New Mod Heroes of Might and Magic 3 Babies!

[MattCaspermeyer]

The mod can be downloaded here! (http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=29080)

What if you and the various wives in King's Bounty: The Legend created the Heroes of Might and Magic 3?

That is the premise of a new mod that I'm working on that I'm classing more as a micro / mini expansion pack for King's Bounty: The Legend.

The mod is currently in the alpha stage and I am in the quality assurance phase of the project.

Nonetheless, the mod is sufficiently stable to play a game all the way through and nearing a beta release!

If you are interested in play testing this mod / mini / micro expansion and providing feedback on your experience, then P.M. me with your email address and I will email you the pertinent files.

Note that due to the state of the project, files are still being modified and changed regularly as the quality assurance phase finds and fixes errors that I've made; however, every change has been tested at least once and so I'm hoping to cycle through the code and check more permutations for errors / issues that are currently unknown to me.

Here is the link to the YouTube video: http://youtu.be/JE0VbSnfYkM

Please watch and provide comments!

I've spent over a year working on this project in my free time after working long days at work and it is now time for people to start playing it and provide me feedback. I'm very proud of the work I've done and it will revolutionize how you play the game!

More information to follow shortly!

Matt

P.S. I'm not affiliated in any way with 1CC or Katauri Interactive and I'm hoping to create some modding guides in the future once I finish this project from everything I've learned during this process.

[Fatt_Shade]

Great job man. It a big change, and a lott of work to make all this in game :-)
I like your idea for spell moding, and partial skill bonuses for units (like in AP neatness give bonus only for mechanic and no other unit :-( , bad idea developers ). Now demons dont have any bonus in all skill from any hero class, elves almost the same no bonuses ecsept quick draw for archers.
I mainly play CW now, but check forum for other KB games and find jewel from time to time, like your mod. I would like to check it if possible to see how you changed hero skill files and spells to try to transfer it to AP/CW.
Couple questions : why not edit all spirit skills (not massive changes, but just to add something new)?
did you add/change any items here ? , and how did you add stats bonus to some spells (like phoenix summon from skill) ?
If i earn any gold from moding i make for AP/CW, i`ll send you % from it :-D
W8ing for your mod to see what else you managed (asmirhetf@yahoo.com).
Keep up with great ideas man :-)

[MattCaspermeyer]

Thanks! It has been a lot of work, but very rewarding at the same time!

You're reading my mind about AP/CW. The idea was to release the mod on The Legend first, since I think it is superior to AP/CW in the spirit area (but AP/CW superior in other areas) and then translate the mod to AP/CW.

The mod will be called Tomes of Heroes of Might and Magic 3 and instead of the HOMM3 heroes being babies, they'll be tomes (or books) that you can equip on your hero. The same system will be used to update those expansion packs eventually, but it takes time!

As far as the spirit abilities are concerned, I love the spirit abilities in The Legend, but this is where I think the developers failed in AP/CW as all the pet dragons have the same abilities. Once again, you're reading my mind, but the idea would be to look at the AP/CW spirit abilities and then take the 9 individual abilities and have 3-6 be common between the similar pet dragons and then add many new abilities to give that pet dragon a personality - just like I feel the spirits in The Legend have. I'm not even sure if it's doable, but that was one of my ideas.

As far as items are concerned, the new HOMM3 babies count as items (163 new babies + 2 new wives), but I did not add any new items since I felt that it had already been done with the Gift Bag and AP/CW.

Give me a bit of time (should be done today) to put together a little README.TXT file for my mod and then I'll email it to you so that you can check it out. I think you'll really enjoy the challenge of playing - especially the limitations to Mana / Rage gain and the new impossible difficulty bonuses! Also I have no problem if you want to implement anything I've done in AP/CW (or even TL for that matter) - just give me credit. I'll eventually get to transferring this mod to AP/CW, but that is still quite a bit on the horizon right now!

:)

Great job man. It a big change, and a lott of work to make all this in game :-)
I like your idea for spell moding, and partial skill bonuses for units (like in AP neatness give bonus only for mechanic and no other unit :-( , bad idea developers ). Now demons dont have any bonus in all skill from any hero class, elves almost the same no bonuses ecsept quick draw for archers.
I mainly play CW now, but check forum for other KB games and find jewel from time to time, like your mod. I would like to check it if possible to see how you changed hero skill files and spells to try to transfer it to AP/CW.
Couple questions : why not edit all spirit skills (not massive changes, but just to add something new)?
did you add/change any items here ? , and how did you add stats bonus to some spells (like phoenix summon from skill) ?
If i earn any gold from moding i make for AP/CW, i`ll send you % from it :-D
W8ing for your mod to see what else you managed (asmirhetf@yahoo.com).
Keep up with great ideas man :-)

[Helios]

Wow, fantastic work, Matt! These are some great ideas to spice things up, and hopefully increase the challenge. I haven't played HOMM3, so I'm unfamiliar with that portion, but I can't say I disagree with any of the changes I could see in the YouTube video. The wives, childrens, and Phoenix summons were in desperate need of revision.

I'm definitely going give your mod a try--I'm currently in the middle of my self-modded all Dwarf game--and will let you know when I get to it. This sounds like it will add a lot of replay to KBtL.

(Unfortunately, I can't read the in-game screens on the YouTube video due to my monitor's limitations, so I can't comment on them yet, but will check it out again on a different monitor.)

EDIT: OK, I've seen the trailer on a different monitor now. It sounds very interesting, and will definitely make the game a serious challenge with enemy heroes regaining mana, for instance. How did you come up with the numbers for the changes you made, for example: the huge increase in mana cost for the Helplessness spell? And have you done much checking for game balance, yet?

[MattCaspermeyer]

With respect to a lot of the changes I made, I used a formulaic approach to the value adjustments.

For example, if any spell was mass at level 3 and the only difference between its level 2 and level 3 values were mass, then I simply multiplied the mana cost by 5 (assuming it could be cast on 5 units simultaneously). This way, all the spells that I made mass (list coming shortly) are essentially automatically balanced if I get the mana cost for level 2 right.

I also used a formulaic approach for computing the mana cost for each spell level based on a formula that compared the increase in spell values from level 1 to level 2 and then applied the average increase to the mana cost. This makes the spell mana cost parameter driven which aids in balancing out the costs.

The only issue is then whether the level 1 values are consistent. This is the subjective part here and may be a part that needs some tweaking based on feedback, but I think I got the "feel" of most spell's level 1 mana cost about right and therefore the level 2 and 3 values "feel" right to me since they are all driven. I still have a favored spell's list so I'm biased by that and so could use feedback on spells that I don't use as often. Time will tell.

I essentially used this same formulaic approach for the skill tree where I compared the level 1 values to level 2 and 3. So for example if I had a skill that gave +5%, +15%, and +30% to a value, then I could simply decide what I wanted the runes to be for level 1, and then level 2 would use twice as many runes (15-5 = +10 - twice as much as +5) and then level 3 would be the sum of the rune cost for level 1 and level 2 (levels 1 and 2 brought you to +15 so spend the same amount for another +15). Once again if a skill had more than one value, then I averaged the increases to get an estimate. I used a master skill list rune cost and compared it to the number of runes you could get via level up to determine if the level 1 skill runes needed to change. Once again, somewhat subjective, but I had the total rune count to aid me with reducing / increasing the level 1 skill value and then the level 2 and 3 runes were automatically computed.

With respect to the additional values that some skils have, I used (I think it was) Razorflame's original post plus people's comments (along with my own opinion) to give weak skills more bonuses to make them better. Now I feel most skills are pretty useful especially with respect to those skills in your hero's class skill tree.

By the way, for those who played my Emperor of the Fading Suns Hyperion mod back in the day, I used this same formulaic approach to design units that were based on their resource inputs. This worked incredibly well for designing well-balanced units and I received a tremendous amount of positive feedback to how good the mod was because of this methodology.

So I approached this mod with the same mindset and I think it has worked incredibly well so far. Time will tell, and certainly I only have a sample of 1 right now and so will rely on feedback to aid with setting up the initial conditions, but I can tell you that I'm having more fun playing this instead of Armored Princess and Crossworlds, which I will hopefully get to modding after I'm done with this mod.

For spirit abilities, I used another set of formulas to aid in setting the power, rage, etc. values. Single-target abilities grow by a factor of 100%, while multi-target, and all-target attacks grow by a formula based on level (which are more percentage based on the level 1 damage than the current level damage). The idea here was that Single-target abilities would do the most damage since they targeted a single unit, then multi-target abilities would do the next most damage, and all-target abilities the least so that there was some strategy associated with choosing an ability.

I did a similar thing for spells so that single target spells would not be so useless and the burn and poison damage system made choosing those spells more interesting because Magic Pole Axe might do more damage this turn, but Flaming Arrow or Poison Skull might do more damage over 2-4 turns. Also Ghost Sword does less damage than Magic Pole Axe, but may be able to do more damage than Magic Pole Axe to units with good physical resistance.

You also probably get more bang per buck with Flaming Arrow than Fire Ball or Fire Rain, but it takes longer to do more damage to multiple targets with Flaming Arrow and so there's the trade-off there. Then with respect to Fire Ball and Fire Rain, Fire Ball does more damage to the central target but less damage to the peripheral targets, whereas Fire Rain does more average damage to all targets.

These and other tradeoffs went through the spell redesign process and how to make spells more usefull and add strategy to their use. The original spell list balance I thought was especially weak and I only thought a handful of spells were useful. Now I feel that there are fewer useless spells.

Anyway, I've actually placed a lot of thought into the game and I've played the Mage 3 times, Warrior once, and am just starting my 2nd Paladin game all with my mod over the past year since I started (I've found that it seems to take me about 2 months or so to finish a game, when I'm playing, analyzing, modding, adding new features, and fixing issues).

I basically learned how to do virtually everything myself with the help of some of the posts in this forum. Unfortunately, since I got into this game about 2 years after it was released, I wasn't able to get really any help from any of the modders and developers of the game. This was especially true when it came to editing the *.CHAT files with their hexadecimal codes that I couldn't figure out how to generate. I PM'd quite a few people and essentially either no one responded or they responded with information that I already knew. So I basically had to just try it out and figure it out as I went.

The changes to River Fairy Diana and the new addition of Orcelyn Ordy seem to work okay, but I have no idea if there are any side effects from what I did since I couldn't get any help. Also, unfortunately, the Crossworlds Editor cannot import The Legend *.CHAT files - it crashes to desktop when I do it. So I had to look at the other wives as examples and have the new wife *.CHAT files use a lot of the same code.

More play testing will tell whether I got this right or not, but I was able to finish my last game with the River Fairy Diana changes. Orcely Ordy is completely new for this go around and I need to work on her dialog to make it more interesting, but you can at least talk to her and have babies!

By the way I'm slowly working on the Change List and have completed the *.ATOM change list and will post it shortly after this post.

Feel free to ask any more questions!

Wow, fantastic work, Matt! These are some great ideas to spice things up, and hopefully increase the challenge. I haven't played HOMM3, so I'm unfamiliar with that portion, but I can't say I disagree with any of the changes I could see in the YouTube video. The wives, childrens, and Phoenix summons were in desperate need of revision.

I'm definitely going give your mod a try--I'm currently in the middle of my self-modded all Dwarf game--and will let you know when I get to it. This sounds like it will add a lot of replay to KBtL.

(Unfortunately, I can't read the in-game screens on the YouTube video due to my monitor's limitations, so I can't comment on them yet, but will check it out again on a different monitor.)

EDIT: OK, I've seen the trailer on a different monitor now. It sounds very interesting, and will definitely make the game a serious challenge with enemy heroes regaining mana, for instance. How did you come up with the numbers for the changes you made, for example: the huge increase in mana cost for the Helplessness spell? And have you done much checking for game balance, yet?

[MattCaspermeyer]

Okay, here is the list of changes for all the *.ATOM files I changed in the game:

New ATOM Abilities and Changes
------------------------------

If a stat says +X or -Y delta it means that it is a change relative to its previous value. For example if it says Resist All +8 it means that each resistance is increase 8 points.
Also Resist All does not apply to astral resistance (just like the spell Divine Armor). Astral resistance is special and needed in order for certain damage effects to work correctly (like Ghost Sword) and so I have not changed any astral resistance values.


Alchemist - Resist All +8 delta
Skeleton Archer - Dragon Arrow:

May now be used when adjacent to an enemy without penalty
May target any unit on the battlefield (even if enemies are adjacent)

Friendly Tower

Base spells:

Haste - level dependent on tower level
Summon - level dependent on tower level
Dispel - level dependent on tower level

New extensible spell list based on:

Race (i.e. human, undead, neutral)
Feature (i.e. beauty, shot, humanoid)
Belligerence (i.e. friend or foe)

Random spells from "good spells" list

Evil Tower

Base Spells:

Slow - level dependent on tower level
Summon - level dependent on tower level
Dispel - level dependent on tower level

New extensible spell list based on:

Race (i.e. human, undead, neutral)
Feature (i.e. beauty, shot, humanoid)
Belligerence (i.e. friend or foe)

Random spells from "evil spells" list

Barbarian

New features:

Immune to mind spells
Primal Link (+2 morale to hyenas, graywolves, and all bears)

Fire, Physical, and Poison Resistance: +5 delta

Berserker - new features:

Primal Link (+2 morale to hyenas, graywolves, and all bears)
Fire, Physical, and Poison Resistance: +5 delta

Bear - new feature: Noble Beast (+2 moral to Barbarians and Berserkers)
Ancient Bear - new feature: Noble Beast (+2 moral to Barbarians and Berserkers)
Polar Bear - new feature: Noble Beast (+2 moral to Barbarians and Berserkers)
Black Dragon

Normal attack now has a 35% chance to burn target
Special attack now has a 70% chance to burn target

Bone Dragon - Special attack now has a 100% (+10% delta) chance to poison target
Bowman - Dragon Arrow:

May now be used when adjacent to an enemy without penalty
May target any unit on the battlefield (even if enemies are adjacent)

Cannoneer - Resist All +8 delta
Cyclops - new features:

Stone Creature (resists 80% of arrow damage after physical resist)
Fire, Physical, Poison Resistance: +20 delta

Reaper:

Reaping:

Ability values changed
2 more levels:

Rage reduction
Rest reduction

Rage Drain:

Ability values changed
3 more levels:

1 Ability level
2 Rage reduction levels

Time Back:

Rage consumption and experience values changed
Added 1 new rest reduction level

Black Hole: ability values changed

Demon - domination is supposed to be +50% damage to level 1-3 creatures; however the min damage was wrong and has been fixed
Druid:

Cast Bear - now has a reload of 4 instead of just 1 charge
Cast Bear:

The custom parameters are now based on percent leadership
"caster" parameter removed since it wasn't being used

Dryad - Cast Thorn custom parameters now based on percent leadership
Dwarf - Resist All +7 delta
Elf - Dragon Arrow:

May now be used when adjacent to an enemy without penalty
May target any unit on the battlefield (even if enemies are adjacent)

Hunter - Dragon Arrow:

May now be used when adjacent to an enemy without penalty
May target any unit on the battlefield (even if enemies are adjacent)

Ent:

New features:

Wood Creature (resists 40% of arrow damage after physical resist)
Spirit of the Forest (+2 Morale to Royal Thorns)
Entangle
Poison Immunitity (see resistances)

Attacks changed:

New ability rooted (Tap Tree of Life)
New ability Summon Plant

New animation for Summon Plant
Main attack now has a 50% chance of entangling the unit (entangled units cannot move)
Resistances:

Fire: +50 delta
Magic: +50 delta
Physical: +25 delta
Poison: +30 delta (Poison Immunity)

Wasps ability

Can now be used when units are adjacent and can target non-adjacent units
Distance: +1 delta
No penalty for attacking adjacent units

Run ability is now disabled and only enabled after the Ent uses its Tap Tree of Life ability

Ancient Ent:

New features:

Wood Creature (resists 40% of arrow damage after physical resist)
Spirit of the Forest (+2 Morale to Royal Thorns)
Entangle
Poison Immunitity (see resistances)

Attacks changed:

New ability rooted (Tap Tree of Life)
New ability Summon Greater Plant
Reload ability removed

New animation for Summon Plant
New Run ability
Main attack now has a 50% chance of entangling the unit (entangled units cannot move)
Resistances:

Fire: +75 delta
Magic: +75 delta
Physical: +30 delta
Poison: +30 delta (Poison Immunity)

Wasps ability

Can now be used when units are adjacent and can target non-adjacent units
Distance: +1 delta
No penalty for attacking adjacent units
Now reloads @3

Run ability is now disabled and only enabled after the Ent uses its Tap Tree of Life ability

Evil Book Spell Level 1:

New features - Poison Immunity
Statistic changes:

Initiative: +2 delta
Hitback Protection (i.e. units cannot retaliate)
Resitances:

Physical: +5 delta
Poison: +30 delta
Fire: +5 delta

Charges - spell cast charges = 1

Evil Book Spell Level 2:

New features - Poison Immunity
Statistic changes:

Attack: +10 delta
Defense: +10 delta
DefenseUp: +3 delta
Initiative: +2 delta
Speed: +1 delta
Hitback Protection (i.e. units cannot retaliate)
Resistances:

Physical: +10 delta
Poison: +30 delta
Fire: +10 delta
Damage: +10 delta to +25 delta
Charges - spell cast charges = 2 (+1 delta)
Evil Book Spell Level 3:

New features - Poison Immunity
Statistic changes:

Attack: +35 delta
Defense: +35 delta
DefenseUp: +9 delta
Initiative: +2 delta
Speed: +2 delta
Critical Hit: +15 delta
Hitback Protection (i.e. units cannot retaliate)
Resistances:

Physical: +15 delta
Poison: +30 delta
Fire: +15 delta
Damage: +30 delta to +80 delta
Charges - spell cast charges = 3 (+2 delta)
Ghost

Resistances:

Physical: +30 delta
Poison: +30 delta
Magic: -100 delta
Damage type: Magic
Life Drain: 100% of damage (+70% was 30%)
Cursed Ghost

Resistances:

Physical: +30 delta
Poison: +30 delta
Magic: -100 delta
Damage type: Magic
Life Drain: 100% of damage (+50% was 50%)
Giant - Resist All: +10 delta
Green Dragon - Magic Resistance: +20 delta
Horseman - New ability: Charge! (similar to Cerberus Take in Armored Princess)
Imp - Fire Shot: +15% chance to burn target (was 0%)
Scoffer Imp - Fire Shot: +15% chance to burn target (was 0%)
Royal Thorn:

New features:

Thorn Commander (+3 to allied Thorns)
Poison Immunity
Resistances

Poison: +30 delta
Fire: +25 delta
Cast Thorn - custom parameters are now based on percent leadership
Distance: +1 delta
Lina:

Chargers: Ability values changed
Ice Ball:

Ability values changed
New ability values:

Attack - Gizmo's attack now increases
Defense - Gizmo's defense now increases
Initiative - Gizmo's initiative now increases
2 more levels

1 more rage level
1 more rest level
Ice Thorns:

Ability values changed
2 more levels

1 more rage level
1 more rest level
Gizmo:

Ability values changed
New ability values:

Charges - now many times Gizmo can Attack / Resurrect before it disappears
Action Points - how far can Gizmo move before it stops
Initiative - when does Gizmo move

1 more rest level

Miner - Resist All: +5 delta
Ice Orb:

New features:

Mind Immunity
Poison Immunity (see resistances)

Statistic:

Attack: +10 delta
Defense: +10 delta
DefenseUp: +8 delta

Resistances:

Physical: +55 delta
Poison: +80 delta (Poison Immunity)
Fire: +50 delta

Phoenix Spell Level 1 (Young Phoenix):

New features:

Mind Immunity
Golem

Statistics:

Attack: +5 delta
Defense: +5 delta
Initiative: +2 delta
Speed: +1 delta

Resistances:

Physical: +10 delta
Poison: +5 delta
Fire: +100 delta (super immunity)

Damage:

50% astral
50% fire
Burn: +40% delta (now 70%)

Phoenix Spell Level 2 (Mature Phoenix):

New features:

Mind Immunity
Golem

Statistics:

Attack: +20 delta
Defense: +15 delta
Initiative: +2 delta
Speed: +1 delta
Critical Hit: -5% delta

Resistances:

Physical: +15 delta
Poison: +10 delta
Fire: +100 delta (super immunity)

Damage:

50% astral
50% fire
Overal: +10 delta to +20 delta
Burn: +35% delta (now 85%)

Phoenix Spell Level 3 (Ancient Phoenix):

New features:

Mind Immunity
Golem

Statistics:

Attack: +50 delta
Defense: +30 delta
DefenseUp: +7 delta
Initiative: +2 delta
Speed: +1 delta
Critical Hit: -10% delta

Resistances:

Physical: +20 delta
Poison: +15 delta
Fire: +100 delta (super immunity)

Damage:

50% astral
50% fire
Overal: +20 delta to +0
Burn: +30% delta (now 100%)

Red Dragon - normal attack now has 25% chance to cause burning
Sleem:

Poisonous Spit - ability values changed
Evil Shoal - ability values changed
Cloud of Poison - ability values changed
Glot's Armor

Ability values changed
Resist All: +50 delta

Fire Spider:

New Features:

Demon
Poison Immunity -> Poison Defense (see resistances)
Fire Defense -> Fire Reistance (see resistances)

Resistances:

Poison: -25 delta (was +50 now is +25)
Fire: +25 delta (was +25 now is +50)

Sprite

New feature - cutie (similar to beauty - humanoids miss 20% of the time)
New avoid animation to go with cutie

Lake Fairy

New feature - cutie (similar to beauty - humanoids miss 20% of the time)
New avoid animation to go with cutie

Zerock:

Smashing Sword

New ability values
Now causes bleeding (100% of the time)
Bleeding decreases target's attack and defense

Stone Wall

New ability values
New defense parameter (value based on level)
New Resist All parameter (value based on level)

Rockfall

New ability values
Now causes stunning (percent based on level)

Underground Blades

New ability values
Now causes bleeding (percent based on level)

Stone Wall
Defense: +10 delta
Resist All: -1 delta

Thorn-Hunter:

New feature - Poison Immunity (see resistances)
New ability - Gift of Life (sacrifices unit to heal / resurrect another plant)
Poison Resistance: +30 delta (Poison Immunity)
Sowing - custom parameters are now based on percent leadership
New animation for Gift of Life

Thorn Warrior:

New feature - Poison Immunity (see resistances)
New ability - Gift of Life (sacrifices unit to heal / resurrect another plant)
Poison Resistance: +30 delta (Poison Immunity)
Sowing - custom parameters are now based on percent leadership
New animation for Gift of Life

Werewolf Elf / Werewolf- New Leader of the Pack (+1 Morale to Graywolves)



I can provide the rationale for any change if you have any questions about why I decided to change it - feel free to ask and this posting should serve as a good basis for discussion.

I'll try to work on the other file list changes over the next couple of weeks or so and get them out as well.

Thanks for reading!

/C\/C\ Matt

Click Here for the *.LNG List (http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showpost.php?p=362984&postcount=23)
Click Here for the *.TXT List (http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showpost.php?p=363535&postcount=28)

[Fatt_Shade]

Hello Mat :-) I dl your mod and checked some things i wanted to copy to CW (spell mechanics, change to partial skill bonuses etc), but when i actually try to play game with your mod i get error : Error signature App name kb.exe, App version 0.0.0.0 . . .
So i cant even start game with your mod in game/data/mods/mod_homm3_babies . . .
What patch did you make mod for ? Or am i missing something else :-(

[Erkilmarl]

Matt: The game won't load. I checked the lng files but can't imagine any other prefix than eng_ since my game is the english version, from the original (European if that matters) DVD disc, updated to version 1.7.

[ShuiMienLung]

Incredible list of mods! This is going to be one that I download and try out in detail; thanks!

Some commentary and questions:
- mature & ancient phoenixes need to be Spell Level 2 & 3 (both say 1).
- fire spider has a vulnerability to poison (-25), your description says "Poison Defense"; should this be +25?
- for the Thorn plants' "Gift of Life", possibly change the name to "Mulch"? :)

I know that items + wives + troops all give cumulative morale bonuses (for example, human + undead + demon without Tolerance == really bad human morale), but:
- is it correct that between WerElf and Barbarians, grey wolves could get +3 morale?
- do BOTH barbarian and berserker give +2 morale (total == +4) to bears?
- same question for dryad + ent + ancient ent (total == +5) to royal thorns?

[MattCaspermeyer]

I really apologize for this. I'm not sure if you read the included README, but the version that I made the mod on is for the Gamer's Gate V1.7 version of the game.

Please let me know the steps you followed to try to play the mod. I'll also try to perform some steps on my end to see if I can duplicate your error messages.

If it ends up being a version issue, I might need you to email me the ses.kfs and loc_ses.kfs files (in the sessions\base folder) to see if the file names are different.

We'll get this figured out!:)

/C\/C\

Hello Mat :-) I dl your mod and checked some things i wanted to copy to CW (spell mechanics, change to partial skill bonuses etc), but when i actually try to play game with your mod i get error : Error signature App name kb.exe, App version 0.0.0.0 . . .
So i cant even start game with your mod in game/data/mods/mod_homm3_babies . . .
What patch did you make mod for ? Or am i missing something else :-(

Matt: The game won't load. I checked the lng files but can't imagine any other prefix than eng_ since my game is the english version, from the original (European if that matters) DVD disc, updated to version 1.7.

[MattCaspermeyer]

Thanks for the comments!

I'll fix the Phoenix Spell Levels (forgot to change those when I copied and pasted).

As far as the changes are concerned for the Fire Spider I mean that it is -25 from its original value (I should state what it was previously) and so it was 50 and now is 25.

That's funny with "Mulch"!

As far as morale bonuses are concerned, they are not cumulative. For example you can't take 5 Knights put 1 in each slot and have +5 Morale to all your knights. Same bonuses do not stack. So since Barbarians and Berserkers are both Primal Link, then two Primal Links does not stack, but Barbarians with Werewolf Elves are two different bonuses (Primal Link and Leader of the Pack) so your Graywolves would get +3! This is what I meant by new synergies and gives you incentive to try some interesting unit combinations you may not have tried before.

I'll edit the changes post to provide a more clear description between changes.

Thanks again!

/C\/C\

Incredible list of mods! This is going to be one that I download and try out in detail; thanks!

Some commentary and questions:
- mature & ancient phoenixes need to be Spell Level 2 & 3 (both say 1).
- fire spider has a vulnerability to poison (-25), your description says "Poison Defense"; should this be +25?
- for the Thorn plants' "Gift of Life", possibly change the name to "Mulch"? :)

I know that items + wives + troops all give cumulative morale bonuses (for example, human + undead + demon without Tolerance == really bad human morale), but:
- is it correct that between WerElf and Barbarians, grey wolves could get +3 morale?
- do BOTH barbarian and berserker give +2 morale (total == +4) to bears?
- same question for dryad + ent + ancient ent (total == +5) to royal thorns?

[Erkilmarl]

Following your advice elsewhere I made a zip file of the loc_ses file and then unzipped it. I seem to have a multilingual version there, although I don't remember a language choice, and all prefixes have only two letters (en_ and so on). I changed all prefixes in the mod files from eng_ to en_ and now I'm in the training part of the game. I have Inquisitors instead of Peasants, so something is changed.

But I encountered another problem: when my hero reached level 2, his choices and the rune numbers were all blank.

[Fatt_Shade]

Hello :-)
ALso changed my patch form 1.xxx (no idea) to 1.7 and placed all your files to game/data/mods/homm3_babies and it works now. I`ll report if encounter some other problems. Until then have fun :-D

[MattCaspermeyer]

Erkki:

I can see these other versions of the game are going to fight us – does the game lockup there or can you pretend to see the values and just click one and continue?

If you can click and continue, can you see if you got any runes and you can’t see which bonus you picked, but can you see if you got an increase somewhere (i.e. mana, rage, leadership, attack, defense, or intelligence)?

I did make some changes to the levelup system, but of course it works on my version. I wonder if there are changes to the LUA files or TXT files? One thing I noticed in the HERO.TXT file is there is a leadership table that is no longer used, but maybe your version still uses it? I don’t know.

I think I’m going to need you to send me your ses.kfs file so I can study it for differences unless it was the same date and size as what I mentioned below (7/8/2010 10:01PM, 6,217KB). It looks like you already resolved the loc_ses.kfs issue with the *.LNG files (whew!) so I think I need to understand if there are any differences with the *.LUA files.

Another idea that popped into my head is that you could try to remove the mod_homm3_portraits.kfs to see if there is an issue with the DDS files included there as it may affect the graphics somehow? Not sure just grasping at straws there.

We’ll keep plugging away at this…

Thanks!

P.S. I'm starting to remember now when I was first modding the leveling up that maybe the numbers were blank when I had issues with what I was doing. It's just a vague memory so I can't quite remember. I can always break it, I guess, and see how it behaves... The real question, though, is why would your version have issues with the LUA / TXT files. Hmmm... maybe its the encoding? The text editor that I use predates UNICODE. But you started the game fine and so it needed to read text files for that. Hmmm...:confused:

Following your advice elsewhere I made a zip file of the loc_ses file and then unzipped it. I seem to have a multilingual version there, although I don't remember a language choice, and all prefixes have only two letters (en_ and so on). I changed all prefixes in the mod files from eng_ to en_ and now I'm in the training part of the game. I have Inquisitors instead of Peasants, so something is changed.

But I encountered another problem: when my hero reached level 2, his choices and the rune numbers were all blank.

[MattCaspermeyer]

Erkki:

I just had another thought – maybe it is the encoding of the text files I saved. I use an editor that predates UNICODE and I guess other methods of encoding text files.

Could you do me a favor and simply extract HERO.TXT and LOGIC_HERO.LUA from mod_homm3_babies.kfs and then simply open them in your version of Notepad and then save them (without making changes)? You don’t have to re-add them to mod_homm3_babies.kfs, just copy them to your mods folder and they’ll take precedence over the ones in the KFS.

I’m hoping if it’s an encoding thing that your version of Notepad will correct the encoding for your Windows or your locale I guess. The changes to the leveling up are just in those two files, so it is just a minor thing to try.

You can also see if the sizes of the files change after you resave them in Notepad...

Good luck!


Erkki:

I can see these other versions of the game are going to fight us – does the game lockup there or can you pretend to see the values and just click one and continue?

If you can click and continue, can you see if you got any runes and you can’t see which bonus you picked, but can you see if you got an increase somewhere (i.e. mana, rage, leadership, attack, defense, or intelligence)?

I did make some changes to the levelup system, but of course it works on my version. I wonder if there are changes to the LUA files or TXT files? One thing I noticed in the HERO.TXT file is there is a leadership table that is no longer used, but maybe your version still uses it? I don’t know.

I think I’m going to need you to send me your ses.kfs file so I can study it for differences unless it was the same date and size as what I mentioned below (7/8/2010 10:01PM, 6,217KB). It looks like you already resolved the loc_ses.kfs issue with the *.LNG files (whew!) so I think I need to understand if there are any differences with the *.LUA files.

Another idea that popped into my head is that you could try to remove the mod_homm3_portraits.kfs to see if there is an issue with the DDS files included there as it may affect the graphics somehow? Not sure just grasping at straws there.

We’ll keep plugging away at this…

Thanks!

P.S. I'm starting to remember now when I was first modding the leveling up that maybe the numbers were blank when I had issues with what I was doing. It's just a vague memory so I can't quite remember. I can always break it, I guess, and see how it behaves... The real question, though, is why would your version have issues with the LUA / TXT files. Hmmm... maybe its the encoding? The text editor that I use predates UNICODE. But you started the game fine and so it needed to read text files for that. Hmmm...:confused:

[MattCaspermeyer]

Sweetness!:grin:

Hello :-)
ALso changed my patch form 1.xxx (no idea) to 1.7 and placed all your files to game/data/mods/homm3_babies and it works now. I`ll report if encounter some other problems. Until then have fun :-D

[Erkilmarl]

had time to check some things:

My files compared to yours:
King’s Bounty\data\data.kfs – 7/8/2010 10:01PM, 33,447KB (mine is 33,582KB)

2.King’s Bounty\sessions\base\ses.kfs – 7/8/2010 10:01PM, 6,217KB (the same)

3.King’s Bounty\sessions\base\loc_ses.kfs – 7/8/2010 10:01PM, 809KB (mine is 3,353KB but it has several language files)



I opened and saved those two files in Notepad and replayed the level up and noticed that still things were blank. I could continue but noticed no increase in runes or elsewhere (I checked mana and rage, too). I don't know what else to check - weren't most of your advice for getting the mod to start?

And I forgot at first to save those files in unicode. If I do it, things don't change - but I get an error message for the logic file: unexpected symbol near `ÿ'.

Erkki

[MattCaspermeyer]

It looks like you've covered my ideas pretty thoroughly. What is interesting is that the ses.kfs size is identical to mine so as long as I edited the files correctly, everything should work!

The problem is that it doesn't. I have no problems with the levelup code on my end so what is different on your end? The only thing I can think about right now is that our versions of LUA.EXE are different. Can you let me know the size and date of your LUA.EXE? This file is located in your King's Bounty folder along with KB.EXE. I'm not at home right now, so I don't know mine, but will find out what is is later.

That's the last thing I can think about. The only other thing I can suggest you try is before you level up, can you go purchase some Thorns and try out their Gift of Life ability? Check to see if the ability works (they need to using sowing first, then they can use Gift of Life on an adjacent plant). That is more LUA code that I added and so the idea here is to see if any of the LUA code works. Another thing you can try is to restart a new game with a Paladin and check to see if the Glory skill decreases the leadership requirement of your units 2%. I think Priests have 50 leadership so their leadership should be 49 and I think Inquisitors have 100 leadership so thier leadership should be 98. Once again the idea is to see if any of the LUA code works with your setup.

I wish I could work on your computer and find out what is going on - this is driving me crazy! The next step would be to run the debugger - I'll go into how to do that if it comes to it...

had time to check some things:

My files compared to yours:
King’s Bounty\data\data.kfs – 7/8/2010 10:01PM, 33,447KB (mine is 33,582KB)

2.King’s Bounty\sessions\base\ses.kfs – 7/8/2010 10:01PM, 6,217KB (the same)

3.King’s Bounty\sessions\base\loc_ses.kfs – 7/8/2010 10:01PM, 809KB (mine is 3,353KB but it has several language files)



I opened and saved those two files in Notepad and replayed the level up and noticed that still things were blank. I could continue but noticed no increase in runes or elsewhere (I checked mana and rage, too). I don't know what else to check - weren't most of your advice for getting the mod to start?

And I forgot at first to save those files in unicode. If I do it, things don't change - but I get an error message for the logic file: unexpected symbol near `ÿ'.

Erkki

[Erkilmarl]

Glory skill seems to work; Inquisitors have 98 Leadership.
There isn't any LUA.Exe, only LUAIDE.dll., 928KB.
HERO.TXT and LOGIC_HERO.LUA become twice as big if I change them from ansi to unicode, but since the warning about an unexpected symbol slows loading down, I returned them to ansi.
I can't remove portraits, the game won't load then.

[Helios]

It seems you have a very sound approach to implementing your changes in this mod, Matt. Well done! Some of the useless units might actually be viable with the changes you've made. I'll PM you when I've finished my current game.

About the Phoenix: did you not change its HP values? That seemed to be the most glaring deficiency of the spell--it always dies in one hit not too far into the game.

[MattCaspermeyer]

I sure did - both the Phoenix and Evil Book's stats increase based on the caster's intellect. Attack / Defense / Health, etc. are all effected by the caster's power.

I'm still working on my list of changes - they are organized by file type and so I'm hoping to post more stuff later...

By the way, balance is somewhat in the eye of the beholder, but I think you'll see that for the most part the strategy with which you play will attune to how easy or difficulty things are for you.

The things that I still check for are the increases based on level-ups, etc. for spirit abilities, spells, etc. and the only areas that I think are potentially weak are areas that I don't play. For example, I don't really play undead and so I'm not sure how well the changes I made work for them. I'll need to either play them some time or get some feedback from someone who has played them.

I'm also debating on giving Bone Dragons the ability to cast a random negative chaos (like Weakness, Doom, Plague, Fear) spell on a Level 1-4 troop when they attack to make them more powerful. Even Devilfish cause Fear on attack and so I'm thinking that the Bone Dragons still may need a boost. Those spells aren't overpowering and it might be a neat addition for them. We'll see, I'm still cogitating on it.

That's the funny thing about replaying is that every time I restart new ideas flash into my head.

Anyway, should be interesting to see people's feedback once I officially release it and they start playing!

It seems you have a very sound approach to implementing your changes in this mod, Matt. Well done! Some of the useless units might actually be viable with the changes you've made. I'll PM you when I've finished my current game.

About the Phoenix: did you not change its HP values? That seemed to be the most glaring deficiency of the spell--it always dies in one hit not too far into the game.

[MattCaspermeyer]

Thanks to Erkki for helping me track down the problem he was having!:)

It didn't occur to me that he was playing a difficulty level other than impossible, where I had an error in the changes to the levelup code that I made where both Easy and Normal increase the amount of mana and rage you may get on level up. Since I had been play testing on Impossilbe I missed testing this part of the change!

I've also added a version of the mod for those with an English localization where the *.LNG files use "en_" instead of "eng_". So now if you have either English localization version you can playtest the mod!

Thanks again for all your help!

P.S. By the way, what's the change to the levelup code you ask? Well before there was a set increase in Attack / Defense / Intellect and Mana / Rage making the choice for choosing Leadership when it occured the easy choice, especially later in the game. Now, as your character gains levels, you may be presented with a value other than +1 for Attack / Defense / Intellect based on your level as well as +default for Mana / Rage. This makes the selection of Leadership tougher, especially when you're choosing, for example, between 1000 Leadership and +3 Attack. Hmmm... much tougher choice now.

Okay - making progress!

Glory skill seems to work; Inquisitors have 98 Leadership.
There isn't any LUA.Exe, only LUAIDE.dll., 928KB.
HERO.TXT and LOGIC_HERO.LUA become twice as big if I change them from ansi to unicode, but since the warning about an unexpected symbol slows loading down, I returned them to ansi.
I can't remove portraits, the game won't load then.

[MattCaspermeyer]

Here's the change list to the *.LNG files. Some of these may be a little vague since the actual values are in another set of files. Anyway here we go:

Language Files - *.LNG
----------------------


New files:

eng_chat_1315394584_0068736578.lng - River Fairy Diana's new wife chat.
eng_chat_1379826769_0079826769.lng - Orcelyn Ordy's new wife chat.
eng_homm3_babies_diana.lng - This file contains all the baby bonuses for the wife specified.
eng_homm3_babies_feanora.lng - This file contains all the baby bonuses for the wife specified.
eng_homm3_babies_gerda.lng - This file contains all the baby bonuses for the wife specified.
eng_homm3_babies_mirabella.lng - This file contains all the baby bonuses for the wife specified.
eng_homm3_babies_neoka.lng - This file contains all the baby bonuses for the wife specified.
eng_homm3_babies_orcelyn.lng - This file contains all the baby bonuses for the wife specified.
eng_homm3_babies_rina.lng - This file contains all the baby bonuses for the wife specified.
eng_homm3_babies_xeona.lng - This file contains all the baby bonuses for the wife specified.
eng_kids.lng - All the original kids have been moved from eng_item.lng to this file.
eng_wives.lng - All the wife descriptions have been moved from eng_item.lng to this file.

Changed Files:

eng_actors.lng

Orcelyn Ordy - your new Orc wife!

New actor name
New actor description


eng_battle.lng

grammar - changes that improve grammar or fix a spelling error.
add_blog_last_hero=… - The spell "last_hero" has changed and so the battle log updated.
new gizmo messages - Gizmo has new battle log messages for all its abilities.
new thorn gift messages - The new ability "cast_sacrifice" (Gift of Life) messages.
new hemoraging - when a unit that already has the effect bleeding is hit again to cause the same effect, +1 is added to the effect's duration and this message describes that effect.
new ablaze - when a unit that already has the effect burn is hit again to cause the same effect, +1 is added to the effect's duration and this message describes that effect.
new jolt - when a unit that already has the effect shock is hit again to cause the same effect, +1 is added to the effect's duration and this message describes that effect.
new bitter - when a unit that already has the effect frozen is hit again to cause the same effect, +1 is added to the effect's duration and this message describes that effect.
new noxious - when a unit that already has the effect poisoned is hit again to cause the same effect, +1 is added to the effect's duration and this message describes that effect.
new sanctified - when a unit that already has the effect holy is hit again to cause the same effect, +1 is added to the effect's duration and this message describes that effect.
new dazed - when a unit that already has the effect stun is hit again to cause the same effect, +1 is added to the effect's duration and this message describes that effect.
new weaker - when a unit that already has the effect weakened is hit again to cause the same effect, +1 is added to the effect's duration and this message describes that effect.
new entangle - new effect Entangle's battle log message.
new snarl - when a unit that already has the effect entangle is hit again to cause the same effect, +1 is added to the effect's duration and this message describes that effect.
res_poison - Units with a resistance to an effect can now resist that effect after they get it.
res_burn - Units with a resistance to an effect can now resist that effect after they get it.
new execrate - when a unit that already has the effect curse is hit again to cause the same effect, +1 is added to the effect's duration and this message describes that effect.
new enemy_hero_book_times_log - This is a new message for when an enemy hero can cast more than 1 spell per round.
new enemy_hero_mana_regen_log - The is a new message for an enemy hero's mana regeneration during combat.
new gizmo messages
Attack message
Resurrect message
AP ally message
AP enemy message
Dispel bad spells message
Dispel good spells message
Gizmo now has variable charges and the number of charges are mentioned when summoning Gizmo to the battlefield and after each time it uses a charge

eng_chat_0036019756_1002729958.lng - Updates to Habbab Ordy's chat outside the castle.
eng_chat_0170292983_0979371428.lng - Updates to Habbab Ordy's chat inside the castle.
eng_chat_1315394584_0076798669.lng - Updates to River Fairy Diana's chat to allow you to marry her.
eng_items.lng

wife text deleted - The text descriptions for all the wives have been moved to the new file eng_wives.lng
kid text deleted - The text descriptions for all the kids have been moved to the new file eng_kids.lng
eng_skills.lng

skill name change - The text name description has changed from Bowmen Commander to Ranged Speciliast because this skill now applies to all ranged projectile troops.
Ranged Specialist - This skill decreases the Leadership requirements when the hero is hiring ranged units that use projectiles (Alchemist, Skeleton Archer, Bowman, Cannoneer, Catapult, Cyclops, Elf, Hunter, Goblin, Thorn, and Royal Thorn) and also increases their abilities.
Combat Readiness - All troops in the hero's army receive less damage from Physical Attacks during the first round. The Hero's Defense is also increased.
Training

Adds to the Hero's Attack Skill
Improves troops of a certain level by improving their abilities
Teaches some human troops new skills

Dark Commander - Under the banner of the Dark Commander, "evil" troops (including all Orc, Undead, and Demon troops as well as Barbarians, Pirates, Robbers, Devilfish, Wolves (including Werewolf Elves), Hyenas, Spiders, Snakes, Beholders, and Cyclops) fight more effectively, receiving bonuses to Attack, Initiative, and then Speed.
Onslaught - Speed and vigor are the secret to victory. During the first turn, the hero's troops receive a bonus to Initiative at skill level 1 and then Initiative and Speed at skill level 2 and 3.
Iron Fist

Adds to the Hero's Attack Skill
Adds to the Hero's Rage
Decreases the Leadership Requirements when the hero is hiring warriors (Swordsmen, Guardsmen, Horsemen, Knights, Dwarves, Barbarians, Berserkers, Furious Goblins, Orcs, Veteran Orcs, Skeleton Warriors, Zombies, Decaying Zombies, Black Knights, Werewolf Elves, and Demons) and improves their abilities

Holy Anger

Increases the attack of the hero's troops against demons and the undead (this does not affect allied demons and undead)
Increases the power of Order spells (Battle Cry, Demon Slayer, Divine Armor, Dragon Arrow, Dragon Slayer, Fit of Energy, Healing, Helplessness, Life Light, Lightning, Magic Pole Axe, Peacefulness, Phoenix, and Resurrection)
Increases the Hero's Rage and Mana

Glory - Everyone wants to fight under the banner of the famous hero. This increases the hero's Leadership as well as reducing the Leadership Requirements for all units.
description change - Scouting adds +1 Intellect @Level 3
description change - Tolerance adds +1 Morale @Level 2
Inquisition - This skill decreases the Leadership Requirements when the hero is hiring Priests and Inquisitors and allows the hero to upgrade Priests to Inquisitors and improves their abilities.

Priests / Inquisitors:

Leadership Requirements [param1]
Unit Attack / Defense: +Unit Level
Health: [param2]%
Critical Hit: [param4]%
Initiative / Morale / Speed: +1

It also increases the Hero's Rage, Mana, and Intellect

Rage: [param2]
Mana: [param2]
Intellect: [param3]


Healer

An experienced healer increases the life of all units
Can use divine and protection spells and unit abilities more effectively. Spells - Healing, Resurrection, Bless, Divine Armor, Light of Life, Stone Skin, Peacefulness, and Magic Source; Abilities - Healing, Resurrection, Gift of Life.
Also increases the Health, Defense, and Resistance of the summoned Phoenix.

Archmage

This skill decreases the Leadership requirements when the hero is hiring Priests, Inquisitors, Druids, Shamans, Necromancers and Archmages and improves their abilities
It also increases the Hero's Intellect

Destroyer - Mages who specialize in combat spells will inflict more damage with them.

Also increases the Attack and Damage of summoned units (Phoenix and Evil Book).

Higher Magic - The secrets of higher magic:

Increase the Hero's Intellect
Increase the Hero's Mana
Allow the hero to use his Spell Book two times per turn during combat.

Necromancy

Allows the use of the Resurrect spell to raise the Undead
After combat, part of a slain troop can be resurrected
Amplifies spells that deal pain and suffering. (Pain Mirror, Poison Skull, Plague, Sacrifice, Kamikaze, and Necro Call)
Decreases the Leadership Requirements of the Undead and improves their abilities
Increases the Health, Attack, and Resistance of the summoned Evil Book.


eng_spells.lng

new tags

Base Damage
Base Periphery Damage
Level Damage (*)Increase
Base Healing
Level Healing (*)Increase
Percent Healing Damage
Base Percent Damage to Allies
Base Power
Base Bonus
Base Penalty
Base Mana
Item Power (+)Bonus
Item Damage (+)Bonus
Item Power (*)Bonus
Hero Level (*)Bonus
Destroyer Skill (*)Bonus
Attack Spell (*)Bonus
Defensive Spell (*)Bonus
Healer Skill (*)Bonus
Holy Rage Skill (*)Bonus
Holy Rage Skill (+)Bonus
Fire Damage (*)Bonus
Physical Damage (*)Bonus
Magic Damage (*)Bonus
Poison Damage (*)Bonus
Astral Damage (*)Bonus
Intelligence Power (*)Bonus
Necromancy Skill (*)Bonus
Total Applied (*)Bonus
Base Duration
Item Duration Bonus
Intelligence Duration Bonus
Healer Skill Duration Bonus
Necromancy Skill Duration Bonus
Base Count
Intelligence Count Bonus
Healer Skill Damage Bonus
Necromancy Skill Damage Bonus
Infliction (+)Bonus
Infliction (*)Bonus
Item Statistic (*)Bonus
Hero Level Statistic (*)Bonus
Total Base Statistic (+)Bonus
Healer Skill (*)Bonus - Health, Defense, and Resistance
ration]Necromancy Skill (*)Bonus - Health, Attack, and Resistance
Holy Rage Skill (*)Bonus - Attack / Defense / Damage / Health

Critical Hit
Initiative / Speed

Item Attack (*)Bonus
Item Defense (*)Bonus
Destroyer Skill (*)Bonus - Damage
Fire Damage (+)Bonus
Physical Damage (+)Bonus
Magic Damage (+)Bonus
Poison Damage (+)Bonus
Astral Damage (+)Bonus
Combat Readiness Skill (+)Bonus - Physical Resistance (one round only)
Item Base Damage (*)Bonus
Item Base Defense (*)Bonus
Item Base Attack (*)Bonus
Item Base Health (*)Bonus
Item Critical Hit (*)Bonus
Item Speed Bonus
Item Initiative Bonus
Item Unlimited Retaliation Bonus

Lightning

spell_lightning_desc_1=^spells_tSpell^Lightning hits the target, inflicting magic damage and has a chance to shock it.<br>Lightning does full damage to the first target it strikes, then strikes the second target for 1/2 damage. The second target must be within 4 cells of the first target.<br>If Shock is successful, then the target suffers the affliction for the duration specified.[Bonuses]<br>Damage: [OS01_Damage], Shock: [OS01_Shock].
spell_lightning_desc_2=^spells_tSpell^Lightning hits the target, inflicting magic damage and has a chance to shock it.<br>Lightning does full damage to the first target it strikes, then strikes the second target for 1/2 damage, and the third for 1/4 damage. All additional targets must be within 4 cells of the first target.<br>If Shock is successful, then the target suffers the affliction for the duration specified.[Bonuses]<br>Damage: [OS01_Damage], Shock: [OS01_Shock].
spell_lightning_desc_3=^spells_tSpell^Lightning hits the target, inflicting magic damage and has a chance to shock it.<br>Lightning does full damage to the first target it strikes, then strikes the second target for 1/2 damage, and the third for 1/4 damage, and the fourth for 1/8 damage. All additional targets must be within 4 cells of the first target.<br>If Shock is successful, then the target suffers the affliction for the duration specified.[Bonuses]<br>Damage: [OS01_Damage], Shock: [OS01_Shock].

Armageddon - Armageddon covers the battlefield with flames, causing astral damage to all troops.

If Burn is successful, then the target suffers the affliction for the duration specified.
Friendly troop damage: [CS06_PRC].

Life Light - Undead creatures within the selected area take Magic Damage, suffer Holy Shackles which decreases their Attack and Defense, and try to run away from the consecrated place. Troops of other races, on the contrary, take healing. Does not affect demons.

If Holy shackles are successful, then the target suffers the affliction for the duration specified.

Enchanted Hero

name change - Last Hero -> Enchanted Hero
Desription - If the troop is attacked, it receives a random beneficial spell or if it is killed then it is automatically resurrected. Either way the spell's duration is decreased.

Summon Phoenix - Summons a Phoenix to a random free cell near a friendly troop. The Phoenix fights to the death or until the end of combat. The Phoenix's attack is so hot that half the damage is astral damage and the other half is fire damage. There can be only one Phoenix on the battlefield.

The Hero's Intelligence, Destroyer Skill, Healer Skill, and Spell Amplifying Items increase the statistics of the Phoenix.

new hint template - Spell Helplessness is now mass @level 3 and requires the use of the mass spell template.
Fit of Energy - Adds some Action Points to the friendly target, allows a target which has spent all its action points to attack one more time this turn, and gives unlimited retaliation (at level 3) to the unit for the duration specified.
new hint template - Spell Haste is now mass @level 3 and requires the use of the mass spell template.
Magic Spring - Friendly troop increases its Defense, and when receiving Damage its commander gains Mana, while the spell's duration decreases.

Note that the mana increase is affected by the combat duration and the power of the caster.

Book of Evil - Summons the Book of Evil, which casts random spells on the enemy. The more powerful the book, the more harmful the spells. The quantity of spells also depends on the book's power.

The hero's intellect plays a role in the power of the spells and Intellect as well as the Hero's Destroyer Skill, Necromancy Skill, and Spell Amplifying Items play a role in the strength of the book.
When the book is hungry, it can't use magic and you should feed it by making the book attack either friendly or enemy troops.

Trap - Places a trap on the battlefield. The trapped troop receives physical damage, loses all Action Points, and has a chance of being poisoned.
Invisibility - now only effects Level 4 units @spell level 3. No more no loss with Green Dragon + Invisibility + Glot's Armor + Armageddon.
new effect entangle - The target is entangled and unable to move.
change to effect_freeze- When a target is frozen their initiative is now set to 1.

eng_spirits.lng

New spirit hints

Dam
Ability Level
Attack
Defense
Resist All
AP
Initiative
Init

New Gizmo ability descriptions:

Emergency Structural Repair
Adrenaline-Booster Beam
Adrenaline-Depletion Beam
Dispel Ray
Emergency Re-Animation Beam
Gamma-Destructor Ray

Update to Description

Zerock's

"lump" - Turns from stone to blade, and inflicts [damage] points of damage to the target as well as causing bleeding to the target. If the target is a mage or a tower, this damage is doubled. Bleeding targets suffer [bleeding]% decrease in Attack and Defense.
"wall" - Sets a Stone Wall on the battlefield, which will stand until it is destroyed or its lifetime expires. The Stone Wall is not affected by Spells or side effects of attacks (i.e. burning, poisoning, etc.).

[abilitylevel]
Health: [d][health]
Defense: [d][defense]
Resist All: [d][res_all]%
Life time: [d][time]

"rockfall" - Casts a shower of stone blades, inflicting [damage] points of damage to all enemy targets within the selected area with a possibility of stunning the target. Targeted mages and towers suffer double damage.

[abilitylevel]
Chance to Stun: [d]%
Area: [d][square]

"quake" - Shakes the battleground, summoning sharp stone blades, which inflict [damage] points of damage to enemy targets. Mages and towers suffer double damage. There is a [bleeding]% chance of causing bleeding to the target with a [bleeding]% decrease in Attack and Defense.

Sleem's

"glot" - Surrounds a friendly troop with a magic field which absorbs all damage, is immune to all spells and effects, and protects the troop. However, this field does not allow the troop to move.

[abilitylevel]
Takes damage: [d][health]
Resist All: [d][res_all]%


Lina's

"enboxes" - Sets several chargers on the battlefield, which give Mana and Rage to the hero. [TM]Note that the mana and rage increase is affected by the combat duration. Any troop which picks up a charger gains 1 Action Point (AP).

[abilitylevel]
Chargers: [d][count]
Mana/Rage: [d][mana]/[erage]

"orb" - Summons to the battlefield an Ice Ball, a powerful combat unit.

[abilitylevel]
Health: [d][health]
[def]
Damage: [d][damage2]
[atk]
[init]

"gizmo" - Summons a mechanical creature onto the battlefield, which attacks enemy targets, heals and resurrects friendly troops, dispels magic, and alters the Action Points of friend and foe.

[abilitylevel]
Healing / Resurrection: [d][heal]
Damage: [d][damage2]
Removes harmful effects: [d][dispell2]
Removes useful effects: [d][dispell1]
Decreases AP of enemy targets: [d][AP2]
Gives AP and double move to friendly targets: [d][AP1]
Attack / Resurrect Charges: [d][charges]
Action Points: [d][ap]
[init]



Update to Levelup Description:

Zerock's

"lump"
"wall"
"rockfall"

Sleem's

"spittle"
"glot"

Reaper's

"reaping"
"rage_gain"
"time_return"

Lina's

"enboxes"
"orb"
"devatron"
"gizmo"



eng_units.lng

grammar
inf_human_race_heads
inf_elf_race_heads
inf_orc_race_heads
inf_dwarf_race_heads
Plural of this race.

inf_undead_race_heads
inf_demon_race_heads
inf_neutral_race_heads

gismo -> gizmo
New hint_morale bonus.

_shot_commander3 - Ranged Special Level 3
_inquisition1 - Inquisition Level 1
_tolerance2 - Tolerance Level 2
_megamage3 - Archmage Level 3_bear - Noble Beast
_barbarian - Primal Link
_kingthorn - Thorn Monarch
_ent - Spirit of the Forest
_werewolf - Leader of the Pack


eng_units_features.lng

grammar
werewolf feature update - adds Leader of the Pack
wolf feature update - adds Leader of the Pack
ent feature update - adds Wooden, Spirit of the Forest, and Entangle
sprite feature update - adds Cutie
sprite2 feature update - adds Cutie
barbarian feature update - adds Immune to Mind Spells and Primal Link
berserk feature update - adds Immune to Mind Spells and Primal Link
bear feature update - adds Noble Beast
bear_white feature update - adds Noble Beast
kingthorn feature update - adds Thorn Monarch
spider_fire feature update - Poison Defense (+50) is now Poison Resistance (+25)
phoenix feature update - adds Immune to Mind Spells
book1 feature update - adds Immune to Poison, Magic Immunity, and Immune to Minds Spells
book2 feature update - adds Immune to Poison, Magic Immunity, and Immune to Minds Spells
book3 feature update - adds Immune to Poison, Magic Immunity, and Immune to Minds Spells
orb feature update - adds Immune to Mind Spells
new cute - Being disarmed by the girl's infectious cuteness (a "cutie"), male humanoids can miss with a probability of 20%.
update wood_hint - Resistant to Physical Damage. Suffers only 40% of physically resisted damage from arrows. Not as vulnerable to Fire as plants (125% to 150% Damage). Immune to Mind spells.
new entangle - When attacking, the creature has a 50% chance to "entangle" a level 1-4 enemy troop. Entangled troops cannot move for 3 turns.
update acid_sprays_hint - It discharges an Acid Spray within the area of 3 cells, which burns all in its reach. An enemy has no ability to retaliate. The alchemist receives some of the bonuses which apply to archers.
new noble_beast (Noble Beast) - The Bears' nobility and ferocity inspire Barbarians. Barbarian Morale increased +2.
new primal_link (Primal Link) - The Barbarians' primal instincts encourages beasts (bears, wolves, and hyenas) to fight more ferociously. Beast Morale increased +2.
new thorn_commander (Thorn Monarch) - The presence of the Royal Thorn increases the Morale of all thorns +3.
new forest_spirit (Spirit of the Forest) - The Ents' mystical spirit strengthens any Royal Thorns in the Army. Royal Thorn Morale +2.
new pack_leader (Leader of the Pack) - The presence of the Werewolf Elf increases the Morale of wolves +1.
update phantom_hint - Immune to Physical and Poison Damage (20% Damage), Vulnerable to Magic (200% Damage), and can pass through barriers.
update plant_hint - Plants have no Intellect or living flesh, and they have the following features:

Vulnerable to Fire (175% to 200% Damage)
Immune to Poison (20% Damage)
Immune to Mind spells and some other spells.

update stone_hint - Stone creature, animated by magic. It is slow, but is Resistant to Fire and Physical Damage (50% Damage), Immune to Poison (20% damage) and suffers only 20% of physically resisted damage from arrows. In addition, is Immune to Mind Spells, and to spells of healing and resurrection.
update ice_hint - Being created from ice, the Ice Ball is immune to damage from Physical and Poison Attacks (20% damage), cannot bleed, be stunned, shocked, or poisoned, and takes increased damage from Fire (150% damage), but cannot be burned.

eng_units_specials.lng

new difficulty bonuses
new special_summon_bonus
grammar
holy rage dynamic hint - This hint's values are now autogenerated.
new charge - horseman's new charge ability.
update to cast_bear - This ability's power is now based on unit's leadership.
update to dryad_thorn - This ability's power is now based on unit's leadership.
update to elf_song - This ability now also effects allied plants.
new rooted (Tap Tree of Life) - Allows the Ent to tap into the power of the Tree of Life rooting it to the ground, which prevents it from moving; however, the Ent receives the following bonuses:

Resist All: +25%
Health: +100%
The Tree of Life completely heals and removes all negative effects from the Ent at the beginning of its turn.
Duration: 3 turns.
Once this ability is used, it cannot be used again for the remainder of the combat; however, once it expires, it grants the Ent the ability to run.

new summonplant1 - Calls upon the Tree of Life to summon a plant troop of level 1-4 to its aid. Total Leadership of the summoned plant troop is 30-50% of Leadership.
new summonplant2 - Calls upon the Tree of Life to summon a plant troop of level 4-5 to its aid. Total Leadership of the summoned plant troop is 35-55% of Leadership.
update to fire_shot - This attack can now cause burning.
update to Sowing - This ability's power is now based on unit's leadership.
update to Germination - This ability's power is now based on unit's leadership.
new Gift of Life - the new Thorn-Hunter & Thorn Warrior ability.
new Sowing -> Gift of Life - These are the names, headers, and hints for the new ability. Use of this ability enables Gift of Life.
update Drain - This ability's number of attacking spells is now autogenerated.
new lump_bleeding - Zerock's Smashing Sword can now cause bleeding.
new sw_no_plants - There are no allied plants in neighboring cells to give life!

eng_windows.lng - This updates the difficulty level hints when starting a new game. Unfortunately, the LUA script engine is not started by this point so you have to manually change the values to match those in LOGIC.TXT.
templates.lng

new wife and kid hints - These new templates autogenerate the wife and chlidren bonus hints.
new info… - These are new info labels for boys and girls.
new colors
new special ability templates - These are new templates for the new special abilities.
new spirit labels

dam=… - New damage spirit label.
res_all=… - New resist all spirit label.
ap=… - New action points spirit label.
init=… - New initiative spirit label.

charges= - New color for charges
new colors
new spell templates




I apologize if some of these are a little vague - as you can see there are a lot of changes to the *.LNG files and so some of the listed changes values will be listed when I do the *.TXT files. Also if you see _desc or [value_in_brackets] I've simply pasted the stuff from the *.LNG file so you can get an idea how it is laid out in the hint description.

Once again feedback and comments are encouraged. I'll work on the *.TXT file changes next - hopefully get that out in a week or so...

/C\/C\

Click here for the *.ATOM change list (http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showpost.php?p=362015&postcount=6)
Click here for the *.TXT change list (http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showpost.php?p=363535&postcount=28)

[Fatt_Shade]

Great job with this mod, and with changed files Matt.
Couple questions :
1) skill.txt is for defining parameters for lvling up skill
eng_skill.lng is for text description in hero screen in game
skills.lua is for skill mechanics right ? I aks because in AP/CW there some really weird things in skill.lua file, and i have no idea how to change how skill work in game. Changing eng_skill and skill.txt is no prob, but when i start game there are no some of changes i added in my files
2) Glory is it necessary to add every unit for -lds% ? Or is it possible to add strings form special_params.txt, example sp_lead_orc (all orcs listed in special_params.txt file), sp_lead_demon all demon units, etc. I like your idea for this skill, this way it`s useful during all game, not just in first 10 hero lvls so i wanted to add it to AP/CW.
3) what files i need to add in mod folder to get that unit in game ? I tried to add champion unit form adventure mod for AP to Red sands, but every way i try some errors report :-(. Is there any more files for units then this : champion.atom , champion.dds , champion.lua ?
4) i also wanted to add some new spells but got stuck after changing spells.txt. Idea was to make spells like hell breath, just to bonus poison dmg, and %chance for poisoning to help players against dragons/demons. What else i need to change ? i see in your spells all translated to eng which is great, but here are my problems - How to add new slot for spell in spell book (must i delete some existing , or will it add it self somehow ?:-) , Adding png files for spell in book, for scroll for shops, and for effect(poisoned during battle) anything else ? ,
spell_effect.lua , spells.lua , spells.txt , spells_common.lua , spells_hint , spells_power.lua do i have to changed all this files to add my spell or ...?
if you can give some advice thx in advance :-)

[MattCaspermeyer]

Great job with this mod, and with changed files Matt.
Couple questions :
1) skill.txt is for defining parameters for lvling up skill
eng_skill.lng is for text description in hero screen in game
skills.lua is for skill mechanics right ? I aks because in AP/CW there some really weird things in skill.lua file, and i have no idea how to change how skill work in game. Changing eng_skill and skill.txt is no prob, but when i start game there are no some of changes i added in my files


Unfortunately, it is not so cut and dry as this. This is part of a frustration that I had when I was working on my mod, but really here is what you can do with each file:

SKILLS.TXT - this file not only defines the level up parameters that you mention, but you can also put the fight bonuses here. Everything except morale, that is. So if you look at ITEMS.TXT you'll see that there is a fight{} section and a mods{} section for most items. The fight{} section is for applying bonuses to units during combat and the mods{} section is for bonuses inside and outside of combat. SKILLS.TXT, unfortunately, does not implement the mods{} part so you can only put fight bonuses in SKILLS.TXT except for morale bonuses! Even though items can have morale bonuses defined in ITEMS.TXT, SKILLS.TXT will ignore any morale bonuses you put there. They have to go in MORALE.TXT. I had to figure all this out. So SKILLS.TXT is both for parameters shown on the skill tree screen and for directly applying fight bonuses to your units (and negatives to enemy units for that matter).

What is neat about this, though, is that I took the skill tree bonuses and made an enemy skill tree when I was modifying the enemy heroes such that they have fight bonuses implemented such that they give bonuses to certain of their units and also negatives to your units. For example, certain enemy heroes have -1 speed to all your units or, for example, Xeona has a special Destroyer Skill that is -50 Fire Resistance to all your units when you fight her!

ENG_SKILLS.LNG - you are 100% right about this. What is important to note about any of the *.LNG files is that they are governed by TEMPLATES.LNG. The templates file is what takes [param4] for example in a *.LNG file and either applies a label or calls an LUA function generator to parse what "param4" means. This gives great power in being able to generate bonuses that are dynamically generated (like, for example, the new percent bonuses for units with attacks that cause burning). You can always add new templates to TEMPLATES.LNG to generate a value. The only issue is that certain King's Bounty libraries (i.e. Attack, AU, Logic, etc.) are not available all the time and so you are limited by when they are available. I've learned a lot about the libraries, but since most the the documentation and information is in Russian there are still a lot of questions I have about them.

