User:Csaros/Mod - Changelog

Known issues

• WARNING! DO NOT LOAD SAVEFILES MADE WITHOUT THIS PATCH!!! Save files made with an older version of the patch are okay.
• The game will even out the stats of all heroes to remain as they were in the save, even though the artifact values have changed! This will effectively give you free stats if you were equiping any of the nerfed artifacts, and reduce your stats if you were using Ring of the Magi.
• Some puzzle maps may become impossible to complete. If you encounter such maps, contact me, and I'll happily fix their difficulty.
• Since It's virtually impossible to "add" a new hero, I had to remove some dummy heroes used for portrait only - Tarnum's other incarnation portraits. Tarnum still works on all campaigns - only his image may be replaced by another one now. The version of HC I play uses a different portrait for him anyway.

Note: Tournament Rules will overwrite Dimension Door changes.

Download

You can download the mod using this link

Installation

Move all files to C:/.../Heroes Of Might and Magic III Complete/

Remember to back up your original files, or have access to an installer!

This mod requires fully updated HotA and HD+ mod.

Notice

Due to HotA announcing a new patch for the New Year's, which will most likely include a skill rebalance, expect a vastly different version of the mod within the first weeks of 1.7.2 (or 1.8, however they decide to call it) being available. I expect the incoming patch to feature secondary skill balance, so obviously this mod will be altered based on that.

Version 1.3 changes

• Fixed all missing and low-quality specialty images.
• Reduced starting gold bonus to 1000-1500
• Reverted some starting army changes based on user feedback.
• Tweaked all spell specialists to be roughly just as useful. All specialties were divided into a few types and a separate bonus applies to each type.
• Added Bios to Athe, Kastore and Sleen.
• Added a new specialty - Scholar.
• New hero - Sleen. He is a Wizard - Precision specialist, starting with Wisdom and Archery. Yes, it's the Judge Sleen. For now he has a portrait of a similar-looking character from a different Might and Magic game.
• New hero - Gwenneth. She is a Cleric - Scholar specialist, starting with Wisdom and Scholar. She has a portrait that comes from the unused game files (thanks, Aphra!).
• Changed Athe's specialty to Diplomacy specialty, because Curse specialty did not calculate the damage correctly.
• Cape of Velocity is now a Relic.
• Updated two maps from AB campaigns to accomodate hero changes made.
• Reverted the Castle Gate direction change, as it created an irreconcilable issue with multiplayer play.
• Decreased the cost of Castle Gate.
• Removed the "Are you sure you wish to end your turn?" message if all heroes have less than 50 mp.
• Increased Upg. Gantry cost to 20 ore.

Version 1.2.1 changes

• Fixed a bug with too many quick left-right clicks after clicking the town hall crashing the game.
• Added Right-click functionality to Town Hall.
• Extended Hover info on the Town Hall.
• New hero - Athe, Heretic.
• Changed the cost of the Upg. Gnoll Hut to 5 wood and 5 ore from 10 wood.

Version 1.2 changes

• New hero - Kastore, the Tactics specialist.
• New specialty for Melodia and an image for Inteus's new Fireball specialty.
• Genie base cost reduced by 50.
• Updated h3hota_maped.exe, so that all new maps are made in a manner compliant with this patch.
• Fixed a bug with Adela's Bless specialty working like Daremyth's specialty instead.
• Updated Dragon's Blood campaign to use Mutare correctly.
• Updated Tarnum's Overlord campaign (Sword of Frost) to use his hero character correctly.
• Removed Tactics explanation on every battle (why, NWC?)
• Added a few secrets to rumors and other messages. If you solve their riddles, you'll find something cool.
• Fixed Sirens calculating XP based on Fight Value and not AI value. Changed their divison to 1/4 (as originally intended in this mod, I somehow forgot to divide it earlier)
• Tweaked Cure and Remove obstacle numbers.
• Since Dispel can no longer remove Dendroid Binding (because it targets only enemies), Cure now can.
• To make up for Dispel not having any effect progression from Basic to Advanced, Dispel now has separate mana cost drops (similar to Teleport) - 8/6/5/4.
• Changed Octavia's and Synca's starting spells.

