H3 - Game Notes - Not so known facts.

[Corbon]

Diplomat's Suit

Was that supposed to be a combo artifact made from the Sash, Medal and Ring?

[Corbon]

There is another column next to it called "AI Value" but with much testing I couldn't guess how it is used.

Undead, the AI Value determines a wandering stack's "decision" to fight or flee/offer to join. I did a test run and changed the value of Gremlins to 99999 and the value of Magogs to 1, then engaged a wandering stack of"lots of" Magogs with a single Gremlin and the Magogs fled every time.

There's some real annoyance about an AI Allies game and actually happened to me once: My AI partner was dominating the map, and there was only one opponent (colour) left. The opponent managed to capture my only town, leaving me with 7 days left to recapture it. What did my son of a bitch ally do? He recaptured it on his own, controlling all the towns on the map, but didn't manage to wipe out the remaining enemy hero (who was so far away that I had no clue where to look for him). Now all I could do was to wait until Monsieur Guillotine doing his dirty job, since I ran "out of towns" earlier than the enemy.

[UndeadHalfOrc]

There is another column next to it called "AI Value" but with much testing I couldn't guess how it is used.

Undead, the AI Value determines a wandering stack's "decision" to fight or flee/offer to join. I did a test run and changed the value of Gremlins to 99999 and the value of Magogs to 1, then engaged a wandering stack of"lots of" Magogs with a single Gremlin and the Magogs fled every time.

Ahhhh, I see. Thanks. I had done lots of fiddling/testing using enemy AI HEROES, but never wandering stacks. That clears it up.

There's some real annoyance about an AI Allies game and actually happened to me once: My AI partner was dominating the map, and there was only one opponent (colour) left. The opponent managed to capture my only town, leaving me with 7 days left to recapture it. What did my son of a ***** ally do? He recaptured it on his own, controlling all the towns on the map, but didn't manage to wipe out the remaining enemy hero (who was so far away that I had no clue where to look for him). Now all I could do was to wait until Monsieur Guillotine doing his dirty job, since I ran "out of towns" earlier than the enemy.

Funny read. I don't think I ever played a real Heroes 2 or 3 game with an AI ally. So I have no experience at all regarding that. I did make a silly map where I control the only Summon Boat spell (with Water Expert) but have no means to make a real army. Me and my ally are on our own island and so are our 2 (ultra stong) opponents. No shipyards or ships in sight. I create a ship so that my ally can use it and attack the other island in vain, stupidly. Then the enemy steals back that ship, invades us both and it's Mr Guillotine for me because I created the very ship that was used by the invaders to kill me!

[Pol]

Diplomat's Suit

Was that supposed to be a combo artifact made from the Sash, Medal and Ring?

I think so and sorry that I forget it first time. As I said previously all kicked out artifacts (with exception of Town of Plenty then) looks like they were intended for diplo wars. Which in one summs reason why they weren't used.

[Corbon]

Mutare's Dragon Specialty, does it apply to all Dragons in the game (Greens, Golds, Neutrals) or just Reds and Blacks?

[UndeadHalfOrc]

All of them: Dungeon dragons (no pun intended), Rampart dragons, Necropolis dragons, and neutral dragons.

[Corbon]

I just noticed something about the grail. I defeated an enemy hero carrying it (100% sure because I "saw" the hero digging for it in the correct spot) but did only win a regular artifact (Vampire's Cowl). I know that if a hero currently carrying the grail flees /surrenders a battle, the grail will be lost but it seems like you can't win it from another hero when defeating him. Maybe it was a change in AB or SoD.

[Yurian Stonebow]

Has anyone ever experienced crashes when SELLING artifacts in the artifact merchant?

It happened to me in large maps, in progress and have no save game to show for it. I cannot reproduce the bug in test maps. Corruption maybe?

Talking of a late reply... I came to think of the bug mentioned above and can say that I have experienced the same. I had a nostalgic moment playing "Mutare's Apprentice", which is a L map with underground, and tried to sell some artifacts at a Tower's Artifact Merchants. The game crashed instantly. I had no choice but to reload from a save. I decided to do some testing and found out that the bug is a reoccurring one indeed. It happened three times a row which convinced me of the whole thing being more than just a one "unlucky" strike.

It seems that this is related to a fault within the H3 code itself.
My two cents.



Yurian

[Pol]

I just noticed something about the grail. I defeated an enemy hero carrying it (100% sure because I "saw" the hero digging for it in the correct spot) but did only win a regular artifact (Vampire's Cowl). I know that if a hero currently carrying the grail flees /surrenders a battle, the grail will be lost but it seems like you can't win it from another hero when defeating him. Maybe it was a change in AB or SoD.

That's right. Grail can be transferred only among allies. It's not a trophy from a battle. I have some vague memories, .. it could be different before in RoE or AB without fixes.

[Corbon]

The coding for the grail seems to be significantly different from the other artifacts. For example, its listed price is always 0 Gold, even with the spot price bug, and it can't be "sold" for 0 Gold either.

It's important when creating a map with the only winning condition of a grail structure being built. Out of my head, there's a campaign with that condition (involving Ryland carrying the grail) but you can't hire another hero and if Ryland is defeated it's game over, so the outcome is the same.

[Pol]

Yes, as Dispel is not a normal spell so the Grail is not counted as an obvious artifact.

[Yurian Stonebow]

Dispel is arguably the most powerful spell in Heroes III due to its effectiviness: at Expert level, you can even remove (Expert) Anti-magic!
This is also confirmed by the fact that the Dragon Flies can dispel all spells with their natural ability which seems to equal the spell (Expert) Dispel.



Yurian

[UndeadHalfOrc]

And Expert Dispel also removes all mines buried in the snow when sieging a Tower Town

[Pol]

firewall, quick sand, rooting, ... everything till the Disrupting Ray.

[Rainalkar]

And Poison of the Wyvern Monarchs. And I think there was something with Acid Breath of the Rust Dragons as well.

[Gaidal Cain]

This is also confirmed by the fact that the Dragon Flies can dispel all spells with their natural ability which seems to equal the spell (Expert) Dispel

Not quite. Dragon-fly dispel only affect opponents...

[Yurian Stonebow]

The Swordsman Who Walks is correct. The Dragon Fly dispel works differently from the "regular" dispel, the spell itself. The Dragon Fly's ability removes beneficial spells effecting enemy units. It doesn't dispel hostile spells such as Curse and Blind. An yes, you can't use the Dragon Flies to remove spells from your own units.

Poison, on the other hand, can not be removed by casting Dispel, nor can the Dragon Flies do something about it with their ability. Poison can only be removed with Cure. Nothing else will do.


Är det bättre nu?





Yurian

[Corbon]

Eh, just because it seems to "break some magic rules" doesn't make Dispel the "most powerful" spell. I'd give that honor to one of the world spells like Dimension Door or Town Portal.

[Yurian Stonebow]

Well, to quote myself:

"Dispel is arguably the most powerful spell in Heroes III due to its effectiviness..."

I used the term "arguably" which means that this is an opinion amongst opinions. Nevertheless, it is still something what I consider to be perfectly valid. Of course we can go into semantics and argue for this and that spell being the most powerful one, but I chose my candidate, Dispel, due to the effectiviness and vast usefulness of the said spell. It is a check against powerful spells of great durability, can be cast by Heroes who don't even possess Wisdom, works against Anti-Magic... All good reasons, in my opinion.



Yurian

[Corbon]

At Expert level it may become useless since it might screw up your battle tactic (Self-Buff and Enemy Blind removal).

Effective? Yes. Efficient? No.