Special spells in Exodus

[Jerakeen]

I'm fairly new at this, so this may have been covered before, but I'm having issues with the special spells in Exodus. Ok, I admit the slime pit has me completely stymied. I checked the hints and found them unhelpful. To wit: Bind Foe doesn't seem to slow them down at all; Destruction I unfortunately missed getting; most irritating of all is that Capture Soul doesn't work! Any attempt to use it results only in the appearance of a useless humanoid object identified only as a "null". It doesn't do anything except die. All four of my slots remain empty, so I can't use Recall Soul.

Up to now, I got by without these spells just fine, but now it appears that I need them--does anybody know what the problem is?

Also, can anyone tell me if there is a finite number of slimes? Maybe I could stand at the entrance and try to pick them off a few at a time. Nothing else has worked.

Thanks.

[Callie]

Have you created a spellbook yet?

[Jerakeen]

Yes, both kinds. No problems with Major Haste, Filth, Flight. Bonechill and Inferno also seem to work. Haven't had much need for Safe Travel yet. Hey, could I use flight to float above the wretched slimes? Somehow, I doubt that would work.

[Nioca]

No flying indoors.

 

As for the Capture Mind glitch, I sent Kelandon an email about that error.

[Lilith]

Capture Soul worked just fine for me in the slime pit. Maybe it's a Windows-specific bug. Hm.

[Jerakeen]

I'm playing on a Mac.

[Ishad Nha]

I seem to recall that spawning copies of the slimes then hasting them with Major Haste was effective. I am on Windows so there was no problem there.

[Jerakeen]

Well, I got through the pits anyway, gradually, with judicious summoning and Major Hasting, and lots of missiles and healing. I would like to tell Kass where to stick his tapestry, but oh well. An interesting thing happened when I tried to Capture Soul again after acquiring a second level of it: a hostile null appeared--luckily it was equally useless. I guess I can do without these spells.

[Kelandon]

Bind Foe should really put a stop to them. If you cast it two or three times on anything, that thing should be out for a long while. I don't have any idea why that wouldn't work.

 

Nioca, if you e-mailed me about a problem with Capture Soul, it must have been at a time when I wasn't able to maintain Exodus at all, because I don't remember even attempting to do something about it (and, frustratingly, I can't find the e-mail now).

 

I used Capture Soul a lot during my various play-throughs, and I never had trouble with it, so I have no idea (none) why it would be acting up like this. The code is really straightforward.

 

If you could do me a favor, I might be able to figure out something. Use Capture Soul, and tell me if you get the dialogue about putting the creature in a particular slot (1-4). If so, put it in slot 1, and then insert the following code in the scenario script's START_STATE:

Code:

 print_num(get_flag(294,1)); 

Load your save file and tell me what number prints when you walk around and after you try to capture something's soul.

[Jerakeen]

I'm happy to help, and I do get the dialogue, but I don't have the foggiest idea how to insert a code into the script! If you could dumb that down a little, I'd be only too glad to comply. Thanks.

[Nioca]

I'll do you one better, Kel. I had already pinpointed the problem with the spell. The contents of the email:

Quote:

Email: A couple Exodus bugs.

Sent: Fri 12/07/07 4:03 PM

 

Kelandon,

 

I was playing through Exodus again, and I stumbled across a bug with the Capture Soul special spell. The next_state variable that's set when the spell is cast incorrectly redirects the script to state 25 (Anti-Magic Field spell state) after the player selects which slot to use instead of back to state 23 (Capture Soul spell state). It's fixed simply by correcting the variable.

 

Also, though this rarely happens and I don't know why, but if the Berekhs are charmed, every once in a while, one will act as if they hit an infinite loop (error and all) and freeze up. It's weird, because I can't find anything that would cause that. I don't know whether they actually are hitting an infinite loop, or if the charming just causes the script to behave oddly.

 

Just thought you'd like to know.

 

- Nioca

Note that this was with the latest version of Exodus.

[Kelandon]

Yeah, that was during a time when I wasn't even able to look at BoA stuff, so it just got lost in the shuffle.

