Important Information: Read First

Updated for 1.2 version

Installation Instructions

Game version: 2.21 (the latest) including the add-on Trial by Fire
You can also possess only the main game or only the add-on.

Installation process:

• Before installation, make sure you have no other mods installed including the previous version of this mod (see FAQ below for more details) and that your game is up-to-date.
• Download the newest mod version (you should find it under files), unzip it and place it in:
  c:\Users\Username\Documents\My Games\Might & Magic Heroes VII\MMH7Game\If you use this path (later referred as path A), you shouldn’t need to ovewrite any files. This is the location where the game also saves any changes you make in the editor.

  OR, you can use the installation path instead (later referred as path B), usually:
  c:\Program Files (x86)\Ubisoft\Ubisoft Game Launcher\games\Might and Magic Heroes VII\

  If you decide from whichever reason for the second one mentioned, don’t forget to make a backup of the original files as you will overwrite them.

• (Optional: English localization is already in included in the mod file)
  Download the localization according to the language your prefer in the files section.
  Put the localization into the same folder as the mod but into the Localization subfolder (works for both paths mentioned above), create it if it doesn’t exist.Available languages (version 1.2, except for default English):
• Chinese
• Czech
• German 

  Available languages (version 1.1, except for default English):

• Czech
• French
• German
• Polish
• Russian
• Spanish

Other languages will be added as soon as anyone volunteers to make a translation for the newest mod version.
If your preferred language is not available, you can either choose the default English version or create the localization of the mod in your own language (it’s simple and it won’t take you much time, follow the guide here). Don’t forget to send it to us afterwards, to share it with other players from your country.

4. Check if the mod works, the easiest way how to do that:

Launch the game, open: Menu>Extras>Heropedia
Go to the Necropolis Creatures section, find the Spectral Dragon
Check whether it displays the correct updated Soul Reaver ability description: Your hero receives 1 Mana for each adjacent living enemy creature at the beginning of this creature’s each turn.”

If the localization you have downloaded doesn’t seem to work, try to manually change the last change date of all mod & localization files to the current date (you can use any simple file manager app you have, for example Total Commander or Bulk File Changer), guide here: How to change the Last Modified Date
IMPORTANT: The mod doesn’t include all localization files for the game, only those which have been changed by the mod.

Uninstallation: Delete the mod files and use the ones from backup if you used the path which included overwriting the files

What if I don’t like some feature you have implemented, can I change it back?

We are convinced that the changes we make are only for the best purpose, to make the game better. However, we’re aware of some fans having different opinions and visions – so we’d like to give you as much freedom as we can:

Option 1: You can download the simplified mod version, involving only the bugfixes and necessary changes (more info here on this page)

Option 2: You can adjust the mod to suit your needs by several simple clicks. All the changes described below have no side effect on the game if made:

No forbidden magic school for Sylvan & Stronghold
Go to: mod path\MMH7Game\CookedPC\Editor\Templates/Factions
Delete (path A) the file Factions.upk or replace it with the original one (path B)

Note: no forbidden magic schools are set when random skilling is enabled

No new abilities for creatures (+original champion stats & costs)
Go to: mod path\MMH7Game\CookedPC\Editor\Templates/Creatures
If you want to get rid of all the new abilities, delete/replace all the folders you find there, including their content
If you dislike only some particular abilities, find the creatures which have them in the particular folders (sorted by faction) and delete/replace the particular files Creature_Creaturename.upk
(If you delete for example the file Creature_Banshee.upk, it will lose the Incorporeal ability)

Important: if you delete the champion files, they will lose their modified stats & costs as well, so they will be the same as originally (different in story mod & skirmish).

No new heroes for Duels & Skirmish (+original moral & luck caps)
Go to: mod path\MMH7Game\CookedPC\Data
Delete (path A) the file Config.upk or replace it with the original one (path B)

Important: This step may lead to loss of some other minor changes as well.

FAQ

What is the Unoffical Community Patch (UCP)?
The Unofficial Community Patch (UCP) is a community mod focused especially on fixing the problems (bugs) persisting in the main game. However, it also brings some minor gameplay changes and improvements in the areas where we either felt it was needed or where we could not fix some bug, so we decided it’s better to have a modified feature which is working than the original one which is broken. Additionally, it comes up with dozens of new abilities for creatures after the latest update (not compulsory, see above).

