Battle Realms - Hero Upgrades Mod

This mod makes a number of changes to Battle Realms, particularly to the games hero units. After my original release a few years ago on Battlerealms.cc, I decided to take another look at it and expanded it as much as I could. For a more in-depth list of changes and installation instructions, see the readme file.

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Dragon Clan:

Arah

• Upgrades: Arrow Craftsmanship, Zen Accuracy, Spider Silk
• Battle Gear:
• Improved Fire Arrows (Fireworks Factory) – Drop embers as they fly
• Sight Beyond Sight (Shrine)
• Other Changes: Melee attacks deal blunt damage

Kazan

• Upgrades: Calistenics, Indomitable Will, Trial of Endurance, Spider Silk, Phosphorus Powder
• Battle Gear:
• Fire Shield (Fireworks Factory)
• Phoenix (Shrine) – Instantly revives on death and deals fire damage to enemies
• Other Changes: Now has the same resistance to explosives as the Powder Keg Cannoneers

Garrin

• Upgrades: Dragon’s Strength, Dragon’s Heart, Dragon’s Fire, Tempered Steel
• Battle Gear: Yang Blade (Shrine), Dragon Skin (Fireworks Factory)

Tao

• Upgrades: Indomitable Will, Spider Silk, Calisthenics
• Battle Gear: Chi Shield (Shrine), Fire Shield (Fireworks Factory), Zen Counterpunch (Druidess blessing)

Teppo

• Upgrades: Phosphorus Powder, Pressurized Kegs
• Battle Gear: Indirect Fire (Shrine), Starburst Rockets (Fireworks Factory)

Otomo

• Upgrades: Dragon’s Heart, Dragon’s Strength, Indomitable Will
• Battle Gear:
• Spirit Strike (Shrine) – Stuns and damages an enemy
• Summon Kenji (Fireworks Factory) – Summons Kenji (One with the Dragon) for 10 Yang

Kenji (One with the Dragon)

• Summoned by Otomo
• Battle Gear:
• Dragon’s Rage (Shrine) – For 1 yang, deals extremely high damage to all nearby enemies

Other Changes:

Kabuki Warrior

• The Entertainer innate ability now works on all peasants

Pressurized Kegs now makes affected units deal 10% more damage instead of 1.1 extra damage

Fire Shield now makes an extra fire shield effect when the user is attacked (mostly for Kazan’s and Tao’s benefit, but it also makes the Geisha’s flame shield look larger)

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Serpent Clan:

Budo

• Upgrades: Drunken Revelry, Fortified Ale, Murderous Intent, Ironskin Potion
• Battle Gear: Slave Driver now costs 60 stamina, works on all units, and doesn’t do damage
• Innate abilities:
• Cruelty: Attacking units gives Budo stamina based on the damage dealt
• Lechery: Attacking Geisha, Fan Geisha, Druidesses, Channelers, or Utara will make them lose large amounts of stamina
• Massive Endurance: Budo now starts with 120 stamina points

Vetkin

• Upgrades: Poisoned Weapons, Drunken Revelry, Murderous Intent
• Battle Gear:
• Yin Blades (Metal Shop), Mugging (Thieves' Guild)
• Bravado: Now grants 25 stamina to all nearby allies, requires 100 stamina

Utara

• Upgrades: Flexibility, Pressure Points, The Art of Love
• Battle Gear: Dark Pact (Thieves’ Guild), Razor Fan (Metal Shop)
• Other Changes: Her poison effect now only lasts for 1 second, which increases her damage

Taro

• Upgrades: Drunken Revelry, Reinforced Plating, Lethal Drive, Ironskin Potion
• Battle Gear: Hobnailed Boots (Metal Shop), Blood Bond (Thieves’ Guild)

Necromancer:

• Innate ability:
• Raise the Dead: Now summons Zombie 2 instead of a Zombie; Zombie 2 does not decay and can be raised again upon death
• Touch of Death: Can instantly kill the owning player's peasants for ease of resurrection

