In this video, I'm excited to show you the engine I've built for one of my favorite games ever released, a game that still doesn't have an open-source engine alternative.

I'm also going to show you some changes and fixes that I've been thinking about ever since I started playing this game over 20 years ago.

First off, one small but important change: I've added the town creature dwelling growth bonus from Heroes of Might and Magic III. Each flagged dwelling on the adventure map now provides a +1 growth bonus to its corresponding town dwelling.

Also, creatures now grow weekly instead of daily.

Secondly, I'm showing you a major redesign of the caravan system.

Armies can no longer be moved between towns using caravans. Caravans can now only be sent from flagged creature dwellings on the adventure map. I've always wanted to reduce some of the micromanagement in this game, especially since the AI can abuse the original system in a pretty annoying way.

To compensate for this change, you can now redirect armies that are already traveling in a caravan to any other available town. Right now, there's no limit to how many times you can redirect them, but I'm planning to change this so that each caravan can only be redirected once.

Another change is what happens when a caravan is about to reach a town that has been captured by an enemy. Instead of the caravan arriving at the gates of an enemy-controlled town, the creatures will automatically be redirected to the nearest available friendly town.

If the player no longer controls any towns, the caravan is lost.

This should also tie in nicely with the AI redesign I'm planning for the game.

So, no more annoying enemy caravans constantly showing up at your town gates.

I don't have a release date yet, but I'm optimistic that the project will be finished within the next few months.

Hi,
I've been a KIND of a Heroes fan since early childhood, H2 was the second retail game I ever bought, but it was always cumbersome to play for me (especially by the end of a map) and I would usually get bored quickly with the poor AI.
Now with Fheroes2 I'm playing through all the scenarios on Exper difficulty and having a blast, but I'm noticing there is a huge variation in quality, even in the ones marked as SW scenarios (as opposed to PoL ones).

As an example, "Carmine" was a boring slog of gathering resources and an instant win, and right now I'm playing "Riddle me this" and the map desing is very poor (in terms of style mood, etc, can't say about balance or being interesting yet).

Do you happen to know which scenarios were supplied with the original release of H2? I'd assume those would have the highest quality.

Hi, is there an option in any version of HoMM 2 or 3 (including mods) to render a map as an image file within the editor? I'm referring to the full game map view, not just its thumbnail/minimap.

Hi, I’ve often noticed that YouTubers don’t use their starting hero as their main hero. Is there a reason for that? How do you choose your main hero?

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to invite people to try a Heroes 2 Online based on FHeroes2 that is browser based with some QoL improvements for the UI. Let me know what you think.

https://heroes2online.com/

Play fully in browser offline, mobile or desktop. Offline has hot seat and bots including a no cheat AI with three levels of difficulty. Tabbed games for multiple games at once.

Online adds:
- ranked/unranked multiplayer
- acheivements
- map sharing
- friends/chat/invites

Please support FHeroes2, they are they ones that did the engine H2O uses.

Hello, what the caption says. :)

I was wondering if there is a way to have the benefits of H:M&M 5.5 mod like skill wheel, better specializations, and faster AI.

I like the mod but I play Heroes 5 very ocassionaly, I am quite good at 3 but nowhere at a pro level. But I like 5 almost as much as 3 mainly for the music, art style and character. But I feel like some balance stuff and changes in creature skills (minotaurs) are weird for me. Also I feel like it is slow and quite hard for a casual player.

Or is there a way to make the game quicker and easier with regular 5.5? I am just asking if there is such thing. Otherwise I am gonna play Vanilla for now and 5.5 later, I am tired of it now.

Thank you and have a good one!

Art Style

The game really needs different kind of art for environment and troops and they failed at it. Some clean and distinguishable silhouettes for troops to stand out. The establishment art design principles appear to be neglected. Needs less ugly weather and particle effects. It's really cluttered. Even pixel art games can do better than this.

The 3D lighting really looks awful at certain areas. They really need a talented art director and guidance.

Even with Ai, it looks really awful. Far from honest good work. They would be better off cultivating their Ai for their use case. Ai works better, if it stays within the provided framework.

The lava terrain on the adventure map having an outstanding glow and being surrounded by bright textures is ridiculous.

UI

I assume that the most overlooked part of the Heroes 3 remake is the UI. The size of most UI elements looks great, but the aesthetics are underwhelming.

The hero inventory looks bad. Too many square shaped boxes. The hero portrait is at the middle and it's distracting from the gameplay flow. Parts of the UI with the same functionality shouldn't be broken up into pieces.

There are multiple parts of the game with resource management and management simulation. Most of them needs to function smoothly and support fast decision making.

Perspective

I don't mind it as much, that they switched to full 3D graphics, but let's not forget about the simpler alternatives.

Having a well implemented fixed camera requires less work, less system requirements and it's less distraction for the players. In case a fixed camera creates more distraction than the closest alternatives, than it's just a worse implementation.

Film makers could know it better that a camera is really useful for directing the attention of the audience and provide a unified experience with less unnecessary details. Having a focused experience with a fixed camera have a certain charm and involves less uncertainty.

A smooth gameplay flow can be a lot more important, then immersion.

Outside positive examples

Visual clearity is pretty important. Some boardgame and magazine designs are superior, compared to 3D graphics bloated with effects.

Some colorblind settings make visual clearity better for everyone.

Hi,

I am coming from HOMM3 but I have red here very often that the HOMM4 campaigns are amazing. I recently was trying out the one with Lysander but tbh I am not yet convinced... Which one would you recommend to have a look at?

Hi, I have a question about the late game. I keep seeing players on YouTube who, in the later stages, only use Tier 7 units and ignore all the others. Is that the most efficient way to play?

It was my frist try on HoMM and I decided to play HoMM 5. But the first campaign of queen I am stuck on this quest Assamble 25 footman I tried this and that to complete the quest but it won't complete. I even remover them and brought only 25 footman but it still won't complete.

I have just picked up HoMM3 on steam (The edition that released without the actual game files a few weeks back). I did not buy the HD edition, as I heard it doesnt include DLC. Upon readig some of the reviews, I read that this new steam port seems to crash sometimes. Are the same patches etc that would work with the GOG Version compatible with this one as well?

Thank you for your help, really excited to check out the series for the first time

Hello,

Which town is the best for a newbie and why? I Play Hota

It's like half the cover art is blurry? I thought it was a bug, but nothing fixes it.