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MattCaspermeyer
02-26-2012, 04:57 AM
I just want to announce that I'm going to be working on a new mod / mini expansion that is based on my Hereos of Might and Magic 3 Babies mod for The Legend for Armored Princess and Crossworlds.

I'm going to be applying a lot of the same modifications and ideas that I applied to TL. Since you can't have children in AP and CW, the babies will become "Tomes" or basically artifacts that you can equip on your hero that will have similar bonuses that they had in my babies mod.

I'll also most likely make it so that the tomes can be upgraded to get better and better bonuses. Also all 8 wives (the 6 original plus 2 I added) will also become tomes as well.

If anyone has any ideas or suggestions, feel free to post them here and if they make sense I may implement them in my mod.

I expect the alpha development phase to take several months as I spent over a year working on my babies mod and will jointly develop the AP / CW mods so that you can play them with either game, but have a slight variant for the differences between the two games.

I'm going to focus on making no loss on impossible exceedingly difficult and will apply my enemy hero bonus system to the enemy heroes in CW so that they will be much more difficult (especially at higher levels), the mana / rage generation limitation system based on combat round, unit difficulty and map location bonuses, long combat penalties, and many other features!

P.S. You can check out the various posts for my babies mod / mini-expansion for TL in these links:

Development Discussion (http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=27802)
Beta Download Topic (http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=29080)

MattCaspermeyer
07-05-2012, 01:38 PM
Also any idea how to add black knight/vampires to warrior counterstrike class skill ? To me it`s seems stupid that giants/trolls/huge orc units, even fairies have bonus retaliations from that skill and undead are excluded :-(

The Counter-attack skill states that it is for humanoids only and the check in the code is for humanoid troops.

So that's why Undead are not affected since they are not humanoid.

I don't see why, though, that this skill's list of units can't be expanded, but that's why it doesn't work with other troops as is.

The fix for this is easy to do, but need to consider which troops this skill should apply to (i.e. humanoids, but who else) I'll look into this more down the road...

/C\/C\

MattCaspermeyer
07-05-2012, 03:33 PM
On skills note it would be great if you figure out how Onslaught/Adrenaline works toward orc`s and random adrenalin given on start of battle (this for CW only) since this 2 skills don`t work properly now.

As far as I can tell, these 2 skills work as advertised, but they don't give you any message that they're working.

Has anyone had any problems with either of these two skills? I went through the code and they work as far as I can tell - and I already tested Adrenaline and it works.

I can add an informative message, though, to indicate that it's working.

/C\/C\

Fatt_Shade
07-05-2012, 05:41 PM
@about counter-strike : But check steam armor item, dwarf armor that gives +35% att/def to short humanoid troops, it includes undead units that walk on 2 legs, and have 2 arms (zombies, vampires,skeletons,black knights,and necromants) it doesnt include ghosts and bone dragons (since they dont have corporal bodies of humans).
I know how to include them so sill works on them, i only discuss about errors in game mechanics. Similar as in necromancy spell to rise undead troops you need specific type of dead unit - humanoid for humanoid units, and animals for ghosts, and it`s ok. So why doesnt it work with skill that is specific targeted to humanoid units. Also with Moro Dark/Gaudi companion and Dark Mistikus (in castle Montero underground) you can change knight to black knights and visa versa or skeletons to swordman, archer to skeleton archer . . . so they are obviously humanoid troops.
And i said before, counter strike works with giants, trolls and ogres , and even little fairies ffs, why not vampires/black knights ???

MattCaspermeyer
07-05-2012, 10:13 PM
Yah, those units are listed explicitly for Steam Armor:

unit=alchemist, archer, archmage, barbarian, barbarian2, blackknight, bowman, cannoner, catapult, druid, dryad, dwarf, elf, elf2, footman, footman2, goblin, goblin2, horseman, imp, imp2, knight, miner, necromant, orc, orc2, peasant, pirat, pirat2, priest, priest2, robber, robber2, shaman, skeleton, vampire, werewolf, vampire2, zombie, zombie2, demoness, sprite, sprite_lake, miner2, paladin, demonologist, shaman_blood, goblin_shaman, orc_hunter, ingeneer, witch_hinter, runemage, satyr, pirat_ghost

Whereas, for Counter-attack, it uses the feature "humanoid".

Those ATOM's with humanoid feature: alchemist, archmage, assassin, bowman, cannoner, catapult, demon, demon2, demonologist, druid, dwarf, elf, elf2, footman, footman2, giant, goblin, goblin_shaman, goblin2, horseman, imp, imp2, ingeneer, knight, miner, miner2, ogre, ogre_chieftain, orc, orc_hunter, orc2, paladin, peasant, pirat, pirat2, priest, priest2, robber, robber2, runemage, satyr, troll, werewolf, witch_hunter

Notice that the two lists are not congruent.

So the real question is how should it be fixed? I guess the first questions is how did you fix it?

Here are a few of ideas about how I'd fix it:

Proposal 1 - In ITEMS.TXT, use feature=humanoid (it might be features=humanoid) and remove the unit=list (this will exclude all units without the humanoid feature) so that Steam Armor and Counter-attack use the same list.
Proposal 2
a) In ITEMS.TXT, maintain unit=list, but note that it will be different than Counter-attack (possibly).
b) In LOGIC.TXT, create new feature (i.e. counter_attack).
c) Go through all ATOM's and add counter_attack to the features list for those units that you want Counter-attack to work with.
d) In NEW_SKILLS.LUA, change the code (line 14) so that Counter-attack checks for the "counter_attack" feature instead of humanoid.
Proposal 3
a) In ITEMS.TXT change unt=list to feature=steam_armor (it might be features=steam_armor).
b) In LOGIC.TXT, create new features: 1) counter_attack and 2) steam_armor.
c) Go through all ATOM's and add "counter_attack" to the features list for those units who are affected by Counter-attack and add "steam_armor" for those units who are affected by the Steam Armor item.
d) In NEW_SKILLS.LUA, change the code (line 14) so that Counter-attack checks for the "counter_attack" feature instead of humanoid.
Proposal 4
a) In ITEMS.TXT change unt=list to feature=steam_armor (it might be features=steam_armor).
b) In LOGIC.TXT, create new feature: steam_armor.
c) Go through all ATOM's and add "steam_armor" for those units who are affected by both the Counter-attack skill and the Steam Armor item.
d) In NEW_SKILLS.LUA, change the code (line 14) so that Counter-attack checks for the "steam_armor" feature instead of humanoid.

Proposal 1 makes the lists congruent (I haven't checked the feature= for items, but hopefully it works or it is features=), but all units that don't have humanoid listed as a feature will be removed from Steam Armor. This is very easy to implement.

Proposal 2 allows for different lists between both items and is more flexible, but has (potential) issues with congruence and is more time consuming to implement and maintain.

Proposal 3 has proposal 2's flexibility, but has the same congruence issues as well as being time consuming to implement, but it allows for the addition of new units and simply adding the appropriate feature to the unit's ATOM feature list includes them on that item's or skill's list (i.e. for Warriors of the North, although no guarantee that Counter-strike is a skill for that game).

Proposal 4 makes the list congruent like Proposal 1 and has the growth of Proposal 3, but it is time consuming to implement.

I think I'd be more for changing how Counter-attack works (i.e. make it apply to all units of a certain level, i.e. 1-2, 1-3, and 1-4 for skills levels 1-3), but since I'm not adding new features, yet, it makes sense to fix it.

What do you think?

/C\/C\

@about counter-strike : But check steam armor item, dwarf armor that gives +35% att/def to short humanoid troops, it includes undead units that walk on 2 legs, and have 2 arms (zombies, vampires,skeletons,black knights,and necromants) it doesnt include ghosts and bone dragons (since they dont have corporal bodies of humans).
I know how to include them so sill works on them, i only discuss about errors in game mechanics. Similar as in necromancy spell to rise undead troops you need specific type of dead unit - humanoid for humanoid units, and animals for ghosts, and it`s ok. So why doesnt it work with skill that is specific targeted to humanoid units. Also with Moro Dark/Gaudi companion and Dark Mistikus (in castle Montero underground) you can change knight to black knights and visa versa or skeletons to swordman, archer to skeleton archer . . . so they are obviously humanoid troops.
And i said before, counter strike works with giants, trolls and ogres , and even little fairies ffs, why not vampires/black knights ???

MattCaspermeyer
07-15-2012, 04:19 AM
Here are some items that I've noted when playing the game that I want to capture and open for discussion as I continue play testing Crossworlds and applying the first stage of the alpha development of my mod.


Gizmo - AI doesn't work very well for selecting units. Often a unit that doesn't need healing is selected simply because it is nearby and powerful enemies aren't targeted. I'll revisit what I did with my HOMM3 Babies mod for The Legend, but I might implement slightly different logic. Since now Gizmo is a spell and can be cast every turn if you have the mana, I'm probably going to make the AI for Gizmo act like this:

Compute ally and enemy power.
Based on ratio of enemy to ally power, use as percent chance to act on enemy (i.e. if the ratio of enemy to ally power is 0.75, then there is a 75% chance that Gizmo will attack the enemy).
Use heuristic, proximity-based, 2-tap filter to determine most dangerous enemy when selecting a target to attack. The idea here is to attack the most dangerous unit.
Use heuristic, proximity-based algorithm to determine best candidate to heal. The idea here is to heal higher level units before lower level ones (i.e. it is much more important to heal level 5 units than others).
I'm still debating on whether this should be a stage 1 or stage 2 change as it seems like the AI should be programmed better so that this is more of a fix than a new feature.
New feature - add capability to resurrect units, etc. as I did in TL (this is a stage 2 effort).
Ball of Lightning - The AI for the Ball of Lightning is okay, but it should always maximize damage each turn, so I may look into this as well. I'm thinking that this is probably more a stage 2 effort, but once again am a little on the fence about it.
When a unit uses an ability to resurrect a corpse, it doesn't show you how many you will resurrect. This actually might be hard-coded to behave this way as I toyed with it a bit and don't know how to add a tip for it (the spell Resurrect displays the corpse tip no problem, but for the Orc Tracker, Rune Mage, etc. these units don't display a hint when used on a corpse (works fine for alive units)).
I'm still not a big fan of the spell (or for that matter spirit ability) balance -what is your take on this? I'm finding that I'm once again using only a few spells and pretty much am always generating mana with the orb so that I can cast more spells. This is a stage 2 effort, but I'm going to make little-used spells much more enticing to use...

