I will delete what I consider to be redundant posts.

IN fact, maybe I will summarize and delete the recent postings.

Please scan through this to see if your problem is mentioned here and if there is a solution. Please reply if the solution worked or did not work. Please provide additional information as requested here.

This topic is a special one to organize our thoughts before the release of A56, which I would like to resolve all issues.

You should find the patch here:
http://www.synthetic-reality.com/wosDownload.htm

You might pull the patch itself directly from this:
http://www.synthetic-reality.com/patcha55.exe

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BACKGROUND INFO:

* It *will* say this if you ever made the most trivial mod to any of the evergreen folder contents. To recover, you should only need to restore those files to their pristine state. This might require downloading and installing the FULL INSTALLER, not just the patch.

* Be *sure* to not be running WoS when you run the installer, or not all files will be updated.

* Be *sure* to note any error messages you see while running the patch or the installer, and please report them as you see them, as accurately as possible, thanks!

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Having said that, there are enough people with problems that it is worth looking for a bug. The first step is to find out just what version you have.

While playing A55, type the command "/version" which will tell you all sorts of stuff. (do NOT 'apply changes' or you will screw yourself royally)

The correct information for A55 is:

"Version Number 1.0024" <-- do NOT edit this
"seems to be official version (84E4)"

And, it probably also says:

Created By.. samsyn... MOn Jul 10 01:36:29 2000
Last Mod By ..samsyn.. Mon Jul...

hmmm, lookee there, the last mod date is probably wrong. Not critical, just a screen glitch.... yeah.. ok, apparently I never got around to actually setting the modDate. So don't worry about that.

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Anyway, the most interesting bits are the 1.0024 and the (84E4)

If your values are different, please post them here.

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UPDATE:

If you see 1.0024 and (C471) [or even some other number] ask yourself:

"Did I delete all or some of the .TER files in an effort to walk across terrain without special boots?"

IN which case, restoring those files may be all you need to do (I don't think any .TER files changed between A54 and A55... though I make no promise of patcher happiness with ANY change to the file set. It's cranky enough as it is :-)

Well, the patcher is famous for getting confused over skin file changes, so it should surprise us if it gets confused over .obl files as well, although that's never happened in the past as far as I know.

Aside from being sure to have WoS shut down before running the patch, all you can do is.. run the patch. If the patch fails for any reason, your only recourse is to get the full installer.

Be sure none of your files are set to read-only. (how to do that in an easy way is not simple... Oh maybe it is. Select a bunch of files, right-click for properties and see if the read-only checkbox is dimmed. I think that means some are and some aren't

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UPDATE: Patch says some of my skins are unknown versions!

The patcher only cares about files which have changed in the current patch, and some files don't change for many versions in a row. In such cases its easy for you to get out of sync without knowing it until much later. About a zillion versions ago, I messed up one of the patches by overwriting some skin files. Some people have been working around this by ignoring patcher warnings, deleting files, and recovering from backups. But this just defers the problem until the next time those files need to be patched. If you encounter any version errors with the patch, the 'safe' thing to do is get the full installer. It will probably save you more aggravation in the long run (until I mess up again, of course!)

[This is still under review. I believe it is working as before, but with slower boots you have a higher probablity of monsters -s]

[OK, I declare this "unchanged from prior releases" and suggest it is more apparent because of the loss of doublespeed. By the way, boosting your hunting level is also an effective form of monster repellent. -s]

You will only lose your heroes if you UNINSTALL. So NEVER uninstall. Just download the installer and run it, telling it to install to the same place as the previous copy.

This is a feature, not a bug:

Points to remember about XP/GP sharing:

1.) Your share will be computed by multiplying the total XP/GP from the fight times your share 'quotient' which is your share points divided by the total share points.

2.) If your level is 'L' then you add L share points to the pool each time you hit a monster, or heal a friend. (Originally I wasn't going to count the heals, but world designers convinced me otherwise. For now, at least)

3.) If a pet does any hitting in the scene, it adds its own level to the share point pool (and thus dilutes your contribution) Thus you will level faster without pets, but the fights will be easier with pets. Sort of makes sense, doesn't it?

