Heroes of Might and Magic 2 Scenario Mod (& HoMM1 Addon) - Release Thread

[Blake00]

I didn't know anything about Civilization before 1997. Soon after I got my first computer in summer of 1997, my brother went to the stores and bought 2 games: Civilization II and Heroes of Might and Magic II. The reason he picked them was because both game received many awards, such as Game of the Year at GameSpot or Best Strategy Game of the Year. They are indeed excellent games. I have been addicted to both Civ2 and HOMM ever since...

It would be great if someone familiar with the Heroes of Might and Magic series can make a scenario about it. The HOMM series has many wonderful units, terrains, and castles...

Can someone who is familiar with the Heroes of Might and Magic series make a scenario...

In 2001 the creator of this site @Thunderfall asked his community to make a Heroes of Might & Magic Civ2 scenario. Well sorry it took nearly 23 friggin years for us to do it mate but here it is haha! Yes this project is a Heroes of Might & Magic 2 total conversion scenario modpack created by MetroPolis and Blake for Sid Meier's Civilization II MGE. Almost every part of Civ2 has been changed making this possibly the largest Civ2 MGE total conversion mod ever made! It's a few decades too late but we did it anyway! Blake has also created a Heroes of Might & Magic 1 Addon ModMod and is working on a enhanced Test of Time conversion too.

Taken from ReadMe file:
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Civilization 2 - Heroes of Might and Magic 2 Scenario Mod (MGE)
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Author: @Metro Polis and @Blake00
Version: 1.0 07/10/2023
Scenario Homepage: https://blakessanctum.x10.mx/Mods/Civ2HoMM/
Scenario ModDB Page: https://www.moddb.com/mods/civilization-2-heroes-of-might-and-magic-2-mod
Civ News & Updates: https://blakessanctum.wordpress.com/tag/civilization/
Old Scenario Dev Forum Thread: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/6127/
Demonstration Video: youtu.be/g1V7_hjmjD0?list=PLZqnaGtTZxFbq3F5R6lqzyVvYzg9tRBPY

Please note this video references a big main Civ2 HD tour video that is not released yet so am keeping this video hidden on youtube for now until the main Civ2 tour episode is ready.

Screenshots:



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Contents:

1. About
2. Requirements, Installation & Play Instructions
3. Known Issues
4. Addon Pack & Future Plans
5. Factions
6. Hints & FAQ
7. Version History
8. Credits
9. DOWNLOAD

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1. About:

As a kid growing up in the 90s playing endless hours of the Sid Meier’s Civilization and Heroes of Might & Magic series Blake always wanted some sort of hybrid game that gave him the HoMM experience but in the Civ sandbox world. Amazing games like Master of Magic and the Age of Wonders series sort of granted that wish however it wasn’t until decades later when Blake was doing Civ2 scenario preservation work and lost scenario searches looking for Heroes of Might & Magic Civ scenarios that he discovered Tom2050's amazing HoMM3 mod for Civ3 that finally fulfilled his dream of a Civ sandbox HoMM game. Blake was so inspired by the awesomeness of Tom’s work that he wanted to try and make a Heroes of Might & Magic 2 Civilization 2 Mod to compliment it, as while he was useless at Civ3 modding he's pretty good with Civ2 modding. Blake was still hesitant to try though as he knew it would be a big job, however then he hit the jackpot!

Blake came across a super talented Civ 2 modder by the name of MetroPolis who had already started Blakes exact HoMM2 for Civ2 idea years ago but had abandoned the idea due to lack of interest. We tracked each other down and worked together on finishing Metro's original vision with a bit of Blake's vision mixed in with it. It's not quite as amazing as the HoMM3 for Civ3 mod as we're using an older Civ game (Civilization 2 Gold MGE) but we've done the best we can. We've changed almost every part of the game including the GUI and all the video & dll files making our scenario possibly the largest total conversion mod for Civ2 MGE ever made! We know that it's 20 years too late, no one will probably play it and people will wonder why we wasted 4 years of our time, but we had a ton of fun making it so meh, we did it anyway haha.

