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| Thread: [VCMI] Andruids Expansion Mods |  This thread is pages long: 1 2 3 4 · NEXT» |
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AncientDruids
Famous Hero
(Andruids for short)
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posted July 20, 2018 02:48 PM |
bonus applied by Maurice on 20 Jul 2018. |
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[VCMI] Andruids Expansion Mods
Over the course of several past months, I continued to dabble in VCMI modding, tinkering with and trying it's ever-growing possibilities to add new content. To gather all my little toys in one place and not disturb discussion in the general VCMI topic, I decided to make a separate thread. I'll try to update it every time something new comes up.
Creatures Hidden Potential - a pack of mods changing properties of Heroes III creatures, to utilize their unused or modified animations.
 LINK: Creatures_Hidden_Potential.rar
Mods' descriptions:
1) Alternative Shooting Centaurs - allows centaurs to shoot, but only when they have ammunition. Consequently, Ammo cart becomes a valuable possession for Rampart. (Graphics of centaur spears borrowed from Hobbit's, avatar's and Troggly's mod)
2) Enraged Minotaurs - Minotaur Kings will cast Frenzy at the beginning of the battle on themselves and other Minotaurs, but only if they get deprived of their positive morale.
3) Teleporting Elementals - purely cosmetic change of the way Energy Elementals move. Instead of flickering in the air, they teleport.
 Preview
4) Furious Cyclopes - Cyclopes and Cyclops Kings change the way they behave when blinded. Instead of losing a turn, they go berserk. Additionally, this unleashes Cyclops Kings long-lost power - eye beam attack that hits 2 hexes. The ability will last for the remainder of the battle.
5) Siege Dendroids - Using their powerful roots, Dendroid Soldiers will bind a catapult during the first turn of a siege.
6) Karmic Harpies - Harpy Hags will be able to cast a rather nasty curse. Every attacked target will have 50% chance to deal double damage on retaliation against the bearer of the "Karmic Curse". This effect will last for the rest of the battle, unless dispelled.
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Andruids Expansion - a pack of mods that expand on Heroes III mechanics and elements. There might be new objects, spells, skills, units, etc.
LINK: Andruids_Expansion.rar
Mods' descriptions:
1) Plague Tent - a new War Machine for Necropolis Faction and a new Hero who starts and specialises with it. The Plague Tent casts accumulating disease or poison at the target enemy. It only works on living creatures. The graphics for the new smelly tent made by talented, non-smelly Trith.
Gallery
2) Power Bond 1.1 - a new secondary skill, learnable by magic-class heroes, that boosts attack of creatures using supernatural energy in combat*, such as monks, genies and unicorns. Such creatures no longer benefit from Archery Skill if they are able to shoot. (the module contains old skill icons, if anyone wanted to switch them or use in their own projects - 1.0, 1.0b)
Since 1.1, the Skill is affecting creatures which have "SPELL LIKE ATTACK" bonus.
3) Damned Utopia - a new creature bank, where you can fight Bone Dragons and Liches/Power Liches/Dracoliches, for a substantial amount of gold, 1-4 Ghost or Blood Dragons and the Armor of the Damned. New location def was made by fred79 (based on one WoG Team graphic), Blood Dragon def by don_ko and Dracolich def by the WoG Team.
4) Minotaur Warlocks - a cosmetic modification that adds a Magic class variant to the Dungeon Faction - a Minotaur Warlock. Three vanilla Heroes assume this class (Darkstorn, Deemer and Malekith). There is no difference between this class and a regular Warlock. Hero Battle def was made by Trith and adventure map def was based on HotA team's male Warlock.
 
To play with the new Minotaur Warlock Hero, you need to have the Powerbond Skill mod enabled.
5) Battle Initiative - a new secondary skill, that makes hero's creatures move quicker in a turn, but still have the same movement range.
(* - Full list of affected creatures: monks, angels, mages, genies, giants, unicorns, beholders, wights, liches, gogs, efreets, devils, gorgons, pixies, psychic elementals and their upgraded forms + ghost dragons and thunderbirds).
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xericsin
Famous Hero
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posted July 20, 2018 06:56 PM |
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Edited by xericsin at 18:58, 20 Jul 2018.
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One friend of mine also has the idea of making use of the unused animations. It's only that his design of special abilities is deferent.
I like the ideas of furious cyclops and plague tent!
I think I am going to steal the tent def.
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fred79
Disgraceful
Undefeatable Hero
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posted July 20, 2018 11:38 PM |
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Cool ideas; especially the plague tent. 
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Portus
Adventuring Hero
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posted July 21, 2018 08:31 PM |
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Great! I've been missing cyclops' eye attack for a long time. I totally overlooked that the animation had been created. Hope to be able to check it out soon. Thanks!
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Ssssshhhhhhhpp!! Ah! (crimson cloud and I'm gone)
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NimoStar
Responsible
Legendary Hero
Modding the Unmoddable
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posted July 22, 2018 02:58 PM |
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Quote:
Teleporting Elementals - purely cosmetic change of the way Energy Elementals move. Instead of flickering in the air, they teleport.
Well, if made that far, why not change "Fly" with "telport" from devils? It has some mechanics changed such as the way it intreracts with spells and walls.
***
Nice overall though, the Cyclops and Minotaurs sound like cool ideas.
Not sure about the tent in part. Better than ballistae that some proposed, yes, but on the other side, that the tent looks so peasant-y takes away from the lure of Necropolis as actually a highly advanced magic-medicine faction and more like "smelly" zombies and barbarians :V. Personally I would have it made look like some mad-doc contraption.
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Gandalf196
Disgraceful
Supreme Hero
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posted July 22, 2018 03:16 PM |
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 NimoStar said:
Quote:
Teleporting Elementals - purely cosmetic change of the way Energy Elementals move. Instead of flickering in the air, they teleport.
Well, if made that far, why not change "Fly" with "telport" from devils? It has some mechanics changed such as the way it intreracts with spells and walls.
***
Nice overall though, the Cyclops and Minotaurs sound like cool ideas.
Not sure about the tent in part. Better than ballistae that some proposed, yes, but on the other side, that the tent looks so peasant-y takes away from the lure of Necropolis as actually a highly advanced magic-medicine faction and more like "smelly" zombies and barbarians :V. Personally I would have it made look like some mad-doc contraption.
Something like this?
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AncientDruids
Famous Hero
(Andruids for short)
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posted July 22, 2018 09:59 PM |
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NimoStar said:
Well, if made that far, why not change "Fly" with "telport" from devils? It has some mechanics changed such as the way it intreracts with spells and walls.
Afaik, there is no difference between flying and teleporting in Heroes III mechanic.
NimoStar said:
the tent looks so peasant-y takes away from the lure of Necropolis as actually a highly advanced magic-medicine faction and more like "smelly" zombies and barbarians :V. Personally I would have it made look like some mad-doc contraption.
The beauty of VCMI modding lies in everyone's access to easily change anything in any mod to tailor to one's own needs or sense of aesthetic. If you have a better model, feel free to contribute. Knowing that my small work inspired someone else would be great ^^
And thanks for all other kind words. I'm still trying to come up with more abilities utilizing creatures' unused animations (harpy hag's, vampire lord's, dread knight's, battle unicorn's, efreet sultan's and basilisks'). If you have any ideas, I'll be grateful if you let me know!
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Lord_Immortal
Famous Hero
DoR Dev Team
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posted July 23, 2018 10:59 AM |
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Hmm, I was thinking, can you mix some skills and make room for other skills.
Like:
- Learning + Scholar together. Called "Learning".
- Intelligence + Mysticism together. Called "Mysticism".
- Eagle Eye + Wisdom together. Called "Wisdom" or "Spellcasting".
Makes room for 3 skills (except for Power Bond). I think Light and Dark Magic are two of them.
P.S. I have some graphics I made for Light and Dark Magic Skills.
And I'd like to offer something else for Power Bond:
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pekute99
Known Hero
The prettiest I must say
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posted July 27, 2018 03:44 PM |
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Any way to transfer the Energy Elementals teleporting mod into the original Heroes ?
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AncientDruids
Famous Hero
(Andruids for short)
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posted July 28, 2018 02:33 AM |
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Hello again.
@pekute99 - You'd have to consult that with someone who's skilled in Heroes III hex editing or ERA. Unfortunately, I'm not that person but I can tell you which elements need to be changed:
- The def file - new one has slightly different 'start moving' animation, to show the full 'zoom out'.
- The sounds - there are two sounds now instead of one, made to fit two teleporting animations.
- The ability - despite working the same, something's probably different in games files and at least one value should be changed. Probably ones for new sounds too, to make them work with new animation.
