Struggles of Arkain

[ChiekChiek]

Shar doing the unthinkable

 

[U.05]

Amazing! thanks!

 

[deepstrasz]

Not sure if intended but the undead start with a ghoul while there is no such unit at least in some factions.
The undead elves can have both their heroes summoned without needing to upgrade the main building. Happened on Icecrown by the way.
There might be other minor things since I haven't tested all factions.
There are obvious balance irregularities as well as more her choices for some factions but that's not the point of this mod in the end.

A nice mod of the factions of Arkain for fans to clash with.
An idea for future game modes could be letting players have their torment on edited campaign maps like the Siege of Kome etc. while keeping the melee idea rather than having the maps as multiplayer campaign ones.

Approved.

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[nhs325]

I think you could add more stuffs that is from the campaign, such as the Hero Boni. And some heroes don't have additional spells (Like Gardon not having the Zed summon). Otherwise a quite fun map for Arkain fans who wants to test out all the units and heroes.

 

[Daffa]

- Factions with only 2 heroes to pick from are theoretically able to train the second hero without upgrading their town hall - this is due to the Gameplay Constants having a limit on how many heroes can be added to the pool to limit availability. Considering the cost of said second hero and it being quite the investment in the early game however I have decided to keep it that way for the time being

Hi Shar Dundred! I missed a lot, aren't I? Anyway, I read this part and I think a solution that can be used is to add a dummy hero called "A Hero" and then set the dependency equivalent for all the custom hero to this dummy hero, while adding the dummy hero into the gameplay constant.

I think this is the approach I took in the past if I remember it right.

 

[Shar Dundred]

I think you could add more stuffs that is from the campaign, such as the Hero Boni. And some heroes don't have additional spells (Like Gardon not having the Zed summon). Otherwise a quite fun map for Arkain fans who wants to test out all the units and heroes.

I see your point but I have removed these things due to not all heroes being equals there.
However, it is something to consider for the future maybe.

Hi Shar Dundred! I missed a lot, aren't I? Anyway, I read this part and I think a solution that can be used is to add a dummy hero called "A Hero" and then set the dependency equivalent for all the custom hero to this dummy hero, while adding the dummy hero into the gameplay constant.

I think this is the approach I took in the past if I remember it right.

Hey Daffa, been a while indeed!

I tested around with that prior to release and it resulted in it either not working at all or crashing the game.
I will take a look at it again in the future.

 

[Cristopher]

Hello sir!
Tried quite all factions and must say I really wished for such project to happen to enjoy with others the marvelous units of Akairn.

However I also must say, that from my personal wishes was that would be an all out faction units in all out war with Ai's/Players ( like the factions to showcase every bit of Arkain -- all units, spells, buildings ), I really wished most likely to see the demi-heroes which I prefer since the launch of first books to enjoy playing with.

Also, why only 2 heroes can be summoned when commonly is 3 heroes?

Best regards Shar and thanks for this new project!

 

[Apprentice Darkmoon]

Zelech have Harmos abilities .

 

[Kuras2003]

will there be more heroes and maps added? moghar have 2 heroes while we could have something more like 5-6? there are like 4 different heroes in that map when you meet ogre legion for first time. And i guess it could work for some other fractions and heroes

 

[LISBOAH]

Tested the Splecir Nexus in the Booty Bay map:
-Why I can only recruit two heroes even though there are four available?
-In the Slaughterhouse, we have access to the Disease Cloud upgrade, but said upgrade only affects Abominations, which we don't have access to;
-The Spirit Legionnaire has the Frost Bolt and the Dispel Magic abilties both with the Q hotkey

Not sure if this was on purpose:
My opponent was Orc race and their faction was one that had a Hero named Torghal the Survivor with the title Warleader. However, they made few buildings and the only units their recruited were Grunts and Headhunters. The AI also only got Level 1 Upgrades, and they never upgraded their Great Hall.
However, once they get their second gold mine, they start upgrading units and buildings, recruited more units, and got a second Blademaster hero.

 

[Shar Dundred]

Hello sir!
Tried quite all factions and must say I really wished for such project to happen to enjoy with others the marvelous units of Akairn.

Thank you!