Shinja

• Upgrades: Murderous Intent, Reinforced Plating, Lethal Drive
• Battle Gear:
• Poison Sweep (Metal Shop) – Deals magic damage to nearby enemies and afflicts them with weakening poison
• Summon Kenji (Thieves’ Guild) – For 10 yin, summons Kenji (Lord of the Clan)
• Innate abilities:
• Intimidating Presence: Melee attacks drain enemies’ stamina
• Ye of Little Faith: Shinja only takes 10% damage from magical sources

Kenji (Lord of the Clan)

• Summoned by Shinja
• New unit; doesn’t count as a hero (unfixable bug)
• Has the same range as Arah, other stats are the same as Kenji (One with the Dragon)
• Battle Gear:
• Yin Counterstrike: Deal heavy damage to any attacker (with the exception of units in watchtowers), weakens them, and removes their battle gear

Other Changes:

Witch

• Battle Gear: Demon’s Amulet permanently transforms the Witch into a Demoness

Demoness

• Now has 400 health
• Innate abilities:
• No longer tires
• Can fly over surfaces
• Becomes a witch upon death

Ninja

• Upgrades: Lethal Drive, Poison Weapons, Darts
• Battle Gear: Poison Bombs (Metal Shop), Teleport (Thieves’ Guild)

Raider

• Battle Gear: Brush Fire deals fire damage to nearby enemies

Enforcer

• Battle Gear: Low Blow now deals 30 blunt damage

Bandit

• Battle Gear: Now uses Shadow Skills instead of Invisibility

Blood Bond

• Now usable on enemy units

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Wolf Clan:

• Most Wolf heroes can get Shale Armor from the Shalery

Gaihla

• Upgrades: Song of Morning Dew
• Battle Gear:
• Chant of Life heals 80% health, up from 50%
• Other Changes:
• HD model uses a new texture mask for team skins
• Poison effect lasts for 1 second, which increases her damage

The Shale Lord

• Upgrades: Chant of Tremors, Rite of Freedom, Miner’s Union, Fight Crew
• Battle Gear:
• Stun Slam (Druidess blessing): Stuns nearby units
• Armored Friend (Cairn)
• Innate Ability: Shale Armor

Longtooth

• Upgrades: Eagle’s Eye, King of the Mountant, Dodge, Petrified Wood, Miner’s Union, Wolfball League, Fight Crew
• Battle Gear:
• Explosive Throw (Druidess blessing): Deals heavy damage and stuns a unit
• Other Changes:
• HD model uses a new texture mask for team skins

Wildeye

• Upgrades: Petrified Wood, Freedom’s Howl, Foraging
• Battle Gear:
• Howl (Druidess blessing): Same as the Packmaster’s battle gear (doesn’t play any sound)

Grayback

• Upgrades: Miner’s Union, Petrified Wood, Rite of Freedom, Wolfball League, Fight Crew
• Battle Gear:
• Call the White Wolf (Cairn): Spend 10 yang to summon the White Wolf
• Mighty Blow (Druidess blessing): Instantly kills the Nightvol, Kenji (Lord of the Clan), the White Wolf, or regular units; deals heavy damage to other hero units

White Wolf

• Summoned by Grayback
• New unit; doesn’t count as a hero (unfixable bug)
• Upgrades: Wolves Among Sheep
• Battle Gear:
• Summon Spirit Wolf: Summons a Spirit Wolf for stamina, up to a maximum of 30

Other Changes:

Digger:

• Battle Gear:
• Tunneling: Has double the range, provides damage resistance, no longer drains stamina

Pitch Slinger

• Battle Gear:
• Pitch Splash (Cairn): Previously unused ability; drops pitch mines as he walks (more expensive as a trade-off)

Hurler

• Battle Gear:
• Meteor Strike (Cairn): Hurls a massive boulder; deals heavy damage to self as well as any nearby units and buildings at the impact location; very expensive to use

Werewolf

• Battle Gear:
• Berserker Transformation (Cairn): Turns the Werewolf into a Berserker with full health

Mauler

• Battle Gear:
• Wrecking Ball: Now knocks mounted units off of their horses and creates a daze effect above their heads

