Mercury2607
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Hello, dear colleagues. After the demonstration tournament in HotA (which was held with the participation of guest developers on the stream), I still haven't let go of the idea of rebalancing almost unused secondary hero skills, which Nick mainly talked about. Basically, I would like to know your opinion on introducing some changes to the secondary skills in order to increase their value relative to the current "good skills." This would make hero development more optional (I briefly looked through 3 topics and only a couple of posts touched on this topic).
1. Eagle Eye - give the hero, who possesses Eagle Eye, the ability to look into the opponent's spellbook, and also increase the chance of learning a spell used by the opponent, up to 100% on expert difficulty. (This change is intended to minimize the random element of this skill and give it a tactical option, which can introduce a new tactical feature with viewing the enemy's spellbook. However, with a small caveat, so that the skill has a full scaling and with a chance of learning and with tactical application - it can be done like this: 1) at the basic level of the skill, the level and school of the enemy's spells in the spellbook will be displayed - without revealing the spell itself (it will be possible to narrow down the range of possible spells of the opponent and exclude options when you are not ready for Armageddon, for example, as a means of achieving a pure draw), 2) an advanced level will show the spell itself, 3) an expert could show the level of development of the elemental magic skill that the enemy character has).
1.1. In terms of atmosphere, I don't think these changes will significantly harm the gameplay, because skills with a double effect already exist in the game, such as diplomacy and schools of magic (considering that, in addition to increasing the effectiveness of spells of the learned schools, it also reduces mana cost). The very idea of using the skill will not change - it will still have a passive, optional effect on interacting with the opponent's magic. But at the same time, the skill will have a useful tactical effect, which can play a role in the final stages, but will not significantly break the balance among the established must-have skills, such as offense, logistics, defense, but will rather become an optional acquisition, like tactics, and will rid the skill trees of 1 useless element.
2. Scouting - if something needs to be changed in HotA's scouting, I think it is necessary to give scouting the option to show the number of units guarding objects more accurately, up to the exact number of units on expert difficulty (this refers to the guard that stands directly on the ground, and not in buildings), but make the radius in which the more accurate number of creatures is visible twice as small as the character's viewing radius (with all the consequences, namely, taking into account the viewing radius of scouts and heroes with various items that increase the viewing radius).
2.1. Thus, we can get variability in terms of possible characters for priority development. That is, it may turn out that one player plays as a logistician and travels long distances in search of objects, while another plays, for example, Beatrice or Shiva and has an advantage in the form of a larger viewing radius and safer exploration, based on more accurate information about the number of creatures in the guard. In general, these changes will likely leave logisticians in a more advantageous position, thereby not particularly breaking the balance of modern heroes and not affecting the current contenders for the main characters. Support heroes will have a very good skill that can be used to reduce the amount of randomness in the game, which is the subject of so much criticism. Plus, in terms of preserving the atmosphere of the heroes, this will again not fundamentally change the skill, as in the case of Eagle Eye above. Scouting will remain a good, optional skill, but players will have tactical freedom for new solutions, for example, whether to take tactics to defeat archers or take scouting and more accurately scout the number of units in the guard. (the question of how to deal with scouting units in the enemy character's army with these changes remains open).
3. Luck - used in modern heroes, if instead of it it gives outright garbage, like first aid or Eagle Eye. Based on the authenticity of the skill itself, as an increase in some kind of bonus (to increase damage in this case) for its optional use, I would suggest increasing the chance of triggering unit abilities (like the blindness of unicorns and the petrification of basilisks). Within reasonable limits, of course. As a percentage of the base bonus, most likely, I would do this.
3.1. I doubt that this is feasible on the game engine, because the trigger is probably directly tied to the unit and it will not be possible to change this value.
