/vr/ - Retro Games

>>3397763
Sorry for the late reply.

First and foremost, Grand Elves. Their weekly growth deals even more damage than that of Unicorns, not to mention Rampart heroes often get Archery. They also work very well with Expert Earth/Mass Slow. However, they MUST be guarded at all costs.

Which brings us to another point: Rampart have plenty meat shield units. Dwarves, Dendroids, even Unicorns are quite alright. You have plenty to choose from. Just never let the enemy touch the Elves, surround them from all sides.

Third, sieging castles. This is where it gets harder. First, If you don't want to lose your Elves, leave them with another hero. They will get targeted by arrow towers and decimate their numbers. Second, you have a lot of slow walkers. You'd really benefit from Ballistics, but alas, it's hard to get for all Rampart heroes. Thus, Rampart can't just take a castle quickly without Dragons.

You'd be advised to learn Expert Earthquake and/or Teleport, depending on you magic school proficiency. But anyway, if you can, leave the job for Dragons. It's much easier that way with gem/Clancy.

People that boycotted forge get out.

BTW I try figure out how to setup better music in World of Xeen. I have GOG version and i never had so much fun with any game. I'm close to clearing out the temple of Yak. But i heard you can somehow get better sounds.

>>3398969
check pastebin

>>3398972
Also if you hear piano keys in the intro instead of a fly buzzing, you fucked up and need to fix your config settings. The best part about using the MT-32 emulator is you don't have to deal with the popping sounds soundblaster makes every time you take a step.

>>3398962
Thanks anon. Should I play that campaign or Restoration of Erathia first?

>>3399087
RoE -> AB -> SoD is the release order and also the difficulty scale.

Is Clone bugged? Sometimes it will work but nothing happens, only your MP gets drained. Othertimes when there's no space for the clone to go into it will result in a "This spell won't affect anyone!" message, so I don't know what causes this

>>3399154
That's good to know since I started with SoD on hard.

>>3398962

Ballistics is such an underrated skill. If you target the highest tower, you have a high chance of taking down the tower on the lower screen right there and then or busting up the gate open. Imo tactics and ballistics are nice as fuck to have

Fuck off with that picture, post something new!

>>3399293

Especially for factions with few flyers and shooters like stronghold, inferno and fortress. Combine with earthquake and the castle comes tumblimg down. Add in a mass haste on top of tactics and you have a winrar.

guys, i can't get into 3, I love 2 so much

>>3399381
this guy might have had a chance if he'd keep blinding the angels or paralyzes them.

>>3399381
So what's the lore with angels? Are they guardians made by the ancients?

>>3399492
Never said explicitly, but hinted at that they are an alien race, just like the Kreegan.

>>3399507
So they're most likely guardians then.

>>3399381
Couldn't you see he had "lots" of Angels? What were you thinking?

Anyway, I rarely pick Dungeon, but I've recently revisited them. And I immediately realized why I didn't like them: they have 2 average shooters, but no real meat shield units to guard those. Don't fall for the "no melee penalty" meme: shooters never have much HP and should be guarded anyway to let them shoot to begin with.

I'd totally pick Dungeon any day of the week if they weren't so expensive, vulnerable and fragile. They are just all about Black Dragons. Harpies and Minotaurs are great, but with no proper meat shield their shooter game falls apart.

>>3395805
> 6-8 are all on Enroth.

True, but in M&MVII you visit the locations which get tons of mentions in HoMMIII. If you play it, you will get much better idea of what are Deyja, Eofol, Avlee, Tatalia, Bracada and Nighon.

Also, unlike in M&MVI, most 3D models are shared with Heroes III, meaning you get all the same enemies, but meet them face to face. Or face to legs, in case of titans. Yes, the resolution could be have been higher, but after some time you get used to it, and in retrospective I think it was better than using angular Half-Life-level 3D.

>>3399546
I dig the prerendered sprites. The only thing that would be nicer would be the ability to increase the rendering resolution of the game to something above 640 x 480

>>3399551
I might be wrong here but I thought GrayFace patch allowed that. Anyway, there are other options apparently, although I haven't used them–guess it looked fine to me.

>>3399465
dont think i had those

>>3399513
he attacked me first, plus because of WoG his army was all highly experienced with better stats and unique abilities

his hero was good too

>>3399576
Grayface just upscales the resolution

>all those summons

JUST

>all those summons

JUST

>>3399263
Don't be a faggot, play on impossible.

>>>/v/347042743
linking this here since /v/ isn't interested

>>3399943
I'd gladly play with you but i use hamachi

>>3399965
That would be great and I already have Hamachi installed.

I've made this to set up games easily with anyone who is interested.
https(colon)//discord(dot)gg/J5MXa

>>3399703
The necromancers in Crag Hack's campaign are overpowered as shit. It usually ends up being a cat and mouse game avoiding the most powerful ones. Based on some of the dialogue in the campaign I think it was intentionally designed to be frustrating.

Also, try to beat them to the Dragon Utopias.

Just stone my shit up

>>3400293

I'm glad this isnt an important battle. Those odds are unreal.

>enemy hero flees from battle
>my hero is nowhere to be found, although I was victorious
>figures he is in the tavern with 1 pikeman instead of 25 archangels
What the fuck just happened? Could this be because my hero was Flying and engaged the enemy on illegal terrain?

>>3399703

One of the reasons I liked Homm 5's system, where it marked summoned creatures differently. You could have 5 legions of elementals, but if your last "real" unit goes, you lose the battle.

Is it cheating if I look up the potion combos for MM6?

>>3400437

yes, similar thing happens if you win a fight, but all you have left at the end are magically summoned creatures that only exist for the duration of the battle

How do I get into Might & Magic games? Never played any of them.

>>3400682
If I were you I'd probably start with 6-8 with the Grayface patches since they all take place on Enroth which you're probably most familiar with. That or play MM3-5 first. They have two different styles of gameplay but both focus on exploration and dungeon crawling with a party. If you want to play the first two, play the Mac versions and keep in mind the first game has no automapper so I recommend Grid Cartographer to make your maps.

>>3400682
>similar thing happens if you win a fight, but all you have left at the end are magically summoned creatures that only exist for the duration of the battle
I thought in that case the hero is left with no creatures at all and loses any battle automatically, but doesn't actually instantly die. I should test that.

>>3399507
>>3399509
They're robots right?

>>3400703
Guardians are all robots

Tower is best faction prove me wrong
Oh wait
You cant

>>3400737
tower can't acquire skeletons

>>3400695

in some older version of the game I got a hero with no army, but I couldn't recreate that

Stop with this skeleton meme.

>>3400754
You can get a hero with no army in all versions if a seer's hut or a quest guard takes away all of your troops. In this case, going into combat is an instant loss. Some maps like Wayfarer use that.

>>3400767
You're a meme.

>>3400737
> worst set of heroes
> most expensive town
> dwellings have absurd resource requirements
> units are made of molasses

inb4 muh library, muh titans

I have to say, Might and Magic 6 has some great and varied dungeons. I know the next two games have smaller dungeons but are they still enjoyable?

>>3400737

>Tower is worst faction prove me wrong

FTFY

>>3400604
IIRC, in VII there were very few tips on how to make potions (but I may be wrong here). I guess you were supposed to get most of them by trial and error. Also, if you started the game all over, you had all your writings with you.

But anyway, you know, it would be cool if they made any sense. But they don't. Heroism + Cure Poison = Freezing Potion?… They're just too random.

>>3400737
Tower is an excellent 2nd city due to the library and the power of titans, but the cost of a mage tower is too much for a starter city that has no units worth a damn until mages.

>>3400827
7 is widely considered really good and is the closest tie-in to HoMM. You even have two paths similar to HoMM2, even if the dungeons are smaller.

8 was originally planned as an expansion to 7, but was converted to a full game late; as a result it suffers from lots of issues. It's still worth playing, but it's not great.

Avoid 9 at all costs.

>>3400854
In top level alchemy shops, you could buy recipes that at least tell you how many of the base herbs are required.

>>3400737
>>3400817
They are not the best and not the worst. Better than some for sure.

> worst set of heroes
I kinda agree as Tower heroes get lots of shitty skills instead of the good ones. Neela has great specialty, but she still will be offered Learning more often than anything.

> most expensive town
Magi Tower price is really bullshit. But otherwise, it's not THAT bad after that, if you don't upgrade Cloud Temple (which I do usually).

> units are made of molasses
Same can be said about Rampart, Fortress, and Stronghold.

> inb4 muh library
Yes

> muh titans
This will probably be taken as bait, but I don't mean it that way. Shooting lvl 7 is not half as great as it sounds—especially at the price rivaling Archangels.

First, they face obstacle/distance penalties all the same. In sieges they usually stand collecting arrow tower fire, doing 1/4 their normal damage.

Second, instead of serving as meaty units capable of withstanding several blows and returning a powerful retaliation, they'll just stand in the back rows. That's not to mention they can get locked easily by other lvl 7s. Then it becomes kinda vague why you paid such a shitload of money for them.

So all in all, in a faction that has both Magi and Master Gremlins, I don't see that much point in them. Giants, on the other hand, are dirt cheap as well as their dwelling, and paired with Expert Teleport do some insane damage in sieges.

>>3400682
http://pastebin.com/6G9B1cMA

>>3400915

>Better than some for sure.

Than whom? The inferno is the only one I'd say is roughly on par with the Tower, and at least they can recruit a whole week's worth of units from a capital's income.

And not the guy you're responding to, but the main reason to upgrade Giants to titans is to give them twice as many HP; they're hugely vulnerable for a 7.

>>3400920
Just a reminder that I'm looking for suggestions and advice on the pastebin.

>>3400915
Titans have basically twice the stats of Giants, almost equivalent to Archangels except in speed, and if you want to use them in melee, with Expert Teleport, or even Haste, you can do that regardless. They're massively overcosted sure, but I wouldn't say upgrading them as soon as you can is a bad idea. You can always recruit Giants first, and upgrade them when you can.

>>3400924
> Than whom?
It just depends on how you use them.

On a map I'm playing right now I have Torosar with Expert Tactics, Archery and Water Magic. When Blessed, every Gremlin in my stack deals 4,5 damage instead of 1–2. Multiply that by 200, and that's without Clone (yet). In sieges, I split the magi stack in several smaller ones and put them as close to the walls as possible. The walls suit me more than they do the enemy.

And that's without Giants/Nagas+Expert Teleport combo—yet.

> And not the guy you're responding to, but the main reason to upgrade Giants to titans is to give them twice as many HP; they're hugely vulnerable for a 7.
That's true, but like Genies, they make up for it with insane damage. When Blessed, they do almost the same damage as Archangels. So the way I use them is for attacks where they won't get retaliated.

>>3400938
>Titans have basically twice the stats of Giants
The thing is, the damage is not so different—145 vs 170.

> almost equivalent to Archangels except in speed
But that's very important. They have the speed of unupgraded lvl 7s, which means they'll be locked by Archangels, Arch Devils, Black/Gold/Ghost Dragons, and even Firebirds/Phoenixes. Moreover, the Tower's magic casting "advantage" goes to shit because of this.

Also, Archangels cast Resurrection and can fly. Titans also have some advantages of course (Mind Spell immunity), but still I think they don't compare to Archangels in any way except raw damage/health.

> They're massively overcosted sure, but I wouldn't say upgrading them as soon as you can is a bad idea.
Um, that's exactly why it's a bad idea.

In terms of damage/price ratio, Titans rate around #110 overall in the game—close to Evil Eyes and Wraiths. Then you need 25k gold and 30 gems to just hire them.

All I want to ask—why? Yes, sure you'll blow away any walker stacks with them, no doubt about that. But, you can't do it with Nagas? Magi? Even Gremlins? You need to spend a whole fortune just to buy a needless lvl 7 upgrade which doesn't give you anything new?

I understand going for upgraded lvl 7s with, say, Dungeon. Even more, I think that's the only reasonable way to play them. But with Tower? Titans cover no new grounds for them, open no new possibilities, and deal around the same damage up close as Naga Queens. I've already explained why their high health doesn't mean they are a good meat shield.

