Heroes of Azeroth - A Heroes of Might and Magic inspired map

[Ghullie]

Heroes of Azeroth (Working title)

Updated 02.01.20

Since this personal project of mine has become much more than just an idea, I decided to create a proper thread for it here.

Background

Being a fan of the Heroes of Might and Magic games I got inspired to create a map in Reforged by looking at the awesome new models the Blizzard devs have created. I'm a 3D/Technical Artist by profession so I probably geeked out a bit more than I should have over the new models. Nonetheless, I noticed almost every regular unit has an "upgraded" version and that got me thinking how perfect that is for a HOMM type map. So I started working on this a few of months ago (as soon as the World Editor for Reforged was available), and this will be my little tribute to the Warcraft universe.






General Info

The map is heavily inspired by Heroes 3 and 5, which are my favorite in the series. Most of the game mechanics will be taken from there.

• Turn based gameplay
• Up to 4 players
• Dynamic map design, with Small, Medium and Large playable areas
• Solo Mode
• AI specifically developed for the turn based gameplay
• 7 Factions to choose from:
  • Humans (Castle)
  • Orcs (Stronghold)
  • Night Elves (Rampart)
  • Undead (Necropolis)
  • Naga (Fortress)
  • Burning Legion (Inferno)
  • Twilight's Hammer (Dungeon)
• 6 Tiers of Units per faction each with an upgrade
• Interactive Town Screens for each faction
• Multiple Heroes per faction (known characters from the Warcraft Universe)
• Hero Skill Trees
• Combat Mode Including:
  • Turn based combat
  • Unique battlegrounds for each type of terrain
  • Siege Mode
  • Unit Skills
  • Hero Spellbook
• 7 types of resources: Gold, Lumber, Stone, Food, Crystals, Gems and Mojo

The map is being developed specifically for Reforged and there will be custom models which won't fit in with the "classic" WC3 look.







WIP Examples

Combat
Melee attacks are performed in 2 steps
Step 1 - Select the unit you wish to attack
Step 2 - Select the angle of attack on the grid (to where the units movement points permit it)

Ranged Attacks are simpler, where you just point and click. No distance falloff in damage yet however.


Player Controlled Human Army (Mixed units) VS Neutral Wolf Riders (T2 Orc Units)

Player Controlled Human Army (Mixed units) VS Neutral Gronn (T6 Orc Units)

Primary Hero Skills in Action - Morale and Luck
Player Controlled Human Army (Mixed units) VS Neutral Wizards (T4 Human Units)

AI VS AI
Simple AI operates within the given game mechanics and rules.

AI Controlled Human Army (Mixed units) VS Neutral Grunts (T1 Orc Units)

Battlefields

Forest


Desert


Beach


Winter




Trail System and Map Object Interaction
In the HOMM games the trail system is grid-based, this is difficult to replicate in the World Editor however I think I managed to capture the feel of a similar trail system.

Resources

Town Screens

Each town will start with a gold mine from where you can buy your upgrades.
Because I don't have enough building models to show when a Unit building is upgraded I will instead show the unit itself doing cool stuff on the map when that tier has been upgraded.

So basically when you first purchase a new tier of buildings you see the building model itself appear on the town screen and when you upgrade it you see the corresponding unit appear as well.

My vision for town screens:



Limitations

• Factions - The limiting factor for creating factions is the buildings, it's hard to find enough building types to support my idea, so will have to improvise where I can. But the goal is to have each faction feel unique.
• Army Size - The hero will carry his army with him in the form of inventory items with charges. So 6 is the limit. However the charges on the items have no limits that I know of so each stack of unit can become practically infinitely powerful if the game goes on long enough.
• Hero Items - Such as "equippable" items that increase stats might be difficult to include since all the inventory slots go to the Army Items.
• Quick/Instant Combat - This is something I haven't figured out yet, but would definitely be a good addition.
• Turn Based Gameplay - Definetely not for everyone and I doubt most people in on Bnet have the patience, but TBH I'm making a map that I would find fun first and worrying about the rest later, also there will be AI for solo play! Suggestions on how to make this type of gameplay more bearable for people are welcome

Feedback is appreciated!

I'll release test versions as soon as I can, but there's still much to do! Meanwhile I'm open towards suggestion on what people would like to see in such a map. That's it for now & thanks for showing interest

 

[Ghullie]

Reserved

 

[biridius]

It's awesome that someone will finally make a map like this, with global map and all.
I like the town screen, feels just like the original game.

