Shop  •   Avatar  •   FAQ  •   Search  •   Memberlist  •   Usergroups  •   Profile  •   Log in to check private messages  •   Log in  •  Register 

A Truly Lost City
Post new topic   Reply to topic     Forum Index -> Technical Issues Goto page 1, 2  Next
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
Captain Teague
Rigger
Posts: 1185



12207 Gold -

PostPosted: Wed Jan 08, 2014 1:06 am    Post subject: A Truly Lost City Reply with quote

I had the most ironic game today. As I've said before; I use SMP to play "custom" games; with each pirate I create a different back story; even using a trainer to start them out with different ships and items. This pirate is one of a new line of pirates; he's on a earth-like planet set in the Star Wars galaxy. The planet is pre-industrial; and does not know of space. I only tell you all this to set the scene.

During a future Temporal War; a faction of time traveling agents finds that their future will be better served if they prevent the pirate Lucas Raymann from finding an alien artifact in the lost city of the Incas; in that planet's year 1741. A temporal agent disguised as human and took the place of a mysterious traveler in the tavern at the last stop Lucas made before heading to the lost city. He convinced Lucas that his map (which was only 3/4 complete) was not only incomplete; but wrong. He sold Lucas a complete (fake) map and sent him on his way. Lucas dipped below the one-month mark of food days before landing; and unable to find the lost city due to a fake map; was killed by natives while trying to raid them for food; having already lost 3/4 of his 690 crew. Another Temporal agent from a rival faction transported to that fateful day when Lucas made landfall and helped him find the lost city; restoring the timeline to it's correct path.

Here is where it gets ironic. I was playing out Lucas' career in SMP; and when I had 3/4 of the map to the Lost City of the Incas; I set out to find it. I hit 0 months of food on November 1, a week before making landfall. I tried to find the lost city; but somehow my map got all messed up. I landed at the prescribed landmark; and all the inland landmarks are messed up. I've searched for almost 3 hours (reloading every two months) to no avail. Here's where you come in. Take the place of the second Temporal Agent and help Lucas find the lost city. Or at least determine that I didn't lose my mind overnight and am just being dense. Report your progress (and frustrations) here. Here is a link to the savegame. Just renaming it slot[1-15] and put in your Sid Meier's Pirates folder (located in My Games). Fair winds!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0haxnf6dv731s5s/Truly_Lost_City.zip
_________________
The Code is the Law.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Young Guilo
Powder Monkey
Posts: 45



862 Gold -

PostPosted: Wed Jan 08, 2014 10:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The plot is super complicated. I just like this plot better.

You are a Dutch pirate in the Caribbean
Holland has hired you to capture 1000 of each nation's ship.
Holland has also given you orders to take every city for Holland.
If you do, Holland gives you the crown.

The ending is sad though,

"Surprise Holland took away your crown and only gave you the status of ______'
_________________
Alan Holding
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Captain Teague
Rigger
Posts: 1185



12207 Gold -

PostPosted: Thu Jan 09, 2014 12:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I only gave the plot because the gameplay with the plot was ironic. As for being complicated; I like brian-twisting movies and books, and I love to write my own stories. Particularly about time travel. Hence the plot/back story of my last pirate; which led to an ironic night of frustration. Has anybody tried it yet? Any luck?
_________________
The Code is the Law.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
AdamMil
Cutthroat
Posts: 279



4747 Gold -

PostPosted: Thu Mar 20, 2014 1:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Captain Teague wrote:
Has anybody tried it yet? Any luck?
Just saw this by chance. :-P Still want somebody to take a look?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Captain Teague
Rigger
Posts: 1185



12207 Gold -

PostPosted: Thu Mar 20, 2014 1:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I would, yes. You are the first person to show any interest.
_________________
The Code is the Law.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
AdamMil
Cutthroat
Posts: 279



4747 Gold -

PostPosted: Thu Mar 20, 2014 10:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Captain Teague wrote:
I would, yes. You are the first person to show any interest.
You're right. He completely mislead you! Vicinity of Campeche? It was hundreds of miles away! As agent #2, I also advised Luke to trade for some food on the way. :-)

Here's the save just outside the lost city: http://www.adammil.net/tmp/slot1.zip

The coastline was actually very distinctive. I just took a look at the atlas I made yesterday and the location was immediately apparent. :-) It was another case of sadistic cartographers naming nearby landmarks identically...

http://www.hookedonpirates.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=91315#91315

Also, this seems more like a post for the Orienteering forum rather than the Technical Issues forum. I didn't actually try looking around the place you originally landed though, to see if the landmarks were messed up as you said. :-P
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Captain Teague
Rigger
Posts: 1185



12207 Gold -

PostPosted: Fri Mar 21, 2014 12:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

AdamMil wrote:
You're right. He completely mislead you! Vicinity of Campeche? It was hundreds of miles away! As agent #2, I also advised Luke to trade for some food on the way. Smile


You'd make a good Temporal Agent it seems. Well done. I've never had a map lead me wrong before; so I was very confused by this. It just made the story I happened to be doing at the time so much funnier. I wonder why it was so far off...

