HOMM/MM (Heroes of) Might & Magic(:Heroes) General

[Anonymous No.6131102]

"Steampunk" Edition

Previous thread: >>6101173
HoMM3 pastebin: https://pastebin.com/6G9B1cMA

[Anonymous No.6131105]

Horn of the Abyss 1.6.0 is out.
>http://heroescommunity.com/viewthread.php3?TID=39830&pagenumber=379

TL;DR: New terrain, obstacles and objects; new skill (Interference) that reduces the effective spellpower of the enemy hero; Resistance back in its original form (including the artifacts) but is now banned by default (i.e. you have to enable it in the Map Editor); Intelligence and Logistics got nerfed and Mysticism and Estates got a buff; various improvements to the map editor.

Version 1.7.0 with the Factory city has no set release date but you can still get an idea of what its unit lineup looks like thanks to various WIP images and screenshots.

[Anonymous No.6131108]

>>6124283 looked through the old HotA concept art and found this piece among the Forge concept art they have. They think this is the Centipede from the sceenshots, and it looks like they repurposed it.

[Anonymous No.6131113]

>>6131105
Fugg, forgot to mention new hero with Interference specialty, Giselle, who by default replaces Thorgrim.
At least we got something good from Docent's butthurtness over Resistance.

[Anonymous No.6131115]

And the terrain looks pretty good too.

[Anonymous No.6131121]

Is the last version of HotA still prone to crashing?

[Anonymous No.6131137]

>>6131105
>gun centric faction
>only 2 shooters

JUST

[Anonymous No.6131139]

>>6131137
I mean Cove was also.
But both of its shooters a god tier.
I imagine with Factory having a shooter early on will be useful, especially without upgrades even and Bounty Hunters might just be almost as good as last tier

[Anonymous No.6131217]

>>6131113
It really sticks out how much higher quality HotA's hero portraits are over HoMM3's hastily slapped together roster. Admittedly they had to draw 8 times the characters but still
>four fucking minotaur repaints

[Anonymous No.6131237]

>>6131121
Yes it is.

[Anonymous No.6131496]

>>6131102
Only just realised Resurrection is permanent at Advanced level, which makes Alamar pretty powerful if you can level him up just enough by the second week.

[Anonymous No.6132050]

>>6131115
Only problem with the terrain that I can say is that the mountains look much higher quality than the base game ones do. Also whatever that thing between the redwood observatory and refugee camp is doesn't quite fit in with the rest of everything. Something with the filtering or colors?

[Anonymous No.6132060]

Which version has a scenario editor?

I'd like to make fun and challenging stuff.

[Anonymous No.6132084]

>>6131217
Trog heroes are all the same image repainted.

[Anonymous No.6132191]

Tower can now upgrade their Golems from Stone to Iron to Steel to Gold to Diamond. Would they benefit or are Golems too slow to be worthwhile?

>>6131217
>>6132084
Hasn't HotA updated vanilla graphics before, like with the Pikeman? I don't think anyone would complain if they remade some of the weaker art assets. Though I also wouldn't mind getting new heroes for factions. Maximus would be a very welcome addition.

[Anonymous No.6132253]

>>6132191
Iron golems tank better than higher tier units often times imo. Just iron golems and titans is a cost effective main army.

Tower is already very strong with high magic. If anything I think Fortress needed the boost because they're not even viable if you're not at the enemy gates early.

[Anonymous No.6132326]

>>6132253
To be fair at least Fortress has a great level 3 and level 5 creature

[Anonymous No.6132552]

>>6132326
This is true. But their shooters are the worst of all factions and they're low magic. Other than the dragonflies, nothing else sieges castles well. Wyverns feel squishy for how expensive they are. Hydras are low mobility. They deserve a hearty regeneration buff to keep consistent with the lore. Make the beast feared again, rather than a walking pin cushion.

[Anonymous No.6132601]

>>6131105
Tbh I'd just rather have the HOTA version of Heavenly Forge than this. Somehow it feels like even more of a misplacement to have cowboys than lasers in HOMM. They teased Forge years ago and have all graphics for it already, why not just finish it...

[Anonymous No.6132737]

>>6132552
Best of all, Fortress needs a level 4 magic guild.
I'm still seething over this shitty new Town that's just overpowered af.

What HotA really shitty with is their annoying catering to the cybershits' mythical balance, all the while preaching of the "spirit of the game" as an excuse to leave pretty much every other town untouched or nerfed.

[Anonymous No.6132837]

>>6132253
>If anything I think Fortress needed the boost
t. incompetent fag

I bet you still are bitching about their shooter, 20 years later, despite it being fixed just as many years ago

[Anonymous No.6132841]

>>6132737
That's just HotA for you - a bunch of modders that let things go to their heads, so from a geniune fix and slight rebalance that was badly needed, they've imagined themselves as saviours of the game, by adding to it new shit nobody really asked or needed for anything, while utterly ignoring issues that exist ever since. The moment they've announced 2nd town, it became clear they've completely lost the plot, while Resistance rework was a harbinger of it

[Anonymous No.6132870]

>>6132601
>>6132601
Hota-anon is back.

To clarify things, there were no Forge castle being ready for hota. There's not much "graphics" and even what there was is of a low quality. Only 2 units (pyro and goblin) were done and later shared with community by Alex-ander. there were static models for another 4 units but no animations, no upgrades, no nothing. Working on Forge was kind of a side-task for a couple of people (including myself), but thanks to this expirience we made our way into hota crew (well those people who were not there before. Ofc. Alex-ander and Agar were part of the Hota long before).

Even idea of forge being the next castle in Hota was never seriously discussed. And when the time was up and the question was spoken, many important members of the team voted against the faction. By that moment it was morbidly obvious that insufficient "graphics" we had was unacceptable for hota standards and everything had to be done from a scratch anyway, so the idea was scrapped. But at some part it gave an inspiration for Factory later. The idea of Tech-oriented faction was still very interesting. Btw western-cowboy-native american themed castle was one of many ideas discussed and was not connected to forge.

