Elemental Mod for MM7 -- v4.0 open beta

[Tomsod]

Spent knives can be repaired, in all the same ways a broken item can be repaired. This will degrade the item, much like with recharging wands.

My mod's elemental.*.lod archives should naturally be the last (it goes roughly alphabetically). You can also directly see or download these files on github.

[rampage77t]

Downloaded and testing, the new dungeon in Bracada Desert is not available yet right? Why does the game close when trying to enter there

[Tomsod]

Downloaded and testing, the new dungeon in Bracada Desert is not available yet right? Why does the game close when trying to enter there

Welp, here's the first critical bug! Quick solution for now: install MMExtension, somehow it helps. I'll try to fix it properly tomorrow.

[Lone_Wolf]

While creating party I noticed something odd :

In vanilla racial weak attribute takes 2 bonuspoints to raise attr +1 and good attributes take 1 bonuspoint to raise attrib +2 .

Elemental 4 still does the first, but good attributes are only raised +1 per bonus point .
I couldn't find a mention for this in changelog , is this intentional ?

MMextension 2.2 extracts the values that set this to data/tables/Class Starting Stats.txt , no idea which .lod it comes from .

[Tomsod]

Alright, turns out I've been coddled by MMExtension and the new map doesn't work properly without it. Download the updated mod DLL and place in in ExeMods instead of the old one to fix a number of related issues, including Lloyd's Beacon and Town Portal glitches.

Unfortunately, the bug that crashes the game upon entering the new map will persist unless you start a new game. To fix existing games, either install MMExtension (2.2 or 2.3) as above, or use MMArchive to open the saved game file and put this genie.dlv inside it.

Sorry for this! I've noticed that genie.dlv was absent in the saves, but it didn't seem to affect anything. Turns out without MMExt, it very much does.

While creating party I noticed something odd :

In vanilla racial weak attribute takes 2 bonuspoints to raise attr +1 and good attributes take 1 bonuspoint to raise attrib +2 .

Elemental 4 still does the first, but good attributes are only raised +1 per bonus point .
I couldn't find a mention for this in changelog , is this intentional ?

MMextension 2.2 extracts the values that set this to data/tables/Class Starting Stats.txt , no idea which .lod it comes from .

If you change these attributes by several points, you'll notice that sometimes they're 1:1 and sometimes 2:1 or 1:2. That's just rounding, in fact strong attributes are either 7:5 or 6:5 and weak ones are 7:10. The catch is that it also applies to barrels, black potions, altars and so on, instead of just the new game.

[Lone_Wolf]

Got it, you may want to add a note in the changelog that the stat rating changes also affect party creation.

Agility is my fav atrtibute and I decided on human paladin, goblin thief, elf ranger & elf sorcerer.

Paladin will do spirit & mind magic, Ranger body and earth. sorcerer air/water and escpecially fire .
Thief is for the non-magic utility as they'll prob have very few sp.

I do intend to use ID Monster & Thievery and will play on hard all the time.

[Tomsod]

Good luck! Elf sorcs are extremely fragile so you'll want to stack aggro (aura of conflict etc.) on your other characters. Goblin thief may be able to throw an occasional fireball if you stack +SP items or possibly a soul stealing weapon. In the late game you can focus the paladin on light magic (since you have three fighters, heroism etc. is good), and sorc may become a lich for dark. (Although dark is not that much better than GM elemental magic, so having an archmage supporting the rest with GM light is also an option.)

[rampage77t]

I don't know if it's because I installed it wrong, but since I installed the MMExtension in the stables they take me to areas that I shouldn't, for example from the Harmondale stable I can go directly to the Altar of Wishes, or even to Deyja, and it takes me to the center of the map instead of taking me to the stable on the map in question. This makes it difficult to advance in the game because it forces me to travel on foot, and when I want to travel to the Evenmorn Islands there is no boat that takes me.

[raekuul]

This is similar to issues that came up with MMMerge and one of the development versions of MM6 MAW; when you install MMExtension it will overwrite anything with conflicting names that's supplied by the mod, so you would need to install MMExtension first and then install the mod on top of that.

Tomsod: this sounds like you'll need to do like MMMerge and include MMExtension with the mod install.

[Lone_Wolf]

Elf sorcs are extremely fragile

Yup, my typical compensation for that was to multiloot morcarack for of the troll/of the golem/of earth item (whichever came first), but that's not possible in this mod .
avlee well & BD altar are now even more important then before. Guess I'll also try special orders early.

The racial bonus skill for elves, goblins and dwarves has an undesired side effect : it replaces the weapon skill for the class they choose.
This especially hurts dagger & spear users as those 2 skills are not available on emerald .

Maybe add the racial bonus skill as 5th skill like you do with humans/learning ?

[Tomsod]

I don't know if it's because I installed it wrong, but since I installed the MMExtension in the stables they take me to areas that I shouldn't, for example from the Harmondale stable I can go directly to the Altar of Wishes, or even to Deyja, and it takes me to the center of the map instead of taking me to the stable on the map in question. This makes it difficult to advance in the game because it forces me to travel on foot, and when I want to travel to the Evenmorn Islands there is no boat that takes me.

Yep, that's the second big bug! All the map-related MMExt tables are off-by-one because of how I added the new map (it also affects town portal). In my defense it works fine with MMExt 2.3, because I can just tell it not to create the (wrong) tables. In theory there was another layer of precaution against that, but now it seems it doesn't work with 2.2 either, whoops. For now, you can run this code in the console (it's painfully slow, but you only need it once):

Code: Select all

rawset(Game.MapStats, "?ptr", Game.MapStats["?ptr"] - Game.MapStats[0]["?size"])
UpdateDataTables()
rawset(Game.MapStats, "?ptr", Game.MapStats["?ptr"] + Game.MapStats[0]["?size"])

I'll try to figure out a solution that doesn't involve user input or the extra slowdown.

