Heroic: environment

[Groovy]

This topic was spawned from here.

In addition to its immersion effect, the environment in which the game takes place can and has been used to influence the behaviour of other game objects. It is an aspect of the game that can not only enrich it but, if overused, change its character away from what the HoMM series has traditionally been about. As such, any changes that are made need to be subtle enough that they don’t demand significantly more of the player’s time and attention than the existing games from the series. It is for this reason that I decided against having players manage labour forces whose task is to terraform the landscape or build adventure map structures. Instead, I tried to accomplish similar effects automatically (with the town’s sphere of influence) and through the use of magic.

Terrain

These are the terrain types that feature in my design. I’m only listing them here as an example, since many sound alternatives exist.
• Snow: native terrain for the Angelic town, rough for all others
• Jungle: native terrain for the Nature town, rough for all others
• Desert: native terrain for the Death town, rough for all others
• Lava: native terrain for the Demonic town, rough for all others
• Grassland, Dirt: smooth terrain for all units
• Mountain: impassable terrain for all methods of transportation
• Lake, River: rough terrain for Death town units, impassable for all other land-walking units
• Sea: can only be navigated by water and flying units

The reason for including mountains in the above list is to provide a means of countering unconventional modes of travel (flying, teleportation, etc). This way, heroes can be allowed to learn spells and acquire artefacts that defy ordinary adventure map terrain while enabling map designers to restrict their movement at key locations, and thereby preserve the integrity of the map.

Weather

I have mixed feelings about adding weather to the game, even though it can have some interesting effects on spell casting, exploration and combat. If you have reservations about it, please be so kind as to raise them.

Two different kinds of weather types are available:
• How sunny it is. Possible values: sunny, cloudy, overcast
• How stormy it is. Possible values: calm, windy, raining, stormy

Calm and windy conditions don’t depend on cloud cover. Rain requires at least cloudy conditions, and storms require overcast conditions.

Time of day

This was brought up in the discussion of the combat model, so I thought I’d include it here for completeness. Briefly, the time of day influences the combat performance of various units, mostly through the effect on their vision (for surface units), but also in unusual ways (the daylight and full-moon effects on vampires, etc).

Environmental effects

Terrain and weather can have the following effects:
• Each creature is native to certain terrain. This includes non-aligned creatures and boss monsters. Creatures suffer movement penalty when they move across non-native terrain
• The power of Earth spells is dependent on the terrain on which they are cast. The power of Air spells is dependent on the weather conditions in which they are cast. The power of Water and Fire spells is dependent on both
• The productivity of resource-generating adventure map structures is dependent on the combination of the creatures that operate them, the terrain on which they operate, and the weather conditions in which they operate. For example, Demonic creatures mine more gold on lava terrain than on snow terrain. Windmills produce more resources when it’s windy than when it’s calm
• Spells can affect the adventure map environment. For example, casting Frost Bite on a river, a lake or a coastal sea tile freezes it for a day, allowing units to walk over it. Casting Whirlwind on a sea tile makes the weather over the region windy, increasing ship movement. Casting Inferno on a forest burns it down
• Elemental units benefit from suitable weather conditions. For example, sunshine rejuvenates Light-based units and rain rejuvenates Water-based units
• When elemental units are killed, they disintegrate to increase the weather turbulence: Air units create Windy conditions, Water units create Cloudy -> Overcast -> Raining conditions, Fire units create Stormy conditions, Light units create Cloudy -> Sunny conditions

Altars

Altars are special adventure map structures that heroes can use to create environmental effects over a part of the adventure map. The hero must use an artefact, a monument or a shard to activate the altar (this consumes the activation item). He can then use the required spell points to cause the altar to effect environmental changes in the target area. The power, range and area of effect of the altar depend on the hero’s skill level, as well as the power (value) of the artefact, monument or shard that was used to activate it. An altar can only be used once per week.

The following altars are available:
• Altar of Terraformation: changes the adventure map terrain
• Altar of Storms: changes the adventure map weather
• Altar of Ignorance: restores the shroud over the adventure map
• Altar of Rejuvenation: replenishes spent adventure map structures
• Altar of Riches: creates wealth on the adventure map

The artefact, monument or shard that is used to activate the altar streamlines its general effect. For example, when an artefact is used to activate the Altar of Riches, it creates resource piles over the target area. When a monument is used to activate it instead, it creates temporary resource-bearing adventure map structures.

[Panda Tar]

Weather

I have mixed feelings about adding weather to the game, even though it can have some interesting effects on spell casting, exploration and combat. If you have reservations about it, please be so kind as to raise them.

Two different kinds of weather types are available:
• How sunny it is. Possible values: sunny, cloudy, overcast
• How stormy it is. Possible values: calm, windy, raining, stormy

Atm, the thing that I'd suggest decrease these variations to 5 or 4. Maybe placing rain and storm in the same degree, just to avoid extending the features too much. I'm not sure if they're not just too many combinations (for there's also the night and dark-based spells, if there are those still).

