Default Complete Era (DCE)

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Generous
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Default Complete Era (DCE)

Post by Generous »

Using this add-on, you can recruit not only standard multiplayer units, but also great units from campaigns: like Chocobone and Dwarvish Scout! Upgrade paths have been improved as well: e.g. you can level up Troll Whelp to Troll Shaman. And, in addition to six default factions, instead of Khalifate there is a creepy Monsters faction - containing the monsters from default/mainline unit tree!

There are 6 DC Eras (click to see their unit trees ;) ) Difference between "Age of Heroes" and "Unlocked": in "Unlocked", you could recruit ANY unit of your faction - that includes lvl 3 to lvl 5 units.
In "Age of Heroes", Monster faction is "Unlocked" as well - because there is a much smaller choice of units, half of which are sea creatures...

Recruits: now you are able to recruit all units of your faction which are below 2nd lvl for Default, 3nd lvl for Age of Heroes.

Leaders: now all units of your faction which have a certain level: 2nd level for Default, or 3rd level for Age of Heroes / Unlocked,
could become your leader. But there are a few legend-based exceptions: e.g. Orcs would never let a Naga Fighter (lvl 2) to rule them.
In addition: choosing Random now could result in ANY of such leaders (area of possible random leaders was sometimes limited before that)

Leader of Monsters: if you choose "Random" while playing Default, you could get a random 1-3 lvl monster (with a few necessary exceptions like Tentacle)
For Age of Heroes / Unlocked, you could get a random 1-5 lvl monster. That is risky - you could get a weak leader; but, if you're lucky, you get a powerful monster

If you need full information about all possible leaders & recruits, check DCE files / unit trees, or expand these spoilers:

Default:
Spoiler:
Age of Heroes:
Spoiler:
Unlocked:
Spoiler:
To preserve the balance, a few parameters of some units have been wisely changed, following the guidelines from other eras when possible.
Full list of unit changes:

  • Drakes
Inferno drake (lvl 3) could level up to Armageddon drake (lvl 4) - for 220 XP (value taken from "#ifdef ENABLE_ARMAGEDDON_DRAKE")

  • Dwarves
Dwarvish Fighter (lvl 1) could level up not only to Dwarvish Steelclad, but also to Dwarvish Runesmith (lvl 2)
Dwarvish Runemaster (lvl 3) could level up to Dwarvish Arcanister (lvl 4) - for 210 XP (value taken from "#ifdef ENABLE_DWARVISH_ARCANISTER")

  • Rebels
Elvish Fighter (lvl 1) now could level up to Elvish Lord (lvl 2) - whose melee attack has been reduced from 8-4 to 6-4,
in order to make other two possible upgrades (Elvish Captain and Elvish Hero) competitive against this unit; cost also reduced to 32 gold.
Elvish High Lord (lvl 3) melee attack has been weakened as well: from 10-4 to 8-4 ; and his cost reduced to 55 gold.

Elvish Lady: I decided not to add this unit to possible upgrades/recruits, this "lvl 3" (???) unit sucks because it has no attacks.
Anyway, I turned her into lvl 0 unit with following parameters changed: 41 --> 20 HP, 6 --> 5 MP, 150 --> 8 XP, 10 --> 8 gold.


  • Gryphons
I noticed that Gryphon (lvl 2) is weaker and more expensive than Gryphon Master (lvl 2): 44 HP vs 51 HP, 9 MP vs 10 MP, 40 gold vs 37 gold.
So I changed Gryphon properties to be exactly the same as Gryphon Master - his tamed counterpart.

  • Humans
Swordsman (lvl 2) could level up not only to Royal Guard, but also to Royal Warrior (lvl 3)
Great Mage (lvl 4) could level up to Elder Mage (lvl 5) for 130 XP, but with changed properties:
Spoiler:
  • Trolls:
Troll Whelp (lvl 1) got two additional possible upgrades: Troll Shaman (lvl 2), and Troll Hero (lvl 2) - whose melee attack has been reduced from 12-3 to 8-3;
melee attack of Great Troll (lvl 3) has been reduced as well: from 18-3 to 12-3. These changes were made to balance them against
Troll/Troll Warrior upgrade path. After that, Troll Hero/Great Troll became slightly weaker than Troll/Troll Warrior - but, as compensation,
these "Hero Trolls" got a Leadership ability.

