Profile for Duskwolf

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AuthorRecent posts
food in The Exile Trilogy
Duskwolf
Warrior
Member # 7633
 written Tuesday, January 8 2008 02:15 Profile #4
The opening of E1 was pretty unforgiving, as far as food goes. You got a little food in Fort Exile, but there wasn't a food store in town, and no obvious clues (besides the manual's hints section) as to where more might be found.
Posts: 66 | Registered: Saturday, November 4 2006 08:00
Macbooks, numeric keypads, and Avernum in Tech Support
Duskwolf
Warrior
Member # 7633
 written Friday, January 4 2008 15:42 Profile #3
Excalibur, Apple decided to drop NumLock and the numeric keypad from the most recent revision of MacBooks. I'm not quite sure why, but my code restores it within Avernum.

Good point about mailing Jeff, BTW. I'll go ahead and do that.

Niemand, the specific mapping this implements is:
Fn+j -> keypad 1Fn+k -> keypad 2Fn+l -> keypad 3Fn+u -> keypad 4Fn+i -> keypad 5Fn+o -> keypad 6Fn+7 -> keypad 7Fn+8 -> keypad 8Fn+9 -> keypad 9
Posts: 66 | Registered: Saturday, November 4 2006 08:00
Macbooks, numeric keypads, and Avernum in Tech Support
Duskwolf
Warrior
Member # 7633
 written Thursday, January 3 2008 23:53 Profile #0
First, the bad news: New Macbooks don't have the "emulated numeric keypad" feature where you get a keypad by typing {jkluio789}. This makes the Avernum games a lot more annoying to play, as you can't move effectively. (The arrow keys move you in kind of weird directions, and don't work at all for the diagonals.)

The good news: There's a simple solution. Right now, it's impractical for anyone except developers. (To those who are: DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES.) However, Jeff could integrate it into the games pretty easily - consider this a black-box code contribution. :)

Here it is. Note that this should be configured to only apply to x86 systems - it's not useful on PPC, as Powerbooks have numeric keypad built-in.
#define FN_KEY 0x8000000000000000LL

struct { int from, to; } keypad_conv[9] = {
{26, 89}, {28, 91}, {25, 92},
{32, 86}, {34, 87}, {31, 88},
{38, 83}, {40, 84}, {37, 85}
};

void GetKeysWrapper(uint64_t *buf) {
int i;
GetKeys(buf);
if(buf[1]) return;
for(i = 0; i < 9; i++) {
if(buf[0] == (FN_KEY | (1LL << keypad_conv[i].from))) {
buf[0] = 1LL << keypad_conv[i].to;
buf[1] = 1LL << (keypad_conv[i].to - 64);
return;
}
}
}
Posts: 66 | Registered: Saturday, November 4 2006 08:00
exile or avernum? in The Exile Trilogy
Duskwolf
Warrior
Member # 7633
 written Monday, December 31 2007 14:20 Profile #15
Oh god, I forgot you don't get experience from summon kills. That'd certainly complicate matters.
Posts: 66 | Registered: Saturday, November 4 2006 08:00
exile or avernum? in The Exile Trilogy
Duskwolf
Warrior
Member # 7633
 written Sunday, December 30 2007 23:10 Profile #9
Worst challenge mode ever.

But now I'm wondering if it's doable. If I recall correctly, you can still summon as a Pacifist. Can you also create walls/barriers? If so, I suspect you might be able to make at least some headway...
Posts: 66 | Registered: Saturday, November 4 2006 08:00
I, II, or III in The Exile Trilogy
Duskwolf
Warrior
Member # 7633
 written Sunday, December 23 2007 15:12 Profile #7
Exile II had weapon improvements as well. They were pretty easy to miss, though.
Posts: 66 | Registered: Saturday, November 4 2006 08:00
Another Old School Game in General
Duskwolf
Warrior
Member # 7633
 written Friday, December 14 2007 15:54 Profile #29
The Exile II music was a piece called CARTHAG.MOD (download here). The metadata says it came from a Connecticut dial-up BBS which was active in the early 1990s.
Posts: 66 | Registered: Saturday, November 4 2006 08:00
Mac Emulator for Windows in Blades of Avernum Editor
Duskwolf
Warrior
Member # 7633
 written Tuesday, December 11 2007 15:29 Profile #2
To take that a step further: there is no legal way to run Mac OS on your computer unless it's an Apple-branded machine. Sorry.
Posts: 66 | Registered: Saturday, November 4 2006 08:00
How does respawning work? in The Exile Trilogy
Duskwolf
Warrior
Member # 7633
 written Sunday, December 9 2007 17:32 Profile #2
Monster respawns are almost certainly variable in all versions of Exile, as towns don't spawn monsters.

