What's with the Complains about Heroes VI?

[Ka'shurio]

I just bought Heroes VI: Complete Edition about 6 days' ago, and my experience with this game so far is an extremely pleasant and enjoyable one. I have been reading the negative comments and reviews of Heroes VI and Shades of Darkness, but I do not exactly understand the complains, as I have been getting none of them. Here is a summary from my own perspective so far:

1) Stability - in over 20 hours of play so far, I have had not a single crash: no CTD, no blackscreen, no turn loading freezes, no video crashes so far. And I played this game on maxed graphical settings. That said, I do use an AMD card, and not an Nvidia one, so I am not sure of whether Nvidia cards are just as stable.

2) AI load times - very fast; probably 3-5 times as fast as Heroes V. Even more in the late-games.

3) DRM issues - I got this on Steam and never experienced this issue as such.

4) Uplay Connection - I can play this game offline, but I normally set it to online. However, I have had zero disconnects or issues so far.

....................

So much about the issues above, now for gameplay:

5) Streamlined Shared Unit Production - I liked the idea of shared unit production across castles, as it no longer requires one to line up a chain of Heroes to act as ferries between castles (in Heroes V vanilla, and earlier Heroes versions). This saves up considerable micro-management. It also no longer requires caravans (like in Heroes V: TotE).

6) Re-designed Skill Trees - I like this one compared to Heroes V, because it allows you to see the entire tree at once, and select any talent you like at any time. This is unlike Heroes V, and earlier versions, where you get only 2 random skills per level, which is frustrating, as it may ruin the planning of an entire well-planned skill circle (not getting the ultimate in Heroes V for instance). This is also done without homogenizing heroes - necromancers can have tier 3 dark spells, but cannot have holy or fire magic, while haven can use them freely, but cannot access tier 3 spells. This along with the reputation system makes each faction and player hero more unique, and far less homogenous. Basically, it's streamlining without over-simplification or homogenization.

7) Re-balanced Spells - I like how they nerfed Puppet Master, Bloodlust, Blind, and most other spells by installing a cooldown for all spells. This reduces the use of 'overpowered' tactics, and allows for more variety in casting spells (isn't it more diverse to be able to cast 4 or 5 spells due to the cooldown, instead of spamming Chain Lightning all the time?).

8) Re-balanced Magic and Might attributes on Heroes and units - by splitting both Might and Magic attributes, some unit abilities can actually scale well with both increased numbers, and with the hero's spellpower. This is good, as unlike in Heroes V, we had some units back then which had abilities that were effectively diminished come late-game.

9) Area Control System - A much more convenient way to gain control of mines and outposts, while focusing on the overall game. I appreciate this reduction in micro-management.

10) Seamless Integration and Streamlining of Town 'Racials' - Heroes can now do 2 things per turn (the racial plus attack or magic casting). This is good, as compared to Heroes V, where using the racial in one turn may mean the lost of opportunity cost for not using other more powerful spells. Now this trade-off is no longer valid, which makes the game more diverse.

11) Re-balanced Faction units - many units seem much more balanced now. I no longer see underpowered tier 1s or tier 7s unlike in Heroes V, where plague zombies were hopelessly slow, and Spectre dragons had hopelessly low 160 HP compared to their 250+ HP counterparts. I do understand that in the past, units in Heroes VI were imbalanced, but it seems like the patches re-balanced it (the overpowered Necro and underpowered Inferno issue seems largely addressed in 1.5 and 1.8).

12) Much improved graphics.

13) Content - With around 10 campaigns in total, alongside a map editor, and many downloadable maps, I can see how this game can potentially have hundreds of hours of gameplay. Having around 93 units in total isn't too far from Heroes III's 110 units. Sure, it may be low compared to Heroes V's 170+ units with all expansions, but it is no push-over either.

14) AI - Yes, I know that it had issues when it was first released, but my experience of it so far is that it is (though not perfect nor the best) rather proficient at tactical combat using stack of units. This is based on my use of the auto-combat function using AI, where it seems to use moves rather economically (of course not perfect, but reasonably well enough for me to trust it for less important battles). I'm not sure how bad it was in the past when it purportedly cheated hardcore during release, but from the patch notes, it seems like many changes have been made to make it more 'human-like', instead of fully cheating outright. However, I cannot fully comment on the adventure AI, as I have yet to play full-fledged skirmishes against it. All I can say is that the tactical AI is reasonably 'good', though not the best, but not terrible either. (Are we also not forgetting that the default AI in Heroes V actually cheats outright? In fact, I played this game from Heroes II and III, and yes, they all cheat outright; it has always been.)

15) The Reputation and Dynasty system - I actually loved this one a lot. Why? Because it now adds a 'karmic' system where past events have long term ramifications. Instead of giving everything to players like in Heroes V, some features of the games must be unlocked through the Blood/Tears reputation system, and the use of dynasty points. This adds a long-term element for players to consider, and the latter also makes it such that no 2 players are exactly alike due to custom dynasty setups. It has a broad degree of personalization there unlike in previous Heroes games.

......................

That said, I know that they fixed many issues, including the lack of Town Screens, but right now, Heroes VI seems to be in a rather neat shape. Even though it has less units compared to Heroes V, I find it hard to go back due to its streamlining and added features, which greatly cuts down on 'clutter' and too much micro-management, as well as balance, and late-game scaling.

Am I missing something?

(Please be kind though, I am of below-average intelligence, with an IQ of only 76, but I do hope that I brought out valid points).

[Zaky]

As I have read on the Heroes forums and here. You have already answered your own question in 1). NVIDIA graphic cards are "unstable" or the game doesn't really support those, which causes a lot of crashes (Mostly black screen, loading problems etc.).

