Many thanks for making such a complete video overview about our project! Fheroes2 is still in active development. Some issues with android build are going to be fixed in the nearest release. Works on video enhancements are on as well. Currently fheroes2 supports all native resolutions of your OS and your monitor. So, if you want to add some lower wide screen resolutions, you can add a custom one within your OS and fheroes2 will support it. Talking about AI, there're still lots of work to do. But we're aiming to make really competitive AI opponents soon, so even experienced player would enjoy tough battles. In fact, 1.0 release is just a first step towards expanding the game. In future, new map editor, game expansion, android controls rework, online multiplayer etc are going to be introduced by fheroes2 team to make Heroes2 game shine!
@@lardosmug Sure. Map editor is among the nearest stages in our project roadmap. Editor would be the first step for making map generator and adding new game content, like objects, artifacts etc.
@@fheroes2 Then I can't wait! It always felt sad Heroes 2 had such a bad random map generator. Hope someone starts the same kind of project for the first game!
I'm impressed that you guys took the original fheroes2 source and decided to go with it. 5-6 years ago I was looking through fHeroes2 source code and to be honest, it was complete mess with no perspective to implement netplay nor decent AI here. I'm curious if you share the opinion with me. Wish you best look with the project.
2 quick notes for those seeing this early: 1) Heroes 2 is on sale on GOG today (Monday): af.gog.com/en/game/heroes_of_might_and_magic_2_gold_edition?as=1673737379 Don't worry if you miss it - sales are frequent. 2) I'm still editing The Clearing (map playthrough mentioned in the video) - I'll upload it once it's ready. Thanks!
Nice to see Heroes 2 gets some amount of love after all these years. I know that 3 is the best one in the series, and rightfully so, but I always had a soft spot for the second game, especially the art style and music. Will definitely try this mod with my GoG version of the game.
Norovo wtf?? 4 years ago you've got me back into Age of Empires 2 and now you're getting me back into Heroes 2?? My man, please chill! On a serious note thank you for the video!! It's great to see the community pulling off amazing projects like this one
People in 1997: I wish these graphics were better in HoM&M2, imagine what level of graphics PC would be able to handle in 2023! People in 2023: Yay bro let's go play HoM&M2 on my i7.
That is awesome! HoMM2 was one of my first games on PC i drooled upon as a teenager back then. Homm3 may be superior in various ways, but it is the 2nd part that bears the magic cozy adventurous vibe that is lacking in the following sequels.
On a related topic, there's a mod for _Heroes III_ that turns the game into _Heroes II._ It's simply called _"Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Succession Wars",_ and it's still in active development. It adds a new faction to the _Heroes II_ roster with new units, and it mixes the style of _II_ with the gameplay of _III_ very well! Current public release is a bit buggy, but a new version is out soon-ish.
@@conceptualelegance- Well, there _sorta_ is, but not with carry-over between the scenarios. The Wizard's Land series of scenarios have been converted, but as with H2 Gold you have to play them separately, and there are also stand-alone versions of the H1 campaign scenarios.
So glad this exists! Useful links: ⭐ Buy Heroes of Might and Magic 2 Gold Edition at GOG (affiliate link): af.gog.com/en/game/heroes_of_might_and_magic_2_gold_edition?as=1673737379 ⭐ Fheroes2 Project homepage: github.com/ihhub/fheroes2 ⭐ Download page: github.com/ihhub/fheroes2/releases ⭐ Installation guide (Windows, Android, etc.): github.com/ihhub/fheroes2/blob/master/docs/INSTALL.md ⭐ The Clearing (example map playthrough): ruclips.net/video/NP-4OfScXqA/видео.html Please note I can't help with individual technical problems - sorry. I suggest asking for help on the official Discord or other community pages if needed.
As someone who's absolute favorite heroes game is heroes 2, this makes me SO happy to see, I was playing the mod that made heroes 2 more like heroes 3 but it sadly hasn't seen an update to it recently. I really hope that it will get updated as I just love playing it, even if its still very buggy.
Its so weird to see a long forgotten game like heros of migjt and magic show up in my feed. I spent many hours on homm3 as a kid so its in my heart forever. Keep up the good work lad!
Couple things to note about your graphics and upscaling feature. First thing out of the way is bigger resolution -> smaller objects. That is, in fact how things will always work with 2D games and absolutely nothing wrong with that. Increasing the game's FoV and extending the UI with higher resolution is much more preferable than not being able to change it at all. That out of the way, the game does support upscaling, albeit basic. At least on Windows, you can go to the appdata folder and change a value in the config file to make the game software rendered. This will effectively make it run in your native resolution in a borderless window mode and the upscaling is handled entirely by the game now. There are 2 options in that config that will change how the game upscales. You have the linear upscaling algorithm and the nearest neighbour. Linear ofc being the default of how for example your nvidia drivers will upscale a game running on lower than desktop resolution and is very blurry. With the nearest neighbour algorithm you can however make the game upscale with pixel perfect precision if you pick a resolution that is a whole fraction of your desktop resolution (for 1440p and 4K I recommend picking an in-game resolution of 1280x720 like you did in the video - with 1080p monitor I'd choose either 1080 itself or 960x540). Now you have a perfectly crispy looking game without any artifacting as it was intended. More upscaling methods may even come in the future.
Great project, I love it. Once online multiplayer hits off, combined with modding ability for the community as well, that could be the recipe for success and longevity
*Signed in on Patreon immediatly* That is the best news I heard in a long time. Actually Heroes 2 got me into that Video-Game-Hobby of mine and it keeps a special place in my heart even for part 3 is the clearly better game. I remember the fierce battles I had with my brother, as his knights took on my sinister necromancers! Thank you fopr bringig back a important part from my childhood! PS: Archibald for king!
