The Merge Convergence Mod (MM8 section)

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Echo
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The Merge Convergence Mod (MM8 section)

Unread postby Echo » 02 Jul 2021, 23:18

HEY! YOU THERE! Read please:
This mod was made before any new promotion (or other) quests were added to the Merge. Any map edits the quests introduced *WILL BE LOST* (probably) if you install Convergence, which means broken quests. I don't have time to update it and merge my changes with quest changes. I cleaned up the links and packages to make it easier to sort through. You can omit the maps you don't want replaced or you can combine the changes yourself.

You are free to edit, dismantle, dismember, reupload, and repurpose any and all parts of this little project for the sake of your own MM endeavors.

"LOOK MAN, I DON'T CARE ABOUT ANYTHING I JUST WANT NEW CONTENT. SO SOME QUEST WON'T WORK OR GOLEM IS ANGRY SO WHAT, I'LL JUST KICK ITS BUTT OMG. JUST GIVE ME THE MOD AND LET ME PLAY IT, LIKE RIGHT NOW!!" :disagree: :oex: :disagree:


Okay, fine! Here's the full thing packaged up. The one thing you have to do is use MMArchive and drag-and-drop files from the marked folder into the named file. Tables were made for community branch so best to use that. Shouldn't *explode* either way, but I've no idea what spaghetti you'd cook up using the default branch. Then again, it's probably all spaghetii anyway due to new quests and such so... :tongue: : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NW6eGT ... share_link



Right, now let's get to the fun part, shall we? Merge Converge!

Want to see some content from MM6 and MM7 converging in Jadame? You've come to the right place! :-D
Monsters, treasures, and various little goodies of old can now be found on the revamped maps and in the face-lifted dungeons.

This mod does a few things:
1. It adds cosmetic stuff to liven up some areas - chickens, farms, travelers in Ravenshore, cats wandering the strees of Shadowspire. Some decorations - also in the dungeons - and "environmental storytelling" bits (well, that's a generous term, but it's that direction :tongue:)

2. It adds a lot of MM6 and MM7 goodies to the overworld maps and into the dungeons - did you miss the cool little bags of gold you could pick in MM6? I did! And now you can find some. Together with more kettles, cookpots, fruit bowls.

3. It brings back plenty of creatures from MM6 and MM7 and places them in locations that make sense (at least to me...). Shadowspire was admittedly the most fun to do, such an undead variety! Now you can enjoy them all in MM8. Be careful, Zanthora's lab difficulty spike is probably the highest of all dungeons. Fun!

4. It revamps most of the dungeons - some a whole lot, some just a little. It adds a bit of difficulty, and a bit of treasure. Several Dimension Door scrolls can be hunted down. They're very scarce, and rather tricky to acquire. Like Easter Egg hunt! :D

5. [OPTIONAL] It can increase the game's difficulty significantly by increasing the spawn rate of all pre-set vanilla monster packs. It will affect all three of the games, but the MM6 is just a slight adjustment. All spawns were increased by the same amount, so if originally it was 1-3, now it will be 3-6, 2-4 will become 4-7 etc, keeping the original variance. MM6 spawns were increased by 1 creature only, MM7 and MM8 by 3.

6. [OPTIONAL] It can change item stats causing Magic Books to cost much more (the cost scales from the original price, with several chosen utility spells being more expensive: Town Portal, Lloyd's Beacon, Fly and Invisibility are the notable ones). This file will also flip items around making some stronger and some weaker. It will not affect the balance of randomly generated items and is a cosmetic change (in the original Merge some things that looked strong were surprisingly weak to me and vice versa, so I made my own hierarchy).

If you use the Items.txt file, ALSO USE the RNDITEMS.txt! They're meant to work together and if you don't use both, some randomly generated loot will be too strong/too weak.

THESE FILES HAVE TO GO TO MMMERGE.T.LOD!! If you don't have it, it means your Merge install is broken and incomplete! Putting these files into English.T.lod will cause all sorts of silliness with item prices and power :no:

7. [OPTIONAL] It can come with new bitmap sets for Ravenshore and Shadowspire, grounds and paths, and some skies. Cosmetic and subjective for sure, but you can always copy your original bitmaps and swap back.

8. [OPTIONAL] I also included the Chinese Mod for MM7 sprites and bitmaps converted for Merge. I made my map changes with this installed, so if you don't use it, you may end up having more cacti than anticipated or some other silliness. Nothing big, nothing game breaking. Probably mostly a cactus invasion, really.

