Dying community??

[DaemianLucifer]

Though caravans are the most wanted featured,I dont find it the best one.Much better were windmill flaging,dwellings acumulation,different mines(like the wee folk guarden for each resource),FoW,LoS...But the best one imo is separate creature movement.I hate chaining.

[Adicto]

We had lots of creativity in HIV.Too bad those things were just scrapped like they never happened.

If people would loved those changes, then we could see now alternative upgrades, heroes in combat, and so on... but you know, we the fans have degenerated to the point of weeping fanatic talibans, so no creative change was possible, and HoMM series are agonizing now.

[Kilop]

not all changes were bad, but not all changes were good either, and saying we are a bunch of talibans is not totally true, since I do permit HV to be in 3D ( joke )
but, if people are not happy with changes just mod HV to give it the exact same stats as H III it should be possible.
If you do want some changes, apparently so does Nival they just want ( aparently ) to make those change little by little to try to keep the same old feeling so good with HMM series.

[Wildbear]

I never cared much about scenarios in previous HoMM games, even in the campaigns. Of course, it's better to have a good scenario supporting a good map, but maps here are just way too small and boring (from the ones I've seen) to be saved by a good scenario, and I'm not even talking about the game itself.

Whatever, I wanted to react about the "dying community" thing. Well, it's probably not as alive as it has sometimes been, but I think this community is more of a sleeping or waiting one. It isn't like people who don't play H5 (whatever the reason) won't look for and try future HoMM games.

Something unfortunately happened: the already weak activity around H3 and H4 dropped when H5 came out.

First because of the war between both parts of the community related to H5. H3 was a good game, H5 was to be like it for some people, now it is and the result is a bit under expectations. H4 had good ideas, not really well implemented, but that could have done their way in H5 without breaking anything. Now the important ones are completely out for now, and people who were looking for improvements on those just don't have what they wanted at all. Of course some people like it, but excepted for a few people, the game is not as perfect as it was expected to be and could have been. So the war ended, there's still some noise on the battlefield, but there's hardly a winner. Doing it this way, the developpers just broke the community a bit more than it already was.

Second, I'd say there's a very bad timing in the release of the map editor. Not much that it's late, but it came out when most people just can't waste too much time with it, after holidays and when younger players came back to school and older ones came back to work. It also had the effect that several people talked about: many players finished the game, there weren't many maps to play, and no map to make. H3 and H4 mapmakers who were waiting for the game didn't begin another map, hoping they could do it on H5 soon enough.

Third, the wait is over. Oddly enough, the fact that people were waiting for the game generated a huge amount of discussions about features, factions and, fortunately, sometimes gameplay. Now it's more or less set in stone. I know I personally don't have anything else to add about this game, it is the way it is and not even the few long-awaited features that should come with the expansion will change enough my mind on it. I bet I'm not the only one to think that, but that's a personal opinion.

Fourth, as Adicto noted, and that's specific to H5, Nival is still changing some core elements of the gameplay. Not that it's a bad thing, there are far enough things to change in my opinion for them to do it, but people who get used to a gameplay suddenly have to get used to another one. And having to deal with the bugs doesn't help for sure. You can't tell people to be enthusiast about it in such conditions.

Fifth, I think H5 can't reach enough of the core Heroes players. The game is a bit too hungry for what it gives. It's probably only about the engine, but if I remember correctly, much was promised about the slip from 2d to 3d, but I can't see any gameplay improvement about it. Battlefields are harder to "read", towns are harder to navigate, there are parts of the UI everywhere when everything used to be grouped on two sides of the screen. Of course, some people will answer they like it blahblahblah. The GUI is bad, it's a fact. Things aren't grouped correctly. If you have enough bad faith to disagree, just look at the screenshots of the game. A huge majority of them won't show the GUI, even on the official website. Is it because it's all 3D? Surely not, but it's always in the way and looks bad.
Also there are always objects blocking the view and forcing to rotate the camera to see the map correctly. Sure it has great visuals, but the ergonomics were completely forgotten. And what is that for ? Rendering polygons? I personnaly never waste my time much on games that have annoying controls and ergonomics, and I bet I'm not the only one.

