Elemental Mod for MM7 -- v3.1 holiday release!

[Eksekk]

A random artifact or relic, plus the two gender-specific artifacts from the obelisk treasure. And the latter will have 3 or 4 random artifacts instead. I generally plan to slightly lower the max number of artifacts that can be randomly looted from dragons etc., and instead place a few more guaranteed (but random) artifacts that won't count towards this limit.

Sounds fun! So, the limit of artifacts is essentially gonna be increased from 13? Not unlimited, but instead increased?

Also, in case it isn't clear, if you need any help in development of this mod (that is of no technical side, because you are already an expert at this), like writing texts for quests, you can write here or send me a PM and I'll be happy to help.

[Tomsod]

Sounds fun! So, the limit of artifacts is essentially gonna be increased from 13? Not unlimited, but instead increased?

Essentially yes. As I plan to add a bunch of new artifacts (up to 15 by my count), the number of obtainable artifacts also needs to be increased, roughly proportionally.

Also, in case it isn't clear, if you need any help in development of this mod (that is of no technical side, because you are already an expert at this), like writing texts for quests, you can write here or send me a PM and I'll be happy to help.

What I really need is someone to playtest and bounce ideas with, and you're already doing that, so thank you!

[antipaladin]

if you would recieve assets to which model a new map (per say vori) you could code and add it ingame?
what format of the assets would they need to be?

[Tomsod]

if you would recieve assets to which model a new map (per say vori) you could code and add it ingame?
what format of the assets would they need to be?

Actually, if you want to create a new map, you don't need a coder's help. There's a wonderful tool called MMEditor (it's an addon to MMExtension) that is very WYSIWYG and user-friendly. It allows creating a new indoor or outdoor map from scratch, and new textures can be added through MMArchive. Now, to actually add the new map into the game, including to Town Portal and boats/stables, you do need some new code, but that can be discussed once you model it. I wish you best of luck! People here were dreaming about implementing Vori for like 20 years.

[Tomsod]

Great news! I've commissioned some actually good graphics for the dragonscale items and the new spell icon, and now they're done, so here's version 2.1 of the mod: English version, Russian version. Unpack those in MM7's directory. Besides the new images, there's also a bunch of minor tweaks there.

You don't need to start a new game if you're upgrading from 2.0, but you should delete the old version's files, as not all of them are overwritten. It may be simpler to just reinstall MM7 (but do keep the savefiles).

If you do install from scratch, remember not to uncheck MM7Patch's optional features (except maybe the widescreen one).

And now that it's done, I can finally start working on 3.0! This is going to be good.

[Eksekk]

How do you recharge wands at magic shops? I couldn't find an option for it anywhere (tried repairing unbroken wands or identifying already identified ones, nothing) (probably I'm just dumb ).

[Tomsod]

How do you recharge wands at magic shops? I couldn't find an option for it anywhere (tried repairing unbroken wands or identifying already identified ones, nothing) (probably I'm just dumb :D ).

The repair option should recharge them, yes. But shopkeepers can only restore wands to 30%-80% (depending on shop fanciness) of their previous limit, and if your wand already has as much charges, they just won't say anything. Which, in retrospect, is probably an oversight, seeing as it confused you. I'll add this to the to-do list.

[Tomsod]

Heya! I'm basically done with the first core part of 3.0 (race/class stuff) and moving to skills. One of the planned skill changes is adding more varied demands and conditions for GM teachers, up to entire mini-quests, and I want to ask for the community's help here as I'm short on ideas. Especially Eksekk, as you did offer to help already. Here's what I have so far:

Melee weapons: have enough expertise with the weapon (i.e. kill X monsters with it, counted from the game start). Probably no need to make unique conditions for each one.
Bow: either the same as above, or a mini-quest to kill two monsters with one double-shot.
Blaster: get eradicated! This skill will grant a small chance to eradicate on hit on GM, so it makes sense.
Unarmed: kill a bounty monster with your bare hands? Kinda weak though.
Dodging: kill a tough monster (a dragon maybe?) without being hit.
Armor skills and Shield: like with weapons, but block a total of X hits while wearing it.
Magic schools: higher skill requirement (12 instead of 10), plus light and dark teachers require commitment to the light/dark path (you can mix light/dark promotions in my mod, but this limitation means you still can't get both GMs in the same game), and the others could require high elemental resistance (fire for Fire, shock for Air etc., maybe AC for Earth). Could make unique demands instead, but no ideas.
Alchemy: brew a rejuvenation potion. I plan to allow brewing potions without the required alchemy skill, with the caveat that the mixture still has a high chance to explode -- 83% for black potions in particular, so this mini-quest is possible but not trivial.
Bodybuilding: go for three days without rest. (Planned GM skill effect is regeneration, so this makes sense.)
Meditation: meditate (rest) on top of Mt. Nighon.
Armsmaster: perhaps kill a monster with each weapon you can wield? Not sure about this.
Perception: find the obelisk treasure!
Stealing: shoplift an expensive enough item, I guess?
Merchant: can just demand 100000 gold for training, ha ha. Or you must be rich enough (like earn a million gold), but this money isn't taken.
Still no ideas: ID Item, Repair, ID Monster, Disarm Traps. Any help is appreciated!

