Profile for Red_Sage

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Nethergate: Resurrection v1.0 for Windows notes in Nethergate
Red_Sage
Apprentice
Member # 374
 written Tuesday, August 14 2007 09:21 Profile #14
I cant wait to play this.
Posts: 32 | Registered: Tuesday, December 11 2001 08:00
a4 is the best game yet in Avernum 4
Red_Sage
Apprentice
Member # 374
 written Tuesday, May 2 2006 13:37 Profile #46
quote:
Originally written by Thuryl:

If Al can do all that while working within a single game engine, why can't Jeff do that with the benefit of being able to program a new engine for every game?
[/QB]
Jeff does the manpower work equivalent of atleast 7 (story, gamedesign *2, programming*3, some art), Al perhaps the work of 3 maybe 4.
Posts: 32 | Registered: Tuesday, December 11 2001 08:00
a4 is the best game yet in Avernum 4
Red_Sage
Apprentice
Member # 374
 written Tuesday, May 2 2006 13:31 Profile #45
Baldur's Gate I - II is crap compared to Planescape Torment. Epic storylines are engaging but not moving. Alot of people are comparing A4 to prior offerings with rose tinted glass, making them unable to judge objectively.

Technically A4 is the best offering yet, most detailed art yet (though not as vibrant as those of Exile series) with fuller animations,seamless world, a more streamlined fighting engine, removal of retarded annoyances as weight limits, secret doors, arrow hoarding, food, sleep, death and highly contrived puzzles. Storywise though, it is pretty straightforward albeit a fair bit engaging.

My only qualms are the removal of potion brewing - i liked the sense of accomplishment from looking at my very own potion i brewed, reduced variation and hence strategy in spells: simply damage and heal :S, no capture soul, scry monster, stealth, etc., walk distance limit and finally having to enter fight mode to kill a rat when at level 20.

[ Tuesday, May 02, 2006 13:42: Message edited by: Red_Sage ]
Posts: 32 | Registered: Tuesday, December 11 2001 08:00
Behold the Power of Doors in Avernum 4
Red_Sage
Apprentice
Member # 374
 written Tuesday, May 2 2006 12:58 Profile #6
I seem to remember in Exile doors making that creepy creaky sound without my being the one to do it. *shivers*
Posts: 32 | Registered: Tuesday, December 11 2001 08:00
Coin Cap at 30k? in Avernum 4
Red_Sage
Apprentice
Member # 374
 written Tuesday, May 2 2006 12:49 Profile #9
quote:
Originally written by Thuryl:

If you want the real reason, it's because of the way that numbers are stored in computers. Your current coin total is stored as a signed two-byte integer, which can only go up to 32767 before it wraps around and becomes negative. To prevent wraparound bugs, a cap is imposed at 30000.
That seems strange, I dont think thats why. Why not simply use a 32 or 64 bit integer then? And your XP can go much higher than that. Which even in memory is at least 16 bits (likely 32 bits) in width. On disk your eXp = val_at_offset_5fc3 * 256 + val_at_offset_5fc2

[ Tuesday, May 02, 2006 12:51: Message edited by: Red_Sage ]
Posts: 32 | Registered: Tuesday, December 11 2001 08:00
Avernum 4 Traits and Skills Editor in Avernum 4
Red_Sage
Apprentice
Member # 374
 written Tuesday, May 2 2006 12:03 Profile #9
Sorry guys Ive been busy.

Editor

Here is another one Archmage, please upload. Thanks!

Also, if you are running Mac OS X you might consider installing Mono Framework for Mac OS X which may allow you to use the editor as well.

*Why am I a new arrival if Ive been registered since 2001? Harrumpph*

[ Tuesday, May 02, 2006 13:48: Message edited by: Red_Sage ]
Posts: 32 | Registered: Tuesday, December 11 2001 08:00
Avernum 4 Traits and Skills Editor in Avernum 4
Red_Sage
Apprentice
Member # 374
 written Friday, April 21 2006 16:35 Profile #6
Can anyone with the ability to host .Exes executable please host this for me? It would be quite appreciated as emailing individually is a tad time consuming.

Till I can find a host just email, PM me, or post here and ill send it to you. Ill update the original post once i have a host.

[ Friday, April 21, 2006 16:45: Message edited by: Red_Sage ]
Posts: 32 | Registered: Tuesday, December 11 2001 08:00
Avernum 4 Traits and Skills Editor in Avernum 4
Red_Sage
Apprentice
Member # 374
 written Wednesday, April 5 2006 04:07 Profile #0
Hey guys, i've been getting a fair bit of interest in the "editor" I wrote some weeks ago. Sorry for not actually uploading it. It was sort of a quick weekend hobby project to figure out the save format and ehm redistribute some points... Anyways I really didnt think far forward cause I wrote it in C# and targeted the .Net 2.0 platform. I apologize for this, although in the future, thanks to projects like this , targeting .net would gurantee cross platform availability.

But if you have windows and a fast internet connection then I suggest you download the .Net 2.0 platform anyway. Lots of new stuff gonna need it and you're gonna have to get it sooner or later.

