Posts from Walkthroughs for custom maps.

To be honest, I don't understand why Dandy is so upset. Did the author not give him a good hint? It seems to me that the author's goal is to make the walkthrough more challenging, not easier. Regarding the cubic equation, I agree that not everyone will come up with the trick of substituting variables, but people figured it out hundreds of years ago.

Dandy is annoyed that I encountered a pure combinatorial problem involving enumeration, where the solution space consists of millions of possibilities. This is the foundation of cryptanalysis and the RSA method. Knowing the product of two numbers makes it practically impossible, even for a supercomputer, to calculate the factors within a timeframe of less than thousands of years by simply trying all possible combinations. And I'm not even claiming to be able to handle even a simple enumeration with my current skills. Therefore, yes, the problem of a large number of options is indeed a serious one, and it cannot be treated so carelessly.

To be honest, I don't understand why Dandy is so upset. Did the author not give him a good hint? It seems to me that the author's goal is to make the walkthrough more challenging, not easier.
I agree about the cubic equation; not everyone will find the trick with variable substitution, but people figured it out hundreds of years ago.

The author's primary task is to make the walkthrough interesting. The player should use their brain and apply their knowledge of the game effectively. There is nothing interesting in simply trying out different options and finding a solution that is not easily explained logically. A similar situation occurred on Ed's map in the battle with 6 dragons, and not only there. By the way, I helped test the map at an early stage of development, and I know that initially, more hints for the player were planned in those places where otherwise there would be a mindless trial-and-error approach. I don't know why they were removed.

And this is not obvious at all! And this is precisely an example of an adequate hint, and it is precisely this that is sufficient!
Because it immediately eliminates many development paths: the combination of unit position + wall placement narrows the number of options not from 70, but from 2100 to 5. This is the problem, oh my god, the author assumes this is obvious! Why might this be obvious? When you need to wait 1 turn behind a single wall with a fast-flying unit + tactics? By the way, at first glance, I don't understand what changes, but this is a reason to think.
And this is exactly what should be in the hint. Currently, what is in the hint is very blatant trolling.
I had a lot of options where 2 stacks were burned in the first 2 turns, and the option through wait almost worked, with the speed and burn artifact removed, it started from the very first round. Why does the author think that the two-stack option is an obvious wrong approach? On the contrary, it is the fastest possible and least mana-intensive way to win. It doesn't involve hiding behind a single wall. Currently, the problem with it is that 1 unit is lost. But why is it obvious that in the other 1.4 million possible actions in 2 turns, the desired outcome will not be achieved?

It's surprisingly a clear example of the curse of knowledge and the blindness of analyzing the solution space. This is a reproach, but it is a normal phenomenon that someone could not look at the problem with an unbiased view - it is really not easy.
I can give an example so that you feel it from the other side:
many people can probably solve quadratic equations. It turns out that this knowledge is sufficient to solve cubic equations. There is a very simple approach, no additional knowledge or skills are needed, there are only a couple of simple operations, and the cubic equation is reduced to a quadratic one. Can you figure it out on your own? I, by the way, would never have figured it out myself, but it is brilliantly simple.

You are right that knowledge sometimes hinders, in particular, I didn't immediately understand what kind of hint you needed because, from the first post, it was not clear to me at what stage of understanding the battle you were.

However, regarding the huge number of potential solution options, I think you are overthinking it. If I suggest you complete a battle in which you need to kill a sniper with a azure dragon, it is obvious to you what you need to do to win in the first turn, you will not think about at least a hundred other options in which it is not achieved? And if I add another sniper and tell you to win the battle in 2 turns, the variability of possible actions will increase many times, but the battle will still be easy.

It turns out that everything comes down to your understanding of the game and intuition, such battles with a wall of fire really require some experience, intuition led you in the wrong direction, and, among other things, the hint about 13 walls confused you and made you think in the wrong direction - okay, I will take this into account. However, without it, you might think that, since there is so much mana, you can just sit behind a single wall and shoot down champions with arrows - this hint eliminates this perspective of thinking, here your initial knowledge that mana is limited prevents you from understanding and evaluating this, but, as you can see, the hint is not so useless. By the way, the mana reserve for 13 walls gives the player quite a lot of freedom, you can also complete it in 9.

I'm not sure that it is my task as the map author to "take into account all the possible misunderstandings that may arise for players and warn them in advance about how they are resolved." It is not obvious to you how to act in this battle, but a weaker player will not understand how to kill 7 peasants with one, what should I do now, write all possible hints for players of different levels before each battle? Outside the map - please, I am always ready to help/suggest individually.

Regarding cubic equations - I don't remember it being reduced to a quadratic one, rather I remember that it was reduced to an equation of the form x^3 + px + q = 0, and from it came the Cardano formulas, which were terribly cumbersome and not very beautiful.

