[v1.0.1 - 04042023] Unofficial Blades of Avernum Patch (BoA-UPatch)

[Sokhbep]

-= Sokhbep's Supplies =-

Unofficial Patch for Blades of Avernum Windows v1.0.3

(Or as I like to call it, "That thing somebody finally bothered to do after 17 years.")

 

Information:

This is a small .zip file package of fixes and tweaks to the base game which will liven up the game a bit more than before. It fixes bugs of both major and minor degrees. The entire reasoning behind undertaking this project began as an ambitious quest to add funny colours to everything that exists in the game, but the thought evolved and went on to become something that everybody else would also be able to enjoy in equal amounts.

 

Click here to visit the Github page for the project, which has all the extra help such as a step-by-step tutorial on how to apply the patch onto your copy of the game. Once there, you may click on the big, shiny download button to commence the acquisition of the patchified percolations.

 

(Keep in mind, the gear you may have currently in your party's inventory - even if they are from the base game and not from custom scenarios, will need to be dropped and re-acquired through either the Character Editor or through natural means by playing scenarios again, in order for them to be updated into the patched versions of themselves.)

 

How you can contribute:

If you find anything in the game the patch has overlooked, such as graphical gaffes and script mistakes, AFTER applying the patch, you can then use this forum post to raise your issues which I will try my best to cross-check and address at the earliest.

 

I personally do not own any Macintosh computers and I have no prior experience with operating that system, so I would very much appreciate if somebody could volunteer to port the contents of this patch to run on a Macintosh machine, in order to be compatible with Blades of Avernum v1.2.1 for the Mac.

 

Let's make Blades of Avernum better together! 

 

v1.0.1 Changelog:

Spoiler

///[ BoA UPatch.exe ]\\\ (You must run the game through this file in order to experiences these changes)

 

Spell description for 'Smite' under the Priest Spells tab in the Info screen changed to match its function. Instead of telling that it deals cold damage, it now correctly tells that it deals magic damage.

 

///[ corescendata_coloradjust.txt ]\\\

 

Creatures 25 'Nephil Shaman' and 30 'Nephar Shaman' have their colours adjusted to differentiate more from the 'Nephil' creature
Creature 57 'Lava Bat' colour adjusted to be more apparent than before
Creature 123 'Rogue Warrior' has a mis-colouring issue fixed
Creatures 8 'Archer', 20 'Elite Soldier', 131 'Bladesman',  132 'Empire Archer' i.e., common human NPCs have had their colours adjusted further to not appear as stick-outs in a town some among them looking too dark

 

///[ corescendata2_coloradjust.txt ]\\\

Item 177 'First Aid Kit' has its colour changed to maintain uniformity with other similar items of its utility type (e.g. Lockpicks)
Item 287 'Wand - Acid Spray' has its name corrected to 'Wand - Spray Acid' to match the spell name
Items 326 'Piercing Crystal', 327 'Unshackling Crystal' and 328 'Shattering Crystal' have mis-colouring issues fixed

All "Iron" items have their colour altered to look less gaudy. On the other hand, all "Poor" and "Crude" items now have the "Iron" item colours

 

///[ corescendata2_nocoloradjust.txt ]\\\

 

Item 287 'Wand - Acid Spray' has its name corrected to 'Wand - Spray Acid' to match the spell name

 

///[ Character Graphics ]\\\

 

G1512 (Acolyte) - Fixed erroneous white/transparent pixels on various frames
G1517 (Mage) - Fixed erroneous white/transparent pixels on various frames
G1553 (Living Statue) - Added missing rotations, proper attack frames and proper outdoors frames (courtesy of Vox)

 

///[ Art Graphics ]\\\

 

G1660 (Brown Vest Bandana Man) - Fixed a slight offset mistake from v1.0.0
G1803 and G1811 - Their codes have been swapped, so that their Paperdoll graphics match their respective World graphics (They were incorrectly labeled in base game so they had their graphics swapped with each other... It's hard to notice, but one has a bow on her back and the other does not)
G1821 (Blue Armor Light Nephil) - Changed fur colour of the Paperdoll graphic to match the World graphic

 

///[ Game Graphics ]\\

 

G904 - Changed to compliment the G1803 and G1811 code swap, and G1821 fur colour change

 

v1.0.0 Changelog:

Spoiler

///[ BoA UPatch.exe ]\\\ (You must run the game through this file in order to experiences these changes)

 

