High Elf Reborn a small mod to make High ELf great again

[NathyielNathyiel 45]

Finally, the mod is ready for test. Named It High Elf Reborn as it's literally what it is.
 

High Elf Reborn is a quick rework for High Elf CA because it wasn't well balanced and it need some gameplay improvement.

THE problem : Glacial Thorns is the only spell needed to finish the game. Why using the other when you can only use 1 spell to clean all mobs packs and erase boss at the same time. It scale to well, it have big Area of Effect AND good single target, along Shadow Step, Crystal Skin and Grand Invigoration.
That's 11 spells that have no purpose.

THE change : 

• Glacial Thorns nerf/rework as a single target nuke.
• Crystal / Incandescent Skin rework to make the 2 sides of the same spell.
• review of most of the spell.
• work in progress for Raging Nimbus changed into a Nova like spell
• work in progress for Fire Demon to make it a tank pet (when selecting the good mod)

 

The mod can be found here : Google Drive

Google doc for a list of change, will be added as file for v1.

Zip version to put into MODS.

standalone version for those who just want to look at the change.

  

----------------------------------------------------------

When playing with some CA, I may have add too many zero.

 

edit : it was a limit test of "et_missile_adapt" with a value of 30k using spellClass = "cSpellSeSchwertfeuer" (Seraphim Archangel's Wraith).
If I'm not wrong, it should around 66 projectiles. If I have keep the originale Glacial Thorns, it would have been 300+ projectiles (or a crash).

(image remove because of size limits)

 

 

 

 

Edited January 25, 2022 by NathyielNathyiel
title change

[NathyielNathyiel 45]

further research : Glacial Thorn is a scam.

With "et_missile_adapt", 300, 0, 1, 9 it show 5 projectiles (tooltip say 5) but only 1 hit at best.
With"et_missile_adapt", 900, 0, 1, 9 it's only 2 hits for "10 thorns".

Changed the projectile animation to fxTypeSpell = "FX_SE_SCHWERTFEUER", it actually show the truth

• et_missile_adapt : increase the number of projectile, damage split but increased (look like 60% damage each)
• et_missile_count : increase the number of projectile for full damage each but not increased

 

 

 

.

Edited January 22, 2022 by NathyielNathyiel

[NathyielNathyiel 45]

What about missile that can get around wall or tree ?

Look like a side effect of changing Glacial Thorn FX.
It's inbuild FX_SE_SCHWERTFEUER ( @Lindor you can add it to the list)

Tested with FX_PESTBEULE1 and it impact the wall.

[gogoblender 3,243]

1 hour ago, NathyielNathyiel said:

further research : Glacial Thorn is a scam.

With "et_missile_adapt", 300, 0, 1, 9 it show 5 projectiles (tooltip say 5) but only 1 hit at best.
With"et_missile_adapt", 900, 0, 1, 9 it's only 2 hits for "10 thorns".

Changed the projectile animation to fxTypeSpell = "FX_SE_SCHWERTFEUER", it actually show the truth

• et_missile_adapt : increase the number of projectile, damage split but increased (look like 60% damage each)
• et_missile_count : increase the number of projectile for full damage each but not increased

 

 

 

.

NathyielNathyiel, your post  made me lol reading it this morning.. a scam... I actually never got to play much with the Battle Mage  from the original game, but I remember first time stats went up on the official boards soooooooooo long ago, and everyone cheering about how much damage thorns could do .. tried out a High Elf in the online HC servers and was sooo satisfied with the way the CA executed and how much epic damge it could put out...

 

if you've found a way to improve it more, you're going to make a lot more fans 

gogo

[NathyielNathyiel 45]

the last (for today :)) : I found how to increase projectile speed (with editing animation or complicated things like that).

If you add {"et_quicken_boost", 1000, 0, 0, 8 }, the projectile is quicker.

I tested with value from 250 (+25%), 1000 (+100%) and way bigger. I think it cap at 100% and reset to 0 past this point. Maybe it's a safeguard from possible bug.

[NathyielNathyiel 45]

4 minutes ago, gogoblender said:

 

if you've found a way to improve it more, you're going to make a lot more fans 

gogo

I look for nerfing it, or at least make it a specific Boss Killer so others HE spells will be more interesting to play with. They don't really need change, it's just that Thorns is to good at everything : single-target + Area of Effect + long range + heavy damage.
I have finished the game with only Glacial Thorns, Crystal Skin and Grant Invigoration.

