HOMM3 Babies Mini-Expansion Beta now Available for Download!

MattCaspermeyer · #1 12-03-2012, 08:31 AM

This is a critical update that fixes an issue with Orcelyn having babies as well as makes many fixes, adds new features, and implements ideas that will also be going into my H3T mod for AP / CW.

The download link is at the bottom of this post - feel free to go down there if you don't want to read the change list.

Here are the main changes from an idea / implementation standpoint:

Archive
- There is now just a single KFS file (mod_h3b.kfs) that you need to extract to the data\mods folder. Included in it are all the files needed to play my mod and includes both English variants (i.e. EN_ and ENG_) of the localization files. This greatly simplifies installation and uninstallation of the mod.
Spirits
- Spirit abilities now start with low rest and usually increase rest as the ability becomes stronger. I think this makes for a lot better start with using your Spirits' beginning abilities and makes choices more strategic as the ability becomes more powerful, but requires more rest. There are still rest reduction upgrades just like before.
- Lina's Ice Thorn now damages units where a Thorn would go and Ice Thorns also damage attackers and have an area of affect damage when they explode. Essentially they work the same as before, except that if a unit is where the Thorn would go, then that unit suffers damage. An Ice Thorn now has a limited lifetime that is a random duration from 1 to the number of rounds specified. If a unit attacks an Ice Thorn, then the Thorn returns a certain percentage of damage (i.e. "thorns" damage). Also, if the Ice Thorn expires, then it does area of effect damage to all hexes around the Ice Thorn (not including other Ice Thorns), whether they be friend or foe. I really like this change to Lina's Ice Thorns ability as it gives her a direct damage spell to add in leveling her as well as it simply feels right to me. You can still use them to block your enemies, but now they are far more useful.
Units - There are many subtle changes to certain units that I feel adds more flavor to their use / attacking them, including:
- Dwarves
  - Have the unit feature (with a few exceptions) "Likes Dungeons", giving them +25% Attack in Dungeons.
  - Have the unit feature (with a few exceptions) "Sea Sick", giving them -2 Morale at Sea.
  - Giants now have the "Resistant to Cold" unit feature
- Elves
  - Have the unit feature "Loves the Forest", giving them +50% Attack in Forests.
  - Have the unit feature (with a few exceptions) "Dislikes Dungeons", giving them -1 Morale in Dungeons.
- Neutrals
  - Bears, Ancient Bears, and Graywolves have the unit feature "Likes the Forest", giving them +25% Attack in Forests.
  - Cyclops' Ranged Attack now Stuns and knocks units Unconscious.
  - Spiders (Fire and Venomous) now have the unit feature "Underground", which both Undead and Spiders had. Fire Spiders also have the same Demon Arena bonuses and penalties (had forgotten to include this before).
  - Thorns - Have the unit feature "Tasty Soil", giving them +25% Health in Forests.
- Orcs - Shamans
  - Life and Death Totem's Health are now a percent of the Shaman's Total Health and have had their Health increased.
  - Life and Death Totem's now have increasing Initiative based on the strength of the totem.
- Undead
  - Changed the +1 Morale in Cemeteries to +50% Defense since the AI units gain no benefits from Morale.
  - Bone Dragons now have the unit feature "Dread", which decreases enemy unit Morale -3 for units of level 1-2, -2 for units of level 3-4, and -1 for units of level 5.
  - Ancient Vampire's Death's Deception now only works 50% of the time.
Hero
- The hero's attack now increases the maximum damage cap and a unit's chance to critically strike its targets for a certain divisor of attack (i.e. for every 7 attack).
- The hero's defense now decreases the minimum damage cap and a unit's resistance to all for a certain divisor of defense (i.e. for every 7 defense).
- Implemented Leadership Reduction limits (only applies to a new game) so that you can't get too high of a Leadership Reduction for a unit when combining certain, skills, items, and babies (Leadership Reduction limit is set to -50%).
- For determining the enemy unit Attack / Defense bonuses, there was no way that I could find to get the enemy hero Attack / Defense (if someone knows a way, then please let me know). So these bonuses are taken from the unit's base statistic subtracted from its current statistic after the difficulty level bonus is applied at the beginning of combat (before round 1). This makes fighting enemy units on harder difficulty levels harder.
- ***CRITICAL*** Fixed misspelling of "spell_dispell" for Paladin and Mage heroes starting spell possibility. I'm pretty sure the game would crash if you got the misspelled spell.
Skills
- Destroyer now increases chance of effect by value specified (i.e. burn, poison, etc.).
Spells / Specials
- Battle Cry now increases Morale instead of Initiative.
- Haste now also increases Initiative and chance for a Critical Hit.
- Slow now also decreases Initiative and increases susceptibility to a Critical Hit.
- Stone Skin is now mass at level 3 (mana, crystals, etc. changed to accommodate).
- Sleeping and Unconscious units always receive Critical Damage.
- Entangled units chance to receive a Critical Hit is doubled.
- Giant's Quake no longer damages Archdemons and Demonesses, since they have wings and should be able to momentarily fly to avoid damage. Note that since Giants are Male Humanoids, this would sometimes engage the Demonesses' Beauty feature, but now it is no longer needed.
- Freeze Immnue units now have a greater possible chance of not being Frozen.
- Fire Immune and Demon units how have a greater change of being Frozen.
- Fixed missing Sprites from Skeleton reanimate list for Necromancy Spell.
- Lowered some of the infliction chances so that it takes a higher level character to get them to 100% (Trap, Fire Arrow, and Poison Skull).
Wives / Babies / Items:
- ***CRITICAL*** Fixed error in Gretchen's bonus list that prevented the other babies in Orcelyn's baby file from being valid babies. This was causing the game to crash when Orcelyn was having babies.
- Orcelyn's Leadership Reduction now includes Shamans.
- Tyraxor's bonuses now include Shamans.
- Fixed lower case "zubin" -> "Zubin".
- Babies and items with bonuses to spells that have an effect (i.e. Fire Arrow with Burn) now also increase the chance of that effect happening.
Hints
- When mousing over the Hero's Attack, Defense, or Intellect, the hint slows the base and current bonuses.
- If spell / effect duration is affected by the target's resistance, then it is mentioned in the battle log.
- Shaman Totems ability hint now specifies the Titan Energy used to increase their Health as well as showing their Total Health and Initiative.
- Right clicking on an Ice Thorn will show how much Thorns damage it does to Attackers and when it explodes.
- Geyser's Freeze and Stun chances are listed individually.
- Chance of Effect (Infliction) bonuses are now listed.
- Haste and Slow now include the Initiative and Critical Hit bonuses / penalties
- Battle Cry now properly shows Morale change.
UI
- Spirit upgrade UI expanded to handle more text for upgrades.
AI
- Updated to include changes to Battle Cry, Haste, and Slow.

