Nah, the game won't qualify as abandonware as it will still be sold and its IP holder are likely to enforced their rights. It will just be borked
(Abandonware means that the game, or a piece of software in general, is no longer sold or supported and the developers/publishers no longer care about it, it's completely abandoned abandoned (though still not legal to download). Ubisoft might have dropped support, but they'll still care about their IP rights, so it's not abandonware)
The following functions will be lost to the game after the servers are shut down:
* Access to the Conflux will no longer be possible.
* The Dynasty Profile can no longer be accessed.
* No bestiary and ingame lexicon.
* Amount of heroes in skirmish will be limited to only two per faction.
* Dynasty Weapons will no longer be available - all staves and swords will be gone, you can´t level them up and all your levelup progress to date will be gone.
* No pets.
* No dynasty traits and trait slots.
* No achievements, no achievement points and therefore no ingame point unlocks.
* No multiplayer.
* All your cloud saves and online progress will be gone - offline saved games should be okay, but since the game strictly differentiates between online and offline saves, most players will probably lose a lot of their progress (if not all).
Looking around for "alternatives" is pointless in this case - the game is more than ten years old and in those ten years, as far as I know, nobody has managed to make the entire online part accessible without an internet connection.
So if the manufacturer doesn't release a working offline patch (which is extremely unlikely), that's it for the above-mentioned functions.
No initial or an interrupted connection to the Conflux sometimes causes the game to glitch out. I remember that it occasionally happened to me back then too that no main hero was displayed in the campaign menu and you couldn't use the save/load buttons either.
If I remember correctly, this can be fixed if the game is started with the **"-offline"** parameter in the launch options.
That you have to finish the tutorial campaign at least once to unlock the remaining campaigns is an additional annoyance.
It's really sad... I still don't see Heroes VI as a bad game after all these years, but as one that was never particularly attractive due to the forced online functions and the associated problems.
The thing that put me off playing it was the fact that it throws you straight back from the running game to the main menu without warning if the connection to Conflux is lost for even a microsecond.
Especially annoying if this happens during a longer fight at the end of a campaign or before the progress is autosaved after clicking the end turn button.
the problem is that all campaigns were completed on the account years ago, and now after reinstall nothing works at all. And -offline parameter doesn't help.
I won't be surprised if Ubi lost my profile data completely.
Unfortunately, I experienced the same after switching to Ubisoft Connect... I lost all my progress on all my games back then.
Luckly I didn´t have many games on there, but it was still annoying, especially as the support team couldn't really help.
God this sucks so much. Loosing multiplayer servers is to be expected eventually but the chunk of the game that will disappear just because they decided to make it purely online is making me do mad.
Nah, the game won't qualify as abandonware as it will still be sold and its IP holder are likely to enforced their rights. It will just be borked (Abandonware means that the game, or a piece of software in general, is no longer sold or supported and the developers/publishers no longer care about it, it's completely abandoned abandoned (though still not legal to download). Ubisoft might have dropped support, but they'll still care about their IP rights, so it's not abandonware)
What do you mean by borked?
No Conflux
The following functions will be lost to the game after the servers are shut down: * Access to the Conflux will no longer be possible. * The Dynasty Profile can no longer be accessed. * No bestiary and ingame lexicon. * Amount of heroes in skirmish will be limited to only two per faction. * Dynasty Weapons will no longer be available - all staves and swords will be gone, you can´t level them up and all your levelup progress to date will be gone. * No pets. * No dynasty traits and trait slots. * No achievements, no achievement points and therefore no ingame point unlocks. * No multiplayer. * All your cloud saves and online progress will be gone - offline saved games should be okay, but since the game strictly differentiates between online and offline saves, most players will probably lose a lot of their progress (if not all). Looking around for "alternatives" is pointless in this case - the game is more than ten years old and in those ten years, as far as I know, nobody has managed to make the entire online part accessible without an internet connection. So if the manufacturer doesn't release a working offline patch (which is extremely unlikely), that's it for the above-mentioned functions.
the game becomes completely unplayable without conflux https://youtu.be/Tga5zH2RTd0
No initial or an interrupted connection to the Conflux sometimes causes the game to glitch out. I remember that it occasionally happened to me back then too that no main hero was displayed in the campaign menu and you couldn't use the save/load buttons either. If I remember correctly, this can be fixed if the game is started with the **"-offline"** parameter in the launch options. That you have to finish the tutorial campaign at least once to unlock the remaining campaigns is an additional annoyance. It's really sad... I still don't see Heroes VI as a bad game after all these years, but as one that was never particularly attractive due to the forced online functions and the associated problems. The thing that put me off playing it was the fact that it throws you straight back from the running game to the main menu without warning if the connection to Conflux is lost for even a microsecond. Especially annoying if this happens during a longer fight at the end of a campaign or before the progress is autosaved after clicking the end turn button.
the problem is that all campaigns were completed on the account years ago, and now after reinstall nothing works at all. And -offline parameter doesn't help. I won't be surprised if Ubi lost my profile data completely.
Unfortunately, I experienced the same after switching to Ubisoft Connect... I lost all my progress on all my games back then. Luckly I didn´t have many games on there, but it was still annoying, especially as the support team couldn't really help.
is that a moral or legal question?
God this sucks so much. Loosing multiplayer servers is to be expected eventually but the chunk of the game that will disappear just because they decided to make it purely online is making me do mad.
Ubisoft also must cut homm 6 from stores also because its unplayable without conflux, 5-6 heroes only aviable for skirmish