D3 Renaissance Nostalga Mod Download

Link to mod available above.

Installation:

Nostalga Mod is for the Renassaince version of D3 ONLY!

To Install the Renaissance D3 Nostalga Mod 1st BACK UP Your Resources and System folders to a new and safe location.
This ensures you can easily restore the game to stock again if so desired.

After backing up those folders, simply copy the Resources and System folders from the Nostalga Mod
into your Disciples game folder. Allow all folders and files to be overwritten.

The Nostalga isn't compatible with the Dark Elf mod or any other mod, as the Nostlga mod has an all new stat system in place.

Place reserved for the Manual and info. Manual will be haphazard at 1st and eventually organized (I hope).

A mod is a personal thing. It will appeal to some but not all. Some might like it, others hate it and most will like certain aspects but want to change others. That is just the nature of gaming in general, just like music or art or any other venue really. I like it of course, but I am biased.

Special Thanks to Wabbit, Larkin, Clayman, and Stupendousman for help working things out and the sharing of thier vast knowledge of the game and its file systems. I'm using a modding leveling system fleshed out based off of Wabbits idea posted about page 4 of post your mods here thread. Using a tiered Devouring skill based from an Idea I first saw posted by Clayman. Have gotten help from Larkin and Stupendosuman working things out as well. Granted I crunched the numbers and I have my original ideas in here as well. Like the Potions system, standerdized CTH system. Reduced bonus hexes etc...

Any mod is really only possible through a valued community that shares openly. This is one of the most open forums I have seen modding wise.

PURPOSE of MOD

--To bring some of the best elements from D2 into the game while keeping the best elements of D3.

--Balancing things out more like they were in D2. Eliminating the outragous 30 to 50% crit chances. Restoring units to there original damage types and targeting types.

--Balancing it so as all aspects need to be utilized together to defeat tougher armies. The stock game was very OP on world map magic. This has been toned down. Scouting, thiefs, world map summons all play bigger roles now.

--Balancing it so it plays hard enough that melee nodes don;t feel like exploits, you need them just to survive.

--Bringing about 80% of the D2 spells into D3. Giving a wider range of options.

KEY CHANGES

--Unit hit points, damage, armor, skills, damage and attack type all are based off of D2. For example, Gargoyles now do weapon damage again instead of Earth. What I did is doubled the life of mages and archers from D2. Increased life of melee units by 150%. Increased life of 2 slot units by 125% except for the Legions which had some unique changes for balance since they have 3 different lines of 2 slot units. Damage is very similar to D2. Onlt slightly adjusted for balance.

This is IMPORTANT.... I made certain potions/spells stackable. Kept it as straight forward as possible so one doesn't have to figure it out. Its simply any potion spell of the same type will stack for different amounts but won't stack for identicle amounts. Examples: a 20% fire resist potion will stack with a 35% fire resist rune or spell. A 20% Fire resist potion won't stack with a 20% fire resist rune or spell. A 10% accuracy potion will stack with a 20% increase in chance to hit spell, but not another 10% accuracy potion or a sword map 10% accuracy bonus. any type of 25% armor will stack with any type(potion/rune/spell) 50% armor.

THis allows you to build up buffs in special areas, but only by using different amounts from various runes/spells/potions. It should come fairly naturally. Just know if you have used a 20 air resist buff, that anither 20% air resist will be of no use for the same unit, but any other value, 10, 30 etc. would stack. This is why scouting the enemy is paramount, YOu must find what the AI is building its stacks with. Then buy the potions best suited for defense, and research the appropriate spells. If the enemy has earth attack and fire attack. If you have an 20% earth resist spell available, you could research that and then buy 1 20% fire resist potion for each party member.

---Potions all last 3 turns on the world map, but once in the arena they last the entire battle. Same with world map buffs/debuffs. They last for 3 world map turns. If its obvious you will be attack in 2 turns, or you are planning to attack a level 3 guardian. You can place more than 2 debuffs on an enemy and more than 2 buffs on your party. That is if you have enough spells of that type and you are playing in Archmage mode where you can cast 2 spells a turn. Just remember that the buffs will lasr 3 world map turns, so you don't have to attack the same turn they are applied.

