Posted November 19, 2024
Hylfire 2, Beta --- Testers wanted!
Terroin and I, RakneFne, have worked hard to polish the mod, Hylfire 2, a huge mod for Warriors of the North. Like in Hylfire 1, there are 15 subheroes, but they are much more polished and unique, each with a story and a song! Terroin is a musician and has composed new music for Hylfire 2. On YouTube, Spotify, and other streaming sites, he is known as 'Allan RH'.
A lot of the graphics have been updated, including unit photos, the hero screen, the spellbook, spells, etc. There are 3 new creatures in the Demon race and 2 for the Dwarven race. The units damage had a big difference between min and max damage in Hylfire 1; that has been changed back to somewhat vanilla. New unit sounds has been added too.
Heroes:
The subheroes are very different from one another: The Berserker, for instance, can't learn magic but can convert Intellect to Attack; the Blacksmith can summon his creations as an extra stack by developing his skill "Blacksmith"; the Dragonrider (the Rogue/Paladin hero type) can evolve his pet dragon, etc. The Yielders can be harder at first, depending on the randomness luck or not...
Difficulty:
Compared to Hylfire 1, the start is easier, but it becomes harder later on. Terroin and I normally play on Hard, even though we are familiar with the mod. New Hylfire players should play on Normal or Hard. IceGarden and Freedom Islands have been removed; lesser Leadership will be gained when leveling up, and you will encounter stronger enemies. However, you will gain a companion on Nordlig and different bonuses from Acrimaldo after battles and some heroes have an extra stack with 25-50% of your leadership depending on the hero type.
Alliance:
You choose a random alliance early on. The selection is random, and you may have 3-4 races available from the following: Snow Elves, Elves, Dwarves, Neutrals, Orcs, Lizardmen, Humans (only Lightbringer has this choice), Undead (only Infiltrator has this choice), and Demon (only Firemonger and Gatekeeper can have this choice). You will have troops of your race in Nordlig, Vestlig, Fastland, and Greenwort, as well as Vikings, Humans, and randomized troops for hire.
Maps have been slightly altered, especially the maps before Greenwort. For instance, 'The Quarreling Friends' and Runolv are all in the village to avoid running around for the quest. There is also a guild in each town, where you can deposit gold and earn interest.
After a battle:
Acrimaldo the Mentor, a helper you can consult for information, can give you bonuses after battles that you can choose from. You only have 1-2 skills from the start, but as you level up, you get a random choice. It is always one from each skill tree. Most of the Yielders (formerly known as mages) have a magic school from the start to avoid unlucky choices with no magic options.
Medals:
Instead of "Fat Cat," "Eggbound" has been created. You collect Spider's Eggs to gain a boost in Critical Hit. "Raven's Wisdom" replaces "Crystal Collector," where you still receive Intellect but by adding more pages to your spellbook (you also get more spellbook pages from the Linguistic Skill and from Acrimaldo to support the medal). Several other medals have been changed as well.
Companion:
On Nordlig, you get the choice of a companion that follows you on the battlefield as an extra stack. It is a random selection of 7 companions, meaning you can choose 1 out of 3 in each game. For instance, the Royal Dragonfly companion also gives a bonus of 10 Defense to Fire Dragonflies, so it is actually worth using those level 1 flies! The Royal Dragonfly also gives a small number of Fire Dragonflies after each battle. Other companions in Hylfire include Droid Hyena, King Spider, Queen Spider, Scary Abomination, Trickshooter, Ancient Ent, and Stranded Whale.
So far, we have played all the heroes up to level 10-15, balancing them out, but we need longer tests too. And that's where we need testers! We have already balanced a lot, fixed issues, etc. So if you are up for some fun, please mail me at uffemander@gmail.com and I send a link for download, then read the Readme file on how to install. You can post bugs/impressions here in the forum.
In the final version, the music will be polished and perhaps we will add new skins to some creatures, but else, it is very tested for bugs. The beta tests are more for long term balance issues.
