THE TRENT WAR --- a new campaign!

[Sirlancelot]

About the fire spider, I forgot to say it doesn't recieve the Initiative bonus from the Blue baby Dragon. I think is a bug imported from vanilla Crossworlds, due to the fact back in The Legend they were considered part of the Demons faction.

And it would be nifty if the description would explain on more detail which Arquery bonus they receive or can receive.

I see Knights have obtained a new talent, Running. That makes them a bit more interesting as enemies, but I think they were already powerful enough for the player. You just need to buff their speed with a spell or/and an item, or use Teleport. Keep in mind they have 30% physical reduction, Mastery, morale +1, high protection from fire and even extra damage against dragons. Oh, and the usually undervalued Circle Attack, which can be devasting when combined with Target (for example) Pair them with Paladins or Horsemen and you have an extraordinary melee setup.

They make Polar Bears and the like too obsolete, IMO.

Snake description is wrong (another bug from vanilla, I'm afraid) They don't poison, but stun.

By the way, congratulations for the new Darkside mod!

[raknefne]

Knights: I never used them before, always Paladins. BTW Paladins only heals now, no ressurection... In Darkside I saw they took the "give turn" from the Paladin and gave it to the Knight to balance these 2 more.

Snakes: Yes, must be vanilla, didn't touch it. Must be the red ones, the blue and green poisons.

Darkside mod: Don't know if anybody plays it anymore... it was very unbalanced, that was why I made a mod with more balance. Was too hard at first and much easier later, I remember in vanilla Darkside my mage had 100+ Mana as level 8 or so. I gave up, had the feeling that goodies like mana/rage etc were thrown in your face too much.

[Sirlancelot]

Alchemist:

When facing them as opponents, venom potion talent appears missing, yet the enemy uses it.
Energy drink seems removed. Why?

BTW Paladins only heals now, no ressurection

This is a brave move from your part. And I applaud it, is refreshing. No more easy ways to avoid casualties, no more tedium at the end of combats.

I see that you also made Phantom pricier in mana, crystals and gold. Well done. Exploits out.

Don't worry about the Darkside mod reception. Once Katauri releases next Kings Bounty entry (which could be soon, or that's what rumors say), all the saga modding community/enviroment will feel alive again. I really think so.

[raknefne]

I have to check Alchemist, there has been a lot of fuzz around them since I modded it. Minors though. Mainly I gave it more potions. I never used Alchemists... A player that played Trent on Impossible to the end, pointed out about Paladins, Phantom spell, Nature Call (I made it cheaper, now 10-20-30 Mana) etc., it was all added in version 1.1.

About new releases, I hope they playtest it well, Darkside can't be playtested much. It is strange, using a lot of time and energy for making the maps and tons of complicated quests, but not the balance. Strange. Sounds like they were in a hurry. I can also see it was another team on mapmaking, the maps are very different from Crossworld.

[Sirlancelot]

Fire spiders spits don't work properly yet. The spiders are unable to burn anyone on ranged no matter the %. After dozen of attempts, I changed locally the value of:

custom_params {
burn=15 //30
}


, to 75 for nothing. I don't know what's wrong. Perhaps the related animation is missing? Something not linked, there?

  throw {
    group=1,2
    class=throw
    distance=5
    mindist=2
    penalty=0.7
    base_attack=1
    animation=cast/throw/thtarget
    throw=catapultfireball
    dontusenearenemy=1
    framekey=x
    damage {
      fire=2,3
    }
    custom_params {
      burn=75   //30
    }
  }

[raknefne]

I will have to check with Ice Spider from WoTn which spits ice and can freeze, 20% chance,. It works there. I will check, if I can't make it work, I just remove the chance to burn on ranged attacks, shooting after all is an improvement for the Fire Spiders.

