Voting for Vampires!

[Salamandre]

True, to criticize all you need is free time and big mouth.

However, to keep a constructive balance between critic and compliments, you have to know what is to work on a project and what actually can help developers in your attitude. All I'm saying is that bashing today, bashing yesterday and bashing tomorrow isn't helping anyone if you don't pay attention to also show your trust in. Or, from what I personally saw from that game footage, there are wonderful things in too. Don't know about mechanics and skills, but the visuals alone are gorgeous, and this has to be put in again and again. If you don't, then only the hostile side from you is present, and they will not give a shit about.

PS: Galaad calling the gang to rescue, haha. Come on, I don't want to fight you guys, just pointing the obvious, keep it realistic.

[Galaad]

PS: Galaad calling the gang to rescue, haha. Come on, I don't want to fight you guys, just pointing the obvious, keep it realistic.

Well Erwinner knows how to close discussions fast, so I sure won't mind if he intervenes.
Although by reading your response I don't think he succeeded here, what I tried to say in my first reply to you is that you need to make the difference between actual people working on the game and people who's only matter is dealing with business and marketing, enforcing the IP vision (which on top of that is a total heresy considering the past games) so that they can say that they don't accept our criticism towards it.

I am actually trying to keep that balance, but I don't always succeed, it is very hard. And the real gang I am calling here is the one from here which I don't know.

Btw, my popularity on the dev blog has never been so low lol
http://mmh7.ubi.com/en/blog/post/view/fanday-interviews

[Salamandre]

Well, if I was UBI developer, long time you would have been banned from all their forums.

I mean, having in your signature "Fire Erwan le breton", this is a total lack of common sense, respect and maturity. Just because your gaming tastes don't match, you ask for someone to lose his job, I don't think you realize how this is a step way too far, and in the wrong direction. Thus, I understand your popularity went low, but is never too late to rethink about.

[Galaad]

Well, I am quite the troll at the blog, and am testing the limits, but some people really need to détendre leur prépuce.
Fun fact, Verriker's IP is banned from Ubisoft

[Salamandre]

The bottom line is: you can't test their limits while being hostile then asking your constructive opinions to be heard and considered. At least, in adults world, it doesn't work that way.

[Galaad]

To each his belief, and I plainly disagree with you.
Because insofar, if you look at pure facts, in "real" world it worked like this with Ubi: ten years of lots of people bringing up constructive opinions and being constantly ignored.
A raging fan base should barely come as a surprise, IMO

Look, you REALLY have a lot of catch up to do (and way more than you think), the ONLY reason we could avoid reused assets(!) from H6 Lich and Vampire for Arachnopolis was BECAUSE of raging and flaming at the dev blog. +8k comments of rage, but it worked. Believe me, saying "hello, [insert civilty] does NOT work there. Or prove me otherwise.

Excessive spamming also got them to agree to implement random skills, they BASICALLY ASKED US to SPAM for it.


The bottom line is that the blog is more real than the real thing yet it is a madhouse. I've spent enough time down there to ASSURE YOU that.
The dev blog is surrealism.

[Kalah]

While I am certainly in a position to confirm that fans have given advice which has not been heeded before, and that Ubisoft "should" have learned from the fallout of not listening to these ideas, what I can also tell you is that Ubisoft is a many-headed creature. It is not a small group of people who all have their legacies on the line; it is a large company where manye people come and go, as do developers.



During the time Ubisoft have owned the franchise, we have seen many developers take part in the game-making process: Nival, Black Hole, Limbic, Virtuos, Blue Byte ... all these, know about the flaws made before and able to learn from them? Of course not. And that's just the developers. You also see the same kind of thing inside Ubisoft; people changing jobs and moving on to other things or other roles. And every time a new person comes in, the learning curve is reset to zero and we begin again.



That is why I am positive with Limbic; they have a history with the development of M&M games, doing a fine job fighting the fires set by Black Hole, doing quite well also with the small game MMX, and now being given the reins of a Heroes game from the beginning. They have had the chance to work on this for a while, and to learn from some of the mistakes that have been made in the past.

[Galaad]

Thanks for posting that Kalah.
Despite the appearances, I have good faith in Limbic as well, but I went completely mad when I saw this:

Here at Might & Magic HQ, we’re very fond of the H6 Necropolis, and we feel they are one of the best factions of that game in terms of art direction. So we didn’t want to recreate it from scratch.

Then

We are the Might & Magic® team, a tasty mix of Limbic Entertainement and Ubisoft team members

And more recently during the interview with Creative Director:

So we had a negative feedback which were expressed on the forums, on certain websites etc, that’s true.
Our reaction to that, was the fact that it was contradiction of creative vision.

[Salamandre]

Well, I am not personally so involved in H7 development, guess I am like every normal person, waiting for game to be out then play. But I really don't see any problem with the spider creature (there is one and some vague legs around the town) to the point you guys call it arachnopolis and also I don't see any problem with reusing assets from previous games. H3 reused almost all assets from H2.