Features:

• HoMM2 Factions (Plus a bonus 7th Neutral faction)
• HoMM2 Units (unique to each faction)
• HoMM2 Castle Cities & Towns
• HoMM2 Themed City Buildings & Wonders
• HoMM2 Themed City Sky View screen
• HoMM2 Themed Map Terrains & Special Resources
• HoMM2 Themed Leaders & Diplomacy video heralds
• HoMM2 Themed Technologies
• HoMM2 Themed Wonder videos
• HoMM2 Themed Intro, Death & Victory videos
• HoMM2 Themed High Council video advisors
• HoMM2 Themed Castle Puzzle (Throne Room replacement)
• HoMM3 Themed Azure Super Dragon Breeding (Spaceship replacement)
• HoMM2 Themed GUI and Window backgrounds (with custom font colours)
• HoMM2 Themed Menu, Commands and Event text
• HoMM2 Inspired Adventure map (filled with danger & interesting events)
• HoMM2 Music & Sounds

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2. Requirements, Installation & Play Instructions:

Spoiler :

Requirements:
Civilization 2 Multiplayer Gold Edition (MGE) also known in some parts of the world as Ultimate Civilization 2 Classic Collection. This mod will NOT work properly with prior editions of Civ2 (vanilla Civ2, Conflicts in Civ, and Fantastic Worlds) or later Test of Time edition (there will be a special ToT edition coming later).

Please make sure your copy of Civ2 MGE is fully functional (eg you can start new games and play in-game videos in) before attempting this modpack installation. If you’re having troubles getting Civ2 working I recommend that you use the excellent Civ2UIA tool to improve your Civ2 experience and compatibility on modern 64bit operating systems. If you’re also having Civ2 video issues keep in mind they run off the Civ2 CD and require the Indeo video codec. Hopefully one day we’ll have a fully compatible easy to install Good Old Games or Steam copy of Civ2 so please go vote for one!

Lastly please make sure Throne Room, Diplomacy Screen, Animated Herals, High Council, & Wonder Movies in your Game/Graphic Options menu (only viewable when playing a game) are all turned on otherwise you will miss out on vital features of this mod!

Installing:
This is one of the largest Civ2 MGE modpacks ever made so many files will need to be replaced. Therefore it is STRONGLY recommended you backup your Civ2 install folder either into another folder or into a compressed zip file before installing our mod. That way when finished with our mod you can easily replace all the files with their original versions again.

• Create a HoMM2Mod folder in your Civilization 2 scenarios folder.
• Now extract our entire HoMM2 modpack 7zip contents into the new HoMM2Mod folder. If you don’t have 7zip installed, you should as it’s better than all the others. https://www.7-zip.org/
• In the new HoMM2Mod folder you will see a number of files and subfolders. Open the 1EXTRA_FILES folder and you will see all our custom/modified files and 2 subfolders containing our video files.
• Once again please ensure you’ve BACKED UP your Civ2 folder before this next bit!
• While inside this 1EXTRA_FILES folder select ALL of its files & folders, copy (CTRL+C), then navigate back out to your main Civilization 2 root install folder (eg could be C:\Games\Civ2\) and then paste (CTRL+V) clicking yes on all prompts to override any original Civ2 files and folders.
• Start Civ2 and you should see our new and very different looking HoMM themed intro video and main menu! If not then you got the previous step wrong you muppet lol!

There are 2 ways to use our modpack. Either play our pre-made scenario or use our modded files to create your own new sandbox game. We recommend the former as we’ve created a very special and fun map for you and a new map will not contain all of the special decoration we used and you’d need to place them yourself however we’ll provide you with instructions for both ways anyway!