The hand icon in the Get Item dialog box is now a right-handed cursor instead of being a left-handed one. Since all the other cursors in the game are right-handed, it doesn't make much sense to keep just one cursor left-handed

 

///[ corescendata.txt ]\\\

 

Floors 85 and 86 'Crops' icons are no longer erroneously swapped
Floor 100 'Vahnatai Floor' now has a correctly coloured editor icon [COSB]
Fixed capitalisation errors on the second words of many creature names (e.g. Lava bat, Triad mage, Slith high priest etc.)
Creatures 71 'Aranea' and 83 'Elder Aranea' now have 'Pots' removed from their respective death drop tables
Creature 100 'Slith Avatar' now has the correct icon adjust colour of 2 instead of 64 [COSB]
Creature 135 'Augmented Giant' now correctly displays its upper half [COSB]
Creature 174 'Efreet' no longer has duplicate natural armor value '15'. It now only has '50' natural armor

 

///[ corescendata2.txt ]\\\

 

Terrains 331 and 332 'Cave Hill Entrance' now correctly import the proper direction of the terrain 'Cave Hill' so that players standing on the same tile do not have their placement look messed up
Terrain 367 'Ruined Statue' has its upper half restored
Terrain 396 'Supply Cache' has the Terrain 397 'Found Supply Cache' as its terrain swap [COSB]
Item 74 'Cursed Halberd' is now properly cursed. It had the cursed property defined twice, the second time un-cursing the item
Item 166 'Jug of Cheap Wine' renamed to 'Jug of Cheap Ale', Item 393 'Cheap Wine' renamed to 'Jug of Cheap Wine' and value increased from 20 coins to 45 coins. Changed to make a redundant item have more flavourful correlation with pre-existing items 'Bottle of Ale and 'Bottle of Wine' respectively
Item 149 'Bowl' now uses the correct floor graphic
Item 154 'Bolt of Cloth' now uses the dark green alternate variant whose floor icon has been restored and thus now looks different from Item 156
Item 345 'Icy Longsword' now correctly inflicts extra cold damage instead of extra acid damage
Item 369 'Wyrmsbane' buffed - now imports from 'Blessed Longsword' instead of 'Bronze Longsword' and has its value increased from 40 coins to 2400 coins 
(Like for real, come on.. this epic sword that does more damage to snakes, lizards, drakes and DRAGONS used to inherit from a weak weapon and was almost worthless. Also I'm 99.9% sure the wrong import was used in the first place, since 'Ghoulbane' inherits from 'Blessed Spear' and does the same amount of damage bonus but to undead)
Item 432 'Ring of Speed' buffed - now has a chance of giving a maximum of 2 bonus AP instead of 1, which is already emulated by Item 277 'Nimble Band', thus making the former an upgraded version of the latter instead of being completely same

 

Changed 'Wand' and 'Rod' items to have the same naming scheme as Scrolls e.g. "Wand - Bolt of Fire", "Rod - Arcane Summon"
Fixed some items not graphically representing their class e.g. 'Cursed Short Sword' used a 'Longsword' graphic and 'Jade Halberd' used a 'Spear' graphic
Swapped around 'Ring' item graphics to distribute each type of graphic among the items equally. Each ring graphic type now has at least one cursed variety
Rearranged all 'Scroll' item graphics so that one particular graphic type represents only one of the four separate spell types: direct damage, support, utility and summon
Changed some item names in order to maintain uniformity with similar item types (e.g. renamed 'Blessed Steel Helmet' to 'Blessed Helmet', changed the unidentified name of 'Alien Blade' from 'Wavy Sword' to 'Waveblade')

 

Readjusted the graphics of entirety of the artifact shield lineup based on the following statistics:

 

0% Encumbrance, uses the artifact light shield graphic (G1035 - Out 4 - In 5)
- Runeshield

5% Encumbrance, uses the artifact medium shield graphic (G1035 - Out 0 - In 1)
- Crystal Shield
- Iceshield
- Shield of Khar
- Shield of Klin

10% Encumbrance, uses the artifact heavy shield graphic (G1030 - Out 0 - In 1)
- Shield of Klud
- Shield of Kron
- Martyr's Shield
- Lifeshield

 

///[ Character Graphics ]\\\

 

Fixed missing border pieces for the following files: 
G1452 (Kobold)
G1554 (Lizard)
G1562 (Vampire)
G1564 (Granite Golem)
G1565 (Triad Mage)
G1569 (Erika)
G1570 (Demon Lord)
G1574 (Royal Guard)
G1587 (Vahnatai w/ Green Cloak)

