pyrdacor / ambermoon-advanced

First Ambermoon Extension

Ambermoon-Advanced

What it is

Ambermoon Advanced is an inofficial extension of Ambermoon. It is developed and maintained by me (Pyrdacor).

The first official release 1.0x is out now in english and german. It contains the first two episodes "Mysteries of the sea" and "Elemental creatures". Five episodes are planned in total.

Please keep in mind that I develop this on my own in my free time. So expect bugs, typos, bad texts, bad translations, unbalanced sections, dead ends and even crashes. Save often! If you get stuck of find bugs, please get in touch here on GitHub in the issue tracker or via mail ([email protected]).

Ambermoon Advanced is playable on the Amiga. At least I hope so. I tested it with WinUAE so I am not 100% sure if it runs flawlessly on every Amiga hardware.

What it's not

Ambermoon Advanced is no complete new game, so you will still play Ambermoon as you know it but of course with some additions and changes. For example monsters now have elements and spells have elements too. Therefore some monsters are now immune to certain spells. Don't bother shooting fire balls at fire dragons or rocks at stone golems. In the second episode elemental spells will also have increase or reduced damage against specific elemental monsters. Moreover spell damage is then increased by intelligence and level.

Also keep in mind that adding content is a lot of work so don't expect the whole world to change or secrets in every dungeon. As Ambermoon Advanced is released in episodes the current changes focus on the early to late game on Lyramion. The two moons have no new content so far. This will change in the next episodes of course.

If you want to play the episodes in succession you should pause before you leave Lyramion for the first time.

Downloads

Ambermoon Advanced 1.03

Language	Downloads
English	zip lha tar.gz
Deutsch	zip lha tar.gz
WHDLoad English	download
WHDLoad German	download

Prepare for the second episode

The second episode is out now. Unfortunately it wasn't possible to keep the savegames compatible with the ones from the first episode. However there is a savegame patcher online which you can use to patch your savegame to use it for the second episode. You can find it online at https://ambermoon-advanced.pyrdacor.net. Just drag&drop your savegame folders (e.g. Save.00) there and you will be able to download the patched version as a zip file.

If you use the remake Ambermoon.net you don't need to do this as the remake automatically upgrades your savegames on loading.

Note: The patched savegames might be incompatible when playing the first episode with them.

Note: Always backup your saves beforehand!

Note: The patcher only works with Ambermoon Advanced savegames. Don't use original savegames!

Game manual

As a little surprise I created a real physical manual for Ambermoon Advanced which can be ordered and printed on demand. Unfortunately it is still in the preparation phase. I will inform you if it is available.

It will contain many information about the changes but also has some valuable information of Ambermoon in general. For example detailed descriptions of conditions, attributes and skills which was lacking from the original manual. And it contains a small version of the original world map and rune table. Especially useful for people who don't possess the original box.

It also contains the element damage table and the complete spell book with SP and SLP costs, spell effect descriptions and so on. The SP and SLP values might differ from the original though.

I also bought a few illustrations to make the manual a bit nicer so that it isn't just a boring piece of paper.

The manual will cost a bit. Basically the price will cover the production and illustration costs, print service fee and the rest is some kind of project support. In the end I will get around 2-3 euros per sold manual and you get a nice little illustrated book. Don't expect too much, I am neither an artist nor a writer. ;) But I thought this would be a cool idea.

Feedback and support

Your feedback is very welcome. For bug reports you may use the issue tracker here on github but you can also join our discord server or email me.

If you want to support this or other projects, you can donate or become a patron/sponsor.

Thank you very much.

FAQ

• Where can I find the disk images?

  Unfortunately at the current state there are none. The problem is that the new content is huge and the data won't fit onto the original 9+1 disks anymore. I invented some new compression algorithms but it still does not fit yet. I will try to make it possible later.

• How to play it on the Amiga?

  Well basically the archives contain all the files like if you would install the game on a HDD. So just copy all the files into a folder on your Amiga HDD and start the game by clicking the Ambermoon icon in the root folder.

• How to play on modern systems like Windows, Linux or Mac?

  Just head over to https://github.com/Pyrdacor/Ambermoon.net and check the downloads there. The remake contains the most recent version of Ambermoon Advanced as well. You can select it when you start the game.

Screenshots

Honorable mentions

I had support from two hardworking testers. Crediar (remake) and macce (Amiga). Thank you very much for your support!

ambermoon-advanced's Issues

Two minor issues in Dor Grestin

The dwarf lady tells you that Asrub, the healer lives
on the north-west part of the town;
but the healer's house is actually located more on
the north-east side of the town,
or better say north side.

The Nest (Inn): despite the message that tells you
that the party is ready to leave after a good rest/sleep;
the party hasn't actually rested/slept at all,
so you have to select the option Sleep/rest
After the message appearing to actually get some sleep.
This should be corrected.

kind of typo while touching the pulsating star in the temple of Gala

"Nelvin stretches HER hand into the pulsating light..."

