Posts from Heroes 5.5 WarGame Edition - Tactical Edition.

How about reducing defense instead of attack? The effect isn't as drastic as killing troops, but the idea is the same: in a state of battle frenzy, troops hit harder but also think less about defense, resulting in them dying more often.

The idea of reducing defense is great! If you think that Battle Buffs are twice as strong as regular perks, then the defense should be reduced by 2 units (approximately equivalent to one perk).
Regarding the perk swaps – does this mean that you can simultaneously upgrade both Cold Steel and Fire Wrath? That's absurd!

There was a similar idea before, but it has the following drawbacks: 1) against mages in PvP, this nerf will be of little relevance, as the main damage will be dealt by the opponent's hero. 2) consequently, the nerf of -1 defense (2 stats of the original) is too weak and should be -2 (4 stats of the original), which, on the other hand, makes the perk rather questionable against a melee unit, although it is useful at the start. There is a shortage of perks for attack, so there isn't much choice here. The Battle Battle branch is focused on damage, and both perks from it work in the same vein. I don't think it's worth worrying so much about the killed troops; in essence, only a few units of lower tiers will die. The percentages will be adjusted so that by the time of the PvP encounter, there will be about 10% losses in tiers 1-3 or 1-4.

Found an interesting issue: the "Guardian Angel" skill doesn't resurrect. The angel appears, but doesn't actually resurrect the unit. I suspect the problem is that originally, resurrection was a creature's skill and it was applied automatically, but now resurrection is in the spellbook. I think it would be possible to duplicate a separate Angel for this skill and give it the old resurrection variant, but with adjusted stats. Thank you for your attention.

Thank you for the information, I will check this bug.

Regarding the "battle frenzy" ability (as I mentioned above), it is most likely that we will stick to the solution with a -1 penalty to attack (-2 in the original game). This way, this perk will be a great enhancement for lower-tier units, but a weakening for higher-tier ones.

Another batch of thoughts on skills.

1. Reducing randomness during skill upgrades. All secondary perks should have a maximum of one direct competitor. That is, no branching into 3 perks – only branching into 2 perks is allowed (with a 50% chance of taking each).
2. Level 3 perks are undesirable, as they reduce variability and are more difficult to acquire.
3. The optimal number of perks in a skill is 6 (3 pairs or a trio, a pair, and a single perk).

ATTACK (10/20/30%)
1) Cold Steel -> Battle Frenzy (without penalties)
2) Ranged Attack (30%) -> Attacking Style (each hero on the battlefield receives +3 to attack, which increases the damage dealt by approximately 1.2 times)
3) Tactics -> Haste (Orcs get +1 to initiative)

DEFENSE
1) Endurance -> Stamina (+10% health)
2) Dodge (30%) -> Defensive Style (each hero on the battlefield receives +3 to defense, which reduces the damage received by approximately 1.2 times)
3) Readiness -> Stone Skin (Orcs get +2 to defense)

New perks: Attacking Style and Defensive Style. The purpose of these perks is to powerfully accelerate/slow down the pace of battle, without gaining a direct stat advantage (the advantage is only gained against neutrals).
Attacking Style is most effective when a warrior uses it against a mage (giving troops a time advantage).
Defensive Style is most effective when a mage uses it against a warrior (giving heroes a time advantage).
Fire Arrows have been removed due to being overpowered.
Retribution in Leadership.
Stalwart Defense has been removed due to the perk being pointless (in WGE, defense already gives a solid +50% defensive bonus).
Reflection has been removed due to redundancy (there is resistance from Luck).
Fight to the Last in Leadership.

LEADERSHIP (unavailable to Undead)
1) Encouragement (50%) -> Retribution
2) Troop Gathering -> Fight to the Last
3) Diplomacy -> Empathy

Troop Gathering: for every 3 levels of the hero (including previously acquired levels), creatures of levels 1-3 join him (+3/+2/+1).
Diplomacy: whenever neutrals flee the battlefield, the hero has the opportunity to buy up to 30% of the creatures (at 100% price), but no more than an amount equal to 500 gold for each level of the hero. Standard recruitment of neutrals (without diplomacy) is prohibited.
Treasury has been removed (it has no combat bonuses, it just gives gold).
Speed Aura in Logistics.

