Author: Liso1 January 2, 2025 0 Comments

A new major release just arrived: VCMI 1.6.0! This time we focused on AI, visuals and numerous GUI and UX additions for even more immersive experience.

Better visuals

VCMI now can improve graphics quality thanks to smart xBRZ upscaling, plus support for high-resolution assets – perfect for high-resolution displays (and smartphones too).

Smarter AI

Our adventure map AI (Nullkiller AI) was greatly enhanced, and some combat AI tweaks also landed.

Heroes Chronicles support

If you own Heroes Chronicles on GOG, you can now import these campaigns seamlessly via the “import files” option in our Launcher.

Statistics and handicap

New handicap feature can not only handle gold transfer known from PvP games, but also change growth and income to adjust game challenge over wide range. And once a scenario is finished, a new screen shows detailed statistics like resource flow and army power over time.

Spell research and quick spell panel

We’ve added a simplified version of long-requested spell research, which you can enable through HotA mod. In combat, a new spell quick-selection panel (with optional hotkeys) makes casting your favorite spells faster than ever.

Handy shortcuts

Holding Alt on the adventure map now highlights interactive objects. You can also re-roll spells in your town’s guild (via HotA mod), sort artifacts artifacts and more.

VCMI Project full changelog

1.6.0 -> 1.6.1

General

• Right-click popup for Monoliths, Subterranean Gates and Whirlpools now shows location of all known entrances and exits.
• Added support for importing and exporting mod presets in the launcher.
• Added option to VCMI popup menu on Android to skip launcher and start game immediately.
• Fixed defeat music not stopping when skipping defeat movie playback.
• Launcher will now open start game tab instead of mods tab after initial setup if no mods were chosen for install

Performance

• xbrz is no longer auto-selected on mobile platforms, and only xbrz2 can be auto-selected on PC platforms. Manual selection is unaffected.
• Fixed a performance regression that more than doubled the time of random map generation.
• Improved performance of the Nullkiller AI, which should now take turns up to twice as fast.
• Minor xbrz performance improvements.

Stability

• Fixed application freeze when clicking buttons with popup message on some versions of iOS
• Fixed crash when trying to install a mod when no mod is selected
• Fixed possible crash when trying to load non-existing frame from .def file
• Fixed crash when right-clicking on modded market items, such as HotA’s Junkman.
• Fixed crash when trying to activate mod with recursive dependencies
• Fixed crash when trying to activate Chronicles mod after failed import
• Fixed crash when attempting to access a non-installed mod when repository checkout is off.
• Show error message on failure to load filesystem instead of crashing in launcher
• Added workaround for crash on attempt to delete non-existent save/map

Adventure AI

• AI can now use all possible upgrades on Hill Fort, including alternative upgrades.
• AI will now correctly identify and use 8th creature dwelling (e.g. Factory)
• AI will now correctly identify 2nd level upgrades to dwellings (e.g. Cove) and score them accordingly.

Interface

• Fixed poor alignment of hero primary skill descriptions in the Thieves’ Guild menu.
• Fixed missing description for spell school immunity in creature window
• Fixed bonuses such as OPENING_BATTLE_SPELL not appearing in creature window.

1.5.7 -> 1.6.0

Major changes

• Greatly improved decision-making of NullkillerAI
• Implemented support for multiple mod presets allowing player to quickly switch between them in Launcher
• Implemented handicap system, with options to reduce income and growth in addition to starting resources restriction
• Game will now show statistics after scenario completion, such as resources or army strength over time
• Implemented spell quick selection panel in combat
• Implemented adventure map overlay accessible via Alt key that highlights all interactive objects on screen
• Implemented xBRZ upscaling filter
• Added support for high-resolution graphical assets
• It is now possible to import data from Heroes Chronicles (gog.com installer only) as custom campaigns
• Added simple support for spell research feature from HotA that can be enabled via mod or game configuration editing
• Implemented automatic selection of interface scaling. Selecting interface scaling manually will restore old behavior
• VCMI will now launch in fullscreen on desktop systems. Use F4 hotkey or toggle option in settings to restore old behavior

