Posts from Ideas and suggestions.

Hello! I would like to present a map of my own creation for your consideration. (Heroes 3: HotA 1.4.2.) Perhaps someone will be interested in playing it. Questions and suggestions are welcome. Thank you to everyone who showed interest:smile02:

I read it, and besides giving archers the ability to fight in melee and adding new potions, while also improving ballistics (we need to think about rewards, maybe giving some kind of meat, for example, units from the Cove faction), there's nothing particularly interesting. (skd writes well). The simplest way to balance magic is to swap some spells around, without reinventing the wheel with some nonsense about movement points. For example, make teleportation a water magic spell. Then, in the late game, water will be essential, and earth won't suffer because it's already overpowered due to oil. (As an alternative, swap prayer and teleportation). As for fire, I might be exaggerating, but for example, move implosion to fire (swap it with sacrifice), and in addition, make the 5th level of fire immune to counterspells, i.e., implosion and fire elementals will still work, which will create a kind of balance between mages and knights. To avoid making mages overpowered, magic could be prohibited when a cloak and counterspell are used. Then, it still won't be possible to counter everything, for example, AoD. And leveling will occur, in addition, there will be battles where both heroes can die, in which case the economy will also be strengthened in some way, with someone pulling heroes out of the tavern, etc. Resistance also seems to increase immediately. There are probably some omissions because not everything is well thought out. If you're interested, I can analyze it in more detail, although you can do it even better than me. And I also don't like the overabundance of artifacts; sometimes, in the 3rd week, 2-3 artifact sets are collected. There are also too many different cons, so I would reduce the number by, say, 30-40%. Armies from castles are generally not needed after 121. Something like that. P.S. Prohibit water magic for logistics heroes; Gunnar can't take it anyway, so it will be a kind of fix for logistics specialists. (Let a weakling with water run around and send Gunnar home; why not?)

for example, make Town Portal water magic. then in the late game water will be necessary, and earth won't suffer, since it's still imbalanced because of slow. (as an option, swap prayer and Town Portal)

Mass Prayer is not that much worse than Mass Slow, in my humble opinion.
And in general... When you start dividing utility between the global map and the battlefield, balance becomes very hard to find, maybe even impossible. In any case, the school that allows fast movement will be a must have, while the others, even if their value increases, will still be some kind of "add-ons".

in addition, make the 5th level of fire immune to cube, i.e. implosion and fire elementals will still work, this would be some kind of balance between mages and Knights. to avoid making mages imbalanced, you could ban magic in the case of the cloak and the cube.

In my opinion, this scheme is an order of magnitude more artificial than the ideas in this thread regarding new spells on the global map.

p.s. forbid Logistics heroes from water magic, Gunnar can't take it anyway as far as I know, this would somehow fix the Logistics specialists. (let the noob with water run around and send Gunnar home, why not)

Again, complication. What's wrong with simply adding a new spell to water? Well, okay, maybe not "simply," but at least you wouldn't have to shuffle spells (which, in my opinion, even contradicts the idea of this mod, although I can't guarantee I'm right about that. But the fact is that such a change to the "old" setup will surely have many opponents.); introduce tricky formulas about which artifacts forbid what and what they don't; forbid things for Logistics heroes...

Remove the Grail from small maps, or reduce its power.

I suggest banning the use of the Heroes3.exe file. Firstly, because it's not right! Look around, everywhere people are using this cheating method! That's not acceptable. Secondly, it will significantly improve the game's balance – everyone will have equal opportunities.

In my humble opinion, Mass Slow isn't that much worse than Mass молитва. The issue isn't about Mass Slow or Mass молитва, but rather the difference between water and earth magic. And even if you compare these two spells, Mass Slow is far more effective than the useless молитва, in my opinion. And in general... When you start separating things based on usefulness on the global map and on the battlefield, it becomes very difficult, if not impossible, to find a balance. In any case, a school that allows for quick movement will be a must-have, and the others, even if their value is increased, will still be some kind of "add-ons." Well, right now, I'd prefer earth magic over all three of the others combined. Where's the balance?! In my opinion, this scheme is far more artificial than the ideas in this thread regarding new spells on the global map. Yes, I agree, it looks absurd (although somehow you need to balance mages and knights), but at least you don't have to introduce anything new. They've already alienated everyone with the new creature banks and artifacts. Again, it's just more complexity. Why not just add a new spell to water? Okay, let's assume it's not "simple," but at least you don't have to shuffle spells around (which, in my opinion, even contradicts the idea of this mod, although I can't guarantee that I'm right. But the fact is that such a change to the "old" setup will definitely have many opponents); introduce tricky formulas, which artifacts forbid what, and which don't; forbid something to logisticians... Again, just like earth magic, logisticians (and even specialists) are incredibly strong secondary units, in my opinion, not inferior to such specialists as Galtran or Sir Mullich. Why were they removed from the game then?

but at least you don't have to introduce anything new, and they've already scared everyone away with the new creature banks and artifacts.

