News
- by Pol
Two days ago, Internet Archive has been hacked again. Wayback Machine, Archive-It & blog.archive.org has been already resumed.
See the Internet Archive page, for the current status.
If you used the service in the past or you are using any connected services by IA, they might not work until fixed. (For example downloading free demo of Heroes II for fheroes2 is affected. But browsing old celestialheavens site works.)
According this, much longer explanation article, it's the second hack in this month and hacker compromised also their support ticket system. That's just awful!
Yep, current days on the internet, can be tough.
- by MadMax
What a weekend it has been for Heroes of Might and Magic fans. First, I'd like to congratulate Pumba for being crowned the champion of H3GG's tournament. Even though I do not speak Polish myself, I did spend some considerable time watching matches this weekend. 
However, the tournament also provided fans of Heroes of Might and Magic
with some really exciting news. Unfrozen gave us more information about Olden Era. Unfortunately, not knowing anything about the Polish language, I couldn't really gather much from the interview that was held in connection to Olden Era's video showcase. I did pick up words like "insectoids", "necromancers" etc. Maybe some of our Polish readers could help us out here?
I did manage to find an upload of the video shown here, what do you guys think of it?
The Day of Reckoning team (which I am a part of, just as a disclaimer) unveiled a brand new teaser showing updated graphics, and 3 new towns, Forge, Palace and Grotto. What's especially interesting is that Paul Anthony Romero has composed music for the Forge town, part of it which is being shown in the video now available on YouTube(here). Paul Romero composed the track for the Forge town all the way back in 2019, meaning that the team has been holding it a secret for 5 years.
VCMI also held a presentation showcasing some interesting updates. For those that love to analyze and dive deep into the outcomes of a game, they will display statistics after a game, giving insights on efficiency and more. They also showed off some new features coming in VCMI 1.6 such as a new optional feature that will be their implementation of spell research.
We also saw updates from the Horn of the Abyss Crew, which showed off some stunning graphics in a cutscene named "All In", which is from the HotA crew's upcoming campaign.
All in all (no pun intended), it's been a great weekend for anyone interested in Heroes of Might and Magic. It's a shame that so much of the tournament was delivered in Polish, but please do let me know in case I missed some important news!
What do you think was the most exciting news from this weekend?
As well, you can write your comments and thoughts over our forums, here.
- by Pol
Broken Alliance, which is a small pixel-like game project, is going to EA. In cozy pixelated world you wander and fight, with proud warrious and loudly are being told the story of the world.
You are welcomed to plunge into the adventure, albeit small, demo is available at a Steam page or from the Placeholder Gameworks Discord and you can comment or propose your perceptions. Actually your are encouraged to do it.
EA Planned Release Date: 24 Oct, 2024
And if you like, don't forget to wishlist. ;)
Why Early Access?
“Our project started from humble beginnings, trying to make a smaller scale adventure strategy game, but as time went by, our ideas also grew. We fleshed out the universe of Broken Alliance, and as time passed, it was clear that we want to create something more unique than just a "clone" of existing games. Thus, also our ambitions grew. That's why we decided to open up our game to Early Access, to also have the chance to let you, the players, have a direct influence on what the final shape of Broken Alliance will become. And finally, one very specific reason why we decided for Early Access: we simply need more time to finish the dialogues and voice over to realize our full vision for the game.”
Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?
“We currently plan to have the game in Early Access for at least 6 months, and if it turns out we need more time, we will adjust. Most of the content has already been created for the game, but we want to spend time polishing what is already there and add in the rest of the content to meet our standards to offer you the best experience we can upon full release.”
How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?
“In Early Access, we plan to provide you with incremental content, first starting out with the Prologue and most of the first Act of the game, initially featuring only the Anchorage faction. The other 3 factions (Phobos, Paradise, and Forge) are planned to be added later.The Early Access version will start with a part of Act I of the game accessible, and we plan to have 3 Acts in total for the full release. The idea is to have a distinct, different experience when playing each of the four planned factions.
The initial Early Access release will not have full character progression or Champion upgrades, and also access to some buildings, abilities, skills, items, and spells will be limited, as we want to add those later with our planned updates.
