- by Pol
Finally!
This year, a new cool castle appeared in Heroes 3, we really wanted to work on it!
Factory theme from the last concert from HEROES FESTIVAL. Big respect and thanks to the HotA Team for the teamwork. This is also LIVE version, so please don't expect best mixed studio audio quality. Cheers for the Star Wars fans hahahaha, hope you like it :DHEROES ORCHESTRA FESTIVAL 27.02 - 4.03 / 2024
3/03/2024 25th HOMM3 Anniversary Concert ft. maestro Paul Anthony RomeroHELLO! OUR NEW CD IS AVAILABLE!
"WANDERING" (2024) is a collection of best ambient tracks from HOMM2 and HOMM4.GET IT HERE!
• https://heroesorchestra.com/shop-cds/
• https://payhip.com/b/FMR47
| Comments (2) |
- by Pol
Cloud Castles is a game developed by game industry professionals, including our JVC. With aim to be developed as long as is needed, they somewhere mention even 10 years.
This game shall be "Web 3" compliant with resources based on cryptocurrencies.
Two mods are planned to be available, one to fight vs AI and the the second to fight against other "Clouds Owners".
If you will peek on their page - whitepapers section in the left, after intro, there are pdf files, with stub of the lore already included, good enough for the beginning. And actually more, than for a many current games. (Noticeably even Creature Quest was having some small funny lore elements.)
Now is the time to join community, to have a chance to shape a game, even if very little. See their latest update here.
Images at bigger resolution are available at their Discord. Or Youtube for a few introductions videos. Aaand twitter for quick updates. ;)
| Comments (3) |
- by Pol
After successful Kickstart, Heroes 3: The Board Game is for some time available in your local shops (or late pledge), so there's definitively time to take a look at its gameplay. This is masterpiece designed at Archon Studios featuring beautiful art of Magdalena Katanska. See the people playing, they feel soo comfortable ;)
For more arty people among us, ofc you can paint your minis ;)
Official pages: https://homm3boardgame.com
Official forum: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/355326/heroes-might-magic-iii-board-game
If you played H3:TBG let us know your experience, share it with us!
- by Pol
Paul Anthony Romero will be having very soon two concerts in Ukraine with Lumos Orchestra. The dates are:
- Kyiv - March 7, 2024 at 7:00 p.m. in the Moscow Art Museum (October Palace).
- Lvov - March 11, 2024 at 7:00 p.m. in the Lviv Theatre of Opera and Ballet (Lviv, Svobody Ave, 28)
About the show
Music from the famous game "Heroes of Might and Magic" in Lviv!
On March 11, 2024, at a concert at the Lviv Opera, your fantasies will come true: the music will immerse you in exciting battles with dragons and angels, lead you in search of the Holy Grail or magical towers, or perhaps take you straight to the Necropolis itself!
Paul Romero, the composer of the music for the Heroes of Might and Magic III game saga, whose acquaintance with Ukraine was accompanied by a sold-out show, is back! At the concert in Lviv, you will find an updated program - a concert that will make dreams come true for Heroes of Might and Magic fans: the composer will perform the legendary video game soundtrack live at the piano, accompanied by the unsurpassed geek band LUMOS Orchestra and the Evshan choir!
Concert soloist - Paul Romero (USA)
Conductor - Roman Kreslenko
Artistic director of the orchestra - Diana Koval
Artistic director of the choir - Iryna Kreslenko
Paul Romero - live concert in Lviv!
Paul Romero is a composer who has been accompanied by music all his life, since childhood he spent hours improvising on the piano, then fell in love with Chopin and Liszt, played Mozart with a symphony orchestra, and in his teens wrote and performed his first piano concerto with a symphony orchestra, and later received a scholarship to the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.
Listening to music performed live by a composer is an experience that cannot be described, it must be heard and felt. In addition, the Heroes of Might and Magic III project has special, unique arrangements with the addition of instruments that emphasize the Ukrainian flavor.
Together with the composer, LUMOS Orchestra, the only geek orchestra in Ukraine, will perform on stage with their colleagues, the Galician chamber choir Evshan, and each of their performances is a real show that combines their own author's arrangements of music, animations by Ukrainian artists, interactive, scenery and costumes, and, most importantly, powerful drama with a well-told story.
The World of Might and Magic is calling! So don't delay, tickets are available for purchase on our website and at the city ticket offices.
https://www.instagram.com/lumos.orchestra
| Comments (1) |
- by Pol
The best game ever is having its 25th birthday. Yay!
It's like that with release date, different countries and OSes have it slightly shifted. But offical release date is 28th Feb 1999, whereas available for Windows in stores was from 3rd March 1999. Linux and Mac had come a bit later.