I'm really glad. Heroes 3 was one of the first games I've played, and I was always curious about the prequels, but heroes2 eluded me. By the time I've got it, I couldn't play with it due to compatibility issues. I will experience Fheroes2 without any prior knowledge, and I already know it will be a great time!
Dude.. I would love some heroes 2 content in this channel.. As long as you stay true to your destination, you will have success. Keep it up, your content is awesome and I'd like to see more interesting challenges/playthroughs/maps/...
This one was my favorite until IV came along. I hope someone does that one too as it was really neat being able to use your hero on the battlefield instead of them being sidelined. In the meantime I'm going to have to go check this out because I'm super nostalgic for the second one.
Because heroes 3 is the most balanced out of the first 3 games. It is better in everything where heroes 2 is lacking. And 4 is just different altogether as it got a different production team from the first 3. Its not a bad game. I played plenty of 4 over the years. But it doesent give you that authentic heroes experience we loved over the years. And thats why they went back to that experience of gaming in heroes 5 as 4 wasent that popular among the fans
@@ran4erep heroes 3 can upgrade every creature from a base 1 time. heroes 2 cant do that. and some creatures in heroes 2 such as the green dragon can be upgraded 2 times. thats a difference in balance. you can get better economics in heroes 3 to buy everything your base produces. that is a difference in in balance. the weakest town in heroes 2 produces the best creatures with 65hp while the black dragon or titan per say has 300? that is a difference in balance. i know what the idea is. the lower hp scaling creatures has champs that scales better in atk or defense, and so that suposedly balances things out with a warlocks with no def and atk, right? isn that the idea? but then they scale extremely well in magic. and aoe magic from a warlocks? they would just insta wipe the floor with crusaders. because every creature from his town has the lowest scaling HP in the game. i would call out the imbalance in these things. thats why i think heroes 2 should be modded so you can upgrade every creature atleast one time. if not that, atleaste buff up the weakest creatures in the game, as several things should be reworked for heroes 2.. and here is what i would do with them. for example the crusader should maybe have 85Hp and not 65. and instead of 4 creatures of it each week, you get 3 of it since it has more HP. i think the phoenix could get 50more HP on it. the cyclops could get another 30 HP i think. Bone dragon could get another 50 while the titan and black dragon has 50-75 HP taken off of them. i think skills should be reworked and modded to be better or different, so crusaders and barbarians per say, doesent fall off too hard against magic. these are just a few among several things i find lacking in my experience with the game. what do you think?
@@jarlsigurdstorvann9885 I think heroes 2 resurrection is the best game. The magic sistem is perfect. On heroes 3 magic is really unbalanced, very boring a mass haste or mass slow with a level 1 spell very easy to get that grants you victory, that was a very big mistake… sorceress is a very funny castle, i think barbarian and knight are funny castles too, really cheap and fast to buy when the other castles don’t have titans or black dragons. That “unbalanced” only applies to huge maps. In other maps you can create fastly an army and win to other castles and even steal their powerful creatures when they just buit their building. With antimagic you can ignore the spellcasters power but they can’t ignore a 15 attack or defense. Heroes 2 has a perfect balance if knowing how to play it. For example, a necromancer or sorceress with a barbarian hero can do huge damage with powerful creatures (vampires, liches, legion of skeletons or bone dragons) or with really fast creatures (druids, elves, fenixes and even unicorns if you use haste spell and you have a large creature in front of you, you can attack the first one killing lots of enemies before they could do anything, sorceress is a very funny castle). Same using a knight hero giving huge defense. Or you can use a warlock or sorceress hero with a barbarian castle (with bless or lots of magic power). You can make lots of combinations that you can’t easily do on heroes 3. Necromancers can build bone dragons easily on the first week if you don’t play impossible game so its few hit points are not a problem. They do 25-45 damage, only black dragons do more damage. Crusaders with antimagic and 10-15 extra defense are very dificult to kill unless you have titans or black dragons and with their two attacks and having moral and luck you can do HUGE damage (even more with bless spell). Really funny against necromancers. Cyclops are a very funny creature because of the chance of paralyze spell and two hex attack. And if they are blessed they do 24 damage each for only 750 gold and 1 crystal. Each titan cost 5.000 gold and 2 gems (and do 20-30 damage) so you only need to conquest them before they could buy cloud castle two times (40 gems) and earn so much money and gems to amass lots of titans. I love stealing one of those castles when they have bought their cloud castle and only have a few titans so I can use their titans with a really strong might hero with 10 attack or defense or 10 each or a fast sorceress army with 10 spell power. Each castle has its own gameplay and strategies and each map size is different. Heroes 3 is a very good game I enjoyed a lot but magic sistem ruined it (unless I love dread knights, my favourite unit). On heroes 3 you can’t use funny spells if you haven’t got its magic school (dimension door or town portal or mirror image are boring without expert magic) and if you have expert magic, simple spells like haste or slow are so powerful so it’s boring too… huge mistake. Heroes 2 resurrection with improving IA (not attacking always to ranged attack even when it is stupid to do it) and adding wait button and other improves is the best heroes game of the series in my opinion. Ahh the grail search is very very funny on heroes 2 having a super powerful artifact adding 12 to one skill or 6 to two skills (unless you get the knowledge one although if you have dimension door maybe you can forgive him… 😂). When you find a no-barbarian hero with 15-2-7-5 you know he found the ultimate artifact and you have panic but also you can be excited because you can steal his ultimate artifact if you manage to beat him. That exciting dissapeared on heroes 3 with his boring grial, other great mistake. Ok, on heroes 3 each faction is strong, more balanced on large maps, but heroes 2 esence dissapeared (the funiests genies, ghosts, phoenixes… they dissapeared too). I have played tons of hours to heroes 2, heroes 3 and heroes 4 (also played heroes 5 but i was older and had less time to play). But heroes 2 resurrection is my favourite game :) I wish they made a random map generator, I don’t know if they added it on the latest version… it would make me very happy :) do any of you know if there is a random map generator for heroes 2 resurrection or if they said they would add it? Thanks 🙏 Ahh one more thing: heroes 2 campaigns are really funny too, specially the last scenario :)
You unironically blew my mind by calling a sequel game a 'younger brother'. Never really thought of it that way, kinda puts it into new perspective in a way, ha.
