Posts from Heroes 5.5 WarGame Edition - Tactical Edition.

Regarding mod names - download links are needed.

No problem. I have them all and they are currently installed. I'll send everything I have at once - I've marked the best ones, but the others might also be useful.

http://www.rapidshare.ru/2856222

Once again, about mods :) Female Heroes 3.0.h5u - adds female hero models to, it seems, 4 Factions. It's a small thing, but it's nice. Maybe someone will later create models for the remaining Factions. ElementButton.h5u - a well-known mod for the Necromancer button, the Rage button, and the Element button. It's generally useful in terms of tactics and convenience. The only thing is that it might need to be adapted to the realities of WarGame if anything has changed. MainMenu_flyby_all.rar - changes the intro with the Cyclops to one of the castles in the main menu. MainMenu_menu_all.rar - changes the design of the buttons in the main menu. As you can see, it's not without flaws, so I personally don't use them because I don't know how to fix them. Xazardous_Menu_3.0_Fix.h5u - some kind of fix for the two mods mentioned above. It might be interesting as a guide on how to fix flaws. It didn't help me. LoadScreen.h5u - changes the loading screen to a more pleasant one. In this mod, there's some artwork on the theme of Heroes of Might and Magic 5, but you can easily put any image you like there. In general, what I'm getting at is that the first two are clear - they're pleasant, convenient, and logical little things. But the rest can be used as a calling card for the mod - its face, so to speak. That is, you don't necessarily have to use what's there; you can put something of your own on the main menu and loading screen with a similar design. Plus, if you also change "Tribes of the East" to "WarGame Edition," you'll get an original and exclusive interface that will only be in this mod - like in Heroes of Might and Magic 3.5. alt_fonts.h5u - here's another font replacement. Maybe someone will find fonts that are more beautiful and pleasant. By the way, the screenshots above show the difference between the standard font and the font from this mod. The modded font would be good, but for some reason, the numbers are displayed terribly on my computer. All these changes can be added easily and won't take much time for someone familiar with the game's resources. At the same time, many of the original's shortcomings will be fixed "out of the box." And since the changes are visual, you won't need to test them separately; all the flaws and shortcomings will become apparent during the process of working with the mod. And here's the archive if my ideas are interesting to you: http://www.fayloobmennik.net/2095169

I found a small bug in the original game. I can't fix it myself – it doesn't work, so I'll suggest it to you.
Basically, when you give neutral creatures an external dwelling in the map editor, but don't set the 128x128 building icon, the game shows a white square instead of the 64x64 building icon in the castle's hiring menu. I haven't checked, but I think the same will happen if you disable the 128x128 icon for standard dwellings. That is, the logic is: "128x128 building icon => 64x64 icon in the castle," if the first one is missing, the second one is also missing, and I don't know how to make it so that if the 128x128 icon is missing, the 64x64 neutral icon is automatically set.
I've looked through the resources a bit. As far as I understand, the settings for displaying images are located here: \data\UI\HireCreatures\HireWindow\Item\Dwelling. I couldn't find anything else; this Indian code and the logic of those Indians who wrote this game are driving me crazy, help me fix this bug.

Such a small increase is frustrating, and I mostly play as

This small increase is annoying, but I'm mostly for it.

It depends on the person, but I personally can't stand the forced, over-the-top epicness in the Heroes mechanics. Thirty dragons, thousands of zombies, and one hero killing them all with a single wave of a magic wand. Now, at least, a leveled-up hero won't be able to kill dragons in batches, and his own strength will be roughly comparable to that of one dragon. Accumulating huge piles of units is completely unnecessary for a strategy game that emphasizes characters (role-playing emphasis). And, frankly, from a strategic point of view, whether you have 100 creatures or 10, they play almost the same, and if that's the case, why draw extra zeros? The case with Archdevils is special; they are presented as rare and legendary creatures and therefore have their own unique characteristics (no matter how many times you attack a stack of 1 dragon, it won't weaken until it dies).

