BT 3 MSDOS version

Any developer realated stuff
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PetrusOctavianus
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Re: BT 3 MSDOS version

Post by PetrusOctavianus »

Problem: game keeps crashing (or freezing to be more precise) if I try to add members to my party at the Refuge Camp.
My party has just started exploring the Catacombs when my Rogue was killed. I was gonna replace him with another character until I could resurrect my rogue, but that does not seem possible now.
Game also crashes if I try to delete characters.
drifting
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Joined: Wed Dec 07, 2011 10:21 pm

Re: BT 3 MSDOS version

Post by drifting »

PetrusOctavianus wrote:Problem: game keeps crashing (or freezing to be more precise) if I try to add members to my party at the Refuge Camp.
My party has just started exploring the Catacombs when my Rogue was killed. I was gonna replace him with another character until I could resurrect my rogue, but that does not seem possible now.
Game also crashes if I try to delete characters.
Can you upload your parties.inf and thieves.inf files somewhere?

Are you playing via DOSBox?
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PetrusOctavianus
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Re: BT 3 MSDOS version

Post by PetrusOctavianus »

Yes, I'm using DosBox. Can't run thiefp.exe in 64 bit Win 7.

Files attached (I hope).
Attachments
THIEVES.zip
(1.88 KiB) Downloaded 365 times
drifting
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Re: BT 3 MSDOS version

Post by drifting »

The hangs you are experiencing are due to a pretty major flaw in the game. I tested with the original version and your THIEVES.INF hangs that one as well.

The bug is that the maximum number of characters allowed in a THIEVES.INF file is 75 but most of the functions don't have a bounds check and happily continue reading data. Once it reads past the 75th character it begins overwriting the stack and overwrites the return address of the function. When the addMember function returns, it returns to the wrong location and hangs the program.

I've committed a fixed version of thiefp.exe to Github. It adds bounds checking to addMember, deleteMember, renameMember and transferCharacter
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PetrusOctavianus
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Re: BT 3 MSDOS version

Post by PetrusOctavianus »

Thanks, drifting!
Much appreciated.
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PetrusOctavianus
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Re: BT 3 MSDOS version

Post by PetrusOctavianus »

I'm about to enter the second level of UnterBrae now, and I'm pleased to see monsters' special attacks working. I really missed that when playing the Amiga version 20+ years ago.
Oh, and typing in spell names instead of choosing from a long, unalphabetical list is really great, preventing me from go Nuts.

I have noticed two things which looks like bugs:
1. Levitation spells don't seem to protect against traps. Or does it only work on some traps?
2. Some monsters cast Far Foe, but it has no effect on the party.
drifting
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Re: BT 3 MSDOS version

Post by drifting »

PetrusOctavianus wrote:I have noticed two things which looks like bugs:
1. Levitation spells don't seem to protect against traps. Or does it only work on some traps?
2. Some monsters cast Far Foe, but it has no effect on the party.
1. Levitation spells only work 75% of the time against traps.
2. There is a saving throw check by your lead character when facing Far Foe. If your character passes the check then there is no effect. If you don't see a "and the foes are farther away message" then you passed the saving throw.
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PetrusOctavianus
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Re: BT 3 MSDOS version

Post by PetrusOctavianus »

Thanks, drifting.

1. Yes, that seems consistent with my experience now.

2. Ah, that's nice to know; I thought the spell was supposed to always work. One of the best reasons to have a Paladin in your party and make him the leader. Being pushed away all the time would have been maddening when you spells have a reach of only 40'.
drifting
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Re: BT 3 MSDOS version

Post by drifting »

Just committed a new version. It fixes a bug in the camp's "Remove Member" code that wouldn't actually save the removed character to disk

thiefp.exe
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PetrusOctavianus
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Re: BT 3 MSDOS version

Post by PetrusOctavianus »

...and so, as one god dies, seven other gods are born...