 

So I test to change it single target with heavy damage based on penetrating Ice mitigation. So damage is better on mob with  heavy Ice resistance like Boss.

I plan a few more change

• Frost Flare : direct damage Area of Effect (base Area of Effect explosion with DoT on mod).
• Fire/Frost aura : very little base armor for both but Aspect regen VS bigger armor and Area of Effect DOT VS Fire/Ice penetration. No more Spell Intensity
• Grand Invigoration : base Run speed and Spell Intensity, mod for Spell Resistance VS Debuff effect reduction
• Fireball : better and quicker projectile, more DoT damage, pushback, ... No more fear.
• Fire Demon : more HP/ARmor/..., Mod Taunt versus Damage.
• Teleport : instant + extra range (already done)

I still don't know with I change Cascading Shroud into an Ice Nova (Area of Effect slow/root) as a counterpart of Fire having a tank pet. But I will have to make room for it in Arcane,meaby in place of Magic Coup.

It would make the HE more versatile, with better option to survive but having to choose between damage and resistance. Global damage won't change.

[Lindor 539]

I'm glad seeing you're making quick progress. Here's a link that might help you:

http://www.sacredwiki.org/index.php/Sacred_2:Tokens

3 hours ago, NathyielNathyiel said:

It's inbuild FX_SE_SCHWERTFEUER ( @Lindor you can add it to the list)

No.

Read the description. Vanilla Hero and Boss FX are not listed. Everyone knows how they work. I might become convinced to add them in the very distant future, but there are many much more important things to be done with the list before I start working on these.

5 hours ago, NathyielNathyiel said:

further research : Glacial Thorn is a scam.

With "et_missile_adapt", 300, 0, 1, 9 it show 5 projectiles (tooltip say 5) but only 1 hit at best.
With"et_missile_adapt", 900, 0, 1, 9 it's only 2 hits for "10 thorns".

Changed the projectile animation to fxTypeSpell = "FX_SE_SCHWERTFEUER", it actually show the truth

• et_missile_adapt : increase the number of projectile, damage split but increased (look like 60% damage each)
• et_missile_count : increase the number of projectile for full damage each but not increased

This is good reverse engineering. Can we add this to the spell token wiki page after confirmation?

[gogoblender 3,243]

5 minutes ago, Lindor said:

I'm glad seeing you're making quick progress. Here's a link that might help you:

http://www.sacredwiki.org/index.php/Sacred_2:Tokens

No.

Read the description. Vanilla Hero and Boss FX are not listed. Everyone knows how they work. I might become convinced to add them in the very distant future, but there are many much more important things to be done with the list before I start working on these.

This is good reverse engineering. Can we add this to the spell token wiki page after confirmation?

Lindor, good memory and great FYI for this topic!!

Do you have access to the Wiki? You can edit it yourself if you wish, can you login? I can give access

gogo

 

[Lindor 539]

15 minutes ago, gogoblender said:

Lindor, good memory and great FYI for this topic!!

Do you have access to the Wiki? You can edit it yourself if you wish, can you login? I can give access

gogo

 I don't have access, but sure why not? 

Spoiler

Open project nr. 123765 and counting 

 

[gogoblender 3,243]

35 minutes ago, Lindor said:

 I don't have access, but sure why not? 

  Reveal hidden contents

Open project nr. 123765 and counting 

 

Aaaaaand... access granted! Please check your pms here for login details

As well, any other member here reading this, please PM me if you'd like edit access to the Wiki as well

gogo

[Lindor 539]

1 hour ago, gogoblender said:

Aaaaaand... access granted! Please check your pms here for login details

As well, any other member here reading this, please PM me if you'd like edit access to the Wiki as well

gogo

And done! Worked perfect, the information is now part of the wiki 

[gogoblender 3,243]

3 minutes ago, Lindor said:

And done! Worked perfect, the information is now part of the wiki 

Thanks Lindor!

And...dang your new avatar.. best movie ever or what!!

gogo

[Lindor 539]

25 minutes ago, gogoblender said:

best movie ever or what!!

Definitely!

 

[NathyielNathyiel 45]

17 hours ago, Lindor said:

I'm glad seeing you're making quick progress. Here's a link that might help you:

http://www.sacredwiki.org/index.php/Sacred_2:Tokens

 

I wouldn't have been able to do anything without it and all the previous work.

For example, yesterday, I looked at {"et_debuff_prone_ice", 200, 5, 0, 42 }.
It debuff Ice mitigation by 20%+0.5% per CA level. It work fine as it is with an aura like Crystal Skin but using it on a spell lead to it being stackable as there's no "refresh" mechanism.
But changing it from 42 to 10 resolve the problem as it don't have the duration aspect anymore.

