b0rsuk mod (temporary name)

[b0rsuk]

I'm working on a mod I would enjoy to play. In a nutshell:

- fun for me to play (highly subjective !)
- there should be more viable choices, variety is nice
- better balance
- weaker ranged units
- unnecessary but fun changes

Current release: 26_11_2010 (I'm using dates unless I come up with better version system)
It's bare bones, the archive contains WIZARDS.EXE, MAGIC.EXE, SPELLDAT.LBX and docs. Put them in your Master of Magic directory. Common sense regarding overwriting files applies - make a backup !

http://www.sendspace.com/file/sofc2m
Note sites like Sendspace kill links if files are not in demand.

Steppenbadger mod
###################

Introduction
*******************

This mod is a work in progress. The main goals are:
* Improve the balance, more choices should be viable
* Improve variety, effective but too similar tools gain new purposes

List of changes
*******************

Normal units
===================


All races
-------------------

* Spearmen, Swordsmen movement 1 -> 2
* Bowmen ranged strength 1 -> 2
* Cavalry (Paladins, Elven Lords, Centaurs) movement 2 -> 3
* All halberdiers negate first strike.
* Races with fs-negating halberdiers get first strike
* Ship movement - Trireme:2, Galley: 4, Warship: 6
* Unit costs not adjusted (yet)

High Elves
-------------------

* All units lose +1 to hit
* Pegasi gain Armour Piercing ability

High Men
-------------------

* Paladins are no longer Armour Piercing.

Dark Elves
-------------------

* Nightblades movement 1 -> 2, poison 1 -> 2
* Warlocks Doom Bolt -> Web, lose Missile Immunity
* Nightmares lose ranged attack, crosses 8 -> 4, gain Illusionary Attack
* Priests lose ranged attack, gain Missile Immunity, Summon 1 Demon

Gnolls
-------------------

* Wolf Riders movement 3 -> 4
* Settlers swords 2 -> 6

Orcs
-------------------

Theme: forced march

* halberdiers invited to the First Strike Club
* shamans movement 1 -> 2
* engineers movement 1 -> 2
* settlers movement 1 -> 2
* cavalry becomes cataphracts. 0 defense but Large Shield, 6 swords,
and First Strike.
* magicians become war mages. 6 figures, swords, 2 life, 3 shields,
weapon immunity, lose ranged attack but keep fireball.

Trolls
-------------------

* War Mammoths movement 2 -> 3

Halflings
-------------------

* all units no longer "lucky"
* swordsmen, spearmen get 1 strength 2 sling attack
* settlers get 6 stone 6 ammo attack
* slingers melee attack 1 -> 0. Ammo 6 -> 12


Fantastic creatures
===================

* skeletons, ghouls, nagas, guardian spirit, werewolves movement 1 -> 2
* hell hounds, giants movement 2 -> 3
* fire elemental has immolation, -4 melee
* sprites now have passive healing
* werewolves gain Forestry
* gargoyles gain Illusion Immunity
* shadow demons and werewolves no longer regenerate
* shadow demons, werewolves, night stalker, ghouls, skeletons 0 mana upkeep

Spells
===================

* Black Channels cost 100 -> 50
* Chaos Channels cost 50 -> 75
* Warp Creature cost 18 -> 8
* Phantom Warriors cost 10 -> 15

Heroes
===================

* Druid gains Regeneration
* Thief gains Web
* Dwarf gains Wall Crusher
* Orc Warrior loses Mountaineering, warrior random replaced with Armsmaster
* Magician loses Arcane Power, gains free Doom Bolt

Notes
===================

* unit costs not adjusted yet
* I'm unsure about leaving bowmen and shamans/priests at movement 1
* pikemen intentionally left at 1 movement
* unsure about leaving hammerhands, barbarians at movement 1
* more ideas to come

[b0rsuk]

Reasons
*******************

Doom Bolt moved from Warlocks to Malleus
I think abilities as powerful as Doom Bolt shouldn't be available in high
quantities. It's hugely important who goes first and I don't want that.
Web as an ultimate ability of a Myrran race sounds bad at first, but:

#. I don't want armies consisting of Warlocks only to be sufficient
#. I work with the tools I'm given. Web is one of few options.
#. Web shares many of the qualities of Doom Bolt, it even works on Paladins
#. In D&D dark elves have an affinity for spiders, so I have an excuse

Dark Elves get demon priests
Initially I wished the Warlocks to have this, but this would make them
undesirably self-sufficient (meat shield + damage). Now you have the option
to bring your priests into combat and summon some demons. The priests lose
their ranged attack and Healing spell but gain Missile Immunity. Flavour-wise,
I wanted to remove the "all priests are kind" cliche.

