Homm5 demo

[TheRock]

http://www.3dgamers.com/games/heroesmightmagic5/downloads/

[Hawkeye Fierce]

Starforce-free?

[farley2k]

Starforce-free?


Yes! Starforce is free! :)

[TomChick]

Man, you guys get all the breaks. I've been playing a preview build of HOMM5 that I got about a week and a half ago and it has frickin' Starforce on it.

-Tom

[Matt Perkins]

It's a rough life you lead...

[Tyjenks]

Yippeee!! This one actually includes a single player scenario..right?

Only thing that'll pull me away from Space Rangers. WHich, BTW, have I said is excellent.

[Samurai]

Yes the demo has single player in it.

I haven't been keeping track of the previews, will the full game have a random map generator?

[TheRock]

Someone on the forums said the RMG is confirmed for the expansion, whenever that is.

[Jason Lutes]

I like what I've seen so far -- this demo is much more reassuring than that first one. The tactical battles seem to keep the feel of classic HoMM while adding in some interesting twists. And Nival is the master of cool-looking units!

[Igor Muravyev]

Aw heck yes, I'm downloading this right now just cause it's not Starforce.

[instant0]

I read the readme for the demo and it said nothing about NOT containing starforce, anyone downloaded it and able to confirm it being free of infestation?

[Igor Muravyev]

I read the readme for the demo and it said nothing about NOT containing starforce, anyone downloaded it and able to confirm it being free of infestation?

Some people on Blue's News confirmed it, does that count? :)

[instant0]

Some people on Blue's News confirmed it, does that count? :)

hahaha. :-)
Forgot about that place. I used to visit it a lot when I was a wage-slave, seems like I do less surfing now that I am self employed.


I think I'll linger in this thread and wait until someone can confirm it, or deny, or just post a lie that I believe.

[Igor Muravyev]

I'm going to have the demo in about 10 minutes, so I'll tell you then unless someone beats me to the punch ;). Although I'm quite content to believe that it doesn't seeing as how Ubisoft cancelled starforce earlier :).

[selfnoise]

Didn't install Starforce on my machine.

Demo seems pretty cool. I'm get a lot of choppiness on the overland map, though, and I get it regardless of graphical settings. A64 3000+, 7600GT, 1gig ram.

I'm glad they kept the opera music for towns.

[Igor Muravyev]

Didn't install Starforce on my machine either. I played this for several hours on "Normal" and it kicked my ass [on both scenario and 1st campaign mission]. Honestly. It doesn't help that you can't tell how strong some other units are unless you've fought them already (even though the lots/few/many estimate is still in).

Overall, feels a lot like previous Heroes, except heroes seem to be able to attack now? (then again, I only remember homm2 very well). I'm still not sure why you would want to have the majority of your army in less than one hero.. hehehe :).

So yeh, seems like it hasn't lots its charm.


Demo seems pretty cool. I'm get a lot of choppiness on the overland map, though, and I get it regardless of graphical settings. A64 3000+, 7600GT, 1gig ram.
.
Weird, I maxed out half the graphics settings and it ran just fine, and I only got a 6800GT.

[instant0]

Hmm, perhaps I should download the demo then.

Anyone know if 3DGamers have stopped with .torrents for their demos entirely, or just a few demos that are not available through that?

[Kaigen]

Weird, I maxed out half the graphics settings and it ran just fine, and I only got a 6800GT.

I had the same choppiness, but only on the scenario map, and only when I rotated my view in a certain direction. The custom game was fine.

[Quaro]

I had quite a few crashes, from things like pushing escape one too many times to get out of the menus. My impressions are mostly that it hasn't changed very much. I mostly noticed that the heroes have some a more interesting skill system. That's probably OK if they have some good AI this time, but I'm disappointed the game hasn't evolved some more. I'm spoiled by Civ 4 I guess.

[Ben]

Is this demo seriously 700 MB? Jesus christ.

[Rock8man]

I am having a blast with this demo. Even though the game is 3D, it feels very much like old Heroes games.

I ran into a snag though. At the end of the first week in the first campaign scenario, I lost the game, and it went back to the main menu.

