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Beta Call - Of Good and Evil


BainIhrno

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Okay, so it may be a week before I am able to actually send out the initial beta, but I would like to figure out who would be interested in testing the new scenario.

 

As some of you may know, I have been working on porting the BoE scenario "Of Good and Evil", by Alcritas, to Blades of Avernum. In addition to making it playable for BoA, I did add some new features with the scripting, many of which could not be done in BoE.

 

Before I go any further, I would like to express thanks to everyone on these forums who answered scripting and other design questions for me, especially Kelandon, Ishad Nha, and Niemand.

 

Anyway, if you are interested in testing, some things to know:

 

1. "Of Good and Evil" is rated Mature. I know it was only listed as "PG" in BoE, but I felt that given some of the content in the scenario, especially compared to other BoA scenarios, this scenario should probably fall under "Mature."

 

2. I will be expecting the beta testers to do a bit of work i.e. I'm going to ask more from testers than just going through the scenario once and pointing out bugs.

 

3. **IMPORTANT** - there is a point where the scenario will split into two paths, a la "A Small Rebellion", meaning that both sides will need to be looked at. If you have limited time but would still like to test, you may elect to play one side - I would much prefer a thorough job on testing one half than a weak report on both. I'll still need some testers to play both, to make sure that there are little/no inconsistencies between the two halves.

 

4. In terms of difficulty, the scenario is ranked at 11-15. I did the alpha testing with a party fresh from the HLPM.

 

If you would like to test, let me know here or by PM:

 

Name (for credits):

E-Mail:

Previous Beta Experience:

Mac or PC?:

Familiarity with "Of Good and Evil" in Blades of Exile:

Will you have time to test both halves of the scenario? :

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  • 2 weeks later...

You really need to use Alint, I downloaded the StuffIt Expander and expanded the sitx file for your scenario. I then ran the following command:

C:\Program Files\Blades of Avernum\Blades of Avernum Scenarios\goodevil.bas>alint *.txt

 

It generated around 1,000 lines of errors! Some are not genuine errors, they are just idiosyncracies of Alint. You probably have far less than a thousand errors.

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I have done the work for Alint on Windows, I just need to write it up and get it to Bain.

 

Apparently he can't find a version of Alint that works with OS 10.8.2! Is Ascript good for that?

Windows has a Compatibility Mode for cases like this.

 

Also he will need his Mac graphics converted to Windows format.

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I commented out the turn_on_debug_mode call, it was causing trouble with dialog. It should be simple for me to replace it with custom abilities added to my copy of the scenario script.

Now I have started the scenario, off to find Ralkan...

 

Drat, I was going to remove the turn_off_debug_mode call before I sent it out, sorry.

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add_dialog_str(5,"_There is a cave thirty or so miles east of our northwest outpost. Ralkan will meet you there, and provide you with what information he can. Good luck, and godspeed._",0);

New players may be left wondering: where is this cave? A better description of the location could be given in the Readme. Did Alcritas mean "thirty or so miles east of our northeast outpost."?

 

create_horse(0,73,25,10,0); // This was omitted from the Goodevil.txt file.

 

For a level 15 party those Hydras in dungeon 7 are fairly tough, need to use more spells. Level 15 party was just able to rescue the sacrificial virgin, just. Party had to avoid all those rats in the left side of dungeon 6 Dark Cave.

 

I tend to tidy up stray bits of walls more than Bain has done.

Use of the Wayback Machine enabled me to locate the OGE walkthrough.

 

Uhh… comes out in some BoA dialog scripts as Uhh**|, where * stands for an unprintable character. It is an actual ellipsis rather than three periods in a row, just replace the ellipsis, problem goes away. In the text file the ellipsis is recorded as three unprintable ASCII values: 226,128,166

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Molidax, Donna is way too tough for my party... Had to put the Mage in front so he was not hacked to bits by the Vahnavoi.

