Revision 220716:

Ghouls: Disease 2, Cost 150, Upkeep 2
Scouts: View 5
Giant Bats: View 5
Elven Infantry: View 4
Giant Bees: Movement 20, Upkeep 5
Goblins: View 5
Elven Archers: View 4
Dwarf Runners: View 4
Dryads: View 4
Mummies: Movement 15
Harpies: Curse 5
Elven Cavalry: C.Bonus Field +1
Plague Carriers: Disease 6
Pegasi: Morale +2
Light Cavalry: View 5
Wights: Curse 4
Elven Lords: Strength 7, C.Bonus Field +2, View 4
Griffons: Chaos 1
Eagles: View 5
Iceguard: View 4
Trolls: Move 18
Moonguard: View 4
Elephants: Trample 1
Fire Demons: C.Bonus City +1
Spectres: Curse 8, Movement 30, Cost 900
Unicorns: Strength 6, Turns 3, Upkeep 5
Slayer Knights: Move 18
Undead Dragon: Curse 6
Silver Dragons: Strength 8, Medal 20, Cost 1100

Straw Golem: Hp 1, C.Bonus City +1, Cost 120, Upkeep 1
Rovers: View 5
Vampire Bat: Move 24, View 4, Cost 110, Upkeep 3, Setup 70
Banshee: Strength 3, Move 20, Medal 40
Outriders: View 5
Basilisk: Paralysis 8, Strength 6, Hp 3, C.Bonus City +1, View 1, Medal 25, Cost 650, Turns 3, Setup 400
Hydra: Poison 8, Medal 15
Wyvern: Strength 6, C.Bonus +1 Woods, Move 24, View 2, Medal 30, Cost 800, Turns 3, Upkeep 8, Setup 600

To unpack that a little:

-Changes to View based on 5 as the default for scouting units, 4 for other high perception ones.
-A pretty comprehensive overhaul of PPDC units, with a couple of exceptions. Ghouls and Plague Carriers get toned down a bit, Curse units get matched to Banshees, Bashee and Giant Bee movement reduced.
-Since my changes to the Cockatrice already made it a buffed version of the SH Basilisk, I turned the Basilisk into a tough T3 unit.
-The Hydra is hero stack viable, but slow.
-The Wyvern gets turned into a T3 unit, but keeps equal poison/turn to the buffed Hydra.
-I reverted the Unicorn changes for now.
-If we have a T3 Morale 3 unit, a T2 Morale 2 unit is back on the table. However, it's the Pegasus now, which is more expensive than the old EC.
-Eagles stay the T3 flying Morale 2 unit, but Griffons get a role suited for raiding the backfield with Chaos 1.
-Elven Lords and Cavalry get a Field bonus from their role as cavalry, rather than the less useful elven Woods bonus. Lords are more combat focused than Unicorns now, but I'm unconvinced this really gives them a niche.
-Spectres join the faster-than-dragons niche.
-Movement buffs for Trolls and Slayer Knights.

I've left the Lamia and Beholder untouched for now. I don't think Curse is a good fit for the Beholder, and I think we've got Curse covered pretty well already. Assassin might be an option for all their instant death attacks.
According to Trolloc, the Lamia is a little too good on the efficiency curve, but I'd like to hear your opinions on her.

I'm fairly happy with Giants and Minotaurs relative to each other, but the Dwarf Mutants need something more to compensate for their slow movement. I'm considering either City+1 or Chaos 3.

Lamia, Chimera, Barlog belong to the group of very useful units. I don't think any of them are clearly stronger or weaker. Lamia and Chimera are weakened by 2 reduced mobility. Which often makes them the slowest unit in my army. That's why I choose Barlog more often. IMHO nothing in this group below 20 moves will be playable.
Overall the changes look good.

Hey guys!

I probably should start a new thread for what has now become the 27th and counting Anniversary Project, but I figured Anomander might get an email notification for new posts here.

After a rather longer than intended hiatus, I've managed to cut through some conceptual Gordian knots, and I've made some solid progress that's far enough along to share again:

docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pQCk7eml...d2o/edit?usp=sharing

What really helped me focus and stay motivated was color-coding the cells according to what I'm happy with , and what's still experimental or work-in-progress. That should also make it easier to provide feedback, if you want.

There's too many changes since last year to go into much detail, but I'm pretty satisfied with most of it. Some are a bit controversial, such as turning Elven Archers into a T2 unit. But I wanted them to move fast like the other elves, and with that change, they would completely outclass all the other T1 missile units.

