Posts from Forum

With army dispersion, the problem is solvable.

But knowing how to deal with external moral factors is also an indicator of skill.

In all games in the world, whether it's football, hockey (especially noticeable in team games), volleyball, basketball, there is a factor of luck, and it cannot be eliminated. Let's say a basketball player, in a very difficult situation in the center of the court, throws the ball into the basket, and it bounces off the rim, sits there for a while, and then goes in. What will most people say? If you reason it out, it means that the player didn't have enough skills to make that shot in that particular situation, they haven't practiced enough, etc.

By the way, I really don't understand why you dismiss morale and GS so much, because earlier in another thread you wrote about getting free wins, taking castles without a fight, well, in general, moments in which there is a bit of luck, deservedly earned through cunning, ingenuity, and intelligence....

I think Heroes players will unite if HotA is improved.

and get rid of some Warlords drawbacks, it's already clear that both have drawbacks, so you need to combine the best.

"But we have such a beautiful moon."

Basically, it's an old argument; the opinion of the advanced part of the Heroes community here is quite unambiguous - morale is an anti-sport factor, therefore it should be strictly banned

right now it is much harder to install and configure SoD in a tournament build than VT

What are you even talking about? :rolleyes:

Tell that to the hardcore SoD players. They'll throw manure at you. Starting with 10 Gnolls is their idea of a good time and a way to control territory – no matter how skilled the opponent, they can be forced into such a situation.

There’s no denying that. Skillful play can reduce variance. But unfortunately, this isn't always the case.

I can easily come up with examples where morale cannot be avoided, and one must take action. A typical example is an Angel external dwelling on Jebel. It shouldn't be left for the second week, but even one unlucky morale check (not necessarily in the first round) can destroy an army.

These are the kinds of situations that those who prefer to win through skill don't like. If I have an army capable of taking that external dwelling, then that external dwelling should fall regardless of the whims of the random number generator. That's the essence of sports.

Exactly. This randomness directly depends on skill. If your aim is true, the ball will go in every time. Players strive for this during training.

Morale, however, is something like a gate on a basketball hoop that randomly opens and closes. In other words, it's an external factor independent of the player's actions. Such factors are usually eliminated in sports.

And only Heroes players praise these things, finding some deep meaning in them. There is no such meaning; it’s a typical RPG gimmick geared towards single-player games. If Heroes were originally designed for competitive play between players, none of the developers would have mentioned morale.

An example from another area: when Warcraft 3 was released, tons of criticism was directed at 1) unit damage variance and 2) random item drops from neutral creatures. And yet, uncontrolled randomness causes far less disruption than morale in Heroes. Because people had already learned their lesson from Starcraft and understood what a real esports game is and what level of randomness is acceptable.

In short, this is a tired argument, and the opinion of the more advanced part of the Heroes community is quite clear: morale is an anti-competitive factor, so it should be strictly banned.

That was a jab at SoD players who stand around aimlessly and hypocritically argue. If you're interested in classic gameplay and don't care about balance, there are unrestricted rules. If you're interested in balance and competitiveness, there's Warlords Tournament (WT), which has already implemented most of the needs of Heroes players and provides open mechanisms for further development and improvement. You can even enable morale with a single checkbox if that's your desire.

But somehow, even SoD players turn off morale when playing WT. From this, I conclude that SoD players themselves don't really need morale; they use it as an ideological weapon in arguments with WT players, saying something like "we have this nice feature, but you don't." It's similar to the well-known phrase by a black person, "but we have such a beautiful moon."

So, "ХВ rules" are some kind of Frankenstein creation, with all these multi-volume rulebooks and restrictions, with tons of additional software and configuration files. And yet, it’s still terribly flawed and unbalanced. Once upon a time, TE was criticized for its difficult installation; now, installing and configuring SoD in tournament mode is much more complex than WT.

Go consult Rebel. He will tell you clearly what he thinks about attempts to improve SoD and where your place is.

There is also a political factor: SoD promotes the immutability of gameplay. Any attempt to change it will lead to a split among hardcore SoD players. In addition, modified SoD will immediately lose the right to be called classic and will compete for players in the same category as WT, where it loses miserably on all fronts.

Then it would be easier to just remove WTminuses from WT. Discussions on this topic are currently underway.

One can easily come up with examples where you can't rely on morale and need to take action. A typical example is hiding Angels on Jeb. You can't leave them for the second week, and even one bad morale check (not necessarily even in the first round) can ruin an army.

Well, how about this... conduct a scientific experiment – explain over the phone (without a computer handy) to someone who isn't familiar with Heroes (let's assume they have the disc), how to install WoG and SoD in their entirety (including the patch, launcher, a set of tournament templates, a CD-less installer – you can even skip the HD mod, and that should be enough). And time how long it takes to do both.

and yet, it's more enjoyable to play football in professionally made, custom-fitted boots with a perfectly compliant and spherical ball, rather than in galoshes with an old, laced ball from which a hernia constantly threatens to pop out.
And I doubt you'd throw away your computer and start playing hide-and-seek.
Progress, my friend :)