~ Forums of Enroth ~
Would you like to react to this message? Create an account in a few clicks or log in to continue.

~ Forums of Enroth ~

The Enroth diehard fan community
 
HomeHome  Latest imagesLatest images  SearchSearch  RegisterRegister  Log inLog in  
Latest topics
» fheroes2 General Announcements
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary Icon_minitimeby sirDranik 2024-03-17, 23:35

» Photo Gallery
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary Icon_minitimeby Sir Albe 2024-03-07, 06:57

» Heroes Orchestra's 5th Birthday concerts with Paul Romero
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary Icon_minitimeby Sir Albe 2024-03-07, 06:55

» Polskie powitanie
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary Icon_minitimeby rrravyn 2024-03-05, 04:02

» Heroes II localisation: how to make no-CD patch.
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary Icon_minitimeby kiku 2024-02-19, 02:43

» WARNING - The dreaded moment is here: Heroes 6 servers shutting down
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary Icon_minitimeby Blake01 2024-02-17, 15:25

» Forum Admins Feed
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary Icon_minitimeby GodRage 2024-02-15, 22:10

Poll
Global announcements should be:
Everlasting, 1 for each project.
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary Redbar110%Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary Redbar12
 0% [ 0 ]
Temporary, when there is something new to announce.
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary Redbar11100%Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary Redbar12
 100% [ 6 ]
Holalala... No idea where the Ultimate artifact is.
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary Redbar110%Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary Redbar12
 0% [ 0 ]
Total Votes : 6
Most Viewed Topics
H3SW: General Graphics discussion
Ragoon's Graphics For HoMM3SW
Introduce yourself
H3SW General Discussion
H3SW Map List: Work in progress
H3SW: Dwelling Development
Forum Admins Feed
The Floody Land
Enrothian Fan Art
Heroes III: The Succession Wars v0.8.1 Beta

 

 Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary

Go down 
5 posters
AuthorMessage
Sir Albe
Mage
Mage
Sir Albe


Messages : 851
Quality Points : 452
Registration Date : 2015-07-16
Age : 28
Location : Aalborg, Denmark

Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary Empty
PostSubject: Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary   Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary Icon_minitime2018-10-27, 23:19

Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary XheZ8fg
Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Succession Wars 10th year Anniversary

Today marks the 10th anniversary of The Succession Wars mod for Heroes of Might and Magic III. The project has turned into a total conversion of Heroes III to revive its predecessor Heroes II with new mechanics and ideas. The last major release took place in 2013, but something might show up in the near future…

I have covered the entire development period from the early formation by Mister Kalu in 2008 till today where we are a team of people with Orzie leading the way. I have split the history into two parts. Today is about the first period of Mister Kalu's beginning in 2008 to Kivo and Kegolo releasing version 0.7 in early 2013. The next part will be released next Saturday November 3rd.

Please note that I have written the history of the mod as faithfully as possible, but that I have only been part of the team for the last five years. This makes it difficult for me to cover the first period with certainty and thus if someone disagrees with what I have written, please inform me.

A great thanks to Mister Kalu for starting the project and to Kivo and Kegolo for bringing it closer to what it is today.

Now, lets go back in time while we celebrate this milestone...

2008-2013: The early beginning and concept formation
It all began with something as simple as replacing the music, creature and spell sounds of H3 with their H2 counterparts in H3 Wake of the Gods. Thus, the otherwise realistic sounds of Heroes III became a bit more fantastic as when the Phoenix vanishes into dust with a charming “Pling” This idea was brought up by Mister Kalu, the founder of the concept. He uploaded the following video on October 27th 2008:


Nearly a year later in September 2009 he posted a new video which highlighted even more creatures, spells and effect sounds originating from Heroes II, for instance the vampire yelling his famous “Blah!”.


A month later in another video, a small but important change had happened. The heroes were changed into H2 ones and with both name and their H2 portrait. The wizard Kalindra and Sarakin showed up as well as dark knight Corlagon. Also, the battle hero sprites were changed into H2 style, but mostly all creatures kept their H3 look expect the golems and summoned Elementals which reminded of a mixture of the H2 and H3 styles. This was the first example of the graphical conversion which would later cover the entire game.


