Legend of the Invincibles

[Raijer]

I pretty much agree with Aevyn, i barely use dragon legacies, outside of some really special cases, like giving a scythe master a ranged attack (dark breathe), or upping some particular resistances when i couldn't find an item for it. Looking at the cost in experience of legacies, i doubt you should weaken any of them. I'm currently seeing that effect... Forced to keep Efraim and Lethalia to basic AMLAs, because each redeem one means +1000 exp needed for the next one, and legacies are worse...

About Legacy of the Divines: Being liminal is only a little worse than being chaotic or , it just splits in 2 the time where you're stronger, but makes you overall as strong as the others.

About Legacy of the Heroes: 2500 exp seems a little low... Some of my team have at least that (goes from around 3000 to 12000) since the start of chap 9, and i've been trying to get all of them to 2000. I vould put it at around 4000, to really make it hard to get.

@Dugi: Seems like you messed a little too much with knockback, it has the same problem as kamikaze had (the unit got 0 hp, but it's still alive), also, not sure if intended, but it doesn't knock back the unit if every hex in the cone behind is filled. I will try to get a save file.

[Dugi]

Yes, I am a native English speaker. Previous posts along those lines are why I try to post about word choice when I see them.

Fine. I assumed that but I wasn't certain.

I think orian34 was saying the "plants" in chapter 9 seem to take a lot of AI time. I decided to redeem most of them in one scenario and AI move time definitely declined as the plant numbers declined, even when the flowers do absolutely nothing every turn.

With the arrival of 1.12, I am capable of replacing the AI by a new one that has been optimised for speed (a bit dumber but less predictable). This piece of mattsc's code seems to work quite well so far, and I am really grateful for that. I'll replace most AI by that once that I have more time (which I unfortunately don't have at the moment).

Maybe 10% would be better, just to look less like an error?

Most people don't have their bug detector's thresholds set like you have. But well, false positive is better than a missed bug if it isn't repeating itself too much.

More importantly, so far (7 scenarios?) Chapter 9 is shockingly easy.

I would also like to know if this is the case also for the later parts of the chapter. There are many possible solutions, which one(s) would you prefer?
1. Stronger traits for imps, scaling with difficulty
2. Higher resistances for burning souls
3. Stronger demons, traits or damage, compensated by a reduction of their numbers in chapters 8 and 10
4. More gold to chapter 9 leaders, higher demon types
5. Less burning soul and imp sides, replaced by demon sides
6. Various curses being thrown at players' units randomly, to make it harder to fight the enemies
7. Each (possibly non-demon) side having a possessor spirit that possesses their units, making them stronger and possesses a new one when the old one dies
8. More enemy area of effect attacks (done by regular units)
9. If you kill more units at one location (likely to happen with imps and burning souls), a tornado of souls raises and brings a Demon Megadeath (or just some other powerful enemy)
10. Demon portals more numerous and more active

Which reminds me ... some spawn points in chapter 9 clearly do not work. I have played a dozen plus turns on multiple maps with a guy parked next to a portal and nothing ever came out of it. But other portals have spawned someone about every other turn.

The portals stop working when all leaders are killed (and only work for 5 turns when you enter the area and all leaders are slain previously). If you think that this is not the case, can you please give me a save file where it can be observed (or just the scenario and coordinates)?

I'd rather add something to craft books from gems.

I don't like this idea, mostly for the reasons that Aevyn wrote.

I was speaking of a way to "freeze"(like petrification) the evil flowers until an unit gets close to it...it would highly reduce the time of IA turns.

I going to replace the AI by a new one that has been optimised for speed (a bit dumber but less predictable), all problems of this kind should be solved (but I don't have time to do that right now).

