|
| Thread: Archibald campaign for HotA |  This thread is pages long: 1 2 3 · «PREV / NEXT» |
|
przemo877
Hired Hero
Map Renovator
|
posted January 10, 2016 04:03 PM |
|
|
zmudziak22 said:
Will you do Price of the Loyalty and H1 Campaign for HotA? I recommend for H3 Features disable DD an fly because our heroes carry over between scenarios and with Expert Air Magic we can spam DD 5 times. Also if i remember dwarves towns couldn't develop to max. Only main City(Rampart/Dungeon should provide as with full army production). Also map with collecting troops for Rolanx/Archibald all neutral towns except the one close to Enemy should have disable building fort like in Vanilla. I think you should either rise a bit difficulty or unlock ability to change it. Hard is optimal for 3 starting scenarios and Final One on Impossible, as enemy use all strengh to last stand against us.
Yes, I'll do Price of the Loyalty, but it'll take some time. H1 I'm right now unable to (but I really want to!), because I'd need to somehow open the campaign maps in editor. Which doesn't work on my system.
As of HoMM2 things you described (dwarven towns, forts in troop gathering scenarios). Remember I did those maps by hand and there must be some things I missed, but that's why I appreciate any kind of feedback and will try to make those campaigns better and closer to the original. 
I already have versions with selectable difficulty + I did some more balancing in Archibald campaign. DD and fly are turned off in version with HoMM3 features and enemy heroes have higher levels to keep up with the player better.
I'll upload everything shortly and update the links.
Edit: Done. Everything is updated. I'll try to look up anything I missed and update it in the near future. No ETA right now.
|
|
zmudziak22
Supreme Hero
Heroes 3 Fan
|
|
posted January 11, 2016 11:21 AM |
|
|
|
Ok. H1 Campaign will be easier to do, because the only diffrences are starting positions and unique map for each side.
|
|
dodo_bird
Adventuring Hero
|
|
posted January 17, 2016 12:01 PM |
|
|
przemo877 said:
you must ask HotA team for help, just as I did.
Ah! They packed it for you. Your initial replies weren't clear.
Thanks for the unlocked difficulty version. I've played first 6 maps of Archibald's campaign so far, here are some feedback. (I don't have original game for reference so any comparison is to what I see from skimming youtube let's plays.)
Map 1
With hota halving necromancy, smallish map and weak guards, it's impossible to generate much skeletons. Maybe start the hero with some necro artifacts? Not to make it easier, but to allow the player to actually feel necromancy working.
Map 2
Typo in day 1 text "given their proximity and unguarded castle is an open invitation to defeat."
Map 3
There is a guard southwest of starting town that isn't guarding anything. If it is supposed to block the way, it's misplaced. Looks like it was this way as well in original.
Southwest of necro town, there is an area with 2 gem pond that is inaccessible.
Necro town hero AI behavior was pretty poor. It had a huge tower army but left all in town. When I approached with scouts, it went back, took all tower army out to kill one scout, allowing me take lightly defended town. But I don't know what options there are in editor to actually change AI behavior.
Map 5
Lol. I was one movement point short from winning this in 4 days. This is way too easy with ogre joiners but I guess that is the point, to show the benefit of the ogre alliance.
It's only small map and AIs have no extra army. I think 5 Rocs starting bonus is too strong, makes it easy even if playing without joiners.
Map 6
This map starts only with one hero? There should be 2 starting heroes. Maybe it's because I lost Alamar in map 4.
40 Skeles and 1 bone dragon should be on Corlagon rather than in town.
In original map, left of start town is not passable.
Map 7
I haven't started this yet but there's a typo in scenario description. "draon city"
|
|
przemo877
Hired Hero
Map Renovator
|
|
posted January 17, 2016 08:33 PM |
|
|
dodo_bird
Your feedback is much appreciated
I didn't think too much about the necromancy in this campaign. I'll probably add a choice for necromancer artifacts in maps with necro towns.
Map 2 & 7
Those typos were nicely spotted. It's harder for me to spot them because english is not my native language. If you happen to find more. Let me know
Map 3
Yeah, that guard has no meaning. I'll probably move him a little in the version with Features.
Those 2 gem ponds - I totally forgot about them... When I created that map I didn't know how to place that Mystical Garden. I left it like that thinking that I'll decide later, but I simply forgot. When I tested the map I was focused on just capturing the Necro town and win the scenario. Validating the map in the editor didn't show any errors, so I thought everything is ok. Turns out I was wrong xD it will be fixed in the next update of my campaigns.
