A few simple suggestions for 0.8.2

So far, I love the Succession Wars mod! I play it regularly and I make Youtube and Twitch content based off of it. I have a few suggestions that should be easy to implement for 0.8.2, and here they are:

1: Increase the number of Anubites generated per week in the Dervish castle. They're level 6 creatures and yet they are produced in exactly the same number as the Genies.

2: External dwellings should accumulate creatures. The maps I made for the Succession Wars mod in the past were influenced by the lack of this feature. It also makes it more convenient to recruit creatures from the map, not having to visit the same dwellings every week in order to not miss out on any troops.

3: Fix the necromancer town crash. If you've already done this during development of the upcoming version, disregard my comment. But my game crashes half the time I visit a necromancer town or castle. Even clicking on them causes the game to crash about 20% of the time.

Thanks!

Hello! I guess, that should count more as "wishlist" rather than suggestions, because all of these features are planned.

The Necromancer bug is caused by a memory leak from broken building masks of the townscreen. After a certain moment, hovering the mouse over some of the buildings causes the game to accumulate problems, and then a wide variety of actions will force the user to restart the game.

The only thing I can comment on extensively is the number of Anubites. You see, by the original design it was convenient to provide a very asymmetrical gameplay so that the castles feel very different. It is much harder to balance (and frankly, I doubt it is possible since everyone remembers StarCraft), but it is one of the features that made Heroes 2 so unique in the series. Lore-wise, Anubites are more than equal to Genies, too. It is a minor detail which usually doesn't force anything in Heroes 2 since it was originally created without complex lore, but it is still desirable to keep things that way.

What can be done in future to make Anubites more valuable is fiddling with their statistics.

Orzie wrote:

Hello! I guess, that should count more as "wishlist" rather than suggestions, because all of these features are planned.

The Necromancer bug is caused by a memory leak from broken building masks of the townscreen. After a certain moment, hovering the mouse over some of the buildings causes the game to accumulate problems, and then a wide variety of actions will force the user to restart the game.

The only thing I can comment on extensively is the number of Anubites. You see, by the original design it was convenient to provide a very asymmetrical gameplay so that the castles feel very different. It is much harder to balance (and frankly, I doubt it is possible since everyone remembers StarCraft), but it is one of the features that made Heroes 2 so unique in the series. Lore-wise, Anubites are more than equal to Genies, too. It is a minor detail which usually doesn't force anything in Heroes 2 since it was originally created without complex lore, but it is still desirable to keep things that way.

What can be done in future to make Anubites more valuable is fiddling with their statistics.

Oh, sweet! Great to hear. I've also had issues with obelisks that sometimes cause the game to crash. I wonder if they're related to the Necromancer bug.

I will use this topic to suggest something.

I don't know exactly how you planed magic stuff for next versions, but imo, if a Hero has a specialty into a spell... Using this spell must always cost less than ANY others heroes, and to be more efficient than ANY others heroes of the same level/MagicPower.

In the actual 0.8.1, "Specialty: Sorcery" is way muuuch more better than any spell speciality.

Suggestion: Specialty: 1spell, gives the hero a -1 cost x Hero level. (so, at lvl1 it costs 1 less already), and maybe something like "double efficiency".
Then, when this hero reach the necessary level, he will be able to cast his special spell without any mana. (or could even give him back some mana? )

It is an interesting idea, but personally I would rather that heroes with specialty in a certain spell is casting this spell only with increased effect rather than at a lower cost. This bonus should be enough and will prevent unwanted situations like a level 10 hero casting lightning bolt every turn (with double power!) even though he is out of mana. Bonus only to the effect of the spell will also keep the hero's other spells relevant as enemies may only be cursed once or lightning bolt still dealing more single target damage than a specialized fireball.

I think that the problem is not that hero spell specialties are too weak, but sorcery is (way!) too strong in the current version. Personally, I believe it must be lowered to around 10/20/30% instead of the current 33/66/75% increase in spell damage. There are lots of videos on Youtube with people rushing through a map because of the immense bonus in spell damage and this is of course not intended. Sorcery should be a valid pick if you want to focus on spell damage, but it should never be a obvious choice over any other skill.

