Next Generation Orcs on the Marsh Mod

[The Rider]

Changes in the gameplay:

Runemages descriptions fixed. Added the hint "Mage" for every unit that can cast spells and is affected by the Archmage skill.

All fonts are with increased size and some colors for hints are changed.

Changed the Moral degree names (Terrible, Bad, Low, Neutral, Good, High, Excelent), also all levels with different colors.
Moral changes:
All units from one race +1 Morale
Mixed humans and elves in the army +1 Moral
All neutral units +1 Morale
Demons always have +1 Morale
Archdemon increases Morale for demons by 1
Greendragon increases Morale for mages by 1
Bone Dragon decreases enemy morale by 1
If there are enemy Dragons on the battlefield, all ally Giants have +2 Moral

Hunter changed to Arcane Archer. Enchanted Arrows cause different effects on the targets, depending on their race:
Demons are frozen (30% chance)
Undead are burn (30% chance)
Lizards are poisoned (30% chance)
Orcs are stunned (30% chance)
Dwarves are pushed back (30% chance)
Humans are always hit (no miss feature)
Beasts(as well sheeps) and Dragons suffer 150% damage.
Added Magic Resistance (30%) and Restoration ability.

Archdemons with two new abilities:
Hell Gate: resurrects demons and in the same time raises Archdemons (1 charge). This ability is recharded every time when the Archdemons kill an entire enemy stack.
Winds of Hell: all enemies are left with 1 HP (only top creature of the stack) and in the same time all allied demons are completly healed, Also removes poison, desease, burn and freeze effects from them (Reload 3 rounds)

Archamges now have 15% critical chance when in Battle Trance

All units damage range changed, the difference between minimum and maximum damage is now greater.

Favorite enemy: every 75 battles the favorite enemy is nulled and your human units can choose another in the next battle.

Meditation Trance: Certain spells do not end the current turn but allow the spellcaster to act again at the end of the round. At the end of the round the unit cannot cast another spell but either move or attack.
These spells are Holy Rage(Inquisitor), Cure(Priest), Magic Shield(Archmage), Call Bear(Druid), Demon Gate(Demonologist), Magic Lock(Necromant), All totems(Shamans), Blood Mark(Gorguana).

Bonus after battle: A new screen is shown after combat. There are several lrandom bonuses (some depend on the ammount of fights).
Bonus Attack, Defense or Intellect (for the whole game: Warrior +2 Attack, +1 Defense, +1 Intellect; Paladin +1 Attack, +2 Defense, +1 Intellect, Mage +1 Attack, +1 Defense, +2 Intellect)
Bonus Spells (at sertain point some spell scrolls are given, spells depend on the class and the ammount of fights)
Bonus Items: Gladiator Blade (40 fights for Warrior), True Belief Banner (40 fights for Paladin), Ancient Amulet (40 fights for Mage)
Bonus Runes: small chance (3-5% +1% per each Trophy skill level) for random runes.
Bonus Crystals: 1,2,4,6 crystals depending on Alchemy skill (no level, 1st,2nd,3d level)
Bonus Potions: small chance depending on different skills for Mana(Wisdom), Rage Potions(Rage skill), Mana Source (only with High Magic), Life Fruit (Power of Spirit), Blood of the Goddess (Glory)

Special item: Army Shop, that is given after 30 fights. You can buy more units from these types you already have in your army, buy/sell/exchange runes and crystalls.

New color set for Green Dragons (green wings) and Necromants (teal-purple robes and poison yellow-green wands).

Added new features in the arena:
Critical attacks now work not only with base attacks but with all special abilities.
New Parameter: Maximum Damage from Spells(it is called Spell Mastery), certain chance depending on hero level, High Magic level, few items and the Mana ammount.
When you scroll Spell Luck your spells do maximum damage (even post-hit poison attacks).
Doomed units (from spell "Doom") always take maximum damage from spells.
Gaudi doubles the max spell chance for undead and demons.

Now not only Ancient Vampires but Ancient Bats take zero damage from critical attacks. They still can take maximum damage from spells.

Green Dragons, Arcane Archers, Archmages and Runemages always take minimum damage from spells.
Demons always take minimum damage from fire spells.
Dwarves always take miminum damage from Ice Snake spell.
Undead always take minimum damage from poison spells.
Archdemons always do maximum damage to other 5th level units (added skill Uzurper).

Allied undead units always suffer minimum damage from Necromant Cloud attack (zero chance for critical hit on allies).
Allied demon units always suffer minimum damage from Imps Fire Ball attack (zero chance for critical hit on allies).


