fheroes2: Resurrection

[sirDranik]

Good day, fans, knights and trolls of Heroes of Might and Magic 2!

We're pleased to announce that open source project Free Heroes of Might and Magic II has just got a new release - 0.8 version with a plenty of delightful changes! Here is a short list of them:

• - Major rework of battle animations including units, spells and heroes
  - Implementation of color cycling to animate water/lava surfaces, adventure map objects and units
  - Refining UI including scaling, responsiveness, alignment and content (both text and sprites)
  - Implementation of missing spell effects such as Lightning, Armageddon, Death Wave as well as fixing many others
  - Update render engine and added SDL 2 optimizations; better fullscreen and high resolution support
  - Numerous game logic fixes including combat, spells, map, AI and pathfinding
  - Improvement of music support and sound mapping, updated MIDI converter
  - Add SMK video support
  - Over 200 bugs fixed since 0.7 release

The original fheroes2 project was dead for many years while this project is significantly new (~11 months). However, despite of the short period of time the team made a vast amount of work trying to put the project to the right direction.



The project's growing and there's a lot of work to be done, so it needs your support as players as well as some help from development and design/modding side! We're out of designers for now but we need them in order to at least fix problems with the original game graphics.

We also on a brainstorming stage for the future add-on once we fully replicate the game.

[sirDranik]

Dear players and fans of Heroes of Might and Magic II.

We're pleased to announce a new release of fheroes2 - 0.8.1 version. We decided to make an intermediate version as we made a huge rework on graphics: we developed a new rendering engine which fixes all major graphical issues such as incorrect Air Elemental or Resurrection Spell drawings, shadows and fonts.

0.8 version (before):

0.8.1 version (now):

0.8 version (before):

0.8.1 version (now):


We also fixed more than 50 bugs for this release.

We hope that you'd enjoy it!

[Pol]

Congratulations sirDranik!

The second is whimsical, it's only lighter?

[sirDranik]

If you refer to the second pair of screenshots of map then shadows might have become lighter but not only. It depends on ground plus shadows are not that sharp as in the original game: a gradual change of shadow, more precisely. Plus some defect of ground objects are fixed too (look at top-left corner of the image, there are 3 stones in snow. In 0.8 you can notice few independant dark pixels below one of the stone while 0.8.1 doesn't have such defects). Overall 0.8.1 makes tiny adjustements in drawings, which you can't notice immediately but they make overall game look nicer.

[sirDranik]

Greeting, players and fans of Heroes of Might and Magic II!

We're happy to announce a fresh release of fheroes2 - 0.8.2 version . This is an intermediate release towards 0.9 version which contains some not very noticeable but very important changes: we finally released a brand new AI, polished many-many UI issues, change the structure of maps, added deeper support of campaign and made user friendly interface for external music which is present in full version of the game. Positive moral

Now movement of heroes of the map is delightfully smooth as in the original game. Also take a look of fixed UI elements in the battle (take a look at extra surrounding shadows of monsters and truncated shadow of Phoenix in 0.8.1 version):

0.8.1:


0.8.2:


We also fixed more than 100 bugs for this release.

We hope that you'd like our project even more!

Fheroes2 team

[sirDranik]

Dear fans and players of Heroes of Might and Magic II!

We're excited to announce a new release of fheroes2 - 0.8.3 version. This is an intermediate release just before 0.9 version with many interesting changes.
One of them is that AI became even smarter: it properly manipulates castle construction, monster and hero recruitment, creates a complex and optimized routes over map to visit needed objects, fights monsters and collect items on the way.
Also we improved rendering speed of the world map by more than 20%, fixed drawings in castles (the original game draws them improperly), fixed well-known War Troll's stone and Cavalry sprites (also incorrect in the original game) and made many other changes.
Have a look at screenshots from the original game and our project (notice how Tavern or Hut for example are rendered).







As usual we also fixed more than 100 bugs for this release.
We hope, you like the changes in fheroes2 made the past months!

fHeroes2 team.

[sirDranik]

Good day/evening/morning, fans of Heroes of Might and Magic 2!

We're very excited to reveal a new release of fheroes2 - 0.8.4 version just before Christmas and New Year holidays! The team decided to split 0.9 release and give you an opportunity to enjoy the better game once we polish few more things before major 0.9 release. For this release we made main focus on game's logic and mechanics and fixed many places in the game: scrollbars, unit stack separation by keyboard, UI dialog elements and interaction with objects on maps. More importantly, we improve game's performance on low-profile devices and fixed the issue with full screen for SDL 2 builds. As usual here is a set of screenshots for visual changes of the game:
- Freeman's Foundry (notice that the original game does not show the third monster)
0.8.3 version (before):

0.8.4 version (now):

- Monster's small icons (the original game has the same defects as before 0.8.4)
0.8.3 version (before):

0.8.4 version (now):


We also fixed over 100 bugs for this release.