Now picrelated is my few years old concept of what Forge could look like if it was made from ground-up while staying somewhat true to NWC's material. Even before the cancellation we started to replace some units with our own. Like substituting jetpack minos with less crazy MM's terminators (flying orb drones), recruiting Venom spawns from H4 into lineup etc. I was thinking about merging cyber-zombie and Tank into one creature. Ogres were no longer ogres but a completely new species welding rocket launcher. (I still think that was such a great concept we might use it later maybe).

[Anonymous No.6132873]

>>6132870
As of late, there were a numerous interviews with NWC employees and we've learned more about original forge concept. By NWC's vision, tech was like a "corrupting force" turning meadows and forests into poisoned wastelands. This answers the question why original line up consisted up from other's towns creatures, but "powered up" with weapon (even pyros were supposed to be magogs with flamethrowers).
So creating our own, even if more consistent and less random line-up, was not in line with NWC vision. And if it's not exactly that forge we could have 20 years ago, why even bother. New tech-oriented faction would be much better option.

tl;dr - Forge never was ready and is abandoned.

[Anonymous No.6132876]

>>6132841
Well, they think they are addressing those issues.
Like fixing Airshield and Towers bug, tho now making Towers evil.

Resistance has the same reason, they plan to fix or rework what was useless or weak before.
Old Res was only working on hostile single-targeted spells anyway, new one affects all, which is fairer.
Doesn't explain why they banned the RED ORB tho if magic is an issue.


At least they specifically don't ask for donations and work by themselves.
That's pretty admirable of them, even if making them even fuller of themselves.

[Anonymous No.6132881]

>>6132841
>new things bad
>changes bad
>second town bad
>overbeaten resistance argue

I love this thread, honestly. People like (you) wrote death mails to NWC when Forge was scrapped. People Like you led the series where it's now.

[Anonymous No.6132883]

>>6132873
Btw, whose idea were female flamethrowers? That's just as much hurting the "spirit" as anything.
It's like you/those guys also got infected with tolerance desease.

[Anonymous No.6132892]

>>6132870
Any thoughts to implement the sphere drone and dragon skull on needles bot as neutrals or something? They’re 100% undeniably canon and have sick designs. If the worry about anti-forge autists is there they could be disabled from spawning by default and just for mapmakers

[Anonymous No.6132895]

>>6132737
>>6132841
>>6132883
The year is 3085
Humanity has abandoned Sol and all that remains is a decrypt dyson sphere
On a long forgotten space station, the ghost of one lost soul still bitches about Resistance

[Anonymous No.6132901]

>>6132895
I'm wasn't bitching about Resistance tho (I like the new one) and you didn't answer my question, man.

[Anonymous No.6132909]

>>6132901
you are confusing anons anon.

<------ your answer

[Anonymous No.6132910]

>>6132873
Your tech-oriented faction would better have a good explanation as to how the fug some naked-ass cowboys got access to fucking robots in the middle of the desert.
Based on concept arts it's about as advanced as old Forge was with those big robots and mechacentipedes.

[Anonymous No.6132913]

>>6132737
I need to try HotA. I'm still on H3 complete.
I definitely ok with aspects of different factions not being good. If there are strengths to each faction that are different and interesting then it works out. The more mechanically different it is to play each faction, the better imo.

[Anonymous No.6132916]

>>6132883
How does that hurt the spirit when there were women heroes in every category

[Anonymous No.6132967]

>>6132916
That trend actually gradually creeped out more and more with heroes, with first one only having them as Sorceresses, II introduced them to every fraction, III expanded the number even more, and culminated with IV which had equal amount in every fraction, coupled with ludicrously ugly portraits and stories.
No wonder series went to shite with such foolishness.

Heroes are borderline tolerable, however out of hundreds of creatures in III, only 4 are female, 5 if you count water elementals.

And it's just plain retarded to make female! melee! flamethrowers!
They even had a ready concept, but noooo... Ugh.

[Anonymous No.6132979]

>>6132883
>>6132967
You overplayed your bait too much, it’s too obvious. Better luck next time champ

[Anonymous No.6132995]

>>6132979
You must be one of those russian dev retards. They always see bait everywhere and then scream of butthurt or something.

Anyway, it's not a bait, it's a genuinely shitty and retarded design I'm complaining about.
And as far as I've seen, they specifically refuse to alter this. So I just thought I might ask why.
Predictably no answer.

[Anonymous No.6133008]

>6132995
Here’s half a (You), see you next thread

[Anonymous No.6133019]

>>6132870
NWC was correct in discarding Forge. It's just impossible to make work mechanically. What niche could it possibly take that isn't already occupied by Dungeon or Tower? Would Forge heroes still ride horses? Why? In RPG games sci-fi level usually comes up at the very end as a twist to top off an adventure, but Forge would have to stand on equal grounds with the other factions and those are no equal grounds at all without severe limitations on the concept, at which point you might as well create something entirely different; which you did.

>>6132967
Have sex

[Anonymous No.6133025]

>>6133019
Forge was supposed to be extremely expensive and even lesser units used precious resources to build, that was what made them more “even”. Also remember the other factions technically still have their own tech or offshoots of it. Angels are Hunter-Killer drones

[Anonymous No.6133029]

>>6133025
>Angels are Hunter-Killer drones
You know they purposefully concealed all this backstory for this precise reason, don't be obtuse

[Anonymous No.6133034]

>>6133019
Your sucking up is impressive, cumbrain, but don't expect them to return the favour for that.

[Anonymous No.6133038]

>>6133029
Concealed? It’s an open secret in the main series. They don’t even hide it that much for most of the games. But regardless the point I made is that Forge’s concept of weapons wouldn’t necessarily put them leagues beyond others on a narrative level since other factions have that level of tech too, just not openly obvious

[Anonymous No.6133046]

>>6132913
>mechanically different
If that's what you're looking, you'll be disappointed since HotA didn't as much introduce many new features for towns or combat as they did for global map.

For mechanical differences you should look up Heroes 5.

