BainIhrno

I'll just mention that I have finished replaying Exodus - definitely better than I remember it being the first time (albeit I did feel immense pressure to dislike it at the time); anyway, I'll probably be able to be a bit more thorough in the next Homeland beta test, whenever that is ready.

I should not that I am NOT the author of "War Preparations"; not sure how a file called "War Preperations by Bain-Ihrno" exists. (Milu K is the designer of War Preparations). My BoE scenarios include: Fort Emerald Robbery The Nephils' Defense The Final Spire 100 Evil Sliths The Crusaders I did also create two (pretty useless) utilities, which include: The Fifth Tower of Magi The Portal

For my "Of Good and Evil" port, you should probably use this download to ensure it works properly; some older versions had game-killing bugs. https://drive.google.com/open?id=10ggHmbDffS7a_nja_BmlpB-dt2uykE2L

I haven't received any beta reports for the update of my Redemption port; I'm still interested if anyone would like to test. I guess I haven't been around much lately, so wasn't sure if anyone thought I'm still going with this. This is the most recent version, or I can email you a copy if you would like. Again, you can contact me by email (in the file) or by DM. Let me know what type of party you used, and your familiarity with the BoE scenario. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XIp4oSu5VvUDN5lVygAcp8xiWsOtrDSb/view?usp=sharing Hopefully I can get to an official release in early 2023.

I've been playing Exile III: Ruined World, but at some point, after the Troglodyte/Giant mission, Anaximander stopped giving me messages as I walked into his office - it seems the game stopped responding to my actions in some places. I'm playing v.1.0.3, on an OS 9 emulator.

To clarify my comments on this, I'm not saying this is a problem or a bad thing - I only pointed this out to help give you a realistic idea of what a player is likely to find on their first play through; I'm only one person, but I felt if other people also say similar things, you might get an idea of how much people are finding without a hint file - whether you're okay with that finding out is your decision

I have sent in a beta report - not sure if you saw it.

I'm ready to begin the second round of testing - this version will be less buggy than the first beta, but may not quite be ready for release. This will be a public beta, so if you would like to test, download the scenario and play through. If you send a report, please let me know whether you have played the Blades of Exile scenario, and what type of party you played with, both in terms of level and the composition (Human/Nephil/Slith) of the party. You can send a report via email or by DM - it will transfer directly to my email. Without further ado... https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XIp4oSu5VvUDN5lVygAcp8xiWsOtrDSb/view?usp=sharing Thanks!

I just downloaded it. It could be a while before I actually get to testing it; I'm just making the final touches to the "Redemption" port, and I have only just started replaying Bahssikava - as it's been a while since I've played it and Exodus, I'm not sure how good a job I can do if I don't have sufficient memory of the storyline established so far. Congratulations!

I read "One of Us is Lying" a while back. It was fairly good, but came off as cliched at times, with the ending making the mystery less interesting. (The idea in the book seemed similar to 'Pretty Little Liars')

Sorry for the double post- I'll be ready to start round 2 soon, so if you'd like to test the next round, let me know, I'll be able to send it as soon as it's ready.

On this subject, does Jeff have any plans to remake Avernum 4 in the format of the newest Avernum games? I actually enjoyed the new ones quite a bit, despite my general loyalty to Exile.

I got BoE working on an Mac OS 9 emulator. I've been curious: - Has anyone found a way I could make the graphics tone for custom graphics files match the Mac tone. As many know, the graphics have a lighter tone on Windows than Mac - this is reflected in custom graphics files in many scenarios. I remember one version of OBoE allowed you to set the general graphics tone in Preferences, but has any method been found to adjust it with custom graphics files? - Does anyone have a copy of the alternate default graphics file with the blue cave floors? I believe they were made by Skyle and Stareye, and I hosted them myself back when I had my own Blades website, but if anyone could send me the Mac alternate file, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

It has come to my attention that the fix created a new bug in the Old Manor - that has been fixed in the version above.

Just letting everyone know - first betas are sent out. If you haven't signed up, and would like to test, I have transferred the ZIP file to iCloud, which I can access from my iPhone (although I don't have internet from there), so you can get the beta immediately after signing up.

I apologize for the delay. I'm not quite ready to start sending things out, but I only have a few last-minute adjustments to make. A few things happened: (1) When I went through the alpha-testing process, I found substantially more bugs and problems than I anticipated, which obviously created more work. (2) A reason I am not on the forums as often is that my internet access is quite limited; I generally do not have internet access at my home, so I often have to go to public computers to get access. Due to having to self-quarantine these past few weeks, getting online is quite challenging - I do have email through my phone, so I will be able to communicate via email - I'll connect this thread so responses and DM's will show up; but I probably won't be able to get back to the forums too often. Due to this, I may not be able to actually send out the beta until the end of the month. Anyway, Redemption is a port of the Blades of Exile scenario by Alcritas. Most of it is the same, but a few new things have been added to make it playable in a Blades of Avernum format. It is for level 20-25 parties - If you want to use the HLPM, go to 25 if you want the scenario on the easy side, or 20 if you want a challenge. The scenario is rated Adult - there are some pretty intense scenes that may not be suitable for younger audiences. However, there is nothing in the scenario that would merit an "Adult" rating that was not in the original BoE scenario (rated R), so if you were fine with the content there, you'll probably be fine here. The scenario is quite open-ended; I won't give any hints or nudges at first to see how far non-BoE players get. When you send your report, please let me know what type of party you played with. I'll have some questions for beta-testers to answer after sending their initial report as well. The information I'll need: (1) Name; the one you wish to be credited as in the readme/scenario. (2) Email address; you may DM me if you are not comfortable posting it on the forums. (3) Previous beta experience (4) Are you on a Mac or PC? (5) Familiarity with the BoE scenario. Thanks!

