Citadel - New scenario I could use some beta testers :P

[Vox]

So I've been working on this on and off for like 6-7 years? I think? I finally have it down to a point where I 'think' i've wrapped up all of the loose ends and multiple endings and I'd like to get some beta tests and feedback if anyone is interested. There is at least 6-7 quite different endings and a few variations on those as well. Once the main plot is tied up proper I'll probably go back over and expand a lot of the misc dialogues and hints.

 

If anyone wants to give it a beta test I'd be honoured! Please let me know!

 

Here is a d/l link just off my dropbox (temporary): 

 

EDIT: for Mac and Windows

MAC: https://www.dropbox.com/s/nrq2043vwgbl57k/Citadel (Mac).zip?dl=0

WINDOWS: https://www.dropbox.com/s/p9st1uhnelldj95/Citadel (Windows).zip?dl=0

 

I can't remember if there is a difference between Mac or Windows scenario files? But FYI I made this on my Mac.

 

 

Edited August 17, 2020 by Vox

[Ivan [Redacted]]

This appears to be missing the graphic files, I get an error message and a lot of missing graphics.
Looks like you've got some cutscenes in there, I'd love to look at a working copy. Seems like this could actually be really nice.

[Vox]

Hmm ok I’ll take a look now

[The Almighty Doer of Stuff]

I'll play it at some point after it's done. I'm not familiar enough with BoA's workings to really be helpful as a beta tester, but I love seeing the BoE/A community still making new things!

[Kelandon]

14 hours ago, Vox said:

I can't remember if there is a difference between Mac or Windows scenario files? But FYI I made this on my Mac.

On Mac, the graphics are saved as a cmg file, while on Windows each one is saved as a separate bmp file. So for people on Windows to play the scenario, you have to port the graphics.

[Ess-Eschas]

Hooray! It’s always good to see new scenarios!

 

I’ll do my best to give it a proper playthrough. That might take a little while, since I like to be thorough, and I have a few other things on my plate at the moment. But I’ll see what I can do!

 

I just played through the first few minutes to make sure that everything works. The graphics file on the mac side of things seems to work just fine. For what it’s worth, this scenario make a great first impression!

 

I’m not sure if this is intentional or not, but the scenario as it is currently still has the debug commands available. You may have done that deliberately, but I thought I’d mention it just in case it wasn’t.

[Ivan [Redacted]]

Is there any easy way to convert .cmg to individual .bmp files on my end, or do I have to wait for a fixed Windows scenario release? I was actually pretty hyped to try out a new adventure in BoA

[Vox]

Oh that's right. I think I remember there was some sort of external tool for creating the .cmg and .bmp files but I dont think I have it anymore but I'mg guessing they're basically sprite atlases. Does anyone have a link to that? It's been so long I totally forgot about it.

 

EDIT: Ok so I need something called Graphic Adjuster but I can't find any download link. Anyone have any idea where I can grab it?

Edited August 16, 2020 by Vox

[Dintiradan]

Used to be on Niemand's site, but alas, that's been down for a while now. I went on a BoA backup binge a few years back, but I didn't think of backing up any Mac utilities.

 

My Mac knowledge is limited, but I think you can still do resource fork stuff with ResEdit. It'll just be more complicated and less BoA-specific than Graphic Adjuster. Getting it to run will be a challenge, since ResEdit hasn't been officially maintained since (*checks*) 1994. But there seem to be newer, unofficial versions. Again, the Mac people would know more (and might have a copy of Graphic Adjuster lying around).

[Kelandon]

Since Niemand is gone and his utilities were so useful, I'll host them on my utilities page: https://kppp.webs.com/utilities.html

[Celtic Minstrel]

1 hour ago, Dintiradan said:

My Mac knowledge is limited, but I think you can still do resource fork stuff with ResEdit. It'll just be more complicated and less BoA-specific than Graphic Adjuster. Getting it to run will be a challenge, since ResEdit hasn't been officially maintained since (*checks*) 1994. But there seem to be newer, unofficial versions. Again, the Mac people would know more (and might have a copy of Graphic Adjuster lying around).

There do exist two resource editor programs other than ResEdit that will run on newer machines (Rezilla and ResKnife); both are available from SourceForge. That said, they still might not work on the newest machines…

 

What do you mean by  "newer, unofficial versions"? Is it what I just said, or an actual modified ResEdit?

 

I do have a copy of Graphic Adjuster somewhere, but it looks like Kelandon beat me to that.

[Kelandon]

Rezilla still works as of Mac OS 10.14, at least enough that I can listen to sounds saved in a resource fork (which is the only thing I use it for).

[Vox]

Thanks Kelandon!

I got the graphic adjuster and I think I've done what I'm supposed to for the Windows version. I edited the main post up top with a link to both versions.

[Dintiradan]

On 8/16/2020 at 1:51 PM, Celtic Minstrel said:

What do you mean by  "newer, unofficial versions"? Is it what I just said, or an actual modified ResEdit?