A month past and now some creatures had received their original cartoony Heroes II sprites in battle. That meant the H2 Black Dragon stood face-to-face with a hungry H3 behemoth. A consequence of this was the H2 creatures looking a bit small compared to their realistic looking H3 fellows. Mister Kalu announced that his little idea now had turned into a mod with the goal of recreating Heroes II in Heroes III. Mister Kalu later expressed that he wasn’t fond of the way H3 played compared to Heroes II, and that he wanted to create a “new” Heroes II with the mod. To some people the exact purpose of the mod was unclear; why not just play Heroes II instead? Already the features of H3 allowing for more possibilities than H2 with new creature, 7 creature slots, more secondary skills, new factions etc. all contributed in expanding the classic Heroes II game-play.


Later videos showed more creatures receiving their H2 sprite and new upgrades for creatures not having one in H2, the Obsidian Gargoyle being the first one created. A dilemma was also exposed in the decision of whether creatures should convert to their H2 style, (meaning that ghosts showed up as the third level unit of the Necromancer and Rocs/Thunderbirds were part of the Barbarian line-up as in H3) or simply recreate the original H2 line-ups with the same levels as in H2. A month later, the decision was made on the latter choice, which solved otherwise difficult issues (Warlock griffins as part of the Knight faction, Gargoyles as part of Wizard faction etc..). This is also the first time a new creature showed up. The mounted Black Knight made from the H2 Cavalier joined the ranks of the Necromancer. All H2 creatures had now entered their original H2 line-ups in their respective towns (Castle became Knight, Rampart became Sorceress etc.). Another problem showed up though, as H3 had 7 creatures in each faction instead of 6 as in H2. One creature was missing in all the original H2 line-ups and this task would take long time to complete and a lot of possibilities had to be tested throughout the years. At this time another important event occurred as the Gipsy faction (today known as Dervish) shows up in place of the Conflux town. The line-up consisted of Rogues, Nomads, Ghosts, Medusas and Genies, thus containing all H2 neutrals except the Elementals (Ironically enough they were not part of the former Conflux). At this point in late 2009 the mod is already considered “semi-finished”, but still a lot of work hadn’t even been started.




A year past in late 2010, Kalu posted a video showing a new Kobold for the Gipsy, Enchanter (with inspiration from H3) and a new “Witch” line-up which mostly consisted of H2 styled versions of the fortress units known from H3. The concept for the new “Heretic” faction was also shown. Again, the line-up resembled the H3 Inferno very much. All the new creatures shown was made from existing H2 units by a process which some refers to as “frankensteining”. This was hard to overlook for some, but Mister Kalu didn’t see it as an issue.


Later the same month Kalu posted the first draft of the Knight town screen remade with H2 graphics. Before this all town screens were unchanged from H3. Still all the interface and especially the adventure map had not been transferred to H2 style yet. Kalu questioned if it was the right choice to make the town screen H2 styled. Maybe he foresaw that his mod was beginning to turn into a total conversion of the game. Two weeks later conversion of the interface and Barbarian town screen had begun and later followed the town screens of the remaining H2 factions. However, it wasn’t easy to fill out the much larger resolution of the town screens in H3 compared to H2 which initially left empty space taking the feeling of a complete town a bit away.


In February 2011 Kalu began to convert the adventure map. Terrains, decorations and interactive objects and the sounds from these were now from H2 and pushed the mod closer to a full conversion. New heroes also saw the day, but as with the creatures, they were either made from existing heroes or taken from other games.


In April 2011 Kalu reveal his new version of the Desert castle (today known as Dervish). Again, assets of H2 was edited to make the town screen and creatures which sped up the process. He also thought about importing creatures sprites from other games to fill out the missing spots in the line-ups. Around this time Kalu was unsure if he would have enough time for the mod and initially left the project in late May 2011 honorably uploading the entire mod for someone else to continue. This gesture is unusual by modders, but Kalu rather wanted the project to live than watch it being washed down the drain.


Kalu eventually came back to the mod in September 2011 and around this time the future project leader, Kivo, slowly began contributing to the project by drawing new creatures in the months to come. Kalu had also introduced new creatures taken from other games for instance the Ghoul, Troglodyte and Owlbear. Kalu had now implemented most H2 adventure map objects and converted the first H2 map to the mod. Of course, it was the famous H2 demo map “Broken Alliance” that was now playable, but that was not the only improvement, the conversion of the interface had also begun with the menu resembling H2.


On December 25th 2011 Mister Kalu uploaded what he called “pre-release” version of the mod with all new heroes and creatures created by Kivo. New creatures included the Crossbowman and Harpy, which still are to be found in the game today with updated graphics. From this point on Kalu became less involved in the project and Kivo took over, creating a lot of new graphics for the mod.


