Ubisoft - New HoMM Rumours?

Dhruin

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Remember the newsbit we ran a few days back about an Ubisoft ad for RPG developers in Shanghai? The Big Download says Xbox360Achievements.org noticed that same ad mentioned Heroes of Might & Magic, which has since been removed - interesting since we saw it five days before their news and it didn't say HoMM back then. Still, as we pointed out at the time, Ubisoft does have the M&M IP...
More information.
 
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Well, if they do release another one I sure hope they realize that King's Bounty ate their lunch and the HoMM formula is extremely tired and hasn't had meaningful innovation in a long time.

I welcome another HoMM title, but it'd better do something more than the last several or it won't earn my money. Especially with the Stardock's Master's of Magic remake Elemental coming down the pipe.
 
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Well, if they do release another one I sure hope they realize that King's Bounty ate their lunch and the HoMM formula is extremely tired and hasn't had meaningful innovation in a long time.

I welcome another HoMM title, but it'd better do something more than the last several or it won't earn my money. Especially with the Stardock's Master's of Magic remake Elemental coming down the pipe.

I actually liked HoMM 5 a lot (I'd put it behind HoMM 3 in the series, with 4 at the very last, although I never played HoMM 1). I don't want them to mess with the gameplay. More and different 'realms', creatures, city upgrades, spells, hero classes, etc. I'm ok with but leave the gameplay elements as they are, nothing should be real time for example.
 
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Oh, heck no, not real time, not that far. I wouldn't suggest changing the core gameplay of the series, I just think it's needs a shot in the arm. I was thinking maybe opening up the battle map a little or something. I always found the ~6x10 hex grid to be a rather limiting for tactical options.

Maybe a little more depth in city building or economy management ( let's hear it for heroes with the nobility upgrade to give gold every turn! ). Maybe something along the lines of how you picked and then possibly acquired different spell books like MoM.

Also it seems like every HoMM game I've played is exactly the same, very little continuity between maps, and the campaign is fun for a couple of missions then gets very hard, very fast. The campaign difficulty needed to be a little more normalized.

And this could apply to any strategy game but every once in a while give us a mission where everything is overbalanced in your favor, yeah, it'll go fast but it'd be a nice change up to steam roll your opponent for a change.

For the record I haven't played HoMM 5 but only because the reviews I read said it was essentially more of the same.
 
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For the record I haven't played HoMM 5 but only because the reviews I read said it was essentially more of the same.

The original HoMM 5 was similar to HoMM 3 (though not as good), but each expansion added new stuff that's definitely not 'more of the same'. In fact, the orc expansion plays nothing like before (the orc race and their rage oriented abilities). Plus the last expansion included the random map generator which is really good.
The epic edition (original plus the 2 expansions) was recently on sale somewhere, but even if not on sale you can find it probably for $30 or so (in fact, I just saw it in Amazon for $18, great deal)
 
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I only jumped on at #5 and thought it was pretty good. Played some others in reverse order, and only got back to #3 ... #4 wasnt impressive to me, but #3 is good but I've stuck with #5 the most.
 
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HoMM 5 had a pretty horrible engine, and the maps were way too small and confined in nature. Beyond that, it was a decent imitation of HoMM 3 - which is overall the best in the series.

Personally, I think HoMM 4 had some wonderful features - especially in terms of making the heroes playable in combat and the added RPG elements (or would that be wargaming elements :) ) for those units. Also, I liked that you could move units on the strategic map independently from heroes, as it added a much more flexible system.

What I DIDN'T like was the limited amount of factions and creatures - along with the stupid AI. If those things had been done right, HoMM 4 would definitely be my favorite of them all. I think it gets treated somewhat harshly, but that's just me. In my mind, HoMM 5 is worse - and I don't like the "mature" style because the lighthearted nature of the series was always part of its unique charm.

Strangely, I played HoMM 2 more than any of the others combined, but that's probably incidental and not directly related to it being better.
 
The worst thing for HoMM 4 was of course the AI (or the lack of it). But I didn't like the emphasis on heroes either. After like halfway through a campaign a lone hero without any units could pretty much run around the map killing everything, defeating the whole purpose of the game imho (i.e. tactical combat). I think the game is better without it
 
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The worst thing for HoMM 4 was of course the AI (or the lack of it). But I didn't like the emphasis on heroes either. After like halfway through a campaign a lone hero without any units could pretty much run around the map killing everything, defeating the whole purpose of the game imho (i.e. tactical combat). I think the game is better without it

Having heroes like that doesn't inherently mean they have to be extremely unbalanced.
 
