Update 2: Understanding the Status Page
When examining the current status of my Patches project, I imagine many of you are wondering why there are so many issues listed as only partially resolved considering previous news articles about my patch progress. This is because I am reimplementing these changes and fixes onto the original version of map files. The reason for this repeat of corrections is to avoid potential bugs or issues introduced during my earlier efforts. One possible source of these comes from some bugs with our object property editor that may have introduced bugs into other objects around the map. The second and more real source of potential bugs is from the earlier method we employed to add objects by entering a copy of the map to place objects and then pasting over the original map.
This effort is actually fairly straight forward due to knowing what issues were corrected and being able to compare the Old Patched Version with the Original. In addition, there aren’t any issues with the other scripting files. Thus, much of work with non-map files is re-examining the triggers and activities and testing to be sure the fix is effective and works with the changes with the new map files. As a result, many of the partials won’t take much effort to reimplement, test, and reach the complete stage.
Another area of curiosity would be what constitutes the difference between a Serious bug and one that is Major or how significant is a Polishing issue. For that matter, why is a patch focused on Serious and Major bugs have so many smaller issues? Firstly, most of the polishing issues are being included because these fixes were already partially or completely implemented with my older work. In addition, though not a bug, the odd and scattered placement of keys throughout maps has always bugged me. Part of this is because a significant portion of the keys have the same key number (nominally 0) allowing them to be used on large number of possible doors. While finding all of the keys and altering their target locks would seem a time-consuming task, I have already identified all of the keys (using a combination of walkthroughs and playthroughs) and drafted a list of their new target locks. As a result, the task merely involves changing a single property value on all locks and keys in the game, which isn’t actually that large of a number.
Finally, I will talk about how I have categorized the bugs.
Serious Bugs – These are the bugs that either lead to significant problems during gameplay or involve restoring missing NPCs that shouldn’t be missing (Mariah and Jaana). The bugs included in this list are as follows: Restoring Mariah to Moonglow, Restoring Jaana to Yew, Removing the Camera Script from Tydus’s dialogue, preventing Leeland from bothering you too early, lowering the Runes/Sigils after each Shrine Cleansing, fixing the Signal Fire bugs with Raven in Valoria, fixing the Shipwreck/Flann’s Son Quest bugs, and removing the breathing problem when going to Serpent’s Hold.
Major Bugs – Though not as significant as the aforementioned bugs, these are issues that are easily identifiable as bugs. Usually, they involves scripts that block off or interfere with access to areas (Catacombs, Deceit, Liche chamber), prevent the correct/virtuous music from playing, or cause NPCs to not be in the correct location (Dermont and Eleena, specifically). Two other issues with this category is one of the Demon Triumvirate not being slain and Deadly Tiles in the Abyss bugging out.
Minor Bugs – This category consists of the issues that are technically considered bugs, but they generally will go unnoticed or be easily forgotten since they do not interfere with the player. This group of bugs is fairly diverse, but the issues selected for this next patch are the more noticeable bugs. The only group of notable bugs from this category not included in the patch involve a series of teleports to keep the shopkeepers grounded.
Issues for Polishing – This category consists of issues that aren’t technically bugs as they don’t interfere much with gameplay or prevent access to areas or break scripts, but are more a matter of pedanticity. Most of the related fixes involve minor changes to object properties or adjusting an object’s position so it isn’t going through other objects or walls (like the Book of Justice or the Valor Banner in Serpent’s Hold). In addition to the issue over the keys, corrections in this area involve correct time shifts around cutscenes, reorganizing the books in Yew’s library (by altering the book ID numbers), or completing several NPC’s questlines that lack their final states (specifically Joshua/Leeland of Moonglow and Katie/Herzog of New Magincia).
The final category is just a catchall for planned additions to certain areas of the game. For this patch, this involves adding a few bags and other items across several dungeons and redoing Mariah’s basement.
As you can see, it is a busy list even for this patch, but most of the corrections are straight forward or easy requiring more time than involved scripting work.
