Posts from Walkthroughs for custom maps.

Oh, wenwell, oh, you clever guy!
But this is not so much the player's merit as it is the author's oversight. Leaving Fly and DD available in the guild is, of course, a serious mistake that automatically negates about 90% of the idea behind almost any map. Wenwel is great for noticing that!

And some kind of wild possibility to block computers through digging - I'm hearing about this for the first time! It's funny, but I'm still surprised by how crooked some things in Heroes are implemented at the software level.

However, this does not negate the question of the author's intention regarding the walkthrough, because these two shortcomings can be fixed quite easily.

And it shouldn't diminish the merit of completing those 10% - being able to develop and survive. For this map, that's not a small feat. It's a pity that every time the conversation about this map always comes down to questions about bugs.
However, wenwel gave a fresh look at this map!

And let's not underestimate the achievement of completing those 10% - he managed to develop and survive.

It's not hard to survive if no one can attack you)). I only tried the other battles in draft mode. The idea is that everything should be completed quite quickly after capturing a stronghold. There are a lot of upgrades and speed boosts there. Maybe it would even be possible to get a bunch of gold, like 10k, in 50.119.0, but it takes a long time to run back and forth, even considering the portal.

Fixing the flight and digging, yes, it's not difficult, the main problem in Mr. Fat's zone is the witch huts. I can still see how the initial heroes can be defeated without intelligence and water magic, but it might be tough later on. And in the rest of the game, we can't know if everything is going as it should or not. But even so, it's quite interesting and unpredictable to play. The AI can behave very differently. In "no bugs and no digging" mode, you can try it for the first two weeks, and then who knows.

There are also random spells in the castles of !Teich [Jolka] and HangarAyt. Not to mention the other oddities that have been discussed:)

Genre: RPG.
Actual Difficulty: it is hard to characterize here in one word. There are several very strong enemy heroes and one powerful neutral stack on the path. Other battles are easy.
Plot: Banished from heaven you decide to roster recruits to make a new life for yourself. You decide to find a land and call it Hell. First things first along with yourself three others were banished, you need to find them and free them they will help. Then maybe revenge is on the cards.
If anyone is tired of always playing as the good guys — there is an opportunity to play as the bad ones, and specifically for Inferno, which happens infrequently. Cast down from heaven for turning fallen souls into demons, Satan decided to find other exiles to prove to Archangel Michael himself that he was wrong.
I started a Walkthrough of this map about 5 years ago, but I didn't understand the author's intent and stopped at the very beginning. Much later, relatively recently, I read a message from the author where he wrote that there is an error with alliances in the original map (everyone plays for themselves, there should be only one team: Turquoise with Brown). Having corrected this error, I decided to try starting its Walkthrough again.
The list of drawbacks, especially compared to the advantages, might lead one to think that the map is bad. No, it's just that after eliminating a few flaws, it could become noticeably better. At the same time, comparing it with 4 previously completed maps by the author, I can say that this is not the best of all his works. Perhaps it is one of the early maps. By the way, among maygwan's large number of maps, no two are similar (excluding the "This is Legion" series): each has its own unique features.

It has an original concept.
Our heroes have all necessary skills from the start (specifically, there is a literacy specialist). True, I would replace Magic with Intelligence for Satan, but later he will have enough mana.
Timing, meaning quests with time limits, is absent. You can complete this map as quickly or as slowly as you wish.
Defeating the final boss here is not nearly as easy as the Evil angel in "Wings of heaven" (by the way, he can also only be reached by air — but that is the only thing the two maps have in common).

