Woohoo, exciting times!

Thanks for your interest, Roger

I have problems uploading the mod, I asked Swolte for help.

Yes! Seems the time for release has finally come - I thought it would be on Christmas day.
Fantastic news!

Will be available tomorrow!

Great News! I'm excited to play with this mod!

The mod is available for download! Use the link in the main post.

Main post made! Mod looks fantastic. Sign me up for a PBEM.

I didn't realize its a 10 year anniversary of AoW1! Will email our dear developers...

Thanks for the news post!

I'm starting up to 4 pbem games, those that are interested to play should go to the recruitment thread:

http://aow.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/display.cgi?action=ct&f=25,4067,0,60

Silly question maybe, but how do I launch the editor with your mod?

Got it.

[This message has been edited by LordDuck (edited 11-24-2009 @ 11:57 AM).]

So you want to know all the secrets?

Create a folder in User\Resources and copy all files from _a1_Res_ to it. Then you will be able to select that resource set in the setup and launch the editor with it.

Ofcourse

i like it!

go the kobolds

here, here! Looking very forward to a game with this mod. I'll take Elves in either of the remaining two maps (can only handle one new game at the moment). I'll try to get the mod installed tomorrow.

Congratulations, Pawels I've put my name down for a couple games...the first couple games I'll have played in the last two years. I'm downloading the mod now and looking forward to it.

Thank you for all your contributions to the community.

Edit: I've got it, am running it...and, great job on the intro screens!

[This message has been edited by The_Stranger (edited 11-25-2009 @ 01:07 AM).]

You know I love to play around with grafix and so I made a little present picture for Pawel today, after I try the mod a little in the editor.
Maybe other People like it too but in first case I hope Pawel like it.
It took some hours to make it and so I was not able to talk to you Pawel on day one after release.
Itīs not so easy to create something nice like this mod but also not so easy with his mod because he scratched a lot of structures and even terrain!
But itīs possible nevertheless.
Itīs a dark sinister image but it looks cool and unique too and it has some funny words in it ;-)

Because Pawel has given a lot to our community I think he will be happy to get something back.
All artists like to be praised a little for their work and Pawel has worked a long time on this project.
I remember many long nights when we talk in MSN about this and that for his mod.
So for me it was even harder to wait for it.

Swolte was so nice to upload my little image to the HG main page random picture slot and so we can watch it again all over the years and remember Pawel and his mod.

Once again!
Congratulation Pawel for this great piece of work - even when you have scratched terrain stuff like swamp for example and used the red dragon picture (when the mod start).

http://aow2.heavengames.com/pix/rndshots/aowsm_124.jpg

I installed and played a few turns. Looks fantastic. One thing I noticed is that Death Ray hits twice on one cast. It hits, curses, then hits again for the same damage as the first cast. Not sure about Deep Fissure, but I did attack an opposing AI hero and my hero was hit twice in a row with Deep Fissure and killed before I had a chance to see if the Wizard had also cast that spell. I know the opposing hero cast it, and I wouldn't be surprised if it hit twice as well. The wizard cast DF a few rounds later.

Also, another Orc hero of mine had 5mp left in the cavern level, but could not advance. Does cavern travel require more than 4mp?

@Groll: Thanks for the picture, it's very funny (and it shows some of the new units).

@KD: Yes, Death Ray has 2 shots (but only 4 damage). I changed some spells that affect a sigle target and don't have "save for 1/2 DAM" to 2 shots and a lower damage.

Deep Fissure has one shot, 10 ATT, 14 DAM, and "save for 1/2 DAM", so your hero must have been hit by both the enemy wizard and hero.

I reduced the casting costs of most damaging combat spells, I'd like to hear your opinions if it's a good idea or not.

I didn't include a documentation in the first version, with the stats of all spells etc., because I thought it's not the most important thing to have from the start. It will be added later.

About the Caverns level: The Dirt terrain normally costs 4 MP (without Cave Crawling), but with Hills or Vegetation it's 6 MP. Cave Crawling makes it 3 MP in all cases.

Btw, thanks for the Ziggurat!

[This message has been edited by PawelS (edited 11-25-2009 @ 10:28 AM).]

Aha, that explains it. I actually like that change, as well as the reduced cp. It changes the hero dynamic a bit. In the short while that I fooled around with the mod, my initial impression is that a defending hero with CP can really do a lot of damage, which I think is a good thing. An attacking hero, on the other hand, can get plastered right away, so boosting res levels will be key.

