Ishad Nha

Hex editing is the most inefficient possible way of doing anything nefarious, that is it. Most Spiderweb games can't be cracked by hex - editing unless you have the source code or a LOT of skill in programming. Other ways are superior to hex - editing in every respect.

No, I have now lost the ability to fly in the area concerned. I hex - edited line 67 of the save game file to get my low - level party down to the Vahnatai caves ASAP. (Yes, hex editing is legal basically.) Low level party that had not done much in the game.) Then I returned to the upper, Exile, caves. On my next trip to the Spore Tunnels I found that I could not fly in the area at all. Not too sure what caused this change. Only part of the outdoor section loading properly when I hex edited?

Kelandon’s site has the Comprehensive BoA Links page, towards the end of it you will find the BoA Editor Re-Make Project entry, with a link to the relevant area on the Sourceforge site. The source code is found at this address: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=129871 I am of course attempting to use the Windows code, I think there was only one version of it ever released. Now the Editor was developed by a group under Kernel Knowledge, he said he uses KDevelop, which I think is a Linux program. There may be a few language – dependent things in the code. I will now have to try out the suggestions you made, so far not a lot of luck.

I am using ver 4 Bloodshed Dev C++ on Windows XP. Actually there were 31 errors, the ones listed below were reported in the message window. For brevity's sake I omitted most of the "warning: `#pragma once' is obsolete" messages. I just add the cpp and h files then try to compile. In file included from c:\program files\blades of avernum\blades editor\win3dreleasesource\source\townout.cpp:1: c:\program files\blades of avernum\blades editor\win3dreleasesource\source\stdafx.h:3: warning: `#pragma once' is obsolete c:\program files\blades of avernum\blades editor\win3dreleasesource\source\bl a editor.cpp:280: ANSI C++ forbids implicit conversion from `void *' in argument passing In file included from c:\program files\blades of avernum\blades editor\win3dreleasesource\source\bl a fileio.cpp:26: c:\program files\blades of avernum\blades editor\win3dreleasesource\source\bl a fileio.cpp: In function `bool init_directories_with_user_input(char *)': c:\program files\blades of avernum\blades editor\win3dreleasesource\source\bl a fileio.cpp:412: warning: NULL used in arithmetic c:\program files\blades of avernum\blades editor\win3dreleasesource\source\bl a fileio.cpp: In function `void port_boe_out_data()': c:\program files\blades of avernum\blades editor\win3dreleasesource\source\bl a fileio.cpp:2208: warning: comparison is always true due to limited range of data type c:\program files\blades of avernum\blades editor\win3dreleasesource\source\bl a fileio.cpp: In function `void clean_str(char *)': c:\program files\blades of avernum\blades editor\win3dreleasesource\source\bl a fileio.cpp:4595: implicit declaration of function `int isalpha(...)' c:\program files\blades of avernum\blades editor\win3dreleasesource\source\bl a fileio.cpp:4595: implicit declaration of function `int isdigit(...)' In file included from c:\program files\blades of avernum\blades editor\win3dreleasesource\source\cmemstream.cpp:1: c:\program files\blades of avernum\blades editor\win3dreleasesource\source\StdAfx.h:3: warning: `#pragma once' is obsolete In file included from c:\program files\blades of avernum\blades editor\win3dreleasesource\source\cmemstream.cpp:2: c:\program files\blades of avernum\blades editor\win3dreleasesource\source\dlogtool.cpp:238: ANSI C++ forbids declaration `INT_PTR' with no type c:\program files\blades of avernum\blades editor\win3dreleasesource\source\dlogtool.cpp:238: warning: `__stdcall__' attribute directive ignored c:\program files\blades of avernum\blades editor\win3dreleasesource\source\dlogtool.cpp:238: parse error before `(' c:\program files\blades of avernum\blades editor\win3dreleasesource\source\dlogtool.cpp: In function `short int cd_create_dialog(short int, HWND__ *)': c:\program files\blades of avernum\blades editor\win3dreleasesource\source\dlogtool.cpp:619: `dummy_dialog_proc' undeclared (first use this function) c:\program files\blades of avernum\blades editor\win3dreleasesource\source\dlogtool.cpp:619: (Each undeclared identifier is