HOMM2 FAQ

[Rob Merritt]

The Unofficial Heroes of Might and Magic Two
Frequently Asked Questions
version 0.10 alpha

copyright (c) Robert Merritt 1996

First published: November 20th 1996
Last updated: November 27th 1996

Q: Why haven't you answered my question yet?
-I don't have the answers to everything yet. :)

Cheat codes are starting to role in. Remember, I will be adding a
little bit, here and there almost everyday for the next few weeks.
Most Qs & As were taken from usenet posting and credit is given to
original posters in section 9. Everything written below is in my own
words except when noted. This FAQ is my first and still rather rough.

Table of Contents

1.....Terms
2.....Introduction
3.....General Questions
4.....Multi-player Sessions
5.....Bugs and other related problems
6.....The Game
7.....The map editor
8.....Gimme more!
9.....Credits

1 Terms

1.1 Autorun: A feature included with Win95 that allows cd rom
programs to start automatically after loading.

1.2 Hi Color: A 15 bit color SVGA color mode. It displays between 32k
and 65k colors depending on your video card.

1.3 HOMM: Heroes of Might and Magic

1.4 IRC: Internet Relay chat

1.5 IPX: A network protocol commonly used on local area networks.

1.6 NWC: New World Computing - The creators of HOMM II and the entire
Might and Magic line.

1.7 TCP/IP: The protocol used for the internet.

1.8 True color: A 24 bit color mode that displays 16 million colors.

2 Introduction

2.1 What is HOMM II?
-Heroes of Might and Magic II is the sequel to Heroes of Might and
Magic which is also a sequel of the game King's Bounty. HOMM II, like
its ancestors, is a fantasy based strategy game of war and resource
management. The characters, monsters, and settings are loosely based
the Might and Magic universe established in the five role playing
games of the same name. The game is played out in turns not real time.
Most games take less that four hours to play.

2.2 So is HOMM II like .......?
-There are many turn based strategy games that appear similar to HOMM
II. Managing the castles feels a lot like Civilization. Moving the
Heroes around feels like Master of Magic. Combat feels like Master of
Orion and Panzer General. In truth, there is no game like Heroes of
Might and Magic II. Well, except for Heroes of Might and Magic I.

2.3 What are the differences between HOMM I and HOMM II?
-There were many improvements. New to HOMM II were:

-Two new character classes: Necromancer and Wizard
-12 New Monsters
-Upgrade able dwellings that draw more powerful recruits.
-New types of buildings: A trading post to trade for needed resources,

-A larger battle area.
-Castles' defenses can be upgraded.
-A campaign mode were one mission will effect the next
-You can hire captains to defend towns and castles instead of taking
up a valuable hero.
-Heroes have secondary skills.
-Slower units like Dwarves move faster and thus are more usable.
-The graphics have been updated with hand painted computer models.
-Winning isn't always dependent on destroying all other players.
-IPX and TCP/IP protocols are now supported.
-Opera Music!

2.4 What is the appeal of HOMM II?
-Beauty is often hard to define. Some people like the strategy
element, the resource management, the beautiful graphics and music,
the fantasy setting, the rock solid code, and/or the turn based nature
of the game. I'm sure those aren't all the reasons, but you get the
picture.

2.5 What are the system requirements?
-DOS: 486/66 or higher, 8 megs of ram, and 2x cdrom
That being said, some people have been running The Dos version HOMM II
on 486 sx 25s
and are happy with it.
-Win95 486/66 or higher, 8 megs of ram (I would say 16) and 2x cdrom
-Mac: 68030 or Power mac, 8 megs of ram, 2x cdrom, and system 7

2.6 Can I run HOMM II under Win NT?
-Yes. Version 4.0 of NT workstation supports the DirectX drivers
needed to run HOMM II. It is recommended that you have at lest 32 megs
of ram.

2.7 Is there a demo and if so, where is it?
-There is no demo for HOMM II yet. There will be one soon and it will
probably be available on all the major CD magazines such as PC Gamer
and Computer Gaming World. Due to the size, it will probably not be
available for download.

2.8 Where can I buy HOMM II?
-HOMM II should be available anywhere you find new PC games. It comes
in three packages. Package one is priced $39.95 US and comes with the
Dos and Win95 version of HOMM II. Package two is priced $44.95 US and
comes with the Dos and Win95 version of HOMM II and the Dos version of
HOMM I. Package three is the mac version and I do not have pricing or
packaging information yet.

3 General Questions

3.1 Why is my morale so low?
- You have troops with different alignments. The troops get their
alignment from the type of town they come from. refer to the HOMM II
manual for more information.

4 Multi-player Sessions

4.1 Hey! Where's chat?
- While in Battle or looking at the map, press F2. Hit enter to send
and esc to abort. Also you can use [ or ] to change the chat color.

4.2 Is it just me, or does the Hot seat option favor the last player?

- Yes it does. The computer only shows the movement of computer
players in the visible area of the last player. Thus the first players
will not be able to see a computer hero invading his kingdom.

4.3 Can I run a network game with only one copy of HOMM II?
-Yes. Install the game on the guest computers. The master computer is
the only system that has to have the original cdrom in the drive. The
guest computers will be unable to play CD music.

4.4 Where can I meet people to play HOMM II over the internet?
-Check out IRC channel #HOMM2

4.5 Why can't I do anything when other players are taking their turn?
I thought that a simultaneous turn option was going to be allowed?
-See section 5.2.

4.6 Can I play over the Internet using the Dos version of HOMM II?
-Yes. You'll need a program called Kali. I do not have much
information on this program yet.

