updated in the engine files. I provide the link just for anyone curious about what FMOD updated/fixed/changed in the recent version we are now using.

[Oldtimer]

Mr. Jeffrey,

THX for your attn.,

Rgds, Oldtimer

[Jeffrey]

Updates

Maelstrom

Script internal function modification for strcut

Minimize “throw” distance when colliding with ship

Location.dll crash fix

Sail fixes

ERAS II

XBox controls and Keymap file changes (XBox controls still WIP/Beta)

Ship Attack task fix

Fix for flag when wash ashore

Alarm timeout changes/fixes

[Jeffrey]

Update

Maelstrom

Feature to remap correct entity to script var to support bad ship/char entity fix for sail state icon when return to sea

ERAS II

King’s Man-o-War gun fix 112 to 102

Bad ship/char entity fix for sail state icon when return to sea

Bad faceid fixes

[Oldtimer]

Mr Jeffrey,

I am trying to manually dl ERAS but it fails constantly. Do not know if the problem is on itch`s side but I thought i might as well let you know here.

Rgds, Oldtimer

[Jeffrey]

Here is what I’ve been able to find out about browser downloads:

The reason a browser won’t be able to resume an itch.io download, is that the download URL is a signed URL that expires after a short time.

The only way to have resumable downloads is the Itch.io client.

Itch.io .zips the entire ERAS fileset into one package; this package is very large for ERAS — nearly 20 gb. When you download in a browser, it will take considerable time and if there is ever some slight network glitch/outage where the browser loses connection, it can’t resume the download…ever, once that URL expired.

The only way to avoid that timeout problem is to use the Itch client. Even if you don’t want to play through their interface or launcher, the Itch client is the best way to manage the files/updates for two reasons:

1. It can resume the download without a problem.

2. It also does not download the entire content every time I update; it only downloads whatever has changed, so it is much, much smaller/shorter time to update.

[Jeffrey]

Maelstrom Update

Add character patch file name for log output during teleport failure

Crash fix for location

Game freeze due to FMOD fix

[Oldtimer]

Mr. Jeffrey,

I clicked on update for Maelstrom in my itch.io library. After a while dling down left on Maelstrom it says updated. Is this the correct way to update?

Rgds, Oldtimer

[Oldtimer]

Mr. Jeffrey,

my game freezes still, now and then. How can I check if my Maelstrom update was successful?

Rgds, Oldtimer

[Jeffrey]

I wonder if you are talking about a different symptom? The “freeze” I fixed with FMOD was fairly rare, usually involved use of the spyglass, or travel from/to worldmap. The game would hang, permanently, unresponsive.

Is that what you experience, where the game is permanently stuck? I was able to reproduce this eventually, but usually took me hours to get the right combination of actions and from there was able to figure out it was FMOD. A dev at FMOD helped troubleshoot and I have not been able to reproduce afterward. But, considering it was very difficult for me to reproduce in the first place, I suppose it could still be a problem, but when you state “now and then” I suspect you might be talking about something different, because it’s near impossible for me to get the specific problem I was working with to arise in my tests.

[Oldtimer]

Mr. Jeffrey,

it seems to be a different freeze problem, yes. The game freezes after going from world map to 3D-sailing when at harbour fairway, shore anchorage and/or when in battle. No of ships involved does not seem to have much influence.

I never experienced freezes connected to spyglass use.

THX for your attn.,

Oldtimer

[megaprime]

Hi,

The itch app does not seem to update the main game files even when i choose which version to install
Do i need to do a specific thing for it to work? I can launch the game through the app

[Oldtimer]

Hi,

I cannot start via the app. When I try it shows a table to config a lot of games but I cannot do it. So what has gone wrong?

Rgds, Oldtimer

[megaprime]

There should be a Maelstromsetup.pdf in your maelstrom engine directory which explains it very well
You should stick with the folder names found in the pdf pictures for simplicity
In short there are multiple shortcuts in the engine directory (these are the ones the Itch app uses)
Find the ERAS shortcut and eras config example and edit it to point to one of the Maelstrom.exe-s and config.exe found in the multiple directx folders
Be sure that these shortcuts point to the correct drive letter also
If you have a machine with 64 bit os and 6-8 gigs of ram be sure that it points to the 64bit dx9 Maelstrom.exe,otherwise stick with 32bit exe and you should set your pagefile size to a higher value, usually 3 times the size of your ram

[Oldtimer]

Well,

I saw that the client has put the latest Maelstrom update in the right folder as a whole so there were 2 of them. It says that the path is wrong or missing IIRC.

