FirePaladin said:There's only two squirrels in this screenshot, by the way.
@LordInsane and @AncientDruids found one each, soooo, I guess you are the ones to find them!
Oh do I wish this forum had username-changing functionality…
Personally, I'm interested in a piece of graphic that's mostly for your PR: Grotto's symbol, the one that would be used in unit overview images here, their counterpart to the Forge's white fist-into-globe on red (as seen in the Grunt update on page 30) and Palace's white tiger rampant on a blue/pink per bend shield (as seen in the Viking update on page 18). Let's hope AncientDruids has something more inspired to suggest!
@LordInsane @AncientDruids
I meant it more as in the Team showing said something during the stream. I should have worded that better, but nevertheless... have this:
He is having an Absolute TV Time! while being on Battlefield 6 with some snacks and themed clothes scattered around.
Otherwise, shoutout to Zuzel and Pad Padl, who have both reacted to the trailer prologue and shared their thoughts about it!
And let's not forget, news of this teaser have also been shared by Ubisoft today, as they were unable to properly showcase it during the anniversary stream. Not only that, but you can also watch an exclusive interview with Maximilian, DoR PR member and one of its programmers, in the anniversary documentary (it starts at the 15:32 minute mark):
That is all for now! We have not forgotten about the promised update, but it might still take a bit longer until we can publish it - simply to make sure it's up to par. The same applies to stream highlights, which will likely come with said update.
____________ HoMM3: Day of Reckoning forum thread!
It's great to see how much progress you guys have made with this project, which only amplifies the torture of having to wait for it. ;p
I've got a bit of a technical question for the DoR team. How did you guys implement the first-strike retaliation ability for the sabretooth tigers? BTB did the same in his mod, but when I tried to use his code in hex editor, I encountered three issues with it.
1: It ignores no enemy retaliation. (A simple check should fix this.)
2: It prevents an attacker with double strike from attacking twice. (Same as before.)
3: This is the big one. The defender with the first-strike retaliation ability attacks in the wrong direction. The attack is still hit, but the defender is throwing out his attack in the opposite direction. This doesn't occur when both units are face to face with one another. It only happens when the attacker strikes from above or below the defender.
Things get even wonkier when you give this ability to a unit with a two-hex attack. Any unit on this second hex will take damage in the direction of the defender's attack even though the initial target is in the opposite direction. In other words, a unit comes to attack the defender with this ability, the defender strikes first, defender strikes in the wrong direction, the attacker takes damage despite this, third unit on the second hex in the incorrect direction of the defender's attack also takes damage as if it were correct.
BTB claims that this third bug never occurred in his mod, so I'm not sure what I am doing wrong. I have closely looked at his code to make sure I have inputted it correctly and even tried without the HotA mod, but the error occurred regardless.
It's fine not to answer. I know you guys are busy with your mod. Just thought I put this out there in case you have a relatively easy and simple solution to this problem.
I came up with an interesting idea for how to make fire magic a more viable skill to go for. In particular, you could rework the Sacrifice spell.
In the original base game, I believe there was a glitch-exploit where you could sacrifice your opponent's creatures to resurrect your own. Obviously, this would be extremely broken if you did just that, but you could rework it to deal 'damage' based on spell power instead and then resurrect a stack's total hp count by the amount of damage done to the enemy stack. Of course, you would also probably want to rename the spell as well, since it's not really a sacrifice if you gain nothing but benefits from it.
Just an idea I'm pitching, but it would definitely make Fire Magic a more viable skill to go for.
On the highest map difficulty, yes. At the same time, lower difficulties will be drastically easier, so anyone can enjoy the campaign.
@Laserstorm
If retaliations are available, then the Sabertooth attacks once before the attacker, and another time after the attacker attacks. In case of double-attack units like Crusaders, the Crusader simply attacks one more time after the Sabertooth's last retaliation.
The White Tiger only retaliates once, before the enemy attacks them.
Regarding Fire Magic, we are not reworking existing spells to such extent. However, there will be new spells, among other buffs.
____________ HoMM3: Day of Reckoning forum thread!
This update will be a bit more informal. With all the holiday rush, stress, and things that have or had to be done, I figured that it would be best to take a breath and chill for a bit. Well, that is, until this update post reaches its end. After that I have to go back to the usual, or else the Tiger Den awaits me!
We had no idea what to do with this dwelling a few years ago – the H4 concept of a cave painted white was already questionable, but in the context of the Palace, it was outright unusable. Thankfully, it’s nothing that learning 3D from scratch (and a concept art, eventually) couldn’t solve in a few years…
This update is more like a retrospective of the whole year. To highlight some of the progress that was made within the last twelve months… there’s also plenty of stuff we can’t reveal just yet. While Palace is already being showcased, there are also two other factions in development. Other content (wink-wink, alternates) also kept us busy over the course of the last three years of full development (and with a nudge from MDT’s work).
Who is that Pokemon?!
It’s a bit crazy to think that at one point, progress on the other factions was even further along than on the Palace. And we are not talking about when the Palace was barely more than a bunch of quickly put-together units by a dodo (Treth) and a total beginner (me), joined by two or three other graphics, but sometime a bit later.
