Eschalon: Book II version 1.04 BETA

[BasiliskWrangler]

Version 1.04d (WIN) posted. See top post.

[Slammer64]

Now we just wait for the Linux and Mac versions, hopefully soon. Keep up the good work BW.

[BasiliskWrangler]

Now we just wait for the Linux and Mac versions, hopefully soon. Keep up the good work BW.

Thanks Slammer64. But as long as the Windows people tell me the game is clean, I will probably just do the public release of 1.04 for all platforms next.

[IJBall]

Thanks Slammer64. But as long as the Windows people tell me the game is clean, I will probably just do the public release of 1.04 for all platforms next.

Hey, BW - any luck tracking down that combat sound effect glitch that some of us have found with the Mac version?

Edit: If the sound files are the same as Book I's sound files, I suspect the problem is one of the files named "combat_hitX.wav" where X is a number between 1 and 6 - I can't be sure which of these is the problem though.

(Thanks for the other 'fixes' though!! )

[BasiliskWrangler]

Thanks Slammer64. But as long as the Windows people tell me the game is clean, I will probably just do the public release of 1.04 for all platforms next.

Hey, BW - any luck tracking down that combat sound effect glitch that some of us have found with the Mac version?

Edit: If the sound files are the same as Book I's sound files, I suspect the problem is one of the files named "combat_hitX.wav" where X is a number between 1 and 6 - I can't be sure which of these is the problem though.

(Thanks for the other 'fixes' though!! )

No luck, but I will check out those sound samples to see if there is anything odd abut them.

[BasiliskWrangler]

Okay IJBall, I just re-saved each sample under a new format. Let's see if that changes anything for you. They will be in the 1.04 public release.

[xolotl]

Two things quick about 1.04c on the Linux version, btw:

1) If you start Eschalon from the console, you'll notice that the engine very frequently outputs the line "250" to the console. (Once per turn, I believe.) Not a big deal, but would probably be nice to make sure that doesn't make it into the final build.

2) It looks like you can still do the following:
a) Cause an NPC to attack you (break the law, or whatever)
b) Charm the NPC (spell or flask)
c) Attack the NPC
... at that point, the NPC will start attaking herself until dead. I've attached a savefile slot which shows Brelinda exhibiting this behavior (the player char's been hacked 'cause I didn't have one handy who could do the charming)

[BasiliskWrangler]

2) It looks like you can still do the following:
a) Cause an NPC to attack you (break the law, or whatever)
b) Charm the NPC (spell or flask)
c) Attack the NPC
... at that point, the NPC will start attaking herself until dead. I've attached a savefile slot which shows Brelinda exhibiting this behavior (the player char's been hacked 'cause I didn't have one handy who could do the charming)

This is an oddity for sure. We saw this in beta testing, but I think it needs to stay. You anger an NPC, lay a spell on them forcing them to like you, then you attack them again. It drives them mad with confusion and they begin to attack themselves. Seems pretty funny (and probably realistic) to me.

[BasiliskWrangler]

BasiliskWrangler, I am very happy to see that you didn't think I was being frivolous in reporting missing quote marks and full stops. Thank you for taking the time to read my posts, and I hope I can do the same again for your next game.

Thank you, Jedi_Learner. I appreciate your dedication to the series. I was just looking at your FAQ... you've done an amazing job with that. Thanks so much for all your help.

[Slammer64]

And we Linux users can wait till the Windows users report a clean build BW, since they make up the great majority of your customers.

[Sslaxx]

Two things quick about 1.04c on the Linux version, btw:

1) If you start Eschalon from the console, you'll notice that the engine very frequently outputs the line "250" to the console. (Once per turn, I believe.) Not a big deal, but would probably be nice to make sure that doesn't make it into the final build.

It's the lighting level.

[IJBall]

Just re-reporting in this thread an old bug - single-item repair costs not getting properly added into merchants' gold reserves - as recently discussed in another thread here.

[Farwalker]

Okay...here's where we stand:

All other concerns regarding Hidden in Shadows - I think they are all fixed. Everything feels 'right' with me. At this point we may be down to "preference issues" where some people like the skill to perform one way, while others prefer it to work another. Unless a real, solid, game-wrecking bug can be posted I am closing this issue and moving on...

Fixed sounds good! Did the equipment swap exploit get eliminated then? I don't mean just to pass time and remain hiding, that's fine, but having enemies lose track of you just because you changed something is the problem I'm talking about. The whole silence / hidden / invisibility aspect has been improved so much now, I think that was one of only two issues left that I knew of.

Allowing wait via space bar for hide in shadows without losing that HiS status was the other issue - would significantly improve gameplay and make a lot of sense (you have to switch gear or similar to pass the time otherwise... which I can do but it seems like such a workaround, and encourages use of the exploit mentioned above too...).

Can someone confirm how these work in the new version?

[BasiliskWrangler]

Okay...here's where we stand:

All other concerns regarding Hidden in Shadows - I think they are all fixed. Everything feels 'right' with me. At this point we may be down to "preference issues" where some people like the skill to perform one way, while others prefer it to work another. Unless a real, solid, game-wrecking bug can be posted I am closing this issue and moving on...

Fixed sounds good! Did the equipment swap exploit get eliminated then? I don't mean just to pass time and remain hiding, that's fine, but having enemies lose track of you just because you changed something is the problem I'm talking about. The whole silence / hidden / invisibility aspect has been improved so much now, I think that was one of only two issues left that I knew of.

Allowing wait via space bar for hide in shadows without losing that HiS status was the other issue - would significantly improve gameplay and make a lot of sense (you have to switch gear or similar to pass the time otherwise... which I can do but it seems like such a workaround, and encourages use of the exploit mentioned above too...).

Can someone confirm how these work in the new version?

There is no change for 1.04d BETA, but I added a small fix for 1.04 FINAL which will be out next week. The fix is that now you produce noise when swapping gear. This, along with the previous change that producing noise while hidden reveals your position, seems to eliminate the exploit. Now then- it's not a lot of noise and you can still manage to swap gear and stay hidden if your skills are boosted, but I think at this point we need to get 1.04 out the door and let people play with it a while before more tweaks are made.

[BasiliskWrangler]

[edit to above post] Actually, we're going to try to get 1.04 Final out today.