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First of all, this mod is for Rise of the Elves (RotE) only and it doesn't work with disciples v3.01 ... only with v3.00 ; that's why I'm supplying my exes with the mod... your game will work just fine, and since I never got to actually testing what is wrong and why won't it work with v3.01, I guess it'll stay like this for... well, a while :P

 
as for the exes.rar, it contains the exe files renamed into .egze ... just change that .egze into exe and you're guaranteed to be compatible with the mod...
 
as for the actual changes, they is REALLY many of them, and I'll probably forget at least a dozen of them... and I'm kind a lazy to read all my fan mail (in which I explained in detail what was changed) so I'll give you a brief list and try to fill in the gaps from top of my head... here's an old readme that I used to provide with the mod ...
the change list:
 
General:

- All thieves cost less (hmm... not sure if I did this) << I confirm that thieves cost the same...
- All rod planters start with Leadership 2 instead of 1, this allows to have twospacers in your lvl1 rodplanter's party, and spices the game up quite a bit 

- Some weapon/attack names were changed to look more awesome 
example - dwarf's weapon name is hammer and Veterans weapon name is hammer, when there is obviously a difference between a one-handed light hammer (dwarf) and a two-handed giant hammer (veteran)

- Various building prices changed to make some branches more appealing/restrictive...

Empire:

- Elementalist changed to Interrogator:
Interrogator has 100 HP, he deals 60 Mind damage (75% chance) to one target and has a 20% chance to Paralyze that target. He has 55 init (?!?) so he's more of an archer than a mage... i made him this way so he could fit in nicely with my Inquisition stack. <<< not sure if he has the same stats... but he's a non-weapon archer

- Angels have 55 init and Lower Init thus giving you the opportunity to pwn everyone before they even attack. Air source for both. Air ward, Mind immunity (highfather purity) << the ultimate anti-death party... Empire doesn't have many non-weapon sources, but they're worth investing...

- White Wizards have Theurgist's Shatter
and I think that's it as far as the Empire goes...
 
**UPDATE**

 

This is all copy/pasted from the thread i used to keep my changes.... first of all, this isn't even the begining.... MANY units were tweaked, and Holy Avenger has a strategic advantage over the Defender of Faith.... humans are now made that way so you have to pick the unit you will need more cause all choices are really good...
 
this doesn't even mention the Crusader unit, a new unit that replaces the Titan... i got some pretty positive feedback on that one, and i can say that i'm proud of it... so use it :)

as far as Wards go : just explore them in ScenEdit... all Empire units follow the same upgrade chart until lvl10 (they level up the same)



Legions of the Damned:

I tweaked them a lot, I don't no where to start...

- Infernal Knights have 30% chance for 10dmg Blister (that gains additional 10 every level)

- Doppelgangers are now Doombringers
Doom-bringer: 100HP, 40 init, 80% chance to deal 40 Mind damage to all units, 60% chance Fear (so he's kinda ideal if you want to avoid fights or just turn the enemies away while your minions kick their behinds, literaly [Smile] )

- Pandemonius has 60% to do 15 damage Blister
- Modeus is now Asmodeus
- Asmodeus has 80% to do 30dmg Blister
- most probably I tweaked their XP req
- Hags Polymorph twice (double attack)
- Marble Gargoyle has Shatter (Earth Based) 20dmg, increased XP req (more time to get Onyx)
- Onyx Gargoyle has 50 Shatter and Weapon ward, Petrify immunity, increased XP req. The way i see it was : onyx is one of the hardest materials, so the first hit will only crack it, and the second one will pass through... as for the shatter -- getting hit with that would surely destroy your armor [Smile]

- Baroness has 30% Lower Init now, so when you Fear a guy, he'll stay turned for a bit longer alowing your units to hit his back a little longer. This gets useful with leadership 3-4...

- Beast's damage is up and HP to 420.
- Tiamath HP is 520 and his dmg is 150... LVL5 double-spacers should be the strongest units in the game.
I don't think I did anything else to them...
 

