Nival Answers, Episode IV: A New Hope

[HodgePodge]

@TT
Godzilla is only a man in a costume!

Godzilla! You the man … er I mean beast. I love you!

[CloudRiderX]

"Hope I stay the positive person I am and never turn into one of those "everything sucks" kind of guys..."



You forgot two important words, "Nival" and "Does".



'Everything Nival does sucks.'



There you go, all as it should be.

[Deadguy118]

It's true, the death of NWC was the death of the heroes franchise (to a degree WOG and the Heroes IV mod have fixed some things) meanwhile dark messiah is the hottest thing since sliced bread with killer (looking, my compy is too weak to run it) gameplay, Single and Multi. Heroes V would have been better if ubisoft itself developed the game instead of handing the game to nival for destruction

[asandir]

Yeah, and those who prefer 2d graphics can try gouging an eye out.

excellently done

intruiging comparison deadeye, although i will hold off on a final judgement til DM is released

as for the "positive" people, i am happy that you feel that way, but the criticism levelled at ubi and nival seems pretty fair in my book

and as for the textbox non-addition .... cheers nival that'll really assist the mapmakers out there

[Grumpy Old Wizard]

I have made 10 HOMM maps throught the years that I have published, all at the largest size allowed, so I think I qualify as a mapmaker. Each of those maps took a very very long time to make and test. Anyone who has ever tried making one such map knows what I am talking about.

For the love of God, chill out!! I don't want all of you to have a heart attack, them who will play my maps?!??!

Mapmakers have always faced and overcome obstacles with their creativity and their will to produce. Even if the thing about textboxes is properly translated and true and will never be changed, I am willing to bet that those of us who want to go to the trouble and to go through the countless time to write a story, lay down the terrain, objects, events, ect, and to spend oh so many, many other countless hours actually playtesting it will find a way to tell our story and to make the playing enjoyable and worth yoyr while.

Please show a little patience and wait and see what the mapmakers can do with what comes next. As always, we will produce better maps than those those came with the game because ours is a "labor" of love.

Pleeeese don't have a heart attack! Think about your loved ones!!!

GOW

[asandir]

i hope you guys can do your thing, it is just a shame that ubival seem almost to be going out of their way to make things difficult

their snideness doesn't help either

[Cleanpea]

Righteous anger is so boring. If you talk about depressing lack of self-irony, why not start with yourselves -meaning no-one in particular- Hello? When whining is all you can do, whining is all you get back. This USED to be a nice forum.

[Meandor]

I am willing to bet that those of us who want to go to the trouble and to go through the countless time to write a story, lay down the terrain, objects, events, ect, and to spend oh so many, many other countless hours actually playtesting it will find a way to tell our story and to make the playing enjoyable and worth yoyr while.

Yes there will be way to tell story. I hope they will allow map makers to add cutscenes, but cutscenes without animation and voice acting are inferior to message boxes.

[asandir]

i think it still is cleanpea, but the fact that there are some disgruntled fans means that there will be a certain amount of complaining, innevitably some will be constructive and some not, but to suggest that it is whining is a bit short-sighted IMO

[Holger]

Dear Grumpy Old Wizard,



my words exactly. Thank you.



I look forward to the elaborate forum discussions on strategies, fraction strenghts and so on.

[DaemianLucifer]

We still have tsoe popup texts,so I guess that means we will have text boxs,its just that they wont use them for story.

[Braxen]

where mode 'simulationeus turns'?

nival suxxx

Won´t even get started on this one...

[Fyl]

'A new LOST hope' that is ...

Since in my case there is no time to play MP games, I play only SP games which rely on the quality of maps and the quality of AI.

I had few months of patience waiting for them to patch the obvious bugs and wise-up the AI, it didn't happen. Moreover, some things they even don't want to fix. Whatever ...

Now I will have to have some more patience to wait for folks like Grumpy to create quality maps and script so much more to force the AI to look smart and challenging. But we've been thru this pattern before, haven't we ?

