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Ritzilopochtli
Tavern Dweller
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posted September 26, 2026 07:33 PM |
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HoMM IV Arena mod
Hello, everyone. Today I discovered there is an active, live mod for Heroes IV called Arenamade by Russian player oxygen_hl who is widely known in narrow circles of the Russian HoMM IV community.
The premise of Arena is that it inherits balance and gameplay changes from the old and established Equilibris 3.51 released all the way back in 2004, and builds upon it, adding balance tweaks of its own, as well as quality of life UI and multiplayer improvements akin to the HD mod for Heroes III.
To download the mod, view the changelog and new hotkeys you can use the following links:
- https://heroes4.net/arena (English version);
- https://heroes4.ru/arena (Russian version).
Note that the changelog is provided in two versions: compared to vanilla HoMM IV Complete and Equilibris 3.51.
Some of the significant changes in the mod:
- simultaneous turns;
- online lobby with two servers (EU and RU) for better connectivity;
- various quality of life improvements such as:
-- turn order bar in combat;
-- combat log;
-- detailed combat tooltips;
-- magic resistance stat displayed in the unit tab (from Equilibris 3.51);
-- selection menu for units summoned with the Summoning and Necromancy skills (from Equilibris 3.51 with some changes);
-- hotkeys for quick unit splitting and merging;
- spellcaster units amassed beyond certain numbers can cast mass versions of their spells (from Equilibris 3.51);
- units raised with Necromancy are now limited not only by the skill level, but by the tier of the destroyed troops as well (i.e. Vampires require tier 4 units w/o GM in Death Magic, and tier 3 and 4 with GM in Death Magic).
You can check out the full changelog here:
https://heroes4.net/arena/changelog
Below are some of the changes in the combat.
Turn order bar:
Combat log:
Detailed tooltips:
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Ritzilopochtli
Tavern Dweller
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posted September 26, 2026 08:23 PM |
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Below are some screens from the actual multiplayer game with simultaneous turns I have had today.
1. "Online lobby" is the new multiplayer mode than can be selected under "Multiplayer" in the main menu. It contains two servers - EU (outside of Russia) and RU (Russia). Both servers share the chat and hosted games, but for connectivity purposes it's better if all players in one game connect through a single server.
In my game both my opponent and I were running the game w/o VPN in Russia. In case of connectivity issues (i.e. errors in processing turns or disconnections) which can't be resolved through signing on to the same server or disabling VPN, it's recommended to use Radmin VPN.
2. If you connect for the first time, you'll be redirected to https://heroes4.net/link or https://heroes4.ru/link depending on the selected server (EU and RU), and asked to sign up (using your email, Google account, Twitch or Discord).
3. After signing up, you'll be asked to add a randomly generated key to your account. It will also be required if you log out, and try to sign in again.
4. After signing in, you'll get to the lobby with the list of currently hosted games, list of players, and common chat.
5. To host a new game, click "Create Game". In this tab you'll have to set up the game name ("Server Name") and number of players, and either create a new game or load a save file.
6. Then set player colors, factions, turn timer, number of simultaneous turns, (im)mobile guards, difficulty level.
7. You can see the turn timer running in the top left corner.
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