This is the basics of cryptanalysis and the RSA method. Knowing the product of two numbers makes it virtually impossible for even a supercomputer to calculate the factors by brute force in less than thousands of years.

It's not all that bad. The number field sieve method already has sub-exponential complexity, and it is quite possible that there are algorithms for finding factors in polynomial time.

Regarding cubic equations, I don't remember it being reduced to a quadratic equation; rather, I recall that it was reduced to an equation of the form x^3 + px + q = 0, and from that, Cardano's formulas were derived, which were incredibly cumbersome and not very elegant.

Cubic equations can be solved graphically, right?)))

P.S. Can you provide a link to the battle?

Yes, please share your save file before the battle.

Title: Metataxer's Revenge
Version: 20.0/English
Author: Nautilus/Biobob
Difficulty: 200%

In 2017, I first learned about this map and started streaming it completely blind. Unfortunately, at the time, I lacked the experience to survive the trial of endurance during the first game month, which resulted in me abandoning it. At that moment, it seemed that the difficulty was artificially inflated and required regular morale/luck procs to continue battles.

I returned to the map in 2020 after the season quadrology and completing several other interesting maps. And only then was I able to look at this scenario with completely different eyes. The battles in it seemed, in some places, on par with that same season, but some of them deserve special attention.

1. Gameplay

1.1 Battles

It is absolutely striking that the map is over 8 years old, as many people to this day cannot handle its battles due to a lack of proper knowledge of mechanics and AI behavior principles. An amazing introduction to the scenario in the form of a battle against Sir Lock-a. Moreover, this fight is truly difficult, and the author understood perfectly that if he provided exactly the right set of spells, the task would be reduced to methods of applying specific spells. However, everything is much more complicated, as the author gave a whole series of spells that may only seem necessary, and especially the fact that spells unrelated to the solution do not create any shortcuts. This battle can boldly be called the calling card of the scenario. Several initial battles similarly reflect the idea of choosing the right spells, since we are given djinns who have a whole set of spells in their magic book. In this way, the capture of the Dungeon has an identical structure with correct spells and their application.

A number of battles in that same beginning are built on the skill of leading the enemy around in circles. And the most memorable such clash was with 800 golems, where I had to kite the iron things back and forth using one stack of titans paired with a ballista. For me personally, the truth was revealed that there could be any number of golems; it is only a question of time and patience.

After surviving the beginning, the difficulty level of the clashes, and indeed the scenario in general, dropped significantly. Mr. Melange comes to mind with magical elementals and black dragons, but I cannot say that the battle was difficult, as "no-answer" units with different numbers of units in a stack were immediately apparent. Epic, beautiful, but seemed obvious enough.

And a completely different level of madness began with the siege of Golden Heart castle, where Arthur Dent eats, drinks, and reigns. We passed this battle using a recently discovered bug-feature with open gates: link Of the clashes, One Eye with the icon and the insane siege of Whipwhoop castle stand out. I had to actually struggle with them. After that, everything was passed more or less calmly again, and difficulty arose in the battle against the second frifix: link . Completing MR coincided with the period of creating a special edition of the first scenario Shadows of the Forest. During development, I realized that blindness has a certain peculiarity when cast on a friendly stack, and this very peculiarity played a decisive role in the battle against frifix. There were also problems with the hero ScytheScorge, where I never figured out how to kill him in the field. I had to lure him into the castle and finish him off there using the open gates feature.

A grid-based level appeared in the battles against Bellpel and Resus, but once the right cell was found, the battle was cleared of all problems. However, the battle against Guy le Forte caused some indignation, as it was completely unpleasant to drain 1800 mana from the opponent. This was very confusing, because until the end I didn't believe that draining mana was mandatory for victory. But credit should also be given for the use of the Sorrow spell; it is rarely used at all.

And the absolute pinnacle is in the battles against the third frifix and Nosferatu, who should be considered final bosses in terms of difficulty. With the first one, I even wanted to post a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUFdkxza10I We bypassed it, again within the framework of the blindness peculiarity on a friendly squad.

Metataxer himself and the clash with Damelon did not cause any particular difficulties. Except that it was amusing to cast berserk and fun to throw Armageddon as Metataxer onto the archangels.

As a result, it turned out to be a kind of sine wave with its own ups and downs in battle difficulty. In my opinion, the map does not become worse because of this, and this variance is actually a plus.

