User:Memetics
I have been playing Heroes 3 for nearly a decade, starting with the urging of a friend. It may be my favorite PC game of all time, although Fallout and Fallout 2 give Heroes a run for its money!
Heroes 3 investigations
In 2006, I spent most of my summer break learning how the random map generator template works, testing various template designs, and developing a large dataset of experimental results. My investigation is still a work in progress, but I hope to make my knowledge available on this wiki at some point in the indeterminate future. This will include a spreadsheet with test data on various treasure value settings and specifically what treasures show up at specific value thresholds.
Notable discoveries
There is a shortage of information on the web about Heroes 3, and what's available is often buried in discussion forums on the Heroes 3 Community website and other sites. What follows are some of the things I've discovered about Heroes 3 that I was unable to find information about elsewhere on the web. I include these bits here in the hope that they may be of use to others. Eventually I hope to find a better way to include this information on the wiki, but for now, it's here at least. :-)
Combo artifacts: Component artifact flavor text
The component artifacts needed to create a combo artifact (Heroes 3 SOD / Complete) all appear to share the same flavor text that pops up when you pick up the component artifact on the main map. For example, the Charm of Mana, Talisman of Mana, and Mystic Orb of Mana all have the same story about how you have to try a dance for a band of gypsies, look silly but amuse them, and they give you the artifact. -Memetics 14 January 2011
Enabling islands in the RMG template
To enable islands in the random map generator (RMG), the rmg.txt template you're using must have a minimum size set to exactly "4", or the game will report that it is unable to create a map with the current random map choices (i.e., with water set to "Islands"). (This seems to indicate an engine bug or design error/limitation). So if you have a template you enjoy playing and want to see how it works as Islands, just change the minimum size to 4.
Note that it also helps to tinker with the zone sizes: this does influence the resulting sizes of the zones - but not exactly how you might think; the Gus Smedstad PowerPoint presentation about the RMG engine reveals that zone sizes are somewhat arbitrary and involve setting the minimum *distance* between the centers of the zones, pre-edge-perturbation (by adding the sizes of two zones, that gives the initial target distance between their two centers). Always test the zone layouts by launching a single-player game and using the cheat to reveal the whole map (or open it in the map editor) before attempting a multi-player game. -Memetics 08:11, 1 March 2012 (UTC)