tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3656428975201272042.post2709533436739145303..comments2024-03-28T10:31:45.644-07:00Comments on Vigaroe: King's Bounty Unit Analysis Part 3: ElvesVigaroehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02405424233776571308noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3656428975201272042.post-88502691145195731112022-07-02T02:28:59.363-07:002022-07-02T02:28:59.363-07:00Huh. Weird. Updating appropriately.Huh. Weird. Updating appropriately.Ghoul Kinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15165232279081041131noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3656428975201272042.post-5369781282778085982022-07-01T07:53:51.895-07:002022-07-01T07:53:51.895-07:00Rabid (for both tranformed Werewolves and normal W...Rabid (for both tranformed Werewolves and normal Wolves) works only against level 1-3 creatures. This is also true for AP. <br />There is no level limit in WotN/Darkside. Quaranyrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13563621496147736585noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3656428975201272042.post-33520219535902529822022-06-26T19:38:02.588-07:002022-06-26T19:38:02.588-07:00Huh. I'd been sure one of their relative redee...Huh. I'd been sure one of their relative redeeming qualities was full-strength splash, but a test immediately resulting in a crit on the primary target and an adjacent target made obvious that no, they don't have full-strength splash. Updated all posts appropriately.Ghoul Kinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15165232279081041131noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3656428975201272042.post-13284076344872583342022-06-26T06:04:17.702-07:002022-06-26T06:04:17.702-07:00Druid's splash attack deals only 50% of damage...Druid's splash attack deals only 50% of damage to secondary targets. <br />After all, it's code is just a copy of necromancer's with Curse chance set to zero )Quaranyrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13563621496147736585noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3656428975201272042.post-5756696667679892292022-06-18T19:10:25.073-07:002022-06-18T19:10:25.073-07:00Incorporated, and ouch.Incorporated, and ouch.Ghoul Kinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15165232279081041131noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3656428975201272042.post-13672553450018538622022-06-18T04:22:38.199-07:002022-06-18T04:22:38.199-07:00Ranger's Hunter ability is a separate attack t...Ranger's Hunter ability is a separate attack too, so don't expect to deal increased damage in melee or with Dragon Aroow. <br />It's damage is expected 12-15. Quaranyrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13563621496147736585noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3656428975201272042.post-26117058852027183722022-06-15T14:28:15.186-07:002022-06-15T14:28:15.186-07:00What I was trying to articulate is that my experie...What I was trying to articulate is that my experience is people who are culturally Christian tend to internalize a lot of bits as The Truth, and in fact this seems to be more common with people who don't actually attend church or read the bible or anything -that their idea of 'snakes are evil' is really because bible memes, but they don't actually think of it as coming from there, they feel it's an Obvious Elemental Truth. And then notions like sacredness and blasphemy are sufficiently in their mind that they feel it's Wrong to play with expectations or the like -I used Japanese mythology as a comparison point, and Japanese pop culture is very willing to play both directions, where the majority of traditional mythological figures can be 'played straight' ("Here's a traditional benevolent goddess figure, being traditionally benevolent and all") but also can be deliberately subverted for any number of purposes. ("Here's a traditionally benevolent goddess figure, who we're appearing to play straight for the first half of the story... so you're caught off guard when it turns out she's actually behind everything wrong in this setting. Surprise!")<br /><br />So you get people essentially going 'snakes are evil in Christian mythology, therefore snakes being evil is a fundamental, universal truth you shouldn't question or deviate from'. And in cases where they don't meaningfully think of themselves as Christian, you can't even really have a constructive conversation about it -with someone who has meaningful familiarity with the bible, you might be able to talk with them about the snake in the garden of Eden and argue it's not clearly meant to be evil and possibly have them ultimately agree that's a valid interpretation, where someone who's just absorbed the memes without realizing it doesn't have an actual root reason whose logic you can argue against.