What I meant was "I did some lazy Googling and assumed a Windows utility named ResEdit was an updated version of Mac's ResEdit".

 

Windows version works for me (after commenting out debug mode); going through it now.

[Warrior Mage]

When will this scenario complete the beta and release? No replies around for few days.

[Vox]

15 hours ago, Warrior Mage said:

When will this scenario complete the beta and release? No replies around for few days.

I guess when we get some feedback, maybe when a few people have completed the scenario. I've run through it several times myself but woods for the trees and all, hard to see it the same way as others would.

[Seasons of Destiny]

Heya! It's always a delight to see activity in the BoA scene, and, since you're looking for beta-testing/critique, I figured it was as good a time as any to brush some dust off and play Citadel. What follows is the contents of a .txt I was jotting notes in as I played through it.

 

I wrote this list of feedback as I was playing the scenario, so it should roughly be in chronological order, more or less. As far as party composition and the like goes, I was playing with a human polearm-using berserker, a human sword-using rogue, a human priest/archer mix, and a slith hedge wizard. The total party level was around 3 at the beginning, having just beat Ephesos' "Adrift", and I was playing on Hard. The Hard part in particular might skew some damage rolls and the like, so, letting you know that in advance.

 

Citadel Feedback:

Spoiler

- [Gameplay] The scenario seems to start in Debug Mode; unfamiliar to me, though, it does say that you can remove it before sharing the scenario, and warns you to do so. For reference, I got the popup warning me immediately after the scenario's starting text.
- [Grammar] Admittedly a nitpick, but most town names are always capitalized; in this case, "Upper court" could be "Upper Court".
- [Grammar] When walking into the Ajax's office, there should be some punctuation between "seriously" and "Please". See: {He sits down and looks at you seriously. "Please shut the door."}
- [Grammar] When asking Ajax about Florence's predecessor, the "he" right after "Lloyd? Why?" should be capitalized. See: {He seems surprised.}
- [Grammar] Related to the above point on the name of the town, location names in general tend to follow the same pattern. The "Magic quarter" to the immediate southwest of the Audience Hall should probably be "Magic Quarter", and so on for what I assume will be other such places. Just mentioning it now, so I don't have to do so a number of times later.
- [Grammar] I could also try noting very minor grammar errors from this point on, but it's a bit cumbersome without a second monitor or similar to let me easily bounce between the game and this. In general, there are a few cases, the next of which found in Vortex's dialogue regarding Floyd, where there's missing punctuation in transitions from regular text to actual dialogue. Periods, commas, etc.
- [Gameplay] Odd choice of attack, the Griffons breathing fire; doing maybe 40~ damage feels like a bit much at this point, though it's manageable as long as either of my spellcasters can heal before the next round.
- [Grammar] I suppose I'll mention the capitalization thing also includes items; "Griffon claw" should be "Griffon Claw".
- [Gameplay] This is just an initial kneejerk reaction, so take it with a grain of salt, but my first response to seeing a Griffon three-hit-combo my rogue from full health (28) to dead was "That's a LOT of damage." Personally, I always find attacks that hit multiple times extremely dangerous in the early game (see: ghouls or giant lizards), and this is no exception; maybe consider nerfing the number of dice they use, considering you can also enter this scenario at level 1?
- [Gameplay] I really like the Cliffs area, honestly; the clouds make it look pretty, for as much as a BoA location can be. However, the third Griffon fight in this place has the Griffon come in from off-screen, which was a /bit/ unfair (I've been preparing for the ambushes via starting combat mode and delaying my turn). Note from my future self: this also happens in a few places later on, too.
- [Gameplay] Said Griffon ambushes can also be skipped over if you use the BoA glitch of entering and exiting combat mode to jump ahead a tile; I don't know how other people handle that bug, but maybe making those special encounters two-tiles wide will help?
- [Gameplay] My strategy of preempting the ambushes starts falling apart in the clearing where upwards of four Griffons all ambush the player. A rather sharp spike in difficulty, especially considering how their bite itself can hit upwards of 39 (or more?) on a 28-hp character without adequate blessings. Speaking of, I had gone through here without discovering the fort's priest, so I didn't have Level 3 War Blessing until the Griffon Nest.
- [Gameplay] And the Griffon Elder is where I question the doability of an encounter like this with even a level 5 party; its heat ray does roughly 45~ damage, and unless you lure it away, it will have another Griffon to provide support. Its bite alone also did 40 damage on my first attempt, which... didn't go well.
- [Gameplay] After miraculously taking down the Elder and the rest of the Griffons (said miracle being it deciding to heat ray me instead of melee attack after following me away from the Griffon trigger in front of it), I've been wandering and trying to find somewhere to recover my spell energy. Down in Storage, the darker custom statues in the southwest room aren't solid; you can walk right through them.
- [Gameplay] Poking around in the Sewers, there's a leaking barrel in the room surrounded by emerald slimes that says it's a "Practice Dummy" when examined.
- [Gameplay] Deeper in the Sewers, the Sewer Bandit Archers act just like the regular Sewer Bandits; no arrows, just trying to club me with their bows.
- [Gameplay/Bug] I wandered back up to the fort proper to try and find a place to rest (getting a bit desperate now), and I made my way to the Upper Roof... whereupon I got an ERROR in the textfield. "ERROR: Attempted to access an out of range Stuff Done Flag: 50, 30"; "t10Upper roof Error: Bad SDF in line 192".
- [Gameplay] In Griffon Nest, the Griffon directly east of where you teleport in (click here for a visual reference) disappears after flying over to the player. Though, note, I approached it from the east, not the west.
- [Gameplay] On a related note to the one directly above, this Griffon (click here for a visual reference) doesn't disappear from its nest when it flies down to attack us.
- [Gameplay] Just a minor thing, but I find it a little odd how Griffon Claws, Griffon Furs, and Griffon Eggs all weigh the same 5 pounds. Maybe have the claws weigh a little less, since they're more common and feasibly lighter?
- [Gameplay] Update on the Sewer Bandits: the archers THROW projectiles at us, not actually fire them.
- [Gameplay] Odd thing: most of the soldiers/guards around the fort are actually "brigands"?
- [Gameplay] After having had to restore my spell energy once or twice, I FINALLY found the place where I can rest (in the barracks, far, far down the hall). If I may make a suggestion, could you have Florence or Ajax mention that we can rest here, if possible? Either I missed something obvious (like them saying so), or what, but that... would have been nice to know about sooner.
- [Gameplay/Bug?] After speaking with the captain in the training hall, leaving, and then coming back to buy a level in Parry, he was gone! Without a word, either.
- [Gameplay/Bug?] Going through the Catacombs, I can't help but suspect that the Dungeon Spiders/Arenea aren't supposed to attack/sound like undead. Repel Spirit works on them, too.
- [Gameplay] Two things about the Ghost Soldier ambush. First, I had to enter it in combat mode before it because they would get a bunch of free shots on me otherwise that murdered my spellcaster(s). Second, they're not using their entire sprite sheet, so their attack sprite is their combat sprite, and their death sprites are their attack sprites, if that makes sense. In other words, they're using the sprite sheet size of a regular monster, like a skeleton or a zombie.
- [Gameplay] Oh dear. I've been playing through some of the alternate endings (the number of which is something I like a LOT, by the way!), and in the one where you assault Ajax/Florence with the Sewer Rats, the Ajax sitting in his office... never got despawned (click here for a visual reference). So, now there's two of them, fighting each other.
- [Gameplay/Bugs] The game actually seems softlocked here, after the aforementioned fight between You/Sewer Rats and Florence/Ajax. Both of the latter are dead, yet I can't speak with Rickard, I can't leave the audience hall... and Florence's dead body still objects to me going into his personal quarters. For reference, this is after I confronted Ajax and DIDN'T try to kill him.