@Aevyn
Regarding the current opinions about legacies:
Undead - how about increased resistance bonuses and reduced maluses? Also, the lichdom-on-death advancement makes quite sense, so yeah, I could add it.
Titans - the regen is quite on the topic, I kinda agree.
Dragons - how about increasing the breath attacks' damages and/or adding it some area of effect to make it more useful?
Darkness - I think that there are kinda enough darkness-related legacies (I have a feeling that way too many names are in the Gloomy Black Darkness style), if this one was introduced I'd make it slightly different from just being an opposite of Legacy of Light, maybe something with nightstalk
Divines - the advancements seem to me quite random and I am not quite sure how is it related to its name (which is not very far from the legacy of titans)
Heroes - so some sort of prestige legacy? I think that it would allow players to grab some bonuses that might require specific items by any units, making the combinations of gear and AMLA easier. What I think would be cooler to allow units to get another legacy once they have obtained a particular (high) number of AMLAs (possibly requiring another legacy-earning AMLA) - this would of course make sense mostly if there were more legacies.

A few wild throws from my side, tell me if some of them pick your interest:
Legacy of the North - cold damage and slow to everything, slowing aura, slowing aura with radius 2 hex (may be overpowered, this is available only through one rare potion), possibly arctic blast
Bestial Legacy - increased chance to hit, leech, maybe reduced chance to get hit
Barbaric Legacy - increased all resistances, abilities like evisceration and wrath
Virulent Legacy - spreads poison that in addition to normal poison makes poisoned units poison their adjacent allies
Legacy of Exile - increased damage when adjacent to no allies
Legacy of the Mammoth - large doses of hitpoints
Demonic Legacy - arcane resistance, something similar to demon traits (a few similar AMLAs of choice or something)
Legacy of the Savant - reduces maximum experience
Molten Legacy - chance to summon fiery rain when hit, that deals fire damage to all enemies exposed to it
Legacy of Avengers - adds wrath points (+1 to damage for each, loses a half of them every turn) when the unit is hit
Legacy of Quacks - poison and a chance to get some gold when attacking like Thieves and their advancements
Legacy of Filth - infect (that will have to be improved first as it was agreed before)

it doesn't knock back the unit if every hex in the cone behind is filled. I will try to get a save file.

This one is intentional. If the game has problem finding a spot for the unit and there is a risk that the unit might disappear, it does not work.

______________
One more thing. From your posts, I have a feeling that some previously common and much used items are becoming increasingly rare. Are there some that you sorely miss having dropped frequently?

[dabber]

More importantly, so far (7 scenarios?) Chapter 9 is shockingly easy.

I would also like to know if this is the case also for the later parts of the chapter. There are many possible solutions, which one(s) would you prefer?

I will update more later. From your list, my prefered answer is these:
4. More gold to chapter 9 leaders, higher demon types
5. Less burning soul and imp sides, replaced by demon sides

I don't like idea 6. "Various curses being thrown at players' units randomly, to make it harder to fight the enemies." There is already a large factor of "what does each unit do?" in LotI, and I don't like the idea of adding more affects than change randomly.

Which reminds me ... some spawn points in chapter 9 clearly do not work. I have played a dozen plus turns on multiple maps with a guy parked next to a portal and nothing ever came out of it. But other portals have spawned someone about every other turn.

The portals stop working when all leaders are killed (and only work for 5 turns when you enter the area and all leaders are slain previously). If you think that this is not the case, can you please give me a save file where it can be observed (or just the scenario and coordinates)?

With that information in mind, I will consider further and report if I still think something is broken.

[dabber]

Cone is not doing what it says it does (and used to do)

coneproblem.jpg (32.37 KiB) Viewed 4061 times

I believe it is intended to only hit 3 of those guys, not the 5 it hits.


Cone with Slow will slow everyone hit, but Explosive with Slow only slows the primary target. Koschei's Journal on a Duelist Wizard might be better stopping at cone and not taking explosive, so the slow attack slows multiple targets. Also, Koschei's Journal explicitly works on arcane, fire, cold, so it won't help a Faerie Incarnation. I think those are intentional and perfectly okay, but since I just discovered these facts I thought I'd mention them.

[Aevyn]

@Dugi

Undead - how about increased resistance bonuses and reduced maluses? Also, the lichdom-on-death advancement makes quite sense, so yeah, I could add it.

