Dear players of HoMM2 and fans of the fheroes2 project!
After a very long delay and endless waiting, we are finally releasing the next version of the fheroes2 engine - 1.1.18, packed with many changes that make the wait worthwhile. Let's dive into what this release brings!
One of the biggest changes in this release is AI improvements during battles and on the Adventure Map. First of all, the AI has become better at using the special abilities of Vampire Lords and Ghosts during battles, and now avoids casting Berserker spell when it would be ineffective. AI heroes can also predict the future states of more objects (without cheating). However, in addition to these improvements, we have reduced AI "aggressiveness" on lower difficulty levels based on players' feedbacks, allowing players to enjoy a more relaxed pace if they prefer. We have also removed most of the remaining advantages previously given to the AI on higher difficulty levels.
Another major addition is the HP bar option during battles. You can enable this feature to display health bars for all monsters on the battlefield. This is especially helpful if you want a better overview of the battle without having to inspect individual monsters.
Another graphical improvement is the new Marketplace icon and counter with a popup dialog. This helps players understand how to get the best exchange rates at Marketplaces and Trading Posts while also providing a nice visual presentation of this information.
For the Editor, we reworked the Auto Playtest feature and expanded its functionality, allowing map makers to choose which hero classes are used during gameplay. We plan to expand this dialog further in the future, turning it into the ultimate tool for testing maps. Regarding map making, we also introduced support for multiline text editing in the Editor's Virtual Keyboard. This is particularly useful for map makers who want to add storylines to their creations.
Moreover, the Hotkey dialog received a makeover! It now features category selection, making it much easier for players to discover which hotkeys are available in particular dialogs or parts of the game. As a small additional improvement, we added a configurable Delete hotkey, which will make it easier to use its function across various operating systems and hardware configurations.
As a huge bonus in addition to all these changes is that we have greatly expanded the collection of maps shipped with the engine. We added 5 new maps and updated 4 existing ones with corrections provided by their respective map makers. We are continuously expanding the collection of bundled maps, so expect even more in future releases.
On top of all these changes, the team updated more translations, fixed several UI issues, added extra functionality to dialogs, and much more. In total, over 60 issues have been closed since the last release.
We are also returning to monthly releases. The long delay was not intentional and was caused by important personal matters affecting several core team members, which have now been resolved. So, rest assured that the project is moving forward and that more updates are coming.
The next release will arrive much sooner than you expect, with several very interesting improvements!
Thank you so much for your incredible support, and we sincerely hope you enjoy the project!
Don't forget, that you also need to grab the data from GOG.com which it requires to run. You can find the fheroes2 project on the official webpage.
You can also support the project at https://www.patreon.com/fheroes2. Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:
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