We plan to reveal most of the content to you during the Early Access period. We plan to have monthly updates, but the exact schedule may change based on our pace of development and the feedback we get.”
What is the current state of the Early Access version?
“Currently, the Early Access version will feature the Prologue, and then the Anchorage faction with character customization, town building, partial Champion storylines and upgrades, partial character progression, and voice over for most of Act I of the game. You will be able to explore a bit less than half of the entire world map. Act I is about half of the entire game experience, and you will be able to experience most of it in the initial Early Access release.”Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?
“Yes. We plan to launch the Early Access version with a price around ~20% less than the full version. No further price changes are currently planned. This to say thank you to all you early adopters of Broken Alliance, helping us achieve the full potential of the game.”
How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?
“We plan to open up feedback channels on both our Steam Community page and our Discord servers to gather feedback, and plan to implement easy access to those areas into the game itself, so if you want to give us feedback, you start the process in-game. Mostly, we plan to ask you about quality of life features, the game balance, and progression mechanics, but we are happy to hear feedback about any aspect of the game! ^_^”Placeholder Gameworks is a small Estonia-based indie game company that makes serious games. We believe in video games as a great storytelling device and try to push our projects in directions that haven’t been fully explored by the industry. Our first bigger project, Death and Taxes, was released in February 2020.
And if you wanna see some drafts, you can here.
For me, demo is fun to play, nice background music, very nicely done dialogs and splendidly voiced. As of combat, there are hexes.
As well, you can write your comments and thoughts over our forums, here.
| Comments (3) |
- by Pol
Hello foks,
Greg is still fighting with after-effects of COVID19, so he now officially admitted, that the development will be going slow, as it's around a hour a day, which he can devote, to his passion.
Please wish him health and read full newsletter here. :)
As of recollections, these will follow in next newsletter, if God give him the health, until some logical end.
One hour daily. One bulletin quarterly, with exception of July and August.
You can discuss the topic here.
- by Pol
Silence of the Siren Early Access is available from today on Steam, for 25.49€
From what I know the game was playable even a year ago on Gamescon, so it should been pretty mature right now.
For more you can watch devs commented streams on the Steam page or join their Discord.
The inspiration from Heroes is breathtaking. But, it's something else. Will you try it, are you tempted?
A bit later edit:
Modding will be available a bit later but definitively it's being counted on. See a lots of interesting stuff answered here.
You can discuss the topic here.
| Comments (1) |
- by Pol
THE BATTLE FOR ERATHIA BEGINS IN JUST ONE WEEK!
As the battle draws near, only those who truly understand the battlefield will emerge victorious. We’ve prepared three blogs, each revealing the gameplay secrets of the latest expansions for Heroes of Might & Magic III: The Board Game.
Click the buttons below to uncover the hidden strategies of each faction or to play official trailer on You Tube.
- by Pol
Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era unveiled at Gamescon
The game is scheduled to be available in Early Access at Q2 2025. This is like to be struck right from the heaven, as there wasn't slight indication, that new Heroes iteration is in the development. After infamous Heroes VI and VII, the hopes were low.
Please see full Ubisoft annoucement on their blog.
Overall, my collected tidbits:
- The game is supposed to be prequel. Around the same time-space area like Heroes I-III and Might & Magic VI, VII and mostly VIII: Day of the Destroyer.
- The core of the game is supposed to be Multi Player on randomly generated maps. That somewhat create more questions, than it answers.
- Every units are having two types of skills, passive and active. Passive skills are flying, ranged or undead. Active skills are spells and special attacks. These, who played both, or at least one game from Creature Quest or MM:EoC knows how it work.
- You will get three choices, when leveling your hero up.
Unfrozen Studio
Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era is being developed by Unfrozen Studio. Now I will borrow a bit from their page, to proceed with their introduction, as I believe, that's necessary:
Established in 2016 by industry veterans, Unfrozen comprises team members who have previously worked on popular games such as League of Legends, World of Warcraft, Disco Elysium, Pathologic 2, and Disciples 3. Our first game, Iratus: Lord of the Dead, is widely recognised as the spiritual successor to Darkest Dungeon. It was released in April 2020 for PC and published by Daedalic Entertainment.
