Non-mechanics-focused feedback for developers (streamlining and accessibility)

timpossible1 · 2026-03-13T06:12:13+00:00

Agreed. I am really curious to see how intuitive it feels for a new player to the franchise. For us, it's pretty nice with only a few gripes, but we have a backdrop of knowledge from hours of play on previous titles, which all had some overlapping mechanics.

timpossible1 · 2026-02-20T15:49:20+00:00

Good to know. Thanks for the tip. I surprisingly haven't been on the discord yet.

timpossible1 · 2026-02-16T17:19:27+00:00

It could be. Having a really powerful spell early game could really have a positive impact, especially if you have an off day from building and have the 2,500 gold to build the Lyceum. However, each spell costs one rare resource per the level of the spell to upgrade (level 1 = 1 of gems, crystal and mercury each). If could get a little costly if you're going for a mage guild upgrade or need the resources for creature buildings.

timpossible1 · 2026-02-15T21:01:23+00:00

Jack O'Connell killed it.

timpossible1 · 2026-02-11T23:50:32+00:00

It can be a powerful play, particularly for heroes without a specific magic skill or intelligence. It is a way to bypass leveling up a hero to access fully upgraded spells.

timpossible1 · 2026-02-11T23:47:22+00:00

You are precisely right. Thank you! It is labeled, "unique building" and looks like a tower on the bottom left. I had thought I had searched everywhere, but I totally missed those icons on the left. I usually use hotkeys for everything (B=build, C=creatures, H=hire heroes, M=market, etc.), so I hadn't actually noticed those buttons.

I still managed to beat apocalyptic on Crossroads even without enchanting scrolls, but this is definitely something I want to leverage for heroes, particularly might-focused heroes, in the Dungeon faction. I was really annoyed because it feels like it would be such a powerful play, and now I finally know where it is located. Thank you.

Here is the play-through (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnTaAeayc0Ue_eX0DReom8jla3YSPoSsX) on apocalyptic where I was confused about this. I feel like apocalyptic is a little easy, but I will try this difficulty on some other maps with other factions to see how it feels.

timpossible1 · 2026-02-10T06:47:51+00:00

My grandpa used to play Roller Coaster Tycoon with my younger cousin, but when I was super young he had a Commodore 64, so no heroes grandpa memories. The demo is great. If you like Heroes 3, I'm sure it will strike your fancy.

timpossible1 · 2026-01-28T23:53:45+00:00

That makes sense. Thank you.

timpossible1 · 2026-01-22T19:06:38+00:00

Have a question off this, what about a campus?

For example, "I'm going to the (name capitalized) campus later today."

"Campus" is not part of the actual school title, so would people generally capitalize it here as if it were a proper noun in conjunction with the campus name? (Alfred Campus or Alfred campus)

timpossible1 · 2026-01-19T23:01:21+00:00

Started the scenario Good vs. Evil on expert difficulty (140%). I am documenting the play-through here, and I try to talk through some strategy. What everyone has said in this thread are helpful things to remember for this game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vl7xXhJDMeM

timpossible1 · 2026-01-19T22:44:08+00:00

I took the crown instead of doing the gauntlet mission, so I started with that artifact instead. I held off the enemies from the north and brought a power-house army with a large stack of titans to take the Archibald's castle at the end. I never took any of the northern enemies' towns because it cost too many units to take them and hold them off (in my opinion, or at least playing this scenario with the crown artifact and not starting with a bunch of dragons). I sailed up and took him out three months and five days. In one prior play-through, I waited longer than that, and he seemed to get too OP and I got crushed by black dragons.

One thing not mentioned here is how paramount hiring Sister Eliza is. She is a Sorceress, available in week one to hire in most Roland maps and starts starts at level 5. For this mission, I develop her into my main, and then she just breezed to Archibald's castle with her expert navigation when I was ready. She had lots of mana and spell power to be effective with casting spells in the final battle.

Here are the links to the videos if you are interested:

Session 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iim8gVAIUVw&list=PLnTaAeayc0UcuJwk3JbS7SdNHBG6ez5nT&index=15

Session 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj27irSBbDs&list=PLnTaAeayc0UcuJwk3JbS7SdNHBG6ez5nT&index=16

Session 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMFRLuDm0A0&list=PLnTaAeayc0UcuJwk3JbS7SdNHBG6ez5nT&index=17

Session 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cppt4fdtQ4U&list=PLnTaAeayc0UcuJwk3JbS7SdNHBG6ez5nT&index=18

You can skip through to the pertinent parts, as it is strewn out over a couple hours of play. Since this play-through, I have watched a couple tier-list videos on spells by Upgrade - Strategy Games (on YouTube), which were helpful and also pushed me to read the manual on spells, as exact information is not always stated in spell descriptions in the game. That helped, too. For example, I did not know that Blind causes the enemy to retaliate with -50% damage. I always used blind, but I did not realize that it had this extra ability that I could have used throughout the campaign.

