|
quote:Please have a look at the king of Fantasy TBS Combat - Fantasy General. It made the distinction between units that are squads and the ones that are individuals matter by basically letting individuals always fight at full strenght and be easier to heal (although that latter part probably won't be relevant - FG differentiated between deaths and wounded in combat). It also had a few squads that were incredible badasses that never lost combat power because for every casualty the remainder just fought that much harder. Ehhhhhhhhhh...very different games. It works in Fantasy General because units have the option of trying to retreat or rest up after every "attack". This is more of a HOMM* style "zoom in from the over-map, two or more armies battle to the death" kind of game where units that lose half their DPS for the entire battle because someone winged them in the first round would be garbage. In any event, super excited about this. Almost makes me want to start up another Shadow Magic campaign where I inevitably burn out halfway through. Again. *Different from HOMM primarily in that you don't stack units. Instead you have up to 8 (or six, or whatever they decide on.) units in a stack, and you can fight larger battles by having more army stacks adjacent when the battle begins. So you can surround a stack on the overmap and you will begin the tactical battle with an identical surround. Or just fight huge battle made up of several adjoining stacks on both sides. It's pretty drat cool.
|
#
¿
Feb 9, 2013 08:21
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 05:14 |
|
|
quote:Also, please include at least 1 lizardy race, either the Lizardmen or Draconians, I like lizards and dragons. Yes, please. Only a tragically small number of games let you play as Lizardmen even though they own.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 9, 2013 15:46
|
|
|
quote:I agree with this, I don't mind having a smaller selection of races if the units have some nice variety. As I understand, the Dark Elves and Wood Elves have joined forces, so the Elves and Dark Elves from the previous games are now 1 faction which should be interesting. Right. Archons would pretty much be Humans+Theocrat under this scheme, while Wood Elves could be Elves+Druid and Dark Elves Elves+Rogue. Nomads don't need to be their own faction either, even though they were hella fun. So, for a list of 6... Humans, Elves and Goblins are confirmed. Dwarves and Orcs are very likely. That only leaves one real floating slot for either Halflings, (boo!) Undead, (Eh) Lizardmen/Draconians (Yes, dammit!) and Tigrans. (I always kinda liked Tigrans and their egyptian/desert nomad thing, honestly.) Hmmm. Tough choices, for sure. Merging Orcs and Goblins would help and free up another slot. quote:So we got Humans, Elves, Orcs and Goblins (assuming they are a seperate faction). That leaves 2 races. I assume none of the Shadow Magic races will be returning. So that leaves Dwarves, Halflings, Draconians, Frostlings, Nomads, Tigrans and Undead. I'm guessing it will be the Undead and Draconians returning and the Dwarves and Halflings will be either neutrals or mixed with the existing races. Other races will go neutral too I guess. That's not a bad list either. After breaking it down I think 8 would be ideal, but there's always the possibility of DLC/expansions, I guess. madmac fucked around with this message at 17:50 on Feb 9, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Feb 9, 2013 17:47
|
|
|
quote:I love the AoW series but heroes were pretty broken especially in the campaigns due to the low unit limit. I ignored basically 80% of the first game's campaign maps because I could just beeline the enemy heroes with my superpowered killing machines, and in Shadow Magic you could just create absurd artifacts for your heroes as soon as you got a decent city. To be fair this was a real weakness of earlier AoW games. The limits on units per hex and production cap (one unit per turn max) meant that flooding with weak units wasn't at all viable compared to bringing the best doomstacks you could produce. It's not all bad, but some sort of mechanic to encourage using a variety of units would be helpful. The shared unit/building queue was also an issue. It meant pumping out lower level units was actively bad because it made teching up impossible. That one at least is an easy fix.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 9, 2013 19:17
|
|
|
quote:Leprechauns are jerks and need to all die. drat those happy little bastards as they dance on the corpses of my best army. Leprechauns are wonderful. Except when they get attacked by a goblin swordsman and die in one hit. Seriously though the sheer hit/miss randomness of SM was the worst thing, so happy to have it gone. I still want my Lizards and/or Draconians though.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 28, 2013 16:46
|
|
|
