Posts from Walkthroughs for custom maps.

Well, in speedrunning communities, each game has its own set of rules for each category. Usually, they have Glitchless (completely without using bugs), No major glitches (without game-breaking bugs, like clipping through textures or, in the case of Heroes, some kind of double casting), and a free category where you can do anything you want. In this case, a victory on the first day would be determined by the final segment, and even then, it's not certain that the judges and moderators would allow it in the leaderboard.

In my opinion, the quick battle bug is blatant cheating.

I discovered a bug:

If you start a map, then exit to the menu and start another one, artifacts are somehow strangely transferred between identical heroes.

Here are a couple of examples:

1) Start The Last Crusade, then Metataxer's Revenge. We get Vertigo like this:
..
2) Start Metataxer's Revenge, then Heroes of Jin Yong. The starting hero has the Vessel of Life from Friend from Metataxer:
..
3) The Last Crusade, then Jedi Strikes Back - Cielke gets a magic book in her inventory from Cielke from TLC.

P.S. sod_sp has nothing to do with this (tested without it too)

Then why not just immediately make the necessary dummy map with the required heroes and artifacts? Why complicate things by searching for "suitable" scenarios?

Just to make sure success is inevitable

I'm just curious about where the line is that "fans of using ALL the game's features" can't cross for speedrunning. The quick battle bug, opening tents, starting with a companion... Now they've shown a bug that allows you to transfer artifacts from one map to another, and even a bug that allows you to win quickly in 1 day by deleting the map. It's really interesting, where is the line between what's allowed and what's not?

First, you need to understand that there are no official competitions here, so everyone is free to play however they want, as long as it doesn't interfere with or harm anyone. And only whether a person considers the result worthy is the determining factor. They can share this result with others - forums are created for this, and some people may not like it - well, we're not candies, we can't please everyone. The criterion is, of course, subjective, but it is usually determined by the difficulty of the task. Second, is such a task interesting to anyone, and can it be improved with the same initial conditions? Third, the hyperbole of the method. That is, if you used something only "a little bit," will the result turn into absurdity if the method is used to its full extent? That's it, the whole system of values, and not a word about the heroes. And if we move on to the heroes specifically, as a fan of the game, I only approve of various experiments, taking into account the points above. People find goals, motivation, and interest in it. And the approach of "only I understand how it should be done" is the psychology of old women in the courtyard. It doesn't require a person to develop, to learn something new, and may even be wrong from the start (but not from the point of view of the old woman). Perhaps someone really is a drug addict or a prostitute, but then it is worth figuring out the issue before labeling them. Tell me, please, does your motivation help you a lot? How many maps have you completed in Heroes in the last 10 years?

The first thing to understand is that there are no official competitions here, so everyone is free to play however they want, as long as it doesn't interfere with or harm anyone. And ultimately, whether a person considers the result worthy is what matters.

Of course, I understand that. I'll repeat, I'm only interested in the limit that a person can push themselves to. There's no judgment here, just curiosity.

In other words, if you use something "just a little bit," will the result still be absurd if you use the method fully?

It sounds like, "if you steal just a little, it's kind of okay."

Tell me, does your motivation help you a lot? How many maps have you completed in Heroes in the last 10 years?

My motivation? There simply isn't any.
Not many. I can't play maps for my own enjoyment. I wanted to finish Limes Inferrior in 5-6 months (more likely 6). There was so much beauty in the early stages, but after killing the orange hero in the second month, I lost interest in the map (I just can't grind and generate resources for 4 months without battles), even though the plan was fully developed. I also studied some well-known difficult maps to try to complete them with a good result, but I realize what a titanic effort it would take, and I can't force myself to play through it. One person from the CIS community motivated me to speedrun a map from the Heroes campaign, and that's it.

The second reason why I lack motivation to complete anything is because of "players who like to use all the possibilities of the game." Take Paragon, for example. Even if I complete it and get the maximum result that can be achieved under normal conditions, no one will be interested, and no one will appreciate it. If I complete a map in 100 days (hypothetically), people will just shake their heads and say, "What are you trying to tell us? Sanyassh completed Paragon in 7 days, go learn how to play." Therefore, to set a record that will be remembered, you also have to go all out. That's just life.

