NO H4 Ultimate V4 Bugfix 2r2 file

V4 Heroes IV ULTIMATE changes:
(NY = Not Yet)

[NOTE: THIS ONLY COVERS THE LAST CHANGES. FOR CHANGES FROM THE BASELINE GAME, SEE THE CHANGELOG INSIDE THE DOWNLOAD, OR VISIT THE V3 PUBLICATION HERE ON MODDB)

- Updated to last version of HD wrapper (added resolutions)
-- This should fix the bug with double-typing when in fullscreen mode.

Cheats:
- Enabled previously unworking menu cheats, in the cheat exe version:
-- Increase level.
-- Learn skill.
-- Learn all spells.
-- Unlimited movement.

- Added Greatsword cheat in menu

- Renamed reskinned creatures in cheat menu, for example Monk -> Priestess.
- Separated faction creatures from neutral creatures in cheat menu.

Spells:

- Trailblazing spell (Chaos magic pathfinding) is now level 2 (from 1); this is to make the Pathfinding skill less devaluated compared to magic, and also is to make back the Chaos swamp native terrain more significant.

- Convoke Iron Warriors 100+10 power (from 120+12) since campaign runners showed it was pretty OP.
-- Archdevil spellpower upgraded to compensate ("1 goblin knight per 1 devil").

- Immortal Coil now counts as Healing, thus allowing this way of scaling the effect (example, with Saint Ranan's staff) when cast on creatures in combat.

- Convoking Unicorns summons less unicorns, since unicorns per HP are now stronger
- Conversely, Convoke Griffin summons more Griffins

- Ice Demon Summon 8% less (high stats, can freeze)
- Water Elemental Summon 7% less (spells, spell point replenish)

- Unholy Song tooltip fixed, level lowered from 4 to 3 since it only works vs Life.

- Standarized Necromancy Ban to cost 4 spell points like all other Lvl 2 spells do now.

Creatures:

* Owing to multiple reports, the Medusa/Minotaur creature choice has been revised, as Medusas were seen as strictly desirable.

- Minotaur has extra melee attack on the offense
-- Minotaur Damage reduced to compensate partially
- Minotaur movement increased (22 from 18)
- Minotaur HP slightly reduced (36 from 38)

- Medusa movement slightly diminished (17 from 18)
- Medusa drive moderately diminished (3 from 5)
- Medusa Defense slightly reduced (16 from 17)
- Medusa attack somewhat decreased (17 from 19)
- Medusa max damage slighly increased (8 from 7)

- Medusa, Beholder, Minotaur XP and gold values adjusted slightly.

* Phoenix realigned so that it is a somewhat "weaker" per unit level 4 (higher growth), much like Champions. This puts it mosre in line with its graphics and H3 counterpart. Also, this makes Rebirth more useful.
-- Phoenix HP per unit reduced to 180.
-- Phoenix growth 3 per week (from 2).
-- Phoenix summon spell moderately weakened since more phoenixes per HP = more rebirth. Each summon cast provides a full mana gauge for rebirthing the stack again.

- Genie -1 Growth (5 vs 6; was same as Magi), made more expensive, +1 ATK and DEF, +1 max DMG, XP adjusted.
-- Genie -1 Drive (5 from 6), -5 Movement (25 from 30).
- Naga +5 HP, +1 Mov, +10 gold cost, +3 XP.

MISC CREATURE CHANGES:

- Peasant XP increased 33%, mainly for PEON purposes. (this makes it closer to vanilla for increasing power of neutral stacks)

- What the heck: Zombies Poison. I didn't do this before because I didn't want two level 1s with this ability (counting Bandits), but Zombies are practically Neutrals, and they will be the sole Death creature to do this by default. Plus they are recolored to be greener, and the poison goes with the "Zombie bite infested inevitable death" theme.
- Damage reduced, XP increased to compensate.

- Griffin vs Unicorn gold and XP adjusted to be more according to their weekly growth.

- Mermaid Gold, Growth and XP adjusted, -1 movement (compensated by having Long Weapon and Bonuses at Sea).

- Behemoth XP value adjusted to be more according to its actual power and cost.
- Sea Monster XP value adjusted to be more according to its actual power and cost.

- Neutral Lvl 4 creatures XP adjusted to be more adjusted to their actual power.

