I'm glad it's been of help! Thanks for the patch. I made some other threads in case there's any information there that might help as well: https://www.wcnews.com/chatzone/sea...er+2"&c[title_only]=1&c[users]=avengah&o=date
If that doesn't work, search for "Privateer 2" (in quotes), thread titles only, username avengah.
If that doesn't work, search for "Privateer 2" (in quotes), thread titles only, username avengah.
Bandit LOAF
Long Live the Confederation!
I edited saves to offer them all. I'm pretty curious how they work now, though! I'm going to try an unedited playthrough and measure what I get next.
That's a very good question! I... must not have run into the bug at all. The only mission I absolutely couldn't complete at all was New Crius Examiner... though I did have to resort to some hex editing to get through the ex-mining base mission (I changed the base to a invulnerable Krono!).
Which version of the game were you playing?
I just discovered an interesting bug that seems to affect all versions: if you load an empty save file immediately after starting the game, instead of the first cinematic mission coming at 40 minutes, it's set to 0 minutes. Instead of the first new equipment (the Decoys Mk II) being available at 60 minutes, they're also available at 0 minutes, meaning every piece of equipment comes an hour sooner. If you try to load an empty file while a game's already in progress, nothing will happen. If you die (or use Alt-X while in space), however, then load an empty file from the main menu, it will not reset the elapsed time or the time for the next cinematic mission. There are probably other variables that are not correctly initialised and/or not reset using this trick. In fact, if you have a file that's at least 8 hours into the game and load this file, die then load an empty file, it might unlock all the equipment up to the Freij Mk II from the start of the game due to not resetting those variables (I haven't tested this yet). However, it might also fail to reset cinematic missions you completed on your other file (again, I don't know as I haven't tested it).
EDIT: It does reset cinematic missions - it offered me Xavier Shondi 1 again. It does correctly initialise most variables, but it seems the time-based variables, the variables for unlocked equipment and the Freij Mk II, and the flags for seen news bulletins are not reset using this glitch. It also does unlock all equipment from the start of the game if the previous file had it all unlocked, but you won't see any of the new equipment or the Freij Mk II until you land again.
I've also slightly updated my DOSBox-X configuration file, so you can Alt-Tab out of the game and it pauses automatically. (Well, it's supposed to, at least, but it doesn't always, it seems. F11+Pause does the job otherwise, and F11+F for swapping to and from full screen. For me, if I don't come out of full screen before Alt-Tabbing away, it doesn't correctly pause due to Windows shenanigans.) I've also changed a few other convenience options - since the mouse pointer in PADD screens is not aligned with the Windows mouse pointer, I enabled autolock in windowed mode but removed the beeps it makes when the mouse locks and unlocks. Since middle-click is completely unused in-game (I checked and it has no use in spaceflight or on land) I left middle-click on as an option to unlock the mouse, but the default CTRL-F10 also works. I also changed the output to Direct3D - it has much less flicker at the start and end of videos. OpenGL often flickered several times when changing screen mode before or after a video, sometimes showing afterimages of something that had been on the screen before, but Direct3D does not do that, and the mode changes are faster. Finally, on starting the game and at any time in-game if necessary, you can really speed up the loading by pressing F11+Right Arrow to put it in Turbo mode. Then press any key (or F11+Left Arrow if necessary) to cancel Turbo mode once it's loaded. Turbo mode seems to be even faster during the loading screen with the dots if set to Direct3D than if set to OpenGL, at least on my old laptop.
I may have worked out what NUMS is for in the save editor's Unknown tab. It was at 17 in a new game and 160 in an endgame save for me; I saved right at the start and edited it to 160, and the BBS was populated with missions. I think it normally increases as you go through the plot but I can't be sure without checking; maybe the higher the number gets, the more missions can be offered or something like that - no missions are offered at all near the start of the game, normally, so I think this is what the variable is for. Needs more testing though. It could be a general difficulty thing - it might also make random encounters more skilful and harder the higher it is.
I was also wrong about the DARKFIX version not having the underflow bug for the news bulletins. It does still have the underflow bug, and reading the same bulletin more than once can result in the number under GNEW being decremented multiple times. I guess it must have just picked a bulletin that doesn't decrement GNEW when read (as not all of them do I think).
I just discovered an interesting bug that seems to affect all versions: if you load an empty save file immediately after starting the game, instead of the first cinematic mission coming at 40 minutes, it's set to 0 minutes. Instead of the first new equipment (the Decoys Mk II) being available at 60 minutes, they're also available at 0 minutes, meaning every piece of equipment comes an hour sooner. If you try to load an empty file while a game's already in progress, nothing will happen. If you die (or use Alt-X while in space), however, then load an empty file from the main menu, it will not reset the elapsed time or the time for the next cinematic mission. There are probably other variables that are not correctly initialised and/or not reset using this trick. In fact, if you have a file that's at least 8 hours into the game and load this file, die then load an empty file, it might unlock all the equipment up to the Freij Mk II from the start of the game due to not resetting those variables (I haven't tested this yet). However, it might also fail to reset cinematic missions you completed on your other file (again, I don't know as I haven't tested it).
EDIT: It does reset cinematic missions - it offered me Xavier Shondi 1 again. It does correctly initialise most variables, but it seems the time-based variables, the variables for unlocked equipment and the Freij Mk II, and the flags for seen news bulletins are not reset using this glitch. It also does unlock all equipment from the start of the game if the previous file had it all unlocked, but you won't see any of the new equipment or the Freij Mk II until you land again.
I've also slightly updated my DOSBox-X configuration file, so you can Alt-Tab out of the game and it pauses automatically. (Well, it's supposed to, at least, but it doesn't always, it seems. F11+Pause does the job otherwise, and F11+F for swapping to and from full screen. For me, if I don't come out of full screen before Alt-Tabbing away, it doesn't correctly pause due to Windows shenanigans.) I've also changed a few other convenience options - since the mouse pointer in PADD screens is not aligned with the Windows mouse pointer, I enabled autolock in windowed mode but removed the beeps it makes when the mouse locks and unlocks. Since middle-click is completely unused in-game (I checked and it has no use in spaceflight or on land) I left middle-click on as an option to unlock the mouse, but the default CTRL-F10 also works. I also changed the output to Direct3D - it has much less flicker at the start and end of videos. OpenGL often flickered several times when changing screen mode before or after a video, sometimes showing afterimages of something that had been on the screen before, but Direct3D does not do that, and the mode changes are faster. Finally, on starting the game and at any time in-game if necessary, you can really speed up the loading by pressing F11+Right Arrow to put it in Turbo mode. Then press any key (or F11+Left Arrow if necessary) to cancel Turbo mode once it's loaded. Turbo mode seems to be even faster during the loading screen with the dots if set to Direct3D than if set to OpenGL, at least on my old laptop.
I may have worked out what NUMS is for in the save editor's Unknown tab. It was at 17 in a new game and 160 in an endgame save for me; I saved right at the start and edited it to 160, and the BBS was populated with missions. I think it normally increases as you go through the plot but I can't be sure without checking; maybe the higher the number gets, the more missions can be offered or something like that - no missions are offered at all near the start of the game, normally, so I think this is what the variable is for. Needs more testing though. It could be a general difficulty thing - it might also make random encounters more skilful and harder the higher it is.
I was also wrong about the DARKFIX version not having the underflow bug for the news bulletins. It does still have the underflow bug, and reading the same bulletin more than once can result in the number under GNEW being decremented multiple times. I guess it must have just picked a bulletin that doesn't decrement GNEW when read (as not all of them do I think).
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If it helps dataminers, there's a version 16 of Privateer 2 on archive.org - I won't link to it but it's very easy to find if you just search for Privateer 2. I believe there are some differences, especially the GAMEFLOW.IFF file which gets replaced when you install the Windows patch - I don't know what they changed but it might have something to do with the missions - I remember there were bugs with some of the main plot missions that may have been fixed, such as the Hal Taffin thing where if you pay him instead of threatening him, you sometimes can't continue the plot.
I tried the three-part Davis mission again using DOSBox-X (which still isn't completely stable, but savestates help a bit; the crash seems more likely the longer you're in space though) and with the new patch v0.0.5 - Part C glitched out the same way for me both times. I'm now trying with the other GAMEFLOW.IFF just in case it helps.
As far as my loadout goes, I am using a save from a couple of years ago where I had the Freij II and top equipment, and I remember having trouble deciding what guns to use with the best cooling system - three Kravens and two Mass Ion Cannons almost never overheats so is great for continuous fire (keeping the Ion Cannons in the outer slots, which are the inner side slots in the Freij Mk II's equipment screen in the booth). If I was doing missions involving destroying cruisers or other powerful ships, I would probably use that loadout.
Five Kravens is completely impractical and overheats far too quickly notwithstanding the fact it cools down very quickly - the reduced laser fire when it overheats is annoying and it means you have to be accurate - you only get a couple of seconds of full laser fire before it overheats and you have to choose between holding fire for a moment or continuing with a much lower fire rate. (I remember the Danrik handling overheating better than the Freij II as the middle lasers are first on the Danrik but the outer lasers are first on the Freij II, but the Freij II has much better shields and armour.)
Or the other option I looked at with the Freij II was four Kravens in the outer slots and a Mass Ion Cannon in the middle. I originally felt this also overheated too quickly during heated battles, but it's probably the best compromise - I'd rather use my lasers' full potential and have them overheat occasionally (and nearly overheat a lot); with the 2 Ion setup, it almost never overheats and you have to fire continuously for ages for it to do so.
So I decided to stick with just the one Ion Cannon for now, switching to two if continuous sustained fire is necessary for a mission.
I tried the three-part Davis mission again using DOSBox-X (which still isn't completely stable, but savestates help a bit; the crash seems more likely the longer you're in space though) and with the new patch v0.0.5 - Part C glitched out the same way for me both times. I'm now trying with the other GAMEFLOW.IFF just in case it helps.