If someone can tell me where in the BoE code monster respawns are handled, I can try to figure out whether the rate is similarly variable in Exile I and II. A lot of the code is similar enough that it's possible to make comparisons like that.
Posts: 66 | Registered: Saturday, November 4 2006 08:00
Can't mount Avernum 5 dmg on ppc @ 10.4.10 in Tech Support
Duskwolf
Warrior
Member # 7633
 written Tuesday, November 20 2007 17:11 Profile #5
It looks as though your installation of OS X is missing some components. You'll need to reinstall.

To be specific, what's missing is some files used to display license agreements for disk images. These aren't present in all disk images, explaining why it's only an issue for some. Given that this is missing, though, it's more than likely that there's other stuff that's gone missing as well.
Posts: 66 | Registered: Saturday, November 4 2006 08:00
an exile mod/fan made game in The Exile Trilogy
Duskwolf
Warrior
Member # 7633
 written Tuesday, August 28 2007 22:29 Profile #4
Blades of Exile is currently available under the GNU Public License, which requires that any publicly distributed modifications be published under the same license. In other words, if you use Blades code in your creations, you are legally required to release your source code.
Posts: 66 | Registered: Saturday, November 4 2006 08:00
Can't get Exile to run in The Exile Trilogy
Duskwolf
Warrior
Member # 7633
 written Saturday, August 25 2007 21:02 Profile #7
You don't open applications "with" Classic - as long as everything is set up correctly, anything that's detected as a Classic application is automatically launched under the appropriate environment.

Try redownloading the game? I didn't have any trouble running it, myself. However, I will note that there are a lot of glitches in the emulation. I'd recommend digging up an older Mac and running it under "real" OS 9 if at all possible - it's a much more pleasant experience.
Posts: 66 | Registered: Saturday, November 4 2006 08:00
Random name generators in General
Duskwolf
Warrior
Member # 7633
 written Friday, August 17 2007 14:09 Profile #16
"Moneycoin: The Grasping" sounds more like a White Wolf game than a villain.
Posts: 66 | Registered: Saturday, November 4 2006 08:00
Complete Exile 2 outdoor map (massive spoilers) in The Exile Trilogy
Duskwolf
Warrior
Member # 7633
 written Saturday, August 11 2007 20:50 Profile #26
By a user's request, I've created a "full version" of the outdoor map. It's obviously too large to include the whole thing here, but here's an appetizer:

IMAGE(http://i13.tinypic.com/4t6as61)

A 12 MB ZIP archive containing images of all 56 outdoor regions (including the empty ones) is available here: http://files.filefront.com//;8291303;;/

Note that there are a few glitches. In particular, certain border "frills" may be a little off, roads aren't displayed quite correctly, and a few terrain types I haven't decoded yet are displayed as black blocks with characters in them.

I'll be releasing a corrected version, along with town images and the tools I used to create these images, as soon as I've got all the bugs (chitraches?) ironed out.
Posts: 66 | Registered: Saturday, November 4 2006 08:00
Complete Exile 2 outdoor map (massive spoilers) in The Exile Trilogy
Duskwolf
Warrior
Member # 7633
 written Friday, August 10 2007 15:24 Profile #25
What, the map? As I mentioned earlier, it was mostly an automated process. All I did was decode and colorize it.
Posts: 66 | Registered: Saturday, November 4 2006 08:00
Complete Exile 2 outdoor map (massive spoilers) in The Exile Trilogy
Duskwolf
Warrior
Member # 7633
 written Friday, August 10 2007 09:52 Profile #23
Sullust, I PMed you a link to a set of graphics which I'd posted on a download site. Did you get it?

