Nagas

[Kalah]

From the Facebook M&M page: "Some extremely rare official art for the you-know-which-race, created for TotE but never made it into the game." Thanks, AS.

If you would like to take a look at the original page visit this link:
https://www.celestialheavens.com/show_b ... php?id=378

[darknessfood]

They look pretty damn good !

[Zamolxis]

They look great, but still not better than the designs NWC had for their H5 Fortress town (I know, that was more Lizard-oriented, Ubival's would have been more Naga-oriented, but still the closest to the kind of alignment really missing from H4 & H5).

[allessander]

The one on the right's a damn fine Yuan-Ti.

[ThunderTitan]

Those look great... for some other series... i miss the more fairy-tale inspired look the NWC games had.

I bet bo one here would be associating those with HoMM if they weren't labelled as such.

[JSE]

@ Zamolxis:

NWC had designs for a H5 Fortress town? The only two things I've ever seen from NWC's H5 plans were the Necropolis town (adventure mode view) and a very cool phoenix. Are there any sources I'm not aware of?



@ ThunderTitan:

I agree -- this piece is very good, though for a different game series. I know that Ubi decided to change the art style towards a Olivier-Ledroit-comic-book style, but for me NWC's simpler and cleaner style will always be the characteristic M&M look.

[Vlaad II]

I believe the pic was originally posted by Corlagon, who found it here: http://www.danielmaghen.com/fr/smith-ad ... t_s652.htm

@JSE: You can find NWC's H5 concept art here: viewtopic.php?t=10301&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15

[ThunderTitan]

And i spent all that time tracking that thread down...

Also, figures there would be some Warhammer drawings in there: http://www.danielmaghen.com/fr/adrian-s ... p29828.htm

BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!

[JSE]

Thanks a lot for the link, guys. The concept art had me speechless for quite a while...



UbiSoft should have done everything to keep the original NWC team working on Heroes 5. I doubt it would have been more expensive with that level of progress already been made. They just *wanted* to do their own thing and attach the Might and Magic "label" for the sales...



This was the Heroes 5 I wanted to play -- instead I got a slimmed-down 3D copy of Heroes 3 with boring Warhammer/comic book graphics.



I'm sorry. It's all coming back now. All the nostalgic feelings...

[ThunderTitan]

Funny thing is i didn't like the NWC designs very much, with a few exceptions... but at least they looked like they belonged in HoMM...

[Zamolxis]

JSE, my feelings exactly.



Visiting a HoMM forum is always bittersweet for me, because of what Ubisoft did with what used to be my favorite game. TBH, sometimes I don't know exactly how to deal with the fact that some of the players consider H5 a "worthy follower" of the HoMM series. It may be a decent game in itself (had it had another name...), but there are things you and I (and many others) saw and loved in the old games, that Ubisoft was incapable to identify and preserve. And I have strong doubt they will ever be able to correct what they already screwed up.

[Kalah]

Yeah, but on the other hand, we do want some kind of progress as well; it was obvious from the start that Ubi wanted to put their own mark on the games, but even if NWC had kept going, I doubt that the games would have remained without major changes throughout.

[ThunderTitan]

Changes?! Except 3D there where no real changes, just some taking out some stuff that was in H3.

But the idea was that the feeling of the game wouldn't have changed if NWC was still in-charge.

[Zamolxis]

I by no means have any problem with progress. I'm not one of those who opposed the 3D approach. I actually welcome innovation, but only when it doesn't stupidly spoil the existing too much.



What I'm reproaching Ubival are things like the fact that they didn't take the time and effort to understand what we liked in the old games, and that they copied too much from Warhammer. That has nothing to do with progress. Had it been different than old games, but in an original way, I might have liked it (don't know...). But what they seem to have done, was making the game that they liked, by copying from games that they liked. A pretty amateurish approach (which was actually at all levels, if I think of all the bugs, the bad voice acting, the terrible storyline, etc, etc) for a company as big as they pretend to be.

[Dave_Jame]

The complains of the entire MaM community are always the Same.



I Think we all should just sit back and enyoy the best. Ubval is not NWC, and tahy will never by but NWC made so many mestakes that calling them better then Ubival is hypocratic.



But I Love these artworks. The Asien toch to the town. Would love to play it, and thay look better than the Arabien Academy (Good Idea, Bad realization)



And by the way NWC was never Original let us by honest. Styl I like their World concept better, Maybe becouse there were more informations and it was mor complex. Only time will shou whot will happen to the Ubisoft world cnocept.

[Kalah]

There were lots of complaints when H4 was released, and not just because of the unfinished product, but it was said that "the Heroes feel" was gone. Some people tend to keep coming back to the old argument that nothing would have changed radically if 3DO hadn't gone down ... and that just isn't right.



Who's to say the 3D change wouldn't have come anyway? It's quite and obvious change when you think about how many adventure games have been released with a "3D look" the last few years - and I'm sure that JVC & co. would not have let the development of more powerful computers slip them by.



But I agree with you guys that H5 is more a rehash of H3 in fancy dress than a properly new game. What makes it a potentially excellent game is the skill system; this is however ruined slightly by the fact that the game has very high system reqs relative to what you get in return.

[Corlagon]

The complains of the entire MaM community are always the Same.

Which, I'm sure you'll appreciate, is probably indicative that the complaints are valid.

Heroes V is good. I still feel it could've been excellent, if only it shipped with a much larger slew of unrelated single maps instead of that travesty of a campaign in that mockery of a setting.

[ThunderTitan]

<There were lots of complaints when H4 was released, and not just because of the unfinished product, but it was said that "the Heroes feel" was gone.>

And they where wrong... at least when it comes to the visuals...

But even if they claimed otherwise it was being unfinished that made them not like it, if the heroes on the BF where more balanced there would have been less complaints i bet.

[Kalah]

I agree. The graphics were much better; shoulda left it like that for H5 as well.

[astral76minor]

Agree. Blend H2 and H5 together, though....