Heroes V Legends of the Ancients

[sturmblade]

Ok anybody can we get a update on this ? Please

[martialis]

you're probably not reading this, but what is the player supposed to do in the second mission of book 3? without giving spoilers, it seems really hard

[Corlagon]

Ok anybody can we get a update on this ? Please

Aside from small tweaks, the mapmaking is now finished once and for all, and I think I've found a reliable scripter. Depending on how much more ambitious we get, it should still be on track. But one way or the other you will get a great campaign.

I do however swear on my life here and now that LotA will not become like WoG 3.59. It will be released this year, or bust

you're probably not reading this, but what is the player supposed to do in the second mission of book 3? without giving spoilers, it seems really hard

You have to get to the other side of the mountains and fight Malustar at the temple. It's not impossible - there are towns.

[Avonu]

It will be released this year, or bust

But you can cheat with your Rebirth ability.

[Corlagon]

I wish.

[sturmblade]

Thanks for reply. Is book 3 released? ? Were can i down load it if it is? Thank you

[kylord]

I just want to inform the authors that some people in the dark are still waiting for the final books of this mythical legend... it would be such a shame to give up now, don't you think ? and H6 is not released yet, this is a chance !

so....can we have some updated information about the journey ?

[Corlagon]

Well, again, it's almost there... Ironically I am in the exact same situation as Marzhin was when I took over few years ago:

I've been through a lot of things in Real Life™. Mainly good things, but that kept me very very busy. It's also far from over as even more stuff is awaiting for me.

Although many of my obligations are other Heroes projects However I still expect to release LotA this year. As a small bonus for the moment, here is Chandra (one of the main characters of Book IV, who originally appeared in the Winds of War expansion), courtesy of Jean-Mathias Xavier and an awesome colourist:

[Marzhin]

Wow, that's a gorgeous job! Send my congratulations to your colourist ^^ Now I want to see all the other ones... :p
Edit: BTW I showed it to JMX who was really pleased by the colourist's job as well

[sturmblade]

Great pic,And thanks for the update was getting ready too delete Heros v to make room for heros 6

[meows]

Thanks for the awesome work here. . This is totally amazing!

[Corlagon]

At very long last it seems we are going to begin the final scripting shortly, so if you are interested in helping to balance- and bug-test the maps of Book III or IV, just shoot me a PM and I'll invite you to participate.

Be warned that it will be a bit intensive and should take place over a period of a few weeks, so only sign up if you have that kind of time. Thanks

[Corlagon]

As a quick update, it looks like we're looking at Chinese New Year now But at least things are now moving swiftly, thanks to the absolutely invaluable help of Assryn and Darkjak from the French forums, and no longer at a complete standstill (cf. the past seven months...).

[Thelonious]

Well that's good - then I'll be needing to dust of my HoMM V copy

[Yurian Stonebow]

Chinese New Year will kick start tomorrow, and this guy here is ready to install the last two parts of the Legends of the Ancients saga in 24 hours from now, as promised by Corlagon. I'm planning to try out the full campaign with Wizard Q's magnificent H5 AI boost mod. Let's hope that using the aforementioned mod will not cause any trouble while playing the LotA.

With best wishes of success for polishing the campaign for release,


Yurian

[Corlagon]

Thank you very much, and I'm sorry to disappoint, but please don't... it wasn't a promise and I'm now left utterly reluctant to post another date or vague estimate, as it'll likely slip again and hammer everyone's expectations further. An absolute conflagration of exams, other projects and various issues has left our little team unable to finish it this month.

[Assryn]

It's not Corlagon's fault if LotA can't be given out for now, so please people, don't get angry, it will be out, sooner or later, but just not for now

But if Corlagon allows it, I would like to ask you a question:

When LotA for Heroes V will be done, would you like to see something similar in Heroes VI ? and if yes, then, what would you like to see ?

Yours scincerly
Assryn

[Quantomas]

Chinese New Year will kick start tomorrow, and this guy here is ready to install the last two parts of the Legends of the Ancients saga in 24 hours from now, as promised by Corlagon. I'm planning to try out the full campaign with Wizard Q's magnificent H5 AI boost mod. Let's hope that using the aforementioned mod will not cause any trouble while playing the LotA.

With best wishes of success for polishing the campaign for release,


Yurian

Indeed, it would be nice if you could do your tests with the enhanced AI.

Keep in mind that this AI has all cheats removed, and as a map maker you are truly empowered. You can do many more subtle things, similar to what we did with our latest Icy Defense map: we added a couple dwellings and gold sources to the Necromancer faction and this completely reshaped the flow of the map. On Icy Defense this is just a basic tweak because the map is designed very regular. If you design your own custom asymetric campaign maps, what I assume you do, you have an entire arsenal at your disposal to create great maps that employ many more subtle measures to shift the balance of power.

