Blood - From the workshop of Kevin Kilstrom, Plus mods/maps/launchers thread

[Ninja Destroyer]

From the workshop of Kevin Kilstrom.

http://www.the-postmortem.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1181&start=0

First, Kevin tells how he made the models. It all happened 12 years ago...

"Unfortunately, digital cameras weren't invented when I took these shots so the pictures are not that great. I digitized all the models in my office. I had a sweet setup with a small blue screen and video camera. That's how we did most of the weapons too as well as the disembodied hand (I just used my own hand for that)."

The main inspiration for the Caleb model was Ash from Evil Dead2 (plus the hat and trenchcoat).

"I don't remember what the inspiration for Tchernobog was. I think Nick and I just talked about it and decided that he would be a decaying demon so I just did a couple sketches and went from there."

And this is how Caleb were born... sort of:

"This is the internal skeleton that I made for Caleb. It's a pretty simple setup with just wire for the joints. I would have loved to have machined some ball and socket joints but I didn't have the tools or the money for that back then. The bulky body segments were made with this stuff called Friendly Plastic."

"This is the clay version of Caleb. I used a pretty hard oil based clay for this part so that I could make the whole thing in one piece. I then made a two piece plaster mold from the clay sculpture so I could cast him with liquid latex and foam latex."

"Here's a shot of Caleb before he was painted. When I cast the figures I would brush in liquid latex inside the two halves of the mold to form a nice skin that would pick up all the detail as well as make the model easy to paint. Then I would set the skeleton into one of the halves, pour in some expanding foam latex and then quickly stick the two halves together. Once the foam latex was cured, I would carefully remove the mold and fix up the seams. Caleb's hat was cast seperately with liquid latex but his trenchcoat was made with fabric that had wires glued on the inside lengthwise to allow me to pose it."

"Here's a pic of him painted. His face doesn't actually have much detail at all because once he was digitized into the computer and shrunk down, you wouldn't be able to see any detail anyway. Also, I painted the top half of his face black so that it would always be in the shadow of his hat."

Here are some various pics of some of the other models from the game:

"This is a shot of the gargoyle being redone with a new body and better skeleton. He was the first model I made for the game and the initial skeleton didn't hold up that well. The more models I created, the more I learned about what works and what doesn't. So I went back and redid him. You can also see the newly cast body of the hell hound (without legs), lying next to him."

This is the skeleton of the spider model. It is made with Friendly Plastic. This shot also has the hell hound, the cultist, and the eel in the background.

"The finished spider (which was super fun to animate)!"

"The freshly painted hell hound!"

"The freshly painted gillbeast!"


"I was making monster masks and animatronic creatures at the same time that I was making the Blood models. I like looking at those old photos mostly for the stuff in the background."

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Damn cool, he even has a model of Captain Claw.

 

[Baron Dupek]

That's some great stuff here. This remind me to get some own stuff to sculpt someday...

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

Thanks to Ed123 and WhiskeyWolf we've got a separate thread for all our Blood related needs. I'll keep this thread updated from time to time, be it a map pack or a little addon review (plus gazillion screenshots of course). Everyone is welcomed to (shit)post as much as he wants of course.

Next stop - Canada, Toronto.

 

[A horse of course]

I wonder what you'd be able to do with those models with modern tools

 

[Darth Roxor]

I wonder what you'd be able to do with those models with modern tools

Depth of field and bloom.

 

[A horse of course]

You forgot BROmatic aberration

 

[Baron Dupek]

What about FNV mod that bring you from Mojave to Blood missions? Good or not?

 

[Don Peste]

FUCKING AMAZING.

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

What about FNV mod that bring you from Mojave to Blood missions? Good or not?

The main problem with this modification, it's that uses Gamebryo combined with Nu Fallout mechanics - VATS. The original has deadly enemies, and the Build engine works very well for the old school gameplay. You probably could make the whole mod with every level from the original, but the main question is - what's the point ? If you want to make it looked better and work, I think Source would be the best one. The levels aren't very big, but are detailed and Valve's engine has it's own distinguish look, unlike Unreal engines one. More "dirty" approach, full of nasty details and secrets with animated enemies. Blood Refilled (link, it was deleted from Nexus site, but don't know why ) feels more like a curiosity, just like Caleb Vs. Nazis Doom 2 wad.

 

[Grimwulf]

Yummy.

"I don't remember what the inspiration for Tchernobog was. I think Nick and I just talked about it and decided that he would be a decaying demon so I just did a couple sketches and went from there."