I still vividly remember walking into software, etc. and buying the very first heroes of might and magic game. It was the first strategy game I really got into. It’s been my favorite genre ever since.
nVidia and AMD graphics cards have a feature in their control panels called "integer scaling". When playing in lower resolutions, pixels are rendered as 2x2, 3x3, 4x4 squares. Depending on the resolution of the game. So 1280x720 on 1440p monitors would look super sharp. Or 960x540 on FullHD monitors. Everything would be twice as big, and not blurry.
I still play Heroes II to this day, imo the magic system is just straight up better compared to III's, and the fewer skills (better balance between them) and smaller battles (5 units instead of 7) lead to a overall tighter gameplay. I would love if fheroes2 implemented an option somewhere to set the limit of recruitable heroes to something other than 8. For map makers if they can make it so you can adjust this number per AI/Player that can lead to some cool maps (I already have ideas).
The recruitable heroes thing is such a good idea.. Also for HOMM3.. you can only do in homm3 so that you can have ONE hero or all avalaible heroes for recruiting :( not like only 2 or 4 etc.
I used to play H2 a LOT in the 90's, now having played H3 for years I'm trying go back to H2... and I don't get how I was able to live on 1250 per day!
Heroes 3 is the best Heroes entry of the series for me. But I've always thought that Heroes 2 was unjustifiable overshadowed by HOMM3 and deserving of some TLC. The music alone is worth an overhaul of the entire game. To, at last, see that Heroes 2 is being dusted off by independent developers puts my giddiness and nostalgia on overdrive. Finally! The re-emergence of Heroes of Might and Magic 2 is here!
Used to cut classes when I’m in elementary to play SC, CS, Diablo II and Half-Life Team Fortress in a café. I’m hooked at the hardcore players playing this which eventually persuaded me to play it too.
I played heroes 3 first in 98 and waa blown away..and wondered about heroes 2..heard loads about it from older cousin..but then i played heroes 2 and yeah it was great. I love them both
I'd love to see the battle AI use a Chess red-black tree strategy. I feel like it could be really good. Most actions aren't good so it should be easy to prune branches early. And you could scale the AI in ability from easy to impossible.
Man. That looks sweet. There is just one thing that both HoMM2 and 3 lacks that 4 has, that makes me pull my hair. The caravan system. "Ferry heroes" are, for me, so boreing that it keeps my enjoyment down a whole peg. I sometimes use movement cheats in HoMM3 but them its so easy to cheat with your main hero as well. Ive gotten soft/lazy compared to teenage me.
For ERA/WOG there is a great option which has all dwelling creatures join the nearest town at the end of the week. (Still have to buy them from their building.) I never play without it now.
I love this game so much! I played the demo (Broken Alliance) of Heroes II hundreds of times until the game was fully released. Still one of my absoulte favourite Heroes games of all time in the series. I just hope there will be a multiplayer online/lan to it. Cause now you only seem to be able to play hot seat?
The improvement are really good, I can't wait to try it myself and hope many fans will start making custom maps again to be played on standard mode, YAAAAAAYYYYY!
Would be awesome if someone would make same thing for Heroes 1. It also has it's own charm in it's simplicity. Smaller battlefields make for different tactics, and big sprites are fun to look at. But Heroes 1 is such a slong to play without Quick Battle, because easy battles are so common...
This look so good, what a great job! Can't however install on Android as the fh2 Toolset app is missing. Edit: I managed to just transfer the folders to the installation folder on my android. Works perfectly
I will say, for better or for worse, they've gone out of their way to fix some of the more obscure bugs of the original game. For example, you can create a hero with absolutely no units in the original game. Here? They get the default units for their class. This really only affects the "Clouds of Xeen" map, as most people never did it, but still…
Hi. I can tell you, the thing you're talking about looks like an obvious flaw of the original editor. You cannot create a hero without an army during your gameplay. So, I think the prohibiting zero army is a good step for making the game consistent and predictable. If I'm not istaken, the same issue was fixed in H3 mods as well. I know, there're some other issues were fixed in game, especially during the battle. But I thing it's good, since in the OG you could try to make some action with your troops, but they could simply skip the turn, or be stuck somewhere in the middle of the path. So creating a game from a scratch which fheroes2 is, shouldn't replicate all OG flaws, but bring clear and predictable gameplay to anyone trying this strategy for the first time, as well as old players.
one thing I would like from a Heroes 2 mod would be be to have both the original and Price of Loyalty soundtracks incorporated. Perhaps towns with 2 themes could automatically play one and then the other, for instance.
I have played this game since 1997, I had Black & White monitor then. It was difficult to tell the flag color, still it got me hooked. I was playing it today only.
One thing I like about combat in H2 is the lack of turning animation. In H3 battles, it looks so dumb when creatures turn to face their attacker. It's like those comic moments in action scenes when the hero taps a nazi guard on the shoulder and he turns round only to get knocked out.
They are two very different experiences and could be considered different games. fheroes2 is Heroes 2 with quality of life features. H3SW is a Heroes game with the rules and gameplay of Heroes 3 but with Heroes 2 graphics plus some added new things like a new faction. H3SW answers the question "What if Heroes 2 played like Heroes 3?" while fheroes2 is a very polished vanilla Heroes 2 experience. Both are enjoyable in their own ways and Heroes 2 fans are very lucky to have so much renewed attention given to it by fans and enthusiasts.
Come to think of it, it would be fun if the app allowed using custom pictures, instead of the original ones, for heroes' portraits. And maybe custom names.