Is it possible to rotate the camera in combat?
Would you like to add the Initiative scale to the map? It's not too difficult to make, may be even with GUI.
How does Initiative work in your map?
Wish I could watch the videos but my internet connection is awful.

 

[Ghullie]

It's awesome that someone will finally make a map like this, with global map and all.
I like the town screen, feels just like the original game.

Is it possible to rotate the camera in combat?
Would you like to add the Initiative scale to the map? It's not too difficult to make, may be even with GUI.
How does Initiative work in your map?
Wish I could watch the videos but my internet connection is awful.

Thanks!

Camera rotation is definitely something I'm considering. More camera angles at least. Currently I like the cinematic feel of the camera, which was inspired by the static cam in H3, but it has been through a few iterations already and it can still be a bit tricky to select grid that's behind a large unit.

At the moment Initiative is not nearly as complex as the original games, Each new round Units are picked for their turn based on their Movement speed. Higher speed goes first. Later I'll be adding Hero Spells which can buff/decrease movement speed. There's also a seperate stat for Movement Range (how far a unit can travel)

 

[ThomasEddington]

I played HOMM4, loved all of it from the music, the artwork, the story, the gameplay... this looks promising. You have captured the "grandness" of many of the landmarks from the game, especially with the large gryphon aviary. Looking forward to this.

 

[noob]

Turn Based Gameplay - Definetely not for everyone and I doubt most people in on Bnet have the patience, but TBH I'm making a map that I would find fun first and worrying about the rest later, also there will be AI for solo play! Suggestions on how to make this type of gameplay more bearable for people are welcome

I gave a suggestion to quicken the turn per turn system in the early game in the previous thread (or during the whole game if the victory condition is accumulating gold and that no player have heroes or castles close enough to things of the other players for being able to reach them in under a turn)

 

[Ghullie]

I gave a suggestion to quicken the turn per turn system in the early game in the previous thread (or during the whole game if the victory condition is accumulating gold and that no player have heroes or castles close enough to things of the other players for being able to reach them in under a turn)

There are a few problems with simultaneous turns - one problem is that if two people are the same faction they won't be able to access their town, because it uses the same space on the map. Battlegrounds function the same.

I had an idea that maybe the players waiting for their turn can opt in to control the Neutral units if someone starts a fight. -One issue with that is that the player army is then revealed to the person controlling the neutrals. Seems like every solution has a drawback so far :/

 

[biridius]

You can hide units for different players by using "GetLocalPlayer" and changing the unit's color transparency. This way players can share the same screen, inventory/castle/skills/etc.

Spoiler: What I came up with so far

Semi-simultaneous global map using action points.
Multiple heroes share action points
- (each player may have up to 3 heroes; they don’t increase AP unless they have the Logistics skill).

At the start of each round, each player gets 100 action points.
- 1 action point = move up to 100 range
- attacking someone burns all your leftover action points (being attacked doesn't)
- each player loses 1 action point every 3 seconds, and once no one has any left the round is over (so default round limit is 5 minutes).
- the time of the day shows average leftover AP between players. If one player has 130/130 (100%) ap and another has 0/100 (0%) ap, the average is 50% = Noon; Each round starts at sunrise, and once everyone reaches 0 it is sunset, the wolf howling sound plays and the round ends with a screen fadeout.

Logistics skill: increases action points by 10/20/30% (stacks by addition for multiple heroes).

 

[Ghullie]

You can hide units for different players by using "GetLocalPlayer" and changing the unit's color transparency. This way players can share the same screen, inventory/castle/skills/etc.

Spoiler: What I came up with so far

Semi-simultaneous global map using action points.
Multiple heroes share action points
- (each player may have up to 3 heroes; they don’t increase AP unless they have the Logistics skill).

At the start of each round, each player gets 100 action points.
- 1 action point = move up to 100 range
- attacking someone burns all your leftover action points (being attacked doesn't)
- each player loses 1 action point every 3 seconds, and once no one has any left the round is over (so default round limit is 5 minutes).
- the time of the day shows average leftover AP between players. If one player has 130/130 (100%) ap and another has 0/100 (0%) ap, the average is 50% = Noon; Each round starts at sunrise, and once everyone reaches 0 it is sunset, the wolf howling sound plays and the round ends with a screen fadeout.

