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Heroes Community Questions and Developer Answers
1) Will we see a continuation of the story that began in the "Deathdance" expansion?
Will you eventually return to the old universes (Axoth/Enroth) in any form? After all, the fantasy world in those universes was more classical, which is still valued by most fans of the series. If you do return, will it be in the spirit of Might and Magic or the Heroes of Might and Magic 1-4 series?
• As you know, the release of the Sixth Heroes coincided with the 25th anniversary of the "Might and Magic" series. Wishing to mark this important event, we created several game scenarios recreating events from the old universes. If you recall, these were Varn in "Pirates of the Wild Sea", Xeen in "Deathdance", and Enroth in the Gold Edition.
All of this was a kind of tribute to the history-rich "Might and Magic" brand. In the future, we do not intend to bring back the old universes again or make them the main plotlines in campaigns.
However, it is possible that there will be easter eggs, hints, and various references to the old universes in the game. Recall, for example, "Ancient Week" in the Sixth Heroes, which hints at the Ancients visiting Ashan for some reason. And although Ashan exists on its own and is not like its predecessors in the "Might and Magic" series, that doesn't mean these very different worlds cannot coexist simultaneously in one universe...
After all, who knows what awaits us ahead, on the other side of the Void?
2) Is an improvement/branching of the skill tree planned? Many believe this is the weakest aspect of the Sixth Heroes. Will magic be more distinct among different factions, and will there be more spells?
• Since a new game faction was introduced, expanding the skill tree is one of the components of the "Shades of Darkness" expansion. This means new skills related to the Dungeon will be introduced.
However, no one intends to completely redo the skill system, as that would require changing a huge portion of the game code—something we wouldn't even dream of in our worst nightmares! So we will just tweak a bit here and there, patch things up, add some new elements, but we won't change everything entirely.
3) Will the game be improved in any way with the release of the expansion? Or will only new content be added?
• Our main goal for the expansion is, of course, adding something new: 2 new campaigns, 1 new faction, etc. In addition to everything else, we are fixing bugs, which are still plentiful in the game. We will not be improving or adding new gameplay features, although we are aware that this is exactly what most fans would like.
The existing game engine is not very flexible and will not allow us to introduce global changes (especially regarding simultaneous turns in multiplayer and the introduction of battle recordings). Only by changing the architecture of the engine itself could we pull that off.
4) Is a second expansion planned? How can we go on without the Academy or Sylvan?!
• At the moment, we have no plans to develop and release a second expansion for Heroes 6. Although, of course, time will tell...
5) As is known, the "Deathdance" downloadable content was successful thanks to its well-developed story campaign: not too naive and much more sophisticated.
Is this now a new direction in storytelling or just an exception?
• This kind of plot development and presentation were intentionally designed for Heroes. A more developed and truly sophisticated plot awaits you: with choices of moral paths, tragedy and drama unfolding in the story, where the main characters are leaders of their peoples and commanders of their armies.
"Deathdance", a tale of manipulation, deception, and betrayal by the villainous protagonist, clearly demonstrated this to us.
We can also tell very different and unusual stories in the plot. The single scenarios and mini-campaigns you saw in the DLC are direct proof of that.
Pirates of the Wild Sea, by the way, telling a story about a barbarian pirate and a crazed jellyfish cult, is a wonderful example of light parody of the "Sword-and-Sorcery" genre.
6) Why were new composers hired if Paul Romero and Rob King are already there?
• Although Paul and Rob have worked on Heroes since the first part and are truly associated with the "Might and Magic" game series, it should not be forgotten that they are not the only composers who have worked on the game all this time. Even before them, excellent composers such as Tim Tully, Masaharu Iwata, and Joe Hisaishi (who composed the music for the first part of Might and Magic ported to PC) worked on the franchise.
Even after Paul and Rob joined the team, other composers: Jennifer Wang and Steve Bacca, occasionally contributed to the musical component of the game. Cris Velasco and Sascha Dikiciyan, who wrote the music for Dark Messiah, as well as Sean Lorhish, who wrote the wonderful music for Clash of Heroes, are also worth mentioning.
To pay tribute to a number of composers who worked on the "Might and Magic" series in their time, we included many musical themes from Dark Messiah and Clash of Heroes in the Sixth Heroes. Furthermore, during the development of Heroes 6, it became clear that due to conflicting work schedules and personal issues, Paul and Rob could not handle writing all the previously planned music alone.
We consulted with each other and reached a decision: we licensed their rights to the music they had previously created and made remixes of musical themes from previous Heroes games. To write the missing soundtracks, we hired a new composer—Jason Graves, who subsequently wrote the music for "Pirates of the Wild Sea", "Deathdance", and "Shades of Darkness".
But this doesn't mean that we won't work with Paul and Rob again in the future, as they are a true and integral part of the "Might and Magic" world!
7) Will everything new included in the expansion appear in the campaigns of the original version of Heroes 6? For example, will I be able to collect new artifact sets and fight against dark elves as neutrals while playing as Anton?
