Posts from Harmony - Troop Symmetry

The Harmony mod will partially change all cities, introduce changes to hero progression, unit abilities, affect battle tactics and make the game more beautiful. The basis is balance and adherence to the lore of Axanar (ideas and suggestions are welcome).

Probabilities of primary and secondary skills appearing



Magic of Destruction

The main concept is to divide the elements into subgroups based on their dependence on magic and the level of mastery of the "Magic of Destruction" skill (the idea was taken from Nargott)

The elements are divided as follows:
Earth - strongly depends on magic and strongly depends on the skill level
Water - strongly depends on magic and weakly depends on the skill level
Fire - weakly depends on magic and strongly depends on the skill level
Air - weakly depends on magic and weakly depends on the skill level



Thus, the following connections between races and elements are achieved:

Earth - Warlock (they live in Dungeons, before becoming Dark Elves they worshiped the goddess of Earth, hence the natural predisposition to this element);
Under certain conditions, this element will be preferable for Necromancer, Dwarfs, Demons, Elven and Mages. It is not very promising for Humans.

Water (ice) - Necromancer (cold lifeless corpses whose bodies are vulnerable to fire magic);
Under certain conditions, this element will be preferable for Warlocks, Mages, Elven, Dwarfs. Not very promising for Humans and Demons.

Fire - Demons (they live in hell - that says it all), as well as Goblins (they worship the god of Fire);
Under certain conditions, this element will be preferable for Humans (hello Inquisition), Warlocks (when using a chain of elements), less often interesting for Elven, Mages. Not very promising for Necromancers.

Air - Humans (they worshipped the god of Air before becoming the Holy Empire and their transition under the protection of the god of Light), as well as Elven - like the wind, fast and elusive.
Under certain conditions, this element will be preferable for Demons, Mages, Dwarfs, less often for Necromancers. Not very promising for Warlocks (unless when using elemental chains)

A controversial point: with an increase in the spell circle, its cost and effectiveness increase; in the case of spells acting on a single target, increased effectiveness means increased damage; in the case of area-of-effect spells, increased effectiveness means increased area. The problem arose with the Armageddon spell - from a mathematical point of view, everything suits me, but the damage is not commensurate with the epicness of the concept of "Armageddon".
The problem lies in the low dependence on magic; perhaps it is worth reconsidering the concepts of "strong" and "weak" dependence on magic. Currently, for the second circle of spells (it is there that the formulas of different elements intersect due to the convergence in terms of the affected area), the following coefficients are adopted: 12 - strong dependence, 8 - weak. The average value of magic (from which one can assume that the level of magic is high) was taken equal to 10 units.
In general, if the game goes into the late game, earth and water will be promising; in the case of normal game durations (up to 2 months), balance is maintained. Also keep in mind that impact magic should be weakened as all ranged attacks need to be reduced due to the overall reduction in unit speeds.

Skill tree from 08/09/2017

Super Abilities (Perks)
Now, each Faction has 2 of these, with the first being more effective but harder to obtain, and the second being weaker but easier to acquire.

Knight
1. Holy Host. The hero's army cannot be afflicted by the "Weakness" spell and is always under the effect of the "Divine Might" spell; the hero also receives the "Haste" spell.
2. Dawn's Radiance. At the beginning of each turn, the last fallen unit in each squad is resurrected; the hero also receives the "Spiritual Armor" spell.

Demon
1. Urgash's Call.
2. Legion of Ruin. The initiative of units under the hero's command increases by 20%; the hero's army cannot be afflicted by the "Slow" spell; if the hero wins a battle, they will receive a certain amount of resources proportional to the defeated army.

Necromancer
1. Scream of Terror.
2. Immortal Legion. All units under the hero's command turn into undead and gain the ability to absorb life force from enemy squads upon attack (20% of the damage dealt); when excavating, the chance of finding the Tears of Ashi increases.

Ranger
1. True Luck.
2. Power of Nature. During battle, the hero's army is always under the effect of the "Spiritual Armor" spell; the hero receives the "Earthquake" spell, which deals damage and stuns all units behind the city wall.

Warlock
1. Coordination. All squads under the hero's command gain the ability to attack twice; the second attack is performed after a counterattack. (RedHeavenHero's idea, implemented in his "Haven_SA_AbsoluteCharge" mod)
2. Fury of the Elements.

Mage
1. Arcane Omniscience.
2. Great Engineer. The initiative of combat machines under the hero's command increases by 10 units. (needs testing - this might be too much)

Rune Priest.
1. Absolute Protection.
2. Fiery Resolve. The hero's army is always under the effect of the "Wrath" spell and cannot be afflicted by the "Weakness" spell.