Okay, that is most of the changes, but here is the detailed file-by-file change list:

Version: Beta 2012-12-01

All files have been combined into a single KFS file to make installation / unintstallation easier.
mod_h3b.kfs - new combined archive with all files
- *.ATOM
  - BONEDRAGON.ATOM
    - Bone Dragon's now have the Dread feature, which decreases enemy morale based on level.
      - Level 1-2: -3 Morale
      - Level 3-4: -2 Morale
      - Level 5: -1 Morale
  - CYCLOP.ATOM
    - Ranged attack now stuns and knocks units unconscious
  - DEATH.ATOM - Ability rest values now start low and increase as the ability gets more powerful
  - DEVATRON.ATOM - Ice thorns now have a thorns ability that damages attackers and units surrounding the thorn when it explodes
  - DEVATRON_THROW.ATOM - A variant of the devatron atom for attack purposes
  - LINA.ATOM
    - Ability rest values now start low and increase as the ability gets more powerful
    - Ice Thorns
      - Now damage enemies where a thorn would go
      - Now have a random life from 1 to duration turns, after which the thorn explodes doing area of effect damage around the thorn
      - Damage attackers
      - Thorn returned damage is now a certain percentage of the thorn damage and applies to both attackers and area of effect damage
  - SHAMAN.ATOM
    - Death Totem health is now percent of Shaman health (40%)
    - Life Totem health is now percent of Shaman health (50%)
    - New parameter, init_den (for both totems), increases the totem's initiative by it's health divided by this parameter
  - SLIME.ATOM - Ability rest values now start low and increase as the ability gets more powerful
  - SPIDER_FIRE.ATOM - added the Demon arena_bonuses section since I changed them to Demons and forgot to do this previously
  - THEROCK.ATOM - Ability rest values now start low and increase as the ability gets more powerful
  - TOTEM_DEATH.ATOM - Totem damage doubled
  - TOTEM_LIFE.ATOM
    - Totem cure doubled
    - Removed nfeatures: plant, golem, undead - cure now affects these creatures as well
  - Dwarf ATOMs: ALCHEMIST, CANNONER, DWARF, GIANT, MINER
    - +25% Attack (except Giants and Miners) in Dungeon environments, note that Miners receive +50% Attack in Dungeons due to their Night Sight
    - -2 Morale (except Cannoneers and Giants) at Sea
    - Added the appropriate headers / hints
  - Elf ATOMs: DRUID, DRYAD, ELF, ELF2, ENT, ENT2, SPRITE, SPRITE_LAKE, UNICORN, UNICORN2, WEREWOLF, WOLF
    - +50% Attack in Forest environments
    - -1 Morale (except Black Unicorn, Werewolf, and Werewolf Elf) in Dungeon environments
    - Added the appropriate headers / hints
  - ATOMs that like the forest: BEAR, BEAR2, GRAYWOLF - +25% Attack in Forest environments
  - Resistant to Cold ATOMs: BEAR2, GIANT
    - GIANTS now have the Resistant to Cold feature
    - BEAR2 had Resistanct to Cold arena bonuses (the bonus hint did not mention this), but I think that was a mistake so it has been removed
  - Thorn ATOMs: KINGTHORN, THORN, THORN_WARRIOR - Tasty Soil: +25% Health in Forest environments
  - Undead ATOMs: ARCHER, BAT, BAT2, BLACKKNIGHT, BONEDRAGON, NECROMANT, SKELETON, VAMPIRE, VAMPIRE2, ZOMBIE, ZOMBIE2 - +50% Defense in cemeteries (was +1 morale, but I changed it since morale does not affect the computer controlled units)
  - Underground ATOMs: SPIDER_FIRE, SPIDER_VENOM - SPIDER_FIRE and SPIDER_VENOM now have the Underground feature (Undead Spiders get this bonus from being Undead)
- *.LNG
  - EN(G)_BATTLE.LNG - Added new battle log labels for when spell duration is increased / decreased due to unit's resistance
  - EN(G)_HERO.LNG
    - Changed Attack hint to include:
      - Amount of attack needed to increase max damage cap and critical hit
      - Critical Hit increase per attack
      - Max Damage Cap increase per attack
      - Total Critical Hit increase
      - Max Damage Cap
    - Changed Defense hint to include:
