Nargott
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You should rip the hands out of designers' asses and put them back into their shoulders.
The standard interface is quite informative and far more beautiful. The only things it lacked were rage and necro buttons.
The reason for using it (and expanding the scale to the maximum) is purely practical convenience. Those who are tired of endlessly scrolling through the scale with tiny arrows, fearing they might miss, will appreciate it. Those who are tired of periodically scrolling through short logs will also appreciate it. Finally, anyone who has ever confused their own and enemy creature icons on the scale because the background color is almost indistinguishable (because the entire icon occupies the space without a background — like the witch alt or devil alt), will also appreciate the practical convenience of colored bars. Personally, before getting more deeply acquainted with them, I didn't really like the visuals either. But the purpose of this add-on is not beauty, but purely cold practicality and time-saving.
Finally, it's not just an interface part. It gives players who use it a very specific advantage: namely, the depth of the scale forecast. The standard scale is often locked from scrolling further than the point where all creatures have appeared on it at least once. The new scale is devoid of this flaw: with a size of 21 cells, the need for scrolling disappears in almost all cases (it's very rare that you need to see more; I haven't encountered such cases yet).
As for the purely visual part, it becomes quite quickly habit-forming for those who value practicality first. The only thing that currently doesn't look very good are the three buttons for casting, waiting, and defending. I would like to implement them in a unified style with the top ones (menu, surrender, autobattle), but this requires working with textures, which is not my specialty.
Added after 7 minutes
As for the necro button, it's clearly redundant in battle and will be removed. I'm keeping the rage button, although it's not needed in the TI mod (WGE = Tactical Edition) since Blood Rage is not used in duels (it will be added later to the extended duel mode with hero upgrades). However, some people might play TI in map mode (although I warned that this mode is not yet provided for by the mod and is done at your own risk — no claims regarding balance). Regardless, I will remove the rage button from map mode because it is only used in battle.
Added after 26 minutes
Another supported add-on will be a mod to improve unit texture quality, adapted for TI. It weighs about 25 MB; the difference in adaptation is that models conflicting with TI have been removed: since TI uses ifrits, special SE dragons, dark ravagers, and dancers with painted blades (dancer blades were moved from the base part of the mod to an add-on, as they are not essential).
Other add-ons (proposed above) were considered for addition; they are either not needed yet (artifact descriptions mod), or implemented by my own efforts and baked into the base (mod fixing description errors — regarding logs, abilities, and units), or implemented incompletely or with insufficient quality (I didn't like the font replacement mod).
MainMenu_flyby_all.rar - changes the intro from a cyclops to one of the castles in the main menu.
Female Heroes 3.0.h5u - adds female hero models to what seems like 4 factions. A small thing but pleasant. Maybe someone will find models for the other factions later.
m30_rus_nosounds.h5u - removes the annoying slider sounds.
m30_rus_mapsize.h5u - denotes map size with Roman numerals like in 3.
m30_rus_nomove.h5u - removes the "hero will not go anywhere" text at the end of the turn.
m30_rus_neutralcounts.h5u - numerical size of neutrals like in 3.
ArtDescription301.h5u - artistic description of all artifacts.
geltii_krug_big.h5u - circles the unit whose turn it is to move in battle with a yellow circle.
m30_rus_heroesspec.h5u / HeroInfo3.02.h5u - description of hero specializations when selecting them in map settings (although descriptions will have to be edited, it's still useful) — the first is brief, the second is detailed with a biography.
NewArenas.h5u - supposedly adds a couple of battle arenas.
m30_rus_townspec.h5u - more accurate description of each town's features.