In 2012 Kivo created a website for the mod and continued improving various part of the mod, especially giving it a new fresh interface. Kivo had though need of a programmer and Kegolo and Feanor offered to join the team to help on the matter. Kegolo went to help Kivo and Feanor would later become the main programmer for the project. Kegolo transferred the whole project from WoG to ERA II which meant it was easier to create new scripts. The concept of the mod had also changed from Mister Kalu original intent as Kegolo described it:

“I would say we are not completely following either H2 or H3 style for the most part. Everything is mixed. But everyone has agreed that this mod is not H2 on the H3 engine, but rather all the stuff people love from H2 together with all they love from H3. That means bring the best of both worlds, not limit either.”

Screenshots and concept art by Kivo from 2012:



Kivo and Kegolo would work on the mod the rest of 2012 to finish the v0.7 beta ready including a new version of the Witch and Gipsy classes along with new creatures, their upgrades and a new more H2 styled interface, for instance the heroes meeting screen which was converted from H3 to H2 style between these two videos.


The v0.7 beta of The Succession Wars was then released on 8th January 2013 with a vision different from what Kalu set out to do. The mod had now changed to affect the whole game not just creatures in battle, but the scale of which it now covered was immense. A lot of work still needed to be done to bring the mod even closer to Heroes II.

Screenshots from the 2013 v0.7 beta:


Last edited by Sir Albe on 2019-09-25, 19:10; edited 23 times in total
Back to top Go down
Graion Dilach
Gargoyle
Gargoyle
Graion Dilach


Messages : 10
Quality Points : 2
Registration Date : 2015-07-27

Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary Empty
PostSubject: Re: Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary   Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary Icon_minitime2018-10-28, 22:31

"At this time another important event occurred as the Gipsy faction (today known as Gipsy) shows up in place of the Conflux town."
Whoops the typo. Razz

Wouldn't have expected the project being this old. Congratulations to Kalu/Kivo/Kegolo for 0.7 and congratz to everyone involved within the last 10 years.

I somewhat feel that the frankeinsteining (even including Heroes 1 into this project through the Hippogriff and the commanders) was a nice touch for what was available back then and still worked better than the nicked artwork from DnD. I know that the new team set the quality bar higher than that, but still - the summarization gives me the impression that the first team just aimed to get it working, fueled more of practice than perfection.

I will do miss the commanders from the eventual 0.8 anyway.

Ahwell, times have changed, but it's also nice to see that even with all the changed directions, the past is still respectfully embraced (I know of a few modding projects with longterm history outright deny and badmouth their own history beyond a point).
Back to top Go down
rrravyn
Nomad
Nomad
rrravyn


Messages : 54
Quality Points : 41
Registration Date : 2015-07-30
Age : 28
Location : Poland

Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary Empty
PostSubject: Re: Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary   Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary Icon_minitime2018-10-29, 03:41

Thank you for this post, Mr. Albe Smile It's great that this mod has that great and long history with a lot of good ideas and people who loved the both games, H2 and H3. Mister Kalu did the fantastic job with portaits of units (dynamic, a lot like in H3, looking great!). Guys, thanks for your hard work on this mod!
Back to top Go down
Sir Albe
Mage
Mage
Sir Albe


Messages : 851
Quality Points : 452
Registration Date : 2015-07-16
Age : 28
Location : Aalborg, Denmark

Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary Empty
PostSubject: Re: Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary   Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary Icon_minitime2018-10-30, 01:54

Graion Dilach wrote:
"At this time another important event occurred as the Gipsy faction (today known as Gipsy) shows up in place of the Conflux town."
Whoops the typo. Razz

Ups, thanks for clearing that out Smile It is fixed now.

Graion Dilach wrote:
I somewhat feel that the frankeinsteining (even including Heroes 1 into this project through the Hippogriff and the commanders) was a nice touch for what was available back then and still worked better than the nicked artwork from DnD. I know that the new team set the quality bar higher than that, but still - the summarization gives me the impression that the first team just aimed to get it working, fueled more of practice than perfection.

I will do miss the commanders from the eventual 0.8 anyway.

Ahwell, times have changed, but it's also nice to see that even with all the changed directions, the past is still respectfully embraced (I know of a few modding projects with longterm history outright deny and badmouth their own history beyond a point).

