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Import outdoor section problem in Blades of Avernum Editor
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #14
Jeez, how might one pull *that* off, astronomically speaking? One quarter of the day cycle is nighttime? I would think that would only be possible if the planet weren't even remotely spherical.

Uh oh...

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Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Import outdoor section problem in Blades of Avernum
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #14
Jeez, how might one pull *that* off, astronomically speaking? One quarter of the day cycle is nighttime? I would think that would only be possible if the planet weren't even remotely spherical.

Uh oh...

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Suicide in General
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #147
quote:
That is a perfectly sensible and to the point phrase, or having you been having trouble with that word recognition class and have now forgotten to read?
You attack my claim to literacy when you have already mispelled the word "definitely." IMAGE(tongue03.gif)

And if I'm not mistaken, dareva was joking about that
quote:
Only insane people think they are sane, or something.
but not about
quote:
isn't not knowing you aren't sane a sign of being insane?
And, er, one other thing:
quote:
I am a mild psychotic with obbsessive tendencies.
Have you been clinically diagnosed? Because otherwise your claim to this condition is disputable.

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Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!! (The home of BoA's HLPM v1.1!)

Rate my scenarios!
Northern Kingdom 0: Prologue
High Level Party Maker
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
skills in Blades of Avernum
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #10
Shiryu: everything's trainable now.

Boots: I got these results from using the character editor. My guess is that since you can't have strength, dexterity, or intelligence below 2, 2 is considered the base for those skills. 3 would be the base for endurance. This just simplifies the numbers: rather than thinking of some skills needing to be 6, some 8, some 10, and some 11, you can think of everything needing to be trained either 6 or 8 times.

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Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
skills in Blades of Avernum
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #4
As far as I can tell, these are the special skills and the skills needed to get them:
Quick Strike: Dexterity at least 8, Melee or Pole Weapons at least 6
Parry: Dex 8, Defense 6
Blademaster: Melee 6, Pole 6
Anatomy: Intelligence 6, Melee or Pole 8
Gymnastics: Strength 8, Dex 10
Pathfinder: Int 8, Nature Lore 8
Magery: Int 10, Mage or Priest Spells 6
Resistance: Dex 10, Endurance 11, Hardiness 8
Magical Efficiency: Magery 8, End 11
Lethal Blow: Anatomy 8, Blademaster 8
Riposte: Parry 8
Sharpshooter: Dex 6, Bows or Thrown Weapons 8
Dread Curse: gained through events in the scenario

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Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Import outdoor section problem in Blades of Avernum Editor
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #11
The problem may be with assumption c). We don't know how long days are, because this varies considerably from planet to planet. I did a different set of calculations based on the signs in A3, posted here, near the bottom of that page, and came to the conclusion that Valorim is about the size of India and therefore that days on the planet of Avernum are roughly nine Earth days in length. My evidence is certainly not definitive, though...

I think it's clear that Jeff didn't intend to be consistent in terms of space and time -- didn't one of those signs say, "Please don't hold us to this"? -- but it's fun to try and work with what he gave us :P

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Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Import outdoor section problem in Blades of Avernum
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #11
The problem may be with assumption c). We don't know how long days are, because this varies considerably from planet to planet. I did a different set of calculations based on the signs in A3, posted here, near the bottom of that page, and came to the conclusion that Valorim is about the size of India and therefore that days on the planet of Avernum are roughly nine Earth days in length. My evidence is certainly not definitive, though...

I think it's clear that Jeff didn't intend to be consistent in terms of space and time -- didn't one of those signs say, "Please don't hold us to this"? -- but it's fun to try and work with what he gave us :P

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Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Bye-Bye Damage Cap in Blades of Avernum
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #16
quote:
I wonder how much damage a level 25 fireblast or arcane blow would do?
I don't know, but, as per TM's post above, I'm sure we'll find out. :P

Really, though, once I'd gotten a few spells up to level 3, everything was fine. More than fine. I was wreaking some serious havoc. Havoc was wrought by me. w00t, as they say.

