Well seeing as things are eerily quiet around here i thought that perhaps a wish thread might liven things up by allowing people to tell what they desire from a HoMM VI in the future.

I mean what do YOU want of HoMM VI ? What do you feel lacked ? What do you feel could have been improved ? What do you feel could have been awesome if added ?

And to start things up i'll fire off a few ideas of my own.

Wish nr 1: Please let the peasants NOT be fat, nor the wizard be a fat little man on an elephant, while i don't mind the more cheery colours and artwork without becoming cartoony.. It just kinda wrecks the immersion, especially as i would imagine a peasant to be a tall gaunt type with a scraggly beard and a tired look to his eyes.. and the wizard ? Well again.. i just hated him from first sight, even more than the peasant who was okay but not as great as the others.. but the wizard took the cake.. otherwise a splendid job on models actually

Wish nr 2:
Now this is a purely visual idea, but a pretty cool one if you ask myself and partains to battles. Have any of you wished that when you saw those 30 footmen hack away at those 100 skeletons that you would actually get to see more than just one footman hacking away at a skeleton ?
Which leads to the wish, because instead of just showing that animation, it would be awesome if instead it shifted to a close up of the battlefield where you then saw those 30 footmen charge a hundred skeletons and saw it play out as a small battle in the larger battle with attacks, retaliatons, special attacks and any additional attacks, i mean it would liven up the battles more plus it could allow for some more model randomization and thus livening them up somehow, i mean it may just be me, but it would be so great And of course for those that do not want it or who's computer cannot handle it, there should be the option of turning it off.

Wish nr 3: Unit upgrades.

Just a few simple ones but that could add new abilities or just change the stats a little bit while changing the looks, giving better or different weapons or new armour or some special item, again combined with idea nr 2 could grant some more fun on those small battlefields but could also give a bigger connection with your troops as you customize them to fit your tactics and strategies, of course the items would be unique to each unit and each unit would have 2 or 3. Nothing more would be needed and combine this with 2 unit upgrades already.. Well things would get fun

Wish nr 4:
A not to fancy graphics engine.
While a nice graphics engine is nice, i'd rather prefer something not so taxing and instead have them focus on actually making it look nice with what they have and use it to the fullest potential. A bit like HoMM V actually, the graphics were nice without being overly taxing and i personally believe they were used quite well in a way that actually added to the feel of the game. And also i would like to see the bright yet not cartoony style continued, it's much more pleasing to look at

Wish nr 5: I'd like to see the brilliant skill system of heroes V expanded upon, adding more skills, perhaps even skills that work in combination with each other to give even greater bonuses, but also some way for those to visually effect the hero, and perhaps even the troops. So for example if you choose dark magic and choose certain traits that gives your hero a darker edge, like fallen knight, then your hero would look darker, for example the armour would look tarnished, bits and pieces would give a sinister look, perhaps more ragged, but overall a darker more ruthless look to the hero and perhaps even the troops as well. So for example the army would look like that of a fallen knight, but also in the employ of different races heroes might look more at home for example a necromancer army.. then it would be cool if the peasants and footmen and so on looked as if they were influenced by it.

Well those were some of my wishes and i have many more
But what about you ?
Your wishes are just as important and if you can give them great detail it might help them to be added

So wish away !

Great idea, great Dane ... even though I am certain that Nival Interactive and Ubisoft are currently not at all interested in the fans's H6 ideas -- being the pessimistic type.

Who knows, perhaps they aren't. But that shouldn't stop us from coming with wishes and ideas, it is after all us who are going to buy the game in the end

In any case i think it will be nice to see what people wants from HoMM VI and also to get an impression of the number of fans Although having made two expansions does kinda tell it must have done well.

In any case it is not exactly as if there is a lot of life here beyond the occasional misplaced tech help post as you well know.

So once more i say: Don't be afraid, bring your wishes !

