King's Quest III+ (call for testers)

[fluxmaster]

That's the disadvantage of playing the remake of a game the original of which I've already played--I think I already know what to do.

I've used the "stuff pockets" to defeat the Medusa, but I'm still trying to figure out how to get the clue to the treehouse that I already know.

Here is one further point--and this is really nitpicking--but when you look at Llewdow through the telescope you should be seeing things from a reverse angle, since you're looking from the opposite direction.Ã,  It's not difficult to redraw the scenes from a reverse angle.Ã,  As I've said before, I have no ability whatsoever in the graphic arts, yet I did the following using MS Paint in about an hour:



All I did was to flip the image horizontally, remove some doors, windows, and other stuff, and then reverse the Z-order.Ã,  You can download a bitmap of the image if you like.

[dreammaster]

Radiant, thanks for the heads up. I was stuffing around in Manannan's house trying my damnedest to open the stuck drawer among other things on the basis the mirror would be hidden in here. Also, the flash of yellow I meant was around Manannan's shoulder-blades. I'm assuming a bit of yellow got into one of his animation frames. Very minor nitpick, but it really drew my attention after the whole "top of cupboard" flash.

Fluxmaster, whilst having different images for the telescope viewing would be good in theory, it would seem to be a great deal of work for very little reward. After all, I only realised that the camera angle was wrong when you explicitly pointed it out, and I don't think you spend enough time using the telescope to make it worthwhile.

A few more bugs to add to the list:

V3 room 53 [229,139]: Walk north, and you fall in front of the ground
V3 room 75 [202,101]: Clicking virtually any item on the water gives a message about "a cup not being suitable for holding water"
V3 room 75 [292,99]: You can walk right through the yellow fish

[dreammaster]

Hey there. I've got a mixed bag to report today.  8)

Warnings
------------
After one playthrough I noticed a warnings.txt file had been created with two copies of the following line:

(in room 75): Warning: ChangeCharacterView was used while the view was fixed - call ReleaseCharView first

Unfortunately, I can't say for sure what caused it, since it didn't generate an error whilst I was actually playing the game.

Bugs
------
* After stoning Medusa (again with pocket stuffing), I looked at the scene through the telescope. The first time, Medusa was fixed in place, but without the "stoned" picture (ie. she looked normal, but of course I didn't get stoned). When I left the scene and returned to it, she was gone.

Suggestions
-----------
* In the general store, clicking on the barrels it says you'd like to try the wine but don't want to carry a cask around with you. Therefore it would be sensible to have a custom response if the player tries to click the cup on the barrels.
* allow players to fill up the jar with normal water, and then allow them to later use it in the desert to refresh themselves
* Is the hideout rope ladder meant to keep retracting after you leave the screen? After all, I thought one bandit is sleeping and the other is putting down roots in the bar. Plus, using the hole a second time indicates that the rope ladder is stuck down; so I think it would make more sense to leave it hanging down once it's been discovered
* In the general store, the area rectangle for lard should be tweaked - it says it's lard at 170, 80, even though it's in the second of the blue rectangular spices
* If you've already got some lumber, it should stop you from taking some more off of the dead tree
* I'm currently trying to figure out where the salt is. I tried using the bottle of sea water on both the general store's stove and the 3 Bear's fire (to evaporate the water and leave the salt), but I get no response - one would be appropriate here

[Radiant]

Okay, update time!

In our fourth installment, it is finally possible to cast spells! Okay, you can't use the magical items you create yet, but at least you can make them. Plus, an old acquaintance drops by for a visit, and some of the Llewdorians are fleshed out. Finally, the cat and the innkeeper make their appearance.
You can reclaim your robbed goods, defeat Medusa legit, and play up to plot point seventeen, at which point you get to roam the country for free without Manny bothering you.
I've tried to make several events less strictly ordered. For instance entering the bears' house now involves a puzzle that you can do before or after a number of other things.
Enjoy!

If you're working on some puzzle (e.g. the cat, or the stuck drawer), I would appreciate hearing what you thought would work only it didn't, because I can add sensible responses there. The new version has a bunch of cat-related responses, for instance.

Fluxmaster -> while it would be fun to redraw all Llewdor screens from a different angle, I'm afraid it would be more effort than it's worth. Also I wouldn't be able to duplicate what you did since I'm a terrible artist. Thanks for the effort, though.
However, do you think you could help out with a bit of screen hacking? Because there's one screen that I'd love to use that doesn't exist in the original. I would like Gwydion to leave the pirate ship by rowboat, so if it would be possible to hack together a screen that shows the side of the ship at water height, with a small skiff and a rope (or ladder) leading up, that would be really great! All those elements do exist already, I can send you the relevant screenshots if you want.

