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the trailer made it seem like a very budget and outdated they are billions clone so i dont have high hopes for it
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Dec 17, 2019 16:06
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Ah, I have some good memories of playing Heroes 3 as a kid, I think it's one of the earlier games I really got into. I don't think I ever managed to quite finish it since the expected way to play seemed to be losing very few units and building up a steam roller death mob, but I still had a lot of fun. I remember spells being pretty important, but mostly gravitating towards the blaster spells, since, will, 12 year old. My favorite alignment was probably the dungeon - they had the best dragons and the Minotaur Kings also kicked rear end. I really liked how thematic each faction felt, distinct while all of them still fitting together nicely.
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Dec 17, 2019 16:32
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To be more specific, Eador has some of the same assumptions that Heroes does, but it's just more difficult in most respects- units are now individuals, but all tiers of units have value and can get XP- heroes now move on the map and have attacks(and some heroes are very good at this). The building's a lot more complicated, the map's a province map- heroes get equipped with all forms of equipment. This is Eador's full building list from the latest entry in the series. Thankfully, you only actually manage one city as such- only a few things get built in the provinces, usually just to let your heroes gas back up with recruiting or buying items.
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Dec 17, 2019 16:35
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For what it's worth, I actually really like the Ubisoft Heroes 5. It's probably my second favourite after HOMM 3. The Heroes 5: Tribes of the East standalone is like $5 on most sales and totally worth it.
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Dec 17, 2019 20:56
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Panzeh posted:To be more specific, Eador has some of the same assumptions that Heroes does, but it's just more difficult in most respects- units are now individuals, but all tiers of units have value and can get XP- heroes now move on the map and have attacks(and some heroes are very good at this). The building's a lot more complicated, the map's a province map- heroes get equipped with all forms of equipment. I always think of Eador:Genesis as Heroes of Might and Magic, but leaner. You only have one proper city, that can only build one upgrade a turn. A starting army is the hero and 2-3 of his buddies from back on the farm. A single dragon is going to kill at least one unit, if not your entire army. Just forget about hiring adventurers to deal with a dragon, they are lying or suicidally foolhardy. Using the rewind turn feature to figure out how to win tough fights with one hitpoint and no stamina left is the best. Even if it is terrible as a long term strategy. Unless you go full evil... Tips: Unless you are going full evil start with the scout. Most fights have one unit that you really want to kill first, which the scout excels at. Especially if you go double scout to become a sniper. Always haste your hero. Stamina is a killer. Always hire fairy mercenaries.
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Dec 17, 2019 21:21
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DarthRoblox posted:Ah, I have some good memories of playing Heroes 3 as a kid, I think it's one of the earlier games I really got into. I don't think I ever managed to quite finish it since the expected way to play seemed to be losing very few units and building up a steam roller death mob, but I still had a lot of fun. That is a bit of a go-to strategy, but it's really frustrating on some of the harder campaign missions to spend ages building up a massive army only to find out the enemy has an even bigger one hiding at the end of the map. I will admit that there are some campaigns I've only beaten by cheating. quote:My favorite alignment was probably the dungeon - they had the best dragons and the Minotaur Kings also kicked rear end. I really liked how thematic each faction felt, distinct while all of them still fitting together nicely. I always flip-flop between favourite alignments, but that's one of the strengths of the game to me. I kind of wish that the Forge town had made it into the final game. That was a sci-fi themed town that was planned since some of the Might and Magic games had gotten into weird sci-fi places but was ultimately canned. StrixNebulosa posted:Have you played the Eador games? No but I should give them a go
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Dec 17, 2019 21:59
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I legit think that Heroes V gets a bad rap, and I don't know why. It's basically a bigger HoMM3 to me, with more unique mechanics per race.
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Dec 17, 2019 22:01
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Eador is a really cool and good spin on the HoMM genre, but it does have a bit of a slow pace to it (even by turn-based game standards). Go into it with a chillout mindset, like you would into a city builder, except instead of making things pretty you murder goblins and dragons.
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Dec 17, 2019 23:08
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That was a great HOMM writeup, thanks. For the first time I'm looking at playing HOMM but also eyeballing the Eador series. All the games that sorta look like that have a Euro fantasy map look to them and it's hard for me to tell what's good and what ain't. Even when they were on US store shelves in the late 90's and early 00's, they just blended in with generic RPGs that I had no way of telling which were good or bad, so I'd just hunt for the next FPS. But these days they look like bright warm blankets to wrap myself in during the winter months. What I'm also saying is, more detailed writeups of strategy games are most welcome.
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Dec 18, 2019 01:10
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No worries, it was fun to do. At least where I am, GOG.com has 75% off all Heroes games (up to Heroes V) until January 2nd so now's as good a time as any to get them.