[LordErtz]

So, official modmaking support is being "worked over" by Ubisoft, but they do not have time to support modding.

I'm so confused!

It says ubi is working on support, but nival has no time. Hah...no comment.

And to those 2 or so who think we're crazy for complaining, you are obviously out of the times and don't even know what's going on with your own game. "Can't wait for the strategies and tactics of the factions." Well buddy, theyve been up for months now, where have you been? In fact, since theyve been up, the game has been changed and nerfed and some strategies no longer apply.

My summary point: Know the facts like at least GOW does before you criticize those who have valid reasons for complaining.

[CloudRiderX]

"where mode 'simulationeus turns'?"



Yeah, are they ever gonna make that? I have tried it in the game and nothing happens, yet they advertise it on the cover of the game like it's already completed.



Episode V: Nival Strikes Back

[ThunderTitan]

Episode V: Nival Strikes Back

And of course Episode VI: Return of the NWC

[TelMarine]

"where mode 'simulationeus turns'?"



Yeah, are they ever gonna make that? I have tried it in the game and nothing happens, yet they advertise it on the cover of the game like it's already completed.



Episode V: Nival Strikes Back

umm where? my box says nothing like that at all.

[LindaG]

I have made 10 HOMM maps throught the years that I have published, all at the largest size allowed, so I think I qualify as a mapmaker. Each of those maps took a very very long time to make and test. Anyone who has ever tried making one such map knows what I am talking about.

For the love of God, chill out!! I don't want all of you to have a heart attack, them who will play my maps?!??!

Mapmakers have always faced and overcome obstacles with their creativity and their will to produce. Even if the thing about textboxes is properly translated and true and will never be changed, I am willing to bet that those of us who want to go to the trouble and to go through the countless time to write a story, lay down the terrain, objects, events, ect, and to spend oh so many, many other countless hours actually playtesting it will find a way to tell our story and to make the playing enjoyable and worth yoyr while.

Please show a little patience and wait and see what the mapmakers can do with what comes next. As always, we will produce better maps than those those came with the game because ours is a "labor" of love.

Pleeeese don't have a heart attack! Think about your loved ones!!!

GOW

Haha. Well said.

[Sir_Toejam]

bottom line is, just with the previous versions of Homm, all the modders will rightly claim they could do it better than the developer:

If Nival doesn't have time to address modding the game (frackin' ridiculous argument), just give the modders the engine and code, force them to sign an NDA and non-distribution agreement, and get out of the way.

really. I can't recall a single Homm series where private modders didn't come up with:

better storylines

more interesting maps

better balanced maps and skills and artifacts

more attractive layouts and designs

just about anything you can think of.

and did any of that hurt sales of the previous Homm series?

*ahem*

"f*ck no."

did bioware lose money by supporting modders and releasing the editor along with NWN?

"f*ck no." In fact, NWN is still extremely popular, and there are still large modding crews playing with it.

Unfortunate that the rights for the sequel were given to Obsidian, as they are yet another small developer like Nival, and likely "won't have time to support modders".

Ubisoft is going to softpeddal it's way right out of the game publishing business, and take Nival along with them, just like so many idiotic publishers have done in the past 5 or 6 years.

it's not that so many here are knee-jerk negative, it's just that we've seen the same thing happen many, many times before, and we know from experience that the negativity is most often justified.

heck, if one could bet on these things, I'd have regained much of the money i lost after the internet "implosion".

this isn't a rant, it's a plea to publishers to get off their asses and look at what the damn gamers want, rather than what their stockholders "think" would be most profitable.

otherwise, the demise of the PC gaming industry is virtually assured.

and i know, cause i worked for years for a small game developer that was "killed" by going public.

cheers, and better hopes for the future.

[asandir]

nice post sir_toejam .... i agree that the modders could most likely fix many of the biggest problems, and in fact have already done so for things like the interface and ATB problems .... now if they could just get their claws into the ai and maps, things might just be looking rosy!!!