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| Thread: Hero portraits |  This thread is pages long: 1 2 3 4 · NEXT» |
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Tetsumonkai
Hired Hero
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posted July 28, 2011 03:14 AM |
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Hero portraits
Hey! I've been trying to put a finger on what is different with the old school (h2-3) portraits and the new ones (h5-6).
Just want to check with you guys if you agree or disagree with me on this one.
As far as i can tell the older portraits feel more like they are drawn, based of what people who might have seen this hero ride into battle have said about this particular hero (therefor the grand portraits like for example: solmyr, moandor etc).
Meanwhile the newer games seem to think of the portraits, just as that: a portrait. More in the style of "someone made a painting of this hero one day in the castle".
I just think therefor the new portraits lack personality.
What are youre opinions on this matter? does it matter to you?
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Avirosb
Promising
Legendary Hero
No longer on vacation
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posted July 28, 2011 03:48 AM |
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Edited by Avirosb at 07:47, 28 Jul 2011.
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It does bother me (H6, H5 not so much) but right now I'm gonna follow this site's advice about getting some sleep. I'll post a more coherent response later.
EDIT:
   
    
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Elvin
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Endless Revival
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posted July 28, 2011 07:33 AM |
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A few things from the past may have looked that way but it wasn't exactly common practice, most were merely portraits as they are now. And frankly? This is the first time I am satisfied by the work on the portraits since H2 and H3.
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H5 is still alive and kicking, join us in the Duel Map discord server!
Map also hosted on Moddb
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Dave_Jame
Promising
Legendary Hero
I'm Faceless, not Brainless.
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posted July 28, 2011 08:36 AM |
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Quote:
Actually this is very disturbing, copy-pased Heroes bodies just steal the feeling and uniqueness of the individual heroes.
Why take the time to create a background story if you plan to destroy it this way. Personaly I think The Heroes V portraits are much superior to these.
And to point it out even more... MY rank of heroes Portraits
1st place, Heroes 1 and 2 (Why? they were large and recognizable and hand drawn)
2nd place, Heroes 5 (Why? The heroes portraits shared the same gray background, but were large enought and even similar heroes Like Zoltan and Raven were distinguishable)
3rd place, Heroes 3 (Why? Even thou they unique portraits and background, thay are to small, and most of them does not stand out)
4th place, Heroes 4 and 6 (Why? Both games have small icons and each faction shares a common single colored background. Heroes 6 does have the icons a little bit larger, but on the odther hand, Heroes 4 lacks the "Copied torso" problem as highlited above)
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I'm just a Mirror of your self.
We see, we look, we gather, we store, we teach.
We are many, and you can be one of us.
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adriancat
Famous Hero
Protector Of The Peace
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posted July 28, 2011 09:17 AM |
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As long as you can see the hero's face it doesn't matter anything else.Smaller things come from the advanced graphics of the game.The game is supported on Shader Model 3.0 or above and this maked the things smaller.
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Elvin
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Endless Revival
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posted July 28, 2011 09:24 AM |
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Edited by Elvin at 09:24, 28 Jul 2011.
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Ah yes, the copy pasted ones suck..
Wait.. Is that..?
OMG SPOILERS! Another fallen to the lure of the dark side after promises of delicious cookies and dark chocolate 
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H5 is still alive and kicking, join us in the Duel Map discord server!
Map also hosted on Moddb
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Nirual
Famous Hero
Imbued Ballista
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posted July 28, 2011 10:57 AM |
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The H6 portraits, particularly for normal heroes, are all very samey for each faction. H5 had a lot more variety, from wider selection of hair and eye colors to more creature-inspired looks like ghostly necromancers and dschinn wizards.
Doesn't help that the icons are fairly small in comparison, and instead we have an ugly 3D-model in the character window.
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In ur base killing ur doods... and raising them as undeads.
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Cepheus
Honorable
Legendary Hero
Far-flung Keeper
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posted July 28, 2011 01:08 PM |
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I do really like the general style of the H6 portraits, considering there is more work put into most of them than the H3 photoshoppings and those things in H4, but there are some things which bring them down: the celebrity copypasta, different heads on the same bodies, lack of backgrounds, the unnecessary colour coding, waay too many humans...
