So I decided I would like to try my hand at modding. One thing that I thought could improve the game is creating more interesting characters that you could come across in the world. I have a couple problems with the current champions that are in the game:
1. Generic level ups - Every character can level in any direction they want and often there is a distinct better pick for each character archetype that you are working with.
2. They are mercenaries - There is no back story for whoever you come across in the world, it's just a race to pay the champ's recruiting fee.
In order to add some flair into worlds I want to create some champs that cause a little bit more of an attachment. To do this I am planning on a couple things:
-Each character created will have abilities, completely distinct to them that they can select on certain level ups(currently set up to be at 4, 7, and 10.)
-Each character will have both strengths and weaknesses to make them more unique.
-All are recruited in more immersive ways than walk up next to them and right click.
It is very important to note that this is the first mod I have ever created.
Currently, I have created 4 different champs and their recruiting quests. I won't ruin their (pretty basic) quest lines but they are:
Mouse - A diminutive archer who has situational abilities to aid her allies.
Brashear - A large man, dominated by rage. Hard hitting abilities that leave him quite vulnerable.
Rachel - A healer who uses her abilities by manipulating the power of crystals.
Boldin - A man who is focused on defense more than offense.
You can download what I've done so far here - https://dl.dropbox.com/u/33772936/Heroes.zip
Most recent version is compatible with the mod manager and Stormworld. Ignore the configuration.femm in the zip and just extract the folder to your mods directory if you arent using the mod manager.
I would appreciate any and all feedback. If this is something that people are interested in my goals are to create full quest lines for each character to further develop each character as well as adding new characters of course.
mouse, rachel and brashear traits are selectable when creating a custom sov, not sure if intended
Not intended. WarlordAlpha let me know via pm and its already been fixed
Will upload with next update(sunday? hopefully)
Thanks for letting me know though.
I have Mouse unlocked, and I just achieved L4. Her ability looks neat, but I am really wondering about taking it over one of the Paths because the paths are basically impossible to get later on?
[Edit] Yea I took Mouse's special ability, but now I am stuck with generic levelups forever, unless I get extremely lucky and draw a Path again.
Well part of the goal is to make the Champions more unique than the average champion. It will definitely require some balancing as more people run into the champions and give feedback on what they like and don't like.
The ultimate goal would be to make the abilties chosen because they are cooler than generic paths, not necessarily because they are more powerful. Partly this is because I don't have faith that the A.I. would ever properly use the abilities(unless we get access to better tactical a.i. settings) and also because in the long run the goal is to have multi-quest arcs so probably will give even more rewards for each arc, so I don't want to make them super powerful. That being said, while Mouse's first ability is pretty situational, her next 2 are definitely stronger.
However, you have given me an idea in that I can make the abilities at level 7 and 10 dependent on picking the ability at level 4(if I can't figure out how to restrict the level 4 choice to only one option.) So basically you can pick the path of xxx, or the path of Mouse. In the short run, it might be the better choice to pick a generic level up but than you might miss out on some very powerful ability later on.
Definitely appreciate the feedback, so keep it coming. Thanks.
Status update. I had basically no time this weekend and ran into the issue with a couple skills on the new character I was working on so couldn't get an update out. I also realized there is a bug with one of Brashear's ability, related to the issue I posted earlier where on applytocaster it won't take the target unit's stats so I have to rework that one as well.
However, I was able to go through all the text quest and spent time editing. So now the quests are a little better written for next update.
Ok, file has been updated. Changes for this one:
-Added Boldin: A man who is focused on defense more than offense.
-Fixed Brashear's ability that was trying to draw from the enemy's attack rating.
-Traits no longer available in sovereign customization.
-Edited quest text so the writing is less....crap
For now I left the level up's working the same way until I get a little more feedback to see how people prefer it.
thanx for the update
something I noticed, you put the unistat_bg tags for storworld compatibility in the wrong spot, they're supposed to go inside L1 milestone
Could you put a revision # on your file, and the title of this post? So we can see when it has been updated and determine which file is the most recent?
Just finished a Stormworld game.
crimsongekko, will take a look at the Stormworld compatibility, thanks.
ManiiNames, hmmm not sure why there would be no wage cost since I am using the same code as other champions but I will definitely look into that. Thanks for the typos heads up, fixed for next version. Any thoughts on the abilities you saw from Brashear and Mouse?
I am having a lot of trouble tracking down why these guys don't have unit wages. I am beginning to think its a bug with applying the unit wage cost on recruitment of a champion that doesn't happen if you gain them through a quest.
Of course I could be completely missing it, so if anyone can take a look at the xml and double check if I'm missing something it would be greatly appreciated.
If the normal way doesn't work you can always give them a trait that takes away 1 gildar per turn. Like a merchant trait with a negative value.
Well it's definitely a bug. Was playing a game and had the Brother Spareus(sp) quest and when I got them they didn't have any unit wages either.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:
Sign in or Create Account
