Posts from Walkthroughs for custom maps. Auto-translated

Good evening! Have you found the Grail, dug it up?

Map Name: Conquest of Heaven and Hell
Author: maygwan
Game Version: Horn of the Abyss
Map Size: G

I decided to take a break from SoD and return to a map that I couldn't beat in HotA about a year ago (I hope you won't throw stones at me for posting here; the forum section dedicated to HotA is completely dead). Interestingly, I reviewed old saves from scenarios I played a while back. Among them were Supernatural and A Barbarian Uprising Conquest. As I recall, those were also decent maps. And all were authored by maygwan. Moreover, these maps are of the maximum, giant size (252x252; for comparison, XL maps are 144x144). You can imagine the potential inherent in such a scenario format and the level of epicness that can be constructed with proper skill and enthusiasm.

It seems to me that maygwan has succeeded in creating G-maps more than any other author at the moment. And Conquest of Heaven and Hell should be considered the most successful attempt, despite a number of quite serious flaws, which I will discuss later. As confirmation, this turned out to be the most discussed HotA map on maps4heroes.

A year ago, the map seemed very difficult to me, but in reality, it isn't. It can't be compared to hardcore SoD maps. The goal of the scenario is to defeat the hero God; the defeat condition is standard. To briefly describe the concept of the map: a hero under our leadership named Merlin challenges God and the Devil, first conquering the entire earthly world.

Among the map's features that deserve mention—and which can be seen as either a plus or a minus depending on the player's preference (though the last point certainly cannot be called a plus):

1) Rapid development from the start

At the beginning, the game progresses via Titans, so we experience no problems with neutrals. Except that breaking through black dragons without losses was a bit stressful.

2) Complete absence of taverns on the map

For me, this is a plus; taverns always simplify the game significantly by allowing the main hero to be moved wherever needed, dismissed/re-hired, digging for necessary heroes, using all sorts of tricks, etc.

3) Absolutely passive AI

Lately, I've grown unused to maps where no one threatens us at all and we don't have to constantly think about survival. The game is completely linear; we come to the AI ourselves and defeat them one by one in the order prescribed by the author. At first, this provided a sense of satisfaction due to the lack of habit, but over time, such a layout becomes boring. After all, there should be some threat from enemy heroes, otherwise, one might fall asleep during the Walkthrough.

4) Interesting critical points in the form of needing to defeat enemy heroes who, while immobilized, are quite fierce

Since HotA removed the mind magic immunity for troops of the Courage mark bearer (a mistake, in my opinion), the only way left to make a tough AI hero is the power of the Father of Dragons. In Conquest of Heaven and Hell, the author repeatedly turned to this method to create hard-to-beat powerhouses. Particularly interesting are the battles with two heroes who each have 30,000 Minotaurs with +3 morale and tactics, as well as with Mutare and Mutare Drake with legions of various dragons. It was exactly on the latter that my first Walkthrough stalled. But finding the right method to defeat them is actually not very difficult.

5) The ability to play with different heroes as the primary leader

As we progress, we free seven heroes from prisons. Among them, Crag, Tazar, Jelu, Dracon (the one specializing in Wizards), and Sandro deserve mention. You can switch to any of them as the main hero if desired. Our starting Merlin is an intelligence specialist; by the end of the Walkthrough, he had nearly 10,000 mana—total imba.

6) Quests requiring a specific collection of creatures to proceed

A frankly sagging point of the map. You constantly need to collect certain units, which is quite boring. The quest for 4,000 Wizards was especially annoying. They could only be collected by the end of the 7th month; I had to do absolutely nothing for an entire month because it was impossible to move forward without them.

7) A failed second part of the scenario

After defeating Mutare and Mutare Drake, we free Dracula (Sandro) and collect the Cloak of the Undead King. Additionally, we get a Berserker, and previously we had the Medal of Vulnerability. You can imagine the rest. The author tried to create serious opponents even for tens of thousands of Liches, but when the number of Liches exceeds hundreds of thousands, no one is capable of creating problems anymore. Therefore, both the Hell line and the Heaven line were played through quite reluctantly; even the final battle felt like a one-sided slaughter. On top of that, the author seemingly just ran out of imagination for the final stages of the Walkthrough. The locations of the last AI flags are VERY long, desolate, winding passages. I spent about three months just overcoming them. Another flaw is that the amount of troops the enemies had was sometimes so enormous that when stacks were merged, the value for many heroes went into the negative. Not that it affected much, but still. I read in a discussion on maps4heroes that maygwan was preparing an ultimate version of the map with fixed bugs and without the cloak, but it seems it's not available yet.

