Offcourse this is just my educated guess, but from the information given and looking at other similar games...this is how its going to be.

you will start out with a city spot. This city spot has several slots for building things on. like main keep, armorer/blacksmith/barracks/archeryrange...and so on and so on. The buildings you build will offcourse be the ones from the HOMM series, different for each race, but the slots available in each city will be the same. The city will also have resourse "fields" connected to it. these resourses will ofcouse be the well knows gems, sulfur etc...and these "fields can be developed to yield more and more as they get developed. Each city will have the same amount of resourse fields available, but you choose which resourses you will focus on.

Troops ofcourse cost resourses to build and have a build time.
For eksample: you build barracks level 1. you can now build Footmen (Using Haven as an eksample). if you build barracks level 2, the build time for these units gets faster, but to build better Footmen, you need armorspith/blacksmith and research better armor/weapons, to get other ground based units like Squire you need to build the fort to research them in. Other buildings will let you build archers or mounted troops or even aerial troops like the griffins.

So a game session goes something like this...

log on, see that your warehouses are full of resourses. i now have to decide if i want to build/increase the level of my resourse fields so they produce at a faster rate, build troops, develop my city more or attack my neighbours to steal their resourses with the troops i have at the moment.

Offcourse this is just speculations based on how the web based game Travian works. no download, all browser based. only 3 races.

Really looking forwards to this game

As far as I can tell, the game would be like travian but than in the setting of HOMM.
If you want to have a headstart about how to play the game go to:

Travian English
Travian Nederlands
Travian Deutsch
Travian Italy

and so on.
The game has about 35 different servers in different languages like Spanish, Turkish, Romanian, Swedish, French, etc...
Just click on one of the flags at the top of the main page.
Enjoy the game.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: ger_de_haas,

do u know how to play HOMM kingdoms?
tell me the way

quote:

Originally posted by waves:
do u know how to play HOMM kingdoms?
tell me the way

They said they were just speculating waves... we dont really know how to play actually.

Those guesses are good ones... maybe the game will be like that aandiin

travian is not advanced. www.mythlands.com that's more advanced and alot more similar to homm. creaturewise and gameplaywise.

quote:

Originally posted by targ212:
travian is not advanced. www.mythlands.com that's more advanced and alot more similar to homm. creaturewise and gameplaywise.

Mythlands Screenshot

omg, you sure wasn't lying there :P i recognize those creatures alright.

Haha it's indeed a friggin papercopy of Heroes.
Funny as hell though, but this might be a good area to get some ideas for Kingdoms, specially the battle system, which peple are discussing in the FAQ thread.

I read about this game , about how will / could be . I played some games and this one could be just another game or something better / way better than others ... it has potential and a '' name '' .

First of all - what kind of game want to be ? For what kind of people ? I played travian and quite at beginning one new server was opened and i '' jumped '' there offcourse . I developed / growed and hitted hard people around me but ... was not fun for those ! It was not balanced and i left game when i was close of having - from firsts on that server - of my second town ... so i was one time player as someone already said somewhere in this forum .

Balance - how you do / achieve that ? How keep people playing and when are less better / less active than those close to your '' borders '' ? Could be done and from my opinion quite eassy .

1. Each one to have 3-4-5 maximum allowed towns ! One capitol - with full army recruitment and 2-3-4 secondary villages with lets say 25 % army recruitment ! So maximum '' allowed '' troops to be 200 % ! Relative low army strenght ! How / where will be those 2,3,4 th villages ? Around your capitol / villages to be some sort of circle / ''national teritory '' => near that border to be able to build your 2 nd village and so on .. or just from beginning to have already those 4 spots = undeveloped offcourse .

2. I fight an enemy and won / ocupied his towns / capitol and now ....? Simple : that guy became vasal ! He will still have / keep his towns / still have available troops to recruit ! But will have to '' pay '' some simbolic amount of money / resources ! 5 % at maximum ! So low resource '' advantages '' for active / stronger players ! How long that guy will be vasal ? One week ? ... But later he could '' raise '' arms and try free himself ! Why to be an game of burn the land and kill them all game when could be more toward tactics / diplomacy ? Today someone is strong and has 3 vasals ... but after other battles / looses of troops one week later to have his vasals who raised arms and free themselves and even one of those to bring initial player into vasalisation ! But when i want to raise arms need to declare independance ! So oficially need diplomatic messages to be sended to all parts involved ! Maybe some sort on '' safe passage of troops '' betwin 2 kingdoms to be allowed to use portals ( see point 6 ! ) ... but magics could only be learned only by allied / conquerer heroes !

