Now,
not only can Heroes and Commanders earn experience, but creature stacks can
earn experience too, advancing in rank from 0 through 10. Experienced creatures
gain statistic and special ability bonuses as they go up in rank.
Gaining Stack Experience
After winning a battle lead by a
hero, each surviving creature gains experience. Stacks without heroes will not
gain experience*. Experience is equal to the experience gained by the Hero for
each battle. Thus, each creature gains an equal amount of experience from the
same battle. Creatures never gain experience from Learning Stones, Chests or
similar objects.
A stack’s experience rank is
displayed in the lower-right corner of the stack’s icon (just above the unit
number) in the hero and garrison screens. The stack will have one caret symbol
( ^ ) for each rank above zero. For every five ranks a stack attains, a sword
symbol replaces the previous four carets, so a stack at maximum experience (10
ranks) will have two swords.
* AI stacks in a garrison may gain
stack experience in a turn if AI heroes elsewhere gained experience because AI
stack experience is calculated slightly differently using a formula. Also,
WoGify scripts options may give neutral (unowned) creature stacks experience if
enabled.
Combining Experienced Stacks
If two stacks with different levels
of experience are combined, their experience is averaged. For example, if you
have a stack of 10 creatures with 10000 experience and combine it with a stack
of 20 creatures with 1000 experience, the resulting stack of 30 creatures will
have 4000 experience each: (10 * 10000 + 20 * 1000) / 30 = 4000.
Stack Experience Screen
To see a stack's experience detail
screen (current and future bonuses), click or double-click (as needed) on the
stack to bring up the creature information dialogue and then right-click on the
creature portrait. You can do this in the hero screen, in the garrison or on
the battlefield.
The stack experience screen shows a
stack’s current experience, current rank, stat and special ability bonuses, any
stack artifacts carried and other pertinent details. Special abilities not yet
gained will have a greyed-out pictured. To see more information about a special
ability, right-click on the ability. To see more stack information details,
right-click on the creature portrait located in the upper-left of the stack
experience screen.
Note: a stack's statistic bonuses
won't be visible (other than in the experience details screen) except in
combat, and special ability bonuses are not displayed in the normal creature
ability window.
Editing Stack Experience Defaults
There are two text files that govern
stack experience:
Crexpmod.txt - set experience
needed to go up a rank and experience lost when upgrading.
Crexpbon.txt - set all stat
and special ability bonuses gained at each rank.
You can find both files in the
Heroes3\Data\Text Resources\Copy folder, along with text files giving full
information about them. The text files must be placed in the Heroes3\Data
folder to work.
The easiest way to edit the files is
to open them in the latest ERM Scripter. To do this, open the file normally and
then press Ctrl-Alt-Q (or click on the arrow-head next to the blue-circle-arrow
icon) to reopen the file in "table mode" so that you can easily edit
the columns. Once it's open in table mode, click on the arrow-head next to the
icon with the double-arrow and "A" above it. This will autosize all
columns.
