HOMM5 demo out

[Sjakihata]

Don't know what you mean by the pc/AI not being smart enough though. It seems plenty smart enough to me. I'm finding it quite unpredictable (except of course that you know it's going to keep throwing armies at Dunmoor). And the enemies keep changing too. They are randomly generated from game to game, so you never know exactly what you're getting until you go to the combat screeen.

Well, I completed the first scenario on my second attempt on normal. I failed the first one because I had no idea that the thing just north of the keep was a prison, so I was beaten by time. Second time it was better. I wandered one hero straight into enemy territory so I could see when he charged his heros at me (so I could get my questing knight back in time). The enemy heros ran past my lvl 1 hero, moving to my keep. My hero in turn could walk right in the inferno lands, taking mills etc, and then I see a keep completely undefended which I captured and held. That sped up the process of winning a lot I guess.

What I mean by AI being stupid is, that I had my hero Godric defending my keep with the entire army and the queen Isabel hide just out side the keep. The enemy just charged the keep paying no attention to the queen. And the AI at times sent 3 heros to attack my keep, one by one, they were all three on the map instead of merging the armies and attacking with one strong.

But since I, at that time, had 1000+ (a horde) of griffins and other good stuff I wouldnt have made a difference.

The trick with the heros is no cheat at all, that is the only way you can play the game on big maps. You just cant support 2 armies and still beat your opponent, so when you need your army back home, you have maybe 4-5 heros in chain from your keep to the questing hero. The hero runs to the first in the chain A, gives A all the units, A goes to B, B to C etc untill they arrive at home. That's smart - not a cheat.

ps. I find the 2nd scenario quite tough (and lame) since you start with no castle. Thats why I hate the campaign game, you get all these objevtives and no troops. When I finally came through the passage a hero of my own race meets me and throws an army in my face, damn did I felt betrayed ;)

[Sjakihata]

Anyone up for a MP battle?

just tried a couple of MP games, they are quite fun. And to all, yes a campaign mode will be available in the full game, not just the tactical mode.

[frogbeastegg]

Thanks. Primarily I was wanting to know if the game is good or not, and how well it holds to the series' tradition.

Going to install the demo now, and give it a quick go. Don't ask what happened to my high hopes of playing it yesterday.

[screwtype]

Well, I completed the first scenario on my second attempt on normal. I failed the first one because I had no idea that the thing just north of the keep was a prison, so I was beaten by time. Second time it was better. I wandered one hero straight into enemy territory so I could see when he charged his heros at me (so I could get my questing knight back in time). The enemy heros ran past my lvl 1 hero, moving to my keep. My hero in turn could walk right in the inferno lands, taking mills etc, and then I see a keep completely undefended which I captured and held. That sped up the process of winning a lot I guess.

A keep, what's that, you mean a city like Dunmoor? Yeah, I guess that would speed up your progress.

I'm on my fifth attempt to win this scenario now :/ I lost two because the AI sent me a big army as soon as I captured Dunmoor, no hope of keeping them out. I lost another because I didn't realize the importance of upgrading to a castle, which increases the troop build rate. And I lost the fourth 'cos I was careless with Godrick.

It's a good idea of yours to put weak heroes out as scouts though. You seem to get a lot of them so I guess it doesn't cost you anything to lose them.

What I mean by AI being stupid is, that I had my hero Godric defending my keep with the entire army and the queen Isabel hide just out side the keep. The enemy just charged the keep paying no attention to the queen. And the AI at times sent 3 heros to attack my keep, one by one, they were all three on the map instead of merging the armies and attacking with one strong.

True, it's stupid that they ignore your essential hero and go straight for the castle, but then again, it's kinda stupid that you can't put more than one hero in a castle anyhow. So I guess the stupidity evens out there :)

But yeah, I think you're right the AI isn't brilliant, this last game I'm playing the AI has done practically nothing at all while I've built up Dunmoor to almost max strength. Of course, it could be building a humungous army somewhere...but if it is, no sign of it yet. In fact it's taken it all this time just to send one army to capture some mills that I captured ages ago.

But since I, at that time, had 1000+ (a horde) of griffins and other good stuff I wouldnt have made a difference.

You like Griffins, huh? The upgrades are good, the battle dive is pretty cool. But how did you get so many - do you just concentrate on the one troop type or something? I thought I was doing pretty well with 150 Squires :)

The trick with the heros is no cheat at all, that is the only way you can play the game on big maps. You just cant support 2 armies and still beat your opponent, so when you need your army back home, you have maybe 4-5 heros in chain from your keep to the questing hero. The hero runs to the first in the chain A, gives A all the units, A goes to B, B to C etc untill they arrive at home. That's smart - not a cheat.