9. [OPTIONAL] A small new quest giving purpose to the Druidic Circlet of Power you can find in Murmurwoods. Nothing impressive, just a bittie for completionists :-D


WARNING: Some naturally friendly creatures in MM7 will be hostile! You *can* play through MM7 part and complete it, it will just be a bit weird.
Details can be found in my long post on the 2nd page with feedback from another player. Long story short: in MM8 only Mercenary type and Wererat/Animalist types are affected. In MM7 a lot more creatures are hostile by default (most notably: Necromancers in the Pit also for evil teams, Fighters in Markham's manor/Castle Gryphonheart, Golems in Bracada even for neutral and good teams). MM6 is most likely untouched as it didn't have so many (if any) creatures with default hostility of 0. This is not intended, but I didn't have the time to figure out a way to fix it. It *does not* break any quests (such as Markham's Quill - as long as you don't trespass by clicking on the door, you can murderize his guards with no repercussions).

Downloads, then!

Folder with all the .zips inside for 1-click download:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... share_link
(I've included readmes in each package, which are parts of this post saying what goes where, but do refer to do this post when in doubt, I could've easily mixed them up, cause in a moment of brilliance I called them all "readme" :disagree: )

Map edits (needs the Hostility "fix" from next link or most of MM7 added monsters will be friendly):
Put in Data:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GOsWqJ ... share_link

Loose files (including .dat) if you only want to use some, or if you'd like to view/edit them in the MMEditor without overwriting anything (.dat files go to Maps folder -- it's in root, not in Data):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gWZgpE ... share_link

The Bootleg Hostility "fix" file:
Put in mmmerge.t.lod with MMArchive:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EWdwqs ... share_link

If you're after straight up increased difficulty, here's also my adjusted Mapstats file:
Put in mmmerge.t.lod with MMArchive:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cc-1Ne ... share_link
This file works both without the changed maps and with them. It's a simple table edit - stick it into the mmmerge.t.lod.
(changes: respawn time increased to 3 M&M years [1008 days], aside of end-end-game locations which are set to 1 day to try and remedy some excessive leave-and-heal cheesing [Hives, Lincoln, Escaton's Palace]; 3 more monsters on average in all packs - including dungeons - for MM7 and MM8, and 1 more monster on average in packs for MM6 to spice it up a little in return for having 5 not 4 team members)

Bitmaps file, if you want my textures (Ravenshore is a lil off, but nothing extremely horrid):
Put in Data:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kf-Wyu ... share_link

Loose bitmaps files, in case some of them need to go to some mmmerge.bitmaps file, or if you want to edit them:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zhhmUe ... share_link

Chinese textures and sprites for MM7 converted for Merge:
Put all 3 files in Data:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gQAin_ ... share_link
I used them for my map edits and I have a feeling some non-cacti things might revert to cacti without this :tongue: (Don't use it if you dislike the revamp though! Worst case scenario you'll see a lot of cacti and small trees, no worries)

The item changes:
Put in mmmerge.t.lod with MMArchive:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sdcTsx ... share_link

QOL Autonote with Pure Y alchemy recipes instead of "X liquid gives Y stat" notes:
Put in mmmerge.t.lod with MMArchive:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1afXHIJ ... share_link

TABLES (based on Community Branch, don't use without or game will prolly crap itself!)
Put in Data/Tables:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/16OG8bC ... share_link
Unlock all voices for undead males (vampire can sound young if u want).

Put in Data/Tables:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gh2DLv ... share_link
QOL quick casting buff spells (recovery of 20). Might be cheesy if you use them mid-combat, I make it a rule not to rebuff unless no enemies are actively engaged in combat. Or you can also make no rules and just have quick buffing cause nobody cares, it's a single player game :tongue:

### Ramble Time ###

Druid circlet quest: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1b4n87K ... share_link

Once upon a time I created the monstrosity I called a monstrosity modling for MM8. That's cause with MM8 having so few and small maps compared to its predecessors, there just wasn't enough content in my eyes. So I spammed a lot of crap everywhere (and sneks, so many sneks) in order to fill out the world and increase the challenge level significantly.

