The Protectors of Etheria is a stand-alone mod of the game Warlords Battlecry 3 (i.e. it can be run without having the original game installed - 100% free full game). It is an improved RTS/RPG game with new campaigns, quests, terrain, units, items, heroes, modding features and more. Beta versions available for download!
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The Protectors dev team is finally ready to present the long awaited new version of your favourite game mod: The Protectors version 0.8.6. With over 580 changes, the game is now more stable and more fun than ever.
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testing asap. thanks for doing this!
Yes! Finally!
Thanks Protectors team.
For some reason none of my characters are saving. Ran as administrator in case write privileges were revoked, but the characters don't save, and theres no data in the herodata folder in root and userdata. userdata folder seems to update with potential writes, and the herodatatpc.xcr file is updating for some reason, but I cannot access any heroes i create for skirmish.
delete your my documents/the protectors folder
And I've already found a bug! :p lol
Minotaur's RSB still says it last 1 minute, but it was changed to 30 seconds towards the end of development.
I've already fixed it for the next version, though, and it's not like it's a critical bug, anyway. In fact, didn't Zeto say the Wood Elf one needed its text updating, too? Did that ever happen?
yes, it was fixed: The wood elf (and the Plague) RSB text was cut in 0.8.6dev.
Will be playing it, when I get time. Right now busy with illness and thesis, I wish atleast one of them gets end soon ;) .
I have found a HUGE bug!!!!
The hero, when gaining levels, skips every 2nd level! I tested this for every hero mode - (normal,bronze,ironman). I started off with a new hero just to be sure, so I played on a small map with 1 other player, and I immediately went to level 3 after the scenario, with only 5 extra skill points gained instead of 10.
That will explain a lot! I feel a hotfix will be needed.
Same here, as I wrote on the forum. I hope a hotfix will be made soon, I'm eager to start playing!
Yeah this bug makes game very boring please fix this asap.
Especially when your hero is only half the strength he's supposed to be.....
Don't worry, a hotfix will be on its way.
Thanks Joe! Do you have a launch window, like which week for example? Meanwhile I'm translating the English folder in my language... After finding TPC I became much addicted to the game anew :D
The hotfix will be launched this weekend.
Wow, you made my day! Thanks a lot!
Good luck with translating Quest.CFG :p
I think I won't translate campaign and quests (but I admit that riddles translating is tempting me!) until a more complete version of TPC... Surely I'll concentrate on translating the game itself, then we'll see :D
There is no doubt that there will be more quests in future versions. I plan on having all three quest buildings to have the same amount of quests. Currently, the Pyramid is lacking quests compared to the other two at just 91 quests. The other two have 151 each.
You should do a page listing all the riddle answers, so cheaters like me could do more quests :D btw they're pretty much, keep up the good work!
May I ask how to create a new hero avatar from scratch? Is there a specific program and the need of a certain proficiency with it? I would like to help by adding content
The source code is required, unless you are referring to making new models for The Protectors, in which case you only need the art work and Patrick will do the rest.
But modelling is the tricky part of it all. So far the only new avatars in The Protectors have been recolours as a result. (Although I hope to get back into 3D modeling at some point). Once you have a fully functioning model, it then needs to be rendering into a sprite sequence. See the Barbarian Warlord to find out how the game displays units and what image files are needed. (It is the only non-converted unit in the game). You'll need an XCR editor to extract it. (ABEX.bmp) You'll also see many other image files for it with the same name but ends with a lower case letter (ABEXw.bmp or ABEXi.bmp etc..) These are all found in Barbarians.XCR
You also need to create a .ani file for it, that is also a little tricky to understand and edit, be we have an official tool that can do that (not for public use, though), alternatively, you would have to work it out using a Hex editor - like what I did :)
Whoa, so it's hard as I thought, being 3D models with animations and so on... It's a pity because since 10 years that I play I always wanted to add some avatars to the poor choice, bad to know I won't ever be able. Is there something else which I can help with, apart from the translation (that helps indeed only the few Italian people who still play it xD)?
It depends on what skills you have. Many graphic artists start with map tiles since they're so easy to do. Tiles are just a single main image of 320x240 with a smaller 48x32, both saved to a 256 colour bmp file. They do require another file (ter) but that can be made using a public available tool, created by 2 guys from the original 10.3.1+ mod project (Jodwin and Maestorak).