Does it mean the game is finally bugless?
Although we would love it to be, the answer is no. Every game has some bugs, and the more complex the game is, the more bugs can be found. Game developers can do their best to get ride of them but some of them will always persist. Also take several factors into account: Ubisoft-Limbic developers were paid for their work and they had professional teams with dozens of people focused on making games. Compared to it, we are only several people (most of the work has been even done by a one person) working on it in our free time without any financial compensation. Unlike the people from Ubi-Limbic, we don’t have full access to all game mechanics. In conclusion, every single bugfix we manage to make is a small victory for us.

What are our other future intentions? Are we going to continue working on this mod?
Of course our work is NOT finished. We will keep doing our best to fix the game and provide as many bugfixes as possible. However, time is rare and we have limited access to game features in the editor, so we have almost reached our borders.

In collaboration with external programmers, our current biggest goal is to reach improved AI (but no promises can be made on this field). Any person who could do that would be very appreciated.

At the current time, we’re glad we’ve reached major improvements in two key areas: creature abilities and hero specializations. Maybe we would like to expand our collaboration with AC mod to add some new creatures in the future.

Does this mod also work in multiplayer? What about AI & MP connectivity issues?
This mod is developed primarily for singleplayer and hotseat. However, if all players have the mod installed, it should work in multiplayer, too.

We don’t have any experts who would be able to fix the AI behaviour and/or scripts. Anyone with programming skills would be really appreciated to join!

We cannot fix the technical issues either, problems such as crashes or connectivity issues are beyond our possibilities and must be solved with the help of Ubisoft support. In other words, we cannot make any direct Multiplayer fixes like sync or stability improvements!

What about the current and future compatibility with other mods? Can I use this mod for my own mod?
As usually, mods developed by different authors are not usually compatible with each other. This mod is a small exception as it already uses some of the small mods created by different authors worldwide (see below). As for other mods not mentioned here, the easiest way how to recognize if they can work together is if they have some common files they change. If not, they should probably work together without troubles.

In a distant future, if some massive modifications for this game appear, we would like them to include our bugfixes of course, as what’s plenty of content good for it the game itself doesn’t work properly. However, it might not be possible in some cases and it will always depend on a deal between us and the mod authors, if at least one side agrees to spend their time on putting the mods together.

At the current time, the only confirmed mod we know for sure that we will try to ensure compatibility with, is the unoffical expansion mod Wryn Umbramancer (see Wpu.worldofheroes.cz/indexEN.html for more details).

There is also a Polish mod with Alternative Creatures also integrating some older versions of UCP.

Generally, anyone who wishes so can use this modification to include it into his own piece of work. Nevertheless, we recommend mentioning that this mod is included in it in such case, in order not to confuse the players.

Why can’t you make more releases (even if smaller ones) more often?

There is only one answer: time. At the moment, only one person does all the work, with occasional help of testers. Tests, release texts, uploading… all that takes time which is precious.

The mod is not working as it should, what can I do?
Try the following steps:
– check if your game is up to date (game menu>lower right corner>game version – should be 2.21)
– check if you have no other mods installed
– check if your game files are not corrupted (you can use the automatic verification of files in uplay)
– check if your game installation is newer than the mod release date. If so, then you have to either use the second mod path mentioned above or manually change the “last change” parameter of all the mod files to a newer date (since the game automatically uses the newer files).

If the problems still persist, you can contact us and we will try to help you. It’s possible that other players may suffer from the same problem.

If you have any question about the game (not the mod), its mechanics, modding or anything else, please, check this thread first: Important Tips and Tricks (H7)

Authors / Contributors

Main author, coordinator & bugfixer: Antalyan
Beta testing team: Antonio des Santes, Cruiser, Fangovich, Jetfire, L0rdw00t, Normand, Putin, Starry Might, Thea Elyra (+ Cjlee) + the whole community 🙂
New icons: Antalyan & Blondwave (based on M&M:H6 icons)
2.21 Bugfix: Kknd21q
Bugfix/Buglist Mod contributors: Antalyan, China-king, Uziel
Balance Mod (only a part from the mod has been used): Romansen
New Duel Heroes for Duels: Libertad
Technical Assistance & Modding Guides: Lord Graa
Czech & English Localization: Antalyan
Russian Localization: Elapso & Silent
German Localization: Gabranth & Rhein-Fire-66
Polish Localization: Abbes & Andruids
French Localization: Vildark
Spanish Localization: VniceDreams
Chinese Localization: Shu Xin

Should you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us. You can discuss below the article, set us a PM (Antalyan) or write an email: antalyan@seznam.cz
You can also find us on different Heroes forums.