@Lord_Immortal: Thanks for your comment and a very curious idea. In fact, I tried to implement it last night. Combining original skills effects is not a problem, but unfortunately, removing the obsolete ones is impossible. Even after changing all original Heroes' gain chance values, the skills would still be randomly available on map, after visiting Witch huts, Scholars and Universities. Rewriting (overriding) them to do something totally different could still be an option, but I'm currently out of ideas ^^"
Oh, also, many thanks for the new graphics set. It's really nice, but I'd prefer the sword/staff (or at least a wand) to depict the basic level. I understand the higher levels may seem a bit place-holderish right now, but please bear with it for a while, I'll try to redesing them in the future.
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Sorry for the long silence. I updated the mod packs with three new modules: Siege Dendroids, Karmic Harpies and Damned Utopias. Defs from the Damned Utopia were made by: fred79, don_ko and WoG Team.
"The ancient dragon dwellings were once home to the mighty dragons and filled with unmeasurable riches, but eventually fell to ruin. Now, these monstrous cemeteries attract power-hungry liches, who try to raise the decaying carcasses for their undead legions. An adventurer who will succeed in thwarting their ambitions will gain the gratitude of liberated dragon souls. Once in a while, the deathly corruption will forever stain the dragons' souls and turn them into dreaded Blood Dragons. Their raw power and bloodlust are welcome assets for every warlord's army. However, how big will be the price of unleashing their wrath onto the realm and who will ultimately pay?"
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AncientDruids
Famous Hero
(Andruids for short)
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posted October 18, 2018 06:31 AM |
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Great news everyone!
Powerbond is getting new graphics and some mechanic improvements. That was kind of a must, because with the newest module, comes the first Powerbond specialist! Dungeon Faction's magic class variant (Minotaur Warlock) is just a cosmetic modification, because Minotaurs are as good Warlocks as Humans and Troglodytes (duh). But to make things more lively, a new hero joins the fray. Powerbond Skill mod needs to be enabled for him to work, though.
When it comes to modding, new towns are where the money is, but I like to make mods that add little things or improve the general experience. That said, thanks to all the people who allowed me to make this silly contribution. Credits go to: Trith (for a splendid Minotaur Warlock model), Hota team (for their male Warlock hero model, which served as a base for the adventure map def) and Acid Dragon, the one who gave me this idea.
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RerryR
Promising
Supreme Hero
Researching Magic
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posted October 18, 2018 07:40 AM |
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Good work! I like such little gimmicks, they spice up the old game with some new mechanics.
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Lord_Immortal
Famous Hero
DoR Dev Team
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posted October 18, 2018 12:18 PM |
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AncientDruids said:
Hello again.
@Lord_Immortal: Thanks for your comment and a very curious idea. In fact, I tried to implement it last night. Combining original skills effects is not a problem, but unfortunately, removing the obsolete ones is impossible. Even after changing all original Heroes' gain chance values, the skills would still be randomly available on map, after visiting Witch huts, Scholars and Universities. Rewriting (overriding) them to do something totally different could still be an option, but I'm currently out of ideas ^^"
Hey sorry for the late reply. My idea was that, combining 3 skills you have 3 empty slots. One is Power Bond. One is Light Magic. One is Dark Magic. (If Power Bond uses a completely new slot, than we can add Bloodrage).
I don't know if new spell schools can be implemented, but if not (or if it's too hard), Light and Dark Magic can simply further improve some spells of the other 4 schools.
In this case the improvements would be:
Light Magic - Bless, Cure, Mirth, Prayer, Fortune, Destroy Undead, Magic Mirror, Resurrection.
Light Magic is the Starting skill of all Clerics.
Dark Magic - Curse, Misfortune, Armageddon, Sacrifice, Death Ripple, Animate Dead, Sorrow, Implosion.
Dark Magic is the starting skill of all Heretics.
Bloodrage - Improves the Bloodlust, Frenzy and Berzerk spells. Starting skill of all Battle Mages.
Bloodlust - Attack improvement becomes +4/+7/+8. Also, there is a 5%/10%/15% chance to cast Advanced Bloodlust(even with Expert Fire Magic) to a random allied unit at the beginning of the turn.
Frenzy - Does not reduce the defense to 0 but rather to 10%/20%/30% of the original defense value.
Berzerk- Unit targeted with Berzerk regenerates 33%/66%/100% of its health points after each successful attack.