LUCK (+50% lucky damage)
1) Soldier's Luck (additional +1 to Luck) -> Critical Luck (+100% lucky damage)
2) Magic Luck (fluctuating mana, additional +1 to Luck) -> Sorcerer's Luck
3) Resistance (magic) -> Double Resistance (Dwarven Luck)

Luck of the Road has been removed (it has no combat bonuses, it's a useless perk).
Trophies have been removed (they have no combat bonuses, they are useless perks).
Ashes' Favor has been removed (it has no combat bonuses, it's a useless perk).

LOGISTICS
1) Scouting -> Camouflage (silent pursuer)
2) Path of War -> Plunder / Speed Aura
3) Unraveling Secrets

For Scouting, the hero receives an additional +1 random minor artifact for every 5 levels (including previously acquired levels).
For Camouflage, the hero receives an additional +1 random major artifact for every 10 levels (including previously acquired levels).
Path of War: the hero receives +1 to attack and defense if fighting on enemy territory.
Plunder: enemy troops receive an additional -1 speed penalty (does not work against neutrals).
Navigation has been removed (too situational, it interferes with skill progression).
Finding the Way has been removed (it has no combat bonuses). It can be combined with the current Path of War (+1/+1 on enemy territory).
Path of War does not give movement points (it does not support the strategy of having many battles per turn).
Death March has been removed (too situational, it interferes with skill progression).
Sharp Mind in Sorcery.
Sudden Attack has been removed (a specialization based on this skill may be introduced).

ENGINEERING (machines)
1) Ballistics -> Rapid Fire
2) First Aid -> Plague Tent
3) Artillery -> Elite Machines (Rune Machines)

Engineering: x2/3/4 health for machines and +1/2/3 to attack for ranged units per cart.
Ballistics, First Aid, and Artillery do not double the health of the corresponding machines.
The healing of the tent and the damage of the ballista do not depend on the level of Engineering. The damage of the ballista increases from Attack + Knowledge, the healing of the tent – from the hero's level.
Artillery (catapult): before the battle in an open field, it kills 10% of the enemy's creatures (rounded down).
Sulfur Rain has been removed (due to redundancy). A specialization based on this skill may be introduced (with the development of the artillery effect).
Earthquake has been removed (too situational, it interferes with skill progression).

EDUCATION (unavailable to Orcs)
1) Distraction (30%) -> Counterspell
2) Intelligence (attracts magic, 40%) -> Power of Knowledge / Power of Magic
3) Scholar (the hero learns 1 random spell of levels 1-2 for every 2 levels, including previously acquired levels)

Education gives +2/4/6 random stats regardless of the hero's level.
Power of Knowledge: the hero receives a bonus to Knowledge equal to 1 + the number of mastered schools of magic (total from +1 to +5)
Power of Magic: the hero receives a bonus to Spell Power equal to 1 + the number of mastered schools of magic (total from +1 to +5)
Dark Revelation has been moved to Occultism (racial skill of Dark Elves).
Mentorship has been moved to Counterblow (racial skill of Humans).
Guardian of Secrets has been removed (a pointless stat bonus).
Unraveling Secrets has been moved to Logistics.

SORCERY (unavailable to Orcs)
1) Mysticism (mana replenishment) -> Secret Knowledge / Elite Sorcerers (light magic)
2) Wisdom -> Secret Revelation
3) Sharp Mind (30%)

Fluctuating Mana in Luck.
Distraction in Education.
Counterspell in Education.
Secret Advantage has been removed (overpowered).

COMBAT SHOUTS (available only to Orcs)
1) Mysticism (mana replenishment) -> Secret Knowledge / Elite Sorcerers (light magic)
2) War Cry
3) Mighty Shout

Distraction in Education (unavailable to Orcs).

LIGHT MAGIC (unavailable to Orcs)
1) Master of Wrath -> Storm Wind
2) Master of Blessings -> Eternal Light (additional +regeneration)
3) Master of Defense -> Seal of Light (additional +holy word)

Fire Protection has been removed.
Twilight has been moved to Counterblow (racial skill of Humans).
Light Magic has been moved to Sorcery.

DARK MAGIC (unavailable to Orcs)
1) Master of Pain -> Cursed Ground
2) Master of Curses -> Darkness of Weakness (additional +grief)
3) Master of Mind -> Seal of Darkness (additional +unholy word)

Dark Replenishment has been removed (due to a bug that allows casting spells for free).
Torturing Strike has been moved to Occultism (racial skill of Dark Elves).