Chernobog (Чернобог) is actually the God of Evil and Misfortune in slavic mythology. Could be a coincidence.

 

[DraQ]

You probably could make the whole mod with every level from the original, but the main question is - what's the point ?

Actually I'd very much appreciate Blood remake. One thing that has always bothered me about Blood was the colour palette, especially indoors. Yes, it was obviously meant to be gloomy, but with rudimentary lighting system of build it simply made a large portion of the game just grey and reddish to the point where it became grating. Blood in engine supporting advanced lighting could be awesome in ways we don't even imagine.

Of course, if essets would be to be remade as well it would take an awful lot of skill to replicate the feel without an ability to actually replicate the style. Gore would also be hard to get right and gore has always been a big part of Blood.

Chernobog (Чернобог) is actually the God of Evil and Misfortune in slavic mythology. Could be a coincidence.

Nothing in Blood is a coincidence.

It is a game where cultist scream in their own language made up of bashed Latin and Sanskrit.
If when making a dumb fun variety FPS you go as far as to bash Sanskrit and Latin just to have something for your cultist to shout in, then the main antagonist's name probably won't be a coincidence either.

 

[A horse of course]

I think what he meant was that he wasn't sure where the visual inspiration came from.

 

[Astral Rag]

 

[skacky]

I was about to post that.

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

I'll just mention again a nice frontend for Blood - http://blood.nanoaugur.net/
One Unit Whole Blood has everything you need to enjoy it without dosbox mounting manually.
Quoting the installation process. Just remember, that if you want to have the latest 0.9.6 version you need to patch it to 0.9.4 and 5 to work properly. The package has a whole soundtrack (audio/midi) included in mp3 files, plus some fonts/icons/themes/all cutscenes and orignal trailer

I N S T A L L A T I O N:

1) Unrar the launcher and all its assets to wherever you want to - it's not tied to whatever
older version or compilation you have. In fact, it's advised to keep a separate, clean folder
with One Unit Whole Blood. You will, however, need to do some copying later on.

2) Inside, /Games is the directory that holds /Blood and folders for all the "mods".

3) Copy the contents of a clean 1.21 One Unit Whole Blood installation to Games/Blood/
(works best with the GOG.com purchased version). DO NOT OVERWRITE ANYTHING.
note: I have provided a copy of blood.cfg. If you REALLY want to keep yours, overwrite.

3b) If you aren't using the GOG.com version, you may need to extract the contents of
/Extras/Tools/plasmapak-tools.zip into /Games/Blood/ to be able to launch the Editor.

4) Copy the contents of a clean 1.21 One Unit Whole Blood installation
into the following folders WITHOUT OVERWRITING ANYTHING:

BAITD2
Carnage
Friend
Legends
Lines
Pulp
RATMEP1
Sectwar
TWoAFa

(if you overwrote anything, good job you just broke all the mods )
((again, blood.cfg has been provided, if you want to use your own,
you need to copy it into ALL these folders, including Blood.))

4b) If you aren't using the GOG.com version, you may need to extract the contents of
/Extras/Tools/plasmapak-tools.zip into each of the files - the biggest problem would be BARF.exe.

5) GOG.com version ONLY: MOVE the file "game.gog" and overwrite the file "game.inst" found in the
directory "Games/Blood" into "Games/CDMount". This is to ensure that mods (and now the game)
can also access the CD image and audio music. THE PROVIDED AUDIO FILES ARE FIXED (no track slicing)!

PLEASE NOTE: I have included a file named "game.inst". It is identical to the GOG.com version
with one small alteration: The Data portion (game.gog) which houses the movies and extra data
bits as a .bin file is ignored in the .cue-like file game.inst - IF YOU WANT MOVIES YOU NEED
TO OVERWRITE IT WITH THE ONE GOG.COM PROVIDED. I did this so people can at least have music.
(the music files in my release are, by the way, fixed - unlike the gog.com version :sigh:


6) Launch the loader named "One Unit Whole Blood.exe"

7) Play until your eyes bleed~

...

8) oh god I hope you did this right

Configs & maps - Change the renderer / fullscreen or windowed option / play custom map
Setup - Change the sound/controller/resolution setting.
Host/Join/Yang - For multiplayer. YANG - Yet Another Netplay Guide is a nice tool if you want to setup a specific game for bloodbath/coop/teams mode. Here is a little guide on gog how to create a game.
zBlood - It's basically Blood in GzDoom engine. It's very rough on the edges, ugly and I don't recommend it.
Cheats - a text file with all the cheats that you can activate in game
Manual - A 13 page little manual with some basic stuff and background story of Caleb

You can always click on bloody hand and "Choose your own Blood". From there you can start the game on any episode and map.

