Magus of Cattalon loophole (spoiler?)

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AuthorTopic: Magus of Cattalon loophole (spoiler?)
Law Bringer
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I don't know if this has been discussed already, but if exploring in combat mode (which I do almost always), you can enter the northern room with the beams on the first level of the tower, and if you cross it in the same turn, you can bypass the beams.

Or was this meant to be the solution?

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BANNED
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That's an easily-avoidable BoA glitch called the "begin-end combat trick."

The solution is to place blocked-to-monsters spaces.

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Posts: 6936 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
...b10010b...
Member # 869
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No, it sounds like this is a different trick, exploiting the fact that beams take a round to turn on.

[ Wednesday, March 01, 2006 23:00: Message edited by: Thuryl ]

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The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure!
Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Law Bringer
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quote:
Originally written by Prometheus:

That's an easily-avoidable BoA glitch called the "begin-end combat trick."

The solution is to place blocked-to-monsters spaces.

Except I'm not ending combat. Since BoA apparently allows parties to use stairways (and portals?) to other towns while in combat mode, I just have a single character walk through the trap and enter the stairway, thus placing my party in the upper level (and ending combat mode automaticall).

Using blocked-to-monster spaces could only work if you put them around the stairway in the other town, but that would likely generate nasty crashes.
Since combat mode is ended implicitly by the town change, I guess having party placement fail on town entry would cause something bad.

However, using combat blocks to prevent the party from entering the trap in combat mode (I've seen this before, so it obviously exists) would fix it.

Of course, a more brutal fix would just prevent the party from using the stairway in combat mode, potentially leaving them stuck inside the barrier. But that would be cruel.

[ Thursday, March 02, 2006 02:04: Message edited by: Left Outer Join ]

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EncyclopaediaArchivesMembersRSS [Topic / Forum] • BlogPolarisNaNoWriMo
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.
I have a love of woodwind instruments.
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Guardian
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I remember doing something similar to pass the trap rune in Bahs (Machinery).

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IF I EVER BECOME AN EVIL OVERLORD:
My noble half-brother whose throne I usurped will be killed, not kept anonymously imprisoned in a forgotten cell of my dungeon.
Posts: 1509 | Registered: Tuesday, January 10 2006 08:00
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #5
Yet another spoiler.
.
.
.
.

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The cutscenes in Fahrango are seriously messed up. I entered the town and immediately got attacked by giants on the next step, which popped up all around me. I figured this was intended, but after I defeated them, there was a dialogue message from some seargent I couldn't see.

After that, I got moved over to the market square, where the same seargent asked me where the hell I was coming from.

After I had answered, the cutscene jumped back to where I was and again moved to the market square; but this time it transitioned in steps.

Then, some soldier came running into the town shouting "Giants!". The soldiers got into position awaiting an enemy, but nobody came. Evidently I had killed one half of that battle scene before schedule.

The cutscene work is brilliant as such, but I daresay it could be rearranged a little more logically...

Edit:

This probably has nothing to do with the scenario, but I'm finding myself hopelessly confused by this message.

IMAGE(http://stuff.ermarian.net/arancaytar/images/misc/boa_armorfish.png)

WTF?

[ Thursday, March 02, 2006 18:58: Message edited by: Left Outer Join ]

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EncyclopaediaArchivesMembersRSS [Topic / Forum] • BlogPolarisNaNoWriMo
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.
I have a love of woodwind instruments.
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #6
And now I'm stuck.

In the following order:

1. I got a mission from the one-armed commander in Ferrow to clean out an onevean cave, and did that.
2. I got the other mission to free some humans from a Nephil fortress to the north (but only did it later)
3. I signed up for the army.

It seems like talking to Beohram would be the next step, but I couldn't find him in his office. He's in the dining hall, but claims he already gave me orders, which he didn't.

I thought for a while that he was going to order me to attack the Nephil fort, and it got messed up since I already had that mission from the Ferrow commander, but completing that didn't change it in any way (although I did get a reward in Ferrow).

Now it seems I'm stuck. There's nothing to the north (except some cave for which I'd need to fly), I can't get to the West without "orders from a high-ranking commander", and Beohram (who I guess is the one I need) claims I already got that order, and I've explored and done everything else.

What else should I do next?

