New Mod Heroes of Might and Magic 3 Babies!

[MattCaspermeyer]

Okay, I've been making a lot of changes with my latest unreleased version of the mod.

Now you can talk to Drahha and he's convinced that there must be more Blue Dragons out there somewhere! By the way, he now exchanges Runes for Dragon Eggs!

So now that I've added Blue Dragon Eggs (they look just like the Sapphire Egg you get from Ultrax and cost $25k) I've also added Blue Dragons.

So I'm open to suggestions on abilities. Note that I'm going to use Drahha as the 3D model and may also use his picture for the 2-D representation or may alter an existing one. We'll see.

Here's what I have so far for stats:

Attack: 60
Defense: 60
Physical Resistance: 20
Poison Resistance: 5
Magic Resistance: 80
Fire Resistance: 80
Initiative: 8
Speed: 9
Critical Hit: 25%
Fire Damage: 120-140
Health: 880
Cost: 20k
Leadership: 3k

These are meant to be very rare Dragons and hence they should have the best stats. Plus, I'm thinking this is why the other Dragons don't like them very much. Right now, I have placeholder talents of both the Red Dragon and Black Dragon abilities. However, these are just meant to be place holders for actual abilities that we think of. Think of Drahha when thinking about abilities.

One idea that I'm thinking about is that they may have an "aura of fear". Units within 1 hex have a chance of fear or something like that.

Anyway, those are just thoughts.

Also I've added the ability (so far) to exchange Snake Eggs for Crystals with Witch Helga, Spider Eggs for Crystals with Old Chvakha, and Ent Seeds for Crystals with Lady Beaulla. All containers will be enabled to trade for Crystals or possibly runes with some NPC. I have to look to see which NPC's still talk to you after you're talked to them and completed their quests (a lot just bring up their shop afterwards and so these aren't an option).

So I'm looking for NPC's to exchange the following still:

Griffin Eggs (I can only think of Harl, but it doesn't make sense - maybe governor Thompson? Seems like his motives wouldn't be good, though)
Dragonfly Eggs (Possibly Bogis)
Coffins (Skeletons) (Possibly the Necromancer that has you fight the Book of Evil - does he still talk to you after you give him the book?)
Carved Coffins (Vampires) (Possibly the Necromancer that has you fight the Book of Evil)
Thorn Seeds (thought of Milk Woman, Wilma, but she had such a bad experience with the first batch that she probably wouldn't want any more - maybe need to convince her now it's safe or something or possibly Bogis)
Bone Dragon Eggs (someone in the Land of Death, maybe the Necromancer that has you get the Red Dragon Eggs if he still talks to you afterwards (can't remember)).

By the way, the rough exchange rate is $10k of containers for 1 Crystal and $100k of containers for 1 Rune. So about 8 Ent Seeds for 1 Crystal, for example, or 5 Black Dragon Eggs for 1 Rune (of your choice). You can see that with these rates that you'd only be able to get about maybe 50 to 100 more crystals in a game and maybe 4-5 of each Rune, depending, of course, on whether you decide to use them.

Also, now when you fight Dragonflies you have a chance to get more Dragonfly Wings (chance is square root of the number of Dragonflies and the number of wings is square root of chance). This way you have a chance to find more Dragonfly Wings throughout the game to trade with Maria. You'll probably find on average, as a guess, 20 to 30 more wings so that'd be another 60 to 90 Crystals.

I'm also open to ideas for exchanging Crystals or Runes for something. It may be nice to bring the Rune Exchange stuff from AP / CW over to TL. I could probably have Torn Digor's son do the Rune Exchange...

Anyway, I'm still working through debugging the spell AI, but I've fixed quite a few crash-to-desktop problems and so need to do some more checking before the release is ready. There are also quite a few changes to LOC files that require a restart (for example, all the Blue Dragon stuff added to shops will require a restart).

Thanks in advance for your suggestions!

/C\/C\

[Sir Whiskers]

Some random thoughts on abilities for Drahha:

1. Summoning dragonflies. Perhaps dragonflies hang around dragons, scavenging from their kills. For whatever reason, they like blue dragons better and can be summoned to help in a fight.

2. Other dragons don't like blue dragons not just because they are different, but because they have trouble controlling their abilities. Give blue dragons an Armageddon-like ability that damages all stacks (50% damage to allies?).

3. A Last Hero ability that only works on the blue dragon stack. Last Hero usually doesn't work on L5 creatures, so this might be overpowered.

4. Since emerald dragons can add mana, perhaps something that allows a blue dragon to add rage? Or, if a blue dragon is in the hero's army, anytime a dragon stack is attacked, it generates extra rage - something like the Paladin's ability against undead and demons. Or simply having dragons in the opposing army generates extra rage automatically between rounds.

5. Other dragons hate blue dragons, so when fighting a blue dragon, their Attack increases 25%, but their Defense decreases 50%.

You indicate that other dragons don't like blue dragons, so it's a good bet that you'll lower their morale if a blue dragon is in the hero's army. Are you planning to increase the blue dragon's morale in that case, similar to giants and emerald dragons?

I like the ideas on crystals. At first I thought $10K was too high, but Tibold's prices quickly go much higher, so it works out. (Tibold sells the first crystal for $5K, then $7.5K, then $10K, etc.) And it's nice to have something to do with the extra containers besides simply selling them. For convenience, I'd suggest having all the locations in or around Greenwort. Otherwise, it may not be worth the time and effort to trade some containers.

I also like the idea of exchanging dragon eggs for runes, and the high price ($100K) for doing so. It's less important to keep this in a convenient location, since I'm guessing it won't happen often. Perhaps the dragon caves in Montero?

