The Heroes of Might and Magic series has not had a good past few years with each iteration bringing in new bugs, balance quibbles and plenty of other issues. Unfortunately HOMAM VII belongs in this category as well but at least the developers are committed and willing to improve upon its flaws and extend the story months after launch.

Update 1.7, which has gone live recently, brought with it plenty of bug fixes and new features as well as a 5 mission long campaign set 14 years in the past during the events of HOMAM IV. Here are the patch notes and a brief description of what to expect from this new campaign:

General:

- As previously announced, the level cap has been removed on Skirmish maps.

- The main menu has been reworked to provide an easier user experience.

- Several fixes to Artifacts.

- A couple of adjustments have been made to the in-game camera, automatic height adjustment has been smoothed and some clipping issues have been fixed.

- Warfare Units now wait or skip turn, when pressing the wait or defend keys

- Rendering on Wide-screen: Aspect ratio management has been improved in council hub, adventure and combat modes.

- Mini-map Settings are now saved and UPlay names are now only displayed in online Multi-player matches

- Several gameplay bugs have been fixed

New key-bindings:

- Browse towns with left and right key (works in town screens and all town pop up’s)

- Toggle combat map grid with "G"

- Escape can now be (re-)assigned as key-bind

Several balancing improvements:

- Diminishing returns - When the "Incapacitated" de-buff wears off, it applies the "Immune to Incapacitation" buff for two combat rounds.

- A cap to the number of raised creatures for the Necromancy skill and the "Ghost Ride" ability. 

- Sylsai’s second starting skill has been improved to ‘Warcries’

Multiplayer:

- Improved connectivity of online game

- Nat indicator now available in multiplayer lobby.

- Out of sync when attacking an empty AI hero in sim turns.

- Out of sync when surrendering in combat against AI hero.

- General out of sync stability improvements.

- The ability to connect to each other has been improved and a couple of implements to the Uplay-Overlay.

- A new CM_Academy_Garden combat map has been added.

Editor:

- Couple of fixes on the Combat Map

- Duplicate and imprinted spells from all spell lists have been removed.

- Fixed FPS drop when switching to underground surface and create combat map feature. (+several other fixes.)

- New script Editor Condition "Has Resource Percentage"

- +15% Saturation LUT to the Combat Map templates

- BattleSite properties accessible in the Map Editor.

The Unity campaign features 5 brand new maps, 2 creatures including the rather cute white tigers, ~80 new Hall Heroes based on original Heroes III and IV artwork, 6 new Story Heroes, 24 new legacy artefacts and a couple of music tracks from Heroes IV to help recreate the atmosphere present in the older game. 

They're less tigers and more overgrown kitty-cats

The story will center around Genevive, an incredibly driven women with few friends who takes it upon herself to retrieve every single spell that was lost after the world of Enroth was destroyed during the events of the Reckoning. As you might imagine those that posses such knowledge aren't very keen to share it so expect to be doing a lot of convincing during Unity's campaign.

The patch should be already be installed for you on Steam and Uplay so if you own HOMAM VII this update represents a good reason to either continue playing with renewed vigor or to come back and give it another chance. Either way, free DLC and balance patches are always welcome in my world, unlike Hydras which are scary.