reported only once c:\program files\blades of avernum\blades editor\win3dreleasesource\source\dlogtool.cpp:619: for each function it appears in.) c:\program files\blades of avernum\blades editor\win3dreleasesource\source\dlogtool.cpp: At top level: c:\program files\blades of avernum\blades editor\win3dreleasesource\source\dlogtool.cpp:645: ANSI C++ forbids declaration `INT_PTR' with no type c:\program files\blades of avernum\blades editor\win3dreleasesource\source\dlogtool.cpp:645: warning: `__stdcall__' attribute directive ignored c:\program files\blades of avernum\blades editor\win3dreleasesource\source\dlogtool.cpp:645: redefinition of `int INT_PTR' c:\program files\blades of avernum\blades editor\win3dreleasesource\source\dlogtool.cpp:238: `int INT_PTR' previously declared here c:\program files\blades of avernum\blades editor\win3dreleasesource\source\dlogtool.cpp:645: parse error before `(' c:\program files\blades of avernum\blades editor\win3dreleasesource\source\dlogtool.cpp:656: ANSI C++ forbids declaration `free_slot' with no type c:\program files\blades of avernum\blades editor\win3dreleasesource\source\dlogtool.cpp:659: parse error before `switch' c:\program files\blades of avernum\blades editor\win3dreleasesource\source\dlogtool.cpp:664: ANSI C++ forbids declaration `dlgs' with no type c:\program files\blades of avernum\blades editor\win3dreleasesource\source\dlogtool.cpp:664: variable-size type declared outside of any function c:\program files\blades of avernum\blades editor\win3dreleasesource\source\dlogtool.cpp:664: conflicting types for `int dlgs[2]' c:\program files\blades of avernum\blades editor\win3dreleasesource\source\dlogtool.cpp:85: previous declaration as `struct HWND__ * dlgs[15]' c:\program files\blades of avernum\blades editor\win3dreleasesource\source\dlogtool.cpp:675: invalid initializer c:\program files\blades of avernum\blades editor\win3dreleasesource\source\dlogtool.cpp:677: parse error before `for' c:\program files\blades of avernum\blades editor\win3dreleasesource\source\dlogtool.cpp:677: parse error before `;' c:\program files\blades of avernum\blades editor\win3dreleasesource\source\dlogtool.cpp:677: syntax error before `++' c:\program files\blades of avernum\blades editor\win3dreleasesource\source\dlogtool.cpp:680: ANSI C++ forbids declaration `str_offset' with no type c:\program files\blades of avernum\blades editor\win3dreleasesource\source\dlogtool.cpp:680: conflicting types for `int str_offset' c:\program files\blades of avernum\blades editor\win3dreleasesource\source\dlogtool.cpp:652: previous declaration as `short int str_offset' c:\program files\blades of avernum\blades editor\win3dreleasesource\source\dlogtool.cpp:681: ANSI C++ forbids declaration `dlg_highest_item' with no type c:\program files\blades of avernum\blades editor\win3dreleasesource\source\dlogtool.cpp:681: variable-size type declared outside of any function c:\program files\blades of avernum\blades editor\win3dreleasesource\source\dlogtool.cpp:681: conflicting types for `int dlg_highest_item[2]' c:\program files\blades of avernum\blades editor\win3dreleasesource\source\dlogtool.cpp:87: previous declaration as `short int dlg_highest_item[15]' c:\program files\blades of avernum\blades editor\win3dreleasesource\source\dlogtool.cpp:681: `i' was not declared in this scope c:\program files\blades of avernum\blades

Does anyone know how to compile the 3D Editor source code on Windows? I have the Dev C++ compiler and I can't compile because I keep getting errors, only about 11 of them. (Which is a lot lot less than trying to compile the official BoA Editor.) I am starting to port the Exile classic "Shadow of the Stranger", and I need to handle the dead zone of terrain types 122:169, the zone where the editor assigns the terrain translations. (Here I can't just hex - edit the editor's translation tables.)

The only thing I can think of is: trying to use the Add Special Item instead of Give an Item. The latter is the correct command to use. I tried it on my copy of Avernum 3 and the numbers 378, 490 were correct.

I don't know what is happening here! On both versions of Exile 2 that I have there is no problem in this area. How unlike a lot of the areas in the Chasm Tunnels north of Mancuso. If the game had any problems with the registration you would not be able to use the Orb at all. Presumably there must be a problem with the outdoor.dat file.