*********************************************
*Avernum 4 Skills/Traits Editor
*
*********************************************

To use it goto your avernum directory open the folder corresponding the slot you wish (i.e. save17, i believe is quicksave) and open the file "data".

------
private int[] off_arr = new int []{24006,29158,34310,39462 }; //offsets for each character

fs.Seek(curr_off, SeekOrigin.Begin); //c_data, s_data etc are all of type byte or unsigned char for C++ people.
fs.Read(c_data, 0, 61);//stats
fs.Seek(19, SeekOrigin.Current);
fs.Read(s_data, 0, 79);//spells
fs.Seek(241, SeekOrigin.Current);
fs.Read(t_data, 0, 29);//traits

[ Tuesday, May 09, 2006 03:53: Message edited by: Red_Sage ]
Posts: 32 | Registered: Tuesday, December 11 2001 08:00
Avernum V in Avernum 4
Red_Sage
Apprentice
Member # 374
 written Wednesday, March 15 2006 10:36 Profile #43
I find it amusing people are arguing about biological limitations in a world where the laws of physics hold no sway and magic rules. Conservation of matter for one , and gravitational effects for the other (ridiculously high weight carrying, dont get me wrong I like the removal of such annoying things that do not enhance the game experience - ppl play games to escape reality, not to have to eat, pee, shower, sleep). I see no reason why in a world of magic, cross breeding between species would not be possible. Ehm, Half Dragon/ Half Human? Divinity in bloodline (Divinely Touched).

Dintiradan, some sliths never reach the age of thought or some similar. All sliths are born little less than lizards until someday, abruptly, they can have thoughts. It is not a sure thing however, since some sliths never experience this phenemonom and hence never have thoughts and remain primitive.

[ Wednesday, March 15, 2006 10:44: Message edited by: Red_Sage ]
Posts: 32 | Registered: Tuesday, December 11 2001 08:00
magery vs spellcraft in Avernum 4
Red_Sage
Apprentice
Member # 374
 written Wednesday, March 15 2006 10:29 Profile #4
quote:
Originally written by Euphemism Wrapped in an Innuendo:

Spellcraft and Magery are functionally identical. Raise whichever costs fewer skill points (so you'll eventually raise both). They increase the bonus in the formula for spell effects.

Magical Efficiency doesn't improve your spells, but it has a chance of reducing the amount of energy you expend by casting them. Since this is a random chance and not very likely even for significant amounts of Magical Efficiency, it's generally considered a nearly worthless skill. I wouldn't bother putting points in it.

—Alorael, who can also add that all skills affect mage spells and priest spells identically except for the obvious pair of skills dedicated solely to one or the other.
Actually, at 100, your efficiency is so good that you end up might as well having infinite spell energy. Everything costs 0. With the odd spell costing 1 -2 albeit easily replaced by first aid.

[ Wednesday, March 15, 2006 10:31: Message edited by: Red_Sage ]
Posts: 32 | Registered: Tuesday, December 11 2001 08:00
Changes for Better or Worse? in Avernum 4
Red_Sage
Apprentice
Member # 374
 written Saturday, March 11 2006 22:31 Profile #4
The only thing I dislike are the lack of awesomely detailed item descriptions of the exile series and no Scry monster spell. I guess I miss capture soul/simulacrum as well. Otherwise great game, everything is streamlined for less headache and more gameplay. Like the seemingly seamless world too.
Posts: 32 | Registered: Tuesday, December 11 2001 08:00
Easter eggs? in Avernum 4
Red_Sage
Apprentice
Member # 374
 written Saturday, March 11 2006 22:23 Profile #33
How about X and the his research on the ultimate spell of dropping anvils from the sky unto the head of enemies? That was pretty amusing.
Posts: 32 | Registered: Tuesday, December 11 2001 08:00
Av4 Character Editor... will one ever be made in Avernum 4
Red_Sage
Apprentice
Member # 374
 written Saturday, March 11 2006 22:00 Profile #27
I finished the editor to a decent state but it requires .NET 2.0 framework since i wrote it in C#. You can get that from microsoft. I used Visual C# for GUI design purposes only, little else allows as smooth Rapid application development. The actual data itself requires little code. I will also post what i have decoded at the end of this post. I might come back to this later to add item support. Dunno.

Screenies:
IMAGE(http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/1646/scr23el.th.gif) IMAGE(http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/3698/scr15ib.th.gif) IMAGE(http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/3516/scr34te.th.gif)

Notice the -131% XP adjustment on my character, if you have more than 2 positive traits the XP adjustment starts to go down! I havent upload the exe file yet but will if anyone is interested.