Terroin and I, RakneFne, have worked hard to polish the mod, Hylfire 2, a huge mod for Warriors of the North. Like in Hylfire 1, there are 15 subheroes, but they are much more polished and unique, each with a story and a song! Terroin is a musician and has composed new music for Hylfire 2. On YouTube, Spotify, and other streaming sites, he is known as 'Allan RH'.
A lot of the graphics have been updated, including unit photos, the hero screen, the spellbook, spells, etc. There are 3 new creatures in the Demon race and 2 for the Dwarven race. The units damage had a big difference between min and max damage in Hylfire 1; that has been changed back to somewhat vanilla. New unit sounds has been added too.
Heroes:
The subheroes are very different from one another: The Berserker, for instance, can't learn magic but can convert Intellect to Attack; the Blacksmith can summon his creations as an extra stack by developing his skill "Blacksmith"; the Dragonrider (the Rogue/Paladin hero type) can evolve his pet dragon, etc. The Yielders can be harder at first, depending on the randomness luck or not...
Difficulty:
Compared to Hylfire 1, the start is easier, but it becomes harder later on. Terroin and I normally play on Hard, even though we are familiar with the mod. New Hylfire players should play on Normal or Hard. IceGarden and Freedom Islands have been removed; lesser Leadership will be gained when leveling up, and you will encounter stronger enemies. However, you will gain a companion on Nordlig and different bonuses from Acrimaldo after battles and some heroes have an extra stack with 25-50% of your leadership depending on the hero type.
Alliance:
You choose a random alliance early on. The selection is random, and you may have 3-4 races available from the following: Snow Elves, Elves, Dwarves, Neutrals, Orcs, Lizardmen, Humans (only Lightbringer has this choice), Undead (only Infiltrator has this choice), and Demon (only Firemonger and Gatekeeper can have this choice). You will have troops of your race in Nordlig, Vestlig, Fastland, and Greenwort, as well as Vikings, Humans, and randomized troops for hire.
Maps have been slightly altered, especially the maps before Greenwort. For instance, 'The Quarreling Friends' and Runolv are all in the village to avoid running around for the quest. There is also a guild in each town, where you can deposit gold and earn interest.
After a battle:
Acrimaldo the Mentor, a helper you can consult for information, can give you bonuses after battles that you can choose from. You only have 1-2 skills from the start, but as you level up, you get a random choice. It is always one from each skill tree. Most of the Yielders (formerly known as mages) have a magic school from the start to avoid unlucky choices with no magic options.
Medals:
Instead of "Fat Cat," "Eggbound" has been created. You collect Spider's Eggs to gain a boost in Critical Hit. "Raven's Wisdom" replaces "Crystal Collector," where you still receive Intellect but by adding more pages to your spellbook (you also get more spellbook pages from the Linguistic Skill and from Acrimaldo to support the medal). Several other medals have been changed as well.
Companion:
On Nordlig, you get the choice of a companion that follows you on the battlefield as an extra stack. It is a random selection of 7 companions, meaning you can choose 1 out of 3 in each game. For instance, the Royal Dragonfly companion also gives a bonus of 10 Defense to Fire Dragonflies, so it is actually worth using those level 1 flies! The Royal Dragonfly also gives a small number of Fire Dragonflies after each battle. Other companions in Hylfire include Droid Hyena, King Spider, Queen Spider, Scary Abomination, Trickshooter, Ancient Ent, and Stranded Whale.
So far, we have played all the heroes up to level 10-15, balancing them out, but we need longer tests too. And that's where we need testers! We have already balanced a lot, fixed issues, etc. So if you are up for some fun, please mail me at uffemander@gmail.com and I send a link for download, then read the Readme file on how to install. You can post bugs/impressions here in the forum.
In the final version, the music will be polished and perhaps we will add new skins to some creatures, but else, it is very tested for bugs. The beta tests are more for long term balance issues.