Posts from Heroes 5.5 WarGame Edition - Tactical Edition.

As far as I know, mods that introduce hero classes require modifying the core game files, i.e., the .exe file.

What’s the status of the mod? Is it still being developed?

#wgealive

I haven't abandoned it; I just don't want to make promises before the release. The best answer to such questions is the release itself.

I haven't abandoned it, I just don't want to make promises before the release. The best answer to these kinds of questions is the release itself.

Are there any streams with the test version?

Is the mod still being developed, or can I stop checking the forum?

Alive, but developing slowly.

Two important things. First, I have reworked the unit class system:

1. The number of large creatures for all races has been returned to the original 3:4 proportion (i.e., Cerberi, Chieftains, Druids, and Priests are now small). Previously, the mod was criticized because it was inconvenient to play with large factions (those with 4 large creatures).

2. Flyer speeds are fixed at 6 (small) and 7-8 (large). Now flyers are always faster than ground units (slow flyers have been removed).

3. In general, to increase dynamics and variety, creature speeds will be slightly raised by balancing the proportions of slow and fast units. Nevertheless, the mod's unique feature remains in place—top speeds are still available only to flyers; you won't be able to reach and wipe out the enemy on the very first turn with your entire army.

4. Exceptional mixed classes will be added:
- flying shooters (witches)
- semi-shooters (melee units with limited shooting capabilities—monks and spear throwers)
- heavy shooters (titans and thunderers)

5. Each unit will be fully described by a unique combination of class properties:

- Speed = Slow (3), Mid (4), Fast (5), Flyer (6). For large units, all speeds are +1 higher, and the TopFlyer (8) class is additionally available.
- Initiative = Power (7-8), Battle (9-11), Rusher (12-15).
- Class = Light, Heavy, Ranged (for large units with a "Large" prefix).
- Role = Tank (defense), Fighter (balance), Slayer (attack).

Examples:
- Swordsman = Slow Heavy Battle Tank (and this combination belongs only to him!)
- Knight = Fast Large-Heavy Power Fighter (similarly)

6. Each race will have its own character, expressed by which types of units are unavailable to it:
- Humans = defensive, no Slayer (emphasis on Tank and Fighter)
- Orcs = attacking, no Tank (emphasis on Fighter and Slayer)
- Elves = light, no Heavy (emphasis on Light and Ranged)
- Dwarves = heavy, no Light (emphasis on Heavy and Ranged)
- Mages = slow, no Fast (emphasis on Slow, Mid, and Flyer)
- Demons = fast, no Slow (emphasis on Mid, Fast, and TopFlyer)
- Shadows = initiative-based, no Power (emphasis on Regular and Rusher)
- Undead = powerful, no Rusher (emphasis on Power and Regular)

Probably, the restrictions will not be strict; for example, spear throwers are clearly a light class, and angels practically beg to be in the Slayer class with their ability to burn through 50% of defense.

7. The attachment shows a diagram of how this will roughly look. Unlike the previous class scheme, empty niches have appeared here, especially among large creatures (leaving room for the implementation of NCF neutrals). But it is precisely because of this that it has become more diverse.

Traditionally, in the original game, the emphasis was either on initiative-based fast attacking troops or slow defensive ones. In WGE there is much more variety here, but now it is even more evenly distributed across all niches (previously there was a bias toward slow units). I would especially like to highlight:

- The Power type (low initiative) is widely represented, not only by the Tank class but also by the Fighter and Slayer classes. Power Fighters are truly powerful combatants who represent the main threat and brute force. Power Slayers are exceptional super-damagers, lethal power concentrated in highest damage—units that move rarely but kill in an instant.

- The Power type is common not only among slow units but also among fast ones. Fast/Flyer Power types are completely absent in the original. Yet these are very interesting units that move rarely but create many threats by having a vast zone of influence.

- A special class, Rusher Tank, or rapid response tanks. Completely absent in the original.

