Berserk & Armageddon: Let us introduce ourselves.

Me: I'm going to pretend I didn't see that.

So Ubisoft is remaking Heroes 3 which I think is a risky idea because Heroes 3 is perfect classic and has very fanatical fanbase and touching it is like touching beehive. And I agree it should be left alone.

But Heroes 5 is also amazing and is my favorite yet it is Ubisoft game and fanbase is more casual. Do you think fanbase would react better if Ubisoft remastered Heroes 5?

I would personaly love it if they remaster it and even release new expansions and towns down the line..

First new town released should deff be Sanctuary but what other new town could they release?

I had an idea about of a town based in North-eastern part of Ashan where nomadic/barbaric humans lived.

Since every dragon God exept Ylath (Sky dragon) has it's town this could be it.

The rooster would be mix of Homm2 wizards and Homm 3 Tower and Stronghold.

So Viking like warriors and axe throwers,

Wolfs and Dire wolfs

Heroes 3-like wizards with long beards and big staffs

Rocks and Thunderbirds

and ultimate Behemoths/Ancient Behemoths or Yetis

Their terrain would be mountainous, rocky and snowy.

Their architecture could be mix of wooden longhalls, caves for wolfs, behemoths and tall towers (like h3 tower) for Wizards and Castle.

Their magic would be mix of air/lightening like their dragon God and Ice

They would be neutral.

Thoughts?

I am creating HoMM inspired game and currently deciding on theme. Which one of these would you like to play the most?

For some reason I have a feeling that Giselle will win this battle.

Fifteen years ago I bought the very first iPad, and the one game I wanted to play on it was Heroes of Might and Magic V, one of my favourite games of all time. Back then the only way to do it was to stream my home PC over TeamViewer. Of course I tried. Every year after that I hoped someone would finally make a real mobile or tablet port. Nobody did.

Then with the current wave of decompilation and recompilation projects I thought: why not try it myself?

Day one ended with a version of Heroes V that ran natively on iOS and macOS, using the files from the official GOG release. It was slow, the touch controls were rough, and I knew there were plenty of bugs I hadn’t found yet. But it built, it launched and it ran, and I nearly cried. After all these years it was real.

That was a few days ago. And now:

• All three games in one app. The original game, Hammers of Fate and Tribes of the East, each with its own profiles and saves. You pick one in a launcher
• Mac, iPad and iPhone. Campaigns, scenarios, hot-seat, towns, battles and saves work.
• Touch controls built around how Heroes works. The game explains everything on hover, so a resting finger acts as a hovering mouse: hold to read a tooltip, tap to act. A second finger gives the right click. Drag pans, pinch zooms, twist turns the map camera
• An interface for the iPhone. The round dial menus become rows of buttons along the screen edges, panels are bigger, the hero list sits next to the minimap, and nothing hides behind the Dynamic Island
• Ultrawide support in all 3 games. On 21:9 you get a wider view of the map and battles instead of a stretched picture, and the HUD moves to the screen edges. This works in all three games including HoF
• Mac trackpad camera. Why not? Two fingers raise and lower the camera over the map, or work like on an iPad. In battle they zoom to the pointer
• Performance. On day two the adventure map ran at about 16 fps on my M1 Max. Now it’s around 120 Hz depending on Zoom level. A zoomed-out map with lots on screen is still the heaviest scene, and I'll try to make it better
• A launcher that looks like the game. I needed a simple way to launch a particular game, choose installation and adjust new settings, so here is the main screen that looks as close to the game as I could

WIP:

• As a test thing, I'm also creating a native UI module on top of the game to replace its menus before the adventure map with more touch-friendly ones. Looks promising, but affects overall performance. I need to spend more time on that
• If you get to build for macOS and iOS, it should be possible to add iCloud save sync to seamlessly jump between devices
• Local network freezes the game now, I have a thought on how to make it work, will proceed soon

How it works, briefly: this is a static recompilation, not an emulator. The game’s x86 code (and RAD’s Granny animation library with it) is translated ahead of time into C and compiled into a native arm64 app. There’s no Wine, CrossOver or Rosetta at run time. Direct3D 9 is drawn through Metal. The new battle controls hook into the game’s own code, so the game still builds every attack itself; the port only chooses the target and the cell. I’m doing all this with heavy help from AI coding agents, which is the only reason one person could get this far in a few days.

