Introduction

Heroes 3 HD mod introduces handling of the Mirror Template. It is a special type of map, where ground and underground are nearly exactly the same. They can be easily distinguished from the other templates by their specific name, starting with mt_ or h3, f.e. mt_Jebus, h3dm1.


Map generated from the mirror template contain identical features on the surface and the underground level:

  • Terrain
  • Objects, with the exception of:
    • Monoliths
    • Heroes in prisons are different, but have the same class. They have the same army, with the exception of some unit specialists, f.e. Wystan
    • Grail and Obelisk cannot be generated
    • Grave artifact (probably bugged)
  • Towns, with exception of the ownership
  • Classes of the heroes in taverns and their starting troops roll
  • Artifacts, resources, mines, spells, spell research order in mirrored towns
  • Monsters, their number and presence of the upgraded stack
  • Rewards in creature banks


Mirror template forces a specific player setup. When the Red player town is selected, the Blue player's town is automatically chosen as the same faction. Blue player's town will be generated at exactly same position as Red one, but in the underground layer. The pattern follows, so Tan town will be generated on the surface, Green town will be mirrored underground - with the same faction.

Therefore, if the first player picks Red and the second player picks Blue, their starting position will be identical. However, only one instance of a hero can exist in the game. For this reason, starting heroes are different. If they have different class, also their starting army will differ. Buying heroes in the tavern will reveal heroes of the same classes for both players, with same starting troops roll.

Template author will introduce special monolith connections, that will allow to travel between the map layers.

Creation of a Mirror template

Warning Template generator contains some bugs and restrictions. Usually creating more complex, non-standard templates will result in randomly messed-up generations.

Right now mirror templates are not handled by the HotA Template Editor. It is possible however, to create a base template with this tool and then transform it into the mirror template. Edition of the template file can be performed with any csv or text editor (f.e. Txt Edit by GrayFace).

  • Change the name of the folder containg rmg.txt, to mt_YourTemplateName or h3YourTemplateName. Folder name must begin with mt_ or h3.
  • Edit the rmg.txt:
    • Col 12: Put a single x under Mirror column
    • Col 15: Change the Map name so that is starts with mt_ or h3. If there are multiple templates in a template pack, make sure that they all follow this rule.
    • Col 16-17: Make sure that the size of the template will accept map with underground. F.e. for mirror template M (Medium size), use Minimum size = 4 and Maximum size = 8.
    • Col 29, 38: Confirm, that the number of players is less than 4 (it will be duplicated to 8. Extra players zones will be neutral). Check columns Zone -> Type -> human start and Zone -> Player towns -> Ownership
    • Col 117-118: Create connections with the underground, to allow players to meet. Add normal zone number in the column 117 and -1 in column 118. F.e. 5 -1 will create connection from the zone number 5 to the exact same zone underground.
    • Col 121: Set connection as a Border Guard. Insert the value as follows:
      • First you may put x. If you do, this monolith will be connected with a road. Put a space after x.
      • Choose the Monolith that will be present on the surface:
        • t1 - Two Way Monolith or Portal. Choose a number between 0-20 (without 8), to select the monolith color and type.
        • o1 - Monolith One Way Entrance. Choose any number between 0-11, to select the monolith color and type.
        • e1 - Monolith One Way Exit. Choose any number between 0-11, to select the monolith color and type. WARNING - one way exits are currently bugged and won't work properly for non-host in online lobby. This can be temporary fixed - after launching the game each player needs to generate such map f.e. on a single player mode. This puts some data to temporary HD Mod cache. This will work until H3 is closed.
        • s - Subterranean Gate. Impossible to select a variant.
        • r - Unknown
      • Follow up with a space and type the monolith type that will be present in the underground, in the mirrored zone. Follow the same rules as above. Be careful, road is connected the the portal on surface. When using a different type (1 squared monolith / 2 squared portal), the underground guard can be misplaced.

