Devs released a new vid on HoMM VI showing off the Stronghold faction. The gameplay graphics are looking pretty good. Still has that bright, almost cartoony glow which I've never been a fan of - but they seem to have put an aggressive edge to it.

Combat is looking fluid. And the brief shots you see of the adventure map looks more like an evolution of Disciples 2, or at least how I envision Disciples 3 'should' have looked.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXxLo-dg2Rk

(14-01-2011 05:26 AM)wabbit Wrote:  Devs released a new vid on HoMM VI showing off the Stronghold faction. The gameplay graphics are looking pretty good. Still has that bright, almost cartoony glow which I've never been a fan of - but they seem to have put an aggressive edge to it.

Combat is looking fluid. And the brief shots you see of the adventure map looks more like an evolution of Disciples 2, or at least how I envision Disciples 3 'should' have looked.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXxLo-dg2Rk

Hmm, Yea very bright and cartoonish. I was just playing Etherlords 2 and the graphics from that game look simlar to HommVI, only not quite as bright. Etherlords 2 was put out in 2003 though. I always felt that the graphics in the HoMM series were never on par with other games of the same time frame. I've only played HoMM 3 and didn't like it. Compared to D2 released at a similar time, HoMM 3 looked like it was from DOS game.

I've heard that HoMM 3 was supposed to be better than 4 or 5. So I never even bothered checking 4 or 5 out. I just never enjoyed creating huge armies with stacks of troops and fighting attrition wars. Thats just me.

Looks very promising.
While I´m with my foreposters in that I was never a fan of the HoMM cartoony candyland look, they seem to have very much improved on this with the upcoming iteration IMO. Not as dark and gothic as D3 by far but definitely better and doesn´t hurt the eye so much anymore.

Technically HoMM6 seems to be superior to D3 IMO, higher polygon count, more fluid animations, battle screens and overland map looks really good.But that was to be expected since the D3 engine was probably created at the beginning of D3 development cycle which was oh so many years ago.
Wouldn´t mind if the HoMM 6 engine was licensed for the development of a D4... (-:

While I also like the D3 army/party/rpg combat style much more than the 10000 units represented in one hex of HoMM, I will definitely buy and enjoy the new HoMM, they finally also got rid of that stupid 7 tier system for the creatures and replaced it with a more meaningful system of 3 tiers (Basic - Elite - Champion) and other interesting changes to my liking from the HoMM formula, e.g. captured cities can be converted to your own faction (never liked to have orc cities and armies in my realm when I was playing as humans or elves etc.).
Still, node of power concept and land transformation concept of Disciples is unbeaten #1 in the genre and the lore/history of HoMM I always found ridiculous and childish, while the Disciples background and lore just feels somehow epic and "believable".

Here´s hoping that H6 will have better dev support and lower bug density than D3.

Sigh, I hate how they overdo the cartoonish look. HoMM4 was just the sweet spot.

Combat seems to be the same as in HoMM5, the simpler system with squares, instead of hexagons, like in D3.

I could like like with the above, if the story wasn't so boring. I find NWC did a much better job, when it comes to storywriting: http://www.freewebs.com/mm10/mightmagichistory.htm

Unofficial fanats manual http://spammmods.narod.ru/mmh6/

Very nice collection of info

Thanks for that link rvm1975. Some good info in there. Seems they changed up some of the units a bit, at least from HoMM V.

(14-01-2011 10:23 AM)StupendousMan Wrote:  Wouldn´t mind if the HoMM 6 engine was licensed for the development of a D4... (-:

I remember a lot of folks thinking that there would never be a D3. After so many years waiting I was believing them. I wonder if there will be a D4 now. The D3 forums don't seem that active for only 6 months after the release of D3.

The Disciples series just doesn't seem that mainstream. A 4th version would come down to dollars and cents I imagine. I'm hoping their expansions maybe do better so whoever is publishing it still sees a future market for it.

(14-01-2011 05:57 AM)redgreen Wrote:  I was just playing Etherlords 2..