What it isn’t:

• It’s an unofficial fan project, with no connection to Ubisoft, Nival or GOG.
• No game files are included. Please use your own copy from GOG. I'm not sure how to make it work with Steam files at the moment.

So far I’ve only tested it with the English and Russian GOG releases. I’d love to hear what you think about it.

Get the project here: https://github.com/livmaster-dev/HommaRe-public

I’ve been waiting fifteen years to see this, hope you'll like it too 🙂

Aw dang it!

Someone's grudge against those crusty boomer elder druids went a bit far, now all of AvLee(Copy)(Copy) wants them dead for treason and pacting with literal demons.

Side rant, I don't remember this mission being this freaking hard. Not easy, but not scraping by on last legs brutal. I did a few crucial mistakes (mainly, the Wyngaal took me on a wild goose chase for a week and then still killed half my army), but these spawns are crazy.

First, the long-winded path connecting middle and south got blocked off. I started to build a second hero down there to build strength to clear the path, then switched to build another ~W4 because he was getting chronic -morale on the Nature troops and Tavern finally spat out a Ranger. Inferno zone had a lot of Blade Dancer spawns rather than nasty Sprite spawns the east got more of, so I wanted to XP farm the ones that were only Horde. Guess what, he got stuck in Inferno zone by having a Throng of Master Hunters spawn in his face. :P

Not sure if anyone posted about their experiences with it, figured I'll share mine.

The good news is that it's not AI after all. There's been a lot of heated debate about the assets, but seeing them in person without compressed youtube videos, there's no glaring issues. The designs are all mid but logically made and decently follow the outline of the original designs.

The bad news is they look terrible for a different reason - the demo is barely held together by tape. The game struggles to render 3D elements, all textures aren't fully loaded or being compressed to hell. It's like playing a poorly optimized Nintedo Switch 1 build.

It was not ready to show it to people. The only selling point of this game is to get a pretty version of Heroes 3. One where you don't have to faff with mods to get something that won't strain your eyes to death. The build they gave us looked awful and was unpleasant to play.

Also maybe I'm used to how far mods let us zoom out the original map of Heroes 3, but the zoom limit of the demo felt a bit too harsh to me. I would say there was no QoL that caught my attention to speak of. It was all pretty normal.

I was honestly hyped about this when they originally announced it, but after playing the demo I couldn't care less. I suspect it will have traditional Ubisoft performance issues, maybe poor stability as well. It just doesn't inspire any confidence at all.

Eventually they will make this solid, I hope. I expect myself to grab it like a year after it releases to make sure they sorted out all the drama I expect of them.

Just a rant. Ignore or whatever if you want.

And I'm well aware of the irony in writing a long and complicated post advocating for simplicity. I accept that I'm a walking, talking, and typing contradiction.

And I also accept that I might be the only damn one who has an issue with all this, but whatever, I'mma say it anyway.

I'm 39. I've been a HoMM player since the first one. I've spent my share of time in pretty much all of them, although probably less in H5 and H6, and with a very long gap of time since I put any proper hours into H4. Played a bunch of H7, currently... really trying to like OE.

And I'm having the same trouble getting into it that I had getting into any of them after H4. From H5 onward, I just... haven't found myself really able to dig in. The closest I've come to that in the post-Enroth universe has been H7, weirdly.

I throw down all that context because I've been mulling something today while I give OE another try, and I stare at my units in the Hive faction, and I look at everything involved, from the names to the art design and....

Sigh.

I miss simplicity. On every conceivable level, I miss the simplicity that drew me into these games when I was younger.

I'm still on the record with the original HoMM1 being up there as probably my second- or third-favourite in the series, behind H3 and maybe H2, but definitely ahead of anything afterward, and I really don't think it's because I'm a purist asshole resistant to anything new or different. I think that could be true, but I don't think it detracts from my point.