 

Other graphical changes were made in the following files:
G1 (Empty Space) - Fixed image dimensions
G1453 (Centaur) - Removed protrusions on outdoor graphic
G1500 & G1501 (Merchant w/ Blue Pants) - Fixed erroneous white/transparent pixels on various frames
G1524 (Nephil Archer) - Removed protrusions on outdoor graphic
G1533 (Slime Pool) - Added outdoor graphics
G1535 (Skeleton) - Removed protrusions on outdoor graphic
G1537 (Ghoul) - Fixed erroneous white/transparent pixels on various frames
G1539 (Wight) - Fixed black outlines on death frames
G1542 (Giant Lizard) - Fixed erroneous white/transparent pixels on various frames
G1543 (Fire Lizard) - Fixed erroneous white/transparent pixels on various frames, and erroneous outlines on death frames
G1547 (Drake) - Fixed black outlines on death frames
G1549 (Demon) - Fixed erroneous white/transparent pixels on various frames and fixed missing border piece
G1550 (Haakai) - Fixed erroneous white/transparent pixels on various frames
G1551 (Serpent) - Fixed incorrect facing directions on North and West
G1552 (Eye Beast) - Fixed incorrect facing directions on North, West, South and East
G1553 (Living Statue) - Fixed erroneous white/transparent pixels on various frames and fixed incorrect outdoor graphics (Gremlin)
G1561 (Child) - Added outdoor graphics
G1566 (Gorgon) - Fixed erroneous white/transparent pixels on various frames
G1568 (Spider Queen) - Adjusted outdoor sprite colours to match indoor sprites
G1571 (Pack Leader) - Fixed erroneous white/transparent pixels on various frames
G1575 (Townsman w/ Black Vest) - Fixed erroneous white/transparent pixels on various frames
G1577 (Bladesman) - Removed protrusions on outdoor graphic
G1581 (Ruby Skeleton) - Updated outdoor graphics to new sprites, was previously using old A1-3 Ruby Skeleton sprites 
G1582 (Spectre) - Removed protrusions on outdoor graphic and fixed erroneous white/transparent pixels on various frames
G1583 (Hraithe) - Removed protrusions on outdoor graphic and stray pixels outside the frames window
G1584 (Vahnavoi) - Fixed stray pixels outside the frames window
G1585 (Ice Lizard) - Fixed erroneous white/transparent pixels, off-black border colour and coloured pixels on various frames
G1588 (Vahnatai w/ Yellow Cloak) - Fixed erroneous white/transparent pixels on various frames
G1589 (Vahnatai Child) - Added outdoor graphics and removed stray pixels outside the frames window
G1596 (Crystal Soul) - Added outdoor graphics
G1597 (Doomguard) - Removed protrusions on outdoor graphic
G1600 (Hydra) - Fixed incorrect outdoor graphics (Baby Hydra)
G1601 (Flame Hydra) - Fixed off-black border colour
G1602 (Ice Hydra) - Fixed off-black border colour
G1603 (Baby Hydra) - Fixed erroneous white/transparent pixels on various frames
G1604 (Ice Drake) - Fixed black outlines on death frames
G1607 (Rakshasa) - Improved outdoor graphics
G1608 (Naga Bottom) - Improved outdoor graphics and moved incorrectly placed outdoor graphics on top half of sheet to bottom half
G1609 (Naga Top) - Removed redundant outdoor graphics
G1615 (Giant Fighter Bottom) - Updated outdoor graphics to new sprites, was previously using old A2-3 Giant Fighter sprites
G1616 (Giant Fighter Top) - Removed redundant outdoor graphics
G1617 (Giant Chief Bottom) - Updated outdoor graphics to new sprites, was previously using old A2-3 Giant Fighter sprites
G1618 (Giant Chief Top) - Fixed erroneous white/transparent pixels on various frames
G1619 (Dragon Bottom) - Moved incorrectly placed outdoor graphics on top half of sheet to bottom half
G1620 (Dragon Top) - Removed redundant outdoor graphics
G1621 (Efreet) - Updated outdoor graphics to new sprites, was previously using old A2-3 Giant Fighter sprites
G1627 (Wolf) - Fixed erroneous white/transparent pixels on various frames
G1628 (Worg) - Fixed stray pixels outside the frames window
G1630 (Amber Slime) - Fixed South facing outdoor sprite being smaller in scale than the rest
G1631 (Ochre Slime) - Updated North and West outdoor graphics to actually face North and West
G1633 (Mauve Slime) - Removed protrusions on outdoor graphic
G1634 (Royal Slime) - Fixed erroneous white/transparent pixels and added outdoor graphics
G1637 (Large Roach) - Fixed incorrect facing directions on outdoor graphics. South and East were earlier facing North and West respectively
G1649 (Mind Crystal) - Removed protrusions on outdoor graphic