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Dec 18, 2019 02:31
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In a similar vein there's Conquest of Elysium 4 by the Dominions devs, which is sort of like a very stripped down HOMM/Master of Magic version of Dominions. https://store.steampowered.com/app/403950/Conquest_of_Elysium_4/ There was a thread on here a while back with some starter tips: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3751296
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Dec 18, 2019 09:31
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I loved HoMM as a kid. These days, I find Dominions does every part of it better, but I still remember it fondly. I always liked II better than III. Mostly for aesthetic reasons, I guess- I will grudgingly admit III played better, and had more variety in towns and units, but the pre-rendered art is grotesque next to II's gorgeous hand-drawn sprite work. And the towns... So, III has more town types, but I feel like their theming is... narrower? Flatter? Like: Sorceress in II has a mix of fairies and other magical creatures, dwarves and elves, and druids. It gets all the fairytale stuff, generally. In III, this has been split into Rampart, which is just a "elves and allied wilderness beings" town, and Conflux, which is ELEMENTALS ELEMENTALS ELEMENTALS ELEMENTALS ELEMENTALS. Wizard has an eclectic mix of wizards, Greco-Roman giants, golems, giant birds, hobbits and... pigs. There is a sense that the mages, while they have solid options for mid and high-tier, have had to grab whatever is to hand to fill out the other half of their roster. They're wizards, they're not really prepared to fight a war- and they're particularly weak on foot soldiers. In III, the boars, birds and hobbits are out and the Tower is straightforwardly a "wizards and the poo poo they conjure" faction. In particular they lose the roc to the Stronghold, apparently on the basis that... the Stronghold is the "bare rock" faction? I don't know. Stronghold is the continuation of II's Barbarian, which was a mostly uncomplicated greenskins and wolves job, but had some neat touches- like the cyclopes, who lived in a giant glowing pyramid and shot paralytic laser beams from their eyes. The Stronghold's cyclops is just a brute, a sack of hit points that lives in a cave and throws stones, and its top unit is the behemoth, a fuzzy... thing that suggests nothing in particular. Stronghold is boring. The Warlock is probably the most hard done by, as their creatures get split four different ways and they have no clear descendent. While admittedly their line up is a grab bag in II it works as a sort of dark reflection of the Wizard- a collection of fierce beasts, animate statues and more traditionally evil-aligned fantasy races roped together by some dark magician. In III the centaur goes to the Rampart, because wild. The hydra goes to the Fortress, because swamp. The griffin goes to the Castle, because heraldry. The minotaur and the dragon go to the Dungeon, because cave. And, in the greatest crime of all, the Gargoyle is nowhere to be found. Rest in peace, stony-winged friend. And now, because this is an incoherent rant, I'm going to complain that broadening a theme weakened a faction. The Knight in II is just the "poor dumb human bastard" crew. Their basic infantry is the peasant, a hilariously lovely unit that excels only in dying. Where other factions get dragons, thunderbolt-throwing giants, phoenixes, the Knight's top-tier unit is... a guy who swords real good. And he swords real goddamn good, but he's still just some guy. There's not a single unit in the roster that's in anyway magical, mystical or mythical. In III the Castle dilutes this with griffins, magic-throwing monks, and angels. It is no longer distinct from the other factions in its mundanity. The Necropolis, you know, it's fine. I wish they'd have kept the mummy but it's hard to gently caress up the undead.
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Dec 18, 2019 11:22
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KOGAHAZAN!! posted:And, in the greatest crime of all, the Gargoyle is nowhere to be found. Rest in peace, stony-winged friend. Tower, second rank. They'll stay there for V. Speaking of HOMM V, there's a mod (or two?) - ports the original+HOTF campaigns to tribes, better AI. I'll try to find it when I get home.
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Dec 18, 2019 12:18
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Lichtenstein posted:Eador is a really cool and good spin on the HoMM genre, but it does have a bit of a slow pace to it (even by turn-based game standards). Go into it with a chillout mindset, like you would into a city builder, except instead of making things pretty you murder goblins and dragons. Also don't play on the highest difficulties because you're funneled into one kind of strategy on that level of difficulty. There's a big stand alone mod for Genesis that can be played for free and is somewhat stable. A lot of the little things it does for balance helps the game out a lot- for example, merc units are now tier 1.5 units instead of just normal units but more expensive.