SKILLS.LUA - this file is for anything that can't be accomplished with the other two files. You are only limited by what the LUA script engine can do. This is what makes modding so much fun - the fact that you can change game mechanics like you mentioned, but it really goes further. You also have access to the King's Bounty Libraries and if a library is available, then you can use it. Typically Logic and Obj. are available from the functions inside SKILLS.LUA. Here is the (English translated) website for the King's Bounty Libraries: http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=ru&tl=en&twu=1&u=http://kingsbounty.ru/docs/scripting/index.htm&usg=ALkJrhjNvc-2eVONGm3XcVb1S9FDIBT-8Q

I'm still learning a lot about these libraries, but need to learn more about the tags and how to make libraries available for functions as I couldn't access certain libraries when I wanted to - probably because I didn't understand how the tags worked.

2) Glory is it necessary to add every unit for -lds% ? Or is it possible to add strings form special_params.txt, example sp_lead_orc (all orcs listed in special_params.txt file), sp_lead_demon all demon units, etc. I like your idea for this skill, this way it`s useful during all game, not just in first 10 hero lvls so i wanted to add it to AP/CW.

Unfortunately, with The Legend, yes. You are right about the race and unit category bonuses, but the problem is that if you want to have a bonus that, say, decreases leadership of humans 10% and then you want to have another bonus that decreases bowman leadership 15%, they will not stack unless you do them individually. I actually think this is a bug in The Legend and I had to deal with this as I was doing the group and individual leadership requirement bonuses. In the end, I had to make a leadership bonus for every unit (or I used groups if I thought that I'd never need to select an individual unit from that group) in SPECIAL_PARAMS.TXT such that I could have bonuses that apply a leadership reduction to groups of units (by giving the bonus to each individual unit in that group) and then to individual units. This is how I can have Mirabella, for example, give a leadership reduction to all humans and then have individual human unit leadership reduction bonuses.

They may have fixed this in AP/CW, but I doubt it since no one probably knew about it.

This implementation was actually a fall-back plan as I really simply wanted Glory to give the +Leadership bonus and then also a +Percentage Leadership bonus. But, since the mods{} bonus functionality is not implemented in SKILLS.TXT, I tried to do this in the LUA. Unfortunately, though, I could not figure out how to give a percentage bonus for leadership (like some of the original babies had) from the LUA function. So in the end, I did the leadership reduction thing instead. Maybe there is a way to do it, but I couldn't figure it out.

3) what files i need to add in mod folder to get that unit in game ? I tried to add champion unit form adventure mod for AP to Red sands, but every way i try some errors report :-(. Is there any more files for units then this : champion.atom , champion.dds , champion.lua ?

I'm not sure who the champion is, but I think there is an example in the mod forum where someone added some new units. I did a quick look, I think Army of Darkness may be a good example mod to download and look how they did it.

I have not tried to add any new units, but from what I understand (I think the Crossworlds Editor documentation might provide some insight here, too):

You need to add the *.ATOM that you mention
If your new unit has special abilities or features, they are added to either: SPECIAL_ATTACKS.LUA or UNIT_FEATURES.LUA. What constitues a special or feature is a little bit blurry, but it really doesn't matter which file it goes in so long as you pick one.
If your new unit has attacks that create side effects, you may have to add its effect to EFFECTS.TXT. The new Ent / Ancient Ent Entangle is a good ability to study for this.
Either have it use an existing animation or make your own
Create a PNG for it. You do not have to add it to a DDS like with The Legend because AP/CW both support PNG natively.
If your new unit has new abilities, you'll have to create PNG's for the icons as well. Each ability needs 5 pictures: 1) Normal, 2) On Mouse, 3) On Click, 4) On Disable, and 5) A small version of the normal for when looking at a unit's info card.
If your new unit creates side effects, then you will need a picture for that, too (PNG).
Edit the embryos to allow the game to generate the unit when starting a new game - Army of Darkness might be a good mod to study for this
There may be more, but I think that's what you'd have to do.


4) i also wanted to add some new spells but got stuck after changing spells.txt. Idea was to make spells like hell breath, just to bonus poison dmg, and %chance for poisoning to help players against dragons/demons. What else i need to change ? i see in your spells all translated to eng which is great, but here are my problems - How to add new slot for spell in spell book (must i delete some existing , or will it add it self somehow ?:-) , Adding png files for spell in book, for scroll for shops, and for effect(poisoned during battle) anything else ? ,
spell_effect.lua , spells.lua , spells.txt , spells_common.lua , spells_hint , spells_power.lua do i have to changed all this files to add my spell or ...?
if you can give some advice thx in advance :-)

I have not added a new spell, but changed one. As far as I know, you should be able to make a new spell by:

1. SPELLS.TXT - all spells are defined here, so your new spell needs to be added here.
2. ENG_SPELLS.LNG - all spell descriptions are here and so your new spell needs a description to go here.
3. SPELLS.LUA - all spells use an LUA script function that determines the spell's behavior and so your new spell needs a function for it to go here.
4. SPELLS_POWER.LUA - most spells have a function here that computes the spell's power. Also SPELLS_HINT.LUA can call the spell's power function so that it can display the spell's information.
5. SPELLS_HINT.LUA - as mentioned above typically calls the spell's power function that resides inside SPELLS_POWER.LUA to get the spell's parameters to display in the text hint.
6. TEMPLATES.LNG - if you are going to have a new description, the spell's parameter templates will have to be added here in the appropriate section for spell templates.
7. SPELLS_COMMON.LUA - this file contains unit select functions for a spell. So you may not need to edit this file unless you want to use a unit selection criteria that doesn't exist.
8. SPELL_EFFECTS.LUA - this file contains spell effects that are caused by the spell. For example, Flame Arrow, Fire Ball, and Fire Rain all cause burning. The burning effect function is located here.

You may have to edit other files as well, but these are the most common for covering a spell. What you would really need to do is look at one of the spells in SPELLS.TXT and see what scripts it uses, what pictures, etc. and use it as a template for creating you're new spell. As far as the icons are concerned, you would have to generate a new PNG (I guess you don't really need to create a DDS file since individual PNG's are supported in AP/CW) for the spell picture if you didn't use one already in the game. Then, just like with the new unit, you would need to edit the embryos to allow the game to generate that new spell.

Once again, I haven't done this so you may need to do some more research, but this should at least get you started.

Okay, those were some good questions - that's about all I can provide right now. By the way, this is the kind of stuff I want to put into my modding guide if I ever get around to creating it.

/C\/C\

[Helios]

Cool. I can't wait to give this a try! Adding something to the Bone Dragon's attack would probably be a decent idea, since they're so brittle they barely qualify as dragons.

[Erkilmarl]

Too bad the landscape editor isn't as good as it could be... Anyway, the mod is working now. The changes in levelup are welcome, now the choices are more equal. The hero becomes stronger, too.

[MattCaspermeyer]

Okay, here's the *.TXT files new files and changes list. The list is a bit technical, but serves a bit also as a little self-tutorial on modding showing that for every Descriptive name there is also a code name associated with it. Also it shows the parameter style of certain files.

Text Files - *.TXT
------------------


New Files:

diana_babies.txt - this file contains the list wife's babies and their bonuses.
feanora_babies.txt - this file contains the list wife's babies and their bonuses.
gerda_babies.txt - this file contains the list wife's babies and their bonuses.
mirabella_babies.txt - this file contains the list wife's babies and their bonuses.
neoka_babies.txt - this file contains the list wife's babies and their bonuses.
orcelyn_babies.txt - this file contains the list wife's babies and their bonuses.
rina_babies.txt - this file contains the list wife's babies and their bonuses.
xeona_babies.txt - this file contains the list wife's babies and their bonuses.

Changed Files:

arena.txt - exptable=... added levels 31-46 to the spirit levels as well as made the delta-delta between level increases consistent (table wasn't consistent at a few levels before). I doubt if you can actually make it to level 46, but you might if you play the Warrior.
config.txt

spell_power_config - there are new parameters identified below.

mod=7 - this is the modulus of the spell increase per mod intellect
inc=10 - this is the percent increase per mod intellect
mod_limit=4 - this is a lower limit on how low the intellect may be modified for computing the intellect spell power increase
inc_limit=5 - this is a lower limit on how much the increase percent can be modified
den_scholar=2 - This divides the mod bonus parameter count value by this value for HOMM3 babies with the scholar skill.
spell_level_min_limit = 1 - This is the minimum spell level for enemy heroes.
spell_level_max_limit = 3 - This is the maximum spell level for enemy heroes.
level_inc_elevel = 10 - This divides into the enemy hero's level or intellect to determine their spell levels (via math.ceil).

hero_level_up_den - this is a new section with parameters identified below.

stat_den = 15 - This value is used to divide into a hero's level to determine when a stat increases. See LOGIC_HERO.LUA.
limit_den = 10 - This value is used to divide into a hero's level to determine when a limit increases. See LOGIC_HERO.LUA.


effects.txt: new "effect_entangle" - this contains the new "effect_entangle" effect and its pertinent parameters.
hero.txt

exptable=… - change to Hero's Experience Table - made the delta-delta between levels more consistent (a few levels were not consistent).
Warrior

Rage +10 - starting rage is now 30.
skill_open +rage_control - The skill "rage_control" is added to the starting Warrior's skill list.
army= - Change to the Warrior's starting army list: 4 Bowmen, 6 Swordsmen, 4 Guardsmen
level_up changes

Paladin

mana +5 - starting mana is now 20.
rage +5 - starting rage is now 20.
skill_open +glory - The skill "glory" is added to a starting Paladin's skill list.
army= - Change to the Paladin's starting army list: 7 Priests, 7 Guardmen, 3 Inquisitors
level_up changes

Mage

mana +10 - starting mana is now 30.
skills_open +alchemist - The skill "alchemist" is added to a starting Mage's skill list.
army= - Change to the Mage's starting army list: 2 Priests, 1 Inquisitor, 1 Archmage
spell_fire_ball=-2 - Mage starts with 2 Fire Ball scrolls.
spell_defenseless=1 - Mage starts with learned Helplessness.
spell_fire_arrow=1 - Mage starts with learned Fire Arrow.
level_up changes


items.txt

diplomat_sign: sp_gain_power_pacifism - Changed the name of sp_spell_peace to that shown to make it consistent with the spell name.
gryphon_banner: sp_lead_unit_griffin - Changed the name of sp_lead_griffin to that shown to make it consistent with unit leadership bonus names.
mirror_shield: sp_gain_power_pain_mirror - Changed the name of sp_spell_mirror to that shown to make it consistent with the spell name.
adept_staff: sp_gain_power_lightning - Changed the name of sp_lightning to that shown to make it consistent with the spell name.
arhmage_staff: sp_gain_power_lightning - Changed the name of sp_lightning to that shown to make it consistent with the spell name.
hammer_kingtorn: sp_lead_unit… - Changed the name sp_lead_dwarf to the individual units so that the bonus works correctly.
shield_mifril: sp_lead_unit… - Changed the name sp_lead_dwarf to the individual units so that the bonus works correctly.
demetrios1: sp_lead_unit… - Changed the name sp_lead_demon to the individual units so that the bonus works correctly.
demetrios2: sp_lead_unit… - Changed the name sp_lead_demon to the individual units so that the bonus works correctly.
demetrios3: sp_lead_unit… - Changed the name sp_lead_demon to the individual units so that the bonus works correctly.
set_knight: sp_lead_unit… - Changed the name sp_lead_warrior to the individual units so that the bonus works correctly.
logic.txt

features=… - added wood and cutie to the list of features.
difficulty_k

eunit=… - New enemy unit statistic scaler for difficulty_k.
minstatinc=… - New minimum enemy unit statistic increase for difficulty_k.
emanaregen=… - New enemy hero mana regen based on percent mana limit for difficulty_k.
ehlvldbc=… - New enemy hero level they need to get +1 spell cast per round for difficulty_k.
ehmanadbc=… - New enemy hero mana limit they need to get for +1 spell cast per round for difficulty_k.
roundmrgk1 - New round at which mana_rage_gain_k goes to 1/2
roundmrgk2 - New round at which mana_rage_gain_k goes to 1/4
roundmrgk3 - New round at which mana_rage_gain_k goes to 0
roundehero - New rounds to add to mana_rage_gain_k when fighting enemy heroes
roundtower - New rounds to add to mana_rage_gain_k when fighting gremlin towers
roundboss - New rounds to add to mana_rage_gain_k when fighting bosses

ehero_max_spells=… - New parameter that is used to set the maximum spells an enemy hero selects from for auto casting their spells. On slower computers, setting this to a lower value may increase performance.

morale.txt

The skill "shot_commander" gives +1 morale to ranged projectile units at level 3.
The skill "inquisition" gives +1 morale to Priests and Inquisitors at level 1.
Werewolf Elves and Werewolves give +1 morale to Wolves.
Ents and Ancient Ents give +2 morale to Royal Thorns.
Royal Thorns give +3 morale to Thorns and Thorn Warriors.
Barbarians and Berserkers give +2 morale to all Bears, Hyenas, and Wolves.
All Bears give +2 morale to all Barbarians.
The skill "megamage" gives +1 morale to all mages at level 3.
The skill "tolerance" gives +1 morale to all units (except the undead) at level 2.

skills.txt - note that the section names are spelled correctly (like traning really doesn't have the "i" so this is particurly important when use search functions) and that virtually all skills have had their rune requirements updated.

traning (Training):

script = skill_traning - This skill now includes a function call to increase the hero's abilities.
Level 1| pars=+1,+2,+5%,2 - The skill "traning" now has 4 parameters: 1) +Hero Attack, 2) +Unit Attack / Defense, 3) +Unit Krit, 4) Applies to 1-Unit Level.
Level 1| fight {…} - Adds fight bonuses for all Units <= Level 3: 1) +param2 Attack, 2) +param2 Defense, 3) +param3% Krit
Level 2| pars=+2,+3,+15%,3 - The skill "traning" now has 4 parameters: 1) +Hero Attack, 2) +Unit Attack / Defense, 3) +Unit Krit, 4) Applies to 1-Unit Level.
Level 2| fight {…} - Adds fight bonuses for all Units <= Level 4: 1) +param2 Attack, 2) +param2 Defense, 3) +param3% Krit
Level 3| pars=+3,+4,+30%,4 - The skill "traning" now has 4 parameters: 1) +Hero Attack, 2) +Unit Attack / Defense, 3) +Unit Krit, 4) Applies to 1-Unit Level.
Level 3| fight {…} - Adds fight bonuses for all Units <= Level 5: 1) +param2 Attack, 2) +param2 Defense, 3) +param3% Krit

rage_control (Rage Control):

Level 1| pars=+5 - Parameter update
Level 2| pars=+15 - Parameter update

start_defense (Combat Readiness):

script = skill_start_defense - This skill now includes a function call to increase the hero's abilities.
Level 1| pars=10%,+1 - The skill "start_defense" now has 2 parameters: 1) +Physical Resistance, 2) +Hero Defense
Level 2| pars=20%,+2 - The skill "start_defense" now has 2 parameters: 1) +Physical Resistance, 2) +Hero Defense
Level 3| pars=40%,+3 - The skill "start_defense" now has 2 parameters: 1) +Physical Resistance, 2) +Hero Defense

spirit_master (Master of Spirits):

Level 1| pars=5% - Parameter update
Level 2| pars=15% - Parameter update

shot_commander (Ranged Specialist):

Level 1| pars=-5%,+5%,+10% - The skill "shot_commander" now has 3 parameters: 1) -Leadership Requirement, 2) +Health%, 3) +Krit%
Level 1| fight {…} - Adds fight bonuses to projectile units: 1) Attack/Defense: +Unit Level, 2) Krit: +Param3, 3) Health: +Param2
Level 2| pars=-10%,+10%,+20% - The skill "shot_commander" now has 3 parameters: 1) -Leadership Requirement, 2) +Health%, 3) +Krit%
Level 2| fight {…} - Adds fight bonuses to projectile units: 1) Attack/Defense: +Unit Level, 2) Krit: +Param3, 3) Health: +Param2, 4) Initiative: +1
Level 3| pars=-15%,+15%,+30% - The skill "shot_commander" now has 3 parameters: 1) -Leadership Requirement, 2) +Health%, 3) +Krit%
Level 3| fight {…} - Adds fight bonuses to projectile units: 1) Attack/Defense: +Unit Level, 2) Krit: +Param3, 3) Health: +Param2, 4) Initiative: +1, Morale: +1 (in MORALE.TXT)

brutality (Frenzy):

Level 1| pars=+1 - Parameter update
Level 2| pars=+3 - Parameter update

iron_fist (Iron Fist):

Level 1| pars=-5%,+5%,+1,+10 - The skill "iron_fist" now has 4 parameters: 1) -Leadership Requirement, 2) +Health%, 3) +Attack, and 4) +Rage
Level 1| fight {…} - Adds fight bonuses to warrior units: 1) Attack / Defense: +Unit Level, 2) Health: +Param2
Level 2| pars=-10%,+10%,+3,+30,+20% - The skill "iron_fist" now has 5 parameters: 1) -Leadership Requirement, 2) +Health%, 3) +Attack, 4) +Rage, and 5) +Krit%
Level 2| fight {…} - Adds fight bonuses to warrior units: 1) Attack / Defense: +Unit Level, 2) Health: +Param2, 3) Krit: +Param5
Level 3| pars=-15%,+15%,+6,+60,+30% - The skill "iron_fist" now has 5 parameters: 1) -Leadership Requirement, 2) +Health%, 3) +Attack, 4) +Rage, and 5) +Krit%
Level 3| fight {…} - Adds fight bonuses to warrior units: 1) Attack / Defense: +Unit Level, 2) Health: +Param2, 3) Krit: +Param5

rush (Onslaught):

Level 1| pars=+1,+0 - The skill "rush" now has 2 parameters: 1) +Init, 2) +Speed
Level 2| pars=+1,+1 - The skill "rush" now has 2 parameters: 1) +Init, 2) +Speed
Level 3| pars=+2,+2 - The skill "rush" now has 2 parameters: 1) +Init, 2) +Speed

dark_commander (Dark Commander):

Level 1| pars=+2 - Parameter update
Level 1| unit=… - The "dark_commander" skill now increases the abilities of all "evil" troops.
Level 2| pars=+4,+1 - Parameter update
Level 2| unit=… - The "dark_commander" skill now increases the abilities of all "evil" troops.
Level 3| pars=+8,+1,+1 - The skill "dark_commander" now has 3 parameters: 1) +Attack, 2) +Init, 3) +Speed
Level 3| unit=… - The "dark_commander" skill now increases the abilities of all "evil" troops.
Level 3| filter {…} - The "dark_commander" skill now increases speed at level 3.

explorer (Scouting):

script = skill_explorer - This skill now includes a function call to increase the hero's abilities.
Level 3| pars=+1 - The skill "explorer" now adds +1 Intellect at level 3.

holy_rage (Holy Anger):

script=skill_holy_rage - This skill now includes a function call to increase the hero's abilities.
Level 1| pars=+5,1,+5 - The skill "holy_rage" now has 3 parameters: 1) +Attack vs Undead & Demons / +Krit to Phoenix 2) +Init / Speed to Phoenix; 3) +Order Spell Power, +Attack / Defense / Damage / Health to Phoenix;
Level 1| fight {…} - Adds to the Damage, Attack, Defense, Health, Krit, Init, and Speed of the Phoenix.
Level 2| pars=+15,2+10 - The skill "holy_rage" now has 3 parameters: 1) +Attack vs Undead & Demons / +Krit to Phoenix 2) +Init / Speed to Phoenix; 3) +Order Spell Power, +Attack / Defense / Damage / Health to Phoenix;
Level 2| fight {…} - Adds to the Damage, Attack, Defense, Health, Krit, Init, and Speed of the Phoenix.
Level 3| pars=+30,3,+15 - The skill "holy_rage" now has 3 parameters: 1) +Attack vs Undead & Demons / +Krit to Phoenix 2) +Init / Speed to Phoenix; 3) +Order Spell Power, +Attack / Defense / Damage / Health to Phoenix;
Level 3| fight {…} - Adds to the Damage, Attack, Defense, Health, Krit, Init, and Speed of the Phoenix.

glory (Glory):

Level 1| pars=+200,-2% - The skill "glory" now has 2 parameters: 1) +Leadership, 2) -Leadership Requirement
Level 2| pars=+500,-5% - The skill "glory" now has 2 parameters: 1) +Leadership, 2) -Leadership Requirement
Level 3| pars=+1000,-10% - The skill "glory" now has 2 parameters: 1) +Leadership, 2) -Leadership Requirement

learning (Learning):

Level 1| pars=+5% - Parameter update
Level 3| pars=+30% - Parameter update

charm (Trophies):

Level 1| pars=5% - Parameter update
Level 2| pars=15% - Parameter update

trading (Trade):

Level 1| pars=20%,10% - Parameter update
Level 2| pars=50%,30% - Parameter update
Level 3| pars=100%,60% - Parameter update

diplomacy (Diplomacy):

Level 2| pars=15% - Parameter update
Level 3| pars=30% - Parameter update

holy_knight (Keeper of the Light):

Level 1| pars=+20%,+10% - Parameter update
Level 2| pars=+50%,+25% - Parameter update
Level 3| pars=+100%,+50% - Parameter update

tolerance (Tolerance): Level 2| pars=+1 - The skill "tolerance" gives +1 morale to all units (except the undead) at level 2.
rune_stone (Runic Stone):

Level 1| pars=+5,+1 - The skill "rune_stone" now has the parameters: +runes and +defense
Level 2| pars=+10,+2 - The skill "rune_stone" now has the parameters: +runes and +defense
Level 3| pars=+15,+3 - The skill "rune_stone" now has the parameters: +runes and +defense

inquisition (Inquisition):

script = skill_inquisition - This Skill now includes a function call to increase the hero's abilities.
Level 1| pars=-10%,+10,+1,+20 - The Skill "inquisition" now has 4 parameters (Unit Bonuses Apply to Priest & Inquisitor): 1) -Leadership Requirement, 2) +Mana / Rage / Health, 3) +Intellect / Init / Speed / Morale, 4) +Krit
Level 1| fight {…} - This adds fight bonuses to Priests and Inquisitors: 1) Attack / Defense: +Unit Level, 2) Krit: +Param4, 3) Health: +Param2, 4) Init / Speed: +Param3

wizdom (Wisdom):

Level 1| pars=+5,+5 - Parameter update
Level 2| pars=+15,+15 - Parameter update
Level 3| pars=+30,+30 - Parameter update

alchemist (Alchemy):

Level 1| pars=10 - Parameter update
Level 2| pars=25 - Parameter update

meditation (Meditation):

Level 1| pars=+20% - Parameter update
Level 2| pars=+50% - Parameter update

concentration (Concentration):

Level 1| pars=2 - Parameter update
Level 2| pars=6 - Parameter update
Level 3| pars=12 - Parameter update

healer (Healer):

deps=order,dist - The "healer" skill now requires the skills "order" and "dist".
Level 1| deps=1,1 - Update to level requirement for dependent skills.
Level 1| pars=+5%,+2% - The Skill "healer" now has 2 parameters: 1) +Spell Power, 2) +Unit Health
Level 1| fight {…} - This adds a fight bonus to unit health
Level 2| deps=1,1 - Update to level requirement for dependent skills.
Level 2| pars=+15%,+5% - The Skill "healer" now has 2 parameters: 1) +Spell Power, 2) +Unit Health
Level 2| fight {…} - This adds a fight bonus to unit health
Level 3| deps=1,1 - Update to level requirement for dependent skills.
Level 3| pars=+30%,+10% - The Skill "healer" now has 2 parameters: 1) +Spell Power, 2) +Unit Health
Level 3| fight {…} - This adds a fight bonus to unit health

megamage (Archmage):

Level 1| pars=-5%,+1,+5% - The Skill "megamage" now has 3 parameters: 1) -Leadership Requirement, 2) +1 Intellect, 3) +Health
Level 1| fight {…} - This adds fight bonuses to mages: 1) Attack / Defense: +Unit Level, 2) Health: +Param3
Level 2| pars=-10%,+2,+10%,+20% - The Skill "megamage" now has 4 parameters: 1) -Leadership Requirement, 2) +1 Intellect, 3) +Health, 4) +Krit
Level 2| fight {…} - This adds fight bonuses to mages: 1) Attack / Defense: +Unit Level, 2) Health: +Param3, 3) Krit: +Param4
Level 3| pars=-15%,+3,+15%,+30% - The Skill "megamage" now has 4 parameters: 1) -Leadership Requirement, 2) +1 Intellect, 3) +Health, 4) +Krit
Level 3| fight {…} - This adds fight bonuses to mages: 1) Attack / Defense: +Unit Level, 2) Health: +Param3, 3) Krit: +Param4

necromancy (Neromancy):

script = skill_necromancy - This Skill now includes a function call to increase the hero's abilities.
Level 1| pars=10-20%,skeleton,-5%,+5% - The Skill "necromancy" now has 4 parameters: 1) Raise Percent Range, 2) Undead Type, 3) -Leadership Requirement, 4) Undead +Defense%
Level 1| fight {…} - This adds fight bonuses to the Undead: 1) Defense: +Param4, 2) Magic Resistance: +Param4, 3) Magic Damage: +1
Level 2| pars=30-50%,zombie,-10%,+15% - The Skill "necromancy" now has 4 parameters: 1) Raise Percent Range, 2) Undead Type, 3) -Leadership Requirement, 4) Undead +Defense% / +Health%
Level 2| fight {…} - This adds fight bonuses to the Undead: 1) Defense / Health: +Param4, 2) Magic Resistance: +Param4, 3) Magic Damage: +2
Level 3| pars=60-100%,ghost,-15%,+30% - The Skill "necromancy" now has 4 parameters: 1) Raise Percent Range, 2) Undead Type, 3) -Leadership Requirement, 4) Undead +Defense% / +Health% / Krit%
Level 3| fight {…} - This adds fight bonuses to the Undead: 1) Defense / Health / Krit: +Param4, 2) Magic Resistance: +Param4, 3) Magic Damage: +3

high_magic (Higher Magic):

script=skill_hi_magic - This Skill now includes a function call to increase the hero's abilities.
Level 1| pars=1,100%,+1,+10 - The Skill "high_magic" now has parameters: +1 spell casts for rounds, +not used, +intellect, and +mana
Level 2| pars=3,100%,+3,+30 - The Skill "high_magic" now has parameters: +1 spell casts for rounds, +not used, +intellect, and +mana
Level 3| pars=6,100%,+6,+60 - The Skill "high_magic" now has parameters: +1 spell casts for rounds, +not used, +intellect, and +mana

destroyer (Destroyer):

Level 1| pars=+10% - Parameter update
Level 2| pars=+25% - Parameter update


special_params.txt

sp_lead_unit… - These bonuses are the new leadership requirement bonuses for each unit and sometimes a pair of units if they are very similar and of the same level.
sp_lead_(race) - These bonuses are the old race bonuses. They have been left here, but the sp_lead_unit… bonuses must be used otherwise the leadership requirements won't be computed properly.
sp_lead_(group) - These bonuses are the old group bonuses. They have been left here, but the sp_lead_unit… bonuses must be used otherwise the leadership requirements won't be computed properly.
sp_add_... - These bonuses add to value of a unit skill
sp_duration… - These bonuses add to the druation of a unit skill
sp_gain_... - These bonsus scale the value of a unit skill
sp_add_damage... - These bonuses add to the damage of bless and weakness.
sp_add_infliction... - These bonuses add to the infliction chance for those spells with inflictions.
sp_add_penalty... - These bonuses add to a spell's penalty effect.
sp_add_periphery_damage... - These bonuses add to the periphery damage of a spell.
sp_add_power… - These bonuses add to spell's power.
sp_add_(type)_special… - These bonuses add to the power of a (type) of special attack that the unit uses (i.e. shock, krit, power, etc.).
sp_chance_effect… - These bonuses add to the chance a unit casts its special effect.
sp_chance_feat… - These bonuses add to the chance a unit casts its feature.
sp_dur_mod - This bonus is used to modify the modulus for spell power increase per modulus intellect.
sp_duration… - These bonuses add to the duration of a spell or effect.
sp_gain_infliction… - These bonuses apply a multiplicative bonus to the chance of an infliction.
sp_gain_penalty… - These bonuses apply a multiplicative bonus to the penalty.
sp_gain_periphery_damage… - These bonuses apply a multiplicative bonus to the periphery damage of a spell.
sp_gain_power… - These bonuses apply a multiplicative bonus to the spell's power.
sp_gain_(type)_special… - These bonuses apply a multiplicative bonus to the special's power; (type) is shock, krit, etc.
sp_lvl_inc… - These bonuses apply an additive bonus to the base level damage of a spell.
sp_power_effect… - These bonuses apply an additive bonus to the percent power of an effect.
sp_power… - These bonuses apply various bonuses to the spell power per intellect formula.
sp_special_attacks… - These bonuses apply an additive bonus to the special attack of a unit.
sp_spell_defense - New spell bonus for defensive spells.
sp_kid… - These bonuses are used to allow proper computation of children bonuses due to a bug in hero_lu_item_on_body.

specials.txt

special_difficulty… - These new specials are for the new difficulty level bonuses.
special_summon_bonus - This is the new bonus used to apply a bonus to a summoned (phoenix & evil book) unit.
special_rooted - This is the new Ent's special ability.
feat_lump_bleeding - This is the new Bleeding effect caused by Zerock's "lump" & "quake" abilities.

spells.txt

Changes:

Virtually all spells have had their price, mana, and crystals updated
Some spells have had their spell parameters updated
The custom parameters of most spells were inconsistent so their names were changed to make them consistent (i.e. some used power, bonus, penalty, and special names in an inconsistent way and it was very confusing)

New custom spell parameters:

hero= - set this to 1 to have the hero's level effect the spell's power
holy_rage= - set this to 1 to have the skill Holy Rage effect the spell's power
astral= - set this to 1 to have damage type increased by spell power
fire= - set this to 1 to have damage type increased by spell power
magic= - set this to 1 to have damage type increased by spell power
physical= - set this to 1 to have damage type increased by spell power
poison= - set this to 1 to have damage type increased by spell power
res_fire= - Resistance type specified is increased by spell power.
res_magic= - Resistance type specified is increased by spell power.
res_physical= - Resistance type specified is increased by spell power.
res_poison= - Resistance type specified is increased by spell power.

Important Spell Changes:

spell_defenseless (Helplessness): script_calccells = calccells_complex_enemy - Calc cells script updated since spell is now mass at level 3.
spell_invisibility (Invisibility): script_calccells = calccells_all_ally_level - Calc cells script updated since spell now has a unit level requirement.
spell_ram (Sheep): nfeatures = magic_immunitet, pawn, boss, plant, undead, golem - The nfeatures list has been updated to include: plants, undead, and golems (none of these can be sheeped).


wifes.txt

Includes the "wife"_babies.txt files
Adds wife_orcelyn
Adds wife_diana
Other wives price, wife_slots, children, fight, and mods have been updated.




Okay, that's it. It is possible that some of the parameter values are now slightly different since this list was made about a month ago, but I did go through it once and attempt to update it to the latest changes.

This change list gives you a feel for where things are and how to change them. Note that morale.txt, for instance, is the file to change for all the morale bonuses. You can add a fight {morale} bonus to skills.txt, but it will not show up properly in the hero's army slots and army cards.

In skills.txt, there are the parameters that are shown in the Skill Name Description when you mouse over it and then there are also the actual bonuses to units in the fight {...} section for that skill. Unfortunately, I do not know a way to link these and so therefore since the values are in two places this possibly serves as a source of bugs if you change a value in one place, but forget to change it in the other as the values will not be the same.

Also note that I've done my best to make my work itself mod-able. You can see that I attempted to add bonuses to many facets of the game where they did not exist. The idea was to make a system that allowed people to create new items, etc. with the new bonuses I added.

Another factor I used to make changes was to make the system consistent. For certain spells, their bonus name did not match the spell name. In order to aid in the LUA script updates, I needed to make names consistent so that an LUA function only needed the spell's name to then determine if there were any bonuses for that spell.

All these go to make the fileset that I've modified its own basis for new mods. This was a lot of work to go through all the game's original files and try to make things as consistent as possible, but I think it was worth it. This should make future mods easier because you don't have to know all the name variants for a spell, its bonuses, and other effects.

Once gain, feel free to comment! The last major file group is the LUA script files. I hope to post those changes no later than a week or two from now...

/C\/C\

Click here for the *.ATOM List (http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showpost.php?p=362015&postcount=6)
Click here for the *.LNG List (http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showpost.php?p=362984&postcount=23)

[Helios]

This is enticing me to speed through my current game so I can give your mod a try or three. :) Nice work. I usually edit the equipment into the game that I want to play via the KBScanner, but I'll give your mod an unedited playthrough to get a better feel for the changes and the challenge involved.

Have you thought of a mod that would make all the equipment in the game available for sale during a game? Would it be hard to do?

And is your mod compatible with the KBScanner? (I'd imagine it couldn't be for the HOMM3 babies, but does it report the quest rewards, items, troops, and spells correctly?)

[MattCaspermeyer]

It's been a long time since I played with the KBScanner, but I think the way they designed it that it might actually work with my mod. Obviously, I discourage using the KBScanner when playing a mod (especially the first time) since it is a cheat that gives you an advantage, but I think it will use the "code" names for things if they are new - I'm not sure, though.

I can't wait to actually attach this where people can simply download and play it because I think anyone who plays it is going to have a lot of fun (especially on impossible), but we got to get through this alpha stage first. This means me getting far enough in my current game to try out all of the new stuff I've added (so I at least got to marry Orcelyn and have some babies with her and then I think I am going to make the Bone Dragon change so I got to get far enough to fight some so that I can create and debug that change plus I think I'll do a little mod tutorial as I make the change so that people can see how it works) and then it should be ready for everyone to give it a try.

So far I only have two people playtesting it (Fatt_Shade and Erkilmarl) and would love to get some more people joining the fun!

So don't be bashful - PM your email address and I'll send you the latest version!:)

/C\/C\

This is enticing me to speed through my current game so I can give your mod a try or three. :) Nice work. I usually edit the equipment into the game that I want to play via the KBScanner, but I'll give your mod an unedited playthrough to get a better feel for the changes and the challenge involved.

Have you thought of a mod that would make all the equipment in the game available for sale during a game? Would it be hard to do?

And is your mod compatible with the KBScanner? (I'd imagine it couldn't be for the HOMM3 babies, but does it report the quest rewards, items, troops, and spells correctly?)

[MattCaspermeyer]

Hey, by the way, as you know I've created this project to make your computer opponent harder, but I've also improved the AI's spell casting ability somewhat.

What I haven't done that just popped into my head as I've been playing tonight is about spell synergies.

What I mean by this, is what are some of your favorite spell combinations that you like to use (i.e. your 1-2-punch so speak)?

I haven't done this with the AI spell casting, but I could give the AI a 1-2-punch with respect to if they have a certain set of spells that compliment each other, I can increase the likihood of them casting those spells in tandem (i.e. one after the other).

So let me know your favorite spell synergies and I'll think about how to get them in the game (also this would probably be a good list to try to add to the Gremlin Tower's Extensible lists).

Thanks!:)

/C\/C\

[MattCaspermeyer]

To go along with the previous post a little bit, what are some of your dislikes about the current AI that bother you a little bit?

These have to do with the AI's use of unit abilities and you'd basically like to see improved.

What I'm thinking here is that if I get a pretty good list I can work on improving that aspect of the game as well.

I find that currently the AI is pretty decent, but I'm sure we can make improvements.

Anyway, looking forward to your comments...

/C\/C\

[MattCaspermeyer]

Okay, one last post before I go to bed.

What are some features that you'd like to see improved in the game.

One of the abilities that I'm thinking about is the fact that the AI can generate an optimal hex path for its use of the Black Dragon's Power of Fire, whereas the player cannot.

I'm not sure if I know how to do it, but I think I might be able to figure out how to allow the player to create a more complex or optimal path when using that ability.

So would people like to see improvements like this made?

If so let me know what it is and I'll see if I can figure out a way to do it...

/C\/C\

[Fatt_Shade]

Found couple simple misses :
1) dark commander in skills.txt on 3 lvl should be pars=+8,+2,+1 (you forgot to change from original +10,+1,+1)
2) in mega mage did you plan to add more att/def per lvlup of ksill ? since now you have +2/+3/+4 att/def for units on all lvl`s. or you planed to add something more for every lvl 1st lvl att/def , 2nd lvl att/def/hp/crit and on 3rd lvl att/def/hp/crit/initiative.
3) also in megamage there is bonus +Unitlevel, what did you mean by that ?

[MattCaspermeyer]

Great catch on Dark Commander, I've made the change and will provide it in the next update I send out - thanks!:grin:

Those are the type of finds that I need!

As far as Mega Mage is concerned (I use this a lot) +Unit Level means +Unit Level! So for example, Mega Maga says "Unit Attack / Defense: +Unit Level", then if it is a Priest, whose unit level is 2, then they will get Attack / Defense: +2; if it is a Necromancer then they get Attack / Defense: +4 since their unit level is 4. I use that as a short hand because it saves space.

As far as the Archmage (Mega Mage) level progressions, they get:

Level 1: Attack / Defense: +Unit Level, Health: +5%, and Leadership Requirement: -5%, while your Hero gets +1 Intellect.
Level 2: Attack / Defense: +Unit Level, Health: +10%, Critical Hit: +20%, and Leadership Requirement: -10%, while your Hero gets +2 Intellect.
Level 3: Attack / Defense: +Unit Level, Health: +15%, Critical Hit: +30%, Initiative and Morale (except Necromancers): +1, and Leadership Requirement: -15%, while your Hero gets +3 Intellect.

So I mimicked Iron Fist where the mages get boosts to some statistics and then with each successive level up they get boosts to more of their statistics, but some of the previous boosts don't change. Also here's a bit of the rationale to the rune values as well as a discussion of the level up differences:

Level 1: 0,1,2 - this gets your hero +1 Intellect and your mages a +Unit Level Attack / Defense bonus, +5% Health, and -5% Leadership Requirement. As far as the rune choice breakdowns, 1 magic rune gives +1 Intellect so then 1 mind rune + 1 magic rune give the remainder of the bonuses.
Level 2: 1,1,2 - this gets your hero another +1 to his Intellect and your mages another +5% Health and -5% Leadership Requirement. What's new is the boost to their Critical Hit: +20%. Once again, 1 magic rune gives +1 Intellect and then we have 1 of each rune that gives another 5% to Health and Leadership Requirement and then +20% to their Critical Hit.
Level 3: 1,1,2 - this gets your hero another +1 to his Intellect and your mages another +5% Health, -5% Leadership Requirement, and then another +10% to their Critical Hit (which is only a 50% increase from Level 2). Then they gain +1 Initiative and +1 Morale. Once again 1 magic rune gives +1 intellect so then we're spreading the remaining runes amongst a 50% increase in the critical hit bonus, 5% Health and Leadership Requirement, and then +1 Initiative and Morale.

Maybe that's a bit of a stretch, but if you look at the total rune cost to get to Level 3: 2,3,6, less 3 magic runes for +3 intellect: 2,3,3 you get:

Mages: Attack / Defense: +Unit Level, Health: +15%, Critical Hit: +30%, Initiative and Morale: +1, and Leadership Requirement: -15%.

That seems kind of fair for a very small set of units. That's another factor that is somewhat subjective when applying bonuses to a subset of the units is what does 1 rune do?

Also with respect to the progression of stat increases and which ones to choose first, there is a bit of subjectiveness to how important is initiative versus morale, speed, critical hit, health, attack, and defense. The prioritization of a unit's statistics is a bit difficult and depends on whether they are melee or ranged.

Here is a rough progression of a unit's statistics based on importance:

1. Morale - because it gives bonuses to attack, defense, and critical hit
2. Ranged - Initiative, Melee - Speed. For ranged, the sooner they move the better, for melee initiative doesn't help if you can't attack so speed is very important.
3. Critical Hit - hitting for twice the damage effectively doubles the size of the stack.
4. Health - more health is better no matter who you are.
5. Ranged - Speed, Melee - Initiative, Attack, Defense - this last batch of statistics are kind of a toss up and very subjective here. If you have lots of movement and are melee, then Initiative becomes much more important and probably should be a 3 as well as their Attack and Defense become a lot more important as well.

So you can see it is a bit tricky when deciding which statistic increase is most important, but since we're dealing with ranged units with the skill Archmage, you can see why I added Morale and Initiative at Level 3, Critical Hit at Level 2, and Attack / Defense and Health at Level 1.

I don't necessarily always follow this, but I'm at least mindful of this when I deviate from it.

As you think of changing the skills in AP/CW, try to come up with something like this (my ordering is my opinion so if you think differently then order the list how you see fit) to aid in helping make things more balanced.

What you're really trying to do in the end is to "mechanize" your strategies and what you think is important into your changes.

I hope that gives you a view into the thought process and the methodology of how I went about selecting which skills / statistics to increase as well as the associated bonus values and rune requirements.

/C\/C\

Found couple simple misses :
1) dark commander in skills.txt on 3 lvl should be pars=+8,+2,+1 (you forgot to change from original +10,+1,+1)
2) in mega mage did you plan to add more att/def per lvlup of ksill ? since now you have +2/+3/+4 att/def for units on all lvl`s. or you planed to add something more for every lvl 1st lvl att/def , 2nd lvl att/def/hp/crit and on 3rd lvl att/def/hp/crit/initiative.
3) also in megamage there is bonus +Unitlevel, what did you mean by that ?

[Fatt_Shade]

4) in skills.txt for necromancy you listed skeleton/zombie/ghost per skill lvl, what does it do?
5) in xyz_babies.txt kid`s bonus
filter {
belligerent=ally
}
pbonus=defense,0,6,0,-100,0,0
dbonus=
rbonus=
attack_on=
attack_off=
Missing units for +6 def bonus, Or you planed to give 6 def with every kid ?.
And why setting sp_unit_lead_archer 2 times in kid`s bonuses ? Every kid which gives -lds for some unit have it listed 2 times in mods{}. Exp galthran(first kid) gives bonus for archer/skeleton -3% lds, and then again on bottom of list -26% lds. So how much does it lower unit leadership (does it stack) ? With zombie_rina and 4 kids, you can get -34lds% for all undead (for some units even more), and with necromancy skill this can go to -50%. A bit OP ? Why does every rina kid give lds for all undead?
6) kid_voy from feanora should place to mirabela, sea battle bonus seems logical.
kid_tazar holy s...t :-)
kid_young_sandro wtf is he doing in feanora babies ???
7) diana babies
kid_ shiva why not make bonus to all draogns, instead mixing all units, and only EGD ?
kid_kalt/lacus did you plan to give 9% magic dmg, and 9% poison res? Why not same bonus. 9% magic dmg,res, and other kid 9%poison dmg/res
sp_power_inc=count,9 i guess this is bonus% for destruction skill
sp_power_mod=count,1 but what is this ???
8 ) xeona babies for kid_dace in the mods set sp_lead_unit_horseman/knight/orc2, you miss _ in those lines.
9) wives.txt for mirabela no need for human lvl 5 unit bonus. No human 5th lvl TL :-)
10) maybe scale differently -lds% for wives, for 1st lvl units 15%, 2nd/13% , 3rd/11%, 4th/9% , 5th/7% , and why feanora have lowest lds reduction ? She give bonus for so few units, at least should be useful with them :-(
11) you completely missed griffins in any wife lds reduction/stats bonus :-(
And in the end rina is seriously overpowered, all her kids give lds for all undead. Change it so every kid, gives -lds% for some unit, not all race.
Xeona also with 4 kids all unis in your army could have +40% dmg bonus and +4fire dmg which is to much.

[MattCaspermeyer]

Interesting comments!

4) in skills.txt for necromancy you listed skeleton/zombie/ghost per skill lvl, what does it do?

This is in the original game and I'm not even sure if the game actually uses it, but I left it alone when modding the skill.

5) in xyz_babies.txt kid`s bonus
filter {
belligerent=ally
}
pbonus=defense,0,6,0,-100,0,0
dbonus=
rbonus=
attack_on=
attack_off=
Missing units for +6 def bonus, Or you planed to give 6 def with every kid ?.

Here's what this means - this is very important if you're going to mod the game.

filter {...} - this means that you can make this apply to the units specified by the filter. If you do not have anything here, then this will apply to every unit on the battlefield.

Valid values:
belligerent = ally or enemy to apply bonus to
race = human, orc, etc. to apply bonus to
level = value or level <= value, etc. level of units to apply bonus to
unit = list of unit(s) to apply bonus to

pbonus=... - use this for increasing unit statistics
dbonus=... - use this for increasing unit damage
rbonus=... - use this for increasing unit resistance
attack_on= - I have not used this, but I'm guessing that you can enable certain unit's attacks with this (I'll have to experiment with this)
attack_off= - I have not used this either, but I'm guessing that you can disable certain unit's attacks with this (this could be very powerful if an enemy hero can disable certain of your unit's abilities).

Note that there are 3 values after defense, then -100, and then two 0's. Here is the meaning of this (for any statistic):

pbonus, dbonus, rbonus = stat_name, absolute, percent_current, percent_base, duration, delete_on_damage, priority

Where:

stat_name =
pbonus = attack, defense, krit, health, initiative, moral (note that there is no "e" on the end of that), hitback, and speed.
dbonus and rbonus = astral, fire, magic, physical, poison
abosulte = if you place a value here, then it is added to (or subtracted from) that statistic directly.
percent_current = if you place a value here, then it scales the current value by that percent.
percent_base = if you place a value here, then is scales the base value by that percent.
duration = how long the effect lasts, -100 means that it lasts forever.
delete_on_damage = true / false, whether to remove the modifier when the unit dies.
priority = the priority of this effect.

Reference: Attack King's Bounty Library (http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=ru&tl=en&twu=1&u=http://kingsbounty.ru/docs/scripting/attack.htm&usg=ALkJrhgnyhelCBq57Za_KzKLF_MMEx8dKg)

So in the case above, that child will apply a very modest +6% (multiply defense by 1.06) to all of your unit's defense. For example a unit with defense = 50 will have a defense = 53. I think you can see that this is a very modest bonus.

And why setting sp_unit_lead_archer 2 times in kid`s bonuses ? Every kid which gives -lds for some unit have it listed 2 times in mods{}. Exp galthran(first kid) gives bonus for archer/skeleton -3% lds, and then again on bottom of list -26% lds. So how much does it lower unit leadership (does it stack) ?

They do stack - the reason why they are listed twice is because Galthran has two separate skills that contribute to the Leadership Requirement - one applies to all Undead (which has to list each set of units separately for them to stack properly), the other just to Skeleton Warriors and Skeleton Archers.

4)With zombie_rina and 4 kids, you can get -34lds% for all undead (for some units even more), and with necromancy skill this can go to -50%. A bit OP ? Why does every rina kid give lds for all undead?

Rina's babies will only max out at -33% Leadership Requirement for the Undead and then Rina herself is another -6%

Nonetheless, I've been thinking long and hard about this and realized that there is a possibility of getting this although it is low. How low?

2/19 * 1/18 * 1/17 * 2/16 = 0.0043% so you'd have to play 23,256 times to get the best Leadership Reduction Requirement bonus to occur just once!

So this is pretty much a non-issue if you can get this game then enjoy the rarity!

By the way, here are the other probabilities:

2/19 * 1/18 = 0.292% or 1 in 342 games for best 2 of them.
2/19 * 1/18 * 1/17 = 0.00344% or 1 in 2,907 games for best 3 of them.
or
2/19 * 1/18 * 2/17 = 0.0688% or 1 in 1.454 games for close to best 3 of them.
but
2/19 * 1/18 * 3/17 = 0.103% or 1 in 969 games for somewhere between close to best 3 of them and best 3 of them.

Also, if you're wondering, the chance of getting -12% LR to Undead from Rina babies:

13/19 * 12/18 * 11/17 * 10/16 = 18.4% or about 1 in 6 games!

6) kid_voy from feanora should place to mirabela, sea battle bonus seems logical.

I put a lot of thought into wife and baby choice. Think of the Frogus brothers. Feanora is the only wife with reptilian / amphibian blood in her so she gets all the HOMM3 Lizardmen and Troglodyte babies.

Mirabella is human and so she's only going to have human babies. I put a lot of thought into which wives have which babies and I tried to make the combinations somewhat plausible.


kid_tazar holy s...t :-)

Tazar has Expert Armorer and Feanora's wife value is 7 so 7 * 3 = +21% Defense to all units or times 1.21. Not +21 defense (absolute) to all units like you were thinking - that'd be absurd!

By the way if you see something like that let me know because it would be wrong!

kid_young_sandro wtf is he doing in feanora babies ???

Well, to include Young Sandro in the game, I couldn't give him to Rina since she already had normal Sandro. I thought it would be neat to represent every HOMM3 Hero from the normal game to Armageddon's Blade and Shadow of Death. So 4 (okay really 5) heroes appear twice (Sandro, Haart, Gem, and Yog, but their pictures are different from the normal versions) so I didn't want to have the same baby with the same wife even though their picture was different. Young Sandro could have gone to any of the other wives, but I thought Feanora was a good candidate since she is in Marshan Swamp near the Cemetary. For Haart, since he turns into a Death Knight in HOMM3 Shadow of Death he went to Rina since she's miss Undead baby. Normal Haart is Mirabella's baby. Gem went to Diana (not much of stretch). Normal Gem is Neoka's. Young Yog is the only one kind of out of place - he's a genie (Diana has the genie babies including normal Yog) but is a Barbarian in HOMM3 with the Orc town, so I ended up giving him to Orcelyn even though he's blue-skinned because his bonuses were for Orcs. So maybe the stork picked up the wrong baby with Yog! Oh well! She says he's yours!;)

Oh yah, and I forgot about Dragon Mutare. Mutare is Gerda's baby, but for Dragon Mutare she's Xeona's! I guess you and a demoness can have a dragon baby!!! Why not? Or maybe the stork mixed up that one as well!

7) diana babies
kid_ shiva why not make bonus to all draogns, instead mixing all units, and only EGD ?
kid_kalt/lacus did you plan to give 9% magic dmg, and 9% poison res? Why not same bonus. 9% magic dmg,res, and other kid 9%poison dmg/res

Mutare gives bonuses to all dragons since she becomes a Dragon in HOMM3! Shiva originally had Thunderbirds and Rocs in HOMM3. There was no equivalent unit in KB so I thought she would be good to give bonuses to EGD's (no HOMM3 Heroes give bonuses to Emerald Dragons in that game). Also, Rashka (Xeona) gives bonuses to Red Dragons (no Efreet in KB) and Kilgor (Orcelyn) (no Behemoths in KB) gives bonuses to Black Dragons.

Kalt and Lacus are PlanesWalkers in HOMM3. This wasn't too tough of a choice to decide which wife to give these heroes to because Kalt is an Ice Elemental and Lacus a Water Elemental and since Diana is a River Fairy it made sense. Both HOMM3 Heroes applied bonuses to Ice and Water Elementals. Unfortunately there are no Ice and Water Elementals in KB so I decided that they'd give bonuses to units with physical (ice) and magic (water) damage +9% and then also (water based) give resistances to physical (ice) and poison (water).

Why magic for damage and poison for resistance? Well normally I'd probably make it the same, but none of the units that Diana gives bonuses to normally have poison damage and so 0 * 1.09 = 0. So it would be useless, but Sprites, Unicorns, etc. do magic damage and so that's why.

So those are correct.

There are other PlanesWalkers as well and so the mother I picked makes sense for all those as well.

sp_power_inc=count,9 i guess this is bonus% for destruction skill
sp_power_mod=count,1 but what is this ???

These are new bonuses that I added. These are a bit tricky with respect to balance and so we'll have to note if they are too high when playing.

The way they work is sp_power_inc is the power to add to the +10% to spell power for every 7 Intellect. So this bonus would give +19% - wow! Now the sp_power_mod is divided by two and subtracted from 7 so it would be 7-0.5=6.5. So that would be +19% to spell power for every 6.5 Intellect. That's a nice boost and babies with these stack.

Chance of getting the babies to max this out (one baby has Advanced Scholarship, the other 4 Basic)?

1/19 * 4/18 * 3/17 * 2/16 = 0.0258% or 1 out of 3,876 games to get max.
1/19 * 4/18 * 3/17 = 0.206% or 1 out of ~484 games to get the best 3 of them.
1/19 * 4/18 = 1.27% or 1 out of ~86 games to get the best 2 of them.

This is a bit borderline here with getting the best two of them. Something to consider...

8 ) xeona babies for kid_dace in the mods set sp_lead_unit_horseman/knight/orc2, you miss _ in those lines.

Awesome - great catch there! There may be more of these so keep your eyes open for them! :)

9) wives.txt for mirabela no need for human lvl 5 unit bonus. No human 5th lvl TL :-)

Right, but when I move to Crossworlds, I won't have to change it! :cool:

10) maybe scale differently -lds% for wives, for 1st lvl units 15%, 2nd/13% , 3rd/11%, 4th/9% , 5th/7% , and why feanora have lowest lds reduction ? She give bonus for so few units, at least should be useful with them :-(

You're wrong about Feanora's bonuses they are right between Rina's and Mirabella's / Gerda's individual unit Leadership Reduction bonuses.

Also note that there is more than simply Leadership Reduction bonuses - Feanora's kids have bonuses that apply to more areas.

11) you completely missed griffins in any wife lds reduction/stats bonus :-(

You missed both Mirabella and her son Edric. Griffins get a great bonus!

Every unit is represented with a child bonus somewhere - I was very sure about this since in the end I had a few duplicates and needed to come up with a unique bonus for babies that had similar unit bonuses to prevent too much stacking.

And in the end rina is seriously overpowered, all her kids give lds for all undead. Change it so every kid, gives -lds% for some unit, not all race.

You're wrong about this - you're not considering probability once again and the way the wives and children were designed was to give bonuses to playing a certain set of units.

I encourage you to play it and let me know what you end up with in regards to the total Undead Leadership requirement reduction from Rina's Babies. I'm guessing you'll be somewhere between -12 to -18% and if you're fortunate, you'll get 1 child with a reduction to a couple of Undead units.

Look at Feanora's baby Korbac: -27% Leadership Requirements to Dragonflies (both Lake and Fire) and +7% Defense to all units. That's 1% better than Rina's Galthran Leadership Requirement to Skeleton Warriors and Skeleton Archers and 1% better than his defense to all units. Also instead of -3 Leadership Requirements to Undead, Korbac adds +1 Initiative to all units. Which is better? -3% Leadership Requirement to Undead or +1 Initiative to all units? You'll see that Feanora's values are higher for every equivalent value of Rina's babies.

The areas I actually may need to look at are the Skill Leadership Reductions, because these have no probability - just get all the prerequisite skills and runes and you're good to go.

Xeona also with 4 kids all unis in your army could have +40% dmg bonus and +4fire dmg which is to much.

Probability of this happening: 4/27 * 3/26 * 2/25 * 1/24 = 0.005698% or once every ~17,550 games! Enjoy that game when it comes around!

Other probabilities:

2/27 * 1/26 * 2/25 = 0.0228% or 1 in ~4388 games
2/27 * 1/26 = 0.285% or 1 in ~351 games

By the way, the only way to know if something's overpowered is to try it out and see. As I was learning how to mod the game, I needed to shift my paradigm of thought from the original The Legend game because of how much harder I've made it. Looking at the values does not tell the complete story!

I've also perturbed the values both low and high when setting the values to get a good idea of whether something is too low or too high and have hit the sweet spot with most stuff since I've played it.

Probability is a huge player when determining whether the stacking bonuses can get out of hand and I encourage you to consider the probability for even getting two babies you'd like to get for a wife. The minimum probability of repitition for the wife with the fewest children having 2 children of your choice is a 1 in 342 chance!

Playing the game is the only way to find out for certain and I do think it is fun to have a game every now and then where you have the possibility of really good bonuses, but as you can see, only a few people will ever experience the opportunity!

Also, if you're understanding what I'm saying look at the replayability value! You will most likely get a different set of children every time you replay the game! You can replay over and over and over again and you'll probably never see the exact same 4 children from a wife - ever!

Nonetheless, I'll consider what you've said and we'll go from there - thanks for the comments!

By the way, I'm considering the following skill leadership reduction changes:

1. Glory - reduction does not apply to Undead. Since the skill is in the Paladin Tree I've considered removing Undead from the Leadership Reduction Requirements bonus.
2. Necromancy - change it from -5, -10, and -15% to -2, -5, and -10%.
3. Ranged Specialist - change it from -5, -10, and -15% to -2, -5, and -10%.
4. Archmage - change it from -5, -10, and -15% to -2, -5, and -10%.

From skills:
1. Skeleton Archer: -10% + -15% +-15% = -40%!
2. Necromancer: -10% +-15% +-15% = -40%!

Changes would drop both of these to:
1. Skeleton Archer: -10% +-10% = -20%
2. Necromancer: -10% +-10% = -20%

Which would be half of what it is now and probably a lot better.

I've made the fixes to kid_dace in xeona_babies.txt and that will be in my next update - thanks again for pointing that out!

Okay, feel free to provide any additional comments - I also hope you've learned a bit more about modding!:grin:

/C\/C\

[Fatt_Shade]

4) This is in the original game and I'm not even sure if the game actually uses it, but I left it alone when modding the skill.
Captain what does this DO ? I dont know men, but leave it alone :-P
5) I know about that stats, but my mistake i read it wrong, thought you give absolute value there. Thx for clearing it out anyway.
6) about rina`s kids, every give min 3% lds for all undead, so with 4 kids, and her 6%, +necromancy it = minimum 33%, without partial lds bonus form each kid, and without glory skill. That`s worst case scenario, in best you could 2*9+14+6(kids)+6(rina)+15(necromancy)+10glory= wait for it ... 69% lds reduction for whole undead race. With all stats bonus from kids/rina and imagine warrior with some 20k lds, with that army :-) (skeleton archer=4 lds or less).
Maybe i think still in CW/AP mod, because there is late game everything % better then absolute value : 1000lds is sick bonus early game, but later when hero have 20k+ lds 10% for undead(or any other) race is much better because it`s equal to 2000+ lds at that time much better then. I`ll try to see what happens, because i took rina and we are waiting for our first little undead toddler to come along :-)
Feanora : kid_young_sandro i didnt mean mistake, just he gives lds for undead, and she`s nature creature, bonus for neutrals and some human unit. It doesn`t feel right.
kid_voy i thought to move him to mirabella because all his sea stats bonus, mirabella=pirate, no other reason.
Mirabella : kid_aislinn have this string in mod{} sp_kid_aislinn=count,1 What does it do ?
7) about that i just thought to have 1 kid give bonus magic dmg/res and other poison dmg/res, not mix them up.
sp_power_inc=
sp_power_mod= nice idea, thx for info.

Ok so far that`s it, i`ll report if find anything else take care ppl :-)

[MattCaspermeyer]

6) about rina`s kids, every give min 3% lds for all undead, so with 4 kids, and her 6%, +necromancy it = minimum 33%, without partial lds bonus form each kid, and without glory skill. That`s worst case scenario, in best you could 2*9+14+6(kids)+6(rina)+15(necromancy)+10glory= wait for it ... 69% lds reduction for whole undead race. With all stats bonus from kids/rina and imagine warrior with some 20k lds, with that army :-) (skeleton archer=5lds or less).

Yah, but you're ignoring probability once again. Look up the chance of getting that in my previous post - you will most likely never see it!

I'm going to hammer you on this - probability, probability, probability! It is irrelevant to talk about the max since is highly improbable. If you can't get past this, then you're going to keep tripping over max. I hope you don't play the lottery and think that your 1$ investment means you're going to win 10's of millions of dollars, but that's the argument you're trying to make. It could happen, but it is so improbable that why not let someone enjoy their win?

Now the norm is something to talk about and that is why I'm considering the skill changes so that with Rina's kids you'll usually see somewhere between -18 to -24% LR to Undead. Glory no longer will apply and then Necromancers and Skeleton Archers will still get -20% due to the Ranged Specialist / Archmage and Necromancy. So those units could get a really good bonus of -44% which is pretty good and then you could get Galthran or Moandor for even better LR: -70% for Skeleton Archers and -55% for Necromancers both incredibly awesome and maybe too high.

Now if we focus on either case, which is 1 out of 19 plays then we can consider making a change on this basis.

I have actually thought about Rina's (and all the wives for that matter) children -LR bonuses a lot and have often considered reducing it more. You're tipping me more towards a change to her, but I'll think about it some more.

One other thing I want to point out is that -Leadership Requirements can be offset by other bonuses so don't be so enamored with it.

I encourage you to keep trying to find stuff like this as there are many permutations and I've tried to think of most of them and the important point is to determine their probability and then play it and see how it really pans out!

Maybe i think still in CW/AP mod, because there is late game everything % better then absolute value : 1000lds is sick bonus early game, but later when hero have 20k+ lds 10% for undead(or any other) race is much better because it`s equal to 2000+ lds at that time much better then. I`ll try to see what happens, because i took rina and we are waiting for our first little undead toddler to come along :-)

Yah, but you're only most likely talking about a Warrior, but remember he will probably only be able to get one spell school to Level 3 (especially if you're going to shoot for Necromancy Level 3). So he's going to need extra units and you may not be able to resurrect as many because of your lower intellect. So he probably needs the -LR stuff the most.

Don't forget that you can't change Rina into a Zombie while your waiting for your first child (or any children for that matter). Same goes with Feanora and Frog Feanora, the battle counter for children only increases while you're in their normal form. After you have all the babies that you want to have for those wives then you can transform them (or in Feanora's case you have to not talk to her for 10 battles to get her to transform).

Can't wait to hear how it goes for you and Rina! By the way, are you playing Warrior on Impossible? Or let me know which hero class and difficulty level you're playing.

Feanora : kid_young_sandro i didnt mean mistake, just he gives lds for undead, and she`s nature creature, bonus for neutrals and some human unit. It doesn`t feel right.

Yah, unfortunately to stay true to Young Sandro I can't change his skills so his Necromancy Skill is still there. I don't think it's too much of a stretch for Feanora to have a baby that dabbles in the Undead - she does come from a swamp you know and you know how those swamp kids like to hang out with zombies!;)

Mom? Guess who's coming to dinner? My friend, Noric!

kid_voy i thought to move him to mirabella because all his sea stats bonus, mirabella=pirate, no other reason.

Yah, I figured that - it is natural, but as it turns out Mirabella has a daughter, Sylvia, with the same HOMM3 Advanced Navigaion bonus as Voy. There other skill is different, though.

Mirabella : kid_aislinn have this string in mod{} sp_kid_aislinn=count,1 What does it do ?

I think you mean Rina's Aislinn? I mentioned this in my *.TXT file change list, but there is a bug where I can't determine if a child was on the hero apparently so I needed that bonus so that I can display her Evil Book bonus properly in your spell book. I'd like to actually query whether the child is "equipped", but when I played with it, I couldn't get it to work so I resorted to using a bonus.

7) about that i just thought to have 1 kid give bonus magic dmg/res and other poison dmg/res, not mix them up.
sp_power_inc=
sp_power_mod= nice idea, thx for info.

Ok so far that`s it, i`ll report if find anything else take care ppl :-)

There are plenty of children that give the same damage / resistance bonus - the other PlanesWalker babies! Kalt and Lacus are the only two that are the way you saw them because of the reason I specified.

Well, thanks again for your comments!

Also, do me a favor and check to see whether you can Resurrect the Undead with the Resurrection Spell + Necromancy Skill Level 1. I have not gotten around to testing this out and so it may not work! Don't forget that it will still have the same level requirement restrictions: Level 1 - Units Level 1-2, Level 2, Units Level 1-3, and Level 3 - Units Level 1-4.

I'm also going to make the skill changes like I mentioned in the previous post and I'll think more about the Wife + Baby -Leadership Requirement bonuses some more as this is an area that I've given a lot of thought to and I find that I return to it to question whether or not the bonus values are right from time to time.

Keep questioning what I'm doing, too, as that's the only way to help me think outside the box I've made!:-)

/C\/C\

[MattCaspermeyer]

Okay, I thought about this a little more and have made some minor tweaks for now.

I looked at what I did for the Necromancy Skill (HOMM3 Necromancy Skill) and before it decreased Leadership Requirement of Undead and added to the Power of Necro Call. Now it will only decrease LR of Undead - the Necro Call bonus will be removed.

Two of Rina's HOMM3 babies have Animated Dead. This acted just like the HOMM3 Necromancy skill where it decreased LR of Undead and added to the power of Necro Call. Now it will only add to the power of Necro Call, so two of the Heroes that were -6% LR to Undead now drop to -3% LR to Undead.

Next I looked at Isra who had Expert Necromancy. A bonus to Undead Spiders was not in the game so she also had a bonus to Undead Spiders; however, this effectively gave her 4 skill points instead of 3, so what I've done is dropped her Expert Necromancy to Advanced + Undead Spiders. So now she goes from -9 to -6% LR Undead.