I've dug out those files now and considered including them in my Merge playthrough but
a) they'd overwrite any possible Merge changes to the areas
b) they were... not great :tongue: Very random, not too thought out, chaotic, clearly meant to be using chests, yet having no chests

I saw so many mistakes, I was genuinely bothered by the badness of the thing and decided to create something a little similar for the Merge, but less random and weird.

And then I realized I could import assets from MM7 and MM6 now, because, well, it's the Merge! :-D

And so, the Mini Merge Convergence happened.


Examples of the additions:

Alvar gets some more vegetation around town (even some angry chickens), here's a small mushroom garden:
Image

Skyrim isn't the only place where you can get robbed in shady canyons nowadays:
Image

Shadowspire has a slight problem with suckers nesting in the nearby trees. They're not very dangerous, and there aren't many of them, but they can-and-will pester hot blooded visitors a bit:
Image

The Necromancer's guild (and vampire crypt) finally got their hands on some thematic vampire bats! Praise be.
Image

Ghosts. This place really needed some damn ghosts. The bed sheet ghosts guard the obelisk, while some shades frolick here and there on the fields.
Image

Zanthora's realm is no longer a complete sausage party. Now she's got some ladies to lend her a hand in guarding the entrance. They also brought a big eyeball along, to establish domination (he's shy and didn't get in the photo though):
Image

Meanwhile on Daggerwound, some obligatory sneks make an appearance. It's not confirmed, and it's not denied, that they might have found a snaky way of using the teleporters and are now sightseeing the archipelago.
Image

The sunken library caught attention of a couple of Regnan Archmages and they came poking around there with an entourage.
Image

The explosion which created the portal to the plane of earth ejected a bunch of angry rocks. But there could be some useful ore scattered around the debris.
Image

The Temple of Eep is no longer left unguarded! (well, that's a lie, cause they're all friendly xD but it won't be once it works as it should)
Image
Last edited by Echo on 01 Nov 2022, 17:52, edited 79 times in total.

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Re: The Mini Merge Convergence (WIP)

Unread postby Echo » 03 Jul 2021, 10:40

Part 2 now, because wall drills woke me up:

Garrote Gorge obelisk area has been taken over by not-quite-dragons. One or two of them might also have discovered a taste for the dragon flowers, so be careful!
Image

The hills over there are no longer so barren, there's even a small meadow around now, just buzzing with life.
Image

The Cyclops of the Ironsand Desert finally decided on their hunting animal companions:
Image

And somewhere on the edge of the map, a dragon decided to start hoarding some gold (probably stolen from the cyclops). Of course, it didn't take long for a few greedy rogues with no preservation instinct to take notice.
Image

Life isn't easy on the desert, but the trolls are doing their best, slowly starting some cactus cultivation.
Image

Something fishy is brewing near the Murmurwoods obelisk...
Image

And as for the quiet decimated trees, now you can witness the tornado yourself :tongue:
Image
Last edited by Echo on 03 Jul 2021, 23:01, edited 3 times in total.

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Re: The Mini Merge Convergence (WIP)

Unread postby raekuul » 03 Jul 2021, 14:58

Ooo, how'd you get around the monster variety limitations? Or was it simply just "nobody thought of using more monsters"?

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Re: The Mini Merge Convergence (WIP)

Unread postby Eksekk » 03 Jul 2021, 16:51

Yay, you're making another mod! :yes: I'm so hyped up :-D. Although, you said this isn't focused on difficulty, so besides mapstats.txt you're not gonna increase for example prices of spellbooks, some additional monster abilities/spells and artifacts power like in your MM8 Modling? That's sad, but still fully acceptable if you want to make this mod more "friendly" to players or have very limited time. Either way, that's amazing and I will definitely play it once you release. :)

Anyways, to solve monsters being friendly to party you probably need to tinker with Hostile.txt. It's a text table in EnglishT.lod, which defines whether monsters are hostile to another monsters or party. Header row is the monster you are setting stance of, header column is monster towards which you are setting stance. So if there is 4 in intersection of Couatl (upper) and Party (left), it means Couatl has stance of 4 towards Party. Party means players obviously. 0 defines friendliness, 4 hostility, and 1-3 maybe partial hostilities or priorities, I'm not sure. Either way, setting hostility to 4 should make monsters hostile, and setting it to 0 should make them friendly.
raekuul wrote:Ooo, how'd you get around the monster variety limitations? Or was it simply just "nobody thought of using more monsters"?
I remember reading somewhere (maybe from Merge Tracker) that there have been intentions to increase monster diversity by using monsters from different continents, but nobody except of Echo acted on it as of yet.
Last edited by Eksekk on 03 Jul 2021, 18:06, edited 6 times in total.
Unfinished mod by me: MM7 Rev4 mod, MMMerge version.