Our heroes have logistics, but for a very long time there are no Boots, Gloves, or Admiral's Hat (though the Hat cannot be given prematurely so that the player reaches certain places only in the intended way: by walking on water). Because of this, travel between locations becomes quite long, especially when you need to return and exchange Magic Armor for archdevils, and then come back.
At the initial stage, the author did not give the player Spirit of Despair or at least Sorrow for long battles where hostile creatures can lose morale more than once. This means such a battle can be lost even almost at the very end and will have to be started over. Spirit of Despair may appear on the map as a random artifact, but it might not appear at all.
Whether Resurrection drops for you, where and when — depends on chance. Unlike some other spells, the author did not take care to ensure the player has it. So it is best to make a starting save immediately and check it with Prospector so as not to suffer later. This is very important, as the absence of Resurrection will significantly slow your progress forward.
The placement of huts giving quests to kill Pink, Turquoise, and Brown heroes is such that after killing Pink's heroes, you won't be able to reach them for a long time, yet the archdevils given as rewards are very much needed!
The map is built as a quite typical linear RPG where after capturing one zone we move to the next, but a number of decisions cause bewilderment and disappointment:
On the border of our main zone (102,30) stand blue border guards instead of border gates.
The shrine with the Summon Ship spell is placed so that it is available to all players who come to that spot. It should have been made so that only our hero could visit it (and better yet if it were a scholar, since we have a hero with literacy).
On the border of the swamp zone (46,66) stand green border guards instead of border gates.
The aforementioned leads to "trash and chaos" starting on the map after a few months: AI players open passages to neighbors, some capture others' castles, etc. But the main thing is: for us to open the passage to enemies means giving them access to come to us, and until significant forces are accumulated, we are far inferior to Green and Blue, who are already walking through swampy and rocky lands. Colossi stand in the Castles, there are plenty of external dwellings and armies grow very quickly there.
Events in Inferno cities that erect previously forbidden buildings happen very late (months 11-17). And why the portal to Bloody Hell is not built immediately like other buildings is unclear.
Given the map size (L), the game turns out to be too dragged out, and throughout the completion time, months are spent waiting for troops to accumulate.
Random placement of the Grail, which can be easily and quickly dug up by enemies.
The player is given Flight and Dimension Door scrolls closer to the finale (they are necessary to reach the main enemy), but there is no Town Portal on the map, only portals in Inferno cities. Such a scroll could have been added.
Flight and Dimension Door scrolls are not guarded: access to them is blocked by only 3 border guards.
One can get to Michael's Castle via Flight or Dimension Door using single "holes" in the mountains. But if imps appear in one of these "holes" at the start of any week — the map may become impassable! And since the Fire God is on the map and the game lasts quite a long time, the probability of such a disaster is very high. It would have been necessary to place empty events in the "holes" to prevent this, or make many more such "holes".

Starting the game, immediately create a starting save and check with Prospector: if Spirit of Despair is in your generation and where it is located. If you are unlucky with it, it's better to start over or take my starting save. Remember: if an artifact did not appear at the start — it is impossible to obtain, as there are no artifact traders or black markets here.
There are no taverns at the initial stage, so heroes cannot be lost or flee in battles. And later, having taverns, you should not lose heroes freed from prisons: they will open access to new Inferno cities.
The scroll with the Berserk spell also must not be lost: unfortunately, for almost the entire game it will be our only one.
In the beginning, you need to carefully conduct 3 battles: in the garrison on the way to the red tent and in the garrisons before the prisons. Losing troops, especially archdevils, is undesirable, as there are no dwellings at this stage and the only sources of troops will be hives and conservatories (all must be cleared), but you can afford to lose war machines: there is a military equipment factory nearby. Two first captives also have some trolls.
Until you reach your main zone with full Inferno cities, do not skip any upgrades and especially knowledge stones: let your secondary heroes also visit at least the stones. From time to time, messenger heroes will also have to fight a bit, as imps will suddenly appear at the start of each week in random places, blocking the way. And let Hades upgrade literacy to expert, as it will be necessary to transfer required level 4 spells to all capable heroes.
For the battle with the naga ambush (you will be warned by a message), take only a stack of archdevils. Give all other creatures and all war machines to another hero. Spirit of Despair is highly desirable in this battle.
If you are unlucky (like me) and Resurrection does not appear in the 2nd and 3rd Inferno, try to quickly dig up Alamar or Jeddit in the tavern and retrain it from them. Or better yet, generate a lucky starting save.
Do not remove the blue border guards in the southeast of your lava zone until you have accumulated a fairly large army (it should consist of archdevils and ifrit sultans, as there won't be enough resources for other creatures yet) and receive all azure dragons from the seers (once you collect elementals). To understand when you can move forward, you can save the game and open the map with a cheat code to find the location of strong enemy heroes: if they are far west in the Castle area, then you can relatively boldly capture Strongholds. The enemies are busy fighting among themselves and don't care much about you.

