You knew it was coming... favorite Heroes game

[Yurian Stonebow]

UndeadHalfOrc, I haven't modded Heroes III or touched its files in any way. Though I must admit that the thought has crossed my mind. There are some nuisances still left in the game after latest SoD patch. Eagle Eye skill is perhaps the top-ranking. It's basicly useless.

Anyways, I don't know coding or other software tricks so I stick with Heroes III Complete with its version 4.0.

I have tried WoG but found it to be anything but a balance mod, in fact it seems more appropriate to describe it as "Revolution Mod". There are simply too many far reaching changes in Wog for me to enjoy the exprience. What I found to be what I was looking for in the Wake of Gods was rearrangements of skills and some changes in existing units. For example, adjustments in Eagle Eye, Mysticism and Sorcery were quite nice. Also limiting weekly Phoenix growth to 2 instead of 4 was much needed and sensible.

I will download your patch and have a look on it. I can assure you that I appreciate already your hard work with testing the patch. Indeed no product of quality can be made without numerous checks and fixes. Perhaps I could ask you to try some of my H3 maps in exchange





Yurian

[Humakt]

Heroes of Might and Magic 2

I started the series with this game. I did like it but I don't remember being that fondly of it (IMO Heroes 1 & 2 still loses to excellent Warlords 2 Deluxe" in playablity)

+ Cartoonish Graphic Style
+ Non-linear campaign (thought I'd wish we've had real military campaign like in Warlords Battlecry 2 or much more story oriented like in Disciples 2)
+ AI (but thruthfully it was only decent because game was otherwise rather simple)
+ Some Music was good....
- .... but rest sounded like (quality) midis.
- Portraits
- Combat too simple especially compared to later HoMM's

Heroes of Might and Magic 3

This was the game that really got me into HoMM's and mapmaking.

+ Combat System was a huge improvement over HoMM 2 (especially Tactics was nice improvement)
+ Numerous adventure objects
+ Heroes had special skills (thought wish they were more balanced)
+ Map and Campaign Editor
+ Eight (nine) sides and players
+ Solid expansion in Armageddon's Blade (RMG, new town)
+ Town screens looked good
- Terrible combat AI
- Other expansions were waste of money and space
- Conflux was very unbalanced (there were other balance problems, but not as obvious (except maybe gremlin rush))

Heroes of Might and Magic 4

Despite buggy initial release (thought it wasn't as bad for non-americans) this was in my opinion great game since the very beginning that only got better with upcoming patches and Equilibris mod.

+ Great map editor with scripting system
+ Gorgeous adventure map graphic
+ Numerous adventure map objects
+ Very good combat system
+ Solid portraits
+ Heroes in combat
+ Lots of different spells
+ Caravans
+ Skill system
+ Nice adventure map music
+ Good combat AI (excluding sieges)
- Difficulty system flawed/bugged
- Initial release
- Expansion packs are worthless
- Adventure map AI buggy/bad and needs help to be competitive
- Balance problems (fixed by Equilibris)
- Death faction rather dull

Heroes of Might and Magic 5

+ Best animation in the series
+ Great unit graphics
+ Great expansion packs
+ Music is nice
+ Some nice town screens (especially Haven)
+ Heroes had special skills (thought wish they were more balanced)
+ Skill system
- Too few spells
- Map editor
- Scenarios are a lot smaller
- Initiative system needs some workaround
- Fewer adventure map objects

My choice is Heroes 4.

[okrane]

Heroes 4 all the way. I just love heroes in combat

And agree with the post above. Although I would like to say that all these games were nice at their time and it's hard to compare them...

I would rather say I am a HOMM lover...

[ThunderTitan]

Heroes of Might and Magic 2

- Portraits

Eat your tongue out... the improvement in resolution didn't even come close to replacing how cool H1&2 portraits where from a "rotten teeth, bad hair etc" point of view.

Heroes of Might and Magic 5

+ Best animation in the series
+ Great unit graphics

Now this i wonder how will fare the test of time. Frankly i find neither very impressing, even if each unit probably has more movements/animation then in previous games, quantity isn't quality.

[Darmani]

Heroes of Might and Magic 5

+ Best animation in the series
+ Great unit graphics

Now this i wonder how will fare the test of time. Frankly i find neither very impressing, even if each unit probably has more movements/animation then in previous games, quantity isn't quality.

No, HoMM V definitely has better quality of graphics. However, I personally like to separate graphics and art, where graphics is all the shaders and reflections and 3D stuff you have (basically the technology of the visuals), and art is, well, how good it looks. IMHO HoMM V has excellent graphics and mediocre art.

[ThunderTitan]

Only if you consider 3D > 2D... from a visual PoV 3D only recently has started not to look blocky and rough.

