Classic Blades of Exile version 1.0 released.

[Chokboyz]

After several months of development the first (non-beta) version of Classic BoE is released, get it here : http://code.google.com/p/openexile/.

 

Here is the full changelog :

 

Click to reveal..

Classic Blades of Exile version 1.0 :

 

- Added a new item ability : Call a scenario special when using the item. The special called is specified by the ability strength.

The type of scenario to call depends of the magic_use_type (the boxes from help pc (0) to harm all (4)) : 0 is only local, 1 is town local and out global,

2 is town global and out local and 3 is only global.

If the number of charge is greater than 0, then using the item takes one charge. If not, the item can be used at will.

- Changed the "Set SDF" debug command to display the value of the specified SDF if value to set it to is -1 (BoA style).

- Added a missing compatibility switch from the introduced "Specials interrupt wait/rest" feature.

- Misc. battlefield adjustment (forest battlefield doesn't show a road anymore, road battlefields appear correctly, cave bridge now has cave trims, ...)

- Fixed a bug where an absent boat or horse could prevent a pc from entering a square while in outdoor combat.

- Trims now use the next terrain type (cave, grass, mountain) when drawn.

- Fixed a potential negative pointer to an array.

- Readded Spidweb logo intro sound.

- Event Timers will now triggers even when resting (compatibility switch available)

- Stairway can now be called in any mode except outdoor : town, looking, talking, even fighting (put in fight mode at destination).

- The three basics scenarios are no longer listed in the custom scenario list.

- Talking mode : fixed a typo which would prevent the keyword "name" from giving the name dialogue. Added the keywords "buy" (for purchase) and "bye" to end conversation.

- Time for event timers is now taken into account correctly while resting Outdoor/ in Inn / via "Have a Rest Node". The "Change Time" node is unchanged.

- Added a preference to show a talk entry field next to "Ask About" (like in older Exiles) for direct typing.

- Fixed clipping error in the main menu screen for high resolutions.

- Added the Ctrl+N shortcut who was advertised but not working.

- Gold is now updated after training.

- If not using special messages, a "Move Party" node won't mess with talking responses anymore.

- Affect Gold/Food nodes could give more gold/food than the maximum allowed. Fixed.

- Deleted a check that was destroying items with "type Flag" 15 first.

- Calling add_string_to_buf() with an empty string now does nothing.

 

Classic Scenario Editor version 1.0 :

 

- Added a switch to the Scenario Details to bypass the automatic difficulty adjust

- Added the ability to play sound asynchronously (use -sound_number instead of sound_number).

- If a custom monster pic was shown in the monster dialog and a non-custom monster was loaded via the arrows, the pic was always drawn from the custom sheet. Fixed.

- Cancelling while choosing an item ability won't reset the item ability to "No ability" anymore.

- Added a "Change Town Lightning" node. (StarEye a.k.a *i)

- Loading a town in the main menu won't get into editing mode automatically anymore.

- Added an option in the Town Advanced details to prevent the mapping (like in older Exiles).

- Added a "Display picture" node, that living up to its name, displays a picture. Bitmaps (BMP) are the only supported format but image can be of any size

(be warned that if the image is larger/wider than the screen, it will be streched to fit, meaning a (potentially substancial) loss of quality).

The name of the file is search in the scenario special strings (160 to 259) as specified in the node ex1a field. The format must be "[eventual path]filename.bmp".

The base search folder is "[folder_the_scenario_is_in]/scenario_name.exr/".

- Corrected the "Type Flag" description text (is between 0 and 255).

- Modified the "Has Enough Mage Lore?" node into a general statistic check node. (StarEye a.k.a *i)

Here is a description of fields :

 

ex1a: how much of skill

ex1b: special to call if enough

ex2a: skill index (-1 defaults to mage lore to preserve compatibility)

0 - 18 corresponding skill,

19 - Current Health,

20 - Max Health,

21 - Current Spell Points,

22 - Max Spell Points,

23 - Experience,

24 - Skill points,

25 - Level.

 

ex2b: 0, others - cumulative, 1 - highest, 2 - average, 3 - lowest, 10 + x - that PC. (-1 defaults to mage lore to preserve compatibility)

- Added a "Has enough species ?" node, which checks if the party has (at least) a specified number of character with a given race. (StarEye a.k.a *i)

- Modified the "Give ... spells" nodes to either take (spec.1b = 0) or give (spec.1b = 1) spells and have access to low level spells (spec.1a = 100 + spell_number, with 0 <= spell_number <= 29 ) (StarEye a.k.a *i)

- Added an option in Town Advanced Details to prevent Magic Mapping from being cast (already included in the Map Unavailable option).

- Added an option in Town Advanced Details that specifies a town special to call if the town becomes hostile (for compatibility reasons the special 0 can't be called in legacy scenarios).

- Added a "Change Creature Attitude" node in Town specs : spec.ex1a is the number of the monster in the current town and ex.1b is the attitude to set it to (0 - Friendly, Docile, 1 - Hostile, Type A, 2 - Friendly, Will fight, 3 - Hostile, Type .

- Modified the "Make town hostile" node to "Set Town Attitude". Spec.ex1a is 0 for hostile, 1 for friendly. The dead part (2) is currently non functionnal.

 

Classic Character Editor version 1.1 :

 

- The party is in info bar has been extended an placed under the main window (now that subfolders can used, the scen_name can be pretty long)

- In Edit skill, you could decrease health and spell points to negative values. Fixed.

 

Classic Blades of Exile Beta 2 :

 

Bug Fixes :

 

- Giant Strength ability and Skill ability now use the ability strength rather than the item level to calculate effect.

- Won't take damage when moving boats over damaging terrains (fire, cold, magic, poison, disease) anymore.

