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About this mod
Absolver: Nightmare is a new PVE mod for Absolver, intended to work alongside Absolver Plus. The purpose of the mod is to make PVE gameplay more exciting and challenging while also giving a visual overhaul to the overworld areas. The mod also brings quality of life changes (not all of them make your life easier), some gear restyling and much more.
- Requirements
- Permissions and credits
ABSOLVER: NIGHTMARE is a new PVE/visual mod for Absolver, intended to work alongside Absolver Plus.
The idea, farfetched as it may be, is to bring this game closer to its souls-like essence and make PVE gameplay more difficult and exciting through AI addictions and improvements, while also giving a darker visual overhaul to the overworld areas. The mod also brings quality of life changes (not all of them make your life easier), some gear restyling and much more (more details in changelog below).
DISCLAIMER:
- Nightmare mod should be always loaded for last, to be played in full effect. So it should be last in the list of .pak files in Paks folder. You can add, for example, four or five "z" at the start of the names of Nightmare mod .pak and .sig files, to make sure that they are at the bottom of the list. Why, you ask? For example, if you have Absolver Plus loading after Nightmare mod, the latter will not apply properly and you might miss out on some content (eg. Downfall bosses in overworld)
- Just like Absolver Plus, the Nightmare Mod should be played ONLY AFTER YOU COMPLETED THE TUTORIAL.
Not doing so might screw up with game progression or crash your game
- If you play Downfall with Nightmare Mod installed, you will not be able to progress in your Downfall run
- Always BACK UP YOUR SAVE before playing this mod (or any mod, really)
- If played online: ALL PLAYERS in the instance must have Nightmare mod installed. Do NOT use the mod online with random people (unless you're playing the VISUALS ONLY version of the mod, that one is safe to use online with randoms)
- Nightmare Mod is meant to be played after completing the base game, so after beating Risryn and becoming an Absolver. You can decide to play the mod since the start (as long as you don't use it in tutorial), but this will make things SIGNIFICANTLY harder for you. Depending on your game progress, you might get additional boss spawns than the ones listed. Whoopsie. But then again, from a mod with such a name, what would you expect?
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V1.5 (released 27/02/2024)
This is the final update for the Nightmare mod. Thanks to everyone who downloaded it and played it so far!
I am not planning further updates as I cannot really afford taking time to make mods anymore.
I hope this inspires other people to mod Absolver and create their own personal visions of this game.
Enjoy! :)
In short, here are the changes included in Absolver: Nightmare V1.5:
- UI CHANGES (MENU)
The user interface of the game has been changed to better reflect the dark atmosphere of the mod. A dark cloud design replaces the usual dark box in the majority of ingame menus. The menu interfaces which remained box-like (eg. Equipment) have been given some transparency in order to allow viewing through.
- FULL DARK MEDITATION MODE
The ground and the sky of the meditation area are now both full black.
- NEW HARD AI SPAWNS
Added new hard AI in open world areas (borrowed from Downfall mode). Spawn rate is usually 0 to 2 per instance.
- DECREASED DOWNFALL BOSS SPAWNS
Tried to decrease rate of spawn of Downfall bosses in open world areas. I don't think I succeeded. Tough titties.
- FREE APPEARANCE CHANGE!!1!
The day has finally come. No more dumping crystals over appearance changes! From now on, appearance change via Nightmare mod is free (as opposed to 5 crystals in vanilla). Please note: this is only effective in version 1.5 and it is NOT included in the "visuals only" version of the mod.
- EQUIPMENT VISUAL CHANGES
The appearance of low stat weapons has been changed to a definitive form. The colors of Stolen Vestments (Hayen outfit) and Wanderer's Mask have been changed to better fit the atmosphere of the mod. Please note: both items are only available in Absolver Plus.
...
- MAIN FILES AND OPTIONAL FILES -
I have split the mod into different versions to accomodate all of your needs.
You can play all of these in co-op online, as long as the people you play with have the SAME EXACT version as you.