I really hope that competitive offline play will return to Heroes. I even have an idea how this can be done; I discussed it with Baratortch when we met, but there are still too many caveats...

We're waiting for many speedruns from fans who like to use "all the game's possibilities"

You're being a bit of a downer; everyone forgot about these "speedruns" ages ago. Nasos and maddayman simply mentioned bugs in the game that they found, which are not applicable to speedruns or anything else. You're digging up this topic again and continuing the argument; why?

It sounds like "if you cheat a little, it's okay."

But it's written exactly the opposite. Hyperbole is an exaggeration, an excess. We're here to try and achieve the maximum result, so if we use any method, we use it to the fullest – and don't limit ourselves to just cases where "I only need it once." A simple example is the same bug that allows you to take artifacts from another map. We exaggerate – we place a Paragon with a quest sphere – the result is a victory in 111 days. Which, in my opinion, is absurd; there's no challenge or interesting task in it.
We can generalize – bugs with the tent, color change, and artifacts are all of the same nature: a bug with variables that haven't been reset. The method of "manipulating scenarios before starting a map" is not for me, because in the case of hyperbole, we get the simplest Walkthrough in 1 day.

At the same time, the quick bug doesn't turn everything into an absurdity. Its application is limited and requires game resources; its own nuances and changes in priorities appear. And if you apply it to the example of Limes, the task remains very difficult and complex. I repeat, it's clear that this is a bug, and in some official competition, it would definitely be banned and not used. But for an experiment, what it still gives in terms of results – why not? Just today, I was reading an article by a former athlete: "It's important to find motivation so as not to degrade." Motivation is also a resource that needs to be valued, including that of others.

Even if I complete it and get the maximum that can be achieved under normal conditions, it won't be interesting to anyone, and no one will appreciate it. If I complete the map in 100 days (conditionally), people will just shake their heads and say: "What are you trying to tell us? Sanyassh completed Paragon in 7 days; go learn how to play."

That's a weak argument. If people understand the issue, they won't say that. And if they don't understand, do you even care about their opinion? And most likely, they'll say, "He's just playing his games; he should go earn some money." By the way, the topic of speedrunning Paragon under normal conditions is still of interest to people.

Map: Blood Volcano

Author: wklhy

After a long break, I felt a masochistic desire to complete Dark man, and as a warm-up, I decided first to tackle an easier map by the same author; my choice fell on this scenario, especially since there were no reviews for it yet.

Features: A typical dynamic map similar to the creations of woxina, also resembling Picturesque Tian Shan. There are no one-way portals (ЧШ) on the map; taverns only become available to us at the very end of the game, so you cannot afford to lose your mains, and losing "fodder" heroes is undesirable. Also, КВ will be accessible toward the end of the map. Enemies are as numerous as in prisons, as well as roaming freely across the entire map, which is typical for all creations by this author. Mana doublers are in dungeons, but we only get access closer to the end of the game. There are no stables, period.

Walkthrough Tips: In principle, I won't say anything new—run and capture as quickly as possible. You cannot simply sit back and accumulate growth; there are no safe spots where the AI cannot reach. The map is tempo-based, and the higher the tempo, the easier it will be in the mid and late game when all enemies are freed. For troops, our main stacks are archangels, titans, bears, archdevils, bulls, azure dragons; other stacks are optional. There are many upgrades, but they are placed very inconveniently, so you must balance visiting them with expanding across the map. Enemies constantly exchange armies and artifacts, which can result in running into a practically unkillable "imba" (in my case, Tazar received a Cloak of Denial and a bunch of level 7 creatures as a result of exchanges; I was lucky that he later passed the most dangerous stacks to Stig, otherwise there would have been huge problems with him since it's impossible to outsmart him). Therefore, you need to monitor the AI's movements and try to prevent such exchanges by luring them away with fodder heroes if possible. Artifacts are obtained from enemies, some are quest items; there will also be inventory overflow issues—so you need to clear it at an altar from time to time. It is advisable for all heroes to have Pathfinding, as at least half of the map's area has terrain penalties. Some heroes might benefit from Navigation, again for a more tempo-based run, and tempo is everything; other skills are standard for xl maps—logistics, wisdom, earth, water.