Added 12 minutes later
Plus, there's a purely gameplay aspect, such as using single units. If you have a large army, losing a few peasants in a battle is like losing no one. But here, you have to think about whether to use single units, the loss of which is noticeable, or try to play for free on the survivability of high-level units, which is much more interesting.

well, you can actually reduce the growth, but not by that much.
the elves, especially yours, have a ridiculously high growth rate.

Well, you can actually reduce the growth rate, but not by that much.
The Elves have a ridiculously low growth rate.

Which specific units have a growth rate that you dislike, and what is the reason?

And another question - are you referring to Duel mode or Classic mode? Duel mode shows a typical army setup. Classic mode is not yet fully functional; it's only for getting acquainted with some features. In particular, growth rates will be faster in Classic mode - additional growth rates will be awarded for upgrades, but this has not been implemented yet.

The Druids in the Elves faction in Heroes of Might and Magic II are quite powerful.

elves' druids 2 is just crazy, the druids there aren't even that strong

Not strong at all, my foot—with casts like those, and their shooting isn't bad either. Try dueling against elves and imagine what happens if there are 12 druids in a stack instead of 8 (which corresponds to growth 3 instead of 2).

Added after 18 minutes
Mod Update - WGE-Duel 8 Beta. Changes:

1) Perfectly even statistical distribution of attack/defense. Previously there were gaps—for example, a deficit in the 35-41 defense range—which made units with 0-10 attack (tuned against ultra-high defense) weaker. Now the difference mechanism (one of WGE's main features) and counter-units based on it work 100%! It is now almost always possible to force powerful units to deal significantly lower damage by correctly positioning the receivers.

2) Fixed hyper-vulnerability to blast magic. Minimum stack HP in duels = 360 (previously: apsaras 300, angels 280, witches 240), except for units with 50% magic resistance (from 300 HP), which was granted to: cherubs, seraphs, witches, apsaras, rakshasas.

3) Optimization of racial style features. Statistical racial characteristics such as initiative, power, and survivability have been adjusted. Some units changed significantly: warmongers from 4-8 (speed-init) to 3-12, magnetic golems from 3-11 to 4-8; atlantes from 5-13 to 6-8, knights from 6-8 to 5-13, champions from 6-7 to 6-10. The difference between cavalry has increased significantly, and atlantes have become dangerous heavyweights (powerful strike + assault + speed 6). Overall, dwarves became more powerful, elves more durable, humans and orcs gained in initiative (where they were lagging), while mages' initiative was lowered to an average level.

4) Increased speeds for large shooters. Now all large units have a single feature compensating for their size: +25% damage and +1 speed. Previously, large ranged units and those equated to them had no speed bonus (a survivability bonus instead). Now large shooters have a speed range of 4-6 instead of 3-5 (the only shooters with speed 6 are nomadic centaurs).

5) Correction of abilities that occasionally caused obvious imbalance. Bonus damage from the sign of fire and vulnerability auras has been cut in half, from +100% to +50% (to compensate, "Liquid Fire" damage was raised from 30 to 40 per dragon). The explosion from nimble spawns' "Hellfire" has also been halved. Marids' mana reduced from 15 to 5 (only 1 cast instead of 3).

6) Rearrangement of growth and strength for some creatures. Swordsmen growth increased from 5 to 6 (their number in a duel stack—from 25 to 30). Orc growth increased from 4 to 5, while their production level dropped from 4 to 3 (their number in a duel stack grew from 16 to 25). Shaman growth dropped from 6 to 4, and their production level rose from 3 to 4 (their number in a duel stack dropped from 30 to 16). The strength of an individual swordsman, orc, and shaman was changed proportionally so that the total stack strength remained the same. This fixed situations where: a swordsman dealt more damage than a minotaur; an orc seemed stronger than a minotaur; a more muscular shaman was weaker than a fragile beast.

7) Addition of ice dragon visuals. An acceleration visual effect is used instead of ice breath; it looks unusual at first, but you get used to it. This visual effect may be replaced in the future when (and if) a proper ice breath effect becomes available.