If anyone else is interested, it's at http://files.filefront.com//;8273443;;/

I don't have Exile I graphics, unfortunately. (I'd be interested in having them, though.)

[ Friday, August 10, 2007 09:54: Message edited by: Duskwolf ]
Posts: 66 | Registered: Saturday, November 4 2006 08:00
A3 Mystery Island in The Avernum Trilogy
Duskwolf
Warrior
Member # 7633
 written Friday, August 10 2007 09:51 Profile #17
Okay, that's really bizarre then. Perhaps it's a difference between the Windows and Mac versions?
Posts: 66 | Registered: Saturday, November 4 2006 08:00
A3 Mystery Island in The Avernum Trilogy
Duskwolf
Warrior
Member # 7633
 written Thursday, August 9 2007 02:10 Profile #15
Well, it would be, if Exile II allowed you to use flight there. Which it doesn't - if you start flying there and try to move, you get the message "Fly: Ceiling too low." This seems to happen whenever you're within 16 squares of the south edge of the world, probably to keep you from flying off the edge (although I don't think that ever becomes a problem).
Posts: 66 | Registered: Saturday, November 4 2006 08:00
Porting between Mac and Windows in Blades of Avernum
Duskwolf
Warrior
Member # 7633
 written Tuesday, August 7 2007 11:23 Profile #16
And it's entirely unnecessary as well, as the DMG format supports compression already.

Could be worse, though. I've seen a .dmg.gz.tar.hqx once.
Posts: 66 | Registered: Saturday, November 4 2006 08:00
A3 Mystery Island in The Avernum Trilogy
Duskwolf
Warrior
Member # 7633
 written Tuesday, August 7 2007 00:01 Profile #13
No, there's no secret passage. I generated a full map, and the ledge is well and truly unreachable.

IMAGE(http://i13.tinypic.com/4qp7rcy.gif)

Here's a close-up of the relevant bit - look at the lower left corner. The passage to get to the pits is through a secret door, but there aren't any secret doors to the part past the pits. The shortest path across the pits flies across five squares of pits (W, W, SW, W, NW, N), which is more than Flight or the Orb can manage.

The rest of the maps are in this thread, BTW.
Posts: 66 | Registered: Saturday, November 4 2006 08:00
A3 Mystery Island in The Avernum Trilogy
Duskwolf
Warrior
Member # 7633
 written Sunday, August 5 2007 21:13 Profile #9
In Exile 2, there's an outdoor special node on a little ledge in the Spore Tunnels which is completely unreachable thanks to being located across 10+ tiles of pit, in a region where flight isn't allowed.

It drops ember flowers. Bit of a letdown, if you ask me.

[ Sunday, August 05, 2007 21:14: Message edited by: Duskwolf ]
Posts: 66 | Registered: Saturday, November 4 2006 08:00
Town Lighting in Blades of Exile
Duskwolf
Warrior
Member # 7633
 written Thursday, June 28 2007 15:08 Profile #11
In fact, all special encounters were hard-coded in the Exile games.
Posts: 66 | Registered: Saturday, November 4 2006 08:00
Purchase only vista operating system in Tech Support
Duskwolf
Warrior
Member # 7633
 written Wednesday, June 20 2007 09:25 Profile #2
I'm not sure I'd want to buy software from a company that's selling obsolete software, anyway.
Posts: 66 | Registered: Saturday, November 4 2006 08:00
OBoE Suggestion List in Blades of Exile
Duskwolf
Warrior
Member # 7633
 written Tuesday, June 19 2007 02:02 Profile #7
I've got a Python script that'll "explode" a resource file into a directory full of data files. I don't have one that'll do the reverse yet, but I could probably make it if it'd be sufficiently useful. Interested?
Posts: 66 | Registered: Saturday, November 4 2006 08:00
Exile Trilogy for Vista? in The Exile Trilogy
Duskwolf
Warrior
Member # 7633
 written Tuesday, June 19 2007 01:50 Profile #7
The Exile games are kind of screwy under Classic, though. In particular, a few fights in Exile II would consistently crash under Classic, but run fine on a real OS 9 machine.
Posts: 66 | Registered: Saturday, November 4 2006 08:00

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