VCMI Project - Heroes 3: WoG recreated

[Zamolxis]

To avoid mixing two different things:

- H3 features not yet implemented by the VCMI team vs
- VCMI bugs = faults/defects in the latest VCMI build (crashes, bugs or features not correctly implemented)

...I am opening this thread to collect all missing functionality requests from the testers (for devs to know what would we prefer to have it implemented sooner rather than later).

The advantage is that we can log all requests in one place, as they are all valid until implementation (with no way back). That as opposed to bugs, which are better tracked in separate threads for each build [EDIT: This is not the case anymore, now that we have MantisBT]

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This is not a thread to request functionalities/elements from WoG, HotA or other mods, which would alter the gameplay of NWC's H3. For that we may have dedicated thread(s) in the future (certainly one for WoG, but we'll see about the other famous mods as well if the case). If you have creative ideas for new mods, please use the Modding suggestions thread.

However, what we could actually ask for, is new features which may enhance the testing/playing experience, but without altering the gameplay experience of the original game. Examples of such feature would be:
- Support for higher resolutions
- Stack queue during battles
- Treasure Chest window defaulting on Gold/Experience to save us a mouse click
- Any other hotkeys, as long as they don't override hotkeys from the original game

* * *

Useful link: Click here to check which H3 in-game items have been already implemented in VCMI. They are logged in 5 different categories (see tabs at the bottom): Map objects, Spells, Secondary Skills, Artifacts & Town structures. If the item is already supported, then any functionality issues related to it should be reported in the BUGTRACKER. This topic is for items you would like to be implemented sooner from those not yet supported or to point out if anything is missing from the spreadsheet.

[Zamolxis]

Here is a first set of functionality requests:

1 - The Adventure Options button. We would need that particularly for the Scenario Information function. That can be very useful for our reporting, as we can retrieve a lot of necessary information if we have to write a report while playing: map name, size, victory/defeat conditions, enemy's alignment/start hero/bonus, map difficulty etc. Luckily now we can save our games, and like this we can find back the Scenario Information in the Load Game screen. But for that we need to quit the application and start it again, so it would save time if we could access it directly while playing.

2 - Access to Main Menu and/or Load Game from the System Options interface (again, to avoid having to quit/restart the application so many times)

3 - Drag & Drop functionality for artifacts, war machines, creatures...

4 - Possibility for heroes to meet in order to exchange artifacts, war machines, creatures (and spells, once Scholar is implemented)

5 - (New feature request) Possibility for visiting hero to meet garrisoned hero, in order to exchange also artifacts & war machines, not only creatures. This could be easily implemented by making use of the "Split" button for example, which in case of the heroes it would open the Exchange interface as we have it when they would meet on the adventure map:



This would be a minor tweak, meant to remove a limitation which NWC just never thought of fixing in the game. It would be identical with what they did in Armageddon's Blade, when they implemented Spacebar to revisit map locations. That was saving the player 2 movement points which were otherwise pointlessly lost in the Restoration of Erathia. Same 2 movement points we now have to waste to first take the visiting hero out of town gate, then go in to ungarrison the other, then go out to have the meeting, then go in again to regarrison, and finally out again to move first hero back at town gate. This micro-management is a waste of mouse clicks & movement points.

So the impact on gameplay would be minimal and positive only. The current behavior is not logic and does not have any added value. It does not make sense to be able to exchange troops but not artifacts while in town, so it only causes frustration due to the wasted movement points & extra mouse clicks (much like revisiting locations in RoE).

EDIT: Split Stack button behavior in case 5 is implemented:
- if a creature is selected: button available (like H3)
- if no creature/hero is selected: button disabled/grayed out (like H3)
- (NEW) if a hero is selected: button available again. // Suggestion (if possible): if a hero is selected, we could have a 3rd button design, similar with Split Stack, but with the two knights facing each other, rather than going away from each other like now.

[pHOMM]

I'll write here some features i want to be in vcmi soon

6 - enter usability(present in h3) - when town in townlist (mapview screen, not townview) or hero is active then enter brings a window of it (him,her)
7 - some hotkeys (so many times asked by people in forums) for market place- Trading post (key T) and thieves guild (in tavern of town, key G) to be accesible, if player has such structures in any town, from anywhere ( map and town(doesn't matter has a town such a structure or not)) , because this saves so much time, u cant even imagine - i.e. u come to the magic school and u see u havent 1000 gold and u need: chhose a town with a marketplace, enter it, choose marketplace, here resource manipulation , then exit a town, choose needed hero, then usual actions, and with theese hotkeys - press hotkey, resourse manipulation, press spacebar to revisit magic school
8 - i always cannot explain why if u want to exchange some more items between heroes when u accidentally closed herotrading window U NEED to waste some more movepoints, however this breaks gamerules and gameplay so u feel free if u want not to make this

[Zamolxis]

9 - Smart handling of the Treasure Chest window.

Right now in VCMI the window opens with Gold selected as default (as opposed to H3 where nothing was selected). However, following the discussion in this thread, it looks like this will mainly serve in Multiplayer. In Singleplayer people seem to prefer Experience. So perhaps it would be better if VCMI would remember last choice of the player, and make that as default until player chooses otherwise.

