HoMM3 campaigns too easy?
Malcolm MacKay
curious whether other people have the same experience.
I'm just about finished the 5th campaign, and almost every scenarios
has been extremely easy to complete. I never had this problem with
HoMM2, in fact I never managed to complete the scenario disk due to to
a couple of extremely tough scenarios.
The fine balance that was present in most HoMM2 scenarios is missing.
It seems that the scenarios are fairer than in HoMM2, in the sense
that the computer doesn't get a lot of advantages. But if there is no
chanllange, what is the point? Maybe there should be difficulty levels
in the campaigns. I sure hope 3DO doesn't make the same mistake with
the scenario disk.
Malcolm MacKay
NFLed
Being an rpg person mostly and not as good at strategy
games even I found almost all of the campaign scenarios
fairly easy. However, I think that this (and the variety of
winning conditions and new features such as "pause in
combat") increased my enjoyment of the game. In this
way it played more like a rpg-strategy hybrid in that you
wouldn't spend hours on a scenario (I'm a slow player)
only to find it impossible later on. I didn't enjoy homm2
much for mostly this reason and almost didn't buy homm3.
From what I've read on this newsgroup most people agree
that the homm3 campaigns are very easy but I believe that
many of the non-campaign scenarios are difficult when set
to the appropriate level.
Ed B.
Josh Boardman
> I love HoMM3, but I'm finding the campaigns to be extremely easy. I'm
> curious whether other people have the same experience.
I did find the Campaigns easy, but this allowed for a more relaxed style
of play - I was able to enjoy the maps at a leisurely pace and "get into"
the story a bit better. Just MHO.
The scenarios, with an adjustable difficulty level, are more than enough
of a challenge. I have to get quite lucky to beat the computer at
"Expert" on many maps.
Old Wolf
--------------
Michael J. Solomon
>curious whether other people have the same experience.
Yes, they were too easy. The HOMM2 campaigns however were far too
difficult. I made the mistake of giving a friend HOMM2 to try out as
his first turn based strat game. I gave it to him because the game is
so easy to learn. I failed to realize how hard the game is to master
however. He gave up. He got all the way to the end of the good
campaign, but he had to replay each scenario so many times, it was
starting to get boring for him. He would have been happier with HOMM3
I think. Here is a tip New World. Do what every other game under the
sun lets its players do. Let us adjust the difficulty level even in
the campaign!
Kevin Lynch
one of the scenarios out of all the campaign scenarios. The problem is that
you cannot set the difficulty level.
I find that playing the individual scenarios on Expert level gives what was
equal to Normal or Hard in HOMM2. Of course, it's either that or I'm just
becoming a better HOMM player. If I play the scenarios on anything less than
Expert, it becomes obvious that it is highly unlikely I will lose.
-- Kevin W. Lynch
rene...@sprint.ca
If using the reply button, remove "nospam.".
Malcolm MacKay <malc...@ola.bc.ca> wrote in message
news:375207e...@news.ola.bc.ca...
> I love HoMM3, but I'm finding the campaigns to be extremely easy. I'm
> curious whether other people have the same experience.
>
> I'm just about finished the 5th campaign, and almost every scenarios
> has been extremely easy to complete. I never had this problem with
> HoMM2, in fact I never managed to complete the scenario disk due to to
> a couple of extremely tough scenarios.
>
> The fine balance that was present in most HoMM2 scenarios is missing.
> It seems that the scenarios are fairer than in HoMM2, in the sense
> that the computer doesn't get a lot of advantages. But if there is no
> chanllange, what is the point? Maybe there should be difficulty levels
> in the campaigns. I sure hope 3DO doesn't make the same mistake with
> the scenario disk.
>
> Malcolm MacKay
>
Scott Shupe
>
> >I love HoMM3, but I'm finding the campaigns to be extremely easy. I'm
> >curious whether other people have the same experience.
