Join

Joining is a feature where a stack of wandering creatures are willing to become a part of hero's army for free or in exchange for gold. Whether or not the stack will join depends on several factors, but basically if the hero's charisma value (C) is lower than creature stack's mood value (M) the creatures will fight. If charisma is greater there are three possible outcomes:

1. the stack will join for free,
2. the stack will join for gold, or
3. the stack will fight.

In other words, if the charisma value is greater than mood value there is a possibility that the stack will join, but they may still be willing to fight.

The creature mood is a set by the map creator. The default map setting is "Aggressive", giving a random mood value between 1 and 10.

Calculation and factors

Mood values (M)
M	Aggression:
-4	Compliant
1–7	Friendly
1–10	Aggressive
4–10	Hostile
10	Savage
Strength values (St)
St	k (see equation to left)
11	k ≥ 7
2 × (k-1)*	1 ≤ k < 7
-1	0,5 ≤ k < 1
-2	0,333 ≤ k < 0,5
-3	k < 0,333
* rounded down
Diplomacy values (D)
D	Level of Diplomacy
1	No Diplomacy skill
2	Basic level Diplomacy
3	Advanced level Diplomacy
4	Expert level Diplomacy
Sympathy values (Sy)
Sy	Sympathy description
0	No creatures from the same creature type.
1	At least one creature from the same creature type.
2	Over 50% creatures from the same creature type.

Possible Creature Actions

C < M → Creatures will fight
   • C is the Charisma value (see equation below)
   • M is the Mood value (see chart on right)

C ≥ M
   1. Stack will join for free if S_y + D ≥ M
   2. Stack will join for gold if S_y + D + 2 ≥ M
   3. Stack will fight if S_y + D + 2 < M

Supporting Equations

C = S_t + D + S_y
   • S_t is is strength factor (see table to right)
   • D is Diplomacy value (see table to right) (add +1 if playing on Easy difficulty and not having Expert Diplomacy)
   • S_y is sympathy value (see table to right)

k = H × Hero army Strength / AI army Strength
   • H is hero strength value (see equation below)
   • NOTE: The army strength is the sum of AI creature values.

H = √(1 + 0,05 × A) × (1 + 0,05 × D)
   • A is the hero's attack skill value
   • D is the hero's defense skill value

External links

• Thread: Diplomacy internals on Heroes Community]