Next Vidomina had Expert Necromancy and Bone Dragons, once again 4 skill points instead of 3. So I moved the Bone Dragons to Lord Haart (since his HOMM3 bonus is Black Knights, and Tamika has Black Knights already and no one had Bone Dragons) so that Vidomina now has just Expert Necromancy with -9% LR to Undead and then Lord Haart has Advanced Necromancy and Bone Dragons.

So now there is Vidomina with -9%, Isra and Lord Haart with -6%, and everyone else with -3% LR to Undead. So now the total is -24% +Rina's -6% so 30% max, but the chance of getting it is 1/19 * 2/18 * 1/17 * 15/16 = 0.0322% or 1 in 3101. So you'll more than likely just get -18% to -21% (including Rina's bonus).

I know this doesn't seem like much of a change, but think about the fact that Rina's children's other bonuses are very limited due to the Necromancy bonuses. So I'm thinking a minor tweak like this might go a long ways.

The proof is in the pudding - I need you to playtest it and see how you're doing late in the game. I'm a little worried that Rina might not have enough bonuses for you to last and you might have to swtich to another wife. I know that Skeleton Archers are mowed down with reckless abandon and so I actually think you might need a lot to do well. Also, Undead do not get any morale bonuses and so I think you may need an advantage like this. Rina's kids are kind of quantity over quality, but I'm hoping you're able to be successful with her late in the game.

I've also made the skill changes I've mentioned previously...

Should be able to send out the update to you soon...

/C\/C\

[Fatt_Shade]

You were right about probability, but i`m right about %, got 4 kids with -3lds%(stupid aislinn with evil book bonus, should have smothered him on birth but undead baby i dont think it would matter to him :-) with rina, and necromancy it gets -33%, with glory 10% more.
I play mage impossible (only way i roll :-), got aislinn, sandro, xsi, charna. But problem is i`m on sunset islands with nice undead setup, with no undead units available :-P
My how much did AP/CW spoil me with dragons available in rusty anchor :-D , now i`m suffering with stupid archmage/griffin shield/tank combo with some support. I really miss royal griffins, paladins, demonolog ...
All in all, i think rina will be weak later in game, so i guess i`ll kick her and pick some else as you suggested. But as it is rina is first which you can take for wife, so i`ll take them as they come for testing.
And Q : why does wives give bonus att/def and moral ? With +1 moral every unit they already give att/def get more stats. With +1 initiative/speed it`s a bit much.

1) Mirabella you miss griffin for +1 moral (they get initiative, and speed but not moral).
2) Did you change something in Holy indulgence quest ? From western islands, you must go back to swamp to get holy pardon from priest. I get it for 4420 exp, and some item. All other quests if that rank are 400-500 exp reward, so i ask about this high reward is it mistake, or was it like that in original?

OMG i just found ghosts, and it`s ridiculous. Charna unlimited retaliations, for ghosts 40lds/7initiative/6speed/60hp/7-11dmg :-DDDDDD NO loss already 100% sure.
I`m going around with 2x50 ghosts, and 3x15 inquisitors to control their numbers and rage generating.

[Helios]

Matt, I haven't read all the posts here, but my experience in an Impossible difficulty game with a Warrior was that a -10% leadership requirements bonus I modded in was far too much since the Undeads are already overpowered IMO, and the game was a breeze. I'm not sure how much harder your mod is than the original, but that's just an FYI, as I recently completed an all Undead game.

[MattCaspermeyer]

You were right about probability, but i`m right about %, got 4 kids with -3lds%(stupid aislinn with evil book bonus, should have smothered him on birth but undead baby i dont think it would matter to him :-) with rina, and necromancy it gets -33%, with glory 10% more.
I play mage impossible (only way i roll :-), got aislinn, sandro, xsi, charna. But problem is i`m on sunset islands with nice undead setup, with no undead units available :-P
My how much did AP/CW spoil me with dragons available in rusty anchor :-D , now i`m suffering with stupid archmage/griffin shield/tank combo with some support. I really miss royal griffins, paladins, demonolog ...
All in all, i think rina will be weak later in game, so i guess i`ll kick her and pick some else as you suggested. But as it is rina is first which you can take for wife, so i`ll take them as they come for testing.

I thought Aislinn was a girl!;) Hey, by the way, don't diss your Evil Book - it'll come in handy once your mage gets more powerful!

Also, don't count Glory any more for Undead - hopefully you're playing with the newest update I sent you...

By the way, didn't you get some of the Undead units from the shipwrecks and then Castle Karmage (or whatever it's called with Enimem or whatever his name is)? You should have been able to at least get some Skeletons, Zombies, and Vampires early as a guess...

And Q : why does wives give bonus att/def and moral ? With +1 moral every unit they already give att/def get more stats. With +1 initiative/speed it`s a bit much.

I really wanted to encourage people to pick a wife - plus you'll find out later that you'll need that stuff. Believe me, once you get to about Level 15 or so, you'll find that the game starts getting harder and harder and harder - especially when attacking enemy heroes!

1) Mirabella you miss griffin for +1 moral (they get initiative, and speed but not moral).

Okay, let me look into that, I think Griffins should get +1 morale with Mirabella. By the way, the latest update included a fix to Rina where I missed her Black Knight -LR.

2) Did you change something in Holy indulgence quest ? From western islands, you must go back to swamp to get holy pardon from priest. I get it for 4420 exp, and some item. All other quests if that rank are 400-500 exp reward, so i ask about this high reward is it mistake, or was it like that in original?

You know, I did not change this to my knowledge - I think that's how much you get for that quest.

I was a little puzzled by it a couple of playthrough's back, but I'm pretty sure that's what you get.

I'll double check to see if the values in the *.QST indicate a lot of experience for that one.

OMG i just found ghosts, and it`s ridiculous. Charna unlimited retaliations, for ghosts 40lds/7initiative/6speed/60hp/7-11dmg :-DDDDDD NO loss already 100% sure.
I`m going around with 2x50 ghosts, and 3x15 inquisitors to control their numbers and rage generating.

This is great stuff! I need you to keep playing Rina - I want to know if those ghosts are too powerful! I was a bit learly with the change, but thought I'd try it out, but you've got to manage them as you can see and you better be careful, because I think they'll act too much like a double-edged sword once you're leadership gets too high and you have too many that get out of control. I think you're going to have trouble with them later...

Another thing about the Ghosts, is that they used to have -50% Fire Resistance, but I set it back to 0% because I thought I was being too harsh with them. Let me know if you feel that I should reinstate their Fire Resistance Penalty.

Let me know when you suffer your first loss, and don't count losses before you got your Undead army setup. I'll about guarantee, though, that you won't get no loss with that setup. In fact I challenge you to try to get no loss and let me know how far you go before your first loss.

Have fun and keep playing! By the way, your comments have been invaluable so keep them coming!:grin:

By the way, I'm not sure if you use Enchanted Hero, but I've just uncovered the bug in the README where I mention the possibility of a unit's damage going really high and hope to fix it shortly. Also, I neglected to prevent it from being cast on the Undead, so be careful using it because the spell might accidentally cast Bless (negative to Undead) or Heal (damage to your Undead) on your unit with that spell. I'll add the necessarily change to make it so you can't cast it on the Undead.

/C\/C\

[MattCaspermeyer]

Matt, I haven't read all the posts here, but my experience in an Impossible difficulty game with a Warrior was that a -10% leadership requirements bonus I modded in was far too much since the Undeads are already overpowered IMO, and the game was a breeze. I'm not sure how much harder your mod is than the original, but that's just an FYI, as I recently completed an all Undead game.

Okay, good comments - we'll see how well Fatt_Shade does with his ghosts and whether he has a control problem later.

I think, though, you'll find that Rina will be pretty good for a while and then you'll start to run into stacks with higher Initiative and then you'll start to suffer losses. Also the ghosts are going to be a problem to keep under control so you'll have to do a good job managing them.

We'll see how Fatt_Shade's playthrough goes, because he has no idea what's in store for him!:evil:

/C\/C\

[MattCaspermeyer]

Hey, Fatt_Shade, I forgot to ask if you've checked whether Resurrection + Necromancy Level 1 works with the Undead - does it?

By the way, also keep in mind as you play whether there should be a penalty associated with it. For example, I thought of imposing a 33 to 50% penalty for its use on the Undead, but held off.

I think it might make sense, though, to apply a penalty to it since it is an Order Spell.

Or maybe I should make Necro Call Resurrect Undead instead of Resurrection with Necromancy Level 1. What do you think?

Can't wait to hear more about you're playthrough with Rina's unstoppable Ghost army!:-)

/C\/C\

[Fatt_Shade]

I didnt take glory beyond 1st lvl, i just say it would work in that way.
As for undead units at start, i only found ghosts in sunset islands, on boat that you rise from sea with spell, all other undead units i found so far were regular zombies and some skeletons(both useless), only 150 archers, and i can lead 300 now. So i bought 60 ghosts, and after 10 battles i have 400 in reserve :-P

Mirabella already gave bonuses for griffins so i just thought you missed moral.
Good find with rina black knight.

Holy indulgence quest is a bit much, 10 times more then other quests you get at that islands, so i thought it was mistake.

Ghosts are a bit tricky, i use half my spells to keep them in check(heal mostly), but it`s even harder against huge stacks of low lvl units like 600 devilfish(or something in that area) vs 50 ghosts, i end up with 200 ghosts and spend 4 spell cast to get them back in control :-) They already have -100 magic resistance, so i think no need for -fire also(maybe 10-20%).

Enchanted hero, yea i did have a bit strange situation with them :-) Against lucky james, he cast enchanted hero on his swordman, and when i attack it with my ghosts they made 7500 dmg killing whole stack 120 ghosts. Swordman are physical dmg, so it`s impossible for them to make such dmg to ghosts.

Resurrection + necromancy havent try so far, cant find res spell :-(
And i think there should be on penalty to undead because ghosts and vampires in bat form dont need it almost, but other undead will need resurrection normal, if you dont use evlin. Or necro call would be much better option, it`s undead spell, make it res undead units, good idea.

About ghost soul drain, any idea how to make it to rise number of killed units, not done dmg ? Exp : i kill 1 black dragon and get 30 ghosts form it, or when i fought spider boss in mines, i attack it 1 time(case fire breath on ghost) and got 80 ghosts from that attack, and didnt even kill spider. So how to change this tricky ghost ability ? It just doesnt make sense to rise 10 ghost, from 1 killed unit. Like necro call spell, you can rise undead units form corpse, but cant rise more creatures then are killed (like from killing 1 black dragon, i cant rise 2 bone. only 1).

And did you change something in lina charges ? As whitemage said here http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?p=364287#post364287, it`s something wrong. I dont remember how it was in original game settings, but it just broken :-) To much mana/rage per charge when lvlup max.

[Fatt_Shade]

Hahahaha what a joke :-)
I remembered 1 EGD build in AP/CW and tried it with my ghosts : 1 stack of cursed ghosts, and 1 stack of an other unit:
step 1 - battle start kick ghosts in enemy line,
step 2 -on other unit cast invisibility
step 3 - repeat step 2, until every other unit is dead
step 4 - cast heal on ghosts until they return under control :-)
This was possible because i found rage eater (5 mana/5rage every turn). I killed kraken on 11 lvl, with 50 cursed ghosts battle finished with something over 1200 :-D

[MattCaspermeyer]

I didnt take glory beyond 1st lvl, i just say it would work in that way.

Okay - good!

As for undead units at start, i only found ghosts in sunset islands, on boat that you rise from sea with spell, all other undead units i found so far were regular zombies and some skeletons(both useless), only 150 archers, and i can lead 300 now. So i bought 60 ghosts, and after 10 battles i have 400 in reserve :-P

Okay, you got a bit unlucky - I think you can see now why I gave Rina's babies the bonuses since they are hard to come by sometimes.

It's a little hard for a Mage to get Ranged Specialist leveled up early to get those extra Skeleton Archers. Later in the game, Level 1 units are harder and harder to keep alive.

Mirabella already gave bonuses for griffins so i just thought you missed moral.
Good find with rina black knight.

Holy indulgence quest is a bit much, 10 times more then other quests you get at that islands, so i thought it was mistake.

Do you think I should change this? I guess I know now to do it. I figured that the developers discovered that your hero was short in the experience area at this point in the game and they offset one quest to make up it.

I guess I could drop it to 1/10 of its current value and then it would be okay. I'll see if I can find the right quest file...

Ghosts are a bit tricky, i use half my spells to keep them in check(heal mostly), but it`s even harder against huge stacks of low lvl units like 600 devilfish(or something in that area) vs 50 ghosts, i end up with 200 ghosts and spend 4 spell cast to get them back in control :-) They already have -100 magic resistance, so i think no need for -fire also(maybe 10-20%).

Okay, I'll leave them alone. Yah, I thought they'd be tricky to control - they're neat, but you have to be careful with them.

Enchanted hero, yea i did have a bit strange situation with them :-) Against lucky james, he cast enchanted hero on his swordman, and when i attack it with my ghosts they made 7500 dmg killing whole stack 120 ghosts. Swordman are physical dmg, so it`s impossible for them to make such dmg to ghosts.

Yah - that's not right!

I'm glad I finally found this bug! What I was trying to do there is Heal your unit sometimes with Enchanted Hero. But the way it worked in the spell cast is that it would set the damage of the attacked unit to the healing value! So I was able to track it down when I was fighting Tibold and I cast it on my Dwarves early in the battle. The problem before is that I'd be many rounds into a battle and couldn't remember all my steps so I couldn't repeat.

And I was mislead into thinking it was an issue with the Phoenix, or Ice Ball, or something like that and kept going down the wrong track!

In this game, the enemy had Cerberi and when I attacked his units, it was supposed to heal my Dwarves, but instead it would set the Damage of the Cerberi to the heal value.

Unfortunately, though, I couldn't get it to work without writing my own special cure and so decided to just use Resurrect instead (which already was working). I think it is better that way anyway, because the spell is meant to cast beneficial spells on your units and Resurrection is better than healing. Also, it is simply a chance to cast Resurrection, so it is totally unpredictable and you may just have Bless or Stone Skin, etc. cast on your units instead. All the other spells work with the existing spell casting LUA functions so I think that spell should be good now!

Resurrection + necromancy havent try so far, cant find res spell :-(
And i think there should be on penalty to undead because ghosts and vampires in bat form dont need it almost, but other undead will need resurrection normal, if you dont use evlin. Or necro call would be much better option, it`s undead spell, make it res undead units, good idea.

Oh yah, I've been playing Paladin for my second straight game and you take Resurrection for granted with him.

But you haven't found Necro Call, either, have you? I think I'll look into upgrading Necro Call's ability with Necromancy instead of using Resurrection. Plus, there are numerous posts on wanting Necro Call to act this way.

The problem is both Resurrection and Necro Call take a while to find. Oh well...

About ghost soul drain, any idea how to make it to rise number of killed units, not done dmg ? Exp : i kill 1 black dragon and get 30 ghosts form it, or when i fought spider boss in mines, i attack it 1 time(case fire breath on ghost) and got 80 ghosts from that attack, and didnt even kill spider. So how to change this tricky ghost ability ? It just doesnt make sense to rise 10 ghost, from 1 killed unit. Like necro call spell, you can rise undead units form corpse, but cant rise more creatures then are killed (like from killing 1 black dragon, i cant rise 2 bone. only 1).

Do you want me to change it? I guess its about souls, not damage. Let me look into changing it the next time I run across a stack of ghosts (which won't be long).

I actually think this is a pretty good idea then you won't be able to do much to higher level units and you'll focus on using your Ghosts on lower level units. All souls are equal!:)

And did you change something in lina charges ? As whitemage said here http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?p=364287#post364287, it`s something wrong. I dont remember how it was in original game settings, but it just broken :-) To much mana/rage per charge when lvlup max.

Don't worry - it'll be okay and that post does not apply due to one of the best new features of my mod: MANA_RAGE_GAIN_K!

This effects all Mana and Rage gain abilities: Lina's Chargers, Reaper's Rage Draining, Inquisitor Holy Rage, Spell Mana Spring, Skill Concentration (+items), and EGD Mana Source. I think those are all the sources of Mana and Rage increase in the game.

The way it works is that all abilites' increase values are at 100% rounds 1-5, 50% rounds 6-10, 25% rounds 11-15, and 0% round > 15.

When fighting enemy heroes, bosses, and towers, you get +5 rounds to the above. All the above values are for impossible, by the way, and with Hard, Normal, and Easy you get more rounds the easier the difficulty.

Most of your battles have probably been short so far and so you probably haven't experienced its affects too much. But you'll find that you'll start going farther and farther into the latter rounds and then it will become more and more of an issue. You won't be able to generate as much mana and rage and then you'll get to the point where you can't generate any and then you'll see how fun it is then!

Once you experience it, you won't want to go back to AP/CW without it!:grin:

Okay, that's it! Great ideas as always!:-)

/C\/C\

[Fatt_Shade]

Let me know when you suffer your first loss, and don't count losses before you got your Undead army setup. I'll about guarantee, though, that you won't get no loss with that setup. In fact I challenge you to try to get no loss and let me know how far you go before your first loss.


My build so far for undead wife/kids :
16 lvl , 11att/13def/20int , 50rage , 140 mana, and only 5k lds :-)
100/130 ghosts , 70/85 cursed ghosts , 2x30 ingusitors , 35 archmages. Ghosts for killing, inquisitors for rage and controlling ghosts archmages for support (ghost with magic shield against any melee unit takes literally 0 dmg), when i find necromancers they will fly out of army lineup.
So far i bought only 50 both ghost type, and now i have in reserve 1200 ghost, and 500 cursed, so i think unlimited retaliation from charna is a bit overpowered.Better her give them bonus ress or dmg or something.
Cleared all up to lower Hadar mines with no loss and no resurrection spell.
I found much easier to cast illusion on ghosts instead using them in combat, my main units are just to control enemy.

1)When i scouted gerdas kids thinking to switch to see how it is found this :
kid_ajit why unlimited retaliations for beholders ? they arent melee units. Better ress/dmg bonus
kid_lorelei same as for ajit, alchem/cannoner are even slower then beholders they will never fight in melee, so why unlimited retaliations. Give them speed
kid_synca giants get 2 morale, but no initiative or speed, so no mater how high they stats when they get to enemy in 4-5turn :-)
kid_orwald 2x+(1) initiative to all units, is this mistake or planed ?
2)Same as for gerda, when i killed kraken i thought about divorce rina for mirabella :
kid_ingham priest inquisitor again unlimited retaliations, no need, better some other bonus
kid_edric gives griffins unlimited retaliations . . . now i just think you copy/paste this to all kids :-) So does this mean they retaliate 2 times for every attack :-P
kid_christian and now for melee units sprite/dragonfly no hitback,1,0,0, :-(
kid_mullich +2 moral/speed to all units i think it`s to much better +1 moral/init/speed or not even all that.
3) in necromancy skill should limit +3magic dmg to magic units, not all undead. I have 500 skeleton archers 1 lvl unit, with 5-6 dmg. Sick :-)
So i thought changing bonus magic dmg to priests,mages etc.

And i cant find anywhere exp table for hero. Is it still max lvl 30? Because i`m already 17, and not yet 40% of game cleared.

I just now read all wife kids, and have some thoughts. You changed tower script in supresing item battles. Why doesnt any kid have lowering tower ress/hp penalty. Or any other penalties ? You have all kind of bonuses for ally units, but almost no lowering for enemy(except 1-2 feanora kids for -magic/poison ress).
In your mod enemy troops are much stronger then in original settings, even more with enemy heroes, so why not change some kids to lower enemy initiative/speed or any other stats, for those who cant afford onslaught skill.
And where are rage spirits exp tables ? Are they also limited to 30 as original game ?
Any way to give some kid rage inflow (15% maybe), like warrior rage skill ? I found mana/rage %, and mana inflow in battle_mana,1 (i guess 1 mana per turn in battle), so why not some angry little kid that drives you in rampage during battle for sleepless nights, diaper changing, night feeding :-)

All in all there are some great combination for kid_ bonuses ,but when i look at them all together, they seem a bit much. Better that give bonuses limited to lvl of unit then global %.
Expl : kid_craig_hack from orcelyn 27% dmg to all units +3physical dmg to all units. No item in game give that much bonus. 27% dmg ~= 20 att , and to top it +3 absolute physical dmg. I like better wives bonuses lvl 1 unit +1att/def . . . , lvl 2 +2att/def . . . And some kids (allot in xeona orcelyn give high dmg bonus to all units) and on other hand some kids gove low resistance bonus (like gerdas kid_thorgrim 12 all ress ~= 9 def , not much comparing to craig_hack 20att , +3 phy dmg).

Why do you list all units in those strings ? For bonus dmg, why not :
{
filter {
belligerent=ally
}
pbonus=
dbonus=magic,0,27,0,-100,0,0 and copy for poison,fire,physical
rbonus=
attack_on=
attack_off=
}
Doest it make problems in game if not listed all units separately ?

[MattCaspermeyer]

My build so far for undead wife/kids :
16 lvl , 11att/13def/20int , 50rage , 140 mana, and only 5k lds :-)
100/130 ghosts , 70/85 cursed ghosts , 2x30 ingusitors , 35 archmages. Ghosts for killing, inquisitors for rage and controlling ghosts archmages for support (ghost with magic shield against any melee unit takes literally 0 dmg), when i find necromancers they will fly out of army lineup.
So far i bought only 50 both ghost type, and now i have in reserve 1200 ghost, and 500 cursed, so i think unlimited retaliation from charna is a bit overpowered.Better her give them bonus ress or dmg or something.
Cleared all up to lower Hadar mines with no loss and no resurrection spell.
I found much easier to cast illusion on ghosts instead using them in combat, my main units are just to control enemy.

Sounds like you got a pretty good combination - sometimes Phantom's hard to get. Which battle has been the toughest so far would you say?

1)When i scouted gerdas kids thinking to switch to see how it is found this :
kid_ajit why unlimited retaliations for beholders ? they arent melee units. Better ress/dmg bonus
kid_lorelei same as for ajit, alchem/cannoner are even slower then beholders they will never fight in melee, so why unlimited retaliations. Give them speed
kid_synca giants get 2 morale, but no initiative or speed, so no mater how high they stats when they get to enemy in 4-5turn :-)
kid_orwald 2x+(1) initiative to all units, is this mistake or planed ?
2)Same as for gerda, when i killed kraken i thought about divorce rina for mirabella :
kid_ingham priest inquisitor again unlimited retaliations, no need, better some other bonus
kid_edric gives griffins unlimited retaliations . . . now i just think you copy/paste this to all kids :-) So does this mean they retaliate 2 times for every attack :-P
kid_christian and now for melee units sprite/dragonfly no hitback,1,0,0, :-(
kid_mullich +2 moral/speed to all units i think it`s to much better +1 moral/init/speed or not even all that.

The children bonuses work this way:

Level 1 & 2: +Attack, Krit, Defense, Health, Hitback, Initiative, Morale, Speed
Level 3: Health, Hitback, Initiative, Morale, Speed
Level 4: Health, Hitback, Initiative (Ranged), Morale, Speed (Melee)
Level 5: Health, Hitback, Morale
*Level 6: Health, Hitback
*Level 7: Health

Hitback - means unlimited retaliation

Morale doesn't apply to undead so they get extra Attack, Krit, and Defense for their level. I tried to carry unlimited retaliation as far as I could, sooner or later you'll run up against enemies that will get to your Ranged units and so it is nice to have then. I thought for Griffins and Demons that I used an alternate for them since they already have unlimited retaliation. For levels 6 and 7, these only apply to a few children where they had a duplicate bonus for a set of units. Rather than have the same unit bonus twice, theirs would apply to a group of units, but the level would be +1 or +2 depending on how large the group was. So Mutare, for example is dragons, but I add +1 to their level so they only get Health and Hitback instead of those and Morale. The system works pretty well, I think.

Also, if a bonus was for a group of units then I removed hitback since I only wanted it to apply to 1 or 2 units with a bonus, so those are the rules that I used.

I think you overlooked Gerda's dwarf bonuses - same as other wives but to dwarves.
So for Ajit, unlimiited retaliation is per rule for Level 3 and Level 4.
Same for Lorelei.
For Synca, she's got Level 5 so that rule applies (the other +1 Morale she gets due to HOMM3 Leadership skill). They already get +1 speed and +1 initiative from Gerda and before I implemented the level system (all individual unit bonuses were like level 1) Giants would just march into the mix and you'd just have to heal them and they'd wipe the floor with everyone and imagine using Phantom on top of that! So that's when the system above was born!
For Ordwald, his skills in HOMM3 are actually unknown since he only appears as an enemy hero. So his HOMM3 Skills are Logistics (+1 Speed to all), Pathfinding (+1 Initiative to all) and then he gets an all Dwarf unit bonus, but add +1 to their level since they are a group (for example Miners are considered level 2 for bonuses, Dwarves level 3, etc.). I just noticed that I had sp_lead_unitcannoner instead of sp_lead_unit_cannoner - I'll fix that! It's hard to get these bonuses spelled right! Darn it!
For Ingham, per rule of level 2 Priests and level 3 Inquisitors.
For Edric, Griffins already have unlimited retaliation so they should get I think krit instead - I'll double check them.
Christian - bonus is to a group (girls) so no unlimited retaliation per rule - sorry Christian!
Mullich's HOMM3 Skills: Advanced Logistics (+2 Speed) and Advanced Leadership (+2 Morale).

So once again all bonuses are per rule and staying true to the original HOMM3 hero skills.

I'll double check Edric to make sure the Griffin bonus is right!

3) in necromancy skill should limit +3magic dmg to magic units, not all undead. I have 500 skeleton archers 1 lvl unit, with 5-6 dmg. Sick :-)

I actually was seriously considering removing both the Magic Damage and Magic Resistance bonuses because I thought they might be too powerful, but left them in there since I actually forgot about them!

I was thinking the bonus should just be: Defense, then Health, then Critical Hit.

I'm probably going to remove both of those now that you've reminded me of them.

You know, as I consider the Necromancy Skill changes, I made them to encourage people to play the Undead more, but maybe Rina is encouragement enough? All the Undead bonuses are fairly recent (as new as my last playthrough) including: -LR, and statistic improvements. I kind of wanted to make it like Archmage or Ranged Specialist, but to Undead. Before it just did 4 things:

1) Allows use of Resurrection to raise Undead
2) After combat, raise part of a fallen troop (the unmodded skill)
3) Amplify spells that deal pain and suffering
4) Improve the Evil Book

I recently added:

5) Decrease LR of Undead and Improve their abilities

But now I'm thinking that maybe I didn't need 5 or needed to be very limited with it. I do like giving them -LR because you'll be encouraged to play them, but maybe that's all 5 should do? Or maybe just add to Defense, then Health, and then Critical Hit.

Hmmm... things to think about...

And i cant find anywhere exp table for hero. Is it still max lvl 30? Because i`m already 17, and not yet 40% of game cleared.


I think it's in HERO.TXT, you should be about 2 levels ahead of where you would normally be about where you're at - you'll actually reach level 30 about 5,000 exp more than before so it'll slow down a bit. The original experience table actually had inconsistencies in it and so I simply made it consistent, but you level up a little bit faster early and then you cross about level 29 where (like I mentioned above) you'll need about 5,000 more experience than before to get to level 30. This is per a formula I used to make the gain table consistent.

I just now read all wife kids, and have some thoughts. You changed tower script in supresing item battles. Why doesnt any kid have lowering tower ress/hp penalty. Or any other penalties ? You have all kind of bonuses for ally units, but almost no lowering for enemy(except 1-2 feanora kids for -magic/poison ress).

You know, I never really thought of affecting towers like that. I guess you could put a bonus in there although since they are "pawns" special rules apply to them.

A lot of the HOMM3 skills translated nicely over to KB, but there were a few that I had to create a new bonus for, i.e. Tactics and a few others. As it turns out, there are no HOMM3 skills that reduce any enemy statistics. During the translation process for those HOMM3 skills that had no equivalent, I tried to be as true as possible to the original HOMM3 skill. I did, however, consider enemy skill reduction bonuses, but as it turned out, the bonuses ended up winning out over the reductions.

In HOMM3 the hero Tactics skill worked the same as the KB Tactics skill so what to do with babies with that HOMM3 skill? Since I didn't have any skills that directly affected the Hero's attack / defense I decided to appy it there; however, the enemy hero skills use the KB hero class skill trees and I decided to actually have enemy heroes with the KB Tactics skill (mostly Warriors) decrease your Initiative and then Speed by 1.

During the development phase, though, I had already decided on the baby HOMM3 Tactics bonuses and then the enemy heroes were done much later. I did consider maybe changing the HOMM3 Tactics to be like the enemy heroes one, but I ended up leaving it as is as I never really went back and considered it heavily again.

So that's why there aren't very many reduction skills for the babies (actually I think it's only the wives with a few reduction skills).

By the way, I'm not sure if enemy reduction morale skills work at all because it doesn't show you their morale! I think enemy morale is always neutral!

I actually considered dropping your morale as the combat goes long, but I actually don't know how to do it. I think in HOMM3 that happened if the battle went really long.

And where are rage spirits exp tables ? Are they also limited to 30 as original game ?

The developers were sure good at hiding things! It took me a while to find the spirit experience tables: ARENA.TXT. Who would have thought they were in there?!

Spirits now go up to level 46, although for a mage I'm not sure how high you can get them, but probably only about to level 33 - 35 as a guess. I think my Paladin last game finished with them at about level 35 - 37, and I'm guessing that a Warrior might be able to get them to level 37 - 39? I'm not sure, though because the original tables were a little bit inconsistent and so I (like the hero experience table) made the level up consistent. I think at Spirit Level 29 or 30 the tables cross and then it'll take a bit more than my last playthrough so you might not quite make it to the levels I mentioned above.

The spirit experience gain is very tricky and inconsistent as a whole. I'm not sure how much attention you've paid it, but essentially skills that damage multiple units amplify the Spirit's experience.

These skills are: Underground Blades, Evil Shoal, and Black Hole. Rockfall and Rage Draining might amplify based on the number of units they hit, but I'm a bit uncertain about those although I think they do. I'm pretty sure that if a Spirit ability does not cause immediate damage, then you just get the normal experience for it. These are: Poison Rain, Ice Ball, and Gizmo. Those abilities give much lower experience. All other abilities since they don't do any damage at all give normal experience.

I actually played with this area quite a bit trying to figure out how it worked because I found that once I got Underground Blades and Black Hole that Zerock and Reaper would start leveling much quicker while Sleem and Lina were much harder to level up because Evil Shoal is hard to use unless you have the Rage and no units near enemies and none of Lina's abilities amplify experience.

So anyway, that's the story there!

Well thanks again for the comments.

I encourage you to continue playing!

Let me know how the battle to free Tibold goes and which enemy heroes start to give you trouble! I think that you've started to notice that the battles are now starting to get more and more difficult. It'll be interesting to hear how well your Ghosts do in Ellinia fighting the Elves. That will be an interesting story to hear!

I'm currently with Orcelyn and we had our first baby - Merist! I'm playing the Paladin during this playthrough (my second Paladin game), I have to marry all the wives and have all the children so that I can make sure they work! So I don't have the luxury of being able to stick with one wife until I get Xeona since there are no wives after her.

I've already suffered a few losses, although almost all of the non-hero battles have been no loss. Since I have to max out the number of wives and children, some battles I can't wait until I'm a bit stronger to attack (the 2 Undead stacks in the Earl's Dungeon with the Frogs is hard with just Bears and Barbarians since I have to fight with human Rina (since I need those battles to count towards her having a baby)). Tibold's army also gave my Gerda Dwarves trouble because of the Cyclops and Archdemons. You have to complete that quest before you can get Orcelyn. The Orc Embassy was also tough with Dwarves - Ancient Ents and Royal Thorns were a lot of fun! That battle got my last Gerda baby just in time to switch to Orcelyn!

By the way, I implemented the change to Ghosts, where their numbers increase based on the number of units they actually kill! It seems to work okay - it was a little tricky to figure out how to compute the same number killed as what the damage actually did. As I was playtesting last night I'd sometimes get Ghosts killed 33 units: Their ranks are filled with 32 - doh! But now it works - hurray!

I'm going to think more about the Necromancy Skill Undead bonuses, but I'm going to leaving it alone for now and let you play as is. It'll be interesting to see how well your Ghosts do against Elves since they do Magic Damage and have good Magic Resistance. I'll try to provide another update soon with the changes to Ghost's Soul Drain and any more errors we find.

/C\/C/

[Erkilmarl]

Hey!


I saw Polar Bears regenerating - like Werewolves do - how can it be possible? I have Feanora + Sandro, Damacon, Chakti and Jaegar (and BTW, still I'd like to have this serious discussion with the wife: Whose genes these children have...). There is nothing that suggests regeneration.

In AP I would have built an untouchable army without melee-only units. Here it isn't possible (yet). But it is good to know that Royal Snakes and Polar Bears get nice new bonuses from Feanora. I'll use them ruthlessly and keep big reserves just in case. (There's no reward for no-loss combat, either). I am currently at level 10 and doing the Islands.

[MattCaspermeyer]

Any way to give some kid rage inflow (15% maybe), like warrior rage skill ? I found mana/rage %, and mana inflow in battle_mana,1 (i guess 1 mana per turn in battle), so why not some angry little kid that drives you in rampage during battle for sleepless nights, diaper changing, night feeding :-)

You know, there wasn't a bonus to do this and I actually didn't think about this, but that would make a great bonus!

I'd have to go find the code where the Anger skill adds an increasing bonus to your rage.

I think sp_rage_battle_prc is for the Rage Eater item and the others are for the map mana increase delay and rage decrease delay.

All in all there are some great combination for kid_ bonuses ,but when i look at them all together, they seem a bit much. Better that give bonuses limited to lvl of unit then global %.
Expl : kid_craig_hack from orcelyn 27% dmg to all units +3physical dmg to all units. No item in game give that much bonus. 27% dmg ~= 20 att , and to top it +3 absolute physical dmg. I like better wives bonuses lvl 1 unit +1att/def . . . , lvl 2 +2att/def . . . And some kids (allot in xeona orcelyn give high dmg bonus to all units) and on other hand some kids gove low resistance bonus (like gerdas kid_thorgrim 12 all ress ~= 9 def , not much comparing to craig_hack 20att , +3 phy dmg).

A lot of it has to do with probability - the fact that you can't choose any of them went into the thought of the bonuses. Another was the fact that everyone complained about the original children bonuses. So now there should be no complaints - you should be happy you got a certain child!

Also you're ignoring the probability once again. You keep combining the children into ones you think you can pick - but you have no control over it. And their not like items where you can unequip them. Remember you Aislinn comment?!

Once again, a lot of the bonuses for the children were to remain true to the heroes in HOMM3.

I think you misunderstand the mechanics of + attack bonuses. For level 1 units they're awesome (usually about +33 to +100% damage)! But for level 5 units, they are really only about a 3-5% increase. So they are only as good as you think they are for low level units.

Here's a nice table that shows the percentage increase for +1 damage:

Damage Percent Increase for +1 Damage
1 100.0
2 50.0
3 33.3
4 25.0
5 20.0
6 16.7
7 14.3
8 12.5
9 11.1
10 10.0

You can see how quickly it falls in percentage and so for level 1 units the bonus is great, but lessens the more base damage a unit does.

Also Crag Hack's bonus only applies to melee (he's got Expert Offense in HOMM3) and is only +27% damage and I have to make it to all attacks otherwise it wouldn't work with all melee units. On the other hand, +12% resist all is great because even though the bonus isn't as high it is a permanent level 1 divine armor on all your units, not just melee. So I think you underestimate its value and misinterpreted Crag Hack's bonus.

Just look at the babies you got for Rina and how you didn't get the ones you necessarily would have wanted, but the ones you got are still pretty good!

Why do you list all units in those strings ? For bonus dmg, why not :
{
filter {
belligerent=ally
}
pbonus=
dbonus=magic,0,27,0,-100,0,0 and copy for poison,fire,physical
rbonus=
attack_on=
attack_off=
}
Doest it make problems in game if not listed all units separately ?

Because you didn't realize it is just to melee units!

Some times things work a little weird when you combine a baby that has both Offense and Archery. Offense is +percent damage and +absolute damage to melee and Archery is the same thing but to Ranged. In that case the skills would combine to be +percent damage and +absolute damage to all units, but I still list those separately since I want to keep the individual skill bonuses intact (makes editing and changing things easier - you don't know how many times I've had to edit these files manually - ugg!). I now actually have a generator in Excel that I use to copy and paste the skill, but it's not perfect since I still have to do a few things by hand (which is where the errors come in - I think that's actually what happened to the Griffins!).

Hopefully that helps explains things some more and if you see a long list of units try to think what is common between them (and note which ones are missing)!

/C\/C\

[MattCaspermeyer]

Hey!


I saw Polar Bears regenerating - like Werewolves do - how can it be possible? I have Feanora + Sandro, Damacon, Chakti and Jaegar (and BTW, still I'd like to have this serious discussion with the wife: Whose genes these children have...). There is nothing that suggests regeneration.

All bears regenerate when they hibernate! That's normal and how the original game works!

Wow - you got a lot of the Troglodyte babies! I call that the Frogus brothers effect! ;)

And I think the stork got the wrong baby and found Sandro in the cemetary! ;)

In AP I would have built an untouchable army without melee-only units. Here it isn't possible (yet). But it is good to know that Royal Snakes and Polar Bears get nice new bonuses from Feanora. I'll use them ruthlessly and keep big reserves just in case. (There's no reward for no-loss combat, either). I am currently at level 10 and doing the Islands.

Yah - sorry you have to play AP/CW for the medals!

Are you playing your normal game still or did you restart with hard?

Matt

[Erkilmarl]

You see, i've never used bears before, that's why I didn't know about regeneration, but now they seem worthwhile. I'm still checking the normal game, but I might consider starting a hard game later. Usually the Dwarven lands and Elven island begin to be challenging, but if that doesn't happen I'll switch to hard. I'll have to be more careful with enemy heroes, though, they can strike harder than before.

[Fatt_Shade]

Suprise is that supressing elven crown was hardest battle, pretty tough towers and i only have magic dmg units in army so far, there was stack 30 ents with roots bonus very hard to kill with ghosts, and 1700 fairies made me problems with my ghosts reviving huge numbers after attacking them, also dryads and ents summoned thorns that started spreading like weed :-) all over arena.
On other hand kraken and spider bosses were breeze to kill with invisible inquisitors and phantomed ghosts.

I get that you waned to transfer all Homm3 heroes in kid bonuses, but some just didnt seem right, so i pointed out couple. +2 moral/speed for all units seems to much. Unlimited retaliations for griffin/demon i just said no need to give it 2 times so maybe some other stat would do for those units.

Necromancy bonus to undead should be keeping them alive, so HP/def/res, remove magic dmg/crit. Also undead have great bonus from dark commander skill, this is just it`s counterpart in magic skill tree. Undead have enough bonuses demons on other side not nearly enough, but they are also last race on player disposal so it`s tough build for them anyway.

Penalty for towers : i saw 2 kids giving bonus in fight at sea and those are 15-20 at most, and when you get mirabella to marry you, i`m guessing all those fights are already over so you only can get kid to feed, not even possible to give him to adoption :-P So i thought about getting some kids that lower enemy stats : -2initiative or speed first round, -physical res( tactics- you prepared for battle in advance, so you slowed enemy unit reaction and movement, just expl). I didnt said this things just because heroes from homm3 transfer, but because you made some interesting things here so i gave some of my ideas. Giving bonuses to your units will help killing enemy( which is great for huge stacks warrior/paladin hero class), but lowering enemy stats will keep enemy away and your army alive (for smaller stacks and mage hero who do most work with spell).

As for morale penalty for long battles you can make it last for 10-20-... how many rounds you want. You said no 4th page, 7th post `pbonus, dbonus, rbonus = stat_name, absolute, percent_current, percent_base, duration, delete_on_damage, priority` So how to set duration should be changing -100 to some other value i think.
For elves i hope to have something more then just ghosts, i`m not planing to go killing dragons with them also. And soul drain i thought to work rise % of their dmg, but not more then number of killed units. You say you killed 33 troop, and got 32 ghosts, what about killing 400 devilfish, or i did 1 crit killing 650 peasants ?

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa ffs how do i get orcelyn ? I beat orc embassy, then killed dragon in basement , and i see flag above orc in front of it, but cant take quest. I dont remember what i need to do for that quest :-( Help ppl.

[MattCaspermeyer]

Suprise is that supressing elven crown was hardest battle, pretty tough towers and i only have magic dmg units in army so far, there was stack 30 ents with roots bonus very hard to kill with ghosts, and 1700 fairies made me problems with my ghosts reviving huge numbers after attacking them, also dryads and ents summoned thorns that started spreading like weed :-) all over arena.
On other hand kraken and spider bosses were breeze to kill with invisible inquisitors and phantomed ghosts.

Tower battles are a lot tougher as you noticed! That sounds like it would have been a fun battle to watch!

I get that you waned to transfer all Homm3 heroes in kid bonuses, but some just didnt seem right, so i pointed out couple. +2 moral/speed for all units seems to much. Unlimited retaliations for griffin/demon i just said no need to give it 2 times so maybe some other stat would do for those units.

Okay - just wanted to make sure you knew that. I've actually been noting all your comments. They've been very helpful so far!

I'm going to review the bonuses - I think I might consider switching tactics to match what I did with the enemy heroes as that and a few other skills don't have analogs.

By the way, here's the list of skills and their bonuses of what I did with them:

Skill Basic Advanced Equivalent
================================================== ================================================== ================================================== ================================================== ============================
Archery Ranged Attack: +10% Ranged Attack: +25% Ranged Damage: 2 * Skill Level * Child Level = % / +Skill Level
Offense Melee Attack: +10% Melee Attack: +20% Melee Damage: 2 * Skill Level * Child Level = % / +Skill Level
Armorer Damage: -5% Damage: -10% Defense: 2 * Skill Level * Chld Level = %
Resistance Spell Failure: 5% Spell Failure: 10% Resist All: Skill Level * Child Level = %
Leadership Morale: +1 Morale: +2 Same
Luck: Luck: +1 Luck: +2 Critical Hit: 10 * Skill Level * Child Level = %
Tactics 1 Placement / 3 Hexes 2 Placements / 5 Hexes Attack / Defense: 2 * Skill Level * Child Level = +%
Artillery Ballista: 50% Double Damage Ballista: 75% Double Damage Ranged Unit Attack: 4 * Skill Level * Child Level = +%
Ballistics Catapult: To Hit - 60% / Max Damage - 50% Two Shots Ranged Unit Defense: 4 * Skill Level * Child Level = +%
First Aid Heal: +50 Heal: +75 Ally Health: 2 * Skill Level * Child Level = %
Necromancy Resurrect: 10% of Enemy Resurrect: 20% of Enemy Undead LR: Skill Level * Child Level = -%
Diplomacy Fleeing Creatures: 25% Join Fleeing Creatures: 50% Join Leadership: 2 * Skill Level * Child Level = %
Estates Gold: +125/day Gold: +250/day Gold: 10 * Skill Level * Child Level = %
Learning Combat Experience: 5% Combat Experience: 10% Combat Experience (includes spirits): 2 * Skill Level * Child Level = %
Logistics Movement: +10% Movement: +20% Speed: +Skill Level to all troops
Pathfinding No Penalty: Rough, 25% Sand/Snow, 50% Swamp No Penalty: Rough/Sand/Snow, 25% Swamp Initiative: +Skill Level to all troops
Scouting View: +1 View: +2 Rage: 4 * Skill Level * Child Level = %
Navigation Water Movement: +50% Water Movement: +100% IMS: +Skill Level @Sea, Krit: +Skill Level * Child Level * 8%
Eagle Eye Learn Spells: 40% Level 2 and under Learn Spells: 50% Level 3 and under Intellect: 3 * Skill Level * Child Level = %
Intelligence Mana: +25% Mana: +50% Mana: 4 * Skill Level * Child Level = %
Mysticism Combat Mana Regeneration: +2 Combat Mana Regeneration: +3 Combat Mana Regeneration: +Skill Level
Scholar Teach and Learn Spells Level 2 and under Teach and Learn Spells Level 3 and under Intelligence Power Factor: ( 2 * Skill Level * Child Level ) / ( 7 - ( Skill Level * 0.5 ) )
Sorcery Spell Power: +5% Spell Power: +10% Spell Power: 2 * Skill Level * Child Level = %
Wisdom Learn Spells Level 3 and under Learn Spells Level 4 and under Intelligence Power = 4 * Skill Level * Child Level = +%
Air Magic School Spells Cast at Basic Level School Spells Cast at Advanced Level Magic Resistance: 4 * Skill Level * Child Level
Earth Magic School Spells Cast at Basic Level School Spells Cast at Advanced Level Physical Resistance: 4 * Skill Level * Child Level
Fire Magic School Spells Cast at Basic Level School Spells Cast at Advanced Level Fire Resistance: 4 * Skill Level * Child Level
Water Magic School Spells Cast at Basic Level School Spells Cast at Advanced Level Poison Resistance: 4 * Skill Level * Child Level
Blood Lust Attack: +3 Attack: +6 Enhanced Berserk
Cure Removes All Negative Effects, Heals: Power * 5+10 Removes All Negative Effects, Heals: Power * 5+20 Enhanced Magic Spring
Magic Arrow Damage: Power * 10 + 10 Damage: Power * 10 + 20 Enhanced Magic Pole Axe
Meteor Shower Damage: 7 Hex - Power * 25 + 25 Damage: 7 Hex - Power * 25 + 50 Enhanced Book of Evil
Stone Skin Defense: +3 Defense: +6 Enhanced Stone Skin
Haste Speed: +3 Speed: +5 Enhanced Haste and Battle Cry
Bless Damage: Maximum Damage: Maximum + 1 Enhnaced Bless
Weakness Enemy Attack: -3 Enemy Attack: -6 Enhanced Weakness
Frost Ring Damage: 6 Hex - Power * 10 + 15 Damage: 6 Hex - Power * 10 + 30 Enhanced Geyser
Prayer Attack, Defense, Speed: +2 Attack, Defense, Speed: +4 Enhanced Divine Armor
Ice Bolt Damage: Power * 20 + 10 Damage: Power * 20 + 20 Enhanced Ice Snake
Slayer Attack: +8 vs Behemoths, Dragons, and Hydras Attack: +8 vs Behemoths, Dragons, Hydras, Angels, and Demons Enhanced Demon and Dragon Slayer
Fireball Damage: 7 Hex - Power * 10 + 15 Damage: 7 Hex - Power * 10 + 30 Enhanced Fireball
Death Ripple Damage: All Non Undead Power * 5 + 10 Damage: All Non Undead Power * 5 + 20 Enhanced Plague and Poison Skull
Hypnotize Controls Troop less Than Power * 25 + 10 Controls Troop less Than Power * 25 + 20 Enhanced Hypnotize
Firewall Damage: 2 Hex - Power * 10 + 10 Damage: 3 Hex - Power * 10 + 20 Enhanced Phoenix
Sulfur Sulfur: +1/day Enhanced Demon Portal
Mercury Mercury: +1/day Enhanced Phantom
Crystal Crystal: +1/day Enhanced Lina Orb
Inferno Damage: 19 Hex - Power * 10 + 20 Damage: 19 Hex - Power * 10 + 40 Enhanced Flame Arrow and Fire Rain
Resurrection Resurrect: Power * 50 + 40 Health of Creatures Resurrect: Power * 50 + 80 Health of Creatures Enhanced Resurrection
Gold Gold: +350/day Chest Gold: 10 * Child Level = +%
Fortune Increases Luck of Allied Target by 1 Increases Luck of Allied Target by 2 Add to Luck Skill
Chain Lightning Damage: Power * 40 + 25, then half up to 4 Damage: Power * 40 + 50, then half up to 5 Enhanced Lightning
Disrupting Ray Reduces Target Defense by 3 Reduces Target Defense by 4 Enhanced Helplessness


So that's the list I used from my spreadsheet to help design all the bonuses! You can see which ones directly transferred and which ones I changed. The ones I changed I'll revisit and look for other areas to give penalties to the enemy - if it makes sense I'll change it.

Right now I think Tactics is a good candidate.

Necromancy bonus to undead should be keeping them alive, so HP/def/res, remove magic dmg/crit. Also undead have great bonus from dark commander skill, this is just it`s counterpart in magic skill tree. Undead have enough bonuses demons on other side not nearly enough, but they are also last race on player disposal so it`s tough build for them anyway.

Okay - I think we're in agreement here. I guess the Magic Resistance bonus is not that powerful the way it is so I think I'll follow your suggestions there. What about the Leadership Reduction - do you think we should keep it?

Penalty for towers : i saw 2 kids giving bonus in fight at sea and those are 15-20 at most, and when you get mirabella to marry you, i`m guessing all those fights are already over so you only can get kid to feed, not even possible to give him to adoption :-P So i thought about getting some kids that lower enemy stats : -2initiative or speed first round, -physical res( tactics- you prepared for battle in advance, so you slowed enemy unit reaction and movement, just expl). I didnt said this things just because heroes from homm3 transfer, but because you made some interesting things here so i gave some of my ideas. Giving bonuses to your units will help killing enemy( which is great for huge stacks warrior/paladin hero class), but lowering enemy stats will keep enemy away and your army alive (for smaller stacks and mage hero who do most work with spell).

Yep - that's all good stuff! You know, I just had a thought - maybe the kids with the Navigation bonus can also have a bonus against towers! Hmmm... I'm actually not sure how to implement that, but it would be interesting.

I think about all you could do is reduce Tower Health, Defense, and Initiative. I'm not sure how to do anything else at the moment.

By the way, I'm not sure if you noticed, but all 3 of Zerock's damaging abilities do double damage to Towers! So there is a bonus there.

Yah - those are good comments for mage. I'll look into what to do for other negative effects. I think tactics I'll do like I did with the enemy heroes and have it reduce enemy unit's speed -1 for Tactics and then initiative -1 (with speed) for Advanced Tactics. Lacus is the only baby with Advanced Tactics. If a wife has more than 1 baby with Tactics then 1 will be -speed and the other -initiative.

As for morale penalty for long battles you can make it last for 10-20-... how many rounds you want. You said no 4th page, 7th post `pbonus, dbonus, rbonus = stat_name, absolute, percent_current, percent_base, duration, delete_on_damage, priority` So how to set duration should be changing -100 to some other value i think.

I won't be able to do it that way since those are static and you can't delay its onset just set its duration. I'd have to have it when a round occurs go through and drop everyone's morale. The funny thing about morale is it does not interactively change it during combat. Any units summoned or added by abilities get neutral morale. So I'm not even sure if it would obey a change - I'll have to experiment with it...

For elves i hope to have something more then just ghosts, i`m not planing to go killing dragons with them also. And soul drain i thought to work rise % of their dmg, but not more then number of killed units. You say you killed 33 troop, and got 32 ghosts, what about killing 400 devilfish, or i did 1 crit killing 650 peasants ?

Oh - well I misunderstood your thinking because it will raise 650 killed peasants as Undead in your example! That would make them really hard to manage, I guess. I thought that's the way you wanted it!

So have it be the lower between killed units and percent damage - got it!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa ffs how do i get orcelyn ? I beat orc embassy, then killed dragon in basement , and i see flag above orc in front of it, but cant take quest. I dont remember what i need to do for that quest :-( Help ppl.

Yah, I think you have to talk to him first otherwise you miss out, but I'm not sure if there's a way to get him in the castle later.

I know that he won't offer the Embassy "quest" unitl after you've talked to King Mark about sailing to Elinia.

I'm not sure what happens, though, if you get into the Embassy first.

Well, thanks again for the comments!

/C\/C\

[Fatt_Shade]

Since you removed undead -lds from glory, at least leave it in necromancy skill.

I know about zerock`s abilities, but have no idea how to use their scripts in giving bonus to kids :-(

Soul drain i thought like description of necro call spell : it rises certain amount hp, but no more units then killed stack. So soul drain gives ghosts something like 30-40% of dealt dmg, but no more then number of killed units. As you said lower of those two.

[Fatt_Shade]

You sly dog :-)
Now i get it what you meant, i dont know what is waiting for me in elven lands. Not even soul drain saved my ghosts against some swarms of sprites, and ent/en2 wooden talent is to much i think 50/80/50% physical/poison/magic res is OP in my opinion(maybe lower phy/magic res 20-30% would be acceptable).
Also you said you didnt add any penalties as kid`s bonuses, but first elven hero Sonya 29 int, and -60% magic res to all my units(had to leave all units in castle except black dragons to f..k her up), werewolf hero in elven underground -40% physical res to my units(he`s still alive, i`m waiting to get stronger black hole, i know that`s so gay :-P), almost all dwarf heroes -1 speed to my units.
That`s what i meant about implementing tactics from homm3 heroes, instead giving speed to ally, lower enemy speed in first 1-2 turns.

Forgot to mention :
1) resurrection works on undead with necromancy skill, so it`s OK.
2) when i lvlup gizmo and cast it in battle next time it freezes game, and i hvae to load which is no problem just saying it`s something with gizmo. I checked lina.atom in your mod files but cant figure it out :-(
3) figured out orc embassy quest, i just had to go to elven lands first to talk with king there, and then i got orc wife.
4) i just now figured out that original ghosts had physical dmg, but you changed it to magic. why that ? with necromancy bonus it`s sick for 3rd lvl unit to have 9-13 dmg. I returned it back, and removed magic dmg bonus for all undead, i leave only for necromancers now.

[MattCaspermeyer]

You sly dog :-)
Now i get it what you meant, i dont know what is waiting for me in elven lands. Not even soul drain saved my ghosts against some swarms of sprites, and ent/en2 wooden talent is to much i think 50/80/50% physical/poison/magic res is OP in my opinion(maybe lower phy/magic res 20-30% would be acceptable).

Actually Ent's Physical Resistance is 35% and then they get +25% Resist All when they use their Tap Tree of Life Ability (rooted), which lasts 3 turns. Also don't forget that your're playing Impossible so those values increase +25% due to the difficulty level!

Ancient Ents are 40% Physical Resist and 75% Magic. The reason why they have high Magic Resistance is because of the Tree of Life. I figured that they hadn't fallen far from that Tree!

/C\/C\


Also you said you didnt add any penalties as kid`s bonuses, but first elven hero Sonya 29 int, and -60% magic res to all my units(had to leave all units in castle except black dragons to f..k her up), werewolf hero in elven underground -40% physical res to my units(he`s still alive, i`m waiting to get stronger black hole, i know that`s so gay :-P), almost all dwarf heroes -1 speed to my units.
That`s what i meant about implementing tactics from homm3 heroes, instead giving speed to ally, lower enemy speed in first 1-2 turns.


Werewolf hero might only be 40% for round 1 - you might want to scout him and see. I can't remember, I'd have to look him up, but a lot of heroes have the "Combat Readiness" skill which works the same as yours for levels 1, 2, and 3 for them!

Now I think you can see that these heroes aren't slouches any more, but have a system similar to yours.

Mage enemy hero's Destroyer Skill drops one of your resistances up to 50% @ level 3! So be careful when fighting enemy Mage hero's. How can you tell which class is which by the way? Warrior heroes have more Attack than their other abilities, Paladin's Attack, Defense, and Intellect are all roughly the same, and Mage heroes have a lot more Intellect than their other abilities and noticebly more mana.

Yah, the next thing I'm going to work on is switching HOMM3 babies with tactics to work like I did with the enemy heroes, but I'll make them last the whole combat I think.

Forgot to mention :
1) resurrection works on undead with necromancy skill, so it`s OK.

Excellent!

2) when i lvlup gizmo and cast it in battle next time it freezes game, and i hvae to load which is no problem just saying it`s something with gizmo. I checked lina.atom in your mod files but cant figure it out :-(

I'm really interested in seeing what's happening here - send me your savegame with how to reproduce and I'll try to fix it!

I never have had trouble with Gizmo by the way...

3) figured out orc embassy quest, i just had to go to elven lands first to talk with king there, and then i got orc wife.

You know, when I was working on adding Orcelyn, I think I saw too different sets of criteria - one is talking to the Elven King, but the other is at the end of the Torn Digor quest. I think may be one can be used to reset it if you happen to attack the Embassy before getting Habbab Ordy's quest.

So did you marry Orcelyn or did you stick with Rina? Her dialogue's a bit weak right now so I'll have to work on it to make it more interesting!

4) i just now figured out that original ghosts had physical dmg, but you changed it to magic. why that ? with necromancy bonus it`s sick for 3rd lvl unit to have 9-13 dmg. I returned it back, and removed magic dmg bonus for all undead, i leave only for necromancers now.

I switched them to magic damage because it seemed like with their 80% Physical Resistance that they really didn't have much of a physical presence in the world. And since their Soul Drain reanimated their numbers it seems more like a magic attack than a physical one. So that's why I changed it - I think it's better suited that way.

You're now officially in the fun part of the game! Not that the early part isn't fun, but just liike your hero isn't the most powerful at the start of the game, neither are the enemy heroes. But once you start to get more powerful, so do they!:-)

Well, now that I'm back to work this week, I won't have as much time to work on it, but I'll make the Tactics skill changes to the HOMM3 babies over the course of the week.

I'll also try to continue my game - you're ahead of me now! Such is the life of a modder!;)

[Fatt_Shade]

About ents i though and it`s ok as you said, and they initiative is so low, almost every turn act last so they need something positive. Nice idea for it.

For enemy heroes lowering my resistances it`s ok in general, makes game harder later in game (elven lands, demonis, gray wastelands), but problem is there is few items/kid`s to protect your army with resistances, and even they are not enough. As i mentioned for Sonya dryad hero in elf lands 29 int, lowered my magic res by 60%, double lightning cast/turn (she even cast lightning on my invisible inquisitors ???), and 40 mana regen/turn it`s not question of tactics, it only question how many black dragons you can lead to beat the bitch(even red dragons got ripped to shreds against her) :-)

I thought about switching to orcelyn to try her out, but i`m mage with low att and lds, and orcs are mainly oriented to brute force so i think it wouldnt be interesting. And i already spend to much runes on dark commander skill, so i`ll w8 for xeona to switch wife (i have savegame so i`ll try orcelyn also just to get 4 kids to see how it turn out, but my main play is undead later going to demons).

Couple of questions :
1) I crosschecked kid`s and feanora/gerda/neoka dont have any kind with addexp for hero or spirits. Rina have 2, also xeona and other have 1. Any plan to even kid`s out so every wife have at least 1 for this bonus ?
2) And have you figured out how to add some kid rage inflow bonus ?
3) Thought`s for adding -res% for destroyer skill ? like enemy hero`s obviously have. I have 31int, with 3rd lvl destroyer skill ,and geyser spell only 900-1800 dmg. Low comparing to 29 int sonya`s devestating my army earlier. I know how to do it, but you already changed some enemy heroes, so i ask what you think.
4) how`s going changing necro call to resurrect undead units, instead using order spell for it. it doesnt seem right it`s used on living units ,not corpses :-) I have necro call long time ago but almost never use it.
5) you missed vampires to warrior iron fist skill.

[MattCaspermeyer]

About ents i though and it`s ok as you said, and they initiative is so low, almost every turn act last so they need something positive. Nice idea for it.

Yah, they were worthless before, and now they still have weakness to fire so you can burn them with reckless abandon, but now they are much better!:-)

For enemy heroes lowering my resistances it`s ok in general, makes game harder later in game (elven lands, demonis, gray wastelands), but problem is there is few items/kid`s to protect your army with resistances, and even they are not enough. As i mentioned for Sonya dryad hero in elf lands 29 int, lowered my magic res by 60%, double lightning cast/turn (she even cast lightning on my invisible inquisitors ???), and 40 mana regen/turn it`s not question of tactics, it only question how many black dragons you can lead to beat the bitch(even red dragons got ripped to shreds against her) :-)

This is what makes it tough! I'll look into the invisibile inquisitor thing, I'm not sure what the rules are supposed to be with it, but I think they should not be able to be the primary target, but I think it is okay if they get zapped as an ancillary target (lightning jumps are not sight based).

By the way, I think I have noticed the AI having a slightly different set of rules with targeting units with spells, kind of like how their Black Dragon's can take a burn path that's more optimal than we can manually.

The thing about the later part of the game is it becomes a little bit more rock, scissors, paper and you can be using units that have a weakness in a certain resistance and then it will get exposed.

This is how we all play as well - we exploit the weaknesses of our opponents (how many Ghosts did you generate)?

Actually though, Neoka has +20% Magic Resistance, and then the Mirror Armor (or whatever its called) is another +15 I think. Also, I think Neoka has a baby or two with Resistance which is another +5 Resist All.

So this is what I was referring to before.

You know, the strategy for all the King's Bounty games has been find a group of units you like and then you pretty much stick with them for most of the game. Now you have to strategize and the wives and children can help you get past tough battles and Sonya (if memory serves) is only a Level 23 hero. Imagine when you face a triple caster! Yikes! I want my mommy!;)

Also, I hope you have a plan to get (or already have) Higher Magic - that will turn you into a real mage! You'll get some double casting, too!

Remember I said no loss on Impossible is going to be really hard now and it might not even be doable - I haven't been able to do it!:-)

I will admit, though, that it hasn't been my primary focus since I have to play test and debug all the new aspects that I've added.

I thought about switching to orcelyn to try her out, but i`m mage with low att and lds, and orcs are mainly oriented to brute force so i think it wouldnt be interesting. And i already spend to much runes on dark commander skill, so i`ll w8 for xeona to switch wife (i have savegame so i`ll try orcelyn also just to get 4 kids to see how it turn out, but my main play is undead later going to demons).

Diana and Neoka might be good go betweens before Xe and they'll help you with your magic deficiencies if your Undead are having too much trouble. That's where Rina's a bit weak later in the game - she doesn't help out a mage too much.

Couple of questions :
1) I crosschecked kid`s and feanora/gerda/neoka dont have any kind with addexp for hero or spirits. Rina have 2, also xeona and other have 1. Any plan to even kid`s out so every wife have at least 1 for this bonus ?

You know, unfortunately, since the babies' skills are based on their HOMM3 skills and in that game certain heroes with certain skillsets dominated a town and since some of the children choices seem a really good match for certain wives it worked out that way.

Nonetheless, I've recently considered "baby swaps" where for example, I could maybe swap a baby between two wives if it wouldn't be totally inconceivable (i.e. two human babies could probably be swapped). For example, Mirabella's Christian could probably be swapped to Neoka, but I'd have to figure out a good Neoka baby to give to Mirabella in exchange. Xeona has the most babies because of the Minotaurs, and all the human babies are perfect fits for her so I can't really move hers.

Sooner or later you'll probably come across Clancy who has bonuses to Unicorns, but is a Gerda baby. You'll say what? But as it turns out, Clancy in HOMM3 is a Dwarf with bonuses to Unicorns. So unfortunately Clancy is Gerda's baby and has a Unicorn Bonus. Sorry, just the way it is as I can't have you and Neoka have a Dwarf baby! Well, unless we use the stork story again, but I think we've already used that twice and someone's going to figure out that something funny is going on with this stork!;)

Once again, I'm also limited by trying to stay true to their original HOMM3 bonuses, but I'll look into evening things out more if it makes sense.

I'm not sure if you looked at my skill list, but Tactics is not the only skill that didn't translate over well from HOMM3 to KB. There's also Scouting - that might be a good one since you scout an enemies weakness, although I'd probably have that one drop enemy defense, for example. There are also a few others - I just haven't had a chance to review yet, but will soon!

Also don't forget that the Mage gets a 50% spirit experience penalty compared to a Warrior (that's standard game).

2) And have you figured out how to add some kid rage inflow bonus ?

No - I haven't had a chance to look into that yet, but I will! :-)

3) Thought`s for adding -res% for destroyer skill ? like enemy hero`s obviously have. I have 31int, with 3rd lvl destroyer skill ,and geyser spell only 900-1800 dmg. Low comparing to 29 int sonya`s devestating my army earlier. I know how to do it, but you already changed some enemy heroes, so i ask what you think.

You know, I actually wanted the enemy heroes' Destroyer skill to work just like yours. Unfortunately, the mods {...} section is where the Destroyer skill bonuses are implemented and you cannot use such a section with enemy heroes! :(

So I was taken aback for a while about what to do with it and then I thought of the -resistance bonus. So I think with Destroyer it's either one way or the other, but not both. The problem arises is that only one resistance is effected, so with your hero I would have had to have you pick a resistance that you wanted to use as your -resistance. I'd need to add a dialog or something like that which I really don't know how to do.

So I think the way Destroyer works is fine for both your and the enemy heroes - use more Divine Armor or troops with better resistance to help you with those enemies.

Also, you'll find that you're Geyser will keep increasing in power and when you think about it 900-1800 * 8 (a total of 7200 to 14400 ignoring defense and resistance) is pretty good damage! And you should be able to get over 30 Intellect if you focus your level up points into it - remember I said you might want to choose other stats over Leadership?

I think you can see how there is much more strategy now, you can't just stick with the same group of units and expect to waltz through the game.

I hope you're having fun!:-)

4) how`s going changing necro call to resurrect undead units, instead using order spell for it. it doesnt seem right it`s used on living units ,not corpses :-) I have necro call long time ago but almost never use it.

