Posts from The fate of the kingdom.

Thank you for your feedback. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

If it's not a secret, what is this item?

Static effects (AdvMapStaticShared), like the ones you used for the waterfalls and the island. I didn't use them because I was afraid the effect would spread to everything. Your level showed the opposite. And I've been wanting to use them for a long time.
By the way, I know the geography of Tallan quite well, and the history of Ashan too, so I think this is a fictional kingdom, right? If it existed, then I've added to its historical record with my Multiplayer...

Yes, effects are the best tool for an advanced map maker. And the kingdom is, of course, fictional. I don't know the history and geography of Ashan well enough, and I don't want to make mistakes.

Added 7 minutes later
The hardest part was creating the flowing water effect. I found it by chance while looking at the Dwarf Castle and noticed that the river was flowing. And after two hours of struggling, I put together a Frankenstein: an object with the texture of the flowing river from the Dwarf Castle and the geometry of the Dwarf underground bridge (X-segment). And in the end, the effect is only visible in shallow water.

I played as a human hero, "Vitya the Machine Gunner," against the Necropolis faction, and it took me two months to complete the map, which wasn't easy. The map is frankly depressing: a difficult start on a small patch of land, and monsters in the mines. If the sawmill and mine had slow-moving creatures like zombies or golems, it would be possible to develop, but if you encounter snipers, you're doomed. Landing in the center turns the game into a frantic rush, followed by tedious sailing. There's a lot of money, but no sextant, and the mentor is located in Karaganda. And although the map is technically flawless, it creates a depressing impression in terms of gameplay. Nevertheless, thank you to the author for their work.

Thank you for your feedback. Initially, the idea was to make the AI strong. Is the AI strong at the start? - then we need to make the start difficult for the player. Is the AI annoying and keeps coming from all directions? - then we need to add more paths, etc. But as for what you described as "frantic running around" and "tedious sailing," I see it as the ability to manage weaker units and control territories. Thank you again, and I am undoubtedly proud that my map made even such a veteran map player as you suffer.
P.S. And yes, there is a sextant on the map, and not just one, but four.

The AI is strong at the beginning not because of clever tactics or strategy. It blatantly cheats by giving itself more resources. Therefore, I think you can make the AI on your map even stronger compared to us by reducing our starting resources.

There are just enough resources to allow for some progress. If there are fewer, the game will turn into skipping turns and dying to the AI on the third week.

A challenging tactical map. A symmetrical water map with a strategic center. The tactics are typical for this type of map. Navigation is essential, but there are beacons and a sextant. Resources are scarce, especially wood, and I also got an Elf faction. The AI quickly sorted things out among themselves, and I was left facing a single opponent who had captured all the corners. But I got lucky: their main hero (with War Chains) attacked my initial Castle, which I managed to defend with a low-level secondary hero. After that, crushing the remaining minor enemies was a matter of course.

The map is good, but I probably won't replay it. I recommend it for those who enjoy a "chess-like" style of gameplay.

It will transform. Yes, I agree that the balance in this scenario is maintained. But if you watch Vadim's TGamе video on Small maps with Impossible creatures, it becomes clear that this kind of hardcore imbalance in resources will allow players with exceptional individual skill to stand out. But this is not a criticism of the scenario, but rather an idea of how to make the game more challenging. As I said before, the scenario is flawless. I played as Orcs on Krag with reinforcements and hero attacks. The AI players were eliminated one by one, either due to a bug or their own strategies, but they never landed troops on my territory...