I deleted the old one and edited the paths so I can start the game from desktop but not the client. Or rather I can start it but not play anyway. What I think is that I need to edit the .toml file for that to work. I have no idea how to do that and yes I have read the instructions included in the dl quite a few times.

THX for your attn., Oldtimer

[megaprime]

You can edit the toml files via the windows notepad if that is the problem

[Oldtimer]

No, the problem is that I do not know how to edit the thing. Reading instructions is one thing, understanding them another completely. And I installed ERAS module by itch.

Rgds, Oldtimer

[megaprime]

Alright when you open the toml file you see a bunch of paths just like shortcuts you only need to edit 2 line and that is under “Config Eras 2”
Config ERAS2 is at the bottom

I show you my path as an example:
[[actions]]
name = “Config ERAS 2”
path = “DirectX9_64bit\\Config.exe”
args = [“D\\Maelstrom\\Games\\gentlemen-of-fortune-historical-eras-module-2”]

Its important that use the “\\” signal

This was the original:
[[actions]]
name = “Config ERAS 2”
path = “DirectX9_32bit\\Config.exe”
args = [“..\\..\\games\\gentlemen-of-fortune-historical-eras-module-2”]

On the path line I point it the Directx9_64bit folder that is in the engine folder and in that the config.exe

On the args line I changed the “..” to the drive letter and directory on which I use the game

[Jeffrey]

If you changed a shortcut on your desktop that works, but the Itch client does not work, it is because the Itch client uses the shortcut in its own directory and you have to change that to match what you did on your desktop shortcut. For example, if you decided to put the game on the E drive:

Find the Maelstrom directory you installed the engine files and see these folders (with other files):

DirectX8_32bit
DirectX9_32bit
DirectX9_64bit

In this directory, you should see a shortcut for ERAS:

Maelstrom ERAS 2

Right-click that shortcut, select Properties to change the paths:

Target: E:\Maelstrom\gentlemen-of-fortune-maelstrom-engine\DirectX9_64bit\Maelstrom.exe

Start in: E:\Maelstrom\games\gentlemen-of-fortune-historical-eras-module-2

Of course the above assumes those are the directories where you put the Maelstrom engine and the ERAS files. If you installed them in different places, then just navigate to the Maelstrom directory and copy the path to the Target value and navigate to where you put the ERAS files (the directory that has the Programs and RESOURCE directories) and copy that path to the Target. Click OK, then double-click the ERAS 2 shortcut. If it launches the game, then the Itch client will be able to launch it too.

For the Config to launch properly in the Itch client, you will have to edit the .toml file, as megaprime describes. If you follow the instructions and place the various “mod” installations in a directory structure that stays relative to those instructions, you will not have to replace the ..\\.. because those simply tell launch to back up a couple directories, then back down to the path you want…so it is navigating up one from DirectX9_64bit to the engine directory, up another to the Maelstrom directory, then down into the games\\gentlemen-of-fortune-historical-eras-module-2 directory. But if you didn’t do that, then hardcoding the whole path will be easier. The “args” line needs to point to the same directory as the ERAS Programs and RESOURCE directory.

[[actions]]
name = "Config ERAS 2"
path = "DirectX9_64bit\\Config.exe"
args = ["E:\\Maelstrom\\games\\gentlemen-of-fortune-historical-eras-module-2"]

[Oldtimer]

Mr. Jeffrey,

the Maelstrom ERAS shortcut has Place: DirectX9_32bit so your Target and Start in will not work there as they are 64-bit.