>
> difficult. I made the mistake of giving a friend HOMM2 to try out as
> his first turn based strat game. I gave it to him because the game is
> so easy to learn. I failed to realize how hard the game is to master
> however. He gave up. He got all the way to the end of the good
> campaign, but he had to replay each scenario so many times, it was
> starting to get boring for him.
The end of the good campaign is pretty challenging.
However, if you get to that point and you haven't picked up
the basic nuances of the game yet (taking & holding territroy,
wearing down a stronger force, etc.), then you're not that
interested in the game in the first place. Or you don't like
a challenge. Should game makers tailor thier products to all
of the lazy and unambitious gamers out there? If you feel
that you're entitled to win a game that you paid for
regardless of your skill level - well, that's what cheat
codes are for.
> He would have been happier with HOMM3
> I think. Here is a tip New World. Do what every other game under the
> sun lets its players do. Let us adjust the difficulty level even in
> the campaign!
...of course, this is the ideal solution. I would
have loved such a feature in HOMM 3. Even a bunch of the
"hard" campaign scenarios were cakewalks (like the end of
Song for Father - what an amazing letdown that was).
Scott
sh...@ca.metsci.com
Sebastien Patenaude
>
> I love HoMM3, but I'm finding the campaigns to be extremely easy. I'm
> curious whether other people have the same experience.
>
> has been extremely easy to complete. I never had this problem with
> HoMM2, in fact I never managed to complete the scenario disk due to to
> a couple of extremely tough scenarios.
>
> The fine balance that was present in most HoMM2 scenarios is missing.
> It seems that the scenarios are fairer than in HoMM2, in the sense
> that the computer doesn't get a lot of advantages. But if there is no
> chanllange, what is the point? Maybe there should be difficulty levels
> in the campaigns. I sure hope 3DO doesn't make the same mistake with
> the scenario disk.
Yes the HOMM 3 campaigns were definitely too easy and there are several
reasons for that.
1) The 3 first mini-campaigns are like tutorials.
2) It is rare that the computer will have more towns than you in the
campaigns. I think one or two more than you.
3) In later scenarios where you have carry-over heroes, it doesn't seem
to take them into account. For example, you'll have about 8 heroes, a
few of level 10 and higher, while the computer will have but a few
heroes, often all of level 1.
4) You almost always start with several towns while having only 1 town
in each scenario would have been more fun and challenging imho. Since
with several towns, a human is often better than the computer, you can
outbuild and outproduce it quite easily.
The last scenario in the campaign was a huge let-down in my eyes. I
can't go too much into detail because of spoilers but points numbers 2,
3 and 4 were there. Heck, even the computer started with less towns than
you.
However, I'm finding the stand-alone maps a lot more challenging in
general but yes the campaign maps were a disappointment. It's not just
because I'm a veteran HOMM 2 player either. There were several missed
story opportunities (the traitor and Catherine's father were a big
let-down and should have been better handled) ,there were practically no
in-game events (hallmark of even the lowliest amateur maps) and the
campaign maps struck me as being a bit bland and generic.
I also hope the campaign maps in the expansion pack are of
higher-quality.
--
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\\---\\ The Quebec Dragon
_\ \ -=(UDIC)=-
_\(o\ \o)
_\/\ \ \ Strategy, news and review editor of the
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Michael J. Solomon
>that you're entitled to win a game that you paid for
>regardless of your skill level - well, that's what cheat
>codes are for.
No, that's exactly what skill levels are for. So you can keep it
challenging _enough_ without making it _too_ challenging at your
current skill level. Let the player decide how easy or how difficult
he wants the game to be.
QurqirishD
>story opportunities (the traitor and Catherine's father were a big
>let-down and should have been better handled)
Yeah, personally I think this would have been a neat ending: Catherine casts
"sacrifice" on the traitor to ressurect her father. But that's just my opinion.
The Qurqirish Dragon, of the Xanadu Dragons
--==<<{{ UDIC }}>>=--
Remember- my address is no laughing matter
Bruno Wolff III
> The campaigns were definitely on the easy side. I believe I restarted only
> one of the scenarios out of all the campaign scenarios. The problem is that
> you cannot set the difficulty level.