That will be perfect, especially the lichdom option. One item I've truly missed is Tome of the Liches, but doing this would rectify this in a nice way.

Titans - the regen is quite on the topic, I kinda agree.

Glad to hear!

Dragons - how about increasing the breath attacks' damages and/or adding it some area of effect to make it more useful?

The issue with ice/fire dragon legacies stems deeper; the stat bonuses they provide are pitiful. Every other legacy either directly or indirectly affects a variety of stats. On the contrary, the Fire and Ice legacy positively modifies only one stat AND decreases another. Thus, they do little for decreasing unit mortality.

In order to make these legacies viable, more will have to be done. Perhaps add "freezing aura" to Legacy of Ice and "burn hp -16" to Legacy of Fire. And maybe also add slight resistances to blade and impact damage. Breath attack damage could also be improved (including dark dragon legacy) area damage wouldn't be a bad idea.

Darkness - I think that there are kinda enough darkness-related legacies (I have a feeling that way too many names are in the Gloomy Black Darkness style), if this one was introduced I'd make it slightly different from just being an opposite of Legacy of Light, maybe something with nightstalk

Whatever you think is best. You're right, though. There are tons of dark themed items. Perhaps create a "Flower Power Boots of Universal Happiness and Love"

Divines - the advancements seem to me quite random and I am not quite sure how is it related to its name (which is not very far from the legacy of titans)

My goal was suggesting a legacy in which the affected unit fought well in both night and day. "Divine" as in utilizing both the powers of light and darkness. Perhaps with the following effects

1) Weapon special Lawful
2) Weapon special Chaotic
3) Twilightstalk
5) Weapon damage Arcane

Maybe some other stuff.

What I think would be cooler to allow units to get another legacy once they have obtained a particular (high) number of AMLAs (possibly requiring another legacy-earning AMLA) - this would of course make sense mostly if there were more legacies.

I've mentioned this subject a long time ago and I really like it. I'd support it's creation if you approved. The question is how many AMLAs would be appropriate.

A few wild throws from my side, tell me if some of them pick your interest:

Regarding the number of available legacies, in my opinion it would be best to focus on quality rather than quantity. I personally like:

1) Legacy of Exile
2) Demonic Legacy
3) Legacy of the Avengers

One more thing. From your posts, I have a feeling that some previously common and much used items are becoming increasingly rare. Are there some that you sorely miss having dropped frequently?

Assuming you're speaking to me, Tome of the Liches is the main item I really missed, but that may be changed if Undead Legacy is modified. Of course, there are items I search for because I can make extremely powerful combos with them (Aevyn's Wrath (w00t), Royal Diadem, Koschei's Journal, Tome of the Bards), but I think those items should stay rare.

[orian34]

@Aevyn
I tought Doombringer was funny against bosses, perhaps not?(i got 3 of them and very early!)

[dabber]

Can you explain to me why/how Aevyn's Wrath is so good? I finally yielded to this thread and equiped it on a guy, and I was just as unimpressed as I expected. If he fought every turn, he could maybe kill an enemy when he attacked, but no better than when he had a different weapon. To get to that point he had to attack a healthy enemy every turn and he was useless as the defender. And yes, he had other good (but probably not great) equipment besides the wrath sword.

Edit: Above is a bad post that confused/combined two items.

[Aevyn]

I tought Doombringer was funny against bosses, perhaps not?(i got 3 of them and very early!)

This is one of (if not the) the most powerful items to be dropped. I haven't found one in a while so if you found 3, that is funny Nevertheless, it should remain uncommon.

Can you explain to me why/how Aevyn's Wrath is so good? I finally yielded to this thread and equiped it on a guy, and I was just as unimpressed as I expected. If he fought every turn, he could maybe kill an enemy when he attacked, but no better than when he had a different weapon. To get to that point he had to attack a healthy enemy every turn and he was useless as the defender. And yes, he had other good (but probably not great) equipment besides the wrath sword.

