Needed Fixes, and Suggestions, for v1.06: LIST Form

Windows support forum for Eschalon: Book II
Keen
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Re: Needed Fixes, and Suggestions, for v1.06: LIST Form

Post by Keen »

Hello,

I could not find anything concerning my problem on forums (might have not searched thoroughly enough). I am playing on laptop and am having problems with corrupted QuickSave files. Whenever my laptop rans out of power (playing when commuting and stuff) and I am in game, my last QuickSave file gets corrupted - position in loading screen has no name or date of save and when I load it, whole map is on fire and if I try to move, the game crashes.

When investigating it, I found out, that the savename file in slot1 folder is completely empty. Attempts to restore it failed, since there are apparently some "random" characters which I cannot restore. Recently I have tried replacing the SaveName file with file from different saveslot, which enabled me to load the game, but my character is in different location and the quest log is not updated as well (I can see the location in the SaveName file, but changing it makes the game unable to load).

As such I am currently stuck in hammerlone mine (next to the jail into which you get tped if you choose wrong road) and can't find any way out, since it was not probably meant for people to walk in, in my QuestLog I got quest for getting Crux of Fire (which I have in inventory) and to Hunt down an Assassin (who I have already hunted down) and don't really know what to do.

Any suggestions on what can I do please?
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SpottedShroom
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Re: Needed Fixes, and Suggestions, for v1.06: LIST Form

Post by SpottedShroom »

Can you post your corrupted save file here? We might be able to take a crack at fixing it.
Keen
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Re: Needed Fixes, and Suggestions, for v1.06: LIST Form

Post by Keen »

It has been a while, I have kind of stopped checking the forums after a few weeks and put Eschalon to my backlog. But today the mainboard in my PC died and there is no way my laptop can run anything "newer" than 2k6, so here I come again wanting to play Eschalon.

Here is my save folder http://www.sendspace.com/file/7tyspd

After so many months I cannot be sure that it is not the one I have already tampered with, but hopefully it is the original broken one. The problems are the same and Google is no wiser than it was half a year ago. Any help would be appreciated!
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SpottedShroom
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Re: Needed Fixes, and Suggestions, for v1.06: LIST Form

Post by SpottedShroom »

I didn't think you were coming back!

Well, I looked at your save file, and as you said, the "savename" file is the problem - it's the normal length, but it's full of 0x00 null characters - there's no data in it. Our own xolotl wrote an excellent editor for Eschalon saved games which I've been hacking on a bit recently, but it only knows how to handle character files (stats, skills, inventory, etc.) and map files (what you'd expect). The stuff in the savename file seems to include which map you were on when you saved (although the location on the map is stored in the character file), when you saved the game, the name you entered, and your quest status. As you've noticed, the most important of those is map file and quest status.

What's interesting is that if you try to load a game with an empty savename file when you're already playing, it works, but everything that's missing there just gets preserved from the current session. I'm kind of surprised it doesn't just crash.

I think I'll work on adding support in the editor for at least basic operations on this file, which I hope will be enough to fix your broken save.
Keen
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Re: Needed Fixes, and Suggestions, for v1.06: LIST Form

Post by Keen »

That would be awesome, any help is appreciated, but if it is too much trouble, I will just start from the previous save, it was few hours but I do not even remember what was there anymore, so it is not much of a worry. I might also just start from the beginning, the game is worth it.

Anyway, thank you very much for caring, really looking forward to the Book 3.
Corlain
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Re: Needed Fixes, and Suggestions, for v1.06: LIST Form

Post by Corlain »

Prismatic Maelstrom wrote:http://www.basiliskgames.com/forums/vie ... =20&t=8804

The first quest Korren gives you is to meet with Sparrow in Broken Blade for the Hammerlorne Key.

If you kill Sparrow and pick up the Hammerlorne Key before accepting Korren's quest his dialogue will be slightly different and you will be moved to the next main quest.

If you kill Sparrow and don't pick up the Hammerlorne Key before accepting Korren's quest his dialogue will abruptly end and you will not be able to continue the main quest until you have picked up the Hammerlorne Key.

I haven't tested it but I believe picking up the Hammerlorne Key from Durnore will also fix this bug as the key shares the same name.
Also, if you have already picked up the Dunmore key, and killed Sparrow, but did not pick up the key she drops, before talking to Korren, you will still encounter the bug. In this situation you absolutely must pick up the key Sparrow drops in order to continue, even though you already have it from Dunmore.

It would be interesting to see if someone can fix this bug by getting the Dunmore key after killing Sparrow but not taking her key. This would allow someone who encountered the other bug where the key can drop where it cannot be picked up to still continue the game. Otherwise, if they trigger these two bugs together, it would indeed be completely game breaking for them.
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xolotl
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Re: Needed Fixes, and Suggestions, for v1.06: LIST Form

Post by xolotl »

I know that we're probably pretty unlikely to see a 1.06, but! I'd just been replaying B2 on 1.05, and ran into the exact same problem that you mentioned over here about the Riposte Feat not regenerating properly.

Interestingly I too ran into that in Westwillow, probably just since my Sword skill was finally high enough (and my char still weak enough) to make "sniping" the Drowned Corpses a worthwhile pursuit, though this bug made it less useful...

Regardless, the bug is not actually confined to Westwillow. Here's a save slot in Yoma Valley that I edited up a little bit to demonstrate: b2-riposte-recharge.zip. Attack the Taurax with the feat, you'll parry, and then just head NE for a number of turns. No feat recharge! :(

There are various things which seem to "reset" the counter. Being hit by an enemy is one (maybe even just being attacked?). Attacking an enemy, yourself, seems to do the trick. I think casting Predator Sight (or presuambly any spell) resets it, though I didn't test that very rigorously.

Anyway, definitely an Actual Problem, alas. A side-effect of this is that Riposte appears to only regenerate as quickly as every six turns, in the "ideal" situation. The counter doesn't start when you do the riposte, and any attacking enemy would get automatically parried, so you lose at least one turn of recharge. I'd thought that the other feats were supposed to recharge every five turns, but in my testing just now on that savefile, it appears that they're recharging in four, which makes the Riposte recharge 50% worse (in ideal circumstances).
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