Making Heroes 6 - The Griffin Fall

[Panda Tar]

Demonology, eh? Dunno. It's like inferno units are a bit rare by now after all of them being defeated by all those factions, don't you think? But we can keep the idea for further use. Since, to have good, there should be evil.

Considering that we start playing only with Sareth, would he have units or not? I suggest that heroes can fight a bit more than they do in Heroes 5, like placing themselves on some spots of the battle, to block an incoming attack on a unit once, for instance, or to use a spell in line in different angles... They can only be harmed after all the army is destroyed. Depending on skills, diplomacy or something related to that, it would make that action to evelop some new circunstances, such as: chance to retreat, white flag, flee, shot and flee, fight until death, suicide, kidnap, slain, etc. Some more 'evil' skills named like "No mercy" would have a higher change to completely slain the hero, who could only be resurrected by a certain building (or no resurrect at all) or raised as a new undead hero with skill changes, and so on.

Given the idea that he has no faction by now, Sareth could do with some unique units, units that only some special heroes may have. This feature travels back in H3, when some heroes could train other units to become special units, like that - overpowered, of course - Gelu and the sharplikehellshooters.

Based on that, let's assume Sareth talks to the Lady, who is the stationary NPC:
'Your path is unclear. I assume you're alone?'
'Yes.'
'I believe I can help you with it', she streched her hand in front of her and a parchment appeared. She handled that to Sareth, 'Read this with your mind and destroy it with your body. Help shall appear and you'll never be alone as long as you remind the words'.
'Thanks.'

A small scene of some spell being cast and some (5 or 6) warriors wearing a coat covering their jaws will appear (0.2 summoned daily per hero level). Their clothing is coloured mainly in red and moustard, they have longer arms than normal humans and they wield great knives. They have no eyes, nor a face. Instead of that, they have paintings all over their skin and they glow in different patterns after some time.

'These are the Magi guards', state the Lady, 'They'll follow you henceforth. Good luck.'

By now, we have Sareth with a passive skill: "Magi Guard Summoner". But how does the skill system would work then?

[Panda Tar]

But how does the skill system would work then?

Heroes have 4 primary evolution basis:
OFFENSIVE
DEFENSIVE
MAGIC
KNOWLEDGE

They are, of course, related to the old Attack, Defense, Spell Power and Knowledge primary skills. Considering that heroes might as well be attacked sometimes, they have some status as they had in Heroes 4 (which are affected depending on which primary status develops), but they won't battle like they did - a more active stance in comparison to Heroes 5, but not like in Heroes 4. Overthinking a bit, perhaps not allowing heroes on their own, which is to say, with no units, unless they have a certain mission to accomplish without fighting and it won't matter having or not having units in the group.
Heroes have their primary skills displayed in cross:

O Of

O Ma O Kn

O Df

And they have different focus on development. That focus is shown as a link between primary skills. Those links have different meaning and bonus for each hero. Let's take Sandro as an example. He's a Necromancer with prodigious skills in Magic and Knowledge, so his primary skills are shown like this:

O

O-----O

O

His magic and knowledge are linked, because Sandro has gathered much information and knowledge during all these wars to perform new spells and develop his necromancy skills, so his Spell Power and Knowledge are utterly linked and powerful. When the hero has links between primary skills, he can focus on one of them to increase its effect, and master more abilities/spells/skills that are related to that p.skill. The normal basis for primary skill evolution is 1 (one) for each level, and its individual attributes on that skill. For Sandro, however, who is, by default, settled as focused on KN, each 3 levels he gains on KN, he'll gain 1 level of SP. If he focus on SP instead, he'll, firstly, gain 1 KN each 5 SP. Focusing also increases the chance to level up that primary skill over another.
For that matter, each primary skill has its own FOCUS LEVEL, which it takes 5 to 50 level ups, depending on hero abilities, story, etc. When a hero becomes master of a primary skill, he'll be able to learn ultimate abilities, tag abilities, combo abilities, spells, unique skills plus, it'll become linkable to any other proferred primary skill. In resume, each primary skill has its own universe of development which can be mixed up here and there for different effects and uses. Sandro, which is a SP/KN hero, might take 35 KN and 30 SP to be mastered on those two primary skills. However, for him to master OFF, it takes only 8 levels, and DEF, 12.
Note: mastering means not limiting. They can level up more into those, but no further bonus will be given. It's good remembering that some artifacts, abilities, spells, will require a higher skill number.

