Mod: "The Next Generation"

[Keneth]

The Next Generation is an attempt at balancing the children of the protagonist, both among each other as well as with the items which places they occupy. As things stand, the general practice is to either not have kids at all or use cheats/file editing to get the ones that aren't complete shit. Hopefully this mod will rectify that flaw by making their abilities more alluring and satisfying. Enjoy, your wife is now officially a superbaby-making machine. :grin:


The Next Generation v1.12b (http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/attachment.php?attachmentid=538&stc=1&d=1230536046) (let me know if the link stops working)

NOTICE: Due to localization issues, Nobilis users are required to open the KFS archive using appropriate software (WinRAR or 7-Zip) and change the prefix of the LNG file from eng_ to en_ in order to see the changes in-game.


I'm releasing this as a beta on principle because although I've tested this myself, it takes more than one person to consider every possibility. Unfortunately there wasn't enough interest or time for me to actively look for beta testers, hence I will leave it as such for the time being. I realize that although this mod is supposed to resolve balance issues, some things might still need a little touch-up, so if you think something could have been done better or should you find any bugs, please post in this thread so that I may fix the issue. Other types of feedback are fine too.

That said, here are the new stats (changes in the last version marked with an asterisk):

Adamus
+20% Attack
+10% Damage bonus


Homer*
+5 Attack
+10% Critical chance


Serj
+20% Defense
+10% Magic resistance


Gabriel
+5 Defense
+10% Physical resistance


Gandalf*
+20% Intellect
-10% to Leadership requirement of allied mages


Googlik
+5 Intellect
+10% Gold after battle


Aiven
+30% Mana


Elly*
+20% to Mana
+2 Intellect


Laura*
+10% Mana
+50% Mana recovery


Angelika
+10 Mana
+2 Mana replenishment during battle


Alexander
+10% Leadership
+1 to Morale of allied troops


Joan*
+1500 Leadership
+10% Damage bonus


Richard
+7% Leadership
+1 to Initiative of allied troops


Robert
+5% Leadership
+1 to Speed of allied troops


Skye**
+50% to Rage increase during combat
+100% slower loss of Rage after combat


Emmanuel
+20% to Rage
+10% Health of allied troops


John
+10 Rage
+30% Rage increase during battle


Dmitry*
+20% Experience in combat


Neiron*
+10% Experience in combat
+10% Experience to Rage Spirits


Anna*
+8 Scrolls
+30% Magic resistance


Ambrella*
+4 Scrolls
+5 Mana
+30% Combat spell damage


NOTICE: Due to localization issues, Nobilis users are required to open the KFS archive using appropriate software (WinRAR or 7-Zip) and change the prefix of the LNG file from eng_ to en_ in order to see the changes in-game.

[JudgeMan]

Looks nice! Now I want all of them at once :)

Btw, you can attach the file in the post itself, no need for an external site. Would be much simpler.

[Keneth]

Heh, didn't think of that, I usually make much larger mods so that forum limits are too restrictive to use that option. But on the other hand, to download attachments, you have to register on the site which is slightly annoying for someone who just wants to get the file and like this I can also post the file link elsewhere instead of linking to this thread.

[Metathron]

Looks good, if a bit overpowered at first glance.

I'll definitely try it out.

[Keneth]

Well I scrolled through all the existing items in the game to get a rough feel of how strong the babies should be so as to compare to the stronger artifacts and weapons that you can acquire. Surely some things are bound to be overpowered as I've never even finished the game myself and I don't quite fully grasp the in-depth rules. For instance once I figured out that each point of intelligence increases your spell efficiency by 10%, the magic type babies just didn't feel right again. But that's why I could use some useful feedback so that I can fix things as soon as possible. :)

[kadrzys]

wow nice work, those babies are better than mine;) but as you mentioned Elly is for sure overpowered, same for Adamus i think.
Angelika is so cool and Alexander;)

[Ryder]

I'll definetly try that out next game I play as the babies I got for my Mage are pathetic. Stupid frog.