 

///[ Art Graphics ]\\\

 

G1650 (Red-haired Man) - Updated armored outdoors sprites to match armored indoor sprites
G1651 (Barbarian Man) - Updated armored outdoors sprites to match armored indoor sprites
G1652 (Barbarian Woman) - Updated armored outdoors sprites to match armored indoor sprites
G1653 (Purple Garb Man) - Updated armored outdoors sprites to match armored indoor sprites
G1654 (Bow on Back Woman) - Fixed armored pole sprites not actually having armor, armored sword/shield sprites not having either shield or armor and updated armored outdoors sprites to match armored indoor sprites
G1655 (Blue Cape Man) - Updated armored outdoors sprites to match armored indoor sprites
G1660 (Brown Vest Bandana Man) - Updated armored outdoors sprites to match armored indoor sprites
G1663 (Green Sorceress Woman) - Updated armored outdoors sprites to match armored indoor sprites
G1666 (Brown Vest Apron Man) - Updated armored outdoors sprites to match armored indoor sprites
G1666 (Brown Vest Apron Woman) - Updated unarmored outdoors sprites to match unarmored indoor sprites (combo breaker!!)
G1668 (Red Armor Nephil) - Updated armored outdoors sprites to match armored indoor sprites
G1669 (Pink Armor Nephil) - Updated armored outdoors sprites to match armored indoor sprites
G1670 (Golden Fur Nephil) - Updated armored outdoors sprites to match armored indoor sprites
G1671 (Blue Armor Light Nephil) - Updated armored outdoors sprites to match armored indoor sprites
G1672 (Blue Armor Dark Nephil) - Updated armored outdoors sprites to match armored indoor sprites
G1673 (Orange Frilled Dark Slith) - Updated armored outdoors sprites to match armored indoor sprites
G1674 (Gold Frilled Slith) - Updated armored outdoors sprites to match armored indoor sprites
G1675 (Orange Frilled Light Slith) - Updated armored outdoors sprites to match armored indoor sprites
G1676 (Brown Frilled Slith) - Updated armored outdoors sprites to match armored indoor sprites
G1677 (Pink Hooded Slith) - Updated armored outdoors sprites to match armored indoor sprites and fixed erroneous white/transparent pixels on various frames
G1680 (PCs on Horseback Indoors) - Changed every direction sprite to be armored instead of just some directions and fixed missing border piece
G1681 (PCs on Horseback Outdoors) - Changed every direction sprite to be armored instead of just some directions and fixed stray pixels outside the frames window

 

///[ Game Graphics ]\\\

 

G812 (Mage Spells Icons) - Fixed 'Capture Mind' icon erratic x-offset
G813 (Priest Spells Icons) - Removed stray graphic bits outside of the displayed area
G814 (Make Potion Icons) - Swapped Strength Elixir and Rogue's Elixir graphics to maintain uniformity (Rogue's Elixir used to use the brighter version of the Strength Potion icon)

 

///[ Item Graphics ]\\\

 

Fixed erroneous white/transparent pixels on the following graphics:
G1000    G1004    G1004
G1020    G1029    G1037
G1048

 

G1005 - Touched up 'Cudgel' floor graphic to match inventory graphic
G1010 - Restored dropped item graphic for the dark green variant of 'Bolt of Cloth'
G1029 - Touched up 'Iron Greaves' graphics to not have fuzzy white pixels 
G1032 - Changed 'Basket' floor graphic to match inventory graphic
G1033 - Touched up 'Sling' floor graphic, edited 'Towel' floor graphic to match inventory graphic
G1045 - Changed the second 'Scroll' icon's floor graphic to match inventory graphic and flipped the first 'Scroll' icon's floor graphic
G1046 - Changed 'Crude Short Sword', 'Steel Short Sword', 'Scimitar' and 'Greatsword' floor graphics to match their respective inventory graphics
Fixed missing border pieces for pretty much every single file in the folder

