fheroes2: Resurrection

The old Heroes games developed by New World Computing. Please specify which game you are referring to in your post.
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ArdentWyrm
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Re: Free Heroes of Might and Magic II Resurrection

Unread postby ArdentWyrm » 21 Nov 2022, 20:12

H2 is so old that almost no one plays it these days.

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Pol
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Re: Free Heroes of Might and Magic II Resurrection

Unread postby Pol » 23 Nov 2022, 16:57

ArdentWyrm wrote:H2 is so old
Nope, game is still played by many of us. And this is exactly, what breathe it new life ;)
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Re: Free Heroes of Might and Magic II Resurrection

Unread postby LordGraa » 25 Nov 2022, 18:36

ArdentWyrm wrote: 21 Nov 2022, 20:12 H2 is so old that almost no one plays it these days.
How dare you call Heroes 2 dead! :disagree:

I still do play those and I am looking forward for this project to reach the final version 1.0 :)
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Re: Free Heroes of Might and Magic II Resurrection

Unread postby sirDranik » 21 Dec 2022, 19:39

Dear fans of fheroes2 and of Heroes of Might and Magic 2!

We finally reached the milestone we have been working on for more than 3 years. Today we are happy to present you the 1.0 release of fheroes2!

During the past one and a half months, the team has made huge improvements in the rendering of the game. We fixed multi-screen support, fullscreen mode with high DPI, improved overall rendering on Adventure Map and more. Now you can enjoy the gameplay with maximum comfort.

The team brought the Android release to the fully playable state: we added right click emulation support, reduced minimum Android version to 5.1, fixed constant scrolling of Adventure Map and added several more improvements to provide smooth gameplay on every Android device.

We also greatly improved the animation during battles. No more freezing units during actions or clunky animations of some monsters. On top of this, the team added full replication of Luck and catapult animation.
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Moreover, the team introduced a lot of algorithmically generated and translated buttons to be able to play the game in any language. The work is still in progress but it is a huge step forward.
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Besides this, we fixed issues with Campaign rewards, updated translations, reworked HotKey system and more.

If you are not fully familiar with the features present in fheroes2 project over the original game you can take a look at our wiki page.

Even though the 1.0 release is a huge milestone for the project, this is just the beginning of a much larger scale of the project. We are going to release the Android version in the Google Play Store, add an Editor, multiplayer and most importantly release our independent expansion.
You can check the roadmap of the project here.

Thank you so much for your support and we really hope that you enjoy the game!

You could also support the project development on Patreon.

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Re: Free Heroes of Might and Magic II Resurrection

Unread postby Blake » 22 Dec 2022, 09:07

sirDranik wrote: 21 Dec 2022, 19:39 Today we are happy to present you the 1.0 release of fheroes2!
Congratulations guys, this is such a wonderful moment!!!
ArdentWyrm wrote: 21 Nov 2022, 20:12 H2 is so old that almost no one plays it these days.
Meanwhile here I am playing another game of HoMM1 lol! *rolls eyes*
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Re: Free Heroes of Might and Magic II Resurrection

Unread postby sirDranik » 15 Feb 2023, 21:27

Dear supporters of fheroes2 and fans of Heroes of Might and Magic II!

Today we are releasing version 1.0.1 of fheroes2 project and we are happy to share details about it!

In this release the team made huge changes in animations of monsters and spells during battle. Such improvements relate to walking animations, shooting, spells not overlapping units and more. These changes fix animation issues present even in the original game and make the gameplay even more pleasant and smooth.
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This release brings improvements for performance as the team speeded up multiple places including Adventure Map rendering, animations in battle and various windows. This might not be noticeable by most of users but significant for those playing on portable devices by reducing the amount of energy needed to run the game.
Regarding the portable devices: Android release got a huge boost! We added a special application called "fh2 toolset". The application will run for players who are installing the APK for the first time. The app helps with installation of the game. It also contains save file manager if you want to delete certain saves from your device.
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Based on demand we implemented scaled resolutions support. Now you can choose resolutions which have an integer scaling factor applied to the original resolution. This helps to scale up the game but maintain the resolution in an acceptable way, especially in windowed mode.
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Moreover, we made a huge ground work towards the future Editor and new map format. This is not visible by players as the whole work was internal in relation to source code but essential for the future changes. Besides this we updated multiple translations, reworked fonts for buttons and fixed numerous issues with logic on Adventure Map and in battles.