Okay - that's a good point, I guess that's why I used Resurrect, but I'll see if there's a way to make Necro Call act like Resurrect when you get Necromancy Level 1. If I can't figure it out, then I'll just stick with Resurrect with a 50% penalty for Undead.

5) you missed vampires to warrior iron fist skill.

You know, I left them off because I considered them not to be Warriors, which is what Iron Fist skill is supposed to help. Skeleton Warriors and Zombies are the Undead's Warriors, but I thought that the Vampires were something different (Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise - come on!:grin:) - same as Ghosts. Vampires don't even use a sword or axe, they just have that slender wand thing (or whatever it is) so that's why I left them off.

Well good comments as always, I probably won't be able to do much tonight (Monday Night Football), but hopefully Tuesday or Wednesday I'll get back to checking stuff.

In the mean time keep playing and try to devise some new strategies to deal with some of these tough hereos! That's the fun part of the game with my mod!:-)

/C\/C\

[ShuiMienLung]

"Vampires don't even use a sword or axe, they just have that slender wand thing (or whatever it is) so that's why I left them off."

It's called a rapier. :)

[MattCaspermeyer]

Hah! Thanks! I guess I don't have the best eyeballs. So that makes them more like the captain of a pirate ship, right!;)

[Fatt_Shade]

1) invisibility spell i also saw enemy hero cast it and still see his unit, so i quess it`s some bug with spell in general.
I got 1800 ghosts, and 800 cursed before i stopped using them in battle :-)
No charna`s unlimited retaliation isn`t cheat at all :-D
And my higher magic is all good until i meet enemy units with 40% res all, with heroes even worse because enemy units 25% higher all stats. That`s why i said to give some kid`s with lowering enemy res(1 kid/wife would be nice to hope for).
2) Yea i also now think between neoka/diana for their kid`s with int%, and attack_spell%. But i already used so much runes in dark commander (3rd lvl :-) and just after clearing dwarf lands got to demonis and bought full undead army.
3) I get that you wanted to get homm3 heroes in this game, and i said it before it`s great idea, and great mod. But i asked all wives to be in some way balanced in chance to get kids with similar bonuses (for races not same bonus for each kid).
4) i did -enemy res% in CW in fire mage medal, so i say it`s no problem, just wanted to see how will ppl answer to see how to edit destroyer skill.
I also took almost every lvl int/mana choices insted lds, so i have nice int so far but still not making some heavy dmg with spells :-(
5) as for vampires, they are melee units using sword to attack, so i thought they should be in iron fist. you placed there all other humanoid creature in game 1-4lvl`s so why not vampires :-) Horseman attack with lance from horseback, they also dont use sword/axe what about them? And also missed peasants for that skill, because we all know how much peasants can be useful in latgame :-D

[MattCaspermeyer]

1) invisibility spell i also saw enemy hero cast it and still see his unit, so i quess it`s some bug with spell in general.

You know that's the way it works - I think it was probably Enchanted Hero that cast it on that particular unit (that is fairly common).

There is actually AI code for using the Invisibility spell, but I don't think I've ever seen the computer use it. It might just be that they don't have the spell in their spell list. I'll have to see if I gave any enemy heroes Invisibility now that I think about it...

You can't attack the computer's invisible units, though. I wonder if I could figure out how to make them completely invisible when its the computer's units so you can't see them.

Hmmm... more things to add to my list to check!:-)

I got 1800 ghosts, and 800 cursed before i stopped using them in battle :-)
No charna`s unlimited retaliation isn`t cheat at all :-D

I'm really glad you did that - that's the only way to see if a new idea is a good idea!

And my higher magic is all good until i meet enemy units with 40% res all, with heroes even worse because enemy units 25% higher all stats. That`s why i said to give some kid`s with lowering enemy res(1 kid/wife would be nice to hope for).

I'll see what I can do with the HOMM3 Skills with no obvious translation - maybe Eagle Eye is a good candidate for -res. Hmmm...

2) Yea i also now think between neoka/diana for their kid`s with int%, and attack_spell%. But i already used so much runes in dark commander (3rd lvl :-) and just after clearing dwarf lands got to demonis and bought full undead army.

Okay - who you got now? Do you still use your Ghosts? Also, I haven't gotten to fighting Bone Dragons yet, but when I do I think I'm going to add the spells I listed a few pages back to them on their attack...

3) I get that you wanted to get homm3 heroes in this game, and i said it before it`s great idea, and great mod. But i asked all wives to be in some way balanced in chance to get kids with similar bonuses (for races not same bonus for each kid).

I'll see what I can do about a little "cross-pollination" and see if I can do some baby switching to help disperse the abilities a little bit better...

4) i did -enemy res% in CW in fire mage medal, so i say it`s no problem, just wanted to see how will ppl answer to see how to edit destroyer skill.
I also took almost every lvl int/mana choices insted lds, so i have nice int so far but still not making some heavy dmg with spells :-(

Don't worry - hopefully you'll get a Xe baby (or two) with some increase in spell power.

By the way, which level are you now and where's your mana and intellect at? Just curious...

5) as for vampires, they are melee units using sword to attack, so i thought they should be in iron fist. you placed there all other humanoid creature in game 1-4lvl`s so why not vampires :-) Horseman attack with lance from horseback, they also dont use sword/axe what about them? And also missed peasants for that skill, because we all know how much peasants can be useful in latgame :-D

Yah, you know I didn't consider Peasants warriors either - they're ... ... Peasants!!!

Horseman are knights on horses. I'll think about the Peasants and Vamps some more even though they don't seem like real warriors to me...

By the way, where are you know in the game? Have you made it to the Lands of Death yet and fought Karrador?

Sounds like you're having fun and I'll have a good list of comments from your playthrough to make it better!:-)

/C\/C\

[MattCaspermeyer]

For enemy heroes lowering my resistances it`s ok in general, makes game harder later in game (elven lands, demonis, gray wastelands), but problem is there is few items/kid`s to protect your army with resistances, and even they are not enough.

I forgot about the babies with Air, Earth, Fire, and Water Resistance - these translated over such that:

Air - Magic Resistance
Earth - Physical Resistance
Fire - Fire Resistance - duh!
Water - Poison Resistance

So here's the wife / baby list of those babies with those skills:

Feanora: Adrienne with Expert Fire Magic (she gets a big fire resist bonus because of her Expert Fire Magic, by the way, she's a human Witch). Fire Resistance: +42%.
Gerda: Grindan and Labetha both with Basic Earth Magic (Grindan is a Dwarf Elementalist, but Labetha is a human Elementalist). Physical Resistance: +16% (each).
Diana: Brissa and Aenain both with Basic Air Magic (both babies are Genie Elementalists so I can't switch them from Diana). Magic Resistance: +18% (each).
Neoka: Ciele and Gelare both with Basic Water Magic (both babies are Elf Elementalists so I can't switch them from Neoka). Poison Resistance: +20% (each).
Xeona: Luna and Inteus with Basic Fire Magic (both babies are human Elementalists). Fire Resistance: +20% (each).

You'll notice that most of them are Elementalists, but I actually did a pretty good job dispersing them (kind of like the Planeswalkers).

Anyway, just wanted to mention them since we forgot about them...

/C\/C\

[MattCaspermeyer]

Okay, I've been reviewing some of the HOMM3 Skills and what I did with bonuses that had no analog in King's Bounty.

Here is the current list of skills I'm considering changing:

HOMM3 Tactics: Attack / Defense: Skill Level * Child Level = +%

I'm thinking of changing this such that:

1. Basic Tactics: -1 Speed or Initiative of Enemy Units
2. Advanced Tactics: -1 Speed AND Initiative of Enemy Units

For Basic Tactics I'd pick speed first, then if another child with the same wife had Basic Tactics I'd then pick initiative.

There are plenty of items / babies that add to Attack / Defense (although few to both) so I think this would be better. Also for enemy heroes with King's Bounty Tactics I essentially had them drop your speed so this would be in line with what I did with them.

There are currently 17 children with Basic Tactics and 1 with Advanced Tactics.

Example 1: Erdamon (Orcelyn) Basic Tactics: -1 Speed or Initiative
Example 2: Boragus (Orcelyn) Basic Tactics: -1 Initiative or Speed (opposite of Erdaman's selection since same wife)
Example 3: Lacus (Diana) Advanced Tactics: -1 Speed AND Initiative

All wives have at least 1 child with Basic Tactics, while most have 2.


HOMM3 Scouting: Rage: 2 * Skill Level * Child Level = +%
Change to: Enemy Defense: -Skill Level * Child Level = -%

Other stats to consider: Enemy Critical Hit

There are currently 6 children with Basic Scouting and 2 children with Advanced Scouting.

Example 1: Aeris (Neoka) Basic Scouting = -1 * 10 = -10%
Example 2: Fiona (Xeona) Advanced Scouting = -2 * 10 = -20%

Xeona has 2 babies with Advanced Scouting and 1 with Basic Scouting, so probability of getting -40% Enemy Defense: 2 / 27 * 1 / 26 = 0.28% or 1 in 351 games; probability of getting -50% Enemy Defense: 2 / 27 * 1 / 26 * 1 / 25 = 0.0114% or 1 in 8775 games.


HOMM3 Eagle Eye: Intellect: 1.5 * Skill Level * Child Level = +%
Change to: Enemy Resistance (type based on wife): -2 * Skill Level * Child Level = -%

There is 1 child with Basic Eagle Eye and 7 children with advanced Eagle Eye. Once again, there are plenty of items that increase intellect, so this is probably not too bad of a change.

Example 1: Ash (Xeona) Basic Eagle Eye: -2 * 1 * 10 = -20% Fire Resistance.
Example 2: Malcom (Gerda) Advanced Eagle Eye: -2 * 2 * 8 = -32%, but Gerda is Resist All, so divide by 4 for each main (excludes astral) resistance so Enemy Resist All: -8%.

Gerda has two babies with Advanced Eagle Eye, so probably of getting -16% Enemy Resist All: 2 / 19 * 1 / 18 = 0.58% or 1 in 171 games.

That would probably be okay.

At this stage, I'm just considering these, although the Tactics one I think I will change for sure.

You know, another thought that I just had (and would help prevent duplication of child bonuses) is to have an alternate for a skill. For example, Xeona has 5 Children with Basic Tactics. So I could have 1 of the children keep the original bonus!

For example:

HOMM3 Tactics Alternate #1: Attack / Defense: Skill Level * Child Level = +%
HOMM3 Tactics Alternate #2: Basic Tactics: -1 Speed or Initiative of Enemy Units; Advanced Tactics: -1 Speed AND Initiative of Enemy Units

So that way when a wife has multiple children with the same bonus there is an alternate variant of that HOMM3 Skill to avoid overuse of that Skill.

Hmmm... this might be a really good idea!:cool:

Let me know your thoughts here - thanks!:-)

/C\/C\

[Fatt_Shade]

Found small miss in wifes.txt for mirabella , in string sp_lead_footmn, `a` missing :-)
Got bored with rina and swapped to neoka, it`s interesting but i`m thinking neoka is better for warrior and huge hordes of not retaliating sprites/dryads and ancient ent teleported in enemy lines to entangle everyone, or all archer 100% crit army. But on other hand neoka have many kids with int related bonuses so it`s a gamble :-)
Orcelyn would be also interesting if orcs werent so inferior compared to their CW edition cousins :-D
But any way this is great mod, and many interesting ideas and solutions.
Still w8ing on some idea for kid with tower lowering stats ( i just tried to suppress dwarf hammer and got my ass handed to me :-P

[MattCaspermeyer]

Any way to give some kid rage inflow (15% maybe), like warrior rage skill ? I found mana/rage %, and mana inflow in battle_mana,1 (i guess 1 mana per turn in battle), so why not some angry little kid that drives you in rampage during battle for sleepless nights, diaper changing, night feeding :-)

Okay, I just purchased the Spear of Rage so there's already a bonus!

Now just have to find an appropriate skill! I don't think this will be a problem to add this one...

/C\/C\

[MattCaspermeyer]

Found small miss in wifes.txt for mirabella , in string sp_lead_footmn, `a` missing :-)

Great catch! Just corrected it and it'll be in the next update!

Got bored with rina and swapped to neoka, it`s interesting but i`m thinking neoka is better for warrior and huge hordes of not retaliating sprites/dryads and ancient ent teleported in enemy lines to entangle everyone, or all archer 100% crit army. But on other hand neoka have many kids with int related bonuses so it`s a gamble :-)

Bye Rina! Sorry you had to go! :(

Hello, Neoka! Hopefully you'll have fun with her! Don't forget you have to get the Tree's permission to have kids with her!

Orcelyn would be also interesting if orcs werent so inferior compared to their CW edition cousins :-D

You know I've been toying with the Shaman's Dancing Axes right now. I have a test build where it resurrects Orc allies, then heals allies with the remaining energy, and then damages the remaining enemies with the last bit of energy, but I can't get it to damage the remaining enemies properly (it's either too much or too little and I can't quite figure out how the Attack damage library works). Anyway, that's just an experiment, I want something to happen with the extra energy from the Dancing Axes attack, but I haven't figured out a good solution, yet.

Got any Orc improvement ideas (without adding CW adrenaline)? I was thinking of having the Healing Totem dispel bad spells on your units and might increase the radius +1. The Death Totem I might increase the radius +1 as well and maybe it should do something else.

Hmmm... what to do with those Orcs!

But any way this is great mod, and many interesting ideas and solutions.

Thanks! Glad you're enjoying it! :grin:

Still w8ing on some idea for kid with tower lowering stats ( i just tried to suppress dwarf hammer and got my ass handed to me :-P

Yah, I need to think more about the Towers...

Yep, suppressing items in general is a lot tougher and the Tower's spells are attuned to their allies and you, the enemy! I was actually thinking if I could do the same thing for enemy heroes - hmmm...

I've got Diana now (I basically go in wife order when I play: Rina -> Feanora -> Mirabella -> Gerda -> Orcelyn -> Diana -> Neoka -> Xeona) and just started getting a couple of kills (no kids, yet). Once I get 4 kids then I switch to the next wife so that I can double check the children and make sure their bonuses work, etc. I got Royal Thorns in the game (I rarely see them) and so I'm going to have fun with them and Diana gives bonuses to all Thorns (as well as other units including Dragonflies, Sprites / Fairies, Dryads, Unicorns, and Ents) and goes well with Neoka since Sprites, Lake Fairies, Dryads, and Ents get bonuses from her, too!

Okay, back to playing...

/C\/C\

[Fatt_Shade]

Yea i forgot about permission form tree to get kids with neoka (you cant even sleep with your wife without other`s approval :-) and had 4 fights before kissing her first time, so no big miss there.
I`we always seen orcs as horde, and great in big numbers so no mage/orc build for me. But as for some improvements, hm . . . could you convert orc abilities form CW witout adrenaline : kid that gives bonus to ogre`s give them drain ability, for veteran orcs miss chance . other kid that gives bonus to veterans give them vicious strike (so not to have 2 kids with same bonus). This is big change to orcelyn but i cant think of anything else to help that race except already made changes in AP/CW. Nice idea to strenghten shamans totems/dancing axes, but what about other orc units ? They have almost nothing to boost : goblins nothing, orcs only running , ogre only rage so not much to work with on them since they dont have anything to start with :-( Poor orcs.

[Fatt_Shade]

Hey Matt Q :
did you on purpose made gift of life to take 2 turns to resurrect plant you need ? I tried some ents with neoka, and first move is to summon some unit, then with that unit you need to summon on some killed unit, and then you can use first summoned unit to resurrect starting ent . . . It takes to much time, and lose 2 whole turns with 2 units. Why not activate gift of life on first unit after summoning in way that `I summoned you, now you sacrifice yourself to revive me`, but lower resurrected % maybe. As it is now, to resurrect 1 plant, we need 2 killed units near for summoning, and 2 turns to actually do it.

[MattCaspermeyer]

Hey Matt Q :
did you on purpose made gift of life to take 2 turns to resurrect plant you need ? I tried some ents with neoka, and first move is to summon some unit, then with that unit you need to summon on some killed unit, and then you can use first summoned unit to resurrect starting ent . . . It takes to much time, and lose 2 whole turns with 2 units. Why not activate gift of life on first unit after summoning in way that `I summoned you, now you sacrifice yourself to revive me`, but lower resurrected % maybe. As it is now, to resurrect 1 plant, we need 2 killed units near for summoning, and 2 turns to actually do it.

I sure did! By having them use their Sowing to enable their Gift of Life your resurrection ability is limited by the number of corpses on the battlefield. If there are no corpses then no Gift of Life. Also note that when a Thorn uses its Gift of Life, that there is no corpse generated (it is totally absorbed by the plant it heals). This makes the use of Thorns a lot more strategic for resurrection purposes. There are plenty of Thorn Generators that don't need a corpse to create the Thorns (Ents, Dryads, and Royal Thorns) and so even though it takes more time you should be able to get some Thorns to heal your plants before finishing off the combat.

It can still be exploited somewhat if you keep a non-retaliator stack alive and let it keep killing your generated Thorns for fresh corpses. The only way to prevent this issue would be to change all the Thorn Generating abilities to have charges. I've gone back and forth here experimenting with making them charges and reloadable and because Thorns are mowed down so easily that you need a steady stream of them (numbers!) for them to be effective I decided to keep that capability reloadable. This is an advantage to entice people to play with plants.

/C\/C\

[Fatt_Shade]

I dont think you understood what i was implying.
Lets say thorn hunters cast summon on some corpse, but if you want to use gift of life to resurrect starting unit you need 1 more corpse to use summon thorn by already summoned. When use summon plant i dont need ability to heal summoned unit, but one i`m taking with me in next battle.
Why not activate gift of life in reverse order, unit that summoned stack can sacrifice it to resurrect itself. This is most problem with thorns, as you said many gift of life using units dont need it but consider this : dryads dont need that ability they summon meat shields, royal thorn also with speed 1(2 at best) summon minions and send them to fight then if need be those units use summon and return to heal royal thorns. For ents there is even less need for res with their tree of life ability. So most vunerable are basic units thorn warriors/hunters and need for to heal 1 stack you need 2 corpses.
I understand that you wanted to make this limited in battle, but it just seem to complicated for simple way of keeping plants alive since they have no active skills/mass aoe dmg or passive like stun/shock. They are useful in large numbers but that`s it. ANd are so vunerable, that`s why i asked about this way of using gitf of life.

[MattCaspermeyer]

Oh!

I think I understand what you're saying. You're saying you want Thorn-Hunters and Thorn Warriors when they use there Sowing ability to have the created Thorn have its Gift of Life ability enabled since it used a corpse to generate it. All other Thorn generators would stay the way they are.

This is an interesting idea. For the AI, they both would run to the nearest high level plant and use their Gift of Life ability (that's pretty much how I programmed it). For people, you wouldn't sacrifice your starting Thorn because then that'd be a loss in combat that you wouldn't want, but you would probably heal them with the new unit once you got the chance if you needn't it.

Hmmm... I guess this would be okay and it would help the AI more, too. Since it would only apply to Thorn-Hunters and Thorn Warriors I guess it wouldn't be exploited by human players since they couldn't sacrifice their starting Thorns if they wanted to minimize losses and it would be easier (at the beginning of the game) to use Thorns and try to heal them.

I'll think about this some more, but it seems like this idea would be okay to implement...

Thanks for the idea!:-)

I dont think you understood what i was implying.
Lets say thorn hunters cast summon on some corpse, but if you want to use gift of life to resurrect starting unit you need 1 more corpse to use summon thorn by already summoned. When use summon plant i dont need ability to heal summoned unit, but one i`m taking with me in next battle.
Why not activate gift of life in reverse order, unit that summoned stack can sacrifice it to resurrect itself. This is most problem with thorns, as you said many gift of life using units dont need it but consider this : dryads dont need that ability they summon meat shields, royal thorn also with speed 1(2 at best) summon minions and send them to fight then if need be those units use summon and return to heal royal thorns. For ents there is even less need for res with their tree of life ability. So most vunerable are basic units thorn warriors/hunters and need for to heal 1 stack you need 2 corpses.
I understand that you wanted to make this limited in battle, but it just seem to complicated for simple way of keeping plants alive since they have no active skills/mass aoe dmg or passive like stun/shock. They are useful in large numbers but that`s it. ANd are so vunerable, that`s why i asked about this way of using gitf of life.

[ShadowTek]

O_O Wow, I leave for a few months and look what happens, nice work man!! seems I have allot to read!

Great job!!

[Fatt_Shade]

Hello ppl :-)
Matt i checked your last update, and i like upgraded orcs but it`s still not changed type of playing them like in cw. Thx for effort man, i`m not complaining just saying units need more then higher resistances to be interesting to play. Modified dancing axes great job, it reports error every time i use it but `ignore` and it works resurrecting orc troops :-)

I just now noticed something on matter i played this game for almost 1 whole year. With warrior anger skill you get more rage from inquisitor holy rage ability, basic is 5-10 but with 3rd lvl anger it goes up to 10-20 :-) Why didnt they copy this to AP/CW hero skill? There anger is available to all hero classes.

As for mod it self, i played 2 whole games mage (rina, feanora,diana,neoka) and warrior tried (rina, feanora, mirabella, orcalyn, gerda, neoka, xeona . . . yea i know, divorces alone costed me leg and a half :-) And it works great, late game hero fights are really tough and interesting. I still think enemy hero -resistance% are to high, but no1 is forcing me to play impossible no loss in first place :-)
Great job man, keep it up.
On side note, are you planing to make something similar for AP/CW or will you w8 for WotN and just make mod when new game come out ?

[MattCaspermeyer]

Hello ppl :-)
Matt i checked your last update, and i like upgraded orcs but it`s still not changed type of playing them like in cw. Thx for effort man, i`m not complaining just saying units need more then higher resistances to be interesting to play. Modified dancing axes great job, it reports error every time i use it but `ignore` and it works resurrecting orc troops :-)

Well, maybe it's just a start! Think of some ideas! I keep going back to the totems, but that is focusing too much on Shamans.

Here's an idea, by the way (I don't know how to implement this, but its a thought):

When an Orc troop gets a critical hit, all Orc troops get some kind of bonus - kind of like "inspiring hit" or something like that.

I'll look into the Dancing Axes problem - I did play test it and that error occurs if EN(G)_BATTLE.LNG is not updated. Maybe I forgot to include it in the update? I'll look into it...

I just now noticed something on matter i played this game for almost 1 whole year. With warrior anger skill you get more rage from inquisitor holy rage ability, basic is 5-10 but with 3rd lvl anger it goes up to 10-20 :-) Why didnt they copy this to AP/CW hero skill? There anger is available to all hero classes.

I decided to implement it that way!:cool:

Also, note that they are also affected by combat duration so you can't exploit it...

As for mod it self, i played 2 whole games mage (rina, feanora,diana,neoka) and warrior tried (rina, feanora, mirabella, orcalyn, gerda, neoka, xeona . . . yea i know, divorces alone costed me leg and a half :-) And it works great, late game hero fights are really tough and interesting. I still think enemy hero -resistance% are to high, but no1 is forcing me to play impossible no loss in first place :-)
Great job man, keep it up.

Exactly - Impossible is meant to be Impossible... or at least really hard!:grin:

Wow! You play fast! Of course I'd go faster if I wasn't constantly evaluating and trying to implement things to make it better!:-)

Have you seen the Bone Dragons use their new ability, yet? I actually noticed a situation where it will look for a label that doesn't exist (I've only seen it once so far) when they Sheep a unit. I've got a fix for that one I'll send out soon...

On side note, are you planing to make something similar for AP/CW or will you w8 for WotN and just make mod when new game come out ?

I sure will - the Tomes of HOMM3 mod. Basically all the babies will become items that are books or tomes that are either artifacts or regalia or something like that.

I'll also implement all the other changes if they are merited, but I'll need to review all the changes between the games as well and then transfer the content over.

I'm hoping most of it will transfer fairly readily since, from what I can tell, is that almost all the new AP/CW content are in addon_*.LUA files, etc.

I'll probably focus on CW, but I'm hoping that the CW changes will also work in AP.

I'll also have to review all the skills since they are markedly different and determine if any changes are needed there. I thought that the AP and CW skill trees were better than the TL ones.

The enemy hero evaluation and update with a new system will take a while to implement because there are so many of them. It took me a month to slog through all the enemy heroes and update them with my new enemy hero system. I'll create a new system based on the skill trees in AP/CW so that they mirror your skill tree once again. What's nice about that, though, is I'll make it a separate mini mod like I've done here so that you can play with just updated heroes if you so desire.

In the meantime, I need to stay focused on this mod until it is ready for the beta phase - I'm almost there - just need to get my first Xe baby (although you already have so it's probably okay) and then I think we can transition this mod to the beta phase where people can download it and start playing it!

Thanks for all the awesome comments - when you play in a vacuum you get a little used to the way things are and it is great to get outside people to play and get you to think about things differently!

By the way, which level were you when you fought Xe and with what troop lineup?

I just made it to level 20 and unfortunately, I use Neoka with Elves, which Xe burns with alacrity! Fortunately I was able to find some Ancient Ents to stave off being defeated. My first lineup had Girlie Power (Sprites, Lake Faries, and Dryads), Ents, and Hunters and I got dusted. I experimented with replacing Hunters with Elves or Uni's, but she kept kicking my tail! So I figured I'd look around Demonis and see if I could find some Ancient Ents and got lucky! I was also just level 19, but found an experience shrine to get the next level and get a good 1000 point boost to Leadership and the capability to hire more units. Girlie Power, Elves, and Ancient Ents I survived, but everyone got killed except my Ancient Ents - whew! She is tough if you're low-level and fighting her with flammable troops!:)

What I really like is that you can pretty much gauge how well you're going to do just by comparing your level to the enemy hero. If your quite a few levels below them then you best get ready for a knock-down, drag-out fight and be prepared to get handed!

I'll look into the error message with the missing label (I probably just forgot to include the new EN(G)_BATTLE.LNG) and also think some more about Orcs.

I'm glad the Shaman Dancing Axes isn't too powerful - did you use it much when you played Orcelyn to heal your Orc troops? About the only way I can see it being exploited is if you keep a troop generator alive (pretty much just Royal Thorns, Dryads, Druids, and Ents / Ancient Ents) and keep killing the generated troops to resurrect all your Orcs. I don't have a solution to that right now...

Allright let me get back to fixing those errors and keep providing comments - that's the only way to make this mod better!:grin:

[Fatt_Shade]

What makes playing this is different type of units, and many possible builds/tactics . . . so `inspiring hit` for orcs meh :-( Their adrenaline was great idea in CW and no matter what ppl say, it changed AP much and was worth new playthrough. What did you plan for inspiring hit ? higer stats, or . . . what would be bonus for other orcs after 1 unit crit?
Inquisitor was nice touch :-) I didnt even noticed it till late game since with warrior rage isn`t big issue, i just used it once when i had no rage and got 18 with WTF is this face :-)
I think we need more difficulty lvl`s with messages to players on game start, keep easy as it is (`go play minesweeper`) , normal (`this is really just tutorial`) , hard (`veteran KB players easy mod`) , impossible (`veteran KB players normal mod`) , no loss impossible (`tasting mod for army generals etc`) , truly impossible (`bend over and say A mod for masochist`here in first location before you can move to next stage will be placed stack of 100 black dragons) :-D
Haven`t seen new bone dragon ability since i already cleared undead lands when i upgraded mod with your latest addon.
I got to Xeona but didnt beat her with no loss (i think it`s really impossible to do it), i did it on 24th lvl (25k lds), with diana +ancient ent/thorn hunter/girl power team , i had blackthorn crown (i changed it to give 20% dmg to ents, 50% to thorns and 1 initiative to all plants) poison dagger , great for huge stacks of low lvl units, and really buffed up rage spirits.
I didnt check this but does enemy hero mana regen also stop on 20 battle turn? Because 20% mana regen/turn is sick. I didnt defeat her without loss, i just did it to pick her and see how she works :-( It`s f...ed up battle, but i did it on pure power and rage spirits with warrior, i dont know your hero class, but i think with mage it might be doable without loss, but for paladin i`m not so sure.
As for shamans dancing axes change it so it works only on living enemy so it`s not overpowered (as you said leaving small enemy troop to resurrect army on summons will be first thing many old players will think off :-) Or at least make it so not usable on undead (plants are some kind of living things, but zombies not so much :-D

[Fatt_Shade]

I got save that allowed me to pick all wives, so i try some different combinations just for fun and found weird info. Lds for wives is wrong : rina give bonus for only 4 units and have lowest -6% lds, feanora is right behind her. Shouldnt this be other way around ? Mirabella give -8lds% for all humans including robbers 1&2 and griffins, and gerda only 5 dwarf units for same bonus ( i thought to add cyclops for gerda unit bonus and change it to 9%) , same thing for neoka/diana both give bonus to 11/12 units and -9/-10%lds, higher then other wives. That`s why i thought to change that stats : for gerda add cyclops and set it to -10% lds , rina add pirates -11%lds , xeona add red and black dragons for -5%lds, emerald dragon for neoka/diana (remove dragonflies form her, never use them anyway) -5%lds. Tis will mean for every 20 dragons you get to lead 1 more, not much but it would be useful when missing small amount lds between 1 and 2 dragons.
Also fire spiders are demon in this mod, i`m not sure did you changed it or was it like that in original but you miss them in xeona -lds% list.

And towers in suppressing items battles are seriously overpowered. Couple examples : suppressing royal hammer 5att/-10% dwarf lds i had sprites with 14 initiative and tower still play first, how high is initiative for those things ??? And my mage have 44 int casting hell breath on some unit it get 65% fire dmg bonus, when tower cast same spell enemy unit get 150% fire dmg !!! a bit much i think. Upgrading archmage/druid staff to 3rd lvl same thing
1 more miss : warrior have bonus for fighting units iron fist skill, quick draw for archers, dark commander for all demon,orc,undead and you added bunch neutral units here (missed griffins) , mage have bonus for undead in necromancy and archmage for all mage type units. Question ? Why elves/dwarves missing for any kind of bonuses... i tried gerda and no matter what kids items i have, my initiative is crap, enemy heroes always play first with all army before i get turn. So how about adding elf/dwarf race bonuses to mind tree in place of diplomacy skill ?

[MattCaspermeyer]

What makes playing this is different type of units, and many possible builds/tactics . . . so `inspiring hit` for orcs meh :-( Their adrenaline was great idea in CW and no matter what ppl say, it changed AP much and was worth new playthrough. What did you plan for inspiring hit ? higer stats, or . . . what would be bonus for other orcs after 1 unit crit?

I'm not sure - I'm just throwing out ideas to help with the brainstorming.

You know, I wasn't a big fan of the Orcs overusing astral damage in CW. It was neat to have the Orcs and other units have new abilities in AP/CW, though, like you said.

I just need to think more about what makes sense for them.

I really like what I did with the plants in my mod and I'd like to find something similar to do to Orcs that fits them kind of like what I did with the Orc Shamans and their Dancing Axes.

Inquisitor was nice touch :-) I didnt even noticed it till late game since with warrior rage isn`t big issue, i just used it once when i had no rage and got 18 with WTF is this face :-)

I thought that the idea would be great to implement glad you enjoyed it!

I think we need more difficulty lvl`s with messages to players on game start, keep easy as it is (`go play minesweeper`) , normal (`this is really just tutorial`) , hard (`veteran KB players easy mod`) , impossible (`veteran KB players normal mod`) , no loss impossible (`tasting mod for army generals etc`) , truly impossible (`bend over and say A mod for masochist`here in first location before you can move to next stage will be placed stack of 100 black dragons) :-D

Hah! That'd be funny!

Haven`t seen new bone dragon ability since i already cleared undead lands when i upgraded mod with your latest addon.

Okay - maybe if you play again...

I got to Xeona but didnt beat her with no loss (i think it`s really impossible to do it), i did it on 24th lvl (25k lds), with diana +ancient ent/thorn hunter/girl power team , i had blackthorn crown (i changed it to give 20% dmg to ents, 50% to thorns and 1 initiative to all plants) poison dagger , great for huge stacks of low lvl units, and really buffed up rage spirits.

Love to see that word: impossible!:grin:

Wow! You had 25k Leadership?! Boy that must have been a crazy battle!

You know, I didn't really think about changing any of the items in the game - do you think that's better for the Blackthorn Crown?

I didnt check this but does enemy hero mana regen also stop on 20 battle turn? Because 20% mana regen/turn is sick. I didnt defeat her without loss, i just did it to pick her and see how she works :-( It`s f...ed up battle, but i did it on pure power and rage spirits with warrior, i dont know your hero class, but i think with mage it might be doable without loss, but for paladin i`m not so sure.

The same rules apply so when Mana / Rage gain goes to 50% its for both you and the enemy hero, and same for 25 and 0%. That way after round 20 (with impossible difficulty, later rounds with easier difficulty levels) there is no more mana or rage gain for either side.

This is what makes the battles so much more fun and interesting and the mana regen helps them maintain their mana (just like you're probably maintaining yours) until the latter rounds. Sooner or later you both run out if it goes long enough!

I'm playing Paladin and I had his Holy Anger up to Level 3 so I had the +30 attack that the skill allows, plus the 15% Order Spell power that you get from it as well and Xeona's battle was pretty tough. You were a couple of levels higher than me, but its still hard since she's a mage and can double cast. I also made the AI better for spell caster's in general by optimizing spell placement for multi-unit damage spells and using a scoring system to aid in spell selection.

This is actually only my second Paladin game - I usually play mage just like you!

As for shamans dancing axes change it so it works only on living enemy so it`s not overpowered (as you said leaving small enemy troop to resurrect army on summons will be first thing many old players will think off :-) Or at least make it so not usable on undead (plants are some kind of living things, but zombies not so much :-D

You know I had it that way at first and then decided to change it so that it worked on every one. That's why I called it "Titan Energy" because I kept thinking about how Seth created the Undead land and since the Orcs were created by the Titans then it kind of made sense - the Shaman's were tapping into Seth's Titan Energy when they used the ability.

Although, maybe I should just have it resurrect / heal when the damage is done to the living (no Undead and Plants like you mentioned and like I had it before), but still have it store that energy for use later like it works now. Then the list of generators for resurrection would be reduced to Druids since I made their Summon Bear a reloadable skill. Maybe that wouldn't be too bad since there aren't that many Druids in battles.

By the way, do you remember what your final level was and the level for your spirits in both games?

I'm just curious - I usually am able to make it to level 30 for my hero and my last game (Paladin) I had the spirits up to about level 35-37.

Right now in my current game I'm level 20 and I think Zerock and Sleem are both 19 (almost 20) and Lina and Death are 20 and 21 I think (both Lina and Death went up a level or 2 after Xeona's battle).

I like the pacing of the leveling better with the changes I made to the experience tables as both the original hero and spirit tables had inconsistencies in the level up experience delta. Now they are consistent and it seems smoother to me.

Well, thanks again for all the comments!

I'll keep working on fixing the current issues, and I'll see what ideas I can come up with for those orcs! :-)

/C\/C\

[MattCaspermeyer]

I got save that allowed me to pick all wives, so i try some different combinations just for fun and found weird info. Lds for wives is wrong : rina give bonus for only 4 units and have lowest -6% lds, feanora is right behind her. Shouldnt this be other way around ? Mirabella give -8lds% for all humans including robbers 1&2 and griffins, and gerda only 5 dwarf units for same bonus ( i thought to add cyclops for gerda unit bonus and change it to 9%) , same thing for neoka/diana both give bonus to 11/12 units and -9/-10%lds, higher then other wives. That`s why i thought to change that stats : for gerda add cyclops and set it to -10% lds , rina add pirates -11%lds , xeona add red and black dragons for -5%lds, emerald dragon for neoka/diana (remove dragonflies form her, never use them anyway) -5%lds. Tis will mean for every 20 dragons you get to lead 1 more, not much but it would be useful when missing small amount lds between 1 and 2 dragons.

A lot of the bonuses fell out based on how easy it is to get each wife and what that wife's specialty was as well as the wife's level.

Here's the wife order and their level (price in WIFES.TXT)

Rina / Zombie Rina - 6
Feanora / Frog Feanora - 7
Mirabella - 8
Gerda - 8
Orcelyn - 9
Diana - 9
Neoka - 10
Xeona - 10

So that score above determines essentially all the bonuses the wife gets as well as her children.

The way the groups of units worked for a wife depended on her race and her profession as well. For Mirabella, Gerda, Orcelyn, Neoka, and Xeona their unit bonuses go with their races. For the other 3 wives it was more on profession and who they were that lended to which unit groups they picked. Units left out were typically ones that didn't really belong to any group - sorry for those units!

For Rina she was a Robber's wife so I thought her bonuses would apply to robbers and outlaws (like Barbarians are in a way). She's human, but I figured that the other human units wouldn't like her because of her Zombie duality. I guess there's not much incentive to keep her as a human anyway because of all her Zombie babies. But, the only way to have her have children is to keep her as Rina so you get to play units you might not necessarily play early in the game (I think it's fun to get Barbarians and then Bears with the Morale bonus) so I think it ends up working great for her and if you decide to stay with her after she has all 4 children, you're probably going to switch her to a Zombie to enjoy those bonuses.

By the way, Rina did use to have Pirates for a unit bonus, but I thought it was a little redundant with Mirabella for them both to have them. Maybe it's okay though, and I should reinstate Pirates with Rina. I'll think about that one.

For Feanora I thought that she would kind of be the champion of swamp and forest beasts so that why she gets the units she gets. For Frog Feanora, once again you only get to play her after you don't talk to her for 10 battles (and most likely after you get 4 kids) so then she gets a little bit of the darker creates for bonuses there.

For Mirabella, she's human and so I thought she'd be perfect for all humans and Pirates. I also though that since Griffins are so linked to humans that even though they were neutral that they also made sense. That ends up being a lot of units, but there are a lot of humans and I have to have Mirabella give bonuses to Pirates since she is one! And Griffins is only one more so she gets them, too!

For Gerda, there are only 5 Dwarf units in the game, so she'll get a boost from AP/CW, but I was limited by the Dwarf units in The Legend. She still has good bonuses if you get a baby with a Dwarf unit bonus or two. Dwarfs have low initiative, but better resistances so I guess that's the way it went with her. She's still good, though. Cyclops are better with Orcs than Dwarves (at least that's the way it was in HOMM3) so that probably colored me a bit with them.

For Orcelyn she gets Orcs so that's okay - quite a few Orc units so that works well for her.

For Diana she's a River Fairy so that's why I gave her Dragonflies (since they hang out near rivers) and the other unit choices - river fairy units! I actually considered her for the Green Dragon bonus, but they didn't really fit the river fairy motif (well with their attack on the Elves and all and the fact that they are from Ultrax with no rivers!) - plus Shiva has a pretty good Emerald Green Dragon bonus so if you're lucky you can get her to help out your EGD's.

Although, in HOMM3, Green Dragons were actually units in the Elf town so I really heavily considered Diana and Neoka to have an EGD bonus; however, in KB they were lumped with Red and Black Dragons on Ultrax so it seemed like it was too different.

For Neoka elves was the choice - lots of different Elf units in the game!

Lastly the same for Xeona and Demons. By the way, Rashka gets the Red Dragon bonus so that's okay.

I didn't mind leaving off a few units from the wives - like I mentioned they were meant to pick similar groups. Cyclops and Dragons are pretty much groups by themselves and so that's why none of the wives have bonuses specific to them, but some of their babies do. So they are covered, although there's no guarantee to get them!

Also fire spiders are demon in this mod, i`m not sure did you changed it or was it like that in original but you miss them in xeona -lds% list.

Really? Looks like I missed them - they're supposed to get the bonus so I'll add them!

Doing all this stuff by hand is so error prone! I need to autogenerate this stuff somehow...

And towers in suppressing items battles are seriously overpowered. Couple examples : suppressing royal hammer 5att/-10% dwarf lds i had sprites with 14 initiative and tower still play first, how high is initiative for those things ??? And my mage have 44 int casting hell breath on some unit it get 65% fire dmg bonus, when tower cast same spell enemy unit get 150% fire dmg !!! a bit much i think. Upgrading archmage/druid staff to 3rd lvl same thing

Well, you can't always be the fastest!:grin:

The Tower initiative is determined by the strength of the units you face. Same with their intellect. So their stats are autogenerated based on how strong your opponents are. Gremlins are also much stronger with magic than you are!:-)

I made them that strong on purpose so that you'd think twice about using those items and reducing that item's morale! Makes living items a lot more interesting!

The toughest ones are still easy to supress once you get to about level 27 or so - all the good ol' strategies apply to Friendly Gremlin Towers.

1 more miss : warrior have bonus for fighting units iron fist skill, quick draw for archers, dark commander for all demon,orc,undead and you added bunch neutral units here (missed griffins) ,

Well, you know it's called Dark Commander because it is meant to apply to "evil" units. So Demons, check; Undead, check; Orcs, maybe they're just misunderstood, but they still get a check! Griffins aren't evil at all, though, so they're not on the list. Sorry Griffies!:(

Werewolf Elves made it because of the dark werewolf motif. They are Elves, but they don't mind hanging out with Undead (tolerance) so they got the Dark Commander bonus! Way to go Werewolf Elves!:grin:

mage have bonus for undead in necromancy and archmage for all mage type units. Question ? Why elves/dwarves missing for any kind of bonuses... i tried gerda and no matter what kids items i have, my initiative is crap, enemy heroes always play first with all army before i get turn. So how about adding elf/dwarf race bonuses to mind tree in place of diplomacy skill ?

Well, with Necromancy I thought the Undead was a perfect fit for that skill giving them some kind of bonus. Archmage already added bonuses to mage units, I just fleshed it out a little more.

You know, they weren't any bonuses for Elves / Dwarves in the original skill tree, so that's why I made Training and Combat Readiness apply to all units (up through level 4 at skill level 3), and then they get the Leadership Reduction bonus from Glory as well as the Healer Health bonus. Also don't forget about the +2 Initiative and Speed that you can get first round from Onslaught. Iron Fist gives Dwarves a big bonus (unit not the race) and Ranged Specialist helps out both Elf and Dwarf units as well (+1 Initiative at Level 2!). Also Neoka and Gerda got the Elves / Dwarves covered. Lastly, sorry but Dwarves are notoriously slow anyway, but look they can get +2-5 depending on the skills, wife, and babies. Also they get a pretty good Leadership Reduction bonus from that hammer!

And poor, Gerda, everyone dumps on her! :(

She's actually got some deceptively good baby bonuses - Synca with Hasted Giants is awesome!:) But if you want her units to have high initiative, then you got to get the skills I mentioned above - Alchemists and Cannoneers do have good initiative. You should be able to get that up to the 9 to 10 range, which is pretty good!

Plus any initiative deficiency is easily rectified in combat with a Phoenix!:)

Gerda's playing strategy is just different than some of the other wives' - why? Well, you know, Gerda is just a different kind of woman!;)When's her beard coming in, again?!:grin:

I also think I made the Diplomacy Skill better - you can get a lot of units from it if you get it to level 3!

So that's why things are the way they are. A few units are left out here and there on some of the skills and wife bonuses, but there are global bonuses that apply to every unit (so no one is really left out!) and there is a baby out there for every unit as well! You just got to get lucky to get them!;)

Also I tried to stay true to a skill even though I changed it a bit or added more bonuses. Maybe an Elf- or Dwarf-specific bonus will make more sense in AP/CW when I get to modding those...

Hope that explains why I made some of the decisions I made and why things are the way are...

:grin:

/C\/C\

[Fatt_Shade]

Yea , implementing new orc`s abilities in KB-tL will be pain in the ass :-(
I didnt beat xeona in mage play, but in warrior, that`s why i had 25k lds, with diana it goes to ridiculous stacks of fairies and thorns :-) i havent finished that games, since i got looses in xeona battle, so i`m thinking how to kill her and continue on my no loss game, that`s why i loaded save before to get gerda and try with her and -40% lds on dwarf race (with royal hammer and mithril shield and glory 3lvl). In CW i changed some items to make them useful lategame, added 2 lvl`s to berserkers axe (+15/20/25% melee dmg) , made new composite item form +exp% small items , added new lvl for runic sword, and such. So i changed here blackthorn crown since it`s useless witout thorns, andi didnt have any royals in my game, so i added ents in item bonus but with lower dmg bonus.
And i figured out that resurrection have nothing on gizmo in managing no loss, my mage with 43 int resurrect spell 3400 hp/36mana , my warrior 50 rage gizmo resurrect 6 times for 2500 hp :-)

OK i get it what you made with wife lds bonuses gameplay wise, but still doesnt seem fair. Lets say some1 want undead play andgo about with other wifes and when get to demonis/gray wasteland to buy his army rin gives him lowest lds bonus of all wives in game :-(

Dark commander ok for undead/demon/orc race but you put hyena spiders and snakes there also, so that`s why i asked for griffins.

I didnt mean more lowering lds for dwarfs since gerda,royal hammer,mithril shield, glory it goes to -48lds% for dwarf race, but they still have horrible movement/initiative , and almost none in gerda kids gives bonus dmg for melee units but have lost sp_power_int , dwarf are fighting race and they have no mage units, so why so much spell dmg bonuses in her kids ?

[MattCaspermeyer]

Yea , implementing new orc`s abilities in KB-tL will be pain in the ass :-(

Yah, who knows, maybe one of us will think of something brilliant! The mice in my brain are running on their wheels!:grin:

I didnt beat xeona in mage play, but in warrior, that`s why i had 25k lds, with diana it goes to ridiculous stacks of fairies and thorns :-) i havent finished that games, since i got looses in xeona battle, so i`m thinking how to kill her and continue on my no loss game, that`s why i loaded save before to get gerda and try with her and -40% lds on dwarf race (with royal hammer and mithril shield and glory 3lvl).

You might just wait for Xeona a little bit. You know who I thought might work well against her battle might be Orcelyn and Orcs. Although Gerda is not a bad choice either. It certainly is true what you say, though, when you don't get to go first. Once again, though, it becomes too easy if you always go first!

By the way, which heroes have been the toughest for you so far? I know you didn't like Sonya too much the first time you faced her!

My previous game, I made the mistake of talking to Raab Sotten too early (before I had gotten the Torn Digor Meghard quest) because I wanted to use his rage pool to maximize my rage before fighting Xe. I ended up fighting him with just Demons because everyone else was getting killed too easily and I was running out of battles to fight!

Also the Evil Book is a bit surprising if you're not ready for it!

In CW i changed some items to make them useful lategame, added 2 lvl`s to berserkers axe (+15/20/25% melee dmg) , made new composite item form +exp% small items , added new lvl for runic sword, and such. So i changed here blackthorn crown since it`s useless witout thorns, andi didnt have any royals in my game, so i added ents in item bonus but with lower dmg bonus.

I don't even know how to add item upgrades! You got me on that one!:grin:

If you want to make a list of item changes, then I'd gladly implement them if they make sense for my mod!

And i figured out that resurrection have nothing on gizmo in managing no loss, my mage with 43 int resurrect spell 3400 hp/36mana , my warrior 50 rage gizmo resurrect 6 times for 2500 hp :-)

Yah, Gizmo is a necessity, but it's useful for all classes. I kind of wanted the hero to have more reliance on his rage box. Gizmo was one of the most challenging to get its AI right. You don't know how many hours I spent on it implementing its "Proximity/Priority Based Unit Selection" system! By the way, Gizmo can go all the way up to 9 charges if you focus on it! Of course there's no guarantee it'll always resurrect your guys!

I think all the spirits, now, have really good abilities - I tend to focus on the damage ones. I'm not a big fan of Zerock's Wall, Sleem's Glot, or Lina's Ice Thorns, but they are a lot better now if you decide to use them. Also, they are really good abilities so I do pick them sooner or later (especially Glot for protecting against mega damage).

Resurrection is still useful, obviously, since you have control over it. I usually let Gizmo Resurrect the higher level units and then I cast Resurrect on the lower level ones. Gizmo and the spell actually go very well together.

OK i get it what you made with wife lds bonuses gameplay wise, but still doesnt seem fair. Lets say some1 want undead play andgo about with other wifes and when get to demonis/gray wasteland to buy his army rin gives him lowest lds bonus of all wives in game :-(

Yah, well that's the drawback of the early wives - they might not be as powerful (now you know why I had all that Undead Leadership bonus to Rina's babies!). They are still like items I guess (all the wives shake their heads at me in disapproval!) in that the ones you get earlier aren't as powerful as the ones you get later! Still, though, each one has their charms!;)

Both Neoka and Xeona are work to get - especially Xe!

Dark commander ok for undead/demon/orc race but you put hyena spiders and snakes there also, so that`s why i asked for griffins.

Yah, hyena's, snakes, and spiders all get the "evil" tag because their notoriety in the real world, not to mention make believe! Once again, sorry Griffies!:-P

If you can think of a good skill to add Griffins to, all be all ears!

By the way, Inquisition came close to being not only a bonus for Priests and Inquisitors, but all unit pairs. I decided against it, but it would have been all the unit pairs: Robbers / Marauders, Barbarians / Berserkers, Beholders / Evil Beholders, etc. In the end, though, I decided against it because it seemed like it was too many units and I guess they didn't really have anything to do with Inquisition!

Hmmm... maybe add Griffins to Inquisition? That actually might not be a bad idea since they go well with humans! Let me think about it some more...

I didnt mean more lowering lds for dwarfs since gerda,royal hammer,mithril shield, glory it goes to -48lds% for dwarf race, but they still have horrible movement/initiative , and almost none in gerda kids gives bonus dmg for melee units but have lost sp_power_int , dwarf are fighting race and they have no mage units, so why so much spell dmg bonuses in her kids ?

Yah, I just wanted to point out the ample leadership bonus as a positive that they get.

The drawback of trying to be true to HOMM3 is that when it came to picking which children would go to which wife, a lot of the same class of baby went to the same wife. For example, Neoka got most of the Druids and Rangers from HOMM3. Since these heroes came from the Elf town, their skills focused on those to help shooters and magic users, etc. Some of this has translated over nicely, I think, but it does put limitations on which children go to which wife.

By the way, when I work on Tomes of HOMM3, all babies (and wives, too) will have a price = 10 so that they get the max bonus. Well, I guess it won't be 10 since you can sell them, but some multiple of 10 like 1000 or 10000 or so (and then I'll just scale it). Each wife will become a tome with their bonuses in this mod for AP/CW (part of the story!). Feanora can truely be for Lizardmen! And imagine what I can do with her Lizardmen/women babies when I convert them to tomes! Troglodyte babies -> tomes, too! Also, the Tomes won't be limited except by how the game generates them. That'll be a lot of fun once I start working on that!:grin:

Yah, a lot of the HOMM3 Heroes have Wisdom for a skill (all the babies with sp_power_int have at least Basic Wisdom as one of their skills). In HOMM3 Wisdom was used for learning spells of a certain level. Unfortunately, that is taken care of by the Order, Distortion, and Chaos skills and so this was what I came up with.

You know, I just toyed with making a baby with Wisdom and a Spell bonus to transition their wisdom skill to their spell bonus! In the end, though, I decided against it, but this is how it would have worked:

Example 1:

Diana baby Solmyr:
Basic Wisdom - Intelligence Spell Power: +18%
Basic Sorcery - Spell Power: +18%
Chain Lightning - Lightning: +18% Damage, +18% Shock, +1 round

Change to:
Basic Sorcery - Spell Power: +18%
Chain Lightning 2 - Lightning: +36% Damage, +36% Shock, +2 rounds

Example 2:
Gerda baby Alamar:
Basic Wisdom - Intelligence Spell Power: +16%
Basic Scholar - Intelligence Power Factor: +4%/6.5 Intellect
Resurrection - +16%

Change to:
Basic Scholar - Intelligence Power Factor: +4%/6.5 Intellect
Resurrection 2 - +32%

Example 3:
Neoka baby Ciele:
Basic Wisdom - Intelligence Spell Power: +20%
Basic Water Magic - Poison Resistance: +20%
Magic Arrow - Magic Pole Axe: +20%

Change to:
Basic Water Magic - Poison Resistance: +20%
Magic Arrow 2 - Magic Pole Axe: +40%

It seemed like, though, that these bonuses would be too large for an individual spell so I decided against it, but I had already made the changes and decided to change it back! I've actually done this twice now! The last time I did it was about 4 months ago!

Oh decisions, decisions!

I have to continually resist that urge to pump some things up! I do use the amount of damage units do, though, as a guide to how much damage you should be doing with spells, etc. at a certain point in the game.

Well, this is quite a nice conversation that we've got going!:grin:

/C\/C\

[MattCaspermeyer]

Hey, by the way, I was thinking about Haste, Slow, and Battle Cry and I was thinking that having Haste / Slow change speed and Battle Cry just initiative seems to be too little.

So I was thinking of having Haste increase both speed and initiative, Slow doing the opposite and changing Battle Cry to increase Morale.

I was thinking that this would make all 3 spells more useful and interesting.

What do you think?

I also didn't realize that a few unit abilities (like Demon Pentagramm) can change morale so I now think I know how to implement decreasing morale during long combats. If I did implement it, I'd make it apply to all units on the battlefield that are affected by morale (Undead aren't as well as Golems, and maybe I wouldn't include Plants either since maybe they don't get tired).

Also, one thing of note is that the game does not apply morale bonuses (or penalties for that matter) to summoned units. If I implemented the above I'd have to think about what to do about these summoned units. Maybe since they are new neutral morale would be okay, and then the next time the morale decrease occurred they'd be affected.

Anyway, just some more thoughts that the hamster spinning the wheel inside my brain wanted me to type!;)

/C\/C\

[MattCaspermeyer]

Okay, I've thought of a new ability for the Orc Catapult that I thought might be interesting...

Fire Boiled Oil - it would work similar to Oil Fog, but have splash damage such that it would hit 7 hexes, do a small amount of fire damage (like Oil Fog) and make it such that the hit targets' Fire Resistance decreased a certain amount. This would also make their Fire Missile ability do more damage if they targeted a unit with this affect on them. Plus I might have it add 1 to the number of rounds a unit is burned (hey I might do that for Oil Fog, too - Hmmm...).

Typical 3 turn effect rules would apply, and it would probably have the same reload time as Fire Missile so that they could be used one after another.

What do you think?

/C\/C\

[MattCaspermeyer]

Okay, the ideas are starting to pop into my head!

I was thinking something along the lines of allowing an Orc unit (not sure which one - maybe Furious Goblin or Regular Goblin) to set a trap on the battlefield.

It would work similar to Trap, but I would probably make it such that they could set a fire trap, poison trap, or magic trap - maybe all 3 (kind of like the Alchemist's potions) on a hex adjacent to them on the battlefield. This would probably be good for the Goblin since they are ranged.

Anyway, what do you think?

/C\/C\

[MattCaspermeyer]

Boy, the hamster is running fast now!

Here's another new ability: this one for the Ogre - Clobber!

Not exactly sure what it would do, but Stun is part of it. Probably 2x damage or something like that (I guess that would be like a critical hit). It might also knock the target back (kind of like a combination of the Cyclop's abilities).

Anyway, just a thought...

/C\/C\

[MattCaspermeyer]

Run hamster, run!

Okay another new Catapult ability, not sure what to call it, but Flash comes to mind. It would operate like Blind where the Catapult could fire a projectile at a unit that could blind them with a bright flash!

Hmmm... What'd ya think?

/C\/C\

[MattCaspermeyer]

Okay - I've got one more brainstorming idea for Orcs / Veteran Orcs.

I thought that since they have a shield, maybe they could have a chance to block a certain percentage of damage. I guess the ability would be called block or something like that and the Orc / Veteran Orc could use their shield to block an attack.

I guess it would be more like a feature than an ability since they would execute it when they were attacked.

Thoughts?

/C\/C\

[MattCaspermeyer]

Okay the hamster gave me one more idea!

Once again for Orcs / Veteran Ocs - it would be called Fire Rage or something like that where the Orc goes into a fit of Rage and adds fire damage to its attack for 3 rounds (kind of like Hell Breath I guess).

Thoughts?

/C\/C\

[MattCaspermeyer]

Oh - another!

This ability will put the Furious in Furious Goblins!

The ability would be simply called Furious where they would gain unlimited retaliation for a turn or two (maybe 3) and would be a charged skill (maybe just 1 or 2 charges max).

They are Furious Goblins after all!

Thoughts?

/C\/C\

[Fatt_Shade]

I think xoena might be doable with mass dwarf army giants jumping around, and alchemist poisoning all over place. gizmo for resurrecting, but i need some fast unit to counter demoness swap. Griffins maybe, or snakes (i have nsake boots and snake ring so it might be interesting). Here poisoning and burning works differently then AP/CW so it`s not that useful.
Annoying heroes : xeona , sonya (solo black dragons with mirror shield and wizard mantle it`s doable) , necromancer hero in undead lands with 40 int was boring as f..k but also managable (did him with mirabella full human army and 400 griffins 52lds/140hp). I didnt have a single kid with bonus exp in battle so my spirits arent much higer lvl then with mage, but i pick different skills so they play big part with 200 rage pool :-) maxed black hole, falling rocks 65% stun and gizmo for resurrect galore.
Ill make files just of my item changes and send you to check out, but cant do it today.
Glot shell is interesting to use if you have some unit like my giants griffin combo i kick griffins to aggro in middle of enemy, but teleport giant close glot shell his ass, and let him jump to hearths content, wall is great for making funnel on enemy army with 8000 hp, and 2 rest is spamable against fast units (example elf werevulf hero in underground on island valley of 100 rivers, all his units have 6-7 speed, so i send griffins 1 round to pull them and cast wall, black hole,wall and place girffins in space between walls to block and have fun. Ice thorns i never really used :-(

Bonuses for babies are nice, and it great to have such variety but looking in general for expl neoka/gerda : neoka have 6 kids with +dmg% for all melee units , gerda have none.

Changing spells hm . . . i dont think is good idea : look at your new double casting enemy heroes, i had fight with some item that got me mass deffensles and mass weakness got my fairy/sprites/dryads army to 0 defense and 0-0 dmg for whooping 5 turns thank you very much infinite tower intellect bonus :-) If you want to change spells how about this ideas : holy rage, magic shield, poison touch spells. Explanation , holy rage like inquisitors ability to replace demon slayer and give bonus dmg against demon+undead and some small rage amount 10%/20%/20%mass bonus dmg + intellect bonus per spell lvl. Magic shield like archmages ability but to lower dmg to unit 25%/50%/50%+immunity to spells, like black dragon. Poison touch (replace poison skull) like hell breath just to add poison dmg useful against dragons/demons (this would be great in AP/CW since there poisoning burning at least work on some constant , in tL i poison some stack of 800 bowman, and next turn only 1 dies ... yea right).

Oil keg for catapult nice idea, if you only could find how burning works in AP/CW and transfer it here. Flash is like mechanics blinding bomb in AP/CW right ?
Trap would be better for furious goblins since they run around battlefield regular goblins are range on need for them to lost turn to place trap that enemy might never come near :-) Furious for them, not so sure i never seen them as much dmg dealers, my main dmg are veterans/orcs, goblin range, shaman support and ogres for tanking and playing tough guy, so almost never used furious in tL (in AP they had greed to dig through corpses like marauder, and insolence) but i think in great enough numbers even furious goblins could be useful.
For ogre i thought something similar, like troll malevolence in AP/CW, it would be nice to use him to stop dragons and other flying creatures.
Block for orcs/veterans is miss chance , female troops have it, so why not battle crazy orcs. How much miss % did you think to give them ? Fire rage-burning blood better :-)

[MattCaspermeyer]

I think xoena might be doable with mass dwarf army giants jumping around, and alchemist poisoning all over place. gizmo for resurrecting, but i need some fast unit to counter demoness swap. Griffins maybe, or snakes (i have nsake boots and snake ring so it might be interesting). Here poisoning and burning works differently then AP/CW so it`s not that useful.

Actually the way it works in my mod is far superior than AP/CW or the TL original system - it is based on damage. This is under the hood so it wouldn't be noticed unless you carefully studied it.

In AP/CW it is based on the number of units in a stack that the effect is applied to and had nothing to do with damage - I personally hate that system because you can have 1 Royal Snake causing 1000's of points of damage to a stack of units with just a poison infliction. Total nonsense!

The way it works in my mod it is based on damage done and then mitigation by resistance and then decays at half damage for the duration of the effect - here are a couple of examples:

Example 1: Imps do 1000 damage to troop with 0 Fire Resistance with a 15% chance to burn. So there is a 15% chance that the troop will get the effect burn. If they do get the effect burn, then on their next turn, they'll get 500 damage, then 250, and then 125 for a total damage of 1875 damage over 3 rounds! That's almost twice as much damage!

Example 2: Red Dragons do 2000 damage to troop with 10% Fire Resistance with a 25% chance to burn. So there is a 15% chance the troop will get the effect burn. If they do get the effect burn, then the damage is reduced by 10% and applied so it would be 1800 damage then effect burn. On that troop's turn the damage would be halved to 900 and then 10% reduction so it would 810 then 364 (I think it rounds down) and lastly 164 for a total of 3138 damage over 3 turns!

Example 3: Black Dragons do 3000 damage to a troop with -50% fire Resistance and have a 35% chance to burn. So the chance to burn is 85% and damage is increased 50% so they do 4500 damage. If the troop gets the effect burn, then the damage is reduced to half, but then increased 50% due to the resistance so it would be 4500 / 2 * 1.5 = 3375 damage, then 2531, and lastly 1898 damage for a whopping total of 12304 over 3 turns!

I'm actually very proud of this system and it is far superior to either TL or AP/CW since it is based on the attacker's damage and the defender's resistance. It does not use an arbitrary value like TL or AP/CW!

This is something, though, that nobody notices unless they really study it.

Annoying heroes : xeona , sonya (solo black dragons with mirror shield and wizard mantle it`s doable) , necromancer hero in undead lands with 40 int was boring as f..k but also managable (did him with mirabella full human army and 400 griffins 52lds/140hp). I didnt have a single kid with bonus exp in battle so my spirits arent much higer lvl then with mage, but i pick different skills so they play big part with 200 rage pool :-) maxed black hole, falling rocks 65% stun and gizmo for resurrect galore.
Ill make files just of my item changes and send you to check out, but cant do it today.

Great to hear you using these things! By the way, it sounds like your Griffins are doing quite well without a Dark Commander bonus! I assume you got the item that decreases their Leadership Requirement.

Ill make files just of my item changes and send you to check out, but cant do it today.

Okay - thanks for the files! I'll check them out when I have a chance later...

Glot shell is interesting to use if you have some unit like my giants griffin combo i kick griffins to aggro in middle of enemy, but teleport giant close glot shell his ass, and let him jump to hearths content, wall is great for making funnel on enemy army with 8000 hp, and 2 rest is spamable against fast units (example elf werevulf hero in underground on island valley of 100 rivers, all his units have 6-7 speed, so i send griffins 1 round to pull them and cast wall, black hole,wall and place girffins in space between walls to block and have fun. Ice thorns i never really used :-(

Good to hear you using Glot's Armor to absorb damage! And nice about Zerock's Wall! The big reason I don't use the wall is because of flyers, but it does have its uses!:-)

Ice Thorns I never got how to use it I guess. I hear some people say how much they love it, but it seems to get more in my way than the enemies!:-P

Bonuses for babies are nice, and it great to have such variety but looking in general for expl neoka/gerda : neoka have 6 kids with +dmg% for all melee units , gerda have none.

Hah! You sound a bit like when talking to Rina! I have no ring! :( Maybe we trade?!;)

As it turns out, though you've overlooked who the bonus applies to - Neoka only has 3 babies with Offense and 3 with Archery so that is 3 with +damage to melee units and 3 with +damage to ranged units. 1 baby, Ivor has both Offense and Archery so it is the equivalent of +damage for all units.

I know, still poor, Gerda!

Changing spells hm . . . i dont think is good idea : look at your new double casting enemy heroes, i had fight with some item that got me mass deffensles and mass weakness got my fairy/sprites/dryads army to 0 defense and 0-0 dmg for whooping 5 turns thank you very much infinite tower intellect bonus :-)

Now you have a use for Dispel!

If you want to change spells how about this ideas : holy rage, magic shield, poison touch spells. Explanation , holy rage like inquisitors ability to replace demon slayer and give bonus dmg against demon+undead and some small rage amount 10%/20%/20%mass bonus dmg + intellect bonus per spell lvl. Magic shield like archmages ability but to lower dmg to unit 25%/50%/50%+immunity to spells, like black dragon. Poison touch (replace poison skull) like hell breath just to add poison dmg useful against dragons/demons (this would be great in AP/CW since there poisoning burning at least work on some constant , in tL i poison some stack of 800 bowman, and next turn only 1 dies ... yea right).

Yah - the TL system only applied 5-15 damage per turn regardless of stack size. My system is much better!:cool:

Those are interesting ideas, I'm just throwing out some as well. I guess for Physical Damage you have Stone Skin and all the rest Divine Armor. You know, I'm not sure if you've looked at SPELLS.LUA, but there are some spells in there that are not used, but do interesting things:

Star Force - is some kind of Magic Missile (spell_magic_missle_attack)!
spell_poison_resist_attack - poison resistance!
spell_fire_resist_attack - fire resistance!
Light Power - is some kind of Magic Fireball / Heal attack?! (spell_light_power_attack)

I've been so much working on my mod, but these have always been in the back of my mind - and your suggestions are good suggestions.

