Celtic Minstrel

Based on circumstantial evidence, I don't think the people react any differently than in you are human. That said, I started the game specifically to determine this, and I only talked to one loyalist. So at least at the beginning there is no difference.

It's still about the best one to try though.

Well... yellow is green + blue, so you could try an invert. Or a colour swap - "xx_icon_adjust = 5;" will swap yellow with red. (Replace xx with it, fl, te, or cr as appropriate.)

Okay, for the most part I don't think I like this idea. In particular, the complaint that magic is too "magical" seems silly. Magic is magic - it's supposed to be unrealistic just by definition. Sure, magic can completely heal an acid burn or small wounds instantly. Larger wounds may take more time depenfing on the power of the mage.

 

On the other hand, the hacking does get boring after a while. This can be overcome (I assume) by the tactical puzzles such as many BoE designers (and presumable BoA designers) have used.

 

There was a game called Realmz (by FantaSoft) that I found on the same CD as Exile I and II, and I think it was more realistic. For example, when you were hit, you would start bleeding. I think you would have to rest after wandering for a certain time. I really didn't like it.

 

Not so ridiculous when magic is involved. And what's this about older Avernum games? You didn't have to rest, reenter a town, or go to a healer when you more gravely injured - unless you didn't have a priest capable of casting a healing spell. As far as healing goes, all the Avernum games are basically the same.

 

(This infinite arrows thing - that's just in A4, right? In all the other games you have limited arrows.)

 

(By the way, I think this topic would be better in General.)

I haven't finished/registered it yet, but in general I prefer to take a neutral course between the rebels and the shapers, so the fact that it is not available will be annoying (once I actually get the game).

 

(I have completed the demo portion of G3.)

I'm pretty sure I've gotten that feature to work. What exactly did you do? Maybe you missed something important.

I think the character editor has an option to restore major PCs which you should be able to use to "unkill" Athron.

 

Someone confirm this please? (Or deny...)

Um... Geneforge 5 isn't even announced yet!

I didn't mind the Avernum 4 engine, but I did miss elevation. I still like the older BoA and BoE engines though.

I think this one is more flexible than the others. I used it to build prefab parties for a few scenarios.

 

But yes, unfortunately a party builder cannot fully replace the PC editor.

 

I just thought I'd make it available in case someone wanted it.

Since nobody seems to have made any progress in porting the character editor to OSX (and Win32), I have created a utility scenario to partially fill the gap.

 

Use this if you want to create a higher level party. I think it can do everything that the character editor can do to a party that is not in a scenario. It's pretty slow and clunky, but it will do the job.

 

It can be downloaded here .

Edit: It seems I uploaded the old version by mistake... either that or I uploaded it before recreating it from scratch. That has now been fixed.

I thought it would be good to consolidate the list of suggestions proposed in this topic . I will edit this list as more ideas are proposed. You can post suggestions either here or in the other topic.

 

CM = Me (Celtic Minstrel)

ADoS = The Almighty Doer of Stuff

 

