Bionicle Heroes: Myths of Voya Nui Version 1.4 Released

[Toa_Kralich]

Hey all! Last year and then quite early this year I released the first mod on the internet for Bionicle Heroes, called Myths of Voya Nui - overhauling gameplay, textures with canon consistency in mind, and a number of other changes intended to make a "definitive edition" of the game. Recently I got back into modding Heroes after having a few more ideas to pursue and released a 1.3 version last month, with the 1.4 version releasing this month! With 1.4 released I've hit a plateau in what is technically possible at this time within the scope of Myths of Voya Nui, but am now setting my sites on another mod aimed at making the game more like the DS version regarding sounds, gameplay, and tonal style. The mod can be downloaded from ModDB here with no other installation required - it runs completely standalone right out the box. I'll provide the changelog with some pictures for 1.4 here as well, and feel free to ask me any questions you have about Heroes modding! We've also got a Discord for co-ordinating modding efforts that you can find here. 

Without further ado, the changelog! Since I haven't posted on here since releasing the 1.2 version, I'll include the changelogs for both Version 1.3 and 1.4. If you'd like to skip the changelogs and go right to downloading the most recent release, 1.4, from ModDB, click the link here!

The Changing Mask of Destiny

Firstly, a quick note on how MOVN will work going forwards - given the mod's intent to be a "definitive edition" with many improvements and fixes across a variety of fields, I've decided to change MOVN into being a sort of "generational project". Because we learn more about Bionicle Heroes modding every week and enhance the scope of a Heroes mod on the regular, I've decided to always leave the door open for MOVN to get further improvements, fixes, and adjustments down the line. Hopefully this will mean many more updates for MOVN going forwards! Also, I've never explicitly mentioned it here, but MOVN is open for use for any other Heroes modder to use as a foundation! If you're a prospective Heroes modder who wants to get onboard with the game, contact me at Kralich/David#0901 or join the official Bionicle Heroes modding Discord here.

Fixes

One major bug existed still in MOVN and that was a bug regarding Vezok's boss level, which is now fixed.

-Fixed vezok crash bug (thanks KRcanondorf) - the new development between MOVN 1.2 and 1.3 is that the game becomes vastly more unstable if the CFGC file is not the same size as the base-game CFGC. I modified many entries and as a result MOVN's 1.2 CFGC was not the same size. Thanks to KRcanondorf, this is now fixed!

Visuals

As with all previous releases for MOVN, changes involved modifications within Bionicle Heroes' style but also canon consistency changes.

-Kongu colours adjusted for canon consistency - Kongu's 3D model has incorrectly coloured arms and legs, with arm and leg pads the wrong colour too, as well as an incorrect chest piece marbling. Kongu now has dark silver arm and leg pads, green arms and legs, and a marbled green and dark silver chest piece

-Toa face colours/HUD icons - Hahli, Nuparu, Hewkii, Jaller, Matoro, Kongu - changed for canon consistency - All Toa icons had some small level of inconsistency with set variants. The main change was the addition of the white "teeth" that exists in 5 out of the 6 Toa in their set variants due to the under-mask skull piece. Kongu received the dark green organic elements instead where his mouth should be, and Hewkii received a HUD mask colour change to be consistent, though the 3D model was already mostly correct

-Toa shop icons made consistent with other changes - This change is pretty simple - the shop in the hub area has a different set of texture data for the shop icons. These were corrected to be consistent with the other HUD changes

-Mask swap icon made consistent with other changes - The mask swap icon, used when walking up to a constraction that given Toa is not suitable for, has also been changed for consistency

-Hahli 3rd level weapon black space - Hahli's 3rd level weapon has black space at the back of the weapon model, just like some of the other level 3 Toa weapons. This was not caught in 1.2 of MOVN, but has now been rectified in 1.3