quote:So, in a strange twist, ive just had two of my friends (who are respectible in their opinions) say to me that Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes is "Not Awful" and i should try it. One of them says the only flaw he thinks so far is its micro heavy. I haven't done more then toy around with it a bit, but yeah I've seen a lot of people saying it's actually good since it's been in beta. Someone should probably just make a thread already. quote:Oh my god I hate you I thought there was news You know they've been posting Dev journals, right? http://www.ageofwonders.com/dev-journal-ii-all-sorts-of-mounts/
|
|
#
¿
May 25, 2013 16:56
|
|
|
The cannons also seemed unable to fire every round without the engineers speeding them up.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 23, 2013 16:53
|
|
|
quote:Age of Wonders has never used that system (units getting weaker as they take damage), so I don't see how they are "dumbing down" anything if they just keep the game as it has always been. In fact, that particular mechanic was only considered because they made the move from units representing a single individual to units representing a group of individuals. Yeah, it's the fact that this request keeps popping up because of a graphical change that irks me a bit. Even more so when low-level units have a history of being sorta garbage in earlier games in this series so the last thing I want as an AOW fan is for them to be pre-emptively nerfed for purely aesthetic reasons. You can do death spiral mechanics and I've enjoyed games that have done it well but it's not some easy-peasy thing you can just drop into a strategy game without completely changing how it is played.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 23, 2014 23:56
|
|
|
quote:On the topic of changing unit strengths to reflect loss of health, I'm only against it because its not a thing AOW had before. Am i being old and grumpy and basically yelling at you punk kids for wanting new and terrifying things? Nah. I think it's a workable mechanic but I'm not a huge fan of it being shoehorned into everything just because. In particular it makes ranged attacks/magic/aoe effects extremely powerful which bends balance in a direction I don't prefer in my magic and explosions everywhere fantasy small-unit tactics game. Mind you, I give absolute zero fucks about anyone's precious immersion, so there's that. On topic, I have to agree the Draconian models looks like they could use a bit of work. Less squished looking faces, and wings that don't look quite as much like sad vestigal stubs. I'd prefer tails too but I have a feeling that's not happening. madmac fucked around with this message at 18:21 on Jan 25, 2014 |
|
#
¿
Jan 25, 2014 18:13
|
|
|
I'm going to have the hardest time picking a starting class, I can tell. Archdruid sounds amazing, but I haven't even gotten to the other class videos yet. (watching those how two videos) I'm really liking the range of techs and unique units/spells each class has.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 31, 2014 13:35
|
|
|
I wasn't paying much attention to the previews/videos for this game over the last few weeks. I guess I just assumed races were going to be more generic then they are. They actually all look pretty cool and interesting in their own right! Makes me want more races in the expansion for sure. Not going to make choosing a race/class combo any easier, though. Druids just seem cool and versatile, whereas I like the Rogues narrow focus on melee/stealth/cities/fear/poison for a very thematic playstyle. Dreadnaughts I'm avoiding for now because hipster, but they seem to have limited but extremely powerful options. Sorcerers look like they live up to their magic focus, and ...I haven't looked at Theocrats or Warlords yet. I'm sure they're also awesome.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 31, 2014 16:34
|
|
|
I'm a stats nut, so I spent some time comparing the basic racial units and bonuses. Shallow overview if you're having a hard time deciding on your race/class combo. Humans: All units have Mariner. (No Disembark Penalty) Mostly average to weak units across the board. Longswordsmen are pretty good basic infantry. Priests have holy damage/resist and the strongest heal ability which grants will power as a side effect. Basic Cavalry is meh but Knights are kickass. Elves: All units have Forestry and Blight Vulnerability 20%. A handful of units also have Night Vision. Units generally trade a little bit of defense for extra resist. Very strong (Best) Ranged Units, including good shock damage/resist. Storm Sisters have a powerful stun move, but no heals or buffs. Infantry is below average. Get sweet-rear end Unicorn Cav with Armor Piercing and Teleportion. Top end unit is one of only two flyers, decently tough. Orcs All Units have Night Vision, like +1 HP and lowish Resist. Pretty Poor ranged/caster units, although their Razorbows can Bleed and the Orc Priest has a lot of HP. Crazy kickass offensive infantry, in contrast to the Dwarves equally good but more defensive units. Orc and Dwarf infantry basically curbstomp their equivalents. Orc Shock Troopers have Huge HPs and Attack along with Bleed and Tireless, giving them unlimited AoO and retaliation attacks. Orc Black Knights are also very strong. Toughest basic Cav and equipped with polearms to murder other horsies. Goblins All Gobbo units have Night Vision, Cave