[MattCaspermeyer]

Originally Posted by jorko80

Hi Matt!
I finished the game today. As a whole it was a good experience and it was interesting,except those easy spots that I mentioned in my posts before. I will provide some more feedback and ideas,but first I will comment your last post a bit.

;

I'm glad you persevered and finished it!

Originally Posted by jorko80

This is a good logic,but makes the undead and especially the plants unstoppable ,because there is no magic that can eliminate them. Blind works at least to undead but the plants sometimes are a pain. Anyway I can't decide yet if there should be a spell that affects these creatures.

Well, for plants any burning spell (well I guess save Greasy Mist) works exceptionally well at taking them out: Flame Arrow, FireBall, Fire Rain, Phoenix, or Hell Breath. I think that's the list...

For the Undead, I'm not sure if you used Holy Rain, but it is very effective against them and so is Heal for that matter. Pygmy is also effective against everyone - not sure if you've tried that one.

Originally Posted by jorko80

You've said it yourself - the initial mana cost must be accurate. So that's the problem with the sheep-spell . Maybe it should cost more,because the effect it makes is supreme. And ofcourse that is directly connected with the accumulated mana and the mana-regeneration rate,which are both highly increased in your mode. Otherwise your formula seems to be very good and you have experience from modding other games(Emperor of fading sun - which I never played by the way, is it good ?). I understand your system and it looks perfect but the initial costs and the effect of the spell are things that are valued subjectively and considering that I appear to have more experience playing KB ,my final feeling is that the spell should cost 22,38,55 ,but with reduced duration. Ofcourse that's just my opinion

It is a really good affect, but there are still quite a few spells that are better at level 3 than Sheep and cost more. Also, Fear is a poor man's sheep in a way (although they can retaliate) and costs a lot less.

I'll revisit this for AP/CW/WotN, but I won't deviate from the formula for increases so I'll see if I can devise a better system for initial spell cost, then the level 2 and 3 increases will already be taken care of...

Originally Posted by jorko80

These are good changes, I like them. I like a lot what you've done with the Ents,finally they are usable and competitive. But that makes me think ,that there are so many creatures that are too weak compared to others and they could be tweaked also. In my game ,at some point I decided to take some knights in my army,they are available in the late game, they have good armor and bonus dmg vs dragons. But they sucked completely ,they were incapable of killing a single dragon and also died pretty quick,despite their fire resistance, completely useless unit. And even worse is,that there is a special ability in the skill tree for them,which doesn't worth taking.

I like what Fatt_Shade said here - all the units get great boosts from the wives / children and so if you find a unit that you'd really like to play, you'll have to focus on the wife / children to make that unit better. The wives give nice group unit bonuses and so you can always make a certain set of units better by getting that wife and sticking with her.

With that said, I've rarely played the Knights because by the time you can get them you pretty much have been everywhere and can hire any units you want.

I did increase the possibility of more Knights earlier in the game, but that is only probability. I got pretty good mileage out of Knights / Paladins in my first AP playthrough, although the Paladin's Resurrection proved invaluable.

Someone created a unit power chart on these forums and I really didn't touch the units that much, but it may need a hand to see if there can be some better balancing done here. I may need to leverage that chart and do some analysis to see if improvements can be made here and there to underpowered units...

Originally Posted by jorko80

Adding experience system would be great. That goes to the wifes,children,troops and enemy troops also. WOG comes to my mind. It was super interesting and challenging. The troops gained not just stats improvement,but also new abilities with levels.

Yah - there has been a lot of work done here by other modders and so it at least serves as a basis to learn how it was done and see if there is a place for it in my mod.

I never played WoG, but I did download it at one point many years ago with intent to try it out. They really expanded on the best game in the HOMM series.

I've actually thought about giving the units "difficulty level" abilities for the AI. It would actually be very easy to do as you can give them a new ability and then set it to disabled and then enable it if you are playing a certain difficulty level / map location level (this is how Dragon Arrows works - it enables the Dragon Arrow ability for the archer unit when you cast it on them).

Originally Posted by jorko80

Now for the last part of my game. Clearing the elven lands,death lands and demonis was not so hard, I guess 20% harder would've been better. The hero fights were good and interesting. Karador was amazing and Baal also. Xeona was a nice surprise with these ultra powerful demon gates. Then comes the labyrinth and the seven Haas dragons ,they were good, then Bagud was super. Haas was a good fight,which I successfully did in the first try. Karador and Bagud I reloaded twice, they were really good.

Excellent! Did you happen to fight anyone else (i.e. Sonya, the level 27 Necromancer)? What about the Evil Book? Sonya's not in every game, so maybe you didn't get her in yours. Possibly the same for that Necromancer.

Originally Posted by jorko80

But as always I did kinda lost interest after entering the grey wasteland. After that there is not much to develop in your hero and also there are no new units to discover and so it is not so rewarding to play. It's just the story left,but once you know it ,the game loses replayability in the late part. And that happens even earlier in AP/CW . And I just kill some heroes and go straight to the final,leaving a lot of enemy armies untouched. Also the skill that provides additional experience is a bit useless,it stays always to lvl1. I was lvl28 when I fought Haas and it was enough to defeat him. So my idea is that there should be some more units coming when you kill Karador,then Baal and in the Haas' Labyrinth also. It will be definately rewarding and encouraging. The units that come to my mind will blend super in your mod,ofcourse I don't have the slightest idea,how hard it is to make them. So destroying the crystal of darkness should allow you to buy crystal dragons,destroying Baal leads to Rust dragons-born in the sulfur of demonis, and Faerie and Azure dragons should be available in the magical Haas' Labyrinth. And in the late game there should be some special skills available for example when you are a veteran 28 level hero,so the player will be stimulated to fight until the very end of the game. Maybe adding something in the skill trees will help and extending the level cap to lvl35. Ofcourse these things lead to the increase of the power of the armies and heroes in the Labyrinth and Murock, but I suppose that's easily done. I hope you'll like the idea. And AP/CW needs something like that even earlier.

