Alcritas

Tatterdemalion Shadow of the Stranger Roots Spears

It's nice to hear people still occasionally get some enjoyment from my work. It was such a long time ago, but I'm still quite proud of the overall work I did in BOE. To answer the original post, as is obvious, I still swing by here from time to time, and (type my name here)@yahoo.com will get to me via email. But the answers you've received already in this thread are largely accurate. While I wrote Tomorrow to provide as many answers to The Big Giant Mysteries of The Arc as possible, there really never is an end.

I believe the counter resets every "level-up" on the sword. To get the sword to level 5, you definitely have to farm random encounters. -Al

Ahbleza has correctly identified the "problem", you are playing Falling Stars 1.00 (or 1.01/1.02). Not that that's a huge problem, you'll just be missing some scenery, dialogue, etc.. that's in 2.00. I actually had trouble tracking down a copy of the most up to date versions of my scenarios (and, in some cases, like Tomorrow, any copy) due to.. well, the passage of time. A lot of the old sites (like BB's Alexandria) linked to The Lyceum, which largely died when Geocities closed up shop. However, I did manage to find on site still active: http://www.truesite4blades.com/SWArchive/Geocities/alcritas/ My sincerest thanks to the old guard who keep the memories of BOE flickering to this day. -Al

So, to answer the original question, iirc, Regild shows up after you've visited Fort Contemplation once, and disappears after you've visited twice. The idea being he sets you up for the ambush, as he is a UNL sympathizer. Of course, you can trigger the attack at Fort Contemplation just by visiting twice anyway. The portal to get to elsewhere is the one from the ops center, to Xancrest, iirc. As for the NPCs, I mostly view them the same way as listed above, with the exception of Raven. Yeah, she's the only spellcaster early on, and as a bonus she'll lower the magical fields in Lockverne's lair to boot, but I find her somewhat redundant to Silnos in the endgame, who I always have a high enough reputation to get anyway. I tended to get Diomed, Raven, Krug, and Ajax when I played through myself.

Emailing is just convenient for me. Obviously I don't get a lot of BOE requests nowadays, and the only reason this is an issue at all is the release of an open source BOE that is ever-so-slightly different from the original release. It was always extremely easy to circumvent the scenario creator's obstacles in BOE, now it seems trivially so. As for allowing others to release modified versions of my scenarios; it doesn't strike me as a major issue in the limited case of correcting a bug created by the change in source code, but it opens the dangerous door of potential plagiarism just a bit wider; something that's hit me before in this medium, so I appreciate Ahbleza's hardline stance.

Right, so this is the sequence of what should happen- 1. You defeat the Jayhawks in their fort, they release the quickfire, etc.. 2. You had back to Alverstaff. In the southern half of town, in the town hall, meeting area, etc... you should find General Montgomery. 3. You talk to General Montgomery, it triggers a dialogue window. 4. You head north, and a crowd has gathered around Renalda's place. It sounds like you either haven't talked to Montgomery, or he's not there. Is this what's happening? EDIT: While these aren't "new" versions in the sense that they're all at least 6-7 years old, at the following link you can find (more) updated versions of my scenarios than you can following the links at the top of the page. Please note, the "reveal town non-bug" hasn't been corrected for any of these. I will be happy to email a copy with that bug corrected to anyone who wants one. http://www.truesite4blades.com/SWArchive/Geocities/alcritas/

First of all, I said Lamentations is similarly broken (meaning it has the "reveal" town non-bug problem), not simply broken. Milla's post indicates she has fixed this problem. After you return from the mini-Jayhawk mission, head to the southern half of town and report your success to the commander. Then head north. McSorely should be milling about. He will tell you the requisite information right away, but you have to poke around a bit at first. Later on, he'll just spill the beans. I don't know of any New BOE problems with the Scarecrow, it worked for me in my recent play through. Could you describe what you've done/where you're at in the scenario?

I'm not aware of any fatal bugs in OGAE beyond the initial "town doesn't appear when it should" one. IIRC, the Khazi doesn't come out, basically you have to just go in and kill him. The (hidden) Slith Fort can be accessed via a hidden underground passage near the petrified Sliths. As far as not having the most updated scenarios... I won't really matter for the most part. Most designers (including myself) are long dormant, and these problem only started popping up with the new, open source BOE. I only know about this one because I decided to replay my scenarios on a lark a few months ago, and noticed the issue. -Al

Yeah, after you've rescued Ithikotita, you're supposed to be "intercepeted" in a revealed town. Because the town is not revealing properly, the scenario is effectively broken. If you want, I can email you a corrected version. I dont think there's any problems in Redemption. Lamentations is similiary broken. There's a minor problem in Falling Stars (you can't do the naga side mission). -Al