So each of the primary skills have their direct attributes:

Offensive
Attack - increases attack of all troops
Damage - increases physical damage for hero
Agility - increases speed for hero
Defensive
Defense - increases defense of all troops
Endurance - increases hit points for hero and decreases delay after performing some abilities
Reflex - increases chance to parry physical attacks on hero
Magic
Spell Power - increases power of spells for hero
Magic Points - increases magic points for hero, which allow hero to cast spells and some abilities
Concentration - decreases delay after casting a spell and some abilities
Knowledge
Tactics - the more the fighting, the more battle tactics hero will learn, and that includes spell casting as well
Proficiency - increases efficiency of special movements, spells, skills the more they are used
Diplomacy - increases chances to have diplomatic position under certain circumstances, such as battles, events, units willingly trying to join hero's troops, enemy hero trying to kill hero after all troops are gone, etc.
Learning - increases experience given by events/battles, allows hero to learn some skills/spells and allows hero to learn some enemy moves depending on how much times the special move is performed or how long a battle endures.

After that, there are the skills.

Common Skill: these are all the skills all heroes can learn, although they might have differences between bonuses depending on hero focus and features.
Race Skill: all skills that are related to a certaing race/faction. They can also have different bonuses depending on hero.
Unique Skill: it's only alloted to a unique hero and only he/she can perform/use it.
Copied Skill: some race skills, likely some that are not related to physical capacity, but more like faction-related, may be copied by a rival or allied faction and they'll work in a different and less efficient way.
Corrupted Skill: some skills can be learn, copied, but, to fulfil a different need for an opposite faction, it'll be modified in some ways, corrupting the initial purpose of it. On the way round, when a skill suffer modifications which will become it less evil, the skill is called Balanced Skill. In other words, "Good" factions have Balanced Skills, and "Evil", Corrupted Skills.

That's all.

[Veldrynus]

The vote option "Who the **** cares?" is missing, so I cannot vote.

[winterfate]

LOL!

Long time no see, Vel.
How has life been for you?

@Panda: Nice stuff you've written up!

[Panda Tar]

The vote option "Who the **** cares?" is missing, so I cannot vote.

It's right here:

So, I'd ask if you want to play fun a bit, WHICH MEANS NOT TO MESS UP WITH EVERYTHING, feel free to join in.

[Thelonious]

Just so you guys know: I voted dwarf.

They could discover buried ancients and their technology or something like that... or perhaps buried naga's

[Panda Tar]

Just so you guys know: I voted dwarf.

They could discover buried ancients and their technology or something like that... or perhaps buried naga's

A buried naga temple... Tee-hee.

NEW FEATURE

A new battle system can be implemented - it's called duel. A duel is a fight between heroes only. It can be engaged on certain circumstances:

* Before battle, leaving units to battle all by themselves while heroes are dueling. However, some spell casting and bonuses for Att and Def are applied.
* During battle, if a hero position him/herself next to enemy hero.
*Just before enemy's units are destroyed.¹

During a duel, a hero can:

* Cast long range spells on units (ranged attacks are also possible).
* Flee back to battle.
* Use items.
* Use short range special abilities

The duel will end:

* as soon as one of the heroes is defeated;
* when a hero flees;
* when all units of one of the heroes are defeated.

Note: a duel challenge can be declined by other hero.
Note 2: there can't be duels when hero morale is 0 or less, and heroes with Leadership Common Skill (and some diplomacy) cannot decline duels or challenge heroes who are too much weaker.
Note 3: if a hero is defeated and he/she has units still fighting for their cause, they'll be sent back to the nearest castle/garrinson as a caravan. 1/4 of them, however, might be affected by challenging matters, such as joining enemy's troops, fleeing, retreating and won't return back to castle.
Note 4: while dueling, the fight will switch between units battling and heroes battling, as if separated in two arenas. Player is allowed to settle auto-battle for units, for heroes, for both battles, and camera settings/report, where it's possible having units being watched on a small screen (auto-battle only).
¹ This feature enables hero's units to be spare from the rest of the battle in exchange to a fight where hero can still win or flee successfully with some units.

