Book 1 expansion?

[Flynt Arrowspark]

I joined this forum specifically to ask: it's been a long time since we heard anything... is there any progress in the bonus book 1 content? Any idea when it will be available?

Also, I look forward to joining in further discussions, now that I've finally created an account!

[BasiliskWrangler]

Book 1 expansion will not happen. We don't support that engine anymore.

We are currently working on a sci-fi RPG, and we may revisit world of Eschalon in the future, but there will be no further development on Book 1/2/3.

[nigmashumma]

Hi. Is there a chance to create official Russian translation of Eschalon series for adding to Steam platform?

[BasiliskWrangler]

I'm sorry, no. It would be a lot of work for very few sales overall. I am not even convinced that we could ever get the code to recompile anymore.

However, interestingly I did see that BlitzMax has been revived as an open source project and has an active community. Perhaps one day when I'm bored I'll see what it would look like to try to recompile it.

[SpottedShroom]

As usual, I volunteer for source code wrangling if you're ever tempted ;)

[BasiliskWrangler]

I am a bit tempted! I think the current version of BlitzMax is called "BlitzMax-NG" (Next Generation, I assume?).

So I am going to go on vacation next week. When I get back, I will devote a full day to seeing if I could get Eschalon compiled again. I'll probably start with Book III, since that code would be most recent. If I can get it compiled....well then that opens a lot of possibilities.

[Kreador Freeaxe]

I am a bit tempted! I think the current version of BlitzMax is called "BlitzMax-NG" (Next Generation, I assume?).

So I am going to go on vacation next week. When I get back, I will devote a full day to seeing if I could get Eschalon compiled again. I'll probably start with Book III, since that code would be most recent. If I can get it compiled....well then that opens a lot of possibilities.

[BasiliskWrangler]

When I get back, I will devote a full day to seeing if I could get Eschalon compiled again.

Just wanted to follow up on this.

So, with the latest version of BlitzMax, there are a number of [expected] compiler errors that initially were no problem fixing, mostly having to do with changing variable data types.

The real problem is there are two 3rd party dependencies in the original code. These dependencies were "wrappers" of C libraries to give additional functionality to BlitzMax, and the compiler crashes hard on these due to fundamental changes in the most recent version of BlitzMax.

One of the external mods is now integrated into BlitzMax, so the solution is to remove the broken, unneeded mod and rewrite the code to use the native BlitzMax API. The second one might be a little more difficult because it involves encrypted, compressed files and it doesn't seem to have a native solution. Taking it out completely and rewriting the way the game handles activation codes would be a little more time intensive.

But, this goes back to the reason I haven't touched this code in years: is it worth my time? I What will I do with the code if I can recompile it?

And if anyone would be interested in Eschalon: Book 4 any more, would I want to use this old engine to make it? I've moved over to Unity long ago.

[SpottedShroom]

As I said, I'd be willing to work on getting the code working on the latest BlitzMax.

I would hope that if we could get it to build, the benefit would be to let fans keep the games alive - release builds for recent OSes, port Book 1/2 to the Book 3 engine, support mods, etc.

[BasiliskWrangler]

As I said, I'd be willing to work on getting the code working on the latest BlitzMax.

I would hope that if we could get it to build, the benefit would be to let fans keep the games alive - release builds for recent OSes, port Book 1/2 to the Book 3 engine, support mods, etc.

Sending you a PM.

[Prismatic Maelstrom]

I'm happy to see you're still interested in the Eschalon series SpottedShroom. I presume you've been sent stuff, does it look promising?

[SpottedShroom]

BW asked me to get some modules to compile on the latest version of BlitzMax, which I did by cheating and finding updated versions of them on the web. Even then, and commenting out a bunch of non-essential code, he wasn't able to get Eschalon to build. So nothing too exciting, I'm afraid.