Today, I will test et_invert_armor_phy and make a version that work with Ice or using an armor buff negatively on enemy.

edit: work fine even if I add to find what the value are. % of armor changed into negative armor. So 50% would simply remove armor ?

edit 2 : need to find where to edit CA tooltip. Is it in global.res ? OK, found it. Hard-coded tooltip. Dev choice are strange sometimes.

Edited January 23, 2022 by NathyielNathyiel

[gogoblender 3,243]

8 hours ago, NathyielNathyiel said:

I wouldn't have been able to do anything without it and all the previous work.

For example, yesterday, I looked at {"et_debuff_prone_ice", 200, 5, 0, 42 }.
It debuff Ice mitigation by 20%+0.5% per CA level. It work fine as it is with an aura like Crystal Skin but using it on a spell lead to it being stackable as there's no "refresh" mechanism.
But changing it from 42 to 10 resolve the problem as it don't have the duration aspect anymore.

Today, I will test et_invert_armor_phy and make a version that work with Ice or using an armor buff negatively on enemy.

edit: work fine even if I add to find what the value are. % of armor changed into negative armor. So 50% would simply remove armor ?

edit 2 : need to find where to edit CA tooltip. Is it in global.res ? OK, found it. Hard-coded tooltip. Dev choice are strange sometimes.

That's awesome Laurent!
Its gratifying to hear that this technical page in the Wiki is still relevant so many years after its creation. 

Thanks again Lindor for making this Wiki page shine with new morning dew

gogo

[NathyielNathyiel 45]

RIP

My Ice version of "et_invert_armor_phy" don't really work as expected. It increase Ice damage based on how much Armor the target as. But seem like it scale with Phy armor, not Ice armor. 
Will add some base phy damage, I will use the base version at a low value and it will work fine.

Next week, I will start the Fire spell change.

[Lindor 539]

11 hours ago, NathyielNathyiel said:

Today, I will test et_invert_armor_phy and make a version that work with Ice or using an armor buff negatively on enemy.

2 hours ago, NathyielNathyiel said:

My Ice version of "et_invert_armor_phy" don't really work as expected. It increase Ice damage based on how much Armor the target as. But seem like it scale with Phy armor, not Ice armor. 
Will add some base phy damage, I will use the base version at a low value and it will work fine.

I don't know what you did, but I'm gonna assume you were falling for the same trap every new modder falls into, including myself: I'm assuming you added another token at the end of spells.txt.
It doesn't work like that. You cannot add your own tokens to spells.txt and you cannot add your own boni to blueprint.txt. You can only change existing ones. So your newly created token doesn't do anything.

I advise you to read this whole topic very carefully:

especially this post by Flix:

On 2/5/2017 at 1:37 PM, Flix said:

Here's a few more unused or non-functioning spell tokens. I re-purposed all of these for the Diablo mod and replaced their values. A modder has to do this since the game won't accept new tokens added to the bottom of the list.

 

"et_chance_dismount"

"et_RangeOfSight"

"et_range_aggro"

"et_dotdamping_any"

"et_debuff_strangle"

"et_provo_area"

"et_provo_target"

 

For example, this is the new definition:

mgr.addTokenBonus( {"et_provo_target", 906 }) -- 906 = bb_chance_block_CC

 

I replaced the original number with "906" which is Block Chance: Close Combat value in blueprint.txt. Now "et_provo_target" adds that block chance when added to a buff.

Another tip: If you're modding from another mods basis, never assume the tokens are the same as in Vanilla. Look at the bonus ID instead and search it in blueprint.txt.

 

Here's a step-by-step guide on how to add your token:

1. Take one of the unused tokens, for example this one:

   mgr.addTokenBonus( {"et_chance_dismount", 142 })  -- 142 = bb_chance_dismount

2. Search for bb_chance_dismount in blueprint.txt:

   newBonus = {
   --  name = "bb_chance_dismount",
     rating = 1,
     basedonskill = "SKILL_INVALID",
     type = "BONUS_DISMOUNT",
     spez = "",
     spez2 = "",
     usagebits = 65535,
     minconstraints = {1,1,0},
     difficultyvaluerange0 = {0,0,0},
     difficultyvaluerange1 = {1,0,0},
     difficultyvaluerange2 = {2,0,0},
     difficultyvaluerange3 = {3,0,0},
     difficultyvaluerange4 = {4,0,0},
   }
   mgr.createBonus(142, newBonus);

