Posts from Maahir's Gambit 2.0 Auto-translated

Previous writer, read above. The map was completed by a hero even before your protégé. The map is quite mediocre.

Completed it in 6 hours. It's a difficult map. Can't you make something easier?

Let's clarify – respected players wrote that they completed the map, but they didn't upload any saves or walkthroughs, so for now, it's just words.

Added 12 minutes ago

And after completing the map, the sun shone, the clouds hid, and the birds sang!

Exactly. In our difficult times, it's important to stay positive.

I express the maximum condemnation of this topic with the map precisely because green-69 did not create a new map. He took someone else's and claims "co-author's royalties" and gratitude. And with your reviews, you are only motivating him not to create his own, but to continue stealing. Because it's so easy – take something ready-made, combine the AI in an alliance, and say that it's 2.0.

However, green-69 honestly wrote in the topic header that this is a remake of the old map, Gambit of Maahir. He didn't hide this fact. Considering that new maps are not released very often now, we should acknowledge that green-69 took the initiative and did what he could.

No, of course, someone will like the map, but by leaving a good review, you encourage the pseudo-author to continue stealing. And this is nothing more than theft. And if someone makes two user-created maps, not developer-made, then I will advocate, even though there is no such item in the portal rules, for the topic to be deleted. In addition, the restrictions on heroes and the strengthening of neutrals are controversial changes.

Well, I leave good reviews for other scenarios as well. It's just that this is the first map in which the mapmaker decided to introduce diversity into what the developers did. Why not? But I understand your indignation in that the original idea was not his. It belonged to the developers. But where are these developers? They haven't been working on Heroes for a long time. What do you think – what changes in the original scenario would be enough for the mapmaker's work not to be considered theft?

What changes do you think would be enough in the original scenario so that the work of a map editor is no longer considered plagiarism?

Completely redraw and completely rewrite it. The point is that the map is a finished product (not counting subsequent "polishing").
It has some idea, balance, and the developer's vision for the gameplay on it. In general, it is his creation. And if you add a new coat and a nicer hat to the creation (or, in this case, a less nice one), the creation will not become someone else's.
Therefore, in my understanding, new means new. It's one thing to be inspired, and another thing to simply spend a couple of evenings tweaking someone else's work and releasing it.
I think it's a normal idea to edit other people's maps, but the authorship should remain with the original, and such "Creation" should be justified - for example, fixing an important bug or removing something that breaks the balance.
However, this is a very abstract situation, and I have not encountered such a thing.

To be honest, simply stating that you reworked an existing map doesn't justify the action. I would understand if the author took an idea from this scenario and created a new one, a second campaign for Maahir. I would understand if they borrowed a design idea (but not the entire design). But taking a complete, ready-made map, reworking it, and posting it as a separate one... They would have been better off making a mod called "Enhanced Neutrals in Original Scenarios." Then the cover would match the content. But no, there's a separate scenario on the forum that I'll still have to add to the list of participants in Cartmaster (and then we'll send the reward to the developers). There's no clear boundary: you can borrow this much, that much, and also this much. Every case is different. There are mapmakers who borrow small sections of script – it's a complex topic, and understandably, there's a reluctance to delve into it (but I advise trying to figure it out yourself a thousand times). But to take the entire map script? That's more like theft... And in this case, what green-69 did doesn't qualify as a separate scenario. Nor does it qualify as a "reboot" of the original. But you're saying: the author is great, huge thanks to the author. So, in other words, keep reworking original maps; that's exactly what mapmaking needs! Grigoriy created a campaign for the Nagas, Andrei_21 made great classic campaigns... against this backdrop, the work done by green-69 looks pale, and to me, it's simply disgusting. You'll say: the author's merit lies in the changes to the map, which turned out to be very cool... The awful island and the change in balance (and, in my opinion, it's worse than the original)?! Perhaps there's a real need for people to write here: thanks for the update to the old scenario, but it's better to create your own. And I'm not worried specifically about this scenario, but about the trend. Let's be honest, green-69 is a very bad mapmaker. All of his works are permeated with a lack of desire to improve and a reluctance to learn from mistakes. On the forum, there are only pathetic scraps under his authorship and a remake of an original scenario. And he'll continue to make subpar remakes. Why have a bunch of remakes among real, new scenarios? There's no need. He can release a mod – no problem. What he wrote, he created. But the author didn't create a scenario; not even close. I... hope that green-69 reads my discouraging reviews and understands that this isn't bullying out of personal hatred. And maybe he'll start making new, original scenarios, each one better than the last? And if there's no desire to improve, then it's better to do nothing than to create something subpar.