Disciples 2 Mod

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KrisSean
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Disciples 2 Mod

Unread postby KrisSean » 15 Sep 2013, 19:22

After a discussion with a player named Gaslov on the GOG forums, I have to realize that the balance of the game is in a good place. The problems are the length of games, and the underpowered units that are currently unused or fill no practical purpose.

-Experience required for all unit level ups have been reduced by 1/2 the value. Leaders "next level up" value has also been reduced. Lastly, units who either chose to not upgrade or are have reached their final upgrade in the tree now have a "next level up" value added. This means level 4 units such as Death, Wights, and Hermits etc as well as Chargers now take more experience to level up to their next level per level gained.

Building costs have been reverted to original values.

Rod planters now have 3 leadership, up from 2. Allowing them to carry two comrades or a single two-spacer

Unit stat changes

-All Warrior Leaders have an extra 25 health and 10 armor at level 1.
-All Guildmaster leaders, with the exception of Nosferat, has their Chance to hit increased to 85%.
-Death renamed to Reaper
-Reaper now has a 60 base attack and a 40 poison attack. Initiative increased to 60.
-Wight has their initiative upped to 65 while having their damage reduced to 70.
-Alchemist now bestows elemental wards as well as an extra attack.
-The priest line now has 2 "attacks" per combat cycle with their healing increased by 10 for each tier.
-Cleric line has their healing increased by 5 at each tier.
-Holy Avenger now has 5 extra damage with a critical hit strike added as well, with a chance to hit increased to 85%.
-Wolf Lord's Spirit of Fenrir damage increased to 150.
-Dwarf King water ward changed to Earth ward.
-Succubus chance to hit increased to 45%.
-Incubus chance to hit increased to 70 and changed to a single target petrify rather than 6 targets.
-Elementalist now has 80 intiative and can summon elementals in all empty friendly slots versus the 1 slot.
-Nosferat and the Vampire line changed to Earth source.
-Nosferat gains drain life overflow. Reduced attack level-up by 1 point to compensate for huge buff.
-Werewolf gold cost reduced to 800.
-Titan now has 60 initiative.


Cosmetic changes.
-Tiamath model and the Beast model have been switched.
-Marauder model and Brigand model have been switched.
Last edited by KrisSean on 21 Oct 2013, 00:22, edited 2 times in total.

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Variol
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Unread postby Variol » 15 Sep 2013, 23:19

D2 was one of the best games ever. I have not played in years and this might get me interested again. It would be interesting to try.

KrisSean
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Unread postby KrisSean » 16 Sep 2013, 00:14

My thoughts on the internal balance for each faction:

With the changes to the Empire I wanted to give the Empire more diversity when it comes to healing and higher tier units. With the Priest line healing more than double their previous levels and the Hierophant healing a whopping 300 health with another 300 if revived, he should at least be able to stay competitive with the Matriarch in certain situations or depending on your leader choice (not all of us wants to play the Archmage all the time).

With the Higher tier melee units their is no reason to go anything else other than defender of faith unless you are facing the Legions and would like the wards and immunities the Grand Inquisitor line offers. Angels were also bland and offered very little variety, so changing up their source gives you options, especially if you are playing as a Ranger and would like to focus more on your front lines rather than recruiting a mage to take on the Undead Hordes. The shatter effect added to the Angel and the Holy Avenger respectively gives you more options when dealing with the new armor buffs given to most end tier units of the game for the opposing factions.

And lastly, the Elementalist is rated one of the worst upgrades to choose from in the entire game because of their low initiative as well as the low initiative of their summons meaning almost 2 cycles must pass before they can start attacking in force, as well as their death upon the Elementalist's death. Having them fill up every available slot with a high initiative on the Elementalist makes them a viable filler of your front lines, without it being totally broken because killing the Elementalist still kills them all off.

With the Clans not too much has changed, aside from making the Wolf Lord more appealing for shorter games, while making dwarven end tier melee units even beefier with some added utility for their hefty price tag.

The Spirit of Fenrir has higher initiative to allow them to be more competitive with the other end games units for cost, as well as increasing their damage since they will never level up or gain added damage. You are basically trading potential damage for more upfront damage that plateaus quickly.

