[WIP] ToEE Front-End X 5.0 Progress Report

Discussion in 'General Modification' started by Agetian, Apr 20, 2013.

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  1. Gehennis

    Gehennis Established Member

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    Re: [WIP] ToEE Front-End X 4.0 Progress Report

    Under the Help tag it says that I have Front-End x v4.0- and this was after clicking on the TFE-X-4.0 gold2a.all.zip link so I guess this is the right version? I restored my backed up saves and started a new game with the CE alignment. I saved at the shop map- and experienced a CTD when I tried to start adventuring. This happened 4 straight times so I eventually reactivated the modpack.

    When I clicked the play button after the reactivation, it CTD. I finally started the game straight from the game shortcut icon rather than the front end shortcut icon- and CTD. Tried it once more and finally got the game started. Everything went fine and managed to start a new game so I saved and exited. Tried to launch the game thru the front end again- and crashed again. Tried once more but this time disabled the intro movies (since the reactivation had enabled the intro movies) and the game started as normal so I'm not sure how much of this is an issue on my end or a problem with the front end but hey- at least you now have something new to chew on ...:)
     
  2. sirchet

    sirchet Force for Goodness Moderator Supporter

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    Re: [WIP] ToEE Front-End X 4.0 Progress Report

    I am running the 4.0 new 2a front end and I have the movies enabled and they are running fine.

    Here's what I did, please advise me if I got it wrong. :)

    1. Extracted the 4.0new2a.zip to my TOEE directory and overwrit when asked.
    2. Re-activated 7.8NC and took up playing my last save.
    3. Uhmmm, there really is no three.

    What exactly did you want us to look for again and what should I be testing?
     
  3. Agetian

    Agetian Attorney General Administrator

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    Re: [WIP] ToEE Front-End X 4.0 Progress Report

    @ Gehennis: Tried it multiple times both on my used and on my clean 7.8NC installation with both the gold and the experimental TFE-X builds, with intro movies enabled, and could not reproduce it... Not sure what's up but it's likely it's some kind of an in-game issue and not a front-end issue, BUT - can you please tell me what options you have enabled in the Options menu of TFE-X? (that's the only place where we can look for crashes like that which might have a chance to be TFE-X dependent).

    - Agetian
     
  4. Gehennis

    Gehennis Established Member

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    Re: [WIP] ToEE Front-End X 4.0 Progress Report

    All of the options are checked, the level cap is at 20, Delayed Fireball is default at 1, 6 characters to a party and Mersenne is the random number generator. I've read on here in another post that said that having too many saved games could cause a CTD- right now I have 11-13 saves (I'll check again when I start playing).
     
  5. Agetian

    Agetian Attorney General Administrator

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    Re: [WIP] ToEE Front-End X 4.0 Progress Report

    @ Gehennis: Ok, I'll look into it, though it's likely not a TFE-X issue. By the way, one thing you might want to do is choose either Max NPC HPs from level or Max NPC HPs from HD. Not sure if you can actually have both of them on at the same time, they seem mutually exclusive.

    Speaking of which, should we actually enforce them being mutually exclusive - I mean, you choose one and the other is automatically disabled then?

    - Agetian
     
  6. Gehennis

    Gehennis Established Member

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    Re: [WIP] ToEE Front-End X 4.0 Progress Report

    I say Max from HD- no doubt someone can do the math to see which gives the monsters more hit points..
     
  7. gazra_1971

    gazra_1971 Knights of Legend

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    Re: [WIP] ToEE Front-End X 4.0 Progress Report

    The way 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons works is that monsters have a specific number of HD (Hit Dice), but intelligent monsters are also capable of having any number of character class levels (so the 2 options in TFE-X aren't mutually exclusive - they are BOTH needed!).

    I'll give you an example: All trolls in D&D v3.5 have 6 HD, but the Dungeon Master is free to give any monsters any number of character class levels (even multiclassing). The NPC troll chief Oohlgrist is a level 1 barbarian, so he gets the benefits of being a troll (6 HD) AND a level 1 barbarian when calculating his HPs (Hit Points).

    When my old role-playing group first played the module Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, we tried to gain entry into a secret passage into the temple by fighting our way through the ogre guards just inside the entrance - our adventuring party was comprehensively routed! They were fighting like professional soldiers, with the 2 ogres in the second rank (of their formation) using reach weapons! When I said to the Dungeon Master "But they're only ogres! How the hell can they be better fighters than our heroes?", my Dungeon Master replied "Maybe they also have levels in the Fighter character class!" This BLEW my mind, as I was used to 2nd Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, where the player knew the EXACT HD (Hit Dice) of each monster because there was no variation in monsters' power (apart from age, such as 'Young Dragon' or 'Old Dragon'). But what makes 3rd Edition D&D SO scary is that the player no longer knows how powerful monsters are - you DON'T know whether you are facing a monster that has no class levels, or whether you are facing a monster that is a level 20 Fighter! That's what makes 3rd Edition D&D SO brilliant!

