Posted March 08, 2019
Being quite familar with the original trilogy, I have encountered some bugs in the remaster. Here are those I have found (note that I am not listing changes that are clearly intentional):
Reported for 3.27/3.28:
* Items that have the regenerate HP effect do not regenerate HP during combat (they do in classic versions, albeit only at 1 HP per round).
* If using separate inventories and doing a Full Reset transfer, the party will have no equipment and no money, which is a bit of a problem. (What I would expect to happen is that, on transfer to BT2, the characters would have about as much money as newly created characters would have, and in BT3 (which I haven't checked, since I have only beaten BT1 so far), the characters would start with the same equipment as a new character.)
* The Moderate Transfer option has some quirks that might be considered bugs. In particular, characters who haven't passed the transfer level may have excess experience (allowing for a bit of an exploit, which probably should be favored for the full power transfer), and characters who have passed that threshold may have stats that were not possible in the previous game. (In testing, I've transferred an Elf Paladin with 20 Intelligence, even though in BT1 you can't get above 18.)
* I haven't checked this in 3.27 yet, but at least in 3.24, map suppression areas in BT3 don't seem to do anything. They show up as "something special", moving the mouse to the upper-left corner reveals that you are on a map suppression square, but both the Journal map and the minimap work normally in these areas. (Also, at least in 3.24, the Journal map spoils both invisible and fake walls; I do not remember if this happened in the original game.)
* Poison is only 1 point per round; in classic versions, poison damage would increase with the dungeon difficulty.
* If SPBI is cast on an illusionary enemy, it becomes real when it joins your party. (It should probably join as an illusion; I know that's how it worked in classic BT3, but I don't think I've ever tested it in classic BT1 or BT2.)
* SPBI will succeed on an enemy that was killed earlier in the round, and the monster will be alive and well when it joins your party.
* When the party wipes, all monsters are removed from the party, including those carrying important quest items. (Given the lengths the developers have gone to prevent the player from getting rid of these quest items, I am going to count this as a bug.)
* If a monster goes hostile, is killed, and is then revived at the temple, it will still be hostile and attack you as soon as you leave the guild.
* If a monster goes hostile, and Safety Spell is cast during the battle, the monster will remain hostile and attack as soon as you leave the guild.
* Effects that boost spell accuracy (LUCK, Lucklaran) don't boost the accuracy of ranged attacks, even though they work like spells. (This bug hurts Hunters in BT3 the most. Also, it would be nice if The Archer's Tune would boost ranged accuracy so it wouldn't be useless in BT3; Spellsong probably shouldn't, as it's already quite powerful.)
* Illusionary party members go hostile if you step on a turncoat square, or if you attack them; this isn't supposed to happen (the original manual, in the part about hostile party members, actually mentions that attacking a non-illusionary monster will make it hostile, specifically saying "non-illusionary").
* Casting Safety Spell while in Arboria or Kinestia with Hawkslayer will allow him to escape; this bug probably isn't worth fixing (since Hawkslayer isn't even that useful, and there's the issue of quest items being lost; when I tested this, he was carrying a quest item).
Reported for 3.24 (most seem to have been fixed):
* In BT1 (and BT2 I assume), if separate inventories are enabled, Roscoe does not properly charge you for item identification; also, there's overlapping text when the game asks who will pay for it. (WHAT in BT3 works fine, costing the appropriate amount of SP and failing if you don't have enough (but after you select an item, which seems odd).)
* Group-hitting attacks that are supposed to cause a status ailment don't cause it. The two attacks that are affected, to my knowledge, are Witherfist (supposed to cause Old, this mainly matters if an enemy uses it) and the Deathhorn (supposed to critically hit the entire group). (Interestingly enough, the Deathhorn is still somewhat useful even without the critical hit, but it's no longer the sort of item you'll want to save for endgame like it was in classic versions.)
* The town in Arboria incorrectly uses the Gelidia drop list. I am pretty sure that drop list isn't supposed to appear until the Sacred Grove.
* The Sacred Grove (and, I'm guessing, the Tarpit, though I haven't reached that yet) are outdoor dungeons; they are supposed to be lit even without a light source, and (IIRC) spell points should regenerate in daylight. In the 8-bit versions, this works properly, but it does not in the remaster. (It also doesn't work properly in the DOS version, but that version is so buggy that its mechanics should not be considered canon.)
