monster scaling vs hero scaling

[russian]

I decided to try and extend the game by exploring, collecting all the dinky artifacts. couple months pass and every city is mine, i've got max production -> decide to end the game by reaching the objective only to realize that the neutrals went from meh to hard to impossible. I spent a good hour trying to figure out how to outscale the scaling only to realize that mobs grow exponentially while your hero only grows linearly. i played HOMM 3,4 and a bit of 5 and at least i could run around a bit longer than this...

On Crag Hack's campaign for example, at the end i got to face a 10K fire elemental stack. cant attack that w/ anything except ranged cause the passive burn hits for 10000 damage after their melee attack (anything that hits it is basically dead)... and if you dont auto them, they eat your whole army so you dont have enough for the next one.

is there a patch to this game that brings more balance to extended games?

[russian]

Actually, is there a place i can whine to the devs to look at growth? right now it's a bit unbalanced

[El Patron]

10k ? do u play this map like 2 years or what?

[Deathman.Kenshi]

yeah after roughly 2 years stack of 30 creatures become stack of 10k creatures on hard setting

[Les Grossman]

I think it's worth mentioning that creature growth happens only during Campaigns, and it's good thing because when you hit every map 4 with max leveled hero, you would be able to devastate any creatures on the map on first turn from day 1, while game progresses, they grow, giving you a bit more challenge and more xp (for dynasty stuff mostly). In Skirmish I always set strong neutrals and it balanced very well, they don't grow.

[russian]

I did play for an extended period of time, granted there was a bit of "i need more troops, wait wait wait wait wait..."

[Miklotov]

I've never had such a problem. In fact I think this game needs an even harder difficulty above ''hard'', as I am able to breeze through the AI on both custom games and campaigns on hard. Truth be told, the only hard episode on this game is the Azkaal fight at the end of Inferno's first map, it's a battle you can actually lose regardless of how good you are.

Back to your issue, if you're taking two years to clear any given map, you are playing at an extremely low pace. Gather nearby resource generating structures, a few levels, some of the resources laying around, some core units, and you're good to take at least 1 city early on, even on hard. After that start snowballing and taking the fight to the enemy, be they neutrals or other factions. Never ever stay put on a town waiting for troops, always be on the move, clearing neutrals and taking forts means more xp and resources, more resources means you can have more troops faster. About the fire elemental stacks you mentioned, you should easily have units to outnumber them( at least the game expects you to after 2 years of game time), you should be able to win with no problem if you know how to amass troops properly. If you're using a Magic hero it is a bit harder since they don't scale as well into late game as Might heroes do, but still you can use stuff like Time Stasis or defensive spells that will make the fight much easier.

[Draetor]

I found out the worst thing you can do is sit in your home base ending turns to increase your army stack. The enemy and neutrals increase in power a lot faster than you. Like previous poster said, you need to always be on the move, claiming xp/resources/items, while building up troops structure at home as fast as possible to give you early troop management. If you are struggling to build things and make troops because you're hard on resources, then this means you are playing well and at a good pace.

If you find yourself overloaded with resources and not enough troops....you are going to lose.

[clearbeard]

Actually, the enemy AI stacks grow exactly the same as you do, adding only their fixed, scripted stacks to the mix. It's the neutrals that grow exponentially. On hard difficulty, where starting sizes and growth rates are their max values, every stack on the map will hit it's hard max of 999,999 troops on day 1 of month 28 (give or take a week). Do a search for fast leveling of dynasty weapons and you'll learn a trick that exploits this, it's kind of hilarious. Regardless, if you're taking 2 years (!) to complete a map, you're doing something wrong. Even the large ones on hard shouldn't take more than 4-5 months, clearing absolutely everything. In that time frame you're still well within the manageable part of the exponential curve.