Mystic Towers 100% help...

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Zak6009
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Mystic Towers 100% help...

Post by Zak6009 »

So, hopefully I'm in the right forum, but I figure if there's anywhere someone might have a chance of knowing, it's here. Couldn't find the answer on Youtube or the one FAQ floating around the internet.

I'm currently playing MT going for 100%. Under par time, all treasures and secrets. I'm hitting a wall at Marchwall Hold - the sixth Apprentice Tower (last one before the Wizard Towers). Treasure is at 100% all right - but secrets is stuck at 50%. I've looked high and low, not exactly sure what counts as a 'secret', but until now I've done 100% in the previous towers just by grabbing everything I can and using Reveals when I see a rune or a pitch dark room.

I'm kinda beginning to think maybe it's a bug oversight and the secret doesn't actually exist - there was a room with a 'mystery rune', which usually implies a passage through a wall, but I couldn't walk through any wall there. Maybe it was supposed to be there? Or is there something else I'm supposed to do?

Anyone familiar with this?
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MoffD
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Re: Mystic Towers 100% help...

Post by MoffD »

I see you posted on 3drealms about 9 years ago, that's dedication. Hope someone can help soon :garg

I looked around and there's some info on the file formats on Mal's ModdingWiki, but nothing about the level format. I don't own the game, but someone's bound to have more info
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Zak6009
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Re: Mystic Towers 100% help...

Post by Zak6009 »

Haha, I did. Decided to explore that game again. I figured if there's anywhere on 2019's internet with a decent amount of activity that would have some knowledgeable on the subject, it's here. Hopefully it will help, though I'm almost certain they don't exist. Would be nice if someone can officially confirm that though.
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K1n9_Duk3
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Re: Mystic Towers 100% help...

Post by K1n9_Duk3 »

I've spent a coule of days trying to understand how this game's code works. This is just an educated guess on my part, but based on what I've found out, I would say that the only way get 100% of the secrets in a level/tower is to use the Reveal spell in every room that has a secret in it.

But it is possible that the total number of secrets in one level/tower is stored in the data file instead of being calculated by the game based on the actual number of secrets present in the level. I know for a fact that the game reads the total number of secrets from a buffer that was filled with data from the level files. There could be some code that updates this value while the game is running, but I haven't found anything like that ... yet. It's possible that the files for Marchwall Hold say the level has two secrets, but only one secret actually exists in the level, so you'll never be able to get more than 50% secrets.

If my calculations are correct, the toal number of secrets in each tower is stored at position 14012 (0x36BC) in the tower file (APPx or WIZx inside RGMYSTUS.DAT, where 'x' stands for the level number). The file for Marchwall Hold (APP6) has the value 2 at this position, so the tower should have two secrets.

According to the files, this is what you need to find in each tower:

A1: 1 secret
A2: 3 secret
A3: 2 secrets
A4: 2 secrets
A5: 2 secrets
A6: 2 secrets
W1: 3 secrets
W2: 2 secrets
W3: 3 secrets
W4: 3 secrets
W5: 4 secrets
W6: 6 secrets

You can also find the par time (in minutes) at offset 14010 and the total amount of treasure at offset 14011 in the tower files. The treasure count could have the same issues as the secrets.

Edit:
Okay, there is one more way to "find" a secret. If a certain byte variable is set to 1 after finishing the tower, the game increases the number of secrets found by one. That byte variable is always set to 0 when entering a tower and I think the only way to make the game set it to 1 is to walk through a hidden door.

I ran some tests on the tower files and all of the apprentice towers appear to have such a hidden door in them. At least the amount of "secret" markers that require the use of the reveal spell in order to count as finding a secret is smaller that the total amount of secrets stored in the files. All the apprentice towers are "missing" one secret, so I guess they must have at least one hidden passage that also counts as a secret at the end of the tower.

The room that requires the reveal spell in A6 should be room number 39. That room is at the top floor of the tower, top-right corner of the map. I found this Let's Play on youtube, but the guy also missed one secret in Marchwall Hold. He did find the secret passage, so I guess if you take that passage at least once and use the reveal spell in room 39, that should give you 100% of the secrets. I didn't watch all of his videos, just enough to see the secret passage and the statistics screen for Marchwall Hold, so I don't know if he used a reveal spell in room 39.
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Zak6009
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Re: Mystic Towers 100% help...

Post by Zak6009 »

Thank you!!! I'll try that and get back to you. This might actually have solved a years-long mystery for me.
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Re: Mystic Towers 100% help...

Post by xen »

I ran into the same problem: stuck with 50% secrets in A6. The info with room 39 indeed does the trick! It looks like an eye rune is missing there :(
Thanks again for figuring this out! Casting reveal in 39 plus using the hidden door (on the same floor) brings secrets to 100%.
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