As far as my loadout goes, I am using a save from a couple of years ago where I had the Freij II and top equipment, and I remember having trouble deciding what guns to use with the best cooling system - three Kravens and two Mass Ion Cannons almost never overheats so is great for continuous fire (keeping the Ion Cannons in the outer slots, which are the inner side slots in the Freij Mk II's equipment screen in the booth). If I was doing missions involving destroying cruisers or other powerful ships, I would probably use that loadout.
Five Kravens is completely impractical and overheats far too quickly notwithstanding the fact it cools down very quickly - the reduced laser fire when it overheats is annoying and it means you have to be accurate - you only get a couple of seconds of full laser fire before it overheats and you have to choose between holding fire for a moment or continuing with a much lower fire rate. (I remember the Danrik handling overheating better than the Freij II as the middle lasers are first on the Danrik but the outer lasers are first on the Freij II, but the Freij II has much better shields and armour.)
Or the other option I looked at with the Freij II was four Kravens in the outer slots and a Mass Ion Cannon in the middle. I originally felt this also overheated too quickly during heated battles, but it's probably the best compromise - I'd rather use my lasers' full potential and have them overheat occasionally (and nearly overheat a lot); with the 2 Ion setup, it almost never overheats and you have to fire continuously for ages for it to do so.
So I decided to stick with just the one Ion Cannon for now, switching to two if continuous sustained fire is necessary for a mission.
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Bandit LOAF
Long Live the Confederation!
Is version 16 the initial UK retail release?
There's a pre-release press build that might be worth comparing some of this stuff on: https://www.wcnews.com/chatzone/thr...arkening-beta-available-august-18-2024.32031/
There's a pre-release press build that might be worth comparing some of this stuff on: https://www.wcnews.com/chatzone/thr...arkening-beta-available-august-18-2024.32031/
I think so. I remember there was retail 16 then the Buffalo Wings patch to 17, but I don't know any differences other than the fact that Invulnerability was added to the menu in 17. Of course, the GOG version is 17 from install.
Also, I'm not sure whether the Windows patch's GAMEFLOW.IFF file was the same as DOS version 17's version of the file. I'm not sure what other changes were made, but I think people did talk about the Louissa Phillips mission working correctly back in the day. If so, I wonder if the version 16 files make it work and version 17 either dummied out part of it for not always working properly, or maybe they made a mistake and accidentally introduced a glitch that stopped it working? I hope these things can be investigated by someone who knows what they're doing.
But if I remember correctly, when I installed the Windows patch, the GAMEFLOW.IFF that came with it may have been the same one that is installed with the GOG version. As I said before, I was able to install the Windows version in the same folder just by renaming the executable DARKWIN.EXE - but without one of the community patches, it runs very poorly. It seems it looks for a DirectDraw DLL, as the one that comes with the MW patches fixes the display - DARKFIX does not look for that file as it's a modified EXE for modern systems, but it looks like since the official Windows version does look for that file along with the WAIL32.DLL file, it was able to be patched without changing the EXE by modifying those DLLs.
I have the Priv2Dump utility v1.0 (I see there is now a v1.1 available but I'd probably have to compile it). I tried dumping both versions of GAMEFLOW.IFF but I wouldn't know where to start looking for changes as the structure is slightly different (different files extracted).
I also got used to flying with a gamepad. Only the four face buttons work, and trying to activate the throttle doesn't - in DOSBox (assuming swap34 to swap the 3rd and 4th axes is false, the default), the throttle can be controlled with the right stick's Y-axis but the problem is it sets the absolute speed, not the relative speed, so if you let the stick idle in the middle, it puts you at half maximum speed while down is 0 and up is max. There is no way to have it stay at maximum or match speed with another ship while throttle controls are on. The MW patch v0.0.5 uses the left and right triggers as throttle controls instead of the right stick's Y-axis - middle is default, left trigger slows you down (with it reaching 0 if you push it all the way in) and right trigger is speed up (max speed if you push it fully). Both together cancel each other out. (I don't know why it works like this - as far as I know, axes 0, 1, 2, 3 are Left X, Y, Right X, Y; axis 4 is Left Trigger and axis 5 is Right Trigger. At least that's how they appear in the DOSBox-X mapper. But maybe the Windows version treats the two triggers as a single axis, with LT being 4- and RT being 4+? And maybe it swaps Axes 3 and 4 for some reason? Not sure.
I can test DARKFIX if I use the original WAIL32.DLL file; I'll do that shortly and see how it handles throttle controls. (EDIT: It handles them the same as the new patch 0.0.5.)
EDIT: The DARK.CFG and DARK.FIX files both have an issue when it comes to the throttle controls: every time you run the game, it deducts 8 from the lines "Joy2 cy" and "Joy2 ry". This happens in all versions of the game that I've tried. It means that if you DO use a throttle to play the game, you have to recalibrate it regularly as it slowly goes out of whack and the centre position of the throttle control changes so that leaving the throttle in the middle represents less than half maximum speed, and even less the more times this glitch changes the config file. But if you don't use the throttle controls, which most modern players won't, it doesn't really matter. But it's worth pointing out this happens, just in case someone did want to use those controls.
Using the new MW patch v0.1.7 with the new control system, it is possible to fix this problem by, instead of setting the axis to throttle, set it to two buttons, with speed down as button A (bottom of the axis) and speed up as button B (top of the axis). This way you can increase and decrease your speed with the right stick up and down but leaving it in the middle does not make your speed jump back to half maximum speed - it just leaves it as it is. When the bugs are ironed out of the new control system (and hopefully there will be a working option to disable it entirely and use the default controls along with the default calibration system), I think it will be a really good patch. Even the v0.0.5 I've been using is better than DARKFIX. I turned off interlacing for the movies in the ini file. However, one thing I would say is that v0.0.5 uses the same DARK.INI used by the DOSBox version of the game. This means having to recalibrate my gamepad every time I use a different version of the game. I don't know whether this can be changed for 0.0.5 but I'll add an issue to the GitHub repo.
EDIT: I mentioned before that if you're docked at RS: Bestinium and look at missions in your PAD, it wrongly calculates distances from RS: Felos instead. Well, this is not the only time it thinks you're somewhere other than where you actually are - when you're at CS: Lironas, it does a similar thing. Nav Point #134 is right next to Lironas (a single jump), but the PAD showed it being 15 jumps away. I haven't worked out where it thinks you are yet, as there doesn't appear to be a space station at the exact distance needed for this to make sense, but I guess it thinks you're somewhere between 14 and 16 jumps away from the actual location of CS: Lironas.
And the old GAMEFLOW.IFF file doesn't work with any of the versions of Privateer 2 I've tried - I don't have version 16 on my PC but I imagine it probably works with that version. However, version 17 via DOSBox, the DARKFIX version and the new patch all crash if you press Alt-O to open the options menu if you're using the GAMEFLOW.IFF from version 16.
I've been attempting to do the Davis Nerve Weapons missions again. I've tried several different things and I still can't get Part C to complete no matter what I do, if I start from Part A. It seems initialising Part C of the mission in flight, which happens automatically when you complete Part B, doesn't correctly populate the spawn tables in the save, whereas the routine that initialises missions when you select them in the BBS on land does work correctly.
EDIT: I also attempted the New Crius Examiner mission by hacking it into the BBS. I couldn't get anywhere with it. I destroyed all the pirates and scanned all the military ships, then destroyed all the military ships in case that helped, and nothing. I got a fail message when I landed after that. I wonder if you have to scan every pirate as well? If that doesn't work, then I imagine the mission is bugged and can't be completed. (And yes, I tried scanning every single pirate ship as well, and it still didn't work. They do have interesting names, though, like Vicious Chicken, Mutant Goat and stuff like that. And there are two squadrons called Mup and Weeb.)
I remember some time ago making a thread about missing CCN Public Records entries here:
I worked out how to hack my save to add all the missing records. In a hex editor, starting exactly 48 bytes after the B in BITS (which will be near the start of the file), I changed the next 21 bytes to FF and it added them all. I don't know if it changed anything else; I know if you change an earlier part of the BITS section it can mess up the main plot and cinematic missions by making cutscenes available when they shouldn't be, so I think it's best to only hack if you know exactly what you're doing and only for testing purposes. But by doing that I ran two instances of DOSBox-X side-by-side to compare an endgame save with a save hacked to add all the entries.
EDIT: In particular, in an endgame save that has everything unlocked in the Public Records section of the booth, those 21 bytes will look like this: "FF FF EF 6B FE FF 7F EB DF FB FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF". Changing them all to FF changes 10 bits from 0 to 1, which corresponds exactly with the fact that 10 entries are missing. Of course, this may not be exactly the same for everyone if some characters failed to unlock in the Records as they should have done, but that's how it looks for me. However, do not change bytes 22-24 - they are not for the booth, but for which characters appear where. In my endgame save, they are "A0 F8 FF". If you change them to "FF FF FF", you will find things like Xavier minus his head in the Crius bar, Auntie in the Hephaestus bar even if you've done her mission and other glitchy behaviour.
So, the extra 10 entries that were missing in my endgame save are:
People
Fossa, Alberto Rinaldo
Hassan, Cdr. David
Kashumai, 'Uncle' Veldon
Rhineheart
Vonx, Lord Michael
Companies
Central Intelligence Service
Galactic Gourmet Hotel
Holy Museum of Hom
Kappa Laboratories
Kindred
None in the other two categories, Vehicles and Planets.
The text and image with each entry is in WCPedia so I won't type it all out here. But those appear to be the entries that don't unlock during a normal playthrough but are in the code, and can be hacked into your save. Next time I do a full playthrough I'll see if I get the same results.
Lord Vonx's entry wrongly has Hal Taffin's picture. They wrongly duplicated the picture when creating the data files for the game.
EDIT: I've updated my config files for DOSBox-X and DOSBox Staging. They're attached. They run in Dynamic mode, so make sure to grab the fixed MPU401.MDI file as I explained earlier in the thread (bottom of page 2). And don't forget that every PC is different so the settings that work for me may not work for you; use these as a baseline and change things if necessary.
Removed as they're no longer up-to-date. The new versions are attached a few posts down.
