Nival Poll: Schools of Magic

[Real_King_Louis]

Nival is currently running a second poll.

Click HERE (http://www.nival.com/) to be taken to Nival's home page. The poll is at the bottom of the page to the right.

Note: it is the second poll from the developers regarding HoMM _3_ system (first the towns, now the magic system). Not H4, H3....

[st14z]

I am afraid that they did not give H4 features a change http://forums.ubi.com/images/smilies/cry.gif.

[Campaigner_1st]

Im worried that they're going the Heroes III spell school approach instead of the Heroes IV one.
I was close on voting Air or Water.
Anyway, I voted Earth for the following reasons.

<UL TYPE=SQUARE>
<LI>Stoneskin
<LI>Shield
<LI>Slow
<LI>Death Ripple
<LI>Forcefield
<LI>Animate Dead
<LI>Meteor Shower
<LI>Town Portal
<LI>Sorrow
<LI>Ressurection
<LI>Implosion
[/list]

[Ghasteater]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Anyway, I voted Earth for the following reasons.



Stoneskin

Shield

Slow

Death Ripple

Forcefield

Meteor Shower

Town Portal

Sorrow

Implosion

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hehe forget ressurection http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

I like Earth too.. Summon earth elemants good thing too...

[JoniJM]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Real_King_Louis:
Note: it is the second poll from the developers regarding _HoMM _3__ system (first the towns, now the magic system). Not H4, H3.... <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Exactly what I had in mind also.. http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif But I guess the game is going to be mostly Heroes V, but speculation towards which previous installment takes the biggest slice of the influential part is fun (+ the only thing we have before getting more official information) http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

1st place: Earth magic definately! Town Portal, Mass Slow, Implosion, Meteor Shower.. Must have it always (with Wisdom naturally) in main hero.
2nd place: Air magic! Fly, Dimension door, Mass Haste, Chain Lightning..
3rd place: Water magic: Mass prayer
4th place: Fire magic: Mass curse (actually I havenâ´t used it unless getting it from Whiches hut accidentaly...)

[phoenixzs]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Campaigner_1st:
Im worried that they're going the Heroes III spell school approach instead of the Heroes IV one.
I was close on voting Air or Water.
Anyway, I voted _Earth_ for the following reasons.


+ Stoneskin
+ Shield
+ Slow
+ Death Ripple
+ Forcefield
+ Meteor Shower
+ Town Portal
+ Sorrow
+ Implosion
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

You forgot resurrection and animate dead :P
Any way I also voted for earth magic.I could have easily voted air magic because of fly and dimension door but when we play with my friends we usually ban them so ıt was not a good school after that.Simply even just only for townportal and mass slow earth is supreme.

[DavHero]

Definitely Earth Magic. But if you come to think of it, every school has at least one fine spell: Air (Mass Haste, Fly...), Water (Mass Weakness, Mass Healing, and I'm sure I forget some of them), even Fire (my worst!), with Blindness or Fury (what was the name of that spell which made a stack attack the nearest one? Sorry I don't remember, I'm from Spain and the translation of the name here is more or less "Killer Fury"

Now that I have spoken about stacks, I really hope Nival and Ubi people don't remove them from the game (I just think, seeing the images, as some "Disciples II-type" game, with each unit representing... one unit). I really LIKE gathering a huge amount of troops!

Bye

DavHero

[OZFirst]

Earth, definitely.


I for one loathed the magic system in Heroes IV. 80% of the spells were useless, particularly in certain towns.

I'm sure Heroes V will have its own twists on prior games.

[Ethric]

Well seeing as there's no "Boycott poll"-option, I won't be voting... *grumble*

I mean, all this focus on H3 from Nival seems to me a clear sign they are drawing most their inspirations from that. Which would be a biiig mistake, IMO.

[Coriolanus_Rex]

To all the Heroes 4 diehards:

You might think that your numbers are higher in the Heroes fanbase than they really are. Why? Because if you liked Heroes 4 you are more likely to be attuned to the latest developments, and hence, show up at forums like these. If you were really disappointed, even betrayed by Heroes 4, are you likely to be following Heroes 5 with a passion this far from the release date? No.

