EXPERIENCE - HEROES THEN AND NOW

[Babri]

1) I have played Heroes II, III & IV and to this point I have yet to discover how exactly experience is calculated during the course of (or after) a battle. Heroes III was helpful enough, showing exactly how much experience was gained after each level, with Heroes IV not showing anything of that sort, though probably using the same calculations.

As far as I've deducted your hero and army strength and that of the enemy is considered, but how is this weighed and compared?

Understanding this would greatly affect my game strategy.

2) Does anyone know how experience will be calculated in Heroes V?

[Qurqirish Dragon]

1) I have played Heroes II, III & IV and to this point I have yet to discover how exactly experience is calculated during the course of (or after) a battle. Heroes III was helpful enough, showing exactly how much experience was gained after each level, with Heroes IV not showing anything of that sort, though probably using the same calculations.

As far as I've deducted your hero and army strength and that of the enemy is considered, but how is this weighed and compared?

Understanding this would greatly affect my game strategy.

In heroes 1,2, and 3 (I never played 4, so I cannot say for that one), the experience earned was equal to the total HP of killed creatures (although summonned creatures often didn't total properly if there were stacks summonned after other stack were completely wiped out).

There was a 500 xp bonus for defeating a hero, and a 500 xp bonus for capturing a town (but only if the town was fought for- just claiming an undefended town had no bonus). These bonus were cumulative (so defeating a hero that was defending a town, thus capturing the town, was worth 1000 bonus)

In H3, this experience could be modified with the learning skill.
The size of your army has no effect on experience.

Someone else will have to describe the H4 system, but I believe experience was divided among all heroes in the force- proportionately to the relative levels of the heros.

2) Does anyone know how experience will be calculated in Heroes V?

From the beta / demo, I think the basic experience is as 1-3, but you also get some experience from enemy stacks that flee (and you don't chase)- IIRC you get 50% experience for them

[Babri]

Thanks for the info.

However, I am playing Heroes IV at the moment, so it would be interesting to find out how (and if) things have changed.

If I may ask, why haven't you been playing Heroes IV?

[klaymen]

If you install Equlibris mod, you will see experience gain of all your heroes

[pepak]

In H4, every creature has a particular experience value, based on its relative strength (not only its hitpoints).

[Babri]

So if I'm right, experience works as follows:

1) I get 500xp for capturing a (defended) town
2) I get 500xp for defeating a hero (multiplied by number of heroes in an army)
3) I get xp based on how many creatures I kill (each one has a specific xp value)

Do all these rules apply to Heroes IV?

[Gaidal Cain]

3) does. NIve n idea whether 1) does, but 2) isn't exactly correct-you get more XP for higher-level enemy units.

[Babri]

I was always under the mistaken impression that I would gain more experience with a small army defeating a much larger one - go figure.

[pepak]

Do all these rules apply to Heroes IV?

H4 does not give any bonus for either defeating heroes (of course, a hero has an exp value based on his level) or capturing towns. The experience gained is equal to the sum of experience value of all enemy stacks that were present on the battlefield at the start of the battle (AFAIK you don't get any experience for summoned/raised/illusioned/resurrected/etc. units).

I was always under the mistaken impression that I would gain more experience with a small army defeating a much larger one - go figure.

In H4, you get more points (towards your score for the map) for defeating an enemy with fewer units. Not more experience, though.

[Paulus1]

So if I'm right, experience works as follows:

1) I get 500xp for capturing a (defended) town
2) I get 500xp for defeating a hero (multiplied by number of heroes in an army)
3) I get xp based on how many creatures I kill (each one has a specific xp value)

Do all these rules apply to Heroes IV?

you should also note, that experience for killing one unit (e.g. Genie) changes with the difficulty level. You gain more XP pr. unit with lower difficulty, but stacks are also smaller then. Stack experience should be pretty much the same.

[Qurqirish Dragon]

Having now paid close attention, the experience formula is different in HoMM5.

For example, horned demons (14 hp) at the default settings are worth 10 xp each.

Some creatures I checked are worth as much as 1.5 xp/hp, some as little as .5xp/hp.

There may be modifiers other than creature type, but I haven't played enough to be certain. I'm thinking of tracking the xp per unit for different units and battle sizes to see if I can find the connections (fixed XP for a unit, or do other things modify it)

Anyway, for now the H5 xp system has to be worked out.

---added---
I've started a new topic on the Heroes V forum asking for any info on the experience system. (in the beta, it was like H1-3, but as I said above, now it is different)

[Babri]

Thank you! This will be most helpful. Understanding this dynamic will definitely change the way I play.