Post by mydienon on Jan 30, 2021 11:16:28 GMT -5
After trying out several combinations of heroes in the prologue, I've enjoyed exploring Episode 1 and 2 with my first group (Easy difficulty Vraes, Kjartan, Fyona, and Tamilin). I've also read through many forum posts (avoiding spoilers) but have a few questions about some of the behind-the-scenes calculations:
1. Evasion: If Evasion is less than 0 due to Heavy Armor, I understand any negative Evasion applies to the Dodge pool. Dodge is used for melee, ranged, and spell defense, whereas Evasion is only used for ranged and spell defense. Dodge is always standard dice for melee, but for ranged and spell defense, it depends on the source--Dodge from equipment and talents is strong dice, while Dodge from the Dexterity-derived attribute is standard dice. For negative Evasion, does it apply to strong dice Dodge or standard dice Dodge?
2. If a hero has very low Dodge, how is negative Evasion applied? For example, if Vraes has 3 Dodge from the derived attribute (standard dice) and 1 Dodge from items and talents (strong dice), and wears Heavy Armor with -5 Evasion, how is the penalty applied?
3. Stealth: I've read that Stealth is always rolled as standard dice. Are there any sources of strong dice for Stealth? For example, is Stealth from skills, items, or talents ever strong dice?
4. Non-Stealthy Heroes: I've read that heroes without the Stealth skill always lose the Stealth roll. Is there a roll, and they lose because their Stealth is too low? Is it possible for a hero without the Stealth skill to use lots of +Stealth items to improve their chance of winning Stealth, or are +Stealth items wasted on them?
5. Strong/Standard Confirmation: Are strong dice 40% chance of success or 50% chance of success? Are standard dice 20% chance of success or 30% chance of success?
6. Weapon/Talent Minimum Damage: Willpower increases the minimum damage for spell talents (0.75x Willpower for area of effect talents, 1.5x Willpower for single-target talents). Strength increases the minimum damage for weapons (1.5x Strength for 1-handed weapons, 3x Strength for 2-handed weapons). I read that there might be an additional modifier for minimum damage based on AP like there is for critical hit damage. Do higher AP weapons or talents have greater minimum damage?
7. Strength-based Bows and Minimum Damage: I haven't yet found a strength-based bow, but from forum posts it appears they do exist and can possibly be found. How does minimum damage from strength apply to bows? Is it based on 1 hand (since bows take up a 1-handed slot for a character) so 1.5x Strength, or 2 hands for 3x Strength? Or is it dependant on the talent used, such as a single-target talent for 1.5x Strength or an area of effect talent for 0.75x Strength?
8. Critical Hit Damage: How is critical hit damage increased for items? For example, if a hero wields a 3 AP weapon, and has a +20% bonus to critical hit damage from items, is the critical hit damage a 1d3 roll with possible results of 200%+50%+20%=270%, 250%+50%+20%=320%, or 300%+50%+20%=370%? Or, is the 20% from damage applied before or after, such as (200%+50%)x20%=300%, (250%+50%)x20%=360%, or (300%+50%)x20%=420%?
9. Combat Initiative: In some battles, the heroes are put into combat automatically, usually after some dialogue. In some cases, the heroes are given the first chance to act, whereas in other cases the enemies are given the first chance to act. When the heroes are given the first chance to act, is this the equivalent to winning the stealth roll for purposes of the Silent Stalker and Steel & Shadow talents?
10. Gold and Leaderboard Scores: I read that more than 500,000 gold has no impact on leaderboard scores. Is this correct?
11. Also, does the duration carrying gold have any impact on score (for example, would heroes that carried 500,000 gold around for a long time before resting have higher score than if they sold a bunch of equipment to reach 500,000 gold just before resting)?
12. Also, how much is leaderboard score increased per the amount of gold carried (for example, how much is the score increased per 1000 gold)?
13. Death Penalty and Leaderboard Scores: What is the score penalty for deaths? Is it different depending on difficulty level? (My current team died once, and I noticed no significant score decrease, so I'm wondering if the death penalty is more of an inconvenience to eventually achieving a high score--except for the Ironman difficulties of course).
