Posts from Raven's Despair

Name: Raven's Despair
Map name: orcs2
Type: Scenario
Size: 176x176
Dungeon: absent
Game version: 3.1
Number of players: 2
Map author: Grigoriy
Map description: After the defeat of Biara, peace in the Orcish Khanate did not last long – literally six months after the victory over the demoness, troops began to gather on the border with the Empire, in the County of Raven, and their colors indicated that they belonged not only to the forces of the County of Raven but also to the Legion of Blood Steel. For some reason, this human force began an assault on the recently organized border of the Orcish lands, and this force proved to be unexpectedly strong for the Orcs, who, after the last war, had once again divided into their tribes.
Gotai, the Orcish Khan, set out with a hastily assembled army to the place from which the most alarming reports were coming – to the section of the border divided by a wide river, which the Orcs called Zarrech.

About the map: the map is a variation on the theme of possible events that could be happening to the Orcs after the end of all the story Campaigns of "Lords of the Orcs". I did not make any special settings for the difficulty levels – the difficulty level on which this scenario should be played is assumed to be "Hero". The NoBlockEditor mod is embedded in the map.

From the author: I am not a programmer or a game designer; I created the map and wrote the script as I understood it, so if something is wrong, if there are any typos, or if you think that the scripts could have been written much better and more interestingly, and also if you are concerned about the absence of in-game cutscenes on the engine, then, I'm afraid, you will have to accept the map as it is, or not accept it at all.
However, if you find really serious miscalculations in the balance (unfortunately, the time spent creating this scenario and testing it has completely discouraged me from wanting to play it), please let me know in this thread.
I would also like to express my gratitude to:
Gerter and Jack_of_shadows for their help with the scripts, which I could not figure out at all.
RedHeavenHero – the Unicorn Empire Campaign and the additional maps for this campaign became a kind of practical guide for me on the use of scripts.
The creators of HoMM5MapScriptsEditor for the tool.
The creator of the NoBlockEditor mod.
The creator of the Xazardous interface mod – his Xazardous_Backs_3.1 mod is recommended to be installed before installing this scenario.
And my last, but no less, or perhaps even more important, gratitude is to Kanzaki_VS for creating several portraits specifically for this map (link to the artist's gallery https://vk.com/kanzaki_vs)

It's a bit too heavy at the start(. You definitely need to take Machines and the Obsidian Blade(Obsidian Blade because even an upgraded ballista doesn't pierce monks). I tried seven times and gave up(I don't want to cheese the difficulty). If only there were a window to split the shamans.
p.s. stumbled upon the scenario after 5 years downloaded version 1.1 and either the author made it easier, or I've become a better player, but I beat it. Completed everything including side quests; it was, let's say, f**king hard. Unexpectedly found an experience set in the tents(helped) and still took the Obsidian Blade, which suspiciously often drops for the Orc on this map. Of the serious spells I encountered in battles, there were only Vengeance and Plague, which opponents—considering my Orc speed—could only cast once(btw I got both speed rings—didn't encounter any staffs). Others uselessly tried to mess around with cold or attacked manually, using AI evasion. The assistant just sat there guarding the house where I got Roar and Fury(jackpot damn it). What didn't work: why weren't we allowed to hire cockroaches? How would they have gotten in the way? It would have made life easier for players. Didn't like the condition to protect a goddamn garrison that hasn't fallen, tucked away in a corner in the middle of nowhere. Why? Didn't like the overloaded dialogues/*monologues with verbal fluff(you just don't want to believe/get into the story being told—whatever). But side quests are explained clearly and understandably—no confusion. All sorts of riffraff jumping out of some f**king holes got in the way. Didn't hit any bugs except one(screenshot). The map is stable; it crashed a couple of times during loading, but that's normal given the bunch of scripts, my bunch of mods, etc. What worked: Orcs, tough start(but easy islands and sea for some reason). The trick with the garrison that can be poisoned. The trick with three battles in the finale(a surprise, but no problem if prepared,(though the cheating elf who moves 15 hexes stressed me out) and free cyclopes were a pain—I don't like them, but I was forced to take them because of the speed of wiping out several squads. In the end, they wiped out a couple of mine. Overall not bad, difficult, f**king hard, but if you have time, it's worth the effort. The scenario still needs polishing. Thanks for the game.

