Dungeon Master Forum

Hi there! I've been replaying DM (with my 9y old son! Keeping the flame alive!) and we ran into a strange bug.

Whenever any champion dies, the game always generates a set of bones of the first champion, in this case Zed. So if Hawk dies for example, it drops "ZEDBONES" and if I put these in an altar of VI, nothing happens at all since Zed is already alive. If two champions die, it drops 2 sets of Zedbones.

I'm not sure how that came to be, or why. Even if I restart the game it still happens. Is anything corrupted in the savegame? Anyone else experience this?

I'm playing using cowsmanaut's latest build, to be able to play in the original 4:3 resolution with full-screen scaling. If I try to load the game in the original CSB win file, it says "Save game damaged" and "System Error 2989", maybe because it's not the same version.

I just tried the latest version of CSBwin.
I resurrected SYRA, HALK, WU TSE and TIGGY.

I let the skeleton kill SYRA, HALK, and TIGGY.
I took their bones to the alter and all were properly resurrected.

So.....I am certainly not in charge of Cowsmanuat's build but if you can
tell me what version of CSBwin it was adapted from, perhaps I can try that
to eliminate any part I may have played in this problem.

I just downloaded Cowsmanaut's executable:

name: CSBWin.zip
size: 402,952
The executable is size 773,632 and claims to be version 15.9.

I repeated my experiment (see previous post).
Everything worked as it should.

Therefore - You have a different executable OR a special case.

In post #1 I read: "If I try to load the game in the original CSB win file, it says "Save game damaged" and "System Error 2989".

The save game is corrupted, no ?

terkio wrote:The save game is corrupted, no ?

Not necessarily.....He said he was loading it with a different
version of CSBwin.. Attempting to load with an older version of CSBwin might
cause such a problem.

But a corrupted savegame could explain his original problem with the bones.

Paul Stevens wrote: ↑Mon Aug 05, 2019 11:59 pm I just downloaded Cowsmanaut's executable:

name: CSBWin.zip
size: 402,952
The executable is size 773,632 and claims to be version 15.9.

I repeated my experiment (see previous post).
Everything worked as it should.

Therefore - You have a different executable OR a special case.

Hey wow thanks guys for such an amazingly fast response after all these years!

That's exactly the executable. Here is the savegame: https://www.dropbox.com/s/iin17k88wi1o8 ... 3.dat?dl=0

I imagine something weird happened with the savegame, it actually started doing this after someone, I think it was Zed, died back on the worms level. (now we're on the scorpions one). I was just reporting it i case it had already happened to someone, or if you can figure out how it happened.

It's not a big deal, we'll just have to reload if anyone dies, it's not like the altars are crucial... I've played DM and CSB like 20 times each so I'm not afraid .

I can replicate your problem using either Cows' or my latest executable.

Your savegame loads OK with my latest executable so it is not
totally scrambled.

I will look into the problem. I fear it is a bug in CSBwin that has never
been reported because nobody uses the Vi Alters. Well, almost nobody.

I have reproduced your problem starting from the entry to the dungeon.

I entered the dungeon using a very old version of CSBwin. I resurrected four
characters. I saved the game.

I then loaded the savegame using a new version of CSBwin.
I killed a character and the bones problem appeared.

This makes good sense. Old versions of CSBwin used a different
method of identifying characters and their bones. (This was to allow
for more than four characters, some of whom were waiting in the 'wings').
This is definitely a bug in CSBwin, which is supposed to be backward
compatible with older savegames. But I don't plan to attempt to fix it
because it is rather complicated and too much work for the small gain.
Besides, nobody uses Vi Altars because they drain a character's abilities.

So.....is it possible that you originally entered the dungeon with
an older version of CSBwin and then updated to the newer version
by Cowsmanaut?

Paul Stevens wrote: ↑Tue Aug 06, 2019 7:21 pm So.....is it possible that you originally entered the dungeon with
an older version of CSBwin and then updated to the newer version
by Cowsmanaut?

Yes, that's exactly it. I started using the latest one on dmweb.free.fr, which was 12.1. Then, while browsing the forums about resolution issues, I came upon Cowsmanaut's version and switched to that. I didn't think the savegame format would have changed in between especially since it loaded it up prefectly without any apparent problem. I even tested 17.6, the latest from your site, but reverted to Cowsmanaut's to have the correct TV aspect ratio (back in the days I had played it on Atari ST and a 4:3 TV).

Do you think there's any way to fix the savegame? If not, not a big deal as long as there aren't other more important bugs that pop out.

Thank you again for diagnosing this so quickly .

Yes...The savegame can be fixed. But at much too great a cost.
I would spend perhaps 8 hours creating a new CSBwin (and CSBuild),
testing, and preparing for release. And it would help only someone who:

1) Created a game with an old CSBwin
AND
2) Uses the Vi Altars
AND
3) Wants to play the same game with a new version of CSBwin

An uncommon combination. In all likelihood it would help exactly one
player. "Not a big deal". Hardly a compelling argument for
an expensive fix.

Sorry.

Ah do not worry, I am already very very grateful for the time you took to check this out.

And thank you for the work invested into making this in the first place, truly. I've been lurking on these forums for about 10 years, but never got around to register, now that it's done I can thank you personally.