Thread for DEVs - What to do

[Mr.Ham]

Hi there!

If you're not DEV, you should stop reading this now. This thread is not meant for average user, it is meant for 1C DEV's to read it & learn from it. Thank you for your understanding.
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First of all, let me tell you a thing or two about me so you'll know where I come from and why I've decided to write all this. I'll try to keep it short and all but nevertheless, prepare for walls of texts.

I'm 34 year old gamer with real life, if that is even remotely possible. So, I've been around. Mostly, I play multiplayer games: Dota 2, Starcraft 2, Quake 3 and these are my games which I play over the years and still, now. I've played HOMM1, then HOMM2 for ages right the moment it came out and I've been fan of HOMM series for a long long time (Heroes of might of magic).

By accident, few years ago I've stumbled upon Armored Princess - it was the best game I've played in the last 8 years, by far. And that is coming from a guy which played almost every available RPG out there (Skyrim etc.).

When I've realized that HOMM is nothing more than a copy / paste idea from Kings Bounty (in text, KB from now on), my thrill for this series grew even higher.

Recently, I've finished Warriors of the North and while I'm writing this, I'm playing Legend and finally, we are back to topic.
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I'll not go into difference between Armored Princess and Warriors / Legend, I'll focus and W (Warriors) and L (Legend).

I now, clearly, see why Kings bounty: Legend is so praised and why are there so many sequels to this series. These are my suggestions if you ever decide to make fans happy (read: continue with the series):

- Keep it simple. No chests, spider eggs at the each step of the game like you did in warriors. On Legend, I actually walk for whole screen before I encounter a chest. I now have around 200k gold (playing Legend) - at this point, in Warriors, I've already had around 3 millions which is absurd. Collecting 10000 spider eggs which I "must" collect but they are POINTLESS to a) keep b) sell c) use is a thing we do not want to see more then 20x in the next series (in the whole game, not just one map)
- Map. Most important thing is this:
* More curves (!) and blind spots around the trees where there is.... NOTHING! We, humans, love to explore. Nice example is: 1st map on the warriors and 1st map on the Legend. Difference is not huge... its ENORMOUS. Please, compare and see for yourself. Load Warriors, walk around a bit. Load Legend, walk around a bit.
- Use of Rage: I'm playing Legend already for 10 hours and still I have no Spirits or any use of rage. Copy / paste this in the next series. Using rage is a huge advantage and getting Valkyries so fast in Warrior is just.... fail. In princess, same. 1st mpa, walk to the right - there you go, you have pet. Abandon that idea, this is far more interesting and when I'll finally get Spirit in Legend, it will be "Wow!" and not "Pftttt.... already?"
- Units: They are all fine. Do as you did now - mix old ones, add few new ones and we are good. Your biggest work so far is done - making Legend, everything is copy paste from that point on (biggest part in coding, making / drawing huge pool of units etc.)
- And now, most important thing:

Warriors: Boring, repetitious 1st 20 hours of the game. Same combat, same units. Later on, nothing changes. I've played Wizard - same spells with range attack, no matter which army I've encounter, I would do 1k - 30k damage - not important 'cause I would know, that in the end of the combat - I would finish with no troop loss.

Legend: Still, after 20 hours of play, it's very important for me will I do 64 or +100 damage with one hit. And I enjoy each and every fight. I've got around 6 - 40 units in each army and this rocks. Not like in Legend where I could not care less will I do 1000 or 2000 damage, it's all the same 'cause win is guaranteed with no troop loss.

This, first part of the game is pure gem. Small army composition, little damage, epic battles between 6 Royal snakes and some range units (12 rangers) vs 8 wolves and 6 marauders. Not that sh*t - battles where I do not care less do I have +400 or +600 units in my whole army 'cause there is not much difference.

In other words - back to basics. Half game through - small armies, "little damage" battles.

And please, lots of quests in small walking parts of the map - like in Legend, 1st map (village where zombie miller is, next to it home with infested garden etc.)
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In the end, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for making these series in the 1st place.

Details, which is most important part in any game are so epic, awesome, right on the spot and that is the very reason why we all adore this game. In detailed game, such in this series, is a win / win situation for all of us.

Do you have any idea how much I've enjoyed seeing that squirrel walking down the tree on a random map in Warriors? You have no clue, how much...

Please, back to basics. Play, again, 1st map of Legend + swamp and hopefully, you'll see what I've tried to write in this thread of mine (lots of details, lots of space to walk w/o any chest on my way, lots of 20 units overall vs 25 units overall in army vs army fights) and similar like...

...NPCs stories - walls of text but funny and interesting to read. Especially that good / evil dialog option which I can choose from and some of them - hilarious. Did I encounter any of those NPC dialogues in Warriors? Cannot tell in fact, I cant recall and I did finish Warriors this very week (3 days ago).
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These were my thoughts. I hope I've helped at least one bit... and that is my way of saying "Thank you for all your efforts so far, dear DEVs".

Keep up with good work and best regards from Croatia.

Cheers!

Mr.Ham

-edit-
Yes, we want huge big neon sign where to go from now - to who and where to go to get the quest done... not like in warriors: "Jeez... am I stuck again? Sweet jesus, where to go on... why there is no pointer above the XY house where I need to go...." ---- and that is coming from hard core gamer which is used to hard games.... o0

And digging for random quest on random map, digging whole Island to get the quest without any pointer? Do not repeat that, ever again. Thank you.