Start a new game with Beta 1 !!!

[Dominus]

Just a reminder for everyone that didn't care to read the documentation that comes with Exult.
From ReadMe.1st.txt
If you have used Exult before, you should really start new games for both
BG and SI as previous versions may have generated incorrect savegames. If you experience problems with old savegames, you are on your own.

And we mean it. It doesn't make sense to follow up on some reported bug only to find it has been fixed ages ago. So, please follow this advice.

[nadir]

Thanks Dominus.

Not just for this post but for all the work you've been putting into our Documentation and FAQ.

The majority of questions on this forum have an answer in the docs/FAQ (combat, sound effects, party formation, multiplayer, exult studio, etc.). What does this mean ? It means that people don't actually bother reading before playing.

Tristan

[Soul Harvester]

I've read the FAQ about sixty different times

[Karlos]

Maybe you should put a note on the download page for Beta 1 stating this.

Those of us who have been following this project for a while may not think to read the included readme file, since we are already familiar with the project, and wouldn't think anything would be different just because it's the beta release.

Personally, I'll be happy to start a new game if I can ever get the beta to work for me at all.



-Karl

[nadir]

Karl,
your assumption is wrong.
If you were really following this project you would be subscribed to the mailing list where such things are discussed, you would be updating from CVS, and you would read the #exult logs.
Hanging out in the forum is not enough.

Sorry for being so harsh.

[BlkDragon]

So, when is Exult going to be multi-player!

(Black Dragon ducks back into the firehouse)

[Karlos]

Okay, maybe I should have said "those of us who are casually following this project" instead. I would probably follow it more closely if I thought I could help out (I know C but not C++).

I still think my original point is valid, however: a simple note on the download page would probably reduce the number of people who make that mistake, so why not do it?

Alternately, if there is an internal Exult build number inside of a save file, perhaps Exult could spit out a warning if the game was saved with too early of a build? I know, it's too late for this beta, but maybe it would be a good idea for the next one.


-Karl

[Karlos]

I should also note that my suggestion was not meant to be criticism, but just advice. As a person who works tech support for a software company, I know that users not reading READMEs is just a fact of life. Putting the notice in a more prominent place just makes sense to me.


-Karl

[Dominus]

Karl:
About that notice of old savegame, be assured that it will probably come in the next release.
We already assured that we have a way to tell with what version of Exult a game was started (version also includes build date for CVS).

As for the ReadMe.1st.txt, it is used in the Windows installer for starts and for putting up a notice on the download page: it wouldn't change anything. People who don't bother to read readmes won't bother to read it anyway, unless you shove it down their eyes but there is no real way to do that on the net.
Also take a note that softwarein development very likely has huge changes between the releases and that's why it is prudent to read the docs that come with each new version (also to make things a bit easier we include the changes in the FAQ/ReadMe).

[David Wynn]

Thought for the future....

If the savegames are not going to be compatible from version to version, maybe there could at least be a savegame converter utility? I've never played very far into U7 (my guys kept starving too quickly -- got annoying). I've been waiting for the mostly-stable Beta version to try Exult. Once I get halfway through the game, I'll lose interest if I have to restart my game in order to use the next stable release of Exult.

David

[Stephan]

The purpose of beta software is to test it/hunt for bugs, not use it/treat it as if it was the final version. If all you want is to play the game, I suggest waiting until Exult is ready, actually. I'm guessing that when Exult hits 1.00, there won't be any savegame incompabilities with future versions.

[Dominus]

Stephan got it right. You see, before beta 1 Serpent Isle was not finishable (at least not with alpha 5, the snapshots actually worked). We said as much in the FAQ and Documentation.
There was no toher way around this. Sorry. I never understodd why some games wouldn't work with an older savegame (I'm thinking Quake and some RPGS here) after it got updated to a new version. Now I understand.
You sometimes have no other way and you can'T convert savegames that easily

[drcode]

It's not so much that new versions of Exult are incompatible with older savegames; they generally are. The trouble is that previous bugs have caused old savegames to have flags set incorrectly. Since Beta1 is a milestone in which we >think< we have those all fixed, it was a good time to start with fresh games.