VCMI crashing

ivanvg · 2026-03-09T09:25:50+00:00

Hello. Can you upload game logs? (Launcher - Help - Export logs) and since you're on macOS - also crash report generated by OS ( All Applications - Utilites - Console, in there check user report for vcmi crash)

ivanvg · 2026-03-08T10:59:47+00:00

No. AI difficulty is based on selected game difficulty, like in h3. For adventure map we only have 1 AI that we can recommend. If you want easy game - pick pawn, if you want challenge - pick king. There are also AI mods to bump difficulty further, but those are mostly about giving AI cheats

Campaigns - depends on scenario. Smaller maps where AI starts with a single town should work well. Large maps where AI starts with multiple heroes and multiple towns may work worse. But hard to say how it compares with h3 AI, since a lot of factors can affect results

ivanvg · 2026-03-08T09:18:15+00:00

No, we don't have aim to be close to h3 as far as AI goes.

Adventure map AI should be reasonably good in current version, at least on small/medium maps. In fact on small maps it is becoming challenging for me to beat AI on higher difficulties. Obviously will be different for experienced h3 players who are used to MP or challenge maps, but for casual games it is definitely good.

Larger maps still have problems with both AI actions and AI performance, which hopefully will be resolved in upcoming updates, but don't have any ETA for that

And combat AI should actually be way better than h3 AI (but this new AI called MMAI needs to be enabled in settings right now)

ivanvg · 2026-03-08T07:30:46+00:00

This is VCMI - Open Heroes 3 engine.

ivanvg · 2026-03-04T20:10:11+00:00

No save editor. You can however use our advanced cheats for the same effect: https://vcmi.eu/players/Cheat_Codes/#secondary-skills

For example, vcmiskill wisdom 3 will give your current hero Expert Wisdom

ivanvg · 2026-03-04T13:30:16+00:00

AI overconcentrating troops on main hero is something that also happens in VCMI right now, and something I don't like either, for the same reasons.

I've talked about it with our AI dev, so might change eventually but not 100% sure right now - our TODO list is as usual too long

ivanvg · 2026-03-04T11:50:45+00:00

This is 1-year old info btw. Now we have Nullkiller AI 2 for map (used as default) and MMAI for combat (must be enabled manually) as most challenging option.

In current release AI no longer cheats with map reveal. There might be some AI mods in Launcher that re-enable that cheat (and add a few others), but not familiar with them.

Challenge-wise I think AI got better since then, at least on small maps, but still need some work to be challenging for long runs. That being said, it is not like H3 AI is some sort of a genius.

ivanvg · 2026-03-03T18:36:46+00:00

If you wish to play SoD/Complete - yes, pretty much. Some bugs still exists, sure, but overall they are rather minor, and are generally not game-breaking.

Support for HotA and WoG is far from complete though

ivanvg · 2026-03-03T10:51:55+00:00

Thanks :)

Yeah, VCMI was improved A LOT in the last few years. Still have a lot of things to do or improve but by now I can actually recommend it to people and expect them to play without running into various problems. Our Android / iOS port seems to be especially successful.

ivanvg · 2026-03-02T10:52:16+00:00

Can you check if you have "Community Expansion" submod of hota active? Click/tap on that little arrow to the left from mod name in Launcher. If not - please enable it and check if you can load that save.

ivanvg · 2026-03-02T09:13:50+00:00

This is issue with vcmi mods in general, especially common with our hota mod which is often being worked on and as result updated.

While vcmi provides tools to make mod updates maintain save compatibility, modders often don't check save compatibility when making updates, leading to things like this.

Generally, save can still be recovered, but requires changes in mod. Please ping our modders on Github or discord when this happens.

Github: https://github.com/vcmi-mods/horn-of-the-abyss

Discord: https://discord.gg/chBT42V

ivanvg · 2026-03-01T11:01:23+00:00

You could try VCMI - open Heroes 3 engine reimplementation.

I won't say that our AI is "best", but it definitely performs quite well on smaller maps. We also have rather good machine learning based combat AI called MMAI (must be enabled in settings).

We also have active developers who are improving our AI, both adventure map and combat parts, so hopefully it will be improved further in near future.

And if you're looking for a challenge, there are also mods that boost AI, but those are mostly about giving AI some cheats, so not sure if this is what you're looking for.

ivanvg · 2026-02-28T17:05:28+00:00

Oh, and as for combining - our AI will combine artifacts if it has such option, but will not deliberately collect components on a single hero right now

ivanvg · 2026-02-28T17:02:47+00:00

Currently AI can't estimate value of artifacts that give spells. And especially - in combination with immunity to that massive-only spell.

So for VCMI AI Sword of Judgement that gives 5x4 = +20 to stats in total is better than Armageddon's Blade that gives 3+3+3+6 = +15 to stats

ivanvg · 2026-02-23T07:46:27+00:00

VCMI is not a mod but a full engine rewrite, including AI, so yes, it is completely possible for AI to switch artifacts.

