Profile for Spidweb
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Displayed name | Spidweb |
| Member number | 1 |
| Title | Board Administrator |
| Postcount | 960 |
| Homepage | http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com |
| Registered | Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
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| Author | Recent posts |
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| Question about licence in Blades of Exile | |
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Board Administrator
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written Wednesday, June 6 2007 10:33
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I will put a corrected license on the BoE source code page shortly. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Request for Blades of Exile code to be released under a better open source license in Blades of Exile | |
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written Wednesday, June 6 2007 09:53
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Like every other single thing I've done in the last few months, the BoE thing has consumed more time than I can afford to spend already. If absolutely forced to spend more time on it in the next few months, I'll reinspect the license issue. As it is, I don't see any problem so great that it should keep me from the furious struggle to get Avernum 5 ready for Christmas. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Avernum 1 2 and 3 speed in Tech Support | |
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written Tuesday, June 5 2007 11:08
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A number of people have had this problem. However, it's not universal ... the games run fine on my Intel Mac. At this point, unless Apple straightens out whatever they did to Rosetta, the only thing that would fix the problem is Universalizing all three games, which would take a considerable amount of time. So right now, I'm waiting to see what Apple does. Sorry I can't be of more help at this point. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Compiling BoE source code for Windows in Blades of Exile | |
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written Monday, June 4 2007 09:43
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"You're right! Sometimes the simpliest solutions are the hardest to imagine. Unfortunately, TOWNOUT.CPP doesn't exist, so I can't create appropriate header file for it. " I just don't have time to dig that old machine out of storage again. Use the Mac version. You'll have to change the #includes at the top of the change the call to launch the dialog boxes (change it from the Mac ModalDialog to whatever it being used for the Windows version. Should be pretty quick. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Beastmaster's bracelet (spoiler and cheat) in Nethergate | |
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written Sunday, June 3 2007 14:40
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"It may not be a cheat, though I wonder if Jeff was thinking this would be possible." Not a cheat. I did think it would be possible. In fact I specifically designed it that way. That's why I put the bracelet where I did. I wanted to add more motivations for clever use of the floaty wand. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Compiling BoE source code for Windows in Blades of Exile | |
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written Sunday, June 3 2007 12:39
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"Now I'm porting Character Editor. I was planning to port Scenario Editor first, but it seems that some files are missing (again). I couldn't find "townout.h" and "tfileio.h". I hope that Jeff will find these ones too." Meh. Just make them. Copy-paste the function/procedure headers over and you got it. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Geneforge 2 on Real Arcade in Geneforge Series | |
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written Saturday, June 2 2007 13:32
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It's the same game, with the same cheat codes. There is no registration code ... all the registration works through Real's system. We can't provide support for their games ... we have no control how their system works. We can sell you a hint book, though. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Jeff on programming in General | |
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written Thursday, May 31 2007 14:27
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"Jeff - Any chance that will see the Alien game?" It's totally vaporware, I think. I haven't see it in any stores. But there's a wikipedia page that might have a release date or something. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_invaders - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Avernum 5, May Update in Avernum 4 | |
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written Thursday, May 31 2007 12:29
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I would never imply that the monsters of the underworld have anything better to do than to attack you. There is one chitrach dungeon in Avernum 5. However, it will fall under my general rule of "fewer, bigger, more threatening fights". We'll see how it goes. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Why? in General | |
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written Thursday, May 31 2007 11:55
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I don't get heated when people don't like my games. Heck, I have a good idea of what my download to sale ratio is. I know a LOT of people don't like my games. If you require good graphics and sound to like a game, my games are not going to be for you. But my games are big. They're fun. They're not too expensive. They're stable. And they are in a genre which is just not well represented right now. In other words, I don't think it's a mystery at all why people buy them. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Jeff on programming in General | |
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written Thursday, May 31 2007 10:54
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"Congratulations Jeff on getting paid to state the obvious." Word. Though I question the obviousness of any of it. It's very much a "my own painful experience" piece. A lot of people learn to code, like me, out in the wild, these techniques don't just teleport into your head. They must be found out the hard way. Thanks to this thread for so far not engaging in any Slashdot-style nitpickery. ("You used #define instead of const in omglol n00b.") - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Blades of Exile Source Code Released in Blades of Exile | |
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written Wednesday, May 30 2007 14:44
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"I just wish there were more, smaller, and more logically organized files." I did too. So I just gave up and started over from scratch. My leaving that engine and starting a new one was similar to the process of the Millenium Falcon flying out of the Death Star 2 while it was exploding. Different structures and calls for player characters and monsters. Jesus. I wish I'd been doing drugs so I'd have something to blame that on. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Blades of Exile Source Code Released in Blades of Exile | |
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written Wednesday, May 30 2007 13:29