**UPDATE**
 
well, this doesn't even mention the important stuff.... Inferno Warrior Leader is now a two-spacer that attacks ALL enemy units with Weapon source... has lower dmg than the mage lord, and higher HP than any warrior lord...
 
no doppels anymore, sorry
 
Succubus is worth taking now as she has 40 init (hag 30, witch 20), doombringers are also a nice touch...
 
I guess I *should* mention the Secret Upgrades which depend on your Devil unit line (so you're kind a forced to build those if you want cool new soldiers), otherwise they have to be locked... the in game tool tips say everything you should know, so MAKE SURE YOU READ EVERYTHING...
 
Moloch's attack became Leech -- a weapon based slash that drains life... Overlord is much more stronger now, and i don't care if ppl tell me that he's too strong -- he's a lvl5 two spacer, and it wasn't fair for him to be only 20 dmg stronger than the SOY at the cost of nearly 3000 XP....
 
some units don't follow the standard level-up scheme (meaning that they no longer **change upgrade stats** at lvl10...) first case being the Onyx Gargoyle...

Undead Hordes:

- Dark Lord has 20 armor, Mind ward and increased XP req (700 or so).

- Templar has Mind Ward.
- Warlock has increased XP req (700-750 not sure).
- Necro has increased xp req (1550)
- Elder Vampire has 40% chance to Lower Damage lvl2 (I think its like 25%)... Draining the life force out of someone would surely cause him to attack with less ferocity, don't you think ?

- Lich now does 80 dmg and increased XP req (by 300 I think) they upgrade as before though...

- Archlich now does 120 dmg making it the strongest lvl5 mage there is... there really was no point in increasing the XP req because by the time you get the Archlich, if your enemy doesn't have LVL5 units - he's pretty much screwed (he's pretty much screwed if you even get the archlich), he upgrades like before (9 dmg per lvl)

- Wraiths have 55 init, up from 50. (thus having a chance to drain a 50init fighter before he strikes you with 25 more dmg... unless he's lvl50 or something [Smile] )

- Deaths have 50 init, up from 40 (I didn't want to give them 60 because I thought it was unfair back then, and I think it is unfair now, but 50 is fair enough, giving you the chance to wack those non-weapon based guys before they wack you)

- Specters attack twice (2x Paralyze)

and I think that's all the *damage* I caused to the UD.
 
**UPDATE**
well, the Werewolf unit is out and a new, better one takes its place... its a new UD archer-healer that can transform into a werewolf... the transform GOES up and improves as the unit gains new levels but only until lvl5 at which it stops improving... the lvl5 werewolf (aka Body of Lycaon as I called it) is equivalent to a lvl13 (I think) Spirit of Lycaon...
 
Dreadwyrm is another potent poison source if you pick a non-death line, so you can actually have vampires/archliches, archers and poison guys in your party... Wraiths are still the kings of archer init (60), deaths at 50, while Lycaons end up at 55 or so, I'm not sure (that's why i said test everything out, I don't have my notes/calculations with me)
 
Death XP req is highened a bit, but they're still overpowered as before (it was just there because of the Wraiths, now wraiths level up faster than deaths, but deaths still end up stronger than the wraiths, no matter the higher XP req)
 
hmm.... Nosferat hero now has drainlife overflow, but lower dmg... so he can compare with the EV only at high lvls...
 
I really haven't tweaked the UD that much as i did to the other races...

Mountain Clans:

- ** Wotan's Blessing now increases DMG by 33%, 33% to CtH doesn't seem logical when you have 25% plus, 33% dmg seems logical for two reasons:
1) you have a spell that gives 33% armor
2) you have a 10% dmg, 20% dmg to area, <GAP>, 50% dmg... this way, all fits in quite nicely and both Mage and Warrior Lords will enjoy this spell.

