Strategic AI + memory leaks: worrying stuff

The new Heroes games produced by Ubisoft. Please specify which game you are referring to in your post.
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Veldrynus
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Unread postby Veldrynus » 14 May 2006, 16:11

Sikon wrote:Strange people. First they complain a game (H4) wasn't too close to its predecessor H3, but when H5 turns out to be closer to H3, they say it's a clone.
You can be sure that these are two different groups of people.
Veldryn 15:15 And Vel found a dirty old jawbone of a walrus and put forth his hand, and took it, and in his unholy rage, he slew thirty four thousand men and children therewith.

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Pitsu
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Unread postby Pitsu » 14 May 2006, 16:18

Sauron wrote:
Pitsu wrote: No multiplayer.
Really?1 How could I then play H4 with my friend on hotseat??
Since the userfriendly H4 itself treated hotseat as a Single player game mode, i do not see anything wrong saying that it came with no multiplayer support. It had a button for "multiplay" in the final release, whicht gave you "available soon" message only. I do think that it is worse situation than not having the editor for first couple of weeks. Of course, I do not know how long the editor will take, but currently I do think H4 was in much worse state when it shipped.

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Veldrynus
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Unread postby Veldrynus » 14 May 2006, 16:29

Pitsu wrote:I do not know how long the editor will take, but currently I do think H4 was in much worse state when it shipped.
Ok, H4 was in the bad state when it was shipped. So is H5 ! It is well enough reason to bash on it.
Veldryn 15:15 And Vel found a dirty old jawbone of a walrus and put forth his hand, and took it, and in his unholy rage, he slew thirty four thousand men and children therewith.

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Znork
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Unread postby Znork » 14 May 2006, 16:33

Well we are jumpy, we are scared, we have bad memmorys and we are conscerend. But i have tested the closed beta and the demo. I feel the game is good but there issus. That is what we have patches are for, and im certin if there are ares that need be improved it will be. And well maby they have made the first patche aldery improveing many of the issues:) So maybe the pirates got tricked:)
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Veldrynus
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Unread postby Veldrynus » 14 May 2006, 16:49

Don't be so optimistic. The krimals cannot be tricked that easily.
Veldryn 15:15 And Vel found a dirty old jawbone of a walrus and put forth his hand, and took it, and in his unholy rage, he slew thirty four thousand men and children therewith.

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Unread postby Rapier » 14 May 2006, 16:50

If you found the AI too easy on normal.. try it on Heroic :P even with just the demo I've tried heroic and normal to see a comparrison, I didn't really notice a difference in the AI, but I 'did' notice a vast difference in the difficulty.

I found normal was way too easy and if that was all the game came with it's singleplayer appeal would last me a day (the game would be over by then ;)) Heroic is much harder, it gives an engaging sp imo so far.

Hopefully the AI will be up to the task (the combat AI seems to be solid at least, can't really judge the adventure Ai from the demo).

Even if it's got problems I don't think it will have as many problems as HIV shipped with. :)
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Unread postby Campaigner » 14 May 2006, 17:24

I'm getting a bad feeling about this....Romanov77: What difficulty did he play on?

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Unread postby Orfinn » 14 May 2006, 17:52

Bah! Theres always someone that want to spread bad taste, I will play it and finf out by myself. Have tried games with bad rep (like H4) but they turned out great for me.

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Unread postby Gaidal Cain » 14 May 2006, 17:53

Veldrynus wrote:Don't be so optimistic. The krimals cannot be tricked that easily.
Vel: Stop that. Now. You want to bash Znork for liking H5? OK, but then do it with actual arguments, not childish remarks about the fact that he has a problem spelling correctly.
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Znork
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Unread postby Znork » 14 May 2006, 17:56

Gaidal Cain wrote:
Veldrynus wrote:Don't be so optimistic. The krimals cannot be tricked that easily.
Vel: Stop that. Now. You want to bash Znork for liking H5? OK, but then do it with actual arguments, not childish remarks about the fact that he has a problem spelling correctly.
Dont worry about me gaidal:)
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Unread postby Gaidal Cain » 14 May 2006, 18:04

I know you can take it- I'm doing it for anyone else that might not post here due to being ridiculed for their spelling.
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Unread postby Sikon » 14 May 2006, 18:11

Calm down. H5 comes with multiplayer, and the map editor will be not that useful until you try the actual game. Of course, it's a shame that the editor is absent, but it's only a month of waiting. Compare that to 5 months for the H4 multiplayer.

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Unread postby Akul » 14 May 2006, 19:32

DaemianLucifer wrote:
Sauron wrote:Then he should write. As far as I know, hotseat is also mulyplayer. And saw that many people didn't even know that there is no hotseat in H4.
Multiplayer usually refers to playing on more then one computer.
Multiplayer refers on playing more then one person.
Strange people. First they complain a game (H4) wasn't too close to its predecessor H3, but when H5 turns out to be closer to H3, they say it's a clone.
Ever heard for the Golden Middle? Perhaps I woudn't complain about it if I didn't see in an video this scene:

Cerebrus attacks enemy griffin from the backs (Griffin turns around). Then they both turn around to show their backs to one another.

