Posts from Dark champions of Necropolis.

Hey everyone, good evening.
Today, I had an idea that I think is interesting. I want to share it with you.
I really don't like the dragons in the Necropolis faction. They are a boring, uninteresting, and unoriginal unit. The unit's stats also leave much to be desired, and I've long dreamed of seeing something else in its place.
Here's what I came up with:
Instead of dragons, we should have "Death Knights." They can be called anything, but the point is that they are knights.
I'm sure this would suit the faction much better and add variety to the game. The faction would get its own truly unique unit, rather than just another dragon, of which there are already many.
I hope everyone has seen the movie "The Lord of the Rings." Remember the Witch-king? I think this image is very suitable for the Necropolis. By the way, in the third part of The Lord of the Rings, they briefly showed Minas Morgul, past which the hobbits climbed a mountain. It looked very much like the Necropolis Castle - just as glowing, black and green.
I got a little sidetracked.
Look:

The first basic unit already exists, here it is -
And here, after the upgrade, we get the same knights, only now they are riding not a horse.
Here is the upgraded unit -

Both of these units are ready; they already exist in various mods. They just need to be taken from there. Theoretically.
The problem only arises with the alternative upgrade of the unit.
There are two options here.
The minimum program is to add purple elements instead of green to the ready knight on a dragon, the color of all alternative undead upgrades.
The maximum program is to put a knight on a red dragon instead of a black dragon, that is, on an alternative upgrade of the black dragon, and also add purple color.

The attack, defense, and other parameters can then be easily balanced so that the unit fits into the game. Also, with the unit's abilities, we can come up with something and give it really interesting skills.
As a result, we will get a bright, unusual arch-unit of the Necropolis faction with minimal effort, since two models already exist, and the third can be made by simply repainting the existing one.

Why am I writing this?
First, I'm interested in whether this is technically feasible in principle, or are there any insurmountable obstacles?
Secondly, I hope to interest someone who can and knows how to do this, because I cannot do it myself. At least, it will be difficult for me, and the work will most likely take a long time, plus I will need constant outside help.
Thirdly, I'm just curious, how do you like my idea?

Thank you, sorry for the long post.

Good afternoon. I like the idea, and it is quite feasible. I can help with the minimum program. I'm afraid I can't help with the maximum program, as I still haven't managed to extract the models from the game. I would be grateful if you could provide a link to both of the mentioned mods. I also suggest changing the black dragon under the rider: otherwise, we will essentially have two black dragons in the game. The Necropolis dragon should be somewhat different, in my opinion.

Added 27 minutes later
The name is a bit ambiguous. Not a modeler, but a modder.

I'm glad you liked the idea.
I didn't quite understand: do you not know how to extract rider models from mods, or do you not know how to create a different dragon for the rider?
Regarding changing the dragon, I completely agree. Although changes can be achieved by playing with colors, for example, adding green elements instead of yellow ones, and making the dragon itself darker…
I am currently browsing all forums trying to find a modder who could bring this to life. It would be good to find someone experienced for whom this wouldn’t be difficult and who knows how to do it quickly and easily.
If you know anyone on this site, maybe you should suggest this idea to them. However, even if a modder is found, there is no guarantee that they will be interested in it.
I have already posted an announcement somewhere; let's see if anyone responds.

Yes, and regarding mods:

Here I saw a rider on a horse /topic/at/197835/

I found a rider on a dragon in this mod - http://rutracker.org/forum//topic/2629561/

The mod itself is a very high-quality collection with a huge number of new and interesting units. In addition, the mod has many other changes. Highly recommended.
I am now trying to contact the person who uploaded it because he wrote that he knows people from the Russian community who are directly involved in creating models.
Let’s see…

PS Well, and if you manage to achieve something, that would also be great.

PPS During my search, I came across the website of the team that developed the units, but as it turned out, this is not a Russian community at all.
http://heroescommunity.com/viewthread.php3?TID=27275
There is a list of creatures at the link. Number 284 is the rider on a dragon.

There's no one on this site. On AG, there's Psatha and also ArchWarlock (he's either on AG or zzime, or maybe even both). Regarding the models: I don't know how to extract them from the game (although I really hope to learn in the future), but I can recolor them. There won't be a need to extract them from mods. I'll take a look at them and do something with them.

Okay.
In that case, I'll try to contact these guys. And I'll still leave a request on the English-language website regarding my idea. I mean the idea of completely replacing the dragon under the rider with some other creature for an alternative upgrade.
But for now, all hope is on you. If anything ever comes of it, let me know. I would still like to bring this to life.

Here's a draft version of the mod. For now, all the seventh-level units of the Necropolis have received new models. Good news: I've added a red dragon that can be ridden. Bad news: the unit we have (the dragon rider) has the same model as the dragon it's riding. But the animation is different. So, we'll have to put some effort into recoloring.
----
I probably didn't explain the animation very well. What I mean is that the creator of the dragon, while working with Maya, made it so that a new animation appears for the Dark Dragon. It's thanks to this animation that the rider appears on the dragon.

Sorry, how do I use this?
Maybe it would be better if you just posted screenshots for now; I'm not very good at this anyway.
In any case, it's good news! Thanks for taking on this task! I hope it's not too much of a burden and that everything works out.
I can say that on the sites where I asked for help, no one has responded yet. Of all the sites about Heroes of Might and Magic V, this one is the most active. Maybe I remembered about them too late; it's an old game, and people don't have the same enthusiasm anymore. Besides, everyone is waiting for the sixth installment (I doubt it will be anything worthwhile).

By the way, I'm also trying to make my small contribution and am currently working on creating a new map, although not for multiplayer. I've figured out the editor, and the work is going, albeit slowly.
But that's just me, bragging.

This is how it looks for now.


For now, it’s just a rough draft. We still need to repaint the dragons (which isn't that big of a deal) and the riders (this might cause some problems).

I think the Black Champion model is ready. Please evaluate it

Looks amazing! But why did you recolor the sword to purple?

Added 2 minutes later
The purple elements are for the second upgrade, as the entire creature branch is highlighted with this color. And there was no need to change anything for the rider on the black dragon; everything is already good there.

There are issues with the rider. I'm not sure if I can paint them differently for both upgrade levels. I decided that a purple sword would be more versatile. Although, I can revert it. Regarding the alternate upgrade: would it be better to recolor the dragon to purple, as you suggested?

I understand. In that case, it would be better to revert the sword's color to green. Firstly, it looks better that way, and green is essentially the primary color of the undead, while purple is just an alternative. As for the dragon, it's up to you. Perhaps it would be better to color the dragon itself in purple and use that color to tint some elements, just as you did with black. For example, the eyes, mouth, or some elements of the wings.

Okay, let's bring back the sword. Though, I think it would be good to make it a bit brighter (after all, it's an upgrade).
I don't think red goes very well with purple, so I'd choose just one of those colors.

Perhaps making it even brighter isn't a good idea; the horse is already replaced with a dragon, so how much more impressive can it get? And I agree about the red color. I meant that individual elements should be made purple, and you can paint the dragon itself as you see fit. Probably, it should also be done in dark tones, maybe just not so bright black.

I apologize, is there any news regarding the mod?