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By the way, I am having a note added to the Blades of Exile source page directing interested parties to these forums so they can see what is happening. As centralized code repositories pop up, I can add links to those. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Blades of Exile Source Code Released in Blades of Exile | |
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written Wednesday, May 30 2007 13:25
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I am responding to one of Andrea's comments from another threas. I didn't want to sully that thread with chit chat. "My early examinations tend to support my belief that most of the game's mechanics are completely free of direct references to Mac or Windows-specific code." By the time I wrote Blades of Exile, I was wise enough to try to isolate the system-dependent stuff. I was also doing what I can to make porting much faster (which explains the dialog engine, which might appear insane at first glance but was INCREDIBLY helpful to me over the years). But yes, in the process of cleaning the code, sorting out the game mechanics stuff and isolating it from the platform stuff would be wise. I have already done this in my more modern engines. I apologize for coming so late to the wisdom of this. :( - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Automatic Hint Pop Ups in Avernum 4 | |
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written Tuesday, May 29 2007 11:52
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The Geneforge action point system is, I'm afraid to say, not a very good one. I shou'dn't have brought it over for Avernum 4. Avernum 5 will be back to a much friendlier, early-Avernum type combat system. I'm sorry this change spoiled your enjoyment of the game. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Regulation - Complexity sidebar in Geneforge 4: Rebellion | |
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written Tuesday, May 29 2007 11:46
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I suppose there exists a forum somewhere where people can argue about whether evolution is the best theory we have for the origin of life. That forum can also be used to discuss whether people have actually walked on the moon, whether quantum mechanics is true or not, whether we can believe the thermometers that say the earth is getting warmer, and whether we really can believe it's not butter. That forum is not here. Enough. - Jeff Vogel [ Tuesday, May 29, 2007 11:47: Message edited by: Spidweb ] -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| OBoE in Blades of Exile | |
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written Monday, May 28 2007 13:13
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This sounds like an excellent setup. If you ever make a central repository for this stuff, I want to link to it. As I said in another thread, make sure changes to the scenario format are well documented, so that people working on the Mac and Windows versions can keep running scnearios from the other side. Also, if the game runs under WINE, a Linux port might be more trouble than it's worth. Though, if memory serves, porting Exile 3 to Linux was not a hugely time-consuming job. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Node Limit in Blades of Exile | |
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written Monday, May 28 2007 13:10
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If you change the scenario format, I strongly suggest providing extensive documentation regarding exactly what changes you make to the format, and tinkering with the flags at the beginning of the scenario file to identify its format. Then anyone working on the Windows side will have a better idea of what is going on when they try to make a version that can understand your new format's scenarios. (A change of format means any change that would make new scenarios incompatible with older copies of Blades. Changing the node limit would do that.) Not saying you shouldn't change the limit. Sounds like a very good idea. Just a general warning. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Avernum 5, May Update in Avernum 4 | |
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written Sunday, May 27 2007 16:17
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In Avernum 5, practically all dungeons will have respawning monsters. They will respawn at a slow rate, though, so as not to overpunish people working through them. (The exact figure: Most dungeons will respawn %15-20 of mobs each time it is reloaded.) - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Blades of Exile Source Code Released in Blades of Exile | |
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written Sunday, May 27 2007 11:09
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Re: Hosting Blades. When you have something suitably stable and tested ready, drop me an E-mail. (And, if you don't hear back from me, drop me another one. These days, spam filters eat things. This also applies, by the way, to people who submitted Blades scenarios which never appeared on our site. I'm thinking of Exodus.) Re: Arrow key movement. Wow, didn't Blades of Exile support arrow key movement? I thought I'd added that by then. It's a very good idea, even though no diagonals is a hassle. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Blades of Exile Source Code Released in Blades of Exile | |
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written Sunday, May 27 2007 09:37
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It sounds like you've done a super-excellent job. I'll try to take a look soon. We should discuss if/how I link to your work from the main site so a more general class of players can enjoy the game. "I'm not sure where Universalising fits into this. I don't know how much work it is, and I'm not sure about the benefits. If it's fast enough already, there doesn't seem to be all that much of a point." I think you're right. As long as Rosetta exists and your game functions properly under it, Universalizing is of questionable benefit. And it's a lot of work. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Avernum 5, May Update in Avernum 4 | |
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written Sunday, May 27 2007 09:34
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Just for the record, having a relative of Erika in the game who performs the same position in the game as Erika would be stupid. I'll just say what's in the game, since it's all stuff you can find out very early. One of your superiors is General Manfred Redmark, a distant cousin of Erika (though, of course, Erika died around the time he was born). The Redmarks were a very influential and powerful political family on the surface (which is how Erika was able to receive such extensive magical training in the first place). Erika's actions caused the family to go into great decline. Understandably. General Manfred has ideas for how to put some luster back on the old Redmark name. Unsurprisingly, they involve you. Doing this ties the new game and the old games together in a way I rather like, while giving me the chance to give more details about how things on the surface work. It's actually pretty tangential to the game as a whole, but I think it's pretty cool. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Blades of Exile Source Code Released in Blades of Exile | |
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written Saturday, May 26 2007 23:36
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The game format is exactly the same for Classic and OS X, and I've never had any trouble loading one of the other. It's only with Universal that you have to be careful with file loading. So this is odd. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |