Champion mirrors and champions

[Zyx]

Champion mirrors and champions.

1) I create a champion text in front of a champion mirror.
However I didn't put any state, just a name, and then I pressed OK in the edit text (portrait) window.
CSBwin allow me to click on the mirror, the arrows for movement become grayed and nothing else happens. I still can move, and the arrows remain grayed.

2) A champion mirror without champion text gives an error message when clicked on, "Illegal object indirect index", and then crashes.
I think a simple check (all portraits being associated with a champion text) could avoid this kind of message, except if you want CSBwin to be able to display portraits not avalaible to a resurrection. But then CSBwin should not crash.

3) If I put a text too long for a character (name or title), CSBwin detects it and crashes, but CSBuild doesn't detect it.

4) In the edit character text screen, you should precise that stamina will be divided by 10 in the game.



I still have a long list of comments, bugs and suggestions, but I'll wait a little... so you have time to buy some more cards!
As for the DSA, I will reserve my comments for future versions, so you can concentrate on the current problems.

[Paul Stevens]

1) and 2) and 3)

Indeed. CSBwin will need to deal with these cases.
I can also add checks in CSBuild if a text is adjacent
to a Champion Mirror.
===========================================
4) OK. That is a good idea.
===========================================
Cards.....no problem. I have exactly two cards remaining.
But I am going to be walking past the office supplies store
tomorrow morning.
===========================================
DSA. I am leaning toward using the standard tools and limiting
the page to a single state. I had expected that command
lines would be short but have discovered through actual
use that they become quite long. So I will make list boxes
for editing so that you can add physical structure to make things
clearer. And I won't have to worry about your larger font
and all that sort of thing.

[Zyx]

Will you use 12 list boxes, one for each input message (each line of the list box being a command), or only one wide listbox (with 12 lines, for each input message)?
Did you think about 12 edit boxes? The pro for an edit box is that is it directly editable.

[Paul Stevens]

Yes...I was thinking of very wide edit boxes, one for
each possible input to a state.

Can they be multi-line? If so, I would like to take advantage
of that feature. But the code is stored in the dungeon.dat
as a binary executable so I would have to invent a 'No-op'
operation to indicate line-breaks and tabs.

The other thing I was thinking.....perhaps a one line edit
box with an 'Edit' button nearby that opens a full multi-line
box. Like the 'Edit Text' box in CSBuild.

At any rate. the BIG change is that only one state will be
available for editing at a time and there will be lots more
room to make the editing easier (however I do it).

[Ulmo]

It may be time to remind you the following bug (which allowed in early DM to pickup things from all champions) :
You choose a champion, enter another champion's mirro, and let your champion die (E.G with the help of a poison cloud).
You get a 'ghost' who can enter into walls, but that crashes CSBwin.

[Paul Stevens]

What should happen? You are really trying to
fool Mother Nature with a stunt like that. One
does not do such a thing accidentally. It is like
inviting a volcano into your living room and
complaining about the heat.

Does something nice happen with other versions
of Dungeon Master?

[Ulmo]

I'm reporting something that has been discussed somewhere else...

In old DM, you could enter the champion's mirrors and throw away all possessions. So you start with much more equipement than you should.
Then someone tried with CSBwin, it crashed, and his comment was something like 'It should be either the same than in DM or unallowed, but it surely shouldn't crash'.

Here is the thread :
http://www.dungeon-master.com/forum/vie ... hp?t=22640

I also admit that many of the reports I did were between uninteresting and unnoticeable things.
But I assume that you probably had corrected those things if you noticed them yourself. If you think that I'm sometime wasting your time (and you surely could think this), you are invited to say it. I won't get offended; I will send you less comments, and probably more revelant ones.

[Paul Stevens]

OK. Fair enough. But I will repeat. "What should happen?"

Clearly this was not intended by the original FTL crew.
More than likely it tried to crash but didn't because
the hardware had no memory protections.

We want to make CSBwin different in some cases (like
the Anti-Magic and Anti-Fire. Perhaps we should make
it different in this case, too. I will see what seems easiest:

1) Don't allow HitPoint decrements in such circumstances.
2) End the game if a player dies in such circumstances.
3) Fix the crash and proceed as in the original.
4) Whatever else seems easier.

There goes my last card. Fortunately I picked up
500 more this morning at Staples.

[beowuuf]

It creates a 'ghost' - a theron like character not blocked by anything that can simply keep walking - this is in defiance of the normal engine limits, so you can take 20 steps to the left and go to -20, 0 for example, then walk back again

Since this is a new bug that I only recently heard of, i would advocate the simply goign round it - you die whether in the choose character screen or not
However, that sounds like work...and as you say its like complaining about the heat when lettign i na volcano - you are tryig nto cheat the engine, and CSB4win isn't as tolerant as the original was

[Paul Stevens]

It turns out that there is a rather obvious bug when
you try to go through a wall. There is a variable that
says "The way is blocked". The same variable gets used
to contain the damage to the party when it hits the wall.

Normally the damage when hitting a wall is non-zero.
So the "The way is blocked" variable remains non-zero.
Buth when nobody is alive then there is no damage and
the variable gets set to zero and therefore "The way is
NOT blocked".

I simply use two variables instead of the one and now
you cannot go through the walls.

But other strange things still happen when you go get
a different champion then take the original bones to the
Altar of Vi. But it seems to cause no harm.