    When a monster has character class levels, it signifies that that monster is an elite version of that monster (i.e. the monster has training or experience beyond the normal abilities of that monster), so it is meant to have more Hit Points and be more capable than an ordinary version of that monster.

    In this computer game, only monsters that have 1 or more character class levels get any benefit from the option 'Max HP from level', whereas ALL monsters benefit from the option 'Max HP from HD'.
     
    Last edited: Jun 26, 2013
  8. Agetian

    Agetian Attorney General Administrator

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    Re: [WIP] ToEE Front-End X 4.0 Progress Report

    @ gazra: Oh, thanks for the clarifications! Makes sense! :)

    - Agetian
     
  9. Agetian

    Agetian Attorney General Administrator

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    Re: [WIP] ToEE Front-End X 4.0 Progress Report

    UPDATE: Updated the Gold Release to build 3. Incorporated the changes related to the dropdown menus. Made the related documentation changes.

    - Agetian
     
  10. sirchet

    sirchet Force for Goodness Moderator Supporter

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    Re: [WIP] ToEE Front-End X 4.0 Progress Report

    Is it me, or does the new front end look a little generic?

    I know it's just a launch tool, but everything else about Co8 has an almost professional look to it.

    btw, it seems to be working wonderfully.
     
  11. Agetian

    Agetian Attorney General Administrator

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    Re: [WIP] ToEE Front-End X 4.0 Progress Report

    @ sirchet: Well, it's a very subjective question as to what exactly looks too generic or not too generic. Yes, admittedly, TFE-X uses the standard native OS interface with no extra bells and whistles, but it serves its purpose and does it well. Many front-ends out there (e.g. DarkLoader for Thief series) follow the same route. I'm not sure what exactly you mean by the statement that the new front-end looks a little generic (compared to the old front-end?), the two TFE-X's use pretty much identical interfaces with only minor changes to the position of buttons and the structure of menus. So, I would argue that the new TFE-X is at least not seriously more generic than the old one. :p Anyhoo, that being said, the new front-end has the benefit of using Swing which is a Java GUI framework that allows skinning. Once we get the functional aspect of the front-end fully finished (which is the primary goal of v4.0), we can get to the cosmetic enhancements in the future editions. ;)

    - Agetian
     
  12. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    Re: [WIP] ToEE Front-End X 4.0 Progress Report

    On a different note, has AjiTae flown the coop already? And if so, where are we left with the .dll stuff he was looking at?
     
  13. Agetian

    Agetian Attorney General Administrator

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    Re: [WIP] ToEE Front-End X 4.0 Progress Report

    I haven't heard from him in a (long) while. The latest TFE-X build uses the last tested version of his hack which works only for the windowed mode and only changes the resolution of the game in the windowed mode, That version is generally stable and does its job well. It does not affect full screen mode in any way though, and as of right now there is no known version of the hack from Aji'Tae that would work in full screen and would neither crash (in at least one operating system) nor have any side effects such as broken scrollbars.

    - Agetian
     
  14. Zoltec

    Zoltec Pгōdigium

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    Re: New Front End Testers

    @Agetian I did try testing your "TFE-X-4.0-experimental2-all" today and then this happened...

    Error Level - Serious

    IO Exception when reading Delayed Blast Fireball settings: modules\ToEE\delayed_blast_fireball.txt (The system cannot find the file specified)


    If I'm correct the new TFE-X Front-END should not look for the delayed_blast_fireball.txt because by default the vanilla module is activated (did not activate the Co8 module, since I've planned to activate it when the old Front-END is updated to experimental one). The experimental TFE-X Front-END behaviour should be like the old Front-END included in Co8 modpack v7.8.0.

    Access the complete log and info <below>
     

    Attached Files:

  15. Zoltec

    Zoltec Pгōdigium

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    Re: New Front End Testers

    So there is already TFE-X-4.0-gold3-all.zip, it seems the one I've downloaded is outdated. My report should be useless right now. Anyway I'll test the new Front-END today.

    UPDATE: Oh the error exist even on the new version, I'm using the latest Java <jre-7u25-windows-i586>. Download the log file under attachments.
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: Jun 26, 2013
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