I can't tell you that you are wrong for liking Heroes 4, but I do think that you like it only because of a resevoir of fondness built up from Heroes 2 and 3. If 4 was called "Strategy Wizards", you would never have given it the time of day. The verdict of the gaming community is set in stone: Heroes 4 sucked. It staggered one of the most trusted franchises in PC gaming! It brought a company down!

Nival seems to realize that their future and reputation depends on 5; why would they squander their company on a failed model? Taking inspiration from Heroes 3 all the way up to Wake of the Gods (also made by Russians) isn't just good design, its good business.

[Coriolanus_Rex]

My favorite school of magic is Earth:

Town Portal is the most powerful travel spell ONLY IF you have the Earth secondary skill. The other travel spells are still useful without the secondary skills.

Mass slow is devastating.Implosion is a great end game spell (not as good as Armageddon, though). Animate Dead is a must for Necros. Throw in shield and stoneskin, and magic heroes can compete. Ressurection isn't as good as some people claim because dragons and such are immune, and you need to win battles early, which means offense, not preservation.

The worst school is fire. Blind is ok, but it still works without the secondary skill. The damage spells are woefully underpowered. The only spell in fire that I really love is Armageddon, and that doesn't reqiure Fire Magic as much as it requires Advanced Wisdom and spell power.

For castle, tower, and rampart I also go for water because of mass bless, mass prayer, and clone. Forgetfulness can be potent in fighting neutral stacks without taking losses.

Stronghold and Fortress need air for mass haste. Their towns only get level three magic, and i really dont like spending the resources to get more than a level one mage guild. If I need a mage guild, i'll take it by force. Fly and dimension door are awesome spells, but you need to be sure to have expert wisdom and mondo spell points, not necessarily air magic.

[Real_King_Louis]

To all Heroes 3 diehards:

You might think your numbers are higher in the Heroes fanbase than they really are. Why? Because if you disliked Heroes 4, you are more likely going also to resist Heroes 5 just as well and entranched yourself in your positions, and likely come and proclaim how success can only be achieved by cloning Heroes 3....

Hehehe. Sorry, couldn't resist. I am not making fun of you, Coriolanus Rex. The above text is just an attempt to immitate your logical construction. It does not construe my opinion or attemps to deter you from yours.

However, as I'm pondering this, I can't help myself to think that all things change and evolve. The more nostalgic of us sometime will get hooked to a certain installment and refuse evolution as a sacrilege.

Look at M&M, people will tell you MM 4 was the best, no WOX, no MM5 was the last of the great. Others (younger more recent) will claim the rebirth as MM6 was the last of the great. Look at the Ultima, Bards Tale, Final Fantasy. All titles wHere fans will debate hard which one was the actual best in the lineage.

The oldies will proclaim that game nowadays will never surpass the originals, even for all the graphical enhancements. Same for movies: Rocky 1 was the best, no 2, c'mon the one with the Russian guy was the best. Same with TV: Star Trek vs Enterprise, vs Deep Space 9.

What I'm trying to say is that this board will be visited by all generations of fans. All that desire to see a NEW installment in the game. The more nostalgic will demand that we keep some 'Original' element that made Heroes what it is. Some will demand we incorporate the 'improvements' that H4 came along with. Some will see this as too risky due to 'unfinished' design that made H4 not live up to the continuation of what H3 came to be and proclaim that any deviation is born to fail (we even get a few trolls, please do not feed them, that's my job http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif. Finally some will come along and demand complete overhauls in the name of modern game designm tot he woes of the traditionalists and purists.

One final point, I sincerely do not believe that it was H4 hat sunk the 'franchise'. That was 3DO's doing and lack of long term vision from Trip Hawkins. Pumping out games, unfinished and not listening to your design teams (NWC) will surely come to bite you hard down the line. H4 was hardly a finished game.

Now Nival and Ubi want this to be a success. So they'll have to keep elements of the game to insure it builts on its reputation. However, they must build something new to insure sales beyond the current fansbase. It is a difficult exercise: please the faithful, yet appeal to he masses. No one today wants to invest tons of money to design a system that just the hard core fans will be pleased with.

Anyhoo, that's more or less rambling... please carry on.

