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Let's discuss the greatest fantasy turn based strategy series of all time.
>Heroes of Might and Magic III
The greatest fantasy strategy game ever made, contender for best TBS ever along withSMAC obviously.
>Heroes of Might and Magic IV
Greatest soundtrack in the series, most innovative game too but unfortunately it didn't have enough time (money) to flesh out its good ideas and fix the bad ones.
>Heroes of Might and Magic V
An admirable attempt to capture the magic of the 3rd game, while still trying to incorporate some ideas from the 4th.
Haven't played the rest, although I had the 2nd game on my backlog ever since I got it for free 20 years ago. From what I've heard it's just a more imbalanced version of 3, with less options.Just like M&M VI is to VII!
I missed the 30 year anniversary last year, just like Olden Era missed its release date to commemorate the anniversary.
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>>2322641
Heroes of Might & Magic needs
>good AI
>a way to recover from when you lose your best hero+army / when the AI loses its shitstack on some random shit hero with shit skills
>multiplayer balance that allows for played maps that aren't Jesus on the Cross
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>>2323925
>>2323850
>Heroes 3 doesn't even have comeback mechanics
>a way to recover from when you lose your best hero+army / when the AI loses its shitstack on some random shit hero with shit skills
I'm not sure if it needs it, but it's probably the biggest flaw in the series.
I don't know a good way to fix it either.
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>>2324107
Civ
The thing about homm is that if you win a big fight, you delete the enemy army and you gain a lot of experience.
Even if it's a tough fight and you lose most of your army, you still gained all of the experience.
Promotions for units in civ games aren't really that massive, so there's more room for back and forth. You also have other ways of achieving victory, so even losing armies and a city there's another path forward to victory.
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>>2323925
>a way to recover from when you lose your best hero+army
why? If you lose, why should you have a way to win?
For me, the entire point of homm3 scenarios is the lead up to and having a massive final fight between the most powerful heroes of each faction. If you lose badly to the point where the enemy keeps most of its force alive, you can't and shouldn't be able to come back.
Granted, the AI should just surrender at that point instead of playing a retarded cat & mouse game with weak enemy remnants
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>>2324550
>For me, the entire point of homm3 scenarios is the lead up to and having a massive final fight between the most powerful heroes of each faction
Yeah but this literally never happens. The AI never picks up the best hero on offer, and even if you spoonfeed it (I'm talking not only giving that hero a high level/good skills and good army, but also double check on the hero in a save editor to make sure the AI is still using him/her) it will, at the first opportunity, ditch the hero somewhere and split his stack into three shit heroes with Eagle Eye, 1 ATK at level 10 and Artillery.
Of course I as the player never thought to myself "gee wilikers, I wish I had a comeback mechanic", I want the AI to at least provide a bit of a challenge after I wipe its "one good hero's good army that I had to forcefeed into said hero split into X". It's like the AI loves to divide itself so its easier to conquer.
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How accurate is this map?
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>>2328652
First, I'd recommend that you install the unofficial HD mod, if you haven't done so already. It's just a matter of convenience for you. You can run heroes3.exe using the HD launcher.
Then, play the tutorial if you want (it relies on you having a H3 manual, but you can complete the tutorial even without it). If you understand the mechanics, just go straight to campaigns.
Afterwards, play the Restoration of Erathia campaigns, then Armageddon Blade and close it off with Shadow of Death. Starting RoE campaigns are tutorial-tier easy, AB steps it up a notch and SoD has some genuinely tricky missions on harder difficulties.
VERY IMPORTANT: After every completed mission, you will be prompted to save the game. Always do so. When you complete a campaign, you will see a golden check mark on the select screen of the campaign you finished. If you do not start another campaign from that point, the game will disregard you completed that prior campaign, and you will not be able to access the hidden campaigns that require you to complete all the previous ones. See picrel for how your campaign screen should look eventually.