Thank you so much everyone and we hope that you enjoy the improved fheroes2!

You could also support the project development on Patreon.

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Re: Free Heroes of Might and Magic II Resurrection

Unread postby Pol » 27 Feb 2023, 23:06

That need tablet, yes? What resolution is to be recommended? In a way you did from fheroes2 console game :D

Can you indicate a bit what type of changes in map editor you are planning?

Cudos, to your team!
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Re: Free Heroes of Might and Magic II Resurrection

Unread postby sirDranik » 28 Feb 2023, 12:46

Hello, @Pol!
I can tell you, that minimal available resolution (640x480) runs on my 6,5" phone quite acceptable. I can play an hour or two without any problems. Playing fheroes2 on tablet would be a perfect experience for sure!
Speaking about the map editor....
First of all I want to say that the main goal is to introduce a separate map format to escape the license issue.
Since, we're going to change map format, we would will all rendering logic for maps. We will try to fix issues with roads, for instance, which were rendered incorrectly in the original maps. Also, the original game has certain number of flaws in victory conditions logic, which we would like to fix and expand too.
Despite of this, there're lots of other things we want to improve in map editor. Original editor is missing nice visual representation for passable areas. We would like to add more adjustments for some objects.
Some objects have graphical flaws, which we would like to fix too.
And of course, new editor is the only tool for adding new in-game content: new objects, new artifacts, new creatures etc.

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Re: Free Heroes of Might and Magic II Resurrection

Unread postby sirDranik » 14 Mar 2023, 11:02

Dear supporters of fheroes2 project!

We are very excited to announce 1.0.2 version of the project!

This release is full of interesting changes and improvements. So, let's get started.
The team always spends time improving the performance of the engine and in this release we again improved the Adventure Map rendering. It might not be visible for many players but if you use a mobile device to play the game then smaller energy consumption is very welcome.

With a great help of an artist, we fixed the original look of Captain's Quarters building in Sorceress town as well as changed multiple icons for options to give each option a unique and logically correct image.
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Speaking of improvements AI heroes now know how to use Town Portal and Town Gate spells. This makes AI the same advantages as human players. Moreover, the overall AI task logic decision on the Adventure Map was reworked, leading to better strategic decisions.

This release also brings multiple fixes for spell logic in battles, fixes for special cases of monster movement and additionally we corrected all sounds being used for objects on the Adventure Map.

In the past it was impossible to know the in-game date from a save file unless you load it. Having tens or even hundreds of save files might lead to difficult navigation among them. From now on you can right click on a save file to see the date without even loading the file.
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Android players had no way to type anything within the game as most of mobile phones do not have a physical keyboard for this. To overcome this disadvantage, we introduced a virtual in-game keyboard which will popup if you click on text edit area.
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Beside all these changes the team fixed over 60 bugs and updated multiple translations for the game.
Note that old save files before 1.0 version are not supported anymore.

Thank you so much for your support and we hope that you enjoy the game even more!

You could also support the project development on Patreon.

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Re: Free Heroes of Might and Magic II Resurrection

Unread postby Pol » 14 Mar 2023, 11:47

sirDranik wrote: 14 Mar 2023, 11:02 Dear supporters of fheroes2 project!
..
Featured it on the main page. ;)
"We made it!"
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Re: Free Heroes of Might and Magic II Resurrection

Unread postby sirDranik » 14 Mar 2023, 12:24

Pol wrote: 14 Mar 2023, 11:47
sirDranik wrote: 14 Mar 2023, 11:02 Dear supporters of fheroes2 project!
..
Featured it on the main page. ;)
Hi, @Pol!
Thank you so much for promoting our project! :hail:

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Re: Free Heroes of Might and Magic II Resurrection

Unread postby sirDranik » 13 Apr 2023, 09:18

Dear supporters of fheroes2 and players of Heroes of Might and Magic 2!

A month has passed and it is time to bring an updated version of fheroes2 project - 1.0.3. This release contains many hidden to players changes which will greatly impact the project in the future so let's get started.

In this release AI has become even more smarter: the team improved the logic for fog discovery (the original game's AI knew the whole map since the beginning), fixed the behavior of using Dimension Door spell and enhanced formulas to evaluate object priorities on Adventure Map. In the near future we are going to make even more in-depth changes to make AI truly an opponent to play against.

Adventure Map rendering had several small rendering issues which have been fixed for this release. Small imperfect details always affect an overall game look so not having them is important. However, besides this the team speeded up the rendering on Adventure Map as well which means that less processing power and less battery are required to play the game!