Any MEGA for the HoMM games?

>>3400827
absolutely. as someone mentioned, 7 ties in really well with homm3. it is much more linear than 6, unfortunately.

8 is a lot of fun as well. I actually liked 8 better than 7. the loot is much more varied, it is much more open, and party building is more interesting.

>>3401039
How bad is 9? I want to play through it just to say I did.

>>3401040
So bad that one of its main devs said he'd never release it if it was for him.

>>3401032
I agree, Titans are overrated. I guess people who oversell them only play XL custom maps like Jedi Story when you can get like 5,000 of them easily. You got Master Genies and Naga Queens outdoing them in speed advantage and heavy hitting department, that leaves shooting which isn't even fully online all of the time, and arguably Archmagi will be better in sieges and before you really get that Titan doomstack rolling. That 's all for 30,000 gold and 30 gems, almost as expensive as Archangels. I would take literally any level 7 unit other than Chaos Hydras and Ghost Dragons over Titans (and not even Chaos Hydras, if you got Expert Teleport) unless I get a choice of like 100 of any of them.

It's a bit better in HotA where you can get giants from those golem labs I guess

>>3400948
what's your point? that blessing and cloning big stacks is good?

considering their cost and resource requirements, giants are probably the worst lvl7.

>>3401034
I could set one up for 3. I'm planning on doing a package for MM1-9 and HoMM1-4

>>3401062
> You got Master Genies and Naga Queens outdoing them in speed advantage and heavy hitting department, that leaves shooting which isn't even fully online all of the time
Exactly. Don't forget that unupgraded Magi also shoot through walls (it's a bug in the game).

>>3401065
> what's your point? that blessing and cloning big stacks is good?
What?

I'm saying that because 1 Master Gremlin normally does only 1–2 damage, when you cast Advanced/Expert Bless on him, he'll do 3 damage—pretty much twice his normal one. With Expert Archery, his damage is further increased 50%, to 4.5. That's 3 times their normal damage, in normal case.

But with Titans, since their base damage isn't so small, the difference between Basic/Advanced Bless is negligible. Then again, They get high damage because of their high Attack stat. To a stack with Defense equal to our hero's Attack, they deal 110 damage on average without Archery, 135 damage on average with Expert Archery. Not 3 times their normal damage like Master Gremlins.

> considering their cost and resource requirements, giants are probably the worst lvl7.
Wait, are you actually talking about Giants, not Titans? Are you sure?

Because last time I checked, Cloud Temple cost 5000 g and 10 of gems, wood and ore. That's pretty cheap for lvl 7 dwelling, by all means. Giants cost 2000 g and 1 gem—that's the second cheapest lvl 7 damage in the game, only topped by Behemoths.

They fall into the category of "slow but cheap" lvl 7 creatures. They're a bit like Bone Dragons/Behemoths, they're weaker than other lvl 7s, but they're so cheap they make up for it.

So how does /vr/ feel now that Ubisoft is officially burrying the franchise? As in literally burrying, no more M&M anything ever.

>>3401168
After the recent games and the online shit? Good riddance. Maybe the news will also spur the fans into making more content like HotA to fill that M&M-shaped hole in their hearts. All in all it's good news.

>>3401168
Ubi never really had the ideas to move the franchise forward, with the only decent game being a clone of HoMM3. Abandoning all the previous lore was a colossal mistake, driving a wedge between old players and new (which defeats the point of reviving an old franchise to begin with).

The multiplayer support was pretty weak. The map editor(s) was far too weak to develop a proper community, which is what makes games like these last.

Ubi never really knew what to do with it, tossed some cash to largely unknown 3rd party devs, and left it alone. That isn't the way to build a fanbase. They never took the franchise seriously and it is better left to those that have and will.

>>3401183
>>3401194
It's happening basically because Ubi is desperate to save themselves from Vivendi buyout so they're cutting corners left and right to save as much money as possible.

They were also working on Dark Messiah 2 since early last year but that got cancelled few days ago due to massive restructurization in Ubisoft (to save themselves from said Vivendi takeover).
http://heroescommunity.com/viewthread.php3?TID=40444&PID=1382310#focus

Polish insider who has ties to both Limbic (devs of H7) and Ubisoft themselves confirmed that it was indeed DM2 and also confirmed that Ubi is indeed killing M&M for good.

You'd need to google translate or take my word for granted.
http://www.forum.acidcave.net/post.php?pid=126926
He also confirmed Ubisoft deliberately cut ALL marketing for Heroes in general (including sacking ALL of the community managers, which is why there was such a massive radio silence recently) again because they're shelving the franchise entirely. Confirmed no retail release for H7 expansion even in Poland (and we did get retails releases for H6 addons) as well.
http://www.forum.acidcave.net/post.php?pid=126951

Limbic wanted to even do that H7 expansion stream of theirs but Ubisoft literally forbid them from doing it for whatever reason, also the expansion has been fully done and finished for 2 months now and Ubi delayed it for no reason whatsoever, seemingly as deliberate sabotage attempt in order to have a PR excuse for shelving the franchise (by saying it wasn't doing well):
http://www.forum.acidcave.net/topic.php?TID=3073&page=1

Acid Cave is the biggest Polish fansite for HoMM and said insider is the admin of it, and mind you and he's generally very reputable.

All in all, Might and Might now faces the exact same situation it did back when 3DO went belly up.
However unlike with 3DO, Ubisoft will almost certainly NOT sell it to anyone and just sit on it.

>>3401168
it will only open the market for when i make my indietrash clone, thereby winning the hearts of crpg fans everywhere and becoming a millionaire like notch and then i will get a gf

>>3401207
King's Bounty exists though and it failed to take HoMM fanbase.

>>3401153
yes I understand your point that blessing + archery makes master gremlins strong because they are a lvl1 and you can get a lot of them. but do you think dragging around a big stack of low hp, speed 5, blindable creatures constitutes a good strategy?

yes giants are probably the worst overall unupgraded lvl7, all factors considered. they are slow, have low hp, and are gem vaccums. "just 10 gems, wood, and ore" is hilariously shortsighted. to even build the cloud temple you need the mage tower, altar of wishes, and golden pavilion. thats 16 gems right there. so 27 gems before you can get a single crap lvl7.

>>3401168
> Buy a PC strategy franchise
> "Hon hon hon! We'll just shit out some random games to milk the license"
> Don't make much money
> "Merde! One more time!"
> Target poor slavs used to torrents and 10$ games
> Make a shitstain of a game and bankrupt a developer
> "Putain!!! This is it!!! Here's Unreal Engine! Sell, sell, sell!!!"
> Barely finished game forgotten few months after its release
> Slavs who torrented it didn't like it
> "OK we get it. Fuck you, oui! Here's a remake."
> Shittily redraw Heroes III
> Don't include the expansions
> Add new bugs
> "That's it. We give up. That franchise is cursed."

>>3401216
That's not it.
The insider went to a lot of detail what the decisionmaking process was.

I could give you a detailed breakdown of what he said but it would be a wall of text.

The main reason is still Vivendi, not Ubi considering the franchise cursed. It's not just M&M that's getting sacked.

>>3401207
What will the name be? Swords and Sorcery is already taked for an MM2 clone. Vancian Vigor?

>>3401210
king's bounty did not have cool base building where you get to make a nice looking town with towers and dragons and shit

i will take the MM fanbase and i will surely get a gf

>>3401221
Eador did and it failed too.

>>3401224
I will add hentai to it

>>3401221
Clerics and Concubines

>>3401234
Are you making a Heroes game or an M&M game?

>>3401216
Their plan might've worked if they didn't reboot the entire setting so the series was only Might and Magic in name

>>3401279
>>3401216
You do realize H5 and Dark Messiah were very popular and successful right?
It's only what came afterwards that was on a downward spiral.

>>3401219
OK then I guess it's true.

>>3401212
> but do you think dragging around a big stack of low hp, speed 5, blindable creatures constitutes a good strategy?
And what's a good strategy in your opinion, only buying all lvl 7s in all your towns? Hoarding low-level units works for Necro somehow.

This strategy is for budget-minded play. I pair them with fast units like Archangels, then place them close to the enemy with Tactics and cast Prayer first turn. These 300-something Gremlins I carry cost me around 12,000 g overall. Talk about bargain, when they deal 0.8k–1.2k damage without buffs.

Any other shooter stack in the game can be blinded, except for few ones like Liches and Titans. So what? I use artifacts, Anti-Magic, anything. For wandering stacks, this doesn't matter anyway.

> yes giants are probably the worst overall unupgraded lvl7, all factors considered. they are slow, have low hp, and are gem vaccums. "just 10 gems, wood, and ore" is hilariously shortsighted. to even build the cloud temple you need the mage tower, altar of wishes, and golden pavilion. thats 16 gems right there. so 27 gems before you can get a single crap lvl7.
Same can be said about almost any other lvl 7 dwelling. You're implying that all that comes before Cloud Temple is worthless and is only a waste of resources. All while each Giant only needs 1 gem which is easily achieved with Resource Silo and mindful spending. I don't get your point unless, again, you rush all lvl 7 and that's the only way you play.

>>3401220
An Hero of Might and Magic

>>3401328
Champions of Energy and Enchantments

Boys of Glitz and Glamour

>>3401343
Paladins of puissance and jiggery-pokery

>>3401219
I'm ok with the wall of text since I don't understand polish and google translate is a mess.

send help

>>3401572
There's nothing on that island except Gharik's Forge which is a pretty high level dungeon. Time to either run or load.

>>3401578
Looking closer at it, you have spells. Use the scroll of starburst you got in Goblinwatch in the middle of them and you should be fine.

>>3401583
I let Prince Nicolai run off and now I'm checking every circus to find him.

>>3401591
He only spawns in ACTIVE circuses. The first one is in Blackshire in the month of April.

>>3401595
The second one is during the month of August in northeastern Mire of the Damned by the dwarf cave.

The last one is in Booty Bay in the month of December, but that one is bugged in some versions.

>>3401604
>>3401595
I regret going through to Blackshire by the mountains. I love this game. It doesn't hold your hand one bit and it's a nice break from all the dialogue heavy late '90s games like Fallout and Torment.

>>3401625
>Doesn't walk on roads
>Gets destroyed

BTW, it might sound really simple, but here's my protip from M&M6–8: DON'T run and fight at the same time. When you're running, recovering from attacks takes twice as long.

I was assuming VII was a bit grind-heavy until I learned this.

anyone here from the other MM thread with the vapor wave OP?

im like halfway through MM2 now after finishing MM1 and importing my party. honestly my guys were OP in the first one, but all these stat boosters and exp dumps make it almost impossible not to become crazy OP in 2.

i kind of like that MM encourages players to power game. it kinda reminds me of disgaea in that aspect

>>3401687
Yeah I was in that thread. I'm planning on going back and beating MM1-2 once I finish up the rest of the series.

Anyone could tell me which level/scenario is this?
It looks so familiar

>>3401902
Broken Alliance

>>3401903
Thank you.

>>3401903
Is that a hard map?

New vcmi release when

>>3402027
Never ever.
Seriously wait for 1.0 since right now they still can't get it fully right.

How are the GBC games?
Are they any good?

>>3402165
>shit downgraded ports of 1 and 2
>good

Die

>>3402170
>Ask a question
>Get berated for it
Der

>>3402171
>Ask a STUPID question
>Get berated for it
Don't ask stupid questions.

>>3402172
I can cope with this version,

>>3402179
If you're desperate for more just play Age of Wonders games, Eador, King's Bounty games or even the PS2 remake of original King's Bounty which got rebranded into HoMM.

After years of denial,I finaly accept,that HoMMIII is superior in game design compared to HoMMII.
But II is still the prettiest in the entire series.

