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The Unofficial
Heroes of Might and Magic Two
Frequently Asked Questions version 2.2
First published: November 20th 1996 Last updated: May 2nd 1997
Table of Contents
1.....Terms  2.....Introduction  3.....General Questions
4.....Multi-player Sessions 5.....Bugs and other related problems
6.....The Game 7.....The map editor 8.....Gimme more! 9.....Credits
A.....Artifacts
1 Terms
1.1 Autorun: A feature included with Win95 that allows cd rom programs to start automatically after loading.
1.2 Hi Color: A 15 bit color SVGA color mode. It displays between 32k and 65k colors depending on your video card.
1.3 HOMM: Heroes of Might and Magic
1.4 IRC: Internet Relay chat
1.5 IPX: A network protocol commonly used on local area networks.
1.6 NWC: New World Computing - The creators of HOMM II and the entire
Might and Magic line.
1.7 TCP/IP: The protocol used for the internet.
1.8 True color: A 24 bit color mode that displays 16 million colors.
1.9 Patch: A modification of the program released by the company that created the program.
2.0 Hack: A modification of the program released by someone else besides the company that created the program.
2 Introduction
2.1 What is HOMM II? -Heroes of Might and Magic II is the sequel to
Heroes of Might and Magic which is itself a sequel of the game King's
Bounty. HOMM II, like its ancestors, is a fantasy based strategy game of war and resource management. The characters, monsters, and settings are loosely based the Might and Magic universe established in the five role playing games of the same name. The game is played out in turns not real time. Most games take less that four hours to play.
2.2 So is HOMM II like .......? -There are many turn based strategy games that appear similar to HOMM II. Managing the castles feels a lot like Civilization. Moving the Heroes around feels like Master of
Magic. Combat feels like Master of Orion and Panzer General. In truth, there is no game like Heroes of Might and Magic II. Well, except for
Heroes of Might and Magic I.
2.3 What are the differences between HOMM I and HOMM II?  -There were many improvements. New to HOMM II were:

-Two new character classes: Necromancer and Wizard -12 New
Monsters -Upgrade able dwellings that draw more powerful troops. -New types of buildings: A trading post to trade for needed resources, -A larger battle area. -Castles' defenses can be upgraded. -A campaign mode were one mission will effect the next  -You can hire captains to defend towns and castles instead of taking up a valuable hero.
-Heroes have secondary skills. -Slower units like Dwarves move faster and thus are more usable. -The graphics have been updated with hand painted computer models. -Winning isn't always dependent on destroying all other players. -IPX and TCP/IP protocols are now supported. -Opera
Music.
2.4 What is the appeal of HOMM II? -Beauty is often hard to define.
Some people like the strategy element, the resource management, the beautiful graphics and music, the fantasy setting, the rock solid code, and/or the turn based nature of the game. I'm sure those aren't all the reasons, but you get the picture.
2.5 What are the system requirements?  -DOS: 486/66 or higher, 8 megs of ram, and 2x cdrom  That being said, some people have been running
The Dos version HOMM II on 486 sx 25s and are happy with it. -Win95
486/66 or higher, 8 megs of ram (I would say 16) and 2x cdrom  Both the Dos and Win95 versions of the game will run on a 386 sx16 with 8 megs of ram. In fact testing was done on a 386 sx25 system. However it is reported that it was painful.
-Mac: 68030 or Power mac, 8 megs of ram, 2x cdrom, and system 7.
2.6 Can I run HOMM II under Win NT?  -Yes. Version 4.0 of NT workstation supports the DirectX drivers needed to run HOMM II. It is recommended that you have at lest 32 megs of ram.
2.7 Is there a demo and if so, where is it?  - Yes!. It is 27 megs and available for download from http://www.nwcomputing.com/heroes2/h2demo.html. Also it will probably be available on all the major CD magazines such as PC Gamer and
Computer Gaming World.
2.8 Where can I buy HOMM II? -HOMM II should be available anywhere you find new PC games. It comes in four packages. Package one is priced $39.95 US and comes with the Dos and Win95 version of HOMM II
Some have seen it as low as $29.95 at places like Best Buys. Package two is priced $44.95 US and comes with the Dos and Win95 version of
HOMM II and the Dos version of HOMM I. Package three comes with HOMM
II, HOMM I, and the Might and Magic trilogy. No word on the price of package three. Package four is the mac version and  it sells for
$39.95.