We also added a special button for several dialogs in the game to open recently introduced Virtual Keyboard dialog. This dialog is present for all touch screen devices by default if you touch on edit text area but some devices running Windows were not identified to be eligible for this feature. From now all platforms support Virtual Keyboard dialog.
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The list of hidden changes consists of code preparations for the upcoming future in-game Editor. That's right, the Editor is going to be within the game itself, not as a separate application. Such integration will allow not only to create maps on any supported platform but instantly test them.

As the most important preparation made in this release is to bring the engine to Google Play Store. We did all necessary procedures for this and we are waiting for a review approval to be able to publish the application in the store. We are expecting to be done within the next few days and once it is done we would be happy to inform you about this.
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Besides the highlighted changes the team made multiple fixes in logic during battles such as Mirror Image or Teleport spells behavior, updated multiple translations and also added Vietnamese and Slovak languages.

We hope that you would enjoy this release and thank you so much for your valuable support of the project!

You could also support the project development on Patreon.

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Re: Free Heroes of Might and Magic II Resurrection

Unread postby sirDranik » 14 May 2023, 09:38

Dear supporters of the fheroes2 project and players of Heroes of Might and Magic 2!

Today we are introducing an updated version of the fheroes2 project - 1.0.4. This release as usual has plenty of changes which we would like to share with you.

In this release the AI has powered up. The AI is now more picky about resource collection on the Adventure Map and this will depend on ths kingdom's needs. AI heroes got their logic upgraded regarding several objects on the Adventure Map. Besides this, the AI heroes will tend to avoid unnecessary jumps back and forth using Dimension Door, and also heroes are smarter in terms of unblocking paths for other heroes.

This release adds important changes for game resolutions. Widescreen resolutions are available so many players, especially on Android, will have a better experience playing the game. Moreover, the team expanded the logic for scaled resolutions.
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We added missing post-victory special effects as well as map ratings shown to players. This feature from the original game was missing until now. On top of this, we expanded map rating information so it is even better than in the original game.
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The team fixed multiple issues with rendering and timings during battles. Now monsters do not freeze while certain spells are being applied and also no more small lags for certain actions. Moreover, we fixed several logical issues during battles such as castle towers not shooting if castle monsters are unable to move.

This release adds Polish and Russian languages support for the in-game virtual keyboard. This feature allows players not only to enter victory player name, but it also helps with completing some maps which require visiting the Sphinx object on the Adventure Map. This will be expanded to support more languages.
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This release contains over fixed 40 bugs and many updates to translations to give the best experience to more players.

Thank you so much for your awesome support and we hope you will enjoy fheroes2!

You could also support the project development on Patreon.

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Re: Free Heroes of Might and Magic II Resurrection

Unread postby sirDranik » 15 Jun 2023, 10:59

Dear supporters of fheroes2 project!

Here comes a new version of fheroes2 project - 1.0.5!
As usual the team made many changes since the last release and we are excited to share details with you.

Let's start from the Editor relates changes. The team made internal source code restructure to allow to add new artifacts to the game. This change is invisible to players but essential to move forward with the Editor. Additionally, the team has started creating the Editor's UI. There are many changes to be done but we are moving forward. As highlighted earlier the Editor is going to be a part of the same application.
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We reduced CPU usage for rendering and sound playback during battles. This helps with performance on low-end devices and also prolongs battery life on portable devices.

The team made significant changes for many UI elements in the game. For example, we added a blinking cursor for text input positioning, added missing shadows for Virtual Keyboard buttons, expanded Evil interface for windows which do not have this feature in the original game and many more. These are tiny changes which in general make the game experience even better.
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AI in this release got a huge boost in logic. We fixed multiple issues related to creature upgrades and hiring for AI heroes, make AI heroes to visit castles in advance (just before the first day of week), fixed cases when AI heroes did not meet each other in the middle of a turn and also enhanced logic for heroes to defend castles and attack enemy's castles.

Besides these changes the team updated translations for many languages, fixed issues with several Android devices and fixed more than 30 bugs since 1.0.4 release.

We hope that you enjoy the updated version of the engine and thank you so much for supporting this project and the team!

You could also support the project development on Patreon.