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Re: The Mini Merge Convergence (WIP)

Unread postby Echo » 03 Jul 2021, 20:57

raekuul wrote:Ooo, how'd you get around the monster variety limitations? Or was it simply just "nobody thought of using more monsters"?
I just hand placed them, same as I did with my previous mod. When you hand place monsters, they're not limited by the 3-type mapstats.txt table :)
Eksekk wrote:Yay, you're making another mod! :yes: I'm so hyped up :-D. Although, you said this isn't focused on difficulty, so besides mapstats.txt you're not gonna increase for example prices of spellbooks, some additional monster abilities/spells and artifacts power like in your MM8 Modling?
I've got some personal file modifications, which include evil price changes for spellbooks, QOL buff casting speed, and the alchemy notes plus some other random crappies. I'll post them as optional stuff once this thing is useable :)

The difficulty is still a bit higher with these modifications, but I'm trying to still go for flavor over suffering this time :-D But, together with the mapstats.txt it already creates quite a struggle, fear not!
Anyways, to solve monsters being friendly to party you probably need to tinker with Hostile.txt. It's a text table in EnglishT.lod, which defines whether monsters are hostile to another monsters or party. Header row is the monster you are setting stance of, header column is monster towards which you are setting stance. So if there is 4 in intersection of Couatl (upper) and Party (left), it means Couatl has stance of 4 towards Party. Party means players obviously. 0 defines friendliness, 4 hostility, and 1-3 maybe partial hostilities or priorities, I'm not sure. Either way, setting hostility to 4 should make monsters hostile, and setting it to 0 should make them friendly.
Hmm, alright, I'll give it a try soon and get back to you! Hope it works cause right now it's all really rather derpy :-D
I remember reading somewhere (maybe from Merge Tracker) that there have been intentions to increase monster diversity by using monsters from different continents, but nobody except of Echo acted on it as of yet.
Oh, I didn't know that actually. Thought it would make a lot of people go "bleeeh :canthear:" cause it dillutes continent identity :hoo: Well, I'm happy to contribute, as always whatever I conjure up here will be free to use, reuse, edit and dismantle by anyone who feels like it needs a slap this or that way.
Last edited by Echo on 03 Jul 2021, 21:00, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: The Mini Merge Convergence (WIP)

Unread postby cthscr » 03 Jul 2021, 21:32

Echo wrote:
Eksekk wrote:Anyways, to solve monsters being friendly to party you probably need to tinker with Hostile.txt. It's a text table in EnglishT.lod, which defines whether monsters are hostile to another monsters or party. Header row is the monster you are setting stance of, header column is monster towards which you are setting stance. So if there is 4 in intersection of Couatl (upper) and Party (left), it means Couatl has stance of 4 towards Party. Party means players obviously. 0 defines friendliness, 4 hostility, and 1-3 maybe partial hostilities or priorities, I'm not sure. Either way, setting hostility to 4 should make monsters hostile, and setting it to 0 should make them friendly.
Hmm, alright, I'll give it a try soon and get back to you! Hope it works cause right now it's all really rather derpy :-D
Note that file from mmmerge.T.lod is actually used.

Also I would encourage everyone to use groups for added mapmonsters ('Group' field which corresponds to NPCGroup.txt entry). There are several evt commands that operates with monster groups (typical usage example - pirates invading Ravenshore).

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Re: The Mini Merge Convergence (WIP)

Unread postby Echo » 03 Jul 2021, 22:43

cthscr wrote:
Echo wrote: Also I would encourage everyone to use groups for added mapmonsters ('Group' field which corresponds to NPCGroup.txt entry). There are several evt commands that operates with monster groups (typical usage example - pirates invading Ravenshore).
I don't quite know what this entails right now, but I have a feeling it would be a big pain to apply to the maps the way I made them. There are way too many monsters/monster groups everywhere, of too many types, to assign them all to groups. I might be wrong - I'll take a look at it when I'm back home.