My working desktop shortcuts are from the 64-bit folder and look like this for Maelstrom:

– Target: E:\Maelstrom\gentlemen-of-fortune-maelstrom-engine-win-final\gentlemen-of-fortune-maelstrom-engine\DirectX9_64bit\Maelstrom.exe

– Start in: E:\Maelstrom\Games\gentlemen-of-fortune-historical-eras-module-2

And like this for Config:

– Target: E:\Maelstrom\gentlemen-of-fortune-maelstrom-engine-win-final\gentlemen-of-fortune-maelstrom-engine\DirectX9_64bit\Config.exe “E:\Maelstrom\Games\gentlemen-of-fortune-historical-eras-module-2”

– Start in: E:\Maelstrom\gentlemen-of-fortune-maelstrom-engine-win-final\gentlemen-of-fortune-maelstrom-engine\DirectX9_64bit

If I change them to yours and try to start from desktop I get a message that the shortcut is invalid. Well, there I stand now, none the wiser. Neither will they start from the client.

THX for your attn., I really appreciate your help,

Oldtimer

[Jeffrey]

Don’t use the paths I put in my post. They were just an example because I do not know where you selected Itch to place your files.

Open notepad.

Navigate to Historical ERAS II in Itch client. Near the “Open” button at the bottom of the screen, click the little gear icon to “manage”. Click Manage, Open folder in explorer. At the very top of the file explorer, select the entire path, and Ctrl-C or right-click the path, Copy and paste that into notepad.

Navigate to Maelstrom in Itch. Near the “Launch” button, click the little gear to “manage” Click Manage, Open folder in explorer. That is where you should see the Maelstrom ERAS 2 shortcut. Right-click that, select Properties. Then, in your file explorer, double-click into the DirectX9_64bit folder. At the very top of the file explorer, select the entire path, and Ctrl-C or right-click the path, Copy.

Then in the Properties window of the ERAS 2 shortcut, Paste the Maelstrom path into Target value. Paste the ERAS path from notepad into the Start in value.

[Oldtimer]

@Jeffrey, Megaprime

Gentlemen,

THX for you help. I will be travelling for abt. 10 days from now without comp and net access. So I will come back to the issue when I am home again.

Rgds, Oldtimer

[Oldtimer]

So,

back again. I started to edit the shortcuts as per your instructions and .itch started updating Maelstrom and ERAS while I was at it. When it was done I had som strangely named folders in download folders of both Maelstrom and ERAS. Like “multiply-striking-snail”.

Anyway .itch thinks update went correctly. But, DL and ERAS folders in Games are dated by the dl-date(May 19-th) while looking at Properties of ERAS folder it says it was created at April 29-th when I installed it. So I wonder if this is OK and I have correctly updated game or not.

Still, I cannot start the game from .itch. I only get a list of games to configure.
Do I have to work on the .toml file now and how?

Rgds, Oldtimer

[megaprime]

And dont forget to edit the shortcuts “start in” path so that it points to the gentlemen of fortune module folder(the main game files)

Its all in the pdf im just parroting what it says

• This reply was modified 5 years, 7 months ago by megaprime.

[megaprime]

Alright I think I got the updates working, I had to Install the historical eras module through Itch not just the engine

Sorry for the stupid question

[megaprime]

Hi all,

did anyone do a playthrough using only direct sail and no worldmap,sail to
How viable and fun is it whats the best options for it (arcade/tactical sailing,realistic weather on/off)
Do I get enough events like encounters and storms etc

Also Jeffrey could it be possible to give commands for friendly ships to follow not just defend and how glitchy would be a movement command based on cardinal,intercardinal directions?

[Jeffrey]

Technically, the Defend command is a simple “Follow the ship”

Using direct sail will not have encounters beyond the “islandships” (typically ships in port, fishing vessels, nearby vessels) for the “island area” you are within as defined on the worldmap (you don’t see this, but areas areas defined). The feature was not available in COAS, GOF added it, but we’ve not added similar random type encounters in direct sail like what the worldmap provides, like merchants, pirates, patrols, etc.

I don’t think there are storms as I think they spawn on world map exclusively in COAS. This has not been changed by us.

