H6 Stronghold Video

Kalah · Unread postby **Kalah** » 13 Jan 2011, 13:29

A new video was revealed today, detailing the properties of the <i>Heroes VI</i> Stronghold faction. In the video, producer Erwan le Breton and script writer Kurt Mc Clung talk about the origins of the Stronghold faction. In addition to some stunning gameplay shots, we also get the developers' take on the orcs and their role in the saga.

<object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/BcT_70mXqaw?fs ... ram><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="/http://www.youtube.com/v/BcT_70mXqaw?fs=1&hl=nb_NO" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>

A full transcript of what is said follows:

<i>Erwan: "Welcome back to the world of Ashan, the setting of all our Might and Magic games. Let us take you back in time, 400 years before Heroes V, at the time of the second Bloodmoon Eclipse. Once again, Demons are swarming out of the bowels of Sheogh. To repel the invasion, the various nations of Ashan will have to put aside their petty quarrels and unite their forces. The Knights of the Holy Empire and the Necromancers of the Seven Cities will get help from the most unexpected of allies - THE ORCS."

Kurt: "Way back during the first eclipse, the peoples of Ashan were in really bad shape. Demons were pouring out of Sheogh and they were being overrun. What they eventually did was they called upon the Wizards of the Seven Cities to come up with a solution, and they got this kind of un-kosher idea and started injecting Demon blood into criminals. These criminals ended up turning into what we now call the Orc, and the Orcs were... Demon-bashers. And these Orc armies then pushed the Demons back into Sheogh, and there was a relative time of peace, and the Wizards were extremely proud of what they'd accomplished. The Orcs had won the war. And so they decided to keep the Orcs as slaves. Now, Orcs will be Orcs - they didn't really like the situation, so they eventually rebelled and they fought and they won their own freedom, and by the time you get up to Heroes VI, there's still a lot of animosity in people that preferred them in chains."

Erwan: "Sandor is the bastard child of Duke Slava Griffin and his first love, the beautiful Lady Elizabeth. A political burden since birth, he soon became a troublemaker, and found an outlet for his frustration and anger alongside his father's master-of-arms - the Orc, Kraal."

Kurt: "Imagine the Duchy of Griffin and the Duchy of Wolf - they've been feuding for decades. Sandor's that son that just finally can't put up with it any more. He stands up to Duke Gerhart, the Duke of Wolf, and gets himself in trouble. It leads to exile. Kraal takes Sandor into the Redskull Islands; this is where Kraal was born, it's Orc country, right? Think dancing with jaguars, bloodlike rituals... Sandor's confronted with everything that it means to be an Orc, and he becomes a warchief. He's popular, he amasses a huge horde - a giant army - and goes back into the Holy Empire. Whether he becomes the saviour of the Empire or the conqueror - that's really up to the player to decide."

Erwan: "The Orc strategy on the battlefield is pretty straightforward: rush now, think later. The Stronghold creatures are fast, highly mobile, brutal and tough. Their melee damage output is simply the best in the game. They have thick skin, brutal determination, high pain threshold and an innate resistance to magic, and their faction ability - the Blood Rage - improves their already-impressive offensive capacities."</i>

If you would like to take a look at the original page visit this link:
https://www.celestialheavens.com/1294925386

Mirez · Unread postby **Mirez** » 13 Jan 2011, 15:06

So bloodrage will be in this game as well. I hope they will implement it differently though, in h5 ToTe it was changing levels far too many times.

ThunderTitan · Unread postby **ThunderTitan** » 13 Jan 2011, 17:55

What's with the damn upgraded Cyclops... he looks too bloated and kinda reminds me of the Thor from SC2... jeez.

Otherwise i do like that the campaign will give you the ability to choose if you're gonna be a saviour or a conqueror.

Pol · Unread postby **Pol** » 13 Jan 2011, 20:54

And yes, I'm liking the vid.

@TT
What probably have Starcraft, Warhammer and Might&Magic in common?

"..so they eventually rebelled and they fought and they won their own freedom.."

That's sorta bittersweet, that so wise wizards forget to implement some safety mechanism to control overdosed orcs in the times when the need will arise.

Also

"attack now and think latter"

- is exact definition of the Warhammer Orc.

MM Orcs were always depicted as intelligent living being with likes for fight.

Sigh. Well, I like Warhammer - I just didn't expected to find it here.

ThunderTitan · Unread postby **ThunderTitan** » 13 Jan 2011, 21:10

Then you must have missed the boat back in H5, with the Dungeon. Except i recall very well that you saw that thread...

As for the Wizards not having control mechanisms.. well it does work if you consider that the Orcs where created while demons where attacking, they probably didn't have that much time to do everything by the book...