The AI of heroes that are guarding the objectives can be bad at times in HoMM3. All I can probably do about it, is to halve the patrol radius of the hero guarding the town, that way when he'll try to defeat a scout, he'll still have some movement to go back inside. Or I could just force him to never leave the castle. The worse thing is that sometimes the AI will try to give that army away to other heroes and leave the necro town defensless trying really hard to conquer you as fast as it can. I'll have to add another player to the AI team in order to prevent this.
Map 5
I guess it was supposed to be easy due to storytelling. This map is even easier in HoMM2 if you choose to ally yourself with Roland, having 3 towns vs 1. I'll balance it out a little in the version with Features giving more units to the enemy at the start, and maybe reducing the numbers of Ogres that are willing to join the player.
Map 6
At some point I probably deleted the second hero in this map. Don't know why. I'll fix it.
It's impossible to give a specific starting army to the hero that is carried over from the previous scenario. I had to place them inside the castle.
The path around the castle will be fixed.
The updated versions should be up early tommorow or very late today, but the save games from the older version will not work with the newer version (the heroes that should carry over, won't).
|
|
przemo877
Hired Hero
Map Renovator
|
|
posted January 18, 2016 12:00 AM |
|
|
The campaign files are updated. I hope that I fixed everything that was pointed out + a little bit more that I found out myself was wrong.
The save files from the previous versions are not compatible, because the heroes will not carry over from the older versions to the new. I suggest finishing up the campaigns you started, or simply start out fresh. You've been warned
Enjoy! 
|
|
Aionb
Known Hero
|
|
posted January 18, 2016 10:10 AM |
|
|
|
Good thing I waited. Thank you for this, I will try them when I'll have the time.
|
|
dodo_bird
Adventuring Hero
|
|
posted January 21, 2016 02:10 AM |
|
|
I realize that the necro nerf is not just because of hota. In h2, if you kill 100 peasants with 30% necromancy, you get back 30 skels. In h3, hit points are taken into account. Skels have 6 hp while peasants have 1. So you only get 5 skels, 1/6th the amount.
7
Scenario text says to avoid enemies and capture dragon city, but it is so heavily defended you need the army from both enemy towns to take dragon city in a reasonable time frame. Maybe increase AI army/reduce dragon city army to maintain style of map, or change/add to the text to make it not misleading.
Ogres near the north hillfort aren't set to always join. There seems to be some guards that are preset as dwarves, shouldn't they be set to always flee?
8
2 red dragons is quite a big starting bonus. Several green dragons on left of map that joins you also seem like a lot. AI does have more and better built towns than the player, so I guess it doesn't break the balance if you don't rush.
9
Again, the several green dragons at bottom left feels like too much, especially when this map is quite even.
11
Since you get a preset army in 11, the text description in 9 and 10 about carrying over crown or army are not applicable. Maybe change them in the description or add a note here in this post.
I lost Alamar in map 4 so some of the maps I get a random high level dungeon hero. But this map there wasn't a replacement for Alamar and I start only with Archibald, Hack and Corlagon.
Shouldn't Roland carry Tower army rather than Castle? The Archangel guards on the map should also be Titans.
Tavern necro heroes are only lvl 5 for the last map, much lower than previous maps. I don't know if this is intentional.
|
|
zmudziak22
Supreme Hero
Heroes 3 Fan
|
|
posted January 21, 2016 09:56 AM |
|
|
Roland carry Castle troops because he is mostly seen as knight in H3 and his reincarnation in H6. Archibald was both Warlock and Necromancer, he teaches Lord Carlagon necromancy. I was suprised that Archibald is not Warlock and Dungeon.
My prefered builds for each hero class:
Barbarian : Offense, Tactics, Earth, Air, Wisdmo, Log, opt. Archery, Armorer(more defense), opt. Artillery/Ballistics
Warlock: Wisdom, Earth, Fire(Arma + Dragons), Log , Inteligence, Water Magic(Prayer, Bless, Clone and forgetfulness over Mass Haste and Chain Lightning)., Tactics, Offense/Armorer
Necro: Necromancy, Wisdom, Earth, Tactics, Logistics, Offense, Armorer, Air/Water/Inteligence
Knight:
Leadership, Logistics, Earth, Water, Archery, Tactics, Wisdom, Offense/Armorer/Air (Tactics is mostly for cover Archers and push forward Griffins and Champions). Also Castle benefit most from Water Magic.
