Download my own personal H3 patch! (SoD or Complete)

[UndeadHalfOrc]

For people who hate the imbalances in H3 and don't want to use WoG.

http://pages.infinit.net/plague/balance.zip

Just unzip everything in the "heroes3/data" folder. (You only need those txt files though)

If you want you can use the batch files I included to insert the .txt files in the big .LOD data file, but it's really not necessary and I don't recommend using them in case you don't like my changes. Just sticking the .txt files in the data folder is enough, H3 will use them.
(If you do want to patch your h3bitmap.lod file, the batch files use "lodedt.exe" which I downloaded from the net, don't worry it's virus free. Use the patch file that correspond to your version (SOD for shadow of death and complete)

I made a list of changes (changes.txt), but it's not a complete list anymore. All the probabilities for skills and spells are left out, and spell costs too. Most notably, mass spells are more expensive, and the spell distribution among towns is MUCH better. For instance Necro cannot get any beneficial spells that don't work on the undead anymore.
Took me 6 years because each of those changes was playtested many times. Any idiot can change numbers and call it a patch, the hard work is try them out.

And yes, Archangels are *slightly* less expensive (2 gems instead of 3 now), I expect to get flamed for this, but I did it only because the AI is too slow to get them and Castle doesn't have a gem resource silo, and everytime I play a big map the Castle player gets trounced because he couldn't afford to buy his ******* archangels!

If you modify those txt files, be careful with TABS which are used to delimitate. The columns are screwed up making it a nightmare to modify manually. Use this utility to do it.
http://pages.infinit.net/plague/TextEdit.zip

Lastly be careful with spell/skill probabilities, there is a total for each hero class / mage guild level and it needs to be kept at a CONSTANT sum. That's why I also use a mirror Excel file when I do some serious editing: to make sure the sums totals constant!
Primary Skills = 100
Secondary Skills = 112
Hero class town appearance selection = 50
Each Mage Guild level = 100


Comments/questions are welcome.

EDIT: The "LODEDT.EXE" file was made by the French ModHOMM team, if anyone can remember them.

[UndeadHalfOrc]

One more thing: the column "FIGHT Value" is used by the AI to have a rough estimate of the power of a unit. It's also used in calculations for CPU vs CPU battles. If you buff/nerf a unit to much, you WILL need to tinker with that value. I did some minor necessary fixes to it (Archer and Elf upgrades' FIGHT Value were almost the same as the basic unit).

(For the H2 Modders: This column also exists in the Creature Table Kristo found in the EXE file).

[Pol]

I donwloaded it and eventually will check. Still I'm pretty satisfied with normal SoD values, not with AI and triggers but that would be a different story.

As I know this is third patch, first was unofficial cz what I was aware (and it's no longer), second one was from yasmiel I think.

[Akul]

Ya5miel's one is the mod that changes more then just stats.

[UndeadHalfOrc]

Since I don't play online multiplayer I made this patch much more for myself (and potential hotseat partners). Still it would be interesting to hear what people have to say. If 95% of the board says about one particular change, "THIS CHANGE SUCKS!" then I'll probably reconsider it.

[ByteBandit]

It might be interesting to add it to the Map Archives. There may be a lot of feed back from there. Since we have people who are from all over the world and do not necessarily frequent this forum. What say you undead?

[UndeadHalfOrc]

As of now, I fixed and uploaded the file on my webpage, Conflux heroes can appear correctly in non-conflux taverns now. (The reason I removed their probability scores is that I needed to enable AB from time to time, and I didn't like Conflux heroes showing up! )

ByteBandit: There is an executable files in the patch that was made not by me, but by a French "ModHOMM" team. I think their site went down a few years ago. If all the credit goes to me they might take offense seeing their own lodedt.exe credited to someone else. But otherwise, I'm good with it. Just know that Conflux was basically ignored the whole way. (Apart from Pixie and Firebird growth rates). I didn't even touch their spells probabilities. Some useless spells that I removed entirely from the 8 main towns (Disguise & Misfortune) can still appear in Conflux towns!
Oh, and it's pretty safe to say my patch is not meant to be used with WoG.

[Ya5MieL]

Seems I have found a way to edit creature abilities (with help from BAD23ro).
That discovery can enrichen patch such as this one

I'm finaly able to make undead, double striking, multi headed atacking, no retaliation goblin without the use of wog/erm )

[UndeadHalfOrc]

That's an awesome discovery!

Did you find a way to make the Magog's fireball a true Fire elemental attack?

Please tell me if you ever find out how to change the way secondary skills work (the foremost thing i'd like to change).

