Plz convince me that I should get Poison Cloud and Gizmo

[trentjaspar]

Thanks, Fatt_Shade. You also responded to my inquiries from a few months' ago, LOL.

1) Yes, certainly there is a lot of randomness in the game and most of it is good (especially for replayability). But for planning a tactical battle, I prefer fewer random elements.
2) Yes, I certainly agree that knowing unit stats (allies and enemies) is key. I make frequent use of the community manual.
3) This will certainly be my only game of KB. It takes me way too long and have way too little play time-- although certainly this is in part because I try a no/low-loss campaign. But I've invested too much time in this game to consider playing again. I might try Armored Princess but not do low/no-loss.
4) I'm probably not looking to use a mod unless it's bugfix-only. The mod you cited has many changes and I prefer to trust the balance of the original game (although certainly a few units/items could be nerfed or enhanced).
- You make some good points about Gizmo. However, does it actually resurrect units, or just heal them? I had thought that it just healed. If it resurrects, then yes, placing the Gizmo in my back ranks would help while lowering the chance that it will kill an enemy I'm trying to keep alive. There are occasions that I would rather keep a debuff on my own unit (e.g., poison on a summoned thorn with Mana Spring) but these are rare instances.
- On the other hand, I use frozen orb almost every battle to prevent archers from attacking units and to distract enemies-- and of course to time it so I can roll over a very low initiative unit (e.g., Cyclops) or place it after enemies have acted. I also use Ice Shards, but not as often.
- Regarding Black Dragons, I thought that Shaman "Dancing Axes" can also heal Black Dragons. I don't have any Black Dragons, but do have Shamans.

So I think based on this, I do like Gizmo a little better than before. I still don't like extra randomness, but if it can resurrect units and I can influence it by placing it in the back, then I can see it being useful late in a battle to help rez/cleanup.

Thanks again for the discussion!

[Fatt_Shade]

Yes gizmo can res units.
As you said using frozen orb, it is good for blocking enemy archers but only ones with low initiative and cyclopes are really few in battles during whole game, and almost all other archer units have much higher initiative and harder to block more so if other flyers or fast units keep them protected.
For healing dragons dancing axes work but not on : plants, undead, mechanical units (cyclops and droids from crossworlds).
Glad to be of help, have fun and until they release KB-WotN

[trentjaspar]

Originally Posted by Fatt_Shade

Yes gizmo can res units.

Well that automatically makes it worthwhile to consider. The document I read suggested that it could only Heal.

As you said using frozen orb, it is good for blocking enemy archers but only ones with low initiative and cyclopes are really few in battles during whole game, and almost all other archer units have much higher initiative and harder to block more so if other flyers or fast units keep them protected.

What does initiative have to do with blocking archers? As long as I go first and place the Orb down, they can't shoot around the Orb unless they can move to a free space away from the Orb. (Same for my totems.) In the first round, units are often tightly packed so they can't move away, especially if their Speed is only 2 as is the case with many archers. Beholders can be tougher to block, but even they tend to attack the Orb right in their face instead of attacking my actual troops.

Cyclopes are of course the best to target because the Orb can roll onto them before they attack, but you still have to worry about weak enemy units diving in front of the Orb to protect a powerful unit (I've seen it happen and I was impressed with the AI-- or maybe it was luck, LOL).

For healing dragons dancing axes work but not on : plants, undead, mechanical units (cyclops and droids from crossworlds).

Yes, I've often wished my dancing axes could heal my Royal Thorns. But it does help balance them, so I can't complain.

[Fatt_Shade]

Frozen orb and blocking i never used it since it play almost last every turn, i know to place it in front enemy range units, but never got interesting to do so since i almost always leave range units last , and orb have long rest time and it lowers already pathetic exp gain for Lina spirit
For dancing axes i said if you use it on enemy undead/plant/cyclop will not heal your units. It need to make dmg on living target for heal to effect (or this is in some mod i played, i`m not sure now).
As for mod i mentioned, it is interesting to play, and since this game great feature is to replay it again with some different build and some self set restrictions (like i`m not using plants early game, or no dragons in army etc) so it gives me fun to try new mods other players made and trying to add some of my ideas/thoughts in them. I like to think as making game better, given that developers are really closed about new releases and patches so as players are mostly left to fend for our selves

[trentjaspar]

Originally Posted by Fatt_Shade

Frozen orb and blocking i never used it since it play almost last every turn, i know to place it in front enemy range units, but never got interesting to do so since i almost always leave range units last

The Orb may attack last or almost last, but simply by being placed it did its job: to block archers from attacking my troops and to gather attention from other troops slowing their advance on my back ranks. Interesting, I am opposite from you: I almost always attack enemy range units first because I can't control (other than through Orb, Totem) whom they attack. [The exception is if they have a talent/ability that I don't want them to use and I don't want to "waste" my spell on Magic Shackles. Different play style, I guess.

For dancing axes i said if you use it on enemy undead/plant/cyclop will not heal your units. It need to make dmg on living target for heal to effect (or this is in some mod i played, i`m not sure now).