- Dwarf King has 35 armor, 250 HP, 3000 XP req, does 150 dmg and has Critical Hit, thus making him the strongest onespaced fighter unit there is. He gets 1 armor and 1 init per lvl until 10th level.
- Rune Master gained Critical Hit (altho its only 5-6) and Shatter 10 (also the name of the Weapon was changed to Runic Axes)
- Wolf Lord has 45 init, gains +1 init until 10th lvl.
- Wolf Lord was changed into WL1**
- WL1** is basicaly the old wolf with the addition of 20 frostbite dmg, he transforms into a 275HP Spirit of Fenrir that has 65init and 90 dmg. He needs 6500XP to level up
- WL1** upgrades to WL2**
- WL2** needs 1650 to level up, he deals 50 water dmg and 30 frostbite (he upgrades the same way as the regular wolf lord) and he transforms into a 400 HP, 65 init, 150 dmg Spirit of Fenrir.

- Forge Guardian gets 2 init until level 10 and 1 init for every level after that.  << well, i can tell you that this is pure BS... I redid that, and made it more balanced...

- Flame Caster has 23% chance to do 15dmg Blister that slowly adds up as the levels go by... (ends with 30%)

- Novice has increased XP req (i think)
- Druidess' boosts twice for 75% and they have increased XP req
- Archdruidess' boosts all units for 100% (try saying that the MC suck now) and she has increased XP req.
- Alchemist gained the Bestow Elemental Wards secondary attack and she has increased XP req (by 100-200 I think).

- Tempest Giant - 400 HP, dmg to 65.
- Elder One - 500 HP, 100 dmg, 25% paralyze
 
**UPDATE**

 

well, the wolf lord is indeed a much more USABLE unit now that it has frostbite... don't let the first 5000XP scare you -- after the initial 5000XP, he only needs 1500XP to level up, I used that 5000XP so i could simulate him getting 3 lvls (he was lvl4, and I could only make units UPGRADE until lvl5... and when a unit upgrades, I can change its attack and what-not, so that 5000xp is really there so that he can get a much much stronger transform ability) hermit XP bug is fixed and they need 2000xp to level up...
 
some units don't follow the standard level-up scheme (meaning that they no longer **change upgrade stats** at lvl10...)
 

Elven Alliance:


- Theurgist init to 40, Elf Lord init to 50
don't know if I changed anything else...
-----------------------------------------------

I'd like to add to all of this that after reviewing this, I realized this isn't even the half of the stuff I put in there...so I seriously advise anyone that wants to try out this mod to partially forget all unit stats he (thinks he) knows and study every unit once again... I also advise spending at least 30 mins in the ScenEdit, seeing how many units behave and what not...

this mod is compatible with all original savegames / maps, but original (non-modded d2) won't run with the savegames / maps made with this mod...
 
I still take suggestions / ideas, and if i like ANY of them, they'll probably find their way into the mod on the same day I received it, the only kinds of REQUESTS I take are those for new neutral non-leader monsters since it takes me like 5-10 minutes to make it...
 
all in all, this is NOT a balance mod, it was never intended to be a balance mod, it just makes the game even more strategic with a lot more trade-offs... certain unique abilities have been spread to different units (low init, lower dmg) and much more units have Shatter now... I have tried to iron out as much bugs as I could from this mod, but a couple still persist:
1) Shatter ALWAYS hits
2) since the Duke is now the Devil's Guard and therefor is much stronger, you will have more trouble defeating him in the low lvl scenarios... this isn't really a bug, but I really needed a one-spacer, deamon neutral leader....
3) potions put on WL don't affect the transformed WL after he transforms...
 
feel free to report bugs and ideas but ONLY if you have tried out the mod and played in the scenedit / custom test scenario for at least 2 hrs... I'm sick of ppl suggesting something like "Infernal knight could have blister" only to find it he already does after 15 mins of browsing through the units in the scenedit...
 

 

**UPDATE**
well, I recently discovered a tragic bug that is now fixed... among other things, the Elementalist unit was no longer available in the game for some reason, so i fixed that too :)
and while i was doing that, i revamped the Empire mage line... again :)
 
everything is the same except White Wizards now need 2000 XP per lvl (down from 2100) and instead of the interrogator (empire already has great archers and they desperately need good mages), there is now a Black Mage -- 45 dmg to all Death source... she has 110HP, needs 1500XP per lvl and has Blister, Frostbite, Poison and Petrify immunity...(yeah, its a she and i agree, maybe it does look weird for a bearded male mage to upgrade into a slim female, but what the heck; as for the immunities -- dark wards)
 