8) Modification of the animation speed scale in game options. Previously there was a gradation: x1, x1.2, x1.5, x2, x3. I suspect many had the default x3 setting, while x1.2 and x1.5 were never used. Even at x3, the game looks quite slow in terms of animation speed compared to Three. Therefore, new gradations have been introduced: x1 (slow), x2 (normal), x3 (fast), x6 (ultra fast), and x100 (instant). I personally play (and strongly recommend others) at x6; it saves a significant amount of time (about a minute per battle, which is crucial for grinding). Speed x100 is used by some Heroes 5 tournament players (for example, promoted by sir moz), but they have to manually edit the settings file. Now, everything you need is right in the game options.

9) Previously announced changes:
- Twilight and elemental witches received an electric attack; arrow protection remains only for twilight ones.
- Priests took the cross-attack from veterans; elders received stun (works even when shooting).
- Mountain thanes received a wide attack instead of rage.
- Riders received crippling wound + infinite retaliation instead of stun and rage; grizzlies received rage.
- Rockbreakers lost defense, gained initiative; the upgrade gained defense, lost initiative, and received rage, becoming known as grim highlanders; the alt swapped rage for an activity aura, becoming known as mine warriors.
- Atlantes received assault instead of stun.
- Granite golems received wall of swords (50% damage from arrows/magic and 50% melee damage return) instead of rage; steel golems received rage; magnetic golems regained "enchanted armor" in the form of ethereal immunity, meaning they can be healed by pads as in the original.
- Ice dragon received northern breath instead of infinite retaliation, as well as fire immunity (along with water immunity).
- Bonebreakers received stun, and berserkers received rage (in addition to frenzy).
- Astral djinn received magic immunity instead of ethereal immunity, which returned to magnetic golems.
- Marble gargoyles received a magic deflection aura instead of stun; obsidian gargoyles received a muffling aura; onyx gargoyles received stun (combo with elemental vulnerability auras).
- Rage from crusaders moved to knights-at-arms (becoming a distinguishing feature from bone warriors).
- Spider amazons lost stun and regained magic attack; they are now called cursed amazons.

Additionally:
- Initiative for gremlin demolitionists increased from 9 to 15, while for gremlin pests it dropped from 15 to 9 (a balance requirement related to abilities).

Please note the forced changes in ability descriptions: sacrifice now gives only a +1 bonus to attack and defense (instead of 3); electric attack splits direct damage but does not split retaliation, which nevertheless remains area-of-effect.

Thanks to points 1 and 3, units and races overall now function exactly as they should (based on stats), according to the conceptual scheme. And point 9 completed the work on distributing creature abilities. Now, the remaining part of the duel section is to adjust ability strength (fine-tuning balance) and fix logs and descriptions. There are also plans to speed up individual animations for some slow creatures—therefore, suggestions on which creatures need speeding up are welcome.

Additionally, with the update, you can download a special map - WGE Army Arena. Each player has eight level-16 heroes of various factions with basic troops. After the player forms the desired army from these (selecting and mixing squads), the chosen hero jumps through a portal into the waiting area and ends their turn. Then the opponent does the same. Once both players have seen each other, the first player jumps through a portal to an area with a fort, where they make necessary upgrades to adapt to the enemy, then jump through a portal into the combat zone. The second player repeats this and attacks the first. Thus, it all comes down to the same duel, but with combined upgrades and troops. Unlike duels, the "evasion" spell is available (via a corresponding object near the fort). Map author - Haosfortum.

Added after 1 hour 27 minutes
Unit characteristic tables (updated automatically).

So, here are the screenshots showing how the interface part of the TI (Wargame Edition = Tactical Edition) mod will look:

Version for 1920x1080 (21 units on the scale):


Version for 1280x1024 (15 units on the scale):


With this scale, you practically won't have to scroll anymore!

