This game is a web-based massively multiplayer strategy game, in the Heroes of Might and Magic world. For the first time Heroes players will fight together, establish empires, rule over land, direct powerful heroes and battle for domination - with thousands of players at the same time !

This game will be played over any kind of browser, and thus requires no download or installation, only an Internet connection. Any sort of machine connected to the web should be able to access it. Whats more, you will only need about 15 minutes a day to play - no need to turn in your social life in exchange for the experience.

The website hommkingdoms.com contains a FAQ which should answer most basic questions. We will start an open beta of this game within two months, with a relatively limited number of players initially. The fans who bought the complete edition will get a priority access key to this beta test.

The game itself is scheduled a launch next spring.

Heroes Kingdoms News

Is it possible to be completely taken out of the game?

No, you cannot be removed from the game; your last city can’t be taken by other players.

How essential is it to join an alliance? Can a player hold his own on his own, or is an alliance more or less required?

You can survive without joining an alliance but you will have to be a wise diplomat. You can choose to be a merchant dealing with your neighbours and build a trustful relationship with them. It could also be fun to play as a mercenary providing your army strength to the players who need it … and who can pay enough! Last example: you can choose to be a spy, expert in scouting, and sell your info to your powerful neighbours.
Those are examples among so many different possibilities. You will be free to find your own way, but be prepared, being alone is tough in Heroes Kingdoms.

What happens when a hero is defeated? You have to rescue them like in homm4 or you have to "rescue" them from the tavern (with a drunkenness of 3 days) like in homm3??

Your hero can be defeated in a lot of different situations:

He fails his scouting
He is defeated on the battlefield
You loose a city with some heroes within
…

There are 3 possibilities for each:

Your hero escapes
Your hero escapes but is wounded so he need healing and won’t be available for a while
Your hero is captured in your enemy jail!

What happens to a hero that's dead (completely defeated)? Or can they die (be completely defeated)?

The worst thing that can happen is for your heroes to be captured, they can’t die.

Now here is an abstract from an interview of Marc Blondeau, creative director on HOMM Kingdoms, from the Might and Magic community newsletter. If you want you receive the next one be sure to tick “Might and Magic” in your profile

“Yaiden: What kind of game is it exactly?

Marc Blondeau: Think of it as a realm that exists in parallel to your own life. You can access it whenever you want as long as you have an internet connection. When you are in this world you lead a kingdom by making decisions based on strategy, tactics, diplomacy, economy and role play, if you want. Basically said, it is a strategy game enhanced with RPG elements, set in a persistant world.”

Update about Heroes Kingdoms

"Will I be able to reinforce my armies during a siege on any given city?"

Yes, you will be able to send reinforcement troops to assist your army during a siege. Indeed, when you choose to siege another player you will be constantly attacked by his new troops being produced from within the city, or from Allies coming to the rescue! If he has another city, he could organise a counterattack to break your siege and force you to retreat, so the need for reinforcements is strategically great.
Sieging another player is a long term task, requiring time and troops. That’s what it takes to conquer your enemies’ cities.

"When will the game end? Will there be a final goal?"

Many of you asked this question but I can’t tell you right now. We have to keep some (good) surprises

"If you have an army in your castle, enemies need to destroy that army (hero) to pillage, right?"

Yes, if your enemy wants to pillage your region he will have to face your army to succeed. That’s why it could be very useful to keep some heroes patrolling your cities. But you manage your strategy and you can choose to let them take some of your resources if you want to avoid assaults from powerful players, or have better plans for your heroes.

"Is every move you make a little fight or do you get the choice of fighting neutral creatures?"

You can move in your region map without fighting but your objective is to pacify your region by freeing your mines and killing all the creatures hidden in your kingdom’s forests.
When your hero is travelling on the world map, from one city to another for instance, he doesn’t have to fight to reach his destination.

"How will heroes level up? When will heroes be able to expand their skills/abilities?"

Each action brings experience to your heroes: fighting NPCs, improve a mine, build a region building, scout your neighbours, etc.
Once you have enough experience, you level up
Level up increases your main attributes depending on your training (13 available): a warmaster will gain a lot of points in attack and defence while a fanatic sorcerer will increase attack and magic values.
Level up also gives you skill points. These skill points will allow you to buy a maximum of 3 careers per hero from 13 different careers like warrior, barbarian, merchant, priest etc…
Each career grants access to a specific list of skills (from 3 to 5 depending on the career). The first time you pick a skill it will cost you 1 XP point and if you want to improve it you will have to spend more XP points. For instance, improve a skill from level 1 to level 2 will cost you 2 XP points. Maximum level is level 3.
The maximum level being 40, each hero will have only 40 points to spend, tough choices ahead!

