FataLisT
1) Zephyr lost experience and skills when summoning troops. You can open the mission and see what scripts are there.
3) FAQ Jack of Shadows
4) You can go to map properties => Players => [2] => ReservedHeroes => right-click => Add. In the window that appears, create New + any unique name, you will get an AdvMapHero object on the map. Choose Shared for the desired hero, configure the rest of the fields as for a regular hero on the map. But the main thing is to choose Shared, then you can configure the hero as usual through MapProperties. If you don't choose Shared or choose it incorrectly, the map will crash when loading.
1) Thank you for the tip, I'll look into it.
3) I looked in the FAQ, there is a section "How to play animation for creatures on the global map?" It seems to be about combat animations. I was digging through the settings, maybe I didn't go deep enough, and there is a separate section for animations that controls highlighting the unit on the map, am I thinking in the right direction?
4) Thank you for the direction to explore, I will try and experiment. Here is another question. Heroes have unique script names, is it impossible to set it up so that I have two identical heroes for both players? Will the game only recognize one of them and work with it? That is, if one player chooses a hero from the reserve, and then the second, in the end, the hero will end up with the second. And it is better to reserve them with a third separate player and take them from him if both players want the same one, whoever is faster, the second should be notified that it has already been taken. If I understand the mechanics and logic of the game correctly.