Configs & maps submenu:

All of the maps listed here are in the 7zip package from the creator - McTecman. Probably 99 % percent of them, not counting the one being released. They are just single maps, mind you, mods are in the other section.


View Mods section.

There is a couple of mods already included in the package, you just need to copy vanilla blood folder files into them:

BAITD2 - Alone in the Dark 2
Carnage
Friend
Legends - Legends of Iconoclast
Lines - Bloodlines
Pulp - Bloody Pulp Fiction
RATMEP1 - Rage Against The Machine Episode 1
Sectwar
TWoAFa - The Way of All Flesh - Again (revmaped original first episode)

Of course there are mods which are not included on the list, or won't work this way. But the most important thing, is that having a clean blood game will always be a good start for running a custom mod.

Just remember:

4b) If you aren't using the GOG.com version, you may need to extract the contents of
/Extras/Tools/plasmapak-tools.zip into each of the files - the biggest problem would be BARF.exe.

 

[Astral Rag]

I used that launcher to replay Blood a while ago I also tried some of the custom maps, it's very nice indeed. IIRC it didn't come with BMOUSE, which is no problem but something noobs might want to know about. Also use "fullresolution=0x0" if dosbox stretches the game's image.


Talking about noobs, I'm wondering how one adds more custom campaigns to that list, is it possible to add (and launch) Deathwish Ninja Destroyer?

 

[zerotol]

I live ...... AGAIN

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

I used that launcher to replay Blood a while ago I also tried some of the custom maps, it's very nice indeed. IIRC it didn't come with BMOUSE, which is no problem but something noobs might want to know about. Also use "fullresolution=0x0" if dosbox stretches the game's image.


Talking about noobs, I'm wondering how one adds more custom campaigns to that list, is it possible to add (and launch) Deathwish Ninja Destroyer?

Unfortunatelly the list is hardcoded so you are out of luck Astral Rag. Maybe you could try to put Death Wish into some of the listed ones and try it to run from the frontend. I, myself prefer to copy the whole game into a new folder and see what happens when you install a mod. I've played Death Wish in this way, and it worked perfectly. As for the bmouse, it's present and already running once you run the game from the One Unit.

 

[Astral Rag]

hmmm I did a fresh install of Blood (GOG version) and copy pasted the DW files in the game's root folder, but for some reason dosbox just opens and closes when I double click the "DW GOG" shortcut.

The original Blood launches just fine.

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

I don't have gog copy, just a retail. Maybe try this thread for some clues ?
And this one too.

"[autoexec]
# Lines in this section will be run at startup.

@ECHO OFF
mount C "."
imgmount D game.inst -t iso
c:
cls
BMOUSE.EXE LAUNCH BLOOD.EXE -ini dw.ini
#dw
exit"

I did not alter it. My Path is F:\One Unit WHole Blood\ and that's what I entered for all necessary paths (I hope).

## UPDATE ##
Ok, I got it. I deleted the BMOUSE stuff and the "#dw" thing and now it works. That is weird. I will test noe if the cutscenes work.

 

[Astral Rag]

Thanks, I got it to work after changing the IRQ.

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

Blood - The Lost Episode.

This is a single episode replacer, specifically the third one. Just make a copy of your Blood.ini and put the maps in the main folder of the game.

Basically it's a whole episode that was made from alpha version of the game. Mostly it's (again!) Jay Wilson learning Build editor, with some modders help making it interesting too look from the perspective of so many years. I was expecting something half done, boring and unimaginative. But overall it wasn't so bad. Even the first level that we can see in first official trailer or old magazines is a good start. Each parts of most levels are connected to each other with "TNT walls" usually, where you blow the part them and can bactrack easily for another closed door. They feel something straight from Doom, not very up and down, but on one level, where you can lost if you don't pay attention or just looking for that one opening that you need. There are some glitches (like invisible fire plants, that you can kill with dynamite thanks to the balls of fire they send into your direction) but from the comments I see that they will be fixed eventually. The balance of ammo and weapons is present, so you want have to fight a dozens of zombies with pitchfork.



Some screens.

Instead of small venom spiders, we have big one. Don't worry, their HP isn't bloated.

