So with that in mind, it wasn't hard to find 26 reasons in the official developer notes how HOMMK will be better than them all.
- Classic HOMM gameplay
- Strategy depth: All the foundational concepts that made HOMM a strategy classic are present, including six unique factions (Haven, Inferno, Necropolis, Dungeon, Academy, and Sylvan); seven different types of troop per faction; troop stacks, special skills and two levels of upgrade; daily troop production in the cities; the fight for control of six different types of resources; hero modifiers affecting troop and combat strength and abilities; cities with four levels of upgrade and many different building options; and the same quality production values that made HOMMV so pretty.
- RPG development: Armies will be lead to victory by Heroes who can gain experience and combat skills, equip weapons and artifacts, and learn from a variety of different schools of magic.
- Mixed skills: Players will be able to hire multiple heroes, each with individual careers and skill trees and specialized as magic users, fighters, city builders, map explorers and troop transporters, defenders, etc., and requiring a good mix of various specialties to achieve success.
- Conquest: Sieges allow you to conquer the cities of competing players to expand your control of territory.
- Alliances
- Player alliances can include a mix of all the races, making the composition of the alliance a strategic question. A pure alliance of Necromancers might be strongest in combat but weak strategically because all the alliance members are competing for the same key resource.
- Alliance members can help break sieges against their friends by counter-attacking the sieging army directly at the sight of the siege.
- Players can chose to start the game located next to friends or as a member of an alliance to make meaningful collaboration possible.
- Alliances can work together to dominate a continual territory that will block the passage of opponents and control strategic resources, creature buildings, and city bonuses.
- Borders will be important: players crossing enemy territory must "rest" at times, leaving them vulnerable to attack. As a result, it will be important to control territory to keep your alliance intact -- and to extort money from other players!
- Limits: the size of alliances will be capped to balance the game and encourage fair competition. Ubi has also hinted that there will be some kind of anti-collusion system if a few alliances try to conspire with one another.
- Innovative Interface and Functionality
- A global timeline system tracks events and allows you to queue actions, making it easy to coordinate troop movements, unit recruitment, building times and long-term goals.
- The timeline can also be manipulated by spending more or less resources. If a player doesn't login until the evening, he can save resources by allowing buildings more time to complete -- or spend more resources for them to complete more rapidly.
- In-game live chat and email system.
- A scouting system will be implemented which requires regular patrols and map exploration.
- There seems to be a fog of war system where territory is invisible until explored.
- A global acution house for trading resources and artifacts with other players.
- Market system: controlling much of one resource can turn you into a dominant economic profiteer through the advanced market and trade system, which is also effected by "seasons" as well as supply and demand.
- HOMM:Kingdoms is entirely coded in Ajax and Java, meaning it should be open to custom player mods as well as playable on mobile platforms using standard web browsers.
- Combat model
- Combat requires that you predetermine which specific units will go head-to-head with others and closely predict how each round will turn out. This, along with a paper-rock-scissors relationship between cavalry, ranged and infantry attacks make each battle interesting.
- Combat won't be a simple mathematical calculation, but depend on hero troop modifiers, artifacts, scheduling hero spells, army power, unit category, defensive buildings and the order of troop deployment.
- Depending on how well he fought, a defeated hero will only lose a portion of his troops to a maximum of around 30%. This will protect players from a single "knock-out" defeat at the hands of much stronger opponents, as well as encouraging the player to try and do their best in every combat.
- "Assassinations" (Captures): Defeated heroes can be captured by their enemies. Because heroes influence unit development and abilities, as well as provide production bonuses to cities, a few well placed assassinations could seriously weaken an opponents empire.
- Heroes who have been captured can either be released for a bounty or rescued through invasion!
- Egalitarian subscription model
- Unlike many web-based games, HOMM:K will give no benefit to players who pay to play. Instead, subscribers will get access to additional functionality outside of the game itself, such as a competitive ranking system and some kind of "story" system. This makes all of the game available to all of the players, making it more equal and fun. As the developers themselves have said: "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."
- According to the developers, additional features for players who pay include the ability to "develop your kingdom without any limits, enter the rankings and be a part of the story."
- No real money or micro-transactions that let rich people cheat by buying resources, buildings, artifacts or troops!
