- Will you continue the side story started in Danse Macabre? Will you eventually return to the old universe at some point (Axeoth and Enroth)? This old universe had a more retro/classical fantasy that many of us appreciate. If you revisit it, will it be in the same vein as in M&M and HoMM 1-4?
As you know, the release of Heroes VI coincided with the 25th anniversary of the Might & Magic brand. So we wanted to celebrate that special event by making maps recreating the ancient worlds. There was VARN in Pirates of the Savage Sea, XEEN in Danse Macabre and Enroth in the Gold Edition.
Apart from this kind of tributes to the rich history of the Might & Magic brand, there is no plan to actively return to the ancient worlds and make them the main setting again. However, there might be some nods and connections here and there, in the same vein as the “Week of the Ancients” in Heroes VI, which hinted that the Ancients may have visited Ashan at some point. So while Ashan stands on its own and is indeed quite different from the previous settings of the Might & Magic series, its quite possible all the worlds of Might & Magic co-exist in the same cosmos... After all, who can say what lies on the other end of the Void?
- Any plan on improving/extending the skill system? It is considered by many to be the weak point right now. Any plans for more magic diversity between factions or addition of new spells?
Extending the skill system is part of Shades of Darkness, as a new faction is being introduced. Then it means skills related to the Dungeon faction are implemented. Though, we wont revamp the Skill System as it is right now as it would mean changing basically a large part of the original game and that would be a nightmare to do for a 120+ hours game. So we tweak and fix here and there and add new content to the current system, but we wont change the whole she-bang.
- Overall, will you improve anything from the actual game? Or just add content?
Our main goal is to add content for sure, meaning 2 new campaigns but also 1 new faction (Dungeon). Other than that, were also fixing issues and bugs still present in the game, but wont improve existing features or add new ones. We know that many players asked us for more improvements but we couldnt do it for a reason that the current engine is not flexible enough to let us changing features, or add new ones (especially Sim Turns and Battle Replays). Indeed, we would have to change the engine architecture to implement such features.
- Will we get a second expansion? What about fan favorite factions like academy or sylvan?
There are currently no plans for a second expansion pack for Heroes VI. But of course, only time will tell.
- Danse Macabre was good because for once you gave us a more mature plot, more sophisticated and less childish. Is this the new tendency or will this stay isolated?
This evolution is indeed intended for the Heroes series. A more mature and sophisticated storytelling, morally ambivalent, inspired by the historical dramas, in which the heroes are men and women of power, leaders of armies and nations. Danse Macabre is a perfect illustration of this trend, a tale of manipulation, deceit and betrayal with a villain as the main protagonist.
That said, with Might & Magic we also have the opportunity to tell different kinds of story, and the Single Player maps or mini-campaigns (like in the Adventure Packs) are ideal occasions to try different tones. Pirates of the Savage Sea, for instance, was a loving pastiche of the sword-and-sorcery genre, with its barbarian hero and crazy cult.
- Why did you introduce new composers alongside King and Romero?
While Rob King and Paul Romero are indeed strongly associated with Might & Magic since the first Heroes, lets not forget there are not the only composers to have worked on the series through time. Before them, great composers like Tim Tully, Masaharu Iwata or Joe Hisaishi (who composed the music for the PC-Engine port of the first Might & Magic) were involved with the franchise. And even after Rob and Paul came onboard, other composers like Jennifer Wang or Steve Bacca contributed to the soundtracks from time to time Also worth mentioning are Cris Velasco and Sascha Dikiciyan, who composed the soundtrack for Dark Messiah, and Sean Lorhish, who created a lot of great melodies for Clash of Heroes.
On Heroes VI, our plan was always to pay tribute to the various composers who worked on the series in recent years, hence the inclusion of themes from Dark Messiah and Clash of Heroes. But during the production of Heroes VI, it also became apparent that conflicting schedules and personal issues would prevent Rob and Paul to compose as much music as was initially planned. So we discussed with them and found a solution: we licensed from them the rights to include some remixes of their previous Might & Magic soundtracks in Heroes VI, and for the rest of the tracks we brought another composer, Jason Graves, on board. Jason also composed the new themes for the Adventure Packs and the Stand-alone add-on.
That doesnt mean we wont work with Rob and Paul again in the future as we truly consider them to be an essential part of the Might & Magic feel.
- Will the new content be implemented into the old campaigns? Will I be able to play haven campaign with more artifact sets and fight against the dark elves as neutrals?
Actually, Shades of Darkness will be based on the design of Heroes VI Vanilla. So it means that artifact sets collected in a campaign cannot be used in other campaigns. Though, all the elements related to your Dynasty (weapons & pets) can be used in all campaigns.
- Will there be an open beta-testing for "Shades of Darkness"?
Organizing an Open Beta-Testing for a game is really a complex process, which requires a lot of time and resources. Moreover, it is really interesting when working on a brand new game (using a new engine) as it helps the dev team to find major issues but also major flaws. As Shades of Darkness is a Standalone Add-On with no major change to the game design, we thought that an open beta testing of the game was not necessary.
However, please note were currently working with VIPs to start balancing the game as good as possible before releasing it to everybody.
- Will we get an improved map editor (with possibilities to put bosses/Dynasty weapons on our map)?
Unfortunately, as stated by Limbic and Ubisoft during Heroes VI Support, it is not possible to improve the Map Editor. Indeed, we would have to create a new Map Editor from scratch in order to provide you an user friendly and accessible tool, which would take a lot of time and resources. We then decided to focus on the expansion content, as our goal is to provide you a brand new faction (with new skills and units) and quality content for the Dungeon faction.
- If I have extra seals from the original game, can I use them to unlock new stuff from the expansion?
Shades of Darkness will be entirely tied to Heroes VI Vanilla, meaning you can access the original content and the new content using the same Executable file. So, it also means that the Dynasty Seals can be used to unlock stuff from the original game and from the expansion.
And a few lore related questions:
- We know that there are multiple Dark Elf Clans. And we know that each one in headed by one of Tuidhana's Children. We know of the Soulscar, the Nightshard and the Shadowbrand clans and we also know that Realag is the head of the Soulscar at first and of the Shadowbrand after he is purified of his demonic taint. Which other clans are there and who lead them?
Shadowbrand, Nightshard and Soulscar are the main clans, and they are usually the ones involved in the big storylines. They are led by Raelag and his brothers, the twins Menan and Sylsai, that youll get to know better in Shades of Darkness. But there are also several smaller clans. For instance, Raelags half-sister Eruina (who also appeared in Heroes V) leads her own clan, far from her brothers courts.
- The game never covered the story of the six demon overlords and their subsequent defeat by the Sovereign. Will this storyline be explored in the future?
This is a story wed love to tell since it is a major turning point for the Demons. It will, however, remains shrouded in mystery for the time being