>>3402165
Not only are they ugly on the level of being unplayable (it's hard to distinguish units, or even tell what they are supposed to be), but also heavily unbalanced. Due to extreme simplification, every map and every game is all about precious resource control and race to build highest tier units. I guess porting even I or II to handheld this simple was too ambitious, they should've waited with that to GBA, or even better, DS. But speaking about botched PC to handheld ports, it's nowhere near as bad as Serious Sam for GBA anyway.

>>3402165
The first one is just more or less a straight port of A Strategic Quest, it's kinda ugly and lacks in features (no campaigns) but it's OK for a turn-based strategy for an archaic handheld

II is a nonsensical mess of downscaled resources from II (PC) and III that feels like it was made by Chinese pirates, probably one of the worst games I've ever played

>>3402237
>After years of denial,I finaly accept,that HoMMIII is superior in game design compared to HoMMII.
Can you explain? I'm not arguing, just would like to know your thoughts about one vs. the other

>>3402170
Fuck off back to the /v/ thread

>>3402237
Of course 3 is mechanically better, but 2 is the best one visually.

Good thing there's this H2-style visual total conversion in the works for H3 which will give us objectively best looking game in the franchise.

>>3402295
I don't go on /v/, I just hate people asking stupid questions. It should be common sense that Game Boy can't handle proper HoMM port, even with downscaled visuals.
The handheld lacks the processing power for the map sizes as well as the AI. It's just not possible on GBC.
It would be very hard to pull off and probably impossible on GBA, let alone fucking GB/GBC (which is the same console just with GBC having a color display).

As the other anon said, DS would be more likely for porting 1 and 2 but even that has too low resolution (256x192) when HoMM1 needs 640x480 minimum if you don't want to butcher the visuals. You can always have smaller field of view on overworld sure but combat needs that 640x480 since almost every pixel sans the hud bar on the bottom counts.

>>3402298

>>3402313
The feature I'm not hyped for in this (in addition to the visuals) is actually the fact that they're redrawing H3 town screens in H2 style, some H3 units as well (in addition to new units) and most importantly, towns ground on overworld having base that matches the terrain.

It's the small things.

>>3402324
That's one of the things I'm excited for

>>3402312
He didn't ask if the GBC games were good ports, he asked whether they were good games. GBC had some fairly impressive games like Warlocked and Tyrannosaurus Tex, so while of course a full-scale port wasn't possible, they could probably pull off a decent game.

>>3402337
They are not good games. Even if you don't consider the fact that they are shitty butchered ports, they're still shit games.

>>3402331
Is that thing still in develompment though? Last time I've visited their site, even download links were down. My most recent version looks okay for the most part, except for unfinished Witch and dysfunctional Heretic towns. Is there any newer one?

>>3402342
Yes, they said they are on the last stretch now, currently implementing the heroes themselves. Assining their names, portraits, specializations etc and assigning them to factions.

>>3402364
I've seen dozens of projects that were "99% done" and "on the last stretch" that were never released in the end, but I'll be carefully optimistic about this one.

>>3402342
One of the devs occasionally posts updates on RPGcodex. This is the place to check instead of the main site.
http://heroes2.forumactif.com/f15-heroes-of-might-and-magic-iii-the-succession-wars

>>3402285
The random map generator,I adore.(it's great for a quick match)
And I think the units are well balanced in 3.(Knight had no flying units and only one archer in 2 for example)
And the RPG system is now fully fleshed out,making hero development and artifacts interesting.

>>3402406
>And I think the units are well balanced in 3
I hope you meant 2. Castle is ridiculous in 3.

>>3402386
The difference is that they post regular updates here.

>>3402410
And in II Knight was literally worthless, worse than Inferno in every way.

>>3402410
I wouldn't call HoMM II town that balanced either. Castle is ridiculously underpowered doue to rouht start with useless tier 1 unit as well as worst tier 6 unit in whole game that makes late game difficult too. Meanwhile, Necro might not be as broken as in III, but still leagues above other towns. Not only are skellies best tier 1 units stat-wise, but you can also have thousands of them in late game by simply protecting peasants and other neutral tier 1 units that you find from harm to let them grow in ranks, and then reap in hundreds.

>>3402412
Those "regular updates" are usually not worth a damn thing if they are not followed by regular beta releases, and in case of SW, last one is from 2013 I believe. Surely those sreencaps look nice nad promising, but it's still like licking a candy through the wrapper. I agree that us HoMM fans are unusually patient, but you can't keep people hyped by just repeating "please be excited" year after year.

Why do people say that Inferno is the worst faction?

>>3402593

Imps/Familiars: Arguably the worst level 1, slow, weak, no abilities beyond an upgraded mana steal that doesn't actually net you much mana
Gogs/magogs: Slow, weak shooter. Upgraded version blows up your own units if you're locked in melee
Hell Hounds/Cerberus:Just about the only good unit they've got (Admittedly, probably the best 3)
Demons/Horned demons: Very weak for a 4, but at least they're cheap, but unless you're running some kind of funny map where like people can't build up the big gold buildings, by the time you can get t4 dwellings, the fact that they have a cost more akin to a 3 doesn't mean that much
Pit fiends/lords: Again weak for a 5, and the only thing they have to make up for it is a trick with the upgraded version that's hard to use.
Efreets/Sultans: Your other actually good unit, but as a result tends to get dogpiled.
Devils/Archdevils: Again weak for their tier, although the no retaliation is very nice. The upgraded version is also insanely expensive for something that only has 200 HP and does 30-40 damage.

Then add in that their heroes tend to get bad skills (fire magic being extremely common), and their special buildings are pretty awful (when was the last time you built a castle gate?), and the fact that pretty much none of them have a good late game main hero specialty, them getting gold, resources, spells, and creatures, and you've got the inferno.

They do have some good points: They're the fastest overland army if you recruit all 7 tiers, and with their top two being flyers and often getting ballistics, they're pretty good at city-cracking. They get diplomacy a lot, which But their best offense units are brittle, and by and large they just don't have a lot of raw power. They're one of if not the lowest HP per weeks recruitment, as well as damage output per week, and they just don't get great heroes.

>>3402593
>probably the worst hero choices
>no good units until Efreeti and Devils, only one shooter and they're terrible, everything else is straight demon farming bait
>affiliated with Fire Magic which is worst magic
To have a chance to win Inferno has to rely on demon farming, Armageddon cheese or getting a lot of Inferno towns with town gate, which is all a big gimmicky maybe

I'd say Stronghold is worse but they at least have behemoth rush and the best hero roster in the game to compensate for all other units being shit

>>3402617
So their units are one trick ponies who get rekt in 1v1.
Nice to know.

>>3402631

In their defense, you do also have the sacrifice trick, unless you're filing that under demon farming.

>>3402652
What is the sacrifice trick?

>>3402686

Familiars, due to how many of them you recruit, are perfect fodder for sacrifice, usually to resurrect your Archdevils or your pit lords. Combine that with the Inferno usually getting fire and the high likelihood of finding it in an inferno mage guild, you can pretty reliably cast it powerfully if the game lasts that long.

With say, 10 power and 100 familiars, you can resurrect up to 2400 hp from 400 hp of initial creature. It's tricky to pull off, but extremely powerful if you can.

>>3402705
Oh. Well that's not really a trick, just using sacrifice as it is supposed to be used. Also if you have a lot of familiars for sacrifice you've probably not been using them for demon farming like you are supposed to

>>3402715

The thing is (assuming you have a decent power and enough time to cast the spells) it's a far more efficient use of the low level guys HP than it is to turn them into demons. For a big big fight, it's better to have the 100 familiars and cast sacrifice on them than it is to turn those 100 familiars into 11-12 demons, since sacrifice works partially based on the number of units offed meaning lots of little guys works better than a few big guys.

And I at least call it a trick because the Inferno are really the only people who reliably get both sacrifice and fire magic.

I have been getting better at this game
How does the normal difficulty compatre to the easy one?

>>3402752

It's not that much rougher. You start with fewer resources, but still a lot (20,000 gold, 20 of the commons, 10 of the rares), and the comp might drop some idiot rules, but it's been a long time since I played on Easy anyway, I don't fully remember what it entails.


IIRC, the two really big jumps are from normal to hard (the AI starts playing a lot better) and from Expert to Impossible (starting with nothing really makes you re-do a lot of early strategies revolving around hiring several heroes and beating things up with a 60-70 large stack of 1s backed up with magic on day 1)

>>3402705
Too bad sacrificed creatures can't be neither resurrected nor raised as Demons.

But yeah, Sacrifice is alright… Except it needs careful planning. The same can be said about Demon farming.

>>3402593
IMO, it's just because most beginners immediately try to get into Inferno because they look cool. Then they realize Inferno is really tricky to play, has lots of shortcomings, and their lvl 7s are nowhere near Archangels.

A lot of casual players hate factions which aren't straightforward. They usually want to minimize tactics, magic and so on and just rush lvl 7s. To them, Inferno is a faction of crappy walkers with a shitty shooter and a weakling lvl 7. That's another reason why Fortress and Stronghold get shit on a lot, while Dungeon doesn't (muh Black Dragons).

>>3402617
> Imps
Add to this they are the most expensive lvl 1. They're like gremlins except faster, but cost 50/60 instead of 30/40.

> Demons
> Very weak for a 4
Here I disagree strongly. Demons have excellent health and damage for their low price, and with Pit Fiends you can raise/resurrect them. They're pretty much equivalent to Swordsmen or Basilisks. Yes, they're no Vampire Lords or Crusaders or Ogre Magi, but given their cost it's fine with me.

> Pit fiends/lords: Again weak for a 5
Again, how so? Because they don't fly?… Pit Fiends are very similar to Minotaurs, just a tiny bit weaker (note their dwelling costs just 3000 g instead of 4000 g, 10 ore and 10 gems for Labyrinth). Pit Lords though are a different story, but you can go without upgrading them anyway if you don't plan on raising Demons.

Rolandfags get out of this thread. Archibald is the one rightful king of Enroth

>>3402779

>>3402780
Archibald / Kastore 2016
Make Enroth Great Again

>>3402779
The first mission of his campaign was the only game of Heroes II I have ever won.

>>3402752
Some advice:

—Don't buy Wights if you can. They're some of the worst units in the whole game.

—Upgrade Vampires ASAP, they regenerate as much HP as they take when they attack.

—Zombies are by far better than Walking Dead.

—It's up to your strategy, but I'd say Skeleton upgrade is useless since you raise unupgraded Skeletons.

Great choice of a hero though

>>3402769

>Here I disagree strongly. Demons have excellent health and damage for their low price,

I won't argue that they're cheap. In fact, they're probably the single most cost-effective unit in the game if you're really tight on gold (not counting free skels from necromancy) But they are weak. Unupgraded, they have almost the same exact stats as the swordsman, considerably weaker than ogres for one more speed, weaker than basilisks even before you factor in the petrification; pretty much the only level 4 they're clearly better than is the fire elemental, and who lets the Conflux play anyway?

And when they upgrade, they get 1 speed and 5 health. That's it. That makes them both slower AND weaker (and no pretrify) compared to the Greater Basilisk, that makes them a hell of a lot weaker than crusaders and ogre magi, there's the VLs who are clearly on top. You really want to claim they're better than the silver pegasi? (Who are also pretty cheap) or the magi or medusa queens?

And the cost effectiveness problem runs into some hitches. Total upgraded troop cost per week for the inferno is 28,090 and 4 mercury, assuming no external dwellings. You shouldn't be having trouble recruiting people, which makes raw power a higher priority than gold efficiency for me.

>and with Pit Fiends you can raise/resurrect them.

You're usually better off converting imps/familiars or gogs/magogs into demons rather than resurrecting the demons themselves.

>Again, how so?

They are considerably weaker than minotaurs. 13-17 averages to 15, wheras 12-20 averages to 16, not to mention the Dungeon actually can get bless, which turns them into killing machines. The minotaurs have an extra 5 health and permanent morale even before you upgrade them.