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EncyclopaediaArchivesMembersRSS [Topic / Forum] • BlogPolarisNaNoWriMo
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.
I have a love of woodwind instruments.
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Shock Trooper
Member # 5459
Profile Homepage #7
quote:
I don't know if this has been discussed already, but if exploring in combat mode (which I do almost always), you can enter the northern room with the beams on the first level of the tower, and if you cross it in the same turn, you can bypass the beams
Fixed that one. You can no longer enter the room in combat mode.

quote:
The cutscenes in Fahrango are seriously messed up. I entered the town and immediately got attacked by giants on the next step, which popped up all around me. I figured this was intended, but after I defeated them, there was a dialogue message from some seargent I couldn't see.

After that, I got moved over to the market square, where the same seargent asked me where the hell I was coming from.

After I had answered, the cutscene jumped back to where I was and again moved to the market square; but this time it transitioned in steps.

Then, some soldier came running into the town shouting "Giants!". The soldiers got into position awaiting an enemy, but nobody came. Evidently I had killed one half of that battle scene before schedule.

The cutscene work is brilliant as such, but I daresay it could be rearranged a little more logically.
Um, did you download the scenario from Spiderweb? You entered the town from the west, right? I seem to remember that I fixed that one and my site should have the fixed version. I'll look into it.

quote:

Now it seems I'm stuck. There's nothing to the north (except some cave for which I'd need to fly), I can't get to the West without "orders from a high-ranking commander", and Beohram (who I guess is the one I need) claims I already got that order, and I've explored and done everything else.
Did you re-enter the fort and ask Beohram again? He would be in his office again. That could well be a designing error that I hope I fixed. Well, not fixed as such.

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These are my scenarios. I may have too much free time but I really don't care.
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Posts: 211 | Registered: Sunday, January 30 2005 08:00
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #8
It's probably a flag that didn't get set. I'll rummage in the scripts for a bit and look for it, then set it in the character editor.

I'll tell you when I've found it so you can check where the error occurs...

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What annoys me about BoA is that practically the only place to get all scenarios is at Spiderweb, and the versions are ancient. So in other words, to find a new scenario, I go to Spiderweb, play it halfway, get stuck in a bug, and download the new scenario from the source.

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And that "BoA Center" doesn't work either. Keeping a centralized site updated constantly is too much for a single person. What we'd need is a database that can be updated by the designers themselves; it wouldn't even need to store the scenarios, just links to the authors' sites. Ah well...

Edit:

I know next to nothing about scripting, but I changed the dialogue node below, and it appears to work now (I've experimented with setting the flag both ways, and he gives the proper response both times).

Since I can't see any errors in the original code, I'm stumped; it should do the same as what I put in. Or did I miss something?
Especially since if it actually is an error, it would have made the scenario unfinishable. Not exactly the kind of thing to escape a beta tester. :confused:

Changed this:

begintalknode 20;
state = -1;
nextstate = 21;
question = "Beohram";
text1 = "You find Beohram in the dinner hall. He is eating with a group of soldiers.
He has yet to give you any notice.";
text5 = "Beohram picks up another piece of bread.";
text6 = "Beohram waves you off. _You have your orders. Now if you would just
let me finish my meal, then we can discuss more._";
action = INTRO;
code = if (get_flag(4,6) != 0) {
remove_string(5);
end();
}
if (get_flag(4,6) == 0)
remove_string(6);
break;

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To this:

begintalknode 20;
state = -1;
nextstate = 21;
question = "Beohram";
text1 = "You find Beohram in the dinner hall. He is eating with a group of soldiers.
He has yet to give you any notice.";
text5 = "Beohram picks up another piece of bread.";
text6 = "Beohram waves you off. _You have your orders. Now if you would just
let me finish my meal, then we can discuss more._";

action = INTRO;
code =

if (get_flag(4,6) == 0) {
remove_string(6);
} else {
remove_string(5);
end();
}
break;
Edit: I changed it back and reloaded an earlier save file, and it worked as well. So now I'm really confused.

But anyway, whatever was the problem, it's gone. :)

[ Friday, March 03, 2006 16:30: Message edited by: Left Outer Join ]

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EncyclopaediaArchivesMembersRSS [Topic / Forum] • BlogPolarisNaNoWriMo
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.
I have a love of woodwind instruments.
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #9
And... done!

I'm estimating my playing time at about 25-30 hours in total. I'm not sure if it beats Bahssikava in terms of playing time, but it sure beat everything else.

This is awesome.

...

Smoo, you, TM and Kel ought to have children. They would be the Gods of Blades. :P

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EncyclopaediaArchivesMembersRSS [Topic / Forum] • BlogPolarisNaNoWriMo
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.
I have a love of woodwind instruments.
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00