18 December 1998
Holidays
Well, I'm off for home for the holidays and will be back in around two weeks, the first weekend in January
hopefully. So don't worry if your e-mails go unanswered for a while or no updates, I'll do a bunch when I
return.
Daggerfall Add-Ons
If you haven't tried one of the several Daggerfall add-ons, like Ratsaw or the Pirates of Tamriel,
head on over to The Essential Site to check them out. If you have tried them then
please let their creator(s) know what you thought of them. People do put a lot of work into these things and
its always great to see people enjoying them, event if its just a short 'Thanks'.
UESP Polls
I got the polls working again and added a new one. Don't forget that all previous polls can be seen and
voted for on the UESP Poll Results page.
12 December 1998
Redguard Patch
News in the past week on the Redguard forums seem to indicate that a patch will not be released for
the problems setting up the game with PCI sound cards. They say its a hardware problem that a patch
can't fix but are looking into the problem.
Redguard
Well, I'm happy to say I finished the game last night, some great cutscenes near the end. I'll try and put out
a review on the game in the near future. I also extracted all 5602 texture images to PCX files and browsed through
them (I few intesting ones I'll put up later). For those playing the 3DFX version you may want to note that some of
the puzzles are essentially impossible to solve due to the blurring of the textures (perhaps this also depends on the
texture detail setting). For instance, I had no clue what to do with the flask map pieces until I looked at the raw
bitmaps. Similarily with the spell casting to reach Clavicus Vile.
UESP Polls
The site poll is temporarily down due to a change in the web server setup on m0use (thanks to softwind for all
her work too). It'll be back up soon once I figure out the best way to fix it.
Updates
- Several new bugs on the Redguard Bugs page.
- Several new hints on the Redguard Hints page including
information on healing, a little secret island, how to use the teleporters on the island and how to get into
the destroyed old quarter in the city (without entering the jail).
- Worked on several more quest walkthrough pages on the Redguard Quest page,
complete with maps and detailed walkthroughs. All of the quests walkthroughs are there and I'll go through and add little
things here and there as I go through the game again. I'll also write up a semi-walkthrough for the game that will just
give hints but not complete spoilers.
- I've received a bunch of Daggerfall related hints recently which I haven't had time to add...but they
will eventually so don't fret.
8 December 1998
Redguard Reviews
Several new reviews of the game have been released this week. The
A-Vault Review gives the game 4.5 out of 5 stars with
an excellent review. Next Generation
says that the game is well worth picking up. For some reason
GameCenter only gave
the game a rating of 3 out of 5 saying that the characters were poorly animated and there were clipping problems?
Did this guy play the same game I'm playing? I don't think so. Perhaps the problem is that he was using the
software version which is most likely greatly inferior to the 3DFX version. He also mentioned problems with the
controls. While I do miss the use of the mouse I've found them to be not as bad as he make them out to be.
Redguard
Well, I've been playing the game over the last week and say I'm impressed. Most of the bad things are
minor in nature and are dwarfed by the many good things. Overall I must say that its the most realistic,
visually impressive and immersive games I've played. A more detailed review when I finish the game...
eventually. I've been completing the walkthrough as I do the various quests.
Updates
- Corrected a minor error on the Redguard Tech page about running
without the CD.
- Several new bugs on the Redguard Bugs page.
- Worked on several quest walkthrough pages on the Redguard Quest page,
complete with maps and detailed walkthroughs. More to come as I progress in the game and write them up.
4 December 1998
Redguard
Well, I've finally received by game pre-order...woohoo! Now I can spend countless hours amassing
hints, cheats, and hacks for the site. A new few things are up today and I'll add more things as
I'm able over the next weeks. I've worked on creating RedPic mostly this week before I got the game
yesterday. It appears to work fine but of course I couldn't test it on all the texture files.
Am not too sure how to organize the quest walkthru yet...perhaps because I haven't gotten far enough
into the game yet.
Updates
- Created the Redguard Bugs page with a few strange things
I've noticed.
- A number of things added on the Redguard Tech page
including the TEXBSI file format and how to run without the CD.
- First release of REDPIC, a simple utility to extract/edit the TEXBSI image files in the FXART directory.
Take a look at it on the Redguard Files. Please let me
know if you have any problems with it since this is the first release and all.
- Some new tips on the Redguard Hints page.
30 November 1998
Redguard Demo Released!
The Redguard Demo has been released...hop on over to
Game Center
to download the 33MB demo. You need at least a Pentium-166, 32MB RAM, 150MB
disk space, and a 3Dfx Voodoo-based 3D card to run the demo. The demo is not time
limited as some mention and a number of things are missing (voice diaglogue, puzzles,
and other maps to name a few) but this will certainly whet the appetite of many.
29 November 1998
Site Update
Most of the site pages were editted in one way or another. I finally changed all the references
to index.shtml to index.shtml to reflect the change in the home page (using a search/replace
program I whipped up). I also created a simple HTML checking program to look for common errors in all
the pages. Found a few hundred, mostly minor, which I corrected (most of the pages are very close to
strict HTML 4.0). As usual, these programs and their source are freely available to any who ask.
World of Tamriel
If you think you know a lot about Tamriel and would like to help out with the
World of Tamriel section then
Let Me Know. All that's needed now is for the content to
be filled in (ie, events, locations, words, and people descriptions need to be created). The data files
are regular text files and are easy to edit (no HTML or other special skills needed).
UESP Poll
Well, the first UESP poll went very well with over 100 submissions in two weeks. The new poll on what
people want to see most in the next Elder Scrolls chapter is now up. You may still view and vote
for previous polls on the UESP Voting Page.
