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| Thread: some random HOMM3 questions: | |
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VikingLegion
Tavern Dweller
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posted December 25, 2012 12:28 AM |
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some random HOMM3 questions:
Hello all,
I just registered on this board yesterday, though I've lurked for a little while now. My friends and I were absolute freaks for HOMM back in the 2 and 3 years, and though we've kept up with the games faithfully over the years, they did fade a bit for us.
A few of us have recently rekindled the HOMM torch - we just finished playing through an incredible HOMM2 map we collaborated on back in the day. It took us several months to painstakingly build this map, and it incorporated all kinds of stuff from our old D&D groups, fantasy books/movies of the time/etc. It was tons of fun to play through again some 15 years later after we'd forgotten most of it. Anyway, it was so much fun I figured it would be even better to build a new map for HOMM3. But here's where my trouble starts:
1. I have an old install disc of HOMM3 - The Shadow of Death. I tried it on my primary computer - which is about 4 years old and uses Vista 64 bit as an OS. I can't get past ~12%, it gets to music files and always encounters an error. They're just MP3 files, I can't imagine what the problem is. Does anyone know what the line of demarcation is for operating systems that will run original HOMM3? A friend of mine swears he had an old comp with Windows 7 that ran it just fine, can anyone confirm that?
2. I've purchased a few older games from GoG.com (Good Old Games) and had success - namely the old Black Isle games like Planescape: Torment and the like. Last weekend I bought Heroes 3 and installed it no problem. The map editor seems a little bugged out though. I made a quick test map just to play around with some stuff, and when I save it I'm 100% certain I have the path correct - Program(x86)/Gog.com/Heroes3/MAPS - but yet when I go to start up a game to test things, it's simply not there. I see there is a compatibility tab available, but if I move the test map from there to the main MAPS subfolder, I lose any further ability to edit the map - meaning I'd have to build an entire XL map in one shot without any playtesting at all - that's just not feasible.
Ok, sorry that got so long-winded. What it boils down to basically is I'm really fiending to make an HOMM3 map for my friends and I to enjoy. What's my best bet - buying an older comp/OS and using my original disc? Or try to find a workaround with the GoG version? Has anyone successfully built and played a custom map using GoG?
Thanks for your time.
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artu
Promising
Undefeatable Hero
My BS sensor is tingling again
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posted December 25, 2012 12:40 AM |
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When you make a map, be sure to give it a name in the editor menu:
Tools/Map Specifications/Map Name
or else the game wont display it.
H3 runs under Vista and 7.
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VikingLegion
Tavern Dweller
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posted December 25, 2012 02:47 AM |
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Thank you for your reply, but I definitely did as you suggested. I even made sure the name of the map matched the file name. In map specifications I named it Xtest (so I could sort by reverse alphabetical and find it right away), and the filename was Xtest.h3m - same extension as all other maps.
Despite all this it still didn't show up as a playable map - but again this was all attempted under the GoG translation of the game, so perhaps that is what's causing the problem. I'm sure if I could just get the original version to install on Vista I wouldn't be having these issues.
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Everquake
Tavern Dweller
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posted December 26, 2012 02:47 AM |
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Quote:
Thank you for your reply, but I definitely did as you suggested. I even made sure the name of the map matched the file name. In map specifications I named it Xtest (so I could sort by reverse alphabetical and find it right away), and the filename was Xtest.h3m - same extension as all other maps.
Despite all this it still didn't show up as a playable map - but again this was all attempted under the GoG translation of the game, so perhaps that is what's causing the problem. I'm sure if I could just get the original version to install on Vista I wouldn't be having these issues.
Greetings,
I had a similar issue. If you don't run the map editor as an administrator, the map file doesn't save correctly to the Maps folder. The Program Files (x86) folder can be a bit picky in terms of which accounts can write to it. You can uninstall the game and reinstall it to a different folder other than the Program Files (x86) folder or just make sure to run the program as an administrator. When I tried to open up a map as an administrator that I was working on previously, the map editor gave me an error. So, I had to run the editor as a non-administrator, save the map to my documents, copy the map into the Maps folder, and then open it as an Administrator in the editor.
I hope this helps,
-Everquake
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VikingLegion
Tavern Dweller
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posted December 26, 2012 03:49 AM |
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I will definitely try that, thanks for the suggestion. As a followup question(s) - is this using an original install disc of SoD, or a GoG version? I'm still not 100% convinced that the GoG translation is not causing a compatibility issue, and I'm still having the previously mentioned problem installing my old disc onto this Vista OS computer - but I'll go try the admin thing on the GoG version to see if that helps.
Thanks again.
**EDIT** I just tried building a new test map and playing it, making double sure I loaded both programs as Admin. It worked beautifully, what an easy fix! Thank you so much, I can't wait to get started on my map now.
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Everquake
Tavern Dweller
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posted December 26, 2012 06:41 AM |
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Quote:
I will definitely try that, thanks for the suggestion. As a followup question(s) - is this using an original install disc of SoD, or a GoG version? I'm still not 100% convinced that the GoG translation is not causing a compatibility issue, and I'm still having the previously mentioned problem installing my old disc onto this Vista OS computer - but I'll go try the admin thing on the GoG version to see if that helps.
Thanks again.
**EDIT** I just tried building a new test map and playing it, making double sure I loaded both programs as Admin. It worked beautifully, what an easy fix! Thank you so much, I can't wait to get started on my map now.
No problem at all! Glad I could help.
-Everquake
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DragosP
Tavern Dweller
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posted January 08, 2013 01:04 PM |
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Random Map
Can anybody tell me were can I find a good rmg for random map creator?
Ty
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Warmonger
Promising
Legendary Hero
fallen artist
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posted January 08, 2013 03:36 PM |
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laucian
Hired Hero
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posted January 08, 2013 06:03 PM |
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Quote:
I will definitely try that, thanks for the suggestion. As a followup question(s) - is this using an original install disc of SoD, or a GoG version? I'm still not 100% convinced that the GoG translation is not causing a compatibility issue, and I'm still having the previously mentioned problem installing my old disc onto this Vista OS computer - but I'll go try the admin thing on the GoG version to see if that helps.
Thanks again.
**EDIT** I just tried building a new test map and playing it, making double sure I loaded both programs as Admin. It worked beautifully, what an easy fix! Thank you so much, I can't wait to get started on my map now.
VikingLegion,
Will you be making this map available to others? Your description of the map has me wanting to play it.
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VikingLegion
Tavern Dweller
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posted January 12, 2013 03:54 AM |
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Quote:
VikingLegion,
Will you be making this map available to others? Your description of the map has me wanting to play it.
Most likely, yeah. Though I'm not sure how much sense it'll make to anyone not well versed in D&D lore, particularly the old TSR worlds of the late 80's/ early 90's.
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