[Keneth]

Adamus could possibly be somewhat overpowered at the end of the game, yes. Depending on how high your attack is at the time, you could get a huge damage bonus. At the moment I'm looking at how to fix Elly and Gendalf, the latter has a bit of a problem as there is no "-X% leadership req of all units" item mod, there's only a handful specific ones which combined do cover a lot of the units but not all of them. A possible workaround could be to change the parameters of the function for griffins by expanding it to all units but this would mean that I would have to completely change that griffin banner which gives -30% leadership req for griffins. Not a big price since I reckon not many people use it but I'd rather see I didn't have to make compromises to make something work. The actual functions are probably hardcoded so at the moment I don't see any alternatives other than changing what the baby does. Thoughts? :?:

Oh and as a side note, making new babies probably shouldn't be much of a problem, if anyone has any nice ideas let me know. Haven't tested it yet though, will get around to it once I finish the game (in a day or two). :mrgreen:

[MajorS]

I would suggest not as many % values but more absolute values, also +gold and +experience are in my eyes still a waste of a slot (even +1 int is better than +5% gold). I still dont like the idea of a random bonus tho. So since my second game im playing no babies ;). I hope the expansion will 'fix' this.

[Keneth]

Percentile values are weak early on and strong(er) later in the game. And yes, gold bonus is rather useless, even on impossible you probably get enough gold, hence I gave it to Googlik who has a +5 intelligence bonus (which is a whooping +50% to spell efficiency!). As for experience I'm not really sure, I find that a good bonus but yeah, it seeems like a waste of an item slot, I'm considering adding a more effective bonus, or at least double the gain.

Oh and as I understand it, there won't be any spouse system in the "expansion" (let's face it, it's a sequel :P), so there won't be any babies to worry about (can't really fight when you're pregnant, now can you?).

[Kings Bounty Hunter]

Are the babies you get with Xeona better than the frog princess? I'm not giving up two weapon slots for a crap kid, there are enough of them in the world allready :-)

[Keneth]

I haven't changed what babies can be delivered by which wife, I could try expanding each array so it includes all of the babies but I haven't heard any requests for that so far. You can control which to get by specifying it in each wife's code block but the point of this mod is to make every kid equally desireable so I'd much rather see some advice on how to achieve that. :)

Next version is coming soon btw, I've done some work already but I'd like to finish the game first. :-P

[Metathron]

I've noticed what is probably an undesirable side effect of this mod; the elven wife won't have children, you can start the dialogue with her, but the little pop up window simply won't appear.

[Keneth]

Have you tried without the mod? I'll get the option of marrying her shortly so I'll test it but I don't see how this would have any effect on her ability to have children since the wife data isn't changed in the slightest. It's possible that I made an error with one of the children and it's no longer able to spawn (sounds horrible when I put it that way :grin: ). Have you had enough enough fights in between? What version of the game are you running? Any other mods?

[Gatts]

I believe that Metathron is referring to old game bug, which is already solved in newer versions (in my original 16b7 I couldn't get children with the Neoka, or what was her name - elven princess - at all, and I found out that it is serious bug, but solved in the add-on general mod, or newer patch)

So Metathron - try first updating your game, as I know that the problem may be in the game, but also I know that fix is out there somewhere.

[Keneth]

In case anyone was wondering, making new babies works splendidly.

http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/1307/screen081122001sj4.th.jpg (http://img511.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screen081122001sj4.jpg)http://img511.imageshack.us/images/thpix.gif (http://g.imageshack.us/thpix.php)

Ignore the huge leadership, raised it to rush the baby.

Next stop, upgradeable babies! :mrgreen:

[Metathron]

My version of the game is 1.6.4. I remember there was a bug with the pirate wife who couldn't have babies, but that was fixed with a mini patch. So, anyone had any problems with the elf wife having kids?

[Keneth]

Both issues were fixed in v1.6.5, as well as a myriad of other noteworthy things, so you should update as soon as possible. There's also fixes for both Neoka and Mirabella that were made by the community if for some reason you can't install the patch.

[Keneth]

Alright, finally finished the game (didn't expect it to be this long :mrgreen:), so next version of the mod is coming tomorrow (or maybe later tonight if I get bored enough). I think I should be able to make things a bit more balanced now that I actually know how the game works. :P

[stubbie]

Next stop, upgradeable babies! :mrgreen:

Are you going to turn them into (god forbid) teenagers??!

Actually they could be quite handy.........afterall they do know everything :rolleyes:

[Metathron]

Are you going to turn them into (god forbid) teenagers??!

Actually they could be quite handy.........afterall they do know everything :rolleyes:

Haha! :cool:

Teenagers would probably drain more money, e.g. "You had to pay 20,000 for your daughters hair dye!" :grin:

[Keneth]

Teenagers would have Morale which would decrease each fight regardless of what you do and the only way to raise it would be by paying them large sums of gold (no chance of suppresion). And then they would randomly disappear from your inventory once in a while. Along with your Dragon Slayer's Sword.

Anyway, I need your opinion on the following set. Changed children are marked with an asterisk. New kid is marked with two asterisks and is currently only concieved by Xeona.

Adamus
+20% Attack
+10% Damage bonus


Homer*
+5 Attack
+10% Critical chance


Serj
+20% Defense
+10% Magic resistance


Gabriel
+5 Defense
+10% Physical resistance


Gandalf
+20% Intellect
-5% to Leadership requirement of all troops


Googlik
+5 Intellect
+10% Gold after battle


Aiven
+30% Mana


Elly*
+20% to Mana
+2 Intellect


Laura*
+10% Mana
+50% Mana recovery


Angelika
+10 Mana
+2 Mana replenishment during battle


Alexander
+10% Leadership
+1 to Morale of allied troops


Joan*
+1500 Leadership
+10% Damage bonus


Richard
+7% Leadership
+1 to Initiative of allied troops


Robert
+5% Leadership
+1 to Speed of allied troops


Skye**
+50% to Rage increase during combat
+100% slower loss of Rage after combat


Emmanuel
+20% to Rage
+10% Health of allied troops


John
+10 Rage
+30% Rage increase during battle


Dmitry*
+20% Experience in combat


Neiron*
+10% Experience in combat
+10% Experience to Rage Spirits


Anna*
+8 Scrolls
+30% Magic resistance


Ambrella*
+4 Scrolls
+5 Mana
+30% Combat spell damage


I won't release the mod until later tonight, so if you see anything that could still use some work, let me know and I'll try to fix it.

[stubbie]

Love the changes.
They really make you think whether to have babies now. The original babies are just useless compared to found items imho.
I would have left Elly at +3 Int though.

[Keneth]

Nah, +2 Int is more than enough. I'm just considering changing Gandalf's -5% lead to all units and giving him -10% lead to all mages. Somehow makes more sense and I don't have to think about any workarounds.

[Metathron]

It's Gandolf. Huuuuge difference. :-P

[Keneth]

What nonsense, it's Gendalf in russian and Gandalf in english. Unless you have some other version of the translated game I don't know about. :rolleyes:

[stubbie]

Waiting for the new download ;)

[Keneth]

Haha, sorry, I was waiting to see if anyone else was gonna comment on the new update and then I fell asleep. I'm gonna archive and upload it now, just gotta edit the lng file still and it's good to go.:grin:

Update: New version uploaded, you can find it in the first post.

[kromberg]

Well worth while mod. Makes having a wife worth while ;)

[Keneth]

I'm glad you like it. ;)

[nightwisher]

I'd just like to inform the creator of this mod and anyone who has downloaded it that the hosting site attempts to download a trojan surreptitiously when you access the download page. Perhaps you should host the file on the forums or host it on a more secure filehost.

[Keneth]

That's odd, it seemed like a nice stable site to me. I'll move the file somewhere "safer", although internet security is really the responsibility of the client-side party.

[Zogun]

This seems like a great mod! Nice work :D

One question though, do I need to start a new game in order for it to work?

[Keneth]

No, I believe the new abilities should come into effect even if you've already had children but since the changes are rather extensive you might want to restart/load/divorce in order to get what you want. :)

[BobbRobb]

Could you please make this mod compatible with version 1.7 from Nobilis? I tried to install it anyway but it just doesn't work with 1.7, the children are still all the same.

[Keneth]

Try renaming the language file from eng_ to en_, I don't know what other incompatibilities there could be. The only other explanations I can think of is that you're using another mod that utilizes the same files or the game doesn't detect the file because it's in the wrong place.

[BobbRobb]

Thanks for the advice, renaming it from eng to en solved the problem.

