H7 1.5 Announced

[{CH}ArticleBot]

The developers have announced the release of patch 1.5, which will include some additional contents in addition to the customary bugfixes:

There will be 2 new maps, 5 new neutrals and 12 new heroes (2 per faction). The neutrals are the Kappa, the Mermaid, two Elementals (dark and light) and the Shadow Panther.

Full descriptions here.
Read full article...

[vicheron]

"New" neutrals.

[Karmakeld]

new to H7
but yeah, all is relative. I guess they are new for those who haven't played H6..

[Panda Tar]

In the article, it's not stated 'new', it's described as 5 additional this, 12 additional that. This new stuff is just Kalah trying to wreak havoc around here.

[Karmakeld]

yeah, on the official site, someone commented that 'new' had been deleted in relation to the heroes, as they're all re-used aswell.
Shame on you Kalah

[Kalah]

Hey, I just couldn't be bothered to type "additional", OK?

[BB Shockwave]

New neutrals? They are just putting in some H6 models. This is ridiculous.
No wonder the game is already discounted here in Hungary down to 8000 HUF - ONE month after its release it was already discounted. I have never seen that happen before...

[Panda Tar]

Just as predicted , some reports indicate that added heroes Nadir and Ivor don't have their specialization ability working properly.

[Donsta]

Is it safe to buy H7 now or do I need to wait for 5 more patches?

[Kalah]

You're quite safe, it's fairly playable. But a couple more patches will be needed before it shines.

[cjlee]

You're quite safe, it's fairly playable. But a couple more patches will be needed before it shines.

Stacraft 2 Legacy of the Void was fully playable the day after it launched. No hangs, no loss of savegames, no settings mysteriously changed. Smooth and lovely gaming without issues.

For Ubisoft the best you can say, nearly 2 months and 30GB of patches later, is that something is 'fairly playable'. Of course, many people have complained about losing all their spells and skills, but nothing that visiting all your mage guilds again won't cure, right?

[hellegennes]

You're quite safe, it's fairly playable. But a couple more patches will be needed before it shines.

Stacraft 2 Legacy of the Void was fully playable the day after it launched. No hangs, no loss of savegames, no settings mysteriously changed. Smooth and lovely gaming without issues.

For Ubisoft the best you can say, nearly 2 months and 30GB of patches later, is that something is 'fairly playable'. Of course, many people have complained about losing all their spells and skills, but nothing that visiting all your mage guilds again won't cure, right?

Unfair comparison. This is an expansion pack, not a game made from scratch. And it came out some 5 years after the release of the initial game. Of course, had Ubisoft released H7 a couple of months later, it would all be ok.

[cjlee]

Unfair comparison. This is an expansion pack, not a game made from scratch. And it came out some 5 years after the release of the initial game. Of course, had Ubisoft released H7 a couple of months later, it would all be ok.

Perfectly fair comparison.

They're competing for the same dollars in our pockets.

Do you think I'm paying Blizzard with dollar bills that are 5 years old, having passed through many hands that have confirmed that these aren't counterfeit bills, while I'm paying Ubisoft with bitcoins stored on a sleazy server that vanish from existence from time to time, which Ubisoft can't really access until they have produced a game where your settings and achievements and spells don't vanish with every new patch?

In any case most of Heroes 7 content is cut and paste recycled from Heroes 6.

[mr.hackcrag]

So much for "Ze Germans and work ethic" theory that floundered about earlier in the year. Well, I can't blame them considering the circumstances...

[hellegennes]

It would be a fair comparison if the Starcraft add-on was made from scratch... which it isn't. The cost makes no difference. You are comparing "playability" between an expansion pack that took 2-3 years to be completed and a stand-alone brand-new game that was made in 2-3 years.

[iLiVeInAbOx05]

You don't actually think it took 2-3 years to complete Legacy of the Void do you? You realize they don't release them back to back to back so that they can make money? Once the market saturation hits a certain point, then they release the next one. Heart of the Swarm came out just under 3 years after Wings of Liberty and Legacy of the Void came out just under 3 years after Heart of the Swarm.

Either way, both of you have valid points, however, the Starcraft games have always been playable out of the box. If we go back to Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty, which was "made from scratch," I bought it at midnight on day one and experienced 0 bugs. Not just 0 game breaking bugs, 0 bugs period.

If you have to push the deadline back to release a better product, then that's what needs to happen.

[Pol]

I wouldn't say that's a fair comparsion albeit it's an interesting view. But Limbic know what they didn't finished and are patching it fast as hell.

Unfair because budget for Starcraft, respectively all what depends on it like manager, team, people is not comparative to H7.

Why that's another question, last time I heard about game "For Honor" and you know what? It's also from Ubisoft workshop and they put all the effort into it! (Hint, it's a console game.)

I also don't think that what was in H7 missed was a few months delay. I'ts primary about vision. Not only game vision but also vision how to plan game developing and make it ready for community. And to feel that vision directly from Ubisoft. Then people, agreements, money. Overall it just make such a little tiny impression that Ubisoft let it go.

[iLiVeInAbOx05]

Pol, while I agree with you that there was likely a bigger budget for Starcraft 2, both games released at a similar price: Wings of Liberty for $60, and H7 for $50. So, since they released with similar prices, I think it is still a fair comparison, regardless of the actual budget for each game.

The problem seems to be with the leadership and planning.

[ywhtptgtfo]

The impact of bad project management is definitely catastrophic tsk tsk tsk

This is far beyond a matter of having good design, gameplay, and so on. Rather, I highly doubt they knew how to scope their products and plan reasonable road maps. At the same time, the studios they outsourced the work too are likely not professional and have a high density of co-ops that write buggy code.

[Avonu]

Pol, while I agree with you that there was likely a bigger budget for Starcraft 2, both games released at a similar price: Wings of Liberty for $60, and H7 for $50.

You forgot that to play full Starcraft 2 game/know full story you need to buy part 2 and part 3 - all for same price as Wings of Liberty. So in the end you need to pay 180$.