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Modpacks » Wizards&Heroes v.3.0 (Updated April 6, 2007)
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Wizards&Heroes v.3.0 (Updated April 6, 2007)
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| Author |
File Description |
| Webusver |
Posted on 02/11/07 @ 05:44 PM (updated 04/06/07)
"WIZARDS & HEROES" v.3.0. for "Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic".
by Webusver (webusver@mail.ru)
The mod "Wizards & Heroes 3" requires Unofficial Patch v.1.4. and is compatible with all AoWSM default resources. No one original unit was deleted or replaced. With this mod you can play all scenarios, which were made for non-mod and default resources, scenarios made for "Wizards&Heroes" v.1.00 or higher. You can also play original AoWSM campaign with "Wizards&Heroes3".
ABOUT "WIZARDS & HEROES" v.3.0.
1. "Wizards & Heroes 3" improves AI performance against human player and gives new possibilities.
- AI builds Wizard Towers and expands by settlers. Now it's time to enjoy huge empire building scenarios where wizards start with small cities or even just with settlers.
- AI armies are tougher - AI builds every unit of every race, low-level units are boosted. High-level units now are not like "invulnerable tanks", so large quantities of low level units can defeat high level units more easily.
- AI default wizards are much tougher. Harder to kill and they develop their empires with remarkable effectiveness.
- AI diplomacy is more aggressive. All default AI wizards are set as Anarchists, so there is less chance that AI wizards will allow a player to live in safe peace.
- AI always recruits strong heroes. Heroes are divided into several subclasses. Weak regulars are cheap and powerful legendary heroes are expensive. While human player has low funds at start, AI has enough money to recruit strong heroes. So, beware human player! AI is coming for you! :)
2. "Wizards & Heroes 3" fixes obvious spoilers that give easy victory to human player.
- Enchanting spells (which are not used by AI) are now far more expensive. Just realize that you need to be honest against AI.
- Wizard skills are rearranged into War and Peace spheres. Because AI doesn’t research wizard skills, the skills were rearranged so that AI could receive most skills from start. And human player should not research all skills and feel himself as demigod. There is an actual choice now - which sphere to take?
- Production of city structures was adjusted to prevent players from quick rush to ultimate victory. Buildings may give not only bonuses but penalties as well. Thus city development is more diverse. Narrow specialization in building structures of the same type may lead to anarchy or city may even receive constant decrease of population.
- Wizards hardly can act as tanks during the beginning of the game. They are slow and have no strike. But while defending they are excellent. AI wizards are hard to kill.
- Cost of all artifacts was made equal to cost in item forge. Most artifacts have powers similar to those, which may be created in item forge. No more overpowered artifacts.
- Ability Resurrect - forbidden. It's not right when human player abuses with legions of resurrected enemies, while AI can't use this cheat. Ability Drain Will was limited to use only for incarnations. This was also a cheating ability to dominate everything. Willpower is the instrument that was made to set limits for domination. With massive use of Drain Will it becomes useless. Also AI never exploited the cheat.
3. "Wizards & Heroes 3" changes various gameplay options.
- Magic system has all the spells rearranged to 5/5/5/5 system. Each sphere has 5 spells for each level. All spheres have equal number of total research points of all spells.
- Fixed the annoying issue when a spirit could reward a player with units of opposite alignment. The fix enables possibility of safe scripting of quests for AI in custom maps. Spirits' unit and spell rewards now have certain "alignment". So Spirit of Order grants good and pure good aligned units and Life and Cosmos spells as rewards. Spirit of Nature grants good or non- aligned units and Earth and Water spells as rewards. Spirit of Magic grants evil or non- aligned units and Air and Fire spells as rewards. Spirit of War grants evil and pure evil aligned units and Death and Cosmos spells as rewards. Thus Order and Nature are recommended for good aligned players, Nature and Magic for neutral aligned players, Magic and War for evil aligned players.
- List of abilities that heroes gain at levelups was adjusted. Most non-combat abilities were removed in order not to let AI gain them and have weak heroes. Though all non-combat abilities are available at Item Forge, so player may gain them if he wants.
- Almost every city building gives some useful bonus. Dwiggs idea for building's bonuses was studied and developed.
- The "resource" Happiness is more valuable now. You'll have to be more careful with happiness in your cities, there is more unrest and cities now may rebel. Even if they are of your main race.
- Shadow and non-shadow races were rebalanced. Shadow races are weaker on non-shadow plane, while all non-shadow races suffer from shadow weakness and thus become weaker in shadow world.