Except for the VISUALS ONLY version. That you can play with ANYONE ;)
- ABSOLVER: NIGHTMARE
(main files)
Main mod, includes FULL version of Nightmare mod
- ABSOLVER: NIGHTMARE - VISUALS ONLY
(optional files)
Includes ONLY the visual changes from Nightmare mod, and does NOT include any PVE or AI change.
THIS VERSION IS A PURELY VISUAL MOD
CAN BE SAFELY USED ONLINE WITH RANDOMS!
- ABSOLVER: NIGHTMARE - NO LIGHTING
(optional files)
Includes FULL version of Nightmare mod, but WITHOUT lighting changes (includes other visual changes)
- ABSOLVER: NIGHTMARE - NO CURSED ONES
(optional files)
Includes FULL version of Nightmare mod, but WITHOUT the Cursed Ones (and all the altar harassment)
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CHANGELOG V1.4 (17/04/2023)
Absolver: Nightmare V1.4 brings you some important visual changes.
- Post-Downfall altars: while making the mod I had in mind a post-Downfall pseudoapocalyptic world and I wanted to honor that by making altars look different. Altars have been destroyed and replaced with enchanted weapons/harpoons planted in the ground. Also, altar blocks are no more. All that's left of them is small pebbles slowly rising from the ground.
- Essence tree: the famous First King statue in Tower of Adal has been destroyed by the Cursed Ones after they overtook the area. The same Cursed Ones planted in its place a rare, immortal type of Essence tree. They like it a lot, and they hope you like it too.
- Some of the areas now have actual BLOOD smeared on the walls and buildings.
- The palettes of the overworld have been made more consistent with each other. The overworld now has less outstanding elements due to colour. In order to achieve that, the colour of some materials widely used in game (eg. gold) was changed.
CHANGELOG V1.3 (13/02/2023)
- 10 NEW MINIBOSS SPAWNERS (up to 12 depending on game progress) and a WHOLE NEW MECHANIC have been added to the game! These spawn points are located where dialog type NPCs are (Talem, Hayen, Rakkio, Guides etc). In fact, please note I had to get rid of dialog type NPCs in order to add these miniboss spawners. It was worth it. We now have a new type of miniboss: CURSED ONES! More details in the big changelog below :)
- In the context of V1.3, further tweaks were done to the visual changes already in place (some things are slightly more blue/cyan now) and some bug fixing and clean up happened to ensure everything is stable.
CHANGELOG V1.2 (07/02/2023)
- NEW Marked One (miniboss) was added to the game! You can find the new Marked One in the Oratian Quarters area, which didn't have their own miniboss previously. More details in changelog below :)
- NEW color changes to effects: effects like altar activation glow, heal sparks and level up glow used to appear red or golden in vanilla game. The color of these effects has been changed to blue and cyan, to better fit the hues of the lighting. Some other particles/effects in the game have also been color edited (eg. the ember flying from the candles in Guidance Bridge are now blue as well)
- Edited appearance of Ripa Warrior Mask: the headbands were color edited and a black smoke particle was added to the mask. These visual changes apply to the original gear piece - this is not a new item in shop.
- Edited XP gain from defeating Downfall bosses: every Downfall boss will now reward 15k XP upon being defeated. Because after going through all the effort, you might as well be rewarded appropriately for it.
CHANGELOG V1.1 (21/01/2023)
- Fixed AI spawners in all overworld areas so that the quality of respawns is improved (while some areas will respawn low level AI, some areas are now capable of respawning up to Downfall boss level)
- Fixed "instant respawn" bug in affected map areas (Central Harbour, Coliseum, Oratian Quarter, Birdhouse to Tower of Adal passage): following this fix, all normal AI enemies respawn 66 seconds from defeat and all marked ones respawn 6 seconds from defeat, in all areas of overworld, no exception made (except for Kuretz's minions, read changelog below)
- Fixed Downfall bosses not properly spawning in Coliseum and Birdhouse to Tower of Adal passage
- Improved "elder guide" training dummy has been removed because of issues when used online. It will be reinstated at a later stage as part of my other mod, Meditation Plus
- Clean up of obsolete files that were left in the mod
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FAQs:
- HOW DO I KNOW I INSTALLED THE NIGHTMARE MOD CORRECTLY?