it was either the Black Mage, or the Demonologist, and since i didn't want to move the Demonologist (altho Fire dmg would fit in nice with the empire and he's Male) because too lazy... and black mage wouldn't really fit in with the Legions anyway... and I'm out of Human models anyhow :) but i guess i could swap the black mage's and doombringer's models around, which would turn out ok... so its up to personal preference :) and I may do it if I get some feedback (seems like no one cares anymore :P)
 
well, I also changed the Death unit's name to Reaper (not much of an estetical fact, but it took me 5 mins to find the Death unit every time i needed to look at it, plus it really fits in with his attack name "Soul Harvest" ... as for the Dark Elf Reaper, he's Dark Elf Ahulane now (ahulane is a really old word for archer of some sort)...
 
so, appart from the deadly bug, Elementalists are back in the game, althou if you do see them in your quests, they'll start out at lvl3 with 115 HP (since i needed their spot in the Empire Mage Line, I moved them to Neutrals and they have to be lvl1 there) but the game won't crash...

**update 1 October 2006 **

since I started playing Disciples actively (again) in both single player and multiplayer, i will be fine tuning my mod (minor rebalancing and stuff) so if you want i can send you the updated version every week (if there are updates of course) to minimize spamming your mailbox and to see if the changes are OK (some play-testing time) ...
those changes are very minor like:
 
- Centaur Savage has 225 HP instead of 210 and gets 25 HP per lvl until lvl10 (instead of 23); he still gets 12 dmg per lvl for some reason
the logic behind this is that this unit is supposed to be a tough lvl3 unit... since Dwarves have slow HP fighters (lvl3 is 250HP and 40 init) and Empire has average fighters (lvl3 being 200HP and 50 init), i averaged their HP and came up with 225 HP (instead of 210)... they are beasts, however, gaining 25 HP per lvl :P I like round numbers...
 
- Deathdragon having 60dmg instead of 55 (the 15-15-35 progression didn't make much sense, so its 15-20-30 now... Dreadwyrm still has his 45/45)
 
and some other really really minor tweaks (mostly initial changes and fixing of some old *unfair* stuff like Centaur charger getting 20 HP per lvl until lvl10 and 10 HP per lvl afterwards with his armor being 30... now its 10 / 5 like it is supposed to... he still turns out pretty good for a lvl2 unit :P)
 
Deaths aka Reapers now needing 1350XP per lvl and not 1200 + 50 per each lvl and so on... I don't need to mention that a lvl19 wight (~165dmg) still sucks in comparison with lvl14 Death (180/100 aka Reaper)
making DoF much less overpowered in comparison with Holy Avenger (but still kicking ass in comparison with anything else) etc...
 
so the mod pretty much hit the "balancing stage" altho units will probably be balanced in the favor of better, not worse (e.g. only improvements, no decreasing dmg/HP except in some cases)
 
I will notify you if you should say that its a major version update (like the last update... that kind of thing hasn't been done in ages) so not being up-to-date wouldn't make much of a difference (except for multiplayer, everyone needs to have the same version in that case)
so... that's pretty much it -- to sum it all up -- you'll get new versions (if i made any *corrections* to it) weekly... I'll also subscribe you to my d2-mod newsletter so I won't have to type everything twice :P
 
and if things keep poping up like this, I'm pretty sure you can expect the new version next Sunday (playing hotseat with my friend and the campaigns solo really points out some **irregularities** that MAY or may be not changed... so far I like what i'm seeing and the changes seem reasonable (to me atleast) and unit comparison really looks nice)
examples:
 
Dwarf King (xp req 3000) at lvl 10 Versus Defender of Faith (xp req 2500) at lvl10
      225 dmg + Crit                     Versus        190 dmg
      375 HP                                Versus        295 HP
   40 armor and 40 init                 Versus     35 armor and 70 init
 