Hmmhmm, looks interesting. Biggest question mark I have is regarding multiplayer and possible multiplayer improvements (simultaneous turns? And uh, optional handicaps to make the game session more balanced between players of different skill levels?). The road map that was briefly shown in the video did mention online multiplayer coming up as a future milestone, so is it hot-seat or LAN before that or not yet at all?
Yes, you can select integer scalings in the resolution menu. These will be shown with a tag like 2.0x, 3.0x etc. You'll also want to use the "nearest" filtering option instead of bilinear to have the sharpest pixels.
I did start my Heroes (and Might and Magic) journey from Heroes 2, so this game has a special place in my heart. But have you heard of this new game called Heroes of Might and Magic 3? It does not have ghosts and genies, has better balanced castles, new combat features etc.
@@wilsongalucho1142 The reason is because fheroes2 doesn't actually provide any assets or graphics, and since the original battle background was made for 640x480 in the original game, this is what fheroes2 is able to work with right now. A lot of work is being done currently in making it possible to upscale these assets so that they will both look bigger on higher resolutions and can fill more of the screen. There's also work being put into making it possible to load custom assets, so that could also potentially solve this. Anyways, this is also the same reason why any of the fan-made Heroes 3 and 4 HD mods have the battle screens and town screens in smaller windows. The benefit of fheroes2 is that it is a completely new engine with open-source code so making proper solutions is much easier.
@@Hmbs271 Oh I see, yeah not so easy to make that change. I've been impressed with how much the fans have managed to accomplish upscaling the graphics on the main map, not an easy thing to pull for sure. Thank you for explaining it.
Perhaps I missed this detail, but does it happen to "fix" the issue of when advanced AI characters are losing in battle, they will cast Armageddon as they retreat or are about to die? This always annoyed me immensely and they fixed it in HOMM3 (if I remember correctly.)
Hi! Did you manage to figure it out? If not, what system do you use (android, windows, mac, linux..)? You can find your save folder for fheroes2 by right-clicking a save in the save/load menu in-game.
@@Radiostate101 For fheroes2, all the save files are located in users->yourusername->appdata->fheroes2->files->save Note that fheroes2 and the original Heroes 2 do not have compatible save files.
Succession Wars Mod is Heroes III with HII graphics (and new original stuff) essentially. So it's totally different. fheroes2 is like HD Mod for Heroes II, SWM is like Heroes 2.5.
@@Wind_Falcon In its current state, it looks like HD mod of H3, but in future there would be lots of new features, items, adjustments and so on. Upcoming expansion would make fheroes2 not only a "mod like" enhancement, but a complete new stage of Heroes 2 evolution. ;)
Many thanks for making such a complete video overview about our project!
Fheroes2 is still in active development. Some issues with android build are going to be fixed in the nearest release.
Works on video enhancements are on as well. Currently fheroes2 supports all native resolutions of your OS and your monitor. So, if you want to add some lower wide screen resolutions, you can add a custom one within your OS and fheroes2 will support it.
Talking about AI, there're still lots of work to do. But we're aiming to make really competitive AI opponents soon, so even experienced player would enjoy tough battles.
In fact, 1.0 release is just a first step towards expanding the game. In future, new map editor, game expansion, android controls rework, online multiplayer etc are going to be introduced by fheroes2 team to make Heroes2 game shine!
Will we get better random map generation with improved editor? :D Thank you for your hard work. Rock on!
@@lardosmug Sure. Map editor is among the nearest stages in our project roadmap. Editor would be the first step for making map generator and adding new game content, like objects, artifacts etc.
@@fheroes2 Then I can't wait! It always felt sad Heroes 2 had such a bad random map generator. Hope someone starts the same kind of project for the first game!
I'm impressed that you guys took the original fheroes2 source and decided to go with it. 5-6 years ago I was looking through fHeroes2 source code and to be honest, it was complete mess with no perspective to implement netplay nor decent AI here. I'm curious if you share the opinion with me. Wish you best look with the project.
Thank yall for fheroes. I play.on mobile and its been a godsend
This is amazing. Heroes 2 is like my first child compared to Heroes 3 and it'll always have a special spot on my heart.
In* my heart!
@@tulthor2967 Nope, I'm pretty sure they have a small tumor on their heart. It'll be ok though, there's always Necromancy if it starts growing.
Both games are great 👍
2 quick notes for those seeing this early:
1) Heroes 2 is on sale on GOG today (Monday): af.gog.com/en/game/heroes_of_might_and_magic_2_gold_edition?as=1673737379
Don't worry if you miss it - sales are frequent.
2) I'm still editing The Clearing (map playthrough mentioned in the video) - I'll upload it once it's ready.
Thanks!
looking forward to some hom2 gameplay!
Graphically still my favourite HoMM. Will certainly look into this mod. Looks wonderfull!
Indeed, the atmosphere in heroes 2 is just the best of them all.
Now I want to play again!
Nice to see Heroes 2 gets some amount of love after all these years. I know that 3 is the best one in the series, and rightfully so, but I always had a soft spot for the second game, especially the art style and music. Will definitely try this mod with my GoG version of the game.
Norovo wtf??
4 years ago you've got me back into Age of Empires 2 and now you're getting me back into Heroes 2?? My man, please chill!
On a serious note thank you for the video!! It's great to see the community pulling off amazing projects like this one
People in 1997: I wish these graphics were better in HoM&M2, imagine what level of graphics PC would be able to handle in 2023!
People in 2023: Yay bro let's go play HoM&M2 on my i7.
That is awesome! HoMM2 was one of my first games on PC i drooled upon as a teenager back then. Homm3 may be superior in various ways, but it is the 2nd part that bears the magic cozy adventurous vibe that is lacking in the following sequels.
