The 5 Most Important Things To Fix?

[Kalah]

I've been asked by the developers to set up this topic, to gather some feedback on what you think are the most needed fixes. Keep it short and sweet, and you have about a week to respond.

What do you think are the 5 most important things to work on?

Below is the original text from the developer:

Remember we are going to continue to support the game. There will be more 'official' posts soon regarding future support patches, what to expect in them and whatever else.

To that end what I would like to see is a thread with your personal top 5 changes or fixes to H7 you want to see that you think will make the game better for everyone. I don't want really small details or super specific stuff, and remember what you're picking, If relevant will be presented in our feedback meeting next week so we can make some changes. An example list;

1) Council hub scene improved
2) Memory leaks gone
3) More color saturation or options to change/choose how it looks
4) Better combat AI
5) More content

Something like this. You can put a little explanation as to why you picked something if you like but all i'm trying to do is a get a general consensus among many communities.
This will be relevant to me until Monday 26th so I have a day to gather everything and make a fancy looking report.

The topic will be kept clean.

[Madaxe]

For me, I am enjoying the game and still discovering the current factions/skills/spells. So, as of right now, most of my list is on things affecting my ability to play the game to it's fullest as of right now. Once I have played the game more, then things like # of spells per school, etc, would become bigger issues:

1) Performance/Memory - slow loading screens, choppy performance and the occasional lock up due to memory starvation/swapping
2) Multiplayer - Out of Sync issues and full Simultaneous turns. Can't even play one turn because of sync issues. Once I CAN play, I want real Sim turns. No having to wait during other players battles.
3) AI - Winning too often when I shouldn't or should take much heavier losses. The AI seems to have a decent army at times, but poor battle AI and adventure map AI cripple the challenge. I should be losing on Heroic at this point of my game experience. It should also clear out the neutrals better. Very happy about the AI turn speed though!
4) Bugs - seems lots of things just don't work like they should. Abilities, spells, artifacts,Tear of Asha, etc.
5) Visuals - The game is odd in this. There are times I look at it and think things look really good. Unit detail on cool cam, map items, etc. But overall, adventure map and battle graphics are blurry and lack detail. Would like a better looking battle. Zoomed in enough to see unit details, but out enough to see the whole battlefield. As of now, I can't find that sweet spot. Maybe it needs a better angle/view of the battlefield.

[gourley4p]

1. Increase unit scale in combat. You created nice looking models in the Unreal Engine, but we don't get to see them well enough to appreciate them without setting Cool Cam to 100%.
2. Add color saturation slider to graphics menu
3. Fix bug for missing creature stacks (the one where you have to drag a stack back into your reserve or auto-deploy to fix)
4. Add some of the modding features widely requested by the community here and elsewhere; this will be big for longevity of the game
5. Add a tutorial to attract new games

[cjlee]

In order not to destroy the franchise, you need to stop bleeding first. That means you have to stop the new buyers getting angry and posting negative reviews, and you have to make sure they don't demand for a refund.

So it goes down to the basics. Solve them before you tackle other issues like town build screen (very ugly) or models (not attractive but not core gameplay).

1) Things like stability, memory leaks, performance issues.

2) All official campaigns and maps need to be swept clean of game breaking bugs.

3) AI algorithms need to be worked out. Too many reports of bad AI.

4) Tutorial for newcomers.

Right now it is too early for a newcomer to get tired of the game. The most important thing is not to turn him off or make him angry enough to demand for a refund. Superficial issues like washed out colours will matter if you want a gamer to keep playing for another 3 years and then to buy H8. But you need to survive the current tsunami of bad reviews and to have people start posting 'patch 1.xx is fantastic! I love this game!', and you don't have much time. If in 6 months the game isn't 99.9% fixed, most potential buyers will assume it will never be fixed.

[gomaki]

Thanks for the Thread Kalah. I will be monitoring it closely so I would really like people here to use this opportunity as I will be taking the suggestions to the right people.

[crislevin]

In particular order,

1. add a tutorial campaign
1. fix game function bugs, e.g., multiple player, etc, make sure all functions are mostly working
3. fix utility bugs that cause minor annoyances, e.g., spell doesn't show proper tooltips when hovering around the targets
4. fix graphic bugs, e.g., dummy heroes floating randomly
5. improve AI.

[Alfalken]

1. Fix the bugs. First priority should be the game breaking ones, crashes etc.
2. Tutorial/Starter Campaign
3. Game Balance Issues, some spells and skills are a bit overpowered, some are underpowered
4. Fix the load times, performance
5. Improve council hub scene. The speech and subtitles timing are sometimes off (sometimes it cuts to the next speech before the previous speech finished) and the still faces just looks... off. Either fully animate them, or remove them completely and just use the one with portraits only.

[Galaad]

Game breaking problems like memory leaks and issues like unplayable multiplayer just shouldn't be there on release. I recall when Erwin said that the release date could be postponed if fan interaction asked for. Well, we could ask all we want (and we did), now people who bought the games are testers, who not only work for free, but also gave money so they can.

As for my list it's the same than after beta and even before beta:

1) Skill system
2) Magic system
3) Hero specializations and no level cap
4) Creature abilities
5) Smart AI

And that's really the BARE MINIMUM for me. But yeah, the game is not even in acceptable playable state atm so who am I kidding.

[decebalus]

Multiplayer !
- sim turns
- dynamic play (not watching screen when opponent in fight!!!)

[gomaki]

Morning CH. I have now collated everything and added it to my list. We had a lot of similiar opinions on what needs/should change so I'm happy that i'm not out of touch with the community feeling. This week we will be having our meetings with the key individuals who will be able to say yes and no in regards to these changes and I will hopefully be able to provide you all feedback on the results of these.

My ideal solution is to be able to provide at some point (read very near future) a pencil'd road map of up coming big changes we want to have so everyone is on the same page and not just wildly speculating. This of course is entirely my own opinion and nothing official yet, it's just the stance I will be fighting for.

Thanks all for the lists and help in the matter. I will now push for you guys to steer the game in a better direction for everyone.
Dan

[Kalah]

Thanks for popping by, gomaki, we like it when you devs talk to us even if you haven't got all the info ready yet.