Blue crystal — Maps: Tribes of the East

MasteR

6 years ago

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Name: Blue crystal

Name in game resources: Blue crystal
Map type: Scenario
Two-level map: Yes
Game version: only 3.1
Number of players: 5
Size: Medium
Map author: MasteR
Description: When the red crystal regained its owner and, at the same time, a submissive servant, the other magical crystals gradually began to awaken. Blinded by the desire to acquire them all for himself, the hero set out in search of the blue crystal (or, as it was once called by the ancients, the crystal of elements).

About the map: The map is largely similar to its predecessor, but there are some differences. You can still play as any Faction and with any hero. Enemies will now appear mostly in pairs, but they are not allied. There is an opportunity to end enemy raids early. A little more time needs to be spent on quests; not all of them have direct instructions on where to go and what to do (I will post a file with a walkthrough later). Groups of creatures scattered around the map want to join the hero.

Important! It is not recommended to complete the final stage of the map with creatures enhanced by сторонние mods like NCF. The finale should work, but the balance may shift one way or another because the strength of the enemies depends on the strength of the hero's army.

Changes compared to the initial version:

12/27/2019
- Added 2 one-way portals to "dead ends" near the city;
- Added more resources and neutrals near the city;
- The enemy army has hardly changed, but their development has been slowed down (spells of levels 3, 4, and 5 are given later, powerful artifacts are given later);
- The intervals between the appearance of enemy pairs have been slightly increased and decrease twice as slowly over time;
- The armies of the guardians have been significantly reduced.

12/29/2019
- A town with a fully built guild of mages and special buildings has been added to the final location.
- A mentor and a mana well for restoring mana have been added to the final location.
- The stats of the guardians now also depend on the difficulty level.
- The system for calculating the player's strength, which determines the size of the guardian's army, has been refined. Now the distribution is fairer.

01/05/2020
- The armies of the guardians have been reduced.
- The specializations of the air and water guardians have been weakened.
- The minimum threshold for the strength of the guardian's army has been significantly reduced.
- Support for EWA alt-upgrades has been added (Thanks to Gerter for his help).

Have a nice game!

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5 files attached • Total size: 1.0 MB

Vita городилов

6 years ago

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Your scenarios are awesome.

In reply to Vita городилов

MasteR

6 years ago

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Vita the mapmaker

Your scenarios are great.

Thank you, I hope this one won't be an exception.

In general, in this scenario, I tried to create a compact and versatile model for adding and increasing the army of enemy heroes and garrisons, as well as forming enemy armies depending on the strength of the player's hero. Perhaps this still needs to be adjusted a bit, but overall, it could be a good base for mapmakers, especially beginners.

Kent305_n

6 years ago

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Beautiful map. So far, I like it even more than Red Crystal. But I haven't progressed very far yet, and the enemies haven't appeared.
I generally like almost all of your maps.
Why does this map have such a low rating in the thread? I haven't even seen a rating of 2 from anyone.

Antik

6 years ago

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Did the author test the map? The thing is, by the middle of the second month, enemies start attacking every two or three days, with increasing strength and stats, and they always target the main hero, but never attack each other. Where is the church? And what is this "desert" around the castle? As always, there's a complete shortage of resources. Compared to the previous crystal, this map seems much worse, and, most importantly, it feels unfinished. Best of luck with your creative endeavors.

Added 10 minutes later
And you can't escape from the enemies – there are dead ends everywhere, which is not good.

Added 21 minutes later
I tried a little longer and then gave up on this mess. The enemies are too overpowered: they have huge stats and strength, plus they actively use dark magic, but they don't fight each other. And I don't have any anti-magic or paladins, and all thanks to the author – he didn't provide enough resources. In my opinion, starting without a castle is a bad idea. If the author is going to continue working on the map, they need to weaken the enemies and reduce their frequency of attacks, add a church near the castle, more resources, and upgrades, and, most importantly, include a way to acquire the "anti-magic" spell. It would also be good to get rid of the dead ends on the map and make it traversable in a circle. In my opinion, this would add dynamism and intrigue to the game.

Некромант555

6 years ago

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Author, how do I jump over the chasm in the bridge, remove the fire from the guardians, and defeat the guardians themselves? Their armies are significantly larger than mine.

In reply to Antik

psatkha

6 years ago

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Antik

It would be good to get rid of dead ends on the map, so to speak, to make it passable in a circle. In my opinion, this would add dynamism and intrigue to the game.

Yes, dead ends are very bad... I don't understand what prevents diversifying the options with random portals?!

In reply to Antik

MasteR

6 years ago

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Antik

Did the author test the map? The thing is that by the middle of the second month, enemies start appearing every two or three days with increasing strength and stats, and they tend to attack the player but not each other. Where is the church? And what is this "desert" around the Castle? The resources are always scarce. Compared to the previous crystal, this map seems much worse, and most importantly, it feels unfinished. Best of luck with your creative endeavors.

Added 10 minutes ago
And you can't escape from the enemies - there are dead ends everywhere, which is not good.

