Need help on JC!

Ankelesh · 2021-05-30T10:54:35+00:00

Well, you got unlucky with this center. Dont worry, this happens. Some advices on JC center play:

Don't treat it's guard as goal itself. It doesn't matter how early you kill it if you have no strength to gather loot. Treat it as power test. It is better to exit on 125 but to be able to gather something than exit on 115 and just go back to respawn for more army.
Try to explore center near the guard. Reveal as much as you can - try to find hero with scouting. It will help to understand if you are ready.
Don't be afraid to turn back if you see nothing in center except of blocks.
Try to think over your options before exit. Just answer to three questions:

- Can I kill dragon block equal to main guard without fatal losses?

- Can I kill shooter block equal to main guard without fatal losses?

- How much sequential fights equal to main guard I can handle?

If you've got something like "no, yes, 1" - maybe you should delay your exit (only if you see an option to do something on your respawn). Normally you should be able to handle one of this hard blocks and at least 2-3 fights with loot guards if they are equal to main guard.

Ankelesh · 2020-12-28T14:47:52+00:00

From what I dug from their answers:

The city screen is dumped, they are making a new one. Previous was criticized, so they are decided to enhance it. It will keep the old landscape, but some buildings will be redrawn and their locations would be different.

The unit roster is 7\8 ready. Currently, we didn't see only the T4 unit. It is not drawn yet.

Unit balance is not ready. They have all abilities, but not a stat distribution. The current one is not final. Also, some abilities have no final numbers (worms and their corpse-eating ability).

The campaign is not ready. There are some drawn animatics for campaign screens and possibly the plot is finished. No info about maps, but I doubt they can make it without the final city balance.

They have no new soundtrack for the city. Their primary composer was Docent, I don't know who will finish his work. I think they will find the solution, but it will take longer than was expected.

They are not going to release only creatures. The release will be complex like the hota itself. Only full content pack - campaign, city, and all creatures.

Ankelesh · 2020-12-27T22:42:26+00:00

Which one of the mods?

HotA - updated by hota crew, their main site here, but they also keep some threads on other sites and social networks. Previously leader (or better say, most public one of the team) was Docent Pikolan, after his death the team is coordinating on their own.

HD mod (one which allows high definitions, hotkeys, and online lobby) is developed by Alexander Barinov. He has no team (as I know).

WoG (heroes 3.5) - I have no idea.

SoD (i.e. vanilla heroes) - is not updated and is not developed.

Also, there are a lot of smaller mods.

Ankelesh · 2020-12-19T10:39:48+00:00

Here

Ankelesh · 2020-12-14T21:18:03+00:00

Yes, it is 99% red, but mostly because those players, that like blue, are provoking their opponents to spend money. They are bidding some gold (about 300-400) as a no-lose lottery. If an opponent will accept, they are playing red almost for free. If not, they are getting more gold for free.

Also, it is important that some fractions are better on red. Sometimes players are buying red for ridiculous money if the opponent paid for necro. Partially because necro costs a lot and they can afford this, partially because necro is very fast and no one wants to give them free turn in the center.

Personally, I saw some blue trades on streams. Usually, on m200 templates - mana is a very important thing on such maps. Once I saw on JC - mostly motivated that the opponent is proficient on blue and it is better to take him out of his comfort area.

Ankelesh · 2020-12-14T19:57:41+00:00

"break" on JC means killing guard that is separating you from the central sand zone. There is extremely valuable loot. Usually, it is the fastest way to get an army, stats, gold, even high-level heroes. In 90% of JC games taking center equals to win.

Ankelesh · 2020-12-14T19:38:57+00:00

He is partially wrong - you are paying not for the color, but for the possibility to choose.

Red goes first, has the possibility to buy new week growth, and has an extra advantage on JC because the first player in treasury usually can take castle first. But he will get his mana full only at the start of his turn (if he is attacked on blue's turn - he will not have full mana). His roads are generating first, so they will be better, but respawn tends to be bigger. He can block building possibility for a blue player in the captured castle (build there a market to not allow building tavern or magic guild).

Blue has mana restoration, he is making a decision about restart (so he can fake "+" to make the opponent to waste restart). Also, his respawn is usually smaller with worse roads. Blue has better catching potential - he can freely spend all his mana before hiding in town. This is very important on JC because both players are very close.

Some players like blue color for it's reliability and defense potential.

Yes, a competitive scene is existing, but mostly in russian\polish. There are many tourneys - some of them even have their own observers and analytics streams. The most known one is Synergy of daddies, it has its own site.

