Unfair Hostility to Heroes 5 and Nival >.<

[PhoenixReborn]

I also fall into the group that is annoyed with the H-IV improvements that were ignored; at least they brought back caravans.

While I'm indifferent to caravans, I use them only occasionally, I do wish that windmills and such were flaggable.

There will be some new spells in this upcoming expansion, so hopefully we'll finally have some variety. What is it, one new spell in each tier? Or of each school in each tier?

[Kareeah Indaga]

A thought: the biggest argument against flagable Windmills and such is that they’d be just a different variant on mine, yes? Why not make them like the external creature dwellings—resources accumulate each week until you get them, but don’t disappear at the end, and you can caravan them to your town (and risk the caravan being attacked and the enemy getting you resources), thus not requiring a hero running bus routes each week unless you’re desperate and need them RIGHT NOW. Or has this already been suggested and subsequently shot down?

[Alamar]

A thought: the biggest argument against flagable Windmills and such is that they’d be just a different variant on mine, yes? Why not make them like the external creature dwellings—resources accumulate each week until you get them, but don’t disappear at the end, and you can caravan them to your town (and risk the caravan being attacked and the enemy getting you resources), thus not requiring a hero running bus routes each week unless you’re desperate and need them RIGHT NOW. Or has this already been suggested and subsequently shot down?

Sounds like a perfectly reasonable compromise to me ....

[PhoenixReborn]

I thought that the difference was because it's once a week, not every day like a mine.

[Grumpy Old Wizard]

If I had to rate the game currently [considering it's been out for a while] I'd have to give it a 3 or 4 out of 10. This explains why I [a huge fan of the series as a whole] doesn't even have HoMM loaded on their PC any more.

Wow! To me giving a game a rating of 3 or 4 would say that the game totally sucks.

HOMM5 is a good game to me. I have had lots of fun playing it and will play it for a long time. To me the most important thing in a game is having fun.

There are things that could be done differently (like that almost unusable academy racial special) but I have experienced little in the way of bugs and the game runs smoothly for me.

IMHO it is a good game and I look forward to the next expasion.

GOW

[Grumpy Old Wizard]

A thought: the biggest argument against flagable Windmills and such is that they’d be just a different variant on mine, yes? Why not make them like the external creature dwellings—resources accumulate each week until you get them, but don’t disappear at the end, and you can caravan them to your town (and risk the caravan being attacked and the enemy getting you resources), thus not requiring a hero running bus routes each week unless you’re desperate and need them RIGHT NOW. Or has this already been suggested and subsequently shot down?

I like the idea of caravans from windmills and magic gardens.

GOW

[Alamar]

If I had to rate the game currently [considering it's been out for a while] I'd have to give it a 3 or 4 out of 10. This explains why I [a huge fan of the series as a whole] doesn't even have HoMM loaded on their PC any more.

Wow! To me giving a game a rating of 3 or 4 would say that the game totally sucks.

HOMM5 is a good game to me. I have had lots of fun playing it and will play it for a long time. To me the most important thing in a game is having fun.

There are things that could be done differently (like that almost unusable academy racial special) but I have experienced little in the way of bugs and the game runs smoothly for me.

IMHO it is a good game and I look forward to the next expasion.

GOW

Like I said earlier a 0 is the worst possible offense. A 10 is ultimate perfection. 5 is an average [run of the mill] game. Giving HoMM5 a 3-4 based on that scale is reasonable [to me] based on my experiences.

[tekeeee]

Yes I agree that it could've been better but I also feel like Nival had no choice,
I was just afraid that people were harshly judging this game because it is Russian like the people in Previous comments said "This sort of thing is not appreciated in the West" ugh what a fag who speaks for the entire world?

[Zamolxis]

tekeeee, while your innitiative is very nice in principle, don't judge people too much if you weren't around in 2005-2006 when the game was being developed.

Some of the people here had enough of Nival's arrogant attitude towards the community back then. It might not be "politically correct" to say it, but still it's "sociologically" a fact that in East European countries, the people are - how they say - more direct and honest, but that also means less diplomatic. While in the West people are so diplomatic, that you never know when they are honest with you or not. The advantage in the West is that you rarely get your feelings hurt or insulted in the face. The disadvantage is that you don't know what the other one really feels about you.

The problem with Nival's lack of diplomacy, was the fact that their attitude towards us was often disrespectful and even insulting. People would have been able to go over that (blaming it on "cultural differences" and stuff), if Nival would have managed to deliver a perfect game... which unfortunately didn't happen. Not by a long shot.

[tekeeee]

Ok so what about all the time the *Diplomatic* West Companies screwed you over? It has NOTHING to do with being Russian!

[ThunderTitan]

Lies... everything is Russia's fault. FACT.

[Zamolxis]

@tekeee: First of all, I said "Eastern Europe" - not Russia.

Second of all, as you expect more tolerance towards Nival's attitude, maybe you should show the same tolerance towards the sometimes biased opinions of some members of the forum regarding Nival, just because they are Russian.

You have to be realistic here. There are like 15-20 East European countries which suffered because of Russia in the last 50-100 years (with Russia being the only country where children learn in school that their influence was actually "benefical"). That means there are here users from at least as many countries, plus others who just know enough history, who are in a way entitled to be a bit biased on this.

You can compare it with Germany. Today nobody has a problem with them anymore because of the Holocaust - but that's because they repented long, with their vast majority admiting that was wrong and proving with their attitude they would not do that again. Well, imagine the Holocaust would have been 50 years more recent, with many Germans still being proud of it and claiming it was all for the better, but just failed because of the bloody Americans & stuff.

What attitude would you expect in such case, if the game would have been developed by some Germans, with a constant arrogant attitude towards the community during the developing process and a "final product" not really final, and with features messing up some elements of the Heroes universe, which were quite dear to some of the old fans?