They have pretty good damage but are 5/8th for HP for the 5s, which is terrible for a walker. (Again, pretending the conflux doesn't exist)

>>3402752
Behavior-wise, there are few diffrences. AI on normal stops notoriously ignoring your scout heroes with no army. It also won't be standing in own tows for weeks just because your main hero is moving around, despite outnumbering you a few times. Finally, it knows how to escape from battles, so you have to learn turn order and make good use of spells like slow and blind if you don't want to lose the chance to grab all the artifacts and get rid of that level 20 hero for good before he chickens out with last stack of troglodytes.

>>3402801
Nah,if you have no free slot,and upgraded skeletons,you raise the upgraded ones,only less.

>>3402793
Because you haven't played much or because you suck? The vanilla campaigns are pretty easy up until the last 2-3 scenarios, especially after you get ogres as Archibald

>>3402801
Is their spell point draining ability really not worth it?

>>3402857

Well, it's completely useless for creeping, and spell point draining is hugely situational. But especially for a big fight vs their main army? Nah, 2 points a round is chump change, especially since most fights are decided by the 4th round at the latest.

You can do some trick plays of sending out 7 wratihs in stacks of one to drain his hero before the main engagement, but they're not conventionally good at all.

>>3402857
It's only 2 MP/round per stack of wraiths - the number of wraiths doesn't matter. It's only useful if you know a big fight is coming up and have free slots to spare (and Necro will have that, as it's unlikely to ever use anything except skellies, vampires, liches and knights) and fill them with 1 Wraith each to drain a semi-substantial number of MP each turn. And even that falls off late game when everyone has Intelligence and hundreds of MP. Think about it, when was the last time you ran out of MP due to fighting neutral wraiths?

There's also a cheese where you hire a lot of heroes and have them attack an enemy hero with seven 1-stacks of wraiths repeatedly, draining 14 or more MP per hero until they're neutered. But that's obviously a silly tactic.

>>3402631
>>3402723
I have been calculating which units worked best for Demon raising, here are my findings. If you need explanations, read http://heroes.thelazy.net/wiki/Summon_demons#Special_ability

First of all, the only 2 creatures in the game with which you can "profit" from this ability—i.e. buy cheap HP units, raise more expensive Demons—are Dwarves and Pikemen. That's it: Demons already have some of the best HP/gold ratios in Heroes III. Griffins come close, but are a little more expensive.

A logical conclusion to this is that if you want to transform other units to Demons and profit from it, your best bet is lvl 1 dwellings adventure map where you get units for free, and the units from other factions which come from tavern heroes—if you're ready for a painfully slow raising process. Otherwise, it's always cheaper to simply buy Demons than buy other units, kill them and raise Demons.

Second, if you want to buy creatures from other towns to turn them to Demons, it's just really slow. Even in towns with castles, you won't be getting more than 5–6 units from every stack. However, in the case of Griffins, if you have a town with castle/bastion, you can raise 12 of them from killing a week's growth. Other good choices are Dwarves (11 Demons), Hell Hounds (9), Serpent Flies (), Beholders (8), Pegasi (8),
Swordsmen (8), Basilisks (8), Centaur Captains (8), Pikemen (8), and Orc Chieftains (8).

So, overall, my favorite use of this ability is to raise Demons from Demons. I plan to try and get a Water Magic hero with Inferno and learn teleport/clone. Then sent hordes of Demons to siege castles and revive them several times.

>Finally make it to Blackshire
>No one is here. The Circus has moved.

By the way, I just love watching speedruns of the MM games. Really cool stuff there. Also, the games have awesome replayability. I've started a second run through VII recently, but I'm unsure if having a sorcerer was a good decision. IIRC I had Monk and a Cleric to balance it out, but still.

>>3402905
What part of it must be April did you not understand? They won't be there in March. They won't be there in May.

PROTIP: You could have hired a gate master to town portal to get into Blackshire instantly.

>>3403063
I took too long travelling between maps. I ended up just waiting at Mire of the Damned and got him.

>>3402237
I'm on the other side actually, revisited the game recently, tried rushing with knight and picking experience all over as their units are cheap af and quickly had a very formidable hero. I always remembered warlock blows everyone out of the water, with necro being close second.

>>3402971
The best parties hands down in MM7 from start to finish include
Knight
Cleric
Sorcerer
Anything but a ranger

>>3403103
did they nerf paladins from mm6 to mm7

>tfw you realize that pretty much all hero portraits are edited photos and a ton of them are just named after characters from other media (like Sephinroth, Nagash, Malekith etc)
that's lazy

>>3403127
M&M literally never had good writing outside of H4.
That includes character names.

>>3403131
>implying xeen wasn't top tier space opera

>>3403135
That would be Legend of the Galactic Heroes.

>>3403105
They changed skill tables, so only certain classes can reach expert/master/grandmaster in skills. They also introduced armsmaster which completely changes how melee works (especially since you can enchant items of +armsmaster skill to as high as 18 with GM water). Paladins also only get up to master body, so no power cure or instadeath/eradication protection. Mace paralyze is amazing, but doesn't trigger very often.

Paladins are good for light and awful for dark because basic light magic has great spells like paralyze and destroy undead, and basic dark is weak, only really having toxic cloud.

>>3403135
If you haven't you really need to read the MM2 manual and the terminals in the spaceships on
Darkside.

>>3402758
Anyone I get into Heroes, I tell them two things from the get-go.

1: Always use Wait, always pick Gold.
2: Play it on Hard at the absolute minimum.

>>3402617
>They are likely to get Diplomacy
Fuck castle gate, I want a demon transformer that turns living things into demons of the same tier.

Doesn't fit the lore of them buy who gives a fuck? M&M lore is whack. Seriously, the demons are actually space aliens

>>3403154
>Paladins are good for light path and awful for dark path because basic light magic has great spells like paralyze and destroy undead, and basic dark is weak, only really having toxic cloud.
Fixed for clarity.

>>3402803
> And when they upgrade, they get 1 speed and 5 health.
I wouldn't really upgrade them if I plan to raise them, for the same reasons people don't upgrade Skeletons.

> weaker than basilisks even before you factor in the petrification.

A little bit wider damage range (good for Bless), +1 Attack and +1 Defense. But otherwise? Almost the same as Swordsmen/Demons, and cost more than both.

> And when they upgrade, they get 1 speed and 5 health. That's it.
Basilisk upgrade is 400, which is 75 g more, for +5 health, +2 speed and +1 Attack. Horned Demons get +1 speed and +5 health only, but for just 20 g. If you don't raise them, that's a no-brainer upgrade.

I agree Basilisks are good too, and petrification is nice to have, but they also costs significantly more, especially Greater Basilisks. Otherwise, the difference in damage is not very significant: 8 Demons deal 64 damage to a stack with 10 defense, 8 Basilisks—67.2, Greater Basilisks—70.4. 64 and 70.4 is a 10% difference, 250 and 400 is ~50% difference.

For Basilisk type of unit, I think Cerberi fill the bill much better. I'd much rather have no retaliation paired with AoE. And with Bless, which can be acquired from any other city and by many other means, they become very hard-hitting units.

> That makes them both slower AND weaker (and no pretrify) compared to the Greater Basilisk, that makes them a hell of a lot weaker than crusaders and ogre magi, there's the VLs who are clearly on top.
Well, let's agree on the obvious first: VLs have no real competition. Same with Crusaders, they're tough to use, but double strike is what it is.

But you have to consider the units' context. VLs make up for Wraiths and no shooting units, otherwise Necro would have a VERY tough time early on. Ogre Magi make up for Orcs and other fragile units Stronghold has. And Crusaders… well, they simply are Castle units, so they get all the best stuff.

>>3403103
OK but why? What makes Sorcerers so useful?

I had a Knight—Monk—Cleric—Druid party. My biggest gripe was that I never had enough mana for spellcasting. Otherwise, Monk was a killing machine once I realized his recovery with Unarmed was crazy fast.

>>3403186
GM on the elemental guilds, GM light/dark and nice little spell called lloyd's beacon.

>>3403186
You already have a Cleric, so the druid is basically filling the role of a sorcerer in that party. They will be basically the exact same in the first half of the game. All you lose early is identify item.

Sorcerers start pulling way ahead once you get promoted. They don't get GM of any magic skill. Druids also miss out on Light and Dark magic completely. In return you get more spell points for spells that aren't that expensive and alchemy that you can buy in shops.

Spell points aren't a real problem unless you are using the wrong spells. Walk up and faceroll with sparks and/or poison spray. This is ignoring the fact that temples restore spell points.

>>3403176

And again, I agree, if you're talking about effectiveness per gold cost, Demons are great, quite probably the best unit in the game, discounting anything you can get for nothing.

But the Inferno is a relatively cheap faction, especially if you're using devils rather than archdevils (which again nets you points on cost-effectiveness at the expense of raw power). Unless your gold flow is seriously weak, that shouldn't be your major issue. I'd much rather have more brute force, even if I have to pay more for it. They're a weak 4 that costs about as much as a level 3, and to my mind, that's just not a great selling point.

>>3402803
>>3403176
To continue this: I see no much difference between Basilisks, Demons and Swordsmen. All fit in the same category, have about the same HP and same damage. Except Demons are cheaper and can be raised back alive with Pit Lords.

Comparing them to other lvl 4 is tough, because Pegasi for example are flyers, Magi are shooters and shoot through walls, and so on. They are different type units for different usage. But only Demons cost so cheap, while having pretty much average parameters for a lvl 4.

> You're usually better off converting imps/familiars or gogs/magogs into demons rather than resurrecting the demons themselves.
Imps and Gogs have pathetically low HPs. 35 Imps raise just 4 Demons. And as for Gogs, no thank you—Inferno already has just 1 shooter. Maybe only for their low speed and the shittiness of their upgrade I'd kill them, otherwise—let them remain, at least for town defense. Anyway, 35 gogs would raise 13 Demons, it's OK but as I said unlike Imps they have their uses.

Now, with resurrecting Demons:
—you don't turn some units into different units in battle, which save you from management hell and brainfuck
—don't have to take unneeded units "for sacrifice" in combat, thus having lower morale and so on
—You never waste a single HP
—Can just run the Demons to the ground and then just resurrect them and suffer no losses at all.

> (Pit Lords)
> They are considerably weaker than minotaurs. >13-17 averages to 15, wheras 12-20 averages to 16,
> considerably
Well without Bless it's not THAT huge of a difference
> not to mention the Dungeon actually can get bless, which turns them into killing machines
True, but only 20% difference. But given they're lvl 5 units (and their dwelling needs 10 gems among other things), I guess by that time you'd get Bless anywhere else.

>>3402971
A agree, the biggest charm of M&MVII is possibility of trying different party combinations, or even solo challenges, and working your way aroun the given limitations. Recently I've tried and completed it with knight, knight, knight and thief. Forcing your way through everything was surprisingly easy, only real problems are wyverns and titans due to instakill spells.

>>3403176
>>3403235


I don't really disagree with any part of this analysis sans the premises: namely the unspoken one that gold is your primary limiting factor in how big your army can grow.

At least past the first 2 weeks or so, I find that isn't the case most of the time. Usually, espeically with a relatively cheap faction like the Inferno, I find manpower is the bigger problem, not money. Efficiency doesn't do me much good if I find myself recruiting out my entire town and sitting on a pile of gold somewhere. Converting the lower tiers into the demons, or other town units or stuff I get with diplomacy, is done principally because I can't spend all my gold on effective units a lot of the time, and thus further trades of power for cheapness aren't really something I'm that interested in.

If we were the Tower or the Castle, maybe, but not with the Inferno's usual position.

>>3402879
The only place where it's actually a concern is… when you fight wandering Wraith stacks. Otherwise, it's such a gimmicky ability, just like that of Familiars.

>>3403256
>>3403212
I really agree with the following: Inferno would be great if they had just a tad bit more units to buy. Always when playing Inferno, I think to myself that I have a very limited numbers I need to save somehow, and their poor shooters don't help this.