Added 21 minutes ago
I struggled a bit more and then abandoned this mess. The enemies are too overpowered: they have immense stats and strength, plus they actively use darkness, but they don't fight each other. And I don't have any anti-magic or paladins, and all thanks to the author - he didn't provide enough resources. In my opinion, starting without a Castle is a bad idea. If the author is going to continue working on the map, he needs to weaken the enemies and reduce their frequency, add a church near the Castle, more resources, and upgrades, and most importantly, somewhere to acquire the "anti-magic" spell. It would also be good to get rid of the dead ends on the map, so to speak, make it traversable in a circle. In my opinion, this would add dynamism and intrigue to the game.

I tested it. I spent about 15 hours just tracking down all the bugs and fixing them. During testing on the difficulty level, it seemed that everything was going too easily, so I introduced increasing coefficients for the AI, and I guess I overdid it.
The area in front of the Castle is my vision of the throne room of the Dwarves; it shouldn't be cluttered with objects. Maybe I should add more neutral creatures with resources.
Regarding the dead ends, the plan was for the player to enter them no more than once; there are portals in key locations.
The Anti-Magic spell is a quest item and cannot be found in the city.

Added 1 minute ago

Necromancer555

Author, how do I jump over the chasm in the bridge, remove the fire from the guardians, and defeat the guardians themselves? Their armies are significantly stronger than mine.

The first two questions are described in the file attached to the topic. Regarding the strength, as I wrote above, I probably overdid it with the increasing coefficients.

Added 1 hour 21 minutes ago

Kent305_n

Beautiful map. So far, I even like it more than Red Crystal. But I haven't gotten very far yet, and the enemies haven't appeared yet.
In general, I like almost all of your maps.
Why is the rating for this map so low in the topic? I haven't even seen a 2-star rating from anyone.

If you're talking about the number of stars next to the map, that's nonsense. Not everyone gives ratings. And there are also some individuals who, for unclear reasons, sabotage things from behind the scenes. A user with the nickname krusso is a prime example.

Added 43 seconds ago

psatkha

Yes, the dead ends are very bad... I don't understand what prevents you from diversifying the options with random portals?!

What do you mean by random portals?

In reply to MasteR

psatkha

6 years ago

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MasteR

What is meant by random portals?

Well, so that the movement is random...

In reply to psatkha

MasteR

6 years ago

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psatkha

So that the movement is random...

Well, if we're talking about several two-way teleporters with the same group, the AI will love to jump between them for hours. If you make a scripted portal, like in the previous map, the AI won't even go into it.
I think I'll add a couple of one-way portals to a few "dead ends," but thanks to them, the enemies will also be able to reach the player's castle faster.

In reply to MasteR

psatkha

6 years ago

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MasteR

Well, if we're talking about several two-way teleporters with the same group, the AI loves to jump between them for hours. If you create a scripted portal, like in the previous map, the AI won't even go through it.
I think I'll add a couple of regular one-way portals to a few "dead ends," but thanks to them, the enemies will also be able to reach the player's castle faster.

What if you send the AI heroes to their castles?

Gerter

6 years ago

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I started playing as the Academy, on Hero difficulty, with Nura as my main hero. The beginning was, as always, challenging. I got lucky and found a Wizard's Sign on level 2, and I mostly cleared the map using Double Shot, although with some losses. Later, in the castle, I got the Golem and the Hive, and I cleared almost everything using the same strategy. In the first month, I reached level 17, and I already have a Mentor, which I used to upgrade Nazir into a decent spellcaster. He has Summoning, but not yet Fire Elementals. I also found Light + Regeneration and a Robe/Charm.

The first enemy to attack was a Necropolis (36 Riders, 60 Furies, etc.). I thought I could outsmart him with Nazir, but he had a 50% fire resistance shield, and Nazir didn't do much damage. But Nura defeated him almost without problems in the castle, using two stacks of Mages and other units. Now I have the resources to build Colossi, and I think I will, so I can play with Regeneration. But a Demon is already heading towards me; I hope I have enough time to buy the second upgrade for the Colossi.

Added 23 minutes later
And dead ends don't need to be fixed, especially with two-way portals. There is at least one guaranteed way to escape from any dead end on the map.

Gerter

6 years ago

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I managed to defeat the demon, albeit with some difficulty, in the Castle

. I had to sacrifice the remaining gargoyles and golems to protect the mages and gremlins. However, I didn't even bother buying more gargoyles, so everything is fine.

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Gerter

6 years ago

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at level 5 of the guild, I got Holy Word + Shield, which is quite disappointing. My third hero turned out to be a Subordinate. I found and defeated the mentor, and I was able to summon Darkness. Now, I have another pair coming up – a Gnome and a T.E., I'll see what happens, but I think I'll lose with this setup.

Added 27 minutes later
Yes, I can only win at the cost of irreplaceable losses. In essence, the enemy armies are not very large, and my Nura is not far behind in level, but the boosted artifacts and stats of the AI do their job + very bad random spellcasting. If I had a Phoenix/Resurrection, it would be more interesting. I'll probably have to replay, but now, knowing the map and the enemies (as I understand it, only Demons, T.E., and Gnomes will attack?), I can develop a winning strategy.