Version 1.1 changes

• Reverted Cloak of the Undead King changes
• Gave Synca (a Scholar) a spellbook to use that Scholar.
• Changed Master Genie's spellcast ability. Now they cannot cast Anti-Magic, but can cast Cure. Coded in a way to allow easy addition of Anti-Magic and Clone spells for those who want them.
• Added new UI feature! Clicking the town hall icon opens the buildings menu!
• Frederick is now available on every map that has 15 or less other Factory heroes available.
• Increased Sharpshooter and Enchanter prices by 25% each.
• Removed the Power of the Dragon Father stat buffs
• Death Cloud changes reverted.

Changelog and Reasoning

Artifacts

Some QoL stuff added:

+ Combination artifacts state their component effects!

+ All pieces of combination artifacts now mention their belonging to a set in their description!

+ Endless Sack of Gold is now a Major artifact! //Having this in your Utopia was probably the worst feeling ever.

+ Eagle Eye artifacts increase Eagle Eye % by 10/20/30% and don't require the Eagle Eye skill. //They did nothing before.

+ Archery artifacts work without the Archery skill.

A few artifacts are in my opinion a little too strong.

- Pendant of Courage: +2 Morale, +2 Luck. Cost: 6000. //This artifact was the equivalent of Expert Leadership and Expert Luck combined, and it's a Major class?

- Necklace of Swiftness is a minor class artifact, cost 5000. //I think developers didn't know how good speed is with this design. Ring of Wayfarer is still Major.

- Cape of Velocity is now a Relic. //Again, the strongest Major class arti and the strongest Cloak in the game. Now it's much more rare.

Apart from that, I consider Interference Stacking to be a significant issue for the game - Ignatius at level 4 with 3 artifacts can reduce enemy mage's power by 75% (!), while Giselle at level 17 reduces power of any hero she encounters to 1, provided she has the aforementioned artifacts. In my opinion, Interference (and Giselle) are not the problem; it is the fact that each separate source of interference is stronger than the one before (as it reduces a higher % of remaining Power). To combat this, I brought all 3 artifacts to the same power and made them slightly less common.

- Plate of Dying Light decreases enemy power by 10% and is now a Major artifact (cost 5000)

- Charm of Eclipse and Seal of Sunset are now both Major artifacts.

Combination Artifacts

Combination artifacts in my opinion have too little variety. If I can get any piece of Angelic alliance, I'll always use it; and the only viable end-game artifacts are the Ironfist, Armor of the Damned and Angelic Alliance (because Dragon Father has 27 pieces to collect and Titan's Thunder has no real set bonus).

+ Armageddon's Blade is now a new combination artifact, comprised of Shield of the Damned, Sword of Hellfire, Breastplate of Brimstone and the Hellstorm Helmet.

+ Power of the Dragon Father: Grants complete magic immunity. // This should feel a bit better for how damn rare it is.

+ Titan's Thunder spell deals 200 dmg + 40 * Spell Power. //Now the set does *something*

- Angelic Alliance: Cost of all pieces increased to 1250 per 1 to any stat.

- Angelic Alliance components provide 1/2/2/3/3/4 to all stats, instead of 1/2/3/4/5/6. // Aphra, if you want to revert it, here's the offset: 0x23e7dc 02020202030303030303030304040404 -> 03030303 04040404 05050505 06060606. In my opinion these artifacts are still healthily unbalanced (+12 total? +16??)

- Angelic alliance only mixes good units for the hero equipping it (instead of all units on all heroes always, was it intended?).