The whole shtick of 3 is that every fraction is about same broadly, shooters, fliers. Get Earth Magic and Offence/Defence early and you're good.

[Anonymous No.6133048]

>>6133038
So it is open or is not open? Pick something. It's not displayed in any of the game's storylines, visuals or mechanics, it's merely a footnote in the lore that you can only learn from external sources. It was a conscious choice to have factions represent simpler fantasy concepts and be on a largely even playing field.

[Anonymous No.6133068]

>>6133048
Look man it’s science fantasy, the genre says swords and dragons are equal to guns and tanks, can’t that be good enough

[Anonymous No.6133089]

>>6132967
>Heroes are borderline tolerable, however out of hundreds of creatures in III, only 4 are female, 5 if you count water elementals.
Of those with definite gender I count at least 7, anon

[Anonymous No.6133105]

>>6133089
No, I just counted Nagas, Pixies and Hags as singles, since they're almost or same species. Same for elementals.
Be it 7(9), if you will then.

[Anonymous No.6133126]

We’ve talked about new town ideas, what about new Terrain ideas? Anything not covered you would like to see? I wish Necropolis had it’s own proper terrain, Dirt seems so lackluster for it. I guess the cursed magical terrain counts but it seems underwhelming

I don’t think it would work as a full terrain but I think a Salt Flat magical terrain would be pretty cool to have

[Anonymous No.6133132]

>>6133105
Nagas
Pixies
Harpies
Medusas
Genies (Unupgraded)
Pegasus

And Gnolls are a good assumption

[Anonymous No.6133134]

>>6133126
Wilderness, Rampart native terrain. Looks kinda similar to grass but overgrown and wild. Maybe a 25% movement penalty or something.

[Anonymous No.6133138]

>>6133132
Huh, you're right. Seems so dumb to miss that.

[Anonymous No.6133263]

>>6133134
If there was a separation between Grass and "forest" to split Rampart and Castle, it would have to be an autumnal forest. That would be extremely comfy and provide great distinction between grass and highlands and itself. Though I think overall it's pretty fitting, and I don't mind having 2 towns share a terrain. Rampart and Castle, Cove and Fortress, Evil alignment just needs one now.

Though a Deciduous terrain could stand on its own even without having Rampart imo. Though you could probably argue Swamp could benefit more being split into Swamp and Jungle.

[Anonymous No.6133357]

>>6133126
I didnt even read your entire post or look at the picture before I went off to try and think of some possible terrains. Salt flats were what I thought of funnily enough.

Thought about marshes but thatd be too similar to swamp. How about shallow sea? It'd be a nice transitional to oceans/lakes, shallow enough to wade through.

As for necropolis, all I can think of is like dead lands. We have desolate lands with wasteland, where nothing can thrive or grow. Deadlands would be where things *used* to thrive. Like grass and forest thats had the life sucked out of it. Almost like a well trodden battlefield, or land that's so sick it has no hope of returning to how it was. Terrain penalty could be negative morale for non undead units.

[Anonymous No.6133614]

>>6133126
Dunno, wheat fields maybe?

[Anonymous No.6133620]

>>6133614
Will they have women dancing in them?

[Anonymous No.6133628]

bleh

[Anonymous No.6133635]

>>6132253
>If anything I think Fortress needed the boost because they're not even viable if you're not at the enemy gates early.
One of the easiest to get into factions in competitive HoMM3 with tons of lasting appeal, a couple of strong starting heroes, good main hero material, extremely cheap units and great meta-synergy with Dragonfly Hives since SoD doesn't need any boost at all.

One of the slowest towns in the game with a terrible biome with few beneficial structures on the map, with a heavily rigid build order, expensive units, poor main hero choices and many difficulties in taking Utopias definitely needed the boost.

Fortress is very common; Tower is barely played.

[Anonymous No.6133641]

>>6132737
>shitty new Town that's just overpowered af.
You mean Cove, which is a firmly mid-tier town with an extremely tight early game (reliant on a very squishy unit, so their early game is prone to morale loss?)? That overpowered town?

Even with HotA nerfs, Conflux and Necropolis are still high tier towns and there's still strong reasons to play Castle / Dung / Fort / Strong instead of Cove.

[Anonymous No.6133714]

>>6133641
Cove is so strong solely because of the firewall hero, there's no other hero in the game that can take out that strong guardians so early in the game than her

[Anonymous No.6133748]

>>6133628
legitimately the most memorable thing about this game

[Anonymous No.6133753]

>>6133714
>Cove
>Firewall hero
That's Conflux. But yeah, good point, Conflux is still stronger than Cove even with the nerfs.

[Anonymous No.6133757]

>>6133748
Implying FURCHTEST DU NICHT DES BRANDSTIFTERS STRAAAAAFEEEEN isn't memorable as fuck

[Anonymous No.6134676]

THERE HE IS

http://heroes3towns.com/docent/bellwether_armadillo_animation.gif

[Anonymous No.6134705]

>>6134676
The names are Armadillo and Bellwether Armadillo. (The name Bellwether seems to come from the name of a leading sheep? odd choice but OK)

[Anonymous No.6134720]

>>6131115
Why
the FUCK
did they change the font? Either in the mod or in Heroes HD+ in general.

[Anonymous No.6134726]

>>6132191
Iron Golems are already very good tanks (especially considering their low rank) and they are immune to so many spells; attack spells do what, only 25% damage on them? It's crazy. If there's a big ball of them, the only way to kill them without losses is to slow them and take them apart with shooters. And since they tank well, they often get overlooked and you can get a big ball of them.

Gold and Diamond golems are both a tier higher each and have MORE magic damage resistance. An implosion spell doing 2000pts damage would kill maybe 2 diamond golems from the top of my head (I don't remember their HP, was it 75?).

[Anonymous No.6134741]

>>6132967
>however out of hundreds of creatures in III, only 4 are female, 5 if you count water elementals.