Graphics are much better in HOMM2
On a related topic, there's a mod for _Heroes III_ that turns the game into _Heroes II._ It's simply called _"Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Succession Wars",_ and it's still in active development. It adds a new faction to the _Heroes II_ roster with new units, and it mixes the style of _II_ with the gameplay of _III_ very well!
Current public release is a bit buggy, but a new version is out soon-ish.
Was wondering how the 2 might compare, was thinking about this same mod.
This is the one I'm playing, still missing some features but it is a lot of fun.
Two new factions; the Heroes 3 Fortress-inspired Witch and the loosely Cult of Baa/Dragonsand-based Dervish.
no c ampains tho
@@conceptualelegance- Well, there _sorta_ is, but not with carry-over between the scenarios. The Wizard's Land series of scenarios have been converted, but as with H2 Gold you have to play them separately, and there are also stand-alone versions of the H1 campaign scenarios.
So glad this exists!
Useful links:
⭐ Buy Heroes of Might and Magic 2 Gold Edition at GOG (affiliate link): af.gog.com/en/game/heroes_of_might_and_magic_2_gold_edition?as=1673737379
⭐ Fheroes2 Project homepage: github.com/ihhub/fheroes2
⭐ Download page: github.com/ihhub/fheroes2/releases
⭐ Installation guide (Windows, Android, etc.): github.com/ihhub/fheroes2/blob/master/docs/INSTALL.md
⭐ The Clearing (example map playthrough): ruclips.net/video/NP-4OfScXqA/видео.html
Please note I can't help with individual technical problems - sorry. I suggest asking for help on the official Discord or other community pages if needed.
As someone who's absolute favorite heroes game is heroes 2, this makes me SO happy to see, I was playing the mod that made heroes 2 more like heroes 3 but it sadly hasn't seen an update to it recently. I really hope that it will get updated as I just love playing it, even if its still very buggy.
this is actually amazing!! very c00L project!
Let's see it in action, Noro!
Great content as always.
I was just playing this game, suddenly this video was recommended on RUclips. I have been playing this game since 1997.
Its so weird to see a long forgotten game like heros of migjt and magic show up in my feed. I spent many hours on homm3 as a kid so its in my heart forever. Keep up the good work lad!
Thanks for the heads up, ima going to go download this right now.
Couple things to note about your graphics and upscaling feature. First thing out of the way is bigger resolution -> smaller objects. That is, in fact how things will always work with 2D games and absolutely nothing wrong with that. Increasing the game's FoV and extending the UI with higher resolution is much more preferable than not being able to change it at all.
That out of the way, the game does support upscaling, albeit basic. At least on Windows, you can go to the appdata folder and change a value in the config file to make the game software rendered. This will effectively make it run in your native resolution in a borderless window mode and the upscaling is handled entirely by the game now.
There are 2 options in that config that will change how the game upscales. You have the linear upscaling algorithm and the nearest neighbour. Linear ofc being the default of how for example your nvidia drivers will upscale a game running on lower than desktop resolution and is very blurry. With the nearest neighbour algorithm you can however make the game upscale with pixel perfect precision if you pick a resolution that is a whole fraction of your desktop resolution (for 1440p and 4K I recommend picking an in-game resolution of 1280x720 like you did in the video - with 1080p monitor I'd choose either 1080 itself or 960x540). Now you have a perfectly crispy looking game without any artifacting as it was intended. More upscaling methods may even come in the future.
Great project, I love it. Once online multiplayer hits off, combined with modding ability for the community as well, that could be the recipe for success and longevity
I installed the MacPorts version the other day. I love it.
Great information! Heroes 2 is the game that has aged best graphically imo, will be super nice to have more modern conveniences in it aswell!
*Signed in on Patreon immediatly*
That is the best news I heard in a long time. Actually Heroes 2 got me into that Video-Game-Hobby of mine and it keeps a special place in my heart even for part 3 is the clearly better game. I remember the fierce battles I had with my brother, as his knights took on my sinister necromancers! Thank you fopr bringig back a important part from my childhood!
PS: Archibald for king!
I'm really glad. Heroes 3 was one of the first games I've played, and I was always curious about the prequels, but heroes2 eluded me. By the time I've got it, I couldn't play with it due to compatibility issues. I will experience Fheroes2 without any prior knowledge, and I already know it will be a great time!
Dude.. I would love some heroes 2 content in this channel.. As long as you stay true to your destination, you will have success.
Keep it up, your content is awesome and I'd like to see more interesting challenges/playthroughs/maps/...
Wasn't expecting a HOMM2 video, love it 📸
This one was my favorite until IV came along. I hope someone does that one too as it was really neat being able to use your hero on the battlefield instead of them being sidelined. In the meantime I'm going to have to go check this out because I'm super nostalgic for the second one.
don't know why everybody thinks that Heroes 3 is go to game. My favorite Heroes is 2 and 4
Because heroes 3 is the most balanced out of the first 3 games. It is better in everything where heroes 2 is lacking. And 4 is just different altogether as it got a different production team from the first 3. Its not a bad game. I played plenty of 4 over the years. But it doesent give you that authentic heroes experience we loved over the years. And thats why they went back to that experience of gaming in heroes 5 as 4 wasent that popular among the fans
@@jarlsigurdstorvann9885 balanced for what? For a multiplayer...? Is that a Dota?