3. Change that to

   newBonus = {
   --  name = "bb_invert_armor_ice",
     rating = 0,
     basedonskill = "SKILL_INVALID",
     type = "BONUS_INVERT_ARMOR",
     spez = "DMG_ICE",
     spez2 = "",
     usagebits = 65535,
     minconstraints = {0,0,0},
   }
   mgr.createBonus(142, newBonus);

4. Keep in mind that boni are not only used by spells.txt tokens, they are also used by items. So changing a bonus that is used by items might have unwelcome effects. Usually if the name starts with "bb_", you're safe. Read more about this in this topic here:This topic also contains spreadsheet downloads which you might find useful. They're for EE 2.4 though, I really need to update them to 3.0a at some point.
5. Q'apla!

[Flix 5,184]

This is correct, but you don't necessarily have to change an existing blueprint bonus, you can just make a new one in blueprint.txt and point the spell token to whatever numerical ID you gave it.  This is what I'd personally recommend.

[NathyielNathyiel 45]

that what I do. and It worked, just not like I wanted.

But thanks for the explanation. That's why I take lot of times testing

 

edit : and I mod from PFP

Edited January 24, 2022 by NathyielNathyiel

[NathyielNathyiel 45]

I'm in the process of cleaning, commenting and reviewing all change. It should be available for testing SOON (tomorrow ...)

 

edit : teasing

Edited January 25, 2022 by NathyielNathyiel

[NathyielNathyiel 45]

And it's done !!!

The mod can be found here : Google Drive

• Google doc for a list of change, will be added as file for v1.
• Zip version to put into MODS.
• standalone version for those who just want to look at the change.

 

I have put some thought in red in the FAQ and will list any idea or change based on feedback.

I'm good with most change except for Fire Demon and Raging Nimbus. I have moved around a lot of Mod to make choice feel better.

 

 

All feedback are welcome.

(edit : I won't do tooltip change as I don't want to play with Dll. I might change gloabl.res for description if I have time)

(edit 2 : change title and add a small description in OP)

Edited January 26, 2022 by NathyielNathyiel

[gogoblender 3,243]

14 hours ago, NathyielNathyiel said:

Add it's done !!!

The mod can be found here : Google Drive

• Google doc for a list of change, will be added as file for v1.
• Zip version to put into MODS.
• standalone version for those who just want to look at the change.

 

I have put some thought in red in the FAQ and will list any idea or change based on feedback.

I'm good with most change except for Fire Demon and Raging Nimbus. I have moved around a lot of Mod to make choice feel better.

 

 

All feedback are welcome.

(edit : I won't do tooltip change as I don't want to play with Dll. I might change gloabl.res for description if I have time)

(edit 2 : change title and add a small description in OP)

Bravo Laurent, all that work... 

mod worthy!

gogo

[NathyielNathyiel 45]

On 1/23/2022 at 11:45 PM, Flix said:

This is correct, but you don't necessarily have to change an existing blueprint bonus, you can just make a new one in blueprint.txt and point the spell token to whatever numerical ID you gave it.  This is what I'd personally recommend.

So if I want to add a potion effect to a spell, I just have to get is ID in Blueprint and create a token in spell.txt to name it ?

mgr.addTokenBonus( {"et_OP_effect", id.blueprint })

I was looking at the banish and want to add some Chance to Banish Undead instead of Damage to Undead.
 

[Flix 5,184]

1 hour ago, NathyielNathyiel said:

So if I want to add a potion effect to a spell, I just have to get is ID in Blueprint and create a token in spell.txt to name it ?

mgr.addTokenBonus( {"et_OP_effect", id.blueprint })

I was looking at the banish and want to add some Chance to Banish Undead instead of Damage to Undead.
 

No.  You cannot create or rename spell tokens, period.  They will not work.  You must use the ones already present at the bottom of spells.txt

What you can do is change the blueprint ID that the token points to.

mgr.addTokenBonus( {"et_chance_dismount", 142 })  In this case you must not change anything except the "142".  You can change that number to the blueprint ID of any bonus you want, including new custom bonuses you create in blueprint.txt.

[NathyielNathyiel 45]

I will look at what I can do

WHat is hardcoded, the spell tokens (in spell.txt), the ID (in blueprint.txt), ... ?

From my understanding, the effect describe in blueprint was hard-coded while the token was just a script reference for easily pass parameter to it. Seem like it was the contrary ...