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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| Windows Version - Creation Absorbing Bug? in Geneforge 4: Rebellion | |
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written Wednesday, February 7 2007 14:02
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Seems to be working ok on my end. If a creation has turned invulnerable, it's probably not a scripting error but a saved game corruption (the wrong byte got turned to a non-zero value). Try going back a few saved games and seeing if you can find one where that creation can be absorbed, and work from there. If that doesn't help, uninstall-redownload-reinstall. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Avernum 5 Early, Early Notes in Avernum 4 | |
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written Tuesday, February 6 2007 14:44
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Some more notes on Avernum 5. i. Heights are in. I just got the first set of hill graphics. ii. The world system (i.e. one seamless world) will, however, remain unchanged. Though Avernum 5's terrain is designed to better take advantage of it. I am, however, going to work on the graphics to try to create a clearer visual distinction between outdoors and dungeons. iii. I was very, VERY happy with how death worked in Avernum 4. No changes. iv. Dungeons will respawn monsters more. Outdoors, about the same rate. v. The plot for Avernum V is very intricate and involved. I think it's quite cool, and I'm kind of looking forward to writing it. vi. Work on more PC icons has started. There will be 2 more each of nephil, slith, and human, at least, and we'll work from there. vii. Many improvements from Geneforge 4 will be in the game. Nicer fonts. Better AP system. Better graphics and spell effects. I will mercilessly purge all actual Geneforge elements, though. (No spawners. No pylons. Period. I will, however, keep the roamer icon as a clawbug, though, because I think it looks cool.) viii. I plan to include full keyboard support. You'll be able to target and do talking with the keyboard. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| going to kill shaila? in Geneforge 4: Rebellion | |
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written Tuesday, February 6 2007 13:12
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There isn't a vlish in that dungeon. (Just to confirm, it looks like a floating potato with 3 tentacles?) I'd leave the dungeon, save, uninstall, redownload, and reinstall. If you have corrupted game data, this should fix it. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| One Question before I buy?..Important in Geneforge 4: Rebellion | |
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written Monday, February 5 2007 10:10
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I work hard to make sure that you don't need to play the earlier games to enjoy the later ones. Everything you need to know is in Geneforge 4 . So order away. :-) - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Avernum and Avernum 2 on Vista in The Avernum Trilogy | |
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written Friday, February 2 2007 10:44
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I have had reports of Avernum and Avernum 2 crashing on Vista during party creation. If you have this problem, could you contact me at spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com? If there is a crash, there's a free game in it for someone who can help me troubleshoot the problem. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Early 2007 is when exactly? in Geneforge 4: Rebellion | |
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written Sunday, January 28 2007 12:22
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It should be out within 10 days. It is tested on Vista. I got a few testers with advance copies. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Macintosh Blades of Avernum v1.2 Public Beta in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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written Wednesday, January 24 2007 13:40
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I just put up public beta 7, which should be pretty close to the last one. Fixes some unseen icon problems in the scenarios and properly sets the defauly saved game folder to the user's Documents folder. Mac users need to be alert that the new version of Blades of Avernum can't handle PICT resources where the frame of the resource isn't all the way to the upper left (i.e. Top = 0, Left = 0). You can check the frame of the PICT resource in ResEdit or Resourcerer by getting information on it. This is generally only a problem for PICTs copies out of ClarisWorkd or AppleWorks, both of which had the VERY bad habit of setting the frame of the PICT to be the rectangle you copied the PICT out of. If you are using these programs, you can work around the problem by shifting the graphic to the upper left corner of the graphics file before you copy it out. Sensible graphics editors, like Photoshop, don't have this problem. It is a good idea to go through the custom graphics for your scenarios to make sure this won't be a problem. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Macintosh Blades of Avernum v1.2 Public Beta in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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written Saturday, January 20 2007 00:22
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If you have a problem with the open file menu putting you inside the Blades application itself, write me at spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com. Tell me i. Using Universal or Older Macs version? ii. Is your Mac intel or not? iii. What version of the OS are you using? This is the freakiest thing I've ever heard of, and it sounds like a OS bug to me. I don't think there's anything I can do about it, and I'm already well past the amount of time I can afford to spend on this. But I'll collect information and do what I can. - Jeff Vogel Edit - I've come up with something that might fix this (insanely weird) problem and E-mailed it to two people who had it. Waiting to hear back if it helps. [ Saturday, January 20, 2007 09:56: Message edited by: Spidweb ] -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Macintosh Blades of Avernum v1.2 Public Beta in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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written Friday, January 19 2007 13:52
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OK, I just put up public beta 6. The icon problem should be fixed now. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Macintosh Blades of Avernum v1.2 Public Beta in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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written Friday, January 19 2007 12:15