It is possible to just reach it, if you use diagonal movement. This is possible when flying unlike Exile boating. You will have no rounds of flight left when you land but you will reach it.

In Avernum 2 there is a dead guy that lies in a bit of land to the east of the Headwaters that lie at the end of the river that lies east of the old (Exile 1) Lair of Pyrog. I can find no way to reach this area at all, there is no Flight spell and the Orb lacks the range needed. As I understand this is due to faulty porting on Jeff’s part, in Exile 2 it can be reached quite easily if you have the Orb of Thralni. Of course you had to start from outside the Moldy Cave and island – hop but it was easy enough.

I have the zip version uploaded to my site but I can't make the link, from the first entry of this topic work. As for Shadow of the Stranger, I was able to use Hexplorer to translate all the item, terrain and monster data into Excel spreadsheets. The real problem here is that the items are in a custom order which will take some time to unravel and translate. I have made a few advances in the pivotal translation process, so I am now starting to translate the terrain. Has anyone seen Akhronath? The reason that the port is unofficial is that all my attempts to contact him have been in vain.

The posts in this topic strongly suggest that you really must release your scenarios in both Mac and Windows formats. What I can’t find is any advice on how you actually go about doing this. We have twenty articles in the Online Articles section; none seem to cover this question. Ditto Jeff gives advice on how to release your scenario but does not cover this question either. Sounds like we need a standing article on what is involved here. What programs to use and so on. I imagine that the scripts are plain text and should be okay in either format, which leaves the bas files and custom graphics. Are the bas files different for each format, if so how do all the authors come up with both formats for their scenarios? I don't think they have two computers (one PC and one Mac) each. Then the thing has to be put into sit/stuffit or zip format.

I like 7zip because it compresses better (700Kb v 985Kb). But above all else, it enables the decompression of "rar" files, as used for the new Blades of Exile source code, game and scenario editor. I will have to come up with a zip version this weekend. Mac, I know nothing about them, I have possibly never used one ever. I understand that due to the relative market shares: any Windows program can run on a Mac, whereas the reverse is usually not true. Ritual of Sanctification: this is given to the party by a special encounter, early in the game.

I am having real fun with Page Editor on my site but I can't get anything to display when I view my own page! I am new to the website experience, there is presumably some basic mistake that I am making. At last the unofficial port of the Exile scenario River and Leaf: http://www.freewebs.com/ishadnha/RiverLeafBas.7z This will open with the free program 7Zip, as found at: http://www.7-zip.org (Currently there is only a Windows version available.)

Finally, I have actually gotten around to porting a Blades of Exile scenario to the Blades of Avernum world. After much talking about the desirability of this idea, I did an unofficial port of Akhronath’s “River and Leaf”. A beta version is available at: http://www.freewebs.com/ishadnha/RiverLeafBas.7z (This is a corrected address.) It is compressed with the (free) 7Zip program by Igor Pavlov, as found at: http://www.7-zip.org At some stage I will have to get around to putting a cutscene in the final scene. I have uploaded a version in zip format: http://www.freewebs.com/ishadnha/BoARiverleafPC.zip (For reasons that I don't understand this link won't work here, but will work when I edit my site.) River and Leaf struck me as a good idea because it has relatively few custom items. Also it has no real need for custom graphics, personally I am not much good at this matter. Come to think of it I am not much good at dialog. If I ever write my own scenario it will have no real dialog, a first in the Avernum world. (Custom items are a hassle, especially when the scenario author spent hours putting them into a custom order, for reasons connected with the way the BoE shops worked. I then would have to spend hours or days slaving over an Excel spreadsheet trying to figure out appropriate translations.) I found the technical side of the porting process to be very interesting, trying to figure out good translations for the various BoE items, monsters and terrain types. Then I had to make timers work in the Avernum world. This is the way to learn the differences between Exile and Avernum.

The PC Character Editor only uses the default list of items, bad news if the scenario has a lot of custom items. By contrast, in Blades of Avernum the Character Editor reflects the list of items actually used by the scenario concerned. Another improvement would be to enable customization of the shortcut buttons used by the editing buttons in the Scenario Editor.