Faster common units and summons
In combat, it should reduce the hegemony of ranged units and make it more
dynamic. On main map, it should make movement modifiers like Forester,
Mountaineer, Swimming (rivers) actually *work*. As a consequence, it should
also make some summoned creatures like War Bears, Sprites, Stone and Fire
giants more valuable. Additionally, common units could have this advantage
over many high-end units like Golems, Minotaurs, Berserkers (may change),
Hammerhands.

Increase of Cavalry, Hounds and Giant speed
I think these units should keep their speed advantage. Hell Hounds don't need
a boost, but having them move as fast as infantry feels *wrong*.

Bowmen attack boost
Unless heavily boosted by spells or experience, bowmen are junk in vanilla.
And they're countered by a unit that comes earlier (swordsmen).

Change to halberiers
Unmodified, halberdiers are suffer from "solution looking for a problem"
syndrome. They're in unconvenient place halfway between low and high end
units, and they don't offer anything for the extra building requirements.
Against missiles in particular, they have 1 less shields than Swordsmen, if
you take Large Shield bonus into account. So you end up with a unit that has
only superficial differences from Swordsmen, is much more expensive, doesn't
have a defined role.

And when you get these halberdiers, you find out many
(most?) of them won't help you against cavalry (which many races don't have,
and orcish doesn't even come with first strike). So all halberdiers in my mod
negate first strike. Then those special halberdiers some races have get
the First Strike ability. Now halberdiers counter cavalry, each other, but
are countered by a non-halberdier unit too (Bowmen).

I think especially Gnolls
benefit from these change. With +2 swords their halberdiers are particularly
scary, and now they have a viable alternative to Wolf Riders which used to be
a no-brainer. Lizardmen halberdiers perhaps didn't need a buff, but at least
now their halberdiers have some advantages over Javelineers. More generally,
players may now be more interested in conquering Gnoll/Lizardmen cities.

And last but not least, halberdiers are commonly found defending neutral
cities. City walls are considered weak by many players. First Strike is very
useful when attacking from behind city walls.

Faster ship movement
Ships require a considerable deviation from the usual build order and provide
few benefits. Most players use a them only when they absolutely have to cross
water. AI barely uses ships (properly!) so there's no incentive to build
a fleet to stop AI invasions. There are no water lairs or nodes. More advanced
ships like Galleys and Warships are not popular. I think if they're made
faster (and have their capacity increased) they should have uses. They could
be used to bypass tough terrain without drawbacks of roads. Also, even with
pathfinding most units in normal Master of Magic are stuck at 2 squares/turn.
While lots of units move faster in this mod, some notable units remain slow.

Paladins lose Armour Piercing ability
I don't like Paladins being just a strictly better version of Elven Lords. Now
you should have reasons to choose between Paladins and Elven Lords. Magic
Immunity is still a very strong ability, and Paladins are top quality cavalry
even without it. 9 units of the same type shouldn't solve all problems.

Orc buffs
Orcs used to be a very boring race. They used to build highly developed
cities, but they didn't have any interesting units. One relative advantages
they had were shamans - available much earlier than priests and enough for
passive healing. Because I can't code more ambitious changes, I make Orcish
infantry faster (forced march, see LOTR). And their halberdiers are now high
quality.

I have other ideas in mind for orcs - like transforming their Magicians into
a situational melee unit with no ranged attack save for Fireball, but with
Weapon Immunity. And changes talked about in context of Catnip mod (orcs get
more figures) are simple and also worth considering.

Changes to Halflings
I find unmodified halflings deeply offending. Don't get me started
on slingers, their spearmen, swordsmen and shamans cause heavy losses or just
kill Klackon and Gnoll infantry. The "lucky" attribute is just raw, brutal
power, it doesn't have anything to do with luck.

Slingers - now they're a specialised ranged unit. I give them 12 ammo,
a quasi-realistic decision which should make them especially good in city
defense, but not very impressive otherwise. Sling ammo is extremely common,
that's one reason why slings are so popular among shepherds. I feel halflings
should be a more defensive race, not a top pick for a rusher.

