HoMM-M&M hybrid (of sort)

Well, I can't insert links here (I think it's a correct admins' decision), so if someone would have interest...

I've found a game that tries to mix HoMM and M&M traits together. It's called Heroes of a Broken Land. I tried the demo and you know - it has potential. And it's updated regularly.

Looks old-school...

Hell, that looks interesting. I can also show a few ascending projects... which also have hexes. Looks like it's a trend

An old-school crpg engine of the game presumably in the Might and Magic universe being built by a former member of the World of Xeen 2 project:



Palm Kingdoms 3:

Sawelios wrote:

Well, I can't insert links here (I think it's a correct admins' decision), so if someone would have interest...

Ah no, it's not our decision... put the link!!

Sawelios wrote:

Well, I can't insert links here (I think it's a correct admins' decision), so if someone would have interest...

I've found a game that tries to mix HoMM and M&M traits together. It's called Heroes of a Broken Land. I tried the demo and you know - it has potential. And it's updated regularly.

Looks old-school...

Downloaded the demo and was all set to buy the game but I got an error message when I tried to play the demo that it could not change the resolution to meet the minimum required (and I have a VERY big flat screen monitor). Then I also noticed that they only go through Steam which I mostly refuse to use so...*shrug*. Shame because it looked promising.

Screenshots look great. But if it's on Steam... I am like SkeleTony on this one, byebye! ^^

It's a game that may be done online, just with php sql and css and maybe a bit of javascript...

I'm pretty sure it is available without Steam, as it was around before it was put on Steam. See this page:

http://wingedpixel.com/heroes-of-a-broken-land/

And this one for GamersGate says it is DRM-free:

http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-HBL/heroes-of-a-broken-land

Confirmed. I downloaded the GamersGate version and it does not require Steam. I know it can work without Steam, because it wasn't on it originally (it was Greenlighted).

So there are options if you want to play the game but don't want Steam involved.

I actually wonder why everyone hates Steam. As for me, it's quite a convenient system.

Concerning the game, thank you Steven Aus for provided info. I guess I can try it someday. Are there any notable features which resemble the gameplay of good old MM games?

Actually, I haven't played any of the Might and Magic games, only HOMMs.  Anyway, there are four base classes (Warrior, Rogue, Mage, Priest) and several advanced classes, plus Lizard and Fae.  The graphics are deliberately old-school.  You build your town, and you pick up gold, crystals and treasure from the adventure map, and there are also different adventure map locations that have different properties.  There are also random events that you can accept or turn down, but sometimes turning them down doesn't protect you...

Note the maps are procedurally generated (both adventure map and dungeon maps).

You can have multiple parties moving around the adventure map, and sometimes dungeon require multiple parties...

You go into dungeons and move by going forward, back or left or right, or you can rotate.  Each move gives a chance for the enemies to move or change facing.  When you move next to an enemy group, battle commences.  If one side is facing the back of the other (this can either be you or the enemies) they don't get a turn for a while.  If you or the enemies are facing the side of the other group, they are flanked, which makes them start slower (but not as much as approaching them from behind).  If both sides are facing each other, turns are normal.  The turn order is dependent on the relative speed of the combatants, and whether there are effects like Stun on certain units.

There are traps, that do a fair amount of damage if you step on them before you disarm them (you attempt to disarm them by clicking on the square before you walk on it).  There is also a chance to set off the trap without disarming it successfully, based on how good you are at disarming traps (Rogues or those with Disarm Traps skill are better at disarming traps, and you get better the more levels you have gained) and how high level the trap is (based on dungeon level).  There is always a minimum chance of setting a trap off when you attempt to disarm it.

There are secret doors, which become pretty recognisable after a little while.  You have to click on the activate button to open it.  Be wary though, because if monsters are behind the secret door you will immediately go into battle.

