Ian’s original article on this subject does quite a service for all designers, but even it fails to mention other things that do not function as advertised, or at all. Here are some others which I’ve found. The solutions I offer are imperfect, but I hope the simple knowledge of these game bugs will save designers some frustration and prevent scenarios from being released with these problems contained within. At any rate, here’s what I’ve found doesn’t work, in no particular order.
- Conceal Item Ability does nothing. This is unfortunate, especially if you want a party to get stuck with something radioactive, or even create an air of mystery with an object. Will this staff slay the warlock, or me? Should I sell it? Keep it? Drop it? There is no work-around for this bug, that I can think of, but be aware of it. DON’T design items that hinge upon having enigmatic abilities; use other design techniques to create an air of mystery or confusion.
- Petrification Touch is actually Dumbfounding Touch. To my knowledge, there is no petrification touch. This can create enemies that are MUCH EASIER than they should be! You want to have some powerful boss who can petrify you with one swing of the sword, and instead you deal with only a relatively minor dumbfounding. Unfortunately, petrification ray — which does work — may end up being too powerful. Again, no work-around, so I would avoid selecting petrification touch altogether.
- The Alien Blade is not poisoned, as it should be. As a result, it is WAY too valuable. For 5000 gold you get only a slightly-above-average waveblade. This weapon should be edited or removed.
- Changing the visibility (i.e., opaque, transparent, etc.) of terrain types often does not work. I’m not sure if it always fails, but it definitely does sometimes. Make sure, through beta-testing, that the terrain type works properly. The work-around is this: if you want an opaque custom terrain type, don’t replace a terrain that is transparent. Instead, replace one that was already opaque. I’m not sure if this bug is also present with blocked vs. passable, but once again, during beta testing check all changed terrains by looking at them, looking through them (if possible), and trying to walk into them.
- Most undead attack with claws, even ones who are clearly holding swords, like ghosts and skeletons. This is minor, but it looks really unrealistic. It can easily be changed.
- The Shield Mace is categorized as a shield, instead of a mace. As a result it becomes one of the game’s most powerful shields, and has no encumberment! It’s fairly cheap to boot! This item, like the Alien Blade, should be changed or removed.
The following are things that are not available in Blades despite being found in the original Exiles:
- Variable Town Lighting: In the Trilogy, towns could get progressively darker or lighter. See the Grim Cavern in EI for an excellent example of this. In Blades, every town has a set lighting that cannot be changed. There are two work-arounds: 1) Use the light radii feature carefully. To make a cave get darker, set it as dark to begin with but create a custom terrain of cave floor that has a light radius. 2) Automatically change level as you go deeper into the cave. The new level can be darker. Neither of these fixes is as smooth and seamless as it was in the Trilogy, but it works.
- “Map Not Available” Option: Many towns, due presumably to some sort of magic, could not be mapped in EI-III. This is not possible in Blades. This is one of the most frustrating things I have encountered, as it seems so simple to just put a button in the “Advanced Town Details” for this feature. Sadly, there is no such button. Work-arounds: In low-level scenarios, do not provide orbs of sight, sapphires, or the magic map spell. In higher-level scenarios where the player probably already has these things, design the town or dungeon with secret passages and other things that can’t be figured out with magic mapping.
- Moving Walls: These certainly were neat in EIII. Unfortunately, they don’t exist in Blades, probably due to the complexity of the programming involved. I would recommend change-terrain specials, conveyor belts, and teleporters as partial fixes, although there is no total fix.
- Old graphics: There are several high-quality graphics found in the original three that are absent in Blades. This is an easy fix: just borrow them from those games and use them as custom graphics. Stareye’s Spy’s Quest, though not a great scenario, made nice use of old Exile graphics. The original Giant Chief, the Haakai Lord, the Spider Lord, and Garzahd are just a few neat-looking monsters strangely missing from the editor, but can be easily resurrected for your scenario.
It is extremely likely that there are other bugs found in the Editor not listed in Alcritas’ article or this one. Further submissions on this subject would be very useful and are encouraged. Bugs that are the designer’s fault are annoying enough, but nothing is more perplexing and enraging than those beyond our control. Prior awareness of these Blades flaws will save countless maddening hours for designers, beta-testers, and players.
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