1.2 Logistics.

Nightmarishly difficult logistics at the very beginning make many people abandon the map, as it seems to them that it will be like this throughout the scenario. You have to consider literally everything without the slightest possibility of error, but then a wonderful world of Damelon and full freedom open up. This very freedom makes the game times easier, which is why it's hard to say that Metataxer's Revenge is a very difficult map. There are trigger heroes who emerge on a timer, but there are few of them and they appear quite late, even during a calm playthrough without accounting for all the details. Despite full freedom, the author still came up with some logistics tasks, such as Brewster's passage to Whipwhoop castle and Friend's passage through anti-magic garrisons, but there are no time limits for their completion.

1.3 - Scenario Concept.

As I said at the beginning, the author likes to provide a set of tools where the choice is not obvious. 5 heroes, 5 different specializations, and a wide range of actions add special notes of dynamism to the scenario. However, in my opinion, most battles lack a sharp focus. I don't know if this is good or bad, but that's how it is. For example, Friend only needs to visit the mana doubler to refill his reserve to 2000 units, and such an amount is quite enough to decide almost any battle. On the other hand, this magic source is far away and requires game time, but since there are no strict limits in logistics, it's not a problem at all to ride to the nearest fountain. It would be different, of course, if the author intended for many people to speedrun. In that case, LLB is an indispensable character. I didn't like that there were too few battles using Sepello's peculiarity. I only remember clashes against dragons using only vampires. Brewster is well-tuned, as only he can enter certain areas. The wide and even use of all heroes is extremely difficult to balance, but I liked that there are no 100% useless heroes. Even Mr. Vertigo plays the role of a provider-teacher, and the author even tried to tie some battles to him.

1.4 - Game Progression

If you don't count the beginning, progression on this map is very fast. In the early stages, already having resurrection, forgetfulness, rage, and dispel in the arsenal gives too big a jump in progress, which, in my opinion, is why the difficulty of the clashes dropped.

2. Design.

I came to the conclusion that the World of Damelon differs in nature from the world we are used to. Here you have a wooden boat sailing on lava, a lake with gems on fire fields, a whirlpool in the thick of corpses on cursed land (?), and strong oaks growing green right out of the depths of lava — beauty! At first it's an eyesore, then you get used to it. Well... that's the person's style, what can you do? It's for those who like it.

3. Plot and its connection with gameplay.

Oh... it's hard to give an adequate assessment of the plot, as 99% of the text is tied to Biobob's local humor. Among all these jokes are plot hints, but otherwise, they are just dialogues between heroes. I perfectly understand that being a "10-in-1" person is very difficult and I understand him as an author. I won't call it nonsense; I'll just say that apparently not all the jokes and references were clear to me. And to be honest, although I read everything, I barely paid attention. I will not give a rating.

Summary: Metataxer's Revenge is one of the best maps at the moment, and much is owed to this map, as another leap in the gameplay potential of Heroes of Might and Magic III is due specifically to it. For those who are planning to start playing it, my advice is not to be intimidated by the scary first three weeks; and to those who have just started and abandoned it, I wish you to return and sweat a little more. It's truly worth it!

Regarding cubic equations, I don't remember it being reduced to a quadratic equation; rather, I recall it being reduced to an equation of the form x^3 + px + q = 0.

Yes, a simple substitution is applied to this form, where x is replaced with the sum of two new unknowns, x = a + b.
In 2-3 lines and with one assumption, the equation is reduced to a quadratic equation. Solving it and returning to the original variables yields Cardano's formula.
In principle, knowing this first step (x = a + b) and understanding that it will lead to a quick solution allows you to guess what is done in those 2-3 lines.
However, guessing both the first step and everything else is a super-non-trivial task with a large number of possible substitutions. In fact, humanity has been working towards this for over a thousand years.
A similar situation exists here. In the battle with the champions, an unobvious simple first step is proposed, and knowing it allows you to guess the solution. Without knowing it, you can get lost in a multitude of options, which may not take thousands of years, but several years of mindless trial and error – and that's just for the first few moves.

The options against a single dragon are not tied to the landscape, and the dragon hardly interferes with the actions of other stacks. But here, the main idea of the battle is the 7 stacks of champions, which constantly interfere with each other and block each other – this is what generates a huge number of options, as well as where they will end up after their turn. They actively use wait, change the order of turns, choose top or bottom, and can change their trajectory due to the presence of a firewall, and sometimes paradoxically – the first stack without a firewall goes over the top, and after placing a wall in the middle, it happily changes its trajectory downwards to walk on it – like a child seeing a puddle.
And this directly depends on the location of the hexes with fake and firewall.