At this point, you have either had enough of the game or you want more. If it's the latter, then you've got two options:
1. Play the single scenario maps (there's comfortably over a hundred of them) included in the Complete Edition.
2. Download the unofficial expansions. The official unofficial one is the Horn of the Abyss expansion, with its own set of scenarios and campaigns.
ALSO IMPORTANT: These expansions were made by and tuned for people with advanced autism who've been playing the game for the past two decades. Do not feel bad if you need to lower the difficulty to medium or easy.
>>2328679
This is also a good tip.
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>>2328652
Ignore
>>2328679
listen to me instead. Play Necropolis and play with instant battle results in HD mod disabled at first, so you don't get lazy and rely on it and its possibly superior results to your beginner combat skills. Necropolis teaches you the value of preserving your big stacks early and using tiny stacks as distraction/bait for AI, while still having to win with pawn-like units (Necro has no shooters early) before Vampire Lords and Liches.
t. learned how to play Heroes with Necropolis+Thant first
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>>2328691
>listen to me instead. Play Necropolis
see, this is the first issue that >>2328679 talks about. Play whatever faction you want. Play what you think is coolest. Play the hero that looks the coolest. Don't read wikis, don't listen to minmaxers ITT, don't play the game to be "taught" to be the best. Play however you want.
You will fail a lot and you will have tons of fun failing.
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>>2324107
the most fundamental comeback mechanic in strategy games is distance. if you're fighting in the enemy base your production is delayed by travel time
but in H3 you just pony express that shit right across the map
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>>2328679
>Hero feels like the enemy is way too strong for them
>"Do you wish to retreat?"
>Click the tick because the tick means yes, thus I want to retreat
>In actuality the tick made me engage and she died
:/
>>2328686
Yeah I found the HD mod when googling for how to put the game in window mode, it's nice.
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>>2327417
Antagarich is fine but the other two continents are awkwardly cut out when from the maps presented from the games you might guess there's more to them. See pic related.
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>>2328763
And Jadame here. Although thanks to incoming Homm Older Era at least we can see the whole of Jadame (oriented upside-down in comparison to the M&M8 map). Also I don't know if the placement of the continents in relation to themselves was even canonical stated.
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>>2322641
The Older Era devs are teasing something "ancient". Whatever that might be.
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>>2324550
>If you lose, why should you have a way to win?
This. Scrubs need to STFU and git gud
>>2324575
>I want the AI to at least provide a bit of a challenge
Have you tried having 7 AIs in a team against you?
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>>2329634
https://www.maps4heroes.com/forum/opinions.php?map_id=2387&game=3
https://www.maps4heroes.com/forum/opinions.php?map_id=1922&game=3
https://www.maps4heroes.com/forum/opinions.php?map_id=2652&game=3
https://www.maps4heroes.com/forum/opinions.php?map_id=2793&game=3
https://www.maps4heroes.com/forum/opinions.php?map_id=2268&game=3
https://www.maps4heroes.com/forum/opinions.php?map_id=1791&game=3
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>>2329992
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My 2026 skill buffwishlist:
>Artillery/Ballistics
Merge in one, add a new racial skill into the empty slot formerly occupied by Ballistics. Although... I guess adding new slots is not a problem?
>(Artillery+Ballistics) & First Aid
You can restore X% of your ballista/first aid tent every turn, even after it's destroyed. I don't like the "MOM SAID you can't deal more than 40% of damage in one attack" added in HotA.
>Eagle Eye
Last time I wrote a post like this on /vst/, it needed buffing, but now they made it tolerable in HotA (only looked it up as I was writing this).
>Pathfinding
Heroes with Pathfinding get no negatives when traveling on terrain where the majority of their army is from. Would make this a feature given to everyone to be honest.
>Scouting
At expert you also get the Rogue's spy ability.
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guess that's the ancient news
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>>2330260
25 years out of notable game development, and it's not like he was some auteur solo dev that made everything himself before that.
Credit for what he did back then, but there's very little actual value in bringing him in.
He's basically just there for legitimacy.
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>>2330297
No, that would get immediately powergamed by the hotties.