Localization Guide

How to translate the mod to your own language:

Follow the instructions in this separate article.

Your Help

If you have installed the latest mod version and you have found any bug, please, report it in the comments.

We are also still looking for new members of out internal testing team. People involved have access to the latest mod versions and test their function and report bugs. If you can join us, just send us your Trello account name (this is a free platform we use for communication).

We have already spent many hundreds of hours working on the mod (considering most of the work has been done by one person, it truly is a lot of time) for free. Every single bug can take many hours (identification, attempts to fix it, testing). Without access to many H7 functions, we still managed to do a lot of fixes developers should have done but didn’t (being paid for that, unlike us).

If you want to support us and support our effort in an additional way, you can use the account with IBAN CZ32 2250 0000 0001 0218 1893.

List of Changes / Mod Content 1.2

This readme includes all changes made by UCP mod.

The latest release 1.2 with all these changes in available here.

Original Game Bugs Fixed by this Mod

All the bugs above should be fixed in this mod release. The numbers refer to bugs in the community buglist for better orientation. If any one the bugs below still persists in the game, please, let us know in the comments.

01. Shadow Image spell: Wrong number of creatures (usually less) is summoned if the hero Dark magic Master III (doesn’t scale with hero magic then)
02. Basilisk Rider tooltip: Predefined retaliation tooltip for small units should say “no” but says “yes” (the retaliation tooltip mechanics does not take into account this unit’s special ability).
04. Air magic Grandmaster: sometimes doing damage to random enemy units on the battlefield (when there are no adjacent units to the target). This happens usually when the unit changed its position at the end of its last turn.
06. Pretorian: The Pretorian sometimes shields random units on the map that are not adjacent to it.
07. Justicar: Justicar’s “Opportunity Retaliation” ability sometimes does not activate. In fact, it activates hardly ever.
09. Light magic spell Martyr: Martyr (light magic t4 spell) deactivates when any unit dies, including the enemy. Additionally, it doesn’t redirect damage done by special abilities.
11. Unlimited retaliation: – If any unit with “unlimited retaliation” ability (- e.g. direwolf) uses “defend” and the hero has “preemptive strike”, the unit retaliates twice before the attack and once more after the attack – so there are 3 retaliations instead of one.
12. Coordination skill: Many bugs causing coordination malfunction.
a. several units abilities do always trigger coordination, independent on if the creature retaliates or not (known: life drain, corroding venom)
b. if the enemy unit has preemptive strike (either from skill or as an ability), the game does not recognise it was a retaliation (as it triggered before, not after the attack), so your units always attack them 2x.
c. minotaur always triggers retaliation on its moral turn (as well as some other units)
d. coordination ability text seem to spawn on a random basis.
e. coordination does not trigger against incapacitated and confused creatures
f. several activated abilities trigger coordination: feral charge, crippling sting, ink spray
g. conditions for coordination activation for AI are diffferent to the ones for the player (AI activates more often)
15. Silverback: Its “Feral Charge” ability does not work against minotaurs and against units under “preemptive strike”. They do retaliate.
16. Hathor has wrong hero specialisation in heropedia (to be fixed in heropedia, does not corespond with his actual specialization in the game).
17. Ancient Treant’s “Entagled” effect applies when performing ranged attack too. What is worse, it is never removed, even not when the treant dies.
18. Ancient Treant does not retaliate due to the Entangled ability
19. Broken tooltips: fortress fortifications (wrong unit in town guard), artillery barrage, opportunity attack…
21. Oak Dryad: Oak dryad’s defense buff for adjacent creatures sometimes stops working.
23. Area effects of positive spells (for example regeneration, stoneskin) sometimes stop working after 1 or 2 turns and do not last all 3 turns (randomly disappearing buffs from friendly creatures)!
26. Lizardman’s Scatter Shot gives attack bonus instead of -50% penalty.
27. Fire bird’s “Aura of Fire” works in strange modified way: instead of water magic immunity, it provides earth magic immunity. And instead of working for allies only, it works for all surrounding creatures including your enemy!
28. Soul conflagration (new Tier 4 Prime magic spell) deals much less damage than it should when the hero has prime magic grandmaster ability Clarity. A suspicion that it is always casted with -20 magic even during the first cast then.
29. Gathering Storm (Air Magic novice perk) does not work for air spells with direct damage, and so the calculation tooltip for this spell is different from damage it actually does.
31. The ability “Soul Fire” of Valkyrie and Dis gets removed from a unit if the unit remains adjacent to valkyrie/dis for more than several turns.
32. If a hero has Master of Earth III perk, the Frost Bolt spell deals twice as much damage.
33. Erratic storm has no spell description when cast by scroll.
