AGI: KQ3: Triggering for Overheard Mice Conversation Seems to be Broken

[ArthurWalden]

I am using ScummVM version 2.8.1.

I am playing King's Quest 3 and have reached a point so frustrating I think it is a bug. When trying to overhear the mice conversations in the hold of the pirate ship (with the magic dough in my ears, of course), the first conversation about the cat triggers fine enough, but, after that, I cannot get any further conversations to trigger. My SOP here is to enter the right hold and, if the mice are there, to wait about 30 seconds to see if they say anything. If not, I leave and try again. However, I have tried this nearly 100 times and cannot get the second conversation to trigger no matter what. As you know, you need to overhear the mice talking about the buried treasure before you can find it and finish with all the points.

I am playing the English GOG version of the game.

I am running the game on Windows 11 Home, Version 23H2.

[m-kiewitz]

I played through KQ3 after I rewrote AGI back in 2016, but that was the Apple IIgs version.
I just checked my old saved game, and it was 210 of 210 points in the end, so everything worked at least for that version.

So either it's a regression, or a difference in KQ3 DOS, which may have an issue.

[m-kiewitz]

Okay, there are 5 mice dialogs available and they are chosen at random when the mice are near another.
And strangely it seems in your saved games all 5 mice dialogs have been exhausted.
The game won't repeat a text that has already been shown.
and after one text, you will have to wait 2 minutes for another text to happen.

You can reset the dialog flags by using the following debug commands:
setflag 193 0
setflag 194 0
setflag 195 0
setflag 196 0
setflag 197 0

after doing that I can see the dialog appear again, as it should be.

[m-kiewitz]

Do you have a saved game right before the ship?
If you haven't seen the different dialogs, maybe something else set these flags.
You can check the flags yourself by using debug command flags.

[m-kiewitz]

The debug commands really need improvement though.

[eriktorbjorn]

and after one text, you will have to wait 2 minutes for another text to happen.

I could be wrong, but I think that timeout resets if you leave and re-enter the room?

I agree with the rest, though: For whatever reason, it seems all the conversations have been flagged as already overheard.

[sluicebox]

I've audited every call to set(194) amd set.v; there are only two ways to set flag 194: listening to the mice in room 86 or listening to the fish in room 31 when swimming. (They use the same message flags.) I don't know much about this game but it's my understanding that swimming in the ocean occurs after the ship.

[ArthurWalden]

That seems unlikely. After the ship (i.e. when it reaches shore), you will probably need to swim ashore quickly to avoid the shark and continue the game, the next phase being crossing the mountains.

In any case, since I wanted to hear all the fish conversations, I went swimming in the ocean earlier in the game, while still in Llewdor. I suspect players who play the way I do will do it the same way. So, yes, this is a bug.

[m-kiewitz]

I guess this would be a case for an AGI script patcher.