How do you advance time to the next morning?

MrSparkle · Post by **MrSparkle** » Fri Mar 11, 2011 9:54 pm

Besides the bugginess of the game, like wrong messages, what I miss most from Bard's Tale is the ability to exit the Adventurer's Hall and have it be the next morning.

I can't even seem to enter taverns when it's night time. I'm absolutely stuck at night with no way to advance time besides (R)est which is just a deathtrap at level 1 and 2.

I see nothing in the manual either about this either (but I also didn't see anything about (D)ismissing a monster to make room for another.

So how do you rest through the night till the next morning, nice and fast without actually waiting around for the ingame clock to advance?

Growler · Post by **Growler** » Sat Mar 12, 2011 11:08 am

Welcome to DW, Mister Sparkle!

ok, that felt strange.
a bit alien, if not outright surreal.

Gotta hit the taverns by midnite, methinks..
otherwise, they figure yer just lookin' fur trouble.

There may be a slightly secret square
Where no monsterly types dare (to tread);
So safe shall ye be
Resting, or even fast asleep.

Do ye recall meeting someone when first ye sallied forth?
Find that fortune-imbued square and all shall be well.

chaney · Post by **chaney** » Sat Mar 12, 2011 2:03 pm

Alas fuzzbutt, you giveth newbie ill advice. The square is around the corner from there.

MrSparkle · Post by **MrSparkle** » Sat Mar 12, 2011 2:36 pm

The game is buggy and monster ranged attacks are OP. Why do cruemen and nomads attack each other, and why does everything attack even my rear ranks, including giant spiders biting my mages?

It's not what I thought it would be. The prevalence of monster ranged attacks is killing it for me. They never miss and everything has them, everything. In that first dungeon (I'm assuming it's the first dungeon) ranged attacks wipe me out constantly. Even my fighters with -3 AC get hit nonstop.

Bard's Tale I, II and III were not like this

chaney · Post by **chaney** » Sat Mar 12, 2011 4:18 pm

Bard's Tale I was a major wench to survive early in the game. As you level up, it gets a lot better.

Growler · Post by **Growler** » Sat Mar 12, 2011 5:42 pm

chaney wrote:Alas fuzzbutt, you giveth newbie ill advice. The square is around the corner from there.

There may be an additional 'safe' square--but I've rested numerous times all nite long in that Leughmagen spot (take 1 step forward after leaving the Adventurer's Hall) without a single encounter--whereas would get attacked several times an hour anywhere else.

Try it & find wisdom, ye of the peachfuzz buttocks.

MrSparkle, yeah--those relentless Ranged Attacks are killers & annoying to say the least. The main dev guy told me years ago that after they tried making monster ranged attacks more effective (too weak in earlier versions), they needed to go back & re-balance, but never got around to it before development ceased & then game got sold off.

Seems to make little (if any?) dif what yer A.C. is or other attributes. Just way outta wack, but apparently no way to change unless someone has access to the source code--which has yet to get released.

As cheney sez, it does get better once you level up & esp after you can take out the ranged-attacking monsters.

Alternative is to play the older 2.0 version..

MrSparkle · Post by **MrSparkle** » Sat Mar 12, 2011 5:55 pm

What's the older 2.0 version? I patched to 2.0 then to the unofficial 2.01b, and no mods yet (I prefer playing the vanilla version of a game through to the end before adding mods, unless they're bug-fixing mods)

How do you guys deal with the ranged attacks? I'm not sure how to after 25 or so years of the Bard's Tale series and not having to deal with that.

EDIT: Another question, how do you open/view the pictures ingame? They're .pic format but photoshop can't open them. I'd like to possibly add my own pictures (mostly from other games, so it would be a personal mod due to copyright issues), but I have no idea what format these pictures are or what opens them.

I'm hoping it's not Quicktime because for some reason I cannot install it - it keeps saying it cannot uninstall the previous version.

Growler · Post by **Growler** » Sat Mar 12, 2011 9:20 pm

Maybe others know how to view the pics, but think they are in a native format that can't be opened with common viewers.
I've got QT installed & it won't open them.

