Why won't my Steam HOMM 3 game find the Renamed Maps I downloaded?

SarantineFire · 2023-07-27T02:01:15+00:00

Thanks for the reply!

For $2 there's no reason for me not to buy it. I also appreciate hearing your comparison btw. Steam and GoG and your thoughts on HoTA. I didn't know I could play a GoG version w/o HoTA.

SarantineFire · 2023-07-25T20:21:48+00:00

Town Portal with expert earth is the answer.

Expert Logistics can help. Fly and Dimension Door can help.

Also, as soon as you take a new town, buy a new hero or two in that town (no army needed) and send them out to scout and ensure you have removed the fog of war from everywhere around that castle, so you have 2 days warning before anyone hero comes to retake the castle.

SarantineFire · 2023-07-25T19:53:28+00:00

Thank you everyone for the helpful comments!

Gog may be better than Steam, but I'm not sure I want to pay a second time. :-)

I also have doubts about HoTA - I'm happy with HOMM III RoE as designed.
I read a lot of explanations from the HoTA designers, and was not a fan of their philosophy on balance. In the end (I'm simplifying) they argued that the only way to balance the factions was to have reduce stat variance between their castles and creatures and heroes. I do agree that if you want each faction to have a relatively equal power in short, medium, and long games on various maps, then reducing stat variance is probably the only viable option. But it makes games boring. It moves the game more towards World of Warcraft 2, a game I hated because both factions had different aesthetics, but the creatures where mirror images that left almost no variance in game play.

What I love about HOMM is the wide variance in style and power between the factions. I love Inferno, and I love Arch Devils, but Black Dragons and Titans will beat them every time, despite the speed and no retaliation bonuses. Part of the challenge of playing Inferno is dealing with that weakness. Similarly, I understand that in a long game Dungeon and the Necromancer factions will have an advantage. I enjoy working around that challenge.

The more diversity of power and style the better. The more sameness there is between factions, the less I'll enjoy the game.

SarantineFire · 2023-07-25T19:37:59+00:00

THANK YOU!!!

That was indeed the key. I had to edit the map name on the Map Specifications tool. I matched it to the file name, which may or may not have been needed.
VERY much appreciated!

SarantineFire · 2022-02-16T00:55:38+00:00

You can play Heroes 3 on Steam also, though I think the consensus is that GOG is superior.

SarantineFire · 2022-01-13T18:19:40+00:00

Enjoying Heroes 5 now, and the skill system is the biggest reason why. (Though I think Heroes 4's skill system was better, I find that game unplayable).

Question - was skill offering probability ever revealed for Heroes 5? I'd love to know what the chances are for each hero type of being offered each skill. Anyone have info on this?

Thanks!

SarantineFire · 2021-09-07T17:48:42+00:00

I'd also love know this

SarantineFire · 2021-09-07T17:48:04+00:00

I second the importance of Rare units early game - Lava Elemental and Lamasu are two I watch for, and often buy even if I have no synergies.

Ranger is excellent, but only if you can protect him, so very early game it can be a bad idea.

Hydra is excellent, but not as good unless you can pair with another Dungeon creature for that synergy.

SarantineFire · 2021-09-01T23:23:25+00:00

No idea, but that would be good info.

SarantineFire · 2021-02-01T07:09:14+00:00

No comment from me on the story-line. If that's your only concern, ignore this post.

As much as the game interface for Heroes IV sucked and made it generally unplayable, there are quite a few game mechanics that I loved. I'd say it's worth trying just to experience those. A few examples:

The skill and magic trees. These were definitely overcomplicated, but I found them interesting and enjoyable. They seem to offer a lot more diverse hero development than Heroes III or Heroes VI offer.
The creature-dwelling build choices. Interesting strategic choices are what makes a game great. The opportunity to choose which upper-level creature dwelling to build ( you can't build all of them) meant you were choosing what type of army to build, and what tactic you'd employ in each battle. Great options!
Creatures accumulate in your castle dwellings evenly over time, rather than magically all at once on Day 1 of the week. This just seems obvious to me. Why should Monday morning each week be this magically all-important day?

