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HOMM5 Leaked

Oarfish

Prophet
Joined
Sep 3, 2005
Messages
2,511
So you say it's there, or it isn't?

It isn't no, which is a big disappointment.
 

Balor

Arcane
Joined
Dec 29, 2004
Messages
5,186
Location
Russia
But the point is, there was NO random map generator in Heros 4.
I wish there would be one planned, though.
 

Atrokkus

Erudite
Joined
Feb 6, 2005
Messages
3,089
Location
Borat's Fantasy Land
But the point is, there was NO random map generator in Heros 4.
Who gives a shit? I, for one, don't.
Why?
Because Homm4 is a smoking pile of shit, and just melts in comparison to homm3. I've played both enough to make such a strong assertion.
 

Jason

chasing a bee
Joined
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baby arm fantasy island
And I almost forgot to mention the multiplayer maps. There are about ten of them, no random maps, which has been one of the strongest points of the last two games. And the maps that are available are very static, you can't change almost any of the settings, can't change teams, the only two maps of the largest size don't have underground, and so on. Very uninspiring

There's no random maps, but you can change all of the settings (faction, hero, bonus, etc) in Hot Seat. You can also change all of the settings to random by selecting the dice icon for each setting.
 

Falcore19

Novice
Joined
Apr 15, 2006
Messages
81
The game has good potential, they made some cool small changes that will make the game fun.

It feels rushed though. It needs lots of polishing. There's only 6 single player maps besides the campaingn, and I got a feeling they're not too good.
 

kingcomrade

Kingcomrade
Edgy
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Messages
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Cognitive Elite HQ
The battlefield is square-based but you can move diagonally.

I haven't played any of the other HOMMs, but I've got this to say. Based on my findings of the pirated copy, I cancelled my pre-order. I was very impressed by the demo (which is why I pre-ordered in the first place), but the game never gets any better than the demo.

Firstly, the graphics. The graphics are gorgeous, and the animations are even better. The units are really cool looking and they move about really fluidly. While there is a bit of a problem underground with stalactites (or is it stalagmites?) getting in the way, the environments are also very pretty.

However, there just isn't really any "game" here. The combat isn't tactical or anything and I found myself using auto-combat because not only could the computer do it better, combat plays out exactly the same way every time: It gets boring. Combat is almost entirely decided by numbers, and seriously. I was playing as Necropolis, and got three Necromancer heroes who have 3 levels of necromancy, necro archers, and afterlife servitude, and after every major fight I get like 45-60 free skeleton archers. I just think that there isn't enough variety in units or different ways to use the units which makes combat pan out so similarly. And there seems to be only a few set kinds of fights: One against four small sets or one large set of medium enemies, one against a horde of small enemies, one against two sets of heavy enemies, one against three sets of archers/casters, and one against enemy player armies which have a smattering of almost all the unit types and a general. That's all, and each of those categories never varies in how the combat plays.

Between combat being entirely boring and playing out the same way almost every single time, and my using auto-combat, I suddenly asked myself, why am I playing? I am just running a few guys between mines and playing a really crappy (if beautiful, seriously the Inferno city is one of the coolest "visual-design" things I've seen in a game, but you can see it in the demo anyways) version of SimCity.

The campaign pretty much sucks, as well. It's got some retarded levels (such as the second one from the demo) and isn't rewarding, and I can't fucking stand the British piece of crap who voices the Queen. Her voice is terribly melodramatic.

The magic system isn't rewarding at all, as your hero doesn't get to go often enough to use more than like two spells per battle (and your hero, contrary to what the other guy said, is pretty powerful against your enemy's heavy hitters, as in you can usually take down 1 of 2 of their heaviest unit per attack, and you usually are having your hero do that instead of cast spells). The spells aren't balanced anyways, most of them are useless wastes of mana, and some of the spells I can't really tell what they do or how effective they are.

The additional maps are crappy, you can't customize them at all. All you can do is pick your race, a starting hero, starting location (for your city), and a tiny little bonus that doesn't matter at all. You can't pick allies and enemies, you can't tweak the game mode at all, anything.

Another thing, the maps in this game, they're humongous, but you don't have the resources to supply more than one or two heroes per town and your heroes can't move very far per day. There's no strategic thought because the map designs are so constricted in their avenues that it's just a matter of "is my hero here or across the map?" when it comes to defeating enemy armies.

Anyways, if you are into eye candy this game will reward you, but otherwise it's pretty lame.
 