- Well-developed Fast/Flyer Ranged classes (fast shooters/casters), which in the original were represented only by djinns. These are also interesting units—shooters capable of "kiting" (shooting and running away from) slower infantry. It's funny, but even centaurs weren't relatively fast in the original.

- Well-developed Power Ranged and Rusher Ranged classes (low-initiative and high-initiative shooters/casters). In the original, the only Power Ranged shooter is the human crossbowman, and Rusher Ranged is quite limited (gremlins and assassins, and even they only have 12 initiative). Why is the Rusher Ranged class particularly interesting? Because with high initiative, the value of a single turn is low, and such a shooter can afford to run across the field in a straight line without losing significantly in tempo.

- Finally, an entire separate class of Heavy melee units, which has long been a hallmark of WGE (represented by only one unit in the original—dwarven warriors). But now exceptional Heavy Ranged (heavy shooters)—titans—will also appear.

In short, work on units is nearing completion; there will be a significant restart (abilities were mapped out long ago, it's now a matter of assigning units to the most suitable classes and calculating parameters).

Second—by actively communicating with top HRTA players (maps about fast hero leveling and battles), I have begun to deeply understand not only the units but also the heroes themselves, their progression, and battle strategies that are "hero-centric" (rather than army-centric). This may significantly affect hero classes as well as magic.

The thing is, previously I sought to fit all schools of magic into different parameters, providing opportunities to play any school at any Spellcasting level. Now this concept seems too artificial and superficial to me. Now I would take 4 main hero archetypes as the basis. These archetypes are determined by both the primary tool for victory (troops or magic) and tempo (fast or maximum power).

1) Rusher. Kills with troops, without lengthy preparation and special pre-casts, betting on tempo (key parameter—Attack, secondary—Defense). Some might say there are no rushes in WGE, but that's not true—tempo play exists, aided by the increased strength of physical stats and short-term pre-casts. A rusher hero focuses their progression on passive attacking bonuses for the army and tempo-based aggressive pre-casts (punishment, haste, ray).

2) Combatant. Kills with troops, but after maximum ramp-up with pre-casts, betting on perspective (key parameters—Defense and Knowledge, which should not be low). A combatant hero focuses their progression on the power of mass Light spells, sometimes low-level Darkness, because in battle against other rushers and combatants, mass debuffs play a role similar to mass buffs. Passive bonuses are predominantly defensive so that troops can wait for the full power of pre-casts, which is how the hero wins.

3) Destroyer. Kills with magic, without lengthy preparation, betting on tempo (key parameter—Spellcasting, secondary—Attack or Defense). The native school is naturally Chaos (sometimes high Darkness is used—plague, berserk, and subjugation). In the original, low-level Chaos was not viable in late games, so the Destroyer was forced to pump Knowledge as well. In WGE, this gross omission is planned to be corrected by giving the Destroyer the ability to kill quickly and with low mana.

4) Controller. Kills with magic, but with lengthy preparation (key parameter—Knowledge, secondary—Defense or Spellcasting). Native school—Summoning or high Darkness; it's characteristic to use several schools at once in progression (separately for establishing control and for subsequent killing). In the original, Summoning was the most situational school because when you can be wiped out on the first turn, Summoning is of no use. Linking the effectiveness of Summoning to high Spellcasting (as in the original) is completely wrong, because the full power of Summoning is revealed exclusively in a prolonged battle, and the emphasis should be on Knowledge. In WGE, the controller's capabilities should be as wide as possible and limited mostly only by mana. After all, frankly speaking, all this work with units, speeds, and defensive classes was aimed primarily at increasing control opportunities (at that time—specifically tactical control through clever troop management).

Essentially, choosing a hero archetype is choosing an overall battle strategy and should be determining (previously I simply ignored this). And yet, this in no way contradicts the tactical concept of WGE, where units play the main role; it's just that all tactics must be subordinate to the general strategy, complementing it. I think I will manage to unite tactics and strategy at the stage when work on heroes and their progression is finished. But for now, there are opportunities to set the necessary battle strategy by working with spells. Thus, what conclusions can be drawn for magic?