I think you are correct that the previous team was more focused on what could be achieved rather than "polish" and make sure that there was consistency with the factions as a whole and the new creatures/elements introduced. An example of this was when both the Heretic, Witch and Gipsy/Dervish was in development at the same time instead of forming and creating one at a time. This combined with the need of proper conversion of the original H2 classes to the game (upscaling of original town screens being a major issue) is an enormous amount of work which we are still engaged in today.

We have talked about commanders as a "mini mod" in the past, but they are not of priority at the moment. I hope we are respectful to what was done the first half of the mods lifetime and I would dare say we strive to do so with the Witch and Dervish factions. Despite the changes they have undergone a lot is just like the original ideas behind the classes, just look at the creatures of the Dervish still consisting of Rogues, Nomads, Medusas and Genies as well as the Bandit (Rogue upgrade) and Medusa Queen.

rrravyn wrote:
Thank you for this post, Mr. Albe Smile It's great that this mod has that great and long history with a lot of good ideas and people who loved the both games, H2 and H3. Mister Kalu did the fantastic job with portaits of units (dynamic, a lot like in H3, looking great!). Guys, thanks for your hard work on this mod!

Thanks for your kind word rrravyn! Smile I almost can't believe the mod is this old already. Mister Kalu sure went for a H3 creature portrait look instead of the static H2 ones which we are using today.
Back to top Go down
Sir Albe
Mage
Mage
Sir Albe


Messages : 851
Quality Points : 452
Registration Date : 2015-07-16
Age : 28
Location : Aalborg, Denmark

Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary Empty
PostSubject: Re: Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary   Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary Icon_minitime2018-11-04, 06:31

Second part of the History of Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Succession Wars

Today the second and final part of the history of Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Succession Wars is released. The period starts from the release of the January 2013 beta v0.7 till today, where the release of the anticipated v0.8 is coming closer for every day.

As before I have written as faithful as it was possible and I only wish to recall what has happened as H3SW has been developed over the years. If anyone finds something unfaithful or simmilar, please feel free to contact me.

Thanks to my fellow team members, Orzie, Uhm, Ragoon, Feanor, Dr Slash, Agar and Kivo, who still visits us. Also thanks to everyone who have contributed to the project over the years. Special thanks to GodRage for hosting us on this site and allowing us such a nice place for fans of Heroes II. Last, but not least thanks to all our fans for following us. We hope to bring you something in the near future..

Now let's go back in time to January 2013..

2013-2018: New team, redesign and the v0.8 beta of H3SW
The release of the v0.7 beta reached many people, but also a lot of bugs was reported. Invisible impassable squares on the adventure map, non-working hero specialties, incorrect descriptions and creatures being switched around was among the bugs. Despite that, the release was appreciated and played by many who hadn’t heard of the mod before, including yours truly. Former project leader Mister Kalu congratulated Kivo and Kegolo, but also stated that he couldn't find time to come back to the project and that the views of the current team was different from his own. Kivo and Kegolo worked to fix the reported bugs and continue to improve the mod, but in March 2013 Kivo announced that both Kegolo and him was missing spare time to work on the project and Kegolo found only little time from there on. Thus, Kivo reached out asking for new people to join the team. Previous member Linn joined and assisted Kivo on graphics, but only for a couple of months.

Kivo retuned work in April and began to convert the ballista to H2 style as well as other sprites for instance the secondary skills. He later began working on new creature concepts to replace the previous new creatures as the Rakshasa below inspired by H5.
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary APgXOgI
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary HlsvW4gHeroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary NknjCmQHeroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary QdWnT7MHeroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary SgrhTTI

Not much happened during the summer and on 15th September Kivo asked for testers on an updated closed beta version of the mod – late known as the 2013 September closed beta. This version mostly included work done by Kivo and Linn and thus not much new programming. The new creature upgrades had been improved as well as the interface, icons and sounds. Also new maps had been added, and the game balance had been improved significantly. A lot of current team members joined as testers including current team leader Orzie, Uhm and myself. Though a programmer was still needed to advance the mod to its unique features as new unit abilities, hero specialties, artifacts, H2 flags, rivers etc. Luckily Feanor (aka OxFEA) offered his programming skills and joined the team.
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary AofTLijHeroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary MpfFbifHeroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary ZNO6eWo

A new team had been forged in October 2013 and began work on various areas of the mod. New maps were being converted and the Witch class was also getting another update. The new version of the castle is still used today.
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary Bh7REn7Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary AGTwHZ6Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary MZ06Kf9Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary PmBDhgJ