[Panda Tar]

So, having Sareth as starting player, the player might open the hero screen to check how Sareth is like. It'd display something like this:

* Hero portrait (clicking on it would bring a pop-up window displaying Sareth history: "Sareth is originally the son of Evil, the sovereign Kah Beleth. Many things happened since then, and all cames out that he ended up against his father. After sealing him back to hellish healms, Sareth found himself in a new quest which no one but himself knows what lies in his ominous future."
* Hero appearance in battle: unlikely other Heroes games, heroes will change back and forth their appearance depending on their equipment, skills and spells cast upon them. The Equipment slots are displayed on the side of the model. Player can either drag equipments from the model or from the slots to equip/unequip heroes. Each race have distinct slots due their distinct appearance. Some might come really similar, like humans, vampires and elves, or really different, like nagas, lizardmen, dragons and demons. For that matter, Sareth can equip the following:
- A helmet (head)
- A mask (face)
- An armour (chest)
- Boots (feet)
- Loins (legs)
- Belt (Accessory 1 - carries 4 battle-items)
- Gloves (both hands) OR 2 rings
- 2 Bracers (both arms)
- 1 weapon (one hand)
- 1 weapon OR shield (another hand)
- Necklace (neck)
- Cape (back)
- Protective gear (shoulders)
- 3 Miscellaneous items (Accessory 2, 3, 4).
He comes with some equipment:
- A mask (cannot unequip): The Repentance (passive skill: enemies cannot use gating abilities or summon any Inferno-aligned unit. Passive spell efect: every round, a dispelling spell will be cast on Sareth to cleanse him from any status ailments. Makes Sareth immune to any mind-soul affecting spell/ability)
- An armour: Pit's Wall (increases Defense primary attribute by 4. Passive ability: Indestructible - cannot suffer penalties from piercing attacks or defense breaking)
- Boots: Wanderer's Boots (increases movement over land by 50%. Increases agility of the hero by 2. Increases 1 movement for hero during a battle/duel)
- Accessory 2: The Even Rune (Quest item that cannot be unequipped)
- Accessory 3: The Magi's Scroll (passive skill: gives Sareth the ability to call forth Magi Guards as his army daily)
* Hero name
* Hero class
* Experience and Level
* Behaviour: this new feature is based on player's decisions during the gameplay. It has a metric bar corresponding to the level of trusthworthness that hero has: low; neutral; and high. There can be "evil Priests", for instance, that might allow them to learn different unique skills, spells, or to have different relationship with NPCs, units, market, adventure objects, etc, if they are not trustworth within their faction. Or "good Demons", that might have more acceptance over a foreign region if they have low level in their own place. High levels might trigger some events like fightning against a same-faction group of creatures that will fight fiercer against the army, with higher morale, attack bonuses, a.i., etc., as if they are dealing with a betrayer, or natural enemies that will be even tougher to beat against a blindly-loyal sort of hero
* Morale and luck (moral will increase unit's initiative, it'll increase unit's damage, attack and defense against natural enemies or betrayers, and increase chances to resist mind-affecting spells/abilities; luck will double unit's damage during an attack, it will increase hero's chance to dodge an attack, spell, ability, and it'll increase general luck over many other things on map and decisions)
* HP / SP
* Damage
* Offense
* Defense
* Magic
* Knowledge
* Skill-tree (link to the complete skill-tree of the hero)
* Spellbook

Sareth's skill list later and, perhaps, some spells being introduced.

[winterfate]

@Panda: Awesome ideas!

[Panda Tar]

Thanks.

Moreeee....

Sareth's stats, skill tree and spellbook:

Sareth comes with level 9.
His class is Dark Wanderer.
He has neutral behaviour (5 of 10 points).
He has 0 morale and luck.

PRIMARY ATTRIBUTES
OFF: 5
DEF: 3 + 4
MAG: 4
KNO: 3
SECONDARY ATTRIBUTES
OFF
Attack: 5
Damage: 50-66
Agility and Speed (initiative): 10 + 2 (max of 50, each 2 OFF = 1)
DEF
Defense: 3 + 4
Endurance (HP): 470 (each 1 = + 22 HP. Stamina is a bar as big as HP, and it's used when combat techniques are used or special abilities)
Reflex: 7 (max of 50, each 1 def = 1 reflex). Corresponds to a percentage of chance to parry physical attacks
MAG
Spell power: 4
Spell points (SP): 85
Concentration: 10 + 2 (max of 50, each 2 MG = 1). Decreases delay for charging and recovering after casting spells and some magical abilities
KNO
Tactics:
- Standard: line of units in front of hero;
- Circle: units will surround hero in battle;
- Flank: units are in perpendicular lines each side of hero.
Proficiency: 1 (each 5 KNO = level of proficiency (max of 11 - the last level needs 100 KNO)), which increases effects for all spells, abilities, skills the more they are used by hero
Diplomacy: LV 1 (5 KNO for every level, max of LV 10)
- Grants hero to have units willing to join party
- Grants hero to be able to accept or decline duels
Learning: 3 (each 1 = + 2% experience, max of 50%)
- Experience: + 6%
- Learn common skills used, at least, 10 times in a duel or battle.
- Learn lowest level spells used, at least, 5 times in a duel or battle.

