[Scummvm-tracker] [ScummVM :: Bugs] #16129: SCI: QfG4 diskette version - Baba Yaga is weird

[ScummVM :: Bugs]

#16129: SCI: QfG4 diskette version - Baba Yaga is weird
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Reporter:  tomexplodes  |       Owner:  (none)
    Type:  defect       |      Status:  new
Priority:  normal       |   Component:  Engine: SCI
 Version:               |  Resolution:
Keywords:  original     |        Game:  Quest for Glory 4
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Changes (by sluicebox):

 * keywords:   => original

Comment:

 All of this is original behavior in the disk versions. There are many
 script bugs in the room outside Baba Yaga's hut (room 480) that were only
 fixed in the CD version. Here's a video of the CD version:
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFfxTxqKIEI

 This ticket has identified three issues:
 1. Abruptness of the room change from 490 to 480. Sierra added teleport
 animation to this scene in the CD version, so indeed the disk versions are
 abrupt.
 2. Bonehead doesn't say anything after the room change from 490 to 480,
 and talking to him results in the same options as before going into the
 hut. He should say "Well, what have we here? Back in one piece? ..." and
 then have different talk options, such as the pie recipe. Sierra forgot to
 write code to set the global variable to the value that enables this room
 state. This missing code was added in the CD version, so these things
 never happened in any disk version.
 3. You can walk right back into the hut without the pie. Sierra forgot to
 write code that kept the hut walking away from you after being told to get
 a pie. This missing code was added in the CD version.

 By comparing decompiled scripts, I can see that there are many more
 oversights, logic holes, and missing pieces of code in this room that were
 only fixed in the CD version by adding more code.

 We have the ability through script patching to somewhat fix issue 2 and
 make Bonehead respond as intended, but I'm not sure we should. The scene
 will still be broken in other ways that immediately confused me when I
 tested it, like being able to walk back into the hut, and these are all
 situations that Sierra forgot to handle, so their fixes required new code
 beyond what we can achieve with inline script patching.

 If Bonehead was the only problem here, I'd be happy to patch in setting a
 global variable correctly, but it just scratches the surface and we can't
 go much further. And that global variable unlocks other code that never
 ran on the disk versions, so is likely to have further breakage because it
 was untested, and does seem to have been changed further in the CD
 version. Altering any of this mess would be high risk and low reward, plus
 unsatisfying since the other related details stay broken.

 I feel like it's better to just leave this particular mess the way it is
 for consistency; it's all original behavior and doesn't crash the game,
 and it's only in the disk versions which are infamous for these things. I
 wrote about our SCI script patching scope, and why QFG4 is a pathological
 case we have to treat differently:
 https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=SCI/Script_Patching_Scope
-- 
Ticket URL: <https://bugs.scummvm.org/ticket/16129#comment:6>
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