They are soldiers conscripted to war in a medieval fantasy world. Of course the majority of creatures are male; they are physically better suited for it, they don't get a debuff once every month, and they don't become obsolete for 9 months should they lose a battle against the opposite sex. Also they are more expendable (have 99% of the males die and the populace can still recover without a problem).

[Anonymous No.6134745]

>>6133126
Turn Bliss into a battle map.

[Anonymous No.6134772]

>>6134741
>magic floating eyes, dragons, walking stone robots, unicorns, aggressive blobs of water
>no you see women? that's just unrealistic

[Anonymous No.6134773]

>>6134772
Stop replying to obvious bait

[Anonymous No.6134857]

>>6132883

[Anonymous No.6134864]

>>6134726
Yup, I've managed to defend a tower town against whole armies including several 7 tier units with just a decent stack of Iron Golems (between like 70 and 90) They just tank for days while the towers and magic wear down the opponents armies

[Anonymous No.6135030]

Anyone has any idea for a fun town/hero start?

[Anonymous No.6135035]

>>6135030
Stronghold / Gurnisson, kite everything with your starting units and shoot everything to death with Ballista.

[Anonymous No.6135154]

As I read this thread HOTA has really gone to shit!
They shouldn't mess with the resistance eagle eye mechanic, it will only further alienate people that are not hardcore slave like me. It saddens me to hear this news and even although I recently tried to play single player rand multiplayer again now I hesitate to even run the game. I think it also crashed the last time I tried to start HOTA.

On single player I am playing wastelands and I must say I kinda overpowered every other hero with Andrena, she is absolutely monstrous with 3k magic points. However she is slow as fuck. I however Tazar however, but magic is in endgame way more powerfull and indeed all my battles are summoning element and resurrection. I will finish the single player eventually, creating more strong heroes. I also have tazar with 100+ mighty gorgons and 8 azure dragons.

The last multiplayer games were also interesting. I really hate how polish kurva restarts the 1X112 and then next game restarts again. I guess he shits his jumpsuit when I notices I spend half an hour on the first turn with conflux trying to capture phoenix dwelling, i almost succeeded the first turn and would have got it easily next turn. Then he restarted again and I roll shitty map widely dispersed. Then I just quitted, what a total kurva.

I would like to hear more multiplayer stories from you guys but I guess you are all afraid to step into the pits of vodka induced brain damage.

[Anonymous No.6135180]

.>6135154
Nice copypasta you got there >>6115580. Here's a half a (You) and now you can piss off.

[Anonymous No.6135292]

>>6135180
As I read this thread HOTA has really gone to shit!
They shouldn't mess with the resistance eagle eye mechanic, it will only further alienate people that are not hardcore slave like me. It saddens me to hear this news and even although I recently tried to play single player rand multiplayer again now I hesitate to even run the game. I think it also crashed the last time I tried to start HOTA.

On single player I am playing wastelands and I must say I kinda overpowered every other hero with Andrena, she is absolutely monstrous with 3k magic points. However she is slow as fuck. I however Tazar however, but magic is in endgame way more powerfull and indeed all my battles are summoning element and resurrection. I will finish the single player eventually, creating more strong heroes. I also have tazar with 100+ mighty gorgons and 8 azure dragons.

The last multiplayer games were also interesting. I really hate how polish kurva restarts the 1X112 and then next game restarts again. I guess he shits his jumpsuit when I notices I spend half an hour on the first turn with conflux trying to capture phoenix dwelling, i almost succeeded the first turn and would have got it easily next turn. Then he restarted again and I roll shitty map widely dispersed. Then I just quitted, what a total kurva.

I would like to hear more multiplayer stories from you guys but I guess you are all afraid to step into the pits of vodka induced brain damage.

[Anonymous No.6135368]

>>6134676
Based

[Anonymous No.6135396]

As I read this thread HOTA has really gone to shit!
They shouldn't mess with the resistance eagle eye mechanic, it will only further alienate people that are not hardcore slave like me. It saddens me to hear this news and even although I recently tried to play single player rand multiplayer again now I hesitate to even run the game. I think it also crashed the last time I tried to start HOTA.

On single player I am playing wastelands and I must say I kinda overpowered every other hero with Andrena, she is absolutely monstrous with 3k magic points. However she is slow as fuck. I however Tazar however, but magic is in endgame way more powerfull and indeed all my battles are summoning element and resurrection. I will finish the single player eventually, creating more strong heroes. I also have tazar with 100+ mighty gorgons and 8 azure dragons.

The last multiplayer games were also interesting. I really hate how polish kurva restarts the 1X112 and then next game restarts again. I guess he shits his jumpsuit when I notices I spend half an hour on the first turn with conflux trying to capture phoenix dwelling, i almost succeeded the first turn and would have got it easily next turn. Then he restarted again and I roll shitty map widely dispersed. Then I just quitted, what a total kurva.

I would like to hear more multiplayer stories from you guys but I guess you are all afraid to step into the pits of vodka induced brain damage.

[Anonymous No.6135554]

What are the recommended versions of the first three Might and Magic games?

[Anonymous No.6135570]

>>6135554
Apple ][ or MAC versions for looking best and if you want to do M&M1 and then 2 then you really want to import the save game to save on some of the early game tedium in MM2
Just the DOS versions work very well too, for MM1 you might want Grid Cartographer
The NES / SNES ports of MM1 / 2 aren't too bad either, but you can't import your party.

[Anonymous No.6135589]

[Anonymous No.6135658]

>>6135589
Why are HoMM 3 creatures so much harder to identify by silhouette than pokemon?

[Anonymous No.6135680]

>>6135589
IT'S PIKACHU!

[Anonymous No.6135784]

>>6134705
They had some shit names for most units in the Cove town as well. Their PLs working on this, after all.

[Anonymous No.6135947]

>>6135589
It’s bleh!

[Anonymous No.6136031]

>Swamp has the most Terrain penalty, 175% to represent how difficult it is to traverse a swamp, and how inhospitable the area can be
OK
>Sand and Snow have 150%, still incredibly difficult to travel through with harsh terrain and temperatures, but at least there's no mosquito
OK
>Rough and Wasteland are 125% for their craggy terrain
OK
>Lava, volcanic ash terrain propagated by the Kreegans that makes conditions hospitable for them and inhospitable to everyone else, is incredibly craggy and hot, has no terrain penalty
???