Heroes.

Our mains: Mephala, Orrin, Gird

Logistics hero: Kirry

Fodder: Caitlin, Loins, Sephinorof, Sylvia

Mephala is our main for the early and late game (lacks intelligence), Orrin for the mid-game (has intelligence), Gird (has intelligence) is an optional main.

Kirry is an extremely important hero in the walkthrough because he can be used to steal growth from AI castles (which is a huge boost that speeds up progress), so it's very important to level him up alongside the mains.

Sylvia has Literacy; she absolutely must not be lost. Loins knows ГП and will teach everyone through Sylvia; other fodder heroes mostly perform technical tasks.

Walkthrough

The entire walkthrough should aim to fulfill 3 global objectives:

1. Freeing Orrin from prison, as he has КЗ.

2. Breaking Thorgrim to free Loins with ГП.

3. Assembling the angel alliance for access to КВ and completing the map.

We start with Mephala, making our way as quickly as possible to the dungeons with the fodder heroes and Kirry—the goal is to reach Orrin's dungeon as fast as possible.

Initial battles are quite annoying, sometimes relying on morale; the main thing is to reach point 74-107-0, where a pack of archangels awaits us to join—this is our strike stack for the early game. Then we move toward the center of the map, capturing Rampart 74-87-0 along the way and visiting upgrades, as well as freeing Sephinorof. Caitlin frees Kirry and scouts the southeast and east to free Gird from prison. Mephala, moving toward Orrin, kills any heroes she encounters; they aren't anything special—Ufretin (killed at 117), Gretchen was killed at 134 while defending a castle; we get Water Walking from the seer for her head. Then I had a choice: kill Valeska nearby and gain access to the castle with resurrection and Sylvia's prison, or try to slip past two enemy heroes—Ivor and Corbak (both are beyond our strength for now)—and free Orrin in dungeon 14-91-0. I chose the second path—especially since own "free" archangels await us behind the guardian at point 0-87-0, with whom we can already fight enemies more or less effectively. At 143, Orrin is freed and immediately leveled up on nearby neutrals, which is very timely because two swamp-dwellers will soon reach our starting castle and, having accumulated strength, break through the azure dragon plug. Thus, we have completed the first global objective—we have КЗ, meaning we can fight in full.

 

Next comes the time to fulfill the second global objective—breaking Thorgrim and freeing Loins with ГП. At 213, two swamp-dwellers were killed while defending the starting castle, opening the path to the swamp territories. At 213, Cuthbert was killed in the same southwest overworld area; we gain access to another castle and stronghold. At 215, Gird is freed at 141-129-0; I had to slip past Kalha, who had left his starting location. Two Infernos are captured; Khalid is killed in between. At 222, Valeska is killed and Sylvia with Literacy is freed. At 224-225, Ivor and Corbak are killed. Along the way, the map is scouted, mains visit upgrades, and preparations for battles with Tower heroes and the first wave of heroes behind the guardians begin.

We start a gradual breakthrough to the north of the map toward Thorgrim; for this, at 235, I had to make a forced march with Kirry to capture the tower at point 71-15-0. From there, we need to slip past 3 Tower heroes into the zone near Thorgrim. At 242, Orrin breaks Thorgrim (killed while defending a castle, not a super difficult fight), and the second global objective is completed; our heroes learn ГП. For control, we have blindness, forgetfulness, and hypnosis; another problem is that almost all enemies have necklaces or medals). At 244, trigger-hero Dessa (she has one of the alliance pieces) is killed with a decent army and a medal. Then follows the clearing of the sandy territory, where we need to kill 4 heroes; simultaneously, heroes from dungeons begin to emerge through the underground from different parts of the map. By the end of the second month, we completely clear the sandy territory and prepare an invasion of the same snowy respawn, where it will be extremely important to steal titan growth—without them, fighting is much harder since we have neither Jelu nor a Dragon.

