Posts from Walkthroughs for custom maps.

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Are there any LM Oracle experts here? I specifically created a virtual machine to use it, and installed a 32-bit system on it. Nevertheless, it persistently tells me that the window for the third Heroes game cannot be found. I've tried different versions, but it doesn't help. HD+ is disabled, as is the SOD, what should I do?

My Oracle works, but not all of its functions. It performs its functions related to the skill tree. You don't even need a virtual machine or a 32-bit system for this. I have Windows 7, and everything works perfectly. If the system says that the process cannot be found, try changing the version in the Oracle settings (there are many different ones, you can click around). If that doesn't help, try launching it from a shortcut, not through the launcher.
However, it absolutely refuses to track morale for me. I don't understand what this might be related to. I wouldn't say that this is absolutely essential for me, but I still don't know how to fix it. Perhaps I should try without the HD mod...

I added the image.

My Oracle is working, but not all of its functions. It performs its functions related to the skill tree. You don't even need a virtual machine or a 32-bit system. I have Windows 7, and everything works perfectly. If the system says that the process was not found, try changing the version in the Oracle settings (there are many different versions, you can try them out). If that doesn't help, try running it from a shortcut instead of through the launcher.
But it absolutely refuses to detect morale. I don't understand why this might be happening. I wouldn't say it's essential for me, but I still don't know how to fix it. Maybe I should try it without the HD mod...

Without the HD mod, it seems to be working a bit better, but now I have to fix the heroes, because without the disc, they don't work properly. I'll try to figure it out and let you know.

Added 2 hours 46 minutes ago
After several hours of struggling, I finally managed to launch the Oracle on the correct version of the game. I even think I understand how to use it now - wait for the green number and click - then morale should appear. But for some reason, there's still no morale. I even held down the 1 key so that the program would autoclick, but it still doesn't work.

Added 3 hours 46 minutes ago
Oops, I think I figured out why the morale wasn't working. As always, I mixed up the checkboxes :D. Now everything works, and it's, damn it, great. It's a pity that it can't be launched with the HD mod; it's quite unpleasant to play with the slow animations. And are there any ways to speed up the animations without the HD mod and SoD?

Are there any ways to speed up the animation without the HD mod and SoD SP?

Lol, of course, there are. Apparently, people have forgotten how they played before HD came out. Although in this thread, there are players who enjoy playing with the standard animation. There are two ways:
1. Cranim.txt
2. TurboSoD
Point 2 makes the animation much faster than point 1. For my purposes and tasks, it is more than enough. Even a battle lasting several thousand rounds passes quite quickly. Plus, it is compatible with HD. It's a must-have for online play in SoD. But whether it is faster or slower than SOD_SP, I cannot say, as I have played very little with SOD_SP.

A good overview of this map has already been posted by Marlo_Stanfield, but after completing it, I decided it would be useful to supplement it with some information and offer my own perspective on certain things. I'll try not to repeat myself where possible.

Genre: RPG.
Language: Chinese.
Actual difficulty: moderate.
Description translation: To restore the blood of his elemental druid, Tanan, the 'God of the Universe' and adventurous Master of Elementals, struck her. The Elemental Lord merged with Tanan's flesh and traveled through time and space to the final battle of the Elemental Druid. Tanan must destroy all enemies coveting the southern continent, find the throne of victory, and return to the present through the throne of victory. Producer: Shu Shanyu (Yuan Zi).
In nature, it's a linear RPG map, akin in spirit to 'Wayfarer' and 'To tame a land', but with its own specifics. It's also somewhat similar to 'Brothers of Mercy and War': after a slightly tense start comes a long, leisurely playthrough. The map is aimed at young (and not-so-young) pathfinders and abounds in hidden objects and paths, deceptions, and traps.
Victory condition: capture the Necropolis in the corner. It's useful to remember this to know that killing all enemies and capturing all towns is not necessary.

Beautiful artwork. This world is truly stunning visually!
No time limit: there's no fear of failing a mandatory quest due to time constraints.
All of the main hero's secondary skills are set from the start.
The author tried to ensure we don't waste time on boring initial preparation: action here starts almost immediately.
Fights are simple and brief, preventing wasting a lot of time on multiple retries until the result suits you.