[Anonymous No.6136662]

> mechanics
> armadillos
> robots

[Anonymous No.6136709]

>>6136662
MAXIMUM VASYAN

[Anonymous No.6136726]

>>6136709
Play wog ruski boi

[Anonymous No.6136805]

>>6134772
desu those things existing wouldn't make women soldiers any less unrealistic

[Anonymous No.6136830]

>>6136805
why? enroth culture is clearly different from earth culture. taboos about women fighting might not exist in this culture.

[Anonymous No.6136859]

Full render dropped for the Armadillo and Bellwether Armadillo. Thoughts on his design?

And if any slavs here wanna translate
from vk dot com
/@h3hota-bronenosec

[Anonymous No.6136981]

I don't know if any of you guys watch AbsoluteZero on yt, he claims that he is a good player (I'm not that good at the game and can't judge), but he claims that the new nerfs HOTA introduced are horrible, that they know very little about the game and that they disabled the possibility to ever use a Magic hero effectively in PVP since Might was always a favourite, and is now in turn even stronger than it was before. Would you say that's true?

[Anonymous No.6137008]

>>6136981
I'm gonna take a shot in the dark and presume he's just a grumpy old man yelling at change. Remember that Heroes has largely been 100% unchanged for well over a decade, any change is going to seem fucked. If there ends up being something sketchy I'm sure they'll tweak it back next patch. It's sort of a pick your poison. Something that everyone gets used to and never changes, or something that changes and upsets someone somewhere.

That said the Necropolis and Conflux nerfs will forever be HotA's biggest and most game changing ones, everything since has paled in comparison.

[Anonymous No.6137034]

>>6136981
Depending on the template. On h3dm control heroes are still the best. On jc not sure anymore

[Anonymous No.6137075]

>>6132881
>Random shit added to the game good
>Pushing one and only meta into the game good
>Terribly unbalanced town good
>More of pushing of one meta only good
People like you are bunch of smooth-brain retards, reducing the game into binary non-choices

[Anonymous No.6137076]

>>6137075
But honestly, lets continue:
>Ignoring ancient bugs supporting the one and only meta good
>Ignoring ancient balance issues good
>Ignoring skill issues ever since good
>Ignoring own bugs good
Truly, HotA is such marvelous mod, with fantastic choice of priorities and focus on improvements of the most important stuff!

[Anonymous No.6137079]

>>6137075
>Random shit added to the game good
None of it is random, everything has purpose.
>Pushing one and only meta into the game good
As opposed to having one and only pre-HotA meta?
>Terribly unbalanced town good
Yeah let's ignore that Necro and Conflux in SoD are so fucking bad you can't play them competitively becuase no one will let you
>More of pushing of one meta only good
There is by definition of the word only one meta, and if it wasn't changing with this patch, people wouldn't be whining so much

[Anonymous No.6137120]

>>6136662
The Robot looks alright but something about the Armadillo seems off. I think the sprite is almost too detailed?

[Anonymous No.6137216]

Is there any decent map of Enroth? The planet?

[Anonymous No.6137234]

>>6134676
>>6134705
>>6136859
I gotta say that I'm not too fond of the armadillo design overall. The biggest problem is that, well, it doesn't look like an armadillo in the first place. Let's break it down:
a) Their armor lacks the distinct armored plates and is instead covered with generic-looking scales;
b) Their snout was replaced by a beak;
c) Their backs now have upright plates;
d) The upgraded version has a head frill.
In fact, all these things make it look like some sort of a deformed triceratops. They could've just stuck to the 'M&M Clouds of Xeen' design, like in the pic - it still looks like an armadillo without looking goofy. And if you wanna be really pedantic, they should only ball up when defending (which could also be expressed as an additional defense bonus in-game). However, I'm okay with them rolling up to their enemies:
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lwalj8xE-Jw

[Anonymous No.6137304]

>>6137234
I think most of the new stuff in at least the newest patch looks a little bit off, like HOTA crew didn't quite get the level of detail right and made them too detailed.

[Anonymous No.6137347]

>playing vs AIs as necro
>harvesting multiple dragonfly nests for wyverns and skeles each turn
funneling multiple castles of units into main hero
>beat two AIs and the rest still out boom you in army size and magic

meanwhile on youtube,

>"I'm going to beat this using only the ballista."

[Anonymous No.6137352]

>>6137304
That too. It looks like the armadillo is the biggest offender (so far), since the flamethrower girl and the elf here >>6136662 have approximately the same level of detail put into them, i.e. they have simpler textures and more stark shading.

And since I've mentioned the flamethrower girl, what do you anons think her attack would be like? Single-target, two-hex (like the breath attack dragons and phoenixes have) or AoE (like Liches and Magogs)?

[Anonymous No.6137408]

>>6137304
In the article comments they did say there was some smaller touch ups to the sprite they intended to do

[Anonymous No.6137649]

>>6136662
>>6137408
Maybe the Basilisk sprite would be a good point of reference for the Armadillo's design touch-ups, because like the Armadillo it is animal-based and has mainly 1 color.

[Anonymous No.6137656]

>>6136981
AbsoluteZero is a god at Civ4 but his opinions on the multiplayer HotA meta are unfounded, especially considering that Magic heroes have been considered a very powerful choice for a while now (Orb of Inhibition and Recanter Cloak bans helped a lot, as well as allowing you to reroll bad spell picks in the mage guild) whereas the current batch of nerfs are fair to both sides of the spectrum - Intelligence was turning A LOT of games into resurrection / CL / implo / summon elemental standstills, and the current Slow nerf is going to make it much less of an instawin for both sides (but particularly Might heroes who boast low SP and Knowledge and often don't even learn Wisdom, so they rely on mass versions of low level spells).