I will break everything into stages and briefly characterize each:
Stage 1: preparatory.
Satan with 2 freed assistants moves forward, gradually learning.
Stage 2: clearing the Inferno zone.
Reaching our main zone, we capture everything in it, free the remaining prisoners and defeat Pink's heroes. Then we sit for some time and accumulate troops, without which success is impossible further on.
Stage 3: dealing with enemies.
Leaving the "comfort zone", we move south and west, gradually eliminating strong enemy heroes, and then establish full control over the world (except for the main enemy's lair).
Stage 4: finale.
After leveling up Satan and gathering as many troops as possible, we fly to Michael's Castle and defeat him, which is where the game ends.

Stage 2 started for me on 4-1-4 when I entered the lava zone and took Hellington.
Stage 3 started on 10-2-4. Having accumulated 508 archdevils and 727 ifrit sultans, I removed the blue guard and set off across the sea of fire to the Strongholds.
Stage 4 can be considered as starting on 13-1-5: on this day Pink's Conflux was taken, and only one Blue remained in the last zone, which can only be reached by flight. This stage ended on 14-1-5 when I beat Michael.
Result: 369 days.
I could have completed the map faster, but some factors played a role: didn't take Spirit of Despair immediately (didn't know where it generated in the abandoned ship), was unlucky with Resurrection (it didn't appear in any Inferno, and I had to dig up Alamar in the tavern and retrain the spell from him), later I wanted not to risk but to act for sure, so I accumulated troops for some time, and before the finale captured and visited everything possible, and gathered an impressive army.
Drawing a line, I can call Stage 3 the most interesting, when we came out to the enemies but were still weaker than them and had to run back and forth for some time to accumulate strength and defeat them. There is excitement, tension, and dynamics here. The rest is relatively static and kind of boring.

Genre: RPG.
Actual Difficulty: mostly, fights are easy, only 3 of them can be called medium, and in the finale you will have to defeat a very powerful enemy heroine.
Plot: Fuiste el soberano de estas tierras. Gobernaste bajo un halo de controversia, pero fuiste respetado y temido. Una noche, no obstante, borracho de poder, aceptaste un pacto, creyendote invulnerable; y te pasaste a las sombras, donde la muerte camina incansable...
Translation: The Reconquest of Viduan. You were the ruler of this land. You ruled in a halo of controversy, but you were respected and feared. One night, however, drunk with power, you accepted a pact, believing yourself invulnerable; and you passed into the shadow, where death walks tirelessly...
I have already read up on this map (or rather, its finale) thanks to Xaart, so I wanted to see how everything else is played through. Well, and try to deal with Madre in my own way.
Attention: due to one of the enemy heroes having an Angelic Alliance, the game may crash upon ending a turn. In this case, you must play using the HD mod with the HD+ option enabled.

It has an original concept.
Plot texts appear in places, which can be translated to get a deeper sense of the atmosphere of this world.
Good detailing.
The main hero starts with the necessary skills (wisdom, sorcery, and earth magic).
The player is given some key artifacts needed for completion (in the dungeon): pieces of the Undead King's Cloak and the Sphere of Vulnerability.
The map is completed at a fast pace without significant difficulties. Unlike the one I described last time, here you can boldly remove guards and move forward. There is no need to tread water and accumulate troops at any stage.
When we reach the southwest of the surface world, we have quite a bit of freedom of action; there is no strict linearity: you can go in any direction, and there are 4 enemies who can be fought in any order.

A number of aspects are not well thought out. Perhaps the author is a beginner. I will name the most important points:
Some key artifacts and spells whose acquisition is not guaranteed. They may not appear if the player is unlucky with generation: Raise Dead; Berserk. Whether the player obtains these means and when significantly affects the walkthrough.
To cross the lake, the player is given a full Dimension Door, although Water Walking would have been sufficient. The other shore can be "illuminated" by an observatory.
With the Dimension Door, the player may skip some quests, as behind several guards are event cells that can simply be jumped into. The same goes for ambushes on the path: I learned about many of them later when my other heroes passed through there.
An overpowered final boss who, however, can be killed. The author gives us no plot explanation as to where this Madre came from and what her dispute with Baltasar was about.
Heroes in the "arena" in the dungeon, who are supposed to be powerful, are actually defeated easily.
On the surface, the game is dynamic, but in the dungeon, everything is completely static.
Heroes released from prisons play no plot role, and the benefit from them due to their skills is small: additional income from the Manor skill, bypassing mills and outer dwellings...