Druid: Wisdom, Logistics, Inteligence, Air, Water, Earth, Tactics, Offense/Armorer
Wizard: Wisdom, Logistics, Tactics, Archery(Titans are immune to Blind and Forgetfulness), Air, Water, Earth.
|
|
dodo_bird
Adventuring Hero
|
|
posted January 21, 2016 12:39 PM |
|
|
His army in the h2 campaign is from Wizard town. And guards on maps are Titans. I don't know what his class is, but it doesn't matter much if skills are customized.
With Archibald, again class is not important if skills are customized. Only issue is starting army. Because of editor limitation, you are forced to start with necro although in previous map, you could choose to collect army from any 3 factions, or even mix them.
I think one way around this is to set up 3 quest guards and garrisons beside Archibald. Start Archibald with the quest artifact, and he can trade it for an army of the faction that the player collected in previous map. Maybe a 4th guard with heavenly helm to represent the crown you dug up so you can play like you chose map 9 over map 10.
|
|
zmudziak22
Supreme Hero
Heroes 3 Fan
|
|
posted January 21, 2016 03:21 PM |
|
|
Roland in HotA remake is Knight and use Castle Forces
Archibald in HotA remake is Necromancer and use Necropolis Forces.
It is his vision. In my opinion Both of them should be original to H2. Still H3 like campaigns have tendency that our Heroes grow to fast compared to AI. Either give AI more army on start or give him more stats and levels.
|
|
Drakon-Deus
Undefeatable Hero
Qapla'
|
|
posted January 21, 2016 03:26 PM |
|
|
Canonically, is not Roland a Knight and Archibald leader of Necromancers?
I know what classes they had in H2 campaign, mind you, but I don't see why a H2 to H3 HotA adaptation has to keep them.
Classes and Heroes, for that matter, were different anyway between H2 and 3.
|
|
przemo877
Hired Hero
Map Renovator
|
|
posted January 21, 2016 08:30 PM |
|
|
dodo_bird
Map 7
The Dragon City is heavily defended mostly because, when I was testing the map, I had Alamar from previous scenario and it was too easy to capture it with him, even after I disabled the DD and Fly spells.
Ogres in HoMM3 with compliant behaviour will join any player. Those that are too far from the player had to become neutral because, they would join the enemy warlocks which doesn't have alliance with them. I don't know if there is a workaround About the dwarves. I don't remember how they acted when you encountered them in HoMM2. I think it would be best for them to just hate you for what you did to their kingdom and always fight you to get revenge, but I can change that anytime.
Map 8, 9
I'm considering lowering the starting bonus of Red Dragons to just 1. Those Green ones. I missed them when I was altering the maps. All dragons on the maps should have quantity of 1. I'll fix that in the next update.
Map 11
It's impossible to carry over the troops from map 10, because if that option is turned on in the scenario properties in the campaign then every hero that is carried over from the previous scenarios and is still alive will have previous army with them. Example: Crag Hack will have his army from the end of map 9. I think you can see how much it would be broken on maps where there was no time limit to have 3 very big armies at the start. That's the only workaround I could think of at that time - to have a preset army on Archibald. I'll probably add two random heroes for Barb and Dungeon castles, just in case that Alamar and Crag Hack died earlier. That would make 6 starting heroes total for that map if everyone is still alive xD.
Tavern Necros should start at higher levels. They will be fixed.
|
|
przemo877
Hired Hero
Map Renovator
|
|
posted January 21, 2016 08:35 PM |
|
|
dodo_bird, zmudziak22 & Drakon-Deus
About the classes of Roland and Archibald:
In HoMM2, Roland is a knight in mission 9 in his own campaign and then his class is changed to wizard in the last maps of both campaigns. Since he is a knight later in HoMM3 campaign, I think it would fit him to be knight all the time and respectively change his army to that of a knight. You know - to have some continuity.