I'm wondering, though if it is one of those I'd like to have it, but then when you get it you find out that you don't use it that much things.

What I mean is that Stone Skin is pretty standard so that gets put in there. So you have Physical Resistance taken care of. Then you dabble with Fire and Poison and then you create Divine Armor. So are you really going to use the Fire Resistance and then Divine Armor in consecutive spell casts? So I'm just putting myself in the developers shoes and maybe that's why they decided not to implement it.

This is still great stuff to think about, though, and I'm seriously considering them!

Oil keg for catapult nice idea, if you only could find how burning works in AP/CW and transfer it here. Flash is like mechanics blinding bomb in AP/CW right ?

Oh yah - it's been so long since I played so I forgot about that! I think Oil Keg / Burning Oil / Whatever I'm going to call it I'm seriously thinking about implementing!

Trap would be better for furious goblins since they run around battlefield regular goblins are range on need for them to lost turn to place trap that enemy might never come near :-) Furious for them, not so sure i never seen them as much dmg dealers, my main dmg are veterans/orcs, goblin range, shaman support and ogres for tanking and playing tough guy, so almost never used furious in tL (in AP they had greed to dig through corpses like marauder, and insolence) but i think in great enough numbers even furious goblins could be useful.

Yah - good points! I'd probably just make them furious instead of having it have charges because a unit can only have 3 abilities and they already have run so only 2 left. I like putting trap on them like you suggest. So maybe they would have: 1) Run, 2) Fire Trap, 3) Poison Trap, and then 4) Furious as a unit feature.

I'm going to seriously consider that as well.

For ogre i thought something similar, like troll malevolence in AP/CW, it would be nice to use him to stop dragons and other flying creatures.

That's a pretty good idea. I keep thinking of how Giants like eating EGD's so maybe Ogre's like to eat all 3!:)

Block for orcs/veterans is miss chance , female troops have it, so why not battle crazy orcs. How much miss % did you think to give them ? Fire rage-burning blood better :-)

I was thinking for regular Orcs maybe 25% and then for Veteran Orcs 50%? Not sure, but I'm not too sanguine on implementing it - just an idea to hopefully help spur another!

Yah, I like the Fire Rage for them! That would be cool! Maybe another attack to poison their blades - not sure what to call that one!

Well thanks for posting your comments!

There a lot of good ideas swirling around - I hope to capture a few of them!:grin:

/C\/C\

[Fatt_Shade]

What got me stuck about burning/poisoning is that i have thorns and sprites that have basic dmg 1-2/1-3 , with poison dagger and whip of ishara + blackthorn crown for thorns it goes to , 4-6/3-5 so approximately 25% dmg for thorns is fire 25% poison for sprites something similar, and after they burn/poison some enemy units it still make small amount of dmg in next turn.
That 800 bowman example : it was something around 820 i hit them with thorns and kill 80 ( 2800 dmg so it 700 fire, 700 poison, and 1400 physical and they catch burning) next turn only 1 dies and as you say it should make 350 dmg since they have 0 fire resistance. killing at least 10 units, not only 1. I`ll try to do same think fighting only with my thorns to check it out, but i think your setting got confused because +1 fire/poison items. Did you consider that option : having ancient ents with 100 dmg and using whip of ishara +1 fire dmg ? How would that work considering burning enemy units?

Griffins i had mirabella -8%lds / +8%hp, and kid_edric -18% /+18% hp, glory -10% , so basic 80 lds got to 52 , and with kid_rion +16%hp, and healer 3rd lvl it goes from basic 90hp to sweet 137 hp, 3rd lvl griffin :-D
So with griffin banner it would be ridiculous (28 lds griffin) :-P To bad it gives only lds for griffin, and no other bonus.

Neoka/gerda problem continuum :-) every lore we have about elves is that they are race of magic users and that they thrive on magic, and dwarfs are miners and used to get their hands dirty in fighting (pulling their beards, breaking beer mugs on each other heads etc), so that`s why i stuck me that neoka elf princess have bonus for so much battle oriented kids, and gerda for none.

@ Now you have a use for Dispel! Hm warrior with 3 sprite units, ancient ent and thorn hunter, yea i`ll dispel them right after i kill almost every enemy with rage spirits then spend 10 turns resurrecting my dead troops who were almost useless during whole battle :-)

Spell usage, and spells that are worthless . . . great thing about this game is options you have at disposal. 7 races, 70 spells, bunch of items and skills, and no1 actually know of possible army builds so it`s just question of how imaginative you are and how long you can stick with starting plan and restrictions : i decided to play all game with only this units/spell/rage spirit skills . . . then during that playthrough you figure some other interesting things. In AP there is tread crazy challenges where ppl get to really weird ideas to play this game, and just drop really interesting ideas and possibilities
So i think every unit/item/spell in this game some use and it`s place in order of things . . . except peasants they are f...ing useless :-)

[MattCaspermeyer]

What got me stuck about burning/poisoning is that i have thorns and sprites that have basic dmg 1-2/1-3 , with poison dagger and whip of ishara + blackthorn crown for thorns it goes to , 4-6/3-5 so approximately 25% dmg for thorns is fire 25% poison for sprites something similar, and after they burn/poison some enemy units it still make small amount of dmg in next turn.

Hmmm... that sounds weird - they shouldn't be doing any poisoning or burning with either of those items. Adding poison damage or fire damage has nothing to do with causing a poison or burn effect - it justs adds extra damage of that damage type to the unit's damage.

That 800 bowman example : it was something around 820 i hit them with thorns and kill 80 ( 2800 dmg so it 700 fire, 700 poison, and 1400 physical and they catch burning) next turn only 1 dies and as you say it should make 350 dmg since they have 0 fire resistance. killing at least 10 units, not only 1. I`ll try to do same think fighting only with my thorns to check it out, but i think your setting got confused because +1 fire/poison items. Did you consider that option : having ancient ents with 100 dmg and using whip of ishara +1 fire dmg ? How would that work considering burning enemy units?

None of that should matter - like I said adding damage of a certain type does not add the capability to add an effect like poison or burn.

So this sounds weird to me. The troop receiving damage should not be poisoned or catch fire just because of the Poison Dagger or Isshara's Whip.

I guess we'll have to research this more deeply to find out what is going on - I know that I pretty thoroughly checked this part of my mod because I wanted to make sure I got it right, but I'm pretty sure I didn't check it with either of those weapons equipped. I've got both of them (hopefully I didn't sell the dagger, but can go back to a saved game if I did) so I can check what you're seeing.

I know that it is possible to get a unit with high resistance (but less than 80% - if the resistance is 80% or higher then poison or burn effects aren't applied) and then they get very unlucky and get poisoned or burned the damage is reduced significantly and so you'll see very low damage numbers in that case - like when the Phoenix burns an Imp.

I also added the capability, though, if a unit's resistance is greater than 0, then that resistance becomes their chance to resist the effect on successive turns. So if a unit has 50% resistance, for example, and they get a damage effect that matches that resistance, on the next turn they have a 50% chance of resisting that effect altogether and it being removed.

Looks like we need to check this out more and find out exactly what's going on here...:confused:

Griffins i had mirabella -8%lds / +8%hp, and kid_edric -18% /+18% hp, glory -10% , so basic 80 lds got to 52 , and with kid_rion +16%hp, and healer 3rd lvl it goes from basic 90hp to sweet 137 hp, 3rd lvl griffin :-D
So with griffin banner it would be ridiculous (28 lds griffin) :-P To bad it gives only lds for griffin, and no other bonus.

Wow! You got Edric! Nice! Rion is good, too (Advanced First Aid)! The Cleric / Knight HOMM3 heroes had pretty good skills and Mirabella got most of them!

Neoka/gerda problem continuum :-) every lore we have about elves is that they are race of magic users and that they thrive on magic, and dwarfs are miners and used to get their hands dirty in fighting (pulling their beards, breaking beer mugs on each other heads etc), so that`s why i stuck me that neoka elf princess have bonus for so much battle oriented kids, and gerda for none.

I hear you! I'm not sure why the Elf HOMM3 Hereos ended up with their skills, but Archery does make sense.

Let's see:


Ivor - Ranger, Male Elf: Archery, Offense, Elves
Jenova - Ranger, Female Elf: Advanced Archery, Gold +350/day
Kyrre - Ranger, Female Elf: Archery, Advanced Logistics
Gelu - Ranger, Male Human: Archery, Leadership, Sharpshooters
Monere - Planeswalker, Male Magic Elemental: Offense, Logistics, Psychic / Magic Elementals
Pasis - Planeswalker, Male Psychic Elemental: Offense, Artillery, Psychic / Magic Elementals


Only 3 of those children have Offense: 1 is an Elf so he goes to Neoka, the other two are Planeswalkers and are Magic and Psychic Elementals. Psychic Elementals were the base unit and then they became Magic Elementals for their upgrade unit in HOMM3.

So it fell out that way for Neoka as all those children made sense since they were either Rangers (Elves) or Magic-using Planeswalkers (the Magic lends itself to Elves).

For Gerda, she just didn't get any babies with HOMM3 Offense. Orcelyn got a lot of the Barbarian Babies because of the Orc tie in - a lot of them have HOMM3 Offense. Orcelyn may have gotten a baby or two from Gerda when I added her. Kilgor might have been Gerda's, but I gave him to Orcelyn because of Behemoths (which was an Orc town unit in HOMM3). Young Yog went to Orcelyn, because in HOMM3 he wanted to be a Barbarian. I guess a case could be made to give him to Gerda, but he wants to be a Barbarian.

Sorry that's about the only kid I can think of moving to Gerda, Young Yog's HOMM3 Skills are: Offense, Ballistics, and Cyclopses. Young Yog is a Male Genie Wizard (who in HOMM3 wanted to become a Barbarian). Normal Yog is a Male Genie and so goes to Diana, but like Young Sandro, Young Gem, and Young Christain, I didn't want to give the younger version of the same hero to the same wife. Young Yog could have been given to any other wife besides Diana, but he seemed a great fit for Orcelyn because of the Barbarian Town / Orc linkage in HOMM3.

So that's why it played out that way...

Sorry, Gerda!:(

@ Now you have a use for Dispel! Hm warrior with 3 sprite units, ancient ent and thorn hunter, yea i`ll dispel them right after i kill almost every enemy with rage spirits then spend 10 turns resurrecting my dead troops who were almost useless during whole battle :-)


Yah - sometimes its best to leave the level 1's and 2's at home since they tend to be a bit fragile. Like when I fought Raab Sotten in my previous game, I faced him only with Demons. I think I had Marius in that game so they go her Demon unit bonus.

Spell usage, and spells that are worthless . . . great thing about this game is options you have at disposal. 7 races, 70 spells, bunch of items and skills, and no1 actually know of possible army builds so it`s just question of how imaginative you are and how long you can stick with starting plan and restrictions : i decided to play all game with only this units/spell/rage spirit skills . . . then during that playthrough you figure some other interesting things. In AP there is tread crazy challenges where ppl get to really weird ideas to play this game, and just drop really interesting ideas and possibilities
So i think every unit/item/spell in this game some use and it`s place in order of things . . . except peasants they are f...ing useless :-)

I tend to agree with you here - that's what makes playing this game so much fun. I thought briefly about what to do with peasants and figured it probably wasn't worth it, although, a simple fix for them would be to raise the +10 attack limit - that would at least make then less useless!:-)

/C\/C\

[Fatt_Shade]

OK i checked poisoning effect : 480 dwarfs i killed 120 with royal snakes and poisoned them, next turn only 32 die from poison effect (and by your explanation should be 60). Try that combination, royal snakes special attack have 100% poisoning so it`s easy to check does it work. That situation with 800 bowman and burning might be because i used hell breath on thorn hunters, and it`s not related to ishara whip.

[MattCaspermeyer]

OK i checked poisoning effect : 480 dwarfs i killed 120 with royal snakes and poisoned them, next turn only 32 die from poison effect (and by your explanation should be 60). Try that combination, royal snakes special attack have 100% poisoning so it`s easy to check does it work. That situation with 800 bowman and burning might be because i used hell breath on thorn hunters, and it`s not related to ishara whip.

Just because 120 were killed doesn't necessarily mean that 60 will be killed due to the effect.

What makes Royal Snakes more complicated is that their normal damage is physical. So a unit's physical resistance comes into play and that is the damage that will go into the features_poison function inside UNIT_FEATURES.LUA.

I'll give a little mini-tutorail about the code in there, but first let's discuss the Royal Snake's attacks. The Royal Snake's normal attack has a 30% chance to poison and its "lunge" attack a 100% chance to poison (check SNAKE_ROYAL.ATOM). However, dwarves have at least 7 resist all (I think it is 8 in impossible due to the +25% increase) and possibly more if they are with a hero. I'm not sure which situation you're dealing with, but you'll need to look at the Dwarve's resistances (or really just poison).

I'm pretty sure the flying damage numbers above the unit's head should be the damage that goes into the features_poison function.

This serves as a mini tutorial, but here's the code:

function features_poison( damage, addrage, attacker, receiver, minmax )
if ( minmax == 0 )
and damage > 0 then
--local receiver=Attack.get_target(1) -- êîãî?
local poison = tonumber( Attack.get_custom_param( "poison" ) )
poison = effect_chance( poison, "effect", "poison" )
local poison_res = Attack.act_get_res( receiver, "poison" )
local rnd = Game.Random( 100 )

local poison_chance = math.min( 100, poison * ( 1 - poison_res / 100 ) )
local poison_damage = damage * poison_chance / 200
if rnd < poison_chance
and not Attack.act_feature( receiver, "golem" ) then -- and (not Attack.act_feature(receiver,"poison_immunitet") or Attack.act_race("undead")) then
effect_poison_attack( receiver, 0, 3, poison_damage, poison_damage )
end
end

return damage, addrage
end

If you looked at my other tutorial, you'll note that minmax == 0 is a check to make sure that this is the attack being applied (and not some one else's) and then the damage just needs to be greater than 0. The Attack.get_custom_param( "poison" ) actually looks into SNAKE_ROYAL.ATOM under the custom parameters (custom_params) of whichever attack caused the damage. Note that for its baseattack the chance of poison is 30%, while lunge is 100% (these are stock TL as I didn't change the Royal Snake's ATOM).

It's possible that in your case, you're using the Royal Snake's base attack, I don't know, but let's use both examples with the Dwarve's base resistance and follow the code:

local poison = tonumber( Attack.get_custom_param( "poison" ) )
poison = effect_chance( poison, "effect", "poison" )
So with the base attack, poison = 30
With the "lunge" attack, poison = 100

The second line would apply a modifier to the chance poison if the hero had an item with a bonus here. In this case, though, I don't think I have any items with a specific poison chance bonus (this is to allow people to mod my mod in the future with their own bonuses!) so the values above aren't modified.

Next:

local poison_res = Attack.act_get_res( receiver, "poison" )
local rnd = Game.Random( 100 )

local poison_chance = math.min( 100, poison * ( 1 - poison_res / 100 ) )
local poison_damage = damage * poison_chance / 200

Next you can see that the receiver's poison resistance is queried and then a random number generated. Let's compute poison_chance for both cases assuming that the Dwarve's poison resistance is 8%.

Case 1 (base attack): poison_chance = min between( 100 and 30 * ( 1 - 8 / 100 ) ) = 27.6
Case 2 (lunge attack): poison_chance = min between( 100 and 100 * ( 1 - 8 / 100 ) ) = 92

So those are the two chances to cause poison based on whichever attack the Royal Snake is using if the Dwarve's resistance is 8%.

local poison_damage = damage * poison_chance / 200

Next, let's compute poison_damage. I don't know how much damage it said it did, but let's go off of what you stated: 120 Dwarves killed. Base hp: 80, +25% due to Impossible difficulty so health = 80 * 1.25 = 100. So as a guess, let's say the damage is 100 * 120 = 12,000 damage! Wow!

Case 1: poison_damage = 12,000 * 27.6 / 200 = 1656
Cast 2: poison_damage = 12,000 * 92 / 200 = 5520

So the chance to cause the damage goes into how effective the poisoning (in this case) is. Note that the reason why it is 200 is because I'm halving the damage (it could have just as easily been written as X / 100 / 2, but I combined the 2 values). I neglected to mention that the chance applies as well in my previous post, but this is the way it works per the code.

if rnd < poison_chance
and not Attack.act_feature( receiver, "golem" ) then -- and (not Attack.act_feature(receiver,"poison_immunitet") or Attack.act_race("undead")) then
effect_poison_attack( receiver, 0, 3, poison_damage, poison_damage )
end

This last part of the code checks to see if the unit was poisoned. For case 1: poison_chance is 27.6% and for case 2: poison_chance is 92%.

If poison is successful, then "effect_poison_attack" is called with: 1) the receiver to apply the damage to, 2) pause (this is for timing of the display, I think), 3) duration of the effect, 4) min damage, and 5) max damage.

Inside the effect_poison_attack function (inside SPELL_EFFECTS.LUA) there is a lot going on, but I essentially store the damage value on the unit (this is a neat feature of the scripting engine that the developers implemented) with the receiver's resistance used to scale up the damage back to what it would be like so:

dmg_min = dmg_min * ( 1 + poisonresist / ( 100 - poisonresist ) )
dmg_max = dmg_max * ( 1 + poisonresist / ( 100 - poisonresist ) )

Case 1: dmg_min = dmg_max = 1656 * ( 1 + 8 / ( 100 - 8 ) ) = 1800
Case 2: dmg_min = dmg_max = 5520 * ( 1 + 8 / ( 100 - 8 ) ) = 6000

This was a little wrinkle I needed to put in because of the way the damage system works. Since the damage system applies the resistance to the damage, I didn't want the damage to be reduced by the resistance twice (once when storing and then again when computing damage) so this restores the "pre-resistance" damage and stores those values (in either case) on the unit.

What happens next, is that when the receiver takes its turn the damage will be applied to the unit and the resistance will be applied - here's the code:

Attack.atk_set_damage( typedmg, dmg_min, dmg_max )
-- Each successive burn causes half damage
Attack.act_spell_param( target, effect_type, "dmg_min", dmg_min / 2, "dmg_max", dmg_max / 2 )

(Note that even though it says burn, this code is inside the new apply_effect_damage common function that I wrote inside SPELL_EFFECTS.LUA and applies damage from both burn and poison effects).

Note that atk_set_damage applies the damage type over the range specified by the mininum and maximum damage. This is an internal King's Bounty library and so when it does this, it computes the resistance of the unit and since I can't gain access to this library that's why I had to scale the damage back up by the unit's resistance because it gets (properly) scaled down by the library function.

This was quite complex and took me a while to figure out because of what "goes on under the hood" of the C/C++ library functions.

So in this case, the damages will be restored to 1656 and 5520 for cases 1 and 2, respectively as applied to the unit. and then you'll note that half 1800 and 6000 (900 and 3000) will be stored on the unit so that the next turn the same thing will happen - resistance is applied, but not twice!

Like I said above, I spent a lot of time working on this and before I did this, the damage would be reduced by the unit's resistance and then by its resistance again before damage was applied (that wasn't the way I wanted it to work!).

There is a lot more going on inside of some of the functions I've mentioned (like how to combine successive hits), but this is how it works per the code.

The funny thing is that I still don't get the same answer you do:

Case 1 apply 1656 damage to Dwarves - number killed: 1656 / 100 = 16.56 (or 16)
Case 2 apply 5520 damage to Dwarves - number killed: 5520 / 100 = 55.2 (or 55)

So in case 1 I get half what you mentioned and in case 2 quite a bit more. So you'll have to see what the Dwarve's actual resistance is and also the damage for your case, but this is how it works exactly per the code.

Anyway, I hope that explains it and this is also a mini-tutorial for how to apply a damage effect and work with the damage library.:grin:

/C\/C\

[Fatt_Shade]

Finally i finished playthrough in this mod (had a lot work past days), and it was great. ! more time thx for great mod Matt.
I managed impossible/no loss and it was hard in some fights ( Raab Soten, Baal . . . pretty much any hero with intellect above 30 was boring to fight because double/triple cast but it was worth it :-)
Found some weird thing in magic hero fights, when they cast some mass spell mana spent is like for 1 target (expl : Haas cast mass defenseless and spend only 8 mana(instead 40) , or mass magic shackles for 10 (instead 50). If enemy heroes got 2/3 spell casts per turn at least they should pend mana same as player hero. I`m not sure is this bug, or error in code but pls check it out. It`s bad enough to have enemy with 50/60 mana regen per turn, without them casting spells on low prices :-)

And what did you give to Sonya as speciality ( i now remember her, but other enemy heroes also have this) her dryads are 2 lvl unit, but had 12-16 dmg(1-4 basic), so WTF did you put in her inventory for her to have that stats on dryads ? :-D Dark mistycus hero(necromancer in death valley) had necromancers with 250 hp and 20-30 dmg . . . I saw dwarfs with 20-32 dmg (they had bonus fire dmg, but not form hell breath, didnt have buff in their stats screen). Every hero that have some unit speciality that unit have sick stats in battle. It`s not impossible to win this mod, but all i`m saying is that player cant ever get units in his army to that stats so it`s a little frustrating :-)
In the end, i can say warrior with rina/feanora/mirabella/diana/neoka/xeona working without problems.

Also had couple ideas, so what you ppl think about this ?
Priest have 26 hp, and heal 2x10hpm but cant cast it on undead as dmg.Heal spell can be used as dmg for undead, so why not priest healing ability?
I would lower it to 5 heal (when you lead more then 90 priests you dont have unit that can be healed for that much hp 90priest*10heal), and reload 2 so it wouldn`t be used 2 times in row then gift and imba dmg to undead. Thought`s ? ( i got this idea in just finished game i had 1400 priests, and who need 14000 hp healing ? so i thought to make them a bit more useful in fights against undead).
You did nice thing with healer skill and heal/revive abilities , so i though to add something similar to other units that have active abilities. In necromancy add bonus for necromancer animate dead , in archmage add bonus for druid summon (more bears), for evil beholder hypnotise (higher lds), alchemist potions (more dmg), shaman totems (more hp) and such. I`ll check rest of your modding manual, but i hope to do it without big problems.

[MattCaspermeyer]

Finally i finished playthrough in this mod (had a lot work past days), and it was great. ! more time thx for great mod Matt.
I managed impossible/no loss and it was hard in some fights ( Raab Soten, Baal . . . pretty much any hero with intellect above 30 was boring to fight because double/triple cast but it was worth it :-)

Great job! You successfully met my challenge! I'm glad that you were able to do it! Now I'm going to make it tougher!:evil:

But only a little bit, I've been experimenting with dropping unit morale as a function of combat duration as well as their initiative and speed (they are getting tired after all!). I've been limiting morale drop to everyone except Undead and Golems, but am not sure what to do with the Undead, Golems, and Plants with respect to speed and initiative. On the one hand, Undead, Golems, and Plants probably don't really get tired, but I was thinking that maybe since magic is decreasing the control of your Undead troops would start to wane, which would reduce their initiative and then speed. I was thinking of leaving Plants and Golems alone since they are different. Anyway, just struggling with what to do there...

The way it works now is that when the first long battle message occurs is that all units (except Undead and Golems) decrease 1 morale. Then when the second long battle message occurs, all units continue to decrease 1 morale (Undead and Golems are still not included), and all units (except Plants and Golems) drop 1 initiative. Then on the third long battle message, all troops continue to drop 1 morale (except those previously excluded), and then all troops drop 1 initiative and speed (except Plants and Golems). Lastly, for each successive set of stat decrease rounds (every 5 on impossible), morale, initiatve, and speed all continue to drop as they did before. This simulates your troops becoming more and more tired. This only applies to your troops as the enemy troops have no morale penalties (this is internal to the game apparently) and for initiative and speed I figured that since they are the defenders then that's their "homefield" advantage.

Also, I've added charges to all reloadable attacks so that for long combats every troop will eventually run out of using their special abilities since they are getting tired of fighting. The minimum round at which a troop will run out of an attack if they use it as soon as possible through their normal reload time is round 15. So that is plenty of time to use those abilities and you can always use Gift on them (same with AI).

I'm still experimenting with both of these changes... but I think that these won't have much an effect on combat since by round 15 pretty much everyone is dead anyway, except for maybe a few of the enemy hero battles. Also, you can always use Haste and Battle Cry to give your troops a speed or initiative boost as well as Gift to recharge their attacks in the latter rounds...

You have an interesting use for the word boring!;)

Found some weird thing in magic hero fights, when they cast some mass spell mana spent is like for 1 target (expl : Haas cast mass defenseless and spend only 8 mana(instead 40) , or mass magic shackles for 10 (instead 50). If enemy heroes got 2/3 spell casts per turn at least they should pend mana same as player hero. I`m not sure is this bug, or error in code but pls check it out. It`s bad enough to have enemy with 50/60 mana regen per turn, without them casting spells on low prices :-)

I think I know what's going on with the enemy hero mana cast. Their spell level is set by the game internally (based on the enemy hero's level), but I overrode it in the LUA scripts. One of the things I couldn't do was give a mana cost bonus to spells because that is also internal as well. It seems like even though I'm overriding the enemy hero's spell level, it is somehow still referring to the spell level that the internal C/C++ code generates.

I thought I worked around it successfully and actually thought the mana was being subtracted correctly, but it looks like I might still be undershot by the internal workings of that part of the game. I'll look into it some more, but I'm probably stuck there!

And what did you give to Sonya as speciality ( i now remember her, but other enemy heroes also have this) her dryads are 2 lvl unit, but had 12-16 dmg(1-4 basic), so WTF did you put in her inventory for her to have that stats on dryads ? :-D Dark mistycus hero(necromancer in death valley) had necromancers with 250 hp and 20-30 dmg . . . I saw dwarfs with 20-32 dmg (they had bonus fire dmg, but not form hell breath, didnt have buff in their stats screen). Every hero that have some unit speciality that unit have sick stats in battle. It`s not impossible to win this mod, but all i`m saying is that player cant ever get units in his army to that stats so it`s a little frustrating :-)

This is part of my awesome enemy hero skill system! Just think about all the awesome skills you get as a hero! Well, now turnabout is fair play!

I'll lay it out sometime, because I'm going to use a similar system with AP/CW...

Mysticus is awesome! So is Raab Sotten and Baal like they should be! Like I mentioned previously, a hero with a level higher than yours is going to be pretty tough!

In the end, i can say warrior with rina/feanora/mirabella/diana/neoka/xeona working without problems.

Glad to hear it!:) By the way what were the final levels of your spirits with the Warrior? Did you get any up to level 40 or so?

Can you do me a favor and snap a screenshot (or two) of your hero's stat's and army setup after defeating Haas so I can see what you ended the game with? I'm just curious and it'll help me gauge some things...

Also had couple ideas, so what you ppl think about this ?
Priest have 26 hp, and heal 2x10hpm but cant cast it on undead as dmg.Heal spell can be used as dmg for undead, so why not priest healing ability?
I would lower it to 5 heal (when you lead more then 90 priests you dont have unit that can be healed for that much hp 90priest*10heal), and reload 2 so it wouldn`t be used 2 times in row then gift and imba dmg to undead. Thought`s ? ( i got this idea in just finished game i had 1400 priests, and who need 14000 hp healing ? so i thought to make them a bit more useful in fights against undead).
You did nice thing with healer skill and heal/revive abilities , so i though to add something similar to other units that have active abilities. In necromancy add bonus for necromancer animate dead , in archmage add bonus for druid summon (more bears), for evil beholder hypnotise (higher lds), alchemist potions (more dmg), shaman totems (more hp) and such. I`ll check rest of your modding manual, but i hope to do it without big problems.

You know what's funny? I actually thought I could use Priest's Heal on Undead for damage and just never checked it, I guess!

These are all excellent ideas - I'm pretty sure I have all the bonuses in place and just need to add them to the skill. I'll look into implementing them!

By the way, Erkki found an error in my implementation of the Shaman Dancing Axes skill so I'll have a fix out for that soon...

Have a happy holiday season!:grin:

/C\/C\

[Fatt_Shade]

You have an interesting use for the word boring!
Not boring as in gameplay, but for waiting couple rounds to revive all units and using chargers and gloth armor to stop enemy heroes from killing those that i already returned to full stack. Boring part is that i use only 1-2 unit at that time to gather chargers and spirits never get exp in that part of battle.

About enemy hero mana regen, and spell costs, problem i had mostly was with magic shackles and blind. They constantly used it on my inquisitors no matter that i almost never attacked enemy units with them after 5th turn, just reviving, but enemy kept blind/doom on them all time.

This is part of my awesome enemy hero skill system! Just think about all the awesome skills you get as a hero! Well, now turnabout is fair play!
I'll lay it out sometime, because I'm going to use a similar system with AP/CW...
Ok it`s interesting to play against stronger enemy, but my question is if they use player skill buildup, what are skill that give 2nd lvl unit dmg from basic 1-4 to 12-16? :-) I want those skills.

I finished game with :
Zerock 46lvl, Sleem 40 , Lina 36, Death 46. Here`s couple screens :
in hero screen image i showed new upgrade for heroism banner i made. I` not thinking what more items could use upgrading, since there are fewer items here then in AP/CW so at least i can add a bit stronger item of already existing for later in game (thought about upgrading memoirs for bonus exp% to give 15% hero/spirit exp , some other ideas still figuring out how to implement).
. . .cant upload image :-( here`s links for screenshots
http://www.imgplace.com/viewimg819/2134/76finishingarmy.png
http://www.imgplace.com/viewimg407/9397/92heroscreen.png
http://www.imgplace.com/viewimg853/2282/60mymaindmgdealer.png
http://www.imgplace.com/viewimg155/1166/95mymedicalunit.png
http://www.imgplace.com/viewimg36/4049/28spirits.png

[MattCaspermeyer]

Thanks for the screenies!

Okay, a couple of questions (well, okay more than a couple:-))...


Did you use the Horsemen's new Charge Ability a lot? What'd you think of it?
You made it to level 31 - how'd you do that? From level 30 to 31, its almost twice as much experience!
You had a lot of gold left - did you try to buy any Crystals or Runes from Tibold?
Is that Banner of Legends the item in the upper right (I can't see the pointer so I guess it is)?
So you ended up with Mirabella, but took the other wives earlier?
Did you just get Zerock and Reaper to level 46 at the end of the game or were they there for a while? Also it looks like you focused on Zerock and Reaper - is that true or were Sleem and Lina harder to level? (I've found that since Underground Blades and Black Hole give experience based on the number of units you damage that they give a lot of experience - same with Sleem Fishes, but that one's harder to damage a lot of units unless you start with a lot of rage).
Did you use your Ice Orb a lot?
Did you use Phoenix a lot?
Did you use Sacrifice to get that many Inquisitors? I'm trying to remember, but I don't think I've ever seen that many for sale...
What did you think of the Mana / Rage gain reduction throughout combat? Did you find it difficult to recharge your mana / rage later in the combat?
What did you think of the overall Leadership Reduction bonuses? Do you still think they may be too high and that you can recruit too many units from the bonuses? I'm thinking of making a minor adjustment that would drop the bonus a couple of percent, not too much, but its behavior is nonlinear.


Not boring as in gameplay, but for waiting couple rounds to revive all units and using chargers and gloth armor to stop enemy heroes from killing those that i already returned to full stack. Boring part is that i use only 1-2 unit at that time to gather chargers and spirits never get exp in that part of battle.

Okay - I guess there's not much I can do there. Everyone plays that way!

About enemy hero mana regen, and spell costs, problem i had mostly was with magic shackles and blind. They constantly used it on my inquisitors no matter that i almost never attacked enemy units with them after 5th turn, just reviving, but enemy kept blind/doom on them all time.

Okay, interesting...

Ok it`s interesting to play against stronger enemy, but my question is if they use player skill buildup, what are skill that give 2nd lvl unit dmg from basic 1-4 to 12-16? :-) I want those skills.

Hah! I bet you do! Well, not one skill does it, but I think it ends up being a combination of things. Enemy hero's get bonuses to their units and then they get skill bonuses. The bonuses to their units mimic items and then the skill bonuses mimic your skill tree. Everything is not quite 1-to-1, but they have a point system based on their level. I think the 1-4 to 12-16 is based on a number of bonuses - I think the +resistance damage that they get is applied first and then the difficulty level is applied last. Depending on class, they get +resistance damage based on a certain level. I'll go into this in more detail when I post the system. What I love about it is that it creates incredibly powerful heroes with incredibly powerful units. I think you can see that it took a lot of effort on your part to beat them, but the player's intellect is superior to the AI, so I think I've compensated fairly well.

I finished game with :
Zerock 46lvl, Sleem 40 , Lina 36, Death 46. Here`s couple screens :
in hero screen image i showed new upgrade for heroism banner i made. I` not thinking what more items could use upgrading, since there are fewer items here then in AP/CW so at least i can add a bit stronger item of already existing for later in game (thought about upgrading memoirs for bonus exp% to give 15% hero/spirit exp , some other ideas still figuring out how to implement).

Do you think your items are overpowered at all? Do you think you could have done no loss without them? Just curious - I kind of like your item upgrades - what did you do to come up with the upgrade stack sizes?

Lastly, what would your change list be for my mod? Every time I play the game, I create a change list and either make things tougher or try to improve aspects of the game. So let me know what you'd change and I'll start thinking about how to improve it some more...

Well, thanks for playing! I'm glad you enjoyed it!:grin:

/C\/C\

[MattCaspermeyer]

Ok, I've implemented the Catapult's Boiling Oil attack as well as changed the Furious Goblin such that it has one Throw Axe charge and is furious.

Screenies provided below...

Anyway, I plan on enterring the beta phase soon since there doesn't appear to be any show-stopping game crashes that prevent the player from reloading and continuing...

/C\/C\

[Fatt_Shade]

1) Yea charge is great, with rush skill, it makes horseman awsome in first round. I didnt use it allot since my griffins were always first in enemy lines, and after them i charge in with horseman and make interesting dmg and block enemy rangers. Later when i got marshal baton and had +3 moral for humans i stopped using it since crit is better them special ability any time. But great idea for it any way, it`s useful ability

2) It more then twice exp from 30 to 31 :-) 550000 30th vl, for 31 1150000exp, but you added on learning +30% exp , and +50% vs undead/demon for holy knight so it`s possible and i didnt even had 1 kid for sp_addexp_battle bonus :-( In my calculation i finished with about 1250000 exp roughly, but counter stops at reaching 31st lvl so it`s not important any way after that.

3) I didnt show mind skill tree, but there i took only 1 lvl for greed because in this game i never had problems with gold just there is no thing so expencive to spend huge amounts of it. Only time i save up is on start if some item for +10 runes is available in starting locations so i go around with cheap army waiting to buy it :-) Also runes i took all skills i needed (all might tree max lvl , in mind only left trade and greed on 1 lvl , magic also took what i needed so runes werent problem also)

4)Yes that was my testing of upgrading items. I dded upgrade for heroism banner so it gives 600lds +1 initiative for 1-4 lvl units. I made it so upgrading takes same battles as officer baton(500lds)-general baton(750lds) battle.

5) When i managed to kill Kraken on 11 lvl with no problems i took mirabella and saved game, then i rushed to dwarf lands and try to free gerda and did it also with little problem so i returned to sunset islands to see her kids (i had bunch of enemy left there since i only killed kraken and lucky james), but seeing gerda`s kids are so slow and low on initiative i decided to try diana from gerda savegame point (freeing dwarf prince was interesting on 15th lvl but i managed) and rushed off to finish frozen spring quest and take diana. Then things got interesting :-D Got allot thorns on disposal, took dryads in elven lands and some ents and returned to sunset islands and had fun with diana, but when fragile units started dying it got frustrating to spend 4-5 turns at end of each battle to revive them with gizmo/gloth armor combo). Then i load diana save and tried neoka just to see her kids wasnt impresed, and i returned to my old mirabella save and got again from 14th lvl :-) On 24 lvl i did xeona and try her out but again returned on mirabella at that 24 lvl save and played her till end ( had interesting kid combo Rion-great for tanking, Edric-sick griffins, Ingham-you saw my 650 inqisitors :-) , and Cutberth i could do without but what can i do when little bastard popped out of my darling wife :-P) Funny thing is i got Cutberth with my mage also. This is why i took me 2 weeks to finish game, all this returning to previous wife :-)
You made some weird kid bonuses : some give rage% and spell% bonus both. Why mixing them up, and no rage% + rage inflow%, and spell dmg%+mana% or int% or mana per turn . . .

6) I used Sleem almost always in first round for fishes, but after that only for gloth armor since poison spit and cloud are useless comparing to other spirits. Zerock is great since blades and falling rocks doesnt effect your army and wall is great for blocking when only small force of enemy heroes stay alive. Death is used as often as possible, his all skills are great but soul steal is to expensive on max lvl it cost 100 rage for 70% kill, it`s to much even for warrior. Lina i mostly for gizmo and chargers, orb i used only when borred and wanted to spend rage for no reaosn, since my army did most of work, there was no need for orb. but i regret i didnt lvlup shards. Here`s advice for other players take shards ppl and use it against enemy heroes that cast evli book(all undead heroes)/demon portal(Baal), because with shards you block battle arena and they cant cast summons. It was hard beating Baal with him summoning 2x8 archdemons/2x70 demons every turn.

8) Didnt use phoenix at all, come on Matt warrior dont need some pansy spells to win a battle :-P I mostly used gift, mass slow/haste, mass initiative. Didint fine blind in all game :-( that`s why i had to drop diana and her fragile army, they are great to play, but hard to keep alive at end of battle with no enemy disabling spells (fear/blind/target...).

9) Inquisitors i made from priests, as i said i used all runes that i need and then just collected them till end of game and. I took inquisitor ksill in mind tree when i decided to go humans till end with mirabella, imagine my surprise when ingham decided to show up :-)

10) With warrior rage is never problem, but mana got problematic couple of times for gift on my medical unit :-) With 650 inquisitors i revived some 7k hp for 15mana gift spell and it was easier to cast chargers then gizmo and hope little alien spaceship didnt go to kill only remaining enemy troop across all map, instead to heal my unit standing right in front of it :-D
Only problematic battles were raab soten, baal, xeona maybe 1/2 more. Surprisingly karador got raped fairly easy with human army (then i still used priests, didnt have knights at all) and priest/inquisitors on undead are great counter, crystal of darkness fall in 2nd turn, rest time i used to control karador army and keep mine alive, finished him in 12 turn.

11) I dont think any reduction in lds part is needed. Enemy all have 25 more stats then you, enemy heroes have 2/3 cast per turn with sick mana regen, +bonus like you from skills. You made reduction in mana/rage inflow during battle and planing to do same to moral/initiative in later turns. So no i dont think any more obstacles are needed :-) You mod is great fun to play, and think about moves you make. I did no loss just to see i i can , but other ppl wont play it that way, and some more lds reductions would turn them off this mod. Also lds reduction from kids arent sure thing, you can get 4 kids with unit specials or all 4 with some non army related bonuses so as you said before it`s all about probability and chance :-)

Do you think your items are overpowered at all? Do you think you could have done no loss without them? Just curious - I kind of like your item upgrades - what did you do to come up with the upgrade stack sizes?

Lastly, what would your change list be for my mod? Every time I play the game, I create a change list and either make things tougher or try to improve aspects of the game. So let me know what you'd change and I'll start thinking about how to improve it some more...

Only item i changed in my inventory is banner and just to see will in work, all other items are normal as in original settings. If knew how to add moral to items i would so it can lose moral and make you lead less units then max so you have to suppress items without visiting some castle to leave troops in reserve(this goes for +lds/-lds% items, because i used dwarf hammer throughout all taron and suppressed it at least 10 times thx for 23k exp :-) As for upgrading items i used already existing with most similar stats, as i said above for this banner most similar is officer to general upgrading fight so i used it.

Changes, hm . . . i asked in last post on 10th page about making something similar as healer skill bonus for priest/inquisitor in other skills for other units.
Expl : in glory since it lets you lead more troops adding bonus for summoning troop (dryad, ent, ancient ent, druid i say all elf units since they get least bonuses from other skills, and i think paladin mind tree can get a bit improvement).
Necromancy to add higher magic shackles lds for necromancer, more dmg for cursed ghost scream, maybe more dmg for dragon poison ability.
Archmage stronger totems (5/10/15% maybe) and 2/5/10% more magic dmg to units listed. And add beholders here instead dark commander, both beholders are magic unit they belong here (also giving more lds in hypnosis for evil would be great).
There is no skill to help dragons, my idea is to kick hyena,wolf and rest of small potatoes from dark commander and add dragons there.
How about adding fear (like wolf howl) to archdemons?) Here they dont have half talent, so at least they could be used for crowd controlling . . . even as i write this i see my next battle with Baal if this gets in game :-) That would be interesting fight with his summons.

And in the end great work with catapult/furious new abilities :-)
What do you mean beta phase ? Like sharing mod on tread, or start selling it on steam :-D

[MattCaspermeyer]

1) Yea charge is great, with rush skill, it makes horseman awsome in first round. I didnt use it allot since my griffins were always first in enemy lines, and after them i charge in with horseman and make interesting dmg and block enemy rangers. Later when i got marshal baton and had +3 moral for humans i stopped using it since crit is better them special ability any time. But great idea for it any way, it`s useful ability

Great to hear! I'm actually surprised that they didn't add it in AP/CW, but rather gave the ability to the Cerberi and Brontors.

2) It more then twice exp from 30 to 31 :-) 550000 30th vl, for 31 1150000exp, but you added on learning +30% exp , and +50% vs undead/demon for holy knight so it`s possible and i didnt even had 1 kid for sp_addexp_battle bonus :-( In my calculation i finished with about 1250000 exp roughly, but counter stops at reaching 31st lvl so it`s not important any way after that.

550,000 * 1.8 = 990,000 (and for +50% to undead/demon it will be less than that since there are not that many of them!), but okay I think maybe you got more experience from suppressing items multiple times, so I think I'll bump it to 2,000,000! That way you can't quite get there, but your experience will keep tallying!

3) I didnt show mind skill tree, but there i took only 1 lvl for greed because in this game i never had problems with gold just there is no thing so expencive to spend huge amounts of it. Only time i save up is on start if some item for +10 runes is available in starting locations so i go around with cheap army waiting to buy it :-) Also runes i took all skills i needed (all might tree max lvl , in mind only left trade and greed on 1 lvl , magic also took what i needed so runes werent problem also)

Okay sounds great! I was wondering if you bought crystals for spells, but it looks like you had enough and you didn't need the runes so okay (I finish with that much gold, too, usually, although this time I'm hoping to buy more crystals for spells!).

4)Yes that was my testing of upgrading items. I dded upgrade for heroism banner so it gives 600lds +1 initiative for 1-4 lvl units. I made it so upgrading takes same battles as officer baton(500lds)-general baton(750lds) battle.

5) When i managed to kill Kraken on 11 lvl with no problems i took mirabella and saved game, then i rushed to dwarf lands and try to free gerda and did it also with little problem so i returned to sunset islands to see her kids (i had bunch of enemy left there since i only killed kraken and lucky james), but seeing gerda`s kids are so slow and low on initiative i decided to try diana from gerda savegame point (freeing dwarf prince was interesting on 15th lvl but i managed) and rushed off to finish frozen spring quest and take diana. Then things got interesting :-D Got allot thorns on disposal, took dryads in elven lands and some ents and returned to sunset islands and had fun with diana, but when fragile units started dying it got frustrating to spend 4-5 turns at end of each battle to revive them with gizmo/gloth armor combo). Then i load diana save and tried neoka just to see her kids wasnt impresed, and i returned to my old mirabella save and got again from 14th lvl :-) On 24 lvl i did xeona and try her out but again returned on mirabella at that 24 lvl save and played her till end ( had interesting kid combo Rion-great for tanking, Edric-sick griffins, Ingham-you saw my 650 inqisitors :-) , and Cutberth i could do without but what can i do when little bastard popped out of my darling wife :-P) Funny thing is i got Cutberth with my mage also. This is why i took me 2 weeks to finish game, all this returning to previous wife :-)
You made some weird kid bonuses : some give rage% and spell% bonus both. Why mixing them up, and no rage% + rage inflow%, and spell dmg%+mana% or int% or mana per turn . . .

Good job with Mirabella and her babies!

Well, you know, if the HOMM3 heroes had skills like that, then the bonuses fell that way!:)

6) I used Sleem almost always in first round for fishes, but after that only for gloth armor since poison spit and cloud are useless comparing to other spirits. Zerock is great since blades and falling rocks doesnt effect your army and wall is great for blocking when only small force of enemy heroes stay alive. Death is used as often as possible, his all skills are great but soul steal is to expensive on max lvl it cost 100 rage for 70% kill, it`s to much even for warrior. Lina i mostly for gizmo and chargers, orb i used only when borred and wanted to spend rage for no reaosn, since my army did most of work, there was no need for orb. but i regret i didnt lvlup shards. Here`s advice for other players take shards ppl and use it against enemy heroes that cast evli book(all undead heroes)/demon portal(Baal), because with shards you block battle arena and they cant cast summons. It was hard beating Baal with him summoning 2x8 archdemons/2x70 demons every turn.

That's a good one on Shards - I find that I always cast it and it gets in my way! So why not let it get in the enemy's way?!

You know, I didn't consider spamming it in the rage cost and rest, so I might have to revisit that ability's mana cost and rest. Hmmm...

8) Didnt use phoenix at all, come on Matt warrior dont need some pansy spells to win a battle :-P I mostly used gift, mass slow/haste, mass initiative. Didint fine blind in all game :-( that`s why i had to drop diana and her fragile army, they are great to play, but hard to keep alive at end of battle with no enemy disabling spells (fear/blind/target...).

That's cool - good to see you using mass slow / haste and mass initiative. I usually don't use those since I'm mostly finishing up with Demons and my Demonesses get the big boosts from Anga's Ruby!

9) Inquisitors i made from priests, as i said i used all runes that i need and then just collected them till end of game and. I took inquisitor ksill in mind tree when i decided to go humans till end with mirabella, imagine my surprise when ingham decided to show up :-)

Duh! Of course! I totally forgot about that!:-)

10) With warrior rage is never problem, but mana got problematic couple of times for gift on my medical unit :-) With 650 inquisitors i revived some 7k hp for 15mana gift spell and it was easier to cast chargers then gizmo and hope little alien spaceship didnt go to kill only remaining enemy troop across all map, instead to heal my unit standing right in front of it :-D

Yah, you have to be a little careful with Gizmo! It will still attack the enemy army if it considers them to be a bigger threat. Gizmo is great for res'ing higher level units, but not so good for a couple of level 1 or 2 units (because you can do that!).

Good to hear that you're using Chargers - they give good mana and rage until the first 50% drop so you have to use them early in the battle! At least, though, they store the mana / rage boost when they're cast so that you can save them for later if you can protect them from being used.

For Gift, at least you have to have it at Level 2, and you probably noticed you can't use it on Level 5 units.

Only problematic battles were raab soten, baal, xeona maybe 1/2 more. Surprisingly karador got raped fairly easy with human army (then i still used priests, didnt have knights at all) and priest/inquisitors on undead are great counter, crystal of darkness fall in 2nd turn, rest time i used to control karador army and keep mine alive, finished him in 12 turn.

Yah - I learned my lesson with Raab Sotten last game, where I released him too early and had to fight him when I was level 23, I think! That one was tough!

Karador was kind of a let down - I think I'm going to do something with that crystal! I was expecting a better battle from him last playthrough so when I get to him this time, I'm going to make the crystal do better stuff! Mass sheep anyone? Okay, just kidding!:grin:

But I'll think of something!

I'm also thinking of giving Haas a unique spell or two. Can you say summon dragons!

11) I dont think any reduction in lds part is needed. Enemy all have 25 more stats then you, enemy heroes have 2/3 cast per turn with sick mana regen, +bonus like you from skills. You made reduction in mana/rage inflow during battle and planing to do same to moral/initiative in later turns. So no i dont think any more obstacles are needed :-) You mod is great fun to play, and think about moves you make. I did no loss just to see i i can , but other ppl wont play it that way, and some more lds reductions would turn them off this mod. Also lds reduction from kids arent sure thing, you can get 4 kids with unit specials or all 4 with some non army related bonuses so as you said before it`s all about probability and chance :-)

Good - I really wasn't looking forward to changing it.

It's really kind of cool how as you're playing you start to realize you need all those guys for the end!

Only item i changed in my inventory is banner and just to see will in work, all other items are normal as in original settings. If knew how to add moral to items i would so it can lose moral and make you lead less units then max so you have to suppress items without visiting some castle to leave troops in reserve(this goes for +lds/-lds% items, because i used dwarf hammer throughout all taron and suppressed it at least 10 times thx for 23k exp :-) As for upgrading items i used already existing with most similar stats, as i said above for this banner most similar is officer to general upgrading fight so i used it.

Good idea for adding morale to it - I'll see if I can figure out how to do that so you won't get away with using it without consequence!

Changes, hm . . . i asked in last post on 10th page about making something similar as healer skill bonus for priest/inquisitor in other skills for other units.

Yep - noted!:-)

Expl : in glory since it lets you lead more troops adding bonus for summoning troop (dryad, ent, ancient ent, druid i say all elf units since they get least bonuses from other skills, and i think paladin mind tree can get a bit improvement).

That's a good idea with Glory! I think I'll have it apply to all units that summon backup units.

Necromancy to add higher magic shackles lds for necromancer, more dmg for cursed ghost scream, maybe more dmg for dragon poison ability.

I didn't think there's a leadership requirement for magic shackles, but maybe you mean Animate Dead? Those are all good ideas - I'll have Necromancy give bonuses to Undead unit abilities.

Archmage stronger totems (5/10/15% maybe) and 2/5/10% more magic dmg to units listed. And add beholders here instead dark commander, both beholders are magic unit they belong here (also giving more lds in hypnosis for evil would be great).

Ah - you're reading my mind! You don't know how close I've been to adding Beholders to the Archmage list! I figured people, would say they're not mages! But they are! Okay, done! I'll keep them in Dark Commander, too, though, so they'll get both bonuses!

There is no skill to help dragons, my idea is to kick hyena,wolf and rest of small potatoes from dark commander and add dragons there.

I did consider adding Dragons to Dark Commander, but thought they didn't need any help and the Emerald ones kind of prevented me from doing it. Why not add them, though? I'll leave the hyena and wolf since they need all the help they can get, but I'll add all the dragons!

How about adding fear (like wolf howl) to archdemons?) Here they dont have half talent, so at least they could be used for crowd controlling . . . even as i write this i see my next battle with Baal if this gets in game :-) That would be interesting fight with his summons.

I've been thinking about what to add to Archdemons - Fear has always been a good choice, but I'm thinking of giving them the Sheep ability. I think I'd make it have just 1 charge, but that would be potentially interesting. I think I'd have their Fear also work like the Devilfish's where it is applied post-hit otherwise it is the same as wolf-cry, but maybe that's okay? Or give them mass sheep! Ha! Ha! 1 charge and non-chargeable too since Gift only works on level 1-4 units! Hmmm...:evil:

And in the end great work with catapult/furious new abilities :-)

Thanks! It took my a while to make that spinning axe icon and the color might still be a little off, but it's okay for now.

I think I might have an idea for Ogres - Shrunken Head! It basically would work similar to Pygmy, but also with a chance to confuse the unit or something like that possibly... Too bad I can't make it just shrink the unit's head! That'd be cool!

What do you mean beta phase ? Like sharing mod on tread, or start selling it on steam :-D

Well, I was thinking of sharing the mod on the thread soon...

It'd be nice to be able to sell it! But unfortunately, the HOMM3 pictures are copyrighted so I couldn't do that without removing them.

Thinking of the future for modders, though, I don't think it would be unrealistic to ask $0.99 just like an iTunes song! Money doesn't grow on trees after all!:grin:

Well, thanks for all the great comments - I've got a lot of work to do implementing your ideas!

But it's Christmas so I'm going to try to relax... just a little bit!;)

/C\/C\

[Fatt_Shade]

550,000 * 1.8 = 990,000 (and for +50% to undead/demon it will be less than that since there are not that many of them!), but okay I think maybe you got more experience from suppressing items multiple times, so I think I'll bump it to 2,000,000
But consider this : you fight in order game is planed Darion-Taron-Elenia (all battles here will get you to some 300-350k exp)-Undead lands-Demonis-Orc lands (this last 3 locations have 600-650k exp, double more then first half of game), so later locations have maybe lees battles but in demonis-undead lands every battle gave me around 6000exp with normal creatures, not heroes. And i calculated all quest rewards get to about 200k exp.All item suppressing i did is less then 40k (23k from dwarf hammer, some 5k elven crown and maybe 15k for all others, marshal baton doesnt lose moral, my legendary banner only 1300 exp worth, suppressing blackthorn crown 300 exp worth only nuisance later in game)so it was only so i can use item ,not as source of more exp.

Okay sounds great! I was wondering if you bought crystals for spells, but it looks like you had enough and you didn't need the runes so okay (I finish with that much gold, too, usually, although this time I'm hoping to buy more crystals for spells!).
For warrior crystals arent much needed, army is my main source of costs since no much use from sacrifice. First time i played this game i got excited when i ran on dragons in shop and spend all gold on them with no idea how actually to use them (12 black dragons, 15 red 15 green . . . that allot of gold) now i bought 200 knights/horseman 500k gold all of them, 650 inquisitors 200k gold so all together my whole army didnt cost more then 1-1,2 mil.

That's a good one on Shards - I find that I always cast it and it gets in my way! So why not let it get in the enemy's way?!
You know, I didn't consider spamming it in the rage cost and rest, so I might have to revisit that ability's mana cost and rest. Hmmm...
Rage for warrior isnt problem with 200 rage pool my regular course was piranha(45 rage)-black hole(60rage)-blades/falling rocks(40/45rage)-maybe rage draining/gizmo(15/70 rage) and then chargers/gloth armor. All this with anger and inquisitors as rage generators isnt problem. Mage on other side i had completely different spirits usage but that`s way it supposed to be.

For Gift, at least you have to have it at Level 2, and you probably noticed you can't use it on Level 5 units.
I didnt used any 5th lvls, but if i did what 5th lvl unit have some skill that need gift for it ? No rune mages for revive, or ogres with drain in tL :-)

I'm also thinking of giving Haas a unique spell or two. Can you say summon dragons!
No need for unique spell, just make him use illusion. If demon heroes can summon archdemons why not him use illusion on his 5th lvl army. Here you cant use dispel on summoned units, so it will make his battle a bit harder. As it is now many enemy heroes use mass shackles or doom which isnt big problem, but those that cast sheep/blind often are pain in ass.
Also did you changed hypnosis from original settings ? Now it give`s control of % of players lds so for mage it`s absolutely useless, and i dont think any self aware warrior would use hypnosis on enemy :-) so how about buffing hypnosis a bit.

I did consider adding Dragons to Dark Commander, but thought they didn't need any help and the Emerald ones kind of prevented me from doing it. Why not add them, though? I'll leave the hyena and wolf since they need all the help they can get, but I'll add all the dragons!
I didnt think kick small units off, but be honest how many games you play using hyena/wolf/even spiders, snakes are interesting but rest of animal kingdom arent much interesting to use (just my opinion). Dragons on other hand are great for crowd controlling with fear and esier to keep alive with gizmo.

I've been thinking about what to add to Archdemons - Fear has always been a good choice, but I'm thinking of giving them the Sheep ability. I think I'd make it have just 1 charge, but that would be potentially interesting. I think I'd have their Fear also work like the Devilfish's where it is applied post-hit otherwise it is the same as wolf-cry, but maybe that's okay? Or give them mass sheep! Ha! Ha! 1 charge and non-chargeable too since Gift only works on level 1-4 units! Hmmm...
Try finding in AP/CW files how does demon/executioner post hit fear works, and just copy it here. Wolf howl on them would be bad now that i think about it, but sheep with reload 4 would be better (1 charge not even useful) and this way if you play with them you can use them for controling enemy later in battle for saving your army. Or playing against them makes you focus archdemons to stop them from perma wool your army :-) If they use their 1 charge you no need to fear them any more, but if you knew next turn it will be recharged ...well you get my hint. This would make 5x1 archdemon army interesting to fight against :-D

Great work so far Matt, enjoy holidays and get rest before going with this on AP/CW field :-D

[MattCaspermeyer]

But consider this : you fight in order game is planed Darion-Taron-Elenia (all battles here will get you to some 300-350k exp)-Undead lands-Demonis-Orc lands (this last 3 locations have 600-650k exp, double more then first half of game), so later locations have maybe lees battles but in demonis-undead lands every battle gave me around 6000exp with normal creatures, not heroes. And i calculated all quest rewards get to about 200k exp.All item suppressing i did is less then 40k (23k from dwarf hammer, some 5k elven crown and maybe 15k for all others, marshal baton doesnt lose moral, my legendary banner only 1300 exp worth, suppressing blackthorn crown 300 exp worth only nuisance later in game)so it was only so i can use item ,not as source of more exp.

I guess you're right since you did it!:-)

I'm still going to bump up to 2,000,000, though...

For warrior crystals arent much needed, army is my main source of costs since no much use from sacrifice. First time i played this game i got excited when i ran on dragons in shop and spend all gold on them with no idea how actually to use them (12 black dragons, 15 red 15 green . . . that allot of gold) now i bought 200 knights/horseman 500k gold all of them, 650 inquisitors 200k gold so all together my whole army didnt cost more then 1-1,2 mil.

Yah, I wasn't sure which spells you spent your crystals on - plus which school or schools did you get to Level 3?

Rage for warrior isnt problem with 200 rage pool my regular course was piranha(45 rage)-black hole(60rage)-blades/falling rocks(40/45rage)-maybe rage draining/gizmo(15/70 rage) and then chargers/gloth armor. All this with anger and inquisitors as rage generators isnt problem. Mage on other side i had completely different spirits usage but that`s way it supposed to be.

Yah, you said it - different play styles for each class. I like that you got your rage pool to 205! Reaping is pretty expensive, but when you can do over 20K damage towards the end of the game, it should cost that much!

By the way, Poison Rain gets very potent once you level it up, but it is hard to get it to do all that damage without hurting your own units!

I'm not sure why the developers decided to make Fishes and Poison Rain damage allies, but it obviously makes the use of those abilities more strategic.

You know, they didn't put Poison Rain in CW.

I didnt used any 5th lvls, but if i did what 5th lvl unit have some skill that need gift for it ? No rune mages for revive, or ogres with drain in tL :-)

You know, I don't really use any either! At least later in the game. I do enjoy using Cyclops when you have a chance to get them and they work well with any of the early wives really. I also use Giants with Gerda when I get her. I also got Rashka last game and had Red Dragons with his bonus, but only used them in certain situations because if they all got killed then even Gizmo couldn't resurrect them!

The Phoenix in CW has Resurrection, but not for level 5's. I haven't added it in my mod, but have considered it many times. I think I'd make it available for level 5's in CW. I've also considered a "starburst" ability that sends out flames in every direction healing (maybe even resurrecting) allies and damaging enemies when it dies for real the second time. Just some thoughts I've had...

Well, right now all the level 5's abilities reload, but I'm thinking of giving them charges so that they run out of them during long combats.

No need for unique spell, just make him use illusion. If demon heroes can summon archdemons why not him use illusion on his 5th lvl army. Here you cant use dispel on summoned units, so it will make his battle a bit harder. As it is now many enemy heroes use mass shackles or doom which isnt big problem, but those that cast sheep/blind often are pain in ass.

You know, Haas has Phantom! I'm not sure why he doesn't use it - I might have to look at the AI scoring for that spell, but I know I've seen other heroes use it!

I did fiddle with this aspect of the game and I'll tell you it was tricky working with it. Looks like I may need to work on it some more...

Also did you changed hypnosis from original settings ? Now it give`s control of % of players lds so for mage it`s absolutely useless, and i dont think any self aware warrior would use hypnosis on enemy :-) so how about buffing hypnosis a bit.

You know, you're right - I think I just need to give it more power and it'll be okay. It doesn't scale as high as I thought it would since it is encumbered by the Mage's lower leadership, but if I give it more power it should be okay...

I didnt think kick small units off, but be honest how many games you play using hyena/wolf/even spiders, snakes are interesting but rest of animal kingdom arent much interesting to use (just my opinion). Dragons on other hand are great for crowd controlling with fear and esier to keep alive with gizmo.

Not very many - that's why I've tried to help them out! At least you had Royal Snakes at the end!

I do use Fire Spiders, though, if I get Calh from Xeona! They're fun then - I like using their web ability! That was a couple of plays back...

Try finding in AP/CW files how does demon/executioner post hit fear works, and just copy it here. Wolf howl on them would be bad now that i think about it, but sheep with reload 4 would be better (1 charge not even useful) and this way if you play with them you can use them for controling enemy later in battle for saving your army. Or playing against them makes you focus archdemons to stop them from perma wool your army :-) If they use their 1 charge you no need to fear them any more, but if you knew next turn it will be recharged ...well you get my hint. This would make 5x1 archdemon army interesting to fight against :-D

You know, I agree with you here! After I typed the 1 charge post I went for a drive to do some Christmas shopping and kept thinking that it would be pretty useless if it was only 1 charge, but if it was reloadable, just as you mentioned, then it would be a force to be reckoned with!

I've basically already done the fear - it is the same for Bone Dragons, I just need to have it be just fear or I've also been thinking of a kind of pain mirror (which I guess is similar to the Brontor) for them as well. I've also been thinking of making it multi-effect like the Bone Dragon's new Chaos Ability. Fear, Pain Mirror, Pygmy, those are some of the effects I'm thinking about...

Anyway, time to relax a little bit and do some more thinking about some of this stuff and decide how I want to implement some of the suggestions you've made in previous posts...

Great work so far Matt, enjoy holidays and get rest before going with this on AP/CW field :-D

Thanks, you too!

Yep, onto AP/CW hopefully soon!:grin:

/C\/C\

[Fatt_Shade]

Yah, you said it - different play styles for each class. I like that you got your rage pool to 205! Reaping is pretty expensive, but when you can do over 20K damage towards the end of the game, it should cost that much!
By the way, Poison Rain gets very potent once you level it up, but it is hard to get it to do all that damage without hurting your own units!
I'm not sure why the developers decided to make Fishes and Poison Rain damage allies, but it obviously makes the use of those abilities more strategic.
You know, they didn't put Poison Rain in CW.

Well only in skills is 100 rage, 25 on start, i ate 9 rats so in all game of 31 lvls and some altars i got 60 rage, not much.
And poison rain is great for any range army combination, but not so much when you go melee build. To much problems saving your units from it. Maybe if i played undead it would be useful.

Resurrection on 3rd lvl phoenix would be nice to give him use later in combat if he survives at least to help reviving troops, instead just standing there :-)

Hypnosis spell you made really weak, i set it on 20/40/60%, it`s lower then in original but still useful in game for mage with higher intellect.

Small animal team (wolf,hyena ...) isnt much fun since they dont have any interesting abilities/talents. But in AP/CW i had fun playing spider army undead/fire/cave/poison spider with belt for dmg, and shield that gave them moral/initiative/speed/and +9att/deff. But here in tL it`s just not fun to use those units :-(

I havent seen that new bone dragon ability you mention, but is it like pugmy or plague or . . .? Fear for archedemons would be nice, same as demon/executioner in AP/CW. And for bone dragons maybe 30% plague on attack.

[ShuiMienLung]

Sleem ... cloud are useless comparing to other spirits.

Probably my most frequent use of Cloud is once it gets up in the 13+ count of attacks: that's good for *two* turns of casting Magic Spring on the unit I've got sitting under it. (Possibly while Invisible. And most likely a Vampire of some sort.)

Or when you've got a last no-retaliation enemy unit surrounded by thousands of Thorns, you put a Magic Spring on one at the end of one turn, on another at the beginning of the next turn (I'm assuming that either you are not a Mage, or you are and have already used up all of your Higher Magic capabilities), and then park the cloud over it to generate +10 per pulse several times.

I don't really CARE about the damage the cloud inflicts, even to enemies. All I care about about is that it's a fairly minimal (survivable) amount being inflicted on ME, to trigger the Spring. :)

[Fatt_Shade]

@ShuiMienLung
It`s nice idea, but not really possible in this mod. Matt changed mana/rage inflow here so at round 20 all mana/rage is 0 no matter how much mana spring you use it just wont give you anything in return when enemy hit that unit, or making any amount of dmg wont give you new rage after 20th turn. So what you accumulated up until then, has to be enough. It makes sense, the longer battle is your/enemy troops are more tired and less angry (rage) so it`s great feature of this mod.
Also some rage spirit skills are changed, poison cloud among them so now it makes higher area dmg then before, but 2000-4000 dmg, 1/2/3 attacks at max lvl for 70 rage. Even in original game setings i dont remember how many time i cast poison cloud just to see if flying around arena dmging my own troops and never even touching enemy army :-D
Give it a try ShuiMienLung , ask Matt to send you mod files and have fun. He said he`ll start working on changing mod for armored princess soon. I guess just when he finishes if, new KB-WotN game will get out so he can start on adaptation for it also (there are going to be valkyris so marrying them and having kids will be same as here) :-P

[MattCaspermeyer]

Well only in skills is 100 rage, 25 on start, i ate 9 rats so in all game of 31 lvls and some altars i got 60 rage, not much.
And poison rain is great for any range army combination, but not so much when you go melee build. To much problems saving your units from it. Maybe if i played undead it would be useful.