At the beginning of the third month, 3 Tower heroes are killed in turn; the strongest among them is Solmir level 59 (a quite nasty fight, but there was enough mana to carry it without losses); now we can capture 3 towers on the snow. Nila level 46 and Alagar landed in the swamp; they were killed at 322 while defending a castle. At 323, the towers are fully captured, and along with them, the entire overworld. Simultaneously, 2 strongholds left by Kreg and Kilgor are captured in the underground, against whom we do not yet have sufficient strength. At 321, Gunnar level 59 was freed with a good army; I ignored him for some time as I was preparing for Müllich's appearance at 331 with the quest Sword of Justice that gives a bunch of stats. Brohild came from the underground, for whose head we get Clone. It was impossible to kill him in the open—he has 240 titans who cannot be controlled, a lot of other army + high stats, and a necklace. The decision was made to put him in a castle and kill him with Gird-327. Almost all battles in this interval are conducted by Orrin, as Mephala simply lacks the mana to pull off difficult fights; she focused more on looting stats to become a main in the late game. At 333, Alkin is killed. At 334, Müllich is killed—luckily he had no necklace, and without it, his armada of shooters is not dangerous; at 335, Gunnar. From these three heroes, we get the most important alliance pieces and a bunch of stats; only the helmet remains from the remaining pieces (we'll get it for Tazar's head). Fodder heroes with Kirry capture growth and scout the underground.

From the end of the third month, the game moves toward the finale as we obtain the main spells including Clone, and no longer fear losses in battles, since the favorite "imba" combo—archangels + clone—is activated; we capture dungeons with doublers. In the end, our Mephala becomes a full-fledged main and conducts almost all the ending battles. Our main task is to kill Tazar and gain access to КВ. The final part required some real effort; there were tough fights with the main bosses—Sandro, Zidar, Malekith, Isra, Lord Haart, Stig, Kreg, Andra, Eleshar, Xeron, Rizza. The fight with Zidar while defending a castle was extremely annoying; he had the Armageddon blade, no one else did. Andre drained mana (a tedious fight); other intelligence heroes were less dangerous. Sandro also frayed some nerves—massive army, I had to do many tries until I got the right layout. Stig was put in a castle and killed by Gird (fight of 1k+ rounds)—in the open, she was unkillable. At 426, Tazar was killed quite easily; lured him to a castle, used MOD (he has a Cloak of Denial and simply spammed lightning after buffs and debuffs), and while defending the castle, quickly shot down his only shooting stack—the bubbles—using blindness; others were not dangerous, fight without losses. After killing Tazar, further play becomes a formality since we gain access to taverns of castles that were previously unavailable to us. Only Mutare and Drake remain among the bosses. Xeron and Rizza have huge armies that could only be killed by putting them in a castle or cleverly removing problematic stacks—I chose the second path as I wanted to finish quickly. With КВ and the tavern, all the same small fry running in the underground are quickly cleared from the map. Mutare with MOD and sniper bow was killed on the second try; a frontal assault didn't work, so I just let her hit my azure dragons whom I resurrected with archangels, while meanwhile I took out dangerous stacks one by one. Victory at 434.

Result: A great, dynamic map above average level, rating 8/9 out of 10, I recommend it to all lovers of Chinese torture))).

 

I've attached screenshots of some battles.

http://www.heroes3maps.com/map/8397-matrix
Map: Matrix (author unknown, no descriptions or author contact information in the map description)

Can you tell me how to get the white tent?

quke, you have a different version of the map: in the one I completed, there are no obstacles in the shown location; I simply disembarked near the sign and visited the white tent. I will remove the excessive quoting from your question, as it is not necessary here.

Thank you, so I guess I've played enough. As far as I understand, there's no way to get to the turquoise (tower) otherwise.

Thanks, so I guess I've played it all. Unfortunately, there's no way to get past it. I don't think there's another way to get to the turquoise (tower).

You could try modifying the binary file to move the player one tile forward. Is there a tent behind the fence?
If you need help with the binary file, just let me know, and I'll help.

Map Title: The Lord of Rings
Author: Season

A Few Introductory Words

I don't even remember the last time I enjoyed playing Heroes this much. To be honest, after playing through some of Season's other maps, I had some questions about the widely recognized genius of Season as a mapmaker, but after completing this map, those questions are gone. Unlike the extremely dull and generic xiedu, the simple and elegant way home, the challenging and oppressive heroes of jing yong, The Lord of Rings is a true masterpiece. I didn't think anything could surprise me after the battles from Metatxera, but Season managed to do it; no wonder BioBob put a sign of appreciation for Season on his map.

