Beta patch 1.2

[Avonu]

From Ubisoft forum

During this week we are planning to relese a patch. Below you can check out what improvements will be made by the M&M team:


Updates

• Access to the first Stronghold campaign map
• Changes in the main menu
• Once they reach enough reputation points Avatars no longer need to go back to a town for selecting a reputation class. The hero window has changed: you can switch between reputation and creature information panels.
• Icons of abilities in the ability tree now reflect their reputation
• Numerous bug fixes


Balance changes


General Changes:

• In multiplayer games Reputation points gained are multiplied by the experience modifier
• Pursuing a fleeing creature will give 8 blood points instead of 5
• First reputation level requires 250 tears or blood points
• Several week effects have been reduced (almost all effects will be reduced later)

Ability stat balance and changes:

• Tooltips with exact values added for the abilities
• Several scaling problems have been fixed
• Several ability bug have been fixed
• Necromancy healing power reduced by 45%
• Gating summoning power reduced by 45%

Starting ability balance:

• Handler gives +1 core creature production (instead of +2)
• Kennel Master gives +3 Hell Hound growth (instead of +6)
• Lord of the Vacant gives +2 Lich growth (instead of +3)
• Sister Master gives +3 Sister growth (instead of +6)
• Shaman Master gives +2 Dreamwalker growth (instead of +3)
• Devotee of the Spring gives +2 Spring Spirit growth (instead of +3)

Creature stat balance:

• Core Creature growth in adventure map dwellings are decreased:

o Shark Guard growth decreased by 3
o Coral Priestess growth decreased by 3
o Kappa growth decreased by 3
o Skeleton growth decreased by 3
o Ghoul growth decreased by 2
o Ghost growth decreased by 3
o Maniac growth decreased by 3
o Hell Hound growth decreased by 2
o Succubuss growth decreased by 2
o Mauler growth decreased by 2
o Goblin growth decreased by 4
o Harpy growth decreased by 2
o Sentinel growth decreased by 3
o Crossbowman growth decreased by 2
o Sister growth decreased by 3

• All elite creature basic and upgrade growth changes:

o Deep Naga basic growth increased to 3, upgrade gives +1 growth (previously +2)
o Vampire Knight basic growth reduced to 4, upgrade gives +3 growth (previously +2)
o Tormentor basic growth increased to 3, upgrade gives +1 growth (previously +2)
o Juggernaut basic growth increased to 3, upgrade gives +1 growth (previously +2)
o Centaur basic growth increased to 3, upgrade gives +1 growth (previously +2)
o Griffin basic growth increased to 3, upgrade gives +1 growth (previously +2)

• Kirin:

o Average Damage increased to 55
o Health increased to 255

• Sacred Kirin:

o Average Damage increased to 57
o Health increased to 265

• Fate Spinner Human form

o Average Damage increased to 49.5
o Health increased to 280

• Fate Spinner Spider form

o Average Damage increased to 59.5
o Health increased to 280

• Fate Weaver Human form

o Average Damage increased to 53.5
o Health increased to 300

• Fate Weaver Spider form

o Average Damage increased to 63.5
o Health increased to 300

• Pit Fiend

o Average Damage increased to 52.5
o Health increased to 270

• Pit Lord

o Average Damage increased to 59.5
o Health increased to 280

• Cyclops

o Average Damage increased to 65
o Health increased to 330

• Enraged Cyclops

o Average Damage increased to 65
o Health increased to 350

• Celestial

o Average Damage increased to 51.5
o Health increased to 300

• Seraph

o Average Damage increased to 54
o Health increased to 325

• Phoenix

o Average Damage increased to 59
o Health increased to 220

[Banedon]

It's not possible to play against other players online right (only Hotseat)? In which case, I won't be able to take a deep look at balance.

And lol @ me playing this game again because I only just realized that you can play all the factions - I had so much difficulty setting up a Hotseat game, I thought you could only play Necropolis ...

[Torur]

It's not possible to play against other players online right (only Hotseat)? In which case, I won't be able to take a deep look at balance.

And lol @ me playing this game again because I only just realized that you can play all the factions - I had so much difficulty setting up a Hotseat game, I thought you could only play Necropolis ...

lol, I know what you mean. I was just lucky that I found the create a hero page and made one, thats how I found out how you get the other factions into the multiplayer .

