Willpower

[havnor]

I not sure but are there mosters which are able to block curses? Something like magic resistance... It would be nice tactical add in my opinion... But I understand not everyone want it...

[Cory Trese]

That's a pretty cool idea. I cannot remember if this is supported in Heroes or not. I bet fallen or someone knows

[fallen]

It is not currently supported in Heroes of Steel.

It is something we prototyped and played around with. Only Boss monsters would have the ability to Resist curses, just like a player can. They'd have a certain %, and then your character would raise Willpower to reduce enemy Curse Res. Also, there is a hidden field in magical gear that would reduce enemy Curse Res.

I'd love to hear what other players think about it? At the time we prototyped and tested it, we decided it was a pretty big change to the game and could harm existing groups a bit if they have ignored Willpower.

Thoughts?

[wascalwywabbit]

I think it's a pretty cool idea, but man would it be potentially way harder on some groups than others, cursing for acc is essential for nearly everyone not running FU+TB at least. If it, overcoming curse res, can be handled largely by gear though then that would mitigate a lot of the downside.

Of course there's always the boiled frog method, slowly introduce higher levels over time...

PS How many other cool features inbuilt are you holding out on us anyway? :-p

[fallen]

wascalwywabbit - of course, the Curse Res % would boil up over time, as does the player's potential resistance.

One big undecided point was, exactly as you mention, about Cursing Attacks ... you already have to Hit, Do Damage, and then Curse Res? Ouch -- that would make them very challenging, and especially since your Attribute points are generally being shuttled off into things that help you hit / damage!

[En1gma]

I don't think it's necessary, honestly. This game is challenging enough as it is, adding yet another hurdle to apply a curse would be over the top IMO. It's a great idea, especially for bosses, but at this point I wouldn't want to deal with it.

But for Legends, I'm all for it, as it would be something we could account for from day one.

[fallen]

En1gma - yes, this is what we eventually decided and didn't roll it out into the game after testing. It felt like maybe too many things to worry about.

One option would be to reserve it for higher difficulties only.

[wascalwywabbit]

I don't mean just scale it slowly over game progress, because those waiting for the final chunks would already have missed most opportunity to level will and gain gear, so making it higher end game right off would potentially kill a lot of ironmans... unless you include attribute leveling for some levels that lack it currently to compensate - that may have the bonus of a few more minor build adjustment options overall. Legendary equipment and other story gear with willpower, or cursing penetration built in would be another way to have it work reasonably well for late game with existing games - it doesn't have to equal the resistance, just make hitting not too infrequent (50+%, probably 70% of the prior experience).

I meant by boiling the frog, make it 5-15% above minimum willpower to overcome curse res then raise it again a couple months down the line after people have adjusted. E.g. You have say a min will of 4, so 20% chance to overcome res, so the bosses wouldn't have higher than say 35% chance to soak the curse vs your 20% chance to beat soak ... until players start raising willpower to compensate over time.

It doesn't add a whole lot of complexity since it's already something the player thinks about for defense potentially anyhow, it would just make it symmetrical for offensive needs as well. It would make the game harder without other compensations though, even improved acc of empowered attacks would make some compensation... Straight up additional attribute points would be the most straight forward option, and still add choice, Vraes for example wouldn't care except for relying on other team member's curses, so extra points would just be gravy to him.

I probably said too much, but those are some of my thoughts on it.

[phaze]

Interesting ideas in this thread.

I can see a reason for game symmetry since players can do it. Cursing attacks already have two barriers, so I worry about them being too difficult. Especially for cursing melee attacks that may depend on cursing to live. Like reckoning a seer lord and having it fail.

Limited attribute points are a major concer as we already need to focus on accuracy and HP already which takes characters into their 40s to max. Willpower only gets any points after other essential attributes.

From an iron man perspective I would loath something that introduced more variability in the mix. The seer lords or weaver are already very dangerous. A chance for curses to not apply could be frustrating since AP is capped and when facing armies of enemies, certainty is critical for making decisions. Or even the Baron who I frequently extend a character out to drop a -Ap curse on. Given his range, this takes careful planning and maneuvering that is already risky. A failed curse compounds the issue.

Willpower already is doing triple duty as Res, curse Res, and magic damage min. Maybe add a feature to intelligence since it is the only attribute with one function?

[fallen]

phaze - yeah, Intelligence was the other viable option for it. I am not sure we will ever add this. It tested kind of fun, but just made the game really harder overall. Then we'd be on the hook to add new waves of magical items that modified Curse Res.

After testing both sides, I think this was most likely to only be a rule for standard Curses, and not Cursing Attacks. The double barrier was too much.

To sum up, no plans of adding it to the game atm, but since the OP asked, I wanted to share what we had secretly tested

[wascalwywabbit]

I reiterate...

Moar!

Always MOAR!

I always have lots of ideas, apparently none of them good, but... I'd gladly make more suggestions. :-p

E.g. Do x% dmg of enemy hp, improve curse effect chance by equal% as one possible aid...

Alright, I know I'm an annoying child, but speculation is fun too.