In this article I will show my impressions about the private demo we had the privilege to see at Cologne, that took place among the presentation events of Heroes VI at the German la Gamescom. During that day we could see the demonstration map, play it for a few minutes and meet with Ubisoft production team and one member of Black Hole development team at a dinner in which we could fire them with questions and strengthen links among us.

But in the first place let me introduce you how it all started.

Ubisoft private forum

As you may already know, there is a private forum at Ubisoft open to the Heroes VI production and development team as well as for a small bunch of fans who represent the different M&M communities at international level. Among those lucky fans I find myself and my mate Lepastur at the Spanish site La Torre de Marfil.

Forum was opened after the start of Heroes VI development and in it we get some advancements of the game development (sometimes really slowly) with the purpose to stablish debate with developers.

To put it clearly, the forum is useful for Ubisoft to get a first feedback from the community, and test what the fan base might react about their decisions. Besides, it is useful to give them our own ideas and show summaries about fans reactions, concerns and ideas risen into the different communities. So we may have a certain influence, but certainly we don't take decisions. So if there is something you have read and don't like about the game (for example the resources reduction) don't blame us for "allowing it", because we probably think just as you and we have clearly stated in the forums. It is just not our game, so it's not our decision.

Ubisoft made Heroes VI public to the press at the Gamescom videogame fair (at Cologne), and following a policy of being in touch with the fans, every member of the private forum was invited to a private demo presentation at Cologne (though not everyone could assist), just the same presentation the press could see those days.

Gabor Szabo (left) and Erwan le Breton (right) in our meeting at Cologne

The meeting

A few reduced groups of about five persons were made to view the demo in different sessions. Lepastur and me went together on Saturday 21, at 11 o'clock.

We were met by Xane , (Noémie Verpeaux, Ubisoft Community Developer) at the Gamescom. business area and taken to Ubisoft area, where we were received by Erwan le Breton, Heroes VI producer, Max Von Knorring, associate producer, Leslie Capillon, marketing, and Gabor Szabo, development team lead designer at Black Hole. We were offered a drink and entered a small room. There were posters of Heroes VI concept art in every wall, and the one with Sveltana picture caught my attention. It was simply gorgeous.

A big screen presided the room and there was a PC at its side, in front of the chairs we did occupied. Erwan and Gabor sited to our right.

The demo

At first we could see the game's trailer again, which obviously looked better than in my Pc screen.

Right after that, Max started the demo. First thing that caught my attention was the music, a theme from the very same Might and Magic 7. I mentioned to Erwan and he said music was still place holder and they were using music from previous games. I think I could also spot the grass theme from the leaked Heroes V pre alpha version, a good theme that didn't get to be used in the final game.

As Erwan said to us, the demo map is a piece of a bigger map we will see in the game, but it was specially focused to show the graphical engine and some of the new units and features. So there is completely lack of freedom and many options were unavailable at the interface or simply weren't shown.

A close view of the stunning Sveltana's poster taken from the first session on Saturday

The demo map introduced us Sveltana, a hero from Necropolis who would presumably be involved in the main campaign. The hero and her army was too powerful so the map was a piece of cake, which was precisely the intention. Besides we couldn't see any level up as the hero had reached the level cap (level 30). Her main goal was to defeat a Haven enemy town.

I'd like to notice that at some moments text messages did show up at screen, coming with a voice over of Svelana character which introduced us the main goals of the map. We should guess that it will be a common practice in the main campaign and that these kind of resources will be at mapmakers disposal through the map editor.

Max followed a direct route and easily got rid of the enemy opposition. It wasn't a siege battlefield but a normal one (we couldn't see anything related to sieges in demo).

After that, we were introduced to the town transformation system which allows a hero to transform an enemy town to his own faction. Operation took some resources and was performed immediately. However Erwan assured that the system would be more complex in the final version and that definitely wouldn't be immediate. I asked Gabor if there will be skills related to town transformation, (speeding the process or reducing the resources cost for example). The answer was no, which is a shame since it would be quite interesting.

 

The demo town wasn't functional and was only useful as unit container. There was a window on screen showing the town with the same look as in adventure map, without any own music, and without the usual building and recruiting interface. It was clearly stated however that there will be a town window with its own 2D animated image (just like in the Heroes games previous to 5) and their own musical theme.