Core code:
private int[] off_arr = new int []{24006,29158,34310,39462 }; //offsets for each character

fs.Seek(curr_off, SeekOrigin.Begin); //c_data, s_data etc are all of type byte or unsigned char for C++ people.
fs.Read(c_data, 0, 61);//stats
fs.Seek(19, SeekOrigin.Current);
fs.Read(s_data, 0, 79);//spells
fs.Seek(241, SeekOrigin.Current);
fs.Read(t_data, 0, 29);//traits


[ Saturday, March 11, 2006 22:16: Message edited by: Red_Sage ]
Posts: 32 | Registered: Tuesday, December 11 2001 08:00
Av4 Character Editor... will one ever be made in Avernum 4
Red_Sage
Apprentice
Member # 374
 written Wednesday, March 8 2006 08:02 Profile #22
I'm making one but unfortunately, it will only be for windows users (being as I'll be using Visual C++ .NET) and I dont think I have the stamina to allow for item editing. Itll just be stats, traits and money editing. Ive figured out most of the save format info with regards to characters.

"Header" stores the little image, time, date and all that. "Data" is where character info starts. Stuff like Level, for the first character, is stored at the 23968th byte, stats begin at the 24006th etc. I was bored last night. :D

p.s. i started because i didnt pay attention to the unlock door - tool use connection. :mad: :mad: Took care of that problem. :)

[ Wednesday, March 08, 2006 08:13: Message edited by: Red_Sage ]
Posts: 32 | Registered: Tuesday, December 11 2001 08:00
A4 Windows 99% cpu time in Tech Support
Red_Sage
Apprentice
Member # 374
 written Wednesday, March 8 2006 07:50 Profile #20
I'd just like to point out that all games by their nature use ~100% of the CPU time because they are either using most resources exclusively when in focus and even when idle, run a nonterminating main loop. Hence the CPU usage. Not a bad thing. The CPU usage is likely unrelated to your problem.
Posts: 32 | Registered: Tuesday, December 11 2001 08:00
Avernum 4? in General
Red_Sage
Apprentice
Member # 374
 written Friday, August 26 2005 06:30 Profile #88
I cannot say that I am not disappointed in the reactions of much of the community, at the very least, they were very childish. Perhaps you people have not taken a look at the current list of best selling games in the commercial world, all sequels and franchises e.g. Half Life 2, Halo 2, World of Warcraft, Sims 2, Sims Xpansion #2423, KOTR 2, Game version of Any Recently released action movie etc ( I will not even mention MMORPGs). That even they, with their massive teams and even more grandoise budgets cannot do better - are to afraid to - it seems unfair to place so much harsh judgement on one man who does and tries.

Atleast his games have an element of new gameplay and most definately new scenarios, so brilliantly done that they manage to draw you in without the help of any virtually displaced mapped, pixel shaded, stencil buffered (yet soft) shadowed, cubed mapped graphics. Perhaps you prefer the commercial method of recycling decades old stories and gameplay while simply giving them new facelifts and graphics, I cannot say I do. I would have expected this community to have not based all their judgement on mere graphics, making silly inflexible statements as 'I cannot play this game because it uses the engine of another, I am thirsty but I refuse to drink from that bowl as it reminds me of eating soup and thus will ruin my drinking experience.'. Imagination, creativity, flexibility..but I digress.

Then I suppose that you must dislike most all games, which you can be sure, more often than not liscenced some commonly used and time tested engine (i.e. unreal, quake etc). Even if the graphics of A4 are indeed recycled which seems a bit of a hasty conclusion considering the early state of development the game is in - creating artwork is one of the most time consuming portions of making any game - at least it is not the gameplay that is being recycled over and over again. Doom 3?

Surely you people do not mind risks? This is an indie, it is from the commercial that one expects the same rehashed gameplay for fear of innovations which will likely as not result in decreased revenue. Even if it will be real time, surely you must respect the competancy of Jeff and his ability to create new and interesting scenarios and gameplay settings with the new enviroment?

I apologize for the rant, I was simply taken aback by the nature of the majority of the responses. I will note that I currently do not consider this a continuation of the Avernum Trilogy, more some event that takes place in the (near?) future of the avernum universe. The empire, exiles, vahnatai struggle is over. I for one expect much from this game but will nonetheless be very hard to disappoint out of respect of ability, I am very much aware of how difficult it is to make a game. The programming is almost trivial compared to designing an interesting world with even fair story (hence the overfocus on graphics int Triple AAA titles). Most dont even try, Jeff does.

=======

About a possible new race, remember in the Isle of Bigail in the Spider Cave? There were some buildings and temples from some ancient advanced race who it was implied were neither vahnatai nor human or any known race for that matter.. A vanished people, I think

[ Friday, August 26, 2005 06:40: Message edited by: Red_Sage ]
Posts: 32 | Registered: Tuesday, December 11 2001 08:00
Avernum 4: The Stone of Night in General
Red_Sage
Apprentice
Member # 374
 written Saturday, July 16 2005 06:49 Profile #43
I liked Exile 3 best as well. The story was moving and a fitting conclusion to the epic. I cant wait for Avernum 4, the postquel though, it would be impossible to disappoint me...

hmm.. a new engine, I wonder if it will be in 3D or in 2D but using a 3D API. I doubt pixel or vertex shaders since Jeff has always had lesser end PCs in mind when designing. Although personally, in terms of graphics, I prefer Exile to Avernum as the graphics were alot more detailed in the former.

[ Saturday, July 16, 2005 07:17: Message edited by: Red_Sage ]
Posts: 32 | Registered: Tuesday, December 11 2001 08:00