Heroes of Might & Magic 7

[dibens]

It's not over-exaggeration, it was decent as far as tb strategies go. In IV it was absolutely retarded and I'm not sure about V and VI, didn't play enough.

I agree, HoMM 3 AI is best in the series by far, but then again you're comparing it to HoMM4 which had no AI to begin with.

Most of challenge in these games comes from computer having an enormous advantage, like flagged extra dwellings in scenarios and campaigns, and player starting with no resources. Combat AI defending castles or casting spells is just painful to watch. It does utilise wait function pretty well, tho.

Yeah, it was OK in IV. Not "absolutely retarded" by any means.

No, it was, in fact, absolutely retarded. Unfinished and absolutely broken. HoMM3 AI is Deep Blue in comparison

 

[tyrannosaurus rex]

challenge that lies in giving dumbshit AIs an unfair advantage is not a good challenge. It's like saying fighting 3 noobs in a rts at once is a good challenge. You just abuse the noob's inexperience and occasionally use cheese. Great.

 

[FeelTheRads]

No, it was, in fact, absolutely retarded. Unfinished and absolutely broken. HoMM3 AI is Deep Blue in comparison

Yeah, that AI that was specialized in defusing the mines around the Tower castle by stepping on all of them in a single turn.

No, really, what was so broken about Heroes 4 AI that it was worse than the one in 3?

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

I clearly remember AI in IV doing stuff like moving ranged troops forward instead of shooting, that definitely falls under "retarded".

And the AI in III obviously did have advantage from the way scenarios or difficulty levels were rigged in its favor, but still - it was perfectly OK as far as tb strategies go. It even knew some decent tricks, like attacking dragons so that their retaliation will burn your own units.

 

[Cadmus]

Yeah, that AI that was specialized in defusing the mines around the Tower castle by stepping on all of them in a single turn.

No, really, what was so broken about Heroes 4 AI that it was worse than the one in 3?

I keep seeing this repeated over and over again so I kinda stopped thinking about it but you're right. What's so horrible about the AI? Like give some examples instead of saying it was totally retarded.
From playing VI for a few maps it seems to me that IV AI was better.

One thing that sucks in all the Homam games is the stack splitting the AI does to counter your army. Most of the times, it just makes the stack of death easily killable. I guess they want to avoid getting it totally destroyed by debuffs which indeed sometimes helps but for example there's some magic resistant units like the Black Dragons where there's no reason to split the stack instead of just annihilating the player's army 1 stack per turn.

I clearly remember AI in IV doing stuff like moving ranged troops forward instead of shooting, that definitely falls under "retarded".

And the AI in III obviously did have advantage from the way scenarios or difficulty levels were rigged in its favor, but still - it was perfectly OK as far as tb strategies go. It even knew some decent tricks, like attacking dragons so that their retaliation will burn your own units.

As far as I remember it only moved the shitty archers like Orcs because their damage was 1/8 at the full range which amounts to nothing no matter the number of units in the stack. Also this behavior clearly scaled with the difficulty imo. On Easy, the AI was clearly retarded but on some higher difficulties it played decently enough.

I can't tell if better or worse than H3 but I don't think it could have been much worse.

 

[Monkeyfinger]

Kill big neutral stack gameplay is why homm4 5 and 6's campaigns feel so different than 3's. It's nothing to do with the AI's programmed routines and everything to do with how the maps are built.

homm3's campaign maps = AIs outnumber you, are allied with each other and start with more stuff. They attack you from multiple directions, and there are lots of separate passageways and clearings for them to move through. To compensate you get to raise multiple competent heroes and carry them over, splitting them up and letting each of them carry out different attacks and defenses. Neutral stacks mostly resemble what you'd find on a skirmish map. You're under pressure to creep efficiently, build up quickly and manage all the AIs at once, or they'll kill you by avoiding your best army and base racing you with superior numbers.

homm4, 5 and 6 campaign maps = 1 pathetically weak AI, and huge neutral stacks and/or garrison stacks guarding all the objectives and all the good artifacts. You get to raise and carry over one hero who smashes everything while other hires are just couriers. There's lots of grind but little to no pressure.

When I say pathetically weak AI I mean it starts with 1 underleveled city and a pitiful recourse stockpile, not that it's badly programmed. It doesn't physically have what's needed to keep pace with the player or quickly break any big neutral stacks.