Rune Master (xp req 2500) at lvl 10 Versus Holy Avenger (xp req 2000) at lvl10
    2x90dmg/35 shatter + Crit          Versus           2x130 dmg
        450 HP                                 Versus              450 HP
    0 armor and 40 init                     Versus         0 armor and 50 init
 
if you cross-compare these units, you see that the Armored one needs 500XP more (they share the same attribute) but the Damage Dealing Potential (DDP) is reversed for the races... as far the Dwarves go, Rune Masters have better DDP agains armored targets and benefit from druidess' agains the DKs massive dmg... as for the Empire, DoF have a better DDP for two reasons -- one, they have high init and therefore are able to deal greater dmg before anyone else; two -- they have 35 armor... the Holy Avengers however DO have a potentially 260 dmg, but they can always miss the second time and the fact that they have 50 init kinda makes them succeptible to PWs paralyze (not that runemasters aren't, its just that you HAVE to expect PWs to strike before you cuz you have 40 init... with HAs, you *may* expect from them to act sooner) and i really like that dualism :P
DK's building already costs 4500gp so if they are a bit overpowered -- its justified...

 

**update 10 October 2006**

some minor nerfs to Phantom Warrior and Dark Lord (again)
btw, i wanted to make Phantom Warrior much better than the DL since the new improved DL kinda gave an edge over the PW but then i found out that i already did that, so i just tweaked some minor stuff (PW needs 2000XP to lvl up, DL starts out with 625 and progresses to 800) and altho the DL always looked like a much better choice, the PW proves to be a better unit after all (well he IS a lvl5 unit)

 

**update 15 October 2006**

ok, this week's update is this:
Thieves cost 150 instead of 200
You get 50 mana instead of 25 mana per turn
 
The bonus is a Modding Challenge... I have attached a JPG file representing a chart -- the Elven Alliance chart.... this town/race has to be COMPLETELY re-done, and it has to feature these units....the guy that makes it gains nothing but experience, respect and most probably fame :)
 
ok, so the *rules* are --
1) you have to perserve game compatability... which means that you have to make more than a dozen of new units...
2) you should to do it on your own, but you may consult my mod / tutorial on "how to" questions...
3) the * units are special units, i will define them here:
 
Goblin Marauder:
looks just like Goblin Archer except he has 120HP, 60 init, 2x 50 dmg with Air source...
 
Grovemaiden:
looks like grovemaiden, heals one unit for 30 dmg, no wards...
 
Oracle:
looks like oracle, heals one unit for 50 dmg, cure
 
Spiritess:
looks like spiritess, bosts dmg of all units by 25
 
Medusa:
has a Stone Gaze primary attack that deals 30 dmg and has 80% CtH, Earth source...
 
Stinger:
instead of a Poison sec. attack, he has a Paralyze sec. attack with INFINITE equal T
 
Bandit/Brigand/Marauder:
they don't shoot twice, they have half their XP reqs though;
 
remember to tweak everyone's DynUpg and check their levels...
 
** the Leaders have to be scalled down though (lowered HP / dmg), and some units could use some up-scalling too (lvl2 thug, lvl2 goblin archer, lvl3 goblin elder
 
4) i guess spells should be re-done too, but that can be the next Modding Challenge :)
 
The purpose of this is to have a comunity mod that everyone tried to make (and they learned stuff) but the best one will be the base for the next Modding challenge (e.g. the Spells challenge) so all competitors should then download the *Base mod* and tweak it further...
 
so i can freely anounce the next two modding challenges:
1) making of the base elven re-do... swaping units out etc...
2) fine tunnning (XP reqs, dmgs, DynUpgs, bulding costs) and string related stuff (building names, unit names/descs etc...) to iron out any weird stuff
3) the Spell challenge... which will consist of two phases:
3.1) what will the spells do
3.2) making the actual spells, so two guys will get credit for this one :)