Updates
- Updated the Chapter 3 Suggestions page once again.
- Updated the Coming Attractions page for the site to reflect the
recent additions and changes. If you'd like to help out with something check out this page for
what I'm looking for.
- Added more tips on getting Arena to run with Win95/98 on the
Win95 Arena page.
- Interesting new hint/bug on disease immunity on the DF Hints page.
- Minor updates to the DF Hall of Records
25 November 1998
Redguard Updates
Add the Hints,
Cheats,
Tech/Hacks, and
Walkthrough pages to Redguard section. Not much in them
at the moment but they will certainly flesh out...once I get the game (groan). My efforts to contact
Bethesda to ask about my missing pre-order have so far failed (via their web site and phone, am looking
for an e-mail address at the moment). The hits to the Redguard section of this site jumped by a factor
of 3.5x last week (from 161 to 559 hits)...wow!
MyUESP Changes
Changed around the layout of the MyUESP to closely match the main
index page. Added the option of including the large site index as seen on the main index page as well.
For all pratical purposes, the main MyUESP page is identical to the index.shtml one and could be used
as your home page whether you have an account created or not.
NewFiles Section Added
The newfiles section from the MyUESP has been added to the main page adding around 1-2kb to the size
of the page. This gives you a quick link to recently modified files which may or may not be always
mentioned in the below Updates section.
Updates
- Finally updated the TES Newsletter page to reflect the fact
that two issues have already been released. Expect the next issue sometime in mid-December hopefully.
23 November 1998
Redguard News
Redguard has been released and is in stores across the US and Canada. Opinions so
far have been very good and I'll try to get a few reviews up soon. Bethesda is working
on a patch to address the sound problems which might be released within the upcoming week(s).
Check out the Game Over Magazine's
review on the game (overall 91%, not too shabby). Also be aware that the
Official Redguard Site's message board has just been split into
multiple sections since it was receiving so many posts.
More Updates/Content
According the the first UESP poll, what people want most is more content and updates. Well, heres
both then. I'll try to do smaller updates more frequently, as often as I have time for and stuff to add.
I also returned the larger site index on the left-side since it was requested by a few people. It adds
a few KB to the first page, but makes site naviagation a little easier if you know where you want to go.
Updates
- Updated the Chapter 3 Suggestions page once again.
- Added a 3rd Custom Character example, a no-magic knight class.
- The DF Enchanting page was created to reduce the
size of the DF Items page.
- Again, I created the DF Travelling page to reduce
the size of the main DF Hints page.
- Couple of minor hints updated/added on the DF Hints
DF Magic/Spells and
the DF Hacking pages.
22 November 1998
World of Tamriel
Big changes to the World of Tamriel area on the
UESP. I wrote one script for handling a database of records to display the results as needed.
This will make adding content to the area much easier later on. Everything worked out very
well I think, but things are still being worked on. Be sure to check out the geography section
if you have a moderately fast link. I'm rather happy with the map of Tamriel there which can be
zoomed in/out and scrolled etc... and all kinds of other options. I probably won't be able to
work on the area too much for a while since Redguard has just been released and all.
Redguard Pre-Orders
Just wondering if anyone in Canada has received their Redguard Pre-Order yet? I pre-ordered
over a month ago and was expecting last week at the latest. Just wondering if I should be worried
or not...I don't want to bother Bethesda unless nessecary.
New Unofficial Daggerfall Add-On
For those who can't or aren't getting Redguard, check out a new pirate-theme add-on to
Daggerfall on The Essential Site...Ar-Matey, it'd be swell
(sorry, just couldn't resist).
UESP Poll
Small update to the poll to prevent people from voting multiple times in the
same poll (not that anyone would of course).
Updates
- Cleaned out a bunch of outdated sites from the Links Database.
Thanks to Simson for helping me out with this.
14 November 1998
Redguard News
Redguard should be in the stores in the states in the next few days, if not now. Some people who
pre-ordered the game have already received it.
UESP Poll
Well, I've finally managed to jump on the voting bandwagon along with many of the other
popular Elder Scrolls sites. The latest poll will be displayed on the main page and
is included as an option for the MyUESP pages (current users can
just edit their options to include it). All of the poll results can be viewed on the
UESP Poll Results page. Hopefully there won't be
too many problems, as usual with anything new.
Main Page Change
As you may not have noticed, the main page has changed quite a bit. It is now at
INDEX.SHTML instead of the previous INDEX.shtml. You will be
automatically fowarded to the new page but those who don't want to waste that 1/10th of a second
may want to update their bookmarks. This change will make it easier for me to add news items
and other things to the main page as well allow me to include things like the UESP poll. I also
chopped a few things to make the page smaller, including some of the main navigation bar to the
left (if you want it back, just e-mail me). The overall size of the main page is now between
30-40kb (including all images), depending on the amount of old-news included. I also redid the
main page image, making it slightly smaller while better looking.
Updates
- More suggestions added to the Chap.3 Suggestions page.
- Several records updated on the DF Hall of Records.
- Minor updates to DF Hints and the
DF Bugs pages.
9 November 1998
Redguard News
Redguard is finally finished and will be released around the 16th of November. Pre-Orders should be
sent out this week sometime and be delivered in 3-5 days or so. Woo-hoo! I've pre-ordered the game myself
and hope to get lots of Redguard related stuff up ASAP (meaning I'll 'force' myself to play the game
continuously for a few weeks...I guess somebody has too do it, sigh..;).
