Posts from Walkthroughs for custom maps.

I did not completely understand your suggestion (due to my half-Google translated English).

No official post here because I cannot write Russian.
If someone would like to make an official post, they can make one.

Perhaps, it would be a good idea to create a separate thread for the SoD_SP plugin in the HD mod section. Or, we could discuss it in the "Modules that can be connected to the HoMM3 HD mod" thread.

No official post here because I cannot write Russian.
If someone would like to make an official post, they can make one.

I’ll do it within a week. :smile02:

For The Last Crusade, I'm already starting to think about some strategies involving the Fanatic.
I have no doubt that it's possible to secure a Lazurite mine within the first week. But what's more interesting is that, depending on the circumstances, it might even be possible to buy that Lazurite mine (otherwise, why bother taking the mine?). At the very least, it's an interesting challenge.

By the way, just out of curiosity. Are there any interesting maps for cooperative play, for playing together as allies? There definitely were some before – I used to play with a friend, but they were kind of uninteresting. Given the significant improvement in the quality of single-player maps, maybe something new has appeared for cooperative play as well?

And it would also be interesting to create a map rating for PvP.

Well, when it comes to PvP, everything is obvious – random maps are unmatched, and the only question is the template.

Well, when it comes to PvP, everything is obvious – random maps are unbeatable, and the only question is the template.

Not at all obvious. All the advantages of hand-drawn maps are still relevant in PvP – they are more beautiful, more interesting, and may even have a storyline. You are wrong to think that "noob heroes" on random maps are unbeatable for all PvP enthusiasts.

I've been thinking about creating a PvP map for a while now. Random maps are all the same format – everyone against everyone (or with alliances, I don't know). But manually created maps can be completely diverse in their essence. For example, the idea was to deliver a specific hero to a specific castle. This hero is in prison, somewhere in the center. First, you need to break through and free this hero. And then, you also need to escort him to the destination (a guardian or something like that). And those who fail to reach this target hero first will do everything they can to prevent the final goal from being achieved. That is, the idea is to create maps with different game modes, like in shooters.

For me, it's obvious that custom-made PvP maps are much better than random ones. But everyone says that random maps have already won. In principle, I also understand why people prefer random maps – they want to find out who is stronger, often among people who are not familiar with each other in real life, and they don't want to be held hostage by the author's ideas (the infamous "imbalance"). But for people who know each other well and are going to play together in the same room, I think custom-made PvP maps are much more suitable...

And what makes it better? You're talking about some spherical maps in a vacuum. In general, people played on fixed maps, there were even tournaments. And I myself played one game on a fixed map (I think against Dust). And the impressions weren't the most positive — pretty boring and tedious. Plus, you need to spend time studying the map, which is also boring. But when I saw the stream of the creature on a Jebus Cross — that got my interest. Even though not right away, after a year or a year and a half I had enough motivation to play Jebus Cross against an opponent myself. The fact that after two games in a row, when opponents didn't take their turns for half an hour, I got sick of online — that's not a problem with random maps, but with specific people.
Imho, for fixed maps to be interesting, they need to offer fundamentally different gameplay, which is what random maps currently provide. As different as, for example, Warcraft and Dota.

Added after 5 minutes
Actually, that's why I'm personally interested not in PvP maps, but in Co-op. So that it's not boring during an ally's turn — you can legitimately watch what's happening and give advice.

Dandy, here's a map for co-op: >>>

But my brother and I didn't really enjoy it back then. I don't know of any others.

Yes, I played "2 friends" in single-player mode once and recommended it here. Yesterday, Michael finally released the English version of ""Seven Dark Souls"". As soon as I finish the map I'm currently playing (it seems like there's not much left), I'll post a report and try to tackle this one. The author says it's quite difficult. (The map version is SoD; there's a mistake, but you can download it safely; the description has also been translated, it's just not updated in the catalog).

What’s better about it?

I already explained what’s better, see above.

Plus, you need to spend time studying the map, which is also boring.

You don’t need to study the map in advance; ideally, it should be unknown to the participating players. Or play on the same map after a very long break, but again, without studying it beforehand.

And for those familiar faces who are going to play together in the same room, I think custom PvP maps are much more suitable...

PvP maps, because the fixes have long since passed their stage of evolution. Dandy is absolutely right, studying the map is a boring and tedious process, which is why it's not popular. It's much more interesting to quickly play a game of Jebus. The only maps that are popular now are arenas, where the whole game boils down to one final battle.

As for cooperative mode, there isn't much point in it: constantly loading save files in multiplayer makes the game very uncomfortable.

Added 2 minutes later

You don't need to study the map in advance; ideally, it should be unknown to the participating players. Or play on the same map after a very long break, but again, without studying it beforehand.

This is almost impossible, because you need to draw a separate map for each game, which, of course, no one will do. And the beauty of playing on a fixed map lies in studying it and implementing some interesting plan/strategy (as in offline mode).