----All the original Summoned units are still in game as World map spells, but they are no longer available as runes. These are the Hellhound, Golem, Unicorn. etc..... The Original Summon runes are now replaced by the summoned units from D2, such as Orc, Angel, Goblin, Squire, Imp, Succubus. These new summons are called Orbs just as they were in D2. Prices range from 300 to 1200. Only the 300 to 600 ones can be purchased. Higher runes have to be won in battles as they are invaluble and best saved for the tightest of spots.

--Range nodes are now gone. Mage nodes are now shared for bonuses between mages, archers and healers.

--All mage units have either single or attack all. No area attacks, the same as from D2. Golem and Verdant now attack all as well. Beast and Tiamath attack all.

---Petrify is now a single cast spell only. Lower tier units with the skill have a cast range of 4. Armor for petrify has been lowered.

---Legions Morph (Hag skill) The imp is now scaled with life/damage. So morphing a level 30 troll will give a stronger imp than morphing a level 7 archer.

--No more 2X bonus from power nodes. Melee units get 150% bonus. Mage and Ranged get 133% bonus. Healers still get 200% bonus, but this was made hard to obtain by giving them movement of 1, with a one use spell that gives 1 extra movepoint. For a quick retreat they have random teleport. On average healers only obtain a bonus hex in about 4% of battles. Often many turns in.

--The Heavens Alter at the start of the Legion act1, gives a potion every 25 turns. Near that same location, the foresters hut is now a potion shop. This is needed as all beginning acts are a bit tougher now.

--The Mercenary shop at start of Elves Act 1 is now a potion shop for the same reason. Note, the 3 wolves there can generally not be taken out. TO get to the shop early requires you to go between the shop and the wolves. You will enter battle with the wolves. Simply retreat in 1st round and then you can enter the shop.

--Wolves are tough again like they were in D2, only in D2 they didn't place a stack of 3 wolves in act one. Well now you have 2 stacks of 3 wolves in the Elves Act 1 that are a huge challenge.
SPOILER ALERT.... if you want to figure your own tactics, skip down 1 paragraph.

Elf Act 1 Early Walkthrough
......... A 3 wolve stack can easily wipe you out in Act 1 of the elf campaign. You must time your attack so you are not weakened just when a neutral roaming stack appears. The 1st 1 shows at turn 4, then about every 5 turns a neutral comes from one of 2 directions. You can use the 1st guardian rod as a shield to weaken them. Make sure to use the movement bonus from the sign if only the AI can't attack you right after they finish the guardian.
You must take out the 3 wolves just southwest of where you start. You need the gold from the windmill to get enough potions to reach town. IF you enter the battle and you have no bonus nodes, you might as well retreat. You almost have to have a melee power node to have any chance. It might be best to take out 1 wolf, then retreat. Heal and go back for the other 2 wolves. Also you simply can't have more than 1 or 2 units get killed early on. You won't have enough resources for both heal potions and revive potions. THis act is HARDCORE..


..............END OF WALK THROUGH .............

MORE KEY CHANGES

--My favorite. Potions now give % increases instead of a set figure. THis is how they were in D2. So you have 30% Attack Power potions, 10% accuracy, 16% vitality etc....

---All units have 100 agilty. This allowed me to standerdize chance to hit and make crits VERY RARE. Most units have 80%CTH (its actually 79) Calling it 80 for the sake of rounding. This is like thye were in D2. Leaders start with less, but leaders can have there dex increaseed whereas garrison units can not. Except by spells or potions.

---The Capital Guardians now play out very similar to D2. You have to defeat them just as you did in D2. If you never played D2, your Army is going to die a horrible death the 1st time you go in willy nilly.

---Garrsion units don't gain dexterity or agilty by leveling. I used a leveling system based off of Wabbit's idea with some modification. Since the game gives 1 or 2 points per level. I made a skill that subtracts dex and agilty in almost the same amount. You may see dex or agility very by 1 or 2 is all. There are skills that add 5 dex by time of day also. But for the most part, units with no potion bonus or spell bonus have 100 agility and 82 dex. This is to prevent the AI from having 50% chance to crit your level 1 stack by turn 27 of act 2. It maintains the 80% CTH throughout the game and lends importance to accuracy potions.

----Units now get 5 to 10% attack power increases per level. They necer got any attack power bonus in stoack games. They also get a uniform 16% life bonus per level. Its now the damage that makes the AI tough instead of the Crits. WIth the leveling skills I have in place, this can be finly tuned. Much more so than in stock.

-----Armor now only acts as 1/2 of what it states. So 50% armor actually behaves like 25% armor. This is because the key to reducing melee bonuses from nodes, from 200% stock to the 150% in the mod. It was done by splitting the damage between the STR mod and the INT mod. One half the damage comes from intellect which is Divine for game purposes. So if a melee unit does 100 damage, only 50 damage is from melee. Therefore only half of melee damage can be modified by Armor. I compenstated by increasing armor from the stock D2 amounts to make it act the same balance wise as it did in D2.

--- Along the same lines. All leaders get damage bonus from both INT and STR. Though it isn't always split 50/50.

--- BANNERs and ORBs---- These are both in game as leader skills. Orbs are 1 use per battle like in D2 and have the same attributes as they did in D2. Such as the Orb of Vigor--25% increase to Attack Power. Orb of Venom, Orb of Healing, etc.....Banners are zero action point cost, 5 turn skills. They are 1 use per battle but last the 5 turns. They act like they did in D2 because they have no action cost. You must click(to wear) a banner 1st though, before you do you normal attack. If your forget just select the banner 1st next round. Each leader has 2 banners, but only 1 can be activated at a time. There is a banner icon that is active whan a banner is in use. Between the 2 banners, you can get bonus from them for a total of 10 turns.

----Mutli skills. The stock Renassaince game didn't have skills that both heal and give a buff in the same skill. Now both Empire and Elf healers have multi skills. This restores the full power of healers like they were in all thier glory in D2.

---Attack bonuses and vitality bonuses don't work the same on leader as they will on garrison units. Its because of how different leaders are with thier large skill grids and point assignments. The biggest difference is in attack bonuses. A 30 % attack bonus will give any unit a 30% bonus(approx), except for a leader or a healer. Its has to do with the leader leveling 35 times throughout a campaign, while a garrison unit might level 6 times. So the Damage modifiers have to be handled differently so the Leader doesn't get OP later on. If a leader got a 16% life increase every time it leveled it wouldn't work balance wise. While a garrsion unit will get a 30% attack bonus from a 30% potion, a leader will get perhaps an increase of only 6 in total damage. Just be aware that its best to give your attack potions to a garrison unit. Healers also get minimal bonus from attack, just as in D2. Armor potions will work the same for all units though. This will just come natural after some game time.

Thieves for the player now act differently than thieves for the AI. The player thief is a 1 use disposable unit. In that regard it is similar to D2. It doesn't have any skills though. Thieves are harder to use in Renassiance because of narrow pathways. So I made then simple. They enter the arena, have 11 MP's so can reach any front line. They get 5 action points with 25 damage for double attack thieves, 50 for single attack thieves. They only have a 40% CTH. They will always be killed off. If they are not, it would be a small miracle. I recommend not using more than 3.
Thieves are almost mandatory for Legions. I use for them in act 2. Act 1 they are not needed. In act 2 they are the difference between life and death, You need them so that they can stop the AI's advance. Then you can weaken the enemy with spells, thieves etc.. and counter attack. They also work great to scout and to get supplies from a potion shop far away to the frontline, so your leader doesn't have to give up ground to resupply. They cost $200 like in D2.