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Dec 18, 2019 14:35
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Heroes of might and magic V - content pack mediafire link (Where I found it - can't recall where in SA it was originally)
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Dec 18, 2019 20:27
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Gun Jam posted:Heroes of might and magic V - content pack Assuming it's the same thing, that's a very depreciated version. Latest is https://www.moddb.com/mods/might-magic-heroes-55/downloads/mmh55-rc13
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Dec 18, 2019 20:50
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Mordja posted:Assuming it's the same thing, that's a very depreciated version. Latest is https://www.moddb.com/mods/might-magic-heroes-55/downloads/mmh55-rc13 It is not. Yours, 5.5, is an unofficial expansion pack ; Mine is just porting original+first expansion campaigns to latest, standalone expansion + bugfixes and AI improvement.
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Dec 18, 2019 20:55
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KOGAHAZAN!! posted:I loved HoMM as a kid. These days, I find Dominions does every part of it better, but I still remember it fondly. You know, I think those are all valid criticisms. Heroes III is still my favourite, but II is a pretty close second and there are reasons I still go back to it. Admittedly nostalgia is one, but thinking about it I kind of agree that the eclectic nature of the II towns were a bit more flavourful than the more tightly focused towns in III. They kind of went back to that in IV, going from eight alignments to six and having the Stronghold/Barbarian faction eschew magic altogether, but a lot of other things were changed up in IV too, like the Necropolis taking some of the Inferno units from III. One thing I like about IV is that peasants will give you one gold per day in tax, giving you a reason to actually buy them! Also, FYI, the mummy is in III, but only in the Armageddon's Blade expansion and only as a neutral creature.
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Dec 18, 2019 21:30
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Anybody mind commenting on the Spellforce series of RTS-RPG hybrids? I've had them wishlisted for forever but have never bitten the bullet on any of the games.
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Dec 20, 2019 02:45
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I'm an RTS philistine who mostly enjoys playing with toy soldiers in singleplayer, always selects "if you're conscious you're good" difficulty and doesn't even know what APM means. Favorites are CoH and MoW. Will Steel Division 2 appeal to me? And is Sudden Strike 4 good now?
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Dec 20, 2019 11:25
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Along those lines anyone mind commenting on Disciples? I’ve only played Disciples II, which struck me as an interesting cross between HoMM and Ogre Battle. Disciples III wasn’t that well received but there are enough differently subtitled versions (and sales) I wonder if I should give either them or 1 a try. If you like card games and homm there is the Etherlords series. Etherlords II is the better game but it is a bit less strategy and a bit more RPG (with a single party focus that makes decks a lot less of a hassle to keep up).
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Dec 20, 2019 17:01
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C.M. Kruger posted:Anybody mind commenting on the Spellforce series of RTS-RPG hybrids? I've had them wishlisted for forever but have never bitten the bullet on any of the games. To add onto this, specifically 3 and Soul Harvest. Reviews seem to suggest that Soul Harvest is an overall better game with QOL improvements but if they brought those improvements to the base game is it worth getting 3 still or should I get just Soul Harvest? How is the RTS aspect of it?
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Dec 20, 2019 17:51
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GhostDog posted:I'm an RTS philistine who mostly enjoys playing with toy soldiers in singleplayer, always selects "if you're conscious you're good" difficulty and doesn't even know what APM means. Favorites are CoH and MoW. Have you checked out Zero-K ? It is a free RTS available on steam. It got a huge amount of units, things blow up real good, and you can make hordes upon hordes of cheap units or huge death robots, and build map altering superweapons like the planetary chisel that you can use to carve a chasm right across the map. (Or a big dingus if thats your thing) It got a very decent AI, the easy setting is fun to play with and its not difficult at all. It also has a big campaign that eases you into all of the strategies and mechanics the game has to offer via clever mission objectives.
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Dec 20, 2019 19:28
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GyverMac posted:Have you checked out Zero-K ? It is a free RTS available on steam. It got a huge amount of units, things blow up real good, and you can make hordes upon hordes of cheap units or huge death robots, and build map altering superweapons like the planetary chisel that you can use to carve a chasm right across the map. (Or a big dingus if thats your thing) That looks like literally freeware "Total Annihilation".
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Dec 20, 2019 19:43
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It is! It's built on the Spring engine:https://springrts.com/wiki/History posted:The Spring engine is inspired by the game "Total Annihilation" (TA) by Cavedog Entertainment. TA, released in 1997 is the best RTS ("Real Time Strategy") game "of all time" according to Gamespy.
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Dec 20, 2019 20:15
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i've tried every spellforce but i always thought both the rpg and the rts sides were too shallow to really enjoy. both parts consisted mostly of attack moving and throwing a few incredibly powerful hero moves to beat everything
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Dec 20, 2019 20:17
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Counterpoint: I really hate how Spring engine games "feel." They're just so janky and weightless compared to TA.
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Dec 20, 2019 20:17
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Mordja posted:Counterpoint: I really hate how Spring engine games "feel." They're just so janky and weightless compared to TA. I also don’t like full 3D cameras in RTS games, which is a heavy burden to bear
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Dec 20, 2019 20:27
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Oh, I do think a lot of Spring's automated UI stuff is great tho, like selecting an area for your constructors to automatically build/upgrade Mexes.