But wasn't HOTA originally created to introduce a new town, "Cove," right? It seemed obvious to me that introducing something new is preferable within the framework of a mod, rather than changing something old (provided it's lore-friendly). Although, the authors know best.

Oh, let's not talk about those "scary artifacts" anymore; the balancing of Conflux and Necropolis, as well as the bans on the aforementioned Mullich and Galtran, which most players relied on, have already caused enough tears. But so far, there haven't been many complaints about artifacts and objects.

Oh, let it go with these "scary banks"; the balance of Conflux and Necropolis, as well as the aforementioned Mullich and Galthran, on whom most players rely, have already caused enough trouble. Tears have already been shed over them, but there haven't been any complaints about artifacts and objects yet.

It seems these Necropolis and Conflux factions are not giving you peace. But does it bother you that you can start with the Moon faction or Monera in HotA? Moreover, the Moon faction's specialty doesn't suffer, and Necropolis allows vampires, which, in skilled hands, are more fun than farming skeletons. Galthran can't be chosen in SoD except for Jebus, and Mullich can only be found in taverns. Don't forget that many players perform just as well with other Necropolis heroes. HotA is a slightly different game, with new artifacts and objects. As Vic wrote, its goal is to make heroes less dependent on cons and hives. As a result, we got a bunch of new objects that negatively affect morale for a long time. IMO, this is why Jebus is almost unplayable in HotA, or at least more unbalanced. There are a lot of new artifacts that seem to be designed more for Diablo (again, IMO), which also doesn't give the game any advantages. Even the introduced Overlord mode in HotA changes the concept somewhat, as there are players who can no longer do anything in parallel or plan their moves while waiting in line. Of course, there are also some advantages, which is why players have split into those who went to HotA, those who stayed in SoD, and those who play both versions.

I already answered this on the stream: if it were possible to make it so that, for regular castles during a standard trade, I receive Gunnar and you receive Gosh, I would gladly play.

It's not difficult to do – you find a second player who will generate 7+ starting saves for you (for restarts), and in each save, they will place Galthran under one castle and Gunnar under the other. And at the start, each player will have -2500 resources.

It seems these Necropolis and Conflux factions aren't letting you rest.

I'm seeing complaints about artifacts and banks (what exactly is the issue?) for the first time from you, but I regularly encounter complaints about Necromancers and Conflux.

What exactly is the problem? Are they too strong? Too weak?

Complaints like "they're not like in SoD" will be ignored, because in SoD, both of these factions are flawed, unbalanced, and therefore riddled with workarounds.

in SoD, both of these castles are flawed and unbalanced.

Those who are dissatisfied believe that everything was fine with them, but in HotA they were nerfed to the point of being unplayable.

Those who are dissatisfied believe that everything was fine with them, but in HotA, they were nerfed to the point of being unplayable.

If everything was fine with them in SoD, there would be no need to impose 100,500 restrictions on them.

The policy in HotA is to abolish all unwritten restrictions; they should be implemented in the program's code. Writing restrictions like "don't exploit psychic units" is a terrible idea from the point of view of gameplay integrity, a typical online workaround.

If everything was fine with them in SoD, there wouldn't be a need to impose 100,500 restrictions.

The policy in HotA is to remove all verbal restrictions; they should be implemented in the program's code. But writing restrictions like "don't grief psychics" is a complete mess from the point of view of gameplay integrity, a typical online hack.

The castles in HotA are well-designed, but what is really bad, at least for HL+U, is the lack of rebuilding. This is a real return to the dark ages of SoD, only even worse, because control scrolls without rebuilding a GM with 15k value are simply ridiculous; they clearly indicate that they must be captured. And don't talk about ideological contradictions with the original SoD when you add external TP, art to ban resurrection, sacrifices, and vampire abilities, etc. And the fact that this might somehow deter those who play single-player is just laughable. Rebuilding is implemented in HWR, but HWR is not needed for single-player at all.
And also, Wicc, I don't understand why you think you always know better what the community needs, even though you haven't played in a long time? You were categorically against the rebuilding checkbox in SoD when there was a vote, but thankfully they didn't listen to you. And what do we see now? All commercial games come with the rebuilding option enabled, and the same is true in tournaments, at least for HL+U; all skilled players are completely in favor of it. But in HotA, you have more direct influence on the HotA team, and that's why we still don't see this simply necessary option.