With the enhanced AI there is no need for scripts to spawn armies and such, to create a challenge in a way the original Heroes V campaign felt compelled to do. There is also no need for campaign designs in which you have a strong army sitting in a castle and the player being required to build up a matching force.

What you can do now -- without cheats the balance of power is on even footing -- instead of relying on spawned armies or passive armies in a castle, adjust the balance by adding dwellings, sources of income and power on the map. This is not only much less of a grind, it also allows the player to tackle challenges from many possible angles, actually giving all the detailed and advanced features in the game a meaning. If you do it well, and design multiple enemy factions and strongholds on a map, this will allow for epic competitions with subtle shades of leverage. Just imagine a map where you have to use your wits creatively in comparison to a grinding. With the player being free to tackle challenges in many different ways, it will be a much more broad experience instead of hustling down a narrow path.

Feel free to include our latest enhanced AI (3.1j) in your distribution. I recommend to do tests on hard difficulty. The next major upgrade will feature an overhauled combat AI. I. e. once the combat AI is at full strength, a human player will typically no longer be able to beat an AI opponent of equal strength. This will hugely impact the gameplay because as things are now, you typically can advance on a map by beating adversaries with slightly better forces easily. Right now, even if the AI does a proper job on exploring and base building, an experienced human player still has the upper hand. This will be resolved with the combat AI upgrade, which can make the campaign much more of a challenge, so there is still more music to come. But you do not need to worry about things becoming too difficult, because the combat AI choice will be made optional.

Regarding H6, I am not sure whether something similar to LotA makes sense. If I look at H6, it's difficult to say whether it's a step forward or back in the franchise. To be fair, let's call it stagnation, i.e. another game that somehow is a remake without adding really new stuff.

It's worth to examine why people are normally hyped and look forward to a new Heroes game. Typically, the vast majority of mainstream gamers will not touch mods, so if they want something more of an experience they cherished they look forward to the next official iteration. But with a game like Heroes, that has potentially infinite replay value, the question for a player is access to the game. Normally, the latest official release is the easiest route. Heroes III is more difficult to access on a modern PC, particularly for the crowd who don't want to install mods. Heroes IV falls flat for most. Heroes V ToE is still very much accessible, particularly because its design and visuals feel still modern enough in the current environment. The replay value of Heroes VI will largely be determined by its AI.

What we do with Heroes V, we aim for a full public 3.2 patch that includes our AI enhancements and a ton of other upgrades. This will cater to a much larger audience than a mod can achieve, possibly reaching the entire audience of the 2 million units sold.

If you like we can aim to include LotA as our official campaign in 3.2. So far, I only got very meek responses on this subject, but if the people responsible for LotA can say a clear yes to this, it is definitely doable.

More so, if we put our best effort into this and create a campaign in which the AI and campaign design go hand in hand, we will have a showcase that can only advance the state of the art for a Heroes game.

---

www.eternal-essence.com - Will TBS games evolve? Yes!

[ruslan-gonch]

And what about *the art of LotA* pdf with part 4? Will it be presented after the campaign, the same time with it, or it's already done and can be presented? Really, really want to see this

[Yurian Stonebow]

@Corlagon: I'm sorry to hear that the plan to release LotA by Chinese New Year fell through. Real Life is indeed quite bitchy at times, which is something we'd all have plenty of personal experiences of. The sad thing is that our regular life interferes too much with our more "Heroic" life. My sincere condolences, Corlagon. But rest assured that I haven't lost faith in your team's project, and I continue to await the eventual release (even if it is delayed) with the same enthusiasm, nevertheless. Keep your spirits up.

@Quantomas: I've played plenty of Heroes V maps with your latest AI mod released in last October, and can say that it offers a most pleasant and smooth gaming experience. I leave Taxes unchecked, play with 8 skills checked, no artifact guards, lookout at second highest and keep the overall difficulty level as Hard. This configuration has served to hand out the best results for me in my Win 7 based system.

The bugs I've noticed so far are limited to a few connected to the graphical side when playing at 1920x1080 resolution. The Flying Gremlin Arrow Tower bug and the uneven unit size bug when viewing the units in their own info screen. The first mentioned here sure is a bug as the central tower in Academy keep is missing but its Gremlin shooter is there, and the latter bug might very well be due to my misunderstanding of the "regular" size of different units in that unit info screen. Maybe they should be as default made by Nival to be of different size because not all units are viewed in that info screen from the same distance. Zoom problem? Graphics problem/bug?

I can post a picture of that Flying Gremling bug for you, Q, if you request it and/or have not seen it before. I do not know how common knowledge the bug is and if you have already fixed it in some unreleased version. Please note that I'm using 1920x1080 resolution in in-game powered by my ("splendid") GeForce GT 420.

With solidarity,


Yurian