I’ve played some H5 and a little more H6. Some things I miss from their battle interface. Before I make n feature request entries I say I run them down here.
First let me tell you something from own experience. HD Mod brought some moving and splitting army features with 1 click. It speeds up game by a ton! And makes it more enjoyable. Same will go with all of the features below. Will provide some easy to access information that will require less calculations from players side and will speed up considerably the game.
I start with the easy ones…
Double Hex shadows for double hex creatures. (Like in H3HD). You will see more clearly where the creature will “move/land”
Display some visuals above creature’s head when it defends of waits. (shield/hourglass) (H6)
Display fading info regarding casualties. (How many killed (with skull), how much dmg). (H6)
Retaliate no retaliate info (H6)
Display extended info when about to hit an enemy. (How much DMG how many will die (range) )
Spell book calculations. (Unlike H3, display exact thing spell does for all spells. Ex. haste will increase movement speed by 3 hexes.)
Right click panel persistence. Let me exemplify: As long as you hold down right click an info panel will appear (like in H3). If you CLICK right button the panel is present until you RCLICK again. In this “persistent” info panel when you hover over a spell info about the spell affecting the creature is shown.
Dotted line for Full range for archers. (Right now I have to count always ).
And now for the big one…
This following one (9) is reformulated 2 posts below.
The current layout with the ATB at the top has the drawback that log is limited. An extended transparent log that grows downwards and fades in time (like in H6) would be more useful. For that ATB has to move down (replacing the existing log). (Like H5, H6). In this way the background for the battlefield will be visible again. I think it only sounds complicated but should be fairly easy to implement.
Extras:
10. Show detailed artifact info on RCLIK on Adventure map. Not only Artifact or Only Artifact name, but a popup with every bit of information.
Hags and archers can mele attack when holding CTRL. (Even if in rage or if would return). This touches gameplay but is present in every other H6 installement and frustrating when you cannot do it.
Feature when everything is ready and complete. Perform attacks spells directly on ATB icons. (When many units of the same type are on the battlefield sometimes it helps to know you hit the first one to move).
Artifact Sets (Save 2 or more configurations of equipped artifacts). You have sandals of he saint and boots of speed. You would like to change between them before every battle. If you have more like this you will continually spend time searching your backpack and switching them.
In battle when about to move a creature besides the movement shadow show indicator for future movement. (When you hover the mouse over the hex you would like to move and hold CTRL the movement for next turn for selected creature is shown) Show it different than movement shadow, maybe as hex contour as for enemies in HD mod.
Hi. I merged and changed a bit your numbering as you forgot to number “the big one”
All suggestions seem good - at least those that I understand:
Nice to have
Nice to have, but I wouldn’t miss it at all if we had a better battle log (e.g.: wider, under the battle screen, on higher resolutions, and with more lines visible)
Again, a nice to have, but a wider/longer battle log would still be preferable for me, so I can always retrieve the numbers. Fading numbers are a nice visual, but it’s even more useful being able to go back in the log to see how many creatures in my stack were killed, if I consider using Resurrection/Animate Dead vs other spells.
You mean when R-clicking on a target? Or already a floating text when hovering over? Either way, it would be useful indeed. See also my suggestion here, with further feedback from majaczek below.
Nice to have.
Very good to have, for spells like haste, slow, prayer indeed.
Another useful thing would be, when selecting a damage spell, to be able to R-Click on the target, and get info like “XX damage, 15% resist chance”, as regardless of the damage info in our spell book, there are the two types of magic resistances that can alter that: damage reduction and blocking chance.
I didn’t get this one, in spite of your example. Or did you mean to say L-click while holding R-click?
Nice to have.
Slightly related to that a question + suggestion: does anyone know how obstacles affected range attacks in H3? I didn’t find any info on it in Strategija, and I can’t recall noticing it in battle. Hence my suggestion: if it ever occurs, we could use a visual enhancement of some kind pointing it out. (I guess it’s not the same as shooter’s block by adjacent creature, because then I’m a bit confused what the difference is between the “no obstacle” and “shoot close” - I have a guess that it has something to do with castle walls otherwise, but I never noticed it in practice - hence I could use a visual to point it out)
If by that you mean the battle log will end up fading away, with no way to scroll back for info, then this is the only one I wouldn’t support. The only way I would be fine with it, would be if the log would be saved in real time in a text file that I can easily access by alt-tabbing from the game interface to it, but I wonder if it’s worth the coding effort. If you meant sth else, pls explain.
