Brad Wardell's site for talking about the customization of Windows.

Greetings!

v1.6 of Legendary Heroes seems to have gone well and we’re now moving on to v1.7.  I’m not sure what the rest of the team has in store for that (it’s Kael’s team, I’m just a floater).  But I’ve got 16 engineer hours of my own time for v1.7 and want to make sure every hour is spent well.  I don’t know how many of you are interested in the sausage factory side of game development but if you are, this is a good chance to see it in action.

These are what I’m spending those hours on:

 

Est Hours Feature Description Status
1 Stamp fix Fix stamp creation for modders, add some new stamps. Done (1)
1 BattleRank overhaul Redo battlerank so that the AI can more intelligently make decisions. Done (1)
1 Leader Update Updated text and specific conversations per player  Done (1)
1 New Spells Add new tactical battle spells/abilities  Done (2)
2 AI tactical Update AI tactical perf  Done (1)
1 Squad size Increase squad size and test  Done (1)
1 Unrest penalties Unrest causes bandits to spawn  Done and then undone (was not fun)
1 Eco balance Update mana/maintcosts/research balance/hero generation  Done (0.5)
1 Wild land menace Wild lands spawn monsters who go after players, get much worse over time.  Done (0.5)
1 AI updates Have AI upgrade outposts, Better army management, Pariden use Arcane monoliths.  Done (1)
1 Gameplay Master Quest harder, Heroes spawn at capital, Nerf consulate, bigger maps  Done (2)
1 Monsters vs. AI Look again to see why AI and monsters aren’t attacking each other (likely a threading issue)  Looked at, hoping new combat rating system might help. (0.5)
1 Pathing Fix the river pathing issue  Done (0.5)
1 Update stamps World less flat, more interesting  Done (1)
 1  Misc.  (bug fixing, fix lockups, lost device, other annoying things I encounter etc.)  Ongoing

 

Watch this thread for updates. I’m going through this thread here for ideas.

As I finish these, I’ll update the chart to let people know. I don’t really get started on this until next week between meetings, accounting, legal, design, software work, etc. Smile

 

Update 1: Friday, May 30

Finished the first half day working on this. Some of this isn't taking as long as I expected (marked at 0.5 hours in the status).

Update 2: End of day

Okay, I've got 9.5 hours into this.  The AI is definitely nastier now with the outpost upgrades. The pathfinding is less annoying for me.  I had a hard lock today that I want to put some time into.  I don't want this to just be new goodies, I'd like to fix some bugs that people have reported.


Comments (Page 8)
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on Jun 03, 2014

DsRaider
I just finished some testing, was trying to get the AI to use City Enchantments smarter. Unfortunately it seems strategic spells ignore ValueCalcWrappers. Frogboy I would like to request the ability to add IsWorthy tags to strategic spells and city enchantments in particular please...

 

Posted that request twice [1, 2] in the "My victims, welcome!" thread, didn't seem to make it in the "16 Engineering hours for LH v1.7" features list. Still hoping it does and one more voice requesting it can only help...

Primal_Savage
Activating 'ValueCalcWrapper' for Strategic spells

Primal_Savage
As long as ValueCalcWrapper for Strategic Spells gets activated...

 

 

 

 

_________________________

LH Mods by Primal

XtraDeconstruct

XtraDeconstruct Canons

on Jun 03, 2014

abob101


Quoting DsRaider, reply 95

Quoting Primal_Savage, reply 88Does that also fixes other upgrade lines?

Altar-Shrine-Temple

Quarry-Mine-Trove

Mine-Smelter-Foundry-IronWorks

AI will only build the bolded ones unless the resource/shard is within city walls.

This would explain a lot. I was wondering about this.

 

@Frogboy - can you manage to squeeze this into 1.7 also?