Also, I'm not sure whether the Windows patch's GAMEFLOW.IFF file was the same as DOS version 17's version of the file. I'm not sure what other changes were made, but I think people did talk about the Louissa Phillips mission working correctly back in the day. If so, I wonder if the version 16 files make it work and version 17 either dummied out part of it for not always working properly, or maybe they made a mistake and accidentally introduced a glitch that stopped it working? I hope these things can be investigated by someone who knows what they're doing.
But if I remember correctly, when I installed the Windows patch, the GAMEFLOW.IFF that came with it may have been the same one that is installed with the GOG version. As I said before, I was able to install the Windows version in the same folder just by renaming the executable DARKWIN.EXE - but without one of the community patches, it runs very poorly. It seems it looks for a DirectDraw DLL, as the one that comes with the MW patches fixes the display - DARKFIX does not look for that file as it's a modified EXE for modern systems, but it looks like since the official Windows version does look for that file along with the WAIL32.DLL file, it was able to be patched without changing the EXE by modifying those DLLs.
I have the Priv2Dump utility v1.0 (I see there is now a v1.1 available but I'd probably have to compile it). I tried dumping both versions of GAMEFLOW.IFF but I wouldn't know where to start looking for changes as the structure is slightly different (different files extracted).
I also got used to flying with a gamepad. Only the four face buttons work, and trying to activate the throttle doesn't - in DOSBox (assuming swap34 to swap the 3rd and 4th axes is false, the default), the throttle can be controlled with the right stick's Y-axis but the problem is it sets the absolute speed, not the relative speed, so if you let the stick idle in the middle, it puts you at half maximum speed while down is 0 and up is max. There is no way to have it stay at maximum or match speed with another ship while throttle controls are on. The MW patch v0.0.5 uses the left and right triggers as throttle controls instead of the right stick's Y-axis - middle is default, left trigger slows you down (with it reaching 0 if you push it all the way in) and right trigger is speed up (max speed if you push it fully). Both together cancel each other out. (I don't know why it works like this - as far as I know, axes 0, 1, 2, 3 are Left X, Y, Right X, Y; axis 4 is Left Trigger and axis 5 is Right Trigger. At least that's how they appear in the DOSBox-X mapper. But maybe the Windows version treats the two triggers as a single axis, with LT being 4- and RT being 4+? And maybe it swaps Axes 3 and 4 for some reason? Not sure.
I can test DARKFIX if I use the original WAIL32.DLL file; I'll do that shortly and see how it handles throttle controls. (EDIT: It handles them the same as the new patch 0.0.5.)
EDIT: The DARK.CFG and DARK.FIX files both have an issue when it comes to the throttle controls: every time you run the game, it deducts 8 from the lines "Joy2 cy" and "Joy2 ry". This happens in all versions of the game that I've tried. It means that if you DO use a throttle to play the game, you have to recalibrate it regularly as it slowly goes out of whack and the centre position of the throttle control changes so that leaving the throttle in the middle represents less than half maximum speed, and even less the more times this glitch changes the config file. But if you don't use the throttle controls, which most modern players won't, it doesn't really matter. But it's worth pointing out this happens, just in case someone did want to use those controls.
Using the new MW patch v0.1.7 with the new control system, it is possible to fix this problem by, instead of setting the axis to throttle, set it to two buttons, with speed down as button A (bottom of the axis) and speed up as button B (top of the axis). This way you can increase and decrease your speed with the right stick up and down but leaving it in the middle does not make your speed jump back to half maximum speed - it just leaves it as it is. When the bugs are ironed out of the new control system (and hopefully there will be a working option to disable it entirely and use the default controls along with the default calibration system), I think it will be a really good patch. Even the v0.0.5 I've been using is better than DARKFIX. I turned off interlacing for the movies in the ini file. However, one thing I would say is that v0.0.5 uses the same DARK.INI used by the DOSBox version of the game. This means having to recalibrate my gamepad every time I use a different version of the game. I don't know whether this can be changed for 0.0.5 but I'll add an issue to the GitHub repo.
EDIT: I mentioned before that if you're docked at RS: Bestinium and look at missions in your PAD, it wrongly calculates distances from RS: Felos instead. Well, this is not the only time it thinks you're somewhere other than where you actually are - when you're at CS: Lironas, it does a similar thing. Nav Point #134 is right next to Lironas (a single jump), but the PAD showed it being 15 jumps away. I haven't worked out where it thinks you are yet, as there doesn't appear to be a space station at the exact distance needed for this to make sense, but I guess it thinks you're somewhere between 14 and 16 jumps away from the actual location of CS: Lironas.
And the old GAMEFLOW.IFF file doesn't work with any of the versions of Privateer 2 I've tried - I don't have version 16 on my PC but I imagine it probably works with that version. However, version 17 via DOSBox, the DARKFIX version and the new patch all crash if you press Alt-O to open the options menu if you're using the GAMEFLOW.IFF from version 16.
I've been attempting to do the Davis Nerve Weapons missions again. I've tried several different things and I still can't get Part C to complete no matter what I do, if I start from Part A. It seems initialising Part C of the mission in flight, which happens automatically when you complete Part B, doesn't correctly populate the spawn tables in the save, whereas the routine that initialises missions when you select them in the BBS on land does work correctly.
EDIT: I also attempted the New Crius Examiner mission by hacking it into the BBS. I couldn't get anywhere with it. I destroyed all the pirates and scanned all the military ships, then destroyed all the military ships in case that helped, and nothing. I got a fail message when I landed after that. I wonder if you have to scan every pirate as well? If that doesn't work, then I imagine the mission is bugged and can't be completed. (And yes, I tried scanning every single pirate ship as well, and it still didn't work. They do have interesting names, though, like Vicious Chicken, Mutant Goat and stuff like that. And there are two squadrons called Mup and Weeb.)
I remember some time ago making a thread about missing CCN Public Records entries here:
I worked out how to hack my save to add all the missing records. In a hex editor, starting exactly 48 bytes after the B in BITS (which will be near the start of the file), I changed the next 21 bytes to FF and it added them all. I don't know if it changed anything else; I know if you change an earlier part of the BITS section it can mess up the main plot and cinematic missions by making cutscenes available when they shouldn't be, so I think it's best to only hack if you know exactly what you're doing and only for testing purposes. But by doing that I ran two instances of DOSBox-X side-by-side to compare an endgame save with a save hacked to add all the entries.
EDIT: In particular, in an endgame save that has everything unlocked in the Public Records section of the booth, those 21 bytes will look like this: "FF FF EF 6B FE FF 7F EB DF FB FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF". Changing them all to FF changes 10 bits from 0 to 1, which corresponds exactly with the fact that 10 entries are missing. Of course, this may not be exactly the same for everyone if some characters failed to unlock in the Records as they should have done, but that's how it looks for me. However, do not change bytes 22-24 - they are not for the booth, but for which characters appear where. In my endgame save, they are "A0 F8 FF". If you change them to "FF FF FF", you will find things like Xavier minus his head in the Crius bar, Auntie in the Hephaestus bar even if you've done her mission and other glitchy behaviour.
So, the extra 10 entries that were missing in my endgame save are:
People
Fossa, Alberto Rinaldo
Hassan, Cdr. David
Kashumai, 'Uncle' Veldon
Rhineheart
Vonx, Lord Michael
Companies
Central Intelligence Service
Galactic Gourmet Hotel
Holy Museum of Hom
Kappa Laboratories
Kindred
None in the other two categories, Vehicles and Planets.
The text and image with each entry is in WCPedia so I won't type it all out here. But those appear to be the entries that don't unlock during a normal playthrough but are in the code, and can be hacked into your save. Next time I do a full playthrough I'll see if I get the same results.
Lord Vonx's entry wrongly has Hal Taffin's picture. They wrongly duplicated the picture when creating the data files for the game.
EDIT: I've updated my config files for DOSBox-X and DOSBox Staging. They're attached. They run in Dynamic mode, so make sure to grab the fixed MPU401.MDI file as I explained earlier in the thread (bottom of page 2). And don't forget that every PC is different so the settings that work for me may not work for you; use these as a baseline and change things if necessary.
Removed as they're no longer up-to-date. The new versions are attached a few posts down.
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I am going to start a new playthrough myself soon. I keep messing with the missions to try and work things out and maybe establish why certain missions won't complete, or try to work out if there's a way to complete some of the glitchy missions a different way. In particular, as you've identified the Crius New Examiner mission, there's also the Davis Nerve Weapons mission Part C, but not only that - you don't get paid for Part A either. The 7,000 reward for Part A is never paid; Part B is worth 6,000 and Part C WOULD be worth 2,500 I think if it worked correctly. For these missions, I edited the random nav point in the save data to be much closer to my current location - for example, I'm at Crius and I edited the Crius New Examiner mission into the BBS. The mission took place at Nav Point #189 I think, but that's miles away so I changed the value under 09 (which seems to represent Random Nav Set #3 for missions) in the Editor for that mission to 10, which is one jump from Crius. And when testing the Davis 3-part mission, I edited the value under 07 (Random Nav Set #1) to 134, one jump away from CS:Lironas. And I tried various things, including saving as CS:Lironas with the ship I'm escorting almost having landed or one jump away, and I tried landing immediately after the ship, before the email comes through properly (though it already came through in memory, as you can see in the Diary) - nothing worked. No matter what I did, the ships for Part C did not initialise properly and only the first few enemy ships appeared, along with some random encounters sometimes. I think random encounters are suppressed if you hack Part C in directly, but in any case, the mission fails to complete without hacking or save editing.
I wonder if the problem is that either there are two separate functions for initialising ships for a BBS mission, one of which runs when you accept a mission from the BBS directly and a different function which runs when a mission is accepted in space (e.g. either advancing to the next part of a multi-part mission or choosing an option in missions with a choice of paths)? It could be a different function that runs when you're in space than when you're on land, or it could be a different function when advancing to the next part or making a choice in-mission vs. accepting a new mission (which doesn't happen in space with BBS missions, but does happen with SOS missions which use the same mission slots and pages of the Diary). I don't know, but maybe if someone finds out what the problem is and what's causing it, maybe a fix for it can be added to one of the community patches if that's possible? I don't know enough about it unfortunately.