Crawling, Wetland Crossing, and 60% (or higher) Blight Resist Most of their units do primary or secondary blight damage but have really poor HPs, and slightly lower def/resist Goblin Caster can dish out blight vulnerability, making Gobbo on Gobbo fights take slightly less then eternity. Infantry is slightly less garbage then you'd expect, and basic sword units have concealment underground. Ultimate Unit is Big Beetle, pretty tough and can still tunnel and crush walls with ease. Dwarves All Dwarf units get Mountaineering, Cave Crawling, Night Vision, and Blight Resistance 20% Medicore ranged and Cav, holy poo poo so awesome infantry. Flame Priests are oddly tanky and provide a good source of flame damage/resist along with a bit of healing. Ultimate Unit is Firstborn, obscenely tough and immune to a whole list of crap. Draconians All units gets Fast Healing, Fire Protection 20/Cold Weakness 20 Overall, tons of fire damage and resistance. Slightly low Defense/Resist on most units Basic Ranged unit trades multiple attacks for a small fire aoe. Elder hands out bonus morale/flame resist/flame strike. Fairly average offensive oriented infantry. Cav is Eh, Draconian Flyers are arguably the best flying unit and pretty good.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 1, 2014 03:45
|
|
|
Yeah. As much as the frostlings were cool for being ice themed, I don't think the race filling that niche needs to be ice goblins particularly.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 1, 2014 15:17
|
|
|
quote:Also I wasn't entirely sure based on my playing, but is there multiple types of units at each tier for each race/class? Like are there multiple tier 1 infantry/archers/etc? How varied is unit selection for a particular race/class combo? For Races, the basic structure is pretty much: Tier 0: Some sort of weak ranged skirmisher type unit. Tier 1: A Sword Infantry Unit, a Spear Infantry Unit, and an Archer/Ranged Unit Tier 2: Cavalry Unit, Support/Caster Unit Tier 3: Every race has a powerful unique unit for this slot. Uber Cav, Flying Units, MegaDwarfs, ect. Your Class Choice gives you some additional units that slot in with your racial units, but I'm not positive on the exact number or if it's the same across classes. Your one Tier 4 is always tied to your class, though. EG Horned Giants for Druids or Giant Landships for Dreadnaughts.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 1, 2014 18:17
|
|
|
To follow-up on my basic overview of racial units, here's a (very) shallow look at the various unique class units. On the subject of races, elves have a neat hidden perk of always use longbows instead of shortbows. So Mounted Elven Archers for example use longbows whereas any other type still has shortbows. Warlord The Warlords main gimmick with units is essentially having higher-tier units of all the basic types available. Mounted Archers are just archers with extra durability and movement, for example. Berserkers are like Orc Greatswords but with higher stats and immunity to mind control. Phalanx are the strongest spear unit in the game, a very tanky tier 3 unit with an attack that cripples movement. Warbred are just big old meatsticks designed to rush in and smash through walls. With 80 HP, 36 Mv and 20 Dam they do that very well. Monster Hunters are an oddity, sort of a kickass Tier 2 crossbowman with swimming and a host of slayer skills. (Fey, Giant, Dragon, Animal) Manticore are their most feared units and for good reason. It's a monstrous Tier 4 flyer without any real gimmick, just raw stats. (Also they have First Strike, which I don't know how I missed. That's brutal.) Dreadnaught By contrast, the Dreadnaughts are all about their vast mechanized army. Only two of their units are influenced by race at all, (Musketeer, Engineer) but races with strong Cav have a very nice perk with the sidearms upgrade. Machines are totally immune to spirit and blight damage but vulnerable to shock. There's also various spells and abilities (sabotage) designed to counter them directly. In general they have a lot of HPs and phy def but low resistance. Spy Drone: Basic flying/scouting unit with a hilariously powerful death explosion. It's tempting to build these just as suicide bombers. Musketeers: Very powerful ranged infantry with a slow firing rate. With relatively high HPs and Defense they aren't particularly vulnerable to melee. Engineers: Key support unit with an ability that refreshes cooldowns. A lot of Dreadnaught units can only attack every other round normally, so this is pretty handy. Also have a lot of Fire Resist and a respectable shotgun attack. Cannon: It's a cannon! slow but hilariously powerful ranged attack, and tougher then you'd expect. Flame Tank: Combines a powerful AOE Flame Attack with an even more powerful AOE death explosion. Bane of hordes of weak things everywhere, countered by high fire resistance. Golem: Almost all Deadnaught units are artillery, so it's nice to have a simple bruiser/wall crusher like this. Does nothing fancy but can soak a lot of damage. Ironclad: Congratulations on achieving naval superiority with one unit. Juggernaught: The tree-mulching monster featured