The AI is simply diabolical,it will regularly ignore mines, and in battles it will make some of the most rediculous choices imaginable, not to mention if it see's a summoned air elemental it will attack it, with EVERYTHING, bar none, if you have high spell power and can summon 30+ of these a turn, your real troops will next to never be attacked, on high spell power heroes I just cast walls and walls of Air elementals and send them forwrd while the rest if my army sits back and shoots, no point losing units you paid for. Another major AI problem is that it cheats shamelessly, in one game especially the enemy had managed to capture 2 towns, I had 2 (2 were wiped out, it was the Neighbours map), and the AI never actually captured ANY ore mines, yet managed to have both of his cities fully upgraded (the team he wiped out was dead within 3 weeks so would only have half finished their city), to put the cream on the cake he also had both towns full armies built, with 14 devils to boot by the time our main armies met, on equal terms that would put him pretty much skint, I had 14 black dragons, but I couldnt afford to build all my troops, not even close, I had 30 matriarchs unbuilt, aswell as 33 deep hydra's (I rush for unit production early for maximum long term growth), however his hero had teleport and managed to steal my main city before my main army could get back, my defending force (was about a 10th the size of his attacking army) managed to kill about half of the attacking force, including all of his familiars and cerberi, and 4 devils. What happened next defied all logic, he managed to build ALL of my shadow matriarchs and deep hydra's once he took my town to replace his cerberi and familiars, that must total over 75,000gold, thats INSANE especially for a map with no gold mines, just to have sitting in your bank when you have fully built all your own armies and towns and had to 'pay' for all your ore by a market, that was only about 2months into the game too, I ended up winning that game in the end, but dear god Nival, just because your AI is awful doesnt mean you need to hand them infinate gold and resources.Anthriel wrote:Regarding the AI: Highly inconsistent as well. In the Warlords map (pretty similar to the Heroes III Warlords), one or two AI players usually die in the first or second week. Sometimes, the enemy won't flag mines, no matter the difficulty. But at Heroic, he is capable of building up armies as soon as possible, and mercilessly crush his opposition. My impression so far is that the AI is worse than Heroes III, but better than Heroes IV.
That is, on a strategic level. In actual battles, it does a fairly good job. It sometimes casted suboptimal spells and it sometimes attacked war machines, or refused to attack warmachines for no particular reason, but in general, it did better than in Heroes III. Though that might also have something to do with the smaller battlefield.
However, there is one thing that has not been mentioned yet and really gets on my nerves: balance. Now, I'm unsure how the towns compare to each other, because I have not played long enough. But I can tell you that the heroes are unbalanced to an unbelievable degree. Thought that Solmyr had unfair advantages against the likes of Serena (Eagle Eye Specialist)? Think again.
Prior to the "release", there was some talk about Deleb, the hero who starts with a Ballista that shoots Fireballs at enemies, and how that hero would probably be pretty good at the start. As it turns out, we were all wrong. She is not good, she is incredibly overpowered. You just take some Imps and Horned Demons with you, to tank some damage against ranged attackers and the like, and proceed to clear up the map. In Warlods, I was capable of wiping out two Dungeon weekly productions, that even had Hydras, with no more than about 30 Imps, 25 Horned Demons and a Level 4 Deleb. Note that for some unknown reason, the fireballs hurt the enemies, but not your own troops.
I'm sure she will become weaker over the course of the game, as stronger creatures join the fray. But on small maps, she completely wrecks the game. And even on longer maps, she is capable of securing an immense advantage, by being able to take on pretty much everything without an army, and without losses.
This is merely the most extreme example. The Dungeon empowered spells specialist can kill enemy stacks even more easily and without losses, but he has to recharge mana. The Academy Gremlin specialist allows you to gather over hundred Gremlins at the first day. And the Necropolis Raise Dead specialist can ensure no losses, no matter what you fight.
Now, from that, you could gather that all the brokeness cancels out (except for Deleb at least). But apart from the fact that the Sylvan and Haven lacks broken heroes, there is also the problem that you only ever see one starting hero for each faction. I seriously don't know what Nival was thinking when they balanced the hero specials.
As for balance, the Inferno army is, in a nutshell, broken. Even with gating, or even their unique instant gating, they cant match the ability to absorb damage of any other army, and their damage output isnt nearly big enough to compensate, they pretty much rely on their Succubi, as all their other units are sub-par and way too splatty, cerberi are about the only unit that are up to scratch for their tier, they die in 1 punch but their able to do massive damage very quickly and can run the whole battlefield on their opening turn making them a very good shock troop, while your demons (probably the worst unit in the game) will be lucky to get a turn by the time the battle is over as everything else is dieing so quickly, if they powered up pit fiend initiative it may help, and if they made devils more useful than just for their raise pit fiend ability (raises 2 pit fiends per devil, yes please). Fix inferno, the other teams seem to be pretty balanced, sylvans and haven possable a bit more powerful than the other3, but not by nearly as much as Inferno is lagging behind.
(though at least two of these have been improved now).Others were the tedium of having to have a hero walk around and visit every dwelling and windmill every week if one wished to make full use of them. Or the silly chaining and day 1 exploits. Or the fact that whoever moved first in battle could cast mass haste and obliterate half the enemy stacks with much smaller losses himself.