Posts from MEGApack update. Auto-translated

on their own. That one was removed, and the required fields were the same.
458 and 459 fix everything in the updates.

I have some ideas regarding the 3rd and 4th upgrades, but I simply don't like the overall scheme.

Here are some that can DEFINITELY be used as upgrades:
Knights - Green Knights (normal version, without "balances")
Ghosts - Blue Ghosts from RedHavenHero
Towers - Nymphs
Berserkers - Ulfhedin
Jarls - Earth Lords
Rakshasa - Kali

There are also some that might not be upgrades, but rather paired units.
If we make upgrades with level increases, there will be more options, such as Adamantine Golems from regular Golems, Fire Steeds / Evil Nightmares from Nightmares, Nagas / from Rakshasa, Djinns from RtF, Higher Liches (which are level 6 with animal poison and entanglement), and so on. But then the balance people will start complaining.

Let's start by making a normal version with 2k units.

I have some ideas regarding the 3rd and 4th upgrades, but I simply don't like the current scheme.

Just in case. To clarify that we are talking about the same thing. Here, we are not talking about the third upgrade that doesn't appear in the hiring window and can only be regraded. We are talking about the third level of upgrades. That is, an additional building is constructed, and additional creatures become available. Now it can be done this way.

I'll add that I don't quite understand people who make improved versions of completely different creatures. For example, a swordsman is upgraded to a catapult.

I don't need them at all, and this feature in the town is just so-so. I don't even like that neutral creatures have upgrades; they shouldn't have them at all. But since nothing has been released yet, neither new files for 2k nor creatures.

What kind of creature is available in the town? And what do you mean by "neutrals" and why "shouldn't" they have upgrades? And what do you mean by "2k"?

Added 3 minutes later
As for me, the advantages of adding new creatures to a town are obvious. The player will be able to use them in their game, rather than just encounter them on the map as monsters.

The number of creatures should be increased to 20, so that more neutral creatures can be included. The neutral creature upgrades themselves are not bad, but often they make upgrades to wolves, mummies, or phoenixes, which negatively affects the original game. Also, the idea of upgrades is flawed because they create a weaker creature (compared to the unupgraded version). Furthermore, I've seen attempts to add entire city replacements with 21 creatures, which is also not ideal. And sometimes you want to take only one creature, not all three – you simply don't like them – but then there are possible side effects, such as the file requiring a non-existent creature for the upgrade, and something needs to be done about this to prevent the game from crashing or ignoring the file. In the end, it's often easier not to take any creatures at all to avoid this hassle. These kinds of manipulations (and unnecessary dependencies on other creatures) make them unattractive.

I don't understand what you're talking about.

Adding a third tier of creature upgrades to a Castle is a bad idea because it makes it difficult to remove the upgrade information from the creature file when you want to replace a city's creatures with creatures from a mod, right?
First, how is the concept of a third tier of upgrades in a Castle related to what you're writing?
Second, what's so difficult about extracting a single creature from a mod? What kind of "hassle" are you talking about? Unless there's a mess in the files created by some mod authors. But what kind of "HASSLE" is there if the connection between one file and another is easily traceable and it's easy to extract all the necessary files for a specific creature? And mechanically removing upgrades from a creature is simply deleting two lines in a text file. What's the hassle?
And how does this relate to the conversation about a third tier of upgrades in a Castle? I don't understand.

Regarding neutral creature upgrades. If I understand correctly, the argument is that "it's bad because it weakens the original neutral creatures." If I understand correctly, the idea is that stronger and less "balanced" creatures appear. I don't know, maybe there's some merit to that. But in any case, it's solvable. You can make them not upgrades, but basic creatures. You can give the characteristics of basic creatures to the upgrades and weaken the original. There are solutions to the problem, so I still don't understand such a categorical rejection of neutral creature upgrades.

Or is the point that when creating new creatures, you shouldn't create weaker versions of existing creatures? I really don't understand. And why shouldn't you? What's wrong with a weak and a strong version of the same creature?