      - Amount of defense needed to decrease min damage cap and increase resist all
      - Resist all increase per defense
      - Min Damage Cap decrease per defense
      - Total Resist all increase
    - Changed Intellect hint to include:
      - Amount of intellect needed to increase spell power and duration
      - Amount of power increase per intellect
      - Amount of duration increase per intellect
      - Total power increase
      - Total duration increase
  - EN(G)_HOMM3_BABIES_ORCELYN.LNG
    - Changed Tyraxor's bonuses to include Shamans
    - Fixed lower case "zubin"
  - EN(G)_SKILLS.LNG - Destoyer now also increases chance of infliction (i.e. burn, poison, etc.)
  - EN(G)_SPELLS.LNG
    - Sleeping and Unconscious units always receive critical damage
    - Entangled units chance to receive a critical hit is doubled
    - Battle Cry now increases unit's morale instead of initiative
    - Haste now also increases a unit's initiative and chance to critically strike its target
    - Slow now also decreases a unit's initiative and increase its susceptibility to critical strikes
    - Stone Skin is now mass at level 3
    - Added new infliction bonus labels
    - Geyser hint now includes freeze chance
  - EN(G)_SPIRITS.LNG
    - Updated Ice Thorns description to include its new abilities
    - Added rest increases to spirit abilities where appropriate
    - Added new labels for Ice Thorns new features
    - Removed abbreviations for Orb level-up since UI now has more room
    - Added new Ice Thorn labels
    - Changed Ice Thorn levelups
  - EN(G)_UNITS.LNG
    - Updated Ice Thorns arena description
    - Updated Elf Race description
    - Updated Dwarf Race description
    - Updated Undead Race description
    - Updated Demon Race description
    - Updated Ice Thorn right-click hint to include Thorns damage and new hint
    - Added new Bone Dragon Dread morale penalty hint
  - EN(G)_UNITS_FEATURES.LNG
    - Updated Ancient Vampire's Death's Deception so that it only works 50% of the time
    - Added new Cyclops features
    - Updated Dwarf units so that they include the "Likes Dungeons" feature (with a few exceptions)
    - Updated Dwarf units so that they include the "Sea Sick" feature (with a few exceptions)
    - Updated Elf units so that they include the "Loves Forests" feature
    - Updated Elf units so that they include the "Dislikes Dungeons" feature (with a few exceptions)
    - Updated Bone Dragon to include new Dread feature
    - Removed Night Sight from Undead Spider feature list since it was redundant with their Undead feature
    - Added Underground feature to Fire Spiders and Venomous Spiders
    - Added "Likes the Forest" feature to Graywolves, Bears, and Ancient Bears
    - Added the "Tasty Soil" feature to Royal Thorns, Thorns, and Thorn Warriors
    - Added the "Throws Stones" feature to Cyclopses
    - Updated Giant Attack hint
    - Updated Ogre Attack hint
    - Added new Bone Dragon Dread hint
    - Updated Undead hint so that they gain +50% Defense in cemeteries instead of +1 Morale (since it didn't effect AI units anyway)
    - Updated Marine hint to include exact Morale increase
    - Added new Tasty Soil hint
    - Added new Likes Dungeons hint
    - Added new Likes the Forest hint
    - Added new Loves the Forest hint
    - Added new Dislikes Dungeons hint
    - Added new Sea Sick hint
  - EN(G)_UNITS_SPECIALS.LNG
    - Updated Shaman Totem hints to include Titan Energy for health and new initative parameter
    - Added new Titan Energy labels
  - EN(G)_WINDOWS.LNG - updated version number
  - TEMPLATES.LNG
    - Added new "damage" macro to hint_t0 template for displaying the Ice Thorns' "thorns" damage to attackers and for area of effect damage
    - Added the following macros to the left_t macro for displaying the new attack, defense, and intellect bonuses to the hero screen:
      - att_den - this is the amount of attack needed to increase maximum damage and unit critical hit