General

• Saved game size reduced by approximately 3 times, especially for large maps or games with a large number of mods.
• Mods that modify game texts, such as descriptions of secondary skills, will now correctly override translation mods
• Game will now correctly restore information such as hero path, order of heroes and towns, and list of sleeping heroes on loading a save game
• Added translation for missing texts, such as random map descriptions, quick exchange buttons, wog commander abilities, moat names
• When playing in non-English language using English Heroes III data files, game will now load all maps and campaigns using player language
• Added vcmiscrolls cheat code that gives spell scrolls for every possible spells

Multiplayer

• Added option to start vcmi server on randomly selected TCP port
• Fixed potential desynchronization between server and clients on randomization of map objects if client and server run on different operating systems
• Fixed possible freeze on receiving turn in multiplayer when player has town window opened
• Fixed possible freeze if player is attacked by another player on first day of the week
• If player disconnects from a multiplayer game, all other players will now receive notification in form of popup message instead of chat message
• Fixed potentially missing disconnection notification in multiplayer if player disconnects due to connection loss
• Game will now correctly show turn timers and simultaneous turns state on loading game

Stability

• Fixed possible crash on connecting bluetooth mouse during gameplay on Android
• VCMI will now write more detailed information to log file on crash due to uncaught exception
• Fixed crash on transfer of multiple artifacts in a backpack to another hero on starting next campaign scenario without hero that held these artifacts before
• Fixed crash on dismissing hero after picking up an artifact from hero doll
• Fixed possible crash if creature with spell before attack bonus kills unit it was attacking with spell

Mechanics

• Arrow tower will now prefer to attack more units that are viewed most dangerous instead of simply attacking top-most unit
• Score in campaigns will now be correctly tracked for games loaded from a save
• Fixed incorrect direction of Dragon Breath attack in some cases if wide creature attacks another wide creature
• Map events and town events are now triggered on start of turn of player affected by event, in line with H3 instead of triggering on start of new day for all players
• Neutral towns should now have initial garrison and weekly growth of garrison identical to H3
• It is now possible to buy a new war machine in town if hero has different war machine in the slot
• Fixed possible integer overflow if hero has unit with total AI value of over 2^31
• Unicorn Glade in Rampart now correctly requires Dendroid Arches and not Homestead
• Game will no longer place obstacles on ship-to-ship battles, in line with H3
• Game will now place obstacles in battles in villages (towns without forts)
• Battles in villages (towns without forts) now always occur on battlefield of native terrain
• Fixed pathfinding through subterranean gates located on right edge of the map or next to terra incognita
• Chain Lightning will now skip over creatures that are immune to this spell instead of targeting them but dealing no damage
• Commanders spell resistance now uses golem-like logic which reduces damage instead of using dwarf-style change to block spell
• It is now possible to target empty hex for shooters with area attack, such as Magog or Lich
• View Earth will no longer reveal position of enemy heroes and towns
• It is now possible to sell Grail, in line with Heroes III
• Jeddite is no longer female
• Mutare and Mutare Drake are now Overlord and not Warlock
• Elixir of Life no longer affects siege machines
• Banned skills known by hero now have minimal chance (1) instead of 0 to appear on levelup
• The Transport Artifact victory condition fulfilled by the enemy AI will no longer trigger a victory for human players if “standard victory” is enabled on the map