From the start of the game, Sveltana owned a fort, a new object strongly related to one of the new features of the game, the control areas (we'll speak more about them later). The map will be divided by control areas each of them controlled by a control point, a town or a fort. The fort itself will only be usefull as unit container and defensive center of the control area, and will also be able to provide certain bonuses to the owner (probably after building some structures). However in it you won't be able to build the ussual structures, as creature dwellings. But you will be able to transform them too just as towns, so I guess that the bonuses will be transformed to the analogous of your own faction. In fact we were told that every faction based building in adventure map is eligible to be transformed.

About the interface, adventure map reminds a lot to Heroes V interface (specially the radial menu and their buttons), but they told us that most of 2D art is still place holder. Menues are elegant making use of transparencies, but they lack detail and "magic". It doesn't provoke any real feeling, and it could very well be a science fiction game interface or one for and office program. I asked Max about it later at the dinner, and he answered that it¡s ussual that the interface is the last thing to polish in a game, when every gameplay mechanisms are stable and will hardly change, so they will work on it at later stages of development.
It is interesting however the possibility to customize the interface by adding shotcuts on screen to different parts of it, (in adventure map and battlefield). So for example we will be able to add shorcuts to the most common spells or to our main hero inventory.

Combat phase feels very seemilar to Heroes V, with squares coming back, radial menu and an initiative bar. However there's one important change, as we are getting back to the times of Heroes III about the turns system. Every unit will play exactly once per turn, and their initiative will only stablish their order to play in each turn (Erwan confirmed two different stats for movement and initiative). Heroes just as in Heroes III won't have a fixed playing order depending on their initiative but will be able to act once per round whenever one of their units holds the turn.

Something that is kept from Heroes V is the possibility of the hero to make a direct attack, that will be different depending if the hero is might or magic (Sveltana is a la Necrópolis magic hero and performed a ranged magical attack). This time however it will be better combined with the skill system to make it more interesting, but I can't give any more details..

I was the first to play from all the fans in my session

In the graphics department, the game still reminds to Heroes V (mainly because of the interface) but improved. Adventure map is rich in details and some views are really amazing, let's hope that performance does not suffer from it specially in big maps. About the graphic engine, this is a different one from Heroes V, developed by Black Hole from his work on previous games.

Another detail to consider, as Erwan told us, is that they have taken special care in keeping a clear view on adventure map when playing with the default camera, in such way that we won't need to zoom in/out nor change the camera angles while playing (still possible though). To say the truth, in the demo map we didn't have any problem to notice or see clearly any building or resource, but the map was small and we didn't have enough time to explore it properly. For now however it looks promising, as in Heroes V the change to 3D was quite sloppy in regards to object visibility. I whish we could see any portion of underground map to check this properly. I wonder though if it will be the engine itself which will ease this unobstructed view, if the editor will help us with some kind of warning for objects with low visibility, or if it will be just the designer's task to verify that nothing is hidden.

In combat there are quite some graphical similitude with Heroes V, but we could see again some improvements. For instance, the 2D art of the unit icons (at initiative bar) has been greatly improved, and some of them look simple great as can be seen in pictures released in these last days. Animations look quite good at first glance. Death animations of some units specially caught my attention as were more detailed than the rest of animations. Erwan said that they tried to make the battlefield look really alive and in motion, but they have taken special care in less usual animations like death, being these more detailed and longer than the rest. This way the visual detail increases without slowing down the game. We'll see close animations too, as happened in Heroes V, but they won't be very frequent.

When Max quit playing, we were shown a cinematic video activated by an event of the map itself. The video teased us about some features that couldn't be seen in the demo, like other creatures from inferno, different terrains, or a great blue water serpent that Erwan said was a boss (we will speak about this later)

After this, we had the chance to play for a few minutes ourselves and test everything we had already seen, though sincerely time wasn't enough for anything half serious.

Other features

I will explain now other features that although we couldn't test with the demo, have been discussed later in conversations with the developers or previously in the private forum, and we can already disclose.

Control areas

About control areas, when a hero gets a control point (fort or town) he will get control of every not neutral mine and dwelling in the area. Heroes of other players will be able to hold control of mines or dwellings in the area only as long as they stand in its entrance. As soon as the hero is gone they will get back to the player controlling the area. Other benefit of controlling an area will be that your heroes will spend less movement points when travelling though the area. Besides, certain unique buildings of each faction will have effect in the area of the town where they are built for the player controlling it.

Control areas will be defined in the map editor by the mapmaker with the help of a special editor. They cannot overlap themselves and are not mandatory. So we can get maps without any control area, or maps with only a few control areas for specific locations. It all depends on the map designer criteria. What is not so clear is how we will differentiate them in the game, as in the demo map we couldn't see any trace of them.