**update 20 October 2006**

Guildmaster only --> Appraisal - lowers all buying prices by 50% (shops only)
Mage Lort only --> Magiocracy - leader can read scrolls and use staves
All leaders --> Epic Pathfinding - leader gains 35% MP (move points)
 
if you have any other skill suggestions, i'll gladly listen to them and try to implement them...
i was also thinking of making a skill that would grant Life ward, although it would be a lvl15 skill, so i need some feedback on that one...
btw, skills concerning attacks are definitely out (i also wanted to make something like Poison Attack for the guildmaster, but skills can't give you attacks; just modifiers)
i also wanted to make an Empire-only skill called Healer which would act like might except it would boost QTY_HEAL but i can't do that either... so i'm out of ideas for skills, and i may yet make some items (primarily shatter weapon, scrolls/staves book, all ward books would turn immunes and i would make ward banners) but i'll also wait for some feedback on that one too...
 
i was also thinking of making more *skill* tomes, like
Tome of War -- grants the use of Artifacts
*Tome of Seven Grandmasters* -- gives 25% more EXP (this was called Tome of War)
Tome of Leadership -- gives Banner Bearer ability
Arcana Dictata (or something like that) -- grants the ability to use scrolls and magic staves
 
also, the mind-ward tome would stay a ward and i was thinking of throwing in a death-ward tome too...
 
apart from that all other ward-type tomes would be immunity-type tomes...
 
as for Banners, i would make Ward-type banners (air, earth, fire, water) + any good idea i hear
 
as for skills, i was thinking of making a Life ward skill (called Unbound), and maybe a Weapon ward skill (called Great Parry) and both would be lvl15 (the last one you can pick)
 
as for items, the only idea i have is a Shatter attack (an item that would give you x% chance to shatter 5 armor per hit), and since Shatter doesn't really give a damn about CtH, thats why it gets 5... or maybe 10...

 

**update 27 October 2006**

well, its not really that big of an update but it does bring three new NPCs into the game... and maybe some more nerfs, i dunno...
 
since i dumped the Illusion summons, i had those three leaders just going to waste so i sad "oh well, i might as well put them to good use" and i did... the illusion hellhound became the Cerberus leader, the beliarh stayed the beliarh, and the Avenger illusion became the Dark Wanderer leader -- the perfect boss for a good-storyline saga...
 
**update 30 October 2006**
 

ok, i think this will be the final baroness revamp... since she pretty much sucked in the first version (just fear), i gave her a totaly imba dmg amount with a 60-65 CtH (which also kinda sucked) with a follow up Fear attack...

 
this time i'm proud to present the cool baroness without being too much imba...
This time her attack is Fear / Take From... you ask "what might that be ? it couldn't be..." and i say "oh yes... it could"...
 
as you all guessed, the baroness will shapeshift, or simply put, take the form of the unit she scares off first (fears)... after that she'll remain in the transformed state for the duration of the battle (i just can't toggle this... sorry)
 
so what does that mean ? let's say that your Baroness is escorted by two Berzerkers...
let's say she encounters a dwarven rodplanter escorted by a SoY...
 
if she first chooses to Fear the SoY, he will just run away scared and nothing will happen; but if she chooses to fear away the Hero, not only will he run away, but your Baroness will take the form of that hero... of course, a rodplanter can't do much against a SoY, but imagine if that happened to one of your DoFs.... scary thought...
oh yeah, you can't morph into two-spacers and Mind-immune units (fear has to hit first)
 
the stats:
she's pretty much the same - init 20, Fear / Take form are both Mind attacks, so don't bother attacking mind immunes... the 75dmg baroness was pretty much imba because she could take out almost any mage unit; this way she only gets to pick one...
 
well, enjoy :)

**update 31 October 2006**

this patch only gives baroness 40 init instead of 20... i wanna try this one out... maybe a high-init baroness wouldn't be that bad afterall (60 init) but i wanna test out the 40 init one first...

 

**update 31 October 2006**

ok, i've done some testing and i uncover the latest tweak...
 
Baroness -- 60 init (can chase away archers and become an archer :D, also very scary agains low-lvl heroes as she can chase away your hero and then kick your ass with him)
Loremaster -- 45 dmg, up from 30 (low init, high dmg, classic dwarven crap)
Doombringer -- Fear CtH now 40% (down from 60, still kicks ass IMHO)
 
soo.... i've tested the undead throughly and nothing is out of order there (not anymore at least)...
the next guys on the list are the Mountain Clans (mainly because i wanna try out my cool stack -- KG, 2x DK, 2xFG, AD)
after that i'm testing the Legions, and then the Empire (since there's nothing to fix/check there)

**update 1 November 2006**

ok, Aleksandar Mijatovic pointed my attention to a serious bug -- the Doombringer stopped gaining dmg after lvl10 :)
like i said, it was only a typo (the field was empty meaning that i probably didn't press enter after inputing 3, or i just forgot to input the 3) and it is fixed now...