Logistics skill: increases action points by 10/20/30% (stacks by addition for multiple heroes).

Thanks for the suggestion, but I feel like it's too easy to exploit. Ie, what if someone is stuck in combat and has left their castle unguarded, the next guy can just walk right in or better yet just wait until said player is out of combat and has a weakened army, then finish them off easily AND take their castle.

As for GetLocalPlayer, I'm already using that in some places, like the multiboard for resources that each player has, but I'm not used to what it can do and a bit afraid to use it because it can desync players. What about collision? Surely if units are taking up each others places there will be issues even though they are not visible to eachother?

 

[GIMLI_2]

GetLocalPlayer() faq

This might help.

 

[noob]

Thanks for the suggestion, but I feel like it's too easy to exploit. Ie, what if someone is stuck in combat and has left their castle unguarded, the next guy can just walk right in or better yet just wait until said player is out of combat and has a weakened army, then finish them off easily AND take their castle.

As for GetLocalPlayer, I'm already using that in some places, like the multiboard for resources that each player has, but I'm not used to what it can do and a bit afraid to use it because it can desync players. What about collision? Surely if units are taking up each others places there will be issues even though they are not visible to eachother?

You can not do things to an opponent castle while the opponent is fighting because one of the rules for ending simultaneous turns is "a player is close enough to reach an opponent castle or hero within one turn or have a castle close enough to an opponent castle or hero in order for him to reach the opponent castle or hero within his turn by recruiting the fastest hero in the game"
So at that point each player ends their fight then you start regular turn per turn between the sides that are close enough.(with no move point reset or turn counter increment for the first turn of each of the meeting sides since the players did not finish their turns at that point)
Waiting for a player to be weakened is perfectly possible in ordinary turn per turn too.

 

[Ghullie]

Update 02.01.2020:

- Created 1v1 map area.
This is where you'll be playing if you want the quickest possible game vs 1 opponent only. The gate in the middle will be guarded by a high tier neutral army which will have to be defeated in order to open. In larger game modes, the gates to the north and south will be open and the towns in this area will be Neutral. The goal is to use this area for Alpha testing when ready.


Each side has a special dungeon which can be defeated in order to get higher-than-usual rewards. (Undetermined what yet)
Icecrown Citadel on winter side, The World Tree on summer side.



- Added the Wizard and its upgrade, the Arcanist as human T4 units.

- Implemented Primary Hero Skills - Morale and Luck
High Morale increases the chance of unit going again after it's turn in combat, similarly Low Morale increases the chance of unit freezing and skipping its turn. Undead units won't have morale.
Luck increases the chance to get a Lucky Attack, increasing the damage by 100%.

-Added the winter battleground.



Finally a video that shows off the implemented features.

 

[noob]

Cool you have a morale and luck system!
I see your project seems to be progressing well.
I wish you maximum morale and luck.

 

[Swatosj]

We need more interesting concepts like this, keep going, looking forward the updates

 

[Lord_Marrowgrath]

Vaow it looks very unique

 

[Augustus]

Unbelievable!!! I was just thinking if someone would make something exactly like this one day!

I do have a few points to make:

I don't think units equivalent to their HOMM counterparts should necessarily share their strength. I think a Warcraft Wolf Rider is stronger than a Heroes 3 one.

I think Footmen are too low tier. Should be Peasant and Militia instead.

How are the unit turns decided? Is it based on speed like H3 or initiative like H5?

The HP amounts seem kind of bloated. I think a low-tier unit should have more in the area of 20-40 than 200-400.

I love the use of WoW models. Hopefully you will also use some of the buildings too.

Atmosphere is a must in a Heroes game and music is a BIG part of that. For example, the vanilla Winterspring music would work wonderfully for the snowy areas.

PLEASE implement battle and map speeds so the game won't become tedious.

I REALLY hope you are not making this just for multiplayer. It's pretty hard to find games for maps as is and it would be even harder to actually finish a game with a stranger due to the time investement. I STRONGLY encourage you to make a lore-friendly campaign for it too or at least a single map for now.

Either way, I will watch the progress of this mod with extreme interest!!!

 

[Ghullie]

Unbelievable!!! I was just thinking if someone would make something exactly like this one day!