Other suggestions here would be being able to customize the Treasure Chest default from VCMI Game Options (when that menu will be implemented), or, if the poll in this thread continues the trend after more than 100 users have voted, another alternative would be to have Gold defaulting in Multiplayer, and Experience defaulting in SinglePlayer.

(feel free to share your thoughts on this in the dedicated thread)

[Zamolxis]

10 - End Turn to check for movement left for the Adventure Map heroes.


11 - Support for Abandoned Mines


12 - Possibility to capture enemy/neutral castles.


13 - Possibility to visit allied castles to buy war machines & spell book, learn spells, upgrade troops and replenish spell points overnight.


14 - (NEW) Possibility to garrison our hero in the allied town. This will mainly benefit our ally actually, because if we spend the night in their castle to replenish spell points, they could actually visit their own town, buy heroes etc (while current H3 behavior kinda forces allies to an annoying choice, if one needs to replenish spell points, while the other would like to be able to use their town).


15 - (NEW) Possibility to use allied hero marketplace while visiting their town. This could be a pretty cool feature (though of very rare occurrence): have the allied marketplace add up to ours for a better rate, but only when visiting their town.


If you believe 14 & 15 are more of a mod request, you can ignore them in this thread. I just feel it would have made sense to have them in in the original H3 already.

[Zamolxis]

16 - Damage calculation in battle


17 - (NEW) Retaliation calculation in battle. Something like: "will retaliate with xx - yy damage" (if the creature will retaliate, depending on the damage we inflict first, and of course if it's not too difficult to implement)


18 - Keyboard arrows keys to move hero


19 - NumPad keys to move hero:
→ 8, 6, 2, 4 : same as the arrow keys
→ 7, 9, 3, 1 : diagonal movement
→ (NEW) 5 : center map on selected hero (as I believe H3 did not have any hotkey for this)


20 - (NEW) Not sure if it's worth the effort, but it might be interesting if VCMI could offer support for non-QWERTY keyboards. I was playing the game during the holiday on my AZERTY laptop, which kinda messed up the hotkeys I had to press (A was Stack Queue, Z was Wait, Q was Auto-Combat etc). Luckily they were located on the keyboard in the QWERTY spots so it wasn't really a problem. But I'm just thinking of the players from countries where they never used QWERTY, who might get confused between the hotkeys in the manual and the keys they would actually have to press. Though - if NWC didn't much bother with this, probably we don't have to bother either (unless it's piece of cake to implement).

[Warmonger]

Qwerty was designed for typewriters in order to maximally slow down the process of typing. Computer engineers copied it straight... We have to stop this madness!

Quote:

"will retaliate with xx - yy damage" (if the creature will retaliate, depending on the damage we inflict first, and of course if it's not too difficult to implement)

Yes it is, actually calculating it basing on two random factors makes things totally messy as dependent probability is. Imagine it reads "creature will retaliate, doing 0-326 damage", depending whether we killed it with one blow or not. I don't think it will provide us any useful information as damage distribution is no longer linear.

[majaczek]

better would be
"creature may retaliate doing xx-yyy damage" (where xx never zero and when chance to miss)
"creature will sure retaliate doing xx-yyy damage " (when no chance to prevent retaliate)
"creature couldn't retaliate so doing no damage" (when no retaliate possible ie. monster flag or killing last unit)

[Tow]

[pHOMM]

Hi everyone !!!

Quote:

Zamolxis wrote: → (NEW) 5 : center map on selected hero (as I believe H3 did not have any hotkey for this)

If you don't mind i answer about H3 hotkeys

for centering selected hero there is a hotkey- it is Space, actually it makes a visit if hero stands in object, but otherwise it centeres on a hero, the second one hotkey is H, but it actually makes another hero active, in case of only one hero it centeres too )))

By the way h3 has lots of hotkeys, they help buying creatures(M for maximum and digits for typing number), in battle space and enter in tactics, other i think you know

21 As for me i would ask of multi-path feature it would be so MAGNIFICIENT, you cant even imagine, but it is quite hard to implement, so the point is : u press a button, say Ctrl and click many points of desired path, release Ctrl and hero moves by path - visiting all he wants, of course , if one of point is battle (but even in this case possible to implement multipath) then it could be a finishing point

the other easier way to make pseudomultipath is control-digits to set hand made path, instead of moving by offered path, which could be faster by time spent

[Zamolxis]

[majaczek]

[Zamolxis]

@ majaczeck: You're right. I edited my post above to leave only 'Backspace' for that function.

Regarding the functionality requests, those are more that just minor tweaks, but more like mod requests (as the alter the gameplay), so I'm not gonna give them a log number for this thread. I'll probably open a new thread soon for this purpose. Or if you want to discuss your proposals more in detail, you can even open a new thread in the General Discussion section.

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24 - (NEW) Double click to select Gold/Experience, or between 2 Primary/Secondary skills when we have a choice window.

***

25 - In the Scenario Advanced Options panel, of the elements still to be implemented, I'd like first to have the pop-up window when we right-click the starting hero. Especially once that the hero specialties are implemented, it will be useful to be able to easily check that before we start the game:

[pHOMM]

Yep! hi there, guys(and maybe girls)

[val-gaav]