[Kristo]

Spells can affect the adventure map environment. For example, casting Frost Bite on a river, a lake or a coastal sea tile freezes it for a day, allowing units to walk over it. Casting Whirlwind on a sea tile makes the weather over the region windy, increasing ship movement. Casting Inferno on a forest burns it down

I think you're on to something with that. I've long held that there should be far more adventure map spells, and they should mess with the environment far more than they do now. I think a lot of your ideas could be implemented as spells without too much loss of flavor. Altars, for example, would benefit from being turned into spells so they're not fixed on the map. Turning these things into spells would fit the idea of making heroes more heroic. I could totally see a legendary wizard summoning a snowstorm before leading his Angelic creatures into battle. Freezing a lake to make it walkable is totally heroic. I think this has the potential to be a lot of fun.

[Pol]

Just a comment..

..such spells were normal in Master of Magic. For example when you casted Armageddon on X squares per turn were produced Volcanoes. These were causing earthquakes and produced no food/resources. In the end, world literally "exploded".

[Groovy]

Atm, the thing that I'd suggest decrease these variations to 5 or 4. Maybe placing rain and storm in the same degree, just to avoid extending the features too much. I'm not sure if they're not just too many combinations (for there's also the night and dark-based spells, if there are those still).

A good idea. We can just go with sunny/cloudy and calm/stormy for now, until we get a good sense of the worth, or lack thereof, of this feature.

[Groovy]

Altars, for example, would benefit from being turned into spells so they're not fixed on the map. Turning these things into spells would fit the idea of making heroes more heroic.

Oh, I wanted to have both spells and altars.

The idea behind altars was to produce effects that were too epic in scale for heroes to produce with spells alone. For example, a spell might change the terrain of a tile, or perhaps of 4 tiles, within the hero’s field of vision. An altar would do the same over a 10x10 grid, 30 tiles away. This is why I wanted altars fixed on the map – so that the potential victim can protect his lands from this menace by preventing enemy heroes from getting access to the altar.

[Panda Tar]

Well, altars can be a more "neutral" option, casting weather powers on a certain part of the map which will have same effects for player and enemy heroes alike (save when they had skills/units that would suffer/benefit from that altar influence).

It would make it a bit more appart the fact players could act as "moving altars", although I do think that altars could have their effects for more than 1 day, perhaps 2 or 3. 1 day is way too short for such strategic element, even considering range and power, imho.

In my design, the skill PROVIDENCE was created. It enables Magic Heroes to perform spells in prior to combat and use certain spells on the adventure map, entering the fray under certain benefits or already causing ruckus amongst enemy lines.

The ideas are very alike.

[Groovy]

Yes, there is more than one way to implement the ideas, and perhaps they should be implemented in multiple ways.

There is another reason that I wanted to use altars, and that is to increase the strategic value of adventure map structures. In my experience, there really isn’t a lot to keep a player’s attention in an area of the map that he has explored and subdued. The task basically falls to troop and resource generating structures. Repeatedly visiting them tends to become tedious, especially since protecting them is usually not that important (they can be retaken later with only minor consequences). In my design, I’ve used town sphere of influence to reduce the tediousness, which leaves the player with even less to do.

Altars potentially solve both problems at once. They give the player something to do on ongoing basis, something that is hopefully a lot less tedious than gathering troops and resources, and something that is important enough to feature prominently in the player’s strategy. In other words, the player should see enough value in using altars to fight to keep other players away from them. If successful, this will ensure that towns are no longer the sole points of interest in the player’s strategy.

[Panda Tar]

If successful, this will ensure that towns are no longer the sole points of interest in the player’s strategy.

This is something. It's what completely lacks in Heroes 6, because once you get a town or a fort, all flagged stuff will come to you.

[MattII]

Strip off the lake/river, a terrain that one faction can move through while blocking others is just too unbalancing. Not keen on the environment effects either, those are better left for a RTS IMO.

How about something to provide an area-of-effect boost to your troops (I'd call them Altars, but you've already taken that, so I'll have to go with Standing Stone/SS):
SS of Fleet Foot: all faction troops get +1 movement.
SS of Sharp Blades: all faction troops get +1/level damage.
SS of Thick Skin: all faction troops take 10% less damage from enemy creatures.
SS of Rejuvenation: all faction creatures get slight Regeneration.
SS of Warding: all faction troops take 10% less damage from spells.
etc.

You'd have to park a hero, or at least some creatures on the Standing Stone to control it.

[Groovy]

How is your suggestion of Standing Stones different from my suggestion of Megaliths (from this topic)?

[MattII]

Mine only work within a certain area of the Standing Stone.

[Groovy]

Clever! I like the idea.