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

[Baron Dupek]

Death Wish 1.6.9 (had to wait for patches and updates) finished, good stuff.
Now time for The Way of Ira 1.0

it's gonna get messy

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

Heads up for two interesting mods:

Upscale Pack (for BuildGDX and Nblood)
https://www.moddb.com/games/blood/addons/blood-upscale-pack-206

Upscale Pack (for Fresh Supply)
https://www.moddb.com/games/blood-fresh-supply/addons/blood-upscale-pack-fresh-supply-compatible

The instructions are in the .txt files, and thanks to that addon we have more clean sprites that look better in higher resolutions. Really good work.


And second meal for today - French Meat 2 ! A whole new episode to play.

https://www.moddb.com/mods/french-meat-2/downloads/french-meat-v22

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

French Meat 2

After waiting for a very long time, we can finally play the second episode of FM. The first level is strange, and it doesn't feel like something made for Blood. A sandy beach, a warm fuzzy feeling of adventure like in some pirate book. We will have to dive often through some parts of the levels to find much needed supplies and to navigate through. It really feels different from usual catacombs/flesh hell/mansions sets made by modders, but the more I have been playing, the more I liked it. It's not Pirate Doom, but still feels unique. Later on we've got some traditional segments, but still, I didn't have expected a fully made Jurassic Park map. There was a poster in the first episode hinting that, but you need to play it yourself to fully appreciate the effort. Really wild, funny and carefully made level.

When it comes to difficulty, FM 2 isn't afraid to put a difficulty bar really high. The encounters can be really tough, and I died a lot due to the monsters being situated in the most unforgiving way as possible. Not to mention we've got as well monks from the expansions. Especially the Tesla ones are deadly, and they are always in groups. This is one of those mods, that you will either love or hate. I didn't unlocked every secret on each map, but the ammo drops are bigger the more we venture onward, so it shouldn't be a problem.

Was it worth waiting? Absolutely. FM 2 feels like a work of fan who loves the game, and knows how to utilize the engine to create a great experience. The addition of new sounds helps as well. The key hunting and fighting our way is really done smoothly, and I don't remember a situation wondering around. But good memory is really helpful, especially later on, when the found key is in the earlier part of the map. Overall it was great, and after finishing it, I've replayed first episode, which is bundled with this release, and I only hope that we will see episode 3 some day.

Spoiler

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

Fleshed Out

https://www.moddb.com/mods/blood-fleshed-out/downloads/fleshed-out-v11

A little mini-episode containing 4 maps overall. The number of enemies isn't overwhelming, but there is a lot of walking around the levels, when it comes to finding keys for every door. It's easy to miss a door or a passage, if we aren't paying attention. We find a lot of ammo and other supplies on our way. I must say too much, and it makes FO too easy for those who want a real challenge. But the maps are still worth at least one playthrough, thanks to some really cool and creative usage of Blood assets. The new version 1.1 has one extra level, so it was worth waiting a little bit. And what is really important, is that is way harder than earlier ones.

Spoiler

 

[bussinrounds]

Upscale Pack (for Fresh Supply)
https://www.moddb.com/games/blood-fresh-supply/addons/blood-upscale-pack-fresh-supply-compatible

The instructions are in the .txt files, and thanks to that addon we have more clean sprites that look better in higher resolutions. Really good work.

Will this stay applied or do you need to load it up from the addons every time you play ?

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Completely unrelated to anything, but I finally watched the Phantasm series for the first time and had a really good time even though I couldn't stop yelling "CRUDUX CRUO!" every time the dwarves showed up.

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

Will this stay applied or do you need to load it up from the addons every time you play ?

In BuildGdx that I use, I just moved the archive to the "autoload" folder, and it is automatically applied whenever I start up the game. It doesn't change permanently the original files.

 

[ironmask]

A new map has been released by SpillSomeBlood.

The 3rd map in this episode.

