Stevie said:

---

Skillwheel
The Skillwheel is my main concern so far. My thoughts about it:
• 9 skills + racial are too few on a skillwheel;
• 30 skills in total are too many;
• 5-6 abilities (perks) per skill are too few;
• no internal prerequisites for perks except mastery level;
• no external prerequisites at all;
• being able to pick all the perks from one skill, and that being a requirement for ultimates, removes a big chunk from the player's decision making, since he'll be able to have everything in the end anyway;
• speaking of ultimates, the emphasis on them is too high and players will focus on them too much. This is the reason why I kinda don't agree with them, because I think the ultimate should be your hero's build, not one super powerful skill (or 3 in this case);
• if ultimates is the way to go, then make the prerequisites be more varied, rather than concluded to only one skill;
• skills don't have a fixed place or an otherwise recognizable pattern (like Might, Magic, Neutral for instance). Players will waste a lot of time searching the positions on the skillwheel of different classes;
• perks are hardly recognizable from one another, and mastery levels should be more visible and intuitive, named Novice, Expert, Master, not numbered with 1, 2, 3, to avoid confusion. Also some background pictures/effects for skills would be appreciated, like some leaves falling in the background of the Earth Magic skill (but inactive when the skill or mastery level is unlearned).
In short, there's too much Heroes 6 and too little Heroes 5. I really, really hope this is not final and changes can be made.
What I do like though is that there are many classes and therefore many skillwheels. I think the idea of skill restriction and mastery restriction is good enough to ensure different builds, playstyles and replayability.
I will also provide a picture of what I believe would be an appropriate Skillwheel. I hope you'll get the Heroes 5 feel from it, and also understand the reason why I'd like it that way. Further explanation will be provided on the community when I'll post it there, if anyone will be interested in further reading (also planning to open a debate and do some brainstorming on this way with the community, and find out what the others think a skillwheel should look like).

User Interface
The user interface is too big and intrusive. There are certain features that carry over in places where there's no need for them, like the Map UI inside the town. Also I don't like the Circle figure, squares and rectangles are way better. You guys should take a look at the UI of Heroes 3 and try following in its steps.

Stronghold Town
Best Townscreen by far, so please work on the others. I love the idea of Tech Tree (even though I expected it to be something else) and also how it was implemented. Rectangles and prerequisites, a good formula that should be followed more often. I also like the fact that there are more encounters in the tree where you have to choose between two buildings, that's really good for player decision making. One thing I would appreciate tho is that you don't streamline it, because I've seen an example where the Wyvern Nest was a prerequisite for the Cyclops Den/Behemoth Lair, while the other option was not - so ofc  everyone will undoubtedly build Wyverns 10/10.

Stronghold Creatures
I must say, the Stronghold line-up is a jewel. Behemoths are back, Gnolls are back, Wyverns too and the Basilisk is awesome. I don't believe there will be any negative feedback here from anyone, so, congratulations. However, tooltips are missing. I literally couldn't see the Passives and Actives of the creatures, only Primaries. That's really bad and it needs fixing. Heroes 5 did a good job showing creature Bios and explaining abilities, please make tooltips for all creatures so the player would know what his creatures are all about.


Flanking
I believe 25% and 50% bonus damage to creatures in melee combat is not good at all. Frankly, I don't know why this is a global mechanic, it should've been tailored for some specific creatures, or included as a passive ability from skills. I don't see how it adds to the game, I can only see how battles will be dances behind everyone's back. Please implement some countermeasures for it like an Intercept mechanic, or make the creatures not change their facing every time they get hit, but just when they retaliate. As it is, I don't really like it.

Adventure map
I must admit, it's fairly good. Especially on the first map, which had more green vegetation and water than the other one where the desert was all you could see. The objects are finally not realistic anymore, but symbolic, iconic, and that's how they should be. If the objects end up real size, they'll be too large and so the map will have few of them, eventually making the player feel like he doesn't have anything to do or explore. But when they are smaller, you can have more, and the map feels full with tons of things to do. Also, as much as possible paths or open terrain for heroes to travel on. Resources were a bit abundant, but that's not really an issue considering it can be fixed in the map editor if need be.
Also, in regards to the first map - I don't see why there is a 1 month limit because there are already many restrictions, like limited troops, no town, and a hero that respawns and attacks you endlessly. I know the story says 1 month but I don't see the reason to not circumvent that somehow. However, if time limit is essential, then at least show it in the mission objectives. Speaking of which, please make a feature where you can deselect already Completed Quests, so they don't clump up alongside Active Quests in one window.

Hero races and models
I liked the goat-like mount of the protagonist, good addition. Would like to see more variety when it comes to the models and races of heroes. For example Angel heroes in Haven, Minotaur heroes in Dungeon, Basilisk riders in Stronghold, etc. Humans riding horses becomes really boring after a while, and with such a big creature pool it would be a waste not to implement more diversity.

Siege mode
The combat map in Siege was ridiculous. The walls left little space behind them, so creatures were clustered completely with nowhere to move but outside. Weird. I know it was a build mistake but I really hope the game won't end up having things like that.

The event
I had a good time and all seemed to be great. I have no complaints. The people were friendly and receptive to us and our questions, food was good, had enough time to play Stronghold and get an idea about Heroes 7. It's a shame I couldn't play Necropolis though, like I imagined before the event. Also I would've liked Xavier to be there to talk a bit with him ask him some questions. Overall everything was good and I enjoyed myself, too bad it lasted for just one day. Hope there will be a next time.

Thanks again for the opportunity and I hope you'll find this feedback useful.

---

properkheldar said:

---

mean that there is an alternative creature to build, instead of wyvern?

---

Stevie said:

---

Yea, SIM TURNS! There you go, all you naysayers

---

Stevie said:

---

Yea, SIM TURNS! There you go, all you naysayers

---