Moving On: LP Heroes 3!

[Integrity]

MINISH CAP GOES NEXT LUKA. Unless I can get MechWarrior 3 to record. But if I can do that then THIS goes on hold.

OKAY FIRST UP: I'm basically shelving Amnesia for now. The game isn't actually fun at all. I might continue another day when I don't have stuff to do but for the time being motivation to continue with Amnesia is absolutely nil.

EXCELSIOR!

It got mentioned in a thread a few months back and I decided to go through with it. Heroes of Might and Magic 3! I've never actually beaten the campaigns, but that's what fucking up on video is for and I actually enjoy the game unlike say Amnesia. If I get really stuck, Kitty is just stupid knowledgeable about this game so we've got a fallback.

I don't remember what any of these campaigns are called! Pick one based on its picture and I'll start tonight.

[Specta]

WOOO HEROES 3

geez I haven't played that game in ages but I still love it so much

The first one is the royal griffin. So... My vote is for the royal griffin!

[Iced]

oh no, this is one of my favourite games.

Integrity are like the goddamn Deceased Crab of serenes forest at the moment.

[Integrity]

oh no, this is one of my favourite games.

Integrity are like the goddamn Deceased Crab of serenes forest at the moment.

:D? I don't get it.

And cast a vote you bastard.

[Iced]

:D? I don't get it.

And cast a vote you bastard.

I'm saying it better be good, That's all.

Deceased crab was notorious for pumping out a horrible YouTube LP practically every week at one point, I'm not saying yours are bad (never really watched to be honest) but it feels like every time I come back you've got something new, not that I check serenes all that often, It just reminded me.

I'll vote for one the expansion pack campaigns, the vanilla ones are all complete bullshit for so many reasons. If that isn't an option, Spoils of war as Stronghold was the most fun in my opinion.

Edited June 29, 2011 by Iced

[Integrity]

>>

<<

Yeow, possibly.

As for vanilla vice Armageddon's Blade, are the expansion campaigns significantly less bullshit than the vanilla ones I remember? I could always truck through the vanilla ones on Easy (lol) as a sort of prequel, I guess.

And for the other expansion (Shadow of Death?) - I seem to remember those being on a bullshittery level with vanilla?

[Iced]

As for vanilla vice Armageddon's Blade, are the expansion campaigns significantly less bullshit than the vanilla ones I remember? I could always truck through the vanilla ones on Easy (lol) as a sort of prequel, I guess.

And for the other expansion (Shadow of Death?) - I seem to remember those being on a bullshittery level with vanilla?

Armageddon's blade is really hard, but redeems itself by having a lot of fun missions.

Shadow of death is basically the same style as vanilla, except stupidly hard for no real reason.

how is video LP'ing a relatively slow strategy game going to work? Unless you go the whole humorous guest commentary that always ends up really off topic route.

Edited June 29, 2011 by Iced

[Balcerzak]

I vote the greek looking one with what is, I assume, a Medusa in the foreground.

[Integrity]

how is video LP'ing a relatively slow strategy game going to work? Unless you go the whole humorous guest commentary that always ends up really off topic route.

The answer is I'll probably record one episode and rewatch it and see how it looks just for myself. If it looks good, we'll go with whatever I did :P

Otherwise, I'll probably revert to an old me and run another screenshot LP.

[Scarlet]

Damn, Heroes 3. I had a lot of fun with this game on custom maps and some of the pre-made ones, but the campaigns just didn't appeal to me. Even worse, when I tried one of the three starter campaigns, there was something about... I believe it was the second or third mission... Anyway, one of the missions never ended no matter what I did. I had completed the mission objective and defeated every single enemy on the map, but the game refused to go to the next chapter. That was the first and only time I ever gave the campaigns a try.

[Psych]

OKAY FIRST UP: I'm basically shelving Amnesia for now. The game isn't actually fun at all. I might continue another day when I don't have stuff to do but for the time being motivation to continue with Amnesia is absolutely nil.

*Got thiry dollars today*

*Remembers Integrity wanted Terreria*

*Sees Thread and Message*

*Tells Integrity to shove it*

[Integrity]

Fully accepted, Psych. I'll probably still finish Amnesia, eventually, but that's another story.

[Psych]

I pick pegasus campaign. >_>

[Integrity]

That's a Griffin.