Overall, it's quite atypical that the first few fights are the most stressful, then it becomes significantly easier, and only the final battle requires effort. But I won't say that's bad; it's just that a certain part of players might lose interest.
In the early stages, while we have only one hero, a lot of time is spent traveling back and forth between towns and across the sea. At the same time, we have no Logistics, Boots of Speed, beacons, or the Hat or Necklace to speed up walking and sailing.
Later it becomes clear that almost everything is done by one main hero. This is also a factor that makes progress slow.
With all due respect to the author, it would have been better to replace Tanan's Accuracy or Attack with Logistics, give him the Boots sooner, and place Stables, Unity Flags, and other 'speed boosts' near towns, beacons on the shores, and after receiving the Captain's Hat, give the Necklace sooner to avoid wasting time during embarkation/disembarkation.
Town Portal is not given to us for a certain time to ensure logistics traps work. The playthrough wouldn't be so drawn out if at least some towns after the Ramparts were Inferno: their portals would compensate for the lack of Town Portal.
Obtaining the Sphere of Vulnerability seems too simple, without any tricks or even a fight: came, saw, took.
From a player's perspective, the pre-final zone in the corner of the dungeon with the 'serpentine' and the hidden author's nickname in the background looks like: 'I spent ***ty months on the playthrough, and now I have to drag myself for another 3 weeks!' True, there is one plus to this: accumulation of additional troops.
You will get the Grail literally on the last day, and it will give you nothing but moral satisfaction (and score points). Although it can be used as an 'option to save the drowning': see the last tips below.
In a couple of quests, you can act dishonestly, making the playthrough easier by using a well-known 'Heroes' bug that the author didn't know or forgot: when you are asked for N identical artifacts, you can give just one. At the same time, some artifacts usually appearing in quests remained unused (diplomatic and vision-increasing ones).

Yes, soon you have plenty of resources and troops, and fighting is also quite easy. But we don't have Blind for a long time (apparently so life doesn't seem too sweet). However, shortly after getting it, we get the Sphere of Vulnerability and Berserk. Also, we don't have Prayer or Clone for a long time.
Due to an author's error, in the Dungeon area at the same stage, red dragons join us in a number depending on exactly when we reach them, and it can be very large. Later, in the swamps, green dragons join. Then fairy dragons, ancient beasts, and zealots joined me. But, as an honest man, I didn't use them, leaving them in the town.
At the beginning of the 17th month, additional 600 phoenixes will appear in one Conflux. There will be more reinforcements later, but not as significant. And in some places, you can get additional troops.
Nimus, sitting in the Castle behind the white gates, even after 20-plus months and after accumulating a number of champions greater than needed for the guard, still for some reason doesn't want to come to us through the monolith, so we have to go to him to beat him.

