Equilibris

Equilibris is a balance mod for Heroes of Might and Magic IV.

example of dead creature map object

new adventure object (not present in current equilibris release)

About the project

Heroes of Might and Magic IV game was developed in a hurry, and rushed to the stores too early. It had quite poor AI, missing mulitplayer mode (in the beginning only Hot Seat was functional), continuous memory leaks and crashes during the game which made it run slow even on some powerful machines, absence of a combat grid, wrong descriptions of some artifacts and many more issues arose. That resulted in many fans of Heroes series returning to play Heroes III. There has been 5 offical patches that solved various problems. Patch to version 1.2, then to 1.3, to 2.0, next to 2.2 and finally 3.0. Also, 2 official add-ons came out, which contained a little bit more than just patches to versions 2.0 and 3.0 respectively: new creatures and artifacts. While gamers were complaining about lack of multiplayer, memory glitches and such, less important issues were not well accounted for. Of course, players noticed them, but hoped that developers would at least fix the global problems. The patches corrected those, but, unfortunately, they stopped there.

Even now, the game, scripting engine, and artifacts are still plagued with bugs. Many creatures and tactics are never used. For example, you'll only encounter Ogre Magi guarding objects on the map or in pre-determined armies, but almost never in troops of your multiplayer opponent, just like venom spawns, Nagas or Minotaurs. Also, there's a mess with the advanced classes - some of them valuable, and others are completely useless, like Guildmaster, or Seer. Now that 3DO (publisher of Heroes of Might and Magic) is officially bankrupt, Ubisoft concentrated on Heroes of Might and Magic V, and the developers were forced to find different jobs, the last hopes to see an official Heroes IV fix vanished in thin air.

In this add-on, fans of the game intend to fix the various flaws, disbalances and bugs of the game, so that Heroes 4 might become better, more interesting and diverse.

The idea of the add-on is to balance out everything. As any ideal, of course, it's unreachable, but worth aiming at. We are changing the original game to equalize the chances of victory of different towns, strategies and tactics, usefullness of units. Hence, the name "Equilibris". But at the same time, we're trying to save the Heroes' IV look and feel, so the game would still be recognizable and playable. So, a "Wake of Gods" type of change is neither envisioned or wanted, at least until the game's faults are fixed (See the "Heroes Unleashed" idea in the forums for more about the more revolutionary changes).

The add-on will include 5 new campaigns, made by the best mapmakers in CIS, each with an original story. They will be bigger in size, and more interesting than those of the official add-ons. The campaigns will use all the power of game's scripting engine, resulting in non-typical and ingenious scripts, which enrich the game, take it to the next level, and just make it more enjoyable to the player.

New Features

• Summoning and Necromancy menu allows you to choose what creatures are summoned, or ressurected by a necromancer.
• Information about experience points gained in combat

experience popup after combat

AI improvements

• AI players will not build creature portal in their towns (as they cannot use it anyway).
• Neutral armies will never fight player in 1 or 2 stacks. So even if player attacks neutral army (of cyclops, for example), they will split into 3 stacks. (upgraded)
• AI attempts to choose battle formation depending on player's army
• On higher difficulty setting AI heroes start battles with immortality potion cast on them, because AI can not use potions, so AI heroes will live probably couple turns longer and have more chances to make a battle challenging for human player.

New artifacts

• Griffin Helm (Relic) - gives hero unlimited retaliations in battle.
• Spirit of Oppression (Major) - negates all morale bonuses and penalties of every hero and creature, friend or foe alike while in battle. "Mirth","Mass fervor","Sorrow" and "Mass sorrow" can not be cast when Spirit of Oppression is in battle.
• Witch's ring - Gives this hero ability to drain 2 mana points from enemy spellcasters each turn.

Bug Fixes

• Liches don't have morale displayed anymore
• First strike spell now can not be cast on creatures with First strike ability.
• Swamp battles do not slow down anymore
• Hydra Health spell is now shown in adventure spells too (on adv. map)