[Tomsod]

A small update: v2.1 of my mod is most certainly incompatible with v2.5.* of MM7Patch, so use v2.4 of the patch for now. The next release of the mod will be compatible with the concurrent version of the patch, but not with the previous ones! I'm slightly less than halfway there, BTW. Also, I've finalized the GM teacher thing I wrote above about, thanks for nothing, money-bags. Will still need to calibrate the demands during playtesting, though.

[Karol]

The new patches bring new features and make MM7 more enjoyable. So I can't wait for next Elemental Mod release, which will be compatible with the GrayFace recent patches. Keep on the good work!

[Tomsod]

Thanks! I'm fairly positive it'll be done within two months. Maybe earlier if I'm lucky.

EDIT: Wait no I meant three months. I have a vacation in June which means enough free time to polish the release no matter what, so at most three. I'm currently making pretty good time, though, so if that continues, I might be already playtesting by May, but three months is a worst-case estimate.

[Karol]

the 2.1 version + the GrayFace 2.4 patch did not enable Hardware Video in SETUP.exe file.
So I tried the 2.5.7 patch, and truly, the game is then not playable (froze upon picking up a fireplace, or when entering the Temple of Moon)

I will try to reinstall it again with the 2.4 patch, maybe there is a way to get the game run on high-res with it.

EDIT: yep, upon 2nd attempt, high-res works fine. So all good.

[Karol]

2.1 nearly complete (well, at lest 2nd promotions complete and most quests done..)

My thoughts:
- Holy Water implementation is genius. Love it. What I didn't find, was recipe for it (so I guess it can only be purchased from churches) But the two ways of usage : over weapons (even if the weapon is already having a bonus, like 1-6 fire damage), and then the 'grenade' throwing perk - fabulous.

- As next stage, I was expecting similar features on the elemental sphere (enemies to be damaged only by water, only by earth... )

- potions of immunity are also perfect, especially in certain dungeons or areas, where even high resistance would not really help

- Amulet that protects me from DISPEL MAGIC? ... WOW! Where did this thingy been all my life (all mi life spent in MM world). Oh, I do hate the dispel magic spells so much, it is great to have a protection against them.

- skill tweaks : I usually play Fighter, Archer, Cleric, Sorcerer...but I soon realized, that my Archer can get only up to Expert of Disarm Trap. And no one can get to GM of Alchemy... re-considering the options, while I would like to keep both Cleric & Sorcerer, the only well playable party is : Thief, Druid, CL, So. I would miss GM Archery, but GM (or at least M) Disarm Trap is a must. (especially as I feel, that the bonuses in Elemental Mod have been tuned down... late in game, in vanilla, I can find +15 or sometimes +25 skill bonus, so finding +25 to Disarm Traps could possibly go well with highly perked Expert Disarm Trap, but so far the highest I have found till now, was +12 bonus. So having Disarm Trap up to 12 points on Expert = 24 points + 12 = 36, which would make half of the game chest explode right in my faces. Maybe hiring both followers as Tinkers could help?

- Barrels give only +1 bonus? How I am supposed to win those challenges then? (especially as joined the dark side, and the default scrolls of Day of the Gods or the pedestals are weak by default)

- In general, I thought that vanilla is well balanced (and that mods make the original game less balance, to either easier, or harder), but Elemental mod surprised me as a quite well balanced either.

Can't wait for next update on this mode.

Great job!

[Tomsod]

Yeah, holy water cannot really be brewed, only bought or, rarely, found. It doesn't interact with alchemy at all.

Didn't quite understand you about elemental enemies. Making a monster that immune to anything but e.g. cold would be very cruel, as cold damage is fairly rare and some parties might not even have access to it, except for ice-enchanted weapons which only do 12 cold damage at most (and aren't even always available). Ghosts are different because holy water is super easy to obtain and it allows dealing the entire damage of an attack to the ghost. Also, they can still be hit by fire, lightning, and pure magic (like the Harm spell or Spectral weapons).