Apparently it was much more a design problem with VoDT that low-level spells were hopelessly weak than a problem with the BoA engine, at least for me.

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
is it worth it? in Blades of Avernum
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #2
Or if you (like me) despised the Exile interface, BoA is the superior way to go anyway.

I would suggest buying them both if you have the money... combined they are only $45 dollars (with the $10 already-owning-BoE discount on BoA), and BoE will keep you busy until BoA has a number of excellent scenarios for itself.

And BoA's only $25 dollars, by the way. And, regardless of anything else, I think it's worth it.

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Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Empress Prazac's Reign in Blades of Avernum
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #6
Drakey and I had a sizable discussion about history in the Slith Homeland thread. A little more than halfway down the first page we start talking about Avernum and Empire history in general. Although, come to think of it, we never answered a question of mine, which is exactly from what do we know that the Hawthorne the heroes of A1 kill is Hawthorne III? I think I remember this somewhere, but I forget how or where.

What muddles some of this stuff up is that Jeff clearly changed the history in the shift from Exile to Avernum. For example, BoE's VoDT says, "The proclamation is dated 130 years ago. Emperor Stewart has been dead for a century" (text 33 in town 13: Libraries), but BoA says, "The proclamation is dated eighty years ago. Emperor Stewart was dead well before you were born" (state 13 in town 13: Libraries).

Thus in Exile, the First Expedition was 70 years before E1, but in Avernum, it was 50 years before A1. And many other issues crop up. For a more in-depth discussion, look at the link above.

As to the original question, I don't have an answer, but I would like to make a request: can we put up some reasoning behind these dates being ascribed to different scenarios? I remember thinking for some reason that VoDT was after A3, but now I can't find anything more substantial than that it is after A2. We know it's after A2 because the party recognizes the vahnatai as vahnatai: "You suspect you know what it is: a Vahnatai. Bizarre creatures living deep within the earth, who have sworn to somehow entirely destroy the Empire" (state 15, town 15: Vahnatai Caverns). You could make a case for the "have sworn to somehow entirely destroy the Empire" part referring to their part in the Empire-Avernum War of A2 or to the monster plagues of A3; it's ambiguous.

As for the date on ASR... I've looked, but I haven't found anything so far.

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Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Member Status in General
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #3
Face it, Alorael. You're going to be the first (and only) one of us with the title, "Your Postliness." Consider it your custom title, because no one else will have it.

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Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!! (The home of BoA's HLPM, newly updated to v1.1!)

Rate my scenarios!
Northern Kingdom 0: Prologue
High Level Party Maker
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Suicide in General
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #143
Whew! Grammar, people, grammar! Or at least spelling! I find it hard to take a topic seriously when it contains so many posts that are virtually unreadable, and this is a topic that should be taken seriously.

quote:
I'm probably the least sane person I know, but I can grasp facts, physics and philosophy (including meta-physics) better than anyone I know.
I suspect you're (at least verbally) confusing insanity with general wackiness. There are people who are wacky (myself probably included), and then there are people who are genuinely mentally ill. These are two separate (and not mutally exclusive) categories. The mentally ill are the category far more likely to commit suicide.

Objective reality is hard to define, but most of us accept it in our daily lives. Likewise, being rational is hard to define, but we can often point to people who are completely irrational.

Also, that quote is from Tennyson, not Shakespeare, In Memoriam AHH (verses 27 and 85). I also like William Riker's response (in Star Trek TNG) to that quote: "Try it sometime!"

quote:
Fourthly, I may be extremely blunt, but at least I don't beat around the bush.
For this I award you the Certificate of Redundancy Certificate! IMAGE(tongue03.gif) Seriously, though, it's sort of a matter of how you phrase things. It's probably not a good idea to say to a schizophrenic person, "You're crazy. Totally delusional. Out of your mind. Nuts." Even if you're someone that the person really trusts, you might have to work seeking help into the conversation somehow. Similar things apply to other forms of mental illness, clinical depression included.