- Won't take damage when horses refuses to enter a damaging terrain (fire, cold, magic) anymore.

- Horses won't enter damaging terrains (fire, cold, magic) or "horse blocking" terrains when outdoors anymore.

- Boom effects won't be displayed at random places when being damaged outdoors anymore.

- Damage won't be displayed in boom animation when attacking invulnerable monsters, when they are, in fact, unharmed ...

- The first pc won't become active with 0 AP anymore when a pc get killed by backshots.

- Fixed the town loading behavior so that Empties won't appear in Place Town Encounters anymore.

- Cleaned the ressource file (smaller executable).

- Changed the "force place monster" function to preferably flush a summoned monster if flushing is needed. Also prevent a potential infinite loop if trying to force place a monster and all the 60 monsters of a town have a life flag.

- Tweaked exploding arrows firing animation to be smoother (arrow fired, then explosion).

- The spell usable Stinking Cloud ability was protecting against acid instead of the Protection from Acid ability. Fixed.

- The Protection from Disease item ability should now works to the full extent.

- Removed a check on the item graphic when deciding whether to play the"swallow" sound; now checks only for item variety. (Celtic Minstrel)

- Corrected the code so that the party cannot be split again if already split.

- Various messages code cleaning/fixing (Celtic Minstrel)

- Removed the 50 node limit. To prevent infinite loop an interrupt sequence has been implemented (Ctrl-C).

- Cave Bridges battlefield should now appears instead of basic cave floor.

- Wall trims are now working.

- Slowdowns due to trims drawing (animated water, ...) should be fixed now.

- Scenarios in subfolders (under Scenarios/) are now found.

- No more limit for the number of listed scenarios.

- Clicking '?' icon on shopping and talk mode now gives help, even if in 'No instant help' mode.

 

Changes :

 

- All terrains and monsters sheets now loaded in memory to bypass storage sheet. That should speed up the game and fix some graphical oddities. Mac and Windows graphics can now be swapped on the fly (i.e without restarting the game). That also removes any graphical limitation in the game.

- In the same way, PC graphics will now be drawn directly to the game gworld.

- You can't end the scenario via a special node if the party is dead anymore (prevent saving an "all dead" party)

- Added a safety check to monsters with Absorb Spells ability to prevent negative health.

- Jobs dialog reimplemented (not useable for now).

- 'Burma Shave' Easter Egg readded.

- Debug Mode : ghost mode implemented.

 

Classic Scenario Editor Beta 2 :

 

- Dumping functions won't change current town/outdoor section anymore.

- Finished porting the file IO functions to 32 bits.

- Added a rudimentary custom intro picture behavior : if the intro picture is set to 100, the first icon on the custom sheet will be displayed in the scenario selection menu. Scenario intro pics must be drawn on the same scale as talk icons.

- Whenever the “Place Random Items” function is used, the editor will inform the user that it could not place all items because the town item # limit has been reached, regardless of how many items are actually in the town. That has been fixed (the message now displays only if the max number of items is indeed reached).

- Cleaned the ressources (smaller executable).

- Added a Monster data dumping function (dumps all info about monsters : wandering/special enc/town monsters details ...)

- Added a Specials data dumping function (dumps all info about specials : number, types, variables, ...)

- Town Room/Outdoors Info rectangles are now initialized at ((-1,-1),(-1,-1)) freeing the 0 coordinate and fixing the "Rectangle X" description at (0,0) in the game.

- Cleanse Rectangle SDF1 info rewritten to match actual behavior (0 leave force/fire/webs/crate/barrel, 1 cleans all).

- Corrected the Do SFX Burst info text (1 - telep., 2 - elec.)

- When placing an item with a custom graphic in a town, the editor will display the graphic in the upper-left corner of the space it is placed on. Fixed

- If you edit a monster’s abilities and click Cancel, the ability of that monster will be removed. Fixed.

- If you edit a item's ability, all previously unsaved modifications are erased. Fixed.

- Disappearences of right scroll bar fixed.

 

Classic Blades of Exile Beta 1 :

 

Bug Fixes :

 

- Custom Scenario Loading now works.

- Conceal Ability Flag now works.

- Game now uses the font that comes with it.

- Strengh potions can now be made (Ishad Nha)

- Add/Lose Sanctuary and Add/Lose Martyr's Shield abilities fixed. (Ishad Nha)

- Acidic weapons works as living saving charm fixed. (Ishad Nha)

- Fixed the raise_dead node so that it actually raise dead. (Ishad Nha)

- Fixed the second part of a special node dialog called from a conversation wasn't properly recorded (actually read).

- Fixed custom items weren't properly masked (transparent background) in the inventory .

- The Defense skill was used rather than the Thrown Missiles skill when firing missiles weapons. Fixed.

- Fixed the Paralysing Ray trap wasn't working.

- Fixed the petrification touch was causing disease. You now have the same chance of being petrified that when a basilisk gazes at you each time your are hit (subject to changes) (!).

- Make the automap updates after terrain change/swap/transform.

- Cleaned and expanded the Debug Mode. Type 'D' to begin debug mode and '/' to see commands. (Ishad Nha)

- Corrected doubling 152 index in m_pic_index (little alien beast graphic can now be used). (Ishad Nha)

- Corrected the "Town Special Encounter" node so that it makes full use of the ten groups.

- Fixed the ring of Will was not checked during mind duel. (Lots of people)

- Fixed Destroy Items and Move Items nodes so that they work for rectangles as well as a single space.

- Hide Town now works.

- Appears/Disappears on Day X now works. So does Appears/Disappears on Events.

