17/10/2023
Greetings, everyone! 👋
It's finally time for a major DoR update. Despite their rarity, actual progress is steady and constant, and, as the readers of Magazyn CD-Action might know, Palace is but one of the major features of the mod. Let's dive into the content.
The White Tiger and Sabertooth
(The Vori flag present in the creature images are prone to changes)
The level 3 creature in the Norse and winterland inspired Palace town, the auspicious White Tiger is a legendary creature dwelling in the caverns strewn all over the island of Vori. Strong, intelligent and agile, these beasts are hunters to be afraid of. It is no wonder that they are Vori's heraldic beast, a detail which also reflects the feline imagery found in real world heraldry.
Gameplay-wise, it is a very straightforward creature. Featured in both HoMM4 and HoMM7, White Tigers have always had a preemptive attack. That is, when targeted by an enemy, they retaliate before the enemy's attack. In DoR, we have decided to reuse this ability due to its simplicity, which is in line with other HoMM3 abilities, its thematic, which hints at the creature's feline agility and caution, as well as for consistency between game titles. For example, golems have always taken less damage from spells, whereas the sprites have always had an unrequited attack.
Its upgrade, the Sabertooth, has slightly better stats, but the main difference lies in its improved ability: not only does it retaliate before the enemy's attack, but also once more, after it. Thus, the ability doubles down on its feline traits.
Balance-wise, with stats comparable to those of the Griffin, but lacking its ability to fly - it is essentially a version of it that is slightly harder to get rid of in melee due to its more offensive retaliation(s), but easier to do so through ranged attacks, due to its inability to fly and reach the ranged creatures.
Let's talk some more about the Sabertooth. While we could have instead just made the basic version a regular tiger, or simply give more fur to the upgrade as well as slightly greater fangs, that would have been boring, and, in the case of the first option, would have not fit the town's color palette and also bring an overly exotic theme that is out of place in this faction. As such, we have taken a look at the lore of MM, as well as relevant media, and concluded that fitting them with armor and making them "fantastic" beasts all the way through by making them Sabertooth tigers was the most obvious course of action.
In HoMM4's Preserve campaign, second map, Elwin, the player-controlled protagonist, has the mission of forging an alliance between Aranorn (the Nature kingdom) and the White Tigers. There, he is surprised by a White Tiger, who, surprisingly, is sentient, capable of speech and even honorable. Lore-wise, this makes the White Tigers one of the very few "civilized" beasts. Obviously, they might want to protect themselves with armor. Not only that, but the sentient bears in the well-known "His Dark Materials" series are also known to wear armor, and this has been a major inspiration for the upgrade.
Lastly, the creature's visuals. There is little to discuss here. The creature was straightforward, and one of the first Palace creatures to be made. The basic version, a simple White Tiger, while the upgrade a Sabertooth with interlocking armor. No sketch was needed for this particular creature.
You will find some additional lore and content in the comments!
