The skill system also underwent a significant overhaul, and all Heroes of a given class start out with the same skills. It is possible to have armies with more than one hero, or with no heroes at all, although armies without a hero are incapable of performing certain tasks, such as capturing enemy towns or structures. If a hero is killed in combat he/she must be brought to a friendly town to be revived.
Unlike previous games, where they had little active role in combat, heroes became present on the battlefield with their troops. Heroes of Might and Magic IV introduced a number of major changes to the series.
The fourth installment of the popular Heroes of Might and Magic franchise, it is the sequel to Heroes of Might and Magic III, and was the last to be developed by New World Computing. A Macintosh port was subsequently developed by Contraband Entertainment and released by the 3DO Company. Heroes of Might and Magic IV is a turn-based strategy game developed by Gus Smedstad through New World Computing and published by the 3DO Company for Microsoft Windows-based personal computers in 2002.