<br /><br />Oh wow, maybe I need to give Age of Wonders 3 a second chance. I'd forgotten about the quirky class/species factional mechanic being a thing in it. But yeah, gunpowder elves as a deliberate exploration could be quite cool, and it's exactly the kind of thing people avoid.<br /><br />And yeah, elves really do seem to draw the Let's Make Sure They're Boring mentality. This isn't the first time I've heard a variation on 'we deliberately avoided doing anything interesting with our elves'. For all my issues with Warcraft III at this point, I at least appreciate that the Night Elves were moderately unusual. (Still mostly just the wood elf archetype, but the whole nocturnal worshippers of a moon goddess and all is an unusual twist)Ghoul Kinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15165232279081041131noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3656428975201272042.post-4613689849824590752022-06-15T06:04:48.941-07:002022-06-15T06:04:48.941-07:00Oh, you don't need to explain 'evil snake&...Oh, you don't need to explain 'evil snake' stereotype to me - I'm Russian, we had evil snake-people and serpent monsters even back in pagan times. It's just, well, one thing to have a particular religious/mythological assotiation and another - to pretty much make stigmatize a non-sentient animal to the point of forbidding it from being part of 'good' faction. I know that it was just a vocal part and not all fandom and all that, but it still stroke me as something wildly absurd. <br /><br />"Which frustrates me, because elves are one of the things I wish fantasy was more willing to be diverse on, and fan pressures tend to run the opposite direction..." - fully agree. And to my experience atleast, it's more of Western fans (and not only fans...) thing. 2 examples come to my mind:<br />1) Age of Wonders 3 and it's race/class matrix. Devs were very proud by it allowing to have unusual units. Which was illustrated by Goblin Theocrat with Goblin crusaders and exalted angelic Goblins. Literally every person I know or saw commenting on it found them utterly idiotic (it was also really out of place in realation to previous games) but OK. Holy Goblin leader is even THE Goblin character in the campaign. <br />On the other hand, we have steampunk-y Dreadnought class. With musketeers, cannons and tanks. And this game have High Elves. I knew a guy literally bought this game just because "Elves+tanks=AWESOME", only to find that while one can have such army in ordinary maps, such things do not exist in story and, in fact, Elves oppose people who use use machines. The reason for this was that, from devs perspective, "angelic goblins and draconian druids are one thing but steampunk elves are just too much". I (and a lot of other people) just cannot get it. To me those angelic goblins is exactly something that is very hard to take seriously. Elves with guns, on the other hand, look like a pretty cool idea. A setting where, say, Elves would have been THE gunpowder race could have been quite an interesting one.<br />2)Ubisoft!HoMM again. I don't think anyone would argue against Sylvan being the most boring and passive faction of the setting. Also least developed lore-wise. Nival (H5 developer) tried to make some lore about them being seafarers (even founding a western continent, completely unknown to anyone else, and having atleast a settlement there) or how since ancient times they were seen as best military commanders, so that Human and Dwarven rulers employed Elven generals for their armies, but it didn't really got onto the games. The weirdest thing is that I even spoke with a Ubisoft M&M writer about Sylvan being so boring - and he actually shared my opinion! Apparently it is purposefully made as it is, one-dimensional, boring and minimalistic, because Wood Elves fans in general (not HoMM-specific) like them be like that. Or atleast higher-ups believe they do. <br /><br />I, personally, found Wood Elves to be the lamest (yet very overused) of 3 usual Elven types (you know, High/Wood/Dark) but even they could potentially be interesting if someone willing to try make them so. <br /><br />Also, Archmage is level 4. Shaman is level 4. Necromancer is level 4. Alchemist is level 4. Druid is level 3. For some people it's Serious Business ))Quaranyrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13563621496147736585noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3656428975201272042.post-69629043146892943702022-06-14T13:04:48.093-07:002022-06-14T13:04:48.093-07:00Double-checking Bleeding... wow, that's sad. I...Double-checking Bleeding... wow, that's sad. I didn't realize WotN buffed it THAT much. And the inability to apply to counterattacks explains why I originally thought it maybe was only a chance of application...