- Mechanical Dragons (renamed from Dragon Golems) made more special with three melee attacks and unlimited retaliation.
- Damage per attack reduced to compensate partially.
- Strings updated.

- Ice Demon -1 Drive, +1 min DMG.

- Priestess +1 Attack, +1 Drive.

- Vampires no longer have Cold Attack to not "compete" with Ice Demon theme (another Death lvl3 creature).
- Mermaids now have Cold Attack.

- Each and every creature has been given a mostly placeholder nonzero spellpower in case any ability should need it (including potential abilities added by users in the JSON plugin config file).

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ARTIFACT CHANGES

- Mayhem Rod is held in left hand, which allows to increase the effect of Wand of Fire(bolt)
-- [Wand of Fireballs is not upgraded; the reason for this is currently unknown, but perhaps the spells to upgrade were pointed individually instead of by table, and Fireball was an oversight]
-- Indeed, Implosion is upgraded even if it is no longer Chaos... as well as any other changed ones, except Fireball.
--- Added a list of upgraded spells to the artifact description.

- Barbarian Throwing Club is now held in Right Hand even though it still gives the Ranged ability
- Spear of the Centaur is now held in Left Hand even though it still gives the Ranged ability

- Sextant is used in Bow slot to avoid accumulating sextants for +200% Water movement. You can switch it out before/after combat.
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Anims and colors:

vñ- Made a dark liliac Baron Von Tarkin
v- (imported and replaced appearance)

vñ- Minotaurs more saturated (for now, in combat only)
v- Minotaur portrait saturated

v- Faerie Dragons have a closer-to-H3 purplish color scheme.
v-- Optimize and change portrait

v- Titans will now have bluish skin, closer to the H3 model. (Shows they have significantly change with berserk and lightning)
v- Earth Elementals greenish with yellow glowing eyes, much like their portrait. (Shows they have significantly changed with a ranged shot and Stone Skin)

v- Golden mantis (now blocks, negates first strike, doesn't bind)
v-- Changed portrait

v- Red-gold Megadragon (better shows it's a berserker)
v-- Changed portrait

v- Reddish-purple Pirates (to show they cause Fear)
v- Alter portrait

v- Green Waspworts
v- Update portrait

vñ- Purplish Bandits (for first strike and Poison)
- Alter portrait

- Bone Dragon recolor (to show they have different abilities; random harmful spell instead of Fear)
- Invert attack and fidget anims?
v- changed portrait

NY- Vampire attack power made red?

v- Zombies no longer such thots. Begone!
vñ- Zombies -> (Toxic) Zombies
v- Altered portrait

v- Skeletons -> (Cold) Skeletons
NY-- Change skeleton fidget? (frame-inverted attack would be a good fidget anim)

NY- Gauldoth Half-Dead converted to combat-only PirateSkeleton (optimally Scurvy Pirate)

v- Calyphona hero no longer is a Mermaid in combat.

- Several heroes now will not appear as a creature in the adventure map as it was confusing.
NY- Others pending

NY- Wolves will be larger and more intimidating.
NY- Mummy to also be larger and better.
v- Mummy portrait enhanced.

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Spell icons:
- Vampiric Touch spell icon replaced (it was boring and uncool)
- Dead Fire improved icon

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Hero Portraits and Creature icons:
- Chaos heroes portraits have now a more saturated ring.
- Several changed creature icons (mostly to suit the new&recolored anims)

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String fixes/updates:

- Life Drain spell now specifies you can go over max health with it.

- Priestess now correctly states it has Death ward, not Chaos ward.

- Blacksmith building descriptions of all towns updated to not mention specific artifacts (prevents obsoletion).

- Infinite Mana now always correctly states it adds an static 25 mana (costing 16), unlike having a wrong variable number.

- Haste, Speed and Velocity spells specify that their bonuses (+3 drive, +3 movement) stack with each other.

- Implosion line about being affected with luck was misplaced. Now it's correctly in Lightning.

- Undead Transformer build tip now says which kinds of creatures are converted into Bone Dragons.

- Updated titan string with correct abilities.

- Summon (and invoke) spells that create creatures with spell points now specify that they replenish the stack each time used.+

- Fixed several outdated creature abilities

- Other misc string fixes.