This is something I’ve wanted to work on, change both encounters and things to make direct sail a bit more interesting and a better experience, but it’s another big task in a long list for a solo dev. One of my goals was also to do away with the transition screens between area/island load for direct sail and I made some progress on that (I have a short video), but still wanted it more seamless and got a bit stuck (this is due to constraints in how the engine was originally designed for geometry load and I’m reluctant to redesign because I don’t have that kind of time to both code and test). So something I occasionally think about, but have not done further work yet.

A command for directions could be useful. Handled similarly to “sail to” but instead of various ship list in the next command selection, 8 directions. I think I might add that. Will talk to MK, but my guess is he’ll agree.

[megaprime]

As far as I know ,when the friendly ship defends it will fight with the enemy whilst trying to keep up, it will manuaver so its broadside can fire and it will slow the ship down significantly
Lets say I have a cheap flut carrying cargo with just enough crew I want it to sail in the correct direction and I can show it while I shoot the enemys sails
With defend I cant really do that as it will try to fight the enemy
Sail away can also produce some pretty funny things

The time in direct sail also differs greatly from worldmap for example in realtime I made the Puerto Principe–>San Martin freight in roughly 1.5 days with a 17 knots fast corvette
its longer in worldmap
Does the speed of the slowest ship in the fleet effect the speed of sailing in worldmap?

[Jeffrey]

“…movement command based on cardinal,intercardinal directions…”

This feature will be added in the next update. I’ve already got it done and in testing.

[Jeffrey]

Maelstrom Update

FMOD update to version 1.10.13 – 05/08/2019 Studio API minor release (build 102169)

Add Ptc file name for output during teleport log

Crash fix for char model location test

FMOD crash fix

Change dialog first/last name space-append

Add ambient light to character model

Fix crash locator array

ERAS Update

Fix treasure map texts for Spanish Main

Fix Sloop21 and gunboat1 sailorpoint file

Dupe Island/Fishing group fix

Dupe bank deposit fix (display only…pchar data is correct)

Fix skeleton siege alarm

Fix “mercen_” for officer hire dialog in some cases

Fix officer reload in cases of existing officers group, but wrong name

Cardinal sailing command

Add ambient light to character model load

Change chest to revert back to top upon chest toggle

Fix Balandra sails

[megaprime]

I just played with the new update

The Sail directions command works great, makes fleet management much better

Thank you very much

[Antiscamp]

Lots of different crash fixes there, so this is going to be really interesting to see if it solves my random crashing problems or if it’s the recording software.

[Jeffrey]

Updates on Itch:

Maelstrom

Performance enhancements:

* Remove extraneous/unneeded ray tracing

* collide trace

* cannon tracing

* spyglass

* Crosshair targeting

* Island

* Rain drops

Script runtime compiler crash fix

Dialog first select delay feature

ERAS II

Alarm Stop fixes

TradeToTeam bug fix

Fix cabin OnLoad/money/items change

Tortuga piratefriendly dialog fix (tavern)

Fix mayor bandit bug

Fix jungle patrol bug

[Jeffrey]

Maelstrom Update
https://chezjfrey.itch.io/gentlemen-of-fortune-maelstrom-engine/devlog/90052/maelstrom-update

ERAS II Update
https://chezjfrey.itch.io/gentlemen-of-fortune-historical-eras-module-2/devlog/90062/eras-ii-update

[Oldtimer]

Mr. Jeffrey,

updated after reading your message no 7692 above. Today itch says game is fully up to date when checking after 7762.
So I wonder if my system works properly?

Rgds, Oldtimer

[Draiks]

hello, i downloaded the game a year or 2 ago not sure, i was playing it fine till a few days ago when i had to delete the game for space reasons, and now i downloaded the game again, but i cant play it nor can i find “START.exe” to launch the game, i’m confused, because i used to play the game and i even have more than 2 characters above 15 and i even have the saves with me, but i can’t play the game? i think it needs Maelstrom Engine , which i should be having so what is going on?

[Jeffrey]

We talked about this on YouTube awhile back. Sent you a PM.

[Antiscamp]

I just tried out the new real time sailing encounters. That IS a game changer. Awesome job on that!

[Jeffrey]

LOL, no joke. I figure there will be some complaints about those….hehehehe. There is an option to disable it, BTW.