Anyway, all the outdoor maps are completed now with monster, decorations, and small rewards placement (link in the first post is updated to include all the files). I will give a go at trying to make them behave properly next, and whether that works out or not, I'll also upload my other modified files.

Worst case scenario, I fail, and it's gonna be a mod where you can go get slapped by a Necromancer and an Oooze, but then go hi5 a friendly neighborhood Ghoul gang slumming it up beyond the bend :tongue:
Last edited by Echo on 03 Jul 2021, 22:44, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: The Mini Merge Convergence (WIP: areas done, hostility amess)

Unread postby Echo » 04 Jul 2021, 11:09

Okay, so chickens, cats, dogs - no problem at all, they're nicely fixed now.

I got a question though - say, Ghouls are set to 0 vs team, and are friendly when I placed them. Why is that a 0 to begin with? Is there a reason? And why does it not apply to the ghouls native to MM7?

I can change it, but I worry it could mess something up with the original ghouls? Feels like the 0 would be there for some reason - perhaps the Pit's ghouls?

Oddly enough, the Necromancers that also appear in the Pit, are hostile automatically. I am confused :|
Last edited by Echo on 04 Jul 2021, 11:11, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: The Mini Merge Convergence (WIP: areas done, hostility amess)

Unread postby Echo » 04 Jul 2021, 20:28

Right so, here's the Hostile.txt with the monsters I'm using set to hostility of 2: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qFooTL ... sp=sharing

(first post now also has all the other personal changes @Eksekk, pick and choose)

I don't think it works as it should - it does make my monsters hostile, and the domestic animals are friendly, but I think it messes up things, as I feared it might. For instance, easy to check -> Wererat enemies were set to 0 in the original file. I put them around Eep temples, and near the entrance to the Arion hideout in Ravenshore. They were all friendly. I set them to 2 now, and they're hostile, but I don't think the event made to make them friendly after you talk to Arion works at all. Obviously I didn't want those I placed on the outside to become non-hostile, but I ran through the dungeon and left whatever spawned there alive, talked to Arion, and they were still enemies after that. I seem to recall they became friendly before.

For a test (change not present in this file), I also set Necromancers to be at 2 hostility and those in Shadowspire and the Guild attacked me on sight afterwards. Which means putting them anywhere else would have them friendly or make them all angry.

Oddly enough, setting Griffin to hostility of 2 does not make Erathia's city griffins angry.

I suppose some of it would/could be solved by the groups thing, but I don't see where you'd assign monsters to groups, and if it's on 1-by-1 basis, that's very bad, because there's too many of them to do it by hand like that.

Long story short - I'm confused :tongue:

I've updated the first post link with all the updated maps. Found out I got trolled by item copying turning various items to the last-placed type all over the map and fixed those (hopefully all). Protip: only copy items if they're meant to be the same item. If you want to place something else, just X and create a new item from the default sword, lol. Luckily I usually swapped between items, monsters, and sprites so it wasn't that much of a headache. Garrote Gorge did have some 20 odd Dimension Door books for a moment though :D
Last edited by Echo on 04 Jul 2021, 21:14, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: The Mini Merge Convergence (WIP)

Unread postby lightbringer23 » 05 Jul 2021, 00:27

Eksekk wrote: but nobody except of Echo acted on it as of yet.
Actually I did it a little bit in my MM7 Refilled for the Merge mod, from late last year -- mainly putting actual pirates in Tidewater Caverns, but a few other places too. Looks like Echo's going whole hog with it. Awesome! We definitely need more like this.

Echo! So glad to see you're jumping back into your monstrosity. You inspired me to make my Refilled mod, and I hope maybe I may have helped a tiny bit to inspire you in turn. I can't wait to see what you do!

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Re: The Mini Merge Convergence (WIP)

Unread postby lightbringer23 » 05 Jul 2021, 00:30

cthscr wrote:
Also I would encourage everyone to use groups for added mapmonsters ('Group' field which corresponds to NPCGroup.txt entry). There are several evt commands that operates with monster groups (typical usage example - pirates invading Ravenshore).
That's what I did for my Refilled mod, Echo, and you have seen the results. It mostly worked, but apparently not perfectly. Mine was through a very simple script, but probably needed to be more complex to account for everything. Still, those groups are a very powerful tool.