It will be available as a separate interface mod, as different screen resolutions require different files. It is based on RageButton and Xazardous_Combat_Mod.

If anyone needs versions that support other resolutions, please write to me in a private message.

Designers like this should have their hands ripped off and reattached to their shoulders.
The standard interface is quite informative and much more aesthetically pleasing. All that was missing were buttons for "Rage" and "Necro."

You should rip the hands out of designers' asses and put them back into their shoulders.
The standard interface is quite informative and far more beautiful. The only things it lacked were rage and necro buttons.

So what's the problem? The interface part is an add-on and is completely independent of the rest of the mod's content.
The reason for using it (and expanding the scale to the maximum) is purely practical convenience. Those who are tired of endlessly scrolling through the scale with tiny arrows, fearing they might miss, will appreciate it. Those who are tired of periodically scrolling through short logs will also appreciate it. Finally, anyone who has ever confused their own and enemy creature icons on the scale because the background color is almost indistinguishable (because the entire icon occupies the space without a background — like the witch alt or devil alt), will also appreciate the practical convenience of colored bars. Personally, before getting more deeply acquainted with them, I didn't really like the visuals either. But the purpose of this add-on is not beauty, but purely cold practicality and time-saving.

Finally, it's not just an interface part. It gives players who use it a very specific advantage: namely, the depth of the scale forecast. The standard scale is often locked from scrolling further than the point where all creatures have appeared on it at least once. The new scale is devoid of this flaw: with a size of 21 cells, the need for scrolling disappears in almost all cases (it's very rare that you need to see more; I haven't encountered such cases yet).

As for the purely visual part, it becomes quite quickly habit-forming for those who value practicality first. The only thing that currently doesn't look very good are the three buttons for casting, waiting, and defending. I would like to implement them in a unified style with the top ones (menu, surrender, autobattle), but this requires working with textures, which is not my specialty.

Added after 7 minutes
As for the necro button, it's clearly redundant in battle and will be removed. I'm keeping the rage button, although it's not needed in the TI mod (WGE = Tactical Edition) since Blood Rage is not used in duels (it will be added later to the extended duel mode with hero upgrades). However, some people might play TI in map mode (although I warned that this mode is not yet provided for by the mod and is done at your own risk — no claims regarding balance). Regardless, I will remove the rage button from map mode because it is only used in battle.

Added after 26 minutes
Another supported add-on will be a mod to improve unit texture quality, adapted for TI. It weighs about 25 MB; the difference in adaptation is that models conflicting with TI have been removed: since TI uses ifrits, special SE dragons, dark ravagers, and dancers with painted blades (dancer blades were moved from the base part of the mod to an add-on, as they are not essential).

Other add-ons (proposed above) were considered for addition; they are either not needed yet (artifact descriptions mod), or implemented by my own efforts and baked into the base (mod fixing description errors — regarding logs, abilities, and units), or implemented incompletely or with insufficient quality (I didn't like the font replacement mod).

MainMenu_flyby_all.rar - changes the intro from a cyclops to one of the castles in the main menu.

Perhaps I will add it to the list of allowed add-ons in the future. For now, it's purely a matter of taste and improves nothing.

Female Heroes 3.0.h5u - adds female hero models to what seems like 4 factions. A small thing but pleasant. Maybe someone will find models for the other factions later.

Alas, it's incomplete. I am focusing more on developing a mod for unique hero models, as it is more interesting, practical, and currently under development (I hope its author brings it to completion).

m30_rus_nosounds.h5u - removes the annoying slider sounds.

Matter of taste. I see no point in creating a separate add-on for it. At most, I'll check for conflicts with the mod and add it to the compatible list.

m30_rus_mapsize.h5u - denotes map size with Roman numerals like in 3.

Matter of taste. But its appearance as an add-on in the future is likely due to increased convenience.

m30_rus_nomove.h5u - removes the "hero will not go anywhere" text at the end of the turn.

I didn't like it. As an option, replace the text with "hero has finished his turn for today".

m30_rus_neutralcounts.h5u - numerical size of neutrals like in 3.

