Heroes 3 creature editing

[^Dagon^]

I would like to know how you can edit creatures in Heroes 3. Is it possible to do it without the expansions?
Can it be done with a hex editor? I used a hex editor to locate the creture's stats (and many other things) in Heroes 2 (they were in the .exe) but that doesn't seem to work for Heroes 3 .exe. I read a post saying that they are in a file CRTRAITS inside the .lod file and exported it but when I opened it I saw a bunch of meaningless symbols. No numerical values, no stats. Is it somehow encrypted? If yes, is there a way to decrypt it?
Any help would be appreciated.

[DungeonMaster]

I dont know how to do that but that sounds awsome. If you do find a way please tell

[Vlad976]

I read a post saying that they are in a file CRTRAITS inside the .lod file and exported it but when I opened it I saw a bunch of meaningless symbols. No numerical values, no stats. Is it somehow encrypted? If yes, is there a way to decrypt it?
Any help would be appreciated.

I forget which .lod contains CRTRAITS.txt, but there's a couple of programs out there that can be used to extract crtraits. One of the programs can be found here.
Once you have CRTRAITS.txt extracted, put the file in the same directory as all the .lod's to be able to see any changes you make.

[^Dagon^]

By the time I read your reply I have already downloaded those programs (thnx anyway), extracted, decompressed and edited the CRETRAITS file. But the problem now is that the changes I make don't seem to work at all. Any ideas?

[Beholder]

try to put crtraits.txt in data folder. It works fine with WOG addon - I don`t know if it`s due to the addon or if it`s working with standard version too.
Anyway if you really want to do it then you can quite simply do it in WOG addon...

[Ya5MieL]

IM doing some sort of small "patch" (basicaly just editions of those txt.files) for H3complete-SOD at the moment, some minor creature balance tweaks and some spells balance tweaks (spells are more important part) ,... so far as i tested it works with both complete and sod versions.. anyway,.. if you c something missing on the list feel free to mention it in this thread..

Current list:
http://gim.vup.hr/~dperko/patchheroes3.txt

EDIT: For now, ill discard the creature changes and concentrate on spells only.

[^Dagon^]

OK, finally I managed to make it work (with the aid of a Hex Editor). So, anyone wanting to ask about creature editing in Heroes 3 should post here and I will try to answer his questions.

As for the patch...

Spells

Fireball, Fire Shield, Frost Ring, Inferno -> Nice changes, now I think they will be of some use (I never casted them before).

Death Ripple: This spell shouldn't deal more damage than Destroy Undead because it can be used against any town except Necropolis (too much of an advantage). You have better make it inflict 8*SP.

Creatures

I think the creatures are pretty balanced as they are, to the point that the game becomes boring. So it may be a good idea to create a little unbalance (to make the game more interesting), but you should be careful.

However, I think Necropolis is weaker than the other towns, so it may be good idea to buff some Undead units.

[emrysblack]

k. I know this is random, but does anyone know what the msg and msk files are for in the sprite.lod file? We all know what the .def files are, but what about the others?

[kitcat0]

Death Ripple: This spell shouldn't deal more damage than Destroy Undead because it can be used against any town except Necropolis (too much of an advantage). You have better make it inflict 8*SP.

Correct me if I am wrong, but hasnt death ripple always been pretty useless because of the little damage it makes. Destroy Undead has always been more effective spell.

EDIT: checked it - death ripple does only SP*5 + little extra dmg depending on earth magic skill
destroy undead makes SP*10 + little extra depending on air magic skill.

[falcore19]

You don't need a hex editor. There's a text editor that put everything in rows and columns, it makes it conveniant to edit files like crtraits. You can probably find that editor on the same site where you found lod manager.

I used to make some mods, it was easy and fun. You can do a lot of changes with these simple files. I wish homm4 and 5 was the same. By the way, if you find a way to change creature abilities (strike twice, no retalation, etc), let me know, I've never been able to.

[Beholder]

as for death ripple:
it is useless, but the discussion is about raising it`s damage The thing is that in any ocasion death ripple should deal less damage than destroy undead because it has bigger 'spectrum' of monster to damage.

creature abilities:
you can change them in WOG, and if you`d want to change only this + stats of units, then it can be easily done by scripting (quite easy script to do). So if you`re interested then WOG would be solution here. I don`t know if it can be done using some other means...

