VCMI: An open-source engine for Heroes III | Hacker News Reader

VCMI: An open-source engine for Heroes III

vcmi.eu

191 pointseamag27 comments

In my experience VCMI already feels like a proper Heroes 3 game, even if it doesn't fully support HotA mods, etc. It's certainly the easiest way to play Heroes 3 casually e.g. on an M1 Mac, and it has no wine-related crashes, and doesn't require a virtual machine with Windows's x86 emulation workarounds (like having to limit the game to a single CPU as otherwise units wouldn't do any damage in combat :))

There's support for HotA, I've been playing with the mod installed on both Android and Windows

VCMI is an acronym of the Quenya phrase "Vinyar Callor Meletyo ar Ingoleo", meaning "New Heroes of Might and Magic".

I wish it worked with HotA but it is nice to play natively; though even run through emulators HIII is fast enough.

There is a partial HotA port: https://github.com/vcmi-mods/horn-of-the-abyss (available in the launcher to install)

For people that are nostalgic to HOMM2, like me, there is also fheroes2 [0].

0 - https://ihhub.github.io/fheroes2

I love homm2 and have been playing fheroes2 for a bit now. homm2 is truly a masterpiece. To me it's the peak of the heroes series. The art and music are both great and still hold up to this day. The game play is basically perfect for what it is - subsequent games in the series, to me, just are adding more and more piece types to a chess board.

Very cool project. An interesting note is that this makes HoMM III available to play on Android. That being said the game has had such a community revival surrounding the excellent Horn of the Abyss (HotA) mod that I can't really see myself playing VCMI (outside of Android) unless they fully worked together. Nevertheless, I am always stoked to see these community projects because they illustrate the pure passion people have for these games.

Very cool! I have one non-technical friend who occasionally wants to play HOMM, and she often has issues getting it working (specifically non-hd, non-hota on intel mac). This could be a remedy.

Interesting post timing. At the airport lounge before a long int'l flight and in preparation I'm installing bottles + homm3 GOG + HOTA.

While I played and wholeheartedly commend the developers' effort in making VCMI I still prefer the original + HD/HOTA.

One interesting use I’ve found is installing the Android version on an Oculus Quest. Very weird experience at first, but it’s really really cool.

Did HoMM series ever get popular outside Eastern Europe? I am yet to meet a person born and raised in the US who have heard about it, but maybe i am just unlucky or targeting a wrong demographic.

I was wondering about the reason and suspect lack of advertising. There was an ad campaign in Computer Gaming World Magazine http://heroescommunity.com/viewthread.php3?TID=40698&pagenum...

CGW issue 144 1996/07 small piss poor banner

CGW 146 1996/09 full page but confusing with only two tiny bad game screens and wall of text

CGW 147 1996/10 - month of release - same wall of text and one slightly better tiny screen

CGW 148 1996/11 half page ad but finally full of good screens and actual description what the game is all about

CGW 151 1997/02 they finally got a hang of this, detailed description of what to expect from teh game

CGW 152 1997/03 CGW 153 1997/04 CGW 156 1997/07 reverting to 148 style

CGW reviewed in very late in 1997/02 giving it 100%.

I cant find any ads in period correct PC Gamer. They reviewed it great, but annual PC Gamer Top 100 1996 didnt even mention it, and 1997 put it far back at 25 https://www.pixsoriginadventures.co.uk/pc-gamer-top-100-1997...

I played Might and Magic as a child but I never knew about this series nor have I ever played it. I also don't know anyone who has either now that you mention it.

Let's say not as popular as other games, but it was popular enough to pirate in the US.

Friends and I loved Heroes 3, but we're Québécois.

It found a following in some parts of LATAM as well.

> add new towns, creatures, heroes, artifacts and spells without limits or conflicts

If the original game had these features, it would likely have gotten me into programming at an even earlier age!

In the Wake of Gods mod (aka HoMM 3.5) had ERM scripting and it was hella exciting for a kid! You could make your own artifacts, automate things on a map, make a dynamic story that reacts to your actions.

Lost couple of evenings to nostalgia because of this recently :)

how's the AI (as in computer opponent) these days? last time I played vcmi, that was my only gripe – the bots were so stupid.

They're still not too bright, which is kind of faithful to the original game. However at least the android client allows you to pick alternate algos and further AI mods that at least claim to make it more challenging are available for download.

There's an ongoing project of build an RL AI https://github.com/smanolloff/vcmi-gym/

This is awesome, going to check it out. I've been playing HotA on and off for years now.

how stable is the game?

There are occasional bugs, especially in fresh minor releases, but typically nothing game-breaking. I am yet to see it actually crash though

Lol. It would be embarrassing for this clone to not be 100% stable after like 30 years of development lol

I see a HoMM thread, I upvote.

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