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

Blood - Trauma Therapy

TT is a full episode that was released recently, and of course I had to try it and see, is it worth it at least one replay. There are some issues in 1.0 version that is currently available. BuildGdX has a problem with the penultimate level, and it crashes. And the last one can't be finished properly due to some scripting problems. But there is also NBlood source port available -> https://lerppu.net/wannabethesis/nblood/latest/ . From what I've read, it works better with it. Although, if you are patient, this month we should be expecting the release of the version 1.1 that fixes most of the known problems that players might experience.

As for the level design, it's really a total roller coaster when it comes to themes. Starting from hospital, we visit a shopping district, a train (YES!), carnival, airport, an island, mines and a hellish hollow earth. The number of enemies is huge with maximum settings, so I suggest making them having less HP for your own sanity or lower their quantity. This is really painfully obvious, when we start at the hospital, having a rather limited resources. Later on we find on our way more ammo and weapons, plus the secrets (which are sometimes really creative when it comes to finding them, and what the are hiding beside extra stash) make TT more balanced. That being said, the author really seems to be a veteran who wants to test our skills. I've died a lot because of nasty monster traps and while fighting with crowds of monks (tesla and dynamite ones from expansions included). But after finishing the whole thing, I can tell that this is a work of passion. Great architecture, almost zero problems when it comes to finding keys and what to do next. The only problem, that is visible from the start, is that the enemy placement and their high numbers can make game look funny, because they are clipping vertically close to each other. I'm really looking forward for the updated version, and play TT again.

Spoiler

 

[DraQ]

For a moment I thought you accidentally pasted Black Mesa's Interloper screenshot.

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

Good news everyone!

Fleshed Out had a major update some time ago. It grew from 4 maps up to full 2 episodes.
Both have many fresh ideas, when it comes to Blood mapping, and while there is a lot of enemies, the campaign feels great and not frustrating. I really like, how organic each map feels, no wondering about what to do next or how to solve a problem. The ending levels are one of the most over the top experiences, when it comes to Build powered games.

https://www.moddb.com/mods/blood-fleshed-out/downloads/fleshed-out-1-6

Spoiler

 

[ironmask]

Flesh out just got a new huge update. 1.7 comes with a new episode.

 

[Riskbreaker]

I'm somewhat late to the party with Fleshed Out but I'm sure loving it so far. I'd say that the monster counts are quite a bit higher than usual plus there's a fair bit of open spaces with large hordes, so it sometimes feels almost like a lite version of some Doom slaughterwad. They've been pretty generous with dynamite and napalm tho so it ain't nearly as hard as the raw monster counts might indicate.

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

The third episode of Fleshed Out feels weaker than the previous ones. It's like someone was rushing through the process of creation, or just used some older maps, with some minimal polishing. Some of the segments are really cool, but I didn't had such good time as with the other ones.

Spoiler

 

[ㅤㅤㅤ]

Having just replayed Blood I decided that I would give Death Wish a spin since it is one of the most famous and well received mods for the game. Coming straight from Blood however the first map left a bad impression. It is too heavy on the narrative and the map is not nearly as tight as anything found in the original game and its expansion packs. Does this get better with time or will the mod continue to throw scripted events at the player after the introduction? There is also the issue of making the maps too large. For this reason I did not like Ion Maiden as much as I otherwise would have. Blood had perfectly sized maps that often looped back to previous sections. Death Wish from my early impressions seem to lean heavily towards larger and busier maps. I would also like a recommendation for a mod that would appeal to someone that want more of what Post Mortem offered. Despite having finished the game and its expansions it was not enough to sate me but Death Wish so far is not doing it for me.

 

[randir14]

Having just replayed Blood I decided that I would give Death Wish a spin since it is one of the most famous and well received mods for the game. Coming straight from Blood however the first map left a bad impression. It is too heavy on the narrative and the map is not nearly as tight as anything found in the original game and its expansion packs. Does this get better with time or will the mod continue to throw scripted events at the player after the introduction? There is also the issue of making the maps too large. For this reason I did not like Ion Maiden as much as I otherwise would have. Blood had perfectly sized maps that often looped back to previous sections. Death Wish from my early impressions seem to lean heavily towards larger and busier maps. I would also like a recommendation for a mod that would appeal to someone that want more of what Post Mortem offered. Despite having finished the game and its expansions it was not enough to sate me but Death Wish so far is not doing it for me.