Yes, I understood. I was agreeing and said it would be nice if it healed my thorns, but I understand from a balance perspective that it probably shouldn't. It's also more logical that way.

Cheers.

[Fatt_Shade]

I`m not really good with using Lina`s skill for battle since they give specific amount of exp comparing to other rage spirit skills that get much more exp depending of dmg they done. Lina on other hand lvlup slowly mostly on her passive skills. I mostly use her in first/second round and after that use other mass rage dmg skills and when Lina get rest most of enemy army is already decimated, and using Lina for rage get me only few exp points, not much of a gain. But as you said, different play style

[MattCaspermeyer]

Originally Posted by trentjaspar

4) I'm probably not looking to use a mod unless it's bugfix-only. The mod you cited has many changes and I prefer to trust the balance of the original game (although certainly a few units/items could be nerfed or enhanced).

I did fix some bugs in the game with my mod, so you may find it interesting. True, there are a lot of changes in my mod, but you'll find that your game-to-game play will be dramatically different, marrying the wives and having children much more fun and interesting (plus 2 additional wives), and the strategies will require you to be very efficient with your turns as after a certain number of combat rounds, no skills / spells generate rage / mana and your troops become more tired at the drudgery of combat taking many turns.

Anyway, to be clear, Gizmo only resurrects in my mod and only heals in the stock game. Gizmo also gets an increase in its initiative and action points so that it can move earlier in combat (before it rarely used its capability to reduce enemy action points because the enemy almost always had moved before Gizmo) and move farther. Also Ice Ball has increasing initiative as well and so as it gets more powerful, it can move earlier in combat.

There are a lot of "flavorings" like this that enhance the game and make it more interesting.

It is good, though, to play the stock game first so that you can see how different your next play through is with a mod (if you have the time - I'm also very limited in my play time like you and so understand your rationale with wanting to stick with the stock game).

If you haven't checked out the video for my mod, though, you should take a look at it since it will show you a lot of the new features to see if you're interested...

/C\/C\

P.S. I'm also currently porting my mod to AP and CW so if you don't play my mod with TL maybe you'll be interested in playing it down the road when I get finished with it for AP and CW...

[trentjaspar]

Originally Posted by MattCaspermeyer

Anyway, to be clear, Gizmo only resurrects in my mod and only heals in the stock game. Gizmo also gets an increase in its initiative and action points so that it can move earlier in combat (before it rarely used its capability to reduce enemy action points because the enemy almost always had moved before Gizmo) and move farther.

Ah, Gizmo only rezzes in your mod-- that's a huge distinction! I'm glad I didn't already get Gizmo. I'd rather upgrade the abilities I use. It's possible Gizmo might make more sense later when I have more troops with large HP (so that the healing is useful).

I did end up getting Poison Cloud because, when used carefully, it can help regain mana at the end of a fight, and I don't have any critical upgrades left to my other Sleem skills.

Always nice to hear from a modder-- thanks for replying.

[MattCaspermeyer]

You probably made a good choice with picking Poison Cloud because I found the stock Gizmo seriously lacking.

I'm actually currently working on the Gizmo routine in CW and the stock AI didn't really work very well there either.

I added a lot of "neat" descriptions to Gizmo when it uses its abilities (i.e. Gamma Destructo Ray or whatever its called when it attacks units), variable charges (i.e. in excess of 3, that animate its little "glowy" things on top of it properly), and figured since it was advanced technology, it should be able to not only heal but reanimate "primitive" tissue / creatures. I dramatically improved its AI, although I think I've made an even better improvement in the CW development (that will get rolled back in my TL mod eventually).

As far as Poison Cloud is concerned, the primary stock strategy for it is the way you're using it - it was effectively useless at damaging enemies. So I changed its capabilities in my mod making it more suited for what it was intended (i.e. damaging the enemy).

You'll find that my mod is replete with examples like this where I took what I thought were poorly implemented spells / unit / spirit abilities and made them more usefull.

Also the children give bonuses to units that you may not necessarily consider using and so I find that as I play my mod I use signficantly more units than I did when I played the stock game.

For example, if you marry Feanora, her human form gives bonuses to animals while her frog form gives bonuses to snakes, spiders, thorns, devilfish, dragonflies, and beholders. Her children draw mostly from the HOMM3 Fortress heroes and hence give more bonuses to snakes or dragonflies for example. You can also marry Diana (the River Fairy - she gives bonuses to forest creatures) and there is a new Orc wife (Orcelyn) to give bonuses to Orcs.

So if you have time in the future to play my mod, I think you'll enjoy it much more than the stock game!

/C\/C\

Originally Posted by trentjaspar

Ah, Gizmo only rezzes in your mod-- that's a huge distinction! I'm glad I didn't already get Gizmo. I'd rather upgrade the abilities I use. It's possible Gizmo might make more sense later when I have more troops with large HP (so that the healing is useful).

I did end up getting Poison Cloud because, when used carefully, it can help regain mana at the end of a fight, and I don't have any critical upgrades left to my other Sleem skills.

Always nice to hear from a modder-- thanks for replying.