But, of course, knowing the solution, it is considered that the first move is obvious. Why look for a solution in other areas when you know where to look and that you will definitely find something there?
And other options for the first move, meanwhile, also have hints of a positive result. Oh yes, why look at them, intuition should have suggested that these are false hints. Bad intuition, you are punished, no ice cream for the rest of the month.
Or not false, has anyone studied all hundreds of thousands of variations of situations with 2 stacks of fake? Or have they? I'm just curious, what is the basis for the ironclad confidence that the solution should only be sought with such a first move (if you abstract and don't know about it)? Is it really obvious among all these options that the champions will always leave only one, and not two, hexes safe?
And yes, it is also so obvious that, having 140 mana for the next 4 battles, and constantly trying to minimize its consumption, that the first mana costs are not intended to deal damage.
I understand that it means tirelessly trying thousands of options that have a chance of leading to a solution for the first move, but if intuition fails and you come to the solution later rather than sooner, then are these just my problems? Interesting way to spend time, thank you. I appreciate this attitude.

ah yes, here's a save file for those who want it; I have no doubt that your intuition is better than mine.

Yes, for this type, a simple substitution is applied: x is replaced with the sum of two new unknowns: x=a+b.
In 2-3 lines and with one assumption, the equation is reduced to a quadratic equation. Solving it and returning to the original variables yields Cardano's formula.
In principle, knowing this first step (x=a+b) and understanding that it will lead to a quick solution, you can already guess what is being done in those 2-3 lines.
But guessing both the first step and everything else is a super-non-trivial task with a large number of possible substitutions. In fact, humanity has been working towards this for over a thousand years.
A similar situation exists here. In the battle with the champions, an unobvious simple first step is proposed, and knowing it allows you to guess the solution. Without knowing it, you can get lost in a multitude of options, and it might take not thousands of years, but several years of mindless trial and error – and that's just for the first few moves.

The options against a single dragon are not tied to the landscape, and the dragon hardly interferes with the actions of other stacks. But here, the main idea of the battle is 7 stacks of champions that constantly interfere with each other and block each other – this is what generates a huge number of options, and how they will end up after their turn – they actively use wait, change the turn order, choose top or bottom, and can change the trajectory due to the presence of a firewall, and sometimes paradoxically – the first stack without a firewall goes on top, and after placing a wall in the middle, it happily changes its trajectory downwards to walk on it – like a child seeing a puddle.
And this directly depends on the location of the hexes with fake and firewall.

But, of course, knowing the solution, it is considered that the first move is obvious. Why look for a solution in other areas when you know where to look and that you will definitely find something there.
And other options for the first move, meanwhile, also have hints of a positive result. Oh yes, why look at them, intuition should have suggested that these are false hints. Bad intuition, you are punished, no ice cream for the rest of the month.
Or not false, has anyone studied all hundreds of thousands of variations of situations with 2 fake stacks? Or have they? I'm just curious, what is the basis for the ironclad confidence that the solution should only be sought with such a first move (if you abstract and don't know about it)? Is it really obvious among all these options that the champions will always leave only one, and not two hexes safe?
And yes, it's also so obvious that, having 140 mana for the next 4 battles, and constantly trying to minimize its consumption, that the first mana costs are not intended to deal damage.
I understand that it means tirelessly trying thousands of options that have a chance to lead to a solution for the first move, but if intuition fails and you come to the solution later rather than sooner, then are these just my problems? Interesting way to spend time, thank you. I appreciate that attitude.

This discussion is taking an unclear turn; you repeatedly write me huge texts every day, nitpicking my words and ultimately indirectly or directly accusing me of making you waste your time.

I have already written and will repeat: if you don't like this battle and you don't want to spend time on it, I am ready to give you any hint, even a complete solution to the entire battle.

oh yeah, here's a save file for those who want it; I have no doubt that your intuition is better than mine.

It's giving me some kind of error message about not being able to find the "sprite" resource "FMevent.def," and it crashes. Is SODS (Savegame Overhaul and Dependency System) absolutely necessary?

This discussion is taking an odd turn. You repeatedly write me huge texts, picking apart my words and ultimately, directly or indirectly, accusing me of making you waste your time.

I've already said it and will repeat: if you don't like this battle and don't want to spend time on it, I'm ready to give you any hint or even a complete solution for the entire battle.

I've already written that hints for the first turn are enough; the rest can be figured out quickly.
In general, I strongly recommend adding a general hint about the first turn in the new version of the map; in its current form, it looks... well, I won't repeat myself.

`sod_sp` is definitely highly recommended, as it involves constant discarding and leveling up to 6424, but it's likely that something else is also connected to it.

Ah yes, here's a save for those who want it. I have no doubt that your intuition is better than mine.

I passed it after about 10 tries (or less) and didn't even feel any difficulty.
But now it turns out that I did something wrong again. I have a feeling that 1 fairy won't be enough for me to progress further. Could you please indicate how many fairies I am allowed to lose?

You can’t lose a Fairy. You can spend mana equal to 13 walls.