There's a huge misconception here. Some of the items I look for are crappy by themselves (ex. Aevyn's Wrath), but I said I could make "powerful combinations" with them. The sword shines when you have units and abilities/items that work together; alone I definitely wouldn't use it.

Aevyn's Wrath has despair, horrid, anger, +2 hp gain, but at a huge damage malus (which is disappointing to see, but I could still work with it). So...

You basically want to give it to a unit that has many attacks. Throughout the campaign are items that return hp per enemy hit (ex. Mystic Occult Armor of Carpathia). As I'm sure you know, return hp stacks; it's possible to have a unit that returns 10 hp per hit...... I had a Elvish Marshal that hit 16 times (anger). Use it adjacent to another unit that boosts resistances (the sword has horrid) and since it has despair... you get the point. Things get better if you use it next to an ally with "lead allies into battle like furious savages" or that increase damage.

There are other potential combos I'm too lazy to type. Dugi has added abilities that increment per hit. If I remember correctly, there's a "wrath" weapon ability (or something) that does this; if you managed to use this in combination with my sword... that'd be interesting. If wrath was added directly to Aevyn's Wrath's stats......Dugi I have a suggestion for you!

[dabber]

I confused/combined Aevyn's Wrath with Soul Thrash in the post above. My reaction to each individually is still negative, but probably you are right, and I didn't make enough effort to really try either one in good combinations. For example, I should give Aevyn's Wrath to my Swordmaster, have him hang out with the Duke, and let him wreck havoc with his Doom attack.
I haven't paid much attention to swords for a while now because most of my sword guys are in storage. My only active sword wielders are Prophets and a Champion Bowman (for distant attack slow). Two of them are using Deathwhirl for Penetrate, and the third has Dragon Claw. Efraim is using Dragon Claw, and has been since ... chapter 6 (now in chapter 9). My one Doombringer was left with Krux or Vritra, as I felt they needed the best stuff for safety reasons.


@ Dugi
I have done 17 turns of scenario Unholy Realm, playing slowly. Portals at 6,28 and 4,38 have yet to spawn anyone. Portal at 42,29 has spawned several. All have been kept in sight every turn.
Also, Burning Souls are definitely looking too wimpy. An Elvish Gryphon Rider, entirely by himself, has killed close to 20 level 6 Burning Souls, in a group. Yes he has generally great equipment (Death set, Mystic Armour, Soul Hunter, more) and a dozen AMLAs, but he also has Phoenix Legacy (useless against Burning Souls), Fine Bow (focussed is useless against Burning Souls) and is wearing Steps to Perdition (-50% physical resist).

Replay file attached.

[dabber]

Grammar: Efraim says "Another seal is broken. We are on a halfway to Pandemonium ..."
Should be "Another seal is broken. We are halfway to Pandemonium ..."

River Styx
Lethalia "I think we were mistaken about the River Styx. It is not true that they somehow prolonged it into our world"
Should be "It is not true that they somehow extended it into our world..."
Efraim "Maybe their presence causes volcanic eruptions, and they fit them. We see so many volcanic eruptions here..."
Should be "Maybe their presence causes volcanic eruptions, and they enjoy them..."
Lethalia "... Maybe creating a barrage to stop it from flowing somewhere and cause fiery floods elsewhere might be useful in this campaign."
Should be "... Maybe creating a barrier to stop it from flowing ... "

[Dugi]

Changes to legacies done so far:
Fire Dragon Legacy - breath damage peaks at 20-6 instead of the 12-6 that was before, added it cone special and a possibility to gain explosive, increases blade and impact resistances (total 7%)
Ice Dragon Legacy - breath damage peaks at 17-6 instead of the 12-6 that was before, added it a possibility to gain cone special, increases blade and pierce resistances (total 7%)
Dark Dragon Legacy - breath damage peaks at 18-6 instead of the 12-6 that was before, added it a possibility to gain focused weapon special, increases fire, cold and arcane resistances (total 7%)
Undead Legacy - halved the resistance penalties, added the ability to become a lich once all other AMLAs of this legacy are taken
Legacy of Titans - added regeneration

I want more input about the suggested new legacies. I marked those that Aevyn liked.

