/vr/ - Retro Games

Also, let's collect hotkeys, as a lot of people don't know about them:

e - end turn
Enter - "tick" button (exit town, etc)
w - wait in battle
d - defend in battle, dig in adventure map
space - activate object when you are already standing on it
arrow keys, numpad 4,8,6,2 - move hero
numpad 7-9-1-3 - in 45-135-225-325 degs
You can move on objects to pick them up/activate them. Also you can schedule actions, like after you selected something to be built in your town, you can enter-e while the animation is going to exit the town, then later end your turn

What was the official patch that introduced balance changes, like lizardman warriors dealing 2-5 damage? I have gold edition (all expansions etc) and executable is supposedly version 3.2, but none of the changes to creature stats are applied.

>>690231
You need version 4.0 iirc

>>690260
Dear anon, where can I get that version?

>>690282
Get heroes 3 Complete

>>690292
Thank you, good sir!
*turning into Sandro*
Hahaha! You fool! You told me where I can find last piece of the old powerfull artifact! I'll spare your insignificant life for this amusing betrayal!

>Someone let the last thread 404

>>690830
Muh bad.

Didn't think it needed bumping before I went to sleep, was dead when I awoke.

>>690219
>space - activate object when you are already standing on it
You mean I don't have to move around and then back onto it?
Holy shit this is brilliant

>>690854

Ah well, we might get this one to 3 weeks too.

>>690870

Yeah, it's real handy.

>>690830
The last thread was like a month old.

Anyone tried the Horn of the Abyss mod?
New base is only in Russian, but they're done an incredible job.

>>690916
Just did it. I don't speak communism, good thing that most of the game is in motherfucking English.

It has some graphic issues thou.

>>690970

>>690970
Oh wow I've never had that issue. Just saw that there's a version 1.2 now. It might resolve that.

>>690916

Does it add anything other than the new faction?

>>690830
It hit the bump limit. I would have saved it.

>>690870
I did not know this, thank you anon.

[ ] skeletons
[ ] don't skeletons

>>691342
>most of your lineup is elementals unaffected by morale
>only 72 pixies

Might as well, at least you'll get a good t1 stack after a few fights.

>>691234
Changes the way the pikemen/orcs look. I think 1.2 reduces phoenix growth/week. I think there are some bonus structures but I can't think of them off the top of my head.

>>691365
>only 72 pixies
I had more... but you know, Throng of Naga.

>>691385
Find another one of those and you'll have a few hundred skeletons instead.

Is this like lords of magic?

is everybody here from east europe?

>>691462
No, I'm British.

>>691462
Central Europe here.

>>691462
Nope, west Europe born in slavland.

>>691576
What kind of slav are you?
-knight slav
-wizard slav
-forest slav
-hell slav
-bone slav
-underground slav
-barbarian slav
-swamp slav
-elemental slav?

>>691807
Neckbeard wizard slav, of course.

>>691807
>-barbarian slav
Isn't that a pleonasm?

Anyway, who's your favourite hero?
Crag Hack here.

>>691856
Brissa, fuck the police.

>>691856
Probably Jeddite.

>>691856
Tazar

I just realized Ghost Dragons have worst stats than Phoenixes

>>693120
Yeah, good thing the faction doesn't really need them with their top tier Dread Knights.

>>693345
>dread knights
>not Naga Queens

>>693345
Honestly I think necropolis would be underpowered without Necromancy. Sure Dread Knights are good but it doesn't really compensate for having the shittiest tier 7 unit in the game

>>693495
>necromancer faction underpowered without necromancy
No shit, who would have guessed? It's not like they are built around their signature skill or anything.

>>693518
Yeah I guess that was a stupid thing to say. What I mean is, I don't like the way Necropolis is balanced. Necromancy is completely overpowered, while their creatures are too weak.

>>693534
They aren't weak, it's just that they mostly rely on numbers. Quantity has a quality of its own and all that. Even so, Dread Knights and Liches are great and Vampire Lords arguably even too good. They need to have some weaknesses too.

>Not very good at strategy games
>Try HoMaM for the first time this weekend
>It's now Sunday night and I'm halfway through the second campaign mission with lots of restarts on the second easiest difficulty setting

What the fuck why is this so hard for me

>>694045
Who cares? It sounds as though you're having fun.

>>694045
As always, make sure you start with Restoration of Erathia.

RoE - > AB ->SoD
SoD is chronologically before RoE, but is meant to be played last.

>>694098
Maybe that's why I'm getting my ass kicked? I started with SoD because it looked like it was first on the list.

Anyway I'm sure I'll get the hang of it.

>>694738
This happens to a lot of people which is why I had guessed that was your problem. If you are having problems with the first couple scenarios in any of the first 3 campaigns, then you are just terrible.

The last scenario of Dungeons and Devils may give you some problems though.

>>690870
>all those wasted steps

Who's your favorite hero?

Mine Moandor. Makes liches better and looks pretty ballin.

>>691856
Astral is pretty swag.

>>690219
Tab is the chat button.

>>693467
Dread Knights do double damage, and curse the opponent. Nagas have no retaliation. I'd go with Dread Knights...

And Ghost Dragons are to debuff the enemy not to go toe to toe against them. -1 morale is nice, but best of all they can halve enemy hit points, which practically means that EVERYONE will now do double damage on them. It sucks that they have so low HP though, they drop like flies to counter attacks.

>>695705
You can use Cure or Dispel to get rid of the ghost dragon's aging ability, which makes it almost useless.

>>695725
yes, well, any competent wizard would not bother curing at all but would slow down the necro army or put haste/prayer on his own, and proceed to blitzkrieg the undead before they could move.

>>695728
And when they do that they aren't going to use their aged stack to take retaliation. In any case aging is pretty irrelevant and doesn't have much impact on its own. Maybe once in a blue moon you'll be able to put it to good use

>>691856
Daremyth. She's a pretty cool guy and very smart btw

>>695705
No retaliation is a guarantee, curse and double damage is rare.

I'll stick with my nagas, thanks.

>>695784
>No retaliation is a guarantee, curse and double damage is rare.

Are we sure we are playing the same game? At least one of the two happen all the fucking time for me. Almost guaranteed in fact. Same as Mighty Gorgons Death Stare, it happens more often than not.

>>695815
Death stare is a 20% chance per gorgon of killing one enemy unit outright.
Deathblow and curse are each a 20% chance of happening per STACK.

>>695831
It's not 20% per gorgon though, that would be completely broken (8 creatures killed per 40 gorgons on average).

>>690219
I started appreciating manual hero movement way too late. Travelling into an unexplored map area only to find a dead end and waste a day can put you at a terrible disadvantage.

>>695923
http://www.mediafire.com/view/?zjdij5o4s7co66c
Mighty Gorgons are just that good.

>Have links to everything under the sun.
>Except the actual game itself.

Nope, i'muh keepin my moneh.

>>696021
http://ca.isohunt.com/download/39633988/heroes+3+complete.torrent
Was that hard?

>>694098
>As always, make sure you start with Restoration of Erathia.

If you want to make sure that he never touches the game idea then yeah, it's a great idea.

Seriously though, RoE is an absolutely horrible campaign. The map design is atrocious and the difficulty is non-existant, it's an absolute snorefest.

I'd recommend everyone to start with Shadow of Death and then move on to Armageddon's Blade.
Everyone I know that started with the Restoration of Erathia campaign quit after some missions because it was so boring.

>>694098
>As always, make sure you start with Restoration of Erathia.

If you want to make sure that he never touches the game again then yeah, it's a great idea.

Seriously though, RoE is an absolutely horrible campaign. The map design is atrocious and the difficulty is non-existant, it's a total snorefest.

I'd recommend everyone to start with Shadow of Death and then move on to Armageddon's Blade.
Everyone I know that started with the Restoration of Erathia campaign quit after some missions because it was so boring.

>playing WoG
>stack xp (your creatures gaining XP and levels, thus plus stats and bonus abilities) was annoying, especially in large netural monsters, and 3-months-since-he-last-saw-home enemy heroes
>disable stack XP
>play map
>2 months in
>realize that neutral stacks still have stack XP, even if I disables it
>mfw ihnf

Dear wog devs, fuck you

>>696038

its not that bad. some of them are piss easy but especially when you are new the game, stomping around those maps can be fun.

random maps/single scenarios get old anyway.

whatever happened to those week long Heroes 3 threads on /vg/ I enjoyed them so much

How is Heroes Of might And Magic 2 ?

>>697093
Nearly as good as 3.

A dozen times better than any of the others.

Is it worth it to pick the Death Knight Irsa? The hero with a built in Necro bonus of 5%. Can necromancy ever go above 100%?
Is there a link to prove this?

>>697128
Necromancy cannot go above 100%

You're probably better off picking that one death knight who gets a bonus to skeletons so that they're a fearsome fighting force, rather than just getting a few more of them.

>>697128
Isra is great. It's arguable whether she is better than Galthran, but I wouldn't say she is worth, definitely worth taking. Note that the bonus is level-dependent, not flat. The formula is

actual skill = base skill + 5% * level * (base skill) + modifiers (items, necromancy amplifiers)

>>697356
* I wouldn't say she is worse

>>697356
Can someone draw Sando popping up in the background amongst the skeletons and shouting "good luck"?

>>697502

Sandro's already in the pic, no cloak on though so it might be hard to spot him.

>>697356
>hey Greg, watch out, those stairs look mighty slippery!
>don't worry about it, I know what I'm do- OWOWOWAAAHHGH!
>oh no, my legs are in splinters! and the raid is next week! aw, man! I was so looking forward to it!
>don't worry, Greg. I have an idea!
>WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

bump

I have begun a play by Email game of HOMM3 with another anon here. (technically, play by steam and we use Email only when we have to)

Anybody else fancy playing games of HOMM3 this way too? If you're not very good we can just do an allied team map. If you're confident in your skills however we can do opposing sides (assuming it works correctly and does an automatic battle for us, I'm not sure how it works.)

Just hit me up on steam:
http://steamcommunity.com/id/Amplify_FA/

>>700184
It sounds much like chess matches by mail.

>>700225
Sort of, but we're taking about 5 minutes per turn thanks to steam chat greatly speeding the process up.

>>690870

I seem to remember they added it with one of the expansions, in vanila you had to do the "move on and off" thing. And also got stuck if you teleported/undeground gated to a spot where an enemy you couldn't defeat didn't let you move - now you can just use space to return.

>>696038

I like RoE better than AB and SoD. AB campaigns are mostly just stupid (AB usually starts you off with fully built up towns and massive armies, Dragon Slayer for obvious reasons, Playing with Fire has you spending half an hour looking for dwellings on a massive map) and SoD campaigns are stupidly frustrating. New Beginnings is OK but the rest pretty much require you to play twice - once to see where everything is and to learn the map, so that the second time you can rush right for all the enemy towns so you even stand the slightest chance. I'd prefer the ability to explore the map and still have a chance of winning if my main hero doesn't reach the first enemy town in the first week.

RoE is easy, sure, but also enjoyable and varied imo.

>>700252
I don't remember any map that requires you to rush for SoD, except maybe the first map of hack n slash and the second map of yog's campaign. RoE would be fun if it had any difficulty whatsoever, as it is it's the only campaign I never finished

>>700252
Yeah, I agree about AB, that's why I recommended to play SoD first. AB maps are just too big, they take too much time. Especially collecting all those statup buildings at the end of the mission.

I don't think that SoD was frustrating, though. If you carefully build up your heroes' skills and use scouts to lift the fog of war you can easily finish every mission on your first try. Having expert view Air/Earth is a tremendous help, of course.
Rushing does make missions easier, but it's not mandatory.

A friend started to play SoD a couple of weeks ago. At first he had problems with the Gem campaign and needed to start the first few missions over, but then he improved and beat most missions in his first try, even without expert earth magic.

>>700317

I'm currently on Hack and Slash and pretty much on every map, in week two an enemy hero appears that completely dominates my army. It's not even close. The only way I suceed is taking his first town in week one, so I can recruit day one week 2 and then I stand a chance. This has happened on most maps of Hack and Slash.

>>700354

Maybe I'm just shit at the game, though after all these years I would hope not. I didn't have much trouble with Gem's campaing, but Hack and Slash is seriously a pain in the ass. And I remember Birth of a Barbarian being similaryl frustrating.

>>700358
Hack and Slash is pretty tough, yeah. What skills does Crag Hack have?

It's pretty important to use your time efficiently on those maps. Recruit one or two additional heroes that follow you and flag the mines/dwellings or any other buildings, the only thing Crag Hack should be doing is fighting.

>>700358
hack and slash is probably the hardest campaign of any expansion, the rest of the SoD campaigns are piss easy in comparison.

For me, even the RoE campaigns aren't easy. I can't beat the last scenario of the second campaign, where you have to beat a knight who is guarded by some garrisons with your dungeon hero within 3 month.
I'm pretty bad at this game.

>>700416

That map is difficult. It's horribly misplaced. The campaigns get a lot easier again after that one.

>>700416
What heroes do you have?

>>700419
I didn't find it difficult at all. You get craploads of dragons on that map, just flag the dwelling in first week and you can effectively recruit 4 dragons every week afterwards.

>>700419
>The campaigns get a lot easier again after that one.

Except for taking the town back.

>>700903

compared to the first, liberating the town is pretty easy. castles + towers vs. inferno/dungeon is a joke.

RoE is the way to go if you are new to Homm. Never played a Homm game in my life until I recently bought the 3rd one thanks to /vr. Went straight to SoD after tutorial and got my shit slapped. Tried RoE and now I can actually win while I learn the game more. Awesome game btw. Hate that i missed this gem growing up.

>>700998
No problem, consider yourself lucky to have discovered it. This game will last you literally years.

bump

>>700998
One of the things that has kept the game going this long was making a robust map editor. There are thousands of custom maps to download, although there is a relative shortage of custom campaigns.

>>696038
It's funny you said this because I was the guy being responded to and I did in fact quit Restoration of Eratia after the first mission. What was with the multiple portals to dozens of artifacts?

That part of the first mission pissed me off.
>Oh wow, look at all these artifacts!
>nothing carries over but levels
I mean I understand why but it's pretty fucking obnoxious

>>703664

Would make it too easy, some artifacts are really powerful.

For example, in the second map, you can get Angel Wings which allow you to fly. Carrying those over would make the final map an absolute joke, probably winnable in week 1 or 2.

>>703696
>Would make it too easy, some artifacts are really powerful.
That's why I said I understood why.
I'd rather have weaker artifacts that carry over than a +6 sword on the first level that I can only use ON that level.

Why can't this be a general HoMM thread? HoMM 1 and 2 never get any love, despite 2 being arguably just as good as 3 and 1 being a pretty good game itself.

Yet nobody's made HD mods for those games, a real shame.

>>703731
You are free to discuss any HOMM game, it's just that 3 is the popular one.

>>703717
dunno i kinda like to play around with powerful items.makes the game more interesting. you are not going to risk the your army for a +1attack item to grab it b4 the enemy (its just not worth it for the benefits), but you might do it for the angel wings or a book of magic, just because it opens up new possibilites

alamar was here, jeddite is smalltime, bitches cant handle my scholar

I bought this a few days ago since I kept seeing threads about it and it reminded me of a lot of other games I enjoyed. So far I'm enjoying it but I have a couple of questions about strategy.

Is it as important as I think it is to focus experience on a single hero? What about when I need to reinforce them or grab booster buildings? Should other heroes just act as garrisons and errand boys?

Is there any way to convert or raze/rebuild a city like in AOW:SM or MoM? Related to that, does your starting faction/hero have any static impact on a game?

>>703717

Oh, I read it as "I don't understand why."

My bad.

>>703768

Cant discuss the new ones tough right? As they would be too young for /vr/?

>>704036
Would you like a general tips list of what your objectives and priorities should be for the first two weeks of any HOMM3 game should be?

I can list them if you like, since I started doing them I've improved massively.

>>704079
That has never stopped us before, or the guys over at /vr/ RCT from discussing RCT games from after 1999.

>>704097
>Would you like a general tips list of what your objectives and priorities should be for the first two weeks of any HOMM3 game should be?
>I can list them if you like, since I started doing them I've improved massively.
That would be great.

>>704106
Start off by picking the most useful hero for your race (obvious, but not always obvious which one that is)
as soon as you begin, buy as many units from town as you can afford and arrange them on your main hero. Having stacks of 1 of your tier 1 units to act as meat shields is a good idea in the early game.
Move your hero one square out of town, recruit a second hero of the same type as your town, put all but one of his creatures onto your main hero.
Move your main hero out and start killing neutral stacks as fast as you can, don't pick up anything with him or flag any mines etc.
Have your second hero follow behind your main one, picking up everything and flagging mines etc but never fighting.
In your starting town, ignore all town center upgrades and start getting all the basic creature dwellings. Your goal for the end of week 1, day 7 is to have gotten all of your useful creature dwellings (1 through 6) or if you're lucky, then the level 7 one while sacrificing the more useless lower ranked dwellings in order to rush for it, as well as the fort and castle upgrades to double creature growth.
As soon as week 2 begins, upgrade your most useful creature dwelling (such as vampire lords for necro), upgrade all your creatures of that type and buy some more of them.
Your goal for week 2 is to get all 7 creature dwellings including the level 7 one. If you cannot get another creature dwelling on any day during week 2, then either upgrade a very useful creature dwelling to a higher tier, get a town hall upgrade or a building required for them, such as the blacksmith / mage guild / market.
Always pick gold from chests and not experience for the first two weeks. If you cannot afford all of the useful upgraded creature dwellings and to keep on buying all the useful creatures in your town, then keep picking gold from them until you can.

>>704146
Excellent, thanks.

>>704146

What is your take on magic heroes vs might heroes.

>>704157
Completely up to the individual really, it depends on your fighting style.

For example, with Necro, I like Galthran or whatever his name was for the bonus to skeletons so that my fighting force stops being annoying and starts being dangerous. With the Tower, I like to pick Solymr as he comes with improved chain lightning, meaning you can take out stronger stacks early on with fewer creatures. Keep in mind that enemy stack numbers are dependent on how strong your army is in comparison.

Weak army? Split into 7 stacks, perfect for 2 chain lightnings.
Strong enough army? All one stack.

Keep in mind that Fire Wall is fantastic for this too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G29vSPGbDPY

I m afraid of solmyr chain lightning hitting my troops how do u handle that?

>>704189
A) Pendant of Negativity.
B) Expert Slow/Haste and never give him the chance.
C) Run.

>>704189
A: Bring a single obsidian gargoyle or master genie, so the enemy army is split into 7 stacks.
Alternately, plan your army beforehand so that you have nagas / titans around spot 5 /6 in your army.
Done correctly, the 4th and onwards hit of chain lightning will hit your nagas or titans and won't do enough to them to kill one.

>>704198
So u mean to say just bring 1 stack of 1 gargoyle at the start of the game and chain lightning everything unless u have naga or titans to absorb the chain lightning u do?

>>704204
You could do, but you could also just bring a normal army and chain lightning the harder ones.

A single Naga queen can take an 839 damage chain lightning, as long as 3 enemy creature stacks take the hit first.

>>704204
Oh right, also if you do go with stacks of 1, make it 7 stacks of 1 for insurance.

i love homm3, whats with these mods and addons though? what should i download/install?

>>704236
install all the addons and the HD mod

>>704215
Oh wow why didn't I think of that
So I can have a big stack of gremlins and gargoyle with stacks of 1 gremlins each filling up slot 3,4,5,6,7 in case my chain lightning doesn't have enough enemy stacks to strike

Woah now I know how to use him without back firing too much

>>704253
>Having stacks of 1 of your tier 1 units to act as meat shields is a good idea in the early game.
Like I mentioned in my first tips post ;)
Upgrading to master gremlins on turn 1 just for the ranged attack is an idea to be considered.

>>704260

I agree, definitely get shooters as quickly as you can. Most towns can get them in turn 1 or 2 (depending on whether you start with a T1 dwelling or not). Which for tower, means Master Gremlins.

>>704260
Thank for the tips! Indeed u mention the meat shield tips but I didn't realise it could be apply to solmyr chain lightning as well lol

>>704146
Reformatting my tips post, since I'm not happy with the readability:
-------------------------------------------

1). Start off by picking the most useful hero for your race (obvious, but not always obvious which one that is)

2). As soon as you begin, buy as many units from town as you can afford and arrange them on your main hero. Having stacks of 1 of your tier 1 units to act as meat shields is a good idea in the early game.

3). Move your hero one square out of town, recruit a second hero of the same type as your town, put all but one of his creatures onto your main hero.
Move your main hero out and start killing neutral stacks as fast as you can, don't pick up anything with him or flag any mines etc.

4). Have your second hero follow behind your main one, picking up everything and flagging mines etc but never fighting.

5). In your starting town, ignore all town center upgrades and start getting all the basic creature dwellings. Your goal for the end of week 1, day 7 is to have gotten all of your useful creature dwellings (1 through 6) or if you're lucky, then the level 7 one while sacrificing the more useless lower ranked dwellings in order to rush for it, as well as the fort and castle upgrades to double creature growth.

6). As soon as week 2 begins, upgrade your most useful creature dwelling (such as vampire lords for necro), upgrade all your creatures of that type and buy some more of them.

7). Your goal for week 2 is to get all 7 creature dwellings including the level 7 one. If you cannot get another creature dwelling on any day during week 2, then either upgrade a very useful creature dwelling, get a town hall upgrade or a building required for them, such as the blacksmith / mage guild / market.

8). Always pick gold from chests and not experience for the first two weeks. If you cannot afford all of the useful upgraded creature dwellings and to keep on buying all the useful creatures in your town, then keep picking gold from them until you can.

>kiting a pack of diamond golems with a small group of archers on a low level hero

>>704325

that moment when your creatures run out of ammo and you didnt purchase an ammo cart

>>704306
for 3), it's better to put your surplus heroes in garrison so you don't waste any movement points. I would add that if the map is not too poor in resources, you should buy at least 4-5 heroes on the first day to clear more of the map faster and lift the fog in al directions. This way, you immediately know what route your main hero must take during the week

>>704332
I've honestly never found a need to have more than 3 heroes with one town before but then again I don't play random maps.

That money is better spent on more creatures.

>>704306
>>704332

Yeah, I usually have a third and possibly fourth hero to move BEFORE the main army and remove the fog.

Also, if you're playing Fortress, you should be able to get Wyverns on day 2, which is definitely worth doing.

>>704341
Well, of course if you know the map in advance you have no need for scouts. In random maps having 5-6 heroes in the first day is a necessity, not simply for revealing the map, but also to chain your army between important targets in a reasonable amount of time

>HoMM3 could be the perfect game if somebody enhanced the AI

>>704396

Thats like saying HOMM VI would be good if they enchanced the AI and not rely on cheating AI... oh wait, nvm you are right. Pretty damn close to perfect tough.

>>704331
Medusas, I'm looking at you.

>>704396
>the day the source code of HOMM3 gets released

>>704620
Isn't VCMI basically making Homm III from scratch?

>>704620
HOMM is currently owned by Ubisoft, it'll never happen. A full rewrite of the game like OpenMW is more likely.

>>704626
Yes, it is.

>>704628

it will happen when enters public domain

might happen if Ubisoft goes belly up and IP remains abandoned

>play a random map vs ai on impossible
>that fucker who got conflux and found the grail in first month shows up with 30 phoenixes.

>>704628

Ubisoft gave a guy the source code (or part of it) and authorized him to enhance the AI for HoMM 5. So you never know.

>>691462
What do you want? I'm from Russia.

>>704640
Try playing WoG, and select the "every town has a grail" option when playing the map, if you want some massive assrape.

>>704640
>>704659
Is there a way to disable some things on random maps? Like grails or having 4 2-way portals right under your town?

>>705052
Just for funsies I decided to try a quick (small) random map with hard mobs and stuff.
Right off the bat I went for the nearby obelisk, thought "huh, that bit of water looks familiar...", played my hunch and started digging right away directly next to my starting town.

Got it first try and have the grain structure now by day 3, time to rape.
This is actually the first time I've ever found the grail, I don't normally play maps with it as an option.

>>691856
Nymus is the bee's knees.

>>697549
He's that tall nigga with the cloak that can be seen behind the fully armoured guy.

Playing Nine Riddles and solved most of them on my own. A few of them require bugs to solve.
http://www.maps4heroes.com/forum/opinions.php?map_id=1009&game=3

How do you beat Vokial with Catherine?

>>705274

>grain structure

Man, that's lucky. Extra grain by day 3 will definitely make a huge difference.

>>705471
>grain structure
Ahhhhh, fuck.

>>705606

>Dat gif

Fantastic!

>>704396

The AI is fine when it comes to resource gathering and battling, even better than the player most of the time. What they suck at is picking out skills. Because they pick shit up from witch huts.

It's really more of a balancing issue, the moment you get rid of witch huts, universities, libraries and dragon utopias, not to mention the +1 level gaining shit like tree of knowledge and the XP gaining stones as well as shit like battle tents. That's when shit starts to get real.

If you remove shit like diplomacy, learning, sorcery, mysticism, tent, ballistics, navigation and eagle eye from the choice pool. Then the AI has a very good chance of fucking you up.

That's partially one of the reasons a lot of the campaigns seem brutal, some of the Enemy AI's has a good preset of skills and you can't really rely on having more XP or more points in attack power as your winning factor.

>>705748

>AI
>Good at battling.

You serious nigga?

>>705748

Well there's also things like how they split their armies up amongst their heroes, it could use a lot of work.

>>705748
battling: the AI simply chooses the option with the most damage output (=/= best choice)

i wouldnt call it good

>>705794

It's funny because there seriously have been (rare) times where quick combat got me a much better result than anything I could manage myself.

>>705748
The AI doesn't even cast expert curse or dispel after youve blinded half of its army. It also never dipels force field. Generally it always casts the wrong spell at the wrong time. If it was good at battling, maps like Unleashing the Bloodthirsty would be completely impossible.

>>705802
im not saying its terrible (usually the killing more doods is the best),

but due to this the AI is pretty predictable (hence firewall abuse)

btw i dont think autocombat simulates a battle, it just compares probably armystrenght (hence the no losses results vs shooters)

>>705869

Pretty sure it does, because if you Quick Combat and check the final results, they're the same as if you went into battle and used auto combat instead (at which point you can watch the battle happen).

How do i invite a specific hero in my tavern, rather than having to get lucky with the two ones who show up sometimes?

>>706050

You can't, at least not without cheating.
I think Heroes3 HD lets you do it.

Requesting the mod that I always see Russians use that shows number of units you will have to fight
(pack is x-y units)
and lets them see results of an autocombat and choose whether to do it or not

>>705786

that's actually terrifying for your scout heroes

>>706172

HoMM3 HD lets you do the second one (I absolutely love it). First one sounds useful but haven't come across it.

>>706183
So what, just run from them. The scouts are low level and aren't supposed to fight anyway, you don't lose much.

>>705803

maybe because the AI doesn't have relevant spells and skills?

On some maps, I see Hero AI whiz around dimension dooring and town portaling all over the map just because it can, taking over my castles with their mega armies of 5-7 tier mixed units.

like I said, the enemy AI for heroes is more than adequate, it's just that it rarely gets the possibility to shine.

>>706187
Weird I have HoMM3 HD and I have never seen that option, is it a certain key binding you need to press or option I need to enable?

>>706190

that's the point, now you can't scout further and have to use several weeks to get to the same spot.

do you even tactics?

>>706197
If it "rarely gets the possibility to shine", then it's not adequate. And no, the AI has the relevant spells, it's just too stupid to cast them when it matters

>>706204
If you lose the hero. They often see a hero they can take out and start chasing him, so you can lead them around the map, exploring and wasting their time simultaneously. It's no huge loss if you fail and a good gain if you don't.

>>706063
It doesn't. Hd mode shows you the option, but it's only an option to see what other heroes COULD show up in the tavern, and shows you levels, army, artifacts etc.
HD mode doesn't add anything gameplay changing.

>>706201

You have to enable the HD+ option

>>706229

Really? I saw the "invite heroes" button and just assumed, I guess.

>>706214

read through >>705748

If you're looking for human level AI, then by all means play online

why does the hd mod never keep my resolution? i set it at 1600x900 and it's always in a tiny window

I've been wondering, is there any way to get back the 'classic' hero portraits?
I don't know what changed them, WoG maybe?

>>707872
In your data folder, all the .pcx files named HPLxxx or HPSxxx. Just remove them if you want the old portraits back

>>707812
try running it as admin

>>705052
In WoG/Era (or maybe just the HD mod) the random map generator rules are in separate files. You might be able to edit these rules to you liking.

>>705405
Give your royal griffin to one of the seers. From left to right they give you:
-20 archangels
-20 archdevils
-5 rust dragons
-20 ancient behemoths

Choose wisely. You have expert meteor shower, counterstrike also could be useful.

>>704306
A question.
Impossible L-XL map wat do.
I tend to focus on economy on those ones, since resources are scarce.

>>708560
>Chasing down AI heroes for 6 months
Weep softly to yourself.

I've been playing one of my favourite maps repeatedly for a month or two now, but I've been annoyed with one or two little problems it's had so I've just fixed them if anybody wants to try it out.
http://www.mediafire.com/download/upai34bhct4hpnp

I've nudged the placement locations of the border guard watchtowers by a tile, so that the AI heroes can no longer slip past 6 (of 8) of them diagonally as if they weren't there, making them almost entirely pointless. I've also removed one school of war from each player's side and replaced it with a creature dwelling that will match that player's main town and be randomly between level 4 to 6, meaning that the Dungeon's summoning portal is no longer completely useless and gives everyone something to visit weekly.

(I also added a single frozen cliff to the dead center of the map, I'm not sure how well that will work out but it should be expensive enough to force it to not affect things too much.)

Have fun, it's a map I just love playing on Impossible and have had great times with. I hope you guys will get to enjoy it too.

>>708621
> All Artifacts are on this map!! So Who knows what you will find.

What you mean with this? Nothing is disabled?

>>708653
Supposedly nothing is disabled, but I've never seen wings and the water walk books don't do shit.

I'm currently just playing it now to test it out and SOMEHOW the AI has managed to find its way into the area behind the red border guard but couldn't get out again.

I'm stumped as to how he managed it.

>>709209

Maybe dimension door, then ran out of spell points? With no mysticism or other spell point regeneration, you get one a day right? That means he could be stuck for up to 25 days

>>709243
Impossible, dimension door is disabled unless you find the tome of Air Magic.

Just finished the test run, please tell me what you guys get as your creature dwelling(s). It might be that "between 4 and 6" means "5 only", or it could be 4, 5 or 6. With the run I just did, all 4 happened to be level 5 so I couldn't tell.

The AI's habit of fleeing like a bitch if they have a single artifact makes me want to add a shackle of war available for every side, just as a FUCK YOU, but maybe that's just me.

>>709243
>>709305
Oh right, also forgot to mention that he had several hundred spell points thanks to a magical spring and was happily summoning tons of earth elementals against me.

I think it has something to do with the back of the utopia, because before I could get in range I *thought* I saw the hero sort of at the rear left of the Utopia, but I just couldn't get a good look in time.

How do Tower's units stack up in comparison to other towns?

>>709394
They are ok. Gremlins are the only tier 1 shooter and should be upgraded early, gargoyles are great as single troop for scouts and early distraction. Mages are ok, master genies are good for buffs, nagas and titans are great.

>>709394
Gargoyles and Genies are mediocre, everything else is good or great.

>>709442
gargoyles are ok. very useful for creeping earlygame, and that's the main use for tier 2 units anyway. the worst Tower unit is the Golem imo

>>709446
Golems have the same problems all slow units have, but Tower has 3 shooters so they are useful much more often than something like zombies.
Gargoyles aren't bad, they're just not very cost effective in straight up fights.

>>706229

No, H3 HD does allow you to invite specific heroes. The option can be turned off though.

>>706183

It would be more terrifying if the AI was able to choose a certain heroes to use as an invader and put most of their troops on it, then used it to kick your ass.

>>709446
Golems are best if you have magics that hit multiple stacks. Make the golem get swarmed by different units, and then cast, say, Meteor Shower on it. Golem only takes 15% damage, but everything around him gets hit hard.

They are designed to be mage meatshields. Imagine that.

Their lack of speed makes this harder to abuse though.

>>709864
You can do that with Frost Ring without damaging your own creatures. The best use of golems in my opinion is to just park them near a shooter stack as protection, or inside a castle.

>>709557
How do you turn it off ? I'm not seeing the option in the .ini file.

>>710038
nevermind, found it

>>693120

Seriously what were they thinking when they gave Phoenixes double growth? Sprites, Air, Water, and Psychic elementals are all great for their tier so its not as if Conflux has too many weak creatures. And the Phoenix itself isn't that bad with its breath weapon and practically guaranteed initiative.

One almost wonders if its growth rate was an unintentional typo in the game's code or something. There's just no reason for it.

>>691856
>>695181

Loynis here.

Don't mind me, just being a Magic hero whose T1-4 units have the stats of a Might hero's, plus sanic speed.

>>710285

>make overpowered faction
>sell expansion packs

>>710358
It was rushed, the Conflux was essentially made in the last minute after they had to scrap the Forge and a nearly finished campaign for it.

>>709305
>The AI's habit of fleeing like a bitch if they have a single artifact makes me want to add a shackle of war available for every side, just as a FUCK YOU, but maybe that's just me.
>that's just me
No, it's not just you. Do it. Death to the cowards!

>>711047
Anything else to change while I'm at it?

I still need to know if the external dwellings are working okay. If any of them are level 4 or 6 then all is working as intended. If they're all level 5 then I need to fix that.

To fix the red border guard I think I'll just add some more rocks and pray that keeps the AI out.

>>711107
One thing I've been considering that I'll mention now is a Hill fort, either one for each player (either above or underground) or where the frozen cliffs is in the middle of the underground.

Not even sure if I should though but it's something I have been considering.

>>708560
You don't listen to that moron's "tips". You rush the city hall asap and then work up to a capitol by week 3 or 4, maybe building a few smaller tier buildings if you're still garnering profit. For a more in depth guide by someone who knows what they're doing, try JJ's guides: http://www.celestialheavens.com/viewpage.php?id=448

>>711598
When there are plenty of treasure chests around getting the creature dwellings first is a better idea. You wont be able to hire them all, but at least you will have all you need and a growth advantage. Rushing city hall is good for Castle and on maps with few chests.

>>711619
Rushing city hall is neccesary on impossible, for nearly all factions. An extra week of creatures you cant buy wont save you against the hero who can actually buy all of his troops and lay waste to the nearest castle. Is a snowball effect.

>>711598
>no guide for tower

>>711598
Yeah, i am doing this.
Should i rush Cereri or go straight to Efreets/devils?

>>713304

get all the creature dwellings first, as inferno you'll really need Devils and Pit Fiends upgraded, the rest isn't worth upgrading and is mostly fodder

>>711598
Can your method beat my average time / score for a medium map of 82 to 88 days and 424 to 486?

Your "method" is what I used to do and I never once managed to beat an impossible map with it.

>>713304
Upgraded cerebus are rape beasts, dont listen to >>713341

>>713364
Your way isnt bad, its just not as good.

>>713767
It teaches people to be far more agressive with how they play, which is pretty much required to win on impossible.

Sitting there defensively and fairly passively while you build up your economy and infastructure for a month is just going to get you killed. Just get some creatures and get out there so you can take out some of the enemy WHILE you build up your infastructure, much stronger than waiting for them to come to you.

>>713745
Cerberi are good, but it's still much better to build efreet or devil dwelling during the week if you can afford it

>>713745
You can upgrade at the start of the week, first week should be spent building new dwellings to maximize creature growth. Only upgrade if you really need it, like gremlins.

>>710285
The reason behind it is the fact that firebirds and phoenixes are the weakest T7 units. If they wouldn't be the fastest, they'd drop around extra fast.

>>691856
Orrin
slowpoke.exe

Bump

>>708621
http://www.mediafire.com/download/0vakfajgw1c47pf/Allied_Explosion_3.h3m

Changes:
Changed the frozen cliff for a hill fort
Added a few extra rocks to red's utopia which will hopefully prevent the AI from ignoring the border guard
Added a shackle of war available for every player, as long as you're willing to kill 8 bone dragons to get at it


That should be everything that's needed and the final version. Try it out with your friends or against impossible AIs, it's very fun I highly recommend it.

>>718309
Playtest finished.

Not my best score, but it is easily my fastest by 15 days.
I fucking love this map.

Man, this thread is dead today.

Di you guys all go outside on me today, or something?

>>720006

Nope, playing games.

Check out what I managed to make Lord Haart like in this random XL WoG map, 2x hero speed. He was already pimp by week 3, but I wanted to have a one month checkpoint.

How is it possible? I got Tier 8 Blood Dragons on week 3 because those are FOUR living implosion scrolls. Anything wandering stack I enter combat against dies almost instantly

>>720006

Still dealing with fucking Crag Hack. Just started the final scenario, am looking forward to being done with this soon.

>>720157

Went full retard and the dragons just killed each other

>>705405

I did it by taking the Arch Devils and abusing Force Field and the Wait command.

I Armageddon in heroes 5 as broken as it seems ? Seems to me that fortress or dungeon with ignite + arma is basically instant game over for the opponent

>>723242

>my face when can't have Dungeon with Black Dragons + Armageddon in 5

>>718309
>http://www.mediafire.com/download/0vakfajgw1c47pf/Allied_Explosion_3.h3m
Wow man, i just started this map on impossible (doing a challenge, i have to do as many maps at impossible as possible) and it's already very fun to play.
Can't wait to find those shackles of war, it's my favourite artifact (against the AI it's a blessing)

>>723242
Dungeon is the only faction with fire-immune creatures, and it's also the faction that bypasses spell resistance and immunities, even on their own creatures. You can raise a hero from a different faction for armageddon spam, but you can't do it with a warlock.

>>723567
Had completely forgotten about the immunity-bypassing thing. But Dungeon isn't the only town with fire immune creatures, fortress has the Magma Dragon and the Flamelord

>>723414
Glad you like, it's basically an old tournament map that's a lot of my favourite things combined, only updated to Heroes 3 complete standards (since it was using only things from RoE.)

I'd be very interested to see if anybody could beat my fastest time on it of 67 days, very interested to see if my strategy is best for it.
>>704306
This, basically.

>>723607
You're right, I forgot about them. And Ignite doesn't even bar you from getting their ultimate. Looks like 5 has a proper armageddon spamming faction after all.

>>723675

Would still be best if Dungeon could do it, thanks to Empower Spells and high Power.

>Playing Tower
>Do a dragon utopia
>BOW OF THE SHARPSHOOTER
>ARMOR OF THE DAMNED
OH BOY!

>>691342

>having the option of turning down the skill

is this some sort of mod?

>>724281
WoG

>>691462
Do you count Finland?

>>723607
Rune priests are also immune. Fortress in 5 is almost based around Armageddon; top 3 tiers all immune.

>>713775
Rushing city hall week one isnt building your economy for a week. If you cant handle the paltry mobs around your base with the starting troops then i dunno what to tell you.

I haven't been playing long but master gremlins seem pretty fucked up for a tier 1 unit

>>727189
And then a few weeks later when you have money but not the troops to buy with them?

As long as you're not playing on a map with fuck all treasure chests and resources around, with my method you can have all your important buildings done and creatures purchased by the end of the month.

Okay, leaving behind the early creature vs. early econ debate/argument, are there any other tips or guides for playing?
Like, if I take another town, should I start building another main combat hero with the new troops? Or should I mix the best ones in with my first hero's army?
I've noticed the AI will often have multiple heroes with non-trivial armies, is this something I should replicate or is the AI just being dumb?

>>727658

Depends on numbers. If you have lots of your starting towns troops it might be best to stick with them and put the new ones on a separate hero. Mixing the best units from different towns is a good idea if you can get enough of them though.

And no, the AI is just dumb most of the time.

>>727658
Perhaps you should just pick a set of tips and try them for yourself on a reasonably newbie friendly map (any where you get at least 1 month to prepare vs impossible AI before you get raped) and just learn?

Once you manage to win one or two maps on your own on impossible difficulty, after that just modify the strategies to suit your needs or try an entirely different strategy to see how quickly that wins for you.

Learn, then adapt in ways that suit you to entirely different maps.

>>727695
Well I just beat Key to Victory on Impossible.
I don't know if that's impressive though since there's the border guards keeping the AI at bay.

Heh, for a moment there I had almost forgotten that /vr/ is a /v/ type board.

>>728182

>Early army throws the first punch

Nice touch.

>>728217
>:[

>>728525

I meant cause they'd have the troops to attack first.

>>728541
Guess I'm just slow today.

Guess we know who wins then, unless early economy wants to try defending against a week and a half's worth of tier 6 creatures on week 2 with just tier 1 and 2 shit.

>>727202
Well, they are not.
Their big selling point is that they are ranged troops. However, just look at its damage. Being ranged, unless you have artifacts it's going to deal 50%of the time half damage.
They are cheap, but not too much cheap, and you can lose them easily against other heroes (AI ones too).
They help immensly with early creeping, but that's it.
I'd say a good tier 1, surely not the best

>>728647
>They help immensly with early creeping

And that's one of the most important stages of the game.

Hello. I was playing HoMM3 with my cousin and brother when we were kids however I have a feeling we played it kind of wrong. We used to save before every encounter. Do you guys abuse save option while you play highest difficulty?
I bought Complete version on gog.com about 6 months ago but i feel Im going to be pretty bad at this game. I have read some tips here. At least we used scouth while we were playing...

>>730056
The autosave is good enough in most cases.

>>730056

totally excusable if you are learning the game and you can't tell if fighting x stack will fuck your shit up or not

once you know what you're doing you have to be a real man and deal with the consequences of your actions

>>727838
This guy again.
Can anyone recommend good maps (either included with the game or custom) for learning how to play on Impossible? Preferably 1v1.

>>727294
And with city hall first, you don't have to sacrifice anything but a week of troops that didn't even get 2x growth.

>>728551
>week and a half
>weekly generation

So, what, two angels? What sort of pussy maps do you play that let you jump from 0 resources to tier six in one and a half weeks while putting you in a position to attack another player?

the econ/army debate is silly anyway since it depends on how big the map is and what race you're playing

on a tiny map, troops first is going to be the way to go because you have to be aggressive

on anything medium and up, both tactics are basically at the same place by month 2, except one has more troops available and the other has more troops actually bought

>>732120
*did get 2x growth
*city hall first sacrifices a full week's worth of creatures

>>732193
You had enough money to buy a castle and every single building on week one on impossible? We are still talking about homm3, right?

>>732207
Depends on the map. If it's a shit map with almost no resources around then capitol first is probably your best bet unless you have the AI breathing down your neck in which case "good luck".
If there's enough stuff in range to manage it, go for it. Adapt to the map you're playing on because no one tactic is a "win on every map" answer.
"Creatures first" is still my favourite, however.

>>732220
Please point me to a few maps in which you can consistently get a castle and all creature buildings by the end of week one on impossible.

And no computer will bear a tier six army to your door by week two unless its some sort of weird map.

>>732138
What kind of pussy map do you play that you don't even need tier 6 units in the first week for creeping ?

>>732239
>2013
>cant beat tier 1-3 creatures with starter troops

>>732230
>Please point me to a few maps in which you can consistently get a castle and all creature buildings by the end of week one on impossible.
>>718309
(The only one I enjoy)

>>732230
>And no computer will bear a tier six army to your door by week two unless its some sort of weird map.
Reclamation
I can never beat it on impossible, because the AI asshat to the north of your west castle just comes down to fuck you up in week 2 and trying to stop him is hard when he just chips away at you.

>>732251
That's what I'm saying, you only play shitty maps where all the monster stacks are weak and you don't need to break past big stacks blocking your way or conservatories in the first few weeks. Try killing 40+ scorpicores with 30 tier 2 units

>>732250
Aye, manipulated maps require manipulated strategy. And I'm glad you like your one map, i tend to stick to normal ones.

>>732257
Oh, right, I was referring to general strategy. If you want to talk about your weird custom maps and how you play them differently then you'll have to abandon the pretense that all of them play the same.

>>732259
>only playing boring random maps instead of tournament standard ones

>>732263
It's not just the "weird custom maps". Most maps played in multiplayer are designed like this to prevent week 1 rushing. To be able to win against any decent opponent you need to break in the middle of the map by week 2-3 in most cases, and it's always guarded by powerful stacks. Not to mention, if you want to be able to get what resources and artifacts you need in time, you need a strong army in the first week. The "capitol first" strategy only works against the computer and even then, it's only necessary when the map is really poor

>>732267
Nah man, just the ones that come with the game. Random maps suck. I don't presume to know about your "tournament standard" maps that require you to kill 40 scorpicores by week 2. Apparently tourneyfags exist for every game.

>>732276
These maps that come with the game suck for multiplayer. How is it interesting to play on a map you know by heart ? everyone is just going to memorize it and use the exact same strategy every time. Not to mention, they are usually imbalanced. I don't really know why wanting to make multiplayer games more interesting makes you a tourneyfag

>>732273
Its city hall first, who the fuck goes for capitol? City hall lets you actually have more troops faster rather than just having more available. I used to get creatures first back when i played the game as a kid, but city hall improved my game by leaps and bounds.

>>732281
So tournament standard maps change every time you play, and therefore are immune to memorization?

>>732283
Thay are called random maps for a reason

>>732284
they*

>>732282
People who go "economy before creatures" usually go for capitol. If you've already built city hall in the first week you just need castle for capitol, might as well go for it since you've already compromised your dwellings

>>732284
Random maps are tournament standard? So you might not have a bunch of scorpicores in your way? Is it a rule that youll need a hammer to break through a tough batch of enemies to reach your foe, or are the maps random?

>>732293
I've never seen a living soul argue for capitol first on impossible maps. City hall, important creatures, and then capitol is the best strategy as far as I know.

>>732276
>>732294
I wasn't that guy.
http://www.toheroes.com/h3maps/maps.html

Those are the maps I approve of.

>>732294
Random maps are created with templates. You will have certain types of buildings/resources in your starting area, and the strength of neutral monsters is ruled by the template as well. Starting areas are separated by a big area in the middle, usually with a good amount of interesting shit in it. You won't always have scorpicores, but you will have stacks of similar strength, like 20 black dragons, 40 cavaliers etc. For poorer templates the stack guarding the middle can be weaker

>>732298
well it's usually what I hear people say when they go for economy first. Citadel/castle are mandatory anyway

>>732312
Capitol first costs 10k golds, castle requirement aside. City hall is the only econ first i mean.

The end is near

>>732312
>Random maps are created with templates.
Where can I get those? For vanilla SoD.

>>732964

Use Heroes 3 HD, it comes with the best ones.

>>732964
http://www.toheroes.com/h3maps/Random.htm

>>732973
Thanks. I've never bothered with HD before, but I see it has some nice options.

>>732973
Also what does HD+ do? When I click on ? the link is in Russian.

>>732993
Will look at these as well.

>>733010

I can't remember, I don't think you need it on though.

>>733010

I turned on HD+ because it allows you to "reject" quick combat result - so you run quick combat, and if it does shit, you just go into battle without having to reload. I find that very convenient especially in the campaigns.

HOLY SHIT I finally caught one of these elusive Heroes III threads. Fuck yes, my day is made.

How do I into online play? I've been playing this game with my friends over last 10 years, but never actually worked that out, and we can't do hotseat anymore because emigration.

>>733710
1. that local networking something. Hamachi or whatwasit
2. forward the ports used by directplay on your router or open them using your firewall.

>>733714
Hm, thanks! I really thought it would be something more elaborate.

>>733710
4chan's Catalog feature, motherfucker, do you use it?

Could anyone post those town descriptions written by some anon? The one which had for example that to play Inferno is to play as an asshole demon, Stronghold is WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH etc.

bump

>>732282

>rushing city hall

just stop.

>>736863
Well this argument is going quite far, so...
It depends on what map and what situation you are into if it's better economy first or army first.
Sure, if you start with some resources, and those are enough to build the dwelling soon, then go for army first. Mainly because you'll probably find gold into chests or on the ground, so there's no need to waste a couple of weeks for gold that you'd get anyway, but losing a tons of troops. Army first is VERY important on small maps or when an encounter is going to happen soon. In those cases, it's a must.

Economy first isn't actually a "lel nubtrap XD". If you play on Impossible, it's 90% the case to do economy first. Again, you don't have to rush a capitol, that would be dumb and could lose you even a month of troops. But still, in impossible mode it's very important to have a steady income, above all if the map isn't too friendly (like stacks guarding important stuff or chests or gold)). So rushing the city hall wouldn't be a bad idea, since it pays off a LOT mid-late game.

After all this blabbering, i'm for the middle way. As a rule of thumb if i can build a dwelling soon i build it. However, if that means that building that dwelling leaves me starving for troops for a week because of no money, then i prioritize the gold.

In short, do what the situation requires.

hello /vr/!

I started mapping the World. Size is XL, but I'm troubled with the number of castles, number of fractions, placement of castles. Please share your thoughts, will gladly post results.

Im gonna leave this pic (my initial thoughts) here, I will go for dinner and be back.

>>737346

I'm pretty sure someone already made a world map in Homm3

it was so-so as far as challenge

>>737346
MAN! why has no one ever thought about this? the possibilities are endless!
Of course, make it as big as possible. For creatures, place them accordingly to the countries (for examples, gold golems in egypt and such)

>>737387
Oh, i didn't know it was already made. Is it good? Where can i find it?

>>737397
http://www.toheroes.com/h3maps/xlarge.htm
Second on the list.

this is what europe and asia looks so far, but before i start placing obstacles, resources, etc.. i want to place the castles.

also i already made an L sized map of the world which is 95% complete (no artifacts placed) if you are interested i can post it as well.

please note that im a novice both in homm and in mapping.

>>737485
Thank you, going to download it now.
Still, to that guy doing a similiar map, keep the work going, i'd love to try it as well.

>>737507
this is the L sized world map by me. as i said, its not finished yet, but already playable.

Question, I like to play WoG LAN games through tunngle against friends.

But it's unstable as shit, and someone will crash constantly or get a bugged fight.

Has the stability increased over the last half year?

And what about the VCMI project? Has anyone used that yet?

http://forum.vcmi.eu/portal.php

So i'm looking to get a LAN party going and I'm wondering if Heroes 3 would be a good game for it?

>>734261
I think the WAAAAAAAAAAAGH is a little too simplistic, though.

>>738064

If you can get WoG stable it's awesome.

But remember, it's turn based. So prepare to wait, a lot.

Maybe have it on the side of some other games orso.

bump

is this game possible over hamachi with friends?

>>737073
Yep. Army first is very rarely impossible viable. City hall first (which is the only econ option) is neccesary.

Except for, of course, faggots like >>736863

i just finished an XL map with Crag Hack.
jesus fuck, I steamrolled whole castles with just the commander when I was above lvl. 20. I had expert archery, expert offense and ogre magi and the commander just shoots down at least 50 units with one arrow and does damage to all creatures in melee combat around him.

he was so op, it was ridiculous.

Necrobump.

>>740743
rushing city hall really isn't necessary. Just take gold from chests, expand relentlessly, and only buy troops that will make a huge difference (nagas, black knights, etc.). If you're playing something like Stronghold, Necropolis, or Tower you can easily get your tier 7 building before needing to build a City Hall.

>>691462
murrica here

Why is Inferno always the shittiest town in every game

>>732895
get on my level, nigger.

>>745837

Beause Inferno is at its strongest when used in tandrum with several other Inferno towns due to being able to transport troops and heroes through the town gates

but hight cost of the gate, the troops and town portal spell being a thing makes it sub par

>>743585
Maybe if you only play on maps that liberally shit gold everywhere

>>745991
Town Portal is, by far, the most broken spell in the entire game.

>>745998

IMO all spells past the 2nd mage guild are broken

>>745991
The town gates are far too expensive to be useful. There is no way you will have enough resources to build a gate in every town you have and still have enough money to buy every creature. Not to mention that you have much more interesting uses for your extra money, like buying troops from other towns to transform them into demons

>>745998
Dimension Door is probably even worse in my opinion. At expert level you can visit half the map in two days or something

>>746007
>At expert level you can visit half the map in two days or something
What piddly-sized maps are YOU playing on?

>>746006

Yeah, it should definitely come prebuilt, like a town feature

also Inferno heroes not being shit with no mana and shitty skills might have helped

>>746009

he is right, with some logistics you can travel half the map, even on XL maps

Does Inferno even have anything going for it beyond sacrifice + demo resurrection combo?

>>746020

edgyness, although on second thought Necro might have that one better covered

>>746020
Magogs are really useful for random mob cleanup.

>>746020
no retaliation on devils

Funny thing is that the situation for inferno is almost the same in heroes V. This time they have decent creatures in general, but instead they have abysmal heroes and no easy access to the things that help them the most, like buffs. They are supposed to be "all offense, no defense" type, but they aren't the best at offense by far, because the heroes's skill selection is not adequate

>>746020
Devils and sultans are pretty good, cerberi are decent

>>746058

I thought sultans were pretty shitty, they never survive for long, even in big numbers

>>746040
That's not useful, that's more like a "give them some way to not die" balance - they have 200hp only.

>>746073
Actually they have decent stats. Better hp than scorpicores and wyverns, faster, and they have fire shield too. They are good damage dealers. Among the best tier 6 units imo

>>746073
Nothing wants to attack them because of the shield, and they have good speed and damage. They're kinda vulnerable to big numbers of shooters, but with their speed you shouldn't get hit to often.

>>746076
They also have very high speed, which means they can kite and kill most other creatures without getting hit once.

>>746013
>with some logistics you can travel half the map, even on XL maps

No.

This thread made me fire up H3 again and try playing scenarios on Impossible diffculty. Up until now I only played on Hard/Expert but I felt that my unit rush tactic made beating some maps too easy. Now I'm struggling to improve my upgrade route but I feel as if you should always buid whatever you can so that you don't waste turns making nothing. You can't really follow a more strict plan because crucial resources are never a given.

For me the priority list for buildings is Town Hall > New Dwellings > Citadel > City Hall and prerequisites > Castle > useful dwelling upgrades.

Get capitol during the next gold burst after you have town hall.

I play mostly Fortess and Necropolis right now. i feel like other, more magic based towns can focus on getting Capitol early and some levels of mage guild. I played some multiplayer witha guy that didn't get tier 5 units by week 3 as tower but he mobbed without losses with just the basic units and spells.

I've mostly been playing the campaigns until now and I want to get into single scenarios, but I don't really like the maps I tried. They're trivial on Hard difficulty and I don't enjoy the limitations of Very Hard and Impossible difficulty.
I'd like to play a scenario that is naturally hard without limiting your ressources, where the enemy maybe starts with an advanced town or in an extremely favourable part of the map.

Is there something like that? I'm playing the GoG version + HD patch, by the way.

>>746272
try playing custom impossible XL maps like unleashing the bloodthristy

>>746282
Thanks, I'm playing it right now.

>>746306
Here's where to find more maps if you like UtB
http://heroescommunity.com/viewthread.php3?TID=16012

Could we organize friday and saturday night /vr/ plays homm3 sessions?
Anyone interested in it?

Hamachi works easily for multiplayer if you cant open up ports.
Since the game isnt much network speed dependent ping wont matter and anyone can play.

Only thing left to decide is the timezone for those meetups at the irc.

>>749370
I'd be completely down for that, the only problem is that when I tried this we had to reload the game from the lobby every few turns because it'd hang on the transferring turn to the next player part.

If you have a solution to this, I'm 120% down for it.
England btw.

>>749426
I played with my friends through hamachi and I have never had that problem.
Have you checked some forums for some answers?

>>749573
Yes, though I've not found anything that solved the problem.

>>749592
Well what game version were you running?
Any mods?
What way did you play? VPN, lan?

I really never had any problems playing MP.

>>749370
I'd totally want to participate. if the issue mentioned by >>749426 makes it completely unplayable, well, I will just drop it and leave the multiplayer or we all try again or something that fixes it.

>>749597
Heroes 3 complete (4.0)
No
Hamachi

>>749602
Well I scoped through the forums quickly and found this regarding hamachi
>Important: download version 1.0.1.5 (currently the only bug-free version refering to H3)

If one has access to a router
>These are the ports "heroes3" needs:
>2300 to 2400 TCP & UDP (trigger port = 6073), 28800 to 29100 TCP & UDP (trigger port = 6667) and 47624 TCP and UDP

Maybe I'm a broken record, but you guys should consider using Gameranger, never had a single problem with it

>>749623
Where can I download it?

Also, I seem to be having trouble opening ports. I add a rule to the effect but port checking websites say they're still closed.

>>749936
I'll give it another shot later I guess.

>>749370

>that feel when friday and saturday are the days I work all day long

>>745974
what map is that?


Also, I have a question. A few years ago I played a map, you played with two heroes the whole time. You had a castle but it was located in the corner of the map, practically locked away from your reach (it was there just so you couldn't lose from time limit) You got all your creatures by them joining you or finding creature dwellings. The two heroes never actually met (I think one was on the surface, the other one underground) but their ability to progress was tightly bound together. For example you did a bunch of stuff with the "surface" hero and then you came across a quest guard, which wouldn't let you through unless you killed a stack of let's say medusas underground. This is where you idled your surface hero and switched to underground. Here you would do some fighting and progressing until you come up to the said stack of medusas, after you kill them, there is another Quest guard in front of you, which needs your surface hero to do something, so you'd idle him, "wake up" the surface hero and play him for now. It was a XL map IIRC and I'm not sure why, words Angel and/or Wings come to my mind, I tried googling it but I wasn't successful. Oh and the goal was to destroy an enemy castle, which you'd eventually reach after hours and hours of gameplay and you'd get there with a huge ass army, while the town itself was defended by a shitton of creatures.
anybody know the name of this map, by any chance?

>>749370

I'd be in as well. As long as you guys let me know what the plan is, I'll see if it works for me or not.

Live in Europe, though, so US evening is no good for me.

I wanna play right now, Us East here! Anyone want to get on hamachi and give it a try?

>>750560
bumping for map name, come on anons, I know some of you played that glorious map too

>>750560

I remember this. It was very story based, wasn't it? And at least in the beginning, your troops were all individuals who joined you for a particular reason.

I wish I could remember what it was called.

>>751246
Who made this gif?
Totaly crazy.

>>754074

There's a couple of them flying around, here's the only other one I have though...

>>754023
you're absolutely right. Few first troops joined you because you were friends or something and first fights were really small, like a handful of your troops vs. 1 efreet and after a while you had hundreds of titans etc.

W.r.t. economy first vs troops first -- you can basically do whatever you want against the AI, so the debate is mostly pointless there; just do whatever you enjoy more. But just know that if you try to do econ-first against a competent human opponent, you WILL lose.

I've never really played Fortress much, but recently I've discovered the glory of the invincible Tazar. It's tons of fun to be able to just throw your troops around without fear of retaliation. Mighty Gorgons on a Level 15 Tazar with Stone Skin basically take single-digit damage from everything.

>>754209

Glad we're on the same page. I actually had this backed up on a floppy from back in the day, wish I still had it. I'll keep my eyes open and keep an eye on these Heroes threads in case it pops up.

Thank god for dragon utopias

>>754552
Fucking Tazar.

How are those random map templates made? I see they're just text files, like many Homm3 data files after extracting, but I have no idea what to do with them. Is there a guide/editor for that?

>>754691
There are explanations floating around on the internet, you just need to dig. I did it myself a few years ago, compiling knowledge from several years-old archived forum posts until I understood what was going on.

The thing that helped me most was finding a program some guy made that is specifically designed for editing H3 RMG templates. You CAN just edit them with any text editor, but this program spaces them into nice organized columns. However, the program is really ugly and there's this hilarious splash screen of like anime characters or something that doesn't go away after the program loads, lol.

I'll see if I still have that program, and upload it somewhere if I do.

>>750560
Bump

Also please give us a download link

>>754648
Tazar is da boss. Also, bump.

>>758519
Mephala should be as good as Tazaar, isn't she?

this may seem like a stupid question to many of you, but when a hero has a specialty like above mentioned Tazaar and Mephala, that +5% to armorer skill per level. Does that mean per level of the hero, or per level of the skill?

>>750560
also, does anyone know the name of this map?

>>758760
Per level of the hero, but it's a % of the skill rather than a simple additive.

At 5% per level, that skill is 100% more effective than normal (so 15% + 15% at expert)

>>758772
oh, okay.. I have installed all those mods in OP, I'm playing with Tazaar now, he's lvl 12 atm with expert Armorer, when I right click it, it says -20% (I assume that's because one of the mods, prolly WoG, improved it from -15% to -20%, right?) but thanks to the special ability, in reality it's actually -20%-15% = -35% reduction.. right? And if my hero reaches lvl 50 it doesn't matter, it's still -35% right?

>>758821
god damnit I play like 30 minutes, enter that Enlightenment thingy (+2 to skills) and the game crashes. god fucking damnit

>>758881
It autosaves every turn.

>>758881
You deserve it for playing that pokemon sprite edit that is WoG.

>>758760
The name of the map is King of world war and reunion 2.0

It gives me a h3m file to install, but also a data folder and an "other" folder that i dont know what to do with, any ideas?

>>758936
WoG has some great game enhancements, You don't have to play with the new creatures or commanders to use it.

>>758701

she's actually better, because she has a good chance to get logistics, unlike Tazzar who gets shitty skills all day erry day

seriusly, getting a good Tazzar build requires a couple of universities

>>758946
that's definitely not the map I was talking about, but thanks for suggestion

>>758821
From what I understand it's +5% of the initial percentage every level, so +0.75% per level. So in 20 levels you get +15%, in 40 levels +30% etc

Shit where can i Download it for free ?

>>759718
Torrent sites exist for a reason.

>>758701

Well, not exactly. Tazar is still a Beastmaster, which gives him increased chances of getting important skils like logistics, tactics and pathfinding; as well as a more focused primary skill development.

Mephala's main advantage could have been starting with two skill, so she doesn't get forced into a crap choice at level 3 (which happens to Tazar a lot). But unfortunately, she already starts with a crap skill (leadership), which negates that advantage.

Still, they're fairly close and have identical chances of getting the various elemental magic skill, so neither of them really have a decisive advantage over the other, and Tazar only wins due to his significantly better chances of getting logistics.
Even then, the biggest indictment against Mepahala is probably, that while Tazar is almost always Fortress' best hero, Mephala is maybe Rampart's third best hero, and she just plain isn't as useful as ol' Taz as a result.

Captcha: call plodar. Your will be done master.

>>760049
If mephala is third best, the two best must be Kyrre and Ivor ? I'm wondering why Ivor is considered so good as a main hero. It always seemed that the bonus he gives to his elves isn't that good

>>760095

I was actually thinking of Ryland, purely because he starts with diplomacy, which is otherwise a total crapshoot to get on enything other than a cleric.

Although I totally could see taking Ivor over Mephala on the right map, just because his starting skills are pretty good. Like you said, the creature specialty is mostly a minor perk.

>>760253
Still, there are other heroes who start with good skills. It's strange that Ivor is the most played hero in WCL, above even Crag Hack

>>760438

Yeah, I'm not exactly sure why Ivor is so popular.

Although he does start with like 5 or 6 extra elves, which isn't bad in the first weeks if you upgrade them fast. Also, with Ivor's speed boost I think they'd outspeed all other shooters except for Cyclops Kings (whom they'd be tied with) and Titans.

I imagine his early creeping potential might be a decisive factor on one of those
>Implying I wanted ore
maps.

captcha: patetin useful. I think captcha agrees.

>>737972
I haven't tried vcmi for multiplayer but it seems unstable as hell for single player, crashes constantly.

Which campaigns is the best?

>>761726
SoD and AB both have good campaigns

>>754209
so that's why Zydar looks like he's raging

>finding HoMM too easy after all these years
>try this Eador game
>3rd highest difficulty
>can't even fight through the scrubby troops around my starting area

Jesus christ.

>>754209
such a favorite image of mine

bump

Anyone ever play Age of Wonders?

I've always loved Heroes but AoW took my interest when it came out. To this day, I love a bunch of things it does uniquely, love the races and creatures, individual units, etc... I often get a craving to go back and play it again, but it never lasts a full game. I don't know if I ever actually completed any significant match in AoW.

There's a reboot coming out soon as well. Doomed to a future just like Heroes after number 3?

>>767553
I like to play AOW2 shadow magic whenever the mood takes me, I'm not very good at it though.

I'd always be up multiplayer if you're interested?

>>767570

Ah no way, I'm terrible at it. As I said, I don't think I've ever been able to sit through an entire match. It's just one of those games I love the idea of more than the game itself, I guess. I do have them all on Steam though, are the sequels any better?

>>767582
AOW: shadow magic is fantastic. Arguably one of my favourite TBS games of all time, next to HOMM3.

>>767553
>reboot

What? It's a normal sequel.

>>767692
Hm, I'll have to give it a proper go, then. I watched a video of the new one being developed and it looks very... different. Not very appealing judging by what I saw but time will tell.

bump for tower power

Dungeon bump.

>>769537

What mods are you using?

who dragon slayer here?

>>774023

You have my axe!

>>774956
and my Resurrection.

BAMP

What is more useful, pathfinding or logistics?

>>775602
Logistics is one of the most useful skills. So go for it.

>>775604
How much better than pathfinding is it though? i mean you are not going to have a road on most maps, so it seems like a good pickup,

>>775604
what's the take on taking both?

>>775607
Logistics works all the time, pathfinding only sometimes. They're both good, but pathfinding gets much worse depending on the map.

>>775607
The thing is - pathfinder only reduces penalties, while logistics gives flat bonus.
On the worst terrains (which are 2x move or 1x5) pathfinder can be better, but on some it is useless, while logistics always gives you bonus which is quite sizeable. Pathfindic CAN be good if map is full of swaps etc, but othewise it is meh.
In fact, every main hero ought to have logistics. I'd risk saying it is a fact.