We are playing as Necromancers, starting with Baltasar as the main hero.
Nearby there are goblin, hobbit, and peasant dwellings, who can be hired for free and turned into skeletons, so the skeleton stack grows very quickly.
In the city, a Town Portal luckily dropped, but second was... Resurrection, and Raise Dead is not yet available.
On 2-2-1 I captured Blue's southeastern Fortress, after which I visited the blue tent.
On 2-3-4 I attacked the western Fortress where a Dragon was stationed. I conveniently positioned my vampires to block the enemy gorgons and basilisks from exiting the gates and gnawed at them using life drain. The enemy is defeated and Blue disappeared.
On 2-4-1 I easily took the Necropolis Horizonte. Almost everything is already built in the city and there are troops, but some buildings are forbidden (prefecture, tavern, mages guild...).
On 2-4-6 I visited a mage's hut and saw some places on the barbarian lands (Brown, the nearest enemy). Unfortunately, they live on cursed land and magic will be of little help to me there. I reached the shore of the lake and see that I cannot cross. This means I must deal with the barbarians first.
On 3-1-5, heading southeast, I attacked Nella, Brown's main hero. She, of course, escaped (I have no Shackles of War).
Taking a couple of Strongholds, I returned to the swamps and robbed 2 utopias, obtaining several valuable items: Shield of Lion's Courage, Sphere of Vulnerability, Speed Boots, Rider's Gloves, Elixir of Life, Wizard's Well and, of course, gold.
After this, I returned to the barbarian lands and captured the remaining Strongholds.
On 3-4-5 I took the Necropolis La Logia, received a Dimension Door scroll and finally learned Raise Dead. Now it is possible to move forward, beyond the lake.
On 4-1-2 I jumped over the lake and opened the view of the surroundings in an observatory. Seeing the Necropolis La Catedral nearby, I took it. Everything is already built in the city (although there is no Stronghold).
Soon I took Green's Castle Kanon (without a hero, but with a garrison).

