This is a manual?

[Anonymous]

Drachenwald is planning to create a fan manual as well.
Couldn't just all the fan sites work together, start a Wiki that will contain all the information and then compile it as pdf so everyone can download and print it as a nice booklet?

The sorrow here is UBI has tripped at the last hurdle, most reports about the game itself have been good. (I haven't tried it myself as yet). When you buy a limited edition or any edition of a Heroes game (particularly the first game in the generation) there are certain things you expect. Creature card, build map and a map of the world, all of these seem to have been left out. It appears UBI had the other meaning of Limited when releasing that version. When you leave these "frills" out you sour the overall taste of the game. While I am sure this was a marketing decision and not a developer decision, I had hoped for more from Fabrice.

[Jimmpi]

The sorrow here is UBI has tripped at the last hurdle, most reports about the game itself have been good. (I haven't tried it myself as yet). When you buy a limited edition or any edition of a Heroes game (particularly the first game in the generation) there are certain things you expect. Creature card, build map and a map of the world, all of these seem to have been left out. It appears UBI had the other meaning of Limited when releasing that version. When you leave these "frills" out you sour the overall tast of the game. While I am sure this was a marketing decision and not a developer decision, I had hoped for more from Fabrice.

couldn't said it any better my self...think of thoes first time players,,they have no idee what creature is better/worse..How the skills/abilities and spells works. I really wounder what ubi was thinking when they decided "not" to have a manual..

[theGryphon]

I read through the "Credits" and saw that the manual was prepared by a Russian guy at Nival
Anyway, they could not prepare a full-fledged manual because almost everything in the game is prone to change. So, what would be the point in having a manual that is actually not valid. Hopefully, they will create a nice pdf manual after things are settled. Better yet, they can even send a printed copy to our addresses. You know, hope never ends

[DaemianLucifer]

There are manual updates,you know.I remember that with some games there were documents that said "On page XX in the manual it says THIS but its actually THIS,since it changed from version 0.X".So that is no excuse for having a crappy manual.They were lazy hence they will suffer(loosing customers and credit).

[blueparrot1966]

The racket of charging $20 for a game guide has always hacked me off, even for (rare) well documented games. With the so called "manual" HMM V comes with, I'll be @#$!-ed if I'm going to give them a nickel for the guide.

As others here have stated, I think Nival knew dang well that fan sites would do the de facto work of assembling a manual for themselves. On top of that, hoping I'll buy a game guide which contains information I should've gotten with the game is adding insult to injury.

[jeff]

There are manual updates,you know.I remember that with some games there were documents that said "On page XX in the manual it says THIS but its actually THIS,since it changed from version 0.X".So that is no excuse for having a crappy manual.They were lazy hence they will suffer(loosing customers and credit).

Absolutely correct, while things in a game do change, most of those changes are minor as far as creature and artifact attributes are concerned, and little to no change in hero biographies. Even when changes are significant, has anyone heard of a readme file? Most patches have one and expansions normally come with a supplement outling changes and additions. Now is UBI going to issue patches where we guess what was fixed, let's hope not.

[Gaidal Cain]

I've made one page of how a real manual should have looked like - kind of. I don't really know half of what should be there, so I mostly made things up, and I don't have any fancy stuff to use as decorations.

Some of the graphics kind of sucks, since I took the first versions I found. Took me about an hour, but then the rest of the heroes would be real quick if I had all info and all pictures.

Link.

[DaemianLucifer]

Nice work Gaidal Cain.So a skilled writer with all the info needed can do one page in lets say 5-10 minutes(depending on the number of pictures and the amount of text).A whole manual would regure some 3 days,tops.Im not sure why we have such a crappy manual then.

[Gaidal Cain]

Printing costs money. That's the only real explanation I can see, besides lazyness.

[DaemianLucifer]

Printing costs money. That's the only real explanation I can see, besides lazyness.

Oh come one!Mass printing costs nothing at all.A manual cannot cost over $2 because thats a selling price for a magazine here that has 100+ pages.

[Gaidal Cain]

OK. Chalk it down to lazyness, then.

[Alamar]

Printing costs money. That's the only real explanation I can see, besides lazyness.

I'd be perfectly happy for electronic documentation if printing costs are too high. From what I see they just didn't want to be bothered with something like that.

[karacha]

Normally, I don't read manuals, and wouldn't bother commenting on this.

However - HoMM V manual is absolutely horrible! No useful info whatsoever! At least we would recieve creature cards before, skills were explained etc. But this is just pathetic.

PS
I just looked at my old Fallout I & II manuals. It makes me do this:

[asandir]

as much as i like to support this game, i do have to wholeheartedly agree with this, the manual looked like it was gonna come thru with good info, but just tapered into nothingness .... now how can they introduce something like elemental chains and not explain how it works???

i know now of course, but an explanation in the manual woulda helped

[Paradox]

this is probably exactly what they want us to do, but why dont we make a manual ourselves? could be in the form of a site, a pdf, whatever flaots your boat.

[asandir]

well that's what being considered ... i mean the manual they provide is of no benefit to a H regular, and limited benefit to a newd ... they shoulda given us a skill tree/skill document (like the faction document but WITH info) instead!!

[Extrakun]

Nice work Gaidal Cain.So a skilled writer with all the info needed can do one page in lets say 5-10 minutes(depending on the number of pictures and the amount of text).A whole manual would regure some 3 days,tops.Im not sure why we have such a crappy manual then.

Translation costs money though.

[innokenti]

Nice work Gaidal Cain.So a skilled writer with all the info needed can do one page in lets say 5-10 minutes(depending on the number of pictures and the amount of text).A whole manual would regure some 3 days,tops.Im not sure why we have such a crappy manual then.

Translation costs money though.

What do they have a localization team for?

[Extrakun]

$50? I'm lucky I've paid $15 for just a DVD. No box, no manual except a PDF version...

You must be in Singapore or something.

I love the game, but I am kinda-peeved at what I got for what I paid.

I shelled-out $60 bucks for the aptly-named "Limited" Edition. No creature stat-card, only six songs on the DVD-only soundtrack, a puny pamphlet which passes for a manual... HOMM3 & HOMM4 without any of the expansion packs.

Oh well... at least I don't have to mess with 4-CDs... saving a few bucks would have made me angry to have the game on that many CDs... frankly EVERY game should come on DVD if it takes more then one CD IMHO.

AFAIK, there's no such verison in Singapore, unless you mean those starting with a capital letter "P"...

[asandir]

i don't know if you agree, but the deluxe edition seems better value ... i got the stat card (which woulda bin better if it contained info on the creature skills), HII Gold and the artbook and 3 extra single player maps .... i reckon it's a better buy then the aptly named limited edition