Project Ironfist

The aims here are high. Project Ironfist is all about easy modding, with help of LUA scripting, enhanced editor, new campaigns (but not yet with campaign editor), artifacts, spells, abilities, stats balance. Custom scripts in map are supported. To let them speak:

"Our maps feature elementals that split in two, enemies that get more powerful the longer you wait, and epic quests to unlock missing secrets. Try out our maps Last Stand and Sorrow's End! "

Also the modification brings a few gameplay tweaks:

• Hit-and-run tactics for heroes is no longer allowed because rehired heroes do not regain their movement points
• A new artifact: Pandora's Box. This artifact creates a random stack of level 1 creatures for the duration of each battle.
• A new spell - Awareness. When cast, Awareness reveals part of the map around the caster, similar to the Redwood Observatory
• And no "WAIT" button, ever. Discussions why, you can see here or here.

The Game Itself is running pleasantly well and if you loved traditional Heroes 2 interface, you will be home here. Though there are some minor changes, which just fit in nifty.

Played it on Windows 7 32bits Pro but haven't the same success with Windows 10 64bits Pro, none matter what. The program launched and started to eat CPU cycles but no screen came out. Tried "Windows 8 Compatibility mode", one core affinity, changing bass.dll library but no help. Even tried provided Full Screen fix in regedit, still it's looking to me like some weird graphical issue. Apparently I'm a minority here and you should be able to run it hassle-free.

Map Editor

The first thing which you see here is fullscreen mode, when you can easy add artifacts and units. Things here goes fast. Resolution is a bit lower compared to modern editors but the speed and easiness make it up. This is the sole best editor for Heroes II.

On the top on that, they have set of tools, to manipulate with bin, agg files, tilesets and so on. You can take a a look on them here. Some of them, were develeped by GrayFace. And you will hear his name in more of the following articles, as he's major M&M and HoMM tools developer.

Maps

Last Stand - demonstrating various scripting possibilites

Description: Lord Varuun is growing in strength. A mysterious hero wanders. With lots of special features, this will be the most interesting map you’ve ever played.

Over 30 new scripting calls, and 4 new triggers

Whether it’s changing a map object, summoning a creature mid battle, or programming a new event to occur on a map object, we have lots of new ways to make your Ironfist maps amazing.

Behemoth Path - showing you a new Cyber Faction in action

See below first scripting tutorial and Last Stand map trailer.

What you will need to run it:

• Heroes II. for Windows, like these from GoG
• Sometimes it can be necessary to disable fullscreen mode via regedit. Look for key:
  
  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SOFTWARE ->WOW6432Node ->New World Computing -> Heroes of Might and Magic 2 -> 1.0

  And change value for "Main Game Full Screen" to zero, in hexadecimal.

• It might be necessary to set "Windows 8 Compatibility" too.

What make this mod different is that in the beginning Darmani reverse engineered Heroes 2 code. Also not so long ago, they discovered a peculiar bug

"We at the Ironfist team just discovered a very nasty bug in the original game, and wanted to warn other players about it.

If your machine was booted more than 25 days ago, HoMM II will freeze for up to 600 hours whenever you pick up an object or defeat a monster."

We're going to be patching this bug in Ironfist, but if you're playing the original game and encounter this: restart your machine!

There it's with a full explanation

And I shouldn't forget that they are still looking for a fresh blood. So, if you are in mood for modding, don't hesitate and contact them.

wiki - with scripting and everyhing
Game Homepage - ironfi.st
Git, with a recent build.
Dedicated subforum - as a part of Forums of Enroth - "An Enroth diehard fan community"