Yeah, enemy Dispel Magic is incredibly annoying, and I nerfed it in several ways. "Permanence" item enchantment is the most extreme nerf, although it's sometimes hard to find four of them to equip every character with. And good to hear you find the immunity potions useful! I was trying to give Druids an unique advantage of some kind. 3.0 will make them even better.

Skills will be changed in 3.0. I specifically want to make parties without a Cleric and/or Sorcerer viable, so both Archers and Druids will have an option to learn GM Air and Water, and GM in clerical magic won't be restricted to Clerics either (although it's a bit less crucial). Disarm Traps will also be more available than in vanilla. Also, I intend to make bonuses from items and followers to be affected by the skill's rank, i.e. multiplied x2 at Expert and x3 at Master (vanilla MM7 doesn't do it).

For now, I'll note that I haven't done anything with the disarm bonus from items (yet!), so you just had bad luck. Also, don't hire two tinkers, they don't stack. Hire a tinker and a locksmith.

Barrels give a level-dependent bonus: +1 at levels 1-7 and +1 more for every 7 levels after the first, up to +15 at 99. The idea is to make them useful at any stage of the game, but you can also save them for later if you want very high stats.

And I'm very happy to hear you consider the mod to be balanced! Thank you! I was very much aiming for that, but it's not easy to achieve without a lot of playtesting.

[Karol]

Wow, the changes you mentioned for 3.0 sound extremely helpful.

For the elemental enemies - I see your point, and it could really not be the best move. I was more or less motivated with a fact, that I am cumulating dozens of spells in my spell books and different weapons with various elementals bonuses (you know, in a mod named "Elemental mod")... so I was browsing in my spell book, and saw Ice Bolt and was sad "Oh, I didn't even once used you, my lonely sad useless spelly"

In vanilla there were to extremes: slimes (immune to physical), medusas (immune to all, but physical), later some high-end monsters (Titans or Dragons immune to one or two elements)

So it just felt, like there might be a window of opportunity, that could be balanced by # of occurrences (so a dungeon would have 25 enemies, but only 2 would be 'special' when extra elemental tactics must be applied, like bosses)

Or, apply the trick that is used in MMmerge - as a party grows in power (levels), enemies get bolstered (in this mod, they can get extra resistances/immunities + elemental attacks)

Vanilla had the slimes hidden in the Red Dwarf dungeon, what was extremely unfortunate - due the glitch of the wooden pillars / slopes, that are mechanically broken, and cause your fireball to explode right in your face, despite your range of view is perfectly wide-open. And the medusas were slizering around the dungeon and shooting paralyzing / stoning arrows, while I had to run to them (my ranged physical attacks were too weak to take them down, so I had to go full melee on them) What was also fun, but again, the bad designed maze didn't let the player much space for fun hunt, and it was more about a struggle with in-game glitches.

Oh, btw, I always thought that shrapmetal should be 'physical' damage, you know, that later in the game, also spell casters like sorc or priest can partake on a good bloody rumble.

Oh, ghosts could be damaged by harm? I did assume that they are immune to all three magical attacks (spirit, body, mind), good to know, I would have easier start.
But I did enjoy the true RPG potion (holy water) planning: oh, I want to have at least one melee and one ranged weapon blessed, but I also need some as grenades. But hey, what if I will be sleeping in Barrow catacombs? So I need some extra. But it is easier to fight those undead when my fighter and archer will both have their weapons blessed. This kind of management was fresh and entertaining. Also it looked liked that the holy water prices differ from place to place.

Barrels give increasing bonuses? That is indeed NEW! Wow. I checked the first time I used one, than I simply assumed, it won't change. So it can get up to +15... o gosh, finally I can get my party to 100+ basic stats.

Keep the good work, your mod is truly enjoyable.

[Tomsod]

OK, on the topic of elemental attacks: the reason it's called "Elemental Mod" is because the very first change was to return the elemental system from MM6 (although modified a bit - I kept Mind attacks separate from "pure magic"). In particular, Harm and Spirit Lash both do "magic" damage because there are no "spirit" or "body" elements anymore. And while in vanilla MM7 undead were indeed immune to both of these, I applied magic immunity very sparingly, so now they're not. And yes, Shrapmetal is now physical, and so are most Earth spells. I'm not 100% sure making Medusas vulnerable to them is a good idea, but so far they are.

Really, it's all thoroughly documented in elemental.txt, along with every single mod feature. Is it too long? Perhaps I should write a short summary with the most important info and place it in the first post.