Now, I realize that you have to own a town by the end of the first week, and I did that. There is a town that's visible when you first start the scenario, so I headed for that town and took it over. I even hired a new hero in that town and sent both my heroes in different directions to take over mines. One hero took over the gold mine, one of them took over the ore mine. And then the week ended as I was in that position, and BAM, I lost.

Anyone know what I'm doing wrong? Does that town that's initially visible not count as a town for some reason?

[Igor Muravyev]

I am having a blast with this demo. Even though the game is 3D, it feels very much like old Heroes games.

I ran into a snag though. At the end of the first week in the first campaign scenario, I lost the game, and it went back to the main menu.

Now, I realize that you have to own a town by the end of the first week, and I did that. There is a town that's visible when you first start the scenario, so I headed for that town and took it over. I even hired a new hero in that town and sent both my heroes in different directions to take over mines. One hero took over the gold mine, one of them took over the ore mine. And then the week ended as I was in that position, and BAM, I lost.

Anyone know what I'm doing wrong? Does that town that's initially visible not count as a town for some reason?

Yeah, see, I told you, the game is hard as hell. You have to take over the town, and then rescue the chick from the prison directly NE of the city (by the dragon-looking things) all in one week (it says so in the objectives' detail screen). After that, you get slammed hard by the demon-guys several times who have huge armies and even manage to have demons (which it seems are the top-tier...) ... so... where are my angels !?!?

Speaking of which, you can't even seem to have two heroes in one city... great. I survived the first demon battle, but by the second, my army sucked craptacularly since all my knight guys were gone.

[Quaro]

If you hit 'O' you can see the objectived -- they say you need to control a town and get that knight chick within a week.

I haven't been able to get through that mission without crashing yet. Don't forget that the hero you recue is a level 17, so she gives massive bonuses to troops. Even conscripts have a decent attack and defense with her, so beating the Devils isn't too hard. Just try and keep the the knights on horseback you start with alive as long as possible so you can counter the devil stack when it first arrives.

[Incendiary Lemon]

Buy the extra level of fortification for the Town. Also checkout the the two Havens, on the road south of the town and one to the east of town. You can recruit Priests and Griffins, and Knights and Griffins. One of the demon armies will arrive from the south the other will warp in from the SE. You'll need to explore (taking your army with you) but stay close enough to reinforce the city.

[senator cthulhu]

The included Haven mission is pretty unforgiving for a demo.

Also, everything about the UI, from the ugly fonts to the inappropriate overmap lag, is sluggish and sloppy -- just like Etherlords, unsurprisingly. Also like Etherlords is the fact that it's next to impossible to find a map zoom level appropriate for the game -- zoom out and you can't tell objects from the terrain, zoom in and you're suddenly breathing down the neck of your hero.

They REALLY should have locked down the overmap angle and zoom level and designed the levels all with that standard. Overmap panning and zoom could be in there as a kind of option, or maybe as just a 'springy' thing, (bounces right back to standard after you release the pan button), but as it is, unless you can find that perfect pan angle which lets you see shit hidden behind trees AND differentiate between brown soil and piles of wood, expect to do alot of whirling and twirling of the camera.

Again, did anyone NOT see problems like these coming when Nival was announced as the developer?

At least the gameplay is relatively solid...

[Matt Perkins]

*shrugs* I found the level pretty easy if you've played HoMM before and the interface was anything but sluggish for me. YMMV.


Overall, I'm in love.

[Incendiary Lemon]

Overall, I'm in love.

Very much agreed, I'm really liking the demo.

[ioticus]

How's the strategic AI? At least one person reported it was braindead.

[Simpilot]

Very much agreed, I'm really liking the demo.

Couldn't agree more. Compared to that multiplayer nightmare demo that came out several months ago, this is actually a pleasure to play. The demo plus no Starforce equals another sale!

[Igor Muravyev]

Don't get me wrong, I like it a lot... but it's hard for the newcomers and I wish there was an easier difficulty setting.

[instant0]

Don't get me wrong, I like it a lot... but it's hard for the newcomers and I wish there was an easier difficulty setting.