Regarding the fate of the necro button and rage button — in the distant future, a full "Help" system is planned to be integrated into the game (via a single button). This will include sections (in order of development priority):
- casters (list of creature spells and casting dependence on number)
- magic (full list of spells and activatable hero abilities with descriptions)
- damage (damage efficiency graph based on attack/defense difference + bonus HP graph for units with high defense (and increased vulnerability to strike magic) — useful in the tactical realities of TI, made no sense in the original; also includes hero damage to units)
- rage
- artifacts (full list of existing artifacts, descriptions, and sets)
- heroes (skill wheel with the extended TI class system and stat distribution)
- units (comparative characteristic tables)
- objects (list of map objects, e.g., guarded banks along with possible guard variants)
- necro
Expanded Strategic Concept of the WGE Mod (planned changes). Slogan — dynamics and variability (the fundamental difference from the TE mod is dynamics).
A. The map is divided into zones, necessarily connected by roads.
Goal:
- Fast movement between zones.
B. Strength of passage guards — weak or moderate.
Goal:
- Freedom of hero movement.
C. Each zone has a sufficient amount of "freebies". The stronger the guard at the entrance to a zone, the more freebies there are. There should be enough freebies to keep a scout busy for several days.
Goal:
- Freedom for scouts.
D. Each zone has many guarded objects with varying guards. Guards are proportional to the object's strength. There should be no zones with only strong or only weak guards; it should provide for clearing by heroes of different strengths.
Goals:
- Mobility of breaking-through heroes, not delaying them in a zone (hit guards of your level — move on).
- Universalization of zones (suitability for different armies).
E. Hero logistics: very high — sufficient to run through any zone from edge to edge (along the road). But any battle consumes all remaining movement.
Goals:
- Game dynamics + absence of slowdowns due to a large number of battles per turn.
- Selective breaking-through (heroes will not break unnecessary objects if it costs an entire turn).
- Alternative to letting fleeing troops go instead of gaining easy experience (when letting them go, the hero's turn is partially spent, not fully; a pointless battle is avoided, real time is saved).
- The hero should have time to collect resources in the zone independently (assistants are not needed) without losing out on breaking-through.
- Possibility of balanced strengthening of logistics perks and bonuses (breaking speed will not depend on logistics; the emphasis will be specifically on army mobility).
- Moving away from boring multi-turn crossings through emptied zones (selective breaking prevents a zone from emptying quickly; high logistics turns multi-turn crossings into single-turn ones).
F. Cancellation of chains: when heroes meet, their movement points are reduced to the minimum among them.
Goals:
- Abandoning the routine of boringly transferring troops from one end of the map to another (and significant time saving). With high logistics, any hero can do this naturally in a minimum number of days.
- Motivation to have several armies instead of the ability to maintain a mega-fist via chains.
G. Cancellation of neutral growth for multiplayer maps (previously it was proposed to double their number every week, but now this idea is outdated).
Goals:
- There will be no impassable passages or objects because a hero arrived too late.
- Not rushing the player artificially. If he wants to develop slowly — let him develop slowly, but his opponent will punish him for it, not the neutrals.
However, when playing through (single), the ability to set high growth (up to doubling) will be preserved. Those who want hardcore will get it.
How these 2 points will be implemented: very simply. Multiplayer maps will be tailored for zero growth, i.e., Normal mode.
Normal: 1.0 growth
Hard: 1.25 growth
Hardcore: 1.6 growth
Hellmare: 2.0 growth
This difficulty will only be responsible for neutral growth. AI difficulty settings are planned to be implemented separately. Player starting resources will not depend on difficulty (balance must not be broken).
H. Growth of player armies is limited from dwellings and towns (i.e., it is a one-time occurrence).
Goals:
- A strategy of accumulating large forces will only be possible through continuous expansion (capturing new towns and dwellings), not by sitting in place.
- Breaking balance: there will be no situations where any neutrals are easily swept away in the late game due to a huge army.
- Careful conduct of battles (troops are a non-renewable resource).
I. Player troops (but not heroes) consume resources daily (have maintenance costs). If resources are insufficient, excess troops (starting with the most expensive to maintain) leave the player's armies. Units ending their turn in mines, garrisons, and towns do not consume resources and do not leave the player during starvation.
Goals:
- Relevant economy (resources) in the stage when main troops are already bought and towns are developed.
- Motivation to use troops more actively (inefficient armies bring loss).