Fire elemental gets Immolation
Between Phantom Warriors and Fire Elemental there's something seriously wrong.
Either PH are too cheap, or Fire Elemental too expensive. With boosts
to bowmen, Fire Elementals should have enough counters and they remain
speed 1.

Sprites have passive healing
Sprites are instant death in numbers players can't afford, and overpriced.
I don't want to make sprites stronger or hordes of sprites more common.
Passive healing should make Nature an interesting choice for races without
shamans or priests. If I could code more ambitious changes, I would remove
their ranged attack and give them charges of Black Sleep.

Black Channels and Chaos Channels costs
Black Channels produces disposable units which don't last. It shouldn't be
so expensive. Meanwhile Chaos Channels is perhaps too good for the price.

Wewewolves and Shadow Demons no longer regenerate
I like the definition of Death creatures stated in the manual. Werewolves
and Shadow Demons don't fit. With maintenance of 1 it's a fair deal
in my opinion.

Gargoyles have Illusion Immunity
Gargoyles are a bit "solution looking for a problem" and dull. Mostly used
to exploit AI's inability to deal with flying units. Illusion immunity makes
perfect sense for a guardian creature.

[I like Serena]

I like the idea of another mod.
It will show a different perspective which is good.

I have a few questions.

What do you mean with "better balance"?
Does it for instance mean that all races will be about the same strength?
Or that features that block part of the game (such as Illusion Immunity) will be reduced?
Or does it mean that game features which are currently too weak to use (like Wall Crusher) that they are improved (by strengthening City Walls)?
Or is it all of the above?

I see you've given Cavalry and related units move 3.
What about the other mounts and mounted units: Manticores, Nightmares, Doom Drakes, Pegasai, Stag Beetle, Dragon Turtle, Griffins and Wyvern Riders?
Not to mention all the summoned creatures, like Hell Hounds, War Bears, Death Knights, etcetera.

I'm willing to support your mod and see if I can make a few (simple) changes to the code so we can do a little more than just number changing.

[I like Serena]

I see you're unsure what to do with the move of Bowmen.

Kyrub already remarked:

1) We'll need to find and fix shooters, so that they cannot shoot after moving. This is important, or your slingers will move/shoot until they reach the edge, which would be tiresome and the effect is gone.

I suggest Bowmen and related units should stay at 1 move for now (assuming we do not make code changes).
Otherwise, they can step back and shoot, nullifying the effect of the increased move of Spearmen and Swordsmen.

[b0rsuk]

I like the idea of another mod.
It will show a different perspective which is good.

It will also save my nerves which is good, too.

What do you mean with "better balance"?

Does it for instance mean that all races will be about the same strength?

About the same strength, yes, but it doesn't mean the same. They could achieve "same strength" but in different ways. That's balance among races. Within a race, each unit should have a niche. Obviously as long as there are units which require more buildings some will be stronger, but I'm trying to discourage armies made of 1 unit.
While it may be not easy to say what is good balance, it's easy to say what it's not. When there are choices which "cost" the same but are strictly better, that's bad balance. You could say Horsebowmen are strictly better than Centaurs. They have 2 more ammo, are a bit better in melee (centaurs might have +1 in some stat but really). They might also cost more, and they're myrran.

Another example of bad balance are in my opinion halberdiers. They need extra building and cost much more than swordsmen, but are hardly better. +1 sword, +1 shield, but Swordsmen have Large Shield so against archers it's more like +1 sword. Halberdiers don't feel significantly stronger or different. Currently all halberdiers in the mod are fs-negating, and those who were fs-negating have first strike. Gnoll halberdiers with +2 swords AND first strike are a bit scary, but any halberdiers counter them, and all bowmen got +1.

I'm prepared to explain my decisions, especially as long as they're people willing to listen. The first post in the thread is about "what" is changed, the second one is reserved for explanations. This forum has no secret tags, right ?

Or that features that block part of the game (such as Illusion Immunity) will be reduced?

What do you mean "block part of the game" ? Illusion immunity blocks part of the game, yes, but it's not as harsh as magic immunity. But I wouldn't put it on an entire race (high elves). At most a single unit. Actually I'm thinking about Illusion Immunity for shamans of all races (they would detect invisibles and perhaps kill a single phantom warrior in melee)

Or does it mean that game features which are currently too weak to use (like Wall Crusher) that they are improved (by strengthening City Walls)?