-Kuurahk Kraata now canon accurate - A breakthrough in how levels handle texture data for different objects revealed the reason why Kuurahk's Kraata was not correctly coloured by the same method used to fix the other five Rahkshi. This is now fixed and all six Rahkshi now have canon-correct Kraata colours

Examples:

Kongu armor/limb recolours
 

Toa HUD Icons

 

Updated Hahli mask texture

 

Updated Hewkii mask texture

 

Updated Jaller mask texture

 

Updated Kongu mask texture

 

Updated Matoro mask texture

 

Updated Nuparu mask texture

 

Toa shop icons

 

Updated Toa mask switch icon

 

Hahli level 3 weapon retexture

 

Canon-correct Kurahk Kraata

 

Gameplay

For the most part, MOVN's gameplay was already tried and tested and is widely regarded as a significant upgrade over the original game. However, one element still needed a bit of tweaking.

-Rebalanced Reidak attack - Reidak was sort of the least useful Piraka since his new fragmentation grenade attack regularly bounced off of enemies harmless and did no damage. However, the grenade is now much heavier which means it bounces less, and the shockwave range and damage has been increased to make it more effective even if it does bounce off of a group of enemies.

Audio

One big and awesome audio change happened with MOVN 1.3!

-New main menu music (thanks Petya Krasavin) - In celebration of Bionicle Heroes' 15th anniversary, Petya Krasavin remastered and recomposed the title music for Bionicle Heroes. I contacted him regarding the track and he was very interested - so interested he made an impeccable looped version so it works perfectly in-game! It is now implemented and can be heard on the main menu as well as in the bonus levels Here's the non-looping version of the remaster from his YouTube channel:

 

Misc

The last change is an update to the credits.

-Updated credits - Petrya Krasavin has been added to the opening credits as thanks for his work on the new main menu track!

Examples:

 

Visuals

More changes with canon in mind (one big one in particular!) have taken place, plus a few other mixes of both canon colouration and consistency with prior releases.

-Made Ignika silver - Whilst at the time the canon for the Ignika was not super solidified, we find out later that the Ignika's colouration changes depending on the state of Mata Nui at the time. Given this new canon, I have adjusted the Ignika that comes out of Vezon at the end of his boss fight to be silver for storyline consistency

-Made Ignika unlock images consistent - The boss level is not the only place the Ignika appears, and so the other unlock images were adjusted to make sure all the bases are covered

-FIxed black space on the Nuparu Level 2 weapon - As with other weapons, black space here was replaced with a gradient (red in this case) that helps the visual consistency of the model a bit better

-Fixed black space on Nuparu Level 1 weapon - Nuparu's level 1 weapon also received a red gradient, but the half-sphere on the palm was also retextured because the previous texture was stretched and low quality by comparison to the rest of the model

-Fixed black space on Matoro Level 1 weapon - Matoro's level 1 weapon was the last weapon to fix, and had the space filled with a white and blue gradient that fits in quite well through using existing elements on the texture

-Made Hahli's level 3 weapon accents dark silver - Hahli's actual laser sword in real life is dark silver. Whilst the Toa weapons aren't generally coloured directly in accordance with the sets (they have elemental colouring, like the Piraka), I decided to make the lighter silver accents dark so that the elements that were more like the sets would be more accurate

-Made Jaller's level 3 weapon accents golden - Ditto with Hahli - the silver accents on Jaller's level 3 weapon were made pearl gold, and of the two are probably more noticeable as an addition

Examples:

Silver Ignika

 

Silver Ignika unlock images

 

Nuparu level 2 weapon

 

Nuparu level 1 weapon

 

Matoro level 1 weapon

 

Hahli level 3 weapon

 

Jaller level 3 weapon

Gameplay

MOVN's gameplay is reasonably tight at this stage, but one big exception was brought to my attention, and some investigation revealed better fine-tuning was possible.