Battles can't be escaped until one or the other side is dead, and if all your units die they turn into gravestones and you have to walk on the gravestone square with a different party to revive them and send them back to the nearest town.  However, if one or more of your units dies you can use a turn from any alive character to apply a Life Potion on any dead ally (equivalent to a Raise Dead spell I think) or the turn of any character with a Raise Dead spell (barely functioning after res, need heal) or Resurrect spell (is rezzed with more health and possibly mana).

Monsters of the same type have more hitpoints and higher stats the higher the level of the dungeon, and also based on monster difficulty settings (which can be customized in Custom difficulty chosen before the start of the game, otherwise harder difficulty levels will always have harder settings for the various options that make up a game).  Tougher monster types are also introduced at higher dungeon levels.

Priests can learn Raise Dead and Resurrect as part of skills learnt on levelling up, but there are random skill books (or skill learning abilities from certain adventure map locations) that can teach a certain skill once to any one hero, no matter their class.

There are three types of spells/attacks that target enemies - spells (cost Mana Points but they always hit, and damage is based on amount of resistance, note healing can occur for over 100% resistance), normal attacks (not guaranteed to hit, hit chance based on Agility checks I think - damage done is based on Strength stat and base damage of the weapon/attack, kind of damage they do and any resistances to physical or other attack types), and spell attacks (cost Mana Points, do more powerful damage or damage that ignores defence fully or partially, but are still not guaranteed to hit).

Some skills do both (Bash and Slash has an attempt at a Stun and then follows with a normal attack, but any skill that is not a standard normal attack costs mana).

Buff and Debuff spells also exist that can affect one or all of the other side's units (for Debuff spells) or one or all of the same side's units (for Buff spells).

Note most types of your units spells, attacks or spell attacks will only try to affect the front-most enemy on the side your hero is on, unless there is only one enemy left, however some spells and attacks or spell attacks target/try to target all enemies (watch for mixed enemies with different immunities and weaknesses).  Note the order your party is on a particular side has no effect - if an enemy is on one side or another they will randomly attack or cast a spell or spell attack one of your units on the same side, or they will do an attack that targets all of your units.

If they are in the middle of the screen they can randomly attack, cast spell on or do a spell attack on any single unit from either side of your party, or all your units from both sides.  AFAIK, for units (for example Ghosts and upgrades) that have regular attacks and spells or spell attacks, the ones they will use are random, but the longer the battle goes they will certainly use a variety.

Spells that can summon other enemies tend to be high priority for certain enemy units that have that ability, but they can't cast them when both the front and back rank of enemies are full.  Some units resurrect themselves (at a lower level) when they die, so you have to kill them a few times for them to disappear completely.  Some, like the Mother Slime, split into slightly weaker different monsters in all empty slots when the Mother Slime dies (so it can be advantageous to kill Mother Slimes when there are still other monsters taking up some of the monster slots).

Apart from that, when enemies are dead, they disappear and stay dead, but summoners don't have to be alive for their summoned units to keep on going - once summoned a summoned creature is independent from their summoner.

Note any spell that stuns checks against physical resistance.  If none, always works, if a certain percentage, chance of stunning that target is 100% subtracted by physical resistance percentage.  Slimes are a fairly early enemy that has high physical resistance, but they are also weak to fire (except Fire Slimes of course).

There are also potions, which out of combat can be used without taking game turns, or when in battle one of your units can apply a potion to any of your own units, or you can cast a Single/Group Buff or Debuff spell, or a variant on the Heal spell, which will use up that turn.  There is even a healing + holy damage spell that can only be used in battle.  Buffs and straight healing or Raise Dead/Resurrect spells can be used out of battle at any time while taking up no turns, or used in battle, there is always one spell/attack/spell attack/apply potion that can be used per turn in battle.

Bigger potions are more expensive, but in the heat of battle, they can be applied to any of your alive units, for all potions except Life Potions in one turn and not waste multiple turns taking tiny potions.  Life Potions only have one function and that is to resurrect dead allies in battle or out of it when you don't want to use (or don't have one of) a unit that has a spell that can resurrect dead allies.