Playing our scenario:

• Start up Civilization 2 and select ‘Begin Scenario’ from the main menu.
• Navigate to your newly created HoMM2Mod folder and load the HOMM2.scn scenario file.
• You will receive a WARNING in our intro about this modpacks biggest problem! Civ2 is hardcoded to disable throne room & wonder videos in scenario mode, while all special events are disabled in regular sandbox non-scenario mode! We don’t have many events so we recommend choosing throne room & wonder videos!
  • If you choose to keep throne room & wonder videos and miss out on events then hit CANCEL and back your way out to the Civ2 main menu. Then click on ‘Load a Game’ and navigate to the HoMM2Mod folder again and load one of our provided savegames instead where we’ve started our scenario and then disabled scenario mode using a hex editor. You’ll find a starting savegame for all 7 factions (eg StartKnight.sav , StartWizard.sav etc).
  • If you choose to miss out on throne room & wonder videos but get our events simply hit OK to proceed to the next window and start the scenario.
  • We recommend you play in non-scenario mode and then once you have all the wonders and a finished castle puzzle (throne room) then switch back to scenario mode by going into the cheat menu and saving as a scenario and then loading that scenario file up. This will turn events back on and you can go attack Dragon city and other fun places.
• Turn off Civ2’s music and double click on one of our _HoMM2Civ2MusicPlaylist files in the HoMM2Mod folder to play our included HoMM2 midi soundtrack!
• Lastly in the HoMM2Mod folder you’ll see a 2ALT_FILES folder. This folder contains alternative files you may wish to use instead of our defaults such as city background images for each HoMM faction. Simple copy the file for the faction you want to play as and rename the copy to City.gif, then copy and paste it over the top of the City.gif file in your root Civ2 install folder. There are also some alternative terrain and unit styles MetroPolis created if you don’t like Blake’s defaults.

Using our modpack to start your own new game:

• Start up Civilization 2 and select ‘customized world’ from the main menu.
• Choose the following recommended options:
  • Size of World – Normal or Large (or some factions may disappear)
  • Land Mass – Large (we have minimal naval units)
  • Land Form - Continents (no amphibious units so 1 square cities are not optimal)
  • Climate - Wet (more rivers and we use the swamp & jungle slots for new terrains)
  • Temperature – Temperate (same reason as above)
  • Age - 3 billion years (our custom terrain suits grouped formations/regions of similar terrain instead of a scattered patchwork quilt look).
  • Civilizations – 7 (otherwise you’ll miss out on one of our custom races and possibly break a critical game start event)
• Save your game and edit the map in the Civ2 map editor or in the cheat editor if you wish.
• Once you’re happy with your map you may wish to switch to each civ (using cheat menu) and help them build their first city as sometimes we’ve seen them disappear and die (although larger maps should reduce the risk), but do NOT end the turn!
• Save your game as a scenario (using cheat menu) which will automatically load in all our special events and rules to setup the 7 HoMM factions as well as spawning several special map objects.
• Quit out to the Civ2 main menu and select ‘Begin Scenario’ from the main menu.
• Load your newly created scenario file from the HoMM2Mod folder (move it in there if it got saved elsewhere) and start playing your game until turn 4. By that point all our special faction setup events should have run and now each faction can only build their unique racial unit line-ups and 2 factions should gain their true city style.
• Turn on cheat mode and check each AI city to switch its build to its level 1 unit (or everyone will get a goblin lol).
• Turn off cheat mode again and save your game in the HoMM2Mod folder.
• Load your savegame file in a Hex Editor (I used HxD Editor). Edit offset position 20 where the cheat & scenario mode flags are stored, and change it to zero and save. Pictures & more info about this step in this post.
• Go back into Civilization 2 and load your edited savegame and you should find that cheat mode is off on your score and your throne room & wonder videos should work. However any special events from this point onwards will not work unless you save as a scenario again.
• Turn off Civ2’s music and double click on one of our _HoMM2Civ2MusicPlaylist files in the HoMM2Mod folder to play our included HoMM2 midi soundtrack!
• Lastly in the HoMM2Mod folder you’ll see a 2ALT_FILES folder. This folder contains alternative files you may wish to use instead of our defaults such as city background images for each HoMM faction. Simple copy the file for the faction you want to play as and rename the copy to City.gif, then copy and paste it over the top of the City.gif file in your root Civ2 install folder. There are also some alternative terrain and unit styles MetroPolis created if you don’t like Blake’s defaults.