<br /><br />In general, updated the post. Among other points this explains why Unicorn and Black Unicorn performance never quite felt right... I'm pretty baffled by the game presenting them as mixed damage by default.<br /><br />The 'evil snakes' thing as far as I can tell comes back primarily to people having absorbed Bible memes, even when they aren't personally familiar with the Bible at all. What I've seen of cultures not so drenched in Christianity tends to still have evil snakes in mythology and whatnot, but not so uniform -Japanese mythology gives us sacred white snakes, for example.<br /><br />That said, I wouldn't be at all surprised if folks got upset by werewolf elves showing up in a HoMM game. Werewolves in fantasy are prone to being Always Chaotic Evil, and you get people who get upset if they see 'regular' elves have anything they consider traditionally evil in their arsenal, even if the thing is explicitly *not* evil in that particular case. Which frustrates me, because elves are one of the things I wish fantasy was more willing to be diverse on, and fan pressures tend to run the opposite direction...<br /><br />And to be fair on the Druid, the Archmage is also pretty sad of a unit, just benefitting from showing up so early they end up appearing pretty strong. The Druid would probably seem pretty decent if they showed up that early, too. Though on the other hand Archmages at least do utility stuff to stay relevant as their statistical weakness becomes obvious...Ghoul Kinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15165232279081041131noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3656428975201272042.post-86062435269916627712022-06-14T08:28:15.286-07:002022-06-14T08:28:15.286-07:00Lake Fairy was once supposed to have a talent that...Lake Fairy was once supposed to have a talent that had 1 charge and healed 1-2 hp per fairy + removed Poison, Plague and Weakness. <br />Healing Waters are a common fantasy trope, so it would be fitting. Way more fitting than Hunter's Mark, even through not nearly as useful. <br /><br />In the Legend and AP Bleeding does not reduce target's max hp - it's just "-30% attack and defence" for 1 turn. It also cannot be triggered on counterattacks. In other words, it's pretty meh.<br />Rabid's duration is 1 turn, not 4. <br />In addition to Pirates Wolf's Cry also works on Barbarians. <br /><br />You know, devs of HoMM7 had thoughts about including Werewolves in their Wood Elves/Sylvan line up (they were known to exist in lore but was never shown) but decided against it out of fear of being accused of copying King's Bounty. 'sigh' <br />Than again, maybe they would've being hated in the West. Western HoMM fans can be reeeally weird people. I mean, they got mass butthurt over the idea of Sylvan possibly including snake because "snake is inherently evil creature and Sylvan should be good guys". What the hell.<br /><br />Your understanding of mixed attacks is wrong, because they do not exist in the first place. <br />Unicorn deals 10-17 physical damage. Against Undead and Demons he additionally deals 3-6 magic damage. <br />Black Unicorn deals 12-21 physical damage, +4-7 magical against Undead/Demons. Simple as that. <br /><br />Dryad's Charm works, you were just (un)lucky. It also only works if target's Leadership is no higher than that of Dryads. It lasts for 2 turns. <br /><br />Treant and his older kin are actually Ents in Russian.<br /><br />You forgot to include Hunter's "+50% damage on ranged attacks against beasts" ability that you thought was added in AP before I corrected you. Remember? It even has a special animation.<br /><br />Druid's Summon Bear can summon either ordinary Bears of Ancient ones. <br />Legend's Druid may be one of the most disliked units in the game for both being very bad and really disappoining. Like I already said, people expected Elven mage being somehing that will make Archmage look like a noob, and instead we have 'this' :)<br />Druid himself became better in later games, but the whole weird situation of Elves being very strong mages in story but worst gameplay-wise never changed, for some reason. Quaranyrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13563621496147736585noreply@blogger.com