As an avid HoMM 3 player I made a balance mod for me and my friends to use some time ago. I discovered HotA more recently and like most of it a lot. I have adapted my mod to it. In case anyone here is interested in trying it out or discussing the changes I will post the link to it: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/2jlln9yctnkpk...G4f1a?dl=0

Here is a part of the documentation:

Towns and creatures
The goal is to increase variety, especially early game. I try to make less used units better. I also try to get upgrades to matter more as it is generally better to get another dwelling. HotA nerfs Necro and conflux hard which was needed. I buff inferno and fortress significnatly. I buff tower, necro and stronghold slightly through their less used units. Castle, Rampart and Dungeon stay roughly the same but shifted a bit towards their less used units. I also buffed war machines.

Necropolis
Walking dead/zombie have 10 growth [8].
Zombies have 2-4 damage [2-3].
Wight/Wraith have 20/30 hp [18] .

Castle
Pikemen have 8 hp [10].
Zealots have 10 -14 damage [10-12].

Rampart
Battle dwarves have and 9/9 attack/defense. [7/7].
Mystic pond cost 2000g [2000 + 2 of every resource].
3-4 starting elves [2-4].
4-7 starting dwarfs. [3-5].

Dungeon
Harpy hags have 9 Attack [6].
Evil Eye do 3-6 damage [3-5].
Manticore 70 hp 800 g [80, 850].

Stronghold
Upgraded cyclops cave cost 5 crystal [10].
Orc Chieftains do 3-6 damage and cost 180 [2-5, 165] .
Cyclops king have 80 hp and cost 1000 gold [70, 1100].

Tower
Cloud Palace cost 8000 gold [5000].
Upg. Golem Factory cost 4 mercury [5].
Mage Tower cost 0 of all special resources [5].
Golden Pavillion cost 5 of all special resources [2].
Obsidian Gargoyles now have 2-4 damage and 18 hp. [2-3, 16].
Arch Mages have 9-11 damage [7-9].

Fortress
Wyvern Monarchs now have 80 hp [70].
Gnolls have 14 growth [12] .
Gnoll Marauders have 6 attack [4].
Greater Basilisk have 6 -12 damage [6-10].
Chaos Hydras have 30 - 50 damage and 300 hp [25 - 45, 250].

Inferno
Imps hav 3 Attack and cost 35 [2, 50].
Familiars have 6 Attack, Dmg 1-3 and cost 50 g [4, 1-2, 60].
Gogs/Magogs cost 115/150 gold [125, 175].
Devils and Arch devils have 170/240hp and have 30-50 damage. [160/200, 30-40].
Pit Lords/Fiends have 15 attack [13].
Amount of Imps increased to 20–30 [15–25].

War machines
Ammo cart, Ballista and First Aid Tent have 500 hp.
Ballista does 3-5 damage [2-3].

Looking for more players interested in the survival sandbox horror zombie building game known as 7 days to die. Its basically minecraft + rust. The game is fairly realistic and has a max 64 players that can be playing at the same time. Ive played quite a few hours in the game and it is much more fun with more people to help build a base that can survive a horde of zombies. If you are willing to play or just want to try it out feel free to let me know. The more the merrier!

https://7daystodie.com/

https://7daystodie.gamepedia.com/7_Days_to_Die_Wiki

We're done with the spell system overhaul and my todo list barely has anything left from what I was planning for the beta testing period so we might as well consider adding more content.
Item powers are easy to add so there is no harm discussing the possibilities now.

We can add some existing abilities that aren't available, or design new abilities.
However, as stacking defensive abilities is already over the top in effectiveness, we should either completely avoid these or limit them to the Chaos/Death realms and make them extremely rare drops in treasure. Life/Nature/Sorcery doesn't really need improvements in that particular area.

Existing abilities that could appear on items :
Stoning Gaze. Stoning Touch is quite weak and this could be a more powerful, higher level option for artifact tier items only, probably with a better save modifier like -3.
Doom Gaze. This is a straightforward added damage.
Bloodsucking. The new ability on Vampires. Probably way too powerful so I think we shouldn't add.
Healing Aura. The new ability on Phoenix. Definitely way too powerful to appear on items because heroes are Normal units so they could heal themselves.
First Strike. As far as I remember, this was considered and I didn't want to add it during CoM I, I don't remember the reasons though.
Wall Crusher. Would have been a waste of a slot in CoM I but might be still a decent low cost power for CoM 2.
Wind Walking. Don't think we should. The hero with the ability would stop being unique and popular.