>Hehe look how strong Fortress Beastmasters (only) and Cove heroes and Academy heroes are now! I can carry my multiracial shitstack all over the hardest terrains! Pathfinder is irrelevant nos on my bestheroes TM!
Since movement is always based on the units you have (heroes only enhance it/reduce penalties), so should the ability to travese natural terrain naturally be linked to your units. If I could I would also double down on penalties for race mixing.
All units, same faction? +2 morale instead of +1.
All units, same alignment? +1 morale base, if good or evil, +0 base if neutral.
If you add a neutral to all good or all evil, goes to +0 base.
If you add an evil to all good or a good to all evil, -1 base morale.
Undead with living creatures, regardless of alignments = always extra -1 base morale on top of everything else.
Each hostile faction unit mixed in, -1 morale (so if you have 3x Castle, 2x Rampart, 1x Tower = +1 -2 = -1 base morale if there's a hostile faction with Tower and hostile faction with Rampart)
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>>2330333
>split goblins into all slots
>you are now a desert wind
>split gnolls into all slots
>you are now swamp proof
that's retarded anon. Just a bad idea altogether and you yourself explain why
>umm ackshually you should do calculations of total HP of a faction in your roster and include all artifact and hero skill modifiers into the formula
far too autistic of an idea
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>>2330343
>Each unit counts as one, regardless of how many stacks you split them to.
There. BOOM.
Same goes for the morale, so you don't get -6 morale from having 6 separate stacks of your enemy Dungeon's Evil Eyes in your Rampart party.
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>>2330260
wow how long until release? Two more weeks? What an ingenious PR move. If only they fired all the retarded MP niggers from design positions and had this guy from the beginning, we could be looking at a decent game that also doesn't look like chinese mobile gacha slop
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Why do some Heroes with unit speciality end up with disproportionately higher stats than others, even though they're specialized in like 2-4 level creatures?
https://heroes.thelazy.net/index.php/Comparison_of_Creature_Specialtie s
1) 92 total, 1x level 3 specialist
2) 84 total, 3x level 2
3) 78 total, 2x level 2
4) 76 total, 1x level 3
5) 72 total, lots of level 2 and 3s, but also Death Knights who have the same total as Skeletons, the only level 1 in top 5, two level 4s and a level 5
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>>2332053
Creatures have different stats.
tier2 Battle Dwarves have 7 attack skill and 7 defense skill, in total 14.
Every 2 levels Ufretin increases their stats by 20%.
At level 60 he increases their stats by 600%.
14*6=84
Tier2 Wolf Raiders have 8 attack skill and 5 defense skill, in total 13.
13*6=78
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Spell Balance Patch
== Air Magic ==
>Level 1
Disguise
Disrupting Ray
Haste
View Air
+
>Level 2
FortuneSpell cost reduced to 6 (5). Removes Misfortune.
Lighting Bolt
Mirth
>Level 3
Air Shield
Hypnotize
PrecisionSpell cost increased to 18 (15). Single target effect. Increases attack by 10/15%. Removes range penalty at Expert Air Magic.
>Level 4
Chain Lightning
Counterstrike
Magic MirrorSpell cost is 24 (20). 30/40/50% chance of deflection, increased by Luck.
>Level 5
Fly
Summon Air Elemental
== Earth Magic ==
>Level 1
Shield
Slow
Stone Skin
View Earth
>Level 2
Earth QuakeSpell cost 9 (7). Applies the effects formerly applied by Quicksand.
MisfortuneSpell cost reduced to 6 (5). Removes Fortune.
Sorrow
>Level 3
Animate Dead
Death RippleBase spell cost stays the same, so Earth Magic reduces it to 7 instead of 8.
Force Field
>Level 4
Anti-Magic
Meteor Shower
Resurrection
>Level 5
Implosion
Summon Earth Elemental
== Fire Magic ==
>Level 1
BlindSpell cost "increased" to 10 (9) - the Fire Magic reduction is only 1 at level 1.
