Posts from Walkthroughs for custom maps.

Wow :smile11:

There are a lot of save files there to check the AI's movement – where it will go, considering the location of our forces. Often, this is done in several places at once. Plus, hit-and-run tactics are common. And in the first 1-2 weeks, you need to play very carefully, calculating movement points in detail. That's why there are so many save files.

Here is Grigor Minchev's working email - grig @ abv. bg

I corresponded with him. Grigor shared some interesting things. For example, he was already using hex editing back in 2008 when he was working on "Abelia" (this map has one rather unusual element). And in "A Long Way," my starting position, as it turns out, is quite far from optimal, which I suspected myself :)

I corresponded with him. Grigory shared some interesting things. For example, he was already using hex editing back in 2008 when he was creating "Abelia" (there's a rather wild moment in that map). And in "A Long Way," my starting position, as it turns out, is quite far from optimal, which I suspected myself :)

Well, I'm glad you got in touch. He's definitely an author with a good sense of map design. But, as I think, his maps aren't as popular now because the difficulty level in them has become above average.

By the way, one of the first maps (if not the very first) featuring complex elements that couldn't be created using a standard editor is Rush! Unleashed HoMM (early 2000s). Could this be where the name of the famous editor came from?

when I was making "Abelia" (this map has one rather unusual moment).

What kind of moment?

What moment are you referring to?

I sent you a private message.

Map Name: Rise of the Sun King (Der Bier Plan)
Version: 24.2
Author: Nautilus (Biobob)
Download: Biobob's Laboratory

While exploring the map, I found several ways to complete it. One using bugs, and another without. The choice between using/not using them is made at the end of the walkthrough and essentially affects nothing except the number of days spent, as victory is already predetermined by then.

I'll say right away that this isn't so much a walkthrough as it is another plus in the piggy bank of map flaws that will be fixed, I hope.
To start, you need to generate the correct starting save. We need: 1. Flight at the Zauberberg Rampart; this castle is captured by Mr.Fat on day one. 2. Starting bonus of your choice – 6 gems, mercury, or sulfur, as these are the rarest resources. 3. These resources dropping from the mill near the Rampart.

If there are no problems with the first two points, then the mill offers us all the horror of pseudo-randomness in all its glory. Here is an example of saves with a starting bonus of 6 sulfur. Not much mercury and stone, right?

save 7 - 5 ore - 6 sulf - 3 cryst - 3 cryst - 3 ore - 3 ore - 3 ore - 6 cryst -

save 8 - 5 ore - 6 sulf - 3 ore - 3 ore - 3 ore - 3 ore - 6 sulf - 5 cryst - 5 cryst - 5 cryst -

safe 9 - 5 ore - 6 sulf - 6 sulf - 6 sulf - 3 sulf - 6 sulf - 6 ore - 5 gems - 4 sulf - 5 sulf - 3 cryst - 3 cryst -

Save 10 - 5 ore – 6sulf - 3 ore - 3 ore - 3 ore - 3 ore - 3 ore - 6 merc - 5 cryst - 5 cryst - 5 cryst -

Save 11 - 5 ore - 6 sulf - 6 sulf - 6 sulf - 3 sulf - 6 sulf - 6 gems - 3 merc - 6 cryst - 6 cryst - 6 ore - 5 cryst - 5 cryst - 6 ore - 5 cryst - 5 cryst -

Save 12 - 5 ore - 6 sulf - 6 sulf - 3 sulf - 6 sulf - 5 merc - 5 cryst - 5 ore - 3 cryst - 3 cryst - 3 cryst - 4 ore - 3 cryst -

The order of resources dropping from the mill is generated when creating the starting save. A series of manipulations led nowhere in changing this. The pseudo-randomness also goes wild when generating spells in Zauberberg. Eight summons of water elementals in a row or nine fireballs are common occurrences. The same problem exists with starting resource generation. Even exiting to the main menu doesn't really help. At some point, a chain started where flight dropped; that's when I began playing.

Another interesting point - around the fourth month, the resources we need start being added at the beginning of each week. This addition depends on the generation of certain creatures for the week. We need generations of so-called abstract creatures. For example, a rat week gives two mercury/gems, while a squirrel week gives nothing. At the same time, different saves gave me different resources from different abstract creatures. I don't know why that is.