Disciples 2 handled that the right way by having level caps for the different maps in the campaign. So you could get pretty powerful on particular maps, but never "run round the whole map killing everything solo" powerful.

Age of Wonders, marvellous game though it was, also had very overpowered heroes which meant you could almost dispense with armies.
 
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OOOH, HoMM! A new HoMM would be KEWL.

I played the first HoMM to death back then. Pretty much liked all the sequels .
I thought HoMM 5 was a lot different to the previous ones, and I personally liked it.
(Heck, I still need to completely finish it.)

I'd certainly welcome a new one with great aplomb, as long as they do stick to the basic gameplay formula and game structure.
There is a small but very enthusiastic HoMM following out there, whom I am sure would rejoice at such news.

I never really got into Age of Wonders (but only due to time constraints, no reflection on the games), so can't speak for them. But much as I prefer the darker more gritty atmosphere of the Disciples series (and yay for Disciples 3 coming out soon), it really does not have the depth that HoMM has regarding things like spells, artifacts and the like, not to mention beasty units, and the uniqueness of the strongholds.
 
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Personally, I think HoMM 4 had some wonderful features - especially in terms of making the heroes playable in combat and the added RPG elements (or would that be wargaming elements :) ) for those units. Also, I liked that you could move units on the strategic map independently from heroes, as it added a much more flexible system.

What I DIDN'T like was the limited amount of factions and creatures - along with the stupid AI. If those things had been done right, HoMM 4 would definitely be my favorite of them all. I think it gets treated somewhat harshly, but that's just me. In my mind, HoMM 5 is worse - and I don't like the "mature" style because the lighthearted nature of the series was always part of its unique charm.
Thanks for that, it's nice to hear someone else who liked HoMM 4. It get's waaaay too much stick. It's the only HoMM title that tried to push the formula in new directions. Granted it didn't entirely succeed, but at least they tried. It's also the only HoMM title with decent writing. The undead campaign was particularly well written and the characters actually made sense.

HoMM 5 (on release) was by far the worst of the bunch. It's just a lazy clone of HoMM 3 but without the decent AI (or any AI) and scenario design. The fact that they ignored the genuine improvements in 4 really annoyed me. That said, HoMM 5 is actually quite good with the Tribes of the East expansion, optimised engine, and missing features from HoMM 4 added.
 
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I also quite liked HoMM 4. For me, the major thing was the attention to detail, all the little things - for example, picking up an artifact was always accompanied by some little story; same for visiting most of the unique buildings. Compare to HoMM 5, which is almost a perfect copy of HoMM 3 gameplay-wise, but just doesn't have those elements. Still, I enjoyed both games and still play a game of HoMM 4 occassionally.
 
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I agree HoMM4 does get a lot of bad press. It was far from a bad game, just different enough from the earlier versions to draw the flack. It never did have the same addictive quality for me, but I did enjoy it, and maybe ought to replay it, come to think of it.
AFA HoMM5, it was quite fun once you got used to the 3D effect and getting lost in walls and stuff. I liked it as well.
What I *really* like is this line from the job requirements listed in the ad that applicants should have:
-Shipped at least two AAA RPG titles in a senior or lead game designer role is a plus.
Honestly, I'd rather see a new Might & Magic RPG than another HoMM, much as I love them.
 
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You took the words right out of my mouth, I would love to see a modern M&M crpg. Maybe something similar in game mechanics to Wizardry 8.

Well, more HoMM's better than what we *HAVE* been getting for M&M - a crappy action game and a DS puzzle game ...
 
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I didn't think Dark Messiah was crappy at all. Not a *great* game by any means, but certainly a good one after the first patch.
 
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A new M&M RPG would be great. I wouldn't mind if they decided to re-visit the classes from the old RPGs though, they got a little stale and didn't have enough diversity or differences.

I recently tried loading up my copy of 6? (...I think) but XP or video card or something didn't like it and I didn't have the patience to get it working.

Like Wizardy 8? Yeah, that sounds great, don't hold your breath. Coming from Ubisoft, assuming they own the RPG rights too, it would be a lot more like Lara Croft does Oblivion.
 
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I didn't think Dark Messiah was crappy at all. Not a *great* game by any means, but certainly a good one after the first patch.

After the 100+ comment marathon on my review ... I'll just leave Dark Messiah alone at this point ;)
 
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Yeah most people seem to either love or hate DMoM&M. I think the game gets an overly bad rap to be honest.
 
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