 

Okay, Turtle, here's what you do to fix the spell. Go into the folder called "Exodus." Open the document "exodus.txt" (or possibly just "exodus" if you don't have the extensions visible). Find this bit of text in it:

Code:

 beginstate 23; // casting Capture Soul	// PS 10, 15 SP	// effect 4, sound 90	if (get_stat(who_used_custom_item(),12) < 10) {		print_str("Your Priest Spells is not high enough to cast Capture Soul.");		end();		}		if (get_energy(who_used_custom_item()) < 15) {		print_str("You do not have enough energy to cast Capture Soul.");		end();		}		// Level check:	// (your level) + ((your PS + your Magery) / 4) + ((your CS skill) * 10)	if (get_level( // long line deleted to prevent board stretching		print_str("Your power is not high enough to capture this creature.");		end();		}		if (func_return == 0) {		reset_dialog();		add_dialog_str(0,"You must now enter which slot you want to save the creature into. Enter a numeral between 1 and 4 inclusive.",0);				next_state = 24;		set_state_continue(51);		}		func_return = 0;	deduct_ap(5);	change_char_energy(who_used_custom_item(),-15);	set_flag(294,i,creature_type(who_is_custom_item_target()));	put_effect_on_char(who_is_custom_item_target(),4,4,0);	run_animation_sound(90);	break; 

Change this line:

Code:

 next_state = 24; 

to this:

Code:

 next_state = 23; 

While you're at it, in the next state (a few lines down), find this line:

Code:

 next_state = 25; 

and change it to this:

Code:

 next_state = 24; 

Let me know if that fixes Capture Soul and Recall Soul. If so, I'll upload the fixed version to my website.

[Jerakeen]

Yes, Capture and Recall both now work perfectly. Now if only Bind Foe would function--the animation runs and I might even get a message about such-and-such cleaning webs, but it doesn't seem to slow them down for even a moment. I don't know enough about it to tell if there's something wrong with the code:

 

put_effect_on_char(who_is_custom_item_target(),10,4,0);

run_animation_sound(7);

set_char_status(who_is_custom_item_target(),6,2 + (3 * get_flag(292,1)) + ((get_stat(who_used_custom_item(),2) + get_stat(who_used_custom_item(),11) + get_stat(who_used_custom_item(),25)) / 5),0,1);

 

It would be nice to have, but not essential to the game. Thanks.

[Nioca]

I think slimes are innately immune to webbing.

[Jeran Korak]

How do you web a pile of goo?

[Jerakeen]

True. Bind Foe works fine against shamblers. It was the hint file that made me think it should be useful with slimes. Anyway, problem solved, thanks all.

[Kelandon]

Quote:

Originally written by Nioca:
I think slimes are innately immune to webbing.

No, they're not. To the best of my knowledge, there is no way to make anything immune to webbing, and the slimes certainly are not, because the hint file documents what I actually did, and the hint files says that Bind Foe is effective against them.

There's nothing wrong with the code, but there's so much wrong with BoA (apparently) that it's hard to know what the problem is.

Note that you have to cast Bind Foe at least two or three times before you should notice any effect. Let me know if you cast it four or five times on a creature and it can still move; if so, something's wrong.

[Lazarus.]

Insects and Special are immune to webs, not slimes. So unless the slimes in Exodus are accidentally set to be insects, it should affect them.

[Kelandon]

Oh, right, species. The slimes are set to species 10 (slime/plant), so that can't be the source of the problem.

[Imban]

While you're at it, the Hat of Stability might not be providing all of the bonuses you wanted it to:

 

Code:

it_ability_1 = 57; // resist magicit_ability_str_1 = 8;it_ability_2 = 58; // resist mentalit_ability_str_2 = 8;it_ability_2 = 61; // bonus APit_ability_str_2 = 1;

[Kelandon]

Yep. Thanks.

[Lazarus.]

I have no idea why it never occurred to me to comment data scripts so that I could know what stat/ability numbers mean at a glance, but I'm definitely going to do it now.