BTW my balance patch has been updates (a little): basic behemoth's speed have been increased by 1 (they were too slow at 6)

[Ya5MieL]

Changing the spell effect is still buried too deep.
I have only several abilities at my disposal to add/remove. I never figured i could do that thing in h3, but experience with h2 editing helped.

So far i can only add/remove this abilities:
fly, shooter, breath attack, alive, mind immunity, no obstacle penalty, no melee penalty,fire imunity, shoot twice, no enemy retaliation, no moral penalty, undead, attack all enemies around, extended radius of shooters

So, no life drain for my goblins yet ((((

[darknessfood]

Changing the spell effect is still buried too deep.
I have only several abilities at my disposal to add/remove. I never figured i could do that thing in h3, but experience with h2 editing helped.

So far i can only add/remove this abilities:
fly, shooter, breath attack, alive, mind immunity, no obstacle penalty, no melee penalty,fire imunity, shoot twice, no enemy retaliation, no moral penalty, undead, attack all enemies around, extended radius of shooters

So, no life drain for my goblins yet ((((

LOOK OUT FOR THE SPAWNING GOBLINS!!!

[AngelEyes]

I played through a map using this patch and I’ll offer these comments about the patch:

1) I played as Inferno. Reducing the gold costs on a lot of the units is a very good idea. They were ridiculously overpriced before. The stat changes to the creatures were too subtle for me to notice. I always felt the biggest problem with our demonic friends was the high cost, and was correctly addressed here.

2) I took Expert Fire Magic with my main hero and it paid off nicely. I liked the boost to the direct damage fire spells (fireball, inferno, etc), but I felt they were still somewhat lacking. I still found myself leaning on Berserk and Curse most of the time. Also worth of note, Town Portal as a Fire/Earth spell is an excellent idea. Really boosts the (previously) weak Fire Magic school while making Earth Magic not quite as vital. Nice.

Here’s a question for you regarding modifications: Is it possible to implement negative luck? This would make Misfortune useful (as a level 1 spell?), and give Devils a nice little perk too (especially when fighting neutrals).

Anyways, nice job and I’ll definitely give this a try with another faction.

[UndeadHalfOrc]

I played through a map using this patch and I’ll offer these comments about the patch:

1) I played as Inferno. Reducing the gold costs on a lot of the units is a very good idea. They were ridiculously overpriced before. The stat changes to the creatures were too subtle for me to notice. I always felt the biggest problem with our demonic friends was the high cost, and was correctly addressed here.

It looks like we saw things 100% the same way about Inferno! That's precisely how I intended it to change. Imps, Magogs and Pit Lords were too pricey. Imps, Magogs and Cerberi growth was too low. Subtle unit stat changes, but price/growth changes makes them a lot stronger. More total HP produced per week, and those HP cost less. They still can't get Bless in their guild though, now THAT would make them too strong with their big unit damage gaps (and it would make no sense).

2) I took Expert Fire Magic with my main hero and it paid off nicely. I liked the boost to the direct damage fire spells (fireball, inferno, etc), but I felt they were still somewhat lacking. I still found myself leaning on Berserk and Curse most of the time. Also worth of note, Town Portal as a Fire/Earth spell is an excellent idea. Really boosts the (previously) weak Fire Magic school while making Earth Magic not quite as vital. Nice.

I felt the direct damage spell increase were good enough - the computer seems to cast Fireball, Inferno and Destroy Undead a whole lot more often now, and they do hurt, especially Destroy Undead in the Sandro campaign. Fireball and Destroy Undead went from 10 power multiplier to 13, Death Ripple 5 to 8, and Inferno a whopping 10 to 15 - a 150% power increase! (Well it's a level 4 spell after all). Gem was also kicking serious undead behind with Destroy Undead in her campaign.
Glad you like my Town Portal idea... makes sense since the fire based town got their own Town Portal structure and it's engulfed in flames. How did you feel about the "mass spells" cost increase once you learn Expert of a magic school?

Here’s a question for you regarding modifications: Is it possible to implement negative luck? This would make Misfortune useful (as a level 1 spell?), and give Devils a nice little perk too (especially when fighting neutrals).

It's possible if you're the WOG team and reverse-engineered the code, but not for me. But in any case, you'll never be stuck with that spell in your guild now, or "disguise", unless you play Conflux: I removed these 2 spells from the main 8 towns. Disguise was completely buggy anyway.

Anyways, nice job and I’ll definitely give this a try with another faction.

