Monstrous Megapack (monsters/items/rooms) 1.2.2 released

12-05-2013 UPDATE: New beta version 1.0.5 is now available for anybody who wants to help me test it. (this version includes the Toupee, Kobro, Goop, and Skull Golem monsters, an assload of new rooms, plus over 100 new items)
(the file name is the same, so you can overwrite the existing zip file if you already have it)​

This version includes the Toupee, Kobro, Skull and Skull Golem monsters and 70 new items.
I've checked this one out pretty thoroughly, and I'm 99% sure it should be fully playable, with no crashes or other hidden nastiness.

• The Kobro Krush attack is supposed to cast lockdown on the player, but it doesn't for some reason. Is that something that only works on enemies?
• Ray Guns work, but overrideclassname doesn't (they still show up as wands), somewhat reducing their awesomeness.
• The Power Pellet has a taxa-specific fear effect which only works on Wights. I honestly have no idea what this will do (or not do) if you don't have expansion pack #1. (In theory, I'd expect it to just be a fairly useless food item, and the Wight-specific fear effect to do nothing at all since none of the other nearby monsters fit that particular taxa) If you find any evidence to the contrary, please let me know.
• I still have no idea if the Nega-Sword does any damage when you attack with it, since after multiple play-throughs, I still haven't found it yet.

Next up on my "to do" list, working on this guy: which I hope will be less complicated and prone to crashing than the Kobro/Egger.

 

Sadly, modding has taken a back seat to moving for the last two months.

Now that I'm more or less settled in the new place and have my computer hooked back up, it's time to dust off Photoshop and pick up where I left off back in April; animating the skull golems and their bouncy skull offspring.

While I've been busy with less interesting tasks, I've been thinking about more skill sets that I'd like to develop, and toying with the idea of adding a few into this mod (especially if I do manage to get the Fruit Machine to work, which would give special results to players with the High Roller skill set.)

My question to you guys is-- do you prefer to keep skill mods separate from item/monster/room mods, so you only have to load the mods you intend to play with for that specific game, or is it easier to have everything all lumped together under a single package? (Obviously, I'm going for balance with my mods, so I wouldn't be throwing in any "cheat" skill sets)

 

You could implement the spud gun as a "wand" that can be crafted from another spud gun plus three potatoes. (In addition to being craftable by a normal recipe if you intend for it to be buildable)


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Even after leaving the game and reloading the save. Because there's also a bug where sometimes stacks of items created in the current game session won't combine with stacks generated in previous sessions.

 

Not that I know of.

There is a workaround for this however.

The command line option -testroom "[Room Mane from rooms.xml]" -x [#] -y[#] will force new games to start a dungeon containing only the specified room; so you can generate a specific item by creating a room that contains that item and using the command line settings to spawn in that room.

 

Thanks. This will make testing a whole lot easier, and a nice trainer since I'm moving on to rooms next.

I love the craft idea, especially since I could use the aluminum pipe already in the game. (I think the recipe would be 1 pipe + 1 potato + some form of alcohol)
The only downside is that after their final charge has expired, all wands automatically turn into burnt out wands, so there would be no "reloading" unless you did so when there was still one or more charges left. Still, as a quick and dirty early game wand recipe, it totally works.

Minor status update: More life getting in the way of modding, as a sick kitty and $4000 in vet bills have put a bit of a crimp on my free time lately, but I just finished the last of the animation for the skull golems, and will start on the bouncing skulls tomorrow, which should take significantly less time.

 

Skull Golems and Skulls are now implemented and working correctly! (I had a couple of minor teething problems with the animation, but that's been sorted)

One thing I didn't pick up from the wiki is that the monster level you specify needs to be one level lower than the floor you actually want it to show up on. Since I was trying to match the monsters to their environment, that means that I'm now going back and tweaking numbers on all the monsters in my monDB.xml file so that Flaming Toupees show up on the volcano level, Kobro Kai inhabit the dojo, etc...

Once that's done, I've got a few more items to implement, and hopefully Beta v1.0.2. will be up for testing some time next week.

In the meantime, if anybody has any cool item or room suggestions, let me know. (Room-wise, I've already decided that there needs to be a scaled-down Pac-Man style room that pops up somewhere around floor 13, with a power pellet in each corner and a bunch of Wights hanging out on an island in the middle of the room.)