///[ Terrain Graphics ]\\\

 

Fixed erroneous white/transparent pixels on the following graphics:
G618    G702    G703
G704    G720    G724    
G725    G768    G796

 

G680, Icon 52 flipped horizontally to match the in-game graphic
Fixed missing border pieces for pretty much every single file in the folder

 

Old Post Content: (Or how the page looked before its release)

Spoiler

So it has long irked me... the fact that BoA appears so scuffed in some areas. I would be referring to these wonderful posts:

https://spiderwebforums.ipbhost.com/topic/4480-list-of-bugs/

https://spiderwebforums.ipbhost.com/topic/4040-boa-bugs-v60/

 

Why do I want to do this:

Most notably, the part where it mentions that Augmented Giants (who just so happen to be one of the most common Arcane Summons, thereby being very effective at ruining immersion) have an error which renders them looking like a pair of giant sentient legs with no upper body to visualise, and oodles of other graphical and technical bugs which could be fixed by simply editing a text file. I wish to take on the responsibility of fixing some of these issues mentioned in these posts to the best of my abilities, mostly for personal purposes (like repairing the Augmented Giant sprite). I was wondering if it would be okay if I distributed an unofficial 'patch' of sorts to the Data folder in a compressed zip file which addressed most of the other bugs and issues present in the retail version of the game for people to adopt into their own copies of the game.

 

What would I do:

Mainly compiling every known bug (outside of editor and game executable stuff) from the two aforementioned posts and applying fixes to many of the bugs pointed out, wherever necessary to create a set of patch files which could easily replace the vanilla files. I would imagine that it would not really bring any changes to custom scenarios whatsoever since corescendata stuff gets overwritten by new instances of objects if the ID's do happen to match.

 

Of course I wouldn't be able to make changes to the editor or the game executable itself, but it would be very easy to change the visual bugs such as PC sprites for some reason on horseback having their armors stripped on the NE and SW facing sprites but keeping their armors on the NW and SE facing sprites. For example, here a reasonable compromise would be to make all the directions have armor variants of the PC graphics because I find it to be the case 99% of the time that players would like to have their armors worn at all times.

 

Along with it I would also like to bring some more minor changes such as making 'Bronze' Plate Mail have a colour that actually resembles bronze instead of looking like a blue mithril-ey colour, same going for a Wooden Small Shield not looking like it's made out of stainless steel.

 

(The above is just a rough example of how the changes would look like)

 

The item colour changes would all be done solely using 'it_icon_adjust' so no graphics would need to be replaced.

 

Why I made this post:

In short, I just wanted to know if people approve of this kind of stuff being publicly uploaded for free use, or is it something I should keep to myself.

 

Edited April 4, 2023 by Sokhbep

[Kelandon]

The Custom Objects Script Base was intended to do some of this, albeit in a different way.

 

If you want to do it in the way that you described, nobody's going to stop you.

[Sokhbep]

 

On 11/2/2021 at 8:54 PM, Kelandon said:

The Custom Objects Script Base was intended to do some of this, albeit in a different way.

 

If you want to do it in the way that you described, nobody's going to stop you.

Could I use that to append my patch? What I would want to do is merge it with my edits.

[Kelandon]

On 11/5/2021 at 4:01 AM, Sokhbep said:

 

Could I use that to append my patch? What I would want to do is merge it with my edits.

Not totally sure what you have in mind. The Custom Objects Script Base is a starting point for creating scenario custom object scripts, which isn't what you described wanting to do.

[Sokhbep]

Yes, but I was thinking that if I could include this script base in corescendata from the get-go, and then perhaps people who apply the entire patch on their BoA game, they would be able to create scenarios using the objects defined within it, without having to look for this file and take from it separately into their custom made scenario. If I do this, I could get stuff like Aranea Fangs to drop from Elder Araneas instead of Pots, for example. But then again I could just change the Elder Aranea creature definition to not drop anything at all, which would save on space for the limited amount of creature/item/terrain definitions for each scenario.

 

In my mind, the goal is that I would be able to provide a patch for the whole community with fixes and extra miscellaneous additions (which is unreasonable in hoping that everybody is going to download the files provided by me and patch their games) but if not the new additions, I would at least want to import the stuff under //FIX OLD TERRAINS, ITEMS, CREATURES and whatnot, assuming that those are fixes for the objects defined in the default, unpatched, retail corescendata.txt

[Kelandon]

If you want to use it as a starting point for a new corescendata file, go ahead.

