The infamous Heroes 3 armorer turret bug

[UndeadHalfOrc]

How hard would it be for the talented WoG (or other mod's) team to fix the bug that causes turrets to do increased damage, instead of reduced damage, to units whose hero has the Armorer skill?

Without having to use WoG or any complete overhaul or add-ons, just the basic Heroes 3 (complete or shadow of death)

[Pol]

Ain't that fixed in hd mod?

[UndeadHalfOrc]

Ain't that fixed in hd mod?

Searched for "armorer", "turret", "tower" and found nothing, so apparently no.

[Lizzie_G]

Any updates on this?

[kyrub]

This is hard-code fix for the thing, armorer trait gives now the bonus instead of malus.

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?2seuj7s4cmrpxj2

[UndeadHalfOrc]

This is hard-code fix for the thing, armorer trait gives now the bonus instead of malus.

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?2seuj7s4cmrpxj2

Is this the Heroes 3 CD version of shadow of death?

Can you please post the offsets that you changed so that we may apply the changes ourselves?

[kyrub]

Heroes III Complete edition

Hex adresses
1E224 7D --> 4D
1E360 7D --> 4D
65D64 7D --> 4D

[UndeadHalfOrc]

I'm using Shadow of Death, and these offsets don't match for me.

My Heroes3.exe is very small and there's a corresponding Heroes3.ICD.

[kyrub]

Lend me your exe and I'll give you your offsets. Most probably.

[UndeadHalfOrc]

That would be most appreciated.

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


In this zip, there's the original SoD exe (very small) + the ICD file. The ICD file is the one you'll probably find the relevant offset in since it's the same size as your Heroes3.exe. But then again, maybe not.

The Heroes3_nocd.exe is a cracked Shadow of Death version and this one is standalone; if you can't find the original offsets on the exe+ICD pair, you'll probably be able to for that one.

[kyrub]

Heroes III Shadow of Death no-cd exe (version?)

Hex adresses
1E3A4 7D --> 4D
1E4E0 7D --> 4D
65944 7D --> 4D

(No way to do with the icd file, I'm afraid)

[UndeadHalfOrc]

Heroes III Shadow of Death no-cd exe (version?)

Hex adresses
1E3A4 7D --> 4D
1E4E0 7D --> 4D
65944 7D --> 4D

(No way to do with the icd file, I'm afraid)

Thanks a ton!

I'll test this and report.

[UndeadHalfOrc]

Using a test map, I made some tests.

Air Shield now works perfectly, it halves turret damage.

This gives the maligned Air Magic skill a MUCH needed boost, thanks!

I have not noticed anything different with the Armorer skill, though, but it's hard to test due to the turret damage being random, and armorer itself only being 85%. I will test some more.

[UndeadHalfOrc]

More extensive tests were made, with the unpatched and patched version.

Attacking a town with a large demon stack (defense 10), both heroes having 0 att/0 def, my hero having expert armorer, with main turret dealing, according to the game, 36-54 damage with an attack skill of 10.

With your patch, with 10 minutes of solid testing, the damage NEVER went out of the 36-54 bounds at all.
Without your patch, using the same map, the turrets deal WAY more than that, I registered 69 (this is more than the armorer bonus would give negatively), which means: the expected damage shown in game is wrong.

I tested again (with patched and unpatched), with no armorer skill, and the damage is a little higher than what is shown when you click on the turrets, so I can't rely on the expected damage shown when clicking on turret.

In short: Job well done, your patch works perfectly!

And Air Magic is much more useful now, since you just made Air Shield one of the best spell to cast when attacking a castle, having all your units take 1/2 damage from enemy shooters AND turrets? Yes please!

[GreatEmerald]

So by "turrets" you actually mean defence towers?..

[UndeadHalfOrc]

Yeah. In Heroes 2 they were called that name (the right & left turret)

A few minutes ago I did similar tests with HOMM2.

The Shield & Mass Shield spell doesn't do anything to reduce (or augment) the turrets' damage.

[kyrub]

And Air Magic is much more useful now, since you just made Air Shield one of the best spell to cast when attacking a castle, having all your units take 1/2 damage from enemy shooters AND turrets?

Exactly, that's the point. This bug was simply infuriating, every time I played. The one thing that should work against tower shooters does the opposite. Arrrgh.
So this is sort of old vengeance.

[GreatEmerald]

Interesting. Does this work with H3HD? And what about Heroes Chronicles?

[kyrub]

It does work whenever the modified exe is used.
I have no idea how HD3D is run. I've never played Heroes Chronicles, so I cannot say.

If you want some more implementations, lend me an exe and I can have a look.

[Bersaglio]

kyrub
Any chance to patch icd file and leave exe untouched? Or is it not possible?