Likely in the future (I haven't raised the issue of range naming in TI yet).

ArtDescription301.h5u - artistic description of all artifacts.

Not needed for now. Artifacts in TI may change.

geltii_krug_big.h5u - circles the unit whose turn it is to move in battle with a yellow circle.

Left me with mixed feelings. I didn't appreciate any particular convenience advantages, and visually the circle doesn't fit well (maybe if there were another texture instead).

m30_rus_heroesspec.h5u / HeroInfo3.02.h5u - description of hero specializations when selecting them in map settings (although descriptions will have to be edited, it's still useful) — the first is brief, the second is detailed with a biography.

Not needed for now. These may change in the future.

NewArenas.h5u - supposedly adds a couple of battle arenas.

Likely to be baked into the base in the future along with a rework of standard arenas (fixing obstacle generation bugs, adding new types of obstacles).

m30_rus_townspec.h5u - more accurate description of each town's features.

Not needed for now. Descriptions may change in the future.

Regarding the fate of the necro button and rage button — in the distant future, a full "Help" system is planned to be integrated into the game (via a single button). This will include sections (in order of development priority):
- casters (list of creature spells and casting dependence on number)
- magic (full list of spells and activatable hero abilities with descriptions)
- damage (damage efficiency graph based on attack/defense difference + bonus HP graph for units with high defense (and increased vulnerability to strike magic) — useful in the tactical realities of TI, made no sense in the original; also includes hero damage to units)
- rage
- artifacts (full list of existing artifacts, descriptions, and sets)
- heroes (skill wheel with the extended TI class system and stat distribution)
- units (comparative characteristic tables)
- objects (list of map objects, e.g., guarded banks along with possible guard variants)
- necro

Expanded Strategic Concept of the WGE Mod (planned changes). Slogan — dynamics and variability (the fundamental difference from the TE mod is dynamics).

A. The map is divided into zones, necessarily connected by roads.
Goal:

- Fast movement between zones.

B. Strength of passage guards — weak or moderate.
Goal:

- Freedom of hero movement.

C. Each zone has a sufficient amount of "freebies". The stronger the guard at the entrance to a zone, the more freebies there are. There should be enough freebies to keep a scout busy for several days.
Goal:

- Freedom for scouts.

D. Each zone has many guarded objects with varying guards. Guards are proportional to the object's strength. There should be no zones with only strong or only weak guards; it should provide for clearing by heroes of different strengths.
Goals:

- Mobility of breaking-through heroes, not delaying them in a zone (hit guards of your level — move on).
- Universalization of zones (suitability for different armies).

E. Hero logistics: very high — sufficient to run through any zone from edge to edge (along the road). But any battle consumes all remaining movement.
Goals:

- Game dynamics + absence of slowdowns due to a large number of battles per turn.
- Selective breaking-through (heroes will not break unnecessary objects if it costs an entire turn).
- Alternative to letting fleeing troops go instead of gaining easy experience (when letting them go, the hero's turn is partially spent, not fully; a pointless battle is avoided, real time is saved).
- The hero should have time to collect resources in the zone independently (assistants are not needed) without losing out on breaking-through.
- Possibility of balanced strengthening of logistics perks and bonuses (breaking speed will not depend on logistics; the emphasis will be specifically on army mobility).
- Moving away from boring multi-turn crossings through emptied zones (selective breaking prevents a zone from emptying quickly; high logistics turns multi-turn crossings into single-turn ones).

F. Cancellation of chains: when heroes meet, their movement points are reduced to the minimum among them.
Goals:

- Abandoning the routine of boringly transferring troops from one end of the map to another (and significant time saving). With high logistics, any hero can do this naturally in a minimum number of days.
- Motivation to have several armies instead of the ability to maintain a mega-fist via chains.