[Sokhbep]

I've made some progress and work is going at a steady pace now, mainly altering and fixing stuff in all of the Graphics folders first, and then moving over to editing the core scripts for errors and miscellaneous changes.

 

Screenshot of changelog-in-progress (Big Image)

Spoiler

 

I had one question. What could I do to possibly cycle through the variations for each number of it_icon_adjust in real time? I really thought I could use that Appearance changer in Geneforge to hack my way into checking out each colour but it seems like the entire Geneforge series uses a completely different icon adjustment setup than that of Avernum, so whatever colour I pick out in Geneforge will almost always be totally different in BoA.

 

I was thinking of emulating Mac OSX Snow Leopard on my Windows 10 to run the Graphic Adjuster, but I'm not sure if that application allows for changing icon adjust colours in real time and being able to scroll through colours and shades without opening and closing the game over and over.

[Kelandon]

20 hours ago, Sokhbep said:

I was thinking of emulating Mac OSX Snow Leopard on my Windows 10 to run the Graphic Adjuster, but I'm not sure if that application allows for changing icon adjust colours in real time and being able to scroll through colours and shades without opening and closing the game over and over.

It does.

[Sokhbep]

 

On 5/27/2008 at 9:13 AM, Niemand said:

I've uploaded a new version of Graphic Adjuster which runs under Mac OS 10.3.9 through 10.5.2. It also functions on Intel systems, although it requires Rosetta emulation. As usual, it can be found on my utilities page, and if anyone encounters problems, please let me know.

 

A technical detail: although the output should be nearly identical, I was forced to extend the original adjustment algorithms from 16 bit color to 32 bit, so there may be subtle changes. If anyone can find measurable differences from previous versions or the game itself, please inform me.

So did he later release a version of the Graphic Adjuster application that did work on newer versions of Mac? I still remain a bit skeptical since they are quite large files to obtain for emulation. If the application ultimately failed to run then it would be a complete waste of time.

 

Let me use this post to make another update in the meantime. I will also be including a modified .exe file of the game, edited with nothing but Resource Hacker to add a small change: The pointing hand icon in the Get Item dialog box is changed to a right-handed cursor instead of being left-handed. Since all the other cursors in the game are right-handed, it doesn't make much sense to keep just one cursor left-handed.

 

Screenshots:

Spoiler

 

 

I also took the time to add a revamped icon for the new file. Of course as always I will be providing a virus scan as a proof of no foul play going on.

Edited November 19, 2021 by Sokhbep

[Kelandon]

Graphic Adjuster works as far forward as 10.14.6. I have no idea whether it's compatible after that.

[Celtic Minstrel]

It shows a "no entry" overlay for me on 10.15, so I presume it doesn't work. I'm not sure that's the latest version, mind you.

[Sokhbep]

I'm down for giving it a try on 10.14. Would be very helpful if it does indeed end up working, because I want to experiment with recolouring a few enemies to differentiate them.

 

For example, I've always been irked by the fact that soldiers and archers have the same colour scheming, but brigands are magenta and brigand archers have the normal archer colours. If they were magenta like brigands too then they would be easier to distinguish in an indoors environment. I would do the same for the rogue archer enemy and turn him dark green like the rogue mages are coloured.

 

Anybody have any more suggestions?

 

-

 

Also, I wonder, through hex editing, if it may be possible to perhaps change it so that PCs change their graphic based on whether or not they have a shield equipped, like Nethergate. The reason why should be very clear in the fact that about 99.9999% of the time players would scramble and put on anything they find, like even a shirt, to get any sort of protection possible, which results in the armor-less PC graphics almost never displayed.

 

Shields, on the other hand are more prominently equipped or unequipped based on whether the PC is using a one-handed or a two-handed weapon. We could then have graphics of PCs holding and attacking with a spear along with a shield. I frankly find it kind of a dumb decision on Spidweb's side to have picked on-off graphics for something that is literally worn as the first thing imaginable by someone - body armor.

 

The sheets would then be modified to look something akin to this:

Edited November 22, 2021 by Sokhbep

[Celtic Minstrel]

On 11/22/2021 at 1:41 AM, Sokhbep said:

Also, I wonder, through hex editing, if it may be possible to perhaps change it so that PCs change their graphic based on whether or not they have a shield equipped, like Nethergate. The reason why should be very clear in the fact that about 99.9999% of the time players would scramble and put on anything they find, like even a shirt, to get any sort of protection possible, which results in the armor-less PC graphics almost never displayed.