3. In same direction casualties from battles could be reduced and an fleeing army could loose only 10 % from his troops ! And heroes who get defeated to gain and them exp => 25 % lets say ! If your teritory is invaded on basis terms atleast your heroes to '' learn ''something !

4. Resources : to be '' allowed '' to have one mine of each kind who will produce at normal rate , and rest of your mines to produce only 5 % for each mine after 1 st one of each kind ! So active / stronger players will not have '' tons '' of resources / moneys !

5. Artefacts : hero who get defeated to keep their artifacts ! Lets imagine this : one '' inocent '' armoured with artefacts hero , but with fewer troops keep getting closer to an enemy hero who is much stronger => result of battle is more than evident but ... should i saw more ?
How you '' get '' artefacts ? Maybe inside your teritory to be few spots where ( once a week / month / 2 months / 3 ... ) you defeat monsters and could get a lvl 1 or lvl 2 artefact ... and those spots to remain '' closed '' to anyone else who enter in your national teritory !

6. Wars / alliances : to be '' allowed '' to enter inside enemy teritory you need to declare war ! And after 12 hours you are '' allowed '' to move your invading hero / heroes inside enemy borders ! Probable to be '' allowed '' only 2 enemy kingdomw to declare war agains one ! Your heroes could learn magics from allied / ocupied towns . Wars allliance versus alliance to be at higher level but at '' basic '' level only 2 enemy kingdoms to be allowed to enter in one kingdom . And same from alliance members : only from 2 allied kingdoms to be allowed to move inside your borders to defend you ! As allie to send some sort of diplomatic message ( to all parts involved ) = '' as allied with Kingdom XXX we wil assist him against enemy invaders '' ... and in peace time again need some sort of diplomatic message send before being allowed to enter inside an allied kingdom and learn magics from his towns !
Outside national borders = in '' no mans land '' heroes to be able to hunt each other at their will !
Alliances could have spread members . How a '' far away '' kingdom to be defended by alliance members ? Maybe capitol to be allowed to build some sort of PORTAL who will move betwin allied capitols your heroes !? How much time / movement will be used until that hero gets from one portal to another ? Probable distance on map . This '' movement '' is already used on Utopia game !
I am inside enemy teritory and if an enemy hero will arrived / started to move betwin portals at that enemy capitol to receive an automatic message '' our mages finded out that an hero from kingdom Ugglyhair will arrive in X time at enemy capitol '' !

7. Offence / defence = i read that each square of map could have monsters -> you defeat them / get mine from that spot and could move on . Why not to be and on defence side something like that ? To be allowed to deply few troops at one important spot on map / or to be able that magically summon lvl 1 , lvl 2 troops at that spot . Over time those defending troops will '' keep growing '' and will engage / block enemy heroes to that spot ! Basically one of that spot could be just in front of your towns Only active action of you will be to summon/ seed one lvl 1 troop there .... after '' research '' maybe to be allowed to summon / seed lvl 2 monster and so on . What '' resources '' to be used for that ? And what skills ? Maybe each one will be encouraged to have obviouslly one mage hero ! Why not to '' build '' magic roads betwin your towns who will increase movement speed of your heroes / allied heroes inside your teritory ?
This way = defending monsters and '' magic roads '' could help the defending kingdom !
If enemy hero engaged an magic guardian = to receive some sort of exact number troops of enemy ! So even that those magic troops will be weak - to have a purpose !

8. Battles : against NPC i want full control of battle ! But against heroes could be used some sort of conditional orders ! In the managerial footbal game called '' freekick '' is working very fine an sistem of contitional orders : could adjust tactics / change players if enemy players play at certain position / is a score difference / or minute .
One thing in battles is this : total destruction of enemy troops ! The one who is weaker will obvioussly try to save as many troops if battle is obviouslly lost ! Maybe order to flee from battle to be allowed only after first round of battle / each of your troops did an action ( attached / got attached or moved/ hold position )
Ideea of 50 % bonuses against certain type of troops '' looks '' great .. from the winning side !

