HOMM5 demo out

**econ21** · 05-24-2006, 13:53

No, I don't think you'll need any patches, froggy.

Given that you have Homm3 complete, can I recommend at some stage you look for the "Middle-Earth_Allies" map by Jean-Francois Beaudoin? If you like Lotr, it is an amazing map - when you get the hang of it, try playing it as Elves on impossibe. To be honest, it's about all I play with Homm nowadays - periodically, I just load it up and enjoy computer gaming at its finest. It's a small zip, so I can e-mail it to you if you can't find it.

**frogbeastegg** · 05-24-2006, 17:11

Great, good, thanks. And yes, I'll take a copy of the scenario, and any others people recommend.

Anything on HOMM3's resolution? The default is not nice at all. :crosses fingers:

Done the first two missions of the first HOMM5 campaign. Nice relaxing little tutorials, quite enjoyable to amble around, if a little dull because they are so easy. The old froggy exploration instinct is still alive and kicking - I hit the level cap on both and still found more resources and battles which I couldn't pass up. I like that; finding things is a good part of the fun for me.

The game's performance is a lot better than the demo's, and I haven't bothered to update my drivers yet either, so it looks like some good tweaking was done. No crashes either. Impossible to comment on the AI because so far there hasn't been any, just stationary parties waiting for me to attack them. One out of two major frog concerns met, with judgement on the other deferred; not bad at all.

The documentation though, gah! The English is a bit squiffy both in-game and in the manual. In the tutorial campaign they keep referring to the hero as "he" when it is plainly and undoubtably a "she". I saw one sentence, a skill description IIRC, which didn't make any sense at all. The manual itself is skimpy. There is nothing about the creatures and skills, and this is my biggest bugbear at present. I've no idea if that party of whatevers is cannon fodder or a bit dangerous until after I have engaged them, no idea what most of my units can do other than the basic and obvious move/hit or move/shoot, no idea what the special abilities and status I see listed on the creature details screen mean, no idea how to use the special abilities, nothing. Gah!

I am definitely finding that having a lot of ranged units is the way to go. With a couple of blocks of simple infantry to stand in front of them and do pretty much nothing at all for the entire battle I can win easy and without much/any damage. Love the human cavalry unit though, so powerful!

Agreed with the comment on the story. Abysmal. Not even consistent in the big details; one minute whatsherface is no warrior and needs protecting, the next she is in her own custom suit of armour off to fetch an army and fight because it is what she has always been good at. Oh well, it doesn’t matter too much, but it is a shame. Some very few strategy games do decent stories, and a good plot would have worked really well with this style of game.

**Blodrast** · 05-24-2006, 18:32

Thanks for sharing your impressions, econ21, froggy.
froggy: It's quite interesting that you didn't have any challenges so far in the first couple of missions. In previous games, you often had a bit of a hard time because of the level/skill caps, and because of the AI scripting - you were really harrassed sometimes, and had to run around like crazy to avoid battle.
Also, for unit abilities and such, I think you can have a look at mightandmagic.com, they have all units with their abilities and what not. It's a starting point, if nothing else :)

Also, froggy: it's a matter of taste, of course, but I loved homm3's campaigns - especially some of the ones in Armageddon's Blade. Do give them a spin if you have the time/inclination.

**frogbeastegg** · 05-25-2006, 19:07

The first campaign is mainly a tutorial, filled with stationary groups of what must be low-level creatures. I was able to wander around and avoid the groups which looked like they might be hard, saving them for when I had a better hero and army. At which point I steamrollered them as effortlessly as I did all the other parties. So I expect the easiness is intentional, and it will heat up later. I hope. I doubt I am a froggy prodigy.

I did take your suggestion of checking the website. Unfortunately most of that encyclopaedia is still to be compiled, including the actual creature stats.

I will try HOMM3, probably after I finish/get bored with/wait for a patch for HOMM5. I'm going to see if running it in windowed mode will do something for that resolution.

**Blodrast** · 05-25-2006, 19:44

hmm, no, I remember I read all the creature stats on a webpage, including nice comparison charts. I am sure of that.
I'll go look it up again, maybe it was somewhere else, although...

edit: Ok, it's not on their website, but I can't remember where I did see it. I know it's out there somewhere... like I said, they had comparison charts and rankings of creatures, as well - just like those that were made for all previous heroes games.

However, all is not bad. You might wanna check out the following page: http://www.celestialheavens.com/viewpage.php?id=520. It contains a nice explanatory "skill wheel", with downloadable flash and xls versions.

**David** · 05-26-2006, 10:58

this site?

Good site with explanations of abilities and creatures and such. Also might wanna check the forum.

Great game btw. I'm now at inferno level 3 and it is actually quite challenging. I even had to resign one game and start the level over. Story gets slightly better, probably because demon hero is way cooler than the princess.

**Blodrast** · 05-26-2006, 17:54

yup - that's the one, thanks David.
crap, I just wanted to bookmark it and noticed I already had it in my bookmarks. So I could have pointed you out to it yesterday, but I was too blind/stupid. gah.

What can you tell us about the scripted AI ? Is it blindly and stupidly trying to achieve its objectives over and over, with complete disregard of the actual possibility to accomplish them ?

For instance, in previous games, let's say one of the AI's objectives was to capture some town if you had taken it away from him. So, imagine the following scenario: you killed off everything the AI had, except one town, which you're allowing it to keep just because you don't wanna finish the scenario ('cause you're still exploring, leveling up, etc, etc).
While some of the time it would just get stuck in its castle, quite often it would get a week's worth of troops, and march boldly to... "defeat" you. Even though it was friggin' obvious it was overnumbered by orders of magnitude, it would still go ahead with it.
I mean, come on...

**frogbeastegg** · 06-01-2006, 19:17

Originally Posted by David

I'm now at inferno level 3 and it is actually quite challenging. I even had to resign one game and start the level over.

Yep, there's a big difficulty spike right at this mission. I'm happy, because I was still waltzing my way through with ease. I'm less than pleased because it seems yet another of those "Rush! Rush! Rush faster!!!" missions. Being a builder/explorer type I hate that, and after the last two timed missions I was hoping for a break.

I'm still on my first go at the mission, but I think I may need to restart. There are some nasty things on this map, and that Elven hero gets so many units. I guess there is no way to do this one slowly? I can't say how deeply I hate having to rush in any game.

Do like Agrael though

He's got a bit of personality.

Still liking the game, only wishing I could return to taking things a bit slower.