Welcome to Ultimate Wizards. This mod is designed to do two things: first, to make all wizards more powerful, and second, to make spellcasting a much more integral part of the game. To this end, a number of major changes have been applied to perks and casting times. Several minor changes have also been added to alter the overall Warlock experience. Note that, while Ultimate Wizards does make the AI players more challenging, it wasn't designed to specifically increase the game's difficulty. I recommend you check out temudjin-khan's excellent "Impossible Mod" if you're looking to do that.
Requirements
A legitimate copy of Warlock and ALL the DLC packs.
Compatibility
Ultimate Wizards is NOT compatible with temudjin-khan's "Impossible Mod" or Flyby's "Reduced spawns/More effective cleansing spell" mod. It should be compatible with saroumana's "Far away" mod, however, be aware that that mod can sometimes cause the game to crash when you try to generate a new map. When used by itself, Ultimate Wizards has no compatibility issues.
Installation
Drop d170.pack into your "Warlock - master of the arcane" folder. For example, if you're using the Steam version of Warlock, your path is probably something like:
C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\common\warlock - master of the arcane.
You'll know you're in the right place when you see 3 other .pack files, mainly d100.pack, d110.pack, and d120.pack. To uninstall the mod, simply delete d170.pack or move it out of the main Warlock folder.
Major Mod Changes
1) All spells have had their casting times cut in half and rounded down. For example, if a spell originally had a casting time of 10, it now has a casting time of 5. If a spell had a casting time of 15, it now has a casting time of 7. This goes a long way in taking care of "mana overflow", where you build up hundreds in mana, but aren't able to spend it fast enough. You should also see the AI casting spells more frequently. Moreover, this change stacks with spells that affect casting times. So if you can throw down enough buffs, you'll be casting like a wizard boss.
2) Perks have been dramatically strengthened. I wanted to make the different wizards really stand out from one another. Their perks now make a BIG difference. They should also make the AI a bit stronger.
3) Wizards have all been given new perks. Many of them have more than 10 points worth. I did this to make the AI's more powerful, and also to provide them with perk combinations that work well together. Note that, if you customize certain wizards and uncheck their perks, you’ll end up with more than 10 perk points. If you ONLY want the standard 10 perk points, you can hit the Reset button on the customization screen and that will clear your perks and give you 10 points. Also, keep in mind that you don't have to use all your perk points if you feel they make you too powerful.
Minor Mod Changes
-Heroes arrive much more frequently. As always, if you have a full complement of 4 heroes, no more will appear until you free up a slot.
-Resources can no longer be destroyed. Now, if a Dremer gate explodes or a volcano goes off beside a resource, it’ll act just like a Holy Ground or a Mystic Portal and stay as it is. At most, the terrain underneath it might change.
-There are no longer any penalties for offrace growth and resource production. These were easily dealt with by the player, but tended to hurt the AI, especially because the AI doesn't seem to specialize its cities.
-Dragon Queen's starting race has been changed from Humans to Elves. Everyone seems to agree on this.
-Clean the Land was turned into an area of effect spell. Note that this does NOT invalidate Restore Ardania, since Restore Ardania works on destroyed lands and Clean the Land doesn't.
-Master of War now gives +3 XP per turn instead of +1. I felt this trait was relatively useless in the vanilla game. Now, at least, it does something.
-Perception now gives +3 XP per turn instead of +1. Like Master of War, I felt this trait was fairly useless in its original state and needed a buff to make it useful.
-Koatl Villages now appear with the same frequency as Elven Villages and Dwarven Settlements. They were far too rare before.
-The Sepentorium now gives +30% Mana to make it more comparable to the bonuses provided by resource buildings in the Elven Villages and Dwarven Settlements.
-The 4 "Super Spells" (Mind of the Ancients, Pat of the Ancients, Care of the Ancients, and Dragonfire Storm) can now be learned like any other spell, albeit at huge research costs. They’ve had their casting times increased to make them slightly more balanced with other spells.
-Agrela's Summon Treewarden spell now correctly summons a Treewarden instead of a Demonwood.
-Elves can now build Dragon Conservatories on red dragon eggs.
-A god's "temple threshold" has been lowered from -10 to -95. This allows for dramatically increased temple options, since you can construct and use temples for a god until just before you become the champion for their rival. Note that divine spells are NOT affected by this change, so you still need to keep up a good relationship with a god if you want to use and research their magic.
-Destroying a temple now reduces favor with a god by 10 instead of 20.
-The frequency of volcano eruptions and falling meteors has been dramatically decreased in Armageddon mode. I felt that neither of these events added all that much to gameplay, and were mostly just annoyances. Moreover, they could badly hurt the AI, which never seems to clean up the terrain that they destroy.
-Unit and Hero experience requirements have been reduced at higher levels.
-Experience gained from attacking, defending, and healing has been increased from 4, 2, and 2 to 10, 5, and 5. This helps units level faster.
-Ice Terrain no longer gives a +20% bonus to gold. The idea that snow = money just never made sense to me.
-Lower the Lands has been changed from an area of effect spell to one that only affects a single tile. This gives the player more precision when terramorphing.