The remainder of 2013 would be used to continue the update of the Witch faction. The first new hero portrait made from the scratch was also conducted. Charon, as she is called, would later become the “traditional Witch” as the adventure map and battle sprites would be made with her as inspiration (just as Carlawn is the inspiration for the Sorceress and Thundax is the inspiration for the Barbarian). Later all new hero portraits, either edited from H2 portraits or taken from other games, would be replaced by original new heroes made by the team. As part of the Witch update an old Heroes II beta concept art was brushed off. The Toad, probably meant for the Wizard class instead of the Boar, fit perfectly into the new Witch castle and the missing animation was conducted. Also the Wyvern was been converted to H2 colors, but would later receive additional redesigned to resemble a classic H2 creature more than “just” a conversion of the H3 creature.
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary DMO2qJg
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary Od46dsG
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary KGXbdD7

2014 would turn out as a very productive year, but also a lot of discussions and choices was taken. Feanor’s additions to the mod began showing by making use of a separate map folder for the mod, enabling only converted map to show up in-game. The renovation of the Knight town screen slowly began, filling out the empty space and aiming for a more living, complete look. The process would demand an incredible amount of work to recreate the right look of the classic town screen.
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary DJkXV1M
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary 0sDCeBu

As of February, the creation of new portraits and thus new heroes was initiated by Orzie, who would slowly become the new project coordinator. Both completely new heroes as well as left-out H1 heroes and some Might and Magic inspired ones came to life by the hands of the DF2 community. Propper resizing of the original H2 hero portraits was also conducted.
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary VubwgFN

The spring brought an April fool’s joke of the Heavenly Forge’s introduction to H3SW. Also, work on external creature dwellings was started with the intent to create a map version of every creature dwelling found in the original game as well as new ones introduced. This task had been neglected in the previous mod versions, which was a problem in the newly converted H3 maps which made use of these. The new Witch hero adventure map sprite was also made by Uhm with inspiration from Charon. New interface was also coming along for instance at the battlefield.
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary H9MFGUO
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary Xk98JLn
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary NnUVQnV
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary MJZH7uS

Summer introduced a new, but for some maybe familiar, face to the Dervish class. The Anubite was made with inspiration from the VARNey from Might and Magic VI. This mysterious creature would join as the sixth level unit. It was developed intensively during the coming months. Today the Anubite is at home in the new Dervish castle, though it spends most of its time away from the city.
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary XIFbBOOHeroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary MwDTs1z
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary JT1F85kHeroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary SX7yqA9

The Witch received a proper battle sprite matching her adventure map look. The first “programming breakthrough” was achieved by Feanor for matching towns underlaying terrain to the surrounding terrain, a feature of the original Heroes II, but not present in Heroes III. Maps would now resemble H2 even more and with all new objects added from Heroes II the difference became hard to tell apart.
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary RlzmZB3
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary GEALzEZ

Along with the Anubite even more new creatures were developed. For instance, the Devil again with inspiration from MM6 and the Wyvern received a more classic H2 look. The former Death Knight also returned, but this time inspired by MM6 instead of its mounted H3 version.
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary D3bVQkJHeroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary NTNcsZvHeroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary ROMiewsHeroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary HdICIuW

To get the authentic feel to the game even the font was desired to be the same as in Heroes II. As of fall 2014 the original H2 font was intergrated to the game and given a slight rework to fit the H3 engine. The first drafts for the new Dervish town screen were drawn. The previous town screen which consisted of edited graphics from other towns was unwanted and a new town screen made in the style of 3D rendered buildings as it was done in Heroes II. This would be a long process still in the works as of this day.
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary PsBUftvHeroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary NVTJ4uLHeroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary Miq3HGz
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary 2TgOCor

The map editor was given a massive and much needed overhaul in the end of 2014 which ensured the all objects sprites was properly incorporated to ensure correct shadows and passability. Previously some objects had broken colors as the birch trees seen below. Also, some new external dwellings had been made. The number of converted maps was increased from 44 to 85 during 2014.
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary QjnCIJH
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary 27iSybOHeroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary EI7sl7BHeroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary K180agHeroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary 11tag43Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary 2ltngo5Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary IlvptwHeroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary XephsgHeroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary Fzbw53Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary RJX3L8PHeroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary 27p5uOXHeroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary Zw3BsXr
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary XZpf4ZW

2015 came with a wish for a new version of the mod. Project coordinator Orzie had taken over and Kivo didn’t show up as often as previously. Orzie wanted the game to be completely free of graphics taken from other games and “frankensteining”, that included creature sprites, hero portraits and town screens. This meant that all new creatures added had been made from the bottom up just as the shown Anubite, Death Knight and Devil. The Witch castle was still full of units from the past, but the new Wyvern and Toad were already in place. For the Dervish the Rogue, Nomad, Medusa and Genie would stay, but only the Anubite had been found properly of filling out one of the missing spots.