Legacy of the North - cold damage and slow to everything, slowing aura, slowing aura with radius 2 hex (may be overpowered, this is available only through one rare potion), possibly arctic blast
Bestial Legacy - increased chance to hit, leech, maybe reduced chance to get hit
Barbaric Legacy - increased all resistances, abilities like evisceration and wrath
Virulent Legacy - spreads poison that in addition to normal poison makes poisoned units poison their adjacent allies
Legacy of Exile - increased damage when adjacent to no allies
Legacy of the Mammoth - large doses of hitpoints
Demonic Legacy - arcane resistance, something similar to demon traits (a few similar AMLAs of choice or something)
Legacy of the Savant - reduces maximum experience
Molten Legacy - chance to summon fiery rain when hit, that deals fire damage to all enemies exposed to it
Legacy of Avengers - adds wrath points (+1 to damage for each, loses a half of them every turn) when the unit is hit
Legacy of Quacks - poison and a chance to get some gold when attacking like Thieves and their advancements
Legacy of Filth - infect (that will have to be improved first as it was agreed before)
Celestial Legacy - lafwul alignment and weapon special, healing, daystalk, arcane damage (new)

___________________

I will update more later. From your list, my prefered answer is these:
4. More gold to chapter 9 leaders, higher demon types
5. Less burning soul and imp sides, replaced by demon sides

Any more input, anyone?

I don't like idea 6. "Various curses being thrown at players' units randomly, to make it harder to fight the enemies." There is already a large factor of "what does each unit do?" in LotI, and I don't like the idea of adding more affects than change randomly.

The idea wasn't to apply these curses chaotically and change them all the time, only once per scenario and tell you what changed. But it would motivate people to keep switching scenarios or wait for it to change to get an easier curse, so it might be hard to balance, yes.

I believe it is intended to only hit 3 of those guys, not the 5 it hits.

No, it's intentional. However, because it does so little damage to those units far away, slow and poison no longer propagate on all targets.

Cone with Slow will slow everyone hit, but Explosive with Slow only slows the primary target.

Fixed explosive. If the damage is so high that it would hit really many enemies, poison and slow propagate only to the few closer to the blast centre.

I think those are intentional and perfectly okay, but since I just discovered these facts I thought I'd mention them.

Intentional, right.

Perhaps create a "Flower Power Boots of Universal Happiness and Love"

I wish that didn't sound so silly... Hippies would like it, though. Any hippies playing this?
I guess that names like 'Celestial Grace' or 'Inner Tranquillity' could be usable, though...

My goal was suggesting a legacy in which the affected unit fought well in both night and day. "Divine" as in utilizing both the powers of light and darkness.

Well, chaotic weapon special and lawful weapon special usually don't stack, they make the units a bit worse all the time it's not twilight. That one item that adds both in fact adds a special combination of the two so that neither of them has its usual effect at unfavourable time of day. How about changing it slightly to Celestial legacy, adding lawful weapon special, lawful alignment, healing, daystalk and arcane damage?

Assuming you're speaking to me, Tome of the Liches is the main item I really missed, but that may be changed if Undead Legacy is modified.

I wasn't speaking to you, it was meant for everyone. Thanks for your input, I wonder what the others say. I think that adding new items increases variety and slightly increases difficulty by making godly items very rare.

Dugi I have a suggestion for you!

That would come at the cost of further decreasing damage of that item in order to prevent it from becoming overly powerful. Do you still want it?

I have done 17 turns of scenario Unholy Realm, playing slowly. Portals at 6,28 and 4,38 have yet to spawn anyone. Portal at 42,29 has spawned several. All have been kept in sight every turn.