- Halfling race is not weak. It's now the collection of the most wicked meanies capable to overthrow any enemies who expect to fight as usual.
- Added Temple units - Templars, who are 1-level analogue of 2-level monk.
- There are lots other minor changes but there is no need to list them all. Everything is listed in "WH3_Readme.htm" which installs with the mod.
4. "Wizards & Heroes 3" gives opportunities to mapmakers.
- The mod adds about 750 portraits and pictures to use them with custom wizards, heroes and events.
- Added Dummies for experience training. Use these units wisely to give experience to AI units. There are 2 types of Dummies to train mostly ranged units or mostly melee units.
- The installer creates additional submod "WH3Editor" (similar to SEM). With it's help mapmakers can create wizards with any skills and abilities. You can create heroes with almost every ability and give them greater variety of starting spells. You can create custom items with any possible ability. Except "forbidden" and "limited" abilities that break balance. With "WH3Editor" submod players can create outposts and villages with any buildings, that are normally not available to small settlements. The mod is easy to use. Just make your maps in "WH3Editor" and then play with "Wizards&Heroes3".
- The installer file has average size and is easy to download and upgrade.
- Each higher version supports lower versions of the mod.
5. "Wizards & Heroes 3" now has new installer.
- It does not overwrite any default resources.
- The installer now creates easy to use uninstaller.
- The installer doesn't place anything in your computer's registry and uninstall program removes 100% files of the mod. You may check what files were installed by pressing "Show Details" button during installation process.
- The installer has unique file-names and doesn't accidentally replace any files of such popular mods as "Brave New World2", "Dwiggs 1.4.", "New Arsenal2".
INSTALLATION
1. Run the "WH3_Setup.exe" program and choose your directory which contains "Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic".
2. After choosing the main directory, press "Install" and the installer will copy all files to appropriate folders.
3. After finishing installation process press "Close" and you will be prompted to run "AoWSMSetup" to choose "Wizards&Heroes3" resources while playing AoWSM.
4. Check the main directory for detailed "WH3_Readme.htm" file to know everything about "Wizards&Heroes3".
5. Enjoy your game and good luck!
VERSION HISTORY
1. v.3.0.
- Made some adjustments and additions to the ruleset.
- The mod now has about 750 pictures for wizards, heroes and events.
- WH3_Editor added for easier mapmaking.
- New installer with uninstaller. Easy to use.
2. v.2.01.
- Fixed bug with human cities.
- Fixed bug with incorrect installer path.
- Added animations for crone wizards and dragon wizard.
3. v.2.00.
- The mod now has it's own ruleset.
- The mod now has 180 pictures for wizards, heroes and events.
4. v.1.00.
- The portrait modpack adds 48 portraits for wizards and 32 portraits for heroes to play with default resources.
CREDITS
I didn't create any of the new portraits, I just edited them to fit the game. Original Portraits for wizards, heroes and pictures for events were taken from NWVAULT. There are some portraits made by Bioware, Simtex, Sir-Tech, Bethesda. There are portraits of LOTR heroes.
Personal credits go to Phaere, sporeboy, Amalthea and also to Apricane, Dariuspaladin, Fiery Copperfist, Firiel of Imrith, gyrfalconthegray, HarryBackside, JonnyXP, LordCrusan, RichardRamsbottom, RipColm, Roxy, sbrage, Stormclaw, Ddraig Maharishi, Rajax, JRogers, Earalia, Zhandigal, Jean Baudrand, Benjamin, Vaughnteper, OchreJelly, Delira, Ragnorax, futrelljp000, Arenanet, unangbangkay, MidKnight, tdough, DJ1, udasu, Vincent Leonnall, 666Astharoth, gcmaxon, Sylrae, Danariel, Stephen, morete, Genetrix, Luis Royo, The Nightingale, -Grace-, camilkuo, Diana Elefteridis, Zyraxes, Stern, Kerchac, apeiron0, EnanoGully, Mynfel, stacy_19201325, C.Ensign, John Godfrey, Belurin, sbrage2000, Lord Arieugon, Jester_8, Cynder, daemonanyndel, Darth Don, Katherine Dinger, Anastase, Ragnaroque, blaze007, Katii, NC Soft/Arena net, BloodDiamond, ThiefOfNavarre, shinning knight, stringburner6, Ebony Phoenix, Amerasu, Digitaldoll, DaleV - Eclipse Dev, Cynder, Thadius, Ledorax, Jinx, Kec, Kooie, Dark__Soul, DaleV, Nappi, Lancor, WyldCat, Heather Ariizumi, NovelistEye, Mang, Crosbie, Vindicare182, Wintrar, Lilavati, Firiel of Imrith, SandMan, Tharsus, Gwyngerda, Smolin, goblinofthegreatwhitenorth, Steven Rosario, DeviantTrace, Frank_Einstein, Mr. Dave, B Huffman, Dark Anya, Selvan, nyx, Agrol, Sagadur, MT Silver, krist, Nencraban, Icenlord, Aaron Salo, Omar Rashan, Silver The Frozen, St4rscream, TOOTHnNAIL, gyrfalconthegray, Turalyon, Sagadur, tiefling, Krzasjan, Mentos, BiO GrEeN, Abu, Eric Polak, kcarr, WyldCat, Volrath77, Harry Backside, oldSalty, Ashlander, relsh, TSHamby, Zornochio, wycked, Nido, Shula, Clarence McGee, Richard Ramsbottom, Brett, Space cadet, Magnalucius, bandersnatch, Mark Walton, M.G.Skaggs, Dariusz Zwierzynski, Jason Mayer, GraveDigger, The Pytt Fiend, Donna Burson, Brad D. Nault, James Lee, Michael Vance Hughes, Jonathan Adams, D A Adamo, Frostmage, ILmaTeR, stacy_19201325 and other NWN fans who's art was used for portraits of wizards and heroes in my mod.