Monk

• Battle Gear:
• Heavy Blow: Slows an enemy unit and deals light damage to the Monk

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Lotus Clan:

Brother Lythis

• Upgrades: Silvered Steel

Brother Tausil

• Upgrades: Heavy Iron Staves

Brother Sehk

• Upgrades: Leafbite
• Innate ability: Melee attackers are damaged

Issyl

• Upgrades: Silvered Steel

Koril

• Upgrades: Silvered Steel, Field of Souls

Yvaine

• Upgrades: Issyl’s Boon, Domination, Field of Souls
• Battle Gear:
• Unlife (Tausil)
• Prison of Ice (Lythis)
• Ice Arc (Sehk): Rains hail down upon enemies in a line; exhibits strange behavior on high elevation areas

Soban

• Upgrades: Heavy Iron Staves

Zymeth

• Upgrades: Leafbite, Leafstep, Issyl’s Boon, Strength of the Trunk, Way of the Root
• Battle Gear:
• Heavy Rain (Sehk)
• Soul Conduit (Lythis): Launches a devastating orb that leeches health from Zymeth’s enemies
• Summon Nightvol (Tausil): Summons the Nighvol for 10 yin

The Nighvol

• Improved health and damage
• Counts as a regular unit (unfixable bug)
• Innate ability: Melee attackers are damaged
• Battle Gear:
• Summon Hordeling: Sacrifices health to summon a Hordeling, up to a maximum of 10

Other Changes:

Tamed Shale Spider

• New unit; created by sending a Golem into Soban’s lab
• More durable than regular Shale Spiders

Warlock

• Battle Gear:
• Grant Stamina (innate): Previously unimplemented ability; expend 60 stamina to give 40 stamina to a Diseased One, Unclean One, Infested One, Warlock, or Master Warlock

Master Warlock

• Innate ability: Deals moderate magic damage to enemies upon death

Diseased One

• Reduced poison time on attacks to 1 second, which makes each attack more powerful
• Battle Gear:
• Rite of Ascension: Now creates the Diseased One’s poison puddle on use

Infested One

• Battle Gear
• Famine: Now deals magic damage to nearby enemies

Ninja

• Battle Gear:
• Dark Transformation (Lythis): Turn into a Hordeling upon death

Hordeling

• Increased damage, health, and stamina

Shambler

• No longer decays
• Increased health from 180 to 400
• Heals for 100% of the damage dealt to enemies

Channeler

• Battle Gear:
• Raven Swarm (Sehk): Most ranged attacks veer off course when used against the Channeler

Warlock’s Tower

• Upgrades into Soban’s Lab

Soban’s Lab

• New building
• Creates Reapers and Master Warlock at a faster rate than the Flesh Crucible and Warlock’s Tower, respectively
• Creates Shale Spiders using Soban’s Golems

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Other Global Changes:

• Shale Spiders now deal 25 poison damage (up from 10) over 1 second
• Ninjas’ Shadow Skills ability creates a smoke bomb effect
• The Very High Detail option now uses the improved models
• The High Detail option was changed to be like the old Very High Detail
• The salmon team color was replaced with off-white
• Low unit cap is 30, normal is 40, high is 50
• Poison Gas deals increased damage
• The Clan values of all Zen Masters were changed to fit their respective clans (ie. Shinja’s clan was changed to Clan_Serpent), which was needed for hero upgrades to work
• The Horse’s trample ability now uses a previous unused effect to show which units were hit.
• The reserved creature spawn points now create Monks, Ninja, Zombies, Shamblers, Hordelings, and Spirit Warriors.

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Known issues:

• The White Wolf, Nightvol, and Kenji 3 (Lord of the Clan) all count as regular units instead of hero units
• None of the new battle gears have new names or descriptions in-game
• When Kazan uses his Phoenix battle gear, he will appear as still reviving in the keep even though he is still alive
• The Lotus Town Square’s upgrade button sometimes moves to where the technique buttons are
• The Warlocks’ Tower does not show progress during the upgrade
• Soban’s Lab only shows its unit training progress in the progress bar below the building
• The Lotus brothers do not expend stamina when giving new battle gear to other units