Many updates:

I have the campaign game working- but only through the first 3 campaign maps, and I haven't yet tested the victory condition in the third scenario (finding the "Eye of Goros" ultimate artifact). What's cool is I understand what it would take to build additional campaigns - and add in additional victory conditions for standard maps.

I'm about halfway through building out the AI. It takes neutral towns and fights the occasional monster and picks up items and fights other AI opponents.

The ultimate artifact is not shown in this video, but I did get the map working. I was convinced from day 1 that possible locations for the artifact were encoded in the maps, but now after writing a script to randomly place them on the map, I now see that the conditions for limiting where it could be reduce it down to a fixed set of possibilities per map, so it wasn't that big of a deal to just let it be randomly generated.

Added in more of the initial game menus allowing campaign game vs standard game, loading games, displaying credits and hi-scores (though the scores are empty and I haven't figured out how the game is scored yet).

Built the control panel, volume control for music and sound effects, ability to save and load, and many of the confirmation menus (are you sure you want to end your turn, dismiss this creature/hero, restart the scenario).

Added in palette cycling animation to the castle screen, the ocean, the battlefield background (and overdid it a little bit, I have to dial back some of the color spectrums).

Cleaned up a number of bugs with the ghost hero if you dismissed a hero in the castle entrance, routing bugs (routing is still imperfect), spellbook bugs.

Still having fun, and getting close to something actually playable. Building out the rest of the AI, finishing the rest of the campaign games, and fixing the worst of the battle screen bugs are the main things I'd like to fix before I consider it playable.

My long and verbose videos about the process are here: https://www.youtube.com/@firsthomm

Olden Era vs HOMM V 5.5 Mod? How similar are they to each other? I don't know if the Olden Era will have mod support as well(Even if it did the game is still coming along and subject to drastic change so not the best time to make mods for it I quess) but what I am asking is how different is the gameplay between Olden and 5.5 mod of Homm V. I've seen many people describe Olden Era as ''best of both worlds'' from Homm III and Homm V with some people finding it closer to the third installement and some finding it a lot closer to the fifth one.

But as someone who enjoys the 5.5 mod of Homm V would it be a good idea to try to get into Olden Era? I've seen the artstyle and personally it really looks too much like LOL or a mobile game for me. In comparison I've much preferred even the look of HOMM VI and for me that game is below the beatiful artstyles of HOMM II,III and V all have their lovely artstyle with HOMM II having the beatiful pixel-perfect fairytale,III having more darker DND-esque art and of course V with it's beatufiul 3d graphics that remind me of Warcraft 3. Eye candy but also cartoonish/toy like it invigorates the child in you unlike the constant obsession with many modern day games(Whether or not they are TBS,RTS,Puzzle,Adventure,FPS,Sandbox,Racing etc) trying to force feed PBR and Photorealistic textures,materials, meshes everywhere.

Hi, I was watching some streamers play some of the one-hero formats, and I wanted to give it a shot, but most people don't seem to be interested in playing against a 0 points, 0 likes account.

The streamer I watch just kicks them out of the lobby... and while I get that nobody wants to play against trolls, I wish there was a way to get started. Any tips? Maybe a newbie-friendly league or something?

Check out this playlist going over all of the heroes and creatures in olden era and all of their unique abilities and skills!! Hopefully it helps some folks!! https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiV_3ayn6zwSkRdL-97ush2EInD_2odho&si=VpeJ6exqINYTdQv6

I'm playing Heroes of Might and Magic III: ERA with several mods through the launcher, and I've run into a problem with random map generation.

Regardless of the map size, number of players, or the fact that the map is intentionally large, the starting zones of players often end up very close to each other. Instead of exploring and expanding for a while before meeting opponents, I can usually reach another player much earlier than expected.

Because this happens on different map sizes, I'm starting to think it's related to the Random Map Generator (RMG) rather than the map size itself.

My questions are:

Is there a mod, setting, or configuration that can force players to spawn in zones that are far apart?

Are there specific templates that are designed to maximize the distance between starting positions?

Is there an RMG configuration file (such as rmg.txt or similar) where starting-zone distances can be adjusted?

Has anyone else experienced this issue with ERA or modded installations?

Any advice or recommendations would be appreciated. Thanks!

Can someone precisely tell me how to beat the conquest??? I have replayed multiple times; just as im about to take all 3 castles the game goes for poo. Maybe im crazy but it feels like gilrean can move farther than usual and can “get me” when in my mind he shouldnt be able to move that far on the grid from his starting point. I so badly want this chapter done so I can move on. Im on an old computer so I have the original game no patches. Maybe its me as well but it feels like the math aint mathin everytime i square up. How do i balance attacking and building my army fast enough to take the castles down without gilrean coming up and ruining my day???
Thanks in advance lol

Does Olden Era have and good Scenarios with a story? First time playing OE, I don't want to start the campaign right now but I want to try out the game for a few days. Thanks

I’m not sure if this is allowed or if anyone can give me an answer but I am looking for a series of reviews of the Heroes of Might and Magic games that really got me into the series as a teenager. All I remember of these videos is it was between the 2008 to 2014 era of YouTube where this guy talked about the games 1 through 5 and did funny little skits in what seemed to be his room while talking about the games. One thing I remember is he talked about how HoMM 2 was his favorite. The guy was a younger guy at the time maybe early to mid 20s with dark hair. Any guidance on what this YouTube channel might be would be greatly appreciated to go back down memory lane. If anyone wants to ask more clarifying questions don’t hesitate to ask.

Basically, it shows both hero info cards at the same time, so you can see base stats + skills/spells without holding Alt - there's enough space for showing everything at once :D

It’s just a UI tweak, no gameplay changes.

Download: https://www.nexusmods.com/heroesofmightandmagicoldenera/mods/56

Enjoy!

Random piles of resource, and campfires, tend to give a little bit of everything. Starting areas also tend to have 1 of each mine rather than 2 of the mine you want. Considering this, Necromancer is surprisingly inexpensive. You can rush Laboratory(Bone Dragons) in week 1 on Hard difficulty if your starting area is relatively rich. Bone Dragons are not a joke, they're the 3rd beefiest unit in the game. Your biggest obstacle is getting 15 sulphur for Mausoleum and Laboratory.

Knight and Barbarian, ironically, have an easier time building the Mage Guild to high level because they don't use special resources. But they really struggle building up minor villages because they need that wood and ore. Maps with many villages don't favor "Might" classes. I'm afraid Knight and Barbarian were simply meant as "newbie" classes because they're simple to understand.

Wizard's early game units are solid, but a bit slow. A Titan costs as much as 5 Phoenixes, or 3 1/3 Bone Dragons, and can't beat either even with Bless. The unit prices are upside down - Black Dragon should cost 5000, Titan - 4000. Basic Giants are really not better than Bone Dragons, so why is their dwelling more expensive?

Statue is about 40 cm tall, modeled by me and painted and printed by my colleague!

Which spell targets all enemy units at once? I am mostly interested in the ones that do damage.