Wandering creature

Text	Range
Few	1–4
Several	5–9
Pack	10–19
Lots	20–49
Horde	50–99
Throng	100–249
Swarm	250–499
Zounds	500–999
Legion	≥1000

Relative strength (%)	Stacks
< 50 %	6–7
50...< 67 %	5–7
67...< 100 %	4–6
100...< 150 %	3–5
150...< 200 %	2–4
200 % or more	1–3

The priority of wandering stack which attacks a hero

Wandering creatures (or sometimes monsters or neutral armies/stacks) is a term for the creatures standing on the Adventure Map. The type of the creatures can be totally random, restricted by creature level or be specifically defined by the map-maker. The creatures are not truly wandering, they always stay at the same place and mostly serve as a guard of a passage or an object. Unlike enemy heroes, your hero initiates a fight whenever they move at the square next to the creature. In case of multiple creatures at the nearby squares, only one combat occurs. The priority is top-to-down, left-to-right (see image). Using a monolith or similar adventure map object does not trigger the combat (use Space to teleport back).

Spawning of wandering creatures

The number of troops in a wandering creature encounter can be set between 1–4000 in Restoration of Erathia or 1-9999 in Armageddon's Blade. If an exact number is not defined when making a map, the amount is randomly generated between 1–99, depending on the type of the creatures (see the creature description for the minimum and maximum amount).

The random map generator tries to match the RMG value of adventure map objects with the total RMG value of troops in a wandering creature encounter. A single wandering creature may be 'guarding' multiple adventure map objects in this way.

The number of troops in a wandering army grows by 10% on the first day of every week except week 1, but cannot exceed the limit of 4000 or 9999 creatures. Decimal values are stored by the game, but are always rounded down when a player engages a wandering creature. This means a wandering army that starts with 1 troop can grow to 2 after 8 weeks (on Month 3, Week 1, Day 1), or to the maximum of 4000 troops in 88 weeks (on Month 23, Week 1, Day 1). The exact number of weeks needed for a wandering army to exceed a given size is log_1.1(S/x) rounded up, where S is the size and x is the starting number of troops.

All statistics about a wandering creature encounter are defined at the time it is generated, which is either during map creation or part of a special month event.

Combat with wandering creatures

The number of creature stacks on the battlefield, is dependent on the ratio of army strengths between the attacking hero and the wandering creatures, with fewer stacks the greater the player's advantage. There is some variance, but it is not random: every tile on the adventure map influences the number of stacks by plus or minus 1.

Since they only contain one type of creatures, they always have +1 morale unless they are undead, elementals, or other creatures unaffected by morale.

If the creature is non-upgraded, there can be also one stack of upgraded creatures included in the battle, decided randomly at the start of a game (not by the mapmaker). This stack always appears in the middle of the army. Having an upgraded stack has no bearing on the AI or RMG values of the army on the adventure map. Since only one stack can be upgraded, using a less powerful army can sometimes be advantageous as it means the army will split into more stacks, thereby making the upgraded stack account for fewer troops. There is a bug where a defeated hero (including one who retreats) will cause a number of troops equal to the size of the upgraded stack to be deleted from the wandering army; nonetheless, the wandering creature will still contain one upgraded stack the next time it is engaged. Creature Banks can also feature one upgraded stack.

Join, Negotiate or Flee

When a hero attacks a wandering creature, the creature may attempt to join, negotiate or flee to try to avoid combat. The attacking hero can reject the attempt and force a combat if they so desire. If the attacking hero turns down a wandering creature's attempt to join or negotiate, they creature will either fight or attempt to flee based on map settings.

• Join: The wandering creatures are willing to become a part of hero's army for free.
• Negotiate: The wandering creatures are willing to become a part of hero's army in exchange for gold.
• Flee: The wandering creatures are willing to disappear without fighting the combat.

There are two checks which determine a wandering creature's behaviour. The first determines whether the wandering creature fights the hero or takes some other action, and the second determines what that action is.

The first check

The first check simply compares the wandering creature's mood with the hero's charisma. If charisma is equal to or greater than mood, the wandering creature will try not to fight.

Mood is a random number determined at the start of a game from a range set by the mapmaker. Usually this is between 1-10, but wandering creatures generated by the random map generator have a mood between 4-10. Wandering creatures generated by a special month always have mood between 1-10.

Charisma is based loosely on the ratio of army strengths plus two diplomatic factors. Base charisma in brief (see below for full details):

• A player army of a third or less the strength of the wandering creature gives a base charisma of -3.
• Between one third and one half gives a base charisma of -2.
• Between one half and equal gives a base charisma of -1.
• A hero's army which is more powerful than the wandering creature gives a base charisma between 0 and 11.

The two diplomatic factors are 1-4 based on Diplomacy skill (for no training up to expert Diplomacy) and 0-2 based on 'sympathy': 1 for at least one of the same creature type in the hero's army, 2 for over half the army being that type, and 0 otherwise.

The second check

Having determined that the hero's charisma is greater than or equal to the wandering creature's mood (and therefore the wandering creature doesn't want to fight), the game then compares the diplomatic factors (see above) to the creature's mood to determine whether they try to join the hero or simply run away. If the diplomatic factors are equal to (or greater than) mood, the wandering creature will try to join, failing by 1 or 2 means the wandering creature will try to negotiate, and failing by more than 2 means they will flee.

Full Calculation and factors

Mood values (M)
A value that is set by the map creator for each wandering monster. • Default level is 'Aggressive'. • If the M-value is a range, a random number is picked at the beginning of the battle.
M	Aggression level
-4	Compliant
1–7	Friendly
1–10	Aggressive
4–10	Hostile
10	Savage
Sympathy values (Sy)
How many of the hero's creatures are from the same creature type as the wandering creature (upgraded does not matter)? • Exception: Water/Ice, Fire/Energy and Earth/Magma Elemental upgrades count as different types.
Sy	Sympathy description
0	Zero
1	At least one
2	Over 50% of the hero's creatures

Strength values (St)
A value based on the relative strength of the 2 armies (See equation for 'k' to left). • '*' means rounded down
St	k
11	k ≥ 7
2 × (k-1)*	1 ≤ k < 7
-1	0.5 ≤ k < 1
-2	0.333 ≤ k < 0.5
-3	k < 0.333
Diplomacy values (D)
The level of the Diplomacy skill. • Add +1 if playing on Easy difficulty and not having Expert Diplomacy
D	Diplomacy level
1	No Diplomacy skill
2	Basic level Diplomacy
3	Advanced level Diplomacy
4	Expert level Diplomacy

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 → 3 possible outcomes

1. Stack will join if S_y + D ≥ M
2. Stack will negotiate if S_y + D + 2 ≥ M
3. Stack will flee if S_y + D + 2 < M

Supporting Equations

C = S_t + D + S_y

• S_t is is strength value (see table to right)
• D is Diplomacy value (see table to right)
• 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]