You could always cheat? :-)

[Igor Muravyev]

You could always cheat? :-)

Please enlighten me how... the demo has no cheats or trainers.

[instant0]

Please enlighten me how... the demo has no cheats or trainers.

Oh, well, in a day or two there might be one. :)

If I did not get a 403 forbidden message after waiting in queue for 30 minutes on the 3dgamers site for the download, there might have been one in an hour or so.

[Ben]

For such an allegedly high profile title, the moral/morale typo kind of pisses me off.

[senator cthulhu]

AI seems braindead in the scenario map I just played. It's got like 2x the amount of units I have, could easily trounce me, but instead wanders out of its own castle leaving a token defense, then when I capture its castle, it looks like it's making a break for my castle, which I thought was at least interesting AI, but in actuality it was just kidding and it walks to the southeast corner of the map and sits there indefinitely.

Also in this map, the AI didn't even seem to be ON until I explored the fog of war near it. His entire kingdom region was still full of the easy pickup goodies and stuff -- which was odd because the unit buildings and resource centers were flagged for him, but had piles of treasure sitting literally right next to the capture spot of the mine/mill/whatever. This of course means the AI didn't actually flag a damn thing. It was all set up to be his by default in the map.

[Jason Lutes]

For such an allegedly high profile title, the moral/morale typo kind of pisses me off.
There are lots of grammar, spelling, and translation issues, owing to the Russian developers. Hopefully Ubisoft'll clean all that stuff up. I agree that it really mars the general overall gleam.

[Incendiary Lemon]

Chicks preview is up - Link (http://videogames.yahoo.com/gamepreview?cid=1991752301&tab=previews&page=0&eid=451728).

[instant0]

the game seems very unstable here (in winxp 64 bit edition).
... it crashes even before I get to start a game, or just after I started one, or just as I launch the title.

Noted: The game installer asks you if you want to submit information to Ubisoft, you can select no to this, but the game exe still requires Ubistats.dll to be present. Have'nt checked for any outgoing comms though.

Edit: disabled AF/AA and the game became more stable, up to the point where I managed to fight a battle and/or save the game, before it crashes.

[NuclearWinter]

AI seems braindead in the scenario map I just played. It's got like 2x the amount of units I have, could easily trounce me, but instead wanders out of its own castle leaving a token defense, then when I capture its castle, it looks like it's making a break for my castle, which I thought was at least interesting AI, but in actuality it was just kidding and it walks to the southeast corner of the map and sits there indefinitely.

This is listed as a known problem with that map in the readme file.

[wisefool]

Played a good 5-6 hours to finish the empire-side mission.

Technical:
Runs smooth. However, after having the PC run HOMM5 for most of the day (played some in morning, then in evening) found HOMM choppy. Maybe some sort of resource leak to be plugged? a3800, agp 6800gt, 2gb.

Run a lot better than HOMM4 did back then, thought, and I'm pretty sure PC was in relatively-same spot in the performance curve.

AI:

Tactical Ai has one flaw, frequently saw the monsters moving back and forth on the spiked moats for no reason, taking damage.

Some cinematic battle closeups need bug-fixing. In certain positions, you can't see the action cause they're just showing the wooden door that's in between the combatants and you.

Campaign AI weirdness: **SPOILER**

<Spoiler>
I like how when you dig and miss it gives you cardinal directions. Really hate having to match my map with the puzzle map/treasure map like in Pirates. Oh, you're 2 pixels short sorry.

After digging out artifact, the silly red AI left a massive stack outside my castle. About x3 my size,something that would take at most 10% casualties to chew out my stack. But if they had attacked the castle they would have gotten chewed up. So the AI sat there, while I sat there a bunch of weeks amassing more troops.

At this point I just about conquered red's town, and was mopping up with the female hero. She runs back to original town, figure between the two of em I'd have enough power to bash him up. Before she got in range, he charged my capital and got minced. Interesting.

To be seen in full version:

Would like to see advancement skill system. In HOMM3 I had favored, ideal set of skills for my combat monster (Logistics, Attack, Defense, Archery if i used druids/elfs, etc) This seems to have very interesting side choices skills. The skills that grant mass effects to specific spells look interesting.

