Next Logical Hero to be Added...

[LichKing]

If you have the original cd or a complete ISO, the CD music will play within the game, as long as the drive is the first letter after your HD partition. It has always worked so for me. My HD is partitions C and D, for example, if the cd is letter E (real cd or mounted ISO, it's the same), cd music will play. You don't need those cables like in the old times.

[LPhillips]

LichKing,
...
Anyway, the version that LPhillips downloaded is a no-CD crack. That definitely won't play music since it doesn't even know there is supposed to be a CD

KGB

No, no. I paid for mine. Wanted to be sure Fawkner got his $20, and at the time he was still promising War5. I have the CD, but it doesn't install to anything past something like Windows 2000. I had to find an old computer, boot that sucker up, install DLR, attach a USB port, copy it to a flash drive, do some *very amateur* compatibility fixes, and install it to my new computer. Back in '08 I think. However, I do have also have two copies of the hacked software on my computer now, one fully modified for campaigns and a new one for tournament play.

Lichking, all factory-spec Windows-equipped PCs have the CD drive partitioned after the Hard Drive. However, the sounds have never been functional for me. Neither the .WAV nor the .mp3 files. I'm somewhat ignorant of the reason, but I know that the game is silent! I think it is possible to get sounds if you play it through an emulator, like Virtual Machine.

[KGB]

LPhillips,

I meant the copy you downloaded from the Russian site. That's definitely the No-CD version of the game

The only way to get DLR these days is from downloading from a site like that or have an already installed copy on an old machine that you can put on a USB drive and copy to a new machine. That's because the DLR installer is 16 bit and Win XP and later doesn't support 16 bit installers.

LichKing,

When you say you hear the music are you talking about the sound effects or the actual background music that plays constantly. Many people confuse the two. You always get the sound effects (units moving, battle sounds, start of turn alerts etc) since those are in the DLR folder.

If you are getting the actual music, are you truly using the CD in an actual CD drive or are you merely using an ISO image and creating a virtual CD drive with something like Daemon Tools. If you are getting it working with a virtual CD drive then once again that's a software solution (but a good one to know since that's a request I often get, how to play the DLR music).

KGB

[LichKing]

I don't know about DLR, but I remember I had troubles years ago trying to run CD music from a mounted ISO. If I ran it directly form the real CD, the music played, from an ISO, it didn't. The answer was that the letter of the drive (physical or virtual, it doesn't matter) had to be the first letter after the HD partitions. I'm talking about music in CD Audio format, the same that you can listen if you put the disc in a normal audio cd player. If you have a DLR disc or ISO you can try, I'm sure the music will play. Also, if it's a virtual image, it may not be an .iso file, because .iso doesn't support audio tracks. It must be bin/cue or some other format that supports them.

[magian]

Since this thread seems to have broken down into a discussion about how to improve the hero system, I might as well chime in.

I always liked the way HOMM I&II managed hero leveling. In those games, there are quite a few skills. Each hero class started with two skills. When your hero leveled up, you would choose between improving one of your current skills (the skill was chosen randomly for you) or getting a new skill (also chosen randomly). There was a random factor, so you couldn't always get (or improve) the exact skill you wanted, but there was also a choice to make. This was nice because you couldn't just follow the same formula every time, and were forced to improvise.

So, let us apply this system to the paladin. He would start out with command (level 1) and undead lore (level 1). When he reached level 2, he would get a choice between advancing one of his current skills (randomly chosen from UL or command) to level 2, or learning the new skill option at level 1.

I realize that adopting a system like this would mean losing absolute control over hero leveling. But, absolute control makes for boring heroes. It is also a very flexible system, and would be very easy for new players to wrap their heads around.

[LPhillips]

I realize that adopting a system like this would mean losing absolute control over hero leveling. But, absolute control makes for boring heroes. It is also a very flexible system, and would be very easy for new players to wrap their heads around.

It's the same basic idea as we discussed for the Magician, but with random outcomes? I'd prefer non-random choices. Heroes are boring because they're linear; I think the problem would be solved by the implementation of the other abilities and choices without the random element. The hero system and the number of levels gained here mean that we'll want to actually control our heroes' abilities.

As for it being easy: it's easy because there is practically nothing to think about; you just choose between rolling one die or the other. Giving players abilities they haven't chosen forces them to adapt to them (good in a way as you said), but actually increases the difficulty for newbies in another way, because they must try to utilize abilities they don't have a grasp of.

[magian]

As for it being easy: it's easy because there is practically nothing to think about; you just choose between rolling one die or the other.

I guess I didn't explain that very well. The random selection happens before the choice is made. So, for the paladin, the computer might randomly select 'leadership' for your class ability and 'fortitude (+1 hp)' for your new ability. You would then choose between improving your leadership or gaining 'fortitude'. So there is always the choice between two known quantities. This makes things really non-linear, but if the skills are reasonably balanced, then there shouldn't be any bunk choices.

[LPhillips]

I actually went online and played some Heroes 3 to check it out. What a fine game! Difficult, but not artificially manufactured difficulty. Just genuine arse-kicking AI and a decently complex system.

As for the hero level system, the key is really what you said: "if the skills are reasonably balanced". The Heroes of M&M have a very different sort of skill/ability set. We'd need to see a lot of powerful abilities (comparable to the current main abilities) added to make a system like that work.

[magian]

Yes, the skill balancing and progression would be the tricky bit. I think we could bundle up abilities and stat bonuses to create about 20 totally linear skill ladders right now (without adding anything new to the game). But some of them might be of questionable value unless the bonus was quite large. How much personal strength is equal to a point of command? Would anyone want to invest in a skill that only gave a view range bonus?

Skill ladders wouldn't necessarily need to be arranged in a linear way. Say 'lvl 1 woodcraft' lets the hero's stack move through woods for a cost of 2, 'lvl 2 woodcraft' gives the hero's stack a +10 command bonus in forest, and 'lvl 3 woodcraft' allows the hero's stack to move through forest at a cost of 1.