Image

(and one old man revealed to be The God, not very surprising)

The last few battles were almost a bit hard, but the odds are so overwhelmingly stacked in the party's favour that even a company of Black Slayers and a troop of Vampire Lords were not much of a challenge. I regret not using Sir Robin's Tune more often, as it would have cut down on the tediousness. and lower levels would have made the few fixed encounters more interesting.
In the final battle I used that Death Horn that I had saved for special occasions. It worked wonders against the Black Slayers, Critically Hitting all of them, when the Geomancer ran out of spell points to cast Earth Maw and the other spell casters NUKE spells were not enough to kill the Black Slayers.
Ironically the only really challenging part of the game were UnterBrae, the monsters' kindergarden.

Despite abysmal encounter design, the game kind of grew on me. The plot got somewhat more interesting and the levels better designed as I progressed through the dimensions. The penultimate three level dungeon especially was nice, with lots of stairs, holes and portals, making it a classic "3D dungeon" where you also need to map the Z axis, like The Cube of Wiz 4 and some of the dungeons in Dark Heart of Uukrul and Wiz 7.

After finishing the game I think I can safely say that in BT3 the Monk has taken over as the most useless class, a role reserved for the Rogue on BT1 and 2. Since AC no longer determines chance to hit, an ultra low AC is not that important, and with no critical hit ability or access to weapons of mass destruction the Monk was useless before turning him into a Geomancer, since even with 9 attacks per round he would usually not be able to kill even a single enemy.
I regret not picking a Hunter instead, since they have better abiltities and items, many of the items being unique to them.

I think the ultimate 6 man (I like having once spot open) party would be:
1. Paladin as party leader. Don't turn into Geomancer, since the Paladin bonus to saving throws means that enemy spells that affect the party as a whole (Freeze Foe for example) virtually never have an effect.
2. Hunter (turn into Geomancer later)
3. Bard
4. Rogue
5. Chronomancer
6. Archmage

Many thanks to drifting for making the game finally playable and bug free (maybe a few minor ones left).
Mordred
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Location: Germany

Re: BT 3 MSDOS version

Post by Mordred »

epic work, drifting :-)

dreams come true with your work.

we spent weeks of work trying to figure out how many damage a weapon might do, and you are able to export the REAL data of each item to a file. great!

btw, the links are down currently. please would you be so kind and replace them somewhere online? or is anyone else here who has a copy of the files? especially items of bt1-3? i am really eager to take a look at them - regardless of their formatting (xml/json)
drifting
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Re: BT 3 MSDOS version

Post by drifting »

http://www.filedropper.com/bt1-json
http://www.filedropper.com/bt2-json
http://www.filedropper.com/bt3-json

BT1 and BT2 have monsters.json, spells.json, songs.json and items.json
BT3 does not have songs.json. Haven't gotten to those yet.
Mordred
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Location: Germany

Re: BT 3 MSDOS version

Post by Mordred »

Thank you very much.

I took a first look into the files and found some interesting things:
Familiar Figurine has Spell Points Regeneration! (bt3)
Can anyone try if this stacks with Mage Staff?

Another interesting thing:
While Conjurstaff has
"hasHalfSpptUse": true,
the Staff of Gods has
"hasQuatSpptUse": true

Does this mean that Staff of Gods reduces Spell Point costs to 25%?
I must go and get one ... see you later :-)
drifting
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Joined: Wed Dec 07, 2011 10:21 pm

Re: BT 3 MSDOS version

Post by drifting »

Mordred wrote:Thank you very much.

I took a first look into the files and found some interesting things:
Familiar Figurine has Spell Points Regeneration! (bt3)
Can anyone try if this stacks with Mage Staff?
It does stack with the Mage Staff. Both have to be equipped.
Mordred wrote: Another interesting thing:
While Conjurstaff has
"hasHalfSpptUse": true,
the Staff of Gods has
"hasQuatSpptUse": true

Does this mean that Staff of Gods reduces Spell Point costs to 25%?
I must go and get one ... see you later :-)
It does.
Burnburger
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Re: BT 3 MSDOS version

Post by Burnburger »

drifting wrote:http://www.filedropper.com/bt1-json
http://www.filedropper.com/bt2-json
http://www.filedropper.com/bt3-json

BT1 and BT2 have monsters.json, spells.json, songs.json and items.json
BT3 does not have songs.json. Haven't gotten to those yet.
Anyone have these json files by chance? filedropper is empty. You can pm me, or I pm you. Thanks.
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