heavily in previews. Super-heavily armored super-artillery unit, straight up. Also has a one shot broadside attack to discourage surrounding tactics. It's...not safe. Arch Druid Druid has the lowest number of unique units, only because their primary gimmick is summoning hordes of random animals and I can't be bothered to make an extensive list right now. They also have a lot of focus on boosting ranged units and slowing/hindering spell effects to make them more effective. Elves have wicked synergy with Arch Druids for obvious reasons. Hunters are basically just archers with a ton of movement bonuses, forest concealment and animal charm. They aren't an amazing battlefield unit but they're cheap and make great explorers, especially with animal convert snowball potential. Shamans are one of the best caster units in the game. They give no fucks about any sort of terrain or hindering effects, great stats, poison bolts, swimming, concealment, animal charm, and best of all can lock down units with Entangle. They're basically SM Druids on steroids and should be abused liberally. Ancestral Spirits: One of many ghost units, and probably the least impressive. They're extremely tough against physical damage and immune to spirit damage entirely, but they don't have the damage output to be a real threat. Their spirit break (-2 Def, Res) is however a useful way to soften up targets for your ranged units to hammer, and druids do love spamming archers. Horned God: Simply awesome looking and very powerful Tier 4 summon. They're a melee monster for the most part but they do have a cool long range lightning attack and are resistant to most forms of damage. Ugh, out of time. I'll go over the other three classes later. madmac fucked around with this message at 16:22 on Apr 2, 2014 |
|
#
¿
Apr 2, 2014 15:23
|
|
|
Demiurge4 posted:This is probably a symptom of the way classes change the game pretty fundamentally. I use racial units very sparingly and highly favour my class units. For example I tend to build rifle heavy armies with a strong alpha strike supported by only a few swordsmen base unit. Sometimes in the late game I'll supplement the rifles with spears though since the first strike is really strong for defending. I've played dreadnought mostly so far though so I don't have a lot of insight into the other classes yet. The golem is a wonderful slugger though and really complements a dread army. I actually think of rifles as primary support until you get those big units in as well. The fact they can only fire once every 2 turns is really bad for even engagements. It varies with class, I think. Dreadnaught stands out for having basically an entirely separate tech tree, whereas Druids and Sorcerers for example are much more reliant on summons and only get a couple of actual added recruitable units. (I think Sorceress gets...one?) They still need racial units to fill out their armies at least until late game. Warlords get a good selection of uniques but they're all humanoid, which means race bonuses remain an interesting calculation for them throughout the game. They have a few holes they can fill with racial units, too. Theocrats have a few good class units but you can't rely entirely of them, Rogues get some awesome irregulars and that's it, not even a Tier 4. It's a cool focused playstyle but if you want to build anything besides ninja's and ghost ninja's and charmers you'll be falling back on racial units pretty quick. quote:Don't get me wrong, I know there are the class ones and they can make armies too, but I'd just like some more racial units. Like I say, the other games were the same, it's not exclusive to AoW3. I can't remember ever making a Halfling army that wasn't just Leprechauns for example. I get what you're saying. The old races could be pretty samey, but they at least got 2 (3 with SM) Tier 3 units and a Tier 4, whereas AOW 3 has classes fill in most of the high tier slots, leaving races lacking some of the cooler options they used to have, but that's hard to avoid with the new race/class system. It wouldn't hurt if we had more races though, especially some that aren't standard fantasy archtypes. madmac fucked around with this message at 19:01 on Apr 2, 2014 |
|
#
¿
Apr 2, 2014 18:55
|
|
|
Kanos posted:I don't think I really get Draconians. Flyers are godlike, Raptors are dangerous, and Elders are pretty great, but their other troops feel like they have too many weaknesses. Chargers and Crushers do insane psycho damage but they're so slow and fragile that they get ripped to pieces trying to employ it. Flamers are great against enemies that cluster but terrible shooters otherwise. Hatchlings seem utterly pointless; I can babysit a terribly weak, fragile unit to gold medal to get a free tier 1 or tier 2 unit, whoop de doo why wouldn't I just build the unit itself for 15 more gold? Well at least they're staying true to their AOW2/SM roots! Seriously, they had the exact same problem in the older games. Hatchlings were useless, their infantry was weird and not very effective, Flamers (Cone based, but similar concept) were at best situational, and their whole gameplay revolved around Elder/Flyer/Dragon spam. Sucked early and powerful late. That said, I haven't actually played around with them yet in this game, so maybe I'm overlooking something. Chargers at least have the potential to butcher Cav if they can get in range.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 2, 2014 22:12