I do have a few points to make:

I don't think units equivalent to their HOMM counterparts should necessarily share their strength. I think a Warcraft Wolf Rider is stronger than a Heroes 3 one.

I think Footmen are too low tier. Should be Peasant and Militia instead.

How are the unit turns decided? Is it based on speed like H3 or initiative like H5?

The HP amounts seem kind of bloated. I think a low-tier unit should have more in the area of 20-40 than 200-400.

I love the use of WoW models. Hopefully you will also use some of the buildings too.

Atmosphere is a must in a Heroes game and music is a BIG part of that. For example, the vanilla Winterspring music would work wonderfully for the snowy areas.

PLEASE implement battle and map speeds so the game won't become tedious.

I REALLY hope you are not making this just for multiplayer. It's pretty hard to find games for maps as is and it would be even harder to actually finish a game with a stranger due to the time investement. I STRONGLY encourage you to make a lore-friendly campaign for it too or at least a single map for now.

Either way, I will watch the progress of this mod with extreme interest!!!

Appreciate the support!

I'm literally copying the HOMM 3 roster currently. Stats and such are almost identical. 1 stack of footmen (T1 unit equivalent to Pikemen in H3) has 10hp while 1 stack og Gronn (T6, Behemoth in H3) has 150, might change up a few things later, but I figured someone has already spent a lot of time balancing that game so it saves me a lot of time. Remember, unit HP, damage and armor is not static, it is determined by the strength of your army.

I decide what units to include based on a few factors:

- What their H3 equivalent is
- What role it plays as a whole in the faction (is it ranged, melee, flying or caster?)
- If the unit has at least 2 models, 1 to represent the upgraded version. (or at least a model that makes sense as an upgrade)


Turns are decided based on a speed stat kind of like H3.


I feel like WoW models fit this map really well and will continue using them where they are needed and make sense to include. Currently I'm considering adding some Heroes of the Storm models too (really nice buildings there!), but I'm limited by the outdated import/export tools, though these are being worked on as far as I know.

Custom Music from WoW is definitely something I want to add, but at the end of the day it would be nice if the map can be hosted on Battle.net so I'm trying stay under 128mb file size.
I will try to make this map as versatile as my Trigger-skills let me. (This is purely GUI as I don't know how to JASS) Currently single-player is on the right track, with the neutral army AI working surprisingly OK (although it's very simple).
If I can figure out how to do Quick-Combat, open-world computer opponent AI should also be achievable.

Been a bit busy after new year, but hoping I'll get more dev-time soon.

 

[Augustus]

Appreciate the support!

I understand the approach to base the balancing on H3 as it makes a lot of sense but I also see some lost potential in there to inject some of what makes the W3 formula unique into the H3 formula. I think it would make the game more interesting if the capabilities of the W3 units were adapted to the H3 framework. Perhaps it would be simpler to balance if at first you focused on Orcs and Humans and then gradually added more factions.

For example, the Tier 1 unit for Humans could be Peasants, who can be upgraded to Militia. They could not only attack but they can also, once per fight, build Watch Towers over the course of 3 turns, that are a bit like lower tier castle towers in H3 and the damage is based on the number of peasants. They could also repair mechanical units and even castle walls and gates. Take a bit of what makes the units cool in WC3 and adapt their capabilities to the H3 formula.

I feel like the Footman should be a mid-tier unit more similar to the Swordsmen in H3/5, so a Tier 3 unit. They feel too weak imo. They are the backbone of the human army after all. I would love to see their Defend ability adapted to the H3 formula as well, either as a percentage based damage reduction at the cost of speed or perhaps take the Shield Other ability from the H5 Footmen where it halves the ranged damage to itself and other units on a 1 grid radius.

As for music, maybe you could compress the files because I am not sure people would notice. I think it's important to have a variety of music in such a game because music can get very repetitive over the course of 10 or so hours, or even 1.

Just my two cents!

 

[emil23]

How about adding heroes 5 models for warcraft 3 to map? I saw these models available

 

[FEIGN]

Heroes of might & magic III !

HotA community compeditive map maker here.

I've been thinking about this for about a year or two, and I have to say damn I'm glad someone else did too. I believe there's a possibility it could turn big, honestly. There's a charm to this old, forgotten by many- type of game that could be modernized here.

Literally decided to call it Heroes of Azeroth back then when I conceptualized it, too. And I'm just mind-blown.