This is similar to issues that came up with MMMerge and one of the development versions of MM6 MAW; when you install MMExtension it will overwrite anything with conflicting names that's supplied by the mod, so you would need to install MMExtension first and then install the mod on top of that.

Tomsod: this sounds like you'll need to do like MMMerge and include MMExtension with the mod install.

No, for the most part it works fine here: if MMExt was first, I supply a script that deletes the wrong stuff; if my mod was first, MMExt will read the mod's data. It's just these two tables that come out wrong because I switched the map array from 1-based to 0-based.

The racial bonus skill for elves, goblins and dwarves has an undesired side effect : it replaces the weapon skill for the class they choose.
This especially hurts dagger & spear users as those 2 skills are not available on emerald .

Well, whenever the main weapon skill is replaced by race, the replaced skill becomes an optional pick. So if you really want to start with dagger, you still can (and no class has spear as the main skill). Although as I am interested in people using throwing knives more, adding dagger skill to EI weapon shop could be worthwhile either way!

[Buravsic]

Longread and my feedback about Elemental Mode 3.12. Some ideads and possible bug report.

What I liked very much:
1)New artifacts and thematic items in specific place (like Knife of the Undead in The burial grounds of the Dwarves or Fairy Ring in The Hall Under the Hill). It encourages you to explore more.
Golem items are very nice - may be your could even imrove them more and make sets (when character have all Golem items on him/her give additional bonus for magic resist for example).

2)Improved awards (more money and items) for long quests (agromage and obelisk espesially), in vanilla it was very dissapointing to take small amount of money or lousy items after such a long and tiresome quest. Now it worth it!

3)Money tweaks - your need more money fo everything, very good impovement. Your party constantly need more money for new spells, training and skill masters, it's encourge to use banks for investing, in vanilla I didnt understand why bother at all with banks (it was dead mechanic). It make gameplay more interesting and prolong early (more interesting for me) stage of the game when party not overpowerd yet and have not enought items and money.

4)Difficalty setting - it's good to have options to make fights more tought or easy like in vanilla.

5)Alchemy tweaks - it's super cool that now anyone could brew black potions and that cleric could master alchemy (dark path). Always wanted to play with GM alchemy in vanilla just for that but didn't like druid class that much. And brewing potions just with one click is super comfortable. Thank you for that)

6)Class, skills and race tweaks - only positive feedback, always wanted exactly these improvements (more destinctive impact of races and more power and usefulness in different not pure classes).
Additional damage from melee weapons also good and needed tweak. Two hand weapons now very useful especially early in the game (used 2 handed sword with my knight early in the game before master swordsman, super cool).
It's strange that merchant skill bonus dont affect all party members when you sold items. It's super annoing to give items to one person with highest merchant skill and willpower to sold them (it's like that in vanilla, but it shouldnt be like that now in 2025). It should affect all party members (only for purpose of selling things).

7)Magic - new spell (phantom weapon) is very cool and thematic, it's useful erly in the game against ghosts and slime.
Why your nerf the duration of invisibility spell so much? It was already short in vanilla and now it's even less. Kind of spoils the fun you coul get with this spell early (middle) in the game. When your have GM of air your could take almost every monster in the game and your don't need invisibility at all.

Idea for implementation in 4.0 or 4.1))):
a)Is it possible to make queue of spells?
When your cast protective spells before each combat it's super repetetive and tiresome. It would be very cool to have queue of 4 or 5 spells for example. May be it could be connected to some skill (I think meditation is thematically appropriate, for expert queue size 3, for master 4, Gm is 5) or quest for additional immersiveness.

b)May be improving town portal (update map in the spell to) to work in every town with fountain.
It's kind of strange to me that it dosent work this way in vanilla.

8)Special thanks for not fixing "bug" that give you different items from corpses (dragons and titans especially) and lumps of ore. I dont think it's bug at all, it's kind of super fun mechanic to obtain cool magic items or specific artifact when your in the mood to reload a little.


Possible Elemental Mode quest bug:
Soul jar quest (lich promotion) before choosing dark or light side.
Now you could take it before your choose side and I think it works incorrectly because of it.
I started the quest after obtaining dark apprentice token but before choosing sides.
When your choose light side you need complete Walls of Mist without harming monsters. And your know it - quest giver tells your that explisitly.
But on the dark side you did not have to spare anyone. Nobody tolds you that if your harm monsters and try to use keys separatley door wouldnt open. When you take the lich quest these condition must not be used or quest giver should tell your about them. Or it's super conterintuitive.
I played MM7 last time 20 or 25 years ago when I was 12 year old kid but I still remeber these super annoying quest (it's super bugged to). Some peole even wont replay MM7 just because of these quest and I can relate to their pain).

Room for improving in existing quests:
Acromage quest, there always one tavern that your foget to go to or already win and accidentally reload and foget to win again. It's super annoing not to know which one it is. It would be very helpful to inform player about it in form of log (in autinotes or quest giver could tell you which tavern you didnt beat if you ask). On last walkthrouh I accidentally reload after winning in tavern in Deja and foget to win again. Than I tryed to complete the quest, but I couldt and I need to win in every tavern once again to find the one. Tavern in Deja was the last one.