Yes, the beginning is great: the main character is killed almost without a chance (even on veteran difficulty). Maybe I should try it on recruit difficulty...
I tried it. It seems the enemy army is the same; I won, but almost lost all my units – I had to upgrade my troops, otherwise I would have been in trouble.

It doesn't seem particularly difficult – I beat it on the hero difficulty after two attempts without paying much attention to losses. I could have played much cleaner, but I was feeling lazy. Attack/defense/machines, everything is standard for the Orc. The only thing, of course, is that I should add a save before the battle.

Hmm, I didn't think about saving before the battle, maybe I should have. As for the first battle, it was designed to be challenging, so that the description would match the in-game experience. However, during testing, it turned out that by leveling up the hero, you could end up saving almost the entire army, which completely ruined my idea for this battle. Therefore, when leveling up the hero, attack and defense are increased proportionally, as well as the stats of the first enemy hero. Nevertheless, Gotau's stats can sometimes increase significantly, especially in magic and knowledge, which has happened to me as well, so you just have to replay it. Fortunately, the game doesn't do this very often, and it's just the first battle. And, by the way, sometimes even the auto-battle could win this fight.

I'm not good at playing as Orcs. I couldn't even complete the starting battle on Veteran difficulty, let alone Hero. I managed to do it on Recruit and War. Focus on developing structures and machines. For further gameplay, logistics are absolutely essential.
To the author: completing the task in 1 month seems unrealistic, and the reward for it is insignificant. It seems more important to strengthen and recruit units. At least add a counter showing how many units are left.
I haven't finished the map yet, but everything is going towards victory (on War difficulty).
The map is great, although I don't like playing as Orcs or with overpowered heroes. Thank you very much for your work.

I watched Gerter's video, and the enemy stats are clearly lower – meaning it's not a good idea to level up the main hero too much. Also, the hero's army and the enemy army in his video are exactly the same as mine on a recruit. That's quite interesting...

Okay, so I played for the first month, and without any major problems, I defeated the arriving Knight . I killed all the red units, except for the squad on the island. Overall, it seems a bit poorly designed – as I understand it, to build a shipyard, you need to make peace with all the Orcs, but in my opinion, defeating the Cyclops + the guy with the Wyverns and remaining combat-ready for the Knight's attack is quite questionable. Otherwise, there aren't any particular difficulties. Also, for visual convenience, the Orc quests could be separated into their own category, as there's an issue with displaying hints about who needs what.

Watched Gerter's video, the enemy stats are clearly lower – meaning you can't level up the main hero. And the main hero's and enemy's armies are exactly the same as mine on a recruit. Funny...

Yes, the troops on the recruit are the same, and the auto-battle loses just as badly as it does on the main hero. So, I don't know how any victories can be achieved with the auto-battle here.

Okay, so I played for the first month, and without any major problems, I defeated the arriving knight . I killed all the red units, except for the squad on the island. Honestly, it seems a bit poorly designed – as I understand it, to build a shipyard, you need to make peace with all the orcs, but I think defeating the cyclops + the guy with the wyverns and still being combat-ready to attack the knight is quite questionable. Otherwise, there aren't any particular difficulties. Also, for visual convenience, the orc quests could be separated into their own category, as there's a problem with displaying the hints, showing who needs what.

Well, I didn't really want to create a lot of windows for these sub-quests; essentially, it's one single quest. And in the quests, you can only update the description, but not add to it, unfortunately. And to be able to build a shipyard in the city, you just need to go to the forge; it's located right next to the ruined shipyard. There's another quest to restore the ruined shipyard already in progress, near that very forge, after you've made peace with everyone.

Added 1 hour 5 minutes ago
Besides, the one-month limit is only for the clearing quest. Still, I think I'll need to sort out the quest descriptions later

I think we can summarize a few things: 1) It would still be good to make some concessions for low-level gameplay: in my opinion, the fact that the first battle is the same for both the Hero and the Recruit is not normal. 2) It's unsettling that the same first battle essentially locks in the Hero's progression: without machines, it's impossible to win, and building is effectively prohibited. Otherwise, the impression of the scenario is more than positive; thank you to the author for this pleasant gift!