Regarding your bandits problem,

Spoiler

It's ironic that in the same post you state you are unable to have Gwydion find the bandit lair, and then discuss the telescope at length...

[close]

* (in room 75): Warning: ChangeCharacterView was used while the view was fixed - call ReleaseCharView first
Should be fixed now; it's actually a bug in AGS but I'm evading it. If it ever occurs again let me know, the room number should suffice.

Regarding the salt puzzle,

Spoiler

Well found! Except that you should try it in the laboratory in this demo. I'll add possibilities in a number of other places as it only makes sense.

[close]

[fluxmaster]

Also I wouldn't be able to duplicate what you did since I'm a terrible artist.

Ha!Ã,  We could get into a bragging match over which one of us is the worse artist!

But, all right, if you want to send me the screenshots I'll hack up the screen that you want.Ã,  You may post them or email them to me at fluxmaster@replinemeadowsoftware.com.

As you've probably already figured out by now, back when Sierra had a 900 telephone number you could call to get hints where you paid by the minute, Sierra made a lot of money off me.

I have been deliberately avoiding reading other people's bug reports to avoid inadvertantly reading spoilers, but yesterday I went back and read all the others' bug reports, and it appears that every bug that I reported dreammaster reported first.Ã,  I will continue to report bugs, but I suspect that they will all be duplicates of those that dreammaster will have already reported.

[deltamatrix]

A suggestion!

Get rid of the 3 Bears House just like how AGDI got rid of the Little Red Riding Hood element.

[MoodyBlues]

I never got far in the original, so this is quite fun.

-----
Programming
-----
1.Ã,  The chamberpot bug is fixed.Ã,  Yay!
2.Ã,  After I was turned into a snail, I went back into the wizard's room.Ã,  For some reason, the mouse disappeared.Ã,  I did turn back to normal, though, and I was able to continue.
3.Ã,  I opened the trapdoor, and then entered the kitchen.Ã,  The wizard poofed in, did the whole "drink up" routine, and then made me work out.Ã,  This may have happened because I got in his way while trying to get the cup.
4.Ã,  In the same scene as above, Gwydion didn't walk over to the cup before picking it up.
5.Ã, 

Spoiler

I know I need to feed the wizard to fake the potion's effects, but how do I do that?Ã,  Placing the bread on the table or giving it to the wizard won't work.

[close]

6.Ã,  I can't use the hand icon on anything in my inventory window except for the potion.

-----
Visual
-----
1.Ã,  In one frame of Gwydion's side walking animation, the toe of his shoe is grey.
2.Ã,  The wizard uses a storm spell on me when he catches me in his laboratory, but I just get rained on.Ã,  Is Gwydion supposed to be struck by lightening?
3.Ã,  In the storm spell animation, the lower part of Gwydion's shirt turns blue for one frame.

-----
Other
-----
1.Ã,  Why does the wizard get mad when he sees that I have his scroll?Ã,  Doesn't he think Gwydion can't read anyway?

2.Ã, 

Spoiler

The player should be given some clue of the potion's effects without having to take it and "die."Ã,  This is just more realistic, since in real life you can't go back and fix mistakes after seeing the results.

[close]

3.Ã,  Consider not telling the audience or Gwydion what his real name is yet.Ã,  This may add to the mystery (although most people have already played this game and know the big twist )

Nicely done so far.Ã,  I like your new approach to this story.

[dreammaster]

Congratulations on yet again promptly releasing a new beta, and with new features, no less.

Moodyblue, you might want to check out the same thread in the Game Making Forum in www.agdiforums.com - that's been more or less been given over to giving hints and discussing miscellaneous things about the game. Also, the wizard gets mad at you for having the scroll for the same reason he gets mad at you for having ingredients for spells.. they show you've been disobeying him and doing things you shouldn't (at least, as far as he's concerned).

Lots of things to report about this new beta. But take heart, I certainly loved the new additions.Ã,  8)

Warnings
--------
(in room 24): Attempt to open file '-3N.1)I6:6' denied (not current directory)
This warning had been created during the initial day 1 work inside the house.

