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Of Good and Evil crashes at Prologue (Win 7, GOG version)


Hyena of Ice

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Specs: Windows 7

Gog Games version of BoA

DLed "Of Good And Evil" from The Blades Database.

It crashes once I get to the A3 screenshot (3rd dialogue screen), no matter how fast I click to get through the opening dialogue screens.

 

I really want to play this, how do I fix this?  It just goes pale and says "this program stopped working" and I have to shut the program down.

I see no threads on this boards whatsoever of anyone having problems with it, why is that?  Why am I the only one ever to be unable to launch Of Good And Evil?  Why?  Why can't I run it?  Why?

 

Also, I have problems with A Perfect Forest-- I had to load an earlier save because it would crash at the town attack.  I had a difficult time getting the thing to run (on like my 10th or 11th try I got past the opening dialogue) 

Sometimes, not often, but sometimes, Frostbite does the same, no matter how fast I click past thew dalogues.

How do I fix this so that none of the scenarios do this crap anymore?  Please tell me how to fixc it 100%, please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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It may take awhile for someone that has used that version to tell you a solution. It probably is a GOG version problem since if affects 3 different scenarios.

 

It could be file corruption, bur with so many different scenarios in would have to be major damage to where they are stored.

 

The usual solution is to delete and download a new version. But you might want to wait a day in case someone has seen this problem. I've played Frostbite with no problems but that was the old PowerPC version from Spiderweb for a Mac.

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I had some problems with some other scenarios as well.  The Magic, however, ran smoothly without a hitch at all-- much more smoothly in fact, than Valley of Dying Things.  Completely smooth, no crashing, not even any lags or odd or brief speed-ups.  Never seen BoA run that smoothly before.

Also, it looks like you can launch a non-GOG version of BoA in the GOG BoA folder, and once in awhile if I get lucky, that helps, but usually not (using the non-GoG version was what allowed me to get past the opening dialogue in A Perfect Forest)

Sometimes cutscenes will crash the game, or will be incredibly slow, but then when I load BoA back up again, the cutscene doesn't crash and also runs faster (I'm guessing it doesn't crash/runs quicker because of the temp files that were created for it during the first crash?)

 

BTW, that momentary lag/speed up/etc that I mentioned above?  That occurs in the BoA demo, as well (which is located in a completely different directory from the GOG version) 

 

I also have that infamous "if you don't click through each prologue screen within 1 or 2 seconds, the game crashes" problem.  Is there any connection between this and the scenarios crashing?

Edited by Hyena of Ice
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Yeah, Mac BoA is a lot less buggy than Windows BoA, and I use a Mac, so I probably can't replicate any of these bugs.

 

I have a guess about Of Good And Evil. Open up t0NorthernOu and find this portion (early on in the script):

beginstate INIT_STATE;
// This state called whenever this town is entered.

	turn_off_training(1);


//Names
		
	set_name(7,"Roland");
	set_name(9,"Katherine");
	set_name(10,"Mackie");
	set_name(13,"Charla");
	set_name(15,"Nicias the Other");


//Dialog Pics
	set_char_dialogue_pic(7,1954,0);
	set_char_dialogue_pic(9,522,0);
	set_char_dialogue_pic(15,517,0);

if (get_flag(27,1) == 0)
{
		set_terrain(20,12,137);
		set_terrain(20,18,137);
}

	if (get_flag(8,9) < 1)
		erase_char(15);

	if (get_flag(80,0) != 52)
		erase_char(9);

	if (town_status(ME) < 3)
		set_state_continue(19);
break;

My guess is that the problem is near the end of that chunk, at town_status(ME). I think that should be changed to town_status(0).

 

Let me know if that works.

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Then I've got nothing. The way you're describing it, it doesn't sound like an Unhandled Exception, which indicates a call using a value out of range and which — by this point — I have some reasonable idea how to fix. It's something else, and I don't know what.

 

Bain might have some ideas, if he shows up. Otherwise, you probably need to contact Spiderweb — if VoDT isn't working well, it's probably something wrong with your copy of BoA, not just one scenario.

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23 minutes ago, Hyena of Ice said:

By "contact Spiderweb", do you mean in the tech support forum, or some sort of email?  Because I prefer not to do email, as there will be no community to light their feet to the fire if they ignore me or remind them to get to my problem if they genuinely forgot.

 

Jeff Vogel doesn't routinely check these forums, so like it or not, email is your best option if you want to contact someone who's able to help you at this point. support@spiderwebsoftware.com is the address to use.

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Jeff Vogel doesn't routinely check these forums, so like it or not, email is your best option if you want to contact someone who's able to help you at this point. support@spiderwebsoftware.com is the address to use.

 

Wait, Jeff actually answers tech support emails?  I always assumed it was you and other forum moderators.

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How do you set compatibility mode?

 

Oh, another annoyance is that when a second dialogue window pops up, it appears in a separate game window, so I have to press ctrl alt del to bring up the task manager, then click on that second window in my desktop tray or whatever you call the icon bar at the bottom of the screen.

 

:(  I'm reluctant to email them, though.  Isn't BoA something that Jeff doesn't like to be reminded of or hear about?