- Ring of the Magi is no longer a combination artifact. It's instead a Major class artifact which increases Power and Knowledge by 2 each. // I don't know how to add new artifact sets for now; because of that, I had to remove one combination arti. Ring of the Magi seemed the most useless. Current bonus is as it is because no other Ring gives +4 to stats, but some rings have a chance of being equally / more desirable, f.e. Ring of Oblivion, Still Eye of the Dragon, Ring of the Wayfarer, Ring of Suppresion. If you have other ideas how to repurpose this frankly useless artifact, please give me some advice.

Elixir of Life is a bit too common for my taste - we've all seen Lexiav casually get it from crypts and such by day 2. I also find it peculiar how the progression is 1/1/2 instead of a more intuitive 1/2/3 (especially since 3 HP isn't broken or anything).

+ Ring of Life is now a Major class artifact, +2 HP to all units, cost 10000

+ Vial of Lifeblood is now a Relic class artifact, +3 HP to all units, cost 15000

Wizard's Well was re-balanced simply because of how it defeats the purpose of having a high mana pool.

+ Charm, Talisman and Mystic Orb of Mana replenish 2/3/4 mana points per day extra. Cost changed to 1000/2000/3000.

- Wizard's Well regenerates 50% mana per day

And finally, some very weak artifacts were buffed.

+ Cornucopia gives 7 of each rare resource per day (total).

+ Legion's set pieces increase growth by 8/6/4/3/2 . Cost to 10000, class to minor/minor/Major/Major/Relic.

Towns

I didn't want to change too much; all I ended up doing was slightly alter cost of particularly weak / strong buildinds to make building choices have a little more complexity, create some QOL and fun changes and tried to keep up the beauty of some symmetries the game possesses, without interfering too much with balance. The only exception is Gantry, which had a price increase due to a change to Juggernauts.

All Towns

+ Added a mention that Moats deal damage.

Grails

+ Skyship grants +300 mana during a siege.

+ Guardian of Earth increases Spell Power by 30 during a siege.

+ Warlords' Monument increases Attack by 30 during a siege.

+ Carnivorous Plant increases Attack and Defense by 15 each during a siege.

Rampart

+ Mystic Pond's cost has been reduced to 5 ore, 1500 gold. It produces 3-6 of a random rare resource each week.

+ Fountain of Fortune's cost decreased to 3 crystals and 1000 gold.

Inferno

+ The Blacksmith now provides a Ballista. Demoniacs get to utilise their high Attack skill.

+ Castle Gate cost decreased to 5 ore, 5 wood and 5000 gold.

+ Brimstone Stormclouds' cost decreased to 3 sulphur and 1000 gold

Necropolis

- Necromancy Amplifier's cost increased to 5 ore and 2000 gold.

- Cover of Darkness's cost increased to 3 mercury and 1000 gold.

Dungeon

. The Blacksmith now provides an Ammo Cart. Medusas and Beholders get to shoot a little more than 4 shots.

- Mana vortex cost's increased to 5 crystals and 2500 gold.

- Portal of Summoning's cost increased to 5 gems and 2500 gold.

Stronghold

- Hall of Valhalla's cost increased to 5 ore and 1000 gold.

Fortress

- Cage of Warlords's cost increased to 5 wood and 1000 gold.

+ Upg. Gnoll Hut cost changed to 5 wood and 5 ore from 10 wood.

Conflux

- The Blacksmith now provides an Ammo Cart. Storm and Ice elementals focus on shooting, after all.

+ Restored original building names from AB.

Factory

- Upg. Gantry's cost increased to 20 ore (by 10).

Heroes

Some heroes are never chosen as mains, and some are just straight-up banned from many templates. Many heroes' specialties are not even noticeable.

Specialties

Campaign Heroes

- Kilgor and Xeron are now standard specialists for their units (Behemoths and Devils, respectively)

- Sir Mullich increases speed of all creatures by 1.

- Gelu now only upgrades Marksmen and Grand Elves into Sharpshooters.

- Dracon now only upgrades Zealots and Archmagi into Enchanters.

- Bidley now only upgrades Corsairs into Sea Dogs.

