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Old School Computer Game

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In Old School Computer Game (OSCG) you create a party of adventurers and explore a sandbox world, completing quests and accumulating treasure and experience as you go. In OSCG, I have attempted to re-create the fun of my favorite computer role-playing games from the late 1980s and early 1990s. The interface is a mash-up of early PC and console games; minimalist art conveys the game while leaving the details to your imagination.
Features
  • 13 classes: bards, clerics, druids, fighters, magic-users, monks, paladins, psionicists, rangers, thieves, dwarves, elves and halflings
  • 17 kits and 7 spell school specializations to choose from (there are 136 possible class/kit/school combinations)
  • 199 spells for magic-users, 56 spells for clerics, 79 spells for druids, and 34 powers for psionicists
  • 450 opponents to encounter and defeat (and another 323 subtle variants)
  • 2601 magical items to find and use (including 4 end-game reward artifacts)
  • a large, randomly-generated world map to explore, featuring hundreds of dungeons, ruins, castles, towers and pyramids
  • over 250 quests to complete (a mix of randomly-generated and hand-crafted content)
The game is written in Java, and will run on Windows and Linux computers. To run the game, you must have Java 17 or later installed on your computer.  If you do not already have it installed (or have an older version installed), you can freely download the latest Java version from Oracle (https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/downloads/) or Java.net (https://jdk.java.net/).
Developing OSCG has been my hobby for over thirteen years. Your feedback, especially constructive criticism, is most welcome. Please use the comment section below to ask questions, suggest improvements and request new features.
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Reviews (6)
Discussions (92)
Customer avatar
rocky M March 17, 2024 1:02 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Hi there,

I just bought the game.

I was wondering what rules this is based off of. Is it B/X/OSE Advanced or something else? Just wondering so that I can get the book handy when playing. Thanks
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Customer avatar
rocky M March 17, 2024 3:42 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Also how do you avoid being surprised when you walk into a room, how do you search for hidden doors/traps and listen to doors? P.S. When I press f1, the basics tab does not open for some reason.
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Customer avatar
Andrew K March 17, 2024 8:31 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
The game is based on the classic rules (so THAC0, lower AC's are better etc), but with too many modifications to really read out of one book. Originally I used Dark Dungeons as the basis, but then added in a lot of modifications, including:
- 2E's kits and some of the advanced classes, like paladins, rangers etc.
- 3E's grouping of saving throws (will, reflex and fortitude instead of wands, dragon breath etc ... but they still count down like classic saves, so lower numbers are better)
- 4E's abilities, but just for psionics, so powers you can use at will, ones that recharge every hour or day etc
- the combat flow is closely modeled on the classic gold box games

I hope the game is reasonable intuitive if you know any OSR game with THAC0 and descending AC, but if you have questions, please just post here.
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Customer avatar
Andrew K March 17, 2024 8:33 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Sorry that post is muddled - this comments system doesn't seem to support new lines/paragraphcs anymore ...
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Customer avatar
Andrew K March 17, 2024 8:34 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
The Basics is meant to be a section divider, not a tab you can click on. Just like Classes and Kits below it. Can you click on the other tabs okay?
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Customer avatar
Andrew K March 17, 2024 8:35 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
If you characters can detect traps, they attempt so automatically. At low levels, they stink at it, but they will get better as they go up in level. Secret door detection is also rolled automatically. For obvious reasons, I don't give you prompts like "there is a trap here, but no one has detected it yet". :)
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Andrew K March 17, 2024 8:35 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Thanks for buying my game!
Customer avatar
Jeffrey G February 08, 2024 2:51 am UTC
PURCHASER
I found something new that probably needs to be fixed- I had a Druid with a Cloak of York (gives Level 1 spell immunity). He is unable to cancel his Druid Transformation in the middle of combat, as he is "immune" to his own effect, presumably because it is treated as a Level 1 Spell. Same thing happened with a Psionicist I had- she was unable to turn herself Invisible with her psionic ability, probably for the same reason. Might I suggest that the "Cancel Transform" be treated as a max level spell, rather than a Level 1 spell- does that break anything? I am not sure if the Psionicist's Invisibility can be set any other way, though I must admit, Psionic abilities don't really seem like they should be affected by things that affect spells at all, as they are something else.
Customer avatar
Adel A January 03, 2024 1:47 am UTC
PURCHASER
Hey Andrew, I noticed that I need to skip my first turn with the Psion class in order to activate my sword, why is that? please fix this problem or at least allow us to auto activate the sword as an option like the berserk ability.
Thank you so much for making this amazing game!
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Customer avatar
Andrew K January 14, 2024 2:50 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
I'll fix this in the next release. Apologies Adel, for the nuisance, and especially for taking so long to answer you.
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Jeffrey G February 08, 2024 2:47 am UTC
PURCHASER
The only downside of it being set to auto-activate (which was how it was before) is that you can't equip any other weapon ever, so you are stuck with having to be a frontline fighter for lack of any ranged weapons. I like the idea of it being an option like the Berserk thing. Related, what classes Berserk? I always have that toggle turned off.
Customer avatar
Jeffrey G October 04, 2023 1:23 am UTC
PURCHASER
I got the new version and just started rolling! I do like the new sprites! Very cool! So far the only thing I've seen is that arrows don't seem to play sounds anymore!
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Andrew K October 04, 2023 2:37 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Thanks! The new arrow hit sounds are quieter than other combat sounds. I'll have to balance that out.
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Jeffrey G October 27, 2023 3:49 am UTC
PURCHASER
Okay, another note- the scroll info text still is just placeholder information, so there's no useful information about how the spells work in there. I really miss that because I used to use that to figure out what spells to give to the mages and what spells to give to the Divine casters!
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Jeffrey G February 08, 2024 2:48 am UTC
PURCHASER
The scroll thing really needs a fix, because there's no easy way to figure out what an unfamiliar scroll does in the middle of combat.
Customer avatar
Andrew K October 01, 2023 12:49 am UTC
PUBLISHER
Old School Computer Game Update 31