Recently gave it a shot at reddit to atleast start conversation, been searching mapmakers and appropriate discords for any content made that I can contact.
Idea: Modernized Heroes of Might & Magic III in the Warcraft III editor? : warcraft3

Very impressed how you made the interactive town, had no idea it could look that good.

I think its great that you're able to successfully make the towns and wouldn't like to steer you away from it, as I think its a great base for it all to complete. I was thinking however to make it, if you would be interested to also make a version of it on Azeroth, with each "town", literally being the capital of races and locations on Azeroth like Orgrimmar, Silvermoon, Undercity, Teldrasil, Ironforge, Stormwind e.t.c with their respective units that translates really well with existing models. It could be in the future patched eventually with adding Kultiras based on HotA's town Cove. (Check it out!) There's multiple optional patch versions to make with releasing Naga, Northrend, Legion & Pandaria if willed.

Some brain-storming ideas I've thought about.

In this instantgratification modern times, a game like heroes takes way too long, thinking if it were a compeditive game e.t.c, nowdays is approx 45 min - 1½ h. There's optional ways to make this adjusting to this, and I'm interested to pace it up with nishe progression and one hero max. A setting to 2 minutes per round which is paused during combat. If time is up, the turn is passed on to the next player (this exists in compeditive HotA).

At the start of the game, all players are in "select hero mode", choose 1 from a pool of heroes from its respective town.

Hero example for Orgrimmar:

Thrall (Low Specialization for all the elemental schools, decrease % mana cost & increase % damage dealt per level)
Unique available spells to learn: Chain-lightning, Spirit wolves.
All spells learned with Thrall are from only elemental magic schools.
Possible low level spell: Earthshock, Purge, Far sight.
Possible high level spell: Earthquake.

If its possible, since in the original game there's only 4 magic schools that are the elements; water, fire, air, earth. Adding arcane, holy, shadow & fel.
Changes of school for spells, for example, Town portal is changed to Arcane magic school.

Hero example for Stormwind:

Jaina (Medium Specialization for water element magic school & arcane school, decrease % mana cost & increase % damage dealt per level)
Unique available spells to learn: Water elemental, Blizzard, Frost nova.
All spells learned with Jaina are from only water elemental magic school & arcane magic school.
Possible low level spell: Arcane missiles, Frost bolt, Frost ring.
Possible high level spell: Town portal.


Hero example for Silvermoon:

Kael'thas (High Specialization for fire element magic school, decrease % mana cost & increase % damage dealt per level)
Unique available spells to learn: Phoenix, Flame strike.
Possible low level spell: Fireball, Wall of fire.
Possible high level spell: Pyroblast.

 

[FEIGN]

Town concepts with existing models.
Something to start from.
I see it being possible!

Can work on a more extensive, thorough list as I just did this on the fly to conceptualize it.

The Alliance

Humans

Stormwind:

Catapult: None

Heroes:
- Varian Wrynn, Uther

Units:
- Militia
- Apprentice Wizard
- Footman, upgrades into Captain
- Knight
- Jailor Kassan, upgrades into Magroth the Defender



Kul Tiras

Catapult: None

Heroes:
- Admiral Proudmoore, Jaina

Units:
- Bandit, upgrades into Rogue
- Brigand, upgrades into Assassin
- Enforcer
- Chaplain
- Bandit Lord



Kirin Tor

Catapult: None

Heroes:
- Antonidas

Units:
- Upgrades Apprentice Wizard into Rogue Wizard, upgrades into Renegade Wizard, upgrades into Dark Wizard.



The Alliance

Dwarves

Catapult: Siege Engine

Heroes:
- Muradin Bronzebeard

Units:
- Rifleman
- Mortar Team
- Gryphon Rider
- Flying Machine
- Battle Golem, upgrades into War Golem, upgrades into Siege Golem




The Horde

Orcs

Catapult: Demolisher

Heroes: Thrall, Grommash Hellscream

Units:
- Grunt
- Raider
- Shaman
- Wind Rider
- Kodo Beast



Fel Orcs

Heroes: Grommash Hellscream (Demon blood)



Replaces and can only train Fel Orcs.

Gul'dan

Units:
- Stormreaver Apprentice, replaces Shaman. Upgrades into Stormreaver Hermit, upgrades into Stormreaver Necrolyte, upgrades into Stormreaver Warlock.