The Archibald on the other hand is in most cases shown as a Necromancer, also the necromancers in Enroth rose to power only after Archibald took over the throne, yeah, I know it's farfetched - there was no necromancer town in HoMM1 so it probably doesn't matter 
I could try to make their castles a random town between the Dungeon/Necropolis for Archibald and Castle/Tower for Roland.
|
|
zmudziak22
Supreme Hero
Heroes 3 Fan
|
|
posted January 21, 2016 09:39 PM |
|
|
|
Also Morglin Ironfist, he was leader of Knights in H1. We don't have texts about Knights in H2, but since Roland is his son, they stay loyal to him.
|
|
przemo877
Hired Hero
Map Renovator
|
|
posted January 21, 2016 09:57 PM |
|
|
zmudziak22 said:
Also Morglin Ironfist, he was leader of Knights in H1. We don't have texts about Knights in H2, but since Roland is his son, they stay loyal to him.
I agree, we can safely assume that.
|
|
dodo_bird
Adventuring Hero
|
|
posted January 21, 2016 11:51 PM |
|
|
7. My point is, the scenario description suggests that the map is supposed to be about evading AI and taking dragon city. If that is the case, AI should be stronger than dragon city.
The ogre alliance bonus also gives you dwarf-bane, which causes all dwarfs to flee. But it's not that important.
I guess that means dragons on 8,9 could join AI too.
11. I understand the editor limitation. I'm saying, instead of starting with a fixed necro army on Archibald, you can put 3 quest huts near him. They would have a reward of Stronghold, Necro, and Dungeon army. Set the 3 quest huts to all require the same artifact, let's say sea captain's hat, to get the reward. You start Archibald with sea captain's hat. Have signpost or scripted message telling the player to pick from one of the 3 based on the path they chose in previous map.
If it is not possible to have a hero replace the ones that died, I wouldn't add extra.
I downloaded the H2 soundtrack and renamed some of them to match the H3 files. It seems to work. If anyone wants to try it, here's the link..
Go into your heroes install directory, make a backup of your "MP3" folder. (Right click on folder, copy. Then right click on an empty area in the heroes directory and paste. You should get a folder called "MP3 - Copy") Download and unzip the .mp3s into "MP3" folder and choose replace all.
To restore original music, delete folder "MP3" and rename your backup folder back to "MP3".
|
|
dodo_bird
Adventuring Hero
|
|
posted January 22, 2016 12:00 AM |
|
|
|
Oh, I just played the first map for Roland. It's so painful not having a tavern or a visible wood pile to build it when playing on impossible difficulty. Second map seems to have no tavern too? Is this intended? If I recall correctly, Archibald's last map, only Stronghold has tavern. That's strange as well.
|
|
przemo877
Hired Hero
Map Renovator
|
|
posted January 22, 2016 12:21 AM |
|
|
dodo_bird
Map 7
I understand, but the AI in HoMM3 often tries to simply rush you with very strong armies as fast as it can if such an opportunity occurs. Heroes on patrol will often give away their armies to the heroes that have unlimited patrol range. I cannot make them too strong because it would be close to impossible to evade them, gather enough troops and capture Dragon City before the AI does it. It's a tricky scenario but I'll still try to balance it out better.
Map 8,9
That is correct, the dragons can join the enemy player. I believe there is no perfect workaround. I'm right now testing some of the diplomacy artifacts on those maps. Hope I can find some good solutions to those "alliances".
Map 11
I'll try to think of a clever way to implement this, can't promise anything though
I'll check out those mp3's, maybe play with them for a bit (evil theme is really great), personally I'm a great fan of HoMM4 music and already have a few themes replaced but maybe some people will use the HoMM2 music files for better immersion
|
|
przemo877
Hired Hero
Map Renovator
|
|
posted January 22, 2016 01:11 AM |
|
|
dodo_bird said:
Oh, I just played the first map for Roland. It's so painful not having a tavern or a visible wood pile to build it when playing on impossible difficulty. Second map seems to have no tavern too? Is this intended? If I recall correctly, Archibald's last map, only Stronghold has tavern. That's strange as well.
I just checked the maps quickly.
There is no tavern on map 2, but I messed up tavern on map 1 and didn't prebuilt it in editor. I'll fixed it in the next update.
Also a thing I'd like to ask everyone about:
In HoMM2 you don't need tavern to hire heroes, you need fort. It's only there for rumors. Should I then prebuilt tavern in every castle that have a fort? Or should I built tavern only if there is an actual tavern building in the castles/towns?
So far I tried to do the latter, but I think I should change it.
|
|
Drakon-Deus
Undefeatable Hero
Qapla'
|
|
posted January 22, 2016 06:07 AM |
|
|
|
You should build Tavern in all of them if you want the HoMM 2 feel, IMO.
|
| |
|
|