Okay, that's all I can think of right now...

/C\/C\

MattCaspermeyer
07-22-2012, 04:21 AM
As I've been modding Crossworlds, I'm starting to find that it is a bit buggy with respect to changing the original LUA files in the game.

As an example, I've been working on fixing the Gizmo AI and I'm finding that if the file NEW_SPELLS.LUA is extracted to the mods folder without changing anything, it will cause a "script execution error: gen_dc_cell_filter" when casting Inferno Dragon, even though *nothing* has been changed.

In light of this, I'm thinking it is probably going to be best to leave the original LUA scripts alone if possible and simply just create new LUA files and then have the associated text files (*.ATOM's, *.TXT's, etc.) reference the new functions.

I won't be able to do this for all the files (for example, ARENA.LUA) since certain functions are hard coded in the game, but I'm going to very carefully edit these files, creating new functions in other files as much as possible.

/C\/C\

MattCaspermeyer
08-16-2012, 07:37 PM
As I've continued my playthrough of CW, I've made some more observations...

There are a lot of other Astral Damage units in the game, and so I'm thinking that either I'd have to change them all or simply change the Goblin and Blood Shamans back to using Astral Damage for their special attacks. I'm thinking that Astral Damage, now is considered the same as other types of damage. In lieu of this, I'm thinking of making "resist all" spells / skills / bonuses apply that resist to Astral as well so that "all" means all!

This means that certain spells may have to be changed or amped to handle the increase in Astral Resistance, for example, Ghost Sword (which relied on 0 Astral Resistance to perform its damage).

It also opens the door for why aren't more units doing Astral Damage? Maybe Ghosts should be considered for a change to Astral Damage? The Phoenix will have its fire damage split into half Fire and half Astral like I did in TL (since it's flame is so hot).

Also, I noticed that the Ice Orb features are broken (I've had this problem before in my modding - the descriptions are misaligned so when cursor over them, it shows the wrong description). Also, the Ice Orb damage is really low, so I'm going to have to do something about that...

Cyclops are going to get a boost so that they have a chance to either stun, knock a unit unconscious, etc. with those rocks they're throwing!

I've updated the Gizmo AI and will provide that in an alpha update soon. It doesn't resurrect yet, but it at least more "intelligently" attacks enemies / heals your units.

A new idea that has germinated is that I'm going to assign the unit with the greatest "power" as a leader for enemy stacks that don't have a hero leading them. This unit will get a boost in its abilities and it may even have rudimentary scroll use abilities (i.e. cast level 1 spells) - this is a new idea and so I'm just beginning to flesh it out.

Obviously, mana / rage gain will be implemented as I hate using it now to beat enemies with no loss when you can just infinitely regenerate mana.

Also, the mana restriction on Higher Magic is either going to be dramatically increased or removed - makes no sense to limit what you can cast as mana is meant to be the limiter.

I'm starting to get very itchy playing the game and making notes before I restart and start implementing new features, but I must play through the entire game and try to catch as many bugs as I can (i.e. I didn't know about the Ice Orb bug with is descriptions - and I don't think anyone ever reported it in these forums).

By the way, here's something that's a bit embarrassing, but for the life of me, I could not find Agvares in my AP playthrough and finally found him in (the cave - duh!) Shetarra. Most of the companions will get buffs (or I like the training that the Elf companion undergoes and am thinking about creating companion levels - i.e. they upgrade to better abilities after a certain number of battles or they simply gain experience and better abilities the longer they travel with you - hopefully I'll be able to figure out how to implement this down the road...).

/C\/C\

Fatt_Shade
08-16-2012, 09:45 PM
About astral dmg, there are allot of units with that type, but also items/spells/medal with astral resistance so it evens out i a way.

I vote to leave phoenix pure fire dmg, and chaos dragon to change 50-50% fire/astral. Just my thought.

Nice work with gizmo improvement. Your changes in gizmo in KB-tL HoMM babies mod were great. Maybe lower heal/resurrect amount but add bonus res when hit ally units. It already act as fit of energy spell for +1 action, so would it be possible to add low lvl divine armor for 1 turn or something ?

Ah, same as HoMM babies, no more 100+ turn battle with mana/rage inflow :-P

As for upgrading companions look for Trigger and his improvement for ranged units crit%, or Elenhel counter for wanderer spell scrols. It`s nice idea to get better bonuses from companion after 10/20/30/40 battle something like wives in KB-tL, and more reason to keep him with you, instead just kick him on the curb when better comes along :-P

MattCaspermeyer
08-21-2012, 04:19 AM
In playing CW, I noticed the Brontor's "Spikes" feature description:

"Enemies receive damage from the sharp horns, if they attack the Bronto when he is dug in and unresponsive."

However, the "Spikes" work when the Brontor is both above and below ground (by the way, I'll fix that spelling error, i.e. "Bronto").

So either this description was never updated or the Brontor's "Spikes" are meant to work only when they are below ground. This seems to make sense from a strategic game standpoint as the Brontor can't retaliate when it is buried, but it can via “Spikes”. However, I could see from a visual standpoint, that if you attack the Brontor from one of the 3 hexes in front of it, that an attacker might have to deal with its horns, but not from the 3 hexes behind it.

Strategically, I think it makes sense to remove the "Spikes" ability from their above ground form (plus its easy to implement) and have it conform to their description or change the above ground form to either work directly in front or the 3 front hexes of the Brontor (this is harder to implement). I'll most likely implement the former unless I see some good reasons to leave it as is, in which case I'll implement the latter’s restrictions.

/C\/C\

Fatt_Shade
08-21-2012, 08:01 AM
Brontors did some strange things when i fought them before : if it`s burrowed Spikes work vs every melee unit attacking them. If they are above ground they will retaliate 1 time vs melee with no spikes, but if any other unit attack them during that turn and since thay already retaliated spikes will trigger and hit unit that attacked them. Try it out, maybe I just had weird situation. But as it goes from what i saw, spikes work every time brontors cant retaliate - borrowed , or already retaliated in current turn against some melee attacker.

Also i read somewhere on forum that brontors can retaliate against their own ally or enemy units if pet dragons rage skill lightning ball attack them, while burrowed and some unit is on hex near them. This is a bit tricky to replay, but it`s possible bug, i`m not sure.

MattCaspermeyer
08-22-2012, 05:28 AM
I've been thinking about bonuses to the attack and defense attributes similar to intellect and here are some ideas.

I'll use TL values as the initial starting values and may use the same for AP / CW - we'll see.

For attack, every 7 points increases a unit's base critical hit chance (krit) by 1% (this is additive, so if you have 7 attack and the unit's krit is 5 then it will be 6 or if the unit's krit is 15 it will be 16). For every 15 points maximum damage possible increases 100%. Note that the maximum damage is actually only 200% right now (see my forum topic here (http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=34001)). So if you have 15 attack, then you'll be able to do a maximum of 300% damage instead of 200%.

For defense, every 7 points increases a unit's resistance to all damage types by 1% (once again additive so if a unit has 0% resistance, it will then have 1%). For every 15 points, the damage reduction decreases by the next integral value. So for example, damage reduction is limited to 1/3 (33%), if you have 15 defense then damage reduction is 1/4 (25%), for 30 it is 1/5(20%), etc.

This will encourage getting higher attack / defense values if you are a Warrior / Paladin due to the increased krit / maximum damage and increased resistance / damage reduction.

The values are probably going to be my first cut for now, but we can always update them if these initial values prove to be not right (i.e. maybe for every 15 attack the bonus is +50% instead of +100%, etc.).

/C\/C\

Fatt_Shade
08-22-2012, 10:35 AM
So far situation was : lets for expl take knight unit , your attack = enemy defense, you make nominal 100% dmg = 16-18 physical. Your att higher 10points then enemy def = (16-18)*(1 + 10*3,3%) = 21-24 phy dmg, etc. So on 30 bonus att you make 100% more dmg = 200% total, and on 60 bonus att above enemy def it`s 200% bonus = 300% total dmg of nominal value, 48-54 phy dmg for our knight expl. And that part is clear, and OK.
Why i asked bladeking77 in that post i referred you to, is this is to simple compared to intellect stats formula (1 game i played in CW i got 2 Belt of Victor and with it my dragon army had basic def 150+ def, and with stone skin/magic spring red dragons got to 284 def, and all of it useless due to limit to 66% dmg reduction, and with this implemented in calculating att/def at least my red dragons got more resistances). And i wanted to see can it be made interesting, to make players to think before equipping some items, about bonuses they will gain/lose with +4att compared to +5int or something like that. Expl : should i take +att/def items, or spend runes on frenzy/prayer sills, or lvlup divine armor/stone skin . . . It will make player choose between way of developing his hero/army.
Bladeking77 did it, and it`s pretty simple formula in arena.lua file, and it works great. BUT i didnt think about active att/def bonuses in battle. Int is constant value during game, in and out of battle so spell dmg is calculated for it`s value. Att/def on other hand outside battle have some value, and in battle can have completely different - stone skin/magic spring/berserk spells, or frenzy skill, trolls malevolent, goblin zeroing in . . . How will this get implemented with this formula ? I dont remember now did it work OK or were some problems. Or red sands bonus to exp lvl`s for units, outside battle normal stats, and in battle higher stats due to lvl`s not connected to hero items/skill. I would try this, but currently my graphic card is fried, so no game for me for some time :-( (i`m operating on ancient geforce 4400 :-)
So if you can try, implement this bonus into your file, and see does unit crit% and ress change during battle with stone skin spell (should give bonus ress to all dmg types +nominal ress from spell itself to phy dmg. or take frenzy and kill some weak stacks with 1 unit and check it crit% after each frenzy bonus).

All this bonuses make your army stronger, but also does to enemy and if you get in CW your mechanics to enemy heroes and AI late game could get very interesting in this mod :-P

And Q: does it give bonus after hero`s att/def or from 0 ? I ask this looking black dragon stats, he have att 70 and crit%=17. When this formula is implemented in game, will he get nominal crit%=27 due to +10% from units att, or will only hero stats effect his crit% ?