In my opinion this new feature tries to speed up the game in the initial exploration and conquer phase of your initial zone (thanks to the movement bonus for your heroes). It also tries to makes gameplay more dynamic, encouraging confrontation with your enemy, because if you want to steal resources from him you'll have to face him in his town or fort, instead of steal mines with a low level hero with barely an army. Removing those tactics will alleviate unnecessary logistic complications and excessive micromanagement in big maps.

However we'll have to wait for a playable version to test how it really works and check if it fits with the rest of the pieces that will make the game.

Terrains

About the different kind of terrains, up to now we could only see jungle (the one you can see at the demo pictures). Others have been already confirmed too, like plains (in two flavours, summer and autumn), lava, wastelands (native to Necrópolis) and underground. Each faction will have a unique native terrain.

Town building and production

Following with the novelties, the creature production system will be completely changed. Creature dwellings will work now sort of like mines do, meaning that units will be treated as a resource such as wood or gold. So weekly production of a certain unit will be added to your creature pool of that unit, and you'll be able to recruit them in any of your towns or forts.

This quite radical change will remove the need of caravans and big part of the logistic process related to creature movement among different production zones (most of the time something tiresome and boring). On the other way, it is reasonable to wonder if it's not an oversimplification of the production system. It will make easier the defence of just conquered towns, and control points will become high value locations. Each inch of terrain that you conquer will be one step beyond to victory. It will remove however the decisions related to the wise distribution of your creatures where you really need them, as you'll have access to them anywhere on your territory.

I won't state an opinion about it as it is still to soon to judge. They are definitely trying to make the game faster, ignoring some features that leads to micromanagement and focusing on combat, exploration and hero development. Indeed we cannot say they aren't trying to renew the old formula, perhaps stagnant over the years and after five games, but we'll have to wait and see if they're on the right direction.

There are more new features in town building, as cities will be able to build a few structures unique for each faction. Each of them will have four unique structures at their disposal, but in each town only two will be built at maximum. Their effects will range from economic or creature production boost to special abilities for adventure map or combat. Their effects can be cumulative improving the efficiency of the effect if you build more of the same structure in different towns (just like happens with the market).

We know too that town appearance in adventure map will change in time as we develope them, showing the existence of them. So with just a glance we will be able to get an idea of what kind of town we see and the development level of it.

Map editor

Julien Pirou, (also known as Marzhin in the community), creator of Legend of the Ancients campaigns, and the official Dark Messiah map (both for Heroes V), has been a member of Ubisoft Heroes VI development team for one year. His function is mainly level designer and he's very involved with the map editor functionality supervision. With his credentials as map creator he knows better than anyone the needs of map designer, so it's safe to say that we are on good hands. Erwan confirmed that they have the intention to release the map editor even before the game release, or at the same time in the worst case, and concious of Heroes V map editor faults (despite its great capabilities) they are aiming to make it much more user friendly. Anyway he transmitted Marzhin's impressions, who is very happy with the editor and impressed by it's ease of use and power. Gabor told us however that there will be no script system like the LUA based script system for Hereos V, which made it very powerful.

Let's hope that an easy to use map editor doesn't result in a less powerful editor. But it doesn't look like that, as Erwan shared with us that the sequence we could see showing the blue serpent and other creatures and terrains was completely made with the current map editor, which will be almost exactly like the one users will finally get.

Heroes and their development

There will be again two classes per faction, one might and one magic, and the heroes can be male or female. Each hero will have skills that belong only to his class and faction, dramatically influencing their game style, and will be able to unlock advanced classes that will grant them an ultimate ability.

Each class (including advanced ones) and gender is graphically represented by a different 3D model, which will help to know the exact class of a hero with only a look. Heroes will earn skill points when they level up (level cap will be 30), and they will be spent freely on general abilities (in the usual way of role playing games). Abilities will be organized in categories though an extensive skill tree. So luck won't be a factor any more when choosing skills, and you'll be able to build your hero as you like from the very first moment.

I think it's a very positive feature, though to say the truth, there's some random incentive missing. Hero developments will be more predictable and those little tricks to lead your hero to a good build that spiced the whole process, won't be needed any more.

Creatures

The T-shirt we received as a present. The unit is a phoenix and yes it will be in the game

As expected there are seven creatures per faction each with one upgrade (alternative upgrades won't reappear, at least initially). However there won't be seven levels but only three, corresponding to three basic units, three elite units and one champion unit. This division appeared already in the Nintendo DS game Clash of Heroes.

Units of the same level in a faction will have a similar power, though the idea is to make them very different. So we might have a ranged damage dealer as basic unit, a heavy ground unit with low damage stat, and a flying fast unit as the last basic creature. This way they will be able to help each other, or you will be able to build small armies (with less than seven units) very different to each other using only creatures from the same faction.

We also know that not only catapults will be able to damage walls in a siege battle, but units will be able to do it too. However they will be obviously less efficient than catapults, and probably not every unit will be able to damage them.

Artefacts

We know that besides the usual kind of artefacts there will be artefacts sets that will grant a bonus when they are all put together, as in Heroes III.

Combat

There are gameplay changes in combat too. Battlefields will have specific topographies, with different sizes and shapes, (presumably determined by map designer). There will be dynamic battlefields too, like a beach with the tide slowly flooding the battlefield each turn (though the possible effects are still unknown).

We will have new objectives for combat besides the defeat all the enemies: hold your position for X turns, defend a sacred shrine in the center of the battlefield, destroy a specific enemy stack...

We'll have fight against bosses too. Bosses will be non recruitable creatures specifically designed to be used in certain combats. They are supposed to be unique units of extreme strength and size and imposing presence, which map makers will be able to use in their creations.

We'll have a cover system too, allowing units to cover behind the different obstacles of the battlefield, in such way that ranged attacks will have reduced efficiency. However units won't be considered as obstacles for the cover system, so hiding behind a wall of units won't lessen the enemy ranged damage potential.

Campaign structure

There will be five campaigns of four maps each, and each one will be played with one different faction. We'll be free to play each campaign at the desired order, there will be an extra tutorial map (optional to play) and an extra prologue map (this will be mandatory).

Resources

This is a thorny subject. The game will have only four resources, wood, ore, gold and crystal. If you disagree, well, me too. Developers think that reducing the number of resources every mine will be important, as in previous games for most of the factions certain resources were of minimal importance. With this they try to encourage confrontation between players to fight for the resources (added to the new control system).

I think however that big part of the game diversity is removed, in exploration and building, and even in the identity of the factions. Map adventure will be more repetitive, the need to explore to find a mine you urgently need is removed or minimized, and the resource needs for town building will be very similar for all factions.

But it is final. It's their idea and we will have to test it and live with it.

Multiplayer

About the multiplayer part we don't know much yet, and we can't even say the little we know. Hot seat mode is confirmed from the beginning, that's all I can say for now. We'll have to wait to confirm the good attitude showed to certains proposals made at the dinner.

The dinner

At Saturday evening Ubisoft invited all of the fans to a dinner with them in a central restaurant at Cologne. For a while we could extensively speak with them, not only about the game, but knowing them more as persons too, and knowing each other (the fans), as for most of us it was the first time we met personally.

 

It was a very pleasant and interesting time and our little community could strengthen links. I got a very good impression from Ubisoft team. They are very reasonable people who didn't want to simply "sugar the pill". On the contrary they discussed openly with us about our points of view and theirs, and we could realize first-hand how hard is to fit ambitions and ideas in a production like this.

 

Final summary

It is hard to produce a game. There are lot of pressure related to the budget and the deadline (which is usually the same). You have to give something new, but not too much because most fans want more of the same. You have to defend your vision and achieve agreements with the development team, besides being open to the visions of the fans (and each of them has one!) because in the end they will be the ones buying the final product.

I think the team is good and have a great passion for what they do. Look, Saturday was their last day in Gamescom, and after dozens of presentations to the press, probably repeating always the same, they had to bear a group of rabid fans who did pressure them with endless questions and discussions until exhaustion. And not only at the demo but also at the dinner. And you know what, they didn't look like tired or overwhelmed. They did it willingly because they are passionate for it.

Intentions are good, and they are trying to take fans opinions in consideration, though they keep their vision of the game of course. They are trying to change the Heroes formula adding some innovations, though as we could see, it stills feels quite like Heroes.

What we've seen until now is promising. If they have enough time and can get a few things working the game will be very good. I don't know if so good as Heroes II or Heroes III which is saying much... but enough to keep us entertained for a long time.

But for now we'll have to wait for something more solid to express our opinions. Let's hope for more information soon, and for a beta process in which we can give our opinion and help to polish the rough edges before release.

So keep an eye on Heroes VI because the snowball is already rolling downhill with increasing speed.

As always we will keep you posted at La Torre de Marfil.