Despite being covered in a thick sheet of glaciers, or perhaps thanks to it, the Snow Elves and other people are able to build imposing fortifications made of ice. These serve as the basis for new towns.
That’s enough reminiscing! Work on the town screens is nearly done. Standards being, of course, those set by the one Forge town screen peek you got, and even a bit higher: it is this year when the team truly improved its art. And now the polishing angst is bearable, we have design points and principles from H3 to back-reference to.
Treth said this is just above Stronghold-tier; he’s always like that. I told him that it looks marvelous, and is on par with Rampart and Tower at the very least. And he keeps improving it more and more. I also totally forgot his water had ripples in it. I was too lazy to do that for Palace (but I have an excuse: this is a 25+ years old game).
Creatures are in a similar spot as town screens. We are missing but a few of those, in H3 terms. Of course, there are still good amounts of concepts we could implement for 1.0… but there are already plenty of neutrals with cool and useful abilities, besides the alternates.
The Coeurl is the level 4 alternate creature in Grotto. It is a fast, mobile creature with an ability related to illusory effects, powerful enough to be a viable alternative to the ever-spreading Fungoid. A staple of DnD, as are beholders and other creatures from H3, this feline monster also has loose ties to the Dark Elves, through Drizzt Do’Urden’s familiar and the general aesthetics of the Underdark.
Also, is this truly not an IMAGE of a FRIENDly cat?
Town screens and creatures are *not* all that DoR is about, however – or any real H3 expansion, at that. There are two new terrains in DoR, with one having seen good progress last month, and another which needs a general overview. That’s one of my next tasks (yay!)…
The squirrels are back!
There are various miscellaneous graphics which were done. However, many still remain to be created: UIs, certain adventure map locations, spells, icons, combat obstacles and siege screens (especially these). Not that it is necessarily difficult to create these (compared to town screens and creatures), but they too have to be completed. We also have to take a look over all the new gorgeous heroes which Nephretes (Polski forum legend) has been making in my so-dubbed “hero scene”.
The evolution of Male Cleric, Female Ranger, Male Alchemist, and Male Elementalist. The Elementalist was changed due to the original being literally just a recolor of Dracon, a Tower campaign hero, and to better encompass the faction’s aesthetic.
There are story-writing, music, and sounds, too. As of now, a decent amount of creature sounds are made, and the town themes are virtually finished. Writing is progressing in parallel with everything else.
And lastly, programming. This is not my area of expertise, and I know those guys love their secrecy, so I’ll just say… the previous teaser was entirely recorded inside the game. For now, you don’t even know the insane work that’s been put into the actual DoR game. That’s all.
Is this… an actually serious link for once?!
All-in-all, it’s been a pretty good year, and I hope the next one will be as well. We certainly have a much better workflow now, and the biggest graphical hurdles are out of the way. People may misinterpret the message one way or another, and while we may include an incredibly niche easter egg or piece of deep lore information or what else in a story text or graphic, these updates are meant to be taken at face value.
Heavenly maidens who reincarnate Vori’s people…
"Conqueror of Worlds, Maker of Dreams... the greatest force of all, yet elusive it seems."
To close it off, we hope you’ll enjoy your holidays and the New Year, and even if you don’t celebrate them, we wish you a good time. We are optimistically developing the mod, and, sooner or later, we will drop another update. Stay tuned, and see you around!
One day earlier than I would have expected it
Thanks for this update! I think it will take some time to figure out all new details. I like Palace's mystical vibes. On townscreen I think the heaven's colour combined with the distributed spots of aurora borealis create a very unique and mystical atmosphere.
In the two great screenshots there can be seen many new creatures and many revised old acquaintances. For example the Nisse: I really like Christmas and I also liked the little Santa look. But I think the plain look fits more to its lore you wrote here a few years ago. Did I see it correctly that Tomte's hat is now more brown than Santa red?
Is the mammoth related to Palace or is it one of the mentioned neutral creatures?
Can we the kind of a level 7 dragon from Grotto guarding the border area on the left side of the town?
...I just want to try Palace right now (again)
Guenhwyvar being an actual, albeit extraplanar, panther is a bit different from displacer beasts, of course - but the same setting have had mentions of things like drow priestess training displacer beasts as pets and guards, so there is a loose connection there.
The upgrade's hat color might be a bit toned down by now, yes. It is still red, but an old-school, pale one now.
The Palace roster remains as it was teased earlier this year. So the mammoth is a neutral.
About whatever Grotto creature that is... maybe!
@LordInsane
That is true. At the end of the day, it's a matter of similar vibe and aesthetics, as well as finding a place for staple DnD creatures that are likely to be considered for H3. And on top of that, both the Dark Elves and the Coeurls are exotic in the same way (at least where they overlap, which regards South Asian jungles, temples etc.).
____________ HoMM3: Day of Reckoning forum thread!
This thread is pages long: 
posted October 12, 2025 09:16 PM
