Ess-Eschas

Yes, I was thinking along these lines. This is something that's been mentioned a few times now, both by you and osnolo, and also by several people in this discussion over on the Steam forums: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1058130/discussions/0/2564160288798687727/ Curiously, it doesn't seem to tally with my experience. I paid a fair amount of attention to the timings of combat during the testing run, flagging up anything that caused a delay approaching anything like a second. This resulted in a few modifications to the combat script, and some streamlining. At least on my end, combat turns now seem to come through nice and smoothly regardless of the size or complexity of the dungeon (except for very specific niche situations, which it's likely the player will rarely if ever encounter). According to Jeff, all that should be happening to monsters outside of the 'nearby' field of view is the game cycling over characters and telling them not to act, with no extra calculations being involved. At least in theory, that shouldn't take any perceptible time at all. So something odd definitely seems to be going on here. It's possible that there's something based on hardware or the OS, or on something else entirely. It's also possible that I've just normalised the game's behaviour in my mind, so that it is happening for me, and I'm just not noticing it. I'm curious, so I'll have a delve into the game and see what I can find. In order to right-click on a trackpad, you need to press the active section of the pad (or the button portion) with two fingers simultaneously. I appreciate your enthusiasm, ladyonthemoon, but osnola has been reporting a problem with monster positioning here – the speed at which monsters attack is not really related if the monster is incapable of attacking their target. With apologies for the paraphrasing, but osnola has been describing a situation in the Ashen Foundry where most of the mire boars block the passage to the player, and therefore cannot attack. Generally, with careful party placement, only one or two can reach the party at a time, sometimes none of them if summons are placed carefully. Since most of them are melee attackers, they could have all the speed in the world, and they still can't attack if they can't reach the party! (Also, Mire Boars have speed boosts, rather than an innate slowness. Generally, most creatures in Queen's Wish will be faster than 0 speed, presumably to make up for the party's general tendency to increase in speed over the course of the game.)

Great! At the moment, everything sounds like it's working as it should. This means that there is no direct evidence for any bug taking place with the allocation of turns for a singleton character, at least right now. When thinking about reporting a bug, it's always best to be sure about what's being reported. Games like Queen's Wish are complicated programs, and there a variety of things that can cause certain effects – and they're not necessarily always obvious. One way of being confident about a bug report is to do some experimenting, and to see if you can find a way of reproducing the issue. If a bug isn't reproducible, it's much harder to track down and fix. It's very hard to fix a bug if the programer can't see it in action for themselves! For instance, right now there's no evidence of the problem you mentioned. That will make any issue connected to turn allocations very tricky to track down!

It most certainly is! I've done a check of the special skills, and they all seem to be working as expected. Lifedrain now heals the character doing damage, as intended. The healing rate is actually nothing to be sniffed at, either. It's a small amount, but it adds up over the course of a fight. Perhaps I'll have to make more use of it in the future ...

Hmm, that's odd. I've not noticed anything like that when I've worked with a singleton. Everything seems to go through nice and cleanly before and after my character's turn, with no waiting around. However, it's possible that this is a problem only seen on certain machines. There's been at least one report of combat showing unusual pauses, so it's possible what you're reporting is connected to that. However, it's best to have solid data on this, rather than relying on memory. Could you do an experiment at some point, ladyonthemoon, and go a short trek with just one character to see what happens? For instance, try entering an outdoor encounter (there's lots of those in the Ahriel), perhaps dialling down the difficulty to make it more manageable. Does this pause happen consistently after every turn?

Likewise, congratulations osnola! Getting a complete victory like this in Queen's Wish with a singleton is a definite achievement! As Randomizer said, getting your party into a good position can be very important in this game. This is particularly the case when monsters that take up more than one tile come into play. Large monsters inevitably find it harder to traverse certain spaces than smaller ones – much like they would in reality! – and you can play with that to your advantage. You've found a really good strategy for the Ashen Foundry, and there are other places in the game where you can play similar tricks. After all, Mire Boars are huge. If you hide in small tunnels, you'll have a much better time dealing with them! I'm not sure I understand your comment here, ladyonthemoon. This may well be just me, but could you clarify this?

There are a number of us forwarding on bug comments from here. Rest assured that this issue has already been sent his way, particularly with the nature of the exploit. Still, it's a good reminder to all posting here that the best way to ensure that bug reports are received is to send them on to Spiderweb's support email directly – and not to rely on us forwarders! There's a lot of information in threads like these, and it's easy for little bits and pieces to get missed out! Here's the necessary address: support@spiderwebsoftware.com It's worth reiterating that it's not a good idea to play around with this combat bug – it has unexpected consequences. Suffice it to say that it's not quite as simple to activate as the original poster implied – that path was caught out by the testing team. There's a very specific set of actions you have to take in order to get the effect indicated, and this has been reported. That is a nice idea, but it might not be quite as easy to realise as it sounds, I'm afraid. This is one unfortunate quirk of the current way that buildings are realised. It was one of two different approaches that was tried during testing, and I assure you that this one is much better! The tricky aspect is trying to connect up buildings correctly when they're viewed from the north – this is an inevitable problem for a quasi-2D engine such as this. The roofs are placed as tiles, but roof tiles are only revealed when they have walls to connect them to. This means there are certain situations where the behaviour isn't ideal, such as the one that you've seen. Thankfully, the issues are very few and far between. The previous approach used in Queen's Wish would have allowed more or less what you requested: the building's roof appearing as soon as you see it. However, most buildings in the game when using that approach would have much more serious problems appearing much more frequently – such as the ground showing through roofs much, much more frequently than you'll have seen in the current version of the game! This is not to say that it's a problem that can't be fixed – but just to add a comment that Jeff has already given a fair amount of thought to the problem, and that it's not a completely trivial one to solve.

The advice you quote about taking the water path into the tower is probably from the original version of the game, rather than remake. You can't get in that way this time! There are a few places where the gameplay between the two versions is slightly different, and this is one of them. Good luck on finding the Orb!

Of course not! That's the Glorious Tree – I would never stoop so low as to refer to such a vision of beauty as a mere oak. The talking tree I was referring to is elsewhere. It's not a monstrosity, nor any other kind of walking, magical foliage. It's simply a perfectly normal oak tree – merely a little sad. I can see from the map you've posted that you likely haven't spoken to this nice tree yet. I'm sure you will, in time! The way the printed map and the in-game map are presented in this game means that it's almost inevitable that there will be the odd spot where the two don't quite match up. You've found one of them, and there are a few other little quirks hidden away in other areas. These are actually really very rare – the in-game continent matches up really very well with the cloth map in all but a few places. I like to think of it this way – your party is navigating using the map as a guide, but the mapmaker was somewhat inaccurate in producing their map. So, while the map you're carrying around with you might place you in the ocean, you're still very much on dry ground. Whoever from Haven penned this map, they were a little out when they drew that section! I'd suggest having words with Princess Delia when you get home. I'm sure she'll be very interested to have Sacramentum's maps updated!

But what about this?

Excellent. That's good to hear! I imagine getting all the visual changes to line up is a pain, but I have a feeling it might be really effective once it's done. Once you're at a point where it would make sense, do let the forums know if you'd like some people to help test out what you've made! I'd be happy to try and break things for you :)

That's alright! This actually gives a fair amount of information, and I have a hunch about which group might be causing this. I'll need to do some digging into my save files, but I might be able to track this down. Thank you! Once you get a little further into Queen's Wish, you might change your mind on that one ... :)

I think this is a really interesting idea, Simulated Knave, and I look forward to seeing what you do with it! It seems that you've put some very careful thought into the sorts of abilities that would work well for the various different races, and which would add in some interesting variety to selecting parties with differing race combinations. As Slarty mentioned above, Jeff has been interested in user-based mods and adaptations before – after all, playing with the engine is one interesting way of introducing innovation! As you may well be aware, there are also mods for several of Spiderweb's current releases that make adjustments to combat, abilities and so on – most notably for the recent Avernum remakes. This might well be another, a continuation to the line of user-created mods for recent titles, perhaps! Best of luck. I look forward to seeing the fruits of your labour!

This will have happened because a wandering group walked out of its zone. To help fix this, could you let us know what the wandering group consisted of (snakes? nagas?) and roughly where it took place? A good way to precisely indicate somewhere in the game is to walk to that spot with your party, or as near as you can recall, press shift and d and type in the following into the dialogue box that appears: location This will bring up a precise set of coordinates, making tracking down the problem much easier!

Yes, this is the cause. Shield Ally contributes to evasion. Sorry for being a little slow to cotton on! Shield Ally gives +5% physical evasion per point to all nearby allies. So your Dyne's Pallisade should account for that extra 10%!

I can confirm that Apple used to do this, at least until some years ago. They used to host system 7.5.3 on their website – with the corresponding update to 7.5.5. It was very convenient, actually, since it made emulation much easier. As for why system 7 was of interest, it was the last classic OS that was released by Apple for free (and, I believe, could be freely distributed too). With the release of later updates, and later major releases, Apple started to use a slightly different tactic and started charging. That's why emulating system 9 is a slightly trickier standpoint than earlier versions of system 7. For the record, I can confirm that all of the Exile games run like an absolute dream on Mac OS 7.5.5, emulated under SheepShaver. To back myself up here, I do also own several period Mac Desktop machines that run several classic OSes natively – and still work really rather well! That depends a little on what exactly you want to emulate. For instance, 'Harry the Handsome Executive', which was released in 1997, breaks somewhat under system 9 – the MIDI files link to the wrong instruments, making the soundtrack sound peculiar, and several effects (such as the ripple effect used to simulate underwater levels) don't parse at all. From a purely system-based standpoint, it might be better to work with Mac OS versions close to the releases of whatever you want to emulate. Don't worry, Thaeris. You meant no harm, and emulation is a tricky point – I'm sure you had no intention of suggesting anything untoward!

Good catch! While this game was very carefully proofed, the sheer volume of text means that it's not unlikely that the occasional blip got past the testing team. If this is the first one you've spotted, then that's no bad thing! I'm not sure what you mean about 'little morsel', though. It seems rather appropriate! As you'll see if you delve into Ghorsh's dialogue chain a little, he's a dragon with a good sense of humour – and one who appreciates jokes. What a nice dragon! :)

Be careful with this. This is part of an exploit that we thought was dealt with during testing – but it seems that you've found exactly the right combination of actions to get around the checks that were put in place to prevent against it. It's certainly no laughing matter, Slarty, haha :)

I'm not quite sure what is happening here, but I really do think there's some strange failure of communication going on. This wasn't an arbitrary or spontaneous choice; I came to this decision carefully, after testing my ideas on the game engine. I did my best to try and explain this choice to you, and to explain that the engine does not have problems with my implementation method. Again, I tested this. I wrote a set of instructions that I believe is clear, and requires no additional assumptions or input from the user. Still, it seems that you are unhappy with what I am doing here. I'm sorry. I have had some further ideas that would be a lot neater, and get around the bleeding problem. However, the last thing I want to do is to cause any more problems. To that end, I think it's probably best if I do no more public work on this for the time being. Hopefully that will be acceptable to all concerned.

Without wishing to be deliberately contrary, I don’t think I’ve said anything factually incorrect here. However, do let me know if I’m misunderstanding something. The decision to start numbering the abilities at 1 was a deliberate one. In my experience, the most valuable ability of an item is listed in the first slot, numbered 0, as you say. Since I was going to overwrite three of the four possible abilities of an item, I thought it best to keep that upper slot free. Hence the numbering system I chose. Each item, so far as I can see, must have the it_stats_to_affect array defined. If an item has no ability at all, then the 0-numbered slot is given an ability with a null value of minus one. However, the array is still defined. This means that you can add abilities to the later slots without anything breaking – the remaining three abilities still activate, and everything displays correctly on the screen. Effectively, the game just skips over the null ability. In other words, my suggestion above keeps the most valuable ability of an item, if any, while adding on the three royal abilities. It works as well for items with abilities as for those that have none. If you don’t believe me, check it out! Indeed that is so. However, in my experience this is only done with items in a particular grouping – say only with the sets of broadswords, or with the sets of plate armour. Players can't naturally wear two sets of plate armour at the same time, or wield two swords. As a result, I was under the impression that such 'leakage' of stats would not be problem. Indeed, it ends up being preferential, since players who upgrade their gear to similar items will still receive the same effects without needing to upgrade the scripts. However, you have reminded me that this might be the problem for the player character, or for other characters that are not intended to have stat increases, since they might unintentionally have boosted stats as well. I'll update my original post to warn about this.

This is a debatable comment, Slarty, even from a mathematical perspective :) The steps I describe above are complete as they stand. To get one level of Haven's Might, set a to 1. For two levels, set a to 2. The numbers in the code and the in-game values directly correspond to one another. There's no -1 for the abilities in this game, Slarty!

This is indeed what you need to do – Randomizer is incorrect on this occasion. All you need to do to complete this portion of King Borgen's demands is to get a letter from one of the other vassal states. Unfortunately, I believe you've stumbled across a bug. I think the flags of the dragon and the letter quest are interfering with each other. If you still have your saved game from before you've spoken to the King, you could help me verify this. Go to the King and, before you speak to him, press shift and d. This will bring up a little text input box. Type in this: sdf 30 17 0 Then speak to the King. If I'm right, you'll then be able to give him the letter and proceed as normal. In that case, of course, feel free to continue with your game! This code will not affect your ability to obtain achievements. If this doesn't work, let me know! I might still be able to hunt down what the problem is.

You might be able to get by this, at least for the Royal Haven abilities, but only if you were willing to constantly edit the files. Note, before doing any of this, it's a good idea to make a copy of your game. Then you can always use this copy to keep on playing in case something goes wrong! Go to your scripts folder, and open the file 'QWitemschars.txt'. Find an item that you want one of your soldiers (but not your main character!) to wear, which can simply be done using a text search. Alternatively, find a charm that one of your soldiers is carrying. The stats of this item or charm are contained in the block beginning 'begindefineitem <SomeNumber>'. At the bottom of this block, on a fresh new line at some point before the next begindefineitem, input this: it_stats_to_affect 1 = 70; it_stats_addition 1 = a; it_stats_to_affect 2 = 71; it_stats_addition 2 = b; it_stats_to_affect 3 = 72; it_stats_addition 3 = c; where a, b and c are the levels of Haven's Might, Mercy and Command respectively that you want your soldiers to have. Just edit these numbers when you want the abilities to change – and don't forget to leave the skill points free in your training window to compensate! When you next load the game, even though you won't be able to actively see it in their training windows, any soldier wearing this item will now have the required level of the royal abilities! Note that the above code will overwrite all abilities of an item except the one that appears at the very top of its list. Be careful which one you choose! Also, if you are changing equippable items, be aware that some items in the same grouping might also have boosted stats. If your main character or another character you don’t want to have boosted stats is wearing such a related item, you may need to use an additional step. If an item is incorrectly having stats boosted, find this item in the scripts and add the following lines. These should be placed at the end of the item block, as described above: it_stats_to_affect 1 = -1; it_stats_to_affect 2 = -1; it_stats_to_affect 3 = -1; Alternatively, to avoid this problem, make the alteration on a charm, instead of an equippable item.

It's possible that this behaviour has changed now but, at least in the testing run, there were a very few rare occasions where this didn't work for me. For some reason, the connections of dreams I was having would sometimes mean that a Refuge wouldn't offer me a repeat dream after visiting and dreaming in the other two. At least at that stage, there was some other external timer or event flag at play. This happened rarely enough to not really be a problem – maybe one time in ten – and you can always just move on to another Refuge. Still, I thought it was worth mentioning, just in case this is still a feature, and someone ends up getting confused!

Since you mentioned this, Randomizer, here's a helpful tip I stumbled across. Once you've found all three Refuges, it's actually very easy to get all the dreams quickly by making use of the Nisse's teleporters. Start by dreaming in one of the Refuges, then use the teleporters to cycle through each Refuge, dreaming at each in turn. You'll pick up your money from Haven after every two nights, so as long as you're making a moderate amount of money, you can keep going indefinitely. Whilst this doesn't happen absolutely 100% of the time, almost every time you return to a Refuge after dreaming at the other two, a new slot for dreams will have opened up. If it hasn't, just skip it in the cycle and move on to the next one! I know that this hasn't been mentioned in this thread at this point. However, to avoid any confusion, there are more than three level 1 dreams. There are quite a few, in fact. Which one you get is random, and not linked to any particular Refuge!

Yes, that's right! I wasn't sure if you would be happy delving into the scripts, which is why I didn't mention it immediately. You can choose any small integer you like for coloradjust, and it will change the tint accordingly. From doing a little experimenting, I might suggest using 8. This is different from other plates, so Haven Plate will still look distinctive, but it results in boots that are probably more along the lines of the colours you're expecting. A value of 2 produces pink boots! As Slarty said, don't worry about achievements. These are only calculated in the game itself, so altering the scripts will have no effect. You'll still be eligible for them!