14. Resting and Leaderboard Scores: I read that the score reduction for resting is 10,000 points. Is this correct?
15. Movement and Leaderboard Scores: I read that travel time reduces leaderboard scores a little bit. Outside of combat, is the reduction greater when heroes are grouped together vs. separate?
16: Grouping and Leaderboard Scores: If the heroes are separate, and the "group" button is clicked to cause all the heroes to group together, I read that this is the equivalent to moving each hero individually to the leader's position. Is leaderboard score reduced for each hero separately moving to the leader? If not, is the leaderboard score reduced by whichever hero is the furthest away, the closest, or an average for the group? Or is there no reduction (effectively instant movement for score calculations)? I recognize the impact on score for distance traveled is minimal; just curious how it handles this case.
17. Juggernaut and Difficult Terrain: Difficult terrain requires the heroes to expend 2 AP (or MP). When Vraes uses the Juggernaut talent to kill an enemy, he automatically moves forward one square into the defeated enemy's space. Is there any affect on remaining AP or MP for Vraes if the enemy was standing on a space with difficult terrain?
18. Insecure Heroes: Do heroes without the Security skill have any chance of avoiding traps? Is it possible for a hero without the Security skill to use lots of +Security items to improve their chance of avoiding traps, or are +Security items wasted on them?
19. Gold and Security: There was discussion in 2016 about having the Security skill cause a % increase in gold found. Was this implemented?
20. Tournaments and Seasons: I saw some discussion in 2015 about having seasons for leaderboards (aka tournaments) with specific challenges and time periods, such as highest score with a certain set of heroes in one month. Was this ever done, or could it be something you'd consider in the future (for Heroes of Steel or a future game)?
21. Witch: Is the witch still coming in a future update or will we see her in the next game (presumably Legends of Steel)?
22. Bug Reports: Do you still want bug reports for Heroes of Steel? I haven't found many, and certainly nothing game-breaking. I imagine squashing minor bugs in a 6+ year old game isn't high on your priorities...
1. Evasion: If Evasion is less than 0 due to Heavy Armor, I understand any negative Evasion applies to the Dodge pool. Dodge is used for melee, ranged, and spell defense, whereas Evasion is only used for ranged and spell defense. Dodge is always standard dice for melee, but for ranged and spell defense, it depends on the source--Dodge from equipment and talents is strong dice, while Dodge from the Dexterity-derived attribute is standard dice. For negative Evasion, does it apply to strong dice Dodge or standard dice Dodge?
2. If a hero has very low Dodge, how is negative Evasion applied? For example, if Vraes has 3 Dodge from the derived attribute (standard dice) and 1 Dodge from items and talents (strong dice), and wears Heavy Armor with -5 Evasion, how is the penalty applied?
3. Stealth: I've read that Stealth is always rolled as standard dice. Are there any sources of strong dice for Stealth? For example, is Stealth from skills, items, or talents ever strong dice?
4. Non-Stealthy Heroes: I've read that heroes without the Stealth skill always lose the Stealth roll. Is there a roll, and they lose because their Stealth is too low? Is it possible for a hero without the Stealth skill to use lots of +Stealth items to improve their chance of winning Stealth, or are +Stealth items wasted on them?
5. Strong/Standard Confirmation: Are strong dice 40% chance of success or 50% chance of success? Are standard dice 20% chance of success or 30% chance of success?
6. Weapon/Talent Minimum Damage: Willpower increases the minimum damage for spell talents (0.75x Willpower for area of effect talents, 1.5x Willpower for single-target talents). Strength increases the minimum damage for weapons (1.5x Strength for 1-handed weapons, 3x Strength for 2-handed weapons). I read that there might be an additional modifier for minimum damage based on AP like there is for critical hit damage. Do higher AP weapons or talents have greater minimum damage?