Sorry, I just think that's a cheat :) Because it sounds to me like what you're saying is you are moving an army from one side of the map to the other in one turn by relaying it through heroes, and that clearly isn't how the game is meant to be played. After all, the AI is never going to use that trick on you.

I can see why you might want to do that in MP, because other human players might do it, but I think it's cheating to do it against the AI. It's not something I'd want to do anyhow.

[Sjakihata]

It's not a cheat, because you do not use any thrid party software. I'll settle for an exploit tough.

[Zenicetus]

Well, I'm getting seriously ticked off at Ubisoft. I spent some more time on the demo, finally figured out a few things (haven't played HOMM before), but I decided this wasn't for me. Mainly I had trouble with the chessboard-style tactical combat... it's just not something I enjoy, but no big deal. That's what demos are for.

Then I tried uninstalling the demo. No dice... doesn't uninstall from either the start menu/programs/ubisoft uninstaller, or the control panel add/remove programs. I get a dialog window that says the game has been uninstalled, but it's all still sitting there on my HD. Great... so now I have to manually uninstall, including looking for DLL's, hacking the registry etc. Thanks Ubisoft, nice work.

I guess most people in this thread are enjoying the demo, but has anyone tried actually uninstalling it yet? Maybe it's just my own setup that's causing a problem?

[screwtype]

Well, I'm getting seriously ticked off at Ubisoft. I spent some more time on the demo, finally figured out a few things (haven't played HOMM before), but I decided this wasn't for me. Mainly I had trouble with the chessboard-style tactical combat... it's just not something I enjoy, but no big deal. That's what demos are for.

The advantage of the chessboard system is that you can see exactly how far the enemy units can move. But I agree it doesn't look all that cool. Pity you can't turn it off if you don't want to use it.

There is an option for dynamic (real time I guess) combat, but I haven't tried that yet.

You can BTW rotate the battlefield by right clicking, holding and dragging, which helps a bit.

Then I tried uninstalling the demo. No dice... doesn't uninstall from either the start menu/programs/ubisoft uninstaller, or the control panel add/remove programs. I get a dialog window that says the game has been uninstalled, but it's all still sitting there on my HD. Great... so now I have to manually uninstall, including looking for DLL's, hacking the registry etc. Thanks Ubisoft, nice work.

I guess most people in this thread are enjoying the demo, but has anyone tried actually uninstalling it yet? Maybe it's just my own setup that's causing a problem?

That's bad luck, I hope this is only a problem with your system and not everyone's!

[econ21]

Sorry, I just think that's a cheat :) Because it sounds to me like what you're saying is you are moving an army from one side of the map to the other in one turn by relaying it through heroes, and that clearly isn't how the game is meant to be played. After all, the AI is never going to use that trick on you.

Don't worry - the "hero chain" is how the game is meant to be played. It was been core gameplay in Homm3 - IIRC, they took it out in Homm4 (by giving units movement points). That it is back in Homm5 presumably is part of the "going back to Homm3" philosophy of the game designers. It is not intuitive, but if it helps, think of the hero chain as representing internal lines of communication and supply or something. In the context of the Homm series, it does not really count as an exploit (it's recommended in the Homm3 official strategy guide, for example).

BTW, I read somewhere there is an undocumented W key for "wait", so you can delay your melee units move in order for your ranged units to soften up the enemy. Again, this was standard in earlier Homms.

I guess I'll try to download the demo, but I have read worrying things on the official forum about the strategic AI being braindead - not defending its towns or trying to take yours. That is what killed Homm4 (the strategic AI in Homm3 was excellent).

[screwtype]

Well, whether it's an "official" exploit or not, it's still an exploit in my book

But I confess I'm finding it darned hard to beat this scenario. Mainly because you have to preserve two particular heroes to win, and because you can't put more than one hero into a city (a silly mechanic), one of them has to be outside which means he is more vulnerable.

I think basically what I have to do is either go back to get more reinforcements regularly for my outside hero, or else just make sure he has a humungous army to start with so he can beat anything he comes up against.

As for the AI, the jury is still out on that. I initially thought as Sajikata said that the AI doesn't go for the unprotected hero if it's near Dunmoor, but actually, it does. The AI got my hero half a dozen times in the last game, until I learned my lesson :(

But on the other hand, it doesn't seem very aggressive, although it has recently started sending armies out to recapture stuff from me.

Edit: Actually, I just had an idea on how to preserve my two heroes without a hero chain. What I can do is hire more heroes and use them as scouts in front of my main hero. That way I'll be able to see what's up ahead with risking losing the essential guy