Grimmer and Grimmest, a WIP for your feedback

Grimmer and Grimmest

Xmax style mod for Grim Dawn.

5/29/2016

Grimmest reached version 0.7. This means it is stable for awhile. Bug reports always welcome, but unless gamebreaking, will not be patched instantly anymore.

BE SURE TO DELETE the old mod completely before copying the new version into place.

5/28/2016

Thanks to help from PrincessLuna, I was finally able to see how lua actually does do something in game. And now, I suspect, Grimmest has reached a stable state. Future releases will await chunks of new content.

v0.7m1 where the minus 1 is because, reasons. there are always reasons

5/28/2016

Trying one last time to make Cronley, Darius, Direni et al spawn at playerlevel, also cleaned up the text resources into a single tag file.

Removed all other versions to focus on testing v0.6.9.9b

5/27/2016

v0.6.9.9 - I will just call this v0.7 if all goes well.
I need people to test Kymons and Order of Death Vigils areas for rare heroes and Cronely and Darius and any other NPC spawns. If I hear nothing, will rename this v0.7 on Sunday I guess, so please report if you find something.

5/24/2016 VERSION 0.6.9.1 IS UP!

This should be really close, but I could really use help finding bugs as to just run the Warden, Four Hills, Cronely, Kymons and DeathsVigil with all these spawns is too much after the hours in AssetManager. So go for it. Check out Cronely and Direni and other NPCs that turn enemy. Check out the Factions: Kymons and DeathsVigil, there should be some nice changes there. Four Hills should have gotten a tad of a nerf and the Warden might have a new pet. I am really not sure about that one though.

Anyway, if you find something off, bugged, too easy or too hard, PLEASE POST. I want to fix everything I can and get this to v0.7 ASAP.

Thanks for playing

5/20/2016 VERSION 0.6.6.6 IS UP!

This is it, I have done most every proxy in the game now. While people hunt for bugs, I will start working on scripted events and some other minor tweaks. The goal is to hit v0.7 and call it STABLE. After that, no changes until all the new Heroes are ready.

So please test and post here what you think needs to be changed before I can call this thing STABLE. Thanks!

New 5/16/2016: This mod is going through stages. Stage 1 (v0.1-v0.3) were essentially just xmax mods that modify the global spawnMin/Max and championMin/Max parameters in records/proxies/proxypoolequation_01.dbr. By modifying these values you get much more spawns.

Starting with v0.3, I added the field difficultyLimitsFile = records/proxies/limit_unlimited.dbr to all proxies, removing the level-cap concept for enemies. I also extracted all the data I needed to start manually modifying the proxypools. Proxypools were separated into two groups based on the number of enemies they can spawn. Single Spawn records are the current focus of v0.6/v0.7 and include most Boss and Nemesis proxies. All the other proxypools have various choices as to what enemies can spawn from them. These spawns used to be increased purely through the global spawn modifiers in proxypoolequation, but that leads to too many monsters and not enough difficulty. So using the levelVarianceEquation as a form of ranking for the individual spawns, I have started batch-editing these records to increase the spawn rate and numbers of the hardest enemies from each pool. Reducing the need for global spawn modifiers and making each proxy attach to a pool that spawns more champions and heroes than fodder. For the single spawn pools, I first just bumped a lot of them to 5, giving 5 bosses instead of 1. But with v0.6, a large number of these pools have been manually modified to increase the number of spawns of each boss, and also give them each a cohort of heroes that can spawn with them to try to increase the challenge of the encounter, but not just facing 5x of the same enemy type.

v0.7 should conclude the work on the single spawn pools and represent a middle point on the Grimmest journey.

Stage 3 will involve adding new heroes and giving them more skills and trying to actually increase the difficulty of each encounter.