- Fixed the day_reached function so that it correctly checks if the major event between 1 and 10 has occured (0 always happens)

- Nimble trait actually gave lower chance to disarm a trap, picklock and to put poison correctly. Fixed, the game now gives bonus to nimble ones rather than penalizing characters without the trait.

- Changing non-conveyer belt terrain into conveyer belt terrain will not work unless the town where the change occurs begins with a least one square of conveyer belt terrain as default. Fixed

- Step on sound code implemented.

- Corrected the Affect Statistic Node random calculation method, so that 100 happens all the time (and 0 never).

- Conveyor freezes upon loading fixed.

- Chances of dropping fixed, so that 100 happens all the time (and 0 never)

- Monster radiates field and rect_spec were plagued with the same random calculation as affect statistic node. Monster special ability : summons is now accurate.

- Last missile weapon in a group that possess special abilities will fail when fired and last stack of an ordinary thrown item that is placed immediately prior to a stack of another missile weapon with a special ability in that PC’s inventory will gain the special ability of the adjacent missile weapon fixed.

- Fixed the bug where you could fire an exploding arrow everywhere on the map, even if the target was out of range or not in sight.

- The 16 different area descriptions can now be used.

- The Spells “Resurrection” and "Raise Dead" did not require a Resurrection Balm, despite advertisements to the contrary. This is fixed in new scenarios (major version more or equal to 2) and left alone in legacy scenarios for compatibility reasons.

- If two friendly NPCs occupy the same space, and they both have dialogued personalities, talking to either of them will talk count as if talking to the first placed mosnter. This prevent the game from freezing.

- According to the BOE Manual, the Affect Party — Do Damage special node allows the scenario designer to vary the Pict. box. Doing so will supposedly only cause damage to the PC who triggers the special, if the party is in combat node. Fortunately, this has been fixed.

- Ice and Magic damaging terrains now displays the right effect/plays the right sound when damaging the party while not in combat.

- “Map Not Available” Option implemented. => (temporary ?) assigned to SDF[308][0]

- Fixed oddities appearing in the map with animated terrains (torches, firecamp, water, ...).

- Strength, Intelligence and Dexterity enhancing items will now works. (Windows specific)

- Fixed demons were doing undead damage and vice-versa.

- Loading a different party that is not in a scenario while playing a scenario won't result on mixed pc graphics in startup screen anymore.

- Call Local Special terrain ability now correctly calls outdoor specials if outdoors (was calling last town specials) (Celtic Minstrel)

- Fixed the town wandering function so that only the supposed monsters would appear in pair.

- Fixed the outdoor wandering function so that the number of monster appearing follows the specified values in the Scenario Editor.

- The generic portal/stairway node now don't call the next node if "Leave" is choose.

- Damaging terrains (cold/fire/magic) will not damage party when in boat.

 

Changes :

- Created a compatibility menu

- Debug mode : Set a SDF added.

- Debug mode : Enter Town added (the party outdoor location is not changed).

- Add a preference option that displays or not the start-up picture and music.

- Changed the "Wait 40 moves" dialog to "Wait 80 moves" to better reflect the time actually waited.

- Added a "Fast Boom Space Effects" option that speeds up any boom sfx in the game.

- The party status text (Flying, Firewalk, Detect Life, Stealth) is not longer black on black. It should be readable now.

- Once identified, the exploding arrows now shows the radius of the explosion.

- Added a "Use Darker Graphics (Mac version)" option in the Preferences menu. To prevent mixing graphics, the game must be restarted after selecting this option (which can be set directly through the ini file to avoid this).

- Frills won't appears on pits while in outdoor combat anymore (pits here = darkness which you can flee to)

- Deleted a reference to PSD[181][6] which could prevent targeting lines from being drawn.

- Cleans up from Exile 3 :

- Anama references removed (was able to gain Anama's bonus against demons when the right SDF was set and suffers the Anama's wrath for learning Mage Spells is the same SDF was set)

- Monsters can now breaks barriers in town which number is 20 or less.

- You can't destroy non-existant slimes pools in town number 23 and 46, effectively locking the game because of missing dialogs, anymore.

- Variables changed to unsigned :

- Summoning variables

- Gold

- Food

- Party statistics (amount killed, ...)

- When the party is split, the following affect nodes now only affect the lone pc (Affect Health, Affect SP, Affect Skill Points, Affect Statistic, Give Mage Spell, Give Priest Spell)

- Trims (frills) now displays in grass terrain (compatibility option).

- Creatures in "one time place town encounters" now checks their life flag.

- Mac legacy saves compatibility added.

 

Classic Scenario Editor Beta 1 :

 

Changes (partial) :

 

- Changed the description of Affect Webs node spec1b so that it states that 0 was inflict and 1 cure.

- Changed the description of Town Special Encounter spec1a so that it states to choose between 1 and 10.

- Changed the Event preventing the Town from dying to accept (and states to choose) values between 1 and 10.

- Animated terrains now play animations.

- Custom terrains now displays (and animated terrains plays)

- Custom items and monsters now display.

- Boats and horses now displays on the view when editing towns.

- Changing the picture of a monster won't display random numbers in monster width and height anymore.

- Added Shops dumping (Ishad Nha's initial work)

 

Misc :

 

- Fixed/Modified Bladbase.exs

 

Classic Character Editor :

 

Changes :

 

Version 1.0 :

 

- The character editor now search the right help file.

- If sounds are desactivated in the game, they will now be desactivated in the character editor as well.

- Reorganised menus.

- Implemented a "Save as" option. "Save" now overwrite the loaded file.

 

Beta 2

 

- Corrected the edit day option so that it sets the day to the one specified and not to the day after.

- Fixed the saving function : now changes can be saved outdoors (that was crashing at save stored_items making give_map non functional).