I don't know if that has changed now, but it gives a feeling that H5 is a clone. I can just hope that it is not.
I am back and ready to... ready to... post things.

ioticus
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Unread postby ioticus » 15 May 2006, 01:11

The AI is kicking my ass, even on normal difficulty. It flags mine, builds large armies, upgrades units and is very aggressive. I would say it is at least as good as Heroes 3 AI, probably better. In fact, I'm starting to wonder if it cheats, since it builds large armies and high level heroes very fast. The demo didn't show you how aggressive and badass the AI really is. It's also unpredictable, which is a good thing. I will buy as soon as the price drops to $40. At this point, I think it's the best Heroes game yet. Nival has pulled it off, and I'm so happy about that!

By the way, in answer to this thread, we most definately do *not* have a Heroes IV debacle on our hands. Thank God for that.

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Unread postby Blue_Camel » 15 May 2006, 23:27

i think the best thing to say here, is..
the game comes out very soon, and pre-release complaints or no, i think most (if not all) of us will buy it regardless, so why not just wait a few days, play the real thing, then .. bash? or not. whichever the real game leads you to do.

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Unread postby Anthriel » 16 May 2006, 11:42

Funny, I was actually quoted here. ^^

Regarding the performance: I found it to be highly inconsistent. I meet the minimum specifications for Ram and exceed them in CPU and GPU, yet at some times, the game is unplayable for me. Then at others, it runs acceptable. Especially bad are campaign maps (fourth mission of Inferno in particular), long games on big maps, and the starting phase of the game.
As long as I move just in explored territory on small maps, there is nothing to complain about.

Regarding the AI: Highly inconsistent as well. In the Warlords map (pretty similar to the Heroes III Warlords), one or two AI players usually die in the first or second week. Sometimes, the enemy won't flag mines, no matter the difficulty. But at Heroic, he is capable of building up armies as soon as possible, and mercilessly crush his opposition. My impression so far is that the AI is worse than Heroes III, but better than Heroes IV.
That is, on a strategic level. In actual battles, it does a fairly good job. It sometimes casted suboptimal spells and it sometimes attacked war machines, or refused to attack warmachines for no particular reason, but in general, it did better than in Heroes III. Though that might also have something to do with the smaller battlefield.

However, there is one thing that has not been mentioned yet and really gets on my nerves: balance. Now, I'm unsure how the towns compare to each other, because I have not played long enough. But I can tell you that the heroes are unbalanced to an unbelievable degree. Thought that Solmyr had unfair advantages against the likes of Serena (Eagle Eye Specialist)? Think again.

Prior to the "release", there was some talk about Deleb, the hero who starts with a Ballista that shoots Fireballs at enemies, and how that hero would probably be pretty good at the start. As it turns out, we were all wrong. She is not good, she is incredibly overpowered. You just take some Imps and Horned Demons with you, to tank some damage against ranged attackers and the like, and proceed to clear up the map. In Warlods, I was capable of wiping out two Dungeon weekly productions, that even had Hydras, with no more than about 30 Imps, 25 Horned Demons and a Level 4 Deleb. Note that for some unknown reason, the fireballs hurt the enemies, but not your own troops.
I'm sure she will become weaker over the course of the game, as stronger creatures join the fray. But on small maps, she completely wrecks the game. And even on longer maps, she is capable of securing an immense advantage, by being able to take on pretty much everything without an army, and without losses.

This is merely the most extreme example. The Dungeon empowered spells specialist can kill enemy stacks even more easily and without losses, but he has to recharge mana. The Academy Gremlin specialist allows you to gather over hundred Gremlins at the first day. And the Necropolis Raise Dead specialist can ensure no losses, no matter what you fight.

Now, from that, you could gather that all the brokeness cancels out (except for Deleb at least). But apart from the fact that the Sylvan and Haven lacks broken heroes, there is also the problem that you only ever see one starting hero for each faction. I seriously don't know what Nival was thinking when they balanced the hero specials.


Though, all that criticism aside, I still believe that Heroes V will get over 80 (but below 90) on gamespot. And rightly so.
Last edited by Anthriel on 16 May 2006, 13:40, edited 1 time in total.

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Romanov77
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Unread postby Romanov77 » 16 May 2006, 13:07

Anthriel wrote:
Regarding the performance: I found it to be highly inconsistent. I meet the minimum specifications for Ram and exceed them in CPU and GPU, yet at some times, the game is unplayable for me. Then at others, it runs acceptable. Especially bad are campaign maps (fourth mission of Inferno in particular), long games on big maps, and the starting phase of the game.
This scares the cr.. out of me because I have a low end system.

I can run demo PERFECTLY, but I heard of people with retail having the same issue of yours...
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Unread postby Khelavaster » 16 May 2006, 20:27

If I'm not mistaken the performance takes a big hit in tree-infested maps. Also, lowering every option to very low, no AA/AF doesn't help, you still get the stuttering when facing the rest of the map (even if it's hidden under the fog)

Khelavaster

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Romanov77
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Unread postby Romanov77 » 16 May 2006, 21:06

Khelavaster wrote:If I'm not mistaken the performance takes a big hit in tree-infested maps. Also, lowering every option to very low, no AA/AF doesn't help, you still get the stuttering when facing the rest of the map (even if it's hidden under the fog)

Khelavaster
A friend of mine who just got the game confirm this, and he has the same videocard I own, Geforce fx 5200...

This needs to be addressed...soon hopefully...
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Unread postby LongDarkBlues » 16 May 2006, 22:23

I've just got the video card that was built into my $100 motherboard and it runs the game fine. It's not console-fast, but it's more than playable.


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