"Unhandled exception:c0000005 At address: 0042fd60" It really would be handy if Spiderweb gave us a list of what those error messages meant in human - readable terms. Then we could go straight to the error. Possibly you could provide a link to the scenario on your post and we can see if it crashes on our PCs. Have you been able to load all your other scenarios without any problems? If so, you may be able to isolate the error: create a new scenario and import zones (outdoor or indoor sections) from the crashing scenario, one at a time. After you import a zone, save the new scenario and try to reload it. If the error seems not to be in a zone it may be in the initial scenario part of the bas file. (The first fifty to seventy lines as seen when the file is opened in the MS-Dos Edit command.) If you can isolate the error, the question becomes is it in a script or is it in the Bas file itself? This sounds like the latter. Khoth's Alint program detects many, but not all, errors that occur in scripts.

My own guess is that the Anvil is hard coded into the program itself. I would have to read everything in the Data\Scripts folder to be sure of this though. Certainly there is no script that handles the Anvil alone.

As for the creations mentioned by Dikiyoba, they are all very well until the party needs to end combat and regain strength, (and you need to pause combat to save the game). If there is even one monster around they will rush off and engage it. Also you can't always ensure that they will attack one monster rather than another, which might be useful to finish off a particularly dangerous creation. That is why I ended up not using them.

How corrupt is corrupt? Can you import any towns out of this thing at all? (If it is a virus have any other files been infected? Some times you can get a virus cleaned out of a file, this may leave something useful.)

What I would like to see is the sixth possible combination: weak on combat, strong on magic and average on shaping.

As I recall the bracelet gains stones and powers from fighting battles at the Testing Grounds on Greenwood Isle. The battles involve tough fights against golems, so I didn't bother getting all the stones, it is not necessary to win the game.

Why Jeff reduced the party size from six to four has never been spelled out, as far as I know. Looking at the Avernum screen suggests that it may be due to the problems of fitting another two PC spots on the screen without cutting into the automap any more.

The Bandit Fort near Fort Duvno is presumably meant to be the first major dungeon that you tackle. Motrax's treasure is nothing much anyway, so it is not meant to be stolen. Combat is not difficult if you have the right party make up. My third character started with a level 2 in Mage Spells and a level 6 in Priest Spells, while the fourth character was the other way around.

Is it only the custom scenario that crashes the BoE Editor or is it any file at all? (Presumably if the scenario crashed on someone else’s computer then it is not just Syntax Error’s copy of Blscened.exe that is at fault.) You could see if the fault is in a particular town by the following method: create a new scenario with the same outdoors dimensions and town sizes, then import the towns from the old scenario to the new, which can only be done one at a time. If the new scenario never crashes even after you have imported all the towns, the fault may be elsewhere in the exs file. You could look at the file in the MS Dos Edit command and see if anything was wrong with the dialog concerned, like more than the allowed number of characters. Now if the scenario is basically sound, if it has not been corrupted by a virus, a lot of it can be recovered for re – use. If worst comes to worst: text recovery for scenario text, town text, dialog text and outdoor text can be done this way. The scenario can be opened in Microsoft Word by choosing “Recover Text from Any File(*.*)” in the “Files of type: ” field. This will enable a lot of the text to be recovered and then pasted into the relevant parts of the new scenario, by using the Editor dialog boxes. (Here I am guessing that the error is found in the town part of the scenario.) If you can pinpoint exactly where the error occurred and if you can’t fix it: skillful use of the MS Dos Edit command may enable you to copy everything that occurs before the error from the old scenario to the new in one hit. For the format is that first in the file comes the scenario part, then the listings for each outdoor section then finally the listings for each town. (Edit, wretched password may foul this totally, as I understand it: its bits are found all through the exs file!) If you make a new scenario with exactly the same number of outdoor sections and the same number of towns, each of the same size, check if the towns all start on the same lines. You can send me a copy at the address listed in my profile.