That also fixes the stored items arrays being filled with items from current town.

- If in a scenario, the editor nows display the name of the town the party is in or if they are outdoor.

- Giving PC items from a Mac made scenario doesn't crash the game anymore (overall Mac scenario support added)

- Cleaned the ressource file. The executable is now smaller.

- On give items : the editor now tries to load the bladbase.exs file if the scenario file is not found. If can't locate the bladbase, the items menus are grayed.

 

Beta 1

- The editor now display the filename of the scenario you are in.

- The editor now get the list of items from the scenario you're in. If not in a scenario, bladbase.exs is used. (clicking a item with food (resp. gold) type will give a random (1-20) amount of food (resp. gold).)

- References to registration and shareware are removed.

- Status Screen now show Food, Gold and Day.

- Corrected the garbled status due to a non-alive character (Ishad Nha)

I've, of course, tested it but i may have missed one thing or another, so if you find a bug or glitch, please post it here.

The scenario editor should be pretty stable (didn't crashed it once), but without large scale testing (after all, i know only two people, myself included, who used it ) i would recommend keeping backup files.

The game is fully compatible (sometime requires using the compatibility menu) with legacy BoE.

 

This version should be fairly stable and bug-free, so next step in Win32 development would be creating another branch (call it Open BoE or whatever you like ) and use Classic BoE as a base to refactor the code (beginning with implementing Celtic Minstrel's changes).

The Classic BoE branch should now only be maintained (i.e apply bug fixes if needed).

 

Unfortunately, this is likely to be my last contribution in a long time; this for two reasons : first, i'm going away tomorrow probably without an access to a compiler, but more important i've recieved my next year schedule and it will be one hell of a year with little to no time for external activities. I'll try to stop here once in a while to check up, but if i ever code anything i doubt it will be more than (quick) bug fixes.

 

I would like to thanks Celtic Minstrel, who was nice to work with, for his, often revelant, remarks, The Almighty Doer of Stuff who mightely did some testing as well as giving precious comments, Thuryl whose posts length was in general inversely proportional to their usefulness, Ishad Nha for his preliminary works on the windows version of the code, Ormus for the 32-bit porting, *i (StarEye) for his (long ago) work on Open BoE and everyone who contribute to the Blades of Exile universe.

 

Have fun,

Chokboyz

[The Almighty Doer of Stuff]

Sorry to see you go, but good luck with school! Thanks for all the work you did, it was a great service to the community.

 

I'll download it straightaway.

[Celtic Minstrel]

Keep in mind that any new features added may potentially change in a later version...

 

EDIT: I've tagged the release in the repository, by the way.

[Eclipse]

You guys are great. Thanks!

[Tonweya]

The appreciation is proportionate to the work you all have done... HUGE.

Thanks,

from all of us who continue on with these classics.

[BainIhrno]

Is this updated OBoE ever going to be available for Mac?

[Celtic Minstrel]

Yes, some day. If a few things were finished up, I could actually release a beta. (Basically loading, saving, and the new dialog engine which is currently used in exactly one place... though if necessary I could temporarily revert to the old engine, I think.)

 

I'm still waiting on Niemand for the loading (he was working on getting compatible structures or something like that).

[Tonweya]

This probably should be posted under a new heading, but since it's relative to this column, it's here, at least for now.

* If the Moderators want to move it, please do so.

Included in the new release, (again, thank all of you greatly), there is a File named, "Known Scenario Bugs". You have included two Scenarios, 'Red Star and 'Fog'.

Q1.) Is this to be added to by any and all Players as they find them and, if so, wouldn't it be better that this become a separate 'Board' under the Blades grouping?

Q2.) I've encountered a missing Node in Stareye's "Spy's Quest". He has given his permission for me to ask the Community for help on this and if I figure out how to make <BoE_NP> 'run', I'll be able to make the correction.

(I'll E-mail the 'Repaired' Scenario to Stareye to do with it what he chooses.)

Q3.) If the new "No Password Command Line" does what it should, that opens a potential 'can of worms'.

A particular Scenario that I liked was so 'fouled-up' that it was mostly 'unplayable'. I learned how to use the BoE Editor, (thanks Community), and made all the necessary corrections to make the Scenario now playable. I find it unethical to even mention that I did so, but it was for my own purpose and that's how it should stay.

The question is; if there are 'unplayable' or 'corrupted' Scenarios out there and it is now possible to access and modify a Scenario even though they be 'password-protected', why not allow the Administration to create a new 'Board' for 'Modified', or 'Repaired' Scenarios that, up to now could not be played, or completed?

* Note that many original Authors are no longer available and their Scenarios are now 'orphans'.

It seems to me that this would not only allow for several scenarios to now be played, but it would also encourage participation by new and existing Players?

Obviously, ALL of these 'Repaired' Scenarios should only become available after being thoroughly reviewed by the Administrators.

Whachathink?

me

[Celtic Minstrel]

Gah, dense post is dense. Okay, here goes...

 

Originally Posted By: Ahbleza

This probably should be posted under a new heading, but since it's relative to this column, it's here, at least for now.

* If the Moderators want to move it, please do so.

Nah, I'll leave it here.

 

Originally Posted By: Ahbleza

Included in the new release, (again, thank all of you greatly), there is a File named, "Known Scenario Bugs". You have included two Scenarios, 'Red Star and 'Fog'.

Q1.) Is this to be added to by any and all Players as they find them and, if so, wouldn't it be better that this become a separate 'Board' under the Blades grouping?

No, scenario bugs are mostly outside the scope of this project. If you find a bug in one of Jeff's scenarios, however, you can report it here. (I'd prefer that to posting on the forum, since it won't get lost if posted there; though you're welcome to do both.)