Should be "HIS hand.." .
Nelvin has a grey beard... :-)

Occasionally crash when visit locations in Torle's log book

Sometimes when I visit some locations in Torle's log book for example the location of the "Schildkröte" at 550/402, "Auge des Strudels" or when loading a game in that area, the application crash with the following message.

Ein I/O-Fehler ist aufgetreten:
Seek - Fehler.
Die aktuelle Datei:
Amberfiles/NPC_gfx.amb
Nochmal versuchen?

Run Ambermoon Advanced v00.10 with FS-UAE 2.8.3 on macOS Sierra 10.12.6

Characters not remembering conversations(/ meeting the party)

I know this is kind of minor Issue;
and may have been discussed earlier;
but many people you meet in the game; when traveling with your party; don't necessarily seem to remember the conversations you had with them before
(keywords !?) , or generally, meeting them,
at all.
One example is the bandit you meet when
approaching the shop of the thieves guild.
One bandit appears and he tells you
that he's in a hurry, to get to
the Spannenberg weaponry shop;
but doesn' t leave the area ( disappear).
Instead, he's still there, repeatingly telling you his
plan; after you have left the place and re-entered
later on.

[QUESTION] Entering S'Orel palace on Morag (-possible bug !?)

When entering the S'Orel palace on Morag, after getting inside the castle
(you could do that freely, although you do have S'Orel key at your inventory);
you see a (door with) calters.
That door Does seem to look like a possible "candidate" for the s'Orel key,
but does seem to open without any key or lockpick (no door lock screen).
You see a monster behind the calters.

Is the case valid or is there a bug ...?!
So maybe my assumption of the place to use the key was wrong...!?

Minor Issue with the Mermaid at the Whirlpool

The Mermaid takes your magical traveling items before letting
you enter the underwater area, and does give those items
back to you when you are leaving the region.

However, she doesn't take the Flute. (!!?)
I think this should be fixed.

[Feature Request] Please add some more item slots to the Merchants

I recall writing of this topic before;
but anyway I thought I must write this:

You will find plenty of many kinds of items during the game;
but not so much gold relatively.
Thus many items are very expensive to buy.

Some additional free item slots should be added at merchants,
to ensure some trade option (especially, to enable some selling!)
at points when your party has no gold left,
and the main portion of all the gold available to be found/earn
has been already taken.

Additionally, there are some items that are vital to the overall
progress, but are relatively difficult to get;
especially the Lockpicks.

I think the total amount of lockpicks available should be slightly
increased.

Glitches occures in the battle screen

On the battle screen some glitches happen on the enemy graphics. Sometimes on the left and/or right side of the enemy and sometimes on the whole graphic of the enemy.
See screenshots

Run Ambermoon Advanced v00.10 with FS-UAE 2.8.3 on macOS Sierra 10.12.6

[Bug Report] Missing german translation

Describe the bug
When reading the sign for crystal's wine cellar, the german translation is missing.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Start the game using the german language
2. Go to 446 / 195
3. Read the sign
4. The description is in english

Expected behavior
The description should be german

Screenshots

Desktop (please complete the following information):

• OS: Windows 11
• Version 1.9.4 / Ambermoon Advanced 1.3

Additional context
The attached Save 3 has the appropriate setup.
Saves.zip

Eagle flying runs way too fast

In my opinion, the eagle flies way too fast,
on my classic A4000 060 configuration, at least.
That part of the game does run so fast that you are
having some difficulties with navigating.
Tested with playing Ambermoon Advanced v 1.03 English.
In fact, all kinds of traveling in 2D parts of the game appear
to run a little bit too fast.
Anyway, that is my humble opinion.
Maybe the flying speed could be slightly adjusted, at least.
Naturally, in that case the broomstick speed should
be adjusted likewise.

[Bug report] graphic errors on Morag (2D terrain)

There are (still) some graphics errors on Morag
(please see: "[Bug report] graphic errors on the morag #280"
on Ambermoon.net part of the repo) ) .

I found similar kind of errors on Morag,
about X:100 ; Y:95 .

Dictionary compressions issue on Amiga

There is a new compression for the file dictionary where only existing files are stored inside a container. This is fine in general but for world maps it seems like the Amiga game still tries to load the file even if it is not using it. At least there was a bug report when leaving the S'Riel temple (entering Morag map 517) and then get the error FILE COULDN'T BE LOADED: MAP TEXTS 517. There are no texts on this map and the map name is retrieved from the world's name if it is a world map.

This is not happening for the Lyramion world map as the 1Map_texts.amb container is not using this dictionary compression. It also is not happening for forest moon world maps as there are no "map gaps" in 3Map_texts.amb. It only happends for 2Map_texts.amb as there is a gap inside the entries and therefore the compression skips entries.

Issue with Morag prison

I assume this part was meant to work with the following way:

As you enter the prison, you're unable to enter the Cell
until you kill the Lizard (-only one I guess...!?) and get
the key.

