Analysis of King's Bounty

[Zechnophobe]

I shall divide this into through nugget sized chunks, for easier digestion.


What separates KB series from other similar games?
What advances have been made from KBTL?
A Systems Analysis of KBAP


What separates KB series from other similar games?

King's Bounty is a very similar game to those in the Hero's of Might and Magic Series, and also shares a lot of elements with fantasy tactics games, Xcom, etc. But KB does a lot of things noticeably better than these other franchises:

When compared to the HOMM line of games, KB has very elegantly removed all of the Bullshit. The parts of HOMM that really wasn't fun, like macro managing a group of castles... which boiled down to basically just building things each day. The turn based system where you moved over the overland map in little chunks, instead of free flowingly. Probably the most important change is the addition of Leadership. HOMM is very stingy about giving you more units, since there is no cap on how many you can have. They are also simultaneously unwilling to help you resurrect your dead units... compare resurrection skill in AP to that in, say, HOMM4.

Leadership as a mechanic means that you can fight all your battles at full strength, and are not constantly trying to pick up another few units. This was made additionally annoying because to pick up those troops you would have to slowly travel back to a city, or dwelling or whatnot. Uggh.

Comparing KB to other tactical games... well, that's a bigger bucket. Most tactical games involve the advancement of troops on the battlefield, as opposed to the army as a whole. In KB, your RPG-esque advancement is centered on the Hero... which basically means the entire army gets better as time goes on. Giving you a single vector for advancement cuts down on a lot of the micro management of this advancement. No going over large rosters of combatants trying to figure out how to tweak or equip each one. Just a hero.

Similarly, the combat arena's are very dense with action. I'll talk more about this in part 3 of this, but let me point out that the terrain, movement speeds, and summonable effects are all well balanced, and make for a lot of interesting strategic decisions, that are often missed in other tactical games.


Short Version

KB is faster and more streamlined than HOMM, and removes unnecessary elements. It is easier to manage, and has more punch than a lot of other Tactical games.

[Zechnophobe]

What advances have been made from KBTL?

Having compared KB in general to other games, how has the game progressed lately. I'll also throw in a little bit on my expectations based on the gift bag, and upcoming content pack.

The biggest difference between The Legend, and Armored Princess, is in the map flow structure. TL was, for a large part of the game, quite linear. In order to advance to new areas, you would need to do certain quests. And almost all of those require significant combats of one sort or another (or potentially large money expenditures). AP uses a significantly softer model, wherein you can approach the content in a more dynamic order, providing you can get the navigational maps to new areas. While the 'big fights' for these nav maps is similar to the older system of quest completion, they are a lot more varied, and sometimes unprotected maps can be found giving you fun chances to go to a much higher level area.

In general, this feels like a much better system. It gives more variety to the troops you can have, as well as letting you spend more time perfecting an army before being forced to use it. There however, is a noticeable balance issue, in that the higher level islands, and gaining access to them, can very very quickly make lower level ones feel trivial. Ultimately this makes one of the strongest strategies to be to unlock as many islands as possible, and then strip them of available resources (Flags, gold, items, spells, troops, etc).

The second overarching change is the number of shops in the game. You may not have really appreciated this when playing through, but if you go back and play TL it will become quickly apparent. AP has, for instance, more than 20 shops in Verona. Even Bolo, a small island, has 6. This means you get to see more items in each play through, and have more troops and spell variety. In the same vein, there are more item sets in the game, so finding items in shops is also more exciting.

Once again, this is a generally good thing, but it does end up making the game a bit more uniform. I like that you can actually COMPLETE item sets now, but I am less fond that most of the lower level items are all but guaranteed during a run through.

The addition of Achievements to the game is the bright sparkling modification that I think is the most obviously good addition. Role playing games are defined by their reward systems, and this is a good one. Unlike so many other games where achievements are just random things to pick up, the ones in AP are actually important to your character development. They add another progress bar (10 of them, actually) for you to be pleased about when it fills, and also give some strategic options to the game. I think in the future more achievements like the Trapper achievement (that functionally change play, instead of adding stats) would be interesting. Focus on traps, and your combats run a bit different!