MattCaspermeyer
08-22-2012, 05:45 PM
So far situation was : lets for expl take knight unit , your attack = enemy defense, you make nominal 100% dmg = 16-18 physical. Your att higher 10points then enemy def = (16-18)*(1 + 10*3,3%) = 21-24 phy dmg, etc. So on 30 bonus att you make 100% more dmg = 200% total, and on 60 bonus att above enemy def it`s 200% bonus = 300% total dmg of nominal value, 48-54 phy dmg for our knight expl. And that part is clear, and OK.

Your wording is correct! :)

And Q: does it give bonus after hero`s att/def or from 0 ? I ask this looking black dragon stats, he have att 70 and crit%=17. When this formula is implemented in game, will he get nominal crit%=27 due to +10% from units att, or will only hero stats effect his crit% ?

No - all unit stats are the way they are without including hero stats. So Black Dragon gets 17% krit with its 70 attack - those are its nominal values. A hero's stats are then additive to the unit's base and so if your hero has 14 Attack, then you'll add 2% to the Black Dragon's krit (17 + 2 = 19%). I know that seems like a small increase, but I think it is a good starting point because remember that this is double damage we're talking about. The other way would be to have increments of 10%, i.e. 14 Hero attack would be 20% greater than before, which could be 17 * 1.2 = 20.4 = 20% (rounded down), but a peasant has only 5 krit and so 5 * 1.2 = 6% (whereas if it was additive it would be 5 + 2 = 7%). So one way is better for units with lower krit and the other way is better for units with higher krit (crossover point is at 10 base krit).

The idea behind using Hero attack to determine krit before battle is that the Hero's attack / defense is static, whereas a unit's attack is dynamic during battle as you mention. That's where I thought increasing the damage cap for every 15 attack would be a great way to incorporate the dynamics of battle - as your unit's attack is typically increasing (say Frenzy) then instead of +200% total, they could do +300%, +400%, etc. of total based on your hero's attack at the start of the battle. I could also do it incrementally as well instead of big jumps (i.e. increase cap 100/15 per attack), but kind of liked treating it like Intellect's duration jump.

This discussion clearly demonstrates that there are a lot of things to think about with respect to this, but I think that my original idea is a great starting point and then we can go from there. I may also augment the krit and resist all by the hero's level - we'll see...

By the way, I'm thinking that at the end of the game seeing as I just finished my game with 70 Intellect is to target a player getting 70 for their primary stat. So that would be (using the orignal values) +10 to a unit's krit and +600% damage cap for a Warrior and +10 resist all and 1/7 maximum damage reduction for a Paladin. These sound pretty reasonable to me. If I augmented the krit and resist all by the hero's level, we could assume level 60 as the hero's max level and then that would be another 1.6 of those values, i.e. +16 krit / +16 resist all. This wouldn't be too bad either and maybe is better than the other way.

By the way, whatever mechanic is picked, will also be used by the enemy heroes... :)

/C\/C\

Fatt_Shade
08-22-2012, 09:52 PM
Thx for clearing unit/hero stats , i cant check anything connected to games at the moment :-( But i can still check game files in notepad, and think about ways to make player curse those who made mod that is killing their nerves :-)
Max of 600% you mentioned is a bit much but for it hero would must have 90 attack so not really an issue, but try to make it so it`s not limited like it was so far on +60att to enemy def, and everything above is a waste. Defense bonus on other hand should be reachable with your change to spell system and stone skin/magic spring 80% def bonus , belt of victor etc, but it will be really situational. This will make neutral stacks a bit inferior, but battles with enemy heroes will be much more fun, and just maybe you`ll finally make mod that is truly impossible to do with no loss (hero with 50 intellect and 3x cast , and your rage/mana stop regenerating after 20 turn so no resurrecting :-)

And Q : how did you plan to implement Tomes of Might&Magic in game here ? As items, and if so will they be for hero, or companion, and will they be removable or like kids in tLegend when equipped with no way to replace them (maybe only to destroy it). In tLegend it was nice idea, you get a kid and if it soothe you great, but if you play warrior and get intellect/mana bonus kid tough luck no adoption available :-P
What i mean to say is if you acquire 1 tome(kid) next gets available after 10 battles and it`s random, or you can buy one you wish for 100.000 gold but next will cost 200.000 and 4th 300.000 or you just play battles and get some random like with kids.
Then you change whole army and drop all tomes and start over and then again every next cost 100k gold more starting from 0. I guess that would be tricky to make functional in game, but i thought how will player use this new tomes you want to import. In tLegend it was doable since there kids already had system working and you just made bunch of new kids and give them HoMM3 heroes images and it was great. But how you plan to do it for AP/CW ? No wife to surprise you every 10 battles with new addition to family :-P

MattCaspermeyer
08-23-2012, 02:07 AM
Thx for clearing unit/hero stats , i cant check anything connected to games at the moment :-( But i can still check game files in notepad, and think about ways to make player curse those who made mod that is killing their nerves :-)

Sorry to hear that - must be driving you crazy not to play!

Max of 600% you mentioned is a bit much but for it hero would must have 90 attack so not really an issue, but try to make it so it`s not limited like it was so far on +60att to enemy def, and everything above is a waste.

Yah - I hear you, that's why it just might be +50% per 15 Attaack rather than +100%. We'll have to see how it pans out during the alpha development, but +100% is technically the inverse of the defense relationship.

Defense bonus on other hand should be reachable with your change to spell system and stone skin/magic spring 80% def bonus , belt of victor etc, but it will be really situational. This will make neutral stacks a bit inferior, but battles with enemy heroes will be much more fun, and just maybe you`ll finally make mod that is truly impossible to do with no loss (hero with 50 intellect and 3x cast , and your rage/mana stop regenerating after 20 turn so no resurrecting :-)

Yah - we'll see although I have some ideas on the neutral stack with respect to the "commander" unit mentioned previously. Also, they'll at least get the difficulty level bonus as well as the map location difficulty bonus and I'll probably implement a system to increase neutral stack caps based on map location difficulty as well - we'll see...

This will certainly make Stone Skin and Magic Spring more interesting / useful and also units with attack boosting abilities (like Ogres) will get a good boost in damage if the caps are higher.

And Q : how did you plan to implement Tomes of Might&Magic in game here ? As items, and if so will they be for hero, or companion, and will they be removable or like kids in tLegend when equipped with no way to replace them (maybe only to destroy it). In tLegend it was nice idea, you get a kid and if it soothe you great, but if you play warrior and get intellect/mana bonus kid tough luck no adoption available :-P
What i mean to say is if you acquire 1 tome(kid) next gets available after 10 battles and it`s random, or you can buy one you wish for 100.000 gold but next will cost 200.000 and 4th 300.000 or you just play battles and get some random like with kids.
Then you change whole army and drop all tomes and start over and then again every next cost 100k gold more starting from 0. I guess that would be tricky to make functional in game, but i thought how will player use this new tomes you want to import. In tLegend it was doable since there kids already had system working and you just made bunch of new kids and give them HoMM3 heroes images and it was great. But how you plan to do it for AP/CW ? No wife to surprise you every 10 battles with new addition to family :-P

Now this is a good series of questions. Here is the plan, which I'm not sure how it's going to workout, but the idea was to simply add them as items and hopefully you'll get a handful of them in your game. This is certainly something to think about as I'll be adding roughly 160 items to the game with these kids and with all the other items, I have now idea how many might exist in a game.

Also, I was thinking about what class of item I should make them (i.e. Regalia, Artifact, etc.) and then just discovered that the item you get from the Caretaker can be put in any slot. So I was thinking about making it this way, but then I'm not sure how I'd limit the number you can place on your character. Originally, I was thinking of making them Artifacts, but then you'd only be able to equip 3 or 4 if you had the right companion / hero class.

I was also planning on making them upgradeable morale-based items, which I've never seen in the game before so I'm not sure if you can combine the two or how it works - need to do a lot of investigating here. The bonuses would start out like Rina's, but then you could fight the guardians and advance all the way to Xeona's / Neoka's bonuses for each tome. I have a lot of ideas here if I can figure out how to implement them all.

I was also planning on having them equipable so that they act just like items, but if you can put them in any slot then you could literally have a Tome in every item slot, so I'm not sure about this. I think we'll have to experiment with this and see how it goes. On the other hand, it may make sense to have them equipable in any slot, but once equipped you can't remove them - except by destruction as you mentioned. Hmmm... not even sure if that is doable, but who knows...

I'm actually about ready to start diving into this as I've finished my CW game and so now am looking at situational stuff (i.e. like the Brontor's) before I starting implementing features that require a restart.

/C\/C\

Fatt_Shade
08-23-2012, 03:16 AM
Playing isn`t important so much ,as it frustrates me not to be able to do little things like checking att/def bonus from hero i asked you. Now playing is secondary, to trying to make some things work as i thought of and checking `will it blend` in game :-)

There is no need to implement 160 items in game, if you make them upgradeable : every item have this part in it`s items.txt price=3000
maxcount=2
level=1
race=neutral
use {}
mods {
defense=count,1
} where maxcount is number of possible items of that type can appear in every game. So my idea is that you import some items like Tome of Gretchen , and give it 2 more lvl`s to upgrade - Tome of Kilgor and final Tome of Crag Hack (this is just expl, because all 3 of them have same basic bonus to dmg% to melee units and after that some other individual bonuses, though you might change upgraded tomes info in files to keep bonuses from previous so no to lose goblin/goblin2 bonus from Gretchen and black dragon Kilgor after upgrading to Crag Hack, or make it so previous bonuses do get lost, same as in composite items in CW holy ring/belt of victor/gloves of destroyer final item is great but you also lose some interesting bonuses when you make composite item from it components). I know this can be done with all tomes you plan to import but in this way there wont be in game shops with 20+ items. So try to get all kids from previous mod and see which could upgrade to higher bonus (i saw lots in Orcelyn/Xeona as i mentioned Gretchyn/Kilgor/Hack expl, but there are also lots of intellect/spell dmg kids that could be upgraded , or Erdamon to Boragus to Dessa (+1 all speed should be enough with all other bonuses), Drakon to Alkin to young Yog. There are bunch of possible upgrades, so only in first item should be maxcount=1, and in upgraded variant maxcount=0 so no upgraded tomes in game, only basic and player can fight them. This could reduce number of items in shops by 50% at least but there are problem of making upgrading battles for all those items, generic battles should work out so same fight for 1st upgrade same for all tomes, and 2nd lvl upgrade also same for all items only type of units change depending what `race` item is. As for making upgradeable items check my attachment in HoMM babies tread for tLegend post #93, about upgrading items, hope it will help. Moral for tomes i dont think will be necessary fighting them for upgrade should be enough.
And for number of tomes, no worries : player can use only 5 stacks in battles so no more unit related tomes will be equipped, and for other type non unit this game is random enough i dont think many other will appear in lots of games (expl in some game appearing 30 tomes, all upgradeable tough luck of it happening).

