Am I the only one...

[xgamer2006]

... who's a little miffed that your hired heroes don't carry over into other missions? Part of the fun of the 'Heroes' game is building your characters from level to level, yet here they've tossed that out in favor of making you pour all your time into one or two rather poorly written characters. The incentive to hire a hero that isn't just a 'troop transport' is now next to nothing. What's the point in writing a biography for every knight in the game when they ditch this character's in-game history from level to level!? I spent ages building Lazslo up as a great secondary knight for Isabel only to find he was stripped of all his artifacts and stats when I next hired him. Much of the fun of the game is deciding which skill branches to pursue, not watching all your work go down the drain! You end up with an absurdly powerful character that's almost invincible (and level capped!) and everyone else is a peon!

On a different gripe: As someone only at mission five perhaps I'm judging too soon, but it seems as though most of the game is centered on story objectives rather than opposing factions builiding up their seperate towns and armies for the inevitable war. So essentially 'Heroes' has gone from a great strategy game to an RPG that plays like a strategy game? Why? I'm sorry to say that game designers seldom write good stories or dialogue and here they've failed at trying to do both. I didn't by the game for its story; there's enough bad fantasy in our culture already for me to go to if that's what I was looking for.

[WL_Century]

I totally agree with your first point. I only have one or maybe two main characters; One of these is inevitably the main character, and the other is either a secondary main character that is ported over to the next map, or just someone else I've buffed up to deal with the map. No other characters ever really get above first level.

It's ridiculous. Where before you could potentially specialise your heroes from the same faction in different ways (i.e. some concentrating on magic, others on might etc...), now you have to throw all your eggs in one basket. And hope.

And, like you say, it's all just wasted effort.

As for your second point... I think I see what you're getting at, but as you get on through the campaigns you'll see where everything's going. Everyone's got their own agenda, which is why they're all building up their armies... I can't wait to see it all come to the climax...

[myythryyn]

I didn't by the game for its story; there's enough bad fantasy in our culture already for me to go to if that's what I was looking for.

i have to ask, why did you buy a fantasy themed game then? ill agree "fantasy" is full of overdone steroetypes, but then im sure alot of genres have that happen too.

but as for HOMM V, i do agree it would be interesting if the hired heroes in the taverns would carry over thier training to the next map, but then that would make it very hard for the game designers to make maps in a campaign.

you would have some players who like to take lots of time on a map lvling up seven heroes (or whatever amount you can have) to the max, and some who dont want to bother and would just lvl up the main hero.
how could the game designers ever judge what to populate the campaign maps with, since some players would have a full team of lvled up hereos, while others would just have their main hero.

and i think part of the problem you are having is that you are playing the campaigns, which are very RPG like, the whole purpose of a campaign is the story of one hero, not many. though sometimes you get secondary heroes to carrry over, in the sylvan campaign you get two extra heroes.

so maybe you should try some of the regular maps, instead of campaigns if you dont like the story aspect of this game. and eventually there will multi player maps, which you might like more.

[howpow]

Originally posted by WL_Century:
I totally agree with your first point. I only have one or maybe two main characters; One of these is inevitably the main character, and the other is either a secondary main character that is ported over to the next map, or just someone else I've buffed up to deal with the map. No other characters ever really get above first level.

It's ridiculous. Where before you could potentially specialise your heroes from the same faction in different ways (i.e. some concentrating on magic, others on might etc...), now you have to throw all your eggs in one basket. And hope.

And, like you say, it's all just wasted effort.

As for your second point... I think I see what you're getting at, but as you get on through the campaigns you'll see where everything's going. Everyone's got their own agenda, which is why they're all building up their armies... I can't wait to see it all come to the climax... in playing the campaign missions,i have found that, after recruiting heroes to defend your towns,they do level up pretty quickly.many of the maps require you to vigorously defend towns while your main(buffed up) hero is away exploring.so the levelling process is pretty quick.also,each of the hired heroes start with certain skills(some more worthwhile than others)that are helpful.so having a look at their original stats and skills before hiring them is worthwhile.as far as them not moving forward to the next mission, i consider that part of the challenge of the game, to start a new mission and have to redevelop helpers.

[xgamer2006]

quote: "i have to ask, why did you buy a fantasy themed game then? ill agree "fantasy" is full of overdone steroetypes, but then im sure alot of genres have that happen too."

The theme of the game is kind of arbitrary really, I bought the game based off of its predecessors, and its good reviews. I think what I'm getting at is that games like this can suffer if they become less open ended and more story driven. I don't mind a badly written cut scene, but when it gets into the fabric of the game (eg "Isabel must survive") it becomes a little overbearing. However, having played the game a little more since my first post I will concede that the missions have allowed for a lot more freedom to explore and the oppurtunity to build secondary heroes. I just wish those secondary heroes had more apt names like "Hero X" instead of unique names. It's a small gripe really, I'm a stickler for things like this and it irks me to see a character with a unique biography have his/her in-game history wiped every level.

[Edheltaur]

I agree with your first point, mostly. I think the restriction on carrying over troops helps to balance out the play a little bit between levels.
Personally, I would like to see more of the Warlords Batlecry type play. Where you have a retinue of creatures you could carry over. You have points per round which you can spend on that retinue. Also, your creatures gain experience and your hero is saved so you can use him in other maps and continue to build him up.
BUT, that is a RTS and a different game. I have loved the heroes series since Heroes II, and do continue to love the series. (regardless of the current dead end I am at having played every map atleaset twice, and many 6-8 times)

[joergino]

I liked the system in the Age of Wonders series very much - after each mission you get have a number of points which you can use to carry over heroes, artefacts or units to to the next mission.
The bonus picks at the beginning of each mission sometimes aren't that useful IMO.
They way heroes carried over in HOMM 3 also wasn't bad. It was important to give one hero the scholar skill, so all your main heroes know the same spells. In HOMM 5 I haven't felt the need to teach scholar to any hero. It might be useful for the Academy campaign to prepare the final four heroes for the last mission, of course.
In addition, the way you sometimes end up playing against a hero you developed yourself in a previous mission/campaign, you're even forced not to give certain good skills to a particular hero. IMO Logistics is always useful, but giving Godric logistics in the last mission of the first campaign can be deadly for the first Inferno mission.

[WizIce]

I did give Godric logistic at Expert level. But the AI did use it in the Deamon campain to it full, otherwise I could not have finished it. I suspect that in that campain it is another Godric you get.