 

Shields, on the other hand are more prominently equipped or unequipped based on whether the PC is using a one-handed or a two-handed weapon. We could then have graphics of PCs holding and attacking with a spear along with a shield. I frankly find it kind of a dumb decision on Spidweb's side to have picked on-off graphics for something that is literally worn as the first thing imaginable by someone - body armor.

 

The sheets would then be modified to look something akin to this:

I have no knowledge of the binary so I can't say with any certainty, but I highly doubt this is something you could do with just a little hex editing. I mean, yes, theoretically you could definitely do it with hex editing, if you want to deal with writing machine code by hand, but it's going to be quite a challenge.

[Sokhbep]

I am assuming it could range from something as simple as just changing a piece of hex number so that it redirects the graphic change from checking the armor slot to checking the shield slot instead, or something very challenging like altering entire strings of code at once.

 

Perhaps the slot number is somehow linked with the "variety" variable in items? Variety 13 seems to be the slot for body clothing, so maybe I can look for the number '13' somewhere in the binary and get extremely lucky.

 

As an update on the progress of the patch, I have finished making outdoor graphics for every PC character which has unarmored outdoor graphics displayed even while wearing armor. All I need to do now is get the Graphic Adjuster up and running, then make a few changes before uploading the necessary files.

Edited November 24, 2021 by Sokhbep

[Sokhbep]

I've started making recolours without the Graphic Adjuster. Turns out I don't need it at all. In order to display changes in colours, I can simply re-load a save file over and over while making the changes in the script using a text editor.

 

Screenshots:

Spoiler

  Lineup of 'Guard' graphic enemies (from Left to Right) : Guard, Soldier, Brigand, Thug, Asssassin

 

 

   Lineup of 'Leather Armor' graphics (from Left to Right) : Cursed, Poor, Default, Fine, Drakeskin, Rogue's

 

These recolours will be available in a separate script file packed within the patch archive. The user will have complete choice over whether to use these or not, so I'm not shoving these down anybody's throats that way.

[Sokhbep]

I seem to be forgetting, but weren't Augmented Giants coloured green in Avernum 3? I'd appreciate if somebody could help me out with this info.

 

Meanwhile, I spotted another oversight by the devs. It seems like items that give armor on the bracelet slot don't actually show the protection value of the item as the text "Blocks X-X dam." when hovered over with the cursor. It's only when their full info is brought up by pressing the ? button do they show their protection value. This is apparent in the 'Bracer' line of items.

 

Screenshots:

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

One more question, are there any official descriptions of how the artifact weapons like Ghoulbane, Demonslayer, Giantslayer etc actually look like, or what colour they have?

Edited December 2, 2021 by Sokhbep

[Sokhbep]

Looks like I have another query: Is Item 345 "Icy Longsword" supposed to do extra acid damage, or is that another gaffe? I need help understanding whether the weapon should be called "Acidic Longsword" instead and retain its acid damage, or should the wrong bonus damage type instead be corrected from acid to cold?

 

Found out that "Ring of Speed" and "Nimble Band" have the exact same abilities. I think I'm going to change "Nimble Band" to increase Tool Use instead of giving one extra action point, otherwise one of these items is completely redundant. Probably rename it to "Locksmith's Band" instead.

Edited December 2, 2021 by Sokhbep

[Kelandon]

7 hours ago, Sokhbep said:

I need help understanding whether the weapon should be called "Acidic Longsword" instead and retain its acid damage, or should the wrong bonus damage type instead be corrected from acid to cold?

Presumably the latter.

7 hours ago, Sokhbep said:

Found out that "Ring of Speed" and "Nimble Band" have the exact same abilities. I think I'm going to change "Nimble Band" to increase Tool Use instead of giving one extra action point, otherwise one of these items is completely redundant. Probably rename it to "Locksmith's Band" instead.

As a change for a scenario, that would be fine. As a change to corescendata, that seems problematic because scenarios give out that item assuming that they know what it is, and you'd be changing game balance in unexpected ways.

 

[Sokhbep]

Alright, I thought so. I changed the extra damage type from acid to cold presumptively.

 

2 hours ago, Kelandon said:

As a change for a scenario, that would be fine. As a change to corescendata, that seems problematic because scenarios give out that item assuming that they know what it is, and you'd be changing game balance in unexpected ways.