2.9 Should I buy HOMM II? -Yes. Its really a great game.
3 General Questions
3.1 Is it my imagination but isn't HOMM II a lot harder than HOMM I?
-Yes. It appears that not only the computer players are getting advantages that the human player doesn't, but the maps are designed to favor the computer players. Also, some of the scenarios appear to have their level of  difficulty mislabeled.
3.2 That is all well and good but can you help me stop the computer players from kicking my butt? -I can not give you any sure fire tips.
I have lost more games that I have won. On top of that, this is a FAQ and not a strategy guide. I can give you  some observations that may help.
-At the beginning of the game, all players, computer and human, are about even. So expand quick and fast. As time marches on, the computer players appear to get special bonuses making them harder to kill later in the game. -Heroes from strongest to weakest: Warlock,
Wizard, Necromancer, Barbarian, knight, and Sorceress. -Computer players will almost always attack troops that fire first. So try to organize your slow/powerful troops next to your firing troops. -Gather resources as fast as you can. Sure can buy anything you need via the marketplace but you really need a steady supply of everything. -If all else fails, try posting to the newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic
3.3 What is this Might and Magic VI preview found in the game?
-At the beginning of the game, click on the glowing, unmarked door on the left and you'll see a series of sceen shots for NWC's next episode of the RPG series.
3.4 What language is the Opera music and where can I buy a CD of it?
-The opera in HOMM2 is in German. All the music, including the opera, is original works commissioned for the game and is only available on the game.
4 Multi-player Sessions
4.1 Hey! Where's chat?  - While in Battle or looking at the map, press F2. Hit enter to send and esc to abort. Also you can use [ or ] to change the chat color.
4.2 Is it just me, or does the Hot seat option favor the last player?
- Yes it does. The computer only shows the movement of computer players in the visible area of the last player. Thus the first players will not be able to see a computer hero invading his kingdom. You can even the odds by changing enemy speed to don't show. This also make for a faster game.
4.3 Can I run a network game with only one copy of HOMM II?  -Yes.
Install the game on the guest computers. The master computer is the only system that has to have the original cdrom in the drive. The guest computers will be unable to play CD music. Up to six players may play this way.
4.4 Where can I meet people to play HOMM II over the internet? -Check out IRC channel #HOMM2 and Holliane Holmes' HOMM II web page at http://www.swweb.net/~hholmes/heroes/homamii.html -Check out: http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Arcade/6470/
4.5 Why can't I do anything when other players are taking their turn?
I thought that a simultaneous turn option was going to be allowed?
-See section 5.2.
4.6 Can I play over the Internet using the Dos version of HOMM II?
-Yes. You'll need a program called Kali. SJG writes: "Reference www.kali.net for basic information. Basically, Kali is a program that tricks the computer into thinking your PPP/Slip connection is really an IPX network. Another program, based on the same principles as Kali, is Kahn. Kahn can be found at www.ladder.com/~nbright. Both are shareware, Kali is $20, Kahn is $15. This is for lifetime registration."
4.7 Why can't I type in a 12 digit IP address? -see section 5.5
4.8 Is it possible for two human players to join forces and share resources? -There is no team play option in HOMM II. However, emgreen@net-link.net has found a hack that will allow you to do this:
"You have to hex edit one of the included team maps, to make it editable in the Map editor.  Change offset 4 to 01 and then you can edit them. Then edit the map so that the team players  can both/all be human or computer. The only thing you have to worry about, is that if you  take a team members mine, any computer team members will start taking your resources, and  maybe attack you."
4.9 Can I play HOMM II over Mplayer? - Sure and here's Neal Spears to tell us how. "Ok, here is how you can play Heroes of Might & Magic II through Mplayer.
1) Go to www.mplayer.com and download their software, it is totally
FREE!
2) Once the software is downloaded and installed, launch Mplayer and go to the "Chat Lobby".
3) Here you can make a Room (Click on "Create Room"), call it whatever you want but it would probably be a good idea to put "HOMM2" somewhere in the title.  Once people join the room, you can chat (either VOICE or keyboard) and agree on a game.
4) Now, minimize Mplayer and go to the "Start" menu, select "run" and type "WINIPCFG".  This will give you your IP ADDRESS.  The only player that needs to do this is the host of the game.
5) Go back to Mplayer and tell the other players your IP adress, launch a game and select Multiplayer, network (TCP/IP), and "host" (if you are the host).  The other players then do the same thing and select "Join Game" at your IP address.
6) Now you can play!  Note that you can keep HoMM2 windowed and keep
Mplayer open in the background, therefore you can play HoMM2 over the
Net with Voice chat!  And ALL FOR FREE!!!
-While at the Mplayer web site, check out the "Big Board BBS", go to
"Open for suggestions" then "games" then "Play HoMM2 on Mplayer NOW!".
We can use this forum for discussing games, tips, etc and to set up times to play.
Hope to see you all there!"

5 Bugs and other related problems
5.1 The crest doesn't take me to the Kingdom Overview screen.  -This feature was changed. As the Kingdom Overview screen grew in complexity, it was causing confusion.
5.2 During multi player games, the game locks up and I'm unable to do anything till after the other player takes their turn.  - This isn't a bug, its a feature. The original HOMM performed the same way. HOMM II was originally was going to allow players to look over their castles and such while the other player was taking their turn. The designers couldn't figure out how to include this feature smoothly and fairly.
5.3 During combat, the game runs awfully slow. What's wrong?  - The cause of this problem is hard to track down. If your running Win 95 and met the minimum requirements here are some possible solutions:

-Add more ram. If your running the Win95 with 8 megs of ram, its going to be slow. -Turn your colors down to 256. Hi and True color modes eat processor time -Make sure your playing in full screen mode.

-For any version of HOMM II try:
-Turning the music off.  -Change the battle speed to fast.
5.4 Why does the autorun introduction screen pop up sometimes when the music changes?  - This is a Win 95 and cd rom hardware problem. Some cdroms seem to handle audio tracking "hicups" differently. Some will try to correct the problem, others will just drive right through causing audio breakup and others will reset from the index and search for the track again. The last method causes Win95 to think a new CD has been inserted and runs the autorun file again. If your CD rom does this, then the only option is to turn autorun off from your device manager. The higher number of auto tracks, the greater the chance this can happen. Since HOMM I and HOMM II have a large number of tracks, over 50, the chances are quite great.
5.5 I can only type in 11 digits for the IP address? -This is a real bug. Go to http;//www.nwcomputing.com to download the patch that will fix this problem.
5.6 Can I change my modem setting to a none standard IRQ In the Dos version of HOMM II? I could in HOMM. -It doesn't appear so but there may be a hack around this. I'll post any information I receive on this subject.
5.7 Why does the cd-audio keeps skipping and repeating? -No one is sure why this is happening. The skipping and repeating doesn't happen to everyone. The CD-audio code is different than HOMM I so the problem probably lies there. NWC may switch the code in HOMM II back to HOMM
I. Until such time, switch music from CD-audio to midi or just turn it off. If you use the Win95 version, read 5.8
5.8 The CD audio music repeats and breaks off or I hear nothing at all in the Win95 version. How can I fix it? -The problem is with your
DirectX drivers. Select add/remove programs under the control panel.
Select DirectX drivers and from there you must restore your old audio drivers. If that doesn't work, try selecting midi music from the HOMM
II configuration screen.
5.9 Why does junk appear where ever I click and how can I get rid of it? - This problem appears in the Win95 version. Its due to a conflict between your video drivers and DirectX. Try using the HOMM II color cursors. If that doesn't work, disable your video acceleration.
5.10 Hey! I won a battle and my computer rebooted. -Assuming you are using Win95, its a DirectX problem. Some video cards are not 100 compatible with DirectX3. Try downloading the latest version of
DirectX3 and the latest drivers for your video and sound cards. If it still doesn't work, try using the dos version.
5.11 The hour glass is on all the time. Why? -Its a DirectX problem.
Turn on the color cursors, or hit F4 to switch back and forth from window and full screen mode, or change the hour glass icon to a pointing icon.
5.12 Why does the editor keeps crashing when I add things? -This is one of the bugs the patch will fix. Basically you have added too many objects of one time and the editor breaks. Go to http://www.nwcomputing.com to download the patch that will fix this problem.