In any case, the mill strategy turned out to be too long and boring. Therefore, it was decided to capture the nearest Rampart of orange Keine Brause! and use the market to build the fifth guild and obtain flight. To do this, we need to decide what we'll do with the AI and how our further development will go. My goal was to complete the map without too much effort, but not in an excessively long timeframe. In this case – take a shovel and start digging on several fronts.
As I have written several times before – on this map, you can create blocks by digging up territory on certain soils. Grass is one such soil. A total of 6 holes were dug on different fronts where the AI comes from. For interest's sake, I tried fighting brown while defending against him in a Rampart. DasBrausbier with an army of 40 champions and 40 death knights fled after the ballista was destroyed, and General Broc was killed using the same scheme. We get a lot of experience from him (80 monsters, 80 chaos hydras, and 120 gorgons), so in a normal game, it makes sense to kill these heroes after filling all skill slots. Furthermore, you need to generate a situation where they attack us with shackles of war. Otherwise, escapes are possible, as happened with DasBrausbier. In my case, General Broc had two pairs of shackles, but he attacked immediately after DasBrausbier on the turn transfer. Both attack at the beginning of the second week. Killing them is no problem even though I spent half the days digging holes and didn't build a castle. Accordingly, growth was much lower. But even that was enough; I didn't even have to catch frenzy from the djinn.

Generally, by estimates, everything needed can be broken through in the first week if you play without digging holes and with a normal plan. The main thing is taking the dragons' external dwelling. It is taken on the third day without using mana. All battles are built on the scheme – protect two shooting stacks (elves and hobbits) from enemies, catch the necessary casts from the djinn, and pull away the other part of the enemy forces using single units of snakes/centaurs/pegasi, depending on the situation. Having a spirit of same despair can even be a hindrance because it's preferable to conduct the most serious battles with +3 morale and luck; this is entirely possible given the large number of morale/luck boosters on the map. The most difficult battle for the first week is breaking through the griffins guarding two scholars who give us tactics, and additionally, we get the necessary artifact for the fire wall quest. They can be broken using one gold dragon and two upgraded unicorns (rolling blindness) as a screen for shooters, which allows creating a special terrain.

They must be broken as quickly as possible; otherwise, the AI might do it and take everything for themselves along with the experience. Nearby is a portal where brown comes out, and from below comes orange, who represents the main problem since the hero TrunkenDieb has 9 archs and tactics. The only way to kill him is through the fire wall trick or finding terrain with a cheat external dwelling. I tested the first option. For this, we must take the scholar with artillery for speed initiative so that there's an opportunity to cast the wall and close off the archers before the archs move. The battle requires a significant amount of mana, which creates certain problems since we cannot take intelligence due to bugged witch huts. I tried the option with level 13 Crag, artifacts from Der.Papst, and visiting the library (which is quite far away). I almost managed to kill him on the second attempt. I think with more favorable randomness, it could be done with much less leveling.

At the same time, some imbalance is observed here. TrunkenDieb arrives before brown, with whom we have no problems. Another way to deal with TrunkenDieb is to generate a situation where he reaches point 74.130.0 to visit the skeleton and gets stuck there. This happened to me several times because he often prefers to go down after arriving in our zone. He visits the observatory, sees the skeleton, and flies there. He can no longer get out due to the presence of cursed land. SoD_SP fixes the bug allowing AI to use control magic on cursed land. But even without the fix, in theory, this can also be pulled off if you occupy the cell with another hero or summon a ship.
As has already become clear, many scenarios on this map need to be generated. This applies not even to the battles themselves, but to the behavior of the AI.

In a favorable scenario, they can be led around for a very long time, delaying battles until later. The main thing is that they don't eat something useful for us. An example of this is the situation with Arthur D.. This hero opens the quest guard on day 12 and tends to go up killing monsters, and then he may visit orange's zone and kill the peasant who stands there for us. From him, we get two gold dragons in a pandora.

Recommended generation methods – switching between HD/HD+. In extreme cases, loading a save from other versions of Heroes might help. I had a case where the AI changed its behavior when changing the movement animation speed display (enemies). You can also leave a single unit of some creature in the garrison; then the AI prefers to attack it and runs to visit all boosters again in a new circle because a battle occurred and they became available to him again. You could try giving your Rampart to the AI for building, but I haven't tried doing that.