However, what I found was the lizard (?!) re-appearing
repeatedly, seemingly endlessly (?!) after you have
killed it once; and getting the (same?!) key over and over again.
Anyway, the cell door doesn't seem to work as it should;
no "door lock screen" appears, and you are able to
walk through it (or the wall near it) easily and enter the cell.
The remains there are meant to be important, aren't they ..!?
However, I was unable to figure out what to do there
(no pickable items or anything like that ).. ?!?

Crash in Advanced Content "Tierhandlung"

When entering the room on the right in the "Tierhandlung", the game crashes (everytime) with message:
The given key "19" was not present in the dictionary.

[Bug] Using scrolls on maps which disallow magic

There is a map flag which disallows magic on a map. In the original it just disables the action button for the spell book but you could still use spell scrolls from the inventory.

In AA this is no longer possible.

But now the problem is that you can't use spell scrolls in battles on those maps. It might be logical but this is not the intend of the map flag. It just should avoid things like "Jump", "Word of return" or allowing buffs.

So it should be adjusted so scrolls are usable in battles even on those maps.

Btw it is possible to use scrolls in camp on those maps. This should be avoided as you can still cast buffs there!

• Allow scroll usage in battle
• Disallow scroll usage in camp

Nelvin has incorrect Charisma value

I had made a Savegame in Orc cave.
It was there that I first noticed
Nelvin's Charisma value: 111 / 70.
This must be incorrect value, right..?!
Currently, I'm unable to tell more
precisely, right when the value
was changed to that.
The Charisma value of Nelvin was
valid and noticeably lower in the
earlier Savegame state I had made.

[Bug] You can't get your pets in AA 1.03

Helping Kasimir previously set global var 54 to 1. This was used for Ferdinand to gain trust and to get the pet kitten. The global var also was used to change the texts for the NPC Kasimir. But in 1.03 Kasimir became a party member and I accidently removed the global var as I only considered the text changes (which are now handled by switching from NPC to party member). This broke the Ferdinand pet quests.

There need to be a new global var or the conditions must be changed to "Kasimir in party OR Kasimir party member map char is active".

[Feature Request] Add a Free Healer to Lyramion

You might end up into a situation that some member(-s)
of your party are in need of cure but you don't have
much gold left or the specific spells needed.

I think it would be vital to add a healer (one would be enough)
that would heal your party without any fee,
in an extreme situation.

Additionally, there seems to be no healer available on Morag.
Could this be maybe changed..?!

[Bug report] Huge spell learning point costs in Ambermoon Advanced

Describe the bug

I am playing Ambermoon Advanced 1.07 Deutsch. I noticed that learning spells requires huge amounts of spell learning points, which do neither agree with the documented spell learning point tables here in this repository nor with the spell learning points that are reported in-game by the sage in Spannenberg.

To Reproduce
My adventurer is level 24 and has 39 spell learning points (SLP). I have three spells "Massenhast", "Magische Laterne", and "Levitation". According to the sage in Spannenberg, learning each of these cost 10 SLP. I can learn "Magische Laterne", which actually costs 20 SLP (found out by saving/loading). I cannot learn any of the other two spells, the game tells me that I do not have enough learning points.

Expected behavior
If the spell learning point cost of spells is changed in Ambermoon Advanced and this is not a bug, the correct required amount should be reported by the sage in Spannenberg.

Comment
Reducing the amount of spells that the adventurer and ranger can learn so drastically really takes a lot of fun out of Ambermoon Advanced for me.

Minor wording issue in Dor Kiredon

In the tavern you meet Darbog, who says:
"Welcome adventurers! Even HERE in DOR GRESTIN
we heard of your arrival!"

IMHO that should be corrected.
Maybe just removing the word "here" from the sentence Darbog says
should be enough !?

The party is able to rest/camp while on horseback

It seems you can rest/camp without landing on horseback first.
(Minor issue; maybe not a bug per se !?)

Integrate all original bugfixes up to 1.18

All the bugfixes which were done up to release 1.18 of the original should be also integrated here.

Unable to re-enter Crypt

After I have been in the crypt near the Alchemist tower, I'm unable to re-enter it anymore after leaving it. Only way to get in again is to load the savegame with non-advanced version 1.0...I forgot which version I used when entering it the first time.

Wording in Torles Logbuch

Two small suggested changes in wording:

First, in the phrase, "to avoid crushing into the eastern rocky coast," the word "crushing" should perhaps be "crashing" -- though perhaps instead you mean "to avoid being crushed on the eastern rocky coast." To give it a truly nautical feel, a true 'sea dog' might say: "...to avoid being driven onto the rocky Hoimon coast underneath our lee."

Second, the phrase "I could hold myself on the steering wheel with all my strength..." might be slightly more clear as, "With all my strength I was able to only barely keep hold of the steering wheel, but many...."

Looking forward to exploring Capt. Torle's sightings!