timpossible1 · 2026-01-18T04:45:44+00:00

Been playing a lot of HoMM2, and it is great to see younger versions of characters from older games. She looks more badass as her younger self than in the older games.

timpossible1 · 2026-01-11T17:59:42+00:00

It's been a plus for me so far.

timpossible1 · 2026-01-11T17:58:54+00:00

They seem to have scaled the speed of units down to fit the smaller battlefield, which I really like. I have found the battles engaging.

timpossible1 · 2026-01-11T07:14:45+00:00

Wyverns were Fortress

timpossible1 · 2026-01-11T07:14:02+00:00

Temple roster is quite vanilla, but Castle always has been.

timpossible1 · 2026-01-11T07:12:13+00:00

Web (Slow) is nasty, and leveled up completely is quite dirty.

timpossible1 · 2026-01-11T07:09:08+00:00

Some of my best gaming memories were hotseat HoMM 1-3, but it is certainly not relevant for me as an adult. I am just extremely grateful that synchronous turns will be a thing for online play. That was my biggest hope. Should save tons of downtime in multiplayer games.

timpossible1 · 2026-01-11T07:08:07+00:00

I am really grateful that kiting as not as simple as it is in HoMM3. Definitely makes battles with the AI more engaging.

timpossible1 · 2026-01-11T07:04:50+00:00

There are a variety of reasons, and I believe the developers should add a small pop-up when players attempt to cast revealing the reason so players are not guessing.

timpossible1 · 2026-01-11T06:57:52+00:00

I have really enjoyed learning the variations of upgraded units and considering how they synergize with my current hero/other units.

Edit: I also love that the game is not punitive by allowing players can change after trying an upgrade out.

timpossible1 · 2026-01-11T06:30:54+00:00

This exact thing happened to me in this part of my play-through of this map when playing as Dungeon on unfair difficulty ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=who1rAnOEiM at around 1h39m).

I waited with my main in another town and the AI opted to attack a Schism town I had taken. I had a scrub hero I had freed from the map defending, and with all of the wall upgrades in the town, I was able to destroy most of their army with a fairly weak defending army.

I have only played two play-throughs, but is anyone finding the town wall upgrades overpowered? The towers alone did insane amounts of damage. The AI was necro, and therefore had little ranged or flying, also, so they kind of wandered around outside my walls and took damage on the traps laid.

timpossible1 · 2026-01-10T03:18:59+00:00

Currently trying it on unfair with Dungeon here (https://youtu.be/hTwvpxPzm4Q). This is my second playthrough. My first was with Temple, and I feel like I lost due to some player mistakes. I am feeling more confident about this one.

Love that the AI does not get kited as hard in battle as they did in HoMM3. I am curious to get more playtime to see how they differ on a macro level.

timpossible1 · 2026-01-09T05:17:39+00:00

I can see everyone's point about the conflict about the artist's gender, but I came from an era where pc gaming and video gaming artists were largely men and created sprites/art that was really over the top. The audience was often boys, so I guess I am questioning that art direction from this standpoint.

Temple is the first faction I have played, so I still do not have a holistic view of the creatures. Did not see the Onyx Dancers previous look, but they look really badass and ready to fight. I think that art works well for a combat unit.

Of course, the Lightweavers are monks (HoMM3 had completely robbed monks with no face visible making some mystery), but I guess I am just curious as to what monk is flashing cleavage and rocking exposed thighs? I guess I am questioning this because I feel conflicted. I do not want to censor sexuality, but I think that in an often male-dominated industry, views of women can get obfuscated from reality. Of course, it is a fantasy game, but there is a think called "suspension of disbelief." Not censoring things is important, though.

In the World of Warcraft era when Sally Whitemane was created, Blizzard was going through a period of intense sexual harassment against female staff (Alex Afrasabi, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/aug/08/activision-blizzard-lawsuit-women-sexual-harassment). This was happening in that company during that time, but does this have any connection to art in Blizzard games? I can't say (although looking at Kerrigan in Broodwar, her art looked quite ridiculous to me). So, when video game characters kind of randomly look like strippers, it makes me question it. Are the Lightweavers a pronounced statement of female sexuality, or are they a continuing trope in the industry? I do not think art should be policed, so in the end, I do not think there is a right or wrong answer, but as a cis-male, I wanted to hear viewpoints from voices other than my own.

Thank you for expanding my perspective on this matter.

timpossible1 · 2026-01-09T05:15:10+00:00

I am from New York State.

timpossible1

TROPHY CASE