So, for a long time you played the wonderful game Heroes of Might and Magic III, went through campaigns and single maps, fought with friends on the same computer in hotseat. And everything would be great, but then you go to Twitch and / or Youtube and see something completely different. Unusual map templates, some chains, supports, new objects, mysterious abbreviations (GO, OH), a timer per turn and much more. Yes, and the players click the mouse many times faster than before. What's the matter?
But the fact is that before you is a new round of evolution of Heroes 3 - eSports. A large number of tournaments and many different templates require players to constantly improve. Hence the increased speed of the game (decision-making), the emergence of innovations and the increasing interest of the public.
We know that after such views, many of you were overcome by nostalgia. I wanted to plunge into the world of Might and Magic again, run along roads and portals, fight monsters, open Pandora's box. And believe me, everyone can not only play this legendary game again, but also set off on their way to the top of the online hero lobby rating table and victories in tournaments.
And to make the path a little easier, we tried to collect the main points and resources for beginners.
All information is divided into several stages (steps):
What to play on (game version, add-ons, online lobby);
How to play (how to move horses and more);
What to play (templates, generation, features);
We have a plan (strategy features, examples of game mechanics and slang);
The main thing is practice (or where you can find opponents).
In this article, we will analyze only the first point. The remaining positions are more extensive, and therefore separate articles will be devoted to them. So let's get started.
Step 1. What to play?
To play with the main majority of players in the hero community, we will need the latest addition to the game Heroes of Might and Magic III called HotA (Horn of The Abyss), developed by an independent Russian team HotA Crew and released in 2011 (first beta version). You can download the latest version from the HotA developers' websites.
The main features of the add-on:
A new type of city is available - Berth;
Two new terrain types (wasteland and highlands) with their own unique objects;
New creatures, heroes, objects and artifacts;
New secondary skill - Interference;
3 new campaigns;
Lots of gameplay changes (for example - negative luck);
Updated appearance of old objects;
More user friendly interface.
Important clarification - HotA is installed on the original version of the game - Heroes of Might and Magic III: Shadow of Death aka Death's Breath or Heroes of Might and Magic III: Complete Edition.
In addition, be sure to install the HoMM 3 HD extension (HD-mod). It can also be downloaded from the HD developers website.
Features of HD-mod (besides improved graphics in general):
Screens of the city, battle, etc. will be in separate windows;
For standard widescreen monitors (16:9 aspect ratio), it is recommended to select 1180x664 resolution in HD Launcher. Acceptable scale is also preserved at 1280x720 (or 1285x723);
You should also pay attention to the Stretch filter settings when choosing 32-bit (stretchable) or 32-bit True (stretchable) GDI modes in the launcher. Stretch filters allow you to achieve the most correct and aesthetic appearance of the game when stretched.
After installing all the add-ons, a new mode will appear in the game - the online lobby.
Your actions to play online:
check that your HD-mod is updated to the latest version;
new game - multiple players - online lobby;
register (login and password);
There are 2 game modes available in the lobby (ranked and regular game) and 3 chat modes (Russian, English and Polish). In the upper right part of the screen, you can view the rating table (Rating button). For online play, it is also desirable to have the latest version of the HW_rules plugin (download link at the top of the lobby screen).
There are several options to choose from: join an existing game (select the game marked white in the list on the left and click the "Join" button), create your own (the "New Game" button), or download a previously started game (the "Download" button).
After clicking the "New Game" button, we are transferred to the game settings window. You can select various parameters (the "Show additional options" button) - template, map size, road type, water, monster strength, as well as color, starting castle, hero, bonus (gold, resources or artifact) and much more;
We pay attention to the "Timer" button below - the time of the move, the battle and the additional time at the beginning of each move are selected there. This parameter will come in handy on competitive templates, where the speed of decision making is no less important than in chess.
When you click the "Start" button, you can configure a few more parameters: a rating game, the number of days of simultaneous moves, and tournament rules.
Now we are technically prepared. We figured out the main functions of the lobby and we can safely start trying to play. But for the appearance and / and
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