Taurens

Heroes:
- Baine

Units:
- Tauren



Trolls

Heroes:
- Vol'jin, Rokhan

Units:
- Headhunter (ranged), upgrades into Berserker (attacks twice).
- Troll, upgrades into Troll Trapper, upgrades into Troll Berserker, upgrades into Troll Warlord. May choose which between Forest, Ice and Dark at any time when training these units (gains resistances to appropriate school).
- Witch Doctor, upgrades into Ice Troll Priest, or Shadow Priest, upgrades into High Priest.
- Bat Rider



Ogres

Heroes:
- Rexxar

Units:
- Ogre Warrior, upgrades into Ogre Mauler, upgrades into Ogre Lord.
- Ogre Magi



Goblins

Heroes:
- Gazlowe

Defense upgrade:
- Goblin Land Mine (while in combat infront of defending town wall)

Units:
- Goblin Zappers
- Alchemist
- Shredder, upgrades into Goblin Blaster



Silvermoon

Heroes:
- Kael'thas, Alleria Windrunner, Anasterian



Undercity

Heroes:
- Sylvanas Windrunner



Darnassus

Heroes:
- Tyrande, Malfurion Stormrage, Maiev



Draenei



Naga



Legion



Northrend

 

[Ghullie]

Hey guys, I'm sad to say that I won't be working on this map any longer because WC3:Reforgeds poor reception has killed my motivation. I've refunded the game and won't be spending any time on it.

I really think it's an interesting project though, so if anyone feels like picking it up, here's the map file.

DISCLAIMER
I abandoned the idea and haven't cleaned up the trigger section at all. Expect poor documentation and lots of memory leaks in the triggers. It also has models ripped from WoW so there's a bit of gray area there on how legal it is to use them. If you choose to continue development it's all on you, I don't care anymore

At least it has a very good base for turn-based combat (AI included) and a decent trail-movement system (although not perfect). Some work has been done on resource collecting as well.

Sorry to disappoint & good luck to anyone who decides to pick it up!

 

[Zenmaster]

I am incredibly happy that someone has built up a map over this concept. Me and my circle of friends are huge fans of both the Warcraft and Heroes of Might and Magic franchises, and have theory crafted our own renditions of towns, units, heroes, spells, and so on. I would be very happy if we could establish contact and talk more about this, my Discord tag is Zenmaster#0068, so please free to send an invite as soon as you are able to. With that out of the way, i'd like to discuss my suggestions for your mod, especially in regards with FEIGN's concerns over here.

An average game of Heroes of Might and Magic does indeed take quite too much. 45 minutes is probably an estimate of how long a 1v1 map would take, but if you add more players, it surely would go out of control. I, like most of the community, have most of my appreciation for Homm3 and Homm5 for keeping to the same structure that attracted most players. However, i think you should check out the mechanics of Heroes of Might and Magic 6 as well, who has intentionally changed the game so that the games could go much quicker. Homm6 has unfortunately gathered a very negative reception because of its abysmal release, but i believe it had some mechanics that made the entire concept significantly better. Those would be:

1. The separation of the unit tier system into core units, elite units and champion units
This makes it so the first 3 units are part of the same tier, the next 3 units are part of the second tier, and the last one is separate as well. Considering you ended up going with 6 units due to it functioning best with the item system, you could do a similar separation, into 3 core and 3 elites. This fixes the problem of having to justify the order in which you have your units in the tier system. You no longer need to justify why the footman is weaker than the spear thrower, since both are essentially of the same strength. At the same time, units like gryphons are considered higher tier.
This also significantly simplifies the town system. You no longer need a footman barracks to construct a spear thrower camp, you could built either in any order, but you'd need to advance in the building tiers in order to reach higher tier units like gryphons. This also adds flexibility and strategy. Will you start with spear throwers or footmen?
Imgur

2. The magic system
I think Homm 6 has the most fit magic system for the Warcraft universe. Homm 3 had Earth, Water, Air and Fire, but those are insufficient, as they don't have the Light of the paladins, or the Dark of the death knights. Homm 5 comes closer, it has Light/Dark, but also Destructive/Summoning. The latter don't really work, as they aren't really thematic, just a bunch of clustered spells.
Homm 6 has the following schools: Air, Fire, Earth, Water, Light, Dark and Prime. Those work very well with the magic system of the Warcraft universe, with Prime being able to be named Arcane here. Homm 6 however, has a completely different skill system, and spells are essentially skills you learn. I am quite against that, and i suggest magic to be acquired from magic towers as from the original games.
Additionally, Homm 6 restricts the use of some spells depending on your faction. I think this is very in tune with the fantasy of the factions you have set up. However, i don't think we should restrict the use of spells, rather, magic towers would have spells of certain schools depending on town. Consider your roster:

Humans (Castle) - Light, Water, Fire, Arcane
Orcs (Stronghold) - Air, Fire, Earth, Water
Night Elves (Rampart) - Earth, Light, Dark, Arcane
Undead (Necropolis) - Air, Earth, Dark, Arcane
Naga (Dungeon) - Air, Water, Earth, Arcane
Burning Legion (Inferno) - Air, Fire, Dark, Arcane
Twilight's Hammer (Dungeon) - Air, Fire, Earth, Dark

You can see all magic skills from Homm6 here (requires flash player):
Abilities - Might & Magic Heroes 6 Wiki - Age of Heroes
Also on the wiki:
Might & Magic: Heroes VI abilities

3. Faction abilities
In Homm6, each faction has its own independent ability. This ability costs no resources, does not share cooldown with the magic cast of the hero, and has its cooldown replenish depending on different actions. It also has several charges, the more charges, the stronger the effect, but the cooldown will be reset to 0. Those abilities are in the wiki link as well. I'd translate some of them this way:
Humans (Castle) - Divine Shield - make a stack invulnerable for a set of turns, depending on the number of stacks; stacks replenish when units are damaged or when they have morale procs
Orcs (Stronghold) - Berserk - make a stack act quicker and deal more damage; stacks replenish when units deal damage
Night Elves (Rampart) - Shadowmeld - make a stack invisible until the next time it attacks or until an enemy stack comes by it; the next attack has no retaliation against it; stacks replenish when units do no retaliate (works for ranged attacks too)
Undead (Necropolis) - Raise dead - ressurect units that have died from a stack; stacks replenish when units are damaged or die

4. The ability for heroes to be able to move while unitless - removes the waste of time of when you move units between heroes and you need to leave at least 1 unit behind

5. The ability to convert cities and dwelling to your faction, with the use of resources - solves the problem of not being able to stack your main heroes with units because of different units between factions

I'll finish with a suggestion regarding custom music. Considering that you'd only stay for a minute at best in towns and combat, you could save a lot of space by just including small relevant portions of the music you need. You can also compress the sound files and it shouldn't be that space intensive.

 

[noob]

I am incredibly happy that someone has built up a map over this concept. Me and my circle of friends are huge fans of both the Warcraft and Heroes of Might and Magic franchises, and have theory crafted our own renditions of towns, units, heroes, spells, and so on. I would be very happy if we could establish contact and talk more about this, my Discord tag is Zenmaster#0068, so please free to send an invite as soon as you are able to. With that out of the way, i'd like to discuss my suggestions for your mod, especially in regards with FEIGN's concerns over here.

An average game of Heroes of Might and Magic does indeed take quite too much. 45 minutes is probably an estimate of how long a 1v1 map would take, but if you add more players, it surely would go out of control. I, like most of the community, have most of my appreciation for Homm3 and Homm5 for keeping to the same structure that attracted most players. However, i think you should check out the mechanics of Heroes of Might and Magic 6 as well, who has intentionally changed the game so that the games could go much quicker. Homm6 has unfortunately gathered a very negative reception because of its abysmal release, but i believe it had some mechanics that made the entire concept significantly better. Those would be:

1. The separation of the unit tier system into core units, elite units and champion units
This makes it so the first 3 units are part of the same tier, the next 3 units are part of the second tier, and the last one is separate as well. Considering you ended up going with 6 units due to it functioning best with the item system, you could do a similar separation, into 3 core and 3 elites. This fixes the problem of having to justify the order in which you have your units in the tier system. You no longer need to justify why the footman is weaker than the spear thrower, since both are essentially of the same strength. At the same time, units like gryphons are considered higher tier.
This also significantly simplifies the town system. You no longer need a footman barracks to construct a spear thrower camp, you could built either in any order, but you'd need to advance in the building tiers in order to reach higher tier units like gryphons. This also adds flexibility and strategy. Will you start with spear throwers or footmen?
Imgur

