Ironfist installer ver 0.8.2 dll missing files

MSVCR120D.dll and MSVCP120D.dll are missing after the execution of Ironfist installer ver 0.8.2, so, the game displays a window and don't launches.

I had 2 game freezes during my test (need to kill the program in the task manager), one during a combat against Catoblebi, and the other using the Dimension Door spell, none of them reproducible, so.

I tested the Dimension Door spell and canceled it, it works, no more movement points wasted, hooray!!


***** Added 09/13/2015. Start.*****

Oops, I should have written:

I tested the Dimension Door spell and it works, no more spell points wasted when it fails, hooray!!

...but the hero still loses movement points when he casts and cancels the spells (Town Portal and Dimension Door), and when the spell fails...

***** Added 09/13/2015. End.*****

I will look into both of these soon.

I've just released Ironfist 0.8.3 with fixes to both of these. Thanks!

Unknown_Hero wrote:

I tested the Dimension Door spell and it works, no more spell points wasted when it fails, hooray!!

...but the hero still loses movement points when he casts and cancels the spells (Town Portal and Dimension Door), and when the spell fails...

I agree that no spell or movement points should be wasted when a spell is canceled. But loss of them if spell fails is IMO they way it must be.

@Darmani

It was quick.

Installer ver 0.8.3

In which folder are supposed these files to be installed?

It seems to be C:\windows\system32 in the installer details window (output folder: C:\windows\system32).

But the installer skips their installation.

Skipped: msvcr120d.dll
Skipped: msvcp120d.dll

However, they are not already in this folder before the execution of the installer.

If I put the files manually in the system32 folder, the program does not start and a window is displayed:

The application failed to start properly (0xc000007b).

If I put the files manually in the game folder, the program starts correctly.

If I put the files manually in C:\windows\system (I first removed the files from the game folder), the program starts correctly.

My system: Windows 7 Home Premium Edition SP1 (64 bits).

These files were already present in C:\windows\SysWOW64 before the execution of the Ironfist installer the first time.

*

New bug:

The program displays an "Unexpected Program termination" window with "Error opening file .\GAMES\AUTOSAVE.GM1!", when I end the turn (new game or save game), and even if the GAMES folder is empty.

*

I tested the Dimension Door spell for movement points, it works, no more movement points lost when canceled, great!! (but still for Town Portal)


@Pitsu

In Heroes of Might and Magic, all the spells work 100% of the time, even with the dwarf capacity to resist the spells, the spell works but the dwarf resists the spell; the player knows it, and it's his choice to cast a spell on the dwarf, he take the risk.

The problem is there is some cases where certain spells should not work.

With the Summon Boat spell:

1) When a hero on land, and not positioned in a square adjacent to the sea, casts the Summon Boat spell, the spell fails because it's not supposed to work this way; and the hero loses the spell points (he should not lose the spell points).

It's a U.I. problem they decided to solve this way (display a window with "Summon Boat failed!!!").

For me, the spell should not be available in the magic book (grayed), if the hero is not at a good position at the edge of the water.

See this thread:
https://heroes2.forumactif.com/t196-feature-requests-summon-boat-adjusting

2) When a hero in a boat casts the Summon Boat spell, the spell fails.

The same here, it's not supposed to work this way, so they chose to display the same "Summon Boat failed!!!" window.

With the Dimension Door spell:

1) When a hero on land, selects a destination (a square on the map) located on the sea, the spell fails because it's not supposed to work this way (the hero cannot move on water without a boat); so they chose to display a window with "Dimension Door failed!!!"

2) When a hero in a boat, selects a destination (a square on the map) located on the land, the spell fails; it's the opposite of the previous case (the hero cannot move on land with a boat).

And with the Dimension Door spell, it's not possible to make the spell not available in the magic book (grayed)(as it's the destination here, and not the origin).

The hero should not lose spell points, nor movement points, when it's an U.I. problem.

Making a note to test the installer.

I think this is one case where the game design is pretty clear. Taking away spell points for illegal dimension doors is kinda liking letting players cast Lightning Bolt on an empty tile. It punishes a player, but there's not clear feedback, and not much of a lesson to be learned.