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3. Known Issues:

Spoiler :

• Civ2 is hardcoded to disable throne room & wonder videos in scenario mode, while all special events are disabled in regular sandbox non-scenario mode! Sadly this means we have to force players to choose between one or the other missing out on content we put a lot of effort into.
• If you choose to play in non-scenario mode sometimes it will turn back on and once again your throne room & wonder videos won’t work. Haven’t figured out the trigger but simply re-edit your savegame in a Hex Editor (We used HxD Editor). Edit offset position 20 where the cheat & scenario mode flags are stored, and change it to zero and save. Pictures & more info about this step in this post.
• Despite the above fix Blake still experienced huge delays in Throne room updates in testing but was able to fully complete it before game end!
• Text box colours change in Diplomacy screen. This bug is caused by Herald characters will happen to any non-grey custom GUI used.
• Sound allocations are messy. Civ2 MGE has hardcoded sound slots and with so many different units in play it was just too darn hard to arrange appropriate sounds per unit. However all high level 5th and 6th tier units have their own custom sounds to make late game action more pleasant. We’ve included some extra unused _BATTLEUNUSED.WAV files should you wish to swap out the SWORDFGT.WAV file most units use. If a future ToT version is made we can fix this issue.
• If you have events on and have established embassies you will get annoying messages ever 50 turns about enemy civs receiving techs sorry. This is an event we coded to ensure respawn civs keep their correct tech trees (eg so a knight isn’t building skeletons). If you play with events disabled to see the videos then this won’t be an issue.
• Warlock faction city graphic may not appear properly when playing as other factions until Warlocks discover Buildings lvl 1.
• We use railroad slots for extra map decoration which can lead to some glitches such as a Sphinx pyramid appearing on the edge of undiscovered map shroud or whirlpools appearing if you build a city next to these decorations.
• Our custom sounds sometimes stop playing in diplomacy screen. No idea why!
• Earth elementals not available to Neutral player unless they use Fundamentalism as a government. AI will usually not use this gov resulting in them struggling in the early game without this unit so as compensation we’ve given the Neutrals 3 Earth elementals to start with.
• Savage leaders are attacking other units and their death does not pay out the usual Civ2 barbarian ransom, possibly because we put a fighting unit in the Diplomat unit slot.
• When building many parts of your Azure super dragon in one turn you may see ghosting & multi dragon graphic glitches. Re-loading your dragon breeding (Spaceship) screen on your next turn will clear the glitches and show your dragon’s true current form.

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4. Addon Pack & Future Plans:

Spoiler :

Heroes of Might & Magic 1 addon
Years ago Blake talked with Metro about doing a special Heroes of Might & Magic 1 addon for our HoMM2 mod that converts most of the graphics to HoMM1 style. We sort of laughed it off as something Blake would probably never get to however in 2023 he decided to do it! This addon will be released separately below in our HoMM2 release thread here.

Enhanced Civ2 Test of Time conversion with animation
While MetroPolis has retired from modding Blake has learned much more now and is considering doing a special ToT conversion of this mod later as while it will sadly miss the Heralds & High Council videos (unless they’re reactivated in a future version of ToTPP), ToT has a number of fun advantages that would compensate for those losses such as more custom city graphics (allowing the use of the 7th faction graphic we can’t use in MGE), many more unit slots (allowing more creatures from HoMM2 and maybe even the HoMM3 Succession Wars mod which added a cool HoMM2 style Witch swamp faction), larger sprites (less downsizing of HoMM2 assets), larger city building pedia graphics (Blake has asked for unit ones too), and animating units & terrain (which Blake has already done some preliminary experiments with). A lot of work though, however even if this super enhanced animating version doesn’t happen Blake hopes to at the very least do a basic 1:1 Test of Time conversion for ToT players. So keep an eye on Blake’s blog and our HoMM mod development thread for future updates.