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Dec 20, 2019 20:38
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Did anyone ever play Supreme Commander 2? I never got around to it since that was a real busy time in my life. But I did love SupCom 1, probably my favourite strategy game ever that I wish I hadn't misplaced my CDs for. I still get an itch to play an RTS every once in a while and am fairly open to experimenting, but I don't know if they ever made anything similar to SupCom 1.
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Dec 20, 2019 20:47
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mortons stork posted:Did anyone ever play Supreme Commander 2? I never got around to it since that was a real busy time in my life. But I did love SupCom 1, probably my favourite strategy game ever that I wish I hadn't misplaced my CDs for. I still get an itch to play an RTS every once in a while and am fairly open to experimenting, but I don't know if they ever made anything similar to SupCom 1. It’s insanely simplistic in comparison. It can be fun for a LAN party romp but it has practically zero depth.
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Dec 20, 2019 20:48
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mortons stork posted:Did anyone ever play Supreme Commander 2? I never got around to it since that was a real busy time in my life. But I did love SupCom 1, probably my favourite strategy game ever that I wish I hadn't misplaced my CDs for. I still get an itch to play an RTS every once in a while and am fairly open to experimenting, but I don't know if they ever made anything similar to SupCom 1. You can get SupCom 1 and Forged Alliance together for like $5 on Steam right now.
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Dec 20, 2019 20:59
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Warlords battlecry 3 is the best pick if you want rpg/rts/tbs
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Dec 20, 2019 21:01
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FastestGunAlive posted:Warlords battlecry 3 is the best pick if you want rpg/rts/tbs There's a big, standalone fan-expansion for it too that you can check out for free. https://www.moddb.com/games/the-protectors
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Dec 20, 2019 21:07
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Sneaking onto GOG under the cover of the winter sale is Submarine Titans: https://www.gog.com/game/submarine_titans LordSloth posted:Along those lines anyone mind commenting on Disciples? I’ve only played Disciples II, which struck me as an interesting cross between HoMM and Ogre Battle. I've only ever played 2 ages and ages ago (like back before GOG launched, via a jewel case release my dad got at Staples) but I've heard that the "most fixed" version of 3 is Reincarnation. Davincie posted:i've tried every spellforce but i always thought both the rpg and the rts sides were too shallow to really enjoy. both parts consisted mostly of attack moving and throwing a few incredibly powerful hero moves to beat everything Well that's a bit of a shame. More on the "turn off your brain" side of things then.
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Dec 21, 2019 00:11
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Mordja posted:There's a big, standalone fan-expansion for it too that you can check out for free. https://www.moddb.com/games/the-protectors Thanks I’ll have to check it out. The base game has so many race/class options, it’ll be interesting to see what these folks have added
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Dec 21, 2019 00:18
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Fallom posted:It’s insanely simplistic in comparison. It can be fun for a LAN party romp but it has practically zero depth. As someone with a pathetic amount of experience with the genre, would it too far off base to say that it's kinda like a SupCom-flavored C&C clone? Because that's the vibe I got back when I played the demo a million years ago.
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Dec 21, 2019 00:29
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Anyone tried Unity of Command II? I remember enjoying the first one.
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Dec 21, 2019 03:47
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Fallom posted:It’s insanely simplistic in comparison. It can be fun for a LAN party romp but it has practically zero depth. Awww, that's a bummer. Guess it's time to get hunting for my CDs. Still, maybe there's some newer games made in that mold? Are there even development studios that focus on RTS? Like maybe Petroglyph and the like, assuming they're still in business.
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Dec 21, 2019 08:09
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C.M. Kruger posted:Well that's a bit of a shame. More on the "turn off your brain" side of things then. There's some fun to be had in the game, but you kind of have to look for it/force it. Like playing with the character progression - there are some neat types of builds you can make, and a lot of stuff to find around the parts of the world. Sometimes you hit the right balance and the map can be kind of interesting for a while. But there is a lot of the time that you're just blasting away with the same thing. There are literally times where, if you're stuck and need to grind/farm XP, it's advisable to build a static defense base and let the game run for hours on its own. Apparently if you go the might route you can actually solo a lot of maps and almost avoid the RTS entirely. Back on HOMM, it's interesting to realize that in the first game, the stand-alone scenarios are where it's at, and the campaign was sort of a weaker afterthought. I think this may reflect the thinking from most strategy games at the time, where setting up an interesting puzzle was really what the designer wanted to explore. Telling a story while gradually teaching the player the game wasn't quite a fully developed concept then.
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Dec 21, 2019 09:10
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