Hyena of Ice

On 7/31/2019 at 11:23 PM, Grail Shadowblade said:

Good to see old names and people active, I think part of the problem is that Blades of Avernum just doesn't play well with modern systems. The intro text screens for scenarios hang if you don't click through them fast enough, the cutscenes hang and recover but sadly skip the entire thing.

 

So long as you use dialog boxes only it runs fine with no issues, I'm going to try wrapping it in dosbox later and see if it runs better. 

In Windows 7, you can fix this by running in Compatibility Mode.  Don't know about Win10, though.

No, I didn't get greeted by the commander.  No, I have used the editor, but have never, ever used the "teleport to X" cheat in any SS game.  I've only ever used the item/character editor and (in A3) changed the day.  So I have no idea what might have happened. 

I'm using a general dark square - In the BoA version, it looks like it will capture the mood of the scene.

Oh, so it's not an animated tile or anything like that.  I was kinda wondering if I could take a crack at it, but I probably wouldn't do any good, anyway (and I'd need screenshots of the BoE scenes with the tiles)

I've also started on work on those character sprites again.  It's a looong way from being done though.

On 6/11/2019 at 2:50 PM, Jarinex said:

I was actually wondering if you would be doing just that. I saw “Of Good and Evil”, but haven’t had a chance to get into it yet due to how big it looks. I saw you mention a possible port of “Redemption”, but assumed that it would be too much trouble (since there isn’t a whole lot of players out there these days). 

 

That being said, I would love to see it if you are still willing to work on it. 

Oh, it's absolutely great, but yeah, it's a big scenario.  Bigger than it looks, because there are two major story forks, so much like A Small Rebellion, it's one of those scenarios that you have to replay in order to see/get everything.  Oh, a warning: if you play it, then keep all of your loot on hand until you fight the thieves in that riverside cottage.  Then drop your extra loot there.  It's one of the few safe places to keep your stuff because most of the locations go through major plot/map changes that will gobble up any items you left lying around. 

On 6/10/2019 at 6:40 PM, BainIhrno said:

adapting the dream sequences to BoA. I myself thought this might be a hurdle in the adaption, but I'm actually quite pleased with the way it seems to have turned out so far - it obviously won't be exactly the same as BoE, but I think the effects will set a very similar mood. I may have to use certain scripting to give the tiles the same effect, and am still working on that. When porting these scenarios, I essentially think of it as an adaption - I have to make the game playable in a BoA format, and that does require changes from the original version - and if you've played the BoA version of Of Good and Evil, you'll see many new things from the BoE version - if some fans of the BoE version played I wanted to still give them some new things to discover (much like the Avernum Trilogy did with the Exile Trilogy), and wanted to take advantage of some of the scripting abilities to do things that couldn't be done in BoE (for example, Lord Varnoth

There's a dream sequence in The Magic, if you need scripting help (I don't know if it would be helpful or not.  Don't play it if you haven't played the author's other scenarios though, as this one is the final chapter of it and relates somewhat to all of the others.  The plot is perfectly understandable if you haven't played any of the earlier scenarios, it's just that there is a major spoiler.  Despite some caveats, I really liked the plot/story of this scenario.)

Also, just curious, what type of tile effect are you going for?  Is it mere tile appearance, or is it like-- an animation effect?

Ooh, I love your ports of Alcritas!  *Salivates*  His Beyond Good And Evil one is possibly my favorite scenario.  I didn't finish it though because I encountered a plot-killing glitch.  See, I defeated the dragon using the Genie for help (after using that other dragon to get me to the cave faster)  I defeated the dragon without any of the Nephil/soldiers/etc. dying.  They left (I can't remember what the text was), then... when I got back to the towns, they acted like nothing had happened-- e.g. same dialogue and everything from before I defeated the dragon.  Except that I couldn't go to the first town (the town where you start the scenario.)  If I entered the first town, for some reason, I would get a text about a "teleportation accident" that sent me 100 miles away from the valley, and the scenario would end. 

