Is there a place for non-official FM patches ?

gnartsch on 6/8/2011 at 18:17

I wonder if there is a place where people can upload patches for FMs.
I have a couple of FMs where the readables needed to be modified in order to be fully displayed.
Due to the fact that most of them are fairly old, the chances are pretty low that any FM author would ever correct them and reupload the mission.

So, I wonder if these could be made availlable somewhere by the community ?
Currently I have these on my list, where a minor patch seems to be required:

Gaëtane - Emilie Victor (journaldl.str : page 5 not displayed)
Paweuek - Cragsright Prison (spis.str : page 2 not fully displayed)
Rabid Bunnie Wabbit - Mr. J's Ring (Garret's Diary.str : not all pages properly displayed & 'Book Of Dead.str' needs to be renamed to 'Book Of The Dead.str' in order to be displayed)
...

Ok, one might post to the corresponding thread and add a link to an external download site for the patch.
But since these tend to become invalid within a year or so, it would be gone soon enough.

So, is there some way this could be supported by the community in a reliable way ?
I am not thinking of uploading the entire ZIPs. Just the few resources that shoule be patched.
Or is there a collection of fixes already availlable somewhere ?

clearing on 8/8/2011 at 04:07

See PM.

gnartsch on 13/8/2011 at 11:40

Patches for readables availlable so far:

August 2011

(http://www.gnartsch.de/Thief-FM/patches/EmilieVictor-patch.zip) Gäetane - Emilie Victor (for v2.1, english)
==> corrected formatting in 'Sir De Lorets Journal' (page 5 missing), which would reveal some of his plans

(http://www.gnartsch.de/Thief-FM/patches/crags-patch.zip) Paweuek - Cragsright Prison (for v1.0, english)
==> corrected formating in the 'Prisoner List'

(http://www.gnartsch.de/Thief-FM/patches/mrjrng-patch.zip) Rabbid Bunny - Mr. J's Ring (english)
==> Hardly anything was readable. Renamed one file and reformatted another one.

(http://www.gnartsch.de/Thief-FM/patches/Arac_Attack-1.2-patch.zip) Theker - Arac Attack (for v1.2, english)
==> Due to bad formatting none of the books in the game could be fully read. Fixed them all.

(http://www.gnartsch.de/Thief-FM/patches/gilder-patch.zip) Ishy - A Noble Death/The Death of Lady Gilder (english)
==> The game crashed whenever reading a book. All had to move from 'books\gilder' into 'books'. That's it.

Thanks for providing a mirror, clearing !

(http://darkfate.org/view/details/files/fan-missions/patches) http://darkfate.org/view/details/files/fan-missions/patches

gnartsch on 20/8/2011 at 20:03

I would like to ask everyone whether you are aware of any missions that are known to have problems with readables and the like.
Such as:

- odd looking pages
- books/letter/journals not showing any text
- some pages seem broken or missing
- the game crashes when trying to read a letter/book

The same for the Objectives screen - which technically also is just a readable
- empty objectives
- or text looks 'broken'

Did someone keep track of such issues?
I might well be willing to look into such issues and try to provide a patch whereever possible.

Reply to this thread or send a PM.

Thanks!

gnartsch on 25/8/2011 at 23:42

Yesterday I started working on a small project related to readables.
I created a small program that extracts all *.str files from all *.zips and analyses the readables for formatting issues that cause readables to be displayed incomplete.
Such as
- missing or duplicate page numbers
- missing or duplicate quotes
- incorrect use of quotes within text
- bad tags to indicate the page start
- other formatting issues
- ....

So far I identified 447 files from ~120 authors as potentially badly formatted files from various missions.
While there might be still some false positives included, there are clearly quite a few missions that deserve a fix.

Anyway, stay tuned. A bunch of patches will follow !

Or do you want me to stop this nonsense ? :nono:

Authors, do you want to know if one of your missions is on my list ?
Planning an update for a mission maybe ?
Let me know :D

The Watcher on 2/9/2011 at 11:36

Quote Posted by gnartsch

Authors, do you want to know if one of your missions is on my list ?
Planning an update for a mission maybe ?

