Sokhbep

The Unofficial Blades of Avernum Patch has been updated! v1.0.1 Changelog: On the Github Page: A note on Special Skills has been added for convenience on how to unlock them in-game, and a folder called 'Extra Graphics' has been added which carries Creature Graphics from other Avernum games.

I am running the game without any compatibility patches. Try removing them and see what goes down.

I think the same thing too, that weapon sounds - for both swords and spears, the thudding noises are for lower skill level weapons, and the steel-like hitting noises are for the higher skill level weapons... or maybe they're based on damage? I'm quite sure that they're at least not based on whether the weapons are one-handed or two-handed. What's even weirder is that BoA started this distinction out of nowhere (Avernum 1,2 and 3 don't have it), which then later got carried over to Nethergate: Resurrection.

Downloaded the entire catalog from http://openboe.com/scenarios/ as the magnet link seems to not work. The scenario called "ShottsModland" results in an empty folder when extracted.

I think I'm right in my assumption. Since you said that you didn't download the game from Steam, you have the older graphics. Every screenshot on Google Images which has the newer graphics are from the Steam version of the game. So, if you really want the new graphics (and don't want to buy the game again), what you can do is probably ask someone around here who has the Steam version bought and ask them to send you the newer graphics and replace all of them manually on your copy. As a personal take, I feel like the graphics in Avernums 4 to 6 have this unfinished transition look to them where half of the graphics have been remade to look better, but the other half has their pixel art-esque nature retained from 1 to 3, thus making them look very out of place.

Can you post a screenshot of your game window? It appears to me, from a quick google search, that the Steam version of the game has updated character graphics, while the one available on the Spiderweb site offers the same character graphics as Avernums 1 to 4

Alright, I thought so. I changed the extra damage type from acid to cold presumptively. This caution got me thinking... Ring of Speed's monetary value is 3000 coins, and Nimble Band's is 1400 coins. Is it possible that Ring of Speed was supposed to provide a 2 AP bonus instead of 1? It sounds plausible that it could've just been an upgraded version of Nimble Band and somehow the ability strength got mistyped as 1 instead of 2. Speaking of which, Wyrmsbane. Now that's a weapon I feel is extremely gaffed. Not only does it, being an artifact, inherit from a very weak weapon (Bronze Longsword), it also sells for only 40 gold. The weapon does about 1-5 damage, the same as a Bronze Longsword but instead looks more like a 'Ghoulbane' counterpart: An artifact spear that inherits from a strong base (Blessed Spear), has twice its value and does the exact same effect (+25 damage to Reptiles) but instead of Reptiles, to Undead creatures. The name and effect is a clear as day ring with Ghoulbane. So I'm therefore 99% sure that Wyrmsbane was supposed to be a lot more stronger than what it actually is. The question is... should I change it to be stronger? My reasoning being, if it isn't buffed, this weapon is a complete piece of trash to have around in your pack. There is absolutely no reason remaining to use it. The damage output is very low, and by the time you get your hands on a Wyrmsbane yourself, you're definitely going to have access to at least a Steel Longsword, and that would heavily outperform the artifact weapon, in killing lizards or otherwise, because with the damage range so low, that extra bonus doesn't mean anything when the Steel Longsword can probably do 30 more damage at best to everything and not just reptiles.

Looks like I have another query: Is Item 345 "Icy Longsword" supposed to do extra acid damage, or is that another gaffe? I need help understanding whether the weapon should be called "Acidic Longsword" instead and retain its acid damage, or should the wrong bonus damage type instead be corrected from acid to cold? Found out that "Ring of Speed" and "Nimble Band" have the exact same abilities. I think I'm going to change "Nimble Band" to increase Tool Use instead of giving one extra action point, otherwise one of these items is completely redundant. Probably rename it to "Locksmith's Band" instead.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the choices that you make when you talk to serviles, also affects their disposition towards you. Some NPCs when talked to, will sometimes provide you a one-off, permanent question which you can answer either in a Shaper way or a Non-Shaper way. The examples would be as follows: Servile asks "You, the Shapers created us and we respect you. But it's time we go our own path and not worship you anymore." You'll be given three options as follows: "Yes. I agree that we have been harsh on you. You're really doing great, keep it up!" (Non-Shaper, increases respect for Awakened and Takers) "Say that one more time and I will end you where you stand." (Shaper, increases respect for Obeyers) "Ehh I need more time to think about this. / I don't care what you do." (No disposition change, keeps your respect levels same. In some cases you can make the NPC repeat the question again) If you pick either one of the first or second options, it is locked and you have no way of talking to that same NPC again to tell them that you've changed your mind on that opinion. It will be recorded permanently for the rest of your save. And since you're trying to join the Obeyers, you should pick the Shaper options. A little bit of reading is required to understand which options would be more suited to which side and answer accordingly.

I seem to be forgetting, but weren't Augmented Giants coloured green in Avernum 3? I'd appreciate if somebody could help me out with this info. Meanwhile, I spotted another oversight by the devs. It seems like items that give armor on the bracelet slot don't actually show the protection value of the item as the text "Blocks X-X dam." when hovered over with the cursor. It's only when their full info is brought up by pressing the ? button do they show their protection value. This is apparent in the 'Bracer' line of items. Screenshots: One more question, are there any official descriptions of how the artifact weapons like Ghoulbane, Demonslayer, Giantslayer etc actually look like, or what colour they have?