If you don't have enough time or patience, don't even start playing this map!
Use the HD-mod with the SOD_SP plugin, as creatures appearing in bad spots can make the map impassable.
Save regularly and often, this will help you not ruin the playthrough if you missed something or fell into a trap.
Before going into a new zone, carefully study it in the editor in visibility mode, check every yellow cell. Regularly view the map from the game in world view mode: the asterisks will reveal the location of all hidden objects. Remember everything you find along with the coordinates, or better yet, write them down. Think not only about how to get somewhere, but also about how to get back from there to avoid getting trapped.
If your path is blocked by a garrison or ambush with mighty troops you can't break through, it means you shouldn't go that way, at least not now.
We have only 3 heroes and cannot lose them (taverns will be available only closer to the finale and very far from home). In one place, the main hero will need special help from another (and in another place, although there is a way to manage alone).
Use the HD-mod with the 'Invite hero' function enabled in the tavern ('Tweaks' tab, parameter UI.Tavern.InviteHero = 1).
Tanan in the tavern after dismissal looks like a wanderer with Lacus's face.
There is no need to fear the exit of the purple monolith: enemies will not come from there; this monolith is only intended for returning our hero back. However, its entrances are located in several zones and partially replace Town Portal until it is obtained.
After capturing the Ramparts and freeing Karin-Gelu, elves accumulate quite quickly considering the additional growth from events. Therefore, after a while, it's worth switching from Elemental shooters to Snipers, since they are resurrectable. Later, my entire army consisted only of resurrectable creatures: phoenixes, archangels, snipers, magi, and at least one azure dragon.
1000 rust dragons in the cell 44,0 must be killed before capturing the last Red Conflux, otherwise, you will face a very unpleasant discovery soon and will have to replay the path through the 'serpentine'!
Given the map's great complexity, information from a message in one place can help you, giving a general idea of the order of passage through the 'chapters' of the story. As I found out, at the start of each chapter, you receive a message of the same name in an event upon stepping onto the right cell. I will give their coordinates nearby, which will allow you to understand that you are going where you need to and are acting in the correct order:
Chapter 1: Tanan - Elemental Master
Chapter 2: Slaughter Elemental Dolls (30,128)
Chapter 3: Crystal Empire (8,3)
Chapter 4: Colonial Sea Kingdom (23,61)
Chapter 5: Elegy of the Sunset Dunes (13,89)
Chapter 6: Secrets of the Underground Valley (15,102)
Chapter 7: Magic Temple in the Swamp (74,8)
Chapter 8: Caretaker Lunata (77,38)
Chapter 9: Song of Shadows and the Unforgettable (119,118)
Chapter 10: Song of Earth and the Labyrinth of Mystery (49,86)
Chapter 11: Song of Darkness and Life and Death of Jian (136,141)
Chapter 12: Song of the Sea - Dream of Destruction of the Sea Kingdom (127,16)
Chapter 13: Song of the Sky - Dragon Kingdom Bloody Battle (141,52)
Chapter 14: Final Chapter - Throne of Victory (according to the plot logic, this should be in cell 2,137, but the author did not enter the text into the event)
If you are stuck, remember: the map is made carefully and has been completed by others before you without cheating. The surprises here are set up by the author, but this means that ways out of each such difficult situation are also provided. You can return from everywhere. Everything necessary can be taken or visited. If you can't get somewhere from one side, it means there is another way there.
The solution of some tricky places is explained in this article from a Chinese forum:
https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/21941198
Last resort tip: If you have completed at least half of the map and are hopelessly stuck, you can cheat to finish the playthrough: save the game and use the cheat code or Prospector to find out the cell where the Grail is buried. After digging it up, place it in a Conflux where it is not prohibited by the author: this way you will get all spells and can fly to places you don't know how to reach. True, if unlucky, the Grail might be in an inaccessible part of the map. Then you'll have to cheat crudely...
If you are tired or stuck and don't want to play the rest of the map but want to finish it, remember the special victory condition. True, it's worth considering that the final battle with the worst enemy takes place not in that Necropolis at all, but in the opposite corner of the map: capturing the town is just a formality to bring the story to a logical conclusion.

In my opinion, changing the main hero to Tazar (Commando) is unnecessary and doesn't provide significant advantages, while there are several reasons against it:
Some important spells and artifacts can only be obtained in a single copy, and it's impossible to transfer these spells to another hero: no one has Literacy, and it cannot be obtained; it is banned by the author. True, after capturing Inferno with a tavern, I was able to find several heroes with Literacy by searching and used this. But that won't be for a very long time!
By class, Commando cannot gain the Fire Magic skill, yet this is a very important magic in battle (although it will be needed in the late stage of the playthrough). The same applies to Karin (Gelu).
According to the story, we have one main hero; others are merely messengers. And our Tanan handles perfectly on his own: closer to the finale, he is already maxed out (all primary skills at 99).

Tanan
After defeating the Elemental Lord, Tanan freed the imprisoned young elemental master Namor. Namor told Tanan that he had the blood of an elemental druid, but this ancient race was lost to history through war over millennia and became a legend. The adventurous Elemental Lord and Tanan fought, and to repay Tanan's saving grace, Namor merged with Tanan's flesh and traveled into history to the final battle with the Elemental Druid.