EDIT: What if instead of "Spell-Like Attack" you just name it "Magic Strike"? In fact, you can get inspiration from Age of Wonders 2 where some units have abilities like "Fire Strike" or "Cold Strike" being especially Effective/Ineffective versus certain enemies.
AOW 2 Has: Cold Strike, Fire Strike, Death Strike, Holy Strike, Lightning Strike, Magic Strike and Posion Strike(but which is not needed since it is somehow already implemented in Wyvern Monarch's ability).
In your mod you might as well define which creature has weakness from which type of strike. Undead, for example, from Holy Strike(Monks, Upg.Crusaders &Angels) and Elementals can, for example, have their weaknesses/strengths based on their current spell weaknesses/strengths.
For example, Fire Elementals get more damage from Cold Strike, Air/Storm El. from Lightning Strike. Immunities, however, do not guarantee 0 damage from Strikes.
To continue the example, Fire Elemental with Fire Strike deals less damage to Firebird with Fire Immunity(Dealing 0 damage would break the game). But they are stronger than Protections. For example, Fire Strike vs Fire Protection might deal -10% damage (90% of normal) but vs Fire Immunity -20% (80% of normal) [these percentages are just examples.
Other Abilities from AOW2 would include:
Poison Immunity would be a good ability as well for Wyverns (maybe Basilisks or Hydras other creatures as well). It's weird that Wyverns would not be immune to their own poison.
First Strike some creatures especially those with long polearms, deal a First Strike (like a retaliation but before they're attacked - but once per turn). Good ability for Pikemen, Centaurs, Cavaliers + upgrades or creatures which are meant to be quick/sneaky for example Rogues or Harpies.
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Maurice
Hero of Order
Part of the furniture
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posted October 18, 2018 03:01 PM |
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Edited by Maurice at 16:45, 18 Oct 2018.
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Instead of AoW2, how about the system of AoW3? They used different damage sources and units could resist part of it. With that system, a unit might be able to deal 3 physical damage and 7 fire damage for instance.
Let's consider a few examples:
- enemy unit has no particular defense against physical, but is immune to fire: it will suffer 3 damage during the attack.
- enemy unit has armor (reducing physical damage by 1), and fire vulnerability (doubles damage from fire): it will suffer 16 damage during the attack.
- enemy unit is incorporeal (immune to physical), but has no particular defense against fire: it will suffer 7 damage during the attack.
You can mix and match as many damage sources as you can figure out - as well as defenses against them.
The advantage is that multiple sources can then increase damage, for different damage types. These can be Artifacts as well as Secondary Skills.
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The last Reasonable Steward of Good Game Design and a Responsible Hero of HC. - Verriker
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fiorin
Promising
Famous Hero
☠️
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posted October 18, 2018 04:47 PM |
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AncientDruids said:
Great news everyone!
Powerbond is getting new graphics and some mechanic improvements. That was kind of a must, because with the newest module, comes the first Powerbond specialist! Dungeon Faction's magic class variant (Minotaur Warlock) is just a cosmetic modification, because Minotaurs are as good Warlocks as Humans and Troglodytes (duh). But to make things more lively, a new hero joins the fray. Powerbond Skill mod needs to be enabled for him to work, though.
When it comes to modding, new towns are where the money is, but I like to make mods that add little things or improve the general experience. That said, thanks to all the people who allowed me to make this silly contribution. Credits go to: Trith (for a splendid Minotaur Warlock model), Hota team (for their male Warlock hero model, which served as a base for the adventure map def) and Acid Dragon, the one who gave me this idea.
Not ever "where the money is' is the more interesting things. Thats very cool your care about new secondary. Make really more flexible the game. And about a 3rd class, its a cool idea.
I really wanted add some heroes for common use as additional 3rd town classes, but you did! And did great! 
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AncientDruids
Famous Hero
(Andruids for short)
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posted October 19, 2018 01:54 AM |
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I'll try to answer all questions and suggestions.
Lord_Immortal said:
My idea was that, combining 3 skills you have 3 empty slots. One is Power Bond. One is Light Magic. One is Dark Magic. (If Power Bond uses a completely new slot, than we can add Bloodrage).
VCMI allows for adding completely new skills. It's also possible to replace the existing ones, that's what Macron1's mod does. Maybe I'll consider it in the future but as another mod.
Lord_Immortal said:
I don't know if new spell schools can be implemented, but if not (or if it's too hard), Light and Dark Magic can simply further improve some spells of the other 4 schools.