Video / Audio

• Fixed playback of audio stream with different formats from video files in some Heroes 3 versions
• Video playback will not be replaced by a black square when another dialogue box is on top of the video.
• When resuming video playback, the video will now be continued instead of being restarted.
• Reduced video decompression artefacts for video formats that store RGB rather than YUV data.
• Intro videos are now played inside a frame on resolutions higher than 800×600 instead of filling entire screen
• Re-enabled idle animations for Conflux creatures in battles
• .webm video with vp8 / vp9 codec are now supported on every platform
• It is now possible to provide external audio stream for a video file (e.g. for translations)
• It is now possible to provide external subtitles for a video file
• Game will now correctly resume playback of terrain music on closing scenario information window in campaigns instead of playing main theme
• Background music theme will now play at lower volume while intro speech in campaign intro / outro is playing
• Added workaround for playback of corrupted BladeFWCampaign.mp3 music file
• Fixed computation of audio length for formats other than .wav. This fixes incorrect text scrolling speed in campaign intro/outro
• Game will now use Noto family true type font to display characters not preset in Heroes III fonts
• Added option to scale all in-game fonts when scalable true type fonts are in use
• Some of the assets provided by VCMI are now available in higher resolution
• Implemented support for semi-transparent spell effects, such as Life Drain or Resurrection (and many others)

Interface

• It is now possible to search for a map object using Ctrl+F hotkey
• Holding Alt while using move unit button on Exchange screen will now move entire army except for single unit in this slot
• Added option to drag map with right-click
• Added hotkeys to reorder list of owned towns or heroes
• The number of units resurrected using the Life Drain ability is now written to the combat log.
• Fixed order of popup dialogs after battle.
• Creature window now displays source of all bonuses that creature has, such as creature ability, hero skill, hero artifact, etc.
• Reduced font used for creature abilities description to reduce text clipping
• Right-click on wandering monster on adventure map will now also show creature level and faction it belongs to
• Added additional information to map right-click popup dialog: map author, map creation date, map version
• Added scrollbars for selection of starting town, starting hero, and tavern invite if number of objects is too large to fit into the screen
• Fixed incorrect battle turn queue displaying incorrect turn order when all units have waited
• Semi-transparent shadows now correctly update their transparency during fading effects, such as resource pickups
• Fixed swapped Overlord and Warlock models on adventure map
• Fixed Heroes III bug – swapped icons of View Earth and View Air
• Game will now save all names for human player in hotseat mode
• Added unassigned by default shortcuts for toggling visibility of visitable and blocked tiles
• Spellbook button in battle is now blocked if hero has no spellbook
• Adventure map will no longer scroll if window is not in focus
• Removed second info window when player loses his last town
• Fixed hero path not updating correctly after hiring or dismissing creatures
• Fixed missing description of a stack artifact when accessed through unit window
• Fixed text overflow on campaign scenario window if campaign name is too long
• Recruiting hero in town will now play “new construction” sound
• Game will now correctly update displayed hero path when hiring or dismissing creatures that give movement penalty
• Game will now show level, faction and attack range of wandering monsters in right-click popup window
• Hovering over owned hero will now show movement points information in status bar
• Quick backpack window is now also accessible via Shift+mouse click, similar to HD Mod
• It is now possible to sort artifacts in backpack by cost, slot, or rarity class
• Fixed incorrect display of names of VCMI maps in scenario selection if multiple VCMI map are present in list
• Fixed bug leading to inability to select larger number of “CPU only players” in random map generation menu
• It is now possible to delete saved games
• Game will now promt to delete saves from no longer supported versions of VCMI
• It is now possible to use scroll in touch popup windows
• Name of spell provided by Shrine is now displayed in yellow color
• Fixed right-click popup on hero in town placed outside of screen boundaries on low resolutions
• Fixed misaligned button in 2-player alliance selector in random map generation menu
• Damage range of Ballista in unit window now accounts for hero attack skill, in line with Heroes III
• Changed format of automatic autosave to more human-readable version
• Names of autosave folders are now left-aligned in save game list

