How do I remove a Faction (specifically, the Stronghold) from the available options entirely? — Modding

Registered: 4/9/2015

Posts: 325

#1 9/14/2023 2:48 PM UTC

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Is it possible to disable a Faction from being playable? In my case, I need to temporarily disable the Orcs, or at least for Multiplayer maps, so that the randomizer cannot select them or place their city.

Added 25 minutes ago
The background is that in the current mod for me and our local community, we have a serious question about removing the Orcs. There are two reasons. First, the race is too unbalanced in terms of strength. The creatures occupy almost all of the lowest positions in their tiers. The faction is literally carried only by the Centaurs, and even they only occupy a middle position at their level. There are few strong heroes in the Orcs; you can only play normally with 2 out of 8. The faction is difficult to change. I still haven't figured out how to selectively disable "Bloodlust" for individual tiers or grades (you can disable bonuses, but not the mechanic itself). The faction's rating is also at the very bottom. The lack of a Guild of Mages and/or an Artifact Shop greatly affects it. Second, this is because the Centaurs, which somehow carried the Orcs, with the latest patch, will have to move to Inferno on Tier 5, where they will finally replace the Horses (which, frankly, don't fit into the faction's composition even in terms of design). And since it's not interesting to have two units with the same model and almost identical mechanics in the game, we either need to give the Orcs another unit instead of the Centaurs, or put the Orcs "on hold." --- The current plan is very simple: instead of the Orcs, there will be a new Faction in the future. I have thought a lot about it, but the game did not allow adding a 9th faction, but now one place has become free. However, developing a full-fledged faction will take a lot of time, and we need to play in the meantime. Therefore, I would very much like to find a way to temporarily disable the Orcs + no one wants to play as them anyway, and the cities on the map are usually not built beyond the Magistrate. The Orc units that will not find a place will become neutral units that can appear on the map on a par with factional and other creatures. --- This is my plan.

Registered: 11/4/2021

Posts: 593

#2 9/14/2023 3:14 PM UTC

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Yeah, orcs are like that... I also thought that WIZARDS with the RoC were the best – any magic, cool creatures... until I played a battle with equal compositions against orcs.... Orcs simply crushed me without a chance, despite all my magic.... and I could beat anyone with mages, without any particular problems... that's how it is....

In reply to Pavlinho

Registered: 4/9/2015

Posts: 325

#3 9/14/2023 3:56 PM UTC

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Pavlinho

Yeah, Orcs are like that... I also thought that Warlocks with the Hive were the coolest - any magic, cool creatures... until I played a balanced battle against the Orcs.... The Orcs simply crushed me without a chance, with all my magic.... and I probably beat anyone with mages, without any particular problems... that's how it is....

I knew there would be such answers. There is no dispute that in Uber difficulty, Orcs are overpowered, but in the reality of our games, they won't reach that level. It wasn't even easy for them on Hero difficulty, let alone higher. Even with the Goblin upgrade and some improvements to Orcs and Wyverns, it didn't get much easier for them.
---
*The point is not only what the Orcs are like in the original, but also the specifics of the mod and the matches themselves. Shifted difficulty levels (Hero is now instead of Recruit), essentially zero economy at the start (zero on Torment). Even more neutrals and a Full Lobby (all "non-living slots" are filled with AI, and it has unlimited resources and, on Torment, double growth). In general, the game is no longer so much PvP as it is PvE, where there is room for diplomacy with other players and much more. + Harassment/hit-and-run, here it is a strategy (and without it, it would not be realistic for Warlocks to play), so large armies are only found with the AI. The player rarely has more than 3-4 creatures in their army by the end of the game (even if they adjust the rest, there will be too few to survive - at most, they can be used as fodder, defending against the next rush.
And yes - in the Lobby, the game is played on Randoms (Race and Heroes. You can only choose a bonus and on new difficulties, there is something to think about! On the old Heroes, we always took "Art"

)