Changes in Artifacts

• Dragon Scale Shield artifact now gives Protection From Fire to army, which is not displayed, but acts even if creatures move.
• Corrected description for Ankh of Life - it gives +10% to Resurrection, instead of 5%, as it was stated in the in-game description.
• Sniper's Crossbow artifact now gives a hero and army ability to shoot without penalties for distance and obstacles. Description changed to reflect the change.
• Bow of the Elf King artifact now gives an additional shot for creatures in army and additional shot for a hero, only if they have Archery or Ranger adv.class. Otherwise hero can't shoot. Description changed to reflect the change.
• Spider's Silk Arrows - lifted from Treasure to Minor
• Ring of Permanency - lifted from Minor to Major
• Halberd of the Swiftwatch - lifted from Minor to Major
• Hideous Mask - lifted from Minor to Major
• Tynan's Dagger of Despair - lowered from Major to Minor
• Spear of the Centaur - lowered from Major to Minor
• Purse of Penny Pinching discount increased to 25% (from 10%).
• Demon Fire cost raised to 750 gold.
• Potion of Mana cost raised to 750 gold.
• Angel's Blade bug fixed. Now it increases attack and defense of the hero by 3 and damage to undead by allied units by 50%. Description changed to reflect the change.
• Wands of haste, bless, curse, weakness are lowered to treasure.
• Stuffs of alignments (Chaos, Order etc) are lowered to minor.
• Ring of Health raised to minor
• Vial of Acid now costs 750 gold

Changed properties of Buildings

Common

• Citadel: Gold 3000 (was 7500), wood 5 (was 10), ore 5 (was 10).
• Castle: Gold 4500 (was 7500), wood 10, ore 10.
• Caravan: gold 3000 (was 4000), wood 10, ore 2 (was 0).

Order

• Altar of wishes: 6250 gold, 6 crystals, 12 gems
• Treasury: gold 1500 (was 6000), wood 2 (was 5), ore 2 (was 10), gems 1 (was 0), sulphur 1 (was 0), mercury 1 (was 0), crystals 1 (was 0).
• Prerequisite for Cloud Castle changed from Castle to Citadel.
• Golden pavilion does not require Treasury anymore.
• Blacksmith: Potion of Immortality, Potion of Restoration, Vial of Acid, Potion of Endurance, Potion of Fire Resistance, Telescope, Mage's Staff, Chain Mail, Axe

Death

• Mansion: gold 6250, wood 12 (was 8), crystals 12 (was 8).
• Changed prerequisite for Mansion. Now it requires Undead Transformer.
• Changed prerequisite for Barrow Mounds. Now it requires Necromancy Amplifier, not Undead Transformer.
• Necromancy Amplifier affects necromancy 2 ways - it increases both percentage of slain enemy that can be raised and experience points limit of necromancer. To keep it simple - every amplifier gives hero extra virtual level when hero raises undead troops. Lvl.15 hero with GM Necromancy and 2 amplifiers will raise troops like lvl.17 hero with GM Necromancy and no amplifiers.
• Blacksmith: Potion of Immortality, Potion of Restoration, Vial of Acid, Cloud of Despair, Vial of Poison, Longsword, Longbow, Chain Mail, Shield

Nature

• Ranger's Guild: gold 3500, wood 5 (was 20), ore 10 (was 0).
• Pyre now requires Conservatory of Life instead of creature portal.
• Blacksmith: Potion of Immortality, Potion of Restoration, Potion of Toughness, Potion of Strength, Vial of Acid, Longbow, Leather armor, Shield, Mage's Staff

Chaos

• Dragon Cave construction now requires Mage Guild level 3 and Hall of the Dead.
• Blacksmith: Potion of Immortality, Potion of Restoration, Vial of Acid, Potion of Speed, Vial of Binding Liquid, Greatsword, Crossbow, Plate Mail

Might

• Arsenal: gold 3500 (was 5000), wood 10 (was 12), ore 10 (was 12).
• Breeding Pits: gold 15000, wood 15 (was 10), ore 25 (was 30).
• Magic Dampener now affects creatures as well as heroes. Description changed to reflect the change.
• Blacksmith: Potion of Immortality, Potion of Restoration, Potion of Endurance, Potion of Quickness, Vial of Acid, Axe, Greatsword, Leather armor

Life

• Stables in Life castle now increase movement for 2 weeks, instead of 1.
• Blacksmith: Potion of Immortality, Potion of Restoration, Vial of Acid, Potion of Healing, Vial of Binding Liquid, Longsword, Plate Mail, Crossbow, Telescope

Creature abilities' tweaks

• Added spells to Ogre Mage: Magic resistance, Power drain, Spell shackle, Snake strike, Sparks. Spell points lowered from 6 to 5. Description changed to reflect the change.
• Changed ability of Ogre-Mage from Bloodlust to Spellcaster. Description changed to reflect the change.