Random Maps Generator

• Implemented connection option ‘forcePortal’
• It is now possible to connect zone to itself using pair of portals
• It is now possible for a random map template to change game settings
• Road settings will now be correctly loaded when opening random map setup tab
• Roads placed on the maps will now be curved a little bit to improve the look of the maps.
• Added support for banning objects per zones
• Added support for customizing objects frequency, value, and count per zone
• Fixed values of Pandora Boxes with creatures to be in line with H3:SoD
• Added sealed zone types, for entirely unpassable zones.
• It is now possible to connect two zones with multiple connections of same or different types

Campaigns

• It is now possible to use .zip archive for VCMI campaigns instead of raw gzip stream
• Fixed handling of hero placeholders in VCMI map format (.vmap)
• Fixed not functioning hero carryover in VCMI campaigns
• Added support for campaign outro videos, such as outro in “Song for the Father” campaign
• Added support for rim image for intro video, such as opening videos in Heroes Chronicles
• Added support for custom loading screen in campaigns
• Added support for custom region definitions (such as background images) for VCMI campaigns

Adventure AI

• Greatly improved decision-making of NullkillerAI
• NullkillerAI will now act differently based on difficulty level
• Fixed several cases where Nullkiller AI can count same dangerous object twice, doubling expected army loss.
• Nullkiller is now capable of visiting configurable objects from mods
• Nullkiller now uses whirlpools for map movement
• Fixed possible crash on AI attempting to visit town that is already being visited by this hero
• It is now possible to configure NullkillerAI parameters separately for each game difficulty
• Extended hardcoded logic of AI not taking creatures from Garrisons to all Heroes III: Restoration of Erathia campaigns, in line with original game

Combat AI

• VCMI will now use BattleAI for battles with neutral enemies by default
• Fixed bug where BattleAI attempts to move double-wide unit to an unreachable hex
• Fixed a bug causing BattleAI to focus on unreachable targets and ignoring reachable enemies
• AI can now correctly estimate effect of Dragon Breath and other similar abilities
• Battle AI should now avoid ending turn on the moat
• Fixed case where BattleAI will go around the map to attack ranged units if direct path is blocked by another unit
• Fixed evaluation of effects of waiting if unit is under haste effect by Battle AI
• Battle AI can now use location spells
• Battle AI will now correctly avoid moving flying units into dangerous obstacles such as moat

Launcher

• Implemented support for multiple mod presets allowing player to quickly switch between them
• Added new Start Game page to Launcher which is now used when starting the game
• Added option to create empty mod preset to quickly disable all mods
• Added button to update all installed mods to Start Game page
• Added diagnostics to detect common issues with Heroes III data files
• Added built-in help descriptions for functionalities such as data files import to better explain them to players
• It is now always possible to disable or uninstall a mod. Any mods that depend on this mod will be automatically disabled
• It is now always possible to update a mod, even if there are mods that depend on this mod.
• It is now possible to enable mod that conflicts with already active mod. Conflicting mods will be automatically disabled
• If main mod is disabled, all its submods will have their active or inactive status shown as greyed-out for clarity
• If mod depends or conflicts with a submod, Launcher will now also show name of parent mod in list of dependencies / conflicts
• Game will now cache result of mod repository checkout and restore it immediately on next start. This removes flickering when game fills list of available mods.
• Screenshot and Changelog tabs in mod description are now disabled for mods that do not have them.
• Launcher will now correctly show conflicts on both sides – if mod A is marked as conflicting with B, then information on this conflict will be shown in description of both mod A and mod B (instead of only in mod B)
• Added Swedish translation
• Added better diagnostics for gog installer extraction errors
• It is no longer possible to start installation or update for a mod that is already being downloaded
• Fixed detection of existing Heroes III Complete or Shadow of Death data files during import

Map Editor

• It is now possible to remove any map object as part of timed event
• Implemented tracking of building requirements for Building Dialog
• Added build/demolish/enable/disable all buildings options to Building Dialog in town properties
• Added support for customization of heroes artifacts
• Implemented configuration of patrol radius for heroes
• It is now possible to set spells allowed or required to be present in Mages Guild
• It is now possible to add timed events to a town
• Fixed editor not marking mod as dependency if spells from mod are used in town Mages Guild or in hero starting spells
• It is now possible to choose road types for random map generation in editor
• Validator will now warn in case if map has players with no heroes or towns
• Fixed broken transparency handling on some adventure map objects from mods
• Fixed duplicated list of spells in Mage Guild in copy-pasted towns
• Removed separate versioning of map editor. Map editor now has same version as VCMI
• Timed events interfaces now counts days from 1, instead of from 0
• Added Recent Files to File Menu and Toolbar
• Fixed crash on attempting to save map with random dwelling

Modding

• Json configuration files from different mods no longer can override each other to reduce possibility of a file name clash
• Game will now load high-resolution assets when xbrz upscaler is in use from Data2x, Data3x, Data4x, or Sprites2x, Sprites3x, Sprites4x directories.
• Game will now load high-resolution movies when xbrz upscaler is in use from Video2x, Video3x, Video4x directories
• Added support for configurable flaggable objects that can provide bonuses or daily income to owning player
• Added support for soft dependencies for mods, that only affect mod loading order (and as result – override order), without requiring dependent mod or allowing access to its identifiers
• It is now possible to provide translations for mods that modify strings from original game, such as secondary skill descriptions
• It is now possible to embed json data directly into mod.json instead of using list of files
• Implemented detection of potential conflicts between mods. To enable, open Launcher and set “Mod Validation” option to “Full”
• Fixed multiple issues with configurable town buildings
• Added documentation for configurable town buildings. See docs/Moddders/Entities_Format/Town_Buildings_Format.md
• Replaced some of hardcoded town buildings with configurable buildings. These building types are now deprecated and will be removed in future.
• Added support for explicitly visitable town buildings that will activate only on click and not on construction or on hero visit (Mana Vortex from HotA)
• It is now possible to add guards to a configurable objects. All H3 creature banks are now implemented as configurable object.
• It is now possible to define starting position of units in a guarded configurable object
• It is now possible to add description to an object with “market” handler
• Added canCastWithoutSkip parameter to a spell. If such spell is cast by a creature, its turn will not end after a spellcast
• Added castOnlyOnSelf parameter to a spell. Creature that can cast this spell can only cast it on themselves
• Mod can now provide pregenerated assets in place of autogenerated, such as large spellbook.
• Added support for ‘fused’ artifacts, as alternative to combined artifacts
• Added support for custom music and opening sound for a battlefield
• Added support for multiple music tracks for towns
• Added support for multiple music tracks for terrains on adventure map
• Fixed several cases where vcmi will report errors in json without specifying filename of invalid file
• Fixed selection of gendered sprites for heroes on adventure map
• It is now possible to change minimal values of primary skills for heroes
• Added support for HotA Bank building from Factory
• Added support for HotA Grotto buiding from Cove
• Added support for HotA-style 8th creature in town
• Town building can now define war machine produced in this building (Blacksmith or Ballista Yard)
• Town building can now define provided fortifications – health of walls, towers, presence of moat, identifier of creature shooter on tower
• War Machines Factory no longer unconditionally contain war machines from the original game, allowing mods to define list of war machines from scratch
• Added MECHANICAL bonus
• Added DISINTEGRATE bonus
• Added INVINCIBLE bonus
• Added PRISM_HEX_ATTACK_BREATH bonus
• Added THIEVES_GUILD_ACCESS bonus that changes amount of information available in thieves guild
• TimesStackLevelUpdater now supports commanders
• Black market restock period setting now correctly restocks on specified date instead of restocking on all dates other than specified one
• Json Validator will now attempt to detect typos when encountering unknown property in Json
• Added translate missing command that will export only untranslated strings into translationsMissing directory, separated per mod
• Added support for text subtitiles for video files
• Added validation of objects with “market” and “flaggable” handlers
• Added “special” property for secondary skills