HOMM3 Babies Mini-Expansion Beta now Available for Download!

[MattCaspermeyer]

Originally Posted by Sir Whiskers

Yep, problem fixed in my current game. The Cerberus has no pic, as you mentioned, but I can now buy any of the other troops there.

Okay, great!

Originally Posted by Sir Whiskers

I hope you still find time to work on your mod for AP/CW. I enjoy Legend, and will gladly grab your next update, but I feel the devs got the balance better in AP/CW, reducing the number of battles and increasing the hero levels.

Thanks.

I promise it's coming one of these millennia - there's only so much time in the day...

I've actually taken a step back from the tomes part because of the issues I had with the number of items in the game, although the changes may roll back into my H3B mod because I think I like how I did the bonuses better. I have some ideas of how to combine a lot of the items into a single item and so am thinking about how to implement them - this would greatly reduce the total number of items and still allow me for the most part to implement all the HOMM3 heroes.

We'll see how it goes...

/C\/C\

[Sirlancelot]

Originally Posted by MattCaspermeyer

Okay, great!



I promise it's coming one of these millennia - there's only so much time in the day...

I've actually taken a step back from the tomes part because of the issues I had with the number of items in the game, although the changes may roll back into my H3B mod because I think I like how I did the bonuses better. I have some ideas of how to combine a lot of the items into a single item and so am thinking about how to implement them - this would greatly reduce the total number of items and still allow me for the most part to implement all the HOMM3 heroes.

We'll see how it goes...

/C\/C\

Matt, I'm gonna try your TL version now. Let's see how it goes. As I state in the other thread, your mini expansion sounds very promising.

Regardless whether you keep working in the TL version for some time or jump to AP/CW, after a quick glance reading other posters comments, I'd perhaps suggest you to focus just on balance issues for a while, till all of them are adressed. It really makes the difference in the long run, and judging from how much you have changed/like to change, not an easy task.

Again, congratulations for the hard work, it seems quite impressive! And I though for years it was just about babies, lol...

[MattCaspermeyer]

Originally Posted by Sirlancelot

Matt, I'm gonna try your TL version now. Let's see how it goes. As I state in the other thread, your mini expansion sounds very promising.

Thanks - I really hope you enjoy it!

Originally Posted by Sirlancelot

Regardless whether you keep working in the TL version for some time or jump to AP/CW, after a quick glance reading other posters comments, I'd perhaps suggest you to focus just on balance issues for a while, till all of them are adressed. It really makes the difference in the long run, and judging from how much you have changed/like to change, not an easy task.

I hear you - starting a new game should not be a problem - I have a newer version of the mod that I've been working on, but it is not ready for public release yet.

I've actually spent about the past month enhancing the spell AI and I've just started testing it out. So far things seem to be harder and spell selection more strategic to the situation at hand. However, I have not debugged all the spell paths and so there may still be some crash-to-desktop issues lurking.

I also have quite a few other changes coming along that I think make the game more fun like stuff mentioned above, but others as well. Plus more bug fixes, which it seems like I keep finding them.

If you have any issues, please let me know!

Originally Posted by Sirlancelot

Again, congratulations for the hard work, it seems quite impressive! And I though for years it was just about babies, lol...

Thanks again, but names like rebalance mod, etc. are so bland. Maybe someone has a better name suggestion, but I do like having the reference to HOMM3 since it was that game that inspired me to do the modding from one angle and a big part of the mod is having the new babies that have bonuses akin to their bonuses in HOMM3.

/C\/C\

[Sirlancelot]

Originally Posted by MattCaspermeyer

Thanks - I really hope you enjoy it!

I hear you - starting a new game should not be a problem - I have a newer version of the mod that I've been working on, but it is not ready for public release yet.

I've actually spent about the past month enhancing the spell AI and I've just started testing it out. So far things seem to be harder and spell selection more strategic to the situation at hand. However, I have not debugged all the spell paths and so there may still be some crash-to-desktop issues lurking.

I also have quite a few other changes coming along that I think make the game more fun like stuff mentioned above, but others as well. Plus more bug fixes, which it seems like I keep finding them.