35. When kraken attacks in melee, the tooltip of caused damaged randomly increases several times (and decreases again), also the damage which is actually dealt by it, is strange. It is possible its active ability modified damage somehow changes the ordinary damage even when it’s not activated. Additionally, its Inkspray ability cannot be activated at all.
41. Death strike causing 300% increased damage instead of 200%
46. Shantiri Titan cannot be displayed in Heropedia
47. Ancient Treant attacks twice in melee
48. Wrong luck application on Red & Ardent Dragon
49. Fire Breath can be cast on friendly units, which causes wrong damage tooltips & attacks.
50. Einherjar’s hammer range attack not applying attack stat
51. Manticore’s sting not applying attack stat
52. Poison and agony working on undead
53. Some nova skills can be used only once per battle; another always
55. Kari’s Fire Heart specialization doesn’t work for Fire Sentry
56. Centaur’s and Centaur Marauder’s Maneuver ability causes that if this unit is attacked before its turn, it loses its turn or it cannot attack during it.
59. Resurrection abilities sometimes works on constructs. Elrath’s chosen doesn’t apply when the spell is cast through an artifact/scroll.
61. Lizardman’s Scattershot’s damage tooltip is unstable (changeable damage)
62. Shroud of Malassa deactivates not only when the unit attacks but also when it receives damage.
63. Hide (Shroud of Malassa) does not get applied after the first combat turn.
64. Siege: Moats trap a creature forever, making it immobile until the end of the whole combat once it steps in. Additionally, the moat sometimes does not get activated when a unit passes through it.
65. Siege: Academy units receive damage on a random basis even if they do not enter the moat
66: Siege: Fortress Moat is completely bugged: It does not interrupt movement. Its description is missing in town and its effect increasing Fire magic vulnerability does not disappear after one turn as intended.
67. Confusion does not surpress preemptive strike
68. Preemptive strike can be used against some activated abilities
69. Strike and return displays retaliation wrong (always “no” even when it should be “yes”). Moreover, the coordination restriction does not work for Strike and Return (always applies). Strike and return cannot be used if the unit is already adjacent to target (in any way) and can be used on moral turn.
73. Wrong Homeland icon on adventure map
74. AoC town effects apply wrong when a town changes its owner (either not aplied on a new owner or persists on the previous owner)
75. Runic Fortifications Gate is overwritten wrong on level 2 (as level 1)
78. Necropolis Moat “Weakness” Effect and Dungeon “Agony” Effect do not work although its tooltip displays.
80. Wrong Mark of Malassa icon on the adventure map.
83. Wrong Sweeping Bash Icon used (the same as Sweep)
84. Martyr provided by a rune forge artifact doesn’t work.
85. Lamasu’s Aura of Pestilence works on troglodyts (and probably also other unit with earth immunity)
88. Faceless’ buff disappears when the buffed unit attacks and kills enemy instead of when it’s attacked.
89. Academy Hero Ajit does not have a siege weapon at all. (missing completely)
90. Erling’s specialization should increase runes’ effect from 3×3 to 5×5. It works correctly with their passive effects but their activated effects still work 3×3.
91. Poisoned Blades work on dark elemental and other units with darkness immunity.
92. Entangling roots do not apply when the creature retaliates.
93. Entangle spell does not work on teleporting units.
94. Aura effects (Legionnaire, justicar…) do not work correctly after the spell teleport is cast on a unit.
95. Familiar Terrain perk gives 50% bonus instead of 20%
96. Mark of Nature & Entagling roots do not work on Cthonians and Earth Elementals
97. Chosen of Light not working on Martyr
98. Estates does not remove on hero’s death
99. Artefact sets provide set bonuses even after unequip
100. Archlich’s effect does not work if the primary target is killed by this attack
101. Tower of Necromancy provides no bonus to Ghost Ride
102. Damage tooltip for warfares is incorrect when the hero has mastery in this skill
103. Namtaru warfare hits surrouding creatures twice
104. Shielding gets removed if there are more legionnaires and one of them leaves
105. Shadow cloak doesn’t trigger if hit non primarily by an area attack like dark hydra or rakasha (if hit by other attacks than usual damage) but it’s lost.
107. Naadir’s specialization: The ghost stacks only grow as long as they don’t strike the final blow.
108. Aura of Cleansing’s visual effect displays wrong
109. Some special attacks trigger against creatures with its immunity
110. Stranglehold does not disappear when the caster dies
111. Shantiri Titan’s rooting bonus critical effect does not work
112. Faceless’s shadow cloak disappears with no effect after the creature is attacked by a hero
113. The balance rune does not work when the enemy attacks with an unrequited attack/special attack
114. Ghost Ride does not take into account No Rest For The Wicked (no ghosts are revived after killing undead)
119. Fire Beath damage effect persists on creatures even after the field disappears
120. Broken cheating console for Metamagic command
121. Some of the negative effects do not get removed when intended
122. Cloak of Death does not get removed when a creature is attacked
123. Tower of Necromancy buffs sometimes stack on heroes
124. The lightning scroll can affect black dragons which are magic immune
125. Sylanna Bounty buff sometimes disappears
127. Rune Priest has no unique Critical Animation
128. Sting: Earth immunity applies
129. AI uses Lightning Bolt too much

