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WorldGroup version: 3.30nt

MajorMUD version: 1.11p

Nightmare Redux version: latest

How long board's been running: month and a half



Last thing(s) edited:

new area havent done anything with it yet though



What was already edited:



lots of stuff

Specifc error message received (verbatim):



access violation error, we all know what they look like

Problem you are having and any other useful information:



The bbs is crashing when a user attempts to 'use' the lyrist's companion (bard quest cloak).. i checked it out, and it casts a spell called like BCST or something.. well i made an exact duplicate of the spell and told the companion to read the new spell and it still crashes.. the player is a bard and is of proper level..

any idea?

I would guess that the cloak's cast msg is screwy or something. Look at the other quest cloaks and make sure they all match in format.

I would guess that the cloak's cast msg is screwy or something. Look at the other quest cloaks and make sure they all match in format.

nod access violations from edits are almost always message problems. it is probably a %s in replace of a %d or visa versa. or it could by missing on of the two or have one there that shouldn't be.



i looked up the spell and it refers to messages 3498 and 3499, neither of which exist. that could be a problem :)

I'm also having the same problem with the lyrist's companion:



WorldGroup version: 3.20

MajorMUD version: 1.11O

Nightmare Redux version: 1.56

How long board's been running: 1.5 months



Last thing(s) edited:

Removed level restrictions via Tools



What was already edited:

Removed item limits via Tools



Specifc error message received (verbatim):

BBS crashes - Access Violation - Tried to read: 14

(not sure about message 'Tried to read' - was something similar)





Problem you are having and any other useful information:

The BBS crashes as soon as I try to use lyrist's companion on a level 40 Bard. I looked up the spell BCNS and saw those associated messages (3498 and 3499) and they are also missing from my installation.



Was a fix for this ever found?



If not, maybe I can fix it by adding the appropriate messages or pointing the spell to the correct message numbers. Can anyone with a Mud with a working lyrist spell please post what I should add? I don't have any experience with editing messages.



Thanks

I tried looking up the messages in MMud Explorer, Mudview and the Megamud messages database and they're missing in all - I guess this was a bug for 1.11O and not an editing problem. Have people complained of this on unedited realms?



I tried following the above advice and using other quest cloak spells as a model to create the missing messages for BCNS (lyrist's companion spell). Almost everything is working.



The spell casts correctly and gives the correct charm bonus. Both the bard and others in the room see the correct cast messages. The status and end messages display correctly, too.



The only problem is that if the spell is still in effect and I try to use the spell again, it says:



You attempt to cast BCNS, but fail.



I haven't seen that for any of the other quest cloaks (or any item spells, for that matter). Can anyone offer any advice? The changes I made are below:



First, I inserted messages number 3498 and 3499 that were similar to other quest cloak spell messages:



3498

Line 1: The extra gayness wears off!

Line 2: *blank*

Line 3: You feel even gayer!



3499

Line 1: You rub your lyrist's companion between your legs! Fucking bard!

Line 2: *blank*

Line 3: %s rubs his lyrist's companion between his legs! Fucking bard!



At this point, I tested it and everything worked as I said above. In trying to fix the failed casts, I saw some General spell settings were different from the others. To match the other spells, I changed spell settings for difficulty from 200 to 100 and Norm Msg Style from No to Yes. This didn't solve the problem - it didn't seem to affect anything. Everything else already seemed to fit the profile, so I didn't make anymore changes.



All the settings copied from Nightmare are:



40/0/0/0/40, 0/0/0/0/0/0 -- @Req 0 to 0, 40 rnds -- @Cap 0 to 0, 40 rnds



Under abilities:

(49) Charm - 20

(115) DescMsg - 3498



Please help!



Thanks!

Under type of resists you have 'never' right?

its not just the spell from the cloak most if not all bard spells fail if it hasn't worn off yet

Yeah, the type of resist is set to never. I guess Hades is right: it's a bard spell thing. I guess I'll leave it as is. At least it's working now and not crashing the BBS.

this happens on all spells that directly modify your primary stats. it's not limited to bard spells exclusively (although those are the only user-castable spells in legit that do modify your stats, so they're the ones people know of). the fix for it is to filter through a textblock - the learned spell executes a textblock which first dispels the effect, then casts it again (the effect being in a non-learnable spell).



as to the problem you were originally having, it's due to the spell not having messages in the legit game, as you guessed. metro never bothered making it, thus BCNS - bard cloak no spell.



for example:

spell 1 (BCNS) executes textblock 1

textblock 1 reads as follows - cast 2:cast 3|

spell 2 (dispel bard) has ability removespell with value 3, no duration

spell 3 (bard effect) is the actual bless spell you want, i.e. dur 50 +20 charm or whatever.



btw, major kudos on the clear, concise and detailed way you posted your problem in the first place. thanks for making life easier. :P