Commando
A reference to "Vengeance is mine"

Karin
A reference to "Elven Recovery" (likely a Chinese map "Elven Recovery" by liuhui)

I won't recount the twists and turns of such a long journey; I'll just share some particularly vivid impressions.
Twice I was on the verge of asking for hints from those who had already completed the map. And when I almost started writing a message, I found the solution myself. The path to Adelaide's Tower eluded me for a particularly long time (I got completely confused there and didn't know what to do next: go to the Tower or the white tent, and how to do it; Nimus's strange behavior added to the confusion). And this was the second time ever that I took a screenshot of that zone and drew a route line in a graphics editor literally cell by cell!
It was also funny when, after visiting the white tent, I ran into... a white border guard. But I didn't have any trouble there, as logic told me this was undoubtedly set up by the author and he had provided a specific solution, which I quickly found and applied.
This is the first map where, due to the long playthrough, gold reached the maximum value, 2 billion! Moreover, there are no treasure vaults in the Ramparts. And if it weren't for the SOD_SP plugin, overflow would have occurred and I would have been left with nothing.
At the end, when I reached the main villain, I already knew a bit about him from previous reviews. I figured out how to apply hit'n'run to him myself and immediately (he's specific here, and I saw only one possible option). But how to beat the adversary in battle even after weakening him, I couldn't figure out at first. Distressed, I tried the brute force method: I took the joined dragons and monsters left in the Dungeon, upgraded the dragons (fortunate to have plenty of resources), added accumulated troops from towns for good measure, and got an army capable of defeating the enemy in melee. That was easy. After that, I still wanted to find out how to do it completely honestly and, if possible, close to the author's intent. I assumed the Sphere of Negation placed on the map was not random and could be used in this battle. But melee combat when your army is many times weaker is doomed to fail. I also examined the battlefield and thought about whether I could somehow use the obstacles (even toggled the HD+ option). Without coming up with anything smart and not wanting to rack my brains for long, I opened Marlo_Stanfield's review and examined his screenshot, after which I understood how he won the battle and did the same. It worked on the second try, and the battle turned out to be surprisingly short and simple (but I also had significantly more troops). Unfortunately, victory came at the cost of losing all my phoenixes and archangels: although I still had plenty of mana, the unblinding nature of the enemy troops prevented resurrecting the fallen. I still needed to break through several large ambushes south of one Tower, as I hadn't seen and taken the Skull Helmet hidden in a neighboring zone earlier: by the looks of it, I decided there was nothing useful there. But the remaining shooters handled it.
I'll keep the saves and try to think and experiment further: maybe I'll find another solution for that battle.

This map became the second in my personal anti-rating of the longest playthrough maps (first place goes to 'Jedi story', completed on the 29th month, although the fault there was not the author's, but my weak playing level at that time and not receiving the Tome of Earth magic in time). And for this map, 12 months is equivalent to a speedrun. Unless you 'switched' to Commando and he was lucky enough to get Logistics. I fought only with Tanan, and the duration of the playthrough was influenced by many factors, including an old habit of visiting all stat boosters and capturing all mines and dwellings.
The above doesn't mean I didn't like the map — it's genuinely quite interesting, but the author should have ensured a faster playthrough.
Although the map is not difficult in terms of battles, there are 3 moments where you need to know and use subtleties unfamiliar to inexperienced players (blocking a monolith exit, evacuating from the sea by fleeing a battle on an abandoned ship, a guard on a diagonal cell where you need to dismiss the hero and rehire them).

'Magic Mirror only reflects spells cast by human-controlled heroes. Spells of AI heroes are not subject to redirection.' (FizMiG)
I cast Magic Mirror in battles but never saw a spell reflected and wondered why it didn't work.
It turned out that 1 creature without the 'number does not increase' property, after many months, can turn into hundreds, as in my case (I thought it shouldn't be that way, since their weekly growth is 10%, and fractional numbers are rounded to a whole number).

Scorpion, as far as I can tell, is an atypical Chinese author who doesn't focus on the complexity of combat in his maps but rather prefers to create challenges for the player outside of battles. I judge this not only by "New Splendid World," but also by this question from N Iko regarding "Light of the World," and by Glenn's walkthrough of "Perfect World." Plus, the author's style is characterized by impressive visuals.

