Posts from Ideas and suggestions.

Good day to the development team. In the latest patches, you have finally started modifying skills. I hope you will continue to do so, as there are still many candidates for improvement. Several years ago, I already shared my thoughts with the team. Now, I will update the list to reflect the changes that have already been made. I know that many people are currently writing about skills, but I ask you to spend a few minutes of your time. Perhaps my suggestions will inspire you with new ideas. Ballistics. Artillery improves the combat characteristics of machines. Ballistics could increase the hit points. The old property related to catapults should remain, but in addition to it, it should increase the health of all combat machines by 50-100-150 percent. The percentages can be even higher. A cannon will be more effective in final battles if it lasts longer. When machines are used as a living shield against monsters on the map, they will also last longer. First Aid. After obtaining the skill, the tent heals 2-3-4 times more health. At the advanced level, it begins to remove harmful spells. At the expert level, the tent's actions become area-of-effect. Trainability. When upgrading a hero, not only increase experience but also allow them to choose the skills they receive. The basic version should allow choosing skills of the first level: attack, defense, strength, knowledge. The advanced version should allow upgrading any of the skills already obtained as desired. The expert version should allow choosing any skill from the complete list at the next level. Luck. Instead of simply increasing luck by 1-2-3, also increase the frequency of luck upgrades by 50-100-150 percent. You have done something similar for the new leprechaun units. Keen Sight. All used spells of all levels are automatically learned. The skill allows you to obtain 1-2-3 spells after a battle that the hero has not used, including spells not for combat. In all cases, I am providing approximate numbers. I think you can find more accurate ones. Thank you again for your work

By the way, I recently started thinking that luck could also increase the chance of creatures gaining new abilities. :smile13:

Actually, I recently started thinking that luck could also increase the chance of upgrading creature abilities :smile13:

Yes, I support this!

Suggestion #5 (ver 2) [..Eagle Eye..] In addition to the ability, reduce the cost of spells by 1, 2, and 3 mana. It could completely replace "Eagle Eye" with this ability, and it could be named something like "Mana Compression" or something else. For archers, a skill costing 1-2 mana would be a great benefit. Or a slow/haste skill for 2-3 mana.

Regarding Eagle Eye, the only reasonable solution is to allow a hero with the skill to see and use in battle the spells that are in the opponent's spellbook (without percentages). Artifacts should provide a bonus instead of percentages, based on the level of Eagle Eye. For example, having an expert level of Eagle Eye allows you to see and use all of the opponent's spells from level 1 to 4 in battle, and having another artifact that provides a bonus to the skill allows you to use spells up to level 5. Without the Eagle Eye skill, but with three artifacts, you can also see spells from levels 1-4. This would counter starting mages with level 4 spells, but Eagle Eye wouldn't be overpowered; it would allow you to use the skill and artifacts at least sometimes, and add more variety to the game.

For the Eagle Eye skill, there's a solution: remove the air and earth elements from the skill books and guild skills.
And give them exclusively to Eagle Eye units, without the possibility of retraining.

There is a solution for Eagle Eye – remove the Air and Earth skills from books and guilds.
And give them only to Eagle Eyes without the possibility of retraining.

I support this. Also, increase the learning rate to 20/50/100%. And so on.

Here's an idea to make the Earth skill less overpowered and essential for winning: change the teleportation mechanic. So, a hero without the Earth skill would teleport to the nearest town, but if that town is occupied, they would teleport to another nearby, unoccupied town, and so on. Naturally, when you have 10+ towns and need to reach the farthest one, it will be more difficult and take longer, but this way, you can still play reasonably well without the Earth skill, and it will allow for more strategic maneuvering.

There is another (and quite old) idea that is directly related to the Might and Magic universe. Replace the "Walk on Water" spell on maps without water with "Lloyd's Beacon." "Lloyd's Beacon" is a control spell from the Might and Magic RPG, allowing a hero to teleport from any point on the map to the location where the beacon was previously placed (if another hero is not present there). The beacon should, of course, be visible to the enemy, and to counter it in Heroes, the player would need to position their hero on it. I believe that introducing this spell would balance the schools of magic and, at the same time, not be something absurd or taken from nowhere.

Good day, respected developers and forum visitors!
Phew.. I've read all the comments on 60+ pages to gauge the public sentiment.

HotA leaves the most favorable impressions in terms of balance refinement.
In my opinion, the weakest point right now is the imbalance of magic schools, which concerns the majority of players.
TE proposed a good solution: move DD and TP to other magic schools, making both the water and fire elements desirable even for the main hero.
Wicc says the developers are unlikely to go for this, that many changes in TE were disliked by players, but this particular fix solved the core problem.
We should learn from others' successes.

Effect:
- All magic schools will be useful, and you'll have to choose one, sacrificing other possibilities, since a 3-in-1 option will no longer work;
- Some players complained that mages became stronger than warriors, especially after the ban on KB and PO. If DD and/or TP are moved to other magic schools, warriors will be chosen more often, because developing "that perfect" mage will become harder;
- The selection of starting heroes will diversify; for example, Monere or Luna will be chosen more often instead of Grindan;
- The water book will become a worthwhile purchase in Utopia;
- A player who first picks water magic for double DD, as slots fill up, risks being left without earth magic. Result: more diverse final battles, where mass slow might be absent;
- It can be said that moving 2 spells to other magic schools has already been successfully tested in practice; in my opinion, tournaments were held;
- Leveling up the opponent's hero will no longer be trivial, but will be unpredictable;
- We need to carefully consider the nuances and weigh everything so the adjustment is correct from the start;
- Let's start with each person voicing their opinion, especially experienced and knowledgeable players are welcome!

Voice your opinion. We're looking for ideas. Balancing magic schools by any means:
- Either move DD and/or TP;
- Or refine water and fire magic to be desirable for the main hero.

Previously expressed opinions from this thread:
-142-
Wicc
Balancing the magic schools is quite a worthy goal, by the way. Right now we have must-have Earth and useful Air; the rest is not taken voluntarily. This situation does not seem correct to me.
-231-
Wicc
Decisions are made collectively, after lengthy discussions, though not always quickly.
And nothing prevents such discussions from being held publicly - forum comments are carefully read and analyzed. You can also always ask team members - what do you think about a particular idea - would you like to implement it, and if not, why?
-212-
Derbent
The simplest way to balance magic schools is to swap some spells without reinventing the wheel with some nonsense about movement points. For example, make TP a water magic spell. Then water will be necessary in the late game, while earth won't suffer since it's still imbalanced due to slow. (As an option, swap Prayer and TP)
-245-
Wicc
Regarding DD and TP, I also have some thoughts ...
KobRa_RR
I hope those thoughts are about moving them to the proper magic schools?
Wicc
Nope. The team considers moving magic between schools and tiers ideologically incorrect. What is acceptable - weakening the effect of the imbalanced spell or complicating its use. Optimal - adding competitors in the same niche.
-286-
Wicc
HotA Team's policy is that changes to standard functionality should be made rarely, but precisely. Ideally changed once and never touched again. Therefore, before implementing anything, mental modeling of the consequences is required.
-387-
Grando
Move TP from the earth school, DD from the air school.
-395-
Al Feyn
Move TP/Resurrect (or both) from the earth school, DD from the air school (we could also think about various other absurdities in magic)
Ivor
I'll let you in on a secret: TE and WT haven't disappeared, and nothing stops you from playing them. As for HotA, the vision for this version's development voiced by the developer team from the very beginning did not allow expecting changes in that direction, as some naive comrades did.
-397-
Ivor
But playing the game "whoever grabbed earth first - they won" - that's the pinnacle of professionalism.
-719-
ilmanelamaa
Regarding water magic, which is far inferior to other schools.
In Heroes 1 and 2, there was a spell called Storm. Mechanically, it's the same as Armageddon, but weaker. It's unknown why it was removed.
If we bring back this spell, as a weak Armageddon variant at level 2, then the Storm + Water Protection combo (+ mass cure, especially on fat single-unit stacks) could be quite viable.
This will incentivize players to sometimes use water, increasing variety in matches.
I consider it important to emphasize that the spell is canonical from the game series, not made up by a nobody.
I hope the animation won't be too difficult to implement.
-900-
Sav
A rebalance of spells is being planned one way or another (and has been for a while).
-953-
caliban
There is an idea for earth to not be such an imbalanced must-have without which you cannot win the game.

It would be very helpful to save time; please add a button to enable Overlord's Hour for 2, 4, or 7 days. If there are 8 players, the 8th player needs to press the button to enable Overlord's Hour.

Played in 8xm12a.
On the respawn point, there were boots that increased speed, placed behind regular zombies, and in Utopia, they gave a bag worth 1000 as a "relic".
The boots should be made a relic, and the value of the bags should be reduced.
It's an imbalance, comrades.

And also, ban water artifacts, right? oh, wait...
I noticed in HotA - banks give disproportionately often very good artifacts; from every 3-4 locations, I consistently get gloves or boots.

Added after 22 hours 45 minutes
Suggestion: if a hero has (or had) a Day/Night spell or Teleport, then the last movement bars should be colored according to the required mana points for the corresponding spell (taking into account the hero's elements).

The idea is to introduce a spell for the water school (in case teleportation is not planned):

GUIDING STAR.
Level: 3-4
Mana cost: 12-16.
Element: Water
On expert difficulty, it removes the movement penalty in all terrains and reduces the movement cost to 90 movement points per step instead of 100,
+ if additionally there is an expert pathfinding skill, then 1 step costs 80 movement points.

Let's assume the player has 3000 movement points, then the maximum distance they can travel is 3000/0.8 = 3750, and even then, only on difficult terrain, because the bonus doesn't work on roads.
Considering that Teleport and Dimension Door, when converted to movement points, often provide a disproportionately larger benefit, such a spell would not be an overwhelming advantage and would add usefulness to the water element.

A fresh idea (maybe not so fresh, but I haven't encountered anything like it). The eternal attempts to make Eagle Eye a viable skill. So...

Basic Eagle Eye: allows the hero to use 2 spells at once every 10th round of combat. Advanced - every 5th round. Expert - every 3rd.
Of course, the numbers are just for example and need to be tested.