Due to some technical difficulties, the replay was unviewable. I could watch only one turn and I could see no portals at all (none on 6,28 although the coordinates are right). The implementation of these portals does not differ from 42,29 in any way, just that 42,29 has a faster spawning period. Another fact worth mentioning is that the portals try to spawn enemies periodically, but they sometimes randomly fail to do so and this chance increases with the total number of demons slain (they don't have enough warriors to send them into the portals). The chance is also reduced by difficulty. It still seems to me like coincidence rather than bug. If you're certain that it's not a bug, please do the following change that will make them ignore the no-spawn rolls and spawn anyway periodically as they should:

Spoiler:

In file utils/chapter9_utils.cfg , find this (and make a backup preferably):

Code: Select all

                [if]
                    [variable]
                        name=did_spawn
                        equals=1
                    [/variable]
                    [then]
#ifdef HARD
                        {GENERIC_UNIT {SIDE} $spawn_type {X} {Y}}
#endif
#ifdef NORMAL
                        {VARIABLE_OP did_really_spawn rand (1,1,1,1,0)}
                        [if]
                            [variable]
                                name=did_really_spawn
                                equals=1
                            [/variable]
                            [then]
                                {GENERIC_UNIT {SIDE} $spawn_type {X} {Y}}
                            [/then]
                        [/if]
#endif
#ifdef EASY
                        {VARIABLE_OP did_really_spawn rand (1,1,0)}
                        [if]
                            [variable]
                                name=did_really_spawn
                                equals=1
                            [/variable]
                            [then]
                                {GENERIC_UNIT {SIDE} $spawn_type {X} {Y}}
                            [/then]
                        [/if]
#endif
                    [/then]
                [/if]

and replace it with:

Code: Select all

                {GENERIC_UNIT {SIDE} $spawn_type {X} {Y}}

Grammar:

Done what you suggested, but when replacing the word 'barrage', I wrote 'dam' instead of 'barrier', I found that one more fitting. Is that okay?

[Aevyn]

I wish that didn't sound so silly... Hippies would like it, though. Any hippies playing this?
I guess that names like 'Celestial Grace' or 'Inner Tranquillity' could be usable, though...

Being serious now, those last two names, though, are definitely usable. Other names that could help or inspire you are:

1) Serene Steps
2) Embodiment of Hope
3) Faith's Steel

Well, chaotic weapon special and lawful weapon special usually don't stack, they make the units a bit worse all the time it's not twilight. That one item that adds both in fact adds a special combination of the two so that neither of them has its usual effect at unfavourable time of day. How about changing it slightly to Celestial legacy, adding lawful weapon special, lawful alignment, healing, daystalk and arcane damage?

I'm not sure. It seems a little bit like "Legacy of Light 2", doesn't it? They both resemble each other closely.

That would come at the cost of further decreasing damage of that item in order to prevent it from becoming overly powerful. Do you still want it?

I wasn't being serious; that would be way to much after everything I typed. The sword is fine as is.

Any more input, anyone?

In regard to Dabbers suggestions, I tend to agree, but this is from my memory of the reformed Chapter 9 back when there were 10 separate campaigns. I'm slowly making my way up there with my new team. I'm all for increased numbers though.

[orian34]

I was thinking about Legacy of Balance.
liminal, fearless, a way to add/remove strikes/damages from one attack(ranged or melee) and add it to the other one. And the last thing would be a power that reflects half of the damage against the ennemy(instead of taking 10 dmg, you take 5 and the other takes 5.)

Oh and, 1.stronger traits to imps! I would love that! The freezing spell was a pain in the ***, so more of these would be great!

[Dugi]

Other names that could help or inspire you are:

The first two are nice, the last one, well, maybe it's just me, but the word faith does not sound very positive, especially in medieval setting. About two millions of people died during the Crusades, a war caused merely by faith differences (and both sides actually worshipped the same god, although the crusaders misspelled 'Muhammed' as 'Baphomet' and assumed it was some kind of idol). About six millions of people died during the Thirty Years' War, another war caused by some disagreements in methods of worship as both sides were Christians. Then there was inquisition, witch hunts,...