Wandering monsters can appear on the adventure map from any unpurified dungeons (once you complete a regular dungeon, you get the option to purify the dungeon, which prevents it from spawning adventure map baddies, but it still can regenerate later at a higher level, but never regain the ability to generate adventure map baddies).

Depending on your defences and the number and power of wandering monsters attacking, having wandering monsters attacking your towns will start to destroy some of your buildings completely.  Guard Towers built in your town will slow the rate of adventure map monsters appearing and increase the number of turns before buildings start getting destroyed.  The Guard Tower has two levels, and other buildings have multiple levels with increasing power and cost.  AFAIK, the only building you can build more than once is the Farm, but you only have five slots on your starting town and two slots on any Towns you please later with completing quests or favouring them with random event choices favouring that town.

Dungeons don't regenerate until a certain amount of game days after they have been completed, and quest dungeons always disappear after being completed.  However, you need to complete a wandering monster instance on the same day or it will be back to full strength the next day.  (So you can exit it or be ejected, as long as you complete it the same game day with one party or another.  Note you get ejected from wandering monster instances if all your units run out of health rather than needing to be rescued.)

If you choose Custom difficulty before the game starts there are a number of factors that you can choose to benefit you or make the game harder.  Each setting is set independently - they don't have to be all in one position or another when you are using Custom difficulty.

You choose a God to provide a small bonus, and from a recent version, you get information about different monster types by killing more and more of a specific type of monster with a game when the same God is selected (note for example Slimes, and variants of them are all considered different monsters).  You used to have to build up your Bestiary each game, but now it is built up based on killing more creatures with the same God.  I'm not sure how this works if you go back on save games.

Also, some dungeons require multiple parties.  It is a good idea to clear all of the area around one party, because time still advances when you have control of one party.  There are some bosses that you engage with multiple parties too, and once all sides of the boss are engaged the boss gets turns and all the parties' members take turns while they are not dead or stunned.

While time in dungeons proceeds in turns (and when a battle happens turns happen until one side or the other wins and then normal dungeon turns happen again) while you are in the same dungeon (or wandering monster instance) the actual Day No. of the game stays the same until you exit the dungeon (or that party gets turned into a tombstone and must be rescued by another party) and pass to the next turn on the adventure map screen.

Anyway, a lot of the things you learn as you go along, but that's a good rundown.  Let me know if you want any more information.

Thank you very much, that should be okay for now - I'm in the countryside.

Actually, did you have any plans to try any of MM games? If you try MM3-5, you will see a lot of familiar faces and names because Heroes 1-2 characters were graphically based on their MM3-5 prototypes. Moreover, MM6 itself is set on Enroth continent and continues its story after The Succession Wars. It has not much graphic unity with H2 though, only the storyline and names. And some NPCs too. MM7-8 have a real lot of graphic unity with Heroes 3 and continue the story of Antagarich (Erathia) and Jadame continents, respectively.

I'm happy now with the games I'm playing.  I don't have a great need to play all the MM games, but I really enjoy H2 (my heart favourite and my first HOMM game) and H4 (my gameplay favourite - Equilibris mod).

I am seriously not impressed that they choose to not include Heroes of a Broken Land on GOG for no particular reason. I mean, they started with actual old-school games right, and this is definitely an old-school game albeit in the new era! It is available on GamersGate or Steam, and I'm pretty sure the GamersGate version is DRM-free, as I got it in a package deal close to when it became available on the internet.

I actually wonder what people have against DRM

Ooooh I didn't know about this, thanks guys. So glad I signed up to this place, there's all sorts of good s*** here haha!

Will have to add this game to my similar games to HoMM website list (I'll eventually post a thread here about that like I have on other HoMM forums).

FYI iooks like the creator currently has a sequel in beta too!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1006140/Heroes_of_a_Broken_Land_2/