I like the Heroes games and have played them since I was a kid, but this.. really annoys me.
The issues have been reported since the game came out and yet they still haven't come up with a fix.

P.S
I have a gaming pc and using NVIDIA GTX Titan.

[Steel*Faith]

I'm using a GTX 760 4GB Edition, and I'm having ZERO issues with graphics, crashes, or whatever. I think people need to properly maintain their pc, drivers etc. Or maybe you're just some of the few unlucky ones, either way I had no problems runnnig this game with a Radeon card, and now with my new Nvidia card I also am having no issues.

I agree with you OP, this is a great game overall, and this is by far my favorite HoMM game. The depth in the hero variations is a lot better than HoMM III, and the creatures and design is much better as well. It's a damn shame there was so much negativity on this forum disuading people away from the game, I'm sure there would've been some fans of the series (such as myself) who were mislead and didn't get the game.

This feels like HoMM in every way, the music is jsut awesome and brings me back to the old days of HoMM II & III. I just wish there was was more expansions coming with playable Academy, Rampart, and conflux factions - I want dwarves, Treants, and Golden Dragons back dammit!

Good thing I didn't listen to the negativity, or I'd be missing out on the best sequel yet.

[Commander T-Bone]

I'm using a mobile NVIDIA card. Had problems kind of randomly before the big update when Shades of Darkness came out, but not one crash since.

[Les Grossman]

Glad to see at least one non-whine thread in these forums, also agree with most points.
I like gameplay changes of M&MHVI very much too.

Only one thing is bad, as I always say: no more content, it's very sad support of this
game is over, though new DLCs would make this game even more beautiful and enjoyable.
Virtuos did remarkable job with SoD expansion, why they can't keep developing new
content is beyond me, game will sell anyway, it's THE ONLY TBS game on the market
right now.

[Bathysphere]

This post is pretty much how I feel too.

[Molotov Cockatoo]

Same here, I bought this game during the Autumn Sale and have been having incredible fun with it, my only other HoMM experience being the GameBoy Color game (which was awesome!).

I'm using a GeForce card, absolutely no problems. I love this game, and only wish I could find some other people to play it with (U.S. here).

[-=|Markus|=-]

have msi gx701 laptop with nvidia 9600mgt card, for this one there is no working driver beyond 176 whql - THANK YOU NVIDIA -.- ... however I can run smoothly the game on low setting with HiResolution (1440x900). If I set everything to max, the texture rendering goes mad, but actually you cant rly see the difference betwet max and min, the game looks awsome even with low graphic.

[constantgeek]

I have Nvidia 580M GTX , and i have no problem but one in the first town battle in tutorial stage ( the game black screen if i use windowed mode , if fullscreen its okay )

Other than that i have no problem whatsoever

[Kalvix]

I get constant black screens when loading, its making the game nigh on unplayable. Sadly by this point I think ubisoft have decided its pointless to fix anything as it wont make them money so they are just going to leave it broken for anybody who uses nvidia... so thats a bit screw you to about half of pc users.

Great customer relations they have at ubisoft....

[Al]

I also have an Nvidia GTX660, but I haven't experienced any graphical issues with the game. As for the game itself, I liked the changes, they removed a lot of micromanagement and a lot of factors that depended on mere luck (not creature's luck, the luck of the player itself). I still miss the other factions though.

[Primefer]

My experience with HoMM VI was less smooth, I will say - when it ran I was having a great time, and I absolutely agree that the music was spot on - loved it. My primary problem was I think with Uplay - it took three tries to get it to authenticate correctly, and then it ran just great for about 3 weeks. I got 40+ hours of play in and then one day it just wouldn't run - Uplay would crash every time I tried to run the game and I would just hang on a black screen. No driver updates in that space of time, no major instances of virii or malware, nothing to indicate a major change in how things were running in the foreground or the background. The game just took a dive on me. I got it on sale, so no real worry there - but I'll never buy a Ubisoft game for PC again. (Steam only shows 11 hours, but I was running it directly through Uplay/ desktop icon, so not sure why the discrepancy).

All said - if it runs for ya without issues - it's a great game, but don't pay full price. Just not worth it if the game sours on your rig.

[Sick Puppy]

Yea, but in 6 they took away some play styles which made the game fun. I liked pooling all my resources into one powerful hero. That was the whole appeal to me. Having multiple heros running around isn't fun for me and is just boring. If I wanted to manage hundreds of units I'd play starcraft.

[Ka'shurio]

Originally posted by Horny Bull:

Yea, but in 6 they took away some play styles which made the game fun. I liked pooling all my resources into one powerful hero. That was the whole appeal to me. Having multiple heros running around isn't fun for me and is just boring. If I wanted to manage hundreds of units I'd play starcraft.

That's one of the things that I enjoy most.

Having to micro-manage and time your next town portal, such that the 'nearest castle' coincides with your desired destination was troubling. Back then in Heroes V, if an enemy was closing in to one of the castles that you could not town portal to, then all is lost, but in Heroes VI, zooming in to any castle requires at most 2 turns.

[Les Grossman]

Thing is, HVI supports tons of different playsyles when HV was restictricting player in any possible direction narrowing down one single strategy for every hero and fraction. In HVI I can pull all my resourses to one hero, or spreading that across few heroes with their own armies defending assigned territory. It's very thoughtfull to have a decision about conveting town or not, also it's great to have army present at any castle in it's full numbers, this way you can share troops with utmost effectiveness among your heroes.
Awesome game by ane means.

[Sick Puppy]

Not really, since the ai will swarm the piss out the map. Every game there are always a billion AI heros, eventually they start sending in blanks at you which is just so very annoying. This game has become a mirco manage game only since you need 1000 heros to compete with the ai. This game single handed killed off the series for me.