[Integrity]

This is primarily an expository post and proof that this project has actually started.

LET'S DO THIS

----------

[spoiler=lots of talking and pictures]

THE MAIN MENU. Guess what option we choose.

This screenshot is different from the one in the OP because I've hovered over our chosen campaign. Assuming Psych actually voted for the Griffon, it's 2:1 for Long Live the Queen! And Iced, the Stronghold campaign doesn't seem among the starting ones.

This is the screen denoting the campaign map we're on. Talking ensues, blah blah blah, find Terraneus. The bottom row has the Starter Bonuses - pick one, then hit Begin.

Extra resources is probably better than 14 Pikemen. Pikemen? We'll get to that nowish.

dat ass

Bonus for anyone who followed Might and Magic 7: yes, this is the same world. The mentioned Nighon is *that* Nighon. But this is all plot banter, so I ignore it.

Game time start! For this campaign, anything with a red flag is us. Our colors shift between campaigns, but we're red for now. Let's go over the interface clockwise, shall we?

1 o'clock: Minimap. I BET YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT THIS DOES

3 o'clock: Heroes on the left, the menu in the middle, and castles on the right. The menu has shit like end turn, save, next hero, spellbook - you get the drift.

5 o'clock: Our selected hero/castle. We'll get to that in a moment. Below that, the current date which is MASSIVELY IMPORTANT for SO many reasons.

6 o'clock: Resources. There are six in total, plus gold. In case you can't count.

Our situation right now, under any other circumstance, would equal "we're straight proper fucked" unless we had a massive beefy spellcaster hero. Each of those unit sprites on the world map represents an encounter with units who are typically hostile. However, thanks to the scripting magic of the campaign...

Same story for all four groups. There's a certain chance (100% if you're these guys) for units of the same type as your army to want "greater glory" and will offer to join you for free. All of them. The Diplomacy skill (we'll get to that) adds a chance for you to be able to buy off groups of units to join you. Awesome, isn't it? Anyway, we pad our army. Let's do some looking!

Introducing our very first hero: Christian! Christian is kind of a prick, but he'll do for now. More interface:

Paperdoll, right side: Equipment. Our heroes each can wear a full set of gear that gives immense bonuses if you use the right stuff. Choice items include bags that give your empire wood (huh huh) every day, boots that make your hero and his stack fly, and some other shit too.

Stats, top-left: Stats. Attack and Defense are applied to your units, where Power and Knowledge are applied to your hero. Heroes exist in the game as separate from the battlefield, mostly supporting with spells and abilities - lacking the means to attack or to be targeted. Until Heroes 4. But we ignore that.

Skills, left-middle: The beef of a hero. Each skill comes in three flavours (Basic, Expert, Master) that give increasing bonuses based on what skill it is. Each hero class (two per castle type) has a different chance to roll different skills when they level but we'll get to that later. For now, Leadership increases your units' Morale and Artillery lets you control siege equipment.

Speaking of, toppish-left-middle: That eagle and scales represent Morale and Luck. Morale gives your units a chance to remove (think fe5) if it's positive and an equal chance to freeze up and lose a turn if it's negative. Luck is the same thing, except it affects your units' ability to either crit for big damage (on high luck) or ...anticrit for poor damage (with low luck). These chances can never exist at the same time - if you have neutral positive Morale, your units will *never* freeze. Morale and Luck also exist separately; you can have perfect Morale and bad Luck no problem.

aaaaaaand bottom-left is our army. You can have seven stacks of units (up to 9999 per stack) per hero at any given time. But what's it time for? SHOWCASING!

NEW UNIT GET: PIKEMAN

Pikemen are the most basic unit of the Castle. They, like most (not all [centaur chieftans]) Tier 1 units, are basically shit. But they come cheap and they can do damage massed up.

NEW UNIT GET: ARCHER

Archers are the Castle's Tier 2 unit and they're fairly competent shooters. They really come into their own when they get upgraded, but until then any ranged damage is good ranged damage in my books.

So okay, that done let's go look at our new castle.

It's a little sparse, don't you think? Don't worry, new buildings appear by magic when we want them to. Interface time!

Top-middle: Castle view. Shows all the buildings we've built and is interactive. I have a fairly solid hard on for games that show you your towns you're built, so I like it unnecessarily much.