- K -

[Vitirr]

For me they will make a better game if they pay more attention to H3 than H4 so I don't think this is bad news.

I don't think they'll do a H3 clone however, though the H4 lovers perhaps will see like that if it's not a H4 clone or it's more similar to H3 than H4.

[Zamolxis108]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Ethric:
Well seeing as there's no "Boycott poll"-option, I won't be voting... _*grumble*_

I mean, all this focus on H3 from Nival seems to me a clear sign they are drawing most their inspirations from that. Which would be a biiig mistake, IMO. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>You don't know that yet. Maybe they just started with a couple of H3-oriented polls, and later some H4 ones will follow.

Anyway, for me (up to a point) it's a good sign, as H3 was my favourite & the most sucesfull of all 4, so there is hope many of the things that were lost in H4 will be back. But H4 had also some great ideas, and it would be a pity if they would be ignored (let's hope the good things in H4 won't go in the shadow of the bad ones).

[RexMund1]

I think most people are going to pick the school of magic that had the most useful and fewest useless spells.

for me...that order tended to be
Earth
Water/Air (whichever I was more likely to become expert in based on my character type)
then
Fire

[Real_King_Louis]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Zamolxis108:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Ethric:
Well seeing as there's no "Boycott poll"-option, I won't be voting... _*grumble*_

I mean, all this focus on H3 from Nival seems to me a clear sign they are drawing most their inspirations from that. Which would be a biiig mistake, IMO. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>You don't know that yet. Maybe they just started with a couple of H3-oriented polls, and later some H4 ones will follow.

Anyway, for me (up to a point) it's a good sign, as H3 was my favourite & the most sucesfull of all 4, so there is hope many of the things that were lost in H4 will be back. But H4 had also some great ideas, and it would be a pity if they would be ignored (let's hope the good things in H4 won't go in the shadow of the bad ones). <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hey, who knows. Maybe we'll get what H4 'should have been' had 3DO given NWC the time to implement it well with a few mods as to what didn't work well, and what could have been. All that, wrapped in new 2005 level engine and graphical capabilities.

But secretely, I hope the bring back skellies. Me want skellies. (well, I want them for someone who loves them).

[Real_King_Louis]

Earth.

[Vitirr]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Real_King_Louis:

Hey, who knows. Maybe we'll get what H4 '_should have been_' had 3DO given NWC the time to implement it well with a few mods as to what didn't work well, and what could have been. All that, wrapped in new 2005 level engine and graphical capabilities. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

A H4 clone perhaps?, and that would be better than a H3 clone? http://forums.ubi.com/images/smilies/mockface.gif.

[Ar_Pi]

Earth

[Lepastur]

First, I think you're going a little bit http://forums.ubi.com/images/smilies/353.gif because I think it's clear for all to see H5 will be a new game, not an H3 or H4 clone, I think Ubi (and/or Nival) is taking the best of each game, it's the more logical.

Second, I voted Earth, it's clear spells like Slow, Town Portal, Resurrection and Implosion were essentials over the other ones.

[Heroine_LL]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by JoniJM:
4th place: Fire magic: Mass curse (actually I havenâ´t used it unless getting it from Whiches hut accidentaly...) <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Don't tell me you haven't tried expert beserk!?

Voted Earth ofcourse for obvious reasons like TP, slow, implosion and ressurection.
I do hope the elemental magic will return in H5,
which doesn't mean I want a H3 clone.

[Lord_Crusader]

We must accept that all heroes have good things... I mean if Nival Take graphics style, music and fast game play from heroes 2, Heroes speciallities gameplay, towns balance and a huge number of individual creatures from heroes 3, and the strategy, details(like frog singing when you are close to a river, or wind sound when you are close to a windmill), and a huge number of skills from heroes 4, plus new features, we will have the greatest heroes game of all

[Arzang]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Lord_Crusader:
We must accept that all heroes have good things... I mean if Nival Take graphics style, music and fast game play from heroes 2, Heroes speciallities gameplay, towns balance and a huge number of individual creatures from heroes 3, and the strategy, details(like frog singing when you are close to a river, or wind sound when you are close to a windmill), and a huge number of skills from heroes 4, plus new features, we will have the greatest heroes game of all <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

yes. if ubi blatantly plagiarize the previous heroes games; we will truly have a great and original heroes game!

if you ask me; I'd rather see them keep the homm feel but at the same time change the game as much as possible. and if there are balance issues or if the towns are too few then so what. at least it's a new Heroes game and they already have planned an add-on so..

getting inspiration from older games: yes.
plagiarizing older games: no.