Are you seeing the Absolver: Nightmare logo in the start up menu, or the Absolver: Nightmare loading screen? Or maybe Arcell is kicking your butt in Tower of Adal? Either way, you're good to go.
Rules of thumb for installing properly: make sure that you put both .pak and .sig files, extracted from the downloaded .rar, into the Paks folder. Ideally, Nightmare mod should be always loaded for last, so it should be last in the list of .pak files in Paks folder. You can add a couple "z" at the start of the names of Nightmare mod .pak and .sig files, to make sure that they are at the bottom of the list.
- CAN I USE THIS MOD ONLINE IN CO-OP?
Yes, but only if the other players in your instance are also using the mod. If there's any players in the instance not using Nightmare mod while you have it on, they will crash. Deservedly so. Be a good person and tell them to play this mod!
- CAN I DO DOWNFALL RUNS WITH NIGHTMARE MOD INSTALLED?
No. If you plan to run Downfall, please remove Nightmare mod from your Paks folder. Nightmare mod breaks the progression in Downfall runs because it makes its AI respawn instantly and automatically. With Nightmare mod installed, you won't be able to clear any Downfall room. In poor words: a true nightmare.
- CAN I USE THIS MOD TOGETHER WITH ABSOLVER PLUS?
Yes, absolutely, you are 100% encouraged to. Nightmare mod is intended to work in synergy with Absolver Plus, there are close to no side effects in using them together (more details in changelog below)
- SHOULD I FINISH BASE GAME BEFORE INSTALLING AND PLAYING THIS MOD?
Yes, you should. Take it easy. Don't ruin all the fun.
- DOES NIGHTMARE MOD AFFECT PVP GAMEPLAY?
No, it does not affect PVP gameplay in any way. Nightmare mod only brings PVE and visual changes.
- CAN I USE NIGHTMARE MOD TOGETHER WITH EVENFALL LIGHTING MOD?
Yes, but either Nightmare lighting or Evenfall lighting would apply, depending on which is loaded last. For example, in my paks folder: Evenfall is loaded before Nightmare, so the latter is used. I got you covered though: if you want to use Nightmare mod with Evenfall lighting, go check the optional files and download the NoLighting version of Nightmare mod. This will ensure that Evenfall lighting still loads in the game.
- WILL IT CLASH WITH YOUR OWN RESHADE OR WILL IT STACK?
It will stack. A bit of fine tuning might be required on ReShade to make it look proper good.
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// ABSOLVER: NIGHTMARE //
(please refer to changelogs above for additional info)
1. Visual only changes
- NEW START UP MENU LOGO + NEW LOADING SCREEN
It could help in case you have doubts on which mod you are actually running. Also, makes this mod feel more like a DLC.
- NEW "DARK" LIGHTING MOD
Inspired by souls-like atmospheres and cyan/purple tones. Some of the areas have night sky too. VERY FOG INTENSIVE, just to pose an added challenge to your GPU as well. No, I will not tone the fog down. Feel free to use the NoLighting version of the mod, available in the files, if your GPU cannot take it.
- VISUAL OVERHAUL OF MAP ELEMENTS
This was a separate effort from lighting mod and will stay in effect even if you use the NoLighting version of the mod. I spent some time re-coloring some of the map elements like foliage, grass, wood and ground textures and so on, in order to bring them closer to the dark atmosphere of the lighting mod. Hope you like them purple leaves! Also, some walls now have blood smeared on them.
- CHANGES TO 3D MODELS
While making the mod I had in mind a post-Downfall pseudoapocalyptic world and I wanted to honor that by making altars look different. Altars have been destroyed and replaced with enchanted weapons/harpoons planted in the ground. Also, altar blocks are no more. All that's left of them is small pebbles slowly rising from the ground. In the same fashion, the First King statue in Tower of Adal has been destroyed and replaced by a rare, immortal type of Essence tree.
