Posts from Rules for online battles in Heroes of Might and Magic II.

Let's start discussing the Rules. If someone posts a draft of the Rules, that would be great.

The rules are optimal on the Portal, the result of discussions and efforts over many seasons; I am copying them here: RULES FOR THE SECOND ONLINE HEROES OF MIGHT AND MAGIC TOURNAMENT Registration rules: A player who wishes to participate in the tournament must submit an application indicating: Nickname: Convenient time: ICQ (Desirable): Tournament version: Heroes of Might and Magic 2 Gold English. Scoring rules: In the first two games between two players, one point is awarded for a win, and one-fifth of a point is awarded for a loss, thus: Win = five Losses. If the opponents agree to a draw, each receives 2/5 of a point, but a draw cannot be agreed upon before the 2nd week of the 2nd month. In the third game between two players, four-fifths of a point is awarded for a win, and one-fifth of a point is awarded for a loss. If the opponents agree to a draw, each receives 1/5 of a point, but a draw cannot be agreed upon before the 2nd week of the 2nd month. In the fourth game, three-fifths of a point is awarded for a win, nothing is awarded for a loss, and 1/5 of a point is awarded to both for a draw. In the fifth game, two-fifths of a point is awarded for a win, and nothing is awarded for a loss. Game rules: 0) Players must play fairly! It is forbidden to use any "bugs," cheats, or open saves before the end of the game. 1) Two players agree on the date and time of the game. 4) Players choose the map themselves, but the victory condition must be standard. 5) The game difficulty is always easy. 6) Castle selection: one player chooses 2 castles, and the second determines which castle they will play. The castles can be the same. In the first game, the right to choose belongs to the player who finished worse in the previous tournament or is a newcomer, and in the second game, they switch places. 6) The winning player must publish their result in the following format: winner_nickname (color, castle, main hero) def loser_nickname (color, castle, main hero); Map on which the game took place; Game duration (month, week, day); Which game in sequence is this with the same opponent. Below, a brief description of the game. 7) The losing player must confirm the winner's words and write their own description. Prohibitions: It is forbidden for a redeemed hero (after escaping or paying a ransom) to attack the opponent during the turn of the redemption. It is allowed to move with such a hero. It is forbidden to join units, either through diplomacy or otherwise. If a request is received to accept neutrals into the army, it must be refused, and a battle must follow. When entering the Demon Cave, a battle is mandatory. It is forbidden to recruit spirits. It is forbidden to visit abandoned ships, cemeteries, and sphinxes. It is forbidden to use the spells Dimension Door and Teleport. It is forbidden to dig up the Grail without revealing the entire puzzle map. It is forbidden to visit pyramids. Battle rules: If an opponent attacks and cannot win or lose (for example, he has an Iron Golem, and I have a Sprite), the attacker must flee. Host-rush is prohibited - attacking the second player on the first day of the week with a redeemed creature from that week

Hmm, interesting... But there are some questions:

4) Players choose the map themselves, but the victory condition must be standard.

So, does that mean the players generate the map themselves?
Maybe it would be better if the tournament organizer generated the map and gave the players a save file to start from?
In my opinion, that would be much better, although it would, of course, increase the workload for the host.

A redeemed hero (after escaping or paying a ransom) is prohibited from attacking the opponent (whether a human or the computer) during the turn of the redemption. Moving with such a hero is allowed.

Hmm, in our offline tournaments on the portal, it is forbidden to move with such a hero; I think it would be better to apply this rule to online tournaments as well.
What do you think?

When entering the Demon Cave, a battle is mandatory.

Hmm, is Demon Cave the "Demon's Lair"?
If so, maybe you could just prohibit entering it?
So, it would be like this:

• It is forbidden to visit abandoned ships, cemeteries, Demon Cave, and sphinxes.

It is forbidden to visit pyramids.

May I ask a question? Why?

By the way, is it possible to hire ghosts?

I'll try to answer partially.
"It is forbidden to recruit spirits" - you cannot hire ghosts.
It is forbidden to enter the pyramid because it can drastically disrupt the game's balance. Building a level 5 magic structure requires a lot of resources, but breaking into the pyramid is not the most difficult task.
Players do not generate maps. They choose one from a standard set or agree to play on a non-standard map. Generating a random map in the second Heroes game leads to results that make you want to swear (by the way, my long-standing dream is a random map generator for the second Heroes game at the level of the generator in the third game. If someone does it, they will be a true SUPERHERO!). A ready-made save file is almost complete certainty, so a number of purely online features are lost, such as luck and excitement.
Regarding the turn of a redeemed hero. Initially, this was done to prevent abuse of the hit-and-run tactic. And checking for "not moving" is very difficult, only by looking at the save files...

Qwerty has already answered some of the questions; I will clarify the remaining ones (although each rule has already been discussed on the Portal, it just needs to be found). 1) Why is it allowed to redeem a hero who has fled and use them again, but it is forbidden to attack an opponent or a neutral creature after redemption? Attacking is prohibited because it led to an endless hit-and-run tactic (until the money runs out). If an enemy approaches your castle with an army, and you attack with a fast unit, cast spells, redeem the hero, and repeat (and each time, the hero has a full movement range after being bought), this is the main reason. Also, in offline mode, you could simply dismiss the hero and immediately "resurrect" them in the Tavern (instead of having them attack someone who might not even be within a couple of turns of the hero). This is what is prohibited in offline mode. In online mode, attacking is only prohibited (to avoid the "endless" hit-and-run), but it is allowed to redeem and use heroes again for the following reasons: I once played on the "Seven Lakes" map against a Necromancer, and unexpectedly, he rushed towards me with powerful stats and an army. I had artifacts on two different heroes, and since it is not allowed to dismiss and redeem a hero immediately, as in offline mode, I could only find monsters for the heroes to attack the day before the attack. So, I had both heroes attack, but I could only take the artifacts from one, because otherwise, I would have to move the second hero out of the castle, which was forbidden at the time. And it often happens that you need to attack a hero with an army guarding the castle and another hero, the main one, from another location with artifacts, at the same time. Plus, in online mode, redeeming and attacking heroes is one of the game's strategies (since town portals are prohibited), and both players can use it equally (especially considering that the games are usually played on maps with similar starting conditions), which diversifies the game and makes the overall strategy more interesting. 2) Regarding the Demon Cave: there are maps (like "Hot Spot") where the 2500 resources given in this cave are very useful, and the elementals also need to be defeated. A powerful artifact can only be obtained by refusing to fight, which is why it was agreed that you can enter the cave, but you must fight.