A Few General Words

In essence, the map is a large puzzle - the author sets local tasks for you and provides the tools to complete them; if you don't see them, you're not looking hard enough. I agree with previous reviews of the map - you need to move forward and only forward; at no point during the playthrough did I encounter a situation where I couldn't progress due to a lack of troops/stats/artifacts, which positively distinguishes the map from xiedu and heroes of jing yong, where I was annoyed by Season's greed for stat-boosting items, which turned some battles into a surreal game of chance. Here, the map is completed with almost no randomness (okay, you'll have to catch the paralysis scorpion in battles, but it doesn't cause frustration because there can be many attempts), purely based on tactics and knowledge of certain mechanics (and some of the puzzle battles can be completed in more than one way, which is a pleasant surprise). Also, Season condescended to mortals and marked the imba cells with pits, but unlike xiedu, my playthrough didn't require their use =)

The gameplay on the map is quite diverse - at the beginning, Sandro will handle things, with the scroll of chain lightning being his main attacking stack, then Gundula (later Kragg) will join in with harpies, and finally, Orrin will finish everything off with wizards. Also, as you progress, you will have to use many different units for utilitarian purposes. The logistics become quite free after the first week, although the route through the map quickly becomes clear after some exploration.

I would also like to note that in previous reviews, colleagues lured the AI into the water. It is not necessary to do this; it is even more beneficial to let the AI run around - necromancers can gather themselves living units (which can be blinded for a peaceful resurrection of their army), Thorgrim can profitably exchange armies and settle in some castle, where he will die.

Timings

121 - Kragg is freed;

122 - Sandro, sitting in the castle, defends against a hero without losses

124 - Sandro receives slow

127 - Sandro attacks Nag, breaks through the second human town and the enemy hero

133 - 142 - Sandro attacks Ajit, Kragg kills Gurnisson in the castle and frees Orrin, Sandro attacks the quest hero with harpies

216 - 226 - the heroes receive resurrection and blindness, break through the quest hero for the boat summon, the dragon is freed

232 - obtaining the town portal

231 - 241 - Kragg eliminates Theodore, Josephine, and Yabarkas from the map

311 - Ignatius is defeated (I remember how impressed I was with the battle for resurrection in Metatxera; as it turns out, it was all in the Simpsons (Season's map))

316 - Orrin attacks Deys with a ballista (not recommended, the experience is below average 🤪)

317 - 325 - Kragg attacks Fiona, Zidar (one of my favorite battles on the map), Cardamon, and reaches the wizard stack

331 - Orrin attacks the hero guarding the doubler (a great battle)

332 - 336 - Haart is killed, we get hypnosis, Kragg kills Mephala; the last important battle fought by Kragg

337 - Kragg kills the hero with dendroids. Again, a great battle

343 - 415 - Orrin eliminates the necromancer trash, sitting in castles; breaks through Kilgor and Korbak (unreasonably simple battles for this map); Orrin takes the fortress

415-423 - Lacussa dies; the hero guarding the teapot, we take the clone

433 - 443 - Orrin breaks through Thorgrim, Gunnar, and Malekith in sieges. Gunnar is not of any interest, Thorgrim and Malekith made me sweat a little.

After this, I played carelessly (there are no more running heroes)

531 - Jeddit is defeated after 3 hitran (I'm sure you can pass without hitran, but I just wanted to finish it in the evening, and I was too lazy to think)

544 - Sandro defeats Tazar

622 - Orrin attacks the final boss

Overall Verdict

A masterpiece. A true delight. Season is a genius. 10/10

The Shan Hai Legend map was completed on 26-3-2! Screenshots are attached.
e.

Tell me how long it took the Chinese players to complete it.
I'm currently stuck on the isthmus at 19-4-7. I have the feeling that I don't have enough troops and can't break through Brissa (9+9 Titans, 6+6 Archons, and other minor units).
Or am I just being incredibly dense?