I've started making recolours without the Graphic Adjuster. Turns out I don't need it at all. In order to display changes in colours, I can simply re-load a save file over and over while making the changes in the script using a text editor. Screenshots: These recolours will be available in a separate script file packed within the patch archive. The user will have complete choice over whether to use these or not, so I'm not shoving these down anybody's throats that way.

I am assuming it could range from something as simple as just changing a piece of hex number so that it redirects the graphic change from checking the armor slot to checking the shield slot instead, or something very challenging like altering entire strings of code at once. Perhaps the slot number is somehow linked with the "variety" variable in items? Variety 13 seems to be the slot for body clothing, so maybe I can look for the number '13' somewhere in the binary and get extremely lucky. As an update on the progress of the patch, I have finished making outdoor graphics for every PC character which has unarmored outdoor graphics displayed even while wearing armor. All I need to do now is get the Graphic Adjuster up and running, then make a few changes before uploading the necessary files.

I can advise two things. Get two canisters immediately: Essence Shield and Protection. Or replace the latter with an Artila that can use Flash Shield. Do not forget to stock up on Essence Pods if essence management is getting too hairy. Also, as far as I know, Power Core has sets of Grounded Vests and Grounded Boots in the beginning of the area to help mitigate the energy environmental damage.

I'm down for giving it a try on 10.14. Would be very helpful if it does indeed end up working, because I want to experiment with recolouring a few enemies to differentiate them. For example, I've always been irked by the fact that soldiers and archers have the same colour scheming, but brigands are magenta and brigand archers have the normal archer colours. If they were magenta like brigands too then they would be easier to distinguish in an indoors environment. I would do the same for the rogue archer enemy and turn him dark green like the rogue mages are coloured. Anybody have any more suggestions? - Also, I wonder, through hex editing, if it may be possible to perhaps change it so that PCs change their graphic based on whether or not they have a shield equipped, like Nethergate. The reason why should be very clear in the fact that about 99.9999% of the time players would scramble and put on anything they find, like even a shirt, to get any sort of protection possible, which results in the armor-less PC graphics almost never displayed. Shields, on the other hand are more prominently equipped or unequipped based on whether the PC is using a one-handed or a two-handed weapon. We could then have graphics of PCs holding and attacking with a spear along with a shield. I frankly find it kind of a dumb decision on Spidweb's side to have picked on-off graphics for something that is literally worn as the first thing imaginable by someone - body armor. The sheets would then be modified to look something akin to this:

I notice, other than a complete black, there is also a text colour that employs a dark brown shade as seen in the character editor and other places. So it is obvious that there are more than one hex value to be changed. I am hoping I might able to discover perhaps a control variable which when changed, recolours all the text using the same colours -- so there'd be one hex value for the black, one for the brown, red, grey and so on. Black looks to be #000000 Red is #FF0000 Gray is #AAAAAA Brown is #400F0F

I'm thinking of doing the same for perhaps all the games that run on the Avernum engine down the line, though I'm not sure which one to port next. I'm not very nostalgically attached to the other user interfaces as much as I was with Avernum 3... Perhaps I could make my own skin from the ground up? (I did want to make like a black marble skin where it's essentially serving as a 'Dark Mode' for the game's screen, but the problem there would be the fact the text too is black, and there is currently no way of editing that) Glad you enjoyed this one though!

So did he later release a version of the Graphic Adjuster application that did work on newer versions of Mac? I still remain a bit skeptical since they are quite large files to obtain for emulation. If the application ultimately failed to run then it would be a complete waste of time. Let me use this post to make another update in the meantime. I will also be including a modified .exe file of the game, edited with nothing but Resource Hacker to add a small change: The pointing hand icon in the Get Item dialog box is changed to a right-handed cursor instead of being left-handed. Since all the other cursors in the game are right-handed, it doesn't make much sense to keep just one cursor left-handed. Screenshots: I also took the time to add a revamped icon for the new file. Of course as always I will be providing a virus scan as a proof of no foul play going on.

I've made some progress and work is going at a steady pace now, mainly altering and fixing stuff in all of the Graphics folders first, and then moving over to editing the core scripts for errors and miscellaneous changes. Screenshot of changelog-in-progress (Big Image) I had one question. What could I do to possibly cycle through the variations for each number of it_icon_adjust in real time? I really thought I could use that Appearance changer in Geneforge to hack my way into checking out each colour but it seems like the entire Geneforge series uses a completely different icon adjustment setup than that of Avernum, so whatever colour I pick out in Geneforge will almost always be totally different in BoA. I was thinking of emulating Mac OSX Snow Leopard on my Windows 10 to run the Graphic Adjuster, but I'm not sure if that application allows for changing icon adjust colours in real time and being able to scroll through colours and shades without opening and closing the game over and over.