Dragon vs Rage Spirits is actually not much to talk about. The systems end up surprisingly similar. THe main difference is that the dragon abilities are almost all very useful. Even end game, the Crushing Blow has a specific strategic effect. This is a step in the right direction, even if the concept of rage has changed much. The only other point here to make, is that Rage no longer contributes to critical hit damage, which I think is a mistake. I think raw rage value adding to crit hit damage would be a good system. I'd also like to see a little more play between the percentage and fixed value mechanics with rage. More in part 3.

Lastly is the leveling up system, which now is a lot lighter, and focuses more on the skill tree. You only get leadership and runes when you level up, which I think is better. You then put those runes into skills, and those skills can give you stat points. The system is just more elegant this way, and doesn't have random level based things to worry about (Getting leadership early level is a waste compared to late level where it is imperative).

The only thing that still feels missing from the level up system, is leadership. Right now the game's three classes (Mage, Paladin, Warrior) have only two different focuses (Spells, nothing, Rage). The paladin is really trying to be a synthesis of the other two, instead of being specifically GOOD at something. Even his 'ultimate' skill ends up feeling pointless (especially for no-loss players). As an aside, I propose that in the same way the Warrior gets little bits of extra attack and rage for some of his skills, and the mage gets mana and int, why not get the paladin leadership and defense?


Short Version

Mostly better than its predacessor, but map jumping a little unbalanced, and you may get too many items compared to the size of item pool. Achievements are awesome, and so is new level up system. Dragon a bit better than rage spirits.

[Zechnophobe]

A Systems Analysis of KBAP

KBAP is a very complex game, that I have spent much time in other threads analyzing, and I'm going to do a quick run through here. Hopefully I can avoid posting too much math.

Ultimately the troops in this game are dominated by those that DO NOT TAKE LOSSES WHEN THEY ATTACK. This can either be because the ability does not allow for retaliation (No retaliation Attacks, ranged, abilities that do not allow for retal) or because the unit can survive retaliation (Most level 5's). Some special cases like dragon breath, and being able to hit two stacks, but retaliated by only one (Effectively halving, or better, the damage they receive) also exist.

This idea of putting together forces that can attack with impunity is the very cornerstone of the combat mechanics, and creates a pool of 'useable' units. Hyena's? Not good, they have no way to avoid damage. Miners? Heck even Demons aren't really beefy enough to fall into this category. There is obviously one other saving grace, and those are units that are easy to resurrect. However, I think most of the time having units you do not NEED to resurrect is massively preferable.

Let's look a little more at the effects that can be applied to your forces.


Resistance
Stats
Critical Hit
Heal


Once again, 75% of this list is more effective against higher level units. They have higher base resistance, so adding more to it is more effective. They have high stats to begin with, so crits multiplying with the damage bonus those stats provide is optimal. And obviously high hit point amounts, defense, and resistances make healing more efficient. We are further pushed towards using good high level units. Heck, the Mind tree even has a skill that gives a large bonus to the best level units, dragons. 130% crit chance, and 20% better stats, on your flying, no retal ability units that also have great resistance... it just seems too easy. Also, making Time Back a spell castable on every turn makes dragon tanking even more effective, as it allows a high mana character to resurrect level 5 units, something that is rare.

Also, a lot of the basic systems of the game are geared towards high or higher level units. Take Morale for instance. This effect increases the BASE stats of a unit by a percentage. But the value of a stat is determined by its raw value. That means increasing your sprites 3 attack by 100% to 6... still means it only does 10% more damage. Whereas increasing the stats of a 30 ATK unit by 100%, to 60, will cause it to do 100% more damage. Agvares' innate ability is almost useless on units except for Demoness'.

Also, items like the Dragonslayer sword, or other things that give % bonus to attack similarly benefit low level units very little. 2 Morale on a black dragon gives it 14 attack and defense... almost 50% more damage, and 33% less damage. This makes Voice of the Dragon worth more than all the other combat bonuses all skill trees have combined... for dragons.


