Greetings.

I'm a big fan of the sequel and thinking about getting this. But first I'd like to know what the differences from the sequel are.
So if someone that have played both can tell I'd be grateful. :)

First game was heavily influenced by HoMM: there's classic heroes-alike strategy mode, where you need to capture mines, get resources, buy cards for this resources, defend castle, etc.

Hmmm...
Interesting. Thank you for the answer. :)

Is there any change in the hero abilities, cards, sides and similar?
Are there a campaign, random maps or scenario maps?
One playthrough for every side like in the second?
Seems like I had a lot of more questions. ;)

I don't know about hero stuff, I haven't played long enough for this. Of course, as it's first in the serie, it's probably having less possibilities. I dunno.

There are two campaigns: one for good (vitals, kinets), other for evil (synthets, chaots) - mixed up playthrough, single player maps, no random map and seems no map editor ((

Sometimes developers act like they don't want game to develop further - like parent doesn't loving it's child.

True. Developers can act like that sometimes. A shame really.

Otherwise it sounds like a game for me. I'll miss random maps but I can't have everything. The story of my gaming life. :P

Another balance - cards may require different amount of ether.
Almost any card which is not basic requires rune. it's like ammo for card - you can use this card as many times as runes you keep for this card.
No colorless cards (I don't know how it's called in English, I mean cards with mythicval creatures from many religies).
And global gametype is not an RPG-style but HoM&M style. It's about castle capture, gathering resourses and hiring characters-etherlords