Ice and Fire: Questions from the devs about Patch! Please read and vote!

[Nike-it]

The developers are working on the Patch for Ice and Fire and would like to know, what you think about following questions. Please vote!

[Fatt_Shade]

This is ridiculous. I havent played Ice&Fire (and not planing to), but from this questions seems enemy units dont have bonuses further you go into game!!!
So what is challenge then ? Player have skills/spells/rage/and exp lvl units on other side enemy stacks have ? nothing.
So devs are asking should they take something else from Red sands mod, since 80% of Ice&Fire is direct copy/paste from there.
Having enemy stacks that are different in stats was great idea in red sands (further go in unexplored islands stronger enemy stacks get, but every battle they have slightly different stats and that change strategy needed to defeat them - some have more hp, some higher speed etc).
My vote is rename this `expansion` to WotN-Red sands , make it free and return money to ppl who already payed.

[MattCaspermeyer]

I'll echo some of Fatt_Shade's comments.

If you have the enemy unit statistics rename static, then the only way to make the game more difficult is to have more numbers of them. If your own units stats are increasing during the game, it is only fair that so do the enemies.

In my H3B mod, the enemy unit statistics are scaled by difficulty level and then map location so that they get tougher the later in the game you go. This makes it more challenging and fun in my opinion.

I actually have been workings on making their talent abilities get more powerful as well and one omission for enemy hero bonuses (and even your own bonuses) is that they only apply to unit's base attacks. It'd be nice if I have an enemy hero or artifact that is +25% damage that the bonuses applies to base and talent damage.

So I hope the devs consider these points - thanks!

/C\/C\

[Dri]

I think it'd be too confusing unless its made very obvious what level of 'experience' enemies have. One of the buffs you can get is +speed and that's a big deal... what if you're used to zombies moving so many spaces for the first half of the game and then you find that they now travel farther? Thats just one example of where the random 'experience' bonuses can arbitrarily cause you to suffer loses you shouldn't.

Again, if you are going to add experience to enemies you should make it very obvious somehow. Maybe even had a small number inside some symbol when the ALT button is pressed to show expanded battle info. SOMETHING that lets you know what level they are and what bonuses they are getting.

[Metathron]

Originally Posted by Dri

I think it'd be too confusing unless its made very obvious what level of 'experience' enemies have. One of the buffs you can get is +speed and that's a big deal... what if you're used to zombies moving so many spaces for the first half of the game and then you find that they now travel farther? Thats just one example of where the random 'experience' bonuses can arbitrarily cause you to suffer loses you shouldn't.

This is what has me worried as well. I don't want to be in a position where I have to right-click every enemy stack before the battle starts just to see if some random statistic has been augmented. It would quickly turn into tedium. That's why I voted no.

But I agree that if done correctly it could be an interesting addition. However, I am not too optimistic about this with this current developer (which is not Katauri).

[Fatt_Shade]

So if from `start new game` till end we already know all enemy units stats, and how to counter each of them - where is randomness ? Where is planing how to approach harder battles if in advance we know that numbers in enemy army means nothing if we have our desired unit lineup.
Enemy units exp brings new element of surprise and make player adept to each battle, and it all except tedium.

Every playthrough so far (and i did more then 10 on different classes and difficulties) i knew what each enemy unit can/cannot do and that was boring. Only interesting battles after early game (till 10-15 lvl hero) were enemy hero/bosses fights.

In Red sands, and as Mat mentioned his HoMM babies mod enemy unit individual exp bonuses made this game interesting and playable all over again.

As Dir said speed is dangerous bonus for enemy, but also great when your unit get it and it`s totally random, and that is best thing about this series. Playing game and in first battle you find some unit, and in last battle in game you fight same unit with same stats, only by then you`re 60+ lvl, have full inventory, spell book, rage skills. Can some1 tell me how is that challenging ?

And last : How hard is to right click on enemy stack when battle commence to check it`s statistics ? If there is 10 stacks of some unit, they will all have same stats, no need to check each separately.

Only thing devs must fix comparing to red sands is hp bonus. There hp on lvlup was total, and is was common to find thousands of low lvl units (sprites expl) with basic 8hp and +20hp bonus from lvlup = 250% bonus, and on other hand dragons with 1020hp = 2% bonus. In my game i changed it to give same +hp% bonus = low lvl units get 1-2hp/lvlup , and high lvl unist get more depending on their basic hp.

[h0ly_z0mbie]

Is it the same patch for the original game, or its made only for Ice&Fire?

And one more, is valhalla also a DLC? or is it the same like the original? Coz i've seen patch for the "valhalla"

[Sirlancelot]

Yes, of course.

[1darklord]

So 3 months has passed, is this patch still planned?

Daniel.

[Dword]

I hope I'm not double posting -

I play the KBs a lot on Steam but I'm no master and doubt if I'll ever be. I like knowing what to expect on replays and do-overs and I like being rewarded for learning new tactics. This is magnified when starting a new game or trying to stay alive at the lower levels. I never use the scanner to restart to be sure I get the items I want because I like figuring out new ways to advance.

That being said, I can certainly foresee a time when I'm so adept I want to play a certain way with certain items just to see what happens. I can also foresee a time when I'd like tougher enemies as I progressed through games I was very familiar with.

I liked how the Gift Bag kept my interest, but I never could get Red Sands to work. Maybe if I had, I'd have a more definite answer. Optional my be too difficult for the developers but that's my preference. Having to choose yes or no, I'd stick with no, don't change.

PS: I'm really enjoying The Dark Side. For me, it's a different kind of challenge without being overwhelming.