PetrusOctavianus: Why would you remake HoMM 3? It's a near perfect game as it is.
While Heroes III is one of my absolute favorite games of all time, sadly...no. it is not anywhere NEAR perfect. They were on the right track with the distinctive 'Might' and 'magic' hero classes and many other things that were added to Heroes II to make Heroes III, but unfortunately they ran up against deadlines and cumbersome fans.
* The A.I., while not the worst, is easy to beat.
* Some classes and units/creatures do not fit right(a personal observation and opinion).
* The magic system almost entirely blows chunks! The only spells anyone needs or wants to use are Slow/haste(with expert earth/Air), Town Portal and Dimension Door(and also Ressurection/Animate Dead though these are still not as important as Town Portal). After that 'buffs' and 'de-buffs' like Bless, Curse, Weakness, Anti-magic and such offer some minimal benefit, but for the most part all other spells are a waste of space.
*RMG still places map features in weird groupings(like getting four water wheels right outside your town gate, four dimensional gates, etc.)
Some ways that Heroes III could be improved upon:
1) Make the magic system better- No useless spells like "View _____", "Berserk", "Frenzy", etc. Make whatever spells you have more functional. Multiply the cost of casting spells by the level they are cast at(i.e. if casting Town Portal at "Expert" earth magic then this should cost like 40 mana or thereabouts for EACH casting. Same goes for Implosion, Ressurection etc.
Along the same lines add the spell schools of "Body", "Mind" and "Spirit"(as with M&M 6-8 RPGs). And don't restrict mage guild levels by faction/Town type. Instead restrict MIGHT classes in what skills they can or cannot get at what levels(i.e. No "Wisdom" for pure 'Might' classes, like Knights and Barbarians(which should be a RACE and not a class but that is another thread) and only Basic level Wisdom for 'Hybrid-Might' classes(like Rangers or Death Knights). Same goes for "Earth/Air/Fire/etc." magic skills.
2) Cosmetic fixes more in tune with the genre - For example replacing the "Battle Mage" with the "Shaman". Replacing the 'Cyclops' unit with the 'Troll'(who seems to make more sense as the boulder throwing siege-unit). Graphics that at least LOOK like 2D hand drawn graphics, even if they are really meshes/models. etc.
3) Mod-friendly tools - Not just a scenario and campaign editor but being able to create/modify units, factions, hero classes, etc. the way that Warlords III: DLR allowed. I cannot count the number of hours I spent in Warlords III: DLR creating new sides, classes, units etc..
xa_chan: I will never understand the hate HoMM 5, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic and Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes get from "fans". All those games are very good games.
Yes, they don't look much like the "old" M&M and HoMM games. And so what? A franchise need to evolve to stay alive. Of course, each of the games I cited have their flaws (HoMM 5 was not so good before the Dwarves' extension and lots of patches, Dark Messiah is too short), but still, I enjoyed them all a lot and replay them occasionnally.
PetrusOctavianus: I thought HoMM V was great, but I bought some years after its release with patches and expansions available, and I was pleasantly surprised. Basically HoMM III in 3D and with a better skill system. It also lacked the "grinding" (running around on the map and collecting stuff from water wheels, creature dwellings etc eact week) which I thought was the most boring part of HoMM III.
Messiah was also a great game, but was a Might&Magic game in name only, as it had virtually nothing to do with the rest of the franchise.
I personally think (Ho)M&M 6 to be the worst of the series(far worse than HoMM 4 even!). I have seen nothing about that game that makes any sense or sounds compelling.
Then again I
like trying to manage the collection of resources with a limited number of heroes(8 that are not garrisoned) every day/week.
HoM&M VI was fairly 'meh' until the 'Tribes of the East' standalone expansion. Tribes of the East still has it's problems but it is a pretty good addition to the HoMM franchise. It's 'alternative upgrades' for creatures/units alone is worth the price of the game!