The second programming breakthrough came in early 2015 with the implementation of animated oceans and rivers done by Feanor. Previously they were not animated and using their H3 look respectively. Now the map was more alive than ever before. This wouldn’t be the only programming done by Feanor as the new artifact system was soon announced for the game. The system was a hybrid approach between Heroes II and Heroes III as the Miscellaneous slots was increased from 5 to 6 and given the ability to hold any artifact – just as the artifact slots of Heroes II. The other slots corresponding to given positions (Head, Right hand, Feet, Necklace etc.) still could only carry their respective artifacts as in Heroes III.
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary BZ4WBcz
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary M7uWRiW

In February 2015 2D artist AshiRox allowed the project team to use his beautiful Heroes artworks as backgrounds for the game. He later drew the official project logo as seen below and his rendition of the classic Heroes II main menu laid the foundation for the H3SW main menu art work.
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary IW0DzbT
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary DwSUAZh
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary F2Eajy5
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary QbCPDY6

The Dervish town screen began to take form, but still had a long way to go.
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary I4W6z4n

The new direction of the project towards a more professional approached included revision of everything done by the past team as well as what hadn’t been done at all. The new version v0.8 beta was supposed to be released in 2015, but this wouldn’t happen as way too much work was still to be done. Though considerate improvement from the previous 2013 beta could already be seen for instance on the adventure map. Another programming peak was hit when multi-colored H2 flags was implemented replacing the single colored H3 flags.
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary EqkRjK1
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary DhnupwG

Another small but important programming feature was implemented in July 2015. Now the faces of the classes would be shown in the scenario menu, but not as towns in-game, just as in Heroes II. This summer the team also moved activities to this new official website you are reading on right now.
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary 1ASNMPt

A new creature (again inspired by MM6) joined the Witch line-up as the Tribal entered level 1. He is a very defensive oriented unit and one of the stronger 1st level creatures.
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary WbXXJyQ

The new H2 font and updated interface was implemented across the entire game to bring the Heroes II feeling even closer. The map list now showed which game the map originated from indicated by a little icon in the map version display.
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary 2eJUpAWHeroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary OUx2mO1Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary U54kquKHeroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary 1s8kCZs

Some promo screenshots were also made to show what new was in the upcoming v0.8 beta version. The first one depicts the adventure map with new heroes, dwellings and of course the H2 styled flags. The second screenshot displays some of the new creatures in battle. The Toad, Tribal, Death Knight and Anubite can be seen along classic H2 units. Another screenshot shows the hero inventory screen with new graphics of the secondary skills and artifacts equipped as part of the new artifact system. Also, the new Sorceress unit, the Satyr, is shown. During 2015 a lot of gameplay and design choices was taken. For instance, new upgrades for classic H2 creatures was declined except for the Rogue and Medusa (who was now part of the Dervish and now had the “opportunity” to receive upgrades). Also, the decision to have bordered town screens was decided as well as keeping the H3 battle system of ranged penalty and limited movement for flying units.
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary P59EQtm
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary U4UVgnV
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary FzoIUPg

The team moved into 2016 more passionate than every and started the year of by showing the in-progress work of the Knight town screen now with border. It was still only half-way done, but it was shaping up. New pre-final concepts of the Crossbowman and Marksman were also displayed.
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary XH7ggwm

Work on integrating the features of the famous HD Mod by Baratorch was done in early 2016. Today H3SW is considered fully compatible with the HD mod and its features allowing the game to run in high definition.
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary JbEssyz

The battlefields were completely redone without just “flipping” the image, but instead carefully resizing the original H2 art to the bigger resolution of the H3 engine.
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary KBxnez0

Another promo screenshot was shown displaying even more external dwellings, artifacts, creatures and objects, for instance the H1 sawmill which is found in all maps converted from Heroes I.
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary 5ivs0Vh

