Classic Blades of Exile build 26.11.2010 released

[Chokboyz]

I've finally released the latest Classic Blades of Exile build.

It comes in two formats : the full archive (game+ both editors) or the usual patch (only the modified binaries).

 

As usual, download link : http://code.google.com/p/openexile/downloads/list

 

Click to reveal.. (Changelog)

Build 27.09.2010

 

- Various aesthetics fixes (no more buttons cut in half, justified some buttons, etc)

- Clicking the help icon next to the (unused) job button now correctly displays help.

- Redid the implementation of the (new) "check statistic node" (replaces "has enough mage lore") to prevent potential compatibility breaking with legacy scenarios.

- Small change to the (new) "Set town status" (replaces "Make Town Hostile") for the same reason.

- To clarify, renamed the "Dispel spirit" item ability to "Ravage spirit" (as it is, in fact, the spell called by the ability).

- For the same reason, renamed the monster spell "Heal All" to "Full Heal", as it isn't a mass spell but a powerful (and reliable) self-healing spell for monsters.

- Aligned the sleep immunity on the mac version : Slimes (regardless of the monster number), Stone and Undead types monsters are immuned to sleep.

- Dart throwing now only takes 2 ap for monsters (corrected from invisibility ability).

- Field generating monsters are now immuned to the type of field they generate (corrected from an Exile 3 incomplete transition).

- Rewrote the pending special queue for better events handling (no more potential overflow, entering/exiting town events are now sure to happens)

- Implemented the "No Terrain Animation" option.

- Un/Equipping something while in combat now correctly updates the ap display.

- Monsters missile abilities now show their correct damage range in description (game and editor).

- Bashing weapons charges (if any) are now correctly shown (as usual, next to the name).

 

Many "human readable constants" have been implemented in the code and it should be fairly readable now (the file classes/consts.h is a good start if you're looking for something in particular). The game is also in a stable/fixed state enough to consider doing more than bugfixing/code digging (i.e improving cross-portability, extending the game, etc).

 

Unfortunately, as i've said before, i've been having less and less time to put on the game and my work on it has become too sporadic to be productive. This is, then, likely to be the latest release i do (as time is going to become even scarcer in the next months). As usual, the sources have been uploaded (go ahead, fiddle with them ).

 

Nonetheless, please report bugs and glitches in this thread. I'll read it from times to times and, if something critical/important arise (that doesn't requires rewriting a large part of the game), i'll (no doubt with some latency) fix it.

 

Hope you'll have fun,

Chokboyz

[Tonweya]

Hope you won't forget us; we certainly won't forget you.

So many thanks for so many things,

me

[Slawbug]

Seconded. Thanks for donating so much of your time to such an unlikely cause, and thanks for being one of the few people here who have never caused me to facepalm.

[Tirien]

I thought everything and anything makes Slarty facepalm...

 

Guess I was wrong. Again.

[Slawbug]

There's sort of a continuum of facepalmity. Student of Trinity, for example, is quite close to Chokboyz's zero point, but not quite there, while at the other extreme ETiSD approaches but does not quite reach 1.

 

Mind you, not all facepalms are a bad thing.

[Lilith]

what's an ETiSD

 

does it phone home while holding a DSi upside-down

[Dantius]

Originally Posted By: Lilith

what's an ETiSD

does it phone home while holding a DSi upside-down

Break it down into component parts. ETiSD ---> ET i SD --->
ET
SD

And the rest follows.

[Mistb0rn]

I'm not sure if you're being serious or not; but I would assume ET=Emperor Tullegolar, while SD=Sleeping Dragon. I'm relatively sure the i stands for ie.

 

Argh, sniped.

[Lilith]

i like my explanation better

[Celtic Minstrel]

Me too.

[Chokboyz]

Taking advantage of the christmas/new year's eve break, i've done some cleaning on my computer and stumbled upon some minor corrections/enhancements i did to Classic Blades of Exile, which, some way or another, strangely didn't make it in the main release.