Bugs
----
* The log functionality doesn't seem to be working anymore
* Manannan still has a tendancy to appear and not disappear. Eg. on night 1 after cleaning his study, I go up to the second floor landing (room "po") and he appears, and then just stands there
* Minor graphics glitch - if you walk off the cliff at the back of the chicken pen at nighttime, the graphic for the chicken pen gate gets screwed up
* Something's wrong with the teleporter, the display of the current room number is screwed up.. it's displayed as two alphabetical characters rather than as digits
* I got fatal AGS error when I tried talking to the barmaid, or clicking any item on her:

---------------------------
Illegal exception
---------------------------
An exception 0xC0000005 occured in ACWIN.EXE at EIP = 0x00448966 ; program pointer is +6, ACI

version 2.61.747, gtags (17,10)

AGS cannot continue, this exception was fatal. Please note down the numbers above, remember what you

were doing at the time and notify CJ on the Tech forum.

(Global script line 3092)
---------------------------

* When I got turned into a snail I tried to go down the stairs; as soon as I entered the downstairs screen, I lost all control until I turned back to normal
* The little dot in the lab aquarium can go one pixel further to the right then the acquarium itself
* When I click use on the bandit in the treehouse, it says he awakes and starts chasing me. I then get a second dialog saying do you think you can hurt the bandits (but of course there is only one there). Then I get the chase music, but the bandit stays asleep.
* Talking to the sleeping bandit in the treehouse causes the same problem - it says he wakes up, but he stays asleep
* The treehouse room music sequence keeps playing for a while even after I leave the treehouse
* The single bandit in the bar still gets referred to as "The two scroungy thieves" and "The bandits" for the look and talk actions
* Leaving the bar gives a weird dialog with "4SJ TK YMJ XZWQ^ ..etc"
* If you try clicking any item on the locked door of your bedroom on night 3 it says "you have nothing with which to pick a lock". This doesn't really make sense, particularly if, for example, you're trying the gold key on the off-chance that it might work.
* The day 4 opening, which I understand is only currently for testing, opens with the night scene still in the bedroom window
* On night 3, you can walk through the door of your bedroom even though it's meant to be closed and locked. BTW: Without spoilers, is it possible to get the bedroom door key during day 3 legitimately?
* For tea on day 3, I gave Manannan and Mordack the meat. Returning to the dining room on night 3, the meat is still on the table. Clicking on it gives a dialog "You retrieve your bowl". My bowl?
* Unlocking the safe on night 3 (having done it previously on night 2), I get an extra blank dialog at the start (before the "you open the safe" dialog appears).
* Miscasting the invisibility spell, my corpse jumped from being by the table to being by the top cupboard

Suggestions
-----------
* The night time dining room window doesn't have any look/use description
* There's no look/use descriptions for the barmaid
* The earlier beta had a series of spell entries harkening to KQ6 and KQ2+, which I notice aren't in this beta. I loved seeing them.. couldn't they can added back in?
* Clever puzzle with the fisherman. It might be better if you gave an encouragement response if the player types in certain wrong guesses. For example, I was guessing "eel" for a while, since it has a head and the rest of it is tail. "snake" is another one, since there's a snake in the game, and it has a head and all tail
* I think the bandit chasing you puzzle could be slowed down a bit (ie. give you a bit more of a lead). Even after I figured out how to solve this puzzle, doing it again repeatedly was problematic because the bandit is after you so quickly, unless you hog room boundaries
* You're probably already aware of this, but the conversation between Manannan and Mordack is currently just a single dialog saying "conversation".
* You probably intend something further anyway, but it's currently weird that Mordack just stands like a statue in the dining room on night 3

[lightman]

1. When I get an object, I can click it on this and an empty box pops up, but I guess you know about that?

2. When re-starting, I start at the top of the staircase and can't do anything at all with the GUI - the mouse interface becomes useless.

3. There is no message for 'touch orb'.

4. I went through the trap door in Manannan's study. I tried to use the orb on the mouse which gave this error:

---------------------------
Illegal exception
---------------------------
An exception 0xC0000005 occured in ACWIN.EXE at EIP = 0x00448966 ; program pointer is +6, ACI version 2.61.747, gtags (11,10)

AGS cannot continue, this exception was fatal. Please note down the numbers above, remember what you were doing at the time and notify CJ on the Tech forum.