Joined
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Falcore19 said:
It feels rushed though. It needs lots of polishing. There's only 6 single player maps besides the campaingn, and I got a feeling they're not too good.
Six 'story' maps. Then you have something like 8-10 skirmish maps that you can set up any way you want.

And the campaign is nothing to balk at. 6 towns x 6 missions each = 36 maps.

All told there are probably 50 or so unique maps in the game. That's a fair number.

kingcomrade said:
I haven't played any of the other HOMMs
It's not really worth reading past here. This line pretty much sums it up.

If you dislike HOMM5, you probably wouldn't like any of the other HOMM games. Most of your complaints are either retarded (can't tweak the game mode? wtf do you want, capture the flag? and magic doesn't suck, you just made a shitty hero) or are characteristic of the series (combat is only really tactical when you fight other heroes or do city sieges. that's just the way the game works. and you're not really supposed to support more than a couple heroes, because when your opponent comes knocking with his single hero who's gotten all the exp and all the creatures, and you've spread out those resources between three or four heroes, you're going to get steamrolled).

Right now I'd describe HOMM5 as a liposuctioned HOMM3. The towns are actually balanced -- there's no definitely town hierarchy like in 3, it's about your skill with the game and which town fits your play style and strategy. All the hero specialties/foreign hero crap is gone, which is a balancing factor (no more Necropoli picking Thant as their starting hero and pwning) it comes down to how you build your heroes with the exp they earn. Skills and abilities have been consolidated and streamlined, which is good IMO since it means you can get Melee and Ranged attack boosts under just one skill (Offense) as opposed to having to spend a seperate slot on each skill, no matter how closesly related, like in 3.
 

RK47

collides like two planets pulled by gravity
Patron
Joined
Feb 23, 2006
Messages
28,396
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Not Here
Dead State Divinity: Original Sin
you have to play multiplayer if u really want something different, KC. Unfortunately you're still stuck with facing neutral stacks to level up and flag mines still. Heheh.

It's traditional HoMM with 3d Graphics. Unlike HoMM 4 which is pretty messed up in comparison.

But I worry though, I never really dig the campaign mode much in HoMM. Much preferred to try single scenarios and build up each factions. Fortunately I know a hardcore fan who bought 1 till 4th, and I'm sure he won't miss this one. So I'm just gonna borrow his for a while when he gets it.
 

Shagnak

Shagadelic
Joined
Sep 6, 2003
Messages
4,637
Location
Arse of the world, New Zealand
Well, it sounds like something worth spending my mullah on so far.
I'm a fan of HOMM2 and 3 mainly. Drunken nights playing hotseat (it has hotseat still, right, UDH?) feature big on my strategy landscape.

The demo seemed okay. More of the same with graphical tweaks.
Only played it for 30 mins though. Lacked the time.

Pity you can't play the campaigns in the the order you want.
But if it's otherwise in the HOMM tradition (but purtier) I'm all for it. Thanks for the heads up UDH (ermm...not the leaking stuff...but the content stuff).

Over and out.
The Shagadelic One.
 

kingcomrade

Kingcomrade
Edgy
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So not being fun is characteristic of the series? Great. Believing that you can only truly appreciate HOMMV if you've played the previous ones is really silly.

Unfortunately you're still stuck with facing neutral stacks to level up and flag mines still.
That's exactly what I'm saying, and exactly what O Lord On His High Horse dolphin completely missed. That's all this game is. You spend most of the game fighting mobs to level up and capturing mines, and the combat there isn't fun or original at all. Dolphin already acknowledged that the combat isn't tactical or anything, and what's left? You spend most of the game doing something boring (not to mention that enemy turns take forever, especially on the 8 player maps). Then you get 1 "boss fight" against the enemy general, then you take his city. There's nothing more to the game.
 

Atrokkus

Erudite
Joined
Feb 6, 2005
Messages
3,089
Location
Borat's Fantasy Land
I'm a fan of HOMM2 and 3 mainly. Drunken nights playing hotseat (it has hotseat still, right, UDH?) feature big on my strategy landscape.
Yeah, that's the way people enojy playing it here in Borat's Land :) At least my buddies.
Yeh, hotseat is in. WEll, I would never even bother buying the damn game if it wasn't there! However, the abscence of map-generator vexes me greately. Like it's SO hard to make such an algorithm for randomizing 3d maps?
 