And if you wanna play original Restoration of Erathia with better graphic or just complete your library for very decent price, now you have a chance with Steam. Till midnight. 
You can also celebrate it with a match in Anniversary Championship, organised by Jebuss Cross.
*Heroes 3 RoE HD for Android is no longer supported and was removed by Ubisoft from Google Play. Hence you can go for VCMI. For which you also need the base game.
**For much more detailed view on the game and its respective release date, you can check mobygames.
| Comments (1) |
- by Pol
I didn't know, that ther is Villain Wiki but, they certainly covered Heroes of Might and Magic saga, let see:
https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Sandro_(Enroth)
https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Deemer
https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Finneas_Vilmar
https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Archibald_Ironfist
https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Zydar
https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Calh
https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Tamika
https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Lord_Haart
Though the pages are ridden with adverts, like most "commercial" wikis, the content deserve praise. I liked how they summed it up ;)
| Comments (2) |
- by Pol
After very long time, certainly for mobile game, Creature Quest come to an end (2017-2024).
There are likely several resons, leading here:
- End of Marmelade Engine, due to iOS changeable requirements pilling up. This left the game being updated and patched on the dead engine.
- End of CQ support with iOS 16+
- And recently there were reported some lags over Android 13
- As Marmelade Engine was multiplatform, it was mostly question of time, where all these problems will arise and in the effect shrink number of players only on these having iOS 15 and below and Android 12 and below.
- Additonaly the game is not advertised from 2020, perhaps with exception of Heroes Community. Which is somewhat correlating with time, from which is not patched.
To our dedicated community,
We want to thank all of you for your passion and commitment to our project over these many years. We hope that we were able to bring some joy and fun into your lives.
It is with a heavy heart that we have to notify you that starting February 29, 2024, Creature Quest will be shutting down its servers indefinitely. This means the game will no longer be able to open, even for those that already have the app. Additionally, in-app purchasing will be disabled as of February 15, 2024. We kept it running as long as we could, but it is no longer feasible.5
We wish all of you the best and hope to see you again on another project some day.
Quest on!
This is a sad news, this game was unique and there's not known succesor, not even spiritual one, to me.
Links:
https://news.creaturequest.com/news/2024/2/15/important-notice
http://vcmobile.net/
| Comments (2) |
- by Pol
Hi folks,
Mctronic kindly send us his new campaign for Heroes V - Tribes of the East. Your journey will be to liberate Oak Valley, as Ylthin, a skilled and respected elven ranger.
As each map is state of art, there's even more. The campaign contains two additional mods, one for music, with more music available over external link and Large Message Boxes mod by Pitsu. Maps has been tested by Wheeler Deeler.
From the notes:
- Installation
Put the files in their respective directory where you installed Heroes V Tribes of the East (that is : put the content of userMODs in this archive inside the UserMODs directory of Heroes 5 TotE, and so forth).
To uninstall, simply remove those files from the folders that is located in "UserMODs".
In the Video and Audio option menu, uncheck the checkbox "No Eyecandies". - Playing
Launch Heroes V - Tribes of the East.
Go into Single Player / User Campaigns and select Liberation of Oak Valley to start the adventure :).
To be played on hard difficulty.
Enjoy!
Download "Liberation of Oak Valley"
| Comments (1) |
- by Pol
Newsletter #41 January 2024
Ogre Mage - Quarterly Newsletters - Health issues - HoMM3 recollection about Dendroids and E3 special demo
Ogre Mage Amongst Ogres, the Ogre Mage is revered. Amongst all other wizards, the Ogre Mage is disregarded. With knowledge and limited castings of only one spell, the Ogre Mage has the ability to Enrage a separate Allied Division. At first, this may not seem significant, but the effect is cumulative and persistent for the remainder of Battlefield Combat. Furthermore, under specific Battlefield conditions, this effect can be applied to an entire Army, making the Ogre Mage a surprisingly effective, albeit limited, caster.
Hey, All.
Hope each of you is safe and healthy.
This month, I have four topics concerning the Ogre Mage, Hero spell casting, the name for the HoMM3 Dendroid, and the first part of three HoMM3 Recollections relating to E3 in 1998.
I also have an update regarding the frequency of these Newsletters. Going forward, they will no longer be monthly, but quarterly (January, April, July, and October). Why? My ‘personal bandwidth’ continues to be limited, stemming from my ongoing health issues. Doing this will free up more time to focus on Fanstratics development, while overlapping nicely with the HoMM3 Recollections. Previously, I touched upon this subject in Newsletter #38.
Until next time.