Strong Heroes

- Galthran's specialty changed to increases Attack and Defense of skeleton warriors by 2, without a Speed increase.

. Leena's specialty changed to Estates.

Weak Heroes

+ All unit specialists now increase their units Attack and Defense by 7% instead of 5% per level per creature level.

+ Kalt and Lacus specialties increase Water and Ice elemental attack by 2 and damage by 1 now. // They were rather weak, and this follows the way other elementalists specialties work.

+ Inteus specialty changed to Fireball specialty.

+ Melodia's specialty changed to Luck specialty - gains permanent +1 Luck.

+ Mysticism specialty increases mana regeneration by 1 per level. //Which corresponds to 6.(6)% per level at Expert.

Spell specialties

Spell specialties are a bit of a mess - some increase effect by set %, some scale with hero level, other with creature level... And there's seemingly no reason and rhyme to it. On top of that, some specialties are waay better than others (Solmyr vs Victoria, f.e.). I set them apart into a few groups based on what types of spells they specialize in and then made each group scale differently (but following the way the original game scales similar spells).

• The level 4* damage* spell specialists now increase the effect of their spells by 1% per level (regardless of creature level). These include Thant, Deemer and Aislinn, Solmyr, Xyron, Jeddite and Alamar, Adela, Wrathmont, and Astral.
• The level 2-3* damage* spell specialists now increase the effect of their spells by 25%. These include Ziph, Septienna, Victoria, Alagar, Adelaide, Xarfax, Manfred and Inteus. (just like Luna)
• The level 1 damage* spell specialists now increase the effect of their spells by 50%. These include Uland, Astra (just like Ciele).
• The level 4 non-damage* spell specialists now increase the effect of their spells by +3/+3/+2/+2/+1/+1/+0, depending on the creature level - only change is Coronius (it's just like Loynis).
• The level 1-3 non-damage* spell specialists now increase the effect of their spells by +3. These include Weakness, Stone Skin, Bloodlust, and Precision (similarly to Aenain).
• Haste (Cyra, Brissa, Terek) specialists receive a +2 bonus to their spells (just like Aenain).

* Animate Dead is treated as a level 4 spell here

* damage spells include spells that scale with unit HP.

Hero Classes

+ Heretics start with 1/0/2/2 instead of 1/1/2/1 in order to cast their own spells.

+ Artificer's magic school chances were altered to better reflect their lore: 4 Air, 3 Earth, 4 Fire, 3 Water.

+ Captain's magic school chances were altered to better reflect their lore: Air 4, Earth 3, Fire 1, Water 3

+ Fixed the incorrect stat progression of wizards past level 10: 30/20/20/30 replaced for the correct 20/20/30/30

Bios

+ Fixed the typo in Jeddite’s Biography.

+ Extended Mutare Drake's bio.

Starting Armies

+ Griffins: 2-4 (instead of 2-3) // This will mostly affect Edric.

- Centaurs: 12-22 (instead of 12-24) // This is to balance the Elves change.

+ Dwarves: 3-6 (instead of 3-5) // This will affect Ufretin the most. Other heroes gain 0.5 a dwarf, which is nothing.

+ Elves: 3-4 (instead of 2-4) // Avoiding a horrible roll on Elves - the primary powerstack.

+ Gargoyles: 5-9 (instead of 5-7) // This will mostly affect Piquedram. Other heroes gain 1 Gargoyle, which is nothing.

+ Walking Dead: 4-8 (instead of 4-6) // This will mostly affect Straker. Other heroes gain 1 walking dead, which is nothing.

- Troglodytes: 18-27 (instead of 20-30) // This will mostly affect Shakti. Other heroes lose out about 2 troglodytes, which is basically nothing.

+ Beholders: 3-5 (onstead of 3-4) // This is to counter the Troglodyte change.

- Basilisks: 4-5 (instead of 4-7, that was busted)

- Air Elementals: 3-4 (instead of 3-5) //This will make Pasis a little less of an insta pick.

