adamantyr
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Posts posted by adamantyr
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3 minutes ago, Brent Ellison said:
Alright two system questions for ya:
* Does increased affinity in a school of magic reduce costs for those spells?
* Does the ranged skill affect wands?
BTW, whenever the CRPG Addict gets around to playing this game he's going to love it. It really hits all the notes for an amazing RPG, particularly in tactics & content variety. The world also feels like much more than a generic fantasy setting with the collapsed Empire, the forts everywhere to contain various out-of-control evils, etc.Affinity adds a bonus to power's base value and double that for range value. It does not affect spell cost in fatigue. I had considered that in early design, but found it could create situations where spells became too trivially easy to cast. Instead I focused on just making the spells more noticeably potent when you had affinity.
Yes, wands use ranged skill to determine hit chance.
Thank you! I really did use his GIMLET system while doing a lot of the design, to address shortcomings that were all too frequent in old-school CRPG's.
I suspect, though, he rated games like Ultima IV and V a long time ago, and he will not be as generous with his scores. He's admitted that Ultima III's score is a little high.
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6 minutes ago, jwild said:
Here lies Chester, a magnificent quester...
Hopefully Chet is honored and not like "So I'm DEAD here? And Irene too?!"
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8 minutes ago, Brent Ellison said:
Bit of a confusing conversation with the sorcerer in the green tower:
I asked him about the Gate, and now he will tell me about Mounds and Circles despite not mentioning them. Feels like I'm missing a dialog page in this conversation.
Mostly I want to know how to get to the realm of Faery... and I guess what I'm missing is him telling me to go to the Mounds and find a Circle there?
Looks like a line got cut off by the option screen... that's hard to predict happening.
After the last line he says: "The sealed gate lies in the burial mounds to the west. Seek the circle of stones."
I'll add in a pause to press any key to break up the screen in that instance.
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2 hours ago, Brent Ellison said:
Ohhhhh ok I thought maybe it was a wand or something so I tried swapping it between people and unequipping things to see if I could equip it but I guess I didn't try the right setup.
Well then that's something else for the wishlist - it would be nice if there were some way to see what type of an item something is OR if you could get feedback easily on why you can't equip something. Either on examine, in the name (Offhand), or with a command that doesn't work but provide feedback (EX: Your OFFHAND slot is full! or EX: Only Paladins can equip this!).
I considered that in early design, but decided just omitting the option to equip would tell you that you can't equip it. The main time errors happen is when you try and do something like equip an offhand item while wielding a two-handed weapon, or equipping different ammunition to what you already have.
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14 minutes ago, Brent Ellison said:
Phew!
Just got the Radiant Pharos (not sure what it is, but seems important).
Now THAT was the evilest dungeon yet! The Nightmares wrecked me repeatedly - compared to them the Ur-Grue was a piece of cake! I would have been totally hosed if it weren't for the Eruditic Teas I picked up in the monastery.
Minor feedback - I really wish I could swap weapons in the middle of a fight. I often come across encounters where my equipped weapons are totally ineffective and sometimes can't run away - but those characters are carrying weapons that could work. Of course, there might be some degenerate situation you want to avoid that I'm not aware of, but I figured I'd just toss my opinion out there.
SpoilerThe Radiant Pharos is a foci, so it can be held in the offhand, or just carried in inventory. With it, you always have fully lit maps.
Yeah, interface limitations made that impossible. There are ways around it; casting magic blade for example will allow you to damage anything.
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The 52k was I think if you had a mini memory cartridge installed. That was during TIs support phase the only cartridge that offered RAM in the cart space address.
Honestly, it just feels like if it weren't for expense (RAM chips didn't drop in price until 82-83), the 32k expansion should have been part of the base console.
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20 minutes ago, Brent Ellison said:
You know, I wondered if the "pounce" ability with bosses would have some issues... I'm surprised none of the beta testers ran into that and said something. Ugh! I will dig into it.
Adam
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4 hours ago, oddemann said:
A program that helps you run a combat and more. Keeps track of Turn order, Hit points, AC, Diary and story text. A mix of your game and adventure land, but in a D&D setting, online or live. But sure also some quick charts and tables to call up also. And in the end make a Diary of what happened.
I think that the TI is more than capable of doing that. A laptop with C99 and the TI Digital DM screen. One advantage is that the text will be big and easy to read (read story/what happens next).
1Story | 2Combat | 3PC | 4NPC | 5Monsters | 6Diary___________________________________________
Your in a room ...
...
...
...
...
...
Items:
7Quick charts | 8Quik map
1Story | 2Combat | 3PC | 4NPC | 5Monsters | 6Diary
___________________________________________
Name AC HP XP Items
20 Monster3 15 10
18 Joe 17 12
17 Jane 18 14
15 Monster1 15 12
7 Monster2 15 12
...
Items:
7Quick charts | 8Quik map
And so on...So a whole other game then?
Sounds like a great project for someone else! 
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2 hours ago, oddemann said:
I play D&D, as player and DM.
How hard would it be to use some of your data to make a "TI DM Master Screen"? Like have monsters and everything to be an aid to the DM as s/he is running the game live or online?Only challenge is to bring the TI with you. ?
I'm slightly confused.
