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That's right — there will always be dissatisfied people, but they've always existed even without changes. No matter what anyone does, there will be both supporters and those who don't like it. The most important thing is — please don't perceive everything I strive for as imposition under any circumstances. First, all of this might not catch on; second, enabling or disabling the plugin is up to each person (like a checkbox in settings).
1) I disagree that taking a Griffin Conservatory one or two is harder than max Dragon Fly Hives. First, the speed of wyverns is higher and losses are often greater; second, single Griffin Conservatories are taken in the first week, doubles in week 1-2. Griffin Conservatories are already being taken both without losses and with losses (from "zhor"/overeating) by many.
2) Regarding HotA — their template editor immediately sets which objects will be in a zone and which won't — without even changing the value itself — this already leads to more precise intentions of template creators (we unfortunately don't have such template editors).
3) And even on the M template, a single Griffin Conservatory is taken in week 1-2, which gives a huge boost in tempo. And there should definitely be no lag in tempo. And that one angel will break through all the mines, most guards (especially with the help of magic), etc. Campfires don't give a significant advantage. They can give you the missing resource for a building, but this cannot compare with the capabilities of even a single angel on the map. The skill level of players is constantly growing. And we don't always keep up with it.
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1. What is the point of changing the values of all scrolls? First, we don't have the functionality to change the value of specific spells. Second, the rule only exists for banning scrolls of levels 4-5 (not control scrolls). Specifically for levels 4 and 5, I proposed setting decent guards. It's not for me to decide the strength. We do have that functionality. As for the point of setting the same value for Sacrifice and Fly, for example? Again, we don't have the necessary functionality, and also in Heroes there is randomness everywhere, and you can't do without luck. When you run for Pandora's Boxes, you also don't always get what you need (though it's roughly calculable), or when you beat an Utopia — you get a lottery ticket.
2. What's wrong with HVRules? The fact that it went down the path of blocking game functionality, and newcomers still need to learn a lot of rules. The more rules, the higher the chance of breaking them. Let's not forget that both newcomers and people who are not sober or have some problems can play (rules don't care about that). And many problems are not solved by it. For me, HVRules is primarily — guild restructuring, object bans, utilities before the start of the game.
3. I'm the same kind of philosopher (theorist in Heroes) as all of you and I often make mistakes and fantasize about "what if..." (and then test it in practice). These fantasies are primarily caused by communication with newcomers. It so happens that our activity is primarily directed at them. The easier it is for newcomers to integrate into the community, the better it is for the community itself. And having integrated into the community, they can quite get used to anything (here is your element — I don't interfere here (I can only suggest)). Why go far — some players started playing online purely because of the arena tournament, which saves time. And having experienced it, they will probably try other formats too (at least some of them). There is definitely nothing bad about this.
4. Perhaps not everyone noticed, but SoD is already divided into at least 2 groups. These are offline Heroes (playing through maps, campaigns, playing against the computer + newcomers who play by their own rules and have fun) and tournament Heroes (with HVRules, a bunch of rules, lobby, etc.). The first ones love Heroes 3 as the developers created them and don't care what happens in tournaments (many don't even know about them). The second ones want balance and for skill to decide as much as possible through more even distributions, for bugs to be fixed, for comfort to increase, game time to be reduced, and so on. But besides players, there are also people who not only use other people's developments but also do something or want to do something for players (tournament organizers and hosts, plugin developers, template creators, community managers, etc.) — the reasons are very different. But the capabilities of modders are partially limited (thanks to Baratorch and similar guys, thanks to whom we have the ability to influence the game). The capabilities of template builders are also very limited. Each template had its own design, but in reality, the generator does whatever it wants with your design. Even the capabilities of mapmakers in the editor are severely limited, which saddens them. Moreover, even tournaments are now divided into regular ones (with an emphasis on familiarity in rules and formats) and show tournaments (with an emphasis on spectacle and popularization of Heroes). Communicating with different organizers (including on HeroesWorld, we encountered a lack of capabilities to implement necessary things). Tournament organization can follow the pattern of "I want it this way and I don't care about your opinions," as well as the pattern of "let's discuss what's best for the majority."
What is all this for? To the point that we need to immediately distinguish between fun/original Heroes and the tournament version. They are already too different. And if the community is alive, they will progress. The question is only in what direction and at what speed. Each of us can choose any direction, but if the community does not support it (by community I mean not only this portal), the direction will die. That is, the community itself will weed out absurd ideas and good ones. Any idea can lead to a "brainstorm" and even give birth to another, more sensible one. It's much worse when there are no ideas and no initiative.
