KB for Android, iOs

[Kalah]

<img src="/images/news/KBforiosandroid.jpg" align=right vspace=5 hspace=5>It's a slow news day, but it appears from the <a href="/http://www.playkb.com/en/">King's Bounty: Legions</a> that the game will soon be available for both iOs and Android, enabling players to play on the move. Sounds like fun. <img src="/images/smiles/smile9.gif">



In other news, DD World have done <a href="/http://translate.google.com/translate?h ... -4.html">a retro review</a> of what they say might very well be the best computer game of all time: <i>Heroes of Might and Magic III</i>. I'm not going to disagree too much, at least the question deserves asking.

If you would like to take a look at the original page visit this link:
https://www.celestialheavens.com/1344356256

[klaymen]

In other news, DD World have done a retro review of what they say might very well be the best computer game of all time: Heroes of Might and Magic III. I'm not going to disagree too much, at least the question deserves asking.

Luckily I can read the original article so I don't have to rely on the atrocious translation.

[hellegennes]

Ahem... H2 was clearly better in every imaginable way. I have come to hate H3 for how much praise it receives, even though it's nothing but a more rounder version of H2, with extremely downplayed music and much more bugs, where H2 had virtually none.

[Kalah]

Well maybe you should write your own review?

[CloudRiderX]

@hellegennes

Games naturally incur more bugs as they become more complex. The transition from H2 to H3 was probably the most profound throughout the entire HoMM series. The graphic were way better, the music was more authentic, there were way more creatures, spells, maps, and campaigns. It was everything a sequel should have been, and such a jump is not one we will likely witness again.

[klaymen]

Ahem... H2 was clearly better in every imaginable way. I have come to hate H3 for how much praise it receives, even though it's nothing but a more rounder version of H2, with extremely downplayed music and much more bugs, where H2 had virtually none.

Marry me.

@hellegennes
Games naturally incur more bugs as they become more complex. The transition from H2 to H3 was probably the most profound throughout the entire HoMM series. The graphic were way better, the music was more authentic, there were way more creatures, spells, maps, and campaigns. It was everything a sequel should have been, and such a jump is not one we will likely witness again.

We have witnessed it two more times, actually, and both times it was quite a lot of changes.
H1->H2 (actually adding secondary skills, revamping the spell system and the usual added stuff)
H3->H4 (spell and skill systems were revamped, heroes have changed, and tons of other added or changed stuff).

[Yurian Stonebow]

On a slow news day like this, I guess we could afford to mention the fact that some people in the past have had their turn at porting Heroes III itself to Android.

[hellegennes]

@Klaymen:



That's bloody right! H1 to H2 incurred some huge gameplay changes, not to mention the added content in terms of simply everything. The same goes for H4. These iterations reinstated the series instead of rounding the edges of a previous title. H3, as much content it added, had virtually had the same gameplay and basically the same source code. It added almost no new elements to the gameplay and the music was seriously downgraded. Sure it had better graphics (although the stylistic approach is debatable) but that's sort of a given for any sequel.



What I am saying, is that with H3 they didn't dare to change anything. They just added more content. This was clearly a winning formula, because H2 was an already highly successful game, while it's proven now that much of the Heroes community felt comfortable with the base gameplay, given the reactions to the changes brought by H4. Although in my opinion H4 was way better and I liked the fact that they tried to move away from the winning formula. But apparently much of the community didn't think so.

[CloudRiderX]

@klaymen

My exact quote was "...and such a jump is not one we will likely witness again."

My statement directly indicated that Heroes III was the latest of such a jump to occur, and does not disregard prior ones. The jump from H1 to H2 was before the jump to H3, so how could we witness that jump again when it has already been witnessed? I was obviously referring to future games.



The reason why I don't include H4 on the list of significant jumps is because it was a controversial one. I thought H4 was super-fun and different and brought a lot of new things to the table (especially for an unfinished game), but it was a big jump in an entirely new direction, a direction that many fans cannot agree on.



Not to mention every day I read those same people who loved H4 for its new direction hate on H6 (which similarly strove to take Heroes in a new direction after general discontent with Heroes 5). This lends a lot of strength to my theory that the community no longer has a foundation, and has become impossible to please.

