Arena:Patch

Updating Arena to the latest patch is recommended, as many bugs and glitches are fixed by the patches.

Please note that installing a patch after playing the game without it will not guarantee that the issue it was supposed to fix will be fixed. As such it may be necessary to start a new game file for the patches to have an effect.

Version 1.07

Although the CD-rom copy and consequentially 1.07 version is technically not a patch as no noted fixes to bugs have been listed, there are some minor differences, this is just a small sample size of these differences

• A minor video showcasing an open book with the game's title is revealed with the camera slowly zooming in.
• Voice acting is added for all cutscenes starting from the first vision the player receives from Ria Silmane
• A change that's done to above voice acting is an alteration of the end cutscene with a different cutscene of the Staff of Chaos opening a portal to the realm which Uriel Septim VII was sent. The head of the Imperial Guard is missing from this scene.

• Music is different for some areas, for example town music during the day will be different between 1.0-1.06 collectively and 1.07
• Criminal apprehended text is red instead of blue

Patch 1.06

• A Pentium slowdown has been included in the patch. To slow down game play for a Pentium, type:

arena -delay:#

at the DOS prompt, where # is an integer between 1 and 9. 1 causes the least delay, 9 causes the most delay. We recommend 4 as a good speed. If, after starting the game on your Pentium using this feature, you find the speed still is not right, you may adjust the delay using the + and - keys.

• Two lockups, one related to Traveling, and the other related to Wilderness Inns, have been fixed.
• A problem arose where you shot a bow across water, and every other weapon in your inventory became un-equippable. It has been corrected.
• Some users found that they could not drop any items. This has been fixed.
• Getting stuck in a wall: if this happens, check the automap - if there is an open tile adjacent to you, then just save your game, exit, and start up again, restoring the game. You will find yourself out of the wall. If there are no open tiles nearby, you will have to restore a previous game. We recommend that you do not Passwall into a stairwell, or you will almost certainly get stuck.
• Can't get an Artifact Quest: This seems to be related to picking the Start New Game option while in the middle of another game. We recommend that you do not choose this option. If you do find that you have reached at least level 5, and you still get no Artifact Quest when asking townsfolk for Rumors - General, then you may enable these quests by hitting: [ALT] F5 in combination. (a message should appear)

NOTE: This will _not_ enable another quest if you already possess an artifact, and it could potentially ruin an Artifact Quest if you are currently on one. This fix is only intended to be used once, if at all.

• Other bugs in various quests and major dungeons related to memory problems have been fixed, as well as various minor bugs. Many problems have been solved simply using the boot disk option from the install.

Patch 1.05

THE AUTOMAP:

• The 1.05 patch fixes a number of bugs from all previous versions of Arena, and has a number of features, but one of the most important is that your automap will no longer disappear on you. The bad news is that when the patch 1.05 is first added to your existing Arena game, all current automaps will be wiped clean, so BE CERTAIN to get your character out of any dungeon before adding the patch. From that moment on, the last sixteen locations visited will be saved as automaps (each dungeon level counts as one location).

• Light spell's duration has been fixed
• Buying magic items has been fixed
• Holiday features have been fixed
• Transfer spells have been fixed
• Key problems in dungeons have been fixed
• Weapon damage has been fixed
• Player can now rename spells (left-click on the spell name)
• Spellbooks are alphabetically arranged
• Heal spells have been fixed
• ESC now takes you out of the automap and logbook
• The color of the cursor stands out now
• The color of the text stands out now
• Fire-based spells have been fixed
• New characters created from within the game will work
• Monsters will no longer trap you when you swim under them (they may attempt to block you)
• Traveling estimated time closer to actual traveling time
• Magic items that add points to attributes have been fixed
• Identifying potions fixed
• Encumbrance caused by the artifacts, the Skeleton's Key and King Orgnum's Coffer has been fixed.
• Various artifact quest bugs have been fixed
• Memory problems associated with traveling has been fixed.
• Various noble quest bugs have been fixed
• Diseases have been fixed
• All stats maxed to 100 bug has been fixed.

Patch 1.04

• Multiple 'Fortify' on a single spell now fortify all stats that are in the spell. Therefore a spell that fortifies STR, INT, and WIL will now fortify all those stats rather than changing your gender, for example. It will NOT fix your gender if you're already changed. (sorry)
• Not able to complete certain quests:

We found a bug in the quest generator and fixed it. It should correct the problem where quests that went to a city had no end point.

• New hot keys:

Shift + C = Recast spell

Ctrl + left arrow or right arrow = Slide left or right

- and + = scroll inventory up or down in charsheet.

• The travel routine was rewritten:

Those of you with bugs involving travel times should find the new routine to work much better.

• The problem with people losing stats when equipping / de-equiping certain items:

We found a problem in the way the code calculated fortified stats due to spells vs. items such as a sword of strength. It is now fixed.

• Lost or missing keys:

We fixed the problem with keys being gone or 'worthless', but for the fix to take effect, you must reload a game BEFORE you have gotten any of the keys in question. Simply reloading the current game will NOT work.

• Related but not the same, if you leave a dungeon after having unlocked some doors, those doors will now stay unlocked when you return. Any keys associated with those doors will be marked 'worthless'.
• Witches Festival is now fixed so that you can now ID items for free.
• Not being charge<sic please don't correct spelling, the error is found in the text> for a room at an inn is now fixed.

Patch 1.03

Note: Arena patch #3 replaces #1 and #2 - you will not need to load them first.

Patch 1.02

• Knights repair at 10x their level instead of 3x their level for items.
• Random encounters in city at night have been reduced a bit.
• Automapping in the interior (it used to garble up) has been fixed.
• People who saved games in interiors experienced problems when exiting the interior in patch #1. This has been remedied. :Note: If you are one of these people, you will not get any music until you exit the interior or climb up or down a level inside. This is not a bug. The system needs to reread a file.

• Shift + J = Standing long jump has been fixed. (The read-me also adds an entry on the previous addition of the Standing long jump added in the previous patch)

Patch 1.01

• The F4 key now toggles message pixellation. If you would prefer messages to pop on to the screen rather than pixellate in, click the F4 key. Clicking the key again will toggle the messages back to pixellation.
• Due to popular demand, spellcasters can now delete spells from their spellbooks. Simply go to the second page of your character sheet, click on spellbook, double-click on the spell you wish to delete, and when the spell description appears choose the new "delete" option.
• Also due to popular demand, it is now possible to sell most all magic items in equipment stores, including torcs, crystals, rings, and bracelets.
• Mouse movement has been improved.
• It is now possible to lower the detail level even more for slower machines.
• The F3 key now toggles damage response. There are three choices available: "Normal Roll", "Severe Roll", and "Cross Hatch". This is in response to the "Quadrant Jerk" complaint.
• Reported problems with negotiation, character inventory, and other minor glitches have also been fixed.
• Shift + J = Standing long jump added. (the patch notes did not mention this but 1.02's readme says it was fixed)

• There is no spell that will allow a caster to heal a drained attribute. This was a mistake in the manual. (this was part of an addendum)
• To aid us in tracking bugs, a version number will be displayed when exiting the game. Please take note of it. The most current version is 1.01.