+ dozens of localization issues and incorrect or misleading descriptions in particular languages

There might be some unrecorded minor fixes included.

Changes on Creatures‘ Abilities

There have been numerous complaints about lack of creature diversity in the game, so we have added over 20 brand new abilities for creatures. If you dislike any of the new abilities, see Mod information to read how simple it is to get rid of them.

HAVEN

– Holy Blades (Sentinel, Legionnaire): All undead and demons adjacent to the target of the creature’s melee attack (not retaliation) take X% of the damage dealt as light damage

– Blessed Arrows (Crossbowman, Marksman): On moral turns, the creature’s ranged attack ignores the target unit’s Defence.

– Lone Wolf (Landsknecht, Swordmaster): +10 Initiative and +2 Movement when the creature has no adjacent allies.

– Griffin Resolve (Imperial Griffin): The creature gets +1 Attack for 3 turns whenever it attacks or retaliates.

ACADEMY

– Offensive Formation (Sandstone Golem): The creature is switched into its offensive form: +10 Attack and +2 Movement but its Defence is set to 0.

– Defensive Formation (Sandstone Golem): The creature is switched into its defensive form: +10 Defence and +10 Hitpoints but its Movement is set to 0.

– Stunning Blow (Obsidian Gargoyle): Each of the creature’s attacks has a x% chance to decrease target’s Initiative to 10

– Magical Shot (Apprentice, Disciple): The creature shoots at ALL units in a line, dealing damage by random magic school.

– Magic Catalyst does not involve Prime magic spell any more (Implosion balancing)

NECROPOLIS

– Incorporeal (Ghost, Banshee): Any attack against the creature has a 15% chance to fail.

– Contagion (Plague Lamasu): The creature’s Aura of Pestilence becomes contagious, spreading from infected targets to adjacent enemies at the start of their turn.

– Lamasu receives Aura of Pestilence

– Vampire Lord receives No Retaliation

STRONGHOLD

– Barbarian Anger (Crusher): Enemy creatures attacking the creature become targets of this creature’s anger. All attacks of creatures with this ability against these marked creatures will be critical for 3 turns.

– Wyvern’s regeneration improved to resurrect (still heals the same number of HP, though)

– Brute receives Unfettered

SYLVAN

– Cursed Blossom (Sprite): Enemy creatures attacking the creature in melee get -25 Luck until end of their next turn.

– Gift of Life effect (Oak Dryad) improved: In addition, all friendly healing effects copy to this creature as well.

DUNGEON

– Shadow Armour (Stalker, Tracker): Whenever this creature becomes shrouded, it receives a shield, absorbing 5 damage per each hero level.

– Solid Like A Stone (Chthonian): Whenever the creature receives damage, it gets +5 Defence until its next turn.

– Strider & Soulless receive Vigilance

FORTRESS

– Defender receives Dwarven Shieldwall

– Shieldguard receives Defensive

– Kobold Scout receives Nimble

– Flaming Arrows (Kobold Pathfinder): Large creatures hit by the creature’s ranged attack will be burned. Burning deals Fire damage to the creature at the start of its turn for 3 turns.

– Rhinoceros Skin (Lava Elemental, Magma Elemental): +2 Defense for every tile crossed until the creature’s next turn.