Delirium shrooms haven't maked into the final version. You can pick up health flasks and healing pouches too. There are some items that you can take (like the Tome), but they don't do anything. Monolith wanted to make something like from adventure game, but they abandoned the idea.

No matter how many traps have you seen, there will be always one that surprises you.

Classic symmetric puzzle, left and right door with switches that unlock doors.

Blood with no library is not Blood.

Funny level, because the boiling substance will kill you instantly. Works on monsters too. Use TNT Caleb!

There are tesla/dynamite monks too.

Hellhounds, hellhounds everywhere.

My favourite level, the castle.

There are more Phantasm at the right, that was a very intense fight.

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

Finally finished Caleb will have his revenge on Toronto - Scum Of Dallas. While watching the intro I was ready for some shitty mod with some new monsters or "funny" stuff that gets boring after 10 minutes of playing. Well, I guess it's a case of "don't judge before playing the proper game". It's got interesting gameplay, incorporating the key hunt to something like an adventure game. Although the balance is dropping fast in the later parts and I don't know if anyone has a patience to die 50 times just to beat some parts. Let's look on some screenshots.

Reminds me of some Duke Nukem 3d level.

If only Blood 2 was as fun as this tribute level.

The slums big hub level is divided into smaller parts. You must find all 3 keys to finally take the bus (yep) to the next section. Looks like it's some old movie that no one knows about. Caleb through the whole game talks through text messages and tell us about the important stuff that is happening. He smells bonfires. I didn't knew what to do here. All doors were closed. But quickly I remember Last Action Hero. Yes, that's what it!

We are in the movie. And there is no colours on screen except b&w and red. You need to find the key, and later on visit the house with a swimming suit to beat the underwater level. Nice and creative way of making a level, eh ?

Meanwhile at Obsidian...

Another location, bar, and we see familiar faces... and butts and tits. This isn't Blood like I used to know .

The secret part of the bar. Give me some sugar, baby.

This was a trick. We are teleported into some vacation resort. Lot's of monsters to kill. There is some men that needs our help too.

We just take the key and move forward. Nothing to see here.

Last key is in the hotel. Destroying the mirror causes Caleb turning into evil small Caleb. Time for some epic battle in the bath!

Someon is feeling very lonely in this apartment.

Monks in here are constantly spawning and you have to find all of the hidden skulls to be able to summon Cujo and the stone gargoyle. This is where most of the players will put god mode or noclip at least.

Last level, where we need to find various items for a pirate lady to finally grab the car keys and make a trip to Toronto. Why? I really don't know.

Overall, lulzy but in a good way mod. The hub portion of it was probably the most memorable, but the creators could really put more ammo to beat the orange transforming monks into that Goblin things known from the expansions.

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

Blood - Bloodlines (Beta version, rescripted)

There are many stories about the mods for diffrent games that weren't released in their final form. Sometimes people have no time anymore, or their project is too big. They've wanted to make something really great and ambitious but something goes wrong along that road. Bloodlines was in work for many years, but the creators abandoned it and released all of the completed maps in episodes. It's a real shame, because after playing all of them I can say without any hesitation that this wasn't a case of overblown egos. The level design, as I call it, is semi-open. You can stray from the paths, look for secrets, and generally you have the feeling of each level being a coherent labirynth that can be beaten. Many times I saw an autistic design where the player doesn't really know what to do, or the hints for the key or lever are so obscure that you just backtracking, moving forward and backward like on some crazy roundabout. Bloodlines is entirely opposite. It has a very elegant approach, you can stop from time to time thinking about the proper door that you need to use the key on. Yes, you will need a good memory because with some of the bigger levels it's preety obvious. But I've never been in the situation where I would just give up and try to search the level through noclip to find the solution.

I won't unload tons of screenshots because with the scarce number of levels (13) it's worth to try it. As an example we can see the destroyed city mini-hub. Not all shops and buildings are available to the player, but the sense of freedom is much bigger and feels diffrent from the usual Blood map. There is more. For example, we are teleported into black and white dimension, where the neverending sound of old film tape playing is heard in the background. We can see a poster of Cabinet of Dr Caligari on one of the walls, and after a couple of minutes all of the architecture of the level becomes something straight from that movie ! Another example is Slums, most depressing level, reeking with a gloomy atmosphere. The use of the fog, shadows and occasional light makes it a very memorable map.

The Sin campaign pales compared to the original Bloodlines. I would say that it has too many enemies and lack variety of the bigger brother.

George Clooney approves that message.