Understated Ur-Drakon The Almighty Doer of Stuff Posted August 11, 2020 Share Posted August 11, 2020 I'm testing two PCs using bows and arrows. Both have 5 Dexterity. One has 10 Item Lore and the other has 10 Archery. I had heard during the picking apart of BoE's code that bows used Item Lore skill instead of Archery skill due to a mistake on Jeff Vogel's part; however, my test shows dramatically more accuracy and damage from the PC with Archery skill instead of Item Lore skill. Where did this idea and/or this bug get introduced? It's not evident from my playtesting that it was ever a problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tenderfoot Thahd Motardo Posted August 11, 2020 Share Posted August 11, 2020 The bug causes `Defense` skill to be used instead of `Throwing` skill. It has been present from the earliest version of Exile: Escape from the Pit all the way through the latest version of Blades (classic that is). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Understated Ur-Drakon The Almighty Doer of Stuff Posted August 11, 2020 Author Share Posted August 11, 2020 Oh, OK. My mistake. Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Understated Ur-Drakon Celtic Minstrel Posted August 11, 2020 Share Posted August 11, 2020 My understanding was that it also uses Thrown Weapons instead of Archery. Was it really present in Exile I though? I had always assumed it came about because he missed something as he added new features onto the engine. As for the source of the idea, someone noticed the error in the source code, I believe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Understated Ur-Drakon The Almighty Doer of Stuff Posted August 12, 2020 Author Share Posted August 12, 2020 I tested it earlier and bows use Archery skill, not Thrown Weapons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tenderfoot Thahd Motardo Posted August 12, 2020 Share Posted August 12, 2020 18 hours ago, Celtic Minstrel said: My understanding was that it also uses Thrown Weapons instead of Archery. It is definitely `Defense` instead of `Thrown`. 18 hours ago, Celtic Minstrel said: Was it really present in Exile I though? It was present in the earliest versions I could find on old shareware disks: Exile I v1.0.5 for Mac, and Exile I v1.0.1 for Windows. By the way, I wanted to play with Throwing skill working so I used a hex editor to fix it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Understated Ur-Drakon The Almighty Doer of Stuff Posted August 12, 2020 Author Share Posted August 12, 2020 (edited) 1 hour ago, Motardo said: It is definitely `Defense` instead of `Thrown`. It was present in the earliest versions I could find on old shareware disks: Exile I v1.0.5 for Mac, and Exile I v1.0.1 for Windows. By the way, I wanted to play with Throwing skill working so I used a hex editor to fix it. Nice! Do you know if there's a way to create a patch for each game instead of using a hex editor? That would be good. The bug is fixed in OpenBoE but that version is otherwise very buggy. Between the new Windows x64 fix and this hypothetical patch, it'd be easy to get a decent version of BoE usable easily for many people, so legacy scenarios can be played or even made. I'm trying to make one but I'm hesitant with the thrown missiles. I want to include them but not if I can't include a simple patch with the scenario. Edited August 12, 2020 by The Almighty Doer of Stuff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tenderfoot Thahd Motardo Posted August 12, 2020 Share Posted August 12, 2020 I'm not sure about a simple patch file. I suppose it could be a script that edits the game file when run. Alternatively, it would be easy to make a patched version of the whole game and include that (assuming Spiderweb Software does not object?). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Understated Ur-Drakon Celtic Minstrel Posted August 13, 2020 Share Posted August 13, 2020 There are a lot of ways to generate a patch file for a binary program (this thread lists a number of options). Ideally you'd use a patch that self-applies, so that the user doesn't need to have the same patching software that you used to create the patch, but I'm not sure if any binary patching tools produce that sort of thing. I'm not sure whether it would be acceptable to distribute already-patched executables. The games are freeware, and Blades of Exile is even open source, so it might be okay, but it's probably best to get more opinions than just mine on the matter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Understated Ur-Drakon The Almighty Doer of Stuff Posted August 13, 2020 Author Share Posted August 13, 2020 (edited) (Moved to its own thread.) Edited August 13, 2020 by The Almighty Doer of Stuff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garrulous Glaahk Nephil Thief Posted November 13, 2020 Share Posted November 13, 2020 So kind of belated, but I took a look at the CBoE (legacy Windows) source code recently and the issue seems to be fixed. Throwing weapon hit chance checks throwing weapon skill in CBoE. Defense skill is probably still a better investment though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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