*Runs away and hides behind a rock*


My post will be up once I've gotten a breakfast and such

The above is all nice. I just want the game to be properly balanced (meaning mainly the alternates and the new faction.) I'd also like to see the dragons go bye-bye as tier 7 units and come back as neutrals. For Dungeon in particular, I want the Minotaur gone, the Fury bumped to tier 3, the introduction of the Manticore and the Medusa, the Hydra bumped to tier 7 and the Matriarch significantly improved.

Another thing I'd like is a skill perk specifically made for dealing with Magic Resistance, under Sorcery, i.e. one that either reduces it or even negates it. I'd like to see Counterspell linked to the caster's skill. In fact, I'd like to see the magic skills significantly expanded. If the Orcs retain their shield power, I want the Warlock (and any related anti-MR skill) to treat it as magic resistance, and thus slice right through it with Destruction spells.

Oh, and yeah, how about the female heroes actually look... female? Or even unique avatars for each hero. It's not like Nival/Ubi can't do this.

I like most of your suggestions.

I dislike wish Nr. 2. It wouldn't take much more than 50 battles before it got annoying to see those cutscenes all the time and I would much rather that they used their resources on something else. The rest sounds pretty good, although many of them were suggested for HoMM V too there especially was a lot of discussion about the fifth wish.

Now for my stuff - which I never have mentioned in any other HoMM VI wishlists

1. A better story. A story which is believable, which isn't "dark and sinister" in such a way that it is painful to read, unbelievable and just not as much dark and sinister as it is annoying and ridiculous. Give the heroes some deep personalities. Tell us about their background bit by bit, let us understand "why" they do what they do and make the reasons reasonable and keep away from reasons such as "they killed my father and now I want revenge", "For the forest", "I just want the power" and "I'm in love with her and really want to help her just due to that".
Give us some honourable heroes, some dishonourable heroes, some normal heroes, some which we align to, some which we want to hate or worship rather than a stew of everything in each hero. But make sure that they have reasons, motives and fit into their society and what the society stands for. Look up some social theories or get a psychologist to give some help, so you won't overdo it and it isn't necessary to spell it out, hints are enough in most cases as long as those who write the story know "everything" about the hero. Likewise get some political, sociological and economical theoretics into the background of the empire, but once more do not spell such things out.

2. This one is not to likely to be fulfilled, but anyway, kill of the dragon gods or cut down their number/function in some way. They are just not believable and, frankly, they just seem stupid the way they are implemented now.

3. Get text messages back into the game. They help give the game some dept, makes it feel more like role playing game, can tell so much more than the occasional cutscene and will give the story more dept. Those who dislike them can either skip them or there could be an option to turn them off. While playing HoMM V I really missed the description of the everyday problems and encounters, the hero's friends, old memories and such.

4. I would like to get a swamp town similar, at least in atmosphere, to Heroes III's Fortress.

5. Give the campaigns several possible endings. One where you help out the bad guys, one where you help the good guys and perhaps one where you help yourself or the neutrals.

6. Make Might and Magic X so that HoMM and MM once more are united and support each other story wise

Well wish nr 2 is not the highest ones, and it would not exactly be a cutscene.. just that battle scaled up.. with some number being the max limit for reasons of convenience and the fact that you can only see so much

Can't say i agree with your wish nr 2 either.. but eh, we are not here to discuss each others wishes.. just to propose them Otherwise things will quickly get bogged down with each one discussion his wishes.. which kinda won't go anywhere.

But i like your wish nr 5, multiple endings are always fun.
And some other game in the universe would not go amiss as well.. just with a wee bit bigger effort than Dark Messiah..

In any case i thought i might add a few more.

Wish nr 6:
Actual consequences in a campaign, even for secondary objectives. So you may have decided to destroy the enemies supply lines, good for you as that means later on in the campaign the enemy might not be as strong and might be going for some different strategies due to a lack of supplies.
I mean just don't add those objectives for the sake of being there, let them have consequences, good and bad and then let it all unfold for the player to see.
Make it more like a strategic campaign in that sense as well, let there be army objectives along with the rpg objectives.