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If you can't see an icon right, the person to complain to is me. Send a report to spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com. Send whatever files will help me see where the bug is. There are a LOT of icons and a lot of places where they can appear. Tell me what I need to do to see the bug. "Also, the open dialogs are still starting out in the Blades of Avernum (Universal) v1.2.app/Contents/MacOS folder. Does anyone else have this problem? " This problem is just completely weird and freaky. I don't think it's my fault. Edit - OK, I made a really boneheaded mistake. I'm about to upload a new version with corrected icons. - Jeff Vogel [ Friday, January 19, 2007 13:05: Message edited by: Spidweb ] -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Macintosh Blades of Avernum v1.2 Public Beta in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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written Thursday, January 18 2007 23:48
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I have just released public beta 5, which fixes a number of bugs. The game shouldn't crash on closing. A number of other small tweaks. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Macintosh Blades of Avernum v1.2 Public Beta in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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written Monday, January 15 2007 23:32
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Bug found. A number of the portraits and scenario icons would not appear. Will be fixed in next update. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Macintosh Blades of Avernum v1.2 Public Beta in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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written Monday, January 15 2007 12:06
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I have created a Universal version of Macintosh Blades of Avernum, which will run natively on Intel Macs. Before I release it, I want to give it a proper public beta period, and I want to give the scenario designers a chance to see it. In addition to making it Universal, I have tightened up the error checking in the script engine. It's not perfect, but it will be better at spotting mistakes that'll cause crashes on the Windows side. You can download it here ... ftp://ftp.spiderwebsoftware.com/temp/BoAv12.publicbeta7.sit.bin If you find a problem and submit a report. Send it to spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com. Please include 1. Which version of the public beta you were using. 2. Whether you were using the Universal or Older Macs version of the application. 3. Whether your Mac is an Intel Mac or not. 4. Tell me which scenario you were playing and, if possible, send a saved game I can use to reproduce the problem. The new Blades of Avernum requires OS X 10.1 or later. The older version will still be available for people with older Macs. As I release new updates, I will edit this message to change the download link above. If you play with the new beta, check back here for news of updates. - Jeff Vogel Edit (01-19-07) - Public beta 5 is now out. Updated link above. Edit (01-19-07) - Public beta 6 is now out. Updated link above. Edit (01-24-07) - Public beta 7 is now out. Updated link above. [ Wednesday, January 24, 2007 13:36: Message edited by: Spidweb ] -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Need Beta Testers Running Vista or Win 2000 in Geneforge 4: Rebellion | |
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written Tuesday, December 26 2006 10:59
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We now have plenty beta testers running Windows XP. But we need testers running Windows Vista or Windows 2000. Please apply if you have one of those. Apply here: http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/testing/beta_test.html -Mariann [ Tuesday, December 26, 2006 11:00: Message edited by: Spidweb ] -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Windows GF 4 Testers Needed in Geneforge 4: Rebellion | |
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written Monday, December 25 2006 10:53
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Just so you know, the thing we're most looking for is access to a machine with Vista. Having a machine with a pre-Windows XP OS on it is another good thing. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Greta bug in Fens in Geneforge 4: Rebellion | |
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written Friday, December 22 2006 13:39
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The Greta in the rebel camp bug should be fixed in the next update. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| A Developer Question in Geneforge 4: Rebellion | |
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written Friday, December 22 2006 11:12
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As I'm working on the Windows version of Geneforge 4: Rebellion, I'm wondering about something. So I thought I'd ask. How is the difficulty of the Fens of Aziraph? In particular, how is the Shaper Monarch fight? Were you able to win it in a reasonable amount of time, without resorting to trickery? (Like trapping him in a corner.) Please only answer if you have actually played through the fight. Feedback on Normal difficulty is preferred. If you weren't on Normal, let me know what the difficulty was. If there were any other non-optional fights (e.g. Moseh, Salassar) that crushed your spirit, I'd also be interested to know. But I'm mainl focused on Monarch, as he is the hardest non-optional opponent. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| For those of you who live in a cave... in General | |
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written Tuesday, December 19 2006 14:40
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During the big storm, I was in Disneyland. It was awesome. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Bug report - G4 in Tech Support | |
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written Tuesday, December 19 2006 09:59
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I tweaked the architecture here. It should be better in the next update. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| A4 Slowdown in Tech Support | |
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written Tuesday, December 19 2006 09:57
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Not a known bug. Probably something quirky on your machine. Go through the standard troubleshooting instructions at the top of the tech support forum. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| The Future of Blades of Avernum in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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written Saturday, December 9 2006 10:51
