Heroes of Might and Magic 3 Tomes Alpha Mod Development for CW

[MattCaspermeyer]

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
Beta Download Topic

[MattCaspermeyer]

Originally Posted by Fatt_Shade

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]

Originally Posted by Fatt_Shade

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]

@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]

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\

Originally Posted by Fatt_Shade

@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]

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\

[Ju22dith]

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

[Fatt_Shade]

@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]

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]

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.