NAVIGATION

19-June-2020 — A NEW CYCLE BEGINS

DEVELOPER DIARY

19 June 2020

A NEW CYCLE BEGINS

A long time has passed and a lot of things did happen.

I will do a write-up in due time. Here is a brief recap:

Development on the advanced AI for Heroes V began in 2007 some time before the release of the Tribes of the East expansion.

Originally the release was planned for 2008 to augment the newly released TotE expansion, but due to reshuffles at Ubisoft this never happened. In 2011 the AI was released as a mod, the unofficial 3.1x upgrade that you have now.

In the years since then I worked on engineering what possibly is best termed true AI, not yet self-aware but aware of how things work, how these interact with each other mechanically. This is a huge step forward and you will have the chance to match your wits against it playing Heroes V on your PC once 3.2 is released.

3.1j released in 2011 was for the most part a proof of concept, programmed in 8 months, to demonstrate the value of a non-cheating AI for a complex and deep strategy game, in this case Heroes of Might and Magic V.

What you can download now is the beta for the upcoming 3.1k release. It is in a way a refactored release that cleans up many issues to clear the way for the subsequent 3.2. Heroes V is a vast game if you consider all its mechanics and how these can interact. That's the core that will be shared with 3.2, although the 3.2 AI will be fundamentally different. With 3.1k come a lot of bug fixes, but also a fair number of enhancements that stem from my work in the past decade, which make the AI more powerful.

3.1k is intended to be a showcase for the maximum that is possible with conventional tech. Then we move on to 3.2.

Regarding the reorganisation of this website, a lot of content related to plans that were made many years ago. These posts have been removed now, except of the content relating to the maps we created. History is important though, and I will see if and how this content can return.

Moving forward, we are on Discord now. You are welcome to join us. You find an up-to-date invitation link (it expires) on the front page.

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