UNIT - Creature Balance + Visual Changes

All the necessary animations for shooting are provided for the trapper – for obvious reasons (they sit on towers); all you have to do is set the number of shots for him. Adding foreign models and animations to units is a dead end.

Only the animation of throwing a piece of... earth... is provided for the trapper. But the point was to arm the creature with a bow, and there is definitely no such animation, so you can't do without workarounds. Although I believe that this change is meaningless from the point of view of mechanics and balance, although it could be implemented for fun, but not within the scope of this project.

I am also interested in whether the secondary skills and abilities are planned to be revised in this mod. In particular, I am interested in the "Banish" ability – I would like to return its old, good percentage damage, but I don't know if it will be enough to just copy the text file from the vanilla version or if something more is needed.

A complete rework of some talents and specializations is planned, for example, the skill of controlling war machines, as well as some spells. But in the near future, changes of this kind are unlikely to be introduced, because the main focus is still on the creatures.

The problem with minotaurs is not that they are not built – they are built to accumulate meat and buy them for the final stage. Their problem is that they are a slow unit with weak initiative and not strong enough physical attack to compensate for this. They cannot tank like dwarven shields, for example. And what kind of serious damage do they have? Human alt-swordsmen have serious damage.

I completely agree about speed and initiative; it is precisely because of these two parameters that the creatures lose some of their significance. In general, I really like how they are organized in a group of six, although their initiative is not high there either, but these are large creatures with good speed, strong damage, and survivability. However, there they act as creatures of tier 6 (or something like that), so all these qualities are combined very harmoniously. In tier 5, however, we have them as creatures of tier 3, and they are small in size...

As an option, you can increase the speed to 6 for the alt-upgrade, and increase the upgrade damage to 5-8 + speed to 6. Then the lack of initiative and damage in the upgrade will be compensated.

You probably don't understand how tournament players play. They don't buy all the meat for the attack, but only take what is really valuable (real damage dealers or real tanks, if the latter are needed). Because it is profitable not to spend money on buying useless things that do not pay off. The presence of minotaurs in the army does not improve the quality of the attack in any way, on the contrary, it can lead to unnecessary losses. But the presence of upgraded furries, griffins, hydras, and witches with cast spells is invaluable.

No, I perfectly understand the logic that tournament players use. But the modification is designed not only for the PvP aspect of the game, but also for PvE (and with a greater emphasis), so some changes have been made as a compromise between these aspects, so that all creatures can be used in each of them.
As an example, I can cite the "Devouring Strike" ability of the Death Knights, which is very useful in PvP. It not only removes buffs but also guarantees to kill 1 creature, but at the same time it is practically useless in PvE, because the stack itself can inflict many times more damage with a regular attack, and buffs on neutrals and AI are rare.
Based on all this, as a compromise, the Death Knights received destruction, which is very useful in PvE, and also has its "zest" in PvP. However, there are also disadvantages.

I am now thinking of returning the "Devouring Strike" to them and adding "Killing Blow". Then they will be useful in all directions. In addition, these abilities do not interact with each other, which is a plus. The result is this: if the enemy stack consists of many low-level creatures, it is better to hit with a regular attack and inflict additional damage from the "Killing Blow", and if the stack is high-level, then the "Devouring Strike" is used, which, as before, kills exactly 1 creature, without damage from the "Killing Blow". For now, this combination seems very promising to me, but I am also considering other options.