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Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!! (The home of BoA's HLPM v1.1!)

Rate my scenarios!
Northern Kingdom 0: Prologue
High Level Party Maker
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Member Status in General
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #1
FAQ

Bottom line, he's a Blademaster because he's a moderator. In topics where he's not a moderator, he's a Postmaster General due to his post count.

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Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!! (The home of BoA's HLPM, newly updated to v1.1!)

Rate my scenarios!
Northern Kingdom 0: Prologue
High Level Party Maker
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Oops... in Blades of Avernum
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #12
The spiders won't leave me alone! Their high-pitched chattering voices follow me everywhere! They even talk to me at night! AAAAAAAHHHH!

Actually, since the town name is Administration, you can find the script in the VoDT folder that looks like it's called Administration. It's t9Administrat.txt. Then, open it up and look at the first couple of states. Under START_STATE, there's a message dialog that says that you've killed the Chief Spider. It's only called if (9,14) is equal to 1 and (9,3) is equal to zero. We know that this message shows up if the spider dies and you haven't completed the quest yet. A value of zero usually means you haven't done something, and a value of one usually mean you have. Thus we can guess that (9,3) is the SDF for completing that quest (which you would have to have NOT done yet for the message to show up, so the SDF would have to be equal to zero) and (9,14) is the SDF for killing the Chief Spider (which you would have to have done, so the SDF would be equal to 1).

The other way to do this is to figure out which spider is the Chief Spider in the Scenario Editor. You can do it mostly by location -- he's in a particular spot. To know for sure, open up the dialogue script for this town, t9Administratdlg.txt, and look at which dialogues the Chief Spider spoke. They'll say that they're for a particular personality (in this case 180). Then go back to the editor and click with the Edit Object tool until you've found the spider with that personality. Click on Edit This Creature. Look at Memory Cells 1 and 2. They are 9 and 14, respectively, which means that when he dies, (9,14) gets set to 1.

This sounds really complicated, but it's not when you actually do it.

EDIT: bottom line, find the Chief Spider and look at his Memory Cells. Mem Cells 1 and 2 tell you what you want to know.

[ Thursday, March 25, 2004 22:43: Message edited by: Kelandon ]

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Oops... in Blades of Avernum
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #10
Why is everyone killing the Chief Spider? He's so friendly and harmless! Plus, he thinks you're cute ;) .

Yes, you can take your party out. Walk out the south of Fort Talrus. Or, failing that, use the Character Editor function, Take Out Of Scenario.

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
run_dialog in Blades of Avernum Editor
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #0
Does anyone else think this is kind of wacky? In order to set the response options for dialogues using add_dialog_choice, we refer to numbers 0-2, but in the number we get back from run_dialog we get 1-3. That is, if we say add_dialog_choice(0,"Yes") and the player chooses it, then run_dialog gives us back 1. Likewise, for add_dialog_choice(1,"No"), we'd get back 2, and for the third, it's 2 and 3.

I didn't actually believe this was how it worked until I looked at ASR's t2 town script, state 13. Should this be changed for the next version of BoA?

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Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
run_dialog in Blades of Avernum
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #0
Does anyone else think this is kind of wacky? In order to set the response options for dialogues using add_dialog_choice, we refer to numbers 0-2, but in the number we get back from run_dialog we get 1-3. That is, if we say add_dialog_choice(0,"Yes") and the player chooses it, then run_dialog gives us back 1. Likewise, for add_dialog_choice(1,"No"), we'd get back 2, and for the third, it's 2 and 3.

I didn't actually believe this was how it worked until I looked at ASR's t2 town script, state 13. Should this be changed for the next version of BoA?

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Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Scenario Icons in Blades of Avernum Editor
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #1
quote:
Or did Jeff cook these up just for this scenario?

Yes, kind of. These are custom graphics (sheets 540 and 541 in stealth.cmg). They aren't available in the same way as the graphics in the appendices, but you can copy them and use them as custom graphics, crediting Jeff.