You then just slap all 3 of these files into an XCR file in the terrain folder and then add some basic text to an accompanying en file (which can be opened with notepad as it's just a normal txt file with a different extension). Check the existing terrain XCR / en files to better understand this.
Neither I have graphic skills. I guess I can only beta test, translate and maybe check some balancing and think about suggestions :(
Just wanted to let folks know that there's a torrent mirror available now, so you can download it from there if moddb servers are too slow: The-protectors.webs.com
cant open the game
file error: WoodElves.xcr
Delete The Protectors folder and then reinstall OR just install in another directory. That's what a fresh install means! First uninstall 0.8.5 and only afterwards install 0.8.6.
Well ı found some bugs please fix them as well. Crictical cleave strikes does only 1 point of damage (like a miss) to primary target (if it is not a deathblow), engineer skill is not working at dark dwarfs (or maybe only dark dwarven tinkers), summon earth elemental spell (from rune spells) always summons only one elemental at any level, leveling up bug (Already told in other comment).
Thank you. Everything you said is known, but the Stone call spell is supposed to give only one mighty earth elemental (it can go level 8 if you cast stone call level 5 - so this is not a bug, look the spell description).
Stonecall is a bug, it's supposed to give +0.5 units per level 'Summons a mighty Earth Elemental (1 unit. +0.5 units & +5xp per level)'.
I feel some of the mentioned do need to be fixed in the hotfix if possible.
I honestly don't think Stonecall should be that strong. Earth elementals with 3 levels can easily wipe out an entire base (just protect them with some units - and its fear status, well). I see some units, skills and races are getting more weight than others - items are revealing this preferences as well (not a sin, just is what it is). And my opinion, as you know, Elementals should be as rare as WBC1, so you can taste their full power. (What does a WBC1 freak-fan knows right? hehe)
Just to remind if you guys gonna do that kind of balancing you need to balance elementalism spell of nature magic as well because you can summon earth elemental from that spell too. (But in my opinion it is balanced enough because summon champion spell of necromancy can summon more than one vampires and they are stronger than earth elementals)
So true, I also had the same impression. For example Minotaur King is really broken, but you can see this in minor unit too, like basic infantry way more strong in some races than others... It would be awesome if, with time and new releases, even the basic units had their little skill instead of "None" :)
If a single earth elemental plus "a few units" are wiping out an entire base, you need to raise your difficulty level lol, as my necromancy skill is summoning 3 death knights at level 5 each (from other hero skills as well) and I cannot even make a chip in the enemy's defence, im playing on medium-hard difficulty.
and by difficulty level, i mean the game settings, not modding the units strength to be weaker.
Yeah ı agree milinm you will need at least 15 units of earth elementals and many many missle units to equally fight with an emperor's army (for example an orcish army) :))
I think it's their quadruple damage against buildings that's doing it. That needs to get nerfed, preferably just to a damage bonus rather than multiplication. That goes for every unit in the game which multiplies their stats against certain entities.
But the Earth elemental is slow as hell, it's quadruple damage makes up for that.... Seriously, that unit is weak. I prefer a swarm of fire or water elementals instead. Nerfing its strength will render it useless.... like a battering ram.
A battering ram has 10x damage vs buildings (not UNITS). one hit and a tower goes off. This is extra damage vs buildings (not vs units) issue, as Joe also says, not an in-game difficulty problem. TPC and WBC3 are now much separated games, so this needs discussion: these units are STRATEGIC not regular infantry. They were Strategic units vs buildings in WBC1 and they were good - just like you have nuclear bombs in other games: strong vs buildings only.
So Earth elementals and rams are not designed for combat, but to avoid units and face towers and other buildings. Their strategic position in TPC makes their extra damage vs BUILDINGS an issue, independently of the AI level you are playing against.
Final example: if you look carefully, since 0.8.5 catapults saw their damage dropped (in combat, against units) BUT they gained 3x extra damage vs buildings. Of course they are very different than in wbc3: they are now strategic once more, like in WBC1, the original game.
One of the issues that TPC currently has is building resistance. For now you don't need to build siege weapons or good units against buildings (races are not prepared for that), so you can just create hundreds of mino axe throwers and win. Just an opinion, but in the future, infantry and archers should not be able to destroy buildings like they do now (although much better than vanilla, that is for sure). A balanced game is also the one that makes all units necessary (warcraft 3, rise of nations, etc.)