Okay, so here's the problem. In the original BOE, there were a lot of "features" that didn't work. Among these was the "Reveal Town" node. Reveal Town has two options - "Hide Town" and "Reveal Town"; I think "Hide Town" is the default. Unfortunately, in the original BOE, regardless of which option you checked, it functioned as "Reveal Town". I'm guessing you're playing now with one of the open source BOEs, which have corrected many of the flaws of original BOE. The problem is, some scenarios that were programmed in original BOE were programmed to the flaws of original BOE, and don't function quite right without the flaws. Screwy, eh? Basically, what's happened is a "Reveal Town" node has been called, but the default option wasn't changed, because, when I programmed this a decade ago, there was no point to change it. But now that you're playing a version of BOE where the bugs have (finally) been fixed, BOE is now 'hiding' a town; where the origianl intent was to 'reveal' a town. This ends up being a problem for several of my scenarios, a fatal one in OGAE. I can send you a corrected version of the scenario if you send me your email. -Al

The Runesword is not one of the 5 Artifacts. The Crystal Sword can be found in the demon cave that is revealed to you by Nicias, who is some part of Xancrest I can't remember. Paleblade - Completely clear the first level (don't use the Destroy Undead Special Spell), then meander around the ball room. Konax Minoc (I think that's what the Axe is called) is found in the Flayer Lair, which is essentially the 3rd level of the Evil Mushroom dungeon. The Slith in the Command Center starts you on this path. Heartfinder (the bow) can be found in the Pixie Lair if you're really really fast. The Mace (whose name I forget) can be found in Lockverne's lair. There's a key in a hidden room in the Orc City that unlock a portal to Lockverne's lair via the Wizards' Bazaar. Helps to bring the Dwarf along. I still play BOE now and then. That and Plants v. Zombies.

Shoot, I can't even remember the names of them all, but there were 2 swords, a mace, an axe, and a box. The cockroach will pop up and tell you that you've found them once you well... find them.

Responding to the few comments actually releveant to me... By the way, if you've changed your name, I don't know who you are. VCH wrote... >>There's something to be said for just getting your book out there. Maybe let that one out the door see what people say and get on with another one. At some point it is what it is , and further revision wont change that.>> >>other similiar positive comments>> But you see the problem is, while I've written (I'm guessing) around 900 pages, they're all the same three chapter beginnings. Well, I mean I've tinkered around with things a ton, but they're all the opening chapters. The overwhelming problem I'm running into is just this ridiculous narrative dump. I mean, I have to introduce all the characters, the "rules of the world" (e.g., magic, deities, etc..), the geo-political situation, history, and so forth. Making matters worse, I have things plotted out so far in advance, that I want to introduce characters early on, who won't become important for literally several novels down the road. Anyway, I haven't given up. In fact, the last several days I've been writing a lot... starting anew, of course. But it feels like rooting for the Cubs to win the World Series. Sometimes, they look like they have a good team, and get off to a real good start. But there's that history to overcome... Ishad Nha wrote.. >>Changing the subject, does Alcritas want to try his hand at writing Blades of Avernum scenarios? We have new edition editors for that, to make it all the easier. How would he like the BoA engine, which I figure lives up to about half its potential.>> then Thuryl wrote... >>hahahahahahahahaha>> then Ephesos wrote... >>Been a while since I've said this, but I second Thuryl on this one.>> Let's see, the answer to this is complicated. BLUF: I won't be designing in BOA (or BOE). 1. It's mostly an issue of time allocation. I don't have as much free time as I used to have (unfortunate byproduct of getting older/having a career/etc..); and, moreover, what time I do have I'd rather spend on something with tangible (read $$) benefits to me. BOE was fun, I'm proud of what I accomplished, but it's in the past. 2. I have thought back on my scenarios now and again over the years. My main thought it, if I had to do them over again, man, they'd be so much better. 3. I've toyed with the idea of going into programming itself. Honestly, stumbling onto JV's periodically excellent blog is what brought me back here to begin with. Little known fact - even before BOE, I used to design silly little mostly text games when I was a kid. Anyway, the bottom line is, this is something I'm toying with doing - ten or fifteen years from now; and probably would be contigent on my writing experiment finally failing. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall of text!

Wow, shucks, thanks guys. As for the book, I've written about 900 pages. The problem is, they're all chapters 1, 2, and 3, over and over again. I'm reworking chapter 2 again as we speak. I'm hopeful, but realistically I'll probably never finish.

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