[KingImp]

Personally, I preferred HOMM4's magic system better because it was much more personalized. In HOMM3, every town had the chance to get the same exact spells.

That said, since this is a HOMM3 magic poll, I voted for Air because Chain Lightning is and probably always will be my favorite spell.
I know my wife would have said Earth for the sole fact of Town Portal, but frankly I feel that spell was way too overpowering at Expert level. There was no reason to ever keep troops behind because once you saw someone closing in on your castle, all you had to do was portal over and guard it.

[The_Vortex]

My vote goes to Earth Magic.

Expert Earth Magic --> Mass Slow, Ressurection, Implosion = battle won http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

[Pitsu]

Voted for...

Water.

I know that Earth is the best, but some Earth spells are almost like cheating. Water has IMHO the most interesting tactical spells - cure, teleport, clone, forgetfullness. They rock if used properly, but aren't overpowered. And the question was _favourite_ not _the best_.

[Lepastur]

You're right Pitsu, but the favourite is almost always the best. For example, I posted Earth because I like to play on high difficulty, among Expert and Impossible and on good maps where almost all is guarded. So, on these levels, the Slow spell is essential to go for combat the sooner the better in order to get the resources which I usually lack and need. In other words, Earth is still my favourite, and not because the overpowering of some spells.

[CH_Psychobabble]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Lepastur:
First, I think you're going a little bit http://forums.ubi.com/images/smilies/353.gif because I think it's clear for all to see H5 will be a new game, not an H3 or H4 clone, I think Ubi (and/or Nival) is taking the best of each game, it's the more logical.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
This is why the poll is worrying those of us who don't reflexively bag Heroes IV. The spell system was one of the great strengths of the game over H3, giving each alignment a unique identity and playing style. I can't really imagine why they're putting up that poll if they're not moving back towards a more H3-style generic spell system which would be a real shame.

[JoniJM]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Heroine_LL:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by JoniJM:
4th place: Fire magic: Mass curse (actually I havenâ´t used it unless getting it from Whiches hut accidentaly...) <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Don't tell me you haven't tried expert beserk!?

Voted Earth of course for obvious reasons like TP, slow, implosion and ressurection.
I do hope the elemental magic will return in H5,
which doesn't mean I want a H3 clone.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Uups, I forgot to mention the expert Berserk (and Resurrection on behalf of Earth magic as well) spell. I tried it, but without real effort against my friend in Hotseat mode. He usually prepared for it by collecting the neclase which prevents using such spell against his troops http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif And because he was after all the main target in the end, after humiliating AI, it would have been a waste of secondary skill space by taking fire magic.. Perhaps more mass spells like "mass fire shield", and fire would have been in better balance.. And again just remembered Mass shield + Mass stoneskin, Earth is unbeatable! http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

To your other comment, the 4 orbs in registration page: They could symbolize "Water, Fire, Earth and Air (read like Europens)".. On the other hand: "Fire" has quite "Chaotic" appearance and that Bull in "Earth".. Summoning magic perhaps?? http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif
How about magic system from Might & Magic VI? Earth, Air, Water, Fire, Spirit, Mind, Body, Light, Dark? More difficult to balance, but much more fun! http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif Just a thought.. http://forums.ubi.com/images/smilies/16x16_smiley-very-happy.gif

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Arg! I forgot about Clone. I remember using it to great effect in the AB campaign. (Clone a stack or two of 100+ Sharpshooters and see what I mean. http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif) I voted Air for Fly, Chain Lightning, and Haste. Expert Cure can make the Armor of the D***** useless after one measly turn. Guess I’ll just have to go to the Russian site and vote for Water now. http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

[Vitirr]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by CH_Psychobabble:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Lepastur:
I think Ubi (and/or Nival) is taking the _best of each game,_ it's the more logical.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
This is why the poll is worrying those of us who don't reflexively bag Heroes IV. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I wonder if some people would be concerned too if the polls would have been about H4 and not H3. It's getting the best of ALL isn't it? http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif.


<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by CH_Psychobabble:
The spell system was one of the great strengths of the game over H3 <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

That's not an absolute unquestionable truth. I didn't like H4 magic system and I think that a H3 magic system WELL DONE would be better than the one in H4. Of course it's not only a problem of the magic system but the skills too, but you know it all has a big relation.
Yes each alignment have a unique magic identity and that's good but have cons too. In H4 your heroes ended up with a very scarce collection of spells, just a part of it's original magic school, most of them quite useless by the way. That's because obviously you couldn't learn other towns spells, (unless you have a really high level heroe who has learnt a second magic skill but that's not ussual), and besides it's much harder to get those of your own school. In H3 you capture a town and get usefull spells, in H4 you get a town and you get no spells at all, unless it's the same as yours or it's aligned with it.
Another secondary effect of all this is that spell balance is much harder. In H3 spells are completely unbalanced because of a bad design of spells and the expert magic effect. In H4 it's the magic system which makes it. You don't have many chances to get the high level spells so if they are unbalanced you will suffer it worse. If you're lucky you get the good spells, if you're not you get the cra* spells, and that could very well be for the rest of the game. Life had a ridiculous unbalanced spells as the mass ward spells. Get the wrong ward spell, and you're in trouble, get the good one (the allignment of your main enemy, specially a human in mp) and you have probably won the game.

And what about the way this system influences and limits the skill system and the possible number of towns?. You can't add all the towns you want because it means adding a new magic skill and new spells, (to balance). Why didn't they include any new town in the expansions?. Of course those were the worst days of 3DO but if it wasn't so hard perhaps they would have added one extra town.

So that do you lose with the H3 system?, a bit of town unique identity. What do you win?. I think it's clear.

These are reasons that I think at least makes some sense, so it's not so obvious that the H4 magic system was so good.

I think however that they could do some mix. For example, a unique skill to learn the spells, (wisdom), a base of spells common for every town, (specially in the low levels), and some unique spells for each town, (specially in the high levels). Expertness in the magic school would be decisive for the effects of the spells in a progressive way, (no more a cra* single slow spell at advanced and a great mass slow spell at expert), so knowing the spell without knowing the school is not so useful.
And of course get rid of those family skills with so many levels to complete.

[Grey.Pilgrim]

Sorry, Vitirr, but even though the points you make are good, I have to agree more with CH_Psychobabble. Although I play both H3 AND H4 a great deal, I just enjoy the diversity of the magic system of H4 more. Each school is so different. Although I voted Earth in the Nival poll, I wish they would have included the magic schools of H4 as choices, as well. That would have given them a truer picture of how players of both games feel.

[KingImp]

I'm with Psychobabble and all the others that have fears about this. Granted, back when H3 was new, the magic system was great, but then H4 came along and showed us how unoriginal H3's was.

I do agree that a lot of the spells in H4 were worthless, but the idea that each faction had their own magic that the others wouldn't is what made it better. How is getting a spell special in H3 if every single faction gets the same exact one?
"Oh look, I got Inferno!" Great, so did everyone else.

[grumpy_dwarf]

Another fan of the uniqueness of the IV magic system. The seperated schools and seperate skill classes were great. It was also great that different towns with the same school may or may not have the same spells. Each faction had great spells you jusst had to figure out how to best use them.

[NailagCiad]

Woted water. A good selection of spells with various effects. I'm also a big fan of Fire, even of it's use is a bit too circumstancial. Earth is obviously the best of them, but isn't very subtle. Air magic is my least favourite, especially since I always have Fly and Dim Door disabled- it just doesn't have very much to offer besides those.

As for H3 vs H4- I'd like something in between- H4 felt to limited, especially when using certain schools, like Nature, where the majority of spells where summons. Even if it made for different approaches between towns, when using the same town, the differance was quite small. I find this to be a rather widespread feat of H4- yes, the difference between a Necromancer and a Druid is quite large, but the difference between a Druid and a Druid is almost none. I don't know what to be done, but I feel that none of the systems are completely satisfying.