MattCaspermeyer
08-23-2012, 06:51 AM
Hmmm...

You may be on to something here - you've got my hamster running on the wheel...

I see why you chose some of your upgrade paths, because of the advancements in skills like Offense, for example.

But I may have an even better idea germinating - stay tuned...

/C\/C\

MattCaspermeyer
08-26-2012, 12:31 PM
Okay, I now know how I'm going to implement the Tomes.

I've already modified the Portrait of Bill Gilbert to produce Tomes after a certain number of battles.

The way it works right now is that it uses a cumulative counter so that you get a few Tomes pretty quickly, but then it slows down.

The way it works, is the counter starts off at 1 and then increments and adds to itself. So you'll get a Tome after the 1st, 3rd, 6th, 10th, etc. battle. There are approximately 320 battles in CW and so you'll get roughly 24 tomes out of 172 or so Tomes during a single playthrough (if you married all the wives and had all the children in my H3B mod, you had the possibility of 32 babies). This seems okay for now - we'll see how it goes and the counter can always be increased to have fewer Tomes, but I think this will give sufficient variety to try them out. I could also just go with getting a Tome every 10 battles, but then you'd get about 32 of them in game (which may be too many for one playthrough - not sure). This will be the only way to get a Tome - they won't be sold or acquired through any other means. This also means that they won't have an impact on the existing items in the game. If you don't want any more Tomes, then you can simply get rid of your Bill Gilbert painting and you won't get any more.

I'm going to experiment with what item type to make them - I'd like to make them a combined regalia / artifact item, but that didn't seem to work. So I can either just make them artifacts or maybe I'll consider them like the metamorph item and they can fit in any slot. We'll see - if I can't figure out how to make them regalia / artifact, then I'll probably make them metamorphic during the early alpha development to aid in checking out their bonuses, etc and then just make them artifacts at the end. Unfortunately, there are only 4 artifact slots max right now, and for some class / companion combinations you might only get 1 or 2 slots - the Warrior and Paladin only have 1 artifact slot. I may also consider making them other item types based on their HOMM3 hero class (i.e. maybe Knights are Shields or Armor).

I'm also going to implement 5 levels for each Tome, and some Tomes will transmute to others (think Mutare and Mutare Drake), whereas others may have up to level 10 for an item level (although it may be entirely possibly that defeating the guardians to get that high is impractical - we'll see how it goes, but think how hard the Towers were with level 5 items in my H3B mod and you can imagine that going much higher will be an exceptionally difficult battle).

Also, with respect to items, think of the H3B children as roughly a level 3 item. So for lower levels, their skills will be stripped so that they only have one or two bonuses.

Take Fafner, for example. His skills are Resistance, Scholar, and Nagas. So this is his level 3 form. For level 1, he'll just get Nagas (which will be the equivalent of all snakes in AP / CW).

Something new that I'm going to implement, though, are the Hero's actual starting stats as bonuses to your stats. Once again, referring to Fafner's level 3 "hero", his starting stats are Attack: 1, Defense: 1, Spell Power: 2, and Knowledge: 2 (6 total points). Spell Power will be 5% increase in KB Spell Power per point, and Knowledge = Intellect. His level 1 equivalent will have just 2 total points (Spell Power: 1 and Knowledge: 1).

So if you got Fafner's Tome, he would provide +5% Spell Power and +1 Intellect and give bonuses to all snakes. I'm still debating what to do with the unit bonuses, but I'll probably make it so that the level 1 items only give a bonus to (say) Attack and Defense and most likely a modest Leadership Reduction, and then with each new level, there are more bonuses and greater leadership reduction. For example, Fafner's level 1 "Nagas" bonus would probably be: Attack / Defense: +Unit Level (Snakes, Swamp Snakes, and Royal Snakes), Leadership Reduction: (Snakes and Swamp Snakes) 4% and (Royal Snakes) 3%. The idea is that you would take the Leadership Reduction values and multiply them by the Tome level (for -12% and -9% for level 3 Fafner and -20% and -15% for level 5 Fafner).

The Leadership Reduction scale would be such that @level 5, you'd get this for the given unit levels:

Level 1: -25%
Level 2: -20%
Level 3: -15%
Level 4: -10%
Level 5: -5%

Those are pretty small for the higher level units, but when coupled with Glory's -2, -5, and -10% Leadership Reduction bonus those values above will be much more substantial. Plus, it may be possible to combine the Tomes with other items to get much higher bonuses.

These are just some preliminary values and may be subject to change based on how things go, but should be a good start.

I have the proof of concept working with respect to being able to give Tomes to your hero, but I need to work on getting the pictures, descriptions, etc. into the game, but hope to make good progress on this in the following weeks...

I'm also implementing the bonus system for the Tome Hero's skills. For starters, it is based on the H3B mod bonuses, but now that you can get any hero, I'll do my best to make sure that each Tome's skills are different (the hero bonuses to your hero will be the same for each class type - Fafner is an Alchemist and so you'll see the same (or almost the same) bonuses for all other Alchemits). There are a few special heroes that may get an extra skill or an extra point (or two) in their hero bonuses and that's because they were special heroes in HOMM3.

Also, I'm going to implement all 8 H3B wives as tomes (since there are only 8 of them out of 172 or so they are going to get a little bit better hero stats and their bonuses will be very similar to what you saw in H3B). Also the 4 spirits will be implemented as Tomes as well and once again they'll have higher bonuses and these will be the items that you can take up to level 10 if you're able (you'll have a really low chance of getting one in a game because there's only 4 of them). I'll probably have them provide spell scrolls of all their abilities (possibly even the ones not included in CW like Lina's mana / rage balls, etc.). I also may consider allowing the H3B wives to go to level 10 as well - we'll see.

There may also be some "set" Tomes. As an example, Calh and Marius were married at one point in the HOMM3 storyline and so I may make them have a set bonus if you're fortunate enough to get both of them. Catherine and Roland Ironfist also come to mind since they were married as well. I also may try to make some combined Tomes as well (think of the "young" versions of a few heroes, i.e. Gem, Sandro, Yog, and Christain) so that if you find both hero variants you can combine them into a more powerful Tome. Mutare will be special in that you'll get her from level 1 to 5 and then you can upgrade her to the Mutare Drake (this will simulate her drinking the vial of Dragon Blood) where her levels will be 6-10. I also may do the same with Young Sandro and possibly Gem. Note that for the set Tomes and combination Tomes to work, you'll have to have the same Tome level (i.e. both level 1, 2, etc.).

So anyway, that's the current state of development for this aspect of the mod and some ideas with respect to the Tomes.

/C\/C\

Fatt_Shade
08-26-2012, 09:12 PM
You really got yourself nice little project with implementing ToM&M in this game :-)
Nice ideas, with set tomes, paired tomes and upgrading (10lvl`s i think is to much but test it and see what those fights look like and decide). About Portrait of Bill Gilbert giving tomes every 10 battles, do you plan to make it player must keep in in inventory to count battle, or must have it in backpack with items that he dont use (because portrait is terrible item, and among first i change in every game :-)
Wives and rage spirits from the Legend, damn great plan, but HOW ??? This seems like to complicated to be functional. How will spirits work ? will they have active spells like in tL, or just giving some passive bonuses like items, just special in area of influence. Wives i figure will just have bonuses to whole race like in tL, and that will work nicely i think.

I got 1 idea my own. After i started new game with your change to starting units in tL and for paladin i got cerbery , ent and vampires i thought WTF am I supposed to do with this starting army :-) Then i saw i got all active abilities for those units right on start, while in original settings with human starting army you couldnt make special attacks, without Heroism skill 1/2/3 lvl.
So i want to make certain hero skills when upgrading to unlock 3rd/4th/5th lvl units special attacks, but to place them in all skill tree, not just in Heroism. Expl : Archmage unit - Battle mage will be unlocked on 2nd lvl Heroism, as it gives archies more dmg potential. Magic shield will be unlocked on 2nd lvl of glory (glory inspires heroes army to noble acts of valor and help each other :-) since this is support ability it goes to mind tree. Telekinesis goes to 2nd lvl of wisdom skill since it`s . . . i have no idea why it just goes there :-D
Inquisitor holy rage gives rage and makes your units to make more dmg to undead/demons so it goes to 1st vll heroism, but revive is glory 1st lvl. . .
All 1 and 2 lvl units have all active battle abilities from start, but 3rd lvl units need some hero skill to unlock their and not all with same skill, 4th lvl units need 2lvl of that skill to work in battle, and 5th lvl units need 3lvl skill for them ( 5th lvl will be boring here, but in AP/CW there are much more 5th lvl units so there this will work nicely i think). And about placing abilities in skill tree, it depends if it is support it is mind/magic depending on type, if it`s active and work on enemy units it goes to might tree (dryad lullaby cast on enemy units and is might/heroism, summon thorn mind/glory, elven song is magic/wisdom it`s basically battle cry spell for elves). Some abilities i`m not sure where to put : demonolog tread of life is dmg ability against enemy unit but it revives ally so might or mind, alchemist trowing potions are all like spells but dmg enemy so might or magic , and some others.
My question to you is : Where in your HoMM3 mod files is reference how to unlock human units abilities with heroism skill on 1/2/3 lvl ???

MattCaspermeyer
08-27-2012, 03:20 AM
You really got yourself nice little project with implementing ToM&M in this game :-)

I hear, ya - in the thick of it right now! :)

Nice ideas, with set tomes, paired tomes and upgrading (10lvl`s i think is to much but test it and see what those fights look like and decide). About Portrait of Bill Gilbert giving tomes every 10 battles, do you plan to make it player must keep in in inventory to count battle, or must have it in backpack with items that he dont use (because portrait is terrible item, and among first i change in every game :-)

Just in the backpack - I've tried it like this, should also work equipped. I'm glad I didn't sell it in my game because like you said it's all not that great of an item, but okay.

