Welcome to the Heroes of Might and Magic V open beta!
Before going any further, please bear in mind that this is not a demo but real "work-in-progress" code. Many elements are far from final and some features have not been implemented in this build. For example, the Ghost mode could not be included and we're currently revising the battlefield size (you'll find below a more complete description of missing or unfinished elements). However, despite its limitations you should get a good idea of the gameplay.
We hope you will enjoy playing Heroes V and look forward to reading your comments on the boards.
Thanks for your help!
Fabrice Cambounet
Producer – Heroes of Might and Magic V
Known issues and warnings:
This version contains two multiplayer maps for your review.
It does not contain any tutorial of any kind, there will be one in the final game.
Technical
• The game still contains technical bugs: using alt-tab intensively will crash the game for instance, and the sound may be choppy.
• There is no chat feature during combat in Duel mode, and you can not leave the combat in Duel mode; you have to wait until it is ended.
• The selected preset for the Duel may get ignored, and a preset from the previous game may be chosen instead.
• Using game options like skip creature animation or Dynamic Battle in Duel may cause de-synchronisation and crash.
• The requirements for the final game will differ from the requirements needed for this beta.
• The AI has been disabled in this version to allow multiplayer games only.
• The ghost mode has also been disabled as it is being redesigned, as well as the dynamic battles.
• Creature stacks getting split automatically is a bug.
• The Esc hotkey does not work in town interface.
• "Wrong password" and "Server is full" messages in the lobbies are unclikable - use Enter or Esc keys
• The chat messages may be doubled if one of the players enters the town interface.
Gameplay
• All texts are still in `broken English` and will be corrected.
• The balance is not final in some areas, for instance on the `economic` side (the cost of things).
• Some spells or abilities are not working as intended, for instance the elemental chain or the fire wall.
• The battlefield size is not final, nor the amount of obstacles that you get.
Visuals
• The cameras are sometimes not final: you can get strange angles in battles, the camera limits are not final in some towns or on the adventure map.
• Many interfaces are still in progress, most notably the duel mode interface and the build interface in towns.
• A few visuals are to be corrected, for instance the lightmaps in the dungeon and haven towns, or the underground, or the way creatures are displayed on the map, or shadows.
• Hero portraits are not integrated.
• A few animations are not final: gremlins movement for instance.
• Some creatures are subject to visual changes (textures tweak or model itself)
• Creatures are not highlighted on the adventure map
Audio
• All sounds will be improved.
• The music is in many places not final, the music design (how musics are chosen) is not implemented.
• The mix is not final.