- COLOR CHANGES TO PARTICLES/EFFECTS
Effects like altar activation glow, heal sparks and level up glow used to appear red or golden in vanilla game. The color of these effects has been changed to blue and cyan, to better fit the hues of the lighting. Gameplay effects like Kahlt absorb glow and charged move glow have also received a slight visual tweak. Some other particles/effects in the game have also been color edited (eg. the ember flying from the candles in Guidance Bridge are now blue as well)
- LOW STAT WEAPONS ARE REPLACED (by new glowing swords with animated effects)
Not available as new in shop, these are just replacements of vanilla low stat weapons: I decided for this approach so they can naturally spawn all over the overworld, like low stat weps do. The changes are purely visual, stats remain the same.
- BLACK AND ORANGE RE-COLOR OF GUIDE CLOTHES
Mind you, this is not a new item in shop: just a recolor of the original texture that I was using for myself. Thought I'd just gift it to the masses. The changes are purely visual, stats remain the same.
- EDITED APPEARANCE OF RIPA WARRIOR MASK
The headbands were color edited and a black smoke particle effect was added to the mask. These visual changes apply to the original gear piece - this is not a new item in shop.
- BLACK UNDERWEAR
The day has finally come. Enough dirty white underwear. Time to be edgy.
- NPC EQUIPMENT RE-COLOR
The outfits of Talem, Rakkio and Hayen NPCs has been re-colored to match the hues and tones of the lighting mod.
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2. Gameplay changes
- 10 NEW MINIBOSS SPAWNERS (up to 12 depending on game progress) and a WHOLE NEW MECHANIC have been added to the game! These spawn points are located where dialog type NPCs are (Talem, Hayen, Rakkio, Guides etc). In fact, please note I had to get rid of dialog type NPCs in order to add these miniboss spawners. It was worth it. Now, pay attention..
A new type of miniboss will spawn from these new spawn points: CURSED ONES!
They will appear as listed below, bringing a whole new AI behaviour to the table. Please read through the details below for a better understanding and sorry for the long text but, being a new mechanic, I really want to be detailed!
The Cursed Ones listed as "fixed" will have a fixed spawn, while "random" are not guaranteed and may or may not appear in the indicated areas.
Rakkio (Stagger, Coliseum - fixed)
Rakkio (Stagger, Central Harbour - random)
Hayen (Kahlt, Oratian Quarters - random)
Hayen (Kahlt, Bird Caller Outpost - random)
Iktar (Windfall, Oratian Quarters - fixed)
Iktar (Forsaken, Forest Path - random)
Iktar (Faejin, Tower of Adal - random)
Vetro (Lost Prospect, Coliseum - random)
Vetro (Lost Prospect, Forgotten Temple - random)
Young Guide (Lost Prospect, Library - fixed)
Depending on your game progress, you might encounter an additional Cursed spawn (Iktar) in Guidance Bridge
Depending on your game progress, you might encounter an additional Cursed spawn (Elder Guide) in Tower of Adal
What else can you expect from the Cursed Ones?
- They WILL see you as soon as you enter their map and they will immediately try to make your way to you
- They WILL chase you around as long as you move, effectively preventing you from meditating/resting at altar unless you defeat them
- They WILL give you a break though and let you breathe / heal if you move far enough from them (except Vetro, who's always gonna pull you in with Vortex. Vetro is an asshole.)
- If they defeat you, they WILL chase you back and possibly wait for you at your spawn point, but they WILL NOT have their HP reset so you can continue from where you left ;)
- Once defeated, they WILL respawn after 333 seconds and get back to chasing you. You will have enough time to sit at altar/meditate/whatever in the meantime
- They WILL give you a harder time than (though their HP is roughly the same as) Marked Ones
- They WILL use the same decks as Marked Ones, albeit in a more efficient way
- They WILL use different powers on you, according to which you fight
- They SHOULD reward 3666XP on kill, but XP works really funky in Absolver. Sometimes it might be less
- DOWNFALL BOSSES WILL RANDOMLY APPEAR IN OVERWORLD
According to the area, a different type of boss can spawn. Two or more bosses of the same type can spawn in the same area, using fall/water damage is encouraged to beat them. Every Downfall boss will reward 15k XP upon being defeated.
