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Book III Mod: Expedition into West Mirkland

Posted: April 10th, 2014, 9:32 pm
by MyGameCompany
Book III Mod: Expedition into West Mirkland
by Troy Hepfner

The swampy island of Mirkland is the home of the amphibious tribes of the Akadai, an aggressively territorial race. It is a dangerous place, and because of this, Mirkland is largely unexplored. Even you, on your first visit, didn't have the opportunity to fully explore it.

But now you can with this new expansion for Eschalon Book III!

ABOUT THIS MOD

This mod adds several new maps to explore. No existing maps were modified, so you can safely install this mod along side of other mods.

The mod was inspired a post that BasiliskWrangler wrote in the Basilisk Games forum, in which he shared some details of the Book III story that did not make it into the final game. Specifically, BW explained how the Akadai came into possession of the Tungsten Bracket Widget that is needed to pass through Omentor. I took the details that he shared and wove them into this mod. So I want to thank BW for inspiring this mod and helping fill in some gaps in the story.

Per BW, the new maps are designed for level 5-8 characters. Like my other mod, there are a number of secret areas, so explorers will be rewarded.

DISCLAIMER

You install and use this mod with the understanding that Basilisk Games is not responsible for any problems you encounter, and that this mod is not officially supported by Basilisk Games.

INSTALL

To install this mod:

1. Download the zip file
2. Start a new game, and save it as soon as the game loads.
3. Navigate to your save game slot (see below)
4. Extract all of the files from the zip archive into the save game directory,
overwriting any files if asked.
5. Return to the game, reload from you save slot, and enjoy.

Note: if you want to use an existing character, you can skip step 2.

On Windows 7, the save game slots are located in:
C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Basilisk Games\Book 3 Saved Games

On Mac, the save game slots are located in your home directory under:
Library/Application Support/Basilisk Games/Book 3 Saved Games

HISTORY

v1.0 - Initial release
v1.01 - Bug fixes
- Fixed a couple of "holes" in the upper right corner of 4952.map that can
cause you to get stuck when moving east into central Mirkland.
- Fixed misnamed treasure items in several coffins
- Removed misplaced ships in secret pirate base
- Added .opq files for each of the new maps, to fix minimap issues

Re: Book III Mod: Expedition into West Mirkland

Posted: April 11th, 2014, 8:25 am
by raverdave2k
Ooooooooooh, fun for the weekend :mrgreen:

Re: Book III Mod: Expedition into West Mirkland

Posted: April 11th, 2014, 8:57 am
by xolotl
Awesome, thanks! Looking forward to this.

Re: Book III Mod: Expedition into West Mirkland

Posted: April 11th, 2014, 12:27 pm
by Weird Heather
Thanks. I am happy to see that new mods are rapidly appearing. They will help to keep people interested in these games.

I'll try it out this weekend and let you know if I find any bugs.

Re: Book III Mod: Expedition into West Mirkland

Posted: April 11th, 2014, 1:46 pm
by Weird Heather
I just went through the area quickly with a powerful end-game character who has been through the other mods. Of course, with a character this strong, the monsters were easy and it only took me about an hour to explore the whole place, but I didn't see any monsters that would be impossible for a character who can handle the rest of Mirkland, though some strategy may be in order where large mobs of monsters are present.

I found a couple small bugs.
[+] SPOILER
In the large underground area that leads to the island in South Mirkland, in the small area of coffins and urns next to the headstones, there are a couple of "widgets" that are supposed to be arm bones; there is probably a minor spelling or capitalization error in the names of the "arm bones" objects.

In the port area, there is a ship that is sitting right on top of one of the docks; it looks like it has been misplaced.
This is a great addition to the Mirkland area. I'll try it later with a character at the appropriate level and see how it goes.

Re: Book III Mod: Expedition into West Mirkland

Posted: April 11th, 2014, 4:18 pm
by MyGameCompany
Thanks!

Yes, I had some problems with the large graphics. I thought I had them all fixed though. Are you running with v1.0 or v1.02?

Re: Book III Mod: Expedition into West Mirkland

Posted: April 11th, 2014, 6:29 pm
by MyGameCompany
Ok, I think I've found a bug in the editor. I'm seeing the large ships in the game again too. But I don't see them when I display the map in the editor. There should only be one ship in 4953.map, located at (3, 80). But in the game, I'm seeing 3 other ships that I removed (due to a bug in the B3 engine that I wrote BW about).

SpottedShroom and xolotl: can you guys fix my 4953.map and the editor? Apparently the editor isn't cleaning up everything related to the large graphics when I delete the large graphic objects... and I can't fix it with the editor because I can't see the ships anymore. As I said, there should only be one ship.

Re: Book III Mod: Expedition into West Mirkland

Posted: April 12th, 2014, 12:52 am
by Weird Heather
I'm still using Version 1.00 of the game. I bought it on GOG, so I'm waiting for the update there. That could possibly make a difference.

Re: Book III Mod: Expedition into West Mirkland

Posted: April 12th, 2014, 9:21 am
by MyGameCompany
Nope, I'm still running v1.0 also. Looks like a bug with the editor.

Re: Book III Mod: Expedition into West Mirkland

Posted: April 12th, 2014, 9:51 am
by munster
Excellent! I'll try this out now that I'm free in the afternoon! :D

Thanks to all the modders giving us extra content for all their hard work.

Re: Book III Mod: Expedition into West Mirkland

Posted: April 12th, 2014, 12:25 pm
by GChrisSfish21
Using MacOSX, Eschalon 1.021

Entered saw this map mess and then sent out Reveal Map ping.

Re: Book III Mod: Expedition into West Mirkland

Posted: April 12th, 2014, 12:38 pm
by MyGameCompany
Hm. I have no idea what could be causing that. Must be a bug in v1.02, because I don't see it in v1.0 on my Mac...

Re: Book III Mod: Expedition into West Mirkland

Posted: April 12th, 2014, 1:11 pm
by mercy
You have to make something happen with the the Strike Anvil feature in East Mirkland Delta!
Maybe recreate that anvil in your Mirkland maps?

Re: Book III Mod: Expedition into West Mirkland

Posted: April 12th, 2014, 2:37 pm
by GChrisSfish21
Troy,
Maybe you should consult BW?

Got stuck in the upper east corner where it meets the Mirkland map - could not go back or forward.



Any hints about acccessing the hidden area?

Re: Book III Mod: Expedition into West Mirkland

Posted: April 12th, 2014, 3:11 pm
by MyGameCompany
GChrisSfish21 wrote:Troy,
Maybe you should consult BW?
I think you should send him an e-mail with that screenshot.
GChrisSfish21 wrote:Got stuck in the upper east corner where it meets the Mirkland map - could not go back or forward.
Were you going from West Mirkland to Mirkland, or the other way around?
GChrisSfish21 wrote:Any hints about acccessing the hidden area?
[+] SPOILER
Which hidden area? :wink: If you mean the one in the Northwest corner of West Mirkland, look for a cracked rock where you can use a powder keg...