9 rats! Wow! I usually get 7 + 1 (purchase), so you must be pretty persistant with those dwarves! I think I saw somewhere in the game files that the limit was 10.

Resurrection on 3rd lvl phoenix would be nice to give him use later in combat if he survives at least to help reviving troops, instead just standing there :-)

Yah, I've thought of it many a time! Perhaps the Phoenix needs to die once to enable it even - or maybe they sacrifice their life (lives) and resurrect by the amount of their health left. Hmmm...

Hypnosis spell you made really weak, i set it on 20/40/60%, it`s lower then in original but still useful in game for mage with higher intellect.

Yah, you know I made it similar to Divine Armor, but if it's only 60% or so at the end of the game then it's not that useful. Your values are pretty good as Level 3 would be about 180% at the end of the game for a good mage which would be around 16-17K Leadership * 1.8, which would be 28.8-30.6K Leadership - that sounds about right! Maybe even 25/50/75... for a little extra...

Small animal team (wolf,hyena ...) isnt much fun since they dont have any interesting abilities/talents. But in AP/CW i had fun playing spider army undead/fire/cave/poison spider with belt for dmg, and shield that gave them moral/initiative/speed/and +9att/deff. But here in tL it`s just not fun to use those units

Hyena's Preparation is pretty decent with a large stack! Did you know that the Hyena was originally an Orc unit? It is pictured with the Orcs in one of the game wallpapers and grouped with the orc units in some of the game files!

I've thought of changing them to an Orc unit a couple of times, but left it as is since they don't have an all race bonus, but it would kinda be neat for them to get a +1 Morale from the Orc Commander Morale bonus.

I havent seen that new bone dragon ability you mention, but is it like pugmy or plague or . . .? Fear for archedemons would be nice, same as demon/executioner in AP/CW. And for bone dragons maybe 30% plague on attack.

Okay, I've attached a screenie of the new Bone Dragon "Chaos" ability!

You can see that they have an equal chance of Fear, Plague, Weakness, Doom, Sheep, or Curse, but the list gets smaller if the defender is immune to that kind of spell (like Plague has no effect on Demons) and the percent chance is based on level of the defender, too. In the modding example post where I discuss implementation of the ability those percentages were 100% for level 1 and 25% for level 4, but I changed it to what you see in the screenie: 80% for level 1 and 20% for level 4 that way it doesn't always happen.

Fear is defininitely going to be an ArchDemon post-hit effect and Sheep a reloadable ability. I'm still thinking about what else to pair with the post-hit effect and I'm most likely going to make it 100% chance, not different chance based on level like I did with the Bone Dragon...:-)

/C\/C\

[Fatt_Shade]

Yumm, yumm those tasty rats. It was funny first time i went to lucky james mines i just try and got 4 rats in a row form same dwarf so i stick to it and got 8, and 1 more in giant fist below taron.

Phoenix need something, if he survives battle sacrifice (resurrection) would be great.

Yes hypnosis you made was really weak Matt 5/10/20% come on why would any1 spend 50 mana to take control of enemy unit 20% of his lds :-) 22/44/66 with intellect bonus will be just right.

Here`s crazy idea for those mountains of gold most ppl end game with : in dwarf prince that sell runes be possible to reset items (gladiator sword, banner of faith, anciant amulet, ring of mind) for some 500-750k gold, you`ll get runes but still need to carry item in 50 battles. Or giving his inventory blood potion from AP/CW for 150 lds, with higher price every time you buy it like with runes/crystals. Would it be possible to hard code him to always have those items available, like his runes/crystals are now ?

[MattCaspermeyer]

Yumm, yumm those tasty rats. It was funny first time i went to lucky james mines i just try and got 4 rats in a row form same dwarf so i stick to it and got 8, and 1 more in giant fist below taron.

I like to put ketchup on mine! They're a little crunchy, though!;)

Phoenix need something, if he survives battle sacrifice (resurrection) would be great.

Yah - it would be a good use for him when you're sitting there healing units...

Yes hypnosis you made was really weak Matt 5/10/20% come on why would any1 spend 50 mana to take control of enemy unit 20% of his lds :-) 22/44/66 with intellect bonus will be just right.

Yah - that sounds great - should be able to work well towards the end of the game.

Here`s crazy idea for those mountains of gold most ppl end game with : in dwarf prince that sell runes be possible to reset items (gladiator sword, banner of faith, anciant amulet, ring of mind) for some 500-750k gold, you`ll get runes but still need to carry item in 50 battles. Or giving his inventory blood potion from AP/CW for 150 lds, with higher price every time you buy it like with runes/crystals. Would it be possible to hard code him to always have those items available, like his runes/crystals are now ?

This sounds really interesting! I have no idea how to do it, but you'd think that there's gotta be a way to do it! I'll see what I can find out about this!

Probably 1,000,000 to reset the item or maybe 500-750K like you mention. Yah, I guess I've forgotten about that potion - that would be interesting...

I'll see what I can figure out with respect to your suggestion - I'm not sure if it's possible, but it seems like there should be a way...

/C\/C\

[Fatt_Shade]

Come on Matt , you added new wives with bunch of kids, and you say adding 1 item in Tibold inventory would be problem :-) Adding item in game is no prob, only copy from AP/CW items.txt en_items.lua and image, how to add it in Tibolds shopping choice is prob. It should working same way as for runes i guess every time you buy potion for +150 lds(or more) it cost 50% more starting with 5k gold maybe (it would come up to 130k gold for 900 lds, and some 5million gold to lead 1 more black dragon 2250lds if you have glory 3lvl, so who have that much gold for throwing away go for it). At least this way there will be reason to take trophy skill more then 1lvl.
And adding those 4 items 3 for +10 runes and +3 int ring in his castle inventory as obligatory item, since i have no idea how to `reset` those items battle counter. But then their price will have to change, if game random them in some other shop it wont cost 1000000 gold :-)

Found miss in xeona children :
kid_ignatius you gave +2 attack imps 2 times.
kid_fiur you gave all melee 20% bonus dmg, and then +20% more to all units. Is this planed or ...?
kid_ignisa same as for fiur +10% melee dmg, and +20% for all units.
kid_demeer sp_spell_defense=count,10 , sp_spell_attack=count,10 What does this do?

gerda children :
kid_ordwald +1 initiative , 2 times mistake or you planed +2 initiative ?

neoka children :
kid_monere kid_pasis same as for xeona`s fiur/ignisa +10% dmg, then +20% more magic dmg. Planed or ...

eng_homm3_babies_neoka in itm_kid_mephala_hint text string change [armorer2] to [armor2] , because game freezes when mephala is born with current settings.

eng_homm3_babies_orcelyn :
kid_gretchyn you wrote [goblin1] and [goblin21] error ?
kid_jabarkas [orc1] and [orc21] also error ?

[MattCaspermeyer]

Yes hypnosis you made was really weak Matt 5/10/20% come on why would any1 spend 50 mana to take control of enemy unit 20% of his lds :-) 22/44/66 with intellect bonus will be just right.

You know what? The hypnosis spell does not use its power function properly.

Typically, each spell has a function to compute its power (pwr_spell_name_attack) and then the hint uses that function to show its values.

Well, as it turns out, hypnosis wasn't using its hint, so it was not even working properly! Looks like the developers didn't link the cell selection function to the spell's power function.

So, obviously, I'm going to fix it, but I'll have to check it to see what it was really doing since the unit selection script (calccells_hypnosis) was doing its own thing!

So even though I had a method for computing its power, it was ignoring what I was doing!

Okay, anyway, just a curious thing about hypnosis in that it wasn't coded properly and I'll fix it then evaluate power values...

/C\/C\

[Fatt_Shade]

Same as for hypnosis, problem with demon portal 5/10/20% of heroes lds summon, to low. But here big problem will come when battle with enemy heroes, as i said Baal summon 2x8 archdemons per turn with current settings.
If we change spell that would be much more, ad MUCH bigger problem to defeat him :-)
Also i think gift of life is a bit OP, but you be the judge of that. I just wanted to check how it works and consider that my starting lds was 12k (with warrior this would be even more ridiculous) screen_1.
When i try my old mage save, every time i fight enemy hero we both cast phoenix spell. Wasnt it set in original that only 1 phoenix can be present on battle field?

[MattCaspermeyer]

Same as for hypnosis, problem with demon portal 5/10/20% of heroes lds summon, to low. But here big problem will come when battle with enemy heroes, as i said Baal summon 2x8 archdemons per turn with current settings.
If we change spell that would be much more, ad MUCH bigger problem to defeat him :-)
Also i think gift of life is a bit OP, but you be the judge of that. I just wanted to check how it works and consider that my starting lds was 12k (with warrior this would be even more ridiculous) screen_1.
When i try my old mage save, every time i fight enemy hero we both cast phoenix spell. Wasnt it set in original that only 1 phoenix can be present on battle field?

Wow!, how'd that screenie happen? The out of control code should have kicked in somewhere...

I'll also look into Demon Portal, but I did do a lot of testing on that one. Since it is based on leadership, enemy heroes have much higher leadership than you do and that's why you saw Baal summoning such big stacks.

I think 5/10/20 will produce pretty close to 100% leadership towards the end of the game at level 3 for a mage, which is pretty good for a permanent stack. Even 50% for an enemy hero can be big stacks just because of the their leadership (I think 40K leadership for an enemy hero is pretty normal - especially with the impossible difficulty modifier).

By the way, I'm in the midst of coding up the Archdemon's special abilities.:-)

Sheep seems to work okay, 5 charges with cast every 5 turns is what it's looking like right now.

So far for their attack spells I've got: Fear, Helplessness, Pygmy, Magic Shackles, and Blind.

This one's been trickier than the Bone Dragon's because I need to add the spell after the enemy retaliates otherwise Blind would automatically cancel. I'm also having trouble with Pygmy - the attacked units don't go small! Hmmm.... seems like a weird problem with the Attack.act_small function.:confused:

Hopefully I can get it working, or I'll have to drop Pygmy...:(

/C\/C\

[Fatt_Shade]

It took me 60 turns, but when i saw that summoned units doesnt effect lds cap i decided to see how far will it go. Got bored around 60-65 turn, still hilarious summon for 800k lds and over 1 milion dmg :-), and . But as said warrior would get even higher numbers since his starting lds is highter. Same thing happen with illusion on ghosts on 3rd lvl it lasts 5 turns with high enough int and kid_charna. When they go over lds limit you still keep control on them.
Any idea about phoenix spell ? When both you and enemy hero cast it ?

[MattCaspermeyer]

It took me 60 turns, but when i saw that summoned units doesnt effect lds cap i decided to see how far will it go. Got bored around 60-65 turn, still hilarious summon for 800k lds and over 1 milion dmg :-), and . But as said warrior would get even higher numbers since his starting lds is highter. Same thing happen with illusion on ghosts on 3rd lvl it lasts 5 turns with high enough int and kid_charna. When they go over lds limit you still keep control on them.
Any idea about phoenix spell ? When both you and enemy hero cast it ?

Summoned units don't effect Leadership cap?! Wow I didn't know that one! I know that they are treated differently (they are not affectd by morale, for example), but didn't realize summon cap was also in the list! I'll see if there is a way to fix that - I know that morale is ignored on temporary (and all enemy) units no matter what you set it to.

I think the rule is 1 Phoenix per side - I saw in the code where it checks which side it's on. It is probably best that way, otherwise, it would be easy to kill the other's side's Phoenix by casting your own.

Also with Gift, I agree with you there - I'll increase its cost a bit.

With Archdemon, it looks like Pygmy just won't work for a post-hit effect as I can't get it to be small no matter what I do. I'm now thinking about whether I should give them both Sheep and Pygmy as abilities and still have the other spells as post-hit effects if I can't figure out a way for Pygmy to work properly as a post-hit effect...

/C\/C\

[MattCaspermeyer]

Okay, here's the screenies of the new Archdemon and Ogre Abilities and Features.

The new Archdemon ability is Amalgamation - essentially an equal chance to cast Blind, Pygmy, or Sheep on a target.

The new Archdemon feature is the post-hit Odium feature - essentially an equal chance to cast Fear, Helplessness, or Magic Shackles on a unit after attacking.

I came up with Amalgamation after I couldn't get Pygmy to work properly as a post-hit effect.

The new Ogre feature is the post-hit effect Clobber - it has a chance to stun the target and if stun is successful then it also has a chance to knock the target unconscious.

I'm also thinking about doing something similar with Giants since their club is bigger than the Ogre's.

/C\/C\

[ShuiMienLung]

@ShuiMienLung
It`s nice idea, but not really possible in this mod. Matt changed mana/rage inflow here so at round 20 all mana/rage is 0 no matter how much mana spring you use it just wont give you anything in return when enemy hit that unit, or making any amount of dmg wont give you new rage after 20th turn. So what you accumulated up until then, has to be enough. It makes sense, the longer battle is your/enemy troops are more tired and less angry (rage) so it`s great feature of this mod.

Okay... that's a HUGE change. :) (Although I also understand the reasoning behind it.) I've been following the thread, but have not requested the Mod. I'll wait for the open release, since this sounds like a huge one.

Does Lina's "charger" ability still work in this case, though? Reaper's "rage drain"?

[Fatt_Shade]

@ShuiMienLung Grab it while it`s still fresh :-) I recommend this mod to all KB fans, it`s really interesting, with lots new ideas.
As for chargers/rage drain it works after 20(25turn for hero fights) but wont give you any rage so what rage you accumulated up until that turn that`s amount you`ll have to manage with. Same goes for mana, after 20/25 turn no more mana regen, no matter what items/skills you have. You`r hero and his army gets tired after that and just stop gaining mana/rage :-)

[MattCaspermeyer]

Come on Matt , you added new wives with bunch of kids, and you say adding 1 item in Tibold inventory would be problem :-) Adding item in game is no prob, only copy from AP/CW items.txt en_items.lua and image, how to add it in Tibolds shopping choice is prob.

That's what I mean! Tibold's inventory is the tricky part...

Found miss in xeona children :
kid_ignatius you gave +2 attack imps 2 times.
kid_fiur you gave all melee 20% bonus dmg, and then +20% more to all units. Is this planed or ...?
kid_ignisa same as for fiur +10% melee dmg, and +20% for all units.
kid_demeer sp_spell_defense=count,10 , sp_spell_attack=count,10 What does this do?

Imps - fixed!:-)
Fiur - Melee Damage: +20%, +1 Fire; All Units Fire Damage: +20%, Resist All: +5%. This is ok.
Ignissa: Melee Damage: +10%; Ranged Unit Attack: +20%; All Units Fire Damage: +20%, Resist All: +5%. This is ok.
Deemer: in SPELLS.TXT, sp_spell_attack are attack spells where there is a parameter of attack=1; sp_spell_defense are defense spells where there is a parameter of defense=1.

Attack spells are (this is also in the kid's description if you get them): Healing (for damage to Undead), Magic Pole Axe, Dragon Slayer (adds to the damage of your units against Dragons), Phoenix (does damage), Demon Slayer (same as Dragon Slayer), Lightning, Holy Rain (for damage to Undead), Precision (adds to unit damage), Berserker (adds to unit damage), Pain Mirror, Trap, Ghost Sword, Geyser, Fire Arrow, Poison Skull, Greasy Mist, Hell Breath (adds to unit damage), Ice Snake, Fire Ball, Evil Book (same as Phoenix), Kamikaze, Fire Rain, and Armageddon.

Defense spells are (in kid's description): Stone Skin, Phoenix (since it defends), Divine Armor, Magic Spring (since it adds to unit defense), and Evil Book (same as Phoenix).

Note that stuff in () are just my comment for why they are that type of spell and don't appear in the kid's description (just the spell names do).

gerda children :
kid_ordwald +1 initiative , 2 times mistake or you planed +2 initiative ?

Should be +1 init, +1 speed. Copy, paste, but forget to change keyword - whoops! This is now fixed!:)

neoka children :
kid_monere kid_pasis same as for xeona`s fiur/ignisa +10% dmg, then +20% more magic dmg. Planed or ...

Monere: Melee Damage: +10%; +1 Speed; All Unit Magic Damage: +20%, Magic Resistance: +20%. This is ok.
Pasis: Melee Damage: +10%; Ranged Unit Attack: +20%; All Unit Magic Damage: +20%, Magic Resistance: +20%. This is ok.

eng_homm3_babies_neoka in itm_kid_mephala_hint text string change [armorer2] to [armor2] , because game freezes when mephala is born with current settings.

Great catch - armor2 is the correct value - fixed!:)

We got keep an eye out for these as I fixed Josephine (for her, mysticism was misspelled) in the update I sent you on the 28th! Unfortunately, these are hard to find unless the game freezes or you are a very, very good proof reader! By the way, if the game freezes when cursoring over an item, then there is an error in the template (i.e. a misspelling in this case) for the item's language file.

eng_homm3_babies_orcelyn :
kid_gretchyn you wrote [goblin1] and [goblin21] error ?
kid_jabarkas [orc1] and [orc21] also error ?

These are okay, because they refer to Goblins level 1 (goblin1) and Furious Goblins Level 1 (goblin2 is Furious Goblin and then level 1 = goblin21). Same for orc1 (Orcs, level 1) and orc21 (Veteran Orcs, level 1).

Thanks for checking these, though, as errors here will cause the game to lockup. I checked all "generator codes" by copying them to an existing child and making sure they worked and looked good in the game; however, if I mistyped the name than that is a problem. I'm usually pretty good with copying and pasting the names (because of this very problem), but every once in a while, I have to type it in if it is too much trouble to search for a baby with the same or similar bonus or it is new.

These fixes will go into the next update - thanks!:grin:

/C\/C\

[MattCaspermeyer]

It took me 60 turns, but when i saw that summoned units doesnt effect lds cap i decided to see how far will it go. Got bored around 60-65 turn, still hilarious summon for 800k lds and over 1 milion dmg :-), and . But as said warrior would get even higher numbers since his starting lds is highter. Same thing happen with illusion on ghosts on 3rd lvl it lasts 5 turns with high enough int and kid_charna. When they go over lds limit you still keep control on them.

Okay, this issue with respect to temporary summons was quite tricky to fix (the game's built-in Leadership checking code does not check temporary units!) as trying to use the existing Out of Control function would not work (it simply would return them to your control as I think it has a bug in that it doesn't check if temporary units are over the Leadership limit).

I had to create a new function that deals with temporary units going over the Leadership limit, but it seems to work okay. This was very tricky to implement!

This will go into the next update...

/C\/C\

[MattCaspermeyer]

Also had couple ideas, so what you ppl think about this ?
Priest have 26 hp, and heal 2x10hpm but cant cast it on undead as dmg.Heal spell can be used as dmg for undead, so why not priest healing ability?
I would lower it to 5 heal (when you lead more then 90 priests you dont have unit that can be healed for that much hp 90priest*10heal), and reload 2 so it wouldn`t be used 2 times in row then gift and imba dmg to undead. Thought`s ? ( i got this idea in just finished game i had 1400 priests, and who need 14000 hp healing ? so i thought to make them a bit more useful in fights against undead).

I almost gave up on this one!

I had everything working, but the hint. As it turns out (I had a similar problem when implementing the Thorn's Gift of Life) certain abilities' hints are hard coded in the game.

The fact that it is called "cure" means that it has a built-in hint generator and it cannot be overriden! This was giving me fits all day today! So I called it "cure2" so I could use a custom hint - whew!

Screenies of the implementation are below.

Damage might be a little low, but we'll see how it goes - base heal is 2 and then priests do 2x damage to undead so base damage is 4. In your example, their Heal would be 2800 and then damage to undead would be 5600. If you had your Healer skill at level 3, you'd get an additional +30%, which would be 3640 healing and 7280 damage. That seems pretty reasonable for right now. Note that if the total cure value isn't consumed when healing then a charge isn't used - we'll have to see how that goes. I didn't put a reload value, but it may be a good idea to give them one. Also with respect to charges, it might be better to just let it consume a charge but give them a few more charges. Hmmm...

/C\/C\

[MattCaspermeyer]

Okay, here's a screenie of the new Giant Thump feature.

The idea behind this is that the Giant is able to knock out opponents (most likely so that it can take them back to its lair and eat them - especially EGD's:-P)

Highly experimental, it'll be provided in the next update...

/C\/C\

[MattCaspermeyer]

Here's a list of things I'm currently working on, thinking about implementing, or simply dreaming about implementing...


Change Undead Resurrection to Necro Call. Done!:)
Check ArchDemon Amalgamation ability from human player's viewpoint. Fixed minor issue - done!:)
Check Priest's new Healing (cure2) from AI viewpoint and make sure AI can use it properly. Done!:)
Go through Fatt_Shade's item upgrades.
Check Giant's new Thump from human player's viewpoint.
Check Ogre's new Clobber from human player's viewpoint.
I tried enabling Thorn's Gift of Life when they are cast on a corpse, but I felt it made resurrecting plants too easy. Still under consideration though if I drop resurrection value. Parked for now - the way it works is okay!:)
I experimented a bit with Necromancy skill and Undead ability bonuses; I've done the following::)

Neromancers can now resurrect Undead with their Raise Undead ability if you have the Necromancy skill
Necromancer Raise Undead power is improved by the Necromancy skill
Ghost Cry damage is increased by the Necromancy skill
Doing the other Undead abilities is more difficult because the damage is computed internally, but I may still be able to give the ability a bonus by adding a "hack" to compute the damage when done, but I think for now I'm not going to do this because the only other ability I was thinking about doing would be the Bone Dragon Poison Cloud and it seems the implementation would be a a bit kludgy. I may just look at the damage done and increase it to be more in line with the other Dragon's if warranted.
I'm still brainstorming (Veteran) Orc abilities...
Go through and experiment with some of Fatt_Shade's other comments.
Tolerance level 2 no longer gives +1 Morale all as the bonus has been partially shifted to Diplomacy.
Diplomacy - now also increases morale of races:

Level 1: Dwarf Morale: +1
Level 2: Dwarf and Elf Morale: +1
Level 3: Dwarf, Elf, and Orc Morale: +1
Keeper of Light - now also acts similar to Dark Commander except for troops of the light:

Level 1: All Elves, Dwarves, Humans except Robbers, and Griffins: Defense: +2
Level 2: Same group: Defense: +4, Speed: +1
Level 3: Same group: Defense: +8, Speed and Initiative: +1
Trade - could aid Dwarves, aren't Dwarves greedy? Just a thought...
Learning now also adds to the critical hit of the hero's troops: +5, +15, +30%
Shaman Dancing Axes - I think I'm going to leave this be for now...:)
Shaman Healing Totem - look into other bonuses possibly...:)
Phoenix Resurrection - transfers its life to another unit's (any troop) and dies. If it has another life, then you can still resurrect it and use the ability again on same or another troop and then that will kill the Phoenix for good.
Gerda's Ordwald's HOMM3 skills are unknown, so I may change his Dwarf bonus to an Offensive bonus so that Gerda will have 1 baby with Offense! I'll keep his +1 init and +1 speed, though.
Baby upgrades?! Not sure how to implement, but the idea is that maybe after X battles, you can upgrade a baby to the next level (i.e. Rina baby from 6 to 7 (so it'll have bonuses like a Feanora baby)), by fighting the baby's keepers (just like upgradeable items).
Wife upgrades?! Same as above, but with wives after Y battles.
This is probably not doable, but experience system for babies that would allow you to select new skills for your babies after they level up! This would be similar to how it worked in HOMM3!

Thoughts?

/C\/C\

[Fatt_Shade]

Nice work on priest changed healing, but i dont think there is need to set it so it wont consume charge if not healed unit by full amount because with gift lvl 1 it`s easy rechargeable and in early game when you dont have lots of priests it will mostly use their heal to max.

Any plan to change order on gift of life for plants, so it wont consume your plan to resurrect summoned ?

Diplomacy/trade/trophy . . .yes i agree that this skills are among least useful, but have no idea how to improve them. You thought to buff up dwarfes not bad, but what did you think to do with them ? Simple stats improvement (att/def/speed/initiative...) or ?

Shaman dancing axes works great, so why would you make totems resurrect also ? 1 res skill per race is enough, if totems also revived units it would be to much, maybe set them to cure units(remove plague, pugmy, sheep etc). Or totems resurrect, and axes stun/shock targeted unit ?

Upgrading kids - nice idea, but every upgrade only part of their bonus not all of them, same for wives (also could you try making some code to set this to real life: upgrading girlfriend/wife to better model after some time together :-P ).

[MattCaspermeyer]

Nice work on priest changed healing, but i dont think there is need to set it so it wont consume charge if not healed unit by full amount because with gift lvl 1 it`s easy rechargeable and in early game when you dont have lots of priests it will mostly use their heal to max.

Okay - I think you're right here. I'll make it consume a charge no matter what. I think I'll give them a reload time so that they can use it every other turn if they wish. I might give them 1 more charge for a total of 3, still thinking about that one...

Any plan to change order on gift of life for plants, so it wont consume your plan to resurrect summoned ?

I did a little experiment to see if I knew how to do it and I can. I tried it out a little bit and it seemed too easy to resurrect your plants.

Let me clarify this a little bit - only Thorns and Thorn Warriors that use their Sowing on a corpse are allowed to endow the new Thorn with their Gift of Life enabled.

Dryads, (Ancient) Ents, and Royal Thorns were not affected. Like I mentioned previously, using corpses controls use so I won't change it for these troops otherwise it would be too easy to res all your plants.

I'm going to park this idea for a while and let it sit as I've had no issues myself with the way it works now, but at least I know how to do it if it is warranted to be changed based on additional feedback...

Diplomacy/trade/trophy . . .yes i agree that this skills are among least useful, but have no idea how to improve them. You thought to buff up dwarfes not bad, but what did you think to do with them ? Simple stats improvement (att/def/speed/initiative...) or ?

Not sure, just brainstorming ideas. For Diplomacy, I'm considering another -5% Leadership Requirement for each race, since more of them would be interested if your relations were better, but with all the other Leadership Reduction bonuses, I might have to do just 2% (but then that hardly seems worth it). So what stats would improve due to better relations? Morale? That might be interesting to do that for each race: Level 1: Dwarf Morale +1, Level 2: Elf Morale +1, Level 3 Orc Morale +1. That might be intersting...

For Keeper of Light, I was thinking of making it sort of like the counterpart to Dark Commander, perhaps. So it might have similar bonuses except for good troops. As a start, Good troops would be all Elves. Who else? Are Dwarves considered good or neutral? I think humans would be neutral, except for maybe Priests and Inquisitors. Need to think of good unit list...

For Trade, I'm not sure about that one. Would any units benefit from trade? Cheaper unit costs would be neat! Can I implement that? Don't know how, but sounds like a cool idea! Other ideas? Cheaper items...

You know to go along a bit with your idea to have Tibold recharge special items, would be to simply make some items more expensive! But I guess that's too easy to do, so I'll think about how to implement the Tibold idea more...

Shaman dancing axes works great, so why would you make totems resurrect also ? 1 res skill per race is enough, if totems also revived units it would be to much, maybe set them to cure units(remove plague, pugmy, sheep etc). Or totems resurrect, and axes stun/shock targeted unit ?

Good point, it just seems like they should do more. I've considered removing penalties - will have to look into how to implement as that would at least be a good thing for them...

Upgrading kids - nice idea, but every upgrade only part of their bonus not all of them, same for wives (also could you try making some code to set this to real life: upgrading girlfriend/wife to better model after some time together :-P ).

I'll put that in the "dreaming" category!:-P

/C\/C\

[Fatt_Shade]

Yea i agree with you on gift of life point, since it only works that way for simple thorns. No need to change it.

For trade/trophy check - http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=16919
The rider had interesting idea to give some bonuses after battle depending what skills you have on what lvl. blood potion for warrior bloodlust skill/mana potions for mage high magic skill. In arena.lua find this string if (Game.Random(1,100) <= tonumber(Logic.hero_lu_skill("alchemist"))*5) then , and check file from that point.

Totems, how about this ; ice totem slows enemy and dmg on end of turn, so why not make healing totem give initiative/deff/res or any other bonus to ally units in AoE ? With healing it should be enough for passive bonus every turn.

As for upgrading wives (seriously now :-) , how is Triggers upgrading work in AP/CW for his higher crit% for archer units ? You get that bonus after battles with him as companion, so it possible to get that mechanics for wives also. And exp system for kids, i`m not sure that would be doable. How to assign exp after battles, or share part of your own exp with your kids? And then you pick what bonus you want to upgrade when kid lvlup ... to complicated i think :-(

I`m off for new year, c ya in couple of days ppl :-) Happy New Year, have fun :-D

[MattCaspermeyer]

Okay, I've implemented the switch from using Resurrection to using Necro Call to resurrect (permanently reanimate) your Undead troops - screenies are attached below.

This was a lot of effort and very tricky to implement!

The way it works is:


If you don't get the Necromancy Skill then it works same as before.
If you do get the Necromancy Skill then:

If the target is an allied Undead unit or corpse, it resurrects a certain amount of Undead based on spell power and your reanimation percent. This encourages you to max out your Necromancy Skill, otherwise your Undead resurrect power will be much lower than the animate power.

Necromancy Skill Level 1 - Reanimation Percent: 10-20%
Necromancy Skill Level 2 - Reanimation Percent: 30-50%
Necromancy Skill Level 3 - Reanimation Percent: 60-100%
If the target is not an allied Undead unit (or corpse) then it works the same way it did before.


See the screenies, and you'll see.:-)

This will be provided in the next update...

/C\/C\

[MattCaspermeyer]

Just wanted to let everyone know that the developing is still ongoing, but I've only really gotten two Alpha testers to date:

Fatt_Shade
Erkilmarl

Since they've both provided me with feedback, I've put them in the credits as alpha testers, so if you want a chance to join them, then be an Alpha tester and provide feedback!:grin:

The screenie is attached below.

/C\/C\

[Fatt_Shade]

Hurray for us :-)
I`m back home, with some time to spare so i`ll try last paladin game in your mod. So far i tested warrior with almost all wives, and mage with 4 wives no problems(didnt finish it, but i got in orc lands so i guess no problems later).
I vote for you uploading your mod, for public and see how will it behave in mass usage. And move to changing your work for AP/CW, it`s new year start it productively :-)

[saroumana]

I finally reinstall the game in english, so i can test your mod now. :cool:

I have forget there so many battle in the legend, but well what i have found :

- Evil book (of enemy hero) are way way too powerfull: they shoot way to hard. And i found they got too many HP.

- Royal thorn summon too fast. You should keep the old values.

- Gift of life is a new interesting feature. I use it often and don't got any bug.

- Change in the mage tree are welcome. But the paladin tree is still uninteresting.

[Fatt_Shade]

@saroumana It deppends on enemy hero, and how far in game are you now. Evil book depends on hero intellect, in spells and hp/resistances etc so plan well your army/items before battle with high int enemy heroes. And if you think mid game is hard, wait for 42 int necromancer hero in death lands, or Baal with his demon portal (2x8 archdemons per turn).
Plant summoning was interesting to use before Matt limited it (check my post 116, on 12th page here :-) 1 million dmg, could do double with blackthorn crown.
This mod is hard to play no loss, but no1 says it`s obligatory to play that way. But it very interesting to try all new combinations for units, with children bonuses. Have fun playing :-)

[MattCaspermeyer]

I finally reinstall the game in english, so i can test your mod now. :cool:

I'm really sorry we couldn't figure out how to get the French version working - maybe we'll try again in the future.

Glad you're playing!:)

- Evil book (of enemy hero) are way way too powerfull: they shoot way to hard. And i found they got too many HP.

I actually like how powerful they are - they are very useful now, whereas before they were pretty useless. Plus, you'll find their weakness soon enough and then they won't be much of a problem...

- Royal thorn summon too fast. You should keep the old values.

See how it goes - the reloadable value I've found to be really good when the AI uses it against you, but have not seen the player's perspective so you may be right. Thorns do die easily, though...

- Gift of life is a new interesting feature. I use it often and don't got any bug.

Sounds good - I really like that there is a resurrection possibility for Plants now so they are a viable option to play.

- Change in the mage tree are welcome. But the paladin tree is still uninteresting.

Yah, I'm still working on the Paladin tree right now to help it out some more.

If you look at http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showpost.php?p=374641&postcount=127 you'll see that Keeper of Light now is a "Light" troop Dark Commander equivalent and I've broken up the +1 Morale to All bonus from Tolerance level 2 to be individual race bonuses in the Diplomacy skill although now I don't have +1 Morale to all humans, so I may keep that as part of Tolerance (i.e. +1 Morale to human troops).

As far as other Paladin skills - do you have any ideas? I'm thinking about how the Might tree has all these good attack (and defense for that matter) bonuses, I've been thinking that since the Paladin centers on defense to try to get a very modest resist all bonus (i.e. maybe a 2, 5, and 10% resist all bonus) somewhere in his tree. Also, I think if you play Paladin, you'll see that the Holy Anger and Runic Stone skills now have some really good bonuses there (but that's for Paladin only).

So if you have any thoughts for improving the Paladin tree skills as other classes can get let me know.

Thanks for the comments - you'll be in the credits!:cool:

As an aside, I am very close to transitioning the mod to the beta phase where I'll put a link up on the forum for people to download it.

I've now checked the ArchDemon from the player's perspective and fixed some minor issues with it so that it now works great!

I've also changed the Crystal of Darkness so that it is much more interesting and powerful so that the General Karrador battle is tougher and more interesting, but I've got one more issue to resolve that I haven't been able to figure out yet with respect to the change I've made there so that is really the only thing preventing me from going forward...

My weekend time for the next several weeks is going to be severely limited and so I'm doing my best in the time I have to transition the mod to the beta phase where it will be available for download.

I think all I need to do is resolve the Crystal of Darkness issue and it'll be ready, which I hope to be able to figure out soon pending how much time I can devote to it.

/C\/C\

[Fatt_Shade]

About your idea to move defense bonuses to mind skill tree :
how about all attack bonuses go to might skill tree (training/iron fist give att/unit lvl not att&def, in mind tree remove att/def bonuses for magic units & undead but give them all maybe bonus all resistances, +2/5/10 per skill lvl. And move all def bonuses in mind tree. As you said paladin is oriented to protecting his army so give some mind skill +def. Or something in that area, every hero class have it`s area of influence give paladin protection, warrior attack, mage specializes in magic/undead.

[MattCaspermeyer]

Yah, these are great ideas - Start Defense seems more a Paladin skill than a Warrior skill and I've been thinking of moving it over to the Mind tree.

I was also thinking of a Defense counterpart to Frenzy althought the mechanism for its application would seem to be different than for Frenzy, but I can't really think of a good one right now. I'd have to rearrange some of the Paladin skills to make way for Start Defense and possibly one other, but there is plenty of room in the Paladin's skill tree.

I'll think about this some more...

By the way, I'm currently working on the Phoenix's Sacrifice. Here's the current train of thought:

Resurrect any allied unit (except Undead) limited by the level of the Phoenix, so Young Phoenix can resurrect up to level 3 and sacrifice its life, Mature Phoenix, level 4, etc. I also have been thinking of an anti-animate dead component, kind of like how Bartholemew Bart came back from the dead to be living from the blood of the Phoenix so if you cast it on an Undead unit, it would become a random living unit (so a Bone Dragon would become either a Black, Red, or Green Dragon as an example) - this would be the exact opposite of Animate Dead (or Necro Call) and it could be cast on enemies, I guess.

Anyway, that's just a thought...

/C\/C\

About your idea to move defense bonuses to mind skill tree :
how about all attack bonuses go to might skill tree (training/iron fist give att/unit lvl not att&def, in mind tree remove att/def bonuses for magic units & undead but give them all maybe bonus all resistances, +2/5/10 per skill lvl. And move all def bonuses in mind tree. As you said paladin is oriented to protecting his army so give some mind skill +def. Or something in that area, every hero class have it`s area of influence give paladin protection, warrior attack, mage specializes in magic/undead.

[Fatt_Shade]

Defense counterpart to frenzy, like knight/black knight steel armor talent ? Or like every time you ill enemy stack, auto stone skin is cast ?
As for phoenix sacrifice great job, hope to see it finished soon. But i dont catch about resurrecting living units, do you plan it to make new spell, or when you want to use phoenix sacrifice on corpse on battle field to bring to life stack of units to fight on your side ?
Did you decide to put mod for dl, because i`we been advetiseing it on other forun treads :-) For expl here ( http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=27964 ) your mod will solve most exploits WhiteMage is complaining about.

[saroumana]

I actually like how powerful they are - they are very useful now, whereas before they were pretty useless. Plus, you'll find their weakness soon enough and then they won't be much of a problem...


I hope, really. I was level 7 or 8 when i fight them the first time. They ANNIHILITED my army. They nuke harder than my hero, not a bit more but two time harder. it's simple, they nuke my unit and the entire stack die...
I found it's a bit too much :-) Some spell were worst than evil book, Call of nature per example.



See how it goes - the reloadable value I've found to be really good when the AI uses it against you, but have not seen the player's perspective so you may be right. Thorns do die easily, though...


Right but they're powerfull, and they can even res now.




Yah, I'm still working on the Paladin tree right now to help it out some more.

If you look at http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showpost.php?p=374641&postcount=127 you'll see that Keeper of Light now is a "Light" troop Dark Commander equivalent and I've broken up the +1 Morale to All bonus from Tolerance level 2 to be individual race bonuses in the Diplomacy skill although now I don't have +1 Morale to all humans, so I may keep that as part of Tolerance (i.e. +1 Morale to human troops).

As far as other Paladin skills - do you have any ideas? I'm thinking about how the Might tree has all these good attack (and defense for that matter) bonuses, I've been thinking that since the Paladin centers on defense to try to get a very modest resist all bonus (i.e. maybe a 2, 5, and 10% resist all bonus) somewhere in his tree. Also, I think if you play Paladin, you'll see that the Holy Anger and Runic Stone skills now have some really good bonuses there (but that's for Paladin only).

So if you have any thoughts for improving the Paladin tree skills as other classes can get let me know.

The resist idea is a good one.
my proposal :

-suppress racial morale penality
-add a third spell for priest class (priest,inquisitor,druid, paladin ?)
- permit undead to morale bonus (they are boosted in the warrior and mage tree)
-add one the final : knight---> paladin
-a shield which reduce dommage like in crossworld

[MattCaspermeyer]

Defense counterpart to frenzy, like knight/black knight steel armor talent ? Or like every time you ill enemy stack, auto stone skin is cast ?

Well, more like the latter, I guess. But having it engage when killing a stack doesn't seem right that a troop's defense would go up. Maybe I'll look into how the Black Knight works - that might be better. Or maybe it would engage after receiving a critical hit or a lot of damage. Not sure - just thinking out loud...

As for phoenix sacrifice great job, hope to see it finished soon. But i dont catch about resurrecting living units, do you plan it to make new spell, or when you want to use phoenix sacrifice on corpse on battle field to bring to life stack of units to fight on your side ?

Well, I was thinking of having one ability act both ways, but if your troops needed res'ing then you wouldn't use the other part of it so maybe it is better to implement as two separate abilities. Just some thoughts - I'll at least implement the sacrifice part of it for your own troops...

Did you decide to put mod for dl, because i`we been advetiseing it on other forun treads :-) For expl here ( http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=27964 ) your mod will solve most exploits WhiteMage is complaining about.

No... I keep adding new features! Ok, after I finish the Phoenix Sacrifice, I think it will be tiime to release it - I'm in the midst of re-evaluating the skill trees and I can't move Start Defense over to the Mind Tree because it is so full.

I didn't realize that all the skill trees have 12 skills (I guess 2 of the skills are not shown depending which class use. So I can't move any around without one being really cramped and the other looking a bit sparse. It's okay that Start Defense is in the Might Tree - not everything has to be in the Mind Tree when it comes to defense.

I might move the %Critical Hit from Training to Learning, though. And I've made Tolerance not only do the race morale thing, but also increase the unit's tolerance to damage, i.e. resist all at 5 and 10%. I also have essentially broken up the +1 Morale from Tolerance level 2 to +1 Morale to Dwarves, Elves, and Humans in Diplomacy level 1, then Neutrals and Orcs for Dipomacy level 2, and then Demons for Diplomacy level 3. This will hopefully make the Diplomacy skill more interesting and keeps all the morale bonuses that I had before, albeit split between a skill's 3 levels instead of one skill level.

Okay, let me try to work on getting the mod released!:grin:

/C\/C\

[MattCaspermeyer]

I hope, really. I was level 7 or 8 when i fight them the first time. They ANNIHILITED my army. They nuke harder than my hero, not a bit more but two time harder. it's simple, they nuke my unit and the entire stack die...
I found it's a bit too much :-) Some spell were worst than evil book, Call of nature per example.

Well, then I think Fatt_Shade's comment applies - save that hero for later. You're going to find hero's that are too hard (especially if you're trying to do no loss) so it is best to move on and come back to them when you're more powerful.

Right but they're powerfull, and they can even res now.

Yah - just see if you still think so when you've been playing it for a while. There's always going to be phases of the game that seem too easy and others that seem to hard. All in all, though, if you find that it is too easy throughout the entire game, then a change is most likely warranted...

The resist idea is a good one.
my proposal :

-suppress racial morale penality

This is an interesting thought - I don't mind the race penalties for right now, but it is something to consider...

-add a third spell for priest class (priest,inquisitor,druid, paladin ?)

Not sure what you mean here - a new unit? Or a new ability for an existing unit?

- permit undead to morale bonus (they are boosted in the warrior and mage tree)

Unfortunately, I actually tried to do that and the Undead simply ignore morale - except in cemetaries! So I'm not sure how the Undead morale code works, but I know it ignores all +morale stuff for units.

-add one the final : knight---> paladin

Well, I'm trying to avoid adding the expansion units - I'd love to have Royal Griffins, but I figured if I'm going to add units from the other expansions, I might as well just mod that expansion. Also, I wish I could add other unit upgrades than Priest to Inquisitor, but it seems the game was either hard-coded to only allow that single upgrade or I haven't figured out how they did it yet. I did look, though, for quite a while and didn't find anywhere where it was done in the LUA scripts...

I know that you can use the Crosswords code to do it, but I wanted to use the upgrade button that the Priests get. So I decided, to leave it be.

-a shield which reduce dommage like in crossworld

Well, once again, this is probably a reason to mod that expansion - I could probably pull all the items from those expansions into The Legend, but it just wouldn't seem right.

Those are some good ideas, though, keep 'em comin'!:-)

/C\/C\

[MattCaspermeyer]

- Royal thorn summon too fast. You should keep the old values.

Okay - you're right about this! I just tried it out... and I was generating way too many thorns. I also bumped it up one on the reload and it still seemed too much so back to the nominal value it goes!

/C\/C\

[MattCaspermeyer]

Okay, I just implemented a new feature for (Veteran) Orcs!

Essentially the way it works is that if the (Veteran) Orc cannot retaliate and they receive a critical hit, then they become very angry! This allows them to either: 1) If they have already moved, then move again or 2) If they haven't moved, then they get +50% speed for the remainder of the round and +1 initiative for the remainder of the combat!

I've been experimenting with it and it seems to work pretty well and makes attacking (Veteran) Orcs much more tricky when you have high critical hit!

See the screenie!

By the way, this ability works for both Orcs and Veteran Orcs hence the (Veteran) Orc designation.

/C\/C\

[Fatt_Shade]

Nice idea for veterans, similar to demon rage. I guess this can be best used to intercept enemy range/magic units. You run to them and wait, since they cant attack your other units they attack veterans spend their turn and veterans act after that and block other enemy unit and so on. Use 1 unit to block whole enemy line :-D

[MattCaspermeyer]

Here's the screenies of the Phoenix Cast Sacrifice ability.

The ability resurrects units up to the Phoenix's level and also recharges and reloads the target unit's abilities as well as dispelling negative effects.

/C\/C\

[Fatt_Shade]

Nice work on all of this Matt :-)
Phoenix works great, about all this no charges idea still thinking about it, maybe i`ll return this to original in my game.
As for bone dragons i think they should be weaker, since only 1300 lds and almost same dmg for poison cloud like black/red dragon with their aoe attacks. Basic dmg is ok, but cloud is a bit OP and it have 100% poisoning while black/red dragon have much lower burning% on special attacks.
Orcs should b much more interesting to play now.
And you have in your mod files 2 folder with same files inside them
mod_homm3_babies_en_lng and mod_homm3_babies_eng_lng. Why ?

Here`s crazy idea : in AP/CW we have awaken dragon (mage can use pet dragon 3 time/turn with enough rage, which i did many times), so how about giving warrior in his special skills 1/2/3 times using rage spirits 2 times per turn like 1st lvl anger he can use spirits 1 bonus time per turn, 2nd lvl anger 2 times double rage spirit, 3rd lvl anger he can double use spirits 3 times in battle.

[MattCaspermeyer]

Nice work on all of this Matt :-)
Phoenix works great, about all this no charges idea still thinking about it, maybe i`ll return this to original in my game.

Okay - great!:)

As for bone dragons i think they should be weaker, since only 1300 lds and almost same dmg for poison cloud like black/red dragon with their aoe attacks. Basic dmg is ok, but cloud is a bit OP and it have 100% poisoning while black/red dragon have much lower burning% on special attacks.

Okay - I've changed it to be 80-100 (that should be better!).

Orcs should b much more interesting to play now.

Yah, I hope so - should be fun!:)

And you have in your mod files 2 folder with same files inside them
mod_homm3_babies_en_lng and mod_homm3_babies_eng_lng. Why ?

One is for English version with ENG*.LNG and the other for English version with EN*.LNG - this handles both variants as Erkilmarl's version uses the EN*.LNG and I think yours and mine use ENG*.LNG (and I think saroumana is also using EN*.LNG variant).

Here`s crazy idea : in AP/CW we have awaken dragon (mage can use pet dragon 3 time/turn with enough rage, which i did many times), so how about giving warrior in his special skills 1/2/3 times using rage spirits 2 times per turn like 1st lvl anger he can use spirits 1 bonus time per turn, 2nd lvl anger 2 times double rage spirit, 3rd lvl anger he can double use spirits 3 times in battle.

This is a sweet idea! I have no idea how to implement it, but if I look into AP/CW I should be able to see how they do it - that'd be cool! :)

You know if I'm able to do this, we'll probably have to give the Paladin at least one round of both double cast and double spirit otherwise he's going to be seriously underpowered when compared to Mage and Warrior...

Okay, sounds great, will look into these issues...

/C\/C\

[saroumana]

Well, then I think Fatt_Shade's comment applies - save that hero for later. You're going to find hero's that are too hard (especially if you're trying to do no loss) so it is best to move on and come back to them when you're more powerful.

Ok i'll try. I still think this spell is more powerfull than other though. :)


This is an interesting thought - I don't mind the race penalties for right now, but it is something to consider...


Racial penalties is a good idea for the game, specially at begining, but having a possibility to cancel this is also welcome. Mixting race is too discouraged.


Not sure what you mean here - a new unit? Or a new ability for an existing unit?


Yeah my fault (i'm atrociously bad in english). I mean a new ability. Priest, inquisitor and druid have only 2 ability. And i the warrior tree a skill upgrade archer/guard ability. I found priest and druid to be weak and not very interesting unit. I don't love inquisitor too, i use them only because they can res.


Unfortunately, I actually tried to do that and the Undead simply ignore morale - except in cemetaries! So I'm not sure how the Undead morale code works, but I know it ignores all +morale stuff for units.


I'll check this.


Well, I'm trying to avoid adding the expansion units - I'd love to have Royal Griffins, but I figured if I'm going to add units from the other expansions, I might as well just mod that expansion. Also, I wish I could add other unit upgrades than Priest to Inquisitor, but it seems the game was either hard-coded to only allow that single upgrade or I haven't figured out how they did it yet. I did look, though, for quite a while and didn't find anywhere where it was done in the LUA scripts...

I know that you can use the Crosswords code to do it, but I wanted to use the upgrade button that the Priests get. So I decided, to leave it be.


Mod armored princess would be great. :cool: Expansion have add some cool concept. Ok may be we shouldn't grab everything, but some of them.


Well, once again, this is probably a reason to mod that expansion - I could probably pull all the items from those expansions into The Legend, but it just wouldn't seem right.


I'm pretty sure we have all king bounty title, so it shouldn't be a problem.

For paladin tree idea :

- Why not moving healer skill into the paladin tree ?

- Power of light : overpower light spell.
* Heal : heal additionnal ally unit
* Res : res more
* Divine armore : last longer
* Circle of light : increase radius
* Magic source :increase mana gain.

- disable morale of living item (i hate them :evil:)


One is for English version with ENG*.LNG and the other for English version with EN*.LNG - this handles both variants as Erkilmarl's version uses the EN*.LNG and I think yours and mine use ENG*.LNG (and I think saroumana is also using EN*.LNG variant).

/C\/C\

I can't make it work in french, but i can use both english file with my version. :cool:



Humm i found a bug. I fight undead into a cemetery.No hero with them. This is their characteristic

-GHOST
attack 83
defense 40 (protected at 95% for physical,poison,magic)
initiative 12
speed 12
health 124
dommage 12-24

- Dark knight
attack 116
defense 77 (protected at 92% for physical, 95% poison)
initiative 9
speed 6
health 496
dommage 40-52
Rising anger at 9 after one hit.

-Skeleton archer
attack 14
defense 6 (protected at 11% fire / 95% poison)
initiative 12
speed 6
health 24
dommage 4-7


edit : Ok it affect also other enemy unit (not mine). Their speed is increased, their health and dammage too (less than undead though). I must admit i can't win any battle now. :mrgreen:

[Fatt_Shade]

Hm . . . only thing i found about High magic usage spell book in battle is in arena.lua file :
-- Âűńřŕ˙ ěŕăč˙ (íŕ÷ŕëî)
local t = skill_power2( "hi_magic", 1 )
Logic.hero_lu_var( "double_book_charges", t )

if t > 0 then t = 2 else t = 1 end

Logic.hero_lu_var( "book_times", t + book_extra_times )
Do you have any idea how to make this work for rage spirits ???

First changing skill.txt and skills.lua to add double_rage_spirit_charges in anger skill 1,2,3 times in battle ( i think this would be fair since you moved most defense bonuses from might skill tree to mind). Then add in arena.lua similar part like for high_magic just for rage spirits and connect this with it`s reference in skills.* files . . . i have no idea will tihs work, i try in my game and cant make reference for chest double use, because i cant find how it`s made for spell book double cast.

As for making it fair for paladin, how about changing warrior/ paladin lds gain when lvlup ? Warrior is for fight and rage (skirmish/gerila type of combat, fast and hard attack on enemy army), paladin is charismatic and army like him, so he should lead bigger army then warrior. So warrior have elite fighters filled with rage that allow him to use rage spirits twice per turn, and paladin can lead more troops. What do you think ?

Also in skills.txt, higher magic in pars=1,100%,+1,+10 for 1st lvl. What is this 100% used for ? I can find it in skill.lua or eng_skill.lua any reference to this parametar :-(

[Fatt_Shade]

Hey Matt in your latest update i found a bit of problem :
in every item upgrade/suppress battle all towers have 200 HP, no matter what item, or what lvl it is.
Also new function that gives enemy units stats depending of location (longer you play, enemy get stronger) is a bit much. I found cannoners with 13 initiative and 40 att/def and they weren`t even with enemy hero, just normal enemy stack in Taron mines (cannoners just example, all enemy units had +80-100% stats, it`s to much ).

[MattCaspermeyer]

Hey Matt in your latest update i found a bit of problem :
in every item upgrade/suppress battle all towers have 200 HP, no matter what item, or what lvl it is.

Hmmm... didn't change this part of the code to my knowledge, but possibly another change must have somehow affected it.

I'll look into it.

Also new function that gives enemy units stats depending of location (longer you play, enemy get stronger) is a bit much. I found cannoners with 13 initiative and 40 att/def and they weren`t even with enemy hero, just normal enemy stack in Taron mines (cannoners just example, all enemy units had +80-100% stats, it`s to much ).

Hmmm... either I implemented it wrong or the bonus is too high. The difficulty bonus + the map difficulty bonus should be between 125 to 150% (before I implemented this it was a flat 125%) for impossible and less for other difficulty levels. I know I checked the value in the hint and it was correct, but I didn't check the unit values so maybe I made an error where it actually applied the bonus. I'll look into this some more and get both of these fixed...

Thanks!:)

/C\/C\

[MattCaspermeyer]

-GHOST
attack 83
defense 40 (protected at 95% for physical,poison,magic)
initiative 12
speed 12
health 124
dommage 12-24

- Dark knight
attack 116
defense 77 (protected at 92% for physical, 95% poison)
initiative 9
speed 6
health 496
dommage 40-52
Rising anger at 9 after one hit.

-Skeleton archer
attack 14
defense 6 (protected at 11% fire / 95% poison)
initiative 12
speed 6
health 24
dommage 4-7


edit : Ok it affect also other enemy unit (not mine). Their speed is increased, their health and dammage too (less than undead though). I must admit i can't win any battle now. :mrgreen:

This is the same problem as Fatt_Shade reported above - I checked the implementation of the bonus and I messed it up!

Sorry! Will fix ASAP...

Thanks for reporting this!:grin:

/C\/C\

[MattCaspermeyer]

Okay - these issues are now fixed in the latest update (http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showpost.php?p=380856&postcount=2)!

Thanks for pointing this out to me - I'll do a better job in the future to make sure I debug new features fully.

Also new function that gives enemy units stats depending of location (longer you play, enemy get stronger) is a bit much. I found cannoners with 13 initiative and 40 att/def and they weren`t even with enemy hero, just normal enemy stack in Taron mines (cannoners just example, all enemy units had +80-100% stats, it`s to much ).

Humm i found a bug. I fight undead into a cemetery.No hero with them. This is their characteristic

-GHOST
attack 83
defense 40 (protected at 95% for physical,poison,magic)
initiative 12
speed 12
health 124
dommage 12-24

- Dark knight
attack 116
defense 77 (protected at 92% for physical, 95% poison)
initiative 9
speed 6
health 496
dommage 40-52
Rising anger at 9 after one hit.

-Skeleton archer
attack 14
defense 6 (protected at 11% fire / 95% poison)
initiative 12
speed 6
health 24
dommage 4-7


edit : Ok it affect also other enemy unit (not mine). Their speed is increased, their health and dammage too (less than undead though). I must admit i can't win any battle now. :mrgreen:

This next issue is okay because the item levels are most likely low - I tried it out with higher level items and it worked as intended... I'll check some more items though to make sure that it is not a problem...

By the way, the only item I've found so far is Steel Boots -> Spiked Boots. The leadership of the Tower's allies were such that the Tower Health would only be 173, but it is clipped at 200. I'm sure there are other items that are low level like the Steel Boots upgrade, but they are probably limited to the level 1 items as a guess...

Hey Matt in your latest update i found a bit of problem :
in every item upgrade/suppress battle all towers have 200 HP, no matter what item, or what lvl it is.

[Fatt_Shade]

About towers i try to upgrade archemage staff and had 5 towers with 200hp, and i`m sure that 5th lvl items should have a bit stronger towers :-)
I dont know what caused problem with towers in item battles, but i returned arena_tower and arena_tower_1 files form your previous mod version and it works OK as before.
Other things you changed work with no problems, gj with update :-)

[MattCaspermeyer]

Wow this is strange... I just tried it with the Archmage Staff and their health is 4400!

So, maybe there is an issue with file versions or something in the archives...

What is interesting is you simply reverted the ATOMs and it worked so I'll check there first.

We'll get to the bottom of this!

/C\/C\

About towers i try to upgrade archemage staff and had 5 towers with 200hp, and i`m sure that 5th lvl items should have a bit stronger towers :-)
I dont know what caused problem with towers in item battles, but i returned arena_tower and arena_tower_1 files form your previous mod version and it works OK as before.
Other things you changed work with no problems, gj with update :-)

[Fatt_Shade]

Great news about getting this for AP/CW finally :-) I was swamped with work lately, but hope to see soon alpha version of mod, and try to help bug proofing it.
Aside from getting bunch new items in game - tomes (kids form the Legend), spells, stronger heroes which worked great in previous mod, what did you plan to do regarding medals/pet dragon in AP/CW ? That part is different from original tL.

[MattCaspermeyer]

Yah, I hear ya.

Your help debugging / playtesting will be greatly appreciated! :)

I'm not sure about the medals and the pet dragon, but I want to make the pet dragons more unique between each other as far as abilities are concerned. I'm not sure if it is doable or not, but that's the general idea.

With respect to the medals, I'm just going to take some of the comments mentioned in the forum and go from there.

/C\/C\

[Sir Whiskers]

Hmm, not sure if these are bugs in the mod, or something with my setup:

1) When I travel to between continents, my hero's rage does not decrease to zero. It may drop a few points, but then it continues to slowly decrease as normal, per time going by.

2) I married Gerda and decided to test the babies. I navigated the dialogue and was told to just wait and the baby would show up. I left the game running for 16 days of game time, but no baby. I wanted to test what would happen to her items, so I left all four equipped.

I thought perhaps I had the wrong babies file, so I removed .eng and copied in .en and restarted the game. It hung at the load screen, so I copied things back the way they were and it loaded fine. But still no babies.

Everything else seems to be fine and I'm enjoying the changes you've made - the enemy stacks are significantly more vicious and intelligent (though they still have an unnatural desire to attack the Ice Ball). Just can't get the babies to be born...

Running Windows 7, 64 bit, KBTL version 7 (from GOG games)

Thanks.

[Fatt_Shade]

@SirWhiskers
1) What you mean travelnig between continents ? Some parts are connected by normal passages, not like islands in AP/CW. You lose rage only when traveling with boat to other islands, or dirigible to elf/dwarf lands.
2) You wont get kid with time passing, but after every 10 battle fought married to same wife. So to get 4 kids you need to fight 40 battles with Gerda (suppressing items doesnt count !!!).
Have fun, and enjoy this great mod :-)

[Sir Whiskers]

@SirWhiskers
1) What you mean travelnig between continents ? Some parts are connected by normal passages, not like islands in AP/CW. You lose rage only when traveling with boat to other islands, or dirigible to elf/dwarf lands.
2) You wont get kid with time passing, but after every 10 battle fought married to same wife. So to get 4 kids you need to fight 40 battles with Gerda (suppressing items doesnt count !!!).
Have fun, and enjoy this great mod :-)

1) Yep, I'm referring travelling from Darion to the Freedom Islands, or Darion to Lyaro Island. No rage loss when using the boatman/balloon to go back and forth. It's been a while since I played KBTL, but I swear it was normal to lose all my rage when doing so.

2) Interesting. I didn't realize it had to do with battles. Thanks!

[MattCaspermeyer]

I didn't make any changes there so I guess that's normal.

Yah, and like Fatt_Shade said it's not like real life where you sit around and the babies pop out anyway!;)

1) Yep, I'm referring travelling from Darion to the Freedom Islands, or Darion to Lyaro Island. No rage loss when using the boatman/balloon to go back and forth. It's been a while since I played KBTL, but I swear it was normal to lose all my rage when doing so.

2) Interesting. I didn't realize it had to do with battles. Thanks!

[Zepdog]

MattC, I'm sorry if this question has been asked before but I couldn't find it when looking through the posts.

I can't start the game. When booting up I get an error message of 'Wrong disc inserted'. It then gives me the link to the SecureRom.com website for help. If I remove the mod, the game starts fine.

I will say that the patch started from Gamers Gate then sent me to the link in the 1C forums. Also my game file is under Atari and not 1C Company (if that matters). Thanks for anything you can do to help.

[Fatt_Shade]

@Zepdog I had same problem as you, and i fixed it with Atari patch http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=4947. I dont know what is difference between Nobilis/ Atari / and some other KB-tL patch if they are all 1.7 version why difference ? Try using this patch, if not working still, find some other version. Gl :-)

[Zepdog]

Fatt Shade, thanks, that fixed it. Now I can play. And thanks to Matt for the mod too.

[MattCaspermeyer]

Fantastic!

I'm glad it worked out for you!:grin:

I think I may have to add this as a note in my readme for future reference.

/C\/C\

[Zepdog]

Matt, I have 2 things to ask/tell.

1. Did you want the Royal Thorns to be able to be 'healed' to max leadership instead of max amount of RTs you came into battle with. I found 2 RTs in the Marshan Swamp and through the healing process I now have 8.

2. I have a problem with one of Rina's children. The one that is the Vampire (male) that has red eyes and a ruby on his forehead with 3 golden prongs with it. When I try to look at this child in the Hero screen it makes the game freeze. It doesn't really bother me since it is my 3rd kid and after my next 10 battles I will have my 4th kid and be getting rid of Rina anyway, but I thought you should know. Again, it is only when my mouse cursor goes over that exact child that this problem happens, so I don't have any info on him other than what he looks like.

[Fatt_Shade]

Hello Zepdog :-) I`m happy other ppl started playing this mod, Mat did great job with it. I finished game with it mage and warrior, so i`ll help you with problem if i can

1) Yes it was planed to be able to finish battle with more plants then you started, it`sd basicly sacrifice for plants. But be careful because you can get more units with it then you`re leadership allow, so it`s possible to lose control over royal thorns, and then you`ll have to attack them to get them back (same as ghosts, if you played with them before). This goes for all plants in this mod, thorn warrior/hunters royals, ent and ancient ent. Use this ability wisely :-)

2) By you`re description i think you got Thant as 3rd kid with Rina. I had same problem with Mephala daughter from Neoka, and it was simple typing error in her file. Go to you`re game folder, king`s bounty the legend\data\mods\mod_homm3_babies\ open that archive with winrar/winzip and find rina_babies file. Open that file with notepad , and find kid_thant, he miss 1 string for his spell bonus
kid_thant {
category=o
image=heroitem_tome_thant.png
hint_config=object_item
label=itm_kid_thant_name
hint=itm_kid_thant_hint
information_label=itm_kid_thant_info
maphint=
mapinfo=
price=6
maxcount=0
level=3
race=human
use {}
weight=10
fight {
}
mods {
sp_gain_power_necromancy=count,12
sp_mana_battle=count,4
}
propbits=child,rare
params {}
actions {
tick=
onuse=
bfight=
@=020000000000008000000000
}
}
Copy bolded text string like i showed here, and place it in you`re file, save and exit, close winrar archive, and try again. I think it shouldnt be problems anymore.
If he still freeze game, say, Matt should find solution. Good luck :-)

[Zepdog]

Thanks Matt, but I already got divorced and married the Frog (lol). Once I get 40 battles with her I will move on too (I usually buy as many objects that can be leveled up and also units so the impact on my money is at the least amount lost possible.

The RT may make this too easy. I am on impossible and after a night of sleeping I realized in a dream (funny that) that I could actually get a reserve of RTs. I have 5 in my army (with a max leadership for 8) and now I have 68 in reserve. Every battle I get around 3 extra and just put them into reserve. If you are saying that I can do this with the Ents and Anc. Ents, then this will be wild indeed.

Thanks for the info though. Maybe if I have the problem later with another wife I will change something but it really isn't that much of a problem since I go through wives like they are going out of style. (lol) I can't wait to see the 2 new girls or where they are located.

[Fatt_Shade]

Hm . . . already had 4 kids with Rina, and switch to Feanora, and leadership only for 5 royal thorns, somewhere around 1800. You`re still early in game, and trust me later normal enemy battle wont be problem but fighting against enemy heroes now that`s interesting :-) Matt made it so they can lower some resistances -(30 50) to physical, or magic toy all your units, or if high intellect they have double cast like mage class and so on. You will have fun with this playthrough, enjoy :-D
As for new wives : Orcelyn is orc girl in Hazerham castle in western islands and you can marry her after you free dwarf prince (quest peace pact from king Mark to dwarf king i think), Diana is fairy behind Elven capital and you can marry her after you finish frozen spring quest.

[MattCaspermeyer]

Matt, I have 2 things to ask/tell.

1. Did you want the Royal Thorns to be able to be 'healed' to max leadership instead of max amount of RTs you came into battle with. I found 2 RTs in the Marshan Swamp and through the healing process I now have 8.

2. I have a problem with one of Rina's children. The one that is the Vampire (male) that has red eyes and a ruby on his forehead with 3 golden prongs with it. When I try to look at this child in the Hero screen it makes the game freeze. It doesn't really bother me since it is my 3rd kid and after my next 10 battles I will have my 4th kid and be getting rid of Rina anyway, but I thought you should know. Again, it is only when my mouse cursor goes over that exact child that this problem happens, so I don't have any info on him other than what he looks like.

1. Yep this is the way it is meant to be - you can do it with all plants so it is actually fun to be able to play these units that you normally can't as there are typically so few numbers for the Royal Thorns and Ancient Ents.