Glad you chimed in…I remember your videos mentioning the annoying light flicker during certain hours/angles. We’ve all seen it, and after many attempts, and my claims in past updates where I tried to address that, but failed…I think I finally found a real solution. That overwhelming flicker should really be gone now.

[Antiscamp]

Anything that makes the travel map secondary and first person perspective sailing in the 3D world preferable is something I like. It makes the game world and my interactions with it feel realistic. Direct Sailing encounters is definitely a great step in the right direction! It sets Eras2 apart from other pirate games and “Sea Dogs clones” by lightyears! You pulled it off very nicely.

There’ll be more videos soon, as time permits, with even more complaints, nagging and bad swordplay lol

[Jeffrey]

Maelstrom Update

x64 bit FMOD update to version 2.00.03 – 08/02/2019 Studio API minor release (build 103912)
x32 bit still using FMOD 1.10.15 because that is the latest version that still supports WinXP

Multisampling change for AA

Fix “glower” for mouse movement (see POTC/NH menu)

Remove formatted text message string limits

Fix AIFlowGraph too-large stack

Move ShipWalk array to heap

Replace array sort method for speed

Expand size of visible waves and fix the rare gaps in sea textures during bumpier seas

Fix Walking deck sailors memory leak

Fix rare stack corruption crash

Bad ship model fix for load to not crash in case of wrong model

Fix DirectX 9 underwater scene to more closely match the original, DirectX 8 look

Implement render state management for speed

[Antiscamp]

I’m having a problem with the background image while exploring jungle environments. It seems the image is too short to cover all the way down, which gives you a blue area at certain camera angles. At first, I thought the blue area was a lake, but at closer inspection, it’s the void.

Here’s an image: https://imgur.com/2irWxn4

[Jeffrey]

Not sure if I’d call it a bug…just depends on your perspective of things.

If you are inside the tavern of say, Tortuga, and look out the window, you can see where there “should” be an ocean view, but it was just a black void where the water should be. It’s small, and most people probably don’t notice.

Anyway, that is due to the fact that unless the player was in a “town” setting, on the way to “fort”, in a ship cabin, City of Lost Ships, or actually sailing, there is no sea object initialized, so where the water should be in that “out the window” tavern/house view, there could never be any water displayed…hence the blackness. This bothered me a little bit.

So, I actually initialized the sea (in the location loader scripts) for every location, but I make the sea level very low…so technically, now when you are in a tavern, or a room, or a house, the water is way down below your feet (roughly 25 feet down), where you can’t see. The side-effect is that in the jungle, that “below your feet” is actually visible in those scenes where the terrain dips down into a valley. That is why you can now see the blue of the water. I made no waves because most places you can’t even see it, so saves some processing power.

So in my mind, now there are some places in the jungle where you see a river, or a sizeable ocean inlet…see? Just change your perspective from “bug” to “Oh, now there is a river here.” Hehehehe.

If people are adamantly opposed to this idea, I suppose I can just revert back (it’s only a couple lines of script code in the program folder).

[TheBlackTowerTK]

Hello, can i ask you please to tell me how to update my version the last time i did it was last year, so i’m little confused about how to do it, thank you again for this great game.

[Jeffrey]

PM sent…

[Jeffrey]

** Maelstrom Update **

x64 bit FMOD update to version 2.00.05 – 10/09/2019 Studio API minor release (build 105402)
x32 bit FMOD update to version 1.10.17 – 10/09/2019 Studio API minor release (build 105386)

Resume music fix for last position

Headgear positioning file

Crash fix in case of missing text message file

** ERAS 2 Update **

Bury treasure feature
– At any vacant shore (no town ports, no jungle, no caves, etc.)
– Quest log to remind location
– Interface message to remind upon landing upon shore of buried treasure
* Requires a cache chest and spade item in either PC, or Fighter NPC inventory

Threaten and override store busy…depends on reputation

New Items, including, but not limited to:
– Blades
– Herbs with health effects
– Chest/spade for treasure
– Protective hat (can equip)

Teno fixes (missing torch sounds and character relation problem in Temple)

Fix Pearl Tartanes (Morgan Quest) in AI to give pearls

[Oldtimer]

Dear devs,

another improvement, congrats. There was an unannounced update from Oct. 1 also, right? To make me even happier, please address the issue of hostiles seeking assistance/relaxing in enemy taverns. I suggested this before and Mr. Jeffrey said IIRC it was a fairly simple coding. And it WILL improve immersion greatly.

