chesslike gameplay

[sae]

Originally Posted by jake21

I felt that part of the strategy was to protect or limit high praised troops; in this sense the original 2 games made many troops 'too' available; if many troops were non-common and difficult to obtain (due to limited location/number) then there would be more strategy when to use what type of troops.

indeed, however my point is that the AI could be made a lot stronger:
* as it is, it was too easy to "fool" it with lots of "Phantoms" and other summons - you could not have done it in a PvP, say...
* the AI does not play vey powerful spell combinations, just as example "Phantoms + AvengingAngels" woud have made more impcat

What i meant with my orginal post was that I want battle where I "hang on by a thread", and not just minimise the number of fallen with large margin...

[jake21]

Well it sounds like you want a stronger ai which is independent to having troops restored. As a balance effect if the AI were stronger than troop availability (as well as money to buy them) could be increased.

It is true when I played the first game the first time it was very difficult to balance between troups and cash; but today the game is now very easy even on impossible so I could suffer a more difficult ai at higher difficulties levels.
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However I suspect that improving the ai is a bit of work (truely good ai is very rare and given enough playing time I'm not sure such even exist; that's why most games 'handicap' the player a higher difficulty because it is easier to (reduce cash, increase opponent army strength and similar then it is to actually make the ai smarter)).

Yes it would be wicked if for example the opposing mage use pain mirror after your massive assult (a favorite tactic in my last game was to create a very weak troup (like thorns) have them be slaughtered by some huge stack and then obliverate the stack with a couple of pain mirror )
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Anyways this incarnation is taking an extra 6 months or so so perhaps it will have both a grand world and a grand ai !

[Fatt_Shade]

OK from the top :
1) this is tactical TB RPG, with strategy elements, so managing your troops is part of play. If after every battle you get whole army back where is tactics ? As commander of army it`s your job to keep them alive so you can reach certain point for reinforcement. Playthroughs impossible/no loss are just part of this and not big part. Most ppl playing this game come to forum with some question and if they find it, there is almost on trace of them being here. Only those that post comments/start new treads are seen. On other hand hardcore players with no loss runs are most commonly those who leave comments or new ideas/builds/strategy so who come on forum first time might get impression impossible/no loss is only way this game is played. So in end about making this chesslike play , bad idea.
2) Randomness and availability of certain troops, is also great part and i`ll refer to my statement tactical game. When you are given some task, you do it with what tools you have, not what you wish for. To me, and i think many other would agree this makes KB better then HoMM of Disciples series. My first play in KB-the Legend was brutal since i went hard difficulty form start and finished game with huge losses and changing of troop often. But after that i got to forum and seen many other ways to do things i didnt know off, and form there my love for this game came from.
3) As for making AI better it`s not such big deal, since i found mod made by only 1 man and AI is much better then in original game settings and i liked it allot. For those who want to try check here http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=27802 and enjoy

[Zechnophobe]

Interesting discussion.

The chess-like option suggested would not be just 'make the ai harder' but rather, it would change your expectations for combat. If losses were common, but not permanent, the balancing of the game could be more around how to kill an opponent the fastest, but each opponent could be substantially stronger because winning with 1 guy left is the same as winning with zero losses.

Personally, the only thing that I would like to see in this arena, is the removal of resurrection engines. I think the game plays really nicely as a 'you want to do this perfect' style game, where decisions of unit placement, spell casting, and unit selection are all incredibly important. But I do not like the fact that certain combinations allow you to heal infinite amounts of troops.