And about cold spells: I got your point now. Here's your window of opportunity: in the mod, most fire-aligned monsters (fire elementals, red dragons, devils...) have low cold resistance compared to their other resistances. So it makes sense to use Ice Bolt or Ice Blast on them. (Note that Poison Spray and Acid Blast do poison damage, which is another story.) And cold monsters are vulnerable to fire in the same manner. I suppose it's not obvious without GM ID Monster (or reading elemental.txt), but it's there.

Bolster is not something I need (Merge added it to keep the game interesting after you beat one continent, but my mod only has one to begin with), although I recently made a difficulty level switch that can be changed at any time and will hopefully make the mod more entertaining for veteran players. Still yet to playtest it, though.

Arcs/pillars in the mines are also something I meant to fix for a while, but so far I haven't. I'll do a round of bugfixing after I finish with 3.0 features, so maybe then.

[Karol]

Yeah, you caught me red-handed. I have to confess, I didn't read the elemental.txt. (Well, at least I opened it and quickly browsed in it), but somehow I fail on reading manuals or other documents (till the point when I can't figure something out), but as for the resistances and changes, I left it on the in-game auto-exploration. Well, I could make my cleric much more useful from the start

as for the bolstering / difficulty, apart of adding resistances (or HP/AC/DMG, which I think is really not needed as this is not 3 games in a bundle, just one), I sometimes welcome the option, that after a map is respawned, there are more monsters then before. Which then is not based on the party avg level. But simply on the fact "2 years passed, the player possibly must have stronger fire power". In addition it can give a surprise element.

But as I said, the game is extremely well balanced, hence I am not calling for a change, change is not needed. Just pondering on the longer playability opportunity.

Item bonuses: you are right, after I finally dared to enter Titans' Stronghold, I finally found +20 rings/items (and my 2nd "dispel magic resistance" yipeee)

Also some good weapons with 'spectral' or 'undead slaying' features. Which makes the weapons not only able to hit ghosts, but can easily hit many other creatures that have high physical resistance.

My cleric (Priest of Dark) can now cast the enchantment with permanent effect, but most shops have mediocre weapons.
What surprised me, that my Lich with GM Water was not able to get good enchantments on the cool non-magical weapons I found. At least I made good money by selling them.

I was thinking about the skills (masteries), and what about a in-game 'skill boosting'? In-game 'specialization'?
While the Rev4 mod allows 2nd class selection (re-specialization), what I crave are just very minor tweaks, that would enable a 'trade' in skill masteries.

For example, after finding 'skill doctor', I could let my Sorcerer trade his Earth GM --> Earth M, and get a bonus for example in learning, or body building, or bow... by one 'mastery level' (not sure if that is code-wise possible, tho)

Also, I never wanted to blame you for not providing documentation, it was my decision to stay ignorant. And of course, the documentation must be long, how else would it be informative. There are just players like me, who don't RTFM, and then make surprised pikachu faces. You did well with the documentation.

If the in-game skill tweaking is not possible, at least consider re-arranging Ranger. Since I first got my hands on MM7, I wanted to play Ranger, Druid (as that are normally my fav professions), but despite I occasionally play Druid (for his Alchemy GM), I nearly never play Ranger. (despite he is the only one with ID monster GM... well, sometimes Sorc has also ID mon, ID item on GM, but I rarely get him there, as I need to boost his Water magic -> to get Lloyd's Beacon last longer, but also the offensive water spells are extremely handy against fire / dark immune dudes)

Speaking of Ranger -> is it possible to make the Bounty Hunter monsters randomly pop-up in the same are, where I get the Bounty ? (Harmondale, Enroth, Tularean Forest, The Pit, Celeste). (or to not make it too easy, inject the bounty monster into Arena fights?)

[Tomsod]

as for the bolstering / difficulty, apart of adding resistances (or HP/AC/DMG, which I think is really not needed as this is not 3 games in a bundle, just one), I sometimes welcome the option, that after a map is respawned, there are more monsters then before. Which then is not based on the party avg level. But simply on the fact "2 years passed, the player possibly must have stronger fire power". In addition it can give a surprise element.

Good idea, thanks! I added it to my list. Although it should probably check if the area was cleared before the respawn -- Land of Giants respawns every 6 months, and for most parties, it has too much dragons already.

What surprised me, that my Lich with GM Water was not able to get good enchantments on the cool non-magical weapons I found. At least I made good money by selling them.

I tweaked that spell a bit. The strongest enchantments are possible if you have GM and cast around noon (from 11 am to 13 pm). You'll still have to reload a lot, though.

