Dear Alexander, as well as Talarasha and pHOMM! The recent dispute made me download and install the "Complete Collection" that I found. Now I know and must officially admit: something is indeed not quite right with my previously installed "Breath of Death", as all 3 maps that "didn't want" to start in my SoD version work normally in the "Complete Collection"! It's also interesting that, after creating starting saves, I was able to launch them in both SoD and WoG. This is very strange, especially since, as I already said, hundreds of other maps in the same SoD and WoG launch without problems, and I only recently encountered this kind of problem. Now I have completed the "Armageddon" map, which wouldn't launch before. I want to describe my impressions of the "Path of the Mage: Beginning" map. I launched the latest version (from 08/31/2010) and played it for a while, but since, as I already said, I'm not a fan of RPGs (I prefer strategic maps), I didn't get very far and stopped. I'll start with what I liked. First, the humorous and original author's wording of the seers' quests. Second, the episode where one unit transforms into another in the seer's hut (the quest I'm developing will have a similar episode). Unfortunately, the rest didn't appeal to me. 1. Topography. In the center of the map, there is a dense cluster of buildings (well, a city), while the rest of the space is mountains and valleys. It would have been better to either choose a smaller map size or arrange everything more evenly. 2. This follows from point 1. As soon as the game starts, Victor goes around a bunch of seer huts, almost all of which are located in the city (is the rural air bad for them? :). As a result, we immediately get a list of 15-20 quests, which are difficult to navigate. After completing one of them, I patiently searched the map for a while, looking for the seer to whom I needed to deliver the item. Why not do this: the hero receives the first 3-5 quests, completes them, gets the opportunity to go further, receives a few more quests there, etc.? Otherwise, you can go almost anywhere, but the caring author tells you: "Don't go there, go here!" :) 3. The city. For a player accustomed to strategy games, it is terrible: you can't build anything, you can't hire anyone, and they also take money from you every day! Outrageous! 4. This follows from the previous point. I was wondering for a long time: where to get money?! I remember how happy I was when I managed to hire 2 miserable gargoyles! 5. I will remember the battles of the type "one creature against one" for a long time. No one has ever tormented players so ingeniously in my memory! We are used to battles in which hundreds and thousands of level 7 creatures can participate on both sides (like in "Armageddon")! 6. The area leading to the seer's hut in the dungeon, with ~30 Pandora's Boxes. Yes, you can get through it, but only by saving before EACH step!... And the legions of fire elementals that jump out of most boxes... Or getting only 15 experience points in some... And valuable instructions in each box... ... Maybe I forgot something, but these are just details. 100500. The overall idea (as I understood it). A young mage, "thinking about life" and taking his first steps in mastering magic, must learn different schools of magic and spells, and then he will be given an exam on his knowledge of everything he has learned. However, I did not see the training as a systematic and purposeful process. Well, they did what they wanted. To be honest, something similar already existed in "Heroes", but it was implemented completely differently. Have you seen the "Eternal Love" campaign? The female mage Velda learns magic to reach her beloved and free him from captivity. But HOW is this implemented! She learns spells only in battles with enemies using the Eagle Eye skill. The further she goes, the more formidable the enemies become. This campaign is considered one of the best. A good name, by the way, for a brutal action movie: "Eternal Love"! :) That's it. This is my subjective impression. I tried to write honestly what I think, without wanting to offend anyone. Soon I am going to post my map here, and you will also be able to criticize it. I will be interested to hear your authoritative opinion. Good luck in battles and creating maps!