Want to know how initiative works. Delay has been nerfed.

It's very much HOMM3 in feel and play. I like it how they keep the same hotkeys. And to be honest, I was going to buy the game anyway, starforce or not. Got separate machine for online banking and junk like that anyway. (It's a good self-delusion to upgrade your PC, hey, I can just use the other machine for online banking.)

[senator cthulhu]

And to be honest, I was going to buy the game anyway, starforce or not. Got separate machine for online banking and junk like that anyway. (It's a good self-delusion to upgrade your PC, hey, I can just use the other machine for online banking.)
Oh I'd definitely allow Starforce, the call-home driver-level malware, onto the system which I used to do all my online banking. That's just sheer brilliance there.

[Jason Lutes]

Man, the tactical combat is awesome in this thing. More depth and variety than the previous HoMM games -- lots of positive Etherlords influence. Now I'm just praying they can deliver a passable strategic AI...

[Igor Muravyev]

Man, the tactical combat is awesome in this thing. More depth and variety than the previous HoMM games -- lots of positive Etherlords influence. Now I'm just praying they can deliver a passable strategic AI...

But is it just me or do most units have a lot more walking range now? I remember taking 4-5 turns for units to get across the map, in the demo they all seem to do it in 2 or 3.

[instant0]

Wish I could play it more than what I am able to now before it crashes... hope they patch the demo once they figure out the problem...

[Incendiary Lemon]

Does anyone know what the rule for Flanking is? Does it apply to units other than cavalry?

[fuzzyslug]

Edit: disabled AF/AA and the game became more stable, up to the point where I managed to fight a battle and/or save the game, before it crashes.

Thanks for the tip. I might give a second try. Any demo that locks up after about 2 minutes rarely gets a second chance.

[instant0]

Thanks for the tip. I might give a second try. Any demo that locks up after about 2 minutes rarely gets a second chance.

Dont bother about it.. , it still crashes so often that I have given up trying to play it.. :-(

[Saxman_72]

AAARRRRRGGGH!!!

Is there seriously no way to invert just the X or the Y mouse axis?!

That pisses me off.

[SuperHiro]

I'm dissappointed that all the heroes of a certain all look exactly the same. I would have hoped by now that there'd be SOME sort of visual customization.

[Ranulf]

I'm dissappointed that all the heroes of a certain all look exactly the same. I would have hoped by now that there'd be SOME sort of visual customization.

I noticed that as well. It could be that they didnt add in the graphics for that in the demo? The queen chick looks like a chick except when doing a regular combat attack on a mob, then she looks like Godric, same with other heroes.

I like the demo, except for the crappy camera system, the slow map scroll (since after each turn it centers on the hero and you have to slowly scroll to where you set out their movement path again) and the horrid "objectives". For a demo they don't tell you much of anything. Ive played homm2 and 3 a lot and it still took me 3 times to realize why I was losing in 7 days. Good luck to anyone whose never played the series before.

[Jason Lutes]

But is it just me or do most units have a lot more walking range now? I remember taking 4-5 turns for units to get across the map, in the demo they all seem to do it in 2 or 3.
I think that's true, but I see it as an improvement. It feels just about right to me -- enough room to maneuver, but not a slog to get to the other side of the battlefield.

[Jason Lutes]

...the slow map scroll (since after each turn it centers on the hero and you have to slowly scroll to where you set out their movement path again)
I recommend the time-honored tradition of clicking on the minimap.

[Incendiary Lemon]

But is it just me or do most units have a lot more walking range now? I remember taking 4-5 turns for units to get across the map, in the demo they all seem to do it in 2 or 3.

The Dev team played around with the battlefield size in beta, they wanted to reduce the scale from the later Heroes titles and give the player some tactical choices. They found that larger maps actually made maneuvering less important.

We studied the previous games and a worrying tendency was established : the ratio of creature size to the whole combat screen was declining very rapidly with each new version. If we kept such a tendency the average creature would not be more than a speck on the screen in Heroes 5.

