Differences between Disciples II and Disciples III

[Chronoja]

The original thread seems to have been deleted but many people told me they found the information helpful so I'd hate to let that information get lost. I managed get my post back from a cached version of the thread so I shall repost it here for anyone else to see in the future

There were a lot of changes made both for better and worse.

In d1 and 2 you had free roam of the map, could travel across water, required rod planter units in order to secure resources like gold and mana. In D3 you are stuck to a path which isn't always linear but you lack the capability to go anywhere and across water. Rod planters have been removed and replaced with node guardians.

Resources typically have a "node" beside them which when interacted with "captures it" and places a node guardian on it, the node guardian automatically gains experience by itself over time and serves as protection for anyone else who wants to capture said resource since they have to battle to remove the guardian before hand. You can station other units with the guardian to help it, otherwise node guardians are stationary units both in and out of combat.

Each of the main campaigns in D3 has a main hero that drives the plot forward, unlike d2 where you could select any of the heroes you wanted and carry them across all missions. You can still do the same, purchase other leaders and they will carry over to the next mission but they lose levels while retaining stat boosts, becoming "veteran" units. There's much less focus on the other party leaders than there was in D2 since the main hero is the one you will primarily be using.

There are a bunch of stat changes, most noticeably most the stats are inflated by some magnitude, health is typically in the hundreds and thousands for units where in d2 they'd have more modest values. It makes a bit of sense when considering the new combat set up, as you said it's now in a hex grid format as opposed to the 3x2 static grid. The grid sizes in combat are somewhat randomised, even grids on the same battle can change if you reload the game. The grid can change size or even hexes can change, from obstructions units can't cross over to bonus hexes which provide 2x melee, ranged or magical damage.

The combat saw the biggest changes, units now have move points so they can move around the battlefield, certain units have a cover mechanic whereby they can taunt a hit meant for an ally and return a free hit of their own. There are the addition of runes, 1 time cast spells that can only be used in combat. You have "full" access (full, but reduced down to show only combat items) to your inventory in combat allowing you to use any item with any unit wheras before you could equip 2 items on your hero and that had to be set before engaging in combat.

Along with runes as a new items, all heroes, including the main story hero, also have full armour sets to increase their powers, in D2 you had to select from various perks at a level up, perks no longer exist more on that in a second, the perks allowed you to equip various types of items, banners, artifacts etc so those are no longer an issue. The perk system has been removed in favor of a FFXII style talent board. On a level up you will be awarded 2 skill points to allocate and 5 attribute points to go towards things like strength, health etc. It's an interesting change. It is possible to find shrines, typically 2 per map, which will provide you with 1 additional skill point. You can acquire special combat abilities this way like unit resurrection, enemy teleportation, polymorph etc, each of the heroes has their own unique talent grid. In regards to combat abilities, some units inherently have their own unique skills, like the Golem's Earthquake or the Black Naga's Petrify.

Cities are a bit less important, while they do provide your party with an armour bonus if they fight beside it, they no longer protect the party against overworld spells. There are, however, stores present in every city which allows you to buy and sell items like potions and runes. There are still specialist stores like the Alchemist's House which sells better potions like the permanent stat increase ones.

Overworld spells are a bit less interesting this time around, the different factions don't have as much "uniqueness" to them but it's not that bad. Likewise thieves have lost nearly all of their old d2 abilities such as stealing items from stores and enemy parties and are basically just another leader unit which you have to pay extra money and stone to purchase a guild before you can hire them, so they are basically useless this time around. As mentioned here, alongside gold and mana, Stone is new resource that is required inorder to build your capital upgrades, in d2 they only required gold.

The diplomacy system has also been removed in d3. Dungeons are also no longer as important, previously they were a 1 time encounter which usually provided a good reward for defeating and could be visited by a thief to reveal what lay inside. They now provide the player with an encounter, ususally random but some are not like the Dragon's Lair. They regenerate an encounter after 10 turns and the reward for a victory ususally isn't that great, typically a free health potion or a rune.

I think that's most of the changes. If I missed anything I'm sure someone else will bring it up.

[-{Geo}- Cegorach]

Hate what they did with it, I liked to chose by miself which hero to play all over the games (SP, MP or Story) here you just stuck on 1 mein hero other are just ussless in all ways and if you skip something in Ch 1 you can't replay it to integrate things in your fav here, for this you must replay whole story... T_T
And worst they did was cutting map/gamplay freedom in D3, olso no MP (internet or lan), game is so much depends on story and isn't flixible at all, think it's wery bad for turn based strategies, but like that they add interesting RPG thing to it.
Game isn't worst but can't call it good or normal, it's not Disciples I know, now...

