Posts from Bay of Destiny

We are discussing the map, not the game's balance between factions. If you have complaints about that, you should address them in the mods section, not the mapmaking section.

What does the game's balance have to do with it? I'm saying that having 3 castles is excessive because it gives the Knights a clear advantage. Of course, with skilled players, that's different.

A single artifact is being considered, not what is added to it. The staff is equal in power to the ring, and I don't understand why you're not suggesting removing it as well. Mass acceleration and mass deceleration can be used by anyone, regardless of whether they have the ring or not, and whether or not they use these spells is up to them. So, the argument "What if it's added..." is empty and meaningless.

The ring is already on the map anyway, but not the staff. That's why I'm not suggesting removing the staff. Although, if it's there, then it can be removed too.

Hmm, I don't even know what to say... Some say it would be good to leave three cities, others say two is enough, and a third group thinks one is sufficient... Okay, I'll remove the third castle soon, add more dwellings (soon doesn't mean today), weaken the guard, add mentors to the map, move some artifacts under the protection of phoenixes, and I won't add any more trees – there's already a lot of experience. Honestly, I'm very sorry that the idea with 3 cities didn't work out.:smile39:

Thank you very much for the map. You made it with three cities, and that's great. There are maps with five cities, but so what. It's your idea, and even if some people don't like it, don't pay attention to them. Although I'm already hooked on the 7th game, I enjoyed playing as a Barbarian on this map, although I hired Hagush, just because I'm used to it, and I had to sacrifice these ones. My only wish is not to overload the map with artifacts. Good luck.

P.S. There are more than enough mentors and dwellings, and the guard is normal, but it could be strengthened.

Thank you for supporting my idea. I really wanted to feel good about the fact that my first creation, in its more or less original form, would be successful in some way. Thanks again for your support. :) :) :) :o :o :o

The map is more than enjoyable! The monsters, textures that fit the atmosphere of the race, and the ocean with glaciers are all great; you can really feel the chill. The author wanted to convey the northern lands, and they succeeded! But there is still one question: in some places, you can simply steal chests/resources without killing their guards (it's a bit unclear) – is this intentional? ==== I don't clean out the map folder. For one reason. Because of some mod, some map (I still don't understand which one) gave the Twilight Dragons 3k HP, and they shoot enhanced fireballs. I don't play as that race precisely because of this. But taking down such dragons... that's quite an epic. And this is just background. Specifically about this map. I knew what I was getting into when I started the game: my main rival is that necromancer. So, while my secondary hero was clearing the surrounding territories, my main hero ran to the underground (I confess, I peeked at the map in the editor). By the time I reached the underground, the necromancer had already killed the demon, and I didn't even notice. Without the Sandro's Cloak (which scared the dragons with its cry) and the rings for initiative, I definitely wouldn't have defeated that elf. I just got lucky (probably!). The opponent kept casting Divine Retribution, but towards the end, for some reason, he started casting Lightning or just using direct attacks, even though he had a huge amount of mana left. == Excellent map. Author, thank you for all the fun!

Recommended difficulty level is "Warrior". This will provide reasonable neutral creatures, a more or less sufficient amount of resources, and a fairly intelligent AI.

I'm playing as a Warlock on the Hero difficulty, and IMHO, the neutral creatures are quite manageable (they can be defeated in one or two turns). Within the first three weeks (23 days), I eliminated the demons, and now everything depends on how quickly I can find a path to the top and eliminate the other players. I don't think anyone will be able to offer significant resistance to a plague-spreading nuisance of level 25 with a spellcasting level of 32, because the humans, barbarians, and dwarves don't have undead or mechanical units. I'll try to get out of week 7.

I'll try to finish it in 7 weeks.

I did manage to finish it in 47 days. I'm attaching replays of some battles: passages through the Dragon, Arcata, and Phoenix lairs, as well as battles with the Human and Dwarf Heroes. The Orcs didn't have anything interesting to show, and when my Hero attacked the Demons, they were so underdeveloped that fighting them was much easier than fighting the neutral creatures surrounding them.

I think I could shave off another week from the result if, after the second Hero with the main forces reaches the top, I don't send him to follow the first Hero for support (because the main Hero is capable of handling most cities and outposts with a couple of dozen ranged units), but instead send him in the opposite direction, i.e., through another coastal outpost (the Dwarf one).
I have very good impressions of the map - excellent design and good layout, so a huge thank you to its author.
(The only thing that was tiring was the long sailing, because the loot you can get in naval battles is no longer that interesting - there's already an abundance of money and other resources, and spending five days just conquering territory is tedious).
I will definitely play it as the Demons and the Orcs when I have time (it's a pity you can't play as the Light Elves).

