Posts from Bethowen's mod production

Hello, dear forum members! I've seriously taken on the task of creating a great balance mod for Heroes 5. Now I realize that I could really use the help of enthusiasts to create the necessary files and organize them into folders, write descriptions, and handle other technical aspects that take a lot of time. If there are any enthusiasts here, please help me; I'll show you exactly what needs to be done, and I'll provide the files with the necessary data.
In addition to the technical aspects, we need to write adequate descriptions for spells, heroes, skills, and perks. I'm also looking for volunteers for this task.

For now, I'll briefly describe what the mod will bring to the Heroes community:

1. A new, detailed, and well-developed balance of units (stats, cost, experience, etc.).
2. Strengthening weak units, skills, and perks, as well as mechanics, and weakening overly strong units, skills, and perks, and mechanics.
3. Balancing factions to within a 0.1% difference in strength per faction.
4. A rework of magic in such a way that warrior heroes will not be able to effectively use magic above level 3, while mage heroes will receive additional bonuses from low-level spells and will be able to fully utilize their chosen school of magic.
5. Creating 16 new hero classes (8 warrior classes and 8 mage classes), 2 per faction, instead of the existing 8.

I would like to thank Khotabych, Dredknight, and the entire Heroes 5.5 development team for the tremendous amount of work they have done with the .exe file and for the informational assistance in creating the mod. There are many good ideas and developments that I want to take directly from Heroes 5.5, as I believe that the team has done a very good job in balancing the game. However, my mod does not involve radical changes to artifacts, the battlefield, game scripts, and everything else that was additionally done in Heroes 5.5. I want to create a mod that I have long dreamed of, one that takes the best from Heroes 3 and Heroes 5 and removes the obvious flaws and imbalances.

I also have a secondary desire to supplement the mod with ready-made graphical improvements and a built-in skill wheel with descriptions, but this also requires the help of knowledgeable people. I know that the Heroes community has done a tremendous amount of work to improve the game, and I hope to find enthusiasts who are willing to help in creating a ready-made solution.

Thank you all for your attention. If anyone is interested in developing the mod, please write on the forum and send me a private message on Discord: Bethowen#8311. The Discord channel is https://discord.gg/DruXZqWd.

16 classes? Combining 3 and 5 heroes? Buffing weak units? Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

16 classes? Combining 3 and 5 heroes? Buffing weak units?
Sounds familiar =).

I looked at the pictures of your mod, and it seems a bit too extravagant =). I'm planning something much more modest, without such radical changes. I just want to refine what I have. How many people worked on Armageddon's Blade?

Good lord, how many more "balance mods" will there be?!

As many modders as there are, so many balance mods there are.

As many modders as there are, so many balance mods.

I guess I'll never understand them, why the original game balance doesn't suit them.

So, how many people worked on Armageddon's Blade?

Well, I did about 80% of the work. But of course, people were inspired and helped in any way they could (with their skills).

Someone created the avatar, someone allowed us to use their model, someone drew textures for a new creature, someone helped create an additional interface, and so on. The advice of mentors was very helpful, and of course, Dreadknight with his ExeShnik modifications, without which the mod wouldn't have had extra artwork, creatures, or classes.

I guess I'll never understand them, why they are so unhappy with the original game's balance.

When you're playing, you don't really think about why it's so easy or so difficult, because you don't see the tables and calculations. But when you open the source code and start doing mathematical analysis, it turns out that there are quite significant imbalances. And how to solve the balancing problem is up to each modder. For example, I take mathematical formulas, add subjective coefficients for the cost of skills, and test the finished options for adequacy.

Besides, everyone has their own idea of what is beautiful. Some people like big numbers, some like small numbers, some like everything to be bigger, and some, on the contrary, prefer it to be more casual. In general, this is the beauty of mods: everyone can choose what they like best. The original game is also good overall, and I wouldn't say that there are a lot of broken things in it, but all experienced players know about the abusive heroes, abusive mechanics, and abusive units, etc.