 

Originally Posted By: Ahbleza

Q2.) I've encountered a missing Node in Stareye's "Spy's Quest". He has given his permission for me to ask the Community for help on this and if I figure out how to make <BoE_NP> 'run', I'll be able to make the correction.

Have you tried the way we explained it to you, yet? Besides which, you don't even need it if you use the editor (but if you use the editor you have to make sure to not use any new features).

 

Originally Posted By: Ahbleza

The question is; if there are 'unplayable' or 'corrupted' Scenarios out there and it is now possible to access and modify a Scenario even though they be 'password-protected', why not allow the Administration to create a new 'Board' for 'Modified', or 'Repaired' Scenarios that, up to now could not be played, or completed?

* Note that many original Authors are no longer available and their Scenarios are now 'orphans'.

It seems to me that this would not only allow for several scenarios to now be played, but it would also encourage participation by new and existing Players?

Obviously, ALL of these 'Repaired' Scenarios should only become available after being thoroughly reviewed by the Administrators.

Whachathink?

I think that most people would object to changing someone else's scenario. I also don't think we should burden the administrators with the task of reviewing fixed scenarios. Really, there's nothing to stop you or anyone else from doing something like this, though.

[Tonweya]

Have you tried the way we explained it to you, yet?

Several times. I keep getting a 'can't find' message. I tried several variations with the same results.

I tried 'browse' and it seemed to accept a line with the C:\Folder\Folder, etc. but still wouldn't work.

I then tried eliminating the spaces and adding the underscore "_" where there were spaces; still no luck.

The best I've accomplished was to get a 'blip' of a small 'DOS' window, but that's all.

I've pretty much given up because I don't want to bother anyone any more; you have enough serious work to do.

 

Besides which, you don't even need it if you use the editor (but if you use the editor you have to make sure to not use any new features).

Errr? "don't even need it"? "new features"?

"Tell me it ain't so, Joe." Does that mean that one can 'modify' 'Legacy' Scenarios with the new Editor?

tx,

me

[Celtic Minstrel]

Originally Posted By: Ahbleza

> Have you tried the way we explained it to you, yet?
Several times. I keep getting a 'can't find' message. I tried several variations with the same results.
I tried 'browse' and it seemed to accept a line with the C:\Folder\Folder, etc. but still wouldn't work.
I then tried eliminating the spaces and adding the underscore "_" where there were spaces; still no luck.
The best I've accomplished was to get a 'blip' of a small 'DOS' window, but that's all.
I've pretty much given up because I don't want to bother anyone any more; you have enough serious work to do.

Did you try putting the entire path in quotes?

Also, I wish you would give some indication of which parts of that post are not your own words, whether it's a quote tag or a simple ">" prefix (like how I modified your post here).

Originally Posted By: Ahbleza

> Besides which, you don't even need it if you use the editor (but if you use the editor you have to make sure to not use any new features).
Errr? "don't even need it"? "new features"?
"Tell me it ain't so, Joe." Does that mean that one can 'modify' 'Legacy' Scenarios with the new Editor?
tx,
me

You should be able to, but once doing so you will no longer be able to open it with the "legacy" editor. The game should be able to read it just fine, though. Still, I'd recommend working on a copy just to be safe.

[Mistb0rn]

I have been using this a little this morning, and here are a few things I noticed:

 

1. The teranim and teranim (d) are not the same. Is this intentional?

 

2. Although the blue etc cave terrains are included in the ter sheets, the editor does not acknowledge them when trying to change a terrain graphic to one in the selection window (I have not tried typing the number that would correspond to it, though).

 

3. A custom two-tile creature (with the number 2001) shows up as two black squares in the editor, I have not checked yet to see if it shows up in the actual game. Is the behavior of custom graphics sheets different?

 

That's all I've noticed so far. Apart from those, I love it! Especially the little talk bar to type in like in E1; I've always wished for something like that. Being able to turn the intro music on and off is also very useful for scenario testing.

[Niemand]

Originally Posted By: Celtic Minstrel

I'm still waiting on Niemand for the loading (he was working on getting compatible structures or something like that).

Very sorry about the delay; my work has been expanding to fill every waking minute. I'll see if I can make more progress tonight. Which work is specifically actually dependent on my getting the old file loading to work?

[Celtic Minstrel]

Originally Posted By: Mistb0rn

1. The teranim and teranim (d) are not the same. Is this intentional?

No. The teranim needs to have the additional graphics added to it (I think they can all be found in Exile 1).

Originally Posted By: Mistb0rn

2. Although the blue etc cave terrains are included in the ter sheets, the editor does not acknowledge them when trying to change a terrain graphic to one in the selection window (I have not tried typing the number that would correspond to it, though).

As in, it doesn't show them on the list? That would be easily fixed. You should check to see what happens when you enter the number, too.

Originally Posted By: Mistb0rn

3. A custom two-tile creature (with the number 2001) shows up as two black squares in the editor, I have not checked yet to see if it shows up in the actual game. Is the behavior of custom graphics sheets different?

It shouldn't be. I'm not sure why that would happen.

[Tonweya]

Not only, "May you be a half hour in Heaven before the Devil knows you're gone', but may he become dumbfounded and damned to spend eternity in one of these confounded 'Puzzle Palaces' created by Stareye. ;^}

Every day is filled with miracles if we're not too blind to see them.

Thanks,

me

[Celtic Minstrel]

Um... what?

[Tonweya]

That's just a round about way to say that I've used the new Classic Version, made the correction I needed to and again, really thank all of you for doing what you did.

me

 

* edit. The first was as I remember an Irish toast/blessing and the second is that I've been doing Spy's Quest and now At the Gallows and feel like Brian must be the devil in disguise.

