Heroes Chronicles (/Enhanced) Bugs

International board Help & Bugs
#1

Hi everyone,

First of all, huge thanks to the team behind the VCMI project—you’re doing amazing work keeping this game alive and kicking! I’ve been enjoying it a lot, but I’ve run into some issues with Heroes Chronicles, and I was hoping someone here might be able to help me out.

I’ll split this into two segments:

  1. Heroes Chronicles (type: expansion)

I’ve been trying to get Heroes Chronicles working through the GoG version. I followed the instructions and imported the files, but no matter what I do, I keep getting an error saying only 1/8 parts have been installed. I’ve tried different ‘setup’ files from different sources, but it’s always the same. Even when I manage to play through the first campaign, the rest don’t load.

  1. Heroes Chronicles Enhanced (type: maps)

Back on VCMI 1.6, this mod was a bit buggy but still playable (e.g., some heroes were incorrect, and random maps were loaded in certain scenarios). However, after updating to VCMI 1.6.3 and updating all my mods, things got worse. Now, whenever I try to start one of the campaigns, the window that’s supposed to open in the center of the screen instead appears off in the bottom-right corner. It doesn’t matter what resolution or screen option I select; the window stays stuck there and makes the mod unplayable.

I’m playing on a Mac with an M1 chip (Silicon). VCMI has always worked fine for me otherwise, so I don’t think it’s a compatibility issue.

I’ve attached a short screen recording showing both problems. If anyone has any ideas or fixes, I’d really appreciate the help!

Thanks in advance!

Screen recording link - Screen Recording 2025-01-13 at 13.54.30

#2

Try to reinstall vcmi-extras first.

#3

Unfortunately, it isn’t working.

#4

@Laserlicht any idea?

#5

Hi

Hard to tell what’s wrong. Never noticed anything similar - but I cannot test on Mac.
If you look on “Mods” tab and search for chronicles: Is there also only one chronicles installed? Do you have logs from launcher after installing?
Maybe delete Chronicles Mod and installing all 8 chronicles at once (selecting all at once in fileselector).

Yes some bugs about this mod are known. Because it based on hacky converted H3C (converted from Chr to SoD format; replacing some heroes).

What’s changed with 1.6.3 is that this mod depends on Chronicles now. But because 1. doesen’t work for you there may things broken.

@misiokles Maybe we should split the 8 campaigns in enhanced into submods (like the imported chronicles mods) and make a seperate dependency for each sub mod (e.g. Chronicles Enhanced Episode 1 depends on Heroes Chronicles Episode 1). To avoid issues on partially installed Chronicles.

#6

Yeah, good idea. I will talk about this with George King.

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#7

Hi

  1. In the ‘Mods’ section, there is only one chronicle installed under ‘Heroes Chronicles - Type: Expansion’. No logs. I have tried all combinations of disabling/uninstalling/installing/separately/simultaneously both Chronicles and Chronicles Enhanced. As of right now, no combination worked. Regarding installing all 8 Chronicles at once, if I understand correctly what you are telling me, I only have one setup_heroes_chronicles.exe file containing all 8 Chronicles. When I import it into VCMI game data files, it only installs the first one.

I will try with a clean install of everything and report back. Until then, thank you for your prompt and engaged response. The involvement is highly appreciated.

#8

Just for understanding: You have 8 files?
If you download it from GoG you’ll get following files:

setup_heroes_chronicles_chapter1_2.1.0.42.exe
setup_heroes_chronicles_chapter2_2.1.0.43.exe
setup_heroes_chronicles_chapter3_2.1.0.41.exe
setup_heroes_chronicles_chapter4_2.1.0.42.exe
setup_heroes_chronicles_chapter5_2.1.0.42.exe
setup_heroes_chronicles_chapter6_2.1.0.42.exe
setup_heroes_chronicles_chapter7_2.1.0.42.exe
setup_heroes_chronicles_chapter8_2.1.0.42.exe

These 8 files are needed for the 8 chapters. Only this GoG version is supported.

#9

Hi there!

If you’re using just a single integral .exe to install all 8 Chronicles, that might be what’s causing the issue. I recently imported all the chronicles from GOG and everything seems to work for me (also a Mac user though).

I found this GOG thread: Heroes Chronicles All in One, page 1 - Forum - GOG.com It seems that there used to be one integral exe on GOG, which you could use to install all of the chronicles at once. However, this seems to no longer be the case. Did you by any chance get that exe from outside GOG? Users are saying it’s possible that it’s still somewhere on the web. I tried to find it on GOG, but there only seems to be separate installation exes for all 8 chronicles. Once you purchase them, you can find all the exes under the specific chronicles, by heading to them in the GOG library with ‘Owned games’, click on a specific chronicle, then on ‘Extras’ and then choose ‘Windows’ next to ‘Offline backup installers’. All the exes are 485mb each, approximately.

I believe the current integration for the chronicles on VCMI is made to work for those exact exes that you can get from GOG nowadays, and not the old integral exe installation, since there’s a clear indication in the VCMI launcher, that keeps proper track of how many chronicles are installed once you start using those separate exes to import them.

I only had some hiccups in the beginning after installation, where the ‘enhanced’ mod didn’t seem to be kicking in and reflecting changes. A few regular restarts fixed it. An easy way to know if ‘enhanced’ is ‘in work’ is to check the starting options you get to choose from (in-game it showed that chronicles are ‘enhanced’ but starting bonuses weren’t changing accordingly in the beginning). In regular ‘Warlords of the Wasteland’ Tarnum gets to start with either Hobgoblins or Basic Leadership, while the ‘enhanced’ one seems to let you choose from Ballista, Tactics and Hobgoblins.

If you’re by any chance trying with some old exe, that you got from GOG a long time ago, you can just log on GOG and download the new exes. If you found the old exe on the web and haven’t purchased the chronicles from GOG, it’s a good time to buy them now, since they’re on discount for 2.99 EUR at the moment.

Hope it helps!

#10

cc @Laserlicht

That is correct. I have an universal (GOG) exe for the all 8 chapters, not 8 separate exe files. This is most likely causing the problem. I have checked GOG (thanks for the discount tip) and i’ll be downloading that updated version.

In the meantime, I will also play around with Enhanced. Now that you mentioned that bug, back on 1.6 when I was able to play, in my case Tarnum was a wizard and not a Barbarian in ‘Warlords of the Wasteland’. Other than that, I reported on the bugs that I encountered.

That being said, I will fix up Chronicles with the new GOG download. Thank you both for your involvement and and help. I hope you have a great weekend.

#13

Hey again!

That seems to be the regular HoMM 3 Complete, not the bundle with the chronicles.

I was wrong about ‘enhanced’ not kicking in from my end. There’s actually two folders in-game, when you go to Custom campaigns. You can navigate and start maps from both. One of them shows the old bonuses, while the other one shows the new starting bonuses. And you’re correct - Tarnum is still a Wizard with Specialty for Chain Lightning in ‘enhanced’ folder.

#14

It’s Saturday and I’m dumb as a rock. I downloaded homm3 complete instead of Chronicles. I corrected that error. I’ll crawl back in shame.

#15

No worries mate, I’m not feeling particularly bright today either - got entangled in trying to figure out how to post a response correctly. :joy: Enjoy Chronicles!

#16

Issue solved with the new individual downloads from GOG. Thank you all. All the best to you!

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