Walkthroughs for custom maps. Auto-translated

I was looking at "The Magnificent Four" in the editor.

Here, this is exactly it, the campaign with the bugged mission where you have to defeat 700 creatures. People wrote about it here once, saying they didn't expect such a degree of nastiness from the author.

Honestly, I'm afraid to imagine how players in 2008 had to cope (I saw in the relevant thread that people managed to complete it even then). Without looking at the starting layouts in the prospector, without the HD mod, and without turbo animation.

But what was the specific difficulty in 2008? Sure, the prospector and so on speed things up, but in my youth (before HD appeared), everything was checked and found without problems manually (map editor + scouting with cheats) (with the exception of objects with a modified interface, but that's a real perversion).

If I'm not mistaken, the guy who advertised it also completed it, which tells us that with a certain amount of perseverance, anyone can complete it in 100500 days.

Added 3 minutes later

Marlo_Stanfield - a Hero star for completing this creation!

Indeed, he deserves it!

What was the specific difficulty in 2008? Sure, the prospector and other features speed things up, but back in my day (before HD came out), everything could be checked and found manually (map editor + scouting with cheats) without any problems (except for objects with a modified interface, but that's just a perversion).

If I'm not mistaken, the guy who advertised it also played through it, which tells us that with enough perseverance, anyone can complete it in 100500 days.

That's true. I'm just spoiled by modern possibilities. I can't imagine how you can play now without something like the HD mod. And how people used to play Heroes manually back then. It's scary :)

While browsing Chinese forums, I noticed that none of the Chinese players use the HD mod, not even players who complete challenging maps (in recent years). I'm judging based on offline players, and of course, it's not everyone, but the difference is noticeable.

wenwell, I noticed that too. I just didn't get around to properly exploring the HD mod. And there are no animation speed-up options. This is especially noticeable when watching videos on Youku. Everything is so slow. The Chinese are, of course, incredibly patient. They have walkthroughs that took a year (!) of real time to prepare.

What is the specific difficulty in 2008?

Yes, I didn't really explain it properly. For example, in some missions, I generated 50 or more starting layouts. In the prospector, the appearance of artifacts, spells, and hero upgrades can be analyzed in minutes using tables. But how much time does it take to analyze 50 layouts for cheat codes?

Or 12 battles with 8,000 Azure Dragons in the last mission. With turbo animation, one such battle took an average of forty minutes. Without it, I think it would take about three hours (the final version, if I didn't get distracted once during the battle and didn't ruin the attempt, and also, the number of rounds of spells on enemy creatures was not displayed in 2008). It's not a fact that I would have even decided to fight them, which means I would have had to complete the 7th mission in the standard way, which could have taken more real time than all the previous missions combined.

So, the problem is not in the difficulty, but in the time it takes and the convenience.

It seems to me that in that particular metagame, you're guaranteed to get good loot from wyverns or a double berserk buff – that's just cheating.

When it comes to modern conveniences that players didn't have just a few years ago, I remember one map (thankfully, only one) that I played through in 2011, before I had Prospector (it only appeared in 2012). In that map, you had to give a guard an artifact, which was only found on monsters in a specific cell, located far away. There was no hint about its location, and nothing indicated that I needed to defeat those monsters. To progress, I had to use a tedious but reliable method described by an experienced player: in the editor, I would erase parts of the map and check; if it said that the required artifact wasn't placed on the map, it meant it was in the erased area. Then, using the method of bisection, I would narrow down that area until I found the specific cell with that object.
Of course, map creators shouldn't do this: if something needs to be found, either the player should inevitably pass through the right area and defeat the necessary monster, or provide a clue about its location.
Now, even such problems no longer hinder players.
And I often, when starting a walkthrough of RPG maps, immediately check the tasks of the passage guards and seers in Prospector, saving screenshots to make notes. Then it's immediately clear: these heroes cannot be lost, as they must open certain "doors," and you also need to find certain monsters to give to someone, etc. It's clear which artifacts are part of the plot, which artifacts and spells can only be obtained in specific locations (in the editor, you can only see that they are prohibited)...
And in general, it's useful to see from the beginning if the author forgot to provide the player with something very useful or if something important didn't generate, and then it's better to start with a new generation than to struggle with an unsuccessful setup.
So, technical progress still helps in "Heroes," even though the game itself hasn't been improved.
And the HD mod should be promoted among the Chinese; then they will create even more "cool" maps. :)

So, it's not about the difficulty, but about the time it takes and the convenience.

That's right. But why cheat with HD? Embrace the randomness through pain and tears!

RoseKavalier released a new map >>>

It's very interesting, I recommend it.

I tried playing a bit, but the game crashes when I move to certain locations on the map.

If we're talking about tiles on water, that's how it's supposed to be.

Hmm... a new approach to mapmaking.

I'm sure there was one in some old map, either TEW 2 or Jedi Story. And also in The Last Crusade.

You can complete these levels without any crashes.

They are a small Easter egg from Wayfarer; also they serve some small purpose.


In Wayfarer you're not supposed to go that way - here you are warned right before and suggest to "tryeth quick battle" i.e. use Quick Combat.


Mini-spoiler (select text to read)
Day 1 victory is possible and the final tricks are required.
Originally map ended at day 1 but I decided to allow alternative routes.

Have fun!