With multiple powerful starter heroes still being magicians (Thant, Deemer, Solmyr, Grindan, Luna, Ciele, maybe Eovacius?) and the possibility to deliver a shitload of value from a late-game magic hero still being there, I don't see anything to negate that notion.

The main issue with Magic heroes has always been that they ramp up much slower and are harder to use, and also reliant on wells. High Attack heroes with a strong shooter stack can kill a lot more early on, whereas Magic heroes have to blow mana. And, of course, back in SoD, your wizard was utterly worthless if the enemy grabbed a magic-banning artifact anywhere, not to mention all the random shit like Badge of Courage (a pretty common morale trinket)'s undocumented immunity to all mind affecting spells including Berserk.
>>6137008
>Necropolis and Conflux nerfs will forever be HotA's biggest and most game changing ones
Were they? Because they're still high tier towns.

[Anonymous No.6138547]

>>6137656
>Were they? Because they're still high tier towns.
The nerfs they got were easily the biggest and most gamechanging HotA introduced. Necromancy was halved across the board. The fact that they're still very good towns is just a showcase of how good they were so that, even with massive nerfs, they're still high tier.

[Anonymous No.6138971]

The armadillo is officially /ourmammal/

[Anonymous No.6139010]

>>6138971
>not based gorgon

[Anonymous No.6139049]

For those who has alot of trouble with HoTa crashing - my buddy said that it seems that water maps cause crashes, so I've been playing random maps with water set to "none" and it has worked for me - no crashes at all

[Anonymous No.6139325]

>>6134772
Can you even tell the gender of those magical floating eyes, dragons, unicorns? For all you know, every dragon in the game is a female.

[Anonymous No.6139327]

>>6138971
You mean the Mighty Gorgons.

[Anonymous No.6139405]

>>6139325
The Evil Eyes are artifical creations so they're probably genderless

What's the lore for Dragons anyways? I know in MM they aren't sentient but are they artifical in anyways? Any "lol it's a robot" or anything with them?

[Anonymous No.6139548]

>>6139405
I'm not well versed in the lore so there could be stuff I dont know or don't remember,but Im pretty sure theyre just natural monsters. In ubisoft's new lore those theyre like gods. The world was created by some dragon and all the elemental dragons are her children.

[Anonymous No.6139648]

>>6139405
Agar absolutely created Evil Eyes to fuck them

[Anonymous No.6140368]

>>6139049
>my buddy said it so it must be true
>I rework all the maps i made anyways so they have as little water as possible

Mapmaker's life

[Anonymous No.6140453]

>>6132876
Red orb was unfun item that prevented using mages as main heroes in mp.

[Anonymous No.6140487]

>>6134726
The worst part about gold and diamond golems is speed penalty on snow.

[Anonymous No.6140564]

How do I into HoMM3? I don't understand what to do.

[Anonymous No.6140574]

>>6140564
>Get units
>Lots of units topple lesser units
>Some units have super good abilities
>Use magic, magic is super great with spells like slow and haste
Practice a lot in the easy mode and get a hang of it, you'll get it eventually.

[Anonymous No.6140713]

>>6140564
learn russian and start watching streams

[Anonymous No.6140745]

>>6140564
>How do I into HoMM3?
Play through the tutorial. That's really it. Don't bother with high-level strats just yet and try to experiment and discover the game in your own pace. Alternatively, watch English-speaking Youtubers like TheKnownWorld or Meridian to get the hang of what they're doing.
>https://www.youtube.com/user/TheKnownWorld/playlists
>https://www.youtube.com/user/martindzurenko/playlists

[Anonymous No.6142523]

Can someone explain what's the deal with this map?
How the hell can you kite six stacks of Zombies with 14 Grand archers and one Pixie without losing anything?

[Anonymous No.6142530]

>>6142523
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3V8CYU6qE7s
Something like this

[Anonymous No.6143275]

>>6142530
Fucking Slavs and their Sun-Tzu's-Art-of-HoMM bullshit exploits and I say this as a Slav.

[Anonymous No.6143357]

>>6143275
There's another, much easier map like this one in base Hota.
I think it boils down to having just one archer or swordsman at the start, carefuly picking fights and trying not to lose a single stack. It was like a small adventure. Can't remember the name tho

[Anonymous No.6143394]

>>6143357
Oh, I just played that one. It's called Talent Shortage. You start with one pikeman and a ton of speed artifacts.

[Anonymous No.6144119]

>>6139405
> What's the lore for Dragons anyways? I know in MM they aren't sentient
They are sentient, in M&M 8 you can even take dragons in your party and recieve quests from a dragon.

[Anonymous No.6144360]

>>6144119
Dragons are so sentient they have a fucking king in HoMM2, not sure where that anon got the idea they aren't.

[Anonymous No.6144570]

>>6144360
Also in H3 Mutare (apparently) keeps all of her sentience and intelligence when she turns into a Dragon.

[Anonymous No.6144819]

How do I get Mutare gf anons?

[Anonymous No.6145620]

>>6144360
I swear there’s something in homm3 that states dragons aren’t sentient, I think it was in the one armageddon blade campaign

[Anonymous No.6146202]

>>6145620
in Dungeons and Devils there is a mission to kill Golden Dragon Queen that was supporting elves

[Anonymous No.6146345]

>>6145620
Dracon's campaign kind of treats them like they're just animals

[Anonymous No.6146474]

>>6146345
maybe they're just not in the mood to talk to the literal Dragon Slayer. Only cucks try to talk down the horror movie slasher.

[Anonymous No.6147607]

I had the weirdest dream that sharks and lobstrosities were in the new hota update as neutral units and was extremely disappointed when I woke up and found out they weren't.

[Anonymous No.6147801]

>>6146474
I love the guy at the pool party in Elm Street 2 who tries this

[Anonymous No.6149136]

>>6147801
Based

[Anonymous No.6149581]

>>6147607
just play H4, lots of monstrosities there

[Anonymous No.6151128]

TIL: you can arrange troops in towns through the status window without entering the town screen.
Also, fortress + swamp is damn comfy for some reason.

