Quote:

---

Quote:

---

Summoning and Necromancy on a Stealth/Pathifnding Hero

---

Yes, but there are other solutions - avoid altars and Libraries or even avoid Nature and Death completely on your Stealth hero

=> This is not a serious suggestion I hope. You have to let the appropriate heroes take these structures. If you  don't visit altars/libraries for your best heroes, then these heroes will soon no longer be your best heroes!

Quote:

---

I don't think the proposal gives much of an advantage.

---

Yes it does because some skills are better than others. It means level 5 spellcasting, GM Necromancy, GM Pathfinding etc significantly quicker

=> I've NOT noticed that the skills are imbalanced. You do best with a healthy amount of all of them, and spread them out between different heroes.

Quote:

---

if you save and then reload

---

Most people won't do this for something like skill selection - you might as well use a cheat

=> Or they live with the frustration of having to dismiss units each turn.

because it keeps the game a little more challenging

=> It adds nothing to the challenge! It just adds frustration!

but it's a huge boost. As people have commented elsewhere you have practically infinite time because the AI is so slow. And this could allow people to take game years on a single map and end up with a 10th level hero with all 5 skill areas maxxed out!

=> The Ai is not always as bad as some people picture it out. My guess is that if you start the Ai off with a prebuilt city then it will do fairly well. I've actually seen some good plays from the Ai also.

=> Ai is slow?? Part of the problem is likely that the Ai is too fast on making decisions. Myself I'd happily have accepted longer waiting time and better Ai decisions.

=> The skills are not everything. You have to boost your level also since some skills are level related, such as your Hitpoints and Damage.

=> I say give the freedom to the mapmakers to do what they want. Do not unnecessarily restrict them. Some players (like me) like having maxed out characters and being given choices on character developement often.

=> Personally, I also find all the complaints against H3 for getting maxed out characters in secondary skills were unfounded. Most single scenarios I played with M and L maps, I maxed out the secondary skills more or less 2-3 combats before the end, which I believe is pretty much perfect. Too bad they changed this for skeleton-developed characters in H4.

Of course it is. have you ever seen the AI max Combat. I've seen many 6th-10th level barbarians and they fall over if you sneeze on them, a human player would have GM Combat at level 5.

=> I usually don't develope combat myself until a bit later. I try to stay away from the Combat---XXX advanced classes because they are so easy to get and so hard to stay away from.

=> And I have seen the Ai max out combat early and I've seen it do it later.

Quote:

---

Hero development is non-existant for high level heroes

---

Very high levels indeed. A Black Dragon is worth 1200 exp so if you kill a hundred you get 120 000 for just one fight, adjusted for difficulty. I got Warjac over level 30 in about 8 hours and that was just bumbling around the map looking at everything.

=> Sure but look at the prospects for that character...

=> Say it took 8 hours to get to level 30. Then it takes:
0.2 * 8 = 1.6 hours gameplay to take your character to the next level. You want to spend that much time to get to the next level?

=> It's either that or find a Tree of Knowledge you have not yet visited. (And I suspect that most of the level-ups at higher levels were from Trees and not from Battles.)

Ah, here we come down to why are you playing. Do you really need to have an 80th level hero when you can beat the map with an 18th level one? Also, if someone designs a really epic campaign with hundreds of monsters and many maps you could get a very high level hero indeed, without using trees.

=> I disagree. The Xp required increases with 20% per level from some point. It starts to get really tedious at around level 30. I don't require to have a 70th level Hero, that's why I'm suggesting better control over the skills you do get offered and more skill offerings.

Quote:

---

If your hero can't improve through battle or any other conceivable way in the forseeable future of the game, then I'm tending to just skip the game and do something else ...

---

I'm sorry, you should have finished the map LONG before you hit that stage

=> If you look at the shipped Campaings, when you are at the last level campaign your heroes are of such a level that level-ups are becoming very rare. The skills you get comes almost exclusively from Altars, Guilds and Libraries. Just look at it this way. Four levels => Double the Xp you have now.

=> If you're saying that I should have completed the Map in the first Month, then what's your real objection to have Libraries revisitible after the first month? It's a moot point to you since you have already finished the game.

Quote:

---

Having 3-5 active heroes at any one time is the common way to play the game. (And even then I sometimes despair because none of them develope!)

---

Are we playing the same game? Lysander campaign, everyone got to level 25 or so, Barbarian campaign Warjac got to level 30 and did it on his own, without troops after level 6 or so

=> Melee Heroes develope fast in the beginning when you improve their Secondary skills in melee. Also be aware that the Campaign Heroes suffer from an overdose of boosters to attack, defence and damage skills making them much tougher than they would otherwise be. Without all of these boosters, once you have GM combat, archery and melee the hero's developement becomes linear.

=> Also be aware that the campaigns seems to be designed so that the hero can take on most monster stacks by themselves.

=> So if you developed the above skills then you would have GM in all of them at level 12 and that character would be powerful. However, the combat skills cannot improve further so from that point onwards all you can do is to visit structures that gives boost to Attack, Defence or Damage values.


____________
"A brilliant light can either illuminate or blind. How will you know which until you open your eyes?"