With the Sons of Ymir, I found myself always going Alchemist because Archdruidess simply doesnt synergize well with units with more than 150 damage, its basically wasted potential if there were any buffs on your party. Breaking up the Son of Ymir's attacks takes them deeper into their roles as damage dealers, allowing them to spread out their frostbite attack.

The Elder one receiving an air based shatter as well as gaining armor makes him more appealing to pursue as a front line unit, as well as making him a contender for stacks that have higher levels armored units.

The change to Forgeguardian as well as Rune Master both gaining weapon based shatter is to make them better for their respective roles while adding utility, dealing with late game high armored units and giving the player more choices.

With the Undead, their didnt seem to be any reason to go anything else other than 5 Deaths with a Lich Queen. As a whole the Undead were designed for prolonged engagement with very little upfront ranged burst damage, but alas Death came along and broke the tradition with higher initiative than most of its counters as well as enough damage to normally eliminate any threats. Upping their poison damage with reducing their primary attack makes them more of a compliment to your forces rather than the end-all-be-all.

In regards to the Wight, their damage was reduced as well as having their initiative increased to allow them to start off the battle right away and lowering those unit levels. Before, their was no real "trade-off" going for death over wights. Now you have more damage overall but not as quick and less burst with death, or higher burst, speed, and utility with the Wights.

The DracoLich I felt didnt offer any real utility other than raw DPS, making them unappealing to pick up considering their investment of experience required; which is why I added a chance to lower damage.

The ArchLich offered nothing other than raw DPS, nothing to make it stand out. Giving him a small poison attack gives them more utility against the high armored units you will now be facing in the game.

The Dark Lords gaining armor is to give some incentive between the other melee tech options: do you want front line damage dealers who are competitive with other high tier melee units or front line units with armor so you can focus more on your backline units?

And lastly, the change to Nosferat's source is to address the issue of the Undead's 2 easily counterable sources when facing other Undead parties. This, again, offers more choices for the player in their playstyle which I think is a good thing.

With the Legions, the Infernal Knight has gained armor to make him more appealing over the 2 spacer demons or a gargoyle for your front lines.

The changes to the demons themselves give them, again, more utility. The Overlord now has armor, to break away from his similarities to the Sons of Ymir, and the Abyssal devil now has 2 attacks with less damage, making him more of a contender with front line units in the late game.

The Witch line for the casters was largely neglected for the other options, namely the Incubus. Now the witch line with 50 initiative can compete in battles without sharing the exact same role as their brethren: You can have a more reliable chance of stunning the enemy but with more opportunities to be slain by their counters alah Incubus, or have a lower chance to hit but with greater potential and speed alah Succubus.

The Modeous was given a blister attack added on to give them more variety other than raw DPS.

All in all, my direction is to give them game more options, more potential for different parties compositions versus the same bland cookie cutter builds, and to actually have more choices for the player in general.

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parcaleste
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Unread postby parcaleste » 16 Sep 2013, 04:16

What modding program are you using? I made my Disciples totally different game with one, but it can't mod Elves, add secondaries like Shatter, etc.

KrisSean
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Unread postby KrisSean » 16 Sep 2013, 14:14

I have used a regular DBF Editor and directly edited the game code.

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Unread postby KrisSean » 30 Sep 2013, 03:45

My first attempt at modding was to explore possibilities and get a sense of the game balance. The balance of actual units are sound with some just being severely underpowered. The big detriments to balance from what I've seen is 3 fold:
- Unit leveling grind being too slow.
-Too much investment in single parties due to leveling requirements of second or third groups
-Heavy investment in single parties makes spell damage spells rain supreme in multi-player.

-Experience level requirements have been halved for both leaders and units, with leaders also having their "next level up" value reduced as well. This means that at level 1 a leader will take 75 experience to level up to level 1 versus 150. At level 2 they will only require 325 to level up to level 3, etc etc. My thoughts on this are that 2nd and 3rd leader parties are virtually gimped; you will invest alot of time in your main group only to have it destroyed with 1 salvo of spells. Having leaders that are able to pick up the slack in the unfortunate event of your best party being wiped out allows for more counter play as well as making the game less "all-in". It also reduces the time taken to play a competitive game on multiplayer. Lastly, it allows players to actually get to the high level units, who have alot of flavour and are pretty cool but very rarely seen due to the time and exp needed. I myself am a busy man and do not wish to play a 30-45 minute game of Disciples 2 and still struggle to see the end game content. This will also reduce the game-ending effectiveness of chain-spelling the main party to death. In short, I wanted to put more emphasis on unit combat over instagibbing spells.

