Spidweb

"Customers are literally Jeff's bread and butter" Ewww. Now I'm going to have to add to our list of promises that we will never actually devour our customers. - Jeff Vogel

I am about to put this on the Avadon iPad tech support page. A Zone Has No Items In It There is a rare problem where players return to a previously visited zone and find that there are no items there. We are working to identify the cause of this problem. It may be that the game is being interrupted when it tries to create the save file. While this is unfortunate, it does not appear that the problem prevents players from continuing the game. Future zones, when you enter them, should have items as normal. You can report to us when this happens, and it might help us to identify the bug. In the meantime, you can proceed through the game normally.

DigitalOz, v1.0.1 will be available in the app store soon. I strongly suggest upgrading right away. A full app reinstall seems like a necessity here. If that doesn't help, start a new game with the new version of the app. If that doesn't work, consider going into iTunes and reinstalling iOS. - Jeff Vogel

The character label thing will be fixed in v1.0.1, which will be sent to Apple very soon. I'm still not sure what to do about the skill descriptions, as there is not always room on the screen to put them on the desired side. - Jeff Vogel

The original poster is right. You should totally be able to rotate the app's orientation. This will become possible in the v1.0.1 update, which I am submitting to Apple very soon. - Jeff Vogel

Crashes sound like they are a different problem. Could you give me more details about the crash? How often does it crash? What is happening in the game when it crashes? Reinstalling might very well help. I will submit a new version of Avadon to Apple this week. - Jeff Vogel

If you get this error ... "Talking error: Dialog script broken or absent." ... leave the zone and then return. You should me able to interact with characters normally. If you can't interact with characters, watch the text console for an different error message. Before the "Talking error: Dialog script broken or absent." message appears, you should see a different error. Send me the exact text of that error. - Jeff Vogel

I just got a saved game for a problem some people had where they got stuck in the Jhereth Deeps water trap. I fixed that problem and it shouldn't happen again in v1.0.1. I'm still working on the error where talking to people and opening doors doesn't work. A saved game would be a huge help for this one. Also, you can try turning on the text console in Settings and watching it to see if you can spot the script error that causes the problem and send me the exact text of it. - Jeff Vogel

I would love to look at saved games for all of these issues. To send me a saved game, first load the game where you have the problem and then save it to the upper left save slot. Then load up iPhone Explorer (http://www.macroplant.com/iphoneexplorer/) and extract the files in Avadon Documents folder Save0. (Save0 is the upper left save slot on the saved games window.) Send the files to support@spiderwebsoftware.com. I'll take a look and see if I can figure out what's happening. - Jeff Vogel

If someone who got stuck with this problem could use iphone explorer to get the Save20 folder and e-mail it to me, I would hugely appreciate it. I'd love to figure out what the problem is here. - Jeff Vogel

Nothing happens when you push any of the buttons at all? Wow. Very weird. I suggest going here http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/avadon/techsupp.html and reading the "Avadon Is Not Working Correctly" section (at the bottom). - Jeff Vogel

Press the disk button just to the left of the Start/End combat button. - Jeff Vogel

If you are having weird problems with Avadon (unable to talk to characters, script errors, unable to leave zones, general bad behavior), your copy of the software might have become corrupted. It is rare, but it does happen. Reinstalling the game can fix these problems. To do to, follow these steps. 1. If you want, back up your saved games. To learn how to do this, read the section on transferring saved games. Bear in mind that software corruptions can also damage the saved games. If, after reinstalling, problems continue, try starting a new game. 2. Power up your iPad and find the Avadon HD app icon. Rest your finger on it until it starts to vibrate and an 'X appears. Push the 'X' and choose to delete the application. 3. Run iTunes on your computer. Find Avadon HD and delete it. Make sure to choose to move it to the trash. 4. Download a fresh copy of Avadon HD from iTunes. If this does not fix your problems, contact us by e-mail. - Jeff Vogel

@Eddiemon: That is odd. An iPad 2 should have way more than enough memory to run Avadon with no trouble. And, of course, the app should launch. I would recommend deleting Avadon from the device and iTunes, syncing, and then, when you are sure Avadon is done, download a fresh copy. First, I suggest using iPhone Explorer to back up your saved games. @PhysWiz: A first gen iPad should have few problems when no other apps are running. The Wretch Warrens problem might be due to npc pathing eating up a lot of processor power. Try killing the wretch patrols that head east from the keep and see if that helps. If you keep having problems in other zones, consult the reinstallation advice above. - Jeff Vogel

I really, honestly made an effort with the iPad port. The problem is that I'm still new to the platform, and my inexperience shows. To do a lot of these interface improvements will require a bit of engine retooling. This WILL get done. The question is whether it will happen for Avadon or for our future iPad titles. If/when we patch Avadon, though, some of these things will be addressed. I'm looking at you, all tooltips that appear under the user's finger. - Jeff Vogel

