Messages

Of course, you're right; there's no 5 in that spell.  I was just in a hurry when I typed the message.  But I did misinterpret the symbols as you've said.

Yes, the saved game deletion bug is the same one that I mentioned earlier; I simply repeated it because it is becoming more and more annoying.

Looking at the Principia Mathematica, if I make the assumption that the symbols there represent the first five natural numbers, then the equations are soluble, and all the symbols have been decoded.Ã,  But it still doesn't make complete sense because, looking at the "Brew a Mighty Storm" spell, I would have to heat the ocean water twice, then add five spoonfuls of mud.Ã,  I don't know what it would mean to heat something twice (is that like making refried beans?), and I only have one spoonful of mud to add.Ã,  Besides, even if I had five spoonfuls of mud, after I add the first spoonful the music stops, and the game tells me that something is wrong.

Using "stuff pockets" to get the cookbook, I'm starting to figure out the meaning of the symbols.  There don't appear to be enough pages in the cookbook to decipher all the symbols, so I assume that the spells puzzles are not soluble as of yet.  Decoding the symbols is an interesting puzzle, though, and not too difficult.

BTW, Radiant updates the link to the beta download on the first page of this thread to point to the latest beta.  I think that it's easier to direct someone to the beginning of the thread to get to the download link, since it's always in the same place.

It's a real game.  You can download the beta from a link on the first post of the first page of this thread.

According to the symbols of the spell, after heating the mixture . . .

Oh, so the symbols tell you to heat the mixture?Ã,  Well, I hadn't figured out that part yet, nor do I have any charcoal to heat the mixture, so I'll have to look further to find those things.

I hope that in àŸ5 the Save Game feature will be fixed so that the last saved game doesn't keep getting deleted without notification.Ã,  I'm a Scrooge when it comes to saved games, gut I can't go back to the point I want to because the saved games keep getting deleted.

I think I've discovered a new bug, since I don't think anyone else has reported it yet:

While in the laboratory trying to make the "Brew up a Storm" spell, I click on inventory to read the Principia Mathematica.Ã,  In some cases, the game will not let me exit inventory at this point, and it doesn't let me log the error.Ã,  It doesn't always happen, and I don't remember exactly what I did to make it happen, but I think that I may have clicked the eye on some of the symbols on the page.

While making the "Storm" spell, if I put the dried mud into the mixing bowl with no water, the message still says that it dissolves in the water.

If I try to put in a spoonful of mud, it says that I don't have a spoon, even though the mud is held in a spoon.

I have the three ingreedients that I need for that spell.Ã,  It appears that the three ingreedients must be added in the order indicated, but regardless of what amounts I use, it doesn't accept the mud.Ã,  Do I need to understand the mathematical symbols to get past this point in the game?

Okay, so the following is a bug:  (I didn't specify coordinates, but I suppose I could provide them if you need them.)

If you run enough screens from the bandit, you will shake him eventually.  However, I did this using teleporting, so I don't know whether it will work without teleporting.

Regarding the solution you sent me in a PM, I actually tried that a couple of times, but it didn't work.  That's why I don't like the idea of a puzzle within an arcade sequence (unless the player is permitted to set the difficulty level to "easy"), because it's possible to guess the correct solution to the puzzle but still fail because the arcade sequence itself is difficult.

This post may contain spoilers, but since it appears that everyone else is further along in the game than I am, I don't think that anyone will much care.

I have made it past the bandits, but I'm not sure that I did so legitimately.  No matter how much I ran I could not outrun the bandit after a few screens, so I tried teleporting to the top of the mountain.  Surely enough, the bandit would follow me to the top of the mountain.  But if I teleported to the top of the mountain and immediately went to the wizard's study, the wizard would repremand me for not bringing firewood.  The theme music for running from the bandit kept playing, so I figured I wasn't out of the woods yet.  I teleported back down the mountain and walked around from screen to screen.  The theme music kept playing, but after several screens it stopped playing, so I guess that I had shaken off the bandit at that point.  I don't know whether that was the correct solution or not.

After the wizard locked me in the bedroom I went to sleep, and after I woke up the door appeared to be unlocked.  This seemed strange; I'm not sure whether that was intended or not.

