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Amen,  my friend.  I suggested a fix over a year ago.

Totally blanked on the years I spent glued to Diablo2...

I was just creeping around the forums and found this topic. 

I started with chess and tons of other boardgames in the early 80s (Monopoly, Life, Mousetrap, The Elfquest Boardgame, Axis & Allies, Hero Quest etc.) and moved on to RPGs fairly quickly (Basic D&D, Star Frontiers, Champions, AD&D 1st and 2nd Editions, Marvel Superheroes, Rifts, Earth Dawn, I am sure there are others I am forgetting). 

In that same timeframe, I played numerous computer games (Zork, Hi-res adventure, King's Quest series, Police Quest, Leisure Suit Larry, Hero's Quest/Quest for Glory, The Bard's Tale, Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds, Secret of the Silver Blades, Might and Magic II, Dragon Wars, Knights of Legend, Ultima VI and VII, Civilization, Baldur's Gate I and II, Fallout, NWN, City of Heroes, DDO). 

I also owned the following console games: Odyssey2, Colecovision, Sega Master System, SNES, PS1, PS2.  My favorite titles in no particular order are Final Fantasy Tactics, Blast Chamber, Summoner 2, Street Fighter 2: Tourney Edition, River Raid, Tomb Raider, Legacy of Kain series.

Before video and computer games evolved, I wasted a fortune in quarters on the likes of Gauntlet, Ikari Warriors, Street Fighter 1 and 2, Spy Hunter, Afterburner, Crossbow, Final Fight, Double Dragon, Pac Man, Qbert, Dig Dug and countless other arcade games at the legion of locations my parents took me (usually arcades and malls, but occasionally bars, restaurants and grocery stores).

See you on the virtual field of battle...

What does everyone think of the following rewards for earning additional valor?  It's kind of generic, but I think it gives something after 15 valor to strive towards.

At 25 valor, generate 4 mana per turn instead of 3.
At 50 valor, max hand size increased to 8 instead of 7.
At 100 valor, generate 5 mana per turn.

It seems like a really difficult toon to implement and balance.  I think I would set the character up like this:

Att 2*
Def 14*
Life 6

Passive:  Mimic - whenever this guardian damages another unit, this guardian's defense value changes to that of the damaged unit; whenever another unit or attack damages this guardian, this guardian's attack value changes to the number of dice used in the attack (ignore death spell and samurai eviserate since they do not actually roll dice)


Activated, 2 cards: Copy - this guardian gains the active and passive abilities of an adjacent guardian or summon until this ability is used again.

That being said, I still think a character like this is probably not good for the game.

I like the idea of the warrior as a bodyguard who can protect people by upping their defense.  One of the issues I have with this ability, is you can use it on a unit, and then it's off to the races!  The "guarded body" runs off to fight or whatever, and the "bodyguard" ducks behind cover because his defense just dropped four points. 

I would have no issues with this if the warrior were some kind of shaman who used part of his life force to protect another unit, but this is a trained hand to hand fighter.  I propose the defense boost only lasts until the start of the warrior player's next turn, OR the warrior moves OR the protected unit moves. 

To make up for nerfing the ability, I think the warrior's armor penalty while protect is active should be reduced or eliminated. 

What does everybody think?

Thanks for listening,

Jason

I noticed in a few of my matches against the computer, enemy mages would waste "dispel magic" on my summons (it only seemed to happen when I was playing a summoner and had the 15 valor summon mastery on all my creatures).  It is like they were trying to dispel the summon mastery bonuses, which did not work.

I have had some other issues with the AI making bonehead calls on troop placement, attack timing, target choices, or wasting two cards for the minotaur ability on low priority targets, for example, but this one seemed like a really, really bad decision. 

I think the AI should probably be adjusted to avoid this mistake again.

I do have an alternative game mechanic that sprang from this idea.  In D&D, controlling elementals and other summoned extra-planar entities usually required intense concentration, which had disastrous results if that concentration were broken. 

What if in HERO MAGES the dispel magic spell has a chance of breaking the control link that a mage has with his minion?  Maybe on a 14+, a summon unit that had been the target of dispel magic goes berserk and is no longer controlled by either player? Or maybe it just teleports back to its home plane of existence? 

If this idea were implemented, the whole game as we know it would probably change drastically, since to maintain continuity, a dead hero mage would pretty much mean surviving summons are no longer player controlled, even though the guardians are still around.

What does everybody think?

Thanks for listening,

Jason

I hope so, it's up to Ross to code it!

I have an idea for an Assassin guardian character:

Attack 2
Defense 14
Life 5

Static ability - Pressure points: Units damaged by the Assassin's attacks are stunned.

Activated ability - Coup de grace: 2 cards - Adjacent stunned unit loses 3 life and remains stunned.

I have given more thought to having each toon sprint differently.

Everybody gets to move at least 2 spaces.  They can roll 5d20 and go an additional space for each die that beats their own armor score (heavy armor makes it harder to run), but their roll is modified by adding their attack rating (stronger characters can run faster and farther).  This does not change the 2-7 range, but does make a big difference in reliability of getting a mid range or better sprint for the minotaur (and other lightly armored characters that survive better hiding behind obstructions).

What does everybody think?

So, you're saying when you hit the check to decide to sprint, it shows you spaces in the max range, and you may or not make it when you commit to the sprint?  That makes sense.  So I could pick a spot under cover 3 or 4 moves away to play it safe and almost always make it, but if I go for a spot 7 moves away, I might peter out after only moving 2 or 3?  If I don't roll enough to make the full distance, I still move the partial distance that I rolled?

Working fine now, thanks!

I was invited to join a v1.8.6 match, but was informed that I would need to get on heromages.com to play the new version.  The thing is, I was already on my web browser version of the game.  I checked the website and was not able to find any links to anything other than version 1.8.5.  How do I access 1.8.6 on my browser?

Thanks,

Jason

I agree that one person with two accounts is extremely unfair and totally cheating, especially if that person uses it to win rated games.  I could almost let the "playtesting/strategy" argument slide in unranked games versus the computer or opponents who know you are controlling two accounts.  The thing is, Ross has already decreed one person, one account, so there's that.

As much as I like the idea of a set or reduced sprint, I think the existing 2-7 range is good.  I suggest instead of rolling a d6+1 for the distance, do it as 5d20 (only count rolls of 10+ and add 2) to get a range of 2-7 that has a more bell shaped distribution; here are the rounded chances:

2 spaces (approx 1.9%)
3 spaces (11.3%)
4 spaces (27.6%)
5 spaces (33.7%)
6 spaces (20.6%)
7 spaces (5.0%)

The number to beat on d20 can always be modified to make the average sprint further or shorter.  Program the game keep a record of the roll to eliminate the logout/return exploit.

An even more extreme system might be to modify the character's current attack dice (add 4, maybe), use that number against that unit's modified defense rating (subtract 4, maybe) to determine a number of spaces able to be sprinted.  Lightly armored characters with high strength (i.e. the Barbarian and Minotaur) would outstrip the others at sprinting; this has an intuitive feel to it, but low attack units with high armor (i.e. Warrior and Samurai) may not even be able to sprint some turns.  This proposed system would change the game status quo and would require some playtesting and tweaking to establish an agreeable balance.

Thanks for listening,

Jason