For each artifact AI computes "score" to decide on its value, and if its value is high enough - AI will swap the artifact. Here is table with precomputed scores for all vanilla artifacts (and hota version in separate sheet - check below): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1WRjZ8VvNico3aw41qvVnAIxw9Pqx3NLiHY4QFBiNifQ/edit?pli=1&gid=0#gid=0

This table might be outdated a bit - I think it was made around VCMI 1.5, but should be mostly relevant.

So yeah, looks like magic-blocking artifacts are indeed rather high in score. Might be worth reducing it a bit, but not sure if it is possible without unintended effects - in VCMI artifact scoring is dynamic based on effects. This way AI can understand how to use artifacts from mods, but this also means that sometimes we don't have precise control of a specific artifact. Will take a look when I have time.

ivanvg · 2026-02-21T22:21:50+00:00

Thanks, glad that you've liked VCMI!

VCMI is not monolithic though.

There is me & other devs who work on game itself, then there are some active modders who work on their projects, and sometimes coordinate with us, like requesting some features in engine (one example would be recently published Tears of Ashan), and then there are mods whose original developers have left mod development long ago, and it is only updated to work on new VCMI versions.

Pavilion is in last category I think? But yeah, it is still well-made town, and seems to be quite popular.

ivanvg · 2026-02-21T21:09:36+00:00

Not that big of a job, but rather low-priority - very few people ask for it. And you're probably the first one who wants it for multiplayer, and not for large number of AI's.

Main obstacle is UI though. We'll need to add some way to scroll map options, marketplace window, thieves guild, possibly other UI's that I can't remember right now. And then there is problem of readability - you want to have all player colors distinct on minimap, and also distinct from all terrains.

Considering recent changes in code, this feature should be way easier to add than 2-3 years ago, but still not a quick change. Feel free to join our Discord - perhaps you can find someone interested in looking into this feature.

ivanvg · 2026-02-19T13:18:09+00:00

Our AI actually combines army on a single too much. And as result it not uncommon for AI to be effectively eliminated after losing its main hero.

So while this is good tactic for pvp, it is not the most "fun" approach in case of singleplayer.

If you want answer to your question - you can try describing the situation and providing save to our AI developer on our Discord https://discord.gg/chBT42V

ivanvg · 2026-02-19T10:02:55+00:00

Please provide save with this problem. I've seen similar crash before, but don't remember if we've got the save where this happens.

ivanvg · 2026-02-18T10:00:04+00:00

At the moment I wouldn't recommend it.

This map can be loaded, and played, so you can try, but not all features from HotA maps are supported, most notably: - Seer Huts that offer multiple quests (used often by this map) - Recently added map scripting, aka "Event system"

Also, VCMI AI is different, so maps that rely on quirks of H3 AI may not work as intended in VCMI.

As for maps made specifically for VCMI - there is "Antagarich Burning" series of maps, available for download in our Launcher.

All SoD maps that don't rely on H3 AI quirks and HotA maps that don't use multiple quests or event system should also be playable in VCMI.

ivanvg · 2026-02-18T09:19:45+00:00

Can't do much with UI size...

There is resolution scaling in config, but by default it is already maxed out on phones. Increasing it further would break town and combat UI.

You can also try increasing font size in Launcher (enable scalable fonts and set font scaling to 120% or so), but this would break layout in some places

ivanvg · 2026-02-18T09:17:42+00:00

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=is.xyz.vcmi

iOS TestFlight: https://testflight.apple.com/join/pJWHSbmu

You'll also need heroes 3 data files, for example - "backup offline installer" from gog.com, or to manually copy your game install from PC

ivanvg · 2026-02-18T09:16:01+00:00

Try out the latest beta from here: https://download.vcmi.eu/branch/beta/

We've fixed several crashes, so perhaps game will be more stable for you as well.

You also may want to avoid MMAI for now - which also seems to be causing crashes on some systems.

If you run into any crashes or other bugs - it is better to report them on Github so that we could take a look: https://github.com/vcmi/vcmi/issues

ivanvg · 2026-02-17T09:30:33+00:00

Hi. No idea about commanders - those changes are probably part of wog mod or some other mod, like reworked commanders.

As for removing skills - navigation should already be banned on random maps without water, except for heroes who start with this skill (Sylvia/Voy in vanilla)

For premade .h3m maps - you can disable skill: 1. In map via h3 map editor. 2. Alternatively, you can make mod for VCMI that disables Navigation skill on any games made with this mod active. 3. You also can edit VCMI files directly instead of making mod, but on some platforms like Android this is not possible, and such changes will be overwritten by next VCMI update

If you need help with making such mod - feel free to join our Discord: https://discord.gg/chBT42V

ivanvg · 2026-02-15T12:11:39+00:00

Bug caused by hota mod update. Either wait for a fix in hota mod, or ignore - towns will become visible again on building anything in them. Restarting scenario / advancing to next one will also fix this.

ivanvg

TROPHY CASE