Hi folks.

I am working on an OSCG v2. I am struggling to resist calling it "Middle School Computer Game." v2 will be an "advanced" version with multiclassing and a couple of modern ideas I like, such as ascending AC and D20 skill checks. This game, now called OSCG v1, will remain as it is, with the classic rules I love implemented as accurately as I can manage ... plus or minus my personal house rules of course. :)

I will not be abandoning development of v1 in favour of v2. Whenever possible, I will share code and enhancements between the two. You can see the first example of this with your PC's combat icons. I created a better dynamic PC combat icon system for v2, and then ported it back to v1. (I look forward to hearing if you like the change or not.)

This is the first release using an "OSCG resources" library I am building to share code and content, to make v1 and v2 as easy as possible...See more
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Jeffrey G October 27, 2023 3:50 am UTC
PURCHASER
I love the idea of a new version!
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Jeffrey G November 05, 2023 4:49 am UTC
PURCHASER
I have been unable to complete the Collingwood Caves quest- the guy thanks me for breaking up the monster cooperation, but it still shows as active in my Quest list. Any suggestions?

I think I accidentally flagged my own post! Sorry! There does not seem to be a way to undo that!
Customer avatar
nk F July 18, 2023 7:40 am UTC
PURCHASER
I am trying to run the latest version of the game (v30) using a fresh install of JRE, but I get this error:

---------------------------------------

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: oscg/Oscg has been compiled by a more recent version of the Java Runtime (class file version 61.0), this version of the Java Runtime only recognizes class file versions up to 52.0
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(Unknown Source)
at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(Unknown Source)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(Unknown Source)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$100(Unknown Source)
at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(Unknown Source)
at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(Unknown Source)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(Unknown...See more
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nk F July 18, 2023 8:20 am UTC
PURCHASER
FIXED. I managed to run it successfully by installing the full JDK 20.
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Andrew K July 26, 2023 5:11 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Sorry for the nuisance. I am glad you were able to fix it.
Customer avatar
Darcy B July 14, 2023 12:36 am UTC
PURCHASER
Feels like a stupid question, but how do I get this to install again? I download the JAR file, I double click, I'm running Java20/17 and Windows 11, and all I get is a window flashing past in a blink. There's no evidence of any alteration to the existing, working, file on my C drive, even when I run the new JAR file from it. The working version is from Feb 2022 with executable and all.

Am I supposed to stick the JAR file somewhere specific?

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Customer avatar
Andrew K July 18, 2023 12:27 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Hello. I apologize, but I do not have Windows 11, and do not know how to trouble shoot this. On my Windows 10 and Linux computers, all you need is Java 17 or later installed, and then run the JAR file from anywhere.

Please try opening a command prompt, changing directory (cd) to the directory with the JAR file, and running "java -jar ".

You may also want to try just running "java --version" to see if the version of Java Windows is trying to use is indeed Java 17 or later.