I'm not sure. It seems a little bit like "Legacy of Light 2", doesn't it? They both resemble each other closely.

That's damn good point. I complained about something and then I suggested almost the same thing myself. The idea of Divine Legacy does not sound bad, I just can't quite decide what kinds of advancements would fit it without nearing something that already exists. Could be pretty much a completely new ability set, a few wild throws:
1. ordo ex chao - if the unit with the ability attacks a unit that is chaotic and in darkness, the unit becomes lawful
2. divine retribution - every time a unit with this ability takes 100 damage (I mean that it would have a counter for damage taken), it gets a strong wrath buff
3. zeal of faith - every time a unit with this ability takes 50 damage, adjacent units get a strong wrath buff
4. resurrection - if an adjacent ally of a unit with this ability would die, it has a chance to be partially healed (the roll would be repeatable and thus hard to exploit)

this is from my memory of the reformed Chapter 9 back when there were 10 separate campaigns.

That doesn't matter, the change was mostly cosmetic because nobody was starting from other chapters than 1 and 6 anyway.

I have considered the stuff I haven't replied to (I just have nothing to say about that).

I was thinking about Legacy of Balance.

Liminal is rather a handicap than an advantage. Fearless makes liminal identical to neutral. Removing attacks from one attack to benefit another would be hugely exploitable, you get an ancient lich, move the damage/attacks from one of the two ranged attacks to the melee attack and you get a devastating attack with drain. The ability to redirect a half of the damage to the enemy would double the unit's survivability, because it would take only a half of the damage and would also boost the unit's offence. Sorry, this one looks horribly overpowered, but maybe we could figure out something out of the idea.

Oh and, 1.stronger traits to imps! I would love that! The freezing spell was a pain in the ***, so more of these would be great!

That's a good point of view. I'll think about the possibilities of making them more difficult.

[dabber]

I will update more later. From your list, my prefered answer is these:
4. More gold to chapter 9 leaders, higher demon types
5. Less burning soul and imp sides, replaced by demon sides

Any more input, anyone?

Just a note, I'm suggesting only changing it on HARD, not for other difficulties. To me, increased numbers of easy enemies is not harder ... just more experience and items.
I have changed the code I'm playing to replace all imps with Demon Warriors. I didn't check the exact numbers, but there was an intimidating number of level 7s in sight. It convinced me to play conservative with Lethalia and most of my army until they were eliminated.

I don't like idea 6. "Various curses being thrown at players' units randomly, to make it harder to fight the enemies." There is already a large factor of "what does each unit do?" in LotI, and I don't like the idea of adding more affects than change randomly.

The idea wasn't to apply these curses chaotically and change them all the time, only once per scenario and tell you what changed. But it would motivate people to keep switching scenarios or wait for it to change to get an easier curse, so it might be hard to balance, yes.

Oh! That makes it a much better idea than I originally understood. If you feel inclined to code the idea, maybe start by trying out a a curse that is fixed in a scenario (again, only on Hard) instead of randomly picking from several curses.

Re Cone, Explosive / slow , poison
Description of cone says it only hits the primary target, plus 3 others. So if you change the functionality to hit 5, then please also change the description.
I thought it was intentional that Explosive did not propogate slow - Isn't that why Explosive Slow exists as a separate power? I was surprised to see cone propogate slow, and thought that might be a bug.

Re Inferno portals
In every scenario I have played in Inferno , only one portal ever spawns anything. I am effectively certain of that observation in the last 5-7 maps I have done and highly confident in the rest.
You have orders of magnitude better understanding of WML than I do, but I went digging. Does WML allow creation of multiple identical events, and can all be triggered by the same fire_event? As I read the code involved, it appears each call to create a spawn point creates an identical event, which to me says only one of them really happens.
I will try your code change and see what happens, but it will probably be several days before I get back to playing Wesnoth.

Done what you suggested, but when replacing the word 'barrage', I wrote 'dam' instead of 'barrier', I found that one more fitting. Is that okay?

Yes, that is probably better.