King`s Bounty: Warriors of the North announced

[markgil]

http://www.1cpublishing.eu/game/king-s-bounty-warriors-of-the-north/overview

[Madstrike]

Nice. I see there is a new school of magic "rune magic", I guess it makes the spells more powerful the more runes you have? that would be a cool thing.

[Tianx]

Looks more like an add-on than a full game?

[jake21]

I think it is a full game but that is the russian version; english version might take a while :(

[Metathron]

It's definitely not a game using a new engine, that's for sure! I wonder if it'll take place in the Armored Princess world (in the vein of Crossworlds) or a whole new world. I'd probably bet my money on the first, but secretly hoping for the second.

As for runic magic, I wonder if it's not something along the lines of what the dwarven faction had in HoMM V. You can see a kind of wheel or runic symbol has replaced the dragon, so it might be the same thing.

[Fatt_Shade]

It`s good no1 named this KB2 officialy, since i see much of same settings, and graphic. It looks like new expansion, but it`s better then nothing official from game developers so far. I hope for new areas (islands and such), i like new medals, and as for runic magic i guess it`s like pet dragon sometginh like that.
And i hope they take red sands option for individual unit exp, it`s great touch to tactics in game but with new lvl`s units get some skills, instead pasive stat bonuses. So no need for many new units and unit models, only unit skills that develop during game.
This is turn based strategy game (mostly0 so nothing extra fancy needed on graphic field, just give us some new tactics options and i think players will be sattisfyed :-)

[archaven]

Wow i'm super happy to hear this announcement!. Hope the following will be addressed:

1. No starforce/DRM.
2. Remove the buying scroll limit. It's very annoying. Impose the limit of spells you can scribe in spellbook but don't limit the carrying scrolls or buying scrolls in shops/towns/etc.
3. I need more reserve slots! and a place i can place my hired troops if i have no reserve slots.

[Mandea]

I can't wait for it. Too bad there is no new race. I would have loved to see a new race. I hope the new hero is completely different.

[Sneaksie]

There is an entirely new race - Vikings.

[Katie]

Yeah, you could tell it was Vikings. The name "Olaf", the usage of "Valkyries", and the "icey wastelands of the north". That all gives it away :-P.

Now the question remains, is Olaf going to get a chance to cross the Rainbow Bridge? :o

[Ryder]

Whilst I am very very pleased with this announcement surely after 3 games with the same engine it is time for something completely new. You've got the most out of KB:TL, now it's time for an overhaul.

I want KB2 please.

[Fatt_Shade]

I`m not for overall change, but some slight combination.
Expl : all classes have (almost) same medals, why ? Make different class different playthrough, i personally in every game get pet to 60+lvl, and rage medal to max lvl. Change medal advancement so getting some medal unlock other choices then after those you get other etc . . .
Change spell effects as in how they depend to item and some hero skills (not just order/diss/chaos skill lvl`s).
As i said on my previous post unit exp unlocking talents, something like orcs adrenaline. Now ppl kite islands get dragons and from first battle have strongest units in game, with my idea you`ll have to win some battles to get units to be usefull.
New items, but no totally new, just upgrade already existing to be useful later in game (i did this to couple in red sands and it interesting to think new item ideas).
AND PLS SOME KIND OF MULTIPLAYER.
Playing against AI is interestng just up to some point, but after trying couple army/skill builds AI just isnt enough for testing our tactics :-(

[Mandea]

There is (in development) KB: The Legions for MP games. Another game.

[Fatt_Shade]

@Mandea : pls tell me your not thinking on that piece of crap on facebook !!!

[Mandea]

I don't know the details as I'm not interested in MP games.

[chellelouj24]

Wow this is good news... I would surely try this one soon... Hurrah to King's Bounty!

[BB Shockwave]

This is awesome news!

Though I must admit, I did not finish the game yet with the Crosswords addons, I really like this series. And just like with Might and Magic, I don't think we need a new engine. Milk this dry, until they can... it's the game mechanics that count, not the graphics (which are great, anyway).

The norse setting is interesting, hope we get some mythological creatures too, like the Fenris Wolf as a wolf upgrade, or a Lindwurm, or two-headed trolls/ettins. The Valkyries will no doubt work like that mod's Beholder pet, aka units you can use on the battlefield.

[Roman]

Awesome news! Hopefully, it won't have internet-based DRM (which I am boycotting), so that I can purchase it. :)

[jamotide]

Whilst I am very very pleased with this announcement surely after 3 games with the same engine it is time for something completely new. You've got the most out of KB:TL, now it's time for an overhaul.

I want KB2 please.

Why, I can't get enough of KB as it is, overhaul has potential for desaster, so I really like the way they are going with these new releases. The engine is good, what do you want to overhaul?

[Nike-it]

Awesome news! Hopefully, it won't have internet-based DRM (which I am boycotting), so that I can purchase it. :)

It's too early to say about final DRM, but in any case it will be available on Steam with standard DRM.

[jamotide]

Make a collectors edition in a oldschool cardboard box with cloth map, cheesy artbook, printed manual, but no plastic toys please, we're not eight year olds, (dude).

[joasoz]

oh, the joy. They kan milk this game as long as they want. I wil buy it all :)

[Mivo]

I'm very excited about this announcement! :) It's also unexpected: I had thought that Crossworlds would be the last game in the series (I recall some discussion that implied it), so it was doubly nice to hear about Warriors of the North.

And this motivated me to start another round of Crossworlds. :) As much as I love the various fantasy TBS series, KB is still by far my favourite franchise.

[Zhuangzi]

oh, the joy. They kan milk this game as long as they want. I wil buy it all :)

Yep. I don't care about a new engine. This one is fine. Just give me a whole new campaign and I will be happy again. This is pretty much my favourite game series ever. :cool: :-P

[Zechnophobe]

Only thing I would really like to see from the basic formula, is make is so you can have as large of a force in your army as you want, but the number of troops you take into a fight is limited by your leadership. Will save a whole lot of micro management and running back and forth buying troops.

That is, if you have 1000 knights in your army, but only leadership for 20, then you take 20 with you into the fight.

[Mandea]

Yes, this is a very good idea. Running back and forth buying troops is a waste of time.

[Nike-it]

Yep. I don't care about a new engine. This one is fine. Just give me a whole new campaign and I will be happy again. This is pretty much my favourite game series ever. :cool: :-P

Don't worry, the campaign will be absolutely new:)

[jake21]

Do you know if the english version will be available at the same time as the Russian version or will there be a deep (long) lag.

Also is the new campaign long? To be honest I liked the campaign structure of the original (Legend) much better than the island hopping nature of crossroads. Mind you the story was not the best but (for me) it was the general direction I prefer (I understand why crossroads was easier to construct). Anyways do you know much about this new campaign and direction?

(Engine (for me) is fine. A few minor refinements wouldn't hurt but overall the graphics and mechanics are super duper).


Don't worry, the campaign will be absolutely new:)

[DeRex]

Great great news. :)

I have some suggestions. :D

Scrolls
Make the scrolls when used to be at same power as your level magic. If you have level 3 Order magic then when you use chain lighting scroll it wil be as strong as your 3rd level spell chain lighting. This will make your scrolls very useful when you run out of mana, and you will have a good reason to buy expensive scrolls more than one, stacking them and using in needy situations.

Gameplay
I play only on impossible mode, it is most challenging and interesting. In KB TL it is easy early game, and it becomes harder and harder later. I liked that. In KB AP it is the opposite, in the beggining it is hardest, and it becomes easier and easier to the end. I prefer when it is easy until level 10, so you can really see and explore what items and units you get available in shops, etc, and see what you gonna build, and then i want the game to become harder and harder, like it was in KB TL.

Remember Islands of freedom, when you defeat the turtle at level 4 and go to IoF and collect various goods, it is highly exciting and funny, then you dominate until level 10, and then the real challenges comes, and really incredibly hard to play. That is great gameplay.

Heroism
I am glad that in this new game you will have a male hero. Amelia and a pet dragon are too 'soft' for feeling the power. I want a male, and for rage something that is not cute as the pet dragon. Valkiries are ok, but few of them need to be like 'Xena' or 'Gerda' but not ugly like Gerda. :D

Strategy
Make the strategy constantly changing and very variable. So that for win you must buy various units and items thorough the game, not only one combination. And very random so you must play different combination every time you play new game, but make it easy until level 10, so you can see what to buy and build, then afther level 10 make it a big challenge.

Quests
Huge number of side quests, that make you go to cleaned areas again, and feel that these areas are not completely "empty and abandoned" after you finish your jobs there. For example, if you do clean an area like Marshan Swamp, and finish the big quests there, then make an event trigger which will appear there a big Luna Park with frogs and various creatures playing all around, and celebrating, or maybe they open a new Wizard Witch school, and lot of students are coming around.

Good luck, having great hopes. :)

[pcbun]

KB UI design is nice, but a new design UI please.

[aceymi]

Any chance of a RMG for short scenarios in addition to the campaign? I don't know if this would be possible or not...

[Roman]

It's too early to say about final DRM, but in any case it will be available on Steam with standard DRM.

Steam is online DRM.

