This FAQ is not meant to be complete. If you have questions not covered yet, or find an answer not helpful enough, please mail to adonthell-general at nongnu.org.

1  Introduction
1.1  What is Adonthell?
1.2  What does "Adonthell" mean?
1.3  How do I pronounce "Adonthell"?

2  Getting Started
2.1  Where can I get Adonthell?
2.2  What is the latest version of Adonthell?
2.3  Which operating systems are supported by Adonthell?
2.4  How do I compile Adonthell for my OS?

3  Waste's Edge
3.1  What is Waste's Edge?
3.2  Why is there no combat in Waste's Edge?
3.3  Why is the game in 320x240?
3.4  Is the villain ever found?
3.5  Will there be a sequel to Waste's Edge?
3.6  Help, I'm stuck!

4  Development
4.1  What are your plans for the future?
4.2  When will the next version be released?
4.3  How can I get involved with Adonthell?
4.4  Can I make my own RPG with the Adonthell engine?

5  Problems
5.1  Adonthell will not work for me!
5.2  Known issues
5.3  Does Adonthell run in fullscreen mode under Linux?
5.4  How do I submit a bug report?

1.1  What is Adonthell?

Adonthell is the combined effort of like-minded people to create a free (as defined by the Free Software Foundation) role playing game for various operating systems.

The project's goals are the creation of an engine (currently going by the codename adonthell), a set of tools and an actual, playable game driven by that engine and built with those tools.

In the process, we well release a number of technology demos; small, self-contained games to test engine and tools, and to generate some interest into our project.

1.2  What does "Adonthell" mean?

Adonthell is the place where a large part of the final game will take place. It is a remote island, discovered and named by Tanath the Seafarer. More information about Adonthell is revealed in the prologue.

1.3  How do I pronounce "Adonthell"?

Just as you would pronounce "Linux", i.e. you are free to pronounce it every way you want.

Sensible ways would be A-don-tell or A-don-tell, emphasising on the first respectively second syllable. Note that the h in thell is meant to be silent.

2.1  Where can I get Adonthell?

Official releases are available on our download page.

If you are interested in older versions, please have a look at the roots.

For the bleeding edge, get the source directly from CVS.

2.2  What is the latest version of Adonthell?

The recent release is version 0.3.3, a.k.a Waste's Edge.

To find out which version you are using, type adonthell -v on the command line.

2.3  Which operating systems are supported by Adonthell?

Recent versions of Adonthell should run on all platforms supported by SDL, Python and the GNU Compiler Collection. However, not all possible combinations have been thoroughly tested, and binaries only exist for a few platforms respectively distros.

Adonthell can be compiled for BeOS, *BSD, Linux (alpha, arm, i386, ppc), MacOS X, Solaris and Windows with more or less hassle.

Binaries for Beos, Linux, MacOS X, Solaris and Windows are already available, others might be released sooner or later.

2.4  How do I compile Adonthell for my OS?

Instructions for some operating systems are enclosed in the source package, conveniently named README.os. Information that applies to all platforms is kept in the INSTALL file. The NEWBIE file provides help for Linux-newbies.

Some information for compiling Adonthell on Solaris is available on Brian's Solaris site.

To build the Windows version, use a cross-compiler or cygwin; or just get the premade binaries ;-).

3.1  What is Waste's Edge?

Waste's Edge is the first demo game with actual gameplay, even though it lacks many features of ordinary RPGs.

The demo takes place at Waste's Edge, a small and remote trading outpost, hence the name.

3.2  Why is there no combat in Waste's Edge?

That's due to the game engine. At the time we created Waste's Edge, combat wasn't implemented. But since we didn't want to keep people waiting any longer, we decided to go without combat (and many other things).

Combat will be in the next demo though.

3.3  Why is the game in 320x240?

The two main reasons for that are performance and size. In the current state, Adonthell runs on low end computers (Pentium 166) and handheld devices (Zaurus) without any hardware acceleration! At the same time, the download is quite small.

The main benefit of higher resolutions would be more detailed graphics; and since that is on the wishlist of our artists, all subsequent releases will run in true 640x480.

3.4  Is the villain ever found?

Maybe. See 3.5 for more details.

(You don't know what this is all about? Then play Waste's Edge and see for yourself!)

3.5  Will there be a sequel to Waste's Edge?

Not really. The next demo (Dun Barethsol) will take place in the same region, but it will feature different characters and a completely different background.

However, it might resolve a few lose ends of Waste's Edge, and there will be definitely a reunion with some of the more charming characters. Like Lady Frostbloom.

3.6  Help, I'm stuck!

As somebody said on the Linux Game Tome:

"If you get really stuck, I would just wander round talking to everyone again and enjoy the music until you get a new lead :-)"

If that's not an option, feel free to post to our user to user discussion forum. Eventually, somebody will stumble by there and help.

If you think that a bug is preventing you from finishing the game, you should consider filing a bug report.