1. Bug Fixes
   1. (ADoS)Fix the Add/Lose Sanctuary item ability.
   2. (Milla)Fix the acid weapon doubles as living saving charm deal.
   3. (Miramor)The mindduel code appears to check for items that grant magic resistance (ability 75) instead of will (ability 53).
   4. (Crynsos)Fix the Conceal Ability flag so that it actually conceals the ability.
   5. (ADoS,CM)Fix the bug that prevents the use of the small Alien Beast graphic.
   6. (ADoS)Fix recording of dialogue nodes which result from a special node sequence.
   7. (ADoS)Strength Potion cannot be made via Alchemy on Windows?
   8. (Kelandon)Reduce Mac font size so that dialogue is not cut off.
   9. (CM)Also fix the truncated dialogue problem involving the Macintosh string length limit that Windows seems to lack. (I've heard of this bug but not experienced it yet.)
   10. (Robsta)Fix masking on custom item graphics in the inventory?
   11. (Miramor)Fix up time passage as per this post and this post .
   12. (CM)Make the variables for gold, food, day, level, etc unsigned so that a roll-over does not leave you in the negative (especially for gold).
   13. (CM)Make an option to disable the editor's automatic placement of terrains. This includes the conforming of cave wall, mountains, water, hills; placing hills around mountains; placing the second half of the 2-space rubbles.
   14. (CM)The Mac resource files have two copies of every resource: one in the data fork and one in the resource fork.
   15. (CM)Make the waterfalls work in town.
   16. (CM)When the party is split up, Affect PC special nodes should only affect the active PC.
   17. (CM)When an item is placed and the Amount/Charges field is filled in with a number other than -1, it has no effect (unless the item is food or gold).
   18. (Miramor,CM)Fix automap updating so that changes in terrain will appear on the automap.
   19. (Milu)When "Custom Scenario" is clicked and then cancelled, the following message appears: "This scenario was created by BoE v2.0 or later and can't be run using this copy..."
   20. (CommonGenius)Apparently the Defence skill rather than the Thrown Missiles skill is checked when firing missile weapons.
   21. (Eschar Blacke) This bug (not sure if it has been fixed or not).
   22. (Milu?)Fix Destroy Items node so that it works for rectangles as well as a single space.
   23. (*i)Apparently event timers are broken.
   24. (novaalpha/Ishad NhaCM)Custom scenarios not detected in Windows? Mac.
   25. In shops, the item graphic 5 rows above the correct graphic is displayed.
2. Item Stuff
   1. (Crynsos)Allow the specification of a missile animation for items. Maybe custom animations too.
   2. (Crynsos)Make it possible to make an item call a scenario special when used. (Implemented)
   3. (Miramor)An item ability to allow the creation of stat boosting/draining potions.
   4. (CM)Alter the calculation of prices for enchanting weapons, in order to avoid the strange results some expensive weapons get.
3. Node Stuff
   1. (Arachnid)A special node to check the level in a certain skill. (May have been done already)
   2. (Arachnid,CM)The Edit Statistics node lets you edit any stat except HP or SP. You should be allowed to edit both.
   3. (Miramor)A special node to check for a spell targeted on the space (like the Ritual of Sanctify node).
   4. (Robsta)Concerning the special nodes that check for items: use the 2a and/or 2b fields to check either how many items or how many characters with items.
   5. (ixfd64,CM)A special node that displays a graphic in a dialog window.
   6. (w-dueck)Have the "Display Small Message" node call text-wrap.
   7. (CM, ADoS, Soupsoul)A node to check whether a character is alive.
   8. (CM, ADoS, Soupsoul)A node to check the health of a character (unless that's included in Stareye's stat check node).
   9. (ADoS)In One-Time Message nodes (and possibly a few others), add a flag to specify that it is a "room description", which will make it affected by the "Show room descriptions more than once" preference which currently does nothing.
4. Races/Traits
   1. (Robsta,CM)Add Pacifist from Exile II.
   2. (Robsta)New trait Fast on Feet or Speedy or something like that.
   3. (Robsta)New Race - Goblin
   4. (Robsta,CM)New Race - Vahnatai
   5. (Robsta)New Race - Ogre
5. Character Editor
   1. (Ishad Nha)Allow the player to add items from the scenario list rather than the default list.
6. Scenario Editor
   1. (Ishad Nha)Allow customization of the toolbar button hotkeys.
   2. (CM)Remove editing restrictions on the first 91 terrain types.
   3. (CM)Allow the designer to resize the outdoors
   4. (CM,Hrothgar)Allow the designer to import an outdoor section
   5. (CM)An optional grid in the terrain editing screen so you can see where the edges of the spaces are.
   6. (Miramor,Thuryl)Increase the maximum values for some of the fields in the monster, item, and (possibly) terrain editor.
   7. (CM)When creating a new scenario, allow a choice of bladbase.exs files.
   8. (Robsta)Allow two spaces to display the same sign text, without having to waste a sign space by duplicating the text.
   9. (CM)A monsters palette and an items palette, so that the menus are no longer needed.
   10. (w-dueck)A recent monsters/items palette
   11. (Robsta)Allow the assignment of a default personality for monsters.
   12. (w-dueck)Display custom graphics in the editing dialogs.
   13. (w-dueck)Display custom graphics in the map view.
7. Major Changes
   1. (Thuryl)Custom conveyor messages (an extra field in the terrain definition can refer to one or two scenario strings).
   2. (various)Raise/remove the various arbitrary limits on every aspect of the game - # of terrains, items, monsters, etc.
   3. (CommonGenius)The ability to target spells using letter designators. (So you do not have to resort to the mouse.)
   4. (CM)Allow the Automap window to be resized.
   5. (*i) Campaign Flags
   6. (jockmo42) Teleportation Memory
   7. (*i) Location Specials
   8. (Ishad Nha)Make fields stackable.
   9. (Ishad Nha)Use a "map" rather than a "list" of fields.
8. Other Minor Changes
   1. (Crynsos,CM)Allow the use of custom scenario icons.
   2. (Crynsos)Use the MaidenWork font that comes with it.
   3. (Ishad Nha)Allow custom map icons.
   4. (CM)Mac version: Make the game first try to open a data fork resource file and only upon failing attempt to open a resource fork. If this is not simple it should be moved to the above list.
   5. (Kelandon)Make the Mac version accept BMP graphics files. (done)
   6. (CM)Remove the password-protection option for scenarios.
   7. (CM)Align the labels for checkboxes to the right rather than the left so that it is easier to see which label corresponds to which checkbox.
   8. (SlothMan,CM)Create a Preferences option to increase the size of the terrain view area from 9x9 to 11x11, 13x13, 15x15, etc.
   9. (Dahak)Support movement using the arrow keys rather than the keypad.
   10. (CM)Make the BoE Editor application open a .exs file when it is double-clicked or dragged and dropped on the application icon.
   11. (King InuYasha)Possibly a Linux port?
   12. (CM)Add an option to disable the "four-square border zone" around the outdoors which you cannot enter.
9. Probably Bad Ideas