Of course, there are several other side effects. People who can't run the game because of its fancy 3d just don't play it. Also, I remember that back to H3 and H4, many people I knew were playing... at work (during their break of course). Now I don't know about all companies, but the ones I know don't put high-end 3d video cards in their computers for employees to do their boring 2d work.

That probably can't have a huge impact of course, but if you consider everything else and add every tiny things, there are many reasons for people not to spend their life around this game.

I've been watching several communities lately, some of them don't even have 4 posts a day in the H5 section, and other game sections, when not merged together forbidding any intelligible discussion about a particular game, are just as quiet when not completely silent.

Is the community dying? I don't think there were so many casualties, but people probably need something big enough to come back.

Answering to that idea that "If people would loved those changes, then we could see now alternative upgrades, heroes in combat, and so on." I think it's partially wrong, because people who wanted it the most just don't play the game, and it could not be done properly anyway. Sure it could help a lot if it was possible, well done and actually done, but it isn't and is not officially supporte. Mods are great, but it's very hard to gather people around them.

I must say that's the first thing I'd have done if I had bought the game, but I didn't, just tried the demo, played a bit on friend's computer and watched it a bit. I'm not interested because there's a huge amount of work to provide without having any chance to be sure that everything can be done. I don't like it the way it is now and don't know if I can change it enough to like it. So that's at least one of those mods out. Again I'm probably not an exception among the HoMM players, so this may explain why those mods aren't out yet.

[DaemianLucifer]

If people would loved those changes, then we could see now alternative upgrades, heroes in combat, and so on... but you know, we the fans have degenerated to the point of weeping fanatic talibans, so no creative change was possible, and HoMM series are agonizing now.

People didnt like the changes because of their lousy implementation.But they loved the caravans and they loved the underground before.So if ither features were implemented like this,it wouldve been much better.

[Shuyssar]

[...]

OMG! This is a very long post!

The community will not die, because Heroes of Might and Magic 5 is a fantastic game, and it will attract many new fans, just like me!

[Laserluger]

OMG! This is a very long post!

The community will not die, because Heroes of Might and Magic 5 is a fantastic game, and it will attract many new fans, just like me!

The community IS dying because H5 is a shitty sub-par piece of trash!

It is so bad, that it just makes me wanna puke! I would not play it even
if the devs gave it to me free.

It is so bad that it feels like some kind of kiddiebox-shit, and that is
quite impressive as it is a pc-only game..... I shit on the new "fans"

Off to play something fun. Something that is NOT H5.

[Pitsu]

Off to play something fun.

Do it, and please do not come back here before you can express yourself without having half of your message censored!

[Kilop]

As a new fan I d like moderator to delet precedent post, I do not like to be ***** on.

[Lady Farquad]

From every post I read I find something to agree with.
I haven't played HOMMV for 1+ month and I don't miss it, cause I'm back with H3 SoD... fantastic!

I don't think our community is dying, it's rather waiting. There are two kind of fans here, those who create maps & mods, and us, who enjoy them. This time the editor is way too complicated, so that reduces the number of people willing to spend hours creating, editing, testing, modifying, etc.

Patch 1.3 didn't brought me back to the game, but I'm sure user made maps will.

[alavris]

If someone don't like H5... our CDs with prevoius HoMM games still exist on this Earth. Why don't they (unhappy people) go back to them? I do this every month, and get much fun of it Maybe H5 is not liked by all fans, but please don't bury whole series because of it... Play previous Heroes! Release of H5 doesn't mean that we are not allowed to do that!
.

[alavris]

Patch 1.3 didn't brought me back to the game, but I'm sure user made maps will.

I totally agree. Don't forget that the game (talking about game itself, without maps) is only a tool to play maps! Maps are the game! Because ingame scenarios weren't enjoyable enough we have to wait for user-made ones, and they are coming... it's only one month when the editor's been released. Be patient.. H5 will give us some fun someday
.