My task is not to eliminate all the abuses, but to give players the opportunity to abuse their faction in different ways and, more or less, equally with other factions. I personally don't like the fact that an Orc can level up indecently quickly and come to kill you with a Balista and Centaurs. Of course, you can choose your own strategy for each map, but other factions don't have as many options to counter such things on small maps. I also always wanted, like in part 3, to choose, for example, a mage hero if I want to build a guild of mages and, accordingly, get the maximum benefit from it, and not as in the vanilla version. If I choose Haven, I will never get 20 magic skill by level 30. And magic in the vanilla version is also very poorly made for 1 hero class. In fact, it doesn't matter how much magic skill you have, 70% of light spells ignore magic skill almost completely when calculating the effect, so it is impossible to play a mage hero with light magic for Haven in the vanilla version. But in my mod, it will be possible, and in my opinion, it will be much more fun.

Added 5 minutes ago

In fact, I did 80% of the work. But, of course, people were inspired and helped in any way they could (were able to).

Someone will create an avatar, someone will allow the use of their model, someone will draw textures for a new creature, someone will help make an additional interface, and so on. The advice of mentors was very helpful, and of course, Dreadknight with his Exe modifications, without which there would be no additional art, creatures, and classes in the mod.

Yes, you've done a great job! I really respect your work, although I've never understood the idea of adding so much to the game. It seems fun and interesting, but it's like my eyes are overwhelmed by the abundance of everything. I adhere to the philosophy that brevity is the soul of wit, a minimum of expressive means, a maximum of efficiency =)
Tell me, how did you balance all this? I read your forum thread, and you wrote that it is important for you to maintain balance in the game.

Tell me, how did you balance all of this? I read your forum thread, and you wrote that it's important for you to maintain balance in the game.

I balanced it subjectively, based on similar creatures, so as not to turn it into a "THE mod" where everything is the same. It's important to me that everyone can win, but at the same time, the factions are played individually, so the balance isn't perfect, but there aren't any major imbalances.
And everything was tested with friends in multiplayer. We looked at what was overpowered, what wasn't, and what needed to be changed or adjusted.

I've created a Discord channel where I'll be posting updates on the mod's development. I'll also be happy to receive your suggestions and feedback, and just have some pleasant conversations about Heroes 5.
https://discord.gg/DruXZqWd

Bethowen good luck with the project! 

A few suggestions that may help:
- if the mod is more towards making heroes 5 like heroes 3, check Waterfall mod Heroes 5 Armagedons blade, may be your ideas align so you can join forces. He is very strong on texture design where you will work on technical and balance changes.
- if the mod is more towards original heroes 5 and you are alright with the additions of MMH55 you can make a mod that stays true to heroes 5 classes and skill trees but balances everything else as per MMH5.5. This is  the most requested mod topic and is a great niche for a mod!

 

Bethowen good luck with the project! 

A few suggestions that may help:
- if the mod is more towards making heroes 5 like heroes 3, check Waterfall mod Heroes 5 Armagedons blade, may be your ideas align so you can join forces. He is very strong on texture design where you will work on technical and balance changes.
- if the mod is more towards original heroes 5 and you are alright with the additions of MMH55 you can make a mod that stays true to heroes 5 classes and skill trees but balances everything else as per MMH5.5. This is  the most requested mod topic and is a great niche for a mod!

 

Thank you very much, Dredknight. I share many of the ideas behind Heroes 5.5 and have taken quite a few patches from your work. I don't want to turn heroes 5 into heroes 3. I agree about the visual changes from Waterfall, he's a great guy. But in my opinion, we have different ideas in terms of fashion, his mod reminds me more not so much of a mod for the sake of balance, but for the sake of content. On the contrary, I want not so much to add content as to focus on balance. Although I do not deny that we could help each other.
Now I'm working on designing skill wheels for each of the 16 classes, then it will be necessary to implement all this, balance the improved units, make minor changes and in general it will be possible to release 1 version of the mod =)
By the way, do you have a ready-made solution to reduce the chance of joining units from diplomacy and the crown of leadership from 10/20% to 5/10%? I have seen games in which diplomacy has broken the balance a lot and this has a negative effect on the overall impression of the game.

No solution for Diplomacy unfortunately. There is a rule of thumb we follow - change it only if it feels nice. in this case reducing the diplomacy will not fix it but reduce the occasions when the game is broken. 

IMO Diplomacy functionality should be overhauled.

The first alpha version is released, and everyone can check it out. A hotfix for the found bugs and shortcomings will be released soon.

Don't hesitate, everyone, participate in the testing; version 0.32 is out. First and foremost, we need to test the Orcs, as I have the feeling that I may have made them too weak.