  • Undead
Lich (lvl 3) could level up to Ancient Lich (lvl 4) - for 250 XP (value taken from "#ifdef ENABLE_ANCIENT_LICH")
Skeleton (lvl 1) could level up to Chocobone (lvl 2) - undead cavalry from default set of campaigns;
however, some of his resistances were very wrong: 20% vs blade, -10% vs impact, and just 30% vs pierce;
so I changed them to normal resistances of all other skeletons: 40% vs blade, -20% vs impact, 60% vs pierce.
Deathblade (lvl 2) could level up to Death Knight (lvl 3) with slightly weakened melee attack: 11-4 --> 10-4 ,
as well as raised cost 45 --> 50 gold ; all that for a balance vs Draug (lvl 3) from alternative upgrade path of Skeleton.

  • Monsters
Nobody expected that someone would create a monsters faction, so I needed to make lots of changes to make them balanced & playable...
All under a spoiler:
Spoiler:
Generous
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Joined: July 4th, 2011, 7:28 am

Re: Default Complete Era (DCE)

Post by Generous »

Please let me know if you have some questions or feedback about DCE era ;)
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Lord-Knightmare
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Re: Default Complete Era (DCE)

Post by Lord-Knightmare »

Great Mage (lvl 4) could level up to Elder Mage (lvl 5) for 130 XP, but with changed properties:
Hmm, shouldn't the Great Mage require more XP points to advance to the Level 5 Elder Mage? :hmm: 130 XP seems to be diminutive.
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Gidian
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Re: Default Complete Era (DCE)

Post by Gidian »

(EDIT: I'm a fool! I just sat down and started diving into this and I can just recruit dragons! So this mod is pretty much perfect. Thank you so much!)


I love your add on, I have been playing this game nonstop since I discovered it recently and was tearing my hair out trying to find a way to play as monsters in the "multiplayer" (I do single player with a bunch of AIs). This was an answer to my prayers! And I thank you so much for it. However, there is one thing I'd like to request, if you're still working on these. I would love this SO MUCH MORE if you could simply choose the higher tier monsters rather than having them random, as balance isn't so much an issue for me due to playing on my own, although the AI needs all the advantages it can get, haha. I just want to fight against and fight with the Dragon without having to play the campaign!

Thanks!
Generous
Posts: 47
Joined: July 4th, 2011, 7:28 am

Re: Default Complete Era (DCE)

Post by Generous »

Lord-Knightmare wrote:
Great Mage (lvl 4) could level up to Elder Mage (lvl 5) for 130 XP, but with changed properties:
Hmm, shouldn't the Great Mage require more XP points to advance to the Level 5 Elder Mage? :hmm: 130 XP seems to be diminutive.
Smaller amount of EXP points - only because this case with Level 5 Elder Mage is unique:
HP and melee attack are worse for lvl 5 than for lvl 4 (but this is compensated by improved resistance and ranged attack)
If compared with benefit which level 4 gives after lvl 3, the benefit for lvl 5 upgrade is significantly smaller, so the amount of efforts to get it -
- XP points - should be smaller as well. Also, by the time the mage will learn almost 400 EXP to get to level 4 - he becomes pretty old,
so it wouldn't take long to become Elder ;)
Gidian wrote: I love your add on, I have been playing this game nonstop since I discovered it recently and was tearing my hair out trying to find a way to play as monsters in the "multiplayer" (I do single player with a bunch of AIs). This was an answer to my prayers! And I thank you so much for it. However, there is one thing I'd like to request, if you're still working on these. I would love this SO MUCH MORE if you could simply choose the higher tier monsters rather than having them random, as balance isn't so much an issue for me due to playing on my own, although the AI needs all the advantages it can get, haha. I just want to fight against and fight with the Dragon without having to play the campaign!
I am happy to hear that you having fun with DCE add-on! :D
Although I dont want to overcomplicate things by adding "even more unlocked" pair of eras to the official version of DCE add-on,
it is really easy to get what you want - just make a small edit to local version of DCE add-on which is installed on your PC