[Omega_Destroyer]

I hope I do not draw too much criticism for this comment, but in a way I believe it is better that the community is slowing down then getting a radical influx of new members. The reasonsing behind it is with other boards that have copius amounts of members, the quality of the posts drops dramatically. The boards are degraded to the lowest ebbs of human intellect with topics that do no encourage discussion of the board's subject at all. One board I frequent had people creating topics about the various breast sizes of fictious characters which then resulted in posting of indecent pictures for any kiddies who may have been browsing. Another example is when the Gamefaqs board was merged with Gamespots. There used to be quality posting but with such an influx of new members, the topics all devolved to petty bickering and baseless accusations. Both of the above examples could be blamed on a lack of moderation, but I think having more activity on a board does not necessairly make it a better board. I guess I'd rather have the community slow down a bit then have thousands of new posters who don't have anything worth adding to the Round Table.

[gravyluvr]

This is the Lull...

When a game comes out... people play.

Eventually, people will want to play better. Or people will think they have an unbeatable strategy and will want to boast about it here. Then someone will rip that strategy to threads and post their uber strategy. That uberstrategy will be sunk by someone and another will emerge. Eventually we will have lots of discussions on strategies and map making and general discussions on improving gameplay and how to deal with different gameplay decisions.

It goes in cycles. If you want to start a thread going. Name it "My unbeatable strategy for Sylvan town in HOMM5" and then you will get it going!

[HodgePodge]

I hope I do not draw too much criticism for this comment, but in a way I believe it is better that the community is slowing down then getting a radical influx of new members. The reasonsing behind it is with other boards that have copius amounts of members, the quality of the posts drops dramatically. The boards are degraded to the lowest ebbs of human intellect with topics that do no encourage discussion of the board's subject at all. … but I think having more activity on a board does not necessairly make it a better board. I guess I'd rather have the community slow down a bit then have thousands of new posters who don't have anything worth adding to the Round Table.

I agree with you Omega.

For myself, I'm one of those members who is waiting, especially for news on the release of Equilibris 3.6. I am also a member who enjoys the fan made maps. But I haven't played Heroes 5 in more than two months. I enjoy playing Heroes 4 and Heroes 3 too much to waste time on Heroes 5.

Also, as mentioned before, the Map Editor is much too complicated for a humble end-user such as myself. I don't consider it fun to get all frustrated trying to figure out the things which should have been made simple for people like me.

UbiSoft's & Nival's total disregard for the fanbase is, in my opinion, the main reason for the Heroes Communities slowing down … but as Omega_Destroyer says, there's an upside to that too.

[vhilhu]

I have an unbeatable strategy for Sylvan on HOMMV!

use version 1.0.

choose small map with little resources (so nekros and haven wont dominate).

and thats it. enjoy.

[Gaidal Cain]

[...]

OMG! This is a very long post!

Which is exactly why you shouldn't quote all of it, especially if that's all you're going to say in response to it. I edited it out of your message.

Oh, and if you don't have a comment about something, it's rather useless to post a message consisting of only "No comment" as well, yes?

[Bonzer]

Oh, and if you don't have a comment about something, it's rather useless to post a message consisting of only "No comment" as well, yes?

No comment.

(You guys are SO leaving the door open today.... )

Actually I think there is a natural lull as people...
1) Begin to get the hang of the mechanics, there are less posts asking "how do I do this?", etc.
2) Have played the campaign and SP maps, and found something else to play
3) Only visited the board to drip, and have moved on
4) Wait for the custom maps to appear

I expect it to pick up when the expansion comes out, particularly if the editor is more user friendly.

And again when the expansion patches are released, and again when the next expansion comes out.

[DaemianLucifer]

Patch 1.3 didn't brought me back to the game, but I'm sure user made maps will.

Too bad that many mapmakers were drawn off by the game even before the release,and many more decided to return to previous instalments after this .... errr,lets call it machine language came out.Frankly I dont care about HV anymore.I look forward to the equi maps though.Even though the HV is easily modable,and the editor is powerful,the core gameplay of HIV is much better.

[Campaigner]

Well for me I play other games and haven't looked back. I think about Age of Wonders all the time when I think about TBS. Heroes V simply doesn't have any magic about it like Heroes 2 had back in the day. That may have something to do with the fact that I haven't played PC games before though....

But today I find the Heroes design to locked. Can't match Age of Wonders in my book (surprised anybody prefer HoMM over AoW).

Now if they only added a few things from AoW: SM to the original...then I would start it up immedietly.