4. Resistance - I would like to add an option to resistance in the form of a ratio of the level of the resistance skill to the level of the opponent's school of magic skill that he uses when casting. That is, in the case when your resistance skill level is higher than the opponent's school of magic skill level, then it is cast with reduced effectiveness (let's say you have an advanced resistance, the opponent wants to cast a basic slow - the slow passes a full resistance check of 10 percent, I think, at the advanced level, and then, if the spell passes to the unit, the slow loses part of its effectiveness), if it is equal to the opponent's skill level or is lower than it, then it works only as a normal resistance + possibly a percentage reduction in damage from combat magic, let's say 5-10-15 percent.
4.1. It is unlikely that the developers will have an element with which it will be possible to elegantly implement this innovation, which means that it will be necessary to manually set the parameters for each spell, taking into account the newly baked resistance, separately. Therefore, I have little hope for a full-fledged innovation for resistance, based on this, I ask you to pay attention to reducing magical damage directly from combat magic (I would balance this skill by increasing the effectiveness of mysticism and magic, so as not to completely kill the potential of mages, but about them later).
5. Diplomacy - based on modern specific templates, such as anarchy, where diplomacy is used in its usual form, this skill is unlikely to be subject to changes, in my opinion, however, I would ask the developers to pay attention to the mechanics of surrendering a certain percentage of units, depending on the level of diplomacy (in small percentages, of course, for example, a support hero can cut 1-2 archdevils from the guard on Jebus, for example). This will give diplomat heroes an additional option in use and allow them to bypass the ban on joining the army through diplomacy. Thus, we will get rid of 1 ban that is not sewn into the HD mod, make heroes-diplomats more attractive supports than they were. Unless it will be necessary to make a one-time use of diplomacy to surrender part of the troops. So that this effect somehow sticks to the guard and it would no longer be possible to "diplomatically" influence it, in order to protect against abuses with endless breakdowns of diplomats.
5.1. Again, within the framework of the game mechanics, we will not fundamentally change the essence of the skill, but only make it more balanced in accordance with modern online battles in heroes. Another thing is that this is a mechanic, I am ready to argue, it is quite difficult to implement, so I do not have high hopes for such an innovation.
Such writing at 6 in the morning will probably look chaotic and disjointed, so I will stop here. I really want to know in which directions the changes to the skills are currently leaning towards the participants of the project, because there have been many conversations, even more opinions, so everything written above is my IMHO, of course.
Thank you for your work.
P.S. Nick, when are the streams?)
1. Eagle Eye - give the hero, who possesses Eagle Eye, the ability to look into the opponent's spellbook, and also increase the chance of learning a spell used by the opponent, up to 100% on expert difficulty. (This change is intended to minimize the random element of this skill and give it a tactical option, which can introduce a new tactical feature with viewing the enemy's spellbook. However, with a small caveat, so that the skill has a full scaling and with a chance of learning and with tactical application - it can be done like this: 1) at the basic level of the skill, the level and school of the enemy's spells in the spellbook will be displayed - without revealing the spell itself (it will be possible to narrow down the range of possible spells of the opponent and exclude options when you are not ready for Armageddon, for example, as a means of achieving a pure draw), 2) an advanced level will show the spell itself, 3) an expert could show the level of development of the elemental magic skill that the enemy character has).
1.1. In terms of atmosphere, I don't think these changes will significantly harm the gameplay, because skills with a double effect already exist in the game, such as diplomacy and schools of magic (considering that, in addition to increasing the effectiveness of spells of the learned schools, it also reduces mana cost). The very idea of using the skill will not change - it will still have a passive, optional effect on interacting with the opponent's magic. But at the same time, the skill will have a useful tactical effect, which can play a role in the final stages, but will not significantly break the balance among the established must-have skills, such as offense, logistics, defense, but will rather become an optional acquisition, like tactics, and will rid the skill trees of 1 useless element.
2. Scouting - if something needs to be changed in HotA's scouting, I think it is necessary to give scouting the option to show the number of units guarding objects more accurately, up to the exact number of units on expert difficulty (this refers to the guard that stands directly on the ground, and not in buildings), but make the radius in which the more accurate number of creatures is visible twice as small as the character's viewing radius (with all the consequences, namely, taking into account the viewing radius of scouts and heroes with various items that increase the viewing radius).
