Posts from BallLM. A mod that changes and improves the original game balance. Auto-translated

Ckreeep, you are testing your own changes, aren't you? Tell me, how do you see the gameplay as a summoner, and in general, how is the gameplay for different factions after your changes? Greater demons have infinite retaliation. The skeleton archer has an incorrect power level (<50, which is even less than the original skeleton, and yet it was buffed in the mod), and there are also suspicions that this is not the only case of an incorrect power level, but I'm too lazy to check. It's not a bug, but a feature - a creature with cowardice + no retreat still retaliates if surrounded on all sides. The difference between the zombie upgrades has become more noticeable (and plague zombies have almost always outperformed their counterparts), there are probably other examples, but this is the most striking one in my opinion. Summoning has become a rather uninteresting school - who needs it now, except for the Necromancers? A Chaosite without Chaos is stronger than a Chaosite with Chaos already at skill point 10... although there's something to it. The damage of units has been reduced, which leads to longer battles, and the hero's attack is the same as before, but it was already quite strong. In the early game: just auto-attacks from heroes while their units survive - it's boring, and there are no other good options, because the units only have damage in the case of the Necromancer's dozens of skeleton archers or machines. Deleb has turned from a tempo hero into some kind of monster - enemies take ~3-4 turns to reach her instead of ~2 + the gates hold the neutrals in the starting position for a long time, and the damage from the ballista has not changed. ... Why do 7 units need a deadly strike?

Ckreeep, you are testing your own changes, aren't you? Tell me, how do you see the gameplay as a Summoner, and in general, playing as different Factions after your changes?

The Summoner school has become quite boring – who needs it now, besides the Necromancers?

Why do 7 units need "Deadly Strike"?

I looked at all the races as a whole, at the common points in them.
It is now more difficult for Sorceress heroes to accumulate a large mana reserve. Chaos factions can no longer easily destroy the enemy army with spells at the beginning of the game. The value of low-level spells increases. In the Summoner school, everything should remain as it was in the original, only the mana reserve needs to be slightly increased. What exactly makes the Summoner school boring?
A weak army now has more chances to survive an attack from a stronger army and fight back. Overwhelming the opponent with numbers should be problematic, as "Deadly Strike" can work against numbers if 7th-level units are hired.

The issues with Greater Demons and Skeleton Archers have been fixed in the new version.

Deleb has turned from a tempo hero into some kind of monster – enemies go to her in ~3-4 turns instead of ~2 + the gates hold the neutrals in the starting position for a long time, the damage from the ballista has not changed.

The survivability of the ballista has already been reduced so that it can be destroyed. I didn't check the penetration then. Perhaps reducing the ballista's damage by 2 times will solve this.


Update for the second version:
• The "no retaliation" ("cowardice" + "no retreat") has been removed from archers and sorceresses and replaced with a reduction in initiative to 6 units (if this is too radical, I can replace it with 8 units). Basic Spear Throwers, Dryads, neutral units, and the line of Scouts are not affected.
• The "strength" and "experience" parameters have been increased by 2 times for all units to make penetration easier (reducing the number of neutrals in squads by 2 times and achieving the original difficulty).
• In duel army mode, the armies of the heroes Iris and Anwen have been reduced by a quarter. The "Armageddon" spell has been removed from Sinister. The number of units in squads of levels 1 and 2 has been adjusted in accordance with the current growth rates.
• All Imps drain 1/8 of the mana from the number of their growth (it was 1/4 for the base and upgraded versions).
• The "Withering Aura" of Hellhounds deals 5 damage instead of 7 per creature.
• A complete set of dragon artifacts adds 1 creature of level 4 instead of level 7 per day.
• The coefficients for some of the changed spells have been rewritten:
1. "Ice Block" and "Ring of Cold" - /0+15*K/ instead of /60+12*K/
2. "Stone Skin" - /0+9*K/ instead of /24+8*K/
3. "Raise Dead" - /0+28*K/ instead of /120+15*K/
4. "Magic Fist" - /0+6*K/ instead of /20+4*K/
5. "Plague" - /0+9*K/ instead of /32+8*K/
According to the new formulas, at the level without a skill, the spell is weaker than at the basic level or does not exceed it when casting 20.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1bsjAbGDlt6xsR_JeGv3ikTgrdIQs7Ynb

