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6.  Tips on Single Scenarios

I generally like to set my difficulties to
Easy/Normal, depending on the level, and for computer intelligence, I usually set it at genius.  I believe the higher intelligence of a computer, the more area of the map the computer can see.  I believe at the genius level, the computer can pretty much see the whole map at the very beginning!  This is tolerable, but not a necessary cheat on the computer part.  I also like to set the King of the Hill option to true.
My logic for this is would you rather fight 3 computers with one castle each (producing weaker/spreadout units) or would you rather have one computer with 3 castles (producing mass/powerful units)?  With this option on, it might be a little harder in the beginning, but nothing compares to the end when you're fighting one powerful computer opponent.

For beginners, you might want to try EASY/Dumb setting just to get a feel of how the AI works.

Badlands - Very easy to win.  Just make sure you start off at the upper right area of the map.  I tried it at the highest settings for everything and won easily with a Dragon rating.  The trick is to get enough money in the beginning to get a
Barbarian hero.  Have this hero go into the desert at the right side of the map.  When you go there, you should be able to pick up a lot of free resource, artifacts, gold, 2 towns, and 3 genie lamps.  There's one undefended lamp in the middle/right of the desert, and once you start with the genies, most of the foes will fall in the desert.  With the genies from these lamps, you can pretty much claim all the desert.  After this happens, the hero is highly experienced enough to conquer the other opponents easily.

Jolly Roger - Normal.  I believe one of the computer opponent actually starts off with a fully blown Warlock castle so don't be surprised to see dragons marching your way on the first week.  The trick is to construct a boat and go to the desert isles at the N, S, E, W, NW, NE,
SW, SE corner of the map where each contains an unguarded genie lamp.  Be sure to return these
FAST to a guarding hero to fight off the dragons.  Once you fight off the dragon stack, get the castle QUICK and you pretty much have the game when you get the full blown warlock castle.


*** I might add more, but with the release of a map editor and random map generator, it will be hard for me to keep all the different scenarios in this FAQ.

7.  Add-ons/News

There are no map editors or any kind out there right now (see Section 8. Gripes/Suggestions).

I just received new information from a representative (Clay) of New World Computing about a map editor.  A random map generator AND a map editor will be available for the Windows
`95 version of the Heroes of Might and Magic (see below).  For DOS users, an upgrade is currently being developed right now (but not promised) that will include the map editor, but
I'm not sure if it will include the random map generator.  More information will be provided here as I receive more details.

There's a saved game editor floating out there by Gary Blatt, and I believe it can be located at the following web site: http://rampages.onramp.net/~gbconslt.

There's also a universal saved game editor by
Overkill/Mortuai that will edit scored, creature types in an army, resource, gold, spells, artifacts.  It can be located at hhtp://www.ici.net/customers/overkill/overkill.h tm under the "UGE Page" option at the home page.

*** Windows 95 Version and Heroes of Might and
Magic II! ***

Here's posting I grabbed from George Ruof of New
World Computing about the Windows `95 version and HoMM 2:

"Heroes for Win95 will basically be the same game but it will be a native 32 bit Windows 95 app using DirectDraw.  The networking and modem code will be unchanged to maintain compatibility between the DOS and Win95."

Additional information:
"The Win95 version should be out around the middle of February.  It includes more scenarios, a scenario editor/random generator, CD-Audio soundtrack (yeah!!!), and the original King's
Bounty game"!!!

"We are planning for Heroes 2 which we would like to ship for next Christmas.  The details are still in the early planning stages, but it will be based on the existing Heroes engine.  I would like to support both IPX & TCP/IP for networking, but we're still not sure if we will be able to.  Right now the DirectPlay component of Microsoft's game SDK seems fairly incomplete, but hopefully by next year it will be updated and prove to be a good networking solution.  If not, we'll see what happens. :)  I will definitely argue for Internet play every day (or so) until it ships."

8.  Gripes/Suggestions.

Gripes

The biggest gripe many people have is the 400+ megs of digitized music/sound on the CD that plays continuously (when you have the music turned on).  So the CD-ROM drive is constantly reading/playing these digitized files from the drive.  EVERYBODY I know eventually ended up turning the music off, and some people I know even turn the sound off.  I contacted New World
Computing and they said it's the only way to can "copy protect" the CD.  If you spend 3-4 hours on a scenario, that means the CD-ROM drive is constantly spinning/reading for the 3-4 hours.
This is not as simple as playing a music CD because the computer actually has to play these wave files and take up valuable system resource.
So most of us consumers ended up suffering with the lack of music which other new games are taking advantage of the small midi files and abundance of wave table sound cards out there to provide a great gaming atmosphere.  I know for a fact that there's a pirated copy out there that doesn't require the CD-ROM and doesn't have the
400 me baggage so their copy-protection attempts are kinda futile.  CD-ROMs can also be replicated for less than $7 now.  They should at most check to see if the correct CD-ROM is in the drive (a la Warcraft 2) for copy protection.

The second gripe is the lack of map/scenario editor.  New World has one in-house that they said we wouldn't want the way they have it now, but I think anything is better than nothing.  At least release the specs so somebody can work on it.  The last I heard they are working on a map editor to be bundled with the Windows 95 version.  I hope we won't have to pay for the editor alone.  (see Section #6 for great news on this topic)

This great game however is relatively bug free.
Some people have modem problems with it but that's few.  Most of the people were able to run it under Windows `95.  One minor bug is when your hero is in a boat, don't use the Town Gate spell or else you will end up with a boat in front of a castle with the hero stuck in it.

One person on the net said it kept crashing but the game works fine now after he scandisk or re- formatted his hd partition.

Suggestions

Suggestions for patch/upgrade/HoMM 2:

* Simultaneous damage.  When 2 creatures come face to face, they should do simultaneous damages to eachother.  It's hard to imagine a pack of Griffin would just sit there and wait for a pack of wolves to maw it until it's their turn.

* Hero bonuses should apply against spells.
Right now, a +50 defense troll can still be killed by a 50-point lightning.

* Add toggle on/off for the ability of a monster stack to join your hero group.

* Increase in stats for native monsters depending on the type of terrain.  (ie, phoenix should not fight too well in the snow/tundra)

* Fatigue-Damage ratio for monsters.  How many times can those dwarves swing those axes at full strength/damage?

* Health-Damage ratio for monsters.  Wow, that unicorn can still do full damage even if it only has 1 life point left.  I'm not sure how to integrate this since the monsters are grouped into one type, not individuals.

* Terrain Bonuses - Wow, that goblin has no problem walking on that molten lava!  And the fire-breathing dragon is having no problem with the tundra!

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