Well, no decisions have been made but… let’s say that there is an increasing will of opening sources in the team.
Yes, we prepared once a list. However I cannot say when they’ll be available. Probably not soon.
Possible - maybe, for sure not by default.
Yes. Artifacts effects will hard-coded but it’ll be possible with script languages to disable default effect and write your own.
Same applies for skills, town structures, and so on.
Basically everything that is not already done.
Always we’ll be able to find something that needs work
I would suggest something like “artifact’s traits” - ie. add +n to attack skill, disable fifth-level spells in battle etc. and artifacts would be combined with traits by a description in a file.
For example you could fix a few things - ie. opening a map with hero placeholder, behaviour while opening a corrupted map or playing videos (the last needs a bit more explanationsince we know how to play some videos).
Ok. So, what should i doin order to fix some of these elements? Register somewhere, or what?
(BTW, you mentioned the placeholder is still unreversed. So do I need to reverse the format?)
[EDIT]
I’ve just read about a disputation about open vs close(source). And so I just realized you are maybe right. But I think if someone decide to start a project form scratch, there is an “expectation” to be open (or maybe a “fashion”). I don’t speak a word from now in this issue
[/EDIT]
You should register on assembla.com/ and give me your login you use there. Then I’ll add you to our space and send you all necessary information.
Yes, hero placeholders are not yet reversed (IIRC this is the last unreversed part of h3m format). And you are supposed to reverse it if you want to fix this issue.
Hi there.
I’m into Heroes of M&M series since I don’t remember
I would like to help and do some serious testing in VCMI Project.
Well, I’ve got some experience in testing processes - it should help a bit.
Is there any bug tracking system here?
I did quick forum view and found some threads with mass bug reports.
It’s very hard to get through it for newcomers like me
I will appreciate if someone will contact me to discuss more details (in case You will need my help).
Hi & welcome to the forum. I’m just one of the testers, not a dev, but until one of them passes by, I can confirm that help is always needed, especially from gamers who like testing.
This is where you can find the download link to the latest release. As explained there, after downloading the archive you only need to extract the files into your Heroes folder (where WoG 3.58f should be already installed). This does not mean VCMI will interfere with H3 or WoG versions of the game, so no worries there.
And this is where you can report the bugs you encounter.
Of course, there is also a Polish version of the forum, so you can report bugs there as well if you prefer (though I won’t deny I could use another fellow tester here in the English section).
Cheers and hope you’ll like what the devs have done so far to stick around!
I’ve installed vcmi client for 2 weaks (smoke tests passed) unfortunately I’m using polish language pack right now.
I want migrate to english version. Is there any way to do this without new installation?
Nice to see that a new tester is going to help us. Zamolxis wrote what you should do to run VCMI on your computer and where you can report encountered bugs.
You can download english files form Acid dragon’s site: wog.acidcave.net/download.php (English WoG 3.58f files). Just install them like any other WoG modification.
Development of VCMI slowed down lastly because of our duties at the unversity but we have made some progress since last release. I hope new development version will be released soon. Good news is that we have a new developer that is writing battle AI. It’ll certainly make VCMI testing more interesting.
I’m agree with ABlackHorse that we need a bug tracking system. Maybe current solution is good but would be nice if we could focus only on errors and their states (open, in progres, closed etc). It would be helpful for developers and testers. Of course, I’m aware that this needs some work.
I worked as beta tester for Ubisoft, and even they didn’t have a bug tracking system for the use of the testers. IMO if the devs give a short list with the main known issues at every release, that is already more then enough.
For the rest, basically with every release we don’t need to worry about browsing the whole “Main bug thread” to see what was reported in the past. You never know when a bug corrected at some point, came back later on, and devs won’t know if we don’t report it again. That’s why I feel it’s better if we use the “Release 0.xx - Bug Reports” threads, which will rarely have more than a couple of pages, so it’ll not be any effort for us to check what has been already reported.
A bug tracking system could help both testers and developers but ATM we have too little bugs reported per version to benefit from it significantly. I think that bug tracker will help a lot in later stage of development, when a lot of small bugs are reported and quite often they’re not fixed in the first following release.
I emailed Tow before I saw this thread, but I’ll post here anyway…
This project looks very promising and I’d like to offer my help if I can. I’m relatively good with graphics as well with sound, and although I don’t have much experience with animations I can try
If you guys need help in that area, please let me know.
We usually don’t need people to create contents but if you can code in C++ you could add sounds to VCMI. We have some progress in this area but we focus on more important features. You would have to find a way of playing 82m sounds, redesign sound player and eventually add all these ‘play sound’ commands around the code. It would be good if you could do at least the last thing.
Unfortunately I know nothing about C++ and my programming skills are pretty much non-existent. But if you need help in the future with new content, please let me know.
Let me start from saying that I would like to help you with VCMI project. I have average knowledge of C/C++. I’ve written a few simple/more-than-simple games in Allegro/OpenGL. I also have basic understanding of LUA (can always broaden my knowledge, nay?). If there is something I can help with, just PM/GG/mail me.
Hi,
code (C++) contribution is warmly welcomed. Our repository is publicly available ( vcmi.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/vcmi/trunk ), you can obtain there VCMI sources and project files for MSVC.
There are many not implemented parts of engine, including:
Original H3 fonts (handling .FNT files from h3bitmap.lod)
Sound. VCMI is almost soundless for now. We have done support for playing sounds directly from the Heroes3.snd archive but it is not used.
Videos - practically same as above, but only one of two formats is supported. Additionally, problem with playing videos on non-windows platforms arises (using the .dll’s send with Heroes is only known way to decode videos)
AI. We have currently AI only for handling battles developed by Ambtrip.
Besides, almost all other parts of VCMI still needs to be developed, improved… just look at the issue list
If you are interested in working on one of the mentioned (or not) part of VCMI, let me know and I’ll try to provide you further instructions and advice.
hmh… i was always wondering why this forum don’t have much people as there are millions of h3 players… why don’t you post in main heroes of might and magic about this forum and ask for some help. as the more users u go the faster we can find bugs or u already did that
I think most of significant Heroes III portals wrote some time ago about us - when we released version 0.54. Now we don’t strieve for publicity, VCMI is not yet playable what would discourage many people from tying it later.
well… maybe you are right. tho… i am not scared that i can’t play it normaly, and i am happy to help by finding bugs or so ( the least i can help). and i bet others would help you also, however they could, maybe event by programing or event some $$ support. just needs some advertising on other big forums as i see you are doing it for free and it does takes your time.
I’d like to help. I’m an AI graduate student at UCLA, and would love to try to make a good AI. In H3, the AI was terrible, and it made the game less fun.
I have 5+ years of C++ experience too!
Could somebody help me figure out the SVN Repository?
But if you need help in the future with new content, please let me know. 