What is important when game is out is: are simultaneous turns ready? Are factions game play balanced? Is the game bug free? Can a decent computer handle it? Does it have a map editor and map generator? Are all redundant actions tied to shortcuts? Are there ways to speed the actions?

All other theoretical concepts, while being interesting enough to show fans creativity, are sterile discussions if we look at the game's solidity and its post-release life span.

[Galaad]

I am like every normal person

Says the guy who translated Dragon Slaughter from chinese.

I really don't see any problem with the spider creature

But you don’t give a damn about lore, am I right?

H3 reused almost all assets from H2.

What was that?

All other theoretical concepts, while being interesting enough to show fans creativity, are sterile discussions if we look at the game's solidity and its post-release life span.

Again, you are one whom I believe is in good position to tell which is the game still evolving through decades.

[Panda Tar]

H3 reused almost all assets from H2.

What was that?

I believe he was referring to line ups and units in general. A lot was added then, but I don't recall anything being left behind either.

[Salamandre]

Yes, what Panda says. Not gonna contradict the muscle guy.

[hellegennes]

H3 did reuse most of H2 assets. H3 was basically H2 with slightly altered graphics and more of everything: more artifacts, more creatures, more skills, more buildings. Gameplay-wise it was the exact same thing and almost all creatures, items and buildings made it into the new installment. The same goes for surrounding graphics: mountains, trees, buildings, etc. Even the code was basically the same thing, which is why H3 was developed considerably faster than H2.

[Erwinner]

PS: Galaad calling the gang to rescue, haha. Come on, I don't want to fight you guys, just pointing the obvious, keep it realistic.

guilty as charged lol, of course no animosity meant, but I did mean to come by here again sooner or later anyway

all these, know about the flaws made before and able to learn from them? Of course not. And that's just the developers. You also see the same kind of thing inside Ubisoft; people changing jobs and moving on to other things or other roles. And every time a new person comes in, the learning curve is reset to zero and we begin again.

and yet the funny thing is, there is at least one individual who hasn't gone anywhere in all that time lol

H3 did reuse most of H2 assets. H3 was basically H2 with slightly altered graphics and more of everything: more artifacts, more creatures, more skills, more buildings. Gameplay-wise it was the exact same thing and almost all creatures, items and buildings made it into the new installment. The same goes for surrounding graphics: mountains, trees, buildings, etc. Even the code was basically the same thing, which is why H3 was developed considerably faster than H2.

what is meant by "reusing assets" here is not the use of similar code or game design, but literally the reuse of existing assets, taking a creature sprite or model and copy pasting it into the next Heroes sequel, which is something only Heroes 7 has done

although the MM RPGs 6-8 and 10 all shared sprites with Heroes, and certain icons or motifs carry over, no two Heroes games ever shared the exact same sprite or model until now, not even the hastily-developed Heroes 4 lol

[Salamandre]

Is about Lamasu? Many details in textures are different so is not exact. Anyway, H6 was a total failure, and Lamasu is looking great, I see no reason to drop an awesome not used creature just because. Heh, I like even the spider, is scary, let's see the sound effects.

[Panda Tar]

In H6, didn't they have units that were very akin to each other in the same game? I remember something like that bothering me when I was still playing that game.

[Erwinner]

the Lamasu, Lich, and Vampire were the exact same assets with only 30 seconds of desaturation work in Photoshop in the difference, and many Haven models are reused too (though that town was handled more tastefully), I could have done a better job of what they did with the Necro units

basically as far as I'm concerned, if you're charging top dollar for a new Heroes game, you better follow the standards the games have always set and make some new creature art to go with it, unless you want to let me reuse my past euros for your reused past models lol

yeah that's right Panda Tar, they cloned the water elementals and light elementals, slapped another name on them and put them in the faction lineups to fill a slot each, people were pretty outraged at the time lol

[Galaad]

@Salamandre: Well Lamasu personally I don't bother much. The units which were replaced where, Lich and Vampire. We were 1% close to get a Mummy instead of Lich and a Lady Vampire Knight. Personally, I do not find this to be ok, but anyway. The main issue with spider is the lore, not the unit by itself, although it's the waste of a core spot, IMO

[Panda Tar]

As I voiced somewhere, I do prefer spiders over zombies, for example. They feel like a unit I would hire more often than zombies, in comparison. But that's just a comparison of what we have now. If they have chosen another unit in their place which could be more interesting than zombies, I would prefer those too, no matter how they were shaped. I still don't like the visuals of any of this spider-themed Necropolis units or town screen, although I'm aware it is lore-oriented.

[Salamandre]

I could have done a better job of what they did with the Necro units

Guys, I think here is the problem. You really think you can or is a matter of 20 seconds, as you say then you talk to them like you could do better. Seriously, I worked with 3D tools for 2 years (still beginner level), and I know doing such complex models they do isn't everyone's ability.

I don't want to be picky, but do you have credentials as 3D modeler?