G. Cancellation of neutral growth for multiplayer maps (previously it was proposed to double their number every week, but now this idea is outdated).
Goals:

- There will be no impassable passages or objects because a hero arrived too late.
- Not rushing the player artificially. If he wants to develop slowly — let him develop slowly, but his opponent will punish him for it, not the neutrals.

However, when playing through (single), the ability to set high growth (up to doubling) will be preserved. Those who want hardcore will get it.
How these 2 points will be implemented: very simply. Multiplayer maps will be tailored for zero growth, i.e., Normal mode.
Normal: 1.0 growth
Hard: 1.25 growth
Hardcore: 1.6 growth
Hellmare: 2.0 growth
This difficulty will only be responsible for neutral growth. AI difficulty settings are planned to be implemented separately. Player starting resources will not depend on difficulty (balance must not be broken).

H. Growth of player armies is limited from dwellings and towns (i.e., it is a one-time occurrence).
Goals:

- A strategy of accumulating large forces will only be possible through continuous expansion (capturing new towns and dwellings), not by sitting in place.
- Breaking balance: there will be no situations where any neutrals are easily swept away in the late game due to a huge army.
- Careful conduct of battles (troops are a non-renewable resource).

I. Player troops (but not heroes) consume resources daily (have maintenance costs). If resources are insufficient, excess troops (starting with the most expensive to maintain) leave the player's armies. Units ending their turn in mines, garrisons, and towns do not consume resources and do not leave the player during starvation.
Goals:

- Relevant economy (resources) in the stage when main troops are already bought and towns are developed.
- Motivation to use troops more actively (inefficient armies bring loss).
- Motivation to conduct heavy breaking battles where significant losses are inevitable (getting rid of excess disadvantageous units with benefit).
- Two-dimensional price for units: purchase price and maintenance price.
- Motivation to use garrisons and guarded mines.
- Emergence of a strategy to destroy the opponent by influencing the economy (specifically destroying, not hindering growth).

J. Powerful artifacts (relics — like in H3).
Goal:

- Motivation for interesting breaking-through. Difficult break — losses — valuable artifact. Easy break — no losses — weak artifact. That is, the strength of artifacts should be comparable to significant losses.

K. Recruited heroes arrive without troops (with a single level 1 unit), except for the starting one.
Goal:

- Abandoning the traditional routine of buying up heroes and transferring all their troops into one fist. Now the player will have a fist from the start, and recruited heroes will be used as scouts, not suppliers of additional troops. If an additional hero requires an army, it is purchased in corresponding dwellings and towns (and a starting squad is still not an army).

L. Fundamentally different town building schemes (less linearity, more non-standard solutions like wyvern availability on turn 2, breaking upgrade chains with other buildings).
Goal:

- Diversify the development of different factions.

M. Fleeing and surrendering heroes are disabled (in both actions, the hero is lost irrevocably, i.e., the option is analogous to a quick defeat).
Goals:

- Limiting hit-and-runs (given powerful magic and non-renewable units).
- Canceling absurd teleports of heroes via fleeing from neutrals.
- Careful play without "if anything — I'll buy my way out" and an increased role for scouting.
- Thrill (all or nothing).

Gameplay Essence:
Movement of heroes between zones (branching structure like in H3, not on linear standard H5 maps) instead of trampling in one zone. Active use of scouts. Parallel development of several towns (capture of which begins from the first days). Limited number of battles. Focus on selective breaking-through. Fast development. Use of several armies (breaking speed depends only on the number of armies: 1 army — 1 battle). Active involvement of economy at all stages of the game. Struggle for objects (units guarding mines, garrisons, and towns do not incur costs). Shifting the focus of the game from conducting numerous breaking battles to the economy (battles are rarer but tactically more thought-out).

P.S. Points H and I (one-time growth and troop maintenance) are currently experimental, as it's unknown how they will play out. Growth limitation was needed as a protection against prolonged games and accumulation of too much "meat" in Heroes 5 conditions (just like doubling neutrals every week), but such a measure may be excessive with the already accelerated dynamics of TI (implementation of other points). Maintenance follows directly from one-time growth (so there's something to spend resources on), however, it's unknown if excess resources will be a problem under new dynamics. If not, the need for maintenance disappears (it could become an unnecessary complication of the game). In all other points, there is confidence, as it's known from other games how they play (borrowings partially from Heroes 3, partially from Disciples 2).