Haven't played 1, 2 or 7 so can't comment on any of them

 

[dibens]

No, really, what was so broken about Heroes 4 AI that it was worse than the one in 3?

It is well known HoMM4 was rushed out unfinished and AI was one thing that suffered the most. Some guys were running extensive tests. From what I remember:

- can't solve quests, use market, shop, potions (Immortality potions are big fucking deal)
- doesn't build dwellings/capitol asap, instead opts to build random shit.
- will often end turn after picking up a treasure/artifact, even with spare movement points left
- stupid hero skill selections, often not picking Combat (just like Immortality potions, a big fucking deal)
- will often travel with 3 heroes in army, butchering their development
- absolutely adamant at uncovering every bit of fog of war, often ignoring more important objectives
- bad at navigating sea in fog of war, will often be stuck in a loop of boarding and disembarking the ship
- in combat often gets stuck in a loop of running out of the gates and back, same with towers. I'm sure HoMM4 combat AI would deserve it's own thread

 

[Cadmus]

It's true the AI can't handle the heroes well at all. The potions are a big deal and the AI is totally unable to protect the hero in combat, it treats them like an expendable spellcaster unit.
The siege problems I haven't really noticed, except sometimes the AI really climbs onto a tower and goes back but it's not a big deal, at least it stays in the castle and mans the towers usually, unlike H3 AI that will most likely rush or sit in the castle if it feels it's got superior numbers no matter if you keep throwing shit at them.

The hero skills selection and quest completion I'm pretty sure you could find in all the games but maybe I'm wrong.
The strategic AI seems a bit worse than the combat AI. I also remember reading these AI were only a placeholder but the game got released too early so they had to stay in. Basically in all the heroes games, the AI is not good and needs a numerical advantage in combat at all times. It's not like some RTS AIs where they simply outperform you in APM so it's easy to understand why this happens.

 

[tindrli]

heroes 5

heroes 6

heroes 7

 

[FeelTheRads]

It is well known HoMM4 was rushed out unfinished and AI was one thing that suffered the most. Some guys were running extensive tests. From what I remember:

- can't solve quests, use market, shop, potions (Immortality potions are big fucking deal)
- doesn't build dwellings/capitol asap, instead opts to build random shit.
- will often end turn after picking up a treasure/artifact, even with spare movement points left
- stupid hero skill selections, often not picking Combat (just like Immortality potions, a big fucking deal)
- will often travel with 3 heroes in army, butchering their development
- absolutely adamant at uncovering every bit of fog of war, often ignoring more important objectives
- bad at navigating sea in fog of war, will often be stuck in a loop of boarding and disembarking the ship
- in combat often gets stuck in a loop of running out of the gates and back, same with towers. I'm sure HoMM4 combat AI would deserve it's own thread

Yes, the game being rushed out is well known. The question is you actually notice these problems all that much during actual playing and not reading "extensive tests"? I'm sure extensive tests would reveal the AI in Heroes 3 doing retarded things like the one I mentioned above.
I remember the Immortality potion thing. That's a big thing indeed.
Though I don't even know if it's a bug or they made that intentional so the AI wouldn't be fucking annoying with it. Those potions shouldn't have been in the game in the first place.

 

[Black]

Let's not over-exaggerate.

Well, HOMM 3 AI at least used 'wait' or enemy heroes would cast direct damage spells before retreating from a losing battle.

 

[pippin]

I wonder what JVC thinks of all this.

 

[Archibald]

Yes, the game being rushed out is well known. The question is you actually notice these problems all that much during actual playing and not reading "extensive tests"? I'm sure extensive tests would reveal the AI in Heroes 3 doing retarded things like the one I mentioned above.
I remember the Immortality potion thing. That's a big thing indeed.
Though I don't even know if it's a bug or they made that intentional so the AI wouldn't be fucking annoying with it. Those potions shouldn't have been in the game in the first place.

I remember there was some fan patch that "fixed" problem with immortality potions by auto-using it, maybe it "fixed" some problems with skill selection too, don't remember now. Either way this is kinda strange situation considering that most of the challenge in HoMM3 was:
a) Fighting pre-built heroes with pre-built castles
b) Playing on max handicap setting which was basically "you are couple of weeks behind in resources"

HoMM3 was really good at masking its weak points. This really is not a dig at HoMM3, but its weird to criticize HoMM4 AI hero builds when we usually fought against hand-made heroes in HoMM3 campaigns.