Intro about skills: they have 6 levels: basic, advanced, expert, master, grandmaster, supremacy. Supremacy skills are attained after becoming LV 11 in proficiency, since they evelop when you use them and level up altogether.

UNIQUE SKILLS:
Magi Guard Summoner: call forth Magi Guards for troops daily.
Supreme Stealth: out of view of any unit, this skill can be used once each 2 days and will grant complete invisibility. Cannot be noticed by any unit, artifact, skill or else. Cannot be used in battle.

COMMON SKILLS:
Advanced Combat Techniques: allows hero to learn his/her own battle commands for duels and close/ranged combat against some units.
Basic Logistics: increases hero movement over land, time for caravans directed to/from hero decreases slightly.
Basic Potionmaking: hero can mix simple reagents to create battle items of sixth power (heal, cure poison, for instance).
Expert Weaponmastery: allows hero to use bows, daggers, lances, crossbows, staves.

RACE SKILLS:
Advanced Destructive Magiclore: allows hero to learn destructive spells from 1st and 2nd cyrcles.

COPIED SKILLS:
None.

CORRUPTED/BALANCED SKILLS:
None.

Spells have some similarities to skills and might be sorted likely.

UNIQUE SPELLS:
Demon Seal - this spell casting cost is based on how much turns the seal will hold a demonic unit underpowered. Each turn will drain 1 SP from Sareth to hold a seal on a Lv1 unit, 2 for Lv2, 3 for Lv3, 4 for Lv4, 5 for Lv5, 6 for Lv6, and 7 for Lv 7. While casting a seal, Sareth cannot do anything else. To cast on another hero, the casting cost is as it follows:
Basic casting: 3 SP per turn.
Each enemy's 2 LVs: + 1 SP.
Each enemy's 1 MG: + 1 SP.
Each enemy's 1 KNO: + 1 SP.
During a duel, if Sareth seals a demonic hero, the duel will end, since both heroes won't fight for a while, and battle will focus back on units only.

COMMON SPELLS:
Master Fireball (2nd cyrcle destructive spell. Proficiency Lv 1. 15 SP)
Basic - reach 12. Range 3 radius. Basic damage 20 + 10 per Spell power. Fire element.
Advanced - reach 12. Range 4 radius. Basic damage 40 + 12 per Spell power. Fire element. Must be used 50 times to reach this level.
Expert - reach 13. Range 4 radius. Basic damage 50 + 14 per Spell power. Fire element. Must be used 150 times to reach this level.
Master - reach 15. Range 5 radius. Basic damage 75 + 16 per Spell power. Fire element. Piercing strike - blows down 2 target's defense per hit. Must be used 300 times to reach this level.

Note for Proficiency. Taking the example above, having Proficiency Lv 2 would make:
Advanced - 45 times.
Expert - 125 times.
Master - 220 times.

Expert Fist of Thunder (2nd cyrcle destructive spell. Proficiency Lv 1. 13 SP)
Basic - reach 6. Single point target. Basic damage 50 + 12 per Spell power. Lightning element.
Advanced - reach 8. Single point target. Basic damage 75 + 14 per Spell power. Lightning element. 70 times.
Expert - reach 8. Single point target. Stunning effect - might make unit to lose initiative or even lose the turn. Basic damage 80 + 15 per Spell power. Lightning element, physical blunt effect. 200 times.

This menu appears linked to COMBAT TECHNIQUES:

UNIQUE BATTLE COMMANDS:
Advanced Firerain (needs advanced weaponmastery (bow), basic combat techniques. Proficiency Lv1. 38 Stamina)
Basic - reach 8. Range 3x3. Fire and physical piercing damage (20 fire + 50% of normal damage). Might cause immolation effect (fire damage during 3 turns).
Advanced - reach 8. Range 3x3. Fire and physical piercing damage (30 fire + 55% of normal damage). Immolation effect. 100 times.

COMMON BATTLE COMMANDS:
Basic Arterial Stab (needs basic weaponmastery (dagger), basic combat techniques. Proficiency Lv1. 55 Stamina).
Basic - Reach melee. Single point target. Chance to quintuple normal damage is equal to 25%.

Note: Although the attributes are numbered or so, they are likely not to be balanced, since it's not supposed to be mathematicaly studied and analysed. I'm not that fond of writing.

[Panda Tar]

Back with some features. To introduce some spells Sareth uses, I'll introduce the magic school he uses. Shall we?