Wish nr 7:
This is a bit like justice's first wish.. just with some changes. But yeah give the characters some background, make them deep.. or at least a little deeper than some of those present, sure some were good.. and others were kinda lacking, i mean the ones i probably felt where the best explained characters were Alaric and Markal.. plus they had character. Which also leads to another bit, when doing the voice work.. please let it stay persistant over the expansions, it does ruin the immersion to hear isabel with a new voice every expansion with more than half of the other characters as well, i mean as far as i know Alaric was one of the few to actually keep his voice.
.. oh and let Alaric return ! As a good guy ! please ? or at least some other staunch arch bishop then.

Wish nr 8: Seeing as how adding two upgrades went well ( at least in my opinion) I think it would be interesting to take it one step further and create factions within the factions. With the two upgrades representing each their own faction, and with a third using a mix of both.. or perhaps the unupgraded versions..
Such a faction system could be used to create even more diversity among heroes, cities and armies as each faction would have different bonuses and perhaps even a unique skill and unit as well (a replacement unit for some other upgrade, for example if we look at haven and then take the "white" faction their unique unit might be a bishop instead of the inquisitor, the bishop would then have a wider range of buff spells plus a healing ability, but not be so strong in combat)
Of course one should be able to not to choose a faction at all, and while there would be certain bonuses of one faction it would be at a tradeoff with something else.
It might be over the top.. but i think it could be interesting if we could add some diversity in the factions.. which at the same time would also create a large diversity among the neutrals as well.. Plus in the campaigns it could be used for great effect, and if done so along with my idea of heroes affecting their armies looks.. well then you suddenly have the possiblity for a great many different armies.

Well if anyone else has seen this thread, don't be afraid to post ! It's all in good fun (except for justice )

Ah, you like Alaric too? Maybe he appeals to Scandinavians, hah.

As for heroes, I did like Eruina. Too bad for such an important dark elf, she featured so little in the game. No, instead we got a dose of the bimbo Ylaya, in typically corny, lame fashion. Agbeth was cool too. Raelag bored me. So, I'll agree with Justice that Nival could do more work with the heroes. Markal was about the only main hero I liked, as he did have some depth.

Markal was better than the rest, I agree, but he just reminded me so much of former heroes, that I just kept thinking "Sandro" or "Archibald" rip off his voice even sounds like Archibald's

quote:

Originally posted by Sorceresss:
Great idea, great Dane ... even though I am certain that Nival Interactive and Ubisoft are currently not at all interested in the fans's H6 ideas -- being the pessimistic type.

Well they have a history of listning. So begg do differ.

First of all i replayed h5 and its not my favorit hero game, I am a hero 3 man myself.

I have more tecnical wishes for h6

1 Make the game easy to patch, bothe for the players and the developers. Reinstaling the game was not easy and it was not satisfying for me. And Eayser to patch so they dont use so long time between each patch.

2 A working multiplayer still dosent work good for me.

3 Bether and fewer cut sceens, they where not good in h5. So i ended up not liking.

4 Dont use nival.

5 Dont rush it.

6 Make the addons real adons not diffrant games

7 make shure that you dont change the game while cahning the the maps.

Well her are some of them ill make more

I should QFE Justice's post especially the "better story" and "text messages back" part.
Heroes V must have tried to buy off with better graphics and visuals. It may be easy to explain why HoMM II&III injected that "deepness" Justice referred to. The whole conception of Heroes game is narrative - it is an issue of storyline being foremost and foregoing than gameplay itself. I don't say gameplay is nonessential, it just shouldn't be outrun by visual stuff. I did like fanciful Meteor Shower and (at first) zoomed camera in battlefield; but developers made it one of the leading trumps. Original Heroes' gameplay was only symbolic - okay, it was a technology issue, but it lets me wonder how NWC would have developed it now - but should it be turned realistic? I realize well it is quite impossible to make such "symbolic" sequel without fusing some graphic wonderwork in it at this very moment; you would be pelted with stones.
So my great wish would be - don't bother with graphics even though it pulls in masses of new players (well, that's actually their point ). Say, it is good as it is but the storyline is not.