I previously downloaded an OS 9 emulator on my laptop (initially because I wanted to play Age of Empires, but that didn't work). I downloaded the original BoE from Spiderweb and tried it out and - viola! It worked! Only problem is that some character editor buttons don't work (the Free Extras do, but it makes it harder to design pre-fab parties for scenarios that require them.) I'm feeling confident once I finish the current round of alpha testing, I'll be ready to get started with beta-testing.

For anyone who's interested: I know I haven't updated in a while - got sick over the Christmas holiday, then got BoE working on my computer and wanted to play some BoE scenarios and take a break before returning. I have started Round 2 of testing, but I think I brought in too weak of a party. I'll probably try to get through the dream sequence and one of the farms to ensure the noding is working correctly, but then I'll probably bring in a stronger party, and will definitely need to reduce the attack strength of many of the creatures. With any luck, I'll be ready to start with beta testing by the end of the month, but no promises.

Update on Redemption: Getting close to finishing Round 1 of alpha testing - largely ironing out the most obvious bugs and getting it solidified. A couple things will have to be redone entirely. Furthermore, a number of things seem unfixable without restarting the scenario from the beginning (such as switching/placing items), so Round 2 is still going to likely be a bit of work. One of the other things it's possible for the party to approach a number of situations in five different ways or so, so many times, I have to test every possible party situation. Round 2 will obviously be picking up what I couldn't catch in Round 1, and Round 3 will then more heavily focus on making sure the combat is reasonably balanced and challenging (which seems far from the case in initial testing, but maybe that's not bad just yet since it's easier to detect the bugs). One other thing that I hadn't mentioned when talking about using the more advanced features - I've often come to the conclusion that the fact that the BoA engine has capabilities that BoE doesn't does add more responsibility to use them so the scenario makes reasonable sense. Sometimes I've thought the only reason some BoE scenarios didn't get criticized for some elements was that the BoE editor didn't offer the capability to do it any other way, so when BoA does, I feel it has to be used. (For those of you who have played OG & E for example, you probably noticed parts where the presence of a Slith in your party can change outcomes - I kind of think the only reason the BoE scenario didn't get criticized for not doing this was the scenario editor didn't give designers that ability).

Well.. I'm finally getting around to reviewing the scenario. Played it several months ago. For me, AtG was sort of a mixed bag. I wasn't overly impressed with the storyline or towns, and didn't think the scenario has much atmosphere (despite some attempts). The storyline seemed to change after every mission: at first, it's about some evil cultists, and soon enough, it's about a vampire, and so on. Furthermore, towns often felt completely indistinguishable from one another - right down to the characters and services that are provided. The differences only felt a few lines of text away (one is a magic town, the other is a mining town, etc). It's not all bad, though. There was some combat that really frustrated me, but there were also some good fights and puzzles as well (some seem to possibly be an inspiration for AC2?) As frustrating as some of it is, there's definitely stuff worth checking out in AtG, and it would be a shame to miss the good stuff as a result of the not-so-good stuff. And for all my complaining about the towns, there's still more meat to it than many other newbie scenarios. That being said, I recommend it: there's plenty of good parts if you can deal with the bad parts. But I can't imagine AtG being a scenario being one I'll go back to over and over. Maybe part of that is I felt the "epic-sized scenario where you start with a level 1 party and work your way up to a strong party" was done better in AC1, AC3, and even Stareye's own "Spears." Average (for clarification, 7.9/10 on the old scale, so just a point away from "Good").

I actually did find something helpful - apparently Frostbite by Lazarus uses a modified door script for some of it's doors that allow you to set a flag for cells 4 and 5 - just copied that script as a second door script, set the flag there, and that did the trick! Thanks anyway. But yeah, alpha-testing in BoA is going to be quite bit of work. I'm sure Kel can relate. Something else kinda odd though - the "move_party" node isn't recognizing the coordinates of the town I'm moving to - in the new town, the party is placed in the coordinates of where they left the first town through - maybe this has something to do with using teleport_party() earlier?

Just started alpha testing the Redemption port. Does the set_terrain_memory_cell() node work? I had it set to lock a door to impassible status (that was previously passable). But it doesn't seem to have any effect. Am I doing something wrong, or does this node just not work? I had it at set_terrain_memory_cell(4,0,200); (4 for the terrain script, 0 for the memory cell to adjust, and 200 for the new value).

If the the 1% rule is true, maybe that means more people played my scenarios that I thought before Back in the day, there was always Terror's Martyr and everyone always wanting to know what outlandish or crazy thing he would say next.

Well, thank you for your help! Getting very close to the finish line (at least before alpha testing). Obviously, many of those custom icons won't be used in Redemption, but I could definitely see some of them in future Alcritas scenarios, if I end up continuing with ports (if I can get BoE going, I want to see if I can give it some love again, but working on these ports has been fun and if people are enjoying them, I'm certainly happy to continue). But some of those can be used for characters I had trouble finding good ones for (most obviously, I have a pretty obvious one for Zanobi the Troll). I wonder how close Kelandon is to the finish line with Homeland... I imagine if he's ready to roll with beta testing the same time that I am, both scenarios release dates could be delayed quite substantially.

Question: I'm running Parallels Windows 10. I did get it to work, but the game runs very slowly, and the sound and animations seem very messed up in combat. I tried just downloading the original version of the game from Spiderweb's site (so I could at least play), but it says that it "doesn't run on this computer". Any ideas what might be going on?