2. The magic system
I think Homm 6 has the most fit magic system for the Warcraft universe. Homm 3 had Earth, Water, Air and Fire, but those are insufficient, as they don't have the Light of the paladins, or the Dark of the death knights. Homm 5 comes closer, it has Light/Dark, but also Destructive/Summoning. The latter don't really work, as they aren't really thematic, just a bunch of clustered spells.
Homm 6 has the following schools: Air, Fire, Earth, Water, Light, Dark and Prime. Those work very well with the magic system of the Warcraft universe, with Prime being able to be named Arcane here. Homm 6 however, has a completely different skill system, and spells are essentially skills you learn. I am quite against that, and i suggest magic to be acquired from magic towers as from the original games.
Additionally, Homm 6 restricts the use of some spells depending on your faction. I think this is very in tune with the fantasy of the factions you have set up. However, i don't think we should restrict the use of spells, rather, magic towers would have spells of certain schools depending on town. Consider your roster:

Humans (Castle) - Light, Water, Fire, Arcane
Orcs (Stronghold) - Air, Fire, Earth, Water
Night Elves (Rampart) - Earth, Light, Dark, Arcane
Undead (Necropolis) - Air, Earth, Dark, Arcane
Naga (Dungeon) - Air, Water, Earth, Arcane
Burning Legion (Inferno) - Air, Fire, Dark, Arcane
Twilight's Hammer (Dungeon) - Air, Fire, Earth, Dark

You can see all magic skills from Homm6 here (requires flash player):
Abilities - Might & Magic Heroes 6 Wiki - Age of Heroes
Also on the wiki:
Might & Magic: Heroes VI abilities

3. Faction abilities
In Homm6, each faction has its own independent ability. This ability costs no resources, does not share cooldown with the magic cast of the hero, and has its cooldown replenish depending on different actions. It also has several charges, the more charges, the stronger the effect, but the cooldown will be reset to 0. Those abilities are in the wiki link as well. I'd translate some of them this way:
Humans (Castle) - Divine Shield - make a stack invulnerable for a set of turns, depending on the number of stacks; stacks replenish when units are damaged or when they have morale procs
Orcs (Stronghold) - Berserk - make a stack act quicker and deal more damage; stacks replenish when units deal damage
Night Elves (Rampart) - Shadowmeld - make a stack invisible until the next time it attacks or until an enemy stack comes by it; the next attack has no retaliation against it; stacks replenish when units do no retaliate (works for ranged attacks too)
Undead (Necropolis) - Raise dead - ressurect units that have died from a stack; stacks replenish when units are damaged or die

4. The ability for heroes to be able to move while unitless - removes the waste of time of when you move units between heroes and you need to leave at least 1 unit behind

5. The ability to convert cities and dwelling to your faction, with the use of resources - solves the problem of not being able to stack your main heroes with units because of different units between factions

I'll finish with a suggestion regarding custom music. Considering that you'd only stay for a minute at best in towns and combat, you could save a lot of space by just including small relevant portions of the music you need. You can also compress the sound files and it shouldn't be that space intensive.

does the faction abilities stacks get reset to 0 between battles?

 

[Zenmaster]

In Homm6, the faction abilities are reset at the end of combat, yes.

 

[SebioL]

Buddy, this is amazing. I am a fan of HOMM, being only Wc3 in front of him .. As I had not seen it here before. lolol
Return the initiative, it is one more reason to bring new tastes to the community. Stay in the classic and return to HD in the future. In the work of the Reforged graph, this Mod was quite surprising.
Would you be able to release the use of Heroes on the battlefield, as it existed in HOMM IV ??

I am incredibly happy that someone has built up a map over this concept. Me and my circle of friends are huge fans of both the Warcraft and Heroes of Might and Magic franchises, and have theory crafted our own renditions of towns, units, heroes, spells, and so on. I would be very happy if we could establish contact and talk more about this, my Discord tag is Zenmaster#0068, so please free to send an invite as soon as you are able to. With that out of the way, i'd like to discuss my suggestions for your mod, especially in regards with FEIGN's concerns over here.

@Zenmaster here is another fan of both series, willing to help. Being able to create path maps and a good AI will be the main challenge.
I'm sure that reaching a good balance, this MOD will create a great experience, within the powerful editing tools we have in hand in W.E.

 

[Wazzz]

Just found out this map project exists, it looks amazing