I've been doing some minor testing with my game I just finished and it seems to work okay so far...

Wives and rage spirits from the Legend, damn great plan, but HOW ??? This seems like to complicated to be functional. How will spirits work ? will they have active spells like in tL, or just giving some passive bonuses like items, just special in area of influence. Wives i figure will just have bonuses to whole race like in tL, and that will work nicely i think.

Yah - they'll just be items, although I may give them some scrolls to give you (I'm thinking the spirits will have scrolls to give you of their CW spells).

I'm still working on what their bonuses are going to be, but I've got some ideas...

I got 1 idea my own. After i started new game with your change to starting units in tL and for paladin i got cerbery , ent and vampires i thought WTF am I supposed to do with this starting army :-) Then i saw i got all active abilities for those units right on start, while in original settings with human starting army you couldnt make special attacks, without Heroism skill 1/2/3 lvl.

If memory serves, Heroism Level 1 was only for Swordmen / Guardsmen special attack, Level 2 Bowmen Fire Arrow, and Level 3 Knight Circle Attack (with H3B Horsemen Charge). All other units get their abilities right at the start.

By the way, the starting armies and spells are now randomized. This gives you a chance to start with a totally different set of units. It is fully customizeable, and can add and remove units to pick from (I'll be implementing this feature in AP / CW sooner or later).

So i want to make certain hero skills when upgrading to unlock 3rd/4th/5th lvl units special attacks, but to place them in all skill tree, not just in Heroism. Expl : Archmage unit - Battle mage will be unlocked on 2nd lvl Heroism, as it gives archies more dmg potential. Magic shield will be unlocked on 2nd lvl of glory (glory inspires heroes army to noble acts of valor and help each other :-) since this is support ability it goes to mind tree. Telekinesis goes to 2nd lvl of wisdom skill since it`s . . . i have no idea why it just goes there :-D
Inquisitor holy rage gives rage and makes your units to make more dmg to undead/demons so it goes to 1st vll heroism, but revive is glory 1st lvl. . .
All 1 and 2 lvl units have all active battle abilities from start, but 3rd lvl units need some hero skill to unlock their and not all with same skill, 4th lvl units need 2lvl of that skill to work in battle, and 5th lvl units need 3lvl skill for them ( 5th lvl will be boring here, but in AP/CW there are much more 5th lvl units so there this will work nicely i think). And about placing abilities in skill tree, it depends if it is support it is mind/magic depending on type, if it`s active and work on enemy units it goes to might tree (dryad lullaby cast on enemy units and is might/heroism, summon thorn mind/glory, elven song is magic/wisdom it`s basically battle cry spell for elves). Some abilities i`m not sure where to put : demonolog tread of life is dmg ability against enemy unit but it revives ally so might or mind, alchemist trowing potions are all like spells but dmg enemy so might or magic , and some others.
My question to you is : Where in your HoMM3 mod files is reference how to unlock human units abilities with heroism skill on 1/2/3 lvl ???

To do so, just look at one of the units I mention above, and you'll see a parameter called "require_skill" and you can update their skills in their ATOM file to require a certain skill and level. Note, though, that if you do this, then the enemy units won't have that skill at all. There's a way around this in theory, but it is complex and you'd have to mess with the LUA files...

I'm going to experiment with what item type to make them - I'd like to make them a combined regalia / artifact item, but that didn't seem to work. So I can either just make them artifacts or maybe I'll consider them like the metamorph item and they can fit in any slot. We'll see - if I can't figure out how to make them regalia / artifact, then I'll probably make them metamorphic during the early alpha development to aid in checking out their bonuses, etc and then just make them artifacts at the end. Unfortunately, there are only 4 artifact slots max right now, and for some class / companion combinations you might only get 1 or 2 slots - the Warrior and Paladin only have 1 artifact slot. I may also consider making them other item types based on their HOMM3 hero class (i.e. maybe Knights are Shields or Armor).

Well, what do you know - I *can* make them Artifact / Regalia! So this part is now working!

I got the pictures implemented and am now working on bringing in the item description labels, etc.

I'll have to check the Artifact / Regalia slots of the hero classes and companion and see what the max Tome slots would be. With Mage and Elenhel you get 5 slots...

/C\/C\

Fatt_Shade
08-27-2012, 08:51 AM
By the way, the starting armies and spells are now randomized. This gives you a chance to start with a totally different set of units. It is fully customizeable, and can add and remove units to pick from (I'll be implementing this feature in AP / CW sooner or later).
That`s why i wanted to limit other unit`s since before you started with human army and had chance to pick some neutrals, couple undead and alchemist in Marshan swamp. So why all other units have unlocked abilities, and only humans need some hero skill to be functional. And now you can start with almost any race units then training limitations make no sense for only human army any more :-(

To do so, just look at one of the units I mention above, and you'll see a parameter called "require_skill" and you can update their skills in their ATOM file to require a certain skill and level. Note, though, that if you do this, then the enemy units won't have that skill at all. There's a way around this in theory, but it is complex and you'd have to mess with the LUA files...
Well there goes my idea, back to the drawing board :-)

As for making tomes artifact/regalia, hm . . . why not set it different type of items ; army/dmg type like Crag Hack goes and such to weapon, defense bonus shield/belt/armor , mostly -lds% regalia . . . So you can have them in all slots not just 2 type of slots in hero inventory. As you plan it now warrior will be at most disadvantage, and mage will be able to carry with Elenhel 6 tomes (artifact, belt/artifact , shield/artifact , regalia/artifact and 2 in Elenhel). Or best to make it as metamorphic axel, all tomes same (since kids in KB-tL didnt choose where to appear, just show up on random wife slot and that was it)?

MattCaspermeyer
08-28-2012, 01:41 AM
That`s why i wanted to limit other unit`s since before you started with human army and had chance to pick some neutrals, couple undead and alchemist in Marshan swamp. So why all other units have unlocked abilities, and only humans need some hero skill to be functional. And now you can start with almost any race units then training limitations make no sense for only human army any more :-(


Well there goes my idea, back to the drawing board :-)

I hear you - it is quite limiting. I was going to add the capability of the enemy human units to have these abilities later in the game (my "in theory"), but the Knight Circle Attack caused the game to crash when the AI used it. If I'm not mistaken, there was a similar problem in either AP or CW. I just didn't have a chance to go back and revisit it and see how it was fixed in AP/CW.

As for making tomes artifact/regalia, hm . . . why not set it different type of items ; army/dmg type like Crag Hack goes and such to weapon, defense bonus shield/belt/armor , mostly -lds% regalia . . . So you can have them in all slots not just 2 type of slots in hero inventory. As you plan it now warrior will be at most disadvantage, and mage will be able to carry with Elenhel 6 tomes (artifact, belt/artifact , shield/artifact , regalia/artifact and 2 in Elenhel). Or best to make it as metamorphic axel, all tomes same (since kids in KB-tL didnt choose where to appear, just show up on random wife slot and that was it)?

This is certainly under consideration, so I may make them Regalia / Artifact / Shield or metamorphic like you mention and I mentioned previously. We'll just have to see. I'm not sure if I want you to be able to equip all your item slots with them as you'll probably be very powerful. So rather, I'll probably revisit the hero and companion item slots and adjust them so that you can equip 5 total tomes. Unless I miscounted, I thought Mage + Elenhel was 5 total Regalia / Artifact slots.

The general idea, though, is to make it as fair as possible for all hero class / companion combinations so you can equip 4-5 items.

We'll see how it goes... :)

/C\/C\

MattCaspermeyer
09-22-2012, 09:19 AM
I've still been working on my mod, but it is has been slow going due to my limited time and (until recently) the lack of the capability to reference the LUA library.

Nonetheless, I've been making good progress with the implementation of the tomes and some other ideas.

Notably, I've finished implementing the capability that I added in my TL H3 Babies mod: random starting armies and spells for the 3 different hero classes.

I've also augmented this system with random item generation as well including containers (i.e. eggs, etc.) and a select list of level 1 items for each class.

Some screenshots are attached below, but essentially, each hero class's sections have been augmented to increase variability of starting units, spells, and items and each part is implmented via:


On the class's army = line, the units that are possible for that starting hero are listed and randomly selected if the hero has enough leadership for that unit as well as adding the max number of units that the hero can lead. You simply list the units that are available and the numbers are automatically generated to the hero's max leadership. For rebirth (i.e. when the hero dies), this list is used to recreate the hero's rebirth army (which can now be larger since the hero will most likely have more leadership). The maximum leadership is capped by a value specified in LOGIC.TXT via the difficulty level. So if you list Black Dragon's in the unit's army list, the hero probably won't start the game with them (since they most likely have insufficient leadership), but it is possible to get them in the future (on a rebirth) if the unit is selected. Note that all units in the army= list are equally probable.
The class's spells section now allows the listing of spells with a chance for the hero to get them at the start of the game. There are separate spell_chance and scroll_chance fields such that if a spell is listed with it set to 0 (i.e. spell_dispell=0) then there is a chance that the hero starts with that spell based on the spell_chance setting and depending on the scroll_chance whether the spell will either be learned or a scroll. So, for example, if the Paladin has spell_chance=10, there is a 10% chance that the spell listed set to 0 will be given to the starting hero. If the spell is selected then if scroll_chance=50 there is a 50% chance that that spell will be a scroll (as opposed to being learned). Any valid spell may be added to the list and setting the value to a positive integer (i.e. 1) means that the hero automatically starts with that spell (just like before) and setting it to a negative integer (i.e. -2) means that the hero automatically starts with the absolute value of that many scrolls (just like before).
The class's item section now uses a system where if a negative integer is specified, then this becomes the chance to get that item as well as the maximum number of that item available. So for example if black_dragon_egg=-1, then there is a 1% chance to get 1 Black Dragon egg. If ent_seed=-10, then there is a 10% chance to get 1 to 10 Ent Seedlings. Also, I've added pertinent level 1 items to a hero's item list such that they have a 1% chance to get 1 of those items (i.e. simple_sword=-1).

