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Stevie
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
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posted February 23, 2014 03:54 PM |
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JoonasTo said:
...must...resist...trolling...the noob...
 Troll me and just give me some answers.
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verriker
Honorable
Legendary Hero
We don't need another 'eroes
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posted February 23, 2014 06:01 PM |
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Stevie said:
Troll me and just give me some answers.
1) well... because believe it or not, this isn't a Heroes game
2) who knows, I guess we may get liches who were playable in previous MM games
3) who knows
4) he designed the game, it was his project
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Stevie
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
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posted February 23, 2014 06:32 PM |
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verriker said:
Stevie said:
Troll me and just give me some answers.
1) well... because believe it or not, this isn't a Heroes game
2) who knows, I guess we may get liches who were playable in previous MM games
3) who knows
4) he designed the game, it was his project
1. Daym, right. But I knew the difference, it's just that the term 'Heroes' popped up in my head first. I actually wanted to say Might & Magic, so, why no Necro heroes? Necro it's like a must in this franchise imo.
2. Ok.
3. Maybe Marzhin knows?
4. I wonder how it is like to be in his shoes. I guess a lot of his dreams were shattered when he found out how the industry works. Being pressed by deadlines into releasing a game that you don't even like how it turned out...
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Storm-Giant
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
On the Other Side!
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posted February 23, 2014 06:39 PM |
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Salamandre said:
Storm-Giant said:
Sounds like any other M&M I've played - in later stages you are just too good to have a challenge, but it's fun 
There is The Chaos Conspiracy mod for M&M6, you finish it usually greater than level 250 and still can die from every mob around.
I know, I know. MM7revmod also had some nasty titans at the end of the game (or was maestro mod exclusive? ). But I was thinking only on NWC releases, no mods
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Marzhin
Shaper of Lore
Designer & Writer, Ubisoft
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posted February 24, 2014 11:03 AM |
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Stevie said:
1. Daym, right. But I knew the difference, it's just that the term 'Heroes' popped up in my head first. I actually wanted to say Might & Magic, so, why no Necro heroes? Necro it's like a must in this franchise imo.
2. Ok.
3. Maybe Marzhin knows?
4. I wonder how it is like to be in his shoes. I guess a lot of his dreams were shattered when he found out how the industry works. Being pressed by deadlines into releasing a game that you don't even like how it turned out...
1. IIRC You can only turn into a Lich in MM7, 8 and 9. So, 3 games out of 10, not really a "franchise must". But a more down-to-earth answer is simply that with our scope and budget there are things we couldn't do, as multiple branching promotion quests for each class. That's life.
2 and 3. There's nothing planned at the moment.
4. Having worked as a video game journalist for years before joining Ubisoft I had a pretty good idea of how this industry works (short answer: like any other industry). To me, working with constraints is part of the fun. Trying to find how to overcome limited resources in creative ways is what makes game development challenging and interesting.
And I like how MMX turned out. It's by no means a perfect game, but keep in mind it was our first RPG (both on Ubi's and Limbic's side). Despite the mistakes we made I believe we have a strong foundation for (hopefully) a very good MM11 
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Stevie
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
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posted February 24, 2014 12:36 PM |
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Well, first of all, let me tell you I like your optimistic spirit.
Secondly, I have to disagree with you on making games, more precisely on deadlines and limited resources. You won't be able to explore a game's full potential when working under pressure, and I'm speaking from experience. I am certainly not a programmer, I barelly know the basics of coding, but I did some teamwork on other kind of projects and one thing I learned from that is that a lot of great ideas, even project-saving ones, come midway of developing or even in the final stages. So what do you do when you can't go back and implement those ideas because of lack of resources or a deadline? The obvious, you continue with what you got and end up releasing a game that is less than what it could have been. And then the fans get disappointed and start asking questions and they'll always get the 'deadline and no resources' answer. I say screw deadlines and low budgets, that if you want to have a great game that sells. Why not give it a try? Scoring 70 on metacritic with average reviews saying the same old phrase 'well it's ok, but it could've been better'. While every single next release ends up being the same - I have seen this scenario way too many times. Why wouldn't it be, if the same time and resources restrictions come into the equations every time. It would be foolish to expect a different result. So please understand why my hopes are not that high, not only for Might & Magic but for games in general. It's just that I simply hate what the industry has become. A place where people prioritise making money above making quality games.
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arain21
Tavern Dweller
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posted February 24, 2014 01:10 PM |
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Stevie said:
Well, first of all, let me tell you I like your optimistic spirit.
Secondly, I have to disagree with you on making games, more precisely on deadlines and limited resources. You won't be able to explore a game's full potential when working under pressure, and I'm speaking from experience. I am certainly not a programmer, I barelly know the basics of coding, but I did some teamwork on other kind of projects and one thing I learned from that is that a lot of great ideas, even project-saving ones, come midway of developing or even in the final stages. So what do you do when you can't go back and implement those ideas because of lack of resources or a deadline? The obvious, you continue with what you got and end up releasing a game that is less than what it could have been. And then the fans get disappointed and start asking questions and they'll always get the 'deadline and no resources' answer. I say screw deadlines and low budgets, that if you want to have a great game that sells. Why not give it a try? Scoring 70 on metacritic with average reviews saying the same old phrase 'well it's ok, but it could've been better'. While every single next release ends up being the same - I have seen this scenario way too many times. Why wouldn't it be, if the same time and resources restrictions come into the equations every time. It would be foolish to expect a different result. So please understand why my hopes are not that high, not only for Might & Magic but for games in general. It's just that I simply hate what the industry has become. A place where people prioritise making money above making quality games.
100% agree mate.
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Marzhin
Shaper of Lore
Designer & Writer, Ubisoft
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posted February 24, 2014 01:18 PM |
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When a project starts, the dev team and publisher discuss together (sometimes for months) to agree on a budget, a deadline and a scope. This is the combination of several factors: how much copies the publisher expects to sell, how experienced the team is, etc. Then a contract is signed between the two parties.
When the dev team comes short of budget in the middle of the development, then most of the time it's because they have poorly planned and estimated time/costs to begin with (although some unforeseeable stuff can happen too - a contractor increases his prices, etc.)
When a publisher asks for new features that were not part of the agreed-upon scope, sometimes the team feel they can do it within the signed terms, sometimes it leads to renegotiation of the budget and deadline. The contract also means the publisher won't cut budget in half in the middle of a development just because "publishers are evil". It doesn't work that way. The publisher has to honour his part of the contract.
Working longer on a project means more budget no matter what, because coders, artists and designers don't work for free. In the end of the day, even passionate people must pay the bills and feed their family. And the more "mature" the video games industry gets, the better the wages become, so the bigger the budgets become as well to accommodate this. Talented and experienced people are expensive - as they should be
Also you have to realize that the more budget you have, the more the game needs to sell to be profitable, and so the more it needs to make concessions to the "larger audience". Also, the bigger the project the more you get people who don't understand the game who want to have a say about what you're doing.
So I think it was wiser to begin with a small, niche project to revive Might & Magic rather than start with a big-budget, AAA title that would have had nothing to do with Might & Magic in the end.
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Hermes
Famous Hero
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posted February 24, 2014 01:29 PM |
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Edited by Hermes at 13:30, 24 Feb 2014.
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Exactly, Marzhin.
I'm not in the game development so it is an interesting read, but I do understand how business functions.
And please Stevie don't placate metacritic scores up here, just don't.
Unless the game is a shooter and/or you pay a lot for 'marketing'(read paid reviews) it will never get 90+ on metacritic, especially if it is a niche product as MMX is.
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Stevie
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
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posted February 24, 2014 02:54 PM |
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Marzhin said:
So I think it was wiser to begin with a small, niche project to revive Might & Magic rather than start with a big-budget, AAA title that would have had nothing to do with Might & Magic in the end.
This I agree with. I think no one would've wanted an AAA size screw up. And as you said, your team has earned some experience now and hopefully they will get the chance to work on a bigger and better MM11 in the future.
And one thing more, I decided to buy the game (even though no Necro heroes ). I guess this is the least I can do to help. I still have some hope left in me for a brighter future.
@Hermes: Yet you still reviewed the game on metacritic, Hermes_tri 
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Storm-Giant
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
On the Other Side!
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posted February 24, 2014 03:39 PM |
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Marzhin said:
And I like how MMX turned out. It's by no means a perfect game, but keep in mind it was our first RPG (both on Ubi's and Limbic's side). Despite the mistakes we made I believe we have a strong foundation for (hopefully) a very good MM11
I think this is the most importan aspect of the whole game and people fail to notice.
It doesn't matter having a big budget if the dev is new to the series and lacks experience - the chance of failure is HUGE. See vanilla H5 or Heroes 6.
That's why I hope Ubisoft give Limbic another chance with a M&M XI - and slighty bigger budget. Continuity is something that M&M devs lacked since Ubisoft bought the rights of the brand.
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arain21
Tavern Dweller
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posted February 24, 2014 04:28 PM |
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Edited by arain21 at 16:29, 24 Feb 2014.
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In my opinion the main part of the game is create a good design of the game and after this, create or use a proper technology for create the game. If this part is accurate, the game will become a great title.
We know also MMX is a "low" budget game and there are not justification for the errors and bugs game contain which avoid of obtain an excellent score (+8/10).
Also the people including me we have an opinion, even on metacritic we can see the opinion of the press and users for MMX and many of them match with the problems of MMX which some design problems and bugs.
I would prefer a game smaller for MMX and focus on others aspects like bugs, optimization and stronger design. Now the game is enormous and in my opinion still on beta, I always read the forum of MMX and still I see many critic bugs and others news after the patch.
And, where is The Dangling Woods song? 
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JoonasTo
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
What if Elvin was female?
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posted February 24, 2014 05:10 PM |
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I don't know about your beta but my game worked pretty flawlessly.
The amount of issues people keep having with their games is looking more and more like user error to me 90% of the time. Let's face it, modern gamers are just all noobs.
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DON'T BE A NOOB, JOIN A.D.V.E.N.T.U.R.E.
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Storm-Giant
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
On the Other Side!
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posted March 08, 2014 09:01 PM |
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Elvin
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Endless Revival
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posted March 09, 2014 09:38 AM |
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A good read, I can tell that the guy knows what he's talking about
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H5 is still alive and kicking, join us in the Duel Map discord server!
Map also hosted on Moddb
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JoonasTo
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
What if Elvin was female?
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posted March 09, 2014 10:10 AM |
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It's a lot more about the old games than the new. Not exactly the best read for someone who hasn't played them all if they want to know more about the game.
"Combat system is like Wizardry"
Yeah, great, when was the last wizardry game again? 
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DON'T BE A NOOB, JOIN A.D.V.E.N.T.U.R.E.
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Hermes
Famous Hero
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posted March 25, 2014 01:04 AM |
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I have received a survey invitation from Ubi and completed it. Recommend every M&M fan to do the same as there were lots of interesting questions which may influence further games.
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mvassilev
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
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posted March 25, 2014 04:46 AM |
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Storm-Giant
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
On the Other Side!
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posted March 25, 2014 10:21 AM |
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Same here :/
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Storm-Giant
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
On the Other Side!
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posted April 14, 2014 02:09 PM |
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This thread is pages long: 
