Well, with the help of the console and magic, I still managed to complete this scenario. I completely forgot that if you replay a save with a broken combat script, the latter will stop working completely, and the battle will end. So, I did destroy the demon. But my troubles didn't end there...
I absolutely didn't understand how to get to the mage and where the demon's other city was. I also didn't understand how to get past the heralds and where the Tear was. Using the power of the console, I opened the map and found a Necropolis with a keymaster of a suspiciously magical color. But there was absolutely no way to get there, no portals, nothing. Only a broken bridge. So, I stood on the edge of this bridge. It turned out that on the very edge there was a trigger zone to repair this bridge! Tiny! I didn't fix it; I just teleported using a cheat, defeated the Necromancer (who was somehow under the demon's flag), and gained access to the mage. I killed him; there wasn't even a cutscene, but the quests were completed.
And yet, I still needed the Tear. I found its location. It was behind the heralds. I just walked straight at them, and suddenly they let me pass, lol. They could have at least warned me... I dug up the Tear, built it, and went to Holyflame. If Dominic attacked it, the animation of removing the barrier played, and that was it. If Hafaad attacked, the animation was skipped, and the battle began. Hafaad had just a bare garrison, and Dominic had a rather weak army of archbishops. Everything was going smoothly, but then I realized that I was doing something wrong because there was an error in the console saying that the quest didn't exist.
It turned out that I first had to go to the cemetery and talk in a well-known language with the weak Alaric, and then go to Holyflame. But the scripts allowed you to do it the other way around and break everything.
Having already done everything as it should, I made a knight's move and returned Lightwood to the blue player using the console. Hafaad turned into a Necromancer, defeated Alaric, and again, an error in the console. And no, it wasn't about Lightwood. It was about Hafaad himself. It said that he was already out of reserve. Meanwhile, another archiepiscop appeared in Lightwood.
I decided to just attack the city with Hafaad, and everything worked as it should. Two battles, then the final battle. By the way, when Hafaad transformed, he received 1200 dragons in two upgrades of 600. This was enough for all subsequent battles, including the final one. It would have been fine, but they gave two dozen Death Knights and one hundred heralds.
In general, the mission was won with victory and other laurels.
Nuance: the second battle with the archiepiscop is always easier because the meat there is fixed. Therefore, Dominic chills out against Hafaad. And in general, why have a double battle in the city at the end if only Hafaad is fighting?
Another nuance: the avatar is weak. 400 with a little health on the maximum 30th level.
Third nuance: the first time Hafaad transformed, they could have exchanged armies. In the second similar case, this did not happen (I reloaded several times during the process).
Fourth nuance: give the NecroHafaad all the dark spells at once. That makes sense.
Otherwise... the map is quite beautiful, except for the shadows in the underground. They behave strangely, especially near the gnome. It's worth working on the lighting. There are cool ideas like small units in cities and thematic objects like a druid with stats or a rune priest. But they are sometimes difficult to read. The first monastery says hello. I ignored it for three in-game months. The cutscenes are good, especially for the first map, but the dialogues are not without problems. At a minimum, the number of exclamation and question marks should be reduced to the level accepted in polite society: no more than one at the end of a sentence. An additional, more emotional phrase does not become more emotional.
The plot is unclear. Or rather, it's simple, but many things are presented as if the player has seen these characters a hundred times, not for the first time. And isn't it too early for Alaric to be reborn under his own name? And the demons weren't planning an invasion then: they had a plan with the Dark Messiah that was going well. Unless it was to distract attention. The archiepiscop is a copy of Dominic from the Unicorn Empire campaign, only he took the robe from Wessel from my map, and he has his own icon, yes.
In general, the map is good and even strong for a new mapmaker, but there are even more bugs here than is customary in the modern gaming industry! They killed all the impression. And the gameplay is passive. The enemies don't do much, but they have a lot of meat and stats.
5 out of 10, plus a point for inheriting Redhaven).
Ah, yes. Improved heralds can be raised by necromancy, but ordinary ones cannot, and there are no improved heralds anywhere except in necromancy. And they are also in the cutscenes. It feels like an oversight. Also, according to the description of the Death Knight building, heralds should also be recruited there.
Ah, yes, I remembered, the druid building doesn't have an icon in the caravan menu. It would be nice to add something. For example, an icon similar to the building from the elf city.
BlueHeavenHero
