The Chosen Ones

I'd love to help

my version...

6. Combat King - Rage

This issue of Combat King will teach the reader to periodically enter a killing frenzy.  The damage of his basic attack will be drastically increased. |nActivate: Every 5th second. |n Each level increases damage by two times the main attribute.

I obviously can't speak to every point you make, but I have some answers and my two cents worth for some issues.  I had to change the color of your topics because the orange didn't work well inside quote boxes.

1. Interface
I know you are limited by the warcraft 3 engine, but I think you need to do something about skill selections and mana/hp pot usage. It isnt much of a problem when only controlling one hero, but as soon as you need to control several heroes it gets really messy.
When you have several units selected, you dont have access to the ability submenu, so you cant use your fire/shadow/divine/thunder/frost spells when more units are selected.
If you want to use potions, you need to deselect your hero to use the restore panel. If you are in the middle of a tough fight (which you are, since you need the pot) those few second it takes will most likely get you killed.

The mechanism for casting spells (and using abilities?) is being changed in the next version.  As per potion usage, I agree that it is unwieldy.  However, I did get used to it in my second or third playthrough, and haven't had a potion problem since then (except for occasionally forgetting to drop my weak potions).  I know many players have had issue with the potion system, but I honestly can't think of a better way to do it.  If you have a suggestion, I'm sure Aero would at least consider it.  He's done tons of things to improve playability based on our suggestions.
 

2: Terrible lags
3: Cut-scenes.

The lag is super annoying to me as well, and the dialogue makes me yearn to be allowed to do some editing, or at least proofreading.  Although I disagree with what you wrote about Fradz... he's funny as is - in a very unpolitically correct hyperactive mentally retarded village idiot kind of way.

What I REALLY want, though, is the ability to speed up the dialogue.  I can read about 5x as fast as the dialogue.  When I watch the cutscenes, I grade my students' papers in between lines of dialogue.

4: Riddles at the end of chapters and their reward
You get 5% extra gold each point answered, but when leaving a chapter I used to buy any set-item, which meant i had about 100 gold left. That amounts to a total of 10 extra gold for answering correctly. Whoopdidoo.

It makes a big difference in your second playthrough.  The first playthrough you just try to survive.  Then, you sell all your stuff and start over.  Suddenly, you have enough money that the 5% extra gold twice (10.25% extra gold in total) makes a HUGE difference.  The game isn't meant to be fully completed in one playthrough.  If it's your first time, some of the epic and elite bosses are extremely difficult, even on easy mode.  (heck, even some mini-bosses like the wolf boss in chapter 5 can ohko you if you don't have amazing gear)  Also, never spend money at the END of a chapter.  If you've already killed all the bosses, it can wait until the next chapter (except chapter 5 to 6, because it takes a while to get to the shops in chapter 6)

5: Boss figths:
If you want to use instant kill skills as much as you obviously do, you need to make it absolutely clear to the player when they need to run away. Point in case, the epic boss in chapter 6. You have tons of spell effects flying everywhere with 3 heroes, and on top of that you need to really concentrate if you want to use your sub-skills (the interface problem i mentioned earlier). I never notice the animation he does before shotting shockwaves in front of him.

The epic boss in chapter 5 is the only one who OHKOs me regularly.  After being nuked maybe twice by a boss, I learn to avoid it.  I generally like the boss battles, except that I think there should be more than one "type" of boss battle.  What I mean is that it seems like EVERY boss has a move or two that can OHKO you, and other than that, he's really really easy.  I'd like some bosses that are straight-up stronger, with less emphasis on avoiding the uber-skill.

6: Your Boxes

As per flowers, this is being fixed in the next version (they aren't stored in an inventory anymore).  As per potions, I don't pick up potions except elixirs, so it's not a big deal to me.  Having the box be able to automatically dump extra items into a different box seems like a good idea, except that you wouldn't know where it is!  I like to choose which items go in which boxes.  Unless you can suggest a realize-able system for dealing with this many items, I suggest you just stop for a second and appreciate how nice Aero's system is.

7: The steal mechanic:

I am 90+% sure that *every* one of your issues is being fixed in the next version.



About the rest of your points... yeah, the item thing is a little annoying.  I drew out item-tech-trees on my whiteboard to make sure I didn't miss anything.  It was a pain, but it worked.  Also, I check the item list a LOT.  Chapter 6 is annoying, but I thought you overstated its annoyance a little.  If it was your first playthrough, then discovering some of the secrets and fighting some of the bosses were likely VERY difficult... it gets better the second time around, and MUCH better the third time around.

well, 1.6 hasn't been released yet.  What else would he be playing?

I cannot find the dig site with the decimation in it.  Help!  (please)

So the Vampire Lord in Chapter 6 periodically uses an ability that makes him disappear and summons a few random vampires.  After I kill those random vampires, he comes back and is fully healed.  He does this fairly frequently (every 45 seconds?), so there's no way I can do more than about 30,000 damage.  After having this happen 25 times, I've decided to give up and ask...

Does anyone know the secret to killing the Vampire Lord?

Hey, Chimto told me that the description includes a lot of grammar errors. So what do you think if we descriptions like this in the future:

Thunder Boots(Fradz's first ultimate set piece, first upgrade)

NEW
+6 Armor
+30 Agility
+500 Hit Points
+Gives an aura that increases nearby friendly units' attack speed by 15% and movement speed by 30%.
+Every attack restores hit points(lvlx3) and mana(lvlx0,5) and every spell restores hit points(lvlx15) and mana(lvlx2,5).

OLD
Increases the armor by 6, the agility by 30 and the hit points of Fradz by 500 when worn. Gives an aura that increases nearby friendly units' attack speed by 15% and movement speed by 30%. Every attack restores hit points(lvlx3) and mana(lvlx0,5) and every spell restores hit points(lvlx15) and mana(lvlx2,5).

Is this a good way or not? Does this need improvements?

That is a LOT better.  Not necessarily because of grammar, but because of readability.  Thanks for continually improving TCOCampaign.  I enjoy it regularly