If you have any issues, please let me know!

Matt, what of the three classes do you think have been tested less? I'll choose that one. My favourite are the warrior and the mage, but if the paladin needs more testing, I'll pick him.

[MattCaspermeyer]

Hmmm... good question.

I'm playing the Paladin right now. I'm level 24, I think.

I'd say just pick the one you like to play the most - should be different for you this go around and I'm sure there's always room to test all the classes.

Originally Posted by Sirlancelot

Matt, what of the three classes do you think have been tested less? I'll choose that one. My favourite are the warrior and the mage, but if the paladin needs more testing, I'll pick him.

[Sirlancelot]

Allright, time to give you some feedback, Matt. , I've been playing for a while trying to explore different combinations. The warrior is the chosen class and Hard the difficult level. A satisfactory experience overall: although still being level 5, I can already tell you the units changes and novelties feel refreshing and imaginative, the spells changes intriguing and interesting from both the challenge and balance improvements perspective, and the hero skills trees revamps stimulating and overwhelming.

What I expect to see the most are tough, unpredictable battles against enemy heroes. The original game has a lot of room for improvement there.

For now, I'm just worried about how well general balance and challenge will remain on the last stages of the game. Many modifications to be aware of. By the way, did you remove the resistance to damage cap? I hope not, it would be highly exploitable.

Maybe Dryads are overpowered?

Some ideas of mine which I find would really help to build and keep tension through the game, making it more thrilling:

1. The chance of being catched by the enemy when you're trying to avoid it. Perhaps setting a trigger so their speed can be randomly increased a bit from time to time.

2. The chance of being ambushed. Requisites: level... 6? or higher and Freedom isles reachable, so the player can still have his/her time and space to see what items, units and spells are initially available and choose army composition and general strategy.

3. The chance to fail the guess when trying to determine enemy power potential relative to yours. In my opinion, maximun percent to do it properly should never be above 80%.

PS: I'm using Nobilis version, is it imperative to buy Gamersgate one to install their latest patch? If so I will.

[Fatt_Shade]

@Sirlancelot
Ahhh to be naive and still dont know what is waiting me in enemy heroes battles Believe me, you`ll miss this time before you started doing that battles and item suppressing/upgrading

1) Avoiding enemy heroes does you good for only a while because sooner or later you`ll have to do hardest battles with them to proceed in gameplay (quests and like) so their speed isnt important.

2) All encounters in game are determined moment you start new game, so ambushes are only wish. I asked this couple times, and answer was it`s impossible for enemy stacks to simply appear in game on areas already cleared or unexplored.

3) By this you mean skill scouting ? Never thought of it much, and lvled it up only for 1lvl for later skills. Interesting concept, maybe would be nice to get surprise form time to tie. But mostly ppl play this in way that you start battles when have good strategy and neutrals strength isn`t crucial.

Good luck and have fun playing this great mod fellow tactical strategist

[MattCaspermeyer]

Originally Posted by Sirlancelot

Allright, time to give you some feedback, Matt. , I've been playing for a while trying to explore different combinations. The warrior is the chosen class and Hard the difficult level. A satisfactory experience overall: although still being level 5, I can already tell you the units changes and novelties feel refreshing and imaginative, the spells changes intriguing and interesting from both the challenge and balance improvements perspective, and the hero skills trees revamps stimulating and overwhelming.

Well, it sounds like you're off to a great start!

Originally Posted by Sirlancelot

What I expect to see the most are tough, unpredictable battles against enemy heroes. The original game has a lot of room for improvement there.

As @Fatt_Shade alluded to, you should enjoy some challenge down the road. I'm also in the midst of debugging my improvement to the Spell AI and so far it does indeed seem to be harder. I'm still debugging all the spell paths and fixing crash-to-desktop errors and so the update is still not ready for prime time.

Originally Posted by Sirlancelot

For now, I'm just worried about how well general balance and challenge will remain on the last stages of the game. Many modifications to be aware of. By the way, did you remove the resistance to damage cap? I hope not, it would be highly exploitable.