-= Sokhbep's Supplies =- Avernum 3 Game Skin - For Blades of Avernum What's the big deal here? I got sick and tired of looking at the white marble skin for Blades of Avernum ever since back in 2008 when I first played it. It was mostly okay before, but now it has begun to feel somewhat lifeless, cold, bleak and drab... sucks out all the energy and enthusiasm out of me when trying to play or test new scenarios. Therefore, I've come up with a solution. I have made a replacement for the game's default User Interface which uses a modified version of the Avernum 3 User Interface, which I thought I would share with others for free. Screenshots (Big images. Beware.) As you can see, it makes a very big change in how the game looks. Avernum 3's warm and wholesome wooden interface has been a favourite of mine for a very, very long time. But since Blades of Avernum is the only one out of the bundle I end up playing the most, it has a pleasing effect on my eyes, and is a welcome change-up in my opinion. Even you might end up liking it. Apply pressure on this Download button to acquire the wooden glory for yourself! (Make sure to read the instruction text file included.) VirusTotal File Scan: https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/3b6b9138ddae32f6fd8a13c69ec7e36e06d3e9bbe215318a57a67ed7e556669c?nocache=1 Jotti Malware Scan: https://virusscan.jotti.org/en-US/filescanjob/sdg0jgzp9f NOTE: The only place where the User Interface isn't completely replaced is in the Scenario Introduction pages that show up when you start a scenario for the first time. The white marble background seems to be a part of G4900 in Editor Graphics and something as a small as a 1x1 dot placed on the picture has the game end up refusing to load it for some reason. Edit (Nov 10 2021): Updated .zip file with some fixes and added two virus scans.

Yes, but I was thinking that if I could include this script base in corescendata from the get-go, and then perhaps people who apply the entire patch on their BoA game, they would be able to create scenarios using the objects defined within it, without having to look for this file and take from it separately into their custom made scenario. If I do this, I could get stuff like Aranea Fangs to drop from Elder Araneas instead of Pots, for example. But then again I could just change the Elder Aranea creature definition to not drop anything at all, which would save on space for the limited amount of creature/item/terrain definitions for each scenario. In my mind, the goal is that I would be able to provide a patch for the whole community with fixes and extra miscellaneous additions (which is unreasonable in hoping that everybody is going to download the files provided by me and patch their games) but if not the new additions, I would at least want to import the stuff under //FIX OLD TERRAINS, ITEMS, CREATURES and whatnot, assuming that those are fixes for the objects defined in the default, unpatched, retail corescendata.txt

Could I use that to append my patch? What I would want to do is merge it with my edits.

Yup, that's the one. I feel like that is precisely what might have happened. the forced_give special failed due to insufficient carry weight and as a result I didn't get the item.

Here I was referring to the outdoor special encounters such as the bear encounter in VoDT near the cave entrance where winning the battle gives you an armor supposedly, which I couldn't find in the inventories of any of my characters. If it just so happened to be that neither of my characters got the item because they couldn't carry it, then the entire report may be false actually. (One thing of note is that I didn't get any popup message saying that the reward was too heavy for me to carry)

-= Sokhbep's Supplies =- Unofficial Patch for Blades of Avernum Windows v1.0.3 (Or as I like to call it, "That thing somebody finally bothered to do after 17 years.") Information: This is a small .zip file package of fixes and tweaks to the base game which will liven up the game a bit more than before. It fixes bugs of both major and minor degrees. The entire reasoning behind undertaking this project began as an ambitious quest to add funny colours to everything that exists in the game, but the thought evolved and went on to become something that everybody else would also be able to enjoy in equal amounts. Click here to visit the Github page for the project, which has all the extra help such as a step-by-step tutorial on how to apply the patch onto your copy of the game. Once there, you may click on the big, shiny download button to commence the acquisition of the patchified percolations. (Keep in mind, the gear you may have currently in your party's inventory - even if they are from the base game and not from custom scenarios, will need to be dropped and re-acquired through either the Character Editor or through natural means by playing scenarios again, in order for them to be updated into the patched versions of themselves.) How you can contribute: If you find anything in the game the patch has overlooked, such as graphical gaffes and script mistakes, AFTER applying the patch, you can then use this forum post to raise your issues which I will try my best to cross-check and address at the earliest. I personally do not own any Macintosh computers and I have no prior experience with operating that system, so I would very much appreciate if somebody could volunteer to port the contents of this patch to run on a Macintosh machine, in order to be compatible with Blades of Avernum v1.2.1 for the Mac. Let's make Blades of Avernum better together! v1.0.1 Changelog: v1.0.0 Changelog: Old Post Content: (Or how the page looked before its release)

Ye, sounds good. Didn't know about that, thanks for the heads up. I'm very green to this whole BoE shebang and mostly learning things on my own as I struggle to adapt to the graphics. I'm surprised to see that BoE got about 300+ scenarios made for it as compared to BoA's 100~ ish count, and I do want to play all of them one by one. One more thing about this. I've gotten around to playing a good amount to notice the fact that the splat numbers are sometimes straight up incorrect. I noticed it when I shot a wolf with an arrow and it splat for 8 when it showed in the log that the wolf actually took 11 damage.