dredknight
1. These are new objects on the map that add an army. I haven't figured out how they work yet, but it seems like they randomly add tier 1-4 creatures, with the number of creatures increasing each week. I hope the increase in creatures in these "banks" is fixed after a certain week; otherwise, it would be profitable to capture this bank before attacking an enemy Castle to get the maximum number of units. If the growth of the bank is not limited by the number of weeks, then this is not correct because it loses the meaning of defending it in the early weeks. I think this bank should grow to a maximum of 4 weeks (1 month) in the starting zone and another 4 weeks (2 months) in the treasure zone.
The strength of opponents grows with time.
The creature given as a prize is fixed, so you won't get more troops later in the game. However, the quantity is randomized within a specific range, so there is a bit of luck involved.
2. These are new mechanics: city rebuilding, a portal to the city, and dragon blood crystals, as well as a large number of artifacts (I hope the game has many powerful artifacts for each faction, and not just a few that everyone wants to get, as in the original Heroes 5). I don't understand why the hero's equipment was changed if it doesn't add an additional slot for an artifact. It seems like work was done for the sake of work.
You can check all artifacts in the manual. It is currently only in English, but the next release will include a Russian translation too.
4. The new magic system seems balanced at first glance.
We accept any feedback on how it can be further improved.
Now, what I didn't like or what breaks the balance:
1. The most annoying thing is that there are overpowered heroes, practically for each of the factions, sometimes there are 2 per faction.
If you've made so many overpowered heroes, then let's make one overpowered hero for each class; otherwise, it will be impossible to start the game with a random hero, and everyone will choose the overpowered one. I'm talking about overpowered heroes who clear the map without losses, very quickly.
Please provide a list of the heroes and a description of why they are IMBA. I can agree that some heroes are stronger than others.
Also, if you have any proposals on how to improve them without removing the hero's specialization, it will be welcomed. I can't promise we can do it, but we are dedicated to making the balance better as long as it doesn't break the lore or make the heroes too similar.
2. The mod authors have made it possible to capture cities and rebuild them, which is great. BUT, in the first month on the Jebus map, I captured 2 cities and rebuilt them. In 2 months, I built 3 cities, made all the improvements in my main city, but I didn't have enough money to buy all the creatures, even though I captured all the gold mines (2 on the respawn) in the first week. I built a Capitol, the maximum building in other cities. I cleared the treasure zone and the respawn, sold artifacts, but it wasn't enough to buy all the creatures from the three Castles. I don't think this should happen. I can suggest that when you make a contract with mills, they bring in 5000 instead of 1000 once a week. Naturally, the contract amount should increase to 2500. You can also add gold mines near additional Castles and allow the construction of a Capitol in a non-native city.
This is done on purpose. Limiting gold makes resources important throughout the game, not just in the early game like in Heroes 3. Resource deficit forces the player to choose where to invest his income, which brings a whole new set of choices. This also makes heroes with Resource/gold specializations very important.
Regarding the Jebus template, any advice on how to make it more like Heroes 3 Jebus is welcomed! Our experience with Jebus in H3 is not much.
3. There are skills that are very weak and don't give a choice in upgrading! (The mod author wanted to avoid this, but repeated it similarly to the original).
The first thing I noticed is in a skill that is important for all factions, such as Battle Machines. The First Aid tent is very weakened and doesn't make sense to upgrade; it heals very little and cannot resurrect a creature of level 6-7 on week 2. The Plague tent doesn't make sense at all because it's better to use the shots from the tent to resurrect, which is very little. The Ballista always wins against the Plague tent and the tent in general.
- Plague tent is a weak perk - we know that, and we are working on a solution.
- First aid skill was nerfed to 3 casts, but the overall healing strength was improved, so currently, those 3 casts heal as much as what used to be 10 casts in ToE. This change was needed as expert players used it to snowball the army potential. Even at 3 casts, it is the most desired skill by Might heroes. Furthermore, since RC15B2 version, the First Aid skill gives the hero the "Medical supply bag" artifact. It revives some of the tier 1 and tier 2 creature losses after every battle for a small amount of mana.
- Ballista is a good skill, but now, after the RC14 change where all creatures got 25-30% more HP, its edge in terms of killing stacks has been reduced.
If the author works on these points, then this mod can become the best among similar mods. Thank you for your attention.
Thank you for the good words! We try to stay away from making changes that do not improve the quality of the game, so sometimes we keep such decisions for later releases or when a good enough solution is found.
P.S.
As you have a tournament background, I would also like to say that we have maps only for duels; you can read more about them here.