I think we can summarize a few things:
1) It would be good to make some concessions for lower game levels: in my opinion, the fact that the first battle is the same for both the Hero and the Recruit is not normal.
2) I'm concerned that the same first battle actually fixes the Hero's progression: without machines, it's impossible to win it, and using them is practically forbidden.
Otherwise, the impression of the scenario is more than positive; thank you to the author for this pleasant gift!

1) I would like to deal with one difficulty that is a priority for me, and you are telling me about four. Unfortunately, but no. Not in this map, at least.
2) I wrote about the reasons for this above. The only thing I can do here is to see how I can change the stat increase due to the "Armored" skill of the enemy hero, for the outcome I am calculating. And the machines for the Orc are already laid down by the map author as a "must-have" for the Orc.

I finished the map in 116 days; the second half was quite boring, just accumulating troops to defeat all the human enemies, which was made tedious by having to chase after weak attackers from the portal. I also didn't like that you can't hire more than two heroes. The final enemies didn't pose any particular problems for a well-developed Gotay. But for a first experience, the map is not bad, and I didn't notice any bugs. Thank you for the map.

Finished the map in 116 days; the second half was quite boring, just accumulating troops to defeat all the human enemies, which was made tedious by chasing after the weak attackers from the portal. I also didn't like that you can't hire more than two heroes. The final enemies didn't pose any particular problems for a well-developed Gotia. But for a first experience, the map is not bad, and no bugs were noticed. Thank you for the map.

I'm on my phone, so it's like this.
Thank you for the Walkthrough and feedback; it seems it turned out to be quite easy after all. I created this portal to somehow diversify the process when I realized where things were heading; I will make these runners stronger, as well as the final boss. You can also send me replays of the last battles in a private message; I'll watch them when I get home.
And, technically, this is my second experience in mapmaking; the first was the map "Counterattack," but it was made entirely by copy-pasting scripts from campaign maps.

Added 15 minutes ago
Yes, and also - was the reinforcement quest working properly? It was created to stop the runners from the portal later on

I'm on my phone, so it's like this.
Thanks for the Walkthrough and feedback; it seems it turned out to be quite easy after all. I created this portal to somehow diversify the process when I realized where things were heading; I will strengthen these creatures that run out, as well as the final stage. By the way, could you send me the replays of the last battles in a private message? I'll watch them when I get home.
And, technically, this is my second experience in mapmaking; the first was the map "Counterattack," but it was entirely made by copy-pasting scripts from campaign maps.

Added 15 minutes later
Yes, and also - was the quest for reinforcements working properly? It was created to stop the creatures running out of the portal.

I only sent reinforcements once; everything worked normally there. I didn't send them a second time because I only bought Cyclops once during the game. I don't have replays of the last battles; it's all very simple there. Clara has about 60 horses, while I have 40 Cyclops and other units; everything just falls due to the Horde's rage, and all her spellcasters are easily blocked by goblins that I keep sending in. Dependence on difficulty is still needed.

Yeah, IMHO, the Master's maps were somehow easier to complete...
The quest to provide reinforcements to Tilseck has been completed. After that, Gabriel arrives with a crazy army, and Victor jumps out of a portal (it was mentioned in the previous post that the portal would close after completing the quest). Gabriel goes first, duplicates 357 griffins, and then everything becomes very sad. She doesn't want to fight in the Castle. IMHO, the map can only be completed a) with luck (in both my Castles, I didn't have any Screaming or Horde of Rage) and b) with a very high player skill level. As already noted, the difficulty level doesn't matter – I played on Recruit only to avoid worrying about resources at the beginning.
As always in such cases, the question arises: why did the author try so hard, bother with scripts, and come up with a plot? How can you find time, for example, to complete the quest with the mage if you constantly have to jump into the Castle and defend yourself?
I think I won't try to complete this scenario in this version – it's clear that I need to grind again (worrying about every first battle), get the necessary spells in the Castles, count every move – knowing in advance what needs to be done, etc. In order to eventually overwhelm Clara with brute force, skipping half of the plot and quests.