@@ran4erep heroes 3 can upgrade every creature from a base 1 time. heroes 2 cant do that. and some creatures in heroes 2 such as the green dragon can be upgraded 2 times. thats a difference in balance. you can get better economics in heroes 3 to buy everything your base produces. that is a difference in in balance. the weakest town in heroes 2 produces the best creatures with 65hp while the black dragon or titan per say has 300? that is a difference in balance. i know what the idea is. the lower hp scaling creatures has champs that scales better in atk or defense, and so that suposedly balances things out with a warlocks with no def and atk, right? isn that the idea? but then they scale extremely well in magic. and aoe magic from a warlocks? they would just insta wipe the floor with crusaders. because every creature from his town has the lowest scaling HP in the game. i would call out the imbalance in these things. thats why i think heroes 2 should be modded so you can upgrade every creature atleast one time. if not that, atleaste buff up the weakest creatures in the game, as several things should be reworked for heroes 2..
and here is what i would do with them. for example the crusader should maybe have 85Hp and not 65. and instead of 4 creatures of it each week, you get 3 of it since it has more HP. i think the phoenix could get 50more HP on it. the cyclops could get another 30 HP i think. Bone dragon could get another 50 while the titan and black dragon has 50-75 HP taken off of them. i think skills should be reworked and modded to be better or different, so crusaders and barbarians per say, doesent fall off too hard against magic. these are just a few among several things i find lacking in my experience with the game. what do you think?
@@jarlsigurdstorvann9885 I think heroes 2 resurrection is the best game. The magic sistem is perfect. On heroes 3 magic is really unbalanced, very boring a mass haste or mass slow with a level 1 spell very easy to get that grants you victory, that was a very big mistake… sorceress is a very funny castle, i think barbarian and knight are funny castles too, really cheap and fast to buy when the other castles don’t have titans or black dragons. That “unbalanced” only applies to huge maps. In other maps you can create fastly an army and win to other castles and even steal their powerful creatures when they just buit their building. With antimagic you can ignore the spellcasters power but they can’t ignore a 15 attack or defense. Heroes 2 has a perfect balance if knowing how to play it. For example, a necromancer or sorceress with a barbarian hero can do huge damage with powerful creatures (vampires, liches, legion of skeletons or bone dragons) or with really fast creatures (druids, elves, fenixes and even unicorns if you use haste spell and you have a large creature in front of you, you can attack the first one killing lots of enemies before they could do anything, sorceress is a very funny castle). Same using a knight hero giving huge defense. Or you can use a warlock or sorceress hero with a barbarian castle (with bless or lots of magic power). You can make lots of combinations that you can’t easily do on heroes 3. Necromancers can build bone dragons easily on the first week if you don’t play impossible game so its few hit points are not a problem. They do 25-45 damage, only black dragons do more damage. Crusaders with antimagic and 10-15 extra defense are very dificult to kill unless you have titans or black dragons and with their two attacks and having moral and luck you can do HUGE damage (even more with bless spell). Really funny against necromancers. Cyclops are a very funny creature because of the chance of paralyze spell and two hex attack. And if they are blessed they do 24 damage each for only 750 gold and 1 crystal. Each titan cost 5.000 gold and 2 gems (and do 20-30 damage) so you only need to conquest them before they could buy cloud castle two times (40 gems) and earn so much money and gems to amass lots of titans. I love stealing one of those castles when they have bought their cloud castle and only have a few titans so I can use their titans with a really strong might hero with 10 attack or defense or 10 each or a fast sorceress army with 10 spell power. Each castle has its own gameplay and strategies and each map size is different. Heroes 3 is a very good game I enjoyed a lot but magic sistem ruined it (unless I love dread knights, my favourite unit). On heroes 3 you can’t use funny spells if you haven’t got its magic school (dimension door or town portal or mirror image are boring without expert magic) and if you have expert magic, simple spells like haste or slow are so powerful so it’s boring too… huge mistake. Heroes 2 resurrection with improving IA (not attacking always to ranged attack even when it is stupid to do it) and adding wait button and other improves is the best heroes game of the series in my opinion. Ahh the grail search is very very funny on heroes 2 having a super powerful artifact adding 12 to one skill or 6 to two skills (unless you get the knowledge one although if you have dimension door maybe you can forgive him… 😂). When you find a no-barbarian hero with 15-2-7-5 you know he found the ultimate artifact and you have panic but also you can be excited because you can steal his ultimate artifact if you manage to beat him. That exciting dissapeared on heroes 3 with his boring grial, other great mistake. Ok, on heroes 3 each faction is strong, more balanced on large maps, but heroes 2 esence dissapeared (the funiests genies, ghosts, phoenixes… they dissapeared too). I have played tons of hours to heroes 2, heroes 3 and heroes 4 (also played heroes 5 but i was older and had less time to play). But heroes 2 resurrection is my favourite game :) I wish they made a random map generator, I don’t know if they added it on the latest version… it would make me very happy :) do any of you know if there is a random map generator for heroes 2 resurrection or if they said they would add it? Thanks 🙏
Ahh one more thing: heroes 2 campaigns are really funny too, specially the last scenario :)
@@ran4erep same
This are great news for Heroes players !
Love this❤
First of all thanks for the amazing info :D
But you should definitly add the project patreon page in the video desciption :p
You unironically blew my mind by calling a sequel game a 'younger brother'. Never really thought of it that way, kinda puts it into new perspective in a way, ha.
I still vividly remember walking into software, etc. and buying the very first heroes of might and magic game. It was the first strategy game I really got into. It’s been my favorite genre ever since.
Still find myself humming tracks from the OG Heroes.
this made me pull up my HOMM Compendium manual; 136 pages of delicious HOMM and HOMM2 information; straight from 1997.
nVidia and AMD graphics cards have a feature in their control panels called "integer scaling". When playing in lower resolutions, pixels are rendered as 2x2, 3x3, 4x4 squares. Depending on the resolution of the game.
So 1280x720 on 1440p monitors would look super sharp. Or 960x540 on FullHD monitors.
Everything would be twice as big, and not blurry.
I still play Heroes II to this day, imo the magic system is just straight up better compared to III's, and the fewer skills (better balance between them) and smaller battles (5 units instead of 7) lead to a overall tighter gameplay.
I would love if fheroes2 implemented an option somewhere to set the limit of recruitable heroes to something other than 8. For map makers if they can make it so you can adjust this number per AI/Player that can lead to some cool maps (I already have ideas).