However I also must say, that from my personal wishes was that would be an all out faction units in all out war with Ai's/Players ( like the factions to showcase every bit of Arkain -- all units, spells, buildings ), I really wished most likely to see the demi-heroes which I prefer since the launch of first books to enjoy playing with.

Same reason as with the fifth abilities though it is something I may change in the future.

Also, why only 2 heroes can be summoned when commonly is 3 heroes?

-Why I can only recruit two heroes even though there are four available?

will there be more heroes and maps added? moghar have 2 heroes while we could have something more like 5-6? there are like 4 different heroes in that map when you meet ogre legion for first time. And i guess it could work for some other fractions and heroes

I wanted to keep things fair since several factions have only 2 heroes available and so I limited it for all.
It wasn't my intention to add too many new heroes and due to the hero dependency I even had to remove a few (1 for Golden Guard, 2 for Dark Elves and some others) I had to cut some edges. This may be looked into in the future.

-In the Slaughterhouse, we have access to the Disease Cloud upgrade, but said upgrade only affects Abominations, which we don't have access to;

It also affects Meat Wagons, that's why it is there. It is the same upgrade and the text still mentions the Abomination though.

Not sure if this was on purpose:
My opponent was Orc race and their faction was one that had a Hero named Torghal the Survivor with the title Warleader. However, they made few buildings and the only units their recruited were Grunts and Headhunters. The AI also only got Level 1 Upgrades, and they never upgraded their Great Hall.
However, once they get their second gold mine, they start upgrading units and buildings, recruited more units, and got a second Blademaster hero.

The melee AI is a bit funky sometimes and changes its behavior based on several factors. I will look into it though.

 

[jitao]

Can't believe we are finally able to play 30 factions in altered melee. I was low key expecting reverse true story but this is also a great blessing. Thank you Shar!

While i am enjoying this mod so far, there are 3 things i would to mention about this mod.

The first thing that was very noticeable is how squishy the heroes are and that they need constant healing. My boy commander Thorn has less hp than a grunt at level 1. Maybe i'm too used to true story.

Secondly i wanted to ask if it's possible for the cpu to pick a random faction depending what race the player has picked for them at the lobby screen. For example if its set at human, they would pick random human faction. This would go a long way, since this would add even more replay value to the mod since every game would be different in a way.

Lastly i also agree with deepstraz, adding iconic maps from true story. That would be a dream come true.

 

[fbsonar]

I wish we also were having custom maps based on the locations featured in the LoA.

 

[Shar Dundred]

Not sure how many of the maps will be good for melee but I will take a look at it sometime.

 

[jitao]

hmm i don't see the knights of kome faction. Were they excluded?

 

[LISBOAH]

Ejara Nexus:
-Why can we recruit Selior Cleavehand? Is it just to have 2 Heroes available?

Zirr Nexus:
-No problems found

In both cases above, I chose an enemy Human AI. They only recruited the typical Alliance units.

 

[Apprentice Darkmoon]

There is hotkey conflict with the new gnoll hero: the second and third abilities share the "W".
Also, I noticed there is a lot of missing heroes and units, where is Myrazeil? I was thinking she and Quiraness daughter will be with the Lenira nexus :C. And the priestess unit we saw during the dark elves mission is not present as well.
I remember Lera also has another ability instead of the Life drain if we kill her in "Defense of home" and appears on "Death's approach". Sorry if I'm mistaken.

 

[Shar Dundred]

hmm i don't see the knights of kome faction. Were they excluded?

They were not included, yes.
While they had unqiue models, their tech trees were not that unique.
I have currently no plans of adding them in the future.

-Why can we recruit Selior Cleavehand? Is it just to have 2 Heroes available?

Frankly, yes.

In both cases above, I chose an enemy Human AI. They only recruited the typical Alliance units.

All AIs use the vanilla melee AI.

Also, I noticed there is a lot of missing heroes and units, where is Myrazeil? I was thinking she and Quiraness daughter will be with the Lenira nexus :C. And the priestess unit we saw during the dark elves mission is not present as well.

As I mentioned earlier, due to the hero limitation, I had to cut several heroes - such as these two.
I will look into it eventually and if I can fix it put them back in.