GREAT THANKS
Great thanks to all people at AOW2.HEAVENGAMES.com' forum who’s posts helped me to generate ideas for the mod.
SUPPORT AND QUESTIONS
If you have any questions just e-mail me at: webusver@mail.ru
Best regards,
Webusver
04.06.2007
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| Pages: [1] 2 3 » Last » | | Author | Comments & Reviews ( All | Comments Only | Reviews Only ) |
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| rat_peddler |
Posted on 03/02/07 @ 06:31 PM
Even when I gave it a new directory to install in it put it into a AOWSM sub-directory instead of the proper places.
Other then that looks like quiet an update. The big changes in mana for different spells esp unit enchantments will change the way one plays! |
| Impudent Domain |
Posted on 03/03/07 @ 01:53 PM |
Webusver
File Author |
Posted on 03/03/07 @ 04:07 PM
To everybody.
When you choose destination folder, notice that the installer adds the folder "AoWSM" at the end of the path-string. Delete "AowSM". Let the path-string end with your actual folder of AoWSM.
Or just istall to C:/program files/aowsm/. Then copy everything in that folder and paste in you game folder for AoWSM.
Remember to backup Resource folder to return to UP1.4. resources. No need to use AoWSMsetup.
I've fixed this already and I'll contact Nojd to upload the fixed installer tomorrow. |
| Merkraad |
Posted on 03/04/07 @ 02:02 PM
I really want to try out this Mod. But the fact that it replaces the normal game resources doesn't help at all... why didn't you make the option to install it as a MOD and/OR install replacing normal game resources?
I think it also lacked documentation, but now you uploaded the "AI Booster" for "Wizards&Heroes2" - readme file which has beautiful tables :)
I must say I am wary of Wizard Towers costing 60 gold... this actually seems very exploitable for human players instead of helping AI as intended - as seems like others changes - but I guess I'll test it playing. Still think best AI is on pre made maps with tons of scripts though, not sure it can be competitive in RMG maps regardless of Mods but let's see :P |
Webusver
File Author |
Posted on 03/04/07 @ 02:56 PM
CRITICAL ERROR IN THE FILE V.2.00.
I fixed it in v.2.01. and thanks to Nojd the fixed file was quickly uploaded.
What was fixed:
1. Critical bug which didn't allow to open production menu for human city when Chaplains or Air Galleys become available for production. This happened due to a physical error in the file. These structures had just red slots instead of the named units.
I'm sorry you'll have to download 17Mb again.
Or you can correct this manually (if you have WHv.2.00).
a. Create custom resources from WH2.
b. Edit Races - Humans.
c. Place Chaplain and Air Galley where they should be and delete all red slots
d. Copy file RACERES.PFS to folder RESOURCES
e. Enable usage of default resources.
2. Fixed install path. When you were prompted to choose a directory where to install the files, the installer added text "AoWSM" after your chosen path. Thus you had either to manually copy files to fight folders or to delete this additional text in install path.
Thanks to rat_peddler who was fuist to report about this bug.
3. Also in v.2.01. I added
a. new animations for crony-wizards, dragon-wizards and satyr-wizard.
b. adjusted costs of default artifacts to costs of forged items (from item forge). Default items were too cheap and it was too cheap to get them from AI.