Future Heroes of Might & Magic 3 and 4 mods for Test of Time
Blake also talked with Metro about attempting HoMM3 and 4 mods one day if a Test of Time version of our HoMM2 mod was made. An MGE version would not be feasible due to its limitations but ToT’s ability to support 24bit colours, more units, bigger sprites, and multiple worlds allowing underground maps makes HoMM3&4 mods much more possible. Blake is hesitant to do a HoMM3 mod as Tom2050’s HoMM3 Civ3 mod is just so amazing, however HoMM4 would be interesting as no one’s done that and its assets are all 2.5D isometric like Civ2’s making the asset conversion process easier! Making no promises but once again keep an eye on Blake’s blog and our HoMM2 mod development thread for future updates. If this is something that interests you then please let us know by requesting this on our Civ2 HoMM videos, ModDB page or dev forum thread comments areas.

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5. Factions:

Spoiler :

All six HoMM2 factions and all their units are in the scenario as well as a special bonus 7th neutral faction made from neutral HoMM2 units.

Sorceress
The Sorceress faction occupies fertile grasslands filled with lakes, rivers and dense magical forests much like in HoMM. The forests will give them a production advantage over other factions but they will eventually inhibit growth as they must be cleared to make more farmland which can take time. The Sorceresses can field multiple flying* units giving them the ability to quickly expand and explore. If they can survive long enough to obtain their extra fast top tier Phoenixes, they may become unstoppable.

Knight
The Knight faction usually occupies similar terrain to the Sorceress in HoMM, so to make them different in Civ2 I gave them a lot of dirt/plains terrain. Which gives their lands a look of a similar fertile paradise to the Sorcerers, but clearly those naughty humans have been clearing lots of the forests. As in HoMM the Knights can grow quickly and some of their units are cheaper, but they lack some of the special powers and abilities that the other races get (eg flying* creatures). Strong growth and overwhelming numbers of their strongest units like the Crusader will be key to their success.

Wizard
The Wizard faction occupied dry cracked terrain in HoMM2 so naturally they do so in our mod too. Wizard players will need to capitalise on the fertile lands around the rivers until they can irrigate the cracked lands. They have access to flying* units and some very powerful units like the mighty titan which has more hitpoints & firepower than most other top tier units. In my test game they were the dominant AI faction.

Warlock
The powerful Warlock faction favours the dark volcanic wastelands just like in HoMM2. These starting lands give them a harder start than the other factions, so they will need to rely on the fertile river lands while cultivating the volcanic lands. Where the Warlock's really excel is in powerful flying* units, so if they can survive their rough start and establish a good economy then they will be able to quickly expand and overwhelm their neighbours. If they survive long enough to reach the deadliest unit in the game, their mighty Black dragon, the world will be theirs! They also start quite near the legendary Dragon City which if conquered offers great rewards.

Barbarian
The Barbarian faction normally occupy desert, cracked and dirt/plains areas of HoMM2 however since those terrain types are used by other factions and the Barbarian castle screen has more of a cold tundra look I've given them lands that are a mix of cold snow, damp swamp, dirt/plains and grasslands. Similar to the Knights the Barbarians lack flying* units and special abilities, however their lands are quite fertile and their units are cheap, so quick growth and a strong economy will allow them to field large numbers of their strongest units like the Cyclops.

Necromancer
The evil Necromancer faction lives in the dark swamp regions where many an unfortunate soul has wandered into and never returned. While their HoMM2 castle screen looks more volcanic I felt they'd better suit the swamps on the map due to its dead trees and graveyards! The Necromancer's starting units are not the strongest however its lands are quite large so if they can survive long enough to get to their multiple high tier flying* units like the Bone Dragon then they will become a force to be reckoned with.

Neutrals
The Neutrals are an alliance of previously unaligned creatures that the other expanding factions have pushed out of their homelands into the hostile desert regions. While seemingly an odd match-up of creatures they are united in their cause of pushing back against the other factions and reclaiming their homes. The neutrals are in a rather central location on the map meaning they're surrounded by other factions which can make them tough to play as. However if you survive off the fertile rivers & oasis's while you work the lands into something better and start to expand out into the even wilder savage desert lands to the south, then you can build up a large empire that can hold its ground until you gain access to their deadly flying* top tier Genie unit! This special 7th bonus faction is heavily inspired by the desert Dervish faction in the utterly brilliant Succession Wars mod for Heroes of Might & Magic 3 that converts HoMM3 into a HoMM2 like experience but also adds cool new factions containing many of the neutral creatures from HoMM2, all with a HoMM2 art style. The Neutrals Anglo Saxon style hero comes from the excellent Palm Kingdoms 2 PC & Mobile game that is very HoMM2 like! Many thanks to both the SW and PK2 teams for allowing us use of their custom graphics!

