Jolt Country

Hi everyone,

I'd like to start a bug reporting thread so I can keep track of ACK bugs that can/should be fixed for the 3.1 release. Please limit posts to reporting of bugs only -- please send new feature requests by e-mail)

The current list of what I'm working on for 3.1 (edited as things are added) is:

1. Editor sync problems (TAB key does not work in certain situations)
2. Casting "allows player to use weapon" spells fails if active terrain has action.
3. Range setting is ignored for NPC attacks
4. "Sound 0" in macros not shutting off all "sound" subchannels
5. Need to add/enable "Destroyed" action trigger for terrain
6. Fix music selector in map editor (needs to properly show sound names)
7. Room deletion not currently working (feature is currently disabled due to data corruption issues)
8. View-radius not returning to max if auto day/night sizing is disabled
9. Allow NPC loot drops to be somewhat random
10. The macro engine only loads the first 64 lines of the macro

Are there any bugs that any of you have been waiting for answers on that aren't on this list already? If so please mention them again here. Thanks!

- Chris

This might edge into request territory, but for #5 it'd be great if it was separate from the other action triggers. That way a terrain can have a custom interaction via the usual action triggers in its normal state AND have a special macro called if it's destroyed. That might be what you're planning anyway, but wanted to throw that in there.

Another bug I've noticed is that setting MP to increase by a specific amount per turn in Configure Adventure doesn't seem to have effect (maybe other macros being called during a turn are overriding it? I haven't tested that thoroughly).

One bug I have run across recently is this:

Have an overworld map - set to 'outside day/night' cycle.
Turn off day/night light changing effect in main adventure options.

Create a room-map with low vis (like 2 or 3).

When I entered said room-map, and then exited to overworld map, the darkened limited view range remained from inside the room-map, even though it was daylight.

Hi all,

Issues #2, 3, 4, 5, 8, and 9 have been addressed in today's patch -- I'm curious to see what you guys think.

I'm also curious to test the 3.1 patching mechanism for the first time. Please make a backup of your ACK folder first, just in case it does crazy things.

To update to this version, just download this PATCH.DAT file and place it in your ACK folder. The next time you run ACK or any ACK module, it will apply the patch.

(The patch is just a renamed ZIP file, if you're curious)

http://home.san.rr.com/divingpictures/PATCH.DAT
(do right-click, save as)

I'll have an updated manual (and I'll update the main beta download) soon, but the two functional changes to be aware of are:

issue #5: I added something like a "death macro" to terrain, instead of hitching to the "trigger" feature, so that terrain could have both a regular action and a macro that runs when the terrain is destroyed. Scroll through the "disappear" options to access it.

issue #9: Now when you enter remains for a creature, if the object selected is a non-currency item, it will prompt for the %chance of dropping. 100% will always drop. Note: your adventure must be set to v3.1 mode (config editor) for this feature to work. For backwards compatibility, pre-3.1 adventures will always behave as if this value is 100%.

Let me know how these changes work for you guys -- most seem to be related to projects you're working on, so you'll be testing them more thoroughly than I. Thanks!

Hmm...the auto-patching doesn't seem to be working for me. I don't see the new options in the editor, and I'm still seeing bugs #2 and #3 when playing. Should there be some sort of message when it performs the patching?

This is on OS X, but if it's doing the patching within DOSBox, that doesn't seem like it should matter.

JJ

Very nice. Put patch in ACK folder - and from launcher simply selected 'just launch ack' and it told me that it was patching. I now have the % drop rate options for people which is great. As for the other bug-fixes I may not have the chance in the next 24h to delve deep enough to see the other fixes.

The % drop rate is a great thing on its own though and thank you for putting it in :) Nothing like have 1 or 2 really rare 'omg' drops to keep players playing.

Hi,

If the patcher doesn't work, you might have an older beta build or some mix of files. Take a look at the ACK.BAT file in your ACK folder, the first two lines should be:

@echo off
if exist PATCH.DAT goto patcher

If not, let's get you a full updated build.

Looks like I do have an older beta, so send the newer on over. :smile:

Huzzah! Yep, now that I have the correct beta, bugs 2 and 3 definitely seem squished. I'll test out the other stuff later in the week.

Hi everyone,

There's a new PATCH.DAT available.

http://home.san.rr.com/divingpictures/PATCH.DAT
(right-click, save as, and put it in your ACK folder)

Minor bug fixes (sound chooser, macros over 64 lines) and a new MANUAL.PDF

Here is a bit of a new one. When set that USE will also cast/ready, I seem unable to USE a skill, but with no changes to said skill, if I set it back to the use/cast/ready option - it works fine.

New patch.dat posted!

http://home.san.rr.com/divingpictures/PATCH.DAT

Note these patches are cumulative. Even if this is the first one you've downloaded, you only need to apply the most recent. Copy it to your ACK folder and launch ACK.

This patch is mainly new enhancements:

* New macro commands (SETOBJ and GETOBJ) allow macros to directly manipulate data on the map. They're described in the manual (also updated by the patch).

* You can now convert back and forth between regular worldmap and custom worldmap at will, so you can now convert a map to custom, make some changes to how the 16x16 chunks are arranged, and then convert it back for easier editing.

* The object editor now allows you to set the mini-map color for each object, so you no longer have to live with psychedelic mini-maps.

* The map editors now show a mini-map when you are looking at the overall layout for the region, useful for seeing the contents of rooms or giant worldmaps at a glance.

Before:


After:

Very nice indeed. I can see some uses for the SETOBJ and GETOBJ already. And that map preview is very helpful. Keep it up Chris! Rarely do I see someone put this much work into their software in so short a time!

It's funny -- last weekend I found, in a long-neglected cabinet at my parents' house, a box with a backup of ACK v1.1 from April '92. (I was hoping so much that it was a copy of the CGA version -- alas, it was not, and that version is now lost to history)



It's rather mind-boggling that 16 years after release, it's still possible to have it be an active piece of software, and I thank all of you for continuing to keep it alive. :)

Haha - that's awesome! The black-and-white almost makes it seem like it's an Mac Plus game. :smile: Thanks for the updates, Chris, SETOBJ and GETOBJ will especially be powerful tools.

I'm hoping to also work in some commands that can manipulate things other than terrain, like items/vehicles, for 3.1 release.

I also need to figure out some way to implement the ship-and-skiff thing from U5 properly. Probably with the macro commands mentioned above, and use those in the vehicle's enter/exit macros. (Exit macro automatically sticks you in a skiff, entrance macro removes any skiffs from the squares adjacent to the ship you're boarding)

One thing I want to ask, Chris, which maybe should go in a separate thread - but would it be possible to use variables for the X and Y of GETOBJ and SETOBJ as well as the object #? That way it'd be much easier to loop over parts of a room/map, etc.

Yes, you can use variables for any of the arguments... I should probably make that more clear in the manual.

I think any macro command that takes a number can use a variable instead... I can't think of any exceptions.

Oh, great! I think that might be in the manual and I just forgot - I'll take a look later. But that's fantastic for GETOBJ and SETOBJ, that'll make them very flexible and useful.

One limitation that does come to mind is that the results don't display until the macro ends. Good if you're doing a bunch of stuff that you want to all pop at once, but not useful for having something like a chair slide rapidly across the room. But mosaics are probably better for that anyway...