Added after 13 minutes
In general, the mod originally arose as a "balance patch", with the aim of improving obviously weak and unpopular units, but later the idea took hold and the changes went deeper. We have been playing Heroes almost since its release, since the first add-on and that very "intro". So, obviously, after 10+ years of playing, having probably played on all the original maps and many created ones, having played 100+ games on the same Warlords, you gradually want variety. I remember that at one time we tried to balance Pikers (pre-bans of races/heroes and the like), but it still turned out to be so-so. So, over time, this turned into playing on Randoms - as a more fair option. Well, when you play hundreds of games on Randoms... and try out every hero in the game, you don't need to be very smart to objectively notice the "weak" ones, or even completely useless ones.
Why don't we play or didn't play with mods? We just like everything "original", not always "someone else's" creativity or game balance will be well received. For example, getting acquainted with the EVA Mod left many questions, including regarding the balance of this "mix", although there were objectively useful functions in the assembly...

Registered: 4/15/2014

Posts: 3,563

#4 9/14/2023 5:09 PM UTC

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sorry, there are too many words, I won't read them, I'll just write what I know about the topic in the title

folder \MapObjects\_(AdvMapSharedGroup)\Towns - the any.xdb file contains paths to cities, remove the unnecessary ones

Added 5 minutes ago
this is a very interesting file, we figured out why a custom Sanctuary town has the icon of the Sylvan faction, and we found out that if you add Sanctuary to the end of the list, it will completely replace the Sylvan faction and will then have the Sanctuary icon, and finally - we removed all the Elf/Naga towns from the list, and the race became unplayable, the towns seemed to have lost their icons, lol

Added 4 minutes ago
interesting, I didn't think that the Orcs would be the underdogs, but in principle, a couple of times only the Warlords survived for me, lol. They were invulnerable under Blood, but in battles against human players, you can run away from them and shoot them with magic... mda, they really are underdogs.

Мои мини-моды

Мод RTF

Мои NCF существа

In reply to fktifzobr

Registered: 4/9/2015

Posts: 325

#5 9/14/2023 6:48 PM UTC

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fktifzobr@mail.ru

folder \MapObjects\_(AdvMapSharedGroup)\Towns - the any.xdb file contains the paths to the towns; remove the unnecessary ones.

Thank you very much! And demonically too. It seems like everything worked. You can still select Stronghold in the menu, but if you try to enter, the game crashes. And on random maps, I've already played a decent amount on an 8x map, and it doesn't give you Orcs. So, I'll believe that everything worked! :D
*The answer came at just the right time; I just finished the patch, and then you helped me close the issue with Stronghold.
Now, new friends are playing for Inferno on Tier 5 ;) And Stronghold is on rework for now; when the time comes, we'll organize a new faction!

In reply to Azmadon

Registered: 4/9/2015

Posts: 325

#6 9/20/2023 1:42 PM UTC

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So! A funny thing was discovered.
If you follow the instructions above, everything said earlier is correct. However, the AI sometimes still chooses the Orcs as a Random faction (players don't encounter them). And in the case of the AI, this player simply disappears from the lobby at the very beginning of the game. But the most surprising thing happened when we went to the location of their town to see what happened there. There wasn't even a town there! In the place of the town, there was only an empty, passable area!
When the question arose about how to remove the Orcs, I definitely didn't think about such a "Literal" result! 🤣
----- --
Conclusion: We continue the topic of removing a Faction. I'm interested in whether it can be done more efficiently. Of course, such a funny random element adds a bit of intrigue to the map, as some towns may simply not appear! And there will be nothing in their place. However, I still want to do everything properly. Because if I decide to reduce even more factions later (even if temporarily).
---- --
*But as a cool mechanic, this change was well received. "The chance that a town simply won't appear!"

Registered: 8/5/2023

Posts: 435

#7 10/6/2023 8:45 AM UTC

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Ismail

Is it possible to disable a Faction from being playable? In my case, I need to temporarily disable the Orcs, or at least for Multiplayer maps (so that the randomizer cannot select them or place their city).