If the artists had had a little more time I think most of these issues would've been avoided. However, I do think that, given the circumstances, they are the best in the series - discounting H1 and 2's portraits, almost all of which were pasted from MM3-5.
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"Those who forget their history are inevitably doomed to repeat it." —Proverb, Might and Magic VIII
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alcibiades
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
of Gold Dragons
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posted July 28, 2011 01:20 PM |
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I like the fact that the new Heroes actually look like people. Most of the Heroes in H3 and H5 I didn't even want to play with, because they just looked like an ugly ... something, which I couldn't really relate to.
That being said, I don't mind different creatures occuring as Heroes (Djinns, Succubi, Minotaurs, etc.) as long as they look like you would suspect actual such creatures would - i.e. not have lightning or other weird effects coming out of their eyes (Darkstorm H3, Neela H3, Marius H3, Galib H5, just to name a few) or just have a general WTF appearance (most H5 Inferno for instance).
As for the whole celebrity thing - while it was a bit like catching them with their pants down, I didn't really mind too much - I think some of them actually looked excellent (Kylie as Deleb was wicked!), and I think that was what mattered in the end. I'm afraid we'll just have bad quality replacements now.
So yeah, a little bit more variation instead of just copy/paste with slightly different skin colour, hair colour and/or length would be nice.
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What will happen now?
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Avirosb
Promising
Legendary Hero
No longer on vacation
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posted July 28, 2011 01:36 PM |
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Edited by Avirosb at 13:46, 28 Jul 2011.
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Quote:
They are the best in the series
With all due respect, I beg to differ.
Nearly all of the portraits seem "lifeless" by comparison. They may look great, but they reeealy lack personality.
I'd pick H3's photoshoppings over H5's face-tracing anyday.
The collective range of emotions can be summsarized into four distinct collections:
- Scowling angrily at the photographer.
- I farted, but I managed to put the blame on the guy behind me. Teehee.
- What's that over there in the horizon?
- ._.
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Cepheus
Honorable
Legendary Hero
Far-flung Keeper
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posted July 28, 2011 02:30 PM |
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Well, quite true, it would've been nice to see more varied emotion. The only one throwing back his head and cackling like a Saturday morning cartoon villain is Moander.
Like I said, they have their glaring flaws, but I suppose the storyline is supposed to be a family tragedy after all, so it's at least somewhat understandable why the artists veered more strongly towards Arcanum than the Looney Tunes.
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"Those who forget their history are inevitably doomed to repeat it." —Proverb, Might and Magic VIII
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Avirosb
Promising
Legendary Hero
No longer on vacation
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posted July 28, 2011 03:09 PM |
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The Arcanum heroes clashes somewhat with the Fisher-Price aesthetics of the town screens tho.
They could have molded H1 heroes in clay, instead.
It would have made things a little more consistent, IMO.
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Dave_Jame
Promising
Legendary Hero
I'm Faceless, not Brainless.
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posted July 28, 2011 03:54 PM |
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Wow. Did not imagine that H5 Portraits were so unpopular
I Know They do not look like photos, but they are suppose to look drawn.
If you ask Me. the WTF effect of some factions like Inferno, Stronghold or necromancers are appropriate. I want my demon to look like something twisted from depths of Hell. I want My orc to look like a mutant, and I want my necromancers to look dead.
In comparison to H6, H4 and most of the pictures in H3 they have character.
I do belive that when I say names like Naadir, Deirdre, Nur, Lethos, Inge or Kragh and image i pops up in your head will
I have playd H3 more then H5, but still I would barely remember a bunch of heroes from it, that are not connected to campaigne.
They might not be realistic, but this is a Fantasy game, a game where an archer wears an eagle miniature on his had and a Ghoul has so many hooks on his body, that it is a miracle that he does not cath him self in them.
And let us not forget. In heroes 1,2,3 and 5 the heroes looked like individuals. Strong personalities that often do not represent the player, but them selves. They had something in common, but still looked unique. I see very few unique heroes when I look at the H6 lineup.
In the older games, you could actually look at there portraits and think, who is he? What is his place, his story. Why him? Why is he a general when there are so many knights around the land. The Heroes 6 ones lack this charm, this feeling. There are no scars in their faces, no experience in their eyes. They look like they just gathered a bunch of random nobles and said "Yes you are the chosen one"
Pleas look into the Eyes of these heroes. Do not talk, just feel there charm.
 