In my current Mage game that I'm playing, I got 2 Ents from the Blue Dragon quest at the inn and have been "growing" my arsenal, although I tend not to generate lots of them like you have done (I just get what I need since you can't sell them, and it's easy enough to max out on them with your leadership on weaker stacks as needed). Like Fatt_Shade mentioned below, the fun is just beginning!:grin:

2. I'll look into freezing on this baby (I'll check Thant that Fatt_Shade eluded to) as I just fixed a batch with the "Scouting" babies in my latest release. Since I use "template generators", these typos are hard to find and cause the game to lockup. I wish the developers put in a check when a template is not found like they did other stuff to prevent the lockups, but we'll find all the errors!

When I transition my mod to AP and CW, I'm going to try to automate more of the file generation stuff to help minimize errors - this is the only way to go to prevent typos...

Thanks for the comments and keep playing and commenting!:)

/C\/C\

[MattCaspermeyer]

Hello Zepdog :-) I`m happy other ppl started playing this mod, Mat did great job with it. I finished game with it mage and warrior, so i`ll help you with problem if i can

1) Yes it was planed to be able to finish battle with more plants then you started, it`sd basicly sacrifice for plants. But be careful because you can get more units with it then you`re leadership allow, so it`s possible to lose control over royal thorns, and then you`ll have to attack them to get them back (same as ghosts, if you played with them before). This goes for all plants in this mod, thorn warrior/hunters royals, ent and ancient ent. Use this ability wisely :-)

2) By you`re description i think you got Thant as 3rd kid with Rina. I had same problem with Mephala daughter from Neoka, and it was simple typing error in her file. Go to you`re game folder, king`s bounty the legend\data\mods\mod_homm3_babies\ open that archive with winrar/winzip and find rina_babies file. Open that file with notepad , and find kid_thant, he miss 1 string for his spell bonus
kid_thant {
category=o
image=heroitem_tome_thant.png
hint_config=object_item
label=itm_kid_thant_name
hint=itm_kid_thant_hint
information_label=itm_kid_thant_info
maphint=
mapinfo=
price=6
maxcount=0
level=3
race=human
use {}
weight=10
fight {
}
mods {
sp_gain_power_necromancy=count,12
sp_mana_battle=count,4
}
propbits=child,rare
params {}
actions {
tick=
onuse=
bfight=
@=020000000000008000000000
}
}
Copy bolded text string like i showed here, and place it in you`re file, save and exit, close winrar archive, and try again. I think it shouldnt be problems anymore.
If he still freeze game, say, Matt should find solution. Good luck :-)

Wow - did I miss that one? This won't prevent it from locking up, but this just shows the need for automated generators!

Or have Fatt_Shade keep checking and finding my errors!:-P

Hate it when I miss bonuses!:evil:

/C\/C\

P.S. I'll fix this, too - thanks Fatt_Shade!

[MattCaspermeyer]

Thanks Matt, but I already got divorced and married the Frog (lol). Once I get 40 battles with her I will move on too (I usually buy as many objects that can be leveled up and also units so the impact on my money is at the least amount lost possible.

I have to this to cover as many babies as possible! I actually go around at the start of the game and do as many quests as possible without fighting anyone so that I can maximize the number of battles for baby generation so that I can test as many babies as possible!

Plus it is fun to see all the variants!:)

The RT may make this too easy. I am on impossible and after a night of sleeping I realized in a dream (funny that) that I could actually get a reserve of RTs. I have 5 in my army (with a max leadership for 8) and now I have 68 in reserve. Every battle I get around 3 extra and just put them into reserve. If you are saying that I can do this with the Ents and Anc. Ents, then this will be wild indeed.

As Fatt_Shade eluded to, you'll find that plants, in general, are great early, but are tougher later because of the propensity for them to get burned. Still, though, they are awesome against the Undead and it is fun to play them since typically no one plays plants. Too bad you can't sell the extras for money!

Thanks for the info though. Maybe if I have the problem later with another wife I will change something but it really isn't that much of a problem since I go through wives like they are going out of style. (lol) I can't wait to see the 2 new girls or where they are located.

I'll do my best to track down these errors - like I mentioned previously, I just fixed a batch that used the "scouting" template generator and I'll have to see what Thant used.

By the way, as I've been working on my AP and CW version of the mod ideas keep popping into my head about ideas to add not only to my TL version, but AP and CW as well.

Here are some recent thoughts...


Royal Thorn - Give them a charge to Entangle any unit (this would work just like the Ent / Ancient Ent Entangle except that it is cast on a unit instead a side effect of an attack).
Entangle - Change it so that it doesn't work on plants.
Have Drahha (or whatever the Blue Dragon's name is) sell "Sapphire Blue Dragons" after you do something special like complete the Demon's Ultrax quest or Skarrs' maybe. Sapphire Blue Dragons would have an icy breath that damages and freezes targets (similar to the Red / Black Dragon breathe fire except with ice) and then maybe a special like the Red Dragon's Fire Breath (probably Ice Breath) that lays ice shards and damages and freezes targets in its path. I think there is something similar in Red Sands or the upcoming WOTN. Not sure how doable this would be with respect to having Drahha sell stuff, but it is a fun idea to think about.
Red Dragons - Name change to Ruby Red Dragon
Black Dragons - Name change to Obsidian Black Dragon
These two changes above go with the Emerald Green Dragon naming convention and note that I used that naming convention above for the "Blue" Dragon.
Emerald Green Dragons - when they use their mana ability, if they are not controlled by a hero then they drain your hero's mana.
In AP / CW I'm probably going to have Frenzy generate rage per turn just like the Mage's Concentration skill and so I'll probably roll this back into this mod. The values will probably be +1, +3, and +6 rage per turn and then affected by the mana / rage gain modifier per round.

Okay those are the current thoughts that come to mind...

/C\/C\

[Zepdog]

Oh man did you make me excited Matt, when you said you are going to work on a Crossworlds mod too. Getting the patent to actually be worth something would be awesome. I can't wait for that one! Thanks for all your hard work.

[MattCaspermeyer]

It looks like I didn't fix all the "Amorer" babies. The template is armor, not armorer, but apparantly I missed a few.

The following babies are affected:


Rina

Galthran
Orcelyn

Alkin
Drakon

All other "Armorer" babies are okay.

I'll work on a fix for this immediately...

/C\/C\

[Fatt_Shade]

You`re welcome :-)
I`m not even sure would my idea solved problem with freezing on Thant, as i said before had similar prob, with Mephala armorer but with Thant was different thing so . . .
And you`re comment about leading full plant stack is nice for mage, but with warrior i did opposite thing ( 1 archmage, 1 marauder, inqusitors full lds, and 2 fighting units royal snakes and griffins in my last game, and master of spirits skill on 3 lvl asap. This way i get more exp for rage spirits then if i lead full army. Archmage for support only 1 is enough, marauder 1 also for digging corpses for gold, inqusitors rage generators and ress, and snakes/griffins to control enemy. As i said before i finished with sick spirits 40+ lvl`s Zerock/Reaper 46th, Sleem 40, Lina only 36 But i stop my empty army strategy after finished dwarf lands, because elf/demon/undead lands were much harder than game until then, thank you very much enemy heroes with 30+ intellect :-D
But i think it`s possible to get spirits up to 48 lvl, except Lina she have only supporting skills with low exp gain.

As for ideas :
1) entangle 1 charge on royals, nice i like it. In red sands mod they added new plant monstera check it out it`s interesting unit.
2) giving inventory for shop to blue dragon in Arlania, good idea but how to make it work ? And if you manage it , did you thought about giving recharge items option to dwarf prince, or giving him blood potion for +150 lds option with prices like buying rune/crystal each time is higher price. And for safire dragon unit check http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=22725 , bladeking there made 2 new units champion for humans, and azure dragon nor neutrals. It`s nice tanky unit, you can edit it for icy breath but i like it in general in my oppinion azure was better then ice dragon from red sands but that is just me.
3) Mana drain for enemy emerald dragons, GREAT i like it :-D (but make it so it works against enemy heroes also. they have much higher mana regen then you, at least make it even battle if you use emerald dragons to mana burn him )
4) rage generation for frenzy nice idea, mana have 2 skills meditation and transmutate, so for rage we have rage skill (duh :-), so why not 1 more. You`ll have to make it stop working after 20 battle turns, to work with mana/rage restriction due to unit fatigue like in tL.
Question about that :
1) is it possible to give every 10 hero lvl`s 1 more battle turn mana/rage inflow. You made it in homm3 mod in normal battle inflow stop at 15 turn, and vs enemy heroes/towers it`s +5 = 20 turn mana/rage stop. So how about as you progress on higher lvl`s you get more experienced in managing army and giving them longer time before they get tired.
2) did you think about my idea to switch paladin/warrior leadership gain ? Paladin mind skill glory indicate that class should have higher lds, and biggest army. While warrior have strongest units attack / crit% /initiative with onslaught quick draw . . . and strongest rage skills. As it is now, paladin is weakest class so i thought to buff it up a bit. Mage is mana/spell oriented and lowest lds is OK. Any ideas ?

[MattCaspermeyer]

You`re welcome :-)
I`m not even sure would my idea solved problem with freezing on Thant, as i said before had similar prob, with Mephala armorer but with Thant was different thing so . . .

You know I thought about it and then I go - "I just had Thant!" So it must be someone else so I looked at the pictures and then thought it must be Galthran from Zep's description, and low and behold there is "armorer1" in his template - doh! Not sure how I missed this one, but he's first in Rina's baby list so maybe that's how I missed it. I'm not sure how I missed Alkin and Dracon from Orcelyn, but must have spaced them or added them after her main baby list and forgot about the template name difference (you know I should just change TEMPLATES.LNG to say armorer and then switch them all so that it is consistent with the name)...

And you`re comment about leading full plant stack is nice for mage, but with warrior i did opposite thing ( 1 archmage, 1 marauder, inqusitors full lds, and 2 fighting units royal snakes and griffins in my last game, and master of spirits skill on 3 lvl asap. This way i get more exp for rage spirits then if i lead full army. Archmage for support only 1 is enough, marauder 1 also for digging corpses for gold, inqusitors rage generators and ress, and snakes/griffins to control enemy. As i said before i finished with sick spirits 40+ lvl`s Zerock/Reaper 46th, Sleem 40, Lina only 36 But i stop my empty army strategy after finished dwarf lands, because elf/demon/undead lands were much harder than game until then, thank you very much enemy heroes with 30+ intellect :-D
But i think it`s possible to get spirits up to 48 lvl, except Lina she have only supporting skills with low exp gain.

Yah, Master of Spirits is very important to get maxed out if you want to maximize your spirit abilities, although the Paladin gets only 80% and the Mage 50% for spirit leveling up. I think the Warrior should be able to max all spirit skills (even Lina's - you just got to work at it), my Paladin last game got up to the high 30's and low 40's and I think the Mage can probably get to the low to mid 30's. I guess it depends how much you use each spirit, but I try to even them out since they are all useful. Zerock, Sleem, and Reaper have a distinct advantage over Lina since Zerock's Quake, Sleem's Fishes, and Reaper's Black Hole experience scales based on the number of units you damage with that skill. Lina doesn't have any mass damage skills, so she's tougher to level, but can get there if you keep using her skills during the first or second round of combat repeatedly.

By the way, did you know that you can use the Ice Ball to generate a lot of Rage with its first roll attack? It can actually surpass low level Rage Drains if you can get a long enough roll and do enough damage!

That is a great idea about Marauder to use to dig corpses for extra cash. I actually got lucky in my current game and got the Phoenix spell from the Mage School in Verlon Forest and so have been using the Phoenix's new Sacrifice ability to resurrect units as needed, but I'm currently using 1 stack of Archmages, 2 stacks of Inquisitors, and 2 stacks of Ents in my Mage game. In this game, I'm focusing on Zerock's Wall, Sleem's Glot, and once I get Lina I'll try Ice Shards to see how the defensive skills stack up, since I usually go for destruction.

I only just got Feanora and am working on our third baby (Broghild was the one I got that I discovered the "scouting" bug) and am very early in the game, but so far no loss. Like you said, though, once you get to the Elven lands and beyond it gets much tougher!

I had to fight Sonya in my last game with my Paladin and she was a lot of fun! The extra 1-25% based on the map difficulty makes the battles a little bit more fun, even the ones without heroes!

As for ideas :
1) entangle 1 charge on royals, nice i like it. In red sands mod they added new plant monstera check it out it`s interesting unit.

Yah - I'll have to check it out. It's funny with all the modding I do I find that I have very little time to check out other people's stuff, but there's a lot of really good stuff out there!

2) giving inventory for shop to blue dragon in Arlania, good idea but how to make it work ? And if you manage it , did you thought about giving recharge items option to dwarf prince, or giving him blood potion for +150 lds option with prices like buying rune/crystal each time is higher price. And for safire dragon unit check http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=22725 , bladeking there made 2 new units champion for humans, and azure dragon nor neutrals. It`s nice tanky unit, you can edit it for icy breath but i like it in general in my oppinion azure was better then ice dragon from red sands but that is just me.

The Dwarf Prince is still on my list of things to do - I like the Leadership potion idea - probably could sell stat boosting stuff, too.

Yah I saw Bladeking's stuff - those are neat ideas. If someone wanted to take the time to create new pictures, there's a lot of neat dragon ideas from HOMM3, including (comments are from the heroesofmightandmagic website (http://www.heroesofmightandmagic.com/heroes3ab/neutralcreaturesab.shtml) - don't pay any attention to the unit levels listed below as these are for HOMM3):


Fairy Dragons

Level 8 creature. Faerie dragon's spells do more damage than it's attacks, so while it has some mana left it's better to use it as faraway spellcaster. Anyway, keep them safe because they are not as powerful hand-to-hand as some lvl 7 creatures, they can absorb a lot of damage though.
Special: can cast a random offensive spell each turn at spell power 8, up to about 10 spells per combat.
Rust Dragons

Level 10 creature. Rust dragon is an excellent unit for both offense and defence with it's constant damage and wekening attacks. Weakening attack can be used multiple times on one enemy stack until it's defence value reaches zero. Attack the biggest stacks first to reduce their defence.
Special: acid breath reduces target's defence by 3, 30% chance to do extra 25 damage per rust dragon. 2-hex breath attack.
Crystal Dragons

Level 10 creature. Crystal dragons are animated through magic, so they're a non-living creatures. Crystal Dragons cannot fly, but they are a marathon-class runners, they don't have a breath attack, so they have to use their claws which they do quite well anyway. Crystal Dragon will pay off it's crystal cost in about 10 weeks. Having several of them will pay off as a crystal mine, think about it :)
Special: brings you 1-2 crystal per week!
Azure Dragons

Level 10 creature. No more lousy angels! Dragons rule again! No creature alone can beat the azure dragon. They literally rule the battlefield and their presence alone causes fear among the enemy. If you manage to defeat the dwelling guards, the enormous cost is well worth paying.
Special: enemy units sometimes freeze of fear regardless of their morale while azure dragon is present. 2-hex breath attack.

King's Bounty skills might be different than these, but these are how they are implemented in HOMM3 and serve as great ideas to think about!

For the Sapphire Blue Dragon, I think Drahha's "skin" is overlaid on top of the Red Dragon's body so that one seems readily doable. Also I'm not sure what WOTN is going to use for their Blue Dragon.

3) Mana drain for enemy emerald dragons, GREAT i like it :-D (but make it so it works against enemy heroes also. they have much higher mana regen then you, at least make it even battle if you use emerald dragons to mana burn him )

For enemy heroes, I'm wondering if I should have it burn them and boost you at the same time? Or maybe it is split, half goes to boosting you and the other half to burning them? Stuff to think about...

4) rage generation for frenzy nice idea, mana have 2 skills meditation and transmutate, so for rage we have rage skill (duh :-), so why not 1 more. You`ll have to make it stop working after 20 battle turns, to work with mana/rage restriction due to unit fatigue like in tL.

Standard mana / rage gain rules apply to all mana and rage gain functions so no worries there!:)

I'm also thinking of having slower mana rage reduction post battle - I've already incorporated this in the AP skills and will update the "scouting" babies to have them also have slower mana rage reduction post battle...

Question about that :
1) is it possible to give every 10 hero lvl`s 1 more battle turn mana/rage inflow. You made it in homm3 mod in normal battle inflow stop at 15 turn, and vs enemy heroes/towers it`s +5 = 20 turn mana/rage stop. So how about as you progress on higher lvl`s you get more experienced in managing army and giving them longer time before they get tired.

This is a very interesting idea! I'm pretty sure it could be easily implemented (and I'd also have it work on your enemy heroes, too!). We could also have it affected by difficulty level...

2) did you think about my idea to switch paladin/warrior leadership gain ? Paladin mind skill glory indicate that class should have higher lds, and biggest army. While warrior have strongest units attack / crit% /initiative with onslaught quick draw . . . and strongest rage skills. As it is now, paladin is weakest class so i thought to buff it up a bit. Mage is mana/spell oriented and lowest lds is OK. Any ideas ?

You know, either I didn't understand what you were saying earlier or I totally spaced this, because I think it is an awesome idea!:grin: I'll certainly implement this as it is a great way to balance the Paladin as you say!

I think the class description will have to be changed for Warrior and Paladin, because I think it says that Warriors get more leadership - easily done!

By the way, all stuff mentioned here goes for AP / CW as well...

/C\/C\

[Fatt_Shade]

Hello Matt :-)
I was messing with some files, playing again from warrior save file and saw weird info for spirits exptable. My Sleem is on 40lvl and it say for 41 he needs 45994exp, but in you`re arena.txt file in exptable 41st lvl is at 35380exp points. Same for Reaper he`s on 82k exp and for next lvl need 130k, instead 100k from exptable in arena.txt file . Is this because this string in logic.txt - spexp=0.5|1.0|1.15|1.3 (spirits need 30% more exp to lvlup then on normal mode ?). So far i never much paid attention on this files, and now i`m not sure if this is case.
Also when i finished this warrior play, and you asked if i got Reaper and Zerock to 46lvl near end game or not, i now checked their exp and both are 75000+ exp, so 46 lvl achieved long ago :-P
I played with their exp gain from skills, and added all spirits 48lvl max, so they progress through all game and not get stuck on max lvl even before Haas labyrinth.

EDIT : I totally forgot impossible difficulty differences (duh) , thinking exp gain in battle is set to lover value, instead lvlup could be set 30% higher then normal difficulty settings. It`s all clear now :-)

[MattCaspermeyer]

Just a quick update as I haven't had much time to work on modding recently, but am hoping to get back to doing more of it this week.

I've fixed the "armorer" babies and have implemented the below.

I'm still debugging the changes, but will try to provide an update soon...

/C\/C\

Here are some recent thoughts...


Royal Thorn - Give them a charge to Entangle any unit (this would work just like the Ent / Ancient Ent Entangle except that it is cast on a unit instead a side effect of an attack).
Entangle - Change it so that it doesn't work on plants.


/C\/C\

[Fatt_Shade]

Hello Mat :-)
After some time i returned to finish my mage game with your latest patch, but i run in some problems in undead lands.y time enemy necromancer is on turn, or enemy undead hero try to cast spell i drop from game :-( I`m guessing it`s something to do with necromancy spell cast on hex 2 corpses are. I noticed that there are no problems when corpses are any unit higher then 2lvl, only prob is when cast spell on skeleton/skeleton archer.
This got impossible to deal with in karador battle and his triple spell cast with lots of corpses around. When he cast doom/plague/evil book there are no problems, only when some corpse is in arena.
Also i`m not sure why but every time dark crystal is acting and there are no corpses on ground hourglass pointer appear and it lasts forever, it just stand there until reload battle. And i cant finish battle before this problem happen, because either karador gets bugged and drop game with some spell, or dark crystal bug indefinitely wait time :-(
Here`s save file if you manage to figure out what is problem.

On other note, any date for HoMM3_babies for AP/CW ?

[MattCaspermeyer]

Thanks for the save game - I'll look into it and post back here if I have any questions on duplicating the problem...

I know that I did a lot of debugging with this to make sure it worked, so you must have found another problem I didn't notice.

Unfortunately, I don't have any info on my AP/CW mod right now as I haven't had a chance to work on it the past month, but I'm almost done with my home remodeling project (just in time as the Phoenix heat is here!) and so should be able to make some progress on this as well as the AP / CW mod during the next few weeks / months...

/C\/C\

Hello Mat :-)
After some time i returned to finish my mage game with your latest patch, but i run in some problems in undead lands.y time enemy necromancer is on turn, or enemy undead hero try to cast spell i drop from game :-( I`m guessing it`s something to do with necromancy spell cast on hex 2 corpses are. I noticed that there are no problems when corpses are any unit higher then 2lvl, only prob is when cast spell on skeleton/skeleton archer.
This got impossible to deal with in karador battle and his triple spell cast with lots of corpses around. When he cast doom/plague/evil book there are no problems, only when some corpse is in arena.
Also i`m not sure why but every time dark crystal is acting and there are no corpses on ground hourglass pointer appear and it lasts forever, it just stand there until reload battle. And i cant finish battle before this problem happen, because either karador gets bugged and drop game with some spell, or dark crystal bug indefinitely wait time :-(
Here`s save file if you manage to figure out what is problem.

On other note, any date for HoMM3_babies for AP/CW ?

[MattCaspermeyer]

Hello Mat :-)
After some time i returned to finish my mage game with your latest patch, but i run in some problems in undead lands.y time enemy necromancer is on turn, or enemy undead hero try to cast spell i drop from game :-( I`m guessing it`s something to do with necromancy spell cast on hex 2 corpses are. I noticed that there are no problems when corpses are any unit higher then 2lvl, only prob is when cast spell on skeleton/skeleton archer.

Can you provide me a save where you are fighting a Necromancer stack with level 1 Undead units? I'll try to look into this problem more specifically...

This got impossible to deal with in karador battle and his triple spell cast with lots of corpses around. When he cast doom/plague/evil book there are no problems, only when some corpse is in arena.

Is the problem with Karador the same as the Necromancers (i.e. only level 1 Undead units)?

Also i`m not sure why but every time dark crystal is acting and there are no corpses on ground hourglass pointer appear and it lasts forever, it just stand there until reload battle.

So if you don't do anything on the first turn (i.e. just defend) and have no one die, then the Dark Crystal will get stuck on its turn? What is supposed to happen if there are no corpses is that the Dark Crystal will summon a new Undead unit in front of its hex. If that hex is occupied then it will summon a new Undead unit around one of your units and then around one of its own units if all the hexes around your units are occupied.

And i cant finish battle before this problem happen, because either karador gets bugged and drop game with some spell, or dark crystal bug indefinitely wait time :-(
Here`s save file if you manage to figure out what is problem.

I loaded your save game and on the first turn, the Dark Crystal summoned an Undead unit. On successive turns, there was always a corpse, but I couldn't get it to crash when using Animate Dead on any of the units on the battlefield. I may not have been able to get Karador to use his Necro Call spell so I'll try to look into this some more.

I then reloaded your save game and tried another approach where I tried to not kill any units (i.e. make corpses) and I think I went 3 or 4 turns before someone died, but each turn, the Dark Crystal summoned a new unit. Once someone died, the Dark Crystal was able to use its Animate Dead ability to resurrect corpses. I couldn't get Karador to use his Necro Call on a Level 1 unit, so I'm not sure if there is no problem there.

Hmmm... I'll see if I can continue to debug this, but so far it seems to be working on my version - I'm using V1.7 (build 35.234) and the Gamer's Gate version just in case that makes any difference. I can't remember if there is any difference between any of the file sets in specific versions, but just in case, here is the information for my (un-modded) ses.kfs file:

Date: 07/08/2010 10:01 PM (this might be my install date so the date may not matter)
Size: 6,365,376 bytes

I'm about ready to go through the Cemetary with my new Mage game, I'll keep an eye out for what is going on there. Also even though you said that you have the latest version, it might make sense to re-download the latest version and re-extract it again to be sure something didn't get corrupted somehow.

I know that when I was working on this portion of the code, that I was getting a crash to desktop when the Necromancer tried to use its Animate Dead ability as well as heroes using Necro Call.

It seems like you're having problems that are reminiscent with an older version so just double check.

Also, I had that error with the Unicorns where if it was cast on them it would crash to the desktop. I fixed all these problems (at least I think I did) and haven't had any problems since, but need to play through with my current game just to make sure.

Here are the dates and sizes of the KFS files that I'm using to double check:

mod_homm3_babies.kfs - 04/08/2012 12:27 AM / 428,928 bytes
mod_homm3_babies_eng_lng.kfs - 01/13/2012 2:23 AM / 146,700 bytes (you're probably not using this, but en_)
mod_homm3_babies_en_lng.kfs - 01/13/2012 2:25 AM / 146,646 bytes (you're probably using this one)
mod_homm3_portraits.kfs - 01/12/2012 11:22 PM / 1,662,384 bytes
mod_tougher_eheroes.kfs - 12/27/2011 11:41 PMP / 67,822 bytes

These comprise the V2012-04-08 beta.

If you can post a save game with steps on how to make it crash, I can follow those steps and check it on my end and then I'll be able to debug it.

If I can't get Karador to cast Necro Call, I'll just modify his hero file so he only casts Necro Call and try that out.

Hopefully we can get this figured out!

:)

/C\/C\

[Fatt_Shade]

I managed to fix this, but have no idea what was problem. I updated again lates mod version, and now it works fine.

On other note : in skills.txt what is 3rd parameter in rune stone skill ? 3 {
deps=1
runes=0,15,0
trade=
pars=+15,+6,+30
}
+15 =bonus runes you get when lvlup skill, +6 =hero defense , +30 =???

[MattCaspermeyer]

Glad it is now working for you - was starting to drive me crazy! :grin:

The third parameter for Rune Stone is for it to give the proper number of runes when you get the skill.

So parameter 1 is for showing you how many runes you'll get, but parameter 3 is for actually giving you the right amount since the way the SKILLS.LUA worked is that it would only give you the difference between the current and previous level. Parameter 2 is for the defense increase.

So for level 1: +5, +1, +5 you get 5 Might and Magic Runes for 5 Mind Runes.
For level 2: +10, +3, +15 you get 10 Might and Magic Runes for 10 Mind Runes, but in order for it to work properly you have to specifiy +15 since it takes the difference between +15 and +5.
For level 3: +15, +6, +30 the same as above, it is +30 less +15 so +15 Might and Magic for 15 Mind Runes.

I actually had this wrong when implemented the first time (i.e. I just had +10, +3) and I only got 5 Might and Magic Runes when I went to the second level and that's when I discovered the above and added the third parameter.

Hope that explains it - I guess I decided to do it this way for some reason, but can't remember why at the moment...

/C\/C\

I managed to fix this, but have no idea what was problem. I updated again lates mod version, and now it works fine.

On other note : in skills.txt what is 3rd parameter in rune stone skill ? 3 {
deps=1
runes=0,15,0
trade=
pars=+15,+6,+30
}
+15 =bonus runes you get when lvlup skill, +6 =hero defense , +30 =???

[Fatt_Shade]

Was off for long time :-)
But i`m back with some crazy ideas :-P First i love what you did for orc`s in this mod, and i hope you are doing good with AP/CW version of mod. Here`s idea : how about giving shamans option to resurrect units of other races with upgraded tolerance skill (they tolerate other races, so decide to heal/res them with dancing axes ability), is this even possible to implement in game ?

[MattCaspermeyer]

Hmmm... I like this idea - as you remember I played around with allowing them to ressurect other units, but limited it to just Orcs, but if you get tolerance (or maybe I'll have both tolerance and diplomacy) then their resurrection works on the races that you get better relations with (or what diplomacy gives).

I'm pretty sure it can be implemented - I'll look into it down the road...

You know as I've been playing Crosswolds, I'm kind of wondering how I'm going to merge what I did here (with the Orcs) with it, but for AP, it's not a problem...

/C\/C\

[Fatt_Shade]

I dont think you should lose sleep about getting your ideas from here to CW since there orcs have adrenaline abilities and dont need more, just move rest of your mod (except rage spirits, because we have that silly pet dragon in AP/CW :-) skills, spells, babies, and all AI mechanics (heroes, mana/rage inflow . . .)

[Fatt_Shade]

Unforgivable :-)
I just tried paladin game (imp/no loss ofc), and decided to give orcelin a go with new lds gain, and will you look at her kids. No shaman bonus at all, and shaman are orc troops very interesting with your new add for orc race in this mod :-)
Just joking Matt, but yo really did miss shamans in whole orceling babies file. I added them in my game, but try to fix this in dl file you post.
C ya :-)

[MattCaspermeyer]

Oh no - those poor Shamans! :(

Well Gurnisson gives bonuses to all Orcs so that counts and don't forget Orcelyn herself! :)

You know, if you wanted to do it right, Tyraxor would be the perfect candidate since he only gives bonuses to Catapults - I could easily see having him include Shamans there (@ level 4 unit bonuses - look at Jabarkas for example of difference between level 3 Orcs and level 4 Veteran Orcs bonuses). Also Vey and Boragus both give bonuses to Ogres (since they both gave bonuses to Ogre / Ogre Magi in HOMM3), but one of them could be considered as an alternate for switching to Shamans. Boy, I'd love to see Ogre Magi - anyone want to work on a skin for them?!

I think I like Tyraxor as the better choice for the Shaman bonuses.

By the way, if you're wondering, all the kids unit bonuses (for the most part) will be the same, except you'll include their "like" unit in AP / CW.

So, for example, Gretchen will include Goblin Shamans since she has Goblins / Furious Goblins, and Jabarkas will include Orc Trackers since he has Orcs / Veteran Orcs...

There's a few new unit classes (like Droids, for example) that I'll have to pick someone who doesn't have a standard unit class bonus (i.e. Gurnisson's "unit skill" is the Ballista and so I had great flexibility with his unit bonus - that's why it went to all Orcs).

By the way, in my CW playing I've noted some more things I'm going to change sooner or later in my TL mod, including: 1) Cyclops - give them an ability like knocking units unconscious (they are throwing rocks after all - ouch!); 2) Gizmo - I haven't released this yet, but I've made an improvement to the Gizmo AI in CW that I think works even better than what I did in TL; 3) still need to add mana burn to EGD's; 4) a few other things that escape me at the moment...

Thanks for pointing out the missing Shamans! So many units and so many babies - hard to get them all! :)

/C\/C\

Unforgivable :-)
I just tried paladin game (imp/no loss ofc), and decided to give orcelin a go with new lds gain, and will you look at her kids. No shaman bonus at all, and shaman are orc troops very interesting with your new add for orc race in this mod :-)
Just joking Matt, but yo really did miss shamans in whole orceling babies file. I added them in my game, but try to fix this in dl file you post.
C ya :-)

[MattCaspermeyer]

I just tried paladin game (imp/no loss ofc)

Hey, by the way, how's the higher Paladin Leadership working out in your current game?

Is it nice to get all that extra Leadership?! :)

/C\/C\

[Fatt_Shade]

Well i wanted to try new paladin bonus lds, and since orc`s work great in big numbers i pick Orcelyn and only saw shamans miss by mere chance. Gurnison doesn`t give anything to shamans, i have your latest update for mod 21.06.2012. Orcelyn herself gives to whole race, but no other shaman bonuses in all her kids :-( And as you mentioned Tyraxor and Boragus are great picks for shaman bonuses (i already place them there).

For AP/CW adaptation good luck, there are allot new units there for you to add in babies/tomes files.

And paladin with higher lds gain to me seems like logical choice as i said before, he is charismatic leader, and army loves him so he get bigger army.
Warrior on other hand is experianced in stronger units and higher rage spirit lvl`s gain, so those are his bonuses. And mage ofc spells :-)

[MattCaspermeyer]

Tyraxor now also adds bonuses to Shamans (equivalent level 4, ranged bonuses - I already had a placeholder for this in TEMPLATES.LNG, but apparently never used it until now).

This will be provided in the next H3B update (which will hopefully be soon)!

/C\/C\

I think I like Tyraxor as the better choice for the Shaman bonuses.

[Gza]

The mod does not work.:( KB stops exe errors. The Atari version of the game.

[Arl5555en]

I've done and it will revolutionize how you play the game!
http://www.rdox.info/01.jpghttp://www.rdox.info/02.jpghttp://www.rdox.info/8.jpghttp://www.rdox.info/9.jpg

[Fatt_Shade]

The mod does not work.:( KB stops exe errors. The Atari version of the game.
Try Nobilis patch gamershell.com/download_36538.shtml , instead Atari. I works for me at least.

[MattCaspermeyer]

Did you follow Fatt_Shade's advice and get it working?

The mod does not work.:( KB stops exe errors. The Atari version of the game.

[Gza]

It works, thank you very much.:)

[Gza]

The dwarf king hammer trying in vain to conquer, the morale will be 0.:( This bug.

[MattCaspermeyer]

That hammer is harder to beat now - you'll have to wait until you get stronger and then try again...

The dwarf king hammer trying in vain to conquer, the morale will be 0.:( This bug.

[bacchus1974]

where we can see pourcent of critical????????????

[MattCaspermeyer]

Answered here:

http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showpost.php?p=494450&postcount=2

/C\/C\

[Fatt_Shade]

Damn, my last post was on worng tread. I tohught was here :-(
So :
- in robber2.atom there is error in longattack

longattack {
class=scripted
warning=sw_long
hinthead=special_robber_long_head
hint=special_robber_long_hint
picture=BA1_Flail_
picture_small=BA1_Flail_small.png
ad_factor=1
moves=8
reload=2 ...
They have 8 charges for special attac, with 2 reload time. Intentional , or ???

- entangle for royal thorns not working :-( Tryed it in melee range, click on icon in unit many nothing happening .Have to right click to cancle it and choose other action. Did you make it owrk in your game ?

[MattCaspermeyer]

The number of moves on longattack is a bug - I had experimented with having reloading abilities run out after a certain time, but then went with disabling reload during long combats instead of charged reloads. I must have forgotten to remove that from the Marauders.

I'll check all the ATOM's for this bug in case there are others as well...

As far as the Royal Thorn's ability it was working the last I checked so make sure you're using the latest version or the update I'm planning on putting up this coming weekend...

/C\/C\

[Fatt_Shade]

Any news for fix for frenzy skill Mat?

Found couple strange things :
in eng_homm3_babies_neoka.lng jenova and gelare have [gold350] instead [estate1] like other bonus gold giving kids,
same for rina kid nagash ,
rina / vidomina have -9%lds for bonedragon twice, as do death_haart twice bonedragon -lds% (but he have special bonus for bonedragons so maybe he`s ok)
xeona / dace ... weird choice of bonuses for him :-( In original it`s bonus for minotaurs, why not transfer it into demon unit bonuses,

[MattCaspermeyer]

Any news for fix for frenzy skill Mat?

I'm cranking away, hoping to get something out soon. I had a pretty good session last night - I've actually made some subtle changes to a lot of the LOC files, but am still working on getting Drahha to sell stuff.

Since that requires a restart, I'm trying to get it done with all the other restart stuff. If I can't get it to work, though, I'll release what I've got right now since it is a lot of changes and then continue working on it.

Since I've been playing in Windows 8 now, I've been finding bugs here and there that I didn't know about when I was developing in Windows 7. So this release is predominately a bugfix release.

Found couple strange things :
in eng_homm3_babies_neoka.lng jenova and gelare have [gold350] instead [estate1] like other bonus gold giving kids,
same for rina kid nagash ,

That's valid - some of the heroes had the Estates skill and then some of them had the +350 gold / day bonus, so it is kind of like a super-charged Estates.

rina / vidomina have -9%lds for bonedragon twice, as do death_haart twice bonedragon -lds% (but he have special bonus for bonedragons so maybe he`s ok)

Sometimes I do that if the bonuses come from two different skills (i.e. one gives +9% and another gives the same bonus) and I leave them separate (I could easily combine them, but it doesn't matter). I'll double check them, though, to ensure I haven't accidentally listed the same bonus twice.

xeona / dace ... weird choice of bonuses for him :-( In original it`s bonus for minotaurs, why not transfer it into demon unit bonuses,

Yah, Dace was an interesting choice to choose what to do with him. There are no Minotaurs in the game, and maybe Demons would have been a good choice, but Marius does the Demon bonuses. I've tried not to duplicate, so I decided to give him all Warriors. The bonuses (since there are so many units that are warriors) are reduced due to that. His bonus is kind of like Pyre's (Ballista, original bonus) who has the same type of bonus, but to all Ranged units instead. Both of those could have different bonuses, but I thought it'd be nice to have some children that had bonuses to a lot of different units in case you wanted to add Knights or Horsemen, for example, to your Xeona babies and get some bonuses for them.

Kind of like Diana's Piquedram who gives bonuses to all plants, Mirabella's Christian who gives bonuses to all female troops, Mirabella's Roland who gives bonuses to Footmen, Guardsmen, Knights, and Horsemen, Neoka's Dracon who gives bonuses to all Mages, Orcelyn's Gurnisson who gives bonuses to all Orcs, Orcelyn's Krellion who gives bonuses to all Melee Orcs, Feanora's Arlach who gives bonuses to all Animals, Gerda's Ordwald who gives bonuses to all Dwarves, Rina's Sir Christain whose bonus is the same as Pyre's, or Xeona's Mutare Drake who gives bonuses to all Dragons. All these kids bonuses I tried to make unique since their skills applied to units that didn't exist in TL or were for the Ballista or other objects that didn't exist either.

I haven't gone through and re-aligned the bonuses for AP / CW, yet, but since there are more units available some of the bonuses may extend to new units or others might completely change. For example, Ordwald is a prime candidate for bonuses to Droids in AP / CW.

I may start working on posting all the changes since the list is long so you can see what changed and fixes that I've made so far...

/C\/C\

[Fatt_Shade]

Damn :-(
Run into weird thing. That paladin game i started long ago, and now trying to finish i updated with latest mod version and now when i play 10 battles with Orcelyn and time for first baby game just drop to windows :-(
I had Rina, Feanora, Gerda, Mirabela and 4 kids with all of them no problems at all. Then i updated mod marry Orcelyn and got stuck. Weird thing is that even if i return previous mod version in what i started game (i saved it just in case) problem is still there. Any idea what to do ?

And idea how to add more moral lvls? With Gerda i had +4 for all dwarf units and +5 for giants (got Synca). I hound unit_morale.lua and morale.txt, anywhere else to look for change this feature.

[MattCaspermeyer]

Damn :-(
Run into weird thing. That paladin game i started long ago, and now trying to finish i updated with latest mod version and now when i play 10 battles with Orcelyn and time for first baby game just drop to windows :-(
I had Rina, Feanora, Gerda, Mirabela and 4 kids with all of them no problems at all. Then i updated mod marry Orcelyn and got stuck. Weird thing is that even if i return previous mod version in what i started game (i saved it just in case) problem is still there. Any idea what to do ?

I thought I had fixed this problem! Hmmm... make sure that you're using the latest, the version with just mod_h3b.kfs - delete any other files in your mods folder if you got them.

If you think you have that, then what you need to do is look at WIFES.TXT and ORCELYN_BABIES.TXT. Go to Orcelyn's children= line in WIFES.TXT and then make sure all the kids listed (i.e. kid_crag_hack, kid_kilgor, etc.) exist in ORCELYN_BABIES.TXT. I did this in the latest update so they all should be there. Then go to ORCELYN_BABIES.TXT and make sure that your Gretchen has the same number of open braces ({) as close braces (}).

The error that I fixed (that you should have) was that she was missing a brace at the end of her fight section (just before her mods section) that caused all the other babies below her to become invalid.

Bad:

kid_gretchen {
category=o
image=heroitem_tome_gretchen.png
.
.
.
pbonus=speed,1,0,0,-100,0,0
dbonus=
rbonus=
attack_on=
attack_off=
}
mods {
sp_lead_unit_goblin=count,24
sp_lead_unit_goblin2=count,24
}

Good:

kid_gretchen {
category=o
image=heroitem_tome_gretchen.png
.
.
.
pbonus=speed,1,0,0,-100,0,0
dbonus=
rbonus=
attack_on=
attack_off=
}
} <--- Note this was the missing brace
mods {
sp_lead_unit_goblin=count,24
sp_lead_unit_goblin2=count,24
}

So check that you have at least this, if you have this, then there is another problem in that file that I need to find and fix, but the technique to use is the binary search technique where you delete half of her babies at the end of her children= line (pick the second half so remove from kid_saurug to the end of the line and don't forget the trailing comma), and then have that baby and see if it works. If it does, then add back in half of what you removed, and see if it works. If it doesn't then remove another half of her children until it works. Keep doing this until you find the child that is bugged.

If that is too much, just send me the save game and I'll track it down.

/C\/C\

[Fatt_Shade]

Any idea about my moral question Mat ? I changed wife for Mirabella and got even more crazy thing (picture) - note that if i took regular swordman unit they`ll have +1 more because of `commander` guardsman talent.
I thought to make moral +/-6 lvls maybe , for each lvl 8% increase/decrease in unit stats. In this mod it`s very easy to get high moral for army, and in longer battles moral drop very low. So wanted to make it meaningful to got over +/-3 lvls.

[MattCaspermeyer]

Any idea about my moral question Mat ? I changed wife for Mirabella and got even more crazy thing (picture) - note that if i took regular swordman unit they`ll have +1 more because of `commander` guardsman talent.
I thought to make moral +/-6 lvls maybe , for each lvl 8% increase/decrease in unit stats. In this mod it`s very easy to get high moral for army, and in longer battles moral drop very low. So wanted to make it meaningful to got over +/-3 lvls.

This is certainly something to think about. I want to be careful about short-circuiting too much of the in-built code.

For example, on the Hero Attack / Defense bonuses, the way it works now is that I manually adjust each unit's Critical Hit / Resist All. I need to find a better way to do that (especially for AP/CW since Critical Hit is shown on the Unit Cards and can't be short circuited) and if I did anything with letting Morale go higher than the ±3 rating I'd want to use the current system if I could extend it.

The other thing would be to rethink the baby Morale bonuses, but really Mirabella is the wife with the easiest chance to exceed the +3; however, as you state, you lose 1 Morale for each extended phase of long combats.

Right now, if a HOMM3 Baby has the Leadership Skill, they give +1 Morale for each level of that Leadership Skill.

When I implement such things in AP/CW, I may do things slightly differently with having that bonus work more like the Diplomacy skill works now. Not sure, but Catherine's Leadership skill, for example, would give +1 Morale to all human troops. That would be with her item level at level 1. Then as you level up Catherine's item level up to 5, the bonus would give +1 Morale to other races (i.e. Elves, then Dwarves, or maybe a couple of races together) until at Level 5 it was +1 Morale to all races.

For TL, since the children don't have levels it might make sense to have Leadership Level 1 babies give +% to Leadership and then Leadership Level 2 babies give +% to Leadership and then +1 Morale to all, but Mullich is the only Leadership Level 2 baby so then there'd pretty much be no baby Morale bonuses.

The way it works now might still be the best way, plus if you go into combat with +6 Morale, at least you can suffer 3 extended phase Morale penalties and still have max Morale. Plus don't forget about the new Bone Dragon Dread skill which is -3 Morale for Level 1-2 troops, -2 Morale for Level 3-4 troops, and -1 Morale for Level 5 troops. I may give other units -Morale capabilities now that it is easier to get it higher.

So this is something to think about - I need to do more research into the game's Morale system and where it is implemented...

/C\/C\

[Fatt_Shade]

Almost forgot : Mirabela isn`t only way for high moral. You changed battle cry so it gives moral to units. My swordman got +11 moral with 2lvl battle cry spell :-)

[MattCaspermeyer]

At least I found out a way to get you to use Swordsmen!

:grin:

/C\/C\

[Fatt_Shade]

Well with Sorsha, they are logical pick :-) And with low lds, they are great unit in high numbers.
On side note, i played with rage spirit files, and got to lina/gizmo. What dmg type is it`s attack ? For ice thorns, you make it physical , for slime there is poison type and physical for fishes. But for gizmo no dmg type ?

And rage spirit skills prevail physical dmg, and fire dmg not at all. Zerroc 3 phy skills, Sleem have 2 poison/1 phy , Lina 2 phy (orb and now ice thorns)/1 magic (i think gizmo is magic type), Death 2 astral, and soul rip i have no idea dmg type.
How about make falling rocks 50% phy/50% fire dmg ? Rocks falling from sky, burn chunks of lava ... ? Quake is pure phy dmg, and it makes sense , but how about making at least 1 rage skill part fire ?
And is there any way to make destroying rock wall and thorns to regain rage ? As it is now there are lots of situations i want to spend rage to get at least some exp for spirits, but without dmging enemy units i keep at bay before finishing battle. So my choices are rock wall/glot armor/frozen orb/time return. Only rage skill I as player can attack are wall and thorns, but as it is now they give absolutely no rage in return (as it is in Ap/CW). Idea is this possible.

[MattCaspermeyer]

Well with Sorsha, they are logical pick :-) And with low lds, they are great unit in high numbers.

Yah, Sorsha's great for Swordsmen / Guardsmen. :)

On side note, i played with rage spirit files, and got to lina/gizmo. What dmg type is it`s attack ? For ice thorns, you make it physical , for slime there is poison type and physical for fishes. But for gizmo no dmg type ?

I thought Gizmo was Astral. In fact I just looked at it's not listed because they set it to Astral in SPIRIT_LINA.LUA. So it is Astral damage - that's why it's so good at attacking everyone.

And rage spirit skills prevail physical dmg, and fire dmg not at all. Zerroc 3 phy skills, Sleem have 2 poison/1 phy , Lina 2 phy (orb and now ice thorns)/1 magic (i think gizmo is magic type), Death 2 astral, and soul rip i have no idea dmg type.
How about make falling rocks 50% phy/50% fire dmg ? Rocks falling from sky, burn chunks of lava ... ? Quake is pure phy dmg, and it makes sense , but how about making at least 1 rage skill part fire ?

Believe it or not, I tried making Spirit Abilities multi-damage types and it will end up showing the damage of only the first type listed. I played around with that quite a while back and never figured out how to get it to list both damage types so I gave up.

And is there any way to make destroying rock wall and thorns to regain rage ? As it is now there are lots of situations i want to spend rage to get at least some exp for spirits, but without dmging enemy units i keep at bay before finishing battle. So my choices are rock wall/glot armor/frozen orb/time return. Only rage skill I as player can attack are wall and thorns, but as it is now they give absolutely no rage in return (as it is in Ap/CW). Idea is this possible.

I'm not sure - these type of things are "pawns" and so they are treated like destroying barrels, etc. which don't give any rage either. I can see why they shouldn't generate rage though as they are just barriers and it'd be an easy thing to exploit.

/C\/C\

[Gza]

Does not reduce the negative moral the attack, defense, critical hits. This bug?

[MattCaspermeyer]

Does not reduce the negative moral the attack, defense, critical hits. This bug?

It should - I don't think I changed any of this. Can you show or describe an example, if possible?

Thanks!

/C\/C\

[Gza]

I tried to save a picture, but I do not know where to save the print screen button.
For example: If you are undead and people in the military, did not reduce the attack, defense, critical blow when poor morale. Nothing changes.

[MattCaspermeyer]

I tried to save a picture, but I do not know where to save the print screen button.

Screenshots are saved to:

C:\Users\<Your User Name>\Documents\My Games\Kings Bounty\screenshots

For example: If you are undead and people in the military, did not reduce the attack, defense, critical blow when poor morale. Nothing changes.

I'm not sure if I fully understand what you're saying, but here are some Morale comments:


Undead do not have Morale
The AI troops do not use Morale
As I understood the game behavior in the original TL, I assumed that if your Morale changed during combat that the unit's values would change.
There are quite a few units that give +Morale to other units in the original TL, but I have not checked to see that if they die, whether their bonuses disappear.

So I'm not sure if the actual Attack, Defense, and Critical attack values are changing (I think this is what you are saying) when your Morale changes during combat. The text tip on the happy / frowny face says that it has changed, but I haven't checked to see if the values actually have changed - I thought they were.

So let me investigate this further, I assumed that this part of the game was working in the original TL, but maybe it's not and I'll have to do something about it if possible...

Thanks for pointing this out!

/C\/C\

[Gza]

Screenshots are saved to:

C:\Users\<Your User Name>\Documents\My Games\Kings Bounty\screenshots
/C\/C\

Thanks! Screenshot:

[MattCaspermeyer]

You know, it's kind of funny, but I never thought that part of the game would not work.

I never bothered to check whether your Attack, Defense, and Critical Hit were decreasing during combat as your Morale changed - I assumed it worked since this is part of the original game.

I guess the point is that now I have to fiddle with Attack, Defense, and Critical Hit when a unit's Morale changes.

Should be fun - not!;)

/C\/C\

[tolknaz]

Aside from a bit of a confusing name, it seems like you've created a really nice mod (and definately more than just a micro-expansion). I was just planning on playing through both Legend and Crossworlds once again. Might as well install your mod to spice things up. Is it compatible with the interface mod by the way (or does it include similar tweaks)?

[MattCaspermeyer]

Aside from a bit of a confusing name, it seems like you've created a really nice mod (and definately more than just a micro-expansion). I was just planning on playing through both Legend and Crossworlds once again. Might as well install your mod to spice things up. Is it compatible with the interface mod by the way (or does it include similar tweaks)?

Unfortunately, I do not have the interface mod, but I'm pretty sure it's not compatible.

It'd actually be nice to be able to look at that mod to be certain, so if you have it, could you please post it to this forum topic (http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?p=51095#post51095) as it is no longer available - thanks!

I do have some improved information, especially on the spell hints, and new children, but not as extensive as the interface mod, which does sound like it has some good stuff (like listing the item sets and other things like that).

/C\/C\

[tolknaz]

One place i found interface mod (and some other old mods) available is:

http://spammmods.narod.ru/kb

The files with eng in the name are for english version.

Edit: posted the link in the other thread too.

[Fatt_Shade]

After no idea how long playing this mod, and hoping for kids i need to be compatible with units/items i have at disposal in my playthrough i finally got idea how to get kids i want :-)
It`s hard spoiler , but it`s nice way to test ALL kids in 1 game for functionality and bugs.

I play paladin game, and with high lds gain/lvlup i want unit specific kids, not some intellect/spell bonus and with Orcelyn i got Merist, Bogarius, Crag Hack and Tiva. Great kid is Crag Hack , Boragus, and Merist noting special, but Tiva was total miss :-(

SPOILER : after getting some kid you dont like simply edit that kid with one you want in 2 mod files. So in orcelyn_babies.txt i just replaced names for Tiva and Gurnisson , and did same in eng_homm3_babies_orcelyn.lng . Game will replace mechanic for those 2 kids in already started play , and you can do this with all 4 kids to make your dream team :-D

For fun i changed to Diana, and took Piqueram , Thane , Dracon and Kalt. Play with 2x4000 thorn archer/thorn warrior , and 60 royal thorns with black thorn crown is interesting like hell. Only problem is i have no idea how to defeat Xeona with her fire rain spamming :-P

Have fun ppl :-)

[MattCaspermeyer]

Well that's just cheating (shakes head disapprovingly)!:evil:

For that matter, you can do that with items, skills, and spells.

You know, there's an even easier way if you're restarting: Just edit WIFES.TXT and remove all the kids from the wife's baby list except for the 4 that you want! Remember, you didn't hear that from me, though...:-P

Your way is a good way to try out different kids if you're already in game though:), but this all sounds a bit like Gattaca to me...:(

/C\/C\

P.S. Who are your wife kid dream teams?
P.P.S. Which kids have your favorite pictures? I always liked Shiva, Solmyr, Jenova, Adelaide, and Sandro.

[Fatt_Shade]

Why cheating ? I already finished that play, and have save file with every wife with 4 kids. Just wanted to see how high bonuses can go for each wife/kid combo, for brute force or high spell dmg and so on.
In Ap part of forum on one tread impy played 100% spell dmg game, and got his intellect around 90+. So i wanted to see what tomes would be interesting to have when you finish mod ToMM for Ap/Cw. And from there just started playing with babies files and checking different combinations.

As for mechanics for cheating i know about items/spells/runes etc , but when you already get kid in game it impossible to change it from IN game, you have to changed files outside. And for your idea to get desired kids by deleting all others, it`s OK for starting new game, not one already playing.
Again i finished your mod with all 3 classes, on imp with 0 losses with no cheating, and now i wanted to see what are possibilities for Ap/Cw without losing to much time with starting new game and hoping to get what i need. Just load my save with certain wife and start cheating my end game stats to see what would be possible :-)

And as for my wife/kid dream team for paladin play (because huge leadership and ridiculous army size), either :
1) Neoka + Aeris / Monere / Pasis / Josephine. All sprite team with anga`s ruby + poison dagger/whip of pain dmg, and druids/inquisitors + ancient ents for support.

2) Diana + Piqueram / Thane / Dracon / Kalt. Thorn, thorn warrior, royal thorn, ancient ent and dryad dryad with (my modified - i changed it so it gives 80% dmg to 1st lvl plants, 30% to 4th lvl and 15% to 5th lvl so it help plant team, not just thorns) blackthorn crown as main dmg item :-) (with my end game stats i had when finished paladin play i calculated i would have 8500-9000 thorns , 150 royals and 40 ancient ents :-) Dmg is hilarious.

3) Mirabella + Sorsha / Tyris / Roland / Catherine. Swordman, guardsman, horseman, knights and inquisitor/archmage for support. Moral +5 to all humans (crit% is very high), huge number of physical troops (this is both good and bad), good physical resistance for melee clashes.

This is just some idea. But ofc for mage wife/kid dream team would be different.
Surprisingly best wife combo for mage class is Diana , who can give you kids with total 108% spell bonus, which is ridiculous :-)
Rina have worst kids for mage class :-(

Just expl what would be doable in Ap/Cw with good luck in tomes department (this was with Xeona + Zydar / Malekith / Ash / Xyron combo and 92 intellect hero , i cheated for testing purposes) :

[MattCaspermeyer]

Why cheating ? I already finished that play, and have save file with every wife with 4 kids. Just wanted to see how high bonuses can go for each wife/kid combo, for brute force or high spell dmg and so on.

Well, I was mostly kidding - mostly! ;)

As for mechanics for cheating i know about items/spells/runes etc , but when you already get kid in game it impossible to change it from IN game, you have to changed files outside. And for your idea to get desired kids by deleting all others, it`s OK for starting new game, not one already playing.
Again i finished your mod with all 3 classes, on imp with 0 losses with no cheating, and now i wanted to see what are possibilities for Ap/Cw without losing to much time with starting new game and hoping to get what i need. Just load my save with certain wife and start cheating my end game stats to see what would be possible :-)

Yep - your way is the way to go to see what's possible, which is quite fun to see how good it can get. I still disapprove! ;)

I'm not sure if it will be any easier with my AP / CW H3T mod since the heroes of HOMM3 are now grouped by their class and you'll cycle through picking from each group. Depending on how many battles you fight, you may only get 24 or so tomes a game - that's 2 to 3 heroes per group. But on the bright side, you'll be able to combine tomes from any group.

And as for my wife/kid dream team for paladin play (because huge leadership and ridiculous army size), either :
1) Neoka + Aeris / Monere / Pasis / Josephine. All sprite team with anga`s ruby + poison dagger/whip of pain dmg, and druids/inquisitors + ancient ents for support.

2) Diana + Piqueram / Thane / Dracon / Kalt. Thorn, thorn warrior, royal thorn, ancient ent and dryad dryad with (my modified - i changed it so it gives 80% dmg to 1st lvl plants, 30% to 4th lvl and 15% to 5th lvl so it help plant team, not just thorns) blackthorn crown as main dmg item :-) (with my end game stats i had when finished paladin play i calculated i would have 8500-9000 thorns , 150 royals and 40 ancient ents :-) Dmg is hilarious.

3) Mirabella + Sorsha / Tyris / Roland / Catherine. Swordman, guardsman, horseman, knights and inquisitor/archmage for support. Moral +5 to all humans (crit% is very high), huge number of physical troops (this is both good and bad), good physical resistance for melee clashes.

Those are some pretty good ones!

This is just some idea. But ofc for mage wife/kid dream team would be different.
Surprisingly best wife combo for mage class is Diana , who can give you kids with total 108% spell bonus, which is ridiculous :-)

Yep - Diana can be super awesome with mage (that's why most of her babies are Genies and Elementals in HOMM3).

Rina have worst kids for mage class :-(

Yah, I think that is partly because she has the lowest level modifiers. I'm not sure if I'll be able to implement it, but after I get my AP / CW H3T mod done, I'll understand a lot better how to do the upgrades (maybe even add Morale) to the children so that their bonuses can increase if you decide to stick with them after a certain number of fights. That would level the playing field and also reward you for sticking with the earlier wives.

The Rina Dream Team would be: Death Haart, Vokial, Tamika, and Moandor if you're Pally because of -Leadership, etc. to Bone Dragons, Vampires, BlackKnights, and Necromancers. You also get the +24% to Spirit and Battle experience from Moandor (which is awesome for such an early child), +6% Melee Damage and +1 Poison Damage (awesome!) from Tamika, +24% Damage to Ranged Damage with Vokial for your Necromancers, and an additional -6% Undead Leadership Requirement with Death Haart.

So she's still got a dream team! :)

/C\/C\

[Fatt_Shade]

I agree wth statement that Rina got dream team, but NOT for mage or paladin class :-( She have only 4 available kids intellect/spell oriented (Aislin, Nimbus, Sandro, Septienna ), and all off them give less bonus then 2 kids from Diana/Xeona. Also on that note Nimbus(18% intellect) and Nagash (24% mana , 84% gold) have to low bonuses :-(
And as you said paladin have highest leadership now and it`s great, but neither glory nor holy rage works on undead, so he have high lds, but need to spend lots of magic runes to get to necromancy and utilise undead army, and lots of might runes for dark commander to make them movable.
My thought is that warrior would be best class for all undead army. Dark commander easy, and magic runes he get only thing he needs is really necromancy skill, no need for to much upgrading other magic tree skills.

As for best kids Moandor is great if necromant rise undead is permanent like necromancy spell (if not then you dont need huge number of them, only 1 will be enough to cast plague on start of battle and that`s it for them. Death Hart and Vidomina are great -15%lds for all and -21%for bone dragons, but i would pick Vokial over Tamika regardless how crazy it seems (that +6%dmg and +1poison dmg would be great if you lead thousands of skeletons and spiders, but for leading bone dragons, 2*vampires, black knights, necromants that +dmg is not so much). And Vokial gives +24% attack for necromants not 24%dmg = 3 dmg for 1 unit in army.
With Haart, Vidomina, Vokial, Moandor and 3rd lvl necromancy you`ll have -31% for all undead and more reduction for vampires, necromants and bone dragons. All in all nice team build But to limiting, since only bonus you get next to lds reduction and little boost for those 4 troops. No hp bonus, resistances, moral etc like for living units with other kids.
All in all Rina is interesting for playing, but you get her on start when there are no undead available, and even those you can find are total crap (some zombies, and skeletons in Marshan swamp with no way of keeping them alive). If there`s way to upgrade Rina or something like that once you get to undead lands beyond Elven territory it would be great to keep her, beyond that she`s not much of a keeper :-(

[Fatt_Shade]

Hello Mat :-)
I`m back after disappointment WotN turned out to be :-(
Currently spend more time checking how you modded certain things, instead playing, and found some weird things.
1) for rage spirits Lina Devatron skill, in lina.atom and eng_spirits.lng
codes dont match. In eng_spirits file you made code for your new dmging/freexing ice shards, but in lina.atom there is old code for upgrading passive shards that only block (lowering rage cost, and rest time). There is nothing connecting exploding/freezing shards to make them work on lvlup. And i cant make them work at all in my game :-(

2) you added some new lvls , mostly for lowering rest on certain skills death - rage gain/black hole, in their .atom files, but forgot to add same lvlup code lines in eng_spirits.lng file.

Hope to see/play some rough version for Ap/Cw and help bug proofing at least :-)

[MattCaspermeyer]

Hello Mat :-)
I`m back after disappointment WotN turned out to be :-(

Yah I stopped before the spider fight because I didn't want the game spoiled by playing with all the bugs. Now I'm worried that they won't fix all the issues and just gave up since there hasn't been an update since January it seems like.

Currently spend more time checking how you modded certain things, instead playing, and found some weird things.
1) for rage spirits Lina Devatron skill, in lina.atom and eng_spirits.lng
codes dont match. In eng_spirits file you made code for your new dmging/freexing ice shards, but in lina.atom there is old code for upgrading passive shards that only block (lowering rage cost, and rest time). There is nothing connecting exploding/freezing shards to make them work on lvlup. And i cant make them work at all in my game :-(

Hmmm... not working for you? I checked all this stuff out and it works.

Here's what I got for LINA.ATOM, devatron:

devatron {
no_hint=1
script_attack=lina_devatron
script_calccells=devatron_calccells
script_highlight=devatron_highlight
level=4
default=level1
upgrade {
level1=level:0/damage:physical:150:250,rage:7,rest:1,exp:7,level: 1,freeze:20,duration:2,thorns:10,killedunitexp:1
level2=level:1/damage:physical:+150:+250,rage:+3,rest:+1,exp:+3,l evel:2,freeze:+20,duration:+1,thorns:+10
level3=level:2/damage:physical:+300:+500,rage:+6,rest:+1,exp:+6,l evel:3,freeze:+20,duration:+1,thorns:+10
level4=level:3/damage:physical:+600:+1000,rage:+12,rest:+1,exp:+1 2,level:4,freeze:+20,duration:+1,thorns:+10
level5=level:4/damage:physical:+1200:+2000,rage:+24,rest:+1,exp:+ 24,level:5,freeze:+20,duration:+1,thorns:+10
rage1=rs:0,level:>2,LV:>16,rage:>10/rage:-10,rs:1:exp:+10,ragelevel:1
rage2=rs:1,level:>4,LV:>25,rage:>15/rage:-15,rs:2,exp:+15,ragelevel:2
rest1=restlevel:0,level:>1,LV:>5,rest:>1/rest:-1,exp:+2,restlevel:1
rest2=restlevel:1,LV:>15,rest:>1/rest:-1,exp:+4,restlevel:2
rest3=restlevel:2,LV:>25,rest:>1/rest:-1,exp:+6,restlevel:3
}

Does your LINA.ATOM have this?

Here's ENG_SPIRITS.LNG for devatron:

lvu_devatron_name=^spirit_tM^[devatron]
lvu_devatron_level1_info=^int_spr_LvlUp_tAD^[new]Surrounds the area of 3 cells with fragile ice thorns that block and damage enemies.<br>[d][damage] [dmgAMinNew]-[dmgAMaxNew]. [freeze] [freezeNew]. [thorns] [thornsNew]. [duration] [durationNew].
lvu_devatron_level2_info=^int_spr_LvlUp_tAD^[damageCap][damage] [dmgFMinNew]-[dmgFMaxNew]. [freeze] [freezeNew]%. [thorns] [thornsNew]%. [duration] [durationNew]. [rest] [restNew]. [rage] [rageNew]^[damage] [dmgFMinOld]-[dmgFMaxOld]. [freeze] [freezeOld]%. [thorns] [thornsOld]%. [duration] [durationOld]. [rest] [restOld]. [rage] [rageOld].
lvu_devatron_level3_info=^int_spr_LvlUp_tAD^[damageCap][damage] [dmgFMinNew]-[dmgFMaxNew]. [freeze] [freezeNew]%. [thorns] [thornsNew]%. [duration] [durationNew]. [rest] [restNew]. [rage] [rageNew]^[damage] [dmgFMinOld]-[dmgFMaxOld]. [freeze] [freezeOld]%. [thorns] [thornsOld]%. [duration] [durationOld]. [rest] [restOld]. [rage] [rageOld].
lvu_devatron_level4_info=^int_spr_LvlUp_tAD^[damageCap][damage] [dmgFMinNew]-[dmgFMaxNew]. [freeze] [freezeNew]%. [thorns] [thornsNew]%. [duration] [durationNew]. [rest] [restNew]. [rage] [rageNew]^[damage] [dmgFMinOld]-[dmgFMaxOld]. [freeze] [freezeOld]%. [thorns] [thornsOld]%. [duration] [durationOld]. [rest] [restOld]. [rage] [rageOld].
lvu_devatron_level5_info=^int_spr_LvlUp_tAD^[damageCap][damage] [dmgFMinNew]-[dmgFMaxNew]. [freeze] [freezeNew]%. [thorns] [thornsNew]%. [duration] [durationNew]. [rest] [restNew]. [rage] [rageNew]^[damage] [dmgFMinOld]-[dmgFMaxOld]. [freeze] [freezeOld]%. [thorns] [thornsOld]%. [duration] [durationOld]. [rest] [restOld]. [rage] [rageOld].
lvu_devatron_rage1_info=^int_spr_LvlUp_tAD^[rageCap][rest] [restNew]. [rage] [rageNew]^[rest] [restOld]. [rage] [rageOld]
lvu_devatron_rage2_info=^int_spr_LvlUp_tAD^[rageCap][rest] [restNew]. [rage] [rageNew]^[rest] [restOld]. [rage] [rageOld]
lvu_devatron_rest1_info=^int_spr_LvlUp_tAD^[restCap][rest] [restNew]^[rest] [restOld]
lvu_devatron_rest2_info=^int_spr_LvlUp_tAD^[restCap][rest] [restNew]^[rest] [restOld]
lvu_devatron_rest3_info=^int_spr_LvlUp_tAD^[restCap][rest] [restNew]^[rest] [restOld]

Is this what you see? You can see that the levels, rage, and rest all match.