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Open the folder with the game executable. Right click on Blades of Avernum.exe and click properties. If you are using a desktop shortcut you should just be able to right click on that instead. Next click on the compatibility tab. Click on the box "Run this program in compatibility mode." In the drop down menu select Windows XP. It shouldn't matter if you select service pack 2 or 3. It will probably ask for permission when you try to run the program now, just say yes.

 

Hope it helps your problems.

 

BTW since you are playing all these scenarios, it would be nice if you would consider making a some reviews. Even a couple sentences are enough. Of Good and Evil doesn't have a single review yet.

Edited by Tarsus
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No, he dislikes hearing about Blades of EXILE because he thinks the open-source licensing issues, and the endless complaints and insults he's received over the years from the BoE community for doing this or that wrong, are more trouble than they're worth. I guess it made him a good deal of money but he gets no money from it now that it's GNU GPL 3.0.

BoA may be different. He hates it as a business endeavor because it was not enough of a financial success for the investment and the complaints continued, but AFAIK he does at least still support it.

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1 hour ago, The Almighty Doer of Stuff said:

No, he dislikes hearing about Blades of EXILE because he thinks the open-source licensing issues, and the endless complaints and insults he's received over the years from the BoE community for doing this or that wrong, are more trouble than they're worth. I guess it made him a good deal of money but he gets no money from it now that it's GNU GPL 3.0.

It's a 20 year old game.  He wouldn't be making money from it regardless.  That's why he released the code in the first place.  I think most of the frustration you discuss (including frustration related to the community) has a lot more to do with BoA than BoE.  And while Jeff has often discussed his frustration with BoA, I don't think he has ever discussed BoE in the same light.  He has talked about the task of processing user-submitted scenarios being a drain, but he clearly feels good about the way BoE was received for many years.

 

If he is fed up with questions about licensing, well, I think that's a completely different issue, that probably has more to do with the ratio of questions asked to finished products released.

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Oh, I see. Yeah, I know when he released the code he said it was the company's most popular game. Come to think of it, you're right.  He got stressed with BoA because it came with all the complaints of BoE for less money and less community output. BoA and G3 were the ones that nearly sent the company under, weren't they?

Still, if someone paid money for BoA (and he does still sell it) I would bet Jeff would do his best to help anyway.

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19 minutes ago, The Almighty Doer of Stuff said:

BoA and G3 were the ones that nearly sent the company under, weren't they?

BoA in particular has been described that way, due to having both low initial sales and an exceptionally long development time.  IIRC, this situation really became clear when Jeff was already working on G3, which led to its development being compressed and to a speedy release for A4 as well.

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Well I'll have to fix the Windows version not having a readme! Thanks for letting me know.

 

I've actually noticed some similar problems with my copy of BoA recently (I'm on OSX 10.9 and Nobody's Heroes crashes the same way you described. VoDT does though. Perhaps my version is out of date?)

 

I'm not sure,are there any bugs that only apply to Windows and wouldn't happen on a Mac, that I couldn't catch without a Windows tester?

 

EDIT: Where did you download the Windows version of OG&E? I see a readme on Tyran's download site.

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2 hours ago, BainIhrno said:

I'm not sure,are there any bugs that only apply to Windows and wouldn't happen on a Mac, that I couldn't catch without a Windows tester?

LOL! Yes. Like, a bajillion.

 

2 hours ago, BainIhrno said:

I've actually noticed some similar problems with my copy of BoA recently (I'm on OSX 10.9 and Nobody's Heroes crashes the same way you described. VoDT does though. Perhaps my version is out of date?)

I missed a Mac version update, so I wouldn't be surprised if others did too.

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  • 2 weeks later...

BainIhrno, how do I get the Roy G Biv panel to work?  I looked at the script, and it looks like you have to enter R, O, Y, G, B, I, V one by one, and I did that, but it does nothing.
 

Quote

 

EDIT: Where did you download the Windows version of OG&E? I see a readme on Tyran's download site.

 

 

The Blades scenario database.  Downloaded it a second time just to make sure.  There is a .__readme file, but no readme or similar file.

Edited by Hyena of Ice
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The Roy G Biv panel is a code.

The combination changes game to game, so you'll have to find the answer somewhere else. Go to the caves under the refugee camp and look around, you will find your answer there. Each letter represents a color, so R=red, O=orange, etc.

 

What was in the "_readme" file, pretty sure that's it.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Bain: Thank you.  Ooooohhh, so that's what the purpose of that lake full of gems is. 

 

Another question: How do you get the Vahnatai caches to open?  My understanding is that each one "opens" only on a single day of the year, and that the days are mentioned in certain places throughout the scenario.  However, When I played the scenario, I got all the way to Radiance 38-- How many days until the next month?  Or is this a bug?

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  • 4 months later...

For the record the crash issue isn't limited to those scenarios, it's an engine issue with newer flavours of Windows. The memory either leaks or does something else doing prologues in a lot of scenarios (typically any with 3+), it made me drop Avernum for a few years due to unplayability of favoured scenarios. Compatibility tends to be hit and miss for fixing it, pretty sure I or others have mentioned it in the past. Started being an issue with Windows 7 if memory serves.

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