After digging up the territory, you just need to take everything required and accumulate enough troops to break through the garrison and take the Rampart. As I wrote, my goal was to complete it without too much effort, but without excessive dragging. I took the Rampart via autobattle on 1.4.4. It was possible to take the nearby pandora with additional archers, but that no longer mattered. Orange sat there and didn't want to come out even after removing the quest guard, despite not having an action radius set. I tried putting myself under the gates with a small army; it was all in vain. This bugged orange ruined the original plan where one could arrive earlier and capture his empty castle. We dig a hole near his castle and don't leave it, waiting for the right moment. If you stand on a hole, the AI does not attack us. A hole is a red cell; with equal success, you can try to attack a hero standing on a rock or tree. We, however, can interact with another hero if they are standing right next to us. Once I had to use the bug-feature of digging in one day: a hero wearing gloves takes three steps, removes the gloves, and digs.

After breaking through orange (MeisterSause), we have the opportunity to buy his growth, which is very fat – 13 gold dragons, 45 archers, etc. If he had bought all that, we would have had no chance. His main spells are clone, blindness, and sacrifice, all with a lot of mana. He even stands naked with five green dragons and the rest of the army, which could be problematic in a normal game.

The following days are not of great interest because, essentially, all problems end here. There is no longer any need to fight; it's enough to choose how to finish the map.

Victory conditions on the map – obtaining 99999 magogs. They can be obtained in pandora boxes located in different parts of the map; one and the same portal leads to them. To do this, you need to collect troops from prisons in hero Der.Operator's zone, fly to the Conflux, and kill hero Sonnenkцnig. His troops are 8 fabulous dragons and 54k ballistas, which he combined into one stack. Among artifacts is the Power of the Father of Dragons, and among spells – Armageddon, which he casts on turn transfer. Despite this, he is easily broken even by a small army. Then you need to run back and forth for pandoras collecting magogs. This option is quite long.

I didn't drag my feet when everything was already served on a platter and collected the required number of magogs using the repeating event bug at point 18.41.0. There, 3k magogs are given with parameters and other troops.
The bugged and non-bugged walkthroughs essentially differ only by a larger number of tedious manipulations at the end. By the way, the map can be completed without digging up territories. It's enough to capture the neutral castle Little Cof, get water walking by completing the quest to kill Der.Papst for convenience, and visit the mill every week while sitting in a safe place. The AI doesn't open the quest guard and cannot reach us. But this is all very tedious.

Conclusion. The Mr.Fat branch is quite interesting to play; it's worth trying even considering the bugs on the map and the presence of gross errors. But you must be prepared for constant generation in battles and even more generation in AI behavior. I played haphazardly, and a lot of time went into digging holes. But even so, I managed to feel a bit how it should be played normally. Otherwise, one can only hope for a new version with fixed bugs and errors. Marlo and Sewa studied the map quite thoroughly. They have much to say about mistakes and shortcomings. This could significantly simplify the author's work.

Finished on 2.2.1. Although days have no meaning here in such a game.

P.S. A few screenshots for propriety.

The secret of the most difficult map was revealed five years later :D

Added 3 minutes ago

I didn't drag it out when everything was already laid out and I gathered the required number of mages using the repeating event bug at point 18.41.0. There, you get 3k mages with parameters and the rest of the army.

The funniest thing is that this is, in theory, an event that should only work for the AI, but it's set the other way around.

Added 8 minutes ago

P.S. A few screenshots for good measure.

So, let's have the save files too. It's interesting.

The secret of the most difficult map has been revealed after five years :D

Added 3 minutes ago

The funniest thing is that this is actually an event that should only work for the AI, but it's set up the other way around.

Added 8 minutes ago

So, let's see the save files. It's interesting.

It always seemed strange that this map is considered more difficult than Metataks. Even the author wrote that it might be a little easier due to a lack of testing. It's strange that it wasn't completed this way earlier. Everything is laid out on a silver platter.

I'm a little embarrassed to post the save files. It's like posting a draft of a Walkthrough. I can post screenshots later with a more or less optimal setup for the battles. Although there's nothing special there either.

The only interesting thing was the attempt to micro-manage a battle against 100 buffed dwarves with three flies and a naked hero. But it was just an attempt. It doesn't make sense to start this battle too early, as you need to get the fighter heroes first.

And there was also a need for the correct setup in battles with harpies, reducing their health little by little so that they don't attack but just stand there while we reduce the health of the main stacks. Here's an example: https://imgur.com/a/2oCoT59

P.S. I corrected it. Not one, but three flies in one stack. You can also try with a djinn, but in this case, their priority to attack the naked hero increases because they understand that there is a chance that the djinn will not die from the first hit, unlike the flies.