Greg
Fanstratics Game Director & Designer
This was a fun one. Initially, Justin rendered his typical four thumbnails for me to choose. All were excellent. I picked a foundation, and a couple of elements from the others. After a second-round line drawing, I found myself gravitating back to one of the original thumbnails, and told Justin to put it in reverse, and run with foundational thumbnail. Very happy with the end result.
Just like last month, there is no VOD from Justin. Christmas commitments took priority. So, no stream. Maybe next time.
Fanstratics Question: Will a hero be able to cast more than one spell per turn?
In Fanstratics, like HoMM3, Heroes can only cast one spell per 'turn' unless special circumstances dictate otherwise (like an artifact).
HoMM3 Question: Why are Dendroids called Dendroids?
During one of my sessions with Jon Van Caneghem (JVC), we were finalizing the roster for the Rampart. At the time, Dendroids were named Treants, as derived from Dungeons & Dragons. At the time, I did not know there had been a copyright issue between Dungeons & Dragons and the Tolkien estate, as Treants were originally named Ents (referring to anthropomorphic tree creatures from Lord of the Rings). Regardless, JVC didn’t like the name Treant. I offered up ‘Ent’. Didn’t like it. Treefolk? Nope.
After retrieving a paperback Thesaurus from my office, I sat in front of Jon and read all the synonyms for Treant, Ent, etc. Woodfolk? Nah. Grove Giant? (shakes head). Tree Spirit? No.
Me, “Dendroid?”
JVC, “What’s a dendroid?”
Me, after retrieving a paperback Dictionary from my office, “Dendroid... resembling a shrub or tree.”
JVC shrugged his shoulders.
Me, “I like Treefolk, but I could live with Dendroid,”
JVC, “Let’s go with Dendroid, until we think of something better.”
Well, we never thought of anything better, and to be perfectly honest, the name grew on me.
As a bonus, in hindsight, we probably avoided a potential copyright issue with Dungeons & Dragons.
HoMM3 Recollection: E3 1998 (part 1 of 3)
Before 1995, in the USA, video games were showcased at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Along the way, at some point, consumer and computer game companies got tired of being treated like third-class citizens in relation to televisions, radios, and VCRs.
Via the Wikipedia summary, according to Tom Kalinske, CEO of Sega America, "The CES organizers used to put the video game industry way, way in the back. In 1991, they put us in a tent, and you had to walk past all the porn vendors to find us. That particular year it was pouring rain, and the rain leaked right over our new Genesis system. I was just furious with the way CES treated the video game industry, and I felt we were a more important industry than they were giving us credit for."
Eventually, Pat Ferrell, the creator of GamePro magazine, birthed the idea for what would eventually become the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). In the beginning, in 1995, E3’s primary purpose was to pre-sell hardware and software to visiting retailers. Later, as the world became more connected with cell phones, fax machines, and the rising 'internet', E3 became a technological circus where the big companies tried to out-muscle one another for media coverage.
As a game developer, attending E3... was exhilarating. Attendance was limited only to retailers and developers, and this convention was the center of all things video games. You saw what was presently available, and what was appearing on the horizon.
Fast forward to mid-April of 1998, at New World Computing (NWC). David Mullich, John Bolton, Phelan Sykes, and I were scheduled for a meeting in Mark Caldwell’s office. It concerned E3.
When the four of us arrived in Mark’s office, there were only two chairs.
Mark, chuckling, “I guess you guys need two more chairs.”
You would think, seeing as Mark scheduled the meeting, there would have been four chairs ready and waiting. Instead, John and I looked at one another, then stepped outside the office, looking for available furniture to make up the shortfall. John grabbed a chair from the vacant office across the hall. Next door to Mark's office, was Scott White, who I visited on a semi-regular basis. Knocking on his door frame, I stepped inside. Scott turned about in his desk chair.
Me, putting a hand on his guest chair, “Can I borrow your chair?”
Scott, perplexed, “Why?”
Me, “We’re having a meeting with Mark, and were short. I’ll bring it back, right after.”
Scott, chuckling, “Okay.”
Dragging Scott's guest chair into Mark's office, I closed Mark's office door and sat down.
Mark, “E3 is taking place in Atlanta, Georgia, from Thursday, May 28th to Saturday, May 30th. We'll fly out the day before, and we'll be there, part of the 3DO booth. Everyone is presenting. Keith (Francart) is showing Might and Magic 6, Ben (Bent) is showing Vegas Games, and one of you is showing Heroes.”
Phelan, John, and I looked at David.
David, “My wife is expecting sometime around the end of May.”
David, Phelan, and John looked at me.
Me, exhaling, “Yeah. I’ll do it.”
Read on: Fanstratics Newsletters #41
| Comments (2) |
Page 3 of 11