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Campaign & map changes:
[NOTE: YOU MUST LAUNCH THESE AS NORMAL MAPS FROM "H4 CAMPAIGNS REMASTERED" FOLDER]

THE GATHERING STORM

Masters of Magic - Archmage campaign:
- Named all towns, making them unique and identifiable across playthroughs.
- Fixed inaccesible town.
- Moderate difficulty improvements to all maps.
-- More flagged mines for enemies.
-- More flagged dwellings for enemies.
-- Several neutral monsters have been added or upgraded.
- Minor landscaping improvements.
- Water enhancements.

Another Bard's Tale - Agryanel:
- Named all towns, making them unique and identifiable across playthroughs.
- Moderate difficulty improvements to all maps.
-- More flagged mines for enemies.
-- More flagged dwellings for enemies.
-- Several neutral monsters have been added or upgraded.
- Major landscaping improvements.
- Water enhancements.

Alita Eventide (Life-Death):
- Named all towns, making them unique and identifiable across playthroughs.
- Notable difficulty improvements to all maps.
-- More mines for enemies.
-- More dwellings for enemies.
-- Additional AI opponent in a map.
-- Several neutral monsters have been added or upgraded.
- Minor landscaping improvements.

Kozuss campaign (Order-Chaos):
- Named all towns, making them unique and identifiable across playthroughs.
- Moderate difficulty improvements to all maps.
-- More flagged mines for enemies.
-- More flagged dwellings for enemies.
- Minor landscaping improvements.
- Added secret/s

Dogwoggle Campaign (Might):
- Removed/substitued unnecessary Equilibris objects added in last remaster (Greatest Mod).
- Named all towns, making them unique and identifiable across playthroughs.
-- This will allow to play the remastered campaign on the base game.
- Notable difficulty improvements to all maps.
-- More mines for enemies.
-- Several neutral monsters have been added or upgraded.
- Minor overworld landscaping improvements.
- Major underground landscaping improvements.

The Gathering Storm campaign (all):
- Moderate difficulty improvements to all maps.
-- More flagged mines for enemies.
-- More flagged dwellings for enemies.
-- Several neutral monsters have been added or upgraded.
-- Hexis is now significantly more powerful
--- He has 250% of normal health due to Trinkets.
--- Ha has Magic Mirror.
--- He gets experience daily trickle.
- Landscape improvements
- Water improvements

WINDS OF WAR

To Rule The World (Spazz-Chaos):
- Mission 1 from To Rule the World has a significantly improved AI opponent, which will be more dangerous and agressive.
- Mission 2 significantly less buildings pre-built in towns, but you get a level 5 thief.
- Blue AI opponent now fully functional in the third and last mission (Order enemy).
- Third mission has more luck/morale powerups.
- Passability improvements.
- Misc improvements.
- Water bonus.

Enough is Enough (Erutan Revol-Nature):
- Enabled slightly more use of water.
- Landscaping improvements.
- Passability improvements.

The Magnificent One (Mysterio-Order):
- Water improvements.
- Landscaping improvements.
- More difficult monsters.

The Last Bastion (Winds of War):
- Made starting locations for each conqueror more unique.
- Extra training/morale/luck locations.
- Guardian monsters.
- More Channon hero-helping buildings at center.
- Bonus subterranean Chaos land.
- Passability improvements.

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*** CREATURE CHANGES ***

vñ- Infernal Lich to replace Venom Spawn.

This was voted on the thread: Heroescommunity.com
(3 - 2 in favor of the lich, as of the time of writing)

v- Description updated.
v- Projectile changed from acid spit to fire.

v- Ranged anim the melee anim.
v- Spell change, and spell icon change - "Invoke venom spawn" -> "Invoke Infernal Lich"
v-- HP invoked reduced, because it's replenishing the Rebirth mana with each cast, and it has "imp insurance" for one time [18 from 16 spell points] (revise).
v (needs portrait change)

v (needs necromancy description change, cince now are raised instead of Vampires)
v (may make head turn by default as stand?)
vñ (needs adventure images)
NY (needs sounds changes, may use H3 lich sounds; attack most important)
vñ (needs town building reskin)
vñ (needs adventure building reskin [controversial, but at least add new; if replace, re.-add old one with another filename])
v (needs change in cheat menu from Venom Spawn)

NY - Make Venom Spawn fidgets appear as map objects, so they are not wasted. (two sizes? Giant priority)
NY - Make Venom Spawn carcasses as map objects (two sizes? Giant priority)
NY - Activate hybrid "venom spawn liches" as heroes.