Rgds, Oldtimer

[Jeffrey]

the issue of hostiles seeking assistance/relaxing in enemy taverns. I suggested this before and Mr. Jeffrey said IIRC it was a fairly simple coding.

Simple to code, just difficult to find where it was going wrong. But, I think I might have found it and updated again today.

Keep in mind, any of them that are default Pirates will still go everywhere. We have too many pirates, and not enough pirate-only locations, so we allow them the benefit of super-stealth. But now, Spanish should stop showing in English towns and such going forward. MK has been on this too, but I was having trouble tracking down the root. I think it’s resolved now, but will need feedback.

Also, temporarily, until the problem NPCs finish their current “missions,” they might still have a wrong target location, but once they reach it, their next mission targets should no longer present hostile locations to their base nationality, so they just need to cycle once until problem is cleared up. That’s the theory anyway…

[Oldtimer]

Mr. Jeffrey,

good to hear. Abt. super-stealthy pirates, could they be subject to detection and execution? There should be a risk factor for them when stealthing, IMO. Yes, I believe that the game would benefit from such a mechanism.

Rgds, Oldtimer

[Oldtimer]

Well,

another unannouced update has been installed. B-d-y marvellous I say.

THX dear devs,

Oldtimer

[0range]

Hi, dear All.

Just to salute you and say I was out for quite a lapse of time, but I hope to finally get back.

Now I downloaded the mod itself… Sure could not launch it, used ancient Maelstrom on that, and it never advances more that character selection menu. I quite guess the new Maelstrom is out there somewhere buried inside some stash under a couple of meters of sand in Google Drive =). Would appreciate a tip where to dig.

Salute to All!

• This reply was modified 5 years ago by 0range.

[Jeffrey]

Welcome back. I sent you a PM for Maelstrom. Also, bad news is that you will probably want to use the Itch client to keep ERAS updated so that you don’t have to download the entire thing every time I change/fix things (about once per month), so you’ll probably want to download it again through the Itch client. Instructions are in PM.

[Jeffrey]

***Maelstrom Update***

Multithread particles

x64 bit FMOD update to version 2.00.06- 11/20/2019 Studio API minor release (build 106220)
x32 bit FMOD update to version 1.10.18 – 11/20/2019 Studio API minor release (build 106230)

Asynch log file fixes/changes

Dynamic size various static-sized arrays for extensibility/avoid possible crashes

QuestText subid feature

Revert fader/dialog fix and change to script-side solution instead

AIShip object destruction change to also extract/destroy some other objects for better destruction ordering

Sound stopall fixes for music

Fix Sailor delete to actual remove upon ship object destruction and add PEOPLE_ON_SHIP for backward/deprecated support

WinXP fixes for 32 bit

Music not found error log added back to debug logs

[main] subsection Config.exe fix

Other various fixes…

Upgrade memory allocator from version 3.x to 5.x for 64 bit; 32 bit remains the same for WinXP support

[Jeff]

Have come back to this game after many years and would like to thank Modern Knight and Jeffrey for your work on making this game playable. The game has also become interesting with the additional characters/ships and facts. I am looking forward to an expanded world experience in the future. Great work and really appreciated, thanks.

[Anton]

Hi all.

It’s been a long time since I played GoF, since version 2.0. I wanted to ask about the maelstrom, because I have heard that it looks very good but I do not see myself ready to pay the price and I would like to have certain opinions, as I am curious to try this new version 2.8 and see what new content it brings compared to the version 2.1, which is the only one I can find to download.
Even with this I also wanted to ask if there is any place where I can download previous versions to 2.8 that do not need Maelstrom to work.

Thank you very much and greetings

• This reply was modified 4 years, 7 months ago by Anton.

