Hello Kaldreth, first of all thank you for your detailed feedback :)
Now, let me respond to the different arguments/problems you mention:

1) 4 cost additional ranged atatcks:
One of my intentions when creating the mod was to make the progression of ranged heroes slower than in the vanilla game. They pretty much always outpace melee heroes, making them obsolete in the sense that in >90% of the cases making your hero a ranged hero is a better choice (in the vanilla game). It is true that I could have taken the opposite road and buffed melee heroes, but I felt this could only lead to overpowered heroes in general (ranged heroes were and still are among the best dps units in the game). The item forge as an argument to make those additional ranged attacks cheaper is not really valid when you think about it since pretty much any upgrade (except the new abilities I created and some other rare exceptions like regrowth) is available in the item forge.

2) starting ranged attacks:
I am aware of the 12 ability cap on the UI and it is a problem, though I hope you do know that the abilities that don't show up in the bar can still be accessed via the unit panel (I know, it's tedious, but still...). However the starting ranged attacks have a high importance and not learning them intentionally is a handicap you shouldn't complain about (since you say there are no ranged attacks till lvl 2,3). Especially since in most cases the starting ranged attacks stay useful even for the ranged heroes that can learn other ranged abilities. E.g. spirit blast still beats spirit ray unless the ray can be fired without ranged penalties 2 or 3 times (depending on the resistance of the target). The only case where this isn't true is the longbow that will strictly beat the shortbow and the rime fire the lich can learn at tier 2 which will strictly beat the vanilla black bolts.

3) Phantasmal Image Ability:
I agree, it would have been cooler and more useful to summon the image at a more distant hex and this is how I wanted the ability to work in the first place. Unfortunately the game doesn't allow it. You just can't target empty hexes that are out of melee range. You can only target them when there is a unit or an obstacle but obviously such hexes are not valid for an ability that summons a unit. The reason why I still think it is a useful ability may have to do with the different map setups we are using. Since you say the ability comes late (and it is available lvl 5! after you buy the illusionist II trait) I suspect you use a more combat-oriented map setup while I usually start with weak starting armies and outposts or settlers. In a game where you start with several t2 or t3 units I can see how summoning an additional t1 unit in battle isn't overly strong, though I'd argue it still has it's utility (after all you can use it before you engage the enemy or he engages you!). Also the phantasmal shift ability is meant to take some planning. You can use it to get over walls or get out of a tough situation (IF you summoned the image before you get into one, so yes as I said it takes planning) and since it is a free ability it is stronger than phase or similar effects IF you can manage to get the image in the right position. Also note that at tier IV the illusionist will be able to summon more images, so he can actually get more valid targets for that particular ability.

4) Lower defensive stats:
I suspect that this is again a problem caused by different map setups. In my games so far melee heroes diddn't have any more defensive problems than usual, after all the higher cost for base stats is compensated by the fact that you will get 2 attribute points (and in most cases this also means +1 def or +1 res) for each tier of the chosen specialization. Additionaly heroes with a melee specialization get more defensive abilities than in the vanilla game (e.g. martial arts, shield, armored). Regardless of all that, it would be interesting to know which class/specialization the heroes you had problems with had.

Loaded a game to see what changes were made and overall I like the look of this mod. I do however have three complaints which hopefully you will be kind enough to address:

1) Having to download/install the mod and fiddle around with cheats to see what exactly the mod does is a touch on the annoying side. Having done so already myself, this is more of a suggestion for the future in case others might be looking it up, adding a list of what your mod adds/changes would be very helpful :)

2) You removed REGROWTH from the Archdruid. That was perhaps the single best hero edit Studio made and you locked it away behind a furry transformation I am completely uninterested in. Please give ADs their Regrowth back, having to disable your otherwise excellent mod when I feel like rolling an AD would be unfortunate :(

3) High Elves paying 4 points for +1 Shock Damage seems a bit over the top, I didn't take the time to check if other racials have similarily priced damage bonuses but reducing it 2 would seem much more appropriate.

4.5/5 Stars, would be 5/5 if not for the loss of regrowth taking away a big chunk of the fun I have playing Archdruids.

Hi Drasanil, let me try to address some of the concerns you have regarding my mod:

1) You may not have noticed this, but in the decription is a link to the thread in the official forums where you can find a full documentation of the mod. It is not completely up to date but still should be accurate in like 99% of the cases. Unfortunately steam doesn't support the upload of pdf files or else I would have naturally made it accessible directly from the mod's page.

2) I am rather happy with the current state of regroqth/beast within. Making it available again would make beast within/ primal instincts almost useless. Also I personally find it too strong as an hero upgrade. However I could show you how to make a mod on top of my mod to get regrowth back for you in the game. It is actually fairly simple, so if you are interested...