I also saw this thread when I was looking through the forums for any other discoveries I might have missed:
I can't explain it as I don't know the full save file format - I can have a go at noting down the stuff in the save I DO know about at some point, but when I went through every cinematic mission trying to get each one as early as possible in the main plot, I had already done a load of SOS and BBS missions; enough to upgrade to a pretty decent ship. As we know from the official guide, Privateer 2 has a hidden "difficulty" system where it uses your number of kills, your net worth and your progress in the main plot to determine your difficulty level. I don't know whether it's the difficulty level that determines when cinematic missions can be offered - I probably had over 200,000 net worth so was probably quite a high difficulty level - the fact that I was able to watch a main plot cutscene and immediately get a cinematic mission unlocked even though I didn't gain any money or kills from the cutscene makes me think there is a hard "lock" that says you CANNOT be offered certain missions before their point in the main plot. However, that may not be the ONLY requirement. It is very possible that in addition to the progress requirement, you also need a certain number of kills or a certain net worth, depending on the mission. The only way to know for sure would be to isolate where in the save it stores your difficulty (or if it calculates it on the fly, and if it can go down as well as up, to edit your net worth and kill count) to keep them low and see if that affects getting cinematic missions or not.
Someone was talking about getting the second part of the Louissa Phillips mission. I don't know whether they were playing an older version (maybe it works on v16) - but they did say it didn't always happen even then. If I can find where I read it again I'll update, but I don't know if there's anything we don't already know there.
EDIT: I found the thread I was talking about. They said they have had the second part of the Louissa Phillips mission in version 17 (post-patch) but not every time; rushing through the main plot in the initial Straith seemed to work for them although I wouldn't like to do that, the Straith is horrid. It's probably not that restrictive, but I'll experiment some more next playthrough, maybe trying to get the main plot to the point where Louissa's mission can be offered ASAP (after the Shernikov Medical cutscene).
EDIT: I experimented with the Uncle Kashumai mission. It does not matter if you accept or reject Alberto Fossa's offer - it makes absolutely no difference to the end result if you return the item to Uncle Kashumai. I compared two savegames, both of which gave the item back to Uncle, one of which said yes and the other no to Fossa. There was no difference at all in the saves apart from the time played. So there's that, at least.
EDIT: I wanted to check this and be absolutely sure because I read somewhere that double-crossing Fossa makes him send ships after you as revenge. If no mark is left on the save at all - not a single difference other than the playtime which is obviously going to be different - then I think it's safe to say it doesn't matter if you refuse his job or accept it then bolt. I used to always accept it, thinking it was necessary to get the funding for the auction (and he tells you the details about the auction, which you won't know otherwise, so maybe I thought I'd be stuck and unable to meet Reggie Bray). But the mission is a glitchy mess at the best of times; after meeting Uncle, the Bray twins show up in the Booth but Fossa and Uncle himself never do. And there is nothing in the Booth that tells you where you can find the Brays. Unlike what it says in the guide, the Diary entry does not change at all after looking up the Bray twins or anything else - not a single entry in the Public Records system in the Booth is any help here. In fact, it's a hindrance - the Bray twins are said to be from Anhur and hang out on Anhur. But go there and nothing. No pointers in the right direction. If you forget to check the Blessed Brew Bar (or simply don't realise you have to) after meeting Uncle, you might end up on a wild goose chase!
Anyway, as I said, accept Fossa's task and you get the information in your diary, not that you need it as Bray appears right there. And after getting the item, the diary ambiguously states "Now what?".
Whereas if you refuse Fossa, the diary does not change - but Bray appears anyway and after his cutscene, Fossa does not reappear. The diary says to return the item to Uncle, since that's all you can do with it after refusing Fossa.
The other oddity is that the auction costs you nothing. Fossa says he'll cover it if you accept his job but it still costs nothing if you reject it and buy the item yourself. No matter what you choose, as long as you give Uncle the item at the end of the mission, everything ends up the same, with you exactly 20,000 credits richer.
And as I discovered a couple of years ago, giving the item to Fossa locks you out of future cinematic missions; I have no idea if this is a glitch or a deliberate thing. It's possible that Uncle puts the word around that you're either incompetent or untrustworthy in that case, so it might make sense in-game that offers from his associates dry up - the lockouts almost always happen if you fail a mission but just refusing one doesn't prevent future jobs normally; Xavier Shondi 1 is the only exception I think, and again it might be deliberate as it's usually the first one offered, so I interpret it as Lev having no reputation yet; Xavier's first mission lets you make a name for yourself, attracting other potential clients, otherwise people might not want to risk hiring a blank slate. I'm just theorising here, though!
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I edited a few posts in this thread. I corrected some mistakes I'd made before, quite a while before in some cases, because I either assumed something or got something wrong due to not enough information. For example, I now know that the underflow news glitch is NOT fixed in the DARKFIX version.
I was talking about using 4 Kraven Mk IV lasers in my recent tests due to feeling that 3 was wasteful (along with 2 Mass Ion Cannons). But having played some more (running the entire main plot from a save I made just after getting the Dr Loomis email, all the way to Hugo Carmichael while doing it as quickly as possible to avoid unlocking any cinematic missions), I've come to the conclusion that 3 Kravens and 2 Ions is fine - having that setup is not really wasteful. If you're playing the DOSBox version which slows down when planets, ships and other objects are onscreen (the larger and closer, the slower), you will probably be more accurate if using a gamepad, so 4 or even 5 Kravens can destroy an enemy ship before needing to let them cool down in many cases. But I've been playing DARKWIN with the new patch - that, as well as the DARKFIX version, run much faster in those situations - they run at a pretty constant speed no matter how many objects are close - and while playing with the keyboard as I was doing a couple of years ago is very awkward when it comes to fine control for combat, I'm now used to using my EasySMX X15 gamepad with all versions (it's an Xbox 360 clone pad) and I'm able to shoot down ships at full speed.
Mass Ion Cannons are very powerful, and never overheat; their main disadvantage is their short range - not as bad as the Volt Laser but pretty poor for range. I forget the exact numbers but Kravens reach 350ish and Ions about 250ish. Accuracy at long distances (over about 300) is not easy, which is why some good general advice is to fit longer-range weapons closer to the centre (of course bearing in mind the Freij Mk II's reversed slots in the Booth, with the outer slots and second-most outer slots swapped); even if you fit five Kravens, hitting with all five at their maximum range is unlikely. And once in range of the Ions, you're at an advantage with five powerful guns that take ages to overheat if you fit two Ions. I don't think it's wasteful because once a ship is in range, all five can hit. And when fighting powerful capital ships like Cruisers, if you get into a blind spot from their turrets, sustained fire will cause your guns to overheat but you only need to let them cool a couple of times for a few short seconds.
So, I'm back to using Kraven, Kraven, Ion, Ion, Kraven as lasers. I'm also back to using Proximity Missiles for emergencies (mainly for Skulls if I'm in a rush), with torpedoes only when necessary for missions. Everything else is much the same.
I discovered a weird glitch with the Xavier Shondi 1 mission: the Heretic that's also escorting the Ilia Mk II is very glitchy. I stored the Ilia as 1 and the Heretic as 2. When I got to Karatikus, I followed the Ilia until it landed, then the Heretic stopped. But when new ships jumped in, the Heretic now started defending the first new ship which happened to be a pirate (pressing 1 selected it as it took the Ilia's old slot). Upon attacking the pirate, the Heretic started attacking me. It wasn't classed as an enemy as the jump bar wasn't red once the pirate was dead - but I killed the Heretic and it angered the CIS.
Anyway, I have a file saved just before the Louissa mission and after the main plot Shernikov mission. I'm testing different things to see if I can somehow get the second part of the Louissa mission. I've tried editing my save to downgrade my ship, money and kills but that didn't seem to work. I might try finishing the entire main quest before meeting Louissa in the bar - I used the DARKFIX version with CD.DAT set to 3 to ensure it was the first cinematic mission offered, and now I can see if that makes any difference when doing the rest. We'll see! I'll update if I learn anything new.
EDIT: I can confirm that some of the cinematic missions have minimum requirements to be offered. By giving myself a Straith with two Ion Cannons, 0 money and 0 kills, the game would not offer me another cinematic mission after Louissa as the first one I'd already done, when playing the new patch that doesn't limit missions by CD. As soon as I visited Jan Mitorr, Bill Maddox's mission became available. So I can only assume that the minimum requirements for Bill Maddox's mission are lower than for the others that would otherwise have been available at the time, including Xavier Shondi 1 and Auntie Maria.
I was talking about using 4 Kraven Mk IV lasers in my recent tests due to feeling that 3 was wasteful (along with 2 Mass Ion Cannons). But having played some more (running the entire main plot from a save I made just after getting the Dr Loomis email, all the way to Hugo Carmichael while doing it as quickly as possible to avoid unlocking any cinematic missions), I've come to the conclusion that 3 Kravens and 2 Ions is fine - having that setup is not really wasteful. If you're playing the DOSBox version which slows down when planets, ships and other objects are onscreen (the larger and closer, the slower), you will probably be more accurate if using a gamepad, so 4 or even 5 Kravens can destroy an enemy ship before needing to let them cool down in many cases. But I've been playing DARKWIN with the new patch - that, as well as the DARKFIX version, run much faster in those situations - they run at a pretty constant speed no matter how many objects are close - and while playing with the keyboard as I was doing a couple of years ago is very awkward when it comes to fine control for combat, I'm now used to using my EasySMX X15 gamepad with all versions (it's an Xbox 360 clone pad) and I'm able to shoot down ships at full speed.