Such a great game. It had flaws, but they really did a good job of card draw duelling with gfx. Some good art direction too. In fact I even use one of the battle tunes modded in to my D3 battles

I see Magic the Gathering: Tactics is coming out soon which seems similar, but when I saw the price tag - it's insanely over the top; designed to suck hundreds out of your wallet if you want to stick with it for awhile.

(15-01-2011 04:25 AM)wabbit Wrote:  

(14-01-2011 05:57 AM)redgreen Wrote:  I was just playing Etherlords 2..

Such a great game. It had flaws, but they really did a good job of card draw duelling with gfx. Some good art direction too. In fact I even use one of the battle tunes modded in to my D3 battles

I see Magic the Gathering: Tactics is coming out soon which seems similar, but when I saw the price tag - it's insanely over the top; designed to suck hundreds out of your wallet if you want to stick with it for awhile.

Yea Etherlords is fun. Magic the gathering:Tactics looks good. I suppose they get you with booster pacs after you have the game. Have to keep an eye out what the reviews will say about it.

Heroes II was the DOS game, Heroes 3 was in 800x600. Many people didn't like the prerendered graphics, I thought they were ok but preferred the artstyle of #2. Heroes 4 was botched in really big battles, no point in a hero that needs to drink a potion every turn to avoid death despite having all combat abilities. I guess heroes should have stacked as well. :|

Heroes 5 I've only played the beginning campaign. Over the years I've played Disciples 2 much more due to loving the art and music more (even if not alot of music). Love that gritty feel. I just played Heroes so much in years past I was totally sick of the formula, it was one of those games where I constantly played much like Diablo. I just burned out.

Heroes 6 looks even more promising visually and I hope it's a bit darker. Some of those orc units do remind me of Disciples a bit. The only way Heroes is going to replace Disciples for me is if the final D3 release is botched and it never lives up to expectations despite many patches. That would be so sad I may be forced to be a full Heroes fan again.

I recently got virtual PC with DOS and Windows 98 running so I could play the old single player Magic: The Gathering game. I got so sick of it after several weeks to a month of playing that I haven't gone back since. So I doubt I'll play Etherlords since I never did in the past. Card games like that are among the best card games of all time, but they are still card games. Sick of them. Played them all through my childhood. Solitaire, Crazy Eights, a bit of rummy. To me Magic is still just playing cards, nothing special about it. I'd rather play a full blown PC game with a more realistic system. Never collected the cards for magic, I'm sure alot of players love the art and collecting them. And the fun with friends can be great.

(15-01-2011 12:44 PM)D2 Mod Player Wrote:  Heroes 3 was in 800x600.

As timing would have it.. an unofficial patch was just released letting you crank the resolution to huge levels.

http://www.gamershell.com/news_109314.html

(16-01-2011 02:57 AM)wabbit Wrote:  As timing would have it.. an unofficial patch was just released letting you crank the resolution to huge levels.

Yes, I just recently found that myself.

I rather like it, it's easier then playing in a Windows which I was recently doing, just because it was the only way I could stand those old graphics.

The drawbacks is that it's limited in what it does. The best resolution in my opinion is 1024x768. It makes the overhead map nicer and you can see more on one screen. The limitation in combat is that just like in the official patch of Disciples 2 where the combat screen is limited to 800x600. But instead of stretching it with a D3D mode, this version puts it in a window. That's why I like the low resolution of 1024x768, anything higher makes that window too small unless you have at least a 24" screen. The part I'm not sure about is it says everything is in 32 bit color. The original was 16 bit. That would really boost the visuals but I simply haven't figured out if the old Window mode (I'd put the desktop in 1024x768 to get similar results) is bested or if it looks the same. If anybody has been playing it, please figure this out for me!

I actually would never expect a D3D patch unless they had the source code of the game, what's been done already is phenomenal considering. It reminds my of a high resolution patch I found for Diablo II which is actually considered a cheat on bnet because it gives more viewable area, so it can get you banned. It never got the bugs worked out so I never used it, plus it won't work for any mod that has it's own separate executable limiting it's appear for me. So the Heroes 3 resolution upgrade is more exciting, it even works with a Heroes 3 mod! I never played that mod, I've read about it and it makes me more dizzy then wanting to play it. Extra skills is cool, I'm just not much of a fan on how you get them. Having extra unit upgrades in towns sounds cool though.