[hellegennes]

Well, it's obvious why. The fans really loved H3 offering almost nothing new in terms of gameplay so they were generally content with the exact gameplay H2-H3 had. I liked the fact that H6 tried to change things but they didn't do well in planning. If they had devoted another year in development, adding more content, rounding the edges of the game and debugging it, it would have been great. I still like it better than H5, which took a step back.
Edited on Wed, Aug 08 2012, 15:20 by hellegennes

[CloudRiderX]

@hellegennes

I definitely agree on devoting more time to development.

Too often these days, the presence of auto-patching and DLC seem to make developers lax on the debugging process.



You bring up an interesting point regarding H3 - there was definitely a distinct way that Heroes 3 evolved the series compared to other Heroes games. H3 took H2 and added more onto it. A lot more. Same core gameplay mechanics, no arbitrary changes, no crazy new directions. Just more.



And I guess that's something that developers shy away from these days. Maybe its something that could only be realized once or twice. Many people who loved H3 (like me) would not be interested in a sequel that did what H3 did to H2, and that's where the challenge in making sequels really lies.

[Korbac]

" ... with extremely downplayed music and much more bugs, where H2 had virtually none. "



What bugs are you talking about? H3 does not have any game-breaking bugs.

[hellegennes]

Game breaking, no. But it had a number of bugs upon release. Compare that with H2 which virtually had the same source code but there were no bugs (well, there were 2 or 3 really minor bugs fixed with a single patch, that I never encountered).

[Salamandre]

Well, indeed H3 has SEVERAL game break bugs, but it is WAY more complex than H2, which could explain.

For those who spent time to play custom maps, they know what's about: game freezes after month 12, we can not move stacks containing >32500 creatures, experience system is broken after 74th level, computer will freeze the game if no water expert and no boat but he can cast summon, combo artefacts not possible to place on heroes in editor, AI terrible management of joiners which leads to freeze game too, new week creatures which block the narrow passages and many others.

But it is also true that the H3 mapmaking went to dimensions H2 never achieved, thanks to H4 and H5 which disappointed most of fans, therefore they went back.

H2 was wonderful and we had much fun to play it. But it was awful unbalanced in multiplayer, most cheesy tactics had no counter, which H3 fixed. For the MP community it became clear H2 had to die, a new king was born.

[jeff]

thanks to H4 and H5 which disappointed most of fans, therefore they went back.

Please not to mention H-IV and H-5 in the same sentence. Also many of us enjoy H-IV to the point we will never go back to H3, though I loved it in its day. I can understand why many people still prefer it to the modern day versions, but H-IV deserves enough not to be grouped with the likes of H-5. A sizable percentage of us feel H3's day is done. If you want an H3 type game then play H3, which is why we want H7 not to follow that mold any more.

[Salamandre]

Sorry about that. It is impossible to situate the percentage of single players which enjoy a game, the only way to have a rather correct evaluation is to follow multiplayer tournaments activity. So far, H4 had a quasi inexistent MP activity, despite the fact several tournaments hosted it. H5 activity is way far superior.

Not trying to convince you or any else, just following the pattern which companies them selves uses to situate a post-release game activity, therefore create a similar sequel or change all the mechanics for next. As you can see, the H4 features were completely abandoned, while H6 follows H5 pattern.

Thus H4 fans are very isolated.

[GrayFace]

The graphic were way better, the music was more authentic, there were way more creatures, spells, maps, and campaigns.

H2 had way better graphics in adventure map mode. H3 lost most of the atmosphere due to ugliness of colored interface and dark shadows on adventure map. Campaigns in H2 were done better. The best change introduced in H3 is random maps generator.

[Pitsu]

The best change introduced in H3 is random maps generator.

It did not introduce it. H2 PoL editor could generate random maps too.

http://www.acornarcade.com/images/aa/re ... /randl.gif
edit: from http://www.acornarcade.com/forums/viewt ... ewsid=1057

[GreatEmerald]

> http://www.acornarcade.com/images/aa/re ... /randl.gif

Error 403

[GrayFace]

It did not introduce it. H2 PoL editor could generate random maps too.

Yes, I even tried to make a map based on what it produced. Still, H3 introduced it in-game and made it really good, the H2 one was too primitive.

It's interesting that the article you linked to is about H2 for RISC OS. RISC OS is based on ARM processor, so it could be possible to make a decent Android port out of RISC OS version of H2.