Everything is clear, thank you. But the issue of the organizer generating the save file for the match remains. I believe that it would be better to add this rule, as it could help avoid many controversial questions. What is your opinion?

I think it could work like this. In theory, it's possible to organize a tournament using save files generated by the tournament organizer, but it would be implemented as follows: 10 (20, 30, 50...) save files are uploaded. Participants agree to choose any of them and play. However, this means that players can download the save file in advance and study it in detail. How does a save file differ from a map? It has a clear, predetermined set of spells, troops, and other elements, including the hero's skill tree. But then it's not entirely online, but rather a semi-offline, semi-online experience. And the charm of unpredictability and the unknown disappears... In theory, it's possible to create or modify existing maps and upload them somewhere. Maybe we'll get around to it someday. But it should be maps, not ready-made save files. And later, if there are enough people interested, we can hold a special tournament using those save files.

It seems to me that it could work like this:
In theory, it's possible to organize a tournament using save files generated by the tournament organizer, but it would be implemented as follows: 10 (20, 30, 50...) save files are uploaded. Participants agree to choose any of them and play. But! This means that it's possible to download the save file in advance and study it in detail.

Hmm, but who said that they would be available for free download?

Here's how I think it could work: players inform the organizer which map they have chosen, the organizer generates a save file for that map, and immediately before the match, sends it to the players. There is simply no time to review the save file. Well, technically there is, but not much...

It might be slightly off-topic, but I think this information will also be useful. Most online Heroes games are played using the Hamachi program. From my own experience, I know that recently, with the release of new versions, various technical problems have arisen. For example, I couldn't properly finish the quarter-final in the Portal Super Cup because of them. I was greatly helped by the Hamachi usage tips posted on heroes.by. I recommend that you familiarize yourself with them – it will save you a lot of trouble.

Hmm, who said they would be available for free?

As I think: players tell the organizer which map they have chosen, the organizer generates a save file for that map, and sends it to the players just before the match. There is simply no time to review the save file. Well, technically there is, but not much...

And the players will have to wait while the organizer runs through both starting locations of the generated save file, checks that there isn't a significant imbalance in resources, money in chests, dropped artifacts, and guards – is that what you mean?

ATTENTION, IMPORTANT FOR THOSE WHO WILL PLAY Heroes of Might and Magic II ONLINE

Before playing, you need to right-click on the shortcut for Heroes of Might and Magic II, then select the item at the bottom - "Properties" and click on it. After clicking, select the "Compatibility" item, and then check the box in "Run the program in compatibility mode for Windows 95", and after that, click "OK"...

If you don't do this, the game will frequently crash. If both opponents check this box, there will be no crashes at all.

Yes, and regarding Hamachi (very detailed, with answers to questions) - here is what Preds wrote about:

http://www.forum.heroes.by/viewtopic.php?t=525&start=0&sid=a7bc1950a13cf4849757008988d2a636

Submitting an application

Nickname: Ruff
Convenient time: to be arranged
ICQ: 366-407-902

I wrote reports on several games played and, naturally, questions arose immediately: 1) It would be good to specify the requirements for the report format. Currently, all messages are written by players participating in online games on the Portal, and the format is adopted out of habit, but there will also be other players who have their own vision of the correct report, and there may also be people who simply want to cause trouble if there are no clear rules (and we have encountered this). Since the organizer will summarize the results, let him specify the rules for formatting reports. 2) In the game with Ruff, there was a desynchronization (during the battle, players saw different actions + Ruff's one unit attacked its own units). We, at my suggestion, used DeepMike as a second opinion (I hope Maximix will approve of this decision) - it would also be good to develop rules for such situations.

I apologize for the silence; I just noticed that I've been appointed as the online tournament host.
1) I think the portal-style report format is very well-established and correct.
winner_NickName (color, race, main hero's race; if the host, indicate "host") def loser_NickName (color, race, main hero's race), map name, number of days.
Example:
Deep Mike (blue, sorceress, knight) def Kama (green, barbarian, barbarian), Broken Alliance, 1-4-4

2) Regarding the points system. Maybe we shouldn't use the portal's calculation system? For example, could we start reducing the winner's points only after 3-4 games between the same players, instead of 2? Or something else?
I also don't like fractional points. For example, we could multiply the specified number of points by 5. The winner would initially receive 5 points, and so on. There won't be very large numbers, and everything will be expressed in whole numbers.

3) What duration should the seasons be, based on which the results will be summarized? And how often should we calculate the results? After each new duel, or at certain time intervals?

Colleagues, Brennan is now a moderator and host of online tournaments for Heroes of Might and Magic II. He is a very competent person and a strong player. Hooray!!!

Maybe you could comment on my post sometime? If I'm wrong, just say so and present arguments against my suggestions.