Amazon now has a free Java you can download. If the ones you are runnign do not work, try Amazon's latest. https://aws.amazon.com/corretto/?filtered-posts.sort-by=item.additionalFields.createdDate&filtered-posts.sort-order=desc
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Customer avatar
Darcy B July 26, 2023 6:15 am UTC
PURCHASER
Ok, issue fixed. I can now play the January, 2023 version. Turned out the issue was a registry thing, Windows pointing Java to the wrong place, fixed with a little application. Here's the link to the application if anyone else has the same problem, http://johann.loefflmann.net/en/software/jarfix/index.html
Yay for google.
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Customer avatar
Andrew K July 26, 2023 5:12 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Sorry for the nuisance Darcy. I am glad you were able to resolve it.
Customer avatar
Arthur F May 22, 2023 1:46 am UTC
PURCHASER
Hey longtime fan- been playing this game for years. However, on this most recent version I can't seem to memorize any spells? Like, from the party management screen I press 'q' and it shows that my spellcaster can memorize 2 spells, but... the screen is just blank with no options? My spellcaster should know some level 1 spells because when I press 's' it shows a few, but I can't seem to memorize any. Same for my cleric. The spells are just gone?
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Customer avatar
Arthur F May 22, 2023 9:58 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Oh wow, I'm sorry the magic system got broken because I like all the quality of life updates I see now; love the character bar that shows health, and the auto-sale of loot at shops, etc. However, I can't really make it very far without spellcasters or clerics so please let us know if the "unable to memorize spells" bug gets fixed. (I actually prefered it the original way you had it with spell slots but no memorization required. I understand that purists probably want Vancian magic though. I'll be happy with any system that works again though.)
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Arthur F May 22, 2023 10:45 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Oh! Nevermind I finally got it working! I did a bunch of different things at once so I don't know which of them worked. If anyone else is having trouble with spells here's what I did; uninstalled/reinstalled Java, deleted/redownloaded OSCG, nuked (deleted) every old character and saved game and started over from scratch. Spells work now, and I'm loving the new features!
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Customer avatar
Andrew K July 26, 2023 5:14 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Sorry for the trouble Arthur!
Customer avatar
Jeffrey G February 12, 2023 7:06 am UTC
PURCHASER
Got a new one for you- in the April's Fool quest, the text of the quest tells me I need to go to Thrisk (I might have spelled that wrong), but it is not on the map. The coordinates lead to Collingwood in this game- so something isn't right with the names and the quest text. EDIT: Oh wow, it's the Collingwood Caves quest, too, referencing the same town! Weird!
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Customer avatar
Andrew K February 20, 2023 1:04 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Thanks for playing, and taking the time to tell me about these! I'll try to fix these in the next release.
Customer avatar
Michael S January 22, 2023 10:41 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I just got this, and I have the most updated version of Java, but I get a message that says "A Java Exception has occurred" every time I try to run it. I don't really know much about programming, so I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong or not, but I figured I'd mention this.
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Customer avatar
Andrew K January 23, 2023 1:46 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
I am sorry to hear that Michael. Can you open a command prompt and run "java -version" please? It should say something like "java version "19.0.1" 2022-10-18". (That's the version I'm running, but 17 or later is fine.)

If you want to download the latest to be sure, you can get 17 or 19 from Oracle here: https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/downloads/

The difference is that 17 is their long-term support version, while 19 will be out of support in six months or less, replaced by v20.
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Customer avatar
Michael S January 24, 2023 12:54 am UTC
PURCHASER
Ah, I must have missed something, because that got it to work. Thank you! I'm excited to play.
Customer avatar
Andrew K January 11, 2023 9:58 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Old School Computer Game Update 30: Quick Fixes

As usual, your existing saved games will not work with this update. Please be sure to load up your games and export your characters before installing this upgrade.

