EI-Universal-Mod

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A Multiplayer-Friendly mod for Evil Islands : Curse of the Lost Soul. Inspired by EI-Mod, HG-Mod, and others.

This mod features a complete rebalance of the Multiplayer mode. Adds new materials, characters, etc... Several bugs and inconsistencies have also been patched or worked around.

The mod includes (but is not limited to):

• Gameplay

  • Severely reduced stamina consumption while sprinting
  • No XP loss on death; monetary loss increased ×10
  • XP scaling: XP is not split among players
  • Increased XP from monsters
  • Reduced perk cost multiplier
  • Simplified, rounded character stats
  • Realistic weight management

• Combat & Healing

  • Reworked melee combat
  • Reworked healing: potions are more common and cheaper
  • Most enemies drop items on death
  • Reworked loot tables

• Content & Economy

  • More quests and maps
  • New materials, runes, monsters, and blueprints
  • New NPCs; merchant inventories rebalanced and expanded
  • Skill and perk rebalance

• Assets & Localization

  • HD Lands integration and updated assets
  • Localization fixes and minor text corrections across dialogs and item names

And more!

Requires EIStarter & SpellAddon, available in the Releases section also provided in the tools/ directory (with pre-configured .ini settings) OR these can also be manually downloaded from these links below

Starter 2.0 SpellAddon

Starter 1.046 (Deprecated)

We value feedback! If you have any comments to make please open an Issue on this repo.

Installation

You need to pick which branch of the mod you want to play with, the beta branch is currently recommended as it contains the latest fixes, balance changes, and has overall more content.

Download the mod

• [Recommended – Stable] - Download the Latest archive of this mod
• [Testing – Beta] - Download the Pre-Release archive of this mod (automatically built from the beta branch and updated after each new commit)
• [Advanced – Development] Download the entire repo and link the mod directory to EIStarter's Mod directory

Install the mod

• Download & extract the Evil Islands Addon 2.0, located in tools/eistarter_obt_1.7z (skip if you already have it installed)
• Copy (or make a junction/symlink) the Universal-Mod directory into the <EIStarter Path>/Mods directory
• Run EIStarter and select "Universal-Mod", then click "Play"

Linux only : Extra steps to run the game with WINE

WINE requires a few DLL overrides to run EIStarter properly, otherwise the injection will fail and the game will launch in vanilla.

It is strongly recommended to install the game with Lutris, as it provides a dedicated environment to run the game.

Here is how to set it up with Lutris:

• Open Lutris and right click on your game then open the Properties menu
• Switch to the Game options tab and select the starter executable (EIStarter.exe)
• Go to the Runner options and add the following DLL override: dinput as the Key and n,b as Value.
• Save and play!

If you use EIStarter 2.0 instead of the old version, you need to install dotnet8 and vcrun2022. Simply select your game in Lutris and click the WINE drop-down menu, then open Winetricks and install dotnet8 & vcrun2022 from there.

Hosting & Joining Servers

The master servers of this game have been shut down long ago, therefore server discovery is no longer possible unless you use a few community servers.

Unless you use a master server, the multiplayer menu will be empty unless there is a host on your local network. Connecting to a game has to be done directly, which means by connecting to an IP manually, this can be done in the Multiplayer menu. Simply enter the IP of the other player hosting the game, if everything goes right then you should see a ping value, if this value is 999 that means either the IP is invalid, or the host didn't setup their NAT/Firewall to allow incoming connections.

In order to host servers for this game outside of a local network (LAN), you need to open the port 8888/UDP, this must be done on your router configuration panel. Then your compouter should display a prompt asking to allow the game to access the firewall, this must be granted.

Troubleshooting

If the game crashes or freezes after clicking on Multiplayer, edit the ei_plugin.ini config file and add a new line containing NewMaster=0. Then save and retry launching multiplayer.

Assets ownership

Some community assets used in this mod have unclear ownership. We use them only within the Universal Mod project and do not claim any rights over them. If any rights holder requests removal, we will comply immediately. If we accidentaly used assets that we do not have permission to use, then please feel free to submit an issue and point which assets we used without permission, mistakes can happen. For every asset that we created, we require from modders using our assets to link Universal Mod in the credits, that includes the mod name, along with the repository link.

Disclaimer

This mod was developed using the HD Lands texture pack. Large visual-overhaul mods (for example, "Evil Islands: Rebirth") that modify base game files are not officially supported because they can cause visual inconsistencies and incompatibilities when running additional mods. Universal Mod may work with such variants, but full compatibility is not guaranteed.

• We do not own any of the tools used except um-multitool, um-bot, um.dll / um-engine.dll (see License) and the scripts in ei-multitool; the other binaries used are community tools.
• Some files included in extra-assets/reference-assets come from the vanilla game, some others come from other mods.
• This mod was developed with contributions from both Western and Russian modders. It is strictly a passion project, and we do not endorse or engage in any political discussions or conflicts. Our goal is solely to enhance and preserve an old game we love.

This repository contains a mix of original code, community-created assets, and files from Evil Islands mostly for reference purposes.