Yes, maybe allowing to cast it for free is a bit too much

Sir Albe wrote:

I think that the problem is not that hero spell specialties are too weak, but sorcery is (way!) too strong in the current version. Personally, I believe it must be lowered to around 10/20/30% instead of the current 33/66/75% increase in spell damage.

I totally agree about lowering the 33/66/75% down to around 10/20/30% <3

Then, how could it be possible to make "hero offensive-damage spell specialties" being better than "hero Sorcery specialty" for the given spell?
If sorcery specialty is kept at 5%/LVL, spell specialty should get at least 10%/LVL
I mean, the Spell specialty damage bonus should be at least twice than the Sorcery specialty damage bonus.

In my mind, if a hero has for specialty "Cold Ray", this hero's Cold Ray should be somewhat particularly strong.

Or maybe get a freezing ability or any 2nd side effect?
If we go this way, I could easily imagine that lightning bolt specialty could get a 2% chance/LVL to transform into the multi-lightning spell.
Magic Arrow specialty could get a 3%/LVL to be casted twice (the second autocast on the same target is free of course).
Fire ball specialty could maybe get a 1/LVL burn effect (not implemented in the game xD) * number of creatures in the stack.

Ahhh.. Many ideas came from dreaming

Heroes that specialize in a particular damage spell should have a clear advantage over heroes with sorcery specialty. Maybe I can illustrate it with an example:

Say we have two necromancer heroes, Mefista, who is a Magic Arrow specialist and dear, ol' Sandro who specializes in sorcery.

Mefista's specialty makes her magic arrow deal +50% of the standard damage and Sandro receives a +5% bonus to his sorcery skill. Please note that this is an increase to the sorcery skill percentage and not an added bonus to the sorcery skill (At level 1 Sandro' sorcery damage bonus will be 10% (let's assume this value for basic sorcery)*(1*0.05+1) = 10,5%. I cannot remember if this value is rounded up or down, but let's just assume it is rounded up to 11% for Sandro's sake. That means that Sandro's magic arrow will deal 11% more damage than default, but only 1% of this comes from sorcery. On the other hand Mefista's magic arrow deals 50% more from level 1, which is of course a much better deal.

However, sorcery applies to all damage spells which means that Sandro might be a more dangerous spellcaster in the long run as he learns new spells. Mefista is still stuck with her bonus on only a single (low level) spell. Furthermore, as Sandro levels up his specialty becomes stronger. Let's assume he has gain expert sorcery (30% damage bonus) and reached level 20 (which is the level were the effect of sorcery doubles (20*0,05+1=2)), then all Sandro's damage spells deal 60% more than default, but only 30% of this is due to his specialty. Mefista (and all other heroes) would also be able to gain sorcery and increase their spell damage. Thus, I believe it is a pretty balanced system, but the exact values of sorcery, spell specialists and so on may need to be adjusted over time

Always a pleasure to discuss with you @Sir Albe

If I understand well, in our case of Mefista the specialist of Magic Arrow, the bonus is a flat +50% that do not evolve as the hero gains more Levels.
Meaning in the long run, s-he will be "even more" useless.
I hope I understood wrong
Mefista with the +30% sorcery, would gain +80% damage, whatever she is lvl 5 or 20 or 30... For only 1 spell.
So I hope I misunderstood      

But in this case, Sandro might be will be a more dangerous spellcaster. No doubt about that.

Especially because there is only 1 spell boosted for 1spell-specialists, this spell should be around twice strong at level 1... But I would prefer a flat reduction of the cost in fact.. It would become meaningful to pick such hero in early game!  
Plus gaining around +10%/level. => Each 10 levels the power of the spell gain +100%.

I mean, it's a magic hero, with a specialty to this very dedicated spell. If it's a damage spell, why such hero would cast another spell? (spell of same amount of targets).

In fact, I hope that in v0.8.2+, when a player pick a "1 spell specialist" hero as main hero, he will use this dedicated spell much more than others spells.