NASTY puzzles! ;^}

[Chokboyz]

Originally Posted By: Mistb0rn

The teranim and teranim (d) are not the same. Is this intentional?

Purely, Mac version of the graphics have several older graphics (i used the bmp Celtic Minstrel uploaded which were already slightly modified). In the end, the two versions would be the same, though.

Originally Posted By: Mistb0rn

Although the blue etc cave terrains are included in the ter sheets, the editor does not acknowledge them when trying to change a terrain graphic to one in the selection window (I have not tried typing the number that would correspond to it, though).

Use the number if you want to use them, it should work (they were added to match Mac graphic sheets) ...

Originally Posted By: Mistb0rn

A custom two-tile creature (with the number 2001) shows up as two black squares in the editor, I have not checked yet to see if it shows up in the actual game. Is the behavior of custom graphics sheets different?

2001 is a 2x1 creature with the first graphic to display being the first row, second column (legacy behavior).
It seems to be working in my copy of the game ...

Originally Posted By: Mistb0rn

Especially the little talk bar to type in like in E1; I've always wished for something like that.

Thank ADoS, the idea came from him

Chokboyz

[Lilith]

Originally Posted By: Chokboyz

Thuryl whose posts length was in general inversely proportional to their usefulness

I, uh, suppose I should take this as a compliment? Maybe? I think?

Anyway, thanks for all the work you've done on OBoE. If I've actually managed to help you out by standing and shouting from the sidelines, that's great.

[Chokboyz]

Originally Posted By: Thuryl

I, uh, suppose I should take this as a compliment? Maybe? I think?

Yes, you should.
Straight to the point comments/clarifications has often provided useful for us (at least for me ...).

For information, I haven't been able to reproduce the "two black squares when displaying custom monster 2001" behavior (using the downloaded CBoE archive, as i've got no tools here). Hopefully this was an exceptional glitch (the Scenario Editor dialogs functions should be rewritten nonetheless, as there're quite kludgy in present state (try switching windows when displaying custom graphics ) ...).

Chokboyz

[Tonweya]

Nuisance Item:

When using the new version, (Classic), The message window clips the bottom of the buttons, for instance:

"Look" at a Portal and a message window comes up asking you do you want to enter, or what ever.

The bottoms of the two buttons, "Enter" and "Leave" are cut off a bit. You can read what they are, but it looks like the Message box may need to be 'taller'(?)

I tried it in several modes and it's the same for all except for a single line message.

tx

me

 

PS: Also the 'Load Game' window is a washed-out yellow and could be better looking but I haven't seen any 'problems so far.

I've used the new version for several things now, including the Editor for a repair and I LOVE it! The 'BoE_NP' isn't necessary and I'm thrilled.

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

me

[Prince of Kitties]

Hello, I'm here to report the first regression in Classic BoE 1.0... In AC3, Vargas will not recognize when the party has done the required number (six) of side quests. Not sure what the bug is, want me to provide a savefile?

[Tonweya]

From what you ask, I can't tell where you are. Have you met Vargas at the Barrier to the Untamed Region yet?

me

[Chokboyz]

Originally Posted By: Ahbleza

The message window clips the bottom of the buttons

Yeah, i've noticed that too. It has something to do with the rectangles used to draw the button items and the way Windows handle drawing the dialogs. Simply changing the size of the dialog won't fix that, i think one would have to fiddle with the buttons rectangle.
It's nothing more than a glitch (and a little one) though, and should be squished when the dialog engine will be rewritten.

Originally Posted By: Ahbleza

Also the 'Load Game' window is a washed-out yellow

Err, the Load game window is supposed to be the standard Windows 'Select a file' window (i can't do a thing here, the whole part is done by the Win32 API). So, either all your windows are washed-out yellow (or you're using older Windows) or something is quite wrong

Originally Posted By: Miramor

Hello, I'm here to report the first regression in Classic BoE 1.0... In AC3, Vargas will not recognize when the party has done the required number (six) of side quests. Not sure what the bug is, want me to provide a savefile?

Thanks for the report ... Unfortunately, without more precisions i can't do a thing, as i haven't played this scenario yet. Nice informations would be : town name, location of Vargas, tasks done, etc ...

Chokboyz

[Prince of Kitties]

Okay...

 

Town: Zenith Citadel, second floor. Vargas is sitting behind his desk in the northernmost room of said town. (This is before the main plot starts.)

 

Tasks done:

 

- Finding the lost boys

- Killing the chicken-eating warg

- Making a Potion of Light for the Alchemists' Guild

- Finding the Dead Man's Poppy

- Finding a Golden Unicorn Horn

- Getting rid of Bruno (and his demoness) for the Fighters' Guild

- Proving that Alexander murdered Melanie (the ghost)

- Killing all three Cave Worms for the guy in Club Z

[Chokboyz]

Ok, you've not accomplished enough quests for the SDF (3,6) to reach the 6 value.

Here is the list of quest increasing this SDF (as named in the hint file) :

 

• Dead Man's Poppy (done)
• Little Brown Pup
• Unstealing the statues
• Looking for Luncinda
• Cutthroat Commune (done ?)
• Potion of Light (done)
• The Holy Goblet
• Chicken Killer (done)
• The Lost Boys (Rusty and Billy ?) (done)

So, in your game if you gets into debug mode and type Shift-S, enter 3, 6 and -1, the value of the SDF[3][6] should be 4 (or 5).

 

If that's not the case, please says so.

 

On the other hand, is that my version or are the custom reduced pics drawn on the map (or shown in the terrain editor) displaying garbage on this scenario ? I've never encountered this behavior with any other scenario

 

Chokboyz

[Prince of Kitties]

Oh... Okay, thanks.