In the summer of 2016 new blood joined the team as 2D artist Ragoon came along. He drew new creatures for the Dervish faction including redesigns of the Bandit (Rogue upgrade) and Medusa Queen, but he also made a brand new Acolyte unit for the line-up and did a great number of creature animations, a challenging task to get right.
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary UduqwJ7Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary Um1rM8HHeroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary EZrMiTj

As the end of 2016 was nearing more than 100 maps had been converted to the mod. The maps originated from both Heroes I, Heroes II and Heroes III making a lot of content ready for the upcoming beta. As 2017 came by the pre-final line-up for the 8 factions was presented. The Crossbowman and Harpy had carried over from the previous beta version, but all other creatures were new. The Satyr replaced the Owlbear, the Gnome replaced the Hippogriff, the Beholder replaced the Troglodyte, the Death Knight replaced the Ghoul and all new creatures were found in the Witch and Dervish castles (along the classic H2 neutrals).
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary S7fWvmN

Not many updates were posted to the public during 2017 which was owing to a lot of work that wasn’t presentable as such. A lot of processes had be started in the past years and now needed to be completed. To name a few examples: creating the remaining hero designs (portraits, specialties), finalizing static creature sprites which allowed for the animation process to begin, programming work to implement new creature abilities, new town building orders, artifact effects, features etc. and finished the Knight and Dervish town screens (also the Sorceress town screen received a needed upgrade). Below are Ragoon's creature animation concepts.
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary QzCf8GTHeroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary Rox5BdPHeroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary VaXZOYEHeroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary SaARpUIHeroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary 0GPQaKYHeroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary IqssW2MHeroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary PmNOGmm

In July the sixth promo screenshot revealed the new Knight town screen for the v0.8 beta. A real lot had changed and now the picture had been filled with new buildings. That combined with roads, a bigger shipyard and little details all around made the town complete.
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary H5WpxQc

In November 2017 the new main menu was revealed. The classic H2 main menu drawn in HD by Ashirox that had been reimagined by Ragoon and now served the starting screen of H3SW. All the signs are interactive and the text lights up just as in Heroes II.
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary GdPlOw7

As Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Succession Wars entered 2018 it was clear that this is the year of the v0.8 release. Closed beta playthrough was conducted in February and HD mod compatibility was fully achieved in March. In May two videos were released one featuring the first ever new music theme for H3SW composed by Orzie and Amicus along an updated H2 chest by Ragoon and the second video serving as the trailer for the v0.8 beta.
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary JzDmAYX



This October we showed some new features, as H2 sized artifact sprites, advanced skeleton transformer, new diplomacy system and more. With just around 2 months left the team is working very passionately to complete the v0.8 beta and finally show you what we have been doing all this time. We hope that you will show us the patient to wait a little longer before H3SW is out. Once it is released, it will be shown on all our news sites. You can follow the last stretch of development here on the official forums.
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary 3ykxNqO
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary WZtYXdd
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary SwGnURL
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary 4gvAJWM
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary EiF4qCf
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary G5UqGRo

Thank you so very much for reading through the entire history of Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Succession Wars!! I have put a lot of time into researching and writing, but it hasn’t been possible for me to include everything done through the years. Not everything can be shown in a picture and must be experienced when playing the game. I would like to thank everyone whom I have not mentioned in this writing including honored members of the team Agar, Dr Slash and other contributors from Russia, Poland or other countries. Also, a huge thanks to our dear fans for keeping up with the wait. We hope you will enjoy H3SW as much as we do.

Below are some comparison images of the changes that has happened over time:

Main menu
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary KoFwqh8

Adventure map
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary HL6bRbR

Battle with Witch and Dervish
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary WcHZ3eG

Castle view and Dervish line-up
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary KrZRKHw

Knight town screen
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary RostToq


Last edited by Sir Albe on 2023-01-21, 06:40; edited 16 times in total
Back to top Go down
GodRage
Webmaster
Webmaster
GodRage


Messages : 1042
Quality Points : 228
Registration Date : 2009-09-21
Location : France

Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary Empty
PostSubject: Re: Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary   Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary Icon_minitime2018-11-06, 06:10

This is fantastic!! Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary 589285140
I red the first and second part all at once.
I'm glad you, Sir Albe, related the story of the mod! Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary 2551314513
And thank you for bringing here this story  with  screenshots and videos!! I'm sure you spent hours and hours on that!! Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary 2253588149