"Will there be any sort of communication between the developers and the players during the beta?"

That’s already what we’re trying to do. We really want to share information with the community, and it’s my role to give you some news directly from our Dev Team. During the beta, it will be really important for us to pay attention to what you think or how you feel about the game. The purpose of the beta test is not only for detecting and reporting bugs but also to establish a real exchange between the beta testers and the Dev Team; we’re currently thinking about how to do that.

New Heroes Kingdoms FAQ

Will resource mines be upgradeable (L1,L2....higher level greater income) or will they generate a fixed amount of resources?

For sure, the mines will be upgradeable. The resources they will provide each day will depend on their level. You will also have the possibility to “improve” them at a cost but this would be a long term strategic investment.

Will towns be able to generate resources other than gold?

Your cities will only generate gold; you can upgrade your village hall to increase your income.

How many level upgrades will be possible for the town hall?

Four “town halls” will be available: Village hall (at start), Town hall, City Hall and Capital.

Will resources be "global" (at the level of whole empire) or managed in every town independently?

You will have to manage resources in each city independently but you will be able to exchange between them through caravans, so you can choose to develop some of you cities faster. As usual it’s all about strategy.

Will you be able to "raid" opponent’s towns or to conquer them? Or maybe both? Please explain.

You will be able to “pillage” your enemies/neighbours to get extra resources and decrease, temporally, their income, or “attack” only their troops/region to weaken their defence by directly damaging their army.

Moreover, you can choose to conquer your neighbour’s city by launching a “siege” on it. It will take several days; require many troops and a lot of strategy to choose the right moment to attack. Some special units like Catapults and Ballista are dedicated to this task; it will allow you to bombard your opponent during a siege.

You will also have the possibility to leave the siege and abandon your attempt if you feel the risks are too high (or an entire alliance is getting upset about it!).

Finally, if you are under siege within an alliance, your team-mates could try to “break the siege” and push the invader back.

All these interactions between players will bring you a lot of fun. Some alliance could stay peaceful dealing only with the marketplace while some other will engage in epic battles!

Heroes Kingdoms FAQ

“Will this game be completely free?”

You can play the game for free as long as you want! You can build your city, hire heroes, play every feature, form alliances with other players and enjoy the game. However if you want to develop your kingdom without any limits, enter the rankings and be a part of the story, you will have to subscribe to HOMM Kingdoms at a small cost.
One of our main objectives is to ensure the game is balanced, that is why we don’t plan to include any item selling system or any other buyable features / specific skills.

“There are a lot of free web games, so standing out will be hard. What makes this game different and stand our from the others?”

HOMM Kingdoms is not a mini game, it’s a real web based MMO. You can take a look at the graphics to have an idea of the quality level we want to establish in terms of visuals.
Concerning the gameplay, the game is deep and offers three different gameplay types depending on the way you like to play (more details to come ).

“I hope no there is no activex, cuz a lot of people use Mozilla Firefox.”

HOMM works perfect with Firefox. We don’t use ActiveX or Flash but purely Javascript and AJAX.

“Will it be translated into several languages?”

The game will be available in several languages: English, French, Italian, Spanish and German. We are looking into the possibility to implementing additional languages.

“How much similar to the old HoMM gameplay will this game be?”
“Will this game be a sort of Heroes 3 online, or will it resemble H5 more?”

Heroes Kingdoms uses Heroes 5 visuals and the well-known Heroes gameplay. We will be releasing more details each week until the launch of the Beta.

“When you create a province in HOMM kingdoms will you be placed at random location or will you be able to play with friends as a "gang of provinces"”

Interaction between players is an important aspect of the game so you will have the choice. You can choose to be placed randomly on the map or join your friends. If you want to join your friends’ alliance or simply appear next to someone, you just have to enter their name to be placed near them.

“Can players create alliances, clans or guilds? If yes - what about multi-race alliances?”

You will be able to create multi-race alliances. It allows you to choose the race you want to play and join any alliance. I’ve seen that some of you have already started to create guilds; it’s a great way to team up with your friends and work together to be the best!

Cheers!