Official wish list for King's Bounty 2

[onepiece]

Originally Posted by Dwagginz

No no no no no no no no no no!

The number of these types of game are tiny, we don't need one publisher to own two of them as there'd be no competition.

I meant that since Ubisoft is the owner of Heroes and since they have been staggering as of late, maybe they would like to do a game that while not been as "popular" as Heroes, is way better and faster (they will need to get rid of all the amount of text though)

Since when is KB competition against Heroes? Is not as if KB is so marketed against it in the first place. The fact that they are similar doesn't mean they are competing and make the genre evolve.

EDIT: Better to have 1 good quality game than 2 bad games (not that CW was bad but it lacked the quality and quantity of the previous installment (way to edition of the year)). And is not as if KB2 is gonna come soon from Katauri or 1C since they re busy with Royal Quest (until 2013 there won't be a new KB game)

[Dwagginz]

King's Bounty is, as mentioned above, one of three "major" franchises in this niche genre. Ubisoft have HoMM/MMH, 1C/Katauri have KB and Akella (I think) have Disciples. If 1C/Katauri wants to "beat" Ubisoft, they have to innovate. In return, Ubisoft have to innovate to beat KB. Even if KB isn't directly going after HoMM/MMH's sales, it is still a competing IP.

Ubisoft have been "staggering", as you put it, because they've done it to themselves. They don't put out many titles worth caring about, they alienated their PC userbase (Arguably their biggest) with their absolutely appalling DRM measures, and they seem happy to refresh the same IP again and again. Silent Hunter is on #5, Settlers are on #7, Assassin's Creed is on #3, Prince of Persia has had 5 or so titles since the days of the PS2/Gamecube and so on. They don't put anything out that's really worth buying.

[onepiece]

Yep but the principal problem with KB is the way is marketed. Did you see some big previews on important sites for KB? Some big trailer or videos? A big marketing campaign and a lot of advertising everywhere?
Today games that make money are: way more marketed than produced (in terms of amount of cash expended) or extremely addictive (KB falls in this category, at least for us in the forum). Maybe Katauri or 1C don't have enough to market it at world wide scale but if they want to make it bigger, they should associate with a big western publisher.


I still don't think that KB is competition against HoMM (competition to me is more like Call of Duty versus Medal of Honor, or WoW vs Conan, Warhammer, Aion, Lineage, etc.). It's true that HoMM and KB are similar but the market they are aimed is different, therefore I don't think they are competing even though the IP are very similar.

It's true that Ubi has made a lot of refreshments to their franchises but even KB has made that to an extent (CW is more of a refinement over AP and even so lacks the innovations that made AP great; it's way too edition of the year)

Of course I would prefer if Katauri made a sequel to KB, but as it doesn't seem to be happening anytime soon, maybe a new developer could do it and try the new things we keep asking for?
Even if the game would be bad, we could play the old games (the problem would be the damage to the brand )

[markgil]

maybe they just ran out of idea's for KB and wanted to try something new. i only hope H6 will be good unlike H4 & 5 and that the MMO doesnt tank badly enough that they will never be able to do a KB2. it would also be nice if I2 would announce warlords 5 & warlords battlecry 4 and quit with the puzzle games already!

[KarlosCV]

As for possible older alternatives we can resort to - anyone knows this:

http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/age_o...s_shadow_magic

They've just rolled it out on GOG and it has enthusiastic reviews.

[RichardTyler]

I thought I'd post my 2c.

At first I wanted to make a long list. Eventually I decided to point out just the most crucial issues, the way I see it. (I tried to sort them in the order of importance)

1. Correct English
Unfortunately KB games were written in a very poor English and I wonder why so few people have pointed it out. It's not only grammar (although some of the grammar mistakes are just sooo ugly), but the whole linguistic approach is non-Aglo-Saxon. It's Slav. To me it's on the edge of acceptance. You can't release a game with such language errors! This is absolutely crucial. So perhaps making sure that the next KB is written in a proper English would be good.

2. Storyline
This is more individual and might be just me. I see KB storyline as a very simple one, too simple. And too flat. I understand that the entire concept of KB involves a nice, warm and kinda sunny ambience, but still the storyline could definiately be enriched. It's not only KB, I think a lot of the computer games lack a lot in the storyline department.
Come up with some 3D characters, add some story arch, add more conflict. In other words make it more epic. Additionaly taking the KB's charm, perhaps introducing some romance plot/plots wouldn't hurt.

3. Inventory
I see nobody's mentioned this. Inventory management is terrible. Consider implementing folders and give players a possibility to arrange the items by putting them in different folders (or they might be bags instead of folders). With an option to name the folders. So you could have a folder "boots" or "female robes" or "my items" or "useless junk" etc etc.

4. Lack of 'farming'
Sometimes I would find myself stuck, as I didn't have enemies on my current level. I had to travel much looking for a match. I was surprised that there had not been any 'farming' spots in the game. I mean enemies that respawn, so you can fight them again and again untill your skills increase.

5. Game balancing issues
I think it was mentioned already and some people seem to consider it to be serious. To me, it's a minor flaw and the game is playable, although I must admit I was stuck in a few places and had troubles moving on. (see my comment on the lack of farming)

6. Items balancing issues
To me items are imbalanced. I couldn't gather a single set. Some items seems overpowered to me, while others are plain junk. This is not a major thing, but improving it would add to the game.
Maybe once in a while a selection of merchandise in shops could change, giving player more variety.

7. Lack of maps
Some areas don't have maps, especially the dungeons.

[jake21]

age of wonders have a very good following and there are some great scenario @ aow.heavengames.com. Most of them require the fan made patch4 which is quite good. However the graphics are dated and there have been a few complaints about the ai at higher competitive levels (I've always found the ai to be ok; not exceptional but ok esp with the fan made scenarios which are much better than the campaign which is a bit lame).

My biggest beef with the game today is the graphics; I just have a bit of issue picking out fine details in games like aow2, avernum 6 and divine divinity on larger monitors. (I mention the other two games which have similar graphics in case you have played any of them). Anyways of the turn based fantasy games aow-sm is my favorite - head and shoulders above disciples and heroes of magic series but it is a different type of game (imho) than KB series.

Originally Posted by KarlosCV

As for possible older alternatives we can resort to - anyone knows this:

http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/age_o...s_shadow_magic

They've just rolled it out on GOG and it has enthusiastic reviews.

[onepiece]

RichardTyler; I agree with most of your opinions (good this thing need a good inventory sorting/viewing option!!) but I disagree with the 'farming' one. The game doesn't have it because you have to use what little it gives you (yep; enemies are here to make you stronger not to resurrect like crazy).

The farming one would allow any difficulty to be just too easy although I agree that a certain amount of farming could be allowed (come units of your level could resurrect so to get new levels)

Most of the sets are not that hard to use (of course don't try to get the 4-5 item sets, but the 2-3 sets are very possible to obtain). Some items are to bad because they are meant to be used at the beginning and to have a little options at the start and don't feel 'naked'.

The maps in the dungeons could be nice, although they are not that big to get lost.

Instead of farming I propose a dynamic difficulty (you can change difficulty any time and the change doesn't affect your items(units(etc.). The enemies and amount of exp changes so to adapt to the desired level of difficulty. Of course you would get the nickname "Amelie, the weak minded" XD.

I think the story is simple because almost no one cares about it (although the first one was very funny with a little Diskworld XD). Is true that they could do a less generic story or more complex and developed (a world that was changing as you progressed) but we'll leave that for the next game XD (maybe WE SHOULD write the story?)