You might want to ask that over on The Editor's Guild - a lot of authors only look at that forum, or sometimes there and Thief Fan Missions.

gnartsch on 2/9/2011 at 18:02

Quote Posted by The Watcher

You might want to ask that over on The Editor's Guild - a lot of authors only look at that forum, or sometimes there and Thief Fan Missions.

Good point!
Actually I thought about the authors no sooner then I had posted already.
But I will do so, once I have a complete list of missions with problems.

Btw.: I have compiled ~80 FM patches so far and there are only ~25 authors left (TDP,Gold & TMA).
But before publishing any patch, I will add some more code in order to also analyze other text files as well. Such as the ones for
- mission title
- objectives
- object names
- ...

I guess that I should be done with that no later then end of september (worst case)

EDIT:
Just a short update. The first stage is complete.
So far I corrected the books that have issues due to the formatting rules imposed by the game.
I will add some more logic for german (and maybe french) accents which would not sho up properly.
And add checks for the other files (titles, objects, objectives, ...)

The list of patches so far, which I will make them availlable alltogether later as a big ZIP (~1MB size).
For sure not all patches are 'vital', but personally I find it confusing and annoying if I have the feeling that something is obviously missing or broken.
And indeed quite a couple of texts were HEAVILY broken.

Quote:

Thief 1 - The Dark Project

Apache : apacheT1-patch.zip
DarkThief : Hand-des-Ruhmes-patch.zip
DarkThief : ProjektHammerV1-1-patch.zip
Dennis Martin : awaken-patch.zip
Ishy : gilder-patch.zip
Markus Lappalainen (Mokkis) : CircleOfStrain1-patch.zip
Purah : calendra-patch.zip
Sperry : journey-patch.zip
Triston Attridge : roghon-patch.zip

Thief Gold

Andreas Lilja (MoonAchilles) : BlueStar-patch.zip
DarthsLair : GoldinFortKnocksREVv3-patch.zip
DarthsLair : returntobaffordrevised-patch.zip
Zontik : GoldenBook-patch.zip