 

Since it would have been a waste to just delete them, i've made a patch that regroups them all.

 

Click to reveal.. (Changelog)

- Dying to a trap while attempting to open a container won't display the "get items in container" dialog with no alive character anymore.

- Casting the priest Light spell now updates the surrounding areas automatically (like Light and Long Light mage spells; moving or waiting isn't required anymore).

- Debug and Ghost mode are now turned off when loading a game.

- The shop scrolling bar is now properly cleaned up when loading a game while shopping.

- Items are now automatically combined when identified in a shop. To avoid any loss of information, the game now gives the identified item name in the message window (format : "Your item is identified. (full_item_name)"

- If an "active" character (i.e solo fighting) is incapacitated (AP reduced to 0 because of webs, sleep, paralysis, etc) the rest of the party (if present) is now activated the next turn.

- Entering a space containing the special node number 50 won't "force move" the party anymore.

- Added a compatibility option (mainly testing purpose) : "specials are triggered when on boat".

- The restart option of the death menu now works as intended.

- Finally renamed the "Heal All" monster priest spell from "Full Heal" to "Revive Self". That should prevent any further confusion.

- Using items now always updates the ap counter.

- For the sake of consistency : changed labels "Power Potion" to "Energy Potion" potions in the Alchemy menu.

- Redrawing the screen is now correctly handled by specials in all mode (e.g a special that changes a terrain will correctly redraw the screen, even if it was called by looking or moving).

 

Scenario Editor :

 

- Redid the custom pictures drawing implementation : custom pictures should now always appears and redraw (terrain, animated terrains, monsters, items, preset items, ...).

- It is now possible to directly give the "Drain missiles" ability to bows and crossbows (use the "Weapon Ability" menu).

(as you can see, it's mainly minor corrections...)

 

As usual, download link : http://code.google.com/p/openexile/downloads/list

 

Hoping i won't find any leftover again,

Chokboyz

[Tonweya]

Got it; thanks.

Hopefully, by the time all of you reach retirement age, I'll still be playing with these Scenarios and it will be, primarily, because of all the work you've done.

Again, thanks a bunch,

me

[Celtic Minstrel]

Originally Posted By: Chokboyz

- Items are now automatically combined when identified in a shop. To avoid any loss of information, the game now gives the identified item name in the message window (format : "Your item is identified. (full_item_name)"

What do you mean by this?

Originally Posted By: Chokboyz

- Entering a space containing the special node number 50 won't "force move" the party anymore.

What's special node number 50?

[Slawbug]

If you have 2 unidentified, stackable magic items of the same type, they take up separate item slots. When both are identified in a shop in CBoE, they remain in separate item slots, even though if you drop them and pick them up again the game will put them in 1 slot.

 

This also happens when creating potions with alchemy.

[Chokboyz]

Originally Posted By: Celtic Minstrel

What do you mean by this?

Items that are stackable (e.g sapphires) are stacked when identified in a shop.
In case stacking occurs, to avoid wondering what the identified item was, the item name is now added in the message window along the "Item identified" string.

Originally Posted By: Celtic Minstrel

What's special node number 50?

Another leftover i found (mentioned in this post : http://www.spiderwebforums.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=219497#Post219497) :
if trying to enter a square containing the special node number 50 (i.e the 50th special in the current town/outdoor/scenario special list), the party is forced moved through the square (i.e it can go through walls, etc). If the square is blocked in the first place, the special is not triggered, but the move is forced nonetheless.

Originally Posted By: CRISIS on INFINITE SLARTIES

This also happens when creating potions with alchemy.

Created potions (or default ones) don't have type_flag, thus don't combine.
The same with scrolls, if i'm not mistaken...

Chokboyz

[Celtic Minstrel]

So, I'm assuming it's related to what Slarty just said then. As for node 50, it's basically like a duplicate of the Secret Passage node then?

 

Originally Posted By: Chokboyz

Created potions (or default ones) don't have type_flag, thus don't combine.