By 2024, Unfrozen has expanded to a team of 50 people and has representatives in Limassol, Cyprus; Tarragona, Spain; Guildford, England; Belgrade, Serbia and Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
That sounds good, doesn't it?
They are promising following key features:
- An epic single-player campaign set on the continent of Jadame, where rival factions must unite to face the demonic insectoid swarm known as the Hive.
- 3 multiplayer game modes: Classic (multiple heroes and map exploration), One-Hero mode (only one hero, and their death means defeat), Arena (quick battles with hero upgrades).
- 6 unique factions: Temple, Necropolis, Sylvan, Dungeon, Hive, and a mysterious sixth faction to be revealed later.
- New custom tools for the community: create your own Heroes of Might & Magic single maps and multiplayer templates (coming during Early Access).
- Matchmaking, ratings, and leaderboards for all modes.
Final Questions:
- Big question, who will write the stories?
- And obvioulsy another one, will be the game allowed enough time?
- And infamous one, will it be modding friendly, at least for solo gaming?
- What about an AI?
X - Unfrozen | Discord - Unfrozen | Steam - HoMM: Olden Era | HC | AC
See the comments in forum here.
| Comments (79) |
- by MadMax
Heroes of Might and... Miniatures?
After the successful launch of the Heroes of Might and Magic board game, Ubisoft and producer Archon Studios have teamed up to bring us a tabletop war game with miniatures to collect and paint.
The game have been crafted by industry veterans Jervis Johnson and Andy Chambers that have both been working on high-end brands such as Warhammer 40k and Fantasy Battles. They combine for a total of 70 years of experience designing tabletop games. They are joined by Jacek Karpowicz (Archon Studios) who has also worked on Masters of the Universe: Battleground.
While we currently lack detail about the game, there are some hints. Jervis Johnson says: "I especially like the unit activation rules, which allow elite units with high morale to steal the initiative and move before their opponents can react." which of course immediately draw parallells to the original Heroes of Might and Magic turn-based battles. Another hint we get from the landing page of the game (Archon Studios website) where they write that the battle you play out will take place in Erathia. Maybe we will get to unravel unexplored parts of the lore from the Heroes of Might and Magic 3 timeline?
The part that makes me the most excited is the fact that there will be miniatures (made with High Impact Polystyrene as per Archon Studios website). Hopefully we will get some models that feel true to the original game, I'd love to be able to get some of that sweet old nostalgia while cursing over how I wish I was better at miniature painting. Perhaps even getting that "one last brush stroke" feeling that is nearly equivalent with the well-known "one more turn" effect of Heroes of Might and Magic.
What are your thoughts about Heroes Battles? Did I miss something important? Let me know by leaving a comment.
| Comments (1) |
- by Pol
VCMI 1.5.3 is now available.
- minor update
- new launcher for Android
- all of the features that were planned for 1.5 have now been completed, future 1.5.X updates will only focus on bug fixes.
Android now uses the same Qt-based launcher as other platforms, allowing mod updates and a more intuitive initial installation process.
Improvements to the Launcher, including the addition of new settings that were previously not configurable in the UI.
Download | GitHub | Changelog | Discord
source: VCMI Discord, "Ivan"
- by Pol
Modiphius - Heroes of Might and Magic RPG
In far, far, far away distant land you have heard:
Immerse yourself in the legendary world of Enroth, the setting of the first three Heroes of Might and Magic games, as it comes to tabletop for the first time! Players will relive some of the most epic and memorable moments in the saga, starting with “The Restoration of Erathia”, the crusade of Queen Catherine Ironfist to restore her Kingdom and uncover a conspiracy.
In the first high-fantasy setting to use the 2d20 system, you can play as legendary heroes who can call upon a nation's resources to overcome the threats arrayed against you. Engage in daring assaults, and desperate last stands, and lead formidable armies in a world shaped by your actions!
Not sure how that will differ from TBG. There's not much to be seen to judge that now. If you get caught by 2d20, you can conveniently subscribe. ;)
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