        F.e. x t0 t1 will create a green monolith on the surface and a brown monolith in the underground and both will be connected to the road (it will be necessary to create at least one t0 monolith in the underground and one t1 monolith on the surface to allow players to meet).

    • Setup Connection Restrictions the same way as for non-mirror map. F.e. if you create 1 vs 1 mirror template, create restrictions as 1 1 1 1 (min. human positions 1, max. human positions 1, min. total positions 1, max. total positions 1).

Extra notes

  • If maximum number of object on the map is restricted, half of them will be generated on surface and half underground. F.e. maximum number of 16 Star Axis can appear on surface and 16 underground.
  • When using the number of the zones in any calculation, f.e. for the dwellings values, only surface is taken into the account. Then, the underground is mirrored.
  • When Red color is not a human player, the remaining player positions will be shifted, it might result in an unplayable scenario. If human is picked only on a secondary color in the pair (f.e. Red computer + Blue human), human will receive AI's resources (Difficulty level). Most likely AI strenght will be correctly assigned to the difficulty, but it wasn't confirmed.

Monoliths' codes

Monolith One Way Entrances:
Monolith One Way Entrance1.gif
o0 Blue
Pink Monolith One Way Entrance.gif
o1 Pink
Monolith One Way Entrance3.gif
o2 Orange
Monolith One Way Entrance4.gif
o3 Yellow
Turquoise Monolith One Way Entrance.gif
o8 Turquoise
Violet Monolith One Way Entrance.gif
o9 Violet
Chartreuse Monolith One Way Entrance.gif
o10 Chartreuse
White Monolith One Way Entrance.gif
o11 White
Monolith One Way Exits (bugged):
Monolith One Way Exit1.gif
e0 Blue
Monolith One Way Exit2.gif
e1 Pink
Orange Monolith One Way Exit.gif
e2 Orange
Yellow Monolith One Way Exit.gif
e3 Yellow
Turquoise Monolith One Way Exit.gif
e8 Turquoise
Violet Monolith One Way Exit.gif
e9 Violet
Chartreuse Monolith One Way Exit.gif
e10 Chartreuse
White Monolith One Way Exit.gif
e11 White
Portal One Way Entrances:
Purple Portal One Way Entrance.gif
o4 Purple
Orange Portal One Way Entrance.gif
o5 Orange
Red Portal One Way Entrance.gif
o6 Red
Cyan Portal One Way Entrance.gif
o7 Cyan
Portal One Way Exits (bugged):
Purple Portal One Way Exit.gif
e4 Purple
Orange Portal One Way Exit.gif
e5 Orange
Red Portal One Way Exit.gif
e6 Red
Cyan Portal One Way Exit.gif
e7 Cyan
Two Way Monoliths:
Monolith Two Way1.gif
t0 Green
Brown Two Way Monolith.gif
t1 Brown
Monolith Two Way3.gif
t2 Violet
Orange Two Way Monolith.gif
t3 Orange
Pink Two Way Monolith.gif
t9 Pink
Turquoise Two Way Monolith.gif
t10 Turquoise
Yellow Two Way Monolith.gif
t11 Yellow
Black Two Way Monolith.gif
t12 Black
Blue Two Way Monolith.gif
t17 Blue
Red Two Way Monolith.gif
t18 Red
Two Way Portals:
Green Two Way Portal.gif
t4 Green
Yellow Two Way Portal.gif
t5 Yellow
Red Two Way Portal.gif
t6 Red
Cyan Two Way Portal.gif
t7 Cyan
Chartreuse Two Way Portal.gif
t13 Chartreuse
Turquoise Two Way Portal.gif
t14 Turquoise
Violet Two Way Portal.gif
t15 Violet
Orange Two Way Portal.gif
t16 Orange
Pink Two Way Portal.gif
t19 Pink
Blue Two Way Portal.gif
t20 Blue
Subterranean Gate:
Subterranean Gate.gif
s Any terrain
Subterranean Gate (snow).gif
s Snow terrain

See also