Skill Changes:

MIGHT
Heroism: +2,+4,+6 Attack (was +1, +3, +6)
Resistance: +2, +4, +6 Defense (was +1, +3, +5)
Anger: 20%/+2, 40%/+4, 60%/+8 Rage Increase/Maximum Rage (was 20%,40%,60% rage flow increase)
The Power of Darkness: +3, +5/1, +7/2 Attack AND Defense/Initiative of all Undead (was +3, +5/1, +7/2 Attack/Initiative)
Bloodlust: +6/+2, +12/+4, +18/+6 Maximum Rage/Attack (was +5,+10,+15 maximum rage)
Tactic skill level 2 increases the Action Points from the Run ability by 1.
Counterstrike: third level now gives the No counterattack ability for all units for the first round of the battle. Counterstrike affects ALL units, not only humanoid, but all non-humanoid units have half the chance to trigger it.

MIND
Prayer: +3%/+1, +5%/+2, +7%/+3 Critical Chance/Defense (was +3%,+5%,+7% Critical Chance)
Absolute Balance: +4/+1, +8/+2, +12/+3 Mana and Rage/Attack and Defense (was +4,+8,+12 Mana and Rage)
Dragon Voice: +1/+6, +1/+12, +2/+18 Morale to animals and dragons/Increases Maximum Rage (was +1,+1,+2 Morale)
Trophy now increases chance for random runes after battle
Holy Armor: -15%,-30%,-30% less damage for the first 1,1,2 rounds of the battle from all magical, fire, poison and astral attacks.

MAGIC
Linguistics: +2, +4, +6 Intellect (was +1, +3, +6 Intellect)
Order Magic: +6, +9, +12 Maximum Scrolls (was with no scolls bonus)
Distortion Magic: +2, +4, +6 Maximum Mana and Scrolls (was with no mana/scrolls bonus)
Chaos Magic: +6, +9, +12 Maximum Mana (was witn no mana bonus)
Thesis: +2/+8, +4/+16, +6/+24 Intellect/Maximum Mana (was +2/+7, +4/+14, +6/+21 Intellect/Maximum Mana)
High Magic increases Spell Mastery by 5% for each level.
Archmage: random spells are cast during the first round on the enemies.
Transmutation skill now gives +1,+2,+3 Mana for killing summoned units (it was always +1).

All skills rune requirement changed, now skills at the beggining of the mind/might/magic tree cost less, but advanced skills cost more.
Skill requirement consider the fact that you got more runes from the battles but still you will have enough runes for 2-3 additional skills, so you can try different combinations.

Some spells are changed:
Slow level 3 now is mass spell
Healing does double damage to undead
Life Light does more damage to undead (before that it did less damage than Fire Rain but for higher cost)
Poison Spit - significant damage increase, so it is now usefull
Resurrection cost decreased
Lightning spell damage now reflects its cost (its full usage is ofcourse the shock effect, but still the 30 mana cost was too high for almost no damage)
Mana Spring now gives +5,+7,+9 mana per level
other changes that I dont remember at the moment, but more spells last longer depending on the hero Intellect.

MEDALS:
Head hunter now increases not only rage but mana as well (up to max) +8,+16,+24 against enemy heroes. In these battles it gives +2,+4,+6 mana every round (stacked with Concentration skill)
All class medals now increase Attack, Defense or Intellect by +2,+4,+6 (it was +1,2,3) - so the difference between the classes is increased.
Treasure Searcher: +4,+7,+10% experience
Guardian Angel: +4,+7,+10% resistance
Iron Warrior: +8,+16,+24 rage
Battle Alchemy: +8,+16,+24 mana
Holy Warrior: +10%,+15%,+20% HP of all third level units


I am thinking to make high level enemy heroes to use the spell book twice per round, but I am not sure at the moment.

I will publish the mod next week because it needs some more tweaking and experiments and I have to get permission to use the Army Shop feature from the original author.
If you have other proposals and if they are not unreasonable I will try to implement them.

:)

[hasim]

Damn it Rider :-P - I just hope I manage to finish the new game I started before your mod comes out so I can play again.

[RichardTyler]

This looks tasty and very neat. Congrats!

Did I understand it well? You are going to release it soon, is that right?

The changes and modifications to the game look great, but do you plan to implement any new scenario (storyline)? Or will it be the old game (AP/Orcs) theme again?

[The Rider]

Yes, it will be released either on 15th or 16th November :) Unfortunately the scenario changes are not my strength, I dont know how to make changes in them. But anyone willing can use this mod as a base for new campaigns via the editor in the game - this mod changes some game parameters, it is not a new scenario or campaign :) And the good news is that this mod DOES NOT need a game restart - the only thing is that some bonuses after the battle are based on the number of battles fought and you will miss some bonuses but still it works without a flaw for all saves under Orcs on the Marsh.

[hasim]

Unfortunately the scenario changes are not my strength, I dont know how to make changes in them.