See for instance Dark dwarf crossbows: you upgrade them with a very expensive research and they are amazing vs any unit (dragons and heroes included). However, they are pointless vs buildings. That is strategy and that I miss in TPC project (however, campaign and chapters are already forcing the player to be clever, to make options and to learn - something lost since WBC2, damn commercial games).
You can see I'm a chess player: These were the issues I was aiming at, if TPC wants to widespread as it clearly deserves.
I think penetrating and slashing damage should do 1 dmg per hit to the buildings (except big units like Minotaur King) :)
Current balance very nice in my opinion. Thanks to TPC team. Especially: ''units can't hit critical strikes to buildings'' is a very fair balancing no need more. But maybe a little damage buffing can be done to some ranged troops like snake priest from ssrathi and lich from undead. And also some buffing can be done to knights like knight lord(paladin) having: ''Able to attack air targets.''
The Ssrathi Priest got super nerfed because it's tier 2, had massive staying power which just increased with the number of units and because their fire attack became extremely difficult to stop en-masse with all the range bonuses.
I don't think we'll see Liches get buffed either, but Paladins will likely gain a new Healing spell in future.
Whoa! Thanks for clearing that up!!! I really didn't expect the TPC team to go that far in terms of balance and making the play style more "realistic"!!
Glad that's sorted. Will be looking forward to the later versions for sure!!!
Healing spell would be nice. Good idea group healing like unicorns for example.
Hey guys, just wanna throw this out there in case you're having issues:
If you experience game crashes 2 or 3 hours into the game, I have noticed that the .exe file is set for compatibility mode for WindowsXP. I have found that setting the compatibility to Windows 7 (if that's your system) as well as running as administrator will stop crashes completely.
Peace.
Has anyone tried new grandemperor setting? Is it hard enough? :D
Honestly I don't have the guts! Hahahah
It's not that bad - the AI as a whole was "balanced" by giving them an actual economy (so they can't just build near endlessly with a single level 1 mine). It's just that Grand Emperor can perform some very clever strategies, such as destroying quest building and shops when they loose their Hero (since the buildings are now useless to them) or assaulting your base with a well organised army, lead by their Hero!
There is still more planned for this AI, so it's only going to get better with each new version. :)
It's fine, the only thing I'd note is that they really like buildings walls of fully garrisoned towers - which doesn't save them, it just drags the game out! :O
Extracted from the TO DO (might be a little hard to read here but should give an idea what the Grand Emperor currently does):
Destroys shrines and shops if their hero is dead or non-existent done TODO: count allied heroes too fixed
All (produced) units have a fallback 25% attitude (only visible when units are idle, otherwise AI commands overrides attitudes) done
Always takes enemy armor and weaknesses into account when prioritising army production (others have a 50% chance to ignore it) done
Tower fill quota is of 100% (will have all towers filled asap) done
Does the no-attack thing if there’s an enemy titan on the map and no friendly titan done
Does the no-attack thing if there’s bad weather done
Cheats for some little extra resources done
Cheats for having a +50% spellcasting chance done
Cheats for having +30 merchant skill done
Hero has all item slots filled and only has artifacts or set items (excepting backpack) done
Hero always is of same race as side race (has RSB) done
Hero has +x levels than human side +10 levels I assume this is based on the highest level Human Hero when in multiplayer? yes done
Hero has a non-racial Retinue with experience and name (“characters” - depending on ASP or even with handicap!) Dragons!!!!!! Units that heal should also be brung to battle (White Mage / Unicorn). Minotaur Kings and Giants also make for nasty starting units, especially high level ones. Done, totally random units with totally random levels (and names from the standard nameset).
Always gets valuable mercs in campaign/chapter done
I guess the Grand Emperor is smarter than me
Well with their bonus economy gone now they become pretty easy it seems. I was really used to their huge armies. Im playing dark elves with a merchant hero level 22. I got a lot of air units (phoneixes with lightning attack) together with dark riders,darkarchers and stygian wisps mr.grandemperor just built ground vs ground troops like battering rams and stone golems. It seems like he completly ignores new dark dwarven crossbows never used them or maybe game finished fast. Although ı must acknownledge that they play their heroes more smartly with this 0.8.6 patch :)
There's still room for AI improvements, to be sure.
A setting for Al ecenomy bonus would be very nice ı think. Or a new difficulty level which enables Al to have economy bonuses.
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