4.1  What are your plans for the future?

Nothing is definite yet, but the following appears to be very likely:

Version 0.4 of our engine will have a (basic) item and combat system that will be improved in subsequent 0.4.x releases. Together with v0.4, the Dun Barethsol demo game will be released, which is easily 10 times bigger than Waste's Edge.

Version 0.5 should see the role playing system completely implemented. Further 0.5.x releases will probably add more spells, items and ways to interact with them (like baking bread). It's completely open whether yet another demo game will accompany that version. It is more likely that we just make additions to Dun Barethsol.

Once the engine is feature complete, we'll probably start to create the final game: Adonthell. At the same time, further improvements and additions, like fancy graphic effects and such, will be made to the engine.

Once Adonthell is finished, we'll release version 1.0 of the engine. What will happen afterwards is undecided. Expect further improvements and add-ons, either created by us, or by a community that has hopefully formed 'til then. We're also hoping that others use our engine and tools to create RPGs of their own (see 4.4).

4.2  When will the next version be released?

We have not the slightest idea ;-).

But seriously, we never had much luck with meeting deadlines, so we stopped announcing release dates. The next version will be released when it is done.

To get an impression of the current state of development, have a look at our dev diary.

To speed up development, consider helping us.

4.3  How can I get involved with Adonthell?

If you are a programmer, graphic artist or writer interested in joining our efforts, we would like to hear from you.

To get involved with Adonthell, please follow the steps below:

1. Read the information provided for new developers to see what help is required.
2. Make yourself comfortable with the project. Browse the documentation, the list archives and the rest of the website. Expect to spend some time with that.
3. Introduce yourself on the adonthell-general mailing list and ask any questions that are not answered by the material above.
4. By now you should know enough to pick yourself a task. Once you have produced some results, you can consider yourself part of the team :-).

Of course, if you just want to submit a patch or share some ideas, you need not go through all of this. Just send some mail to the appropriate list.

4.4  Can I make my own RPG with the Adonthell engine?

Yes, but ...

The game engine is written with this in mind; all game data is therefore strictly separated and the engine itself is highly customisable via Python.

At present however, both the engine and tools are incomplete and quite difficult to use. Moreover, the data format is due to change, so all content you create now will have to be adapted to future versions of the engine.

For those reasons, we wouldn't encourage you to make your own RPG with our engine today, unless you know what you're doing. In the future however, we would be more than happy to see other RPGs using the Adonthell engine.

In either case, we'll support you as good as we can.

5.1  Adonthell will not work for me!

If you compiled Adonthell yourself, make sure to properly install it ('make install'). It won't run otherwise.

If compilation itself fails, please consult the INSTALL and NEWBIE files for help. If that does not get you any further, please submit a support request after checking that the issue hasn't been brought up by somebody else already. Please include details about the version of Adonthell, your OS, hardware and compiler. And the error message of course.

If a precompiled package fails on you, please submit a bug report.

5.2  Known issues

Especially when compiling Adonthell from CVS you might run into a few problems. Those we're aware of are listed below:

• When compiling Adonthell I get:
  
  make: *** No rule to make target `_AM_File,', needed by `all-recursive-am'.
  
  You'll need to install automake version 1.6 or later. Afterwards run ./autogen.sh again.
   
• When compiling Adonthell I get:
  
  storage.h:36: directory `map' specified in #include
  
  You'll have to run 'cvs update -P' to get rid of the empty src/map directory. Then compilation will work.
   
• When launching Adonthell, I get:
  
  Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "./init.py", line 229, in ?
    File "./init.py", line 38, in __init__
    File "./adonthell.py", line 2198, in __init__
  RuntimeError: No constructor defined
  exec_file: init load failed:
  init: destructor called
  
  You are using SWIG 1.3.17, which appears to be broken. Please downgrade to 1.3.15, then configure, make and make install again. SWIG is available at http://www.swig.org.

5.3  Does Adonthell run in fullscreen mode under Linux?

Yes, it does.

However, it doesn't by default, as it requires you to configure your X server accordingly. For more details, please refer to the FULLSCREEN.howto that comes with Adonthell.

5.4  How do I submit a bug report?

Before you report a bug, please make sure that you are running the latest version of Adonthell. If newer releases exist, chances are good that your bug has been fixed already.

If you are running the latest version, check the adonthell-devel mailing list archives whether the problem has already been reported. Otherwise, send a bug report to that list.

The more information you provide, the faster we can help. We need to know the version of Adonthell and the OS/distro you are using. If there are any error messages, include them as well. (Under Windows you'll find them in stderr.txt and stdout.txt in the Adonthell directory) If the game crashes, please describe what actions lead to the crash.

Attach a save game if that makes sense. On Unix systems you'll find the saved games under $HOME/.adonthell/, on Windows they're kept inside the Adonthell folder. Just zip or tar the appropriate save game directory.

Depending on the nature of the bug, we might require further help from your side. So expect that we ask you to try some things out, especially if you are using hardware that we can not test on ourselves.

pagedesign: © Copyright 2007 The Adonthell Team / Benjamin Walther-Franks
contents: © Copyright 2007 The Adonthell Team / Kai Sterker
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