[Anonymous No.6151374]

>>6151128
Turns out you can also do the same with heroes' troops.

[Anonymous No.6151392]

>>6143275
Cyka blyat, tovarisch

[Anonymous No.6151408]

>>6151128
What town is it here?

[Anonymous No.6151425]

Opinions of this series vs the total war series. Older vs younger.

Depth of game? Options? Length? Gameplay? I would assume total war has an advantage on battles due to more strategy involved.

[Anonymous No.6151441]

>>6151425
They're completely different beasts. I dont know what you're even expecting.

[Anonymous No.6151450]

>>6151408
Fortress without a fort.

[Anonymous No.6151451]

>>6151425
HoMM : fantasy.
Total War : "realistic".

[Anonymous No.6151452]

>>6151450
So, it's like FORTLESS?

[Anonymous No.6151454]

>>6151452

[Anonymous No.6151472]

>>6151441
For exploring the map, economy building, city building and so on.

>>6151451
Total war is also fantasy such as warhammer total war. Not to mention all the fantasy mods esp for medieval 2.

[Anonymous No.6151493]

>>6151472
Mods are never relevant.

[Anonymous No.6151597]

>>6151493
You ignore the main part about warhammer fantasy being official for total war so the whole "it's not fantasy" was incorrect. The rest is just circular reasoning. Thanks for the reply but I would appreciate someone with an IQ over 75 replying.

[Anonymous No.6151635]

>>6151597
Try to act like your own IQ is over 50 first.

[Anonymous No.6151637]

>>6151128
I'm pretty sure it's a feature from the HD mod. Vanilla homm3 doesn't do that.

[Anonymous No.6151642]

>>6151635
Stop shitting up the board you underage troll who has crossed over from b.

[Anonymous No.6151649]

>>6151452

[Anonymous No.6151651]

>>6151642
You sound upset. Calm down first, otherwise you'll sound like a major hypocrite.

[Anonymous No.6151805]

How do I git gud at mapmaking?

[Anonymous No.6151847]

>>6151805
Practice. Make some maps. The first ones won't be good, but you'll learn from your mistakes and get better.

[Anonymous No.6152783]

>>6139325
>For all you know, every dragon in the game is a female.
There are Dragon Queens at the very least, according to SoD.

[Anonymous No.6153227]

Does anyone know exactly what font is used on the title screen of Heroes 3? The one used for the logo, for the menu items, etc.

[Anonymous No.6153287]

>>6153227
There's a really good chance that the font was custom-made for the games and isn't available to the public.

[Anonymous No.6153293]

>>6153287
In that scenario, what is the closest equivalent?

[Anonymous No.6153379]

>>6153293
I dunno, you could try to google something like 'Heroes III font' or something and see what you can find.

[Anonymous No.6153721]

Do anybody have the "conflict in" of Heroes III/MM7?
The one with illusions, clones and first person of the swordman?

[Anonymous No.6153737]

>>6151805
>How do I git gud at mapmaking?
Remember that there's certain ways to how the game is played and that totally creative map isn't usually a good one. Think of how a player would progress through the map, or players if it's intended for PVP, and then fill it with resources and objects of interest that would allow a progression. The most basic maps always start with woodmill and ore pit nearby because economics of the game expect you to have those. You can further enhance the progression by splitting the map into logical areas separated by guards of predetermined strength, quests or other limitations. Look at maps that come prepackaged with the game and try to imitate or rearranged elements of them. DON'T use H1 and H2 maps (other than campaign) maps as reference, NWC weren't quite sure what they were doing and did a lot of stuff that was creative and feelycrafty but not all of those maps are fun to play as a result. Always keep in mind how you want your map to be played from start to finish, then you'll see results.

[Anonymous No.6153756]

>>6153721
I gotchu anon!

>>6153737
Really solid post right there. Making a map in Heroes III that's playable, balanced and visually-pleasing to boot is quite feasible, it's just the matter of how much time you're willing to spend on making it.

[Anonymous No.6155347]

So these are all on sale, any reason to pick up any HoMM game besides 3? I'm not sure what the big differences are, but I've heard a lot of love for 2 as well.

I'm totally new to the series. I've been planning a playthrough of the mainline games as well but haven't looked into HoMM properly.

[Anonymous No.6155947]

>>6155347
4 isn't really HoMM game, but i like it anyway.
With 1 and 2 can't really say too much as its nostalgia kicking in and I would be biased

[Anonymous No.6156004]

>>6155347
>>6155347
If you like playing through campaigns for challenge and story, give H4 a shot.
If you just want H3, but with animated town screens, try H5.
If you dislike whole RNG aspect and you won't feel shitty with giving Ubuysoft money, try H6
H2 has decent artstyle and some good things too, down to the fact there's another great mod alongside Horn of the Abyss called Succession Wars being developed that just turns H3 into H2, just with more units and H3 engine.

[Anonymous No.6156023]

>>6156004
>and you won't feel shitty with giving Ubuysoft money, try H6
As if money from H1-5 go to someone else.

[Anonymous No.6156084]

>>6155347
Heroes 2 has a better soundtrack than Heroes 3.

[Anonymous No.6156191]

>>6156004
7 still exist, don't ignore it

[Anonymous No.6156194]

>>6156084
depends on the version of the game.
Some town themes got butchered for worse compositions. Although it's kind of funny how in some versions Knight's theme is just score/victory theme and in some it's just H3 Castle theme.

[Anonymous No.6156196]

>>6156191
I'll aknowledge that game's existance whenever AI's turn will end in that game. So probably never.

[Anonymous No.6156423]

>>6156004
...but in general if I'm not sure which to pick, I should be safe just sticking with 3? Seems to be the most popular.

[Anonymous No.6156456]

>>6156423
Definitely, it's by far the most popular for a reason. 4 gets weird and after that there's too much warcraftshit influence. 2 is incredibly comfy but shows its age more and the mechanics are less refined.

[Anonymous No.6156894]

>>6155947
>>6156004
>>6156456
Well ty for the tips. Have bought a lot of the main series too so hoping I'll have fun with those!

