/vr/ - Retro Games

Music ranking:

Homm 4 > Homm 3 = Homm 2.

Rest are irrelevant. What is your favourite piece of music in the Homm universe?

>>5349339
People disregard homm4 music just because some tracks were based on free samples(and you can hear very similar tracks in different games).

I'm starting to rediscover the magic of these games.
I spent to much fucking time playing HoMM2, without winning a single match against the AI, and now I won two.

>>5349438
Yeah, it's rough in the beginning when you don't know spells, units and such stuff yet.

>>5349447
More like "It's rough when you don't speak English"

>>5349339
I like lots of Homm 2's tracks but they often get to me in terms of dustiness.

I use Homm 3's in my TTRPG sessions.

>>5349340
I don't even mind it that much, I love 4's soundtrack to bits. 3 gets bonus points for being good AND original though.

>>5349340
>>5349931
it's only terrain themes (excluding Lava, subterrain and maybe some more).

Castle themes, menu, combat - all those are pure Romero's compositions

>>5349339
fuck off. Music in every heroes game is great. Particular heroes game may be good, may be bad, but music is always good.

>>5349991
People usually point out at sea theme, and it's actually the best version. I wonder how the original sample sounds like.

>>5350007
wonder no more
https://soundcloud.com/nyarcel/sets/amg-complete-celt

I actually like some of them more compared to H4's versions.

>>5350045
Is there more goosebumps inducing music?

bleh

>>5350298
ssssssacha

>>5350298
schliiing

>>5350298
bleh

>>5350335
bleh

>>5350349
bleh

>>5350387
shsh

>>5350387
bluegh

Necropolis has the best SFX

I've been looking on various slav forums, that one interview, and so on about information on the new Factory Town in HotA, and from what I piece together, I'm guessing this is going to be the lore/story behind the faction from everything they've said

So the Halflings had their homelands wrecked by the Kreegans as is canon, but these Halflings seemed to have been "taken under" by Wizards/Warlocks (I'm guessing Warlocks will be the terminology they use, but the town is clearly based moreso on Wizard Town from Heroes 2), who use them as the lowest of the lower classes working in factories and shit, while the Warlocks are the wealthy ruling class. They also hire some of the Sea Dogs/Pirates as mercenary Cowboys/Bounty Hunters. The town is really isolationist, focusing inward on managing their people and machines. Their campaign will apparently focus on that class divide.

Also Factory apparently will get a Tier 1 shooter unit so damn. Just from what they've shown off I would so far consider this a better execution of the Wizard Town than Tower, God Tower is such a boring and messy faction art direction-wise.

>>5349339
I really liked the OST in 6 and clash of heroes
perhaps even more than OST from 3

>>5349339
>Homm 4 > Homm 3 = Homm 2
HoMM4's music is top comfy but I can't give it the top spot since it used a bunch of sampled music. Here, listen to this:
>https://soundcloud.com/nyarcel/sets/amg-complete-celt
Sounds familiar, right?

>What is your favourite piece of music in the Homm universe?
That's a tough question! I'd say that my favorite music piece from all HoMM games is the HoMM3's Stronghold theme:
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jibsat1amLg
I think the main reason for liking it so much is that the clash of barbarian aesthetics and the soaring music caught me by surprise when I first played it (HoMM3 was the first TBS I've played).

>>5349340
>People disregard homm4 music just because some tracks were based on free samples (and you can hear very similar tracks in different games)
Fun fact, Paul Romero got into legal trouble for using those songs, but that's mostly because of 3DO's shoddy corporate bureaucracy:
>https://www.eluukkanen.com/social-media-posts/how-a-comment-on-a-song-can-get-someone-sued-composer-of-heroes-might-and-magic-in-trouble

>>5350606
>perhaps even more than OST from 3
It's okay to have bad taste anon! I'm joking of course, MMH6 had some great pieces as well.

>>5349335
Why does 5 get so much hate in the west? In russia we are very prod of having been given the honor to make a sequel to our most favorite series

>>5351290
The switch to 3D was clunky at best, the creature design is a step down. It was a rather mediocre game that some people praised as being the best thing since sliced bread since they had such a hate boner for IV.

>>5351290
? V is considered the second best game in the series by many.

