PandaTar
Responsible
Supreme Hero
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posted October 19, 2026 09:13 AM |
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Poll Question:
Upgrades, Equipment, NPCs, yay or nay? – Heroes
Kudos.
This is another discussion I was willing to have with you, folks, if you get the time to: whether you support upgrades in Heroes games, or if you'd rather have equipment, or even an external element, such as a NPC or a hero's specialty.
Right now, I'm not 100% convinced of using Upgrades, although I have written the line ups with upgrades, although they're sparse, much alike in Heroes 2. I am, though, leaning towards using no upgrades, but employing equipment (as in Heroes 5 and the artificer skill, up to three modifiers, based on hero's knowledge and costing rare resources) and external elements, like an NPC which is set upon a creature's dwelling, improving something, or your Hero's specialty awakening a creature's latent ability.
In Heroes 4, I admit that, at first, I didn't enjoy the lack of upgrades, and added to the fact that you had less factions than in Heroes 3 and the townscreens were terrible and the graphics were also ... questionable, it felt like the number of units had halved all of a sudden. Later on, though, my perception had shifted, when I noticed that I saw no reason for having upgrades at all. Having units already at their full potential, thus having their own unique abilities or combinations, made them feel upgraded already. No creature was left without an ability, and I think this was the right decision.
(Besides, it helps not having to find nice names for all of them, hohohoho. I don't like using: Centaur, then Centaur Boss, kind of thing)
As for Equipment, the way it works would be like this: you buy an item which gives a certain bonus, then this bonus is distributed and mitigated between all units. The more equipment you have, the higher the bonuses, capping, obviously when the number of equipment matched the max number of units in that stack. This calculation prevents problems with having equipped troops merging with unequipped troops, as the bonuses get redistributed to all of them, instead of treating both stacks as different units, which happens when we are talking about upgrades (because in practice, they're different units altogether).
Equipment would be available at the blacksmith, some dwellings, buildings or market. Now, would all equipment be available at the get go, or depend on 'researching technologies'? Or evolve as the town grows up? Or only when an NPC is settled there? Or by blueprints? This is something I have not yet decided.
For External Quantities, I would limit to two situations: a hero specialty and/or skills and a companion NPC/hireling. I think external quantities should be local or completely global, affecting either a controlled environment of a single army, or affecting all units under control. Because if we have different specialties affecting units permanently, and these units are then moved to another hero, they start to become, again, different units we cannot merge with their counterparts, not to mention that you can exploit using heroes as cheap upgrading machines. So, specialty happens locally only. That's also how NPC or a hireling would work. As long as they're accompanying your hero, a certain bonus is going to remain available for a certain unit.
* Example of specialty: Firemaster, making all fire-based units under control have higher damage, or give them the Fire Shield ability.
* Example of NPC: Elvish Frost, makes all elven archers shoot ice arrows.
Given that, I think NPCs and hirelings would be limited to 2 at most, to each hero as companions, just like Might & Magic RPG games.
In resume, I'm not a fan of upgrades, but I support equipment and external quantities, as long as they allow the same stacks to merge together, even if they have different equipment, or not making permanent modifications, creating 'new' units which won't merge with their counterparts; which is to say, not allowing even the choice to merge and not to merge, so I prefer if you had the choice.
So, the question is: What setting do you prefer when it comes to whether units have upgrades, equipment or get altered/boosted by External Quantities?
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Heroes Fanart Project Arts
Poll Results:
 1 votes (50%)
Yes for Upgrades, Equipments and External Quantities
0 votes (0%)
Yes for Upgrades and Equipments only
0 votes (0%)
Yes for Upgrades and External Quantities only
0 votes (0%)
Yes for Upgrades only
1 votes (50%)
Yes for Equipments and External Quantities only
0 votes (0%)
Yes for Equipments only
0 votes (0%)
Yes for External Quantities only
0 votes (0%)
No modifiers
0 votes (0%)
Another setting; elaborate
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