I was thinking about the skills (masteries), and what about a in-game 'skill boosting'? In-game 'specialization'?
While the Rev4 mod allows 2nd class selection (re-specialization), what I crave are just very minor tweaks, that would enable a 'trade' in skill masteries.

For example, after finding 'skill doctor', I could let my Sorcerer trade his Earth GM --> Earth M, and get a bonus for example in learning, or body building, or bow... by one 'mastery level' (not sure if that is code-wise possible, tho)

Well, 3.0 will have something vaguely like this. Not as customizable as your idea, but it will be possible to promote one or two classes to their Dark variants even on the Light path, and vice versa. And Light and Dark variants of the same class will differ at least in several skills - e.g. Hero (Light Paladin) can learn Master Light and GM Merchant, while Villain (Dark Paladin) is limited to Expert Dark, but has Master Armsmaster and Expert Stealing (which now also gives a chance to backstab). I tried to make every pair of promotions distinct enough.

If the in-game skill tweaking is not possible, at least consider re-arranging Ranger. Since I first got my hands on MM7, I wanted to play Ranger, Druid (as that are normally my fav professions), but despite I occasionally play Druid (for his Alchemy GM), I nearly never play Ranger. (despite he is the only one with ID monster GM... well, sometimes Sorc has also ID mon, ID item on GM, but I rarely get him there, as I need to boost his Water magic -> to get Lloyd's Beacon last longer, but also the offensive water spells are extremely handy against fire / dark immune dudes)

3.0 will hopefully have much better Rangers. Everyone always complains that they're useless, so I tried my best to improve their skills. Let's see: Master Armsmaster, GM Earth, Master in two other magic schools, GM Perception (which now increases loot from corpses, so it's useful), and the Dark variant also has Master Disarm and Stealing. Also ID Monster will give a small combat advantage, so it's useful too. Light variant will probably also have improved weapon/armor skills, but I haven't decided it yet (the initial idea was to give them Expert in every misc skill, but upon reflection it's kinda lame).

Speaking of Ranger -> is it possible to make the Bounty Hunter monsters randomly pop-up in the same are, where I get the Bounty ? (Harmondale, Enroth, Tularean Forest, The Pit, Celeste). (or to not make it too easy, inject the bounty monster into Arena fights?)

Yeah, Merge does that, but I don't think it's really necessary. Remember that you can spawn monsters almost anywhere by way of rest encounters, except if the location is completely cleared. And even if it is, it's possible to summon a light elemental and then hit it once so it's hostile, and the game will then think that the location hasn't been cleared yet.
EDIT: wait, I misread you. You meant in the same location as the Town Hall. Well, no, IMO it's part of the fun to travel to whenever the monster lives naturally. And if you already cleared that location, see above.

[Karol]

Just on a side note...
I have been collecting Genie Lamps, hoping to get +8 skill points per each on 22nd October... (as I missed it the first two years by mistake, when I stupidly trained all characters in bulk, and 'jumped' over 10th month)
Just to find out, that none of the months grants skill points anymore
https://ibb.co/6496gPW

On the other hand, I recon, that I am getting much more (stats / resistances) than in vanilla. Which is also good.

Question: mm7.ini has new clause about laser weapon cooldown (it was 4, but can be chaned)
But even my character with high Speed and high Blaster GM skill still has recovery time 10. Is the faster (4) recovery time achievable only with Speed spell?

[Tomsod]

I might perhaps return skill points from lamps in 4.0. The current state is a return to MM6, as I felt the MM7 system of giving food/gold/exp/other weird stuff was stupid (and likely prompted by the introduction of the 6th resistance), but even now the player has to wait for up to a year if they want to boost a specific stat, and I've been trying to move away from encouraging long waits, so eventually I'll redo the lamps again such that they're completely unaffected by months and are instead more random. And maybe skill points will be on the menu then. But ideally the rework requires one particular feature that'll be a hassle to code and is scheduled for 4.0, so I defer it for now.

Blasters are capped at 10 recovery in my mod, yes. All other weapons, at 20. There's no way to go below that limit, not even with Haste, and mm7.ini setting will only work if it's above 10. But considering blaster shots ignore resistances now, they're still pretty good weapons.

About your screenshot: I remember when I last played BDJ's MM7 mod, I noticed that Evenmorn Island refills on each visit, and there's a lamp there, near the Merchant teacher... So I ran from Moon temple to that lamp and back several hundred times, got multiple full backpacks of lamps, and used them to max out all my stats. Then I realized that I could've done that much faster by abusing Walls of Mist barrels (that also refill on each visit -- not in my mod, though! -- and are +5 in BDJ's mod). Oh well! Fun times.