- NEW MARKED ONE (MINIBOSS) ADDED TO THE GAME
You can find the new Marked One in the Oratian Quarters area - it always bugged me, that Oratian Quarters didn't have their own miniboss.. annoying, right? You won't see the name or description for the new miniboss, when you encounter him. But, just in case you're wondering.. the miniboss is me. It uses my outfit, my deck and Lost Prospect style for cool points. Just like other Marked Ones in Nightmare mod, Vetro as miniboss will respawn 6 seconds after being beaten. It is undeniably the toughest AI I have created and possibly one of the hardest AI in game. I expect it to pose a bit of a challenge even to veteran players!
- NORMAL AI ENEMIES WILL RESPAWN AUTOMATICALLY after 66 seconds
No event needed.
- IMPROVED BOSS FIGHTS
The boss fights for Kuretz and Cargal/Kilnor will now have a twist!
Kuretz: his minions will instantly respawn when killed, as long as the boss fight lasts. This will also result in the minions respawning out of the boss altar instance, upon end of fight, straight into the overworld. Some minions respawned in overworld will assume a very peculiar "guarding" behaviour and occupy one of the coliseum entrances, usually AI-free. Because the "guard" minions respawn automatically and instantly, this is the closest this mod can bring you to a "survival" mode.
Cargal/Kilnor: either of them will respawn 66 seconds from being killed. Which means, if you beat Cargal and you can't get rid of Kilnor fast enough, Cargal will respawn and you gotta start all over.
- ALL MARKED ONES WILL RESPAWN 6 SECONDS FROM BEING DEFEATED
This could help in case you're having a hard time copping a piece of gear wore by a miniboss. Instant rinse/repeat.
- IMPROVED ENEMY AGGRO (?)
While modding stuff, I apparently tweaked enemy capability to follow you around and, while you are still able to escape enemies, they should be able to chase you around a bit more consistently - as long as you stay within their map, that is
- ENEMY DENSITY SHOULD BE SLIGHTLY HIGHER (?)
At least in some areas, as a result of all changes made. Have not tested online in multiplayer. Don't expect big mobs of enemies in solo.
- IMPROVED ENEMY AI FEINT
Enemies feint more reliably into defensive or into power usage. Could not fix the gap between feint and goldlink yet, unfortunately
- PLAYER RESPAWN TIMER IS REMOVED
Instant respawn when dying by fall/water dmg (as opposed to 5 seconds in vanilla) and when defeated in fight (as opposed to 50 seconds in vanilla, iirc). This should make co-op a bit more unforgiving.
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3. Known bugs
#1: The names of Marked ones will revert to vanilla names, when playing Absolver+ with Nightmare mod applied. The gear and decks will remain the same - just the names and descriptions revert to original.
#2: Due to enemies being able to respawn, some side effects are to be expected with cutscene based boss fights. Usually sort of funny effects, like: Risryn keeps beating you up in the end game cutscene, after losing.
#3: In order to allow random spawn of Downfall bosses around overworld areas, Calbot guy was removed from the spawn rota of all areas. Slapping time's over. Sorry.
#4: Downfall does not work properly with Nightmare mod installed. If you plan to run Downfall, please remove Nightmare mod from your Paks folder. Nightmare mod breaks the progression in Downfall runs because it makes its AI respawn instantly and automatically. With Nightmare mod installed, you won't be able to clear any Downfall room, preventing you from completing any run. In poor words: a true nightmare.
#5: If, for some reason, Risryn manages to kill you during endgame cutscene, the game will be soft locked and you might have to restart it. Try not to fight Risryn with Nightmare mod on, unless it's for shits and giggles. Just in case you're wondering what I'm talking about > tfw the final boss isn't quite done with you yet - YouTube
#6: Talem as NPCs was removed from the game. He might appear in new game, though. On a side note, you can find his outfit in the shop as part of the Absolver Plus mod!
#7: Just like Absolver Plus, the Nightmare Mod should be played ONLY AFTER YOU COMPLETED THE TUTORIAL.
Not doing so might screw up with game progression or crash your game.
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I hope you find this small weird mod to your liking and, in case you have any feedback or you find some breaking aspect of the mod, please let me know :)
Thanks and have fun!
Vetro