Fixes:
- background colour problems on the instructions panel
- gender mistake (his/her) when stating that a character has exhausted their supply of ammunition
- out-of-date information in the combat help page
- using antidote potion in combat no longer crashes the game (I hope ... was a hard one to recreate and debug ...)
- when a character misses an attack, they no longer say "attack attack" (oops ...)
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Customer avatar
Andrew K January 11, 2023 9:59 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Jeffrey, I still haven't figured out what to do about that psychic sword that was bugging you. It gives characters a +5 vorpal sword that lets them block missile attacks. The trade off is that you cannot unquip it, say to use a missile weapon. It's quite a choice, available at 1st level, but I'm afraid if I take away the downside, it will be terribly out of balance.
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Jeffrey G January 19, 2023 7:54 am UTC
PURCHASER
So the way I see it is this- don't make it auto-summon and eternal. Make a character -have- to spend a turn to cast the thing (assuming they don't get plinked by one of 50 Kobolds that go first) in order to get the benefits. Then give it a time limit, maybe high enough to last through a combat or two, or, if that's too generous, make it terminate at the end of every combat. Losing even -one- attack in this game is often a real serious trade-off. To be honest, I did not realize it was +5, Vorpal, and could block projectiles. I've never seen more than a fairly pitiful amount of damage delivered not much more often than a halfway decent weapon (with the Daggers of Mind's Eye). At least anecdotally, my character with it must be awful because he's never come close to matching an equivalent level of Fighter in terms of combat usefulness. Honestly, I'd love to be able to reselect my Psionic powers for him and get rid of the thing, and there's no way I'm taking it with anyone else (Daggers or the Sword) going forward...See more
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Andrew K January 21, 2023 2:15 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
My idea was that you would add those ranged psionic attacks to the character, to go with the sword. There are several to choose from - some require an attack roll, while authors auto-hit but don't work on those immune to mental attacks (e.g. undead). As you build a psionicist, I imagine they wear armour, but otherwise depend on their mental powers rather than weapons to work. Similar to a wizard, but they have at-will and hourly powers, so they don't run out of options.
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Jeffrey G January 21, 2023 7:15 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Which is fine, I suppose, if that's the guy's theme. But even Obi-Wan Kenobi used a blaster from time to time. Also, what happens if you have both Daggers and the Sword power? Which one is always on? Can you summon the other one to switch it out? And what if you are a Mystic kit and take Daggers? You get 1 power for a lot of your run, because the XP requirements are so high. You don't -have- the option to take any ranged Psionic powers starting out. Fortunately I had learned my lesson with my older Psionic character with the Daggers, and when I made a Halfling Mystic recently, I avoided Daggers like the plague!
Customer avatar
Andrew K December 26, 2022 1:36 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Old School Computer Game Update 29: Best Wishes For A Happy New Year In 2023

As usual, your existing saved games will not work with this update. Please be sure to load up your games and export your characters before installing this upgrade.

I purchased some new and improved sound effects, and have added them to the game. To my ears, they make combat better. I hope you like them.

New Items:
- magic compass
- new magic armour: "dwarf" and "stout" variants

Changes:
- added flanking as a means of setting up backstabbing attacks (press F1, look under combat for details)
- added party gold to the bottom-right corner of the party management panel
- attack and damage bonus are now separate values, allowing me to give bonuses or penalties to one or the other in the future
- converted instructions panel layout to use tabbed panes (used to be buttons), and added the ability to press escape to go back to the...See more
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Jeffrey G January 01, 2023 6:10 am UTC
PURCHASER
So, the one gripe I have so far is that now when you bring up the info on scrolls, it no longer says what types of casters/ what level it is, it basically just repeats the name of the scroll. It also has SCROLL_DESCRIPTION at the top of the page which is probably not what it is supposed to have there.
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Jeffrey G January 05, 2023 3:13 am UTC
PURCHASER
The bug still exists if a character is poisoned, blacked out, but still present, if you try to use Antidote, it says "No one in the party is poisoned" and then crashes immediately, saying there's a serious error.
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Jeffrey G January 05, 2023 4:07 am UTC
PURCHASER
Another very small error I just noticed- I had a male Magic User run out of sling stones, and it said "has exhausted her supply of ammunition". I double-checked, the character is definitely male!
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Andrew K January 06, 2023 12:47 am UTC
PUBLISHER
Thanks, I will work on these.
Customer avatar
Jeffrey G December 06, 2022 2:20 am UTC
PURCHASER
So, I have been playing the latest version and have stumbled across two weird things. First, my Psionicist with Daggers of My Minds Eye, always has it active, even after rest, and -cannot- switch to any other weapon or shield! Is that supposed to be that way because at one time he fell back on a bow in earlier versions of the game, and also carried a decent magic weapon and +1 shield, so he really didn't need the daggers too often. The second weird thing- I had a Thief (Archer) armed with a longbow and silver arrows (I double checked that the silver arrows were readied) and Wererats reported immune to his silver arrows! A +1 Sling with standard ammo worked against them, but the silver arrows were completely ineffectual!
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Jeffrey G December 06, 2022 3:42 am UTC
PURCHASER
One more! I finally got a chance to see Poison/ Antidote as I got ambushed by a bunch of giant centipedes and they poisoned two of my party. The cleric (I think) was carrying an Antidote potion, so when her turn came up, I tried to use it. It gave me the message "None of your party is poisoned" (even though two of them had been removed from combat by the poison) and then the game crashed with the "serious error" text!
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Jeffrey G December 06, 2022 5:12 am UTC
PURCHASER
I would also add, that I suspect, for no particular reason, that the crash was because the poisoned party members were removed from the battlefield as though dead. Perhaps there's some kind of conflict between knowing they are poisoned, but they aren't available on the board. I've never seen anyone reappear on the board for any reason before, but I've never tried a Raise Dead scroll in the midst of combat. Just a thought!
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Customer avatar
Andrew K December 14, 2022 6:38 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Hi Jeff.

