I'm fed up... go play your untouchable, blessed SoD. HD will continue to evolve in the right direction.
And there is no need to accuse me of attacking a shrine; I couldn't take SoD away from you even if I wanted to.

Yes, HD (including 2.9!) is no longer SoD; there's no point in deceiving yourselves or trying to deceive others. HD is better than SoD! And I will continue to try and make it even better.

I hope that remains the case. With every version, with every fix, everything only gets better! It would seem there is nothing left to improve, but the author continues to surprise and please us.

Now, returning to those who are outraged. The whole "cannon" [outburst] is just dissatisfaction over a patched autobattle bug. I remember how sad I felt when I found out about the hydra bug. How unfair, I thought back then. I never used it myself due to my own views, but even though I haven't played 50 online games, I noticed this little "sin" in my opponents.
Who cares if someone didn't bother to read about patched bugs and new features? Playing the HD mod? Downloading new versions? Ok, don't be too lazy to read what was reworked and improved . Don't agree with the innovations? DON'T PLAY. Go spend hours manually breaking through peasants with dragons, don't lose the advantage of ultra-skill in manual combat, use bugs! There is a gift for you — HD 2.98, so that your eyes don't bleed playing at 640x480 and you can continue to demonstrate your tactical talents by breaking through troglodytes with angels and taking the Hive, which was obviously forfeited in an honest fight.
Chess clocks would be very OK.