Just an overall update on development status:
As far as units go, most units I need are availabe, and many upgraded creatures have been made through recolours. Some that I will need to make are:
Basilisk
Gorgon (may be able to use the Taurus, only difference is is that a Gorgon is a Taurus without Wings)
Psychic/Magic Elemental (might be able to find something to use)
Manticore (could do a C&P on the Taurus, to give it a scorpion tail and Lion head)
Behemoth (will have to look more closely to see if any potential close matches)
Bone Dragon
Gorynych (combo Dragon/Hydra, I think I remember seeing something I might be able to use)
Spear/Pike weilding Centaurs (I'm going to attempt a C&P version, I've located the best units to use that should make it easier to do, so we'll see how it goes)
Pixie - a C&P of some wings on a woman might work
Gog - fireball throwing demon (can probably come up with something here)
A few others that might need to be made, I was looking for Poser 5 or lower, as I know it was offered free at various times, but I was unable to locate it to make the additional units. If anyone finds anything for free Poser (legal, of course
), please let me know and provide the link, I would appreciate it!
Most buildings have been put in... For creature buildings, they must be built in town in order to get creatures (buildings auto-produce them). Level 1 will always be available to be built from the start. Level 2 creatures can be directly built also, after researching the appropriate tech not far from the beginning of the tech tree. Level 1 and Level 2 Upgraded creatures cannot be built directly, but must have their creature buildings built in town (or gold can be used to upgrade the Lvl 1 and 2 base creatures).
For creature speed, right now it is set up for speeds between 1 and 4. Flying creatures are used as Land units, but have the ability to ignore movement costs over terrain. Movement rates along roads is set at 2 right now, but may be up'd to 3. Many of the creatures are speed 2 and over, so I don't believe this will be necessary to do. Units with Speed 1 are around 25-35 out of the total 160+ units that will be in the game.
I have test played an EPIC game (tech tree hasn't been created yet), and everything goes smoothly, the AI goes after resources like crazy (as it always does) which is good, because resources are absolutely VITAL to be able to build many town buildings and higher level units. The common resources (Wood and Ore) will have high chances of appearing, and the others will have fair chance in an EPIC game in case a faction does not get what it needs. This will not make games hopeless in case of locations that may be short of resources.
Ranged land units will have lethal bombard, as will spells. Certain units in HOMM3 have hand-to-hand damage penalties, this may be / may not be applied though (by halving their non-ranged Att/Def) because of AI shortcomings in using artillery. Some spells will have lethal sea as well to take out enemy ships, but naval won't be a major part of the game (in scenarios), but for Epic game, I will have to decide if to only include 1 ship type (as was in HOMM) or perhaps include a few more... not sure yet.
This may be a tough game to balance... I've initially used the HOMM creatures attack and defense values and used those for the A/D in Civ. Although HOMM combat worked very differently (it used damage ranges as well), this method may work, but will likely need many adjustments, so certain units aren't invincible. The fact that the game will need unit buildings to produce units will work well so that the AI doesn't solely produce the strongest units, and lower level units will still play a large role in the game since they can be directly built. A town with all creature structures built can produce around 60 creatures or more every 30 turns as it is set now. This may / may not be increased depending on how testing goes. That does not include being able to directly build other Lvl 1/2 creatures. And if you have a fully built Civ with 10 towns, that equates to about 600+ units in 30 turns (each turn is 1 Day). Although it will take much time and resources to fully build up a town, large full scale wars with many Heroes (Armies) involved and each Civ having fully unique units with different stats should make things interesting (if not a balance nightmare!).
Tom
and nice job so far! Keep going!!!! Can't wait for it to be released.