   Note: These are listed as "bad" either because they are mine and I think they're bad, because someone else on the board disagreed with them, or because they conflict with what I feel is a better idea.

   1. (Crynsos)Raise the maximum HP/MP and the HP gain rate per Level.
   2. (Crynsos)Raise the maximums for Character/Monster Stat Points
   3. (CM)New Race - Troglodyte
   4. (Robsta)New Race - Orc
   5. (Robsta)See first half of [http://pied-piper.ermarian.net/topic/7/001827/p2#000030]this post[/url] .
   6. (CM)An optional target icon displayed over the central space so you know exactly which space is the central space before pressing num5.
   7. (Robsta)Here's another suggestion, this time about modifying the stairway node - make it that if extra 1a and 1b are set to -1, than place the party in the new town with the same x and y coordinates(it currently puts them at (-1,-1)).
10. Already Implemented

    (links to the threads discussing them; all were implemented by Stareye unless attributed otherwise; none are in either of the extant copies of the source)

    1. OBoE Scenario Format
    2. Item Call Global Special Ability
    3. Town Lighting
    4. Party Size?
    5. Has Enough of Species?
    6. Any Barrels or Crates?
    7. Has Enough of Statistic?
    8. Monsters Calling Specials
    9. Affect PC nodes affect monsters
    10. Pointers
    11. Mage and Priest Spell Nodes
    12. Town Hostile -> Set Attitude
    13. Petrification Touch
    14. (ADoS) Main Menu Scrolling Text
    15. Removal of Node Chain Length Limit
    16. Other Stuff (archived version)
    17. (Khoth?)Make the Mac version accept BMP graphics files.
    18. (CM)Make the game list more than 20 scenarios, and not list the default 3.

I have ommitted any suggestions that were unclear to me.

Since BoE is now open source, could you host the three original scenarios on your scenario archive? And possibly also the original bladbase.exs, although this is less important.