 
 
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I'm just a Mirror of your self.
We see, we look, we gather, we store, we teach.
We are many, and you can be one of us.
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don_komandorr
Known Hero
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posted July 28, 2011 04:26 PM |
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Just don't forget that this cloned heroes are only Haven/Necropolis problem.
Orks, Demons and lesser Nagas have uncial portraits, no similarity in them.
And, So beloved H3 has a lot of heroes-clones too, especially Dungeon with the same Troglodyte hero and the same Minotaur hero for all.
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alcibiades
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
of Gold Dragons
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posted July 28, 2011 04:36 PM |
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I think Heroes 5 Academy did extremely well in having a varied set of hero portraits that each had a very distinct feeling and yet had a common style. My only gripe were the two Djinn heroes, who looked unnecesarily strange in my oppinion - as if the blue skin didn't pin-point them as Djinns, they also had to have all kind of different lightning effects around them.
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What will happen now?
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Avirosb
Promising
Legendary Hero
No longer on vacation
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posted July 28, 2011 05:13 PM |
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Edited by Avirosb at 17:15, 28 Jul 2011.
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Well, they are magical.
Here are some pictures, for comparison purposes only  :
Adelaide (III-VI)
  
Atlas (I-VI)
  
Ciele (III-VI)
 
Deleb (V-VI)
 
Erica (Fade?)(IV-VI)
 
Jeddite (III-VI)
 
Kalindra (II-VI)
 
Kaspar (V-VI)
 
Kha-Beleth (V-VI)
 
Lord Haart (I-VI)
   
Lord Kilburn (I-VI)
  
Luna (I-VI, seemingly a popular name)
    
Maximus (I-VI)
  
Moander (III-VI)
  
Nebiros (V-VI)
 
Nymus (III-VI)
 
Raelag (V-VI)
 
Shiva (IV-VI)
 
Tazar (III-VI)
  
Veyer (V-VI)
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Cepheus
Honorable
Legendary Hero
Far-flung Keeper
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posted July 28, 2011 05:18 PM |
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Edited by Cepheus at 17:20, 28 Jul 2011.
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Quote:
The Arcanum heroes clashes somewhat with the Fisher-Price aesthetics of the town screens tho.
Yes, I couldn't agree more, but I dislike the art style of the H6 interface and want it to be changed. And of course the town screens require no comment.
Quote:
Erica (Fade?)(IV-VI)
Not Erica Fade but Flamestryke.
Quote:
Luna (I-VI, seemingly a popular name)
Nope, same character until VI.
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"Those who forget their history are inevitably doomed to repeat it." —Proverb, Might and Magic VIII
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Avirosb
Promising
Legendary Hero
No longer on vacation
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posted July 28, 2011 05:38 PM |
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Not Erica Fade but Flamestryke.
Not the most flattering tribute, but a tribute nonetheless.
Quote:
Nope, same character until VI.
Huh... Would you care to explain a little further?
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The_Polyglot
Promising
Supreme Hero
channeling capybara energy
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posted July 28, 2011 05:42 PM |
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Quote:
... And of course the town screens require no additional comment.
...
Fixed.  The portraits look decent this time around, and I'm sure the itsy-bitsy repetitiveness of some of the Heroes will have been addressed by the game's release. The Sanctuary ones are particularly well done.
[/mytwocents]
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Friend-shaped
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Cepheus
Honorable
Legendary Hero
Far-flung Keeper
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posted July 28, 2011 05:46 PM |
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Quote:
Huh... Would you care to explain a little further?
Her portraits are totally different, but her hero biographies indicate that it's the same person. There is a deleted text in one H3 mission explaining that some of the Sorceresses of Enroth can magically change their appearance at will.
It's a pity they haven't revealed the full-res version of H6 Luna. The cropping hides it, but she's holding an apple in her hand just like in H1.
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"Those who forget their history are inevitably doomed to repeat it." —Proverb, Might and Magic VIII
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