Falcore19

Novice
Joined
Apr 15, 2006
Messages
81
King Comrade you have some good points, but it's not the game engine that sucks, it's the maps. HOMM5 combat is good enough to allow a lot of tactic, it's just that you didn't need to do any strategies: the provided maps are too easy. Believe me it's not just about numbers of troops, especially in multiplayer.

Don't let it deceive you though, because frankly, HOMM campaigns were never the strongest point of the serie, though they introduced the game pretty well. You will have to look for good single scnenarios and fan made scenarios, and play against humans if you really want good games.
 

Balor

Arcane
Joined
Dec 29, 2004
Messages
5,186
Location
Russia
" Like it's SO hard to make such an algorithm for randomizing 3d maps?"
To make it playable and balanced? And, more then that, interesting to play?
Try making one. And good luck with that.

However, it IS promised with one of patches, as know, along with more maps - because, due to changes in gameplay dynamics, they had to be rebalanced (or so they say), so not all already existing maps are there.
Perhaps it explains too easy difficulty, too.
 

Atrokkus

Erudite
Joined
Feb 6, 2005
Messages
3,089
Location
Borat's Fantasy Land
To make it playable and balanced? And, more then that, interesting to play?
Try making one. And good luck with that.
So it's purely art programming problem, right? Because Homm3 had a wonderful map-generator, and quite balanced to boot.
 

Balor

Arcane
Joined
Dec 29, 2004
Messages
5,186
Location
Russia
So it's purely art programming problem, right? Because Homm3 had a wonderful map-generator, and quite balanced to boot.
Yes, it was. Yet, it was a purely 2D game, also, we never know how much effort it took programmers to make one.
Of course, it's not a very great excuse, yet it's clear that making one is not something that can be done overnight... while you sound like you thinking something along the line. I'm not a very good programmer, yet I can understand all the implications of making one... and strust me, it would take a lot of effort and obscene amount of testing.
 
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kingcomrade said:
So not being fun is characteristic of the series? Great. Believing that you can only truly appreciate HOMMV if you've played the previous ones is really silly.
I never said that. I said that you probably wouldn't like any of the Heroes games, because what you complained about have been staples of the series pretty much since King's Bounty.

Which is another way of saying, "If you like Heroes, you'll find alot to like in 5. If you don't like Heroes, the new title probably won't convince you."
 

Balor

Arcane
Joined
Dec 29, 2004
Messages
5,186
Location
Russia
"Yeah, but didn't the map generator come later in one of the expansions?"
No, unless they did it in secret :P... or you are messing it with Heroes 5, where it IS promised in an expansion.
 

obediah

Erudite
Joined
Jan 31, 2005
Messages
5,051
kingcomrade said:
So not being fun for KingComrade is characteristic of the series?

Based on your list of gripes - yes. Although you can steal HOMM3 and find out for yourself easily enough.
 

Freethis

Novice
Joined
Dec 23, 2003
Messages
64
Does anyone get the feeling that Starforce leaked this copy? I mean, an announcement that Heroes V will not be using Starforce, then the game gets leaked all across the internet days before release...
 

Halenthal

Liturgist
Joined
Mar 11, 2004
Messages
145
Location
Arkansas, of all places
Freethis said:
Does anyone get the feeling that Starforce leaked this copy? I mean, an announcement that Heroes V will not be using Starforce, then the game gets leaked all across the internet days before release...

I was thinking the same thing, and as shoddy as Starforce is, I wouldn't be surprised.
 

Balor

Arcane
Joined
Dec 29, 2004
Messages
5,186
Location
Russia
Nae, not possible. It's not that devs has to ship a copy of the game to Starforce for protection - Starforce just send them over the tools and instruction how to use them... at least that's what I heard from game devs.
 

Sol Invictus

Erudite
Joined
Oct 19, 2002
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Pax Romana
And you don't think that SF might have friends "working" at Ubi on their behalf? StarForce consists of some very notorious scene crackers who supposedly "joined the good guys" but after the debacle with telling everyone where to download GalCiv2, I wouldn't put this leak past them.

I'd be willing to bet that they're also responsible for the GRAW leak.
 

Nightjed

Liturgist
Joined
Jan 27, 2004
Messages
675
Location
Wasteland
undead dolphin hacker said:
Yeah, but didn't the map generator come later in one of the expansions?

in the FAN made expansion "in the wake of gods", not only added random map generator but let you randomize and tweak a loooooot of things, the campain was unplayable tho
 

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