Not only that, but level 5 units are also immune to almost all crowd control effects. They cannot be blinded, sheeped, misted, shackled, or feared. In return, they lose out on.. berserk and resurrection spell. But most of the time a premeditated, 7 mana, Stone Skin is worth more than an 40 mana resurrection spell only castable after the fact.


Short Version

Game is strongly slanted towards high level units, and at best towards units with no retaliation abilities. Few things effect low level units better than high level ones.

[lauvhk]

1. There are indeed a lot more shops available but I feel pretty underwhelmed when it comes to the shop's content. Racial troop availability is horrible outside of their racial continent and Lizardmen units are almost Reha-Exclusive (don't count the wanderer scroll for the moment). Another rather popular level 4 neutral - Demonologists - is so severely limited that you can play a game or two without actually seeing them available for sale (run KBScanner if you feel unconvinced).

2. game is strongly slanted towards high level units...

There are a lot of units available in the game but regardless of game objective (no loss or not), most units end up being less favorable than the others. So What gives for having so many shops that actually sell a lot of less favorable units?

3. Many shops sell a combination of units, items and scrolls but they hardly differ from one another. What I mean is that they don't have a mercenary camp that offers a truly wide range of units (not just 4 or 5), a magic academy that houses a huge record of scrolls and can even take order to create one that you need, a blacksmith that can actually forge an item or a black market that sell obscenely overpriced but high level items early on.

Yes the shop structure in AP inherits its predecessor but sadly more doesn't necessarily make it better.

[jake21]

I like some (many) of the addition to the KB-AP but am a bit unhappy with the game flow and map. The game flow issue is balance; the game is easy at start (good); ramps up to be very difficult at lower/mid level (around level 14-20; when you first move to verona) and then becomes incredibly easy ('cept for the final two boss mobs). This makes it rather difficult to adjust game difficulty because of this rather sharp non-linear curve.
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Shops - yes there are more of them but there is a weirdness to what they sell. For instance last game I played (hard mage) there were tons of royal griffons but many mobs (like dermonolgoist (sp)) either did not load or (knights) loaded in very small quantity. This game (hard paladin) I just explored verona shops and there are TONS of (regular griffons) but no assassins or royal griffons. It almost seems like the game select some mob (griffon in this game) and then places it everywhere. (This game is going to be very hard unless something decent loads else where because mob selection up to verona (debir, scarlet, rusty, boa, verona) sucks big time (it makes my mage game look like a gold mine).
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The last thing I dislike is the map layout. In KB-TL there was a bit of backtracking but overall the maps themselves were some what interesting. In KB-AP for the most part the maps are not that interesting at all (many reusing parts from the previous game) and the last few islands are pathetic (I suspect the developer was rushed a bit; not sure but I get the feeling that map making for this game might be non-trivial).
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bugs: there are some weird bugs; for instance several times (2 or 3) I've defeated a stack and then instantly thrown back into combat with the same stack I just defeated.
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I do like the increase in item variety as well as a few other twitches in kb-ap but the flaws are quite annoying on a grand scale.

[Hento]

HOMM5 was totally ruined for me because the skill selection when you level up was random.

[lauvhk]

As jake21 points out, the map layout and the world design are not all too fantastic. With regard to the world design, I believe that the developers try to forge a world that is remarkably different than its immediate predecessor since travelling between islands in AP is predominantly relied on ship. It is in some sense reminiscening the old KB so it is more a matter of taste than something that could be argued. Still the individual map design failing to show distinctiveness and depth is a significant drawback.

Most of the journey in AP happens in the world of Teana. I am not sure if there is enough lore backdrop that actually links both world, but then all racial relationship carries over without a blink. And what about the lore of Teana? I am certainly not a lore seeking/loving person but with the Demon hiding far off the world while the Lizard raiding the Dwarf land, the Dwarves actually hate the Demon more than the Lizard? Not to mention there is a necromancer occupying another Dwarven Castle.