3) 4 points for racial hero upgrades like +1 shock melee damage is actually quite fair. you have to consider that this is already cheaper than the 3rd +1 phys melee strength upgrade (since the cost now increases by 2)

Hi Eomolch,

Sorry for the late reply, thanks for addressing my points :)

For adding regrowth back, I've been playing around with the mods myself and have a semi-decent hang of things as far as beginners go but if you could provide me with a short write up on how to add Regrowth back, I would appreciate it!

Also, further suggestion that came to mind over the week while playing. Would it possible in your next build if you decide to make one to add Heritage traits from your other mod to the heroes' upgrade pools?

Hi again Drasanil,

here is what you have to do to get regrowth back into the game:

1) open package manager and create new mod
2) put the hero development mod into the dependency list of the mod (under content)
3) start the mod editor and open the Skills_Archdruid.rpk
4) go to archdruid hero upgrades and look for the regworth upgrade (yes, it is still there)
5) remove the required hero upgrades from the "required upgrades" list
6) done

Now, about adding heritage traits as hero upgrades: I actually discussed this with psychotic soul in the comment section of the racial heritage mod (he asked me to add a building that gives the traits to heroes). You can see the different ideas/arguments there, the outcome was more or less that I think hero upgrades are the best way to do it. However there is one problem with the elusive ability which I had to make a requisite. Also I won't try to do anything about this before the actual racial heritage mod is finished ;)

Thanks and good to hear about your plans for the Heritage upgrades :)

Hello Eomoich, I've been enjoying your mod with some friends of mine. Thank you for making it!

I wanted to ask if you could remove the restriction for the Vampire Kiss ability to only affect living beings. The bite turns the beings to undead already, but I don't see why it wouldn't affect ghouls, for example. My argument is that there is a native Necromancer Upgrade called Vampiric Hunger, which gives all of your units lifesteal, including ghouls.

Specifically, I started playing Necromancer after discovering the awesome vampire hero development. I instantly set out to build a vampire human (ghoul) knight retinue to accompany my leader. Sadly, the kiss won't affect ANY of my units, as they are all ghouls. I considered working around this by having a human (living) vassal to create the vampires from, but then comes the native necromancer upgrade 'Harbingers of Death' which turns all of your heroes into archliches and ghoulifies all the units they lead - making it even more difficult to find non-undead options for the vampiric kiss. The only way I can currently see to actually be a Necromancer and use this ability would be to have units join battles on adjacent hexes to your vampire hero, and even then, you'd have to find suitable battles to do that AND you'd have to do it each time per vampire unit.

I just feel that there is too much effort required in using an ability that could just affect undead and that the Vampiric Hero Development doesn't compliment Necromancer leaders. I understand there's no issues with the other classes, as they don't exclusively produce undead units.


I would suggest that instead of it not affecting undead, it should not affect "vampires". So it can still only be used once.

I would also suggest that vampires gain the Vampire Kiss ability as well, so they can bite other things, and not restrict it to friendly units only. It would be pretty fun biting another player's unit before dying and forcing them to deal with the lack of regeneration undead have.

Ultimately, I'm asking that you make the Vampire Development viable for the Necromancer class somehow. Thank you!

Hi Auphilia, I am sorry about the delayed response, I must have missed the notification of your post :/

I think it could make sense to allow the ability to affect ghouls for game-play reasons (as for lore, I'm not an expert on ghouls, but I would have guessed since they are 'lesser' undead they shouldn't be allowed to be transformed into other undead, though you make a good point with the vampiric hunger empire upgrade in case of aow3). Affecting any undead unit however is definitely not an option. How should you turn a skeletton or a ghostly being (lost souls) into a vampire?

As for your suggestion that any vampire should gain vampire's kiss, I don't think this would be such a good idea. The vampire bonus is neat and spreading it with such ease would make things imbalanced rather quick. It is not an uncommon concept that vampire's of the 1st generation(s) are more powerful than their 'descendants', so I think it can even make sense to limit the ability to create vampire's to the powerful vampire lords.

Lastly, could you explain what you mean by 'making the Vampire Development viable for the Necromancer class somehow'? Are you still talking about the hero dev specialisation there?

Unfortunately I am currently unable to update my mods on steam and since I'll be gone for a week of vacation now it will take some time before I can try to tackle this issue. So please have some patience ;)

What I meant by 'making the Vampire Development viable for the Necromancer class somehow' was that currently, once you reach the Empire Upgrade that turns all of your heroes to Archliches, every unit they hold in their armies become ghouls (so you can't target them to turn them into vampires).

I wouldn't turn skeletons or lost souls into vampires, but I'd love to turn my human ghoul knights into vampires. I wouldn't mind turning them into vampires first before they became ghouls, but then I'm limited on using my Empire upgrade (which imo isn't really a solution).