      - krit_inc - this is the critical hit increase per att_den attack
      - att_cap_inc - this is the maximum damage increase per att_den attack
      - att_krit - this is the total critical hit increase per hero attack
      - def_den - this is the amount of defense needed to decrease unit damage and increase unit resistance to all
      - res_inc - this is the resist all increase per def_den defense
      - def_res - this is the the actual resist all increase based on the hero's defense
      - def_dec - this is the actual damage decrease based on the hero's defense
      - int_den - this is the amount of intellect needed to increase the power of spells
      - power_inc - this is the increase in spell power per int_den
      - dur_den - this is the amount of intellect needed to increase the duration of spells
      - dur_inc - this is the increase in spell duration per dur_den
      - int_power - this is the total spell power increase based on the hero's intellect
      - int_dur - this is the total spell duration increase based on the hero's intellect
    - Added the following macros to the special_t template:
      - health_totem - lists the health of the totem, including the increase due to Titan Energy
      - health% - lists the percent of totem health based on the Shaman's health
      - titan_energy - lists how much Titan Energy is being used to increase the health of the unit
      - init_totem - lists the totem's initiative
    - Added the following macros to the int_spr_Lvlup_tAD template:
      - freeze - for the new Ice Thorns' freeze chance
      - thorns - for the new Ice Thorns' "thorns" damage
      - duration - for the new Ice Thorns' max random duration
      - freezeOld, freezeNew - for leveling up the ability
      - thornsOld, thornsNew - for leveling up the ability
    - Added the following macros to the int_spr_th0 template:
      - freeze - the freeze chance
      - thorns - the thorns percentage
    - Added the following macros to the blog_td0 template:
      - durold, durnew - new macros for the label that states when a spell / effect duration has been increased / decreased due to the target's resistance
      - restype - new macro that displays the resistance that caused the spell / effect duration to increase / decrease
    - Added the following macros to the spells_tSpell template:
      - DS04_Krit - new critical Hit increase for Haste spell
      - DS05_Krit - new Critical Hit susceptibility for Slow spell
      - DS18_Freeze - new Geyser freeze chance
- *.LUA
  - Fixed Game.Random( 100 ) errors so that the proper probability is used, files effected: ARENA.LUA, BOSS.LUA, PAWN.LUA, SPECIAL_ATTACKS.LUA, SPELLS.LUA, SPIRIT_LINA.LUA, UNIT_FEATURES.LUA
  - ARENA.LUA
    - Sleeping and Unconscious units always receive critical damage
    - Entangled units chance to receive a critical hit is doubled
    - Ancient Vampire's Death's Deception now only works 50% of the time
    - Slow now increases the chance of a unit receiving a critical strike from its attacker
    - The hero's attack now affects the attacker's critical hit
    - The hero's defense now affects the receiver's resistance
    - The hero's attack and defense now affect the maximum and minimum damage caps (i.e. 300% and 1/3) scaled by the attack-defence difference
    - For enemy units:
      - Since there appears to be no way of getting the enemy hero attack / defense, the enemy hero's attack / defense is computed at the beginning of combat based on the unit's current and base attack / defense after the difficulty bonus is applied.
      - If anyone knows how to get the enemy hero's attack / defense then let me know (there is a way to get the hero's intellect, but that is a special Logic library function).
      - This means that enemy units not led by an enemy hero can still potentially get:
        Increased Critical Hit
        
