Heroes of Might & Magic 7

[Archibald]

You are on the roll man. Tell us about other HoMM games too.

 

[Reject_666_6]

In the end all the great IPs and titles end up being raped and milked, is it the fate in our world ? Or just logical conclusion in the industry?

What the hell bro, isn't it obvious?

Developer X makes game A. It sells enough to create a small fanbase. Dev X must now figure out how to make a sequel to A.
The general formula for making a good sequel is to learn why people liked the first game and improve on those aspects.
But man is not a learning animal. QED

 

[TigerKnee]

If you guys actually play the Beta, make sure you tell us whether it's an unmitigated disaster.

 

[Orzie]

Besides, has it been mentioned already?

 

[Nekot-The-Brave]

If you guys actually play the Beta, make sure you tell us whether it's an unmitigated disaster.

I would like to know that too. I've stayed away from the pre-order for the beta because I haven't really felt like I've gotten products that I've enjoyed since Ubisoft took the franchise. I really didn't like Heroes 5, but I played through the campaign to try to understand the lore behind the new world, and I played through the majority of Heroes 6; But I still haven't really enjoyed my time with any of them.

I agree that Heroes 3 was the best game in the series, that and expansion packs are part of what I grew up with in my childhood. I would love to see that kind of faction/environment/hero diversity again, as well as an easy PnP editor to work with. Not like the shit that they give us now a days where you basically have to delve deep into the intricacies of the engine to even design something decent.

 

[Cnaiur]

I've received a key by sucking a dick, but now it tells me I need a Uplay account?

 

[Redlands]

I've received a key by sucking a dick, but now it tells me I need a Ugay account?

 

[Turisas]

I've received a key by sucking a dick, but now it tells me I need a Uplay account?

You thought you were gonna get away with just one dick to suck, didn't you? No, that was merely the beginning of an endless stream of dicks.

 

[Black_Willow]

I've received a key by sucking a dick, but now it tells me I need a Uplay account?

If you so much enjoy sucking dicks installing Uplay should be right up your alley!

Spoiler

I have Uplay installed myself

 

[curry]

now that you codex gentlemen have been playing this game for a while, is it worth buying?

 

[hello friend]

Still waiting for Ubi to answer my support ticket. Uplay is a bitch.

 

[tindrli]

You thought you were gonna get away with just one dick to suck, didn't you? No, that was merely the beginning of an endless stream of dicks.

tell him bro

 

[Angelo85]

Free keys for Beta available here:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...gic-heroes-vii-closed-beta-codes-up-for-grabs

 

[Bubbles]

Free keys for Beta available here:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...gic-heroes-vii-closed-beta-codes-up-for-grabs

mmh7.ubi.com crashed right after that post and is still down. Seems to be some interest in the game after all.

Or it's just Ubisoft being Ubisoft with their servers.

 

[tyrannosaurus rex]

mmh7.ubi.com crashed right after that post and is still down. Seems to be some interest in the game after all.

Or it's just Ubisoft being Ubisoft with their servers.

More so than the 6th one. I think the hype was nearly existent for that one.

 

[hoverdog]

More so than the 6th one. I think the hype was nearly existent for that one.

eh, I don't know. I, for one, had some hopes for the 6th installment after the pretty good 5th. Thank ye gods that I was wary enough that I did not remove it from inventory first. Ugh.
But Heroes 7? As far as I'm concerned, it does not exist.

 

[MilesBeyond]

That's why I'm excited for this game. There is no possible way it could be worse than the 6th.

Though that's what I thought after Civ 5 and look how BE turned out...

 

[tyrannosaurus rex]

eh, I don't know. I, for one, had some hopes for the 6th installment after the pretty good 5th. Thank ye gods that I was wary enough that I did not remove it from inventory first. Ugh.
But Heroes 7? As far as I'm concerned, it does not exist.

Niche followings seem to have flown up since 2011. 6th was in that window where discussion about it was non existant and it tried to sell on the shelves like a standard AAA. Didn't help that it was really not good and units looked like ass. I think 7 won't even try to get on the shelves but now you have droves of drooling imbeciles hyping and beta testing for free.

 

[Jaedar]

Free keys for Beta available here:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...gic-heroes-vii-closed-beta-codes-up-for-grabs

I actually tried to grab one, but I've been geoblocked from my throwaway facebook account

 

[MilesBeyond]

Heroes IV is a bad Heroes, but a great game.

Problem with Heroes 4 is that while it was a pretty good game, it ended up feeling and playing like a worse version of Age of Wonders. In a vacuum it's pretty decent, but considering how it's going to be inevitably in the shadow of two superior games (AoW 1 and HoMM 3) it's probably never going to be all that highly regarded.

Still, though, as far as Heroes games go it's certainly in the top 5.

 

[tyrannosaurus rex]

^ That's your way of saying it isn't as bad as Heroes 6 isn't it?