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Re: The Mini Merge Convergence (WIP)

Unread postby Echo » 05 Jul 2021, 07:46

lightbringer23 wrote:
cthscr wrote:
Also I would encourage everyone to use groups for added mapmonsters ('Group' field which corresponds to NPCGroup.txt entry). There are several evt commands that operates with monster groups (typical usage example - pirates invading Ravenshore).
That's what I did for my Refilled mod, Echo, and you have seen the results. It mostly worked, but apparently not perfectly. Mine was through a very simple script, but probably needed to be more complex to account for everything. Still, those groups are a very powerful tool.
Rrrrr, is there a tutorial for these in some post or something? :disagree:

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Re: The Mini Merge Convergence (WIP)

Unread postby Echo » 05 Jul 2021, 07:47

lightbringer23 wrote:
Eksekk wrote: but nobody except of Echo acted on it as of yet.
Actually I did it a little bit in my MM7 Refilled for the Merge mod, from late last year -- mainly putting actual pirates in Tidewater Caverns, but a few other places too. Looks like Echo's going whole hog with it. Awesome! We definitely need more like this.

Echo! So glad to see you're jumping back into your monstrosity. You inspired me to make my Refilled mod, and I hope maybe I may have helped a tiny bit to inspire you in turn. I can't wait to see what you do!
The circle of inspiration continues :tongue: I am modifying some dungeons too, this time, cause I saw how fun it is to bump into changes in them :disagree:

We need to inspire someone to tackle MM6. It's more fun to play these mods when you're not the author and get to be surprised by whatever's added :tongue:
Last edited by Echo on 05 Jul 2021, 07:50, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: The Merge Convergence (for MM8 maps and dungeons)

Unread postby Echo » 05 Jul 2021, 15:49

Dungeons are now included! First post updated. All the map changes I wanted to do are now done. Phew! :tongue:

All that remains now is the cleanup - what needs the Groups, what breaks some hostility it shouldn't break :disagree:

For anyone who doesn't care about some potential hiccups related to that, it should be fully playable now :creative:

Don't know when I'll have the time to test it and hunt potential remnants of homogenized added items, but I think my newer system (which I applied to dungeons) should've prevented that from happening entirely and I did take a gander of the overworld to eliminate all instances I could spot. Here's to hoping it's all good :tongue:

Removed "mini" from the name cause this is actually pretty big now :devious:
Last edited by Echo on 05 Jul 2021, 15:54, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: The Merge Convergence (for the MM8 section)

Unread postby Eksekk » 05 Jul 2021, 18:43

I'm going to start playthrough of this mod in MM8 including all the files you uploaded (spellbook prices/buffs recovery/mapstats etc.) INCLUDING lightbringer's monster hostility script from MM7 Refilled and will report all bugs I find (unless they involve hostility, as I understand you don't want to hear about them? (sorry I can't be of more help, but I don't understand monster groups yet)).

BTW: I didn't have mmmerge.t.lod, instead put the files into EnglishT.lod.
Last edited by Eksekk on 05 Jul 2021, 18:59, edited 1 time in total.
Unfinished mod by me: MM7 Rev4 mod, MMMerge version.

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Re: The Merge Convergence (for the MM8 section)

Unread postby Echo » 05 Jul 2021, 20:52

Eksekk wrote:I'm going to start playthrough of this mod in MM8 including all the files you uploaded (spellbook prices/buffs recovery/mapstats etc.) INCLUDING lightbringer's monster hostility script from MM7 Refilled and will report all bugs I find (unless they involve hostility, as I understand you don't want to hear about them? (sorry I can't be of more help, but I don't understand monster groups yet)).

BTW: I didn't have mmmerge.t.lod, instead put the files into EnglishT.lod.
Report all the bugs, will make it easier to even try to find a solution when it's known where the bugs sit exactly :tongue: Especially since it's not the type of bug that can be seen right away with no testing!

Hmm, no mmmerge.t.lod? That sounds very weird since that file comes with the basic Merge package (just checked), not even the community branch. Are you sure your install is complete? :-D

Image

This is the Data folder from the Merge's newest package.
Last edited by Echo on 05 Jul 2021, 20:54, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: The Merge Convergence (for the MM8 section)

Unread postby Eksekk » 06 Jul 2021, 13:58

I'm going to try a full reinstall now. (I've used package shared by CognitiveDesign on MMDiscord, which had no mmmerge.t.lod. I've already encountered the first bug, one of the relics (Hercules iirc) has no texture.). Also small note, in spells2.txt you forgot to reduce recovery rate of fire aura.