• Strangely enough, the "Shades of Darkness" engine is based on the original Heroes 6 engine, which means that artifact sets collected in some campaigns cannot carry over to others. However, everything related to your dynasty (dynastic weapons/dynasty pets) will be available for any campaign.
(the question wasn't even answered! - translator's note)
8) Will the "Shades of Darkness" expansion be available for open beta testing?
• Organizing an open beta test for the game is a rather difficult task, requiring a significant amount of time and money.
Furthermore, it is much more interesting to test the game ourselves: it helps new developers get to grips with game mechanics that are new to them, its engine, ultimately discovering bugs and major flaws. And since "Shades of Darkness" is an expansion that does not introduce major changes to the game engine, we decided that an open beta test was not necessary.
Nevertheless, we want to draw your attention to the fact that we will soon begin balancing the game based on suggestions from VIP fans of the heroes community and polish the game as much as possible before it becomes publicly available.
9) Will an expanded map editor finally be available for the game (with the ability to place Warlords and Dynastic weapons on your maps)?
• Unfortunately, as previously reported, improving the map editor is not possible. The editor would have to be created from scratch for it to be even remotely convenient for users to create maps in it, which would take a huge amount of time and money.
Because of this, we decided to concentrate our attention on the expansion itself and its content; after all, our task is to provide a new renowned faction with all the resulting content.
(and this question wasn't answered either! - translator's note)
10) Will it be possible to spend extra dynasty coins earned in the original version of Heroes 6 on additional bonuses from the altar of wishes in "Shades of Darkness"?
• "Shades of Darkness" will be fully linked with your original part of Heroes 6, which means that both the original version and the expansion will be available from a single executable (.exe) file. It follows that all dynasty coins can be spent as they were in the original Heroes 6, as well as in the expansion.
11) We know that there are many clans of dark elves and that each is led by one of Tuidhana's offspring. There is the Nightshard clan, the Shadowbrand clan, and the Soulscar clan. Railag was first the head of the Soulscar clan, and after being cleansed of demonic corruption, he led the Shadowbrand clan. What other new dark elf clans will we see and who will lead them?
• All the aforementioned clans are primary and they are generally the only ones involved in the plotline. They are led by Railag and his brothers, the twins Menan and Sylsai. But you will learn more about this in the expansion. Of course, there are smaller clans, for example, a clan located far from the main events and led by Railag's half-sister—Eruina (recall Heroes V).
12) The game has never covered the story of the six demon lords subsequently defeated by the Sovereign. Will you tell us this story someday?
• This is a very important moment in the history of Demons; we would certainly like to tell it. And we will, in due time...
Heroes Community Questions and Developer Answers
1) Will we see a continuation of the story that began in the "Deathdance" expansion?
Will you eventually return to the old universes (Axoth/Enroth) in any form? After all, the fantasy world in those universes was more classical, which is still valued by most fans of the series. If you do return, will it be in the spirit of Might and Magic or the Heroes of Might and Magic 1-4 series?
• As you know, the release of the Sixth Heroes coincided with the 25th anniversary of the "Might and Magic" series. Wishing to mark this important event, we created several game scenarios recreating events from the old universes. If you recall, these were Varn in "Pirates of the Wild Sea", Xeen in "Deathdance", and Enroth in the Gold Edition.
All of this was a kind of tribute to the history-rich "Might and Magic" brand. In the future, we do not intend to bring back the old universes again or make them the main plotlines in campaigns.
However, it is possible that there will be easter eggs, hints, and various references to the old universes in the game. Recall, for example, "Ancient Week" in the Sixth Heroes, which hints at the Ancients visiting Ashan for some reason. And although Ashan exists on its own and is not like its predecessors in the "Might and Magic" series, that doesn't mean these very different worlds cannot coexist simultaneously in one universe...
After all, who knows what awaits us ahead, on the other side of the Void?
2) Is an improvement/branching of the skill tree planned? Many believe this is the weakest aspect of the Sixth Heroes. Will magic be more distinct among different factions, and will there be more spells?
• Since a new game faction was introduced, expanding the skill tree is one of the components of the "Shades of Darkness" expansion. This means new skills related to the Dungeon will be introduced.
However, no one intends to completely redo the skill system, as that would require changing a huge portion of the game code—something we wouldn't even dream of in our worst nightmares! So we will just tweak a bit here and there, patch things up, add some new elements, but we won't change everything entirely.
3) Will the game be improved in any way with the release of the expansion? Or will only new content be added?
• Our main goal for the expansion is, of course, adding something new: 2 new campaigns, 1 new faction, etc. In addition to everything else, we are fixing bugs, which are still plentiful in the game. We will not be improving or adding new gameplay features, although we are aware that this is exactly what most fans would like.
The existing game engine is not very flexible and will not allow us to introduce global changes (especially regarding simultaneous turns in multiplayer and the introduction of battle recordings). Only by changing the architecture of the engine itself could we pull that off.
4) Is a second expansion planned? How can we go on without the Academy or Sylvan?!
• At the moment, we have no plans to develop and release a second expansion for Heroes 6. Although, of course, time will tell...