But see picrelated—this chart compares the damage a weekly growth of a certain unit does to a creature with 10 defense. I'd say there's not all that much difference between the units, except with Ogres and, obviously, Crusaders. Demons are just a bit below the middle, but that's because Pegasi come in slightly higher numbers. Anyway, the average decent damage for lvl 4s seems to be around 67 mark, maybe 70 with upgrades.

>>3403256
>>3403212
>>3403314
Now, the same chart for lvl 5s. Pit Lords are second only to Minotaurs. More damage than Genies, Dendroids too. Their worst trait is their mediocre health, could be more than 45 for a walker; but then again, Minotaurs are not Rocs or Gorgons either.

It's all balanced out. Minotaurs are the key unit for Dungeon, because they need someone for melee and damage. Inferno, on the other hand, have Efreeti, which are available really early and are some of the best lvl 6 creatures.

So my opinion is that Demons and Pit Lords/Fiends are second-best Inferno units after the dogs and Efreeti. In a "solid" category, not exactly highlights of the faction, but still very good albeit ordinary.

But if you were referring to HP… Then yeah. That's the bane of Inferno's existence.

>>3403239
Yeah, it's super cool. The classes are really different and there are hundreds of potential combinations.

>>3403202
> GM on the elemental guilds
OK, since I already had a cleric and druid, what's good about GM? Lloyd's Beacon is great, but what about the other top level spells? And will I ever, EVER have enough mana to cast those, even with a truckload of blue potions?

>>3403208
> sparks and/or poison spray
Like a kind of magic shotgun? OK, I'll try that.

>>3403169
>Fuck castle gate, I want a demon transformer that turns living things into demons of the same tier.
>Doesn't fit the lore of them buy who gives a fuck?

This is actually a thought I've had a million of times myself.

Technically, I guess Pit Lords summon Demons from dead units, immolating them to bring creatures into the battlefield. How they do this isn't explained IIRC.

A transformer would probably make Pit Lords less useful, but certainly would make things much more convenient. You always need to enter a battle and find a way to kill your units just to raise Demons. It's not as easy as it sounds—given Sacrificed creatures can't be raised.

In any case, I have tried several maps where I focused exclusively on hoarding Demons from other units. It's just too much management for very little. But resurrecting Demons, on the other hand, was alright.

You know what I REALLY think would suit Inferno? Their own Altar of Sacrifice. Just imagine this. Sacrificing all enemy creatures or useless artifacts for exp. Fucking brutal, but so broken.

>>3403409
Considering how bad Inferno heroes are, both when it comes to specialties and preferred skill growths, you would still have to hire guys and gals from other towns. And in the end, such a structure would be more helpful to the possible raiders that surely have some units or artifacts to spare than to the original owners.

>>3403409

Alter of sacrifice sounds like an awesome optional building for inferno.

Imo lowering the price on castle gates would be a good idea as well

>>3403489
>>3403517
Would Magogs be too strong if they didn't have friendly fire?

>>3403369
>Like a kind of magic shotgun? OK, I'll try that.
Yes, once you get dark magic cranking you can switch to Shrapmetal(dark path only), but until then Poison Spray and Sparks will do the most damage with the least cost of anything. Virtually nothing is immune to both spell guilds and you get a guaranteed ring of Air Magic in the Fairy Cave.

If you go light path, you will use those two spells all game as your primary damage, but still pick up neat spells like Paralyze, Destroy Undead, Prismatic Light, Starburst, Lloyd's Beacon, and in combat Town Portal.

There is nothing more easy mode than a CSSS team once you get dark magic. Shrapmetal will clean out everything in the whole game aside from the Blaster Guy and medusa (which still die fast because you have 6x daggers). Dragons, titans, devils, behemoth don't last a single round.

>>3403531

Inferno units should have had immunity to magog splash damage. Fuckers practically live in fire.

>>3403531
Are power liches too strong? They certainly aren't, so neither would be the magogs. But removing friendly fire for demon units only would be a good starter. Inferno desperately needs another shooter or some other gimmicks. What would you say about efreets being able to cast random debuff spells on opponents, as counterpart of genies skill?

>>3403553

Nah, efreets already have fire shield.

mixing mm and homm discussion was a mistake

>>3403549
Hmm. Weird how I never read about these spells in a M&M guide I used for the walkthrough.

BTW, from the back of my mind, I remember there was a spell (IIRC early in the game) which laid several sparks on the ground. Do you by chance have an idea of what it was?

>>3403489
Demoniacs are't bad except for no Water Magic and preference for Fire Magic, their most probable offering is Logistics which is great. Heretics are another story. Anyway, of course it's better hire someone else, but Demon/Hell Hound specialists don't hurt.

>>3403517
I honestly think that Castle Gate is either nearly broken or super useless, and just like Town Portal, it can pretty much decide a game—just because there happens to be Inferno town in some convenient location.

On the other hand, its price makes you think twice before you build it. 20k to set it up is a good enough price for such an advantage.

>>3403531
>>3403550
I honestly think Magog friendly fire is bullshit. Now I know people assume it's there for balance, but first of all, it's been such a hugely controversial topic that it makes you wonder if it's really balanced. To me, it only makes sense lore-wise—Inferno like sacrifice, after all. But otherwise, it just feels off.

I just think that no other creature in the game does this. Upgrades can be better or worse—but Magogs are the only units in the game you should probably avoid.

And now remember that Gogs are forever stuck with speed of 4.

>>3403589
Fire Spike drops traps on the ground, but it's useless. Sparks drops electric sparks in front of you and it a great spell at only 4 spell points. It's the 4th (basic) air magic spell. Poison Spray is the 2nd water magic spell and only costs 2 points, but does less damage. Since you need to go up in water and air to work toward Fly and Town Portal anyway, you aren't wasting any skill points.

Strangely enough the strongest fire spell is probably Fire Aura. It makes all your bows and weapons stronger, and once you get GM fire magic it becomes permanent. You can now buy any unenchanted weapon, enchant of infernos, and sell it right back for a 2000 gold profit, even a dumb 1g club becomes a 2001g club.

Earth Magic is trash. Rock Blast is kind of neat, but requires so much effort to avoid killing yourself there are better options. Telekinesis is mildly useful sometimes, but not worth dumping points in for.

>>3403584
Why? No one objected and several people thought it'd be a good idea.

>>3403553
Let's analyze what kinds of units other factions have for lvl 1–6 creatures (not lvl 7):

1) 1 meat shield unit: Ogre Magi/Zombies/Pikemen/Iron Golems;

2) 1–2 shooters;

3) 1–2 flyers;

4) several walkers.

Now I think Inferno is more of a low HP, high damage faction—kill others before they kill you. But still I'd like to see some balance/variety.

I think with 1 shooter, they should at least have a decent one. Rampart has Grand Elves. Necropolis has Liches. So, at least Magog friendly fire should be turned off.

Second, Imps. Re-balance them. Maybe add damage range (1–3 or even 2–3 instead of 1–2) to go with "low health, high damage" schtick of Inferno. They're horrifying otherwise and hold Inferno back early, just like Magogs.

Third, Fire Magic school should get better spells. Their AoE spells are all weak as fuck—they should take Meteor Shower to make Earth defense-centric. Also, the skill of Fire Magic is nearly useless except for Berserk and Curse. They need some other spells—maybe give them Dispel or Disrupting Ray, I don't know.

That's from the top of my head.

>>3403615
>Sparks drops electric sparks in front of you and it a great spell at only 4 spell points.
Ah yeah, that's it. I get it now, here's the excerpt from the guide which confused the hell out of me:
> Sparks: shoot three balls of lightning into the room that bounce around until they hit
something.
So, needless to say I never used it.

> Earth Magic is trash. Rock Blast is kind of neat, but requires so much effort to avoid killing yourself there are better options. Telekinesis is mildly useful sometimes, but not worth dumping points in for.
Yeah, I read about it. No wonder they buffed it so hard for HoMMIII, giving it Resurrection, Implosion and Town Portal to boot, to keep it from sucking so hard.

>>3403549
I should add that Sparks, Poison Spray, and eventually Shrapmetal work best when you are right up on the enemy. Not just melee, but running into enemies so far you collide with them. You guarantee that all shards will hit, and if you do the math you realize that nothing really compares.

I have no idea why a guide wouldn't mention them. They aren't essential spells, but they are by far the most efficient. My guess is they stood at maximum range to still be in melee where a bunch of the "shotgun" would miss causing the damage to plummet.

>>3403631
Fortress also only has one shooter at T2 and also feels pretty weak.

>>3403637
> I have no idea why a guide wouldn't mention them.
Yeah, no wonder my spell points got drained so hard. I used lightning bolts mostly.

> Fortress also only has one shooter at T2 and also feels pretty weak.
Well, at least they have decent Gnolls; Lizard Warriors do 2–5 damage (pretty good with Bless, and Fortress has good odds of getting most water spells), which doesn't hurt allies; and really their lvl 1-5 units are more or less OK, but no wonders like Cerberi.

That's quite sad, but Inferno is up there with Fortress for claiming the title of the weakest faction in Heroes III.

>>3403584
shut up fag

I really like all the references to Heroes 2 in MM6. It really gives a sense of continuity within the series

>>3403654
>and really their lvl 1-5 units are more or less OK, but no wonders like Cerberi.

Ehh, what? Forgetting the machine guns? I mean, not only are the Gorgons/Mighty Gorgons easily the best 5, either they or the VL's are the most dominant unit for their tier.

>>3403759
MM7 and HoMM3 are even more linked from the Nighon/Eeofol tunnels in MM7 to the arbiter's letter in the AB campaign.

>>3403776
What about MM8?

>>3403784
There are a few but it's not linked nearly as much as the others. Catherine and Roland land on Jadame (MM8 continent) to solve the elemental crisis. Roland talks about how he never trusted the Conflux, and Catherine gives them the benefit of the doubt.

>>3403790
Also it's mentioned that the only reason Enroth wasn't immediately destroyed by the agent of the ancients was that the Kreegan were annihilated, so there wasn't a pressing need for the Destroyer to wipe out everyone.

>>3403784
Well, it takes place on a different continent, Jadame. It revolves around traveling to elemental planes, which serve as a base for Conflux in Armageddon's Blade.

It doesn't have all the familiar towns, but most units are there, for example Gorgons, Efreeti, Cyclopes; some recognizable names too. First island is basically all lizardmen in tropics, and it's invaded by pirates. Sandro and Thant are there in Necromancer's Guild.

>>3403773
Actually forgot about them, yep. My bad.

>>3403797
Wow, I haven't played it in 15 years—that what Roland looked like? Is it the same Roland from HoMMII–III? Where's the mustache, the bowl cut? No one would recognize him in such a disguise.

>>3403813
His portrait in MM8 looks different than in HoMM3 or even MM7. As for HoMM2 he was imprisoned and tortured by the Kreegan for 7 years until you rescue him at the end of MM7 and this is probably a more realistic version.

>>3403817
Yep, but he looks OK in AB.

Also, I think he looks younger with every installment.

Holy cow, did they even playtest HotA? Cove is broken as hell:
1. Two. TWO fucking shooters.
2. Most likely to get a bunch of useful Water magic spells in Mage Guild
3. Sea Witches are a top of the line lv5 unit in term of damage, and they even inflict spell status.
4. Nixes are a top of the line lv6 unit, and are tanky as fuck.
5. Sea Serpents have the same HP and speed as Black Dragons while also have status effect.
6. Nymphes have non retaliation.
7. Seamen are a beefy lv2 unit
8. Pirates are OP
9. That fucking lv4 flying chicken has 13 speed???
10. Cannon
11. A lot of heroes have tactics early on.
Seriously, this town has all the best stuffs (except being a bit expensive, and usually starts in swarm). How can others fair against it?

>>3403797
I don't remember fine details of Master of The Elements campaign from Heroes Chronicles very well, but it was mentioned there several times that there is some sort of peace treaty between Elemental Lords and denizens of "real" dimensions. It lasted for 10.000 years, but expired somewhere in times after Tarnum's tyranny so he was sent by Ancestors to subdue the lords and renew it. And now it seems like Lords are up for some trouble during M&M VIII. Is it possible that there is 10.000 year long time gap between early chapters of Chronicles and M&M VIII? I know that Tarnum was supposed to live long time ago, but never knew it was this long.

