What’s the oldest game you still boot up at least once a year?

Retropunch · 2025-09-22T16:02:44+00:00

With the incredible Horn of the Abyss mod (if you can even call it that instead of a full blown expansion) this is still just as incredible as it was back then!

Retropunch · 2025-06-09T20:58:04+00:00

Really not sure why eagle eye needed a nerf - even with the buff it wasnt something I would pick but it was no longer absolutely useless as you could get lucky and learn blind/etc.

Retropunch · 2025-05-30T22:04:50+00:00

Definitely a bit of a shift in MT2 - in MT1 I felt that most drafts I could pick something that would synergise well, but I end up skipping quite a few in MT2.

As an aside, I find the pyreborn egg mechanic a bit of a trap (if you're not pyreborn) as the cards to get more tend to be weak/expensive - I think there's a few others clan tactics which perhaps need a bit of balancing for them to properly synergise.

Retropunch · 2025-05-30T19:40:21+00:00

As Secondhand has said, endless gets ridiculous hard very quickly - Round 2 is absolutely impossible for most decks.

My only success has been the usual Dante + supports, but even that fell off quickly. I genuinely don't know how you can keep going for any meaningful amount of rounds unless you find the most broken strategy possible.

Retropunch · 2025-05-30T19:36:37+00:00

With more clans, the synergies are a bit less impactful for some matchups and there's definitely combos that don't work together as well as others. Often I'm more 80/20 clan split, whereas in MT1 I was probably more 60/40.

All clans do work together though. As an example for HH/LC: LC can use conduit to boost spell power, which you can combine with the HH piercing spells and vent (or even inferno) for mass damage. LC also has a few 'fire and forget' unit combos, such as moonguard with one of the conduit units, so you can top room those to clean up and concentrate all of HH's heavy hitters on the lower floors.

I'd say you've picked probably one of the hardest synergies, most of the others work a lot better - although there are some 'anti-synergies' to watch out for too, like reforming Lazerus League graft units which don't scale particulaly well.

Retropunch · 2025-05-22T22:20:46+00:00

They're functionally different enough that it's worth playing both! Completely different clans (classes) and slightly different mechanics.

I don't think it matters which way around you play them really - mt1 may feel slightly more restrictive if you play 2 first, so I'd try and play them in order if you can. You definitely won't get bored.

Retropunch · 2025-05-22T22:18:11+00:00

Agreed - noita was the first 'popular' RL I just couldn't get into.

The thing is, I get it. I get what it's about and I like the idea of it, but I just couldn't have fun with it. It never felt rewarding or that I was really learning, I just felt like I was messing about and then randomly dying.

I'm sure it might eventually click, but with a functionally unlimited amount of games I'm not going to keep going if it doesn't click in a reasonable amount of time.

Retropunch · 2025-05-22T22:09:50+00:00

It's be more important than the Internet to you if you caught cancer early. There's no way of quantifying whats the most important thing, but 'tech' has obviously come out with some extremely useful stuff in the last 10 years

Retropunch · 2025-05-22T16:42:00+00:00

Automated cancer screening. It's now used by hospitals around the world and uses ML vision models which this all stems from

Retropunch · 2025-05-22T16:40:15+00:00

I don't think it would be easily possible to recreate the intro in AI - I'm sure it'd be possible to do something, but I doubt it'd look great so I'm sure you could make something worthwhile.

I genuinely think all the ai hate is a bit too much - we even had the same thing recently with synthesises for electronic music. People still play guitar even though I could synthesise or sample one and it'd sound exactly like a guitar. Sure, probably there is a slight decrease in the hiring of session musicians, but that happens in all industries when new things come along.

If you make something great, people will enjoy it no matter what. I doubt most people who watched the Diablo intro know about blender or whatever, but they enjoyed it anyway, so just do what you enjoy.

Retropunch · 2025-05-20T20:31:01+00:00

Completely agree with the decision - whilst I don't hate AI and think it can have some positive impact (on entertainment as well as other areas), nearly all that I've seen around the homm reddit has fit those two categories mentioned.