I guess I would improve City Walls if I could (I can only lower the price using the editor, and I may do just that). City walls already give +3 Shields even in melee, which is noticable the way I play the game. They are good against bowmen, but it's true they aren't of much use against priests and magicians. I'm looking into ways to make magical ranged attacks less dominant.

I'll most likely make magical ranged attacks weaker but give more ammo, so that there's more time to kill them before they deal the damage. Additionally, this will mean bonuses of City Walls and Large Shields are applied more often. (6-1 + 6-1 is more than 3-1 + 3-1 +3-1 +3-1). I also think increasing health for most units is a good idea, which will have an effect similar to the above (more attacks needed to kill an unit so Large Shield and City Walls are applied more times). But I'm a bit more cautious with health.

Note that halberdiers who just gained First Strike should make city sieges more difficult.

I see you've given Cavalry and related units move 3.
What about the other mounts and mounted units: Manticores, Nightmares, Doom Drakes, Pegasai, Stag Beetle, Dragon Turtle, Griffins and Wyvern Riders?

My opinion so far:
- Flyers don't need a speed increase, they have a big bonus on main map (ignore hard terrain), and on the battlefield pick their fights. They can't be attacked by walking melee units.
- I think Stag Beetle and Dragon Turtle don't need to be faster. While they're not as deadly as, say, Elven Lords, they are more durable. They're good at taking damage (not as good gate blocker as Lizardmen/Troll Settlers, but hey !). Turtles and beetles are not bothered by arrows.
- As for Dragon Turtle, I'm considering giving them poison instead of fire breath. It feels too similar to the beetle, and lizardmen already have good anti-air (javelineers). For Klackons beetles are valuable as anti-air.
- I'm not sure what to do with pegasi and nightmares. I just don't see a reason to train them.
- manticores are nice in that they're an early flyer. They're decent scouts etc. I might make Wyverns an Animist Guild unit, too.

Not to mention all the summoned creatures, like Hell Hounds, War Bears, Death Knights, etcetera.

Hell hounds: movement 3, but also cost increase (they're far too effective for the cost even unchanged)
War Bears: small cost decrease and +HP, +swords. HP instead of shields or more figures has benefits: less affected by first strike or armour piercing units. The bears have Forester ability, so with many units moving at 2 they'll be more useful now. Fire Giant and Stone Giant will be more useful for the same reason.
Death knights: as said above, I don't think flyers need a speed change. Maybe if I could change vision range of City Walls and Nature's Eye, but I can't.
Other fantastic creatures: things like ghouls, nagas, werewolves, skeletons and possibly zombies will get 2 movement too.

I'm willing to support your mod and see if I can make a few (simple) changes to the code so we can do a little more than just number changing.

That would be great. One thing I'm particularly unhappy with: cavalry can move 2 squares and attack 2 times (attack costs 0.5).

If I could, I would also like to reduce experience bonuses (+1 hp at Ultra Elite, not Elite etc) and make requirements flatter (10, 20, 40, 60, 80 ...), not exponential.

I'm disappointed to find out quite simple hero modifications can't be done with the editor (hero skills, slots).

I don't know what changes could be relatively simple. Could you check the "Homeless ideas" thread and tell me which changes sound easy ? At this moment I'm resigned to only using the editor.

----------
Planned features:

- halflings lose "lucky". It's not lucky, it's ridiculous, slingers and shamans beat gnolls, klackons and many other races in melee.

- elves may lose +1 to hit. On the other hand, Paladins lose Armor piercing but Elven Lords don't.

- Druid hero gets regeneration
- Dwarf gets Wall Crusher

- Warlocks get Summon 1 Demon instead of Doom Bolt. Mass Doom Bolt may be fun at first but is crazy, you can destroy an army in first turn. It becomes hugely important who goes first, and I think this is bad design. Malleus the Magician or some other hero would get Doom Bolt ability (1 free in each combat), at the cost of -5 to ranged attack.

- magicians and warlocks lose missile immunity. I will have to do this carefully so they're not instantly killed with missiles. Elven magicians will likely get Regeneration. Orcish magicians will lose ranged attack completely (but keep fireball), get decent swords and ... weapon immunity. Yes, they will become a somewhat situational but different unit.

- Wolf riders: will likely get Forester and/or Mountaineer. Then I might reduce their speed to 3.