CHAOS MAGIC (unavailable to Orcs)
1) Master of Fire -> Pyrokinesis (additional +fire wall) / Mana Burst
2) Master of Ice -> Deadly Cold (additional +freezing cold)
3) Master of Lightning

Secrets of Chaos have been removed (redundant).
Mana Drain has been removed (redundant – there is resistance from Luck).
Fire Fury has been removed (not on topic).

SUMMONING MAGIC (unavailable to Orcs)
1) Master of Earth (additional +earthquake) -> Fog Cloud (only -30% initiative)
2) Master of Life -> Celestial Shield
3) Master of Elements (spells) -> Elemental Balance (additional +elementals)

Banishment has been removed (redundant, there is an artifact).
Exorcism has been removed (redundant, situational).
Fire Warriors have been removed (redundant, monotonous – there is already an enhancement for elementals). A specialization based on this skill may be introduced.

Racial skills are still under development.
The following branches have been defined:
1) in the Human racial skill, Double Strike (200% hero damage) -> Oversight
2) in the Orc racial skill, Support -> Stun (50%)
3) in the Dark Elf racial skill, Assassin's Mark (curse mark) -> Torturing Strike

Why is Oversight after Double Strike? Because without the double damage, the Oversight skill plays weakly (compared to Support and Assassin's Mark).

Nargott, your skills are amazing right now. That's exactly how they should have looked from the beginning, in the original game!

Another batch of thoughts on skills.

Everything that was removed has been replaced with something else?!

In the comments for each skill, it is indicated what was removed and why. In some cases, it makes sense to present these perks as hero specializations. In other cases, the perks are simply useless, redundant, or do not offer anything interesting. For example, Grave Chill (the effect itself cannot be enhanced). Or Reflection, Undead Protection from Magic, Magic Drain, Barbarian Luck. You can protect against Chaos through Luck (magic resistance and double resistance) or indirectly through Defense (through health). In earlier iterations, fewer skills were removed, but this was achieved at the cost of unnecessary workarounds and less logical consistency. In practice, skills with 6-7 abilities look good, but in some cases, it is difficult to come up with 7 abilities. For example, there were problems with Attack and Defense (5 natural perks each), and a sixth one had to be invented (offensive/defensive styles). Some abilities are imbalanced. For example, Fire Arrows is an absolutely ridiculous ability. It multiplies the damage of a ballista many times over. And the damage of a ballista is already multiplied several times over by triple shot, Machinery, Shooting, Luck, and hero parameters. As a result, a bare ballista does not deal any damage at all (in the original), and is not impressive even without Fire Arrows. Removing Fire Arrows and the dependence of ballista damage on the level of Machinery allows the starting damage of the ballista to be made high enough (corresponding to a creature of level 6, and later level 7).

I would never have invested in a perk that kills an army... I killed three neutral creatures and lost 15% of my army?

I would never have invested in a perk that harms an army... killing three neutrals and losing 15% of your army?

First, this penalty has already been removed (Battle Frenzy has become a level 2 perk).
Second, the number of troops here is much lower; losing 5% at different stages of the game would only affect tiers 1, 1-2, or 1-3. That is, due to rounding down, it wouldn't actually be 15% of the army after 3 battles.

So, personally, I don't see any balance issues here, but I still removed this penalty so that players wouldn't be afraid to use the basic level 1 perk, fearing a negative outcome. And in a truly long game (more than a month), such a penalty would indeed have a negative impact.

Similarly, I reviewed and adjusted the troop recruitment skill so that there wouldn't be an overpowered situation in a hypothetical very long game (and it wouldn't be possible to get significant bonuses from roaches bringing in large troops). Also, as with diplomacy (a gold limit for ransom has been added, depending on the hero's level - the idea was taken from Heroes 4). Previously, troop recruitment gave +5% troops per day (with the same rounding down), now it gives a fixed number of creatures upon reaching levels 3, 6, 9, etc. of the hero, and it doesn't work at all for roaches of levels 1-2.

That is, the logic is as follows: a low-level roach should not receive strong non-combat bonuses from skills. And weak skills are not needed for combat heroes. Hence, the link of such skills to the level.