 

Or instead of changing the AI, could all of these auto-improve resource output as soon as the techs unlock?  Saves human micro-management, saves AI thinking about it, leaves building queues open for more interesting things to build. 

on Jun 04, 2014

N/A

on Jun 04, 2014

Primal_Savage
3. I know you've already played with UnitGroupingType for LH 1.7 so my comments may be off a bit but can you make the UnitGroupingType modder-friendly? Pretty hard to do anything w/ them at the moment: I can't even change the DisplayName >Party< to >300< if I wanted to without investing massive amount of hours. #Modders

Are you talking about how you cannot change the UnitGroupingType from the mods folder?

on Jun 05, 2014

Ok.  Second 8 hours begins now!

on Jun 05, 2014

Frogboy
Ok.  Second 8 hours begins now!

Awesome.

 

Another ability/spell that it would be great if the Ai would use (in addition to Blink, other spells target an empty tile) : Escape.

Also pls see reply 101 above (getting the resource upgrades working for AI) and reply 105 above (getting strategic ValueCalcWrappers working). If you can get any of that done that would be brilliant.  Personally i'd take any of that over 1 hour on "New Spells", as i'd rather have current stuff working for AI.

All good though.

 

PS - read the Stardock report today, thanks for sharing (again) always find it an interesting read.

 

on Jun 05, 2014

Thanks.

 

Yea, the spell stuff is much more time consuming.  I've added a new type of spell class called Target All Enemy Champions and I fixed some bugs that was causing the AI not to be able to cast AOE spells effectively.

I'm not familiar with ValueCalcWrappers but I'll look.

on Jun 05, 2014

Frogboy
Thanks.

 

Yea, the spell stuff is much more time consuming.  I've added a new type of spell class called Target All Enemy Champions and I fixed some bugs that was causing the AI not to be able to cast AOE spells effectively.

I'm not familiar with ValueCalcWrappers but I'll look.

If the spell stuff is the most time consuming, I humbly advise you to wait until last before adding spells.

imo. more smaller items is better than one larger item (especially if it doesn't exist yet)

For example, if you could address comments #64, #66, #88, and #100; those would go a long ways more than 1-2 new spells. (save the spells for the DLC )

 

My excitement in writing:

- Does the AI use the spells Birth of Summer and Bloom of Twilight now?

- Recommend that the spells Birth of Summer and Bloom of Twilight have a %chance of improving tiles that it is cast on over and above what there exists stats are. The spell is expensive enough as it is, and is questionable at best as to it's results. It often sucks getting those 4/2/0 locations, often when it appears as though the location you've cast the spell on should be better. I think this could only make the game more interesting as the player would feel more fulfilled when the spell is cast and the AI would have another avenue in which to expand there empires/kingdoms easier and stay competitve against the player.

- When you trigger the third gate in the master quest, does the Pit of Lost Souls animate out of the ground? (as Curgeon's Volcano would)

- When having heros appear near your capital city, did you attempt to associate the summoning with a building instead of the sovereign? (I'm attempting the lead you into implementing my capital city designation idea: #7 @ https://forums.elementalgame.com/452034/page/1/

- Would you be willing to add some addditional flavor to city defense? #5 @ https://forums.elementalgame.com/452034/page/1/

- With adding outposts upgrades to the AI (and hopefully resource upgrades as well), how will this negatively affect the AI's queue times and ability to stay competitive?

- Are you willing to add a Binding creature for the Life shard so that custom Kingdom sovereigns that use Binding won't miss out?

- With unrest now generating bandits, will the AI have higher priority on those types of buildings?

- The Pyre of Man spell doesn't seem to fit it's place in the trait tree. It's not strong enough a spell...or it costs too much...or both. Balancing possibilities? (or please explain to us how this summon is suppose to be useful)

- The Mirror Elemental from the Binding Trait doesn't seem strong enough. The reflect damage maxs out at the mirror elemental's HP. Imo, the young Mirrors should reflect 25% of damage dealt, regardless of hp. The regular mirrors should reflect 50%. Etc for the other two...