I remember Lera also has another ability instead of the Life drain if we kill her in "Defense of home" and appears on "Death's approach". Sorry if I'm mistaken.

I have used her Burning Forest skillset which is the Dark Ranger's.
Considering we already have that with Saphira however I might change things up. The skillsets in Struggles of Arkain
do not always 1:1 replicate the skillets from the True Story.

 

[Kuras2003]

Ejara Nexus:
-Why can we recruit Selior Cleavehand? Is it just to have 2 Heroes available?

I mean in that one mission where you fight against bonelords he was a part of Ejara Nexus forces

 

[LISBOAH]

Rohir Nexus:
-The Doomrider has the W hotkey
-We have the Endless March upgrade that mentions the Falllen Guardian unit, but we don't have access to said unit

Kezzar Nexus:
-The Deathlord unit can use Unholy Regeneration even if we haven't researched the upgrade that gives access to said ability

 

[jitao]

That's a shame, i quite like the model of their knights. Maybe just the knights could be embedded into ironfist faction to match their strength of their counterpart faction golden guard. Also the imperial army regiment tech tree could use a bit of spicing up as they quite bland apart from heroes. I would suggest changing footmen/crossbow to grey guard models. Since you can pick Aveena and Kenos, you could add some falcon archers and lesser phoenixes to the barracks.

 

[Shar Dundred]

There was an idea for hero-specific units for Blen, Aveen and Kenos during development which was not included in this release.
Such as giving you Soldiers instead of Footmen when you had Blen, Falcons when you had Aveen and Phoenixes when you had Kenos.

There was also the idea of having heroes that were not exactly fond of each other disable each other (Aedale and Orie not wanting to work together, Aveen disliking Blen, etc.) which also did not make the cut.

I do currently not plan to re-add either of those but plans may change.

 

[LISBOAH]

Ardoz Nexus:
-The description tells that the Contraption can learn Cannibalize, but it doesn't have that ability and we don't have access to this upgrade
-The Fleshtearer' Hook Attack has the E hotkey
-The Fleshtearer's Blood Explosion doesn't have the R hotkey when trying to learn it

Scarec Nexus:
-I have to upgrade my Necropolis in order to recruit the second hero
-Rogtil's Cursed Bolt has the E hotkey when learning
-The Plaguebringer's description says he has Plague Cloud, but he actually has Diseaase Cloud


Note: If our enemy AI is Undead, they can recruit 3 Heroes

 

[Banaconaconut]

The undead have no food cost Lumber harvester, is that intentional?

Also, finally, I can play my power fantasy as RedFist solo fighting 6 Orc Clans. or being the Golden Guard beating up the undead.

I just realized that I don't actually remember the Undead having major fight against the Golden Guard (aside from the ones where they were just secondary members)

 

[Kuras2003]

I remember there was cool Capitan hero archetype in Second human book and he had: Mele stormbolt, Brewmaster W ability, command aura and avatar as ult, i think he would be cool addiction to one of human fractions, also would there be enough units to create murlock tribe or something like that?

 

[LISBOAH]

Dark Elf Families:
-Pentiss is so petty that she chose for Quiraness to only have 500 attack range

Davilidad Nexus:
-The Abomination already has the Cannibalize ability, there's no need to research it unlike what it says in the unit's decription
-The Stalker unit already has the Stalk ability, so there's no need for the upgrade

 

[nchp1903]

I've been playing a few races, and I have to say that yes, an Altered Melee with Arkain factions is something we all need in life. Now if only other custom campaigns can do the same.

Although, some Heroes are more OP than the others, like Pentiss, whose power lies in her kit. Some like Keera, however, is absolutely foul because of the lack of her signature lifesteal weapon and Finger of Pain. As (probably) the only Keera simp in the only level she's playable in True Story, this makes me sad.
Ancient Fire Golems can attack air, but has no projectile and deal no damage. Maybe a problem with Projectile Art or Weapon Type, because I had that bug before.

 

[nchp1903]

After a longer while of playing, I can conclude that the Golden Guard are the best at cheesing due to Human powerbuild and Valerie/Renald's disgustingly inflated base stats, making them beasts at Level 1, especially Renald due to his Plating that no early game unit can break through.