New ability ideas :
Exp Bonus (Selfishness) - Death
Amplifier (deal 1 more damage/heal 1 more with spells in that battle) - Chaos
Dark Pact - Death
Scouting on map - Nature?
Scouting lair contents : Stealth - Nature? Death? (add to Thief, Assassin? Maybe also make hero not trigger pacts?)
Power Stealer : Create MP from mana stolen from the target (problem, most enemies don't have MP) or from damage (problem, too powerful, basically generates infinite MP as long as there are enemies left) or? (Death)
Shockwave - Chaos. Attack damage is dealt to each enemy figure separately. (do we have any endgame high figure count units this could be too good against? Death Knights maybe? Other very rares are 1 figure. Normal units being beaten by heroes is not a problem. A bit redundant with Immolation but massively more powerful so probably ok)


...

Anyone here played the FreeMars fan game project? As a big fan of FreeCiv and FreeCol I’m shocked that I didn’t know about this game too! I grew up playing Sid Meier’s Colonization and the Mars scenario in Civilization 2 so someone combining these 2 things together into a standalone game is just a brilliant idea! Also has some slight Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri influences there as well I think but it mostly feels like Sid Meier’s Colonization but on Mars!

Someone sent it to me in response to my ongoing search for Colonization and Mars Scenario Mods (among many other cool mods) for all the Civilization games and thought I was seeing things lol! I downloaded it and tried it out and have been addictively playing it all day every day since (thankfully I’m holidays lol). Very impressive and it’s fully playable as I was able to complete the game however sadly it’s a bit unfinished as a number of missing features made it hard for me to enjoy the late game, but the early game was super fun! You get to choose between all these different sized Mars maps (or randomly generate your own) and can have up to 16 nations in the game all with their own interesting advantages. Mars appears to be partially terraformed in the game as there’s grassy plains and plantations of forests and giant mushrooms bread to survive there that you can harvest. Other than some useless swamps there’s no oceans so you’ll be using big space freighters instead of sailing ships that go into orbit and fly between Mars and Earth to trade goods. Instead of the usual Civ unknown village huts or Col lost cities offering random treasure to your scouts in FreeMars you get asteroid and crashed satellite debris appearing all over the map for you to pick up resources from, they’ll keep coming too so it’s good to have lots of scouts all over the map hunting for treasure lol. City managing is very very similar to Col except instead of dragging around little workers representing communities, you can instead allocate the communities themselves using slider bars (eg put 100 people on food harvesting and put 50 people in this factory etc) which feels strange at first but is actually pretty cool once you get used to it as it leads to more player customization and strategy, plus some parts can be automated to save time. Just like your greedy King in Colonization, Earth will keeping raising taxes and building up a expeditionary force to quell any uprisings so you’ll need to build your own army of futuristic soldiers and mechs to fight back when the time comes for independence! (makes me think of The Expanse tv show) Earth also sends you all these expansion based missions to keep you busy, which some might appear daunting but I didn’t have any trouble completing them way before their deadlines.

As previously mentioned the game is unfinished but I was amazed by the lack of bugs I encountered as the game didn’t even crash once on me! The AIs will expand and build their empires however it doesn’t seem to attack, trade or interact with you in any way sadly. Also I’ve seen the dev post about a number of colony buildings yet to be implemented such as top tier energy and water production, and yeah boy are they needed. I had to rush to independence before my civ collapsed in on itself from too many people and not enough food and water lol. The war of independence was fun much like in Col as dropships will put Earth troops, mechs and tanks around your empire and you’ll have to fight them off to win the game! The game supports other win conditions too such as sending all your Mars rival nations to oblivion or achieving a certain amount of resources but obviously independence is the one all us Col players go for haha.

As for extras there's no multiplayer that I can see sadly but just like FreeCol and FreeCiv it does come with a map editor which means someone could probably make a true mars map at some point as I've seen some good attempts at geographically correct ones made for Civ games over the years.

