r/heroes3 • u/BilboSmashings • Jun 25 '20

Question - Solved New Player just got gog version - Where is the Cove castle?

Researching the game I found a castle type called the Cove but can't pick it in the menu to start the game with. Is that part of a dlc not included in the gog edition? Or do I have to find the castle in the wild and capture it? Sorry if this is a dumb question, I'm brand new to the experience.

25 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

42 comments sorted by

29

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '20

[deleted]

12

u/BilboSmashings Jun 25 '20

Thank you

12

u/ingvar-kinwip Jun 25 '20

Very well worth playing! Keeps the original feel of the game too

0

u/chimthegrim Jun 25 '20 edited Jun 25 '20

Youll have to reinstall HoMM3 out of the Program Files. For some reason it wont let you download HotA with the game in your program files folder.

Edit: you can downvote this but I had to reinstall the game multiple times to find the right folder HotA would accept it in.

1

u/Syrob Jun 25 '20

I reinstalled the game when I wanted to update HoTA to a newer version but later I found out it was just my antivirus blocking it.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '20

Just use C:\ for Windows and programs and keep your games, downloads, documents and everything else on D:\. This way when you reinstall Windows you can format C:\ and keep everything on D:\. I've been doing that since 2005. Installing games in Program Files is the most idiotic thing ever.

1

u/chimthegrim Jun 25 '20

Ive been gaming console mostly for the last 10+ years. I just go back to PC for Starcraft, HoMM, C&C, and Warcraft 3 from time to time.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 25 '20

Mostly newer PC's will be powered by a single large nvme drive.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 26 '20

You can still reformat it to two partitions C:\ and D:\, my first PC in 2005 had an 80GB HDD, that was formatted to C:\, D:\ and E:\ when I bought it, all the pre-installed programs were in C:\, the games and other stuff were in D:\ and I don't remember what was in E:\ anymore. As time went on and I learned to do more tech savvy stuff, I merged D:\ and E:\ into just D:\, later when I reinstalled Windows XP, I just formatted C:\ and kept D:\ where all my stuff were.

Whether it's an SSD or an HDD, the principle remains the same and nothing really changes. Unless of course you use some of those software that create an image of your system and you can use it to recover from it after a fresh reinstall, I never bothered with those, I still prefer the old fashion way of just formatting C:\ and keep everything on my D:\. In my current case, C:\ is an SSD and D:\ is an HDD so they are going to be separate anyways, but that's besides the point.

7

u/paidtowin Jun 25 '20

Its only included in hota - a user created expansion.

Here's a link:

https://www.hota.acidcave.net/download.html

14

u/Circuitizen Jun 25 '20

The real question is where is factory

10

u/fankin Jun 25 '20

It's in the factory.

4

u/Jujiboo HOMM3 4LIFE Jun 25 '20

"When it's ready." Heard some people saying likely December though.

3

u/The_D0gfather Jun 25 '20

Reminds me of the "when its done" for Duke Nukem Forever for those of us who experienced it

2

u/Mr7000000 Jun 25 '20

The real question is where is forge.

5

u/Harzza Jun 25 '20

As a new player myself I just want to ask, is HotA something that "everyone" is playing, or is it just something you guys play every now and then?

I'm mostly wondering should i play HotA only for the new content, or is all of the old content also better with HotA? I'm aware that you can't play old campaigns so there's that atleast, but what about everything else regarding normal gameplay?

5

u/everythings_alright Jun 25 '20

Only HotA. It's just the base game but better, in my eyes. And I think most people would agree. I don't really see a good reason not to play with the HotA expansion installed.

It's just quality of life improvement, some new content (like more map structures) and better balance between the towns (mainly necropolis and conflux nerfs, and some smaller buffs to the weaker factions)

6

u/makiki99 Jun 25 '20

Certain maps are broken by HotA, but these are mostly relying on SoD specific mechanics, quirks and bugs. Other than that, most people will agree is that HotA is a direct improvement to the original.

3

u/clbbb Jun 25 '20

I only play hota🤩

2

u/ArchmasterC Jun 25 '20

I play wog for example

1

u/Salkin_the_great Jun 25 '20

I play only HotA now.

HotA added random map template editor and it rocks.

1

u/ranziifyr Jun 25 '20

I only play HotA, unless I want på play the old campaigns.

1

u/jellicle_cat21 Jun 26 '20

This is what I was going to ask - does HotA have an effect on the campaigns? I'm interested in it, but I'm replaying the campaigns at the moment, and I don't really want to affect/unbalance them.

1

u/ranziifyr Jun 26 '20

You can't play the old campaigns through HotA, there is a set of new ones to play.

However, you can still play the old ones if you boot the complete (non hota) version up again.

1

u/jellicle_cat21 Jun 26 '20

Cool, thanks

1

u/ranziifyr Jun 27 '20

Keep in mind that the HotA Campaign is for more seasoned players, they can take a few tries to complete.

1

u/jellicle_cat21 Jun 27 '20

Oh, I mean, I've been playing the game since it came out. Pretty sure I've still got the original boxes around somewhere! I'm just enjoying playing back through the campaigns, wanted to keep it "pure". Thanks for the heads up though!

1

u/Mr7000000 Jun 25 '20

Even setting aside all the new content, there's little QoL things like replacing spells in your mage guild or being able to properly aim your magogs that make it superior.

0

u/Cheshire_MaD Jun 25 '20

If you want just QoL improvements - install just HD mod. If you want balance improvements and bug fixes, such as better map gen, better witch huts, no op diplomacy, etc as well as some new content - install HotA

2

u/blackdog89 Jun 25 '20

Hijacking this - I can't get HotA to work on mac, using PlayOnMac app :( any ideas? I download HotA, go through the setup, am asked to choose file location, select shadow of death, but then get an error notification :( can anyone have a look and see if they know what the problem is? I am NOT good with computers :(

https://ibb.co/R2Gz7x3 https://ibb.co/wWvHkZS

1

u/carlsen81 Jun 25 '20

Following since I would like to know too

1

u/revesvans Jun 25 '20

Answered tge post you were following about HotA on Mac.

1

u/revesvans Jun 25 '20

I might be able to answer this. At least, I'm running HotA on my mac through PlayOnMac, so I know it is possible.

I think what you have to so is install a clean GoG-version of H3 first. PlayOnMac has now created a 'virtual drive' for this program, meaning a rudimentary windows folder structure where H3 is located in Program Files. You will be asked to name this drive, name it something you recognize, like "Heroes drive".

When you are finished, PlayOnMac will prompt you to choose the executables (.exe-files) you want to run. Commonly you just choose Heroes.exe and maybe the map and campaign editor. This doesn't matter as much since we're gonna make a new one later for the HD Launcher/HotA. But you need to make at least one shortcut in order to access the file system I think.

Now H3 is installed, let's head into the virtual drive.

The file system can be accessed by right clicking on the H3 shortcut on the main window of PlayOnMac, and clicking 'open directory' or 'show file location' or something to that effect. You'll now see a folder in Finder which contains the Heroes.exe and Mapeditor.exe among other files. Move your HotA/Launcher install file into this folder.

Now go back into PlayOnMac. To the left of your list of programs there will be a smaller list of Virtual Drives, with the name you chose to give the drive. "Heroes drive" for example. Right click this, and choose the option to locate a new shortcut within the drive. Choose the HotA installer and/or the HD installer, and create. You may now run these installers from the PlayOnMac main window. When you do, it will look for the OG HoMM files inside the existing virtual drive, instead of in a new empty one. Follow the steps and you should be good.

When you're finished, make new shortcuts for the HotA.exe or HDLauncher.exe. In fact, the HDLauncher is the only shortcut you need once you're finished (if you opted for the HD mod as well), as it handles the opening of all the other exe files for you through its menu. You may safely remove all the other shortcuts.

Lemme know if you have any further questions.

2

u/blackdog89 Jun 25 '20

Wow man thank you so much - I really appreciate you taking the time out to answer me in such detail. I love this game and am really excited to try the expansion. Thank you!

1

u/revesvans Jun 25 '20

No worries, us few mac gamers need to look out for each other:)

1

u/revesvans Jun 30 '20

Hey! Did you get it to work?

1

u/blackdog89 Jul 01 '20

Hey man nah I didn't wahhhh but I figured out the two issues:

a) I have Homm running through PaultheTall, not directly through Playon Mac. I'm going to probably uninstall and reinstall b) My mac is missing quite a few minor files that HotA needs - I don't remember the list off the top of my head but it was like a few graphics or sounds that couldn't be processed. So I'm gonna do a deeper dive into that and download those one by one.

I'll hit you up when I get her done!

1

u/revesvans Jul 01 '20

Cool! Good luck.

1

u/revesvans Jul 01 '20

Cool:) Good luck.

1

u/imr-sv Jul 07 '20

Chiming in here as a fellow Mac HOMM3 Enthusiast...

I'm not familiar with PlayOnMac, but I've been successfully using Wineskin to play the vanilla HOMM3 Complete, the HD+ Mod and HotA for the better portion of two years without issue.

I helped another Mac user walk through the steps to get his system set up properly yesterday and he was able to load and play the game without error as of this morning!

If anyone in this thread is still struggling to get things set up on Mac, feel free to reach out and I'd be happy to help as best I can.