(Global script line 3092)

---------------------------
OKÃ,  Ã, 
---------------------------

[dreammaster]

Hey, I managed to squeeze in some more bug testing for the day, and got a few more bugs to report:

Bugs
----
* Looking at the Principala Matamatica note when you're in the inventory screen whilst performing a spell will cause it appear, but then there will be no way to get rid of it
* The spell failure ending for the teleportation spell has the same "loss of mouse" problem that several of the other endings had. Also, it says that "that stone has a flaw". But at this stage, I don't even have a stone
* When you try, for example, heating the sea water on the lab brazier it says that it's out of charcoal. Yet if you look at it, it says that the charcoal is cold
* Trying to talk to any of the bears when they're are having a picnic gives the error: Global script line 3106; Error: Null string supplied to CheckForTranslations
* Returning to the bandit's treehouse later, after having dealt with the first bandit and having returned to collect your missing items from the box, the second bandit is there. But he doesn't actually move, although the chase music plays, and if you leave the room, he will appear and push you off the tree. It also refers to the box as being closed, even though it's visually open
* Also about the second bandit, trying to use him, it refers to the "two bandits" again, where it should only be one
* It seems that you can't legitimately stone Medusa in this beta.. clicking the mirror on her gives the same fatal AGS error as in my previous post, at global script line 3092


Suggestions
-----------
* Trying to use the twigs, knife, or spoon on the vial in the tree should give a message like "You try to stretch out using a twig/the knife/the spoon to prod the vial loose, but it doesn't reach far enough"

[fluxmaster]

First, let me take back what I said about the game's being too easy.  It does have some good puzzles in it.  The fisherman's puzzle was not too difficult--I solved it in a few minutes, actually--but it was a nice puzzle.

I had a list of bugs to report, but then I looked over the other bug reports, and all of them have been reported already.

I have still been unable successfully to run away from the bandit in the treehouse.  I tried slowing the game down to the slowest speed, and I think that I've managed to make it five screens away, but he always catches me.  I tried some other stuff besides running, but that doesn't work.  If running is all that I have to do, I think that this puzzle should be made easier, so that it is not too much of an arcade puzzle.  Or, if you want to make it an arcade puzzle, let the player choose the difficulty level.

[JBiker51]

You wouldn't be, by any chance, trying to beat AGD Interactive to the release, would you?

[Blackthorne]

You wouldn't be, by any chance, trying to beat AGD Interactive to the release, would you?

They're not making one.

Bt

[dreammaster]

A few more bugs to report, but nothing major. I'm eagerly awaiting the next beta release *wink* *wink*

Bugs
----
* Spelling error - papa bear tells you to stay away from their "picknick" - should be "picnic"
* I get a Fatal AGS Error clicking any item on the dog in the general store.. same details as in previous postings
* I just noticed that the coordinate display for the Ctrl-C toggle is screwed up like the room number in the teleport cheat is
* Clipping error. If you walk left off the path in room 53 from position ont,onw (sorry, but as I said, the coordinate display is screwed), you fall partially in front of the foreground
* There's no use action for the skull in the stream outlet screen, and it's says there's no action for "touch lizard".. that must have been one hell of a big lizard
* You can walk behind the gangplank on day 4
* Walking into the bar on day 4 crashes the game wth the error: Room 48 script line 467; Error: MoveObject: invalid object number
* The description of the lab mortar is currently split into two dialogs mid-sentence

Suggestions
-----------
* A reply for if you click wood on the stove in the general store would be appropriate, such as "the shopkeeper is quite capable of keeping the stove fueled"
* The dialog when you return to room 53 on day 3 without having completed the day's requirements -Ã,  it says "you'd think this would be a great oppurtunity to look ardound Llewdor a bit more". It would be better grammatically to say "you think"

Finally, does beta 4 legitimately allow you to get some charcoal? I've tried burning the twigs in the available fires, tried getting some from the various burned out stumps, and searched the house and the general store. I even teleported into the 3 bears house to check there (I haven't figured out how to get the key yet - I figure I need the invisibility potion). I'm darned if I can find any.

[Radiant]

Moodyblues -> you say that 'you know you need to feed the wizard to duplicate the potion effects'. I'm wondering how you think you know that, as it's 1.counterintuitive, and 2.wrong.
I'm not entirely sure if the wiz should zap you for the scroll, but then if he sees you walking around with his scrap paper he may just realize that you can read after all. Also in the original, he zaps you for most anything you carry anyway.
I should think it's pretty obvious that you don't want to drink the potion. You aren't told what it does but it is hinted at that it'd be bad for you "I don't like the sound of this at all".
Finally, I will actually expand the intro to show Alexander's kidnapping. Did you know that the original KQ3 was ill-received at first because people didn't get the link to the other KQ games?

Dreammaster -> Yes, you can get the bedroom key legit. You cannot actually get charcoal yet (you were supposed to, but a bug prevents it). And you can't use any spell-created item yet, but you can get the bears' key.

Fluxmaster -> The bandit chasing you is not an arcade, it's an actual puzzle. Well, okay it does involve arcade, but you can't just run anywhere like in QfG and expect him to give up.

JBiker -> They're doing QfG2, surely you're aware of that?