@Moragauth: Perhaps, but there just was something awesome about Alaric, i mean he really tried.. only problem was that he was blinded by his zeal
And markal was one of the better enemies.

But overall, yeah some of the characters were just a wee bit to shallow.

@Znork: Just a query, but did you try the expansions ? Because the cut scenes greatly improve in quality there.. Oh well, different opinions, in any case we are not here to argue the wishes :P

@Tadaeusas: Sad to hear you didn't like the storyline, i thought it was actually quite good once it picked up speed and Nival started to learn..

Oh well a ninth wish .. wonder how long i can keep this up

Wish nr 9:
Just a small one, but those animated menu backgrounds were pretty cool with the hammers of fate one actually being my favorite So perhaps something like that in HoMM VI, some large battle going on in the background with two armies facing each other or something like that.

And a 10th: Compatability between expansions, so if you add a new nice game mechanic (like the 2nd upgrade tree) then it might be usable in the older versions, as i think that might make it more fun as well.

But otherwise. Keep them coming ! If znork is right and they are looking (as i would imagine myself) They are going to take us more serious the more we bring and the more people who bring them

quote:

Originally posted by ImperialDane:

@Znork: Just a query, but did you try the expansions ? Because the cut scenes greatly improve in quality there.. Oh well, different opinions, in any case we are not here to argue the wishes :P

I did and agree, but have you played a blizzard game? Now that is what i call cut sceens.

Oh of course, blizzard are extremely good when it comes to story telling, no doubt, but that does not mean nobody else cannot reach that level or surpass it

It just takes training and experience my friend.

quote:

Originally posted by ImperialDane:
Oh of course, blizzard are extremely good when it comes to story telling, no doubt, but that does not mean nobody else cannot reach that level or surpass it

It just takes training and experience my friend.

Hey that is the good part of beeing fans we can ask for suche stuff Its ubis problem to give it to us

Oh aye, and if it is too far out, then they will naturally filter it out

Have a few more wishes.. but i think i'll give them some more thought before posting.

quote:

Originally posted by ImperialDane:
@Moragauth: Perhaps, but there just was something awesome about Alaric, i mean he really tried.. only problem was that he was blinded by his zeal
And markal was one of the better enemies.

Oh, I just said that because I like him too and I'm Swedish.

hehe.. okay.

And now for the 11th wish.. hmm seems almost like i am the only one doing something

Wish nr 11:
I'd like for dwellings outside the keeps to have some deeper strategic purpose than just adding troops to your ranks.. perhaps even upgrades for them.
An example would be the farm, just as a start to give it a bit deeper purpose you could grant a small daily gold income from it, 500 gold for example, thus making it a bit more valuable for the player and more interesting to defend.
Upgrades for it could be different things, for example one upgrade could be the estate,a larger farm owned by some minor noble and populated by serfs, it grants a higher gold income, but does not improve creature growth in the keeps, can't have those pesky peasants wandering off to the cities and see how great things are there !. Also it becomes able to defend itself somewhat nicely since the lord of the estate doesn't want to loose it, more on dwellings and self defence later
Another upgrade could be the village upgrade, which gives a boost to peasant growth throughout the keeps and generally itself boasts more peasants, of course it can defend itself, but not as well as the estate.
I mean these could be two upgrades for such a dwelling, and the higher tier dwellings they are, the better things they offer. Also upgrading a dwelling will allow you to hire upgraded troops from it if you have the upgraded building in a keep..