Back to the subject, I forgot to mention that I also had the idea of creating loot/clutter charts.  This, again, would not be a program or app (though I'm sure someone here would find it very easy to turn into one)

It would be more like those "loot generators" that you find in Dungeons & Dragons and the like.  I get annoyed with the scenarios where people didn't bother to add loot and mundane items to residential houses, a few items/clutter/etc around towns and such, but that's just a pet peeve of mine.

Basically, it would be die roll charts, and you just use your favorite online die roll generators.  The charts would probably be too complex for some people as I'd probably have them split into 3 residence generators (poor/middleclass/upscale), shop, and building ones. 

There are also, IIRC, random integer apps online that allow you to sort them into an array or grid-- I think (can't recall for sure), so you could potentially use it to decide where/if to place debris/plants/whatever on the ground in a dungeon or something.

Hell, you could use a random integer generator to decide the tile/tree/etc layout of your maps if you wanted, assuming that doesn't already exist for the programmer's tools.  (You'd still have to polish it off with rivers and the like)

I eventually have plans to create some custom sprites (no scenarios though, because I am not a programmer)  Mostly just enhanced palette swaps or polishing up some of the old, original item sprites *e.g. the staff, the earrings*,  but I also have two, maybe 3 characters in the works (currently one is 1/4th done and the other is 1/2 done.  A third character that I have in mind has not been started on yet)  Haven't touched them since 2017, though.  I might get back to them, soon, hopefully.  Hopefully.

Also have thought about making an egg, some marbles, and some joke items-- probably the easiest one to make would be dung (just an enhanced palette swap on a rock) and maybe a bikini and a male thong/codpiece.  And a dead rat, maybe a pile of dead leaves (last one not so much a joke item as it is adding some trash) and some soot/ash (that one shouldn't be too hard)

The walkthrough actually says that it is Skane, and I'm supposed to kill Sorali.  Is that correct?

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?

Falconmaster tells me to go "west, north, then west" and to go "west of here", but there's nothing to do at Skane.  My quest is to enter the mist realm, but nobody in the game or in the readmes tells me how to do this (the mirror mage is dead, of course)

To the creator of this scenario, this should really be mentioned in the help/readme/notes file.

As if I didn't have enough reasons for hating the new layout...

Thank you, I will try that.

So what is the solution?  Nobody even mentions it here.  A whole topic dedicated specifically to that (I was going to make a thread asking until I saw this topic, no point in cluttering the board with multiple identical threads from different people)

How do I get past Chika?  You can't search or attack the statues, so what is the solution?

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.

That worked, thank you!

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?

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.

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.

So both my Gog copy and the demo that I DLed from SS are corrupted, and the Demo copy was corrupted the second I installed it? 

Also, there is no readme for Of Goof and Evil because Bain only supplied it for the Mac version.

Nope, doesn't fix it.

Okay, I'll check. 

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?

Come on, anyone?  Nobody knows how to fix this?

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I looked everywhere in the Ruins/Grotto, she is nowhere to be found.  (The missing girlfriend, for the unaware)  How do I finish this quest?  (Yes, I already rescued her hiking friend)

Yup, that worked!    Thanks for everyone's help.  I think Shaman's reply helped me figure this out faster, even though it did not help directly (it was only while following his suggestion that I noticed the BoA launch icon was of the demo and not the GOG one.)

Wait, wait, I see that only the demo is in that folder.

I think I know what went wrong.  I'll try instead to put the scenarios in C:\GOG Games\Blades of Avernum\Blades of Avernum Scenarios

Correct.

Removed Valley of the Dying things, but it still shows up, still loads, and still works (though I didn't play the in-game)

Maybe it's the wrong folder?

Is C:\Program Files (x86)\Blades of Avernum\Blades of Avernum Scenarios the correct location in Win7?