|
|
|
LordSloth posted:I haven't had the opportunity to play with the dracs yet, so take this with a grain of salt. Yeah, I'm going to try them tonight too if I can and see how they do. Fast Healing is definitely a thing, I believe it makes them heal twice as fast as normal units. I think Draconians may actually be a really good fit for Warlord. You get that sweet fast healing and fire resist on powerful Warlord Units instead of your own medicore line troops, and you can support them with Elders and Flyers later on.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 2, 2014 23:29
|
|
|
So, Shadow Stalkers: They're HP 60 MV 32 Def 11 RES 10 units, With an Attack that does 10 Ph/12 Blight and saps physical strength on hit. They're also floating and get massive damage boosts from flanking attacks. They are completely immune to blight and frost damage, and so resistant to physical damage that you can forget about it. So what you need is a good source of Fire, Shock, or Spirit damage. They only have average res and will go down faster then you'd think. As a Draconian(?) Druid, you will want lots of Elders backed by summoned magical animals with elemental damage. The absolutely worst thing you can do against them is mass flyers, the Shadow Stalker will just laugh off their melee attacks and tear them apart. Summoning in general is a big part of playing a Druid, you aren't taking full advantage of the class if you aren't leaning on those heavily.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 3, 2014 12:18
|
|
|
A lot of Tier 1/2 units are, if not strong in general at least very cost effective in their niche. Don't write off Elven Archers or Orc Greatswords before you try them. Also, let me do a more complete list of racial bonuses now that I've had a bit more time digging through the tome of wonder. Humans: All Units get Mariner, no bonuses or penalties. Human Cities gain +5 Production and prefer Fertile Plains. Elves: All units get Forestry, +1 Res and +1 Physical or Shock Ranged Attacks, and 20% Blight Vulnerability. Also all bow units upgrade to longbows, which are awesome because they don't have range penalties. Elven Cities get +3 research and prefer Forests. Orcs: All Units get Nightvision, +5 HPs, +1 Melee, -1 Res and Phy Ranged Attacks. Their Cities prefer barrens but don't get a bonus. Dwarves: All Dwarf Units get +1 Def, +1 Res, 20% Blight Resist, Cave Crawling, Mountaineering, and Night Vision, but cost 10% more. Cities prefer mountain terrain but also don't get a bonus. Goblins: All Goblins get +40% Blight Resist, -5 HPs, Cave Crawling, Night Vision and Wetlands Walker, and cost 10% less. Cities prefer Wetlands and get +10% population growth. Draconians: Fast Healing, Fire Protection 20% Frost Weakness 20% and Cities get +3 mana and prefer Lava or Barrens. One question though. Are those racial bonuses still tiered with city level like in the old games or is it just a flat +3 or whatever per city? What I mean is, in the older AoW games Human cities would gain anywhere from +5 to +15 production depending on city size. I take it that's no longer the case? madmac fucked around with this message at 12:58 on Apr 3, 2014 |
|
#
¿
Apr 3, 2014 12:54
|
|
|
The Flame Tank Deathsplosion is stronger then the drones, I'm pretty sure.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 3, 2014 13:34
|
|
|
Mokinokaro posted:This was discussed earlier. It wouldn't stop the AI as it has a ton of mana available at all times. Dispelling needs to somehow be balanced around the fact that spells not going off or being instantly eliminated (even in multiplayer) is always the least fun option. Competing globals and city enchantments being thrown around is a lot more vibrant and interesting then spells just being shut down willy-nilly. If it becomes a balance concern I'd much rather see mana gain be throttled back and force players to make difficult decisions in how to distribute their magic then forgo their toys entirely. Dispelling should still be an option, just not an easy one. I need to play more, but I'm also leaning towards wanting to slow down the overall pace of teching up and gold/mana gain, even just as an optional setting.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 3, 2014 19:09
|
|
|
I liked the guy who smugly posted his "review" video in like three different forums that was just him swearing for five minutes about how the game was ruined because no Wizard Towers. That's it, that was his only complaint was all the new-fangled heroes that didn't heroically sit in one place and do nothing the entire game. Edit: Beaten! I have to admit I started taking irregulars a little more seriously after the first couple campaign battles were me getting repeatedly flankshotted by scoundrels. Those light crossbows hurt more then I thought. (And effective range on shortbow units is kinda poo poo anyway, so...)