Old Bethesda News
As some of you may have heard, the great Julian Lefay, lead programmer and designer for Arena
and Daggerfall, has left Bethesda. Nothing has been said of why or to where he left but the good news
is that he will still be involved with the design of Morrowind, the sequel to Daggerfall expected sometime
in 2000.
M0use Hosting
For those of you who are unaware, the new m0use server is hosted by Bethesda! Now, this doesn't mean
any of its sites are official endorsed or anything, they were just kind enough to let us use their network
connection. Also I'd like to point out the site admins Softwind and Shadow Jack who were great at getting
everything setup. Many thanks extended to these parties... For news and special links check out the
Main m0use.net page.
Underground Vital Site
I got news last week that the UESP was chosen as a vital site in CNET Gamecenter's
Underground (in the Community-Elder Scrolls section).
Although I get tons of e-mails praising the site (thanks!) this is the first 'official' recognition or award
(I'm so proud...blush).
BattleRealm Stuff
The The Battlerealm maintained by Lord Ravana hasn't
been updated for some time due to a problem with uploading files to the server. Hopefully the problem
will be fixed soon.
Updates
- More suggestions added to the Chapter 3 Suggestions page.
We've broken the 1000 submitted suggestions mark as well as the 300 unique suggestions. Its acutally
probably a lot more than that since each unique suggestion catagory contains several different suggestions
at the least.
31 October 1998
Updates
- Fixed a MyUESP bug with MSIE v4.0+. The previous setting of the cookie works in Netscape and
MSIE v3.0 but not 4.0 for some reason, but everything should be in order now.
- Fixed a Style-Sheet bug with Netscape. The pages looked fine in Netscape due to it not properly
using the styles (or something strange anyways). In MSIE the font would change when you clicked the
link which was annoying. All pages have been fixed and look more closely the same in either
browser. The style-sheet has been moved to an external file so that I only have to edit one file
from now on.
28 October 1998
Redguard
Not much to report in news here, just a reminder to visit the
Redguard Site
site often for updates to the comic and screenshots section.
MyUESP/Message Board
The MyUESP and the Message Board
have been upgraded. Your name, email, and link description is automatically filled for a new or
followup message if you have a valid account. Those already with an account can edit their
options.
Updates
- Few new bugs listed on the DF Bugs page.
- New sample BIOG file on the DF BIOG Hacking page
which gives you every item in the game among other things.
- Some tips/tricks on Levitation on the DF Hints page.
- Great and detailing addition to hacking the view distance in Daggerfall on the
DF Hacking page.
- Finally added both of the Redguard previews to the Redguard Files Area.
If case you haven't taken a look you're missing a lot.
- Minor updates to the DF Cheats,
DF Magic/Spells, and
DF Leveling/Skills pages.
20 October 1998
No News is Good News?
Nothing much to report here as everything seems very quiet. Redguard should be going into
the second stage of BETA testing soon but no word on any possible release date. The folks at
Bethesda want to make sure they get a well polished (read, bug-free) game before sending it out.
I sent my pre-order for the game out last week so will get it as soon as its released (yippee).
Battlerealm Request
Lord Ravana of the great Battlerealm site
has me to pass on the following request. He requires several people familiar with RPG games who are
willing to help out with a new area of his site. Jump to his page above for contact and more information.
Internet Explorer Javascript Problems
Skeleton Man has informed me that the Javascript error on the World of Tamriel page is due to a bug
in MSIE v3 which is fixed in versions 4 and up of the browser. If you are still using a previous version
of the browser I would seriously recommend upgrading, and not just for the sake of these pages.
Introducing MyUESP
Well, this is something I've thought about and have been wanting to do for some time. The
MyUESP pages are essentially a personalized version of the main
page, with your user name/settings being remembered from session-to-session in the form of a cookie.
For more information take a look at the MyUESP FAQ. This is hopefully
just a start and if it takes well there's lots that can be done with. For one I'd like to join it up
with the message board in some way so that your name, e-mail, and site link is automatically inserted
when you compose a message.
Site Updates
- Got a proper mail form script working for the Site Survey and for
the Contribute Ch3 Suggestion pages. The bug that prevented
the forms from working in MS Internet Exchange is no longer present.
- Got started working on the General Hacking Guide providing a
basic tutorial for those unfamiliar with the basic concept.
- Lots more stuff waiting to be added in my in-box...hopefully will get most of it up this weekend.
18 October 1998
MS Internet Explorer Problems
Lord Ravana graciously pointed out some display problems with MSIE 'forcing' me to actually
install the thing on my computer to see for myself. After a little investigation things were
cleared up. One problem was with the left-side navigation bar on the main page. It appears the
tab sizes in Netscape and IE are quite different, causing the problem. Another problem was with
the style sheets used on each page to make the link font different. IE had a problem understanding
some of the HTML standard lingo (it made the font larger when it was supposed to be smaller)
and again, the two browsers displayed things differently.
After a little tweaking things look pretty much the same in IE v3.02 and Netscape v4.05. I wish something
was done to enforce the standard so there wouldn't be this problem (mostly MS, but Netscape can't
escape all the blame either). There's another problem with the Javascript on the World of Tamriel
page in MSIE which I still have to fix.
Updates
- Added the Coming Attractions page which contains ideas which I plan
to implement in the future as well as contributions which I'm looking for.
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16 October 1998 |
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- Redguard Comic
- Check out the Redguard Site for a preview of
the comic book that comes with the game. Other than that, not much news to report.
- New Home for the UESP
- Yup...we've moved, but I'd guess you've figured that out since you're reading this now.