 

Ending Notes:

Try as I might, I couldn't figure out how to get an ending that solves all of the plot holes like the ending text teased. I looked into the code a little, and there was apparently supposed to be a lot more to at least one of the ending bosses (specifically, the non-magical one), as well as some areas in the sewers (specifically, some kind of laboratory); something about the floor being caved in at one point, too. Couldn't figure out how to do any of that, though, and it was getting a bit late at the time. Something tells me that a quick list of hints included in a .txt might help the player in the absence of a proper walkthrough (more so for completion's sake), but that's just me. All in all, though, I rather enjoyed the scenario aside from the occasional rough spot or an encounter's afflicting of Sudden Aliven't Syndrome; it had some neat ideas and interesting dialogue throughout! If I had to say what part I enjoyed the least, it would have been doing both Griffon areas early on; ended up doing the first without at least Level 2 War Blessing (for both Bless and Shielding), which led to a lot of one-hit-kills.

[Dintiradan]

I've also been wrapping up my beta test today (after stopping halfway through and letting it fall by the wayside for far too long -- sorry Vox!). Regarding the error with SDF (50, 30): the second coordinate for SDFs has to be between 0 and 29. This might only be a problem on Windows, I dunno. Anyone else who wants to beta test will have to replace it with another set of coordinates (I picked (51, 0) and it seems to work) in `t10Upper roof.txt` and `t2Upper.txt`.

 

Not quite finished yet (I'm in the crypts) but that and debug mode seem to be the only game-breaking bugs so far. Though I did notice:

Spoiler

After discovering the hideout in the sewers, if you go back up the ladder you came down on, you get stuck in a hidden room in "Upper court" and you can't return.

 

[Warrior Mage]

Hello! I hope that this scenario is not too long. What happened to the progress?

[Edwin]

Happy to see people are still developing new scenarios! Will definitely reinstall BoA and try this at some point