I'll have to recheck the cavern mp. I noticed it with another hero with 4mp and I'm sure there were no hills. Might have been a toadstool, though

BTW, I love having the executable icon without having to enter setup mode to chose the mod

One other thing I noticed on the two maps I looked at - it seems that node defenders are far too powerful for the early game. Maybe this is intended as well and I can see pros and cons to it, but thought I would mention it just in case.

[This message has been edited by King David (edited 11-25-2009 @ 12:14 PM).]

Hi PawelS,

Congratulations on releasing your mod! I especially like how you don't have to go through AoWSM Setup to launch it. This should make it difficult for people to select it by mistake - tho I am sure someone will, hehe.

Cheers!

Kirky

The nodes in AoW1 have "Strong" defenders by default, I guess that's why many nodes have this setting on the standard maps. My automatic map converter left them as strong, and I didn't change it. But I guess strong defenders in AoW1 are less strong than strong defenders that I set in this mod. Maybe I'll reduce this setting on some maps in the next version...

A couple more observations (as you can tell, I've been sneaking in a couple rounds now and then ):

I still think there is an mp issue. An Elven tracker was not able to enter a strand of dead trees that were labeled "vegetation" instead of "dense vegetation". He had 5mp left and has forestry.

Also with the elves, I have not been able to select the Elven ship (forget what it's called, but last one in the list). The selection defaults back to Dragon Ship, the previous item in the list...

Forestry works only with Dense Vegetation, reducing its MP cost from 8 to 4. Vegetation is different, it costs 6 MP regardless if you have Forestry or not (also Concealment doesn't work there). That's the way it works in AoWSM, I can't change it. In normal game Vegetation is not used, but I decided to use it in this mod to make the dead trees and some other map objects (like willows and mushrooms) different than normal forests.

There seems to be a bug in AoWSM that prevents you from viewing the abilities of a unit that can be built in a building that you are going to produce, if that building allows producing more than 4 units. But after you build the Shipyard, you can view and produce the Elven Destroyer* normally.

* That's how I renamed the Elvenship, the name comes from Warcraft 2, which I played long ago.

Looks like I already have some stuff to put into the FAQ

i can't play it

It loads at 80-90% and never ends loading

I'm trying the random map generator

The random map generator doesn't work, I forgot to mention it in the download description.

Edit: Thanks to Swolte, the download description is updated.

[This message has been edited by PawelS (edited 11-26-2009 @ 09:57 AM).]

Well I tried installing it into C:\AoW\ but it told me that I don't have UPatch 1.4 installed (which of course I do), so just in case I tried to install it into C:\AoW\User\resources, but it still told me that I didn't have UPatch 1.4 installed

Could it possibly have anything to do with me having BNW Extras enabled?

Hi Roger, its probably the following (from PawelS, somewhere...).
The installer checks for this file in the AoWSM folder: Unofficial Patch v1.4_Changes.txt

So, if you create a text file with this name, it should work fine.

I think in the next version I'll change this check to a file that is more vital for the 1.4 patch, as the mod feedback shows that this text file was deleted by some users.

@Roger: I'm going to convert a few of your maps for this mod, I hope you don't mind

[This message has been edited by PawelS (edited 11-27-2009 @ 08:41 PM).]

I certainly don't mind - in fact, I feel honoured, thanks!

That seems to have done the trick, Swolte, so thanks for that. I regularly go through deleting extraneous files from the AoW folder - and when you install as many mods and mod updates as I do, you end up with a lot of stuff in there!

I like BNW 3.2 but this is very interesting too, playing now

[This message has been edited by a1exej (edited 12-05-2009 @ 09:24 AM).]

A question for all who are playing the mod: do you think the buildings are too expensive? I think they are, and I'm going to release a patch where their costs are reduced:

Proposed costs:

Wooden Wall 30, Stone Wall 50 (is 50-100)
Barracks 40, War Hall 80, Champions Guild 160 (is 60-120-240)
Builders Hall 60, Siege Workshop 120, Masters Guild 240 (is 80-160-320)
Temple Complex 100, Monastery 200, Sancturay 400 (is 140-280-400)
Racial Structures 200 (is 280)
Shrines 150 (unchanged)
Shipyard 60 (is 100)

Wizard Towers and related structures - unchanged

Please tell me what you think.

[This message has been edited by PawelS (edited 12-23-2009 @ 06:16 PM).]