Anyways, this is great. Can't wait to take a look at the new Stronghold map.

[Banedon]

Serious question: how the *#!$*() do I hire more heroes? I get one hero immediately from the Hall of Heroes, but I can never hire a third hero. It's not because the town isn't upgraded (I upgraded it ...), it's not because I'm out of resources (I have enough resources to hire four heroes ...) and it's not because it's not yet the start of a new week (two full weeks have passed, still no hero available).

What's wrong?

At the moment I'm loving the new HoMM 6 style by the way, with strong defensive skills. It makes creeping so much easier and the game that much faster. Totally /hug Necropolis and their Sceptres right now. I don't know though how much of a game balance problem this is: if you start with a Magic Necro hero and then add a second Magic Necro hero (Ghosts x2, Ghouls x2) you can clear quite a few neutral armies from the map. I don't know if this applies to other factions, but if it does then it's good - games move along much faster, once I figure out how to hire more heroes anyway.

PS: Anyone know what is meant by "strong secondary heroes"?

[Avonu]

Serious question: how the *#!$*() do I hire more heroes? I get one hero immediately from the Hall of Heroes, but I can never hire a third hero. It's not because the town isn't upgraded (I upgraded it ...), it's not because I'm out of resources (I have enough resources to hire four heroes ...) and it's not because it's not yet the start of a new week (two full weeks have passed, still no hero available).

What's wrong?

Full Visiting and Garisson Hero slots? Move your here from Garrison slot and you should hire another one.

[Banedon]

That's not the problem either, with only two heroes both my heroes were so busy they never had time to visit the town.

[MattII]

According to alcibiades over on Heroes Community you're limited to one hero per town and one extra.

[Banedon]

Wtf ??? No, seriously. WTF?!?!?!

Chaining isn't the only thing ruined by this change. Expansion is seriously nerfed too. A good player will have one hero leading the expansion, a second hero following the main around picking up resources, and then as the main hero goes further and further away from town, more and more heroes to bring troops from the town to the hero.

All these heroes are indispensable. With only two heroes, you forced to pick up resources with the main hero OR give up on chaining troops from the town - both of which are major losses.

I do not like this change at all, especially since (traditionally, throughout H3-5) what separates the best players from the rest of the pack is how fast they expand. This will probably make the H6 equivalent of Snatch all the more vital, although since levels are far harder to get in H6 it still may not be worth dedicating the skill slot. Getting units to a far-roaming main hero is going to be impossible, too.

Although the more I think about it, the less levels makes having multiple main heroes more powerful, especially since you can't get units to a faraway "main" hero, so you might as well use them to equip a second hero (although that will slow down expansion even more) Maybe a higher limit is in order, a maximum of 3 (4) heroes a town. 2 is just not enough.

[Avonu]

According to alcibiades over on Heroes Community you're limited to one hero per town and one extra.

???
Then why on Broken Alliance map or in Sandor's scenario I could hire 3 additional or even more heroes while still having only 1 town?
Yes, it becomes too powerful to hire all heroes in one day and give all their cretures to main hero (like Sandor's map) but HoMM3 easly fixed this problem.

@Banedon
I don't know but maybe you had "Powerful secondary heroes" marked? I never use this (I don't know even what it does) so maybe this one limited number of your heroes?

[Blocks100]

. Getting units to a far-roaming main hero is going to be impossible, too.

But now that all towns can be build portals, surely combining armies under one main hero is going to be easier?

[Wurtzel]

. Getting units to a far-roaming main hero is going to be impossible, too.

But now that all towns can be build portals, surely combining armies under one main hero is going to be easier?

That's what I would've thought as well, or doesn't it work like that???

[Banedon]

Only if you capture another town, which if you can do, you'll also have more than 2 heroes ...

[Wurtzel]

Only if you capture another town, which if you can do, you'll also have more than 2 heroes ...

Is the summon creature spell/ability available in this game???

[ThunderTitan]

• Tooltips with exact values added for the abilities

Finally.

[Banedon]

Um ...