Well, we'll see what you think as you get later in the game. I haven't played Hard in a very long time, but there are still bonuses that the enemy units get. One thing currently missing that makes the game much harder is bonuses to talents. I have that in the current version I'm debugging and now the difficulty level bonuses apply to talent abilities as well (so for example, the +25% Impossible + map difficulty (up to another +25% on impossible) and it makes the game quite a bit harder.

The resistance to damage cap is still there, but the cap for Attack to Defense ratio can increase based on your Attack (+50% per 7 Attack) and the Defense to Attack goes down by 1 integer per 7 Defense (i.e. normal is 1/3, at 7 Defense it decreases to 1/4, etc.).

Originally Posted by Sirlancelot

Maybe Dryads are overpowered?

You know I did not change Dryads one bit, but allowing them to be recruited early in the game, I can see that they can be pretty potent with their sleep ability. The Druid house in Verlon Forest has a chance to sell them, and you can start with them due to the randomized starting army. Even though in this case you wouldn't have many, all you really need is just one.

Lately, I've been revisiting reloadable / charged attacks and the Gift spell and so I actually thought that it might be desirable to charge the Dryad abilities. Not sure about it, but something to think about...

I've been on the fence with the Druids, Alchemists, and Ents to make their abilities charged instead of reloadable. I currently have the Druid Summon Bear set to 2 charges, the Alchemist potions are 2 charges, and so is the Ent Summon Plant in my latest version I'm debugging. Still undecided what to do here, although, making them charged now lends more to using Gift to recharge those abilities. It may even make sense to make the Royal Thorn's Summon Plant ability have 2 charges. More things to think about...

Originally Posted by Sirlancelot

Some ideas of mine which I find would really help to build and keep tension through the game, making it more thrilling:

1. The chance of being catched by the enemy when you're trying to avoid it. Perhaps setting a trigger so their speed can be randomly increased a bit from time to time.

You know, I think about this a lot. I do have a lot of fun sneaking around troops in TL, but then I keep thinking that that troop should have seen me and should come after me! I have no idea how to change their speed - why are the (Evil) Beholder stacks so fast compared to the others? Hmmm...

Originally Posted by Sirlancelot

2. The chance of being ambushed. Requisites: level... 6? or higher and Freedom isles reachable, so the player can still have his/her time and space to see what items, units and spells are initially available and choose army composition and general strategy.

You know there actually may be a way to implement this. It wouldn't be renewable stacks as Fatt_Shade mentions above, but there may be a way to do it with an event. Have you ever pulled the amulet off the boy in the Verlon Forest village? If you do, half your army rebels and you have to fight them - I think this happens as a result of a dialog option. In the old King's castle in Verlon Forest, the Undead jump out of pictures. So I'm not sure if there would be a way to implement a function that does a random check and then a surprise fight. Fun to think about, though.

Originally Posted by Sirlancelot

3. The chance to fail the guess when trying to determine enemy power potential relative to yours. In my opinion, maximun percent to do it properly should never be above 80%.

I guess you're talking about level 3 Scouting or do you mean giving the lower level Scouting skill a chance to accurately guess troops. As right now, you need level 3 Scouting to accurately determine numbers, but for Level 1 and 2 you receive less information. I'm not sure how to implement right now, but it seems doable.

Originally Posted by Sirlancelot

PS: I'm using Nobilis version, is it imperative to buy Gamersgate one to install their latest patch? If so I will.

I think you just need to check what your build number is. Build 35,396 is the latest build, the GoG version is 35,234. Both game versions are V1.7, but the GoG build has limitations and certain things don't work. For example, I can't display the number of dragonfly wings in your inventory when talking to Maria and the logic for displaying Rage skill damage (all Rage skills properly show damage in Build 35,396) doesn't work in Build 35,234 for certain abilities.

The Build number is shown next to the version in the bottom left when at the Main Menu.

Well, thanks for your comments! Let me know if you have any other suggestions, etc.

I'm hoping to be able to release my latest version that I'm debugging soon, but you know how it goes - there's only so much time in the day...

/C\/C\