[MOD] Bloodwych remake - The Rise of Zendik

Talk about creating Grimrock 1 levels and mods here. Warning: forum contains spoilers!
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severgates
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Location: Zielona Góra, Poland

Re: [MOD] The Rise of Zendik (Bloodwych 16Bit Remake)

Post by severgates »

Hi fazzasx

I've just downloaded latest version, started with recruited heroes and checked them carefully. Pls compare Blodwyn's dexterity from versions 3.4 and 3.5. If I remember correctly she had dexterity 7 in 3.4 version, you've changed her trait to agile (which ads 2 points to dexterity) in version 3.5 and (suprise!) her dexterity is still 7 :o
Does is mean that some of traits don't work correctly? Or I am exaggerating with searching for bugs? ;)
I haven't checked rest of heroes due to lack of time, but Blodwyn's dexterity was so low that I'm almost 100% sure, that nothing changed between two aforementioned versions despite adding Agile trait.
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fazzasx
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Re: [MOD] The Rise of Zendik (Bloodwych 16Bit Remake)

Post by fazzasx »

severgates wrote:Hi fazzasx

I've just downloaded latest version, started with recruited heroes and checked them carefully. Pls compare Blodwyn's dexterity from versions 3.4 and 3.5. If I remember correctly she had dexterity 7 in 3.4 version, you've changed her trait to agile (which ads 2 points to dexterity) in version 3.5 and (suprise!) her dexterity is still 7 :o
Does is mean that some of traits don't work correctly? Or I am exaggerating with searching for bugs? ;)
I haven't checked rest of heroes due to lack of time, but Blodwyn's dexterity was so low that I'm almost 100% sure, that nothing changed between two aforementioned versions despite adding Agile trait.
Hi severgates,

I must apologise. I have total control over the champions attributes. Therefore I can set the below pretty much to whatever is required. I did note though that some attribute values affect others. Please see below what I have control over. The below example is for Blodwyn. Note that I can provide all of these if you want to check them. I will be honest, I really did need some advice and guidance here on this as I am not 100% sure how high / low these values should be, I matched them as closely as I could to the original game but fear this might not have been the best idea as we end up with not such a good party build. Let me know your thoughts but more than happy to supply all the values per champ if you want to run through them and provide suggestions on what they should be.
SpoilerShow
Blodwyn

health = 92, -- Maximum health
current_health = 92, -- Current health
energy = 45, -- Maximum energy
current_energy = 45, -- Current energy
strength = 35, -- Strength
dexterity = 7, -- Dexterity
vitality = 17, -- Vitality
willpower = 13, -- Willpower
protection = 0, -- protection
evasion = 0, -- evasion

resist_fire = 0,
resist_cold = 0,
resist_poison = 0,
resist_shock = 0,
Zastaph
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severgates
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Location: Zielona Góra, Poland

Re: [MOD] The Rise of Zendik (Bloodwych 16Bit Remake)

Post by severgates »

Hi fazzasx.
Send me PM with all heroes parameters. I'll try to check out their attribites and traits and rebalance them if needed. We must also think about monsters- I didn't have feeling, that your heroes were overpowered vs monsters while playing earlier versions. Remember, that we must fight against ogre, green lizard and green spider early on (Main Tower), so we can't lower heroes parameters too much, cause game will be too tough.
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fazzasx
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Re: [MOD] The Rise of Zendik (Bloodwych 16Bit Remake)

Post by fazzasx »

severgates wrote:Hi fazzasx.
Send me PM with all heroes parameters. I'll try to check out their attribites and traits and rebalance them if needed. We must also think about monsters- I didn't have feeling, that your heroes were overpowered vs monsters while playing earlier versions. Remember, that we must fight against ogre, green lizard and green spider early on (Main Tower), so we can't lower heroes parameters too much, cause game will be too tough.
Ok will PM all the stats to you. Note also that I can also increase and decrease the monsters attributes to suit the level. My thoughts are to custom tune the monsters to each tower but let me know what you think. It might not be worth it. See below example for a monster..
SpoilerShow
health = 60,
sight = 3.5,
attackPower = 13,
accuracy = 20,
coolDown = { 1, 3 },
protection = 20,
movementCoolDown = 1,
noRecoilInterval = { 0.2, 0.7 },
exp = 60,
healthIncrement = 40,
attackPowerIncrement = 6,
Zastaph
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kenfusion
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Re: [MOD] The Rise of Zendik (Bloodwych 16Bit Remake)

Post by kenfusion »

Hello again and Happy New Year!

I am stuck. Am on level 5 of the Zendik tower. I have entered the moon temple part and killed everything but I cannot seem to go anywhere. there is an impassable wall of teleporters in the West and the East. My only option is a gem teleporter directly opposite where you enter but I don't appear to have the gem required, and ofc I cannot leave the tower to go re-exploring other towers to find the object I lack. Hints or help would be appreciated.
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fazzasx
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Re: [MOD] The Rise of Zendik (Bloodwych 16Bit Remake)

Post by fazzasx »

kenfusion wrote:Hello again and Happy New Year!