* In BT3, with legacy XP enabled, after killing Brilhasti, your spellcasters become level 5 Archmages, but their XP is set to 800,000, which is enough to reach level 6.
* The Luck Chant spell doesn't appear to increase the accuracy of *your* spells. (Furthermore, no bard song seems to have this effect, which is annoying when your spells keep being resisted.) I haven't acquired DIVA yet, but it's possible it might have the same bug. (LUCK and DIVA, IIRC, *did* increase spell accuracy in the original BT3.)
* In BT3, elemental resistances and weaknesses don't appear to work properly. (This can be seen in Gelidia, where most enemies are supposed to resist ice and be weak against fire (though, oddly, not God Fire even though it would make sense); in the remaster, the enemies take normal damage from these attacks.)
* The ability to use unequipped items does not work with the shared inventory; it only works with separate character inventories.
* The ability to use unequipped items allow characters to use items they are unable to equip in the first place, but only during battle. (I don't remember any of the classic versions doing this.)
* Divine Intervention fails to work outside of battle.
* The Black Arrows are useless. In the original BT3, they hit a group of enemies and did decent damage (for that point in the game, which I believe might have been comparable to MAMA). In the remaster, they hit only one enemy and do only 25-100 damage, which is essentially useless at this point in the game.
* The Deathhorn sounds like a mandolin when played; judging from the name, it should probably sound like the other horns. (Also, is anyone else disappointed that the Galvanic Oboe still sounds like a flute and not an oboe?)
* Some enemies (not summons) in BT3 are supposed to be illusions; casting DISB or DIIL would destroy them. In the remaster, this doesn't work.
* The Eelskin Tunic is now basically useless, as it now uses the armor slot. In classic versions, it used the instrument slot, allowing it to provide the Hunter extra AC without having to sacrifice armor, but in the remaster that is no longer the case. (If Instrument doesn't feel like an appropriate slot, maybe the Suit slot could work, since Hunters don't have anything else for that slot?)
* Black Scar uses the wrong drop list; this time, it appears to be one of the earlier ones (maybe the Arboria one?). It should probably use the Tenebrosia drop list.
If I find more bugs, or if a patch fixes some of them, I'll edit my post.
(By the way, where is everyone?)
Reported for 3.27/3.28:
* Items that have the regenerate HP effect do not regenerate HP during combat (they do in classic versions, albeit only at 1 HP per round).
* If using separate inventories and doing a Full Reset transfer, the party will have no equipment and no money, which is a bit of a problem. (What I would expect to happen is that, on transfer to BT2, the characters would have about as much money as newly created characters would have, and in BT3 (which I haven't checked, since I have only beaten BT1 so far), the characters would start with the same equipment as a new character.)
* The Moderate Transfer option has some quirks that might be considered bugs. In particular, characters who haven't passed the transfer level may have excess experience (allowing for a bit of an exploit, which probably should be favored for the full power transfer), and characters who have passed that threshold may have stats that were not possible in the previous game. (In testing, I've transferred an Elf Paladin with 20 Intelligence, even though in BT1 you can't get above 18.)
* I haven't checked this in 3.27 yet, but at least in 3.24, map suppression areas in BT3 don't seem to do anything. They show up as "something special", moving the mouse to the upper-left corner reveals that you are on a map suppression square, but both the Journal map and the minimap work normally in these areas. (Also, at least in 3.24, the Journal map spoils both invisible and fake walls; I do not remember if this happened in the original game.)
* Poison is only 1 point per round; in classic versions, poison damage would increase with the dungeon difficulty.
* If SPBI is cast on an illusionary enemy, it becomes real when it joins your party. (It should probably join as an illusion; I know that's how it worked in classic BT3, but I don't think I've ever tested it in classic BT1 or BT2.)
* SPBI will succeed on an enemy that was killed earlier in the round, and the monster will be alive and well when it joins your party.
* When the party wipes, all monsters are removed from the party, including those carrying important quest items. (Given the lengths the developers have gone to prevent the player from getting rid of these quest items, I am going to count this as a bug.)
* If a monster goes hostile, is killed, and is then revived at the temple, it will still be hostile and attack you as soon as you leave the guild.
* If a monster goes hostile, and Safety Spell is cast during the battle, the monster will remain hostile and attack as soon as you leave the guild.