A higher tier example might be the garrison, a start ability might be that it slowly populates the nearby mines with footmen to guard it (thus actually acting as a garrison ) beyond just offering up footmen for training.
One upgrade for it might be an outpost, at the loss of any footmen populations in your cities being boosted, it might be able to better defend itself, and once a week if an enemy force approaches, send out a small force to contest it ( made up of footmen,squires,archers and such in small numbers)
The second upgrade on the other hand might be a stockade, holding a greater number of footmen in it and boosting overall growth it also boosts their health or some other stat to a small degree due to them gaining additional toughnes from being posted there..

And just to take a higher tier example and really showing the strength i'll also use a different Faction.
The academy for example might have a mage tower dwelling (in HoMM VI of course, would be nice if there were more dwellings instead of the last tiers being bunked together, although in some cases it does make sense..)

The first bonus from the mage tower would be a greater mana pool for all to draw upon, heroes and units alike.
The first upgrade might be an Ivory tower, it's bonus being that all mages have more knowledge and a few more spells.
The second upgrade might be an Iron Tower, that casts offensive spells on anyone near anything that belongs to you or is in combat with any of your forces.

So the higher tier dwellings, the greater bonuses beyond just boosting growth and giving more creatures.

Of course some might think that this will be powerful, yes it will be, but dwellings also tend to be somewhat isolated and the higher tier ones would definately be. And while they may be able to defend themselves they will still fall if proper pressure is applied.

So talking about defence, most lower level dwellings generally don't have any.. and of course if they are lower level dwellings that aren't upgraded.. this makes sense, unless someone razes it to the ground in which case there will be conflict (razing will be touched upon a bit later) But as soon as you make a greater investment, some defence should be present that also makes sense with that current upgrade, for example the estate would be better defended than the village, not because they might be more numerous, but because the noble in charge of the estate will have guards: archers, conscripts... perhaps even a few footmen if he is rich.
I mean yes, you could even add some smaller backgrounds to upgraded dwellings and give them small stories like the cities have and thus give them even more flavour and context (both which are very good things)
Anyways moving on..
So dwellings of higher level or upgraded ones will have defenders of some sort and might even have a few natural defences of some sort and if you do raze them, you will end up fighting them, or any survivors from your first assault.

But razing ? yes because while dwellings are nice and this system is as well it does lack some deeper conflict, and you can't get that if you are unable to burn the dwellings to the ground and thus permanently disable them from the enemy, sure some of the bonuses might be useful, but others aren't and the troops are just as important.. but not always as usable with your army, so thus you should be able to raze a dwelling, and if you are feeling it, raise one that suits your faction, so if you are a necromancer and you burn of the farm, slaying the peasants, you might decide to build a graveyard.. perhaps even upgrading to gain some bonus that you might like.

So well that is my dwelling wish.. if there is something confusing.. don't hesistate to ask.. and just keep the wishes flowing !

Do you spend a lot of time thinking of ideas for the game? Anyway, I like the gist of all that. I have been wanting to be able to raze cities/buildings and then rebuild them if I want, sort of like that magic staff Markal gets to transform Academy cities into Necropolis ones. For those who say this might harm game balance, well umm, maybe the developer should just try deal with it, eh? That's what they're paid to do. It's not like it broke the game in either Disciples or AoW. Building cities is not so important though, so I guess that could be left out.

Maybe Dungeon could regain its portals and structures to improve mana. Perhaps some of them could further strengthen the Warlock's spells when she's near them, and further increase her anti-anti-magic powers (e.g. totally nullify MR when near these dwellings, and if the Warlock has enough skill in Unstoppable spells or whatever the skill is, they could actually do more damage, further empowering the spells.) Another idea would be to automatically hasten creatures in the vicinity of such a structure. Perhaps a sacrificial altar - if enough enemies are killed, the altar could become active. Outdoors elemental altars are another idea. Regarding Necropolis, enough of its structures boost undead growth, which is dull. Perhaps structures that cause enemies it slays to crawl out of their graves and rise to the Necromancer's service, or which enhance the Necromancer's curses would be cool. Perhaps one upgrade could even enhance vampirism. These are of course support structures. Others could do things like the estates you mentioned above.