Bottom-middle, top-side: Castle's garrison.

Bottom-middle, bottom-side: Visiting hero, if any.

Bottom-left: Income and creature growths. Income is how much gold the city makes every day, but creature growths are why the date is SO MASSIVELY IMPORTANT. On the first of every week, the number you see is added to each creature's dwelling. So on Sunday, Week 2 14 extra Pikemen will become available for recruitment. They'll just languish there until we need them, too, and their numbers will increase by 14 every following week forever pretty much. We have ways to pad it, but that's the gist.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Showcase time!

NEW UNIT GET: HALBERDIER

Here's our first upgraded unit. Each dwelling (produces creatures) has an upgrade, which shits out upgraded creatures and can upgrade the old version to the new. So our Guardhouse can be upgraded to an Upg. Guardhouse and then start making Halberdiers instead of Pikemen.

Anyway, Halberdiers like most T1.5 units are pretty bad. They're solid in numbers, but don't count too hard on them. They're a decent step up from Pikemen, at least.

NEW UNIT GET: MARKSMEN

Marksmen are a MASSIVE upgrade over Archers. In addition to their statistical gains, they shoot twice every time you click. They compensate for this with a doubled ammo reserve, and did I mention the increased stats AND DOUBLE SHOT? They're still not my favorite shooters though.

NEW UNIT GET: SWORDSMAN

Swordsmen are actually the Castle's Tier 4 unit and they're pretty good melee fighters. Their upgrade is HELLISH to fight, but Swordsmen are just solid hitters who can take a few knocks in return.

And now, as you may have noticed in the Growths pane, there's an extra unit we can recruit but we don't have any of yet.

NEW UNIT GET: GRIFFIN

That button that disappeared is Dismiss Unit, by the way.

For Griffins to be truly appreciated, another facet of combat must be explained. Every unit counterattacks the first attack thrown at it in melee each turn, and none of the subsequent ones. Griffins, on the other hand, counterattack the first two attacks. This doesn't mean they counter twice in the same way Marksmen fire twice, though. Oh, and their upgrade will counter as many times as they can.

That said, Griffins are mediocre fighters at best - but they do fly. This isn't terribly useful all the time, but it has moments.

Moving along! That building on the far right of the castle screen is the Town Hall. That's where we build things.

Red means we don't have the prerequisites. Red with a struck-out gold (none here) means that we could build it, but we can't afford it. Grey means we can't build it in this town (whether due to campaign or castle restrictions - some castles in some scenarios inexplicably can't build certain buildings). Green means we can build it and we have the funds.

Building on the far right is the castle, which is where we can ...

Recruit units! I won't explain all the units on this page until we have some of each, don't worry. So let's go back to the Town Hall and build something.

Upgrading the Town Hall itself gives you more money every day and should always be done ASAP.

This screenshot serves no purpose other than to illustrate our new building, on the left. See how it grew?

So now we can start our exploring. Next time we'll hire a new hero to aid in the exploration and start Turn 2 finally!

I forgot how much typing these updates were.

[Specta]

Ahh. Good. Always build Town Hall first! The town hall structures are mondo-important because they give money and my gosh you need money. Once you get most of your dwellings built and a few weeks have passed, buying new units at the start of the week is expensive. @__@

but you probably kinda know all this stuff already, sorry. >>

Psh, yeah, Christian does totally look like a prick. You know who doesn't, though?

Crag Hack.

[Iced]

Stronghold is unlocked at the start, you can pick them or Fortress in Spoils of war (the 3rd campagn)

Since everyone here seems to own the game do you think it would be possible to some sort of multiplayer thing? Multiplayer Heores was amazing, and i've a real itch to play it now.

[Integrity]

I've got two computers, and that's perfectly fine for me subbing myself and Kitty in. I'd be willing to try.

And I had no idea about Spoils of War. I'll do Stronghold when we get there, then.

[Integrity]

Let's get it on. Double-post-day!

[spoiler=most of today's shtuff]

So we'll go back home. See the highlighted building to the left? That's our Tavern. Taverns let you hire extra heroes. Let's pick a good one, because our best four heroes follow us to Chapter 2 of the campaign.

After a generous tip, the barkeep whispers:

I guess our heroes front this tip or something, because it doesn't come out of our coffers. Whatever. The barkeep has some decent advice sometimes, and it's often (usually? always?) factual; you can't counter against Devils.

