Homm4 - the Good, the Bad, the Ugly

[Triped]

The hexes make the battlefield look like some sort of sweater. Movement shadows are nice, though.

[Standup]

But no patch outside the US

Does it change much other than the battlefield shadows ?

[moomin]

Originally posted by Standup
But no patch outside the US

God, I'm getting so tired of this. Not only are we Europeans expected to fork out roughly twice as much as our Amrican fellow gamers for the same product, they can't even release internet downloadable content simultaneously.

And then they b1tch and moan about piracy, would you believe?

[Scouse Gits]

Yeah - just like the Heroes Chronicles rip-off -

"when you buy three HC you get this free extra one from the net..."

Were we surprised when the 'Free Extra' d/l said - sorry you do not have three US versions of HC!!!!!

What a sorry excuse for a company - pity the games are so bloody good!

SG[1]

[moomin]

Game companies in general seem to be a sad lot these days, don't they? The only company I really trust to deliver as promised and to listen to their customers is Ambrosia, and they - of course - are Mac only.

Their game is the only reasone I still buy a mac along with my pc. Well, apart from the fact that the latest "lamp" eMac is just so cool my gf lets me have it in our bedroom.

[Triped]

You can thank the publishers for forcing the companies to be a sad lot...nobody's allowed to spend the time and money it takes to deliver as promised anymore...they get cut short all the time.

[chronocrator]

Originally posted by Standup
But no patch outside the US

Does it change much other than the battlefield shadows ?

Asd far as I read it seems mostly a bugfix patch, there seemed to be a memory leak in the game which has been fixed among other bugs.

Concerning the no patch outside US issue. While I would like to have the patch for the German version why should the developers wait to release the American patch when it is one that is finished first

[moomin]

Originally posted by chronocrator
Concerning the no patch outside US issue. While I would like to have the patch for the German version why should the developers wait to release the American patch when it is one that is finished first

Well, that's borderline acceptable with translated editions, which seem to be popular in countries like France, Germany and Spain. But for those of us that bought the English edition it's really untolerable.

[RANT]
Why oh why do software companies feel the need to distinguish between the American and the English version by having extra copy protection on European verisons, thereby redering US patches unusable? Whithout exception, every warez release I ever saw was the American version of the game. And to think they won't travel over the pond seems like sheer lunacy in the days of the internet. Read my lips, manufacturers and distributors: your current practices are counterproductive, because they leave paying customers shafted compared to the guys who download warez. If I had stolen your game instead of pouring out hard-earned cash, I would now be playing with the patch as opposed to being left out to dry. Pondering how I will approach an expansion is left as an excercise for the reader.
[/RANT]

[Grumbold]

There's a massive memory leak in the original game. Playing it this weekend it managed to eat up over 1Gb of extra disk space the swap file had grown so large. How on earth can mistakes this obvious get past testing? Like moomin I curse the software company structure that makes it necessary to compartmentalise different English language versions of the software even though i know a few of the reasons they do it that way.

On the Heroes v Creatures arguement, I swing both ways (ahem) in that I find Heroes can wipe through moderate monster stacks but eventually hoarding monsters will give you stacks so large that they can squash any hero. One of my favourite combinations is a chaos hero to cast mass confusion while my orcs and medusae eradicate even the most dangerous creatures from a safe distance. Heroes are too vulnerable to instant kill syndrome. Whoever gets to go first can unleash a spell that will kill or incapacitate several heroes. Magic resistance never seems to bounce indirect spell damage. You might argue that this stage is beyond the scope of most scenarios but the later campaigns (like the pirate one I'm currently playing) seem to make quick victories impossible. They've even got quest 'gates' set up so only certain players can pass through for the entire game. So the enemies have teleporters to your heartland while you have to spend weeks marching to their towns the long way round. It might help make up for a limp AI but it does make the game drag at times ... especially when it runs out of memory again as a result

I give HOMM4 a gold star for value, since it will take ages to play through all the campaigns, let alone the short scenarios, but a poor rating for originality and excitement. The maps are now so big and tangled that you can spend days and days riding around achieving little, especially when you have to repeatedly eliminate the random monsters that keep blocking the caravan routes. Once I complete all the games once I doubt I will be inclined to go back and strive for better or faster victories. Bigger is not always better.

[Standup]

I was about to say something similar. Heroes 3 felt like a puzzle sometimes and often there was certain things you had to do to win. I found this quite limiting (possibly because i never worked it out) whereas IV feels much more like a conventional wargame with [so far] several different routes to victory.

I think because of this I do find the quest gates very artificial and limiting. In my current game - the second barbarian scenario i want to attack one of the AI cities but can't because i need a key. This key is probably way over the other side of the map and once i head off there the AI is going to run through a one way gate for one of my towns...i'll then have to spend time chasing and recapturing but having to go the long way round. I'm getting bored with runnning round maps when i know i'm in the strongest postion and all i want to do is attack the town and do the next scenario.

I tend towards monsters but i think thats just because i'm still playing it like 3. Hopefully i'm adapting. Note to self: Must remember caravans and that griffins now have 95 hit points.

[Grumbold]

Yes it takes a mind shift to discover that a single hero can defeat four black dragons even if their normal talent is spellcasting (which I found out still doesn't work against them even with a ring of negation thats supposed to disable creature resistances). A warrior of the same level could presumably have handled several more.

[moomin]

And two weeks after the American patch there's still no sign of the Euro one.

I'm getting so fed up with that I've taken to badmouthing HoMM4 and making darn sure everybody who values my opinion understands it's a stilborn game you'ds be crazy to pay for, at least if you're in Europe.

I honestly never thought it'd come to that with the HoMM series. Sic transit gloria mundi.

[Triped]

Just get yourself the American iso or something if it's that big of a deal...

[moomin]

Well, if I wanted I warez release I could have saved $50 I paid for the game, couldn't I?

It's stupidity beyond belief that 3DO is leaving their support into the hands of the warez crowd.

Pray tell, with this in mind, what's my reason for buing the next NWC game or exp, exactly?

[Triped]

I'm just as disappointed in 3D0 as you are. Are you able to return your copy, and maybe buy an American one online?

I only suggest warez because you deserve to get your money's worth, and that's an easy option.

All in all, though, it's a very enjoyable game, patch or no patch.