I will be waiting to see/hear what DRM it will turn out to have in the end. I bought King's Bounty: The Legend immediately when I found out it didn't have internet-based DRM (only a disc check) on the DVD version and it was truly an awesome game. Naturally, I wanted more of that great experience, so I was excited when King's Bounty: Armored Princess was announced. Unfortunately, I then discovered that it has online-based DRM, so I didn't purchase it or its Crossworlds version.

Hopefully, King's Bounty: Warriors of the North will return to the disc check DRM instead of online activation (or worse).

Basically, my boycott of online DRM stems from the fact that I don't want to be dependent on a third party to install/activate/run games after I have purchased them. Many of my favorite classics are pretty old (some are older than 15 years or even 20 years now) were produced by companies that no longer exist (e.g. Heroes of Might and Magic III or Dark Sun: Shattered Lands). If there they had some sort of online activation (or worse), they would be unplayable now. Hence, I decided not to buy any games with online-based DRM as a form of protest against the practice. Having said that, I recognize the need for companies to protect their intellectual property, that's why I don't mind disc checks and forms of DRM that is not dependent on some third party's continued existence decades down the line.

Sorry for the long rant - I just wanted to explain my reasoning. :)

[Fatt_Shade]

Ok it`s been 1 month since first news about KB-WotN announcement so i think they should release game asap. Yesterday would be great, but tommorow is acceptable :-)
Who`s with me on this ?

[Luewen]

Hopefully the campaign will be at least as long as AP one. Normal difficulty should be challenging whole campaign as it was too easy on late campaign in AP.

Also would like to have all the old units and perhaps advanced version of each unit that dont have one yet. Aka paladins are advanced form of knights.
And sad that bowmen or many other units dont have the advanced version.

We should get more reserve slots for units. I would think 5 reserve slots would be nice so you can have 2 sets of units without micro managing or running all around looking places where you left previous stacks of units.

More awesome music from previous games also pls. :D

[Smitfraud]

I am really looking forward to enjoying this addon, hopefully we are able to play it this year :)


Also would like to have all the old units and perhaps advanced version of each unit that dont have one yet. Aka paladins are advanced form of knights.
And sad that bowmen or many other units dont have the advanced version.

We should get more reserve slots for units. I would think 5 reserve slots would be nice so you can have 2 sets of units without micro managing or running all around looking places where you left previous stacks of units.



Well, if you are interested in playing a mod, you will find a few update units in the "adventure" (http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=22725) and "red sands"(http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=23485)-mod: e. g. in the adventure mod, you can find an upgrade for the "bowman" - it is called "Archer".

There also exist a mod for 5 reverse slots: http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=25428

It works on Armored Princess, Crossworlds and all the mods as well :)

[Fatt_Shade]

@ Luewen Yea . . . i wouldnt hold my hopes for this addon for this year. It`s announced for spring 2012, so tough luck for anything sooner then mart i think :-(
As for new units that will be with all new `Viking race`, Olaf, Valkires compannions etc, but good idea for upgrading. If they implement unit exp as it`s done in `Red Sands mod`, that every unit have beter stats, longer you use it in battles there will be no use of upgrading units. Maybe new unit talents/skills with higher exp they gain . . . hm good idea :-)
More reserve slots isn`t big change in game as Smitfraud said, it`s almost 1 file changed and you can hav 3-4-5 slots as you wish. I posted earlyer that bigger differences between hero classes would be great. Now you have 2 skills, and 2 medals different warrior/paladin/mage all else is same. Making different skill tree, medal advancement etc would make playing game worthwhile with different classes.
I know that little things make this game great, and there are many possible builds to keep players interested. But consider this : changing hero skills/medals/items... is changing couple text files not big problem. But they will for this expansion make new islands, textures,maps, unit models... Why not doing 10% of that time to make game itself more detailed, instead making all new world.
Between AP and CW there isnt anything new in game (graphic, maps,islands...) but all gameplay is changed with patch of 40+ MB (orcs race, items, and such) and it was great addon. Same for Red sands, 1 new island=250MB, all else changed=80MB(unit exp, units,models,items, quests . . ., all that in 1/4 of work for making just 1 new location). I must say it was great work by red sands team, and thx for that. But point i want to make is playing with warrior or mage didnt changed to much. Hero class tactics weren different because we didnt get options to try something new. I would like to see medal tree where picking 1 medal gives you choice of 2 more (like skill tree) but then picking 1 other is denyed etc. And for some combination of medals you get bonus medal to lvlup after reaching certain lvl.
Now it`s possible to get almost all medal lvls with every hero class.
Also making no loss truly `impossible`:-) Like adding round limiter for bosses, or quest to do something with already given units arena or something (like bottany regalia from prof.dumbledore on elon) I havent tryed it, but i think that is really impossible to do with no loss.
And such things. To make gameplay different experiance, not just make new location ,change hero profile picture and compannions. Make us (players) choose which way we play, so we`ll have to play again to try other ideas we got during previous playthrough.
Sry ppl didnt plan to take this long, but some ideas came by itself. Anyway cant w8 to see what will KB-WotN brings :-)

[Luewen]

I am really looking forward to enjoying this addon, hopefully we are able to play it this year :)



Well, if you are interested in playing a mod, you will find a few update units in the "adventure" (http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=22725) and "red sands"(http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=23485)-mod: e. g. in the adventure mod, you can find an upgrade for the "bowman" - it is called "Archer".

There also exist a mod for 5 reverse slots: http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=25428

It works on Armored Princess, Crossworlds and all the mods as well :)

Oo. thanks for the mod links.

[Luewen]

@ Luewen Yea . . . i wouldnt hold my hopes for this addon for this year. It`s announced for spring 2012, so tough luck for anything sooner then mart i think :-(
As for new units that will be with all new `Viking race`, Olaf, Valkires compannions etc, but good idea for upgrading. If they implement unit exp as it`s done in `Red Sands mod`, that every unit have beter stats, longer you use it in battles there will be no use of upgrading units. Maybe new unit talents/skills with higher exp they gain . . . hm good idea :-)
More reserve slots isn`t big change in game as Smitfraud said, it`s almost 1 file changed and you can hav 3-4-5 slots as you wish. I posted earlyer that bigger differences between hero classes would be great. Now you have 2 skills, and 2 medals different warrior/paladin/mage all else is same. Making different skill tree, medal advancement etc would make playing game worthwhile with different classes.
I know that little things make this game great, and there are many possible builds to keep players interested. But consider this : changing hero skills/medals/items... is changing couple text files not big problem. But they will for this expansion make new islands, textures,maps, unit models... Why not doing 10% of that time to make game itself more detailed, instead making all new world.
Between AP and CW there isnt anything new in game (graphic, maps,islands...) but all gameplay is changed with patch of 40+ MB (orcs race, items, and such) and it was great addon. Same for Red sands, 1 new island=250MB, all else changed=80MB(unit exp, units,models,items, quests . . ., all that in 1/4 of work for making just 1 new location). I must say it was great work by red sands team, and thx for that. But point i want to make is playing with warrior or mage didnt changed to much. Hero class tactics weren different because we didnt get options to try something new. I would like to see medal tree where picking 1 medal gives you choice of 2 more (like skill tree) but then picking 1 other is denyed etc. And for some combination of medals you get bonus medal to lvlup after reaching certain lvl.
Now it`s possible to get almost all medal lvls with every hero class.
Also making no loss truly `impossible`:-) Like adding round limiter for bosses, or quest to do something with already given units arena or something (like bottany regalia from prof.dumbledore on elon) I havent tryed it, but i think that is really impossible to do with no loss.
And such things. To make gameplay different experiance, not just make new location ,change hero profile picture and compannions. Make us (players) choose which way we play, so we`ll have to play again to try other ideas we got during previous playthrough.
Sry ppl didnt plan to take this long, but some ideas came by itself. Anyway cant w8 to see what will KB-WotN brings :-)

Pretty good ideas. Especially units getting xp. But what i originally meant by updated units is that just have higher tier unit of the base class with improved stats and added skills perhaps. Like knight/paladin example.

And likewise cant wait for the game. I will buy it no matter what. If i think about playing it a bit i get hooked every tiem and play it for 50 hours at least. And game graphics are still very good and suits this type of game so no need to upgrade those that much.

[Fatt_Shade]

Differences between making new units (upgrading already existing), and geting units personal exp :
1) upgrade unit =higher stats,maybe new talent/skill. Need new unit models, textures, graphical part of game for move/attack/use skill ...
2) unit exp=higher stats,maybe new skill. Need 2 text files,graphical part for using new skill.
It`s faster with unit exp, since those text files work for all units in game, and making new units (upgraded version) you need to make special files for every unit individually.
I`m not saying new units would be bad idea, but i meant to make tactical part of game a bit demanding. You buy units then upgrade them and with no work have stronger army, but with unit exp you need to win battles, and use all units to get exp/lvl`s to reach new skill to get stronger army. It`s more commander like :-)
I say this because i dont like kiting, so ppl who kite around get all locations checked and then return to start with dragons (or what ever they want to play) and start first island with imba army. Geting uprgaded units will only make it easier in those cases.
For unit exp even with kiting there will be need to fight some battle before geting skills for all units you use in army.
All this talk my about less work for making new game i`m only thinking because all thah wasted time 1C invested in Royal Quest, instead making great games KB2, KB3 ...

[DeRex]

We love Kings Bounty.

Mi volimo Kings Bounty.

Mi ljubime Kings Bounty.

XD

[Darkeonz]

Ohhh woohoo! this is awesome. Can't wait :). looks like a bigger expansion then crossroads. I've been anticipating news.

Also looks like there's 5 new achievements to help you in your battles! awesome, i loved that aspect of armored princess

[Fatt_Shade]

Yea i like there are more achievements, but i`m also hoping they make them different between hero classes. In AP/CW there are 8 same medals for all classes, and only 2 different for each so no much variety in getting medals, you have to spam 400 for guardian angel, 600 for fire mage . . . It would be nice to have something like warrior medal for crit on special abilities(or bonus dmg for them any way since high crit% alsmot no1 use unit talents because they make lower dmg then normal attack), higher physical dmg medal. paladin higher resurrection medal (for those with no runes for class skill), bonus for stone skin/magic well and similar beneficial spells medal . . . mage spell specific medals (this i saw in homm3_babies mod for tL from Mattcaspermeyer) longer fear/blind/hex/doom medal, or lowering enemy fire/magic/astral resistance medal( i made it in red sands mod, and it work great replaced old fire mage). . .
Or making medal advancement by choice : like with rage psirits/pet dragon when lvl up medal you get to pick between 2 things and that makes difference later on. You either want stronger dmg spells, or support. lower enemy ress or higher ally etc . . .
With achievement they can make anything possible but making them different between classes would be great in making much more possible builds/playthrough for players and it takes only changed couple .txt files not even 1 day work for experienced programer :-)

[Nitelite]

Very exciting news. I am a huge fan of this franchise and eagerly await the next installment!

[rickah88]

So Spring 2012 actually means mid-2013 for the US disc release?

[Darkeonz]

So Spring 2012 actually means mid-2013 for the US disc release?

I asked them on facebook, and it looks like the English version will be released the same time as the russian. I guess it got a big enough of a following now to support that. Great news for us :-D

[Fatt_Shade]

@dDakeonz
Your wrong my friend, great news for us would be that KB-WotN will be published tomorrow :-)

[Mandea]

Would you rather have a good game in April, or a buggy and incomplete game tomorrow? I would bet on the first option :D

[Fatt_Shade]

I want good game tomorrow :-P No i want it yesterday :-D
But seriously now AP released 2,5 years ago , CW 1,5 years and it didnt contain anything new in game look/graphic. Only designer change were couple orc units animations for skill they got, even `new` spells were transferred form original tL from rage spirits and placed in spell book. So i cant say they invested lots of time in CW in work time, more energy went to thinking what to change in expansion. Most of CW were dont in .txt/.lua files so i dont think it took big team of programers for actual work on it.
Now for WotN we saw some screenshots and they changed lots in graphical part : new locations (scandinavian type world i`m guessing), new unit models, new runic magic (no more rage spirits/pet dragon). But game mechanic is same (medals, functioning of items/scrolls and such), skills/abilities. In core they didnt change graphic engine, just took old dress from Amelie and placed it on our new friend Olaf. You cant tell me this is NEW game, it looks allot like original theLegend. Comparing to Desciples 2-3 where everything is new, and HoMM 4-5 change is same(i mention this 2 games since they are both in same genre as KB). But in KB we have great game play, nice story, many tactics and still it look same since original TL from 4 years ago. That`s why i say i want this expansion yesterday just to see what did they made for it to take 2,5 years since AP. When they announce whole new official KB2, i`ll be patient to see what will they do, but for KB-WotN (actually just a mod for KB-AP/CW) i say they took too long. Look at Red Sands mod, some ppl decided to try it and in less then 6 months gave use great mod with huge changes in game.
Did it really took 1C/Cataury 2,5 years to figure out that this is their market instead wasting time/gold on Royal Quest ?

[Mandea]

Then do it yourself or be patient. good things don't came easily.
I want to climb up on Everest too but as long as I don't do anything about it, it remains a simple dream. The same can be said about your wish.

[Fatt_Shade]

And as for `do it yourself` i did things i know how to : modded skills/medals/spells/, new item lvls, new items. Changed exp system for units, changed att/def bonus from stats (like int bonus every 7 int +10% dmg, every 15 int longer spell duration just for att/def), added new units(from red sands mod) for academy upgrades, and some other things. So i changed almost as many things as developers for CW expansion, and it didnt took more then month all together. That`s why i only ask what we will get in this WotN : how many quests/locations/skills/units ?, how will runic magic work ?, are valkyres like wives ?, since this was announced 3 months ago, nothing new was said about it, same information stand on official site as 6.10.2011.
As game looks same as first 2 i`m only interested what is taking so long to say something new about it.

[Darkeonz]

Yeah I wouldn't mind some new information about it. King's bounty is pretty much the only game I play. I'm not much of a gamer.

Btw is red sands worth trying? It looked so complicated to me (even the installer) and usually user made mods for games are imbalanced

[Mandea]

That`s why i only ask what we will get in this WotN : how many quests/locations/skills/units ?, how will runic magic work ?, are valkyres like wives ?, since this was announced 3 months ago, nothing new was said about it, same information stand on official site as 6.10.2011.
As game looks same as first 2 i`m only interested what is taking so long to say something new about it.

We are still 4 months ahead of the game's launch so it's plenty of time for them to get out with this info. Patience, patience and again patience :D

[Fatt_Shade]

@Mandea
3 basic rule of playing chess :-)
Ok i agree, only 4 months (not too much considering releasing games world), but we didnt get much info to begin with: no trailer, no in game footage, no explanation what we do with rage(since in screenshots there are no pet dragon/rage spirits), no specs of any new units . . .

[Mandea]

yes, but it's quite obvious we didn't get them because there was nothing to get in the first place. They didn't know exactly what they wanted to, they had some ideas and this was it.
and those pictures were not representative for the final game so....

[Fatt_Shade]

Q: Will there be any change in high score formula ?
Kb-tL / AP / CW all had same formula that didnt consider casualties/ hero lvl/ pet lvl/ dmg5 troops, spells, rage/and time spend was only in days which was to crude, better change it to hours (15 day 23 hours , and 16 days 10 minutes was big change in highscore :-( ). FInal score should be bit more detailed, and it`s simple lua file change.

[rickah88]

I asked them on facebook, and it looks like the English version will be released the same time as the russian. I guess it got a big enough of a following now to support that. Great news for us :-D

Thanks so much for posting! While I'm very excited for this release, I have to temper my expectations based on how long it took to get a US disc release for AP. I actually jumped the gun and order through Amazon UK as they had it much earlier than Amazon.com.
I'm almost done maxing out all my Dynasty weapons/traits on H6, so this release may be just in time....IF the date/info hold true! :shock:

[Mygaffer]

Sooooo excited about this. When I heard they were ditching this series, which has been so successful for them, and trying to release an MMO, a field that is nothing if not overcrowded and 2012 has several great looking MMO's slated for release, it never made any sense to me that they would be releasing an MMO.

I will certainly be buying this day one.

[Rah]

North Warriors is a great news :)

I would like to see a new multi-level campaign. What I mean is a single campaign as the ArmoredPrincess campaign or the first one, but with the option to start at different locations with different races and this would affect the quests, the story (in some degree) - like you are helping your race to win against the others in some world threatening events and decide the outcome.

I would like to see some skills affecting the creatures skills like in the first KB, but fixed (I remember that when you unlock some skill, it was unlocked for neutral enemies as well - maybe this was fixed with the latest patch but I haven't played that part so much as AP, so I cant tell).

I definitely don't want to see the micromanagement cut or simplified as some readers here suggested - see what happened to Heroes 6, it is a disaster and definitely a grand mistake, so please devs, keep this in mind, I already have thrown in the bin the latest spawn of a once great game (HMM) - not only for this reason but this counts as well. Leave the running around for buying creatures as it was. Don't make the game predictable and too easy and straightforward!

Create three-four destiny points in the main quests so you can have different game-end. Dont play with good-bad finals but something more interesting as pushing the world in this or that direction (and you can use this in an expansion as starting points, like a finale where the elves are enslaved and they fight vs. demons for freedom, or a world where the magic is banned, or a world with almost extinguished lizards, or a world which is too much order and no fun controlled by humans etc.)

As for the dragon/spirit/Valkyrie since it is only one spirit give it several directions for development, like stage 1, where you have to choose between might and magic, stage 2, where you have to choose between order and chaos - in this way you can deal with the longevity and the desire of the players to try different options - keep the spirit independent from the hero classes - three hero classes with order/might, chaos/might, order/magic and chaos/magic spirit gives you many choices and play-styles. I remember how fun it was playing with 4 different spirits. And you can do this with only 2 variables and a little imagination :)

Invent at least one more resource for buying creatures, possible 4. If you use one, you can earn it after fighting level 5 creatures to buy level 5 creatures and from main quests. When the player is out of it, s/he has to play again with 1-4 level creatures and again try different play-styles, not using only dragons for example. If there are 4 main resources, they could be used for creatures from different races and again you are giving more options.

In the first KB I liked the idea of gaining different noble titles but this had no effect on the game. You can use this in a way desired from many players here, and this is the idea for OWN castle, which the hero can rule and build. Each title gained gives you the opportunity to upgrade it and built some dwelling. I don't know if this is not in collision with the copyright and if you are allowed to move so closely to Heroes of Might and Magic, but if there is no problem, you can implement this idea. Each title will give you the right to build a dwelling of the next level, mage guild with researched spells, teleport to the castle, marketplace/artifact merchant. There could be side-quests like random notice from the game that the castle is attacked and you have to return to it, for a random fight against a hero/army.

What about creatures items? Every stack could equip one item and it alone would be effected by its special properties, not the whole army. Or you could equip the stacks with one potion to be used on that stack in the battle - only one again.

There are so many other ways to improve the game. You can fix Necro for example. What I mean is that it lacks (at the moment) the sinergy between units. Actually many other races lack this, but in Necro this is very obvious. Skellies are OK, Zombies - not, I dont think someone uses them in their own army, the two ghosts are pain in the ass when oversizing, vampires are strange with no life drain in human form and as bats they are not interesting (atleast for me) - play a little bit with numbers giving vampires life drain, remove the no-retaliation and instead of that give them unlimited retaliation - I tried this in a self-created mod and the results were very satisfiting both playing with and against them, give the Liches cloud attack properties to heal adj. friendly undead (they are supposed to do that and to help other lesser undead) etc. Remove the oversizing possibility for ghosts and because they are spectral units, give them chilling attack which makes the blood of all living creatures freeze or because they inflict fear-effect on their minds, next attack in the same turn from other undead is more powerful - this is one way to create synergy between units, or make all zombies taunt enemy attacks in some distance and give the liches the ability to resurrect into no-life all lvl1 and lvl2 undead (skellis and zombies), again you have synergy here.

And all lvl 5 units could have some auras depending on their aligment. This is another option to improve the tactic side on the battlefield. These auras could be improved by some hero-skills...

:)

[Fatt_Shade]

@Rah Some nice ideas, but some arent much useful :
1) starting campaign in different locations with different army not doable i think. it would be better to make spawning enemy army depending of game time, so when you get back to some location you can try out new units/skills/items you acquired so far. So making limited enemy/battles is not interesting.
2) Changing skills-units is not big problem, it can be modded easy by players here on forum. What we need from game developers is campaign,islands, and good functioning editor.
3) Bigger difference between hero classes would be nice, because so far in all KB games i played only difference between warrior/mage was leadership/spell dmg. Same skills/medals/items available . . . too monotonous :-(
4) New resources nice idea, but in HoMM we had many resources but no lds limiter, here we have only gold but every hero is limited heavily by lds and units available to lead.
5) Hero titles, and owning castle not bad, but where to place it and how to control what happens there . . . This is turn based tactical strategy game, i dont think managing castle would go with it. We play with what we have at disposal, not what we would want to have in inventory :-)
6) Creature items, not good idea. Look red sands mod for CW, there is unit exp system which give great new play style, so no need for unit items if game developers take that for new WotN.
7) Like i said changing individual skill or unit abilities or passive unit talents is doable after game get out, and players get their ideas about how to fix what developers missed :-)
Just hurry up, and get it to market already :-D

[Rah]

Some nice thoughts there, Fatt_Shade.

I hope the devs are willing to create a new game, not to upload what we already have.

1 -> All areas have different difficulties and quests. Creating templates which adjust the difficulties and creating many versions of the same quests, depending where you start, makes this possible.

2 -> Everything could be modded. I prefer to pay for the game and adjust it slightly if needed, not do it alone from the scratch like everyone in the bronze age was doing everything for himself alone. It is called industry. Game industry in this particular case.

3 -> Nice you are open to some changes.

4 -> Following this logic, lets take the gold out from the picture.

5 -> I don't like Red Sands and the idea of creature experience. I tend to memorize the creatures stats and skills and there is a sane limit for that. Memorizing thousand variables will get me far away from this game. This is one of the reasons I don't like games like Diablo and WoW, where you have unlimited items with different random numbers, percents, combinations etc. This is the same with creatures gaining experience. Too much statistics is as bad as too less.

6 -> Of course there is a way to do it. Castle turns could be equal to 5 or 10 battles fought or so. Castles could be limited to one race only, artifacts offered do not differ from the artifacts in the other "static" castles. Just another castle, but it will give more depth to the game in some aspects. I like people that have ideas and think over them, not people that when looking at something new, have this initial reaction to refuse it.

7 -> Do you think that a third game under KB hat if made with slight changes in the game play will be a success? You can not sell the same thing in different package and think that the customers will not expose you. There is no worse thing than leaving the customers feel cheated for what they bought. Last example - Heroes 6.

If the future NorthWarriors game wants to be a success it has to offer many new things, or many changes, not only few other skills and creatures.

If I like a game I tend to buy it multiple times for presents to my nephews and friends, I bought KB six times. The same applied for other games I liked - Neverwinter nights and few other RPGs. And I am doing this because I want the sequel to have more life and new titles from it to be created. But first the devs have to make their invenstment as new creative ideas and extras. Modding is a good thing and I am glad that the KB code is very easy to be changed, but if a game is plain and stupid, do you think that even modded it will reach more than few hundred gamers?

[Fatt_Shade]

1) OK i agree it could be done, but i dont think developers will make it that way :-(
2) What if game industry do same thing to KB series as it happened to HoMM serial? :-( They made 5th and 6th hoping to attract players with nice graphic and totally missed gameplay and story like in HoMM3
3) I`m always open for new ideas and then think would i like to have it in game or not, i never drop it even before thinking.
5) I`m not saying only Red sands mod was good, many other mods had great ideas, and dont by players simply because they wanted to make something of their own for this game.
for the Legend check HoMM-babies mod, Matt did great job with it,
in AP mods Csimbi had nice idea for Extended skills (it would be great for warrior to have mirht skill tree up to 5th lvl, paladin mind 5th lvl, mage magic skills up to 5th lvl, to make little difference in classes),
for CW adventure mod, equilibrium mod, red sands +extreme mod, Mytic also had great idea for making available critical hit for special unit abilities but i think he never published it :-( also ShadowTek`s anti paladin mod great ideas, never got published :-( But nevertheless many interesting ideas in all of those mods.
6) Every 10-20 battles you can build something in YOUR castle, hm nice . That would be OK

[Darkeonz]

I wish they would give us a release date and some more screenshots and news from the game

[Rah]

1) OK i agree it could be done, but i dont think developers will make it that way :-(
2) What if game industry do same thing to KB series as it happened to HoMM serial? :-( They made 5th and 6th hoping to attract players with nice graphic and totally missed gameplay and story like in HoMM3
3) I`m always open for new ideas and then think would i like to have it in game or not, i never drop it even before thinking.
5) I`m not saying only Red sands mod was good, many other mods had great ideas, and dont by players simply because they wanted to make something of their own for this game.
for the Legend check HoMM-babies mod, Matt did great job with it,
in AP mods Csimbi had nice idea for Extended skills (it would be great for warrior to have mirht skill tree up to 5th lvl, paladin mind 5th lvl, mage magic skills up to 5th lvl, to make little difference in classes),
for CW adventure mod, equilibrium mod, red sands +extreme mod, Mytic also had great idea for making available critical hit for special unit abilities but i think he never published it :-( also ShadowTek`s anti paladin mod great ideas, never got published :-( But nevertheless many interesting ideas in all of those mods.
6) Every 10-20 battles you can build something in YOUR castle, hm nice . That would be OK

I agree that the players did a spectacular job, but KB was spectacular at first place. If you have a good base, than modding is fun. If you try to do devs job, than it is a tedious work.

H6 devs made many mistakes, misled by the publishers and the players, trying to please everyone. Katauri has a great team with great ideas, I was just pointing to some other possibilities, not saying that I will not like the game otherwise :) I am used to brainstorm dozens of ideas for any project and this is how it works, imagination first, than work :)

H6 suffered from lack of imagination. All of these wicked numbers, percentages, statistics, dublicated skills, different names for the same skills, everything messed up. I hate the most the logarithmic formula for calculating attack/defence/damage. This was the first thing that surprised me. I am good in doing some high math, but this is too much for the poor brain. Next thing was the static skill system, every level the same choices or the illusion of choices. Next thing the magic system, taking out the "learn spell" ability and the mage guild is a huge step back, convert towns (an example how fans can be so wrong in their ideas, by the way - this is an old idea from H3 WOG and it is so wrong, taking away the pleasure of mixing races in your army, because if you do so, the enemy will take you down with larger numbers), no micromanagement at all, no regular visit of map objects (something that KB should implement, not on so large basis as in H4 but still, at least some objects that refresh themselves after some time could be a good thing), town portals and town gates that give you instant army is unrealistic and was bashed by many, less resources, less possibilities, less of everything (except bugs but that is another topic, bugs could be fixed with time, I hope, but because of the things said above I will never give this game a second chance, it is so boring). And in the same time other things were much more than needed, like overpowered and common healing/resurrection for 4/5 of the races, overpowered skills and underpowered skills making the skill choices predictable and static. The last thing makes H6 much less enjoyable and with much less longevity than KB where you can take different skills everytime and still enjoy the game. In H6 there are very few tactics playing each town just because of the rules, in KB there are hundreds of tactics for winning the same battles - and these tactics vary from creature choices, where you could pick lvl 1-2 creatures and still win very easily or lvl 5 and rule the battlefield, or spellcasters only, or archers only etc.

So I think Katauri has found its way in this game, when looking back to the Legend and the Princess.

I wish the KB devs to keep the golden thread (middle path of everything), not to go only in one direction and to mix ideas very carefully.

If they cannot implement the first idea of different starting regions, than they could make the campaign more interesting if they give you the opportunity in the middle of the game to choose whos side to take, like playing for different kingdoms. You can favor dwarves over elves, or elves over demons etc, choosing different quests from the different realms. And with different outcome, battles and so on. Active enemy troops is a good idea - this means if you do quest X for the dwarves you will fight dragons standing before castle A, if you do quest Y for the elves, you will fight demons before castle A - and this demands different tactics and gives you different story path and different bonus. If you take the side of dwarves, you could benefit from one bonus for your army, if you take the side of humans, you are given another bonus - like in Warlords Battlecry II and III when doing the world map.

And the most important thing in a game like Heroes or KB is the lore. Fans give so much attention to it, and it is one of my favorite things as well. Mystic/divine lore is much more preferred than common lore. This means that some creatures are with divine origin, like angels. The idea of improved human beings born like angels is a common lore, the idea of divine messangers of a god force is a mystic lore. I hated the sci-fi elements in Might and Magic where devils were aliens and angels were born from a wizard experiment, this makes the world look like a dull materialistic riff-raff trying to survive and follows the law of the jungle. Some divine force giving you sacred quests here and there is much more inspiring than the other. In H6 the larger part of the creatures are created by the wizards - the orc race, the undead race, part of the water race... Pathetic. Give the world some godly springle - this is fantasy world, not DNA/genetic mutation world. Some things have to be left without explanation, this is how imagination works, where the rational steps back.

[Razorflame]

VERY ANXIOUS for this;)


i will buy it all :D:D:

[Darkeonz]

we're in feb and it's supposed to be released in the spring of 2012 right? still no updates about the game lol. Kind of odd. No specific release date either right?

[Ryder]

I asked them on facebook, and it looks like the English version will be released the same time as the russian. I guess it got a big enough of a following now to support that. Great news for us :-D
As crazy as it sounds, I dont mind waiting an extra couple of months for the English version because by then, legends like spamm have made kraken mods
that make a great game even better.

Still, I wont be complaining with simultaneous release.

[joasoz]

I will buy this game on release. No need to read reviews. In Kings Bounty we trust! I have a wait and see policy on all games (saved me from buying CIV V and Heroes VI), but Kings Bounty is a proven concept.

[ckdamascus]

I will buy this game on release. No need to read reviews. In Kings Bounty we trust! I have a wait and see policy on all games (saved me from buying CIV V and Heroes VI), but Kings Bounty is a proven concept.

Same here. A part of me can't wait, another part of me wishes they never release it... because it means my soul will get sucked in again. :)

<sniffles> plus I will miss looking at the princess.

:)

[Elwin]

Same here, really need a game to play now, KB or RQ :)

[HardWithStyle]

I first download game, then if game is good i buy it. Hope this WotN will provide more options :D

[Elwin]

I did DL first only for LEgend myself, after that i knew it would be good, Crossroas was a bit dissapointment, but maybe because i played AP too much.

[Rah]

I have more ideas for the Warriors of the North.

I was thinking about the CRIT systems. By now it is influenced by morale - from one race units, items, skills etc.

First, for GOD sake, give the special attacks the same chance for critical hits, it is very annoying at the late game to do less damage with them than with regular attacks - some units are balanced against their special attacks - Cannoneer with very low normal damage is designed to use every 3 rounds the tripple shot, or Elves... Maybe only mass abilities, like Dragon fire line or Giant's Jump could be designed to NOT critically hit.

Second, some new ideas:

At the moment we have:
+1 morale multiplies crit chance by 1.1 (or crit chance +10% more)
+2 by 1.2
+3 by 1.3 (if I remember correct but this is only an example).

This means that crit chance is only influenced by the attacker stats and conditions.

Lets use LUCK as a modifier of crit chance for defender (lowering the chance for crit hit).

The formula could be (Morale-Luck)*crit chance

If attacker has 3 morale and defender 2 luck than crit chance = 1
If attacker has 2 morale and defender 3 luck than crit chance = -1

each number of crit chance = 10% more or less probability for crit. This means that if a unit has 10% natural crit chance in the first example it would have 11% chance and in the second 9%. 20% turns into 22% or 18%.

Now lets make this system dynamic meaning some events happening during the battle have direct effect on morale and luck of the units.

One unit surrounded by 3 enemies has -1 morale (Unit is ambushed) - all three units are attacking/facing it.
One unit stack numbers halved during battle - 2 morale.
All races receive +1 further morale if on their own land; i.e. Elves on Elonya.
Morale and Luck bonuses for hero-less enemy armies, which do not apply for the player: all units from one race +1 morale, all units on their own terrain +1 luck etc.

If one unit scores 2 critical hits in a row it is given +1 luck, 3 critical hits in a row +2 luck (until end of battle or for 3 rounds, this needs fine balancing).

Morale is increased by skills or commander skill (Commanders give +1 morale to other units).

Here are some examples for Luck skills:
Nature Luck - all elves +1 luck
Lucky Aura - all adjacent friendly units +1 luck
Fortune - +1 luck on that unit (the same as Brave which gives +1 Morale only to one unit).

Facing Undead dragons -1 Morale
Facing Archdemons -1 Luck

Bad Luck for friendly unit is the same as Positive Morale for enemy. Bad Morale is the same as Positive Luck for enemy. So actually there is no difference if you will raise your own Morale or lower enemy Luck - the effect will be the same.

Max/Min Morale and Luck +6/-6
Max/Min crit chance modifier +3/-3

The last means that a unit with +6 morale facing unit with zero Luck still has +3 crit chance not +6, but if +6 morale stack is attacking +4 luck stack, than crit modifier is +2. This gives a nice cap of +30%/-30% crit chance modifier.

Furthermore, at the moment morale gives you significant attack/defense bonus, which I do not like - this is very unbalanced against map armies. This bonus could be divided among morale and luck - morale gives you passive attack bonus, luck passive defense bonus, or both give you half of the present bonus, for the same stacked result when you have at least +3 morale and +3 luck. But the best would be to remove that kind of a bonus, critical attacks are very strong even without it - at the end of the game more than 50% chance for 150% max damage is significant and if you are playing with Gauri against demons (final battles are always against demons) than you always do 150% max damage...Very IMBA
************************************************** *

If we want to have more realistic battle system, we could assign specializations to units such as
Infantry, Cavalry, Siege, Ranged, Spellcasters and Aereal/Flying units.
Using the Rock/Paper/Scissors system:

Infantry does more damage to Cavalry (negating Cavalry bonus)

Cavalry does more damage to Archers

Archers do more damage to Flyers (I imagine than usually Flyers float over the battlefield on some height and are not on ground in between when they move - this is why Archers could spot them more easily).

Flyers do more damage to Siege units (consider this as heavy infantry, not machinery units)

Siege units do more damage to Spellcasters (Brutal strength over Magic)

Spellcasters do more damage to Infantry (Magic over Might)


The bonus damage could be 30% more.

Examples for Infantry: Robber, Guard, Imp, Knight, Werewolf, Dwarf, Succubus, Vampire...
Examples for Siege: Ent, Cyclops, Troll, Paladin, Demon, Executioner...
Examples for Cavalry: Horseman, Unicorn, Cerberi, Centaur, Fire Beetle, Brontor...
Examples for Ranged: Archers, Elf, Hunter...
Examples for Flying: Ghost, Faery, Griffon...
Examples for Spellcasters: Inqusitor, Archamage, Shaman...

Differences between specializations - I will use the Leadership/Health/Damage ratios as they exists in the game:

Infantry: Leadership/Health= 1, Leadership/Damage=10
Example: Knight: Leadership(160)/Health(160)=1, Leadership(160)/Damage(16)=10

Siege: Leadership/Health= 0.8333; Leadership/Damage=8.333
Example, created by me: Guard with 48 HP, Damage 6, Leadership 40, this means that you have 20-25% on top of leadership stat for Health and Damage, comparing with Infantry. If the same unit was Infantry than it would have 40HP, Damage 4, Leadership 40.

Infantry have a little bit more speed and initiative than Siege units.
Average infantry Speed 3, or 2+Run ability, or 2/3 with long attack, Average Siege speed 2, or 1+Run ability. Infantry has higher crit chance as well. Siege has the lowest possible crit chance, since it relies on brutal strength, not agility. Infantry negates the Cavalry Bonus, Siege units does not.

Cavalry has 20% more leadership demands for the same health/damage ratio than Infantry but it has more Speed, average speed 5.
Example: War Elephant: Leadership 240, HP 200, Damage 24
All Cavalry units have the Charge bonus.

Flyers have 5 or 6 speed and when attacking stacks with lower than theirs speed in retaliation they take half damage. When attacked from other units, this does not apply. Logic behind that: first they are very fast and agile, second they attack from air, not from ground (in game animations should be changed).
Leadership/Health ratio=2, Leadership/Damage ratio= 10 (normal):example Flyer 160HP, 32 damage, 320 Leadership - this makes them very offensive and the half retaliation damage gives them some defense - this comes on cost of very high speed. They could benefit most from the Massacre bonus (read below).

Archers keep the present Leadership/Health ratio: 1.4, Spellcasters 1.5 and Leadership/Damage ratio: 8 for both.

These 5 specializations only apply to units from 1-4 level, not champion units (level 5).

To give more weight on Speed a special bonus could be applied for units that position themselves quickly on the battlefield and massacre a single enemy stack - three or more units attacking the same stack are given +20% damage bonus, the attacked stack suffers -1 Morale. Special skill that gives more damage for melee attackers in the first round further could give more impact on speed.

[Rah]

More on unit specialization:

Siege units have the Guard ability - this means they could be assigned to guard an adjacent friendly stack - this could happen before the battle (via special menu), in the tactics mode, or changed in every round - activated ability when Siege units do not move.

Siege unit guarding a stack of spellcasters:

Enemy moves and tries to attack directly the spellcasters - what happens is that the Siege guards attack the enemy, enemy unit retaliates and its attack is wasted on the Guards, it does not attack the spellcasters. This gives the possibility to cover weak units with stronger ones. Siege guards could do this once per round and only if the enemy moves to the guarded stack, if enemy unit is already adjacent to it (from the previous round), guarding does not happen.

Archers: defensive fire, activated ability for ALL ranged units, when activated it lasts until end of battle or when the defended stack moves and it uses all AP for that round of archers.
In this example archers are defending an adjancent stack, when enemy comes and attacks the guarded stack, archers shot at enemy, enemy attacks the guarded stack and than its attack is retaliated - enemy suffers double damage. Only one defensive fire per round per stack of archers is allowed and only if the archers could normally shoot - i.e. no enemies around them - some archers could have the point blank shot ability, which enables them to shoot even if enemies are around.

Siege units could defend Archers and Archers could defend Siege units - this is just an example for synergy.

Spellcasters attacked:
All spellcasters that have magic bolt attack (or ranged magical attack) when enemy rushes on them, and the spellcasters could retaliate, spellcasters have first strike ability - this comes from their training in the magical arts. If the enemy is attacking them without moving prior that, this does not happen - retaliation is normal.

Flyers attacked:
When Flyers are not covered (no enemies adjacent to them), they float in air and take only half damage, than retaliate normally.

Cavalry could have the Trample ability - when attacking in a straight line and 3 or more hexes between them and their target - they could damage adjacent enemy units that are near that line - for 1/5 of their damage. Cavalry has the Charge bonus +10% more damage per hex.

[Rah]

On resistances:

By now we have physical, magical, poison, fire and astral resistance.

I propose a new resistance system with 3 might and 3 magical attacks/resistances:

Pierce - i.e. archers and cavalry (Skeletons/Liches/Bone Dragons with higher pierce resistance)
Slash - i.e. Infantry
Crush - i.e. Siege

Ice - water/ice/poison attacks
Fire - obvious
Lightning - thunder, lightning and magic attacks

Astral attack is very rare and there is NO astral resistance.

Some units could have special mixed attacks, for example a Spellcaster with Dark Bolt attack which takes the lowest from Ice/Fire/Lightning value and the attack is calculated against it. Or mixed phisical attack which is calculated against the lowest phisical resistance (the lowest from pierce, slash, crush armor) - maybe for Bone Dragons which are attacking with claws and theets - pierce and slashing, with their weight trampling the target - which is a crushing attack.

Or just any combination:
I.E. Ice Guards that have Ice Spears and do 10 pierce damage and 5 ice damage - calculated against the pierce and ice resistance - as in the old system. Or Valkyries with flaming swords - that do 15 slashing and 10 fire damage.

All efects are calculating against the resistances, vs. full resistance value or half of it - the last means 50% ice resistance gives you 25% chance to avoid a freezing effect, but you still take 50% less ice damage.

Chance for phisical stun is calculated vs. Crush resistance.
Bleeding vs. slash resistance
Cripple/slow vs. pierce resistance.
The chance for freezing/poisoning is calculated against the ice resistance.
Burning and Blind against the fire resistance.
Magic Stun/Deaf/Confusion against lightning resistance.

Or another way to do this:
At the moment the system works like this:
Snakes i.e. have 30% chance to poison you and you are rolling d100 vs 30, if you roll low number you are poisoned.

The idea is:
Snakes with 30% poison chance - first the system rolls d100 vs 30 - the attack will be poisoning, than 50% ice resistance means 25% chance to avoid poisin, d100 vs. 25 and than it is decided if the unit is poisoned or not. The first roll could be defended for lower/higher probability like this: if the first two rolls are negative, the third is always positive, if the first two rolls are positive, the third is always negative - in the past I have had battles with my snakes where 90% of their attacks cause poison, which is just too much. This will enable units with very high fire resistances like demons to be saved most of the time from burning, not like at the moment - or undead from poison.

Furthermore poison/burning effects could be modified by the units - beasts suffer only one round of poisin, demons suffer only one round of burning, instead of 3, ice creatures - only one round of freeze etc.

[Rah]

And finally some unit ideas:

Humans:
Guard - Siege
Halberdier - Infantry
Archer - Ranged

Priest - Spellcaster
Silver Knight - Flyer (lady knight in silver armor riding a winged Pegasi)
Witch Hunter - Siege with large anti-mages damage bonus

Paladin - Siege
Mystic - Spellcaster
Knight - Infantry
Cavalier - Cavalry

Angel of Light
Angel of Mercy - resurrecting ability
Angel of Judgment - bane ability (The last idea I proposed to a friend of mine that works for Ubisoft for Heroes V and on the heroescommunity forum, they took it, twisted it and gave birth to an Angel with two blades in Heroes 6 which I do not like)

Elves:

Pixie - water attack
Sprite - lightning attack
Nixie - fire attack

Sentry - the good old double shooting Elf
Fire Beetle - cavalry
Spriggan - Infantry
Arcane Archer - advanced Ranged unit with magic arrows like Fire Ball, Ice Gust and Thunder strike
Druid - among other abilities +1 luck to all beasts
Hypogriff - flying deer
Unicorn - cavalry
Sun Pegasus - not-mounted Pegasus
Moon Priestess - Spellcaster
Mantis - flyer
Phoenix

Northern race with dwarves:

Axe Master - ranged
Stone Crusher - Siege hammer dwarf
Winter Wolf - infantry

Frost Troll - two headed troll, which regenerates when shooting with ice balls
Valkyrie - spellcaster
Battle Boar - another Northern mythical unit, Battle Boars are made from metal according to some northern legends
Rune Lord - Siege
Griffon - flyer - I think the griffon suits much more the northern theme, than forests/humans.
Rock/Frost/Storm Giant as champion

Night breed:
Gnome
Hag
Warg

Moon Stalker - werewolf archer
Impaler - werewolf siege
Witcher - werewolf spellcaster

Banshee - if we tweak the myths a little bit, this could be the soul of a evel sorceress that intentionally left her body to gain more control over magic - they are not undead, because their bodies still live somewhere hidden but in a deep sleep state and the spirit wanders around.

Blackguard - black ogre Siege unit
Nightmare - monstrous giant spider unit that was soaked with so much dark magic that it now projects it around - Cavalry with many special abilities.

Witch King - Giant Nazgul like unit - Spellcaster

Gorgon - Medusa like spellcaster
Chimera - changeling unit - can assume the form of a Drake, dark winged lion or a giant black cobra each form with different abilities.
Mind Tyrant - mind overlord unit

Reaver - champion unit of ancient times, could be the main villian of an expansion

Lizards:
Hissing One - cobra man Infantry
Dragon Fly - flying unit
Lizard Sniper - ranged unit with poison dart firing pipe.

Blackscale Assasin - Infantry
Greenscale Hunter - Infantry
Basilisk - cavalry

Yuan Ti - male naga unit
Sky Serpent - chinese dragon unit
Wyvern - flyer

Hydra that shoots either ice (Cryo Hydra) or fire (Pyro Hydra)

Infernal units:
Imp
Magog - giant fire shooting worm
Cambion - demonic human offspring with wings - like redskinned living gargoyle and a fire sword

Succubus - spellcaster
Cerberus - cavalry
Unitaur - single horned demon
Crucitaur - upgraded horned demon

Abyss Fiend - four winged demon
Infernal Exarch - twisted centaur like demon with 6 legs and a halberdier
Gate Keeper - demon summoner

Archdemon/Balor

[johnancient]

@Rah

Luck, Specialization, more resistances..
I thought you said more statistics are bad?

[Totoro]

Agree with johnancient.

Crit chance and minimum-maximum damage already works as a luck factor.

Also I wouldn't like units that use some existing unit as a base and just adds an adjective in front of a name. Imo every unit should be an unique monster.

[langtu87]

I think the game should add more requirement for using units. Example: add skill system, if you use thorn or defeat enemy has thorn, you gain some using thorn skill exp; if you use archer class unit or defeat enemy has them, you gain some using archery skill exp; if you want have thorn royal in your army, you need get 100k using thorn skill exp, 50k archery skills exp. The requirement
will make player using more unit than using some unit for all combat.\ :)
I think requirement should random (ex: Black Dragon at agame require 100k giant slayer exp, another game require 50k using dragon exp, other require 200k master fire exp ) when start new game so player alway think new strategy for each game. :)
The achiement system should has more achievement and more level, replace the using quantity requirement by quality requirement (example instead of cast 50 fire arrow spell, the requirement should be do 100k dmg for enemy)

[Fatt_Shade]

@langtu87 I`m sorry man, i cant agree with you on using units exp system :-( This game works on static exp system, because when you start new game all enemy creeps/items/castle-shop inventory/quest rewards ... all this is already determined, so it can happen that some things aren`t at disposal so some of you`re ideas couldn`t be achieved if you want have thorn royal in your army, you need get 100k using thorn skill exp, 50k archery skills exp. The requirement will make player using more unit than using some unit for all combat
On difference from HoMM series where you could got to wandering monsters, new enemy come every new week/month in King`s bounty all enemy are on positon from game start, until you kill them.
As for unit exp system/ individual skills if you played Red sands mod for CW that is already done, and it`s really good balanced. And it`s rewarding for using same unit choice throughout game Black Dragon at a game require 100k giant slayer exp, another game require 50k using dragon exp How will you get all that exp for using certain unit type before almost end of game ?
Medals/achievement are nicely balanced in my opinion, if you want some of them make effort if not dont strive for them instead of cast 50 fire arrow spell, the requirement should be do 100k dmg for enemy
This is OK for mage, but what about warrior/paladin, their spell related medals aren`t connected with dmg. Also if trap medal get connected with dmg only mage will be possible to lvl it. If you saw Adventure mod, for AP there is 5lvls of medals, with you`re idea no1 would be able to get 4/5 lvl.

[langtu87]

@langtu87 I`m sorry man, i cant agree with you on using units exp system :-( This game works on static exp system, because when you start new game all enemy creeps/items/castle-shop inventory/quest rewards ... all this is already determined, so it can happen that some things aren`t at disposal so some of you`re ideas couldn`t be achieved
On difference from HoMM series where you could got to wandering monsters, new enemy come every new week/month in King`s bounty all enemy are on positon from game start, until you kill them.
As for unit exp system/ individual skills if you played Red sands mod for CW that is already done, and it`s really good balanced. And it`s rewarding for using same unit choice throughout game How will you get all that exp for using certain unit type before almost end of game ?
Medals/achievement are nicely balanced in my opinion, if you want some of them make effort if not dont strive for them
This is OK for mage, but what about warrior/paladin, their spell related medals aren`t connected with dmg. Also if trap medal get connected with dmg only mage will be possible to lvl it. If you saw Adventure mod, for AP there is 5lvls of medals, with you`re idea no1 would be able to get 4/5 lvl.

@Fatt_Shade my idea is opposition with unit exp system/ individual skills in Redsand Mod.
With Redsand mod: the player will have a combo unit at start game and seldom change unit because of level of unit. (The 5th level is too power, 1, 2th level unit almost useless except some unit -> many unit will never be choosen, ex thorn warrior, peasant, dragon fly...)
With my idea:before using powerfull unit, the player must use weak unit to get enough skill exp. (Ex: to use Black Daragon, player must use dragon flyer first; to use Royal Thorn, must use Thorn Warrior; to use Kinght, must use peasant...). With this system, the player must choice wisely strategy because they cannot get enough powerful unit (cannot get enough exp skill of all type)
In my opinion, all the battle with same strategy must player more boring. I used some strategy for my game with origin and some mod and usaly quit at the mid game (one slot 5th level or 4X1 dryad slot + runic mage...)

My idea about medal because the hero must be wait 10th turn to cast spell really boring :( . If the game have so many medal, and the player cannot get all medal but choice some medal over other medals (Ex: a medal for cast spell and a medal for not using spell in battle).
The more choice, the more interesting. Because KB is strategy so It should not help player gain all skill, item, rewards...(Most of the mod are benefit for player - more reverse slot, get powerful unit at start game, more rune to learn all skill, no scroll limit, can buy unit easily...) The decision to choice this over that of player to win the game for each new game will make the game worth playing again :)
Sory for my bad english so I cannot express all my idea.

[Fatt_Shade]

I`m not sure that would work. Many players like to try different things, but if they get restricted about using all units in game that could be problem in trying other army builds (expl : you want to go dragon army and use units to achieve that, and when you get dragons more than half game is gone, and if you want to try some other unit lineup there is no more enemy units for you to achieve conditions for it, as i said when you start game in KB enemy are all already positioned, and no more spawning).
As for medal advancement, i thought better solution : to make more diversity in medals, since in AP/CW of 10 medal only 2 are different between hero classes. When you get some medal it unlocks 2 other, and after you lvlup 1 of them other is locked, but you get 2 new medals (like branching skill tree, when you get medal lvlup be sure what you want before choosing which direction to go). And same would be great for skills, more class specific skills. Now we have 30 skills, and only 2 class specific, not much diference between heroes :-( Csimby had nice idea to get skills to 4-5 lvl, same as medals got those lvls, but i thought to get warrior 5 lvl skills in might tree, paladin 5th lvl in mind, and mage 5th lvl skills in magic tree. This would give us more class oriented play.
And last, rewards from quests to be choice : some item or runes or bonus exp. I love this game, it`s great in possibility for playstyle, but everything is predetermined on starting new game (all enemy/units/items/rewards . . . is known from start, and with savegame scanner you see is it worthwhile to play or not. no need to even get out from first location, if you dont like that savegame file, just restart and scan next to see will you play).

[langtu87]

I`m not sure that would work. Many players like to try different things, but if they get restricted about using all units in game that could be problem in trying other army builds (expl : you want to go dragon army and use units to achieve that, and when you get dragons more than half game is gone, and if you want to try some other unit lineup there is no more enemy units for you to achieve conditions for it, as i said when you start game in KB enemy are all already positioned, and no more spawning).
As for medal advancement, i thought better solution : to make more diversity in medals, since in AP/CW of 10 medal only 2 are different between hero classes. When you get some medal it unlocks 2 other, and after you lvlup 1 of them other is locked, but you get 2 new medals (like branching skill tree, when you get medal lvlup be sure what you want before choosing which direction to go). And same would be great for skills, more class specific skills. Now we have 30 skills, and only 2 class specific, not much diference between heroes :-( Csimby had nice idea to get skills to 4-5 lvl, same as medals got those lvls, but i thought to get warrior 5 lvl skills in might tree, paladin 5th lvl in mind, and mage 5th lvl skills in magic tree. This would give us more class oriented play.
And last, rewards from quests to be choice : some item or runes or bonus exp. I love this game, it`s great in possibility for playstyle, but everything is predetermined on starting new game (all enemy/units/items/rewards . . . is known from start, and with savegame scanner you see is it worthwhile to play or not. no need to even get out from first location, if you dont like that savegame file, just restart and scan next to see will you play).

@Fatt_Shade I think skill system could be optional for player to choice when start new game. To coding for this skill system, it isn't too diffculty, the skill system is just one attribute of hero like exp, mana , rage. :cool:

[Totoro]

Does Spring 2012 still hold true?

[rickah88]

Does Spring 2012 still hold true?

Going by the calendar, that window will be over in a little over 2 months. Then we are into summer.
I'd much rather play WotN, but Diablo3 will be mine in May for sure and I won't mind that one bit!

[underweb]

Indeed I tried the beta of diablo 3 and I Liked it.
No news about the Real date for KBWOTN ? I don't find any information .

can I hope playing it in france in July 2012 ?

[DeRex]

Cmon people!!! We want some news!

I demand some news about WotN! :)

[hippo]

New release date is September.

[Belgarath]

Blaargh...:sad:

[Metathron]

New release date is September.

Source?

[Mandea]

http://venturebeat.com/2012/05/02/pre-mortem-kings-bounty-valkyries/

[Darkeonz]

New release date is September.

Yeah I'm interested in a source as well, since I haven't heard about it. It would suck for sure :-D.. I'm very impatient lol

[Fatt_Shade]

New release date is September. Not sure if trolling, or just want to make us produce more rage :-) I sure hope this isn`t true.
But till WotN is released and we know it will be mainly located in old the Legend world of Darion, i suggest this to get reminded of what it looks like :-P http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=29080 Have fun :-D

[J.B.]

A September-Release is announced for the German Version (Sep. 21st), but I found no information for a September-Release in other regions.

[jake21]

I personally don't mind; rather the delay and a better product... than early and have to deal with issues.

[Darkeonz]

Obviously I would rather have a great game then one that is released early, however it would be perfect if the game was ready to go here in may :-D

[Mandea]

gamespot has now a 24 June release date specified on their site and previously they had a May release date.

[Darkeonz]

End of june is good too!... I can wait for that. I wouldn't mind some knowledge to feed my curiosity. Like how many new units there will be, or New item(itemsets) how many maps and so on, or what new talents (if any) there is. What the new achievements will be. All that information is interesting to me :-D

[1darklord]

Only a month of spring left, is this still on track?

Daniel.

[Darkeonz]

I'm curious as well. An update would be nice :)

[Totoro]

I check this site every day and it's so frustrating there's no updates.

[1darklord]

It's weird you'd think they'd want to keep the fans excited rather than ignore us? :(

Daniel.

[rickah88]

It's weird you'd think they'd want to keep the fans excited rather than ignore us? :(

Daniel.

I can only hope that the lack of posted info means everyone is hard at work churning out a kick-a$$ game!! :grin:
I keep checking both Amazon US(where I live), and Amazon UK(where I got AP & Crossworlds)since they seem to get 1C's games before the US.
I'm talking about the boxed version, not download.