1. Light—must have short-term powerful pre-casts (for the Rusher). Must also have long-term pre-casts (for the Combatant), and they should be sufficiently long and not demanding of Spellcasting.

2. Darkness—must have long-term pre-casts (for the Combatant) with low requirements for Spellcasting (for the Combatant and Controller). The presence of short-term powerful pre-casts will also be a plus (for a Rusher moving into Darkness against a Combatant/Rusher).

3. Chaos—almost always, spell effectiveness should be tied to Spellcasting, as Spellcasting has the maximum potential for accelerating tempo. At the same time, the power of low-level spells (and their very low mana cost) must be sufficient to bring victory at high Spellcasting.

4. Summoning—almost always, spell effectiveness should be tied to perspective (and use mana extensively). This is where the most expensive and powerful spells should be, while simultaneously being less demanding of Spellcasting. From this, it follows, for example, that the design of Wall of Swords was fundamentally wrong; the essence of this spell is to create a solid barrier, not a glass wall that deals good return damage.

Let me provide some examples regarding magic. Take Light magic, for instance. In the old WGE 3, most of its spells (Stone Skin, Haste, and Bless) were short-term. This is clearly a mistake – for the "Aggressor" archetype, all spells should have the option to be long-lasting, without requiring a high Magic skill. Currently, there's nothing for him to play with – only Dodge and Bless are long-lasting.

The correct design for Stone Skin/Haste/Bless is to have durations of 1/2/3/4 rounds (depending on the skill level). In this case, an "Aggressor" can still use them in the short term without investing in the school, but a "Warrior" can utilize their full power in the long term by maxing out the Light skill.

Also, a good solution for Stone Skin/Haste would be a direct dependence of the effect's strength (not duration) on the Magic skill, because this is what would allow an "Aggressor" to further increase the tempo of their short-term spells.

As for spells that are inherently long-lasting, like Dodge and Bless, the duration could be 2/4/6/8 rounds (depending on the skill level). Since these are weak spells, there's nothing wrong with them lasting the entire battle and not requiring the player to recast them periodically.

Added 19 minutes later
Or, let's take Chaos magic. The correct design for Chaos spells is to have a maximum dependence of low-level spells on the Magic skill, while keeping their mana cost low. This is because the "Destroyer" will use Magic to increase his tempo. However, for high-level Chaos magic, the dependence on Magic should be reduced, because such Chaos magic increases in tempo due to Knowledge (the ability to constantly cast powerful high-level spells).
In short, if Magic Arrow deals damage of, say, 10 x Magic, then Earth Shock should deal damage of, say, 100 + 10 x Magic (the multiplier for Magic is no higher than for the cheap arrow, but additional power is provided by a constant value).

With this approach, Magic Arrow remains competitive with Earth Shock for almost the entire game, because with a sufficiently high Magic skill, the relative difference between these spells decreases, and the ability to save mana remains crucial (Magic Arrow is almost free, unlike the expensive Earth Shock). However, with a low Magic skill, it's worth investing in high Knowledge, which will allow you to cast powerful high-level spells without a high dependence on Magic.

Take the Dark Knight, for example. One of his racial perks, Arcane Wave, is specifically designed to increase the power of low-level, cheap spells, giving them preference. But in the original game, the damage formulas for Chaos magic (as well as the mana cost policy) are incorrectly implemented, which means that low-level magic will never be interesting to him, and the Dark Knight is forced to simultaneously increase both Magic and Knowledge in order to spam enhanced high-level spells, i.e., to use the skill not for its intended purpose, but in spite of its shortcomings (obviously, forcing him to pay twice as much for already expensive spells is a mistake and a flaw in the game).

On the other hand, exceptions are permissible in the form of spells that are both expensive in mana and highly dependent on Magic (and, by the way, only Meteor and Earth Shock fit this description, as they are not boosted by perks). But most spells should follow the principle that it is wrong to force the player to increase both Magic and Knowledge at the same time, because this only narrows his choices. For example, an "Aggressor" only needs Attack; no one forces him to increase Defense at the same time (which is situational – it's critical only against other "Aggressors" and useful against "Warriors" using spells, but much less so than Attack).