+ Water Elementals: 2-4 (instead of 2-3) //This will make Kalt and Lacus a little better. Also balances out the change to Air elementals.

- Pirates: 4-5 (instead of 4-7) //Before, you could start the game with Anabel, buy one hero and have 21 pirates immediately. Compare that to Ivor's 12 elves on a maximum roll.

- Gelu, Dracon, Xeron, Tark and Bidley start with the same army as standard heroes.

- Frederick starts with the same army as Todd. // He's an automaton specialist and therefore starts with a standard army for an automaton specialist.

Miscellaneous

+ Elmore (Navigation specialist) is now a Navigator. // duh.

+ Tavin starts with Basic Luck, Basic Offense // making Luck a Halfling's racial skill

- Mutare Drake starts without a spellbook. // She doesn't have any magic skills and she is a might hero. Other Overlords (except Synca - see below) don't have a spellbook.

+ Erdamon starts with Armorer and Interference. // He is no longer Thunar II

Scholars

+ Rashka starts with a spellbook and the Fire Shield spell.

+ Octavia starts with a spellbook and the Protection from Fire spell.

+ Synca starts with a spellbook and the Haste spell.

New Heroes

All new heroes are disabled by default, in case someone wants to play without them. Each of them matches some Eagle-Eye specialist's class; if you want to play with them, simply disable the corresponding eagle eye specialist and enable them. Map Editor and Template Editor correctly allow for their selection.

Kastore

New hero, Kastore, has been added. One of the future patches may include a campaign with him present (and scheming, as always). If you're a mapmaker and would like to help making some of the maps, please contact me.

Kastore starts with Wisdom (as all Warlocks do) and Tactics (because of his specialty). . He is a Tactics specialist: "Increases the range of Tactics skill by 2. When comparing Tactics skill level with the enemy hero, Kastore has Tactics skill at one level greater than normal."

Only a fool would let somebody else tell their own story. For a tribesman like you, suffice it to say that I have come from another sphere. When the Ancients locked themselves in that synthetic Eden of their own creation, the event you simply call "The Silence", I knew we must aspire to take the place of the Ancient for ourselves. I came to Antagarich, because I saw potential in this sphere and secrets hidden underneath it. I shall use this potential, and bend it to my will.

Athe

New hero, Athe has been added. She is an Efreet Diplomacy specialist.

Athe is a half-sister to Xeron. Unlike her brother, she's repulsed by brute force. Instead, she prefers to use magic and wits to achieve her aims. She clearly took after their mother, for she is said to have a silver tongue - even the bravest of heroes will falter to her will, only to find themselves begging for her mercy.

Athe starts with Diplomacy (from specialty) and Scholar (Efreet skill). Her specialty works just like Melchior's.

Sleen

New hero, Sleen, has been added. He is a Wizard with Precision specialty.

Sleen quickly rose among the society of Bracada to the position of a judge, Master Sage and an Arcane Historian. All because of his uncanny ability to see the world for what it is and always find the precise words he was looking for. Some say this is why his troops never miss their target.

Gwenneth

New hero, Gwenneth, has been added. She is a Cleric with Scholar specialty: "When updating spellbooks with other heroes, the hero can learn and teach spells of one level higher than normal."

Gwenneth always preferred to spend her time studying with her sister over anything else. When the news of King Nicolas Gryphonheart's post-mortem re-awakening reached her, she decided to switch the focus of her studies to the undead.

Gwenneth starts with Wisdom (as all Clerics do) and Scholar (because of her specialty). Her starting spell is Destroy Undead.

New hero portraits

Two hero portraits that I will use in incoming campaigns have been added:

• King Nicholas Gryphonheart (Lich)
• Archibald Ironfist.

Banned by default

Due to HD mod's limit of 16 heroes per faction, the following heroes are (not) available by default:

+ Sir Mullich

+ Lord Haart

+ Xeron

+ Kilgor

+ Adrienne

+ Tark

+ Murdoch

+ Frederick

- Sanya

- Gwenneth

- Sleen

- Ash

- Athe

- Galthran

- Haart Lich

- Kastore

- Oris

- Boragus

- Tiva

- Elmore

- Floribert

All other campaign heroes are unavailable by default.