On 4-2-1 I took the Conflux Tumsa Mazyr almost without a garrison. Here one can build a magic university and give necessary schools of magic (primarily fire magic for the finale) to some secondary heroes.
Took Purple's empty Rampart Ciudad Vieja. Saw a prison, the guard before which requires killing Arondelor. Continued the path northwest toward Orange.
On 4-2-5, being near the Rampart Santuario and having taken the Legion Head, I tried to attack Arondelor. The fight became prolonged and quite tense, but the enemy was beaten on the 1st attempt without losses. From him, I received the Necklace of Divine Grace and other useful things. Purple disappeared.
On 4-3-2 I easily beat Actubarus, who was sitting in the northern Tower.
On 4-3-4 Orange's last hero attacked the Tower I had taken, died, and Orange disappeared.
On 4-4-1 I beat Turquoise's hero Torshadam. I got the trophies: Angelic Alliance, Sniper Bow and a couple of small ones.
On 4-4-2 I beat Pasis, and Turquoise disappeared. There are no more enemies on the surface.
On 4-4-4 I gave the Legion Statue to the guard, took 300 ghosts, and took Viduan. The entire surface world is mine! In the city, I finally learned Berserk.
On 4-4-5 I took a Tome of Earth Magic and visited the black tent.
The next day I descended through the gates into the dungeon.
On 4-4-7 I visited the last obelisk and revealed the location of the Grail. I hope the enemies were unable to dig it up.
On 5-1-1 I took the Shackles of War and, passing through a monolith, found myself in the center of the dungeon on a fire island. I immediately managed to take the Inferno Plomos.
On 5-1-3 I dug up the Grail. On the same day, I took the Inferno Hierro and exited through another monolith into a new zone with a fork. There I learned that first I need to go to the northernmost monolith and first beat Corax (a hero with legions of skeletons and zombies). This is an unpleasant fight because it takes place on cursed land. However, after thinking a bit and trying, I found a way to conduct the fight without losses. Corax had a Vampire Cloak and other things.
The next one to beat was the beast master Bramante. From him, I got the Undertaker's Amulet and others.
Then I beat Hafner. Received a Sphere of Vulnerability, Dead Man's Boots, Elixir of Life and others. Assembled the Undead King's Cloak!
After that, I took down La'Hueste. Received a Wizard's Well, Golden Bow and other things.
Next I beat Olimpia. From her, I received the Wizard's Hat and others.
Then I took out Obsidiano. Received an Angelic Alliance and other things.
Then I beat Astral. This was probably the fastest and easiest fight.
Following that, I beat Cavador. Received Power of the Father of Dragons, Sniper Bow and others.
On 5-4-5, passing through a monolith, I transported to Madre's domain, where the final battle will take place.
On 6-1-1 I captured all available Dungeons (several standing behind them are impossible to take). All that remains is to deal with Madre. I wanted to use hit-n-run with berserk on her. Baltasar cannot escape, but other heroes can, whom I had prepared for the finale in advance.
When attacking Madre, she gathers troops into 4 stacks, which only makes things easier for us. Unfortunately, using this tactic, the villainess pushes dragons to the middle of the battlefield, and obstacles on the battlefield interfere — more precisely, they prevent enemy dragons from hitting each other. Fortunately, this is not fatal, and they still do what is required.
On 6-1-3 Loins made the first attack on Madre. Everything went according to plan; I paid my way out for 9000 gold, the enemy lost 758 azure and 2134 rusty.
After the 4th raid, Loins ran out of movement points; he passed everything necessary to Caitlin, and she continued to weaken the mother of dragons.
On the 6th raid, Madre arranged her troops slightly differently, which allowed me to capture azure and crystal with berserk.
After the 8th raid, the villainess has no more azure!
On the 9th attempt, I decided not to escape immediately but to continue pitting her dragons against each other, as all 3 stacks were now locked together. The fight did not go exactly according to plan: the fairy ones managed to cast Ring of Frost, and 2 of my phoenixes fell. But the rusty ones fell too! Continued berserking crystals and fairies. Now only crystals remain (7612)! Paid my way out. Now it is Baltasar's turn.
Attacking Madre with Baltasar, I suddenly saw that demoralization was triggering due to the diversity of my army and the presence of undead. I had to replace one artifact with a Badge of Courage. After that, everything went according to plan, quickly and simply. Victory!
Result: 143 days.
Thus, the mighty mother of dragons is indeed killable. Perhaps for the finale with her, it's worth completing this map and forgiving the author some flaws. But in the future, let him take them into account and start making more interesting and complex maps.

This is more of a technical question: are there any effective ways to get a stuck generation process moving again? For example, I need to generate a week of a specific creature or catch a specific hero with a specific army in the tavern, but in 99% of cases, when the day transitions, only one generation occurs (disabling HD+, SoD_SP, and launching the game without HD-Mod doesn't help). I even downloaded SoD separately from the existing Complete edition, launched the save in it and in Era, and I can get the first unique day transition to work, but after that, the same sad week of a groundhog keeps appearing.

And does anyone know about any programs for generating a starting save file?

The question is more of a technical nature: are there any effective ways to get a stuck generation process moving? For example, I need to generate a specific creature for a week or catch a specific hero with a certain army in a tavern, but in 99% of cases, when the day changes, only one generation occurs (disabling HD+, SoD_SP, launching the game without HD-Mod does not help). I even downloaded SoD separately from the existing Complete edition, launched the save in it and in Era, the first unique day transition succeeds, but then the same sad week of a groundhog appears.

And maybe someone knows about any programs for generating a starting save?

Here, the question is what exactly you want to catch. Either it's a starting save or a save when transitioning to a new week. The number of starting generations is limited; they are definitely not infinite. In my observations, it depends on the starting difficulty set in the editor, as well as the number of random variables (like random artifacts, etc.). There is a program for generating it; look in the Royal Games topic on the portal. If you don't find it, I can upload it on the weekend.

