There is a lack of summoning artefacts now, I think.
For example, in WOG was artifact, that given some additional amount of dragons in battle.
I think It will be good idea, if creatures/artefacts bonuses will include summoning of “subtype” creatures. For example, mimics in HOTA summon small mimics on their turn.
I’m talking about something like SUMMON_BATTLE_CREATURE.
And there will be good artefacts summoning rare creatures not seen in dwellings.
I think we found possible loophole - what if mod tries to change modSettings.json?
This shouldn’t happen, but creativity of modders was just proven to be unlimited 
I thought about removing files like this from our virtual filesystem. There are some other… creative ways to break vcmi by overriding something that was supposed to come from vcmi files.
Just because I’m too lazy to open new thread - small description on how checksum implementation works:
VCMI now calculates checksum (CRC32) for each mod + base game (“core” mod, “Original game files” entry in console).
This checksum consists from:
- VCMI version string - so each change in version will force re-validation of mods, see below.
- checksum of text files from Data/ and Config/ directories + mod.json file.
For files located in .zip archives vcmi will use already available checksum (part of .zip format), for all other files vcmi will calculate it using boost::crc.
What this checksum can be used for:
-
to detect changes in mods that may affect mechanics. Right now we have json validation which checks mods as well as our own files for errors. But this is quite slow operation so it should be avoided if possible. So now vcmi will skip validation stage if mod passed it on previous run and has same checksum.
-
in future, it can be used in multiplayer to detect if two players have same data files by checking all modID-checksum pairs
Notes:
- checsum check won’t detect any changes in mods - this is simply too slow. CRC32 is fast by itself but time needed to read all data from hard drive is just too big.
- this is also a feature because currently this will allow players to have any graphical mods without any changes in checksum.
Another suggestion for bonus system:
there is now creature type pointed through “subtype” is only concrete creature.
Like “sybtype”:“skeleton"
I suggest to add abstract IDs like
"level1creature”,… “level7creature”.
So bonuses will propagate on any n-th level creatures, so as special upgrades.
Sorry, for offtopic but can someone explain me why there is no WoG mod in download.vcmi.eu/mods/repository/repository.json? It’s still bundled with vcmi? As far as I know vcmi does not depends on WoG anymore so it would be logical to move WoG files to downloadable mod instead of bundling them with vcmi itself
Mostly because I haven’t tested how separate wog download would work with vcmi considering that VCMI can be installed on H3:WoG.
For next release I’m planning to add wog into repository. Not yet sure what to do with wog files that come with vcmi (part of our source code). Removing them completely is always an option but I don’t know if it is a good one.
Now I want to discuss changes to modding system in VCMI 0.95
So if this value for hero class is set to 1, then heroes have 1 chance to appear in any town where tavern heroes are not set for this faction? This is to solve problem with independent town mods which heroes are not appearing in other taverns?
So in structures.json this field is to be removed, right?
So each class of hero can have own commander, right?
This is for heroes skill tree generation, right?
Is it possible in future to create neutral skills heroes? I mean not magic not might hero (luck, scouting, logistics nor attack or magic schools
What will be with idle animation if this field is not set? Will it be required?
Yes. If chance for this particular class-faction pair was not specified then vcmi will set this chance based on defaultTavern entries. Resulting chance is
square root(heroClass.defaultTavern * faction.defaultTavern), rounded to nearest integer.
Yes. Structures will be paired with building using string ID’s
Yes.
Yes. This is mostly to provide this feature to mods: bugs.vcmi.eu/view.php?id=1166
So no “neutral” classes unless somebody will un-hardcode this feature.
Idle animation is group #2 in .def files (usually named holding or standing). All creatures have it, even war machines. However creature may have only one frame in this group. In this case there won’t be anything to animate.
This field is marked as required so all creatures must have it. You may set it to 0 (disabling animation) or to 10 (default value for H3 creatures).
By the way, now in battle not only idle animation is playing, but also “mouse up” is playing. And it is somehow annoying, because originally it played only when mouse cursor is over creauture.
and tower units also “dance” with it.
Is it possible to turn off “mouse up” animation block when creature only stays on battlefield?
I like current behavior of “mouse up” animations.
I think there should be option to turn them on/off (disabled by default like in H3, but still available as an option)
Nope. H3 plays this animation from time to time too. Frequency may need adjustments but both H3 and VCMI play it.
In general I’m against various toggles, switches and options because this leads to worst part of WoG. Proper approach here would be polishing this feature to a point where no-one wants to disable it.
At least 15 times idle + 1 mouse up will be normal