What I love about H1, and what I think H3 does beautifully while straddling the doing-just-enough fence, is that everything is just...there. Simple, readable, easy to pick up and understand. Underbaked, yes, as all first-of-a-franchise games tend to be, but it didn't feel overwhelming to look at. And I'm honestly not even talking about game mechanics here. I'm literally just talking about the immediate user-facing ingredients.

This first occurred to me when I realized that in the newer games, I'm almost always playing the human faction, because, well, take a look:

I'm still not sure what the f**k a Lightweaver is, but I can accept the premise and figure it out, because at least it's surrounded by things I can understand and recognize. In fact I can pretty much puzzle it out through the artwork if I have to, because the Human faction's units have enough simplicity in their design (and are recognizable enough and distinct enough in their roles) that I don't have to stare at them and wonder what they do. Crossbowman has a feckin crossbow, man. Enough said.

And then we get to the elf faction.

Beautiful, creative, undoubtedly steeped in legends and lores and stories that I've never seen before, and ultimately f**king incomprehensible.

See, I think there's a certain element of common knowledge involved when you say "Unicorn" or "Dragon" that immediately gets across what that creature might do for you. It's a horse with a stick on its head and a...well, fuckin' dragon. Hard to miss.

But even if you know what an iriyad and a qilin are (which I would argue dramatically fewer people immediately would than unicorns or dragons), I myself have no frame of reference for what to expect from a qilin on the battlefield.

Then there's the design. I think of Inferno versus Hive here.

(Waurms? Waurms? Just... WORMS, man. FIRE WORMS. Come on.)

Inferno was a bit of a leap at the time from the factions we'd gotten in H2. (So was Fortress, really.) But even if you didn't know what a Gog was, you can tell it apart from an Efreet. One's a little impy dude who chucks fireballs, and the other is alternate universe Robin Williams.

Hive? I don't... man, I don't know. Give me enough time and zoom in close, and I can point out which is which without the labels, if I try real hard. But all the pointy bits and incredible detail in the design, as admirable as it is and as visually stunning as I find the game to be...it all completely loses me, because of the extra time I have to invest in figuring out which creatures on the map belong to what faction, let alone how powerful they are. (Yes, yes, that's what tooltips and wikis are for, but I'm playing Heroes of Might and Feckin' Magic here, man, not Civilization.)

And it doesn't help that mechanically, none of these units are simple either. All of them have so many passive abilities, active abilities, spells, hidden traits, one thing after another thing after another thing, and--

Sigh.

I miss when I could just pick up a faction and play, y'know? Sprite has wings, she fly, she zap. Harpy has wings, she fly, she smack smack, whoops she go home again. Devil teleport in big column of fire and stab in face.

And the kicker is, there are things to learn in the original Heroes games, design intricacies, strategies, things that give them endless depth and replayability and complexity, but they're like icebergs, y'know? Under the surface, while at its very top it looks pretty clean and accessible and you can tell what everything is when you look at it. The newer games (even H5 sometimes, although it was MUCH better at this) have gotten stuck so far up their own asses about the level of detail, complexity, and just plain niche in every element on the map that nothing stands out anymore. It all just blurs into a big ol' pile of pseudo-fantastical stuff to try and wrap my head around.

Anyway. That's all. Wanted to say it. Going to be late. Leaving now.

Warlock Faction.

Ultimate Artifact found (Sword of Dominion)

Dimension Door FTW!

What’s up everybody?! I love playing heroes 4 and I’ve been playing it for many years. My brother and I want to sit down for a couple hours and play together. Can someone please tell me what the good and balanced 1v1 maps are and where I can download them? 2vAI maps would also be fun if they’re super challenging. Also huge bonus if they’re packed full of stuff. We’re both Grandmaster AI or it’s not fun kind of people. Thank you!

It's been night for days. The undead are glowing green. Bats have taken over the towns.

And nobody seems willing to explain why the Titans are wearing pumpkins.