And regarding spellbook prices, they are all over the place. Haste spellbook costs iirc 15k (multiplied by 2 probably, as in shop) - imo that's a little too much. Regeneration spellbook on the other hand has default price - 2k, and in Merge it's buffed to be more like MM7 regeneration. Dark spellbooks also have default costs (and probably by extension light spellbooks). I think price should also depend on usefullness, so for example fate won't cost 3k, but 300. The prices in your Modling were better imo.
Last edited by Eksekk on 06 Jul 2021, 14:22, edited 2 times in total.
Unfinished mod by me: MM7 Rev4 mod, MMMerge version.

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Echo
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Re: The Merge Convergence (for the MM8 section)

Unread postby Echo » 06 Jul 2021, 15:06

Eksekk wrote:I'm going to try a full reinstall now. (I've used package shared by CognitiveDesign on MMDiscord, which had no mmmerge.t.lod. I've already encountered the first bug, one of the relics (Hercules iirc) has no texture.). Also small note, in spells2.txt you forgot to reduce recovery rate of fire aura.

And regarding spellbook prices, they are all over the place. Haste spellbook costs iirc 15k (multiplied by 2 probably, as in shop) - imo that's a little too much. Regeneration spellbook on the other hand has default price - 2k, and in Merge it's buffed to be more like MM7 regeneration. Dark spellbooks also have default costs (and probably by extension light spellbooks). I think price should also depend on usefullness, so for example fate won't cost 3k, but 300. The prices in your Modling were better imo.
I haven't touched Hercules or any other relics/artifacts in any way.

And the spellbook prices shouldn't behave that way at all. Did this happen with the updated files? If you're not using mmmerge.t.lod the items will most likely have different ID numbers and my file will cause utter chaos :tongue:

Prices are absolutely adjusted for usefulness with Dark and Light being more expensive. Here's how it should look like (and it's the same for MM6, 7 and 8 books):

Image
Image
Last edited by Echo on 06 Jul 2021, 15:09, edited 1 time in total.

lightbringer23
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Re: The Merge Convergence (for the MM8 section)

Unread postby lightbringer23 » 06 Jul 2021, 17:42

Eksekk wrote:I'm going to start playthrough of this mod in MM8 including all the files you uploaded (spellbook prices/buffs recovery/mapstats etc.) INCLUDING lightbringer's monster hostility script from MM7 Refilled and will report all bugs I find (unless they involve hostility, as I understand you don't want to hear about them? (sorry I can't be of more help, but I don't understand monster groups yet)).

BTW: I didn't have mmmerge.t.lod, instead put the files into EnglishT.lod.
I'm curious to see how the script works here. I didn't write it, just copy/pasted from some helpful folks on the discord. As I understand it, the script scans the map on entry for hostiles and places any that it finds inside group 56 , I think called "dungeon monsters". I gather that group simply makes all the monsters inside a dungeon allies of each other and foes of the party, and mostly overrides other groups.

Here's the script:

function events.AfterLoadMap(t)
for _,m in Map.Monsters do
if m.Hostile then
m.Group = 56
end
end
end
Last edited by lightbringer23 on 06 Jul 2021, 17:43, edited 1 time in total.

lightbringer23
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Re: The Mini Merge Convergence (WIP)

Unread postby lightbringer23 » 06 Jul 2021, 18:39

Echo wrote:We need to inspire someone to tackle MM6. It's more fun to play these mods when you're not the author and get to be surprised by whatever's added :tongue:
True that!
MM6 is an interesting case. It has far greater monster density than either vanilla MM7 or vanilla MM8. The dungeons are much larger and sprawling. Just think about Darkmoor, Castle Alamos and the Tomb of Varn.

I actually found the Memory Crystal dungeons, Varn, Control Center, and Hive to be quite challenging in the Merge. This was with a level 150 party, fully kitted out in every artifact I could possibly want (including 4 Noblebone bows and Percival, with BDJ-style damage), and using a custom class that gives druids knight HP and GM access to all skills. Total cheese. Yet, thanks to boosting, the endgame was satisfyingly challenging. Terminator Droids and Devil Kings had over 5000hp each. I actually resorted to Mass Distortion for them -- when they didn't resist.
Last edited by lightbringer23 on 06 Jul 2021, 18:40, edited 1 time in total.


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