________________________
~Lands of Enroth~
Back to top Go down
http://homm2.free.fr
Sir Albe
Mage
Mage
Sir Albe


Messages : 851
Quality Points : 452
Registration Date : 2015-07-16
Age : 28
Location : Aalborg, Denmark

Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary Empty
PostSubject: Re: Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary   Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary Icon_minitime2018-11-08, 23:56

Finally!! I am finished with putting all the text and images up. A lot of new images have been added to both the first and second part to fully cover the history, so be sure to check them again for some nice surprises and rare images and videos Smile

GodRage wrote:
This is fantastic!! Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary 589285140
I red the first and second part all at once.
I'm glad you, Sir Albe, related the story of the mod! Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary 2551314513
And thank you for bringing here this story  with  screenshots and videos!! I'm sure you spent hours and hours on that!! Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary 2253588149

Thank you very much! I have wanted to do this for a long time and I am happy that all the old material can now be found here on one place. It sure took a lot longer than I expected. I am kind of glad I won't have to do this for another 10 years Wink
Back to top Go down
Taiyoumaru
Peasant
Peasant
Taiyoumaru


Messages : 4
Quality Points : 8
Registration Date : 2017-06-08

Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary Empty
PostSubject: Re: Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary   Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary Icon_minitime2018-11-09, 00:46

Thank you so much for your hard work in investigating the beginnings of the mod Sir Albe. Knowing all this progress now has given me some great perspective into the work that the various devs have done along the way. It's such a wonderful article, almost like an old history book.

And I'd like to express my gratitude to all devs past and present for keeping this mod alive and making it a reality, it has been a long and interesting journey and I for one cannot wait to take part.

All this news of the mod is also coming at the time of my 30th birthday so this feels like getting gifts for me hahaha. Much thanks and appreciation for all of this, and I wish you good all fortune in all future endeavors, from a heroes fan to another, whatever country we are from, we're united with this awesome series ^_^
Back to top Go down
Sir Albe
Mage
Mage
Sir Albe


Messages : 851
Quality Points : 452
Registration Date : 2015-07-16
Age : 28
Location : Aalborg, Denmark

Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary Empty
PostSubject: Re: Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary   Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary Icon_minitime2018-11-09, 01:40

Thank you so very much Taiyoumaru!! I am happy to know you found it interesting and history book-like, that was my exact intention in writing this. The mod has travel a long way for sure and it is wonderful that we are still active after a total of 10 years, I was only just a teenager when the mod began.

Congratulations on your 30th birthday! I am glad to know that could bring you this "birthday gift" Very Happy Thank you very much for your kind words, we stand together to preserve the legacy of Enroth!
Back to top Go down
Graion Dilach
Gargoyle
Gargoyle
Graion Dilach


Messages : 10
Quality Points : 2
Registration Date : 2015-07-27

Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary Empty
PostSubject: Re: Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary   Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary Icon_minitime2018-11-09, 05:52

Holy moly.

I'm lurking these boards for years now and I tend to load up 0.7 once for a while, but I never realized how much the Castle townscreen evolved since 0.7 actually and I would prolly never notice it without such a gif.

Those gifs are tremendous. Really ace work. You should try to sum this up into a ModDB newspost because there are nice new goodies here to reach for more of the audience and those gifs are probably the most effective method to showcase how much the game changed since 0.7 and what people are actually waiting for - infact, you should probably do this with all towns when they are finished with these kind of revamps.

I also like how the 0.8 Genie would eat both 2013 and 2011 Master Genies for breakfast. Very Happy

Really congratz to everyone. Impressive - as the Quake 3 announcer would say.
Back to top Go down
Sponsored content





Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary Empty
PostSubject: Re: Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary   Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary Icon_minitime

Back to top Go down
 
Heroes III: The Succession Wars 10th Anniversary
Back to top 
Page 1 of 1
 Similar topics
-
» Heroes III: The Succession Wars v0.8.2 Beta
» Heroes III: The Succession Wars v0.8.0 Beta
» Help installing Succession Wars
» MasterMind Heroes: The Succession Wars (wip title)
» Heroes 2 Succession Wars Windows Editor Version 1.1

Permissions in this forum:You cannot reply to topics in this forum
~ Forums of Enroth ~ :: Modding Guild :: Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Succession Wars-
Jump to: