For fans of turn-based strategy:
fheroes2 (based on HOMM2 - but much better ) has heaps of new features, including high resolution (more map showing at once, battle map fitting "inside" fantasy map/world), garrison and visiting heroes, wait and skip (defend) function in battle and an option to automatically move onto the square you attack - for enemy heroes and attacking towns and castles (not including wandering monsters since they really attack you after you move in range rather than you attacking them ). Also you can ban certain spells and artifacts from appearing randomly: including the spells Summon Boat, Town Portal and Dimension Door from Mage Guilds, Shrines and Pyramids and useless spells like Haunt; and artifacts such as the Anduran artifacts, which can break a map. Try it out - it is heaps better than H2 (and IMHO base H3 )! See: http://sourceforge.net/projects/fheroes2/files/fheroes2/
to download, or http://sourceforge.net/projects/fheroes2/
to find more about the project! It's amazing how adding ideas that came after the original game was released can make the game a whole lot cooler. Coming in the future are maps even bigger than H3's in terms of total squares!
The only files you need from HOMM2 are the files from the DATA subdirectory (either the original game or PoL if you want to use PoL features and maps). The easiest way to get the DATA files is to buy HOMM 2 Gold from GoG.com for US$9.99. It doesn't matter that it's the DOS version of HOMM2, the data files it has work identically with fheroes2 to the ones provided with the original Win95 version of HOMM2: Price of Loyalty. There are now win32, pocketpc, linux and android versions of fheroes2 (android version is by another author).
Why not try it out? It is playable now in single player and hotseat mode, however internet multiplayer, built-in campaigns and a special fheroes2 Editor (including Campaign Editor) are not available just yet (but are on the list). But the game is improving all the time! HOMM2 was a cool game when it was released, and fheroes2 is lots of fun, having the ability for better balance based on a lot more play-time, and including new features and some from later games. It is my favourite (Aussie spelling ) open source mod project.
Best regards,Steven.
Thanks for this info Steven, I just recently picked up HoMM2 at GOG and have to agree with you on the graphic/art side, it has aged better than HoMM3 for me in that respect. And never really liked H5 all that much overall, especially fighting with the camera on the adventure map.
The gameplay is for sure a little behind H3 so this mod looks to try to even it up a bit.
Downloading it now, thanks again.
No worries.
Any plan to implement caravans?
Like in H4, or slightly different? What implementation would you suggest? You can always make a post in fheroes2's Feature Requests Tracker on sourceforge. (I'm not sure at this stage if I would agree to having troops untargetable as they're travelling, but that's probably my only caveat at this point in time.)
I was thinking along the lines of H5. (I never played H4.)
How does it work in H5? I haven't played it, and H4 only a little bit.
Troops are targetable as they're travelling in H5. However, no doubt in my mind that untargettable is easier to implement.
Hi Steven,
Quick question. The graphics you show of HMM2 on the sourceforge? site, are these BEFORE, or AFTER your modding/reamking? If they are before, where might I get screen shots of AFTER, as I wish to see before i spend the coin on re-buying HMM2? Thanks...
best regards Elana
The graphics are the same as in original H2, except a lot more of the main map can be shown in one screen on higher resolutions, and this simple change does improve the feel of the game quite a bit. And it is also neat that the Castle screen or tactical battle screen fits "inside" the larger map screen on higher res, giving a feeling that the castle/battle is part of the fantasy map/world. However, if you are wanting improved graphics apart from the increase in resolution, I think that is unlikely. But I think the graphics still hold their own quite a lot better than other games, considering the game is about 15 years old now.
Thanks Steven. I played it when it came out. Fond memories. I guess my concern about resolution really harks back to my experience with MoM. BTW, the reworked MoM has totally awesome gameplay. BUT the graphics, on higher resolutions are just awful, forcing play at lower resolutions. Since MoM is my only experience with (a fav game from the ancient era of game design) I wondered how well the graphics in HoMM held up when played at modern / higher resolutions. BTW, I prefer good game play over graphics. Thanks again.
I personally think the game is fun with the current graphics at higher resolutions (more map showing, battle/castle screen fits inside overworld map). The graphics hold their own well enough, especially with all the gameplay improvements, and I think H2 was ahead of its time with graphics when it was released. But I'll let you decide whether you want to spend the US$9.99 - it's your money.
Hey guys!
First I would like to really thank you for bringing back to life such a great game! I really cannot express to you my gratitude with words. The game is so amazing and I love all the extras that have been added to the original game, it makes me feel excited as if I play it for the first time again!
I downloaded the source code from sourceforge and built it on my Mac. It works like a charm! I have been wondering though if any of you have a bit of problems with lag from time to time, as well as if you have noticed that the hero movement around the world is not as smooth as it was in the original game. The camera seems to be jumping with a small delay too when the heroes move. I have been searching online on this issue but I have not found a single person saying anything about that nor any fixes for the problem. Could anyone help me out
I have also been looking for a debugger for Mac OS which would allow me to run the game and while playing it to tell me which function is executed for different things. For example say I move my hero and I would like to find out the function responsible for this and also the file in which it is located. After searching for a while I have been unable to find anything like this either.. Starting to worry nothing like this exists even though it could be such a useful too for debugging unknown code of such a length.
Once again Thank you so much! I am really hoping that these forum is still followed by you as I see the last posts are from 2011..
Kind Regards,
-Redwaza
And the Necromancy award goes to..........
If there's any game / thread that deserves it, it's this one.
Tsk that's only a 3-year bump. I did a 5-year one some years back
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:
Sign in or Create Account