[Lepastur]

I agree Vitirr when he've typed about the more logical way to act would be a mixed way between H3 and H4. Maybe H4 system had a bigger diversity, but I think it was so much restrictive. Another thing I absolutely did'nt like of H4 was the removing of magic for Barbarians, and about this, H3 was righter than H4, in other words, Barbarians had less magic, right, but not NO MAGIC, which I think it was an atrocity.

[Vavutsikarios]

Expert Earth and Air are necessary. If your human opponent has them both and you are lacking one (especialy earth) then you are doomed.
Water and Fire are also useful, depands on style of play.

[Ethric]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by CH_Psychobabble:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Lepastur:
First, I think you're going a little bit http://forums.ubi.com/images/smilies/353.gif because I think it's clear for all to see H5 will be a new game, not an H3 or H4 clone, I think Ubi (and/or Nival) is taking the _best of each game,_ it's the more logical.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
This is why the poll is worrying those of us who don't reflexively bag Heroes IV. The spell system was one of the great strengths of the game over H3, giving each alignment a unique identity and playing style. I can't really imagine why they're putting up that poll if they're not moving back towards a more H3-style generic spell system which would be a real shame. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Indeed. I want them to take good bits from all games, and the spellschools in H4 is a definite good bit, much better than in H3. Some complain it was bad because some spells from different schools were pretty much the same. Why's that bad, it just gives the different schools some flexibility. And if you think it's really that bad then add them to a generic spellschool that all can learn.

And further, if I say I liked this and that bit from H4 and want to see it continued (and improved) in H5, how does that transplant to me wanting a H4 clone? Seems the definition of a clone is a bit fussy with some. There are a number of things in H4 I don't want to see in H5.

[Ya5MieL]

Heroes 4 magic system was obvious clone of "Magic the Gathering" colors.. Blue,White,Red,Black and Green each with spells similar to MTG cards of that color .. even further, they added some spells that even have their card representative in MTG universe with same names and similar effects like "mana flare",.. also combat skills like first strike and simultaneous striking all look like dovelopers were playing little to much MTG before making H3

[Ethric]

You mean H4, I presume http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

But yeah, MtG is a pretty obvious inspiration (and "inspiration" is putting it mildly)

But hey, I like MtG http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

Also, I for one am not married to the specific lineup of schools in H4, just the point about each town having it's own school.

So if they reuse Air\Earth\Fire\Water and use them in a similar way, it could be good.

[Pitsu]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Ethric:
But yeah, MtG is a pretty obvious inspiration (and "inspiration" is putting it mildly)

Also, I for one am not married to the specific lineup of schools in H4, just the point about each town having it's own school.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

They actually could use original MM schools and let one town have paramount guild of mind magic and initiate guilds of elemental magics and other town paramount fire and air, but only adept level of clerical magics and so forth. It means some balancing work, but not impossible IMO. Give me that beta game and I'll do some of the balancing http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

[Campaigner_1st]

I liked the unique schools of Heroes IV. And I knew I wasn't the only one that thought of Magic the Gathering (I've tried it http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_cool.gif and really liked that each color had its own theme) when I saw the schools in Heroes IV.
I would really like the unique schools to stay, but maybe all sides should share some low lvl spells. Like you need the "Wisdom" skill to handle mid to high lvl magic and then the required school (Life, Order, Chaos etc.) to learn the respective unique spells.
I'm not sure on what to do for Heroes V, but definetly keep the unique spell schools.

[Qrystal_Dragon]

I vaguely remember the magic system in H3, although I remember mass slow, mass haste, town portal, fly, and dimension door as must haves. I have found that in H4 some of the most powerful spells are ones that were useless in H3. Hypnotizing, Beserk and forgetfulness are must have spells at the Order level. Cloud of confusion, quicksand and mass slow are very nice distraction spells. I have found the H4 magic system a great way to use a combination of army and magic in the battle system. Even humble spells like speed, precision and bless have a place on the battlefield.

I for one am looking forward to H5 and no.....I do NOT want it to be a clone of it's previous versions. I want it to be something new and exciting to explore.