Mass Ion Cannons are very powerful, and never overheat; their main disadvantage is their short range - not as bad as the Volt Laser but pretty poor for range. I forget the exact numbers but Kravens reach 350ish and Ions about 250ish. Accuracy at long distances (over about 300) is not easy, which is why some good general advice is to fit longer-range weapons closer to the centre (of course bearing in mind the Freij Mk II's reversed slots in the Booth, with the outer slots and second-most outer slots swapped); even if you fit five Kravens, hitting with all five at their maximum range is unlikely. And once in range of the Ions, you're at an advantage with five powerful guns that take ages to overheat if you fit two Ions. I don't think it's wasteful because once a ship is in range, all five can hit. And when fighting powerful capital ships like Cruisers, if you get into a blind spot from their turrets, sustained fire will cause your guns to overheat but you only need to let them cool a couple of times for a few short seconds.
So, I'm back to using Kraven, Kraven, Ion, Ion, Kraven as lasers. I'm also back to using Proximity Missiles for emergencies (mainly for Skulls if I'm in a rush), with torpedoes only when necessary for missions. Everything else is much the same.
I discovered a weird glitch with the Xavier Shondi 1 mission: the Heretic that's also escorting the Ilia Mk II is very glitchy. I stored the Ilia as 1 and the Heretic as 2. When I got to Karatikus, I followed the Ilia until it landed, then the Heretic stopped. But when new ships jumped in, the Heretic now started defending the first new ship which happened to be a pirate (pressing 1 selected it as it took the Ilia's old slot). Upon attacking the pirate, the Heretic started attacking me. It wasn't classed as an enemy as the jump bar wasn't red once the pirate was dead - but I killed the Heretic and it angered the CIS.
Anyway, I have a file saved just before the Louissa mission and after the main plot Shernikov mission. I'm testing different things to see if I can somehow get the second part of the Louissa mission. I've tried editing my save to downgrade my ship, money and kills but that didn't seem to work. I might try finishing the entire main quest before meeting Louissa in the bar - I used the DARKFIX version with CD.DAT set to 3 to ensure it was the first cinematic mission offered, and now I can see if that makes any difference when doing the rest. We'll see! I'll update if I learn anything new.
EDIT: I can confirm that some of the cinematic missions have minimum requirements to be offered. By giving myself a Straith with two Ion Cannons, 0 money and 0 kills, the game would not offer me another cinematic mission after Louissa as the first one I'd already done, when playing the new patch that doesn't limit missions by CD. As soon as I visited Jan Mitorr, Bill Maddox's mission became available. So I can only assume that the minimum requirements for Bill Maddox's mission are lower than for the others that would otherwise have been available at the time, including Xavier Shondi 1 and Auntie Maria.
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I may have discovered a crash that is fairly consistent, and I will include a save file for testing purposes.
It is an endgame save with the main plot complete but the Louissa Phillips mission is the ONLY cinematic mission that's complete, including watching the cutscene in Crius. (But the second part did not happen, as usual.) My ship is pretty much as good as it gets, although I may have unlocked a few things early with the save editor for testing purposes. I've just been offered Xavier Shondi 1, seen him in the Surgeons Blunder Bar and accepted one more mission from the BBS:
Here is the v0.0.5 patch I was using:
github.com
Now, to consistently get the crash, which happened with both the new patch v0.0.5 AND the DARKFIX version, leave Crius and escort Xavier's shipment to Karatikus - before leaving Crius's space I stored the shipment in 1 and the Heretic escorting it in 2, which I also scanned. Upon reaching Karatikus and watching the ship land, I went to System Jump 5A -> 5B then on to Draknor to complete the other mission. The crash would always occur about 2 jumps after leaving Draknor's space.
I finally avoided the crash by sending the shipment off on its own without storing any ships as hotkeys, then doing the Draknor mission at the same time. This took a few tries as it's hit-or-miss whether the ship gets to Karatikus or not, but it worked.
More information is in the text file along with the save. I hope this helps with debugging the community patches! Thanks!
EDIT: I've experimented a bit with the different control methods. By telling the DOSBox versions to emulate an FCS Thrustmaster, the D-Pad can be used to change to Front, Rear, Left and Right views, with everything else the same. Throttle controls still don't work, and if you try, it maps the throttle to the D-Pad as well, strangely enough, but apart from that everything's fine - the left stick controls the ship as normal, and the four buttons are (using XBox button layout): A = Fire lasers; B = Tap to target ship in crosshair, hold to roll; X = Fire missile(s); Y = Afterburner.
However, this does not work in any of the Windows versions. I rarely use the other views so it hardly matters to me, but it's something worth knowing for the DOS version at least.
I've attached my new DOSBox configs in the next post. If you use the FCS ones I attached, it should be set to Thrustmaster in-game, and I've included my mapper files for DOSBox (the Staging one goes in %localappdata%\DOSBox and the X one goes in DOSBox-X's installation folder). Strangely, DOSBox-X reads my controller differently, with axis 2 being LT and RT whereas axis 4 is Right Stick X; it's the reverse in DOSBox Staging. So you may have to remap things depending on how it reads your controller - as always, these work for me but may not work for everyone.
I also changed memsize to 64 in the Staging config file. I thought I'd already done that but clearly not. With memsize = 64, the game starts much more quickly in both versions of DOSBox.
It is an endgame save with the main plot complete but the Louissa Phillips mission is the ONLY cinematic mission that's complete, including watching the cutscene in Crius. (But the second part did not happen, as usual.) My ship is pretty much as good as it gets, although I may have unlocked a few things early with the save editor for testing purposes. I've just been offered Xavier Shondi 1, seen him in the Surgeons Blunder Bar and accepted one more mission from the BBS:
Here is the v0.0.5 patch I was using:
Release p2_dark_en_v0.0.5 · mattwells77/Privateer_2_The_Darkening_Enhancement_Patch
Initial release: Here Be BUGS: This first alpha release likely contains a few bugs. fixes v0.0.2: Fix for the distorted display of movies for some video cards. Due to the non-utilization of the DX...
github.com
Now, to consistently get the crash, which happened with both the new patch v0.0.5 AND the DARKFIX version, leave Crius and escort Xavier's shipment to Karatikus - before leaving Crius's space I stored the shipment in 1 and the Heretic escorting it in 2, which I also scanned. Upon reaching Karatikus and watching the ship land, I went to System Jump 5A -> 5B then on to Draknor to complete the other mission. The crash would always occur about 2 jumps after leaving Draknor's space.
I finally avoided the crash by sending the shipment off on its own without storing any ships as hotkeys, then doing the Draknor mission at the same time. This took a few tries as it's hit-or-miss whether the ship gets to Karatikus or not, but it worked.
More information is in the text file along with the save. I hope this helps with debugging the community patches! Thanks!
EDIT: I've experimented a bit with the different control methods. By telling the DOSBox versions to emulate an FCS Thrustmaster, the D-Pad can be used to change to Front, Rear, Left and Right views, with everything else the same. Throttle controls still don't work, and if you try, it maps the throttle to the D-Pad as well, strangely enough, but apart from that everything's fine - the left stick controls the ship as normal, and the four buttons are (using XBox button layout): A = Fire lasers; B = Tap to target ship in crosshair, hold to roll; X = Fire missile(s); Y = Afterburner.
However, this does not work in any of the Windows versions. I rarely use the other views so it hardly matters to me, but it's something worth knowing for the DOS version at least.
I've attached my new DOSBox configs in the next post. If you use the FCS ones I attached, it should be set to Thrustmaster in-game, and I've included my mapper files for DOSBox (the Staging one goes in %localappdata%\DOSBox and the X one goes in DOSBox-X's installation folder). Strangely, DOSBox-X reads my controller differently, with axis 2 being LT and RT whereas axis 4 is Right Stick X; it's the reverse in DOSBox Staging. So you may have to remap things depending on how it reads your controller - as always, these work for me but may not work for everyone.
I also changed memsize to 64 in the Staging config file. I thought I'd already done that but clearly not. With memsize = 64, the game starts much more quickly in both versions of DOSBox.
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Bandit LOAF
Long Live the Confederation!
I pointed Paul Hughes to this thread over on BlueSky. But I know using message boards in 2026 is pretty daunting, I am sure he'd answer questions if you want to skeet at him!
Ah, thanks! I'll have to have a think what to ask, but the main ones are why the second part of the Louissa Phillips mission doesn't work, and why the Davis Nerve Weapons Part C mission doesn't work but does if you hack Part C in directly via the BBS using a save editor (but going from Part B to Part C mid-flight fails to initialise the ships for Part C correctly and some of them don't spawn, making the mission unwinnable).
Is there any reason to use the Danrik over the cheaper Freij Mk II which has better shields and armour? The Danrik's only advantage I saw was that if lasers overheat, the middle ones fire first but it's the outer ones in the Freij II's case, making it less accurate in those situations. But with Ion Cannons on the outer two slots (remembering the outer and second-most outer slots are reversed when equipping the Freij II) and Kravens on the middle three slots, it rarely overheats with a Cooling Unit Mk IV so I'd much rather have the better defence.
I'm curious why ten entries are unavailable in the Public Records at the end of the game even if you've done everything. I listed the ten entries in a post just above. Apparently the Kindred entry could be obtained in version 16 of the game if you read other entries at a specific time WITHOUT having read them earlier in the game, which sounds convoluted, and now it seemingly can't be obtained at all, and the same goes for nine other entries - 5 in People and 5 in Companies.
And why could I only get about 60 of the 100 (115 in the guide but that includes Parts B and C of some missions separately) BBS missions offered naturally - are some of them either locked to specific planets or much more likely to be offered at certain planets than others, or are some of the missions just not offered at all for some reason? Or is it a difficulty level-based thing where if your difficulty level is too high, it can no longer offer missions with a much lower difficulty level? And why are some missions seemingly very common indeed, and others very rare (if they appear at all)?
And if you fail a mission, does it affect your reputation or is it tracked somehow? Likewise if you keep beating missions, are there secret reputation points or anything like that for beating them, or are the cash rewards (plus the credits and kills along the way) the only things you get for your trouble?
There's something in the draft script about GOOD and BAD points, but am I right in assuming this didn't make it into the final game? It says something about if you refuse Angus Santana's return delivery mission after the Dr Graham Gould mission, you may get GOOD points but I haven't noticed any difference. I accept the mission, although there is a glitch if you complete Gould's mission before the main plot Shernikov cutscene - if you click on the Shernikov receptionist, the cinematic mission cutscene will have priority and the main plot cutscene will become unavailable as the receptionist can't be clicked on.