>>3403853
>Russian OC donutsteel faction
What did you expect?

>>3403913
>OC donutsteel faction
The Regnan Empire is a real thing in the lore anon.

And that marks the end of MM2 for me

It was really something taking the same 6 heroes from Scorpigal to the end of MM2. They started out dying to 'battle rats' and by the end of MM2 they were chewing through various types of dragons without effort.

Sucks they can't come to MM3. I guess I'll make an entirely new party so that I don't tread on their memory by making facsimiles.

>>3403928
Make sure to find the reviewer they put in MM3 because they got so butthurt at her negative review for MM2

>>3403853
Don't forget that along with arguably the best or one of the best units in the game in every level category, they also have swamp as native terrain so they don't suffer the terrain penalties, have level 4 magic guild for no reason at all, get a speshul snowflake ballista-but-better, sacrificial altar in town that lets you exchange those stoic watchmen for beefy secondaries right off the bat...

>>3403928
How was it? Did you have to resort to guides? Do you need to learn much before playing it?

>>3403853
i seriously don't understand why people play HotA.

>>3404001
Because they hate Conflux and Necro?

>>3404001
At least it isn't WoG, and Cove actually looks good and has decent ideas behind it despite being so unbalanced.

>>3403935
Hehe, that's pretty low. I didn't know Scorpia was named after a reviewer.

>>3403996
i had to use a guide to figure out what the hell the last puzzle wanted from me

>>3404009
>A-at least it isn't WoG!
I can't believe how contrarian and baseles hate for one mod that started it all can turn someone to eat feces and enjoy it

>>3403853
6 isnt true. they are cold immune and teleporting

>>3404001
autism and special snowflake syndrome

>>3404086
>WoG
>a pile of lolsorandumb features with non-existent production values that's basically some autistic slavs going "you know what would be cool? if there were second upgrades for level 7 creatures! no wait, if you could raze cities and recruit ghosts in them! no wait, if units had individual experience!" that renders the entire game unrecognizable
>no, disabling features doesn't help, pretty much all of them are retarded

>HotA
>Good-looking mod that stays true to gameplay and lore, if not for special snowflakeyness and poor balancing choices it could pass for an official expansion

They're both questionable, but just because WoG has been the only thing out there for over a decade doesn't mean it isn't shit. HotA is at least nice to look at

>>3403489
they aren't bad. Fiona gives hellhounds/cerberi even more attack and defense points so you can sometimes hit 3 units at the same time with that chunky damage. she can be turned into a pretty powerful "heretic" too if you just wanna focus more on magic skills.

same thing goes for Nymus. she is a pit fiend specialist and that unit was strong as fuck regardless, without any boni.

also, Ayden starts out with basic intelligence and basic wisdom which is a good as fuck combo for a spellcaster. first aid ability (I think that's what he has) isn't really so great but Gem from Rampart has that shit too and she isn't bad.

Calh is based af as magog specialist. the rest of them seem okayish.

>>3404354

Ayden's specialty is intelligence.

>>3404370
I see. thanks for pointing that out.

>>3404354
Unlike every other castle, Inferno doesn't really have any must-pick heroes like Crag Hack, Mullich, Tazar, etc. The best specialty among Inferno's heroes is Ayden's Intelligence bonus, and he's still a Heretic who's predisposed to fire magic. Demoniacs lack good specializations altogether, there is no Logistics or Armorer specialist for example, only unit specs. And those are pretty much only useful for that +1 speed, or in the case of level 1 specialists or Bron, the starting army.

Decent Inferno heroes are:
>Marius and Nymus are usually top picks due to their Demon and Pit Fiend bonuses, who are key units with or without demon farming, and them starting with Advanced Offense/Armorer. Unfortunately they're still unit specialists
>Pyre, starts with Logistics and Ballista specialty isn't terrible
>Ignatius, starts with a lot of Imps, discount Galthran or Shakti basically
>Ayden for lots of MP

Fiona and Rashka would've also been decent if not for them starting with Scouting and Scholar, respectively

>>3404415

Octavia is pretty good too. Double Offense is a decent pick, and while 350 gold a turn isn't a great lategame pick for your hero, it does make the early game much smoother.

>>3404013
She gave MM3 a good review too.

I like the map generator of Heroes of Might and Magic III.
It's great.
It might be the I value the most in the game.

>>3404415
>Fiona and Rashka would've also been decent if not for them starting with Scouting and Scholar, respectively

agreed but one fucked up skill doesn't make them worthless to play as.

my entire point is that you can run the game, stomp everything and win even if you got the worst hero in the whole game.

>>3403584
no, this has been one of the best mm or homm threads with actual discussions and not just unfunny faggots who dont even play the series shitting up the thread with memes

>>3403654
fortress is far from the weakest faction in homm3. dig a little deeper than just assessing damage and hp ratings

the fact that you think mighty gorgons and flies are "more or less ok" shows you have no idea what you are talking about

How do I get good in M&M6?

Is it even possible or is it quickload all the way down?

>>3404750
7*

>>3404750
Give all your party members bows
Git gud at positioning and take advantage of switching in and out of turn based mode to keep your distance from heavy hitting enemies
Don't be afraid to run away from a fight

>>3404750
First, stop running during combat. When you run, you have double recovery. ONLY walk or stand when fighting.

Second, an OK beginning strategy is to give everyone bows and engage on long-range combat.

The rest depends in your party. I beat M&M7 and recently started it all over, it's not too hard. Where exactly are you having problems? What's your party? Not all rangers I hope?

>>3404750
>>3404794
Also, some general advice I found useful.

If you have anyone with Spirit Magic, use Bless on your damage dealers. They will land attacks much more often. Obviously, Stone Skin helps too.

Try to get Body Magic as high as possible with your healer.

It's always a good idea to make some red/blue potions as reagents are scattered on the ground. I think you don't need Alchemy skill to make a potion from a reagent, only for mixing them.

Buy shields and invest in shield skills for those who can get it. Especially for those who can only use chain/leather or nothing at all.

>>3404819
Is dual wielding useful in any of the M&M games?

>>3404978
I think you can get the highest possible damage combination with a spear/dagger

>>3404983
What about Axe/sword? Going for mastery of sword seems like a waste but I got a +11 sword early on.

So, this thread (Well, actually the last one) got me playing the Homm 3 campaigns. Did the ROE ones easily, now onto Armageddon's blade. Playing them in what I remember to be roughly least fun -> most fun, so started with dragon slayer (better than I remembered) and now onto Playing with Fire.


Is it just me, or is this "not hard at all but extremely annoying"

What is the correct difficulty to play on?

>>3405068
Impossible

>>3405068
I play on Hard

>>3404530
>orthogonal discussions
>good
pick one

>Muh MM3 is so great
who gives a fuck

>>3405104
>Muh orthogonal discussions
who gives a fuck

>>3405068

Whatever you have most fun on.

>>3405112
>I don't know what is a thread

>>3405134
Apparently you don't. Now fuck off the thread was fine before your spergouts.

>>3404750
Get everyone bows from the very start.

Have one crank water and throw all horseshoes to that person. The instant you get water skill 12 get master. The game gets tons easier because you have portals that don't suck.

Have at least one healing class get body magic and dump a ton of points into it.

Get sword master for anyone you can. In all the MM games dual wielding does a ton more damage, especially if the offhand is a sword.

>>3404983
>>3405003
Spear/Sword is the highest unless you have >20 axe skill. Recovery time is largely the limiting factor on damage, and it is calculated from your slowest weapon. Use an axe if you pick up a better one, but don't dump points into it. Also master axe skill requires cleaning out two dungeons.

>>3405141
sorry for disturbing your safe place, please continue your circle jerk

Having just gone through MM1/MM2 I have to say MM3 was a huge step forwards. This is where the series really got on its legs, it seems.

>>3405159
Lots of people say the same thing. The improvements in automapping and getting rid of random encounters really helps.

>>3405159
Make sure your party has all the racial bonuses so you can detect secret doors and enemies. Also check out the manual it's a nice read.

>>3405171
In MM3 I'm pretty sure you can pick up all the racials in the sewer which you go into so early it really isn't worth messing with.

>>3405152
Whoops, didn't realize he meant 7 >>3404758

Largely the same thing as 6 except for water magic. Bows are even more powerful in MM7 because they last longer. Most of your fights will be hit and runs until you get your skills higher.

Anyone who can should go up to master sword first.

Snipe most things with less than 70 hp or so. Once you are at the point when you can handle melee (as mentioned >>3403208), run up and poison spray or sparks.

Keep regeneration up on all characters at all times, and make sure you have wizard eye cast at all times.

It's nice to have are fire aura on all weapons and bows, with bless and heroism from spirit magic increasing +hit and +damage.

>>3405025
>Is it just me, or is this "not hard at all but extremely annoying"

Yes, devs went out of their way to make every map as tedious as possible.

Imo festival of life and the vial of dragons blood are the best campaign from armageddons blade. The final map of Playing With Fire is actually really good as well.

>having to restart multiple times just to get wisdom and earth magic on Catherine.

Fuuuuu, she really benefits from it too because all the inferno towns have lvl5 mage guilds already built.

>>3405202

I actually really liked the final hidden campaign too, the one with Christian on the Gilligan's Island start.

Like I said, it's been a long long time, but I seem to remember finding Festival of Life very easy, but also very much enjoying the Dragon Blood one.

Added a link to HoMM3 to the pastebin. Will be rewriting it soon with a link to all heroes games up to 4 and MM1-9

Welp, there goes my perfect skill set

Welp, there goes my perfect skill set

Let's be honest, guys.
Which town would you want to live in and as what creature?
My choice would be Tower as Genie because I can meet them hot Naga Queens all the time.

>>3405853
Conflux magic elemental
>Literal city of magic
>You are the only thing immune to magic

>>3405679
well which one did you pick?

>>3405853
Castle as a cavalier / champion
Dungeon as Evil Eye

>>3405859
I can understand Champion but why Evil Eye? Having only one eye and no toes/fingers must be very inconvenient.

>>3405853
also as Genie tbqh.
at least they are immortal.

>>3405863
Wait werent they the upgraded ones? Or was it beholders?

I was thinking about them, it would be cool beeing a brain with tenticles and many eyes that zaps shit with lazers and electricity. Would get to hang out with the nagas shooting plebs and if one gets close you are not completely fucked. Exploring the vast underground caves would be fun too and i suppose they wouldnt need light to see. Also in heroes 4 i'd get even stronger because of the debuff ability.

>3 skeleton stacks
Great

I did not know this was possible.
What an amazing game

Why are we all playing 3 - not 4, 5 or whatever?

>>3406075
Fucking game crashed.
Why does a HDD need to be plugged in to the wall anyway?
The power went out and the thing just stopped working.
Fuck this.

>>3405853
Rampart - Dendroid

>great fresh air, beautiful surroundings
>fun creatures who love life to hang out with when I feel like it
>just live in harmony for hundreds of years, enjoying the warm sun and plenty of restful sleep

>>3406080

Because 4 is bad and 5 is decent but still not nearly as good as 3.

I'd argue 2 is the most fun for a first playthrough of the campaigns, but is way too unbalanced to dump 100s of hours into like you can with 3.

What's the trick to get good at this game?
I'm a huge fan of 3, and I love everything about it.
But I am not good at it, not at all.

The scenarios I love playing are the ones where it's "Slay this one super big monster at the end" as opposed to the "beat 2 AI players" ones. Mostly because I'm a scrub.

I've only ever beaten the Titan one, the Devil Island one, and the Find the Holy Grail One. The others just curb stomp me about halfway through.

>>3405853
Rampart
elf
>that elf bp

>>3406107
>but still not nearly as good as 3.

with the HoMM 5.5 mod it is even better than 3.
I mean, even the vanilla skill progression is better in 5 than in 3.