SW

[MattCaspermeyer]

Originally Posted by Sir Whiskers

Some random thoughts on abilities for Drahha:

1. Summoning dragonflies. Perhaps dragonflies hang around dragons, scavenging from their kills. For whatever reason, they like blue dragons better and can be summoned to help in a fight.

I really like this idea - and it might make sense, too, since Drahha hangs out near the Dragonfly area in Arlania.

Originally Posted by Sir Whiskers

2. Other dragons don't like blue dragons not just because they are different, but because they have trouble controlling their abilities. Give blue dragons an Armageddon-like ability that damages all stacks (50% damage to allies?).

This also sounds neat! But I'd have to be careful otherwise you'd end up just not using it.

Other thoughts here:

• Combine 3in1 with long attack 2 (so they could theoretically attack 6 targets: 3 hexes wide by 2 deep). I'm not sure if these two attack abilities would work together, though, so it might not be implementable.
• They leave a wake when they fly - this might be part of the trouble controlling their abilities that you mention above.

Originally Posted by Sir Whiskers

3. A Last Hero ability that only works on the blue dragon stack. Last Hero usually doesn't work on L5 creatures, so this might be overpowered.

Another interesting idea. I've been drawing somewhat on the dragon abilities from HOMM3 - Armageddon's Blade. Here there is the Faerie Dragon and here's its description:

"Some say they are invisible. Some say they can cast spells. Some say Magic Mirror is one of their natural defensive traits."

So I like the idea of them having some sort of spell capability as a natural part of them. Invisibility may make sense since that's why they're rarely seen. Perhaps as a natural response to being attacked they have a certain percent chance of becoming invisible.

Going with the Magic Mirror motif (has a chance to reflect bad spells to the other side in HOMM3) this may also make sense - a spell cast on an enemy has a chance of being reflected (if bad) or stolen (if good). This may be really neat, although I'd have to think about how to implement it.

Originally Posted by Sir Whiskers

4. Since emerald dragons can add mana, perhaps something that allows a blue dragon to add rage? Or, if a blue dragon is in the hero's army, anytime a dragon stack is attacked, it generates extra rage - something like the Paladin's ability against undead and demons. Or simply having dragons in the opposing army generates extra rage automatically between rounds.

Sounds interesting. By the way, in my current update EGD's mana burn if they don't have a hero now.

Originally Posted by Sir Whiskers

5. Other dragons hate blue dragons, so when fighting a blue dragon, their Attack increases 25%, but their Defense decreases 50%.

Another interesting idea. Hmmm...

Originally Posted by Sir Whiskers

You indicate that other dragons don't like blue dragons, so it's a good bet that you'll lower their morale if a blue dragon is in the hero's army. Are you planning to increase the blue dragon's morale in that case, similar to giants and emerald dragons?

Yah, I'll probably make it -2 Morale or something like that (or maybe different colors respond differently). It'll then be offset by Tolerance. In my latest unreleased mod, Tolerance offsets the Morale penalty between EGD's and Giants (but Giants don't get the bonus any more either since I guess they know they're not allowed to eat them - "not very happy that I can't eat my EGD for breakfast!").

Originally Posted by Sir Whiskers

I like the ideas on crystals. At first I thought $10K was too high, but Tibold's prices quickly go much higher, so it works out. (Tibold sells the first crystal for $5K, then $7.5K, then $10K, etc.) And it's nice to have something to do with the extra containers besides simply selling them. For convenience, I'd suggest having all the locations in or around Greenwort. Otherwise, it may not be worth the time and effort to trade some containers.

Great suggestion here - or a short balloon ride away. Just searching for the right NPC's. I think I'm definitely going to have Bogis exchange Dragonfly Eggs and I may also have him do the Thorn Seeds (or I've been thinking that maybe Wilma can get advice from the Royal Thorn on the seeds). Perhaps the Dwarf Alchemist in Marshan Swamp could use the Coffins for something? He does need a new assistant after all...

Originally Posted by Sir Whiskers

I also like the idea of exchanging dragon eggs for runes, and the high price ($100K) for doing so. It's less important to keep this in a convenient location, since I'm guessing it won't happen often. Perhaps the dragon caves in Montero?

SW

I haven't even thought about where these exchanges would happen in AP / CW, but the dragon caves in Montero sound good if there is an NPC down there somewhere.

Alright - thanks for the awesome comments!

Keep 'em coming!

/C\/C\

[Sir Whiskers]

Originally Posted by MattCaspermeyer

I haven't even thought about where these exchanges would happen in AP / CW, but the dragon caves in Montero sound good if there is an NPC down there somewhere.

Oops, you're right - I was thinking of AP/CW, not Legend. Hmm, I know there's at least one place in the Elven lands where you can always buy dragons, so perhaps there will work.

[Sirlancelot]

Edited: Wrong topic!

[MattCaspermeyer]

Originally Posted by Sir Whiskers

1. Summoning dragonflies. Perhaps dragonflies hang around dragons, scavenging from their kills. For whatever reason, they like blue dragons better and can be summoned to help in a fight.

I'm implementing this as one of their abilities. I've made the 4 buttons for the ability already.

I also have a picture of what they'll look like on their unit card (or actually 5). Tell me which one you like best - I like picture #1 the best so far. Let me know what you think.

I'm still contemplating other abilities.

I also have Wilma exchanging Thorn Seeds for Magic Crystals (she gives some to the Royal Thorn, I guess) and Bogis exchanging Dragonfly Eggs.

/C\/C\