HOMM5 demo out

**econ21** · 05-19-2006, 11:18

My copy has not arrived, although I am alarmed by some stuff I've been reading on various forums (e.g. the designer saying the AI is not perfect because it was only worked on late

.)

In terms of the older games, a lot of folk rate Homm2 as the best, so I am not sure I would dismiss it.

Homm3 is an outstanding game. Very competitive AI - Total War could learn a lot from it. Beautiful presentation (even by today's standards, IMO - 3d graphics are so overrated). Vast amount of gaming possible (with so many user made scenarios on the web). I'd rate it with Civ2 or Civ4 - not really my cup of tea, but still a top of the range strategy game.

Homm4 is broken. Braindead strategic AI. Wonderful hero system and cute graphics. But the AI won't give you a challenge.

I'm guessing Homm5 will be somewhere between the heights of Homm3 and the lows of Homm4. Exactly where, of course, will make all the difference.

**frogbeastegg** · 05-20-2006, 12:19

One copy of the amazon.uk exclusive complete edition inbound. Half of me is wondering if I might have done better to load up Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic and play that for a month or so until HOMM5 is properly evaluated for things like bugs and AI, but oh well.

Which leads to more froggy questions. Surprise surprise

I know there are an assortment of add-on packs for HOMM3 and 4. I don't know if they are included in this edition or not; it does say "The Complete Edition contains all five Heroes of Might and Magic episodes, including the latest instalment - Heroes of Might and Magic V - and the entire versions of Heroes of Might and Magic 1 to 4." Although that could be deceptive wording, and mean the entire versions of the basic games only. So, what are the names of the various add-ons? In case mention is made of them in the documentation. Also, are they vital to the experience, nice, or a bit of a waste?

Nextly, patches and so on for HOMM 3 and 4. I presume there are some? Not sure if these editions come pre-patched or not, so just in case what version did the games get patched up to with/without add-ons, and where can I get those patches now the company responsible for the old games is dead and gone?

I'm left wondering where on earth to start! Obviously going to play some HOMM5 to start off, and if it is good and bug-free I shall likely keep on going. But sometimes it is hard to go back to older games in a series after playing the newer ones. Yet HOMM 3 and 4 both sound like massive games. At present I find I can't interest myself in HOMM1 and 2, the former demanding DOS and not sounding like it offers anything the others do not, and the latter just being so old I find myself doubting it won't have aged badly and that it will offer more than different scenarios compared to the newer ones.

**econ21** · 05-20-2006, 13:32

Homm4 needs a lot of patches (including some that have not been made!

) - and they are incremental, IIRC, so you need them all. But I suspect that the "complete" thing you have ordered will include them. I can't recall about Homm3 and think it even more likely the one you get will be fully patched. Looking at my own files, I have Homm3 patches up to 1.4 and Homm4 patches up to 3.0. A google search should find them - these games have a fairly big online community.

I don't think the bundle comes with the add-ons. But you don't need the Homm4 ones - I don't have them and can't even recall what they were. They were just milking a weak game and did not fix the lamentable strategic AI. The main Homm3 add-ons were Armageddon's Blade and Shadow of Death. They are good - the former came first and IIRC, added a new town and other "stuff"; the latter has some nice and long campaigns. They are not essential but do allow you to play some very nice usermade maps. There is a game "Homm3 complete" that does have the vanilla game and the two expansions, at a very good price. But only worry about that if you get hooked on it.

On where to start - Homm5 first, as you say. Beyond that, maybe try the Order campaign in Homm4 - I love the writing in it. With Homm3, the campaigns start mind-numblingly easy, so you might want to download a savegame that unlocks the harder ones. The second Good campaign gives some excellent fights - better than most scenarios. If you get into Homm3 or Homm4, you might try looking on the web for scenarios. People have put in a lot of work creating and reviewing maps.

**econ21** · 05-22-2006, 01:15

Played around a little with Homm5 today - on about the 4th of the Haven campaign. They are all basically tutorials - no AI opponent until the 5th, which we've seen on the demo. But they are fairly engaging. Abysmal voice acting and story-telling. But the gameplay is ok. The strategic level suffers from the new graphics - it's just much harder to be "strategic", as it's harder to work out where you are in relation to everything else. The battles are ok - a little rough round the edges (just fought 15 pitlords and they kill 100+ creatures in a couple of rounds. yikes!).

Still too early to pass judgement, but it seems to resemble the other Nival effort I tried - Silent Storm - ie some very good ideas, but just lacking the production values of major US companies (in terms of polish, story-telling, voice acting, balancing etc). In some way rather amateur, although that may be an insult to modders considering how polished I find some RTW mods like RTR.

**frogbeastegg** · 05-23-2006, 17:27

Finally my order has shipped. 24 hour dispatch my left foot :grumble: Now it will arrive neatly in time for me to pick up the package when it comes through the door and head back to work after my two days off. :grumble: The first patch is due in a few days, so there may be some compensation.

econ21, have you found that it is easy to break the scripting in the missions, thus breaking the mission itself? I took a quick glance at the official forums, and saw this complaint arise in roughly half the (admittedly few) threads I mentioned.

Which makes me wonder, just how scripted is the game anyway?

**econ21** · 05-23-2006, 18:03

I haven't devoted any more time to it, yet - I've been distracted by the RTR PBEM I've been organising.

The missions I've done - the haven campaign - are very scripted. I haven't broken them, but then I've been dutifully following my orders. I'm uneasy about the whole AI vs scripting issue, but daren't go back to the boards yet. Somethings you just don't want to know.

I should say, though, that Nival's other effort that I played - Silent Storm - had its faults, but bad AI was not one of them, IIRC. Hopefully the patch will deliver - I still can't believe the developer said they left working on the AI until late in the day.

**frogbeastegg** · 05-24-2006, 11:57

Got it! With a whole half of a day off left to play it ... once I finish the bit of writing I was working on, and if I drop the book I was going to read.

Installed Heroes 3 Complete, checked the readme and found that it does include both add-ons, which it installs as part of the default. It seems like this is a reissue of the old bundle edition. Loaded it up, and I can't find a version number. Am I likely to need any patches? Also, is there any way to change the resolution? The default is pretty unkind to my eyes on my LCD monitor.

Installed Heroes 4 next. It also has both add-ons. Again, no idea of version number or where I stand on patching. Help? My guess is that if there were patches after the second add-on (whichever that was ...) I might need them.

I had to laugh at the system check messages put out by HOMM3 and 4.

Setup has detected that you have 2GB of memory available on your system. The game requires 32 (or 128 for HOMM4) MB to run. The game may run sluggishly, become unstable, or fail to run at all. DO you wish to continue?"

Oh noes!!!1!1! Sorry, am in a silly mood

Now to install HOMM5.