4.7 Why can't I type in a 12 digit IP address?
-see section 5.5

5 Bugs and other related problems

5.1 The crest doesn't take me to the Kingdom Overview screen.
-This feature was changed. As the Kingdom Overview screen grew in
complexity, it was causing confusion.

5.2 During multiplayer games, the game locks up and I'm unable to do
anything till after the other player takes their turn.
- This isn't a bug, its a feature. The original HOMM performed the
same way. HOMM II was originally was going to allow players to look
over their castles and such while the other player was taking their
turn. The designers couldn't figure out how to include this feature
smoothly and fairly.

5.3 During combat, the game runs awfully slow. What's wrong?
- The cause of this problem is hard to track down. If your running Win
95 and met the minimum requirements here are some possible solutions:

-Add more ram. If your running the Win95 with 8 megs of ram, its
going to be slow.
-Turn your colors down to 256. Hi and True color modes eat processor
time
-Make sure your playing in full screen mode.

-For any version of HOMM II try:

-Turning the music off.
-Change the battle speed to fast.

5.4 Why does the autorun introduction screen pop up sometimes when
the music changes?
- This is a Win 95 and cd rom hardware problem. Some cdroms seem to
handle audio tracking "hicups" differently. Some will try to correct
the problem, others will just drive right through causing audio
breakup and others will reset from the index and search for the track
again. The last method causes Win95 to think a new CD has been
inserted and runs the autorun file again. If your CD rom does this,
then the only option is to turn autorun off from your device manager.
The higher number of auto tracks, the greater the chance this can
happen. Since HOMM I and HOMM II have a large number of tracks, over
50, the chances are quite great.

5.5 I can only type in 11 digits for the IP address?
-This is a real bug. It will be addressed an upcoming patch.

5.6 Can I change my modem setting to a none standard IRQ In the Dos
version of HOMM II? I could in HOMM.
-It doesn't appear so but there may be a hack around this. I'll post
any information I receive on this subject.

5.7 Why does the cd-audio keeps skipping and repeating?
-No one is sure why this is happening. The skipping and repeating
doesn't happen to everyone. The CD-audio code is different than HOMM I
so the problem probably lies there. NWC may switch the code in HOMM II
back to HOMM I. Until such time, switch music from CD-audio to midi or
just turn it off. If you use the Win95 version, read 5.8

5.8 My music repeats and breaks off in the Win95 version. How can I
fix it?
-The problem is with your DirectX drivers. Select add/remove programs
under the control panel. Select DirectX drivers and from there you
must restore your old audio drivers.

5.9 Why does junk appear where ever I click and how can I get rid of
it?
- This problem appears in the Win95 version. Its due to a conflict
between your video drivers and DirectX. Try using the HOMM II color
cursors. If that doesn't work, disable your video acceleration.

5.10 Hey! I won a battle and my computer rebooted.
-Check your video driver. DirectX could have changed it.

6 The Game

6.1 Why can't I split my troops into multiple stacks?
-You can. While holding down your shift key, mouse click on the stack
you want to split, and drag them to an empty slot. A box will pop up
asking you how many troops you want to place from the original stack
into the new stack.

6.2 I can trade the Fizbin of Misfortune even though I should not be
able to. Is this a bug?
-Its a bug, but hey, I wouldn't complain.=)

7 The Map editor

7.1 Why doesn't the map editor no longer have a random generator
feature?
- The official reason is NWC just didn't think anyone used the random
map generator Its also believed that the new game is so complicated
that a descent random generator couldn't be made. Another reason why
NWC might have not included is the random generator in the HOMM map
editor had a habit of creating unwinable situations and included
trash that could crash the game.

8 Gimme more!

8.1 What web pages are dedicated to HOMM II
-Most HOMM pages support HOMM II. Check out:
-http://www.jagunet.com/~robertm/homm.html
-http://www.egr.uh.edu/~yxq60120/hero/hero.htm

8.2 What editors are out there?
-Besides the nifty one that comes with the game, there is also a
shareware
save game editor for HOMM II. Check it out at:
http://www.ici.net/customers/overkill/overkill.htm.

8.3 Are there any Easter eggs?
-Just one has been found so far. Judson Cohan discovered that if you
click on an unlabeled door at the main option screen that the message
Might and Magic 6 coming in 97 appears.

8.3 Are there any cheat codes?
- AaronDF found that if you type 8675309 at the adventure
screen, you'll see the whole map. Funny but I don't think Tommy Two
Tone living in the Middle Ages. =)

8.4 Is there any information on hex editing a save game file?
-Yes! David Robinson writes: Use a hex editor to edit your saved file.
Go to the hex address indicated and change it to the value shown which
gives you the amount of that item. Make sure to make a copy of your
file before you edit it in case you make a mistake. Remember hex
goes: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, F.

Item Address Value Amount
Wood 350 FF 256
Mercury 354 FF 256
Rocks 358 FF 256
Sulfur 35C FF 256
Crystal 360 FF 256
Gems 364 FF 256
Money 368 FF $98,303
369 7F
370 01

9 Credits

9.1 A special thanks goes out to the following people for their help
with this FAQ
Bonscott
Davy Chapman
Judson Cohan
William Cunningham
AaronDF
Daniel DuBois
Daniel Evans
James Kenneth
David Mason
David Robinson
George Ruof
Thrax
tirith

9.2 Heroes of Might and Magic, Heroes of Might and Magic II and New
World Computing are trademarks of New World Computing inc.

This document may be distributed freely by anyone so long as there is
no cost to view it above regular ISP rates and that its unmodified.
New World Computing inc may modify this document so long as credit is
givento me, Robert Merritt, as original author.

Rob Merritt
Might and Magic lives at http://www.jagunet.com/~robertm/homm.html

"If you got to have delusions, you might as well have the really satisfying ones.", Marcus - Babylon 5