Octavo

Archive Formats .zip and tar.gz are supported near totally, and should be preferred for compatibility. The former is more prevalent on DOSsy systems, and the latter on Unixly systems. .7z does in fact achieve delightful compression. While its use is not widely supported, it is easily decompressable on any recent Mac, Windows, or Ubuntu, with lovely free packages. In particular I strongly advise anyone sending/receiving compressed files on Mac OS X have The Unarchiver . It's free, decompresses anything I've seen, and can be set to integrate as well as the OSX default. The principal problem here might be that there doesn't seem to be a good un-7Zipper for Mac OS 9. Against this I can only counsel as does jg.faust: that you should offer also a zip or a tar.gz for compatibility. .sit is deprecated for use on anything newer than Mac OS 9. Stuffit software has become obnoxious since its purchase by Smith Micro, who appear to have turned Stuffit Expander into spamware. Even previously Expander didn't compress; you need the payware Stuffit. Use The Unarchiver instead. .rar is an odious proprietary format. Eschew. Windows Programs on a Mac I understand Ishad Nha to have been referring to the recent trend toward Intel Macs, which can simply run Windows if so configured. While these do exist, they are not the majority of Macs running Spiderweb games. A PowerPC or older Mac cannot run Windows programs without extensive arcane rituals.

I would suggest to you that unless you're interested in changing the game, you'd probablybe better off downloading a precompiled copy that'll just run. The top link at Khoth\'s download page will provide you with such a file. To answer your question, though, you'd have to take the source code and compile it with something like Xcode.

I'm quite sure that the scenarios are in Khoth's source code releases. I seem to recall that either the ones in the mac side or those in the windows side are broken, though.

Well, Returning weapons can simulate the usefulness of A4's, I imagine. My higher-level archers never go out without them.

BoE also limited you to Valley, as I recall, and still claims to if you download the binary from the game page. This means that the open-sourcing is the first time ASR and ZKR have been available to play for free. And VoDT, I agree, doesn't have the same hook effect as all the other games - although it can be a good place to start for players as they can get a complete story pre-registration.

Looks great, and it's nice to see elevation return. I'm eager to see how these disciplines turn out. The one thing that distresses me a bit is at least one of the portraits still doesn't match the corresponding character graphic. I'm thinking of Aldous, worst offender of Avernum 4, who resembles himself not-at-all. Edit: Although, since we're told more graphics are on the way, this could change. That'd be nice.

No, but it would require an operating system check or best-case getting the local menu lookAndFeel. Which probably wouldn't be too bad on the whole but I couldn't figure it out last time I tried. The option is there, since this is bright shiny Java.

Or you could just have the scenario special call a town special, as explained in Drizzt's article on beating Magic Map. Does that accomplish the desired effect?

Quote: Originally written by Khoth: If it doesn't work for you, let me know. If it does work for you, let me know too, because I currently don't know what the system requirements are, beyond "OS X". Release 4's editor doesn't want to create a scenario on my Core Duo MacBookPro. I'm not nearly sure what's at fault but it gives that lovely error code 40 - something bad happened in loading/saving/creating so try again and see if that fixes it. Which it doesn't. It also asks for more memory, but I don't think you can even do that on OS X. Edit: Upon closer inspection I suspect that this has something to do with the total absence of any bladbase.exs. Pasting in the one from the source release 3 is ineffective, though.

Ah, I see. Then perhaps it is a file that is supposed to be compiled out of your files and indeed you do need a target for it, but I don't know what you'd need to do to make it.

Excellent, you're all way ahead of me. Keep up the good work. At this rate you'll have a finished-quality project (though when does one ever call a project finished!) before I can notice.

That's not exactly a problem with your Makefile. What that means is it can't find the shared object (like a DLL on Windows) that is called windows.so. I'm guessing that that's something winelib is supposed to be providing?

As far as make knows, townout.c is a c file, not a cpp file.

I am having visions of a monster type that, on its death, creates two more of its kind and then kills them. Does the current loop protection guard against this, since they're not in the same chain?

Ooh, shiny. Thank you. I've always been puzzled why the guy with the brown robes and staff disappeared in E2 only to return in E3... he was one of my party members and I had to use a different one.

On a tangentially related question, does anybody have the (old!) E2 player character graphics in a lossless format? This topic had them, but in JPEG and against a white background so some people lose their white parts visually.

Specifically, there seem to be none of the files alphabetically after "PARTY.H".