Waspwort's Weakness now working on undead, mechanics and elementals. (Before this bugfix only heroes with corresponding magic skill could cast Weakness on undead, mechanics and elementals)

• Chance of Unicorn's Blinding increased from 30% to 40%. Description changed to reflect the change.
• "Charge" ability added to Frenzied gnasher. Description changed to reflect the change.
• Efreet's Fire Shield damage changed to 33% of damage taken from melee attack. Description changed.
• Chance of Minotaurs' block increased from 30% to 40%. Description changed to reflect the change.
• Added Ranged Stun ability to Orc - chance to Stun target by hit of their axe (depending on inflicted damage), and added picture and description of Ranged Stun ability.
• Added Teleport ability to Earth Elementals - they can move under the ground and ignore Quicksand and other obstacles (which are ON the ground, not UNDER the ground). Description changed to reflect the change.
• Added Negate First strike ability to Air Elementals. Description changed to reflect the change.
• Nagas now have 3-headed attack.
• Lightning Attack ability also grants Thunderbirds immunity to Lightning spell and effect.
• Evil Eye's ability description changed to reflect that it also casts Order Magic spells, not only Death and Chaos magic.
• Poison Attack (Death spell) cannot be cast on venom spawn.
• Evil sorceress' "Banish" spell power now depends on their number (before 3.42 always was 110 hp).
• Spellcaster ability lets creatures cast mass spells starting from stack number of 5 weekly growths.

Spells

• Free Armageddon bug fixed.
• Effect of "Cancellation" and "Dispel" spells changed. Now spells do not effect creatures raised by "Animate Dead", "Death call","Raise vampires", and "Summon imp".

Changed spells:

Order

• Cowardice - lowered from 2-nd to 1-st level .
• Dispel - lifted from 1-st to 2-nd level .
• Phantom image - lowered from 4-th to 3-rd level .
• Teleport - lifted from 3-rd to 4-th level, Line of Sight requirement added.
• Teleport spell description changed to "Teleport allows this creature to move instantly on the battlefield, ignoring obstacles and terrain penalty".
• Town Gate - forbidden to cast in battle and is now 4-th level spell.
• Hypnotize - Line of Sight requirement added.
• Pain mirror - level 5, spell damage is not affected by magic resistance, limited to 5 turns.
• Blind is now 3-rd level spell .

Death

• Cancellation - lifted from 1-st to 2-nd level
• Mass cancellation - lifted from 3-rd to 5-th level
• Sacrifice - lowered from 5-th to 4-th level
• Weakness - lowered from 2-nd to 1-st level
• Mass Weakness - lowered from 4-th to 3-rd level
• Vampiric Touch - lifted from 4-th to 5-th level
• Raise vampires - lowered from 5-th to 4-th level
• Poison and Plague are limited to 15 turns

Life

• Mass exorcism - lowered from 4-th to 3-rd level
• Retribution - lowered from 2-nd to 1-st level
• Regeneration is limited to 15 turns
• Endurance is now level 3 life spell

Nature

• Quicksand - lifted from 2nd to 3rd level.

Chaos

Lightning, Chain Lightning, Implosion, Disintegration description changed to reflect that their damage is affected by target's luck.

New spells

Order

• Bind flyer(2nd level) - Removes a flying target's natural ability to fly, and reduces the target's movement and speed by half.
• Mass Forgetfulness (4th level) - Mass Forgetfulness restrains all enemy targets from using ranged attacks. Mass forgetfullness spell is disabled

Chaos

• Smoke (1st level) - Creates a 3x3 yard cloud that reduces all Ranged Attacks through the cloud by 50%.
• Hydra Health (2nd level) - Increases the hit points of the target by 25% until the end of the next combat.

Nature

• Endurance(2nd level) - Increases an army's movement on the Adventure Map by 3 (moved to Life Magic in 3.51).

Added pictures for new Nature spells (Magic resistance, Endurance).

Death

• Poison attack (2nd level) - The target's attacks in melee combat become poisonous. Anyone struck by the target will suffer the doubled effects of the 1st level Death spell, Poison. Spell does not affect undead, mechanical and elemental creatures.
• Aging (3rd level) - Aged targets do 25% less damage and their Melee and Ranged Defence is reduced by 20%. Speed and Movement are also cut in half.
• Terror (4th level) - Terror causes a single target within the line of sight of the caster to lose its next 2 actions. Mana cost: 8 mana.
• Life ward (2nd level) - The target of a Life Ward is 50% resistant to Life spells, and their Melee and Ranged Defense is increased by 50% against Life-aligned opponents.

Life

• Resurrection(5th level) - Brings a certain number of hit points of dead creatures back to life. Spell cost: 12 mana and spell effect is increasing with heroes' growth in level and life magic skill.
• Increased spell power growth per level of hero by 50%.
• Bug fixed - "Resurrection" and "Mass Forgetfulness" did not appear naturally in the game, if not predefined.

Bug fixed - "Sanctuary" description changed to reflect "6-3-moves" change.

For mapmakers

Equilibris also introduces new objects to map, such as new decorative statues, dead creatures, new creature banks and other map objects

External links

• Official website