Does anyone have information about the location of all the "Bird of Perception" artifacts? I got the Imaginarium, but I can't seem to reach the King of the Dwarves... I'm starting to think I might have accidentally sacrificed one of the birds on an altar, and I'm shuddering at the thought.

If you are talking about the “Paragon” 2.0 map, then that’s what you should have written in your question. There is already a separate thread for this map, although it was discussed in the general forum many times. I myself, as regular participants already know, tried it, but I only got through a small part of it, and someone else will answer you. You can also ask questions in the map discussion on HeroesPortal - perhaps the author himself will answer you; he often appears there. The most important thing: if you don't read the texts that are in the map, then this map is not for you. They MUST be read. And much needs to be remembered constantly. Here is an excerpt from the author's text:

At the beginning of the list of message-timers, there is an FAQ and some tips for playing. To view them, you need to open the map in the editor, press Ctrl+Enter, and select "message-timers".

This information is fully available in the document attached to this post.

Map Name: Frifix fluch/Pimp fluch/Der fluch
taken from the map archive
The file itself is called der fluch, but there are two maps in the archive (old and new versions)
Author: IchMachEinenAufPimp

The map has a decent rating on the site, so I decided to see what's going on there....
The map is another RPG quest where everything becomes clear and boring by the middle of the game....
But the beginning is truly impressive: for player 1, the starting hero is King Pimp with 1 crusader, and there are two spells in the book: resurrect and summon boat; you play as Castle, but you are only given a village with griffins, and there is no tavern either...
The first expectation was that it would be a tough fight, moving to new enemies via one-way portals, but without the ability to retreat, the single stack disappeared very quickly...
The map is quite mediocre, but there are a few moments in it that even reminded me of Dragon Lord's Walkthrough.
And so, the Walkthrough:
In the 1st week, we buy griffins in the towers and take the village on day 2-3, then clear the lands, gathering griffin troops from external dwellings; next, we head north in the 3rd-4th week of the 1st month after visiting the conservatory and upgrading angels, and take the castle with Edric, receiving slow; only griffins are available there too)))
Then via a one-way portal, we move to the main lands where the bulk of the game takes place:
We have access to 4 castles closed by quest towers, but we are only given one; the others will be obtained later when we complete the tower quest, and that's where full build-up is available.
We will have plenty of resource mines; enemies here pose no threat and can be easily beaten one by one; moreover, there will be a Dragon Utopia and an external dwelling for rust dragons, so the choice of troops will be wide.
Afterwards, all enemies are closed off from us by passage guards, so they are eliminated calmly and without problems.
After capturing all enemy cities: Dungeon, Tower, Inferno, Rampart, we leave through the next one-way portal, which begins a long, long road with no possibility of return...
During the journey, an enemy flies to us via portals, opening the border guards by visiting their tents at their spawns.
Here is a very important point: after sailing away on a boat (enemies do not have summon boat) and going through events with terrible gold deduction (all our gold is eventually zeroed out), you must reach Flax's castles in time; otherwise, the enemies take all our cities and you can lose...
Further, we get all types of dragons into our troops, and after completing quests (bringing Flax's troops to the passage guards, we also join a significant number of dragons); as a result, the army consists of titans, archangels, griffins, azure, rust, faerie, and crystal dragons, but you can combine them...
And we return back to win all the lands from the purple player...
Here, during the Walkthrough, I made a small mistake: I didn't do the tower quests for dragons, because of which I simply lacked meat in the battle with the main enemy of the purples, who had 20 to 60 dragons per stack; I had to retreat through the one-way portal and sail back to Flax's castles, and then return after completing the quests (several months were wasted by this stupidity).
With the purple player, only two battles with his main heroes are of interest (very conditional), and further, when all lands are returned, we get over 10 mines of each type at our disposal, a bunch of cities — a sea of artifacts (AoTD, Alliance, etc.) and essentially absolute security; no one will come to us, all remaining enemies are sealed and cannot offer any resistance; with AoTD they were all cleared without losses via auto-battle
And the final part: after all lands are reclaimed, we again begin a journey of unpacking corners with the enemy hero and castle, where we finish them off....
In the end, we will be given TP and all spells, so there will be no problems at all..
Map Pros:
- good idea to divide the path into parts with one-way portals so that it's impossible to return until a certain time;
- well thought out invasion by the purple player and seizure of all castles;
- detailed interconnection of quests
Map Cons:
- with an archangel clone from the water book, resurrection, archangels, and all dragons with the sphere of vulnerability and all spells in the book except control and clone (clone is from the book), all battles are boring and without losses; the author didn't provide any AI buffs to counterbalance this....
- there are all artifacts and all spells, no problems, no difficulty; towards the end, any interest is completely lost;
- poorly developed map, especially with a bunch of closed computer cities located nearby, moreover with absolutely zero heroes;
- final battle practically without losses on auto-battle with a colossal advantage for the player in stats and army (I've never seen it anywhere else that the final enemy is inferior in every way to the player's main hero)
- no freedom for the computer; they are all closed and waiting for the road to be opened to them;
- completely illogical and unclear: the author placed an enemy on the path with 1 phoenix, a bunch of SP, and an Armageddon spell, when by that time the red ball is given and there are black dragons; most confusingly, why put a prison with zero passability and a bunch of useless troops like gnolls and halberdiers behind this hero if it's not needed anywhere else in the quests...
In the end, I don't know and didn't understand why there are quite good reviews and ratings for this map on the site.
The map was completed in 361 days with a result of 486 points.
I could have easily finished it twice as fast if I had taken the dragons immediately instead of wasting time returning and completing quests