Regarding the final battle in "New Splendid World," if I remember correctly, the tactic there boiled down to the following: it was necessary to defend behind a power field with the azure dragon and snipers so that the enemy fairies would spend all their spells on the snipers, whom we regularly resurrect; that is, the fairies should not have access to 4th-level magic, otherwise the azure dragon would die. After the fairies had exhausted their spells, we raise a stack of snipers (fortunately, there is enough mana) and under Frenzy, we shoot everyone down.

Thank you for the quick response. Yes, I did almost everything that way, but first, I quickly eliminated 1219 fairy dragons and 1684 black dragons (I burned the central pile with phoenixes and their clones), then I made a deal, and only then did I have a regular battle, where in the first round I immediately finished off the fairy dragons, and that's why I didn't have to resurrect the snipers, and I also accumulated more azure dragons, although it didn't affect anything in the end. But I still feel sorry for the phoenixes and archangels... I forgot to mention the beautiful graphics; I'll fix that now. The world is indeed beautiful! And could you give me links to other good maps by Scorpion (those that have been completed, that I liked, and that don't have any major errors) for future reference?

You can download the maps from this pack. Regarding the names: 完美世界 (Perfect World) and 沐世之光 (Light of the World). I don't rule out the possibility that there are more of his maps in the pack; the list of items is quite extensive.

Thank you. In the same pack, I saw the map "Elven Recovery" by liuhui, where we play as Jela – this is probably the "Elven Recovery" mentioned earlier. There is also "The Da Vinci Code" by Scorpion.

By the way, "New Splendid World" is also there, but the filename strangely indicates that the author is Tree shrine. I don't know where Glenn got the map for his pack; it might be a mechanical error with the authorship attribution, or perhaps it's Scorpion's alternative nickname.

Added 24 minutes later
Judging by the Google translation of this article, it's an alternative nickname.

What needs to be done to consciously replicate this effect? Why are the crystal dragons standing still? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icXZ--m_nvk&feature=youtu.be

What needs to be done to consciously replicate this effect? Why are the Crystal Dragons standing still? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icXZ--m_nvk&feature=youtu.be

This is because, due to the quicksand, they can only move one cell at a time, and then the AI often decides not to move at all.
The AI, as it were, loses sight of the target it can reach, so it goes into defense and stands still.
To replicate it, you probably need to surround the enemy stack with quicksand so that there are more than a certain number of turns until the target.

The AI behaves very strangely in such situations; sometimes, it even starts going around the entire battlefield, even when a shorter path is available. In this example, the dragon could reach the target in 9 turns; maybe tomorrow I'll try to recreate this situation. I forgot to save after the battle, so I'll have to do something about it. :(

The AI behaves very strangely in such situations; sometimes, it even starts going around the entire battlefield, even when there is a shorter path. In this example, the dragon can reach the destination in 9 turns; maybe tomorrow I'll try to recreate this situation again. I forgot to save after the battle, and I'll have to do something about it. :(

Based on my observations, in such situations, the computer stops moving through the quicksand when it has few units left in the stack; the stack simply stops. The second situation when they might stop is when the enemy has 7 stacks moving through the quicksand, and the most distant stacks see that their path is partially blocked, and then they also stop, for example, 3-4 stacks out of 7.
The computer goes "around" the shorter path because, it seems to me, it has already stepped on certain cells and "sees" an obstacle there, so it goes to the cells it hasn't stepped on yet.
A similar bug with stopping is especially noticeable during a siege of the computer in a castle, the destruction of its castle, and quicksand. In this regard, there are a couple of amusing moments: 1) you can lure the computer, a very large stack, into the castle moat, where it receives a small lesson and a defense penalty. If this is, for example, Crystal Legions, and we have 50 Archdevils, this greatly reduces the number of turns, and 2) there were 1-2 cases when, during such a siege, I killed all the computer's stacks, and it had summoned elementals left in 1 or 2 stacks, which "got stuck" in the moat, and I barely managed to pull back my forces before the computer died in the moat. :) After this, I learned to leave the computer with not the minimum forces in the last stack, but a reserve in case it gets stuck in the moat. :)

2 sketches on the theme of "hiding spots on the battlefield."
and the 3rd picture - a Berserker bug in a battle where he ran out of mana.