Very glad to see you back, and as always, with a set of very reasonable thoughts on balance!

In the original, the ability for many combatants to reach the enemy on the very first turn had the following consequences for balance:

1) The Blaster vs. the Rusher. The Blaster simply doesn't have time to set up the necessary buffs to compensate for the Rusher's striking power, which is effective from the start of the battle. Therefore, a forced measure is used: providing tempo buffs that take 0.5 turns. This is a wild kludge—where the Blaster casts more often than the Mage. But without this, the Blaster falls apart; playing for tempo is a necessity when facing a Rusher. The difference in WGE is that, as a rule, there is an extra starting round for buffs, and consequently, the Blaster doesn't need to play tempo so aggressively, and mass buffs are played like any other magic, exactly in 1 turn (this is achieved by editing the exe).

2) The Destroyer vs. the Rusher and the Blaster. This build is forced to use not only Spellpower and tempo (Sorcery), but also Knowledge (high-level spells), otherwise it simply collapses under a tempo Rusher and a tempo Blaster (because a Blaster with 0.5-turn buffs ramps up their potential too quickly). The result is that low-level Chaos is irrelevant; because the Destroyer must invest in Spellpower and Knowledge, there is no time to invest in Attack, without which their troops are a pitiful sight against heroes with full physical stats or buffs. The difference in WGE is the extra starting round for magic, powerful low-level spells, a specific pricing policy (really cheap low-level spells), and powerful defense when necessary (and the troops actually have time to get into position!). In other words, an alternative emerges to mindlessly playing only for maximum tempo.

3) The Controller vs. the Rusher and the Blaster. In the original, without leveled-up Defense, they are a corpse, as they almost invariably lose to the insane tempo (the first starts strong and attacks too quickly, the second ramps up buffs too fast). Furthermore, against all the above, Sorcery is mandatory; otherwise, again—they lose on tempo. And this imposes too many restrictions (the need to level up Sorcery and often Defense just to survive). The difference in WGE is that I believe a classic Controller doesn't need Sorcery, just as a classic Blaster doesn't need Attack; it's an additional option to accelerate the battle tempo, but it shouldn't be mandatory because these two archetypes don't play for tempo. The same applies to Defense—having an extra round for magic and powerful defensive capabilities, it's not mandatory to level it up just to survive. The Controller's key weapon is powerful magic and long duration; in WGE, top spells will be so powerful and expensive that having plenty of mana will always be the Controller's key advantage.

And what do we see in the original? Knowledge is the most inefficient stat in late-game builds due to the universal focus on tempo (and the spell pricing policy); you should have enough of it, but never too much. The only race that utilizes maximum Knowledge (45%) is the Wizard, and even then, high Knowledge is only needed to boost mini-artifacts. Without Knowledge-dependent mini-artifacts, Wizards would be obvious outsiders due to poor stat distribution (no physicals and suboptimal Spellpower).

Other interesting points:

1) Why does the League have Summoning as a native school if it's completely unadapted to the race's tempo nature (high Spellpower and Attack, low Knowledge and Defense)? Naturally, instead of native Summoning, there should be native Darkness.
2) Similarly for Elves with Chaos. Betting on Defense and Knowledge while simultaneously playing Chaos is, to put it mildly, strange (and the OP Blue Druids, pumping a million Spellpower specifically for Chaos, are a kludge). Of course, here, instead of Chaos, there simply must be Summoning.
3) Wizards — key stats are Knowledge and Spellpower (time and tempo), with weak physicals — why would this race play Light? Naturally, the native schools should be Summoning and Chaos.
4) Necromancers — also have incorrect stat distribution. A bet on high Spellpower, but playing Summoning or Darkness; it's no wonder Necromancers prefer to play Chaos over their native schools. A bet on a prolonged battle (Defense, magic schools), but with low Knowledge. What? I think the correct solution would be distributing stats into Defense and Knowledge for the Necromancer, as this would match the race's character and its native schools.