Come take a look around, fight a battle, or challenge a friend online: https://fheroes2-online.pages.dev

It turns on by itself and leaves again after November 1st. If you'd rather keep your Titans pumpkinless, go to Graphics settings → Seasonal Theme.

For anyone who missed it, here's my original post with more about the online play, battle campaigns, and trained battle AI.

As before, the engine is the fheroes2 team's work. I just handed out the witch hats and pumpkins.

Astrologers proclaim week of Knights!

This is the first entry in my fan project about reimagining classic HoMM factions.

Concept. The Knight faction has always been present in one form or another throughout the Heroes series. My take on these classics was to emphasize its humanistic character. Traditionally, human knights are portrayed as a clerical, theological society with a penchant for irrational mysticism. I've always found this rather excessive: in a world populated by countless fairy-tale creatures and fantastical monsters, it makes far more sense for humans to represent the power of reason.

My Knights are something of children of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. They rely on knowledge and technology, even in its late medieval form, and I went to great lengths to make their armies look as though they had stepped straight out of lavishly illustrated books on the history of European arms and armor.

For a change, I chose red and yellow as the Knights' primary colors (the humans of Enroth have traditionally favored cooler hues), giving them a certain regal grandeur. This combination evokes the Royal Standard of Great Britain, the Gryffindor coat of arms, and also... the pre-upgrade Knight lineup from Heroes II. Yay.

A Pinch of Lore. Both narratively and aesthetically, everything here revolves around the chivalric Order of the Swan and the royal house of Gildenveil, whose castle stands on the shores of the lake that bears their name.

King Leo Gildenveil had no children, but one day, while his wife Queen Ledania (pun intended, here and throughout – author's note) was taking a stroll along the shores of Gildenveil, an angel appeared before her in the form of a radiant swan. Soon afterward, she laid an enormous golden egg, from which three children hatched.

The angel, of course, was actually a sophisticated artificial organism created by the Ancients to counter the threat of the Kreegans (as we all know from the history of Enroth). However, the exact role it played in the conception of the egg has never been conclusively established.

The children were named Cedric, Isolde, and Edmund. Leo Gildenveil accepted them as his own and raised them accordingly.

The Knight campaign begins with King Leo being, as tradition demands, old and frail. Isolde has been abducted by the Warlocks of the Erebyd Isles, and Cedric, the eldest of the egg-born siblings, sets out to find her, leaving the small kingdom in the care of his younger brother Edmund.

Gameplay. Knights are a Might faction, equally proficient in attack and defense but considerably weaker in magic. Knight gameplay revolves around their traditionally high troop morale and strong hero leadership, as well as an extensive Enlightenment skill tree. This skill increases resistance to magical attacks, boosts damage against undead and demons, and allows players to enhance armor, war machines, and the ammunition capacity of ranged units in unique ways.

LINEUP

1.0. Peasant

Concept & Design. When I was younger, I really disliked the Peasants in Heroes II. Weak, ridiculous, and utterly out of place with their drab appearance amid the splendid, swashbuckling parade of plumes and capes that made up the Knight army.

These days, I've grown rather fond of the fellows, especially since they've become something of a meme within the series.

My Peasants are plump, rosy-cheeked, and quite fashionable, sporting linen coifs beneath their hats — a look particularly popular among historical reenactors and role-playing enthusiasts.

Besides, I was absolutely dying to give someone a goedendag. Such a wonderful weapon, yet so rarely seen in games. And then, lo and behold, the Peasants came along.

Gameplay. Unlike their counterparts in Olden Era, my Peasants are still rather weak individually, but they make up for it in numbers. Their abilities are: Mob Mentality (Peasants automatically attack the nearest enemy stack whenever another allied stack attacks it) and Taxes (every recruited Peasant generates 10 gold per day. Well, maybe 5. But definitely not 1! Game balance has never been my strong suit).

2.0. Arbalester

Concept & Design. When designing the second-tier ranged unit, I based its appearance on the most recognizable (though certainly not the only) depiction of a Genoese crossbowman: a kettle hat, a brigandine worn over mail, and, most importantly, a pavise strapped to his back!

