PtD source code download link

[Modron]

I can enter the River Dragon's Lair in Land's End as part of the Academy's Paralyze Weapon thamaturgy ritual quest but everytime I try to leave the game crashes. 2.07 64 bit (tried reverting back to 2.06 and no change so I don't think this has to do with the update). I ran to another nearby cave could enter and exit it fine.

Started new save, ran to same cave, can enter and exit at will. Don't know if my save is broken, I've been using it since 2.01 so it's possible, will probably just skip this quest and keep moving on.

 

[Tramboi]

Thanks, I'll have a look.
You can send me a save just in front of the cave with repro steps if you want.
Edit : ok asfasdf fixed it. And your save will probably be ok in the next version

 

[Fowyr]

Hm, I thought that I discovered, that Tonis from Citadel should teach you only once (instead of gradually raising your literacy by pretty good amount), but after some comparison with 1.41, looks like AethraTrained flag was set (in both Tonis' and Aethra's dialogue), but never used. It's just a some leftover.

 

[asfasdf]

More fixes, more releases:

https://gitlab.com/ptd3/ptd-1/-/releases/2.08

 

[asfasdf]

New release here:

https://gitlab.com/ptd3/ptd-1/-/releases/2.09

I fixed a crash happening when you tried to move stacked items from the equip window to the equip window.

I am trying to make small improvements in UI also, this version has a few experimental stuff:

• ESC now closes most UI windows, like the main menu;
• ESC also now closes the item interaction window, the one opened with right button;
• You can now double click items in inventory to use/equip. You can also unequip non stacked items with double click;
• Reduced the time necessary for the item name to show when hovering;
• Mouse cursor is now unrestricted on small boxes of options.

Feedback would be appreciated.

 

[asfasdf]

IIRC evil ending was unlocked by virtue of choices during the Rebellion questline in Land's End and then by picking a certain option much later in game. I don't think you need reputation along the way for it. As far as I know party reputation was more used in certain quests and dialogs.

Unrelated note but's it been pretty smooth sailing in 2.01 crash wise. Only had that 1 crash in the caves earlier and one when selecting a destination in map but selecting not to go there. About halfway done with the game.

Was looking through the game files and realized the Journal entry desriptions from Journal.txt aren't being displayed in you quest journal.

I got around to the journal issue finally, should be fine in the next release.

EDIT: Ok, it is here:

https://gitlab.com/ptd3/ptd-1/-/releases/2.10

EDIT2: it seems journal is still broken if you click on the topics on the left, I will get around to fixing this eventually.

 

[Fowyr]

So, if anyone started to seeing gameplay bugs, please post them here.
I'm especially would be glad to see anyone duplicating this bug and giving me a save game just before the bug itself.

So im after that rebellion assasination attempt, Genwen is dead but somehow all my characters lost the ability to use godess spells. Is there a fix for that?

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads...y-damn-awesome-rpg.132443/page-6#post-8018406

 

[Tramboi]

We should probably make quicksave roll over n saves, it's cheap QoL and it would probably help with bug reports.

 

[asfasdf]

Journal is fine now:

https://gitlab.com/ptd3/ptd-1/-/releases/2.11

I also changed some stuff in the save system, so if your saves are suddenly corrupting and disappearing let me know.

Quicksaves now in F5 and Q and they are rolling, ie, we keep old versions of them. It should be useful for debugging.

 

[Darth Canoli]

I'm going to test it again soon.

 

[Konjad]

So... is this "mostly done" as the recent lack of progress suggests? And you're just gonna fix bugs if you get any reports of them?

 

[Tramboi]

Yes, exactly, we need QA and bug reports, so that we can concentrate on fixing the bugs.

 

[cretin]

Just a thought, if you want more people to test this, it should be cleaned up so that all the relevant files and what to do with them are clearly presented in the OP (or a new thread)

 

[Konjad]

Yeah, releasing a ready-to-use .exe installation as "Prelude to Darkness Enhanced Epic Ultimate Gold Diamond Edition" will probably lure unexpecting players whos' moans and sizzles you could read would probably help you out finding all major issues at least.

I'm up to going through the game, but when I can find enough free time so I could complete the game in a reasonable time and write bug reports, so not sure if before December.