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FOR EXAMPLE:

Dave (level 10) and Dan (Level 20) and Dan's pet (level 5) battle together.

Dave hits 3 times (3 * 10 = 30 share points)
Dan hits 4 times (4 * 20 = 80 share points)
Pet hits 6 times (6 * 5 = 30 share points)

The monster dies and has 100 XP to be shared.

The total share points for the fight are 30+80+30 = 140

Dave's share of the XP is (30/140) * 100
Dan's Share is (80/140) * 100
Pet's share is (30/140) * 100

BUt the pet just robs Dan and Dave of XP. The pet himself will actually get a full 100 XP since he was the only pet participating and he gets his XP the old-fashioned way, a simple even split with all participating pets of a 'parallel dimension' pile of XP.

XP is rounded DOWN to the nearest whole number, so Dave's Share is:

(30/140) * 100 = 21.42857 which rounds down to 21 XP.

So if you add up all the shares of XP in a petless fight, the total will probably be a bit less than the official XP registered for that monster. (for N players, it will be within N points, so unless you have VERY large parties, you won't notice it except for VERY weenie monsters.)

It does mean however, that a monster which pays only one XP will often pay 0 when fought in a party. Still, that was the case before with even steven sharing anyway, so I don't see why I need to point it out now.

===

GP is shared with the same ratio as XP, but is harder to test since the actual GP from a monster is random, plus or minus 50% of what is shown in the Book of Demons.

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Probably, depending on how cool they are.

World Designers have the opportunity to declare some monsters as 'untamable' (no matter what their level is). I have chosen to make the Evergreen Big Boss monsters untamable. This was actually done quite a while ago, but apparently wasn't working until this release.

So, look in the pokedex and if the monster's ID number is 200 or more, then it is untamable in Evergreen (this ID 200 thing is Evergreen only and not applicable to other worlds)

Such a monster, if already your pet, will be lost the next time you use that pet.

Apparently I mistakenly placed the Jelly Lord in the grotto as a regular monster. I'll have to deal with that one way or another.

The following monsters have the 'untamable' bit set:

Jelly Lord
Lord Web
Harleking
Moraysaur
Manglord
Lord Fist
Gully Wyrm
Ice Wyrm
Fire Wyrm
Tri Wyrm (from here up, they are >level 100 anyway)
Chameloraptor
Sand Wyrm
Giant Slobber
Giant Dwarf
Giant Goblin
Giant Troll
Black Wrath

Also, a couple of 'future demo monsters'

Shapeshifter
midget eyebrawl

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Hawken, rather than post in every topic on the board, use this one here, please...
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Now, what exactly are you talking about? "People not coming in your scenes" "locking up" etc.

If you are somehow still using A54 (which should be impossible since the game should not be refusing to play unless you have A55), then you might see that sort of behaviour when trying to play online with people using A55. You would still see their packets, but they will ignore yours.

That is to say, A55 knows that A54 is dead, so it simply ignores packets from A54 players, rather than possibly mis-interpret them.

So, for example, while you, with A54, might see other people's chat. They would not see yours.

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In the HELP/ABOUT window, what version does it say you have?

You might be suffering from ISP caching, in which case, you either have to wait it out, or get the RELOAD button of your browser to do it's job.

You might have more luck directly fetching the patch at: http://www.synthetic-reality.com/patcha55.exe

Also, be sure WoS is not running when you apply the patch, or the world will end as you know it.

If the patch runs, but gives you error messages about this or that file being an unknown version, then you have to get the full installer from: http://www.synthetic-reality.com/wosDownload.htm

You should run the installer and install right on top of your existing installation. DO NOT UNINSTALL FIRST.

When you UNINSTALL WOS, you throw everything away (possibly your soul ID if you're lucky, which leads to a mess of other problems), so don't. Just run the installer again.

