Posts from In search of the Rune Sphere.

Downloaded the map, will try it out now. It seems there's an error in the map description on the forum: it's actually 216x216, not 216x126, probably.

Also, in the intro video, Timhan's name flashed incorrectly once.

I found a free minute to write. I decided to test the map with a Warrior. From the very beginning, there is an imbalance in difficulty – Vittorio destroys 90% of the enemies with auto-attack without taking any damage, while Frida (I don't remember the name of the main hero) just stands and watches the strong units everywhere. I was lucky that the first skill point fell on level 20, and I spent half of my island with skill point 1. It would be nice to add an observatory right in front of the castle. Fai'daen came to me on the third week with a weak army and left (it's not clear why he was made a "boss").
After "Two Sisters," the map is not impressive – there are no time limits (i.e., you can train a million horses using the standard tactics), nor are there strong bosses that roam the map and scare the player. Personally, I found it to be overpopulated with mines, and there's also a town with a wood storage building.
I noticed a small bug: Vittorio, after being hired in the tavern, disappeared somewhere with his entire army and artifacts. In general, he shouldn't be in the tavern at all, but it's even more interesting.
The map is quite easy (if needed, you can play it with a test hero, but after three marches through the snow for the key keeper's tent back and forth without a portal to the city, there is no desire to do so), but for the first version, it's quite good. I completed the entire map with Light and Darkness, and in the witch's hut, they gave me spellcasting, which helped a lot. With archangels under regeneration, I cleared everything. At the start, Vittorio gets all the necessary resources, and then Frida methodically clears everything else with auto-attack (or a horse under regeneration).
When I first came to the dwarves, there were a couple of interesting battles (Helmar with mass dispel was the most difficult, fortunately, I had the Sar-Issa ring, but he didn't have enough), but after them, it all ended (the artifacts of the dwarven heroes are not updated; it would be good to add artifact shops under each city or give artifacts via script).
The ending was a bit disappointing – the battle with Hangwul seemed interesting at first, but after a couple of triple summon spells, it became clear that the battle was made just for the sake of losses (although again, there are no time limits; you can just sit and accumulate 500 archangels and 10,000 horses; what's the point of losses?). Tolgar just sat with troops in the castle under dispel and waited for his troops to kill each other – this is already a feature of the AI, when it sees only 100 archangels, it is in no hurry to come out.
There was no final video; again, it can be attributed to an early version.

Suggestions:
Add to the mission description that removing catapults costs an incredible amount of resources – it was an unpleasant surprise for me.
Remove regeneration altogether or just from the first castle.
Add an observatory right at the exit from the castle. (Yes, I didn't find it; it was somewhere else).
Move the fort for transferring troops and the peasant hut 2 cells closer to the castle – maybe that was the intention, but the hero from the castle lacks about 100 movement points to reach the fort without logistics, and the caravan from the hut stops right in front of the castle.
Return the portal to the city. It's not pleasant to run around the entire dungeon back and forth three times. Even with logistics and two pairs of boots, these "runs" take a week and a half.
Replace the portals on the starting island with an entrance/exit to the dungeon. In terms of coordinates, these portals are not very different, but I had the feeling that behind this portal, I would find more than just one castle (and, of course, 10 mines).
Give the dwarves something other than fire spells + pyrokinesis. With fire protection, it's not felt at all, but when I changed it before the final battle, I received 5 hits from Tolgar until I cast antimagic.

Well, that's all. In general, the map is quite good, but it lacks some "zest." If I just wanted to "beat the dwarves," I would replay "Two Sisters" or "Ice and Fire."
I'll add: In my opinion, the map could be made smaller in size – there is a lot of water, and there is also enough free space in the dungeon.

As for the video, I'm not even sure what's going on; it shows up for me.

Hangwula can be defeated without any losses; that's why vampirism is located near the red gate.

I think I understand why there are such discrepancies in difficulty: it's the randomness.
On the Warrior difficulty, I was very lucky to find Enchantment in the hut, Divine Strength in the Temple near the Castle, and Regeneration in the Castle. Faidaen gave me Dispel in a scroll.

On the Hero difficulty, Faidaen gave me Divine Vengeance in a scroll (and killed my angel), and I learned Regeneration from Vittorio, whom I dug up in the tavern by the third month. I didn't find Dispel at all :mad:. Almost all the Dwarves (or maybe all of them?) had Master Light, so all my heroes usually dispelled Divine Strength from the crossbowmen. I played until the 4th Dwarf, who gave me a full set of Sar-Issa, but I didn't play any further; I had enough of the methodical hunting of Dwarves in the snow (all on version 0.9).

Since I don't understand the scripts, I'll ask: is it possible to give different sets of spells in the guild on different difficulty levels?

And a small bug/feature: the starting bonus artifact is given to Vittorio (the Dwarves), and not to Edward; it feels like it shouldn't be that way. :confused:

I'll add: on the Hero difficulty, it really became more interesting, but there were too many dragons for the Dwarves - 35 Lava Golems with 24 Yarla for Ingvar, and then 60 for Ibby - it's a bit harsh. Faidaen is still as "soft" as he was on the Warrior difficulty, although, on the Hero difficulty, I prepared better.

...35 Lava Golems with 24 Yarla for Ingvar, and then 60 for Ibby - it's a bit harsh.

I completed the map in 6 months using a single hero. Here's how it went: Vittorio. The first battles were tough, but after I captured the Ring of the Machines and found the Fire Arrows, all battles, except against the dwarves near the catapults, became easy.
Edward. On the third week, Faidaen visited me. The battle with him would have been easier if not for the Berserk spell he got from a scroll. Then, Gilraen arrived with a decent army, and Brand also arrived with a decent army. I took the Elven Castle, losing 2 Archangels (I defeated the entire army thanks to the hero's special ability and regeneration). After capturing the Dwarven town, I sailed to Grimheim. I liked that the dwarves don't focus all their attacks on one unit, which made the battles with them (except against Karli) interesting. The battle with Hanwul wasn't entirely fair. When he moves, he summons a Phoenix and Fire Elementals. I lost many troops, but I didn't replay the battle. In the final battle, Tolgar destroyed all my troops with Divine Retribution. Only the horses remained. I cast Antimagic on them and applied various buffs, then defeated the remaining dragons. I was lucky enough to see the final cutscene.
Now, the downsides (or rather, just one downside): it's good that artifacts aren't automatically taken from the dwarves after victory, but Ibba stole the Crown of Sar-Issa, and it wasn't available in the artifact shop.
I have no other complaints.