-Multiple resource spawn locations have been changed:
Adamantium and Nevril no longer appear on Ardania. This makes other lands important to explore.
Donkeys no longer appear in Lava (too hot) or Moon worlds (space donkeys?).
Pigs no longer appear in Lava or Moon worlds.
Magic Fields no longer appear in Desert, Ice, Lava, or Moon worlds.
Pumpkins no longer appear in Desert, Ice, Lava, or Moon worlds.
Dwarven Settlements no longer appear in Lava or Moon worlds.
Elven Villages no longer appear in Lava, Desert, or Moon worlds.
Halberd Halls no longer appear in Lava or Moon Worlds.
Koatl Villages no longer appear in Lava, Ice, or Moon worlds.
Minotaur Caves no longer appear in Lava, Ice, or Moon worlds.
-The casting time of both Create Artifact spells has been slightly increased. This was done to prevent a bug where, if you managed to cast either of these spells in a single turn, the game could crash.
-After much play testing, the Volcano spell was set back to its original casting time. Otherwise the AI would try to use it almost every turn.
-Divine terramorphing spells now work on most destroyed lands, even if their description doesn't say they do. Note that there's a difference between destroyed lands and destroyed mountains. Some divine terramorphing spells don't work on destroyed mountains, for the simple reason that they don't work on regular mountains either.
Bugs
I've tested this mod with more than a dozen hours of playtime. As far as I know, there aren't any bugs except those which already exist in the vanilla game. As with any mod, however, you use this at your own risk!
Possible Future Changes
Unit rebalancing and further bug fixing. If you have any feedback, let me know!
Thanks!
-D15
Download Ultimate Wizards here:
View attachment Ultimate Wizards.zip
Version 2
Thanks to everyone for your feedback! I’ve updated Ultimate Wizards with a new version 2.0 that has the following changes:
-Experience gained from attacking, defending, and healing has been lowered from 10, 5, and 5 to 5, 3, and 3.
-Ice Terrain once again gives a +20% bonus to Gold.
-Destroying a temple now reduces favor with a god by 20 (the default) instead of 10.
-Pig Farms now generate +10 food instead of +6. This was kind of a forgettable resource in the vanilla game and now it’s more valuable.
-Monster and Elves can now build Magic Gardens. Magic Fields are one of the most common resources, so I wanted to give all the races more options about what they could put on them.
-Upkeep for Invisibility has been raised from 3 to 10 mana. This is one of the strongest spells in the game and needed to be a little more expensive.
-Krolm’s Housecarls (easily the worst temple unit in the game) have had their Hit Points raised from 40 to 70 and their Damage raised from 16 to 20. Thanks to Xartah for suggesting these changes.
Download Ultimate Wizards Version 2 here:
View attachment Ultimate Wizards Version 2 - fixed.zip
Requirements
A legitimate copy of Warlock and ALL the DLC packs.
Compatibility
Ultimate Wizards is NOT compatible with temudjin-khan's "Impossible Mod" or Flyby's "Reduced spawns/More effective cleansing spell" mod. It should be compatible with saroumana's "Far away" mod, however, be aware that that mod can sometimes cause the game to crash when you try to generate a new map. When used by itself, Ultimate Wizards has no compatibility issues.
Installation
Drop d170.pack into your "Warlock - master of the arcane" folder. For example, if you're using the Steam version of Warlock, your path is probably something like:
C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\common\warlock - master of the arcane.
You'll know you're in the right place when you see 3 other .pack files, mainly d100.pack, d110.pack, and d120.pack. To uninstall the mod, simply delete d170.pack or move it out of the main Warlock folder.
Major Mod Changes
1) All spells have had their casting times cut in half and rounded down. For example, if a spell originally had a casting time of 10, it now has a casting time of 5. If a spell had a casting time of 15, it now has a casting time of 7. This goes a long way in taking care of "mana overflow", where you build up hundreds in mana, but aren't able to spend it fast enough. You should also see the AI casting spells more frequently. Moreover, this change stacks with spells that affect casting times. So if you can throw down enough buffs, you'll be casting like a wizard boss.
2) Perks have been dramatically strengthened. I wanted to make the different wizards really stand out from one another. Their perks now make a BIG difference. They should also make the AI a bit stronger.
3) Wizards have all been given new perks. Many of them have more than 10 points worth. I did this to make the AI's more powerful, and also to provide them with perk combinations that work well together. Note that, if you customize certain wizards and uncheck their perks, you’ll end up with more than 10 perk points. If you ONLY want the standard 10 perk points, you can hit the Reset button on the customization screen and that will clear your perks and give you 10 points. Also, keep in mind that you don't have to use all your perk points if you feel they make you too powerful.
Minor Mod Changes
-Heroes arrive much more frequently. As always, if you have a full complement of 4 heroes, no more will appear until you free up a slot.
-Resources can no longer be destroyed. Now, if a Dremer gate explodes or a volcano goes off beside a resource, it’ll act just like a Holy Ground or a Mystic Portal and stay as it is. At most, the terrain underneath it might change.
