The admin over at HOMM fan-site Elrath.com found a leaked beta of the HOMM5 Map Editor on a torrent site a few days ago, and has made the files available on his site. I downloaded it and it works if you merge the editor /bin folder into the main HOMM5 /bin folder.

Frankly, I’m not so sure how “leaked” this is. Elrath has had it on his site for a week, and has provided a link to the files from the official Ubi HOMM5 forums. Ubi has done nothing about either. They have also been consistently releasing betas of their products for testing and feedback. So have at it I say. But to maintain that feeling of being l33t hax0rz, I’ve provided a shaddy cell phone screen capture below. ZOMG!

The editor isn’t too cumbersome to use, but for most will take some getting used to before you can turn out anything good. It also allows you to modify existing maps as a teaching tool or template for your own. I only monkeyed around with it for a few minutes, but it seemed to give you control over everything from AI behaviour to which “days of the week” can pop-up. I expect some truly great player-made maps will begin appearing within the next few weeks.

CodeWeavers today released the beta of CrossOver for OSX, a clever piece of software that allows Windows apps to run directly in OSX as a “native application” and without having to install or run Windows itself. Very fancy.

The problem is that programs usually need a little tweaking to run properly. Case in point: HOMM5. Even though it isn’t on CodeWeavers list of officially supported software, I decided to give it a shot. After 18 years of Mac use it was absolutely bizarre to see Windows install dialogue boxes actually running within OSX. “Freakish” would be the word, and probably “unimaginable” too. Even more freakish and unimaginable was the seamlessness of the whole process. Set-up and installation was very easy, and no configuration was required. Unfortunately, HOMM5 doesn’t actually run at all. It starts to initialize through CrossOver, then nothing happens. Bad news for me; good news for Freeverse?

Anyone have better luck? And has anyone tried HOMM5 in Parallels, our modern-day VirtualPC replacement?

Update: Gamer Aika in the InsideMacGames.com CrossOver discussion thread confirms that neither HOMM2 Gold or HOMM3 run either. Odd that, consider HOMM2 is listed as supported. *shrugs*

Update #2: Turns out that CrossOver will NOT work with games that use CD copy protection, a la HOMM5. *SIGH* Just another example of how game companies punish their good customers. Anyone know of a crack? Since I’ve already paid for the game I certainly don’t feel to guilty about using one.

… that you will be spending more money soon. For today in the official forums Fabrice the Wonder Producer struck a thunderous chord with the announcement of Hammers of Fate, the first (of many?) HOMM5 expansion packs. And somewhat surprisingly, the software is slated for a release as early as November 2006.

Frankly, my magic 8-ball of Mac HOMM is getting exhausted! The Freeverse port was promised by December, but now the first PC expansion will be shipping prior. Could this mean Mac gamers will get a double-whammy super release of the core and expansion game as separate products? Probably not! The expansion is said to include extra software such as the much ballyhooed Random Map Generator, which would require additional porting. Then again, we don’t know if Freeverse is going to go with Cider for the port, in which case it might be trivial to make a Mac version available. At this point, it is just impossible to tell and all this speculation is getting out of hand. Perhaps its time for Colin at Freeverse to grant us Interview #3?

Anyway, here is what Fabrice revealed about the expansion:

• 15 campaign missions, new solo and new MP maps, new buildings, artefacts, neutrals, etc.
• Random map generator
• Simultaneous turn in multi-player
• An enhanced version of the map editor set to be released in 1.3, but which will also be delivered online for free
• A caravan system for the automated delivery of troops to distant heroes

Pretty hot stuff actually, with the random map generator probably the biggest surprise. When HOMM5 made the leap to full 3D, the common wisdom was that it would be impossible to create a map generator of the type found in 2D, tile-based games because the geometry and context is too complicated. So much for that theory.

I also like the theme of the expansion: dwarves. Wouldn’t be high fantasy without those grizzled mini-Scottsmen wandering around spreading cynicism and folksy wisdom and jokes about big dark holes. The new character designs are full of character and truly outstanding.

More pics are available at PC.IGN.com.

Good lord, how many paradigm-shifting announcements can Mac gamers handle? Just when we were getting used to the idea of Parallels and Crossover virtualization and dual-booting as the new standard practice of Mac gamers, InsideMacGames.com reports on Cider, “a software portability engine for Apple’s Intel-based Macs… [that allows] video game developers and publishers to deploy their Windows-based titles on Apple’s new Intel Mac - quickly, easily, and without the need for traditional porting.”

Lets give this announcement the credit its due with a hearty and sincere holy shit. Now, lets think of all the concepts exploding in our Mac-gaming heads: BootCamp gaming; dual-booting; the $200 I spent for a copy of WinXP; the certain death of the entire Mac porting industry.