- The Burning Archon from the Binding Trait doesn't seem worth the mana investment. Since the +2 fire attack is lost after each combat, and since it takes the unit's turn to cast, removing the mana cost associated with the spell maybe prudent...

- Does the Cragen's Earth to Mud spell work properly?

on Jun 05, 2014

The things you mention would go way beyond teh available time I have left unfortunately.

I think quite a few of the spells now will do a lot more as I fixed some things that was preventing the AI from casting certain spells.  The *effect* of which I don't know yet.

The list I posted at the beginning of this thread is the list.  Anythinb beyond that would have to wait until a future update.  I've gotten a lot of small things fixed (bug fixing) along the way but otherwise, it is what it is.

 

on Jun 05, 2014

I like seeing how much passion you have for this game. Its heart warming to see the amount of happiness and relaxation that comes from it. [e digicons]:')[/e]

on Jun 05, 2014

Well adding a spell type was definitely a time sink.

I created a spell type that targets all enemy champions (as opposed to just enemy units).

I'm STILL trying to get it to work.

on Jun 05, 2014

Frogboy

The things you mention would go way beyond teh available time I have left unfortunately.

I think quite a few of the spells now will do a lot more as I fixed some things that was preventing the AI from casting certain spells.  The *effect* of which I don't know yet.

The list I posted at the beginning of this thread is the list.  Anythinb beyond that would have to wait until a future update.  I've gotten a lot of small things fixed (bug fixing) along the way but otherwise, it is what it is.

 

 

More than good enough!!  Looking forward to 1.7!

on Jun 05, 2014

abob101
  

Another ability/spell that it would be great if the Ai would use (in addition to Blink, other spells target an empty tile) : Escape.
 

 

Although it's a rare occurrence, I've seen the AI cast Escape several times. Of course, it didn't prevent me from attacking again on the following turn since it doesn't seem to have mastered the concept of fleeing on the strategic map. 

on Jun 05, 2014

I just wanted to note that APPARENTLY someone at Stardock is already using Heavenfall's Stat Background mod, and apparently has played the Children Of The Storm Mod.  DLC04 custom Sovs have a bunch of BG tags in it, noting CoS in some commented out text next to those tags, that are part of the Stat Background mod (see the code for Generic Undead Sovereigns).

So you guys are halfway there r.e. implementing those Background stats (the Undead already have them 'coded in'), so 1.7 would be a great place to formally implement these tags for 'everyone' (IsImmortal, etc.).

IMHO, I'd just leave that to other people though, and focus on the rest of the stuff on your list, Frogboy (unless you are the only guy working on 1.7).  Shouldn't take that long for Derek to fully add it in, or to assign someone else to implement it, seeing that Heavenfall already did the heavy lifting waaaaay back when...

on Jun 05, 2014

One other note, something to put on the 'might want to consider changing at some point' list.

I've noticed that some icons for passive traits end up 'cluttering up' the column of traits on the left when viewing details on a Sov, or that they appear in the row next to the Round Unit pic in the Army Action window in the lower left.  It'd be nice to have some sort of<doesnottusuallyappear>>1</doesnotusuallyappear> or similar tag.

This would help 'move' the background traits out of the Army widget window in the lower left at least, when you pick a specific unit, freeing up those first few slots for more important things, like special attacks and such!

Said tag could also 'kick' the background abilities (the ones that don't require the player to do anything once they've picked them) to the end of the list in the Sovereign/Unit/Champion details window.

A 'icon/button priority' tag could also do this, with say <buttondisplayranking>2</buttondisplayranking> abilities given priority over <buttondisplayranking>1</buttondisplayranking> abilities.  Obviously, abilities without such a tag would have a ranking of 0.  This would allow modders and others to 'move' abilities that get used a lot to the top of the list, so that they are readily available, with the lower ranked abilities being relegated to the submenus, hence not 'cluttering up' the top level display.

Just a thought for the future...

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