Remial
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So, a year ago I bought HoMM1 and completed it right away. Even then, I was annoyed by the computer, which saw the entire map—which saw the entire map—and aimed to take my Castle as soon as I left it.
However, when I bought HoMM2, the emotions were somewhat different. After completing the campaigns of Archie, Roland, and Price of Loyalty, I first felt horror at the shock stacks the computer greeted me with, then confusion, as I didn't know what to do with them, and then rage, as I discovered the stunts the AI pulls.
Since I don't want to make baseless claims, I will move on to specific examples a bit later.
So, I mentioned that the entire map is open to the computer by default; what else? The AI always knows which stack will join it and which will not. A joined stack of neutrals is a very powerful asset at the start of the game, as the computer can simply rush the player (this happened to me on the last map in Heroes 1).
The computer's strategy of wearing the player down is also refined to a point of ideal sophistication, considering that the computer always has more resources (2-4 castles vs 0-2 for the player). Thus, in clashes with the computer, the human will lose their shock stack to enemy spells, and in the end, the enemy will simply retreat, leaving nothing of value behind, and then just buy back in their home castle, buy the weekly growth (why not, they have plenty of money), and set off to engage in the exact same atrocity.
One could write a tome regarding the final missions of both Archie and Roland, but they are nothing compared to what awaits an unprepared player in Price of Loyalty and other campaigns.
In the final mission of Price of Loyalty itself, the hero sequentially captures several continents to eventually take out the continent with the Necromancer (where there are more than 1000 Bone Dragons). The game designer's idea here is more or less clear (although it doesn't become any less pathetic, as the player will hoard for a couple of months in hopes of buying Titans and, after removing the red barrier, storming these dragons). But everything changes if the computer somehow rolls Dimension Door in the guild. Then it easily overcomes the red barrier and can delight the player with 600+ Bone Dragons, while the player will have a maximum of 20 Titans (and that's assuming I didn't lose any turns and developed very quickly). It is impossible to win this honestly, so one has to settle for the fact that the computer splits the stack while capturing new and new towns.
Obviously, there is no point in giving 1000 Bone Dragons to the Necromancer (this kills the game either way, either forcing the player to hoard for 510 years, or making them curse at the surprise of 500+ Bone Dragons quite early in the game). Leave them 50 each + weekly growth!
A second wonderful case is the final mission of Voyage. There, the player is forced to push through a shortage of wood, trying to capture the sawmill. Well, a good idea: building up a castle during a severe resource shortage, and besides, no sign of 1000 Bone Dragons for the enemy... Except that to leave the starting reservation, the player has to fight a certain neutral squad marked as Mon4. For those who don't know, in the editor, the number after "mon" determines the strength of the neutrals that appear. Now, Mon4 can be mages, vampires, trolls. But they could be phoenixes. Or dragons. To beat this, given that the player hasn't even built cavalry in the castle (which requires wood, and to get wood, you have to fight through them), the game becomes a game of dice; if you roll bad mobs, there's a decent chance you won't complete the map.
Selling this in 2017 is unthinkable, it's absurd, nonsense! This is not difficulty, it's simply unfairness, exactly like if I had used a save editor to give myself 1000 Titans, or used a map editor to lock the enemy in a reservation with phoenixes, archmagi, or dragons without the necessary resource. This is designers haphazardly balancing difficulty instead of proper mission design; they are absolutely talentless. At the same time, in that same Price of Loyalty, there are excellently designed missions (for example, where you have to pass through the lands of the Barbarian with almost no resources but a protected castle, get Dimension Door, and take the Necromancer castle without wiping anyone out).
I quickly Googled and found similar threads on the English GOG forum, and found a couple of retro reviews too. Too difficult, too frustrating, unfair AI kills all the fun.
All these people are absolutely right, so a reasonable question arises: has anyone tried to mod the campaigns so that they are at least fair? Let's change Mon4 on the passages to at least Mon3; let's make the computers not in an alliance (why on earth should they be in an alliance if, according to the plot, they declared neutrality?). Let's give 50 dragons per head instead of 400; let's block Dimension Door in the guilds (the appearance of this spell completely breaks the idea of the entire map).
I didn't find a campaign editor on the internet; I'm not even sure one exists, nor does a way to pull maps out of a campaign in principle.