[Vlad976]

I wish homm4 and 5 was the same.

Actually, homm4 is mostly the same. It just requires one extra step. You need to recompile the appropriate (I think it's) .h4r file with the text file you changed. That's were Resedit comes in handy.

[falcore19]

I wish homm4 and 5 was the same.

Actually, homm4 is mostly the same. It just requires one extra step. You need to recompile the appropriate (I think it's) .h4r file with the text file you changed. That's were Resedit comes in handy.

Yeah but is there a program to edit the .h4r files other than wordpad? I've tried editing a .h4r, the rows are all messy, and it doesn't say what number does what like in homm3, unless I did something wrong.

[mr.hackcrag]

if you c something missing on the list feel free to mention it in this thread..

Current list:
http://gim.vup.hr/~dperko/patchheroes3.txt

EDIT: For now, ill discard the creature changes and concentrate on spells only.

I really like your ideas for the spell patch so far. It makes much needed changes, without doing anything too extreme. I do have a few suggestions:

1) Air Magic school has two adventure spells that let the hero move more easily; Fly and Dimension Door. Maybe you should move dimension door to Fire Magic school so that this way, each magic school has a useful adventure spell:

Air: Fly
Water: Water Walk
Earth: Town Portal
Fire: Dimension Door.

2) In my experience, casting Berserk at expert level is extremely overpowering. I've literally destroyed armies that were ten times stronger than me just by having that spell. Maybe you should make this spell weaker by reducing it's area effect so it only effects one creature, or raising it to level 5, or raising it's cost, or a combination of these.

3) I think it would be more fitting to rearrange the following spells into different schools:

Fortune: Air
Misfortune: Earth
Sorrow: Water
Mirth: Fire

I say this because, if you look at all the other spells, they all harmoniously oppose each other. In other words, there is bloodlust and weakness in fire and water respectively, haste and slow in air and earth respectively, and etc.

I chose it this way because Fortune "feels" right in air, so it would make sense for misfortune to be in earth as it's opposite. Likewise, Sorrow "feels" right in water and Mirth "feels" right in fire as it's opposite.

Also, I can't say for sure, but making these spells reduce/raise morale or luck by 3 might be too strong. Usually when I play, if I have even -2 moral in combat, my troops tend to freeze two and sometimes three times per round! (Strangely though, when I have positive 3 morale and luck, I rarely get a morale/luck boost.)

4) I'm not entirely sure on this one, but since you raised death ripple to level 3 since it's now on par with destroy undead, maybe you should also raise animate dead to level 4. I know it only works on undead, but it's still a powerful spell like ressurect.

I hope this is helpful to you and I can't wait until you release the patch. Do you know when you will release it? These modified spells make me really excited! If I have any more ideas, I'll let you know.

Oh, one more thing. I know you said you weren't doing creatures now, but is it possible to swap the sprite and phoenix from the conflux with the centaurs and gold dragons from rampart respectively? I would really like to see a classic H2 rampart faction.

[mr.hackcrag]

*Tumbleweed rolls by*

Still no reply? Is no one responding because my ideas are crazy? Sheesh, I sure have been lonely ever since I joined these forums.

[Pol]

Sheesh, be more patient, it's on the patchmaker now

[mr.hackcrag]

Sheesh, be more patient, it's on the patchmaker now

I wasn't complaining about how fast the patch would be released. I was just wondering why no one has replied here for so long. I thought it was just being ignored.

[Pol]

* For spell balancing - it sounds interesting, but I wouldn't need to balance the high levels speels, for each school at least one powerful....

* Neat. Having classic Rampart. - You are not alone with that idea here, I bet.

[mr.hackcrag]

This is sort of unrelated, but is anything going to be done to fix the problem with creature specialist bonus of heroes? I've detailed the problem in a different thread. The way it is now makes it almost useless to choose a creauture specialist because of the non-linear bonus.

By the way, what happened to the link to the document that showed what spell changes were being implemented?

[Pol]

But I like the current bonus for creature specialists. Non-linear variation. I feel it like right.

No worry. The link only died.