Universal Mod Multitool

um-multitool (tools/um-multitool) is the toolkit we use to build this mod, in a single program for Windows and Linux. It runs as a GUI or from the command line.

• File Processing: converts textures (.dds <-> .mmp) and configs (.ini <-> .reg), packs and unpacks .res / .mq archives, dumps .mob maps, edits the gameplay database (with checks), the language packs and multiplayer characters (.mp).
• 3D Viewer: browses every item and unit of the database with its model and textures. Units are dressed like in the game, custom skins can be tried on them, and GIFs and UV maps can be exported.
• Map Editor: edits .mob maps and .mpr terrains, quests and their scripts, checks them like the game does, and rebuilds the navmesh like the game does (no more navmesh regeneration at load time).
• UM DLL Connector: talks to the running game through um.dll: stats, quests and scripts live, and a game console.

Use of AI

A large part of the tools in this repository (um-multitool, um.dll) was written with the help of AI. The code remains reviewed, tested and maintained by humans.

The file formats the tools read and write (.mp characters, navmeshes, terrains, maps, databases, textures...) were reverse-engineered with AI, from the game's executable and its files. The results were then compared at the binary level with the game's own files and with the older community tools, to make sure the files we produce are exactly what the game engine expects.

License

um-multitool (tools/um-multitool), um-bot (tools/um-bot) and um.dll with um-engine.dll (resources/universal-mod/um-dll, resources/universal-mod/um-engine) are free software: you can redistribute them and/or modify them under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version (GPL-3.0-or-later; the full text is in LICENSE). They are distributed in the hope that they will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Their source files say so in their first lines (SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-3.0-or-later).

Copyright (C) 2026 Kyr4l.

Not covered by that license, and kept under their owners' terms:

• the mod's content: Universal-Mod/, the rest of resources/, extra-assets/ (see Assets ownership); the files that come from Evil Islands belong to its rights holders (Nival Interactive);
• the other tools in tools/ (SpellAddon has its own license, third-party-tools/ belong to their authors);
• the tools' logos, icons and splash screen (tools/um-multitool/assets, tools/um-bot/assets and the icon_data.hpp made from them), which are renders of the game's own models and textures;
• um-multitool's two alert sounds (tools/um-multitool/sfx);
• the EI ATD command descriptions in tools/um-multitool/mapedit/atd_script_functions.hpp, which come from the EI ATD modder's scripts.htm;
• the libraries bundled with um-multitool and um-bot, which keep their own licenses, all compatible with the GPL (see Libraries): Dear ImGui (MIT, tools/um-multitool/vendor/imgui/LICENSE.txt), GLFW (zlib/libpng, built into the Windows executables), miniaudio (public domain / MIT-0) and stb_image (public domain / MIT).

Credits

SpellAddon & EI ATD Developers:

• VeryGoodGirl
• PlayHard_GoPro

https://evilislandsaddon.forumotion.com/ https://vk.com/evil_islands_addon

Community tools and sources our file-format work builds on

The formats of the game (.res, .mob, .mpr, .fig / .mod / .lnk, .anm, .bon, .mmp, the databases...) were documented by the Evil Islands community long before this project. Our readers, writers and editors (um-multitool, um.dll) were written with their sources and tools at hand, and compared against them byte by byte. Our thanks, and credit, go to:

• konstvest: ei_maper (map and .mob editor, GPL-3.0) and ei_figer (Blender import / export of models, animations and morphs, GPL-3.0). Their source is our main reference for .mob, .mpr, figures, animations and for how the editor behaves; the Map Editor follows ei_maper's rules for object placement, logic, patrol points and traps.
• Demoth: eipacker (the .res archive format and its hash table), MobExplorer and eisc_con (.mob files and the mission script checker), and the help given to many other community projects.
• VeryGoodGirl: EN_VGG_EDITOR, whose full description of every .mob field and every script command we used as a reference.
• aspadm: EI-HD-tiles (tile atlas generator and the documentation of how the terrain tiles are built from base materials and blend masks). Free to use under its own terms: no commercial use, credit the author.
• The authors of DBEditor (the gameplay database format; its changelog thanks Robin and Sagrer), ZoneView (zone viewer, source of the minimap look) and MMPStudio (.mmp textures): the formats these tools read and write are documented in docs/file-formats.
• Nival Interactive: the game itself, and the ini2reg / reg2ini tools of its modding kit.
• WinterSnowfall (D7VK) and the DXVK authors (Philip Rebohle, Joshua Ashton, Robin Kertels): studied while researching a modern graphics layer for the game's DirectDraw / Direct3D 7 renderer.

Libraries

um-multitool bundles Dear ImGui (Omar Cornut, MIT), GLFW (Marcus Geelnard, Camilla Löwy, zlib/libpng), miniaudio (David Reid, public domain / MIT-0) and stb_image (Sean Barrett, public domain).

Reverse engineering of the game engine

The game's executable was analysed with Cutter / rizin and the Ghidra decompiler (through rz-ghidra), alongside the community documentation above. Thanks to their authors.

Special thanks to :

• Atom (Atm)
• SunGuru
• As bestos
• HD Lands Team

Спасибо