Scenario Editor Bugs Page

Important Update Note:

We have been asked several times recently when we are planning to release an upgrade to Blades of Exile. There are a few bugs in the scenario editor, which keep designers from using all the possible features.

The big problem with this situation is that, if I did release an upgrade, and scenario editors did start using those features, the thousands of users of Blades of Exile would have to get and install upgrades to use the scenarios. The big question then: would the things we gained by doing an upgrade be good enough to offset the considerable inconvenience to BoE users?

At this point, we believe that the answer is no. The difficulty doesn't seem to outweigh the gain. Our apologies to anyone who thinks that this is an unwise decision. As you continue to find bugs, please keep letting us know about them. When the benefit of fixing them grows large enough, we will gladly release an update.

Important Note for Windows Scenario Designers:

Dialogue is drawn smaller on Windows Blades of Exile than Macintosh Blades of Exile. This is just a function of what sizes the font looks good at on each system and the different ways the systems render text. As a result, if your dialogue fills the talking window in the Windows version, it won't be readable in the Mac version. This is a serious problem in several existing scenarios.

It's been our policy from Day 1 that, if a scenario won't work for a large number of people, we would be doing our registered users a disservice by keeping these scenarios on our site. A scenario which is unplayable for over half of the Blades of Exile owners definitely counts. We will start removing scenarios with this problem from our site.

This is an easy problem to fix. If, in Windows, a bit of dialogue fills over 3/4 of the dialogue area, it's probably too long. Shorten it. We're sorry for the difficulty, but, at this point, it's what we see as the only reasonable option.

Bug for both Macintosh and Windows (Reported on 10-17-00 by Robert.Ashton@ds-s.com):

Here is an excerpt from an email describing a problem with a Relocate Outdoors node and the work around the author used to get around the bug:

For you information, I am now able to recreate the problem with Relocate Outdoors at will and can supply a copy of the errrant scenario file if requested. The RO is near the northern border of a town. When I move the north border two lines north (i.e. to within two squares of the edge) then the RO (which is five sqaures from the edge) prints a text message but does not relocate - moving the RO node or re-defining it does not help. If I subsequently move the northern town border back to a "safe" four squares from the edge then the RO node starts working properly again. Now that I understand the initiation of the error then I can avoid it. Incidently, moving the other town borders does NOT affect my RO node.

Bugs for both Macintosh and Windows (as of 9/15/99):

There are a number of minor bugs reported in new articles in the articles sections and the Q&A sections. One of them is of particular interest.

• Whenever a party changes towns via a stairway, if there is a special node in the new town in the same coordinates as the stairway node of the old town, then this special is called, even if the party's new location is nowhere near there. Work around this by only having stairways take the party to spaces with no special encounters.
• Do not make a town with 100 or more towns. This will cause crashes. Actually, it's my opinion that 100 or more towns is probably too much anyway.

Bugs for both Macintosh and Windows (as of 2/2/99):

• The special node which destroys all items in a rectangle doesn't work right. It only destroys items in the upper left corner.
• One designer has gotten nasty crashes trying to have a special encounter triggered by Ritual of Sanctification. Test any scenario using Rituals thoroughly (and please let me know if it works or doesn't work).
• Be very careful with using maximum numbers of creatures in towns (e.g. when 100 creatures are killed, the town is cleaned out). Don't use this in any town with someone the characters have to be able to talk to/encounter/kill to continue the scenario. Blades is very liberal with what it considers a creature which counts towards the maximum total. In general, use this feature only in towns/dungeon levels that are occupied by either non-important monsters or important monsters which are placed by a special encounter.
• Conveyor belts don't move items correctly. If the player opens a save file inside a town with conveyor belts, the belts sometimes won't move items on them.
• The Affect Webs node doesn't seem to work right.
• The values of Extra 2a for Change Horse Possession and Change Boat Possession special nodes are backwards. To make the horse/boat the parties property, set Extra 2a to 1, not 0.
• When the party is outdoors and you use Node 228: Outdoor Move Party, DO NOT move the party to within 4 spaces of the edge of the outdoor section. This can cause crashes when a user plays your scenario.

Macintosh Scenario Editor Bugs	Windows Scenario Editor Bugs
1. Scenario Editor Bug Update: 2/13/98 The Gold, Silver, and Bronze Serpent Rings don't work right. To correct them, go into Item Editing and bring up the Abilities Window. In Ability Strength, enter 99 (Gold and Bronze) or 100 (Silver). For Mac Blades of Exile v1.0 and v1.0.1, the Terrain This Type (Outdoors) If-Then special node does not work right. I recommend avoiding its use if at all possible. In town mode, special encounters are not tripped if the party sails over them while in a boat. This is now a permanent, unsightly feature. 2. Version 1.0 of the scenario editor has a few minor bugs in it: The Delete Last Towns feature does not work. To correct this bug, download the Blades of Exile Update. Go to Download Scenario Editor Page. The Alien Beast is messed up when placed in a town. To correct this, go into editing monsters, open the Alien Beast, and press OK. The problem will be fixed automatically. In new scenarios, the alchemy ingredients will not combine properly. To correct the problem so that alchemy ingredients will combine properly with ingredients from other scenarios, set the item's type flags to these values: Holly - 21, Comfrey Root - 22, Glowing Nettle - 23, Wormgrass - 24, Asptongue Mold - 50, Graymold - 25, Ember Flowers - 26, Mandrake Root - 27 Instructions on how to include custom dialogue graphics was forgotten. To find out how to do this, go to article 3 on the Articles and Examples page. Invulnerability potions will actually haste the user. This bug will be there until the next full upgrade of the game. The graphics for living statues and cave fortresses in v1.0 still use the old, turquoise cave floor. The next upgrade of the game will have the new graphics, but people using an older version will not see the correct graphic. You may wish to work around this by using a custom graphic. Rest special nodes don't work if the party has been in combat recently. Don't put Rest special nodes where places where people get into fights. Debug mode doesn't work right in Blades of Exile v1.0. Be sure to upgrade to v1.0.1 as soon as possible. All of the Adobe Walls in new scenarios made before v1.0.1 are spelled "Abode Walls". You may want to go in and fix that. Scenarios made with the Windows scenario editor won't work right on Mac Blades of Exile v1.0. The rectangles (such as the border of the towns) won't be read in right. Bear this in mind when you get tech support E-mail from Mac users.	1. Important bug (v1.0) - This is a serious bug in the Windows Scenario Editor version 1.0. There is a workaround. Whenever you create a new town in the Windows scenario editor, ALWAYS save the scenario just before and just after making the new town. Then you won't have any problems. Hope to have an upgrade available soon. If you've already been stuck with this bug ... First, back up the scenario. Then use the Delete Last Town feature repeatedly, saving after each time, until all of the towns in the scenario are correct and uncorrupted. Let me know if you have any trouble with this, through email at b l a d e s@ spiderwebsoftware . com (Note spaces added to thwart spammers. Remove spaces for valid email address.) 2. Even worse, the Delete Last Town option doesn't work correctly. If you've been bit with either of these bugs, we recommend you download the latest version of the editor right away. Download the Latest Version of the Scenario Editor 3. Blades Engine cross-platform bug in v1.0.3: The space used to display messages in Blades is slightly larger than that on a Mac, and the way messages work on the Mac gives a hard upper limit of 255 characters. As a result, a message which displays fine on a PC can be truncated for players on a Mac. A work around is discussed in Article 41 on the Articles and Examples page.

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