9. Trade - when are '' allowed '' free trades betwin players funny things could occur ... maybe a general market for all players could be better . And about artefacts trading - is complicated ... maybe to be allowed to sell your expendable artefacts at black market at fixed prices ... and in EACH kingdom that type of artefact to be on black market ... and blackmarket from each kingdom to be available only to that kingdom player - this way to avoid that allied / invading heroes to buy another artefact he already bougth in his kingdom . If someone on map put on market one artefact - to be allowed to buy only one artefact from that type ! So initially blackmarket will be empty . By time to time from game developers to '' apear '' on blackmarket and some desirable artefacts .


One or more from these ideas could be used ? Main ideea is that with those balancing modes ( low troops recruitment / low troops loss / low resource / low cities number / defending advantages / diplomacy declarations ... could keep longer people to play . When you win / dominate something is good but when your troops / cities / resources are obliterated is no longer fun .
Having about / rather close base of troops / resources will make you try use better what rather everyone has ! And with vasalisation / rebellion ideea could make game interesting and AFTER you get defeated ! And try be carefully and AFTER you win ! Brutal force and mind / might and magic ...

i like your ideas 1 and 2. but maybe some could be changed.

3: losing a small % of your army is not so realistic. perhaps getting some resources back (like you picked up their equipment or so) would seem logical and keeps the game balanced.

4: 5% is too low. maybe second mine of same kind 75%, third mine 50%... or the distance between town and mine could be of importance.

5: you lose 1 or 2 random artifacts. it has to remain attractive to risk losses when you attack someone.

6. too many portals don't seem very heroes-like. but i like the idea of it being not too easy to attack someone in their own territory. perhaps a loss of spellpower/attack to the attacker when attacking on someone's territory. or a bonus to the defender. maybe different for each race? elves are known for their ability to adapt their environment.

7: noone would place creatures without a hero somewhere if they can be in the hero. they are much stronger in the hero (due to attack/defense). the rest seems strange.

8: full control of battle against NPC seems good. some sort of autocombat against inactive humanplayer also seems to be a good option?

9:i don't really mind what kind of market there will be

7.

I like the idea of maximum cities, however that shouldn't be fixed, but depending on your level, say 5 max for level 30 but once you reach level 40, you can go up to 7 towns and more like that.

Also vassalization, I don't think so, would make alot of the players to quit since eventually people will be so powerful you'll not be able to break free, ever, if they can help it.

Much better would be a system like the current HOMM but with a twist: Other players can fully take ALL your cities except the capital. They can still raid that for a number of resources though. Also at your capital, 25-30% of your army there always survives(Assuming they're comparable level to you, if they are level 60 and you level 30, fine, but if you drop level 30 they shouldn't be able to hit any of your cities, but armies outside of cities should always be fair game)

Would still give the weaker player a valid chance to maybe capture back at least one of his cities.


Also, on city building, I think it would be nice if you could unleash the potential of all cities that you create yourself or capture from the bot hands(like in normal game there are auto played cities--and I know they said no server bot, but let's assume those are NPC cities) but not if you took them from other players.

And if you manage to re-capture your original cities, they become fully buildable for you again.

OR, come to think of it, that would come normal if you could do that depending on race. Meaning fully build in the cities from players with similar to your race, but, say, 80% on the other races captured cities. Sounds logical to me.

hmmm, i hope it is like what aandiin says, because i realy enjoyed playing lord of the rings battle for middle earth, and that description reminds me of that.

wow rois grammar ftl, eh?
But seriously, I don't know it seems like most of your points will just make the game easier. Personally, I don't think games should be as too simple. I know games want to appeal to everyone, but that doesn't mean it should loose it's challenge.

As far as placing your units on the map, I think if they left that as they did it would be okay. Only mines and resources really need to be protected, otherwise your just taking away from the units in your armies and towns.

Bonuses for troops against others are the basis of the game...I'm not quite sure where you are going with that?