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Mavlov's Laboratory bug?


madrigan

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Is this a bug, or am I missing something? I completed the Mavlov's Lab quest a while ago. but I like to go back and see if an area has changed later. So I went back and only the two Mireling servants were there, and the text said they didn't know where the other humans had gone. So I went looking in the nearby area, and then returned to the lab. Mavlov and the others were back, and I told him again that I killed a mire boar, and the game indicated I had received 150XP. I left, came back, humans were gone. Left again, returned, they were back, and once again I was able to report to Mavlov and see the 150XP above each character's head. Am I supposed to talk to Mavlov elsewhere every other visit? Not sure what is going on here. 

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Hello,

as I am finishing a game, I tried to reproduce this problem and I was successful, so I will send a bug report to support@spiderwebsoftware.com with my zipped game...

 

Note:

- I make Silven my vassal in Ahriel without supporting the Blessed side, no cheat code but I cleared the zones in a very unusual ordering and get/reported many quests very late (mainly to avoid gaining too much experience too soon).

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3 hours ago, osnola said:

I will send a bug report to support@spiderwebsoftware.com with my zipped game...

 

No worries if you’ve done this already, osnola, but that’s not necessary! This bug was caught on Monday, and a fix has been implemented that will appear in the next update (which will be arriving shortly).

 

Sorry not to update this thread earlier. It’s been an unexpectedly busy few days!

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I have already sent the email :-~ But I included in this mail some other minor potential problems so maybe it can be still useful (or not):

  • I found that I have bought two glitterstones to Obro and that I can still buy a third one, unsure if this is normal.
  • in The Flint Pit, it is possible to avoid the initial dialog and the initial combat, ... . So if you come back after killing the boss (to retrieve the chest's contents, to complete the second Khol's quest), you can be welcomed by the boss (which is already dead).
  • in Fort Haven, Khol is sitting behind/inside one of my chest... I guess that he came back to Fort Haven after I have already created a chest in his planned position, this may be a problem different to placing a chest/shop on top of people...
Edited by osnola
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Great finds, osnola! Thanks for taking taking the initiative and reporting these in directly!

 

If I’m reading you correctly, I believe your first point is intended behaviour. There are deliberately more stones in Queen’s Wish than needed for quests, since some of them are easier to find on certain routes than others. Still, if I'm misunderstanding and there is an issue here, your report should lead to a fix!

 

The other two points are new, and should be nice and easy fixes. With luck, they’ll make it into the next update!

 

Nice idea in putting a chest outside the central building in a fort. If I’d have thought of doing that, it would have saved me a fair amount of time walking up and down stairs!

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1 hour ago, Ess-Eschas said:

Nice idea in putting a chest outside the central building in a fort. If I’d have thought of doing that, it would have saved me a fair amount of time walking up and down stairs!

I put a chest inside the smithy since I can sell items and attach augments without having to go upstairs to get them.

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I'm going to admit I didn't realize those cosmetic chests you can place were functional. I thought it was just an image. I also recently discovered that you can use Teleport on enemies. And it took me three or four games to realize that the lighter boxes in your pack are not actually with you. I was putting all my charms in those slots until I was almost done with my fourth game. I keep thinking I've seen and done everything and that has repeatedly not been the case. I think there is as much detail in this game as in any Avernum, even though this game seems to take way less time to complete. 

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Quote

If I’m reading you correctly, I believe your first point is intended behaviour. There are deliberately more stones in Queen’s Wish than needed for quests, since some of them are easier to find on certain routes than others. Still, if I'm misunderstanding and there is an issue here, your report should lead to a fix!

I have done more tests and I am still no sure that this is the intended behaviour, ie. normally, after you buy your first glitter-stone to Obro, the dialog used for buying this stone seems to disappear forever.

 

However except if you want to start a collection of glitter stones, it does not matter, ie. I returned to Obro to buy a third and fourth glitter-stones, then I retrieved them (hint: there were not in my pack), and tried to finish the Glorious Spear with 4 glitter-stones, this tentative failed miserably :-~

Edited by osnola
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4 hours ago, osnola said:

(hint: there were not in my pack)

 

Ah, now I see what you mean!

 

Your thoughts on the reasons for this are interesting but, just to prevent the spread of urban myths, Spiderweb’s games generally don’t check pack items for normal encounters. Rather, it only happens in very specific circumstances. The primary use is in item crafting, where the game will check whether you have the parts to make whatever you want to craft. Otherwise, for more normal encounters, different sorts of checks are used instead. Most of the time, you don’t need to worry about what your party is carrying in its pack!

 

The way this encounter works is that you buy a stone, and a little checkmark (or ‘flag’) is set in the game. When you go into the conversation again, the game consults this checkmark, sees that it’s been marked, and doesn’t allow you to buy the stone again. It’s simple, and pretty hard to break. I’ve checked this myself in a variety of circumstances, and I’m afraid that I can’t replicate what you’re describing myself, at least not yet.