|
|
#
¿
Apr 3, 2014 23:02
|
|
|
I think the research change is needed, but some economy balancing may be needed to smooth out progression. We'll see how things go with slower research and actually putting up globals first, I guess. One small request, is there any way to have the unit level up progression added to the tome of wonders? I knew most units gained a new passive at max level, but I totally missed stuff like support units gaining new actives as they leveled up, or Draconian Units gaining increased Fire Resistance. Or Goblins and the volunteer trait, or stuff that's just weird/cool like max level hunters becoming martial arts masters.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 4, 2014 14:21
|
|
|
Yeah, the research is a problem, but it's also a symptom of economy scaling to the point people are rolling in infinite gold, mana, and research. I understand not wanting to gimp cities too much so that starting out isn't painfully slow, but maybe some sort of scaling penalty as your empire expands to keep things in check? It's pretty standard in these kind of grand strategy games to implement a diminishing returns factor so that every city you take/found isn't a flat bonus to your ever escalating money-pile.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 4, 2014 14:51
|
|
|
In the older games, buffs, summons, (Both of these had per turn mana costs) and globals were my primary mana limiters, followed by funneling extra mana to research. In AOW 3 globals are dispel bait (being changed) summons viability/pacing varies with class, buffs are battlefield only spells, and the funneling option doesn't exist. Additionally, while it's a sensible change the one spell per/turn limit drastically cuts back on mana useage. There's simply nothing to spend large amounts of mana on 80% of the time, it's no wonder people bank it to such an extent and don't bother with mana producing buildings. The beta patch looks promising and I'll install it as soon as I get home from work.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 4, 2014 17:33
|
|
|
Demiurge4 posted:I think a lot of it could be fixed by bringing back global unit buff spells. I think it's an odd choice to make buffs combat only, as it eats an entire turn from a hero unit and relegates my main hero to be basically a backline supporter at all times. It would be nice if I could pre-cast flame aura on my cavalry for a hefty upkeep cost. This will give classes that aren't dependent on mana for unit production to actually spend it and will make lower tier units viable for a lot longer. You could always mantain the most powerful buffs as battlefield only. SM had some crazy spells that worked that way. The combination of making all buffs battlefield only and the one spell per turn limit really does limit their use severely. If it's not on par with your best battle oriented magic it's not going to be cast, ever. That said, buffs were a huge part of the metagame in AOW2 and SM, and one of the reasons it was easy to steamroll the AI is because it wasn't smart enough to roll with small uber-buffed death stacks. A middle-ground would be ideal. madmac fucked around with this message at 17:45 on Apr 4, 2014 |
|
#
¿
Apr 4, 2014 17:42
|
|
|
Shadowmorn posted:Be content with AOW3 drat you. 5 with all the expansions is actually really good. 6 is Tragic. It had the potential to be really cool, but it's plagued with bugs and production issues to the point where Ubi put out one expansion (Made by a different Dev) before writing it off as completely unsalvageable. Been playing with the Beta patch a bit and no complaints so far. This game is so drat fun.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 5, 2014 14:50
|
|
|
DrManiac posted:I always hated how unit stacking worked in HOMM. Funnily enough, I originally got into HOMM 5 because I was craving a replacement for AOW SM. I hadn't played any other Heroes games up to that point. It definitely took me a while to get used to the unit stacks, and while I had fun with it in the end I really do prefer the way AOW handles things. One small UI gripe. Can we get the ability to quit game out of battles, or at least a "concede" option if I recognize I'm hosed and don't want to bother playing out the entire battle? Not having that is seriously annoying.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 5, 2014 16:01
|
|
|
