Hey guys

Now that Heroes VI is finally announced, I guess it's about time for me to come out of the closet, so to speak. So here you have it: I'm a part of Ubi's team, having been hired roughly one year ago to work on the level design for the game (among other things).

I see there is a lot of confusion (and an unhealthy dose of craziness too ) going on about some of the facts revealed at Gamescom, especially because of those photos of the demo screen. Since I have just returned from Gamescom, I thought I'd drop by and try to clarify some stuff These are facts you will find in the various previews of the game, but I think it's nice to have them together in one place.

Of course I can't go beyond the facts that have been disclosed so far, but here what I can tell you :

- The Gamescom demo was pre-Alpha, so a lot of visuals, sounds and GUI elements were missing or placeholders. Just keep that in mind

- Town screen: there is still a town screen, or more accurately, a town window. Each town still have its own theme music and all. It is a 2D, animated town screen. The Haven town screen was part of the missing elements, that's why it was replaced by a mere screenshot for the demo.

- You can see more info about a city on its 3D model on the adventure map (not just its town hall and if it has fortifications). You can learn a lot about your adversary's strategy just by observing how he developed his towns.

- There are still mines on the adventure map. You still have to flag them in order to gain resources. The new stuff is now all mines are in the "area of control" of a city or fort. Once you own the fort/city of an area and flagged(?) the mines, the only way to take the mines from you is to capture the city/fort that controls the area.

- However, it is still possible to occupy an enemy mine with one of your heroes to steal his resources. But the mine automatically reverts back to the owner of the area of control as soon as you leave it.

- I know some of you think there are a lot of changes to the classic Heroes formula, and I understand changes can be scary. Truth be told, I reacted the same way at first I can only advise you to wait until you play it before passing a judgement I can assure you it still feels and plays like Heroes. It adds some new stuff to the mix, but doesn't try to be revolutionary or turn Heroes into something completely different. However, no, it is not Heroes III redux. And I think it's a good thing

So that's it. I hope it's more clear now

- The 4th faction will be announced in November. It's a known faction from previous Heroes.

- The 5th faction will be an original faction. It will be announced in January only.

- The creatures belonging to the same category (core, elite) will have similar stats but their abilities will determine their role on the battlefield.

- During sieges, we can put archers in the main tower

- The defensive moats will be back

- Creatures will still have passive and active abilities (like Griffins still have their Dive - which one wasn't said though

- Some kind of line of sight system will make its appearance again.

- Creatures won't be able to wander on the map without hero

- The focus points and the dwelling systems are made to put more emphasis on our main hero, rather than having people buying heroes to make chains of heroes

- The Phoenix will be back as a neutral creature. It will be blue because it is linked to the Moon. (Ubisoft is trying to create its own bestiary for M&M universe)

- Town conversion will be very expensive and take several turns (not said how many). A player can stop the conversion by attacking the city and interrupting it (not said if it's automatic or if you have to click something)

- During a conversion, buildings that are common to all towns won't be destroyed (marketplace, tavern, town hall)

- At the beginning of a map, a scrolling will show the "points of interests" of a map (a bit like KB when you first visit an island)

- The combat arena with bosses will have "special" designs

- A huge work has been done on every creature's animations : passive, dealing damage, taking damage (seems the griffin is screaming a lot)

- The rare ressource is named "crystallized dragon blood"

- It will be possible to put units in the forts controlling your areas

Due to the overwhelming amount of posts lately it is easy to overlook important information concerning heroes 6. This often leads members to repeating similar questions or fall prey to misinformation. I will list a number of popular questions but keep in mind that this thread is for reference and not discussion. You may ask for clarifications if you did not understand properly but offtopic posts will be cleaned.
If I have forgotten something let me know and I will update the list

Without further ado..

* Any interesting changes?
Oh yes!
- Area of Control system
- Town/dwelling conversion
- New tier system. Core, elite and champion units instead of tier 1-7, first category has 3 units, same with second and 1 for the last one. Units under the same category will have similar stats/strength but different roles on the battlefield, they are designed to work in synergy.
- Revised RPG system. There will be might and magic classes, male and female heroes for each faction, advanced classes return. Also level ups will work with point allocation instead of random skills popping up.
- Combat arena improvements. Various sizes and shapes, obstacles may appear or disappear during battle, different combat adjectives added(hold your ground for X turns, defend this sacred shrine at the center of the arena, kill a specific enemy stack, etc) and there will be boss fights.
- Initiative system abandoned.

* How many factions will we get?
Five for now.

* What do we know about the factions?
Haven, inferno and necro are in, we should know more in the near future. It has been disclosed that the fifth faction will be new to the series.

[red]Updated[/red]
* Will there be any camera rotation? It really irked me in H5.
H6 will come with a fixed camera angle so that you don't have to rotate to see hidden objects but rotation is still possible. As soon as you release the button though, it returns to its default angle. It is possible to zoom in and out, when at maximum zoom the camera angle gets more horizontal.

* When will the release be?
Aiming for March 2011.

* Will there be map editor?
Absolutely, if possible it will be released before the game is out. At worst you will get it at the same time.

* Has the storyline improved?
Of course! With Marzhin the creator of LotA in the team we are in good hands. Also stories will be more complex and more personal for the protagonists. Gameplay-wise you can start with any faction campaign and if you finish them all there will be one more to unlock. There will be some cool surprises along the way as you will see.

* When is H6 set?
About 400 years before the events of H5. For timelinereference look around 564 YSD, 2nd Eclipse - Rise of the Demon Sovereign.

* Why were the resources reduced?
Various reasons including lore, balance and mapmaking. Don't worry they have thought this through.

* Will we have a silly amount of dragons in the factions again?
No you can rest easy.

* Will there be town screens?
In animated 2d actually.

* Any gameplay videos?
Combat and Adventure Map.

* In the gamescom video music, sounds and interface are lacking/reused/whatever. What gives?
The gamescom presentation was done in a pre-alpha unpolished version don't worry. A good part of what you saw were placeholders and will be replaced.

* Are Archangel's Castle reports reliable?
Yes, they come from the VIP team.

* Is cepheus really part of the VIP forum?
He was in before I even knew of its existence

* Can you tell me..?
There is a list of what I can reveal in public for now but rest assured that if I have the green light you'll be the first to know. For now you could check this thread.

* Can you forward my suggestion to ubi?
Ubi has been following community suggestions(not just HC) for a few years so they should have a pretty good idea of what the fans want. Also the VIP team ARE fans, they walk amongst you

* Will there be artifacts sets?
Sure but they will not be combined like in H3. Still they will give set bonuses.

* Why is necro a faction? Timeline says they aren't a major force and still living amongst the wizards.
That's more or less irrelevant, necromancers and undead still exist and CAN be rallied for the purpose of the campaign. Remember that a faction does not represent a whole nation. And seriously.. They weren't even a faction in H5, you didn't complain then

* What about alternative upgrades?
Sorry, maybe in the future.

* What about the system requirements?
We don't know yet.

* What about DRM..?
The dev team have nothing to do with it I'm afraid, however I have good reason to believe the game will not have it.