I went to the wizards bedroom to fetch the key from the top of the closet.  Every time the floor would creak I clicked on the system button, then clicked on play.  That got me past the creaky floor boards.  Apparently clicking on system then on play caused the game to overlook the creaking event.  I doubt that that was the correct solution, but it worked.  Then I teleported to get out of the wizard's bedroom.  Again, probably not the correct solution, but it worked.

I then retrieved all the stuff from under my bed, fetched the magic wand, and returned to the basement, where I am now.  At this point I don't appear to have sufficient ingreedients to do any of the spells.  I assume that I am supposed to be making spells at this point, but it is not possible to descend the mountain at night to fetch more ingredients, and the game is not supposed to have any dead ends, so I'm at a loss as to what to do at this point.

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.

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.

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.

Radiant, can you answer my questions from my previous post:Ã,  Do the treehouse and Medusa puzzles have the same solution as in the original or different solutions?Ã,  Because I am unable to find the rope to pull to deploy the ladder, and I am unable to find anything to polish the piece of glass with (although I just started looking a few minutes ago.)

I wouldn't call the cat puzzle unfair, just very difficult.Ã,  One thing that I might say, though, is that I believe that there is a message to the effect that you don't need anything else on the shelves at the moment--that would lead me to abandon the shelves as a place to look for the solution.Ã,  I don't remember the exact message, but you may want to reword that message so as not to discourage the player from looking there.

Latest bug found:

V3 room 85 [203,117]: Returning from a swim, Alexander walks in place.

When Alexander goes swimming in the ocean and returns to shore, when he gets on shore and stops he walks in place.Ã,  If I try to move him, he swims on land.Ã,  Stopping him, he walks in place again, and, moving him, he continues to swim on land.Ã,  This happens when he enters the shore from the small stream.



In the original Kings Quest games, it was fun to use the teleport feature to teleport the main character from water to land and watch him swim on land, or from being transported through the air to land and watch him fly on land.Ã,  But in this game it happened without using the teleport feature.

I used the spoiler to get past the cat (that was a very difficult puzzle), and I've gotten as far as trying to find firewood, which Radiant says is as far as you can go in àŸ3.Ã,  However, dreammaster has written about solving the Medusa puzzle and getting into the treehouse.Ã,  Does the Medusa puzzle have a different solution from the original?Ã,  I couldn't find the wizard's hand mirror, so I tried using the broken glass on the Medusa while facing away, but that hasn't worked so far.Ã,  Do I have to do it very quickly?Ã,  I've also tried reaching into the hole in the tree to deploy the ladder, but nothing happened.Ã,  I went back to the original game to make sure that I was at the same tree.Ã,  Is the treehouse in the same tree as in the original?Ã,  Is a different action needed to get to the treehouse?

A general observation that I've made is that the original game was difficult overall, because I spent a lot of time just figuring out what I was supposed to be doing, but this game is extremely easy, except for a few places where it is extremely difficult.Ã,  Most of the time it is just too obvious what the player is supposed to do, but I'm not sure whether that is because of the linearity or simply due to the fact that I've already played the original.Ã,  Some of the new puzzles that you've added, however, are quite difficult.Ã,  It's difficult for me to comment on the overall difficulty of the game, since I've played the original and know what to expect.Ã,  If you could find someone who's never played the origial to play this game, perhaps he could give you a good idea as to the difficulty level.Ã,  Better yet, if he could play this game first and play the original later, and if he said that this game was difficult overall but that the original was relatively easy, then that would refute my comments about most of this game's being too easy.

More bugs:

V3 room 25 [230,114]: Clicking eye on oak table splits message unnaturally
V3 room 15 [232,138]: *Error* No message for 'touch cat' (log me please)
V3 room 25 [196,137]: *Error* no message for 'touch toad spittle' (log me please)
V3 room 25 [196,137]: *Error* no message for 'touch jar' (log me please)

I also got the following errors:

An error has occured. . . . (Same as before)

(Global script line 1501.)
Error: ResetRoom: cannot reset current room

* error seeking entry!
(please note room number 29, and from exactly where you entered it)

I'm not sure, but I think that both of the above errors occured in Alexander's bedroom while sleeping or clicking on the bed.