[Ohma]

Voted HoMM 2. Yeah, mostly for nostalgia reasons, I was too young to really grok 1 when my parents bought it, and 2 was the first game that my parents and I installed on our (then) new laptop, so we got to play hot seat games at the coast when it was to stormy to enjoy the beach.

But I do also feel that 2 did have more character (as other people have mentioned) than the other games, mostly because it *was* cartoony, and the factions were much more differentiated from each other than in 1.

I'd rank each game accordingly.

2: Still simplistic enough to get newbies into a game in just a few turns, but complex enough for each game to present different challenges, great art direction and atmosphere, balance for a few factions is still a problem though.

3: *SOLID* game play, some welcome changes to old game mechanics (I liked the backpack for artifacts), mostly good art direction, setting could've been a bit less obviously tied to the M&M franchise (though I may be alone in thinking that that is a problem).

1: Fun (even after about 11 years), simple enough to just jump in without needing too much help, but perhaps a bit *too* simple, factions aren't very well defined, balance issues, charming art direction.

5: Nice art direction (even if it does borrow too much from other popular fantasy games *cough* WoW *cough cough* Warhammer), balance issues, bugs, DESPERATLY wants you to know all about its setting for some reason (which I find annoying), way too few multiplayer maps, map editor is a piece of dren.

4: A few interesting/welcome game play changes (secondary skills, flaggable windmills, the caravan), a lot of annoying ones (moving creature stacks, heroes in combat), terrible art direction (like they just had someone rig a few models in Maya and called it good).

[UndeadHalfOrc]

Ohma, that's a great analysis. I agree pretty much to everything you just said about each game.

And I agree, H2's strongest point over H3 is more different factions, and with my new H2 custom balance patch, it's more fun than ever (I just completed my first H2 game in years with that balance patch, it was me, (a Necro vs the other 5 factions, all allied against me. A blast to play). Simplest and easiest change is to change Dragon and Titan growth to 2 instead of 3 ( though I did a lot of tweaking). All that's left to do is tweak the spell appearance in guilds.

[ThunderTitan]

moving creature stacks

You know that one could be turned ON and OFF, right?

[Metathron]

moving creature stacks

You know that one could be turned ON and OFF, right?

Yes, but even with that option, neutral stacks would still move about, especially when one of those Month (or is it week?) of the... spawnings occured, and having to watch those creatures move aimlessly can be very frustrating. Not sure if that's what Ohma was referring to, or if he simply wasn't aware of that button, but there you have it.

[Gaidal Cain]

Actually, it depends on the mapmaker: if he's choosen to let the monsters move, they will, no matter what option you've choosen. Month of spawns probably inherits the setting from the stack whose place they took.

[Ohma]

You know that one could be turned ON and OFF, right?

Really?

Gorram, it would've been nice to have found that before...may have lost a few less level 1 heroes...

[ThunderTitan]

You know that one could be turned ON and OFF, right?

Really?

Oh yeah... nothing annoyed me more then realizing i forgot to turn wondering monsters off because i was in a hurry.

Actually, it depends on the mapmaker: if he's chosen to let the monsters move, they will, no matter what option you've chosen.

Haven't played that many custom maps... but methinks that it would have been better if mapmakers could just gray out the button if they wanted to force it, so at least you'd know about it.

[Darmani]

Only if you consider 3D > 2D... from a visual PoV 3D only recently has started not to look blocky and rough.

No, not at all. I'd still count blocky, rough, and horrible-looking 3D over, say, Secrets of Mana (considered the best-looking SNES game). If you want 2D that's more high-tech than 3D - well, you can try comparing dynamic changing 2D graphics (ala New! Super Mario Bros. DS) to wireframe or vector based 3D (such as in the classic game Elite). Once you get a little closer it becomes hard to call the 2D effects more high-tech than 3D.

Either way, H5's visuals are definitely far technologically superior to the rest of the series.

[ThunderTitan]

Either way, H5's visuals are definitely far technologically superior to the rest of the series.

Yeah, but i don't consider that a plus on it's own...

[Darmani]

Either way, H5's visuals are definitely far technologically superior to the rest of the series.

Yeah, but i don't consider that a plus on it's own...

Did I ever say I did? Heck, with all those trees blocking my view, I'd consider it more of a minus.

[ThunderTitan]

Sorry, my original post was about the visuals part of the graphics (the one not influenced by the art), not the technical one. I separate even more then you.

[Pitsu]

Oh yeah... nothing annoyed me more then realizing i forgot to turn wondering monsters off because i was in a hurry.

It makes me wonder what did the monsters wonder about and why was it so annoying.

[ThunderTitan]

They wondered about the wonders of having wonders built...

Now excuse me while i wander off in search of enlightenment.

[danijel1990]

I couldn't decide from HoMM 3 & HoMM 2, but in the end I voted for H3, yeah I had played H2 for 3,4 years (and was my favourite game, until the 3rd Heroes came out), but because of the WoG and all other great mods and patches, I voted for H3