Might and Magic Might & Magic X Pre-Release Thread

[Grunker]

Hmm, perhaps I'm remembering this wrong? I played it with a mate at release, and I recall it being more less like M&MX:L.

 

[Magellan]

Hmm, perhaps I'm remembering this wrong? I played it with a mate at release, and I recall it being more less like M&MX:L.

I first played it several months after release, so they may have adjusted it by the time I bought it.

 

[rafaninja888]

Have they added any depth to this game? it seemed a bit simplistic fairly early on when it came out...

 

[Abelian]

I wonder if the game would be more like classic MM if Julien Pirou where in charge of the MM brand (eg. a classic mage/cleric magic system, not this hybrid system "because it must be like HoMM6" Canon!!!) We probably would also get more classic story elements (Scifi) and less Ashan fanwank. Just a feeling...

Julien's original idea was to do a follow-up to HoMM4 and MM9 as an independent project, as can be read in this update (full text here). Some interesting excerpts:

All I had to do was to be hired by Ubisoft to work on my favourite series, right? How hard could that be? So I started writing the first draft of a story for a potential Might & Magic X, which I planned to send to Ubisoft. My story would take place on Axeoth, tying together several plot points that I considered "loose ends" of Might & Magic IX and Heroes IV.

Because I believed the Ancient universe deserved a proper send-off, my old MMX story draft became the basis of a campaign I created for Heroes V, Legends of the Ancients. And as it turned out, that campaign would get me hired by Fabrice Cambounet of Ubisoft to work on a map for Heroes V (the "Dark Messiah" map included in the Heroes Complete box); then, two years later (in late 2009), to be invited by Erwan Le Breton to officially join the Heroes VI team as level designer.

At the same time, I started writing a story outline for the game, which I submitted to Erwan early on to make sure I was on the right track in regards to the Might & Magic IP constraints.

Ten years after the release of Might & Magic IX, a new Might & Magic RPG (codenamed Legacy) was at long last in production, with the most old-school gameplay we could get away with.

Another interesting thing about the article is that the mock-up includes the Maximus portrait on the right:

 

[Lady_Error]

Nice mockup screenshot. No wonder the project got the go ahead from the bosses. Also from the update:

 

[Luzur]

All of them are at least good, excluding 9 of course. 8 is debatable as well.

Call me crazy, but I really think MMX could end up being the best Might & Magic game. Combat is actually somewhat enjoyable now, and you actually get (some) real encounter design instead of mobs of the same enemies copypasted across fuckhueg maps. Inventory management is finally painless, and the map outside of the starting town feels like MM3 in 3D. Lots of nicely hidden loot chests and optional challenges, and random tiles with goodies hidden in the ground. My only complaint with the Early Access at this point is that it's still a little too slow. Otherwise, it feels like a really solid spiritual successor to Xeen.

I think we should brace for a shitstorm, but I very much agree with you.

sorry guys, but WoX has already been made.

 

[Luzur]

Another interesting thing about the article is that the mock-up includes the Maximus portrait on the right:

also what looks like Crag-Hack on his right.

 

[Abelian]

also what looks like Crag-Hack on his right.

You're right, Ubi made his own character page here. I feel silly for missing his trademark helmet from HoMM 3 and 4.

 

[Luzur]

also what looks like Crag-Hack on his right.

You're right, Ubi made his own character page here. I feel silly for missing his trademark helmet from HoMM 3 and 4.

ive been looking on that helmet for so many years in my adventure party that i can spot it from across town.

 

[Infinitron]

Retro mode: https://mightandmagicx-legacy.ubi.com/opendev/blog/post/view/preview-retro-mode



This actually looks kind of charming, although it'll probably seem more artificial when it's animated.

 

[Kem0sabe]

They should have pixelated the UI as well, would have maintained a nice consistency to it all.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Looks cute. No real sense in that, but cute nevertheless.

The UI does look out of place, but maybe they're going to make it "retro" too eventually.

 

[Berekän]

I dunno, looks pretty bad to me. Leaving aside the fact that the UI looks out of place, simply applying it a filter to make it look pixelated will, of course, always make it look worse since it wasn't designed to look that way and deal with those limitations in the first place. In the end it's just a gimmick tho.

 

[Hirato]

Huh, it looks exactly like I described quite a long while back.

Technically they'd be rendering the game on a framebuffer that's much smaller in size (let's say 1/3rd of the screen's dimensions) and scaling that up to the screen with nearest filtering (read: sharp pixels).
If the game is GPU limited, this can more than double performance as a consequence.
Also note Anti-Aliasing looks awful with this method.

If they're doing it properly, they'd also turn off texture filtering for world and model textures, as well as scaling them to either a 4th or an 8th of their size. This helps give it that old-school look and as a bonus also saves a lot of memory (which can also lead to better performance).


It seems they intend to chuck a rotoscope filter on top of that though, now that's lame and unnecessary.

 

[V_K]

Too many colours.

 

[sser]

I might have to use retro mode on account of the game looking like a pile of disgusting mud in 'normal' mode (for me).

 

[Dorateen]

Too many colours.

Exactly. Played Might & Magic II in cyan and magenta.

 

[Abelian]

I don't get this fascination with pixelization. For indie developers who don't have a high art budget it makes sense and at least they apply it consistently, including the UI.

Also, I understand people being nostalgic for the look of the earlier titles, and I realize no one's forcing me to use the retro mode, but I think the development time could have been better spent polishing the game. Still, kudos to Limbic Entertainment for implementing a feature that was voted on by the fans, since they are paying attention to their customers' wants.

To quote Night Goat from this game development thread:

Classic RPGs were good in spite of the bad graphics, not because of them.

and Octavius:

I don't think "pixelated" should be a goal in itself...

I'll have a chuckle if the retro mode turn out to be a resource hog and actually slows down gameplay.

 

[Great Deceiver]

The retro mode seems pretty lazy, but I'd say it's more of a nod in a nudge-nudge-wink-wink sort of way than an actual, full-fledged consideration.

The only RPG that I've played that has an awesome retro mode is Dark Spire. Completely redone sprites, BGM, vector maps, everything. What a game.

 

[theSavant]

Another interesting thing about the article is that the mock-up includes the Maximus portrait on the right:

Strange, I kinda like this mock up more than what I've seen from the project til now...

 

[m_s0]

Retro mode: https://mightandmagicx-legacy.ubi.com/opendev/blog/post/view/preview-retro-mode



This actually looks kind of charming, although it'll probably seem more artificial when it's animated.

I don't get a retro feel from this at all. Looks like ass.

 

[Infinitron]

*shrug* Different strokes.

This reminds me of the "faceless" look of characters from early 90s Sierra adventure games. It's a bit nostalgic.

 

[Grunker]

finish this game already i want to play it

 

[felipepepe]

I was gonna say the graphics remind me of Betrayal at Krondor, then I went for a screenshot and say how Krondor actually looks....

 

[m_s0]

*shrug* Different strokes.

This reminds me of the "faceless" look of characters from early 90s Sierra adventure games. It's a bit nostalgic.

And it reminds me of how Gothic 3 looked on a computer that was way below the minimum specs required to properly run the game. I'm serious.