HoMM3 HD is a mod (add-on) for the game Heroes of Might and Magic 3.

Message from baratorch:
Infinite AI turn:
In HD, we can play with the current setup; in the original, we absolutely cannot.
Verdict: a clear and significant change to the gameplay. (i.e., with this setup, a player using SOD, no matter how hard they try, will not be able to achieve the result that the HD player achieved).

This is what I was talking about. We cannot play in the original, therefore, this phenomenon, in its essence, carries irreversible processes that drive the original into a dead end, leading to a failure of the entire program (gameplay) and here it is necessary to make changes. And here it is already incorrect to talk about SOD vs. HD, because SOD without errors, ideally, is SOD+HD as a single whole, that is, SOD + HD = perfect SOD.

It should be taken into account that changing bugs, as a result of which the original gameplay changes, is not a change in the essence of the game, but rather an improvement of the old gameplay, which I usually call refining SOD.

And here is why the automatic fix for map errors is separated in 3.0 from gameplay bugs:
1. The bug is not regular. That is, playing in HD gives the same result as if we were playing SOD and we were lucky.

The same thing. Although it is not constant, it is of the same nature as bugs, the correction of which only leads to a natural continuation of the game, and not to its unnatural completion.

What did he mean? )

As far as I understand, he wrote from the heart, and in general, it was not very nice to bring this here. I think he will answer himself what he meant, but I understood it this way:

Firstly, the desire that the HD mod does not turn into an "author's whim," I apologize for the rudeness (the VT version is an example of this).
SOD fans loved HD not because it is different from SOD, but because it is SOD, which is pleasant to use, but if HD starts attaching labels of unpopular VT functions to itself, it will gradually (perhaps very slowly) begin to lose this very love of SOD fans, for whom, believe me, HD is a thousand times more important than for VT fans.

Here is, perhaps, the most explanatory statement on this subject, which applies to the entire HD:

Message from Dirty_Player:
You have just as much constructive criticism. Everyone knows and understands the advantages of VT features, but people are against shoving them into the mod, and I support them in this. Reasoning like you (who will be harmed if we put everything on checkboxes?) can lead to absurdity, like, what's wrong with having level 2 and 3 stacks at the start? And why not remove necromancy? etc.

Secondly, and most importantly, as I see it, the idea is that optionality is not the path to perfection; optional mobility will never replace a camera, a ruler, or a professional GPS navigator with their capabilities. It is not worth endlessly living with changes to the original, and then changes to the changes (in our case, this is even if not a change of something, then at least, the addition of options) and so on...

Message from baratorch:
The chess timer is a new feature in TE; it is not in HD, so why pay attention to it here?

I haven't downloaded the version; I also somehow prefer 2.98; I thought it had already been implemented.