Ha! We must think alike because (I'm not sure which post it is) I reference all the dragons you mention earlier in this thread! That would be really neat to implement! I need an artist on here to take the 2-D HOMM3 unit pics for the dragons you mentioned and either alter an existing 3-D picture or create new ones for those dragons! Wouldn't that be awesome?!

I guess I could implement the units and then maybe someone can do the graphics for me! I think I can do all the programming - the Faery Dragons would be similar to the Evil Book for their spell casting function and the Rust Dragon attack can be easily coded.

That would be really neat!

For the rest of the stuff you mention it just sounds like you're so experienced that you'd need a new game or new content there.

Someone on here mentioned joining the AP/CW maps with TL. That would be neat to have a way to go back and forth between the two worlds...

Originally Posted by jorko80

- The art Eye of the storm is currently useless with just -1 speed,compared to the speed bonuses you provided to the creatures,it should have at least -3 or -4 to be competitive.

Okay.

Originally Posted by jorko80

- the enemy heroes throughout the game use the spell geyser too much. I was even bored, I enter a hero vs hero fight and nothing new - geyser,geyser,geyser . There are other powerful spells please.

I usually get more variability there - maybe its something I changed recently, hmmm...

Originally Posted by jorko80

- Sacrifice. I mentioned earlier,that it is unusable in the begining of the game. So my opinion stays the same about that. But the new part is,that it is way overpowered in late game with mage. I was able to ressurect 250% army . Example : Killing Baal was hard and it costed me a lot of units. Then I only needed one ordinary fight in which I restored my army completely ,not spending a single coin. Maybe a cap of 120% will be enough.

I'll look at this spell's increases from level to level and see what can be done here...

Originally Posted by jorko80

- Book of evil lvl3 casts something like sleep on the enemy,but when I attack the creature it is dispelled. So I think the effect should be the same as when the Beholders put someone to sleep. Otherwise it is completely equivalent with blind ,just the name is different. Ofcourse it should have shorter duration then blind.

I think all sleep spells are dispelled on attack, even the Beholder's. Note, though, that the attack is always critical when attacking a sleeping / unconscious unit.

Originally Posted by jorko80

- Rage draining is also too powerful ,it must have bigger rest.

Okay, will revisit...

Originally Posted by jorko80

- Chargers. I finished the game now and continue to have the same opinion. I was able to replenish my mana and rage after every battle,no matter how hard it was. They should give at least twice fewer points. Lina was lvl25 when I was in Murock , lvl24 entering the Labyrinth and it was more then enough for a mage hero. Your doubts that she will be weak were false. The time spirit was lvl35 and the other 2 were 20. That's a lot compared to the original game with a mage hero.

Okay, will revisit...

Originally Posted by jorko80

Some bugs :
- Evil book makes sheeps out of undead

Okay, I'll look into this as this shouldn't happen. I've been trying to set it up so that if I make a change to a spell it also affects units that use that spell, but it looks like I didn't get this one here...

Originally Posted by jorko80

- The phoenix looses a big part of it's attack when it's shot by a dispel arrow from the skeleton archer.

Okay, this is not supposed to happen, either. I'll check the logic here as I think the arrow does an automatic dispel...

Originally Posted by jorko80

- Dragon Arrows ignore just resistance,not the defense as it says . It is very weak and unusable.

You know, I really tried to make this spell much more potent. Did you know that it can be used when adjacent to enemies? You also get a heck of a lot of the arrows and they do Astral damage, which no one has resistance to.

I tried it out and it seemed plenty powerful at a certain point in the game, but did not try them at the end of the game. But I think you can get something like 6-8 shots if you have an archer unit and can shoot anyone with them no matter if they are next to you or not.

I'll revisit, but make sure you know these things. I think I can set it up to ignore defense - should I?

Originally Posted by jorko80

- In the fight versus Karador, the crystal of darknes raised my death stacks to his side and most of them were fine,except that it raised bone dragons from my black unicorns. That was awful ,because they were the same number as my unicorns were- 106 , and that was impossible army to kill. So I reloaded tried again,couldn't step on time on the unicorn body and it happened again. In the end I had to change the unicorns with different army. I think Bone dragons should be raised only from dragons. I don't know if that's a bug in your mod or in the game itself,but that's the first time I see it.

Okay, that's not right. I know I tested this out, but I've made Necromancy work such that it just needs big animal bones to make Bone Dragons out of them; however, it should be the same leadership, not same number if I'm not mistaken. So lets see it should have been 106 * 150 / 1300 = 12.2 = 13 (I'm pretty sure I ceiling this - maybe I floor it?).

So I'll look into this...

Originally Posted by jorko80

That is all for now.When anything else comes to my mind I'll write again. I will rest from KB for a while trying if Shades of Darkness is any good and then maybe I'll try your mod with a warrior or paladin.
Thank you one more time for your great work

Well, that is awesome! You've provided me with great comments and I'll revisit these areas when I return to modding TL.

For right now I've been playing WotN (it seems a lot better with respect to bugs than my first playthrough of the 4 Viking islands) so that I can get a feel for what needs to be modded there as I let the AP/CW development stew for a little while.

Matt

/C\/C\