- Motivation to conduct heavy breaking battles where significant losses are inevitable (getting rid of excess disadvantageous units with benefit).
- Two-dimensional price for units: purchase price and maintenance price.
- Motivation to use garrisons and guarded mines.
- Emergence of a strategy to destroy the opponent by influencing the economy (specifically destroying, not hindering growth).
J. Powerful artifacts (relics — like in H3).
Goal:
- Motivation for interesting breaking-through. Difficult break — losses — valuable artifact. Easy break — no losses — weak artifact. That is, the strength of artifacts should be comparable to significant losses.
K. Recruited heroes arrive without troops (with a single level 1 unit), except for the starting one.
Goal:
- Abandoning the traditional routine of buying up heroes and transferring all their troops into one fist. Now the player will have a fist from the start, and recruited heroes will be used as scouts, not suppliers of additional troops. If an additional hero requires an army, it is purchased in corresponding dwellings and towns (and a starting squad is still not an army).
L. Fundamentally different town building schemes (less linearity, more non-standard solutions like wyvern availability on turn 2, breaking upgrade chains with other buildings).
Goal:
- Diversify the development of different factions.
M. Fleeing and surrendering heroes are disabled (in both actions, the hero is lost irrevocably, i.e., the option is analogous to a quick defeat).
Goals:
- Limiting hit-and-runs (given powerful magic and non-renewable units).
- Canceling absurd teleports of heroes via fleeing from neutrals.
- Careful play without "if anything — I'll buy my way out" and an increased role for scouting.
- Thrill (all or nothing).
Gameplay Essence:
Movement of heroes between zones (branching structure like in H3, not on linear standard H5 maps) instead of trampling in one zone. Active use of scouts. Parallel development of several towns (capture of which begins from the first days). Limited number of battles. Focus on selective breaking-through. Fast development. Use of several armies (breaking speed depends only on the number of armies: 1 army — 1 battle). Active involvement of economy at all stages of the game. Struggle for objects (units guarding mines, garrisons, and towns do not incur costs). Shifting the focus of the game from conducting numerous breaking battles to the economy (battles are rarer but tactically more thought-out).
P.S. Points H and I (one-time growth and troop maintenance) are currently experimental, as it's unknown how they will play out. Growth limitation was needed as a protection against prolonged games and accumulation of too much "meat" in Heroes 5 conditions (just like doubling neutrals every week), but such a measure may be excessive with the already accelerated dynamics of TI (implementation of other points). Maintenance follows directly from one-time growth (so there's something to spend resources on), however, it's unknown if excess resources will be a problem under new dynamics. If not, the need for maintenance disappears (it could become an unnecessary complication of the game). In all other points, there is confidence, as it's known from other games how they play (borrowings partially from Heroes 3, partially from Disciples 2).
Added after 5 hours 2 minutes
Update: upon mature reflection, points H, I and K (one-time growth, troop maintenance, hiring heroes without troops) are completely canceled. Reason: controversial points, no necessity (they do not enhance dynamics or variability in any way). Heroes will arrive with troops because under the "1 army = 1 battle" condition, it's by no means certain that armies will merge into a single fist. Especially if starting troops are adequate for breaking-through on their own (and they will be).
Added after 6 hours 44 minutes
Two necessary additions to the concept of spending a whole turn on battle:
1. Guards of teleports and dungeons will be one-way. As an option — paired: when one side is killed, the second dies automatically. In this case, paired guards must be identical. I see no point in requiring 2 battles to break through a particular object (in this case — exit to a zone).
2. A minimum of movement will be left (1.5 cells) for visiting a captured town or stepping aside to make way for a scout. Visiting other objects can be postponed until the next day (if the enemy attacked — it means you didn't make it). But this remaining movement will always be fixed (no need to worry if the hero will manage to enter a captured town).
And regarding roads:
Roads should not be blocked by object guards, except for guards of passages between zones. For this reason, objects will be located some distance from roads. However, this may require disabling creature weeks.
