v0.8

Huge thanks to @jkruczyn and @justincase9 for their contributions! 🙌

New Features

Connection Editor — @justincase9

• After generating a template, connections between zones can now be edited, removed, or created manually.
• Border guard strength can now be adjusted for individual connections.

Improvements

Additional Zone Content

• Added previously missing structures. If you notice any that are still unavailable, please let us know.

• Updated all structure names to use their proper in-game names instead of internal development names.

• Structures are now sorted alphabetically for easier navigation.

• Improved and streamlined the Rules UI for a more compact and user-friendly experience — @jkruczyn

• Added support for selecting the exact structure variant when multiple variants are available — @jkruczyn

• Added a Solo Encounter rule to ensure zone content spawns without additional nearby content items — @jkruczyn

Zone Configuration

• Added an option to spawn abandoned outposts instead of neutral castles.

0.7.1

• Added support for Single Hero Mode
• Added an option for players to start the game with multiple castles
• When enabling the Tournament victory condition, Lose when starting hero is lost is now enabled by default

0.7

Huge thanks to @jkruczyn and @justincase9 for their contributions! 🙌

New Features

Bonuses, Bans & Overrides — @justincase9

• Added support for configurable starting bonuses, including:

  • Artifacts
  • Spells
  • Starting Army multiplier
  • Movement bonus
  • Additional starting resources

• [Advanced] Added support for overriding guard values for specific structures

Additional Zone Content — @jkruczyn

• Added support for defining additional content per zone type

  • Configure where objects can spawn
  • Define whether spawned objects should be guarded

Improvements

UI

• Fixed dropdown selections not working correctly on some devices

• Added an automatic updater

  • New updates are now downloaded and applied automatically
  • No more manual file downloads required

• Added a Patch Notes button for quick access to the latest release changes

• Improved the layout preview for the Tournament victory condition

Layout

• Added a new Balanced map layout

  • Attempts to create a more balanced gameplay experience by:

    • Separating players with neutral zones
    • Placing high-level neutral zones further away from starting areas whenever possible

Zone Configuration

• Removed the Balance Zone Placement setting

  • Balanced placement is now enabled by default and can no longer be disabled
  • The Random layout no longer supports this behavior, as it is intended to remain fully random
  • Use the new Balanced layout for a more structured experience

Map Generation

• When using the Chain layout, the first and last player are now always placed at opposite ends of the chain

• When using the Tournament victory condition together with the Ring layout, each player now receives their own individual ring

• Border guard strength is now dynamically adjusted based on the zones being protected

  • Weaker guards for low-level neutral zones
  • Stronger guards for high-level neutral zones
  • This should also improve the behavior of Easy and Medium AI players, which previously struggled with stronger guards

0.6

UI

• The template preview now provides a more detailed overview for random layout maps instead of always displaying them in a circular format

  • This feature is still work in progress. Unusual results may occur when using a large number of zones

• Improved the template preview for the Tournament victory condition

• Disabling Show Preview now hides the preview image both in the UI and in-game

  • This allows players to explore maps without knowing what to expect beforehand

• Fixed an issue where a warning appeared when saving templates inside subfolders of the game's template directory

• Map sizes now include additional in-game style labels: S, M, L, XL, H, G, C

• Added a View on GitHub button for quick access to the GitHub page

• Added a Discord button to join the community server, provide feedback, report bugs, or share templates

• Various smaller UI improvements and refactors

Map Generation

• Improved the overall random map layout generation

• Portals should now appear less frequently

  • Portals are created when connected zones do not end up neighboring each other in-game. This can still happen in some cases, but further improvements are planned

• Neutral cities will now always have guards

  • Additional customization settings for this feature are planned for a future release

• Fixed an issue where certain setting combinations could generate isolated zones

  • Map generation now ensures that all isolated zones are properly connected

Game Rules

• Fixed issues related to the Tournament victory condition
  • It should now work reliably without crashes
• Removed the Announcement Days slider
  • Fights are now announced as early as the game currently allows

0.5.2

UI

• Fixed window scaling issues when using high DPI settings or lower resolutions
  • The window should no longer be cut off at the edges of the screen when using handheld devices

0.5

Huge thanks to @jkruczyn for their contributions! 🙌

General

• Fixed multiple issues that could lead to in-game crashes.

UI

• The template preview now displays player numbers for each player zone, matching the corresponding player slot in the in-game lobby
• Added additional warning messages for setting combinations that could potentially cause in-game issues
• Added a warning when a template file is saved with a different name than the one defined in the template
• Added a warning when a template is saved outside the expected directory

Map Generation

• Improved overall map structure and resource variety
• Low, medium, and high neutral zones now generate different structures
• Roads are now correctly generated through neutral zones without castles

Game Rules

• Marked the Tournament victory condition as [EXPERIMENTAL] since some settings combinations may still cause issues

  • Additional fixes and improvements are planned for the next release

Layout

• Added support for up to 4 castles in the hub zone

0.4

Huge thanks to @adamPetho and @jkruczyn for their contributions!

General

• Fixed multiple issues that could lead to in-game crashes.

