3DO website

[ThunderTitan]

Except the Phoenix and maybe the Champion i don't see how you can really like any of them...

Also, why the heck did they make the humans a homogeneous faction again...

[Corlagon]

I thinkit was Gnoll, not any Lion or Werewolf.

I believe the original artist does have it down as a Werewolf somewhere. I'll let you know if I manage to confirm it.

[TheUndeadKing]

Except the Phoenix and maybe the Champion i don't see how you can really like any of them...

After H5, everything from NWC looks better to my eyes. I admit, they are far from perfect, but at least they show some originality.

[ThunderTitan]

Ok, that's true...

[klaymen]

Except the Phoenix and maybe the Champion i don't see how you can really like any of them...

After H5, everything from NWC looks better to my eyes. I admit, they are far from perfect, but at least they show some originality.

QFT

Nuff said

[darknessfood]

NWC just had a certain style, Ubi does not have that!

[Corlagon]

I located some higher-res images of the creatures, beta names inclusive. Remember that they are concept ranks, and as such the names weren't finalised.

They're posted in the order the artist listed them, so I assume that also corresponds to their tiers:


"Haven Town"

Squire


Archer


Pikeman


Cleric


Paladin


Champion



"Lizard Town"

Lizard Warrior


Viper


Lizard Mage


Wyvern


Hydra


Dragon



"Fairy Town"

Sprite


Lionman


Catelf (don't ask me!)


Firewolf (as above)


Unicorn


Phoenix


Sphinx



Dammit, now I want to create the NWC Heroes V campaign in Heroes VI once it's finished. In fact...

Sorry for stealing your thread, GreatEmerald.

[lotusreaver]

Were there ever any talks from the original development team about the storyline, or how it would connect with HOMM IV? Looking at creatures like the catelf, and the absence of angels with the Haven faction, I'm really curious where they were taking the story.

[GreatEmerald]

Sorry for stealing your thread, GreatEmerald.

No problem, no work is being done on the website at the moment anyway

[Corlagon]

Were there ever any talks from the original development team about the storyline, or how it would connect with HOMM IV?

Only one ancient hint from a 3DO investor. 3DO were pushing for the reboot trick, exactly as Ubi later would:

http://heroescommunity.com/viewthread.php3?TID=3850

I remember Christian Vanover (NWC, not 3DO) later contradicted that by saying it would be set in Axeoth, though. Don't know what to make of the strange lineups. I think they look great anyway.

I noticed the screens aren't appearing... will fix this tomorrow.

[Shyranis]

I'd probably have loved 3DO's H5 if it played more like H3. But it if was more like H4 I wouldn't so much. I only really enjoy it for the multiplayer =D

[Zamolxis]

I'm pretty sure NWC learned a lot of what when wrong with H4, and because they knew both H3 & H4 very well, their H5 would have been most probably more like H3, plus some of the good things from H4.

The reason why Ubival failed (at least) half of the HoMM community, was the fact that instead of H3 & H4, Nival had a good knowledge of Warhammer & Etherlords when they started working on H5. They probably had it in their contract somewhere to play some Heroes (3 only most probably) before starting to work on the project - and I'm sure some of them did for a couple of weeks - but that's really not enough to know/feel the game(s) like we do and to be able to understand what the community wanted.

[Yurian Stonebow]

Well, JVC once stated in an interview that Heroes V was to be more along the lines of Heroes III, and certainly not in full 3D (and "borrowing" stuff from Warhammer). He and the folks at NWC had learned from their mistakes in the making of Heroes IV, and decided to walk again on the "good 'ol path" of the series in pre-Heroes IV style. Removing heroes from the battlefield was merely one of the things indicating return to the old ways. (I won't go into details in this post as I'm pretty sure that you all have probably read about JVC and Heroes V related news as well)

Nival's "failure" can be attributed to many things but I would personally raise poor interaction with the fan community on the top of my list. They systematically ignored people right from the start. (wishlist, anyone?) And what about Ubisoft-Nival interaction? Great co-operation or great confusion? Poor translations and delayed or cancelled patches combined with broken promises ("we shall deliver new patches on monthly basis") all added up to the general disappointment.

And I hear that the Dark Messiah map wasn't really that great. Etc and etc and etc. Back to old school, I say!



Yurian



(P.S: grammary related errors in this very post are due to the fact that I'm not as good as Ubival's professional translators)

[Secret_Holder]

I Agree.
This is why I'm waiting for MMT, as it is the only link to the old days, when the Might and Magic and it's little brother were any good.
But what are the details on HoMM VI?

[Corlagon]

You can now actually view the Heroes V creatures on the previous page

[berntie]

Were there ever any talks from the original development team about the storyline, or how it would connect with HOMM IV?

Only one ancient hint from a 3DO investor. 3DO were pushing for the reboot trick, exactly as Ubi later would:

http://heroescommunity.com/viewthread.php3?TID=3850

I remember Christian Vanover (NWC, not 3DO) later contradicted that by saying it would be set in Axeoth, though. Don't know what to make of the strange lineups. I think they look great anyway.

I don't think there's a contradication at all. After reading 3DOinvestor's post I'm pretty sure he was referring to the replacement of Antagarich with Axeoth.

[Corlagon]

Well spotted, that's a thought I hadn't considered but indeed the investor started posting there about two weeks before the release of Heroes IV. It does make sense since I heard the decision to blow up Enroth came out of 3DO's office during the development of Armageddon's Blade.

Hence I guess HV was to take place in Axeoth after all. I also located Vanover's comment which I referred to earlier. It wasn't as definite as I remembered, but practically confirmation:

http://heroescommunity.com/viewthread.p ... genumber=1

"Axeoth is a big place, and there is plenty left to explore. Might and Magic IX and Heroes IV barely scratched the surface."

[Yurian Stonebow]

"Axeoth is a big place, and there is plenty left to explore. Might and Magic IX and Heroes IV barely scratched the surface."

This is indeed quite an interesting find here, Corlagon. Heroes V campaigns taking place in Axeoth with a Haven faction that has such (at least graphically) well inspired and good looking units? Count me in, I say! Too bad that 3DO went downhill since early 2000 only to reach rock bottom later in 2003. Makes one wonder what was really happening behind the closed doors of the company during those hectic times.



Yurian

[GreatEmerald]

Well, back on topic, I have added two new pages:
http://3do.xsa1.com/investors/analysts.html - analysts, guys who had the unfortunate job of telling people "3DO is dead".
http://3do.xsa1.com/investors/annualreports.html - annual reports. This is some very interesting info, as some of the PDF files still existed so I added them here. It seems that the main downfall was in 2001, even though it wasn't too good in 2000 as well. It gives a lot of interesting data there, although since I'm not an economist, it sounds like gibberish to me... Yet still I recommend reading it. Loads of interesting statistics.

[Angelspit]

Wow, that brings back memories. I was just getting started in the community back then.