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View Full Version : Some questions on game mechanics & enemy hero behavior & Armageddon


WhYdOyOuThInKtHaThApPeNeD
02-15-2010, 09:11 AM
Sorry if I'm bugging anyone with all my questions...

A few more:

(1) Is anything gained or lost by the way the questions are answered at the very start of the game (when talking to your father and Shivarius)? Or are the options merely to give a feel of interactiveness and story variety? Is there anything hidden that's findable or any secrets at all during the stages before arrival at Teana?

(2) Does Magic Shield reduce damage caused by burning/poisoning that is already on the unit. Say if I cast a shield on the unit who is burning will the next burn cycle cause less damage?

(3) What is the mechanic for when the Mystic Egg & Demon Portal produce? Is it a fixed time during the following round? Is it during the following round but determined by the initiative position it was cast during the first round (meaning, if I cast it right at the start of the initiative cycle before the units fight will it produce earlier during the following round)?
(Another suggestion in case anyone from the production team reads the forums. Give the Mystic Egg, Demon Portal etc. their own initiative order number so we know exactly when it will produce. I guess maybe the ambiguity of knowing that is part of the cost of using it?)

(4) What triggers hero's to cast Armageddon? Damn them! Especially Uldara & Peter Drayn. They both seem to have a similar AI which has them casting mostly Demon Portals. Uldara sometimes casts a very powerful Fiery Rain, seemingly if my units are bunched up. It seems like they usually drop an Armageddon when things are going really down hill for them and they lost a lot of stuff, like when it seems like they know they are going to lose. But a few times they would cast it when I didn't expect it earlier on.

So what I'm wondering, is there any reliable calculable factor that I can use to know for sure when and what triggers them to cast Armageddon? Like is it when they lose a certain % of units, leadership, health? It's the most frustrating thing when trying to get a no loss or low loss, I never have enough res power to recover from Armageddon, even with Demonologist, Paladin, Inquisitor & Res. spell. And they drop the bomb usually after a long battle requiring many careful precision exchanges to achieve an acceptable finale result. Meaning lots of concentration and hard work is washed away with the lava flood! :evil:

At one time I thought maybe if I get strong enough and really pound them down fast to end it as soon as possible. But they will bring down the flood even in early rounds if they are hit hard enough. Maybe someone has a good strategic approach that works.

Actually I was thinking if I know some factor that triggers them to cast it. Like maybe if by their losing X number of units or certain units in a single round or something. If I'm careful to control the battle so they only ever cast Demon Portals until all their magic is gone. Anyone know how to control the battle so they only ever cast Demon Portal?

(4.5) I assume fire resistance reduces the damage caused by Armageddon? Can anyone confirm this?
Thing is it's not always easy to get things that increase fire resistance. The boots are often found at Sheterra, if I can get there. Wishing Divine Armor upgraded till mass effect.

A possible unusual strategic possibility for use of Armageddon:
If the fire resistance reduces damage caused by Armageddon, then go into a battle only with units that already have high fire resistance and equipment that brings that up to 95%. Then just bring down Armageddons as much as possible.

DGDobrev
02-15-2010, 11:23 AM
1) No. never saw anything extra there.
2) Yes. The damage mitigation is absolute, this is why I love the ability :)
3) This is the mechanic of Demon portal: Total Leadership = Leadership*(1+0.05*Int)*(1+0.01*(Summoning+Items)) . Spell lvl 1 summons lvl 2-3 creatures, lvl 2 summons 2-4 lvl creatures, lvl 3 summons lvl 3-5 creatures. It's random, so you can try placing the portal in a different place if the result is not satisfactory. On the other hand, Mystic Egg is not related to the intellect, simply to the leadership of the hero and the type and lvl of creatures that may spawn (use common logic - it's anything that can hatch - spiders, snakes, griffins, hayterrants, dragons).
4) When your army's leadership outweighs theirs (I'm uncertain by how much), they usually try to even the scales with armageddon. The workaround is to stall. Simply put your units in a place where they won't be able to retaliate much and have them defend till the enemy wastes his supply of mana.
4.5) Fire resistance only reduces the damage by the burning post-effect. Armageddon inflicts astral damage, and only now in the gift bag a few items that grant astral damage have been introduced. Otherwise, there is no resistance against that type of damage, so it will hit anything with full power.
- on a side note, if you cast armageddon, your units take only 50% of the damage. It's still a notable amount, though.

Hope that helps :)

lauvhk
02-15-2010, 02:23 PM
Mystic Egg will spawn a new stack after Pirate and before Snake. So it is safe to say that its initiative is about 5 while its innate speed (not real) is either 2 or 3.

Edited: Oh and it does not depend on the time you place in previous turn.

Another Edit: The innate speed should be below 2 since the inquisitor turns come earlier than the Mystic Egg. See the attached screenshot below.

KongMysen
02-15-2010, 04:07 PM
Are you sure about that?

I'm quite certain that the initiative of the summoned creature will determine when the egg hatches or the portal summons. That means its never the same since Black Dragons and Fire Spiders aren't equally fast?

Can anyone confirm this?

lauvhk
02-16-2010, 02:13 PM
A picture saves a thousand word.

Zechnophobe
02-16-2010, 04:47 PM
Are you sure about that?

I'm quite certain that the initiative of the summoned creature will determine when the egg hatches or the portal summons. That means its never the same since Black Dragons and Fire Spiders aren't equally fast?

Can anyone confirm this?

I don't think this is true actually. I've seen units get summoned and then not be able to go right away. For instance, Demons from a Demon portal had to wait until their actual init.