1) go to Wesnoth "userdata/data/add-ons" directory (more about it here - http://wiki.wesnoth.org/Editingwesnoth# ... et_there_2 )
2) at "Default_Complete_Era/factions" directory, there are 3 monster faction files: monsters-aoh.cfg , monsters-default.cfg , monsters-unlocked.cfg
3) inside of these text files, there are two leader ID lists: list of possible leader selections as well as list of random leaders.
All you need to do is to copy some leader unit IDs from "random_leader" to "leader" list. Example for monsters-unlocked.cfg

Before your edit:

Code: Select all

leader=DC Giant Spider,DC Sea Serpent,Direwolf
random_leader=Blood Bat,Dread Bat,DC Wolf,DC Great Wolf,Direwolf,Young Ogre,Ogre,DC Gryphon,DC Water Serpent,DC Cuttle Fish,DC Fire Guardian,DC Giant Scorpion,DC Giant Mudcrawler,DC Giant Spider,DC Sea Serpent,Direwolf,DC Yeti,DC Fire Dragon,Skeletal Dragon
After your edit:

Code: Select all

leader=DC Giant Spider,DC Sea Serpent,Direwolf,DC Fire Dragon,Skeletal Dragon,DC Yeti
( DC prefix is only for those units whose parameters - or parameters of their relatives - had to be changed for this add-on )

However, to avoid OOS errors, dont forget to somehow revert these edits after playing with AI and before playing in multiplayer with other people.
It could be convenient to make a backup for your modified "Default_Complete_Era" directory, then reinstall the DCE addon to get a clean copy
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Ravana
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Re: Default Complete Era (DCE)

Post by Ravana »

Would you want to see your monsters faction in ageless grouped under EE? Theme of normally unplayable core units fits that more than grouping it with AE.
Generous
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Joined: July 4th, 2011, 7:28 am

Re: Default Complete Era (DCE)

Post by Generous »

Ravana wrote:Would you want to see your monsters faction in ageless grouped under EE? Theme of normally unplayable core units fits that more than grouping it with AE.
Yes, I will be happy if parts of DCE add-on could be included to Ageless Era.
But some core units from default/age of heroes are unplayable too (e.g. Chocobone)
so it could be a good idea to include them as well
Generous
Posts: 47
Joined: July 4th, 2011, 7:28 am

Re: Default Complete Era (DCE)

Post by Generous »

Hmmm... There are still some other differences, example:

1) being able to hire 0 lvl units not just for orcs/undead
2) can level up troll whelp to troll hero
3) can level up swordsman to royal warrior
4) situation with elder mage
5) other changes described at first message of DCE thread

Maybe those changes could be reviewed and some of them included too
Generous
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Joined: July 4th, 2011, 7:28 am

Re: Default Complete Era (DCE)

Post by Generous »

Ravana wrote:
=== Some notes about DCE add-on balance ===

We tested "DCE: Default + Monsters" era with a friend who is the same skill as me, and after I implemented those changes above:
many changes regarding a monster race + a few changes for other races (usually about adding the upgrade path)
"monster race vs default race" duels became quite balanced - victories/losses frequencies became about equal.

But, because there are water monster units, it is slightly easier to play on maps with rivers. The majority of our test games happened at
"2p - Hamlets" and "2p - Howling Ghost Backlands" which had rivers. Also, it tooks some time for us to learn the strategies for the monster race, so that
monsters could be competitive without relying on leader type. Without water, the choice of units is smaller, so its slightly more difficult to play

Strong AI / Experimental AI cannot play for monsters at all: if both sides are AI then monsters usually lose (if a map is symmetric and there is no set up advantage)
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Ravana
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Re: Default Complete Era (DCE)

Post by Ravana »

I can not take this into next ageless version. I would need to create the faction from scratch as here is neither default nor rpg style [multiplayer_side]. Maybe in the future.

Actually might be possible as people have been interesting in helping.


Edit: Monster units will be there, however there are very few similarities to the faction used here, as units need to have normal upgrade lines.
Last edited by Ravana on August 20th, 2015, 1:36 am, edited 2 times in total.
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