AdamMil wrote:
The coastline was actually very distinctive. I just took a look at the atlas I made yesterday and the location was immediately apparent. Smile It was another case of sadistic cartographers naming nearby landmarks identically...


So see then? I obviously didn't have the atlas; or I would have been set. Thanks for the updated file[s] by the way; I appreciate it.

AdamMil wrote:
Also, this seems more like a post for the Orienteering forum rather than the Technical Issues forum. I didn't actually try looking around the place you originally landed though, to see if the landmarks were messed up as you said. Razz


You should (land where I did)! Just so I know I haven't lost it (yet. Working with kids will do that to you). If there were two identical landmarks; I feel that would qualify it as a technical issue, due to the confusion it caused. Thanks again for having a look, now I know (and knowing is half the battle right?).
_________________
The Code is the Law.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
AdamMil
Cutthroat
Posts: 279



4747 Gold -

PostPosted: Fri Mar 21, 2014 9:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Captain Teague wrote:
You should (land where I did)! Just so I know I haven't lost it
It's painful at 2-3 FPS with no sound, but I'll give it a try when I get back home. :-P
Captain Teague wrote:
I obviously didn't have the atlas; or I would have been set
You should have one of your temporal agent friends bring you a copy in the past. :-) Then it'd save me the trouble of creating it. But I guess that'd be a paradox...
Captain Teague wrote:
Working with kids will do that to you.
What do you do?
Captain Teague wrote:
If there were two identical landmarks; I feel that would qualify it as a technical issue, due to the confusion it caused.
Somebody should release a mod to prevent the game from creating identically named landmarks within a certain distance of each other... maybe...
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
AdamMil
Cutthroat
Posts: 279



4747 Gold -

PostPosted: Sat Mar 22, 2014 4:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Captain Teague wrote:
You should (land where I did)! Just so I know I haven't lost it
Spoiler alert.

Alright, so I still didn't land where you did (because trying to play at 2-3FPS is really painful!), but I did run one of my programs to extract some information from your game and came up with this nifty graphic.



The dark blue areas are the places you've traveled. Red dots indicate cities, so perhaps you can orient yourself with them. Cyan dots are named landmarks. The patches of greenish dots are map quest landmarks such as stone heads, Inca temples, and the like, which come from quest maps. A yellow dot is an X on a quest map and the orange dot is where you are.

There's a patch of green dots in the lower-leftish area which is where the lost city is. (Curiously, there are two yellow dots in that patch, so apparently there's a second treasure there besides the lost city.) There's another patch a bit north near where you originally landed. That should be for another map, which explains why you saw map quest landmarks. (I'm not sure if you found the X there yet.) And there are two patches you apparently haven't gone anywhere near yet. Future treasures? Montalban? Nothing at all? :-) I'm not sure it's possible to find the other treasures without obtaining a piece of the map first, though.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Captain Teague
Rigger
Posts: 1185



12207 Gold -

PostPosted: Sat Mar 22, 2014 1:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

That is interesting, I do happen to know that you cannot find treasures without at least one map piece (that's when it spawns). I'd guess (from what I know of treasure generation) that the either sites are the other lost cities. Thanks for having a look, I appreciate it.
_________________
The Code is the Law.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
AdamMil
Cutthroat
Posts: 279



4747 Gold -

PostPosted: Sat Mar 22, 2014 4:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Captain Teague wrote:
That is interesting, I do happen to know that you cannot find treasures without at least one map piece (that's when it spawns). I'd guess (from what I know of treasure generation) that the either sites are the other lost cities.
Well it's interesting that the locations might be decided even before you receive the map. (I vaguely (mis)remember from looking at the code that locations might be chosen when you are offered a map piece rather than when you receive a map piece, but you have no choice to decline a lost city map.)