While thieves technically don't have an assassinate skill. A thieve can kill a week unit by itself, or using 3 thieves in a row can kill a moderate unit. Thieves could also be given debuff runes, and instead of attacking on there 5 action turns, they could apply debuffs to enemy units, which would would save the main stack turns when it follow up attacks. In this way, thieves do have several options. It is helpful to fight tough stacks close to town because if you have 600 gold, you can buy three thieves to soften up the target. But its always a choice between buying thieves, debuff runes or potions because they both help in there own way. Your amount of gold will influence your options. Its up to you to find which tactic are the most cost efficient. Often the mod is set up to be a battle of resource attrition on hard difficulty.

---Thieves no longer require the guild to be built. In fact the Guild was removed.

Quick screen that shows the spells for the Legions. 80% based off of D2. Not all D2 spells can be brought forward. One of these is destroy rod, as there are no rods in D3. Note the Demons do not have a single heal spell. Because of this, they will play more like D2 than any other faction.

Thats the basics. I can always answer questions once the mod has been out a while. Should be within the nest 48 hours when it is ready.

Why did I choose to mod Renassiance instead of Resurrection? So far, each Expansion of D3 has had a new system put in place. So each version would need a different mod, mainly do to new ini, cover and experience systems. I just feel that Renassaince is a more stable version of the game. Resurrection has a few acts where missions get broken if not done in a specific order. In Renassaince, it is more polished, though act 6 for the Elf campaign has a probelm the devs never fixed. Also Renassaince is better suited to use the original initiative values from D2.

Mod is now available via link at top of thread.

Screen showing Haarhus's Skill Grid.

Oh my God! I can't believe it! Sounds great, I mean stunning, I mean brilliant... Well, words cannot express how this mod seems freaking awesome!!!

When I finished D3, I was so disappointed that I uninstalled the game, but with this... It is another story.
First I must finish my mod, but then...

PS: If I never graduate, it will be your fault, redgreen

This looks really, really, really cool.

I will finish the stock game first, but I will play it through again, and will try this mod out when I do.

*Is this Final, or still in development?

(13-11-2011 11:18 PM)Gizmo Wrote:  *Is this Final, or still in development?

Its final. Tested on hard difficulty playing in ArchMode. Hard difficulty is very hard. Like act 1 empire, playing hard, you have maybe a 60% chance of not getting wacked by turn 40. I made it very hard cause I figure it can always be played ijn normal or easy. But beating it on hard should give one the sense that they really accomplished something.

The Legions now require quite a bit of micro management, due to them not having any heal spells anymore. Makes it a big potion fest for Legions. Thieves can be used as runners to get supplies. At least all leaders now have some type of heal orb.

If I did anything else with it, it would only be to make customized maps with more room to roam for thieves. I don't have a working map editor though. It would be even better used with custom maps. I'm going to test out some maps that others have made later.

That's Some mod! (75½ MB!)

How about your mod where non leaders who are converted to leaders can wear armor? is that implemented in this mod?

This mod doesn't have any new leaders added except for the Pegasus. The Pegasus leader will have 3 sets of armor available, so his armor can be upgraded just the same as a stock leader could.

But is your mod where non leaders who are converted to leaders can wear armor available?

(09-12-2011 12:43 PM)sokkur Wrote:  But is your mod where non leaders who are converted to leaders can wear armor available?

I never did a mini mod like that. My only other major mod was the Dark Elf mod. That has a couple new leaders, only the Dark elf hero can equip more than 1 set of armor. His appearance doesn't change though, he just gets the stats from equiping the armor set. It gets a bit involved to make a non leaders armor change his appearance. My focus with the Nostalga mod was just on balancing and added some D2 mechanics back in. I've pretty much have moved on to modding a different game. EU3 to be precise.

It would be a good idea just to make a mod just for new leaders. Some other modders have released individual leader mods. I've only released two large mods and some non leader single units.