 

What’s happening here is that you’ve either found a way to directly break some of the game’s flags – which shouldn’t happen under normal conditions – or you’re seeing a legacy bug from an old version that’s already been fixed – which I imagine is also somewhat unlikely. Either way, it’s good that this has been brought to Jeff’s attention!

 

While it’s very unlikely that it's the cause, I’d hold off on visiting Mavlov’s Laboratory again until you’ve downloaded version 1.0.3, just to be on the safe side!

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In fact, I also thought of a flag's problem (due to a change in the code flow), ie. when I bought these stones, there appeared in the initial chest in Haven fort (because my pack was already full) so this triggered a warning message.

But maybe this is already corrected in 1.0.3, ie. if this happened here, it is probable that this can happen in other places and that someone reported it.

Edited by osnola
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On 12/5/2019 at 6:17 PM, madrigan said:

I downloaded 1.0.3 last night and Mavlov is still disappearing and reappearing.

 

That's because the cause of the issue wasn't discovered in time to make it into this particular version, I'm afraid! It looks like there might be another update coming before too long that should fix this issue, along with anything else that needs addressing.

 

In the meantime, I wouldn't worry too much about Mavlov's Laboratory. You've seen all there is to see (except for some rather worrying bloodstains that aren't spawning correctly – be sure to go back and visit after the next update!).

 

Quote

... when I bought these stones, there appeared in the initial chest in Haven fort (because my pack was already full) ...

 

This emphasises the importance of always being clear when reporting a problem, osnola!

 

From what you've said here, it's now possible to piece together what you've been experiencing. The flag isn't being set correctly for that specific instance – when the stone is sent to your home fort, the part of the code that sets the flag is being skipped over, and that's not hugely obvious from just looking at the code. In other words, this is indeed a bug. Like the issue with Mavlov's Laboratory, it probably wasn't reported in time to make it into the current version. I'm assuming you mentioned that the stones were being sent to your home fort in your report – otherwise, it might be worth sending on a little update to your report that includes that point. Without that little bit of information, this is a problem that could easily be missed!

 

For now, though, I'm simply imagining that Obro has a whole bunch of rocks that he wants to sell to whomever will buy them. You can't use any more than one during the game, so all that really happens here is the player spending money to build up a nice little rock collection!

Edited by Ess-Eschas
Adding in a belated point.
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On 12/7/2019 at 12:17 AM, Ess-Eschas said:

This emphasises the importance of always being clear when reporting a problem, osnola!


From what you've said here, it's now possible to piece together what you've been experiencing. The flag isn't being set correctly for that specific instance – when the stone is sent to your home fort, the part of the code that sets the flag is being skipped over, and that's not hugely obvious from just looking at the code. In other words, this is indeed a bug. Like the issue with Mavlov's Laboratory, it probably wasn't reported in time to make it into the current version.

When I wrote this message, I mostly wanted to explain why having two glitter-stones does not seem intended to me. The hint was here to help to reproduce the problem but I also mean it to be a little cryptic. However as I often play with a singleton, when I think of my pack, the first thing that comes to mind is that it is full, so it was probably too cryptic, sorry...

 

On 12/7/2019 at 12:17 AM, Ess-Eschas said:

I'm assuming you mentioned that the stones were being sent to your home fort in your report – otherwise, it might be worth sending on a little update to your report that includes that point. Without that little bit of information, this is a problem that could easily be missed!

I mentioned in this email that there is two glitter-stones in the initial chest of Haven, ... , probably because my pack was full when I bought them to Obro (as it was always full at these times of the game). So I suppose that this is sufficient...

 

On 12/7/2019 at 12:17 AM, Ess-Eschas said:

For now, though, I'm simply imagining that Obro has a whole bunch of rocks that he wants to sell to whomever will buy them. You can't use any more than one during the game, so all that really happens here is the player spending money to build up a nice little rock collection!

I imagined something similar: he has found a big source of glitter-stones and he was a prudent guy, so he only sell them one by one to trusted people (to avoid to be robbed, ...)

 

Spoiler

As I am speaking of potential unintended things: I just gained passage through the Gannel span with a singleton at level 11: I killed the wolfs then I hasted myself and used teleport to reach the exit (without killing anybody else). Latter, at level 13, I came back to clear the zone, most monsters have respawned except the group of wolfs and in the main building the mirelings and the shades/skeletons; this part seems normal as I did not kill anybody, they still guard the span against other potential intruders. However, I find odd that it is now possible to kill them group by group, ie. I entered the northern part,  I killed the remaining group of mirelings and the group of snakes, then I exit, went to a fort, came back, killed the second wave of warriors/shamans, ... 

 

Edited by osnola
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