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Thread: Heroes V Manual and Reference Guides - Made by Fans, Approved by Ubisoft [ This thread is pages long: (1) 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 ] |
Valeriy
Mage of the Land
Naughty, Naughty Valeriy
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posted August 01, 2006 09:35 AM |
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Poll Question:
Heroes V Manual and Reference Guides - Made by Fans, Approved by Ubisoft
Perhaps you've noticed the lack of updates on Age of Heroes lately. What if we've told you that we were busy making a 200 page Heroes V game manual together with the teams of international HOMM websites and collaboration of Ubisoft and Nival? We just have  Below you will find the manual's foreword, a word from Ubisoft and the link to download the brand new manual.
Foreword
This document is the result of a coordinated effort by the international HOMM community, led by the Age of Heroes team, and supported by Ubisoft and Nival Interactive. We want to thank the contributors, translators and proofreaders involved in this production for their hard work. We also want to thank Nival for revealing the internal mechanics of the game.
When Fabrice Cambounet, Ubisoft Heroes V producer, contacted us to create this manual, we accepted the task with much enthusiasm. While the producer was working on patches and the map editor, we were glad to be able to step in and help the fans by creating the much needed game reference materials. From the start, the objective was to release localized versions of the manual, so that everybody can enjoy all the game information, not only the English speaking players. We couldn't have done it without the concerted and dedicated effort of the international community.
This guide has been created for you, and we will be listening to your feedback to make it better. Actually, we already have a few planned updates. And now, let's delve into the rich and mysterious world of Heroes V!
Valera Koltsov, Stéphane Fidanza, Paolo Angelo Sossi.
The Age of Heroes Team.
Word from Ubisoft
This manual is the result of the involvement of the Heroes of Might and Magic community as a whole. I started discussing with them the expected content for such a manual and came to realize they were willing, even eager to participate in creating it. So it was decided to test such a direct collaboration with the fans.
The result is beyond our expectations for the quality and level of detail: they have invested much energy in doing "their" manual, unravelling the game mechanics and exposing the complex structure built by Nival, with the help of the game developers.
Most communities have been involved in directing its content, adding tables, helping in the translation or simply giving feedback, and the Age of Heroes team did a great work in coordinating the whole effort.
Fabrice Cambounet.
Heroes 5 Producer, Ubisoft.
SEAL OF APPROVAL
Heroes V Manual is the first creation to receive the Ubisoft's Might and Magic Seal of Approval.
About the Seal of Approval: This Seal will distinguish the most qualitative works done by fans or communities and submitted to Ubisoft. We will consider such works as maps, mods, guides or any other element created by the fans for the game or its universe. Any of such selected element will be reproduced on the official Might and Magic webpage and be allowed to bear this Seal.
DOWNLOAD
The latest versions and localizations of the manual can be downloaded here:
 http://www.heroesofmightandmagic.com/heroes5/game_manuals.shtml
PRINTABLE REFERENCE GUIDES
The full manual hopefully includes all the information you'll ever need about the game, but printing the manual will both be time-consuming and costly, and alt-tabbing in and out of the game is not something everyone would want or afford. As an alternative or addendum to the manual, a set of easily printable reference guides with the most crucial information has been made:
http://www.heroesofmightandmagic.com/heroes5/printable_reference_guides.shtml
You will already find Skills and Creatures references guides, with everything from skills requirement to plan your heroes development, to the much needed creature abilities descriptions. Don't expect much graphical documents, as we tried hard to keep them lightweight and easy-to-print. And of course, we are open to your feedback and suggestions.
THIS THREAD
The purpose of this thread is to gather feedback, suggestions, bug and error reports for the Heroes V Manual. And of course you are most welcome to write what you think about it. Once you've had a good read of the manual, go ahead and vote in the poll below.
Poll Question: What do you think about the new Heroes V Manual?
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Caligno
Hired Hero
If zombies only had brains
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posted August 01, 2006 12:43 PM |
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Edited by caligno at 12:45, 01 Aug 2006.
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I am at work right now so I won't have a chance to read it for a while but I will when I get home. But I wanted to give a quick thank you to everyone who worked on this, it definetly sounds like a lot of time and thought went into this. And also a big  to Ubisoft for aiding the community in making this, smart move and their part. Looks like many good things can come of this, makes me confident that Ubisoft will do good things for HOMM.