For me its mostly that it's very slow, I somewhat dislike the new skill system, the shift from hex grid to square grid as well as it just being kind of ugly-looking.

>>5351290
I like V. For me it is one of those flawed games with a lot of potential. It has a shitton of problems - especially the vanilla expansion-less version, but at the same time expanions introduce some neat ideas as well. And 5.5 builds on that. Bigger racial diversity is not a bad of an idea - with every faction having it's own mechanical gimmick. I especially like the Stronghold rage mechanic. It discourages turtling and forces offensive gameplay.
And alternative upgrades to the units can make for interesting strategies. Even if some of the upgrades are borderline redundant.

It's that time of the week again.
PIXIES SPANKING TIME!!!

>>5351290
5 is my second favourite after 3 despite its flaws, but I'm a Pole so not very 'west' by russian standards.

>>5351332
Mine would probably go 3>2=5 (with the expansions)>4>1. The rest can go fuck itself. And 4 wasn't THIS bad imo. It sucked compared to 3, but on it's own merits it wasn't too horrendous. And I simply can't go back to HoMM 1 no matter how hard I try.

And I think Poland is the furthest "west" you can go with HoMM series in terms of popularity. I don't think it has a ton of following in US for instance, aside from some niche fandoms.
Bo głupi Amerykanie się nie znajo.

>>5351294
>>5351290

I personally love how colourful the design is on HoMMV, and how it's made in a style that doesn't deteriorate over the years. My biggest irk with the game is the switch from an hex grid to a square one and the lack of depth in the overworld gameplay. Let's hope the russkies manage to leak the source code one of these days.

>>5351353

Also I swear this is the best menu intro in the series

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OwS8Np8UAc

>>5351358
The remix of Dies Irae is cool - although my favourite will always be HoF one.

And desu, V had some really badass music at times. Like the Haven/Necro/Sylvan theme. And 3D town screens were the coolest shit ever back in the day.

>>5351364
>The remix of Dies Irae is cool
Agreed, though HoMM3 theme has much more charm.
>V had some really badass music at times. Like the Haven/Necro/Sylvan theme
Replace the Necro with Inferno theme and I'd fully agree.
>And 3D town screens were the coolest shit ever back in the day
What do you mean 'were'? I can't think of any other TBS game that bothered with creating a full 3d model of a city that allows you to rotate a camera, not to mention the upgrades.

>>5351364
Oh, I forgot to mention the Fortress theme!
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QC1kD63fZMA
Also, HoMM5 Fortress is comfier than the HoMM3 one, prove me wrong. Hint: you don't have to, I love both equally for different reasons.

>>5351374
Yeah, imagine my disappointment when HoMM 6 came back to lazy, 2d town screens. And not particularly good looking ones. Animated 3d town screens were one of the nicest features of HoMM V and those were such a step backwards.

>>5351406
And remember they had to be patched in because originally the towns were just shitty popups showing one building.

Speaking of Heroes V.
How much shit will break if I try to run a base campaign in 5.5? I've heard that campaign AI breaks in 5.5.

As for why I wish to run a campaign - let's say I'm masochistic.

>>5351610
The campaign breaks due to TotE in vanilla campaigns and Quantomas AI mod in general.
The only big change 5.5 does for campaigns is toning down the specializations of campaign-only heroes (since they are the part of the normal game now), which can be a big change, since almost all homm5 campaigns are built around the main hero having OP specialization and wrecking shit.
Better play semi-vanilla by installing pre-TotE campaigns mod.

>>5351290
Personally i didn't like it, the map was very confusing to me, and thematically it felt more like warcraft than homm
I really liked the campaigns tho

>>5351290
Clunky 3D and interface. Playing it non-casually is just a chore.

>>5351967
I actually like 5 - but I do have to admit that underground maps are bullshit to navigate due to this 3D enviroment.
There is always something that blocks your view and you keep rotating the camera in order to find a proper path. It's bullshit.

Started playing campaigns from Armageddon's Blade for the first time in my life in January. Since I'm almost done (currently on the last campaign) I've got to say they aren't that fun. Except for the titular set of scenarios and 'Playing with Fire' there's almost no story in them. What's worse is that they have stupid limits like 'low level cap' or 'no tavern' bullshit. 'Dragon Slayer' and 'Festival of Life' are particularly bad with these, holy shit.

I have beaten Chronicles a few times and I love them for their storytelling and simple design. Are campaigns in Shadow of Death closer to Chronicles or AB in terms of storytelling and gameplay?

>>5352117
SoD can be really challeging and all about raising 5000 powerliches or fighting against them.
How do I get chronicles? Is it a map pack or a standalone game?

>>5352167
Buy it off GoG and let Ubisoft take the cut.

>>5352167
It's standalone but you can find them all as custom campaigns.

>>5351956
I mean - HoMM V is thematically more a blatant Warhammer ripoff than anything - both in themes and artstyle. To the point that Nival almost got sued by Games Workshop.

And I still don't know how they managed to get away with the Dungeon being almost a carbon copy of Warhammer Druchii.

>>5351610
The improved AI mod "breaks" several campaign missions.
It works fine for missions where enemy heroes have more or less a "free roam" movement since it seems that's what the modded AI was optimized around.
But every time a mission has a hero that is supposed to patrol between two points (like first vanilla necro mission) or that is supposed to go from point A to point B (like first vanilla sylvan mission), the AI doesn't know what to do and just stands indefinitely at one place. You can fix it easily by switching to the regular game .exe for the affected missions and I am pretty sure they will resume their correct movement patterns even if you saved your game in the modded version.

Also I am pretty sure the mod fucks up the first vanilla academy mission, since the enemy you're besieging is pretty damn strong and you're supposed to rely on your summoned creatures, but I think the modded AI is programmed to target your original units first even if the summons are much stronger, because killing your original units will also automatically kill your summoned ones.

TL;DR, if you intend on using the mod that adds vanilla and HoF campaigns to TotE, it's probably better if you play without the improved AI and this also most likely goes for TotE campaigns as well.

>Inferno
>anything but red flag

>Rampart
>anything but green flag

>>5352117
Shadow of Death campaign has a pretty cool story

>>5351279
>elias, he threatened me because of what you wrote to him

>>5351290
The main reason was that the AI was taking 5 minutes (on a good machine, I had a couple over 15) to take its turn on bigger maps. This was completely unacceptable and wasn't fixed until the hype died down by which point opinions were locked in. In addition the English voice acting was truly terrible.

>>5349335
So the pastebin mentions that there HotA but are there other mods that add whole new factions?
Is HotA the only one worth the mention? I feel like that's the case.

>>5349339
2's Sorceress Town Theme, like everybody else with taste:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Z_avCG9tPs
5's remix is quite good too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zk_HZ603QJg

Second place goes to 4's Academy Theme:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3k9fPBM-rPo

>>5352207
>Dungeon being almost a carbon copy of Warhammer Druchii?
As with many other things, Games Workshop did not come up with the concept of cave-dwelling BDSM-loving elves.

>>5352670
VCMI adds new towns (of questionable quality) but VCMI still has a very far road to become playable like original H3.

Other than that, no.
100% playable in completed game is only in hota.

>>5353178
But some Dungeon units are REALLY pushing it in terms of unit visual design. Like the Blood Maiden, Sorceress or the Rider for instance.

>>5353496
Does ripping things from DnD Monster Manual rather than from later works is somehow better? I get it, black-haired pale-skinned "bad" elves are mostly WH thing and is they were white-haired and dark-skinned I bet no one would have said anything.

>>5353517
*considered somehow better

>>5353517
If they were dark-skinned and white-haired, I am pretty sure that WotC would've sued their asses.
The drow (as in: black skinned, white haired, cave dwelling evil elves) are a registered trademark from what I gather. You can still have a dark elf in your game, obviously, due to them being a part of folklore, but this particular combination will get you in trouble.

The same shit with beholders and illithids.

>>5353529
There are tons of dark-skinned-white-haired elves in other fantasy, are you joking?
http://media.wizards.com/2016/downloads/DND/SRD-OGL_V5.1.pdf Drow on page 307
http://www.d20srd.org/faq.htm second question, nowhere it mentions Drow.
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/elf.htm#drow
Also, WotC didn't sued NWC over Beholders in HoMM3.

>>5353553
Now when I'm think about it, WotC bought TSR in 1997 and rolled out 3rd edition in 2000, so I guess if 3DO didn't go bankrupt in 2002 and lasted longer they probably may could have sued them eventually.

>>5352670

Don't listen to this faggot >>5353464. VCMI needs some improvements in regards to AI, but it's nearly feature complete at this point. Extra towns are available in the shape of VCMI specific mods, they're not part of the main package.

So far I'd say the only town mod available for VCMI worth downloading is Bastion. Oasis town project is extremely promising, but progress has been frozen for the time being.

>>5352881
>2's Sorceress Town Theme
The most kino theme. Gives me goosebumps every time I listened to it.

What are some of the best maps for HOMM2?

Reminder that in 3 weeks Homm3 will turn 20 years old. Remember to celebrate in however way you like it. Having a glass of something, beating a campaign for the xth time or looking at fairy spanking porn.

Thanks for all the music replies. The Sea theme in Homm4 is like NIN's Hurt. The original is good and Johnny Cash made a whole different song of it.

>>5352175
>>5352181
Does it have semi-decent plot? Is it hard?

>>5353965
Quality of plot varies. Difficulty is around Shadow of Death tier.

>>5353974
So one-way teleports to your town and quest guards that protect enemy towns from being captured?
It's not really fun.

>>5353762
As far as a fan maps go, THUNK by Timothy Duncan (the same guy who also made Glodheart and Sander's Folly) is a classic. The main gimmick of the map is that there's a very strong hero called THUNK who you need to run away from until you're ready to take him on.

>>5353634
Does this look like "nearly feature complete" to you, bitch?

No multiplayer, no map editor, the AI and RMG would honestly be better off if they weren't implemented at all. Basically, not playable in any way, unless you are an autistic kid who only plays to look at new shitty townscreen made by another autistic kid. And no, it will never be playable, no matter how many Polish dicks you've sucked, anon.

>>5351290
Its laggy as fuck in lategame. I have no problem with any other HoMM game, it only happens in 5 campaign map

>>5354815
I just finished that map, funnily enough. The strat I used was to rush for the main guy with some decent troops, colonize the nearby wizard towns, then just stomp everyone with Titans. Was extremely easy actually, especially if you're aware that you can block portals by sitting on them with throwaway heroes.

I'm not really enjoying custom maps, the AI is so retarded that most of the challenge just comes from overwhelming odds (I guess the divide and conquer required to beat this is kinda fun).

>>5353762
I've only played 4 so far, Last Hope is easy because they give you a dragon at the start, THUNK I mentioned before, and Adjudication was pretty alright but also easy because I skipped the intended path.
Nosferatu was by far the most fun, it's pretty much just lol skeletons but you don't get that experience in the campaign, nor have I played HoMM3 so haven't massed thousands of skellies with Sandro before, maybe it gets boring after a while. Also you don't get many necro reinforcements so you have to be very careful with your main force (namely the 20 vampire lords you start with, but they're pretty self sustainable)
Quite fitting that I finished that map with a rating of Vampire Lord.

So i've started the HOMM 2 Roland campaign and i don't get it, is chain lightning OP or something? I can literally oneshot half of the enemy army first turn.

>>5356020
okay the game just made me ragequit
knight is so shit why it's even in the game
maybe i suck but
>peasants - useless
>crusader - sucks ass
>no mana = no magic
on the other hand warlock is stupid strong with unkillable 200 hp dragons, just 2-3 dragons can fuck up a huge army

>>5356887
Knight doesn't really play like most factions. Basically you are just trying to burst out and get a better town fast. Rangers are really nice, but the city has horrid scaling. At the beginning of most scenarios in the campaign you can choose which type of town to play. Sorceress is pretty straightforward with fast ranged attackers and then an ultra fast T6 unit. Wizard are ok with magi and halflings, but don't really get powerful until Titans. Once you do get a few they will get you through almost any map by themselves.

>>5356887
Crusader is only good against undead.
Also, don't recruit the peasants if you fight against the undead, because if they win and kill a 200 peasant stack, that means they'll get a fuckton of skeletons that are tier one units but have almost tier two stats.

>>5357040
Is it better to have one hero with a doomstack or a few heroes with weaker armies?
Because i usually choose the first option and the second hero just acts as unit courier.

>>5357051
You need more than two heroes.

