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| Thread: Any Way to Alter Conflux? | |
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KingCrimson
Hired Hero
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posted September 11, 2012 08:54 PM |
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Any Way to Alter Conflux?
I realized that my favourite creature levels are 4 and 5, because those are the levels where Conflux is absolute garbage.
Then I realized something:
I absolutely can't stand Conflux.
It's nothing to do with the town itself. A gathering of elementals is actually pretty awesome. It has everything to do with the fact that the town is so ridiculously broken that it sucks all the fun out of every game it's played with. I never use the town because it kinda feels like a cheat.
And I guess, given the town's role in AB campaign, a little bit of OP makes sense there. But it really ruins the game. I'd almost be happier without the Conflux in the game.
So I was wondering: Could anyone direct me to some resources for changing the game around? I've got WoG but I want to be able to just make a couple minor adjustments - as great as WoG is, it is, in a way, a different game.
I'd only have a couple of goals.
The first is changing growth. Lowering the growth of Sprites to maybe 15, and Phoenixes to 1.
I also might want to change some stats around. I'm not sure, it would need some testing. Lower growth at levels 1 and 7 might require some higher stats at 4 and 5. Or maybe not. But I'd like to know how to do it, if necessary.
I'd also like to find a way to alter hero's primary stats. To be honest, rather than nerf Planeswalkers, I'd really rather have the magic heroes of the other 8 towns start with 6 rather than 5.
Finally, completely unrelated to Conflux, I'd want to be able to change some of the details of artifacts. Specifically, I want to bump up the rarity of the Necromancy stuff - Amulet at Minor, Cowl at Major, Boots at Relic. Maybe make Cowl a Relic as well. Basically, I mostly play with my buddies, and never on XL maps, so necromancy never gets too out of hand, but I'd like to set it back a bit. Also, it'd be nice to make the Cloak very difficult to acquire without removing it from the game entirely (because it's a game-breaker, yes... but it's still really freaking cool, LOL)
So I guess what I'm looking for is if anyone would be able to point me to resources that would help me to accomplish these things, I'd be much obliged.
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Salamandre
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Wog refugee
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posted September 11, 2012 09:03 PM |
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KingCrimson
Hired Hero
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posted September 11, 2012 09:04 PM |
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Like I said, I have WoG, but I'd like to be able to also play SoD with a few minor adjustments. Heroes 3.5 is great, but sometimes I want to play just a slightly more tweaked Heroes 3 
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Salamandre
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Wog refugee
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posted September 11, 2012 09:06 PM |
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I assume you don't know WoG much. What happens if you turn all options off? You get SoD. Now add your scripts to the package, and you get your conflux without any other alterations. But you need wog in first place, as modding what you ask in SoD resources is almost impossible task, while in WoG it would take a few hours to make.
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Era II mods and utilities
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gnollking
Supreme Hero
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posted September 11, 2012 09:18 PM |
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Seems like Sal always goes for ERM in these situations. Most of the things he asked can be modified in minutes in both SoD and WoG, via editing the .txt files. Of course, in WoG you can do pretty much anything nowadays, though, so I'd recommend that as well.
But to answer the main post, get MMArchive & TXTEdit (you should have those, if you indeed have ERA, in your ERA_DIR\Tools folder). Open a file called h3bitmap.lod with the MMArchive, it is located in your SOD_DIR\Data folder. Find files "artraits.txt", "HCTRAITS.txt" & "CRTRAITS.txt" inside and extract them to your Data folder. Now, edit those files with TXTEdit (NOT notepad) to your liking. Artraits for all the artifact stuff, HCtraits for the hero class & crtraits for the creature stats. The text files itself should be self-explanatory. 
You don't need to place the .txt files back to the .lod for them to work, just leave the edited .txt files to the Data folder and the game will read them from there.
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Salamandre
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Wog refugee
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posted September 11, 2012 09:26 PM |
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I don't go for ERM always, but only when necessary. Many of my maps have text files changed, to avoid erm (hate it). But if 2 things can be fixed in text files, and 1 not, then wog is necessary for the third, game will remain SoD 100% if you know how to.
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Era II mods and utilities
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gnollking
Supreme Hero
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posted September 11, 2012 09:37 PM |
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Quote:
game will remain SoD 100% if you know how to.
Except for the hardcoded parts of WoG, You are correct.