Our current plan is to port all future games to iPad. The next game to get this treatment for sure is Avernum: Escape From the Pit, which should be out for the iPad in, say, April or so. Adapting Avernum 6 to Cocoa was something of a hassle. But, considering how Avadon HD is selling, porting Avernum 6 to the iPad did cross my mind. Probably not, though. - Jeff Vogel

That copy of the game may well be corrupted. Uninstall it, download a fresh copy, and reinstall. This won't affect your registration. Then go back to a saved game from before the Junk Bag was full of bad data. - Jeff Vogel

I would delete the entire thing from your iPad and computer and then download a fresh copy. When you delete it from iTunes, be sure the app is moved to the trash. Then, in the iPad, hold your finger on the app icon until the 'X' button appears, delete the app entirely. Then download an entirely fresh copy from iTunes. Also, have you done a hard reboot on your iPad? (Hold down the power and home buttons together until the iPad turns off.) If one of the processes running in the device is having a problem, this should fix it. - Jeff Vogel

First save the game in a slot besides the last two. Then try going into Documents/Spiderweb Software/Avadon Saved Games and deleting folders Save18 and Save19. Then try quicksaving. - Jeff Vogel

The iPad version is cheaper for a number of reasons. 1. It has fewer features, due to the limitations of the device. Most notably, it is stuck at a low (1024x768) resolution and there are no keyboard shortcuts. 2. Since it is being sold by Apple, it is subject to the rules of their system. Most notably, there is DRM, and we can't give refunds through iTunes. 3. There is no ability to modify the game. 4. There is no demo. 5. The iPad version will always come out several months after the Mac/PC version. Ever with the lower price, it is still one of the most expensive games for the iPad by a fair margin. We are charging pretty much the highest price for the game we reasonably can, in part to keep from annoying other users. We're sorry if anyone is angering by this. If you think about it, I think you'll see that the pricing is fair considering all the factors and that, more importantly, there really isn't much we can do about it and function as a business. Finally, I think that asking for a refund for a game that you purchased, played, and enjoyed and obtained at a fair price (and yes, $25 is a fair price for PC/Mac Avadon) is, well, it's pretty shady at best. We will honor the commitments we made, but I like to think that our fans, annoyed or not, would not take advantage of a small indie developer in such a way. - Jeff Vogel

Thanks for letting me know. When people with 64 bit Win 7 have problems, new drivers solves them 9 out of 10 times. - Jeff Vogel

EDIT: This problem seems to be solved. A new version of the beta is available above. I was going to release the update for real today, but I got a last minute bug report. Someone found that his party's single-target attack spells weren't having an effect. This continued until he restarted. A beta tester had a similar problem, where, very rarely, his party stopped being able to do any damage at all until restarting the game. These can just be weird file/memory corruptions, but they are similar enough to make me nervous. Has anyone else who tried the public beta had a similar problem? - Jeff Vogel

For some reason, the versions of Avadon being sold on some 3rd party sites for Windows seem to have a failure rate higher that for the version sold on our web site. Since the code for these two versions is essentially the same, we suspect that something is wrong with the software they have wrapped around our game. Should you purchase the game from a different site and find that it does not work correctly, take the following steps. 1. Download the demo from our site and run it. If it works, skip to step 3. 2. Download the Direct version of the game here: ftp://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/win/AvadonDX.zip Move it into Program Files/Spiderweb Software/Avadon and run it. If it works, go to step 3. If not, contact the company where you bought the game and ask for a refund. 3. Should our version of the game function, write us at support@spiderwebsoftware.com requesting an key. Give us the name and address you used to purchase the game from the other company. We will get you up and running. Finally, if possible, please answer these questions to help me troubleshoot the problem. 1. What version of Windows are you using? Vista? XP? 2. How are you trying to run the game? The icon on the desktop? Running it from the Start menu? Also, one thing to try, that might be very helpful. Try running the game by double-clicking on the icon on the desktop. If it doesn't work, right-click it and select properties. See what is entered in the Start In: field and let me know. That entry should _not_ be blank.

I just purchased the game on GamersGate and it works fine, so it's not a universal problem. I'm about to buy it on Direct2Drive, but I expect the same. If you have had this problem, please answer these questions to help me troubleshoot it. 1. What version of Windows are you using? Vista? XP? 2. How are you trying to run the game? The icon on the desktop? Running it from the Start menu? Also, one thing to try, that might be very helpful. Try running the game by double-clicking on the icon on the desktop. If it doesn't work, right-click it and select properties. See what is entered in the Start In: field and let me know. That entry should _not_ be blank. - Jeff Vogel

For the slow game problem, go to http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/avadon/techsupp.html and read the entry on what to do if your game is running slowly. As for the installer refusing to run, if you did indeed try redownloading with a different browser and it still doesn't work, the part of your OS dedicated to unpacking and installing msi files (Microsoft installer files) may be damaged. You need to have Windows Installer 5.0 properly installed on your machine. Running Windows Update might be a good start. - Jeff Vogel