It's impossible to tinker with the magic levels or add new schools at the moment. An alternative I could suggest is a skill which gives certain elemental-less Spells on each level. But I'd probably leave the vanilla Spells out of that.
Lord_Immortal said:
What if instead of "Spell-Like Attack" you just name it "Magic Strike"?
To me, "Spell like attack" correctly describes the bonus as a whole. It's a fitting umbrella term for Fireballs, Death Clouds, Fairy Dust, Holy Blades and Hell Fires. However, there already are unique attack names (all of already mentioned). The suggested "Magic Strike" is currently Genies', Psychic/Magic elementals' and Fairy dragons' attack name.
Lord_Immortal said:
In your mod you might as well define which creature has weakness from which type of strike.
Elemental attacks already are in Heroes III. They make Elementals deal more damage to the Elementals of opposing Elements and 50% to units immune to certain Magic Schools. They're not implemented yet fully in VCMI, but I wouldn't want to add more damage types. Gogs deal normal damage to Efreeti and Phoenixes, Titans to Storm Elementals and etc. I think it should stay that way.
Lord_Immortal said:
First Strike some creatures especially those with long polearms, deal a First Strike
First Strike ability was added to VCMI a while ago, but I wouldn't use it lightly. Definitely not for 1-level units and Champions, who have their signature ability.
Maurice's description of AOW3 system sounds more plausible, but it's impossible to implement. It still could strike into Heroes' greatest trait - it's simplicity and accessability. In my opinion, elemental and different physical damage types for each creature is a thing of more advanced RPG's. Heroes III mechanics weren't build with that in mind.
fiorin said:
I really wanted add some heroes for common use as additional 3rd town classes, but you did! And did great!
Thanks, but it's basically just a normal Warlock class, just with a different look. Don't give up : >
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fiorin
Promising
Famous Hero
☠️
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posted October 19, 2018 05:06 AM |
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AncientDruids said:
fiorin said:
I really wanted add some heroes for common use as additional 3rd town classes, but you did! And did great!
Thanks, but it's basically just a normal Warlock class, just with a different look. Don't give up : >
I won't. I already have some ready.
The 5th and 6th are 'Bards', a magical morale class
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Lord_Immortal
Famous Hero
DoR Dev Team
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posted October 19, 2018 12:11 PM |
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Maurice said:
Instead of AoW2, how about the system of AoW3? They used different damage sources and units could resist part of it. With that system, a unit might be able to deal 3 physical damage and 7 fire damage for instance.
Let's consider a few examples:
- enemy unit has no particular defense against physical, but is immune to fire: it will suffer 3 damage during the attack.
- enemy unit has armor (reducing physical damage by 1), and fire vulnerability (doubles damage from fire): it will suffer 16 damage during the attack.
- enemy unit is incorporeal (immune to physical), but has no particular defense against fire: it will suffer 7 damage during the attack.
You can mix and match as many damage sources as you can figure out - as well as defenses against them.
The advantage is that multiple sources can then increase damage, for different damage types. These can be Artifacts as well as Secondary Skills.
It's an interesting system. But I was thinking something like:
X Weakness +20% damage from X Strike
X Protection -15% damage from X Strike
X Immunity -30% damage from X Strike
Of course there would be artifacts and/or skills that grant each unit "X Strike".
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AncientDruids
Famous Hero
(Andruids for short)
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posted October 23, 2018 05:40 AM |
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Initiative in Heroes 3? It's possible in VCMI! With some modding, that is.
The newest skill in Andruids Expansion gives your units opportunity to always move before their equally-mobile opponents or even some faster ones.
Basic level makes your units get their turn 20% faster based on their speed.
On Advanced level the bonus is 35%.
On Expert level the bonus is 50%.
Try it out at: initiative.rar (or from Andruids Expansion pack).
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fiorin
Promising
Famous Hero
☠️
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posted October 23, 2018 03:17 PM |
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AncientDruids]Initiative in Heroes 3? It's possible in VCMI! With some modding, that is.
The newest skill in Andruids Expansion gives your units opportunity to always move before their equally-mobile opponents or even some faster ones.
Basic level makes your units get their turn 20% faster based on their speed.
On Advanced level the bonus is 35%.
On Expert level the bonus is 50%.
Try it out at: initiative.rar (or from Andruids Expansion pack).
I liked very much 
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