IMPORTANT NOTE ON SHARING:

I am a very “open-source” type person. I see no reason at all for multiple difficulty mods. So if you are happy with what Grimmest can offer and want to use my records for your mod, I fully support that decision and just ask that you release your merged mod with the word Grimmest somewhere so that people can know that you are using my changes in your mod. If you need a more personal version that diverges from the theme of Grimmest, you can use my records and modify them as you see fit.

v0.6 5/17/2016 : fixed bug for Mogara not spawning.
v0.6.5 5/18/2016 : hopefully fixed bug for Voldrak and Sharanatu, adjusted Loxmere and am now about 3/4 of the way to the v0.7 version.
v0.6.6.1 5/19/2016 : fixed Ravna bug.
-=-=-=-

Leaving the old text below, just had a few minutes to type this up.

I have a vision, and that vision is Constant Fear of Death. Basically, my best moments in Grim Dawn have been when I SHOULD have died, but did not. With the modding tools provided by Crate, I can pump this game full of steroids to compete with the fact that I have played 1700 hours.

  • Increase in global spawn parameters.
  • Increase in champion and spawn min/max and minModifier/maxModifier.
  • Increase global difficultyModifier.
  • Cut XP gain in half. THIS NEVER HAPPENED AS OF 5/26/2016
  • Change CameraDistanceMin to allow closer zoom in.
  • Double to triple the presence of Kyzogg, Milton, Viloth, Shambler and Warden.
  • v0.2 removed the concept of monsters being level capped by their spawn location.
  • v0.3 almost all quest bosses are going to show up all sorts of different multipliers and toned down the amount of fodder.

Right now I am working on increasing spawns of other bosses. I will probably cut XP to 1/3 or 1/4 in not too long. Then Nemesis will likely get bumped. Green floor nerf. playerDevotionCap looks like a neat number to increaes. After that, it will be largely just some things that I find worthy of change or maybe things that people suggest that I find myself agreeing with.

The mod is open source, so if you want to change something, go for it. But tell me about it. Maybe you are right? Stranger things must have happened in your life.

Then, I hope to have some ideas to create another mod that I will actually call Grimmest Dawn and retire this xmax-style mod to Grimmer status. This mod will not require a PC capable of launching space rockets. It will be hard. You will fear death. But not just because you can no longer see the ground beneath your feet. But that will take thought. Skills and monster attacks that are dangerous and fun to fight. But at the same time, I want these encounters to be devoid of random one-shot deaths. I want to feel afraid, but of dying surrounded, of being tricked, trapped and outplayed in an encounter. To me, the one-shot is such a non-encounter, that it is not fun and you just blindly plow into it again and again until it is over because there is no point. But that is vaporware, xmax is an easy mod to make, so you might as well play it while you wait.

Thanks to depravities for a comical approach to a video demonstration of getting the mod installed and moving your stuff around to see it in the modded game.

TL;DR; INSTALL

Just extract into your steamapps/common/Grim Dawn/mods folder so that the final structure has
steamapps/common/Grim Dawn/mods/grimmest/database and steamapps/common/Grim Dawn/mods/grimmest/resources.

Attachment: 20160517174647_1.jpg
Attachment: grimmest_v0.7m1.zip
Attachment: GrimmestSource_v0.7m1.zip
Attachment: grimmest_v0.7.zip
Attachment: GrimmestSource_v0.7.zip
Attachment: firstBossesFight.jpg
Attachment: kyzoggs.jpg
Attachment: SilthHeroes.jpg
Attachment: DeepmireHeroes.jpg
Attachment: PrimordianAndFriends.jpg

+1 will get it as soon as I get a chance. Do I just unzip directly into the GD folder?

Was this unclear? Cause if so, help me write it better so that it is clear. I really dunno how to say it much different than that. When you unzip it, you will get a folder grimmest. That grimmest folder needs to be in a mods folder in the GD folder.

Grim Dawn/mods/grimmest/ like so.

I currently do not see a density difference. I have checked on both difficulties.

I see Grimmer and Grimmest on the character select screen though. If you want me to try something let me know.

Very clear. Must have diagonally read. Stupid me.

Some areas are more dense than others. With my own version of Grimmer dawn (just to test out the tools) I didn’t really notice the density change at first, but once you get to the first rift you will begin to notice the dead do not seem to stop rising, which is fkn awesome. Really gives a feel of like, Night of the Living Dead… After that once you get to the junkyard, then it really hits you. You’ll run into groups of like 50 of the pointy bone rat things. If you’re not seeing that then something is up.

edit: yep, gave a quick run to test, definitely more spawns. I just got 3 aether crystals stacked on one another. That was painful! :smiley:

Sadly, only one Milton Hart.

