Huntiro's Integration Mod

[saroumana]

Great to see the mod updated !

With increased number of item, spell and creatures, it's harder to get the composition we would like to make.
Specially most of viking spell are not great to use but over abundant. On the other hand, trying to make a viking army is often impossible.

The actual best way the mod is to rework shop to increase slot and diversity for both creatures and items.

[zhoudaohan]

I like the kind of strategy based on certain randomness. If we can own most of the units/spells/items all the time, then there will be somewhat a (fixed)best build/solution, which will lower the fun in the long run imo.

[Elektra]

I would agree with zhoudaohan; the randomness is a critical element to the fun and playability. Man, you did an amazing job and having a blast! Very nice tweaks and additions. Even started to use methamorph which is really fun.

Perhaps 2 small items on the wishlist - Red Sands had a separate dragon item slot, which was cool (I understand, it's just an extra item, still nice touch). Also, I like the idea to have medals to 5 levels (needed) so that they remain interesting for longer. Tried to do this but fail (added text in 'medals'. Also needs hints updated perhaps?).

So cool that this old game still gets love and players active, chapeaux!

[saroumana]

Randomness is a critical element, no one contest.
But with the amplitude of Vanilla.

With more unit, more item and more spell and exact same number of slot in shop, the game because to random.
Specially we can't acheive synergie inside races or combo (+item synergie with unit).

But the worst is the run are too similar. Most of units slot are set. When they are not strictly set, the choice is limited and between the same race. We'll be able to make an army of elf when we'll arrive on elf's island, same for demon...ect.
It's a default of original game, great for flavour, but so many year (and run) after i found it become a default.

[Verysad]

"Bitter Moon stable r2" is the first version of your mod I have played and I have to say it was a blast. I loved every minute of it. In fact I liked it so much that I played not one but three impossible no loss runs since then.

I played one game of warrior, one game of mage and finally one game of paladin. The armies I used were respectively demon (demonologists, succubi, demons, demon eyes/blood priestesses and archdemons) for warrior, mages (rune mage, archmage, inquisitor, royal griffin/green dragon/black dragon, soothsayer) for mage and paladin+dwarves (alchemist, engineer, paladin, cannoneer, giant) for paladin.

All of the above proved to be viable to clear almost all content, although for warrior (because demon resurrection abilities were a bit iffy) I had to resort to playing a stack of archdemons with stone skin and vampirism to beat some of the toughest opponents. Fights like Ktahu and Gremlion I had to bring Green Dragons in as I lacked the means to keep mana up (and had no magic resist items apart from the diploma for the latter).

The other classes were a little bit easier to stick with main armies as they offered a lot of resurrection through high intellect life light for mage (and rune mage/inquisitor mana+rage batteries) and paladin coupled with turn back time.

Of course it is subjective, but I would say warrior>paladin>mage. I am pretty confident warrior can play many strategies, while paladin probably has to build around a strong resurrection creature (like the paladins). As for mage he struggles to play effectively with most armies until getting life light. After that it's smooth sailing until the very end game.

There are a few bugs I discovered:
- trigger (the companion) is bugged, in companion.txt there is no line break (enter) between belligerent=ally and unit filter line making him not give crit at all, adding an enter between those lines solves it
- the reward from master neotar is missing - the lines for the last crossbow are still here, but the crossbow doesn't appear (may be connected to me buying all the other items from the shop before completing the quest?)
- rakush quest to kill the frog is bugged and the dialog option to return the quest is missing
- troops of the same race bonus seems to not work for demons; maybe some requirements should be made more lenient? (count droids as dwarves, demonologists and demon eyes as demons etc.)

Other thoughts:
- Green Dragons mana drain seems a bit too strong when targetting summoned creatures (mostly refills your entire mana), although some of the late game bosses may be unbeatable at impossible no loss with bad item randomness without green dragons
- Eye of the Storm (lowers the speed of soaring and flying creatures) is an extremely strong artifact that has changed my entire playthrough as a mage
- Demon Eyes are extremely weak and I was happy to change them to Blood Priestesses as soon as I was able, the ability to consume fire is counterproductive and their overall stats are lackluster compared to other Beholders, maybe they could function on some kind of adrenaline-like basis, so that they don't start at 0 flame every time
- Demons, Dwarves and Humans are great overall, I would like to try beasts and Vikings at some point as they also seem very nice, I'd say elves are a bit lackluster and the Undead are by far the worst race, both for amelie's army and as opponents, they have poor stats, proc holy anger, are difficult to resurrect and immune to vampirism. Having neutral morale is also very problematic as positive morale boosts creatures a lot. Nameless Island is the easiest one to clear.
- New items are great and seem interesting and well balanced, although it may be difficult to complete item sets with the same amount of shops/enemies as Vanilla and way more items/content

[Elektra]

Ok I see what you mean then. A slight increase in available units should balance this.