Thief 2 - The Metal Age

Alex Thomson : ranstallkeept2-patch.zip
And (Ben Hur) : azurapt2-patch.zip
And (Ben Hur) : sofa1a-patch.zip
Apache : GtR-patch.zip
Apache : SSDD1_TippingtheScales-patch.zip
Belboz - Steven Hindley : ttgm-chasm-patch.zip
Belboz - Steven Hindley : washout1-2-patch.zip
Brother Renault : Throughnovaultofmyown-patch.zip
Bryan Gleason : LordMatt-patch.zip
Bryan Gleason : mightyjoeyoung-patch.zip
Buglesoft : MuseumHeist-patch.zip
Bukary : mistrzdemo_eng-patch.zip
Caradavin : LovelyNightv1-patch.zip
Caradavin : Maguire-patch.zip
Carkess : Carkess-Revenge-patch.zip
Christine Schneider : Lord_Ashton_SeriesV2-patch.zip
Christine Schneider : Rauchergesellschaft-patch.zip
Dainem : InDubioProGarrett-patch.zip
Dark Assassin : DarkBeginnings_c-patch.zip
DarkShadow : Balfours_Secret-patch.zip
David Letersky : Galleryv1.2-patch.zip
David Riegel : invertedmanse-patch.zip
Dennis : Nepumuk-patch.zip
Drysils Chosen : Half Blind-patch.zip
Erik Willems : something-patch.zip
Eternauta : TTLK v1.1-patch.zip
Firehawk : GarrettAndThePrincess-patch.zip
Frobber : KotP1-9_v1a-patch.zip
Gaetane : Cauchemars-patch.zip
Gaetane : EmilieVictor-patch.zip
Gaetane : TheDen-patch.zip
GORT - Shaun MD Morin : Rebellion_of_the_Builder_v.1.2F-patch.zip
Gumdrop : hedham-patch.zip
Harald Lootze : torner-patch.zip
Ishy : gilder-patch.zip
Jason Otto : adebtrepaidv4.0-patch.zip
Jeremy Catlin : Retaliation-patch.zip
Jimmy Desiderio : CircleofStrain_T2-patch.zip
John Denison : ALoveStory2v13-patch.zip
John Denison : AServantsLifeV1_1-patch.zip
John Denison : BaffordsLastStand_v1_3.zip
John Eric : stronghold-patch.zip
John the Beggar : TAC_TheHomelessDude-patch.zip
Mark Roller : Paladine_Manor_1.02-patch.zip
Mark Smith : HeistSociety_v10-patch.zip
Marzec : lady_mossy-patch.zip
Master_edd : BloodyFloundersInn-patch.zip
Metalhead : Bloodsport_hibr-patch.zip
Mr.Tunnel : ChildrenoftheFutureSEv2-patch.zip
nightshifter : Librarian,The_v1.0-patch.zip
Paul Buckley : threat1.1b-patch.zip
Paweuek : crags-patch.zip
PsymH : invitationv2.0-patch.zip
PsymH : TheMirrorofReturnv1b-patch.zip
Purah : Calendras_Legacy_v1a-patch.zip
R Soul : alltorc-patch.zip
R Soul : sagh-patch.zip
Rabid Bunnie Wabbit : mrjrng-patch.zip
Richard Cull : ArtOfThievery-patch.zip
rosa : basso_v2-patch.zip
Rostvogel : Konkurrenten1-4-patch.zip
Schattengilde : Proph1DeadLetterBox-patch.zip
Schwaa : CromsBlade-patch.zip
Schwaa : JailBreak-3.0-patch.zip
Schwaa : Left4Dead-patch.zip
Shadowspawn : LFCurse-patch.zip
Sliptip & Digital Nightfall : FablesOfThePenitentThief_Nov8Fin-patch.zip
SlyFoxx : Fletch_Low_V1.0-patch.zip
Spoonman : brokenhammersv2-patch.zip
Spoonman : heretic-patch.zip
sterlino : GasStationAssault_1.9.Gold-patch.zip
sterlino : HornsOfCanzo_part1_ALongWayUp_deluxe-patch.zip
Team CoSaS : CoSaS2_MissionX_v113-patch.zip
Terry DeLaney (Ricebug) : Crooked_v2-patch.zip
Terry DeLaney (Ricebug) : Strife3_V2-patch.zip
Terry Head : Ruins_Originia_v1-patch.zip
The Immortal Thief : betrayal-patch.zip
The Immortal Thief : keep_of_deceit_v1.47-patch.zip
The Niggster : BDDD-patch.zip
The Niggster : Niggsters_erste_FM-patch.zip
Theker : Arac_Attack-1.2-patch.zip
Theker : LegendoftheFourElements_3.0_Version-GERMAN-patch.zip
THEthief : undergroundescape-patch.zip
Timon : ForgottenForest1-patch.zip
Timon : ForgottenForest2-patch.zip
Timon : TimoteusEng-patch.zip
Triksta : Diamondv1_1-patch.zip
Turi Robert : Haddur-patch.zip
Vigro_182 : ladysakurasdragoneye-patch.zip
Volkmar : c4CashingIn-patch.zip
Wille : SirWilliamsKeep-patch.zip
Yandros - Russ Robins : EWBankGold-patch.zip
Yohny C. Liar : fbt-meeting4-patch.zip
Yohny C. Liar : fbt-oldtribe1-patch.zip
Yohny C. Liar : fbt-thetunnel1-2-patch.zip
Zappenduster : GarrettsJungeJahreXTra-patch.zip
Zontik : KS-patch.zip

R Soul on 4/9/2011 at 13:47

I see that my two full-size FMs are listed there. What changes have been made?

gnartsch on 4/9/2011 at 17:33

Quote Posted by R Soul

I see that my two full-size FMs are listed there. What changes have been made?

AllTorc:

Log.str: item 4) in the Progress Report - 'New Area'
was not displayed due to a misplaced quote

Stones and Glass Houses

aabmconv.str & aabmconv.polarBear:

Quote:

;line 13
page_12: "Okay, I'd better get moving then. I bid you goodnight milord."
page_12_time: "30s"

;blank line
page_13: " "
page_13_time: "2s"

Before the change the last line had the number 12, which would probably cause the page_12 to be displayed too short.

R Soul on 5/9/2011 at 17:43

Right. The info in item 4 is also available in the 'garrowhint#.str' files, but the missing part does explain why the Fort has a new housekeeper.

I got lucky with erroneous 'page_12_time'. The game must be reading the first one, with page_13 having some default value.