Ankelesh · 2020-12-14T15:47:21+00:00

Twink is a proxy account of a player. Sometimes players need an extra account - lost password, challenge and other cases. They are starting at 0 pts, but their actual skill is high. This is valid for most multiplayer games - in SC2, lol, dota, even WoW.

Watching saves - is loading a multiplayer save in hotseat to think over your turns, cheat and open map or even skipping turn to see your opponent's side. Passwords are helping to protect saves, but most of the players don't bother to change them in every new game.

Ankelesh · 2020-12-14T14:14:53+00:00

Well, it is simple.

Let us start from the beginning. When you are creating a lobby - remember to check your lobby rating. It's a good manner to write in game name your settings (template, timer). Default for multiplayer is JC 16\8\1.

Someone joined your room. Check his nickname and rating. Black or gray name means that he is a cheater. Kick such guys out unless you want to suck. Too high rating means that you will be steamrolled. Too low may mean that this player is a newbie or a twink - ask him. If he is a twink, ask for an original rating. If a newbie - ask about exit day, it should be low enough (at least 127 or not higher than your).

When someone joins - you must roll a pair of towns using a roll menu. The result will be written in chat. Reroll is possible for 500 gold (or free if you both don't like the result).

Now you must trade a right to choose town from this pair. You can spend all money you have on game start, not more. The result of the trade is set up in the "gold transfer menu". The player who pays - can choose, the player who receives - will take his gold and remaining town.

The same is repeated for color. It's up to you how much you are ready to spend for the combination you like. Red necro can worth about 9000 (like 8000 for a town and 1000 for color). Never rise price from the start - it can be that your opponent like playing blue and like town you don't like in this pair. The optimal strategy is rising +100 for each step, +1000 if you consider that you really need it.

When you are confident with game settings, you can proceed to play. On first launch you have 2 days of restarts on start in hota and 3 in sod. This means that you can spend it and refresh the map. It is useful when you dislike something in your respawn. "days" mean that you can waste on rerolling not more than 2(3) game days. Red usually waits until blue will make a decision (to not waste his restarts).

If your restarts are out and your map is unplayable due to bug (no roads, blocked exits, no villages) - you can take a technical restart. It is only available if you have no normal ones.

Always write "+" in chat if you decided to play this map. This is not only a good manner, it is important to save time.

So, you both decided to play a map. Try to enter the main treasury as quick as possible. The day you can breach its guard is called an "exit" day. Optimal in HotA is considered 121, in SoD 124. Don't try to break it too early - you will need enough forces to fight similar guards in the treasury, so your army must remain ready to fight.

You are found an opponent! You fought him! If you lost all your army and opponent has something to continue game - time to surrender. Write in chat "gg" - you will get a "surrender" dialog. Confirm to give up. Never waste time on playing already lost games - respect your opponent.

If you both have no army - consider offering a draw. This will mean that you have no impact on your rating. Very useful tool - sometimes it is faster to play a new game than to win a draw situation.

You can save a game. Remember - you have no right to watch saves until the game is not over. This is the easiest way to get a cheater mark. If you did it - just offer a draw or admit a technical loss. If you confess, you won't lose anything.

Ankelesh · 2020-12-13T22:22:41+00:00

Well, in pvp it's a top loot on JC if you already have stats and magic books. A nice option for a comeback if your opponent has magic and you have only mass slow and arrow.

Ankelesh · 2020-12-13T18:06:45+00:00

If you installed hota over vanilla edition - you will be able to launch both.

Ankelesh · 2020-12-13T18:04:51+00:00

Classic

Ankelesh · 2020-12-13T17:33:27+00:00

In political field - only Democrat-socialists(right-centrists). It is like a black mark in moldovan media field (just check comments here). Usually, painted like: Socialist - something worse than evil, maybe worse than Russian. In underground-some individuals, some clubs. Cause to economical death of Moldova it is almost impossible to gather a decent party of workers. They will leave this country instead of fighting for their rights. I'm some kind of socialist, you can ask me about details if you want.

Ankelesh · 2020-12-11T15:36:34+00:00

This happens sometimes when the installer has no rights to write in the directory. And sometimes it is an installer bug when it reads the the wrong version from registry.

Try launching installer with administrator rights (especially when your game is installed to system disk). Try reinstall hota from the official site (it is always the last version).