(* Note flying creatures in this mod do not use the Civ2 flight mechanic which is reserved for magic spells. Instead flying units have increased movement and treat all squares as roads special ability.)

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6. Hints & FAQ:

Spoiler :

No doubt people will have many questions about our mod so we will try to address them all here.

I’m struggling! Can you give us some starting hints?

• Similar to real HoMM every faction is isolated from each via by non-aligned savage beasts blocking the land passages. Use this early protection from the rival factions to your advantage to build up a strong starting position & economy. Be warned you are not totally safe though as the savages may try to conquer your fertile homelands too!
• If you are unable to overcome the savage beasts blocking the borders perhaps they can be bribed by a rogue? Or bypassed by boat? Once defeated use their forts to protect your empire!
• Powerful creature spawners such as Dragon City and City of the Dead are very dangerous to be near but offer great rewards to those who can conquer them. They are heavily defended, however their strongest defenders require supplies from nearby towns. Take those towns and you will weaken the spawners surrounding defences. Note: If you play with events disabled to see videos then rewards will sadly not work.
• The dry central desert areas of the map are very hostile places with many dangerous beasts roaming around.

Why did you make the HoMM2 mod for old Civ2 Multiplayer Gold Edition (MGE) instead of the more advanced Test of Time (ToT) version?
In 2019 MetroPolis started making the mod for MGE and had grown frustrated with some issues ToT had given him, while Blake had never modded ToT before and was re-learning Civ2 editing from scratch after 20yrs. We were also concerned that several aspects of our planned changes would not work in ToT (eg our custom video Heralds, High Council videos, Throne room and City sky view replacements). Thankfully the awesome Test of Time Patch Project has brought back the Throne room and City sky view however sadly Heralds & High Council videos are still disabled (Blake has asked if they can be fixed too but there’s no guarantee). While MetroPolis has retired from modding Blake has learned much more now and is considering doing a special ToT conversion of this mod in the future so scroll back up to our Section 4 ‘Addon Pack & Future Plans’ to see more info on Blakes plans for a ToT version.

I’m devastated that I can’t play your mod with both custom events & videos working!
Not as devastated as we are. We put a lot of work into both areas so forcing players to choose between one or the other sucks! Blake does have a possible idea for getting wonder videos and events working together in a ToT version but needs to talk to the ToT gurus. As stated above a ToT version loses the Heralds & High Council videos though so there’s still no perfect solution where a big chunk of our hard work isn’t lost sadly! We recommend you play in non-scenario mode and then once you have all the wonders and a finished castle puzzle (throne room) then switch back to scenario mode by going into the cheat menu and saving as a scenario and then loading that scenario file up. This will turn events back on and you can go attack Dragon city and other fun places.

How do I play your mod’s music?
Turn off Civ2’s music and double click on one of our _HoMM2Civ2MusicPlaylist files in the HoMM2Mod folder to play our included HoMM2 midi soundtrack!

Can I share your mod around the internet?
Please do! However if you’ve removed parts of or modified our content in any way please do not share that copy around and instead simply direct people to our official downloads on CivFanatics, ModDB & Internet Archive (links at bottom of this post). We do NOT want to see butchered / chopped up / slashed up / messed with copies of our mod being shared around the internet as can often happen.

Can I use your stuff for my mod/scenario?
Yes, but please credit us in your readme and keep any initials (eg DB) you see in the sprite boxes if you use our custom HoMM graphics.

Can I make a new version of your work?
No, this is our project, so we’d prefer you rename your project and not just post a new version 2.0 like its officially from us when it’s not. Eg Bob’s Remaster/Remake/Spinoff/Extended Edition of Blake & MetroPolis’s HoMM2 mod is fine lol.

