Exult Forum

I have just recently played through all of the BG and SI, both with their add ons and I have noticed some consistent faults. I don't know if my computer is just tweaky or there is a problem with Exult. Here are some of the things:

-When people have something to say to you (like with the mayor of Trinisc right at the start of BG) they should start the conversation. No one ever did that with me, but after I started it first it was fine.

-Blood on the ground from combat stays permenant in both BG and SI.

-In combat, I see the enemies and change to combat mode, but the enemies just keep walking past me and I have to walk in front of them to kill them. This doesn't always happen, but it does a lot.

-The Hack Mover isn't as powerful as it is in the regular game. For example, you can't move yourself from a roof to the ground.

-Sometimes when I use the Hack Mover to move NPCs, the game just quits without warning.

-Items, like gold, arrows, and reagents, don't group themselves. You have to do it manually. Also in the Silver Seed, you must manually add keys to the keychain. But this might be helpful to some.

-The Helm of Light in the Silver Seed makes you see complete daylight instead of artificial light like it did in the regular game.

-The music does not loop and the sound is inconsistent.

-When you sleep the game seems to crash and stay black for about 30 seconds, then comes back to life.

Like I said, I don't know if it's just my computer that's screwy or the game. I was just wondering if anyone else had these problems. I was also wondering if it would be possible to fix the numerous bugs in from the original SI code. It's really unfortunate that the creators of the game left in so many bugs. There are lots of small things, like with the Gwani and who is married to who, some things on the scrolls, usecode errors, and unfinished parts like with Cantra. Exult is a great engine and I understand it's not complete. Good job so far.

Let's see...

Talking: This worked for me the last time I tried it. Possibly broken recently, then.

Blood: Yes, I probably forgot to set the 'tmp' flag for it.

Combat: Seen this. It may have been improved in snapshots since the Beta release.

Hack-mover crashes with NPC's: Fixed in recent snapshots.

Music looping: There's a user-option for this now.

Sleeping: I see a slight delay, maybe 2-3 seconds, but never that long. Does this happen every time?

I noticed the combat situation, where enemies seem oblivous to you, and you have to turn off combat mode, run over, turn it on, and start hitting them to get the required response.

Also I noted the sleep thing. Sometimes it would take 15 seconds+ (but this is a fairly fast pc) to end sleeping. It seemed dependant on how much time I spent asleep (but that may have just been subjective, I didn't time it). I'm sure the delay was less for 1 hour of sleep than 12.

The sleeping thing combined with your problem with the music makes it
sound like your computer isn't playing the Guardian's little speech properly
when the Avatar goes to sleep sometimes.

I think I can rephrase what people mean with the combat bug and even propose a solution:


It looks like the algorithm for fighting is:

while(combat_mode && enemy_not_dead){
place=find_appropriate_enemy(avatar_position);
go_to(place);
hit(enemy);
}

The problem is, the enemy has moved between the function find_appropriate_enemy and go_to.

As a result the avatar is walking to a place where the enemy is not and hit in the empty air. If hit(enemy) checks the weapon range then many times there would be no hit. If it doesn't check weapon range then you can hit someone who is a screen away from you.

The solution would be something like:

while(combat_mode && enemy_not_dead){
place=find_appropriate_enemy(avatar_position);
if(weapon_used() == range_weapon ) //like a bow
hit(enemy);
else {
make_one_step_toward(place)
if(in_the_range(weapon))
hit(enemy);
}
}


Enjoy

Artaxerxes

Artaxerxes: You're right about them not checking for the enemy's movement. But the bigger problem is that sometimes the hostile NPC's don't move at all, although I've tried to fix that.

Jeff:

in what would that be a problem?

If the pseudo algo is followed, the "place" value returned from the function "find_appropriate_enemy(avatar_position)" will be the same... It does not alter the algo...


unless there is something I am missing..

Artaxerxes

Quoting DrCode:

-Let's see...

-Talking: This worked for me the last time I tried it. Possibly broken recently, then.

This has never worked for me. I must go to the NPCs and initiate the converstation. It doesn't interfer with the game, but it might confuse those who have never played the game before.

-Music looping: There's a user-option for this now.

I must have missed that.

-Sleeping: I see a slight delay, maybe 2-3 seconds, but never that long.
Does this happen every time?

Yes, it happens every time I go to sleep. It's a very noticable delay; the computer isn't active, it's almost like it crashed. But then after a while it comes back, but none of my companions ever talk to me and say the "Time to continue on our quest." line. Suraimu brings up a point I forgot, I have never heard the Guardian talk to me before I go to sleep, but he does talk when I hit a speech egg and at the endgame. The Serpents also talk to me fine in SI.

By the way, the version I am using is .96Beta1.

Raven, you should try out the snapshot. Music looping is fixed in these (and an explanation for it is in the FAQ).

*I also noticed that when Geoffrey whacks his dummy, graphically speaking, he doesn't really swing his sword, he just thrusts it forward without tilting it (i.e. not really a thrust attack, he's just thrusting his hand forward) I hadn't checked to see if other characters do this as well (though I'm guessing they do)

*characters using ranged weapons sometimes just stand there when combat is initiated. Other times, they run around aimlessly trying to get a good position for attack but then give up and just stand there.

*Pikemen in Monitor and Rangers in Moonshade always have the same equipment when you kill or hack them. This didn't occur in earlier versions of Exult.

-Items, like gold, arrows, and reagents, don't group themselves. You have to do it manually. Also in the Silver Seed, you must manually add keys to the keychain. But this might be helpful to some.

Nobody speaks about that, I find that one annoying as possible, even the key in keychain thing is SI. In fact, the keychain seems nearly useless to me now, it's much better to use CTRL+K now

And on the combat thing, it's not only combat, when you speak with someone far away in SI ( original ), that person will move in your direction and as soon as it is in range, the conversation will start. But in Exult it doesn't works like that, the person will move to a position that is in range to speak, and then the conversation will start if possible : ie if you are sufficiently close from each other. This is especially annoying because you can't go ahead of someone because of that.