[Jeffrey]

​ERAS 2 is now fully translated to Portuguese! Many thanks to BinaryKommando! He single-handedly performed the entire translation and helped both introduce new game features, and debug many unrelated problems along the way.

[modernknight1]

Fantastic work! Very exciting! I will add this to the promotional video I am doing showcasing the Frying Pan.

MK/Aaron

[Jeffrey]

*** Maelstrom Update ***

Land, Sea and WorldMap HUD auto scaling

Fix deck crew climbing shrouds after capture/swap ships

Keyboard layout detection

x64 bit FMOD update to version 2.00.10 – 07/01/2020 Studio API minor release (build 110198)

*** ERAS Update ***

Land, Sea and WorldMap HUD auto scaling, plus option to adjust auto-scaling factor

Land, Sea and WorldMap HUD auto scaling, plus option to adjust auto-scaling factor

[chris gardner]

Hey!
I still find myself coming back to this game every now and then, and it moves me how often the games is up-kept and updated. I bought the Malestrom engine on itche awhile ago, how can i donate more?

[chris gardner]

I’m having an issue with the Quatrieme Rang ship.. Its fully upgraded and its 40 guns now has 32lbs carronades. I’ve noticed that the cannon fire is not reliable at all; I will be well within range and broadside to broadside, but only a few or handful of guns fire, when its entire battery went off the previous volley.

There has been many instances in everyboat where the autofire-left click will stop working and require manual fire or some in-game finagling to get it working again, but the issue with this boat is different and more annoying because i simply can not get all my guns to fire. Suddenly my 17 gun broadside is only a 2-6 gun.

Here is my save file if anyone wants to see whats happening. Just get into a battle and try and sink a boat or 2.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ca5ia96itl89usr/SOMETHING?dl=0

[Jeffrey]

I downloaded your file and will take a look.

That occasional problem you mentioned about sometimes the mouse button click for ship firing sometimes not working, requiring a couple volleys from first person, then it will magically start working again is also something I’ve noticed, but have not yet figured out the root cause; I would really like to isolate that one, because it’s been around forever.

Perhaps this particular problem is related and if it’s more prevalent in this particular ship, might allow us the opportunity to finally find the problem? It’s possible…

[chris gardner]

Thanks J! I got that one bug fixed awhile ago with my save file, fingers crossed for the next one 😀
Is there somewhere i can donate a few bucks for the game? Im doing well atm and would like to show my appreciation for you and MK’s dedication

[Jeremy]

Hey People,

I just downloaded GOF ERAS 2 as well as purchased the Maelstrom Engine. I followed the Setup PDF and the game launches. However I noticed some textures glitching through on the Main menu and when I started a new game, there were a lot of missing textures on the tutorial ship.

I then went ashore and there were no building textures, just a blank island with people walking around on it.

Anyone have any ideas on what may be wrong, or if I perhaps missed a step or did something wrong?

Cheers

[Jeffrey]

My first thought is that maybe the download didn’t complete, or corrupted. I do remember a couple instances where Itch did not perform the download correctly for a particular user, and they just had to redo the download.

Let’s do a check for the textures…go to the directory where you put ERAS and inside the RESOURCE folder, right-click the folder Textures (path = RESOURCE\Textures), the select the Properties so you can check both the size and number of files for just the texture directory. You should see:

Size: 9.93 GB (10,669,902,450 bytes)
Size on disk: 9.96 GB (10,699,907,072 bytes)
Contains: 13,950 Files, 1,908 Folders

Also, after launching ERAS, find the system.log and compile.log files…the system.log will name any texture files it couldn’t find and we can search your folder for them to see if they are indeed missing.

[modernknight1]

Thanks for the kind words. I have been working on a GREAT DEAL of new content for the last two years that I haven’t yet shared. So there is a lot coming down the pipeline. Others have asked about donating as well. I procured a Patreon page but have not yet hung any content there – so I just need to finish it.

Just lately we seem to be getting noticed more. Our facebook likes have suddenly gone up by a hundred or more in just a month. With so little promotion on our part I see that as players sharing how great our game is by word of mouth with one another. I want to make certain this renewed interest continues and so will get some stuff done to maintain the momentum. Watch for screenshots of a couple new ships shortly.