[TheUndeadKing]

For those people who have frame rate issues with H5, I recommend installing a different set of drivers for your video card (uninstall your current drivers first). H5 seems to be very sensitive to video card drivers. Recently, I tried playing H5 with the latest drivers (for my video card), but surprisingly I got worse performance. Then I decided to go back to my old drivers, and everything was back to normal again.

[Zamolxis]

Let me guess... nVidia?

[TheUndeadKing]

Nope, I have an ATi card. I know that many prefer Omega drivers, but I'm currently using Catalyst 6.12, and trust me, these drivers work surprisingly well.

[Jolly Joker]

@tekeee: First of all, I said "Eastern Europe" - not Russia.

Second of all, as you expect more tolerance towards Nival's attitude, maybe you should show the same tolerance towards the sometimes biased opinions of some members of the forum regarding Nival, just because they are Russian.

You have to be realistic here. There are like 15-20 East European countries which suffered because of Russia in the last 50-100 years (with Russia being the only country where children learn in school that their influence was actually "benefical"). That means there are here users from at least as many countries, plus others who just know enough history, who are in a way entitled to be a bit biased on this.

You can compare it with Germany. Today nobody has a problem with them anymore because of the Holocaust - but that's because they repented long, with their vast majority admiting that was wrong and proving with their attitude they would not do that again. Well, imagine the Holocaust would have been 50 years more recent, with many Germans still being proud of it and claiming it was all for the better, but just failed because of the bloody Americans & stuff.

What attitude would you expect in such case, if the game would have been developed by some Germans, with a constant arrogant attitude towards the community during the developing process and a "final product" not really final, and with features messing up some elements of the Heroes universe, which were quite dear to some of the old fans?

What does Nival have to do with the fact that communist Russia dominated parts of Eastern Europe until 1989? Should they make stickers on their products with an apology for being part of a country that may have failed in the past? That sticker would fit probably on every company in every country of the world, for example the US. Or don't they have a right to follow their vision of the game BECAUSE they are Russians? Are they to suffer for something people did when they were children, now going on their knees and begging people to tell them what to do? Are they "militaristic communist oppressors" when they don't react on each and every silly claim made in one of the numerous forum of one of the numerous heroes sites, especially outside of Russia?

[Silence]

What does Nival have to do with the fact that communist Russia dominated parts of Eastern Europe until 1989? Should they make stickers on their products with an apology for being part of a country that may have failed in the past?

Perhaps they could start with NOT including WW2 tanks and planes into the game?
I actually do not think the nationality of the developer matters much. But undoubtfully there is a lot of miscommunication between fans, Ubi and Nival.

[Zamolxis]

What does Nival have to do with the fact that communist Russia dominated parts of Eastern Europe until 1989?

Well, now that you asked, it actually does - at least a very little bit. When you were a world power for more than 100 years, dominating lots of other small countries, you develop a certain kind of ego, which reflects somehow in the mentality of that population. If you don't believe me, maybe you should travel more (to the East) and try to get to know the people better.

But aside from that, the way you put it, it shows that you did not get my point (it wouldn't be for the first time). I was analyzing the situation from a totally different perspective. I was not in the chorus of people pointing at Nival, blaming them for the half-failure of H5, and linking that to the fact that they are ex(?)-commies. Maybe I was there one year ago. This time I was just sitting on the side, looking at the two camps fighting each other w/o getting the other one's point and motivation.

My post was therefore an attempt of explaining tekeeee why do so many people have a negative attitude towards Nival, and why do some link it to the fact that they are Russians.

You can't deny the qualities and the flaws of a certain nation. The only thing that you shouldn't do, is to assume from the start that anybody belonging to that nation has those qualities and flaws.

When I saw the first H5 screenshots in the spring of 2005, I thought Ubi's choice for Nival couldn't have been better, as I know Russians can be very creative. Nobody can deny their contributions to the world art & culture (whether we're talking about literature, music, balley or any other form of art). Later on however, when I saw how arrogant they treat us during the beta, like we didn't matter or at times like we didn't even exist... I had a sad deja-vú of how Russians used to treat the "small countries" under their influence in the last 100 years. Sth like "don't dare say anything but praise us, as whatever else you say - you're wrong - we know better". You must remember very well that attitude, whether you want to admit it now or not.

Of course it's not nice to be biased towards people because of their ethnic origin. But if the Holocaust would have ended in '89 only, and today we would have had a Germany still largely proud of their past and still thinking they are entitled to rule at least half of the world, then don't blame me too much if I would have been a bit prejudiced towards you just because you are German. Just as many are today prejudiced towards Iraqis and other Middle Eastern countries, seeing in each of them a potential terrorist.

Our job is to work on our prejudices... but that's not enough to solve all problems. It's also the nation in question that has to change itself from inside, and then prove itself to the world that their past is dead and buried. Just like Germany did - and they have all my respect.

[Alamar]

Oddly when I first heard the HoMM development team were going to be Russian I was kind of happy because I understood that Russia had an unusually strong, traditional HoMM fan base so I was OK with it.

I think that problems of communication and poor PR raised their heads though around the time of the closed & open betas. The bad communication [not all Nival's fault] is at least partially what lead to the fan revolt [Save Heores campaign].

Devil's Advocate: If what I hear about DMoMM is correct they had an English speaking developer and they wound up with a buggier and more unbalanced game. Now I don't own DMoMM but from the non-stop griping I heard from other people it would SEEM as if HoMM is the higher quality product ..... The only common factor that I know of is UBI ....

[Angelspit]

Perhaps they could start with NOT including WW2 tanks and planes into the game?

That's a reference to the other strategy games they make (Blitzkrieg and/or Silent Storm, not sure), not some sort of militaristic statement.