– Ardent Aura (Ardent Dragon): Adjacent enemies are vulnerable to fire (instead of broken Fire Trail)

NEUTRAL

– Child of the Darkness (Shadow Panther): The creature can walk through any other creature and it deals Dark damage for every single creature in the stack when passing through an enemy creature.

– Explosion (Fire Elemental): Whenever the creature receives damage, an explosion deals 1 Fire damage to all adjacent enemy creatures.

– Wind Shield (Air Elemental): The creature is immune against first damage received in each combat.

– Aura of Renewal (Earth Elemental): The creature and all neighbouring friendly creatures regenerate 3 Health at the start of this creature’s turn. (Not affected: Undead and Constructs)

– Ice Prison (Water Elemental): This creature’s ranged attack has a 30% chance to imprison target creature. Imprisoned creature cannot act and is treated as if not present until the start of the next combat round.

– Touch of Light (Light Elemental): Removes all negative magic effects from the target friendly creature and fully regenerates its Health.

– Shadow of Death (Dark Elemental): Hit creatures receive -10% HP for 3 turns (is not stackable).

– Siren Song (Mermaid): Enemy creatures attacking the creature become charmed until the end of their next turn. The creature is immune against damage done by charmed creatures.

– Shield Protection (Black Guard): This creature and surrounding friendly creatures are covered against ranged attacks. Replaces Defensive.

– Creatures hit by Splash ability (Mermaid) also suffer from reduced Initiative and Movement until the end of their next turn.

– No Melee Penalty information (Titan, Ancient Treant, Rune Priest, Rune Patriarch)

Changes on Heroes

Similarly to creature abilities, hero specilizations have been criticised a lot. Most of them provided more likely a starting bonus for heroes than a unique benefit. That is why they have been completely redesigned, also dozens of further changes have been implemented with the only aim: to improve your game experience.

• added 4 new duel heroes for each faction for more duel possibilities
• added almost all story heroes to skirmish
• no more privileged heroes
• added brand new heroes: each faction should have two heroes of each faction class available in campaign & story mod and three heroes per class in skirmish mod
• changed classes of heroes: Dagar: Sherif, Lucretia: Archon, Naadir: Embalmer, Lasir: Ranger, Ivor: Avenger, Fasolt: Jarl, Aslaug: Thane
• fixed order of duel heroes: might and offensive first
• slightly changed prices to hire a hero
• changed starting skills & spells of some heroes to offer more diversity within the same faction
• unified starting skills & spells & classes between skirmish and story mod: the same hero should have the same properties everywhere
• several specializations reassigned to different heroes they fit more, also campaign heroes should have more interesting ones now
• all spell specializatons get additional bonus on master rank
• all specializations improving stats (including magic bonuses) have been improved to scale by hero level
• specializations granting starting skills have an additional perk improvement effect (see below)
• over 40 new specializations have been added, so that each playable hero has a different one (see below)

List of new specializations and their effects:

HAVEN

– Amilcar -> perk bonus -> can deploy stacks in 4 rows
– Ella -> new -> each creature will be resurrected after its death with X% of original size
– Orna -> new -> bonus for angels
– Krysztoff -> new -> friendly creatures deal max damage when affected by light spell
– Seamus -> new -> fire ball master (bonus on cast)
– Willehelm -> new -> friendly shooters get purge effect
– Ivan -> new -> bonus for friendly creatures when enemy stack dies
– Thomas -> new -> no penalty for Feral Charge
– Ymoril -> change & perk bonus -> original spec (Architect) from Menan, bonus gold discount
– Edric -> change -> original spec (Justicar Captain) from Ymoril

ACADEMY

– Hisham -> new -> move cost bonus per level
– Yasir -> new -> starts with non-exchangeable artefacts
– Myrim -> new -> different magic bonus each day
– Johari -> perk bonus -> additional health for warfare
– Maahir -> new -> each spell increases Metamagic by +2 /instead of +1
– Aali -> perk bonus -> enlightenment value increased
– Masfar -> new -> no negative effects of Offensive & Defensive Formation for Sandstone Golems
– Ajit -> new -> resources on combat won
– Dagar -> new -> starts with Frenzy, lower mana cost for this spell & improved power