You too, dear GodRage

It is absolutely correct that Mefista will be better in the early part of the game compared to Sandro and vice versa.

If Mefista got expert sorcery her magic arrow would deal 150%*1.30=195%. That means Mefista's magic arrow would almost deal double damage compared to a hero without specialty or sorcery regardless of her level (if she somehow could get exp sorcery without leveling up).

Sandro's strength of magic arrow (and other dmg spells) depend on his level. For his magic arrow to deal 195% more than default he would need to reach level 44(!). Thus Sandro's magic arrow will only be as strong as Mefista's in a very, very, very long game which is not occurring very often. A benefit of sorcery is obviously that it applies to all spells, which (as said before) make it better in the late part of the game.

To sum up:
Mefista, specialised in one spell, strong early on and in mid-game
Sandro, specialised in damage spells, getting stronger as the game progresses

Sandro will have Sorcery from lvl 1. (in basic, at least), so, from lvl 1 he will be more useful than any "spell-cialist" (Haha xD) that do not have Sorcery in his just-recruited form. Sandro will do a bit less damage than a spellcialist ( ) for this given spell, but, com'on! he gets his bonus over all dangerous spells! At level 3~5 I would consider Sandro is stronger than a spellcialist

So, for me, this:

Sir Albe wrote:

It is absolutely correct that Mefista will be better in the early part of the game compared to Sandro and vice versa.

is kind of right AND wrong
Mefista will be a bit better in early, for very small maps without that much XP to make. But on any other map, Sandro will be much better. Picking Mefista will result in loosing versus an opponent whom took Sandro or Alamar (I prefer Alamar xD)

Comparing the spellcialist with a hero without sorcery doesn't really helps me ^^
But, I didn't really knew that it is: Spellcialist bonus * Sorcery

Hmmm... The important question is:
Spellcialist has and will always have a flat +x% bonus?
If yes, then spellcialists are rushers. Just rush the game to the enemy. xD The latest the worst!

Btw, the "more effective on weaker troops" always made me wonder why I would like to waste my magic points on less dangerous creatures?

GodRage wrote:

Sandro will have Sorcery from lvl 1. (in basic, at least), so, from lvl 1 he will be more useful than any "spell-cialist" (Haha xD) that do not have Sorcery in his just-recruited form. Sandro will do a bit less damage than a spellcialist ( ) for this given spell, but, com'on! he gets his bonus over all dangerous spells! At level 3~5 I would consider Sandro is stronger than a spellcialist

That depends on how you look on it. Spell damage isn't everything and if you look on starting secondary skills as well as the specialty then it is true Sandro will deal about 11% (as mentioned earlier) with his damage spells than other heroes. But don't forget that the other heroes have another secondary skill which may benefit them to a certain degree.

GodRage wrote:

Mefista will be a bit better in early, for very small maps without that much XP to make. But on any other map, Sandro will be much better. Picking Mefista will result in loosing versus an opponent whom took Sandro or Alamar (I prefer Alamar xD)

Sometimes this may be the case, other times not. Keep in mind that Mefista's strong starting spell makes it a lot easier for her to take out neutral stacks which can lead to a snowball effect. Other heroes usually don't start with a damage spell, so Sandro for instance, would have to spend his first turn on a mage guild to (most likely) get magic arrow or a similar spell. In the meantime Mefista could use this opportunity to buy a dwelling instead to further increase her strong start. And again, spell damage may not be enough to win a game that has reached the late stage - maybe Dimension Door or Town Portal will be more important and these are not affected by sorcery in anyway.

GodRage wrote:

Hmmm... The important question is:
Spellcialist has and will always have a flat +x% bonus?
If yes, then spellcialists are rushers. Just rush the game to the enemy. xD The latest the worst!

Btw, the "more effective on weaker troops" always made me wonder why I would like to waste my magic points on less dangerous creatures?

As said, it is not cartain that things will stay as they are in the current mod version. Maybe we will find another way to implement things like spell specialist which makes the spell bonus stronger as the hero levels up.