I'm curious to find out whether these locations will end up being used in the future or whether they were just generated but will never be used. (There's nothing stopping it from generating as many Xs as it wants, since they won't show up as quests until a quest object is created that references the treasure location.) Anyway, I don't know if you play this game anymore, but if do, write back when you find out whether it uses those two marked but unvisited locations for maps that you haven't received yet. :-)
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
ronnraymore
Seaman
Posts: 131


4823 Gold -

PostPosted: Fri Oct 23, 2015 3:13 pm    Post subject: 2-3 FPS? Try dealing with 1 FPS!( Reply with quote

This is the worst possible example of why Atari and M(acro)S(hit) should not be in the game business...Atari obviously put themselves out of business by doing this fraud, and changed name to Firaxis in shame...like GE Financial changed its name to Synchrony (because of such bad treatment of the customers).

Game has great graphics, should have been a real best selling game of all time based on the scheme developed by Sid. Atari corrupted the action by taking out the skill in the sword fighting. The opponent does a back flip, sword in hand, lands on his hands and flips back to his feet delivering a strike to you. When you slash attack he jumps, flat-footed, ten feet into the air ( Kareem Abdul Jabir can't even do this) often grabbing a rigging line out of view, swinging like Tarzan around you while delivering another strike). Both are absurd and "Mario" programming like this pervades the game...shame on you Atari. When you fight the Evil Ones (Montleban, Raymondo, etc.) your mouse key is delayed by the programming so that you cannot defend or strike until after EO has hit you...of course due to this disgusting impairment of your ability to act you cannot win the combat. The trick built into the program is that you have to have a 32-40 gun ship of war, stand off and pour on shot until the ship is reduced to rubble...but, unlike a real ship it does not explode when the powder is ignited by the onboard fire, it does not sink, it continues to float with 1 person on board ...guess who? Only then can you board and win the sword fight when the EO surrenders after being bested...of course you must be tricked out in all the "charms (blouse, leather jacket, metal jacket, precision swords, etc.) in order to win. All this is so absurd it turn this game into a "Mario" farce...a cartoon fit for 10 year olds who will find it funny?(

Ship pass through each other...escorts pass through the ship you are attacking in order to fire on you (through the ship they escort) and block your attack. Meanwhile when on land you are blocked from passing through or near landmark features...so this blocking coding was known and developed...no excuse for ship to be fantasmal. Ships appear and disappear on the view screen as you sail. Phantom ships appear outside ports that you cannot interact with.

Dancing is a complete waste of code...no skill is involved. A random flag determines if your avatar reels around like a drunk or smoothly completes the movements. Once done the repetition of dance with a specific female does not change the result...you are always rejected. Tiny hearts pop up around the large heart showing your acceptance by the female for your dancing prowess. However, in instances where the heart was surround by six small hearts, the max, the outcome was no different. The game freezes near the end of the dance and you can take a bathroom break, fix a meal, read a book, during the long delay...no need for a pause button.

This cartoon of a game is so frustrating that any serious adult gamer will throw it into the trash...DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THIS ATARI TRASH...enough said...if you are a masochist and enjoy frustration and insulting treatment by a fraudulent seller of trash merchandise...then this game is for you!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
ronnraymore
Seaman
Posts: 131


4823 Gold -

PostPosted: Fri Oct 23, 2015 3:18 pm    Post subject: Truly lost Inca city? Yep Reply with quote

I was given a fragment of map for an Inca city located in the "vicinity" of Villa Hermosa...after finding triangulating geysers located on the fragment I spent 24 months using a grid pattern search without finding anything ...any ideas?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
ronnraymore
Seaman
Posts: 131


4823 Gold -

PostPosted: Fri Oct 23, 2015 3:18 pm    Post subject: Truly lost Inca city? Yep Reply with quote

I was given a fragment of map for an Inca city located in the "vicinity" of Villa Hermosa...after finding triangulating geysers located on the fragment I spent 24 months using a grid pattern search without finding anything ...any ideas?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
AdamMil
Cutthroat
Posts: 279



4747 Gold -

PostPosted: Fri Oct 23, 2015 3:40 pm    Post subject: Re: Truly lost Inca city? Yep Reply with quote

ronnraymore wrote:
I was given a fragment of map for an Inca city located in the "vicinity" of Villa Hermosa...after finding triangulating geysers located on the fragment I spent 24 months using a grid pattern search without finding anything ...any ideas?
Two recommendations:
1) Post your question (along with a screenshot of the map) in a new topic within the Orienteering forum. (This isn't really the right place.)
2) Try looking at this atlas I made.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic     Forum Index -> Technical Issues All times are GMT
Goto page 1, 2  Next
Page 1 of 2

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group