Posts from LBE – minimal balance changes for Heroes V 3.1.

WHAT!? And why nerf the ballista?! :smile11: Does it shoot too well? That's the point! Do you want to make it as useless as in Heroes 3? Hmm. Okay, maybe vampires, but machines... The tent deserves a buff, the catapult deserves double the HP (it breaks too easily), but the ballista... :smile11: I'm waiting for the summoning of gates and necromancy to be weakened to 1% of the original power! Seriously... :D

The catapult deserves having its hit points doubled (it breaks too easily).

It's not that easy to break... The ability to destroy a catapult in the late game is a good thing. And within a reasonable timeframe, you can keep attacking its 1000 hit points for a while, but by that time, you'll already be killed...

Sinithar doesn't think so. He takes "Enhanced Earth Shock" and destroys it!:D And in general, it's unrealistic to destroy a catapult in the early stages of the game, but: without catapults, archers, and flying units, the computer rushes, so in the later stages of the game, the longer the catapult survives, the greater the threat.:smile28:

Chaos units with deadly cold are sufficient in general.
But this is, again, my opinion, and I consider it a plus. The more interaction options, the better. In the current balance, fighting machines is a possible option. But... there are potential risks. At the very least, Chaos units lose an important ability when staying in a castle: the ability to use cunning. As a result, destroying a catapult and engaging in a battle in the garrison becomes not the most successful choice.
For non-Chaos factions, Chaos is generally a rarer school of magic, and choosing it involves a certain risk. Also, it's not a given that your opponent will use a hero specializing in machines. Even if you see him in the tavern, the enemy might use him for breaking through defenses and send a different hero to the final battle.
In short, all of this is quite complex.

WHAT!? And why nerf the ballista?:smile11: Does it deal a lot of damage? That's the point! Do you want to make it as useless as in Heroes 3? Hmm.

The ballista can be weakened in regular configs as well. I'm only interested in changing the linearity of the damage increase or its dependence on something else.

The catapult is a rare occurrence, so it doesn't need to be taken into account, at least not here.

It's also possible to weaken the ballista in regular settings. I'm only interested in changing the linearity of the damage increase or its dependence on something else.

Yes, Dyrman is right, there's no point in weakening the ballista, but adding damage to it would be extremely unbalanced. It would be more reasonable to add hit points to the ballista when the "War Machines" skill is increased. That is, at the basic level of the "War Machines" skill, everything would remain unchanged, but at the advanced level, you could add, for example, 200 hit points, and at the expert level, increase it by 400 hit points. This way, it would be more difficult to destroy the ballista in one hit.

The catapult is a rare occurrence, so it doesn't need to be taken into account, at least not here.

Perhaps it's rare, but each of us has to attack enemies and capture castles sooner or later, and sometimes even defend our own. In the case of the catapult, you could also increase its hit points when the skill is developed.

Added 6 minutes later
However, I'm not the author of the mod, so I can't impose my opinion - I can only recommend it. The final decision is up to the author.

Yes, Dyrman is right, there's no point in weakening the ballista, but adding damage to it would be extremely unbalanced.

That's not quite right. Changing the current "curve" implies weakening the ballista in the early stages, but strengthening it in the later stages.
It's no coincidence that no one has made a mod to strengthen the machines since the game was released, because people understand that it would be absurd.

Well, in the late game, ballistas already deal massive damage to elite units. And if they have the Ring of the Cyclops, it's even worse. It's a shame my computer can't handle it very well. And still, it would be nice to buff the paladin on the early stages.

It's not without reason that no one has made a mod to enhance the siege weapons since the game was released because people understand that it would be absurd.

I don’t think enhancing siege weapons is such an absurd idea. After all, we are not talking about increasing the attack of ballistae or adding extra shots for catapults; we are talking about simpler things:

1) Ballista – add some HP (30%)
2) Catapult – add some HP (30%)
3) Tent – add 1-2 shots (no more)
4) Cart – add some HP (30%)

In general, even on this forum, discussions about siege weapons have been ongoing since 2006. Many forum members offer their ideas and developments.

/topic/1564/
/topic/688/

Perhaps there just hasn't been an experienced modder who could create such a mod, but I think it's only a matter of time; sooner or later someone will create such a mod.

Why exactly +30% HP? What is the rationale behind this specific number?

Let me clarify: if the "War Machines" skill is not learned, I suggest leaving the machines' stats at their initial values, that is, not changing anything.
However, if the player makes a deliberate decision to develop this skill, I suggest:

1) when learning Basic Machine Control, add 30% HP
2) when learning Advanced Machine Control, add 30% HP;
3) when learning Expert Machine Control, add another 30% HP.
In total, the overall cumulative increase will be almost double.
Why is this needed? Let me explain:

All machines, undoubtedly, have good combat characteristics at the beginning of the game, but they also have one very significant drawback:
they are in the singular, so they are vulnerable. Yes, you can upgrade this skill, invest 6-7 levels in it, and make the ballista powerful, but if the opponent sees this, they will simply deliberately disable the ballista at the beginning of the battle (which is what I do now), and all the development efforts will be in vain.
I would also add that in a normal battle, only 1 out of 4 machines fires!!! We won't consider the catapult, as it is only activated during a siege.
By increasing the hit points of the war machines, we will achieve, firstly:

- additional motivation for the player to develop this branch
- increase the lifespan of the machines, which will give more shots for the ballista and catapult + make the cart and tent more durable, and the cart also affects the attack of the archers!
- it will now be very difficult to destroy the catapult at the beginning of the battle (that case when it is easily disabled, and the opponent can only attack with archers)
- machines will more often remain with the Hero after the battle, thus, they will not distract the player's attention with the constant need to repurchase them

There is definitely some logic to it, especially when we talk about passive skills like attack and defense, which constantly prove their worth. But as Nargott said, each skill has its own time.
I think taking this fact into account is also an interesting part of the development strategy, and even if you decide to take machines in the late game (note that no one forces you to do this), the machines will still pay off in the early game (a very important stage for any scenario).

however, seeing this, the opponent will simply disable the ballista at the beginning of the battle (which is what I do now), and all efforts to develop will be in vain.

And what are the troop sizes? I mean, what specific stack of archers destroys the ballista at the beginning of the battle?

About 50 Elven Blues. A hundred Renegade Archers, but the ballista will manage to fire.

Added after 49 seconds
And magic, magic, magic.

Yeah, in that case, doubling it makes sense.