"BallLM" mod overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdCdWIgWHHg
Gameplay on this mod: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ToBfs70A2Q

I see that you really want to do something good. But: 1. You are introducing unification: "All units get, all archers now, all level 7 creatures except" – this does not balance the game. Now instead of trees with heights of 100, 90, 75m, you have trees of 50, 40, 25m. 2. You are reducing the variance in attack-defense, morale, and luck. 3. You are crippling some skills so much that leveling them up loses its meaning, for example, you have reduced "elven luck" to almost zero. Similarly, "mentor." You increase deviations on the initiative scale, thereby reducing the useful properties of the skill. The main culprit behind hero imbalance is the poor implementation of probability as stated in the game manual, which leads to unpredictable results when playing over long periods, and the appearance of various artifacts (Nazir caught the Phoenix Cloak several times at the beginning of the game). That's why I prefer small maps and "rush" tactics. There, unexpected randomness doesn't lead to such serious consequences compared to large maps. When I have enough free time, I will make a mod for the probabilities in the game. For example, I will make the bonus to basic characteristics fixed. Because I am tired of barbarians with magic that provides more defense than offense. :) But since we are talking about your mod now, I suggest not trying to bring all factions and units to one style/type. The difference in playstyle between different factions is one of the strengths of Heroes, so eliminating individuality will deprive the game of one of its remarkable features. And even chess does not have balance (due to white's first move), although the factions in this game are identical. :) What bragging! But still, an argument in favor of listening to me – Nival implemented many of my suggestions in the last add-on (/topic/1329/. So, I see things clearly. :D Added after 14 hours 6 minutes And yes, the formulas for Chaos Magic have a fixed additive for a reason. It is needed at the early stage of the game; otherwise, it will only be useful for two races, and even then, worse than in the original. Dark Elves will suffer.