Then MAKE them your strength. Or ELSE... (I do not actually have anything to add after the "or else" I am just hoping you will not call my bluff)

[hotfix666]

Changes in the gameplay:)

Nice :D

[yujy]

Hi again, first of all congrats on your work, can't wait to try it out.
I do have a couple of suggestions / problems:
1. If you make the slow spell as a mass spell it will be greatly overpowered. To reduce its potency it might be a good idea to raise the mana cost and to reduce its power (for example not -3 speed but -2 or even -1).
2. I also noticed on your first mod, which i see integrated in this mod, that the anger skill gives you a lot more anger than it should (one small hit with little damage at round 20+ will fill up the rage bar; it gives around 40 rage); maybe you can reduce this to make it a little bit more balanced.
3. Could you add a 4th level to medals. For example when you 100 no loss battles ?

The "spoils of war", you showed in the screen shots at the end of yr. initial post, is only for killing enemy heroes, or its valid for any kind army destroyed? (i assume that its an upgrade to the initial mod which would mess them up when you received several bonuses)

[The Rider]

Hi Yuyi,
on your suggestions:
1. Slow spell is a mass spell but it doesnt lower speed by 3, it does it by 2. Another thing about mass spells - as I understand it, they cost so much mana, because penalty spells lower your morale by 1 - I am thinking at the moment to remove this, morale will be lowered if you have more then one penalty on your units, no as it is in this moment and lower a little bit the mana, because mana is always insufficient and I almost always spend it on resurrections or sacrifices or divine armors.
2. I know about that bug, when I was testing the mod, I wasnt sure what the numbers after 20%...40% etc is about, I learned that it increases the flow of anger by certain % and adds 1, 2 or 3 rage on top of that. It will stay as in the original :)
3. I will try to do this, the problem with medals is that not all of them can be modded. I am using the KB compilator and I wanted to give more wide variety of spells to be used with the medals, but it never worked, everything is ok with the mod but if I for example add fire rain to the Fire Mage medal, automatically with the start of the game you gain level III Fire Mage, cannt understand yet why is that, maybe some variables are used that are hardcodded. Another thing I wanted to implement by the medals - to raise by certain % the damage range of units, but this is implemented only on the basic attacks not on special attacks. (this was the reason I put critical strikes for specials too, because with the exception of Double Arrow all other special attacks do a little bit more damage on targets which is fine when you have lower chance for critical hit, but at the end of the game you score criticals with 40-60% chance and it is better to use base attacks and skip special attacks) I am working at the moment to make all items/medals damage variables to work with specials but it needs reworking all scripts :eek:

[marcinl0]

Great idea with your new mod, I have IMHO a few suggestions:

1. If possible, add the option to make your unit in army to have individual experience level & abilities, like pcbun in awesome KBAP mod:
http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=14741

2. Really, the total result maybe would be too overpowered and game finally "boring" even on Impossible difficulty - please really keep the total game balance, for whole gameplay.
For example, in Skill Changes I propose back to original values and even notably lower values of new bonuses if the mod gives so many new almighty, so powerful bonuses.
The total result would be pretty devastating for any enemy, even on beginning/middle of gameplay. I don't want fast game with my army of overpowered quick terminators of any 5-th level enemy units - where would be pleasure from gaming and strategic planning, thinking of wise development of hero, tactical solutions of battles with our even weaker forces?

[The Rider]

marcinl0, you are free not to play this mod :) Sorry but I will not waste energy to discuss this with you, we already agreed that we disagree in the previous topic.

[marcinl0]

Therefore, for whom you are creating only "overpowered" mods - only for your fans?

Again, what is the problem with two versions:

1. your "overpowered" for fun and

2. "balanced" for not "fun" players?


Or much better: maybe carefully see the pcbun answer for my question:

"I can't do it myself, and now like N3MES1S I see that current "fun" version with too fast exp gain is really too powerful and imbalanced for real KBAP players, especially in middle game units become "terminators" of the strongest 5 lvl enemy units. And in middle game I have 6 stacks of max 20 lvl troops... too many too easy too fast. I think only one especially selected fighting troop would be able to achieve 20 lvl in middle game.
And maybe extend max level maybe to 40 (with new abilities or seldom gain - every 10 lvl not 5) - it is dissapointing that in middle game the selected unit have max lvl, and further lvl up is not possible."

and good pcbun balance solution for ALL KB individual players:

"I can give you some quick note, but I won't do the balancing job.

edit:
expratio=1
set it to for example 0.1 will make exp increase 10 time slower.

if you want more lvl, here are the line
lvlmax={20,20,20,20,20,10,10,10,60}
while first five 20 are the max lvl of lvl 1-5 creatures, you can set the number max at 35

local lvlexp={500,1000,1500,2000,3000 ,5000,7500,10000,12500,15000 ,20000,25000,30000,40000,50000 ,60000,70000,80000,90000,100000 ,1100000,1200000,130000,140000,150000 ,160000,170000,180000,190000,20000 ,210000,220000,230000,240000,250000}
they are the exp need for each lvl. Adding value after it can increase in the max value(35) of maxlvl you can set.

