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Can I create a shroud that only hide variable objects but still show the terrain like the obelisk do? I want to create a fog of war like effect.. I know that permant shroud can be created but is very annoying that it hides terrain we know.

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Pollo2002 said:

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VCMI will be an open source engine, which means I will be able to do whatever I want with the engine.

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Pollo2002 said:

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I've read the thread and I'm sad I missed this talk.

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Personally I think heroes 2 was better designed as a strategy game. I´m not even going to ignore the fact that aesthetically imo, is vastly superior.

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However heroes 3 had more modding tools, and it was not that much worse than heroes 2 and even improved in some areas.

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none did it to create a well focused multiplayer experience.

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b0rsuk said:

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Fun Fact: Gus Smedstad, the designer of Heroes4, said in an interview the plan with HOMM5 was to go "back to roots" as a strategy game, and HOMM2 was cited as an inspiration. So we're not alone in our preference.

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avatar said:

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Still, Sucession Wars will be based on H3 mechanics with H2 graphics.

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Orzie said:

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The other options for battle system may still be developed as Era downloadable minimods. More info later.

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b0rsuk said:

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You were talking about VCMI, but did you know HOMM2 has an equivalent project ? fheroes2, and it's playable. Campaigns don't work, multiplayer is only hotseat, AI is bad especially on adventure map, and some spells are not functional but it has the core covered.

Unfortunately development is pretty much dead, but source code is available on Sourceforge (C++). But someone can pick it up and continue. And it has a WoG-like settings options, ewww! This is the only project that might convince me to learn C++ (I have formal education in ET and pursue programming career, but I dislike low level C-like languages).

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Andrettin said:

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Ah, it would probably be much more feasible to modify VCMI to make it run Heroes 2 than updating the dead project.

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Salamandre said:

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He also talks about the wog from 5 years ago. Borsuk, push the update button so we can talk about same things.

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olorin said:

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b0rsuk said:

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Fun Fact: Gus Smedstad, the designer of Heroes4, said in an interview the plan with HOMM5 was to go "back to roots" as a strategy game, and HOMM2 was cited as an inspiration. So we're not alone in our preference.

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That hurts me personally

Yep, H2 is still my fav, thus when The Succession Wars mod will be aired, I'll be the happiest of men.

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VC: Alright, so Heroes V, what I really want to get back to, and what I'm spending all my time on, is redesigning the entire game engine, to be much more along the lines of Heroes II and III, except much more modern and a lot more balanced, and much more challenging. The game evolved much more towards a role-playing type of game over the last couple of years, and I want to bring back completely, 180 degrees back to a true strategy game. It will have role-playing elements, but really the esence of what I wanted Heroes always to be since the very beginning is a pure strategy game. And role-playing is nice for campaigns and some particular scenarios, but the basic game is strategy. It's you against a few players, or you against other human players.

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Salamandre said:

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There are multiple aspects to be taken in consideration. Most of things you talk about, however, are about game atmosphere. While "better" implies you get more accurate battle analysis, proper balance, proper strategies. And this is exactly where H2 fails and anyone who played it online for a while knows that.

Hit and run almost impossible to counter, insane differences between same level monster hit points, total reset of movement when you flee a battle -which leads, as we know, to endless hits and run only limited by your treasury-, magic too powerful compared to creatures hit points and when combined to afore mentioned flaws, endless cast of dimension door for example, impossibility to influence speed so a phoenix will always be faster than anyone -no artifacts, no terrain, no heroes specialties to help that, as Heroes 3 introduces- and many similar aspects which, wisely, were addressed by Heroes 3.

Then another aspect aspect would be Heroes 3 evolution, it transcended through WoG, which now evolved into Era -full mods support and available modding language -easy to learn, allows almost anything, then HD fan made mod, which basically optimize both interface and access to templates to perfection, then Hota -a perfectly designed fan made expansion.

Thus is hard to compare a game which naturally died as soon as its sequel was born, with another game which continues to hook community even after 4 additional sequels are out.

If you like H2 more, is a matter of taste and many arguments make sense. But that does not make from it a "better" game. A game is better when the outcome accurately matches the player strategies and plans carried out, and where the luck or random factors have only a limited impact, reflected on win/loss ratio statistics.

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