7. Strength-based Bows and Minimum Damage: I haven't yet found a strength-based bow, but from forum posts it appears they do exist and can possibly be found. How does minimum damage from strength apply to bows? Is it based on 1 hand (since bows take up a 1-handed slot for a character) so 1.5x Strength, or 2 hands for 3x Strength? Or is it dependant on the talent used, such as a single-target talent for 1.5x Strength or an area of effect talent for 0.75x Strength?
8. Critical Hit Damage: How is critical hit damage increased for items? For example, if a hero wields a 3 AP weapon, and has a +20% bonus to critical hit damage from items, is the critical hit damage a 1d3 roll with possible results of 200%+50%+20%=270%, 250%+50%+20%=320%, or 300%+50%+20%=370%? Or, is the 20% from damage applied before or after, such as (200%+50%)x20%=300%, (250%+50%)x20%=360%, or (300%+50%)x20%=420%?
9. Combat Initiative: In some battles, the heroes are put into combat automatically, usually after some dialogue. In some cases, the heroes are given the first chance to act, whereas in other cases the enemies are given the first chance to act. When the heroes are given the first chance to act, is this the equivalent to winning the stealth roll for purposes of the Silent Stalker and Steel & Shadow talents?
10. Gold and Leaderboard Scores: I read that more than 500,000 gold has no impact on leaderboard scores. Is this correct?
11. Also, does the duration carrying gold have any impact on score (for example, would heroes that carried 500,000 gold around for a long time before resting have higher score than if they sold a bunch of equipment to reach 500,000 gold just before resting)?
12. Also, how much is leaderboard score increased per the amount of gold carried (for example, how much is the score increased per 1000 gold)?
13. Death Penalty and Leaderboard Scores: What is the score penalty for deaths? Is it different depending on difficulty level? (My current team died once, and I noticed no significant score decrease, so I'm wondering if the death penalty is more of an inconvenience to eventually achieving a high score--except for the Ironman difficulties of course).
14. Resting and Leaderboard Scores: I read that the score reduction for resting is 10,000 points. Is this correct?
15. Movement and Leaderboard Scores: I read that travel time reduces leaderboard scores a little bit. Outside of combat, is the reduction greater when heroes are grouped together vs. separate?
16: Grouping and Leaderboard Scores: If the heroes are separate, and the "group" button is clicked to cause all the heroes to group together, I read that this is the equivalent to moving each hero individually to the leader's position. Is leaderboard score reduced for each hero separately moving to the leader? If not, is the leaderboard score reduced by whichever hero is the furthest away, the closest, or an average for the group? Or is there no reduction (effectively instant movement for score calculations)? I recognize the impact on score for distance traveled is minimal; just curious how it handles this case.
17. Juggernaut and Difficult Terrain: Difficult terrain requires the heroes to expend 2 AP (or MP). When Vraes uses the Juggernaut talent to kill an enemy, he automatically moves forward one square into the defeated enemy's space. Is there any affect on remaining AP or MP for Vraes if the enemy was standing on a space with difficult terrain?
18. Insecure Heroes: Do heroes without the Security skill have any chance of avoiding traps? Is it possible for a hero without the Security skill to use lots of +Security items to improve their chance of avoiding traps, or are +Security items wasted on them?
19. Gold and Security: There was discussion in 2016 about having the Security skill cause a % increase in gold found. Was this implemented?
20. Tournaments and Seasons: I saw some discussion in 2015 about having seasons for leaderboards (aka tournaments) with specific challenges and time periods, such as highest score with a certain set of heroes in one month. Was this ever done, or could it be something you'd consider in the future (for Heroes of Steel or a future game)?
21. Witch: Is the witch still coming in a future update or will we see her in the next game (presumably Legends of Steel)?
22. Bug Reports: Do you still want bug reports for Heroes of Steel? I haven't found many, and certainly nothing game-breaking. I imagine squashing minor bugs in a 6+ year old game isn't high on your priorities...
This list kept growing and growing as I thought of more questions...Heroes of Steel has been a surprisingly complex and challenging game, with an intriguing storyline--I'm looking forward to discovering how it all develops in Episodes 3 and 4 (and the rest of Episode 2; I've got a long way to go!)