UI

• Fixed an issue where the starting window height could overlap the screen on certain configurations — thanks @adamPetho
• Reorganized settings into tabs for improved clarity and navigation — thanks @jkruczyn

Map Generation

• Improved balanced zone placement: player zones will no longer spawn adjacent to each other when using the Hub layout
• Reduced resource spawn rates by half (previous 50% is now the new 100%)

Game Rules

• Added support for Hold City and Tournament win conditions with properly generated zones:

  • Hold City: Spawns a random objective city (always in the hub zone when using the Hub layout)
  • Tournament: Generates two mirrored, isolated clusters of zones for each player

• Fixed an issue where Game Rules were only applied when using advanced zone configurations

• Removed the Gladiator win condition (currently unsupported)

• Clarified tournament-related settings — thanks @jkruczyn

Heroes

• Fixed an issue where the Initial hero cap was incorrectly affected by the increased cap per castle

• Default values updated:

  • Initial hero cap: 4
  • Maximum hero cap: 8
  • Cap increase per castle: 1

Layout

• Added support for resizing the hub zone when using the Hub layout

Zone Configuration

• Added support for up to 30 neutral zones of the same type

Advanced Settings

• Added an option to limit the maximum number of portals

v0.3

Huge thanks to @the-new-kai-lu for implementing the majority of these new features!

UI

• Added a template preview that is generated before saving and visible within the application. The preview is also shown in-game and can be disabled if desired — @the-new-kai-lu & @KhanDevelopsGames
• The application window can now be resized and maximized — @KhanDevelopsGames
• Improved and additional warning messages - @KhanDevelopsGames

Map Generation

• Improved structural variety across all zones — @KhanDevelopsGames
• Player zones now always spawn with both a wood and an ore mine — @KhanDevelopsGames

Template Settings

• Added support for experimental large map sizes — @the-new-kai-lu

Zone Configuration Settings

• Resource and structure spawn rates can now be configured independently — @the-new-kai-lu
• Guard strength in neutral zones and at borders/portals can now be customized — @the-new-kai-lu
• Added an option to better balance player and neutral zone placement — @the-new-kai-lu
• Added an option whether all castles within a player zone should be of the player faction - @the-new-kai-lu

Advanced Settings

• Player and neutral zone sizes can now be adjusted — @the-new-kai-lu
• Guard strength randomization can now be fine-tuned — @the-new-kai-lu
• Added support for low, medium, and high neutral zones, with optional castles. Up to 32 zones are now supported — @the-new-kai-lu

Advanced Game Rules

• Faction Laws XP and Astrology XP gain can now be adjusted — @the-new-kai-lu
• Win conditions are now configurable, with support for multiple conditions simultaneously — @the-new-kai-lu

Note: Certain combinations of map layouts and win conditions may cause in-game issues.

v0.2

• Redesigned the user interface for a cleaner and more intuitive experience
• Added the ability to save and load settings

• Improved scaling of resource and structure spawn rates based on zone size
• Added a slider to adjust resource and structure spawn rates

• Enhanced randomization of player starting locations
• Fixed an issue in the Hub Map layout where multiple unguarded connections to the central hub could appear

• Added an option to disable road generation
• Added an option to generate neutral zones without castles

v0.1

Release Notes

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v0.1 — Initial Release

⚠️ This is the first public release. The tool is functional but still a work in progress. Some features are experimental and may produce maps with issues. Please back up your map_templates folder before using generated templates.

What's included

This is the initial release of the Olden Era Simple Template Generator — a Windows desktop tool for generating .rmg.json random map templates for Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era without needing to edit JSON by hand.

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Features

Map settings

• Set player count (2–8)
• Choose map size (displayed as Width × Height)
• Configure additional neutral zones
• Set castle counts per player zone and per neutral zone

Topology

• Random (default) — zones placed at random positions and connected to all true bordering zones using Delaunay triangulation
• Ring — zones arranged in a circle, each connected to its two neighbours
• Chain — zones connected in a straight line with no wrap-around
• Hub & Spoke (Experimental) — all zones connect through a shared central hub
• Shared Web (Experimental) — player zones connect through shared neutral zones arranged in a ring

Zone options

• Isolate player zones — players can only reach each other through neutral zones, with an automatic fallback connection if no path would otherwise exist
• Spawn portals — adds portal connections between non-adjacent zones
• Spawn remote footholds — places remote foothold objects in each zone

Hero settings

• Min and max hero count
• Hero count increment per castle

Quality of life

• Auto-detects Olden Era Steam install path and opens the Save dialog directly in the map_templates folder
• Hints shown in the save confirmation if the install path could not be detected
• Live validation with descriptive error messages and warnings
• Version shown in title bar and header
• Automatic update check on startup via GitHub Releases API

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Known limitations

• Hub & Spoke and Shared Web topologies have not been thoroughly tested across all player/neutral zone combinations
• The tool targets Windows 64-bit only
• Some generated templates with unusual zone counts or topologies may cause game-loading issues or imbalanced maps
• Portal placement uses a fixed derangement strategy and may not always produce ideal results

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Installation

1. Download Olden Era - Template Generator.exe from the assets below
2. Run it — no installation or .NET runtime required (self-contained)
3. Generate a template and save it to:
   <Olden Era>\HeroesOldenEra_Data\StreamingAssets\map_templates