4. I also patched the readme. Added missing html file.
Merkraad,
perhars this was the problem with install-path. This was fixed in v.2.01.
The reason is why I wanted to put files to main folder is to allow users to play the original campaign and original scenarios with this mod.
For this purpose I left all units where they were in original and didn't use (almost) no new recolored or converted units. This is a pretty part of modding job but I left it for compatibility with original game.
BTW each mod adds something new. The "new" thing that gives this mod is good compatibility with original campaign and scenarios.
I suggest everybody to try AoWSM campaign and any non-mod scenarios with "Wizards&Heroes v.2.01." to notice difference in gameplay.
Good Luck to everybody![Edited on 03/04/07 @ 03:18 PM]
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| Merkraad |
Posted on 03/06/07 @ 07:56 PM
"3.132 additional wizards. None of default wizards were removed or replaced."
You mean 132 new Wizard PORTRAITS, right?
I also installed with AI Booster and New Heroes enabled... can I play the Mod without AI Booster enabled, or do I need to reinstall? Same question regarding changed Heroes. |
Webusver
File Author |
Posted on 03/06/07 @ 11:12 PM
The number of premade wizards is limited. But any mapmaker can make additional wizards by chosing additional portrait+body ... (I call them also) wizards. Their only disadvantage is that they are not used by computer to generate RMG maps. You can also take them when you customise your wizard.
Of course you may play without heroes and "booster" sections installed - just with new portrait pack. With this installation you can also play RMG, original campaign and scenarios for default resources. |
| rat_peddler |
Posted on 03/14/07 @ 07:43 PM
It is an interesting change from normal rules. However, it really limits the value of heros as they are very vulnerable for a long time to even a couple low level troups. This makes for more of a horde rush game which there are enough of in the rest of the gaming world.
Additional Comments:
The patch fixed the problem with cities losing the ability to produce.
NOTE: You can "hot patch" a game in progress. Applied the update fixed the problem on maps I was in the middle of playing :-)[Edited on 03/14/07 @ 11:17 PM]
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Webusver
File Author |
Posted on 03/15/07 @ 02:40 AM
Thank you for this review, and your critic role at the forum.
I'm especially glad that you have noticed the imcreased hardness for heroes and high level units (in your various posts). This proves that human player is now more limited in game exploits. That was the goal of the mod - to help AI to survive better against human players.
BTW... AI doesn't suffer from weak heroes. While human player starts with low funds and AI with lots of money (at Emperor settings) he is able to recruit Legendary and Elite heroes from start. They are far more powerful than low budget heroes of Regular subclass, who offer to join human player at the beginning. Even Veteran heroes are stronger than Regulars. But player should keep considerable funds for this.
So AI begins to rule!
To everybody:
When you encounter any change in gameplay, that makes your game harder, then know, this was done to limit exploits of human players against AI. And hopefully all these changes help AI to survive better against human players.
PS This help may be essential for RMG games where AI has no "script-support" from mapmakers.[Edited on 03/15/07 @ 04:10 AM]
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| NEHZ |
Posted on 03/18/07 @ 10:02 AM
Where a bunch of archers/balistas behind a stone wall was enough to fight an army of knights, some golden medal archers can now wreck even more mayhem. They shoot down chaoslords as if they were peasents.
Normally, there are a few problems that makes me win the game.
First is the difference between quick battle and manual, which can litteraly, even if you don't cast spells, mean a difference between loosing a battle and coming forth victorous without a single of your units even having been scratched.
Second is that the computer doesn't always make the right units to breach a city.
The second point is amplified in this patch. Builders don't do damage, the computer still brings them into the fight, even without other machines to repair. Since the computer can't breach the city, it's my units that get the medals, it's my units that are completely overpowered with this mod.
Not to mention the ease with which I can now build towergaurds.
On a side note, what's with the enchantments? They are really overexpensive. I'm not going to waste 85 mana on an enchant weapon if a Black Angel costs only twice as much. (and a bone dragon costs 94)
Mighty Meek or not, black angel packs a punch.
If you really want to have the AI get a bigger advantage, you either need to find a way to improve battle AI, or make them build different unit platoons. It would also be nice if you let them trade with eachother, instead of only having them trade when the player makes a decent offer. (ie, AI teams are therefor always weaker than AI-human teams)
But I guess that AI scripting is on an entirely different level and I don't have a clue how difficult AoW makes it. |
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HGDL v0.8.2 |
| Statistics |
| Downloads: | 6,238 |
| Favorites: [] | 0 |
| Size: | 26.37 MB |
| Added: | 02/11/07 |
| Updated: | 04/06/07 |
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