[jorko80]

Hi raknefne, Sirlancelot
As I said to raknefne already I play not just impossible but combined with a very good mod which removes all unbalanced stuff and makes the game super challenging. This is for both The Legend and Crossroads and believe me beholders are not overpowered. Units with ressurection and some other abilities are, but raknefne already took care of some. And some abilities should really be removed from phantom creatures(creatures made with phantom spell).
@Sirlancelot - these mods are not mine so I don't know if I can translate them ,but they were the inspiration for me to make my mod for WotN-Ice and Fire.
@raknefne - the problem with WotN is that everything is thrown at you after just the first island. You have access to so many powerful creatures and the money is infinite and the game is becoming ultra boring. The gorgons(snake summoner) maybe powerful in the beginning but later with more experienced and powerful enemies they are not. In my mod I made many changes regarding access to new islands and it's not easy to get there and the money is so hard to obtain - I even named the mod - Expensive .
I will translate my mod and in time I can think about the others, but it will be much later(maybe in the end of this year). I expect to finish the translation of my mod around the end of april(start in march).

P.S @raknefne - In the spider_fire.atom file in the arena_params section under hitback=1 insert this line - posthitmaster=features_burn, it should look like this:
arena_params {
features_label=cpi_spider_fire_feat
features_hints=poison_defense_header/poison_defense_hint,fire_resistance_header/fire_resistance_hint,mind_immunity_header/mind_immunity_hint,flaming_header/flaming_hint,fire_spit_header/fire_spit_hint
race=neutral
cost=60
level=2
leadership=30
attack=12
defense=12
defenseup=3
initiative=6
speed=2
hitpoint=30
movetype=0
krit=20
hitback=1
posthitmaster=features_burn
posthitslave=features_flaming
hitbackprotect=0
attacks=moveattack,throw,web
features=mind_immunitet
This should allow the burning chance to work.

[Sirlancelot]

Hmm, I think I'm getting at shops the same spells in Sprudne than I saw in Jerneland.

Dragon Arrows, Nature Call and Invisibility are repeated for sure.

Just coincidence/bad luck? If it's just coincidence I'm perfectly fine with it, eh.

jorko80:

Beholders are not overpowered, unless you face an army which consist basically of level 1 creatures. But the certainty (=100%), that you will put level 1 creatures to sleep makes them boring, too predictable. The same goes for the 0% to enchant level 5 creatures and the 10% to affect level 4 (I don't remember a single time a beholder put to sleep a level 4 creature, by the way)

My point of view, of course.

And some abilities should really be removed from phantom creatures(creatures made with phantom spell)

Agree. Otherwise the spell should be limited to be cast just once per battle or directly removed until balanced.

[raknefne]

The spells in Sprudne, jerneland are random. I rarely make spells fixed. I have more fixed creatures instead.

[Sirlancelot]

Fine, it's really exciting to have to manage to survive with just a bunch of spells, and specially be persuaded to cast some usually non relevant like Precision or Avenging Angel!

Did you place Polar Bears on every map, or just in the first two areas? I only found 19 of them, for now. I wonder because I like them and got two items that improve their speed and morale, but with so few available cannot risk my money right now investing on them.

By the way, I run out of Priests and Inquisitors with my Paladin! Argh, now that I reached the third Holy warrior medal.

The game keeps funny and interesting, although maybe there're too many level 4 creatures around. That implies a bit silly/suboptimal to continue carry over level 1, 2 & 3 mobs. Because they rarely have hit points enough to survive all battles without loses and pursuit the Leadership medals. It's a shame.**

** Not that I care much, I'm just worried to catch leadership enough to keep struggling through the campaign.

A bit of criticism:

There're some fights where the visibility of the farest corner of the screen is difficult to track / see in detail. I remember specifically two battles where I couldn't see the grid properly and had to guess. Unfortunately, moving the camera didn't help a big deal. I'll show you some screenshots whenever I get across that situation again.

Kudos:

Avenging Angel and Call of Nature spells changes make such conjurations more desirable. Perhaps the first can be empowered even further. I modified mine locally so it last for 6, 7 and 8 turns on levels 1,2 and three respectively. And still doesn't feel overpowered, mostly because I miss Target but also due to the modest amount of damage it inflicts *and* the high mana cost it has when compared with crowd control "monsters" early/midgame like Slow. Which by the way may be pricier in mana and crystals cost and a bit nerfed. Mine longs for 1,2,3 rounds instead of 2,3,3.

Love to watch ghosts and pterodactyls flying across the sea. Really nice idea to put them there.

I also noted hostile pirate ships notice you and begin your persecution from afar.

I expected a battle inside my submarine, but hey, you cannot have all.