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Re: Free Heroes of Might and Magic II Resurrection

Unread postby Blake » 05 Jul 2023, 08:46

great work guys!
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Re: Free Heroes of Might and Magic II Resurrection

Unread postby Blake » 14 Jul 2023, 09:41

Thinking about replaying the campaign via fheroes2 soon. :)

Out of curiosity does fheroes2 have compatibility with savegames from original Heroes 2? Does it support any cheat/debug commands (ie reveal map)? And lastly does it support Heroes 2 CD (which I have) music tracks? I can't seem to get it to play anything other than the midis.
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Re: Free Heroes of Might and Magic II Resurrection

Unread postby sirDranik » 16 Jul 2023, 13:31

Blake wrote: 14 Jul 2023, 09:41 Thinking about replaying the campaign via fheroes2 soon. :)
:tsup:
Blake wrote: 14 Jul 2023, 09:41 Out of curiosity does fheroes2 have compatibility with savegames from original Heroes 2? Does it support any cheat/debug commands (ie reveal map)? And lastly does it support Heroes 2 CD (which I have) music tracks? I can't seem to get it to play anything other than the midis.
Original save files are incompatible with fheroes2 engine due to license issues.
For debug purposes fheroes2 has a special debug build (that should be compiled individually) that has lots of nice features, even allowing AI to play the game by himself. ;) Cheats are not implemented yet.
Original music tracks are supported for sure. You should place them into music folder in root directory of fheroes2. File format should be like homm2_01...homm2_42 or Track02...Track43. Don't forget to set "External" in game settings.

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Re: Free Heroes of Might and Magic II Resurrection

Unread postby sirDranik » 17 Jul 2023, 12:05

Dear players of Heroes of Might and Magic II and supporters of the fheroes2 project!

We are introducing the latest version of the fheroes2 engine - 1.0.6 with many changes done by the team in the last month!

This release brings an updated version of the Adventure Map AI. AI heroes are more accurate in terms of analyzing threats for castles and defending them, they don't visit useless objects and have better estimation of a possible battle outcome when attacking enemies.

However, since the AI has been significantly improved in the last months such changes affect campaign gameplay making it very hard for some players to complete. Therefore, the team added an option to lower the campaign difficulty during playthrough. But remember that changing the difficulty affects the final score of the campaign.
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In this release the team polished several tiny issues with original images, sped up loading the game's resources and also improved rendering speed which subsequently reduced CPU usage, leading to lower battery usage on portable devices.

Speaking of UI, the team continues to work on the new Editor. It is still in progress, but we are happy to share more in the future. In the upcoming months, the main focus of the team will be the Editor to bring it to a functional state and make it open for all players.
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Besides fixing more than 20 bugs from the last release the team updated several language translations and expanded the list of UI elements available for translation.
We hope that you like this update. Thank you so much for your continued support!

You could also support the project development on Patreon.

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Re: Free Heroes of Might and Magic II Resurrection

Unread postby Blake » 19 Jul 2023, 09:57

Congrats! Downloading now.. :)
sirDranik wrote: 16 Jul 2023, 13:31 Original save files are incompatible with fheroes2 engine due to license issues.
For debug purposes fheroes2 has a special debug build (that should be compiled individually) that has lots of nice features, even allowing AI to play the game by himself. ;) Cheats are not implemented yet.
Original music tracks are supported for sure. You should place them into music folder in root directory of fheroes2. File format should be like homm2_01...homm2_42 or Track02...Track43. Don't forget to set "External" in game settings.
Cheers mate. :) Oh and I forgot to ask if savegame compatibility between different versions is being maintained? ie does a 1.0.2 save load in 1.0.6 etc?
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Re: Free Heroes of Might and Magic II Resurrection

Unread postby sirDranik » 20 Jul 2023, 10:34

Blake wrote: 19 Jul 2023, 09:57 Congrats! Downloading now.. :)
sirDranik wrote: 16 Jul 2023, 13:31 Original save files are incompatible with fheroes2 engine due to license issues.
For debug purposes fheroes2 has a special debug build (that should be compiled individually) that has lots of nice features, even allowing AI to play the game by himself. ;) Cheats are not implemented yet.
Original music tracks are supported for sure. You should place them into music folder in root directory of fheroes2. File format should be like homm2_01...homm2_42 or Track02...Track43. Don't forget to set "External" in game settings.
Cheers mate. :) Oh and I forgot to ask if savegame compatibility between different versions is being maintained? ie does a 1.0.2 save load in 1.0.6 etc?
All save files from 1.0 version are compatible with current version. We're planning to cut old save files support closer to 1.1 version.


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