And about the 2k creatures. Is it worth it? What's the point of having such a large number of neutral creatures? And, if I understand your idea correctly, these will be neutral creatures that are not available from Castles, encountered on maps, and... without upgrades. Or are you saying that only neutral creatures from the base game "shouldn't" have upgrades?
In the end, there will be TWO THOUSAND creatures, and the player will see at most only a hundred or so. I don't understand. Why? Besides, do we really have 2k gameplay-interesting creatures, with good balance, that look interesting, good, and high-quality? Wouldn't it be better to make fewer, but... better?

Added 5 minutes later

I don't need them at all, and this "spinner" in the city is just so-so. I don't even like that neutral creatures have upgrades; they shouldn't have them at all.

But nothing has been released yet, neither new files for the 2k creatures nor the creatures themselves.

"Spinner in the city" still puts me in a stupor. What is that?

@**vasik** - well, you're quite a character! No offense.

You described the problem, and we provided you with a corrected version; you need to test it on that version!

Regarding 2K (2 kilobytes or 2000), I already mentioned above that there's no problem in increasing the .exe file size, but it's more efficient to first fill the unused range... the point is that any program with a table (two-dimensional array) or a list (one-dimensional array) works as follows... it reserves a certain amount of memory in RAM (random access memory), and the central processing unit reserves some of its registers to manage all these arrays... what practical sense is there in filling them with meaningless empty data?!

Ideally, instead of increasing the number of creatures, a review of the occupied slots should be conducted – many people, at one time, reserved IDs but didn't upload anything and are unlikely to do so. Or, simply ignore the occupied/unoccupied slots and, under the banner of a new mod, create a new list of creatures – this will eliminate the problem of occupied but empty slots, and it will also be possible to move creatures to other IDs if necessary (if they overlap with someone else).

Ideally, instead of increasing the number of creatures, a review of the occupied slots should be conducted – many people reserved IDs at one time and didn't upload anything, and it's unlikely they will.

Or simply ignore the occupied/unoccupied slots and, under the banner of a new mod, create a new list of creatures – this will eliminate the problem of occupied but empty slots, and it will be possible to move creatures to other IDs if necessary (if they overlap with someone else).

Just ignoring it isn't very elegant... again, it would be better to conduct another review... I already mentioned specific ranges where IDs were reserved, but there was no implementation!

I already wrote that the new asker's file doesn't work and crashes exactly the same way as before. Nothing has been fixed there, not at all, or the changes made don't solve the problem, not at all. And after my updates and the paired creature fix, everything works as it should. I also added a tool for finding free slots (and duplicates) in the form of a list. The number of slots needs to be increased. Because if you take several packs at once, there simply won't be enough.

Colleagues, the reason I wanted to increase the limit to 2,000 is that there are many excellent mods for cities, and I would like to incorporate creatures from them into the NCF (as was done with Nexus and Wintrial). Plus, the overlays are no longer just noticeable; many are blocked. Ah, if kolt_av would release an updated version of the Hannick creatures mod again((( But they overlap with the NCF, unfortunately. I'll try to run vasik's program sometime when I have time; unfortunately, it won't run on my system.

@Mokara, you need to find the NCF version .exe from the respected comrade dredknight (the point is that he and his guys from HC fixed the bug with the generation of NCF creatures in the map generator and also fixed something in the editor) - I can't find it myself, I have no idea where I put it...

Added 2 minutes later

I already wrote that the new Asker file doesn't work and crashes exactly the same as before. Nothing has been fixed there, not at all, or the changes made don't solve the problem, not at all.

And after my updates and paired creature fixes, everything works as it should.

I also added a tool to find free slots (and duplicates) in the form of a list.
The number of slots needs to be increased. Because if you take several packs at once, there simply won't be enough.

Strange, does this crash occur on some specific map or on all of them?! Can you upload a crash dump?!

added a screen recording and a couple of comments

recording

Please tell me what you meant by "a thingy in the city." It's really bothering me.

@**vasik**, where is the crash of the Asker on the recording?