Descent MystV

[andylegate]

Okay, let me list what I've tried here (if I repeat something that you already know, I apologize):

When I used the first version of Drizzle that was posted just before this latest version:

I converted the Ages one file at a time, starting with the .age file working downward.
I output them to a new blank folder.
I moved a copy of them over to my dat folder in Uru.
I was able to link into: Decent, Myst, Direbo, Toldemer, Laki. I was not able to go to Tahgira or Noloben.

Latest build of Drizzle was posted (Drizzle4.jar). I downloaded it.

I converted the Ages one file at a time, again starting with .age file working downward.
I created a new avatar to use.
I was able to link into: Myst, Direbo, Laki, Noloben and Tahgira. I could no longer link into Toldemer or Decent.
Updated the checksums on the sum files.
Same result.
delted and did a rebuild on the sum files.
Same result.

Made a completely new fresh install of Uru:CC
Tried the above again.
Same result: I can link into all the Ages but not Decent or Toldemer.

I've also varied on how I link in, either with my nexus (which worked fine with the very first time I converted), and just modifying the ULMLinkBook.inf file.
The result is still the same: I can't link in to Toldemer or Decent.

Now here's some other info, don't know if it will help:

DecentMystV Age has 43 files: 1 .age, 1 .fni, 1 .sum, and 40 .prp files
Toldemer has 15 files: 1 .age, 1 .fni, 1 .sum, and 12 .prp files

Some observations by me:

Drizzle changes the name of like Decent to DecentMystV and Myst to MystMystV. That's cool, and you are also changing the sequence number of the Ages. That's great too!

But why change them to 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, etc, etc? It would have been MUCH better it y'all had changed them to numbers above 100 (or is it 200? I can't remember. Trylon can answer that question! That way people could use the ULM to put these Ages on their book shelf! It would have shown up in their Personal Ages tab on the ULM. Right now, people will have to either edit their ULMLinkBook.inf file, or use something like my Nexus Age to get into any of the MOUL or Myst V ages, and editing the ULMLinkBook.inf file only works if you don't use the ULM after that. If you do, it over writes the file, and they loose what they typed in.
I know some of you are working on a Nexus project, which is great! But at the same time, making the Sequence numbers above 100 would ensure no conflicts with any Cyan Age at all, and it would have made the ULM usable for these Ages.
Just a observation and suggestion from me. There maybe a reason y'all did it that way that I'm not aware of.

[D'Lanor]

You are assuming that developers know all about other development projects that are going on. The truth is however that developers are mainly focused on their own projects and very often they don't even use tools made by others. I for example do not trust the ULM enough to link me anywhere so I use my own offline adminKI.
So incompatibilities with other tools remain undiscovered until the end user finds them.

[andylegate]

I for example do not trust the ULM enough to link me anywhere so I use my own offline adminKI.

I can understand that, sure.

However......I'm not just thinking of me. I'm thinking of everyone, right down to a person that knows just enough to follow simple directions, and is able to copy / paste files, and point and click.

If I knew enough to make something that would allow people to put Books on their Bookshelf in Relto, that is very simple to use and stable, I would.

Right now, the only way I personally know how to put something on my bookshelf, is with the ULM, or hacking my game files themselves. Hacking the game files might help me, but it's not going to help Nynaveve, or Dot, or Montgomery, or Frisky, or Leonardo, or Jishin, or Junee, or many, many others out there. I can't share those files.

I don't have a AdminKI. How many other "non developers" out there do? And that's my point: as far as me and the other Maintainers know, the only "easy" way to put a non-Uru Age in your bookshelf is with the ULM. As Maintainers, we strive to help and think of all the explorers out there. And that means finding an easy way to do something that works, is stable, and "user friendly"
If there is another "user friendly" way of doing it, I'm all ears and will help promote it! I'd rather people have a choice in how they do things if possible.

But we're drifting off topic: there seems to be a link between the new Drizzle just posted, and some of us that can no longer link into Decent or Toldemer (I'm kicking myself in the rear for deleting those first converted files, then I could do a compare to see what was different)

[Jeffrey]

That is really strange, because I used Drizzle4 to convert my files last evening and have had no problem linking to any of the Myst 5 or MOUL Ages. The one thing I noticed is that it took some time (maybe a min or 2) to conver some of the files. Most of them were instantaneous, but others took a while. I just used select all and let it run. Put the converted flies into a folder separate from Uru and then copied all the files to the data folder once finished. I do also agree there is not an easy way to get there unless I use Andy's Nexus. It is cool to actually see linking panels to the M5 ages. I would love to make my own personal age that had all the linking books, but unfortunatly that is way beyond my knowledge right now.

Andy: Don't know if you are aware, but the Jalak linking panel is on the left side of the book when you click on it.

[andylegate]

No, I didn't know that, but I have the Nexus in Blender right now, making Changes (ShadowBuf was still on some things, switching to using Passindex instead of the Zoffs as originally this Age was exported pre 1.5.0 plugin.) and I'm adding a book to K'veer......just can't seem to make up my mind if I want it to be Myst V K'veer or MOUL K'veer.

But I'll go look at the Jalak book right now. Thanks!

[diafero]

The latest Drizzle works fine here as well. I never had any corruption problems or such, so I doubt they are caused by Drizzle or its ages. For the sounds, are you sure you ran "SoundDecompress.exe" after copying the ogg files? Sounds worked (with the limitations you describe) here after I did that.

[Tweek]

No, I didn't know that, but I have the Nexus in Blender right now, making Changes (ShadowBuf was still on some things, switching to using Passindex instead of the Zoffs as originally this Age was exported pre 1.5.0 plugin.) and I'm adding a book to K'veer......just can't seem to make up my mind if I want it to be Myst V K'veer or MOUL K'veer.

But I'll go look at the Jalak book right now. Thanks!

both? >.>

what about Releeshahn?

[jacuru]

Using the correct names which are used in the Dat-file could help a lot.
A typo is easely made.

[andylegate]

I'm going on 42 next month.....but apparently I need to go back to grade school and learn how to spell!!

My bad (or would that be BAD?)!

I've misspelled Toldemer and Descent in my Python files......and when I tried to make a direct link in the ULMLinkBook.inf file, I was spelling Descent, typing in "Decent" instead.....

One is to go down....the other means Good or Kind.......

sigh......help me, my brain is too fast for my fingers.....I'll fix the Python file and upload it right now. Still working on the Nexus Age, but if you go and redownload from the ULM in a few minutes, you'll have the CORRECT spellings and can use my nexus to link in to those 2 Ages now....

:goes to work, muttering to himself:

[ddb174]

I understand, Andy: I've done the same thing before!

As for Releeshan, I've just added some screenshots here: http://picasaweb.google.com/ddb174. If you want to link to it yourself, you need to edit KveerMystV.age and remove the ",1" from the end of kverReleeshan's entry ( or somehow execute PtPageInNode("kverReleeshan")), and go to the spawnpoint: "WarpReleeshan".

As for ULM: like D'Lanor says, a lot of developers haven't used it, and that includes me. The reason it is the way it is, is that originally I thought modifying sequence prefixes was risky, and I was avoiding it if at all possible, so I left the Moul ones unaltered. Now-a-days it's quite easy and safe to change them, but that's the historic reason why it is. It would be easiest to just modify ULM to accept this range. There's no danger, since Cyan will never release new Ages in a savegame-compatible way anyway (if they ever release any at all). I can take a look at the source, and let you know what to change, if you'ld like. Or, it would probably be quickest to just get Trylon to update it.