Hello forum members and guests visiting the site. I present to your attention my mod. One way or another, this mod has a right to exist, as the author's personal take on the balance for a fan of Heroes 5. As you know, any mod, especially a balance mod, can be subject to various "fair" criticisms. Since there are many truths, one of them is the logic of the mod's author. It is generally accepted that the original game itself is the standard of quality, which some may like or dislike, and everything else is, so to speak, from the evil one, in other words, merely the author's view... As for me, the original suited me for a time, because the more you play, the more you want to see and diversify, to refine the logic... If you feel the same, I invite you to join me... I made the mod for myself and am ready to share it with you free of charge...
Backstory
Just as a reader opens another book to get acquainted with the author's inner world, I suggest you also recall and play through another mission with this mod for an introduction. Or conduct duels between familiar and new heroes, compared to the original. And decide for yourself whether this mod is worth your attention, or to forget about it forever. It comes with a user map "Heroes of the Epic". This is a standard random map created using the author's 2P Travel template by the game itself and processed by the RTMG_1.5.6_en program. Based on the template's name, it is not hard to guess that the map was created solely for adventure (i.e., there are many treasure vaults awaiting their heroes), strategic development, and leveling the main character. And so it's not boring, there is also an enemy. I recommend playing this map with settings at least on Master difficulty. As on any other map, the player must choose a race, a main hero who will perform a strategic function, decide on a character development strategy, account for the "terrain" features, and the sequence of captures and battles. The key word in all this is choice — it determines everything (this effectively means the choice between victory or death). The treasure vaults may only yield to a few heroes with a strong army or powerful mages (so most heroes need not only to be leveled up, but also provided with a worthy army, as an unprecedented army may be encountered — the defeat will be brutal). In any case, you need to be patient (everything will come) and set yourself easier goals, such as winning a specific battle, and step by step approach the main goal — plundering the treasure vaults. The harder the goal, the more worthy the reward — the right hero choice and diplomacy will help you.
The mod was developed and then refined many times over several years. Some aspects of the game were changed and reworked, particularly the guards for treasure vaults and the rewards, to create excitement and a rush to clear them, especially in the later stages of the game.
Aspects
In this mod, you won't see new scripts (and why would you, since it's even more challenging and interesting this way). Like any balance mod, this one has undergone sometimes even radical changes, so it can be called a different game. Specifically, necromancy now raises only skeletons, but a full set of artifacts gives skeletons equal to the amount of dark energy; living creatures have not only an advantage (morale), but also a significant drawback — they can betray (if their numbers drop below 10%, they can no longer be returned by resurrection, and perhaps this is even a significant advantage since they can be recruited into your army for free). Magic and the hero's sword, war machines with new abilities (idea from HMM 5.5), as well as the hero's leveling system (Inspired by Quantomas AI mods with eight skills and a unique Extra mod leveling system) have been changed. Magic in general has become stronger and more effective (you cannot call yourself a full-fledged mage if you don't possess the Summoning or Chaos skill) since the gameplay requires epic battles with treasure vault guard mobs, and hero strikes are more powerful (a mighty hero who kills 2 little dragons with one blow and is satisfied would be laughable, especially if he's a Barbarian who knows no magic). Barbarians, since they lack full magic, have certain advantages, particularly, at the second level of rage, warriors have regeneration and are not subject to betrayal, i.e., they are loyal to their master unto death. And if they become a horde (i.e., gather a huge army), then even the devil himself doesn't scare them. The betrayal trait (according to the mod author's logic) is characteristic of living creatures that lack a samurai's bravery (exceptions: hounds, fairies, elementals, unicorns, nightmares, pit lords who are loyal to their master). Diplomacy and mentorship have been cut from the skills (logically, there is no need for them, since heroes with enhanced diplomacy have this skill from the start, and leveling up other heroes is fairly simple along a well-trodden path with a mighty army through, say, treasure vaults). Each race has its own strategic feature (side, gimmick) for defeating the enemy — this is the merit of the gameplay itself. For example, Knights have retraining, etc. In this mod, these features are perhaps more emphasized (the leveling system is borrowed from the Extra mod)... But one way or another, this is a strategic game... Here, the correct choice of character, strategic feature, and actions to improve these combined qualities are important... There are different heroes (useful and not so much) depending on the goals... For example, if we play as humans and have the racial feature of retraining, it might make sense to choose a hero with the Suzerain trait, since for retraining, say, squads of Monks into Knights, we will need much less money, which is always in short supply...
By the way, this mod includes all heroes, even the very imbalanced one with the Master of Initiative trait (the author believes, since the foundation of everything is the ability to have a choice, the choice should be complete, say for special maps... Plus, if a player wants to play as such a hero for variety, no mod will forbid them). Exclusively for greater strategic possibilities and variety, many heroes with identical traits were replaced with others, so that heroes are unique — therefore this is more suitable for scenarios rather than campaigns.
The mod is based on the Quantomas AI mod with 8 skills and hero leveling up to 100. The author believes there is nothing superfluous in this mod (6 skills limit the development of a full-fledged mage or warrior, and leveling up to 40 has become uninteresting). As for the option of this mod concerning neutral heroes that help treasure and dwelling guard mobs, I personally do not use it (the treasure vaults are already hard enough to clear; this complicates things too much). For example, in 5 months I managed to fully level up Crag Hack to level 100 on the "Heroes of the Epic" map.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I can note that this mod can delight with features such as replaying a battle or saving during a major battle in the game. The graphics have also been updated (unique hero models, map objects were taken from popular mods GEMNOD and xHero Replacer). The parameters of many artifacts have been slightly changed for greater effect, especially since you will have to work hard to obtain them, taking them from vigilant guards. As for new units, in my opinion, it's not worth the trouble and would only cause even greater imbalance in the game, so it was not even considered...All changes made were based on the principle of the minimum necessary and sufficient to impart logic — for example, Cavalry gets the Swift Attack ability, Angels get Children of Light, etc., new strategic possibilities where battles are won not by numbers, but by carefully selected skills and effective, useful squads... One way or another, it's unlikely that all imbalances were avoided (for example, Necromancers and Demons are among the favorites, if only because their mana is practically infinite... As in life, evil is very strong and insidious)... But good also has its fists — Knights and Angels; Dragons with Fairies and Dancers under the effect of luck are also formidable, etc. Everything is compensated by providing opportunities for thoughtful and as fast as possible leveling, considering the usefulness of the starting trait — there is no other way to fix the balance.
In any case, one could list all the mod changes for a long time, but it's better to play once than to hear about it a hundred times... I hope you, like me, will spend many happy and thrilling hours enjoying a pleasant game of our favorite Heroes, and perhaps even discover something new for yourself (for example, that anyone can be a hero, even in everyday life).
Installation
This mod is quite easy to install — just drop 5 folders into the game's root folder, and from the bin folder create a shortcut from the file H5_NonCheatingAI_3146… Enjoy the game, friends… Great victories to you! You may use this balance mod for Heroes 5 free of charge and without restrictions, and even modify it as you see fit (there are as many opinions as there are people… any balance mod is a product of a subjective view on balance and, as a rule, introduces its own imbalance compared to the familiar game balance). If you truly liked the mod and want to thank the author, you can donate a purely symbolic amount. I will be grateful for any amount (even for a couple of bus rides). VTB card number: №5368290158678807 cardholder – SVETLANA IUREVA.
ч. 1: https://disk.yandex.ru/d/kkqnXRKYF_VjRQ
ч. 2: https://disk.yandex.ru/d/pLp3iTrbcww_tA
Instructions inside. Enjoy the game.
Fix updated from 30. 09. 2023