In general, I finished the Walkthrough on 16.3.6. Considering that some players spent over a hundred months on the map, this is perhaps not the worst option :)

Finally, a few screenshots of epic battles to realize the scale, even if it's mostly superficial :)

Good evening! Have you found and dug up the Grail yet?

Good morning!

I haven't had time yet; I had to go to work in the morning, and I'll finish playing in the evening. You need level 57 for the Grail, so I need to gain a few more levels.

My 4th playthrough of this map had some unexpected surprises (the star is shocked!). The AI started cheating quite a bit.

The main hero of the now-deceased Gray faction can fly (!), which is impossible in principle. Having the War Chains, taken from Green, I killed Gray; there are no wings, and there is no flight in Inferno, as it should be.

And that's not all.

The Orange hero, Sandro, killed the Pink hero and flew out of the underground gate to the surface (!!). And not alone, but with a friend. After visiting the black tent, he could have easily made his way out step by step, but no, when I approached the gate, the black guardian was in place, and it's impossible to bypass him. So, Sandro flew. Neither Necropolis nor Dungeon gives flight; this is clearly an AI cheat.

In the previous review, I forgot to mention the invisible protection of the passages. At the approaches to each race, there is its own protection: 250 Hydras/Dragons, etc., or legions of less significant creatures. Invisible legions of snipers (up to 9000) can also attack, as well as elves and others. The path to the races in the surface world is guarded by 150 Firebirds and Dragons (our guard consists of 150 Gray Hippogryphs).

The two-way portals didn't let me down this time either (although there is no protection there, so keep that in mind if you decide to use them). 2222 Ghost Dragons joined, followed by the same number of Gold Dragons and Archangels standing between the other two portals (they guard the Pandora's Box with +10000 to skills and the Armageddon Sword). Gray could have easily taken them, but he didn't.

Now I'm heading to the Blue faction (I killed its main hero, Astral, when he was approaching the Dungeon). And the final run to the Purple faction.

Added 10 minutes ago

Map name: Conquest of Heaven and Hell
Author: maygwan
Game version: Horn of the Abyss
Map size: G

Finally, here are a few screenshots of epic battles to give you an idea of the scale, even though it's mostly staged :)

Marlo, the screenshots are just... speechless. Awesome:smile03: !!! I've never seen so many Azure Dragons, Titans, and Archangels at once. Congratulations!

Xaart, the screenshots probably look impressive from that perspective, but killing all those legions in Conquest of Heaven and Hell isn't difficult.

I haven't encountered this kind of cheating AI myself, but I've heard about it. However, on the player's side, there's always the devastating combo of "save - load," against which such AI tricks are just minor shenanigans.

Good evening! Did you find and unearth the Grail?

I finished the game, and the save is one step away from victory. I unearthed the Grail and installed it in the Cornerstone (didn't reach level 57, I skipped past the guardian).

Finally found the ultimate version of the Conquest of Heaven and Hell map. I just don't understand why the author didn't provide a link to it in the comments for the standard version. I would have played this one from the start. Anyway, if anyone wants to play a challenging map for Horn of the Abyss, this is it.

http://www.maps4heroes.com/forum/opinions.php?game=3&map_id=1464

The Orange Sandro hero killed the Pink one and flew out of the underground gate to the surface (!!). And not alone, but with a friend. After visiting the black tent, he could have escaped step by step, but no, when he approached the gate, the black guard was in place, and it was impossible to bypass him. So Sandro flew away. Neither Necropolis nor Dungeon allows flight; this is clearly an AI cheat.

The AI can also escape from the battlefield on a turn that isn't its own (when it has no chance to move at all).
Someone wrote somewhere that this flight bug can occur in the AI when it receives some kind of magic or something else. That is, not only was the fact stated, but also an explanation was given as to where it came from. But I don't remember where I read it. Maybe in the thread "AI cheats" or a similar title, created by Marmot.

Yes, I created this thread: AI Cheating on Single-Player Maps. Over several years, I've collected 6 save files demonstrating this outrage, and I've encountered it on even more maps, but then I stopped saving them because the symptoms are the same: movement on the map becomes impossible, but the AI can fly. I don't know anything about the origin of this bug, but it sometimes manifests when an AI hero really wants to get somewhere. And another 2-3 times, I observed that it starts with perfectly legitimate walking on water, but then turns into flying. Perhaps this is a mistake or oversight in the code where they simply forgot to add an extra check. So far, there is no way to fight this; you just have to defeat the flying hero.