I got stuck at the part with the cat on the stairs.  I know that there's a spoiler posted in this thread, but I prefer to solve it myself.  I tried all the obvious things--talking to the cat, touching the cat, clicking the three objects that I found in the lab on the cat, climbing the wall, pulling the torch out of its socket and setting the cat on fire--but none of them worked.  So, for the moment I have teleported past the cat, but I'm going to continue to try to figure out that problem on my own.

At this point I'm stuck at the part where the wizard tells Alexander to fetch firewood.  I have nothing to chop down the firewood with.  Reliant, could you answer the following question:  Did teleporting past the cat bypass a trigger, so that the firewood puzzle is not soluble at this point?

I tried the bears' house, fetched the one object that I could find inside, and upon leaving the bears' house got the following message:

V3 room 73 [160,122]: *error seeking entry room number 73

There were numberous other objects which, when clicked, gave the message "*Error* no message for '<object>' (log me please)", but I haven't logged all of them.  Do you basically already know what these are, or should I log each and every one?

Some general observations:  Although I like the fact that the game has no dead ends, I don't like the fact that the game is so linear that the puzzles can only be solved in a preset order.  But I suppose that to make the game non-linear or to allow more freedom would probably introduce dead ends, so perhaps there's nothing to be done about that.  So I agree with deltamatrix's comment that this game will not destroy the value of the original, because the original gives the player the freedom to complete tasks in different orders.

Bug report (version 3):

Previoiusly reported bugs not fixed:Ã,  Chamberpot emptied twice, clicking mushroom on tree, saved game name inadvertantly displayed.

Newly discovered bugs:

V3 room 22 [236,136]: I get the following message while dreaming:



I can't remember exactly what I did to get that message, but I think I clicked on something (inventory, perhaps) or struck a key.

V3 room 22 [235,134]: While in the inventory screen, clicking on the milk with either the hand icon or the eye icon yields a message about cinnamon sticks.

V3 room 47 [172,132]: Error: No message for "Look at milk" (please log me.)Ã,  Ditto for "Touch fish oil".

Another thing is that, when I wake up on the second day, the wizard orders me to make breakfast, but there isn't enough time to hide the orb under the bed, save the game (yes, I do like to save often!) and then get to the kitchen to make breakfast for the wizard before the wizard punishes Alexander for not making breakfast.Ã,  I would at least like to be able to complete the assigned task without being punished.

There are also times when Alexander encounters the wizard, the wizard has nothing to say to him, yet, when Alexander leaves the screen, the wizard punishes him for leaving his presence.Ã,  I assume that this is intended.

Regarding waiting, I'm glad that this game is event-based rather than time-based, since I can't stand waiting around for something to happen.

Okay, now here is something which I am not sure whether it is a bug or a puzzle that I'm unable to solve, but since other people have been able to get past this point, then it must be passable.Ã,  I have gotten the fish oil from the store, but I am unable to give it to the wizard.Ã,  When I try to give it to him, I get a message, "Keep your fish oil to yourself."Ã,  Then the wizard punishes Alexander for failing to get the fish oil.Ã,  Previously, whenever the wizard gave Alexander a task to accomplish, the wizard would acknowledge the completion of the task as soon as he encountered Alexander.

So at this point I don't know whether there's something else that I must do before giving the fish oil to the wizard.Ã,  I thought that perhaps the reason was that I teleported back to the house from outside the store, so I tried walking back to the path that leads up the mountain, but every time I got robbed by the bandits.Ã,  I tried going to the tree where, in the original version, I could recover my stuff, but there is no rope to pull.Ã,  The bears aren't home, there's nobody in the tavern, so there doesn't seem to be anything else to do in town just yet.Ã,  I tried pouring the fish oil into a cup, placing it on the table or on the wizards desk, but nothing works.

So my question is, is there another puzzle that I must solve before I can give the fish oil to the wizard?Ã,  If not, is there something else that is preventing the wizard from acknowledging that I have fetched the fish oil?Ã,  Was this intended, or is there some non-obvious thing that I have to do that is a design flaw that should be fixed?

Bug report:

V2 room 63 [30,156]: Clicking mushroom on tree says can't chop tree down with knife

V2 room 84 [135,160]: Name of last saved game deleted is inadvertantly displayed



(actually, this is the name of the last saved game that I tried to delete; another saved game was deleted instead.)

V2 room 11 [66,140]: When I try to delete a saved game, it always deletes the most recently saved game, not the one that I selected.Ã,  This happens regardless of whether I selected the saved game with the keyboard or the mouse.Ã,  When I try to delete multiple saved games, only the first is deleted.Ã,  This is particularly frustrating because I like to save the game every few minutes, or sometimes more often, but when I do that I run out of saved games and cannot delete the older ones.

V2 room 64 [166,127]: When I click on the door, Alexander moves into another position before opening the door.Ã,  This would be nitpicking if he only moved out of the way a little, but I think that he moves too far out of position.

V2 room 47 [172,132]: Alexander is not killed when he doesn't pay for the fish oil.Ã,  This was probably intended and so is not a bug, but I expected that Alexander would have to pay for what he takes.

A general observation is that, as in the original, there are times when Alexander must wait around with nothing to do.Ã,  Is this correct, or when Alexander is waiting around is there something that he is supposed to be doing but I've just missed it?Ã,  If waiting is required, there should be some way to bypass the waiting.Ã,  In this game, does time pass by the clock or by screen changes?Ã,  In QFG1, you could make time advance by moving back and forth between screens.Ã,  In later QFG games I think there was a feature where you could wait a certain number of minutes.Ã,  If waiting is required in this game, it would be nice to have a feature where you could wait until the next significant event.Ã,  Or is waiting not required in this game, in which case I'm just missing what I'm supposed to be doing?

Okay, another bug:Ã,  I'm playing àŸ2 and have started from the beginning.Ã,  The wizard (I can't remember how to spell his name, that's why I keep saying "the wizard") tells Alexander to clean his (the wizard's) bedroom, so Alexander proceeds to the wizard's bedroom.Ã,  Since there is no broom there to click on, I first try clicking on the rug, but I get a message that the rug is too heavy to move.Ã,  Then I click on the chamberpot.Ã,  Alexander first empties the chamberpot, then makes the bed, then empties the chamberpot a second time.Ã,  Now I know that, with American toilets, it is often necessary to flush twice because toilet manuacturers are forbidden by law to make the reservoirs large enough (in order to conserve water), but I didn't think that this problem existed with chamber pots.Ã,  But, after the second flush, the game terminates with the following error message:

An error has occured. . . . (same as before)

(Room 11 script line 258)
Error: EndCutscene: not in a cutscene

Since the game has terminated, I am unable to produce a logfile.

(This kindda reminds me of the scene in LSL1 where Larry flushes the toilet, and . . . )

Okay, I've just downloaded Beta-2.  Are the saved games from Beta-1 supposed to work with Beta-2?  I tried to load a couple of saved games, but in each case I got the following message:

An error has occured.  Please contact the game author for support, as this is likely to be a scripting error and not a but in AGS.
(ACI version 2.61.747)

Error: Restore_Game: Game has changed (inv), unable to restore position

It would be a nuissance to have to start the game over from scratch every time a new beta comes out.

In my own project (which is not AGS), I have stored a version number in each saved game file, so that, during development, whenever I change the format of the saved game file the game will read the version number and still recognize old saved game file formats.  This feature can easily be removed from the final version.

Bug report:  When the wizard places the cup on the table and tells Alexander to drink, Alexander pretends to drink it but instead spills the liquid on himself.  Then, in an attempt to distract the wizard and make him believe that the potion is working, Alexander places food on the table for the wizard to eat.  The wizard eats the food, but, as soon as he is finished eating, the cup appears on the table again, and the wizard orders Alexander to drink it.  The wizard then anihilates Alexander.

I disagree with deltamatrix's comment:  I think that this is an enhanced version because it basically keeps the same story while elaborating on certain things and adding more details.

I tried to log a bug, but it didn't get added to the log file, so I'll simply state it here:  In one case a long narrative message was split into two boxes, but the point at which the message was divided was not the natural point to divide the message.  It got cut off in the middle of a line, both syntactically and typographically, before being continued in a subsequent box.

Does this game have dead ends in it?  I am currently stuck at the point where Mannanan gives Alexander the cup to drink.  Without telling me the solution, can you tell me whether I can get past this point in the game or whether I have to load a saved game.