Do you plan to make more Civ2 or ToT mods based on other HoMM games?
Indeed! Blake has already created a special HoMM1 graphics addon for this scenario and is also considering maybe making a HoMM3 and/or HoMM4 version for Test of Time in the future too, so scroll back up to our Section 4 ‘Addon Pack & Future Plans’ to see more info on Blakes plans. If this is something that interests you then please let us know by requesting this on our Civ2 HoMM videos, ModDB page or forum threads.

Are all factions units/creatures in your mod the same?
While each tier level of units/creatures have same attack and defence, you’ll find little differences here and there between the races in their special abilities (speed, sight, hitpoints, firepower, resistances, flying etc). Blake generally used this system below with occasional changes for faction balancing.

Flying = alpine + ignore ZOC
Fast ground units = 2x moves
Range unit = 2x sight & +1 firepower
Sturdy defender = +50% defence vs fast (unless tier 5+) & +1 hitpoint
Magic resist = 2x air defence
Magic Weapon = Civ2 Flight & missile
Tier 6 special = 2x moves & +1 hitpoint & +1 firepower

How do Heroes work in your mod?
The hero is no longer a battlefield commander but is still a very special unit. He/she can work the land, colonise cities and even fight if necessary. Be careful though, while your hero can protect you against weak threats they are no match for mid to high level creatures.

How does flying work in your mod?
Flying units could not fly around the map in HoMM and Civ2 uses a very different flight mechanic that’s not really suitable either, so we developed a hybrid system where flying units have the increased movement, treat all squares as roads and ignore zones of control special abilities. The Civ2 flight mechanic is instead reserved for offensive magic spells.

I’m seeing places to visit around the map but they do nothing?
Regular HoMM players giving this go will be in for some disappointment as most of what you see on the map is just decoration. The Civ2 engine is so different to HoMM that we could only really justify making a small amount of map objects to fight and get rewards from (Dragon City, Xanadu, & City of the Dead). And now sadly thanks to the events vs videos issue mentioned above many players won’t even get to experience those special events either sadly!

I hate Windows. Can I play your mod on my Mac, Linux, or other systems?
Pretty much anyone not using Windows will need to get the Windows version of Civ2 MGE working via a virtual machine with Windows on it to have any hope of playing this sorry. Yes there was a Mac version of Civ2 back in the day but I don’t believe Windows Civ2 scenarios and mods were compatible with it for some reason.

Your scenario is too hard or too easy!
Sorry, different players play at different levels. If you’re using our provided savegames to play in non-scenario mode and get videos/throne room then you’ll be playing at Emperor level with Savages set to Restless tribes. If you play in scenario mode to get events then you can pick whatever difficulty you want when starting, however be warned that some of our events trigger attacks from savages!

Your castles look terrible compared to original HoMM2!
Unfortunately Civ2’s city sprites are only a quarter of the size of the HoMM2 ones and are a different shape! So epic downsizing was required that utterly ruined them. Blake spent endless hours manually re-painting in pixel by pixel as much detail as he could but only so much could be done.

Can I play multiplayer with the HoMM2 mod?
The mod was not designed for multiplayer and has therefore never been tested for that. Civ2 Multiplayer games use a different file format so I’m not sure what would happen but I suspect our events that configure the faction techs & unique units would not work, but I never play multiplayer so I could be wrong! If someone somehow gets it all working, let me know!

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7. Version History:

07/10/2023 Version 1.0 – First release!

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8. Credits:
The Team:

• @Metro Polis - an extremely talented retired Civ2 mod maker who’s responsible for a lot of the awesome things in this scenario! Feel free to check out his Civ2ToT - Star Trek Final Frontier mod, his Civ2 - Star Control scenario, his Civ2 - Ultimate Star Trek Mod and his old Civ2 - Star Trek Test Scenario.
• @Blake00 - an okayish Civ2 mod maker who's polished, tinkered & added lots of extra things to this project and took over finishing it after Metro retired from modding in 2020. Feel free to check out my other projects such as my Civ2 - Red Alert 2 Siege of NYC scenario, my Civ2 - Command & Conquer scenario remaster, my Civ2 - Dune 2 Dynasty scenario, my Civ2 - Terminator Future War scenario remaster, my Civ2 - Civ1 Graphics mod demaster, my Civ2ToT - Master of Magic Jr scenario remaster, my Civ2 - Deadworld Reborn scenario remaster, my Civ2 - Starcraft scenario addon, my Civ2 - Warcraft scenario addon, my Civ2 - Better Terrain Graphics mod, my Civ2 - Playstation Graphics mod remaster, my Civ2 - ToT Graphics mod remaster, my Civ2 - Alpha Centauri scenario remaster, my Attila's Conquest - Play as Barbarians in every Civ game scenario series, my old Civ2 - Star Wars scenario, and my Civ1 - Soundtrack Overhaul mod. I'm also the creator of the popular GZDoom - Star Trek TNG Doom and GZDoom - Quest For Glory IV 3D Hexen mods.

Special Thanks:

• @Knighttime - for his beautiful custom Diplomacy screen background template from his awesome Civ2ToT - Medieval Millennium mod.
• @MattDempsey - for his original custom Dragon breeding spaceship replacer template from his excellent Civ2 - Game of Thrones mod.
• GodRage at Lands of Enroth - for all his transparent HoMM2 Unit/Building/Icon Png files he painstakingly screenshotted from the game and painted out backgrounds to make his gorgeous HoMM2 website.
• Sir Albe and the entire HoMM3 - Succession Wars mod team - for HoMM2 town name extractions and some custom HoMM2 style art assets. Check it out if you want to play HoMM2 in the HoMM3 engine with new HoMM2 style units and factions!
• Eugene and the entire Palm Kingdoms 2 team - for their custom HoMM2 style hero graphics. If you want to play a HoMM2 style game on PC or phones then try Palm Kingdoms! They also made a great HoMM & King’s Bounty style game called Royal Bounty HD and have since moved on to create other interesting retro pixel art games like Dwarven Skykeep and Vengeance of Mr Peppermint!
• The CivFanatics Civ2 Scenario League Community - for help & advice on many technical issues faced while creating this mod in our development thread.

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9. DOWNLOAD:

• MAIN - CivFanatics
• Mirror 1 - ModDB
• Mirror 2 - Internet Archive

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[Blake00]

Post reserved for Heroes of Might & Magic 1 Addon ModMod release!

Almost ready! Will be released very soon! Keep an eye on the old HoMM project development thread for updates on this.

 

[Blake00]

Post reserved for Heroes of Might & Magic 2 Mod Test of Time Conversion release!

Early stages so will prob be a while! Keep an eye on the old HoMM project development thread for updates on this.

 

[Thunderfall]

That looks amazing and very familiar! It certainly brings back lots of good memories!

Great job!

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

In 2001 the creator of this site @Thunderfall asked his community to make a Heroes of Might & Magic Civ2 scenario. Well sorry it took nearly 23 friggin years for us to do it mate but here it is haha!

Seriously, even setting aside you (re)learned modding from scratch, this has to be the single most ambitious total conversion this side of ToT. There are a few scenarios that overhaul the UI to similar depth, but I only know a couple that have gone after the most complex elements like videos and Spaceship graphics. My free time is badly indebted so it'll be a while before I can give this a proper run, but I for one am ecstatic to see this finally go gold. The fact active HOMModders pitched in goes to show where there's nostalgia, there's a way.

Savage leaders are attacking other units and their death does not pay out the usual Civ2 barbarian ransom, possibly because we put a fighting unit in the Diplomat unit slot.

Aye, barb leaders only earn ransom if the unit in the Diplomat slot has Role 6 (espionage), which precludes it being used as an attacker. Depending on your intent, you could either swap the Zombie with the Rogue, or with ToTPP shuffle the units to preserve the slot.

 

[tootall_2012]

Hi Blake,

After viewing your video I can see how much work and effort went into making this mod. Truly impressive!

It could only have been a true labor of love!

Congratulations to you and Metro Polis.

 

[CurtSibling]

23 years have been well spent to create this wonderful mod! Congrats!