-Hewkii level 1, 2, and 3 buffed - When designing the initial sandbox for MOVN, the Toa were each designed to be as powerful as Kongu, who had a real tendency in the base game to outshine the others. Hewkii's only buff, unlike Nuparu, was the movement speed and FOV increase that all Toa received, mainly because the power of his projectile was theoretically good enough as it was. However, in actuality, Hewkii's rocket travelled so slowly with so much spread and could be fired so slowly that he loses a lot of actual combat use in MOVN, being used solely for constraction. Now, in 1.4, his rocket speeds have all been buffed by almost 100% and his firing speed increased by 0.5 seconds. The end result is Hewkii is about to hold his own a lot better and has more versatility across the game.

Examples:

 

Misc

The last change is an icon update.

-Changed mod icon - Whilst a prior release saw the icon changed to the Ignika, this version saw the icon adjusted to silver to be consistent with the other changes in this update

Examples:

 

Thanks everyone for reading this update! Whilst I've hit a bit of a plateau with MOVN as it currently stands, further development in the field of Heroes modding will open up the door for more updates in the future. As well, I have plans for another Heroes mod that will take things in a different direction, so keep your eyes peeled for that! Don't forget to join the official Bionicle Heroes modding Discord to see updates from around the community, or learn how to work the magic yourself!

Get in touch on Discord at Kralich/David#0901 if you'd like to learn more. In the mean time, remember - Unity, Duty, Destiny!

Edited December 17, 2021 by Toa_Kralich
removing dud links

[(-Kopaka Toa of Ice-)]

If there is one thing i would want to see if possible. Is there a way to turn off "Vezon replaces all of the piraka" during level selection after the final level is beaten?

I thought it was really odd that he replaces them and if you didn't do everything and played with the Piraka's before beating Vezon then you effectively lose the opportunity to use them.

[All Or None]

Got any info on the .ghg file format? Or some way to read .ghg files, at least?

[Toa_Kralich]

On 12/22/2021 at 7:29 PM, (-Kopaka Toa of Ice-) said:

If there is one thing i would want to see if possible. Is there a way to turn off "Vezon replaces all of the piraka" during level selection after the final level is beaten?

I thought it was really odd that he replaces them and if you didn't do everything and played with the Piraka's before beating Vezon then you effectively lose the opportunity to use them.

Sorry for the late response, but yes, it's possible (I think, anyway) to stop Vezon replacing the Piraka, though it's not possible to have the Piraka and Vezon at once. A mod could also be made to fix progression (so you can still 100% the game) by making Vezon constractions usable by ordinary Piraka. It wouldn't be too tough, as all the changes necessary are in text files - maybe if you'd like to see it, you could join our modding Discord and I could help you understand how it could be done, make the mod yourself?  

On 12/30/2021 at 8:14 PM, All Or None said:

Got any info on the .ghg file format? Or some way to read .ghg files, at least?

Our modding scene is primarily PC-based where the file formats for models/textures are in HGPs and NUPs. There's one or two others in the Discord with a bit of console-modding experience and I believe they've taken a look at ghgs but it's not my expertise. 

[(-Kopaka Toa of Ice-)]

On 4/7/2022 at 9:51 PM, Toa_Kralich said:

Sorry for the late response, but yes, it's possible (I think, anyway) to stop Vezon replacing the Piraka, though it's not possible to have the Piraka and Vezon at once. A mod could also be made to fix progression (so you can still 100% the game) by making Vezon constractions usable by ordinary Piraka. It wouldn't be too tough, as all the changes necessary are in text files - maybe if you'd like to see it, you could join our modding Discord and I could help you understand how it could be done, make the mod yourself?  

Our modding scene is primarily PC-based where the file formats for models/textures are in HGPs and NUPs. There's one or two others in the Discord with a bit of console-modding experience and I believe they've taken a look at ghgs but it's not my expertise. 

Mehh i don't have the technical know-how to add mods. I prefer simple installers or possible developer mode/cheat/mods menu included in the options. Also i don't even touch Homebrew types of software with their launchers. The closest thing i've seen was a Multiman PS3 mod one of my cousins had.