>
> I find that playing the individual scenarios on Expert level gives what was
> equal to Normal or Hard in HOMM2. Of course, it's either that or I'm just
> becoming a better HOMM player. If I play the scenarios on anything less than
> Expert, it becomes obvious that it is highly unlikely I will lose.
Unfortunately, the difficulty stuff wasn't done well. I didn't like that
you could set the difficulty setting in the campaigns. I especially didn't
like the fact that they had the AI play extra stupid. They could have set
the difficulty level to "hard" so that the AI would have played as well
as it could and then balanced with resources.
Their idea of using kinder, gentler naming of the difficulty levels
(callign what most people would call the normal setting "hard"), didn't
work out very well because they dropped a difficulty level off the top.
I like having some chance of losing, and for a number of scenarios,
impossible isn't hard enough (though there are some that I need to play
at just expert).
I think the best way to do this is to have configureable difficulty.
I would like to see players' and computers' resource bonuses (or
penalties) each settable. This allows for handicapping between players.
It also handles cases where being able to only give to one side doesn't
allow for the scenario to be balanced (because resources aren't the limit).
Bonus or reduced creature production would be another nice way to set
difficulty. I think some people will like to be able to have AI settings,
though personally I would rather play against the full AI and balance
through other means.
Stuart Park
<snip..>
> I think the best way to do this is to have configureable difficulty.
> I would like to see players' and computers' resource bonuses (or
> penalties) each settable. This allows for handicapping between players.
> It also handles cases where being able to only give to one side doesn't
> allow for the scenario to be balanced (because resources aren't the limit).
> Bonus or reduced creature production would be another nice way to set
> difficulty. I think some people will like to be able to have AI settings,
> though personally I would rather play against the full AI and balance
> through other means.
What I often think would be an interesting idea could be a strategy game
having the AI routines in a separate callable module and then make that
module "open source". That way, other people could have a chance at
playing around with improving the AI.
Or at least make the AI more configurable.
(the configuration files that came with Civilisation II were a step in
the right direction - allowing changing of priorities for technologies
etc)
QurqirishD
>I would like to see players' and computers' resource bonuses (or
>penalties) each settable. This allows for handicapping between players.
On the "advanced options" screen, you can handicap individual players.
M. Norton
: I love HoMM3, but I'm finding the campaigns to be extremely easy. I'm
: curious whether other people have the same experience.
: I'm just about finished the 5th campaign, and almost every scenarios
: has been extremely easy to complete. I never had this problem with
: HoMM2, in fact I never managed to complete the scenario disk due to to
: a couple of extremely tough scenarios.
Well I'm not sure. I picked up HOMM3 because it was on sale and I'd always
heard really good things about the first two. The artwork is really gorgeous
in my opinion and the gameplay seems fun.
The difficulty I think it probably right for someone who has never played
the game before. The tutorial was nice but only essentially demonstrated
the user interface, not the strategy required. It took me a couple of times
with the very first map for Long Live the Queen. There is a lot of stuff
to manage and worry about. I thought I had it down pat but now with the
Fair Feather map, I'm doing fairly well however I have an enemy hero within
striking range of Fair Feather after an initial assault so the garrison
is weakened. For me, there is still the chance to lose.
However, with someone accustomed to making the appropriate decisions for
the game, I can see how these two maps in particular would seem fairly easy.
There is a lot of resources available, lots of artifacts and friendly
units.
Just one fellow's opinion,
Regards
Mark Norton
--
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Steve Wilcoxon
> I love HoMM3, but I'm finding the campaigns to be extremely easy. I'm
> curious whether other people have the same experience.
Personally, I really like the difficulty of the campaigns in HoMM3. They
are fairly easy, but allowed me to really get into them with some
difficulties in a few campaigns. I liked the game-play of HoMM2, but
didn't play it nearly as much as I've already played HoMM3 -- mostly due to
the difficulties of the campaigns (I found HoMM2 too hard).