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excelsior
Tavern Dweller
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posted January 30, 2008 10:44 PM |
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Aerial fights
This idea popped in my mind recently and I definitely want to share it to know what HOMM fans would think about it.
Until now, the only real good thing with flying creatures is to fly over landscape obstacles but they always have to land.
I've asked myself "what if they could stay in the skies ?"
That way, creatures sticked to the ground couldn't reach them, excepted ranged ones, but flying creatures would have to land one time or another, in order to attack stacks on the ground.
This could include some new features and a total new third dimension in the HOMM battles. I've developped a little the idea and I thought there could be three aerial lane in the battlefield (I mean three heigth levels) where flying creatures could stop, in addition with the ground.
That could enable some aerial fights between two flying stacks or ground-air attack and reverse.
I assume this idea could be very great but also very dangerous for the battle balance. Think about flying creatures able to make an air-ground attack and ascent again. I don't think of this as a good idea, making that kind of flying creature almost unbeatable from ground not-ranged creatures.
It also appeared to me that in underground battles, there would be only one aerial lane, or not at all.
Well, I didn't thought about everything and I want above all to know what you think about it.
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Daystar
Honorable
Legendary Hero
Back from the Dead
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posted January 30, 2008 10:47 PM |
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I like the idea. It would take balance, but what doesnt?
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How exactly is luck a skill?
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InfernoX880
Promising
Famous Hero
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posted January 30, 2008 11:51 PM |
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Why just the sky? Why not extend it to interacting with terrain altogether? It would mean completely recreating the battle situation, but if done correctly, the game could truly benefit. Just think, huge battlefiels, in which you can zoom in and out, positioning your archers on ledges for greater effectivess, allowing flying creatures, basically an RTS type game only turn based! Like I said, it would need a tremendous amount of thought though...
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excelsior
Tavern Dweller
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posted January 31, 2008 12:19 AM |
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You are right, there is poor battle strategy in every HOMM games (only face to face configuration battles) and the battlefield is always as flat as the palm of a hand.
There is much improvements to be thoughts but it's not always easy to make them while keeping the relative simplicity of the battle mechanisms.
I have only spoke about aerial fights because I think that is a crucial lack since the very first HOMM game and I didn't wanted to encroach upon the other post about battles from TDL.
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Wulfstan8182
Famous Hero
, eh?
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posted January 31, 2008 12:20 AM |
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that would mean getting rid of the 2 screens, adv and normal map. it would be an awesome spinoff, but not in HoMM series.
Anyway, i said that to Inferno, and about your idea, Daystar made up a new ability in the Creature competition game, called Hover. it is an ability for a flying creatures which makes it un-hittable by melee units.
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excelsior
Tavern Dweller
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posted January 31, 2008 10:15 AM |
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Well, it's not really what I have in mind.
If a "hover"-ing creature can attack a non-hovering and don't get a retaliation, that is so not what I spoke about, and I guess that creature would be too strong (against army with poor ranged attacks/spells)
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InfernoX880
Promising
Famous Hero
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posted January 31, 2008 09:24 PM |
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There would be certain issues. We can all admit that the battlefield in Heroes 3 and 5 has grown monotonous, boring and dull. The limited amounts of strategy due to the powerful spells, high powered boosts, etc. make most fights one sided, with rare exceptions.
I would recommenet a combat system on a huge field of roughly 4 times the size of the current H5 field but would still make the pictures and all nice, that is, make it incapable of zomming out all the way, but maybe throw in a minimap. Then there would need to be interactable environments.
Firstly, it would mean the heroes need change. I wouldn't recommend putting them into the fray, but rather keeping them off on the sidelines with all effects working differently. I can't really think of anything exceptional, but I would do it on such a way that based on level, all creatures within a 5 square radius of the hero qould get adequate bonuses to defense, offense and morale. Luck would no longer be influenced by the hero, rather it would change with every turn that the cretaure takes. However, hero abilities would be able to determine whether or not the luck will be generally positive or negative.
The above would mean that you are playing defensive. But what if you play offensive? In that case, the hero can still cast spells, but they would have a radius determined by magic mastery or maybe spellpower. That is you wouldn't be able to cast Resurrection on a stack that died on the other side of the field. Same would go for Destructive Magic. In order to be able to cast spells anywhere, you need to have a high mastery in a certain magic. For example, Expert Destructive with Master of Fire would allow you to cast fire spells anywhere on the arena.
The above system is a suggestion, and definelty in the works, however if we put our minds to it, I'm sure we could help design an innovative new battle system that people would really enjoy. When I think about it, the above proposed would make battles more epic, but make them get boring more quickly as well.
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