Descr_Ship.txt

[Theodotos I]

I was looking through the Med2/data folder this morning and stumbled across something I’m a little puzzled by. It’s the file descr_ship.txt. Most of it seems self-explanatory, and virtually unchanged since RTW, but there are two things that caught my attention.

First thing is the entry “depth”. It’s explained in the comments as the depth of water a ship needs to operate. In the vanilla file, this value is set to 10 for all ships. I’ve played with this value a little bit, setting it as high as 90 in one trial. However, it seems to have no effect.
Here’s what I’d like to know—is this an entry no longer relevant(not that I remember anything like this having an effect in RTW), or is it a fault of my test map? If the latter, what file sets the depth for various parts of the ocean or river water? I have yet to come across one. I’m interested if anyone has any experience with this.
Secondly, both the “heavy warship” and “flagship” types have the entry “ocean_going” in their list. This was not present in RTW and seems to be a new innovation for Med2. Does this have any functionality, or was it a project that CA never saw through?
Your thoughts, gentlemen.

[Swagger]

i would say it was a preparation for ETW

[Gigantus]

“ocean_going”

That is needed for the ships that are supposed to cross the deep ocean tiles.

entry “depth”

It does not seem to have any functionality. Not sure if it influences the auto calc for battles.

In map_ground_types the darkest red (deep ocean) blocks the movement of ships without the ocean going capability.

[Theodotos I]

i would say it was a preparation for ETW

It was present back in RTW--sorry, but I don't credit CA with that much foresight.

That is needed for the ships that are supposed to cross the deep ocean tiles.


It does not seem to have any functionality. Not sure if it influences the auto calc for battles.

In map_ground_types the darkest red (deep ocean) blocks the movement of ships without the ocean going capability.

So, technically, you could create proper riverine ships by painting the entire ocean darkest red and having only the river with normal levels. Then again, I suppose that would mean the ocean-going vessels could also travel up-river, which is rather counter-productive.

[Gigantus]

You could try to use this:
Impassable - Dark Grey (64, 64, 64)
at the river mouth in map_ground_types. It might work to stop river going vessels to enter the sea and vice versa.

[Theodotos I]

That is very helpful--thanks, gigantus.

[Gigantus]

One is glad to be of service

[Tominokar]

From what I remember there are three water types - ocean, deep and shallow. My guess is that depth could differentiate between shallow and deep water, in which case lowering the value and not increasing it could make a difference.

With the ocean-going colour, you could paint the rivers with it and then use the trait on small vessels so only they can navigate them. The text files would seem contradictory, but in game there should be no indication that the trait was originally for the ocean rather than rivers.

The smaller vessels could still enter the sea, but they would have in reality anyway - remember, the Caribbean would have been originally colonised by people in small canoes, not to mention other parts of the world such as the Pacific Islands.

[QuintusSertorius]

Does anyone know how the values in the descr_ship interact with autoresolve chances?

Is it possible to edit the file and add new types, same as you would the descr_mount?

Does the speed value have an impact on movement rates on the campaign map?

[Erken]

Yes for the new types of ships. For the speed, it seems to be only a parameter for battles (if ever it works).

[QuintusSertorius]

Yes for the new types of ships.

Do you know if any of the values besides ocean_going have any impact on the campaign map or autoresolve? I'm guessing ram and artillery must have a link to their respective attack types in the EDU?

Or are they all things that only impact the (non-existent) battlemap?

For the speed, it seems to be only a parameter for battles (if ever it works).

Figures, so that's essentially useless, since you can't fight naval battles on the battlemap in M2TW.

[Erken]

I'm guessing ram and artillery must have a link to their respective attack types in the EDU?

"ram" comes probably from RTW, and is maybe disabled in the medieval context of the game.

Or are they all things that only impact the (non-existent) battlemap?

All the parameters make sense for the resolution of a battle (notably "beam","power" and even "size"), but i have never tested them.

[QuintusSertorius]

Hmmm, sounds like ocean_going is the only impactful entry in there, and everything else goes on the EDU entry.

[Faylar001]

There is one entry I am interested in... the carrying capacity. That could lead to some interesting things if it works.
I'm going to play with this and report back. Also want to see if I can add a couple new entries.

[Titus le Chmakus]

Hmmm, sounds like ocean_going is the only impactful entry in there, and everything else goes on the EDU entry.

Yeah, that is what I noticed too !