Grand Temple, some wretched crash in the Priest's quarters??!! Town 11, square 48,19 has a non-existant wall type in sheet 607: 25. This always caused a crash. Thank goodness for the 3D Editor, the 3D view made the problem immediately apparent. Replacing the type 25 wall with a straight type 5 wall made the problem go away.

 

Can't change the race of the Slith in my party. This is problematic as the Refuse Orders path has the Slithzerikai become the enemy... Seems I will need to start again.

 

Town 43: Old Manor, Level 2. BoE scenario had a maximum level party with Shielding Crystals or whatever... Will need Potions or Elixirs of Invulnerability, as the party is still too low in level for spells like Arcane Shield.

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I just emailed my set of corrected scripts to your email address, as found on KPPP.

Edit:

Rescue Ithikotita, needed one Energy Elixir and a couple of Energy Potions. This was not hard to arrange, I simply made a temporary alteration to LOAD_SCEN_STATE, just added this:

reward_give(231);

reward_give(231);

Then I saved the game and reloaded it. I got my Energy Elixirs. In the LOAD_SCEN_STATE I then commented out the "reward_give(231);" stuff.

Rescuing Ithikotita from the Godan proved tough, I kept losing one of the two warriors. I had the Mage haste the Priest, that made it possible to keep the Warriors healed enough so they were not killed.

 

Refuse Orders version of Genmar, everyone is a trainer, some doors are missing Door scripts.

 

 

Townscript t46 The Ledge.txt is missing a final "break;", Alint did not detect this?!

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t24Under Ever.txt, bad SDF in beginstate 47:

if (get_flag(-1,-1) == 14)

Original BoE scenario was fourth tier, Very High Level: 30+. That means a tough party with plenty of firepower.

This scenario was written to be explored with a Magic Map spell. If something can't be arranged, we can always have a list for the secret areas in each town... List can be in writing, which is called by a custom spell.

 

Town 40: beginstate 61;

was: "if (species_in_party(3) == 1)"

should be: "if (species_in_party(3) == 1) {", with matching bracket.

Town 41: can't access the SE corner of the map.

After the Slith Fort, party is banged up and really needs Word of Recall.

Town 62: there is no beginstate 47 in the town script but there is a placed special that calls this state.

Scenario Script, beginstate 22;

"set_state_continue(15);" should be: "set_state_continue(19);".

 

Like Exile 3: Ruined World, things keep disappearing. Then we lose shopkeepers to boot.

 

Town 50, the Abyss, really need a Hovering Feet spell to enable melee with creatures summoned by Demons. I can create this easily enough.

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Original BoE scenario was fourth tier, Very High Level: 30+. That means a tough party with plenty of firepower. Here the party lacks access to the most powerful Mage spells but Demons can start blazing away with Arcane Summon. To survive town 50 you would need to have stacks of Energy Potions/Elixirs. I did a bit of it and then I skipped the rest.

Finished the Refuse Orders branch of this scenario, it was very good. Varnoth went down when my first PC hit him with Onas Kothar while protected by an Invulnerability Elixir. Other three PCs stayed out of range and dealt with the summoned monsters.

 

Now I am doing the Accept Orders branch.

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Grand Temple, some wretched crash in the Priest's quarters??!! Town 11, square 48,19 has a non-existant wall type in sheet 607: 25. This always caused a crash. Thank goodness for the 3D Editor, the 3D view made the problem immediately apparent. Replacing the type 25 wall with a straight type 5 wall made the problem go away.

Ditto towns 51 and 98. Town 98: there is a problem with square 19,37.

Sarah is selling board games not spells.

 

Heraclitus's Library: Radiant Shield had to be cast before the ambush otherwise no-one would survive!

 

Original BoE scenario was fourth tier, Very High Level: 30+. That means the level 15 party gets spells and recipes that are too high for it to cast/use. Ditto it lacks the Arcane Lore and Item Lore that the designer probably expected.

 

I think there may be errors and omissions in the set_name lists for each town.