 

[Tramboi]

I could definitely package a version and an installer but we'd need authorization from the copyright holders.
Somebody else can do it if they don't care, just package our exe with a version and publish it, but I'm a software pro, I'm googlable, and I don't want any trouble.

 

[Tacgnol]

I could definitely package a version and an installer but we'd need authorization from the copyright holders.
Somebody else can do it if they don't care, just package our exe with a version and publish it, but I'm a software pro, I'm googlable, and I don't want any trouble.

Might be worth seeing if Konjad can get a definitive answer on this. It would simplify a lot of things.

 

[Konjad]

I could definitely package a version and an installer but we'd need authorization from the copyright holders.
Somebody else can do it if they don't care, just package our exe with a version and publish it, but I'm a software pro, I'm googlable, and I don't want any trouble.

Might be worth seeing if Konjad can get a definitive answer on this. It would simplify a lot of things.

Mat didn't answer my message from early May But I guess I can ask McBee as well. Perhaps my question was kinda too chaotic and tl;dr so Mat didn't know what to answer atm and forgot later, or just missed it. Just in case, could you help me formulate the question so it's clear what do we ask for and not too much/little?

 

[Tramboi]

Basically "We'd love to make the game more accessible to the masses, so we'd like to repackage it with all the more recent data, and our new exe, with a clean installer for modern Windows versions. Of course we'd need an authorization to do so. Would you be ok with this, and who could grant this ?"
A written agreement would be enough (for me, asfasdf might disagree) to prove our good faith, and we just have to take it down the very improbable day we get a cease and desist letter.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

wait, what license is the code released under anyways?

 

[Tramboi]

I don't think there is an explicit one, but at least there was a conscious decision to release the code (mails and github).
We have no idea about the assets.

 

[asfasdf]

I actually like the idea of bundling assets and binaries in a complete release, but some explicit OK from copyright holders first would help.

 

[Monolith]

In the meantime: Can't you package it as a "Community Patch", with separate install executable, just dumping the updated files on an old install - and add that to some linkable page that links also to a download page for the original game?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

In 'merican copyright law this would most likely all fall under fair use because you can't even buy it anymore, hasn't been sold for a long time, the company responsible doesn't even exist so who knows who would even own the rights, and the original product is defective. ymmv I guess.

 

[vazha]

Any progress on this?

 

[Tavernking]

The codex when it finds out no programmer wants to go through poorly organised spaghetti code using an ancient version of c++ to fix bugs for an obscure game that was abandoned by its developer in 2002

 

[grimace]

There are not many videos of Prelude To Darkness.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqHxs5Nt1EQ


https://archive.org/details/PreludeToDarkness

Pyrrhic Tales: Prelude to Darkness is a dark, sophisticated fantasy CRPG featuring complex, turn-based tactical combat, 3D graphics, a skill-based character advancement system, and an intricate, involved plot. Prelude thrives on the tradition of true role-playing games, allowing players to craft a diverse team and become a part of a large and intricate world with a rich history, hundreds of non-player characters, and nearly endless paths and subplots.

Prelude takes place in a huge river valley, surrounded on all sides by impassable cliffs. The Children of the Flame have been at peace with the People of the River for a thousand years. But something has changed. Ethnic tensions have suddenly escalated, culminating in bursts of terrorists violence. Murders, once rare crimes of passion, have begun occurring at an alarming rate. A plague has started to attack the crops and devastate the once plentiful harvest. The player must unravel the dark mysteries and resolve the conflict threatening to consume The Valley.​

​

Notes​

While this game was originally shareware, Zero Sum Software have been generous enough to now make this game freeware.​

 

[Tramboi]

Any progress on this?

We're not aware of any bug right now, so you can play the game.

Regarding distribution, we're waiting for news.

 

[asfasdf]

Alright, time to distribute. I have been trying to deploy the assets on GitLab but the thing is just too large for the free cloud tier, and I am not in the mood to install the entire thing on a on premises machine. For now I am deploying it elsewhere:

http://62-210-107-65.rev.poneytelecom.eu/PreludeToDarkness.zip

This bundle contains everything, including our latest fixes. Right now, this is the windows 32-bits version, just download the binaries from the repo if you want the Linux/64-bits stuff. I might bundle everything in the future on a single zip, let's see.

Installation:

Just unzip and play.

Enjoy.