>>5356887
Knight exists for rushing people and double-building with another town. It's actually pretty decent in the campaign because Leadership and high physical skills, and you almost always start with some really good unit anyway.
>>5357051
Multiple heroes passing the same army to themselves in a chain to maximize map clear speed.

>>5356887
yeah dont pay attention to the others, KNIGHT is the WORST faction there is NO redeeming factor to that faction

>>5351338
>And I simply can't go back to HoMM 1 no matter how hard I try.
It has a really moronic AI. There's one multiplayer map with players separated by mountains and a stack of dragons in the middle. So AI heroes suicide themselves on those dragons starting on day 1.

>>5351290
>we are very prod of having been given the honor to make a sequel to our most favorite series
>sequel

it's not even a sequel
New kAshan universe is shit and disrespect to the series

>>5350045
wtf I hate Paul Romero now?

>>5351338
>I think Poland is the furthest "west" you can go

What about Czech?

>>5359573
I personally like te Ashan universe
It's just a shame we had to give up the old one for this

>>5360716
Ashan is the clichest of all cliche fantasy worlds

>>5360594
>czech
can confirm, overheard colleagues talk about Heroes 3 while I was listening to the Heroes 2 soundtrack

>>5360806
I don't mind. I like how their necromancers build pyramids with spider limbs, and worship spiders.

So I think everybody realized by now that a Heroes game is a tough sale as a PVP game since most games basically boil down to a phase of competitive PVE creeping that ends with one of the players critically failing an action, or simply one PVP fight, with no further counterplay, recovery or strategy. Is this simply a product of H3's style of playing the map (i.e. relying on map objects rather than step by step kingdom development) and can something be done about this in the game design at all?

>>5362761
bringing back FFA on open maps solves the "one PvP fight solves everything" conundrum and would be easier than ever with stuff like simultaneous turns introduced
nature of PvP mostly comes as PvP being understood as a 1v1 fight where both players have their own space to prepare for the final fight in, with little interaction except an occasional skirmish between scouts, but if you increase the number of players and allow them to meet one another early you're in for something different.

>>5350329
why was swordsman such a manlet?

>>5362761
Heroes really loves the "decisive battle" doctrine

>>5362761
If you think about it, RNG elements can really make a difference in pvp.

>yfw Solmyr is in the next Disney movie, played by Will Smith

>>5364207
Will he chain the lightning

>>5364207

>>5364207
The fuck is this abomination?
Stop fucking with my childhood, Disney.

Can you play heroes chronicles with that hd patch?

>>5365541
no

>succ is actually fun after the last patch
>>5365541
yes, you can download them as custom campaigns

How are you supposed to play Wojak's campaign in Heroes IV? Stuck on the first map.
Are you supposed to play it in a more or less linear fashion or going zig-zag with extensive backtracking?

>>5365876
you should spread in all directions

Do you guys ever do games in hota lobby? Seems like it's just all experienced players there.

>>5366436
I only ever play HoMM games with my friends and family. It becomes a completely different game on higher levels of play, and I don't like it.
Also they have too many rules that I can't be bothered to read and memorise that apply to ranked matches if I'm not mistaken.

>>5366252
Only one hero. Don't get town until relatively late.
I understood how you're supposed to play it now, still getting my shit kicked in though.

>>5366505
Also, if you fuck up on map #2, are you supposed to redo the whole campaign?

Is it autosaged?

>>5366621
It looks like threads autosage after a week now.

>>5366703
>>5366621
Yes, it's apparently because of some autistic console peasant spamming the board down about zelda or something

Are they gonna fix the problem of some threads randomly stopping bumping?

>>5367224
It's not random. 7 days is the limit now.
>>5352209
>>5352231
>>5352254

>>5366457
>I only ever play HoMM games with my friends and family
As you should - HoMM is top comfy when played with/against your sibling(s). I still fondly remember the times my sister and I played co-op against AI on normal difficulty.

>>5366436
I only play HoMM on hotseat with friends and beer. Our powerlevel is under highest AI

>>5368268
That's actually how I spent the last new year's eve, would do it again tbqhwy.
>Friend gets a chance to learn expert earth magic with slow in his spellbook
>Goes for basic offense instead
>Attacks me immediately and gets crushed
Now I got the bragging rights whenever HoMM 3 is brought up.

>>5368386
>there are people who don't rush expert slow whenever given the opportunity
Hard to imagine.