Dev Diary (http://forums.ubi.com/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/1851065692/m/1331072014/r/8131018124#8131018124)

[Dave Perkins]

Well, the link that started this thread continues to fail to work for me. 404 errors, server full troubles, etc. Anyone have an alternative source?

[wisefool]

Well, the link that started this thread continues to fail to work for me. 404 errors, server full troubles, etc. Anyone have an alternative source?

You can FTP it from Ubisoft. yay for ftp servers! web 1.0 for the win!

http://ftp.ubi.com/emea/homm5/demo/

[Dave Perkins]

Thank you, wisefool!

[Dave Perkins]

I'm in love, too. I really liked Etherlords by Nival, and so far I'm getting the Etherlords vibe from HOMM5. It's just so darn pretty, too; it gives me confidence that the rest of the game is going to be great. I've fought a half dozen battles sorta cluelessly, but I'm mainly playing just to experience the game.

I agree with others who say that HOMM5 feels like HOMM3, which is a good thing. I also hope that the strategic AI is improved over HOMM4.

[extarbags]

Ok, I was playing this a bit yesterday, and I like it, but I'm having a couple problems. Bear in mind, I'm a huge fan of King's Bounty but have barely played a HoMM game at all (played 3 for like half an hour, maybe).

Basically, I felt really constricted. I played the first (I guess?) Human mission, and it felt like I was showehorned into just kind of moseying on down the road, getting whatever was in my path. Is this just how it is?

Much more problematic, though: I felt really, really confined in my troop selection and numbers. Can you only recruit new units in town? And what controls how many? Because I built the building that allowed me to recruit Griffins, and it only gave me four, whoop-de-do. By that point, my main army was looking kind of anemic, the chick that I rescued didn't really have an army, and I had no garrison in the town except for seven peasants... and two turns later, the demon guy attacked the town and I lost the mission. So where do I get more troops in a hurry? Or really, at all? And how does the Training Ground work?

So help me get into this, because the parts that I like, I really like, but there's so much that I just don't get.

Edit: also, is there any way to mix-and-match units from different factions? Probably not, huh?

[Jason Lutes]

Basically, I felt really constricted. I played the first (I guess?) Human mission, and it felt like I was showehorned into just kind of moseying on down the road, getting whatever was in my path. Is this just how it is?
Hopefully it will vary from mission to mission in the final game. Previous HoMM games have had a mix of more open campaign scenarios and more linear, puzzle-y ones; Etherlords is incredibly linear. We'll just have to wait and see how it pans out, but in general HoMM is not as open as, say, the Age of Wonders games.

Much more problematic, though: I felt really, really confined in my troop selection and numbers. Can you only recruit new units in town? And what controls how many? Because I built the building that allowed me to recruit Griffins, and it only gave me four, whoop-de-do. By that point, my main army was looking kind of anemic, the chick that I rescued didn't really have an army, and I had no garrison in the town except for seven peasants... and two turns later, the demon guy attacked the town and I lost the mission. So where do I get more troops in a hurry? Or really, at all? And how does the Training Ground work?
One of the basic HoMM conventions is the weekly "growth" of troop populations in your cities. If you build a new unit-generation structure, you'll get an initial handful, but the building will produce no more until the first day of the next week. So on day one of a given week you'll be able to load up on more troops. This mechanic is odd, but it's part of what makes HoMM games what they are. A lot of your strategic planning will pivot around it.

That demo mission is stupidly difficult -- a pretty lame intro for new players. I recommend playing around with the custom scenario instead, just to get a low-pressure handle on how the system works. But as has been mentioned, the AI is braindead in that scenario, so you'll just have to experiment going up against the various stacks of indie creatures scattered about.

Edit: also, is there any way to mix-and-match units from different factions? Probably not, huh?
You can mix and match at will, but you can only build a given faction's troop production structures at that faction's city. If you own an Infernal city and a Haven city (or whatever they're called), you can move a hero from one to the other and load up on as many different kinds of monsters as you want, as long as the hero has enough free slots. I believe there's a morale penalty for having an army composed of troops from different factions, depending on how different they are in alignment.

[Ben]

extarbags- You get new units on the first day of any week. You can mix and match between factions, as well.

