King's Bounty 2 - Coming 2020

[Space Knight]

Originally Posted by Sirlancelot

Yep, I know the saga quite well. Heroes of M&M 3 was my last installment, though. Very good indeed, but I got tired of the mechanics eventually. I think I'm probably more attached to Age of Wonders, specially to Shadow Magic.

The battles from Heroes are simmilar to the ones in KB, yet I find the latter much more varied, complex and inmersive.

By the way, until KB 2 comes out, have you tried The Trent war unofficial campaign for Crossworlds or Matt's mod for the Legend? I recommend both without hesitation. The first overhaul enemy heroes AI (among other things), and Trent War is simply too well designed and balanced out to overlook (moreover, I put my grain of salt on it myself)

Yes, I played the Trent War too. There are many visual "bugs" (unpainted parts of the map, bland decoration, etc.), but maybe that wasn't the strong point of the creator. The scripts used in the campaign where pretty great, just like the camapign itself. However, it did get kinda boring after reaching Upper Trent, due to lack of "real" dialogs and plot. I also remember an island full of isles. That was my favorite part. The decorations where better thought there, in my opinion. I think I'm more attached to the "epicness" of games, not necessarily to the balance or certain other technical stuff, like those introduced in Trent.

[Sirlancelot]

Originally Posted by Space Knight

Yes, I played the Trent War too. There are many visual "bugs" (unpainted parts of the map, bland decoration, etc.), but maybe that wasn't the strong point of the creator. The scripts used in the campaign where pretty great, just like the camapign itself. However, it did get kinda boring after reaching Upper Trent, due to lack of "real" dialogs and plot. I also remember an island full of isles. That was my favorite part. The decorations where better thought there, in my opinion. I think I'm more attached to the "epicness" of games, not necessarily to the balance or certain other technical stuff, like those introduced in Trent.

What version did you play with? I don't remember so many places where the lack of painting felt weird or annoying.

I agree about the islands area, though. That part is full of details.

Epicness is overrated for me. I'm tired of it. You have tons of games with such a tone.

On the other hand, on my book, balance is key. The absence of dominant strategies, the unpredictability and real challenge mean all much more to my taste. I play on Impossible, by the way.

[Space Knight]

Originally Posted by Sirlancelot

What version did you play with? I don't remember so many places where the lack of painting felt weird or annoying.

I agree about the islands area, though. That part is full of details.

Epicness is overrated for me. I'm tired of it. You have tons of games with such a tone.

On the other hand, on my book, balance is key. The absence of dominant strategies, the unpredictability and real challenge mean all much more to my taste. I play on Impossible, by the way.

I play on impossible, too (first time was Normal, the rest Impossible). One of the places left unpainted were on some sand island arena, on the dino island (and man, every time a "cutscene" played, I was always seeing that part; however, I turned animations faster later on). I'm not exactly referring to "epicness" (just couldn't find the word for it back then), but more to the feeling of the game, of the visuals, etc. Just like some guy said, even though you give him a game that is well-balanced and well-made in terms of strategy and other stuff, if the visuals and decor aren't good at all, he might not even play it. Now, I wasn't saying Trent looks horrible, only that it should need more attention in several (visual) areas, especially Lower Trent and starting isle.

And about the balance and strategies (and all other stuff you mentioned), that is still mandatory. I never said I didn't really care about that. Only that I also like to have very nice visuals (one of the reasons I chose HotA over WoG for HoMM3). And nowadays, there are many games that just tend to become more grey, more darker in terms of graphics. HoMM7 without color-enhancing mod is all just a sea of grey-toned colors, and let's not even talk about Diablo 4 (I never played any of the Diablo games, but one of my relatives did). Even KB2 lacks that amazing UI, replacing it with a grey-toned Xbox game UI, a thing that I dislike.

Anyway, I've gotten a little off-topic. I'm sorry for confusing you with my epicness . That's not what I really meant. And balance and tactical part of the game are still a big part (but in KB they really exist, Trent too), but it's always really nice to include good decorations when making a map or anything of sorts, in my opinion (one more reason why HoMM7 is pretty bad; let's not forget the awkward animations). But again, it might not have been the creator's strong point, so I don't blame him (I think it's him), even though the adventure map was relatively well made.

[Space Knight]

I almost forgot. Since this is a thread about King's Bounty 2, did you ever read that interview with the devs from gamescom 2019 in which they showcased the griffins and other creatures, including an armored dragon (gotta be honest, that dragon looked pretty dope, and no, it's not the one from trailer, I think it was rusty-colored)? I'm asking this because I can't seem to find it anymore, and all my history from before december is gone since I re-installed Windows.
If it helps, I think one of the guys from the interview was called "John" or something similar. They also showed differences between KB2 and older games.