The new address for the site is www.m0use.net (thats with a ZERO)! Thanks muchly to Softwind and
Shadow Jack for all their work on m0use (and whoever else got it up). It will make a good home for a while.
- So...What Happened?
- Ooi...you sure you want to know why I haven't updated since the end of August? Well, first
I was gone on a business trip for a week. A few days later when I tried to update the site, my
login to the Honesty ftp server didn't work. I waited several days before I finally e-mailed
the tech guy there. After a few days of communicating he said he'd take care of it. Unfortunately
he's been terribly busy with real life and hasn't gotten around to it...which brings us to m0use.
I'd been planning to move here since the idea was thought up and was just waiting for everything
to be done. I have much more access here which will allow me to do some pretty neat things (just
wait and see...:). Thanks to all who wrote and asked what was going on...a great encouragement.
To make up for it, I've updated _all_ 160+ pages or so. Mostly I slicked up the appearance everywhere,
trying to make everything a little more standard and easier to navigate. A few things have been
moved around or reorganized as well.
- Weekly IRC
- Note that the Tuesday/Saturday at 10PM EST IRC meetings have also moved to irc.m0use.net (port 6667).
Stop on by for a chat...perhaps we'll even talk about the Elder Scrolls or something...;)
- Best Viewed With...
- I do my best to design these pages with most users in mind. Still, the following is suggested
for a good browse:
- Screen size of at least 800x600. 1024x768 would be even better. All of the main pages
fit pretty well at 640x480 too.
- 16 bit, or 65535 colors. 256 color safe text colors are used almost everywhere and
the images don't look too bad dithered in 256 colours either.
- The fonts 'Times New Roman', 'Arial', and 'MS SANS SERIF'
are the only fonts used. These fonts are on all Windows bases systems by default (unless you removed them manually).
- Although designed for Netscape, there should be nothing different in MSIE. A few forms do not currently
work in IE but that will be soon fixed.
- Javascript is not required but a few things do make use of it.
- All images have been optimized and page sizes are kept within reasonable limits where possible and
Light-Graphics pages are available for those with slow links.
- Bounced E-Mails
- Every week I get quite a few e-mails with Elder Scrolls related questions and
contributions. Enitivably, when I reply, a few of these e-mails bounce back to me with some
error message (host not found, no such user, etc...). Unfortunately, there is not much I
can do to correct the problem. If you don't receive a reply to your question its most likely
due to this, not because I fail to reply.
- ICQ and Me
- As some of you know, I am available on the ICQ network (user 6313384). Although you will see that
I am always in the 'available' state, that does not mean I am always at my computer. Since I'm at university and
have a direct network connection, I am connected whenever my computer is on. So, if you message me and I don't
reply immediately its not because I don't like you or anything...:) I will reply whenever I return (its almost
impossible to ignore that little flashing icon, isn't it?). Quite a number of people have asked me about this
in the past...
- Disscussion Area
- A Disscussion Area has finally been added to site.
Feel free to post any questions, comments, tips, etc... there. The original wwwboard code has
been heavily modified so there may still be the odd bug that I haven't worked out yet.
- Updates
- All pages updated (yes, all 160+ of them not including the 30+ text files...and man, are
my fingers tired...;). Most pages should now have a similar design which may make navigation a little
easier and faster. Fixed many of the little errors which have been around a while. Redesigned or
moved around some of the pages like I've been wanting to for some time.
- Greatly improved the UESP Links and UESP Search
utilities. Some things you won't notice (like various code optimizations/improvements) and others you most certainly
will. Like the addition of Battlespire and Redguard sites in the links program and the ability to search just
in a particular section (like just Daggerfall pages, or Battlespire, etc...).
- In conjunction with the links/search improvements, the Search Field and the Site Database on each of the main game
pages now look for/display only for that game. IE, choosing the Links on the Daggerfall page will display just the
Daggerfall links in the database (instead of all links as was previously). Similarily, entering a search request on the
Battlespire page will only search Battlespire related files (not all files as was done previously).
- Lost a bunch of Chapter 3 Suggestions but I managed to restore most of them from the current pages
(the actual ideas are stored in a database and outputted to the HTML web pages that you see as needed).
As usual, a bunch more new ones have been added.
- Created the Arena Win95 page with tips for successfully
installing and running the game under Windows 95/98 (I've been getting a number of questions of the
sort recently).
- All the artifact images on the DF Artifacts page have been updated
with those extracted from the texture files with AndyPic. This gives a much better/clear image to view.
- From a great e-mail, all of the areas in Daggerfall are listed in the DF Map Hacking
page in the DF Hacking area.
- New characters on the Redguard Characters page.
- Bunch of new records in the DF Records page.
- Smaller updates on the DF Bugs, DF Cheats,
DF Store Locations, and DF Witch Coven pages.
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30 August 1998 |
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- Away...
- I'm away most of this week on a work-related trip so won't be able to update much till late next
weekend...sorry. Will try to catchup when I come back.
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26 August 1998 |
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- IRC Update
- Since mouse went down, the new IRC server for the Tuesday and Saturday chats (10pm est) will be
held at dragonfire.esper.net (port 6667). Another IRC server may be found at irc.elderscrolls.com
although it didn't work for me when I tried it last.
- More Redguard Previews
- More previews of this upcoming hot new game can be found at Gamer's Digest,
GameCenter,
and at GamePen. It seems everyone has a favourable
thing to say about the game. Check the previews out for more screenshots and interviews with some of the
production team.