Overall, the distribution of stats (and skills) between hero classes still needs work. Not everything from the original seems logical; but in the old WGE, the idea of simply distributing all 24 stat combinations to different classes, regardless of archetypes, turned out to be a rather questionable decision in several cases. For example, low Knowledge for all human classes is an obvious mistake. Humans don't have access to Chaos and Summoning, therefore the only relevant archetypes are the Rusher and the Blaster (yes, a Controller with high-tier Darkness is possible—but that requires a lot of mana!). And the question is, how can a Blaster play with buffs if they have minimum mana? Yet potentially, humans are the ideal Blasters (immediate access to both buffing schools—Light and Darkness). However, in the original, Knights had the same problem—too little Knowledge to fully play buffs in both schools (which is why Darkness suffers—it's clear that for a Blaster, Light is more important as it has more ways to ramp up damage).

Now it is obvious that for the Paladin class (clearly not a Rusher), above-average Knowledge is necessary. And for the Templar—top-tier Knowledge (options to play two schools or move into control with high-tier Darkness).

What about the creatures?

What's the issue with the siege engines?

In HRTA, the idea of decoupling the ballista's damage from the skill level has already been tested, giving it maximum damage right away – it turned out to be very effective. Such a ballista is worth buying even without any other considerations, and its price even had to be increased.

The new executable allows you to adjust the healing for the tent, and you can immediately set it to a достаточно high value (without the corresponding perk, there is still no resurrection).

In general, the idea is this: the power of siege engines should be at its maximum and increased for damage exclusively through perks, stats, and the hero's level (in the case of the tent). The machineery skill itself should provide increased durability for the siege engines. At the same time, doubling the durability of siege engines for the corresponding perks is also unnecessary (because the skill already does this); this durability should be doubled immediately so that the siege engines don't fall apart at the slightest touch.

It is possible to configure the tent with a built-in "Plague Tent" ability; this has already been tested on the same map, but I didn't like how it looks; it's too easily countered by ranged units and phantoms, and there's also the ballista for dealing damage to the enemy.

Added 11 minutes later
Regarding the optimal number of shots for the tent – right now, I think 6 is the right number. Making it less would significantly limit the tent's capabilities in the final battle. Making it more would further slow down the attack, forcing the player to use all possible tent resurrections to minimize losses.

Through experimentation, it has been established that a number of shots less than 6 rounds noticeably affects the unit's ranged capabilities.

The new executable file allows you to adjust the healing for the tent, and you can immediately set it to a достаточно high value (without the corresponding perk, there is still no resurrection).

This is what I meant. With the executable file fix, there is a way to balance the tent and the ballista, because in the original, the ballista is almost always preferable. It's a pity that the "Extra-expert" level for tent healing is not defined (it heals with negative values, resulting in huge numbers, after which the entire stack is defeated with a single hit).
By the way, the author of the executable file fix didn't fully understand the tent.
Here are these lines in his patch, marked as "unknown value":

- &no_mastery_unknown_value 0
- &basic_mastery_unknown_value 0
- &advanced_mastery_unknown_value 1
- &expert_mastery_unknown_value 3

These represent the level of debuff removed by the tent.

In HRTA, by the way, they tried implementing such a racial Warlock:

1. Irresistible Magic (skill) - grants +20/40/60/80% elemental damage (always, does not require taking the Sense Magic skill).
2. Sense Magic (ability) - allows inflicting elemental damage on the hero's troops (and not just their magic).

It looks cool, and such a racial ability would be quite powerful. But the problem lies in how to implement it technically. For this, scripts would need to be used to mount the corresponding Altar in the city before each battle, and then dismantle it after the battle (and disable the ability to build it manually). In other words, the Altar would have to be excluded from the list of buildings available for the player to construct.

For now, I've distributed the creatures somewhat like this across the classes (see the attachment).