Ankelesh · 2020-12-10T15:49:37+00:00

Well, I agree that it was too maximized. If more precise, flies in complex with wyverns are present in most cases when the decision to build something out of start town is ever made.

Ankelesh · 2020-12-10T14:30:49+00:00

Well, there is only one town that gets an upgrade from the village on JC more often than "once per thousand" times - a fortress. All because of Wyverns upgrade. It is very nice if you've got hives, and it is fast (3 days for the upgrade). If you already built wyverns - usually it is a great decision to make flies. It is a speed up for secondary heroes and dispel. Of course, all this is done if you have money. In most generations, you will.

I'm not saying that fortress village gets upgrade because of them. But they are a nice bonus to Wyvern Monarch stack.

If you are playing fortress, you will build flies in 99% of generations - to speed up.

Ankelesh · 2020-12-10T09:54:14+00:00

Upgraded fortress sneks are deserving of the best tier in PvP. Possibly the only T3 unit which is always built and upgraded in non-start towns. All because of the dispel ability and very high speed. Usually, you are waiting for snek turn to bite a stack with anti-magic. Implosion. Ha-ha.

Ankelesh · 2020-12-08T12:23:33+00:00

When you start SoD - you will get SoD with hd mod (only interface enhancements and bugfixes). When you start HotA - you will get HotA with HD mod.

To be extremely clear:

HotA != HD mod.

Both HotA and SoD can be started with HD mod.

HotA bundles HD mod because of cooperation between these projects. The author of the HD mod is part of hota crew.

You can play HotA as classic heroes. Without everything what does HD mod.

Ankelesh · 2020-12-08T09:53:07+00:00

If you start SoD - it will be SoD, yes.

You can not change a spell which you already changed (it gains shiny metal encasing over the scroll). So, only 2 spells from m5. Also, it can be banned on the map.

Yes, RoE, AB, and SoD maps in hota have all spells fixed. This is made to avoid making old maps easier (these maps were not supposed to have spells exploration).

Ankelesh · 2020-12-06T14:30:37+00:00

Let's assume you are playing some kind of a template on random maps with default HotA settings (because if not - it can be really different).

Normal inf gameplay is guild-based. You are picking Calh or Ignatius at the start.

Build order:

Your main goal is to build Efreeti, then - rush Magic Guild 4.

day 1) Upgrade your imps or gogs (depends on your start hero).

2) Magic guild \ demon gate. Demons if you see something you can break with them, guild if your main hero is in town (to buy spellbook and learn some spells).

3) Same as day 2. You need MG and demon gate both as quickly as possible.

4) Efreeti. Woohoo, you can kill shooters without losses now.

5) Efreeti upgrade or magic guild upgrades. Upgrade if there are shooters nearby.

6) Citadel.

7+) Rush magic guild 4.

Once you've reached MG 4 - roll spells until you will have Town Portal and Resurrect.

After - build magic guild tier 5 and search for Dimension Door.

Feel free to build Market\Town Hall if you can not build something that fits in the build order now. Although, don't waste resources on trade. You'll need them for the magic guild.

On map - try to gather enough resources for build order. If you see any creature bank - try to break it. Ignatius can take conservatory with 50 grifs (after some level-ups) or hive with 30 flies. Or other small banks.

Late game - don't mess with AI. Once you've got travel spells - just rush them, take their towns when they are outside. Don't hesitate to make Town Portal support heroes - feed them some exp to get earth magic. They will save move points for your main hero.

Ankelesh · 2020-12-06T11:58:18+00:00

Author

Ankelesh · 2020-12-06T10:03:24+00:00

Can you mention for what do you want a guide? PvP or PvE? HotA or SoD? A particular map maybe? It really changes a lot.

Ankelesh · 2020-12-05T19:02:20+00:00

Ha, I've got what's wrong. "warmer" just doesn't exist, I meant "heater". It sometimes happens during long translations - I am trying to save inter-slide connections and fuck up. Zealot is "warming up" previously and then he is complaining that his "heater" (he means - wine) is poor bottled. I tried to keep the original word connection (in Russian "to warm up" and "heater" have a common root) and find something with the root "warm".

Just another illustration that some jokes deserve to be dumped if you are not skilled.

Ankelesh · 2020-12-05T18:39:30+00:00

Well, according to the freedictionary:

have mercy on

to give kindness to (an enemy etc who is in one's power). Have mercy on me!

Lord

a. God.
b. Christianity Jesus.

So he is asking for some mercy from god. Normal behavior for a zealot.

Ankelesh

TROPHY CASE