Conversations don't start when they should

[William]

The newest snapshot has fixed the problem with the tattoo in Monitor, but now I cannot either A. Start a new game, and with the old save I cannot B. Enter Fawn because the conversation I'm supposed to have never initiates, and overall, it's hard to start conversations. I think it maybe that new delay tweak in the recent snapshot, I could be wrong though. Anyways, thanks for fixing the tattoo problem.

[marzo]

I think it maybe that new delay tweak in the recent snapshot,

I have a good idea of what the problem is, and it is not that; I am, however, not having time to do anything...

[William]

Well, thanks anyways, I did not mean to insult you, I was just going through the change log, looking at the recent changes that may have caused the problem.

[marzo]

Rest assured that I didn't take any insults; if it seemed so from my previous post, I apologize, but I wrote it in a hurry.

[Bobbers]

I can't even start SI due to this bug, as Iolo won't walk up and initiate dialog with me when the ship appears. He did the first time, but now will not do so no matter how many times I restart. Since the game won't let the player move until that conversation occurs, SI is currently unplayable for me. I'd send a save game, but since this is the very beginning of the game, how can I?

[Bobbers]

Latest snapshot, with SI fixes. The SI install is from the Ultima Collection CD, therefore has Silver Seed installed also. Nothing was different when it worked except that it was the first time I tried to play after installing SI. I thought the resolution mattered, so I've been changing it into and out of default, but it doesn't help. I've tried changing most of the in-game options one by one but none seem to help.

When the game WORKED, Iolo did not leave the ship and just walked down to me and initiated dialog. I then walked east after that conversation to tweak the framerate and Exult options, and at some point I could no longer initiate conversation with any of my compantions. They would say the "Yes, Avatar?" flavor text above their heads, and they would stop moving, but after that no conversation would occur. Doing it again on another companion would yield the same result. Eventually all my companions were frozen and would not follow me anymore. I quit this game without saving in order to see if I could replicate the problem, but now Iolo just runs out of the ship and never has his conversation with me, meaning I can't progress past this point or leave the ship. Specifically, he runs out of the ship and then walks back to where he started, and then never walks down towards me. He does say the "I need to speak with thee" flavor text above his head, though. Repeatedly.

[Andar]

Same problem, latest snapshot from the Downloads section won't start Serpent Isle with Silver Seed from the UC. I don't have any saved games to test, but backtracking to an older Exult binary worked fine.

[drcode]

I might have fixed this last night (probably too late for today's snapshot). I only tested a little, but conversations in SI do seem to start now. The beginning of the game still shows a bug, in that sometimes it works (Iolo talks to you), and sometimes it doesn't (game hangs).

[Bobbers]

Is it possible to unlock movement before that conversation happens, so that the player can initiate conversation with Iolo if Iolo doesn't initiate conversation with the player? Hopefully it should just be one flag, and it can be set from the beginning of the game, instead of as a result of that conversation?

[drcode]

The intermittent hang at the start should be fixed in the latest snapshot.

[Bobbers]

It is fixed, but it seems like there is still some sort of problem with NPCs homing in on the Avatar's location. For example, when I entered Fawn for the first time, I managed to walk past the guard before he initiated conversation, and was a bit further north on the platform than one is "supposed" to be for the Ruggs conversation. And although it DID trigger, Ruggs walked up to where I was supposed to be, then walked off-screen, then ran back to where I was supposed to be, and then sort of casually meandered north to where I was. It took a good 20 seconds.

In the DOS version NPCs would invariably run straight up the Avatar (wherever s/he may be) and always initiate conversation immediately. That seems to still be missing, but at least it's not game-breaking at the moment.

[drcode]

I think we've had this problem before. Actually, we've probably never gotten it right. I'll try to look into it this weekend.

[drcode]

Just checked in some changes that should help (and hopefully not break anything). NPC's that want to talk to you will walk faster and check for when you're close, so it's harder to run past.