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jackissocool
Hired Hero
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posted July 12, 2011 09:06 PM |
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Creature Abilities and Racial Skills
I was sadly out of the country and missed the opportunity to join the beta. I'm wondering if anyone would be kind enough to post more detailed information about racial skills and creature abilities, and then discuss said topics here.
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MattII
Legendary Hero
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posted July 12, 2011 09:53 PM |
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Don't know about the creature abilities, but the skills are right here.
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jackissocool
Hired Hero
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posted July 12, 2011 10:23 PM |
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Thanks, but what I meant was the racial skills specifically- how exactly do they work and how are the 4 levels different for each race?
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eurasianbadger
Tavern Dweller
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posted July 13, 2011 09:01 AM |
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The descriptions of abilities are terrible. Not only they sound preachy (Exhibit A), they are also opaque (Exhibit B) and not informative. They just fail to explain what the abilities are doing. I don't want to read flavor, if I wanted flavor I would be playing a campaign or reading a book.
And the icons are almost completely abstract. I can't tell what an ability is doing by looking at its icon. Diablo1 icons were perfect in this sense.
Exhibit A:
Quote:
The Sentinels of the Holy Empire are renowned for their discipline and military coordination. At the first sign of an attack from the sky, they lift in unison their powerful shields forming a veritable wall of protection over their heads. Whenever any sentinel cries "to the sky", the others react immediately, crouching and raising their shields.
Exhibit B:
Quote:
"They say the eye is the window to the soul. The Cyclop's eye is a portal into Sheogh." An Enraged Cyclops can concentrate its anger into a single beam of fiery energy that can literally set ablaze whatever it gazes upon. Or as the saying goes, "Cyclops can't wink, but no one has ever looked at one long enough to be certain."
I'll be constructive. It can be done better. For starters, other developers put actual ability descriptions in fields named "ability description". If that seems too hard, you can clearly separate the flavor text from the function, like this:
Quote:
Enraged Cyclops performs magical attacks instead of physical attacks.
They say the eye is the window to the soul. The Cyclop's eye is a portal into Sheogh." An Enraged Cyclops can concentrate its anger into a single beam of fiery energy that can literally set ablaze whatever it gazes upon. Or as the saying goes, "Cyclops can't wink, but no one has ever looked at one long enough to be certain.
Note I still don't know what the ability does, I'm guessing from comparing both Cyclops' stats.
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Zenofex
Responsible
Legendary Hero
Kreegan-atheist
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posted July 13, 2011 09:15 AM |
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The descriptions of the creatures' abilities were created when Ubisoft still enforced their moronic policy about releasing as little information as possible so the cryptic information they gave is... how to put it... part of the spirit of that time (the spirit being of undeviating corporate mysticism devoid of any common sense).
Quote:
Note I still don't know what the ability does, I'm guessing from comparing both Cyclops' stats.
It means that the upgraded Cyclops can shoot.
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eurasianbadger
Tavern Dweller
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posted July 13, 2011 09:56 AM |
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A moronic policy indeed. They treat a strategy game like an RPG/story based game. It's not a spoiler, it's information about gameplay mechanics. People get excited about upcoming strategy games if they have interesting mechanics. It's like marketing, except true.
Speaking of emphasizing the RPG part... is this just me, or Heroes6 will have unlocks ??!! I've seen something like that in the Total Biscuit's video.
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A riddle ! What's the most famous mythical creature that never appeared in Heroes1-6 ? It's very well known. PM me.
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Davy
Known Hero
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posted July 13, 2011 10:44 AM |
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Quote:
I was sadly out of the country and missed the opportunity to join the beta. I'm wondering if anyone would be kind enough to post more detailed information about racial skills and creature abilities, and then discuss said topics here.
from what I've seen,the racial abilities work now all in combat and have to be activated.
There is a button on the combat screen,next to your hero,this button has a bar,which will fill up over time,if you use the ability the bar will go back to zero(the more the bar was filled,the better is the effect).
Since the racial abilities only work during battles,that means,that necromancy doesn't allow you to revive the living creatures as undead,but instead allows you to resurrect your undead troops during combat.
The level of the skill either represents the strenght of the skill,or the creatures on which you can use it(so it is possible,that on level 1 the skill only works on core creatures)
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Dave_Jame
Promising
Legendary Hero
I'm Faceless, not Brainless.
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posted July 13, 2011 11:21 AM |
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@eurasianbadger: What is so hard to understand on the sentence
Quote:
An Enraged Cyclops can concentrate its anger into a single beam of fiery energy
are Gamers of this time so Brainwashed that they can't understand the meaning of a simple discription?
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I'm just a Mirror of your self.
We see, we look, we gather, we store, we teach.
We are many, and you can be one of us.
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Elvin
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Endless Revival
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posted July 13, 2011 12:20 PM |
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Many people enjoy reading descriptions, you mean you didn't like reading the H3 artifact descriptions or the flavour H4 spell descriptions added? H6 might have gone a little overboard with creatures but what's your deal anyway? Ingame you do not read all that, just what the ability does.
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Map also hosted on Moddb
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Minnakht
Known Hero
Green eyed monster
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posted July 13, 2011 12:47 PM |
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Well, if there are the actual effects, shown in a separate line, then it's alright. H4 spells did it right, I agree with you there - first a clear description of the ingame effect, then some flavor text, as spoken by a caster himself.
The problem arises when the ingame effects are not given, and it seems H6 abilities are guilty of this.
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Shameful Advertising
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alcibiades
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
of Gold Dragons
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posted July 13, 2011 01:13 PM |
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Quote:
@eurasianbadger: What is so hard to understand on the sentence
Quote:
An Enraged Cyclops can concentrate its anger into a single beam of fiery energy
are Gamers of this time so Brainwashed that they can't understand the meaning of a simple discription?
Well if Zenofex is right that this ability means that the Cyclops can shoot, then yes, I certainly don't read that from the text. I assumed it ment it worked like the Blood-Eye Cyclops from H5?
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What will happen now?
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eurasianbadger
Tavern Dweller
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posted July 13, 2011 11:16 PM |
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Many people enjoy reading descriptions, you mean you didn't like reading the H3 artifact descriptions or the flavour H4 spell descriptions added?
I don't remember the H4 ones, but H3, H2 ones were good. They tickled my imagination. Many times they were like folk tales*. These descriptions are typically like "These units are so 1337, so honorable, so awesome... the empire of X did Y, council of Z said V...". They're not inspiring.
Quote:
An Enraged Cyclops can concentrate its anger into a single beam of fiery energy
It could easily mean it works like the 2-hex zap from Heroes1 and 2. Besides, I'm not an english speaker, although I'm pretty good. Using a language bordering on literary can make things harder. A simple statement that it now shoots is harder to misinterpret.
More on unit descriptions. In another thread I've seen screenshots with unit stats. Looking at unit stat windows, I don't see anything about shot left. Or any other indication that a unit might be a shooter. It's pretty obvious if the unit in question is called "Crossbowman". Harder, if it's "Radiant Glory", is humanoid (no claws, teeth) and doesn't carry a weapon. It looks like a magical creature so it might as well be a shooter.
* If you liked Heroes2, 3 artifact pickup stories you might like the book "Lyonesse" by Jack Vance.
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A riddle ! What's the most famous mythical creature that never appeared in Heroes1-6 ? It's very well known. PM me.
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Zenofex
Responsible
Legendary Hero
Kreegan-atheist
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posted July 13, 2011 11:30 PM |
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Quote:
It could easily mean it works like the 2-hex zap from Heroes1 and 2.
Well, it doesn't.  It just means that the upgraded Cyclops, unlike the basic one, can shoot. I believe it is supposed to "burn" the target as well but I've never seen it do it in the beta, probably one of the many bug cases.
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Besides, I'm not an english speaker
Neither the devs, nor the publishers are, so proper English isn't exactly a criterion here. I don't know how the official site looks at the moment, haven't checked it for some time but a few months ago... well, you could certainly see that it is not made by native English speakers.
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Looking at unit stat windows, I don't see anything about shot left.
That's because all shooters have unlimited ammo, at least in the beta.
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