HOMM5 demo out

[Dorkus]

Well, frog, I have to say I disagree with you. You can always relax by playing the game on easy. My own view is that the entire point of this sort of game is to force you to rush -- to take risks on difficult battles, and reload when you lose.

If the AI did not scale up as dramatically as it does, then there would be no challenge -- even at heroic level.

Granted, a few scenarios are a bit extreme. The inferno scenario where you have hordes of elven creatures spawning left and right is such an example. But in general, the time pressure placed on the player seems about right to me. If you take your time capturing mines and building buildings, then you SHOULD pay for it later in the scenario.

[Favre]

I figured out what it was, my cutscene to "find the tears of asha" never came up, that seemed to be the problem.

I re-did it on my own and finished, now im getting pwned on the second campaign. Where do i head to on the 1st mission of second campaign when your running from Godric?

[frogbeastegg]

You can always relax by playing the game on easy.

Blergh, No thanks. I don't want to play against an AI which does nothing. There is a vast difference between playing something with no challenge at all, and playing something with a steep challenge in which you can take your time a bit. Most strategy games offer various paths for success, with rusher being only one of them, each having strong and weak points. If the game is reasonably balanced than all paths are viable, though often some are stronger than others.

to take risks on difficult battles, and reload when you lose.

And that's where I disagree. Reloading after setbacks is as good as cheating and destroying half the challenge and fun - it gives you no chance to make a comeback.

If you take your time capturing mines and building buildings, then you SHOULD pay for it later in the scenario.

I do take mines quickly, and explore. I get most of the random resources, kill most of the neutral stacks, and so on. I build up frantically - there's not a turn goes by in which I do not build if I can afford it, and I can afford it most turns. Heck, in my last game I had the resources coming in to upgrade two towns at once, turn after turn. Believe me I'm not being slow or idle.

The problem is that in the levels I've played so far the AI starts out with a massive lead, and there is no choice or other way to win but to rush to crush that advantage. I don't mind such maps once in a while. It’s like my other type of disliked maps: time limited ones. Inferno has been nothing but those two types. Are the other campaigns different?

This combines with the AI's cheating for resources. I hate cheating AI; I accept it as necessary in some circumstances, if the cheating is limited and the AI has some decent level of play in the first place. I don't like an AI which ignores mines and resources half the time, a lack which is compensated for by its being given resources for free. It's sad when I can send an army into enemy territory and find most of the neutral stuff is still untouched, ready for me to take advantage of. It's sadder when I then get pulped during that expedition by an army the AI couldn't hope to fund. Make the AI pick up the miens and resources, then let it cheat if necessary.

I also think that battles for cities should be a bit more than a few tiny bunches of low level units fighting it out.



Think I might skip over Inferno’s last two missions and try one of the other factions. Or try one of the scenarios.


Favre, try this thread; it’s a collection of posts on the various missions of the inferno campaign. There’s some at the start on mission 1. Myself I followed what felt like the obvious path, using the chests for experience instead of gold, and getting Agrael the line of skills which boost travelling speed. Did it on my first go; as long as you don't explore too much or waste your units in too many fights against the more dangerous neutrals it's easy enough.

[x-dANGEr]

I think the challenge in the game is to customize your hero to be able to catch up with the enemy. A thing I always liked about the game, a level 20 hero with 5 luck/morale and 1 cavalier can beat a level 1 hero with 10.