- Bethesda
- The official Redguard Site has more new stuff including
a new character profile (Richton), some great pre-production/concept artwork and lots of info as usual.
- Updates
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20 August 1998 |
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- Important Elder Scrolls Site Update
- Unfortunately the mouse.igalaxy.net server is going down. As many of you may
know, this server housed some of the greatest Elder Scrolls sites such as the The
Essential Site and The Hall of Adventurers. Some sites have managed to move already while others
may take some time. The HOA can be found at The Hall of Adventurers New Site.
Things may be in disarray for a while as the webmasters get reorganized...Thanks! Stay tuned
for the new addresses for other Mouse sites (including IRC chat).
- Bethesda Updates
- Once again check out the Redguard Official Website for more
updates which include a new message board. Get on over and read up on all the latest stuff.
- the World of Tamriel
- The World of Tamriel has opened its doors. Worked on it quite a bit
to get everything started.
- The Javascript, which is optional but quite nifty, works fine in Netscape but I haven't tested it in
any other browser. If you have problems please don't hesitate to tell me (the buttons on the main
image are supposed to light up when the mouse is over...oohh, ahhh).
- Note that everything is still very under construction. Some areas are more done than others.
The final design of each page may change if I get any ideas (or you send some in).
- I can see that its quite a big task ahead of me. I'd like to get the 4 main sections more interconnected.
Thus, if you were viewing the History page you could click on names and jump to the People page, or vice-versa.
Right now I have three Visual Basic programs I quickly whipped up to handle the History, Dictionary, and
People section. I'm thinking its a better idea to combine everything into one program so I can do this.
I'm still waiting for lots of my ideas to flesh out before trying to implement them.
- Let me know what you think about the start of it. I've already received some complements before
I even put it up.
- Hosting Search
- I've been looking for a while for another site to move to. I've been on Honesty for two years or so
and its been great, but lacking in areas I now need access to (CGI mostly). I'm quite picky about where
I go since I don't want to have to move for a while when I do.
- Stable site. This means both time wise and connection wise. I don't want to have to move again
for several years.
- 50MB space (or so). Currently the site uses around 20-30MB or so with about 10 of that being
just the web site (documents and images). I don't want to be cramped but I don't waste space at
the same time.
- CGI including Perl and C programs. This is a big thing. There are lots of things I'd love to
implement which requires CGI (webboard, tons of form submissions ideas, voting, etc...). Also, the
programs ESPSearch and ESPLink which are vital to the site are in C and must be compiled. It would
be great if I could compile them on the server myself or get someone else to do it for me. The current
programs running on Honesty are vastly outdated because I don't and can't get access to them.
- SSI would be great of course.
- Capable of DNS'ing my domain name if I ever get one (soon maybe).
- Relatively fast connection, I don't want browseres waiting 1/2 hour to download the few images that
I do have.
- Free of course, I can't afford anything, otherwise I would.
- Friendly service, a company car, vacation time...kidding, I told you I was picky. If you know of
a place where at least some of the critera are met, Let Me Know.
- Updates
- No 'real' updates since I was busy on the Tamriel section this week and am moving this weekend (only a block
and a half away, but still takes just as much time). More stuff coming soon when I have time (time being
the emphasized word here).
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17 August 1998 |
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- Redguard Update!
- Check the huge preview of Redguard at The Adrenaline Vault.
Includes a movie trailor, a long interview, and lots of screenshots...check it out!
Also, the release date of Redguard has been set to October 1.
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13 August 1998 |
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- Bethesda News
- Bethesda's Redguard site, redguard.elderscrolls.com,
has been updated again. Take a look at the character gallery in particular.
- Updates
- Cleaned up, or tried too at least, the main page design a little bit. Still not as fancy as some
of the pages out there but I'm hesitant to increase the number of images just to make it look
better. I figure I'll probably get more visitors by keeping the load times low and the content
high.
- Added the Hot Sites! with some of the best Elder Scrolls and general
gaming sites. I'll be on the look-out for more sites to add in the near future.
- Small update to the Site Database. Still haven't included catagories
for Redguard and Morrowind so those related sites are in the general Elder Scrolls section.
- In particular, check out the new Redguard site Stros M'kai.
It has a great looking design and has all kinds of stuff. You'll need a recent browser in order to
view it properly.
- Taking information from the Bethesda site, I created the Redguard Characters page.
More characters will be put up when they're info is released and more when the game is released.
- A start of something new, The Tamriel Area (I'll think of a catchy name later...:). Eventually, I would like
to get a detailed history/time line, a collection of important people, and all kinds of maps that you can
click on and zoom in (at least in the known portions) as well label with important places. So, if you wanted
to know what happened in 3E 368, or where Stros M'Kai really is, you could look here. Once I get enough
done I'll put it up.
- If you want to run Andyfall without a CD check out FDagger.Zip(6kb) which
will allow you to do just that (found in the Daggerfall File Area.
- Added some more suggestions to the Chapter 3 Suggestion List. Closing in
on 1000 total submitted suggestions...keep them coming in!
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|
9 August 1998 |
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- Bethesda News
- Bethesda's Redguard site, redguard.elderscrolls.com,
is being updated regularily, so check often for the latest Redguard news and information.
- Updates
- Developers release of DFSpell in the DF File Area. This utility
allows you to edit, delete, or add spells sold in the mages guild.
- All the Daggerfall patches from v1.77 can now be found in the DF File Area
as well. If anyone has any of the previous patches let me know.
- A modified version of the TEXT.RSC file can also be found in the DF File Area.
This version has different texts (such as when you ask for rumours) to give the game a little variety.
