A Heroes V Proposal for Ubisoft - Unique Heroes: First of all, make heroes race-based (I hate to see humans in each town!). Each race should have certain advantages (skill bonuses, attack, defense, speed etc).

Race-based heroes could have creature abilities, like Thief (Chaos might hero) shared his Stealth ability with Bandit (Chaos creature). Vampire heroes could drain life (suck blood) or strike enemies without retaliation. Human Knights could have jousting bonus, or maximum morale, or first strike, or stun ability, or undead protection. Dark Elf Assassins could have trail of darkness, or poison attack, or seduce ability and so on. Imagine a dragon hero with fire breath! (please scroll to the right to see the picture!)

Give us unique heroes within races. In Heroes III, each hero had a unique specialty. However, a large number were useless or I did not care for most of them. The WoG team introduced specialties like Builder and Darkness in addition to already existing ones (Hopefully, we will see some more in the upcoming 3.58 patch).

There are a lot of other skills that have never appeared in the series before. Think of less abstract yet useful adventure abilities: web, tame, barter, steal, ambush etc.

The current WoG list of Blesses and Curses may be helpful.

Each hero should also have a unique disorder. This feature should balance various advantages and disadvantages. The more powerful specialty, the more serious shortcoming.This is where various protections, immunities, wards and weaknesses come in.

Gelu in my picture is obviously an Elf, which grants him some inherent skills. His unique specialty is Caravan Master (additional speed for caravans), and he has Death Weakness (Death creatures deal double damage).

You'll notice I prefer the Heroes IV skill tree.

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Heroes III Trivia

Below you can see some interesting features that weren't included in the official game:

Dragon Hero from Age of Wonders: DragonLance mod

(notice that even on the adventure map this hero is a dragon,

 thus solving the problem of animation)

The list of race-based heroes could include :

Life: Hafling, Gnome, Human, Angel

Order: Dwarf, Genie, Naga, Titan

Nature: Elf, Centaur, Sprite, Dendroid

Chaos: Minotaur, Drow, Medusa, Efreet

Death: Undead Knight, Vampire, Lich, Demon

Might: Orc, Goblin, Ogre, Troll

Neutral: Lizardman, Werewolf, Ghost, Leprechaun

Dragon: Gold, Black, Faerie, Bone

Elemental: Air, Water, Earth, Fire

9 x 4 x 4 (for example) = 144 heroes...

... each of them with unique advantages and disadvantages, and with a chance to advance

 and gain additional class abilities (with obvious restrictions, of course - it is hard to imagine

 an Angel who becomes a thief or ranger, for example).

Empty Prison

(These features, along with the famous

Market of Time can actually be found when

 playing one of earlier versions of the game.

Apparently, the prison is empty and

the player gets no additional scout.

An abandoned feature,

just like Fear (Disabled),

which, I was told, was an extra spell

given to the hero who mastered all others.

Adventuring Heroes:

Aside from Adventure, Combat and Town screens,

Heroes of Might and Magic has always had additional ones

for various adventuring objects (not just Dialogue Boxes, as it were, 

but actual screens like Blacksmith and Tavern).

I would like to see more of those. For example, here's the picture

from the beta version of Age of Wonders. It represents an inn

in which a player could hire a new hero, drink some ale

to get a morale bonus, buy some fresh mounts

for additional movement or talk to rogues

in order to gain some information about his enemies

or hidden treasures.

Fear (Disabled)

Mounted Heroes : Just like on the adventure map, Heroes in combat should ride their mounts -

horses, nightmares, mamooths, tigers, basiliks, camels, wyverns... even dragons.

This Warhammer picture shows a dark elf beastmaster riding his manticore.

Forge Town

Scroll down for more pics. Some of those include creatures from the infamous SF town called Forge, which was supposed to be introduced in "Armageddon's Blade" expansion pack. Since the reactions of the fans were mostly negative, it was replaced with Conflux. Here's a short Forge FAQ:

Greg Fulton, HOMM 3 designer, has written the following very long letter in the form of a FAQ and posted it on the 3DO message board. Since it is important, we will quote it in its entirety :
It's 11:37pm Sunday evening. I should be getting off to bed, but I have surveyed the 3DO message board and feel now would be a good time to step in comment on all the insanity to have transpired over the past two weeks.

WAS THE FORGE A BAD IDEA?

We will never know.

WILL THE FORGE RETURN?

Perhaps, but not in its current form.

IS THE TITLE 'ARMAGEDDON'S BLADE' CHANGING?

No, but the story line is.

HOW FAR ALONG WAS THE FORGE TOWN?

A first draft of the town screen was finished and awaiting revision. We also had a first draft of each creature and its upgrade and were proceeding with revisions. All but one map for the campaign was finished.

WHAT WAS THE STORY LINE?

Armageddon's Blade followed a story line set up in the forthcoming Might and Magic 7. In the M&M7 story, Archibald's necromantic Advisors build a machine capable of creating high weaponry. In the Armageddon's Blade campaign, these Advisors build Forge towns and set out to destroy Erathia. Catherine's only hope to stop these hi-tech horrors is to obtain the fabled 'Armageddon's Blade'. In the end, Catherine finds Armageddon's Blade and destroys all remnants of the Forge towns, concluding the Might and Magic 7 story line.

WHY DID YOU PULL THE FORGE?

Reason One: As much as I thought the actions of many fans showed a lack of vision and an inherent distrust for a company who have given them hundreds of hours of quality gameplay, I still didn't want to fight our fans. Reason Two: There wasn't enough pro-Forge activity.

DO YOU THINK 50% OF THE HEROES FANS WERE AGAINST THE FORGE?

No. Total, the number of emails we received asking to remove the Forge were less than 100. I doubt 3DO received much more. As a series, Heroes has sold over 750,000 copies world wide. I would be surprised if more than 5% of the audience would have 'boycotted' the product. However, I still felt 5% was too high.

DID THE NETHER GOD'S POLL AFFECT YOUR DECISION?

No. The Nether God's poll was bogus. I voted for all three options three separate times with a dynamic IP.

WE DON'T LIKE THE ELEMENTAL TOWN.

"You'll get the elemental town, and you'll like it."

DOES SCIENCE FICTION BELONG IN HEROES?

Yes. Science fiction is the foundation of the Might and Magic universe. It is the reason the Might and Magic universe exists. At its core, the Might and Magic is about advanced civilizations who have descend into barbarism. If you disagree, your reasoning is emotional, not logical. Many people forget the Inferno is not populated by demons. It's populated by aliens who look like demons. If I told you the origin of the Arch Angels I'm sure many of you would have a heart attack.

DO SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY MIX?

In the Might and Magic universe they do.

Commanders: WoG introduced a different concept of heroes in combat.

Each town type had an opportunity to hire or start with one of commanders

(Here's hoping one of future patches will provide two - Might and Magic -

commander types for each town! )

Commanders can gain levels, improve their primary and secondary skills

and even use artifacts specially created for them

This picture from my family album shows just how significant

commanders can become (this monster is from one of WoG versions

of legendary Lord of War scenario. 

Banshee?

Neutral Heroes: They could fight, trade or even join player.

Their properties could be set in the map editor.

Scorpion?

Tank

Stinger

Cyber Zombie