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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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Author | Reviews ( All | Comments Only | Reviews Only ) |
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rat_peddler |
Posted on 03/14/07 @ 07:43 PM
Rating: 4.0
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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The_Sheikh |
Posted on 05/11/07 @ 07:25 AM
Rating: 3.5
(Insert Rating analysis here)
Additional Comments:
Very nice pack indeed, but more could have been done re wizard sprites. The usage of a green dragon for Fang was a nice touch but certainly you could have done better, like change the colours of some of the wizard sprites, like what was done in SM by changing Arctica from blue to yellow to produce Ariane, and/or changing Yaka from red to cyan for Inioch in patch 1.4. I'm nonetheless impressed by the variety and I feel I'll enjoy myself exploring the new packs in casual play.
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ravinhood |
Posted on 09/30/07 @ 04:28 AM
Rating: 5
(Insert Rating analysis here)
Additional Comments:
You did what many others always bypassed. Really working on things to improve the AI. I really like that they will build wizards towers and I think your costs for enchants are excellent and inline with MOM's spell costs of the same. Things that make it easy for the human player to exploit and the AI would NEVER use or do should cost a lot or be almost impossible to do. That's what made MOM a great game and this mod a great AI mod. I am also glad to know that high level units and heroes aren't the tanks they used to be in the vanilla game. I never liked that about heroes or the high level units myself. Fact is there should be few high level units and more units from level 1 to 2 always in use. I hate games where you see nothing but a stack of level 4's. Good job you deserve more praise than some of these folks have given you. In todays society (online) though people are more prone to give negative comments than praise because of their anonymous wall of courage.
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PetrusOctavianus |
Posted on 10/14/08 @ 04:12 PM
I have now played several maps with this mod and I feel it has definitely improved the SP experience.
I love most of the changes, but not the cheap Wizard Towers and most of the changes made to the units.
Cheap Wizard Towers reduces the strategy of the game, making Relays obsolete. Also, it no longer is a strategic decision to invest a lot of money and turns into making a new Wizard Tower.
It may or may not benefit the AI, but as a player I think it's much more *fun* when Wizard Towers are rare and Magic Relays are of strategic importance.
I must say I dislike most of the changes made to units and I much prefer the 1.4 versions.
A previously scary opponent like the Mammoth (and the Elephant)is now rendered virtually impotent by it's pathetic Spread Attack.
Subjectively I like the new version of the Doom Bats, with it's many weaknesses, but unless the peasant army is *lucky*, a single Doom Bat can annihilate 40 lvl 1-2 infantry units without problems.
Another problem is that the more unique and "special" units have lost their uniqueness. The Herbalist is the only Human unit with Forestry, which at least for me has great strategic importance. And with Poison Darts to soften up the tagets for the Knights, and Healing, they are excellent support units. The Sorceress unit is a more cliche unit IMO and is less of a support unit.
Same with the Orc Shamans. Now they have Trap, but has lost Wall Climbing, Energy Drain and Poison Strike, all *fun* abilities making for an excellent all-round troop and great support for the Warlocks. Nothing like Energy Drain, Poison and Curse to soften up the targets first.
I should also mention that the Chain Lightning spell has been changed, so that it no longer deal lighting *only* damage, but also Magic Damage, meaning Lightning Immune is no use to protect from it. Very annoying when your strategy is to summon Great Würms, and your Water wizard enemy uses Chain Lightning. A real WTF?!? moment...
Despite my negative comments this is a *great* mod and it certainly enhances the SP experience.
I have made my own little modification though, using the 1.4 units (with some modifications) and Wizard Towers, and the game has never felt more perfect. |
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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