[Tonweya]

Neither are a problem; just minor 'flaws'.

The 'washed-out' yellow of the "Load Scenario" is the only window that this happens to. (XP prof)

Actually, all the others seem to be a bit bolder than they used to.

Everything I've tried so far seems to look and work quite crisp and crisply.

tx,

me

[keira]

Are you running it in 256 colors?

[Tonweya]

Right Click 'Properties': No boxes are checked.

I have to admit that the color seems 'normal' after a few days of running the program.

It could have been me, but it really did seem 'washed-out' at first and now looks better. Maybe it's just one of those 'geriatric' problems. ;^{

I tried the 256 colors, but it made no difference; it looks the same.

Write it off to old age and I'll just use one of Gilda's lines: "I'm sorry."

tx,

me

[Mistb0rn]

Where might one get the source code for this release?

[Celtic Minstrel]

From the Google Code site. If you have Windows, you would need to download and install Subversion first.

[Mistb0rn]

I've been using this release almost exclusively in my continued editing of scenarios. The only problem is, all custom monsters show up as black squares and all custom terrains show up as transparency in the editor. Playing the scenario everything shows up as it should, but with huge patches of terrains being indistinguishable from each other, editing gets a bit tricky. I have tried re-entering the numbers for the monsters and terrains (since I loaded an already-in-progress 'legacy' scenario), but the problem persists. I tried making a new scenario, in case it was some incompatibility with the older scenario, but I get the same problem. Is there any way this could be easily fixed?

[Chokboyz]

Originally Posted By: Mistb0rn

Is there any way this could be easily fixed?

We'll see that ... Is there a way you can provide me with your scenario (+ custom graphic file) ?

As you can imagine, i've never encountered this behavior (or i would have fixed it prior to release), but it's true the editor has not been the most worked on program (the game executable obviously was) and the custom graphics handling is pretty fragile (read no check for anything, i.e you can enter 4000 for a custom 1x1 monster).

Also, does it happens everytime or after a while ? Any other info i should know ?

Chokboyz

[Mistb0rn]

As far as I can tell it happens every time.

 

I'll send you a link to my scenario in a PM. It is completely unfinished and still under construction, so please forgive the disordered and messy state it is in. Towns with significant custom graphics would be 17 and 19 (terrain) and 27 and 28 (monsters).

[Chokboyz]

The problem has been identified : Mistb0rn game folder's name was containing a point (.) character. The original custom graphic loading procedure of the scenario editor was mistaking this point for the last one (the one right before the extension) and then messed the loading procedure.

 

I've corrected the Windows code to correctly load a scenario custom graphic file whatever special character the path to it may contains (i don't think it justifies to compile a new version, though).

If i remember correctly, the Mac version is going to use a scenario_filename.exr ressource folder, so duplication is unnecessary, since this will naturally be fixed when the new loading procedure will be implemented (if i'm not mistaken, that is ...)

 

Hope it helps,

Chokboyz

[Ishad Nha]

Passwords have never been needed or even suggested for Blades of Avernum. If you are going to mess with a BoE scenario just keep the original compressed file handy. If you do make a hash of any scenario just revert to the original.

In BoA I have introduced town reports and outdoor reports, text files that print out the main features in the current town or outdoor zone, placed specials, area names and so forth. They are useful for things that are not printed in a list, like location of placed specials. I could introduce them for BoE.

If they are opened in something like Crimson Editor, every time you use the function in the Scenario Editor, the file will be refreshed in Crimson Editor. This refresh would work for any file, including the present ones.

[Tonweya]

I hate to sound like a "Johnny-come-lately", but after seeing how handy the "specdata" file is, just like the "scentext" file, is is practical, or possible, to create a file that would show, in the same manner, the data of any selected ".sav" file?

Recently I had a problem with a 'corrupt(?)' ".sav" and it may have been a real help to identify the status of the game components, (Flags, etc), so I could identify where the problem, (corruption), was?

If this is impractical then I'm sorry for asking, but it could be a big help for occasions like I mentioned.

Thanks for listening,

me

[Ishad Nha]

Scendata.txt and Scentext.txt are text files that use conventional English. By contrast the sav file is compiled, it is all unintelligible. At most I can run portions of it through special spreadsheets.

The decrypting of save files was discussed in this forum:

http://www.ironycentral.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=27554#Post27554

[Crynsos]

Sooo... after finally gaining interest and time for Exile again, I've read the changes list since the original Open Source Release and have to say... wow, very well done.

 

Especially since I remember that the code base was said to be very old and heavily customized, but I have no idea into what you guys may have already converted it meanwhile... gotta test out the changes myself to get the real feeling for it I guess...

 

 

Anyways, aside from the above, after reading through the list I wasn't sure if it wasn't there or I just overread it... from what I know, you guys want to try to unify the codebase from the Mac and Windows Version as soon as possible, well does the Mac version accept plain image files as custom graphics yet? Or is it still necessary to do something with... ResEdit or whatever it was called back then to enable that?

 

Also, if the Windows version is still based upon plain BMP files, I heavily suggest to move over to the PNG format for custom graphics in both code bases (or the unified one in the end), as it is Open Source as well, much smaller than BMP(lossless compression) and pretty common these days anyways.

 

 

I'll try to check out all the nice changes you guys worked out over the many months I haven't been around, sounds really good, full respect from my side.

[keira]

I believe the mackies can use .gifs or .bmps as graphics.

 

Also, the .png format was brought up a coupla times in the past. I still want my alpha-layering!