[Keneth]

Glad I could help, maybe I should add a note in the first post for future reference.

[Viruk]

Hey,

I love the idea of this mod as kids are almost useless, but I just can't get it working whatever I do, I downloaded it, copied mod_165_eng_tng.kfs into the /data/mods directory and my kids stats don't change when I load my game.

At first I thought it could be a mod conflict, but even running without any other mods, it doesn't have any affect on my saved game.

I tried renaming it from mod_165_eng_tng.kfs to mod_165_en_tng.kfs like it said in a previous post, but still, no luck.

I'm using 1.7 from Nobilis

I could try testing a little more in depth, I probably have a saved game just before I got married to Froggy, but wanted to post in case I'd forgot to do something obvious.

[Keneth]

If I were to guess, you are likely suffering from the same problem as the poster before you, i.e. the mod works but the language files don't, which means you can't see the changes when you look at the stat pop-up. The way to resolve this is to rename the language file inside the archive from eng_ to en_ (or a different locale if you're not running the game in english). It seems a bit wasteful to post a separate version of the mod when all it takes is deleting one character in a file name...

[Viruk]

*sigh* Thanks, I'm a newbie, never knew the kfs files could be opened in winrar.

Strange compression format if you ask me, but at least got it worked out now.

Guess I'm too used to Fallout 3 and Oblivion mods, download/copy files/play game/crash.

Oh well, thanks again.

[Keneth]

I added a notice to the original post which will hopefully prevent any more confussion on the matter in the future. Enjoy the mod and feel free to comment if you wish to share any criticism or suggestions. :cool:

[BlackVegetable]

Just wanted to thank you for your mod. Admittedly, I decided to stop at 1 child on my playthrough but that child was worth it! +5 Attack +10% Critical (I was a warrior.)

[Keneth]

You're quite welcome, and to be completely honest, although this mod was made to satiate my need to fix anything that annoys me in a game, I've only ever used Skye which was custom tailored to fit my gameplay style. I dread to think what a complement of 4 superbabies would do to game balance. :mrgreen:

[TheWizardKs]

You're quite welcome, and to be completely honest, although this mod was made to satiate my need to fix anything that annoys me in a game, I've only ever used Skye which was custom tailored to fit my gameplay style. I dread to think what a complement of 4 superbabies would do to game balance. :mrgreen:

haha, yes I can imagine, but on the other hand, the normal babies were complete crap compared to the gear we could put up instead. So this just moves the balance on to the other side of the beam if you ask me. Great job, I like it :)

[taltamir]

looks good. It should be noted that % bonuses to your attack, defense, int, mana, and rage affect your base stat only (aka, your stats when naked), Rounded up. So overall they are really, really bad. Especially when you have a bunch of +5 int/attack/defense items lying around.
Adamus' +20% to attack will only give 1 extra attack to someone with a base attack of 5 or less (remember, rounds up). You need a base attack of a whopping 25 to get +5 to attack (and you should have SEVERAL items that give that much). Even a dedicated warrior will not have 25 base attack...
It is imperative to replace all the % bonuses to attack, int, and defense with static bonuses... For mana and rage... well, I guess they can remain percentage (although static will not go amiss here either)

There is still a lot of risk for underpowered babies... These hardly break balance, if anything they are still underpowered; Let me clarify why.
The original babies had one that was "equal to a powerful item" (the +5 int baby, and ONLY him), a bunch that were equal to mid-low range items, and a bunch that were literally worthless (all the +scrolls babies are totally worthless)
The babies in this mod are between "a little stronger then an item you should be using" and "a little weaker then an item you should be using"... thats a fine balance making them overall "average" compared to items... seems perfect... if it wasn't for the random factor and the inability to swap them... you are getting random permanent items that take a slot permanently and they are merely "average" right now... it is far better then "worthless" as they were in unmodded game, but they should be better than that... there should be no "below average" babies IMAO.

My recommendation is +20% to int, attack, or defense will become +7 to int, attack or defense (respectively)
+5 becomes a +8
+3 becomes a +5
+scrolls be completely eliminated as a bonus and replaced with +mana (static)
+% leadership become something static (and good)

That way a baby would be a nice surprise, slightly better than an item, but random and cannot be changed... and the above is still not "overpowerd", its "just right"