As I'm toying with the editor, I wonder how flexible the AI is. For example, I might give Guardian Spirits the ability to Purify and potentially remove Meld. Would AI be as smart as to use any purifier, or is it "hardcoded" to priests and shamans ?

[Catwalk]

I'll sticky this. Do you want me to close the other thread, or will you still be using this as well?

The first post in the thread is about "what" is changed, the second one is reserved for explanations. This forum has no secret tags, right ?

You can give each post a separate title if that's what you mean.

- As for Dragon Turtle, I'm considering giving them poison instead of fire breath. It feels too similar to the beetle, and lizardmen already have good anti-air (javelineers). For Klackons beetles are valuable as anti-air.

I like this one, and agree that the two are too similar. I think I'll switch them around so stag beetles get poison and dragon turtles get fire breath, mainly for thematic reasons. While this means that klackons will have some big vulnerabilities (no anti-air), they get big buffs to compensate and I find it interesting to have that kind of vulnerability.

- I'm not sure what to do with pegasi and nightmares. I just don't see a reason to train them.

I'm thinking about making Pegassi a melee units and giving them a Healing spell to cast them as a support unit. For Nightmares I stole an idea from the 2.0 mod and gave them Planar Travel.

One thing I'm particularly unhappy with: cavalry can move 2 squares and attack 2 times (attack costs 0.5).

Attacking takes half of a unit's max movement, so a unit with 2 moves spends 1 move on each attack. It would only be able to attack twice if it takes 1 step on a road first. But I agree with your concerns, especially since the AI can't take proper advantage of extra moves.

If I could, I would also like to reduce experience bonuses (+1 hp at Ultra Elite, not Elite etc) and make requirements flatter (10, 20, 40, 60, 80 ...), not exponential.

I believe this one is fairly easy to do, especially XP requirements as there's an external table for that (according to kyrub).

I'm disappointed to find out quite simple hero modifications can't be done with the editor (hero skills, slots).

Are you using Joel's hero editor? Pretty sure it can do at least skills.

- magicians and warlocks lose missile immunity. I will have to do this carefully so they're not instantly killed with missiles. Elven magicians will likely get Regeneration. Orcish magicians will lose ranged attack completely (but keep fireball), get decent swords and ... weapon immunity. Yes, they will become a somewhat situational but different unit.

I'm doing a similar thing where each magician becomes a unique racial unit. Will you be changing their names as well?

[b0rsuk]

... slingers have strength 1 ranged attack, but 12 ammo. This is quasi-realistic. Sling ammo is extremely common, a shepherd doesn't have to carry a quiver with him. But mostly I just want them feel different.

Fire Elemental will get Immolation. A creature costing 50% more than Phantom Warriors shouldn't have fraction of their combat potential.

[I like Serena]

I believe this one is fairly easy to do, especially XP requirements as there's an external table for that (according to kyrub).

Yes it is.

The XP table is at offset 2B214h in wizards.exe and consists of 9 entries of 2 bytes each.
You can change them with any hex editor.

[I like Serena]

City walls already give +3 Shields even in melee, which is noticable the way I play the game.

I've always found it rather easy to attack the defender in the gate.
Typically I do that with 3 attackers, while the defense has only 1 defender.
This is how City Walls help me as the attacker.
On DS I've learned that this will make "suppression" work for me which explains it in part.

And recently I've analysed the code and drawn the conclusion that the defender in the gate only gets +1 Shields.

Can you tell me how you've deduced that City Walls give +3 Shields in melee?

[b0rsuk]

I've always found it rather easy to attack the defender in the gate.
Typically I do that with 3 attackers, while the defense has only 1 defender.

More like 3 vs 2. The unit next to the gate can attack, but you can't attack it unless you have ranged units. It can be very inconvenient if that unit is a first striker (players are much better at this). Unfortunately, AI only refills the spot in the gate.

And recently I've analysed the code and drawn the conclusion that the defender in the gate only gets +1 Shields.

Can you tell me how you've deduced that City Walls give +3 Shields in melee?

To tell the truth I couldn't find any exact information. I know for sure there's +3 against ranged attacks. But I noticed I had trouble killing the unit in the gate. That's when I started looking for more precise information. I also seem to do surprisingly low damage when attacking through walls with floaters (wraithform) and phantom warriors.

I'll have to run some tests, but it's rather difficult. I need roughly the same race, units, and levels of experience.