Posts from All questions regarding mapmaking for Heroes of Might and Magic 3: The Shadow of Death.

Yes, to prevent a week of real-world events or a month of plague, the player needs to play with the HD mod and the SOD_SP plugin enabled, and also configure its settings. It would be best to inform the player about this right from the first event.

How do I make an enemy hero start moving at a specific moment?

There are several ways to do this. But instead of making them start moving, you can have them remove a guard at a designated location. The guard can require the player to bring N specific creatures (preferably neutral creatures that can only be recruited in a dwelling). Or, they can require resources, but then you need to disable the market (otherwise, the player can exchange resources and leave earlier). A more complex method: in the desired location, there is a town without a tavern and a hero, and on a specific day, a tavern is built. To change the appearance of an object in the extended editor, do the following: place the object that you want to reskin, remember (copy) the model name (the "Image" field), for example, for a ground cartographer, it's AVXmaps0.def, then place the desired object in the correct location, open its properties, and paste the name of the original object. Click OK, and you will get the desired result. But it is better not to change the appearance of objects without a real need, so as not to confuse players.

Fellow mapmakers, I have a question. Has anyone encountered the issue where an enemy hero walks around for a bit and then stops in one place as if rooted to the spot? I need to make it so that the enemy hero walks around a specific area endlessly and doesn't stop anywhere. I've tried assigning him both "patrol 10 squares" and selecting "nothing." But in any case, he still makes 3-5 moves and then stops... completely.

It’s a tricky question. The AI’s behavior on the adventure map is sometimes difficult to understand, let alone organize in a way that suits your needs. Primarily, it should depend on the behavior model (builder/explorer/warrior), but the behavior set by the map author is ignored by the game, and the game sets its own. And sometimes, the AI doesn’t leave its starting city if it sees an obstacle on the road, even a group of peasants, even when it has hundreds of dragons, while in another playthrough of the same map, it is as active as intended. Here’s an example I encountered:

Clearly inappropriate behavior from Red... Apparently, this enemy was supposed to be the last and most powerful, but in reality, it just sat in its Necropolis and didn’t come out, even though the accumulated troops and resources clearly allowed it to advance.

Usually, the AI readily picks up everything that lies around and is unguarded, and regularly visits mills and outer dwellings – this allows you to make it travel around the map. Other objects of interest for the AI: the market and the black market, the mage’s hut.

Yes, this happens to me constantly on my spiral maps. True, some enemies behave differently: they capture EVERYTHING far away from me, and then come to me and defeat me with a huge army.

Where can I find information about modding? Specifically, I need to know how to replace the units that can be recruited in buildings.

Question regarding the random map template: I created a random map in the editor, size G, for two players. I want a very long game with armies in the millions. I created a lot of zones with rich treasures. The problem is that all the zones are evenly distributed across the map, but there are too many mountains and empty spaces. How can I fix this? What is the optimal number of zones to create for a size G map, without empty spaces?

Could you please tell me how to change the basic skills of heroes, for example, replace artillery with another skill, such as attack? If possible, provide step-by-step instructions. Will these changes work on randomly generated maps? P.S. I'm playing Hota.