The list of mod changes has been updated on the first page of the thread. Changes compared to the previous version of the mod: • Restored the original damage to all creatures. Restored all affected parameters (health and cost, strength and experience, growth) to units with low damage, except for the Fairy line. Removed the change that reduced the mana bonus from sacrificing goblins. • For Cyclops upgrades, the Shaman and Demoness lines, Higher Vampires, Rakshasa Rajahs, Cerberuses, Nomadic Centaurs, Hell Hounds, and Beasts, the "infinite retaliation" has been removed. "Infinite retaliation" has been added to Air Elementals. • Demonesses, Rakshasa Rajahs, Death Dancers, Mountain Guards, Earth Elementals, Minotaur upgrades, and Swift Riders gain the "battle frenzy" ability. • "Fierce retaliation" has been removed from all Griffons, Iron Golems, and Earth Elementals. • The "cowardice" and "no retreat" abilities have been removed from Elder Demons and creatures with retaliatory attacks, along with Vampire Princes and Rakshasa Kshatriyas. • "Deadly strike" has been added to basic level 6 units, in addition to Manticores. • Removed the reduction of initiative to 6 for non-ranged spellcasters. Ballista has 6 initiative. Initiative has not been reduced for the following ranged units: Fire Elementals, Bone Archers, all Scouts, and Cyclops. • Removed the change that increased "strength" and "experience" by 2 times for all units. • Restored the original unit size in duels. • For 1 unit of knowledge, the hero receives 7 units of mana. • Now, attacking and resurrection spells are used by mages at the expert level. Spell formulas have been reworked for the expert level. Changes to the formulas for "Plague" and "Wall of Fire" have been removed. Damage/healing is approximately the same with two full growths – spellcasting level 9. - "Ice Block" and "Ring of Cold": /0+23*K/ instead of /96+12*K/ - "Lightning," "Fireball," "Meteor Shower": /0+22*K/ instead of /20+20*K/ - "Stone Spikes": /0+13*K/ instead of /48+8*K/ - "Chain Lightning": /0+28*K/ instead of /25+25*K/ - "Magic Fist": /0+16*K/ instead of /50+10*K/ - "Raise Dead": /0+57*K/ instead of /240+30*K/ For "Summon Swarm of Wasps," the formula and skill level remain the same as in the previous version. In addition to the halved growth and doubled health, experience, cost, and strength, the damage of Dryads and the entire Fairy line has been doubled. • Successful attacks deal 1.5 times more damage (2), and the "Elven Luck" ability increases damage to 1.75 times. • Bonuses and penalties from the difference in attack and defense of units have been reduced from 0.05 to 0.025. • The maximum bonuses from the parameters of mini-artifacts have been reduced by approximately half. Maximum attack and defense = 8 (16), armor reduction = 3 (5), morale and luck = 3 (7), health = 7 (13), initiative = 25% (50%), magic resistance = 41% (85%), speed = 2 (5). • For Fire Demons, the "explosion" ability has been replaced with "vengeful flame" (the unit will explode after its death), and the damage per unit is 10 (70). • Gnome Berserkers have 30 health (25), and Orcish Warriors have 15 (12). • The damage from the aura of Hell Horses for each unit is 7 instead of 5. • The following changes have also been removed: - Mana explosion: 20 damage per hero level (+10) - Dragon Graveyard and Dragon Tomb require 10 mercury (instead of 20 and 15), Dragon Tombstone: 5 mercury (instead of 10). - Winghael and Haggeesh specializations have been weakened by 2 times: 0.5% starting initiative for units instead of 1%. - Ballista: 125 health (250) - The "Regeneration" spell has a coefficient of 1/1/2/2% (5%) in the formula before spellcasting. - The "Wall of Swords" spell always lasts for 5 turns. - Human Archers: damage 2-6 (was 2-8) - Death Dancers: 100% PA (was 50%) - Master Archers: initiative 11 (was 10) - Banshees: Scream formula /(15 (instead of 10) -morale)x2/ - Swift Riders: 100% damage from flanking attack (25%) - The reduction in the effectiveness of neutral faction spells is removed (coefficient 1 instead of 0.3) - All Imps drain 1/8 of the mana from the number of their growths (was 1/4 for the base and upgrade) - Inferno: The "Sacrifice Pit" and "Gate of Chaos" buildings have been swapped. - Wyverns: poison deals 10 damage (was 5) - Gremlins have 2 repairs. - Obsidian Golems have 100% healing from chaos damage (was 50%). - Thunderbirds: the penalty to ranged unit damage from storms is equal to 5% (1%) per giant. Download link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Hb...HTAwIChGsVXnB6

The ability "Fight to the Last" is now only available to Barbarian, Demon, Ranger, and Knight heroes.
18. Archers: the radius of the "precise shot" has been increased to 4 cells (it was 3 cells).
19. Forest Archers: damage is 6-6 instead of 8-9.
27. Sky Daughters: mana reserve is 16 (it was 12).
28. Orcish Warriors: 15 health instead of 12.

I agree, these are useful changes.

11. Successful attacks deal 1.5 times more damage (it was 2), the "Elven Luck" ability increases damage by 1.75 times (it was 2.25).
12. Maximum bonuses from minor artifacts for mages have been reduced by approximately half.
Bonuses to attack and defense are equal to 8 (16), reduction of armor - 3 (5), morale and luck - 3 (7), health - 7 (13), initiative - 25% (50%), magic resistance - 41% (85%), speed - 2 (5).

These changes are quite questionable and will lead to imbalance.