Noir89 posted:Oh god, 3 wars in my random Elf Theocrat game. A Dwarven Warlord, a Dwarven Dreadnought and an Orc Sorcerer is waging war on me at the same time, while having peace with eachother. It is a never ending stream of units. The only saving grace is that i am holding the entire left side of the map so they all swarm from the right side. I am out of gold, out of mana(!) and i desperatly need more crusaders, more angels, basically more of everything. They killed of my only ally a few turns ago. Throwing up Armageddon next turn, hopefully it will help turning the tide a bit. Guh, seems like a rough matchup. Warlord units will generally maul yours for cost. Maybe try Storm Sister+Shrines? Keep as many stunned as possible and focus them down. As a bonus, Storm Sisters with the devout upgrade are immune to the Shrines Aoe. Still tough, but maybe less one-sided then sending Crusaders/Exalted to get mulched. quote:There's a surrender option. It's the tiny red button on top of the circle with your leader's picture. Dangnabbit.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 5, 2014 16:20
|
|
|
Poil posted:Is there a reason why the spells to turning the lands arctic and making your cities like it are under the air specialization while the actual frost spells are under water? It seems kinda wrong and prevents you from covering the world with ice, snow and frostelemantals. Ice has always been a bit split up like that in this series. Probably because the original game had an aquatic race (Lizardmen) and an ice race (Frostlings) that needed their own specializations and terrain preferences. Water is a difficult sphere to write spells for if you take Ice entirely out of the equation, too. Also that Goblin picture is the most beautiful thing.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 6, 2014 15:21
|
|
|
Taear posted:And to contribute to an earlier discussion (that I'd started myself a bit earlier!) saying that having a MASSIVE pile of t1 units to beat even 1 T3 is a bit silly. It's really easy to get the T3 ones and it's just not feasable to have to get a load of t1 to fight just one of them. I dunno, I've been murdering a lot of Tier 3 units with Tier 1/2. Flanking, counters, veterans, magic, and hero bonuses count for a lot. In the long run you should really probably be getting your own Tier 3 units, but in my experience you can totally fight them off long enough to tech up and I get a lot more use out of diverse armies with range and support units then I would just massing the strongest unit. It's all relative, of course. Like Elven Archers are amazing and you should always have a couple but their infantry units have an extremely short shelf life. Every race/class has a few incredibly useful low tier units you should be using through-out the game. Hunters, Shamans, Initiates, Engineers, Musketeers, Crusaders, Monster Hunters, scoundrels, ect.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 6, 2014 18:25
|
|
|
Rainfall posted:This is maybe a good plan, but they are supposed to be a cheap counter to T2's main strength(cavalry) and also offer a lot of advantages against several T3 and T4 units. Basically I've always felt they're supposed to be super situational. Yeah, Pikes are already really strong in their niche. They're terrifying near heroes. Boosting their general utility could easily just shift balance the other direction. I already don't use tier one sword units past the early game as their role is supplanted by literally every other melee unit in the game. It might still be worth trying, just...don't overdo it.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 6, 2014 20:54
|
|
|
Taear posted:But later in the game most of your archers will do absolutely gently caress all damage, I don't even notice them in fights any longer. Your casters tend to still do reasonably well, but I've had two manticore riders defeat 16 archers before (human ones in this case) as they just don't do enough damage. Human and Orc Archers suck and shouldn't be used as a baseline, though, and the best Class Recruitable Tier 4 Flyer in the game is a bit of an extreme case. Try an Elven Druid using Longbow Hunters with Bleed, Monster Slayer, and Hero bonuses like Armor Piercing or Charged Army. They aren't perfect in every situation but late game you can pump out hordes of them with medals out of any city you own for basically no money. Since you've been using them all game anyway you'll have an army of grizzled archer veterans long before anyone is pumping out Tier 4. The Second Elf Campaign mission taught me that Draconian Hunters paired with Elders is actually a pretty sweet combo that kills Shadow Stalkers surprisingly well. Use the Elders to give the Hunters +Fire Damage and +Morale and then back the Hunters up to burn the slippery bastards. Once I got the Druid Battlefield spell that gives all units +5 Spirit Damage against undead and magical creatures it got a bit silly. Obviously that's all Druid specific but it's just one build. Warlord's Monster Hunters are great support units, Goblin Swarm Darters, Dreadnaught Musketeers, ect. There's plenty of viable ranged units that you can use through most of the game. How much more are you expecting from Tier 1/2 units?