Since there are some type flags explicitly mentioned as being reserved for internal use, maybe we should change it so that created and default ones do have a type flag. At least put it on a to-do list somewhere.

 

Originally Posted By: Chokboyz

The same with scrolls, if i'm not mistaken...

Scrolls are irrelevant since you can't create them anyway. (Besides, have they ever stacked in Exile? I can't quite remember...)

[Chokboyz]

Originally Posted By: Celtic Minstrel

So, I'm assuming it's related to what Slarty just said then.

In fact, it's exactly what he said (browsing posts linearly, i saw it after typing my answer).

Originally Posted By: Celtic Minstrel

As for node 50, it's basically like a duplicate of the Secret Passage node then?

For blocked square, it is (that the reason i think it's an old "secret passage" leftover); for unblocked ones, it acts as an usual secret node, plus the move is forced (i didn't try it with "can't enter" nodes, but it's basically as if you were in "Ghost Mode").

Originally Posted By: Celtic Minstrel

Since there are some type flags explicitly mentioned as being reserved for internal use, maybe we should change it so that created and default ones do have a type flag. At least put it on a to-do list somewhere.

That could indeed be a nice idea, to add to the list.
We should be careful of the potions in stack/charges interaction though (e.g a stack of two doses potions, you drink one dose of one potion then split the stack : we should take in account that one potion now contains only one dose).

Originally Posted By: Celtic Minstrel

Scrolls are irrelevant since you can't create them anyway. (Besides, have they ever stacked in Exile? I can't quite remember...)

If i remember well, scrolls never stacked.

Chokboyz

[Slawbug]

Exile never distinguishes between doses of potions, and different copies of the same potion. In other words, a stack of two one-dose potions and a two-dose potion are the same thing; you can't have a stack of multi-dose potions.

[Chokboyz]

Originally Posted By: CRISIS on INFINITE SLARTIES

Exile never distinguishes between doses of potions, and different copies of the same potion. In other words, a stack of two one-dose potions and a two-dose potion are the same thing; you can't have a stack of multi-dose potions.

Seems like i overlooked that... Charges are indeed both doses and copies in the stack.
That should be fairly easy to implemented then (i.e we only need to decide what type_flag to use for what item)

Thanks,
Chokboyz

[icelizarrd]

Originally Posted By: Chokboyz

- Casting the priest Light spell now updates the surrounding areas automatically (like Light and Long Light mage spells; moving or waiting isn't required anymore).

That's a nice little change that's bugged me for a while. Though, for me, I seem to remember that happening with other things too, not just the priest Light? I'll have to check.

Thanks for the tweaks either way.


Ah, by the way, sort of an incidental intro for the forum at large: I'm new here, but I am attempting to join in on the CBoE development. I've exchanged a few emails with Celtic Minstrel, and right now I'm working on the Mac/Windows merge (mostly the internal data structures). I'll strive to incorporate these new changes too.

[Mistb0rn]

Woo! Go for it!

[Chokboyz]

A rather important bug, in the last (and previous) version of Classic Blades of Exile, recently came to my attention : a massive use of stairway nodes (or any "entering/exiting town" nodes) in a special node chain could cause a buffer overflow in the pending special queue (at least one scenario, Roots with its nice "stairway powered" cinematics, has been known to cause it).

I've fixed that, along with not crowding the pending special queue with unvalid specials, especially when the special to call while entering/exiting town is < 0 (i.e none).

 

This glitch doesn't occur in the legacy game, since the pending special queue, while present, is largely unused/not implemented : the first slot is always filled with the "special on entering town" node, the second one with the "special on exiting town" node and the last 18 are unused.

 

While i was at it, i've aligned the to-hit, assassinate and lockpicking random checks with icelizarrd attempt to merge both codes, as described in this post : http://www.spiderwebforums.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=221550#Post221550

 

Given the relative severity of the bug, i've release a patch, as well as replacing the full version with a fixed one (given the download numbers, people don't patch their game much ).

Upgrading, for builds 26.11.2010 and 09.01.2011, is strongly recommended.

 

Chokboyz