Certainly keyword and response are good at different things. Response is much better, however, at the reputation bit in Geneforge. (I'd say that keyword is better for the pump-information-out-of-people we got to do in Exile, and thus was better for Exile.) G4 has its very high points, as above listed. They've been well-addressed, and I shan't expand on them further just now. What I loved absolute most about A4, though, was the dual-accessibility - I could move with the numpad or the mouse. That was something I'd been waiting for ever since our creator of games first introduced mouse movement. It would be nice to have total dual accessibility. Perhaps in the new Nethergate.

Quote: Originally written by Dikiyoba: The item descriptions are usually great in Spiderweb Software games. Thus why I was distressed at their absence in BoE. Quote: Originally written by Dintiradan: Also, A4 seems to have a cameo of TM: Your conversation with this sailor is very short. It mostly involves his asking why you are in his room, combined with several harsh comments regarding your appearance, ancestry, and the availability of your mother. Which dialogue, when I discovered it, reminded me of the shifting target audience. From Burma Shave to this... Well, G4 and A5 are yet to come, and I look forward to what Jeff has for us there.

I agree with Randomizer's morality suggestion; something like the reputation in Geneforge, but general rather than specific-to-Serviles. Oh, and stealing would of course be bad. :evil: (Yes, I know that smiley doesn't exist here. But it should.) Quote: Originally written by Milla: Or would it be Aranae? In Latin, a plural ending in -a usually comes from a singular ending in -um. Lots of aranea, one araneum? Sometimes it's stranger, as with nomen -> nomina. Lots of aranea, one aranen? On the other hand, a singular -a becomes a plural -ae. One aranea, lots of araneae? Of course, not being neuter gender, this has the side effect that the accusative changes. Therefore, The aranea casts a spell. The araneae cast spells. I vanquished an araneam. We vanquished many araneas. Or does Latin even apply to Avernum?

I agree with Randomizer's morality suggestion; something like the reputation in Geneforge, but general rather than specific-to-Serviles. Oh, and stealing would of course be bad. :evil: (Yes, I know that smiley doesn't exist here. But it should.) Quote: Originally written by Milla: Or would it be Aranae? In Latin, a plural ending in -a usually comes from a singular ending in -um. Lots of aranea, one araneum? Sometimes it's stranger, as with nomen -> nomina. Lots of aranea, one aranen? On the other hand, a singular -a becomes a plural -ae. One aranea, lots of araneae? Of course, not being neuter gender, this has the side effect that the accusative changes. Therefore, The aranea casts a spell. The araneae cast spells. I vanquished an araneam. We vanquished many araneas. Or does Latin even apply to Avernum?

I, for what my opinion's worth, am still waiting for a Geneforge boat that makes me happy. It's a small thing, but I think that a Drayk-boat a la GF1 intro is wicked cool, whereas a stretched Avernum boat is a jarring experience that completely clashes with the rest of the game. Plus, it'd be nice to be able to click a boat to use it, a la trapdoor. (Was this in GF3? I haven't bought it yet.)

I agree with Dunbar and Archmage Alex. Furthermore, basilisks are fun. But I'm not sure how they could be reconciled with Geneforge... Also: I've given some thought to the question of greater shaping depth. (as opposed to length, adding more at the top, which provides a distinct Rebel advantage.) What I came up with is: It'd be nice to have a third form of creations. This would exist notably for Battle Gammas, but the other creations would be good too. This would allow greater balance. Also, perhaps the third Fyora should have its wings back? The issue, of course, would be graphics. I thought of including a creation type technique of some sort. Possibly someone could teach you these boosts that you could add on at creation time, for a cost? Type-boosts would include Charged as well as possibly Shade, which would free up a state in the Thahd tree. And if one added Explosive (unlikely) then you'd have all sorts of bombs! More creation trees would be nice. The most important would be one for Serviles and Ornks, who would both make excellent porters, as well as introduce fun ethical dilemmas. Also, a tree for thorns and batons. They'd require a base material, but I think this is a feature long overdue. And turrets are fun Lastly, mines are good. But I'm not sure how the shaping would go on that. Not as high priority as Turrets. And that's my 6 cents.

Insanity, demons, secret doors etc can be done right, or they can be done horribly - very little ground makes them dangerous material. Of course if someone is enough of a genius to create something of a modern-day Kefka then they can do whatever they please with the BoA editor, as long as they do not suffer from Delusions of Grandeur. Kefka's an exception to everything, isn't he?

This is possibly one reason for unchangeable size outdoors, yes?