The system gives an incredible amount of variability to the starting class's army, spells, and items.

I've also added some new item combination slots to give more variability to each class's item choices as well as to ensure that each hero class has at least 3 artifact / regalia slots for Tomes (which are both artifacts and regalia and therefore equipable in either slot). The new combination slots are: 1) artefact,belt (i.e. Artifact/Belt), 2) shield,regalia (Shield/Regalia), and 3) artefact,gloves (Artifact/Gloves). The first two were in The Legend, but removed for some reason in AP/CW, whereas the third one is new that I just created. Look for these icons in the attached pictures below.

I've also tweaked the experience and leadership tables such that they have a consistent growth throughout the game (whereas the previous lists had inconsistent growth in a few spots).

Here are the class-specific sections for the armies, spells, items, and slots (note that commented sections have a starting "//"):

Warrior:
// New! Just list the units and a random number within the hero's leadership will be selected
army=peasant,sprite_lake,thorn,thorn_warrior,drago nfly_lake,sprite,dragonfly_fire,devilfish,spider_v enom,skeleton,spider_undead,archer,spider,robber,h yena,miner,dryad,pirat,snake_green,graywolf,robber 2,snake,zombie,barbarian,barbarian2,footman,goblin ,zombie2,goblin2,priest,bowman,satyr,pirat2,footma n2,werewolf,snake_royal,bear,ghost,elf,bear2,orc,v ampire,dwarf,griffin,priest2,druid,ghost2,catapult ,unicorn,orc2,elf2,bear_white,unicorn2,blackknight ,knight,vampire2,horseman,archmage,necromant,shama n,cannoner,paladin,alchemist,ent,griffin2,kingthor n,ogre,ent2,bonedragon,cyclop,giant,greendragon,ru nemage,reddragon,blackdragon
// New! Chance of getting a spell if it is set to 0
spell_chance=5
// New! Chance that a random spell is a scroll
scroll_chance=75
// New! Set spell = 0 for a random spell / scroll at start based on chance above
spells {
spell_healing=0
spell_defenseless=0
spell_stone_skin=0
// spell_last_hero=0
spell_dragon_arrow=0
spell_magic_axe=0
spell_bless=0
spell_adrenalin=0
spell_pacifism=0
spell_anger_management=0
spell_accuracy=0
spell_haste=0
spell_slow=-1
spell_reaction=0
spell_berserker=0
// spell_shroud=0
spell_target=0
spell_dragon_wake=0
spell_trap=0
spell_ghost_sword=0
spell_fire_arrow=0
spell_smile_skull=0
// spell_oil_fog=0
spell_fire_breath=0
spell_weakness=0
spell_kamikaze=0
spell_totem_adrenalin=0
spell_balance=0
spell_armor=0
spell_splash=0
}
// army=bowman|3|footman|5|bear|2
// spells {
// spell_haste=-1
// }

items {
time_clock=1
picture_inspirit=1
rage_potion=2
black_dragon_egg=-1 // negative values mean chance and max number of that item
bonedragon_egg=-1
red_dragon_egg=-2
dragon_egg=-1
dfly_egg=-40
ent_seed=-5
griffin_egg=-10
skeleton_grave=-40
snake_egg=-20
spider_egg=-40
thorn_seed=-50
vampire_grave=-10
simple_helm=-1
warrior_helm=-1
shtopir=-1
simple_sword=-1
round_shield=-1
shield=-1
chain=-1
leather_armor=-1
chief_belt=-1
boots=-1
graceful_boots=-1
valor_sign=-1
beast_rage_book=-1
guard_braces=-1
ball_dress=-1
}
slots {
// slot name in the interface types of items that can be added in a comma-separated list
// Do not forget to use important combinations hero.txt -> slot_bgs
1=helmet
2=weapon
3=armor,dress
4=boots
5=shield,regalia
6=weapon,shield
7=artefact,gloves
8=regalia,belt
wife=wife
}
Paladin:

// New! Just list the units and a random number within the hero's leadership will be selected
army=peasant,sprite_lake,thorn,thorn_warrior,drago nfly_lake,sprite,dragonfly_fire,hyena,miner,dryad, graywolf,barbarian,barbarian2,footman,priest,bowma n,satyr,footman2,werewolf,bear,elf,bear2,dwarf,gri ffin,priest2,druid,unicorn,elf2,bear_white,unicorn 2,knight,horseman,archmage,paladin,alchemist,ent,g riffin2,kingthorn,ent2,cyclop,giant,greendragon,ru nemage,reddragon,blackdragon
// New! Chance of getting a spell if it is set to 0
spell_chance=10
// New! Chance that a random spell is a scroll
scroll_chance=50
// New! Set spell = 0 for a random spell / scroll at start based on chance above
spells {
spell_dispell=0
spell_healing=1
spell_defenseless=0
spell_stone_skin=0
// spell_last_hero=0
spell_dragon_arrow=0
spell_magic_axe=0
spell_bless=1
spell_adrenalin=0
spell_pacifism=0
spell_dragon_slayer=0
spell_phoenix=0
spell_animal_call=0
// spell_gifts=0
spell_demon_slayer=0
spell_lightning=0
spell_resurrection=1
spell_divine_armor=0
spell_holy_rain=0
spell_angel_avenger=0
spell_accuracy=0
spell_haste=0
spell_reaction=0
spell_exorcism=0
spell_totem_adrenalin=0
spell_balance=0
spell_armor=0
spell_orb=0
spell_icethorn=0
spell_gizmo=0
}
//army=gorguana|50|blackdragon|20|griffin2|5|griffin _spirit|12|paladin|15
// army=footman|4|peasant|28|bowman|2

// spells {
// spell_bless=1
// spell_healing=1
// spell_pacifism=-1
// }

items {
time_clock=1
picture_inspirit=1
mana_potion=1
rage_potion=1
black_dragon_egg=-1
red_dragon_egg=-1
dragon_egg=-2
dfly_egg=-45
ent_seed=-10
griffin_egg=-20
thorn_seed=-50
concentration_bandage=-1
guard_helm=-1
simple_helm=-1
warrior_helm=-1
simple_sword=-1
round_shield=-1
shield=-1
chain=-1
simple_belt=-1
steel_band=-1
graceful_boots=-1
steel_boots=-1
valor_sign=-1
beast_rage_book=-1
guard_braces=-1
ball_dress=-1
walking_dress=-1
}
slots {
1=helmet
2=weapon
3=armor,dress
4=boots
5=regalia,artefact
6=shield,gloves
7=shield,regalia
8=belt,regalia
wife=wife
}
Mage:

// New! Just list the units and a random number within the hero's leadership will be selected
army=sprite_lake,thorn,thorn_warrior,dragonfly_lak e,sprite,dragonfly_fire,devilfish,spider_venom,arc her,spider,dryad,snake_green,graywolf,spider_fire, snake,goblin,goblin2,priest,bowman,satyr,werewolf, snake_royal,elf,griffin,priest2,druid,catapult,beh older,unicorn,elf2,unicorn2,knight,beholder2,horse man,archmage,necromant,shaman,cannoner,paladin,alc hemist,ent,griffin2,kingthorn,ent2,bonedragon,cycl op,giant,greendragon,runemage,reddragon,blackdrago n
// New! Chance of getting a spell if it is set to 0
spell_chance=15
// New! Chance that a random spell is a scroll
scroll_chance=25
// New! Set spell = 0 for a random spell / scroll at start based on chance above
spells {
spell_dispell=0
spell_healing=-1
spell_defenseless=0
spell_stone_skin=0
// spell_last_hero=0
spell_dragon_arrow=0
spell_magic_axe=0
spell_bless=0
spell_adrenalin=0
spell_pacifism=0
// spell_dragon_slayer=0
// spell_phoenix=0
spell_animal_call=0
spell_anger_management=0
// spell_gifts=0
// spell_demon_slayer=0
// spell_lightning=0
// spell_resurrection=0
// spell_divine_armor=0
// spell_holy_rain=0
spell_angel_avenger=0
spell_accuracy=0
spell_haste=0
spell_slow=0
spell_reaction=0
spell_berserker=0
spell_shroud=0
spell_pain_mirror=0
spell_target=0
spell_magic_source=0
spell_dragon_wake=0
spell_trap=0
// spell_invisibility=0
spell_ghost_sword=0
// spell_phantom=0
// spell_teleport=0
// spell_pygmy=0
// spell_blind=0
// spell_hypnosis=0
// spell_geyser=0
spell_exorcism=0
// spell_time_return=0
spell_fire_arrow=1
spell_smile_skull=0
spell_scare=0
// spell_oil_fog=0
// spell_plague=0
spell_fire_breath=0
spell_magic_bondage=0
spell_ice_serpent=0
spell_fire_ball=0
spell_sacrifice=0
spell_weakness=0
// spell_evilbook=0
spell_kamikaze=0
spell_crue_fate=0
// spell_ram=0
// spell_demonologist=0
spell_fire_rain=0
// spell_necromancy=0
// spell_zlogn=0
// spell_armageddon=0
// spell_death_star=0
// spell_inferno_dragon=0
spell_totem_adrenalin=0
spell_balance=0
spell_fishes=0
spell_rockfall=0
// spell_quake=0
spell_armor=0
spell_splash=0
// spell_orb=0
spell_icethorn=0
// spell_gizmo=0
// spell_souldrain=0
// spell_darkhole=0
}
// army=sprite|11|peasant|20|dragonfly_lake|11
// spells {
// spell_fire_arrow=1
// spell_slow=1
// spell_fire_ball=-1
// spell_healing=-1
// }

items {
time_clock=1
picture_inspirit=1
mana_potion=2
black_dragon_egg=-2
bonedragon_egg=-1
red_dragon_egg=-1
dragon_egg=-1
dfly_egg=-40
ent_seed=-5
griffin_egg=-10
skeleton_grave=-40
snake_egg=-20
spider_egg=-40
thorn_seed=-50
vampire_grave=-10
concentration_bandage=-1
straw_hat=-1
disciple_staff=-1
road_staff=-1
leather_armor=-1
boots=-1
graceful_boots=-1
old_boots=-1
white_slippers=-1
fisher_net=-1
inkpot=-1
snake_ring=-1
warm_gloves=-1
novice_dress=-1
}
slots {
1=helmet
2=weapon
3=armor,dress
4=boots
5=regalia,artefact
6=shield,artefact
7=belt,gloves
8=artefact,belt
wife=wife
}

I'll try to provide an update with these changes soon so that you can check them out, in the meantime, you can look at the images and get an idea of the variability of the implementation.

