The Gemstone of Balance and Other Stories (GGame Engine)

by Gary Arndt


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WARNING
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This is a patch, NOT the game install itself.

For those who may be unfamiliar with patches, a patch typically includes only a subset of files that are needed to run a program and is intended to be installed on top of an existing install.  A patch is not intended to be used by itself.

Trying to use the patch without the base game installed will not result in a valid install.  In other words, you must first have the game installed before you can install a patch.  If you already have the game installed, then you may install this patch (even if you have installed an older patch, although to be clear, having any older patches installed is NOT necessary since the new patch includes all of their content).


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What is this?
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This document explains the purpose of this patch (what it fixes), when to install it, and how it should be installed.


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Patch notes
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Version 230624 contains several somewhat significant bugs that are fixed by this patch.  They are described in the main (new) readme in this patch (GGame2\README.txt), but briefly, they are:

- Severe bug: Attribute increases (such as those given at particular locations) cause values such as AB, AC, DDB, or saving throws to decrease instead of increase (in earlier versions)
- Fairly severe bug: Some ambushes while in a ship or boat result in land creatures that are intended to be in a ship instead appearing on the water
- When entering the Planar Abode with 1 charge remaining on the wand and very high inventory weight, the uncharged wand may be dropped on the portal

Further, the following issues have been addressed:

- Ships sometimes seem to mysteriously disappear, which is actually NOT a bug but rather due to dangers such as whirlpools, the issue leading to some new features that make dealing with this more reasonable
- A significant series of new, additional hints was added to make it much more clear as to how to find a hidden location that is required to complete the main quest (SPOILER: the hidden mountains location)

Also, a major enhancement has also been implemented:

- Named saves now use just one single file rather than a directory (although the old approach is still also supported)


When this patch is applied to version 230624 (or a previous patched version 230822, 230825, 230909, 230921, or 231008), it will fix the bugs mentioned, resolve the other issues mentioned, apply the enhancement, resolve a few other misc. minor issues, and introduce some additional content for new games.  Note that this patch includes the content of all of the older patches; it is NOT necessary to apply any of them prior to applying this one (although having one or more of those older patches already applied is fine).

WARNING: DO NOT apply this patch to any versions other than those mentioned above

To install this patch, simply copy all files from the GGame2 directory of this zip file over the existing files in your install.  That said, you may optionally want to consider first backing up or renaming the older versions of the files to be updated.  If you choose to leave the older versions of those files in place then be aware that the copy process will likely warn you that you are about to overwrite those files.  Doing so is correct; the new versions need to replace the old versions.

Note that this patch includes a new version.txt file; applying this patch updates your install to the new version specified in that file.

Further, the new GGame2\README.txt file (not to be confused with the file you are currently reading) contains details about the bugs that are being fixed and other changes as well as further details about this new version.