Basically, the main abilities are good for play-testing. What I still need to work on are Upkeep, Cost, Medal Chance and Setup, in that order.

Upkeep is handled convolutedly in W3. Allies and Mercenaries pay no upkeep at all. Regular troops pay only 1/3 of their upkeep (rounded down) when in cities. And Summoned and Necromancy units pay full upkeep, no matter where they are. That makes balancing upkeep rather tricky, even if its overall impact is probably very negligible. My main concern here is that the AI might run into money trouble if unit upkeep is too high.

But once that's done, the big ticket item is unit cost. This is where you really have to weigh units against each other, and probably play-test a lot. But I think I understand the 1000 gold threshold now. Units that cost more are practically prohibited from the Ally 1&2 slots, and have to compete with dragons for their slot. So for now, that's only the Undead Beast, Liche and Treant, as they have Chaos, Fear and Siege 4.

Most T4 units should be in the 750-1000 range. T3 probably 500-700, though I have Moonguard currently at 850.

There's still a lot more work to be done. Balancing and play-testing heroes might take even more time that the units. One slightly simpler task is figuring out the gold thresholds for item rewards from easy/average/hard quests, and balancing all item costs for that, as well as the Shatter/Summon Items spells.

And you may have noticed it already, but Warlords 1-3 are now available on Steam, too!

I hope at least KGB will be around again;

A quick update: I've gone through all the items and adjusted their cost and level.

According to my testing, their level still matters; it determines for which kind of quest you can get them as a reward. You won't be rewarded with tier 0 items, but you can get expensive items like the Golden Chest even for easy quests, if they're tier 1.

I haven't tested Summon Item and Shatter much, but going according to what KGB wrote once, here the price matters in increments of 200 gold.

Some of the top tier multiplayer items, like the Helm of Speed, Medal of Valor and Horn of Stone now all cost 1300 gold, so an Alchemist who manages to reach L7 can Summon/Shatter them. (Both spells are exclusive to them.) They can only be awarded by hard quests. There's only a handful of items with a higher cost.

All items that give +2 group bonuses now cost 1100 gold, so the spells work at level 6. Those with +1 bonuses are unlocked at level 4, but I don't expect Alchemists will prioritize Summon Item at that level.

Also, I've been in touch with Roger Keating, and if things work out, he may be able to provide some insights into the AI.

About Summon Item, I used this and I read that this spell works in such a way that the item's level matters not the price and from experience this is probably how it works. So up to level 5 you summon weaker items, from level 6 stronger (Selentine crown, Sword of Sowden etc) and the next change is at level 9. But who has seen the 9th level of Alchemist? Shattered items spell is to risk and not easy to use. So I don't really use this.

I should test this comprehensively myself, but as I understand it, those spells don't follow the usual pattern of increasing in power at levels 6 and 9, but the items affected increase with each caster level.

I suppose in practical terms for multi-player, the main question is, should I bring down the item costs a tier, so the spells are more powerful earlier?

I think that summoning spell work normally (so 1-5, 6-8 and 9-10 level). For example expensive (and a little useless) golden chest you can have at a low level.

Ok, I did the testing and you're right. What threw me for a loop is that Summon Item and Shatter progress differently.

Summon Item gets you Lesser and Minor Items at levels 1-5, adds Major Items at level 6, and adds Artifacts at level 9. You can never get a Great Artifact with it.

Shatter, on the other hand, destroys Lesser Items at level 1-2, Minor Items at 3-4, Major Items at 5-6, Artifacts at 7-8, and Great Artifacts at 9-10. The number of items it destroys at once is equal to the caster level.

For comparison, easy quests reward Minor Items, average quests Minor and Major Items, and hard quests, I think, only Artifacts and Great Artifacts.

The gold cost of items, however, doesn't appear to affect anything at all, besides how much you get for selling it, and what price the merchant asks for when he has one for sale.

What does that all mean? Shatter is a nasty spell. It's situational, but it can really cripple an enemy hero just before combat. Especially if your caster managed to reach level 7.

Summon Item, on the other hand, is mostly a novelty. You really need a lot of surplus mana to make it useful, and even then, you're arguably better off spending it on Teleport to finish quests faster and get items that way, if you want them.

I still feel like it's very early and unpolished, but I've put out links to a playtesting release today, so I should link it here too.

Keep in mind, this will overwrite all existing vanilla units and heroes (and items, though I've only changed their prices and some item levels. All effects are unchanged.)

So make a backup if you want to try it out.

www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/604zmiw6eloua316s...st=02xocz24&dl=0