-There are no longer any penalties for offrace growth and resource production. These were easily dealt with by the player, but tended to hurt the AI, especially because the AI doesn't seem to specialize its cities.
-Dragon Queen's starting race has been changed from Humans to Elves. Everyone seems to agree on this.
-Clean the Land was turned into an area of effect spell. Note that this does NOT invalidate Restore Ardania, since Restore Ardania works on destroyed lands and Clean the Land doesn't.
-Master of War now gives +3 XP per turn instead of +1. I felt this trait was relatively useless in the vanilla game. Now, at least, it does something.
-Perception now gives +3 XP per turn instead of +1. Like Master of War, I felt this trait was fairly useless in its original state and needed a buff to make it useful.
-Koatl Villages now appear with the same frequency as Elven Villages and Dwarven Settlements. They were far too rare before.
-The Sepentorium now gives +30% Mana to make it more comparable to the bonuses provided by resource buildings in the Elven Villages and Dwarven Settlements.
-The 4 "Super Spells" (Mind of the Ancients, Pat of the Ancients, Care of the Ancients, and Dragonfire Storm) can now be learned like any other spell, albeit at huge research costs. They’ve had their casting times increased to make them slightly more balanced with other spells.
-Agrela's Summon Treewarden spell now correctly summons a Treewarden instead of a Demonwood.
-Elves can now build Dragon Conservatories on red dragon eggs.
-A god's "temple threshold" has been lowered from -10 to -95. This allows for dramatically increased temple options, since you can construct and use temples for a god until just before you become the champion for their rival. Note that divine spells are NOT affected by this change, so you still need to keep up a good relationship with a god if you want to use and research their magic.
-Destroying a temple now reduces favor with a god by 10 instead of 20.
-The frequency of volcano eruptions and falling meteors has been dramatically decreased in Armageddon mode. I felt that neither of these events added all that much to gameplay, and were mostly just annoyances. Moreover, they could badly hurt the AI, which never seems to clean up the terrain that they destroy.
-Unit and Hero experience requirements have been reduced at higher levels.
-Experience gained from attacking, defending, and healing has been increased from 4, 2, and 2 to 10, 5, and 5. This helps units level faster.
-Ice Terrain no longer gives a +20% bonus to gold. The idea that snow = money just never made sense to me.
-Lower the Lands has been changed from an area of effect spell to one that only affects a single tile. This gives the player more precision when terramorphing.
-Multiple resource spawn locations have been changed:
Adamantium and Nevril no longer appear on Ardania. This makes other lands important to explore.
Donkeys no longer appear in Lava (too hot) or Moon worlds (space donkeys?).
Pigs no longer appear in Lava or Moon worlds.
Magic Fields no longer appear in Desert, Ice, Lava, or Moon worlds.
Pumpkins no longer appear in Desert, Ice, Lava, or Moon worlds.
Dwarven Settlements no longer appear in Lava or Moon worlds.
Elven Villages no longer appear in Lava, Desert, or Moon worlds.
Halberd Halls no longer appear in Lava or Moon Worlds.
Koatl Villages no longer appear in Lava, Ice, or Moon worlds.
Minotaur Caves no longer appear in Lava, Ice, or Moon worlds.
-The casting time of both Create Artifact spells has been slightly increased. This was done to prevent a bug where, if you managed to cast either of these spells in a single turn, the game could crash.
-After much play testing, the Volcano spell was set back to its original casting time. Otherwise the AI would try to use it almost every turn.
-Divine terramorphing spells now work on most destroyed lands, even if their description doesn't say they do. Note that there's a difference between destroyed lands and destroyed mountains. Some divine terramorphing spells don't work on destroyed mountains, for the simple reason that they don't work on regular mountains either.
Bugs
I've tested this mod with more than a dozen hours of playtime. As far as I know, there aren't any bugs except those which already exist in the vanilla game. As with any mod, however, you use this at your own risk!
Possible Future Changes
Unit rebalancing and further bug fixing. If you have any feedback, let me know!
Thanks!
-D15
Download Ultimate Wizards here:
View attachment Ultimate Wizards.zip
Version 2
Thanks to everyone for your feedback! I’ve updated Ultimate Wizards with a new version 2.0 that has the following changes:
-Experience gained from attacking, defending, and healing has been lowered from 10, 5, and 5 to 5, 3, and 3.
-Ice Terrain once again gives a +20% bonus to Gold.
-Destroying a temple now reduces favor with a god by 20 (the default) instead of 10.
-Pig Farms now generate +10 food instead of +6. This was kind of a forgettable resource in the vanilla game and now it’s more valuable.
-Monster and Elves can now build Magic Gardens. Magic Fields are one of the most common resources, so I wanted to give all the races more options about what they could put on them.
-Upkeep for Invisibility has been raised from 3 to 10 mana. This is one of the strongest spells in the game and needed to be a little more expensive.
-Krolm’s Housecarls (easily the worst temple unit in the game) have had their Hit Points raised from 40 to 70 and their Damage raised from 16 to 20. Thanks to Xartah for suggesting these changes.
Download Ultimate Wizards Version 2 here:
View attachment Ultimate Wizards Version 2 - fixed.zip
Last edited:
