Following up on the X-Mas version (https://www.moddb.com/mods/duel-map/news/x-mas-duel-map), there have been some battlefield visual improvements, customised obstacles (not all grass battlefields share the same obstacles) and a new addition, the Countryside Fields. I know what you're thinking. Two heroes are rude enough to trample someone's field but not rude enough to step on his sunflowers? Homm is fantasy, what can I say xD
The Duel Mode has been renovated. FIrst off, it lets you try out all the new battlefields at will. Second, its heroes now come with solid preset builds and reflect the Duel Map balance (same level/army) so they can be used for quick balance testing. Unfortunately you can't choose your upgrades but it's still a useful testing tool.
A couple of less than ideal matters:
Artificer is too random as your best tiers could get no artifacts, gremlins could get lvl 3 artifacts or you could get completely unfitting artifacts so.. Instead of a random expert Artificer, I gave academy heroes +4 defense, a Ring of Celerity and a random basic Artificer! It's as if all units chose defense/initiative mini artifacts and four of them also got an additional random bonus. Avenger is also random but not much to be done about it.
The Duel Mode has limitations, that is why the Duel Map was created in the first place.
In the X-Mas version I had toned down the tier 6/7 units because they had a larger impact compared to the other tiers. I decided that the opposite approach would work better and added +1 base growth to the rest.
I also reverted the Fortress Dragon, Thane and Cyclops stats which worked better in their previous growth.
This brings us to the following base growth per tier:
Tier 1-2 x12 (+growth dwelling x5)
Tier 3-4 x11 (+growth dwelling x3)
Tier 5 x10 (+growth dwelling x3)
Tier 6 x9 (+growth dwelling x2)
Tier 7 x8 (+growth dwelling x2)
Of course, more army even by this little required some stat tweaking.
- All classes gain +1 knowledge
- Dungeon/Academy/Necro gain +2sp
- Fortress Crystal of Revelation and Inferno Star Axis give an additional +2sp
On the more minor side of things:
- The red succubus now shoots projectiles that explode in a 3x3 fireball, magog style :)
- Assassins calculated with growth 8 instead of 7.
- Stalkers no longer retreat when attacked. While that helped with stealth, it came with its own disadvantages. Including losing a poisonous retaliation and the opponent being able to send them far away from the action with a couple of weak attacks.
- Hydra regeneration increased to 100-130hp (to make it more relevant since its stack size went up).
- Armageddon has been removed from Academy and Dungeon. It wasn't unbalanced but spamming Armageddon isn't quite as tactically rich as other approaches.
- Some hero specs to be revised.
The map is coming soon, after a few finishing touches. Cheers.