Anyway, every Tavern visit offers two heroes for hire. IN THE RED CORNER, LOYNIS THE CLERIC

"Sometimes I think I could beat up a million Wizards, ya know?" --Loynis the Cleric

Specialty: Prayer. Neh. Prayer's a decent spell and all, but neh. Wisdom is an awesome skill - without it, you cannot learn higher magic. Learning is just extra experience, whee. Given that our heroes levels are capped per map (and fairly low) Learning is all but useless.

IN THE BLUE CORNER, HALON THE WIZARD

"you show me this cleric i fuck him with my ten inch cock make him humble" --Halon the Wizard

Ooh, specialty: Mysticism. He's got Wisdom, too. Mysticism lets Halon regenerate mana quicker between battles, which is A+. Specialty: Mysticism lets him regenerate mana faster. A++. You're hired.

THAT MEANS NEW UNITS GET! They'll be left home, because morale. Let's go for that, shall we?

The biggest factors influencing Morale are heroes and army composition. Heroes with Leadership provide a blanket +1/2/3 to Morale (on a scale of -3 to 3, inclusive) and items can buffer this further. Army composition gives you a major difference, though.

An army consisting of all the same type gets +1 to Morale.

An army consisting of two factions' units gets nothing.

An army consisting of three or more gets -1 to Morale.

Any army that has both living and dead units gets an additional -1 for the living units (undead have no Morale).

As such, it's best to, when possible, keep armies fairly homogeneous. Later, when we have shit like Archangels and Black Dragons, where mixing them is TOTALLY worth the Morale loss, we'll do it. Plus, Christian the Prick offsets the loss somewhat.

NEW UNIT GET: GREMLIN

Gremlins blow. They're the Tier 1 unit of the unencountered Tower, and they really are horrid. On the other hand, their upgrade (Master Gremlins) is pretty unique for being the only Tier 1 unit with a ranged attack.

NEW UNIT GET: STONE GARGOYLE

Gargoyles don't tickle me. They're the Tower's Tier 2 unit. They're just cheap, massable fliers and their case isn't helped by an ability to fully tech the Tower and skip them entirely.

NEW UNIT GET: STONE GOLEMS

Stone and Iron Golems (Tower, Tier 3) are resistant to magic. Unfortunately, every army moves at the speed of its slowest unit and these fuckers are SLOW. They make decent guards, though, 'cause they're obscenely tough for their tier.

Plus, Halon is purple for the love of God.

Those pretty chests always have one of two options. Either they're gold/experience as you see here (in various quantities, with the gold reward always being 500 more) or they're a free artifact. It's almost always the gold/experience choice, though.

DAWN OF THE SECOND DAY and time for building!

City Hall is the next Hall upgrade. We want him, so we need a Marketplace and a Blacksmith. The Marketplace lets you exchange resources for other resources, which is rather helpful. The Blacksmith can outfit your heroes with siege equipment, depending on what town's Blacksmith it is. I think Castles give you a Ballista. Think.

gay

Okay, fighting! I need to get an army on Halon so he can fight too. Let's get it o-

eh, fuck 'em anyway.

THE BATTLE SCREEN. Also, the music in this is fucking PIMPTACULAR. Drums of WAR. GOD I love it. Everything here is pretty self-explanatory except the interface.

Left: Menu, Surrender, Flee, Autocombat. Surrender lets your hero retain something - I think it's items - where fleeing puts him back in the recruitable hero pool naked and with one Tier 1 unit as his army. On the other hand, you have to pay to surrender and it doesn't always work. On the other hand, we never lose.

Right: Cast, Wait, Defend. Wait puts off a unit's turn until the end of combat - units act in order of Speed, which is also their movement - and Defend skips a turn for a defensive boost. It's pretty nice sometimes.

Arright, that broken arrow means the enemy is out of range. You're still allowed to take a shot, but it'll do half damage. Some units (asdfsharpshooters) have no broken arrow penalty.

On the other hand, sometimes half is enough.

do be do

That's a solid arrow.

That's what a solid arrow means.

"Ta ha haaa! Bathe in my radiance!" --LekainChristian the Knight

[Integrity]

[spoiler=the rest]

Mines/sawmills are the next most important thing in the game. Every day, bonus resources as long as our flag is atop it. Our flag will only swap off it if an enemy faction walks in and takes it.