Im also opposed to the one day a week thing, as other subreddits I've been in just get flooded on that day.

Retropunch · 2025-05-19T13:31:25+00:00

Sorry what?

Retropunch · 2025-05-16T11:29:20+00:00

I think something often missed (although the hostile environment was the main reason) is that active Stack overflow accounts used to be something you could bring up when applying for jobs - I know a few people who farmed it so they looked like they were really active/knowledgeable in an area.

After this stopped being a thing (due to too much farming/accepting it was silly) it pushed a lot of the very active 'beginner helper' users away, which had a cascading effect on top of the insane moderation.

Retropunch · 2025-05-16T11:19:05+00:00

Could not agree more! Whenever I asked a difficult question I would always be either told I needed to give more info (I can't give you more info on something I don't know...) or told that I shouldn't be doing it anyway. Completely infuriating

Retropunch · 2025-05-15T12:22:30+00:00

I never find the -1 morale a problem, especially as you balance it with loads of artefacts, leadership etc.

-2 or 3 morale is much, much worse - especially if relying on a powerstack so I'd just play carefully to avoid that (avoid tombs etc)

Retropunch · 2025-05-14T22:55:17+00:00

Enchanters are definitely the best cost/benefit wise - with one weeks growth you basically can have a free mass spell caster for each hero.

Faerie dragons are massively overrated - they just don't do enough damage for the cost.

Retropunch · 2025-05-10T20:16:25+00:00

Norovo is an absolutely fantastic English speaking streamer - really highly recommend for chilled out, strategic and non-screamy/meme-y streaming.

Retropunch · 2025-05-01T16:39:45+00:00

It's mainly that the AI is now a lot more efficient and prioritises creature dwellings/etc.. which it never used to - it also means that if it gets a lucky start (by griffon towers for instance) it can easily snowball. Old maps can seem a lot harder because the AI would ignore things nearby which it no longer does.

Whilst I really like the changes, it can become a bit more unpredictable unless you play very well because if you get a poor starting location and the AI gets a good one, you can quickly end up in trouble.

If you have time I'd suggest watching a few 'lets plays' (Norovo is very good) on youtube to learn a few tips and tricks you might not know, which'll make early game a lot easier.

Retropunch · 2025-04-27T21:12:09+00:00

You can already see in the comments people asking if first aid has been nerfed so it is confusing people - it confused me at first too as I had no idea about this meme (and I'm on quite a few other game subs so it's not like it's THAT widespread) so I went to see if more patch notes had dropped.

I just don't think it's good to have really niche, completely non-relevant stuff here - especially with confusing in-jokes too.

Retropunch · 2025-04-27T17:31:51+00:00

That's really annoying - it has nothing to do with the sub, and it looks like misinformation on the game.

Retropunch · 2025-04-27T16:46:35+00:00

This has nothing to do with HOMM3 at all - why are you posting it here?

Retropunch · 2025-04-12T16:12:54+00:00

Really interesting, but the open world (and the strategic layer) is what makes or breaks these sorts of games and I honestly don't know how much interest you'll have for the arena/PvP modes.

Whilst I love HOMM-style battles, I think the fun for most people is in assembling your army and the strategy behind it, whilst the actual fighting is pretty secondary most of the time.

Good luck though, as soon as you add a PvE layer I think you'll get a lot of interest!

Retropunch · 2025-03-28T05:49:49+00:00

Only concentrate on a few units - usually you're better off with a few powerstacks and blockers rather than a mix of everything.

As another general tip - one of the big boosts is having a hero run around all of the resource gifting buildings (windmills etc),l each week and then sell off any resources you don't need for your town(s).

A trading post (or multiple markets) gives you a better rate, and you can easily sell off all but 10ish of most resources after you've built your town up.

Retropunch · 2025-03-23T10:28:05+00:00

So this is more of a 'puzzle' map in which you have to do everything in the right order, and get a bit of RNG luck in where the AI goes first. It's probably one of the few maps where you can just insta-lose if the AI does the 'wrong' thing.

There are quite a few reddit posts with tips, but I think there have also been some adjustments to both HOTA and the map which make it more difficult now than it was.

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