**update 11 January 2007**

well, i think the only change here is that the pitlord got more imba (if he ever was) by having 60 init :D his HP is still high and dmg rather low, but i guess it gives you some advantage agains those archers

**update 13 March 2007**

yey, but this time - nerfs only...

changelog (yeah, i know it's not the time for this since i missed out
on most stuff, but hey - i need an excuse for the next release anyway
:D)

Flame Caster init down to 35 from 45
Flame Caster DYNUPGLVL (aka the lvlup "level break") down to 8 from 13
(yeah, i wanted to keep the dwarven archer line streamlined, but i
guess it'll have to work like this)
Flame Caster XP per LVL up to 30 from 0 (so yeah, this puts them back
in their *sucky* place)

Yeti DYNUPGLVL down to 6 from 10
Yeti XP per LVL up to 30 from 0 (so he ends up with 600xp req)

these were to numerous complaints (well, some common sense actually)
on the subject of Yeties being overpowered waay too much (stronger
than hermits/EOs), somewhat of a Fiend / Overlord matter... so i
nerfed them.... following the same common sense,

Fiend DYNUPGLVL down to 6 from 10
Fiend XP per LVL up to 30 from 0

to disencourage fiend abusing... and finally,

Dreadwyrm dmg up from 45/45 to 50/50 (it's cooler this way)
Dreadwyrm CtH up from 80/45 to 80/50 (i just like dreadwyrms :D)
Hermit dmg up from 55 to 60 - meh, they get their first lvlup for
free, to make them more competitive with the uber yeties and fcs... i
still think the Wolf Lord is worth it, since the Wolf Master pwns :)

**update 17 February 2007**

not much, removed the XP_NEXT upgrade from Brigand/marauder, and
tweaked the campaigns to include an elven AI player :D

**update 19 February 2007**

A terrible bug has come to my attention, and i'm afraid i can't fix it...
althogh, it CAN be avoided; while playing the Campaign mode with the
Elves with my mod applied, mission 3 will load indefinetely - this is
due to some complex stuff that i don't really care to explain to the
whole group; here's the explanation on how to fix it:
1) play the first two levels normaly
2) just before beating level 2, save the game and apply the
DefGlobals, this will revert your RotE to the normal, default state
3) begin mission 3
4) move your default hero aside, move all others in the capital, strip
them of their items/units you wish to keep and disband every last one
of them
5) after all those "free" heroes have been disbanded, save again
6) apply my Globals
7) enjoy the rest of the campaign with my mod...

** if anything like this happens again - please do contact me, i'm
throughly testing everything, but i'm not very quick/fast about it...
i can already freely say that no bugs exist in the MC default saga :D
same can be said about the custom sagas, although there can always be
something lurking...

i suggest that someone does an all "wearethechampions" on all of the
levels for all the races (except Elven map 3) and tell me if the game
hangs/failes to load/crashes as this is the best indicator if there
are any "hard bugs" ... as long as the map generates - it's all good
;)

**update 14 March 2007**

well, looks like this is my D2 mod day after all...
two new skills (and maybe some more)

Guildmaster only - lvl 7 - Uncanny Reflexes => Allows the Leader to
retreat instantly

Warrior Lord only - lvl 16 - Overwhelming might => Adds 50% dmg

if you have any other suggestions,. feel free to say :)

i'm thinking of the next two things:

1) make Mage Lords to be able to pick wards / immunities earlier, also
add a Life ward skill
2) make Tomes give immunities instead of wards (that way they're useful)

other than that, generic changes include(d) skill picking as high as
till lvl20 but i changed it back to 16 again (so once you pick the
lvl16 one, that's it) and talismans have 5 charges... that is all :D

 

**update 1 April 2007**

 

mostly cosmetic updates and a few minor ones

cosmetic updates include:
Imperial priest renamed to Warpriest, and adjusted his desc
Crusadeer renamed to Knight of the Chalice, changed his desc
a few other minor renames

minor updates:
all shatter attacks now display 100% (this is a cosmetic one imho)
Imperial Assassin has 50/30 instead of 60/20 now and gets +5 per lvl
instead of +6

i think that's about it...

