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Thread: Several suggestions for H5 | |
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Maurice
Hero of Order
Part of the furniture
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posted June 10, 2006 11:11 AM |
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Edited by Maurice at 11:12, 10 Jun 2006.
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Several suggestions for H5
Rather than giving an extensive list of suggestions, I'd just like to focus on a few. Having finished the game in single-player mode, I cannot conclude anything else than that the game is great (I'd rate it at 5 stars, or 9/10 or so ), but well .. nothing is perfect.
One of the things that has annoyed me somewhat is the way the spellbook is handled. For just a few battles, it's ok I guess, but when you fight tons of battles and cast spells often, it starts to get somewhat annoying to have to click the spellbook open, flip to the page of the spell you want to use (possibly), and then select the spell to cast.
What I would suggest is to add a small icon bar of like 4 slots on the screen. This could be placed above the initiative bar, or perhaps to one of the sides (possibly the side of your army on the battlefield?). Attached to these buttons is a small number field, holding the total remaining mana. To cast a spell from it, simply left click the corresponding icon, just as if you select it from the spellbook.
This quick-cast button bar functions differently depending on whether your hero is up for his/her action, a spellcaster in your army, or just a non-magic user.
- When one of your spellcasters is up for action: display the icons of any spells and special abilities of that spellcaster in the quick-cast button bar. Grey-out those that are not usable, leave the slots blank that have no ability or spell at all. Mana number is the remaining mana of that creature stack.
- When a non-caster is up for action: Leave all buttons blank, do not display anything in the mana bar (not even a 0).
- When your hero is up for action: Initially the cast bar is empty, and the mana number shows that of your hero. To set the buttons, simply right-click them. This will open up the spellbook, showing all available combat spells. Left click to select the spell you want to add to the quickcast bar (this functionality is already more or less present, for instance when you use the "Imbue Arrow" ability of the Sylvan heroes). The icon of the spell will be added to the quickcast bar and consequently left-clicking that icon will act like you left-clicked the corresponding spell in the spellbook. To replace a spell, simply right-click its icon and select a new spell from your spellbook. To empty the icon slot, simply left-click and hold, then drag the icon away from the quickcast bar; let go of the mousebutton outside the quickcast bar to remove the spell from it.
The setting of the quickcast bar of the hero is persistent; i.e., the game will remember it between battles, so you only have to set it once at the start of the game, and you only need to change it once your hero has learned a new spell that you want to add to the quickcast bar. Of course, every hero that you use has his or her own quickcast bar.
This elegant and easy method takes away a lot of tedium from frequent spellcasting.
Another idea that came to me is the concept of persisting heroes. In the campaign missions, your heroes carry over from mission to mission. In the single- and multiplayer maps, you start with a new hero each time from scratch and depending on the mapsize, you may not reach a hero's full potential.
What I would suggest is to allow players to make 'persistent heroes'. These heroes will carry over between individual maps, so they increase in power every time they're used. To avoid exploitation, I would also recommend a few restrictions on their use:
- Persistent heroes only 'grow' if a map on which they are used is completed. Maps that end prematurely are not eligible to increase your persistent heroes;
- Perhaps maps could be specifically flagged for use by persistent heroes; these maps are more or less balanced, so skill powerups and level powerups are not imbalancing the leveling of these persistent heroes;
- Maps (perhaps those specifically flagged for this purpose) can be played multiple times, but on initializing the map, the guardian creature stacks on the map as well as computer controlled enemy players are balanced to the strength of the hero(es) being used. For example, when the map is initialized using a level 1 persistent hero, something could be guarded by a few skeletons. Initializing that same map using a level 20 persistent hero might find a hundred skeletons in that same spot, or perhaps even a higher tier creature;
- Multiplayer maps could be available for this purpose too, as long as the human players use persistent heroes that are relatively close to eachother in power;
- Players are able to raise more than one persistent hero. When they start a map which allows a persistent hero to be used, they can select one of the persistent heroes they already have, or create a new one.
For this purpose, they could perhaps expand the skill tree somewhat, allowing the hero to accumulate a bit more power. Right now, the progression stops around level 35 or so, at which point a hero has learned all available skills and abilities that (s)he possibly can. Allowing a few more slots gives the player some more incentive to keep playing.
And I will conclude with two random and short suggestions:
- Give players the option to refuse the teachings offered by a Witch hut, when you know what she has to offer; right now I save just before visiting a Witch hut, check and see if she can teach my hero something useful and if not, I load up again. This is especially important when you want to specifically design your hero for certain skill/ability combinations.
- Add movement counters to hero movement when your hero is more than a days march away from a city you're sending him or her to. Right now there is no indicator how long your hero will need to get there, other than to check on the square right before the city gates. This issue plays up in one or two other locations as well.
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Wacks
Adventuring Hero
Low postCount
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posted June 10, 2006 11:44 AM |
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Sounds good - except for Witch Hut part.
The whole point of Witch Hut is that you may get something good - or something real bad. The risk is exciting!
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alcibiades
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
of Gold Dragons
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posted June 10, 2006 01:51 PM |
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The witch hut is something that HAS to be fixed. Visiting a Witch hut and learning basic War Machines or basic Summoning Magic is like a destroyed game. They can't prevent us from loading the game, if that's how we want it, so why noy just make it easy for us and provide good and fluent game play and make it optional.
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