Tribes of the East Announced

[Silence]

The second Heroes of Might and Magic V expansion, <i>Tribes of the East</i>, will be released this Fall.

This fall? Is it before or after the patch 1.5 for the original game?

<b>*</b> New Orc Faction: First made famous in Dark Messiah of Might & Magic™, the brutal Orc faction now comes to the Heroes series.

The orc faction now comes to the heroes series? Great, but too bad the respect to older heroes games has yet to come to Ubi's offices.

Savage, fiercely proud and resolutely independent, the Orcs put the “might” in Might & Magic®. This faction’s troops include Orcs, Goblins, Cyclops and the famed Pao Kais.

Famed Pao Kais? Why not the famed Ahsa Kurat or even more famed Fakk Yotoo? OK, I got the Ubi's sense of humor.

<b>*</b> New Campaign: Experience the dramatic conclusion of the usurper Biara’s reign.

Dramatic conclusion? That means a row of most dramatic death animations of in-game monsters in a single cutscene?

Characters from Dark Messiah of Might & Magic will also appear to bring an unexpected twist to this multi-layered plot.

Yes, multi-layered. Unfortunately I am missing the stairs between the layers to see more than one. Or, actually in contrary, I only see the stair hall and see no actual life in all these layers.

<b>*</b> New Upgrade Level: Every creature in the Heroes V universe will get a an alternative upgrade level,

Sounds interesting. So does/did the ghost approach for multiplayer.

Extra Content: ....

Extra? That is "if we have time to complete it then... otherwise maybe in a later patch"?

Stand-alone Product:

Good if it stands all by itself and does not crash down under its own bugs.

[King Imp]

No one seems to want to play along over in the official forums, so I guess I'll ask here.



What kind of magic, if any, do you think these Barbarians will have?



I'm gonna go with Destructive and Summoning as their two schools of magic. As for how many levels in the Mage Guild, I'm thinking they are gonna go the Heroes 3 route again and limit it to the 3rd level.

[Caradoc]

I take it that Pookey is the one with the wings. But is that a mini-phoenix flying over its head? And is that other one a witch doctor?



These sure don't look like Orcs as I know them. I expect a lawsuit from the Uruk Hai.

[Veldrynus]

What kind of magic, if any, do you think these Barbarians will have?

Barbaric magic?

Nah, most likely they will use the old warcries cliche again.

[Kareeah Indaga]

@Caradoc: Mini-Phoenix? You mean the morale sign?

[Campaigner]

No one seems to want to play along over in the official forums, so I guess I'll ask here.



What kind of magic, if any, do you think these Barbarians will have?



I'm gonna go with Destructive and Summoning as their two schools of magic. As for how many levels in the Mage Guild, I'm thinking they are gonna go the Heroes 3 route again and limit it to the 3rd level.

Destructive is a sure bet since they are after all, Barbaric Barbarians :p Both Light & Dark seem to be out of character for them since they seem to be neither on the good nor evil side. Summoning is left then. And from what I've seen of the new summoning spells, things sure look good

[aaelgr]

'Every creature in the Heroes V universe will get a an alternative upgrade level'

What alternate version can you have for a treant? Or a colossus?

Are these some sort of demon tainted version? (it does say about the Orcs fighting the demonic influence)

Hope they bring back the Medusa/Gorgon, Heroes V isn't the same without them

[ThunderTitan]

"What alternate version can you have for a treant? Or a colossus?"

Pink Titan & Welfare Treant of course.

[Zamolxis]

C'mon people. Finding alternative upgrades, with quite different abilities, is very easy on paper (pick an alignment and I'll give you a full list).

What actually matters is how they implement it. A cool name and special ability on paper, could be spoiled by how it will finally look in the game, while on the other hand people might become quite tolerant with a name which initially sounded a bit funny and ability telling them nothing, if its effect/animation would prove one of the coolest things in the game.

[Kareeah Indaga]

Just lurked around the Official HV Forum…and it’s still as dead as ever. Bit surprising with the second expansion announced.

[NurDas]

"Why not the famed Ahsa Kurat"



lol



p.s. inside joke of the Estonian people, I guess.

[jeff]

I am happy to see them release another expansion with a new faction, but I am concerned about this stand alone ability. If they release this as a full cost version, then I am unlikely to buy it as I will view this as just another way to gouge us; especially since they never released the version with Heroes III and IV complete here in the US or Canada. If on the other hand they release it costing the same as HOF then I may well purchase it.

[Infiltrator]

I'm most excited about the new upgrade level. There's a pic of the new minotaur already in one of the new screenshots.

[Caradoc]

"What alternate version can you have for a treant? Or a colossus?"



Well, we could have the Treant Wife and the Stone Giant.

[Eternor]

There is a little bit of new information about the new expansion here.

Brief translation of the most important facts:

• The orcs come from the Plains of Ranaar;
  The orcs do not acknowledge the use of magic and are able to disrupt enemy magic;
  The racial ability of the Orcs, battle rage, works by each creature having an adrenaline bar in battle. The bar fills after each successful or missed hit, the amount of adrenaline in their blood determines how large is the bonus added to hit points, attack, speed;
  One of the orc town's unique buildings is a slave market, where you can sell unneeded troops for resources;
  Alternative upgrades will bring 49 new creatures, for example instead of the traditional archmages, you will now be able to recruit battle mages, which can inflict higher damage when shooting, but are unable to cast any spells;
  There will be 3 campaigns;

[Arveragus]

If the orcs do not acknowledge the use of magic will this mean that orc heroes can not learn any magic skills? While it is true that in Heroes IV, barbarian cities did not have mage guilds (they had magic dampeners instead), barbarian heroes could choose magic skills upon level-up.



The slave market is the equivalent of Heroes III's freelancer's guild.



49 new upgrades is 7x7; this probably means that there is an alternative upgrade for every one of the seven basic creatures from the existing seven factions.



Three campaigns does not seem all that much. On the other hand, if there is only one new faction, at least one of the other two campaigns will likely be focussed on a faction with which we are already familiar (like the Haven in Hammers of Fate).

[Kronos]

Hope that those alternative uprgrades will work like: green dragon to emerald dragon OR *****dragon...

Cuz if yes, it will have the major advantage of H4 which was(is) the unlinear gameplay

[ThunderTitan]

Would they really replace 4 skill sets on the wheel?! I think not having mage guilds in the town would be enough.

[Jolly Joker]

Okay, how about this way the Orcs' magic would work:
The four Magic skills would be the 4 skills on 2% hero probability plus there would be NO favored magic AND the mage guild could be smaller, like having a 3 2 2 1 1 shape. This would effectively disrupt Orc heroes as magic wielder. Heroes would be offered a magic skill rarely AND you'd be in trouble with getting the right spells IF your hero was offered a skill.
Of course it WOULD be possible to see an Orc then casting something like Mass Haste or Summon Phoenix, but it would be unlikely.

[Gaidal Cain]

Of course it WOULD be possible to see an Orc then casting something like Mass Haste or Summon Phoenix, but it would be unlikely.

Mass Haste wouldn't be too rare, I think. The orcish heroes would go for light or dark magic (since there's less need for huge spellpower with those), dpending on what's in their guild (first two or three levels are easy to build). Unless they get lots of other stuff which their hero can do on his turn, of course.