Magic schools
Destructive Magiclore (fire, lightning, magma and shrapmetal) – Inferno
First circle – destructive spells of first circle have low damage and single target effects at most. More proficiency increases speed and range of them.
Firebolt – a small flame is thrown over a single target. The closer the target is, the greater is the damage.
Iron Needles – a shower of iron needles attack a single target, piercing its defense. It does physical damage and reduces enemy defense.
Static Shield – casts upon a friendly unit a shield that will last 1 turn and will inflict lightning damage against any foe that attacks that unit in hand to hand combat. The higher the number of units in the enchanted stack, the higher is the electric damage.
Infernal Ashes – it’s a short-range spell affecting a 3x2 area in front of hero with blazing ashes that will do appalling damage and might blind units and make them lose initiative or even lose their turn. It’s a hit-and-run sort of spell.
Blood Pike – a sharp bloody blade comes out from the ground, cutting the feet of any unit that passes over it. The blade doesn’t vanish with time. It breaks after cutting twice. Giant, unsubstantial, flying and armored units are not affected.
Second circle – these have decent damage and some area effect.
Lava Stream – creates a path of lava which will damage any unit that walks over it. The lava stream will cool after 3 turns. The path is 3-hex long.
Fireball – throws a flaming ball on a 2x2 area, damaging all units within range.
Fist of Thunder – sends a powerful bolt from the fist for concentrated and heavy electrical damage.
Immolated Lash – creates an impressive fiery whip that will be lashed over units for heavy fire/physical damage and might slow down target’s initiative and speed.
Whiterock Blast – sends a white hot metal projectile on a single spot and it’ll explode damaging all adjacent hexes with half damage of the selected spot.
Third circle – more damage and differences in effect over targets.
Sulfurous Breath – a cloud of dense and acidic steam is spread right in front of the hero, damaging a 4x2 area, also applying temporary visual disturbance over all living units, and making them miss their target 25% of times for 3 turns.
Hell Trap – an explosive trap with shrapmetal is thrown against a unit, exploding for fire damage, and then releasing pieces of hot metal with random number between 5-10, dealing a certain physical damage for each piece.
Magma Geyser – opens holes that will randomly spread a killing mass of magma on the battlefield. It affects a 6x6 area and lasts 10 turns. Each turn, a geyser may erupt.
Acid Rain – damages all units within a 10x10 area with non-elemental acidic rain on battlefield during 3 turns. After the rain, some acid ponds might linger. Any unit that enters it will be damaged by half the rain normal damage. All units, apart from unsubstantial, suffer the penalty of the effect of the DEGEN ailment, losing HP gradually for two turns. Mechanical units get doubled damage from this spell.
Fourth circle – concentrated on damage and single and multiple targets.
Chain Lightning – damages with heavy lightning power a unit and the lightning will chain with nearby units halving damage as it goes by. It hits up to 5 targets.
Blade Barrier – creates a barrier of bloody blades and swords that will damage any unit that comes next to it. It can only be destroyed by melee attacks and vanishes after 5 turns. Only 1 barrier can be summoned at time. If the barrier is destroyed it’ll explode dealing heavy damage on all surrounding enemies.
Blazing Tornado – casts a huge fire tornado over the battlefield. The tornado has a random behavior and might travel back and forth for a while damaging foes and allied units alike. It inflicts massive fire/wind damage and lasts 5 turns.
Fifth circle – ultimate destruction spells with good damage and area effects.
The Red Thunder – a straight 2-width line across the entire battlefield is the area effect of this spell. It calls forth a powerful vicious red lightning that will damage anything in that line straight in front of the caster. It hits six times, halving damage as it hits, but there’s a difference from the chain lightning: if there’s only one unit in line, it’ll get full max damage for all 6 hits. It’ll only halve damage if there’s a second unit behind the first. Then the damage will jump back and forth between them. If there’s 7 units in line, the last one will not be damaged. If there are units side-by-side within the line, facing the caster straightforward, they’ll be hit as if they were 1 unit.
Eruption – settles a 6-hex long area AROUND the battlefield where a small volcano will erupt, and it has three parts: first, when it explodes, it will unleash wind/fire damage on all units on a 8x4 area adjacent to it. Next turn, magma will come in streams on that same area, dealing massive fire damage. Last turn, the volcano will vanish, but the lava will become fire, dealing extra damage.
Supreme circle – a unique and extremely powerful destruction spell.
Armageddon – this spell lasts 3 rounds whole and, randomly, great chunks of blasting rocks and fire will fall on the battlefield, hitting any unit in a 4x4 area. The place where it felt will be ablaze for other 3 turns. At least 1 explosion will occur every round, and there’s a chance of happening an explosion every single turn, before each unit acts. This spell can only be resisted by unsubstantial units/heroes.