I don't understand why the heroes' levels suddenly stopped increasing during gameplay. The main hero is level 25, and needs 200 something to reach level 26, but the hero already has 290k experience. I bought a new hero and opened chests for him – the same thing happens. I opened 5 chests, and the experience is 4500/1000, but he doesn't level up to 2.

Added 7 minutes later
LOL, I tried to load a save, and the game crashes. I saved the game 8 times, and 7 of those saves (not autosaves) crash the game. For information, in case it's helpful. I was playing as the Dwarves, and Tolgar was level 24. At level 2, he got the Summoning magic skill (!!!), and started leveling up in the Sanctuary. Luckily, there was a mentor near the capital, so by level 25, I unlocked the Sanctuary.

Unfortunately, I couldn't play – the game consistently crashes on day 3 when entering the dwarven castle.

I think we can shave off another week from the result.

We couldn't manage a week – it takes too long to sail to the dwarven outpost (you arrive right in the middle of the action), but we did manage to reduce it by three days (the final game time was 44 days). Instead of killing the humans with the main hero, I took their capital, defeated Vitka, and went straight to the orcs and dwarves (Leto was enough for this, with two dozen archers). The remaining humans were dealt with by the second hero who arrived (Sanitar) and an orcish female hired in the castle.

I played as planned, using the Demons (with a secondary hero), and knowing the map, I hoped to achieve a better result against the African Mages, but unfortunately, it didn't work out: (
After destroying the lower outposts separating the Demons and the African Mages, I didn't attack the main hero's towns. Instead, I let the second hero deal with them, saving almost a week. Meanwhile, I sent Debilka (she was the main hero) with an advance guard of three dozen Succubi and a hundred Dogs to the north.
But things didn't go as smoothly for Debilka in the north as they did for Letos. After breaking through the coastal outpost of humans near the capital, she encountered fierce resistance from two enemy heroes with a high threat level, and her Plasma Cannon wasn't as effective as Letos's Plague, and the units couldn't hide. I had to replay a couple of turns and, for the time being, settle for a border town near the barbarian lands, which became a base where I could retreat. As a result, after retreating once and preserving the main forces that were waiting for Debilka in the town, she almost without losses destroyed the already battered human troops and finally captured the capital. Then, the main Demon forces arrived by sea, and everything went smoothly - a Light Elf hired in a tavern captured the third human Castle with the help of human troops, and Debilka, without significant losses, cleared the Orcish and Dwarven lands of their inhabitants. At the end, the Dwarves even started sailing - I had to chase them all over the sea, which took another day. Fortunately, the second hero (the fast hero, Grok) was not far from the shore, and the Light Elf passed his troops to him in a chain. And to prevent the cowardly Dwarven heroine from fleeing, I had to transfer only part of Gorka's troops to her, giving her a twofold advantage over Grok (although it didn't help her - the battle was still one-sided).
The result is 46 days. Replays of some battles are attached.
I think I'll replay this map with the Orcs later, but I don't see any particular prospects for improving the result against the African Mages - the outposts are too strong to break through quickly without magic.

isn't the fun in playing a quick game?
personally, I enjoy taking my time, exploring the map thoroughly, and leveling up.
if I want to compete, I play online Heroes.

"Heroes" is not "Doom" or even "StarCraft," where real-time corresponds to game time; here, a quick victory in the game can be the result of hours of contemplation in reality.
And I don't see any interest in wandering around the map with a powerful Hero and a huge army, kicking around obviously weaker neutral creatures and players.
As for playing Heroes online, a thoughtful player sometimes needs several tens of minutes for a single turn, which the opponent is forced to sit and wait for, which is boring and uninteresting.

P.S. I remember playing with a guy from Belarus, and I had to wait for his turn for several hours at the beginning of the game; I thought he had gone somewhere, but no, it turned out that he had been running around with a couple of units, evading several hundred zombies, and as a result, he immediately gained almost ten level-ups.

I didn't mean online matches for the 5th game; it's not feasible due to the time commitment. For example, check out http://www.heroeswm.ru/. They hold both in-person and online tournaments using the 5th game's engine.

After uploading a map to the map editor, the first tier building of Haven disappears on all maps and in all campaigns. What could be the problem?

This map is not easy; you can only play with 5 factions: Dungeon, Fortress, Haven, Inferno, and Stronghold.

It's strange; it's clear why mages would be affected by the cold, but undead aren't afraid of it!