* Effects that boost spell accuracy (LUCK, Lucklaran) don't boost the accuracy of ranged attacks, even though they work like spells. (This bug hurts Hunters in BT3 the most. Also, it would be nice if The Archer's Tune would boost ranged accuracy so it wouldn't be useless in BT3; Spellsong probably shouldn't, as it's already quite powerful.)
* Illusionary party members go hostile if you step on a turncoat square, or if you attack them; this isn't supposed to happen (the original manual, in the part about hostile party members, actually mentions that attacking a non-illusionary monster will make it hostile, specifically saying "non-illusionary").
* Casting Safety Spell while in Arboria or Kinestia with Hawkslayer will allow him to escape; this bug probably isn't worth fixing (since Hawkslayer isn't even that useful, and there's the issue of quest items being lost; when I tested this, he was carrying a quest item).
Reported for 3.24 (most seem to have been fixed):
* In BT1 (and BT2 I assume), if separate inventories are enabled, Roscoe does not properly charge you for item identification; also, there's overlapping text when the game asks who will pay for it. (WHAT in BT3 works fine, costing the appropriate amount of SP and failing if you don't have enough (but after you select an item, which seems odd).)
* Group-hitting attacks that are supposed to cause a status ailment don't cause it. The two attacks that are affected, to my knowledge, are Witherfist (supposed to cause Old, this mainly matters if an enemy uses it) and the Deathhorn (supposed to critically hit the entire group). (Interestingly enough, the Deathhorn is still somewhat useful even without the critical hit, but it's no longer the sort of item you'll want to save for endgame like it was in classic versions.)
* The town in Arboria incorrectly uses the Gelidia drop list. I am pretty sure that drop list isn't supposed to appear until the Sacred Grove.
* The Sacred Grove (and, I'm guessing, the Tarpit, though I haven't reached that yet) are outdoor dungeons; they are supposed to be lit even without a light source, and (IIRC) spell points should regenerate in daylight. In the 8-bit versions, this works properly, but it does not in the remaster. (It also doesn't work properly in the DOS version, but that version is so buggy that its mechanics should not be considered canon.)
* In BT3, with legacy XP enabled, after killing Brilhasti, your spellcasters become level 5 Archmages, but their XP is set to 800,000, which is enough to reach level 6.
* The Luck Chant spell doesn't appear to increase the accuracy of *your* spells. (Furthermore, no bard song seems to have this effect, which is annoying when your spells keep being resisted.) I haven't acquired DIVA yet, but it's possible it might have the same bug. (LUCK and DIVA, IIRC, *did* increase spell accuracy in the original BT3.)
* In BT3, elemental resistances and weaknesses don't appear to work properly. (This can be seen in Gelidia, where most enemies are supposed to resist ice and be weak against fire (though, oddly, not God Fire even though it would make sense); in the remaster, the enemies take normal damage from these attacks.)
* The ability to use unequipped items does not work with the shared inventory; it only works with separate character inventories.
* The ability to use unequipped items allow characters to use items they are unable to equip in the first place, but only during battle. (I don't remember any of the classic versions doing this.)
* Divine Intervention fails to work outside of battle.
* The Black Arrows are useless. In the original BT3, they hit a group of enemies and did decent damage (for that point in the game, which I believe might have been comparable to MAMA). In the remaster, they hit only one enemy and do only 25-100 damage, which is essentially useless at this point in the game.
* The Deathhorn sounds like a mandolin when played; judging from the name, it should probably sound like the other horns. (Also, is anyone else disappointed that the Galvanic Oboe still sounds like a flute and not an oboe?)
* Some enemies (not summons) in BT3 are supposed to be illusions; casting DISB or DIIL would destroy them. In the remaster, this doesn't work.
* The Eelskin Tunic is now basically useless, as it now uses the armor slot. In classic versions, it used the instrument slot, allowing it to provide the Hunter extra AC without having to sacrifice armor, but in the remaster that is no longer the case. (If Instrument doesn't feel like an appropriate slot, maybe the Suit slot could work, since Hunters don't have anything else for that slot?)
* Black Scar uses the wrong drop list; this time, it appears to be one of the earlier ones (maybe the Arboria one?). It should probably use the Tenebrosia drop list.
If I find more bugs, or if a patch fixes some of them, I'll edit my post.
(By the way, where is everyone?)
Post edited March 28, 2019 by dtgreene