I am stuck. Am on level 5 of the Zendik tower. I have entered the moon temple part and killed everything but I cannot seem to go anywhere. there is an impassable wall of teleporters in the West and the East. My only option is a gem teleporter directly opposite where you enter but I don't appear to have the gem required, and ofc I cannot leave the tower to go re-exploring other towers to find the object I lack. Hints or help would be appreciated.

Hi Kenfusion

Happy New Year :) and great to hear you have got to the last tower and floor :)

You need to have all of the Crystals on you to allow you further. Did you forget to collect the Moon Crystal from the Moon Tower?

So, if you dont have all the crystals its typically Game Over (this was the case in original BloodWych) but I can help you out to get you further..

PM me your save, I will check it, and then PM you the required commands to get you further..

I might code the MOD so that you cant enter Zendik's tower or level without having all the Crystals on you. Let me know what you think.

I am really glad your testing this out for me and I look forward to your review kenfusion.
Zastaph
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kenfusion
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Re: [MOD] The Rise of Zendik (Bloodwych 16Bit Remake)

Post by kenfusion »

Bloodwych has been restored!

However I have encountered one last bug. upon standing upon the final pressure plate the end music starts to play (your scripted music not the main grimrock music) and I received the following message:

https://gyazo.com/e0358d6f52812fde4dc060484fc5edc4.

There was one other issue not sure if this was because I couldn't find it or because it wasn't there. But I was never able to locate the second yellow key in the chaos temple. I think it is level 6 where you reach two doors that require a yellow key. I went through them both via saving and reloading but I chose the room without the button to open the door to the room with the chaos crystal in it. It is a few days since I played that part and I have no save game to revisit but I can't recall if the other room had a button in it or not.

Regarding the problem of requiring the crystals to complete the last tower. Perhaps make them keys to the final tower? With a message to take them with you once it is opened?

I am aware tho I am playing on an older version and now completed I intend to download the latest version and run through it again just to make sure I didn't miss anything.

Now for my review:

I have had to do a side quest whilst playing your mod when I encountered problems. I discovered the history of this game and the story and the maps. (I did this when I encountered the crystal problem, I was looking for the names of the crystals, I was both glad and a little bemused that I had not discovered these maps earlier lol) I am impressed by your adaptation of it. It does lend itself to the grimrock format incredibly well and I applaud your dedication to what must have been a Hurculean feat.

As an exact interpretation of the original game I think you 100% achieved what you set out to do and I very much enjoyed playing the mod. I have spent the best part of December walking those halls and even when I had to restart or ask for help I was always intrigued and motivated to continue. Thank you for all your hard work which made this possible.

The question now remains as to whether you wish to leave it as it is, or tweak it slightly to propel this 10/10 piece of work all the way upto 11.

Here are a few suggestions.

1. lose some of the food there really is far too much! Sometimes going hungry in a dungeon especially one you kept having to back track in would make it harder and add to the tension.
2. The difficulty levels of the towers seems imbalanced in places. The dragon tower for example had incredibly powerful beasts. You have seen the level of party that I play with. I am not so sure a party starting from your hall of champions would be strong enough to complete this mod. I am going to redo it tho with a party from your hall of champions so we will see.
3. No torches in any of the final three towers. I had a mage and could use a light spell however I think a few torches wouldn't go amiss, or perhaps add the ability to buy torches from a shop.
4. The shops. These are a nice touch and I realise they are in the original game but I think there was a lot of money and not much shopping to be done, as a woman this seemed like a wasted opportunity :lol:
5. The last tower was also hard as it isn't until the very end you reach a healing crystal I did most of that tower with a dead rogue. Perhaps tweaking the locations to optimise the experience? I found the location of the one in the chaos tower particularly strange.. The one by a pit where the gate closes behind you. I was never going to use that one it smelt of trap :)
6. Secret buttons and walls. Now this just might be me because I love looking for secrets! This mod was almost devoid of hidden buttons to press. I feel there are many instances where you could employ this within the mod, however I understand this detracts from the original.

So those are my thoughts for now. I will stop here and add more later if I think of anything as I start again through the towers. My final words are these. This is in my top 5. Out of all the mods I have played in its length, complexity and enjoy-ability. I Definitely recommend this mod.
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fazzasx
Posts: 104
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Re: [MOD] The Rise of Zendik (Bloodwych 16Bit Remake)

Post by fazzasx »

kenfusion wrote:Bloodwych has been restored!

However I have encountered one last bug. upon standing upon the final pressure plate the end music starts to play (your scripted music not the main grimrock music) and I received the following message:

https://gyazo.com/e0358d6f52812fde4dc060484fc5edc4.

There was one other issue not sure if this was because I couldn't find it or because it wasn't there. But I was never able to locate the second yellow key in the chaos temple. I think it is level 6 where you reach two doors that require a yellow key. I went through them both via saving and reloading but I chose the room without the button to open the door to the room with the chaos crystal in it. It is a few days since I played that part and I have no save game to revisit but I can't recall if the other room had a button in it or not.

