The game is very unreadable.

[hat]

I have the game on GOG, but I prefer steam forums.

So the biggest problem for me is that the game is unreadable.

The artstyle is very pretty I love it. However during the battles it happens very often, that when units are close to each other (yours and enemies) it's almost impossible to distinguish which unit your cursor is hovering over and which unit you are currently targetting. There is no borderline highlight or anything and it caused me multiple fight loses.

I am sure that with 200+ hrs it will not be a problem, but with 15h on my clock it still is and it is top ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

[ppaladin123]

Yeha I had a post about this recently. It does make things very difficult.

[lyravega]

Agreed. Played around 10 hours and even though the game looks pretty, it also looks like a jumbled mess. If units were 2/3 of the size in combat, that'd help to some degree in my opinion. But I also have issues in the world map to some degree too; I keep holding ALT button down to see what is what.

[Punisher[CRO]]

That's my main reason for quitting, but I think it's unfortunately too big of an oversight to be easily fixed. Nothing is recognizable on the map. While pixel art gives the game a certain style, it doesn't help with the visibility of characters, icons, buildings, etc.

When it comes to the battles themselves, it's on a whole other level how cluttered and strange everything is. It's actually surprising to me that it passed any quality control, considering that what's behind the graphics is quite well done.

If it comforts you, it doesn't get any better even after more than 75 hours of playing. Someone from the design team really messed up, and the fanboy community didn't point it out in time. Adding some kind of border around the icons or similar might partially help, because right now it's a complete mess

[Gaius]

While I MOSTLY feel I have good reads, some times I agree, but to me it mostly happens with spell icons (specially because they change turn after turn because of the "mana" piling up).

I had to reload before because I cast stuff on accident, specially those spells that hit everything on the battlefield.

[hazxan]

Yep. Same here. Given up on it. It's just too pixelated for it's own good. It's blockier than HOMM1. Go check screenshots, HOMM1 map is crisp and clear. SoC, is a blocky hard to read mess in comparison. Shame, as there's a couple of decent ideas added in. And the whole point of pixel art is that you can make graphics far quicker. But here we only have 4 factions.

If the pixel resolution was twice as much, perhaps 4 times as much, it would look much better and be more playable. Seems like a novelty that for many, wears off after a few hours.

And I also found the same problem with the battle screen, as you say, Captions and colours all mashed together so you can't see what's what.

[JellyPuff]

I've just went ahead and suggested a customizable mouse pointer (for size+colors). I personally don't have a problem with it, but this option in games where you point and click at things a lot (or more accessibility in general, really) is always nice and it shouldn't be too much trouble to implement.

[duane]

Originally posted by hazxan:

Yep. Same here. Given up on it. It's just too pixelated for it's own good. It's blockier than HOMM1. Go check screenshots, HOMM1 map is crisp and clear. SoC, is a blocky hard to read mess in comparison. Shame, as there's a couple of decent ideas added in. And the whole point of pixel art is that you can make graphics far quicker. But here we only have 4 factions.

If the pixel resolution was twice as much, perhaps 4 times as much, it would look much better and be more playable. Seems like a novelty that for many, wears off after a few hours.

And I also found the same problem with the battle screen, as you say, Captions and colours all mashed together so you can't see what's what.

unfortunately I dont think the devs will even acknowledge that the pixel art is a bit too pixelated. For every one of us who say it needs to be cleaned up a bit 5 more people will tell you that you are old, have bad eyes and have no appreciation for art.

[notNSANE]

I play with a controller and had no issues at all.

[Aleksei.Volchok]

Even with controller and zoomed-in camera you sometimes miss stuff. It's also hard to aim at many objects on the map obscured by tall structures. In combat it's sometimes also hard to see stuff, especially in sieges when a unit is standing on a wall right below the gates.

[Kirsan]

+1