This was all unexpected I have to say, but we are so back with Olden Era!... Right?
Again, the announcement trailer on Unfrozen's channel, the developers of the game, for those who haven't seen it yet:
Or link to Ubisoft's video if you want to read more comments, but limited to Full HD quality: Announcement Trailer.
Well, before some of us start throwing caution to the wind and lose themselves to hype (understandably so, because it looks great so far), lets ground ourselves a bit and take a moment to figure out the answer to this important question: just what exactly is it that you want the most from this game?
Is it a gripping campaign story?
Is it beautiful art and townscreens?
Maybe you just want compelling turn-based strategy and don't really care about much else.
Or maybe you want all of it?
As for me, it's already checking a lot of boxes, mainly because it seems to draw heavy inspiration from New World Computing's legacy Heroes of Might and Magic games, specifically the ones up to 3. But I also like the fact that they haven't stopped there and introduced new things to be excited about which we can already see in the trailer or have confirmed through other means.
But anyway, here's my wishlist right now, I'll keep it neat and tidy and also as brief as possible:
(Atmosphere)
1. NWC-era Heroes graphics style, more of the sword & sorcery kind as opposed to high fantasy.
2. Rob & Paul's old soundtracks remastered, plus a few new ones as well, because that's honestly the only way.
3. Mythological creatures, and we can have some generic entries too like human with sword and human with bow, but steer clear of oddballs like the Strider from Heroes 7 (trust me, you don't want to look it up).
4. Enchanting visual effects, I want to see and feel the Magic part of the game, the more mystical fairy-tail-like it appears, the better. Winds of magic in the air, pixies flying around, small critters moving from one place to another, etc.
5. The least amount of color coding possible, I don't care about someone's misguided idea of "readability", this is not a sports game where everyone dons the same-colored jersey. Leave that stuff out of this franchise, we value individual uniqueness around here.
(Content)
6. More than 8 factions. MORE! *insert Kylo Ren gif here*
7. One campaign per faction at the minimum, or a big campaign where each faction has its playable part, I guess that works too.
8. More than 7 creatures per faction. MORE! *insert Kylo Ren gif here again*
9. Some creatures with more than one upgrade. MORE! *I think by now we figured that content will always be an issue of "more"* *also insert Kylo Ren gif*
10. A decent amount of spells, like maybe 40, as a ballpark that number seems reasonable, but it depends on the magic system and I'm assuming it's similar to Heroes 3.
11. Around 10 heroes per faction, seems like a good number but more is always welcome.
12. Around 8 skill slots to pick from around 20 skills in total, hopefully all useful in some way, don't take after Heroes 3 here where half of them were fodder.
13. Skills have perks, otherwise it's a downgrade from one of Heroes 5's best features that definitely should feel core by now.
14. More varied combat maps, would be cool to see more than just a few layouts per theme, but not a big priority.
(Gameplay)
15. Competent AI with difficulty levels for everyone, at the top of this category because of its paramount importance to singleplayer users like me. I don't care if they have to leverage Ubisoft's unreleased self-learning AI technology or hire Quantomas to write it for them, but Unfrozen needs to hit the mark on this one.
16. Legacy hero progression like that of Heroes 3 and 5, no need to reinvent the wheel here. One specialization, level up gives some basic stats and a skill choice, maybe also a perk point if that's a system. It might depend on some factors, but it should all be very straightforward nonetheless.
17. Added Kingdom progression layer, not just a stats menu like in Heroes 3.
18. Added creature progression layer, for more customization and tactical choices. I would love to have levels for creatures, mini-artifacts to put on them, and upgrade them with new stats or abilities. Probably a big hurdle, but if WOG did it a decade ago, a gamedev nowadays should be able to do it too.
19. Artifact sets and maybe also artifact combinations, because they're way too cool. Let me assemble my Angelic Alliance and Titan's Thunder yo!
20. Adventure map spells, let's have that again, I quite liked them.
21. More strategy in town building, at least some non-linear prerequisites because it's going to get repetitive fast. Economy choices would be great as well.
22. No more town conversion, maybe a contentious point but I think it just reinforces doomstacking and that's not healthy for balance and gameplay in the long run. You should be able to play with towns from other factions just fine.
23. Underground and water exploration, I really hope I did not have to mention them, but I'd be extremely disappointed if Unfrozen were to pull a Lava Potion on us (Songs of Conquest reference).
(Replayability tools)
24. Random Map Generator, it's just a very convenient feature to just fire up a game.
25. Map Editor, for the creators that want to make their own maps.
26. Multiplayer lobbies, for those who have people to play with, and I do.
27. Duels, I really liked this from Heroes 5 and would be glad to see it again.
Alright, I guess that's it from me. I feel there's more I could add, but overall those are the main features I'd like to see from Olden Era. And I'm aware I could check mark some already, but this forum is as old as a dinosaur and doesn't have that feature.
But anyway, it's going to be interesting to see just how many more could be marked after the game releases in a few years and we'll come back to read this.
Where does this leave me? In a place of optimism honestly. I was prepared to say cautious optimism, but there's too much good going in what I've already seen that it just feels like this is it, the Heroes we've been waiting for in all these years. Or am I jumping the gun and it's too early to say? What do you guys think?
____________ Guide to a Great Heroes Game The Young Traveler
Corribus
Hero of Order
The Abyss Staring Back at You
posted August 25, 2024 08:30 PM
Stevie said: just what exactly is it that you want the most from this game?
Aside from the nuts and bolts of a strong strategy game (good balance, interesting factions, effective GUI, etc.), I'd like to see easy-to-use but deep mapmaking tools to support good player-made content.
____________
I'm sick of following my dreams. I'm just going to ask them where they're goin', and hook up with them later. -Mitch Hedberg
Corribus said:Aside from the nuts and bolts of a strong strategy game (good balance, interesting factions, effective GUI, etc.), I'd like to see easy-to-use but deep mapmaking tools to support good player-made content.
This is my major wish as well. A robust built-in scripting system would be awesome, and open up so many possibilities compared to HoMM 3 mapmaking (excluding WoG/ERA of course).
LordCameron
Known Hero
Veteran of the Succession Wars
posted August 26, 2024 05:03 AM
I like everything here but 18. Save that sort of thing for Age of Wonders in my opinion. Homm thrives on elegance and simplicity.
____________ What are Homm Songs based on?
Another thing that would be nice to see back, but which I'm not holding out hope for is Heroes 1/2 style Ultimate Artefacts.
Alternatively, you have to pick from one of several grail structures that give different rewards, f.e.:
* Gives 5,000 gold, 10 wood/ore and 5 crystal/gems/sulfur/mercury per day.
* Doubles the growth of all town dwellings, and makes the creatures free to recruit.
* Heroes know all spells, and a defending hero has 10 times their level spell points, rather than 10 times their Knowledge skill.
* Grants visiting heroes 1000 XP for their first visit, and 500 XP per week for subsequent visits.
etc.
Rimgrabber
Promising
Famous Hero
Voice in Gelu's Head
posted August 29, 2024 09:26 AM
Mod support would be great. I would probably like to try recreating the old campaigns and doing something similar to my "fix Ashan" book (which I am still making steady progress on) in actual in game campaigns. It could be hard to do that without modding in alternate creature lineups though.
____________
It might sound strange, but I really enjoyed those action camera moments during the battle (or however its called). When it zoomed in on the battlefield and focused on units/heroes in combat. Brought a bit more emersion and you could enjoy their animations and models a bit more.
Base game like H3 Complete
Additional content like HOTA
Additional options like WOG
Editor where you can make not only maps and scenarios but also custom towns, heroes, creatures, spells, skills, stats, resources, objects, sounds, game modes, game mechanics,..
H4 scripts, many possibilities in the editor.. The "explosion" of a mountain for example.. Yes Remove Object: Mountain in the editor.. Also you can give army growth every day and other Primary Skills bonus to computer AI.. If H4 scripts in the editor, it makes a great game.. Thanks
____________
Fight MWMs - stand teach
I suppose we already know a fair bit about the game, but if I were to wish for somthing in a new title it is more faction customization. While I appreciate having more factions, you can only play one at a time, and you typically have your favourites as well.
I think there lies good value in exploring how creature customization (H5, H4) would work in tandem with hero customization (H6).
In H6, some magic heroes suffered gravely from having few strong magic units, and choosing between alternative upgrades or alternative dwellings would not only mitigate this problem, but give actual choice in how to develop your build.
In a similar fashion, I don't believe that increasing lineup-size to 8 cretures is doing anybody any favours.
Increase the output of mines. Instead of daily outputs being 1000 gold, 2 wood/ore and 1 rare resources, make them 1000 gold, 10 wood/ore and 4-5 rare resources. That allows you to do more with the non-gold resources than you could before.
posted August 25, 2024 06:58 PM
posted August 25, 2024 08:30 PM
