M&M: Heroes VI - Now Available, Patched

Dhruin

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Might & Magic: Heroes VI has been released worldwide. There is also a Day 1 Patch and a Launch Trailer. The press release:
Today, Ubisoft announced that Might & Magic Heroes VI is now available worldwide. Developed by Black Hole Entertainment, Heroes VI is the prequel to Heroes V and showcases a family of heroes in a thrilling, epic story where Angels plot to revive an unfinished war. Might & Magic Heroes VI is rated T for Teen and is available exclusively on Windows PC.
In celebration of the 25th Anniversary of the Might & Magic universe, Heroes VI reboots the acclaimed classic by rediscovering the essence and richness of previous universes and introducing a high-fantasy atmosphere in Ashan. In this updated installment, the landscapes and creatures from the World of Ashan are presented in improved 3D designs and includes an exclusive new bestiary. Also new to the franchise is the Reputation System, which allows Heroes to shape their own destiny through two intriguing scenarios, Blood and Tears.
Heroes VI is available as a PC Download for $49.99. A Deluxe Edition is also available for $54.99. This bonus edition of Heroes VI contains exclusive content including one bonus single player Skirmish map, four Dynasty Heroes, two Dynasty weapons, a one month subscription to Might & Magic Heroes Kingdoms, game soundtrack, artbook and poster.
More information.
 
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Can someone explain that Dynasty stuff to me. And what there is so special about it ?
 
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Can someone explain that Dynasty stuff to me. And what there is so special about it ?

I'm currently playing Heroes 6, and.. I haven't really figured it out yet. It seems like it's basically everything you do if you're connected to an online account. So basically, your "Dynasty" is built based on achievements, campaigns, etc and has the ability to make certain heroes and weapons available in various scenarios.

I think it might have some effect on multiplayer or some such thing, but during the single player campaign it simply means you get a free weapon or two for your heroes.
 
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The closest analogy I can think of, is the "ranking system" in games like Modern Warfare.

You get access to extra items and such, the more you play and the better you do while you play gives you more and better stuff.

Sort of an extra layer that's pretty trivial to implement, but which users can use as a motivation to keep on playing.
 
Thank you both. Guess it is not worth the trouble. Dont like statistics that much. And an extra weapon i really dont care about.
 
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It also includes "traits" which are similar to the starting bonuses from previous heroes games. Towards the end of the single player campaigns you end up unlocking 5 of these passive bonuses - which can basically make the difference between some of the more challenging maps being beatable and fun vs. impossible with the highest difficulty selected.

The free items mentioned are levellable artifacts - many of them are given to you in cutscenes in the campaigns. You just don't actually get them unless you play entirely online and logged in - even in single player. This means if you don't play always on then you're being denied plot based rewards and the game sort of rubs it in your face by showing you the items you WOULD have gotten and then saying "but you didn't since you're not using Conflux."

Also be aware that campaigns and saved games you started while logged in are entirely and wholly unusable if you can not log in for some reason. Those games can only be continued/loaded if you are logged on.
 
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The free items mentioned are levellable artifacts - many of them are given to you in cutscenes in the campaigns. You just don't actually get them unless you play entirely online and logged in - even in single player. This means if you don't play always on then you're being denied plot based rewards and the game sort of rubs it in your face by showing you the items you WOULD have gotten and then saying "but you didn't since you're not using Conflux."

Wow. That's just...wow. I think that's got to be a new low even for Ubi. I was thinking these items were just some extra tacked on, likely overpowered and superfluous junk like pre-order DLC. But that they would take actual plot items given as rewards in cut scenes during the campaigns and carve them out for offline users as a penalty? Shameful.
 
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Wow. That's just…wow. I think that's got to be a new low even for Ubi. I was thinking these items were just some extra tacked on, likely overpowered and superfluous junk like pre-order DLC. But that they would take actual plot items given as rewards in cut scenes during the campaigns and carve them out for offline users as a penalty? Shameful.

Yeah I enjoy the game but it's hard to really defend that. I don't even really mind having to be online all the time, but their online service is rather clunky and gets in the way at times as well. It's not like running Steam where you barely notice it.
 
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Well I find the lack of release-day reviews from the major sites slightly encouraging - not about the game but about those sites taking a real critical look at the game. Yeah I know I'm just being naive and overly optimistic there aren't I? Of course meta-critic is already flooded by praise-filled, strangely short, similarly worded "critic" reviews from sites that appear to be little more than high-budget blogs.

I feel similarly to fadedc; I enjoy the game but some of the policy and operational decisions here are confounding and just plain bad. I suppose should not be seen as unexpected when considered along side similar decisions made for games like settlers - but the extent to which they penalize legitimate users the same way as pirates is more than merely disrespectful. That they called plot-related items rewarded in voiced-over cut-scenes in the single player campaigns "extras" and called the offline-mode "fully featured" seems more than just disingenuous.

On a side-note, the moderators on the Heroes section of the official UbiSoft forums are rather good. One of them in particular was the one who informed me of the extent and implications of the Dynasty integration into single player game-play and its ramifications on save games. They did so without attempting to justify it or spin it - they just said what it was and what it meant. I might have a little bit of a crush.
 
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One really strange thing about the AI I'm finding is that during castle sieges it doesn't use it's central shooter tower. This is wierd not just because it's horrrible AI, but because I played the demo and in the demo it used the central tower really inteligently. Somehow the AI got worse between the demo and the main game.
 
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fade, maybe it's supposed to behave "dumb" if you play on easy? ;)
Ok I'm kidding, maybe it's a newly introduced bug, really.
 
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fade, maybe it's supposed to behave "dumb" if you play on easy? ;)
Ok I'm kidding, maybe it's a newly introduced bug, really.

hehe well I'm playing on hard so I'm guessing that's not the issue :)
 
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HoMM 3 is still the king by a long shot, but 6 is better than 5. Some even say it's better than 4, though I don't really agree with that. Then again, I actually liked 4 a lot.

Since you missed most of 4 and 5, it makes comparisons pretty hard. Like I said, HoMM 3 is still the king. Then again, HoMM 3 is probably my all time favourite strategy game, so it's hard for any game to come close from my point of view.
 
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Well given that most HoMM fans liked HoMM 4 even less then most DA fans on these forums liked DA2, people saying it's better then that isn't much of an accomplisment. Though if your one of the handfull of people who actually liked it, then that's another matter.

Probably not better then HoMM 3, but then with HoMM 3 the series was still new and fresh and exciting. I doubt any more recent HoMM game could ever compete with my memories of that. Even if I were to actually play HoMM 3 I doubt it could ever compete with my memories of how grea HoMM 3 was.

HoMM 6 is a solid game and worth checking out if your a fan of the series. It has it's own strengths and weaknesses and is hard to compare directly to other games which also had their own strengths and weaknesses.
 
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