New Mod Heroes of Might and Magic 3 Babies!

[Helios]

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

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

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

[MattCaspermeyer]

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

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

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

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

/C\/C\

Originally Posted by Helios

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

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

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

[MattCaspermeyer]

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks!

/C\/C\

[MattCaspermeyer]

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

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

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

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

Anyway, looking forward to your comments...

/C\/C\

[MattCaspermeyer]

Okay, one last post before I go to bed.

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

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

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

So would people like to see improvements like this made?

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

/C\/C\

[Fatt_Shade]

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

[MattCaspermeyer]

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

Those are the type of finds that I need!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

/C\/C\

Originally Posted by Fatt_Shade

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