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If you go to any book, there is a small visuale error on the top of the text bar. You see whatever was on the old screen. (Very reproducable)

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[Hmm, I'm still not seeing this... maybe I am not following 'on the top of the text bar' I am opening various books (book of colors, say) Dragging them to cover various bits of the chat area (below the splitter), then pressing the [x] button to dismiss the book and then looking for missing pixel repaints in the chat area. I'm not seeing any down by the line where you enter your chat text, nor up by the gray area where it labels the server name... ah, wait, heres an idea.. ok.. if I resize the chat window to the point where the server label goes away, THEN I can get a paint glitch just above the place where you enter your chat (the new 3D border)

Hey, and there was even a good reason! So thanks again for the sharp eyeballs! -s]

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UPDATE

I also fixed the 'shadow guideline' which was appearing in the Book of Skins.

I believe this can be classified as a show-stopping bug:
The TAKE opcode no longer works, and seems to be giving instead.

After running my take script (which has *all* takes in it), Cactrot ended up with 100 of every item in my world. I am running a test now....
I gotta get off, but yeh.

-Merlin

[well, let me know. There is a ramp-up issue since the new pocket limits mean that an old character.. well.. imagine you had an old character with 100 of something. Now you try to TAKE 1 of those and expect it to go to 99, but the characters new pockets can really only hold 50 of the items and this is the first time that item has been incremented since upgrading to A55. the result would be that it would jump to 50, which really doesn't explain what you said at all.....

.... OK, found it. Thanks for the report! -s]

[This message has been edited by samsyn (edited 05-23-2001).]

I think it is in the lvl 30s and it cast restore.
Okay, here are the exact stats:
Available in North Umbrage
Level 40 Staff
A: +35 D: +25
Casts Restore Spell

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UPDATE: (thanks, Cartoon)

The actual problem is that the MP percentage shown on the pet dialog doesn't update in real time, so it kept showing 100% even after your pet had cast a couple spells.

However, anything which caused your pet damage or healed it, DID update both the HP and MP percentages, showing you suddenly the TRUE value of the pet's MP.

And, while I claim it was a small nightmare to make the MP adjust in real time on that dialog (in multiplayer mode), fixing small nightmares is apparently what I am all about, as I think I just fixed it for A56. -s

[use "check online for new worlds", and redownload Innsmouth. -s]

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[I accidentally deleted the excellent suggestion that you check to see if your .HER file for that character somehow got marked read-only. That generally happens after using a CD-R to move files from one machine to another. BUt yes, clock thingies can affect time thingies. In general you want your clock thingy to be as accurate as possible. What specific error message do you get when you set your clock/date correctly? -s]

Hey, you guys were right! Good catch! It was a side effect of the new world versioning stuff. Go figger. As it turns out, to fix it the RIGHT way would have required re-re-versioning again. So, at the expense of about 20 bytes of code bloat, I hope to have fixed it the WRONG way instead.

But it will only work when both parties are A56.

I also made it so that skin names on the MAP list are painted in a dim red if you don't have them (replacing that asterisk I took away)

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[there is such a timeout yes. Its actual length is being changed for A56. It's your badge of honor for beating the game in record time. Your character is then removed from play, like Joe Montana's Jersey number, as a tribute to your skill. -s]

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Nuts.

[This message has been edited by samsyn (edited 05-27-2001).]

[thanks for finding that - fixed in a56 -s]

Suspose someone PK Attacks you. As soon as the red text flashes on the bottom of your screen, your computer goes into slow mode for half a second. You then enter the PK Fight. If, as your entering the PK Fight you press flee (you have to be VERY quick), you will suceed in fleeing as if the time ended. I have seen people (desperate newbies mostly) do this also. It mostly only works in completly lag-free connections. I've tried this on my friend and he was also able to flee. Most people usually camp and get stuck in there.

Yes they have it and it still works. Also, if your REALLY fast, you can challenge someone to a pk fight, then leave.