There's also something in the draft script about GOOD and BAD points when it comes to the Uncle Kashumai/Alberto Fossa mission but in this case, it seems that giving the item to Fossa (the bad ending of the mission) locks you out of further cinematic missions. I wonder if this was done instead of a points system?
The New Crius Examiner mission can't be completed at all, it seems, and the CIS Smugglers mission is very glitchy and you have to land after doing Part A, before doing Part B, and it skips straight to Part C. If you do Part B normally, Part C glitches out and can't be completed, which may be caused by a similar glitch to the Davis Nerve Weapons mission glitch - as mentioned earlier in the thread, Part A gives no reward instead of 7,000 credits and Part C does not initialise properly in-flight but does if hacked into the BBS STARTING FROM Part C (Mission ID 342 instead of 340).
I know that the TIME section of the save has a number from 0 to 9 representing how many ship accessories have been unlocked, and the next number represents when the next one unlocks. The third number is the earliest time the next cinematic mission can unlock (when you're on land). My question is about the first number - when it becomes 8 (usually at or after 480 minutes' gameplay on the current file; the second number is then set to 540), the Freij Mk II becomes available for purchase. But when you reach 540 minutes, the first two numbers become 9 and 600 - that's the last change for the first two numbers. But nothing seems to unlock at this point. What's going on there, and if there is indeed no 9th hourly unlock, why does it not stop at 8? And what's the purpose of the NUMS field, which is set to 17 in one of my early saves and 150 in an endgame save with all cinematic missions done?
There are probably more things to ask but I can't think of anything else right now. Here are my findings regarding when the cinematic missions become available, although since I made the linked thread I now know that main plot progress is not the ONLY requirement - I tested giving myself a cheap ship, 0 money and 0 kills just before Jan Mitorr, and the game didn't offer me any cinematic mission on any CD. After the Jan Mitorr cutscene, Bill Maddox became available so I guess his mission's minimum requirements are lower than the CD 1 missions' requirements.
I also updated my DOSBox config files again because I forgot to set memsize = 64 in the Staging file. It makes it start much quicker. I also fixed the display to remove black borders in Staging.
The first ZIP file has joysticktype set to fcs (Thrustmaster) so the D-Pad can change view. The second uses auto. There are mapper files in the first ZIP file that work for me; they may work with the other configs as well but I haven't included them twice. As I said before, setting it to Thrustmaster in the Windows versions does not work properly - it maps changing the view to the right trigger depending on the amount you press it, which is completely useless. But for DOS players, it's something at least.
Is there any reason to use the Danrik over the cheaper Freij Mk II which has better shields and armour? The Danrik's only advantage I saw was that if lasers overheat, the middle ones fire first but it's the outer ones in the Freij II's case, making it less accurate in those situations. But with Ion Cannons on the outer two slots (remembering the outer and second-most outer slots are reversed when equipping the Freij II) and Kravens on the middle three slots, it rarely overheats with a Cooling Unit Mk IV so I'd much rather have the better defence.
I'm curious why ten entries are unavailable in the Public Records at the end of the game even if you've done everything. I listed the ten entries in a post just above. Apparently the Kindred entry could be obtained in version 16 of the game if you read other entries at a specific time WITHOUT having read them earlier in the game, which sounds convoluted, and now it seemingly can't be obtained at all, and the same goes for nine other entries - 5 in People and 5 in Companies.
And why could I only get about 60 of the 100 (115 in the guide but that includes Parts B and C of some missions separately) BBS missions offered naturally - are some of them either locked to specific planets or much more likely to be offered at certain planets than others, or are some of the missions just not offered at all for some reason? Or is it a difficulty level-based thing where if your difficulty level is too high, it can no longer offer missions with a much lower difficulty level? And why are some missions seemingly very common indeed, and others very rare (if they appear at all)?
Louissa Phillips (mission) - Wing Commander Encyclopedia
www.wcnews.com
And if you fail a mission, does it affect your reputation or is it tracked somehow? Likewise if you keep beating missions, are there secret reputation points or anything like that for beating them, or are the cash rewards (plus the credits and kills along the way) the only things you get for your trouble?
There's something in the draft script about GOOD and BAD points, but am I right in assuming this didn't make it into the final game? It says something about if you refuse Angus Santana's return delivery mission after the Dr Graham Gould mission, you may get GOOD points but I haven't noticed any difference. I accept the mission, although there is a glitch if you complete Gould's mission before the main plot Shernikov cutscene - if you click on the Shernikov receptionist, the cinematic mission cutscene will have priority and the main plot cutscene will become unavailable as the receptionist can't be clicked on.
Dr. Graham Gould (mission) - Wing Commander Encyclopedia
www.wcnews.com
Angus Santana (mission) - Wing Commander Encyclopedia
www.wcnews.com
There's also something in the draft script about GOOD and BAD points when it comes to the Uncle Kashumai/Alberto Fossa mission but in this case, it seems that giving the item to Fossa (the bad ending of the mission) locks you out of further cinematic missions. I wonder if this was done instead of a points system?
Uncle Kashumai/Alberto Fossa - Wing Commander Encyclopedia
www.wcnews.com
The New Crius Examiner mission can't be completed at all, it seems, and the CIS Smugglers mission is very glitchy and you have to land after doing Part A, before doing Part B, and it skips straight to Part C. If you do Part B normally, Part C glitches out and can't be completed, which may be caused by a similar glitch to the Davis Nerve Weapons mission glitch - as mentioned earlier in the thread, Part A gives no reward instead of 7,000 credits and Part C does not initialise properly in-flight but does if hacked into the BBS STARTING FROM Part C (Mission ID 342 instead of 340).
CIS Smugglers - Wing Commander Encyclopedia
www.wcnews.com
I know that the TIME section of the save has a number from 0 to 9 representing how many ship accessories have been unlocked, and the next number represents when the next one unlocks. The third number is the earliest time the next cinematic mission can unlock (when you're on land). My question is about the first number - when it becomes 8 (usually at or after 480 minutes' gameplay on the current file; the second number is then set to 540), the Freij Mk II becomes available for purchase. But when you reach 540 minutes, the first two numbers become 9 and 600 - that's the last change for the first two numbers. But nothing seems to unlock at this point. What's going on there, and if there is indeed no 9th hourly unlock, why does it not stop at 8? And what's the purpose of the NUMS field, which is set to 17 in one of my early saves and 150 in an endgame save with all cinematic missions done?
There are probably more things to ask but I can't think of anything else right now. Here are my findings regarding when the cinematic missions become available, although since I made the linked thread I now know that main plot progress is not the ONLY requirement - I tested giving myself a cheap ship, 0 money and 0 kills just before Jan Mitorr, and the game didn't offer me any cinematic mission on any CD. After the Jan Mitorr cutscene, Bill Maddox became available so I guess his mission's minimum requirements are lower than the CD 1 missions' requirements.
I also updated my DOSBox config files again because I forgot to set memsize = 64 in the Staging file. It makes it start much quicker. I also fixed the display to remove black borders in Staging.
The first ZIP file has joysticktype set to fcs (Thrustmaster) so the D-Pad can change view. The second uses auto. There are mapper files in the first ZIP file that work for me; they may work with the other configs as well but I haven't included them twice. As I said before, setting it to Thrustmaster in the Windows versions does not work properly - it maps changing the view to the right trigger depending on the amount you press it, which is completely useless. But for DOS players, it's something at least.
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I've edited the previous post a number of times to clarify things and add questions I forgot before. The bit at the bottom regarding DOSBox config files is separate and not related to the questions. I hope these questions are OK and not too complicated, and if anyone has anything to add, please do! More input is always appreciated! Thanks to everyone who has helped.
Paulie68000
Spaceman
Howdy!Ah, thanks! I'll have to have a think what to ask, but the main ones are why the second part of the Louissa Phillips mission doesn't work, and why the Davis Nerve Weapons Part C mission doesn't work but does if you hack Part C in directly via the BBS using a save editor (but going from Part B to Part C mid-flight fails to initialise the ships for Part C correctly and some of them don't spawn, making the mission unwinnable).
Is there any reason to use the Danrik over the cheaper Freij Mk II which has better shields and armour? The Danrik's only advantage I saw was that if lasers overheat, the middle ones fire first but it's the outer ones in the Freij II's case, making it less accurate in those situations. But with Ion Cannons on the outer two slots (remembering the outer and second-most outer slots are reversed when equipping the Freij II) and Kravens on the middle three slots, it rarely overheats with a Cooling Unit Mk IV so I'd much rather have the better defence.
I'm curious why ten entries are unavailable in the Public Records at the end of the game even if you've done everything. I listed the ten entries in a post just above. Apparently the Kindred entry could be obtained in version 16 of the game if you read other entries at a specific time WITHOUT having read them earlier in the game, which sounds convoluted, and now it seemingly can't be obtained at all, and the same goes for nine other entries - 5 in People and 5 in Companies.
And why could I only get about 60 of the 100 (115 in the guide but that includes Parts B and C of some missions separately) BBS missions offered naturally - are some of them either locked to specific planets or much more likely to be offered at certain planets than others, or are some of the missions just not offered at all for some reason? Or is it a difficulty level-based thing where if your difficulty level is too high, it can no longer offer missions with a much lower difficulty level? And why are some missions seemingly very common indeed, and others very rare (if they appear at all)?
Louissa Phillips (mission) - Wing Commander Encyclopedia
www.wcnews.com
And if you fail a mission, does it affect your reputation or is it tracked somehow? Likewise if you keep beating missions, are there secret reputation points or anything like that for beating them, or are the cash rewards (plus the credits and kills along the way) the only things you get for your trouble?
There's something in the draft script about GOOD and BAD points, but am I right in assuming this didn't make it into the final game? It says something about if you refuse Angus Santana's return delivery mission after the Dr Graham Gould mission, you may get GOOD points but I haven't noticed any difference. I accept the mission, although there is a glitch if you complete Gould's mission before the main plot Shernikov cutscene - if you click on the Shernikov receptionist, the cinematic mission cutscene will have priority and the main plot cutscene will become unavailable as the receptionist can't be clicked on.
