Map Editor Discussion/Think Tank/Tips n hints

[Peter Lion]

I love making HoMM3 maps and I'm half decent at it. I'm alaways open to suggestions and good tips. I'm hoping to get a good Map Editor discussion going where people who need help with it can turn to.

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Some initial tips: the map editor supports ctrl +c and ctrl +v for objects. The ctrl+z buffer only allows 15 undos so be careful. Some of the Seer's Hut quests missing from RoE (like defeat monster) can be simulated by artifact placement.

The map editor can be extended in a number of ways, here is a hex editor extension I made some time ago which allows directly hex editing tiles, allowing you to amongst other things access otherwise unused terrain types: http://i.imgur.com/jLB1BHz.png . Haven't really gotten around to testing it with HD Edition much, but this works for standard map editor editing RoE maps and is just a basic example of what can be done (it's possible to do much cooler stuff).

The map format allows any objects to exist on top of each other and the top (latest occuring) object is still accessible in-game. Unfortunately the standard map editor does not allow making such placements though, but as this works in-game it is one of the techniques used in the AB/SoD map conversion.

[Goblincage]

I enjoy making maps too but I'm having a problem. I made a map but I can't find it in game. I have saved it to the Heroes III map folder and I have set 2 players to the map and named it. Am I doing something wrong or why doesn't this work?

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Originally posted by Arabi lord Thom:

I enjoy making maps too but I'm having a problem. I made a map but I can't find it in game. I have saved it to the Heroes III map folder and I have set 2 players to the map and named it. Am I doing something wrong or why doesn't this work?

Can you post the path to the folder you have saved it to? It should look like this (for example, this is a 64-bit system and English localization): "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Heroes of Might & Magic III - HD Edition\data\maps\EN"

[Goblincage]

Oh, perfect. I had it saved it to "ubisoft/Heroes of Might & Magic III - HD Edition/pref/maps
So I had saved it to the wrong place.

Thanks for help!

[Peter Lion]

Originally posted by potmdehex:

Some initial tips: the map editor supports ctrl +c and ctrl +v for objects. The ctrl+z buffer only allows 15 undos so be careful. Some of the Seer's Hut quests missing from RoE (like defeat monster) can be simulated by artifact placement.

The map editor can be extended in a number of ways, here is a hex editor extension I made some time ago which allows directly hex editing tiles, allowing you to amongst other things access otherwise unused terrain types: http://i.imgur.com/jLB1BHz.png . Haven't really gotten around to testing it with HD Edition much, but this works for standard map editor editing RoE maps and is just a basic example of what can be done (it's possible to do much cooler stuff).

The map format allows any objects to exist on top of each other and the top (latest occuring) object is still accessible in-game. Unfortunately the standard map editor does not allow making such placements though, but as this works in-game it is one of the techniques used in the AB/SoD map conversion.

Awesome! Thanks for the great tips. I can't wait to really dig into creating a map. Haven't done that in 15 years I bet.

[Peter Lion]

Originally posted by potmdehex:

Originally posted by Arabi lord Thom:

I enjoy making maps too but I'm having a problem. I made a map but I can't find it in game. I have saved it to the Heroes III map folder and I have set 2 players to the map and named it. Am I doing something wrong or why doesn't this work?

Can you post the path to the folder you have saved it to? It should look like this (for example, this is a 64-bit system and English localization): "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Heroes of Might & Magic III - HD Edition\data\maps\EN"

I'm sure more people have had this problem. I did the same thing as well with my tester map.