The first human mission in the demo is pretty ridiculous. Your objectives are unclear, and it's incredibly hard for the first few weeks, then the terrible AI kicks in and it becomes really easy.

Anyway, from the start, take the extra money special thing, go to the little dancing leprechauns, then go straight to the town. Take the town but don't buy any unit producing buildings until you've bought the highest level fortification. Then take your army to the prison, rescue the chick, give all your units to the chick and hide your other dude out of the way. Fortify the chick in the town, buy any dudes you can and wait for the first demon attack. With the extra arrow shooting towers and the chick hero you should be able to beat him. Then take the chick with all your dudes and get the mines and recruiting stations and shit, but remember at the start of the next week there'll be another extremely powerful army that attacks your town.

The game has some of that Heroes charm, but the only way to beat the human mission is to game the extremely retarded AI. After the second attack the mission becomes a joke, because the computer doesn't try to exploit your weaknesses, ever. You can have a Hero with 1 peasant and they won't try to kill him, instead they'll throw everything they have against your 600 dude army at the castle.

[extarbags]

Hopefully it will vary from mission to mission in the final game. Previous HoMM games have had a mix of more open campaign scenarios and more linear, puzzle-y ones; Etherlords is incredibly linear. We'll just have to wait and see how it pans out, but in general HoMM is not as open as, say, the Age of Wonders games.

Ok. :/

One of the basic HoMM conventions is the weekly "growth" of troop populations in your cities. If you build a new unit-generation structure, you'll get an initial handful, but the building will produce no more until the first day of the next week. So on day one of a given week you'll be able to load up on more troops. This mechanic is odd, but it's part of what makes HoMM games what they are. A lot of your strategic planning will pivot around it.

Ok, so like if the Griffin tower that I built gives me four Griffins a week, that's all I get? Is there any way to up the number of units I can recruit per week? And I can only get them in town, right, so there's no KB-style "dwellings" where I can just get a couple hundred all at once? And the training ground... you just stash the troops in there and they get upgraded after what, a week? Do you choose what they get upgraded to, or do they just turn into like superpeasants?

That demo mission is stupidly difficult -- a pretty lame intro for new players. I recommend playing around with the custom scenario instead, just to get a low-pressure handle on how the system works. But as has been mentioned, the AI is braindead in that scenario, so you'll just have to experiment going up against the various stacks of indie creatures scattered about.

Does that let you just kind of hang around, build up your big army and stuff, without actually giving you specific things to do like "let's beat this demon man?" Cause that sounds like more what I'm after.

You can mix and match at will, but you can only build a given faction's troop production structures at that faction's city. If you own an Infernal city and a Haven city (or whatever they're called), you can move a hero from one to the other and load up on as many different kinds of monsters as you want, as long as the hero has enough free slots. I believe there's a morale penalty for having an army composed of troops from different factions, depending on how different they are in alignment.

Ah ok, that's acceptable.

Thanks! And thank you too, Ben, I'll try that method whenever I try that mission again, even if it does seem a little cheap. Hopefully that's just the worst-designed mission in the game.

[Ben Sones]

Ok, so like if the Griffin tower that I built gives me four Griffins a week, that's all I get? Is there any way to up the number of units I can recruit per week?

I haven't played a lot of HoMM5 yet, but in past HoMM games there were buildings that you could build that would increase recruitment rate for some (usually lower level, like peasants) creatures. But in general, yeah--you are limited by the weekly limit.

There are two ways to counteract that. The simplest is to try to build your recruitment buildings as quickly as possible. With each building the recruits creatures, every week that goes by = that many more creatures that you missed out on getting. Of course, you can only build one building per day, and are limited by your income (and your need to spend your gold on other things, like recruiting creatures to explore the map and capture vital structures that will increase your income and resources), so it's a bit of a juggling act (and one that is central to the game's strategy).

The second way to increase weekly recruitment is to capture more towns. The maps in the demo seem pretty small by the standards of past HoMM games (hopefully that's just a feature of these particular maps, and not the HoMM5 maps in general). In past HoMM games, there were usually a number of capturable cities on even the smaller maps. A new city effectively doubles your potential recruitment, though of course you may need to build new buildings there before you can get them (which requires gold and time), and you'll need creatures to capture it in the first place.

