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Could you provide a link to the statistics?
I just saw the opposite in the CIS example – that SoD players are willing to play a full mix of versions, while HotA players are "taking a stand."
Added 3 minutes later
In a sectarian way, this means declaring, "SoD is dead," "let's only play HotA, and we'll ban SoD tournaments."
No one is trying to ban HotA; play it as much as you want. Just don't artificially try to impose it on others who are simply not interested in it.
Discord Iamsamstan#6087
Миха#7845
Ландау лев https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNj_9EQxDoI&t=1174s
Тут делимся книгами /topic/at/1139927/
You rebuilt the Fly spell into a DD spell, and the Resurrect spell into a TP spell, and now you're freaking out because you have nowhere to get Fly and Resurrect? Then go build a GM in another city, what's stopping you? But no one has reached such a "level of absurdity" yet (including me).
In a couple of games, I tried to get a powerful spell/berserk and some kind of summon. But it rarely works: it's dangerous to build, and there aren't enough resources for that.
Is it possible to delete any artifacts using the template editor?
Just passing by, couldn't resist leaving a comment :)
In my opinion, all the problems with SoD (Stronghold of the Dragons) are solely related to the activities of guys like Sir Davos over the past 15 years.
How many times have suggestions been made on how to streamline and improve SoD... there have been countless attempts. And they continue to be made.
But the stubbornness of the conservatives was impenetrable, and as a result, alternative versions of Heroes began to proliferate.
The outcome is inevitable.
Discord - Xocenk#2473
History always teaches, and most fans of Heroes 3 are conservatives themselves; otherwise, they wouldn't be playing a game from the 20th century.
But making a game based on the original Heroes 3 is possible. Which, naturally, would be much better than the original in many ways. The degree of changes can vary – from a global modification to small improvements/innovations to taste. But this is no longer Complete, but TE, WT, HotA... and there are not many popular mods that would only make small changes.
Which is understandable – if the authors have significantly reworked the game, then there is a kind of moral right to the resulting new game, but if there are few changes, then it seems that there is no moral right.
And then, if you have already started making some small changes, it is difficult to stop further – you want to improve and improve... and then, indeed, what kind of SoD is it, what you get in the end.
So it turns out that either a serious modification or an almost vanilla SoD.
In 1998-99, several excellent online games appeared at once, which are still being played today. Besides Heroes 3, these include Quake 3, Counter-Strike, and Starcraft.
And, for example, in Q3 and CS, the question of the original's canonicity never arose – in the initial versions from 1999, they played for the first couple of years, then switched to tournament modifications, and then to sequels with different gameplay. These games, in the course of their evolution, have undergone at least one full remaster (maybe more, I don't follow), and countless balancing changes have been made.
With Starcraft, it was a little more conservative, but even there, tournament mods firmly entered the practice closer to the end of the 2000s, and then Blizzard made a full remaster. True, the game balance was not changed there either, but only because it is excellent and does not require changes. If it did, they would have changed it without any problems.
A similar story was with Age of Empires 2 (also the late 90s), I don't know myself, but Sticky described it – there too, over time, a tournament mod appeared with balancing gameplay changes.
Everywhere, the general principle was the same – the truest version is not the canon from 1999, but the version that is adopted in sports competitions.
And almost no one complained that this was not true, that you had to play the canonical version, and not self-made mods by unofficial developers.
Heroes 3 should have followed the same path. And then TE, WT, and Hota would not have been needed. But history went a different way...
And, for example, in Quake III and Counter-Strike, the question of the original's canonicity never arose – people played the original versions from 1999 for the first couple of years, then switched to tournament modifications, and then to sequels with different gameplay. These games underwent at least one full remaster (maybe even more, I don't keep track) during their evolution, and countless balancing changes were made.
...
The same path should have been taken with Heroes 3. Then, neither TE, nor WoG, nor HotA would have been needed. But history took a different turn...
If you believe that Quake III and Counter-Strike, which were heavily modified, can still be considered the same Quake III and Counter-Strike, only "improved," what prevents you from considering WoG or HotA as "improved SoD"? And if that's the case, then why do you need an "enhanced SoD"?
I, of course, don't think so, because the logic tells me that a modified game is already a somewhat different game, which, accordingly, should have a different name. Not completely different, of course, but some significant new identifier should be used – "WoG," "HotA."
It would also be nice to replace the unit images with the original ones; maybe I could even try to do it myself if it's possible.
It’s hard to argue with someone who has their own correct opinion on any issue.
We weren’t talking about the development of Heroes 3, but about the conservatism of Heroes fans regarding new features. The example you mentioned about the voting proves this, especially since they still restructured the game map. The issue isn’t about solving a problem or introducing something new, but about the approach. Heroes fans will always be conservative about any issue, no matter how many polls they create.

Added 5 minutes later
If you believe that Q3 and CS, which were heavily modified, can still be considered the same Q3 and CS, only “improved,” what prevents you from considering WT or HotA as “improved SoD”? And if that’s the case, then why do you need an “enhanced SoD”?
I, of course, don’t think so, because the logic tells me that a modified game is already a somewhat different game, which should, accordingly, have a different name. Not completely different, of course, but some significant new identifier should be used – “WT,” “HotA.”
By the way, teams working on an impressive list of changes to Heroes 3 may even find it easier to reach an agreement ("once the head is off, there's no need to worry about the hair"), while those who want only a few small changes find it more difficult, as everyone has different tastes, and each considers themselves to be more "orthodox," better understanding what a true SOD is and what changes will not "destroy" it.
An approach based on options (or a collection of disableable plugins) also does not solve the problem – because you still have to agree on which options to play with, and in the end, the options "settle" into a predetermined set – reflecting the opinion of, again, only some specific group of people.

