Day of Reckoning mod – Holiday and New Year Update
No matter how advanced you are, in order to expand your empire by conquest, you need some masses to serve as your lowest soldiers and working hands. Be it for fighting in trenches and dirt, for carrying out scouting missions, or dying as cannon fodder, they need to be loyal to you, even if what you pay them is not much, merely a bit more than what they used to have – in other words, to pay them a negligible price for us, but in return, make them think we’re gods.
And what kind of soldier fits these criteria the best? The filthy goblin! The lives of these scum are marginally better than those of beggars, regardless of whether they live in Deyja or Krewlod, and so just imagine their reaction when we promised something a little bit better than that: a roof assured on their head, some fancy and effective mass-produced weapons to get back at those snows who always put them lowest in the food chain, and a cause that they think fights for their own sake!
It’s just hilarious, especially when you think that they’re not even smart enough to figure out they’re being used. But that is besides my point! Make them infatuated and give them almost as much food as those Erathian peasants eat, and swathes of those already countless goblins will be willing to give their life for you! Talk about strategic thinking!
While not all the creatures of the Palace have been properly revealed yet, we thought it better to showcase something a bit more exciting for the holidays – something which many of you are and have been looking forward to, something which even NWC may have been involved with! To that end, we are proud to present you this:
Grunt and Foot Soldier
The Grunts and Foot Soldiers are the most basic creature you can recruit in the Forge. Sporting new gear and wielding Ancient weaponry, they are quite possibly the best level 1 creature you can recruit from any town. However, their rather low growth, combined with their low starting numbers and slightly higher cost (traits which are seen in all the other Forge units as well) compensate for that fact.
The Visuals
While the E3 Forge town screen was far from being final and from matching NWC’s vision of the faction, some of the creatures did not suffer as much from that. The level 1 creature was virtually finished, the level 2 needed some more work, and the level 3 was obviously work in progress.
Faithful to NWC’s work on that front, the Grunt and Foot Soldiers in Day of Reckoning are practically indistinguishable from the solid design that was shown at E3. The basic creature wields a blaster pistol and a dagger, together with a much fancier and civilized (yet still barbaric) version of their old outfit. They are also shaved, for they are soldiers enlisted in a more “modern” army now.
The Foot Soldier is generally a step-up from his lesser version. He gains shoulder pads and additional defense, as well as a full-fledged blaster rifle. However, he loses his dagger. Not like he was dealing much damage in melee anyway, so the rifle’s metal bed does the job just fine. And true to their rather rough nature, the helmet gains even more “impressive” horns.
One little fun fact is that the “early Grunts” could be seen in Might and Magic VII’s Evil Ending cinematic. There, Kastore and his cronies boot the Heavenly Forge and distribute blasters to goblins, the Forge’s first troops. These goblins also use their actual H3 visuals, and not MM7’s more human-like models, which were meant to look prettier since they were player characters. In fact, earlier versions of MM7 even used the H3 goblin model for all goblins, but that was changed, likely for the aforementioned reason and in order to be able to distinguish the characters.
To wrap it up, this update will unfortunately not contain a creature evolution sheet. The task was rather straightforward: remake the creature shown at E3, so the only evolutions which have taken place were pixel nitpicks and animation tweaks. However, some of the higher tier Forge creatures have undergone various steps and even totally alternative looks during their development, so you can very much look forward to that! And no, we are not talking about anything that was seen before, such as in MDT Forge.
The Lore
Most of us already know the story of their inception, but for those who do not know, in Might and Magic 7, you are able to side with two former parties of adventurers who have crashed on the planet of Enroth: Resurrectra’s, who sided with Bracada, and Kastore’s, who sided with Deyja. If you side with Kastore, you will unlock the Evil ending for the game: Kastore takes over Deyja, and with your help, is able to reboot a Heavenly Forge, an artifact that pre-dates the Silence, from back when Enroth still had technology.
It is a glorified 3D-printer, and he intends to use it to conquer the world by creating a futuristic army. The first to join it are the plentiful goblins, the Grunts and Foot Soldiers, followed by cybernetic zombies and maniacs wielding flamethrowers. But given that the Deyjan goblin population is low, Kastore sets his sights on Krewlod, where he acquires more goblins, but also ogres who can use heavy rocket launchers – something they really enjoy.
Concerning all the blatant sci-fi of the Forge, sci-fi fantasy is actually core to the background lore and plot of both MM and HoMM: in fact, you lead the armies of what’s technically an alien from Enroth’s perspective, in HoMM1! Still, we acknowledge the fact that not all players enjoy this aspect of the game, or that not all maps should feature any sci-fi elements, and so any and all Forge content can be disabled in-game and in the map editor (except for that content which is strictly present on a map, such as in the Forge campaign).
The Concept
Drafted in a rush and with little training, these goblins are not very skilled at marksmanship. In part, this is a nod to the classic, parodical, low-tier enemy troops in various sci-fi movies. The sort of mook who, despite their fancy gear, is unable to land a meaningful hit on the protagonists. In the Star Wars movies, for example, these are represented by the infamous Stormtroopers, who almost never manage to hit their target. They, too, use blasters which fire lasers. Still, the danger that a horde of these goblins can pose is not to be underestimated.
The Grunts and Foot Soldiers being inspired by a movie parody is not the only such occurrence in the Forge: Cyber Dead and Pyros are both inspired by other parodies, as are the Stingers, and, to a lesser extent, the Jump Soldiers, Tanks and Juggernauts. This is a somewhat unique trait of the faction, for it replaces the ”DnD/classic myth creature” design philosophy that is mostly used at the other factions. Still, this affects it only on a meta level, as the fact that its lineup is based on parodies does not break the player’s immersion or the faction’s seriousness, just like the mythological creatures do not do that, either.
Some people might also like this piece of trivia: one of the first versions of this creature, back in 1999, was actually that of a skeleton with a blaster. However, the idea was quickly discarded.
WoG Folder – All HoMM mods, one cloud