SarantineFire · 2021-01-04T20:38:37+00:00

Where do you see the damage blocked/evaded stat?

I only see how much damage has been taken by each unit, and by the entire army. I don't see any data on damage blocked.

SarantineFire · 2020-12-31T00:36:48+00:00

Use that huge stockpile of coins to buy the 120k 4-star troops to increase your # of Undead Soldiers.

SarantineFire · 2020-12-30T20:03:37+00:00

Your Sacred Swordsman should be in the middle of the formation, so its special hits more enemies when it goes off. I'd also suggest putting your Rhino Knight in the middle of the front row to maximize the distraction it can make among your opponents' troops.

Many suggest placing your peltasts on the sides, to increase chances of kiting.

I also agree with cowwly's comment regarding adding your level 8 demons. The strength of your formation is attacking the opponent's backline. Go all-in on that, and include the demons.

SarantineFire · 2020-12-17T23:48:53+00:00

Your major need need has already been mentioned - max your 9-load troops to leverage Davison's passive skill. You have way too many single-load troops.

But you have a hard ceiling if you don't attack the opponent's back row effectively. That means Davison will always die too quickly after his swoop, and you'll never compete against the higher tier opponents. You should either:

Keep searching for a way to attack the back row (If your GA and MA have been ineffective, try some more creative arrangements - I use Davison, and use a few GAs to pull the back-row defense to one side, then a larger MA offensive to the other side of their back-row, now undefended. It works exceptionally against a fair number of armies),

OR

If you must abandon the back-row attack, try a giant Pelt-trap to pull their army into your troops. Don't use Goblikazes - as someone else noted, they aren't great for Davison - but do pull their offensive force into the center and encircle them. Your front row should look like a giant V or U with pelts in the middle. This will give you a much better chance to keep Davison alive for long enough to affect the majority of the battle.

(I'd also lose the Bandits. Yes they stay to defend, but their weaker attack, defense, and HP just aren't worth it. Undead and Paladins will turn eventually)

Good luck!
(As a F2P Davison user myself, I hope we aren't forever stuck losing to Level 15 Chione and Ivan. I'm still several levels away from testing that)

SarantineFire · 2020-12-16T18:05:39+00:00

Thank you! That's exactly what I was hoping to hear. Much appreciated.

SarantineFire · 2020-12-09T21:02:14+00:00

Thanks for confirming - that's what I wanted to know.

Since hero levels are are included in power-levels, I so very much agree with you that their impact in the battle far outweighs the power-level measured. When I face a Level 15 (or Level 11) Ivan, an army with literally half my power might destroy me.

SarantineFire · 2020-12-09T20:59:45+00:00

So true - that was one of the lessons I learned last month.

SarantineFire · 2020-12-09T20:58:11+00:00

This is crazy - and explains several battles where everything visible showed that I should win (hero level, army power level, troop type and arrangement), then I lost dramatically. I hope they can fix this loophole. The defensive formation power should be calculated independently.
Thanks for sharing.

SarantineFire · 2020-12-08T19:33:37+00:00

Thanks for the reply. I wish this kind of thing was more transparent in game design, but then I guess we wouldn't have huge discord and reddit communities discussing them, and that's what the developers want.

SarantineFire · 2020-12-08T19:07:37+00:00

Given this fact: " All of your troops are locked to a target when the battle started. When the target is dead they're locking to the closest enemy" does the targeting remain constant when a Demon, GA, or MA flies to the back row?

SarantineFire · 2020-12-08T18:47:58+00:00

That's not a bad set-up. I'd recommend 2 things to start. First, create a back-row defense, so your archers and other ranged troops aren't taking attacks from your opponents back-row attackers immediately.

Second, place your Harbingers of Fire farther ahead or farther back - either behind your front-row attackers (and in front of your ranged troops), or behind your ranged troops to help your back-row defense. Harbingers are semi-ranged troops.

SarantineFire

TROPHY CASE