2.1. Thus, we can get variability in terms of possible characters for priority development. That is, it may turn out that one player plays as a logistician and travels long distances in search of objects, while another plays, for example, Beatrice or Shiva and has an advantage in the form of a larger viewing radius and safer exploration, based on more accurate information about the number of creatures in the guard. In general, these changes will likely leave logisticians in a more advantageous position, thereby not particularly breaking the balance of modern heroes and not affecting the current contenders for the main characters. Support heroes will have a very good skill that can be used to reduce the amount of randomness in the game, which is the subject of so much criticism. Plus, in terms of preserving the atmosphere of the heroes, this will again not fundamentally change the skill, as in the case of Eagle Eye above. Scouting will remain a good, optional skill, but players will have tactical freedom for new solutions, for example, whether to take tactics to defeat archers or take scouting and more accurately scout the number of units in the guard. (the question of how to deal with scouting units in the enemy character's army with these changes remains open).
3. Luck - used in modern heroes, if instead of it it gives outright garbage, like first aid or Eagle Eye. Based on the authenticity of the skill itself, as an increase in some kind of bonus (to increase damage in this case) for its optional use, I would suggest increasing the chance of triggering unit abilities (like the blindness of unicorns and the petrification of basilisks). Within reasonable limits, of course. As a percentage of the base bonus, most likely, I would do this.
3.1. I doubt that this is feasible on the game engine, because the trigger is probably directly tied to the unit and it will not be possible to change this value.
4. Resistance - I would like to add an option to resistance in the form of a ratio of the level of the resistance skill to the level of the opponent's school of magic skill that he uses when casting. That is, in the case when your resistance skill level is higher than the opponent's school of magic skill level, then it is cast with reduced effectiveness (let's say you have an advanced resistance, the opponent wants to cast a basic slow - the slow passes a full resistance check of 10 percent, I think, at the advanced level, and then, if the spell passes to the unit, the slow loses part of its effectiveness), if it is equal to the opponent's skill level or is lower than it, then it works only as a normal resistance + possibly a percentage reduction in damage from combat magic, let's say 5-10-15 percent.
4.1. It is unlikely that the developers will have an element with which it will be possible to elegantly implement this innovation, which means that it will be necessary to manually set the parameters for each spell, taking into account the newly baked resistance, separately. Therefore, I have little hope for a full-fledged innovation for resistance, based on this, I ask you to pay attention to reducing magical damage directly from combat magic (I would balance this skill by increasing the effectiveness of mysticism and magic, so as not to completely kill the potential of mages, but about them later).
5. Diplomacy - based on modern specific templates, such as anarchy, where diplomacy is used in its usual form, this skill is unlikely to be subject to changes, in my opinion, however, I would ask the developers to pay attention to the mechanics of surrendering a certain percentage of units, depending on the level of diplomacy (in small percentages, of course, for example, a support hero can cut 1-2 archdevils from the guard on Jebus, for example). This will give diplomat heroes an additional option in use and allow them to bypass the ban on joining the army through diplomacy. Thus, we will get rid of 1 ban that is not sewn into the HD mod, make heroes-diplomats more attractive supports than they were. Unless it will be necessary to make a one-time use of diplomacy to surrender part of the troops. So that this effect somehow sticks to the guard and it would no longer be possible to "diplomatically" influence it, in order to protect against abuses with endless breakdowns of diplomats.
5.1. Again, within the framework of the game mechanics, we will not fundamentally change the essence of the skill, but only make it more balanced in accordance with modern online battles in heroes. Another thing is that this is a mechanic, I am ready to argue, it is quite difficult to implement, so I do not have high hopes for such an innovation.
Such writing at 6 in the morning will probably look chaotic and disjointed, so I will stop here. I really want to know in which directions the changes to the skills are currently leaning towards the participants of the project, because there have been many conversations, even more opinions, so everything written above is my IMHO, of course.
Thank you for your work.
P.S. Nick, when are the streams?)