Creatures

War Machines

War machines are famously bad, to the point where their respective skills suffer as a result. At the same time, Cannon is by far the strongest war machine.

+ First Aid Tent: HP 150, cost 1000.

+ Ammo Cart: HP 150. AI 300.

+ Ballista's Attack and Defense increased to 12.

+ Cannon's Attack reduced to 15, damage 3-5, cost 3500.

Tower

• Genies cost reduced to 500 (by 50). //Genies are relatively weak compared to Master Genies and I want some hot genie-lover to notice me for making this change.
• Master Genies can no longer cast Anti-Magic. //The most annoying thing to happen when playing Tower is Master Genies casting Anti-Magic on you Master Gremlin on turn 1, and your other master genie stacks just standing there, unable to cast anything else. If you want them to cast Anti-Magic, edit 0x047bf4 to 14. If you want them to cast Anti-Magic and also Clone, edit it to 15 instead.

Inferno

I wanted to buff Infenro a little bit, but not too much. I decided to put most buffs on the Demon Farming, which is heavily underutilized compared to f.e. Necromancy.

+ Familiar's growth increased to 18 (by 3), horde growth to 9 (by 1). //This increased demon farming by 1 per week.

+ Familiar's "Magic Channel" ability now gives 33% (rounded down) of enemies spent spellpoints.

+ Hell Hound's growth increased to 6 (by 1). // Growth 5 on level 3 is a sick joke. This will also increase demon farming by 1 per week.

+ Pit Lord's cost decreased from 700 to 666.

+ Efreet Sultan's now have an Advanced Fire Shield (30%) that stacks with the Fire Shield spell, as long as you have the Black Orb. // I know, this will come up so fucking often.

Factory

- Halfling's shots reduced to 12.

- Halfling Grenadier's shots reduced to 16, price increased to 65. // Halflings are too good compared to a Master Gremlin for my taste.

+ Gunslinger's and Bounty Hunter's HP increased by 5, but defence reduced by 2. // This will make them about as vulnerable in all cases, except for spells, which they should withstand a little better now.

+ Juggernaut's speed increased by 1. //This, as well as the Gantry cost change, will solidify Juggernauts as the strong-but-expensive alternative to weak-but-cheap Couatls, instead of having Juggernauts be slightly better but slightly more expensive.

Neutrals

- Sharpshooter's cost increased to 500 gold //because of Gelu

- Enchanter's cost increased to 1000 gold //because of Dracon

On-hit-chance Abilities

Primarily QoL for the abilities to ever hit and to do something once they do.

+ All 20% chance per hit abilities have 25% chance per hit now (Aging, Death Blow, Disease, Blind, Petrify, Paralyze, Acid Breath, Lightning Strike).

+ Zombie's Disease reduces Attack and Defense by 4.

+ Petrified units take 25% damage less than normal.

- Lightning Strike is now a level 2 spell. //To make it the real Lightning Bolt

+ Aging is no longer considered a 5th level spell.

+ Poison now has 33% chance to apply.

+ Fear now has 12.5% chance to apply.

• For the purposes of morale and native terrain:
  • Trolls belong to Fortress,
  • Boars belong to Stronghold,
  • Mummies belong to Necropolis,
  • Satyrs and Leprechauns belong to Rampart,
  • Peasants belong to Castle,
  • All Golems belong to Tower.

AI and Fight values

All of these except the Green and Red dragon change are a result of previous changes.