Is the new version released? If so, how do I get it? The launcher doesn't seem to have auto-updated, and I don't want to redownload another 4.4GB file ...

[Avonu]

If auto-patcher doesn't work, use gu.exe file to patch beta.
But as beta was closed today (and will be open again 9th August with new stuff), I don't think you can patch it anyway.

[Dalai]

Yes, it becomes too powerful to hire all heroes in one day and give all their cretures to main hero (like Sandor's map) but HoMM3 easly fixed this problem.

Now Ubihole will probably know about it too. Just like every single Heroes player who played H3-RoE. Better late than never, right?

[parcaleste]

Finally I had the... eeeh, pleasure to play a bit in a friend of mine (hotseat) and I am... confused. I am not sure about the last patch or whatever and I played only with Inferno and Necropolis, watched him playing with Haven and Sanctuary and... the game is FAR from balanced to me:

1. Town conversion is WAY too cheap (5 wood, 5 ore and 1500/2000 gold and all the buildings in the converted town are being converted to their respective ones for your races town... are you serious bro?). I REALLY hope they fix this one before the actual release.

2. RIDICULOUS numbers with creatures growth, as you can teach each and every hero at level 5 this skill that gives you +1 creature in EVERY slot (Core, Elite, Champion) per week. 8 Pit Lords per week just because of your heroes numbers, how does this sound? Also, what happened with this (I am pretty sure I read it somewhere) that the core/elite creatures will growth in limited numbers per week (let's say 20 core) of which you will have to choose how many from which type you recruit (15 Archers, 5 Squires or 10 Archers, 5 Squires, 5 Maidens or whatever you want) each and every week?

3. Which comes after the previous one - Mentoring at level 5!!! YOU GOTTA BE FREAKING KIDDING ME! For no time you can have army of top level heroes, because all of them are now like one level under this one of your main hero.

4. The skill system... kills the fun. Why did they had to kill the one in the previous game (the best one in the heroes series)? And speaking about the fact that in order to get some really special and TOP skill (let's say linking your hero attack with the attack of your shooters, Puppet Master and so on) you just have to be level 5 (level 15 in the case of the Puppet Master) and pick it, as you don't need to spend points on whatever other skill to get to it.

5. Tears versus Blood... I found myself ALWAYS stuck with blood, because of the precious experience and quick leveling. I didn't see a lot of difference (I wont say any, because I am not 100% sure) between the different races skills. Basically all of the heroes/races have absolutely the same skill tree, as (perhaps) the only difference is the Magic schools... which I didn't bother to explore, as the spells seemed to me way too generic.

6. The resources are WAY too few. It's like I am missing a limb. Oh, yes, and on top of that we are making fun of (us?):



I guess there is more, but right now this is everything that I can remember.

Oh, yes, the graphics... eeh... OK, they are better (improved) from HV, everything looks less cartoonish, but the creatures "interaction" is really WEAK made, if you ask me. Meaning it doesn't FEEL like they have ANY interaction between them while fighting. Check HV for that matter - you can actually "feel" the impact when a Squire/Footmen makes his attack, here... one of the creatures moves/hits and the other one is acting like it has been hit, but the actual impact is actually missing.

Other thing I notice - Inferno (and Haven) are having 3 large creatures, Necropolis (and Sanctuary) are having 2.

Couldn't really get the difference between Snow Maiden and that other chick girl in Sanctuary. Even in their "avatars" they looked the same. I stucked with the feeling they have the same (to me) abilities as well (I was already bored (!) and on my way home... at least mentally).

[Avonu]

1. Town conversion is WAY too cheap (5 wood, 5 ore and 1500/2000 gold and all the buildings in the converted town are being converted to their respective ones for your races town... are you serious bro?). I REALLY hope they fix this one before the actual release.

OK, first question - did you play 1.2 beta or earlier?
If 1.2 then I really, really start to think there is something wrong with it, because some of bugs/exploits mentioned here on Round Table were fixed for me, including converion cost (tier 3 fully build town):

[Torur]

Wow, I hadnt noticed that the price changed the more was built in the town, this might make it alittle more interesting late game if its a serious investment every time you convert the town.
But still there should be a delay of X amount of days when you convert a town. The instant change makes it to easy.