Well, it would have been worth including a link for clarity – not everyone will bother to search for it.
Here is the map, as I understand it. By the way, I'll read the comments...
Immediately, a question arises: what does Frifix have to do with this? As I understand it, he decided to rework/improve the original version himself. "IPimps Fluch (alte Version)" is the original, "Frifix Fluch (neue Version)" is Frifix's revision. The comments make it clear how things went: Frifix played the original version, found many flaws in it, and decided to fix them.
I am currently finishing playing another map that I don't particularly like, but I think it's still worth talking about because there are some interesting aspects.
In my long-term plans, I also have the German map "Brothers of Mercy and War": I want to find out for myself whether everything is as bad as described in his review by Pomazok1329.

Regarding Rise of the Sun King, I've added some information to the main post with the description. The Dragon Lair can be taken on day 3 without mana, and Griffins can be defeated in the first week. You can use 1 Golden Dragon and two Unicorns as support units (roll for Blindness). TrunkenDieb can be defeated with a well-developed Crag with artillery for initiative (tower control) and a good mana supply; mana might be an issue because we don't have the option to increase intelligence with the Witch Hut.

wenwell, didn't you release a Test ZY II hero with fire elementals and ifrits? As far as I remember, if you play according to the author's idea, he's the first one we encounter. I don't quite understand how to beat him. Probably, he's also on the defensive in the castle, but how can you eliminate the ifrits without taking too much damage?

Added 9 minutes later
It's also interesting what the author meant when he said: "There are SOME tasks the AI can help you greatly with..." The only thing that comes to mind is luring the companion under the oasis so that we can use it to gain extra speed and reach the outer tavern at 111.133.0, but this is clearly not a task for the first week and is very difficult to implement in itself.

Added 11 minutes later
wenwell, have you thought about contacting the map author about it, or posting on the HC forum? Maybe that's the only way to get a response from him.

Marlo_Stanfield, you need to reroll until this hero spawns in the right place, far away from the Rampart. Then, he will come to us at the end of the first week if you don't try to lure him further by leaving a single unit in the mine (he likes to move upwards near that mine). Otherwise, I think you can still lead him on if needed (in this case, Der Papst, with some good stat-boosting artifacts, will come to us faster).

In terms of his army, he only has ifrits as flying units, but there aren't many of them. By the beginning of the second week, we can easily kill 9 Archons (30 defense for the hero) with one stack of archers + magic. Overall, this hero doesn't seem invincible. Of course, this is all based on testing. =)

But he needs to spawn further away from the Rampart. This can be achieved through reloads. Otherwise, he might spawn near the fort on the hill, upgrade his ifrits there, and combine them into one stack. I did that once. I tried it a bit just now.

Regarding the author's words, General Broc kills phoenixes and takes the healing scroll from them, which we then receive. That's all I noticed when playing like this.

I posted a brief walkthrough on maps4heroes, in the map's comments. I know that you receive a notification in your email for each comment.