Barbarian.
1. Pure Rage.
2. Challenge. All enemy ranged attacks are weakened (all offensive spells and ranged attacks); their effectiveness is reduced by 50%, forcing the enemy to fight the Horde army in melee combat.

An idea is worthless without implementation; the question is, who will implement it, and where will the models and animations come from?
Furthermore, only "cavalry" and "mages" look logical; the other groups are too dissimilar.
If one were to attempt symmetry, it would be based on the types "flying unit (fast) - infantry (slow) - ranged attacker/caster" in a small (levels 1-3) and large (levels 4-6) form, but again, as mentioned above, no one will do this.

Nargott, I disagree with you. The idea is still good, even without implementation (we still need to figure it out).
SRD, it's not bad in principle, but IMO, I don't understand why devils are weaker than lords, and I don't agree that griffons are the backbone of humans. Humans have knights as their backbone.

Yes, that's correct – knights are the backbone of the human army, alongside archers. Regarding griffins: based on the lore of other parts of the Heroes series, we can say that the griffin occupies an intermediate position between tiers 3 and 4. In Heroes 6, the griffin is the weakest in the elite units (conditionally tier 4), and in Heroes 7, it is the strongest among the main troops (conditionally tier 3). Placing monks above tier 4, in my opinion, is absurd, and I already have cavalry at tier 5, so tier 3 remains for the griffin – it fits the lore, and it will be adjusted with the highest characteristics for tier 3 and the lowest growth.
Regarding the Lords – generally yes, the archdemon will be stronger, but there won't be any in the castle; instead, there will be ifrits at tier 6.
This message has been edited due to the relevance of the information
I'll leave a couple of attachments here.

Nargott, I disagree with you. The idea is still worthwhile, even without implementation (it just needs to be fleshed out).

Considering what percentage of ideas make it to the detailing (project) and implementation stages, and how much time and resources are spent on simply coming up with an idea versus its implementation, their value is close to zero. At the very least, there's no point in considering something that will never be implemented.

the main problem with seraphs, and in general, I think, is just to spark interest in creating them

Well, for starters, try to get yourself so interested that you actually implement it :)
If you search online, you can find thousands of ideas for Heroes, but they're all useless because it's one thing to write something down, and another to implement it (and the chances that someone will work on implementing someone else's idea for free are close to zero, especially when it requires real effort).

As for the seraph, there's no point in blindly copying a religious image, because the power of a seraph in the game is nowhere near what it should be (it's much stronger than an archangel). And the same goes for cherubs.

As for the criticism of the idea itself, it's a matter of taste; at least no advantages of symmetry are mentioned, while the advantages of asymmetry are obvious: diversity.

So, generally speaking, I'll make the seraphim figure myself – a friend agreed to help, but I have a question: what program can I use to create it (besides the one where the mod itself is made), so that I can then put it into the game, or is it better to do it all in one program?

So, basically, I'll make the seraphim figure myself – a friend agreed to help me, but I have a question: what program can I use to create it (besides the one where the mod itself is made), so that I can then put it into the game, or is it better to do it all in one program?

For questions like these, contact Psatkha; he's an expert in models.

Regarding the seraph, there's no point in blindly copying a religious image, as the seraph's power is nowhere near what it is in the game (it's much higher than an archangel). The same goes for cherubs.

That's the whole point – the seraph will be a level higher.

- That's the whole point - seraphs will be one level higher.

So, there will be as many as 2(!) angelic levels? And is that diversity?

And what happened to the mages and orcs? Are they not part of the "symmetry"?

Is it possible to extract the angel figure from Heroes (I want to use it as a base), move it to another program, do everything necessary there, and then integrate it back into Heroes?

Is it possible to extract the angel figure from Heroes (I want to use it as a base), move it to another program, do all the necessary modifications there, and then integrate it back into Heroes?

I already wrote above who to contact for consultation. It is possible to extract it, but it will be difficult to modify it significantly.

So, in general, I'll make the seraph figurine myself – a friend agreed to help, but I have a question: what program can I use to create it (besides the one where the mod itself is made), so that I can then put it into the game, or is it better to do it all in one program?

As I mentioned earlier, creating the model at this stage is not a problem, nor is creating the animation. The problem is that there is no way to export it in the game engine's format!

Sincerely, Psatkha

Added 2 minutes later

I already wrote above who to contact for advice. It is possible to extract it, but it will be difficult to significantly modify it.

If the user has a lot of time, then in principle, all this can be done, but with the above limitations!

Therefore, I would first recommend practicing "on cats" (from the movie "Operation Y").

Sincerely, Psatkha

I didn't understand the limitations, but it can be done in Maya.