This means, on the one hand, that Mac gamers will be able to walk into the same stores as everyone else and find hybrid versions of their games, like Blizzard has always done. Thus, the biggest barrier to Mac gaming — availability, distribution, and shelf-space — has been effectively solved.

But is this really the silver bullet for Mac gaming nirvana? Probably not.

The Mac gaming market is still incredibly fractured, bedeviled by rampant piracy, and slow to grow. All the Cider announcement will do, at best, is broaden the concept of what “mainstream” games are big enough to warrant a Mac “version” by lowering the cost of entry. That is because Cider replaces the long and tedious work of porting with a simple “wrapper” that can be implemented in just a few hours or days. But Cider only accounts for the technical costs of bringing a game to the Mac. The wrapper still needs to be liscenced and implemented by gaming companies, which will then have to offer technical support the “Mac version” of their game, market it separately to Mac gamers, make sure their disks are cross-platformable, and share their revenue with Cider. So even though it now becomes a lot cheaper to bring a game to the Mac from a technical perspective, a lot of companies will still not want to invest in the additional “to-market costs” given the very real risk and with only a moderate chance of profitability.

What also won’t change is the availability of homebrew, shareware, and small-developer titles where a lot of the innovative experiments are occurring. Cider makes its money by taking a cut of the revenues a game generates. They will probably not be interested in working with a small developer who might sell only 1000 units or less. In fact, when I sent them an email posing as a developer and asking exactly this same question, they completely ignored me. So for aficionados of the indy gaming scene, dual-booting will probably remain your only viable option unless virtualization technologies like Parallels or Crossover prove to be broadly capable.

Why do game companies penalize their good customers with incredibly annoying copy protection schemes? I’m sitting at home this evening unable to play HOMMV because I forgot the Disc 1 CD at my office. This kind of stupidity is nothing less than an incentive to crack / pirate the game. If i had just stolen the game I would not only be playing it right now, but I would also be $60 richer. It’s a ludicrous situation that completely defies logic.

I’m happy that Ubi dumped the equally as moronic StarForce, but surely there is a better solution than the stupidity that is dragging CD media around with you at all times. Perhaps a one-time online registration process? Maybe a bi-weekly or once-monthly CD check, or an alternative online passcode check? I’m not being paid to think about this stuff but someone is, and by God they should come up with something better than telling a paying customer to go fuck himself for having done the right thing.

Maybe I’ve been spoiled as a Mac user, where it is quite easy (and fairly reliable) to create a disk-image that fools the OS into believing physical media is present. But guess what: it never stopped me from buying a game, especially as a laptop gamer. Perhaps companies should take a page out of the Galactic Civilizations 2 corporate playbook, where developer Stardock’s bold decision to purposely distribute the game online and without copy protection has helped make it a sales hit.

Freeverse VP Colin Smith dialed the HOMM•V for OSX! hotline yesterday with an update on the OSX port:

We now have the GM Source and have started work. It won’t be an easy port, it’s looking like there are a few complicated issues, (most of which go over my head since I’m not a coder), but we’ll get it done! No time estimate yet it’s still too early in the process.

Colin also mentioned that their working relationship with Ubi has been smooth sailing, and describes the HOMM•V producer / mastermind Fabrice as “very pleasant and accommodating to work with.” Hopefully this will mean that there will be no trouble keeping the OSX version in lock-step with developments on the PC-side.

Speaking of which, Fabrice recently promised in this thread over at CelestialHeavens.com (as his alter-ego MuadDib) that HOMM•V would be getting regular content updates. The first patch is scheduled to be released within the next week or two, and will be including both a random map generator for single-map open-ended playing and a new easy AI difficulty setting in response to complaints that some campaign scenarios are too difficult. Another content patch in the coming months will include the map and scenario editor as well as additional maps designed by Ubi. Hopefully by the time the OSX port is near release it will beable to incorporate all these additions and patches into one seamlessly lovely product.

Fabrice also responded to some early complaints about the lacking “intelligence” aspect of the computer “Artificial Intelligence”. He noted that AI was “developed late in the process” (not very intelligent if you ask me) but that “the result is quite good… It’s a pretty efficient attacker”. He then went on to assure HOMM•V gamers that any deficiencies in the AI would be addressed in future content patches. This is reassuring given that HOMMV gamers were pretty much abandoned by 3DO when the AI in HOMM4 proved mostly useless.

I sadly still don’t have my copy yet (should have pre-ordered >.< ) but hope to provide some serious play impressions over the weekend. In the mean time, you can read why Gamespot game HOMMV an 8.2 in its mostly glossy, fatuous, descriptive and air-headed review.

Looks like I should have pre-ordered online as my local shop won’t have HOMMV until May 23rd. *Sniffle* At least let me know if you’ve got your copy and how she plays, as well as your general impressions. There is some rumbling in the wider world that the AI is not quite up to the challenge of beating veteran players of the franchise.