What sort of units are you guys having fun with? What's the overall army you play with?

I am having fun with fireflies (multiply) archmage and some other humans.

[zhoudaohan]

I have just uploaded a small patch.

Originally Posted by Verysad

- the reward from master neotar is missing - the lines for the last crossbow are still here, but the crossbow doesn't appear (may be connected to me buying all the other items from the shop before completing the quest?)
Oh no, I cannot remember that quest Could you make it clearer

- troops of the same race bonus seems to not work for demons; maybe some requirements should be made more lenient? (count droids as dwarves, demonologists and demon eyes as demons etc.)
The same race bonus only applies to elves, dwarves, orcs, lizrdmen and vikings.


Other thoughts:
- Green Dragons mana drain seems a bit too strong when targetting summoned creatures (mostly refills your entire mana), although some of the late game bosses may be unbeatable at impossible no loss with bad item randomness without green dragons
I didn't play Green Dragons much, so never realized the mana drain&summoned despiser combo. This was not intended so I removed the combo.


- Eye of the Storm (lowers the speed of soaring and flying creatures) is an extremely strong artifact that has changed my entire playthrough as a mage
Yeah, I agree it is OP, but it is not guaranteed for each run so I'm still trying not to nerf it

[zhoudaohan]

My top favorite units:
Necrohs
Weavers
Archdemons
Storm Falcons
Fungus Thorns
Snow Nymphs
Succubi

Combos I have tried:
Snow Nymphs + Storm Falcons/Ice Dragons
Weavers + Choshas
Royal Thorns + Fungus Thorns + Fauns
Magma Elementals + Archdemons + Succubi
Necromancers + Plague Zombies + Black Knights/Bone Dragons
Royal Griffins + Archmages
Pegasus Maidens + Paladins
...

Tips:
1.Storm Falcons are beasts, like Royal Griffins.
2.Necrohs, Choshas, (Dragonflies, Fungus Thorns) and Soothsayers are the kind of units who don't need other healers in most instances.
3.Druids‘ talent "Nature's Vitality" now can resurrect units.
4.How to deal with undead units' ability "Back from ashes":
spell sheep, Fungus Thorns, Necrohs, Sisters, Inquisitors, Pegasus Maidens' talent "Spear of Wrath", etc

[Verysad]

The quest from Master Neotar I mentioned before would be The Driller! After visiting with him after killing the boss he sends Amelie to the factory to pick up one of his masterpieces - a crossbow. However, even though the dwarf at the factory says that he has the last one available for you, the crossbow is nowhere to be found.

Weavers are very interesting, unfortunately it takes some time to kill the giant spider, making them only available for late game encounters.

Also, since you have mentioned "Back from Ashes" - shouldn't the resurrected undead lose their current turn? That would be more consistent with other similar mechanics, like the demon gating or most regular creature summoning spells (rune mages, royal griffins, druids etc.).

On the other hand, the undead are already very weak, so nerfing them further would make Nameless Island even more of a cakewalk.

Thanks for the update, it looks great!

[zhoudaohan]

Originally Posted by Verysad

The quest from Master Neotar I mentioned before would be The Driller! After visiting with him after killing the boss he sends Amelie to the factory to pick up one of his masterpieces - a crossbow. However, even though the dwarf at the factory says that he has the last one available for you, the crossbow is nowhere to be found.

Weavers are very interesting, unfortunately it takes some time to kill the giant spider, making them only available for late game encounters.

Also, since you have mentioned "Back from Ashes" - shouldn't the resurrected undead lose their current turn? That would be more consistent with other similar mechanics, like the demon gating or most regular creature summoning spells (rune mages, royal griffins, druids etc.).

On the other hand, the undead are already very weak, so nerfing them further would make Nameless Island even more of a cakewalk.

Thanks for the update, it looks great!

The missing crossbow has returned. I even have no idea why it was missing.
It's there in the vanilla game.

The resurrected undead troop will have action points only if it hadn't take its turn before killed.