Did you start a new game? If you loaded an old save then that might be the problem since I'm not sure what would happen.

2) you added some new lvls , mostly for lowering rest on certain skills death - rage gain/black hole, in their .atom files, but forgot to add same lvlup code lines in eng_spirits.lng file.

Hope to see/play some rough version for Ap/Cw and help bug proofing at least

Are you sure about this, too? I tested all this - I used the cheat codes to level the spirits all the way up and it all worked fine.

For Death:


Reaping

7 levels
3 rage level ups
4 rest level ups
Rage Gain

8 levels
2 rage level ups
4 rest level ups

Time Return

5 levels
2 rage level ups
4 rest level ups

Black Hole

5 levels
2 rage level ups
4 rest level ups


Both my DEATH.ATOM and ENG_SPIRITS.LNG are matched here.

You might want to re-download the 5-part update and re-extract it and check with the above.

Hope to see/play some rough version for Ap/Cw and help bug proofing at least

Yah, that makes two of us - I'm working on the Tomes right now and just need to finish the Fight and Mod sections. I don't have anything to put up right now, but hoping to get the Fight and Mod sections done.

Once I get that done, I should be able to complete the *.LNG for it and then hopefully I can release another alpha. I'm still working on getting the bonus sections down, but I have the codes for all the upgrades as well as the functions needed to have the Tome morale work.

I also got the groups defined and the Bill Gilbert picture works at handing out a random tome. So we'll see how it goes...

Back to the H3B mod, the only thing I can suggest is to double check that you got the March 18th version and you probably should restart your game if you haven't as there are too many changes for it to work properly with an older save I'm guessing...

Let me know how it goes...

Matt

/C\/C\

[Fatt_Shade]

Yea, i had version from February , and there was source of problem for devatron, and lvlup missing lines for death spirit :-(

And now remembered this :
- did you change something in quest part where you exchange dragonfly wings for magic crystals in Greenworth, in village near castle. In old game was 3 wings for 1 crystal, and now i get 3 crystals for 1 wing.

- do you know where is formula for spirit exp gain in battles? I`m testing lvlup for some skills on start with this lineup 2x1 inquisitor - rage generators, 2x1 dryad - enemy controlling (got them random on game start), 1x1 marauder - gold digging unit, (i got gift spell early so i use search on every dead unit, and with weak dryad plant summons i`m 8lvl hero, with 350k gold in Greenworth/Verlon forest :-) My total army leadership is 270, and when i battle enemy that are marked as invincible and have total leadership of 2000+ i use rage spirits all time and keep whole enemy army asleep and kill stacks 1by1. Even though enemy is 10x stronger leadership wise and my rage skills exp gain should be nominal value from .atom file x10. But i get only nominal value listed after each rage skill use. Any idea where/how to change this?

[MattCaspermeyer]

Yea, i had version from February , and there was source of problem for devatron, and lvlup missing lines for death spirit :-(

Ok, glad you got that sorted out! :)

And now remembered this :
- did you change something in quest part where you exchange dragonfly wings for magic crystals in Greenworth, in village near castle. In old game was 3 wings for 1 crystal, and now i get 3 crystals for 1 wing.

Yep, I sure did - now you can get rid of all your dragonfly wings and it helps get you more crystals, which you still won't have enough of anyway.

- do you know where is formula for spirit exp gain in battles? I`m testing lvlup for some skills on start with this lineup 2x1 inquisitor - rage generators, 2x1 dryad - enemy controlling (got them random on game start), 1x1 marauder - gold digging unit, (i got gift spell early so i use search on every dead unit, and with weak dryad plant summons i`m 8lvl hero, with 350k gold in Greenworth/Verlon forest :-) My total army leadership is 270, and when i battle enemy that are marked as invincible and have total leadership of 2000+ i use rage spirits all time and keep whole enemy army asleep and kill stacks 1by1. Even though enemy is 10x stronger leadership wise and my rage skills exp gain should be nominal value from .atom file x10. But i get only nominal value listed after each rage skill use. Any idea where/how to change this?

Yah, Dryads are very powerful vs non-mind immune level 1-3 units, especially early in the game.

As far as the spirit experience gain, it is all done internally. The only thing that can be done is to scale the base spirit experience, which you see in their ATOM's or increase the sp_addexp_spirit counter via items / skills. If you look at SPIRITS_COMMON.LUA you'll see the function spirit_after_hit where it computes the base spirit experience from the spirit's ATOM (this is exp_add) and then modifies it with sp_addexp_spirit (this is exp_bonus) and then it uses the Attack library function add_exp to take the exp_add * exp_bonus and determine internally what the actual experience rise is.

The internal spirit experience gain formula is listed in the King's Bounty user manual, which can be downloaded somewhere here on the forum. I implemented this formula (and this is the exact same formula you see in CW for the spirit experience during battle), but found that it doesn't quite give you the same experience from this formula so there's something going on internally that is slightly different than what is described. That is why you see that I list an experience range during combat because I don't know exactly what the add_exp Attack library function is doing in the C++ code. Some of this variability is also related to whether you are using a "static" versus "dynamic" spirit ability. Static abilities are ones that don't do any damage while dynamic abilities are ones where you do. Since the experience gain formula factors in unit deaths when using it I can't know beforehand (except maybe for mass damage abilities) how much damage you're going to do. So for static abilities I should know how much experience you should get, but found that it could be off by 1, hence the range (i.e. 4-5 experience) for even static abilities.

Well, anyway, that's probably too much information, but that's what's going on there.

Matt

/C\/C\

[jorko80]

Hello. Thanks for the great mod. I just want to share some impressions.
The good part:
-the babies are a really good idea. Now it's actually good to have babies.Before I always used the slots for artifacts.
-the wife companions give really good bonuses and you can try the game with a different approach. Before the good wifes were just 2 or 3.
-many changes add a different experience
the bad part:
-The spirits are way too powerful. I don't know if thats normal ,but my evil shoal did 900-1100 dmg at lvl 4.
-Generally I found the game very very easy and got bored at some point,no real challenge.
I even played harder then you intended. I have changed the impossible difficulty to 300% and the bosses to 500% and also the money income from 0.6 to 0.4 . But nevertheless it was very easy. Killing the Turtle with 10 000 hit points was very easy. The idea for difficulty changes I've got,because previously I played a russian mod called : "grandmaster" - it is really a big challenge . Also the spells in your mod are with really high prices ,but there are so many that can be found and sold that it just makes aquiring money faster.
Some bugs I encountered :
-The werewolf hero in Darion crashed always my game, I had to edit him and remove his spells in order to finish this quest. He had 3 spells,I don't know which is responsible for the crashing.
-When my hero is in a castle and I have 5 armies and click an army in the garrison ,it just vanishes, then I discovered it was added in my reserve slot,but I haven't access to it yet.
I stopped playing after clearing the Pirate Islands. Maybe later the game will be more difficult , if it is please share :)
Thanks one more time for the mod.

[Fatt_Shade]

Hi jorko80 :-)
First of glad you joined this group in HoMM3 experience.
As for your notations :
- Spirits - you had luck with random upgrading Sleem, with 4 skills, and many more lvls for each (max spirit lvl is 48 now) it hard to get lvlup choices you want/need. best worst thing in this game is randomness and you had good pick this time, and next time you could have horrible lvlup choice item/unit distribution and so on. Only thing i can say is that it changes throughout game.
- I agree in this mod, start is rather easy, even on impossible for those with a bit more experience in KB series. Money never was much of a problem in this game, so higher price of spells is OK. Changing enemy army and bosses early might be fun, but later you`ll have very hard time, because with further location all enemy units get % bonuses for their stats : more hp, more att/def/speed ... And resistances so higher dmg for rage spirits will be welcome in late Hadar, elven/undead lands and demon realm. For me hardest challenges in this mod are enemy heroes, because Mat made them so they give their units bonuses same as you with skills/items. Expl : enemy hero with highest attribute intellect will have higher magic and cast 2 spells per turn, for 2/4/6 turns in battle depending on hero lvl. Those who have intellect above 30 will cast 3 spells/turn. Enemy with highest attack will lower your unit initiative/speed in first 2 turns and give crit% to their units(i`m not sure about this), and high defense hero will give more resistance to his units, or lower you own units. You have time to get to Sonya in elven islands , but she have high intellect, and defense so she lowers you units magic resistance -40% , and cast 3rd lvl lightning spell 2 time/turn with devastating effects to your troops (Mat added bonuses to spells shock effect with working +turns with every 15 intellect , i say working because this didnt apply in original game settings). So trust me, later in game normal enemy stacks will be just something to try new tactics, but real fights wil be with enemy heroes. All up to dwarf lands are rather easy , but elven/undead/demon land heroes are horrible on impossible difficulty lvl :-)

For bugs, i hope Mat will check what problem is, i didnt encounter that with werewolf hero. Just go through dwarf areas, and you`ll have much more fun after that :-)

[MattCaspermeyer]

Hello. Thanks for the great mod. I just want to share some impressions.

Thanks!

By the way, which version are you playing? V2013-03-18?

The good part:
-the babies are a really good idea. Now it's actually good to have babies.Before I always used the slots for artifacts.
-the wife companions give really good bonuses and you can try the game with a different approach. Before the good wifes were just 2 or 3.
-many changes add a different experience

I worked a lot on this and am currently working on this part for my AP / CW version of the mod. I'm taking a slightly different take this time around, but I think it will greatly add to the flavor of the game like it has done here with TL.

the bad part:
-The spirits are way too powerful. I don't know if thats normal ,but my evil shoal did 900-1100 dmg at lvl 4.

Well, one of the issues that I had with the original game was that the spirit abilities were too low in power. So I bumped up their abilities so that you have a good rise in their damage, but I did it so that it was in line with what you might be doing damage-wise with your units and spells at that point in the game.

I also did my best to make each spirit ability useful. I think you'll find that they are all pretty useful now. The toughest one to make useful was Poison Cloud, but I think I got it such that you can do some serious damage with it if you decide to level it up.

Can you do me a favor and post a screenie of your hero screen at a certain point (or points) in the game so that I can get a feel for what your army lineup was, etc.? Maybe you can also tell me which spells you were using a lot, general strategies, etc.

-Generally I found the game very very easy and got bored at some point,no real challenge.

Well, I'm sorry to hear that - can you go into more detail as to how it was too easy and boring?

For example, do you skip battles and save fights for later so that you can get easy victories for tallying victory counters for items. Or do you clear an area as you get to it. Do you go into each battle with full rage, etc.

I even played harder then you intended. I have changed the impossible difficulty to 300% and the bosses to 500% and also the money income from 0.6 to 0.4 . But nevertheless it was very easy. Killing the Turtle with 10 000 hit points was very easy.

Well, I don't think the Turtle is supposed to be that hard and once you survive its area of effect attack without taking losses you can pretty much finish it off no matter how many hitpoints it has (well at least until you run out of mana). Did you experience the rage / mana gain decreasing effects, yet as the combat goes longer?

By the way, I did not do anything to change the boss battles, they were left alone. So I don't think you'll see much difference from the Kraken and Spider, either.

Have you tried any item suppression fights, yet? You should note that they are more challenging.

The idea for difficulty changes I've got,because previously I played a russian mod called : "grandmaster" - it is really a big challenge . Also the spells in your mod are with really high prices ,but there are so many that can be found and sold that it just makes aquiring money faster.

This is certainly true, and you can buy lots of stuff early if you sell early, but it may make sense to not sell those spells until you get your trade skill up to level 3 since you'll probably want more money for later...

Some bugs I encountered :
-The werewolf hero in Darion crashed always my game, I had to edit him and remove his spells in order to finish this quest. He had 3 spells,I don't know which is responsible for the crashing.

Okay - I will look into this problem and see if I can find what is crashing the game. Also, if memory serves, I may have fixed this in a recent update if you're not using the latest version.

-When my hero is in a castle and I have 5 armies and click an army in the garrison ,it just vanishes, then I discovered it was added in my reserve slot,but I haven't access to it yet.

Hmmm... I don't think I've seen this problem, but I've had a problem where I'm in the castle screen and it will stop showing me the item hints. I wonder if this is related...

If I reload from the autosave when you enter the castle it is okay. I'll see if I can recreate the army garrison problem you're having and try my best to fix it. The item hint problem I've only seen twice in my entire play-through and so I haven't been able to track it down.

Once again, your version of the mod here will be helpful...

Some of this may be related to the changes I made to some of the *.LOC files so I'll try to track these down, but they're tough to repeat so it makes it really hard for me to fix them.

I stopped playing after clearing the Pirate Islands. Maybe later the game will be more difficult , if it is please share :)
Thanks one more time for the mod.

Can you do me a favor and keep playing? I'd like to hear if it gets difficult at any stage for you.

Plus, you'll have to share with me some of your strategies for why it is so easy early. Which class are you playing? Any opinion on the skill tree changes? It sounds like you're playing on impossible.

Did you try to fight any heroes too early in the game and lose to them? There are plenty of heroes that should be really challenging early in the game, so I'm guessing you bypassed them until you were higher level. For example, the Ghost in Verlon Forest is usually too hard until you are about her level. I find that most heroes are hard to dispatch when you are a lower level than they are.

For me, personally, I find the game challenging during the hero battles throughout on impossible, but when I play I fight as few battles as possible until I get Rina and then I fight 40 battles to get her children and then switch to Feanora and do the same, switching every 40 battles to a new wife so that I can ensure that the children work properly as I debug-play my mod. So I get a bit of a reset on the bonuses every 40 battles (although I'll put items in those slots if I got them) and I tend to not sell spells until I get my Trade up to level 3 so that I can maximize my cash earnings since I end up spending the money on Crystals and Runes later.

I do mow through "normal" battles pretty easily, but since you can always bypass battles that are too hard until later, there is really not much I can do about that. The hero battles, though, I find tough and Xeona is especially difficult if you try to get her as soon as possible as you probably can't beat her without losses on impossible until you are at least her level or possibly higher.

Anyway, it'd be great to hear some of your strategies in more detail to give me a feel for how you're playing the game and I also have a game change idea that I'm probably going to implement with my AP / CW mod that will make the "normal" battles harder, but since you can bypass them for the most part anyway, I'm not sure how much good it will do.

By the way, do you use the units that you get bonuses from with each wife / their children or do you just use your favorite units available?

Questions, questions, but the more information you can provide the more useful it will be for me if I make changes in the future or I can use this information to help me with my AP / CW version of the mod.

Thanks again for you great comments and please keep them coming as that's really the only way I can improve this mod! :)

Matt

/C\/C\

[MattCaspermeyer]

Hi jorko80 :-)
First of glad you joined this group in HoMM3 experience.
As for your notations :
- Spirits - you had luck with random upgrading Sleem, with 4 skills, and many more lvls for each (max spirit lvl is 48 now) it hard to get lvlup choices you want/need. best worst thing in this game is randomness and you had good pick this time, and next time you could have horrible lvlup choice item/unit distribution and so on. Only thing i can say is that it changes throughout game.

This is somewhat true - I'll revisit the spirit level ups and if it looks like you can get levelups that are too powerful for your level I can always increase the level requirements. I'll leave it alone for now, but it is certainly something that can be looked at...

- I agree in this mod, start is rather easy, even on impossible for those with a bit more experience in KB series. Money never was much of a problem in this game, so higher price of spells is OK.

I think if you're an experienced KB player you won't have any money problems because you don't lose many (if any) troops early in the game and you don't waste your money on stuff that you know isn't worth it.

It's funny, though, I end up whittling my gold down so that when I divorce my wife she gets nothin'! ;)

Changing enemy army and bosses early might be fun, but later you`ll have very hard time, because with further location all enemy units get % bonuses for their stats : more hp, more att/def/speed ... And resistances so higher dmg for rage spirits will be welcome in late Hadar, elven/undead lands and demon realm.

There is the fine balance between making it too hard / easy for veteran / new players. If you've done no loss blahbitty-blah challenge this and challenge that then you know a lot of the ins and outs of the game and making it hard for you would make it unduly hard for a new player. So the idea is to bring you along slowly (maybe too slowly if you're experienced), but by the time you get to the mid- and end-game you are fighting battles that are challenging, but ones you've also been trained for by playing the earlier part of the game and noting that it is starting to get harder and harder.

For me hardest challenges in this mod are enemy heroes, because Mat made them so they give their units bonuses same as you with skills/items. Expl : enemy hero with highest attribute intellect will have higher magic and cast 2 spells per turn, for 2/4/6 turns in battle depending on hero lvl. Those who have intellect above 30 will cast 3 spells/turn.

Actually I used the hero's level as criteria #1 - see LOGIC.TXT, ehlvldbc in the difficulty_k section and the hero's mana pool as criteria #2 (also in LOGIC.TXT, ehmanadbc). For impossible, heroes >= level 25 get +1 cast and then heroes >= 200 mana get +1 cast. If the hero has both then they get +2 (for a total of 3 casts per round). The 2/4/6 turns are for your mage hero with Higher Magic - enemy heroes get it for the entire combat, but they usually pick the expensive mana spells and can't continue to cast that many because they run their mana pool down.

Enemy with highest attack will lower your unit initiative/speed in first 2 turns and give crit% to their units(i`m not sure about this), and high defense hero will give more resistance to his units, or lower you own units. You have time to get to Sonya in elven islands , but she have high intellect, and defense so she lowers you units magic resistance -40% , and cast 3rd lvl lightning spell 2 time/turn with devastating effects to your troops (Mat added bonuses to spells shock effect with working +turns with every 15 intellect , i say working because this didnt apply in original game settings).

Enemy heroes have classes of Warrior, Paladin, and Mage just like you and so what Fatt_Shade is getting at here is that the enemy Warrior and Paladin "skill" bonuses reduce stats of your troops such as initiative and speed, for example. Mage enemy heroes get -resistance to your units with their "Destroyer" skill equivalent since you cannot give enemy heroes mod bonuses (i.e. such as bonuses to fire spells).

If you want to see the exact enemy hero "skill" bonuses I posted exactly what they were here (http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showpost.php?p=499803&postcount=3). This shows the exact system that I used for generating the enemy hero "fight" section bonuses based on skills that were from your skill tree, but modified per the restrictions of what could be implemented.

(Mat added bonuses to spells shock effect with working +turns with every 15 intellect , i say working because this didnt apply in original game settings).

I thought this was a really important aspect to include because it allowed the spell casting of both you and the enemy heroes to be increased. What is really nice is that you have total control over which spells this affects and which ones it doesn't as specified in SPELLS.TXT. This is an "under-the-hood" improvement that is very subtle, but I think makes the game a lot more enjoyable.

So trust me, later in game normal enemy stacks will be just something to try new tactics, but real fights wil be with enemy heroes. All up to dwarf lands are rather easy , but elven/undead/demon land heroes are horrible on impossible difficulty lvl :-)

Yep, just like you get much more powerful with lots of skills so do the enemy heroes and they become very tough during the mid to latter part of the game.

Even early game heroes such as Egirra (the level 7 Ghost with Evil Book) will kick your tail if you're not ready for them (she is in Verlon Forest sometimes, close to the entrance). Not that I've tried really hard, but I haven't beaten her when I've been lower level than her, yet as her Evil Book's (even though they're only level 1) will tear you up!

Of course Fatt_Shade mentioned Sonya, but even Book of Evil @level 23 will give you a very hard time if you're not level 23 yet because it has enhanced Evil Books @level 3 and not to mention level 27 Ambrosius, level 23 Xeona, level 25 Raab Sotten, and level 27 Baal. So get ready for those hero battles!

Also we haven't even mentioned the item suppression fights, which can be very challenging as well since the Tower's spells are based off of the units you use (so for example if you attack with Dragons, then Friendly Towers will cast Dragon Slayer or if you have plants, then Evil Towers will cast fire spells).

For bugs, i hope Mat will check what problem is, i didnt encounter that with werewolf hero. Just go through dwarf areas, and you`ll have much more fun after that :-)

I'll see what I can do here - I'm pretty sure that the Werewolf Hero bug I fixed a while back because I think I ran into the same problem that @jorko80 mentioned. I think it was a misspelling of a spell name or something like that, but I'll still double check it to be certain.

Thanks for your comments!

Matt

/C\/C\

[Sir Whiskers]

I'm trying out the latest version and have run into two bugs so far.

1. When using Griffin eggs, if I use multiple eggs, I only receive 1 griffin per two eggs, rounded down. If I use one egg at a time, I get 1 griffin per egg.

2. I have a fatal crash to desktop (no error message) when fighting Butory (the bandit leader in Marshan Swamp). It occurs as soon as he can act in the battle, which suggests it may be a spell issue. I tried to attach my save file, but the website keeps giving me an error when I do so.

(Note: I modded hero.txt to add a lot of creature containers - eggs - for testing, but otherwise made no changes to the game files.)

[jorko80]

Thanks!

By the way, which version are you playing? V2013-03-18?

--Yes,that's the version I downloaded.



Well, one of the issues that I had with the original game was that the spirit abilities were too low in power. So I bumped up their abilities so that you have a good rise in their damage, but I did it so that it was in line with what you might be doing damage-wise with your units and spells at that point in the game.

I also did my best to make each spirit ability useful. I think you'll find that they are all pretty useful now. The toughest one to make useful was Poison Cloud, but I think I got it such that you can do some serious damage with it if you decide to level it up.

-- I played with warrior. The poison cloud is a good change and works nice,but the shoal is overpowered,one shoal and half the enemy army is gone and that on 300% ,I imagine on 170% it'll be a disaster :). Another overpowered ability is the wall ,with so many health and the ability to cast it every turn,I block everything too easy.

Can you do me a favor and post a screenie of your hero screen at a certain point (or points) in the game so that I can get a feel for what your army lineup was, etc.? Maybe you can also tell me which spells you were using a lot, general strategies, etc.

--Hmm ,spells with warrior are limited,maybe haste and fear come first.But I didn't needed them so much. At some point I found the spell: sacrifice , and I noticed that you reduced the gained percentage. In my opinion that spell is really hard to use anyway and now you made it useless.In "Grandmaster" the mana for the spell is increased and that balances it good I think.



Well, I'm sorry to hear that - can you go into more detail as to how it was too easy and boring?

--Easy answer :) - too powerful spirits. Maybe it's just for the warrior because he develops them faster. The hero also starts with too many rage points and also raises them very quick,I was offered 13 rage points on a level ,which is too much.Having 73 rage points on lvl7 is again too much.And another important thing is,that in my opinion you messed with the speed of the creatures too much. On impossible every enemy creature has +1 speed in the beginning(later maybe more) and in some heroes armies again +1 speed and that makes them impossible to stop. So either I kill them on the first round with overpowered shoal or they kill me in the second. There is just no way to distract them,to use different tactics,to slow them, to make a change to your army and strategy. That is all gone, everything lasts 2 max 3 turns and that's it.

For example, do you skip battles and save fights for later so that you can get easy victories for tallying victory counters for items. Or do you clear an area as you get to it. Do you go into each battle with full rage, etc.

--Yes ,I do skip battles. But that is just my decision, I like the things that way. "Grandmaster" comes to my mind again. I play it on 400% (that's the percentage put by the developer of the mod on impossible) and that makes you think really hard,what to kill now,what to kill later,you must think even that later you should also leave some weak armies to kill them just to raise your rage and for some other reasons :) . It involves much thinking throughout the whole game and on the map also,not just in battle, you must carefully plan what you can do,otherwise you are left with no army and no money and must restart. I tried it 2 times and twice I was stopped by general Karador, but it was very interesting,so now I am trying for the third time :). Ofcourse lesser difficulties don't need to be this hard, but you can always control that by the meat percentage - just a suggestion. And the increasing stats are a good control thing too,just the speed is a bad thing.
You should try "Grandmaster" even on a lesser difficulty , I think it'll help you balance your mod. Sadly it's on russian only I think. Maybe I can try to translate the change log if you are interested.



Well, I don't think the Turtle is supposed to be that hard and once you survive its area of effect attack without taking losses you can pretty much finish it off no matter how many hitpoints it has (well at least until you run out of mana). Did you experience the rage / mana gain decreasing effects, yet as the combat goes longer?

--Actually the bosses should be really hard on impossible, in the russian mod the turtle is with 20 000 hit points, it is really hard,but it is doable if you find the right army,strategy and etc. I'm sorry to give you always this mod as an example ,but for me it's the best balanced mod I've seen. If it annoys you, I'll stop :) . About the rage and mana reduction , I did experienced it,but the battles are so quick,that it happened just once or twice.


Have you tried any item suppression fights, yet? You should note that they are more challenging.

--Suppression not, just the druid thingie and Rina's ring ,but they were too easy,one shoal and 3 towers are gone :)


Can you do me a favor and keep playing? I'd like to hear if it gets difficult at any stage for you.

--Maybe I'll continue in 2 weeks or so. I'll post more impressions if I do.

Did you try to fight any heroes too early in the game and lose to them? There are plenty of heroes that should be really challenging early in the game, so I'm guessing you bypassed them until you were higher level. For example, the Ghost in Verlon Forest is usually too hard until you are about her level. I find that most heroes are hard to dispatch when you are a lower level than they are.

--yes I do wait until I get strong enough to fight some of the heroes,but that I had explained above,that applies for 300% and upwards , for 170% I suppose I don't have to wait. But in the beginning the player doesn't have enough options with the army,spells,spirits and such ,the diversity is limited,so it is natural to skip the hard fights at least for the time when you get a decent hero level. Later when you have more options for strategy,you can fight with higher level heroes without skipping them.

For me, personally, I find the game challenging during the hero battles throughout on impossible, but when I play I fight as few battles as possible until I get Rina and then I fight 40 battles to get her children and then switch to Feanora and do the same, switching every 40 battles to a new wife so that I can ensure that the children work properly as I debug-play my mod. So I get a bit of a reset on the bonuses every 40 battles (although I'll put items in those slots if I got them) and I tend to not sell spells until I get my Trade up to level 3 so that I can maximize my cash earnings since I end up spending the money on Crystals and Runes later.

-- I didn't sell any spells also,but that's because I had more than enough gold anyway,even on 0.4 . Maybe the king's rewards for having a child are too high. In "GM"(Grandmaster) I do have to sell things,because I never go for kids. It is good that you increased the runes for "Trader" skill, but later I think that the player will accumulate too much gold selling those scrolls.

By the way, do you use the units that you get bonuses from with each wife / their children or do you just use your favorite units available?

--I was with Feanora and I did used royal snakes,but anyway without royal snakes in the beginning of The Legend is very hard. For the turtle I also got Bears and ancient bears,because the kids provided bonuses for them and I think the bears were too powerful with bonuses from the wife combined with 2 kids, they had max morale and amazing stats,doing around 1500 dmg to the Turtle in a single hit.

Questions, questions, but the more information you can provide the more useful it will be for me if I make changes in the future or I can use this information to help me with my AP / CW version of the mod.

Thanks again for you great comments and please keep them coming as that's really the only way I can improve this mod! :)

--I thank you. It is really much work and time you've spend on this mod. I'll try to help with more info, whenever I can.


/C\/C\

Sorry ,my post is a little messed up, my messages start with 2 dashes beneath yours.

[MattCaspermeyer]

I'm trying out the latest version and have run into two bugs so far.

1. When using Griffin eggs, if I use multiple eggs, I only receive 1 griffin per two eggs, rounded down. If I use one egg at a time, I get 1 griffin per egg.

Whoops! I see my error on the eggs - my bad! I'll fix that right away. (The Dragon Eggs are messed up, too).

2. I have a fatal crash to desktop (no error message) when fighting Butory (the bandit leader in Marshan Swamp). It occurs as soon as he can act in the battle, which suggests it may be a spell issue. I tried to attach my save file, but the website keeps giving me an error when I do so.

(Note: I modded hero.txt to add a lot of creature containers - eggs - for testing, but otherwise made no changes to the game files.)

I'll look into Dirty Butory. You're probably right about it being a spell. Hmmm... his spells are Shroud, Berserker, and Ghost Sword. @jorko80 mentioned he had problems with Martin Vodash and his spells are Berserker, Pain Mirror, and Shroud. So the two common spells are Berserker and Shroud. I'll see if these spells are the problem.

I'll try to get an update out to at least fix the egg problem this weekend and we'll see what I can find out about the crash to desktop problem...

Thanks for reporting these issues! :)

Matt

/C\/C\

P.S. By the way, the forum has been messed up since about the middle of March with respect to posting files on the forum. I did message @Nike-IT on the problem and a ticket was issued to fix the problem, but it still persists. I'm not sure what to do at this stage, but you can email me your save game file and I'll see if I can find the problem (my email is in the readme file for my mod) straightaway.

[Fatt_Shade]

Hello ppl :-)

-- I played with warrior. The poison cloud is a good change and works nice,but the shoal is overpowered,one shoal and half the enemy army is gone and that on 300% ,I imagine on 170% it'll be a disaster . Another overpowered ability is the wall ,with so many health and the ability to cast it every turn,I block everything too easy.
Warrior is probably first class to upgrade `Master of spirits` skill and upgrade rage skills faster, but trust me later in game enemy heroes with high intellect will devastate you with much more powerful spells then your rage skills are. Wall is useless against enemy range units and flyers, so it`s not overpowered, it`s just you didnt get to strong enough enemy. Placing it in front of enemy dwarf army with alchemist/cannoners/giants wont mean much. Or vs demon(demoness swap, and wall you placed to block enemy, become obstacle for your unit escape)/dragon army. Also piranha shoal is pure physical dmg skill, it will be much less in power vs demons/dragons/ghosts/black knights/... I`ll repeat myself and ask you to try a bit further to check elven/undead lands.

--Hmm ,spells with warrior are limited,maybe haste and fear come first.But I didn't needed them so much. At some point I found the spell: sacrifice , and I noticed that you reduced the gained percentage. In my opinion that spell is really hard to use anyway and now you made it useless.In "Grandmaster" the mana for the spell is increased and that balances it good I think.
Spells are changed in mechanics and gain with intellect, and work great. Warrior is not class that should rely to much on spellbook to finish his battles (haste/slow/stone skin etc all bennefitial spells are his to use, but you should forget dmg spells with warrior class). With high enough intellect even weakness become great spell : fighting vs Misticus in undead lands, i had Dryads, 2xFairies, druids, Inquisitors. He cast mass weakness and all my fairies gone from dmg 4-5 to 0-0, and druids/inquisitors to 3-3. So it`s not only make your unit do minimum dmg, but even lowers minimal dmg unit make, with higher intellect. As for sacrifice it`s % is low on first lvl, but on higher lvls and more int points you get insane numbers (with 3rd lvl, and 52 intellect you make 10k dmg, and 365% increase). Mana shield gives 250% defense bonus, and +40mana for 6 hits. Precision give +400%dmg for range units mass effect ... And so on, spells are supposed to work great on high intellect, not for warrior with less then 10 points in it. But on other hand warrior have his own perks.

And another important thing is,that in my opinion you messed with the speed of the creatures too much. On impossible every enemy creature has +1 speed in the beginning(later maybe more) and in some heroes armies again +1 speed and that makes them impossible to stop. So either I kill them on the first round with overpowered shoal or they kill me in the second. There is just no way to distract them,to use different tactics,to slow them, to make a change to your army and strategy. That is all gone, everything lasts 2 max 3 turns and that's it.
That +1 speed is allot in beginning, but later you`ll can use slow/have kids that give -1speed to all enemy units/lvlup tactics skill/or fight enemy units that +1speed means nothing (dragons,fairies,archdemons,demoness ...), or vs enemy heroes that use teleport spell. So that +1 speed is nuisance at start, later you`ll simply except it as normal.

Of course lesser difficulties don't need to be this hard, but you can always control that by the meat percentage - just a suggestion. And the increasing stats are a good control thing too,just the speed is a bad thing.
Simple increase in `meat %` as you said it, means nothing in tactical approach to battle. In Red sands mod for Ap/Cw they made something similar but every stack you fight along the way have different increase of stats by random generator. Bad thing they did there is minimal increase in low number stats : speed for slow units, and hp for weak units. So later in game on Elon for example you find 10000 fairies 10th lvl with 35hp each. Or thousands of barbarians with speed 6 and initiative 12. Increase is good, but not in absolute numbers, but percentages. I agree that +1 speed is allot when you have no units/items/spells ... but that lasts only for a little while(first 3-4 areas).

--Suppression not, just the druid thingie and Rina's ring ,but they were too easy,one shoal and 3 towers are gone
Try some higher lvl items. Fighting with 1000hp towers, that have initiative 15 and cast horribly strong spells is a test :-) I fought marshal baton upgrade, and towers cast 4000dmg fire rain, lightning that shock my units for 5 turns, and summon 500+ bowman/swordman. It was interesting fight.

--I was with Feanora and I did used royal snakes,but anyway without royal snakes in the beginning of The Legend is very hard. For the turtle I also got Bears and ancient bears,because the kids provided bonuses for them and I think the bears were too powerful with bonuses from the wife combined with 2 kids, they had max morale and amazing stats,doing around 1500 dmg to the Turtle in a single hit.
My advice is to save game before you change wife. Just so you can see how different is tactical approach to battles with different lineups with different wife/kids. here both wife and kids are much different then in original the Legend ,and i like change and unique buffs you get with each kid :-)


In the end, about crash with Dirty Butory and Martin Vodash, berserk is my bet. Probably enemy hero cast it, and get in loop trying to control that unit, but cant because it refuses to act. Weird thing is, when i cast berserk on some of my units. it make no problems :-(

EDIT : As for rage spirit exp gain, i checked spirit_common.lua file in the Legend (600B), and compared it to similar file in Ap/Cw exp_pet_hint.lua (6kB) around 10 times larger file. In the Legend only is listed base exp from each spirit , with addexp_spirit in case of master of spirits skill, or some item/kid that gives bonus exp for rage skills. But in Ap/Cw there is code line added for current enemy/ally leadership ratio, and that is great bonus in case of small army fighting larger enemy. i mentioned couple posts before i try lvling spirits with 3x1 inquisitors (rage generators) and 2x1 dryads(sleep - control enemy stacks). This works great for first couple areas because dryads control all 3rd lvl enemy, and i use rage skills every turn. What i didnt expect is that spirit exp gain have absolutely no connection with your army total lds in the legend :-(
In Ap/Cw i had battles where in first turn use some pet dragon rage skill and get 700 exp for it. But here with spirits up to 48th lvl , it will be pain getting them up there :-( New lvls and added effects are great (stun/bleeding for Zerock, freeze for Lina) and i like them. Only problem is later in game when you pass 20 lvl for hero, getting spirits from 35 to 36 lvl takes at least 10 long battles with using mostly rage instead your troops. And as Mat mentioned, changing base exp gain in spirit .atom files might be only solution for now. At least until we get full mod for Ap/Cw and start bug proofing it :-)

[MattCaspermeyer]

It is good to finally see some discussion! So please keep it coming! :)

With respect to increases, the way it works is it is always a percentage.

So if you have units with a speed of 2, you need a 50% increase to get them up to 3. I like the rounding approach (i.e. 2.5 will get you up to 3 so you can just have a 25% increase in stats). I'm a big fan of stronger units and leaving the impossible 170% leadership increase alone because I think it gets a bit boring when you give the computer insane numbers, but that's me. Why not set this value to 1000 if you really want a challenge? That just seems tedious to me, though, and so I left alead at 170 and decided to make the game harder in other ways. So to that end I created the new bonus modifiers in the difficulty_k section in LOGIC.TXT to implement this design philosophy:

eunit - this is the statistic scaler (or gain) per difficulty level. You'll note here that for impossible it is set to 1.25. So you can scale alead like you've done (to 300%) or you can leave alead alone and change this value. It is your choice.
maplocden - this scales units based on their map location. Smaller values (divisors) give a larger increase to enemy unit statistics that is additive with eunit based on far into the game you are. So for impossible the divisor is 4 so that will give you an additional +25% (100 is the maximum map difficulty value and I think either 0 or 1 is the minimum, so 100/4=25) to enemy unit statistics when you are in the last area (or hardest areas as I think both Murock and the turtle's back give you +25%). When starting in Greenwort, this is only +1% so it scales nicely throughout the game. So with this, the enemy unit statistic bonus scales from 1.25 to 1.5.
releadmax - this is the maximum leadership (in units) that you'll get when you lose a battle and restart outside the castle with the regenerated army.
minstatinc - this specifies the minimum increase in a unit's statistic from the eunit and maplocden bonuses. For impossible this is set to one, and so is why you see units with +1 speed and initiative always. I put this one in as mentioned above, but it is really needed to give units with 1 in their statistic category a bonus as they wouldn't get it until the last area (if at all) with the 1.5 total bonus from eunit and maplocden. But you can set this to 0 and rely on eunit and maplocden by themselves to increase the enemy unit's stats if you'd like.
ehlvldbc - level at which enemy heroes double cast, mentioned previously.
ehmanadbc - mana at which enemy heroes double cast, mentioned previously.

For the 2 above you may be wondering why I don't use the enemy hero's intellect. Well guess what, I can't get their intellect where the double cast bonus must be applied, so I use mana as a pseudo intellect instead.

roundmrgk1, 2, and 3 - these set the rounds where your mana and rage gain change to only 50%, then 25%, and finally 0%.
roundehero, tower, and boss - these set additive rounds to roundmrgk1, 2, and 3 when fighting enemy heroes, towers, and bosses.

So you can see that I've added quite a few knobs you can twist if you find the game too easy / difficult. So I encourage you to play around with these knobs if you're finding my mod to not be satisfying as I think you can see here that you can literally make it impossible if you give too much bonus to enemy unit statistics or shorten the number of rounds where you have nominal mana and rage regeneration.

@Fatt_Shade pretty much brought up all the points about the spirit abilities and really there is not much I can do because of the game's nonlinearity with respect to skipping things that are too difficult and returning to them later.

Case in point: Sleem's level requirements for getting level4 fishes (where you are doing 900-1100 damage) is level 7 (Sleem's level, not your hero's). I could increase this level higher if you'd rather struggle with 475-625 for a bit longer, but you'll find due to the nonlinear gameplay that languishing at this amount of damage can make Evil Shoal pretty useless. And this is pretty much the only skill you can use to level up Sleem rapidly due to the Spirit Experience game mechanics. Also, since Evil Shoal can damage your own units you are mostly limited to using Evil Shoal on round 1 after that it becomes harder to use it without damaging your own troops so the damage needs to be high otherwise you're not going to use it.

Since you're playing Warrior, I think you can appreciate that you can actually now do damage with your Spirits whereas before you pretty much were stuck with Black Hole and using spells. So maybe this will grow on you as you play the game further...

Okay, I'll look into the crashes - Berserk is my guess, too, although I know it has worked in the past. So I'll see if I can track down this problem...

I've already fixed the Griffin / Dragon Egg problem and will post a new update shortly...

Thanks again for the feedback and keep the comments coming!

Matt

/C\/C\

[jorko80]

Hi Matt , Fatt Shade!


So if you have units with a speed of 2, you need a 50% increase to get them up to 3. I like the rounding approach (i.e. 2.5 will get you up to 3 so you can just have a 25% increase in stats).

Ok, I understand that,but that means that later in the game units with just 4 base speed will get to my side on the first turn if they have +2 speed boost ability and if they are combined with good shooters and fliers and it becomes impossible to stop them. That's only an estimate ofcourse,because I didn't played the game to that point. And I guess that dragons and some other creatures will have speeds of 11-12 ,making them absolutely unstoppable. I think that just +1 speed bonus to a creature is more then enough to make it much harder,but I guess I'll try your version and see what happens :).

I'm a big fan of stronger units and leaving the impossible 170% leadership increase alone because I think it gets a bit boring when you give the computer insane numbers, but that's me. Why not set this value to 1000 if you really want a challenge? That just seems tedious to me, though, and so I left alead at 170 and decided to make the game harder in other ways. So to that end I created the new bonus modifiers in the difficulty_k section in LOGIC.TXT to implement this design philosophy:


I like this idea.


So you can see that I've added quite a few knobs you can twist if you find the game too easy / difficult. So I encourage you to play around with these knobs if you're finding my mod to not be satisfying as I think you can see here that you can literally make it impossible if you give too much bonus to enemy unit statistics or shorten the number of rounds where you have nominal mana and rage regeneration.


Those knobs are really nice.Thanks for the explanation also.

@Fatt_Shade pretty much brought up all the points about the spirit abilities and really there is not much I can do because of the game's nonlinearity with respect to skipping things that are too difficult and returning to them later.

The nonlinearity is something good in my opinion. I don't want to fight everything I meet in the second I meet it, I want to be challenged and to have to think harder. I like to compare it with HOMM games ,when you see a difficult army you return later for it. But still I'll try playing with a different approach to see the overall feeling. I think I will start a new game with 170% or 200% max as you intended it to be,because later such high number of creatures with such speed will be awful. And ofcourse I need to finish one game to the end to be able to make more complete comments .
And about sacrifice, it is of little use in late game,because the player already have access to many different creatures ,almost always in unlimited numbers, so it is usable in early game, when you find some creatures that are not enough to fill your leadership and with carefull planning you can increase them to the number you like with sacrifice, I just think the initial % should be higher.

Simple increase in `meat %` as you said it, means nothing in tactical approach to battle. In Red sands mod for Ap/Cw they made something similar but every stack you fight along the way have different increase of stats by random generator. Bad thing they did there is minimal increase in low number stats : speed for slow units, and hp for weak units. So later in game on Elon for example you find 10000 fairies 10th lvl with 35hp each. Or thousands of barbarians with speed 6 and initiative 12. Increase is good, but not in absolute numbers, but percentages. I agree that +1 speed is allot when you have no units/items/spells ... but that lasts only for a little while(first 3-4 areas).


I agree percentage increase is better. I played version 1.8 of red sands(russian) and with Grandmaster on top of it. It is really well balanced ,provides much challenge and the levels of the units are well thought. I never saw a barbarian with 12 init, or maybe when they use their special they receive 12 ,but thats normal. I don't know which is the latest english version, but maybe it is not balanced so good.

P.S. Can you guys tell me how to find a specific hero in order to edit him? It was a lot a of searching in order to edit the werewolf hero and now if the game crashes when I fight Butori , I have to search again. I know the numbers are area related somehow,but if you know some specifics I will be thankful.

[MattCaspermeyer]

Hi Matt , Fatt Shade!




Ok, I understand that,but that means that later in the game units with just 4 base speed will get to my side on the first turn if they have +2 speed boost ability and if they are combined with good shooters and fliers and it becomes impossible to stop them. That's only an estimate ofcourse,because I didn't played the game to that point. And I guess that dragons and some other creatures will have speeds of 11-12 ,making them absolutely unstoppable. I think that just +1 speed bonus to a creature is more then enough to make it much harder,but I guess I'll try your version and see what happens :).

Your statements are true, but now you may have a use for the Slow Spell and it becomes mass at level 3 and so it is something to consider with respect to strategy. I think you'll end up liking it as you now think about how can you slow the enemy down, and then the Black Dragon's Magic Immunity really comes into play so they get a bit tougher, but not too much.

There are other strategies, too, like you mentioned the Wall and then there's the new improved Ice Thorns that can damage and block your enemies now (although these are more for ground troops) as well as other strategies to slow them down (including flyers), which you'll discover.

The nonlinearity is something good in my opinion. I don't want to fight everything I meet in the second I meet it, I want to be challenged and to have to think harder. I like to compare it with HOMM games ,when you see a difficult army you return later for it. But still I'll try playing with a different approach to see the overall feeling. I think I will start a new game with 170% or 200% max as you intended it to be,because later such high number of creatures with such speed will be awful. And ofcourse I need to finish one game to the end to be able to make more complete comments .

We're in agreement here - that's why I've done what I've done to accommodate the variability in play...

And about sacrifice, it is of little use in late game,because the player already have access to many different creatures ,almost always in unlimited numbers, so it is usable in early game, when you find some creatures that are not enough to fill your leadership and with carefull planning you can increase them to the number you like with sacrifice, I just think the initial % should be higher.

I'll look into Sacrifice and see if it merits an increase, but one thing you'll learn as you play is that your spells continuously improve throughout the game because there are quite a few extra bonuses that you get from my mod that weren't included in the stock game (for example, for every hero level you get a +1% increase in spell power).

So like Fatt_Shade mentioned spells can get pretty potent towards the end if you're a Mage. Since you're playing Warrior, you can't expect it to be as good as the Mage's and so perhaps Sacrifice is not the best strategy for a Warrior to boost rare troops early in the game. Plus I did try to pepper in some of the more obscure troops by editing the *.LOC files. If you get plants (i.e. Royal Thorns and Ents later) you can grow their numbers by using Thorns / Thorn Warrior's Gift of Life Skill.

Plus, I'm not sure if you've noticed the containers (i.e. eggs, sprouts, coffins, etc.), but they are now variable and that provides another way to replenish troops. So for example, Spider Eggs produce all the spider variants (it is random) and the same with Snake Eggs. You can get either Skeletons or Archers from Skeleton Coffins and Vampires or Ancient Vampires from Vampire Coffins. You can get Royal Thorns from Sprouts if you have enough and the same is true with getting Ancient Ents from Ent Seeds if you use enough.

I edited the *.LOC files to increase the chance of finding these containers in the various shops throughout the lands. For example, there is now a chance that a Ghost ship can sell Skeleton or Vampire Coffins or the Royal Thorn in Greenwort may be able to sell you enough Thorn Sprouts so that you can get a Royal Thorn for your army.

These are troops that aren't used as often, but offer a path for increasing their numbers when it is hard to find them in shops.

I agree percentage increase is better. I played version 1.8 of red sands(russian) and with Grandmaster on top of it. It is really well balanced ,provides much challenge and the levels of the units are well thought. I never saw a barbarian with 12 init, or maybe when they use their special they receive 12 ,but thats normal. I don't know which is the latest english version, but maybe it is not balanced so good.

Sounds interesting, I didn't really know about the Grandmaster that you mentioned, but it sounds like they did a great job from your impression of it.

P.S. Can you guys tell me how to find a specific hero in order to edit him? It was a lot a of searching in order to edit the werewolf hero and now if the game crashes when I fight Butori , I have to search again. I know the numbers are area related somehow,but if you know some specifics I will be thankful.

I found the error (Shroud) and fixed it in a new update so you can download it. :grin:

I do have an Excel Spreadsheet with the *.HERO file references and their original statistics as well as my enemy skill design sheet and the new hero designs. I'll snap out the HERO file reference worksheet and post it on here for reference...

Once again, thanks for your comments - they've really been interesting and helpful...

Matt

/C\/C\

[jorko80]

Your statements are true, but now you may have a use for the Slow Spell and it becomes mass at level 3 and so it is something to consider with respect to strategy. I think you'll end up liking it as you now think about how can you slow the enemy down, and then the Black Dragon's Magic Immunity really comes into play so they get a bit tougher, but not too much.


You make it sound as the slow spell was useless, but that was the first spell I wanted to aquire before ,especially in GM . And now in the beginning it's a bit useless and later we'll see :)

Plus, I'm not sure if you've noticed the containers (i.e. eggs, sprouts, coffins, etc.), but they are now variable and that provides another way to replenish troops. So for example, Spider Eggs produce all the spider variants (it is random) and the same with Snake Eggs. You can get either Skeletons or Archers from Skeleton Coffins and Vampires or Ancient Vampires from Vampire Coffins. You can get Royal Thorns from Sprouts if you have enough and the same is true with getting Ancient Ents from Ent Seeds if you use enough.

I discovered that yesterday, I like it a lot, finally some use for these things, I like it when all the things in the game are usable and make you think harder what to choose to do with them ,not just sell them.

Sounds interesting, I didn't really know about the Grandmaster that you mentioned, but it sounds like they did a great job from your impression of it.


About that mod, it aims to remove all abusive strategies in the game, not just increasing the meat% . So there are a lot of changes to creatures,abilities and everything. For example the mage can cast double only 3 times at expert level. The balancing is amazing. You are thrown in the game and seeing the armies, you wonder : LOL how the hell can I kill that? . But knowing that the russian guys did it, means that there is a way :). The first thing is realizing the truth that you are not ready to fight right away,so you start thinking : can I perform some quests in order to become stronger, what is possible without fighting and etc. Also when you are a bit familiar with KB , the original impossible difficulty really feels as normal, absolutely easy.

I found the error (Shroud) and fixed it in a new update so you can download it. :grin:
Thanks :)
I do have an Excel Spreadsheet with the *.HERO file references and their original statistics as well as my enemy skill design sheet and the new hero designs. I'll snap out the HERO file reference worksheet and post it on here for reference...
Thank you very much for this .

So yesterday, I started your mod again, this time at 170% with a mage hero. Only 2 changes in logic.txt , the money income is 0.4 and so far it is good. And the boss attack and hp is 500% and the turtle was a bit easy,but I guess next time I will make it 1000% as in GM. As I think of it now, your mod makes my creatures even stronger then in the original game and the bosses suck big time, leaving them with no changes makes them something quite ordinary and they shouldn't be. And also the name "impossible" should stand for itself.
So far I managed to clear Darion without the swamp, then cleared the turtle and got to the pirate lands to see if there is something interesting and performing 2-3 not fighting quests to hopefully raise 1 level. Now the feeling and the challenge with the mage is quite better than with the warrior. The spirits are hard to use every battle as it should be with a mage, my shoal does only 250-350 so it's completely normal. So my thoughts about that are that the shoal must be balanced somehow. It's like having a chain lightning that costs 10 mana and does 1000 damage to 5 units in the beginning of the game with a mage for example.
Two questions :
- I've read that the ghosts have 80% might damage resistance, but in my games they have 95% ,is that supposed to be in "impossible" ? Anyway I managed to kill the undead armies, but they are quite a challenge compared to the other armies and the feeling is different. Maybe 90% should be enough. I will see what happens in the late game.
- On level 4 with the mage I was offered 72 leadership and took it. Then on level 6 I was offered 76 leadership , that was a bit shocking, is it normal ? Can you give me the chart by which the mage receives leadership ?

P.S. Just found a really unpleasant bug. The heroes I fight in castles don't appear in battle, it's just the army without any hero bonuses. That applies to Baron Norge, Frogus Bagaba and Enemen. I tried to fight Lucky James and there everything seems normal. The first three I did not find in your xls-description so maybe you didn't changed them ,but something prevents the game from using their original .hero files.

[Fatt_Shade]

You make it sound as the slow spell was useless, but that was the first spell I wanted to acquire before ,especially in GM . And now in the beginning it's a bit useless and later we'll see
Slow is not useless on start, just not strong enough. As i mentioned before, now all spells work as described in original game, but didnt work like that. Now with every 15intellect you get +1 turn for spells that have lasting effect. So for 1 lvl slow and 15 intellect you`ll have -2 speed for enemy units. For 3rd lvl slow and 30 intellect, you`ll have -4 speed to all enemy, which is great. And as Mat said, spells are suposed to be mage`s best weapon, now warriors.

And the boss attack and hp is 500% and the turtle was a bit easy,but I guess next time I will make it 1000% as in GM.
Since here we have only 3 boss fights (Turtle, Kraken, Spider) and each is a bit easy for time you`re supposed to fight it. When this mod goes to Ap/Cw i expect to have a bit more fun in Droid and Gremilion battles, not to mention Baal and Ktahu end game bosses, with huge summoning stacks and strong AOE attacks.

As for your questions, i`ll try to help as i can :
1) Ghosts resistances - ghost have nominal 80% physical res, but for impossible difficulty they get 25% of that, so it`s 80% + 0,25x80% = 100% but since max resistance for some dmg type is 95% then it`s capped to 95%.
And they have vunerability to magic -100%, and they gain 25% of that for impossible diff settings, so it`s -100% +0.25x100 = -75%. So they gain resistance compared to normal diff lvl.
Same goes for plants and fire vunerability , or some human units and physical dmg.

2) Here all is random, and that includes lvlup rewards. Try to get near lvlup, and go to some are and save game. Fight 1 battle to get lvl and see choices, save after that. Load before battle and change area and fight to gain lvl. You`ll get different reward choice. I`m not sure how this is calculated, but as i figured it out, harder areas give higher rewards. So if you gain lvl 5 in Greenwort you`ll get lower reward then in Marshan swamp, because swamp have harder battles to fight and therefor give higher rewards on lvlup.
SPOILER :
Simple test for this is just on start (begin new game to try it). Right on start after talking to king go to swamp, and take quest to blow up alchemist cauldron, and receive stinky potion form witch but dont go to alchemist. Save game. Open inventory , and use potion (right click on it, and `use`) it should give you some exp points 150 for paladin, 100 for warrior, and 200 for mage class and that should be enough for you to lvlup), and you`ll see what reward you get for 2nd lvl in swamp. Load game, go to Greeworth use potion, and see reward for it, load game go to Arlania/Verlon forest ... I think you get my point. For tactician with enough nerves this can give significant bonuses on start of game. Later 15+ lvl it become difficult to calculate how much battles you need to make this happen , and in areas you cleared there are no enemy stacks for you to lvlup on. For this i always have some high lvl item to suppress.

Hope i helped :-)

[MattCaspermeyer]

You make it sound as the slow spell was useless, but that was the first spell I wanted to aquire before ,especially in GM . And now in the beginning it's a bit useless and later we'll see :)

Okay, sounds good - I just wanted to point out that increased speed can be countered...

I discovered that yesterday, I like it a lot, finally some use for these things, I like it when all the things in the game are usable and make you think harder what to choose to do with them ,not just sell them.

Glad you like them!

About that mod, it aims to remove all abusive strategies in the game, not just increasing the meat% . So there are a lot of changes to creatures,abilities and everything. For example the mage can cast double only 3 times at expert level. The balancing is amazing. You are thrown in the game and seeing the armies, you wonder : LOL how the hell can I kill that? . But knowing that the russian guys did it, means that there is a way :). The first thing is realizing the truth that you are not ready to fight right away,so you start thinking : can I perform some quests in order to become stronger, what is possible without fighting and etc. Also when you are a bit familiar with KB , the original impossible difficulty really feels as normal, absolutely easy.

I set out to do this a well, but only with the most abusive strategies and I don't like to limit spells except by their power and your mana. For example, Invisibility is limited to level 4 units so you can no longer do the single Emerald Green Dragon strategy, but you're only limited by the number of crystals you get to get it as high of a level as you need and then the mana that you have during combat.

Also the mana_rage_gain_k that reduces and prevents mana and rage regeneration during combat eliminates strategies of going 100 rounds to rebuild your army for no losses. Also, you'll note that your troops become tired during extended combat and they'll begin to lose their effectiveness.

I'm not sure what you mean by the double spell (unless you're referring to Phantom), but these types of strategies are mitigated by the fact that a lot of the enemy heroes have the Dispel spell and so that spell is easily dealt with by enemy heroes (as well as the aforementioned mana_rage_gain_k).

So yesterday, I started your mod again, this time at 170% with a mage hero. Only 2 changes in logic.txt , the money income is 0.4 and so far it is good. And the boss attack and hp is 500% and the turtle was a bit easy,but I guess next time I will make it 1000% as in GM. As I think of it now, your mod makes my creatures even stronger then in the original game and the bosses suck big time, leaving them with no changes makes them something quite ordinary and they shouldn't be. And also the name "impossible" should stand for itself.

Most of the starting units were left untouched so it is possible that it is due to other changes.

I'd probably be more apt to make the Turtle's powers stronger rather than just give it more health. But you have to remember that this is a gate to other areas of the game and making it too hard would just turn people off. So perhaps with you changing its health it's then a personal choice for you to make it harder. I think you can see that there are probably enough knobs in my mod to make it really challenging for you, but since I didn't touch this area of the game I'll think about possible changes here. For the Kraken and the Spider there's really nothing I can do there as no matter how hard I make it you can just skip them and do them at the end of the game (well, I guess if you want to marry Mirabella then maybe you have incentive to fight the Kraken earlier).

So far I managed to clear Darion without the swamp, then cleared the turtle and got to the pirate lands to see if there is something interesting and performing 2-3 not fighting quests to hopefully raise 1 level. Now the feeling and the challenge with the mage is quite better than with the warrior. The spirits are hard to use every battle as it should be with a mage, my shoal does only 250-350 so it's completely normal. So my thoughts about that are that the shoal must be balanced somehow. It's like having a chain lightning that costs 10 mana and does 1000 damage to 5 units in the beginning of the game with a mage for example.

You'll note that there are greater differences between the hero classes now and so you saw how good the Warrior was with Rage Spirits early and conversely you're finding out how much less effective they are with the Mage.

I did make some slight level changes in the latest update to Evil Shoal requiring a higher Sleem level to get to the damages you were seeing so maybe it is enough, but it doesn't really affect the game in the latter part if you can maximize that spirit ability, which you haven't seen yet.

I think for the most part when it comes to the spirit abilities is that all of them are useful if you decide to put points into them, but due to the spirit level-up mechanics you'll want to maximize your mass damage abilities since they garner the most experience per use. So you'll find that the utility of the single or no damage abilities becomes second to leveling your spirits.

Two questions :
- I've read that the ghosts have 80% might damage resistance, but in my games they have 95% ,is that supposed to be in "impossible" ? Anyway I managed to kill the undead armies, but they are quite a challenge compared to the other armies and the feeling is different. Maybe 90% should be enough. I will see what happens in the late game.

Fatt_Shade is 100% correct on this assessment - don't forget that all enemy unit statistics are modified by the difficulty level scaler plus the map location divisor.

- On level 4 with the mage I was offered 72 leadership and took it. Then on level 6 I was offered 76 leadership , that was a bit shocking, is it normal ? Can you give me the chart by which the mage receives leadership ?

The game used to use the leadtable in HERO.TXT, but it was changed I'm guessing in patch 1.6 or 1.7. Now the leadership increase is the range specified in the hero's level-up section times their level. For mage, that is 10 to 20 times their level. So you can see that you were pretty close to the max at level 4 (20 * 4 = 80) whereas level 6 you were a bit below average (15 * 6 = 90). Curse that random number generator at level 6, but praise it at level 4! :grin:

P.S. Just found a really unpleasant bug. The heroes I fight in castles don't appear in battle, it's just the army without any hero bonuses. That applies to Baron Norge, Frogus Bagaba and Enemen. I tried to fight Lucky James and there everything seems normal. The first three I did not find in your xls-description so maybe you didn't changed them ,but something prevents the game from using their original .hero files.

You know, I thought the same thing as you - didn't they partake in the combat? But then I looked for their *.HERO file and they didn't have one. I also went and looked up what was supposed to take place with this combat (I can't quite remember it was either in the *.QST or *.LOC files (or maybe both!)) and noticed that there was no hero listed so I thought I was simply mistaken and that these battles were always without their heroes.

Am I mistaken here? I can't find where I changed this and I don't find any reference to these heroes partaking so I think it was just that my memory (and perhaps yours) were wrong here and those heroes never partook in the combat.

Like you said Lucky James is there and you can see his *.HERO file in my list (you even see some heroes that are not in the game that I found in the *.HERO files) so this is how these battles go, I guess.

Well, thanks again for the comments. I can see that your level of play is pretty high and so it will be interesting to see how you do when you play the game further than you have and whether you run into any trouble...

Matt

/C\/C\

[Nevar]

This mod is amazing. I've played the game for yet another 40 hours ever since I installed the mod. Absolutely brilliant.

I do seem to have run into an issue, though. I married Orcerlyn for her weapon slots (she has two of them), and everything was going fine for a while. I'm a mage but my archer army now does about as much damage as my spells. Nothing beats the Rage Spirits, though. I love what you did with them. Ice Orb is crazy now.

Unfortunately, I seem to have run into an issue. After my next fight, Orcelyn will ask my character to get her pregnant, and while I've seen how awesome the new kids are in this mod (Rina had 4 children before she was divorced), I'd rather not get kids since I don't actually use orcs.

The thing, though, is that I can't seem to say no to Orcelyn. The only dialogue options aren't actually dialogue. They seemed liked placeholders. And whichever I choose, she gets pregnant, with the first option making her expect it in 10 battles and the second in 5 battles.

Any help would be appreciated. I'd rather not wait until Xeona to get 2 weapon slots. Thank you!

[Sir Whiskers]

Unfortunately, I seem to have run into an issue. After my next fight, Orcelyn will ask my character to get her pregnant, and while I've seen how awesome the new kids are in this mod (Rina had 4 children before she was divorced), I'd rather not get kids since I don't actually use orcs.

The thing, though, is that I can't seem to say no to Orcelyn. The only dialogue options aren't actually dialogue. They seemed liked placeholders. And whichever I choose, she gets pregnant, with the first option making her expect it in 10 battles and the second in 5 battles.

Any help would be appreciated. I'd rather not wait until Xeona to get 2 weapon slots. Thank you!

Try talking to her prior to your next fight, and selecting the last option - something like "No, I don't need anything". My understanding is that you have to talk to your wife every so often (every 10-15 battles?), or she'll start nagging you about having kids. This should reset that counter, so she doesn't ask you to get her pregnant.

I know this works to keep Feona from turning into a frog, but I believe it also keeps her from asking about kids, which is why I think it will work with Orcelyn. Hope this helps.

And yes, this is an outstanding mod. :grin:

[Nevar]

Try talking to her prior to your next fight, and selecting the last option - something like "No, I don't need anything". My understanding is that you have to talk to your wife every so often (every 10-15 battles?), or she'll start nagging you about having kids. This should reset that counter, so she doesn't ask you to get her pregnant.

I know this works to keep Feona from turning into a frog, but I believe it also keeps her from asking about kids, which is why I think it will work with Orcelyn. Hope this helps.

And yes, this is an outstanding mod. :grin:

Thank you. I will try this. I actually ditched her for the River Fairy. I have been dominating Demonis with an army of fairies.

[MattCaspermeyer]

This mod is amazing. I've played the game for yet another 40 hours ever since I installed the mod. Absolutely brilliant.

Thanks! It has been a lot of hard work!

I do seem to have run into an issue, though. I married Orcerlyn for her weapon slots (she has two of them), and everything was going fine for a while. I'm a mage but my archer army now does about as much damage as my spells. Nothing beats the Rage Spirits, though. I love what you did with them. Ice Orb is crazy now.

Ice Orb is awesome now, until you start fighting lots of armies with fire damage - so look out in Demonis and when fighting dragons!

Unfortunately, I seem to have run into an issue. After my next fight, Orcelyn will ask my character to get her pregnant, and while I've seen how awesome the new kids are in this mod (Rina had 4 children before she was divorced), I'd rather not get kids since I don't actually use orcs.

Don't forget that Orcelyn has plenty of children that apply bonuses to units other than just Orcs: Crag Hack, Kilgor, Erdamon, Dessa, Gundula, Saurug, Zubin, Aikin, Drakon, Merist, Rosic, Tiva, and Young Yog = 13. Her Orc bonus babies are: Gretchen, Gurnisson, Jabarkas, Krellion, Tyraxor, Vey, and Boragus = 7. So more than half her children (13 out of 20) don't provide direct Orc bonuses.

It's pretty much like this for all the wives - they have children with bonuses to the units of the wife's race and then other children with more generic bonuses in case you don't want to use units of the wife's race. Of course it is all random, but on average you have 1-2 (really 1.5 or so) babies with bonuses to units of the wife's race and 2-3 (really 2.5 or so) babies with bonuses to all units. Some wives are a little more biased than the others as it depends on the number of units there are in a race.

For example with Gerda, there are only 5 Dwarven units and I lumped Miners and Dwarves together and Alchemists and Cannoneers together plus 1 Giant bonus child for 3 babies with Dwarven unit bonuses, plus 1 more with an all Dwarf unit bonus for a total of 4 out 19 kids (so only ~1/5) with Dwarf only unit bonuses.

On the other hand with Rina / Zombie Rina there are 14 Undead units and 8 kids with Undead unit bonuses out of 19 kids (so almost half).

The thing, though, is that I can't seem to say no to Orcelyn. The only dialogue options aren't actually dialogue. They seemed liked placeholders. And whichever I choose, she gets pregnant, with the first option making her expect it in 10 battles and the second in 5 battles.

Yah I probably need to work on her dialogue a bit more. I forget which wife I patterned Orcelyn after, but like Sir Whiskers says they all pester you after a certain period of time to have kids. There should be a "no" path in the dialog that allows you to keep deferring the decision to have kids, but I'll double check it...

Any help would be appreciated. I'd rather not wait until Xeona to get 2 weapon slots. Thank you!

I think you'll love finishing the game up with Xeona and demons! She is my favorite wife and I love playing the demon units!

Thanks again to you and Sir Whiskers for your kind words about my mod! :grin:

Matt

/C\/C\

[Nevar]

Afraid I'll have to confirm the "you can't say no" bug for both Diana and Orcelyn. In the part of the dialogue where you would normally say yes or no, the first option will always act like you said yes normally, with the kiss your wife dialogue at the end and making your wife expect a child in ten turns.

The second option closes the dialogue but makes her expect it in FIVE turns O_O

Express pregnancy.

I suppose I could just try reloading until she gets a child I like. (Does that even work? I'd assume what kind of child you'll get first is set in stone, like how reloading and using spider eggs will always give you the same spiders).

Also, talking to her before the battle doesn't seem to reset anything. Nice try, though.