Infernal Lich Abilities:
- Undead.
- Ranged (half melee damage).
- Fire attack.
- Rebirthing at 2/3rds original strenght.

Additional annotations:
- Since Undead Transformer gives Vampires for level 4 creatures, Necromancy skill will raise Infernal Liches (as well as the Summon spell that used to give Venom Spawns). Vampires are always OP as adventure-necromanted items, since a critical amount of them may become too powerful no matter what, due to life draining. Poltergeists at least are weak enough for this to be less of a problem, but they are still under evaluation for switch with another death lvl2 (gargoyles or cerberi).
- Appearance is now based on Baron Von Tarkin (this was to be the Equilibris lich, as well, according to planned screenshots).

Infernal Lich Notes:
My first desire was to have a toxic Lich doing a venom cloud. However, this was not possible because the game seems to have hardcoded stuff for creatures with area effect attacks. Adding the ability will not work (this seems related to invoking the "puff" animation where the projectile falls).

So, with both Area Attack and Greek Fire unavailable to work, I had to settle for a fire-themed lich, since poisoning a single target would be too much like the Venom Spawn thus not distinguishing the creature from its predecessor. The ranged poison was moved to the Waspwort -which had ranged weakness cast removed- since otherwise it would be an unused capability of the game.)

Since Fire Elementals are no longer ranged (and no longer have Fire Attack, having Breath Attack and Fire Shield instead, which are also subject to Fire Resistance), the Infernal Lich is the only ranged fire attacker.

The Infernal Lich is convenient in several other ways. For example, it "balances" the Infernopolis: Having four "fiery" creatures (t1 Imp, t2 Cerberus, t3 Infernal Lich, t4 Archdevils) and four "cold creatures" (t1 Skeleton, t2 Poltergeist, t3 Vampire, t4 Bone Dragon) in the lineup.

Other creatures realignement:
- Waspworts given Poison at a distance.
- Waspwort stats adjusted (weakened) to compensate new ability.

Other creatures improvements:
v - Change priestess name for cheat menu (from Monk)
NY - Alter Mummy portrait (and color?)
NY - Priestess sound change, they still have male monk voice
NY - Priestess adventure images, resize from combat ones
NY - Change prietess portrait for Isebeau and/or change Isabeau?

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Remaining bugs:
- Life Ward (Death spell) still can't be cast in combat. Cause unknown. Its Spell Table parameters are identical to the other four wards (in Life), so the error is unknown (could be something in binary).

- Holy Water, the potion, can only be drank by the hero, not thrown to destroy Death targets. The spell based on it (Sacred Wellspring) works correctly. Cause unknown.

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Bug additional palliative measures:
-- Since it cannot be cast, learning the Life Ward spell has been disabled.
--- Creatures with Life Ward will still work.

-- Quicksand passed from Nature to Death
(Nature will have to rely on Rock Growth for slowing - for which all scenarios have rocks now)
(Also, Nature can summon Water Elementals which have Quicksand as one of their spells atthe same level 3, so...)
-- Mire downshifted from level 2 to level 1
-- Mana Leech downshifted from level 3 to level 2
-- Power Drain downshifted from Level 2 to level 1
--- Now all magic schools have the exact same number of learnable spells.
(35 each school, with five schools = 175 learnable spells in the game)
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Desire to edit:
- Block ability trigger percentage should be 50%, but it should only block 75% of damage (makes it not waste huge attacks on tiny stacks without killing them).>

¨¨¨¨

H4 ULTIMATE V4 - Revision 2
CHANGELOG

Changes:

- Fixed resolution ratios, previous bug due to not including an updated HD wrapper version file.

- Fixed Infernal Catacomb (former Spawning Pit) from appearing green for a frame after being built or entering town screen.

- I was dissatissfied with the purplish Bandits, so I turned them green. Hey, now they kinda look like Robin Hood's men, too.

- New Spazz Maticus first mission where you grow him from a spoiled brat to a king. (well, he doesn't actually grow that much...)
-- This fills a vacuum in lore since you never *actually* got to see his little kingdom in the normal campaign.
-- The story is about deposing the regent after Hazz's, Spazz Maticus father, has "questionably" died.