Status Update: I'm finished the level rearranging, and am now just working on artwork and implementation of the various new weapons and items I thought up and wrote down on tiny scraps of paper during the several months when I wasn't working on the mod.

 

Yeah, I think there's even a part of the mod wiki that incorrectly states (in passing, in a different article) that it doesn't have to be one lower.

 

I don't know if it onlymworks on enemies, but here are some other possibilities to check:
-Did you remember to set the creature's spellcasting chance?
-Maybe the spell needs an "ai hint" tag in the spell definition

I think it may only work on armor

 

Okay... so I've run into a couple of problems that are delaying the most recent update. Maybe someone can help me out.


Problem #1: can't find a way to make thrown skulls appear next to the player instead of on top of him.

The new Skull Golem monsters have the ability to chuck a chattering skull missile at you which causes a bouncing skull monster to spawn nearby. Unfortunately, I can't get the "nearby" part of that to work. Here's the relevant code in question:

<spell name="Skull Spawn" type="adjacent">
<effect type="summonhostile" monsterType="Skull" amount="4"/>
</spell>

<spell name="Skull Throw" type="missile">
<ai hint="target"/>
<description text="It bites!" monsterText="disgorges an angry chattering skull!"/>
<effect type="damage" piercing="2" crushing="2" crushingF="0.25" primaryScale="0" affectscaster="0"/> <!-- Scales based on Burliness -->
<anim sprite="sprites/sfx/skull_missile/skull_missile" frames="4" framerate="150"/>
<effect type="trigger" amount="1" spell="Skull Spawn"/>
</spell>

Even though I have Skull Spawn set to adjacent, the skull still materializes on top of the player. (since it takes a turn or two for it to notice the player, there's usually more than enough time to change positions and get in at least one good hit, but appearing on the next available floor tile would be better. I did try adding a knock effect onto both sections, but all it does is kick back the player as well as the skull.

Problem #2: Lockdown apparently doesn't work?
I'm pretty much copying the Mustache Golem's "Mustache Root" spell verbatim, but neither my "Kobro Krush" spell or the Toupee's "Mucus Hold" spell stop the player from moving at all.

<spell name="Kobro Krush" type="target" icon="sprites/spells/kobro_krush32.png">
<ai hint="target"/>
<effect type="lockdown" amount="3" />
<buff useTimer="1" time="3" allowstacking="1" icon="sprites/spells/kobro_krush64.png" smallicon="sprites/spells/kobro_krush32.png" bad="1" self="0">
<secondarybuff id="6" amount="-4"/> <!-- dodge -->
</buff>
<description text="The Kobro is crushing the life out of you!" monsterText="coils around you!"/>
</spell>


<spell name="Mucus Hold" type="target" icon="sprites/spells/mucus_held_32.png">
<effect type="lockdown" amount="3" />
<buff useTimer="1" time="4" allowstacking="1" icon="sprites/spells/mucus_held_64.png" smallicon="sprites/spells/mucus_held_32.png" bad="1" self="0">
<secondarybuff id="6" amount="-3"/> <!-- dodge -->
</buff>
<description text="You're stuck fast to the floor. In pretty much the grossest way imaginable!"/>
<anim sprite="sprites/sfx/mucus_hold/mucus_hold" frames="6" centerEffect="0"/>
</spell>


Problem #3: The Negasword's spell damage never triggers.

This one was an experiment, but I can't understand why it's not working.
I originally wanted to give it negative damage buffs, but apparently, that's not possible, so I went for a weapon that does 0 damage, but should have a 100% chance of triggering the Nega-Sword Hit spell, which does damage based on your Wizard/Rogue/Fighter levels whenever you hit a baddie:

<item name="The Nega-Sword" iconFile="items/sword_nega-sword.png" level="6" type="0" artifact="1">
<price amount="3300"/>
<weapon piercing="0" slashing="0" crushing="0"/>
<damagebuff piercing="-1" slashing="-1" crushing="-1"/>
<secondarybuff id="7" amount="-1"/> <!-- block -->
<secondarybuff id="8" amount="-1"/> <!-- counter -->
<artifact quality="1"/>
<description text="A sword so bad, it becomes good again?"/>
<targetHitEffectBuff name="Nega-Sword Hit" percentage="100" />
</item>