In Heroes 3 it made more sense because there were many new adventure map spells, like Sunken Boat. The water magic skill influenced on the fail probability.

In Heroes 2 punishable failing to cast Summon Boat should exist IMO.

If you want to make the game foolproof, then i would remind that fools are very creative.

Summon boat.
It would indeed be nice to be able to select the location the boat to appear. but if you try to summon a boat in the middle of a desert, maybe it is not a UI problem, but player's brain problem and deserves a little punishment? :p On coast, i do not know the mechanism what decides fail probability, so it is hard to comment. Adventure spells are not directly dependent on spellpower, but if failrate is related to that, it may be logic.

Dimension door.
Again if you try to jump from land to ocean, you should be happy not to lose entire hero but only spellpoints. I would also draw attention that DD can be cast on unexplored areas. It already is very forgiving, because the cursor detects only unoccupied tiles. I am not saying that additional free info whether the target is land or water would break the game, but jumping into unknown should have risks and failures involved. Finally, if you make an attempt and fail, it does not make your attempt effortless, you still have wasted energy.

Lightning bolt on empty tiles.
area effect damage spells can be cast on empty regions, not harming anyone. I guess the developers saw that the effort made to "fix" it is not really worth the time.

Thinking about it, the "Dimension Door failed!!!" message window is not really necessary; if the square destination is not valid, then do not allow to click on the destination, just like it's not possible to click on a tree, a hill, an object or a creature, etc., on the map. The only problems come if the origin is a square on the land and the destination is a square on the sea, and vice versa.

The difference is, in one case, it's a checking for the objects (trees, creatures, resources, etc.) positioned "over" the ground layer; in the other case, it's a checking for the type of terrain (land and sea squares) for the ground layer.

Concerning the Summon Boat spell, I think the best solution from a user perspective, would be to make the spell is grayed in the magic book when the hero cannot use it (the same way the spell is grayed if the hero has not enough magic points to cast a spell).

The Summon Boat spell fails in two cases:

1) The hero is not standing at a valid position (square on the map adjacent to the sea) to make the spell works.

2) There is no "free" boat (with no hero) available on the map (boat present on the map at the start of the scenario, boat built by the player in a castle with a shipyard).

For the "free" boat, the "ultimate" solution would be to make the spell generates a boat each time the spell is cast. But this is not a viable solution, because it can break some scenarios.

Another solution would be to display a message window with "You must be standing just near the sea to cast this spell.", and "There is no free boat available at this time."; just as a message window is displayed when the hero casts, per example, a "Set (elemental type) Guardian" spell and is not positioned on the active square on a mine: "You must be standing on the entrance to a mine (sawmills and alchemists don't count) to cast this spell.".

This solution would be more elegant and more pleasant for the player, than the "Summon Boat failed!!!" message window, and would remove the need for the player to make a save before the hero casts the spell to see if there is a free boat on the map, it's just annoying and "bring nothing to the table".

I would even extend the "grayed spells solution" to the spells during combat.

Say the enemy hero possess the "Seeing Eye Pendant" (makes all the troops are immune to Blind spell), simply make the Blind spell is grayed in the hero book, so you avoid the phase with the "That spell will affect no one!" message window, for the exact same result, and a better "quality of life" for the player.

Being able to select the position for the boat with the Summon Boat spell (the location square on the map) is a must have for me.

I do not count the numerous times the boat appears in a different square than the one expected, ruining the planification for the hero move,   sometimes there is also the problem that the generated boat is not accessible for the hero, boooo!!!

Pitsu wrote:

but if you try to summon a boat in the middle of a desert, maybe it is not a UI problem, but player's brain problem and deserves a little punishment? :p

Why, in the first place, allow the player to use a spell that will not work.
I think it's a designer's brain problem, ...so what is your punishment?

Pitsu wrote:

I would also draw attention that DD can be cast on unexplored areas.

Crap. I forgot that. That changes things. I'm now left in the awkward position of considering reverting a game change.

I think it was intended for Dimension Door NOT to be able to cast on unexplored areas, definitely according to the original manual and perhaps even the text in game as well. I would suggest that you make ALL unexplored areas unable to be selected when DDing.