 

**update 19 April 2007**

among other unneeded things (forgot which though) the watchman now has
35dmg and a 45% cth paralyze sec. attack... his cap lvl is 12 so he
ends up with 95%cth 75 air dmg and 55%cth air paralyze...

 

**update 19 April 2007**

yup, it has come to my great attention that hierophants are somewhat
.... left out for the sake of matriarch/prophetess...

so, i tried to balance it out, and i failed.... then, i got another
idea but for some reason, d2 just "didn't like it" so it kept
bugging...

so, i made a compromise...

yes, this may well be one of the "bad" features of this mod (don't
worry, theres much more of em that you just don't know of ;D) but this
is how stuff is now:

warpriest (aka imp. priest) gained Revive sec attack, a Death ward and
his desc changed too.
Hierophant gained Life,Death immunities (i gave it much much thought,
especially in a boss-battle / capital razing, but i know how the AI
works - he will try to kill your hierophant ASAP so you're not
invincible by being able to escape from boss-battles... i hope) and
got a Bestow Life/Death ward sec attack... yes, the hierophant is
actually USEFUL now... he gains +15 heal each lvl
the only bad thing is that a unit HAS to be hurt in order to get the
wards - for some really really odd reason, for Hierophant, the Heal
attack has to be the attack filter, and not the Wards themselves; i
tried making him like the Grovemaiden, and the game starts bugging for
some really odd reason... oh yeah, i also tried giving him a double
attack, but in that case the first unit healed loses the wards
instantly (only later did i discover that the wards are lost on the
next healer turn so it can't be done) but i figured "hey, in a capital
siege all your units will get hit so there's no problem there... the
hierophant itself is immune to the dmg so he won't be warding himself
so it all kinda works out)... the original units ARE preserved for
not-so-obvious reasons (orbs/potions refer to these two units so i did
not dare change them - or the Revive potion would be giving death
wards and stuff like that) and i like to preserve units that might
come in handy later...

to make things worse, the Prophetess got nerfed down to 60 heal and
she lost her cure attack (oh_noes) but she now has a Bestow Death Ward
which could potentially be more useful than the Cure, but probably
won't... she (still?!) gains +10 heal each lvl for some reason, but i
didn't really care to bother with that; if you do ditch the cure you
deserve the +2 bonus (the matriarch can get two levels while the
prophetes gets one)...

so, the "streamline" with the healers is this (both the EA and Empire)
: stick with the healer you want, in other words - use locking if you
don't like what you see...

i see the warpriest revive as a good thing since you get it earlier
and just in time when it matters most...

so, i'm not really proud of the Hierophant/Prophetess incident, but
something had to be done there...

i'll get to the Orb/talisman revamping one of these days since i
probably have nothing better to do until the 7th...
 
 

                 As for the D2 modding movement -- I started modding D2 when most of the modders quit, so I kinda learned stuff on my own and the advice of the remaining veterans... I think MOST of the remaining D2 modders quit when D3 was announced and screenies started appearing on the internet... so, D2 modding movement is practicaly dead, with the exception of maybe some diehard D2 fans somewhere out there in the world (probably Russia) working on something really awesome, or just trying to perfect the game
with pathetic balancing attempts...
                 I don't know if you've ever played HOMM3, but there is one Russian guy, Slava, that added his own C++ code on to the homm3 game and virtualy made another expansion (Wake of Gods) with tons and tons of new stuff.... but I think that is slowly dying out too, because only Slava knows how to do complicated stuff, and all the *modders* do is write custom scripts for that mod (or expansion) to use, thanks to Slava's idea to implement a SCRIPT COMPILER into HOMM3 (something like a programming language).....