Added 25 minutes later
The background is that in the current mod for me and our local community, we have a serious question about removing the Orcs. There are two reasons.
First, the race stands out too much in terms of strength. The creatures occupy almost all of the lower tiers in their ranks. The Faction is literally carried only by the Centaurs, and they only occupy a middle position at their level. There are few strong heroes in the Orcs; you can only play normally with 2 out of 8. The Faction is difficult to change. I still haven't figured out how to selectively disable "Bloodlust" for individual Tiers or Grades (you can disable bonuses, but not the mechanic itself). The Faction's rating is also at the very bottom. The lack of a Guild of Mages and/or an Artifact Shop greatly affects it.
Second, the Centaurs, which somehow carried the Orcs, with the latest patch, will have to move to Inferno on Tier 5, where they will finally replace the Horses (which, frankly, don't fit into the Faction's composition even in terms of design). And since it is not interesting to have two units with the same model and almost identical mechanics in the game, either the Orcs need to be given another unit instead of the Centaurs, or the Orcs themselves need to be "retired."
---
The current plan is very simple - instead of the Orcs, there will be a new Faction in the future. I have thought a lot about it, but the game did not allow adding a 9th Faction, but now one place has become free. However, developing a full-fledged Faction will take a lot of time, and we need to play in the meantime. Therefore, I would very much like to find a way to temporarily disable the Orcs + no one wants to play as them anyway, and the cities on the map are usually not built beyond the Magistrate. The Orc units that will not find a place will become neutral, which can appear on the map on a par with factional and other creatures.
---
This is my plan.

Hello, is it not an option to Download a mod to replace the Orcs?

In reply to Рон54

Registered: 4/9/2015

Posts: 325

#8 10/6/2023 5:57 PM UTC

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Ron54

Hello, is it possible to download a mod that replaces the Orc faction?

No. Firstly, this is our "Local Modification" - meaning it's a version of Heroes, and we're not sure how it will behave with another mod. Secondly, removing the Orcs is more of a temporary measure. Since the faction is currently "undergoing a rework," the plan is to ultimately rethink it and add a new, interesting, and gameplay-rich faction in its place. The most likely choice is the "Invaders," but there are several questions regarding its implementation, especially concerning the faction mechanics and city mechanics.
---- --- ---
In reality, while the faction is being changed and "various things" are being done to it, the task is simply to remove it from access. It's easy to remove the Heroes and Creatures from generation, but the city itself is a different matter. That was the question.

Added 11 minutes later
We've already gotten somewhat used to the new feature with the "City Randomizer," where, in some cases, cities disappear from the map. In any case, for now, it provides an interesting opportunity to replay old maps in a slightly unconventional format. You don't know how the feature will work and how many AI opponents will ultimately appear - how many cities will be on the map? Because if there's no city, there's the entire location, but without the city, it changes significantly in terms of gameplay perception. Now it's more of a "bonus zone" that's interesting to capture or infiltrate, collect useful artifacts, and so on. But often it's a dead end and located in such a way that when you go there, you need to remember about "home," because there's no city here anymore, and the same AI can come to your home. :)

In reply to Azmadon

Registered: 4/23/2019

Posts: 112

#9 10/6/2023 6:54 PM UTC

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As a temporary solution to ban factions from appearing in random towns, I can suggest manually configuring each random town using the map editor. Each random town has a parameter called "BannedRaces" in the Properties window, where you can ban specific factions.

Мои карты: Белый Храм, Поменяться местами, Судьба королевства, Стихийные острова.

In reply to Долгий

Registered: 4/9/2015

Posts: 325

#10 10/6/2023 8:10 PM UTC

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Long

As a temporary solution to ban a faction, I can suggest manually adjusting each random town through the map editor. Each random town has a BannedRaces parameter in the Properties window, where you can ban factions.

But if I understand you correctly, this means that you need to "mod" each map on which you plan to play in this way, and after the need for the ban disappears, you need to return "everything to its original state" (or just save the necessary changes separately and then revert them).
---- --- --
Still, thank you for the answer, it will also be useful 👍

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