That's a good suggestion, and will require some more thought.

I support this. Getting DD in the game makes it kinda unbalanced. The discussed feature will also make the Scouting and telescopes as well as other ways of map control more actual.

Darmani wrote:

Pitsu wrote:

I would also draw attention that DD can be cast on unexplored areas.

Crap. I forgot that.  That changes things. I'm now left in the awkward position of considering reverting a game change.

Here, we see a problem that can occur when a change in the game is not an option.
And, as I already wrote in other threads:

Quote :

I think every player/modder would play/mod the game in a different way.

Thus, it should be possible to enable/disable each change at will (be it in game settings or in an initialization file (text, xml, whatever)), it's surely a lot more work, but it's the only way to make everybody happy.

As you say, "to put as much as possible into data files" is also the way to go for maximum flexibility, it's great.

Quote :

They have made a good work about this in Free Heroes2, every change, every new feature can be set on/off by the player, so you have all the flexibility to play the game the way you like, nicely done.

**

Steven Aus wrote:

I think it was intended for Dimension Door NOT to be able to cast on unexplored areas, definitely according to the original manual and perhaps even the text in game as well.  I would suggest that you make ALL unexplored areas unable to be selected when DDing.

This will completely break the game for me; it's part of the fun to discover unexplored areas with the Dimension Door spell.

I play the game to have fun, and not to have frustrations (just like most players, I think), it's an important part of game design, think about it.

**

Orzie wrote:

I support this. Getting DD in the game makes it kinda unbalanced.

No, it's not unbalanced, it's a great reward for having built at least one mage guild to the fifth level (and very often, rather much more than only one mage guild).

It would still be pretty powerful as you can travel very quickly once you have explored, and basically rule out any AI (or human) attack on your cities because you couldn't get there in time.

Without the scouting limit the spell allows you to completely skip entire areas and guardians and makes Scouting pretty useless, and it was obviously intended not to be able to be cast on unexplored areas based on the way it is described in the manual and possibly in-game. I'd also rather have the spell be able to be used without unbalancing the game than to have to ban it completely. And remember, you can still scout with other heroes. The game would not require that you can currently "see" the square based on the DD hero's scouting radius, I would think.

fheroes2 already has this change for DD and I think it suits the spell. Since you can always reload if things go wrong, there is virtually no risk for using DD to port into unexplored areas if possible, and again, makes Scouting useless as you get a full screen of explored territory for just 10 spellpoints, as well as allowing you to skip guardians.

Speaking of which, fheroes2 also implements auto-attack from guardians when you port in, the same as if you walk in, and I think it would be a good idea to implement, or even better, if you could connect monsters to the treasures next to them like H5 does (so if you try to pick it up, you trigger the battle anyway).

@Steven Aus

You can refrain yourself to use it on the unexplored areas (it's not forbidden, you move the mouse cursor), but if you remove completely this possibility from the game, it's no more Heroes 2.

It's not unbalanced; yes, the hero can move further and you get others goodies (the spell must deliver something great, it's a level 5 spell), but you have first to build at least one Mage Guild to the level 5 (it's a lot of resources to get, and a lot of time to do it), and you need to have some luck to get the spell in the Mage Guild (or then build another level 5 Mage Guild), and you need to have a hero with high level of Knowledge, and with lots of magic points to use the spell frequently.

Scouting acts on the hero's viewing area, and so is still useful with the Dimension Door spell; I would say it's even better with the spell.

Spell in game description:

"Allows the caster to magically transport to a nearby location."

In the manual:

"Teleports the hero to an unoccupied, visible location."

By "unoccupied, visible location", it means a reachable area (a free square), in the locked view (by the spell itself) on the map. It's nowhere question of an already explored area.

And "reload" is not a solution for the continuity of fun playing the game.

Steven Aus wrote:

Speaking of which, fheroes2 also implements auto-attack from guardians when you port in, the same as if you walk in, and I think it would be a good idea to implement, or even better, if you could connect monsters to the treasures next to them like H5 does (so if you try to pick it up, you trigger the battle anyway).

The hero displacement with the Dimension Door spell shall not trigger the attack of the guards, but try to pick up guarded objects, why not, but again this has to be an option.