I resurrected this three-month old thread because I felt it was a good idea that had gone unnoticed. Does anyone else have thoughts on the matter?

 

I think I like option 3 best, but option 2 would be my second choice.

This is explained on page 26. It's not a bug, it's just a bad algorithm to determine which direction the party enters from. As for not working if the space is impassable, this is just common sense. You can't go through the wall, only the gate.

I think the game is assuming that you would only do this if there were walls all around the edge of the town. Slightly annoying, but oh well...
I thought I saw this somewhere in the docs, but it's certainly not on page 41...
Easily fixed. Someone should probably issue the revised (fixed) corescendata as a bug fix.
These are the fences, right? They probably don't show up because editor graphics are so overwhelmingly white that none of the colour pixels are picked up when they are shrunk down to map size.
Sure.
This is unclear - under which circumstances do they break?
This doesn't seem peculiar - it does 4%5 = 4 first, then th addition. % is division, so shouldn't it take precedence over addition?
Is it activated when the section is pre-loaded for transition then?

Yes, this is (annoyingly) one of the few things that does not have a keyboard shortcut.

I vaguely remember trying this by adding a G614.bmp to the Valley of the Dying (containing something obviously not cave wall)... I don't think it worked (and there's no reason why it should).

... I just mentioned the Open dialog. I'm talking about drag-and-drop. Yes, I know it's a minor thing - more of an inconvenience than a problem.

 

EDIT:

My initial post on this was made before I tried using the Open dialog. When Niemand replied, I tried the Open dialog and realised it worked.

 

However, if you want to drag a file onto Graphic Adjuster, it will only accept files with a cmg extension. Logically, it should also accept files with a '3DAT' file type. It doesn't. It's not hugely important, just something I noticed.

Yes, it can open them, but only after I add a .cmg extension to them, or if I use the Open dialog. I guess what I was asking for was the ability to open them via drag-and-drop. It currently only accepts files with a cmg extension.

The inclusion of a sheet to override a default sheet only works on a Mac. I think this is due to the way the Resource Manager searches for a requested resource when multiple resource forks are open.

 

On Windows you could of course temporarily copy the sheet in place of the default one.

This is in fact only partially true. The call is not included in the appendix, but it is documented in "Chapter 1.7: Editing Towns", section "Magical Doors (Advanced)", on page 41.

It does fail to specify what sort of arguments the call takes (it takes none).

Just for the record, LakiRa@, the game is designed for the keyboard. The numeric keypad is used to move around on the map, the numbers 1 to 4 (not on the numpad) select that character, and every button has a keyboard equivalent (eg press 'm' to cast a mage spell). I'm pretty sure you can play the game without ever using the mouse. Even if I'm wrong, you don't have to use the mouse very often.

(Sorry about double post.)

 

I have a minor suggestion about Graphic Adjuster: Allow it to open the default graphics files in the "Blades of Avernum Files" folder - possibly as read-only. These files have creator code 'BoA^' and file type '3DAT'.

... Could you be more specific?

The most recent version for Mac is available here . I think it's a DARCS repository or something like that.

I think there is some work in progress right now, but I'm not quite sure who's doing it. (Maybe *i or Khoth?). The current release for Mac is still not on Google Code, so if you have a mac and you can get madcrow to add you to the project, you could upload it.

As for contributing, please do (if you have the time and are willing). If you use a Mac, the source is in the link at the top of the post. For Windows, the source is here . Don't download it from the BoE site as that is now out of date.

The versions I linked to have already been ported to OSX and Win32 respectively, but there is a distinct lack of a character editor for both platforms. Perhaps you could help with that?

EEK! No! If you want to do it as a web app, javascript will not work! (I think the same is true of PHP, but don't quote me. )

 

I have no objection to the idea, but it would be far easier to use Java if you want to play it online. Since the game is written in C/C++, and Java is similar to C++, you may be able to port it with very little work.

 

That said, I don't think it's high priority. But if you want to do it yourself, no one's stopping you. It's open source - you can do whatever you want with the code.