I added my observations with examples to the General topic. /topic/at/1042098/ And generally speaking, these kinds of bugs are a treasure trove! You can cleverly incorporate them into a map. It will be very effective and add variety. However, there are always people who want to "fix" this, breaking the underlying logic, which is sad.

Yes, I created this thread: AI Cheating on Single Player Maps. Over the past few years, I've collected 6 save files demonstrating this outrage, and I've encountered it on even more maps, but then I didn't feel like saving anymore because the symptoms are the same: movement on the map is impossible, but the AI flies. I don't know anything about the origin of this bug, but it sometimes manifests when an AI hero really wants to get somewhere. And another 2-3 times I observed that it starts with completely legitimate walking on water, but then turns into flying. Perhaps this is a mistake or oversight in the code where they simply forgot to add an additional check. So far, there is no way to deal with this; you can only defeat the flying hero.

Is this phenomenon described anywhere in Physigma? Have you tried reporting this to the programmers? Baratortchu, Savu, or someone else?

In version 2.43 of FizMig, which I currently have, this phenomenon is not described (I checked). It is likely that the creators of the reference guide or the programmers are aware of it. However, I haven't heard any comments from them yet.

I wrote to Baratorch.
But in general, I think now that it was unnecessary.
This is an extremely rare occurrence.
It doesn't help the player (and it's precisely these kinds of bugs that need to be fixed).
But helping a poor computer once in a hundred years is a noble deed.
So let them remain and occasionally delight and surprise discerning players.

It's not that rare of an occurrence. If you haven't encountered it personally, or if you've encountered it infrequently, it doesn't mean anything, or rather, it means that you haven't been playing for very long or haven't played through many maps (at least, in the RPG genre).

Yes, I just don't play that much. And I reproduce unique bugs purely by chance. I was just lucky :)

Map Name: The Lord of Rings
Author: Season
Downloaded: from the Heroesportal map catalog

I've been planning to write this report for a long time, as it will be about one of the most interesting maps for Heroes 3 (Season is, in my opinion, the best map maker). The only thing that confused me about this map is whether it has anything to do with Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings"? There is practically no text on the map, and what there is is unreadable. Neither our heroes, nor the enemy heroes, nor the overall course of events on the map gives any reason to draw any parallels with the book. Maybe the translation of the scenario name into English is incorrect? It's unclear.

Now, about the walkthrough. The start on the map is meticulously planned. The first few days can only be played in one way (gaining a specific amount of experience for the hero, using the "remove obstacle" spell in one battle). But after the first week, some freedom of action appears. I should note that the AI here is extremely aggressive, perhaps the most aggressive in my memory of playing Heroes 3. This means that it is not always possible to defeat it in the early stages of the game, so the main tactic here is to lure the AI into water and then block them; I had to get rid of the threat of as many as five heroes in this way. But the blocking must be done in such a way that it is then possible to kill these heroes and get to the shore.

Another interesting aspect of The Lord of Rings is the battles. I've only seen something comparable in complexity in Metataxer's Revenge (I really need to finally play it myself). Most of the battles here are like puzzles; the terrain is very important, so playing with HD+ doesn't work. It was on this map that there were three battles that I still remember with a shudder. I spent a whole day on the battle against Zydar, although after completing the map, I realized that it could have been dealt with more easily than I did. Also, the battle to defend the Castle against Gunnar with the earthquake spell was incredibly difficult. And the siege of Tazar in conjunction with it.

Another interesting feature of the map. At different stages of the game, different heroes and powerful stacks are key. At first, Gundula will be the main hero, and the main damage-dealing stack will be harpies and witches. They perform real miracles here thanks to their unique abilities. In the second half of the game, the main strategy involves Orrin and sorcerers, protected by phoenixes and attacking under the effect of the "berserk" spell. There was also a role for a hero specializing in magic.

The way to obtain the "City Portal" spell is also interesting. To do this, you need to free a hero from a prison located on the water. Freeing him is only half the battle; the question is, how do you get him out of his immobilized state? There is a very curious solution provided for this.

Among other techniques used by the author on the map, there are also standard ones for his works. For example, the guardians of the question in front of the AI castles, which the enemy heroes open on a specific day; the traditional two taverns: one external, one in the castle on cursed land, and the castle itself is surrounded by swan ponds, which complicates the scheme for using the "trickster" ability; a check of the speed of completing the quest to join creatures (sorcerers on this map); and the very late acquisition of key spells, such as clone and force field.

My playthrough ended on 10.1.6. But there is great potential for speedrunning here. A slow (as in my case) and a fast playthrough will be very different.