The recruitable heroes thing is such a good idea.. Also for HOMM3.. you can only do in homm3 so that you can have ONE hero or all avalaible heroes for recruiting :( not like only 2 or 4 etc.
I used to play H2 a LOT in the 90's, now having played H3 for years I'm trying go back to H2... and I don't get how I was able to live on 1250 per day!
I know HOMM3 is the best game but man... do I love HOMM2 ! It has this vibe that I don't find in HOMM3 that hooked me for YEARS !
Love the QOL upgrades!
Heroes 3 is the best Heroes entry of the series for me. But I've always thought that Heroes 2 was unjustifiable overshadowed by HOMM3 and deserving of some TLC. The music alone is worth an overhaul of the entire game. To, at last, see that Heroes 2 is being dusted off by independent developers puts my giddiness and nostalgia on overdrive. Finally! The re-emergence of Heroes of Might and Magic 2 is here!
Are you going to do a similar review of VCMI? (an open-source Heroes 3 rewrite, runs on Android too)
Do you plan doing any HoMM5.5 playthroughs in the future?
I'd like to see that. Along with HOMM3, I only enjoyed HOMM5 between all the other titles of the series.
Used to cut classes when I’m in elementary to play SC, CS, Diablo II and Half-Life Team Fortress in a café. I’m hooked at the hardcore players playing this which eventually persuaded me to play it too.
Fuck yeah, and only 26 years later.
Best HoM&M game out there, although the 3rd game has some notable improvments.
I played heroes 3 first in 98 and waa blown away..and wondered about heroes 2..heard loads about it from older cousin..but then i played heroes 2 and yeah it was great. I love them both
I'd love to see the battle AI use a Chess red-black tree strategy. I feel like it could be really good. Most actions aren't good so it should be easy to prune branches early.
And you could scale the AI in ability from easy to impossible.
I wasn't expecting a shout out for homm2, been trying to buy this game since 2010
I have been really enjoying this new engine!
Just downloaded - looks and plays fantastic!
Man. That looks sweet.
There is just one thing that both HoMM2 and 3 lacks that 4 has, that makes me pull my hair.
The caravan system.
"Ferry heroes" are, for me, so boreing that it keeps my enjoyment down a whole peg. I sometimes use movement cheats in HoMM3 but them its so easy to cheat with your main hero as well.
Ive gotten soft/lazy compared to teenage me.
I agree hero chaining can be very tedious. Fortunately against the AI it isn't always necessary
For ERA/WOG there is a great option which has all dwelling creatures join the nearest town at the end of the week. (Still have to buy them from their building.) I never play without it now.
cool that people still enjoy heroes 2
I love this game so much! I played the demo (Broken Alliance) of Heroes II hundreds of times until the game was fully released. Still one of my absoulte favourite Heroes games of all time in the series. I just hope there will be a multiplayer online/lan to it. Cause now you only seem to be able to play hot seat?
Amazing overview 👌 thanks!
The improvement are really good, I can't wait to try it myself and hope many fans will start making custom maps again to be played on standard mode, YAAAAAAYYYYY!
can we revolutionize homm 4 please? easily the best game out of the whole franchise, just needs that finishing touch
Would be awesome if someone would make same thing for Heroes 1. It also has it's own charm in it's simplicity. Smaller battlefields make for different tactics, and big sprites are fun to look at.
But Heroes 1 is such a slong to play without Quick Battle, because easy battles are so common...
This look so good, what a great job!
Can't however install on Android as the fh2 Toolset app is missing.
Edit: I managed to just transfer the folders to the installation folder on my android. Works perfectly
Heroes 2 Ghost Plant... was such a pog map.
I will say, for better or for worse, they've gone out of their way to fix some of the more obscure bugs of the original game. For example, you can create a hero with absolutely no units in the original game. Here? They get the default units for their class. This really only affects the "Clouds of Xeen" map, as most people never did it, but still…
Hi. I can tell you, the thing you're talking about looks like an obvious flaw of the original editor. You cannot create a hero without an army during your gameplay. So, I think the prohibiting zero army is a good step for making the game consistent and predictable. If I'm not istaken, the same issue was fixed in H3 mods as well.
I know, there're some other issues were fixed in game, especially during the battle. But I thing it's good, since in the OG you could try to make some action with your troops, but they could simply skip the turn, or be stuck somewhere in the middle of the path.
So creating a game from a scratch which fheroes2 is, shouldn't replicate all OG flaws, but bring clear and predictable gameplay to anyone trying this strategy for the first time, as well as old players.
I love this game but it will always be attached to weird memories of discovering it in my teen years during a chess tournament.
Why are the Ghosts at 1:22 wearing Santa hats?
They are the ghosts of our Heroes past? ;)
@@demogorgonzola "You fed tier 6 units to that cave monster you craven!"
There exists a modified pack of the original data with "Christmas-like" modifications of original sprites.
I have the original CDROM from 1996 - can I use these files to install the game?
Yep, they work with fheroes2.
Why compare? All the games are fantastic! 👍
Not sure why I missed out on this series during it's time
Sseth has directed me towards Hero's Hour, Songs of Conquest etc
This is how games live forever: When they become open source
one thing I would like from a Heroes 2 mod would be be to have both the original and Price of Loyalty soundtracks incorporated. Perhaps towns with 2 themes could automatically play one and then the other, for instance.
I've been playing the succession wars version of HoMM2. I'm assuming this wouldn't affect that?
I have played this game since 1997, I had Black & White monitor then. It was difficult to tell the flag color, still it got me hooked. I was playing it today only.
My first PC game ❤ It is very cool that there is such an update, I will definitely try to play it
What about mod to H3 - H3 The succesion wars? It works with HD mod, it takes mechanics from H3 and put it in H2 also.