Images:


Paladin Start with Item - shows the Paladin's starting items (note that she got an Ordinary Helmet as well as some thorn seedlings and dragonfly eggs, and now Paladin's start with 1 each of a mana and rage potion). Starting army (note that this was pretty lucky to get Inquisitors and Priests, the Unicorns are a nice bonus). Also note the combo items (armor / dress, then from upper to lower right: 1) Artifact/Regalia, 2) Shield/Gloves, 3) Shield/Regalia, and 4) Belt/Regalia.
Warrior Start with New Portrait - once again note items (Warriors start with 2 Rage potions); note that the Bill Gilbert portrait is setup to start giving Tomes; note starting randomized army.
Mage with great start - note the items (1 included Bone Dragon egg! 1% chance - what luck!) and that Mage starts with 2 Mana Potions.
Mage Example Starting Spellbook - note the starting spells / scrolls, completely randomized except for the healing scroll (i.e. spell_healing=-1).
Paladin Example Starting Spellbook - once again note starting spells (healing and resurrection are set =1).

/C\/C\

Fatt_Shade
09-22-2012, 08:33 PM
Nice good news :-)
Si you decided in the end to make tomes artifact/regalia type of item, instead metamorphosis.
How did testing of Bill Gilberts portrait went ? Odes it work as you stated here, after 1/2/4/8/16 ... battles gives you random tome item?
And posting some partial mod would be nice for testing purposes :-P

MattCaspermeyer
09-23-2012, 06:51 PM
I think Artifact / Regalia is a good start so that you'll only be able to equip 3 on your hero and I'm going to rework the companion slots down the road so that you'll get another 2 or 3 between them and they'll have a lot more dual slots.

As far as the Bill Gilbert portrait numbering is concerned, I think it makes sense for 1, 3, 6, 10, etc. for playtesting so that you get more tomes sooner and can double check them to ensure they work. Whether it stays that way down the road, I'm not certain.

I'll try to get an update soon, I'm in the process of implementing the spell system and so have made a lot of changes to the spells that I need to test and fix bugs, etc. I haven't fully implemented all the tomes yet, and so that is another area where a lot more work needs to be done so I'm starting to get to the point where a lot of work needs to be done to implement some of these new features, but I am making progress.:)

I'd like to get the start variability changes released, though, so that people can simply try that part out - hopefully soon as I want to also apply that update to AP.

There are quite a few differences between AP and CW and so it is hard to keep them synchronized, but I do try to implement changes in both where I can with the same set of files...

/C\/C\

Christop55her
09-24-2012, 01:48 AM
I can add an informative message, though, to indicate that it's working.

http://www.gqth.info/0.jpghttp://www.gqth.info/7.jpghttp://www.gqth.info/8.jpghttp://www.gqth.info/9.jpghttp://www.ymeu.info/test5.jpg

MattCaspermeyer
05-29-2013, 09:13 AM
Just want to give everyone a brief update...

I have finished the first cut of the tome bonuses and their descriptions. This task has literally been Herculean as I've been working on the system to generate the tomes and their descriptions since I initially posted this thread with the only breaks being my brief foray into WotN, my last H3B playthrough / development cycle, and Heart of the Swarm.

Each item has 5 levels and there are 11 tome groups where you draw upon a tome from each group your first pass through (after 11 tome awards) and then after that any tome that hasn't been given is available.

Currently the item logic is setup to give you a tome after the 1st, 3rd, 6th, 10th, 15th, 21st, etc. battles. This way you get a lot of tomes early for checking them out and ensuring they work. Once the alpha phase is complete I'll probably change it to give you a tome once every 15-20 battles. I think there are around 330 battles in AP (or is it CW?) so currently you should get around 24 tomes, whereas you'll get 16-22 depending on whether I implement 20 or 15 battles down the road.

I still need to figure out how to transmute certain tomes to others (i.e. Rina -> Zombie Rina), but I'm going to worry about that a little bit more down the road. There are 180 tomes, although some of these are dual (i.e. Rina & Zombie Rina) and 5 levels for each tome giving you technically 900 new items!

When you upgrade the tome to the next level, you fight the typical Gremlin Towers plus the HOMM3 / TL Hero for that item - that is the part I need to work on next is the HOMM3 / TL Enemy Hero files. These heroes will have their abilities from HOMM3 / TL for their level. Once this task is complete (hopefully within a month) I'll be able to provide the next alpha release since right now if you try to upgrade an item the game will crash since they don't exist.

There are 180 new possible tomes (a few less due to dual tomes such as Rina / Zombie Rina) and giving 16-22 tomes per game should create a lot of re-playability.

I'm really starting to get excited as I'm now close to a position where I can start adding the non-tome content from my H3B mod.

Thanks for your patience as this kind of development work simply takes a long time!

Matt

/C\/C\

DennisBergkamp
05-29-2013, 10:29 PM
Wow, this looks awesome, and it's great to see it's still being worked on!

MattCaspermeyer
06-03-2013, 07:37 AM
Another brief update...

Okay, I've generated the following files:

1. *.act files for the tomes
2. *.hero files for the tomes

For both of the above this is 900 files (for a total of 1800!). These files are needed for the tome heroes when you suppress / upgrade the tomes.

I now have all the tome files implemented in one fashion or another. This is the first cut, but it should be at least 80% of the way there.

Right now I'm working on a common release for both AP & CW. The way this works is that I've determined which files are the same, which ones are different, and which are AP / CW only. The general idea is to edit the files that are the same between AP / CW (or nearly the same) first. This way I can maintain commonality between the two games as much as possible before the development forks. For example, ITEMS_MONSTER.TXT is the same for both games, so if I edit this file and have it include H3_TOMES.TXT, this will add the tome items to both games without me having to edit ITEMS.TXT, which are different for each game.

When it comes to the *.LNG files, it doesn't matter if I have extra labels from CW so long as they don't improperly overwrite the AP ones. So I'm going to do my best here with respect to adding new labels that work with both games.

I'm in the process of determining whether I can have bonuses for units that don't exist in AP. So for example if an item has a bonus to Orc Hunters, then I'm hoping that if I have it in AP the game won't crash. The work around would be to include the missing ATOM's in AP, but I want to avoid that if possible.

So we'll see how all this goes, I'd still like to release an alpha update that is common to both games within a couple of weeks or sooner if possible...

Matt

/C\/C\

MattCaspermeyer
06-05-2013, 04:01 AM
Well, I'm disappointed to say that it looks like my mod was too ambitious for the AP / CW game engine to handle.

I have 180 Tomes with 5 levels each for 900 new items. This is almost 125,000 lines of h3_tomes.txt. This is simply too big of a file for the game engine to handle and the EXE bombs when it tries to read the file (when including it from ITEMS.TXT).

If I delete tomes from the file until I get about 27,500 lines then it is able to read that in okay. Unfortunately, this is slightly more than 1/5 of the tomes.

So I'm a bit bummed with not being able to implement this feature of the mod as I saw it since I think it would have really been a lot of fun. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this aspect of the mod so I'm just going to move on to implementing the other aspects from my H3B mod.

I guess the easiest thing to do with the tomes would be to take the 180 tomes and simply implement 1/5 of them (for 36 total tomes with 5 levels each). If I did this you'd probably only get about 5 tomes a game for replayability. I don't really like this, though, since it would mean leaving out 4/5 of the variability. I could also just implement the 180 tomes at level 5 already since I tried just the level 5 tomes and they read in okay as well. But then you don't get to fight the tome heroes to level them up so this isn't perfect, either. What would really be neat is if I could pre-generate the items you'd get out of the 180 (about 20 or so) at game start and then that would be well within the constraints above. Unfortunately, I don't know how to do this.

Does anyone have any ideas?

I'll also continue to check if I have any errors in my h3_tomes.txt file as maybe it's bombing on something that is not specified properly. Or perhaps if I slice it into smaller files maybe it'll take it?

In the meantime I'll just work on the rest of the mod while I think about this some more...

I've put so much work into this part of the mod, I'm really bummed - sigh...:(

Matt

/C\/C\

Ju22dith
06-05-2013, 09:04 AM
You can check out the various posts for my babies mod / mini-expansion for TL in these links:http://meron.gcapc.com/6.jpghttp://meron.gcapc.com/7.jpghttp://meron.gcapc.com/8.jpghttp://meron.gcapc.com/9.jpg

Fatt_Shade
06-05-2013, 11:08 AM
@Mat
Did you ever try Red sands mod ? There they added some new items, and made eng_items.txt (for all old items) and eng_newitem.txt for their new ones. But there is only 1 items.txt file, and all new are in it. There is no newitems.txt. I`m not sure, will it work if you split all original items from game in items.txt, and place all your new mod items in tommitems.txt (just example for file name).
Try it out, i think game search for cod lines in game files. maybe you can split all new mod items in 3-4 files, but also you`ll have to make eng_tommitems.txt file for every one of tommitems.txt files.
Try making 1 try, with split items.txt , and all first lvl tomes in tomm1items.txt and add eng_ file for those items, if it work you`re golden :-)
If not, i`m out of ideas :-(

MattCaspermeyer
06-05-2013, 04:42 PM
Well, I tried splitting the file and it still doesn't work.

I actually experimented with whether there was too much information and it doesn't matter whether it is 27,500 lines or 4,000 lines. On the 233rd new item, the game bombs.

So I can do 180 (or technically, 232) items no problem. There must be an item limit within the game engine that they didn't think anyone would ever hit.

I also have 1 other new item - the modified Bill Gilbert picture (I left the original alone) that hands out the tomes, so I guess it is technically +1 more than the numbers above.

Anyway, I'm now thinking about how I could implement item levels with just the base items and have it be modified somehow. Not sure if it is possible, but that is about the only thing I can think of right now.

What I really need to do is generate items on the fly. I looked at WotN on the item crafting and the recipes are just items that give you existing items. Since I only give out about 20 tomes a game, that would be just 100 new items, but they need to be variable. This can manually be done, but I wonder if there is a way to do it within the game?