Building costs have been halved with the exception of the Guild tower, Temple, and Mage Tower.

Rod planters now have 3 leadership, up from 2. Allowing them to carry two comrades or a single two-spacer

Again, to make end-game content more accessible and to encourage pursuit of the higher tier units.

With the above changes, keep in mind that ALL units have had their experience requirement reduced, so the fast leveling units still level faster compared to the higher tier units. Most units level 1-4 have had a slight growth added to the "next level up" experience cap (such as the Centaur Charger). My reasoning is if your objective is to end the game fast, the option of choosing the least experience hungry unit trees is still viable, but makes it more of a "timing attack" rather than the most "optimal play".

Unit stat changes

-All Warrior Leaders have an extra 25 health and 10 armor at level 1.
-All Guildmaster leaders, with the exception of Nosferat, has their Chance to hit increased to 85%.
-Death renamed to Reaper
-Reaper now has a 60 base attack and a 40 poison attack. Initiative increased to 60.
-Wight has their initiative upped to 65 while having their damage reduced to 70.
-Alchemist now bestows elemental wards as well as an extra attack.
-The priest line now has 2 moves per turn with their healing increased by 10 for each tier.
-Cleric line has their healing increased by 5 at each tier.
-Holy Avenger now has 5 extra damage with a critical hit strike added as well, with a chance to hit increased to 85%.
-Wolf Lord's Spirit of Fenrir damage increased to 150.
-Dwarf King water ward changed to Earth ward.
-Succubus chance to hit increased to 45%.
-Incubus chance to hit increased to 70 and changed to a single target petrify rather than 6 targets.
-Elementalist now has 80 intiative and can summon elementals in all empty friendly slots versus the 1 slot.
-Nosferat and the Vampire line changed to Earth source.
-Nosferat gains drain life overflow. Reduced attack level-up by 1 point to compensate for huge buff.
-Werewolf gold cost reduced to 800.


Cosmetic changes.
-Tiamath model and the Beast model have been switched.
-Marauder model and Brigand model have been switched.

Zigeuner
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Unread postby Zigeuner » 15 Oct 2013, 17:37

I still have D2 bouts and am actually replaying the campaigns with rodplanters at the moment. I tend to choose different upgrade paths for each scenario. sure, the hierophant etc isn't optimal, but it can be quite fun to stagger out of battle with most of your subpar units intact.
-have you made any changes to the empire's titan? it falls short in every way, especially if you had the dubious pleasure of playing D3. even upping the initiative to 55 would be decent.
-giving all the ranged leaders poison does not seem fair (or varied), because the undead are mostly immune. blister and frostbite might be more appropriate for legion/ dwarves. for empire, a small (25%?) chance to paralyze might fill a niche and create some fun dilemmas.
-I don't like to see AI units with the "not yet upgradable" green cross. does lowering building costs remedy that? if not, it may not be a bad idea to grant the AI the first few tiers of buildings for free (or all of them?).
-the problem with especially death and the hermit is that the xp required for level up is very low so they grow out of bounds pretty quick. is their xp req. now more in line with their tier peers?
-the iconic incubus, neutralized? is it possible to give a unit like that a double attack? the witch line is not working properly; too often the morphed unit changes back and still gets to attack, so that's the one line I never use.
-finally, the dwarven flame thrower is kinda lame, esp. if you don't have a druidess in your party.
at any rate, if you upload your mod (and the steps to install it are not too numerous), I'd love to play a few maps!

krgr
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Unread postby krgr » 17 Oct 2013, 18:48

KrisSean, keep up the good work. :)

Please, make this mod available to others in some way. I would like to try -- it both single and multiplayer.

KrisSean
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Unread postby KrisSean » 21 Oct 2013, 00:03

I am currently looking for a website that will allow me to upload the mod, with easy access for all users.

But yes, I have actually reverted many changes to the game and have since taken the game in a new direction with my modding.

Wotan87
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Re: Disciples 2 Mod

Unread postby Wotan87 » 22 Dec 2018, 13:24

Hello,
Where can we download this mod? Is there a link to it?

Thanks.

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Blake
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Re: Disciples 2 Mod

Unread postby Blake » 26 Aug 2019, 09:15

yeah what happened to this??
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