The game hasn’t been worked on since late 2019 so hopefully it’s not dead. The sourceforge forum looks quiet too, so it would be sad if a game with such great potential and has come so far ends up abandoned due to lack of fan interest help and support. I might see if I can contact the author to see how it’s all going!

Project site:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/freemars/

Screenshots from my test game:
Selecting my nation


We have arrived!


Trading with Earth


Managing a colony


My growing empire and Mars orbit view


The war of independence rages on, I'm surrounded on all sides!

I discovered that a v1.52 patch has been released.  Unfortunately it is packaged in an installer that refuses to run on my system.  Anyone have the files in a .ZIP I can just put into my MoM directory, like the v1.4 and v1.5 patches?

MoO version 1.3.
Medium galaxy, Impossible, 5 opponents. 
We play as Alkari.

   

Start on SW corner of the map. 
I open sending colony ship + scout to the purple star to the east, and the second scout to the blue star SW.
Make 3 new scout2's to explore the red at 4 parsecs SE + the 2 stars to the N / NW.

2302: Turns out both stars at 3 parsecs are hostile AND Ultra-Rich! 
So no colonizable planets at range 3 !! 
(I thought that was not even possible, is it a bug!?) 

Well, how would you play from 2302 on?

Attached the 2300 savefile for those who would like to give it a try.

Regards!

Attached Files

  SAVE1.GAM (Size: 57.65 KB / Downloads: 2)

Any recommendations for it?
Currently it cycles through all units from oldest to newest which is easy to code but pretty random and counterintuitive to play.

It could instead cycle from first combat starting position to last or from nearest to opponent to furthest from opponent.

One thing we have to be careful though is the autoselection order shouldn't spoil the correct strategy for the players, so it shouldn't select ranged units first.

The worlds' magic have been fading for some time now.  Wizards all across both lands have been in a panic as their quest for the Spell of Mastery has been set aside in favor of finding out why magic power is disappearing every day.  Without magic, even the land itself has been sinking into the sea.  Deep in their fortress on Myrror, the Dark Elves have found the answer.  And it is not an answer that they like.  The drain of magic from the worlds cannot be reversed.  There is one sole solution: the worlds must first be unmade, and only then can they be remade and the magic restored.  Only the most magical race the Dark Elves is capable of the necessary rituals of renewal, and then only with the full strength of their ancient Five Great Cities working in unison. Otherwise magic will drain from the worlds and the oceans will cover all.

The worlds will not want to be unmade, so it is up to the Dark Elves to do it.  The rituals to unmake the world are delicate and easily disrupted by other wizards, so they must all be banished to the netherworld and their power bases destroyed so they cannot return.  It is an unpleasant job, but living in a world without magic will mean the doom of all.  You must first reunite or rebuild the Five Great Cities of the Dark Elves. Some are estranged from your people and must be convinced to join the plan, by force of arms if necessary. Others have been lost and must be rebuilt. Thus united you can then go forth to cleanse the worlds so that the world-making rituals can be completed and the magic will live again. 

Starting conditions:
Difficulty: up to you
Opponents: four
Land size: small
Magic: 0.5x
Wizard portrait: S'ssra
Picks: Myrran, the rest is up to you
Spells: up to you
Race: dark elf
Banner: purple

First you must unite the dark elf people to gain the strength necessary to remake the world.  You must have five dark elf cities, no more, no fewer.  If you find any neutral dark elf cities, they are lost civilizations of your people and must be conquered.  You may found the other cities at your leisure. All other cities must be razed.  If you already have five cities and find a neutral dark elf city, that is a city of heretics and must also be razed. If an enemy wizard's race is dark elves, they must be shown the light and conquered, unless you already have five cities. If an enemy wizard razes one of your five cities, it may be rebuilt in the same location. If you defeat an enemy wizard and his cities revert to neutral, you do not have to raze them (they can offer no resistance to casting the world unmaking spell). Alliances with other wizards may not be offered or accepted because they reject your world-ending plan. Due to the degraded state of magic in the worlds, win by Spell of Mastery is not possible.

When the last city is destroyed, the rituals to remake the world can begin without interference.

Another one?

Blue:
Kaiser
Shallow_thought
DaveV
Sunrise089
David Corperial

Red:
Azoth
JR4
Amicalola
El Grillo
Lewwyn