Jump to content

George LeS

Member
  • Posts

    16
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by George LeS

  1. 8 hours ago, Lilith said:

     

    I assume that somebody somewhere has uploaded a copy of it in a preconfigured DOSBox wrapper; it's not an enormously difficult or involved thing to do if you know how, and it wouldn't ordinarily involve any modifications to the base game.

     

    That's how I got it. I think it was from here: http://www.old-games.com/search/?s=exile

     

    And the problems that had with custom scenarios (not the Spiderweb ones) are why I started this this thread. The original BOE in dosbox did run; it just had problems making it unplayable. Contrary to what I said at first, eventually they showed up in every case I tried (ultimately).

     

    For myself, the last time I tried to understand these machines was in the 98 days. After that, I had no job-related reason, and for personal use, the payoff didn't seem worth the time & effort invested. So I'm a sort of computer Rip Van Winkle. (And I've never used a Mac).

  2. So, my impression is that SheepShaver isn't likely to work. I was puzzled about why it would.

     

    All this started with problems I had with the original version under Dosbox. But i didn't really reopen this expecting to find a solution. I'm resigned to the fact that I cannot play it the forseeable future. But I thought it might help Celtic Minstrel (and any others) to list what problems I've seen. Unlike original BOE, the problems aren't the same for each scenario. At this point I have a folder of over 20 which don't work.

     

    Thanks for the replies, all.

     

    EDIT: One other thing, I can see that archery seems to have been buffed a bit. Is this also true of thrown weapons?

  3. 13 hours ago, Kelandon said:

    Can you maybe just run original BoE in Sheepshaver? If the current version isn't really stable or functional, emulation seems like another option.

     

    I'll check it out. But I'm curious just what difference it would make. Are these problems (really, several different sets of them) due to using a PC instead of a Mac?

  4. I just checked back to see if there's an update (not that I'd expected one, and I'm certainly not meaning to complain.) But I thought it might be helpful if I listed the problems I've run across:

     

    With the Vogel scenarios:

     

    1. The priest dropdown I mentioned before.

    2. It will not load a saved game. I've tried all of the original three, and every time, it stops working.

    3. Virtually everything equips automatically, except armor itself. And by armor I mean it in the narrow sense, torso armor. Everything else will equip automatically if you buy, pick up, or have it given to you, even if you already are using all you are permitted. Thus, after a battle, the lead fighters may well have six weapons equipped. I'm pretty sure that the first on the list is the one used, though. (This is also true in custom scenarios).

     

    (The rest I've only confirmed in custom scenarios, because of #2 above).

     

    4. It is common for signposts to be unreadable. Instead you get "You cannot see this space." Not always, but more often than not. This also applies to other outside features, like trees, the ground, even towns/castles.

    5. Cities can be weird.

      a. It is common to leave one, and have it effectively disappear. That is, you don't see the one you just left, just an empty space. When this happens, sometimes going back gets you in, sometimes not. In the latter case, it's just like walking through an empty square.

      b. Sometimes it seems to behave as in (4) above, with a visible space (I know something is there) but you can just walk through it. So far as I've seen, this is always accompanied with the "you cannot see the space" message.

      c. Oddest of all, many cities are visible and enterable, but entirely empty of people. I don't mean the ones which should be. I've seen  this both with returning to a city and in entering a new one, both friendly and hostile. Unlike the previous two cases, I've never seen this corrected by exiting and reloading. (Maybe I should have mentioned that sometimes that works, sometimes not. It most often works for (a) cases.)

    6. It sometimes crashes when recording a conversation.

    7. Very often recorded conversations and encounters aren't kept. They were there, but now are not.

    8. Often a map will be lost. You did cover it, and on reload it is all dark, sort of like the Anama city in Exile 3, but here it's pretty clearly not intentional. Also, this can happen both in towns and outdoors.

    9. A few scenarios cannot be loaded at all, eg, Masks. But I suspect this may be a problem with the scenario files.

     

    I don't know if any of this is helpful, but again, I thought I should list it. The 2nd group may or may not apply to the 3 original BOE scenarios. I hope it's helpful.

     

    Because I also have been unable to install the Exile I and II versions with updated graphics, this means I am left with III and the 3 BOEs. While I like Ruined World and Rebellion, I don't feel like going through them again for a while.

  5. I'm afraid I'm just going to have to give up. I've tried the Small Rebellion*, and about 6 custom scenarios, and none works. The funny thing is that every one seems to fail in a different way. E.g., At the Gallows crashes when I try to leave on the 2nd mission; in Good and Evil the starting town becomes empty - with no explanation - after the training dungeon, Adv Club has invisible and unenterable towns. Weird. I'll check back in a few months.

     

    *The only BOE scenario I actually like.

     

    But thanks for your trouble.

  6. I've fiddled around a bit, just starting scenarios and messing with them. But so far all the custom ones I've tried have been a bit unstable, and have occasional glitches. The instability happens sometimes in using a node (climbing, for instance) or when saving a conversation. And the glitches are odd. I've had some blacked out squares of the sort I mentioned in my first comment, but not nearly so bad). Sometimes a city is invisible, sometimes on reloading the entire saved map is dark.

     

    There are some clear glitches:

    1. The drop down menu for priest spells (which I prefer) doesn't work. It shows mage spells. I've only noticed this in combat. I don't recall if its always so otherwise, but it NEVER seems to work in combat.

    2. The save game icon is sometimes missing.

    3. The "go back" in conversation screens never seems to work.

     

    One question. Which, if any, custom scenarios are known to work well. (I prefer big maps, with little time factor. Also, the version I'm using is dated 4/12/17).

     

     

  7. I have one preliminary suggestion. While I really like the way different kinds of items display in different colors, the colors used are just too pale.I, at least, find them very hard to read (especially armor), even at the best resolution. Granted, my eyesight is not the standard, but then again, I expect I'm not alone among those who've long stared at screens.

  8. " It converts them automatically when you play them "

     

    So far I've been unable to figure out how to do that. I've tried unzipping them into the scenarios folder (where it creates its own folder), moving the .exs file directly under the BoE Scenario folder, and moving the whole thing into that folder. What does one need to do to start a custom scenario?

     

    Once again, the absence of a readme is a bit of a problem.

  9. Thanks for the response. I was using one I found online which automatically ran through dosbox. I tried the linked version, but it won't run because "MSVCP120.dll was not found". I may try the next-to last.

     

    One thing I didn't find in the download was a readme or other instruction file. At least, not an obvious one.

  10. I haven't seen this in any threads, so sorry if I'm repeating something.

     

    I recently decided to try BoE again, this time trying some scenarios I hadn't looked at before. But I've found that most of the ones I've tried have been unplayable because of glitches in the graphics. I'll try to describe the symptoms:

     

    1. Many (not all) objects show up on the playing screen as a silhouette of a Grecian warrior (swordsman, not hoplite.) This can be a picture on the wall, a chest, a weapon, armor, trash; pretty much anything. Though annoying, I suppose this could be played through, but it's always been the prelude to the rest.

     

    2. When walking around, gaps will show, then disappear, in walls. If you go up to them, they are solid.

     

    3. On the other hand, many objects don't show up in the display, at all. At that level, they seem to be invisible barriers,  though they will show as a black space on  the map. Looking at them tells that they are really things like trees or stalagtites, or other such objects.

     

    4. Many objects also appear duplicated. You will see two objects side-by-side, where it turns out here is only one. Sort of the reverse of #3.

     

    5.  Worst of all, both 3 & 4 apply to characters. In  combat, my characters will often show double. Worse, NPCs do too, and they also sometimes are invisible. (I'm not referring to those which should be invisible.) This makes it almost impossible to fight. I can never tell, without looking at every square, whether an areas spell like fireball will attack an ally. And I cannot be sure without checking each time if the square I want to hit actually contains the enemy I see.

     

    I've tried downloading from both the solid list and from True Sites; in no case has this made a difference. And it doesn't apply to all, but it does to more than half. For instance, it applies to At the Gallows, and the Adventurers Club, but not to Falling Stars or Wreck of the Slug. (The 3 that come with Blades work fine.

     

    Any ideas how to fix this?

×
×
  • Create New...