 

[Ulrox]

I clearly remember AI in IV doing stuff like moving ranged troops forward instead of shooting, that definitely falls under "retarded".

In heroes IV there was a statistic called :"shots" Once the AI is out of "shots" they're incapable of using a ranged attack, in which case it moves into melee.

This thread is giving me the impression that I really should complete the Heroes 3 Campaign's soon.

 

[Black]

Hope you like one way portals with exists near your towns

 

[visions]

In heroes IV there was a statistic called :"shots" Once the AI is out of "shots" they're incapable of using a ranged attack, in which case it moves into melee.

This thread is giving me the impression that I really should complete the Heroes 3 Campaign's soon.

Shots have been a statistic in HoMM ever since the first game.

http://www.heroesofmightandmagic.com/heroes1/allcreatures.shtml

 

[Ulrox]

Shots have been a statistic in HoMM ever since the first game.

http://www.heroesofmightandmagic.com/heroes1/allcreatures.shtml

Yes, I'm aware. Sorry for writing my post in a way that made it sound like I wasn't aware of that, that one's on me.

 

[dibens]

Yes, the game being rushed out is well known. The question is you actually notice these problems all that much during actual playing and not reading "extensive tests"?

You don't need elaborate tests to notice that AI runs back and forth, seemingly unable to decide where to go, dies from neutrals way too often, is too much of a pussy when it comes to engaging player and its heroes are utterly worthless, save for maybe high level might heroes with magic immunity. When you come off a game like HoMM3 the differences in AI competence are especially stark.

 

[Maculo]

Typically, I am not a graphicsfag, but something about the visuals looks so cheap. Initially, I thought the blight glowing colors were what turned me off. Now, I think it just the weak details around the glowing lights.

 

[Bubbles]

Hello Heroes,

Please find underneath a new status update to give you more visibility on upcoming patch but also a direct request from the team for additional inputs and logs.

The patch

First thing first, we know many of you are eagerly waiting for this first patch. Be sure the team has not been taking any rest since the release of the title and is working hard on this update. We are doing our best to fix top priority issues and improve game experience to the level you could expect from a Heroes title at release.

It has been decided to create a first “big patch” instead of several little ones to ensure the stability and compatibility of the various fixes all together. It also ensures our QC team gives the most thorough look at it. Patch 1 should provide over 120+ fixes we will detail in the upcoming days.

Release date is still to be confirmed but we are aiming at next week if our tests are conclusive.

Why we need your feedback

The game was highly tested and this for several months by dedicated teams. However, each computer is “unique” due to its hardware components of course but above all, its software (every little software you install, uninstall, have to update etc.). This is something that we can’t reproduce of course and thus, many cases will have to be handled almost case by case. In order to be able to do it, we need more information directly from you.

Unfortunately, we identified that many players were trying to launch the game on computers that were not meeting minimum required specs.

In order to work on solutions for this kind of issue, today we need your precious inputs. Indeed, by sharing your feedback and logs, we will be able to better identify, reproduce and fix encountered issues. Even if we understand your frustration, we need today your best and most constructive inputs to make sure we don’t miss anything.

For instance, logs will give us the possibility to identify where/when issues appear and identify a potential explanation for them -which is most of the time impossible to “guess”-.

Why the Customer Support?

To really understand why we are pushing Customer Support for bug report it is necessary to have an overview of our bug treatment process. When you submit your feedback to the Customer Support, this input is translated into a ticket in our tools which will be transferred to the appropriate team after sorting. Tickets concerning the game will be directly integrated in our development team bug-tracking tool. Thus, this is the most efficient way to share your feedback for the game.

It may happen you don’t receive an immediate answer but don’t worry, as it can take some time to go through all tickets and answer them. But in the end all of them will be eventually addressed, sorted and put in our bug database.

https://mmh7.ubi.com/en/blog/post/view/important-how-to-report-bugs

 

[Visperas]

So, I wanted to play this game but it won't work on my shitty laptop. What's the consensus on the best HoMM? Three?

 

[Cadmus]

So, I wanted to play this game but it won't work on my shitty laptop. What's the consensus on the best HoMM? Three?

I guess 2/3 but I think 4 is just as good

 

[Bubbles]

So, I wanted to play this game but it won't work on my shitty laptop. What's the consensus on the best HoMM? Three?

Five.

 

[Black]

3.

 

[tindrli]

3 and 4 and 5 start with 3 instal that HD and enjoy