Fun fact: this Arbalester design is actually quite old. I drew the first sketch back in 2015, when my friend and I were trying to develop a computer game based on the rules of the board game Cyclades, but set in the European Renaissance.

Gameplay. I wanted the Arbalesters to be the first unit to showcase the faction's Enlightenment mechanic. Upon upgrading them, players can choose between a second shot per turn and flaming bolts that deal additional fire damage and ignite plant-based obstacles on the battlefield. But the biggest innovation is the pavise! Thanks to the enormous shield on their backs, Arbalesters take only half damage from attacks coming from behind.

3.0. Halberdier

Concept & Design. With the Halberdiers, I always wanted to combine two of the most flamboyant and extravagantly dressed archetypes in European military history: the German Landsknecht and the Swiss Guard.

In the end, the Landsknecht influence turned out to be considerably stronger, but I rather like the resulting plumpness and magnificent mustaches.

Gameplay. As usual, Halberdiers can attack enemies from one tile away, keeping their opponents at a distance. They also possess the Hold the Line! ability, which increases the morale of all friendly stacks occupying adjacent tiles.

4.0. Monk

Concept & Design. In my imagination, the Knight faction desperately needed a second ranged unit.

I had absolutely no desire to introduce fanatical, magic-wielding clerics here. On the other hand, I've always loved the archetype of the cheerful, boisterous monk, like Friar Tuck from the Robin Hood stories or Friar Jean from Rabelais' Gargantua and Pantagruel.

Given the more engineering-oriented, down-to-earth nature of my human faction, I eventually decided that the Knights' fourth-tier unit ought to wield firearms.

And so I imagined a monastery surrounded by vineyards, where warrior monks spend their time grinding gunpowder down in the cellars, preparing ammunition for their hand mortars.

Initially, I wanted to call the unit a Prelateer, a portmanteau of prelate and musketeer. A rather clumsy invention, so in the interest of clarity, I eventually decided to simply stick with Monks.

Gameplay. Thanks to the sheer power of their handheld bombards, Monks suffer no ranged damage penalty and can blast their enemies with shameless efficiency at any distance. Upon upgrading, they gain a damage bonus when making ranged attacks against enemy war machines and tents. And since they are still monks, after all, they can also Heal the last surviving creature in a friendly stack.

5.0. Swan Lady

Concept & Design. I wanted to turn the classic Castle Swordsman archetype into a female warrior (Ubisoft apparently had the same idea when developing Heroes VII). Three major inspirations kept circling in my head: the Lady of the Lake from Arthurian legend, whose hand emerges from the water to offer Excalibur; Saber from the Fate anime franchise (if you look at the old pencil sketches in the second-to-last image, you'll notice that the earliest design resembled Saber much more closely); and the legend of Lohengrin, the Knight of the Swan. The result of weaving these ideas together is what you see before you.

Gameplay. Swan Ladies attack twice per turn, with their second strike occurring after the enemy's retaliation. They also block 25% of incoming non-magical ranged damage with their shields and deal increased damage to undead and demons thanks to the faction's Enlightenment ability.

6.0. Cavalier

Concept & Design. Drawing the cavalry was by far the most difficult and time-consuming part of the whole lineup.

I went through countless references of tournament knight armor and, for some inexplicable reason, ended up choosing the most elaborately decorated and richly inlaid examples I could find.

But it was fun though.

Gameplay. As usual, Cavaliers are exceptionally fast and possess the Jousting Bonus (+5% damage for every tile traveled before attacking).

Their lance strikes also ignore 25% of the enemy's defense.

7.0. Archangel

Concept & Design. The only flying and mythical creature in the Castle lineup is, of course, the Archangel.

Well not exactly mythical, of course. It is by no means a creature of divine origin, but rather a thoroughly scientific creation: basically an AI (if I may be so bold as to use the term!) developed by the Guardians.