Enjoy upcoming holidays and the game!

fHeroes2 team

[cjleeagain]

This is truly a labor of love. I don't know about the new AI, but most of the changes are so tiny that they are really about perfect polish. For example, I have played H2 for years and never even noticed that the phoenix's shadow was wrong.

I really wish someone could improve H7's AI. H2 is lovely, but it is really too cartoony and reminiscent of childhood.

Since this is a forum about a fantasy game, has anyone here ever read Grimms' Fairy Tales in their original? When I read these as an adult, it turns out that these kids' tales are actually quite grim and dark. It just forever demolished my idea of fairy tales.

I look back at H2 and it is all brightness and cutesy illustrations. No gory deaths. I feel nostalgia for that age of innocence, but also a sense of distance. I loved H2, but can't go back there anymore.

Sir Dranik and fHeroes2 team, I wish you all the best.

[sirDranik]

Thank you for this kind words!
We're working on this project every day. And we want this game shine. That's why we're trying to fix every pixel of this game. Also we're working on AI, so in future you won't be upset by easy wins against enemies
Each part of HoMM series is nice and bring it's own feelings to a player. So we want players feel maximum possible, this game can bring.

[sirDranik]

A really warm welcome, heroes of might and magic fans!
Astrologers proclaim Year of the Development.
fheroes2 version increased by +0.1!

We ought to tell you wonderful news: fheroes2 project has been upgraded to 0.9 version!

Over a year of enormous development's passed and the project is non-stop reaching its ultimate goal!
Animation and rendering in fheroes2 is really close to the original game (and even better in some places!) thanks to the new rendering engine.
fheroes2 team made a fantastic work on game's optimization! After thousands of source code lines being rewritten and hundreds of bugs being fixed fheroes2 engine became much faster on all supported platforms. The game is now by 50% faster and contains mind-blowing smooth animation. This is not everything at all what the team made for you.
0.9 release is a core milestone in the project development as we created a brand new artificial intelligence (AI). Now players can face a worthy opponent, not an apathetic visitor of wells and fountains. However, there is still a work to do to bring AI to the level of making the life of true HoMM fans incredibly difficult

Check the left side of the screenshot (0.8 version) where AI allies haven't explored much of territory in one month and the majority of heroes are still wandering within base location. While on the right side (0.9 version) AI allies explored much more territory and red player even managed to capture several towns!


You might remember that in the previous release we realized an intuitive and comfortable monster stack manipulation using Alt, Ctrl and Shift key shortcuts. Recollect how frustrating it was to do monster separation in the original game.

We also working on game interface enhancements. We don't want players to feel that they're playing in outdated game but enjoy the original product with suitable and comfortable approaches, familiar for every HoMM series fan. The team implemented a highlighted areas for mass spells and added a new window for "Town Portal" with its own proper town list and suitable styles for "good" and "evil" interfaces.

Spell area also shows, if any creatures won't be affected by the spell for some reasons


In the original game "town portal" spell window even didn't have a gray list background for "evil" interface, and used a list in brown colors from "good" interface


Follow us! We have many-many changes for 2021 which we hope Heroes of Might and Magic 2 fans will like.

[cjleeagain]

Since you have been working on the AI at 0.9, may I suggest doing something further about the Ai before 1.0 launch?

Traditionally, difficulty has been determined by starting resources. I would personally prefer to start on an even playing field, except with a smarter opponent.

Starting resources are not important and don't contribute to actual difficulty if it is a rich map. Since you can only build at a fixed pace.

I also feel that determining difficulty via size of stack (eg 1000 giants) is questionable. Someone with teleport, ranged shooter with infinite shots, and slow, will have a field day getting more experience on a 'difficult' map where there are extra huge stacks to gain experience from.

In contrast, your hero can't gain much experience from fighting a smart opponent with a small army. But the battle will be harder and the losses more severe.

[sirDranik]

Thanks for your feedback, @cjleeagain!
AI is still in work and our team will be enhancing its logic up to 1.0 and even further!
Regarding starting resources: at the majority of map they can accelerate the development on first weeks, which is quite substantial for some fractions.
So number of starting resources can change the deal. Sure, richness of maps affects this aspect, but this is about map creator concept. As well as placing excessive size creatures stacks.
You know, the original difficulty adjustment was implemented through giving AI extra resources, extra army for hiring etc.
In our project we want AI to be more competitive because of being more smart, than more "cheating". That's why current AI has all the same bonuses, hero has. AI should work well within the same conditions.
Anyway, I like your passion of bringing new ideas to implement.
You can always discuss with dev team in our official discord channel: https://discord.gg/xF85vbZ , or create discussion in our main page: https://github.com/ihhub/fheroes2

[sirDranik]

Greetings, might and magic fans!