5) As is known, the "Deathdance" downloadable content was successful thanks to its well-developed story campaign: not too naive and much more sophisticated.
Is this now a new direction in storytelling or just an exception?
• This kind of plot development and presentation were intentionally designed for Heroes. A more developed and truly sophisticated plot awaits you: with choices of moral paths, tragedy and drama unfolding in the story, where the main characters are leaders of their peoples and commanders of their armies.
"Deathdance", a tale of manipulation, deception, and betrayal by the villainous protagonist, clearly demonstrated this to us.
We can also tell very different and unusual stories in the plot. The single scenarios and mini-campaigns you saw in the DLC are direct proof of that.
Pirates of the Wild Sea, by the way, telling a story about a barbarian pirate and a crazed jellyfish cult, is a wonderful example of light parody of the "Sword-and-Sorcery" genre.
6) Why were new composers hired if Paul Romero and Rob King are already there?
• Although Paul and Rob have worked on Heroes since the first part and are truly associated with the "Might and Magic" game series, it should not be forgotten that they are not the only composers who have worked on the game all this time. Even before them, excellent composers such as Tim Tully, Masaharu Iwata, and Joe Hisaishi (who composed the music for the first part of Might and Magic ported to PC) worked on the franchise.
Even after Paul and Rob joined the team, other composers: Jennifer Wang and Steve Bacca, occasionally contributed to the musical component of the game. Cris Velasco and Sascha Dikiciyan, who wrote the music for Dark Messiah, as well as Sean Lorhish, who wrote the wonderful music for Clash of Heroes, are also worth mentioning.
To pay tribute to a number of composers who worked on the "Might and Magic" series in their time, we included many musical themes from Dark Messiah and Clash of Heroes in the Sixth Heroes. Furthermore, during the development of Heroes 6, it became clear that due to conflicting work schedules and personal issues, Paul and Rob could not handle writing all the previously planned music alone.
We consulted with each other and reached a decision: we licensed their rights to the music they had previously created and made remixes of musical themes from previous Heroes games. To write the missing soundtracks, we hired a new composer—Jason Graves, who subsequently wrote the music for "Pirates of the Wild Sea", "Deathdance", and "Shades of Darkness".
But this doesn't mean that we won't work with Paul and Rob again in the future, as they are a true and integral part of the "Might and Magic" world!
7) Will everything new included in the expansion appear in the campaigns of the original version of Heroes 6? For example, will I be able to collect new artifact sets and fight against dark elves as neutrals while playing as Anton?
• Strangely enough, the "Shades of Darkness" engine is based on the original Heroes 6 engine, which means that artifact sets collected in some campaigns cannot carry over to others. However, everything related to your dynasty (dynastic weapons/dynasty pets) will be available for any campaign.
(the question wasn't even answered! - translator's note)
8) Will the "Shades of Darkness" expansion be available for open beta testing?
• Organizing an open beta test for the game is a rather difficult task, requiring a significant amount of time and money.
Furthermore, it is much more interesting to test the game ourselves: it helps new developers get to grips with game mechanics that are new to them, its engine, ultimately discovering bugs and major flaws. And since "Shades of Darkness" is an expansion that does not introduce major changes to the game engine, we decided that an open beta test was not necessary.
Nevertheless, we want to draw your attention to the fact that we will soon begin balancing the game based on suggestions from VIP fans of the heroes community and polish the game as much as possible before it becomes publicly available.
9) Will an expanded map editor finally be available for the game (with the ability to place Warlords and Dynastic weapons on your maps)?
• Unfortunately, as previously reported, improving the map editor is not possible. The editor would have to be created from scratch for it to be even remotely convenient for users to create maps in it, which would take a huge amount of time and money.
Because of this, we decided to concentrate our attention on the expansion itself and its content; after all, our task is to provide a new renowned faction with all the resulting content.
(and this question wasn't answered either! - translator's note)
10) Will it be possible to spend extra dynasty coins earned in the original version of Heroes 6 on additional bonuses from the altar of wishes in "Shades of Darkness"?
• "Shades of Darkness" will be fully linked with your original part of Heroes 6, which means that both the original version and the expansion will be available from a single executable (.exe) file. It follows that all dynasty coins can be spent as they were in the original Heroes 6, as well as in the expansion.
11) We know that there are many clans of dark elves and that each is led by one of Tuidhana's offspring. There is the Nightshard clan, the Shadowbrand clan, and the Soulscar clan. Railag was first the head of the Soulscar clan, and after being cleansed of demonic corruption, he led the Shadowbrand clan. What other new dark elf clans will we see and who will lead them?
• All the aforementioned clans are primary and they are generally the only ones involved in the plotline. They are led by Railag and his brothers, the twins Menan and Sylsai. But you will learn more about this in the expansion. Of course, there are smaller clans, for example, a clan located far from the main events and led by Railag's half-sister—Eruina (recall Heroes V).
12) The game has never covered the story of the six demon lords subsequently defeated by the Sovereign. Will you tell us this story someday?
• This is a very important moment in the history of Demons; we would certainly like to tell it. And we will, in due time...