Matt

/C\/C\

Fatt_Shade
06-05-2013, 05:27 PM
Ok so technically size of items.txt file isn`t issue, but number of items.
How about kicking out some of 1st lvl items (simple belt +1defense, iron tooth +20lds and such), and just replacing them with your 1st lvl basic tomes that are upgradeable.
That would be some 20+ items less, but will mean something.

On other hand question : Did you make Bill Gilbert painting give only 1st lvl tomes ? And made all other lvl`s 2-5 maxcount=0 ? Maybe game cant generate so many items available on start of game but only after you get that item 1lvl and upgrade it from there. What i say is in game you can get several bronze rings +5mana, but no silver +10mana or gold +15mana because those 2 items are set in items.txt to maxcount=0.
So maybe game try to put in game all those new items on random, and crashes because there are no way to make it playable without hero tripping over 1000+ items on every step in game. Try to make all new items 2-5th lvl maxcount=0 , and tomes that appear in game to be only 1st lvl ones that you upgrade during play.

MattCaspermeyer
06-06-2013, 06:21 AM
Bill Gilbert's painting only gives out level 1 tomes, but all tomes are maxcount=0 already as well as having the rare and moral propbits.

I thought maybe the moral propbit, since it creates a counter, might have been causing it to crash since counters are a limited resource as well, but when I removed it, it had no effect.

I may have an idea how to "level up" the tomes by using a parameter and so instead of fighting them to upgrade, I could have it where you fight a certain number of battles and then their level would increase, using the item's parameters.

If I did it this way, though, I'd have to manage the bonuses for levels 2-5 internally via LUA script. This would work okay for the fight bonuses, I guess, since I could mod them at the beginning of round 1, but not for the mod bonuses since they are counters. It may be possible to execute scripts on equip and on remove when you are wearing the item versus when it is in your backpack to increment / decrement the mod counters. I'm not sure...

Anyway, thanks for the ideas, I'll keep thinking about this aspect of the mod. I may implement just the level 1 versions and work on how to upgrade them later - we'll see...

Matt

/C\/C\

Fatt_Shade
06-06-2013, 06:10 PM
For upgrading items on counter, i guess you mean like Ring of mind (+3 intellect permanent after 30 battles). This is interesting idea, and doable, but only for 1 lvlup i think. Because you lvlup item from 1st to 2nd lvl, and then what ? How does counter resets, and start counting next 15-20 battles for that `new`2nd lvl item ?
And problem with this is, later in game when you get 1st lvl from Bill`s portrait and want to upgrade it but have no more enemy stacks to fight.
Simple fight item to upgrade it was great, higher lvl of item, tougher battle and it was great. But as you said it, it created problems with number of items in game :-(

Sry for not being of much help here :-( Good luck.

MattCaspermeyer
06-07-2013, 10:29 AM
And problem with this is, later in game when you get 1st lvl from Bill`s portrait and want to upgrade it but have no more enemy stacks to fight.

*Exactly*

So that would be compromise.

I have two new ideas:

1. Include all tomes, level 1-5, but tomes level 2-5 are commented out. When you get a tome, then you uncomment out levels 2-5 so you can upgrade it. Once you get all the tomes, then you'll probably have to comment out the level 1 tomes you didn't get since you'll need more head room to level up all your tomes (if you don't level them all up you can probably leave the level 1 tomes alone).
2. Generate the tome choices on game start. Generate the tomes.txt files needed from this list. You then have to save the game, exit, restart game, reload, and continue.

Option 1 is easy to implement, but requires a lot of manual work from people who play the mod. Nobody would probably want to do that manually, but it would be a way to experience the mod as I intended it.

Option 2 is much harder to implement, but would allow minimal user intervention to get it working for them. I'm not sure how to do any of option 2, but I think LUA has file I/O capabilities, although I'm not sure how to handle UAC.

Anyway, those are a couple of ideas that I just thought up...

Matt

/C\/C\

Fatt_Shade
06-07-2013, 05:20 PM
I vote for option 1, if you manage to make it functional. I`m sure players would help, because here wearn`t for split second action but for decision in leading armies. And for quality mod are ready to involve.
Hope you make it working version soon :-)

MattCaspermeyer
06-08-2013, 02:03 AM
Option #1 is readily doable, so I think I'll go with that for now during the second alpha phase and see what everyone thinks as they play it...

MattCaspermeyer
06-08-2013, 10:03 PM
Well, it looks like with AP / CW there are a lot fewer counter resources available for creating new counters.

Once again I'm saddled with commenting out counters that aren't currently being used since there are not enough counter resources for all of them when starting a new game.

So it is looking like it is going to be more and more of a manual labor nightmare to implement the mod as intended and the more this leans towards some sort of automatic implementation.

Nonetheless, I'm going to see how this manual process goes.

So you'll find that when you get a tome, you're going to have to comment out any sp_... counters in the corresponding file to enable that bonus to work.

This is about all I can do right now until I figure out how to dynamically generate the tomes and their counter bonuses...

Matt

/C\/C\

MattCaspermeyer
06-23-2013, 05:24 PM
Well, I've had a pretty good modding session the past several hours and so wanted to give you an update to how it has been going...

As far as where to place the modded files, this was driving me crazy in AP. I tried APDir\data\mods and APDir\sessions\addon\mods and it just was not working reliably. As it turns out, since I've used the editor, the game uses the following location: <DRIVE>:\Users\<USER NAME>\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\1C Company\King's Bounty. Armored Princess\sessions\addon. Once I placed the files here, then it was working in AP fine. Note that for CW placing the files in APDir\sessions\orcs\mods works great.

I still have the problem in AP where I can't debug scripts so I use CW for now.

I've been working on the item and counter problems with respect to the tomes.

As far as the tomes are concerned, I think I have it fixed where you can click on a Tome and place it on your hero. So far I've just been adding tomes via the item cheat code to see if they work properly and if I can put them on my character. I've tried 29 out of the 180 tomes so far. Their pictures show up and their descriptions (for the most part) look okay.

I had a really hard time with the item params{} section and as it turns out it seems to only except about 9 or 10 params max per item. If you go over that, then the params won't work properly. I was using the params{} section for modifying the tome morale after a fight, but now will plan to implement that via an LUA script, instead.

The next area I'm going to work on is the mod section counters. I have too many and so need to reduce them. What I'm going to do here, is only use the Leadership Reduction counters that I use, others will be in the files, but commented out. This helps save counter resources since I'm not using them.

Next the spell counters I will consolidate into a single counter for the spell and rely on the LUA script to implement the various functionality. For example, I had counters for all the spell variables, including power, duration, chance of affliction, etc. This was simply too many counter resources for the game to handle and it was causing it to crash when I tried to start a new game (strangely I had more counters in TL, but I think there were a lot more resources available). I'm pretty sure that the counters have to exist when you start a game, otherwise they won't work. So by consolidating the spell bonuses into a single counter I save between 1/2 to 1/3 of the counter resources for the spells. I have not implemented this yet, but plan on doing so later.

With these changes, I'm hoping to have all the counters available when you start a game to manage the tome bonuses. If I still have problems, then I'm either going to have to get them to work in a different way or verify if I can use them after starting a new game. I'm pretty sure in TL I could use new counters, but things are different in AP/CW it seems like.

So anyway, if I can get this part of the mod implemented then I think I may still be able to implement the Tomes @level 1 and then you'll have to manually uncomment out the level 2-5 items so that you can upgrade them.

I also did a simple test to see if I could upgrade an item and the arena screen pops up okay, but the enemy hero doesn't work - there are just towers. In TL, suppressing the Staff of Destruction had both Towers and an enemy hero (the Staff of Destruction) in the arena together. In the item editor there is a place to specify an enemy hero, but it looks like this part no longer works in AP/CW or I'm doing something wrong.

I'm not going to worry about the Tome hero appearing in the upgrade / pacify fight, but it would be cool to fight against them when you're trying to upgrade them to the next level.

We'll see how it goes, but I'm making slow and steady progress...

Matt

/C\/C\

Fatt_Shade
06-23-2013, 06:52 PM
Glad to see you`re progressing , but also sad for bumping in so many problems. Ideas for implementing tomes and then `developing` them during game into more powerful items are great, and sadly undoable as you said.
Weird thing about different game mechanics for spells/items ... in the Legend / Ap-Cw / WotN. All 3 are made on same basics but many thing in game itself are very different. It does not make any sense :-(

Item having more then 10 params seems a bit much, but i guess it`s logical to add new param after every upgrade and keep old ones. It wasnt done that way for some items so far : Dragon toy in Cw (you gain 15% dmg for rage skill dmg but lose bonus for mana accelerator, and wall upgrade from separate items).
And having hero in tome upgrading/suppressing battles not necessary because towers already cast spells and more then one/turn. It`ll be like 1 more very strong tower with larger list of spells, and some passive bonus for troops in battle. Maybe you dont need to lose time on making this work.

Good luck in further work Matt :-)

MattCaspermeyer
07-22-2013, 09:03 AM
I've been making steady progress on the mod.

I found out why it was crashing in CW - there just aren't enough counter resources in CW for me to implement the Tome spell bonuses using counters.

So what I decided to do instead was implement the bonuses to the spells in the spells themselves (SPELLS.TXT).

I've gone ahead and implemented this and it seems to work fine. I added some LUA functions to handle doing bonuses to spells this way instead of the counter system.

Essentially what I do is list the items and their bonus in the spell's parameter list. Then I check if any items in the list are equipped and then sum up the total bonus. It's not as good as the counter system, but it is better in that it doesn't use any counter resources. It also seems like there are sufficient parameter resources available for the spell parameter section to include all the bonuses I intend to implement.

I may also expand this to unit abilities as well - we'll see...

I need to do a little play testing to ensure there are no show-stopping crashing issues, but I think if I can play a little bit and everything seems to be working, I can release an alpha update for CW.

I already have an update for AP that I released about a month ago if you want to check out Tome bonuses and stuff, but plan to release an update in about a week if there are no serious crashing issues.

I still have a lot of stuff to implement, but the idea is that you can start a new game and check things out as I keep doling out updates...

Matt

/C\/C\