If you want to mod (incl adding pics) you'll need to get the Modder's Toolkit. Dragonbait be hosting it:
http://www.weekendwastemonster.net/crpgs/dw/dw.html

I never tried modding images, so can't tell you how that works, but there's a brief tutorial in the modding-toolkit files, & you can prolly find info here in the forums under the modding section.

Dealing with Ranged Attacks:

-when yer low-level & can't handle a group of strong Range-oriented attackers.. try to Run like a bun-bun!

-if that doesn't work, then remember: a good Offense is a great Defense, so throw all ye got at 'em!

-get the best bows & arrows--or other range-weapons ye kin afford, and suit yer guys up with 'em.. then Let Slip thee Dawgs of W'oar (in the form of missile attacks)

-sometimes works to Advance upon yer Rangy Foes, then pound'em up close & personal

-choose magic-user paths that quickly get Ranged attack spells

-roll for High Dex! -always helps to get 1st lix in, or have a better chance of running away, etc.. Luck should be a factor as well, so find out how to increase yer Luck (may be a way via thee Temple, tho it cost thee in incrementals of 500)

-perhaps beast of awe: save, Save, SAVE--after every fight.. then when the Barbarians nail yer entire crew with their savage spears--ye can sit back & sparkle like a maniac 8)

MrSparkle · Post by **MrSparkle** » Sun Mar 13, 2011 10:36 am

I downloaded the tools but have no idea how to use them

It came with an uninstaller but no installer, and none of the .exe files work. It also has a readme in .ijg format which I've never heard of. It's all very alien.

Growler · Post by **Growler** » Sun Mar 13, 2011 3:35 pm

Yeah, not exactly easy for most of us--no single mod-program/interface to work thru.. rather the basic 'tools' (files & compiling programs) along with pdf-based tutorials (look for tutorial folder under tools).

If yer determined to learn, check out the much better tutorial here in the forums provided by Origen (with others helping out) under the Mods section.

It's amazing+impressive what some have been able to do mod-wise.

Suggest creating a whole new DW installation if ye plan to mod--so no chance of messing up yer existing game.

origen · Post by **origen** » Sun Mar 13, 2011 5:46 pm

While the ingame pictures are in pic format, they can't seem to be opened from anywhere other than the game. As part of the toolkit, there is a Pictures folder which should have been unzipped.

You would need to use the picMake application in that folder (you must run it in DOS) to create your own pictures. I think there is a tutorial somewhere that explains how.

MrSparkle · Post by **MrSparkle** » Sun Mar 13, 2011 6:26 pm

Odd, picMake says it can't be run with DOS. It's DOSbox though so maybe that has something to do with it.

slackmg · Post by **slackmg** » Mon Mar 14, 2011 3:30 am

picmake is a windows command line (CL) program. It'll need to be run in a command prompt window. There appears to be very little instruction on usage with the program, but a good usage thread here: http://forums.devilwhiskey.com/viewtopi ... ht=picmake

MrSparkle · Post by **MrSparkle** » Mon Mar 14, 2011 2:14 pm

Finally get to craft a few items, but the dragon figurine I crafted won't work. I read that there's an updated items file to fix it but the link is dead (geocities).

Any way I can fix this annoying bug with 1 time use items not working? If there's a fairly easy way to edit the files myself I'll do that too.

I found this in the item_BL2D.txt file:

Type: Misc
Name: Thor Figurine
TypeID: 271
Description: This is a figurine of the Norse god Thor. You can feel the power emanating from it.
Location: misc
Value: 1

Could it be that it's as simple as changing the Value to 2 for all figurines and single use items?

EDIT: Doesn't matter, because I'm crashing every time I try to take the stairs to Cellars level 2, and a bard song won't stop playing no matter what I do. This is a very buggy game, pretty much unplayable

EDIT: Fixed it by finding this thread: http://forums.devilwhiskey.com/viewtopic.php?t=130, so now I'm ready to play until the next bug! Still want to fix those items though.

Now I have a problem where it crashes at the saved game screen, and I have to click (L)oad and Enter real fast to bypass it. Geez.

Growler · Post by **Growler** » Sun Aug 14, 2011 2:46 am

Re 1-time use items, think one work-around was to set charges to '2' -but not sure that always works.

Did you ever make it thru the entire game?