Deltamatrix -> Interesting idea, but it's kind of difficult to change the faerie tale involved without actually removing the bear (because the cottage will have to be there, and I'd hate to drop the bear gfx). If you have suggestions I'd be happy to hear them.

[dreammaster]

Thanks for the nudge Radiant. I've now been able to get the key and cast some spells legitimately. As far as I can see, barring the charcoal and anything desert related which can't be got in this beta, all I have left now is to find a few of the remaining ingredients.

Note to anyone reading: this bug report contains an explicit puzzle spoiler. For some of the previous bug reports, I've tried to remain vague, but I can't in this case.

Bugs
------
* When I pick up a chicken on day 3, a second one is immediately spawned. Once it even appeared outside the pen
* At one point on night 3, I somehow managed to get on the "outside" of the staircase. One example point would be at position oqn, vu. Not major, since I was able to walk up the outside of the staircase to the second floor and everything was all right again
* I think finding the door key to your bedroom is an unfair puzzle. None of the descriptions indicate that the key has been left in your door. I spent a lot of time looking around the house on day 3 trying to find where Manannan might have an extra key. It was only because I tried using the pin to lockpick the door that I found out the key was actually in the door. Then at least it was a simple matter to work out how to get it
* When I unlock the door to my bedroom with the key, it explicitly only says that you "unlock" the door. So when I try to open the door, it says that it's already open. The dialogs should be tweaked so that it says you unlock and open the door
* About the door, using it, it says "in order to allay the wizard's suspicions, you leave it open". Umm.. the wizard did lock you in your bedroom, so wouldn't it make him suspicious if you leave the door *open* rather than closed?
* The filename on the file delete confirmation dialog is all scrambled

[Darfeng]

Hi Radiant,Ã,  :)Ã,  I'm trying your Kings Quest 3 remake, ITS GREAT, its the first sierra game I ever played.Ã,  The new add ons make itÃ,  a new experience.Ã,  One quest I must ask is ( when you change the speed of the game, does the time also speed up?, I noticed the wizard fellow pops in a lot more and keeps making me drink this potion of his.Ã,  Did i just make a bad move?, or is this a glitch?

[MoodyBlues]

Moodyblues -> you say that 'you know you need to feed the wizard to duplicate the potion effects'. I'm wondering how you think you know that, as it's 1.counterintuitive, and 2.wrong.
I'm not entirely sure if the wiz should zap you for the scroll, but then if he sees you walking around with his scrap paper he may just realize that you can read after all. Also in the original, he zaps you for most anything you carry anyway.
I should think it's pretty obvious that you don't want to drink the potion. You aren't told what it does but it is hinted at that it'd be bad for you "I don't like the sound of this at all".
Finally, I will actually expand the intro to show Alexander's kidnapping. Did you know that the original KQ3 was ill-received at first because people didn't get the link to the other KQ games?

1.  You're right   I thought at first that the potion would make me obedient as well as content, and feeding the wizard was a sign of obedience.

2.  Hmmm... you're right; the scroll thing makes sense after all.

3.  Yeah, I heard about that.   But the shock of finding out his real identity may have made for it.

[Radiant]

Dreammaster -> you can legitimally get the snakeskin, eagle feather and fly wings. Fyi.
You are correct about the unfairness of a certain puzzle, I'll add hints to it. And bugs noted, thanks.

Darfenq -> time is actually determined by your actions, not by how many seconds you've been playing. There are some timing-related things, such as the fact that when Manannan 'ports in, he will 'port out after five seconds - and yes, these are affected by the speed setting. But nothing important will change, and regardless of speed he WILL eventually do some nasty things to you. Figurit!

[dreammaster]

Thanks for the FYI Radiant, but I've already figured out how to get all three; the snakeskin I can't get in beta 4 because of the Medusa crashing bug, but the newly introduced descriptions in beta 4 gave me the answer to go back to beta 3 to get it. The ingredients I'm still missing are: the nightshade juice, cat hair, mandrake, pouch, thimble, and amber stone (although that's presumably in the spider cave). If any of them can't be gotten in Beta 4, I'd appreciate knowing.

A few more things to report:

Bugs
------
* When you place the item on in it's correct position to catch the fly, it isn't removed from your inventory. It should be, since it needs to be removed afterwards

Suggestions
----------------
*Ã,  I'm currently trying to figure out how to get the cat hair since, unlike in the original, it simply scratches you if you try to pick it up. I think the milk has something to with it (I haven't found any other use for it), but clicking it on the cat doesn't do anything (it could use a response). Neither does the gutted fish (also could use a response). I also tried using the milk on the bowl, figuring an indirect solution (could use a response).