Hello

I've recently installed Heroes of Might and Magic® 3: Complete and while I can play the normal game just fine, I'm unable to play multiplayer. I can get as far as the screen where you select the various multiplayer options (see attached pictures) however trying to use any of them immediatly causes my game to crash with the following error message.

DirectPlay Error:

'Uknown error?'

File'C:\Dev\Heroes 3 Exp 2\game\Remote.cpp'
Line# 1867

I've tried downloading directX End-User Runtimes, reinstalling/verifiying the game, running as admin and various compability modes, however no luck.

I use Windows 10 by the way.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Edit: I've also tried adding an exception/disabling my firewall, however since the game crashes before I can get to the host/join screen I doubt it's a connectvity issue.

Disable User Account Control on both computers. Instructions are here, use the second tip.

With who are you trying to play against ? Because judging by the heroescommunity community in this thread the problem it seems to be where you or your opponent don't have the same version of the game.

http://heroescommunity.com/viewthread.php3?TID=12141&pagenumber=5 (Page 5)
http://heroescommunity.com/viewthread.php3?TID=12141&pagenumber=6 (Page 6)

A bit late answer, but I had exactly the same problem as you did. And I found a solution for it. All you need to do is go to Control panel > Programs and features > Uninstall or change program, and there on left you find "Turn Windows features on or off". When there find "Legacy Components" and under there mark DirectPlay to turn it on.

I hope this'll help if someone is having similar problem.

I was having this problem today and after trying a lot of things that didn't work, this did it for me. Thank you for posting this solution here!

I have the problem that whenever clicking multiplayer online the game auto crashes, now i found the forum topic where it was explained to go to controlpanel programs etc windows stuff on or off, legacy components check directplay box. OK BUTTTT i found the box, it was already checked.. the game crashes anyway on online attempts. So if theres anything else.. Id rly love to hear it! thanks!

same here

Official multiplayer support for Heroes 3 is long over. That's why your game shuts down. If you want to play online without problems you'll need two mods:

https://sites.google.com/site/heroes3hd/
http://h3hota.com/en/download

The first one adds high resolution support and an online lobby. The second one adds tons of new stuff to the game (new castle, units, buildings etc.) and allows to create online games without payment.

You can also do it via Hamachi or Radmin vpn, but you would need to do a lot of work to hit all the curveballs Windows (especially the 10th instalment) throws at you.

However if anyone wants to give it a go, here's what you need to do:

1. Check if you have DirectPlay feature enabled. You can check it in the control panel -> find/ open "Programs and Features" then press the "Turn windows features on or off" -> in the "legacy components" check if the the DirectPlay box is ticked
2. Install DirectX 9 redistributable (February 2010) -> https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=9033
3. Installing the redistributable is not enough, because it will not overwrite the stub libraries present in Windows 10. Instead, you need to extract the dxnt.cab file (with 7zip or the expand command) and copy the files dplaysvr.exe, dplayx.dll, dpnet.dll, dpnhpast.dll, dpnsvr.exe and dpwsockx.dll to your Windows\SysWOW64 folder (if you are running 64-bit Windows, otherwise it's system32), replacing the stub libraries there.
Note that by default Windows won't let you replace the stub libraries, so you will need to change the ownership of the aforementioned 6 files and give yourself permission to overwrite them.
4. Download RadminVpn/Hamachi and create a local network
5. Disable firewall for Hamachi/RadminVpn, heroes3.exe and dplaysvr.exe
6. If the above still doesn't work, you will need to forward a couple of ports in your router settings (The ports to forward are the same in both cases: Both TCP and UDP 47624 (doc says TCP is enough, but my testing shows UDP is being listened too), and both TCP and UDP 2300-2400). Also, check if you have UPnP disabled, as this might cause some technical issues with DirectPlay.

I have to admit, that I build my manual based on the wisdom celestialheavens bestowed upon me. So here's the link:

https://www.celestialheavens.com/forum/7/16061

So to summarize - as you can see the above requires some technical computer knowledge, so it's not necessarily for everyone. However, what I wanted to prove, that it is definitely possible to use the standard TCP/IP rather than going for the HotA+HeroesHD option.