Posts from Mapmaster 2013 | [CONTEST] Mapmaster 2013

Single-player map - "Illusion of Victory" Multiplayer maps - "Whispers of Death"

The voting is slowly approaching its final stage; I remind you that the 2nd is the last day. Preliminary results:

Single-player map:

Illusion of Victory – 5 (Juss456, JonnyP, Pobeditel, 13ga, Heleg)
Firestorm – 1 (Heroist)

Multiplayer maps:

Whisper of Death – 3 (Juss456, Pobeditel, Heleg)
Dragon Utopia – 2 (Heroist, JonnyP)
Invasion from the Underworld – 0 ()

The Firestorm has been completed. The plot is certainly interesting, but despite all the assurances in the message at the beginning of the game, I didn't notice any connection to the plot of the Tribes of the East campaign, which is important. It's clear that the author tried hard and put a lot of time and effort into creating the map, but it's too long, and grinding through hordes of peasants and swordsmen isn't the same as eating candy. Therefore, I'm giving my vote to the Illusion of Victory map. The Invasion from the Underworld didn't appeal to me at all. There are a lot of effects that slow down the game, and even with simplified graphics, the terrain doesn't look very well-developed. And Kha-Belekh, behind a guard post and surrounded by a fence, looks ridiculous. Whispers of Death, like Dragon Utopia, left a good impression after completing it, but I will vote for Dragon Utopia because the idea with this flying island and white dragons is good, the terrain is wonderfully detailed, and I personally have no complaints about the balance.

So, here's my humble opinion: all the maps are quite interesting. In the "Single-player map" category, I'm voting for "Illusion of Victory". First, it's likely to win anyway. Second, the work is truly high quality; you can feel the effort put into every detail. In the "Multiplayer" category, I'm voting for "Whisper of Death". Although, in my opinion, the map's terrain isn't very well-designed, it's still a fairly interesting multiplayer map with some unconventional elements. Therefore, the winners of the main categories are clear. Now comes the most difficult part: my personal nomination. There are two contenders left for this nomination: "Invasion from the Underworld" and "Firestorm." On one hand, the first one is the work of a beginner, and... frankly, I like how it looks. Although, the problems are still significant. The second work isn't perfect, but it offers an interesting perspective on various tactics, features a beautiful video (although, in my opinion, it's a bit too fast-paced), and is visually appealing, and it's not overloaded either. Overall, the nomination goes to "Firestorm". Let's summarize the . Single-player map: Illusion of Victory -- 5 (Juss456, JonnyP, Pobeditel, 13ga, Heleg, RedHeavenHero, Ment) Firestorm -- 1 (Heroist) Multiplayer maps: Whisper of Death -- 3 (Juss456, Pobeditel, Heleg, Ment) Dragon Utopia -- 2 (Heroist, JonnyP, RedHeavenHero) Invasion from the Underworld -- 0 () The winners are Heroist for the single-player map "Illusion of Victory," Darkprince from heroescommunity for the multiplayer map "Whisper of Death," and in the "From Ment" nomination, Juss456 for the map "Firestorm." The other participants: MARKELL KRAMMER submitted the map "Invasion from the Underworld," and I submitted "Dragon Utopia." All maps can be posted on any platform. Congratulations to the winners, and I'll go submit a request to have them awarded badges (which will be available shortly). Congratulations again!!!!

The five main heroes are Tralsai, Shadia, Railag, Ilaya, and Sigrif. In the message box on the second day, the author tells the backstory of the map, stating that Sigrif visited hell and brought Tralsai, Shadia, and Markel back with him. Even if we assume he managed to do this (and there is no hell in Ashan, Shio is just a demon prison), it's hard to imagine that Tralsai, killed by Railag, Shadia-Biara, who betrayed him, Ilaya, and Railag himself, who became a Knight of the Order of the Dragon and no longer deals with the affairs of Igg-Shail, would work together to capture the sacred city of humans, Celestial Gates, which was not mentioned in the plot, and obey some Sigrif.

Perhaps I should explain what's what...

First, I saw a mention of hell. And its existence is quite real - true evil needs somewhere to hide, unrelated to the world of the living. Shio is not that place.
Second, yes, Railag killed Tralsai. Tralsai naturally still hates Railag, but for the sake of protecting his homeland, he is willing to overcome this. And he hates humans even more.
Third, according to my plan, Shadia really existed before Biara killed her and took her form. What happened to her soul next is indicated.
Fourth, according to my plan, Railag retired and decided to live in seclusion with Isabelle. But he could not ignore the call for help from the dark elves.
Fifth, none of the heroes obey Sigrif. But since he is the one who caused all this mess, he must fix it himself. His voice is a priority because he is the most powerful hero at the moment, thanks to finding a powerful artifact in the depths of Hell.
It's confusing, but it makes sense.

In general, everything described was in the previous parts of the campaign. It's a pity that you didn't finish it; the final battles were epic.

There is no God in Ashan, so there is no hell, right? There is no Devil either, by the way. Kha-Belekh is the lord of demons, elevated above the others. Ashan does not affect what is happening; other dragons only observe, rarely interfering in the affairs of lower races. You can only hear about the afterlife once from Nicholas when Markel revives him. But nothing was said about hell as a repository of souls. Plus, Zehir, when the heroes dealt with Markel, said that he wanted to make sure that he would never return. Sigrif turned out to be more powerful than Zehir; what allowed him to return the necromancer to Ashan?

As far as I remember, Shadia didn't exist at all. If you assumed that she was, it still contradicts the plot of the campaign.

