Alliance of Heroes Mod

[Franck83]

Since i started working on tech tree actively, i want to share you a screenshot of the work in progress. The tech tree is designed to work by nodes, so i can be easily modified or completed.

[Franck83]

Tech tree introduction !

Still in dev, but it works. You can find the mod in the vault and test this feature.

[Evan_]

Absolutely amazing work done on this mod. I'd be very interested in using it in games!

I have to say though, it feels kind of overpowered how promoting a unit to hero restores all of it's hp, especially since promotion can quite easily be timed to happen during battle! Just imagine a Ythotha jumping back to full health and now sporting shields and superpowers while the poor gc it's facing has just 30k. perhaps restoring 50% of its current hp (the less it has when the upgrade finishes, the less the upgrade repairs) or something.

I would also recommend you add in a cooldown for switching stances, as it also feels as if that could be abused, eg: percival that is micro'd to stay in defensive stance, and then moves to offensive for a split second to deal more damage.

just my opinion of course, I've really only scratched the surface of all the systems and powers in this mod.

[Franck83]

Ty EvanGalea for your feedback.

There is certainly a lot of room for balance on this mod. Actually, there are some limitations for things to not become op :

- For example, promoting a Ythotha to a hero has a mass cost between 20k to 57k mass depending of the class chosen. You need to add on this 20k mass to equip it with armors and weapon upgrades. But it really worths the cost, cause the Ythotha got 125k+ health and nice resists depending on upgrades).
- Promoting to hero costs logistics points. For now, you got 12 logistics max and an Exp uses 4 points.
- Exp Heroes got their counters. Heroes Exp can be counter with specialized tech 3 heroes (for example Aircrafts with dps vs exp upgrades...).

About health restoration on promoting, it's a good idea. We can't keep the exp hero on low health after promotion because some support classes can heal themselves, so it would introduce unbalance between classes. But we can add a progressive health restoring maybe during 2-3 min after the promotion. So it would prevent instant health. Since promotion at normal speed needs 1:30-40 min, this would be a 3:30-4:30 min delay before the hero got its full power.

About stances cooldown, good idea too. I will add this feature on next mod release.

Keep on sending me feedback on balance. Changing balance values doesn't need a lot of work.

[Franck83]

The current logistics point system to unlock heroes in Alliance of Heroes mod has some advantages but annoying drawbacks :
- the first issue is the ACU rush to dreadnought then fighting other players ACU. 4500 Mass is not that much to reach for promotion. It locks some other promotion (bard, guardian) because dreadnought are best 1 vs 1 heroes at start and they can decimate a big army.
- the second issue is the massive tech 1 hero bombers rush that breaks the game at start.
- the third one, to recover some logistic points, players Ctrl-k lower techs heroes to promote higher tech ones.

A more smooth and soft progression is the way to go and i plan to add a logistic tree.

With some mass cost, we can balance and control the hero crowd. We can unlock progressively the higher heroes and experimentals. This has multiple advantages :
- Allows some eco progression before hero promotion.
- Avoid too much op hero at start.
- Add some interest on promoting buffing eco heroes (ardent bards and support guardians).
- No obsolescence on lower tech heroes when higher tech heroes promoted.

- Promoting tree & hero unlocking system

[Azure_Spectrum]

Oh wow, time flies! I recently buried my eyes into my computer monitor for 2 or so hours with this mod, and have played it with cheats just to see the upgrade tree(so far). I am in awe how much this reminds me of Diablo!! Like you have spells with cooldowns, XP, prestige, dodge chance (lol so cool!), and defensive/offensive buffs! Classes and progressive upgrades plus a bunch of stuff I havent even tried yet!!

Here are my computer specs: Pentium i5 2.8 ghz, 6 gig ddr3 ram, nvidia gt 420 1 gig vram, 1 terabyte hard-drive

This mod will lag your computer if you're not atleast these specs or above. There is so much to discover and enjoy, especially when you start to unlock the upgrade tree and even a tech 1 unit can become a monster. I Love the ability to activate a shield on your hero units, it makes putting troops behind enemy lines less of a risk for them.

Unfortunately my computer fan starts to spin to fast when playing, my chair gets pushed back. It is manageble at lower resolutions but the UI gets cut off.

Also, this is more of a personal gripe yet I find that having a hero unit with tons of levels and upgrades gets overshadowed by newer units with upgrades on the tech tree. I don't know if this was intentional, but maybe there can be an upgrade hanger where units can enter to receive the benefits of the tech tree. Thanks so much, I really like this mod!!

[Franck83]

Ty for your positive feedback Azure. I will take a look at the FX emitters GPU usage and maybe there are some room for improvement on fps on this side. Some FX are maybe too GPU intensive, especially the Overfire one.

About upgrades, it's true that only new units are upgraded with the latest tech tree. It seems to be more realistic and fun.An old terminator vs new T1000 fight style. It gives more value to reclaim too since new units would be stronger. But i need to admit that starcraft, age2 or supcom2 upgrade instantly all units. The mod is still on PRE-ALPHA, and maybe it would change at the end. That said, heroes can level up to 75, so they would be deadly at the end, much more than the tech tree can offer to regular units. By increase level, heroes increase their upgrades efficiency too. That s a compensation.

The tech tree allows some dynamic balance, so players can have a custom play style. A rush style player will focus on tech 1 and tech 2 upgrades. A more tech player will keep all his tech points to the tech 3 part. And so on.

The ultimate goal of this mod is to switch from a mono tight path game style to a creative, surprising and unpredictive one.

[Azure_Spectrum]

Hi it is I again. Playing this game like nobodies business, I am in awe on how indepth it makes the early to late game. I have a few questions as to how one may change the class of experimentals because they are always fighter class and I've gotten really attached to the bard/restorer groups. Some mods (Total Mayhem) have factories capable of making tech 1 experimental and they even benefit from the upgrades off the skill tree lol! Having a tech 1 or 2 experimental with more health than actual experimentals is hilarious! Not to mention that one may upgrade the health bonus to a ridiculous amount for over a million HP!! Also as a side observation I noticed that on the ammunition tech tree for tech 3, it says Increase attack bonus against naval for tech 2. I know this is probably a typo, but I just wanted to give you a heads up! I can't wait for another update!!! Thanks for the greatwork!!

[Franck83]

Hi Azure_Spectrum,

Ty for your feedback.

- About promoting Experimentals as Bards or Restorer classes : the new promoting Ui (you can take a look above) will solve this limitation. You will be able to choose the base class at promotion and not at the factory production. It will add more exciting hero customizations options too. You will be able to add unique traits to your heroes and use exotic hulls (so the 100 limit to characteristics intelligence, puissance, dexterity... will change). I need 1 week of work on this for a nice balanced and finished state. The concept is ready, so as soon as i can, i will work on it.

- The restorer class will be expanded with more unique powers.

- About tech 1/2 experimentals that benefit from the tech tree with the total mayhem mod, i will fix this easily by excluding experimentals from the tech 1/2 tree.

- About the typo, nice catch, i will fix it.

- The health upgrades on heroes are quite generous but it doesn't auto heal, it expands only max health, so the opponent can react to an experimental hero creation. Since the cost for a colossus hero is between 60k-90k mass. You need to add the health upgrade cost. So you are at a game ender unit cost level. of course if needed, all can be easily balanced.

[Franck83]

Version 114 :

- Health upgrade amount reduced by 50%
- Typo fixed
- tech tree won't apply to tech 1/2 mayhem experimentals.