Do you mean an actual DM screen with game artwork on it, but otherwise the charts, tables, etc. used for D&D?
Or do you mean some live running program on the TI?
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54 minutes ago, Brent Ellison said:
Yep, that's a bug. Easy fix fortunately! I'll get a new build out tomorrow for it.
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43 minutes ago, Brent Ellison said:
Well I did it!
Found the vault thanks to some judicious use of Magic Eye. The mimics weren't too bad of a final encounter, thankfully. If it was one of the golems I probably would have flipped my desk.
I know I said the tomb was evil but this was another level on top of that!
Two questions:
1. Was there some way to know the order to use the three numbers in? I just had to save scum and try all the combinations.
2. Who are crossbows primarily intended for? The Bard & Hero? I was surprised to find the Ranger couldn't use them.
1. Trial and error was the only way.
2. Rogues can use crossbows too. Rangers have a disinclination for mechanical devices.
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Just now, arcadeshopper said:
sounds like we need to publish a "official hint book"
Indeed... The quest for more money!
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4 minutes ago, Brent Ellison said:
SpoilerAh good one! I forgot to change his open greeting in that case.
Unfortunately it will require me to go to a major version to fix as moving text around can break saved games. I think I'll make a start of one, and include this fix in there.
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2 minutes ago, Brent Ellison said:
More questions after a big quest:
Is it possible to get the lever if you give the firearms to Commander Herzog? He doesn't let you ask about it and the Voivode is now locked up with no dialog.
Also... is there more than one powder keg? I used magic eye to see past that second golem into a room full of treasure chests... wondering if it's either/or.And a non-spoilery question - is there a counter to sleep? It seems like the only really nasty effect that has no reversal or protection.
SpoilerYou can get the lever independently of the firearms mission, all you need is the Skeleton key to open the case. In fact, the Voivode has no dialogue about it at all, only Perse mentions it.
There is only one powder keg and it can only be used in the armoury. The only means to open the Imperial Treasury is with the Skeleton Key.
Sleep wears off at any point that you take direct damage from an opponent. However, some of the enemies (like the plains dragon) seem to have hit upon the tactic of attacking THEN hitting you with sleep again. I didn't intend it that way but DAMN...
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55 minutes ago, Brent Ellison said:
OK, another content question:
The prisoner in Osthaven tells me "to the northwest in the mountain pass is a monastery." But northwest is the ocean, the mountains are to the east. I've found some locations in those mountains, but nothing like a monastery. Is this correct, in which case I guess he means wayyyyy to the northwest in the Great Forest?
SpoilerHe means FAR to the northwest in another region entirely. The Whitecrown mountains area. I'll update his text to read like this for a future release:
"Far to the northwest in the Whitecrown mountains is a monastery. It's actually a Thieves Guild sanctuary.
One of our greatest relics is there, the skeleton key! It can unlock anything!
You can enter by finding a switch in the crypts that will open a door in a storeroom.
Be cautious. The Sanctuary was also a testing ground for thieves; It won't be easy to traverse." -
3 hours ago, Brent Ellison said:
Still plugging along, but I've got a content question for ya:
The vizier of Ispahan told me that he believed the assassins that attacked me at the inn were in a castle along the western edge of the desert north of the pass. I've combed the entire mountains in the Amari Desert north and south of the pass with my thief and I've found no castle (I did find a very nasty dragon though). Am I barking up the wrong tree?
Nope, there is a secret pass there. I made sure it works.
Check the northwestern corner very thoroughly.
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He's referring an early work of mine, converting Eastern Front 1941 from the Atari 8-bit line to the TI.
I was able to do so because I had a source code listing for the game in 6502 assembly. I got a good clip of the way through it but stalled when even translated the AI routine didn't make a lot of sense.
I'm not sure I will pick it back up again or not; translating someone else's code was not so much fun.
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Wow awesome! And that is a technical accomplishment, building it in the line by line assembler.
I bought this back in the day from Asgard, and was just blown away by the bitmap graphics. I'd heard of a "half bitmap mode" but none of the few assembly books mentioned it. It wasn't until the TI Tech Pages that I got the technical rundown on it. (And even that's incomplete; apparently in half-bitmap you only have eight sprites due to the address masking mucking about with sprite usage.)
One thing I especially liked about the game was you could just choose to play any level you wanted, rather than force the player to play them through sequentially. A very good game design decision!
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1 minute ago, lerugray said:
Oh well! I'll have to be more careful next time, not the worst thing as I could try a different companion combo this time now that I know where more of them are.
I apologize for the fact I keep releasing new builds! I really don't want to disrupt people's fun.
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Ugh... well the SAV file contains your characters and their stuff and what quest items and stuff they have done. The SG# files are the map mob files so NPC states as well as monsters are in those. If you somehow overwrote them it unfortunately lost your game.
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1 minute ago, lerugray said:
I'm fairly sure I only change what was mentioned in the version notes, unless I either misread or mis-clicked something, which is definitely possible at 3AM in the morning
Well as long as you didn't overwrite the SAV file you should be fine. None of the files changes should directly impact a current game at all.
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What did you change when you updated?
Sounds like a great project for someone else! 
I know I said the tomb was evil but this was another level on top of that!
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in TI-99/4A Computers
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It does, it will increase their duration potential.