Some defintions for HoMM2 solo challenging

Hiya all,

Here are some definitions for HoMM2 solo challenging.

Speed run
It's when try to finish a game as fast as possible. Only time (h/m/s) is counted here.

There are some categories : 100%, low%, single segment or not, high bug, etc...

Speed Demos Archive

TAS (Tool-Assisted Speed run)
Here you do a speed run but with emulator. You can slow down the game, advance frame one per one, save and load game anywhere, opening the rom for hard Game/IA manipulation etc.
Your progression is recorded in a demo file and you can watch it with the emulator (you need same emulator and same game version from which demo has been recorded) or you can encode it while playing it and upload video file on youtube etc.

Two examples of categories : little and huge bugs.

TAS Videos

Time-Attack
Here it's not a question of time but about scoring any other thing with different unity (points, etc). For example for HoMM2 you don't try to finish a map in a minimal number of seconds but in a minimal number of days.

About HoMM2
Actually the windows emulator Hourglass is unstable and works only on x86 (32 bits systems).

Hourglass

But you still can already speed run/time-attack HoMM2.

I will post today some stuff about it, check this forum category.

I will try maybe speed run later on it

Well, actually real-time speedruns don't have very big use in HoMM series There're some very skilled people trying to do such speedruns, but it's more about mastering of using hotkeys than real gameplay, (official records from speedrun.com, still very interesting ):
Archibald Campaign
1:00:47 by MikeTheViewer
Roland Campaign
1:54:57 by Adam Peng
2:06:45 by Edenal

Personally I prefer Days-to-Win speedruns. During some H2-3 offline tournaments best players can finish L-size map in a 3 days! I haven't seen videos from such, still some of those records for HoMM2 are incredible!:

Roland Campaign
1.Crodo -  43 days (7,3,s,6,3,4,3c,8,9) (without tournament rules, still it's probably the best time so far)
2. LionStar - 52 days
3. Havr - 58 days
4. Crazy Kolobok - 67 days
5. ROLpogo - 69 days
6. Kserks - 75 days
7. Roy - 86 days
8. Deep Mike - 96 days

Archibald Campaign
1.SDVlad - 45 days https://yadi.sk/d/5NHbHe-y4cCcv
2.Gorthauer - 50 days
3.Havr - 52 days
4.Reanimator - 56 days
5.Pash - 62 days
6.Kserks - 71 days
7.Registr - 75 days

Wizards Isle
1.Lady LionStar - 66 (14 + 13 + 39) days
2.Deep Mike - 82 days
3.Mish-Nukem - 87 days
4.Navuchodonosor - 89 days
5.Saint Fox - 98 days

Voyage Home
1. Nzol, Hell Executioner - 29 days
2. Brennan -31 days
3. PPRReeeDDSS - 34 days
4. Pash - 44 days
5. Wizd - 47 days

Price of Loyalty
1. Hell Executioner, Pash - 82 days
2. PPRReeeDDSS - 83 days

The Descendants
Navuchodonosor - 63 days
2.Noble - 68 days
3.Catch - 75 days
4.Rufinus - 84 days
5.Sail - 90 days

Most of those records were obtained during Royal Games on heroesportal.net, except players marked blue.

Rules effective for above tournament:
Russian
English

Another interesting challenge:

Pandemonium on Impossible in 9 days
Pyramid on Impossible in 9 days

Thanks for all these precisions

BlackDragon wrote:

I will try maybe speed run later on it

It would be nice to make the Roland and Archibald campaigns at normal speed and commented (strategies, goals, etc.) in french, there are not many in french on Youtube.

Unknown_Hero wrote:

BlackDragon wrote:

I will try maybe speed run later on it

It would be nice to make the Roland and Archibald campaigns at normal speed and commented (strategies, goals, etc.) in french, there are not many in french on Youtube.

Hmmm... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-K3opGICkU&index=2&list=PLyErit630ctF3zCpX4c22j2ZLjYWK2SAc
hehehehe Choca on Youtube did one.
Hmmm by memory he used my balance patch.
But... There isn't any PoL 2.1 in french... :'(
The version of the game is important in speed-runs, and also in "normal playing" videos. ^^

GodRage wrote:

hehehehe Choca on Youtube did one.

Yep, I think it's the only one in french.

GodRage wrote:

Hmmm by memory he used my balance patch.

Yes, you can see that he rushes the enemy creatures with his Crusaders "rashly", without "thinking", during combats.