[monkeydog]

The website now has a release date of Autumn.

[Fatt_Shade]

FFS !!!
It would be nice to have some nice news form time to time, instead only delaying release date with no explanation why. I`m sure players would like to see this game before apocalypse :-(

[rickah88]

The website now has a release date of Autumn.

In time for Christmas, pretty much what I was expecting anyway. Sure a Q2 release would've been great, and I would have been amazed had that been the case. Not a problem, I've got Diablo 3 to keep me busy until then!

[Mandea]

yeah, me too. And I would much rather have an excellent game than a rushed-out decent game.

[Darkeonz]

Yeah I 100% rather want a great game then a buggy one. Only thing that annoys me is the lack of information to keep the fans updated :-D. It's as if you're waiting for Christmas, but nobody tells you that it is postponed half a year.


I'm playing diablo 3 as well, but I find it boring in the long run. I can't do more then 30 minutes at a time. It's just a standard mouse clicking, hack and slash, game

[1darklord]

Yeah I 100% rather want a great game then a buggy one. Only thing that annoys me is the lack of information to keep the fans updated :-D. It's as if you're waiting for Christmas, but nobody tells you that it is postponed half a year.



Heh I doubt it'll be bug free on release if the other games are anything to go by.

Ah well plenty to play in the mean time. I want to replay Armored Princess/Crossworlds at some point. :)

Daniel.

[Darkeonz]

I've literally replayed crossworlds like 20 times. So I'm ready for a new game ;)

[1darklord]

Hah yeah, have you heard of Legends of Eisenwald? It's kickstarter just finished and the game will be released in October, with a Beta test for backers in July. Still time to join via Paypal if you are interested though.

It's quite King's Bounty/Disciples inspired amongst others.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1684781151/legends-of-eisenwald

http://aterdux.com/

I have to say I'm looking forward to it. :)

Daniel.

[Darkeonz]

It looks interesting. I'll definitely check it out. I'm not much of a gamer, but I'm really looking forward to the "Wrath of the lamb" expansion for the binding of isaac, and then orcs must die 2 and finally king's bounty warriors of the north. Those are the only games I've really been into for a while. But i'll check out your suggestion

[giancamo]

It must be a joke.Even though this is the official forum of the KBWoN, we haven't been able get any nfo about the game such as release date which is a very crucial piece of nfo for some of us.

And again I have to underline that this is the offical forum.Very dissapointing :(

[1darklord]

There's always been a lack of official info, technical problems people have are generally ignored etc. Ah well I love King's Bounty so will put up with it.

Daniel.

[rickah88]

It must be a joke.Even though this is the official forum of the KBWoN, we haven't been able get any nfo about the game such as release date which is a very crucial piece of nfo for some of us.

And again I have to underline that this is the offical forum.Very dissapointing :(

Yes it would be nice if the mods gave regular(weekly/bi-weekly) updates about this game. Heck even if it's only to say: "well we finished editing such & such"...anything just to keep the fan enthusiam as high as possible.

I guess that's why it's a good thing there are a LOT of entertainment options out there to keep oneself busy, and not have to wait around on one game.
(of course we are all doing just that though! ;))

[Fatt_Shade]

Bad thing about KB series is that fan base is low in numbers (comparing to other recent games). On other hand every army need lots of grunts, and allot less commanders, and generals to lead mindless masses of footsoliders = KB fans should see themselves as leaders of future army`s :-D
So I understand developers lack of interest for regular announcement for new game. But still only thing we got official is delay of release date from spring 2012, to jun 2012, and now 12.2012 . . . I really hope they give us something worth all this waiting.

[Danny]

Agree with Fatt Shade.
After years of gaming, I tend to think that "the longer the wait = the better the game".
While waiting, I just replay the existing KB games. But my favourite is still KBAP as AP is a cool babe.

[giancamo]

Agree with Fatt Shade.
After years of gaming, I tend to think that "the longer the wait = the better the game".
While waiting, I just replay the existing KB games. But my favourite is still KBAP as AP is a cool babe.

Waiting isn't the issue here, but not knowing for how long definitely is.Dev-team could have some problems (technical,marketing etc.) and I understand that.But letting the fans be aware of that gives us an estimated time line for release.

We don't know whether they are fixing small problems such as a few bugs or big problems such as game engine or it's not about fixing anything, they're just polishing the game.These elements can change the deadline and imo results should be addressed here periodically.

In the end we all know this is just a game like any others and I'd also like to think that "the longer we wait, the better game we get" but in this scenerio without proper information I fear it's going to be like "the longer we wait, the less excited we feel" :(

[rickah88]

Bad thing about KB series is that fan base is low in numbers (comparing to other recent games). On other hand every army need lots of grunts, and allot less commanders, and generals to lead mindless masses of footsoliders = KB fans should see themselves as leaders of future army`s :-D
So I understand developers lack of interest for regular announcement for new game. But still only thing we got official is delay of release date from spring 2012, to jun 2012, and now 12.2012 . . . I really hope they give us something worth all this waiting.

Uhm, last time I checked...gathering news about an upcoming PC game draws no real parallel to the military chain of command. Regardless of country.
We(the fans) don't need a tiered level of information dissemination, just ONE person to give us a monthly update. Just to keep the us "in the loop", and maintain enthusiasm.
I don't think the dev's have a "lack of interest" in putting forth said information, more that they are probably busy with their work, and post messages when they are able.
Also, Spring 2012 & June 2012 are pretty much the same thing. We got the first potential date as Spring 2012...that has now been pushed to Fall 2012. Where did you hear about "12.2012"?

[Mandea]

Gamespot has a december 2012 release date. They previously had Spring and then June release dates.

[1darklord]

I'm replaying AP and CW at the moment and loving it! I'd only played it once before and that was about 11 months ago. :) Hopefully that should see me through till whenever this releases.

Daniel.

[DeRex]

They should publish some news about WotN.

COME ON GUYS!

[axelle]

here is an idea, why don't we ask/beg 1c to make the map editor of KB:Crossworlds more user friendly.

this way, fans can do customized campaigns for them.

look at what happened to heroes of might and magic 3, they have a relatively bug-free 2d map editor and there are over 1000 customized maps/campaigns (http://www.maps4heroes.com/heroes3/maps.php?&limit=98).

i am gonna be honest, the map editor of KB:Crossworlds looks 100 times nicer, but it must be full of bugs because we haven't seen any customized maps/campaigns.

[1darklord]

i am gonna be honest, the map editor of KB:Crossworlds looks 100 times nicer, but it must be full of bugs because we haven't seen any customized maps/campaigns.

It's meant to be super complex. There is Red Sands though, so it's obvious possible to do, just hard.

Daniel.

[axelle]

It's meant to be super complex. There is Red Sands though, so it's obvious possible to do, just hard.

Daniel.

They need to make it less complex then, i.e., more user friendly.

and I see no reason why they can't.

the only thing that's fundamentally different between heroes of might and magic 3 and KB:CW map editors is basically the height and depth of the terrain because HoMM3 is 2d.

[1darklord]

Oh I agree with you.

Daniel.

[axelle]

Oh I agree with you.

Daniel.

look at this video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Li4IlV2l5w

like someone said in the comments, imagine if this was a standalone engine, how many awesome medieval themed fantasy games the fans can make themselves? Lord of the rings， Game of Thrones(song of ice and fire), the world of elder scrolls, the world of warcraft... man!

[thufir11]

Do you know yet the release date, please? Can we hope it will really be in August or is there delay again? Thanks for answer.

[Sir Whiskers]

Do you know yet the release date, please? Can we hope it will really be in August or is there delay again? Thanks for answer.

The home page currently says "Autumn". Just guessing, that's probably October at the earliest. And I wouldn't hold my breath on that date - the game's been pushed back a couple times already.

Which is okay with me. I'd rather they release a good, relatively bug-free game a bit later, as opposed to rushing it out the door to meet an arbitrary date.

http://www.1cpublishing.eu/game/king-s-bounty-warriors-of-the-north/overview

[1darklord]

I wonder why exactly it's being delayed though? As long as it doesn't get cancelled at least.

Daniel.

[rickah88]

The home page currently says "Autumn". Just guessing, that's probably October at the earliest. And I wouldn't hold my breath on that date - the game's been pushed back a couple times already.

Which is okay with me. I'd rather they release a good, relatively bug-free game a bit later, as opposed to rushing it out the door to meet an arbitrary date.

http://www.1cpublishing.eu/game/king-s-bounty-warriors-of-the-north/overview

While I do, to a certain extent, agree with you...

I wonder why exactly it's being delayed though? As long as it doesn't get cancelled at least.

Daniel.

...if they wait too long they run the risk of this game never seeing the light of day!
I'm hoping for the former, and we all get a nice Christmas present this year in the form of this release!

[1darklord]

...if they wait too long they run the risk of this game never seeing the light of day!

I really hope not, would be such a shame as I really do love King's Bounty!

Daniel.

[Anti-global]

How about some news from the developers about the progress of the game and the release date?
This IS an official forum, is it not?

[ironfelix]

How about some news from the developers about the progress of the game and the release date?
This IS an official forum, is it not?

http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=33888

[Anti-global]

http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=33888

Yes, I saw that, thanks.