Dev Q&A - Town Screen Released

Kalah · Unread postby **Kalah** » 27 Apr 2011, 17:46

The official forum has been updated with an exclusive Q&A with the developers. It touches upon the process involved in making the next Heroes game, the role of the Communities, the RMG and the AI. It also contains the Inferno town screen, the first of the Heroes VI town screens to be released for public viewing. Albeit a work in progress, it will give the fans some idea of what it will look like.

Also included in the Q&A is a mention of future expansions, a look at a Sanctuary hero named Changbo, and hints of old heroes' future return.

If you would like to take a look at the original page visit this link:
https://www.celestialheavens.com/1303926395

ThunderTitan · Unread postby **ThunderTitan** » 27 Apr 2011, 18:04

Hey look, it's the Goa'uld's first host species...

And the screen looks ok... but i don't see any discernable extra buildings besides the fort...

theGryphon · Unread postby **theGryphon** » 27 Apr 2011, 19:40

Yep, that's an Unas!

Skullmane · Unread postby **Skullmane** » 27 Apr 2011, 20:11

You can see at least two more buildings on both sides, maybe it's just an unbuilt town.

And I don't like the huge army slots and the frame around the townscreen. It always looked nice when you felt like you were actually looking at the town itself, not through some window.

I hope they increase the screen size, shrink the army slots and get rid of the overly simplistic look.

DragonSire · Unread postby **DragonSire** » 27 Apr 2011, 20:13

FYI, the screenshot of the day has finally been updated again (on the official forums).

Kalah · Unread postby **Kalah** » 27 Apr 2011, 20:18

No B5 fans here, I guess ..

theGryphon · Unread postby **theGryphon** » 27 Apr 2011, 20:49

Marzhin said the town window will be fixed size. For that to happen, it would have to be smaller than the smallest resolution they're going to support, which is I'd guess 640x480 or 800x600. As a result, this town window will look just tiny on the largest resolution, which I hope will be at least 2560x1600...

theGryphon · Unread postby **theGryphon** » 27 Apr 2011, 20:50

Kalah, the link to official forum is wrong; it's directed to Celestial Heavens...

Kalah · Unread postby **Kalah** » 27 Apr 2011, 20:54

Fixed.

ThunderTitan · Unread postby **ThunderTitan** » 27 Apr 2011, 21:15

theGryphon wrote:<<For that to happen, it would have to be smaller than the smallest resolution they're going to support, which is I'd guess 640x480 or 800x600.>>

I really doubt 640x480... it's not 2008 any more.

And the pic they posted was 1000x880 (see below), so i'm guessing the town photo is at least 800x600 by itself.

Kalah wrote:<<No B5 fans here, I guess...>>

I remember Z'ha'dum being less soaked in gasoline and set alight, and G'Kar had way smoother skin... is there anything else?

Skullmane wrote:<<You can see at least two more buildings on both sides, maybe it's just an unbuilt town.>>

Not in the pic posted on CH, but looking at a bigger version it does look like there are a couple of distinct buildings after all, and not just a bunch of flaming hills: http://static2.cdn.ubi.com/forums/pictu ... screen.jpg

astral76minor · Unread postby **astral76minor** » 27 Apr 2011, 21:21

It is simple and reminds me of the H2 town screen. No complaints. In fact, this would make the game easier for new fans to learn.

Not that it is a marketing strategy....

But please don't use a border around the town graphics like they did with H2. It looks fine enough as it is.
Edited on Wed, Apr 27 2011, 17:24 by astral76minor

ThunderTitan · Unread postby **ThunderTitan** » 27 Apr 2011, 21:32

Clarification, the actual town image is obviously not 800x600 because it's widescreen, so the ratio's won't be like that, but it does look close (720x480?).

junnexgolem · Unread postby **junnexgolem** » 28 Apr 2011, 05:54

adventure screen in the background = town screen reduced to a window. wouldn't this feel like "commanding a hero to command a town what to do/build via ipad".. ?

i think it's better to give the town a screen of its own. and a borderless one at that like what Skullmane said..

ThunderTitan · Unread postby **ThunderTitan** » 28 Apr 2011, 06:02

We already suggested that to the devs ages ago when news of the windowed town screen first appeared.... i doubt they'll change it now.

And it being 2D presents the problem of having to either stretch it and make it look bad on higher resolutions, or making another version of the screen for every individual resolution... i don't see that happening.

junnexgolem · Unread postby **junnexgolem** » 28 Apr 2011, 06:14

that's too bad..

looking at your town with your own eyes

vs.

looking at your town through an ipad

ThunderTitan · Unread postby **ThunderTitan** » 28 Apr 2011, 06:24

Well you can always make a nice black cardboard cover for your monitor so that only the town picture is viewable... of course without being able to interact with the buildings it's rather pointless either way.

Of course they could extend the window itself to cover the whole screen, maybe add more info in it, like creature growth...

Dalai · Unread postby **Dalai** » 28 Apr 2011, 08:42

Kalah wrote:the RMG and the AI

That's exciting! But...

9. Will there be a random map generator? And simultaneous turns.

Unfortunately, not at release.
About the RMG, it would be a great thing to have in the future, but it’s also very complex to create such a tool, since the randomly generated maps need to be: mostly bug-free, reasonably balanced, and look nice. It’s easier said than done, especially with 3D graphics.
By the way I saw some people are still wondering if Hotseat is in the game (something I had actually answered on this very forum a while back Smile) – the answer is YES, Hotseat is in. It wouldn’t be Heroes without Hotseat.

10. How does the AI-run compared to Heroes 5?

I’ll quote what I said on Celestial Heavens a couple of weeks ago: the AI turns are way faster this time around. Also, in H6, the AI will cheat much less and less obviously than in H5. It doesn't cheat at all in Easy difficulty, and not too much in Normal either. In Hard, the AI will lose less troops and will receive some extra resources. That's all. But honestly: the AI always cheats in strategy games - I have yet to see a game where the AI doesn't cheat.

...that's not, by far.

My only comment about AI - you should play more strategic games. At least - read about their AI.

In GalCiv 2 AI does NOT get free bonuses to economy up to "Intelligent" (6-th of 8, "Normal" being the 4-th, where "The AI's economy is run at 75% of normal"). AI is multithreaded.

While the human player is moving, the computer players are calculating their turn. That's why in Galactic Civilizations, there's no "Please Wait..." dialog when you hit the turn button. The AI has typically already figured out where it's going to go and is only making small adjustments based on what you just did.

And yes, it's so-o-o 2006!

theGryphon · Unread postby **theGryphon** » 28 Apr 2011, 11:04

It's going to be the day when AI in Heroes actually deserves the I...

Coldy · Unread postby **Coldy** » 28 Apr 2011, 11:31

I'm disappointed we won't have a beautiful town screen like in Heroes 5.

Marzhin · Unread postby **Marzhin** » 28 Apr 2011, 11:39

@Dalai: as far as I know the AI in GalCiv2, while certainly better than most games out there, still cheats a lot - for instance it can see the whole universe (huge advantage to find good planets).

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