        Increased Maximum Damage Cap
        
        Decreased Minimum Damage Cap
        
        Increased Resistances
        
        Even if the unit is led by an enemy hero, the computed enemy hero attack / defense values can be quite a bit greater than the enemy hero's actual attack / defense
        
        This makes the game harder at the harder difficulty levels as the enemy units get better bonuses
    - Updated spell AI to accommodate changes to Battle Cry, Haste, and Slow
  - LOGIC_HERO.LUA - Leadership Reduction counters are now limited to the lr_limit value specified in CONFIG.TXT when starting a new game
  - SPECIAL_ATTACKS.LUA
    - Shaman Totem health is now a percent of the Shaman's total health
    - Shaman Totem initiative is now the same as the Shaman's base initiative + the Totem's health divided by its init_den (specified in SHAMAN.ATOM)
    - Giant Quake no longer damages Archdemons and Demonesses since they have wings (their "special" / "avoid" animations are played, respectively, instead). Note that since Giants are male humanoids that the Demoness's Beauty feature used to come into play, but now it is not needed.
  - SPECIAL_HINT.LUA
    - Updated Shaman Totem Health hint to include the Titan Energy stored on the Shaman
    - Added Shaman Totem Initiative hint
  - SPELLS.LUA
    - Freeze Immune units now have a greater possible chance of not being frozen with the Ice Snake and Geyser spells
    - Fire Immune and Demon units now have a greater possible chance of being frozen with the Ice Snake and Geyser spells
    - Ice Snake and Geyser now use a common function for determining whether units are frozen
    - Battle Cry (spell_reaction) now increases unit morale instead of initiative
    - Haste now also increases a unit's initiative and chance to critically strike its target
    - Slow now also decreases a unit's initiative and increases its susceptibility to critical strikes
    - Stone Skin is now mass at level 3
  - SPELLS_HINT.LUA
    - Updated Slow hint to include initiative reduction and increased susceptibility to critical hits
    - Updated Haste hint to include initiative increase and increased chance of critical hits
    - Added Geyser Freeze probably to hint
  - SPELLS_POWER.LUA
    - Added new dur_inc parameter
    - Added capability to show the spell / effect duration log due to the target's resistance
    - Power Slow now returns critical hit susceptibility value
    - Power Haste now returns critical hit increase value
    - Power Geyser now returns freeze chance
    - Changed how I was computing the infliction increase
  - SPIRIT_LINA.LUA - Implemented new functions for the Ice Thorn
  - TEXTGEN.LUA - Added new function to provide number descriptions to the attack, defense, and intellect tips
  - UNIT_FEATURES.LUA
    - Mind Immune createres cannot be knocked unconscious by the Giant's attack
    - The Undead can be stunned by the Ogre's attack and the Undead and Mind Immune creatures cannot be knocked unconscious
    - The Cyclop's throw attack can now stun and knock units unconscious
    - The Bone Dragon now decreases morale based on unit level
- *.PNG
  - LEVELUP_BG2_EXTENDED.PNG - New picture that allows for more room in the spirit upgrade description boxes
  - SPIRIT_LEVELUP_BUTTON_NORMAL_EXTENDED.PNG - New picture for the larger spirit upgrade description
  - SPIRIT_LEVELUP_BUTTON_ONMOUSE_EXTENDED.PNG - New picture for the larger spirit upgrade description
  - SPIRIT_LEVELUP_BUTTON_ONPRESS_EXTENDED.PNG - New picture for the larger spirit upgrade description