[Gavener]

Is it me or are the Dwarf Race not included in this D3 ? i mean that was the only race i played in d1 d2 and any game that offers it, hell in WoW i didnt like Ally but only played for dwarfs, i just fought some and they look super badass. and i am a big fan of this series and to be honest wish it was onld grid style only thing that new is the graphics and images, but i got this and the expasion for 10.19$ and bought D2 and all the Expasions again, Still worth the money, kinda wish i could buy D1 on here.

[Chronoja]

Originally posted by Gavener:

Is it me or are the Dwarf Race not included in this D3 ? i mean that was the only race i played in d1 d2 and any game that offers it, hell in WoW i didnt like Ally but only played for dwarfs, i just fought some and they look super badass. and i am a big fan of this series and to be honest wish it was onld grid style only thing that new is the graphics and images, but i got this and the expasion for 10.19$ and bought D2 and all the Expasions again, Still worth the money, kinda wish i could buy D1 on here.

The Dwarven faction were held back for an expansion that was subsequently cancelled. The best you can do in D3 is hire either Dwarven Warriors or Guards of the North from most mercenary camps.

[Gavener]

ugh..... well i plan on beating it anyways, and now i hear of a 3rd installment a recarnation expansion that fixes a lot ?

[Trolldrool]

Personally I played through the first two campaigns, but when I reached the elf one, I couldn't continue and uninstalled it. There were several factors, including a boring narrator voice that made the story a chore to listen to, and a story that became horribly clichéd and predictable.

What killed it however was the heroes. Or more that the human campaign had a melee hero that only really had 2 stats I needed to put any stats in, Endurance and Strength. The demon campaign had a melee hero that only really had 2 stats I needed to put any stats in, Endurance and Strength. And when I got to the third campaign, I got a melee hero that only really had 2 stats I needed to put any stats in, Endurance and Strength.

At that point, I lost all interest in completing the game. If there's not going to be any variety between the heroes or how they can be played, there might as well not have been more than a single campaign with a single hero. If at least it had had an interesting skirmish mode, it could have been salvaged, but alas I found that to be more lacking than the campaign.

I admit that I haven't played D1 or D2, but from what I've read here it sounds like they're vastly superiour in almost every way, so maybe I'll check them out.

[Gavener]

D1 and D2 where realy good, look for a sale, but D1 is really old and hard to find D2 is on Steam on sale often

[Chronoja]

Originally posted by Gavener:

D1 and D2 where realy good, look for a sale, but D1 is really old and hard to find D2 is on Steam on sale often

Disciples: Sacred Lands is easily available on GOG.

[Gavener]

GoG ? is that Gamersgate ? that is wher ei seen it, gonna buy it with Recarnation, another question i own D1 Cds if i where to install how can i get it to work on steam or i cant ?

[Chronoja]

Originally posted by Gavener:

GoG ? is that Gamersgate ? that is wher ei seen it, gonna buy it with Recarnation, another question i own D1 Cds if i where to install how can i get it to work on steam or i cant ?

Sorry. GOG.com, used to stand for Good Old Games, a site that is/was dedicated to making old outdated games run on modern PC's

You can find Disciples: Sacred Lands here[www.gog.com]

These are digital versions of the game, completely drm free.

You can only redeem steamworks codes on steam or if a site states that the codes redeem there. Disciples 1 cd's will not redeem on steam, the game itself isn't even on the platform, best you can do is add it as a "non-steam" game.

[Gavener]

Thanks for the reply

[flagyl2]

Are these differences between D2 and D3 still relevant when playing Reincarnation?

Thanks in advance.

[Chronoja]

Originally posted by flagyl2:

Are these differences between D2 and D3 still relevant when playing Reincarnation?

Thanks in advance.

Only partially. Some of the changes made to Reincarnation were to make the games play closer to D2, so you are no longer restricted to a path and can move over water etc. Combat grids are a bit smaller but still hex based, level up mechanics, item usage is all relatively the same as D3.

[flagyl2]

Originally posted by Psychos:

Originally posted by flagyl2:

Are these differences between D2 and D3 still relevant when playing Reincarnation?

Thanks in advance.

Only partially. Some of the changes made to Reincarnation were to make the games play closer to D2, so you are no longer restricted to a path and can move over water etc. Combat grids are a bit smaller but still hex based, level up mechanics, item usage is all relatively the same as D3.

Thank you Psychos. I appreciate you taking the time to answer.