lvlpenalty=0
set it to for example 5, all your creatures will start at a -5 AD at the beginning of the game if you turn on the lvl switch.

lvlattack=0.5 and lvldefense=0.5 the AD will increase or decrease after lvl up.

and the following function control HP of creatures
function healthfactor(lvl)
return (100+lvl*5)/100
end

Just try to amend it yourself if you want the best gameplay. I dun't think it will be easy to satisfy anybody at the beginning of making the mod(just like there are still members complain it's difficult to lvlup in the forum I usually go to), so I leave the mod to be amend as easy as possible.

Well, the org setting.lua is obviously play for fun, so a hardcore may need to do some extra job himself. Like rearrange the skill set or amending the power of skills themself.

Unlike most other mod, I try to encourage the player to DIY, just like I have relase a HOWTO to teach the modder how to make their own creation of unit to work with the lvl system, sadly in my cummunity using of master mod is very rare, so I dun think the HOWTO can help here.

No update will be made for this mod any more, while crossworld is coming up and will be a total new start, so this mod is already abandon.

P.S. kfs is zip file format, just use your winzip or winrar or 7z to unzip them and edit them.

Happy modding."
http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=14741&page=7

[yujy]

"marcinl0"

I think it was made clear that you opinion is noted but otherwise unneeded. If you what to do a hard core version I don't think "The Rider" wouldn't have any problems with you editing his mod (just an opinion here), but you can't force him to do anything. It's his mod and he will do whatever he wants to it.
As for pcburns mod, i changed the experience so that they level faster. I didn't try making him to do 10 versions to fit everyone.
Please don't answer this message just take in consideration what I told you and think about it (if you what).

[The Rider]

Just to make it clear, it is not overpowered. All enemy heroes are made much more stronger with added abilities to increase the power of their own armies and other abilities to weaken your army (I.e. some heroes decrease your initiative or speed by 1,2,3 for the first few rounds, other got the no-retaliation skill for certain ammount of rounds, others increase some resistances etc.) All enemy heroes over 30th level can cast twice per round, all enemy heroes over 55th level can cast three times per round - so no more Zag Zag casting two geysers for the whole battle or to reload battles just for the random spells they are using.

Creatures increase their health, speed, attack, defense or krit even without heroes, depending on the location (continents).
Another feature - if the enemy army has two or more stacks of spellcasters, random spells are casted on your army even without hero (not damage spell but defensless, curse, weakness, poison, slow etc)
I will read what MarcInL0 has written, maybe he has some good ideas, I just dont like his prejustice without actually seen what is offered.

And at last, the mod is created for all who want to play it, I dont collect "fans", first it was designed only for me, as all massive mods I have created for heroes 4 and 5 or other games I play (Neverwinter nights and other RPGs). I never published before one of them :)

[hasim]

It is now the 16th. Where is the mod? do not make me come over there ;)

[RichardTyler]

Rider: Thank you for taking the effort and producing this mod. I will be happy to try it out once you release it. As I mentioned before, it looks promising, the screenies are tasty! Take your time. I know how time consuming these things can be.

I hope you permit other fans to use it in future mods? (I mean non-commercial mods prepared by fans) It look too good not to be used.

[The Rider]

I am a week behind the start date of the mod, because I had to work during the last two weekends. So I will publish the mod tomorrow but WITHOUT two features - the enemy heroes/enemy creatures bonuses are not changed and runes for the skills are not changed. So I will call this the beta stage and I will be glad to hear all feedback you can give me.

@Richard, the mod is absolutely free and everyone can add-remove-change features in it. But because the changes I did are enourmous, one feature is added in few files and this can cause some problems if you change the code in only one file.

[The Rider]

Hi guys,
sorry to announce this but my computer got infected from a free DVD player I downloaded (Power DVD) and I had to provide it for service cleaning because I have important information on it. This will delay the providing of the mod. I am getting an error when I want to start KB - cycle function error (I have Steam version of KB, tried to reinstall and clear registry but nothing happened).

[zini4_tha_grunt]

Hie.
I'm is one of socreaters of "Crossworlds". With great interest looking foward when your mod is done. If you need any help or advice - you're wellcome.

[Mandea]

If you could assist him in modding the scenarios it would be great :)

[supersonu1]

Hi Rider,

Can you give us the approximate time when you will be releasing your mod? I am really looking forward to it as it will remove many annoyances for me and make the game enjoyable.

[marcinl0]

Maybe before 2010' end please?

[onepiece]

Maybe this year? Maybe a note saying you're okay and the mod is coming?