I borrowed the Archangel's appearance and attire directly from Luca Giordano's painting The Fall of the Rebel Angels, but armed it with a Heroes III-style flamberge – a sword with a wavy blade, of the kind still carried by the Vatican's Swiss Guard. Since we're dealing with a flaming sword, why not make it flaming in every possible sense?

Gameplay. Mechanically-wise, Archangels behave exactly as supernatural champions of goodness and light should (they even wear red capes!): they resurrect fallen allies, deal additional fire damage with their attacks, are immune to all negative effects, and are especially effective against demons.

Take a look at some early doodles from different times at the end of the gallery, and the whole lineup.

Magic in Bricks

TLDR; Ive been researching HoMM3 lore, and can’t find explanation to what it is we see behind steel bars of the fortification sprite in the town (screenshots added). What do YOU think is there?

EDIT2:

It is most similar to other portals in the game (Example), and Inferno is know for teleportaction and summoning powers. So a hellish portal is the simplest explanations!

EDIT1:

Seem most of us agree that it is some kind of power source. This makes sense looking at in-game Inferno powers (like Town Gate and Devil‘s teleportation) but also the HoMM Kreegan lore and their extra terrestrial origins where the explanation relies on advanced technology, and thus requires power. So what could it be?

* “Fallen” or imprisoned, biblically accurate angel. Tortured perhaps, to harness its power. A bit of horror, but still magical, creative, “fantasy” way of framing the source of power. My new head canon.

* Wormhole generator (as seen in movie Contact). The idea here is that inferno units come from remote corners of universe (as they are not native to Enroth) so they are “summoned“ via this device. It’s just another portal. Would make sense why it’s not there before you build the citadel, which of course increases unit production!

* Just your regular infernal power generator (flux generator, fission/fusion reactor, etc.), to keep them devils nice and warm! :)

Other group of people (like myself!) who used to play at super low resolution had their imagination offer more… interesting explanations:

* dragon or octopus

* maw of a frog, clam, salamander, or other demonic creature

* Hula Hoop or a skipping rope for Efreets:)

OriginalText:

There are many captivating elements in homm3, many of which have fascinating lore. One that has always been a mystery to me, is the double-spinning-shiny-thing behind the steel bars of Inferno’s fortification.

When playing this game 20 years ago, I thought I was looking at a dragon, as it looked to me like movement of wings. Then after LoTR movies, I started imagining it to be an Infernal artefact, akin to the Ring of Power. Some powerful, concentrated evil poured into these spinning wheels that only great Infernal smiths could forge…

and as with any head-canon I didn’t question it. Then recently I stumbled upon ancient collection of HoMM III lore, as I was investigating the Forge faction. I then went a rabbit hole discovering that Angels are robots, Devils are Kreegans (an evil super advanced race which wages war and burns all resources they find, and the reason why Enroth has been disconnected from Ancients). There is more, but in essence “Devils“ teleport because of advanced technology. I guess Town Gate is that technology, but for whole armies.

this made me wonder: what is that infernal machinery/spinning wheel/evil ring by the game’s lore, or others’ head canon?

I scoured the internet and found NOTHING. No one has ever been curious about it. No one has spoken about it.

Have I missed something? Do you have head canon for it? What is it for you?

I am very curious!

See this brand new article from gamespot:

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/3do-cuts-new-world-computing-staff/1100-2861387/

I've recently been playing Broken Alliance as Blue. I've constantly had to restart the game because every single time (except when they play Warlock or Wizard), the AI gets T6 unit building by week 1 and spawns far more of the units then I could ever afford.
The closest I got, when I was playing on Impossible, with a Might hero, is trying to rush the enemy castle with a (temporarily) superior army by the end of week 1. I miss 1 exact movement from getting the empty castle, and during the new Week, they have 4 bone dragons waiting for me. With Warlock AI it's Minotaur kings and Hydras. With Sorceress it's phoenixes. How the hell can AI afford all of those things, units, stuff, without cheating resources? Do they start with 20k+ gold and 20 of every resource? Not to mention, every single time the enemy castle has all the 2 turret upgrades and a moat built - how the hell can they reach T6 units with all of these things built?