For transitioning to a new week, it often happens that a week of some rat is generated, and no matter what you do, it keeps happening. In my observations, going back to the previous battle, replaying it, and repeating the actions of the last day helps. It also helps if some hero has remaining movement points. These are all my observations; I don't know what the theory says about this, but it helps me)

the same sad Groundhog Day week

True story:D

From everything I've read on the topic of GPSC and dancing around, I've concluded that until you try different options on your own computer, there might not be any result. It's a very obscure topic.

As an example, I managed to make the hero Der Operator (old version of RotSK) open all the pillars by entering a new cheat code from the HD-mod - nwctheone and performing additional manipulations. Who knows what it's connected to.

Another option - you can send me a save file or to someone else, I won't be surprised if it works differently. But the chances are slim.

The question is more of a technical nature: are there any effective ways to get a stuck generation process moving? For example, I need to generate a specific creature for a week or catch a specific hero with a certain army in the tavern, but when the day transitions, in 99% of cases, only one generation occurs (disabling HD+, SoD_SP, launching the game without HD-Mod does not help). I even downloaded The Shadow of Death separately from the existing Complete edition, launched the save in it and in Era, and I can get the first unique day transition to work, but then the same sad week of groundhogs appears again.

And maybe someone knows about any programs for generating a starting save?

Here, it was discussed somewhere that the pseudo-randomness in battles is tied to the computer's internal timer, i.e., it is through the computer's time that randomness occurs. In simple terms, if we attack a gorgon with a dragon in battle, and the gorgon's gaze doesn't trigger, and it won't trigger, if we attack in the same time frame, then when we repeat the battle, we can wait 1-2 extra seconds, hit, and the gorgon's gaze will trigger. The same nonsense works with the pseudo-random casting of spells by Wizards and Genies; waiting for a pause or, conversely, quick actions often allow you to choose the desired random outcome.
Based on observations, the same principle works in battle when we move our creatures on the tactics map. If we place our forces in a strict order in an identical formation, and Wizards go first, then they will always cast the same spell (for example, blessing). As soon as we change the placement on the field or change the order in which they take turns, the spell cast changes. This was discovered through experience on Chinese maps, where Wizards or Genies must (and I mean must!) cast a specific spell in battle, for example, slow or haste. In such battles, you have to make 20-50 attempts, and you can already learn to make Genies cast the spell we need.

Regarding your question, the generation of the week on the last 7th day, at least for me, almost cannot be changed. If you roll back to the 6th day, play it, then play the 7th day, the week generation may change.
I have both the HD Complete edition installed on my computer, which I usually play, and some old Heroes 3 The Shadow of Death. When I need to change the week of creatures, I reload the saves in these different Heroes games, and the week may change, but it is almost always one of 2-3 specific options.

And lastly, on some maps, for example, the German Dunkler Horizont or one of some Chinese maps, I don't remember the name, I noticed that the author achieves the appearance of certain weeks of creatures. For example, on the Chinese map, the Devil week was constantly generated every other time. And our starting castles are Inferno! therefore, there was such a situation that if we don't upgrade Devils to Archdevils and don't buy them, then after a couple of weeks, the Devil week will appear again, and we get a huge increase! But then we fight with a large army of un-upgraded Devils. Or we upgrade and get stronger Archdevils, but our creature week will not give us an increase. That is, the author somehow managed to force the frequent generation of specific creatures - Devils - and tie this to the plot and the choice of how we will fight, with what army. And in Dunkler Horizont, it was the periodic generation of the Pegasus week, which could sometimes be recruited. So, what week will appear may be somehow recorded by the author, although I am not sure, because I only noticed this on these two maps.

If I need the desired week, then I make a save on the 6th day, play the 6th and 7th days, and then something may change. Also, the building made/not made in the castle, the dismissal/purchase of a hero may affect the generation, but this does not always help.
All this is purely my observations without any scientific basis :)

Also, (from what I read), on the Chinese map "Ira the Mage," the author somehow managed to ensure that when choosing specific factions for each color, a week-long "real monster" wouldn't appear, which could block passage in a certain area, or you simply wouldn't be able to defeat these creatures because your army is very small, and you can't afford to lose anyone in battles.

There is a program for generating maps, check it out in the Royal Games thread on the portal. If you can't find it, I can upload it on the weekend.