Added after 5 hours 2 minutes
Update: upon mature reflection, points H, I and K (one-time growth, troop maintenance, hiring heroes without troops) are completely canceled. Reason: controversial points, no necessity (they do not enhance dynamics or variability in any way). Heroes will arrive with troops because under the "1 army = 1 battle" condition, it's by no means certain that armies will merge into a single fist. Especially if starting troops are adequate for breaking-through on their own (and they will be).

Added after 6 hours 44 minutes
Two necessary additions to the concept of spending a whole turn on battle:

1. Guards of teleports and dungeons will be one-way. As an option — paired: when one side is killed, the second dies automatically. In this case, paired guards must be identical. I see no point in requiring 2 battles to break through a particular object (in this case — exit to a zone).

2. A minimum of movement will be left (1.5 cells) for visiting a captured town or stepping aside to make way for a scout. Visiting other objects can be postponed until the next day (if the enemy attacked — it means you didn't make it). But this remaining movement will always be fixed (no need to worry if the hero will manage to enter a captured town).

And regarding roads:

Roads should not be blocked by object guards, except for guards of passages between zones. For this reason, objects will be located some distance from roads. However, this may require disabling creature weeks.

Removing the item about the base growth rate is a real relief for me. And the one-sided protection of portals and similar things – that’s just fantastic, I think you deserve a big thank you for that. These things seem simple, but no one has thought of them before.
-----------
Question about the logistical changes: after they are implemented, will "Path of War" still work? If so, how?

Removing the clause about the basic increase is a real relief.

This mechanic has become unnecessary. It was an attempt to motivate the player to play a slow game faster (not to drag it out). Now (under the new conditions), the game should become fast enough without any motivation. Simply, if a player plays slowly, dragging it out, a faster player will come and win. Thus, stalling with large armies is impossible if both players don't want it. At the same time, there is no need for a rush to avoid this.

Question about the logistical changes: after their implementation, will "Path of War" work? If so, how?

This question is still open. If the perk is allowed, it will allow:
1) to capture objects on the same turn as the breakthrough
2) to break through enemy heroes along with the escort in 1 day
(The escort mechanic is when a hero breaks through into a zone, after which a vanguard unit runs in, and in case of detecting an enemy there, it covers the main hero.)

So, what's the problem? The interface part is an add-on and is completely independent of the rest of the mod's content.
The reason for its use (and extending the scale to the maximum) is purely for practical convenience. Those who are tired of endlessly scrolling the scale with tiny arrows, fearing to miss the mark, will appreciate it. Those who are tired of periodically scrolling through short logs will also appreciate it. Finally, those who have ever confused the icons of their own and enemy creatures on the scale because the background color on them is practically indistinguishable (due to the fact that the entire icon is occupied without a background - like the High Witch or High Devil), will also appreciate the practical convenience of colored bars.

How can you even confuse the icons? They are all different. Besides, the circle here is much more convenient than this colorful mess and is not inferior in practicality. Maybe it doesn't fit in perfectly, but it doesn't turn the interface into such a disaster. And a good, pleasant interface is one of the features of Heroes 5. Although, if it's not integrated, it doesn't matter anyway. I'm only interested in offline play with the computer, and duels and difficulties are secondary.

The description mods are an example of implementation. In the original, everything was described sparingly, and the game's lore was meager.

The slider sounds should definitely be removed. It's an annoying sound that drives you crazy in the menu. And the menu is also part of the game.

Removing the "end of turn" message is also a must-have. Only a complete degenerate wouldn't be able to look at the hero's turn scale, so the meaning of this message is absolutely unclear. It just keeps popping up in front of your eyes. It creates the impression that the game considers the user an idiot.