I think we need a collaborative, Wiki – style, tips sheet that can be edited by anyone. Unfortunately the program used for this message board does not permit this. You apparently cannot edit a post written by someone else even if you have their permission. (You could have an account with a public password that anyone can use. It would have a user name like SpiderwebWiki, you would have to log into this account to do collaborative editing. But there might be a problem with two or more users editing the same post at the same time. I don't know how the Wikipedia handles this one: so many articles that this is unlikely?) Here I am starting a tips sheet on spells. It does not contain any spoilers. To get the ball rolling I have added a few comments of my own. Battle Magic 1. Firebolt (Essence: 0, Spell Energy: 4, Min. Skill: 1) 2. Burning Spray (Essence: 1, Spell Energy: 10, Min. Skill: 1) 3. Searer (Essence: 1, Spell Energy: 40, Min. Skill: 2) 4. Ice Spray (Essence: 0, Spell Energy: 50, Min. Skill: 3) 5. Lightning Aura (Essence: 3, Spell Energy: 70, Min. Skill: 4) 6. Essence Orbs (Essence: 4, Spell Energy: 75, Min. Skill: 5) 7. Acid Shower (Essence: 8, Spell Energy: 110, Min. Skill: 6) 8. Kill (Essence: 4, Spell Energy: 100, Min. Skill: 7) 9. Essence Lances (Essence: 10, Spell Energy: 100, Min. Skill: 8) May be useful against golems where fire does little. 10. Aura of Flames (Essence: 25, Spell Energy: 200, Min. Skill: 9) Mental Magic 1. Daze (Essence: 2, Spell Energy: 12, Min. Skill: 1) Just the thing for when the party is being swarmed by many monsters. 2. Mental Barrier (Essence: 4, Spell Energy: 15, Min. Skill: 1) 3. Wrack (Essence: 1, Spell Energy: 10, Min. Skill: 2) 4. Unlock (Essence: 5, Spell Energy: 50, Min. Skill: 3) 5. Terror (Essence: 2, Spell Energy: 80, Min. Skill: 4) 6. Dominate (Essence: 5, Spell Energy: 90, Min. Skill: 5) 7. Essence Shackles (Essence: 5, Spell Energy: 40, Min. Skill: 6) 8. Strong Daze (Essence: 5, Spell Energy: 60, Min. Skill: 7) 9. Charm (Essence: 7, Spell Energy: 120, Min. Skill: 8) Now a charmed monster will be the first target of nearby monsters, it is the ultimate meat shield. You may need to cast this a couple of times to get it to work. It will run out too, by which time the charmed monster will be severly injured. 10. Mass Madness (Essence: 20, Spell Energy: 200, Min. Skill: 9) Blessing Magic 1. War Blessing (Essence: 3, Spell Energy: 10, Min. Skill: 1) 2. Protection (Essence: 3, Spell Energy: 10, Min. Skill: 1) 3. Essence Shield (Essence: 20, Spell Energy: 0, Min. Skill: 2) 4. Speed (Essence: 8, Spell Energy: 80, Min. Skill: 3) 5. Spine Shield (Essence: 8, Spell Energy: 100, Min. Skill: 4) 6. Mass Energize (Essence: 8, Spell Energy: 80, Min. Skill: 5) This may make “unstable” creations halfway viable. 7. Steel Skin (Essence: 50, Spell Energy: 0, Min. Skill: 6) 8. Essence Armor (Essence: 60, Spell Energy: 0, Min. Skill: 7) 9. Elemental Cloak (Essence: 16, Spell Energy: 130, Min. Skill: 8) 10. Battle Roar (Essence: 20, Spell Energy: 150, Min. Skill: 9) I think this is useless but it would enable you to protect and cure the party in only one move. Healing Craft 1. Minor Heal (Essence: 2, Spell Energy: 5, Min. Skill: 1) 2. Cure Affliction (Essence: 1, Spell Energy: 25, Min. Skill: 1) 3. Augmentation (Essence: 30, Spell Energy: 0, Min. Skill: 2) 4. Heal (Essence: 4, Spell Energy: 30, Min. Skill: 3) 5. Regeneration (Essence: 5, Spell Energy: 40, Min. Skill: 4) 6. Group Heal (Essence: 7, Spell Energy: 50, Min. Skill: 5) 7. Banish Affliction (Essence: 6, Spell Energy: 60, Min. Skill: 6) 8. Major Heal (Essence: 6, Spell Energy: 50, Min. Skill: 7) 9. Aura of Cleansing (Essence: 15, Spell Energy: 120, Min. Skill: 8) 10. Mass Restore (Essence: 20, Spell Energy: 150, Min. Skill: 9)