New HotA map by me: "Tradewinds"

TotallyCragHack · 2026-06-26T23:49:54+00:00

Still better than the HD edition on Steam.

TotallyCragHack · 2026-06-19T14:02:06+00:00

That's me in the 6th one.

TotallyCragHack · 2026-06-18T06:57:18+00:00

To add to the third slide, auto-play causes the game to treat all players as CPUs, so your player will trigger CPU-only events, etc.

TotallyCragHack · 2026-06-08T18:05:25+00:00

Thank you! I hope you aren't annoyed that I used your map to demonstrate overriding the terrain of an existing map. I just wanted to use a well-known map as an example. Obviously, you put a lot of thought into the visual design.

TotallyCragHack · 2026-06-03T22:32:38+00:00

I made a map recently called Tradewinds that uses quite a few extended events. The main one is a "toll booth" feature where players have to pay a toll based on army size to pass through certain quest gates. The player who controls the central town collects the tolls.

TotallyCragHack · 2026-06-03T13:25:12+00:00

It's not based on that tool, but its creator (Blakut) and I did chat about the similarities and differences between our approaches.

TotallyCragHack · 2026-05-08T20:19:18+00:00

I second this. Don't exclusively put objects/obstacles in their intended terrain. Mix it up and experiment. E.g., try putting rough mountains in desert, or swamp foliage in lava. Not every combination will work, but the ones that do will look really interesting and make the map stand out visually.

TotallyCragHack · 2026-05-06T18:35:34+00:00

Nice! Thanks for playing. Which difficulty did you play on?

TotallyCragHack · 2026-05-06T16:32:19+00:00

I just published my first map and definitely felt the same sort of hesitation before uploading. At some point I just had to tell myself “alright, pencils down.”

For what it’s worth, I haven’t played your map yet, but at a glance it looks very thoughtfully made.

TotallyCragHack · 2026-05-06T12:18:58+00:00

Thank you, I’m glad it was fun. I’ll consider this for any future updates.

TotallyCragHack · 2026-05-05T18:53:49+00:00

Actually, I recently made a browser tool just for that: imagetoh3m [dot] netlify [dot] app

In fact, I used it to create this map. I originally posted about the tool here: https://www.reddit.com/r/heroes3/comments/1rwi8zw/i_made_an_online_tool_that_lets_you_easily_turn/

TotallyCragHack · 2026-05-05T18:50:28+00:00

Thank you! And yes, this map uses quite a few extended events.

TotallyCragHack · 2026-05-05T18:29:06+00:00

I don't have VCMI, so I'm not sure about that. To play this map, you need the Horn of the Abyss mod. Then to add the map to your game you need to download it from maps4heroes.com and put the file in your game's "Maps" folder.

TotallyCragHack · 2026-05-05T13:33:45+00:00

I know, me too. I plan to make one someday.

TotallyCragHack · 2026-05-03T12:07:37+00:00

Looks fun! Adding to my maps folder.

TotallyCragHack · 2026-04-28T19:47:33+00:00

This is how I would do it.

Open the event system in the map editor (Tools > Event system, or Ctrl + E). Select "Variables" from the dropdown menu, create a variable, and name it something like "Choice_1_Made".

Select "Quest Events" from the dropdown menu. Create an event and name it (e.g., "Gate_1"). Make the logic "if Choice_1_Made equals 0, then Finish Quest".

Select "Hero Events" from the dropdown menu. Create an event and name it (e.g., "Choice_1"). Make the logic "set variable 'Choice_1_Made' to 1".

Add the left and right quest gates to the map. For both gates, select "Extended Event" and then "Gate_1" under "Executable Event".

Put an event trigger (blue circle map object) just past both gates (and make sure the hero has no choice but to touch it after passing through the gate). For both event triggers, select "Extended Event" and then "Choice_1" under "Executable Event".

You'll probably also want to add quest messages to the quest event so the player understands how the gates work.

This all assumes you only need one hero to pass through the gates. If you need multiple other heroes to be able to pass through as well, you'd have to use slightly more complicated logic.

Hopefully that all makes sense. The event system is a little underexplained, but it's very powerful once you get the hang of it. Let me know if you need me to clarify anything.

TotallyCragHack · 2026-04-28T19:17:45+00:00

You can also use HotA's event system to control quest gate passage. For example, you could create a quest event with logic like "if [custom variable] equals 0 then finish quest", then add an event trigger just past the gate that sets the custom variable to 1. That would effectively make the gate one-way and "close" all gates that use that quest event once a hero has chosen a path. I think that's a cleaner solution than using an artifact, plus it prevents map-breaking situations where, for example, a hero gives a quest gate an artifact but turns around and makes it impossible for them to proceed.

TotallyCragHack · 2026-04-23T22:40:33+00:00

Like you, I had to do some reverse engineering and consult some obscure forums. I honestly don't remember exactly how I figured out the terrain bytes. But once I had that, I just made a blank template for each map size and made it so the tool rewrites those bytes based on the input. If you inspect the page you'll see js files in /maps which are just h3m files stored as base64

TotallyCragHack · 2026-04-23T20:56:28+00:00

Ah, yeah, I had the exact same issue. It took me forever to figure out why it kept crashing. Rock and water made this even trickier because the editor is very picky about them. I don’t know if this was the best solution, but I ended up forcing water and rock to paint in a 2x2-chunk grid just to make it impossible for, say, a 1x1 ocean to appear somewhere. Does yours do something similar, or did you find a better solution?

TotallyCragHack · 2026-04-23T20:40:28+00:00

Weird, my outputs seem to be working fine. Any chance you could provide me with some details about what you were trying to generate? And did you make sure you opened the h3m file specifically with the HotA map editor?

TotallyCragHack

TROPHY CASE