The rest of the mod is the same. Some impressive Build engine tricks, but many of the levels are too gimmicky and don't even fit the setting. For example there's a level where you take a rocket to a space station even though Blood takes place in the 1920's

 

[lightbane]

To be fair Deathwish is supposed to happen decades after OG Blood. That level you mentioned is a secret, optional one, so it doesn't count.
Other levels are "regular" Blood material like an enchanted mansion with tons of stuff.

 

[Curratum]

I found Death Wish seriously overrated after actually playing most of it.

Too many dumb jumpscares, way too many, happening every minute in several levels. Relatively low detail environments, not much more detailed than the base game. Lots of questionable "gotcha!" instalkill moments and traps.

Long story short:

 

[Grim Monk]

A Bunch of Blood News:

“Bloodlines TC” has been updated to work on modern source ports and there is a new version planned:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/bloodlines-out-of-the-grave-edition
I have wanted to play it ever since seeing this video:


Sadly I found it rather disappointing.
2 out of 5 levels in Ep1 and most of Ep3 feel basically unfinished.
Episode 2 is what appears in the above video and it is indeed very well done.
Sadly its since it is only 4 short levels the video spoils basically all of the highlights.
Still this is literally a re-release of a demo project from 1998 so maybe I am being too harsh.
Its just that the video is still impressive today and blew up my expectations.



"Way of Ira" has just gotten a new episode on July 9 but I haven't played it yet.
https://www.moddb.com/mods/the-way-of-ira/downloads/the-way-of-ira-twoira-v111-for-blood
There is a patch upcoming to polish it up a bit more so it might be worth waiting a bit.

I found Death Wish seriously overrated after actually playing most of it.

Too many dumb jumpscares, way too many, happening every minute in several levels. Relatively low detail environments, not much more detailed than the base game. Lots of questionable "gotcha!" instalkill moments and traps.

Long story short:

I am actually currently blasting through “Fleashed Out” and it is indeed very good but a bit to easy because the devs swamp you with Ammo and Health.
Also apparently the third episode is weaker then the others and the secret level is currently unreachable except through cheats.
But I am still midway through Ep 2 so we will see…


I must disagree regards to “Death Wish”.
Played it back when it was version 1.3 and found it a highly pleasant experience.
I have not replayed since due to not wanting to retread many old levels just for 3 new maps.
But there is apparently a new Fourth Episode planned:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/death-wish-for-blood/news/new-death-wish-episode-in-development
I will probably go back for another run after it comes out.

 

[Riskbreaker]

Unfinished or not, E2 of Bloodlines is still the most creative, highbrow piece of content for Blood. The gallery mini-hub would make it worth playing by itself, even if the other maps didn't have great sources and execution (which they indeed do).

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

"Way of Ira" has just gotten a new episode on July 9 but I haven't played it yet.

After finishing it, I must say, that this could be another classic campaign building up over the years, if the creator will try to make next episodes as well. Really smooth progress, fair encounters and resource balance. It just ends so quickly though.

Spoiler

 

[oddech_wymarlych_swiatow]

 

[Morblot]

Uhhhhh.... more brains?

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

https://www.moddb.com/mods/blood-super-pack

If anyone is interested, there is a pack on moddb. It basically contains almost all the custom campaigns, plus single maps made for Blood. The last update was from 9th September this year, so it's really fresh. We just choose mod/map from the list, and press start mod. After that we are running the game through Dosbox-x. I think it's a proper move, since it will never conflict even with the most modified campaigns. BuildGdx is also bundled, but we need to copy into its folder a specific modification to play. From what I've been testing everything seems to work fine. What I didn't mention earlier, is that the pack has inside the whole game with expansions already included. It's a good backup copy, over 3 Gigabytes contained in a nice package.

 

[Sordid MCA/Prosper Hybryd]

"After 24 years, Blood's level editor is finally being ported to Windows. Brought to us by the creator of NBlood and the creator of Xmapedit. Blood is no longer constrained by Dosbox. Coming soon..."