 

[MilesBeyond]

A prostate exam from Edward Scissorhands wouldn't be as bad as Heroes 6, but yes.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Or it's just Ubisoft being Ubisoft with their servers.

 

[tyrannosaurus rex]

I recalled this leak, from a few years ago, that made it look like Ubisoft was trying to run this franchise into the ground.

Hi Guys. Several months have passed since the release of Heroes 6, and because there are so many questions from you regarding BH which UBI seemingly ignores, I feel it's time that I give you some information.

I worked for Black Hole during the whole H6 development. For us, it was a dream project as we were real fans of the Heroes series, having played it since the original King's Bounty on Commodore 64. And I can tell you it was the UBI producers who didn't keep their deadlines, and that was what led to a total failure of the whole development. Back in 2008, during the contract negotiation process, UBI business decision makers didn't want to hear about making it into the contract that in case of any UBI delays there would be any penalty for UBI. This was a stupid decision of a business development boss (she said "UBI would never be late with any deliverables".... HAHAHA). And that led to an awkward situation where the whole development got snowed up... but the UBI producers kept telling Black Hole that "no worries, guys, there would be more time and budget, just do what we say". It was then that one faction, Academy had been removed from the content list, as well as many other things. And then, at half of the development, Romain suddenly quit, Erwan was removed from the project - he was "elevated" to the position of Might and Magic Brand Director, which meant his direct involvement in the development was over -, and BH was left there with the blame. Just an example, the final story script - which was UBI responsibility - was delivered to BH after 27 months... while originally there was 24 months for the whole development. No comment.

As for BH commitment, BH used up all its 6 months reserves just to be able to finish the project... this was more than 1 million Euros!!! And they (we) did this knowing it would never be payed back, as royalty would only be paid after 2M Heroes sold at full price. We all knew 2M copies would never be sold (neither at full price nor at reduced price), still we wanted to finish the project. During the last 10 months, our full team worked 24/7, without any chance for compensation... and because of this, we didn't have any resources to find other projects and make sure BH would survive after the release of Heroes 6. In the meantime, our new UBI producers kept telling that "the BH team is not working during the nights and weekends, and is not committed to the project at all...". I can only say, just ask any of the BH team members of their commitment...

As for the many bugs: Heroes 6 is a gigantic project, with 1.5-2 million lines in the source code. This is bigger than most RPGs. Such a project can only be finished with good quality if there are several years and a huge budget (i.e. Blizzard games), or if there is a strict design lock date after 7-9 months of the start of development... in case of Heroes, the UBI guys were adding new ideas and were changing existing features during the whole development, even at the last months, so it was simply impossible to make a stable game for release. Just see what they are now doing with patch 1.3 (BH is not involved in that at all btw.). They cannot release a simple patch with a few smaller fixes in time, they are already in a 2-3 weeks delay. This is because the code is extremely complex, and UBI does not have the team to overview it and make it work in time, even if the Limbic guys are really great (and no, they are not involved in the Heroes development from the project start, they joined like 20 months later).

Some examples of what BH added to the game at their own cost, just to make the game better:
- Town screen (we hate the current version, but it is still better then the "let's make a screen shot from the adventure map 3D town and use it as a town screen" that UBI wanted - we could have made a much better one, but didn't have money and time).
- Additional ingame cutscenes (I know cutscenes are not great, but again, we received the story after 27 months... we only had a couple months to make the cutscenes from scratch, and a very limited budget - and I think that the overall visual quality of the game proves to anyone that we could have made really great cutscenes if we had had the time and budget).
- 300 unique Combat Maps (there were 20 in the contract)
- 3D animated Main Menu (UBI wanted a simple still image)
- Additional NPCs
- Campaign Overview Map (Campaign Window)
- and many more........

And what were the UBI decisions:
- Less resources
- No fullscreen town screens
- Only five factions (as a consequence of the continuous delays of UBI deliverables)
- Creature pool
- and many more such "great" changes.........

This project cost Black Hole its existence... while UBI is making profit on Heroes 6.

And just some more thoughts: UBI EMEA were working with four 3rd party developers during the Heroes development:
- Capibara - They made the really good (and financially successful) Clash of Heroes. The are not working with UBI anymore.
- Eugene Systems - They made R.U.S.E. They are not working with UBI anymore.
- Black Hole - They made Heroes 6. They are not working with UBI anymore.
- Techland - They made a 47% game for UBI (Call of Juarez: The Cartel - http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/call-of-juarez-the-cartel) - They are still working with UBI EMEA on a big project.
We heard the UBI guys blame those developers (and Nival) many times... I guess BH was blamed the same way to those developers.

It is always the developer who is responsible...

Just some food for thought.... Thanks guys for reading.

http://heroescommunity.com/viewthread.php3?TID=37279&pagenumber=8

Was this ever shared here?

 

[Angthoron]

It was, but it's always worth repeating.