Just recently we released previous update and now we're presenting a new version of fheroes2 project! Every month the game engine becomes better, faster and higher quality!
You can have a chance to try 0.9.1 release where our unstoppable team fixed a lot of issues and added something new to the game:
- we added an option of instant battle where you can finally skip boring and extremely easy battles saving your time

(You can choose between Manual, Instant Battle or Instant battle without spellcasting to save your mana.)


- window resizing on SDL 2 was included in the release allowing users to choose any resolution and still play in a windowed mode
- AI has become even more craftier and smarter! Be ready to face it on the map and during battles!
- finally we added "View World" feature which was demanded by many players. There are some polish actions required but you can fully use the feature without issues

(Related spells will be available soon...)


- the team completed implementation of fast unit splitting with mouse: now you can master a new way and immediately sort all your troops with just few clicks

(Using right mouse button you can easily split your troops into multiple stacks)


- A partial continuation of campaign was also added into the release where you can test your skills in first few scenarios of the original campaigns. Please keep in mind that the project is still in active development so the full campaign support will be surely added upon 1.0 release.
In this month our squad fixed more than 50 bugs and rewrote a lot of source code to optimize the game and fix any potential issues.

Support your favorite strategy game! Spread the word about us to your friends, with whom you played many days together. The more people know about the project the faster the day comes when we all can dive into an immersive world of Heroes of Might and Magic 2!

fheroes2 team

[Pol]

This looks like a milestone

[sirDranik]

True!
Fheroes2 project is on its way to 1.0 release.

[Pol]

Featured in Short News 21' March 12. It's milestone on itw own, doesn't matter that is not 1.0. 1.0 is being overestimated anyway!

[sirDranik]

Thanks a lot for promotion of our project, @Pol!
I hope this would help more people to know about fHeroes2 project.

[sirDranik]

Greetings, dear heroes of might and magic fans!

The first month of spring was marked by the enormous enthusiasm of our heroic team.

And here's 0.9.2 release!

The team finally added support of view type spells - View Heroes/Towns/Artifacts/Resources/Mines/All. From now on all spells from the original game are fully supported by fheroes2!


On top of this we fixed many issues with other spells such as Hypnotize, Blind or Berserk.

In the newest version you could encounter large obstacles in battles which were missing before due to incorrect implementation.


Also a huge work was done for AI. Now your opponent won't hesitate to use some powerful mass spells, blind your monsters or just destroy everything with a single lightning shot or with annihilating Armageddon! Moreover, AI takes an advantage of 2-hex attacking creatures and it will make sure to hit as many foes as possible.

In previous release we added an option of instant battle. We decided to improve it, as a result the team added a Restart button. A player who is unhappy with instant battle results can hit the button and replay the battle manually.


fheroes2 project is evolving. Every month we spend a lot of time improving code quality. We add new gameplay elements. Fixing hundreds of bugs. Recently we added a full support of the project on PlayStation Vita. In the future we are going to expand the range of devices on which you could run and enjoy Heroes of Might and Magic II!

Every month the project is closer to its final goal and we hope that you like the result of our work.

fHeroes2 Resurrection team.

[sirDranik]

Greetings, ladies and gentlemen!

Another month and another release! fheroes2 has been updated to 0.9.3 version!

We have many things to share with Heroes of Might and Magic II players. We hope, you're aware that our work is still going with a full force.

In the last month we finally fixed one of the biggest visible issues: shadows around heroes on the World map. Previously shadows were rendered with unknown logic, even the same one multiple times. But now rendering looks as good as possible!

Also we added few more things making the game interface more friendly and pleasant to use. We brought to life buttons for fast exchange of armies and artifacts in hero meeting dialog.


On top of this we made changes in Lich shooting attack. Now the area of the attack is visible helping players to perform the attack in known manner without any guesses.


A huge improvement was added to fheroes2: we added support of the original languages of the game: Polish, French, German and Russian!
And finally we almost finished the support of "The Succession Wars" campaigns, including bonuses and special victory conditions.


As usual our team spent enormous efforts for code quality as well fixed more than 80 bugs!
We hope, you enjoy the growing quality of fheroes2 project!

fHeroes2 Resurrection team.

[Pol]

Ha, ha. Yes, I love it. Featured in news.

The shadows are interesting subject, there I have one for you back. :p



Resolution picker is a splendid thing. Do you plan also to implement any filter selection? HDMod is having these, like OpenGL by Verok, None (SmoothSal x2,xBRX x2, x3, x4) + Hermite (Linear, Cubic, Lanczos,)