Pol · Unread postby **Pol** » 13 Jan 2011, 21:51

@TT
That was nothing compared to this time.

Anyone who is injecting a demon blood and didn't thought out an only possible (& most likely) consequence is not a wise mage. BRD.

A mage he can be, ..insane.

____________
Waaaaagh!!!

jeff · Unread postby **jeff** » 13 Jan 2011, 22:42

I am not saying this won’t be a great game, who knows hopefully it will be great, but after watching the video, for the first time for me anyway, I now believe that UBI should change the game’s name. The opening comment welcome back to Ashan the setting of all our MM games. Well though the gameplay may or may not be similar, by continuing their creation of this new universe and forgetting its origins, no matter how good. It is no longer MM and it should remove it from the name. Let their universe strike off where no games have gone before. Let them stand on their own. They are sticking the name on it only for marketing in hope of selling the game to MM fans. With UBI on this path, the MM universe would be dead, if not for the mapmakers of H-I, II, III and IV and keeping it on life support. As well as the numerous MM mods produced and in production. Hopefully the campaign editor will be user friendly or RIP MM universe.

vicheron · Unread postby **vicheron** » 14 Jan 2011, 00:17

Why are they talking to us like they're reading a bed time story to an 8 year old?

Darkström · Unread postby **Darkström** » 14 Jan 2011, 00:40

I think they went too far with their new universe. The new lore is too restrictive for design purposes ("we can't have xyz in the game, because it's not mentioned in the lore") and too similar to Warhammer etc.

They could have stayed more close to the original M&M or could have created something really original, but they chose the boring middle way.

Metathron · Unread postby **Metathron** » 14 Jan 2011, 01:04

vicheron wrote:Why are they talking to us like they're reading a bed time story to an 8 year old?

What - you didn't fall asleep? I did.

vicheron · Unread postby **vicheron** » 14 Jan 2011, 04:46

"Sigh. Well, I like Warhammer - I just didn't expected to find it here."

Really? Half of the art in Heroes 5 was ripped off of Warhammer.

Also, the Orcs in Warhammer have the Waaagh, which makes them a lot more interesting. Plus they're not the generic "honorable warrior race." They just like fighting and a lot of times they're just hilarious.
Edited on Thu, Jan 13 2011, 23:49 by vicheron

ThunderTitan · Unread postby **ThunderTitan** » 14 Jan 2011, 07:10

vicheron wrote:Why are they talking to us like they're reading a bed time story to an 8 year old?

Because most of us seem to think H6's art is more "mature" because of the steroid abuse and the violence, and that's about the age you start getting those ideas?!

agni · Unread postby **agni** » 14 Jan 2011, 07:36

well, i have to admit i NEVER bothered to read the story except for homm1 when they tried to explain how creatures magically appeared every week.

ThunderTitan · Unread postby **ThunderTitan** » 14 Jan 2011, 08:50

Then you missed out on some awesome anti-villainy by everybody's favourite norse-goddess-of-the-underworlds inspired Necromancer.

Variol · Unread postby **Variol** » 14 Jan 2011, 09:50

Given that the orcs now have demon blood mixed with there own, I'm ok with them looking a little different. I think some of them are too demon looking though and should be toned down.

Pol · Unread postby **Pol** » 14 Jan 2011, 10:20

vicheron wrote:Plus they're not the generic "honorable warrior race." They just like fighting and a lot of times they're just hilarious.

Gorbash: Da signs say dat we havta attack dis big rock hut.

Wazog: Big rock hut? Dat's fortress, boss. Dat aint gonna be easy to destroy. Why don't we pretend like we nevva saw da sign, and attack somewhere else, eh?

Gorbash: Da spiky Elves is clevva and cunnin', and dy has led us to all da best fightz so far. We is gonna attack here.

Wazog: Boss, lotsa boyz'll get done over if we fightz here.

Gorbash: You wanna see wot it feels like ta have me choppa buried in yer head, Wazog? Say one more fing and you gonna find out. We is gonna fight here, and dat is final.

ThunderTitan · Unread postby **ThunderTitan** » 14 Jan 2011, 14:13

So i'm the only one that thinks the Cyclops looks too bloated and is badly proportioned, the upgraded one at least?!

parcaleste · Unread postby **parcaleste** » 14 Jan 2011, 14:27

^ Yes.

ThunderTitan · Unread postby **ThunderTitan** » 14 Jan 2011, 14:34

Then you should all get bloody glasses.

jeff · Unread postby **jeff** » 14 Jan 2011, 15:04

parcaleste wrote:^ Yes.

Huh No, but it looks more like an H-IV cyclops that fell into the same vat of chemicals that the Joker fell in.

The Heroes Round Table