If anyone knows about such a mod or a campaign editor, please post in this thread, as well as write if anyone knows how to pull maps from campaigns into the editor and where they are located.
However, when I bought HoMM2, the emotions were somewhat different. After completing the campaigns of Archie, Roland, and Price of Loyalty, I first felt horror at the shock stacks the computer greeted me with, then confusion, as I didn't know what to do with them, and then rage, as I discovered the stunts the AI pulls.
Since I don't want to make baseless claims, I will move on to specific examples a bit later.
So, I mentioned that the entire map is open to the computer by default; what else? The AI always knows which stack will join it and which will not. A joined stack of neutrals is a very powerful asset at the start of the game, as the computer can simply rush the player (this happened to me on the last map in Heroes 1).
The computer's strategy of wearing the player down is also refined to a point of ideal sophistication, considering that the computer always has more resources (2-4 castles vs 0-2 for the player). Thus, in clashes with the computer, the human will lose their shock stack to enemy spells, and in the end, the enemy will simply retreat, leaving nothing of value behind, and then just buy back in their home castle, buy the weekly growth (why not, they have plenty of money), and set off to engage in the exact same atrocity.
One could write a tome regarding the final missions of both Archie and Roland, but they are nothing compared to what awaits an unprepared player in Price of Loyalty and other campaigns.
In the final mission of Price of Loyalty itself, the hero sequentially captures several continents to eventually take out the continent with the Necromancer (where there are more than 1000 Bone Dragons). The game designer's idea here is more or less clear (although it doesn't become any less pathetic, as the player will hoard for a couple of months in hopes of buying Titans and, after removing the red barrier, storming these dragons). But everything changes if the computer somehow rolls Dimension Door in the guild. Then it easily overcomes the red barrier and can delight the player with 600+ Bone Dragons, while the player will have a maximum of 20 Titans (and that's assuming I didn't lose any turns and developed very quickly). It is impossible to win this honestly, so one has to settle for the fact that the computer splits the stack while capturing new and new towns.
Obviously, there is no point in giving 1000 Bone Dragons to the Necromancer (this kills the game either way, either forcing the player to hoard for 510 years, or making them curse at the surprise of 500+ Bone Dragons quite early in the game). Leave them 50 each + weekly growth!
A second wonderful case is the final mission of Voyage. There, the player is forced to push through a shortage of wood, trying to capture the sawmill. Well, a good idea: building up a castle during a severe resource shortage, and besides, no sign of 1000 Bone Dragons for the enemy... Except that to leave the starting reservation, the player has to fight a certain neutral squad marked as Mon4. For those who don't know, in the editor, the number after "mon" determines the strength of the neutrals that appear. Now, Mon4 can be mages, vampires, trolls. But they could be phoenixes. Or dragons. To beat this, given that the player hasn't even built cavalry in the castle (which requires wood, and to get wood, you have to fight through them), the game becomes a game of dice; if you roll bad mobs, there's a decent chance you won't complete the map.
Selling this in 2017 is unthinkable, it's absurd, nonsense! This is not difficulty, it's simply unfairness, exactly like if I had used a save editor to give myself 1000 Titans, or used a map editor to lock the enemy in a reservation with phoenixes, archmagi, or dragons without the necessary resource. This is designers haphazardly balancing difficulty instead of proper mission design; they are absolutely talentless. At the same time, in that same Price of Loyalty, there are excellently designed missions (for example, where you have to pass through the lands of the Barbarian with almost no resources but a protected castle, get Dimension Door, and take the Necromancer castle without wiping anyone out).
I quickly Googled and found similar threads on the English GOG forum, and found a couple of retro reviews too. Too difficult, too frustrating, unfair AI kills all the fun.
All these people are absolutely right, so a reasonable question arises: has anyone tried to mod the campaigns so that they are at least fair? Let's change Mon4 on the passages to at least Mon3; let's make the computers not in an alliance (why on earth should they be in an alliance if, according to the plot, they declared neutrality?). Let's give 50 dragons per head instead of 400; let's block Dimension Door in the guilds (the appearance of this spell completely breaks the idea of the entire map).
I didn't find a campaign editor on the internet; I'm not even sure one exists, nor does a way to pull maps out of a campaign in principle.
If anyone knows about such a mod or a campaign editor, please post in this thread, as well as write if anyone knows how to pull maps from campaigns into the editor and where they are located.