• Green and Red Dragon's AI values swapped.
• Zombie - 133, 164
• Vampire Lord - 798, 665.
• Dread Knight - 2405, 2049
• Ghost Dragon - 4743, 3260
• Efreet Sultan - 2460, 1892.
• Medusa - 523, 384
• Medusa Queen - 583, 428
• Thunderbird - 1111, 873
• Basilisk - 554, 511
• Greater Basilisk - 721, 568
• Rust Dragon - 26697, 24271
• Azure Dragon - 79633, 56878
• Cannon - 725, 800.
• Fangarms - 1013, 1013
• Juggernauts - 6533, 5463.

Other

• Fangarms are now classified as level 6 creatures, simply because of the fact that Hypnosis is much stronger now and could really wreck early fights. As a result, their growth went down to 2. If you rely on a neutral Ziggurat, you will be slightly weaker, however the Hypnosis strength of two fangarms now is about as good as that of 3 fangarms before - only damage and HP end up being lower.
• Fangarms cost increased to 700 (by 100).

Secondary Skills

- Navigation increases movement on water by 50/75/100%

+ Ballistics hit chances increased for higher levels.

+ Eagle Eye learning chance increased to 60/70/80%. Eagle Eye allows for learning spells up to 3/4/5th level.

+ Learning bonus increased to 25/50/75% (~1/2/3 extra levels)

+ Sorcery increases spell damage by 10/20/30%

+ First Aid skill now increases healing more (from 40-50 / 60-75 / 80-100 to 60-75 / 80-100 / 100-125)

Spells

+ Necropolis can learn Cure now (5%). Bloodlust chance reduced (to 0%, it's a friendly mind spell).

+ Town Portal: Mana 25/20/20/20. Belongs now to all Magic Schools. Movement cost increased to 400/400/400/300

- Dimension Door: Belongs to Fire Magic now. Limited to once per day, unless the hero has Expert Fire Magic (in which case the limit is 2 uses per day). Mana 30/25/20/16. AI 40. Movement cost 400/400/400/300. Note, that you can overwrite this edit by turning ON Tournament Rules.

Earth

- Slow: Mana 8/6 AI 8/8/16/24

+ Quicksand spawns 6/6/7/8 mines.

+ Death Ripple: Damage 10/10/20/50 + SP*5. Doesn't affect unliving.

Water

+ Remove Obstacle: Mana 4/3. //When playing with the patch, I found myself actually choosing to use it as a poor-man's Haste.

+ Cure: Heals 10/10/20/50 + 5*SP hp. No longer removes Hypnosis, but can remove Dendroid Binding.

. Dispel: Now always targets enemies only, to prevent Expert Dispel ruining your buffs. Mana cost changed to 8/6/5/4.

. Protection from Water: Mana 7/5

+ Ice Bolt: Damage 15/15/30/60 + 20*SP //Making it about as good as Lightning Bolt, but scale differently.

+ Frost Ring: Damage 15/15/30/60 + 15*SP. AI 18 //Making it identical to Fireball.

+ Prayer: Mana 12/9

Fire

- Bloodlust: It is now considered a Mind spell.

. Protection from Fire: Mana 12/9

+ Land Mine spawns 6/6/7/8 mines.

- Blind: Retaliation damage 75/50/25/0.

+ Fireball: Mana 12/9. Damage 15/15/30/60 + 15*SP. AI 18

+ Slayer: Increases attack by 8/8/12/12. It is now a mass spell at expert.

+ Inferno: Damage 30/30/60/120 + 20*SP. AI 30.

+ Fire Shield: 20/20/30/30% damage reflection. AI 10/10/15/20. Is now a mass spell at expert.

+ Sacrifice resurrects (SP + 3/3/6/12 + health)*#Creatures

+ Frenzy doubles Attack, instead of Adding Defense to the Defense.

Air

+ Precision: Mana 6/5

+ Disguise: Mana 2/1

+ Fortune: Mana 6/5.

- Protection from Air: Mana 12/9

+ Destroy Undead: Damage 25/25/50/100 + SP*10

+ Hypnotize: HP threshold 10/20/50 + 40*SP. AI 50 50 75 100.