And here's the spell itself:

<spell name="Nega-Sword Hit" type="targetmonster">
<effect type="damage" piercing="5" piercingF="1" secondaryScale="24" affectscaster="0"/><!-- Warrior -->
<effect type="damage" slashing="5" slashingF="1" secondaryScale="26" affectscaster="0"/><!-- Rogue -->
<effect type="damage" crushing="5" crushingF="1" secondaryScale="25" affectscaster="0"/><!-- Wizard -->
</spell>

I've tried it out on multiple enemies, and at multiple levels, and swapped target for targetmonster, but as far as I can tell, it completely ignores the spell damage regardless of which monster I'm fighting and what sort of damage immunity they have.

 

Don't use type="adjacent". Use a template: the one for the first step of Dragon's Breath should be exactly what you're looking for.

If you want to get fancy, you can make it a triggerfromlist that selects randomly from a few single-square spawn spots, to account for the skull's bounciness.

I have had this same issue. I think that the player may be immune to lockdown effects. You might want to try stun instead.

This should work. Maybe you have a hyphenation or spell name issue with it not matching? Or you need to use percent= instead of percentage= ?

 

Perfect! And since it spawns the skull whichever direction the player is facing, that's plenty random for me.

I could create a similar debuff if I really felt the need to. the idea was to lock both the player and the kobro in one spot (supposedly because it's coiled around you) but it looks like that just isn't happening.

I'll try it without the hyphen tomorrow, just to see if it has any effect, though the percent/percentage thing might have explained why a few of my other items with built-in spell effects weren't triggering properly. Here's hoping the Grate Sword will finally start producing cheese, and the Stone Tablet will call down lightning strikes.

 

Didn't read all the second page of comments, but I was thinking about how you could readd Eggers back to the game: make another kind of Kobro, like Queen Kobro or Komother (I think the latter could be more appropriate as a pun joke in the text), which can spawn those immobile mobs, the Eggers, which will then hatch to other Kobros. So you give an hint about where do these eggs come from.

Is this restrictive family subeffect possible? Because it could really help me in what I'm coding, could you post me an example of this code?
:edit: I've found how. I'm happy as an Easter.

 

I think I'm going to stick with leaving them as dungeon objects, since the new skull golem monster already spawns "offspring" in the form of the bouncing skulls, and I don't want to have too many monsters that can do that. (though I do have it set to where no more than 4 bouncing skulls can exist at any one time, so the player should never get overwhelmed, even when fighting a horde) I was sort of thinking about adding a special Kobro boss monster with a beard and a crown to the mines level, just so I could name him "Old King Kobro" but I'll ponder that addition once I start working on custom rooms.

Yep, and the nice thing about it is that nothing crashes if you specify a monster that doesn't exist (it just never applies the effect) so my crowbar and the power pellet food item (which terrifies nearby wights and allows you to one-hit kill them) will just be lame jokes to anyone without expansions 1 or 2.

Which reminds me... Does anyone know how that works with recipes? I'd like to make my mod compatible with all versions of the game, but I'd hate to have to exclude the potato gun as a craftable item simply because potatoes didn't show up until expansion 3.

 

Okay, nearly done troubleshooting all my troublesome item spells. (I still have no idea how to make lockdown work on the player, and root either requires some funky syntax I'm not aware of, or the XML validator just doesn't recognize it.)

I was running into some problems with the pokeyballs crashing the game, but my current major headache is the Lava Lamp.

It's a thrown weapon which is supposed to create an impassible volcano object on impact, which will then continue to do combustion damage and cause burning to anything that passes within a template 9 cross pattern for the next three turns. Unfortunately, I can't figure out how to make the volcano remain at the point of impact, it seems to attach to any monster that I hit no matter what I do.