- Created the Redguard Files Area. Currently contains some of the
desktop maps available for the game.
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|
26 July 1998 |
|
- Bethesda News
- The new Bethesda web site is finished at www.bethsoft.com and
has a great new look. Also check out the completely redone redguard.elderscrolls.com
for the latest in the upcoming Redguard action/adventure. In particular, check out the maps available for
download on the Redguard site.
- Battlespire Tournament
- Interested in particpating in a Battlespire Tournament on August 3rd and 4th? Contact Kathel
for registration and rules.
- The TES Newsletter
- Several prominent Elder Scrolls webmaster have joined forces to give you a monthly e-mail newsletter containing the
latest ES news as well as ES related articles and editorials. Pay a visit to The TESNewsletter Page
for more information and to subscribe. The first edition should be out before the end of August.
- Updates
- Completely redid all of the UESP Redguard Section. Now contains all the
latest preview, screenshots, and system requirements. The game is scheduled for release in the 4th quarter
of 1998 (Sept-Dec).
- Another large update to the Morrowind Section adding a bunch of new
rumours and stuff.
- Couple new things in the Battlespire section, like a hint/cheat on how to get free class
creation points (found on the Battlespire Hints Page).
- Several updates done on the Daggerfall Hints Page and on the
Daggerfall Cheats Page.
- Couple of new sites added to the Site Database.
- Lots of new Chapter 3 suggestions added to the Chapter 3 Suggestions Page.
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|
19 July 1998 |
|
- Bethesda News
- Bethesda is updating their main site at www.bethsoft.com
and creating a new Elder Scrolls site at www.elderscolls.com.
They aren't quite finished yet but check often because they may soon be.
- Redguard BETA Testing
- Applications for beta testers closed a while back and Bethesda says they are e-mailing those lucky enough
to be chosen. If you don't get an e-mail soon you probably weren't chosen.
- Xtra Quest Patch
- A patch has been released for the Xtra Quests
special edition and version 2, fixing some errors which could crash the game. Download
the 8kb ZIP file or jump to DF File Area.
- Updates
- More records in the DF Hall of Records.
- Will get more updates done this week...
- Average Hits Per Day for Various UESP Pages (over 44 days).
-
Main Page |
|
195.5 (38.7%) |
Daggerfall |
|
165.8 (32.8%) |
Old Main Page |
|
47.0 (9.3%) |
Morrowind |
|
28.6 (5.7%) |
Battlespire |
|
26.8 (5.3%) |
Arena |
|
19.6 (3.9%) |
Daggerfall Lite |
|
9.3 (1.8%) |
Old Main Page Lite |
|
7.2 (1.4%) |
Redguard |
|
5.4 (1.1%) |
Some interesting things pop out from the above statistics. First is that many people are still looking
at Arena information, about four times as many that are looking at Redguard information (which is
surprising since it is close to release, perhaps I should update the section some more). Battlespire
is quite low which matches the general popularity of the game and is in fact beaten by Morrowind, a game that
has barely started developement and is at least a year away (if not two). Not surprisingly is that Daggerfall
is by far in the lead and probably will continue to be until Morrowind is released (and probably long thereafter
as well).
|
20 June 1998 |
- Redguard BETA Testing!
- Bethesda is taking requests for becoming a BETA tester for Redguard this summer. To sign up, jump to
The Redguard BETA Testing Site and fill
out the form that is found there (Note: as of July this no longer works).
- Updates
- Check out DFBEdit, a book editor for Win95 in the Daggerfall Files Area.
If you have any Visual Basic 5 program installed its only a 38 kb download. If you don't you'll have to get the
Visual Basic 5 runtime files from the General Utils area (a 5MB zip file,
that's progress for yah, but once you download you don't have to do it again...until VB6).
- Also, for you hackers out there, look at DFVText in the Daggerfall Files Area.
This is a TEXT.RSC editor for Win95 (requires the VB5 runtime files like DFBEdit).
- Updated the DF Book Format and the
DF TEXT.RSC Format hacking files.
- Large update to the DF Quest Hacking FAQ finally.
Also updated the QBN Section 8 Codes file.
- Updated the Chapter 3 Suggestion Page once again with
a few more suggestions that trickled in this week.
- A bunch of new Daggerfall hints added. Travel regeneration bug on the Hints Page,
some good information on calculating item prices on the Items Page,
some more useful spell desciptions on the Magic and Spells Page,
and finally description of some interesting quests on the Quests Page.
- Vacation
- Just a word of warning, I'll be on vacation for 2 weeks from the 27th of June to about the 12th of
July so no updates will be done in that period. I may do an update next Friday if there is anything
of consequence.
|
15 June 1998 |
- Dragon Found in Daggerfall!
- Check out the DF Dragons for information on how to
meet a true dragon in the game (as an NPC).
|
13 June 1998 |
- Important Xtra Quests 2 Report (from Skeleton Man - skelm@mouse.igalaxy.net)
-
It has been found that 2 quests in Xtra Quests 2 contain errors, and
should be promptly deleted from your ARENA2 directory. The quests are
A0c00y21 and A0c10y23. A0c00y21 contains a bug that causes Daggerfall to
crash upon recieving the quest, and A0c10y23 has an error creating the
"BLANK" error.
I am working on correcting these problems. If I do, a patch will be
released to fix them. For now, you should remove both of these quests from
the game.
I would like to thank Linda Fox (l-r-fox@dm.net) for her help in finding
the errors. Without her, they never would have been located.
- Updates
- Updated the Chapter 3 Suggestion Page finally.