Is this a Battle Interface enhancement, or Adventure Map? If the latter, then it’s unrelated to the topic, so maybe I move it at the bottom as “EXTRA” and give the number to “the big one” But if it’s in-battle, please explain how? A way to access the hero for artifact info?
I agree this touches gameplay, but on the other hand, it’s the most useful enhancement on your list, and to some extent still harmless. The player would not be forced to deal with it if they don’t want to, while on the other hand the limitation we had that we couldn’t have harpies remain there, or melee attack with a shooter, didn’t make a lot of strategic sense.
Maybe nice to have (and I would assume not that difficult to code), but indeed not a priority at this stage.
That’s another very interesting one. Initially I thought it’s gameplay-alterining, but it’s actually not (as long as AI can benefit from it as well). And I love it. It would just remove a lot of micro-management. I’m not sure if it’s easy to code, but how I would see it working, is as follows:
add a button in hero screen (+ exchange screen + altar of sacrifice) which toggles Adventure and Battle equipment
(there’s a “refresh” button in the WoG files somewhere, not much used otherwise, which could do it)
button would toggle between the two sets for manual management
we could also drop artifacts on top of the button to place artifacts on the other set than the one currently displayed (if slot occupied, they fall back into backpack)
ideally collecting artifacts (on map, after battle, etc) would automatically place them in the slots still available in either of the two equipment sets (but that’s just a later nice to have)
if I’m not mistaken in OH3 there’s a clear cut distinction between adventure and battle artifacts, but in WoG there are also hybrid ones I believe, so I guess one of the artifact attributes would have to be coded in preparation for that; and we’ll have to see later on how that would work: would a hybrid artifact on the Adventure set be effective in battle as well, or not unless player takes care to move it manually to the Battle set before attacking.
Not yet sure I get this one: is it in preparation for next turn?
First a clarification valid to all points. Complete log easy accessible from inside game log should always be present.
It works like in H5 (I think I had a mod for that) or H6. I think I got confused about the fading part… There is no fading sory about that. Let me try to explain again:
There should be a permanent log with ~2-3 entries (like now) and a toggle button to display some additional log entries with text on transparent background. (Customizable nr of lines.) The “permanent” 2-3 entries could also be on transparent ground. Only the line that shows current info (like how much damage you do and stuff) should be with a background to make it stand out.
This is Adventure map. I put it there because it popped to my mind and did not want another topic.
Yes preparation for next turn. For example you want to reach shooters next turn or you want to hit a certain unit. Now it is nice that you can see how much you move on current turn, but that could be a nice addition that will speed things in certain situations.
Being able to do something like ctrl-click or double-click and being able to completely see everything the hero has, like a persistent window, in which you can click on everything to see. I think this was actually possible in H2? I think that would help a lot more, because you could not just see his spellbook, but everything.
I’d also like to mention that some things like choosing to melee with hags and archers or casualties displayed, were available in H4.
These are some very good ideas for speeding up the game, and for avoiding tedious repeating of certain actions, which might be incredibly useful and irreplaceable in multiplayer games, as people don’t like playing H3 in multiplayer because it takes too much time.
I really hope that most of these can be implemented easily.
That seems going a bit too far. Heroes should only have one inventory each, only the way the artifacts are distributed between slots and backpack would change. So there shouldn’t be any obstacle to having some artifact in both the “Adventure” profile and the “Battle” profile.
Plus, the separation is never that clear cut. Look at magic enhancing artifacts, like those that give the hero knowledge of all spells from a given school (or a given level). This will include both adventure and battle spells. Artifacts that increase a hero’s attributes are important in battle, but they can also affect adventure as well (seers and guard towers requesting a hero with a high enough attribute for example).
).
Or did you mean to say L-click while holding R-click?
But if it’s in-battle, please explain how? A way to access the hero for artifact info?