 

This caution got me thinking... Ring of Speed's monetary value is 3000 coins, and Nimble Band's is 1400 coins. Is it possible that Ring of Speed was supposed to provide a 2 AP bonus instead of 1? It sounds plausible that it could've just been an upgraded version of Nimble Band and somehow the ability strength got mistyped as 1 instead of 2.

 

Speaking of which, Wyrmsbane. Now that's a weapon I feel is extremely gaffed. Not only does it, being an artifact, inherit from a very weak weapon (Bronze Longsword), it also sells for only 40 gold. The weapon does about 1-5 damage, the same as a Bronze Longsword but instead looks more like a 'Ghoulbane' counterpart: An artifact spear that inherits from a strong base (Blessed Spear), has twice its value and does the exact same effect (+25 damage to Reptiles) but instead of Reptiles, to Undead creatures.

 

The name and effect is a clear as day ring with Ghoulbane. So I'm therefore 99% sure that Wyrmsbane was supposed to be a lot more stronger than what it actually is. The question is... should I change it to be stronger?

 

My reasoning being, if it isn't buffed, this weapon is a complete piece of trash to have around in your pack. There is absolutely no reason remaining to use it. The damage output is very low, and by the time you get your hands on a Wyrmsbane yourself, you're definitely going to have access to at least a Steel Longsword, and that would heavily outperform the artifact weapon, in killing lizards or otherwise, because with the damage range so low, that extra bonus doesn't mean anything when the Steel Longsword can probably do 30 more damage at best to everything and not just reptiles.

Edited December 2, 2021 by Sokhbep

[Sokhbep]

The Unofficial Blades of Avernum Patch has been updated!

 

 v1.0.1 Changelog:

Spoiler

///[ BoA UPatch.exe ]\\\ (You must run the game through this file in order to experiences these changes)

 

Spell description for 'Smite' under the Priest Spells tab in the Info screen changed to match its function. Instead of telling that it deals cold damage, it now correctly tells that it deals magic damage.

 

///[ corescendata_coloradjust.txt ]\\\

 

Creatures 25 'Nephil Shaman' and 30 'Nephar Shaman' have their colours adjusted to differentiate more from the 'Nephil' creature
Creature 57 'Lava Bat' colour adjusted to be more apparent than before
Creature 123 'Rogue Warrior' has a mis-colouring issue fixed
Creatures 8 'Archer', 20 'Elite Soldier', 131 'Bladesman',  132 'Empire Archer' i.e., common human NPCs have had their colours adjusted further to not appear as stick-outs in a town some among them looking too dark

 

///[ corescendata2_coloradjust.txt ]\\\

Item 177 'First Aid Kit' has its colour changed to maintain uniformity with other similar items of its utility type (e.g. Lockpicks)
Item 287 'Wand - Acid Spray' has its name corrected to 'Wand - Spray Acid' to match the spell name
Items 326 'Piercing Crystal', 327 'Unshackling Crystal' and 328 'Shattering Crystal' have mis-colouring issues fixed

All "Iron" items have their colour altered to look less gaudy. On the other hand, all "Poor" and "Crude" items now have the "Iron" item colours

 

///[ corescendata2_nocoloradjust.txt ]\\\

 

Item 287 'Wand - Acid Spray' has its name corrected to 'Wand - Spray Acid' to match the spell name

 

///[ Character Graphics ]\\\

 

G1512 (Acolyte) - Fixed erroneous white/transparent pixels on various frames
G1517 (Mage) - Fixed erroneous white/transparent pixels on various frames
G1553 (Living Statue) - Added missing rotations, proper attack frames and proper outdoors frames (courtesy of Vox)

 

///[ Art Graphics ]\\\

 

G1660 (Brown Vest Bandana Man) - Fixed a slight offset mistake from v1.0.0
G1803 and G1811 - Their codes have been swapped, so that their Paperdoll graphics match their respective World graphics (They were incorrectly labeled in base game so they had their graphics swapped with each other... It's hard to notice, but one has a bow on her back and the other does not)
G1821 (Blue Armor Light Nephil) - Changed fur colour of the Paperdoll graphic to match the World graphic

 

///[ Game Graphics ]\\

 

G904 - Changed to compliment the G1803 and G1811 code swap, and G1821 fur colour change

 

On the Github Page: A note on Special Skills has been added for convenience on how to unlock them in-game, and a folder called 'Extra Graphics' has been added which carries Creature Graphics from other Avernum games.