Added several hundred e-mails to the list with a simple Visual Basic database program I whipped
up to help me manage all the suggestions (over 800 so far!). Am working on a way for users to
easily add suggestions. Looking over all the suggestions most of them are terrific...even if
just some of them make in the game it will be great. If you want to send in some suggestions,
please do so (send them to aj589@freenet.carleton.ca).
I'll be adjusting the design slightly this week (hopefully) to give it a better design as well.
- As of this week, the UESP Mailing List has been moved
over to ListBot. If you were on the list previously and aren't getting anything, just sign-up
for the list again. Please note that sometimes ListBot gets a little slow so e-mails may take
up to a day or so to get where they are going.
- More records on the DF Hall of Records Page. If you
have any Battlespire records send those in too.
- Mentioned the Air Atronach on the DF Bestiary Page.
- The Redguard Section will be redesigned soon to
look like the other main pages since we are getting closer to its release (this fall hopefully).
Unfortunately Bethesda hasn't been forthcoming with previews or other Redguard information (they
didn't even make E3).
|
6 June 1998 |
- Updates
- I moved the UESP mailing list from a simple address list in my mail program to ListBot, a free
mailing list service. Everyone on the current mailing list should receive a confirmation e-mail
in the next couple of days. Merely reply the e-mail to join the list, or ignore and delete it
if you no longer wish to receive it. There is well over 100 members to the list and it was
getting difficult to maintain with just a simple mail program. ListBot will allow me (and list
members) to easily add and update the list as well as automatically deleting any e-mails which
bounce several times. I'll still be posting updates to the Daggerfall Mailing List as well.
- General clean-up to a few pages. Reduced the size of images on the main page by 2.5 kb (and thats
about as tight as they could be). Removed the Link Exchange banner from all pages except the
main page. Added counters to the bottom of the main pages instead to help me count the general
traffic flow (you shouldn't notice any slowdown in the page load time, unlike some counters).
Also added a HitBox counter to the bottom of this page which will give me a more detailed
analysise of the traffic (again, it shouldn't slow down the loading times...if it does, its gone).
- I e-mailed HMI about the format of the music files, but haven't got a reply yet, big surprise.
You can download a HMI music player for windows on their website (www.humanmachine.com)
so extracting and playing is possible, but adding new MIDIs is not possible at this time.
- I have been working on a DF Book editor for windows recently. It appears to work fine and I'll
try to put it up. It written in Visual Basic v5 so it will only work for Win95, sorry. Also,
with all the supporting files (DLLs etc...) the download would be rather large at the moment, I'll
try to reduce the size before putting it into the files area.
- Added a bunch of links to the UESP Links Database.
- Hope to start updating the Chapter 3 suggestions pages this week. I have several hundred of them to
add so this will be a work in progress for a little while.
- Started the UESP Non-Elder Scrolls Page which currently
contains a few useful utilities and links (some which could be Elder Scrolls related).
- Updated the UESP Site Info Page. Not includes the HTML source
and a UESP banner image to link to this site.
|
30 May 1998 |
- Updates
- Fixed and correctly a few hundred misc. errors, mostly missing ALT and image size tags as well as HTML
code mistypes. All pages are just about 100% HTML 4 compliment with only minor visual features in conflict.
- Discovered the position that holds the wagon size in the file FALL.EXE. Added information about that
on the Daggerfall Hacking Page. Also created
a simple program, DFWAGON which will change/display the wagon size in version 2.13...check
the Daggerfall File Area for that file
(10kb ZIP).
- Allow skills and attributes to exceed 100 naturally. Check out the text file
Hacking Skills/Attributes in FALL.EXE
as well as the DFSkills utility in the Daggerfall Files Area.
- Bored on being a vampire? Try becoming a Lich instead, check out the explanation in the
Daggerfall Hacking Page.
- Finished updating all the sites in the UESP Links Database.
Next I'll start looking for existing sites to add...feel free to submit any Elder Scrolls related ones.
- Download a modified spell icon graphics file from the Daggerfall Graphics Page.
The ones used in Daggerfall are ok, but leave you guessing what icon is what (was the little sparkly blue thing
my shield, or was it that yellow flame thingy?). I've changed a few of the icons to be much more obvious
what they are at a glance. Feel free to submit ideas for more spell icons.
- Few new DF records on the Daggerfall Records Page.
- Work in Progress
- Been coding (or attempting to) many things lately, most of them ES related. Working on the DF item editor
to make the item and picture listing more complete (I have a list of something like 500 pictures in the
game). Been trying to improve various things, especially the GUI that I'm using, making it easier to
use in the program and more flexible etc... Should have a new and much expanded version out sometime soon.
Tried to create a guilds editor for the savegame but could only figure out one byte in the guild record
in the savefiles (the guild id, which is the most important, but still leaves 99%+ unknown). Will look
into it furthur...anyone familiar with hacking the guild data in the savegames?
- Completely Useless Stuff
- Completely deleted and reinstalled Win95 on my computer (by choice). Been wanting to for a while since my
Windows directory had blungeoned to over 250MB. After the dust had settled I managed to free up well over a
Gigabyte of space on my two drives and now the Windows directory is down to around 80MB. Been tweaking system
performance and everything flies compared to what it used to. Fortunately nothing got lost or deleted
in the reinstall (except my Windows directory...deltree windows felt real good...:). Actually I did
lose something...that little monitor icon in the taskbar that let me change resolutions on the fly...anyone
know how to get that back?
|
23 May 1998 |
- NEWS!