Once, we (a number of players) pushed an initiative with show tournaments. In the end, it became the norm. At one time, we (many in the community) raised the topic of simultaneous turns in SoD, and many laughed, saying "there's HotA (and earlier WT), why?" We even managed to obtain the source code from the WT version, and seemingly on the same day or around then (+/-), Baratorch delighted us with news. Then there was an attempt to gather players from different countries and portals and organize an "a-la" team world championship in Heroes. There were plenty of skeptics, but there was also plenty of help — in the end, the matter was brought to completion (new viewers and new communities learned about us, they even wrote about us). That is, the positives were still extracted. There were a number of templates that we wrote and discussed with some template builders — many also said it was nonsense, why do this, there are already normal templates and that's enough. But first, some of them did catch on (a very small part and in separate pockets, but still, not much time has passed, and the competition among templates is high); second, we gained a lot of experience in this matter and now understand it much better; third, video guides were even recorded on how to make and edit templates yourself. If something doesn't suit you in them, you can sit at home and make Heroes the way you want. There were also initiatives that have not yet led to the intended result — recording games of other players with their permission brought a lot of headaches, takes a lot of time, and there is a constant struggle with copyrights. But first, it's a memory of us and those who are no longer with us, a memory of tournaments and events in the Heroes world; it's also water for newcomers, and it's an opportunity to prepare for your opponents knowing their play style, mistakes, tempo, etc. (especially for newcomers). Therefore, any initiative must lead to something.
5. Now regarding this specific plugin. What are its prospects? I have no idea. It might catch on, but with serious edits and discussions; it might not catch on at all under any edits and sink into oblivion; or it might be used by a small group of people; it might be used in some one tournament or a specific format of tournaments. This plugin expands opportunities for those who make templates (including me), and also gives additional opportunities for tournament organizers to create those tournament formats that they previously could not afford. After all, everyone makes those tournaments that are interesting to them as a viewer and organizer (with rare exceptions), and players then choose whether to play in such tournaments or not. That is, if organizers have more opportunities and diversity, in theory it will attract more organizers, which means more choice for you as players.
6. Regarding object values. Here I will only touch upon tournament Heroes. Fun Heroes suit me just fine — I don't care about winning there, and I still get the joy of randomness and unpredictability. But for tournaments, the assessment of object values categorically does not suit me — both as an organizer and template creator (I cannot set roughly equal distributions as intended) and as a player (with random single-creature distributions). For example, Griffin Conservatories are valued at 2000 and under the same value we have campfires, resources, Dwarf Cottages, shrines of level 2, and Pandora's Boxes with 5000 experience. That is, in the range of the same value, one might get 2 campfires, and the other 2 Griffin Conservatories, and for the generator — this will be equivalent (if we trust the table and I understand correctly). I'm not even mentioning other values. Therefore, for tournaments, I would certainly rework all objects by value and set them more adequately (subjectively, of course). At least more equivalent objects could theoretically be obtained within the same value. But I don't have as much experience as you, and without you, I would just create some chaos or fix it for many years. But even if we perfectly set the values, the problem will not be solved, as far as I understand. After all, all objects with a lower value appear in objects with a higher value. This is good on the one hand (for variety of zone filling not with endlessly repeating objects of a few types), but on the other hand, it makes the distributions not exactly what was intended. And in a template, only 3 value ranges can be set for each zone. Essentially, if it were possible to specify generation in detail for each zone, even based on the values that already exist, it would solve many of the problems described above. We are starting from the capabilities we have today and what we can do with them.
7. Regarding the fact that players won't get used to some innovations. Tell that to those who played in WoG and WT, then moved to SoD, then to HotA. Or tell that to those who constantly get used to the ever-changing rules on different portals. And newcomers on portals immediately start memorizing the rules and amendments to them. It takes some time, of course, and not everyone accepts changes. And I am categorically against any community abruptly changing and imposing something. Everything requires gradualness, healthy competition, and mutual assistance.
8. And well, actually, what is the goal of what I'm trying to do:
- Games without rules (rules should be embedded in the game and template).
- Speeding up the game, but preferably within reasonable limits.
- Not cutting anything out of the game at all (or almost nothing), only balancing it if possible.
- Popularizing Heroes (and by expanding opportunities, we also find more supporters, everyone finds something for themselves). The same SoD also brings players to HotA and vice versa. Everything is interconnected.
- Increasing the diversity of content and the number of streams about Heroes.
- Also, any activity (even the gaming industry) should promote not only entertainment to the masses but also carry some sensible things (from any field), in my opinion.
Lately, I've lost interest in watching streams about Heroes. Maybe I'm just saturated. Streams are usually turned on either out of habit in the background parallel to something, or more because of the commentators' interaction — rather than because of what's happening in the game. Although interesting short moments pop up, losing half a day of life (the duration of games is just killing) for the sake of a few minutes is not very appealing. XL games with Dungeon largely boil down to gaining control; M games to getting the best mage and spells — there are extremely few equal games, unfortunately, that I've managed to watch percentage-wise (although maybe I just don't come across them). But "equal game" is a relative thing. It would be good to at least have many interesting and non-stale solutions (they do happen, but not that often — percentage-wise). That's probably why I try to make tournaments completely different.
And well, perhaps the most important thing. Let's not forget that we are discussing a computer game. And no game should be one of the most important things in a person's life. In many ways, we are wasting time with much less benefit than we could bring to world society, our families, and ourselves, at the very least. And you absolutely cannot take offense at other players — it's just a game. It is not destined for everyone to agree in opinion; we are all different, not a herd. So, you shouldn't try to offend anyone with anyone's statements. You can offend me — because I hold no negativity towards anyone (offense comes from pride and misunderstanding). But many people react sharply to things directed at them. But think about it, you can offend and be offended because of a game — just like children)