Dr. Graham Gould (mission) - Wing Commander Encyclopedia
www.wcnews.com
Angus Santana (mission) - Wing Commander Encyclopedia
www.wcnews.com
There's also something in the draft script about GOOD and BAD points when it comes to the Uncle Kashumai/Alberto Fossa mission but in this case, it seems that giving the item to Fossa (the bad ending of the mission) locks you out of further cinematic missions. I wonder if this was done instead of a points system?
Uncle Kashumai/Alberto Fossa - Wing Commander Encyclopedia
www.wcnews.com
The New Crius Examiner mission can't be completed at all, it seems, and the CIS Smugglers mission is very glitchy and you have to land after doing Part A, before doing Part B, and it skips straight to Part C. If you do Part B normally, Part C glitches out and can't be completed, which may be caused by a similar glitch to the Davis Nerve Weapons mission glitch - as mentioned earlier in the thread, Part A gives no reward instead of 7,000 credits and Part C does not initialise properly in-flight but does if hacked into the BBS STARTING FROM Part C (Mission ID 342 instead of 340).
CIS Smugglers - Wing Commander Encyclopedia
www.wcnews.com
I know that the TIME section of the save has a number from 0 to 9 representing how many ship accessories have been unlocked, and the next number represents when the next one unlocks. The third number is the earliest time the next cinematic mission can unlock (when you're on land). My question is about the first number - when it becomes 8 (usually at or after 480 minutes' gameplay on the current file; the second number is then set to 540), the Freij Mk II becomes available for purchase. But when you reach 540 minutes, the first two numbers become 9 and 600 - that's the last change for the first two numbers. But nothing seems to unlock at this point. What's going on there, and if there is indeed no 9th hourly unlock, why does it not stop at 8? And what's the purpose of the NUMS field, which is set to 17 in one of my early saves and 150 in an endgame save with all cinematic missions done?
There are probably more things to ask but I can't think of anything else right now. Here are my findings regarding when the cinematic missions become available, although since I made the linked thread I now know that main plot progress is not the ONLY requirement - I tested giving myself a cheap ship, 0 money and 0 kills just before Jan Mitorr, and the game didn't offer me any cinematic mission on any CD. After the Jan Mitorr cutscene, Bill Maddox became available so I guess his mission's minimum requirements are lower than the CD 1 missions' requirements.
I also updated my DOSBox config files again because I forgot to set memsize = 64 in the Staging file. It makes it start much quicker. I also fixed the display to remove black borders in Staging.
The first ZIP file has joysticktype set to fcs (Thrustmaster) so the D-Pad can change view. The second uses auto. There are mapper files in the first ZIP file that work for me; they may work with the other configs as well but I haven't included them twice. As I said before, setting it to Thrustmaster in the Windows versions does not work properly - it maps changing the view to the right trigger depending on the amount you press it, which is completely useless. But for DOS players, it's something at least.
Gosh, that's a big old question to unpack. I'll start with the standard disclaimer that it's been a good 30 years since I last looked at the code, so it'll take me a while to re-acquaint myself with the mission system. I've found the missions you're referring to and have the game scripts for them - I just need to remember how the heck they worked!
Regarding the GOOD and BAD points in the script - bear in mind the script was created before the fundamental game was started - and so there were things in the script (that got filmed) that had knock-ons to how the whole trading system worked, it's only when I started receiving the pink sheets from the shoots that I started panicking about how some of the rewards offered broke the whole economy of the game as written, so some references in the script weren't used in the actual game (I don't remember the GOOD and BAD points being implemented as mentioned; however, there were different script states entered depending on what you did during the missions). The whole of the game's trading was hastily rebalanced to work with the values in the movies.
There was also a heinous issue at launch where a beta version of the second disk was erroneously mastered instead of the gold master, which messed up one of the early missions (and led to a tip in sheet being added to the box to tell the player what to do)
None of which helps you, I realise, but this little missive is to let you know, I'm having a look into things and if we can figure out what's going on between us, then that's a good thing for the game.
As a starter for ten, I could give you an overview of what all the flags do in the save games, so at least you aren't completely in the dark.
All the best,
Paulie.
Thanks, that would be great!
I did work out how some other timed events happen. In the PUSH section of the save, an entry 0x86 represents an email queued to arrive, and the amount of time you have to wait before it arrives is in the 46th and 47th byte after the 86 - for example, after Dimitri decodes the thing, it queues up an email and those bytes read 88 13, which converts to 5,000 in decimal (little-endian format). That seems to be the number of frames before the email arrives, so if playing at 30 fps, that's just under 167 seconds. I think that's right, anyway (I did roughly time it and it seemed to hold). Similar things can be found whenever a cinematic mission is queued up and you're waiting for an email, although the time you have to wait is lower (EDIT: It varies depending on the mission - sometimes it's 500 frames (F4 01 in the save file), which is just under 17 seconds; sometimes it's more like a minute e.g. in Bill Maddox's case) as well as at the start of the game, after seeing Dr Loomis. I haven't checked how long you have to wait for his email in that situation but I'll check next time I play from the beginning.
I believe 0x86 can also represent other things including ships jumping in later - it probably just represents any timed event where after a certain amount of time runs out, something happens like ships or an email arriving. I'd have to know the exact data format to know more.
I was just looking around the site and I found this:
www.wcnews.com
I can confirm I have seen that bulletin in the game, just the other day in fact, so it IS in the game. I still have the save file with this report. It has a different reporter and a different planet, but those can be randomly generated so this is the same bulletin.
There's also something odd about the bulletins that you're supposed to get when a new piece of technology is unlocked. If one is unlocked, it will appear in the booth the next time you land and the bulletin mentioning it will be queued up as the next bulletin when the current one expires, but strangely, this will NOT be saved in the file, it's only queued up in memory it seems. Because if you save and reload after the new technology is unlocked but before its corresponding bulletin has appeared in the booth, the bulletin will never appear in the booth, meaning if you regularly save and reload, you may miss most or all of those bulletins while still unlocking all the items up to the Freij Mk II at the eight hour mark.
I did work out how some other timed events happen. In the PUSH section of the save, an entry 0x86 represents an email queued to arrive, and the amount of time you have to wait before it arrives is in the 46th and 47th byte after the 86 - for example, after Dimitri decodes the thing, it queues up an email and those bytes read 88 13, which converts to 5,000 in decimal (little-endian format). That seems to be the number of frames before the email arrives, so if playing at 30 fps, that's just under 167 seconds. I think that's right, anyway (I did roughly time it and it seemed to hold). Similar things can be found whenever a cinematic mission is queued up and you're waiting for an email, although the time you have to wait is lower (EDIT: It varies depending on the mission - sometimes it's 500 frames (F4 01 in the save file), which is just under 17 seconds; sometimes it's more like a minute e.g. in Bill Maddox's case) as well as at the start of the game, after seeing Dr Loomis. I haven't checked how long you have to wait for his email in that situation but I'll check next time I play from the beginning.
I believe 0x86 can also represent other things including ships jumping in later - it probably just represents any timed event where after a certain amount of time runs out, something happens like ships or an email arriving. I'd have to know the exact data format to know more.
I was just looking around the site and I found this:
Documents Archive - Errata for Privateer 2: The Darkening - Wing Commander CIC
Wing Commander CIC
I can confirm I have seen that bulletin in the game, just the other day in fact, so it IS in the game. I still have the save file with this report. It has a different reporter and a different planet, but those can be randomly generated so this is the same bulletin.
There's also something odd about the bulletins that you're supposed to get when a new piece of technology is unlocked. If one is unlocked, it will appear in the booth the next time you land and the bulletin mentioning it will be queued up as the next bulletin when the current one expires, but strangely, this will NOT be saved in the file, it's only queued up in memory it seems. Because if you save and reload after the new technology is unlocked but before its corresponding bulletin has appeared in the booth, the bulletin will never appear in the booth, meaning if you regularly save and reload, you may miss most or all of those bulletins while still unlocking all the items up to the Freij Mk II at the eight hour mark.
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I have a few more questions. About the SOS mission CIS Carrier Forgen. You get paid when you destroy the Lasertowers, then you are asked to deliver a pod to Hades but you don't get paid on doing so. Does it matter whether you take the pod to Hades or not? I mean does it change anything at all in the game?
I already discovered that when missions ask you to land somewhere to be rewarded, you don't actually have to land where it tells you to. As long as you jump to the correct location and receive the next email saying "Now land", you can carry on flying around and land anywhere to be rewarded. This applies to at least these two SOS missions:
And the very first SOS mission never repeats. Was this a conscious decision due to the fact that it was a Talon easter egg, or was it a mistake caused by the variable not being reset correctly after all SOS missions were activated and it tried to go back to the start?
There are also several scenes involving Joe Kane the bartender in Sinners Inn on Hermes, but they all appear to be unused. I've tried going back to Sinners multiple times at different points in the story, and Joe can never be spoken to except right at the start, and just before meeting Dimitri.
(Bartender)
EDIT 2: There is also a Melissa Banks cutscene in Sinners Inn on Hermes that never seems to play during normal gameplay:
(Melissa Banks 2)
It's the 97_S one. The other three can all play under certain circumstances - one plays if you refuse Melissa's second mission during the Hephaestus bar cutscene (with Melissa appearing on the other side of the Sinners Inn bar), and the other two play if you accept and complete her second mission - the one it picks depends on whether you've seen the Louissa Phillips cutscene or not.
EDIT: I decided to start a new game and see how long the Dr Loomis email should take to arrive. I haven't timed it but the value in the save is FF 7F, which is 32767 using little-endian format. (The length of each section, represented by the four bytes after each section's name, uses big-endian format, but everything else uses little-endian format.) 32767 / 30 is just over 1092 seconds or 18 minutes 12 seconds. So assuming I'm right, you have to be actually flying for that amount of time before his email comes (not sitting in a space station or even a menu in space I think, although the Alt-X "menu" MIGHT be an exception since the jump drive recharges; this would need testing though). (EDIT: Tested. Alt-X does freeze the timer just like all other menus do.)