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Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Scenario Icons in Blades of Avernum
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #1
quote:
Or did Jeff cook these up just for this scenario?

Yes, kind of. These are custom graphics (sheets 540 and 541 in stealth.cmg). They aren't available in the same way as the graphics in the appendices, but you can copy them and use them as custom graphics, crediting Jeff.

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Got Friends? (I Don't) in General
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #14
Thank you. I am now dumber for having read the previous post.

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Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!! (The home of BoA's HLPM v1.1!)

Rate my scenarios!
Northern Kingdom 0: Prologue
High Level Party Maker
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
About *shudder?* group work in Blades of Avernum Editor
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #3
Soon, as people start working on and completing scenarios, more scripts will be available on SW's site (specifically, here ), and you can just edit some Memory Cells to get your desired effect. So you don't have to be a coder to make scenarios.

Just understanding how to use Memory Cells is a bit complicated in itself, but it's not nearly as bad as trying to write the scripts directly. I highly recommend trying it; collaborations are hard. And for the time being, while no scripts are up on the site, you can use Jeff's scripts that come with the game.

[ Thursday, March 25, 2004 07:52: Message edited by: Kelandon ]

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Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
About *shudder?* group work in Blades of Avernum
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #3
Soon, as people start working on and completing scenarios, more scripts will be available on SW's site (specifically, here ), and you can just edit some Memory Cells to get your desired effect. So you don't have to be a coder to make scenarios.

Just understanding how to use Memory Cells is a bit complicated in itself, but it's not nearly as bad as trying to write the scripts directly. I highly recommend trying it; collaborations are hard. And for the time being, while no scripts are up on the site, you can use Jeff's scripts that come with the game.

[ Thursday, March 25, 2004 07:52: Message edited by: Kelandon ]

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Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Oops... in Blades of Avernum
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #8
If all else fails, you can edit your copy of VoDT and place a second Chief Spider. To do this, open up the Scenario Editor, open VoDT, load town 9, place another spider (or any monster -- just make sure it's friendly), use the Edit Object tool (a hand) to select it, give it personality 180, and viola! New chief spider.

This is kind of dangerous though -- back up your copy of VoDT before you do it.

Erm, if that doesn't work, you may have to manually reset SDF (9,14). Create a special on the town floor (anywhere, but remember where you put it) that calls special 47. Then add to t9Administrat.txt at the very bottom,

beginstate 47;
set_flag(9,14,0);
end();

Then go and step on that space where you put the special, leave the town and come back. This is rather extreme, but it should give you a new Chief Spider.

EDIT: Err, you may have to leave the town and come back several times that I didn't mention in the process of doing this.

[ Thursday, March 25, 2004 07:31: Message edited by: Kelandon ]

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Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Oops... in Blades of Avernum
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #3
Mmm, a blonde.

Uh, anyway, it's an old thing from BoE. To reset a town's monsters, you go visit 4 other towns. It doesn't seem to work quite the same way in BoA, though (thank god -- that particular "feature" annoyed me). This should work:

It's possible you have to leave the town and come back. Leave the town, go to another town -- not just an outdoor section, but another *town* -- then reset the towns, save changes, and come back to the Administration Level. Hopefully, the Chief Spider should be back.

EDIT: Re-read your post and realized I was being a moron. What I'm saying now should work, though.

EDIT 2: Just tried this to make sure that it works. Yes indeed, if you leave town and come back (going anywhere, outdoor section or town), after having reset the town, then it should be fully reset. The downside of this is that the bad monsters will be back, too (namely the Platebug Queen).

[ Wednesday, March 24, 2004 20:22: Message edited by: Kelandon ]

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Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Bye-Bye Damage Cap in Blades of Avernum
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #5
Well, I was talking about VoDT, where pretty much everything is level 1. That is a good point, though; we as scenario designers could and probably should make higher levels of spells available in low-level scenarios in order to make spellcasting worthwhile.

--------------------
Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.
Smoo: Get ready to face the walls!
Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00

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