[Smash]

I am sorry but because you do not like cattle managment or strategy aspect of heroes series doesn't mean that they are worst, honestly homm3 is still the king in nearly everything. I didn't really even bother with rest of text wall.

KB is little shallow to me, there are only battles which are not awesome. They really should improve battlefield if they wanted focus only on them...
Troops are not balanced, paladin class is not designed well and plenty of more things.
I had really big expectation over this expansion but well i was disappointment. They didn't improve important thing except failure try on paladin skill tree.

[DGDobrev]

Bold statement, Smash, and it is your prerogative to feel this way. I, on the other hand, think they did it like this to avoid creating another HOMM clone. We have plenty of them already - Disciples 3 being the latest in the long line :)

Why do you feel this way about the Paladin tree? It has some really great skills: Resurrection, learning, prayer, voice of the dragon, persuasion, even scouting has been buffed up.

[Zechnophobe]

Well, learning isn't that impressive. But overall the Paladin skills have been majorly overhauled. In TL, Paladin was basically terrible. He didn't get the rage of the warrior, or the magic of the Mage. All he got was Runic stone, and the ability to do a little better against undead/demons. Pfah.

Also, Smash, did you at least read the 'short version' I put at the end of each post? I realize not everyone wants to read that much, ergo the sum up.

Though, if you honestly think HOMM3 was better than KB... I have a feeling we won't come to any reasonable agreement.

[lauvhk]

Somehow I have a feeling that, literally, a couple of talents doesn't suit the Paladin class quite well. Scouting, Voice of the Dragon and even Adrenaline seem more suitable for Ranger (if there is a new class) while Neatness looks like Mage talent. But then I would prefer seeing Order Magic and Magic Light placed under Paladin tree. Anyway a separate discussion may suit better elsewhere.

By the way, comparing KB with HOMM is like comparing Soccer game with Soccer management game. Argument never ends.

[Majere3]

There are several games that are simialr to HOMM: Age of Wonder, Disciples series, spellforce series, Etherlord series. They are all unique in their own ways.

KB is the best HOMM game so far. Once Diciples III come out, we can compare to see which is better.

KB should have multiplayer option. I want to play online with my friends or verus human opponents.

Hopefully the next expansion or KB II should have more RPG/story contents.

[Zechnophobe]

How on earth is Etherlords like HOMM? It's a collectibles spell casting game, not a tactics game.

[joasoz]

According to the reviews of the russian version of Diciples III, dont expect too much. Its more or less slaughtered in the reviews and comments I have read.

[DGDobrev]

And you read right :)

Right now Disciples III is a HOMM/King's Bounty mixture with only 3 races (humans, demons, elves), 3 campaigns and absolutely no single player maps. Unless they do a major overhaul of the game, I'd stick to King's bounty if I were in the buyers' shoes.

[Mandea]

Oh, no single player maps for d3? oau, very bad news. you finish the game and then what? not good :(

[Hento]

I've read that Disciples 3 is extremely buggy and poor, there currently really is no competition for King's Bounty, and I'm positive if more people new about it they would buy it. It's the most addictive game ever, one of those rare games that makes you forget about eating and sleeping.

Maybe Elemental: War of Magic will have something to offer...

[DGDobrev]

Oh, no single player maps for d3? oau, very bad news. you finish the game and then what? not good :(

You shelf it. Actually, there is only 1 SP map that you can play over and over, which is the intro/tutorial, so it doesn't count. So far the best you can do is finish up the 3 campaigns and play them over and over :)

Not to mention that Akella and .dat seem to have completely lost their way - the final patch makes any mission after the first one to fail to load (you get a black screen and that's it). The only solution is to save the game before finishing, revert to the previous patch (1.04 HF10), finish the mission, and then go back to 1.05 HF 3 or 7, or whatever number it was.

Poor players :) With King's Bounty, we got the complete package and everything worked. There are a few minor bugs, I admit - but nothing that can ruin your game or reduce the amount of fun you're getting from it :)