+ Counterstrike: Mana 20/16. 1/1/3/3 counterstrikes. AI 16/16/20/24

+ Magic Mirror has 30/30/35/40% chance to block an incoming spell.

- Fly: Mana 25/20.

Adventure Map Objects

+ Golem Factory allows purchasing Iron, Steel, Gold and Diamond golems!

+ Pyramids are guarded by Gold Golems and Mummies.

. Sharpshooters and Enchanters can appear in Refugee Camps, but Mummies cannot.

+ Sirens provide 1 XP per 4 AI value of a lost creature.

+ Mansion gold reward increased to 3000/6000/9000/12000 gold.

- The Old Hill Fort now upgrades units with the following costs: 1 - Free, 2 - 50%, 3 - 100%, 4 - 125%, 5 - 150%, 6 - 200%, 7 - 300%.

. The brilliant writing of Foolhardy Waywardness will forever remain seen in random signs and ocean bottles.

+ Added a few secrets and riddles to the text of various rumors, random ocean bottles, etc. Suffice it to say, they lead to a greater treasure than any amount of gold can bring.

Game Mechanics

+ Maximum positive and negative luck: +/- 4. // This is meant to make Luck equally valuable to Morale, which in every other aspect is more important.

+ AI looks for the Grail after finding 25% obelisks on Expert and Impossible //Instead of 1 obelisk how was that supposed to make sense, Greg?

+ Movement for heroes with speed 3, 4 and 5 creatures increased to 1560 (60), 1590 (30) and 1640 (10) respectively.

+ Starting bonus: Gold now grants 1000-1500 gold. // bartek, if you want to revert this, change 0x0C0002 to 05 and 0x0BFFFD to 0a.

. Experience is now a function of AI Value / 12 instead of HP // In order to make fights rewarding based on how difficult they are

- Lava has 25% movement penalty. //This small change makes sense in-lore, but also it buffs a weak skill (Pathfinding), and promotes Inferno to focus on Demon Farming.

UI

+ Double clicking a map calls advanced options instead of starting the map.

+ Tavern only provides map rumors; if no map rumors are customized, it only provides random rumors.

+ Left - clicking a Town Hall lets you build in the town! Right - clicking shows level of the Town Hall, as before.

+ Removed Tactics explanation screen at the beginning of every battle

+ Removed the turn reminder for heroes below 50 mp.

Maps

+ Updated gender requirements for heroes in Battle of the Sexes (and the Allies version)

+ Fixed an unnecessary replacement of the Beware of Demons! with the version with only the red player as playable.

Thanks

• btb2 – writing his amazing guide all those years ago
• sake12 – for Hota.editor.exe, an irreplaceable tool for editing texts in Hota.dat
• greyface – for various tools, in particular MMArchive
• void_17 – well done with the IDB
• HotA Crew - for the incredible HotA mod. This patch was created out of love for your work.
• The Wiki team - for this amazing website
• Aphra - thanks for the specialty images, Kastore and Gwenneth portraits! The new Scholar specialist is for you. I don't know how else to thank you for the support :)
• guest_273 - for ideas and suggestions; look, I've incorporated a whole bunch of stuff you've asked me for!

Credits

HotA - HotA Crew

HD MOD - baratorch

pumpkin patch - CsArOs

Gwendolyth's specialty concept and character portraits - Aphra

WIP

• Update all campaigns and single scenarios where necessary due to the changes above - primarily replace changed artifacts.
• Translate the mod - is there a need for any particular translation? Let me know!
• Campaign maps with new heroes (3.5 / ? done).
• Fangarm balance is up to debate - I'd love to hear your thoughts about potential solutions, keeping in mind the Hypnotize change.

I want to help!

Really? Do you? Well then: I'm looking for mapmakers and map testers to help me with some parts of the upcoming campaigns. If you think you can spend your own free time on working on a fan project, contact me.

Contact Me

If you encounter any bugs or think that some feature(s) ought to be removed, please contact me.

Feature requests: talk

Other:

Discord: cs.ar.os

My talk page