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Hythloth Fix

Aug 12, 2018

Got good at dungeons, thought I'd fix Hythloth

After building 3 dungeons, with dozens, and dozens of rooms, traps, layouts, monsters etc., I find myself a little bit skilled in this area. It’s not that hard, but working almost strictly in a hexeditor, makes it a bit of a task. Nevertheless, I have persevered, and the crypts are done.

While my skill in this area is still high, I thought I would take a look at the ‘Hythloth’ bug. The Hythloth bug refers to level 6 of Hythloth, where there is an impassable room, a room which should lead into an adjacent room, to allow one to continue through to level 7. Additionally, another room in the same 3 room chain of rooms is missing door data for the party, and so is really, also, impassable, as all the characters start in the room ‘phased’ into a wall in the north-west corner. I know there is a fix for this issue somewhere out there, but I couldn’t track it down. The fix, I believe, added a secret door to the first, eastern room, which allowed passage into the middle room. It also fixed the door data for the western room, so the player and his party could pass through that room properly as well.

Since I couldn’t find the fix, I decided to quickly whip one up myself. However, when doing this I noticed something a little weird. The eastern room did not at all mesh/match with the middle and western room. It was also not at all suitable for inclusion of a secret door. The central room has a big huge entrance into the eastern room, but the eastern room has only room for a one or two space wide door, with a lot of weird finicking with triggers.

I went into the Apple II version and found that it suffered from the exact same flaws/bugs.

Same room as the Dos version. No way out to the west, and no clean way to make a secret door open and logically mesh with the central room.

After consideration, I decided that a secret door in the eastern room was not likely part of the original plan/design. I concluded that a room which mirrored the eastern rooms design would work well, considering the ‘mirror image’ layout of the central room. So I made a new eastern room, tweaked the creatures inside, and added correct door data for all the rooms.

Just drop this file directly into your Ultima IV folder, and overwrite the existing Hythloth.dng (backup first…)

Hythloth Fix

Get it directly from the repository:

Hythloth Fix

I think these images are kindof spoilers, as they reveal the rooms in complete detail. If you like/want to experience the rooms spoiler free, don’t click on the images below.

The New Hythloth Eastern Room
Hythloth Central Room
Hythloth Western Room

3 Comments

Fenyx4

Hey! I think you are talking about my Hythloth Fix! I did indeed add a secret door. I was trying to leave the existing room as intact as possible. https://ultima4.ultimacodex.com/ultima-4-hythloth-fix/ (OMG that was 9 years ago >_< )

Interestingly I found out later that the SMS release had fixed the problem in the same way I did. http://www.pixsoriginadventures.co.uk/ultima-4-sega-master-system-part-3/

But honestly I like your fix a lot more. Much more thematically fitting.

Would you mind if I used your fix in the Randomizer?

Cambragol

Intact is good too! However, it just seems a little more likely, considering the layout of the other two rooms, that the eastern room, as a whole, is the bug. So maybe this fix is a little truer to the ‘intention’ of the original?

I know that I fiddled with the same solution that you and the SMS version used, but in the end it just seemed weird to have a three wide hall empty into the room the way it did. Plus the whole thematic/mirroring aspect.

No worries at all if you want to use it in the Randomizer! By all means!

Fenyx4

Totally agree. This is digging up 9 year old memory but I remember looking through all the other dungeon rooms to see if the eastern room was a duplicate of something (i.e. it had mistakenly been copied to this room instead) or if another room fit better here than where it was (i.e. they had been swapped) and I couldn’t find anything.

Wish I could travel back in time and get my hands on the original design materials. :)

Thanks!

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