[Anonymous No.6156979]

What's the ideal density for H3 maps? Do you enjoy tight, corridor-like maps with little freedom of movement but plenty to do, or do you prefer maps with lots of empty space? Something in between?

I've been fucking around the map editor lately and noticed how much the designs differ and the effect this has on gameplay. If it takes you 2+ days just to reach the nearest saw mill / ore mine you need to adjust your strategy accordingly. On the other hand maps that are too narrow can end up feeling claustrophobic.

[Anonymous No.6157065]

>>6156979
>What's the ideal density for H3 maps?
Depends on what you're making.
If you're making maps which put emphasis on a story (Sander's Folly, Outpost of Progress etc) or on testing the players combat prowess (Wayfarer), then it makes sense to make your maps tight so as to limit the player from accessing areas they're still not ready for.
For multiplayer maps, I would go with the top-left variant as to allow the player to scout out their environment easily and have more space to maneuver or bypass their opponents. The bottom-right variant is also solid from a gameplay standpoint (especially if you wanna play a smaller map) but it pure eye cancer.

When I make my maps (well, concepts really, since I almost never finish my stuff), I tend to focus on visuals more than I do on how balanced or practical it is. Objects on the map should have some space to breathe, unless you want to achieve something by placing them next to each other (putting a tavern and trading post next to each other to simulate a village). So, I guess that would be something like in your top-right or bottom-left image.

[Anonymous No.6157084]

>>6156979
Top right hits the sweet spot imho

[Anonymous No.6157106]

>>6156004
>Succession Wars being developed that just turns H3 into H2, just with more units and H3 engine.

So THATS what its called. I've been wondering for ages.

[Anonymous No.6157220]

>>6155347
Played H2 a lot in 96-99, played H1 for the first time this summer (returning to it now). Despite the same art style, H1 plays differently from H2. It is more rough (much less stuff available, no roads for example) and campaign is repetetive, still an absolutely mindblowing game for 95.

[Anonymous No.6157496]

>>6156979
Is it bad that I know exactly the names of each of these maps?
Also I'd say bottom left.

[Anonymous No.6157832]

Dragon power

[Anonymous No.6157910]

>>6156979
I like the simplicity of the RoE maps.

[Anonymous No.6158062]

>>6151392
>when your hero starts with 12 level 1s and 3 level 2s instead of 16 level 1s and 5 level 2s

[Anonymous No.6158112]

>>6157220
I loved that when you backtrack, there is no reverse animation so your hero is just moonwalking

[Anonymous No.6159097]

>>6157106
The H2 art style is so campy.

Hundreds of units with different abilities and effects, new castle defense modifications, actual variety in heroes, actual economic decisions to be made, and a roguelike depth of game play is my dream.

I understand how well H3 works without bloat. It has near balance and works multiplayer. But the game really only cranks up the fun factor for about a half dozen turns in a scenario for me, while all the others 2-4 month turns are micro managing.

[Anonymous No.6159463]

>>6157832
Please stop torturing those innocent pixels.

[Anonymous No.6159490]

>>6159097
The art style is less about camp and more about how the design as a process was made. Part of the reason why the H3 units suddenly look so good is predominately the result of first making 3D models of them and only after that making 2D sprites. Same with buildings: first modelling them in 3D, then working them to 2D and helping themselves with tracing.
For comparison, for H2, they've just draw the units within existing tech limitations and resolution, done.

[Anonymous No.6159505]

>>6159490
H3 units look good? That's certainly a take. I think the most common consensus is that H2 hand-drawn artstyle, while cartoony, was quite a lot more appealing and H3 only chose darker, pre-rendered graphics because 3D visuals were taking hold and it was a marketing move.
For what it's worth H2 used 3D modelling for its artwork as well, town screens were actually done using 3D models painted over, you can still see crappy sky and moutain textures reminiscent of early 3D graphics in there, because they didn't give them as much attention as they did to the buildings.

[Anonymous No.6159879]

>>6159463
They will survive. Not pixelly enough with 640x480, it actually looks better with this filter.

Last campaign map is nice, it is hard enougn to get interesting due to peculiar castles positioning that are hard to defend. Spent some months raising these dragons and trying to hold 2 castles and a gold mine at the same time. Facerolling the map after that.

[Anonymous No.6160629]

>>6159879
>it actually looks better with this filter.
absolute pleb spotted
use advmame2x instead

[Anonymous No.6161017]

>can't add visiting hero

Am I doing something wrong or is this a bug?

[Anonymous No.6161019]

>>6161017
In Map specifications you have to enable visiting heroes

[Anonymous No.6161020]

>>6159505
>I think the most common consensus is that H2 hand-drawn artstyle, while cartoony, was quite a lot more appealing and H3 only chose darker, pre-rendered graphics because 3D visuals were taking hold and it was a marketing move.
there is no such consensus you H2 fag

[Anonymous No.6161271]

>>6161020
ok zoomer

[Anonymous No.6161285]

>>6159505
I like the H3 art much better because it's more "realistic" looking, while still staying in the fantasy domain. And because the sprites were downscaled so much, it didn't immediately "click" that they were renders - except for some of the really badly done ones (giants and golems come to mind, but then they were SUPPOSED to be constructs).

H2s sprites have their charm too but H3 just does everything better. The only thing I'm missing is that Castle doesn't have badass caped paladins knights.

[Anonymous No.6161656]

intredasting fact

AI is afraid of mass spells so if you for example cast mass blind on one unit and hide behind it, other enemy units won't chase you and will turn into the defense mode so you can kill them with spells

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj5WSdaLtAY

[Anonymous No.6161985]

>>6161019
I see, thank you!

[Anonymous No.6162384]

>>6160629
Weird, I don't have this filter for some reason, and don't want to update dosbox.

These birds were guarding something.

[Anonymous No.6162882]

>>6161285
>I like the H3 art much better because it's more "realistic" looking,
Congratulations, the marketing team got you, tasteless zoomer pleb.