DISCUSSIONS on “Rules for online games in HoMM3 and formulas for calculating player rating.”

After all, everything is interconnected; it’s a multi-parameter balance, after all... It’s easy to say – ban (reduce Shakti, Galtran, Mullich,...), but what guarantee is there that, for example, Kirya (Tazar, and who knows who else) won’t become unacceptably overpowered? And then, after... twelve weeks, we’ll reduce their stats? Has anyone calculated the consequences of reducing (banning), gathered enough game statistics, held a test tournament, and then analyzed the results of that tournament with discussion? What guarantee is there that the imbalance won’t increase with the proposed measures? If you want to experiment, create your own alternative set of rules; but no, you have to force everyone to play with little-tested solutions...
P.S. This doesn’t apply to most of the changes proposed by Pasha (he mainly doesn’t touch the gameplay, i.e., the balance) – although I would suggest (and I could suggest many things :) ) – to only play with blue Goshans (and/or the player using Goshans has only one resurrection, and/or the player against Goshans can recruit banned heroes and/or some other bonuses for the opponent). I could claim that my version is better because it doesn’t “cut into the living” according to the principle – “the best remedy for dandruff is the guillotine.” But I won’t claim it :) – because I haven’t thought everything through properly, I haven’t listened to all the pros and cons, I haven’t held a test tournament, etc...
And specifically regarding Shakti: for example, Rampart and Dungeon are quite a good pair; when playing as Dungeon, you go for a wider range of luck – bad luck (analyze the game statistics for specific cities in the season...). Yes, there are sometimes uber-builds for Shakti, like 2-3 consecutive structures next to each other, but this is a bonus, relatively infrequent... So, you reduce Shakti, Goshans, who’s next on the castration list? :) This impoverishes the essence of the game, in my firm opinion.