Edited by Ishad Nha
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Vahnatai Crypts won't be accessible if they open for a day outside of Suncome. It only takes two weeks of game time to finish the scenario.

 

Faerie Temple was a tough fight, thank goodness for Heroic Brew.

Altar needs to be removed then the Phoenix must be tackled. One warrior goes for the Phoenix while the other goes for the altar. If it gets too hot the second warrior can retreat from the altar and leave Grafeiokratis till later.

 

Calderwood, town 97. When Balidrin's Shield is expended, the first two PCs get the Invulnerability and Magic Resistance but the other two do not. Then we get the message: "Peculiar error. Undefined function called." Problem was that one PC had the Shield and had it equipped, existing code could not handle that. Code below should be able to handle both cases:

 

beginstate 25;
message_dialog("Balidrin's shield begins to glow, and then explodes! A magical aura surrounds the party, providing everyone with magical protection.","");
i = 0;
while (i < 4) {
if (char_ok(i)) {
set_char_status(i,5,4,0,1);
set_char_status(i,4,3,0,1);
put_sparkles_on_char(i,0,5);
if (char_has_item_of_class_equip(i,1,1) == 1) {
put_boom_on_char(i,1,0);
run_animation_sound(51);
}
if (char_has_item(i,457) == 1) {
put_boom_on_char(i,1,0);
run_animation_sound(51);
take_item(457);
}
}
i = i + 1;
}
run_animation_sound(102);
play_sound(162);
set_state_continue(52);
break;

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Finale, excellent scenario, well worth porting.

Calderwood, town 97, I don't see Chaerephon anywhere.

Fight is not too tough, Elixir of Strength helps. Mage hasted the Priest as his first move.

(Need a spare Troll Axe for when Valnijar is destroyed, if there are any monsters still kicking.)

Party destroys the Faeries and their hirelings. Then it exits town and gets the coward's ending! Script needs correcting.

 

If script is corrected and if any PC is killed in the final fight: they will be dead and their gear will all be left behind in this scenario. Because when they win they are booted from town and the scenario immediately and automatically.

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  • 1 month later...

Just an update:

 

I still don't have any beta reports other than Ishad Nha and a sypnosis of the beginning from Kelandon. I'm thinking that I would like to make changes based on what I have so far, and then send out a new beta to anyone who is interested - but I am skeptical about releasing the scenario with only one beta report.

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I pretty much gave up as soon as I got to the point where I realized that you hadn't sufficiently alpha-ed it. That wasn't me being snotty; the school year started. But I'd strongly recommend doing a little more of your own alpha testing before you do another beta call. I was finding simple problems like town boundaries not being placed right and other things you can easily see in the editor. Proper beta write-ups for problems as pervasive as I found were going to be longer than I had time for.

 

If you clean it up a bit on your own, it'll be easier on your beta testers.

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Okay,

 

Just looking through the information that I have, I'll try to make the corrections and alpha test more extensively - this is the first time that I have ever made it this far designing for BoA, so some judgements as to how to do things are/were difficult to make. I'm on 10.8.3, and I don't know of any working copy of Alint - it would probably be helpful if I had it. As for town 10, it is not accessible in the scenario so I didn't bother too much with that.

 

I will send a PM to Ishad Nha to address information on his report. In the meantime, I will try to make corrections before calling for additional testers. I may not be ready for a few months, though, as I'm also back in school and will need to find time.

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I'm on 10.8.3, and I don't know of any working copy of Alint

Also on 10.8, but I have a working copy of Alint. I'm not sure exactly how that happened, but if you look back through recent threads, I think you can find a download that will be helpful.

 

I'm also using the Alint embedded in AScript, which may or may not make a difference.

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  • 3 months later...

Sorry for the delay on this; I've done more extensive alpha testing, and do believe I've caught a large batch of errors, as well as made some updates. I think I'm going to renew the beta call at this time; if you'd like to test, and haven't signed up before, just fill out the information on the top post. Thanks. I'll send it out next week before Thursday.

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  • 2 months later...
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