SoD is still highly configurable considering creature stats, primary skills, biographies, and whatever else the numerous text files contain. For such simple things there is no need for WoG in the first place.
@KingCrimsom, You can forget that artifact part of your first post, not possible without WoG.
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Ghost
Undefeatable Hero
Therefore I am
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posted September 11, 2012 09:45 PM |
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Hah! 4 Phoenixes + 200 HP in weeks! I do not explain why.
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KingCrimson
Hired Hero
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posted September 11, 2012 11:59 PM |
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Thanks so much for the help, everyone.
Gnollking, I've done that, but now the game crashes as soon as I try to load it. Any idea why? I only did what your post said (i.e. I extracted the files from h3bitmap.lod with MMA, then altered them with TXTEdit). I made a backup so there's no harm done, but I'm confused as to what I did wrong (when I try to load the game, it doesn't do anything and immediately gives me the whole "Heroes 3 has stopped working" message. No error or anything).
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Salamandre
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Wog refugee
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posted September 12, 2012 12:25 AM |
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If you used text edit, that's good, notepad will not code correctly.
Looks like some variable you edited is not valid, thus game will not start. Change a few things at a time then test.
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Era II mods and utilities
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KingCrimson
Hired Hero
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posted September 13, 2012 08:10 PM |
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Yeah, I've tried messing around, but nothing seems to work. Even if I only change one thing (i.e. bumping Pikemen from 4 ATT to 5) the game still will immediately crash
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Salamandre
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Wog refugee
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posted September 13, 2012 08:17 PM |
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KingCrimson
Hired Hero
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posted September 14, 2012 06:11 AM |
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Urgh, stupid me. I was using a program called TXTEdit, but a DIFFERENT TXTEdit, LOL.
Thanks so much for the file! It's perfect! Now I can rebalance things a bit more. This has opened up a whole new world for me. Not only have I made Conflux a bit less silly, and given magic heroes the same amount of stats as might heroes, but I've started trying to rebalance out skill probabilities as well (no longer will the Witch be a terrible hero!).
I'm even considering making only two schools available to might heroes (i.e. they get 0 in two of the four spell schools) to try and make them a bit more balanced. Maybe even 1 for the "super" might heroes (Barbarians and Beastmasters). Would Crag still be popular if he could only get Fire magic? Well, probably. But he'd be less popular. Maybe give 3 to the "magic-y" might heroes, like Alchemists. Worth thinking about, anyway.
I've also made a couple of other minor adjustments (Speed boost for Hydras!). All in all, this is a lot of fun! Thanks so much!
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gnollking
Supreme Hero
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posted September 14, 2012 03:14 PM |
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I know exactly how you feel
When I found out how much you can edit the game via the text files, I went crazy and edited the crap out of the game as well.
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KingCrimson
Hired Hero
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posted September 14, 2012 08:52 PM |
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Lol yeah it really is amazing.
Question about game mechanics: If I alter Magic School skill probabilities, does that make a difference?
Example: The Heretic and Witch have, as their primary skill (i.e. the one with a 10 probability), Mysticism and Eagle Eye, respectively. Nobody likes those skills. So I replaced them with magic schools: Heretic now has a 10 in Fire magic, and Witch has a 10 in Water magic (this is partially thematic, but also practical, as well: I figure that since Inferno loves its Armageddon, and Fortress basically relies on Teleport...).
But I also know that once every three levels, a Magic hero is guaranteed to get a magic skill (either a school or Wisdom). So would the 10 in a magic school have any real practical impact?
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gnollking
Supreme Hero
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posted September 14, 2012 09:19 PM |
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As far as I understand, it should have. When you add, for an example, 10% to a skill, remember to remove the 10% from another skill, otherwise shouldn't work.
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KingCrimson
Hired Hero
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posted September 14, 2012 09:28 PM |
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Oh, don't worry, I did. No one wants 10 in Mysticism or Eagle Eye.
That reminds me, do you need to keep the overall probability values the same as before? So, for example, if one skill is 10 and the other is 5, and I make the second skill 10 and the first one 3, is that cool? Or does it have to be the same, with the first skill being 5?
Sorry for all the questions, I'm a total n00b at this sort of thing LOL
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gnollking
Supreme Hero
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posted September 14, 2012 09:42 PM |
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If I remember correctly (so long since I checked the text file), the sum of all the skill probabilities should be 100 (percent). I might be wrong, you can always test 
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