[LH 3.0] XtraDeconstruct: Legacy of Magic (Mod)

Latest News
Version 3.0 released on 18 January 2022.

Compatibility
Compatible w/ LH 3.0, all DLC, Children of Storm 1.8c, Black Market Bazaar 2.1, Champion Bonanza 1.3 (and more).

Note that XtraDeconstruct makes Children of Storm compatible w/ LH 3.0 and DLC05 (Leader Pack DLC).

Download
Download XtraDeconstruct: Legacy of Magic @ NexusMods. You will need a NexusMods Account (Free).

How-to Install
See A_UserGuide

Endorse
Go to your Nexus Download History to endorse Mods (Thumbs up).

Credits
Hellions, davrovana, Heavenfall, Dhuran, attackdrone, Vithar133, Stardock, and, most importantly, constructive feedback from users. See A_UserGuide for more information.

Official Thread
Go to XtraDeconstruct: Legacy of Magic @ Stardock. To post, you will need a Stardock Account (Free).

Enjoy

User Guide advises 64-bit system to play FELH + Xtra Deconstruct. FELH runs fine on my Win7-32 PC. Does it mean I can't use your mod?

Might have memory issues, which would make it crash a bit more, but I've done a lot of work since 2.0.e to make it more stable. Worth a try on your Win7-32 PC IMHO. Let me know how it goes.

OK, I'll try to give you some feedback as soon as possible.

I'm curious to know if it worked out for you or if it was too unstable on Win7-32?

Oh, sorry, I just forgot to send you a signal.

Yes, it does work. But I uninstalled it after an hour of playing, sorry :)

It seemed to me there's TOO much of everything there. I didn't have enough time to feel the difference in AI behavior (and I also have too little experience in unmodded FELH to get a feel about its natural AIs pros and cons). The visual style of some GUI elements (icons and such) seems unsuitable sometimes.
I think I'm not a best estimator though :), I'm not fond much of user-added content in games, especially graphics. I always preferred bug-fixing and other polishing.

Alright, glad to see it's working fine on Win7-32, I'll rewrite the warning differently.

Also, thanks for the additional feedback.

XtraDeconstruct 2.0j
[ Released 23 August 2016 ]

Nice job on this, Primal.

It took me some time to warm to it. I think that's because the new formatting of the text and all the spells and pseudo-spells is a bit jarring and un-lovely at first. The functionality is better though, once you get used to it. I think it was a good idea to get rid of the giant pictures in the spellbook, for example. You can supply more information without them.

If I have one request it would be for a "low-magic" version or setting. I like to play with slow build times and epic tech progression, and your mod seems to be a little more power-oriented than vanilla. Maybe it's my imagination, but I seem to be finding more essence squares, more magic items...that sort of thing. I'd like a way to make essence yields rare, and magic items really rare.

I haven't thoroughly tried out all the random map generation settings, however, so maybe that will help.

Ah yes, the formatting, users either love it or hate it... or get used to it I suppose.

By pseudo-spells, do you mean the market/resource spells (Buy/Sell/etc.)? If so, you can remove them by deleting the following files:
...\Documents\My Games\LegendaryHeroes\Mods\XtraDeconstruct\X_Spells\
XSS_Beer.xml
XSS_Buy.xml
XSS_Redistribution.xml
XSS_Sell.xml

The essence issue would be trickier to modify as its embedded in a file you can't delete without removing some other functionalities/fixes. You would have to edit XH_Terrains.xml w/ Notepad
...\Documents\My Games\LegendaryHeroes\Mods\XtraDeconstruct\X_Shared\XH_Terrains.xml
and then search (CTRL-F) for "TileYieldEssence" (without the quotes). You would find 11 occurrences which need to be deleted. The code that needs to be deleted would look like this (x11):
<GameModifier>
<ModType>Resource</ModType>
<Attribute>TileYieldEssence</Attribute>
<Value>###</Value>
<PerTurn>1</PerTurn>
</GameModifier>

Selecting Sparse Magic Strength and/or Spare Resource Frequency when you set up a game might also help as shards and resources have a tendency to increase essences on surrounding tiles. As well, Map Type Swamp/Desert/Mountainous/Ravaged would likely make essences less frequent. These choices, however, wouldn't help as much as editing XH_Terrains.xml , as described above.

Regarding magic items drop rate, I'm afraid this can't be changed as creatures (rather than just lairs) are now dropping items. The only indirect way I can think of to reduce the drop rate would be to reduce Monster Frequency (e.g. Sparse) and concentrate on fighting AI factions instead. Using a lower Quest Frequency and a lower Random Event Frequency would also help I guess, but not that much.

Thanks for the detailed response!

I appreciate the formatting and prefer it over vanilla now that I've acclimated to it. No need to remove the pseudo-spells.

I think the two main "power level" aspects I would like some control over are the number of item drops and the number of squares with essence yield. I will start by making a lower magic frequency desert map for my next game and see how it goes. The idea of fewer shards also appeals to me, now that I think about it.

Anyway, thanks again for your work on this. I was never able to make it all the way through a vanilla game without some annoying bug popping up and ruining my fun. This time I'm quite far into my XtraDeconstruct game and nothing bad has happened yet. Knock on wood.

All good then!

I did run a few tests w/ Desert + Sparse Magic Strength + Sparse/Moderate Resource Frequency and most settleable sites were 1 or 2 essence yield w/ the occasional 3. However, once I set Resource Frequency to Dense, I ran into a few areas w/ many 4/3/3 or 3/3/4 sites, mainly around two or more crystal crags.

Just a FYI, the 8 files you would need to edit to reduce drop rates are found in
...\Documents\My Games\LegendaryHeroes\Mods\XtraDeconstruct\XX_ThinkingMachines_C\
There's around 1200 Treasure entries that would need to be deleted. Probably a few hours to get this done properly.

Great. Thanks again, Primal.

I'm going to need more experience with the different map setting before I start changing things too much. I mean, I'm about two-thirds of the way through my first game with XtraDeconstruct. I'll play a couple more before I make up my mind about anything.

I'll probably start a new game tonight with different settings based on what I've learned from my current game.

There is a Quality of Life (QoL) fix now available for Sovereign order in the "Who are you?" screen.

QoL Fix download (Dropbox)
QoL info (Stardock)

EDIT: Links removed (Now included w/ 2.0.k.).