Lazarus.

Well there are actually three mithril broadswords. But most people just get two because they want the beastslayer blade. I would be incredibly impressed if you found the alien blade without very specific hints. It is, as Tyran said, very obscure. The mythril is a lot easier.

I was under the impression that Slith Avaters were resurrected slith heroes, who pretty much hang around by their own grave. The important thing to know is that they are quite liberal with the dishing out of pain. Pretty much everything in fantasy games or novels isn't original. It mostly is founded in either myths or builds off of previous books (LOTR alert). I had thought about this in relation to the avernum series and concluded pretty much what has already been stated. The sliths/nephils/vahnatai are the only races that are new (although cat men and lizard men isn't exactly revolutinary.) Pretty much anything original in the game comes in the strange way that creatures act (like the GIFTS, *shudders*), not that similar creatures haven't been seen before.

It was very strange, because the only town I had worked on was town 5, and I hadn't changed the graphics at all. The floors in several dungeons were indiscriminately swapped, mostly with blackness, and without any rhyme or reason, some terrain was messed with as well. The heights were set to 0 throughout the town, with a few strips of 255 height. All the terrain was deleted from outdoors. It was strange because as I said, I hadn't changed the graphics at all. I reverted to my back up file, which had the same graphics, and it ran fine. I might just write it off a a fluke; unless the problem repeats itself.

I just downloaded the 3-D editor for windows. I used it for a while, and found it to be useful, and a significant improvement over the old editor. Unfortunately, it started getting kinda whacked out. I had spent most of my time editing one town, (town 5) and found no problems. However, when I loaded a new town I got an error message like "missing graphic 0 in sheet 36" (this was last night, but I'm pretty sure that it was something like that.) The editor proceeded in completely anhihalating the floors and terrain heights in about half my towns. It also removed all the terrain from all my outdoors. Fortunately I am naturally distrustful of all new software, and had backed up my files just before launching the editor, else this would be a very angry post. As it is I would just like to know if I can expect this to happen regularly. I like the 3-D editor, but if other people have seen this problem and it is a routine one, then I'll have to do without.

Thank you. If I do use the number input (which I'm starting to think I will) it will probably look like the script in hlpm. But since it will be checking for very large numbers, I will use ten-thousands place, thousands place, etc. Then check for 0-9 for each place and dump it into an sdf. As I think about it I'm beginning to realize it shouldn't be that hard. It'll also will use the base 255 system as suggested. My brain is so hard-wired in base 10 that it took me a while to figure it out, now I see that this is a lot cleaner.

A numeric input script, I was thinking about writing something like this involving inputing 5 numbers, then checking each one to see which digit it returns. I went the lazy route, but I might change it. This is the real question, I want you to be able to ask the banker how much gold you have in the bank. This is the code I have so far (it works fine, so don't bother proof reading it.) Quote: clear_buffer(); append_string("You currently have "); append_number(get_flag(3,3) * 1000); append_string(" gold in the bank."); get_buffer_text(gold_str); print_str(gold_str); break; The problem is that this prints it in the text area, which can't be viewed when speaking to someone. I want it to appear in the dialog node, or a dialog box. (I hope I was clear and used the right terminology.)

The only place I saw a limit was in the call inc_flag() which says the highest legal value is 255. Since this is the call I've been using, its kind of important that it doesn't spass it out. Anyway I finished the script using the rounding method. The original plan called for being able to transfer money between scenarios. Now I see that this is pretty much impossible(items lose their special class evidently) I'll just have to give out high value items that can be sold to merchants.

What is the highest value that a flag can have? I want to know because I am making a bank in my scenario and all the gold numbers are stored as SDFs, it will be easier to make exact numbers if I don't have to use the second option. I doubt that the max will be high enough, so I'll probably just set the flag to the gold amount /1000. I assume that it will just round the number down if it comes up with a decimal.

I read it as Kel thinking you might be thanking him for showing you how to write boolean statements in general, maybe I was wrong. My reply about "for the sake of your bea testers" was me thinking of bea-testing a scenario without any boolean statements (probably not even possible.)

Some quick research, Exile 3, Hitting the keys Nikki said results in "If Valorim you want to save, back up your save files, Burma Shave". The signs near Blackcrag ARE in Exile 3, but they read "Before they send us to a grave, alien beasts use Burma Shave." In A3, hitting that key combo does nothing, but the signs near Blackcrag read the same message as in E3. Hopefully thats all, at least for Exile/Avernum 3. I have no clue about 1 or 2.

Well theres the stuff about Burma Shave in exile/Avernum. It isn't a very well hid easter egg, since its written on signs. But I seem to remember it popping up somewhere else as well. The monastery of madness has the best easter egg in my mind.

Quote: Originally written by lord llama: to be entiely honist i hate reading and avoid it as much as i can Many questions have just been answered. And yes, Exile is worthwile.

Edit: Stupid UBB makin me double post. I'll try to salvage this, Err, "How about those boolean opperators eh? What a group of characters!"

For the sake of your beta testers I hope its the second.

[rant] Creature scripts are by far the most difficult thing for me to work with. Doing anything beyond the most basic task is a lesson in futility and weird errors. [/rant] I'm sorry you all had to hear that, it's been a long day fiddling with defective creature scripts.

I'd recommend using Wikipedia. I'm sure they have articles on such things. I personally have no knowledge of them.

The point is that when melee targets got close to it, it forgot all about its antimagic cloud attack. This problem has been pretty much cleared up. I'm now using Kel's fieldshooter script (I think thats what it's called, I'm not on my normal computer.) The script uses variables to save targets like Niemand suggested, and with a few small changes it does what I want. Now I just have to get around to doing dialog for my scenario, I've been avoiding it.

Quote: Originally written by Ephesos: Very much better. Killer poison was one of my favorite boss killing methods, and I almost turned the game off when I saw it wasn't in Avernum. Plus Exile had sleep clouds, antimagic fields, and curse clouds, just to name a few off the top of my head.

I had already tried taking out the who_hit_me part of the script, but I tried again and it still isn't working. The weird thing is that my pc isn't even attacking the monster, I just march him next to the monster and stand there. I've used several different archer, ray, and breath type monsters, all of them decide to stop attacking the mage, and attack the melee fighter. They never refocus their attack back on the mage, which is pretty much the entire purpose of the edits in magekiller2. Evidently the editor is just being, as *i said, fickle. I'll probably just take Niemand's solution and make a variable with the correct targets number in it. Don't be surprised if I have more questions on this script.

I was planning on writing a script where an enemy would target whatever pc had the most priest skill, and put anti-magic clouds on that pc. Obviously this would eliminate the party's ability to heal..... The framework for this script would be magekiller (by *i and edited by Kel). None of the three versions of this script that I have tested worked quite how I hoped. Namely; whenever a warrior gets close to the monster, it starts focusing on the melee fighters, not the casters. Since this monster will be shooting anti-magic clouds, this would pretty much ruin its effectiveness. So this is my question, is there a way to stop my script from changing targets? Also, is there a call like get_target_location to find the target's (x,y) coordinates?

Most boring moster goes to vapor rats. They constantly breathe curse on you, even well after you are cursed and it has no more effect. This is kind of hard when they are summoned by your enemies and the curse makes you susceptible to stronger attacks, but when they are alone they waste their time with cursing and never attack. I've noticed the same from spiders overusing web, (although this strategy is hell for a singleton.) Most boring spell.... Exile had plenty of pretty boring spells, but also plenty of intersting ones (quickfire was always a rush, lets see if I can get out of town before I have to spend hours listening to every townsman being burned.) Avernum's spells are more functional, and its useless spells have been pointed out already (terror, acid), but the question is which are boring. I'll say heal or cure poison, I probably cast them the most, and each time it is progressively less interesting.

I'm glad you're amused. I live in Florida, lots of heron(mostly blue, never seen a red one), not lots of herring of any color.

Well the glitching across the rune works, and I used unlock doors on level 3 to open door. It also is possible to get back across the rune and out of the tower. I have a screen shot, but can't figure out how to put it up. I'm sure most of you have seen it done before, so I won't lose to much sleep about it. Edit: This had me thinking, Ericas chamber is clearly just a red heron, and isn't relevant to the plot. But how about the chamber in Ghirka? Sure enough you can get there too, before you are supposed too. It opens up some interesting plot holes, and quite possibly tore a hole in the fabric of time-space.

Well thanks for the advice. I'm kinda bummed over that there aren't any secret passages, but I'm glad I asked here so I won't have to go crazy looking for things that aren't there. I've got pretty used to movement, but I still sometimes get messed up when it automatically puts you into battle. This is another question that I just thought of. I've noticed that the log of turns in the game is gone. Instead things like "Hits for 10" or "Goblin Dies" are flashed up in the lower left corner. But I usually don't have time to read these in battle, is there anyway to make them stay up for longer?

I finally downloaded the windows demo version of Avernum 4, and after all the negative opinions of it I expected a complete piece of garbage (no outdoor map!!! Preposterous!!!) Some of the new quirks seem to work, others not so well. I'll hold out on the final judgement, but before I continue playing I have to ask if a few annoying things I found could be overcome. 1. Is there anyway to change the way you move with the mouse?? I set it so the screen will follow me, but I still dislike the move to a spot system, and the keypad is kind of disorienting. 2. Are there any secret passages?? I will stop looking for them if not, if so then how do you even find them. You cant attempt to walk into walls anymore. 3. How can you look at a spot. Right click does nothing, and pressing 'L' does nothing too. I want to know what these strange new terrain are supposed to be, but can't search them. 4. Is there anyway to change between the automap and your inventory? This is usually just a minor inconvenience, but when you are shopping for new equipment it can be a big pain. 5. This isnt so much a question as a rant. Where are all the different PC graphics? My adventurers hold their swords like flagposts, and I only have two choices for Ssssschah. My god why must area of effect spells cost the lives of alchemy and any diversity in graphics. -Before you ask, yes I have looked at the help files. I skimmed them thoroughly and found nothing of use to me.