NECROPOLIS

– Naadir -> change -> original spec from Charna
– Adar Malik -> new -> firestorm at the beginning of combat
– Lucretia -> new -> weaker lifedrain for all creatures in hero’s army
– Charna -> change -> original spec from Naadir
– Kaspar -> new -> adds spell to resurrect dead
– Saahir -> new -> starts with Dispel on 4×4 area
– Giovanni -> change -> original spec from Ludmilla
– Haffayad -> new -> necromancy boost
– Ludmilla -> change -> original spec from Lucretia
– Merikh -> new -> no luck for enemy creatures
– Scatha -> new -> light immunity

STRONGHOLD

– Kibwe -> new -> no decrease of bloodrage on wait or defend
– Ruqav -> new -> Dreamwalker warfare on max level
– Ishi -> new -> starts with Stone Skin, cast on friendly melee at the beginning of each combat
– Mokka -> new -> bonus for creatures without adjacent friends
– Anga -> new -> starts with Storm Arrows, cast on friendly ranged at the beginning of each combat
– Arril -> new -> air elementals deal damage to adjacent enemies
– Kente -> perk bonus -> additional health
– Andras -> perk bonus -> ovewhelm bonus 50%
– Imani -> new -> creature bonus if it does not attack in combat round
– Bilashi -> new -> AoC defence bonus

SYLVAN

– Aeris -> new -> bonus for druids
– Agathin -> perk bonus -> +2 base damage
– Grumthor -> new -> starts with Earthquake, does not affect friendly creatures
– Adowyn -> new -> starts with heal & heal sister, bonus for heal
– Ciele -> change & perk bonus -> better navigation
– Lasir -> perk bonus -> additional morale bonus for armies with mixed factions
– Challianna -> perk bonus -> more creatures in town guard
– Jenova -> new -> bonus income if Blind Maiden buff is owned
– Ossir -> perk bonus -> more gold from chests

DUNGEON

– Himiko -> new -> increased Medusae production
– Sinitar -> perk bonus -> +30 mana after combat
– Yrbeth -> new -> meditation ability to restore mana
– Menan -> new -> discounts for artifact purchases in the town
– Malwen -> change -> original Slyn spec
– Vayaron -> change -> original Giovanni spec
– Yeshtar -> change -> original Vayaron spec
– Slyn -> new -> Incorporeal ability for shrouded creatures
– Jorgen -> new -> 2 more targets plundered
– Ranleth -> new -> first enemy attacker in each combat round receives debuff
– Sylsai -> new -> shadow lurker bonus

FORTRESS

– Roek -> new -> min dmg in AOC for some enemies
– Geisli -> perk bonus -> two bonuses from traveller’s luck
– Gerdi -> new -> +2 movement in first combat round
– Tolghar -> new -> bonus for melee creatures before they move

Changed Mechanics & Improvements

We changed certain abilities to avoid bugs (as we found no solution how to fix them):

08. Plague Lamasu: Lamasu’s Aura of pestilence does not work in certain occasions (=sometimes). Especially it does not work after you use teleport to move plague lamasu to enemy units. It could be connected with the entry used for the ability – activates when the creature enters cell.
CHANGE: Aura of Pestilence now applies at the end of each combat round.

13. Spectral Dragon: Its Flaying Breath ability often shows “0 killed” on the tooltip. In certain camera angles, instead of number of units which should be killed by dragon attack (tooltip), “0” displays. The problem usually appears when there are more units to be hit by the dragon.
CHANGE: Changed ability function: unit now deals damage during retaliation to not only the attacker but also to all creatures adjacent to it

14. Spectral Dragon: Soul Reaver ability does gain no mana when activated
CHANGE: It did not make much sense together with the Soulflaying Breath. Changed ability function: Your hero receives 1 Mana for each adjacent living enemy creature at the beginning of this creature’s each turn

22. Treant + Ancient treant: Living shelter ability works in a very strange way when you activate it: sometimes it works correctly and stopps enemies. Sometimes it stopps them but they get additional turn, so it’s useless. And sometimes it does not get activated at all! Additionally, it persists on cells even after the Treant moves.
CHANGE: Instead of interrupting movement, Living Shelter now redirects damage done to adjacent units to the owner of the ability.

30. Earth Elemental is not immune to Earth Magic spell “Wasp Swarm” (it deals might damage which is strange)
CHANGE: Wasp Swarm damage changed to Earth (magic school)

36. The Fire Trail ability does not work: It gets randomly activating and disactivating, and when attacking the enemy, it does not even display correct tooltip for hitting multiple enemies when it is on.
CHANGE: This ability makes no sense for a flaying creature. It has been temporarily removed from the game. Red Dragon received the Fire Breath ability and the Ardent Dragon received a brand new ability.