And not to mention all the other factions showing up with T6 units during the 2nd week, while you can barely get out trolls by the same time (and cannot even afford them).

The only thing I can come up with is - reroll the map until you get crazy lucky with unit spawns (peasants, dwarfs), straight up rush the enemy castle with your starting army, and try to take it before the end of 1st week. But even then, it's RNG upon RNG. And winning against even plain Minotaurs or hydras in the city is a stretch.

I get that fheroes2 is supposed to have a more competent AI, but that combined with the resource advantage can sometimes make the enemies feel impossible to beat, without intentional cheesing or abusing the AI weaknesses (the quirks it sometimes has). It'd be better to either reduce the amount of resources the AI starts with or intentionally slow down the speed it tiers up units?? Like making them unable to tier up to T6 units during the 1st or 2nd week (even if they have the resources)? And being able to toggle it on/off on the map editor?

Still remember 1 game where purple shows up with several Titans by week 3. Making the AI more capable doesn't mean they should be literally impossible even for veterans (and having to hope that the AI bugs out and leaves his city empty)..

As a Teal player, you can get Tome of Water artifact on the first day. Tome of Water gives the hero knowledge of all Water Magic spells.

The event with the artifact is not visible even in the map editor.
If you go behind the Freelancer's guild on the central island, an event triggers where you get a Tome of Water. Thanks to Reddit user ApplePie.

To the Brazilians and Portuguese, I have not forgotten about you. Especially my friends in Porto Allegre. Made a new font and one of your countrymen has offered to improve the machine translation.

Indygier did a very high quality Polish translation (so I've been told) and spotted a lot of bugs, most of which have been fixed.

Download it free here: https://firsthomm.com/

I've been doing testing of campaign playthroughs as livestreams on youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/@firsthomm I'll be testing out the new campaign "The Spirit World" to see if my weird victory conditions work.

For everyone else, many bug fixes on animation, the campaign game has been tested more fully, and improvements to the Spirit World campaign to now make it playable.

2026-10-21 Release Notes:

*12 languages supported! added BR - Brazillian Portuguese to languages - adding new font and machine translation, no buttons - they remain in English.

*fixed campaign game gateway assigned to player

*improved PL translation - thanks to Indiger

*removed hero faction banner for hero on horseback art mod (bug reported by Indiger)

*revert to normal hydra art if a shipyard is present in castle (bug reported by Indiger). The castle construction workers have some swamp reclamation work to do to make a shipyard.

*fixed missing buttons and screens for FR,DE,PL,RU (cost per troop, hiscore buttons, hero dismiss, restart scenario, campaign screen, campaign buttons, kingdom overview screen)

*fixed a few missing translation keys (tough,impossible maps, luck and morale modifiers, select info hover text, quikinfo hero stats)

*fixed some rendering bugs where L1 tiles were clearing the L2 tiles obscuring them (chests behind castles)

*fixed routing to allow hero to collect treasures behind castles

*fixed victory conditions in Spirit World to handle the shipwreck dual tile event structure

*updated Spirit World campagin maps to have better creature assignments, minor map bugs

I have two problems with HoMM5: 1) no widescreen support 2) too much Monotype Corsiva. Could not google up any reliable fixes, so I wrote my own mod.

The mod does this for base game and HoF:

• Widescreen UI with no stretching
• Fullscreen/windowed checkbox in the settings

For base game, HoF and ToE there are also options to

• Remove fade to black on start and remove intro vids
• Replace the font with Palatino for non-header text

The mod works via DLL hook with proxy d8input.dll and an extra .pak archive generated by installation utility from games files. So no game files are modified on disk.

Palatino required some custom tuning for letter spacing. Tested on 4K, 2K, 1080p.

GOG, Steam and Heroes 5.5 are supported.

The mod currently is absolutely not peer tested yet. Any feedback is appreciated.

Download link: https://github.com/nvzoll/homm5-widescreen-patch/releases/download/v0.4.1/homm5-widescreen-patch.zip