I also tested if there was any difference which dialogue option you pick in the first Joe Kane cutscene and the Dr Loomis cutscene, and it makes no difference whatsoever - the saves were again identical apart from time and the randomly-generated ship ID assigned to the 0x86 at the start of the PUSH section after the Loomis cutscene. Finally I also went through the Public Records on Crius after the Loomis cutscene and made another save. Yet again, no difference apart from time elapsed. So reading the Public Records this early in the game does not change anything in the save.
EDIT: I also noted down some glitches in a couple of missions here:
In that post and the next one I mention glitches in these two missions:
And here are some minor glitches I noticed in a few other missions:
CIS Carrier Forgen - Wing Commander Encyclopedia
www.wcnews.com
I already discovered that when missions ask you to land somewhere to be rewarded, you don't actually have to land where it tells you to. As long as you jump to the correct location and receive the next email saying "Now land", you can carry on flying around and land anywhere to be rewarded. This applies to at least these two SOS missions:
CIS Cargo Rescue - Wing Commander Encyclopedia
www.wcnews.com
And the very first SOS mission never repeats. Was this a conscious decision due to the fact that it was a Talon easter egg, or was it a mistake caused by the variable not being reset correctly after all SOS missions were activated and it tried to go back to the start?
CIS Code 3 Top Priority - Wing Commander Encyclopedia
www.wcnews.com
There are also several scenes involving Joe Kane the bartender in Sinners Inn on Hermes, but they all appear to be unused. I've tried going back to Sinners multiple times at different points in the story, and Joe can never be spoken to except right at the start, and just before meeting Dimitri.
(Bartender)
EDIT 2: There is also a Melissa Banks cutscene in Sinners Inn on Hermes that never seems to play during normal gameplay:
(Melissa Banks 2)
It's the 97_S one. The other three can all play under certain circumstances - one plays if you refuse Melissa's second mission during the Hephaestus bar cutscene (with Melissa appearing on the other side of the Sinners Inn bar), and the other two play if you accept and complete her second mission - the one it picks depends on whether you've seen the Louissa Phillips cutscene or not.
97 S - Wing Commander Encyclopedia
www.wcnews.com
EDIT: I decided to start a new game and see how long the Dr Loomis email should take to arrive. I haven't timed it but the value in the save is FF 7F, which is 32767 using little-endian format. (The length of each section, represented by the four bytes after each section's name, uses big-endian format, but everything else uses little-endian format.) 32767 / 30 is just over 1092 seconds or 18 minutes 12 seconds. So assuming I'm right, you have to be actually flying for that amount of time before his email comes (not sitting in a space station or even a menu in space I think, although the Alt-X "menu" MIGHT be an exception since the jump drive recharges; this would need testing though). (EDIT: Tested. Alt-X does freeze the timer just like all other menus do.)
I also tested if there was any difference which dialogue option you pick in the first Joe Kane cutscene and the Dr Loomis cutscene, and it makes no difference whatsoever - the saves were again identical apart from time and the randomly-generated ship ID assigned to the 0x86 at the start of the PUSH section after the Loomis cutscene. Finally I also went through the Public Records on Crius after the Loomis cutscene and made another save. Yet again, no difference apart from time elapsed. So reading the Public Records this early in the game does not change anything in the save.
EDIT: I also noted down some glitches in a couple of missions here:
In that post and the next one I mention glitches in these two missions:
Conrad Bikunski - Part B - Wing Commander Encyclopedia
www.wcnews.com
Rutger O'Malley (mission) - Wing Commander Encyclopedia
www.wcnews.com
And here are some minor glitches I noticed in a few other missions:
A few more mission glitches; one major, three minor.
www.wcnews.com
Major glitch: If you go to Karatikus, Nav #0 and destroy the six Kiowan ships before going to Nav #25, if the Ogans jump, instead of going to #0 they disappear (and the mission doesn't automatically fail until you land a few times). If you avoid #0 before going to #25 and they jump, they will be at #0. I don't know why, but clearing out #0 stops the ships jumping there when they leave #25.
www.wcnews.com
Minor glitch: Normally...
CIS ID Large Cargo Convoy - Wing Commander Encyclopedia
Major glitch: If you go to Karatikus, Nav #0 and destroy the six Kiowan ships before going to Nav #25, if the Ogans jump, instead of going to #0 they disappear (and the mission doesn't automatically fail until you land a few times). If you avoid #0 before going to #25 and they jump, they will be at #0. I don't know why, but clearing out #0 stops the ships jumping there when they leave #25.
CIS Cravien Shard - Wing Commander Encyclopedia
Minor glitch: Normally...
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I found this thread of mine from before - it mentions the issue with CIS Smugglers that I've already mentioned, but also the issue with Tri-System Hunters:
After identifying the Monolith carrying Lumber, if you go straight to the destination you can't complete the mission. The cargo pods spawn moving at 400 speed, making them very hard to tractor, and even if you do successfully and destroy everything else, the mission doesn't complete. Instead, land somewhere after identifying the Monolith and you'll get the email for the third part of the mission, skipping the second part. Now the cargo pods will be moving at 200, there will be no Lasertowers and four Skulls will shortly appear. Also...
The issue with this mission isn't so much that it's glitched to complete, but that failing to even start it in time results in the mission basically getting stuck in the diary permanently, occupying a slot.
I remember reading something about the Buddy Carlson Space Jox mission - it's here on the WCPedia - that if you run out of landouts, you get a blank PAD screen with a Yes/No option upon landing:
I have a feeling this might also happen in the Tri-System League of Hunters' case. It could be that any part of a mission with a Yes/No selection also has to have a Yes/No selection if you fail that part, even if that part is as simple as flying to a certain Nav Point before choosing whether to continue the mission or not - however, I don't think this happens in every single case with failed mission parts of that sort. It might just be missions with a Yes/No choice in the very first part like the League of Hunters and Buddy Carlson. Alternatively it might just be that they never coded a fail event for those mission parts, thinking they were impossible to fail at the time while forgetting about running out of landouts. If the limited landouts were only implemented later, after the missions had already been designed, this could explain this. I'm just theorising, though.
CIS Smugglers - Wing Commander Encyclopedia
www.wcnews.com
After identifying the Monolith carrying Lumber, if you go straight to the destination you can't complete the mission. The cargo pods spawn moving at 400 speed, making them very hard to tractor, and even if you do successfully and destroy everything else, the mission doesn't complete. Instead, land somewhere after identifying the Monolith and you'll get the email for the third part of the mission, skipping the second part. Now the cargo pods will be moving at 200, there will be no Lasertowers and four Skulls will shortly appear. Also...
The issue with this mission isn't so much that it's glitched to complete, but that failing to even start it in time results in the mission basically getting stuck in the diary permanently, occupying a slot.
I remember reading something about the Buddy Carlson Space Jox mission - it's here on the WCPedia - that if you run out of landouts, you get a blank PAD screen with a Yes/No option upon landing:
Buddy Carlson (mission) - Wing Commander Encyclopedia
www.wcnews.com
I have a feeling this might also happen in the Tri-System League of Hunters' case. It could be that any part of a mission with a Yes/No selection also has to have a Yes/No selection if you fail that part, even if that part is as simple as flying to a certain Nav Point before choosing whether to continue the mission or not - however, I don't think this happens in every single case with failed mission parts of that sort. It might just be missions with a Yes/No choice in the very first part like the League of Hunters and Buddy Carlson. Alternatively it might just be that they never coded a fail event for those mission parts, thinking they were impossible to fail at the time while forgetting about running out of landouts. If the limited landouts were only implemented later, after the missions had already been designed, this could explain this. I'm just theorising, though.
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Bandit LOAF
Long Live the Confederation!
Tri-System League of Hunters seems like it's intended to have a lose state where if you leave the 'path' you get a fail message... but I don't think it actually works.
I have forked Mash's patch and completely removed all the input stuff because it wasn't working properly and there were several small differences in the way it controlled from the normal game. I reverted back to version 0.0.5 but cherry-picked all the commits that weren't updates to the input system. So the no-CD stuff works properly now (it no longer checks which CD it thinks is in before deciding whether to offer a cinematic mission) and the other updates to the movies and windowed mode (press F11 to activate) seem to work fine. I haven't tested it thoroughly though.
I was unable to successfully cherry-pick the commit that unlocks the mouse pointer in windowed mode while using the PAD, because there were several unassigned variables and I didn't know what to do with them, so I reverted that one, but everything else should be pretty much up to date, only without the modified input system.
github.com
I haven't uploaded any Releases to the repository yet. I built it using Visual Studio on my PC so I'm just attaching it here for now.
EDIT: Fixed the mouse pointer in windowed mode. I think. The Alt-H in-flight help menu still has the glitch from version 0.0.5 where it doesn't clear the screen between pages; it's a minor cosmetic thing so no rush but I'll have a look at that later. Unfortunately the input routine was deeply embedded in the later versions of the patch and removing it without breaking the other updates wasn't easy.
I was unable to successfully cherry-pick the commit that unlocks the mouse pointer in windowed mode while using the PAD, because there were several unassigned variables and I didn't know what to do with them, so I reverted that one, but everything else should be pretty much up to date, only without the modified input system.
GitHub - avengah/Privateer_2_The_Darkening_Enhancement_Patch at Revert
Enhancement Patch for the Windows version of Privateer 2: The Darkening. - avengah/Privateer_2_The_Darkening_Enhancement_Patch
github.com
I haven't uploaded any Releases to the repository yet. I built it using Visual Studio on my PC so I'm just attaching it here for now.
EDIT: Fixed the mouse pointer in windowed mode. I think. The Alt-H in-flight help menu still has the glitch from version 0.0.5 where it doesn't clear the screen between pages; it's a minor cosmetic thing so no rush but I'll have a look at that later. Unfortunately the input routine was deeply embedded in the later versions of the patch and removing it without breaking the other updates wasn't easy.
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