Gameplanet: Why reduce the resources from seven to four?

Erwan Le Breton: There are three main reasons that convinced us to change the way Heroes handles resources. One, It brings more strategy to the game. This might not seem obvious at first glance, but in old Heroes games each faction had a specific resource to take care of and actually did not care much about the other players' mines. Now that every faction is looking for the same resource, possessing mines will be much more strategic as you’ll be preventing opponents from taking a crucial resource.

Two, games with a lot of resources are more management games than strategy games. If you look at StarCraft II they have two resources. Games such as Settlers VII (seven resources) or Civilization V (32 resources!) have many as they focus more on management. And three, it's much easier for map makers! You don’t need to put in different resources (or all of them) according to which factions other players might choose.

The four “classic” rare resources have been combined into a single one, called “Dragon Blood Crystals”. Its existence is linked with the history of Ashan. In the Mythic Age, when the Dragon Gods fought one against another, they shed their blood on Ashan, which crystallized in the form of power nexus called “Dragon veins”. The people of Ashan have learned how to extract and use those crystals for magic purposes, thus creating an extremely coveted resource.

Gameplanet: Why the decision to remove Mage Towers from towns?

Le Breton: In the previous Heroes games, the random factor was quite high – when your Hero was levelling up, you had a choice between several skills but they were picked randomly. Same for the Mage Towers, you had no real control over the spells that were offered to you. So at times it could be frustrating because you could not build the Hero you wanted. The RPG system in Heroes VI puts the players in full control over the development of their heroes.

Hero abilities are either Might (“skills”) or Magic (“spells”) and they are organized into various families. They can be bought upon level up by spending skill points. There are also several “free” abilities that are unique for each faction and class.
Class and faction also restrict your choice of abilities.

Gameplanet: Converting a town to your faction appears to have a mild penalty, is it likely you’ll make this more expensive with the final game?

Le Breton: This is part of the current balancing phase.

Gameplanet: Heroes has a strong following of arguably seasoned gamers, precisely the type of audience unlikely to be wowed by social networking widgets. Why the desire to push them towards these platforms?

Le Breton: We have to disagree with you. The Might & Magic community is one of the most active at Ubisoft. Our official sites and Facebook pages are consulted daily, and with the game about to be released, the numerous community sites are buzzing with excitement! Our fans are constantly connected, with each other, with the world of Might & Magic, and for some of them, with us.

With Heroes VI, we will facilitate this connection. And these networking widgets are among the many options we have added to the Heroes formula so players can really customize their experience. If you like it, it’s there, it you don’t need it, simply don’t use it.

Gameplanet: Have you actively attempted to simplify this game in order to make it appeal to a wider market?

Le Breton: Our aim for Heroes VI was to make it more accessible, which does not mean simple, dull, or boring. If you want to have fun with a game, you have first to understand its rules. You also need to trim all unnecessary repetitive, tedious tasks. Heroes VI focuses on the fun parts of the game (capturing and developing towns, expanding your empire, selecting and levelling up your heroes, experiencing countless tactics on the battle maps, etc.). Heroes VI also puts you in control of your choices, and we have done our best to ensure that the consequences of these choices were logical and meaningful.

We have purged the random choices and inconsistent prerequisites. We have found ways to reduce the time spent in repetitive micromanagement (for instance using “mule” heroes to carry troops and flag isolated mines over and again across already-explored and emptied areas). But the game is still rich, deep, dense! For instance, there are over 200 hero abilities in the game, and they combine with your creature abilities, your artefacts, and even some abilities granted by specific buildings in your town.

Gameplanet: What elements of the game caused the release delay?

Le Breton: Integrating the feedback from the Public Beta, mainly about the AI, and various elements of balance.

Gameplanet: Changing the title appears to closer align the series with Might & Magic. Coupled with the Heroes V reboot, is this a sign that the Heroes I, II and III lore can never be revisited in any future expansion?

Le Breton: All Might & Magic games being developed or published by Ubisoft will be set in the world of Ashan, and not in the New World Computing/3DO “multiverse”. However, if only because of the presence of Julien “Marzhin” Pirou (a long-time fan and specialist of the classic M&M lore) in our team, many nodes and winks to the time of the Ancients, the Kreegans, Sandor, Crag Hack, etc. will be found in Ashan. They will be “reborn”, their soul intact, but their mortal shell changed to adapt to their new universe.

Gameplanet: What support do you plan for modding, mapmaking, and community activities after release?

Le Breton: We’re currently fine-tuning the map editor to make it available as soon as possible for our community. Trust us when we say it is far more powerful and flexible than the Heroes V editor and we’re confident the modders will awe us all with their creations when the tool is in their hands. Random Map Generator will not be ready for release but is part of our modding-support plan. We are also looking for ways to help the modders share their creations with the worldwide community, and get their feedback.