[ckdamascus]

https://youtu.be/DQCpJ6eOBpo

Well, this game can be either incredibly awesome or just not my kind of game anymore. The focus on immersion has me worried since resources are going to be put into silly things I don't care much about. Sure we had "fetch quests" but to slow that down anymore would drive me up the wall especially with forced 1st person view. <shudders>

I sort of like the idea that you have to adjust your armies later, but we shall see how that plays out. Sometimes there is an allure to using that super peasant army, but I get a feeling that meta will be gone for good.

I did like the idea of terrain being used to your advantage, but too much "fluff" in a combat heavy game doesn't add value, it just adds toil.

I am hopeful but also expecting it to not be the type of game I want to continue to play. Man. The old 1C King's Bounty games were really something, eh? Going to miss them.

[Space Knight]

Originally Posted by ckdamascus

https://youtu.be/DQCpJ6eOBpo

Well, this game can be either incredibly awesome or just not my kind of game anymore. The focus on immersion has me worried since resources are going to be put into silly things I don't care much about. Sure we had "fetch quests" but to slow that down anymore would drive me up the wall especially with forced 1st person view. <shudders>

I sort of like the idea that you have to adjust your armies later, but we shall see how that plays out. Sometimes there is an allure to using that super peasant army, but I get a feeling that meta will be gone for good.

I did like the idea of terrain being used to your advantage, but too much "fluff" in a combat heavy game doesn't add value, it just adds toil.

I am hopeful but also expecting it to not be the type of game I want to continue to play. Man. The old 1C King's Bounty games were really something, eh? Going to miss them.

Yeah, the old ones are awesome . Replaying The Legend right now.
I was just too lazy to post the Dev Diary, so thanks. It's not like it contained something that was not said before (everything in it was known for months, weeks), and the only different part was game duration, which changed (according to older sources and this dev diary) from 20-30 hours to 30-40 hours, but it still has a lot of information for someone who won't start googling every russian site (for hours, not joking), gaming blog and all steam comments in search of all the details .

[ApaxHoqpuJL]

We should remember that the old Katauri team is long gone, and I doubt that any of the original creators are working on the new game.
1C aren't the most trustworthy company either, just remember what flops WotN and Dark Side were. Those games were mostly just milking the original engine, and felt more like an amateur mod for Legend/AP, than an actual game in the series.
Don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed playing them, but they were nowhere near the quality of the original games.

I'd recommend setting expectations rather low, if at all.

[Sirlancelot]

Originally Posted by Space Knight

I almost forgot. Since this is a thread about King's Bounty 2, did you ever read that interview with the devs from gamescom 2019 in which they showcased the griffins and other creatures, including an armored dragon (gotta be honest, that dragon looked pretty dope, and no, it's not the one from trailer, I think it was rusty-colored)? I'm asking this because I can't seem to find it anymore, and all my history from before december is gone since I re-installed Windows.
If it helps, I think one of the guys from the interview was called "John" or something similar. They also showed differences between KB2 and older games.

Hmm, I'll take a look at Google in search for the interview.

[Space Knight]

Originally Posted by Sirlancelot

Hmm, I'll take a look at Google in search for the interview.

Nah, sadly, it's down. I found it again (the link), but it was no more. Probably the KB2 team didn't want us to see all of that new stuff (elementals, griffins, dragon, etc.) right now. Also, the dragon was quite similar to a Dragon Rider without a rider.

Look, this is the link I found on 3rd page: http://www.gamer.ru/everything/king-...voe-znakomstvo

Edit: I just started to frantically search through the internet archives...

Edit 2: No luck. The page had no archive yet.

[BB Shockwave]

Ah the forums are back at last. I tried a few times and they were down like a month ago.
Not really liking the new game so far. It did away with the units system (now every unit is just 1 unit, not a stack of units), dialed back the colorful fantasy elements, and the units revealed so far are almost all just boring variation of human fighter and archer. No magic so far either. The graphics are OK but boring grey/brown realistic medieval... not the Heroes of Might and Magic 1-2-3-4 look that King's Bounty expanded upon.
And who the heck ever wanted a Dragon Age style NPC discussion system from King's Bounty? The bread and butter of the game was always tactical combat. If I wanted to play an RPG I'd play an RPG. A TBS just needs a storyline with a few dialogue trees every now and then...

All in all this looks more like a sequel to Blackguards than KB.

Originally Posted by ApaxHoqpuJL

We should remember that the old Katauri team is long gone, and I doubt that any of the original creators are working on the new game.
1C aren't the most trustworthy company either, just remember what flops WotN and Dark Side were. Those games were mostly just milking the original engine, and felt more like an amateur mod for Legend/AP, than an actual game in the series.
Don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed playing them, but they were nowhere near the quality of the original games.

I'd recommend setting expectations rather low, if at all.

Yes, I gave up during WotN. I never finished that game or the next one - the bugs, the unbalanced new units, the terrible map planning... it was like they restarted the game from scratch using the existing assets, and remaking all the mistakes that were fixed the last two times... My understanding was the original programmers and designers were sent over to Royal Quest. Why could they not get them back?