- Just a small unofficial news update. It appears that Redguard may be released sometime late
this fall with Morrowind sometime late in 1999 at the very earliest.
- Updates
- UESP Links Database - Got some updating on this done, probably
close to half the some odd 80+ links update (ugh). Removed many sites which have disappeared. Once the
other half has been updated I'll go out looking for sites I haven't added yet.
- Daggerfall - Graphics Page - Added a page which contains
any user created graphics for the game. Faces, bodies, new item pictures can all be found here. Submissions
welcome... Look for some more new pictures for the game from me in the near future.
- Daggerfall Hints - Travelling Speeds -
Measurements of about how fast you travel in the world of Tamriel.
- Daggerfall - Hall of Records - Few records updated...
keep em coming.
- Daggerfall BUGs - Few new bugs added.
- Daggefall - Calendar - Updated the Daggerfall
calender to reflect that months are only 30 days long each. Also corrected one summoning date in
the month of Hearthfire which was incorrect (the games fault...:).
- UESP FTP Site(Trial) - Setup a ftp site on my computer
for all sorts of Elder Scrolls related files. Currently the FTP address is 130.15.196.141 and should be
available from 9 am to 11 pm EST or there abouts. Some people may not be able to reach it, I'm not
sure (let me know). Log in as Anonymous or UESP, e-mail as password. Downloads only are allowed. Currently
there are no file descriptions.
|
16 May 1998 |
- New Look For The Main Site!
- Was getting bored and rather frustrated with the general looks of the main page so I checked out a bunch of
popular web sites to see what design they used. I picked out the parts I liked and here it is (much of it is from
a bunch of Quake related sites like PlanetQuake and Captured.Com in case it looks familiar). I'll leave everything
else the same but hopefully this page will make a better starting point for everything as well as being a regularly
updated source for Elder Scroll related news. Being the summer, I have plenty of free time so I'll try to
spend some of it updating and improving these pages. I've tried to make this page flexible enough to look good at
resolutions as low as 640x480 although I would recommend at least 800x600 with 16 bit color to make everything
look prettier. Let me if you don't like the new page, improvements, or even to just say its great (I like that..:).
I've tested the page in latest editions of Netscape and MSIE (ugh) and it appears to work fine. Let me know if
the browser you use mangles it or anything.
- Updates
- Battlespire Item Names - Greatly expanded this page with
all sorts of never before seen names. Wondering what that cloak of Capering Clowns does, or what exactly
a Niggling Things does...find it all here. Hacked the TXT.BSA file to get more details such as number of uses,
spell type and level, etc...
- Battlespire File TXT.BSA Format - Start to explaining this
file and its contents.
- Daggerfall Bugs - Few new items here. Actually I was just
noticing that there are many more serious bugs in the last Battlespire patch than in Daggerfall.
- Daggerfall Hints - Couple of new hints like getting
weightless equipment and capturing any screen shot under Win95 as well as all kinds of little updates.
- Daggerfall Save Games - Two new save games posted.
- Daggerfall Records - Bunch of new records including a
couple new categories (check out the quickest quest...:).
- ES Links Database - Corrected several and added some links.
- Got a Question or Suggestion?...E-Mail Me
- Please, feel free to e-mail me any question about Elder Scrolls or this web site. You can also ask about other things
like DNA recombinant splicing but you probably won't get much from me. I do try to answer e-mails as quickly as
possibly, within a few days (I do slip sometimes when I'm particularly busy...so be patient). No question is too
simple or silly, and I'll do my best to help.
- Keep Those Submissions Coming
- While I do create and expand a good deal on these pages myself, I do depend on Elder Scrolls related submissions
from hints to cheats, hacks and files. Many sections now present on the site are there because one person asked
for them. Don't be shy now....let me know.
- Works in Progress
- Things are rather quiet now since Battlespire wasn't all that hot, Daggerfall is close to two years old and no new
Elder Scrolls product will be released for a while, but I do have ideas I'm working on (in random order).
- Any news about Redguard and Morrowind from Bethesda
- Add Morrowind and Redguard links types to the CGI Links Database
- Write something about other current and future CRPGs to keep you busy until Morrowind.
- Reorganize or do something with the huge list of suggestions for Chapter 3 I have. I haven't updated
the suggestion page in ages and I have close to 100 emails to add (with several suggestions per
email....yikes!!). Suggestions welcome here. I could easily create another CGI program to handle a
simple database but I can't directly install the program on the web site and I hate to bother the
tech guy there with it. I also worry about security issues since it isn't my server. Anyways, I'll
think of something.
- Related to the suggestions...the great Julian Lefay emailed me a while ago about responding to some
of the suggestions I have put up. He hasn't mailed me anything in a while and he might be waiting for
me to mail him....perhaps he's working on Morrowind so I shouldn't disturb him...;)
- Create a savegame guild editor for Daggerfall allowing one to edit your rank with guilds, add and
delete memberships with guilds and hopefully even allow you to rejoin the thieves and dark brotherhood.
- I'd like to take a look at Andyfall and try to create an add-on pack like it. I got tons of neat ideas
and with all the editors for Daggerfall out there making it possible to change just about everything.
- I'd really like to get a complete texture editor working. Andypic allows you to read just about all
the texture files and I've come close to dechipering them. This would be great in conjunction with an
add-on.
- Work on extracting the MIDI files from the game. This hinges on Human Machine Inc., the company who owns
the music format, on being at least slightly helpful in converting them to the MID format...I wouldn't
hold my breath though.
- About time to go through and update all the links in the links database.
- Find someone to do the above things for me while I play Daggerfall...(he-he)
|
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