(14-01-2011 05:57 AM)redgreen Wrote:  I've only played HoMM 3 and didn't like it. Compared to D2 released at a similar time, HoMM 3 looked like it was from DOS game.

What are you talking about?! HoMM3 was 1999 while Disciples 2 was 2002... and back then the 2D-3D transition was in full swing, and there where no 5 year old hardware consoles holding graphic whores back... 3 years was a huge amount of time for graphics.

Frankly H3 is among the few games from that time (along side Starcraft and a few others) that i can still look at without my eyes hurting, low resolution and all.

Well, there was a leak and probably Naga are the last race:

http://shareimage.org/images/h9a7zgxxlcvgvpylhtcf.jpg

Units look quite good.
But honestly, I would have preferred one of the more classical fantasy races like elves or dwarves. So now we have Humans, Undead, Demons, Orcs and Nagas as lineup in the basic game?

(26-01-2011 09:23 AM)Qumi Wrote:  Well, there was a leak and probably Naga are the last race:

http://shareimage.org/images/h9a7zgxxlcvgvpylhtcf.jpg

Ooh, something differing from the standard race? Nice! At least they're trying to be creative when it comes to Naga, they'll nicely balance out the dull orcs.

Today came a big flow of news/screen material re HoMM6.
It´s really worth checking out at the Heroes Community or having a look at this preview in a German online magazine (including many new screenshots and a very interesting B-roll video):

http://www.gamestar.de/spiele/might-magi...21090.html

Sanctuary/Naga faction semi-officially announced.

This all looks really gorgeous and awesome, love the vid and the graphics style.
Love most/all of the new features developments they did to the series, e.g. city conversion, new unit tier bsystem.
I am sure it will be a great game and will make waiting for the Mountain Clans and the international Gold edition of D3 that much easier...

Looks like its coming along nicely. Thanks for the links

Preorder is available http://shop.ubi.com/store/ubiemea/en_IE/...0/sac.true

Release date is set to May 2011. Also preorde allow you to participate in beta.

5 race revealed: http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/mightmagi...gdom-movie

No suprises there, it's Naga.

I too am happy there's something different. And when was the last time there was enough difference between races an intelligent conversation about those races abilities could be discussed?

http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f...4691069519

The release date is now 8th September 2011.

Well, that's good. I prefer a polished game than unfinished beta ;-)

(13-05-2011 01:13 PM)Qumi Wrote:  Well, that's good. I prefer a polished game than unfinished beta ;-)

I see what you did there

I don't think it will be A+, perhaps 7 of 10. I bet the AI will be fail.

Yea, probably 7 out of 10. I don't like that its only available in digital in US. That often also means limited installs, which sucks for modders. Even so, I like having a disk, With digital only, if the files get wonky, one is SOL.

I'm not really expecting much though, because for a sixth incarnation, what can they do to not have it feel like same old, same old?

Can't say I'm holding my breath for it either. I'm not a fan of the unit recruitment model of HoMM games. It puts too much emphasis on city control.

But, it's a turn based strategy game. I'd be kidding myself if I wasn't going to pick it up.

Come on guys, let´s show some more enthusiasm for the new Heroes game...
I am pretty curious how it will turn out as some changes are introduced which seem to make a lot of sense to me and which are quite revolutionary for the series, like e.g city conversion, new unit tier/level system, new skill system, control zones for cities etc.
Good thing is there will probably be a much larger community than for D3 which means myriads of custom maps (if the editor is as good as described) and many potential online players/opponents.

Definitely getting it.

True true. I do hope they pull off a good rendition. Some of the vids look pretty cool.

I haven't been following the deets - what are the control zones for cities all about?

The thing is once HoMM VI comes out. Then this forum turns into a ghost town and folks probably mod that instead of D3. I love D3, even all the quirks, maybe more so, cause I like to tweek things. I'll be sorry to see the migration to HoMM. Everybody gets attracted to all the bright colors. I can't really say how I feel about HoMM cause I would get flamed. I'm always outnumbered. haha