Thank you Jiaco. Did a quick run of this, after you had to explain to me twice, and after only running around for about 10 minutes, lvl 4. That is alot of monsters. More than what is normally on Veteran.

Will be at Lvl 85 by the time I am in Act 2 Elite. :slight_smile:

Wait till you get to Devils Aquifier, I had 6 heroes on the other side of the door there, took forever and died many times stuck in a web on pot cooldown.

I cut the XP gains in half, but it is not enough, by the Shambler I have started becoming over levelled. This weekend I will figure out how to stop the monsters from obeying the max level limits, but I might have to decrease the XP further as the number of monsters is more that x2.

There are certain bosses I would like to duplicate, but I have not looked into that yet and am hesitant to have to include the map atm inside the mod. As far as the crystals go, I remember figuring this out before, but have to refigure it out again I guess, pretty sure I can keep them to x1, but they hurt when they all shoot at once, and it was not such a bad thing imo.

Anyway, thanks for trying it, keep the ideas flowing, this will mature over the next few weeks.

Did you see the difference finally? As to testing, nothing in particular. For people that enjoy xmax type mods, I do want to know which areas are weak and which are just impossible, and anything else that breaks. For example, the Wightmire rift spawned so many that I lost track of one, but I eventually found him. But I am concerned about quest spawns ending up in areas they should not and breaking progression.

I just expected when I started a new character it would be like hordes coming at me. I will do more testing and take note to help you increase density.

Adding this to the Comp Jiaco ! … could you make a GIF of the some of the visuals ! =)

Sounds fun! I was just about to start a new HC character but I’ll give him a run with your mod instead.

edit: 5 mins in standing outside Burial Hill cave I am level 6 already, 2 heroes killed. I noticed the increased spawns as soon as I went outside DC.

Hehe nice jiaco… Probably have a go at this in a bit.

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk

Ok. Not bad.

I could notice the difference almost right away and definitely there were more mobs immediately after the bridge. By the time you get to Burial Hill is when it really starts picking up, but nothing unmanageable.

As for leveling: I cleared everything up to and around Burial (including Hargates). I also pilfered the note inside the prison from the edge before crossing the bridge. Usually when I get the Lower Crossing rift gate I go to Burials side entrance and clear the mobs around there first then double back and clear the hill and enter there. (It should also be considered that getting an extra note from the breakable bookcase on Hargates can net you an extra level sometimes. No luck this time for me tho).

Just before entering I dinged level 8. Normally at this point I usually turn 7 or shortly after inside. After clearing the innards I was three quarters of the way to 9.

So, if you are looking to equalize it to be more like default leveling you will have to get it shaved about a level and a half to two levels.

Fun so far tho.

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk

Ohhh man! This takes me back to the old TQ days - the good ol’ “Xmax” mod :smiley:

If I recall, there used to be a thread over at tq.net for the “Hardcore Xmax Challenge”, where basically we used to see how far we could go in Xmax without dying. Here’s hoping we can do something similar here!

Thanks jiaco!

Only at Burial hill now, but this is tons of fun. Slaughtering huge mobs like this is great. Noticed it right away. One other thing i noticed right off the bat was an ornate chest basically at the end of the DC bridge, did you put that there on purpose(i hope you did) or was it a fluke chest spawn?

I will provide more feedback as time goes on. As for now very fun. Thanks Jiaco

Honestly the accelerated experience is probably a good thing. It helps ensure that no matter what class you pick, you can generally get to some kind of AoE before TOO terribly long. Your experience gain will start falling off as you outlevel the surrounding enemies anyway, so all it really does is keep the beginning of the game from being too much of a boring slog.

Nah keep it the way it is the faster XP is welcome. The leveling part of any game is what can quickly take away from some enjoyment of playing.

I was jus giving jiaco a baseline from my own experiences since he was talking about possibly evening it out.

If he doesn’t want to then that’s fine by me too :wink:

Updated with new version.