I don't think anything bugs me in 5 anymore, rather than Inferno towns looking inauthentic.
that tower looks too much like human architecture.

the only weird thing about that mod is that instead of giving Haven a priest class, the spellcaster class is now heretics. every faction has 3 different classes now which is otherwise pretty damn cool.

>>3406101
>Dendroid

dude, you will need 3 fucking years to reach the marketplace and buy groceries. because Dendroids are so slow.

but yeah, being a meme elf sounds rather dope too. Ivor and Aeris look so much like Link anyway.

>>3406080

You know it's weird. Pretty much every difference between Homm 5 and Homm 3, I like the way they do it in 5 better.

But I just don't play it nearly as much. I think the single biggest thing is that I don't like the random maps much, and there are so many more Homm 3 maps built than they made for 5.

>>3406113

Expand fast. Especially when you're playing on any level but impossible (and even on impossible but it's a little trickier mechanically to do) hire a bunch of heroes of the same type, merge stacks, and go killing, preferably on day one. Don't build a bunch of heroes evenly, build one up to be your main guy, and the others as supporters. Have the main guy go for neutral stacks, and anything that'll boost his stats. The secondaries should be the ones picking up resources, flagging mines, and looking at witches huts to make sure they're good before the main hero touches them.

Build a bunch of dwellings early, get that manpower thing rolling. Ideally, you only start building gold buildings once you have at least the tier 1-6 dwellings and a castle.

THEN start upgrading. By the time you run into an AI, you should have more money, more creatures, and have expanded further like this.

Should I blow 2500 gold on sir Memeulich If I play as a necro??

>>3406123
No need for groceries. Dendroids are still plants just needing some water and sun.

>>3406141
I knew a comment like that would come up. I was joking anyway.

>>3406139
does it matter? it doesn't really matter. do it if you really want but with necropolis it's better to have all undead heroes who learn basic necromancy.

unless you get lucky and Sir Mullich finds a scholar or witch hut that teaches necromancy, then it would be somewhat worth it. otherwise, nah.

Since i have upgraded xeen's music to midi i started to love it so much. Intro's music is the best.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHQksUTB5M4

Is there a mod for Heroes 5 that changes the unit models to something that doesn't make me want to kill myself?

>>3405853

Tower. Titan.

I want to split Nagas wide open with my massive gorilla cock

>>3406080
Because Ashan is garbage

>>3406205
The mod where you go to an alternate universe where NWC still exists

>>3406171
Not a big fan of the cloudside music but the darkside music is great.

>>3406392
i just keep MM games on mute and load up Floral Shoppe

>>3406396
Heretic. MM music is wonderful.

>>3406419
MM3's town music will drive a man insane

>>3406425
That's one of my favourites.

>>3405853
>>3405858
>>3405859
>>3405898
>>3406101
>>3406114
>>3406210
Enjoy being enrolled into war whenever some fucker shows up at the tavern. Meanwhile
>be a normal troglodyte
>never EVER leave the comfy dungeon
>live forever in peace and darkness

>>3406462
>be retarded frog thing that lives in a cesspool and never gets laid

you're supposed to choose a life more fantastic than your own

>>3404789
>>3404819
>>3405152

Thanks, but I'm still getting killed.

>>3406462
>never EVER leave the comfy dungeon

dude, dungeon is oppressive as fuck. they will enroll your ass for war faster than you can blink. not even joking.

>>3406540
Actually the Troglodyte dwelling looks very comfy. Who wouldn't want to live in an underground waterfall covering in giant mushrooms?

>>3406581

If you're a trog, you CAN'T blink. See how much it sucks?

>>3406075
That's what Scholar does. Everyone always shits on it but having Scholar on a secondary is cool beans.

>>3406581
>faster than you can blink

Jokes on you troglodytes dont have eyes

>>3403489

Best Inferno hero is Pyre. Starts with ballista and logistics.

>>3403853

You forgot Cove has excellent heroes: Attack specialty hero, cannon specialty hero, one that makes two clone stacks when using clone.

>>3403853
I hear cove is shit and cove is OP.

>>3403853
I hear cove is shit and cove is OP. Which one is it?

>>3406579
Have you played through MM6 already or did you jump straight to 7? I'm guessing you jumped if you're having trouble with 7.

>>3406080
There are several reasons for it.

III came out when NWC (the original creators of the whole Might and Magic franchise) were still at their full creative force. They gained a big momentum with the success of Heroes I and II—but III was arguably their magnum opus: they balanced the gameplay and developed their previous ideas to a whole new level; Heroes III almost felt like perfection. It combined a unique and interesting RPG/TBS with memorable lore and unmatched gameplay depth. It didn't take long to get acclaim from both critics and players, unanimously praised as the series' highest achievement.

It also happened in arguably some of the best eras for PC strategies: from Age of Empires II and Starcraft to SimCity 3000 and Caesar III, late 90s gave us many PC games still remembered today.

Due to the popularity of the first 2 installments, low system requirements, praise from VG mags and the early availability of localized versions, it became a huge hit in the Eastern Europe and Russia. Nowadays, the community has gained a second life with game streaming and online tournaments. The game still has a huge fanbase in the countries, widely recognized as some of the classic games of the late '90s–early 2000s.

Now, to answer the second part of the question:

Why not IV? Because 1) NWC was having big troubles and would soon cease to exist with the bankrupcy of their publisher; 2) they tried to change everything, but didn't have time to balance/perfect the game.

Why not V? Because 1) it was not developed by NWC; 2) it didn't have quite the long-standing impact of Heroes III—maybe because the heyday of strategies has largely went away by 2006. Most enjoy it far more than anything else past III though.

Why not VI? Because it was in a development hell and everyone knows it sucked because of Ubisoft's decisions. Same goes for VII. Also, since 2010 strategies have been even less popular than ever.

>>3406579
OK, once again:

1) where exactly are you getting killed?
2) what's your party?
3) have you figured out the game system yet, like allocating skill points, making potions, casting spells, etc?

Unless you answer at least 1 of these questions, there's not much I can advice, sorry. You need to be more specific.

>>3406813
At the very least he can press Z which gives a basic summary of the party.

>>3405859
>well which one did you pick?
Resistance. At least it does something for my Power 6 hero

>>3406817
I hope he's not fighting the dragon on the Emerald Island. Or going straight to kill all those Goblins in Harmondale.

>>3406774
>one that makes two clone stacks when using clone
I'm not even playing mods but fuck. Are they even serious

They only lack Dimension Door and Armageddon specialists now.

>>3406838
>He used to make 3 clones at one point

>>3406609
Scholar is fine, but first of all, there are much more important skills. Second, it's a bit of a pain in the ass—it's not too easy to keep track of who has which spells in HoMMIII. Third, you need Wisdom unless you're satisfied with teaching Blind and Slow—preferably Advanced, too. Lastly, not being able to teach lvl 5 spells.

>>3406843
> Have 6 Archangels
> 3 get killed, 3 left
> no problem
> cast Clone
> 3 clones cast Resurrection
> you have 6 Archangels again
just fuck my game up

Claim your HoMM 3 waifu's

>>3406603
>>3406649

no eyes? enrolled.
enjoy slaving, maggots.

I'm playing single player scenarios on hard for a while and I'm thinking of stepping up, since I've fucked up only once so far in 5 games.
Any suggestions on how to fucking survive with 0 resources on start?
Also, how is it that the AI builds up a fucking valid army in such short time?

>>3406894
Google Jolly Joker guides, they're written specifically with impossible difficulty in mind for each faction.

General strategy is to start picking gold from chests, rely on magic more, try and go for Capitol, and of course fight with low tier units.

>>3406894


At least for the last, the AI doesn't start with nothing, only you do.

And I'm pretty sure they get extra resources and growth per week too.

>>3406894
AI starts with normal resources and builds a building a day on Impossible.

>>3406910
According to the strategy guide, they get generous bonuses. Beating it on Impossible needs intimate knowledge of the AI and battle mechanics.

>>3406853

Scholar is great for teaching your heroes town portal and armageddon

>>3406974
5th level spells teaching?..

> Castle, Tower, Stronghold, Inferno, Conflux, Dungeon
> Town Hall is in the bottom left, Fort is to the right or in the middle

> Rampart, Necropolis
> Town Hall is to the right, Fort is to the left

> Fortress
> Town Hall is a tree house in the middle of the screen
> Mage Guild is to the left
> also Minotaur head on Gorgon's Lair

Why do this

I mean it'd be cool if there was a keyboard shortcut for Town Hall, but there isn't.

>>3407002
Both are 4th level spells

>>3406974
Assuming you have 2 heroes with Advanced Wisdom, one of which has Expert Scholar. Oh yes, one also probably needs Advanced Earth for Town Portal.

>>3406974
Scholar is also good if you can get it on higher-level spell specialists (Deemer, Luna, Jeddite, Thant etc, Alamar actually starts with Scholar) to transfer their spells to a better, i.e. Might, hero. But that requires a bit of luck and spreading out

>>3407018

Scholar is super situational sure, but it's not completely useless either. Alamar can teach ressurect super early if you're playing Dungeon. Just like Solemyr can teach Chain Lightning. Both are relatively useful spells throughout all of the game. Especially in early sieges and clearing out lvl 1-2 neutral stacks with minimal losses.

Stronghold, fortress and castle don't really rely much on magic anyways. Mostly on water and air magic, for buffs/debuffs and clone/teleport strategies.

>>3407014
>wanting H4-style town screens

>>3407014
How is flavor a bad thing?

>>3407056
Not the flavor, just messing with muscle memory. Having to readjust to a different interface. I'm used to having Town Hall at the bottom left, Mage Guild to the right side of the screen, and I don't click Fort very often anyway.

OK, I've been wondering about this for a while.

How can swords and shields in HoMMIII increase attack/defense stats of heroes' whole armies? I understand with Knowledge and Power artifacts, like helmets and so on, they are equipped on the hero, and he's the one doing the spellcasting; but he's not the one fighting. It's kinda weird one sword is supposed to make a whole army stronger. I can't really remember much like it in fantasy.

>>3407090
This is a really dumb question. This isn't a particularly realistic game, you know.

(I personally assume it improves the hero's attack and defense so they assist their soldiers in battle better.)

>>3407090
Magical artifacts that imbue their army with strength and defense.
nanomachines

>>3407090
The same way a sword can allow a hero to call down a rain of flaming rocks from outer space: magic

>>3407096
Yep, but still. It doesn't make sense. For example, amulets recharge heroes' mana—this is logical. Armor or some orb is giving certain powers to heroes is also logical. But when it comes to affecting the whole army, it's just unexplained.

That's in the game which has a story for every hero explaining how they got their specialties.

> (I personally assume it improves the hero's attack and defense so they assist their soldiers in battle better.)

From all I've in the cutscenes, heroes usually use their swords for one purpose: to point the direction to enemy and generally command others.

>>3407097
I guess whoever has the coolest sword gets the most respect from his troops and thus inspires them to fight better. Same with armor and boots, I guess.

>>3407107
At least a whole expansion is devoted to explaining what Armageddon's Blade is and how it works.

>>3407114
you might as well ask why do hundreds of troops walk around in perfectly ordered stacks graphically represented by one creature, or how you can raise a human skeleton from a giant bird

the answer is the same: it's an old, abstract turn-based strategy game from a series that isn't known for its good writing or internal consistency in the first place

>That's in the game which has a story for every hero explaining how they got their specialties.
Now if we're getting autistic many of them are pretty random

>Fafner: he was a dude who wished for a genie to turn him into a genie. Specialty: Nagas
>Terek: he was a circus strongman who got fired and joined the army of Krewlod instead. Specialty: Haste and he is a battle mage for some reason
>Sephinroth is an impostor who wants the throne of Erathia. Specialty: Crystals

>>3407125
>you might as well ask why do hundreds of troops walk around in perfectly ordered stacks graphically represented by one creature

You can stack troops 1X1X1X1 if you want. IRL warfare has battalions and squadrons moving at difderent speeds and composed of their types of units. You don't attack with planes and start bombing while your tank unit is advancing. That's just bad tactics.

>>3407114

I would actually prefer swords and shield to actually give the hero an ability. Like for example automatically cast mass curse/weakness or mass shield for two rounds. Instead of a generic +2. The better the artifact the longer the effect will last and will effectively give you the ability to cast an additional spell. Or give you additional percentage in offence or armorer skills, so that heroes without necessary skills won't be able to utilize them.

its odd how MM3 took a step backwards wrt spell casting compared to the first two games

MM1/2 you could just hit c+level+spell and not have to reset your mage's selected spell everytime.

>>3407152
Are you playing the DOS version? You shouldn't have to reset your selected spell every time. Just press C)ast instead of N)ew Spell

>>3407146
That's a neat idea, albeit it adds a bit more variables to game. But yeah, more skill/artifact combos would be interesting to try.

>>3407125
> you might as well ask why do hundreds of troops walk around in perfectly ordered stacks graphically represented by one creature
Well yes, it's a schematic representation aching to wargames and board games. It doesn't really leave unexplained questions regarding lore.

> or how you can raise a human skeleton from a giant bird
Technically, you're right. But it's not the absolute central part of the game, and who'd transform Rocs to Skeletons anyway? Lvl 1 grunts mostly look like they'd have normal humanoid skeletons more or less, except for Centaurs. Note how NWC even went one step further and added Dragon—>Bone Dragon conversion.

Weapon/armor artifacts, however, are never properly explained, AFAIK.

>Now if we're getting autistic many of them are pretty random

A lot of them make sense though.
> "Josephine was the first to successfully animate a stone golem, creating a process that was much more sophisticated than that used for the gargoyle, on which her research was based."
> "Astral arrived in Erathia nearly ten years ago, and was quickly accepted into the Wizards' Guild in Bracada. His rise to power within the Guild ranks made some people joke that only magic could have brought him so much success so soon."

Other have neat story pieces

>"Marius was the mate of Calh for several years, finally splitting up when it became clear that Calh did not agree with her 'master plan' to rid the world of those disgusting, do-good woodland creatures.

>"Calh was mated to Marius for several years, but it soon became clear that she was obsessed with the total destruction of, of all things, Dendroids. They split up, and Calh went on to have a glorious military career."

>>3407165
Well all magic in the might and magic universe (pre ubisoft reboot) is actually advanced technology. The RPGs go over it more indepth.

>>3407181
I vaguely remember a line in MM6 in the first town about most magical items being crafted in a special forge by magical entities phrased in a way that sounded like they were made in an assembly line.

>>3407201
Heavenly Forge. It's recreated at the dark end of MM7 and was the basis for the planned Forge faction.

>>3407206
Built by the Deyja Necromancers, or more specifically the evil aligned half of the party from MM3 lead by Kastore that ends up in Deyja that you ally with in MM7.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUbLlXHMPoI

Recently I've been playing trying to remember the game mechanics in general, and I got Dimension Door for the first time in, like, forever: somehow I never got it because first I played Yog's campaign, then Gem's campaign, and then only played Inferno who don't get DD very often.

Now I knew that DD was banned in tournaments, but I didn't remember it was THAT broken. With Expert Air a hero can teleport through half the map in one turn, AND still have spare movement to walk. This is pretty much like invincibility. At least Town Portal limits the player to his towns, DD just allows to take giant leaps to whatever you want.

It doesn't even feel fun.

>>3407326
It's nice for when you have the map under complete control and are having to chase down stragglers, but yeah it's absurd normally. Fly is also pretty ridiculous when there are mountains.

I've heard about the Succesion Wars thing for HoMM2, but what I really want to know is, do Fortress heroes ride Gorgons instead of Horses?
That would seal the deal for me.
I always found it weird all heroes had horses when you have potential rideable creatures like unicorns, skeletal/zombie horses, gorgons (would make fortress heroes having no penalty in swamp make more sense), manticores (with a rider they're too heavy to fly or something), wolves, cerberi and leaving Castle/Tower/Conflux with horses.

>>3407436
Do you mean the mod for HoMM3?

>>3407442
Sorry, I meant to make it look like HoMM2.

>>3407445
The main forums are in russian but I don't recall seeing unique mounts for every faction.

>>3407483
that art looks shit

>>3407551
Looks on par with HoMM2 to me

>>3407565
Don't think so.
II had that unique fairy tale style and this is HoMM7 tier degeneracy.
He should look like Mephistopheles from Faust kind of way.
I mean like vampires but with a red cape and trident
Also the best devils were in HoMM3

>>3407578
Those are kreegans from MM6 which takes place shortly after HoMM2. HoMM3 also has kreegans but with a different look.

>>3407114
swords and shields are just metaphors for enhancing your damage and defense. end of story.

it affects the whole army because the hero does affect the whole army. thus, you place it all on his inventory ragdoll.

>>3407578
>he thinks devils in HoMM are actually devils
Anon...

>>3407589
Devils aren't kreegans.
As far as I know inferno has a fucked up lore where there is actually two demon races. One that is shown on your picture is spacefaring alien demons that came on an asteriod and pwned poor hobbits. And there are an ACTUAL demons and devils from underworld hell - its where the second Tarnum joyrney where. They allied themselves with kreegans.
Now the second HoMM takes place before the landing of kreegans so at that point of time there were only one that second actual demon race.

>>3407624
That the new Doom?

>>3407624
Heroes Chronicles is fanfiction. Aside from it, there is no evidence of other demon races, and all devils are indeed Kreegans. Probably because it would be confusing and retarded otherwise.

>>3407624
Yes they are

>>3407002
>spotted the h2 player

>>3405853
Black dragon, because I'm a colossal edgelord

Help me /vr/ !!!

I have been stuck on this fight for a few months now because i know i can take the castle but every time i lose with a few defenders left.

This is from the tarnum campaigns and im attacking a castle on the first day of the week so there is no hope for reinforcements.
Gunnar is basicly my scout hence the shit army.

The only noteworthy spell is chain lightning but even with that the towers do too much damage.

Anyone have any suggestions on how to win this?

>>3406462
You're on the right track but you fucked up picking the cannon fodder with the most shit tier life

Ogre Magi son, you're still going to get called for battle but most likely you'll spend most of your fighting days casting Bloodlust from the back lines with the shooters. Pretty easy gig and you still enjoy a position of respect in the society. They're probably chill af

>>3407763
>Heroes Chronicles is fanfiction.
(Not true, by the way.)

>>3407878
I don't think it's possible at all, unfortunately. I could see how it could be done if you had Ballistics or Earthquake, took down the towers and then spammed Chain Lightning.

>>3407896
>wanting to live in a "kill or be killed *tips horned helmet*" barbarian society
>not being a Master Genie and doing the same buffing from the back lines but also boning naga queens, having access to all the books and not having to constantly fear being killed in a honor duel or something

>>3407878
>No ballistics
>Expert artillery but no ballista
>100 spell points

RIP

>>3407930
>not boning lesser Genies
lad

>>3407930
the last two attempts i managed to get the defending army to 3 ogre magi, i know its possible if i get lucky

>>3407939
scout hero never ment to actualy seige castles

mana is from leveling up and powerups

>>3407992
Have you tried changing the number units in the stacks? It might let one of your meatshields live a turn longer.

>>3407992

>Scout hero
>Level 22

Nigga wut?

>>3408001
yeah but its very random on who the towers will hit and where the chain lightning will split off to

>>3408030
previous level had an altar of sacrafice and no time limit after you defeat the other player

I want to get into M&M, which gam is best?

>>3408065
Might and Magic 6 7 and 8 are the easiest to get into i think.

>>3408065
If you're interested in the series as a whole I hear it's best to man up and start from the beginning. I'm playing through 1 right now, I was a little intimidated because I'm not used to old school RPGs but I got into it fairly quickly and now I'm glad I did.

I need homm3 map packs
w2c

>>3408065
I would argue 3-5 are easier to get into than 6-8 since it's more traditional grid based RPG. MM6-8 are full of background lore for HoMM like Inferno being aliens.

>>3408172
On the other hand 3-5 are very directionless unless you read the manual and require you to take notes yourself

>>3408065
There are 3 generations of games:
MM1-2
These are your classics. There are no in game maps in MM1 and the idea was to use graph paper to map it out yourself and ultimately solve the game. MM2 adds some background with the elementals and sets up the Corak versus Sheltem story that is finished in MM5 (I strongly advise you to read the manual for MM2 even if you don't play the game).

MM3-5
Most people in /vr/ should probably start here. They are DOS, but still pretty easy to get into. MM4&5 were released separately and combine to create one huge game.

MM6-8
These are the most popular and largely considered the best games. If you are just looking for background on HoMM, just play 6 and 7. 8 was a step down because it was designed as an expansion to 7, but were forced due to finances to release a full game.

9 and 10 don't exist, don't ask about them.

>>3408270
I heard 10 was okay. It's really only M&M in name though.

>>3408275
10 isn't terrible, but it's one of those things where there are tons of better games out there and it has no connection to the series.

>>3407406
Well, actually DD allows you to teleport into fog. If you use View Air/View Earth well, it's not so hard to teleport RIGHT to the enemy hero, then to the enemy town, and have 2 teleports left to spare.

With Fly, at least you travel no further than the normal hero movement, and end it on land—another big point. I agree that if you play on some kind of mountain labyrinth it's overpowered. But the same can be said about maps with small islands lying within reach of Water Walk.

However, on templates like Jebus Cross where different zones are separated by thin lines of mountains, Fly indeed is OP, because otherwise you'd have to go through an opening guarded by powerful guard stacks.

Overall, I don't feel it's anywhere near as broken as Expert DD.

>>3407624
I have never read anything about two devil races in any pre NWC HoMM game. The devs themselves have stated inferno are aliens so it's pretty cut and dry.

>>3407878
Why do you need to take it on the first day of the week, with your scout too? What will change if you don't?

Also, sieging without ballistics/Cyclopes and Rocs? Even with your stats, you're trying to do the impossible. Arrow towers do around 100 damage total. Simple arithmetics tells that your only chance is spamming Chain Lightning, which is going to be hard with you having 100 mana.

More importantly: what about after you take the castle? Can you recruit units? Who do you get attacked by?

has anybody here tried heroes of might and magic 7 here? Friend told me to get it but i dont really trust him...

>>3408463
When I played it at launch the AI turn times were agonizingly slow, dunno if they ever fixed that or not

>>3408463
Don't bother getting it

>>3408463
It came out raw and full of bugs. Now they're making an expansion to it. You think they have fixed the bugs by now? No. Only recently the multiplayer became more or less playable, and that's for some people.

And please, don't think it's a true Heroes experience. Don't ruin your impression. Get god-tier games like II and III, or at least V. IV if you're really interested and open to new ideas. VI and VII if you like taking it in the ass.

What would you want from a perfect Heroes VIII?

>>3408954
Xeenified factions
made by JVC

>>3408956
also pixel art like heroes 2

>>3408954
Made by Van Caneghem and the remnants of NWC. That's the only way I'd play it.

>>3408994
But he's gone making mobile games that actually have combat system similar to might and magic.

>>3408994
An official retcon of HoMM4 and Axeoth would be nice. The old world still needs closure on the Forge and the fact that Archibald is just sitting in Clanker's Lab.

Even if they want to build on Axeoth there is no way Archibald died when the world exploded.

>>3409018
Weren't they pressured to do a soft reboot of the series?

>>3409018
> The old world still needs closure on the Forge
Destroyed by Gelu & co in the scrapped version of Armageddon's Blade with Forge

> The old world still needs closure on the Forge and the fact that Archibald is just sitting in Clanker's Lab.
I guess that's the closure. Archibald gave up on conquering the world after seeing his brother captured and getting Deyja taken from him by Kastore and went away on a self-imposed exile.

>>3409004
TFW Caneghem is mobile developer now