The three campaigns, each six to nine missions long, center on a quest to recover a falling star. It lands in goblin territory, so the goblins make up a partial fourth faction (the others are human, elven and evil.) The life of the game will be extended not just through multiplayer, but through making modding and map editing available from day one, opening the game up to the legions of fans who have been, Akella says, instrumental in the development of the new version.

And, since so many of these fans are in Eastern Europe and Russia, Disciples III is using those fans as the baseline in determining the final system requirements. Disciples wouldn’t need a high powered engine in any case. You still move in turns with minimal animation. But the artwork is very polished and the heroes look appropriately heroic. Akella hopes to have the game ready for gamers in early 2009.

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