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unreal_az
Tavern Dweller
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posted August 01, 2006 12:55 PM |
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Just downloaded and browed a little, will do some later. For now i won't give any grade. I think it's toward the best manual the Homm Series had.
Great job to all involved. I am really glad all that info was gathered in one big manual.
GJ Homm Comunity.
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Elvin
Hero of Order
Watching and waiting
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posted August 01, 2006 02:50 PM |
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Edited by Elvin at 15:01, 01 Aug 2006.
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I just read the manual and the things that impressed me the most are the quality,level of detail and the fact that it deals with EVERYTHING one could hope or not to see in a manual.Insights in the game mechanics,town specialties,skill presentation,terrain effects on troops,it's all there!Except the factions' history but otherwise outstanding in every way.And not just the manual itself.The way ubisoft handled the situation allowed for the best possible results and the dedication and collaboration the heroes community showed is to be praised.Ubisoft may not have delivered the product in the way it should but certainly shows the best intentions in making it live up to our expectations and takes into account what the fans want.That said,things can only get better.Keep up the good work!
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What is the most resilient parasite? Bacteria? A virus? An intestinal worm? An idea. Resilient... highly contagious. Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it's almost impossible to eradicate.
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alcibiades
Hero of Order
The Hammer of Faith
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posted August 01, 2006 03:06 PM |
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It's a very thorough work! It is easy to understand, and it looks really professional, except perhaps for the layout of the frontpage, wich unfortunately is a bit too colourful to match the otherwise very elegant layout of the rest of the document. But then, that my major complaint is the layout of the frontpage certainly speeks volumes of the quality of the work!
I'm very impressed with the very usefull Skill Trees, and the section on Initiative combat mechanics is extremely instructive. There's a wealth of information on things such as city specialities, siege mechanics, Hero stat progression, unit spellpower, movement spellpower and loads of other small and large subjects that might not be essential for gameplay, but is usefull for the advanced player. The Skill wheels in the end is a bit confusing, though, and I'm not really sure they add anything to the more easily understood skill-trees.
One information is still sadly missing, however: The exact formula for calculating unit power is still not uncovered.
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maltz
Adventuring Hero
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posted August 01, 2006 03:39 PM |
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Thanks very much!  I never knew I could touch a swan.
One little question: the manual says in campaigns, heroic difficulty makes the stacks 50% larger with diminished experience. Is this confirmed? Elsewhere I hear is 40% larger with proportionally more experience, as the manual says about MP and scenario games.
Also, what is the chance of having a warding arrow? (Nice to know it pushes back ATB by 20%).
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Nebuka
Promising
Supreme Hero
Save me Jebus!
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posted August 01, 2006 04:20 PM |
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quote:
The result is beyond our expectations for the quality and level of detail: they have invested much energy in doing "their" manual, unravelling the game mechanics and exposing the complex structure built by Nival, with the help of the game developers.
This sounds good, still downloading, but hopefully all the formulas are in. After all, Nival helped. :-)
Btw, who participated?
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LindaG
Tavern Dweller
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posted August 01, 2006 04:55 PM |
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Hero selection
On page 172 of the manual, it mentions Isabel and Suzerain as heroes to consider for standard maps if you want bonuses to training, but I have not found a map yet that lets you select your starting hero.
Is this something that is only for campaign maps? or are standard maps a reference to single player maps?
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Nebuka
Promising
Supreme Hero
Save me Jebus!
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posted August 01, 2006 05:21 PM |
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Yeah, just in campaigns. But who knows, when editor comes, maybe mapmakers will make maps where you can select them as well. That is, if game allows.
Anyway, browsed the manual, and it looks stunning. Same complaint here as poster above, that main page doesn't look that great compared to manual itself.
Loved the drawings in it btw.
Also, you guys had chance to play with editor? As seen that most objects are not from the game...guess you could've been sent those screens anyway. :-)
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Vlaad
Admirable
Legendary Hero
the loony leftist
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posted August 01, 2006 06:09 PM |
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Edited by Vlaad at 03:56, 21 Jan 2007.
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Great work! Needless to say, it should have been done by the developers themselves.
Just a few questions:
1) Is there only one type of seer huts?
2) Does Garden of the Wee Folk really give gems too?
3) "Magic skills are not favourable to Rangers"? What do you mean? Due to their low spellpower or did you have something else in mind?
4) Sylvan's moat entangles for 1 turn only?
The skillwheels are a nice addition, although they are not that useful in this format.
Oh, it was nice to see snow again, even if it was only a small pic featuring a lean-to.
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until snow falls in the wastelands and the mod tower crumbles under the power of noob's bedtime wishes for ascendence
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Elvin
Hero of Order
Watching and waiting
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posted August 02, 2006 06:16 AM |
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Edited by Elvin at 07:28, 02 Aug 2006.
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Come to think of it I have yet to see the chances of a creature's abilities to trigger such as fear,shield bash,warding arrow etc nor the percentage soldier's luck offers.How come?
____________
What is the most resilient parasite? Bacteria? A virus? An intestinal worm? An idea. Resilient... highly contagious. Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it's almost impossible to eradicate.
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Draco
Promising
Famous Hero
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posted August 02, 2006 11:08 AM |
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any chance this is going to be sold in stores with partial proceeds going to the communities?
I wouldnt mind buying it, but I don't want the one thats out now. one this I miss about H2 and H3 was the huge manual and all the extras
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sfidanza
Promising
Supreme Hero
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posted August 02, 2006 01:43 PM |
bonus applied. |
Edited by sfidanza at 13:44, 02 Aug 2006.
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The russian and spanish versions are now available:
Russian: ftp://ftp.ubi.com/emea/homm5/community/Heroes5_Manual_ru.zip (49.3Mb)
Spanish: ftp://ftp.ubi.com/emea/homm5/community/Heroes5_Manual_sp.zip (49.4Mb)
These localizations are the result of an unprecedented and very fruitful and enjoyable cooperation with La Torre de Marfil and Heroic Corner. If you use those versions, make sure you drop a word of appreciation on their forums.
@TomV: That is a really unfortunate side effect of the copy protected pdf that we completely overlooked. I apologize for that.
As for an html version, much of the manual content comes from our pages on Age of Heroes. We have also added many informations, and I've not had the time to update the online pages yet, but I will do so.
@howgrizzly: that only means the developer lacked inspiration at the time. 
There are several info that we could add, and are planning to add. Among these are more precise details on skills or hero specials. I added the chances for the creature abilities to trigger to that list. Feel free to suggest more.
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Muerte
Adventuring Hero
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posted August 02, 2006 01:54 PM |
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Wow. What a great manual. It is extremely detailed and very well organized. Congratulations to everyone involved on a job well done.
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head_hunter
Tavern Dweller
death itself has come for you
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posted August 02, 2006 03:55 PM |
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sever down?
foe some reson of anuther my comp wont lode the manle DL page- is it a prob with the sever or just my comp?
thanks
head_hunter
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lord_crusader
Promising
Supreme Hero
UHU!! supreme!
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posted August 02, 2006 03:57 PM |
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congrats to Sfianza and all the AOH guys who works in this manual... is very impressive great work guys!
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Dig Out Your Soul
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alcibiades
Hero of Order
The Hammer of Faith
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posted August 03, 2006 03:36 AM |
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quote:
There are several info that we could add, and are planning to add. Among these are more precise details on skills or hero specials. I added the chances for the creature abilities to trigger to that list. Feel free to suggest more.
Exact formula for calculation of Unit Powerrating.
Perhaps you could get the Nival guys to leach it ... I mean, what's the point in keeping it secret?
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Nebuka
Promising
Supreme Hero
Save me Jebus!
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posted August 03, 2006 02:30 PM |
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Powerrating? No such thing Nival has.
Iirc, that was just subjective ranking from AOH, to present to us another way of unit comparison. That's why it's not in this manual, as it's not as 'definate' as other stats. :-)
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Homer171
Promising
Supreme Hero
Taking a break from HC
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posted August 03, 2006 03:44 PM |
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Yes, very good manual! Age of Heroes!
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Maurice
Promising
Famous Hero
Knowledge-monger
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posted August 04, 2006 03:45 AM |
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quote:
Powerrating? No such thing Nival has.
Iirc, that was just subjective ranking from AOH, to present to us another way of unit comparison. That's why it's not in this manual, as it's not as 'definate' as other stats. :-)
For what I know, the game uses the power rating of units to determine whether or not to attack a neutral stack or enemy hero. If the relative power rating compared to its own army exceeds a certain limit, it tries to avoid combat with it.
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