MK (aaron)

[Samir]

It’s been 2 years since I last time played Eras Mod. For the first time now I’m playing it on the Maelstrom engine and I have to say that I can’t believe what this modding team has done with an old game that still happens to be the best sailing and pirating simulator on the game market. Thank you for this wonderful work!

[Samir]

I’m having considerable fps drop when sailing close to Maracaibo and the other southern parts of the Caribbean. It’s strange because the game works so smoothly everywhere else, and I haven’t had any game crash since I started playing it a few days ago.
My specs:
Intel Xeon E3 1270 3.4GHz
AMD Radeon R9 270x GPU 2GB DDR5
8GB DDR3 RAM

[Samir]

Edit: I suspected that foliage was causing the problem and I was right. Turning it off will make fps run smooth. So I guess no foliage in that part of the Caribbean.

[Jeffrey]

Someone also noticed FPS drops during storms, that also improved if foliage was disabled.

Does this same thing also occur around other parts of the South American continent, like Belize?

Also, instead of disabling, does reducing the foliage quality help?

I’m trying to figure out if is the specific foliage patch just around Maracaibo, and also whether the foliage quality reduction code already built into the engine actually do anything to help performance.

[Samir]

It happens in all the South American continent. And no, just reducing the foliage does not help, only when completely disabled will make fps back to normal.

[Jeffrey]

I have good news! I figured out a way to mitigate the foliage problem while at sea and the FPS is much better now. Will be in the next Maelstrom update.

[Samir]

Thanks for all the hard work Jeffrey.

[Jeffrey]

Not a problem…check out the foliage/FPS now, I think you’ll notice 🙂

[Samir]

Just wanted to share this random screenshot I made. It looked so real to me, to see a ship on such distance from port (Marigot).

• This reply was modified 4 years, 2 months ago by Jeffrey.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 2 months ago by Jeffrey.

[Jeffrey]

Maelstrom Update

x64 bit FMOD update to version 2.01.04 – 9/10/2020 Studio API minor release (build 111454)

Fix VideoRect issue not playing

Fix occasional visual glitch in 64 bit due to flag anomaly

Improve FPS with foliage enabled at sea

[Samir]

I have tested it. It’s 90% better now. Still happens something like a stutter from time to time on Spanish Main, but it’s not a big deal, FPS is stable now. Thanks Jeffrey!

[Samir]

Btw, what happened with the naval battles that I cannot destroy the masts of enemy ships? I remember that in ordinary COAS I was able to destroy masts, but in Eras I haven’t had a chance even with large ships and with a lot of cannons. Has that feature been removed? I remember it was buggy in GOF 2.0 version.

[Jeffrey]

It’s still enabled in ERAS, but it is very difficult; the damage to masts in COAS/GOF was way too high, so a few hits and they would fall.

In ERAS, we changed the damage to be dependent on the cannon caliber, but also the ship class, so that large ships, presumably have much tougher masts. Also, the masts are much sturdier…according to MK, there were records of battles that could last over a several days, and only a few masts would be broken. So in ERAS, it just takes many hits, and in the case of small cannons, against Class 2 ships, might never happen.

But you can still break them. As a test, I have a class 6 ship (use a friend because they will just sit there), and a ship with 32 pounders. I get right next to them, aim for the masts and fire repeatedly….eventually, after enough actual mast hits (needs to actually make contact), a mast will fall.

MK recently told me that he’s been altering the numbers a little bit, because it still might be too difficult, and I think he’s made adjustments that he likes better so far, but I’ve not received his altered numbers.

[Samir]

Ok, thanks for the info Jeffrey 🙂

[Oldtimer]

Dear devs,

just equipped a cuirass as Miss Devlin. It is VISIBLE!!! B-d-y gorgeous too…

KUDOS to you, keep up the good work!

Rgds.,

Oldtimer

[Anton]

Hi sailors,
where can I check the update notes? I really want to see what is new since the last time I played the game.
Also, could someone tell me the difference between GoF: Historical ERAS II and GoF: Maelstrom?

Regards!!

• This reply was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by Anton.

[Author]

Posts