Regarding the problem of requiring the crystals to complete the last tower. Perhaps make them keys to the final tower? With a message to take them with you once it is opened?

I am aware tho I am playing on an older version and now completed I intend to download the latest version and run through it again just to make sure I didn't miss anything.

Now for my review:

I have had to do a side quest whilst playing your mod when I encountered problems. I discovered the history of this game and the story and the maps. (I did this when I encountered the crystal problem, I was looking for the names of the crystals, I was both glad and a little bemused that I had not discovered these maps earlier lol) I am impressed by your adaptation of it. It does lend itself to the grimrock format incredibly well and I applaud your dedication to what must have been a Hurculean feat.

As an exact interpretation of the original game I think you 100% achieved what you set out to do and I very much enjoyed playing the mod. I have spent the best part of December walking those halls and even when I had to restart or ask for help I was always intrigued and motivated to continue. Thank you for all your hard work which made this possible.

The question now remains as to whether you wish to leave it as it is, or tweak it slightly to propel this 10/10 piece of work all the way upto 11.

Here are a few suggestions.

1. lose some of the food there really is far too much! Sometimes going hungry in a dungeon especially one you kept having to back track in would make it harder and add to the tension.
2. The difficulty levels of the towers seems imbalanced in places. The dragon tower for example had incredibly powerful beasts. You have seen the level of party that I play with. I am not so sure a party starting from your hall of champions would be strong enough to complete this mod. I am going to redo it tho with a party from your hall of champions so we will see.
3. No torches in any of the final three towers. I had a mage and could use a light spell however I think a few torches wouldn't go amiss, or perhaps add the ability to buy torches from a shop.
4. The shops. These are a nice touch and I realise they are in the original game but I think there was a lot of money and not much shopping to be done, as a woman this seemed like a wasted opportunity :lol:
5. The last tower was also hard as it isn't until the very end you reach a healing crystal I did most of that tower with a dead rogue. Perhaps tweaking the locations to optimise the experience? I found the location of the one in the chaos tower particularly strange.. The one by a pit where the gate closes behind you. I was never going to use that one it smelt of trap :)
6. Secret buttons and walls. Now this just might be me because I love looking for secrets! This mod was almost devoid of hidden buttons to press. I feel there are many instances where you could employ this within the mod, however I understand this detracts from the original.

So those are my thoughts for now. I will stop here and add more later if I think of anything as I start again through the towers. My final words are these. This is in my top 5. Out of all the mods I have played in its length, complexity and enjoy-ability. I Definitely recommend this mod.

Hi kenfusion,

Thankyou so much for reviewing my MOD I really appreciate it.

I will check the ending, I had tested using exported MOD to see it working but will check it again.

As for the other yellow key, I will check this out and see if its there.

I am going to run through your recommendations and implement them in the next release. I have already built in the crystal checking functions to ensure you cant enter the Zendik tower unless you have the crystals. Another and maybe additional idea is to seal each tower to ensure you have the crystal on you before it lets you out (let me know what you think of this) But in original BloodWych, some of the most intresting parts were trying to locate those darn keys :) Back in the 1990's we had no maps so had to remember where we had been by laying down items as reference points, its a bit easier now having the map but I there is an old school mode option at the beginning. Anyway, I am pleased you enjoyed it. I will add the additional levels once I have sorted out the current ones as per your recommendation.

Simon
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kenfusion
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Re: [MOD] The Rise of Zendik (Bloodwych 16Bit Remake)

Post by kenfusion »

Hiya

With regards to sealing each tower before it lets you out.
I say no. going in and out of the towers is fun, having to backtrack can be fun, not being able to get out can be frustrating and may discourage people from completing as they feel helpless and stuck.
Another thought that just came to me and this is just an idea, make the towers accessible at the same time with obviously the final one being sealed needing all crystals to enter. Swapping keys around the towers meaning all have to be explored simultaneously with maybe a fast travel between each tower ? Maybe this would over complicate an already tricky navigation but I am a die hard Metroid fan so going backwards to go forwards always appealed to me. This too could make for an interesting Grimrock adaptation but I lack the skills http://www.dubreuil.ca/MapStation/Maps/Life.png

I just dowloaded the latest version but I assume you are again updating so I will hold out for the latest installment God speed!
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fazzasx
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Re: [MOD] The Rise of Zendik (Bloodwych 16Bit Remake)

Post by fazzasx »

Version 3.6.1 is now released to Nexus Mods :)

v3.6.1 - added a door to the last level of the moon tower to ensure gem is picked up after completion, added additional gem checking functions to Zendik tower entrance and before you get to the last level.
added a heal function for one of the crystals when placed back in its slot. Added a chaos key to teh chaos tower (thanks kenfusion), updated champion stats (thanks severgates)
reduced the amount of food in the game (thanks kenfusion), added more torches to the remaining 3 towers. Added 2 extra healing rooms to chaos and zendik towers. Added more secrets. Added the quickbar to ehance ease of use and gameplay
Zastaph
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