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Some quick notes before I go out the door. I have plans to release the code of Blades of Exile before too long. First, though, I have to find it. The Windows code is trapped on an old machine, and I need to figure out how to get it out. The Blades of Avernum code won't be made public for quite a while, though. It does still sell, slowly, and I want to try to recoup a bit more before I give it away. Reducing its price to $15 has helped sales, and I am still generating new people to play your scenarios. About the Unhandled Exceptions. I would bet money the situation here is caused by using calls to affect characters/items/whatever that are out of range. (Like setting the level of character -3, or character 220.) Whenever I looked at a scenario with this sort of crash, the problem was accessing something out of range. Pre-Intel Macintoshes handle looking out of bounds of an array fairly well. Windows (and Intel Macs) frequently crash under the same circumstances. That's why you're getting the crashes when you move the thing from Mac to Windows. A lot of this is my fault for not putting good enough error checking in. I skimped on this because I was freaking out over how long it was taking to make the scripting engine, and it was a real mistake. If I have to patch Blades of Avernum to make it work on Vista, I'll also try to tighten the script error checking up a bit. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| The Future of Blades of Avernum in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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written Friday, December 8 2006 22:32
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Now that I've had time to take a breath and figure out what my schedule looks like for the next while, I wanted to let the Blades of Avernum community know what's going to happen. I'm actually leaving for one of those vacation things tomorrow, so I won't be able to respond to comments right away. But I did want to get the information out. 1. I will still be maintaining Blades of Avernum so that it provides a reliable gaming experience for people who want to play the scenarios. For Mac fans, I will be releasing a Universal (i.e. Intel Compatible) version. For Windows fans, I will make sure the game runs properly under Vista. For the next few years, I will make sure that the people who registered the game get to play it. 2. We will still be accepting, processing, and providing free hosting for new scenarios. 3. We have no plans to update the game engine or to fix bugs that only affect scenario designers. 4. We have no plans to ever again release a game where users can design scenarios. The current game systems are too complicated for most users to pick up in a reasonable time frame, the games themselves take way too much time to write, and after their release we are generally too busy keeping the business afloat to support them as well as we would like. A bit more information on what's going on here, and why we had to come to these decisions. Blades of Avernum took a LOT of work to develop. Taking the scripting system and turning it into something suitable for general release took far longer than we expected. And Blades of Avernum was not a successful product. It didn't sell nearly as well as it needed to to maintain a healthy business. As a result, for the two years following its release, I had to work like mad to try to catch up, sales-wise. It got to the point where, if Avernum 4 wasn't successful, Spiderweb Software was going to close. Fortunately, Avernum 4 surpassed expectations, so this company is still a going concern. (A portion of the Spiderweb community was disappointed in Avernum 4. Bear in mind, however, when I look at it, I see the game that saved my business.) However, to stay profitable, I need to concentrate more than I did in the past on making sure hours spent in development are not wasted. Which brings us back to Blades of Avernum. To fix the scenario engine bugs (which, I stress, affect only a tiny portion of the people who ever install the game) will take weeks of Mac development and testing, followed by porting the changes to Windows and testing them, followed by the work of a release, followed by making everyone update their copy to be able to play the new changes, plus the work and expense of printing new CDs. I have looked at the scenario bugs list quite a number of times. They are irritating problems, to be sure, but there is nothing there that justifies this level of commitment. For the work to be worth it, these things have to happen. 1. The improvements have to result in new scenarios that would not have existed otherwise. 2. These new scenarios will have to bring new people to purchase Blades of Avernum (a game which people didn't want much in the first place). 3. The benefits have to be better than if I sat down and worked on an all-new game people wanted to play. I just don't see these things as happening. But understand something. I am not happy about this. It really pains me to have a product with bugs in it, and it saddens me to let the community down like this. I am sorry. I apologize to the scenario designers for not providing as good a system for their work as they should have. And I am sorry that the realities of keeping my business functioning are forcing me to be so hard-nosed about what my limited development time is spent on. That's all I have to say, except that I'll do my best to make Avernum 5 kick ass. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Avernum 5 Early, Early Notes in Avernum 4 | |
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written Friday, December 8 2006 12:57
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"Now all that's missing is secret passages. Wall bumping plz!" Nope. The new area is up a certain remote river (visited in early games but not Avernum 4). The obstructions in it were cleared by workers sent by the king to reach new areas for Avernum's growing population. There are predictable problems arising from this, but they aren't the main focus of the plot. One of the nice things about setting a game is the underworld is, dude, there are always more caves. :-) - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Current new game schedule in General | |
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written Friday, December 8 2006 12:52
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The new Nethergate will, of course, be for Mac and Windows. Where did I say otherwise? It's the Avernum 4 patch that's Mac-only. I do have plans for games with new engines and worlds, but Geneforge and Avernum are both in storylines that still have to end. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Avernum 5 Early, Early Notes in Avernum 4 | |
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written Friday, December 8 2006 10:21
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There will be boats. - Jeff Vogel -------------------- Official Board Admin spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com Posts: 960 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |