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Pirates & Traders

Thanks for the feedback and bug reports.

- The ship description in the plunder view is bugged; should be fixed in the next version.
- The "Regular" game mode also has an error; the "true pirate" setting is not maintained when you load the game later. Also fixed in next version, I hope.

The rumor thing sounds weird; I'll look into it.

@DJ: Currently, I don't have plans to add multiple ships, though it's something I plan to evaluate later (once the current backlog of tasks: additional missions, port attacks, blockades, etc are done). If I do add multiple ships, I would probably consider doing it along the lines of what you suggest.

@JJeff: I agree - the frigate (and not least the new Large Frigate) are what I consider to be the best ships in the game. I'm always surprised to read people having success using the treasure galleon for piracy (though as a trader it is unmatched - huge capacity and powerful enough to blow most pirates out of the water).
 
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Dev please make a paid-for version of this game. Something this quality deserves to be supported, and I can't imagine that many people bother to click ads in the game. At the very least, put a link up from the main menu so people can donate or something.

Thanks for the interest. Google currently doesn't support developers from Scandinavia with paid apps; when (if) they do, I will consider the possibilities of doing a paid version of the game in addition to the free version.

The newer versions of the game have had a Donate button (though unfortunately Google's terms of services only allow straight donations to prevent developers from using Paypal as an alternative payment system to Google checkout).
 
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Thanks for the interest. Google currently doesn't support developers from Scandinavia with paid apps; when (if) they do, I will consider the possibilities of doing a paid version of the game in addition to the free version.

The newer versions of the game have had a Donate button (though unfortunately Google's terms of services only allow straight donations to prevent developers from using Paypal as an alternative payment system to Google checkout).

hurrrrrr. So it does. :p lol
 
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Thanks for the interest. Google currently doesn't support developers from Scandinavia with paid apps; when (if) they do, I will consider the possibilities of doing a paid version of the game in addition to the free version.

The newer versions of the game have had a Donate button (though unfortunately Google's terms of services only allow straight donations to prevent developers from using Paypal as an alternative payment system to Google checkout).

There are apps out there that violate that aspect of Google's TOS (Titanium for one which I just "donated" to with paypal and got my key via email to unlock additional features). Just something to consider.

I don't know if it is a bug or design feature but when playing the manual save game and I die, the save goes away so I have to start over. This has led me to backup the game with Titanium and restore it if I die :)

Thanks for the great game.
 
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I know a lot of games violate the TOS; I don't intend (nor need) to, though. Making games is first and foremost a hobby for me.

I don't know if it is a bug or design feature but when playing the manual save game and I die, the save goes away so I have to start over. This has led me to backup the game with Titanium and restore it if I die :)

It's a bug - the manual save mode doesn't stay across savegame sessions. This should be fixed in the next version.
 
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Port attacks is in the process of being implemented; in the meantime, here is a massive bug fix release that hopefully cleans up most of the issues introduced with the changes in 1.3.0.

Most important is a fix for the savegame bug in Regular game mode as well as a fix for Carronades (having carronades could sometimes decimate your own crew).

Some gameplay improvements/changes did make it into the new version, though.

  • Trials are no longer certain death. Charisma and bribery can get you off the hook if the charges against you are not too great.
  • Tweaked food/loyalty algorithm.
  • Tweaked boarding combat. It is now much, much more bloody and it should now be impossible for boarding combats to go into endless standoff mode.
 
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Port attacks is in the process of being implemented; in the meantime, here is a massive bug fix release that hopefully cleans up most of the issues introduced with the changes in 1.3.0.

Most important is a fix for the savegame bug in Regular game mode as well as a fix for Carronades (having carronades could sometimes decimate your own crew).

Good to see these fixed. I've had crews of 200+ blasted down to less than 25 in a single round when boarding another ship that might have a crew of 60 and no upgrades. That pretty much kills your ability to succeed and was pretty annoying - especially when the saved game would disappear too! It was the double whammy of bugs. ;)
 
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It was the double whammy of bugs. ;)

Yes, pretty painful combination. Unfortunately the game is big enough that testing every new feature out thoroughly is impossible within the bi-weekly window or so that I push out updates in. In 1.3.0's case I even put out a beta to get others to test it, and it still had a lot of small (but annoying) bugs. :(

An update to version 1.3.2 is on the market btw. It fixes a FC that could occur if one exited/interrupted the game after a trial resulted in a death sentence. This could cause the game to FC whenever it was started, locking people out of the game = game breaking = quick fix required. If anyone has trouble with FCs of this sort, update to this version.
 
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I just downloaded P&T off of the Android market. It's amazing! Awesome game. I'd buy a paid version if you put it up.

On my HTC incredible (running a "vanilla" froyo ROM), it takes a long time for P&T to switch from a port screen back to the ocean map. Something like 5-10 seconds, long enough that Android offers to force-close it once in a while. Any ideas on where this is coming from? It's a real drag since the game involves so many transitions to and from the map.
 
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Some additional info - it seems like it's affected by how long I play the game for. Things are snappy during the first few rounds, but as time goes on it takes longer and longer for the ocean map to load. Sometimes over a minute. During this time, the screen is black (It's after the 'port' screen has closed but before the 'ocean' screen has opened)
 
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Hi, thanks for the reporting this.

That sounds very weird. One of the early development versions of 1.3.0 had issues with slow redrawing of the game map, but those issues should have been fixed in the released game. I will take a look into this over the weekend. If you note anything else that might seem to be connected to the slowness other than long playing time, please let me know.
 
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Hi, thanks for the reporting this.

That sounds very weird. One of the early development versions of 1.3.0 had issues with slow redrawing of the game map, but those issues should have been fixed in the released game. I will take a look into this over the weekend. If you note anything else that might seem to be connected to the slowness other than long playing time, please let me know.

It seems kind of like P&T is blocking while it waits for some resource to be free before it redraws the map, and sometimes the resource is available but other times it just blocks for awhile and the resource request times out. That would be my best guess, anyways. My HTC Incredible is running a custom kernel that uses a different task scheduler; this might or might not be related.

Something else which may be related - occasionally, at the end of a long waiting period, the map redraws once but it seems like the scrolling interface gets messed up. When it's in this mode, the map freezes up and get out of sync with the rest of the interface.

When it's in this mode, the interface works - I can move my ship, and port statuses show up when I click somewhere. However, map doesn't update its visuals when I drag it or move my ship, meaning that I'm navigating "blind" using only the port name / rumor description at the bottom to figure out what I'd just clicked on. This goes away if I enter a port or switch to my pirate status screen and then go back to the map.

I mentioned previously that Android offers to force-close the application when it's been stuck rendering the map for a while. I've never "reported" the force close; if I did, would you get more information out of that? I'd also be happy to load a debug version over adb if you have one lying around.
 
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BTW, Strategy, can the game be installed to SD and get properly updated there? I've gotten into a real memory crunch on my Droid (original) so moving things to SD is a major benefit here.

Yes, the game should have app2sd support if you are running on Froyo (Android 2.2.). My phone is still on 1.5, so I haven't tested this myself, but I haven't heard of anyone having problems with it yet.
 
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It seems kind of like P&T is blocking while it waits for some resource to be free before it redraws the map, and sometimes the resource is available but other times it just blocks for awhile and the resource request times out.

Yes, I suspect some garbage collection problem of some sort. If so, I should be able to provoke it on the emulator.

<...Screen Freeze Description...>
Very interesting. I've seen that problem before; thought the issue had been fixed.

I mentioned previously that Android offers to force-close the application when it's been stuck rendering the map for a while. I've never "reported" the force close; if I did, would you get more information out of that? I'd also be happy to load a debug version over adb if you have one lying around.
Please do report the force close next time; it is always possible the stack trace might include some interesting information. I'll be trying to recreate this in the emulator; the main thing that could be of interest from adb (the standard version of the app should do fine) is just to see whether the problem is related to the garbage collection (i.e., whether you are having multi-second GC events while the game freezes).
 
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Really enjoying it - but what happens when I click 'seize' when I've made an enemy ship surrender? I don't understand what it does...

You exchange your ship with the enemy ship. Very useful if you manage to capture a better ship or your own ship is badly damaged.

Also... how do I buy new ships?

Every port has a Shipyard where you can purchase new ships and improvements. The ship available is random and higher level regions will tend to have better ships.
 
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Each time I press seize it seems to cycle through 2 ships... what does that mean? Do I need to leave it on the captured ship to actually exchange it?
Essentially the "seize" button means "swap ships" with the defeated enemy.

The first time you hit seize, you take their ship and YOUR ship becomes theirs. If you hit seize again, you take back your ship and give them THEIRS back - hence the cycling of the ships.
 
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Been meaning to mention that the use of the word "leave" during the Seize process I've always found very confusing and likely still is to new users. It gives the impression that you're going to cancel the action you actually wish to take.

agreed - maybe seize coule open new screen/form that shows a side by side view on same screen of the two ships? underneath your current ship, button could say "Cancel" and under defeated ship button could say "Confirm Seize - or "Switch ships", etc.
 
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