Added 21 hours 41 minutes ago
Regarding racial skills (still in development):

DEMONOLOGY
1) Quick Gate -> Wide Gate / Fortunate Gate
2) Hellfire -> Blazing Flame
3) Corpse Eater

Fiery Retribution has been removed (immediately integrated into Hellfire).
Exploding Corpses have been removed (immediately integrated into Corpse Eater).
Curse Mark has been moved to Occultism (Dark Elf racial skill).

RUNES
1) Attacking Seer -> Rune Harmony
2) Defensive Seer -> Rune Recall
3) Economical Rune -> Refreshed Rune

Double Rune (Greatest) is questionable, as it is incredibly strong in the late game (like in Castle?).
Therefore, it is questionable what Special Ability (SA) the Dwarf will have left, Double Rune or Absolute Protection.

AVENGER
1) Enchanted Arrow -> Enchanted Ballista
2) Deadly Shot -> Rain of Arrows
3) Native Lands -> Sudden Attack

Forest Trickery has been removed (completely useless, doesn't scale).
Forest Fury has been removed (can be integrated into Talanar's specialization with Fury).
Forest Leader has been removed.

COUNTERSTRIKE
1) Double Strike (Devil's Strike with 100% chance) -> Vigilance
2) Prayer -> Twilight
3) Warlord -> Mentorship

Warlord automatically trains (increases) creatures depending on the level of the Counterstrike hero: 3 militia / 2 archers / 2 swordsmen / 1 monk for each hero level (including those already obtained).

RAGE
Blood Memory -> Battle Frenzy / Fury of Fire
Reinforcements -> Stun Blow
Goblin Aid

OCCULTISM
Killer's Mark (Curse Mark) -> Torturing Strike
Dark Ritual -> Fallen Knight (will be renamed)
Enhanced Magic (Arcane Wave) -> Elemental Sense

NECROMANCY
Banshee's Wail -> Deadly Misfortune (-1 initiative against the enemy hero)
Eternal Slavery -> Master of the Dead (+mummies) / Herald of Death (+death knights)
Spiritual Bond

ARTIFACTS
Magic Mirror
Wizard's Sign
Artifact Absorption -> March of the Golems / Machine Loyalty

I think it would be better to change the artifacts because most players will choose the Mirror, the Wizard's Sign, and Artifact Absorption instead of the Golem March or Machine Loyalty. It would be better to give the Cursed Sign back to the Demons and make it so that it's not applied directly, but rather, if an enemy kills a stack of Demons, they receive the Sign (like a black mark). This would make it easier for Demons at the beginning (when using a single-unit tactic) and a little more difficult at the end, in the final battle (but if the bonus damage is (hero attack) * 100% (50 + 4 for each hero level), it will be balanced).

I haven't added the effects yet. As a reward for loyalty, there will be an additional +1 to the morale of the entire army. And the golem march here is a very powerful ability, as it applies to the top stack – the golems. In the original game, golems were useless. But here, they are slow, but extremely powerful and dangerous infantry.

In general, I don't like the artifact skill yet; there aren't even enough skills (only 5 in total).

The cursed sign is not needed for demons; they have 3 full branches: mana, fire, and gates. And the dark elves have problems with racial skills and different branches, and the assassin class is not well-developed (without a mark and the resulting debilitating strike). These are dark elves; darkness is their native element (not demonic).

I agree!
Regarding the Tech Tree, I mostly agree – I’ve been using the Assassin branch for a long time, but the decrease in Battle Damage (BD) due to a deeper understanding of Darkness would be more suitable for a regular hero, not for the Tech Tree – for the Tech Tree, it would be more logical to increase the army’s Battle Damage for studying Darkness – they have a cult of Malassa, after all.
Regarding the Dwarves – that’s exactly what I was thinking – I’ve been considering turning the Great Rune into a Special Unit (SU) for a while now (but I already have two SUs, so I won’t give up absolute defense).

There was a Twilight branch for Humans -> Fallen Knight. But then the Warlord and Mentorship skills are lost. Besides, the +5 bonus to spell power in WGE is huge (like +10 in the original). And there's also a mediocre +3 from Twilight. As a result, Humans will have the highest spell power in the game, which is a bit strange (but for Dark Elves, it's normal and quite suitable for the Witch class).