|
|
#
¿
Apr 7, 2014 00:53
|
|
|
Incidentally, has anyone put together a full list of random Druid/Sorcerer summons? I think I have a pretty good handle on Druid just from playing it, but I'm curious. Just from what I've seen: Summon Wild Animal: Usually A boar, worg, or baby spider. Most of these are like weaker then racial tier ones, but for the Druid they work very well early game as instantly replaceable cannon fodder to screen for your Hunters/Shaman so not too bad. Summon Eldritch Animal: You can get a Zephyr Bird, Dire Penguin, or I guess Hell Hound although I've never seen that one. I actually find this the least useful Druid summon. Zephyr Birds are great scouts if you can get one when you need it, but (Heresy!) I don't think the penguins are actually good for much. Summon Gargantuan Animal: This spell is amazing, and the main reason I largely didn't bother with Racial Tier 3 units until the endgame. There's a lot of variability in what you can get though. There's the Undead Vulture thing that mostly blows, and the Giant Poison Spitting Snake which is kinda useful but not as good as the other ones. (Dealing 100% Poison damage is limiting late game, especially against Rogues or Dreadnaughts.) Giant Momma Spider is rock-solid, and Shock Snake is forever love. Tier 4 Electric Snake is arguably on par with the more expensive Horned God, but of course you at best a 25% chance of pulling one per cast. quote:I would be genuinely interested in hearing a report about a run done where the player only ever uses T1/T2s at best. Never using T3s or T4s would certainly not be optimal, but would it be at least viable? Sounds like a really fun challenge run, with a lot of possible approaches! I imagine it's doable, assuming you play very aggressively and win before getting to the late-late game.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 7, 2014 13:29
|
|
|
Drone_Fragger posted:I mean at game start you are the ruler Tomric Orcsbane and then you bump into a scout... belonging to the other Tomric Orcsbane who is actually the same as you except that his crest is a slightly lighter shade of blue. Well that will not stand. Obviously if you are fighting your evil twin they need to have a handlebar mustache. No exceptions!
|
|
#
¿
Apr 8, 2014 14:00
|
|
|
Splicer posted:Would a goatee be acceptable, or is that mirror universes only. Goatee's are only acceptable if they implemented as an optional slider.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 8, 2014 14:05
|
|
|
As for Tier 4 spamming, I like the idea of just upping the building requirements. I don't think most of the Tier 4 units are crazy overpowered really, but something is off when the infrastructure requirements for pumping out Manticore Riders is vastly less then basic Tier 3 units. Mana Income definitely needs to be looked at, as it stands past the early game you will always have more then you'll ever need, which obviously has a lot of knock-on effects. Shadow Stalkers are awesome but I don't think they're a balance issue. (yet) They're annoying mostly because they pretty much force you to change up your army composition but they die really fast to Fire/Spirit/Shock damage, so... quote:Map settings have quite an impact on how sloggy things get too, I think. Playing empire-building on a medium map with default opponents means everybody has a ton of space to expand and the endgame will take quite a while. Adding more players and playing on a small map like Corbeau suggested really focuses the game down a notch and with the new tech changes gives a much stronger sense of progression through different phases. Similarly a medium map on default settings with a few extra opponents can turn into a real knife fight. This is true. Most of the endgame slog is the amount of time it takes to finish opponents after you're already snowballed to the point of being invincible, and playing smaller, more focused maps cuts down on that a lot. There's an issue with every game like this where some people want to play on the biggest possible map with maximum resources, turtle forever, and then complain that the endgame becomes a boring slog. I like the mega-alter of doom as an alternate win condition, though. It's still military focused and could lead to some epic closing battles instead of a long series of auto-resolved city sieges. quote:Sorry fellow lovers of the frostlings, but when we are being brutally honest about it, they really are just colder goblins. To be fair, 90% of what was cool about the frostlings were the monster units. You had Yetis, Wooly Mammoths, and Giant Ice Wolves and it was beautiful. madmac fucked around with this message at 13:46 on Apr 9, 2014 |
|
#
¿
Apr 9, 2014 13:44
|
|
|
Tunneling is already in the game and lets you knock through soft walls, same as the earlier games.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 9, 2014 17:01
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 05:14 |
|
|
Impermanent posted:It may be important to note that I was playing a dwarf, and that I found that first borns were lasting a lot longer in battles (versus a draconian warlord and fire-aspected human warlor.) I used exalted as flankers but used the first born as a front line. Against manticore riders I found that exalted tended to die quickly. Exalted are hella cool, but they are one of the weaker Tier 3 units in terms of raw combat strength. They pay for resurgence and willpower by being noticeably weaker then Gryphon Riders and Draconian Flyers. In theory you can just doom-snowball with them and never take casualties but they definitely don't trade that effectively with some units. Very good in sieges, though.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 9, 2014 20:24
|
|