Thanks, glad you like it.
Hopefully, as you play you'll also notice the not-so-visible changes but still as tedious to do: spell appearances in guilds and secondary skill selection in heroes. For instance, vastly reduced eagle eye/learning appearance for all heroes means the computer opponents will get offered those skills less often, so they'll get better skills; net result, stronger CPU heroes, more chance for them to get Fire/Water/Air/Earth, so more chance of them casting those nasty Mass spells on you!

[Bandobras Took]

Don't seem to be able to get this work with RoE (even using the RoE.bat). Does one need to be at a different patch version/are there different text files that ought to be used?

[UndeadHalfOrc]

ROE needs to be version 1.4 (the latest)

And you don't need to use the batch files at all, just dumping the .txt files on the data directory should work

[Bandobras Took]

Updating to 1.3 seems to have done the trick (I couldn't find a 1.1 to 1.4 patch . . . everything but).

Is there any way to revert cursed ground to its original function of disabling all spellcasting? That's one of the reasons I never felt like patching.

[Pol]

CH patches
I never heard about any way of reverting the patches effect, by a selective removal of a disliked change.

And I like unpatched versions, they were more funny. Peasants to Pikemen in Skeleton Transformer, Hydras to Dragons at the same place or multiple Blind! Yah, these sweet memories

[UndeadHalfOrc]

I'm looking at the official patch readme files right now and I have a hard time figuring why you would want to play an older patch version.

The positives of the lastest patched versions FAR outweigh the negatives.

There are so many bugs and imbalances in the old versions that it's not even funny. Gremlin Rush? Hotseat NOT working? Necromancy being too powerful? I remember. I bought the 1.0 version when it came out. It was so unplayable I felt depressed for a week.

Some people who played with an early version were shocked to learned that I made a slight nerf to Lizard Warriors. Of course, since they didn't know how strong NWC made them with the latest patch.

Bottom line is, my personal patch was made for the latest versions. But if it works for 1.3, good for you

[AngelEyes]

How did you feel about the "mass spells" cost increase once you learn Expert of a magic school?

I did notice there were some mana cost changes. However, it took my hero a long time (for some reason) to reach Expert level in any field of magic. By the time I got Expert, I already had a Knowledge of at least 15. So I wasn't really paying attention to the spell costs by then, as I had mana to burn. I'll look at this more closely next time.

It's possible if you're the WOG team and reverse-engineered the code, but not for me. But in any case, you'll never be stuck with that spell in your guild now, or "disguise", unless you play Conflux: I removed these 2 spells from the main 8 towns. Disguise was completely buggy anyway.

That's too bad. I'm not all that concerned about Misfortune...but the perk for the Devils would have been nice! (Actually this is something I wanted implemented from the time the game originally came out. I petitioned on the original NWC boards for this, but alas, no luck --- no pun intended!)

Thanks, glad you like it.
Hopefully, as you play you'll also notice the not-so-visible changes but still as tedious to do: spell appearances in guilds and secondary skill selection in heroes. For instance, vastly reduced eagle eye/learning appearance for all heroes means the computer opponents will get offered those skills less often, so they'll get better skills; net result, stronger CPU heroes, more chance for them to get Fire/Water/Air/Earth, so more chance of them casting those nasty Mass spells on you!

Yeah, I'll look out for these changes too. Were the probabilities changed for Witch Huts too? I seemed to encounter a lot of Learning/Navigation Huts when I played. Maybe it was just luck of the draw...

[Bandobras Took]

I'm looking at the official patch readme files right now and I have a hard time figuring why you would want to play an older patch version.

The positives of the lastest patched versions FAR outweigh the negatives.

There are so many bugs and imbalances in the old versions that it's not even funny. Gremlin Rush? Hotseat NOT working? Necromancy being too powerful? I remember. I bought the 1.0 version when it came out. It was so unplayable I felt depressed for a week.

I was at 1.1. Since I do mostly single player, it was fine.

Some people who played with an early version were shocked to learned that I made a slight nerf to Lizard Warriors. Of course, since they didn't know how strong NWC made them with the latest patch.

That's one of your changes I heartily approved of. I always felt they overpowered the Fortress by buffing Lizard Warriors (and Dragon Flies).

Bottom line is, my personal patch was made for the latest versions. But if it works for 1.3, good for you

The 1.3 patch was the one that brough RoE in line with SoD; that's probably why it works.

I seem to recall that 1.4 messed up the original RoE campaigns (all of them got set on easy difficulty and your tavern alignment was always Knight), but hopefully 1.3 won't have that problem, and I can see if the Campaigns have a different flavor with the changes.