- *.TXT
  - CONFIG.TXT
    - New attack_config parameters
      - den - this is the hero attack divisor for computing max damage cap increase and critical hit increase
      - krit_inc - this is the amount of critical hit increase per den
      - cap_inc - this is the amount of max damage cap increase per den
    - New defense_config parameters
      - den - this is the hero defense divsor for computing min damage cap increase and resistance increase
      - res_inc - this is the increase in resist all per den
    - New hero_leadership_reduction parameter: lr_limit - this is the maximum leadership reduction counter for all units
  - HERO.TXT - ***CRITICAL*** Fixed misspelling of "spell_dispell" for Paladin and Mage heroes
  - ITEMS.TXT
    - Added sp_gain_infliction_burn to "flame_necklace" and "storm_necklace"
    - Added sp_gain_infliction_shock to "adept_staff" and "arhmage_staff" (note that it is really spelled that way)
  - ORCELYN_BABIES.TXT
    - Added Shamans to Tyraxor's bonuses
    - ***CRITICAL*** - Fixed error in Gretchen's bonus list that was causing the game to crash when Orcelyn was having babies
  - SPECIAL_PARAMS.TXT
    - Changed individual add and gain spell infliction bonuses to general effect bonuses (i.e. ..infliction_fire_arrow -> ..infliction_burn)
    - This effects bonuses in ITEMS.TXT, DIANA_BABIES.TXT, MIRABELLA_BABIES.TXT, NEOKA_BABIES.TXT, RINA_BABIES.TXT, XEONA_BABIES.TXT
  - SPELL.TXT
    - Necromancy - Added missing Sprites to Skeleton reanimate list
    - Battle Cry (spell_reaction) now increases unit morale instead of initiative
    - Haste now also increases a unit's initiative and chance to critically strike its target
    - Slow now also decreases a unit's initiative and increase its susceptibility to critical strikes
    - Stone Skin is now mass at level 3 (mana, crystals, etc. adjusted accordingly)
    - Reduced Trap base poison infliction percent to 25 (was 35)
    - Geyser now has a specified freeze chance, and increased stun chance from 10 to 15
    - Fire Arrow now has a burn chance of 20 (was 25)
    - Poison Skull now has a poison chance of 20 (was 25)
  - WIFES.TXT - Added Shaman to Orcelyn's Leadership Requirement bonus
- *.UI
  - SP_LEVEL_UP.UI - Increases the size of the spirit levelup dialog to handle more text

That's a lot of changes, but they also serve as a preview of the features that I'd like to implement in my H3T mod for AP / CW.

Please see the first or last post for the download link - thanks!

/C\/C\

Fatt_Shade · #2 12-03-2012, 09:28 AM

Spirits :
- nice idea to make rest/lvlup change. It was hard to use spirits early when you have only 1 skill and rest like 4 turns

- Lina ice thorns is from WotN, also nice touch. At least now she have some bonus for exp, not like before when you needed 100 battles to get her to lvlup.

Units :
- nice racial bonuses for dwarf/elf ... why would only demon/undead have area bonuses.
- maybe give undead +25% on cemetery, because moral gives +stats for att,def,crit%. How about +25% for att/def , instead +50%def ?

Hero :
- bonus for every 7 points in att/def

it`s great you implemented this here. Intellect had to much bonuses compared to att/def before.
- spell_dispel , who would figure this out if crashes started

- why limit lds reduction ? i loved my 28 lds griffins (Eddric , glory , griffin banner)

Spells/specials :
- it`ll take some testing to see will it work all

Wives :
- great for Orcelin, and including shamans.

Will this changes go into Ap/Cw version also ?

MattCaspermeyer · #3 12-03-2012, 06:54 PM

Quote: