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Avatar-Lion, thank you for the detailed answer. Now I understand everything.

I can spend about ten minutes on one game day to calculate who should go where, what artifacts to exchange, etc. Would you agree to have such an opponent in an online game? :)

Usually, I play that way. And I'm fine with it. But when the opponent makes a move faster than 10 minutes, it certainly makes me happy.

Ple-Sen
Well, since no one has answered my questions about the smoothness of the animations, we can also talk about cheating... Let's go in order.

1) The vast majority of mass and most frequently used spells belong to the magic of water and the magic of earth. I don't think anyone will argue with that. Is the player to blame for the fact that the game developers didn't balance the schools of magic? No, the player is not to blame. In this case, the blame lies entirely with the developers.

2) The same situation applies to secondary skills. "Diplomacy," "Eagle Eye," "Scholar," and many others are never used by anyone. Why include skills in the game that no one needs? There are two options here: either the original concept of Heroes 3 was different, and these skills were actually intended for active use, or the developers were simply too lazy to bring the secondary skills to a common denominator (in terms of usefulness).

3) Since magic is used only once in seven cases, it cannot have a truly significant impact on the battle. Let me explain: if a hero has all seven slots occupied by troops, then the hero can cast a spell only once every seven turns. In other words, mages have been weakened by a factor of seven (!) compared to knights. Reducing the probability of a magic school appearing for knights is nothing more than an attempt to correct this terrible imbalance. An attempt, I must say, that is rather clumsy, since the size of armies grows much faster than the magical skills of hero-mages. As a result, a fully upgraded knight will easily crush the troops of a fully upgraded mage, especially if the knight also has some kind of magic school (then he will either neutralize the mage's spells or weaken their effect on his army).

What conclusions can be drawn from all this? That I am being artificially forced into some kind of framework. Am I supposed to sit quietly and replay each map N times, so that in the end the random number generator is on my side? No, I won't do that. I will save myself time using Heroes III SaveEditor. Is this cheating? No, it's fixing bugs in the balance and shortcomings of the game. Or am I supposed to put up with bugs too? Or, perhaps, the opinion of the developers is the only correct one in this life? No? It isn't? So why then is any deviation from their opinion immediately equated to cheating? Note that I am not creating a hero with the skills I need from the very beginning. That really is cheating. I am only correcting the consequences of the developers' laziness, who themselves (!) force the player to either replay the map or edit the Save Game. Or you can just put up with it, yes, but why put up with the inconveniences that can be eliminated?

As for the statement that "playing against the AI requires honed skills," I can only say that I didn't express myself correctly, and you misunderstood me. :) By the phrase "honed skills," I meant only that set of secondary skills + corresponding spells + systematic visiting of objects on the map." All this ultimately allows you to have a pleasant and leisurely game against the AI. That's all. I am far from a hardcore gamer and have never considered myself one. In general, to be honest, I don't understand how you can boast about being able to win virtual victories over someone.

"Diplomacy" and many others are not used by anyone ever.

Are you serious? Diplomacy is a wildly unbalanced skill; it's banned in all communities that have even a slight understanding of the game. Specifically because of the free troop joins. Of course, you can play "without rules," but a game without rules is a completely different story.

1) The vast majority of mass and most frequently used spells belong to Water Magic and Earth Magic. I assume no one will argue with this.

I will. Earth in first place is a must-have and non-negotiable. But Water?
Air would be better. Dimension Door and Fly. Thanks to these two spells alone, Water is ALREADY worse. And then there's Haste, Air View, Chain Lightning. What's in Water? Healing/Remove Curse? Or maybe Clone/Prayer/Teleport? Those might work well in a specific situation, but Air is still "cooler".

Why put skills in the game that nobody needs? There are two options here: either the original concept of Heroes III was different and these skills were indeed intended for active use, or the developers were lazy here as well and failed to bring secondary skills to a common denominator (in terms of usefulness).

Good post. Too bad this topic is in an unpopular section and few people will even notice this post, otherwise they'd tell you :D That this is a brilliant invention, a great concept—if there aren't bad ones, you won't appreciate the good ones, and so on...

Since magic is used 1 time out of 7 cases, it cannot truly and seriously influence the battle.

Please don't make me laugh. It certainly can.

To clarify: if a hero has all seven slots occupied by troops, then for every seven troop moves, the hero can cast a spell only once. Roughly speaking, mages have been weakened seven (!) times compared to knights.

That's a gem. And does it matter that 1 magic cast can directly affect all units? As well as the entire course of the battle.

In the end, a fully leveled Knight will neatly smear the troops of a fully leveled Mage against the wall, especially if the Knight has some school of magic (then he will either nullify the Mage's spells or weaken their effect on his army).

With a Red Ball, definitely. With a Cloak of Denial, it's also possible.
But on the other hand, mages rule on small maps.

What conclusions can be drawn from all this? That I am being forcibly pushed into some frames by artificial means. Am I supposed to sit obediently and replay every map N number of times just so the random number generator finally ends up on my side? No, I won't do that. I will save myself time using Heroes III SaveEditor. Is this cheating? No, this is fixing balance bugs and game flaws.

The fact that you went into the save and changed the mechanics is absolute cheating. It doesn't matter when you did it, on the first day or the last. It doesn't change the essence of the matter. It is cheating. But do it with a bot, as long as your conscience is clear. He won't be offended. He doesn't care.

The part about replaying the map amused me a lot. And the "pushing into frames."
You sat down to play a game; every game has its own physics. And here's the thing: either you accept it as it is, or you make your own game, or you don't play it at all. If you continue to play it, then in any case, the frames and limitations of the game itself apply to you. Constraints, restraints, and words of that nature. Dragons cannot shoot, pikemen cannot fly, and vampires cannot burn with fire breath. No matter how much someone might want that. Likewise, you cannot indefinitely create a Dimension Door and cast magic from a book, say, 10 times at the start of your turn. And many other "cannots" that you "put up with."
Whether you like it or not.

Or am I supposed to put up with bugs too?

You don't have to put up with bugs. But the fact that you didn't get your favorite skill, hero, or magic in the guild is NOT a bug.
That's just how the random rolled. Nothing more. Have you noticed that there is a lot of randomness in the game? And everything that doesn't automatically fall into your favorite subset of spells, heroes, troops, towns, artifacts—everything you don't like is NOT a bug by default. Just because you don't like it (lol). It's simply pushing you as a player out of your comfort zone. You just don't know how/don't want to/don't like to do it otherwise, etc.

So why is any deviation from their opinion immediately equated to cheating here?

Which specific opinion are you talking about now? It's one thing not to use Diplomacy "for balance," and another to crack and violate the save structure to put in what you want, just because you don't know how/don't want to/don't like to play any other way. Is that the same thing to you?

Note that I don't create a hero from the start with the skills I need. That would indeed be cheating. I am only correcting the consequences of the developers' laziness, who themselves (!) force the player to either replay the map or edit the Save Game. Well, or you could put up with it, yes, but why put up with inconveniences that can be eliminated?

"That would indeed be cheating." Oh, really...
I already answered this. Went into the savegame -> changed the skill tree = cheater. Whether it's good or bad from a moral standpoint is completely irrelevant. But a fact remains a fact. Caught red-handed.

Leader1
We simply have different attitudes towards computer games. I see a game only as a means of entertainment, that is, as a source of positive emotions and impressions. All these randomly determined parameters are only suitable for people like you – who enjoy sorting through hundreds of combinations. You have the time for it. You have the desire to do it. Great. But I have a different goal: to spend a minimum of effort and nerves, and in return, get maximum enjoyment. The fact that it will look like cheating from the point of view of other players – so be it... There's no need to catch me red-handed; I'll admit everything myself anyway. :D

In general, the situation is painfully familiar. About a year ago, I had a similar discussion on a Diablo II fan forum. Take a look there; you'll like it. There are exactly the same players as you. They are ready to spend years (!!!) doing absolutely monotonous actions, such as running to bosses and other strong monsters, just to get the item they need. I told them: "Guys, do you really want to get a cool armor, sword, shield, or helmet? Just edit your character in some editor, and that's it. You'll play for a couple of days, calm down, and find a more interesting activity than hitting the same monsters day after day." The reaction was roughly the same as yours. :) Something like, "You don't understand anything; that's not the point of the game," etc.

To be precise, I understand the very fundamental idea that underlies these endless boss runs or hero leveling (it doesn't even matter in which game). People do this for that very feeling of satisfaction that you get when you finally achieve the desired result. But this no longer appeals to me. I'm probably just too old. :rolleyes:

who enjoys going through hundreds of combinations.

Mentally going through combinations develops memory.

Added 1 minute ago

Probably too old.

There are people here who are 40 years old, and not all of them play often. The game develops players because it's an intellectual game (like chess). To win, you need to think a lot. On Google: Heroes 3 TV, where you can see strong players playing, mostly in the evenings. The game isn't what it seems – the smartest player wins. And you don't necessarily have to spend a lot of time: playing on small maps (M200) takes a maximum of 3 hours.

DaU
Yes, it certainly develops your mind. But for me personally, going through all possible combinations seems very boring and tedious. I found a good combination of skills (earth magic + water magic) and troops (either Castle, Tower, or Rampart). That's it. And the fact that the random number generator isn't on my side – well, that's not a big deal; it can always be fixed with a Save Game editor.

Therefore, I suggest we consider the discussion closed and the topic – finished. Thank you all for participating.

We just have a different attitude towards computer games.

True.

I see the game only as a means of entertainment, that is, as a source of positive emotions and impressions.

Perhaps this will be news, but I too.

All these randomly determined parameters are only suitable for people like you - who like to go through hundreds of combinations. You have the time for it. You have the desire to do it. Great.

But I have a different goal: to spend a minimum of effort and nerves, and in return get maximum pleasure.

You have the time and desire, right. But the goal is the same.

But this doesn't appeal to me anymore. I'm probably too old. :rolleyes:

And I'm not interested in playing single-player with nwctrinity, nwcwhatisthematrix, nwcnebuchadnezzar. And there's no need to talk about the pleasure of the game here. That's being disingenuous. Heroes is not work. Everyone plays the game for fun, not because they need to play a certain number of hours a day or level up certain skills.
For you, it's enough to have fun by sometimes cheating against the AI. We are only interested in playing against a live opponent; otherwise, it's just not interesting. And there are people who play to speedrun the computer, but that's a dying breed.
The fact that we have different needs from the game is true.
But this

If I'm being precise, I understand the very fundamental idea behind these endless runs to bosses or leveling up heroes (it doesn't even matter in what game). People do it for that very feeling of satisfaction that you get when you finally get the desired result.

applies to you no less than to all of us. I can "cope" if the main hero gets a bad skill; you can still win with it, and if not, you can level up another one. But you will run to open the save editor to "finally get the desired result".

Playing against the computer is like playing chess with a mentally challenged, blind person. It's not challenging due to its limitations, and on top of that, it keeps stealing pieces from the board. Cheating against random opponents and a weak AI in Heroes 3 feels... strange and pointless.

Okay, playing King's Bounty on a challenge run, where you can generate hundreds of scenarios, scan them for specific units/artifacts, and then create a walkthrough algorithm on a couple of sheets of paper, and follow that algorithm to complete the run – that's a real game, but more in the realm of planning.

P.S. How would you change the "Lightning Bolt" spell so that it's not overpowered but still useful in certain situations? Maybe make it an AoE/mass spell or have it work on units immune to magic.

Playing against the computer is like playing chess with a mentally challenged blind person. It's not challenging due to its limitations, and it even steals pieces from the board. Cheating against random events and a weak AI in Heroes 3 is... strange and pointless.

Well done, though! You're right!

Avatar-Lion! Have you ever tried replaying life? Or if you lose a limb or your head in a hot battle, do you not want to load a previous save and edit it so you don't end up in that battle?
You prefer to slowly crush cockroaches, poisoning them beforehand so they don't scatter, you call it a victory, and you get positive emotions from it. But, for example, a mountaineer climbs mountains where he can easily die, not for skill or glory, but also for the sake of getting positive emotions.
I used to play by trial and error on a low difficulty, but not to get positive emotions, but to distract myself from everyday problems. But nevertheless, I didn't get pleasure from destroying a weak enemy. In general, this game is not for pacifists, because war is at its core, and pacifists are against war.

And happy Defender of the Fatherland Day to all real men - February 23rd! :smile14:

Friends, please forgive me, but after reading some of the messages, I have a strong feeling that there is a certain "only correct" way to play Heroes 3. And if you don't play the way it's "supposed to be played," then you're a loser. Can we please stop this? I can understand when a little boy gets upset with another little boy because he's not driving a toy car, but trying to hammer nails with it. But when older people start seriously drawing analogies to real life... Come on, guys. It's just a computer game. A good one, certainly, but still just a game.