The psionics thing is working as designed. I'm not claming it is a GOOD design, and I'll think about improving it in the future.

I'll have to try out the antidote during combat thing, and the problem with silver arrows. Thanks for the feedback!
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Jeffrey G January 01, 2023 5:40 am UTC
PURCHASER
So, then, don't take the weapon Psionics if you want to be able to use any other weapons of any kind? Can you at least make it so the weapons can be "thrown" or something? If the characters aren't front-line fighters and have one of those abilities, they are useless (except for chucking oil). Can I have a way (debug or something) of getting rid of that psionic discipline in favor of something else, then, as a future update? Thanks!
Customer avatar
Andrew K August 30, 2022 4:01 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Old School Computer Game Update 28: Defect Fix

Fixing a defect. Sorry I goofed on this one, folks. My thanks to Michale H for bringing this to my attention.

Fixes:
- I used an immutable record (a new Java feature) instead of a normal class, in a place where I needed the data to be alterable, breaking allocation of ability scores for character creation
Customer avatar
Michael H August 28, 2022 3:21 am UTC
PURCHASER
Just bought this - I can't believe I never heard of this game until now! I'm running in to an issue, though, that's very strange: after I roll for my ability scores and try to assign the rolls to ability scores, when I press "enter" on the window to assign one of the rolls to Strength the character creation seems to end and I get kicked back to the party management screen without having created a character. What am I doing wrong?
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Andrew K August 28, 2022 1:27 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
I don't think you are dong anything wrong. I'm sorry to hear about this. What character class are you trying to create, what ability score rolling option are you picking, and what operting system are you running, please? I'll try to re-create the problem and figure it out.
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Michael H August 28, 2022 2:05 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Thanks for the quick response! It happens with every character class, and whether or not I choose a kit; and for each of the three ability score selection options where I am able to assign the rolls to ability scores individually. I'm running Windows 10 and using OpenJDK 18.0.2.1. If it matters, I'm starting the game with a .bat file with the command ".jdk-18.0.2.1binjavaw.exe -jar .oscg-2022.02-jar-with-dependencies.jar" (I unzipped the JDK in to the directory with the game).
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Andrew K August 29, 2022 12:33 am UTC
PUBLISHER
Thanks. Sorry I haven't found a quick fix yet, but I'll keep looking at it. Would you mind running this from the command prompt, to see if any errors are being written out?
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Michael H August 29, 2022 1:14 am UTC
PURCHASER
I don't see any errors, or any terminal output. Are there any flags I could provide to get more debug info?

Screenshot here of what I did specifically, if that helps at all: imgur com/a/PHdcmaS
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Andrew K August 30, 2022 3:04 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Thanks for the help. I've found the defect. I'll publish an updated game once I've done a little testing to try and be certain I haven't broken anything else while making the fix ...
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Michael H August 31, 2022 4:28 am UTC
PURCHASER
Oh, awesome! Glad to hear it!
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Alex M May 02, 2022 5:43 am UTC
PURCHASER
Just bought the game and have sunk many hours into it this first weekend! Would it be possible to move rolling ability scores to the first step of character creation instead of the final step? I find it strange to have to pick my class before I know if the roll qualifies. I'd *prefer* to play without cheesing rerolls, though that's what I've been doing so far, since the class is locked in.

Bugs: 1) You can buy and sell arrows to shops to make infinite money.
2) I've seen a dungeon with a disconnected room (via the reveal map debug command) that I wasn't able to complete. I could dig up the save if it would help.
3) You can't move diagonally with the keyboard on the dungeon map but the auto move feature and moue are able to.

Quality of life ideas: 1) Make escape take you back to the map from the F1 screen.
2) I had a Staff of the Forest in one game (RIP) and it would be awesome if the characters could (optionally?) automatically pass around the regeneration item(s)...See more
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Customer avatar
Andrew K May 27, 2022 5:26 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Thanks Alex. I'll take all of this away. I'm glad you are having fun.

By the way - I never play without reloading. There's a reason there are quick save and quick load functions. :)
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Customer avatar
Andrew K June 04, 2022 1:52 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Alex, I have added some of the quality of life fixes from your list to the next release. Others, like passing around regeneration items, didn't make the cut. (If I add that one, I may as well just give the party regeneration - that is supposed to be a somewhat rare thing not every character has easy access too.)
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This title was added to our catalog on May 11, 2015.