[Celtic Minstrel]

Originally Posted By: Crynsos

Anyways, aside from the above, after reading through the list I wasn't sure if it wasn't there or I just overread it... from what I know, you guys want to try to unify the codebase from the Mac and Windows Version as soon as possible, well does the Mac version accept plain image files as custom graphics yet? Or is it still necessary to do something with... ResEdit or whatever it was called back then to enable that?

The Mac version in the repository (not the released verion) uses png graphics for the built-ins, but I don't believe I've yet implemented support for pngs in the custom graphics. I could be wrong though; however, it's definitely planned. (Though we need to retain resource files for backwards compatiblity, unfortunately.)

Originally Posted By: Crynsos

Also, if the Windows version is still based upon plain BMP files, I heavily suggest to move over to the PNG format for custom graphics in both code bases (or the unified one in the end), as it is Open Source as well, much smaller than BMP(lossless compression) and pretty common these days anyways.

The Windows version still uses png currently, but I don't think it would be too hard to switch.



As for alpha-layering... I have no idea whether that'll be supported. Depends on Quicktime and Quickdraw, really. (We should move to Quartz, of course, but that would be extremely hard, especially since PDF seems to be its standard graphics format.)

[Niemand]

You're not going to make transparency much more complicated than what there is now using Quickdraw, as far as I know. Moving to Quartz would support this and be a good idea just in general. Doing so would be difficult, I think, largely because there's a big pile of code that will need to be altered, but image formats have nothing to do with it. Quartz has no 'standard image format'; internally it stores data as uncompressed bitmaps (like any compositing system as far as I'm aware), but that's irrelevant to the user as it provides all of the drawing functions one would expect and can work with data loaded from a suitably wide variety of image formats.

[Celtic Minstrel]

Well, it does have quite a different API from Quickdraw if I'm not mistaken, so it's not a simple "replace every Quickdraw function with its Quartz equivalent" - there simply isn't a Quartz equivalent in some cases.

[Crynsos]

Originally Posted By: w of the dueck clan

I believe the mackies can use .gifs or .bmps as graphics.

Also, the .png format was brought up a coupla times in the past. I still want my alpha-layering!

I think the Mac version never used gifs, and especially not BMPs as that is a Microsoft owned format.

Nice to hear, and yes alpha layering would be quite useful for everything that isn't terrain... and maybe even that! (*thinks about terrain layers*)
If it can be implemented more or less easily, that is...

Originally Posted By: Celtic Minstrel

I could be wrong though; however, it's definitely planned. (Though we need to retain resource files for backwards compatiblity, unfortunately.)

Good to hear, both of it. Of course we need to be able to retain backwards compatibility, but it would be best if the game could understand both old windows and mac programmed maps but uses "primarily" new format maps with purely PNGs as images, if possible. (Possibly there should be three different scenario folders, one for old windows, old mac and new scenarios?)

[Celtic Minstrel]

I don't plan to split up scenarios like you suggest. The scenario file itself encodes both whether it is Mac or Windows (all new scenarios will be created as Windows scenarios) and what version it is - any version later than whatever the current version is would be assumed to use PNG, though if not found a BMP or MEG would be sought. The PNG files will be stored in a folder with a .exr extension, so that will allow players to identify the version of a scenario that uses custom graphics.

 

The windows version will probably never be able to read MEG files, unless someone wants to write a function that reads it without access to the Resource Manager. And even that would only work with data fork MEG files.

 

 

I'm using PNG, but I don't believe Quickdraw supports alpha, so support for that won't be soon. I'd be more inclined to switch to SDL than Quartz, if only it had the necessary blending functions. (SDL doesn't have any blending functions – you have to do blends manually – and the game uses three or four of Quickdraw's blending modes.) And SDL does support alpha transparency.

[Ishad Nha]

Scenario Editor code won't compile after I updated it. There are three obvious lines of stray characters in TFileio.cpp for starters.

TFILEIO.CPP:1395: error: expected unqualified-id before '<<' token

TFILEIO.CPP:1466: error: expected unqualified-id before '==' token

TFILEIO.CPP:1538: error: expected unqualified-id before '>>' token

Function void object_scenario_data_dump() occurs twice in this source file.

Edit:

In every list I added a letter to the start of each entry, this has created a hotkey for each one of them. I left out the Ctrl + Key shortcut reminders because I don't know how to alter the format of the menus. Altered editor is found at:

http://www.freewebs.com/ishadnha/2009ClassicBoEScenarioEditor.zip

This will enable people to see how they like it.

[Chokboyz]

Originally Posted By: Ishad Nha

Scenario Editor code won't compile after I updated it.

Are you speaking of the last revision of the code (rev 130) ? If so, the files must have been corrupted in the download because it compiles fine for me (gcc 4.3.2) ...

Concerning the last version (the one in link), the "Ctrl+V" shortcut has been reassigned to "Edit outdoor text", preventing the Paste shortcut from working. That should be fixed.
The same with "Ctrl+A" (but this one is not essential and can be left in state).

Chokboyz

Edit :

Quote:

Scenario shopping script is producing gibberish results...

Seems to work fine for me

[Ishad Nha]

There may have been problems with conflicting versions of the same file. It made backup copies of TFileio.cpp for revisions 127 and 130.

[Celtic Minstrel]

Originally Posted By: Ishad Nha

Edit:
In every list I added a letter to the start of each entry, this has created a hotkey for each one of them. I left out the Ctrl + Key shortcut reminders because I don't know how to alter the format of the menus. Altered editor is found at:
http://www.freewebs.com/ishadnha/2009ClassicBoEScenarioEditor.zip
This will enable people to see how they like it.

Um... what on earth are you doing? You don't add a letter to the beginning of the menuitem to make a hotkey... pick a letter actually in the menuitem name and add an ampersand before it. (Aldo do that with the menus.) Then add control-key shortcuts to some of the most important ones.