Heroes seem to level up after only 2 or 3 battles. The AI sends in another fleet to attack but my fleet commanded by a mid-level hero always seems to win therefore leveling up without me doing much. These "super hero" fleets don't even need upgrading since the hero abilities keep them quite strong. Whenever a new hero is available (and I have room in the academy) I instantly put him in command of my strongest fleet and send him into battle. Upon victory he gains 3-4 levels right off the bat. Perhaps earned XP should increase exponentially making hero development choices much more relevant. Also, allow only one level-up per turn.

I find that I have max level heroes at about the time I have basically won the game. It can be faster but you need to really work for it.





More significantly, this would cripple getting new heroes late-game except for Horatio. This might be reasonable if additional Hero level related techs were added to improve late-game functionality.

I'm not quite sure on the numbers, but it feels like even curbstomp battles (like a fleet against a lone scout) get relatively decent combat hero XP, and there isn't really that much of a proportionally greater reward for more difficult battles. I think combat hero XP might feel better-paced if the XP was more proportional to the enemy fleet and the difficulty of the fight. This might also make it easier to "catch up" with later-game heroes, since they'd be fighting bigger battles than the earlier ones were at the start.

Agreed. XP should be based on military value of the enemy fleet. That would make much more sense especially for green, late game heroes.

I completely agree that leveling up Heroes feels far to easy at the moment. Combined with their immense power, this is a problem in my eyes. In addition to that, you don't take a risk when using a Hero. The upkeep is negligible and the instant healing costs are minor, if at all (200 for a level 12 Hero or something).

I would propose a number of changes/additions to rework the Hero leveling system:

[LIST=1]

Reduce XP gained from being attached to a Fleet/System by a lot (say 75%).

Rebalance XP gained in battles according to the actual military values in the battle (and possibly win/draw/defeat), With the max value being about the same as currently but with a much faster decline for smaller battles (big_battles_then == big_battles_now; small_battles_then <<<< small_battles_now).

Make Heroes lose some XP/levels when they are "injured" in a battle (depending on their level).

Add another option for Hero assignment, "Academy", which would train the Hero, giving it (a lot of) XP every turn but costing Dust per turn (depending on level, starting at about what the current upkeep is now but not increasing linear, but rather quadratical, like (lvl-1)²*2+2).

Remove the upkeep for Heroes not assigned to a fleet/star system (might as well remove it all together but maybe it will be more important once Dust is balanced out).

[/LIST]

Changes 1-3 are to make XP more worthwhile, to have especially the higher levels more valuable. The goal would be that you really care for your Heroes, and don't just "use" them. Maybe a decrease on the Hero-Cap is needed, I think some Empires can get up to 10 Heroes.

Change 4 adds another "progression path" (stole that one from the MMORPG scene) for your Hero: You can level him up by assigning him to a fleet, a system or sending him to the new "Academy". I would propose that XP gains are balanced about at 0.8:1:2 (systemacademy), so that a Hero levels slightly faster when attached to a fleet (because there is the risk of losing him in an unexpected battle) and a lot faster when trained for Dust. Depending on the Battles your Hero fights and wins, you might even beat the Academy, though not likely. In addition, the Academy solves the problem of "lategame" Heroes being next to useless without cloning. You can now just boost him to a high level with the surplus Dust your now bigger Empire is able to spend. Granted, this might be a balance problem with cloning, but cloning itself needs some tweaks, so I would not worry too much about that.

The last change is just a little extra flexibility: I can send my hero do something and pay for it or just have him idle and wait. Granted, I never expelled a Hero because I could not afford him/her anymore, I only did it to free space for another class combination, but with more Dust balance you might be inclined to let your well trained Pilot/Commander idle rather then expell him to free up some Dust so you can train another Hero. Again, not a big impact but still...



So, what do you think?

Honestly, I don't mind the easy leveling but when they die they should stay dead.