Halon explores and finds a variety of delicious things and then runs into a pack of Hellhounds and stops.

Blacksmith!

Observatories (and Pillars of Fire, we'll get to those) give you a massively increased vision range for a moment. It's nice.

That camp on the left is +1 Attack for each hero who visits it. The garden above is it +1 Knowledge; the tower near the top is +1 Defense. Permanently. We need them.

Generally, I let ranged enemies go without a fight. If a melee troupe is scared by me, it means I can wipe them no casualties. Any ranged enemy will probably nick off a few Pikemen and piss me off. That thing above them is a world dwelling. Every dwelling you can build in any town can be replicated on the world map - and you can recruit from them. Functional differences include the fact that you must visit them physically to recruit; that the units don't pile up over weeks like in towns; that the dwellings never come upgraded and that Tier 1 world recruits are free. Only that last one is actually good.

And Christian has 14 free Pikemen.

That's enough "WE JUST BUILT SOMETHING" for now. I think you get the idea.

Christian does some more fighting, and then...

We take our first casualty. :( It's actually not that Swordsman; it's the Pikemen in the north who lose a few, but it's still sad.

OFFENSE

Offense increases melee damage dealt by all that hero's troops by 10/20/30%. It is TOTALLY worth having.

Various terrain features. It's worthwhile to save before entering a Witch's Hut because they'll often teach you pointless skills (like Navigation) but I forgot so oh well. Navigation may be nice to have on one hero, at least. It increases sea movement by 50/100/150%.

Magic promotions (Earth, Wind, Fire and Water) reduce the cost of spells from that school.

Several days have passed, and we're left with a fully upgraded Castle and a fully upgraded Hall. Castle upgrades increase all creature growth by a certain percent. This is very nice. Plus, the city is making 2000 gold per turn.

Week of the Gopher!

Every week is given a nonsensical title like that. Every month is given a title based off one unit in the game, and that creature's growth is doubled and a whole bunch of them pop up wild all over the map. I think some weeks also increase creature growth, but I honestly can't remember.

Either way, Christian levels and then finds a Mage's Hut. Unlike Witch's Huts, this one is useful because it shows up a number of random points on the map where eyes were placed.

ITEMS!

...something!

...dimension doors? What are those doing here?

Portals have three states: one-way in, one-way out, and two-way. They're exactly what they sound like. They're always specifically paired, not random.

And with that, we'll close. Next time I don't talk so much about the interface and we punch through those Hellhounds with Halon and keep exploring the north with Christian.

[Specta]

Do you mean the camp and garden on the right side of the map or am I really confused?

also - the "something" you mentioned in the second last frame... do you mean either of the artifacts, or the eye? If it's the eye, then he's got a little line of sight that can be seen through another similar eye elsewhere on the world. Y'know, for spying.

Halon always confuses me. He looks like a girl to me so I'm always baffled when I remember it's actually a guy. >> Mysticism is awesome, though, so the confusion is worth it~

Dimension doors are fun. If you're exploring mindlessly, though, make sure they're two-way ;_;

I've spaced out and screwed myself over a few times.

[Integrity]

What oh shit yes, right side.

I meant I had no idea what the second eye was supposed to show me that the first hadn't already.

[Specta]

oshit I just realized I was wrong and you had visited the hut of the magi in the frame before. For some reason I had forgotten it was a hut. Geez, what a mistake on my part~

and it's showing you more artifacts? 8D

[Scarlet]

Magic promotions (Earth, Wind, Fire and Water) reduce the cost of spells from that school.

Actually, I'm pretty certain that leveling the elemental magic skills beyond Basic not only decreases the spell cost even further, but also actually makes spells of that element stronger.

Every week is given a nonsensical title like that. Every month is given a title based off one unit in the game, and that creature's growth is doubled and a whole bunch of them pop up wild all over the map. I think some weeks also increase creature growth, but I honestly can't remember.

There's also a month that halves the population of all units unrecruited, though I'm not sure if it occurs randomly or at specific points. Sucks if you didn't have the money to recruit anything in a while.

[Integrity]

I wasn't sure if advanced magics improved spells in this or only in Might and Magic.

And yeah, Month of the PLAGUE!