Here's the item code:
<item name="Lava Lamp" iconFile="items/thrown_lava_lamp.png" level="8" type="5" maxstack="1" >
<price amount="420"/>
<weapon crushing="2" thrown="items/thrown_lava_lamp.png" hit="Lava Lamp Center" canTargetFloor="1"/>
<description text="This lamp probably doesn't contain real lava, but it sure gets hot!"/>
</item>

Here's the spells:

<spell name="Lava Lamp Blast" type="template" templateID="9" >
<effect type="damage" blasting="2" conflagratory="9" affectscaster="1" burn="1"/>
<anim sprite="sprites/sfx/combust_hit/combust_hit" frames="9" framerate="110" centerEffect="0" sfx="volcano"/>
</spell>
<spell name="Eruption Animation" type="targetfloor">
<anim sprite="sprites/sfx/volcano/volcano" frames="29" framerate="110" centerEffect="0" sfx="volcano"/>
</spell>

<spell name="Lava Lamp Center" type="targetfloor" >
<effect type="damage" blasting="3" conflagratory="5" affectscaster="1" burn="1" />
<effect type="create" turns="2" objectSprite="dungeon/volcano.png" self="0"/> <!-- appears only on the first turn without a monster to avoid issues with animation-->
<anim sprite="sprites/sfx/volcano_create/volcano_create" sync="1" frames="18" framerate="110" centerEffect="0" sfx="volcano"/>
<effect type="trigger" spell="Lava Lamp Blast" />
<effect type="trigger" amount="1" spell="Eruption Animation"/>
<effect type="trigger" amount="1" spell="Lava Lamp Blast" />
<effect type="trigger" amount="2" spell="Eruption Animation"/>
<effect type="trigger" amount="2" spell="Lava Lamp Blast" />
<effect type="trigger" amount="3" spell="Eruption Animation"/>
<effect type="trigger" amount="3" spell="Lava Lamp Blast" />
</spell>

Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

 

Try adding <effect type="knock" amount="1" /> to the Lava Lamp Center, like the Unliving Wall works.

 

Okay, Beta version 1.0.3 is finally available for anybody who wants to help me test it. (the file name is the same, so you can overwrite the existing zip file if you already have it)

This version includes the Toupee, Kobro, and Skull Golem monsters and 70 new items.
I've checked this one out pretty thoroughly, and so far everything seems to work the way it's supposed to, except where noted below.
The mod should be fully playable, but I have changed around most of the monster levels to get them to appear on the correct floors, and edited some item properties to get around spell effects that weren't triggering properly, so I wouldn't advise using this mod if you already have a save game started under version 1.0.1 or 1.0.2.

Current known problems are:

• The Kobro Krush and Mucus Hold attacks are supposed to cast lockdown on the player, but they don't. I tried using the root effect instead, but ModValidator claimed it wasn't valid. Instead, what I've opted for is a 2-turn paralyze followed by the dodge debuff so the player knows what just hit him. (If anybody knows of a way to lock the player in one spot but still allow him to attack nearby monsters, I'm all ears.)

• Ray Guns work, but overrideclassname doesn't (they still show up as wands), somewhat reducing their awesomeness. I may or may not keep them in the final version.

• Power Pellets show up in vending machines, even though I thought special="1" alchemical="0" meant that they would not show up, except in rooms where I specifically put them (ideally, I wanted them to only show up in the randomly occurring "Pac Man room").

• For some strange reason, the Toupee monsters can cast the Eyeball spell multiple times, even though allowstacking="0". It's not game-breaking, but it is a little annoying. I have also had the Eyeball halo effect stick around once after killing the monster, which I can only assume was a glitch caused by the stacking effect.
  
  
• ModValidator doesn't like the floorScaleF attribute on the Ring of Bling, but it works perfectly fine. Hopefully this won't cause any problems when I upload the final version to Steam.

Next up: I'm going to try my hand at making some some unique rooms and dungeon items, and depending on how that works out, I might throw in some new skill sets as well.

Further down the road: I'd love to create some achievements, custom artifacts for Inconsequentia quests, or a new weapon type, but it sounds like none of those are possible at the moment.
Instead I'm thinking maybe one more monster, since they're a lot of work, possibly a few new traps, and certainly a few more items, since I'd love to take the total number over 100. As always, suggestions are welcome.

 

*Lockdown doesn't work on players.

*Vending machines ignore all restrictions on spawning, save alchemical="x".

*Buffs seem to interact differently with monsters, than do the player.

 

I think that when everything is finished you could pack every your mod into a real megapack, to prevent issues (since the number of mods seems to create problems for the game).
Just sayin'.

 

He said he put alchemical="0" and it showed up anyway.
(do you mean he needs to not put the alchemical tag in at all?)

 

I know how to do the opposite, FWIW.

Try craftoutput="1"