Bloodlust
Curse
SlayerSpell cost reduced to 10 (9). Adds an attack bonus when when attacking level 7 units. Attack bonus equal to 1+(half the level difference of the attacking unit, rounded up). Increases to 1+(level difference of the attacking unit, rounded up). Affects all units at Expert Fire Magic.
>Level 2
FireballSpell cost reduced to 12 (10). Damage reduced by 5 (60->55) at Expert Fire Magic.
Fire Wall
Frenzy
>Level 3
Fire Shield
InfernoSpell cost reduced to 15 (12). Damage increased by 10 (80->90) at Expert Fire Magic
Land Mine
>Level 4
Armageddon
Berserk
Sacrifice
>Level 5
Dimension Door
Summon Fire Elemental
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>>2332528
== Water Magic ==
>Level 1
Bless
Cure
Dispel
Remove ObstacleCost reduced to 5 (4) spell points. At advanced/expert, prevents Fire Wall/magical obstacles from being placed again next turn.
Summon BoatCost reduced to 1 (0) spell points.
>Level 2
Ice Bolt
Weakness
Destroy Undead *Cost reduced to 10 (8) spell points. Casting the spell prevents Animate Dead and Resurrection on both sides (Advanced Water Magic) on your enemy's side (Expert Water Magic).
>Level 3
Forgetfulness
Frost Ring
Teleport
>Level 4
Clone
Prayer
Water Walk *You can now end your turn on water. You can enter an empty boat (i.e. from Summon Boat) if you're stuck in water.
>Level 5
Town Portal *You can now teleport to any unoccupied allied town from the start, but you lose all your movement points/half your movement points/no movement points. You need to have a minimum of 300 movement points to cast the spell.
Summon Water Elemental
Summon Boat and Water Walk don't appear in Mage Guilds if there is no water on the map. Summon Boat appears in every player's Mage Guild level 1 on maps with water.
Scuttle Boat is no longer a spell, but something you can do when clicking on a boat, instead of boarding it.
>Generic Spells
>Level 1
Magic Arrow
>Level 2
Visions
>Level 4
Protection from Magic *Protects all friendly units, reducing damage from all spells by 15%. You automatically get Protection from X Magic if you get Basic X Magic. Protection from X Magic casts Protection from Magic and gives you an additional 25/35/45% damage reduction from X spells at Basic/Advanced/Expert X Magic.
If I forgot to mention the spell cost on some of the spells I moved up/down a rank, they are automatically adjusted to cost the same they used to with Basic X Magic, so the base cost goes up/down according.
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>>2332531
this but unironically, unironically
when I listen to the Russky's and near-Russky's talk about how to play their HotA matches, it makes me sick to the stomach
>nooooo I spawned on my favorite terrain, that's terrible because I need to fill my army with diversity from my heckin templetarino
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>>2330317
I was under the impression that he made some of the games (like M&M1 and King's Bounty) completely on his own. Regardless, I'm still incredibly butthurt about Underworld Ascendant, so I automatically dismiss having people that made great games 25 years ago on your team as anything but memberberry bait. Time will tell, maybe he has some advice that will make the game better.
But speaking of JVC, here's an interview with him (and also the fat fuck from unfrozen), some pretty neat insights into older games' development.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wRJDA1zUJY
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>>2333055
>I was under the impression that he made some of the games (like M&M1 and King's Bounty) completely on his own.
Just m&m1 as far as I know, and that's not really the work of an auteur.
I think of him as a strategy games hall of famer, but not a singular talent and an untapped goldmine they can draw from.
Honestly not sure if such a person even exists within video games, like maybe at best in the writing department you could get a guy who was good and relevant 25 years ago and he could write for a new game, but I don't know. Game design relies on too many factors.
>Regardless, I'm still incredibly butthurt about Underworld Ascendant, so I automatically dismiss having people that made great games 25 years ago on your team as anything but memberberry bait
I do feel a bit smug seeing Stormgate fail after seeing so many people getting hyped over old blizzard devs.
Yeah saw the interview it was really interesting.
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Don't forget about Hammer of the Gods which was made before Heroes 1.
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