Thanks, I found it. But I haven't had time to test what it can do yet.

It was discussed somewhere here that the pseudo-randomness in battles is tied to the computer's internal timer, i.e., it is precisely in this way, based on the computer's time, that randomness occurs. In simple terms, if we attack a gorgon in a battle with a dragon, and the gorgon's gaze doesn't trigger, and won't trigger, if we attack in the same time interval, then when we repeat the battle, we can wait 1-2 extra seconds, hit, and the gorgon's gaze will work. The same nonsense works with the pseudo-random casting of spells by wizards and djinns; waiting for a pause or, conversely, quick actions often allow you to choose the desired randomness.

Yes, that's exactly how randomness in battle works (we're not taking HD+ into account). There are time intervals, and if you click within them, you get morale, luck, etc. At the same time, morale bonuses, for example, simply increase the probability of hitting such an interval, so theoretically, you can boost the morale of all your units every round, even with a +1 morale bonus, if you know when to click. As far as I understand, the principle of that "traffic light" program, which doesn't work on Windows 7, is to show us the moments when we need to move the units.

In this regard, there is an interesting nuance. If the battle starts with the computer's troops' turn, then the time delays at the start are always identical, which means that the picture at the beginning of the turn is also identical: the units move the same way, deal the same damage, get morale/demoralized/gain fear in the same way.

For example, on the Chinese map, the Week of the Devil was constantly generated every other time. And our starting castles are Inferno! Therefore, there was a situation where if we don't upgrade devils to archdevils and don't buy them, then after a couple of weeks, the Week of the Devil will trigger again, and we get a huge increase! But then we fight with a large army of unupgraded devils. Or we upgrade and get stronger archdevils, but the week of our creatures won't give us an increase. That is, the author somehow managed to force the frequent generation of specific creatures - devils - and tie it to the plot and the choice of how we will fight, with what army.

This is very interesting. So, the moment with the Week of the Monster can somehow be controlled. I need to take a look at that map.

With SoD_SP, you can use the "Original RNG" function, including it at the right moment when a different random outcome is needed. I had a battle where the Djinn gave two useful spells in a row – Haste and Executioner – with the function disabled, but the third spell was useless, so after the two spells, I had to enable Original RNG and try to get something else. In general, sometimes you need to check in advance what drops when the Original RNG function is disabled and enable it where it is needed right during the battle. This can save a lot of time. Without this, that battle would have been much longer because the first Haste spell was found after 6 seconds, or fractions of a second after the start of the battle, which was difficult to catch. Also, the random element in HD+ and the disabled Original RNG function in SoD_SP are different things, and the results can be different. I just rechecked, and the Djinn casts different permanent spells in HD+ without SoD_SP and HD+ with SoD_SP (with the Original RNG function disabled). It is possible that the uncontrolled random element in the computer's turn can also be different, and the typical situation – the computer goes first, boosts morale, and attacks – can also be controlled to some extent.

There’s an interesting nuance related to this. If the battle starts with the AI troops' turn, then the initial time delays are always identical, which means that the picture at the beginning of the turn is also identical: units move in the same way, deal the same damage, and their morale changes or they experience fear in the same way.
This is very interesting. It seems that the “monster week” can somehow be trained for. I need to take a closer look at that map.

See my walkthrough of the map in this thread, message #2558
/topic/at/1128624/
Map: "Road to Destruction" (improved version) 毁灭之路 BT 改良版
Walkthrough review, Chinese map
I described what happens with devil weeks there. Also, in the same review, it is described how important it is to randomize the desired setup in a specific battle. This is directly relevant to today's discussion.

Without this, that battle would have been significantly longer, as the first cast of the speed spell was timed to occur after 6 seconds, or fractions of a second after the start of the battle, which was difficult to catch.

In theory, you could also use a slow animation and then try to catch it :D

In theory, you could also use a slow animation and then try to catch it :D

Maybe that would make it easier to catch, I don't know.
But this kind of random search is usually done in battles where you have to try to catch it 20-30-50 times, and doing it with a slow animation is just hell!

kolotok, well, it's just a joke, with a hint of truth.

Added 1 minute ago
In theory, with slow animation, you can eliminate all seven of your stacks in the first round if you try hard enough.