Regarding Shadia... Biara cannot take the form of some imaginary creature in her head. She can only take the form of an existing character. This means that Shadia existed.

I am creating (trying to create) a new story, which is not the same as creating a backstory to a backstory or some kind of detached map about Petka Vlaskin, who for some reason attacked Vaska Petkin and "Oh my god, what will happen now...?!" It would be very strange if, while creating something new, I didn't introduce a new main character (Sigrif), new cities (Celestial Gates), and even a new world (Hell). After all, many people didn't know who Wulfstan or Gothai were before the add-ons were released. And even if you start playing some campaign from the final map for the first time, you might think, "What is this red dwarf, and why is he riding a mammoth?"

Regarding Hell... Why not allow for the existence of a parallel world in which demons are many times more deadly than their prototypes from Shio, and where there is its own ruler, compared to whom Kha-Belekh is a toddler. This world existed even before the emergence of the world we know so well. And I am not trying to transfer the concepts of God and the Devil, which exist in our religions. Here, the Devil is a separate character. And unlike Kha-Belekh, he does not "reveal" himself and his existence. The souls of cursed heroes go to hell. And, for example, Zehir could not even imagine that someone would think of going to Hell, defeating the Devil, and returning the souls of some heroes through the only connection between the worlds - the portal near the Devil's Tower. And in general, he might not have known where Markel's soul would go, thinking that completely destroying the necromancer's physical form and imposing some kind of curse would be enough.

History sometimes lies or omits something, and the characters through whom we learn the history of Ashan may be mistaken or not know something.)

P.S. Most people complain about the same things, for example, 60K peasants in huts or 8K zombies. As if someone forced them to kill or capture something. There is always a choice. Or maybe it would have been worth setting up a battle with 500 peasants against a super-pumped warlock and then giving a lot of money and bonuses for winning this mega-difficult battle? :smile48:

I would like to add a couple of less significant points regarding the past competition. First: its scale. Compared to 2011, the number of maps increased by two: one thanks to a user from another online resource (I had hoped for more, but last year, map creators from other sites could also participate, we just didn't see their submissions), and the other thanks to the organizer (I decided that in this case, it would be beneficial for both the competition and myself). Of course, I expected more; I really wanted some specific map creators to participate (I think they know who they are ;)), but it didn't happen. Nevertheless, overall, the result was better than before, and I was even able to implement several nominations, so it doesn't look like all participants simply won.)
However, the number of voters, unfortunately, decreased.
Regarding the maps: overall, I didn't regret any of the submitted works. They all contain a unique atmosphere and some interesting features, and in general, after some refinement (and some even without it), they could easily become part of the golden collection of Heroes games. On my part, I will definitely refine "Utopia of Dragons," which turned out to be a bit rough, although I have some conditional excuses: I was busy with things that made me miss the deadlines, and I was also working with Multiplayer for the first time, and I messed something up with the victory conditions, which I will post in a separate thread. And I think that I will even recommend that everyone follow a similar approach.
For the future, I think we need to change the competition format to something similar to the 2009 format (Ser9K suggested this to me a while ago, but I didn't listen to him, unfortunately). Specifically: suggest maps created in the past year for consideration. A preliminary round, followed by a final vote, with nominations and everything as it should be. I think then we will not have a shortage of either submissions or voters, because there will be no need to spend time creating and playing through maps.
That's the situation.

Well, I also want to thank EVERYONE who participated in the contest; this includes not only the mapmakers but also those who simply took the time to play the maps. And, of course, a special thank you to the contest organizer – I probably wouldn’t have dared to take on such a task. Thank you all very much! I hope that Heroes of Might and Magic V will never be forgotten! (Of course, I’m talking about the offline part; because an important part of the game is, in fact, PvP, which doesn’t really relate to everything mentioned above).

the contest format should be changed to a slightly modified version from 2009

Great idea! It will be much more convenient that way.

Will there be dedicated threads for these maps in the relevant section?

As I understand Ment's idea, all map creators who have posted any of their creations in the topic /forum/section/159/ (within a year?), will be put up for voting. (Or perhaps only those that stand out among them).

Will there be topics for these maps in the corresponding section?

For the next contest? Well, it's still too early to decide, but I would do it the same way as the polls are done in the Heroes III section: any visitor to the topic leaves their list of candidates, and then an open poll is created, where all these candidates are listed (or almost all). Something like that. Although it might need some refinement, but in any case, there is plenty of time until next year ;)

That's good because creating five maps a year, as stipulated in the 2009 contest rules, isn't exactly easy [for everyone].

But generally, I was asking about the maps for this contest. Will there be separate threads for them?

I don't know about the others, but I was planning to create a thread the other day.

I promised – and I will deliver. But first, I need to fix some things; it will take me some time, and you know me.

For the future, I think we should change the format of the competition to be somewhat similar to the 2009 version (Ser9K suggested this to me a while ago, but I didn't listen to him, unfortunately). More specifically: submit maps created in the past year for consideration. A preliminary round, followed by a final vote, with nominations and everything else as it should be. I think then we won't have a shortage of either submissions or voters, because there will be no need to spend time creating and playing maps.
That's the plan.

So, a map created this year has a chance to be included in the competition at the end of the year, is that correct?

Added 3 minutes later

but there is no hell in Ashan

Maybe it's just a small detail, but still - the name of one of the alternate upgrades for the demons is "Hounds of the Underworld." My intention was that all alternate upgrades for the demons are troops from Hell, and all first-level upgrades are demons from Sheo.

So, a map created this year has a chance to be included in the contest at the end of the year, is that correct?

If the contest is held according to these rules, yes.