Yep, both projects are similar but different. Both look promising
gonna play that on macOS, so great!!
One thing I like about combat in H2 is the lack of turning animation. In H3 battles, it looks so dumb when creatures turn to face their attacker. It's like those comic moments in action scenes when the hero taps a nazi guard on the shoulder and he turns round only to get knocked out.
How do it compere to the heroes of might and magic 3 succession wars mod?
They are two very different experiences and could be considered different games. fheroes2 is Heroes 2 with quality of life features. H3SW is a Heroes game with the rules and gameplay of Heroes 3 but with Heroes 2 graphics plus some added new things like a new faction.
H3SW answers the question "What if Heroes 2 played like Heroes 3?" while fheroes2 is a very polished vanilla Heroes 2 experience. Both are enjoyable in their own ways and Heroes 2 fans are very lucky to have so much renewed attention given to it by fans and enthusiasts.
Pretty damn cool, i have never played heroes 2, looks quite similar.
Come to think of it, it would be fun if the app allowed using custom pictures, instead of the original ones, for heroes' portraits. And maybe custom names.
Can i use the Dos version of the HOMM2 succesion wars?
it's the only thing i have...😢
In case you didn't already figure it out, then yes it works perfectly fine with that.
I really liked 2 because there is a faction with multiple dragons
Hmmhmm, looks interesting. Biggest question mark I have is regarding multiplayer and possible multiplayer improvements (simultaneous turns? And uh, optional handicaps to make the game session more balanced between players of different skill levels?). The road map that was briefly shown in the video did mention online multiplayer coming up as a future milestone, so is it hot-seat or LAN before that or not yet at all?
Hotseat is already implemented. Online multiplayer still has a ways to go.
This is awesome! I would love to see you do a HoMM2 series or two... ;)
Is upscaling fixed since the past 6 months?
Yes, you can select integer scalings in the resolution menu. These will be shown with a tag like 2.0x, 3.0x etc. You'll also want to use the "nearest" filtering option instead of bilinear to have the sharpest pixels.
@@Hmbs271Sounds great, I will give it a try :)
Wooo letsgo!
Awww yisss - best way to dispel the monday blues!
I did start my Heroes (and Might and Magic) journey from Heroes 2, so this game has a special place in my heart.
But have you heard of this new game called Heroes of Might and Magic 3? It does not have ghosts and genies, has better balanced castles, new combat features etc.
The only thing I don't like about the version is that battles don't happen in full screen, everything else is great.
Yep, currently youcan only have it fullscreen if you choose 640x480 resolution, aka the original resolution.
@@Hmbs271 do you know the reason?
@@wilsongalucho1142 The reason is because fheroes2 doesn't actually provide any assets or graphics, and since the original battle background was made for 640x480 in the original game, this is what fheroes2 is able to work with right now.
A lot of work is being done currently in making it possible to upscale these assets so that they will both look bigger on higher resolutions and can fill more of the screen.
There's also work being put into making it possible to load custom assets, so that could also potentially solve this.
Anyways, this is also the same reason why any of the fan-made Heroes 3 and 4 HD mods have the battle screens and town screens in smaller windows. The benefit of fheroes2 is that it is a completely new engine with open-source code so making proper solutions is much easier.
@@Hmbs271 Oh I see, yeah not so easy to make that change. I've been impressed with how much the fans have managed to accomplish upscaling the graphics on the main map, not an easy thing to pull for sure. Thank you for explaining it.
I play H3 even to this day, havent played H2 back in the day, but I see the charm and beauty of the game.
in my own case, I always prefered homam 2 over 3 :)
Perhaps I missed this detail, but does it happen to "fix" the issue of when advanced AI characters are losing in battle, they will cast Armageddon as they retreat or are about to die? This always annoyed me immensely and they fixed it in HOMM3 (if I remember correctly.)
Can you play the campaigns in this?
Both SW and PoL campaigns are supported and could be played with all new QoL features.
Hi, thanks for the video! Please tell me, how can I transfer saved games?
Hi! Did you manage to figure it out? If not, what system do you use (android, windows, mac, linux..)? You can find your save folder for fheroes2 by right-clicking a save in the save/load menu in-game.
@@zense-tx7nc I have Windows 11, I was looking for a folder in the directory with saved files to transfer them and did not find it
@@Radiostate101 For fheroes2, all the save files are located in users->yourusername->appdata->fheroes2->files->save
Note that fheroes2 and the original Heroes 2 do not have compatible save files.
@@zense-tx7nc thanks!
Alright, we'll need to give it some time, but it looks promising.
What I love about 2 is how pleasant it looks. 3 is such a big downgrade aesthetically.
You should try a lower Resolution and upscale it with Lossless Scaling (aviable on Steam).
Omg yes! Thank you for the news.
There is a Heroes 3 Succession wars mod that does everything this mod does, while not giving up on all the homm 3 advantages over homm 2.
Wow i miss that game…
did you try casterr of magic?
any changes to multiplayer options?
wow, that sounds great!
Is this any better than the succession wars mod for H3 though?
Succession Wars Mod is Heroes III with HII graphics (and new original stuff) essentially. So it's totally different. fheroes2 is like HD Mod for Heroes II, SWM is like Heroes 2.5.
@@Wind_Falcon In its current state, it looks like HD mod of H3, but in future there would be lots of new features, items, adjustments and so on. Upcoming expansion would make fheroes2 not only a "mod like" enhancement, but a complete new stage of Heroes 2 evolution. ;)
I'm conflicted now. What are the differences between fheroes 2 and succession wars?
Fheroes2 is closer to the original Heroes 2. Succession Wars mod is a mix of Heroes 2 and Heroes 3
hi. does it have a map generator like in the heroes 3?
The map editor for fheroes2 is quickly in development.
What kind of computer are you playing this on? How is this played and bought these days?!!
This is incredible.