And I can only get them in town, right, so there's no KB-style "dwellings" where I can just get a couple hundred all at once?

There are neutral dwellings where you can buy creatures, though they may not be on every map. I know that the first demo map has at least one, though.

[LordGek]

Someone on the forums said the RMG is confirmed for the expansion, whenever that is.

That, as I'm sure was already pointed out, is the random map generator but, dang, is this a tradition with the game or what? Almost every HoMM game adds the random map generation as a late patch or a promised feature of the expansion. It can never be in the game right off...it just defies the laws of nature, I guess.

[extarbags]

Ok, I've just finished my first custom game, and I'm more than sold.

[Dave Perkins]

Ok, I've just finished my first custom game, and I'm more than sold.

What did you like about it best?

[extarbags]

At its core, the same thing I loved best about King's Bounty: just building a giant army of mishmoshed fantasy creatures and storming over other armies of mishmoshed fantasy creatures with it. But the way you go about it is so elegant, constantly juggling your hero's location with the town(s) you're building up with your need for resources and gold with your need for a roaming army with your need for garrisons, and so forth and so on. It took me a number of tries to really understand it, but all of a sudden, it just clicked, and I immediately understood the love for this series. By the time I did manage to build up a monstrous force of Temptresses and Pit Lords, I was soaring.

Frankly, I'm sad that it's over, and that I really can't do much more with the demo besides replay the same game. But ah well. The only problem I had was a weird thing, though: the game just kind of ended, anticlimactically. For a few turns I was watching the other Hero run around the map, trying to reclaim his resources, and I was gearing up for a big showdown with him, and then... it was just over. I'm not sure what happened, but the showdown never came.

I wasn't going to, but now I feel like I might play another custom game, and try to build my hero more elegantly and maybe turn up the difficulty and have that showdown after all. Custom is definitely more my speed than the mission.

By the way, is it utterly retarded to spend a couple turns waiting around for money/troops to be available? I did that a few times in that game, because... well, I had to. Is that part of the game, or is it absolutely wrong?

[Jason Lutes]

I wasn't going to, but now I feel like I might play another custom game, and try to build my hero more elegantly and maybe turn up the difficulty and have that showdown after all. Custom is definitely more my speed than the mission.
Apparently the strategic AI is dead in the demo, so don't expect much of a challenge...

By the way, is it utterly retarded to spend a couple turns waiting around for money/troops to be available? I did that a few times in that game, because... well, I had to. Is that part of the game, or is it absolutely wrong?
Nothing wrong with it, I think it's pretty common in the HoMM games. When you're waiting like that, the only thing to consider hitting is certain non-flaggable resource-producing map sites that refresh every day, if they're within reach. Having an extra "errand boy" hero helps with that stuff -- equip him with a single griffin so he'll move faster on the strategic map and humiliate him by making him run back and forth between faerie rings picking up whatever spare change the leprechauns drop.

[Jason Lutes]

There's a nicely-organized summary of known HoMM V hero skills here (http://www.heroesofmightandmagic.com/heroes5/wizard_skills_abilities.shtml), and some creature abilities here (http://www.heroesofmightandmagic.com/heroes5/creature_abilities.shtml). Judging by what's available to the non-demo factions, it looks like the various interactions amongst all of these elements could get pretty interesting.

[extarbags]

And oh man, I love the Gating mechanic. I hope hope hope that every faction has a special mechanic as interesting as that one.

Edit: oooo, those are listed on the site. Artificer and Necromancy seem kind of neat.

[William Abner]

I've been messing around with a preview build and I'm absolutely hooked. (Actually the beta is version 0.8. Isn't the demo 0.9?) Anyway, I'm loving the new Dungeon creatures. In fact I really like the changes that they made to the bestiary for the most part. My only beef is that the 3D overland view makes it really easy to miss stuff unless you do a lot of rotating. Not a big deal but a bit cumbersome. To me this feels like HoMM3 but in 3D with some new gameplay twists, which is really what I was hoping it would be. So I'm happy.