40. Some Artifact set bonuses remain active even if you unequip them
CHANGE: Most of the set bonuses have been fixed, the rest has been replaced.

Affected sets

– Assassin’s set:

• 2 parts of the set: -1 to Health of enemy creatures.
• 4 parts of the set: +3 to Might; +5 to Destiny
• 6 parts of the set: +5 to Initiative of allied creatures, -1 to basic damage of enemy creatures.

– Great Lich‘s set:

• 2 parts of the set: -5 to Initiative for enemy ranged shooting creatures.
• 4 parts of the set: +5 to Magic.
• 6 parts of the set: +3 to Magic, -10 to Morale of enemy creatures.

– Ranger‘s set:

• 2 parts of the set: +5 to Initiative of allied creatures
• 4 parts of the set: +5 to Might; +4 to Movement of the hero.
• 6 parts of the set: +6 to Spirit; +1 to base damage of allied ranged creatures.

44. Rune traps make a grid tile unwalkable; AI always avoids the traps.
71. Runic Fortifications don’t work at all(as for the traps)
CHANGE: As we cannot change the archetype of obstacle, the function of rune traps has been changed: There is a chance to cast a rune trap on an enemy creature and reduce thus their Movement to 0 until the end of the combat round at the beginning of each enemy creature’s turn during each combat in the area of control of this town.

70. Wrong damage calculation with all Breath Abilities (Dragons) caused by Flanking (deals less damage than the tooltip shows)
CHANGE: Flanking Effect has been removed from that abilities

79. Master Cabir: Soldering Hands: This ability only works on creatures which are not adjacent to cabir but which are in cabir´s range. Moreover, the resurrection tooltip displaying sometimes disappears
CHANGE: Soldering Hands can be used more times per combat. Soldering Hands now works only on adjacent creatures.

86. Lightning Bolt deals the main damage also to adjacent targets (instead of reduced damage). Additionally, the shocked effect is applied on adjacent creatures, too.
CHANGE: Damage dealt to main target is the same as to adjacent creatures

115. Heal spell displays nonsensical healing power when also dealing damage to undead
CHANGE: This spell deals no longer damage to undead

117. Life Drain doesn’t heal the correct amount of damage on area attacks
CHANGE: It sucks damage only from the primary target.

118. Aura of balance removes all buffs from all creatures in the area
CHANGE: Improved tooltip to inform about its real function

126. Shadow of Dread causes game crash together with Necromancy (GUI after-combat windows sequence not solved)
CHANGE: This ability blocks necromancy during the combat.

We implemented some additional changes and improvements we hope you will like:

I. Banned magic schools (If you dislike this change, see Mod information to read how simple it is to get rid of them.)

• Added forbidden schools for other factions (balance reasons) – only for classic skilling:
  (Stronghold – Prime, Sylvan – Fire)
• Changed magic school of Town Portal and Reveal Treasure to Air (because of prime magic being forbidden for Stronghold)

II. Improved some visual effects to be more visible

III. Improved tooltips of certain abilities (missing information about activation limited to once per combat) and other stuff (including player tips)

IV. Added Heropedia information about rare resources needed to hire a creature (to make the champion choice more comfortable for the player)

V. Morale and Luck caps increased to 75 everywhere (not only Skirmish)

VI. Champions have now the same stats both in Campaign and Skirmish (it was really confusing before) and hiring them cost the same number of resources

VII. All buildings now cost the same and the town halls levels provide the same amount of gold both in Campaign and Skirmish

VIII. Improved adventure & combat camera zoom & rotation

IX. Increased difficulty (AI creature growth & resources)

Alternative Solution

Some things cannot be fixed. However, there is a way how to deal with them:

24. Disappearing hero skills in campaigns: After you finish a campaign mission with random skilling, when you start the next mission, your hero forgets some skills! Some of them only disappear in skillwheel but still still work in combat, some of them completely disappear and their effects too.
SOLUTION: In Important tips thread (Steam), there’s mentioned how to avoid this bug in order to be able to play random skilling without any restrictions as intended.

76. Destroying any building in the town causes all AoC buildings don’t work any more.
SOLUTION: Another building must be built in the town and the hero must re-enter the Area of control on some occasions

87. The last Sephinroth’s scenario dialogue is skipped by the game, so the player cannot read it.
SOLUTION: You can read the end of the scenario here: (HC)